Posted Mon., Feb. 25—Paul Robeson was something of a Renaissance man. A singer, actor, lawyer, writer, civil rights advocate, all-American athlete and political activist, Robeson was a powerful and eloquent spokesman for racial justice well before Martin Luther King, Jr., or Malcolm X, yet these successors have eclipsed him in the annals of history. 

Robeson put his fame on the line for the revolutionary causes he believed in—the elimination of international fascism and the eradication of racism at home in the United States. With immense talent and determination, he developed his skills and earned his fame and influence in the institutions of white America, fighting racism all along the way. He proved that a black man could meet any challenge, could pass any test, and then, at the peak of his powers, he set out to tear down once and for all the oppressive system he had conquered. With conservative America and the federal government discrediting his name and his work every step of the way, Robeson entertained, educated, and inspired people to think differently about cultural differences in the United States. 

Twenty-six of Robeson’s inspiring speeches have been collected on a CD, Paul Robeson: Words Like Freedom, the release of which will be celebrated at 6 p.m. Wednesday at La Peña Cultural Center. The CD was produced by the Freedom Archives, a San Francisco-based organization specializing in the preservation of audio and video recordings documenting social justice movements from the 1960s to the present.  

Born in 1898 to an escaped slave, who later became a minister, and a mother who came from one of the oldest African families in the United States, Robeson committed himself to agitating a white supremacist system from early in life. He was one of only two black students at his high school. At 17, he earned an academic scholarship to Rutgers after graduating from high school with honors at a time when lynchings were still common. While his brothers chose all-black colleges, Robeson was the only black student in his class, suffering beatings while trying out for the Rutgers football team, beatings he endured in order to prove his mettle before going on to lead the team as a two-time All-American. 

As Robeson continued to excel in academics (he attended law school first at NYU then later at Columbia) and theater performance (he was offered lead acting roles starting in the 1920s, while performing regularly at the Cotton Club), he also became intimately familiar with the effects of racism, social injustice and oppression. His own experience and family history inspired him to take political action.  

Throughout Words like Freedom, Robeson’s deep, almost throbbing voice commands attention. Its unwavering firmness reflects his grounded stance for justice for African peoples, here and abroad, and his belief that oppressed people should unite. In “Harlem,” a speech given in 1949, Robeson asserts that oppression must be named for what it is, in the name of American responsibility and history. “To fulfill our responsibilities as Americans, we must unite, especially we Negro people. We must know our strengths. We happen to be the decisive force. That’s why they terrorize us, that’s why they fear us! And we must have the courage to shout at the top of our voices, above the injustices and we must lay the blame where it belongs and where it has belonged for over 300 years of slavery and continuous misery—right here on our own doorstep.”  

As the CD progresses, we hear Robeson’s speeches increase in defiance and power under the restrictions imposed upon him by the U.S. government. His passport was revoked in 1950, and a few years later he would be forced to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. But this harassment only increased his political activity. “Freedom for the People of Africa” reads almost as a resumé of his activities in support of the liberation of African peoples and leads to an address entitled “To My Friends in the Bay Area,” where he declares, with the kind of hope not always associated with radical activists, “we shall overcome.” 

The 12-minute testimony Robeson gave before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956 is the most dynamic track in the collection. He solidly declares, “My name is Paul Robeson and anything I have to say, I have said in public all over the world, and that is why I am here today. The other reason why I am here is that when I am abroad, I speak out against injustices against the Negro in this land...I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people.”  

In a brilliant performance, Robeson, much to the audible frustration of the committee, employs his formidable rhetorical and locutionary skills to dramatically call attention to the absurdity of the allegations against him. When asked to speak to his relationship with anti-fascist movements and the Communist Party, he launches into a forceful diatribe about his deep roots in the United States, tracing his family’s lineage to the slaves of George Washington. At one point Robeson is questioned about his sympathy toward the Soviet Union, with the committee suggesting that he move there if that nation is truly free from racial prejudice, and Robeson responds by summoning that history: “Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, I’m going to stay here and have a part of it just like you. And no fascist-minded people are going to drive me from it. Is that clear?” 

“You are here because you are promoting the Communist cause!” a committee member says. 

“I am here because I am opposing the neo-fascist cause,” Robeson responds, “which I see arising in these committees. Jefferson could be sitting here!” he says, pounding his spot at the table for emphasis. “And Frederick Douglass could be sitting here! Eugene Debs could be sitting here!” 

A committee member goes on to say that Robeson could not possibly claim to be a victim of racial prejudice, as he graduated from Rutgers, from the University of Pennsylvania, and was a football star.  

“Just a moment,” Robeson interrupts. “This is something I challenge very deeply: that the success of a few Negroes can make up for $700 a year for thousands of Negro families in the South. My father was a slave, and I have cousins who are sharecroppers. I do not see success in terms of myself.” 

Robeson knowingly and willingly paid a price for his activism. His music and films were pulled from distribution, contributing greatly to his eclipse today. Words Like Freedom is an attempt to bring the power of Robeson’s life’s work back into the public consciousness in the hope that it can serve as an inspiration for modern-day resistance movements. 

Deb Schneider is a volunteer and board member at Freedom Archives, a San Francisco-based organization that seeks to help people reconnect with the foundations of social justice work by documenting radical activism and social movements that have been minimized and misconstrued by mainstream history. For more information, see www.freedomarchives.org. 

PAUL ROBESON:  

WORDS LIKE FREEDOM 

CD release party, 7 p.m. Wednesday at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 

Posted Sat., Feb. 23—Tears, sobs, angry words, whispered remembrances and promises of action punctuated Thursday night’s gathering in a South Berkeley church to honor the memory of a grandmother fatally shot by police on the night of Feb. 16. 

“I don’t think it should’ve happened,” said Max Anderson, who represents the area on the Berkeley City Council. 

“It is very difficult to understand why a 51-year-old woman was shot this way, and I need answers,” he said, adding that talks with community members “have given me a different version” than the official police account. 

The councilmember spoke after listening to friends and family describe Gay as a woman who cared for friends and young people in the community. 

“Those of us who grew up in the black community know we have people in the community” who care for others, he said. “In the neighborhood I grew up in, there was a woman we called Big Mama. We didn’t need foster care. She raised scores of children,” he said. 

The stories he heard about Gay Thursday evening reminded him of that figure from his youth. 

Anderson said that after meeting with City Manager Phil Kamlarz he would make certain that another community meeting would be held addressing concerns raised by the shootings. 

He also directed a dig at Berkeley police, who “recently had a problem with narcotics missing” from the department’s evidence locker. In that case, he said, “it seems like the police are sometimes reluctant to snitch,” though they encourage community members to inform on each other. 

Police need to operate within the law, said the councilmember, because only then will the community have confidence in law enforcement, and the needed services they provide. 

Other speakers included Andrea Pritchett, a B-Tech Academy teacher who is also an activist with Copwatch, a representative of Uhuru House, a speaker from the ANSWER Coalition and Melvin Dixon of the Commemoration Committee of the Black Panther Party. 

Another speaker, Gary King Sr., had a more personal connection with Gay’s family. His son, Gary Jr., was also shot in the back by a police officer five months earlier a few blocks to the south. 

Gary King Jr. was killed on Sept. 20 near the corner of 54th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way by a Oakland police sergeant who had been involved in at least two prior shootings, one fatal. 

As with the killing of Gay, police and neighborhood accounts offered contrasting versions of the shooting, and in both cases the people shot were alleged to be in possession of deadly weapons—a knife in Gay’s case, a pistol in the case of the younger King. 

“My son Jerry was also murdered by the police,” said King, who said of Gay, “another queen of the neighborhood has fallen.” 

King’s family has sued the Oakland Police Department, and the young man’s death has sparked demonstrations at the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. 

The DA’s office, Berkeley police homicide detectives and the department’s internal affairs division are all investigating the shooting of Gay. Officer Rashawn Cummings, who fired the fatal shots, is currently on paid administrative leave. 

Berkeley police spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said that statements from witnesses, family members and the officer had all indicated that Gay was carrying a knife at the time she was shot. 

Family members and some witnesses have since stated she had put the knife down before the shooting. 

The battle of attrition between UC Berkeley and the Memorial Stadium tree-sitters flared again Tuesday morning. 

The casualties were limited to one fallen arboreal crash pad and some rope lines that enabled protesters to move from one tree to another high above the ground and the noses of university cleanup crews. 

The branch-borne protest is aimed at protecting the grove, where the university plans to axe a venerable collection of coastal live oaks, a redwood, and other trees to make way for a high tech gym and office complex. 

“We’re taking the opportunity today because there are fewer numbers in the trees to take out the lines and any materials that put people at risk, and also one platform,” said Mitch Celaya, deputy chief of UC Berkeley Police.  

“We are not planning to remove any protesters today.” Performing the work in the branches was an arborist who scaled the oak where tree-sitter Karuna had been residing on a platform beneath a large plastic tarp. Armed with a pair of long-handled branch cutters, he snipped lines and the platform’s support as other tree-sitters and watchers on the sidewalk called out taunts. 

“Don’t mind me. I’m just doing my job,” called out one tree-sitter in a mockery of the bureaucratic mantra. “Shame,” called a voice from the sidewalk. 

On Wednesday campus police set up a temporary barricade in front on the two existing fences minutes before a press conference scheduled by tree supporters at the site. 

According to Kristen Pickett, a tree supporter, the press conference was meant to highlight the dangerous situation created by the university when they sent up the climber to cut the ropes that helped the tree sitters get around from one tree-top to another. 

“We want to point out the gross hypocrisy of the university spokesperson who said that the climber had been set up for safety and sanitary concerns,” she said. “The climber left the cut ropes recklessly hanging from the trees, which is life threatening.” 

Dumpster Muffin, a tree sitter, said that two of the tree sitters had almost died from the dummy ropes that had been left hanging from the trees. 

Pickett said that after the press conference was over, tree supporters tried to send up food supplies to the tree sitters. 

“That’s when the police moved in and got physical with them,” she said. “But we were able to send up food and water anyway. It was a beautiful example of people power.” 

A number of tree supporters opposed the barricade that Celaya said was dismantled Wednesday night. 

“We put it up before the press conference to deter the tree supporters from bringing in building materials,” he told the Planet. “It was in response to them advertising that were going to resupply the tree sitters with things to build platforms and other forms of lodging up there ... Our focus was not to prevent food and water from going up there.” 

Pickett said she objected to the university police building a barricade on City of Berkeley property. 

“I think it’s illegal,” she said. “It’s impeding right of passage on a public thoroughfare.” 

“Yes, the sidewalk is city property, but if we are trying to stop a criminal act we can take the necessary steps required to prevent it from happening,” Celaya said. 

“Everything that was handed up there was food,” said Asa Dodsworth, a neighborhood activist who was present at the site. “It seems pretty apparent that they were trying to starve out the tree sitters and not doing it for health and human safety.” 

Dan Mogulof, executive director of UC Berkeley’s public affairs office, said the raid was done for safety reasons, and wasn’t part of any effort to evict the tree-sitters. 

Doug Buckwald of Save the Oaks and veteran tree-sit supporter said he doubted the university’s rationale for the raid. 

“We don’t know what safety issues were being addressed by removing supplies and safety lines,” he said. “That doesn’t make any sense. And how can they justify the increased police presence at the grove when there has been an increase in violent crime near the campus?” 

On the legal front, the battle of the grove is heading toward a climax, with a March 7 hearing in a Hayward courtroom slated for the final arguments in the lawsuit filed by the City of Berkeley, Councilmember Dona Spring, the California Oak Foundation and city neighbors. 

A final decision in that case should follow within 30 days. 

That suit seeks to overturn the action by UC Regents approving the critical environmental document needed before the university can build the Student Athlete High Performance Center at the site of the grove as well as an underground parking lot and other nearby construction projects. 

The university has already won a restraining order against the tree-sitters, and has made frequent arrests of the sitters and their supporters. 

Campus crews set up barricades on the sidewalk outside the grove Wednesday, where supporters of the tree-sitters were scheduled to resupply the tree-sitters later in the day. 

“That didn’t interfere with the resupply,” said Running Wolf Thursday. “We just kind of went around it.” 

After campus police started arresting individuals as they sent up food and other necessities and took away bodily waste and other trash, tree-sit supporters responded by making the resupply efforts public events, with volunteer grandmothers doing the work. 

Campus police have proved more reluctant about arresting grandmothers from the Berkeley community than they have been about arresting the university’s own students. 

So far, the strategy has worked.

Flowers, small stuffed animals and a tight cluster of votive candles offered a silent tribute to the life of a Berkeley woman killed Saturday night in a controversial police shooting. 

Nearby, on a sidewalk leading up to the three-building apartment complex in the 1700 block of Ward Street, a white dry-erase board was filled with tributes to Anita Lee Gay from friends and family members. 

At its base, beneath the angrily scrawled “MURDERER!” was a photocopied image of Berkeley Police Officer Rashawn Cum-mings. 

Written over the image was a declaration: “Rashan (sic) Cum-mings shot my mother, 51-year-old Anita Lee Gay, three times from behind at her residence in front of her children! Also in front of neighbors and small children. We need justice!” 

The rage reflected in the tributes at the scene of Saturday night’s shooting has boiled over into legal resolve, and the family has retained noted Oakland attorney John Burris to represent them in a lawsuit against police. 

But Berkeley Police spokes-person Sgt. Mary Kusmiss is urging community restraint until her department and the Alameda County District Attorney’s office complete three parallel investigations of the shooting: one by the DA and one each by BPD’s Homicide and Internal Affairs divisions. 

Police were summoned twice to the Ward Street apartment building where Gay lived on Saturday evening. 

According to Berkeley police spokes-person Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, the first call came at 6:40 p.m. from an older neighbor who reported hearing yelling and “people ... breaking out glass over there.” 

The caller didn’t know who or how many people might be involved, Sgt. Kusmiss said. 

Three officers arrived at the scene, the first a minute after the call. Officers found broken windows at 1727 Ward St., Apartment B, which is next to Gay’s Apartment A in a two-unit building. 

Officers knocked on the door of the vandalized unit, but no one answered, so one of the officers left a business card and a note urging the tenants to call back if they wanted to file a report. 

Checking out the neighborhood for potential witnesses, officers found Gay walking down the street and questioned her briefly before leaving, Sgt. Kusmiss said. They found no one who reported witnessing events at the apartment. 

What happened next remains a matter of controversy. 

Police aren’t releasing many details of the second call, pending the completion of the investigations. 

The call came in through the California Highway Patrol, which receives 911 calls made from cell phones whose callers haven’t used BPD’s cellular emergency line at 981-5911. 

Sgt. Kusmiss said the caller asked police to come to 1727 Ward “for some type of domestic dispute.” Three units were dispatched, but Officer Cummings was first to arrive. 

According to the official statement by Sgt. Kusmiss, when the officer arrived, he was confronted by Gay, who was carrying “a large kitchen knife.”  

“The officer challenged her at gunpoint and verbally,” said Sgt. Kusmiss. “Two family members emerged from the apartment door. The woman turned her attention from the officer to the family members. The officer used deadly force as he felt there was an imminent threat to the lives of family members.” 

He then fired at least three shots; at least two struck Gay in the back. 

Shooting someone who is believed to be threatening the lives of family members is specifically allowed in the Berkeley Police deadly force policy, Sgt. Kusmiss said. 

But whether or not Gay was actually carrying the knife at the moment she was shot remains the issue of greatest controversy. 

Sgt. Kusmiss said statements provided by witnesses and family members corroborated Cumming’s account and evidence collected at the scene. But statements neighbors provided to the media have offered a conflicting version in which Gay had dropped the knife before she was shot. 

Sgt. Kusmiss said officers went door-to-door throughout the neighborhood after the shooting in a search for witnesses. The statements of witnesses, family members and others were similar to the officer’s account, she said. 

But Burris—who did not return calls from the Daily Planet—told Bay City News that Gay “certainly did not have a knife and did not present a danger to anyone.” 

Allen Jackson, president of the Berkeley Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called Thursday for the dismissal and criminal prosecution of officer Cummings. 

“I think he needs to be removed from his position and tried for murder,” Jackson said. 

In response to the police statement that the officer was acting in defense of Gay’s family, Jackson responded, “One of her daughter’s was grazed by a bullet the officer fired. He almost took out two.” 

The NAACP official said he had not talked to any eyewitnesses to the event, “but I am basing my statement on experience and what I know has happened in the neighborhood. It is the policy of law enforcement to shoot first.” 

Kusmiss said, “We recognize that whenever deadly force is used, there will be community feedback as well as criticism. We also recognize that the community is clamoring for more details so it can really understand what happened.” 

The sergeant said that officer-involved shootings were rare in the city, with the last incident in 2003 and another in 2000. 

She asked anyone who may have witnessed the shooting to call the BPD Homicide Detail at 981-5741. “We would like to obtain their statements and ensure that our investigation is complete,” she said. 

Following the shooting, Officer Cummings was placed on paid administrative leave, a standard practice among law enforcement agencies in officer-involved shootings. 

Meanwhile, friends and other South Berkeley residents have responded to the killing by creating the Justice for Anita! Justice for All! Campaign, and supporters were holding a memorial for Gray as this issue goes to press. 

Meanwhile, the Alameda County District Attorney is conducting its own investigation of the shooting. 

“We have an officer-involved shooting team that is normally involved when there’s a shooting,” said Deputy District Attorney Michael O’Connor. “They do a complete investigation, which is independent of the police investigation.” 

Gay’s family had left the apartment after the shooting. A neighbor, who identified himself as Ralph, said they were “staying somewhere in Oakland.” 

Ralph said he didn’t see the shooting, but only heard the officer’s gunshots from inside his apartment directly opposite Gay’s across the pathway leading into the complex. 

Ralph said Gay had been a good neighbor who sometimes helped as he did yard work and painting at the apartment complex. 

“She was a good person,” he said. “She seemed like a decent person, but I don’t know what went on inside the apartment. I know she drank a bit. I know she would have a few beers. But I never knew about her being violent. No, not to me. In my company, she was a very decent person.” 

Ralph said he was inside his apartment—which is directly across from Gay’s—and heard the gunshots but didn’t see the shooting itself. 

“You can see where it happened,” he said, pointing to the hole where a round from Officer Cummings’ semi-automatic pistol had splintered the door frame just inches from the front doorknob. 

One of Gay’s daughter’s also suffered a facial wound, which friends charge was a grazing wound from one of the shots fired by Officer Cummings. 

Sgt. Kusmiss said two ambulances were called to the apartment after the shooting, and said that the daughter did sustain an injury, though only further investigation would show whether it was from a bullet, debris thrown up by a bullet or from some other source. 

“And we may not know even then,” she said. 

Gay is survived by six children and grandchildren.

Berkeley’s Police Review Commission and Copwatch are among the groups demanding answers to why five-year Berkeley Police Officer Rashawn Cummings used deadly force on Anita Gay, a 51-year-old South Berkeley grandmother. 

The question will be discussed by the Police Review Commis-sion at its meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 

Copwatch says it will respond after Thursday evening’s public memorial for Gay. 

“It’s the first item on the commission agenda,” said Police Review Commission (PRC) officer Victoria Urbi, who said she encourages the public to attend the meeting and participate in the public comment portion of the meeting.  

The committee won’t be discussing details of the shooting, but will be making a decision on whether to conduct an investigation, said Urbi, who staffs the commission. 

The PRC, however, will not be able to conduct a public investigation that includes both witnesses and the officer in question.  

As a result of a California Supreme Court decision and a lawsuit brought by the Berkeley Police Association (the city of Berkeley is appealing the ruling), hearings must be closed to the public and complainants may not be present when the officer responds to a complaint. 

“The citizens of Berkeley are foreclosed from that avenue,” Mark Schlosberg, ACLU Police Practices Policy director and a Berkeley resident. “We want to be able to learn the full facts.”  

Moreover, previous PRC rulings on complaints—made earlier than the Supreme Court ruling—are no longer available to the public or to members of the PRC. So the public cannot know whether there have been complaints sustained by the PRC against the officer in question. 

Andrea Prichett of Copwatch said the first order of business was to “deal with the grief of the family.”  

Prichett said she recognizes that everyone suffers, including the officer. 

Still, she said there are questions she would want to see answered: “Why did the officer respond by himself?” she asked. The Berkeley Police Department General Order D-5 issued Oct. 30, 2006 says that, in the case of a domestic dispute, a dispatcher “should, whenever possible, dispatch two officers to the scene.” 

“Domestic violence is one of the most dangerous calls,” Prichett said, underscoring that she questions whether there is adequate supervision and training of Berkeley police.  

Prichett said she also wants to know why the officer didn’t use pepper spray rather than deadly force, which was an option. 

She also said she thought the officer should have been immediately screened for drugs and alcohol. 

Questions have been raised about whether the Berkeley police department ought to invest in Taser guns, devices that emit electro shocks. The BPD currently is not prohibited from purchasing them. 

Councilmember Betty Olds would like the city to investigate their use. 

“We have to have something else,” Olds told the Planet. “Think of how that policeman is going to feel for the rest of his life.” 

Olds said she understands some people have died from the use of Tasers, “But a lot fewer people have died with Tasers than with pistols,” she said. 

“We would caution against suggesting that a Taser may have been a viable option in Saturday night’s officer involved shooting. The incident unfolded very quickly,” said Sgt. Mary Kusmiss in a written statement. 

Urbi said the research on Tasers is mixed. “The PRC would have to do more research,” she said. 

Schlosberg said the ACLU doesn’t have a position against Tasers. “They should be very strictly regulated,” he said, noting that Tasers have been implicated with loss of life when there have been multiple shocks, prolonged shocks and pre-existing medical conditions. 

“They are not risk free,” he said.  

The City Council will not discuss the issue before the district attorney’s investigation has been completed, which will be in about six weeks, City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the Planet.

Despite public outcry, the state agriculture department is determined to use a controversial aerial spray to eradicate the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM).  

Spraying began in September and will resume in June in the Monterey-Santa Cruz area; in August, the California Depart-ment of Food and Agriculture plans to begin spraying in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

The program will continue until the moth is eradicated, the CDFA says. 

At this point it looks like the CDFA is holding all the high cards: The law gives the department the power to declare an emergency and then to spray without public input. And the CDFA’s got $75 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the program.  

Given the CDFA’s $500,000 budget for a New York public relations firm to “educate” the populace on spray benefits, and the potential for the influence of political contributions from the heavy spender who owns the company that makes the spray in question, it appears that citizen groups are playing against a stacked deck. 

Nevertheless, that’s what they are attempting: More than 17 organizations are on the record opposing the spray, and a growing number of city councils and legislators are joining a rising public tide, questioning both the need for the spraying and the resultant health impacts. 

“The only way we can stop this aerial spray program is if the people of the Bay Area stand up in a united way,” Nan Wishner, chair of Albany’s Integrated Pest Management Committee, told the Planet.  

Albany passed a resolution opposing the aerial spray last month. Santa Cruz did the same several months ago. 

The California Alliance to Stop the Spraying, Pesticide Watch and others are calling a “Townhall Meeting to Stop Planned Aerial Spraying of Pesticides in Berkeley” for Sunday, Feb. 24, 5-7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 

And at Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting, Councilmember Dona Spring will ask her council colleagues to approve a resolution stating their opposition to the spray and seeking a court injunction to stop it. At the same meeting, representatives from the state will speak on the question and a group opposing the spray, organized by the Alameda Green Party, will have equal time to speak against the spray. 

Members of the public will have one minute each to state their opinions. The meeting begins at 7 p.m., at the Maudelle Shirek Building, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. There is no exact time scheduled for the spray question. 

Also Tuesday, at the 7:30 p.m. Oakland Public Safety Committee meeting at Oakland City Hall, Councilmembers Jane Brunner and Larry Reid will introduce a resolution opposing the spray, which, if approved in committee, will go before the full Oakland council in two weeks. 

The problem 

At issue is the Light Brown Apple Moth, a pest that feeds on some 2,000 host plants and therefore is able to spread rapidly. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) fears the pest will hurt California’s billion dollar agriculture industry, al-though, by the department’s own admission, there is no sign that the infestation has caused significant crop damage. 

There is also fear that other states and countries will refuse exports of California agricultural products, due to the infestation. “We have obligations to our trading partners,” said CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura, speaking in a hearing on the question in San Rafael last week. We need “to show we’re moving forward.” 

Kawamura added a warning: “The federal government is saying that California must eradicate or they will,” he said. 

The CDFA responded to the fear of crop damage by declaring an emergency in nine counties, including Monterey, Santa Cruz, Marin, San Francisco, Contra Costa and Alameda. The declaration in each county means that the CDFA is free to conduct an aerial spray program before undertaking an environmental study to assess risks and alternatives. 

Spraying was conducted in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in September, after which there were more than 600 complaints that included skin rashes, nausea, diarrhea and more. 

This is the first instance in which this product, CheckMate, made by Suterra of North Bend, Oregon, has been sprayed over an urban center.  

The state is just beginning its environmental impact report (EIR) process, which will be completed in six-to-eight months, according to CDFA officials. Feb. 26—the same day the resolutions will be introduced in Berkeley and Oakland—there will be a scoping session at the Elihu Harris State Building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland, 6-8:30 p.m. at which time the public can give input on the question. 

“It’s not unusual to conduct the EIR while doing the eradication,” Kawamura told the Assembly Committee. (A video of the San Rafael hearing is available at http://marin.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=21&clip_id=2856) 

The Planet asked CDFA spokesperson Steve Lyle if it didn’t make more sense to do the environmental study before spraying. It’s allowed in an emergency, Lyle said, noting, “That’s the law.”  

While CDFA materials say: “There is no human or animal health risk from exposure to the pheromones treatment,” testimony in a lawsuit brought by Santa Cruz County says there have been no studies that would lead one to that conclusion.  

“No chronic toxicity study of CheckMate has been conducted,” writes Richard Philp, emeritus professor of pharmacology and toxicology with the University of Western Ontario, in testimony to the court in the lawsuit brought against the CDFA by Santa Cruz County. (The complaint, filed in October, is pending.) 

“One cannot conclude from these studies that CheckMate is a safe product to aerial spray over an urban population, nor can one guarantee that longer-term repeated exposures on humans are without risk,” Philp writes. 

He concludes: “In my opinion, since the decision to use aerial spraying as the method of application appears to have been made entirely on economic grounds, the decision should be revised, given the lack of adequate evidence for its safety in the long term.”  

The product that is sprayed is made up of synthetic pheromones and other chemicals encased in microscopic plastic capsules. A pheromone is a scent emitted by female moths which stimulates males to mate. The synthetic scent is intended to confuse the male moth and eradicate the LBAM by interrupting its reproductive cycle. 

Steve Lyle, spokesperson for the CDFA, says that this method of eradication is what environmentalists want since no moths are directly killed by a toxic substance in the program. 

Spray opponents, however, say that they are concerned that harmful toxins are used along with the pheromones in the CheckMate spray and that the microcapsules are dangerous when inhaled. 

Lyle is getting some help to explain the department’s position. The CDFA has hired New York-based Porter Novelli, a public-relations firm, “to help with outreach … trying to educate people on the safety of the use of pheromones,” Lyle said. The contract is for $497,500. 

The $75 million program is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

It may be instructive to take a look at the company that makes the spray, although one cannot conclude with certainty that the company influenced the CDFA. 

CheckMate is produced by Suterra, LLC, owned by billionaire Stewart Resnick of Beverly Hills.  

With his wife, Lynda Rae, Resnick owns Paramount Farming, which specializes in production of pistachios, almonds and pomegranates and claims to be the world’s largest pistachio processor. Paramount Farming owns Paramount Citrus, “the largest fully integrated grower, picker, shipper and marketer of fresh citrus in North America,” according to the company website. 

Resnick also owns the Del Rey Juice Company, in Del Rey, Calif., which produces frozen juices; he owns Teleflora, a world-wide cut-flower delivery business, Franklin Mint, a company that markets collectibles and Fuji Water. The parent company is Roll International. 

Resnick is known as a “major donor” in campaign finance lingo. In the last governor’s race he contributed $144,000 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the last year he’s contributed between $1,000 and $3,000 to each of the members of the Assembly Agriculture committee.  

Schwarzenegger’s spokesperson Rachel Cameron told the Planet that the “governor has confidence in the CDFA and the science behind the pheromones. He believes it is safe.” 

Asked if the $144,000 contribution would have influenced the governor’s view of the product, Schwarzenegger’s political spokesperson Julie Soderland said, “The governor makes all his policy decisions based on the best interests of the people of California.” 

Lyle told the Daily Planet that political contributions bear no weight on the selection of CheckMate. He said CheckMate was the choice of the USDA and that “the process is driven by sound science.” 

Resnick spokesperson Rob Six told the Planet: “We don’t talk about our political contributions.” 

State legislators weigh in 

State Sen. Carole Migden is introducing a bill for a moratorium on aerial spraying that would be limited to the counties of San Francisco and Marin. 

And Assemblymember Loni Hancock’s spokesperson says she will introduce a package of resolutions aimed not only at declaring a moratorium on spraying in all the affected communities, but also at clarifying who can declare an emergency.  

“The administration can declare an emergency without consultation,” said Hans Hemann, Hancock spokesperson. “Hancock thinks the governor should do this.”  

Hemann underscored that any resolution on a moratorium that is approved by the state legislature would be advisory only; any change in the power to declare an emergency approved by legislators would not take effect until January 2009.

Berkeley police arrested two men they say killed 23-year-old Wayne Drummond Jr. of Oakland in 2006 following a fight outside a Telegraph Avenue bar. 

Brandon Crowder, 20, of Oakland, and Nicholas Beaudreaux, 22, of Richmond were each charged with one count of murder Tuesday by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. 

What led to the arrests was a threat made during up a pick-up basketball game at the UC Berkeley Recreational Sports Facility, said Berkeley police spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. 

Crowder was arrested on Feb. 13 on a $50,000 warrant from campus police stemming from a threat made during an argument with a fellow player. 

“During that exchange, he took out a cell phone and called someone and said, ‘Bring the heat. I need you to take care of someone,’” said Sgt. Kusmiss. 

What caused the threatened player to call police was the advice given him by another player, who told him “‘You’d better take that seriously because the last time Crowder was in a beef with someone, that person ended up dead,’” said Sgt. Kusmiss. 

The campus detective who handled the threat case called Berkeley homicide, where Crowder’s name was prominently featured on a white board on the wall listing victims and suspects in unsolved homicides. 

“Once Crowder was arrested, Berkeley detectives suspected that because making a death threat is a felony, he might potentially speak out about the Drummond case,” said Sgt. Kusmiss. 

Interrogated by Berkeley homicide detectives, Crowder rolled over on Beaudreaux, identifying him as the shooter, apparently believing he wouldn’t be held equally culpable for his role in directing the hit, said the sergeant. 

But under California law, both the shot-caller and the shooter are presumed to be equally guilty, and after Beaudreaux was arrested two days later in San Pablo, the Alameda County District Attorney’s office reviewed the case and both men were charged with one count each of murder on the Tuesday. 

According to the story told by Crowder and witnesses, the fatal shooting happened after another argument, which began outside Larry Blake’s at 2367 Telegraph Ave. near closing time in the early morning of Sept. 4, 2006. 

The argument continued as the three walked east, reaching its climax in the 2500 block of Durant Avenue when Beaudreaux allegedly shot and fatally wounded Drummond, a student from Oakland. Friends of the injured man carried him to the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority house at 2311 Prospect St., where he died at about 2:30 a.m. 

Sgt. Kusmiss said Crowder had been quickly identified as a suspect, and detectives had interviewed him soon afterwards but had not been able to develop enough evidence to prosecute.

Cody’s is leaving Fourth Street for downtown Berkeley. 

“We love Cody’s,” Fourth Street developer Denny Abrams told the Planet through spokesperson Luma Cortez. “We hate to see it go.” 

While the move may hurt the upscale Fourth Street area’s careful mix of home furnishings and restaurants, with its toy, music and specialty shops, it will be a plus for downtown, said Michael Caplan, the city’s economic development director. 

Cody’s plans to remain open on Fourth Street during most the transition, and will re-open March 24 at the corner of Allston Way and Shattuck Avenue, the site of the former Eddie Bauer’s.  

“This isn’t a move that we fully anticipated,” says a Cody’s press release. “Our Fourth Street rent skyrocketed, making it impossible for us to stay after 10 lovely years in West Berkeley.”  

Melissa Mytinger, Cody’s store and marketing manager, told the Planet they started renegotiating a new 10-year lease. The rate asked was “not quite double what we were paying,” Mytinger said. Cody’s made counter offers, but the owner would not relent. 

Still, she said, “What started out as bad news ended really well.” 

While the move will be a loss for Fourth Street, “it will connect (Cody’s) to the arts district development efforts,” with book readings and cultural events in the evening, Caplan said. 

The new space will be smaller than its present location. “Cody’s will be more intimate than our Fourth Street store,” says the press release.  

Cody’s on Fourth Street is just under 10,000 square feet. The new space is about 7,000 square feet. The smaller space “will force us to fine-tune our inventory,” Mytinger said. 

They’ll go back to what Cody’s was best known for—history, politics, current affairs, literature. “We’re not going to do as many baby-toddler board books,” Mytinger said, adding that they will also cut out computer books. 

Cody’s was founded in Berkeley in 1956 by Fred and Pat Cody, then sold to Andy Ross in 1977, who opened the Fourth Street store in 1998 and added a San Francisco store in 2005. 

Ross closed the flagship store on Telegraph Avenue in mid 2006 and soon thereafter sold Cody’s to Yohan, a Japanese book distributor. In April 2007, the new owner closed the San Francisco store, 18 months after its opening. 

In December, Ross, who had stayed on as Cody’s president, stepped down and at the same time Hiroshi Kagawa left Yohan, where he had been CEO, and took Cody’s with him to the IBC Publishing Group, the current owner. 

Last year, Barnes and Noble closed its store in downtown Berkeley. Pegasus Books, Half Price Books, the Other Change of Hobbit and Comic Relief are located downtown. 

Cody’s is taking the unusual step of holding a community meeting—7 p.m., Feb. 27 at the Fourth Street store—to get input from the community. “We don’t pretend to know what downtown customers want,” Mytinger said.

The Oakland City Council appeared tantalizingly close to a possible compromise on the city’s divisive affordable housing issues Tuesday night, but while the outlines for such a compromise have begun to take shape, it was unclear who would be brokering a possible agreement, or the logistics of how it would take place. 

“I don’t think there’s a plan for how we can get together to talk this out,” Councilmember Jane Brunner said by telephone a day after the meeting. “There are conversations going on, and when something comes together, we’ll bring it back.” 

And in a separate interview, Councilmember Desley Brooks said that the issues of inclusionary zoning and affordable housing are linked, and “it is very hard to see that one will be passed without the other; it will probably have to come as a package deal.” 

Council has been divided down the middle on affordable housing since late 2006 when Councilmember Brooks (East Oakland) put together a coalition that delayed passage of an inclusionary zoning ordinance authored by Councilmembers Brunner (North Oakland) and Jean Quan (Glenview-Montclair). Shortly afterwards, Brooks’ own proposal for amending Oakland’s condominum conversion ordinance was blocked.  

Both issues were sent to a newly formed Blue Ribbon Commission on Affordable Housing, which met for a year and ended up recommending a rough compromise on inclusionary zoning that seemed to satisfy neither side, and issuing two minority reports, but no commission agreement, on condominium conversion. 

In an interview last week, Brunner sounded doubtful that there were the necessary five votes to pass any new affordable housing legislation, and she repeated that belief during Tuesday’s debate. But at the end of a special three-hour afternoon Council meeting held to try to break the year-long deadlock, there were suddenly signs that a deal might be possible. 

After Brunner said that Council passed its office development-affordable housing linkage fee during a down period in office construction in Oakland—similar to the current downturn in residential construction—Brooks said she “might support” some form of inclusionary zoning that included a delay in its implementation until a better economic climate, such as the earlier linkage fee had done. 

Brooks also said she “agree[d] with a lot of” a last-minute condominium conversion compromise introduced at Tuesday’s meeting by Councilmember Pat Kernighan (Grand Avenue-Lakeshore), adding that “I think if we continue the dialogue a little bit longer, we have the opportunity to pass something.” 

Other Councilmembers appeared to agree, giving optimistic statements that had been largely absent in earlier affordable housing debates. Both Quan and Councilmember Larry Reid (East Oakland) said that Council was “closer” to putting an affordable housing ordinance together than they’d been before. 

Meanwhile, it is not clear what role the Dellums administration may be playing in the affordable housing discussions. Council delayed deliberations on the affordable housing issue this year while waiting for Mayor Ron Dellums to issue his own recommendations. Dellums released recommendations on inclusionary zoning and condominium conversion earlier this month, but his affordable housing package also included recommendations on the city’s rent adjustment program and other areas Council is not currently prepared to discuss.  

And in his presentation to Council on Tuesday, which he said he was doing “on behalf of the mayor,” Community and Economic Development Agency interim director Dan Lindheim said that “we were reluctant to put inclusionary zoning and condominium conversion in our proposal because we thought it would take away from the other proposals in the package.” 

Deep divisions over inclusionary zoning and condominium conversion remain. 

That was clearly evident when 102 public speakers signed up to present their views at Tuesday afternoon’s special Council meeting, many of them—in the one minute allotted apiece—repeating testimony and public statements that councilmembers and the Blue Ribbon Commission have been hearing many times over the past year’s public debate. 

Gregory McConnell, a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission, said that Oakland faces a budget deficit and a downturn in housing sales. “Do you solve the problem by putting on onerous rent control and onerous inclusionary zoning, or do you incentivize?” he asked. “Do you want to risk cutting off the revenue stream provided by building housing?” 

Bruce Beasley, chair of the South Prescott Neighborhood Association, said that some of the proposed changes to the condominium conversion—he did not have enough time allotted to specify which changes—were “a thinly disguised attempt to prevent this form of ownership.” 

On the opposite side, Tosh Wells, an Oakland resident, said that the city “desperately needs affordable housing. Inclusionary zoning is a big part of that. When housing was booming, we didn’t see developers rush forward with inclusionary zoning proposals. There’s one reason for that: greed.” 

And calling Oakland’s lack of housing opportunities for moderate- to low-income families “a full-blown crisis,” Rev. Phil Lawson of the East Bay Housing Organization said that he knew of 54 family members leaving one church in a 10-month period to move to Stockton because they could not afford to live in Oakland. “We need to increase the ability of people to stay where they now live in Oakland,” he said. 

Many people in the meeting audience held printed signs of the Oakland Peoples Housing Coalition reading “Housing Is A Right” and “If Not Now, When?” 

In her telephone interview, Brunner said that “the biggest thing we are divided on is inclusionary zoning for rental property.” 

Meanwhile, the process for how a possible Council deal would be reached was left pointedly vague. Reid suggested at Tuesday’s meeting that Brunner, Kernighan, and Brooks sit down and try to work out their differences and bring back a compromise proposal, but De La Fuente did not take up the offer to appoint the Councilmembers as a special committee, and Brunner later threw cold water on the idea.  

“That group would not be able to come up with a deal,” she said by telephone. “I don’t see Desley and Pat moving their positions enough to make that possible. That’s why I didn’t jump at that suggestion.” 

Instead, De La Fuente suggested that he talk with Brunner, and that the two of them come back to Council Rules Committee if something develops. 

“Whoever from the Council sits at the bargaining table, they’re not going to be able to make a deal on this by themselves,” Brunner said. “They are going to have to be able to go back to their people and convince them to make a compromise. The developers and the housing coalition, both sides are going to have to give a little bit.”

Longtime Berkeley resident and business woman Mabel Bolton has left Thousand Oaks Elementary School $150,000 as part of her will.  

Bolton, who lived and worked close to the Thousand Oaks neighborhood, included the Berkeley Unified School District as one of the beneficiaries in her will because she wanted to contribute to the success of the school. 

Jesse Ramos, Thousand Oaks principal, and Gwyneth Galbraith, a Thousand Oaks parent and co-chair of the school’s governance council, told the Berkeley Board of Education at a meeting last week that the school wanted to use the funds to install solar panels and improve safety on campus. 

“Both proposals would benefit the community and live up to Bolton’s goal of enhancing Thousand Oaks,” Galbraith told the board. 

“Going solar would make Thousand Oaks an energy-efficient school. The campus is a huge destination for our community. It could use some sprucing up. The school also goes through some low-grade vandalism ... It’s a gathering place for people after school hours and sometimes people are up to mischief. We would like to restrict access after 6 p.m. to prevent people from jumping on the roof and drinking.” 

According to a report submitted to the board by the Thousand Oaks School Governance Council, the use of the campus by hundreds of students during school hours and “scores more after school and on weekends” has resulted in the deterioration of the school grounds. 

The report also states that the school has suffered vandalism in the form of graffiti, overturned trash cans and other minor infractions, which have cost the district money and created a negative impact on the school. 

Proposed improvements to the campus include landscaping, motion-sensor lights and other security measures to discourage vandalism. 

Galbraith told the board that the Thousand Oaks PTA would work with the Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association to organize regular campus clean-up days. She added that the school’s administration would also collaborate with the Berkeley Police Department to ensure proper use of the campus facilities. 

“It fits well with what the city is trying to do,” said school board president John Selawsky, referring to the city’s plan to cut down on greenhouse-gas emissions in Berkeley. 

“But there needs to be more research.” 

Ramos and Galbraith told the board that they would gather more information about project costs and return to the board for another discussion. 

Washington Elementary School will embark on a project to install solar panels on the roof of the school in June. Estimated to cost $1.25 million, the move will make Washington the first school to go solar in the district.

The expected and the unexpected have joined the Oakland City Council and Oakland Unified School District Board of Directors party, adding to what is looking like an increasingly crowded slate for the June 3 elections. 

The daughter of best-selling author Ishmael Reed has announced plans to enter the race for the Oakland Unified School District 1 seat being vacated by Board member Kerry Hamill, a second challenger has announced plans to run against 5th District Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, two candidates will be challenging District 7 Oakland Unified School District Board member Alice Spearman, and longtime At Large Councilmember Henry Chang has ended speculation over his plans by taking out papers for re-election. 

In North Oakland’s District 1 school board race, author Tennessee Reed—Ishmael’s daughter—has taken out papers to join parent-activist Jody London and businessman-philanthropist Brian Rogers. 

In Oakland’s 5th District Fruitvale area, a former administrative assistant to former District 5 Councilmember Wilson Riles, David Wofford, has taken out filing papers for De La Fuente’s seat. Wofford, who says he works in community development, is an Oakland native who has worked with such organizations as Education Not Incarceration, the San Antonio Community Development District Council, and the Fruitvale District Council, and is a member of the Green Party. He joins Fruitvale-area realtor Mario Juarez, who is also challenging De La Fuente. 

In what has already become the most crowded race on the June ballot, Chang will have at least three challengers who have announced their intention to run for the Council At Large seat: attorney Clinton Killian, AC Transit Board member Rebecca Kaplan, and Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods co-founder Charles Pine. 

Close behind is OUSD School Board 7th District, where incumbent Spearman has already announced her intention to run. Acts Full Gospel Church Associate Pastor and Acts Christian Academy principal Doris Limbrick and Beverly Williams of East Oakland have both taken out filing papers to run against Spearman. 

Longtime incumbent Noel Gallo has announced plans to run for re-election from his District 5 school board seat, and John Russo has announced plans to run for re-election as Oakland City Attorney. Neither has announced opposition, as yet.

Posted Wed., Feb. 21—Cody’s is leaving Fourth Street for downtown Berkeley. 

“We love Cody’s,” Fourth Street developer Denny Abrams told the Planet through spokesperson Luma Cortez. “We hate to see it go.” 

While the move may hurt the upscale Fourth-Street area’s careful mix of home furnishings and restaurants, with its toy, music and specialty shops, it will be a plus for downtown, said Michael Caplan, the city’s economic development director. 

Cody’s plans to remain open on Fourth Street during most the transition, and will re-open March 24 at the corner of Allston Way and Shattuck Avenue, the site of the former Eddie Bauer’s.  

“This isn’t a move that we fully anticipated,” says a Cody’s press release. “Our Fourth Street rent skyrocketed, making it impossible for us to stay after 10 lovely years in West Berkeley.”  

Melissa Mytinger, Cody’s store and marketing manager, told the Planet they started renegotiating a new 10-year lease. The rate asked was “not quite double what we were paying,” Mytinger said. Cody’s made counter offers, but the owner would not relent. 

Still, she said, “What started out as bad news ended really well.” 

While the move will be a loss for Fourth Street, “it will connect to the arts district development efforts,” with book readings and cultural events in the evening, Caplan said. 

The new space will be smaller than its present location. “Cody’s will be more intimate than our Fourth Street store,” says the press release.  

Cody’s on Fourth Street is just under 10,000 square feet. The new space is about 7,000 square feet. The smaller space “will force us to fine-tune our inventory,” Mytinger said. 

They’ll go back to what Cody’s was best known for—history, politics, current affairs, literature. “We’re not going to do as many baby-toddler board books,” Mytinger said, adding that they will cut out computer books. 

Cody’s was founded in Berkeley in 1956 by Fred and Pat Cody, then sold to Andy Ross in 1977, who opened the Fourth Street store in 1998 and added a San Francisco store in 2005. 

Ross closed the flagship store on Telegraph Avenue in mid 2006 and soon thereafter sold Cody’s to Yohan, a Japanese book distributor. In April 2007, the new owner closed the San Francisco store, 18 months after its opening. 

In December, Ross, who had stayed on as Cody’s president, stepped down and at the same time Hiroshi Kagawa left Yohan where he had been CEO and took Cody’s with him to the IBC Publishing Group, the current owner. 

Last year, Barnes and Noble closed its store in downtown Berkeley. Pegasus Books, Half Price Books, the Other Change of Hobbit and Comic Relief are located downtown. 

Cody’s is taking the unusual step of holding a community meeting—7 p.m., Feb. 27 at the Fourth Street store—to get input from the community. “We don’t pretend to know what downtown customers want,” Mytinger said. 

Posted Tue., Feb. 19—The 444-day-old battle of attrition between UC Berkeley and the Memorial Stadium tree-sitters flared again Tuesday morning, with the university claiming the victory. 

The casualties were limited to one fallen arboreal crash pad and some rope lines that enabled protesters to move from one tree to another high above the ground. 

The branch-borne protest is aimed at protecting the grove, where the university plans to ax a venerable collection of Coastal Live Oaks, a redwood, and other species to make way for a high tech gym and office complex. 

“We’re taking the opportunity today because there are fewer numbers in the trees to take out the lines and any materials that put people at risk, and also one platform,” said Mitch Celaya, deputy chief of UC Berkeley Police. 

“We are not planning to remove any protesters today,” he added. 

“This is not a prelude to a change in stance,” said Dan Mogulof, executive director of UC Berkeley’s public affairs office. He said the raid was done for safety reasons, and wasn’t part of any effort to evict the tree-sitters. 

Performing the work in the branches was an arborist who scaled the oak where tree-sitter Karuna had been residing on a platform beneath a large plastic tarp. Armed with a pair of long-handled branch cutters, he snipped lines and the platform’s support as other tree-sitters and watchers on the sidewalk called out taunts. 

“Don’t mind me. I’m just doing my job,” called out one tree-sitter in a mockery of the bureaucratic mantra. “Shame,” called a voice from the sidewalk. 

Meanwhile, one protest supporter was walking through the small crowd gathered along the sidewalk on the eastern side of Gayley Road, carrying a cardboard tray of coffee cups and asking reporters and uniformed university police if they wanted some. 

And there were journalists aplenty, with TV camera operators aimed either at the action in the fenced-in grove or at reporters doing live stand-ups and interviews. 

Doug Buckwald of Save the Oaks and veteran tree-sit supporter said he doubted the university’s rationale for the raid. 

“We don’t know what safety issues were being addressed by removing supplies and safety lines,” he said. “That doesn’t make any sense. And how can they justify the increased police presence at the grove when there has been an increase in violent crime near the campus?” 

On the legal front, the battle of the grove is heading toward a climax, with a March 7 hearing in a Hayward courtroom slated for the final arguments in the lawsuit filed by the City of Berkeley, Councilmember Dona Spring, the California Oak Foundation and city neighbors. 

A final decision in that case should follow within 30 days. 

That suit seeks to overturn the action by UC Regents approving the critical environmental document needed before the university can build the Student Athlete High Performance Center at the site of the grove as well as an underground parking lot and other nearby construction projects. 

The university has already won a restraining order against the tree-sitters, and has made frequent arrests of the sitters and their supporters. 

Mogulof and Celaya said the action Monday had no connection to the recent tree-sitter protest against the radio station KPFA. Both said they weren’t aware of the campaign until a reporter asked them about it. 

Zachary Running Wolf, who launched the protest on Big Game Day 2006, said the station was being targeted because they weren’t covering the tree-sit. 

Meanwhile, supporters of the tree-sit have scheduled their next rally for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, where they will send up new supplies to those remaining in the branches.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyfxiVCVSEM

For Rev. Andre Shumake Sr., head of a faith-based community alliance in the East Bay’s most troubled city, Richmond’s Green Party mayor has proved a strong ally. 

“Thank God we have someone who’s listening,” said the man who heads the Richmond Improvement Alliance (RIA). 

“The work they do on a case-by-case basis is very good,” said Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. 

While Shumake says the addition of California Highway Patrol officers and cars to city streets may be a temporary necessity in the wake of the unprecedented violence that has wracked the city in recent months, more police aren’t the long-term solution. 

“We need jobs,” he said. 

The RIA is tackling the problem on multiple fronts: job training programs for men and women who have gone through the criminal justice system, sponsorship of a residential housing project for former inmates, training programs in restaurant, barber and beautician skills and a new affordable senior housing complex. 

But Shumake said one additional measure could provide a needed incentive: a formal city policy requiring incentives for hiring local contractors who hire locally. 

One major accomplishment of Shumake’s efforts is the new Macdonald Place Senior Housing complex now rising across from Nevin Park on Macdonald Avenue between Third and Fifth streets in the heart of the city’s troubled Iron Triangle neighborhood. 

The project is a joint effort of the Richmond Redevelopment Agency, Richmond Labor and Love Community Development Corporation (RLL) and The Related Companies of California. 

Rev. Raymond Landry, executive director of the community development corporation and a Richmond native, said he wouldn’t have conceived of the project without Shumake’s constant prodding. 

“One thing I really appreciate about the Richmond Improvement Association and its work is that it’s never been about the RIA,” Landry said. “It has been about getting the resources to do social services, about getting young men out of the prison system and into the community and doing something about violence in the youth community.” 

As well as being an ordained minister, Landry holds a bachelor’s degree in planning and a master’s in social work. 

For Landry, an associate minister at the Independent Holiness Church on 16th Street, the key moment came when he and his spouse were getting ready to head to Lake Tahoe and a celebration of her birthday. 

“Rev. Shumake called me and said he had two tickets to a housing conference in L.A.” he said. After a family discussion, “I flew down. And it was at that conference where I met our partner, The Related Companies. And had it not been for the resources coming through the RIA, this wouldn’t be happening.” 

Landry said his pastor assigned him to work with Shumake, who—with funding from the San Francisco Foundation—had arranged trips for Richmond clergy to visit faith-based community programs around the country. 

“We met with community members, politicians, service providers and pastors to see what we could do to bring about changes in the community,” he said. “After the trips with Rev. Shumake, I realized we had the opportunity to do something unprecedented here in Richmond. With the help of $4.7 million from the redevelopment agency, and an $8 million construction loan from Union Bank, groundbreaking was held last Dec. 11.” 

One of the RIA proposals the mayor particularly likes is its plan to bring together the seniors at Macdonald Place with the youth who frequent Nevin Park.  

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm for that,” she said. “It’s a way of bringing together the generations and for connecting with the park,” which is now being restored by the city. 

Jobs, training 

Landry spoke as he stood on the freshly poured foundation of Macdonald Place, with Larry Fleming smiling nearby. 

Fleming is the director of the RIA’s Employment Re-Entry Program which operates out of the RIA offices at 432 Barrett Avenue, a short walk from the housing site. 

The Good for the Soul Cafe, to be located at the western end of the complex, will offer good food for seniors and neighbors and training for men and women from Fleming’s program. Next door to the east, the barber and beautician center will offer hair care and on-the-job training in both care and sales. 

One of the city’s greatest needs, Fleming said, is construction jobs. 

“Contractors will hire their own, and there is a real need for black contractors here,” he said. “We think that the city should insist on 50 percent local hires, too, though we’re only asking for 30 percent. Otherwise, contractors will keep doing what they’ve been doing. But if there were more contractors of color, they would hire their own people. In this climate, that stuff has got to change.” 

Response from local companies has been good, he said, but “most people will hire the cream of the crop,” workers with clean records. 

“But what about this brother who has come out of the system, a guy with three kids who’s an ex-con but who’s been doing fine and who’s got a union card? If he can’t get a job, he gets drawn back to the violence.” 

Fleming said he understands the frustrations of the young men he meets on the neighborhood streets. “Years ago, that was me,” he said. “This thing,” the violence, “is not going to go away by itself. It’s been bad for 30 years. This city used to be known for its sports. Now it gets all its headlines for so many killed in so many months. But we have to get away from the focus of just reporting on crime.” 

His task, he admits, is formidable.  

“I talked to a young guy on the street, about 19-years-old, and I asked him if he’d registered for the draft, because if he doesn’t he can’t get a federal job. When he said no, I told him he have to register by 24 or he’d be in real trouble. He told me, ‘I’ll be dead by then.’” 

“That’s why the key to our work here is economic development,” said Shumake.  

“A lot of it goes back to the education our young people are getting,” said Landry. “The schools here in West Contra Costa County are some of the worst in California.” 

With the senior housing complex rising nearby, Landry took a reporter to another site, the next target of his development plans. 

With the support of the RIA, he is working to raise the funds to buy the Fourth Street buildings owned by the now closed Temple of Faith. 

In addition to the former church building, itself a converted business, the property includes three dwellings which would house seven or eight former prisoners coming out of the system, who would live there while they learn new job skills. 

Landry said he has been working with Richmond Works, a program that offers real work experience. One of the first jobs of trainees would be the rehabilitation of the buildings, he said. 

Shumake was born of parents who came to Richmond from Louisiana, and his work with the RIA dates back almost a decade. An ordained Baptist minister, he served as coordinator of the North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church’s North Richmond Community Career Resource Center. 

He modeled the RIA on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Montgomery Improvement Association. 

He has marshaled an impressive coalition of local clergy, and organized the city’s 2005 Black-on-Black Crime Summit following an earlier rash of slayings that included the murder of De La Salle High School football star Terrance Kelly, gunned down two days before he was to leave for the University of Oregon on a full-ride scholarship. 

Friday morning he called a reporter to ask “What can we do about these guns? We have to do something.” 

Shumake had found yet another way to engage in his community in the struggle against violence. 

“The RIA and other groups like it are offering the community a different vision of what we can become,” Mayor McLaughlin said. 

Posted Mon. Feb 18, 2008--An officer responding to reports of a domestic disturbance at a south Berkeley apartment building Saturday night used deadly force on a woman who allegedly confronted the officer with a knife, according to the Berkeley Police Department. 

The Alameda County coroner's bureau identified her on Sunday as 51-year-old Berkeley resident Anita Gay.  

Police first responded at about 6:40 p.m. to the apartment building in the 1700 block of Ward Street on a domestic disturbance call reporting that someone in the area was breaking windows, the Police Department reported. 

Police responded to the apartment building a second time at about 8 p.m., when a woman confronted an officer with a knife, the department reported. 

The officer fired his weapon in defense of another person and of himself, according to the Police Department. 

The woman died a short time later, police reported. 

The officer involved in the shooting is a five-year veteran and has been placed on administrative leave, according to the department, which did not officially release his name to the press. He has been identified in a news report quoting an unnamed police source as Rashawn Cummings, formerly with the Berkeley Police Department’s drug task force. 

An investigation into the incident is ongoing, police reported. 

Before she was shot and killed by a Berkeley police officer Saturday night, the 51-year-old woman raised a large kitchen-style knife at two of her daughters, endangering their lives, Berkeley police public information officer Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said on Monday. 

"One can close a gap in seconds with a knife," Kusmiss said. 

When the officer arrived for the second time, Kusmiss said, he found Anita Gay standing on a porch landing of the apartment holding a large kitchen-style knife. The officer brandished a gun and tried to convince Gay to drop the knife. 

Two of Gay's daughters came out of the apartment door onto the landing. That's when Gay allegedly turned her attention from the officer and raised her knife at her daughters, who were standing a "few feet away," Kusmiss said. 

The officer then discharged his firearm at least two times at Gay, according to Kusmiss. 

Gay died at the scene. 

Kusmiss said given the proximity of the suspect and her family members "the officer felt the two women's lives were imminently in danger." 

Police believe Gay was responsible for the broken windows, Kusmiss said, however it was not immediately clear what had prompted the domestic dispute. 

Family members told police Gay may have been under the influence of a controlled substance at the time of the incident. 

Neighbors, in an interview reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, said that they had witnessed the exchange and disputed the police account, saying that they did not believe the woman was threatening the officer when she was shot. 

Kusmiss said that Gay had spent time at the residence but could not confirm whether she lived in the apartment or her exact relation to the two women whom she allegedly threatened with the knife. 

"We think it's important to share that no officer wants to be in the position to use deadly force, and yet all officers are trained to," said Kusmiss. 

The last officer-involved shooting in Berkeley was in July 2003 when a Berkeley officer and a couple of Oakland officers shot and killed a bank robbery suspect at a Wells Fargo bank branch. 

The recent case remains under investigation by Berkeley police homicide detectives and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. The officer has been placed on administrative leave. 

The porch where Gay was shot has been turned into a memorial shrine with candles, flowers and stuffed animals.

The Berkeley Board of Education is investigating Willard Middle School Vice Principal Margaret Lowry for allegedly giving a student money to buy marijuana from another student, the Planet has learned. 

Some district officials, parents and staff have talked to the Planet about the alleged incident but asked not to be identified in this story. They have said that the school board is investigating reports that Lowry attempted to arrange a drug sting involving two special education students within the school’s premises.  

Willard, at 2425 Stuart St., is one of the three middle schools in the Berkeley Unified School District. 

According to an e-mail to the Planet, Lowry gave money to a special education student to buy drugs from a classmate. Since the classmate reportedly did not have any drugs, the special education student turned the money over to a teacher, the e-mail charged.  

School board President John Selawsky and district spokesperson Mark Coplan confirmed that Lowry was under investigation, but refused to discuss the details of the allegations against her.  

“The district has heard rumors and has undertaken its own investigation into the allegation that the Daily Planet has received,” Coplan told the Planet. “It is our goal to provide the best and safest instructional environment for our students and we take all allegations seriously. Because this potentially involves a staff member, it will be handled as a confidential personnel matter.” 

Coplan said he couldn’t confirm or deny any reports about why the school board was investigating Lowry. 

“Once the investigation is completed, we will be able to disclose more information,” he said. 

Cheryl Chin, principal of Malcolm X Elementary School and co-president of the Union of Berkeley Administrators, of which Lowry is a member, declined comment. 

Willard School Principal Robert Ithurburn also refused comment. 

Coplan told the Planet that the district did not have the authority to carry out drug stings in schools. 

“A sting is always done by the Berkeley Police Department,” he said. “It’s not something we have done in the past or we will do in the future.” 

Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said that the department very rarely carried out stings within the Berkeley Unified School District. 

“Unless of course we receive a significant amount of complaints or a complaint of a certain severity from the community or the school administration,” she said. “But in my recent knowledge I can’t think of any.” 

Lowry, who Coplan said was hired as vice principal for Willard about a year ago, was described by district officials as “a phenomenal human being.” They say she is a Berkeley resident, but the Planet was not able to contact her. Coplan told the Planet that Lowry could not be interviewed for the story and he was encouraging school staff and parents not to talk to the Planet or other media. 

James Simon, a custodian at Willard who is currently on leave because of a complaint filed by Lowry against him, told the Planet that Lowry had sent a letter out to school employees last week asking them not to discuss the incident. 

“It [the letter] told them not to talk about the incident that happened to her since the school district did not want false rumors in the Willard community. It asked employees to contact her directly if they wanted to hear about the incident.” 

Michael Sorgen, a children’s rights lawyer based in San Francisco, said the district should report the incident to the Berkeley Police Department. 

“It’s very serious,” he said. “It involves contributing to the delinquency of a minor or engaging in a prohibited drug transaction within the school premises. It’s a criminal activity. The district should complete its investigation as soon as possible.” 

County Superintendent Sheila Jordan said that it was important to investigate the accusations against Lowry. 

“When it comes to investigating drugs in schools, the state Education Code and the courts have given school districts a lot of latitude, but districts have to be very careful,” said Celia Ruiz, a labor attorney who often represents school districts. “In a case like this, the question arises whether the individual had the authority to engage in this particular activity and whether it could be attributed to the school board.” 

Dan Siegel, an Oakland-based civil rights attorney and a past president of the Oakland school board, said if the allegations about the drug sting were true, it was a poor judgment call. 

“It strikes me as really inappropriate to utilize young students for drug stings,” he told the Planet. “Clearly drugs on a middle school and high school campus are a concern but it is a concern police should be involved in. The police will never use minors for this kind of an undercover sting.”

Pools, police, pipes, fire prevention, youth services: fulfilling city needs will take new funding—perhaps $30 million. And that greatly surpasses the dollars flowing into Berkeley’s coffers. 

At a 5 p.m. work session on Tuesday, with pro- and anti-military recruiting station crowds chanting below the council chambers’ windows, the City Council delved into the issue of tax money the city might want to raise. The council has until July 8 to put the measures on the ballot for the November election. 

Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna framed the discussion with a word of caution: If there are too many measures before the voters, they may reject all of them. 

In 2004, there were multiple ballot measures—a utility users tax increase, a youth services tax, a library tax increase and a paramedic tax increase. “All of the measures failed,” Caronna said. 

“We are entering the November 2008 election with national and statewide economic uncertainty,” says a cautionary staff report written by Caronna and Finance Director Bob Hicks. “We are in the middle of a stagnant and declining housing market and the threat of a recession.” 

Most members of the public who had come to address the council were at the meeting to advocate for rebuilding the therapeutic warm pool. “It is essential for good health” for the disabled community, Richard Moore said. 

“I’m able to stand here because of the warm pool,” Ann Marks told the council. 

The warm pool, currently located at Berkeley High, serves primarily disabled and elderly people. In 2000 voters approved a $3.25 million bond measure to rehabilitate the pool, but since that time, the school district decided to demolish the facility. A new pool would cost $15 to $16 million.  

Staff estimated the cost for the homeowner whose residence is assessed at $350,000 as $19 to $20 per year. (This would be funded through a general obligation bond; the tax is based on assessed value.) 

Others came to the council to advocate for the repair of the neighborhood swimming pools and to suggest that the council might want to float a larger bond that would encompass all of the city’s pools—or widening the scope even more to “multiple forms of recreation,” as one speaker suggested. 

Several residents wrote the City Council suggesting it would be more practical to build a swimming pool complex rather than rehabilitating all of the old pools. 

At the city’s Feb. 26 meeting the council will take a detailed look at raising taxes for police and fire. 

Staff estimates that with an increase in the annual police budget revenue of $3.6 million to $5 million, the city could hire 20 new officers and pay costs for regional compatibility for police radios. This would cost the average homeowner with a 1,900-square-foot lot $90 to $125 per year. (This tax and the ones described below are called “special taxes” and based on the home’s square footage.) 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said he was disappointed that “community-involved police” (CIP) officers were not on the list of proposed new police hires. He said the unanimous council reiterated its support for CIP, described generally as policing where officers walk beats, know residents and merchants and communicate with them easily, and are proactive in stopping crime.  

“I also think whether we increase the funding for policing or not, we need to look at the structure of how we spend the money,” Worthington said. 

Worthington said he plans to bring CIP back to the council table today (Tuesday) at the Agenda Committee meeting (2:30 p.m. in the Redwood Room 2180 Milvia St.). 

Staff is proposing a fire-safety measure “to ensure minimum staffing on all fire suppression companies” to avoid rotating closures, enhance existing emergency medical services, fund disaster preparedness, add a rescue vehicle specialized for structure collapse and add personnel.  

The annual cost would be $3.3 million to $4.3 million; the homeowner with a 1,900 square-foot lot would be taxed $83 to $108 per year. 

A violence prevention ballot measure would raise a more modest $1.2 million annually and would cost the homeowner with a 1.900 square-foot house about $32.  

“I would like to see a bigger chunk of resources dedicated to youth,” Max Anderson told the Planet when reached on Thursday. However, given the mood of local taxpayers, he said it would be better to aim lower. 

Rehabilitation of the city’s aging storm water system would cost about $1.5 to $3 million annually and cost the average homeowner $38 to $75.  

Briefly: 

• The council voted 7-1-1 to refer to staff a request for the purchase of radio frequency measurement equipment and the question of establishing a moratorium on issuing further cell-phone antenna permits until the city’s cell-phone antenna ordinance has been revised. Councilmember Betty Olds abstained and Councilmember Gordon Wozniak voted in opposition. 

• The council unanimously approved going to bid for a number of services related to the Public Commons for Everyone Initiative, including a centralized homeless intake system, a program for youth of transitions (18-24-years-old) age, job training for maintenance of newly opened bathrooms, staff to provide services for permanent supportive housing and the “Berkeley host program,” which would provide people to be eyes and ears on the street, observing inappropriate behavior of individuals in shopping areas. 

• The council unanimously proclaimed February as Freedom to Marry Month “for equal access to marriage and all of its legal benefits and obligations by all persons, regardless of sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.” 

• As reported Friday, the council adopted new language with respect to the Marine Recruiting Station that differentiated between the city’s opposition to the war in Iraq and its respect for those serving in the armed forces and substituted new language into the section of a Jan. 29 council item that called the Marines “unwelcome.”  

The new language recognizes the right of the Marine Recruiting Center to locate in Berkeley. Councilmembers Betty Olds and Gordon Wozniak opposed the measure, because the council had turned down a previous motion to issue an apology to the Marines. Councilmembers Worthington, Capitelli, Olds and Wozniak voted in favor of the apology. 

Held over until Feb. 26 

The council held over until Feb. 26 a resolution sponsored by Worthington that condemned the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico and also held over a council item that would have staff write Canadian officials asking them to provide sanctuary for U.S. military service members living in Canada who are resisting fighting the Iraq War. 

They put off until Feb. 26 discussing the police chief’s quarterly report on crime and the Condominium Conversion Ordinance. 

Representatives of Oakland’s Children’s Hospital and many of the hospital’s North Oakland neighbors danced around each other at a North Oakland Senior Center community meeting for two hours last Wednesday night, with neither side seeming to be sure what music was being played, or even if the band had stopped altogether. 

Hospital officials had originally scheduled the meeting under the impression that they would win the Feb. 5 $300 million Measure A parcel tax, and the meeting would bring reluctant neighbors into a hospital rebuilding that was set to move full-steam ahead into the City of Oakland planning process. 

Instead, Measure A was defeated by Alameda County voters about as decisively as such defeats go (the measure required two-thirds approval vote for passage; instead, it lost 41 percent to 59 percent), and hospital staff members were left facing a hostile crowd in a packed hall Wednesday night with little more to offer than an obsolete Powerpoint presentation with plans to build a 10 story new hospital on the existing Children’s property and $300 million short of the estimated $700 million to build it. 

At the same time neighbors of the 100-year-old 52nd Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way research and treatment facility were reluctant to enter a “community involvement” process with hospital officials who they claim broke an earlier promise not to expand north of 53rd Street and who, the neighbors said, “arrogantly” moved forward with the expansion plans despite widespread community opposition. 

State law requires Children’s to earthquake retrofit portions of its existing facility by 2013, and hospital officials have said the most economical way to meet that need is to build a new hospital on the site. Children’s has identified $173 million in state bond money and $150 in private donations to pay for the rebuilding project, and had hoped that the remainder would come from Alameda County taxpayers in the county bond measure. 

Neighbors, while supporting the existence of Children’s in their neighborhood and declaring it to be a necessary facility in Oakland, have complained that the planned expansion would eliminate many homes in the hospital’s vicinity and the planned 12-story tower would overshadow the rest. 

The Children’s Hospital bond measure also got off to a rocky start after Children’s clashed with Alameda County Supervisors last year over charges that Children’s had written and introduced the bond measure without prior consultation with county officials, even though the bond, if passed, would have impacted the county’s ability to meet state requirements to retrofit its own public medical facilities. 

Hospital officials had planned to reveal that as the result of a previous meeting held with neighbors prior to the Measure A vote, they had scaled down the 12-story tower to 10 stories. But with one neighbor holding up a hand-written cardboard sign reading “No Tower” throughout the meeting, in the end, Children’s officials scrapped most of a planned powerpoint presentation that included the tower compromise, and substituted an extensive question-and-answer session. The meeting ended with no resolution, no community liaison groups formed, and only a promise by Children’s Senior Vice President and building project director Mary Dean that she would deliver a request that neighbors be allowed to meet directly with Children’s board of directors. 

Hospital officials also agreed to community requests to set up a joint community-hospital committee to review alternate sites for the hospital rebuilding. 

Dean said the Children’s board was meeting at the end of this month and that while she believed the hospital expansion issue was going to be on the agenda, she did not think that the issue would be solved in one meeting and the hospital’s final plans and direction set. “I can assure you there won’t be a resolution in one month,” she said. 

Oakland City Councilmember Jane Brunner, who represents the North Oakland district where Children’s is located, told meeting participants that “we don’t want Children’s to leave Oakland, so the question is, how do we build the hospital so it fits in with everyone?” Brunner offered to help mediate the differences between the neighbors and the hospital. 

And Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, who also represents the North Oakland district and who had been one of the supervisors who had severely criticized Children’s actions over the bond measure preparations last year, said that it was “extremely important to have a place in Oakland that continues to deliver care to infants and children.” Carson said he was “willing to put [past differences with the hospital over the bond measure] behind us.” 

Children’s-hired facilitator Surlene Grant began the meeting saying that the hospital officials wanted to “get public involvement” and “improve upon the public process” and that, following the Feb. 5 vote, “we are back to square one, and everything is on the table,” and introduced a proposal in which residents would sign up for “working groups” in the area of infrastructure, exterior design, and community relations. 

Dean added that “I really hope that we can start over and move on from today. I realize that we lost your trust.” 

But one resident, interrupting from the floor, said that “after hearing [Children’s Hospital President and CEO Frank] Tiedemann on the tube [following the Feb. 5 election] saying we’re going to get our way anyway, what’s the need for this public process?” Another said that it was “audacious that Children’s thought you could steamroll over this community. Is this merely a way to co-opt the community or is the process going to be transparent and meaningful to us?” 

After Dean said that she had gotten what amounted to contradictory instructions from the private hospital’s board of directors—saying that “the board has told us to move forward with the process [of building a new hospital on the existing site]” but adding that staff should “start at the beginning and look at all options,” including alternate sites—many of the residents balked at any community participation that began with expansion of the existing hospital. 

No new hospital-community meeting date was set, and many left the meeting unsure about where the process will go from here. 

A broken red heart with a band-aid taped on it peeked out of Westlake Middle School student Jabari Valentine’s pocket. 

He had exactly two minutes to convince Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger to stop his proposed $4.8 billion cut from state education funds over the next 18 months. 

“Governor, you are breaking our hearts,” Jabari said to applause from the 17 superintendents, parents and community activists who turned up at Westlake Middle School in Oakland last week to protest the governor’s proposal to slash K-12 funding from his proposed state budget cuts. 

Westlake, part of the Oakland Unified School District, stands to lose up to $436,000 if the proposed budget cuts become a reality. 

Hundreds of students drew Valentine’s Day cards as a plea to the governor to redirect the cuts to other parts of the state budget or come up with additional revenue sources. 

School districts all over California are bracing themselves for potential layoffs, class size reductions and loss of programs as they plan their budget for the 2007-08 school year. 

At a recent Berkeley Board of Education meeting, School Board President John Selawsky said it was time to hop on the bus and go to Sacramento.  

The Berkeley public schools could lose up to $2.5 million if the proposed cuts go through. Former Berkeley Unified Superintendent Michele Lawrence, who retired on Feb. 2, warned that the district would have to issue layoff notices to six or seven counselors and pre-school staff.  

“We need courageous leadership to provide progressive revenues along with responsible cuts,” Alameda County Superintendent Sheila Jordan told the Planet. “We are being forced into a financial crisis and we cannot let that happen.” 

The proposed K-12 funding would slash $400 million from the state education funds this year and take away $4.4 billion in the next fiscal year, which means $700 less for each of the approximately 6.3 million public school students in the state. 

“Everybody tells me how important education is,” Jabari said in his speech. “My mom tells me ... Teachers stress the importance everyday, I hear athletes on TV saying education is the key to a great future, but how can I believe what they say when the governor of this great state downplays the importance of education by proposing to cut the budget. This sends a message to me and every other child that maybe education is not that important.” 

Jabari told the Planet that he has benefited from his school’s after-school program which helped him learn Spanish, computers, creative arts and theater. 

“I am sad to say that because of Governor Schwarzenneger’s proposed budget cuts, other students may not get to experience the same opportunities that I have,” he told the crowd. “I feel like the governor is trying to rob me of my future. He declared 2008 the ‘Year of Education.’ I guess he’s sending the message it’s okay to lie too.” 

Education Week recently gave California a D+ for public school funding efforts.  

According to Jordan, the state—which currently spends $2,000 less per student than the national average and ranks 46th nationally in school funding—is behind less prosperous states such as Louisiana and Mississippi. 

Berkeley’s new Superintendent of Schools Bill Huyett told the Planet the district would be sending a contingent to Sacramento on Feb. 27.  

“In Berkeley, everything on the unrestricted general fund is on the table right now for potential cuts,” he said. “The only thing that will change that is if the governor introduces legislature to stop the cuts and that has hardly ever happened.” 

The cuts could result in a $6.1 million loss for the San Lorenzo Unified School District. 

“Now that we have funds in place, this proposal will devastate everything,” said Dennis Byas, superintendent of the San Lorenzo Unified School District. “The impact will be felt most in urban classrooms which need additional support ... A straight cut across the board will not work. It will bankrupt school districts all across the state and completely stall student achievement.” 

Betty Olson Jones, president of the Oakland Education Association, spoke about ways to address the challenge ahead. 

“We have to change the conversation,” she said. “We have to start where the needs are most urgent: in schools labeled as ‘failing’ under No Child Left Behind rules, and in the classrooms of new teachers.” 

Jones said that creating public awareness to reverse fiscal and tax policies was important. 

“California is the fifth largest economy in the world ... Corporate wealth has to be tapped on a regularized, sustained basis—not as ‘charity’ with strings attached.” 

According to the Oakland Education Association, Oakland’s metropolitan economy is ranked in the top 20 nationally. Jones said that although the port takes in over $33 billion annually, it is not required to pay a penny for public education. 

Fremont Unified School District, which consists of 31,700 K-12 students, could lose funding for intervention programs if the proposed cuts take place. 

“It will affect the lower socio-economic kids the most,” said Doug Gephart, superintendent of Fremont Unified. “Fremont is the lowest revenue district in all of Alameda County. Any cuts will simply gut education for our kids.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger’s proposed $4.8 million budget cuts from state education funds dominated the conversation during a reception held for Berkeley’s new superintendent of schools Bill Huyett at the City Council chambers Wednesday. 

Berkeley public school employees and community leaders met with Huyett to discuss issues ranging from the controversial warm water pool to student achievement. 

Huyett, who also attended his first school board meeting as superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District Wednesday, responded to questions from the community with confidence. 

“The expectations are pretty high,” said school board president John Selawsky. 

“But Bill’s a very experienced superintendent and he comes in with all the skills necessary to address the challenges of the school district, especially the achievement gap and human resources issues.” 

Huyett was responsible for increasing district test scores as superintendent of the Lodi Unified School District. He also oversaw the creation of 12 new schools, including a high school, during his seven years with the district. 

Some Berkeley parents said they were concerned about how Huyett would handle the challenge of the proposed budget cuts. 

“I work with teen parents in the school district and these cuts would devastate their progress,” said Solange Gould, a Berkeley public school parent. 

“We need a creative superintendent, especially someone who will make quality education his top priority,” said Judy Appel, member of Our Family Coalition. “Someone who would make sure that our kids are going to safe schools which respect all kinds of families.” 

Appel recently worked on a district-wide task force to draft a policy to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and their families from discrimination and harassment in Berkeley Unified, which was approved by the school board in October. 

Tim Donnelly, who represents classified employees in the district, said that relocating district staff from the Berkeley Unified headquarters at the Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way to a seismically safe building should be a top priority for Huyett. 

“The district has already studied the building for mold,” Donnelly said. “It’s making people sick ... employees are having respiratory problems. I would also like to see a more open and collaborative process than we had under the old superintendent.” 

The district’s plans to relocate to West Campus is expected to take place within a year. 

Huyett told the group he was thrilled to be in Berkeley. 

“I just really jumped at the chance,” he said. “However, the district faces challenges in terms of the proposed budget cuts ... Coming as a superintendent now is the worst thing I could have pictured, but I am going to need your help in changing the governor’s plan. We have to do some terrible awful things we don’t want to do, it’s going to break our hearts, but we have to keep working together.” 

According to Selawsky, the district could face cuts up to $3.5 million from the proposed cuts. 

Warm water pool supporters wanted Huyett to speed up the transfer of the Milvia Street tennis courts, currently owned by the school, for a new pool site. 

The city plans to relocate the warm water pool from the Berkeley High School Old Gym to the tennis courts. The project—estimated to cost around $15 million—plans to use funds approved from a bond measure which the City Council has yet to put on the November 2008 ballot. 

“After he surpluses the land, we want him to donate the land to the City for the pool,” said warm water pool task force member JoAnn Cook. 

Santiago Casal, of United in Action, said that his organization wanted to partner with Huyett in a “total community approach.” 

“We are hoping that the new superintendent will bring a huge ray of sunshine with him with respect to achievement of African American and Latino students in Berkeley,” he told the Planet. “The situation is urgent. Addressing the failure of children in our schools requires the involvement of the entire community ... The district cannot do it alone, but they do need to do much more.”

Since the Marine Recruiting Center in downtown Berkeley was locked Friday morning when the World Can’t Wait protesters arrived around 7:30 a.m. aiming to shut it down and risk arrest, the group and its allies from Code Pink and ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and Racism) went to Plan B. 

They held a press conference, demonstrated and called out to passing motorists with chants such as, “murder, rape, torture war, that’s what they’re recruiting for.”  

They chanted beyond the time that their 2 p.m. sound permit ran out, as noted in a press release sent out by the Berkeley police. 

A dozen or so police watched most the day without intervening. Stephanie Tang of World Can’t Wait said she was in touch with police and it appeared that the protests could continue.  

Around 4 p.m., Tang said police told her, “The Marines want your signs off their windows.” 

Tang told the Planet that the signs had been there all day, outside the locked office and that she could not make the others take them down. 

That’s when a large number of officers moved in, shoving protesters out of the way and removed the signs from the window, according to Tang. The protesters were held briefly in the center of Shattuck Avenue and then the police left, Tang said. 

There were no arrests. 

Nearby Roger Young of Lake Forest, Calif., retired from the army after 30 years, stood with a sign that read: “U.S. Marine Corps Defending Berkeley’s right to be a Laughing Stock since 1975.” 

Police could not be reached for further comment. 

Meanwhile in Mountain View, Grandmothers for Peace were at the Armed Services Recruiting Center at noon. “They call it a career center,” organizer Gayle Sredaozic told the Planet, noting that their action is in sympathy with protesters that have been speaking out against the recruiting center in Berkeley. 

With the presidential primary over, Alameda County voters will now have to turn their attention to several hotly contested local legislative races in the June 3 first-round voting, as well as a rare, contested Superior Court judge seat. 

Below are the results of first-week candidate filings with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters:  

Alameda County Board of Supervisors District Four (East Oakland, Oakland Hills, Castro Valley, Ashland, Cherryland, Fairview and Dublin): 

Incumbent: Nate Miley. No challenger has taken out preliminary papers. 

Alameda County Board of Supervisors District Five (Oakland north of 35th Avenue, Piedmont, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany): 

Incumbent: Keith Carson. No challenger has taken out preliminary papers. 

Alameda County Board of Education Area Two (Alameda and portions of Oakland that include West Oakland, East Oakland, Elmhurst, and Millsmont south to Shefield Village): 

Incumbent: Gay Plair Cobb. No challenger has taken out preliminary papers. 

Alameda County Board of Education Area Three (Oakland hills from Claremont south to Redwood Road in the northeast, to portions of Chinatown Central, San Antonio, Fruitvale and East Oakland in the south): 

Incumbent Dennis Chaconas. No challenger has taken out preliminary papers. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge 

With no incumbent listed for seat nine, 16 separate candidates have filed declarations of intention to run. The remaining 20 judgeships all have incumbent judges who have filed declarations, with no challengers yet taking out preliminary papers. 

California State Senate District 9 (Alameda, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Livermore, Oakland, Piedmont, Richmond, San Pablo): 

Incumbent: Don Perata (termed out). Wilma Chan (Democrat) and Marsha Feinland (Peace and Freedom) have taken out preliminary papers. 

California State Assembly District 14 (Albany, Berkeley, Canyon, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Emeryville, Kensington, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, Pleasant Hill, Richmond, San Pablo and parts of Martinez, Oakland and Walnut Creek): 

Incumbent: Loni Hancock (termed out). Tony Thurmond, Nancy Skinner, and Kriss Worthington have all taken out preliminary papers. 

California State Assembly District 16 (Oakland, Alameda, Piedmont): 

Incumbent: Sandré Swanson has taken out preliminary papers. No challenger has taken out preliminary papers. 

Planning Commissioners and interested citizens will tour West Berkeley March 1 as the commission prepares to ease new zoning rules in the city’s core industrial area. 

Dubbed the West Berkeley Increased Flexibility Tour, the event will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 1 p.m. 

According to the official notice issued by the city planning department, “The tour is a focused effort by the Planning Commission to better understand the types of businesses and uses that thrive and/or face obstacles in their attempts to locate in West Berkeley.” 

Major landowners and developers have called for changes in the existing zoning ordinances, which they say are overly restrictive and bar needed enterprises from locating in the area covered by the West Berkeley Plan. 

The scope of changes would affect most of the land west of San Pablo except for properties zoned R-1A and C-W. 

Anyone wanting to participate in the tour should send an e-mail by Wednesday to Melanie E. Beasley at the Planning Department, mbeasley@ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

At the top of the bad news on Monday morning: Vallejo’s about to capture the dubious distinction of being the first California city to declare bankruptcy, mainly because of the huge increases built into its public safety salaries and pensions. And it’s just the tip of the iceberg, with many others likely to follow. Sharp-pencil citizens and Planet reporters have documented Berkeley’s on-going liabilities in this department several times in these pages, and they’ll do it again, particularly as election-time draws near and city administrators’ plans to add more tax increases to the ballot are firmed up. Liberals that we are, Berkeleyans very seldom say no, either to our city or to our schools, but as the recession deepens into what some are already calling a depression, it could happen. 

At the same time Ron Dellums is under fire for not having abolished crime in the streets of Oakland after a whole year in office. The San Francisco paper’s twin bully-boys, the ones with the schoolyard nicknames of Chip and Chuck, are recommending from their safe journalistic perches that more stick and less carrot will solve all problems, whether it’s homeless people begging on the median strip (just gun’em down) or drug wars. 

No one seems to be able to put two and two together and come up with four. Yes, the police budget is bankrupting our cities, but the only solution citizens can suggest is more police. Yes, the prison budget is bankrupting the state, but the only solution the governor can propose is cutting out parks and schools. Is it possible that more of the same might just be throwing good money after bad? 

Two recent Berkeley examples show how to waste money and get little in return. The show of force surrounding the pro-marine turnout at the last City Council meeting cost a cool $100K, including lavish police overtime, and it was almost completely unnecessary. Neither side, with the exception of a few skateboarders, showed any real inclination to make trouble.  

My own encounter with the BPD that day was illustrative. I was trying to cross Martin Luther King Jr. Way from City Hall to talk to the people in the park. I went around to one end of the police line, which at that point was double ranks, not quite but almost corner to corner. At my chosen crossing point, I was stopped by a polite female officer who told me not to walk there. I started to ask where I could safely cross, and she had started to answer, but our conversation was broken up by an overbearing male officer yelling “Move on, move on, obey the order.” Completely chauvinistic, and totally unnecessary to boot. The female officer was doing her job, competently, but the male was overkill on overtime. 

A more serious instance was the weekend shooting of a probably intoxicated woman by an officer responding to a family dispute. There are at least two victims in this story, the woman herself and the policeman who shot her. These are the calls police men and women (my cousin is one) dread most. Why? Because they know that they’re not the right people and don’t have the right tools to do the job. All you can do with a gun is shoot someone, which seldom is the best solution.  

It’s a “bad block,” which must have been a factor in the police response. When we went there at about 10 on the night after the shooting to take pictures of the shrine neighbors had erected on the porch where Anita Gay died, we saw what were obvious drug deals taking place in the street, with no police anywhere in sight. Friends who live not far away report that this is common, and Berkeley police must know it’s going on. 

Officer Rashawn Cummings’ previous assignment was the drug detail. He was probably on edge when he responded to the domestic violence call, which is not an excuse but an explanation of his action.  

The dead woman was well known by neighbors, both her virtues and her problems. She obviously could have benefited from the attention of trained mental-health professionals, both before and during the emergency situation. If the officer had any such help available to him, it hasn’t been reported, and he probably didn’t. Yes, he could have used non-lethal force if he’d been so equipped, but that’s a hard split-second decision. Early intervention by someone who knew the woman and was trained to talk her down would have been much better.  

The literature is full of glowing descriptions of teamwork between armed police officers and unarmed community workers in situations like this one, and many Berkeleyans probably believe that it’s our public policy. At election time politicians in the East Bay cities we know best are wont to speak glowingly of community-involved policing, but it’s largely fantasy. A few of our neighborhoods have beat cops who understand their turf and the people in it, but even there emergency response is often from armed strangers.  

It’s past time for the Berkeley officials who are responsible for public safety to develop a more nuanced and more effective way of handling the broad range of emergency situations such peaceful demonstrations and domestic disputes. Sending out sworn officers with guns strapped to their hips is very expensive, and it’s not an effective solution for many problems. Let’s save the trained cops for when we really need them.  

The Planet is only printing letters from locals regarding the ruling on the Marine Recruitment Station. Some of these letters were sent prior to the Feb. 12 City Council meeting and thus do not reflect the council’s most recent ruling. 

Signed letters from non-locals and letters addressed to third parties will be published on our website. Unsigned letters will not be published.  

Imagine...Life Without Freedom 

Welcome to My America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Thank you to the recruiters who signed on the service men & women who are protecting this great land. Thank you also to all of the veterans, past, present, & future for defending my freedoms. Thank you Code Pink & Berkeley City Council for drawing world attention to protesting. That is your United States Constitutional right. If only God and our politicians could write PEACE into the United States Constitution with legal binding effect on all nations, then, and only then, will the Price of Freedom be Truly Free. 

When you Berkeley ladies drive, walk or gather in public places without a male escort, imagine looking over your shoulder waiting for the rape posse to attack. Imagine looking out the small hole of your burka knowing that you lost your freedom because you did not support the Military. When you cast your vote for your next politician, imagine looking into the barrel of a rifle waiting to end your short life here in America. And to all you Berkeley men & women, with all the religions here in America, imagine only being able to worship Allah because if you don’t, you will surely be beheaded! Your castles are no longer protected and are now owned by the rulers. You have no privacy, no rights, no money, and no ability to defend yourselves. When that big national disaster hits & your homes are destroyed, who is coming to save you, the Marines, the Army, the National Guard? Oooops, you forgot you ran them out of your city. Thomas Jefferson said “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Now Berkeley, you can be ignorant all you want, but are you ready to pay the price with the loss of your freedom? 

Now, I don’t care if ya support the War On Terror or any subsequent wars to follow, you better support the Military, or you won’t have any Freedoms at all. The Price of Freedom is Written on The Wall… 

Kathy L. Varner 

Flat Rock, North Carolina 

I have concluded that a large portion of the population of Berkley, California is either irrational or extremely selfish. For those not up on the situation in Berkeley let me state a quick summary. Several groups have taken to having demonstrations in front of the local Marine Recruiting Center. The city’s town council response has been to give demonstrators special parking privileges and passing resolutions against the Recruiting Center. Therefore, this situation has led me to my conclusion. Moreover, these are my arguments for those conclusions. 

Some of the demonstrators claim to be anti-war. I have no problem with that, but if they are anti-war why are they demonstrating in front of a recruiting office. You just as well demonstrate in front of the post office because recruiters have as much to do with policy as do postal people, or for that matter you and I. Even the Joint Chiefs of Staff serve only as advisors. It is Congress and the administration set policy. Therefore, it would make more since to demonstrate in front of Speaker of the House’s, Nancy Pelosi, office. Which I believe is just down the road. 

Other demonstrators appear to be against the recruiters themselves. They state that they lie to prospective recruits but they offer no proof. Further, they generalize that if one recruiter lies then all recruiters lie, which is the same, rational that people use to say all Catholics are drunks, all Jews are greedy, or all Muslims are terrorists. This group also complains that the Marine Corp spends billions of dollars on propaganda, sometimes know as advertising. The tobacco, alcohol, and auto industries also spend billions of dollars in propaganda and any one of these cause far more death, injury, and pain than do the Marines. So why not protest at their local tobacco store, bar, or used car dealer? 

These two groups will claim that they are not anti-military. However, the fact is that their actions are more against the military than they are against the war says different. Being anti-military is probably the most irrational thing of all. Consider there is not a nation in the world, at least to my knowledge, that does not have some sort of military institution. This includes democracies and dictatorships. It includes communist, socialist, and capitalist countries, and everything in between. Even Vatican City has the Swiss Guard. So why shouldn’t we? 

We have looked at three different rationales for the actions in Berkeley but as you can see they actually not rational at all. However, there is a possible fourth reason for the demonstration and it is very rational. It is pure and simple selfishness. 

Both demonstrators and council members when confronted about the situation claim they are not anti-military. Therefore, if they are not anti-military but they do want the recruiting office closed that only leaves one option open. They do not mind if other young men and women sign up but their young people are not to be given that opportunity. That is to say, the youth of New York and Los Angeles can serve. As can the youth of Miami, St. Louis, Houston, Denver and even Gillette, Wyoming. However, the youth of Berkeley, California are above all that. 

John F. Kennedy once said, "my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." Perhaps, the people of Berkley need to reassess their situation and decide whether they are Americans or not. 

Sincerely, 

Rodger L. Solomon 

Gillette, WY 

No need for Comedy Shows, just watch Berkeley toot its tiny horn. Two thousand letters for the Council’s edict on the Marines, twenty-four thousand letters against. That would make Berkeley’s City Council a sickly guppy in the ocean of life. 

L. White 

Pinetop, Arizona 

Political Relevance 

The nationally reported antics in Berkeley over the USMC recruiting station re-enforced the opinion of lots of ordinary Americans that the city is full of a bunch of foolish people. We know better than that. Berkeley has a superb university and is one of the intellectual centers of the nation. I have friends and in-laws who are graduates of that superb university. They certainly are not foolish people. 

I was in Viet Nam. I went there from Travis Air Force base in California. I joined the anti-war movement after coming back. I was in California working for Senator McCarthy's campaign when Bobby Kennedy was murdered. I stood in the Berkeley library and watched student riots in the streets outside. I was in Haight-Ashbury and saw the lives being ruined by the first methamphetamine epidemic. I was in the farm fields of the central valley and saw the exploitation of the farm workers first hand.  

But I also was amazed to see Berkeley women who'd had multiple abortions calling returning soldiers 'baby killers'.  

My son-in-law served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is now a deputy sheriff in Sacramento County. His family emigrated from Cambodia. That is, the few of them who survived. Most were murdered in Pol Pot's death camps. Just like your recently passed great legislator, Tom Lantos, my son-in-law has a high-voltage heightened sensitivity to the power of evil in this world based on very personal experience. He was profoundly offended by the recent actions of the Berkeley City Council. 

And you know what? Even I, who was against the Viet Nam war and am against the Iraq war, was profoundly offended by the City. Without our military and police forces, what protection do we have from the forces of evil? The Marines didn't start the war in Iraq. That was done by a bunch of inept politicians. Remember that 9/11 did happen, and that we are in a long-term war whether we want to be or not. You should thank God that there are still enough patriotic Americans to be willing to serve in the military. Nobody expects there to be many of them coming from Berkeley. But Berkeley sure as heck expects to be protected by police and military forces. 

To all of the political activists in Berkeley. For God's sake, there are holocausts going on all through Africa at this very minute. Do something really constructive and get involved in some way with that--at the very least do something to help feed the millions of refugees. Or try to help in some way to heal the lives of the hundreds of thousands of rape victims. 

Berkeley activist. Hone your sense of perspective. Get relevant. Get moving.  

James Whitesell 

Cochise County, Arizona 

Retired U.S. federal officer 

SAYING THANKS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Wednesday, Feb. 13 I fell on my face (literally) at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Within seconds there were half a dozen people of every description asking if I was okay and offering to give help. I’d like to say “Thank You!” to them, especially the (female) postal worker and “Paul” who had a handy Band-Aid. 

It’s nice to know that with all the (fill in words of your choice), that there is a bedrock of kindness in Berkeley! 

Nancy Yates 

• 

CONSEQUENCES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A serious unintended consequence has been ignored in recent discussion. Well over 100 million citizens will vote in the upcoming election, nearly half of them registered Republicans. Of those, there are many millions who are disenchanted by the Bush years and may consider defecting to the Democratic candidate. But members of the City Council have created a national scandal and focused nationwide ridicule and resentment on the irrationality and irresponsibility of the radical left, and have surely pushed millions of those undecided voters firmly back into the Republican camp. The rash fools who provoked this debacle should be booted off the council. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

CORRECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In my letter published Feb. 15, a reader pointed out an egregious typo I made in my letter. The proper Article and Section of the Constitution referring to the responsibility of Congress to raise an army is Article I, Section VIII, not Section VII. 

Katherine Brakora 

• 

SWINTON’S INSPIRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Bob Burnett calls this year’s crop of Oscar-nominated movies a collection of downers, with the lone exception of the teen pregnancy epic Juno. However, among the drab tales of oppressors and psychos there is one role which should be a joy to watch for the typical reader of the Daily Planet. 

Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton was good enough to earn herself an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It is her first Oscar nomination in 20 years of movie making. What did Swinton do to distinguish her character this time? She plays a ruthless murderous corporate lawyer, a character so uptight she calculates every breath she takes, every variation on eyebrow position, every well placed hair on her head, and she walks with every step perfectly placed, right up to her utter downfall at movie’s end, and according to an article about Swinton on the Internet, she said she modeled her role after Condoleezza Rice. 

Ted Vincent 

• 

THE FASCIST FACTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

That letter by Chuck Heinrichs was excellent—right on! I wasn’t happy about telling the Marines that they are unwelcome, but I sure am glad that Code Pink is making some noise about the war. I’m especially glad that Berkeley is annoying the flag-waving fascist faction. 

Steve Geller 

• 

ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to address an argument made by a number of folks in the media and made last night at the Berkeley City Council Meeting. The argument goes: “Support the troops because it is the government’s responsibility for the unjust war.” I think this denial of troop responsibility is a denial of their conscience, and thus, their dignity. They exercise this conscience when they generate the habits that create the kind of person they become, when they chose to enter the military, and when they continuously chose to sustain their participation in an immoral and unjust war. The troops as persons are responsible. We might say they have less responsibility then government leaders, but they still have a level of responsibility, which is sufficient to be judged for participating in immoral and unjust activity, such as Iraq.  

The devaluing or denial of troop responsibility manifested itself last night at the Berkeley City Council. There was general consensus that the war is unjust and they did a better job articulating the depth of the injustice. Yet, they were unwilling to hold the Marine institution and the individual troops sufficiently responsible. In turn, they buckled somewhat to the “support the troops” mantra and affirmed a right of the Marines to recruit in Berkeley. I respect the troops as persons and acknowledge the kind of courage it takes to risk one’s life, but I think we fail them and ourselves when we insist on “supporting” their immoral and unjust choices. This failure is implied when we insist on “supporting the troops” while they fight an immoral and unjust war.  

I wonder how many of those who deny the personal responsibility of troops tend to simplify poverty and argue the poor are personally responsible for their situation? There’s much more which could be said, but I will leave it here for now.  

Eli S. McCarthy  

• 

DEMONSTRATION REPORT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Riya Bhattacharjee’s recent report on the demonstration was, as usual, completely one-sided. The cops are bad, the radical left-wingers are good. The event was completely nonviolent until the Berkeley High School students arrived with their colors. But the problem was the cops, right? Horseshit. Beware, the citizens are catching on. 

Peter Bjelda 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks for quoting me about AC Transit’s misnamed Bus “Rapid” Transit proposal (“BRT, Parks, Southside Evoke Heated Response,” Feb. 15). But to clarify one detail: 

I called on Berkeley’s Planning Commission to reject BRT not because BRT isn’t “clean rail” technology. We already have clean rail: it’s called BART. It runs just one to six blocks beside AC Transit’s crazy proposed route. It’s faster, with lower fares for comparable trips. Its capital costs are already paid for. Its operator is more financially solvent. And it has ample excess capacity. 

AC Transit simply should not be allowed to waste $400 million duplicating the BART tracks. Their own consultants predicted that BRT on this route would offer only “negligible” environmental benefits. Light rail beside BART would waste even more money. 

AC Transit could benefit Berkeley by instead routing BRT to extend the BART network. BART-bypassed areas, like the I-680 and I-580/MacArthur corridors, send lots of cars into Berkeley every day. 

AC Transit could benefit the environment by abandoning its Telegraph BRT boondoggle, and instead replacing its conventional diesel buses with a more efficient and cleaner-fueled fleet. 

When I recently visited Toronto, half the buses I saw going by were hybrids. These were genuinely “low-floor” buses: They had low-mounted seats, which mobility-impaired passengers could easily get to and from. (Unlike AC Transit’s despised Van Hools.) 

The nameplates said “Orion,” a Daimler subsidiary with factories near Toronto. Toronto’s transit buyers evidently aren’t joining AC Transit in bankrupting their system through bus-buying sprees in Belgium, on Van Hool-financed junkets. Buy local, dudes. 

Michael Katz 

• 

BERKELEY NAACP PROTESTS MURDER OF ANITA GAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley branch of the NAACP is appalled by this senseless act of murder perpetrated against this African American female by the Berkeley Police Department. The citizens of Berkeley are outraged as a result of this cowardly act of murder of an African American female by the Berkeley Police Department. The police are trained at the academy on how to disarm and subdue a person advancing on them without a firearm. It is clear that they cannot think clearly in a crisis. Certainly in the case of this female who was not advancing on the officer with a knife, a non-lethal method of apprehension could have been applied. However, it is apparent that the only thing in the mind of a Berkeley Police Officer is to kill, especially any African American that they can. The baton, a rubber bullet, or mace should have been used instead of a lethal shot in the back to kill. 

It is clear that the Berkeley Police are afraid of the citizenry. Therefore, they should be removed from the force of the Berkeley Police Department. Their armed position and their badges give them the edge and the right to kill at will. We vehemently protest and demand an end to the brutal method of operation by the Berkeley Police Department. They are trigger happy and eager to commit murder in the name of the law and they believe they are above the law. 

We are calling for a federal investigation to determine whether the civil rights of Anita Gay were violated. This latest incident further exacerbates the tensions between the police and the African American community. We have recently witnessed on television how African American law enforcement agents use cruel and unnecessary acts of violence against the disabled. This incident sends a clear message to the neighborhood. Not only will the police kill young African American males and females, but they will also kill your mother and your grandmother. Upon the investigation of the perpetrator we are calling for his immediate removal from the Berkeley Police Department and that he be arrested for the murder of Anita Gay. 

Allen Jackson 

President, Berkeley Branch, NAACP 

• 

GUN BUYBACK A BIG FLOP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Gun buybacks seem to be a much-touted (recently, by Don Perata) measure that people hope will reduce crime in Oakland. Think so? Let me tell you some of the facts about the recent gun buyback in Oakland on Feb. 9. A lot of guns were being brought to the buyback: so many were being sold that the Oakland Police Department ran out of money, and Oakland Chief of Police Tucker had to leave early and quickly from Jane Brunner’s Feb. 9 advisory meeting on crime in North Oakland to try to get more funds for the guns. But wait and hear more: Who was bringing in the guns? Not the criminals. They don’t sell their guns. Sure, a few elderly people and others who weren’t really using their guns, decided to bring them in. But according to three Oakland police officers I met with in a community meeting recently, very many of those selling guns didn’t live in Oakland. Some came from Livermore. Others came from Nevada. Some people had dozens of guns to sell. What’s up? They were collectors, or junk dealers, who saw the gun buyback as a great way to get a guaranteed $250 each for their $25 or 50 piece of crap guns that they probably couldn’t sell to anyone anywhere. So Oakland gave out a lot of money for a lot of junk that came from out of state or out of county and had zilch to do with crime in Oakland. The big anti-gun crime prevention measure simply became a way for non-Oaklanders to profit off of our foolishness.  

Time to get a new plan to end crime in Oakland.  

Deborah Cloudwalker 

Oakland 

• 

WILLIARD SCHOOL STORY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What are we to make of your story about the assistant principal at Willard? This woman seems to have taken action to deal with rampant marijuana abuse at the school. Somebody should. 

Are we to believe that the police would deal with the problem? I doubt the Berkeley Police Department has time or interest in setting up a “sting” to catch these potheads.  

Her methods may have been unconventional, but it’s hard to argue with her intent. Someone give her a medal; everyone else should get off her back. 

Carlos Machina 

• 

CITY-MARINES STORY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In Tuesday’s Daily Planet, Judith Scherr reported on the Marine Recruiting Station action Friday by World Can’t Wait, and the horrific overreaction by the Berkeley Police Department. When the police asked us to take signs off the MRS windows at the Marines’ request, CodePink took down their beautiful valentines to the Marines. WCW did not comply, forcing the police to enforce the law. But when the police cordoned off the street and moved in against the group clustered on the sidewalk, they used unnecessary force and hurt people, including young high school students. 

Judith’s article mentioned Robert Young, an army vet, who was holding a sign protesting Berkeley’s decision to ask the recruiters close down their office. I had a wonderful conversation with Robert. The police pushed Robert too, and his sign was knocked to the ground. CodePink Women for Peace has good relationships with authorities: the San Francisco and Berkeley police, Capitol police in D.C., Secret Service guarding Nancy Pelosi, others. We cooperate with them, but don’t give up our civil rights. WCW views the police with suspicion, and expects them to behave badly. Reminds me of the protests in the ’60s, when battles with police eclipsed ending the war. 

In recent memory, I have not seen the Berkeley police act as they did on Friday and at last week’s 24-hour peace-in at Old City Hall. My dealings with the BPD have been respectful and friendly. My opinion of our police force is changing. I filed a complaint with the Police Review Commission because an officer pushed me without even giving me a chance to move first. I hope that the people knocked to the ground and hurt by the police last Friday will file complaints. What’s happening here? When did our police turn into bullies and thugs? Those words are not too strong to describe what I’ve experienced lately. The police arriving at the MRS in huge groups don’t look like Berkeley police to me. Is this change in behavior connected with our new Police Chief? 

I’m sending this letter to the chief of police, Police Review Commission and City Council, hoping they take action to stop this behavior. Nothing going on at the MRS justifies the way the police have behaved. Finally, some officers haven’t participated in these violent actions. I want to thank them for using restraint and respecting our free speech rights and us. They are the true face of the Berkeley police, who have a well-deserved reputation as being true public servants and valued members of our community. 

Cynthia Papermaster 

• 

WHAT IS LIVABLE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In her last column, (“Mary Dean Owes Me Three Bucks,” Feb. 19), Susan Parker describes a recent community meeting with Children’s Hospital Oakland officials who apparently still intend—in spite of the decisive rejection of their plan by the voters—to build a new 12-story tower in a residential neighborhood. Ms. Parker notes that during the meeting, Mary Dean, senior vice-president of Children’s Hospital, chose to don a neighborhood-produced “Livable Oakland” T-shirt and wore it for the remainder of the event. Ms. Parker expresses confusion about Dean’s reasons for doing this, and states that “no one at the meeting understood why she was wearing it.” Does Ms. Parker mean to suggest that 12-story towers in residential neighborhoods somehow detract from their livability? 

Ha! It’s obvious that she has not spent much time in Berkeley lately—because high-rise towers are exactly what our own pro-development lobbying group, Livable Berkeley, would love to see everywhere within a half-mile of any major thoroughfare or transit route. That means they want to put them pretty much all over town—except, of course, within their own protected neighborhoods. To them, as to Children’s Hospital, the privileged few should be able to retain their quality of life, but the less-powerful should be forced to give up all expectations of sunlight, clean air, views of the sky and hills, trees, privacy, parking spaces, and any semblance of peace and quiet for the rest of their lives. 

These “smart growth” zealots are very happy to build things that destroy the lives of others, as long as they do not have to live anywhere near them. If anything like that is ever proposed for their own neighborhoods, you better believe that they are adamant in their desire to protect their quality of life—and how dare anyone suggest that they are being selfish! This breathtaking level of arrogance and hypocrisy has served to discredit the notions of “Livable Berkeley” in the eyes of a growing number of community members in Berkeley. 

Not that I mean to discourage Mary Dean in her choice of attire. In fact, she really should stop by the Livable Berkeley office. I’m sure they would be happy to give her a free T-shirt. 

Doug Buckwald  

• 

DEVELOPMENT — ALL ABOUT EASY LENDING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your Feb. 15 coverage of the density bonus discussion at the Planning Commission was most interesting. Developer Chris Hudson of Hudson/McDonald was quoted, regarding future development in Berkeley: “There’s no money, and there is a slowdown in demand” (slowdown would be an understatement). 

When there’s no money and little demand for an activity, it’s time to consider ceasing that activity—the bubble years were very good for developers, but they are over. 

I have been avidly reading about the housing bubble for more than three years, and therefore knew that it was fueled by cheap credit—and that it would end badly. Apparently, whenever lending is cheap and abundant, developers build like crazy regardless of need. Since the projects are owned under limited liability corporations, failed projects are no skin off developer noses—after all, it’s not as though they were using their own money. 

While farmland was paved for McMansions all over California, Berkeley residents were being guilt-tripped into accepting “smart growth.” It was actually exceedingly dumb growth—five-story stucco boxes littering the terrain, for rent or for sale, many of them leaking due to construction flaws. 

More superfluous stucco boxes are in the approval process, at least two planned by Hudson/McDonald. Early in 2006, H/M purchased the Drayage Building, which had been a thriving environment for approximately 30 artists until they were evicted for phony “code violations.” One of the evictees summed it up with sadness, “West Berkeley has lost one of its coolest things.” The plans are for a five-story condo box. 

Upon purchase, H/M demolished the Drayage building, cleansing the property of Special Assessment property taxes, (city taxes based on square footage of the structures). The site is now home to a chain-link fence, vivid graffiti, and three empty H/M sign stands (only one still upright), while lending and demand for condos are virtually dead. It appears that we may have lost 30 artists, an interesting structure, and the city tax revenue it generated—for nothing at all. 

Gale Garcia 

• 

LIQUOR LAWS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his letter in the Jan. 25 edition, John Vinopal asks “why not have concerned citizens call the city to report sidewalk drinking or perceived sales to minors?” Answer: We should and many have and that would be enough if this system worked. It is not working. The city’s nuisance ordinance BMC 23B64 is supposed to allow the city to “solve” any nuisances created by liquor stores or others. This requires that neighbors make complaints to the city, call the police, document times, dates and places the nuisance occurred, and testify at Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB), City Council meetings and/or other proceedings. This is all very public and makes neighbors a target for retaliation. 

Take the example of Dwight Way Liquors, which was a problem for 15 years. After years of complaining to no avail, neighbors organized large shows of community concern, they would show up at the ZAB and City Council meetings 30 strong. Still, it took years and many of them spent hundreds of hours to get the city to shut it down. At least three families moved away because of the nuisance created by this one store. 

Alcohol is the number one problem drug in the world. The police, medical, and other costs to the public, far exceed that of all other drugs combined. Alcohol requires a special license and land use permit to sell it. The state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control provides monitoring and enforcement, but politics and budget cuts have greatly reduced the ability of the ABC to protect the public. According to the ABC, the Oakland district covers all of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco San Mateo and Solano counties with a total of 10,455 licenses. This district is allocated 13 sworn officers. One is an administrator, two are supervisors, two are still in the academy and three positions are unfilled. 

It is our contention that the ABC cannot effectively enforce all the regulations for us, that the general public does not have the necessary expertise or time to deal with problem alcohol outlets. Nor should they be forced to risk retaliation. Instead of the current adversarial system, what is needed is a small, dedicated, well-trained staff to deal with these problems administratively. If we want any real enforcement of some very reasonable laws the city will have to do it, and it should be paid for by those who make money from the sale of alcohol. 

Ralph Adams 

Berkeley Alcohol Policy Advocacy Coalition (BAPAC) 

• 

PACIFIC STEEL LAYOFFS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Pacific Steel Casting is misrepresenting the reason for its recent layoffs. The layoffs were caused by market forces. 

The lack of demand for steel in the United States has not translated into a larger available supply, because the demand in Europe and particularly in China and India is very strong. The global demand for steel is blowing up the price of steel inputs in a time when U.S. enterprises are already reluctant to spend. Many steel fabricators have had their stock prices fall 25 percent in the last two months. The ones that are doing well are the ones with operations where the demand is. This is also a time of great consolidation for the steel industry, where small outfits are being snatched up by steel mega-companies, and this indicates that small operations like PSC are having trouble competing with the big ones. 

PACCAR, the heavy truck manufacturer that does not want to do business with PSC any more, saw a 45 percent loss in United States and Canada sales from 2006 to 2007. Demand for goods in the U.S. has slowed, and the high price of fuel is moving the transportation of goods from trucks to trains and ships. 

The possibility of revising PSC’s use permit could result in a loss of jobs. The union’s job is to protect and represent the workers, and they should have been working with the company for the last several years to make sure it never came to this. If the company refuses to work with the community and puts the workers’ jobs at risk, the union should help its workers find employment elsewhere. 

I hope that the company and the union work in good faith to resolve this issue. 

Ken Geis 

• 

VIOLENCE, PEACE, JUSTICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We have too long permitted the thugs to tell our tale. 

Behavior we would universally condemn on any playground has become our national ethic. Our appetites are legendarily voracious: with but a rough tenth of the world’s population, we consume a quarter, a third, a half, or more of one vital resource after another. Were kids on a playground to commandeer such a disproportionate share of the foursquare balls or some other limited resource, they would incur swift, certain reprimand. Yet, on a national scale, our selfish hoarding is defended with lethal brutality. The “few, good men” are sent out, from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, to threaten, maim, kill, lest our unfair advantage be imperiled.  

The litmus test for any political candidate’s viability? The credibility of the candidate’s promise to wage future wars with sufficient temerity, premised on the implicit affirmation that we deserve to defend that which we have stolen.  

Our very presence on these premises reeks of war crime. Absent the self-serving official story, the narrative reads as rape and plunder, Nanking on a continental scale. What we didn’t bloodily occupy outright, we bought or wrested from previous recent conquerors. We deny, however, the wholesale murder of innocents, the repeated torching of cultures, the strong-arm theft of the land itself, substituting instead glorious tales of bravery, honor and justice. 

Inconsistently addicted to the intoxication of violence, we relish shock and awe, when perpetrated on Wounded Knee, Hiroshima, Hanoi, or Baghdad, yet reel from it in Oklahoma City or Manhattan. 

So, we allow the government to seduce our young with its glossily mendacious recruiting ads, permit the armed services to send sexy young uniforms to our high school campuses to flirt our vulnerable, impressionable graduates-to-be into harm’s way. We further allow the national dialogue to fixate on topics of degree rather than insisting on a thorough redefinition of essence. 

The world is not ours. Nor are her resources. Nor is space. Nor the sea.  

It is only through the seduction of self-flattering fictions that we have been able for so long to justify to ourselves the exercise of political, economic and military hegemonies, predicated as they are on our pretended superiority. 

We are not special. 

Peace can only follow the establishment of justice. Justice cannot coexist with unequally constructed paradigms of distribution and consumption, requiring, rather, that we relinquish our over-holding and the false claims of desert on which we base it, that we establish mechanisms of redistribution to eliminate both excess and want. 

It also requires that we heal from our erotic fascination with the military fetish. Melt the weapons. Burn the uniforms. Disband the troops. Lower the flags. Shutter the very museums in which we have too long fostered our fascination with this darkest of dungeons. 

Let us prepare to tell a different story. 

A true one, of how we created justice and waged peace. 

For, if we continue to live by the sword, we shall surely die by it, with the sins of our greedy conquests still on our bloody hands. 

Earl Jon Rivard, Jr. 

Alameda 

My interest was piqued by the editor’s quotation from Carole Norris in a recent editorial about Nancy Skinner: “Nancy ... worked with Berkeley ZAB members to organize support and approvals for a number of infill projects facing opposition including the Berkeley Bowl, several condo projects and the proposed mixed use project that includes Trader Joe’s.” My question is where was Nancy Skinner’s ‘work’ done? 

As one of the many neighbors who worked within Berkeley’s public process for citizen involvement, I find the above statement, if true, extremely disturbing. I searched the transcripts from all of the Zoning Adjustments Board public hearings on Hudson McDonald’s Trader Joe’s project and found no sign of Ms. Skinner’s name in public comment, letter, or ex parte disclosures from ZAB members. On the other hand, hundreds of Berkeley citizens on both sides of the issue engaged in a vigorous and public debate on the merits of the project and the probity of the process. Citizen involvement included energetic public comments and letters to the ZAB, an administrative appeal to the City Council, and perhaps inevitably with a project and process so controversial, a lawsuit. We followed the rules in an effort to stop the city from perverting our General Plan goals, the University Avenue Strategic Plan, our Zoning Ordinance, and state laws that encourage affordable housing and ensure protection for affected neighborhoods from detriment. It is distressing to find that Ms. Skinner now claims to have ‘worked’ the ZAB. 

This type of ‘below the radar’ intervention in our political process makes me fear that Ms. Skinner will continue Berkeley’s recent pattern of backroom dealing outside of the cleansing light of public dialogue and disclosure. The subversion of our political process by our rich and powerful developers has become endemic under the reign of Mayor Bates and Assemblymember Hancock. Ms. Norris’s trolling for $3,600 contributions from developers in exchange for a reliable “bought” vote in the Assembly is nothing less than shameful.  

I note that one of our other Berkeley candidates for Assembly, Kriss Worthington, has made passing a Berkeley sunshine ordinance one of his priorities, and has consistently supported construction of affordable housing and insisted on a scrupulous respect for the rule of law in our city government. In the June Democratic primary we have the opportunity to break the chain of corruption we have suffered under for years once and for all. I urge Berkeley citizens to cast their vote for Councilmember Kriss Worthington for Assembly.  

For the State Senate seat being vacated (under duress) by Don Perata, I urge voters to look at the list of actual accomplishments of Wilma Chan versus the PR puffery of Assemblymember and ex-Mayor Loni Hancock. Consider sending Assembly member Hancock into retirement to spend her gold-plated state- and city-funded retirement income in foreign travel with her family. 

Stephen Wollmer is member of Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way. NLBW’s lawsuit against the city to void the permits granted for the Trader Joe’s project will be heard before Judge Roesch in Department 31 of Superior Court at 9 a.m. March 21. For more information on our case or to contribute to our legal defense fund, contact stephenwollmer@gmail.com. 

For the record, I voted against the Berkeley City Council motion authorizing a letter to tell the Marines they were unwelcome and uninvited intruders in Berkeley. I also made the motion to rescind that vote and to apologize for it. Since I am a lifetime activist for peace who has been arrested and beaten up while protesting for peace, some wondered if I was caving in to the right-wing pressure. Instead I would suggest that my position offered the best chance for intelligent effective advocacy for peace. 

When I was little, my foster mother taught me about apologies. She said an apology can’t undo the harm, but it can let people know you didn’t mean to hurt them, and it might even lessen some of the hurt. This was her lesson to me after I accidentally knocked over a “house” built by my foster brother and occupied by our foster sister in the back yard. When I stumbled and bumped into it, I didn’t even know that the collection of sticks and twigs and weeds was a house. But John was screaming and Melody was crying, so I knew something was wrong. Mother quieted us all down, made me apologize to both of them, and got me to help them rebuild their house. With her help we managed to put it back together and even make it bigger and better and harder to knock down. 

So what do childhood memories have to do with Marines and Code Pink and the recent actions of the Berkeley City Council? 

Since I know all the members of the Berkeley City Council, I am certain they did not mean to insult our veterans, or the people risking their lives in the military today, or their friends, families, and supporters. The councilmembers who voted for the original letter that caused the hurt feelings simply thought this was one more way to say no to an unpopular and illegal war. Unfortunately this well-intentioned goal stumbled and bumped into a perception of insulting the reputation of the Marines and all the military. I believe it was an innocent accident, and no one intended this to be taken as an offensive insult to our veterans and our military. But just as my foster mom taught me, no matter what your intentions, apologizing may well be the best course of action. 

Berkeley still has opportunities to let people know we didn’t mean to hurt them and even lessen some of the hurt. Just as I apologized after Mother explained the need to me, there is still time for the City Council to apologize. 

Additionally the City Council has an opportunity to turn the phrase “we support our veterans” into action. Local veterans used to meet in the Berkeley Veterans Building, but in recent years they have been told they cannot use their traditional space for seismic safety reasons. Veterans learned that other people are now meeting in their traditional meeting space, and are currently seeking access for monthly veterans meetings. 

Just as my foster mom turned that childhood accident into a positive lesson and an opportunity to come together and create a better building, perhaps we can turn this trial into a triumph and show our local veterans we really do care and are willing to prove it through our actions. This could be a healing moment for us all. 

City Councilmember Kriss Worthington represents Berkeley’s District 7.

On St. Patrick’s Day 2007 my friend and I participated in a peace march in Charleston, South Carolina; it was billed on the flyer as “Introducing Code Pink Charleston.” Then on Jan. 18 there was J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s thoughtful and sensitive Undercurrents column, “Ghost of America’s Racial Past Lies Uneasy in South Carolina.” That however was followed by Senator DeMint’s not-so-sensitive response to the action of the Berkeley City Council. The Undercurrents piece should be followed with a more sensitive response to the present turn of affairs. 

My friend, a native of South Carolina, writes the following: 

United States Sen. Jim DeMint has proposed legislation to cut $2.1 million federal dollars to the city of Berkeley—and give it to the U.S. Marine Corps. The lost money would include earmarks for a prospective ferry service, the Berkeley Unified School District nutritional education fund and Chez Panisse Foundation for school lunch program nutritional awareness. 

DeMint’s proposal comes in response to a vote of Berkeley City Council to write a letter of unwelcome to a Marine recruiting station on Shattuck Avenue. Given the history of the Marines, who have served in every American armed conflict since the Revolution, the leathernecks can probably dispense with DeMint’s help to handle a little protest from old ladies sitting on benches holding signs and a few politicians expressing dissent in a resolution, which is not a law but a consensus of opinion. 

The rights of citizens to peacefully assemble and speak out without penalty are already guaranteed in the First Amendment of a Constitution the Marines have sworn to uphold and protect. That oath also applies to the rights of city council to pass a resolution which is superfluous, if not controversy. Sen. Demint is drafting vindictive legislation that is mere retaliation for an ideological disagreement, thus jeopardizing the First Amendment right to free speech and peaceful assembly.  

The hypocrisy of DeMint’s position is rather glaring. None of his biographical information mentions military service, although he was of draft age in the Vietnam era. What does he know of Semper Fi and Oorah, the great Marine codes embraced by (for example) my deceased uncle, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam? My uncle endured long absences from home and lost his health early because he felt he had a duty to stand against totalitarianism, fascism and suppression of human and civil rights, including those endowed by the First Amendment. 

President Bush may declare this Iraqi conflict “making the world safe for democracy,” while the truth is quite other. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the majority of the World Trade Center suicide bombers were Saudi Arabian, as is Osama bin Laden, mastermind of many so-called “Islamo-fascist” terrorist assaults against American interests at home and abroad. He remains at large. His country is floating on oil deposits. 

Despite shock and awe, determination to remain independent and control its own oil supplies combined with religious differences between Sunnis and Shiites, are fueling Iraqi insurgency and an internecine conflict over who will obtain political ascendancy. So young men and women are being recruited to perpetuate a quagmire funded by cuts to programs for the poor, the disabled and the elderly. DeMint has voted no on: repealing tax subsidy for companies which move U.S. jobs offshore, voted no, on raising CAFE standards incentives for alternative fuels and on reducing oil usage by 40 percent by 2025. For the Bush administration and its supporters, the Iraq war is about oil, not honor.  

The Marines are still performing with courage and esprit de corps in the Iraqi conflict. They are not responsible for misleading administrative policy, although their duty is to carry it out. To resist hypocritical and deceptive policies, citizens must start somewhere, as in Berkeley. For what it’s worth, they are aiming their protests at recruiters following orders and delivering sales pitches handed down from higher echelons inducing young people to jump into a meat grinder and quagmire. 

Citizens have a constitutional right to peacefully protest without their city being punished by a politician 3,000 miles away grandstanding for his neoconservative, evangelical constituents back home in South Carolina. Economic threats from 3,000 miles away are a form of social control. Sen. DeMint is overlooking the fact that a resolution is a consensus of opinion, not a law. When a U.S. senator retaliates by penalizing a city for dissent, everyone’s constitutional rights are threatened. 

So, Semper Fi and Oorah. And furthermore, kudos to the Code Pink ladies who are taking their stand for peace in Berkeley. My uncle and his fellow Marines fought and died so that every group of peaceful protesters should be entitled to free parking permits, whatever their creeds or opinions. That’s real democracy. 

Andrew Phelps is a Berkeley resident. Sue Poole is a resident of North Charleston, South Carolina. 

Five members of the People’s Park Community Advisory Board resigned in January, disgusted with the University of California. In that respect, for a moment, this unrepresentative, chancellor-selected group represented the community well. 

They were impatient, they explained in a public letter. Without public discussion, the group seemed to have simultaneously arrived at identical conclusions: that the university’s unwillingness to “implement” a new design for People’s Park before its 40th anniversary “undermines our credibility as board members.” 

Setting aside the issue of whether a chancellor-appointed group could have credibility with the larger community at all, consider that most of them were relative strangers to People’s Park by virtue of their annoyance with it, unlike those who play there, garden there, give classes there, or play music there. This group of five identified their personal constituency as “those who have encouraged us to initiate positive changes,” despite the fact that there exists no community-wide consensus about re-designing the park. 

It is useful, then, that this group has identified itself as the group that wants to change the park, and quickly, so that the constituency of people dissatisfied with the park’s current status can feel as if something has changed. And since this group strongly recommended a design competition, it is fair to suggest that any number of designs would have sufficed, as long as the park changed radically, thoroughly, and soon. 

For those with a long park history, it is rather like walking up to a tomato plant in April and saying, we know you have this tradition about taking months to ripen, and that there is some custom associated with ripening late in the season, but we’re feeling kind of impatient and we want you to ripen now. 

People’s Park is a desire path, taking its time to become what people want, what the neighborhood wants, what the university will allow, and what nature requires. A desire path is a term in landscape architecture used to describe a path that isn’t designed but rather is created by the natural use of animals and people, who generally find the shortest distance between two points. 

A desire path takes time to discover. The lines of riot-gear clad police have to leave, the scars of false arrests, beatings, and gratuitous legal snares have to heal. The rains have to come and go, so the course of underground streams’ effect on drainage can be understood. Anyone who thinks a design contest can answer nature’s most honest needs assessment over time is dreaming. 

People’s Park is a garden. Its imperfection is the best tribute to its history, as the university continues to rip out any popular improvements the university did not personally authorize. Still people come, people build, people garden, people play, sing, and dance. People build and create spontaneously together in ways that would be entirely different if they were sitting at a desk or attending a meeting, often with joy, with music, and with a sense of connection to the park’s true history, which can’t be found in a book or a museum.  

Let us thank those who want a solution for the park, and want it right away, for their service at seemingly endless, contentious meetings. Let us thank them for so ably representing the impatient people who can’t bear a park without finality, a park that changes in the natural ways that gardens always change. And let us remind them that, if you can’t take the time, please, stay out of the garden. 

Carol Denney is a Berkeley musician  

and activist.

In November 2000, a supermajority of Berkeley voters passed Measure R, a bond measure to “reconstruct, renovate, repair, and improve the warm water pool facilities at Berkeley High School (including restrooms and locker space) in order to prepare the facilities for greater community use by seniors, disabled adults and disabled children, some of whom use the pool for physical therapy” (to quote the description in the voter information pamphlet). 

Instrumental in the passage of the measure was local activist Fred Lupke, who spearheaded the campaign on its behalf, and who continued to nudge the City Council and Board of Education to move ahead with plans for the renovation in following years, up until his tragic death in September 2003, when his wheelchair was hit from behind on Ashby Avenue. As the San Francisco Chronicle described Fred in its year-end tribute to notable citizens of the Bay Area who had died in 2003: “He was, many said, cut from the same cloth as noted activists Ed Roberts and Mario Savio.” But more than that, Fred was someone who worked effectively and graciously with people from all sides of Berkeley’s political factions, winning us over with his great personal warmth and his well-reasoned commitment to ensuring that all members of our community have access to public facilities. 

Along with many Berkeley residents who offered to help following Fred’s death, I got to meet Fred’s sister for the first time when she came here to clear out his apartment and prepare for his funeral. As we pitched in with a community-spirited effort that would have made Fred proud, many of us bonded with Alice, who shares Fred’s piercing gaze and straightforward warmth. I’ve stayed in touch with Alice over the years since Fred’s untimely death, but I have to say I feel embarrassed on Berkeley’s behalf that we haven’t yet fully honored Fred’s memory by bringing to completion the project he worked so hard to realize. She no longer even brings up the subject! 

I especially wish to call upon the elected officials, past and present, who were among the overflowing crowd at Fred’s well-attended memorial held four years ago this leap year, on Feb. 29, 2004. At that emotional event, a number of our city councilmembers, along with our mayor and several school board members, pledged to guide Fred’s project to completion. I’m assuming they remember who they are! (At least it is to be hoped that in Berkeley politicians actually keep track of their very publicly made promises.) 

At this point, what it will take to get the warm water pool project moving again is bringing the matter back before the voters, since the funds passed in 2000 were never spent due to changing plans regarding the facility. I’m confident that the voters who so generously gave their overwhelming support nearly eight years ago to fund this essential service will once again rise to the occasion, presuming the City Council does its part by placing another measure on the ballot. 

I have heard some raise the question concerning whether it’s appropriate for Berkeley voters to foot the entire bill for the warm water pool since those who live outside Berkeley also use it. Well, one of the people who used the pool and happened to live just a couple of blocks over the Oakland border was Fred Lupke himself, a Berkeley citizen in all but zipcode. 

But isn’t that wonderful? Don’t we want to draw people from surrounding areas to downtown Berkeley for something important to their health, which will leave them with positive associations concerning the nearby Arts District, the library, and the wonderful shops and restaurants downtown? Maybe we’ll get lucky and some of them will even give back to us a fraction of what Fred Lupke did, with his activism on behalf of Berkeley’s schools, parks, and libraries as well as his insistence upon accessibility for all. 

With all the negative press Berkeley gets from time to time, wouldn’t we do well to emphasize the incontrovertible positives, such as our commitment to providing resources for seniors, for people with disabilities, and for people rehabilitating from injuries, who could at some point include any one of us? Besides, most of us occasionally enjoy the amenities of cities to the south and north—whose taxpayers foot the bill to provide them—whether in the form of a stroll around Oakland’s Lake Merritt or a bike ride or wheelchair roll through Albany on the Ohlone Greenway and Trail. It would indeed be a sad day if we were to hold back on providing a healthful resource to our own citizens because some of our neighbors from nearby cities may also make use of it! 

The simple solution is to let the voters decide. While there are plenty of controversial issues in Berkeley, there are some things that just about everyone can agree on. In Fred Lupke’s memory, let us at long last fulfill the promise made upon his death to bring an up-to-date, fully accessible warm water pool facility back to Berkeley. 

Nancy Carleton is a longtime community activist who coordinated the joint campaign to successfully pass five measures that funded parks, libraries, and the warm water pool facility in the November 2000 election. 

While contemplating various actions of the City Council it struck me that the council is either hopelessly befuddled or dangerously devious. Either they don’t understand what they are doing or they are destroying this city on purpose. Certainly they cannot represent us, as a letter to this paper noted last week.  

Let’s think. Last week they settled the suit from the Elmwood neighborhood association and paid whatever their share of the homeowners’ $40,000 legal fees were after standing firm against the neighbors testifying at probably three or more meetings against the council’s evisceration of the Elmwood Zoning Ordinance. Plaudits, too, to the Zoning Adjustments Board who badly fumbled this ball trying to help out yet another wired-in developer. I have personally received high handed treatment from these folks favoring yet another Piedmont fat cat in an Elmwood zoning matter. (By another I mean in addition to Patrick Kennedy who built and sold out.) 

How about proposing a bond issue for a $10 million dollar warm pool when the School District already has a warm pool that some equally clueless or duplicitous people on the School Board want to tear down? Cannot they remember what happened to tax increase proposals at the last election? 

How is it that they always get it wrong? Why is the council thinking of adding playing fields to this proposed tax? Sure we like fields but the mayor has been boasting about how he got us fields, and indeed he did. Thanks Mr. Mayor, did you forget the fields you just got us? 

What was all that about tearing down the Iceland and replacing it with housing to protect the nearby tenants against possible future rats in the bushes? Don’t you know how many of the neighborhood kids used that rink to learn and grow? Why didn’t and isn’t the city taking action to raise the $5 million it would take to buy and save this wonderful resource, used by more people than any other civic or other recreational site in the city? No one is thinking. Lose Iceland now and we’ve lost it forever. 

There are lists and lists of stupid actions. For instance, how many bike riders and how many car drivers are on the traffic commission? Why is everyone dancing about the Bus Rapid Transit issue when the mayor and other council people serve on various transit and county boards which are trying to ram these noxious busses and traffic congestion barriers down our throats against citizen wishes and testimony. Folks, we are watching, we know what you are doing. Absolutely incredible. Either they do not know what they are doing or they are purposely destroying a pretty nice town. 

And now I just reviewed the revised condo conversion ordinance and discovered that it is pro-developer and anti-tenant or shall we say pro-big guy and anti-little guy. I even discovered that the clueless Rent Board is studying ways to get tenants to buy TICs. Who in do they think buys them....fat cats? Tenants buy them, maybe tenants who move from other buildings, but first time buyers for sure. TICs are the lowest priced item on the housing ladder. They have a condo conversion fee (penalty) that attaches a perhaps $20,000 to $60,000 fee to any TIC converted to a condo and sold. Haven’t they read the paper? TICs now can have individual unit financing like condos so the owners don’t really need to convert.  

If a TIC owner wishes to convert to a condo she has to pay a huge fee to the Housing Fund, and where does it go? To developers to build more smaller living units than can be rented or sold. Then the developers sell out and get the whole profit which includes the fee paid by someone struggling at the bottom of the housing ladder. Guys and gals, can we have some clear thinking here? Can’t we tax the people making the big bucks and leave the little people alone? Aside from a few big bucks folks I would guess that Berkeley is mostly little people. Many of them vote for you. And Rent Board, please try to find more tenants to buy TICs and help them. Despite what the current and once removed mayor think, they are great deals.  

George Oram is a Berkeley resident. 

CHEAP SHOT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Susan Parker’s recent columns about Measures A and B: This letter is not about Children’s Hospital. It is about the totally unnecessary and unjustified cheap shot of saying that the 14-year-old who wrote supporting the bond issue was being “exploited.”  

Can you remember when you were 14? I can. It was a presidential election year, Eisenhower against Stevenson. I worked on the Eisenhower campaign, many of my classmates worked for Stevenson. We debated, in school and out, about the issues, including the always pertinent issue of decaying infrastructure—that was post-war, this is mid-war, but there is never enough money to repair and replace what has been worn out by heavy use. Our school, built in the 1880s, five floors, had classrooms where I could stand on a join in the floorboards, they would sink, and I could look down into the class immediately below me on another floor.  

A 14-year-old is a child in some ways and an adult in others. She is old enough to work (work permits are issued starting at age 14). She is old enough to care for herself, she doesn’t need a babysitter, and she is old enough to babysit for younger children or be a caregiver for a senior citizen. She is old enough to be sent to an adult prison if she commits a crime. Having leukemia does not affect intelligence, it does not affect psychological development, it does not affect spiritual development. It may actually, like any chronic illness, increase empathy and awareness of the needs of other.  

If, based on her personal experiences with hospitals, she felt that Children’s Hospital was a worthy cause, you may think she was wrong, but it is demeaning and patronizing to imply that she was manipulated, “exploited.” She had valid reasons for her decision, as someone experienced in hospitals, just as you, as a homeowner, had valid reasons for yours. She stood with her friends, just as you stood with your friends.  

I think you owe the young lady a public apology, maybe even a chance to explain herself in a boxed column. The administrators of Children’s can take their lumps, including cheap shots, but a young woman who is just starting out on what we hope will be a life of civic activity deserves some respect, rather than the contempt you dished out.  

Teddy Knight 

• 

RENT CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I think it would be worthwhile to parse Chris Kavanagh’s letter to you “explaining” his resignation from the Rent Board. He states. “Like scores of Berkeley homeowners who own or rent second residences outside Berkeley, since 2002, I rented two separate living spaces: one in Berkeley and a second space in Oakland (located a block from Berkeley).” First of all, is he a Berkeley property owner? Has he put his own money into buying a property in Berkeley? Second, Exactly how many Berkeley property owners “Own or rent” second homes in Oakland? I’ll buy owning a second home in Tahoe, Pinecrest, Strawberry, et al, but Oakland?  

“I lived in my Berkeley unit to comply with the city’s residency requirement to hold public office. I rented my Oakland unit because I did not wish to give up a beautiful living space that I had originally acquired through a friend before I was elected to the Rent Board in 2002.” How exactly do you “acquire” a property which you do not own? Through illegal sublet, subterfuge? And then, to resist eviction by a family who bought the place to occupy it with their kids and extended family because it is your “place of residence”? All the while claiming that you actually live in Berkeley, perhaps at the post office? 

Then he puts the capper on it: Kavanagh went on to say in his letter that during parts of 2006 and 2007 he had to “involuntarily” vacate his Berkeley unit “and was unable to technically comply with Berkeley’s residency requirement. This latter period of time is the reason for the current legal allegations that have been filed against me.” Pure prevarication. Politicians might call it spin. 

Folks, this is exactly what’s wrong with Berkeley’s rent control system, and Oakland’s open-ended, yet to be litigated “Just cause eviction” measure. People “acquire” things where they have no “skin in the game” no “sweat equity,” no risk, no effort. Owners have obligations that are dependent on their tenant’s condition or status. Housing providers have no problem with helping people in need of housing, as long as the cost is shared by the general public and the cost of any entitlement is bourn in common. But let’s do this honestly and in the open, by subsidizing people who need it, not penalizing one group of people who have invested in a particular class of asset and giving entitlements to a group of people who may be better off than the people who must pay for their subsidies. 

Mike Mitschang 

• 

GREEN TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

People who think they don’t have to worry about Bus Rapid Transit because they plan to avoid driving on Telegraph Avenue or driving downtown need to think again. The planners of BRT readily acknowledge something in meetings where they think opponents aren’t present: They plan to put BRT lines all through Berkeley. That means they plan to remove traffic lanes and many parking spaces on University, Shattuck, San Pablo, and other major thoroughfares. This boondoggle would not get many drivers out of their cars—as AC Transit’s own study confirms—but it would make traffic absolutely miserable everywhere, with drivers frustrated by congestion and delays, cars cutting through formerly quiet residential streets, and idling trucks and cars spewing out more and more polluting exhaust.  

Instead of building this expensive, intrusive, and inflexible system, let’s build a fleet of smaller, more maneuverable hybrid or electric buses that serve more parts of the city more frequently—and offer convenient connections to BART. This change, coupled with a city-wide eco-pass that would substantially decrease the cost of bus travel, would get people out of their cars. And that is truly a green solution to our transit problems—as opposed to the gray solution proposed by AC Transit: more concrete and choking diesel exhaust.  

Doug Buckwald  

• 

AERIAL SPRAYING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The aerial pesticide spraying of the Bay Area, planned to begin in Summer 2008 and continue for three to five years to fight the light brown apple moth, is a horrible idea for so many reasons. Many ingredients in the pesticides are highly toxic and no studies have been done on their long term effect. Biologists agree that eradicating the moth is impossible. Even CDFA says the moth has done no crop damage. The brown apple moth is in Hawaii—they don’t spray and there has been no crop damage there.  

How can they spray and put our health at risk without getting our consent? The state claims that the spraying is safe, but I have personal accounts of numerous friends in Santa Cruz that became sick after spraying there. Please contact local, state, and federal officials to ask that CDFA immediately stop the spraying program and shift to pest management methods that are safe for people and the environment. Finally, sign the online petition (www.stopthespray.org) and watch that site for updates. 

Ingrid C.L. Mackay  

Alameda  

• 

APPLE MOTH SPRAYING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

They dropped 1,600 pounds of a mixture of chemicals on 60 square miles of California’s central coast filled with organic farms and nurseries. Residents developed strep throat, asthma attacks, difficulty breathing, blurred vision, debilitating headaches, inability to concentrate and focus, body tremors, feeling of lethargy and malaise, respiratory illnesses, irregular heartbeats and menstrual cramping, an interruption in menstrual cycles and in some cases a recommencement of menstrual cycles after menopause. Pets died. Sound like a script for chemical warfare on the United States? Only it’s an inside job. U.S. chemical manufacturers refuse to reveal most of the ingredients in the aerial spraying against the apple moth that has already caused more than 600 health complaints documented by physicians along the central California Coast. However one of the chemicals did leak out, polymethylene polyphenyl isocyanate, known to exacerbate asthma and respiratory symptoms in sensitive groups according to Dr. Scott Masten with the National Institute of Health. The material data safety sheet lists its side effects as “breathlessness, severe coughing, chest discomfort, irritation of mucous membranes, and reduced pulmonary functions (reaction may be delayed 4-8 hours), may develop sensitivity, which leads to asthma-like symptoms on subsequent exposure.” If things go as the state has it planned there will be subsequent sprayings monthly for two years. At this rate in two years of monthly spraying 384,000 pounds of pesticides would be dumped in 60 square miles of the Central California Coast or 6,400 pounds on one square mile.  

The spraying is slated to begin this August in much of the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Blanket spraying of pesticides is not environmentally sound pest management. The state has not prepared an environmental impact report to ensure the chemical droplets are safe for humans and aquatic life. Environmental groups, who say they have broken the law have sued the state. The state is undermining the efforts of organic farmers by spraying these chemicals everywhere, on organic farms, cars, playgrounds, lawns, houses, and swimming pools. The Bush administration has been consistently undermining the EPA without regard to the checks and balances of science to protect all citizens. The Berkeley City Council will meet on Feb. 26 to hear citizen’s views of the proposed spraying. The Albany City Council has already passed a resolution against the proposed spraying. Please come to the city council meeting to voice your opinion about protecting public health. Write the governor; you state Assembly and senate representatives and California Department of Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary A.G. Kawamura to ask the CDFA immediately stop the spraying program. 

Pauline Bondonno 

• 

THE CALL FOR PEACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley City Council made a courageous decision to stand up for peace and oppose the war in Iraq, representing the will of their community. This is not about protesting the Marines themselves, but the machine that recruits our youth and sends them off to fight in an illegal and immoral war in Iraq. Veterans returning from Iraq are far more likely than the civilian population to become homeless, commit suicide or other violent acts and have long-term physical and/or mental health problems. With all this in mind, who can blame Berkeley residents for trying to keep their kids safe? 

Meave O’Connor 

• 

PROTEST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am sickened that a City Council, whose freedom is preserved by the very men and women represented by the armed services recruiters, and would ask them to leave Berkeley. I am not surprised that the liberal anti-war crowd (mostly high school kids given credit for skipping school to protest, I’m told) have convinced the City Council to provide Code Pink a parking space outside the office building so they can protest at their convenience. (Can I have one so I can support the troops?) Have you noticed that liberal activists will do anything they can to stifle the free speech of others while proclaiming that people who oppose them are trying to stifle theirs? I say let them rant. But not control the actions of government. This is the United States of America. And it is just so because of the brave men and women they are protesting. It is a shame that people like this can not stand to hear opposing points of view and will do anything to shut them up. That is communist and fascist. 

Michael Orton 

Mill Valley, California 

• 

PROTECTING YOUR VOTE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Several years ago the state and feds provided funds to county registrars to purchase electronic voting systems to increase accessibility and participation. In 2007, for the first time, the new secretary of state fulfilled one of the main obligations of that office by doing a complete evaluation of all the voting systems in our state. Findings showed that these machines aren’t safe, accurate, reliable, nor do they comply with federal regulations for accessibility and manufacturers knowingly sold noncompliant technology to our counties. This put our underfunded short-staffed county administrators in a bind. In consideration of that, instead of flat out decertifying voting equipment, the secretary provided detailed plans for compensating for these flaws. Many of our county registrars simply refused to comply and encouraged others to refuse. Some attacked our secretary of state and wasted taxpayer time and money suing her for doing her job. Only a few have taken enthusiastic action to protect us from bad technology and ensure the root of our democracy: One person, one vote. Find out where your county registrar and supervisors stand. Insist they do whatever it takes to comply with our secretary of state’s requirements. It’s your vote and their job. 

Sharon Ryals Tamm 

• 

LAURA BUSH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Laura Bush would make an excellent president of the United States. 

She has extensive political experience at the highest levels. She was First Lady of the state of Texas for five years. And she is currently serving in her eighth year as First Lady of the United States. 

She would be a formidable opponent in the presidential election for Hillary Clinton because First Lady Bush can point to seven scandal-free years as First Lady. She has never been investigated even once by a special or an independent council. 

She would also prevail over Barack Obama, as he cannot point to any years at all as First Gentleman, or as spouse of any elected political official. 

Once elected, President Laura Bush would be free to appoint her husband, President George Bush, to any important position she might choose. Perhaps as secretary of state or as UN ambassador. And there is always the possibility that President George Bush would simply be appointed as U.S. Senator for the state of Texas. 

Laura Bush has the national experience and freedom from any hint of scandal that make her a fine choice for president and a formidable foe to any Democrat in the November 2008 presidential election. 

Brad Belden 

• 

OPEN LETTER TO THE 

DIRECTORS OF EBMUD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This past weekend was plumbing weekend. Our great on-demand water heater was not firing and leaking. We know the drill, the rubber gaskets need to be replaced. Before chloramines, those gaskets lasted almost 10 years. Since chloramines, the rubber gaskets disintegrate, clogging the intake valve and leak within two and a half years, a 75 percent reduction in useful life. I finally realized, looking at the disintegrated rubber gasket in my hand, if chloramines does this to the gasket, what does it do to our innards? 

With all this bashing of bottled water, if only the East Bay Municipal Utilities District got these poisons out of our tap water. I’ve written Andy Katz, our elected director, who claims to be an environmentalist, about the fluoride and now this terrible chloramines, but like all good elected officials, he’s been non-responsive. Chloramine kills frogs and fish. I bet it’s killing us. I’d like to see Andy and the other EBMUD Board members’ response to how they can get stop or reduce the deliberate poisoning of our tap water. 

Yolanda Huang 

• 

CLASSROOMS AND CHILDREN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am shocked to find out that in this advanced and internationally envied society the education of children has the lowest priority. These children will be the caretakers of the earth long after we are gone. How shall we educate them not just in science and technology but in caring for others? Example speaks louder than precept. Let us show the children we care for them by designing classrooms which offer encouragement above all—classrooms in which children are treated with respect and attentiveness. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

LIES AND LIARS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Representative Henry Waxman is leading a congressional kerfuffel about lies and liars in the game of baseball. Either Roger Clemens or his ex-trainer are lying before Congress. Sure, lying about drug use is a terrible thing. But why is Congress spending so much time investigating baseball drug liars while failing to hold Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the Prevaricator-in-Chief accountable for the lies that have trapped us in Iraq’s tar pit of debt, death, and disgrace? Their lies before Congress are far more grave, harming a generation of Americans. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

BUSH’S LEGACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I understand that President Bush is hard at work these days attempting to establish a legacy citing his many memorable achievements (??) during his seven years in the White House. From my own personal perspective, shared by many, George W. Bush’s legacy will forever be the haunting image of more than 3,800 white crosses on a hillside in Lafayette, California, marking the needless death of American soldiers in Iraq. 

Yes, President Bush—that will be your shameful legacy! 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

The Berkeley Daily Planet accepts letters to the editor and commentary page submissions at opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com and at 3023A Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705. Letters should be no more than 400 words in length; commentaries should be no more than 1,000 words in length. Deadline for Tuesday edition is 5 p.m. Sunday; deadline for Friday edition is 5 p.m. Wednesday. Please include name, address and phone number for contact purposes. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Becky O’Malley’s Jan. 22 editorial criticizes the Berkeley City Council for considering a new ordinance to replace out-dated ordinances that do a poor job of managing problems with the city’s alcohol outlets. Berkeley Daily Planet readers should know how this ordinance came about. 

The Berkeley Alcohol Policy Advocacy Coalition (BAPAC) Comprehensive Proposal for Alcohol Regulations was developed in a community-driven process, which began in 2004. The major impetus was the problems associated with alcohol outlets in South and West Berkeley (violence, crime, drug sales, injury, noise, trash). Over the course of eight citywide BAPAC meetings, it became apparent that “liquor stores” were not the only alcohol problem in Berkeley. The out-of-control party scene south of UC campus and the large degree of underage drinking were also serious concerns. The health and safety problems associated with alcohol outlets are more pervasive than they appear on the surface and are especially severe for young people. 

Berkeley has 85 off-sale outlets (stores) and 224 on-sales outlets (restaurants, bars). Both types have major issues related to underage drinking. Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) “decoy buy” operations show that stores and restaurants sell to minors at about the same rate. Alcohol outlets contribute to disruption and crime in surrounding neighborhoods. Even in non-residential areas, restaurants (especially “restaurants” that behave like bars) contribute to police events (DUIs, violence, disturbances, drunkenness). 

BAPAC members sought a solution that would address the alcohol environment as a whole. This solution took the form of a comprehensive, prevention-based proposal intended to address alcohol problems in three settings: retail (businesses selling to minors and overly intoxicated patrons), public (nuisances associated with liquor stores and the party scene south of campus) and private (home parties furnishing alcohol by adults to minors). The intent is to impact health and safety around alcohol by changing the norms. The Comprehensive Proposal for Alcohol Regulations has these basic elements: 1) Land Use Permit Ordinance (for future businesses), 2) Deemed-Approved Ordinance (for current businesses operating without Land Use Permits), 3) Social Host Ordinance (for home parties), 4) Mandatory Responsible Beverage Service Training Ordinance, 5) Implementation Ordinance (a Fee-based Outreach, Education, Monitoring and Enforcement program). BAPAC formally presented this proposal to City Council on April 25, 2006. 

The city and BAPAC have spent the last three years analyzing its alcohol problems and the last several months working cooperatively with Berkeley restaurants, drafting an ordinance to address the problems more effectively. By direction of the City Council, city staff held meetings with the alcohol outlet community and with BAPAC during fall 2007 to develop appropriate ordinances to accomplish all these aims. The last step in completing the package—establishing the basis for payment of city services to implement the ordinances—was to have been completed at the Jan. 15 meeting of the City Council. 

The remaining question for the ordinance under consideration was to determine a fair basis for all Berkeley alcohol retailers to participate in the costs of oversight to prevent problems. The city thought (and BAPAC agreed) that all outlets should be assessed the same amount for the same kind of inspection. A few smaller outlets objected at the City Council meeting on Jan. 15, arguing that larger establishments should pay more, or that the smaller outlets did not want to pay anything. Some complained about the new legislation’s requirements to make sure their serving staff were trained in safe alcohol serving practices. Some of these complaining outlets also had police records of sales to minors. These latecomers triggered a City Council decision to postpone action on the ordinance and form a subcommittee to investigate alternative fee structures. They also triggered O’Malley’s editorial blast on Jan. 22. 

BAPAC believes that alcohol retailers have a duty to assure that their staff is appropriately trained and to pay reasonable inspection costs for assuring their operations are safe for the sale of a substance as potent and as harmful as alcohol. The state ABC will help, though it is currently underfunded. Actual costs of inspection and for staff training can be built into the costs of doing business, and several training mechanisms are available to keep costs to a minimum. 

Other California cities have enacted preventive regulations and enforcement programs, including annual fees to pay for them (e.g. San Diego, Oakland, Santa Rosa,Vallejo, and Ventura). These cities are reporting positive results—the ordinances are relatively easy to administer and they are having the desired effects. This self-sustaining prevention approach emphasizes high standards of operation and oversight for routine operations. It shares tasks and costs fairly among outlets operators, the city, and concerned groups. This is far preferable to the Berkeley’s current complaint-driven nuisance abatement approach, which lets problems accumulate to unbearable levels before taking action, puts enormous burdens on complainants to drive the process, and creates adversarial situations instead of cooperative approaches. 

The bottom line is that these costs are an effective, appropriate investment in reducing the harm and destruction to quality of life that will otherwise occur. Alcohol is the drug of choice among adolescents (used by more youth than tobacco or other drugs). Alcohol is the leading contributor to the leading cause of death (injuries) of young people. There are 700,000 alcohol-related violent assaults every year and 100,000 alcohol-related sexual assaults. It puts a tremendous burden on people AND on police (and taxpayer) resources. 

BAPAC’s goals are to 1) reduce alcohol-related violence, injury and death by controlling the easy access to and availability of alcohol, 2) enact public policies that will change the norm that alcohol is a rite of passage for young people, and 3) provide the City of Berkeley with the tools that will allow it to systematically and quickly address alcohol-related public nuisance problems before they get out of hand. 

These goals are about prevention NOT prohibition. 

For more information on the BAPAC proposal, please contact us at BAPAC2006@earthlink.net. 

Lori Lott is a a member of the Berkeley Alcohol Policy Advocacy Coalition.

Two reports in Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) journal, got considerable media coverage on Feb. 8-9 with results in both showing that expanding biocrops for energy will greatly increase the soil emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) mainly carbon dioxide from the exposing of buried plant debris. The UN report released in Spring 2007 and prepared by the Scientific Expert Group (SEG) under the aegis of Sigma Xi said that “Even if human emissions could be instantaneously stopped, the world would not escape further climate change.” The Winter 2006 issue of AAAS Matters called for carbon dioxide sequestering. So we are going the wrong way with bioenergy thinking sponsored by BP at Berkeley and need to get a program that will actually remove some of the 35 percent overload of carbon dioxide mentioned in my Nov. 30, 2007, commentary. 

Why are many scientists ignoring that our massive organic waste mess represents a wasted biofuel crop that can be utilized to actually remove some of that gas from recycling by using the pyrolysis process mentioned June 12 while also getting some fuel and steam? And this processing for organic wastes would stop new dumps from emitting methane, which the Air Resources Board is now concerned about and may request its control at dumps with expensive systems. Not letting our organic wastes get to dumps will greatly reduce dump maintenance costs as keeping those wastes from possibly leaking germs and toxins is a major expense in dumps. Getting some charcoal in the pyrolysis process for burial represents actual reduction of our carbon footprint. along with getting some steam for electric power and a fuel mix to refine. Setting up this process will not usurp land and water from food production and in fact might free up land destined for dumps. As I pointed out before, many other organic wastes can be utilized in the process including separated solids from sewage, animal, but not bird, feces of farms and paper wastes going to be recycled costing considerable sums to do so. Also pyrolysis would destroy germs and toxics in organic wastes keeping them from polluting water supplies that may be becoming a bigger problem than global warming for human survival in underdeveloped countries. 

Larry King recently had a show on “Dirty Jobs,” largely talking about farm animal poo and indicating that the farmer on the show was obtaining methane from it. But the anaerobic microbial process of generating methane still requires energy from converting carbohydrates into carbon dioxide. Several biofuel programs actually end up with a feces-like pile of cellulose and lignin waste that no one in the BP granting group seems to be concerned about. Composting of some organic wastes, a sort of poo, that’s getting a lot of media play, is just a rapid reemitting system for carbon dioxide that nature had trapped for us. 

A point in the SEG report is that climate change may soon lead to serious dust-bowl-like conditions in our Southwest and elsewhere so a comprehensive tree wind break forestation program ought to be set up. If properly coordinated, this program with planned cuttings could supply wood for pyrolysis in quantities to generate a sizable amount of our electric energy more cleanly than bioethanol, while reducing our carbon footprint. The July 23 Time magazine has an article on giving credit for saving trees, but they end up recycling much carbon dioxide when the leaves, flowers, seeds and diseased parts fall to the ground to rot. To get real reduction in our carbon footprint, we need to be raising fast-growing trees on marginal land for wind breaks and then cut grown trees for pyrolyzing to get charcoal, thus keeping some trapped carbon from recycling. 

Some may not realize just how fast the effects of global warming are coming on, as land calving along with glacier calving is being seen along the Alaskan coast line. 

According to U.S. Geological Survey scientists (San Francisco Chronicle, July 5), permafrost that held cliff edges has melted to allow chunks of land to crash into the sea much faster than in the past. The real problem with permafrost melting is in Siberia as massive amounts of organic detritus called yedoma are being exposed (Science, June 16, 2006). The authors expressed concern for exposed yedoma decomposing to emit carbon dioxide and methane, or it may dry out to be easily ignited to become nature’s own infernal combustion machine. Nature will then be in control of humankind as she has that yedoma spewing methane and carbon dioxide, or if burning, heat energy speeding the drying of more yedoma as well as massive amounts of carbon dioxide, oxides of sulfur and nitrogen and black sooty particulates. 

By the way our governor may think that he is exerting some control on global warming by calling for a sizable reduction in vehicle emissions but a 10-20 percent population increase leading to increased vehicle numbers in the same proposed time period will likely cancel out the reduction. Why is he not calling for more of the windmills recently put up in the Rio Vista area to reduce power supplied from fossil fueled plants? Having those set-ups would lead to many new jobs for workers that can not be outsourced especially if the much less efficient older windmills were taken down to provide the metal for the new ones. 

The money BP wants to grant for bioenergy should be put into maximizing the pyrolysis process to be actually removing some carbon from recycling with the added benefit of cutting the pollution of water supplies by organic wastes. 

Fremont resident James Singmaster III 

is a retired environmental toxicologist. 

With the tree-sit protest at the UC Berkeley Memorial Oak Grove having reached its year-anniversary, the university’s tactics to thwart the protest have taken a have taken a harsh and dark turn. A double-fenced, barbed wire ghetto with blinding lights shining into the trees and street with loud generators running all night as an attempted form of mental torture to the tree-sitters is reminiscent of some state of siege. The university and its private police department’s interpretation of a recent civil injunction order constitutes a direct assault on basic American civil liberties and constitutional rights. An assault on these cherished rights and freedoms that amounts to, in my opinion, the first step into martial law. 

The tree sitters occupied the arboreal heights of the Memorial Oak grove last Dec. 2 as an act of civil disobedience days before the university planned to destroy this mature, California coastal live oak urban forest to erect a student athletic training center. In January Alameda Superior Judge Barbara Miller issued an injunction against any construction on the site and the destruction of the grove pending her ruling on three law suits brought against the university, including the City of Berkeley where it is against the law to destroy any oak tree. In October UC won a civil injunction against the tree sitters on health and safety grounds. Alameda Judge Richard Keller also ruled against any citizen from “working in concert” with the tree-sit protest, specifically ordering against sending up supplies to the protesters.  

While the university and police department have denied or danced around the subject, this injunction and barbed wire ghettoization are means to intimidate supporters and starve the tree-sitters out of the grove. Perhaps more ominously, the second fence that closes off the perimeter of the Memorial Grove was erected for the direct purpose screening out the eyes of the media and community in the event of more extreme, and possibly illegal, action against the protesters in the future. The UC lawyers and police department have over-broadly interpreted the injunction to also mean that anyone found talking to the tree sitters, demonstrating their feelings with picket signs or lending any kind of moral support are subject to arrest. So far the UCPD have arrested eight citizens, including four students on the Keller injunction.  

The tree sitters and their broad community supporters have insisted from the very beginning that this protest is an exercise of free speech rights. The very act of occupying these oak trees is a means to communicate the value of this beloved grove to the student body, alumni, and community. The Memorial Oak grove protesters believe that they are on the side of life, the life of this beautiful oak grove, and the lives of the student athletes that the UC Berkeley planners, administration and Regents would cavalierly put in a two-story underground facility, mere feet from the most powerful fault in California, the Hayward, that runs directly under the already cracked and fractured Memorial stadium adjacent to the grove. Both the stadium and the proposed training center site are on land fill, a recognized liquifaction zone in the event the Hayward fault rips. To make matters worse, the US Geological Society has identified that the culvert channeling Strawberry Creek that runs under the stadium and grove is broken. At the same time two other more seismically responsible sites for the gym on campus exist but the administration has refused to take them into consideration. 

The university has been warned by its own seismic committee and outside study groups and structural engineering consultants several times in the last four decades to make seismic upgrades to the stadium. Incredibly, in 1982 the university built 20,000 square feet of office space within the west wall of the stadium with no seismic upgrades to the structure. In 1991 a seismic study recommended a 4.4 to 5 million dollar upgrade to achieve at least “a limited goal of life-safety and forestalling collapse during a major seismic event,” according to the records of the current lawsuit against the university. Seismic upgrading was planned for 1998 but “was hijacked by the campus’s spirit of rivalry with its Pac-10 adversaries,” according to these documents. In 2005 previous seismic safety planning was put aside in favor the the “high performance” athletic training facility extending outside the stadium walls and into the adjacent Memorial Oak Grove, bringing about the current lawsuits, opprobrium for many quarters of the community, alumni and student body, and the current tree-sit protest. The 125 million dollar “phase-one” training facility project in fact once again puts off the stadium’s seismic upgrades. Funds for the upgrades are dependent on some proposed fancy financial footwork once the $125 million is actually secured, according to the university. As for the seismic upgrades to the stadium becoming reality, according to court documents. “...the university’s track record on that score is not encouraging.” 

If this sad and irresponsible history on the part of UC Berkeley administrators and the Regents past and present doesn’t constitute knowledgeable, willful and reckless endangerment of human life, it is hard to image what would. 

How could UC Berkeley so tragically lose its moral compass? This whole misguided episode by the university administration speaks to a state of desperation where common sense, decency and respect for life has been subsumed under an economic state of emergency where soaring tuition rates have done little to alleviate the ill-effects of the tax-payers ‘revolt’ of 1977, billions of state dollars sucked into Texas energy and trading companies in the gamed 2000 energy crisis that Bush ands company allowed to happen, and stingy governors on the entire UC system. UC Berkeley is acting like a drowning man, threatening not only to pull under its student athletes at this proposed center, the unique environmental quality of this campus and surrounding community, but now the very rights and liberties that a public university should teach its students to better understand, advance and protect as future leaders in our society.  

In addition, the probability from archeological evidence that both the Memorial Stadium and Grove rest upon an Ohlone tribe burial ground raises a serious moral and social dimension to this controversy that the university continues to ignore. 

These protesters are engaging in civil disobedience in face of the arrogance and intransigence of the university, civil disobedience based on the high moral principles of life, human and environmental. Of course civil disobedience is a tried and true American tradition, from Henry David Thoreau who refused to pay his taxes as a protest against the War between the United States and Mexico to Martin Luther King, Jr. who used non-violent civil disobedience to over throw Jim Crowe in the south and win civil rights for African Americans. If the Keller injunction against any citizen giving any physical or moral support to protesters applied to The Civil Rights Movement at the time, Reverend Martin King, Coretta Scott King, founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, professor and current NAACP Chair Julian Bond, former Atlanta Mayor and ambassador Andrew Young, rabbi Abraham J. Heschel who marched arm-in-arm with his fellow clergyman, and so many other brave souls would have been Kellered, arrested and imprisoned. If Keller existed there would probably be no Voting Rights Act of 1964. If Keller had been applied to the Free Speech Movement activists on the Berkeley campus, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, whose activities UC Berkeley deemed illegal during the struggle, all those thousands of students supporting and aiding student leader Mario Savio would have been intimidated and potentially jailed and fined. If Keller was existed, the Free Speech Movement, now the pride of UC Berkeley with a campus cafe celebrating it, could have very well been crushed. 

Isn’t the Keller civil injunction an instrument of oppression as applied by the UCPD, an instrument repugnant to the American spirit and basic values, a dangerous precedent of the crushing of our basic constitutional rights to free speech and assembly? Isn’t this an imposed state of emergency masquerading as a civil injunction? This is particularly chilling in light of the Bush administration assault on our rights and freedoms and its use of fear-mongering and denial. It seems that UC Berkeley is not immune from mimicking the tone and tactics set by Washington and Sacramento politicians. When tinsel-town cowboy Reagan governor, he dispatched national guard helicopters to spray tear-gas on the large, student anti-war protests during the Vietnam war (his assault on state education and the UC system is perhaps a greater and more long lasting crime) . Now with two silent coups d’etat by Bush/Cheney/Rove by stealing two elections by massive and blatant vote suppression and ‘faith-based’ republican owned voting systems and a supine press, UC has mounted a campaign against fundamental constitutional rights while using double-speak to deny it, double-speak so well honed in the most morally deficient side of corporate America and Madison Avenue, adopted and used with great skill and advantage by the current White House resident’s political apparatus. In fact, if misdirection and mendacity were a crime, this current UC Berkeley administration and its spokesman would be doing hard time, it seems to me.  

We see the abuse of basic human rights and liberties in foreign countries such as Pakistan on television and we console ourselves that it cannot happen here. I say that it is happening here, in Berkeley, at the Memorial Oak Grove protest. 

Thomas Jefferson said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Let us be vigilant that our basic civil liberty and freedoms not be usurped by any power no matter how unaccountable, no matter how high and mighty high and mighty this power might think it is. Let us be vigilant and strong in the face of this clear and present threat to our rights, freedoms, and who we are as Americans, unless one day we see martial law declared on some place on television only to realize, too late, that that place is the United States of America. 

Let’s hope that UC learns to play a new game, one where all sides, the university, the grove, the student athletes, seismic safety, the protesters, and the surrounding community all emerge winners.  

David Weinstein is a UC Berkeley alumnus with an undergraduate degree in French literature. He is a screenwriter with Big Trouble In Little China as a credit. David graduated with honors from CIIS with a masters degree in counseling psychology and is currently a MFT intern. He is an environmental, political and peace activist. David is very grateful to the many wonderful teachers and professors who have enriched his mind, spirit and life. Some of his favorite and cherished teachers are now trees.

I would like to make just a few simple comments about the Marine Corps recruiting office stand-off. First, the U.S. Marine Corps is a military organization with a long history, dating back nearly to the time of the Continental Army. The Marine Corps has been involved in all of the nation’s conflicts since the revolution. The Marine Corps has a proud record of fighting with dignity that compares favorably to any other military organization in the world. It is an all volunteer force that draws its officers and men from across America and responds and is directed by the elected government of the United States. In other words, the Marine Corps is America and America is the Marine Corps. 

It seems to me that the Marines represent many of the finest qualities that we hope to instill in our young people, qualities that we should be encouraging. Qualities such as standing up and being counted; being willing and able to sacrifice for a greater goal beyond just themselves; joining an organization in which the unit and its goals are more important that the individual; helping to ensure by their personal actions that the values and the goals and the safety of the United States is protected and advanced.  

And what about the other branches of the military? Does Berkeley also reject and resist the National Guard? Are these brave young people also “stooges and tools” when they are there to help us during an earthquake? What if there is a natural disaster and the guard is called out and there are no young people from Berkeley in its ranks? What if the Marine Corps is called upon to defend America by our government and there are no young people from Berkeley in its ranks? Isn’t it true that Berkeley would be pushing off the duty and responsibility that some of its young people may freely choose onto others – so that other Americans have to do more? Is that right? 

Can’t our young people be trusted to make their own choices. Don’t we train them to think for themselves and make their own intelligent decisions? Isn’t that what we are paying extra money for in support of Berkeley schools? Why are the thought police in Berkeley always on the left. The common wisdom in Berkeley is that Bush and the Patriot Act are taking away our freedoms and republican fascism is on the march. The reality of the situation is that the thought police in Berkeley are always from the left, trying to tell us how to think and how to behave and limiting our choices. Berkeley is some times describes as “traditionally anti-war,” I would encourage anyone that thinks that to take a walk by the Veterans Memorial building in Berkeley and read the names of those fine young men from Berkeley who have sacrificed for America. If my son grew up and decided on his own to serve in the Marine Corps I would be proud of him and I hope he could enlist right here in Berkeley. He could follow the path of his uncle, Major William C. Wilson, U.S.MC, who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 

Finally, it pains me to see Berkeley, my home town, once again held up to national ridicule. The foolish behavior of the City Council, involving itself unnecessarily in divisive issues, only reinforces the image of Berkeley as crazy and anti-American. Perhaps the Council could next decide to take up a proposal to paint the Veterans Memorial building Pink. That would be a fitting capstone to this whole fiasco. 

Alan Swain works at UC Berkeley and holds a masters degree from Columbia University. 

One of the many perturbing effects of the Berkeley City Council’s colossally stupid attack on the Marines is the re-emergence of UC professor and San Francisco resident David Kirp as an apologist for Berkeley City Hall. On Feb. 18 Kirk’s provoking tribute to the city’s officialdom, “Semper Fi, Berkeley,” appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. 

This is the second time Kirp has issued such a testimonial. The first was in July 2003, when the respected liberal monthly The American Prospect ran his equally provoking commentary “Berserkeley Works.” It was there that Kirp first sought to correct “the city’s widely held image” as a hothouse of political kookiness and exhibitionism. 

Kirp didn’t reject the Berserkeley epithet out of hand. On the contrary, he recalled the Naked Guy’s nude-in; the homeless man’s nightly sleepover in a councilmember’s office; and the 2002 ballot initiative that sought to outlaw the local sale of coffee that wasn’t organic, shade-grown or fair-trade certified coffee. 

Thankfully—and this was Kirp’s main point—such excesses were more than compensated for by the unheralded wisdom and restraint of Berkeley City Hall, whose occupants’ enlightened efforts had made the place “a model of how government ought to work.” Seeking to set the record straight, Kirp ticked off “the city’s”—meaning its government’s—pathbreaking achievements: curbside recycling, voluntary public school desegregation, divestiture from apartheid-era South Africa, the disability rights movement. He also noted less familiar successes: the city’s tool-lending library, its summer camps, attended by 1,000 children and subsidized for poor families; its award-winning architectural preservation; the unusually high percentage of its population (about 18 percent) that commute to work by public transit; and advances in public health. 

Kirp seemed unaware that most of these programs and policies originated outside of City Hall—some of them, like architectural preservation, in strenuous opposition to official policy. 

But what he offered as the clincher for his argument was an indisputably official product: Berkeley’s surprisingly well-managed finances. “The city has done all this,” he marveled, “while keeping the books in balance.” Even as Oakland and San Francisco were laying off staff, “smart planning” had enabled Berkeley to “turn a small surplus.” You wouldn’t have guessed it “from the news accounts,” Kirp enthused, but “Moody’s, the bond-rating company, has given Berkeley one of the top ratings in California.” 

Kirp couldn’t have known that a few years later, the credibility of bond-rating companies would itself be steeply downgraded. But as a professor at UC’s Goldman School of Public Policy, he should have realized that what Berkeley’s high credit rating reflected was mainly the willingness of the town’s citizenry to pass some of the highest taxes in California, not the professional expertise of the city’s money managers or for that matter the overall caliber of municipal administration. 

He also should have known that in balancing its budget, the City of Berkeley performed no extraordinary feat but merely complied with state law that required every city in California to do the same. Contrary to Kirp’s account, the budget adopted by the council in June 2003 cut 23 positions, 16 of which were vacant: In other words, instead of asking, in good government style, which services were most essential to the general welfare, the council prioritized the protection of staff jobs. Though a small surplus did materialize at the last minute, the city manager predicted that in 2004 the city would face an estimated $7.6 million deficit. 

All this eluded Professor Kirp, as did the city’s bungling of the biggest item in Berkeley’s finances over which it had some real control: the contracts with staff unions. In 2001 and 2002, the council approved contracts that increased staff compensation (salaries plus benefits) a mind-boggling average 42 percent over six years. So much for smart planning. 

And speaking of planning, the good professor also missed the meltdown of the Berkeley planning department. In the first week of June the planning director left for a job in Texas; she was the department’s third head in five years to resign abruptly. She’d secretly sought and accepted her new position; the deputy city manager had to take over her post on an emergency basis. 

Under the departed director’s tenure, the department had run roughshod over neighborhoods and bent—indeed broken—Berkeley’s zoning laws, giving the rogue developer Patrick Kennedy just about anything he wanted (a lot). Though land use is a major function of municipal government, these abuses and the degradation of the townscape they sanctioned went unremarked in “Berzerkeley Works.” 

Perhaps this silence was not surprising, given Kirp’s characterization of Berkeley laws that allow “anyone” to contest the site of a hot tub “right up to the council” as an example of the city’s “steroidal democracy.” (How would he feel about neighbors’ hot tub parties outside his bedroom window?). 

Kirp had it backwards: It wasn’t Berkeley citizens who were out of control; it was Berkeley City Hall. Reading “Berserkeley works” in 2003, I wondered if someone at 2180 Milvia had asked the author to distract the public from the ineptitude and roguery therein with a celebration of official sagacity? 

That same question came to mind last Monday morning, as I perused Kirp’s latest paean to the denizens of the Civic Center Building. Granted, “Semper Fi, Berkeley” didn’t start out like a paean. It began by calling the council’s “attack on the Marines as ‘unwelcome intruders’ … just the latest example of Berkeley politicians behaving badly.” 

But just when it had whetted the reader’s interest in such bad behavior, the piece did an about-face and spent most of the rest of its 693 words eulogizing the city’s government, in much the same manner as Kirp’s 2003 essay. 

Indeed, reading on, I realized that “Semper fi, Berkeley” was a slightly revised version of “Berserkeley works.” The council’s rude treatment of the Marines had taken the place of the nude-in, the homeless trespasser of City Hall and the coffee initiative. Standard & Poor’s, which recently raised the city’s bond rating, now stood in for Moody’s. And the city’s programs for earthquake preparedness and residental solarization, along with its participation in the new East Bay Green Corridor, had been added to the list of exemplary achievements. 

At the same time, much of the 2003 essay remained. In some places, the language of “Semper Fi, Berkeley” was virtually identical to that of “Berserkeley Works.” But what the heck—a writer is entitled to mine his own work. 

Far more important, even where Kirp’s language was fresh, his overall intent was the same: To give the city’s government its rightful but hitherto untendered recognition. “Not only is Berkeley an unexpected model of fiscal prudence,” Kirp wrote in the Chron. “Equally surprisingly, it’s also a leader when it comes to smart government.” 

I wish I could say that these claims have a greater purchase on reality than they did when their author first advanced them four and half years ago. But if anything, they have even less. The affront to the Marines wasn’t the only grossly irresponsible action that the Bates council took on the night of Jan. 29. At the same meeting, it approved on consent, which is to say without the slightest discussion, a four-year contract giving Berkeley police a 14 percent cost of living raise.  

Last Oct. 23, with virtually no deliberation in public, Bates and his colleagues approved a new, four-year contract that raised city firefighter salaries at least 13 percent. Labor costs make up 77 percent of the city’s operating budget. These new contracts will cost Berkeley an additional $13 million.  

Those millions should be added to the 15-year, $12 million annual subsidy of UC’s use of municipal services that the council secretly imposed on city taxpayers in May 2005 when it settled Berkeley’s first suit of the university behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the council is considering putting a host of new taxes—including public safety taxes—on the November’s ballot. 

I don’t have space to document Berkeley officials’ continuing violation of the city’s land use laws, their insidious assault on the town’s still-vital industrial sector, their neglect of the crumbling municipal infrastructure, their subversion of the city’s historic preservation ordinance (the subject of a November referendum), their years-long failure to produce a creditable sunshine ordinance or their inadequate support for Berkeley’s struggling retailers. 

But in light of even the partial background sketched above, how could anyone characterize Berkeley governance as good, smart or prudent—that is, anyone who isn’t a City Hall flak? 

On Wednesday I called Kirp and asked if someone in City Hall had asked him to write in the City’s behalf. 

His reply was a flat No. He then told me that he was offended by the question, which felt to him “like a character assault ... It’s antithetical to who I am,” he said, which is not only a UC professor but also a former newspaperman who was once an editor at the Sacramento Bee. “The business of being an independent thinker is so important to me,” said Kirp. He explained that in writing these commentaries, he saw himself engaging in just such business, by showing people that stories—in this case, Berkeley’s story—are often more complicated than they appear.  

I believe him. But I find his commitment to independent thought and complicated stories hard to reconcile with his superficial portrait of Berkeley’s government and its citizenry, as well as with something else he said: “I called a number of people in City Hall, and asked them, ‘Is it true that Berkeley is still a well-managed city?’” 

To find out if a city is well-managed, he called the people doing the managing? What did he expect them to say—“We’re doing a lousy job?” I didn’t know whether to be embarrassed for him or simply exasperated at his credulousness. 

My last question to Kirp was whether he read the Daily Planet. He said he didn’t. I told him that if he really wanted to grasp the complexity of Berkeley’s public life, he should start doing so. 

Let’s hope he takes that advice. Otherwise, I fear we're in for a third edition of “Berserkeley Works.”

One of the reasons that three of the most pressing issues currently on Oakland’s city agenda—crime and violence, industrial zoning preservation vs. residential or commercial development, and affordable housing—are so naggingly difficult to settle is that, while there is an underlying current that runs through all of them and ties them all together, there is reluctance to talk about them, to engage that debate in the open. 

More than the question of what Oakland will look like in the next thirty years or what type of conditions will exist in the city is the issue of who will live in Oakland. Some folks think that the city ought to get a do-over to benefit the people who currently live here. Some, on the other hand, believe that the city can only be rebuilt if some percentage of the existing residents let the doorknob hit them in the back. 

Some history. 

Oakland prides itself on its diversity, but rarely do we talk about that fact that this diversity was by no means the result of enlightened city planning. It came about because a good many of our good white friends fled the city in the postwar years after darker folk began moving into the neighborhood. 

Chinese laborers came into California with the building of the transcontinental railroad in the late 19th century. Many of them moved into Oakland at the end of the line, and were confined in the area just off downtown that we continue to identify as Chinatown. A pocket of African-American residents got a foot-hold in West Oakland in the early part of the 20th century, and that became Oakland’s traditional black neighborhood, a middle class/working class community where, my grandmother—in Berkeley—used to say, “the best people lived.” But until World War II, the rest of Oakland was white. 

That all changed with the great black migration to California to fill the jobs in the wartime shipbuilding industries. African-Americans flooded into the Bay Area from Arkansas, Texas and Louis-iana, and while the nation wanted their labor to help defeat the Axis powers, most existing East Bay neighborhoods resisted having these black homeland workers move in next to them. When my newlywed parents—both of whom were born and raised in the East Bay—tried to buy a house in deep East Oakland, some blocks from where my father’s uncle lived, they found that the neighborhood operated on unwritten restrictive covenants, where homeowners had loose agreements that they would never sell to African-Americans. Most of the neighbors—it’s redundant to say “white neighbors” because all of the neighborhood was white—shunned my parents when they finally were able to secure a house. 

Defeated in their efforts to keep African-Americans out, our white neighbors decided to move out themselves. That turnover happened during the years I was growing up, as I watched the families of friends and playmates pack up, one by one, and move across the hills into the eastern Contra Costa cities of Concord and Walnut Creek and beyond. Oakland went from majority white to majority black. Eventually, that opened the door to the following migrations into the city, first Latinos, and then the rest of the world. 

Popular mythology is that the wartime black migration is what “did in” Oakland, turned it from the pleasant, spread-out working class community of the ’40s into the crowded, crime and violence city of today. Like most popular mythology, it has some truth to it, but with some explanations. 

The first black Oakland immigrants of the war years came for the wartime jobs. When the war ended, they took other industrial work, at the canneries—which had previously restricted Black workers—at the auto plant, at the cookie and potato chip factories. Many of them came with the dream of home ownership, and there was a great activity of black homebuying in Oakland—particularly in East Oakland-postwar. 

Had conditions remained the same in Oakland, East Oakland would have retained the same family-friendly, country-town like atmosphere of single family homes and broad front and backyards that you see in many of the East Bay suburbs, with the exception that East Oakland would have been black, while the suburbs were white. But conditions did not remain the same. 

For one thing, City Council interest in maintaining the single-family-home atmosphere of East Oakland waned with the interest of developers and the out-migration of whites, so that it became easier in the ’50s and ’60s to overbuild, leading to the depressed and overcrowded conditions of today. At the same time, it seemed like anyone who wanted to could open up a liquor outlet in the flatlands east of High Street, filling the city’s tax coffers, but depressing and ghetto-izing the neighborhood. The city did little or nothing to counteract the closing down or moving out of the industrial jobs, so that the children of the original black immigrants could find fewer and fewer places to work. Thinking that downtown Oakland would never die, city officials did not cash in on the mall boom of the ’70s, so that when downtown did die, Oakland retail was left out in the cold. Many of the original black homeowner East Oakland immigrants abandoned the neighborhood themselves, first for the East Oakland hills, and then following their white neighbors across the hills into the valley. 

West Oakland suffered a similar fate as the city’s redevelopment actions drove out the black middle class and turned what had been one of Oakland’s best neighborhoods into one of its most dilapidated, neglected and run-down. 

But Oakland is not easily abandoned. 

The city occupies a strategic location—perhaps the strategic location—in the Bay Area, the transportation hub and link between San Francisco’s commerce and Pacific gateway and California’s agriculture valley and the American markets beyond. It is a city of overwhelming beauty with a Mediterranean climate, spectacular views of the bay, and quick access to the eastern hills and woodlands. Within half an hour to forty-five minutes from the heart of the city, you can be in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, or the wine country. No city in Northern California is positioned better. 

But Oakland is a depressed city, floundering while its younger siblings and offshoots are thriving. Major retail is almost nonexistent. Its schools have been in shambles for years, the object of a state takeover. Most of the old-time industrial jobs have long since vanished. Crime and violence seems almost out of control. 

Coming out of the devastation of the Loma Prieta earthquake—which hit Oakland harder than is popularly acknowledged—the city is experiencing a slow and tentative renaissance. But that brings us to the underlying and mostly unspoken question that underlies the major city debates of the day. Should that renaissance go to the benefit of the people currently living in Oakland, who have suffered through its hardest times? Or is that renaissance possible only if some percentage of those residents—small or large—is forced out of the city and others more desirable come in to take their place? 

Whether or not it leads to a renaissance, the latter scenario has already been taking place. The city is being slowly—and sometimes rapidly—drained of its African-American population, so that the East Bay is in danger—in the future—of taking on the atmosphere of South Africa under apartheid, with communities like Pittsburg and Antioch and Modesto and Stockton serving as the Bantustans. 

And some people in Oakland, consciously or unconsciously, are encouraging such a turnover. 

You hear it in the affordable housing discussion, when some imply that rental housing leads to high crime. It can lead to high turnover in neighborhoods, which can, in turn, lead to instability and a lack of investment from many residents in the future of their neighborhood, and that, in turn, can help lead to high crime rates. But the unspoken implication is that rental housing is bad in and of itself, a supposition that would throw many moderate- and lower-income residents out of Oakland and leave it a city of mostly those who can afford to buy their homes. 

You also hear it in some of the direct discussions over crime and violence, where anger against those perpetrating violent crimes is sometimes substituted for something which is called a “culture of crime.” That always worries me, especially when the description of that “culture of crime” begins to morph over into complaints about style of dress, types of cars driven and how they are driven, and types of music listened to. These become code words for attacks on an entire hip- hop generation of dark-skinned youth. 

Oakland cannot be a medieval city with a surrounding wall that keeps outsiders out and insiders in. Like all dynamic cities, we are always going to be in some level of population flux. There is an enormous influx, at the present, of Latino newcomers, coming for the same reason the rest of us came, because they have family here or it seems like a good place to get work and live, and the city is going to have to make accommodations for them. But having more Latino newcomers in—which is to be welcomed—does not mean that others who are currently living here need to be—or should be—pushed out. And that is the same for the grandsons and granddaughters of my old white East Oakland neighbors, who left the city on the heels of the black horde, and now look longingly to come back. It’s good that they’re excited about Oakland again, but only on the condition that “coming back” does not equate to “taking back.” We’ve got to make room for all of us, including those of us who stayed. 

Somewhere in the midst of these debates, we are going to have to talk openly about what is really dividing us in Oakland, and decide what type of city we really want to live in, and which direction we are going to go.

Of all the architects who resided in Berkeley during the first four decades of the 20th century, the one who received the most coverage in the local press was not John Galen Howard or Bernard Maybeck but William Hatch Wharff. And only occasionally was the press coverage related to his profession. 

Neither a classicist nor an innovator, Wharff was a practical builder who incorporated the prevailing idiom of the day into his designs. His four designated Berkeley landmarks—Carlson’s Block (1903) at 3228 Adeline in Lorin Station; the Masonic Temple (1905–06) at Shattuck and Bancroft; the Pfister Knitting Mill (1906) at 8th and Parker; and the F.D. Chase Building (1909) at 2107 Shattuck—blend into their surroundings rather than making individual statements. 

Born in Guilford, Maine, Wharff (1836–1936) did not study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have attended any architectural school, although in 1932, at the age of 96, he would tell the Gettysburg Times that he “studied architecture in Maine and Massachusetts in his earlier years.” 

Wharff’s obituary in the Berkeley Gazette of January 1, 1936, tells a different story. A farmer’s son, he disliked farming and from the age of 18 spent his summers learning the carpenter’s trade from his maternal uncle, Hiram Hatch. In 1857 he graduated from the Foxcroft Academy and began teaching school during the winters. 

By 1860, Wharff had become a master carpenter and his uncle’s partner. In the spring and summer of that year, they constructed a new building for the Foxcroft Academy. While in Foxcroft, Wharff married Lydia J. Paul (1840–1929), and the following year their first son, Frank, was born. 

In 1864, Wharff enlisted in the Union Army as a private in Company C of the 11th Regiment, Maine Volunteer Infantry. His Civil War engagements included the siege of Petersburg, the battle of Chaffin’s Farm, the siege of Richmond, Hatcher's Run, and Appomattox. 

He saw Lincoln on March 26, 1865, when the President came to rally the troops before the march on Richmond. That night, Private Wharff wrote in his diary, “This day I have seen Lincoln—I can never forget the care-worn face of the noble President as he rode past, while the band played Hail to the Chief.” 

At Appomattox on April 9, Wharff wrote, “Grant and Lee met under an apple tree, later going to the McLane [McLean] house where the terms of surrender were discussed.” Sixty-seven years later, the Portland Press Herald of Portland, Maine, would quote from Wharff’s diary and note, “Filled with many other notations, now of historic value, the yellow diary is Private Wharff’s most prized possession.” 

Mustered out of service on June 12, 1865, Wharff returned to Guilford, eventually settling in Bangor, Maine, where in 1870 the U.S. census listed his occupation as carpenter. The Wharffs’ second son, Frederick, was born in 1867, and eight years later, the family sailed to California, entering San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate. 

They were not the only Wharffs migrating west. William’s younger brothers—John Fairfield Wharff, a blacksmith and veteran of the First Maine Cavalry, and Joseph Hiram Wharff, a carpenter—also made their home in San Francisco. 

Charting Wharff’s architectural career in San Francisco is not an easy task, since more than 100 buildings he designed there are said to have perished in the 1906 earthquake and fire. While he called himself an architect in the 1880 U.S. census, the San Francisco directory of 1889 listed him as a draftsman with an office at 330 Pine St., room 11. The following year, still in the same office, he was listed as contractor and builder. 

At some point, Wharff joined the American Institute of Architects’ San Francisco chapter. He was present at the chapter’s meeting of May 7, 1904, when famed Chicago architect and city planner Daniel H. Burnham addressed that body on the task of beautifying the city. Among the 20 AIA members gathered to hear Burnham were Seth Babson, Ernest Coxhead, Charles W. Dickey, William Baker Faville, John Galen Howard, William Knowles, and Willis Polk. 

Seven years before the earthquake, William and Lydia Wharff moved to Berkeley, apparently following their son Fred, who had obtained a position as language instructor at the university. At the time, the architect was 63, an age when most other people would be contemplating retirement. Wharff, however, launched into a fruitful period of building activity that would last another decade and a half. When he finally retired at the age of 79, he took up insurance, which he practiced well into his 90s. 

The steady demand for Wharff’s architectural services can be chalked up to his enduring personal popularity and a vast circle of connections. A lifelong Mason, in 1870 he joined the Rising Virtue Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Bangor, Maine. In San Francisco he was a member of the King Solomon Lodge, and after coming to Berkeley he joined the local Durant Lodge. It’s no wonder, then, that when the Berkeley Masons wished to build a new temple, they entrusted the design to Wharff, giving him carte blanche. 

Both Wharff and his wife were high-ranking charter members of the Harmony Lodge, Order of the Eastern Star in San Francisco. Wharff was also a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), a fraternal organization of Union Army veterans who had served in the Civil War. At one time he was commander of Lincoln Post No. 1 in San Francisco, while Mrs. Wharff served as president of the city’s Lincoln Relief Corps (the women’s auxiliary to the G.A.R.). 

On several occasions, the Wharffs were delegates to the G.A.R. national encampment and the concurrent Women’s Relief Corps national convention. In 1904, they traveled to Boston for this purpose. “Having been chosen the official architect of the Masonic Temple Association,” informed the Oakland Tribune on August 8, “Mr. Wharff will visit a number of temples in the East before presenting designs for the new temple that is to be erected in Berkeley.” 

As the temple neared completion in August 1906, the San Francisco Call provided this description: 

It is four stories high, with facings of cream-colored brick and granite trimmings. The lower floor is to be devoted to stores. On the second floor will be found the supper room, ladies hall, banquet hall and armory of the Masonic lodges. 

The main lodgeroom will be on the third floor, 47 by 62 feet, elaborately finished, with Corinthian pilasters and ornamental frieze work extending around the entire room. The ceiling will be 42 feet high. This lodgeroom, with others on the same floor, are to be available Sundays for church purposes or uses of similar character. 

On the fourth floor will be a small lodgeroom, which with the anteroom and hall will be used for smaller lodges and societies requiring moderate accommodations. 

The temple’s most talked-about features were the twin pairs of granite pillars flanking the entrance on Bancroft Way. These were financed by Rosa Shattuck in memory of her late husband, Francis Kittredge Shattuck. A few years later, the pillars were removed and the portico set back when the city enacted an ordinance designed to rid the downtown of overhanging wooden awnings. 

When dealing with the City of Berkeley, Wharff had his share of professional frustrations. In December 1905, the Board of Education adopted his plans for a new school building on Bancroft Way between Milvia and Grove Streets, to replace the Longfellow School and to cost $50,000. The board modified the architect’s plans before instructing the town clerk to advertise for bids. When all the competing bids came in above budget, Wharff offered to build the school himself for $50,000 on condition that his original plans be adopted. This did not sit well with the directors, resulting in a heated argument and the scrapping of the plans. 

Far more pleasant times were had by Wharff in the company of his fellow Maine natives. The State of Maine Association, of which he was a director and officer, held an annual June picnic at Shell Mound Park, where the Downeasters partook of traditional fare such as baked beans, brown bread, and coffee. One of Wharff’s many friends in this society was Frank W. Durgin, head of Durgin & Bleakley Furniture Co. and of Pioneer Funeral Directors and Embalmers, both located on Shattuck Avenue. Durgin would later ally himself with Walter A. Gompertz and eventually move his undertaking business to University Avenue. Later yet, after such enterprises were banned from the avenue, he would establish the Hull & Durgin mortuary on Adeline Street. 

The Wharffs lived in a large Colonial Revival house, built at 2000 Delaware Street shortly after their arrival in Berkeley. Here they frequently entertained their large circle of friends. Their card parties were famous—especially those for the Busy Bees Whist Club. 

Each Wharff wedding anniversary witnessed a gathering of the tribes from near and far. The couple’s 64th anniversary in 1924 even drew in Hiram W. Ricker, owner of the celebrated Poland Spring resort in Maine. 

Toward the end of his life, as the ranks of Civil War veterans dwindled, William Wharff would become a national figure. He was president of the Abraham Lincoln Fellowship, an organization composed of those who knew or saw the Great Emancipator. Newspapers would refer to him as “Berkeley’s Grand Old Man” and mark every birthday and anniversary of his. 

In 1933, at the age of 97, he was feted as the YMCA’s oldest member. On his 99th and final birthday, Wharff was believed to be the nation’s oldest living Mason and Civil War veteran. He died in his 100th year, having seen Berkeley grow sevenfold over the course of 36 years. 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).

“Music will be an Old Time Music Jam, bring yer fiddle,” is what Terri Compost, the exquisitely named point person of the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (acronym’ed, equally exquisitely, “BASIL”) replied to my query. I wanted to know who would be playing the music promised for BASIL’s Ninth Annual Seed Swap tomorrow, Saturday February 23, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Ecology Center. Dang, I don’t have a fiddle. Guess I’ll just send the cat. 

BASIL’s mission is to preserve and share local and interesting varieties of food-garden seeds. It’s inspired by such organizations as Native Seeds/SEARCH in Arizona and Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa. These got started by people who noticed that unique varieties of corn, chili peppers, beans, or other garden plants were disappearing as gardeners who’d grown them year after year died or lost their gardens, and as buying rather than saving (or swapping!) seeds became the normal thing to do.  

Doubtless there are unnamed and mostly unnoticed heirlooms in Bay Area gardens: some lettuces that hang tough all winter and don’t bolt in May; a fava that produces larger, sweeter beans than most; maybe even a basil with different flavor overtones or that thrives in the fog.  

As agricultural conglomerates consolidate and concentrate on fewer seed varieties—mostly those favored by commercial growers and with the broadest marketing appeal—BASIL’s efforts are becoming more urgent. Big seed companies preserve the qualities that big produce growers prize, like shelf appeal, good appearance, and sturdiness for shipping; more subtle qualities like flavor take second place.  

Just as important, a variety that has a superior ability to thrive in a particular place gets lost when only seeds for plants with nationwide appeal are left in the market. 

BASIL started as just a few people’s seed collections, coordinator Terri Compost says. Sascha DuBrul officially founded the Ecology Center project in 2000. Aside from perpetuating locally adapted and interesting plant varieties, the project concentrates on open-pollinated seeds that will breed true, unlike commercial hybrids that must be bought every year from seed companies.  

She passed along a couple of seed-saving secrets: for one, that it's easiest to start with plants like lettuce, beans, and tomatoes that don’t readily swap pollen with the neighbors’ gardens, which would result in hybrid fruit and seeds. A counterintuitive tip: tomato seeds keep best if you put them, still goopy, on a shelf for a few weeks. Mold will form, which can be rinsed away before drying and storing the seeds. The mold seems to reduce disease and aid germination. 

Compost says the “library” of seeds— a bookcase full of seeds, carefully labeled and preserved in re-used (of course!) jars—kept at the Ecology Center provides “the same exchange we do at the swap meet, but spread out over time.”  

Tomorrow, expect heirlooms from local gardeners and small seed companies. Bring some to share; take only what you can really grow out, and save seed to return; bring a potluck dish and your musical talent too. (Lacking those, bring $10.) Wildheart Nursery plants and other goodies will be raffled off.  

(BASIL) 9th Annual Seed Swap 

Saturday Feb. 23, 6:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley. 

(510) 658-9178, terricompost@yahoo.com or 

http://www.ecologycenter.org/basil/

I was inspecting a house out beyond the Naugahyde Curtain the other day (Walnut Creek, if memory serves; landing strip for white flight). The house was unillustrious but amongst the artifacts that brought me sufficient intrigue to set the day aglow was a brand new fireplace.  

Actually, it wasn’t really new, but it may as well have been, because it was clear that it had never been used. The house was at least 30 years old and this fireplace had never once been used. I’m not sure if it was fear of fire, religious prohibition, lack of clarity on local restrictions or a general absence of romantic spirit on the part of the occupants; but there it was, all clean and shiny and boring. 

Actually, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. Maybe once every couple of years I find a fireplace that has never been used. After all, we ARE in sunny Cah-li-fah-ne-ah (no matter how many times Ah-nold says it, my glee refuses to evaporate). California does get cold, but fires in fireplaces don’t really do all that much to abate the chill anyway. And although they’re fun, cozy and perfect for gatherings, they’re also time-consuming, expensive and dirty. In short, it’s far easier on the coldest of nights to leave the damper shut (is YOUR damper shut?) turn up the furnace and put on that ugly cable-knit sweater your girlfriend’s parents gave you last year.  

The fact that so few fires get built around here is due to several factors: 

1. Most people don’t know how to build a proper fire. 

2. Most people don’t know how to maintain their chimney. 

3. Most people don’t know when it’s time to call for professional maintenance or repairs, or even how to make that call. 

So let’s take a look at each of these in some detail. 

We don’t build fires to get them over with as soon as possible. We build them to last for a few hours or until we’ve managed to finish reading Rilke’s entire elegy cycle to the object of our affections. Therefore, the way we build a fire is of some importance. Those heavy welded log-holders are better suited to murder than to building a fire. Building our fires up that high allows far too much oxygen to get to the bottom of the wood, causing those hard grained logs to burn hot and fast. This also destroys fireplaces over time. A fire of lower temperature not only lasts longer but preserves the brick firebox. Although fireboxes are built using special firebrick (they’re yellow rather than red and a little larger than regular brick), these, as well as their mortars, become damaged over time as a result of very hot fires. 

To build a fire without a fire-grate or rack, just build it as one would a campfire. Stack logs against one another so that there are small air spaces created in the process. Starting a fire usually requires some tinder or small pieces, newspaper or finely split wood (kindling), but one can also use those newfangled fire starting materials such as Hot-Wood or somesuch. Mostly they’re paraffin-soaked sawdust and they burn quite well. It’s up to you. 

Be sure to open your damper (that little door above the fireplace that leads to the flue) at least 10-20 minutes before building a fire. As my friend Paul Mickiewicz, a master of chimneys and fires, explains, this allows a draft to begin flowing long before there’s any fire. This is a simple function of convection and occurs between any warmer and colder spaces that are put in contact with one another. It’s colder outside on the roof than inside the house (one hopes) so this induces a slow flow upward through the flue. This can be amplified by the use of a lit piece of newspaper (not this piece, please) held upward into the “throat” of the fireplace. This works in the same was as natural convection, only faster. Be sure to avoid burning one’s self.  

Having built a few fires, you’ll end up with a heap of ash in the fireplace. Don’t toss the ash. According to Paul, this makes a great insulating bed that improves the operation of the fireplace. Tamp the ash down in a slightly wedge-shaped plane that is higher at the back. This will force heat to flow backward and continue to warm the rear wall, which, in turn, will drive the plume of smoke and heat up the flue shaft, lessening the propensity for smoke to enter the room. The bed also keeps the fire warm. 

When you clean the excess ash away, take it to the garden. Plants love potassium. “Pot Ash” is so called because they used to hang cooking pots in fireplaces afore y’all were young’ns. 

Although most fireplaces come with ash-pit cleanout doors of metal in the floor of the firebox, these don’t have to be used at all. They often become rodent entry points and you need to be sure that they’re really closed or covered over with a metal surrogate if they’re broken. Sometimes replacements can be found, but often not.  

If you look on the outside of the chimney, you’ll find a matching door that’s also too-often out of commission. I like to think of these silly cleanout doors as elements of a time when servants would service the fireplace and keeping the master’s chamber tidy was imperative so we had a method by which we can remove the soot from the outside; a sort of servant’s chute. I’m not sure how accurate my imagined history is but it works for me! 

Once the fire is going well, you want to continue to push it toward the back wall. Logs tend to roll forward and should be moved back toward the rear-canted wall periodically. Be sure to feed new logs into the fire in the same way. The object is to keep this rear “firewall” as hot as can be, thus maintaining the draft and minimizing smoking. 

Here are a couple of reasons that fireplaces smoke and things you can think about if my recipe for firebuilding still proves insufficient: 

The ratio between the opening of the fireplace and the size of the flue shaft should be roughly 1/10. If your fireplace opening is, say, 30 inches wide and 25 inches high then you have 750 square inches of space. The flue should then be about 75 square inches of space or, roughly eight inches by nine inches. If the fireplace opening (where you load the wood) is much larger than this, the air supply is too large and the flue will not be able to pull air fast enough. In such cases a shield can be installed at the top of the opening to reduce the size. I’ll be you’ve seen at least one. (Aha, you say, that’s what that thing was!) 

Another thing that causes smoking is flue length. If the flue is too short, it won’t create enough draft. Extending the flue upward into the sky can often improve drafting and put that useless fireplace back into happy employment. 

I’ll don my inspector goggles for a few parental admonitions to close with since no day is complete for me without uttering something harsh. 

If you want to use your fireplace, spend the small amount of money necessary to have a good local fireplace inspector come by and check things out. Fireplace flues get dirty and the soot and creosote (a shiny, tar encrustation) can catch fire if there’s enough if it and the fire is hot enough. A chimney fire is too hot to put out and is usually allowed to run its course, after which a chimney may need to be replaced at some serious expense. It can also burn a house down in cases where an old flue has gaps that lead to framing. 

Cleaning a fireplace is cheap and prudent. The inspector will also have the chance to check out the other aspects including dampers, spark arrestors, covers and overall configuration. 

In another 20-30 years, I believe that our fireplaces will have largely gone to the salvage-yard of history. They are, after all, a lapel that we no longer need but continue to wear for their fun and familiarity. For these last days, let’s sit with them, record their beauty for when they’re gone, keeping their important purpose in mind, that being to draw us together around the fire. 

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I’m fixated on keeping privately run Children’s Hospital Oakland (CHO) from eating me and my neighborhood alive. Soon there’ll be nothing left of me but a small oil slick in front of my 100-year-old house. That should make it easier for the bulldozers to roll down Dover Street. At least there’ll be no me to run over. 

My deterioration started at a Sept. 13 community meeting when hospital executives unveiled plans to build a 12-story tower a half block from my home at 53rd and Dover streets. I lost part of my heart when I learned that my house would be in the shadow of the 196-foot-tall tower with a helipad. I nearly lost my mind when I discovered I would be asked to help pay for this concrete mega-expansion via a $300 million parcel tax known as Measures A and B. 

My decomposition advanced over the winter as my neighbors and I dug deeper into CHO’s plans and learned the hospital intended to use eminent domain to take the homes of unwilling sellers. The hospital bought all but four houses inside the footprint and a century-old brown shingle craftsman across from the site, which will likely be razed to make way for a construction staging area, along with a 13-unit apartment complex. 

CHO senior vice president Mary Dean characterized these real estate purchases as “opportunities” and said they would buy up more “opportunities” as they became available. Suddenly the jigsaw pieces started to fit together: All the homes CHO bought that remained empty, the traffic light that sprang up almost overnight at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and 53rd Street. CHO was hoarding property and securing access to their dream tower, with an entrance and ambulance bay planned for 53rd and Dover streets. 

In January, the hospital’s campaign of emotional blackmail ramped up when registered voters received mailers that bordered on harassment. If we didn’t vote for Measures A and B, they implied, the hospital would close and children would suffer and possibly even die. 

As we all now know, Measures A and B were soundly defeated. Hospital executives would not get their hands on the $300 million they claimed they needed to build the tower. My neighbors and I celebrated for 10 minutes before learning from Oakland city councilmember Jane Brunner that CHO planned to move forward as though the election had never happened. 

Last week, Tony Paap, CHO’s former president and CEO, published a column in the Berkeley Daily Planet debunking virtually all CHO’s campaign arguments. “They have thumbed their nose at the county, they have thumbed their nose at the neighborhood … your needs be damned,” he later told a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Which brings us to last Wednesday evening when more than 100 community members crammed into the North Oakland Senior Center to hear what the hospital had planned now that it didn’t have the $300 million. 

CHO senior vice president Mary Dean’s presentation was riddled with contradictory messages: The hospital would return to “square one” and get more community input, but would proceed with plans for a 12-story tower at 53rd and Dover streets. Board chairman Harold Davis’ had not told them to move forward, she said, but had told them “not to stop the process.” What’s the difference? 

There was something to laugh about. Earlier that week, I had purchased 30 T-shirts and carefully ironed on each a decal of our organization logo “Livable Oakland.” I wanted my neighbors to wear them at the community meeting as a gesture of solidarity. When she saw us wearing the T-shirts, Ms Dean asked for one. I’d spent $90 of my own money on them and I sure as hell didn’t want to waste one on someone whose mission is definitely not livable. But my polite side got the better of me and I grudgingly gave her one. She pulled it over her fancy suit and pearls and strutted around in it. No one at the meeting understood why she was wearing it. 

I’ll tell you why. She was wearing it to prove what we already know. The hospital asks, then takes, and doesn’t pay. Mary Dean, you owe me three bucks!

It’s always dangerous to read too much into trends in popular culture. Nonetheless, there seems to be a strong relationship between the five movies nominated for best picture of 2007 and polls showing 67 percent of Americans believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction. 

Except for Juno, a compelling Indie film that asks us to believe a pregnant 16-year-old is the smartest person in town, all of the Oscar nominees are relentlessly grim. Atonement follows the downward trajectory of a love affair undermined by the vengeful imagination of a besotted ingénue. Michael Clayton takes us inside the life of a marginal corporate attorney struggling to maintain his integrity while he salvages his law firm’s defense of a multinational corporation accused of knowingly causing the deaths of hundreds of small farmers. And then the going gets really bleak. 

No Country for Old Men follows a West Texas loner who absconds with drug money and is tracked by a psychopathic hit man. (As was true with last year’s winner, The Departed, the suspense is whether any character we care about will be left alive at the end of the movie.) Finally, There Will Be Blood tracks the disintegration of an oil prospector who loses his soul as his wealth increases. 

Three of these films conclude that the universe provides no justice. A fourth, Michael Clayton, takes the position that justice is at best a haphazard occurrence. Only in Juno does the audience get the sense of a well-ordered world and that’s from the perspective of a pregnant 16-year-old. 

It’s not as if these movies are unrepresentative of Hollywood, in general. 2007’s highest grossing films included Spider Man III, the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Bourne Ultimatum, 300, and I am Legend. Of the top 10 films only Shrek III and The Simpson Movie would be classified as light-hearted. And a year ago, the candidates for the Oscar included Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen; the first three were also extraordinarily grim. 

If you subscribe to the theory that popular culture reflects the national psyche, then as you watch the five films nominated for this year’s Oscar, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that Americans are dejected. Indeed, most of the novels we read and the programs we watch on TV support this judgment. In 2007 the plot of the average bestseller was “a killer stalks the streets” and the most popular TV series was “Lost,” where 71 survivors of a plane crash are marooned on a desert island and continually threatened by malevolent entities. 

The common theme in our books, movies, and TV programs seems to be that Americans live in a universe where the rules no longer make sense. In this grim new world, success is not determined by hard work and perseverance, but rather by random factors such as who you know, where you were born, and whether your number comes up in the lottery. Meanwhile, as we trudge through this inhospitable terrain, we believe we are constantly in terrible danger: death and destruction can happen at any minute and there is little that can save us except perhaps a super hero, the Virgin Mary, or a sagacious pregnant 16-year-old. 

One interpretation of our mythic malaise is that it’s a natural byproduct of the culture of fear ruthlessly inculcated by the Bush administration after 9/11. For more than six years their relentless message has been “the barbarians are storming the gates and there is nothing you can do about it except trust Dubya and pray for the rapture.” The prevalence of this culture of fear explains the popularity of movies like I Am Legend, where the narrative concerns a ravaged New York beset by insatiable zombies, a culture so inhospitable there’s little the average person can do but run for the hills. 

There’s an additional interpretation of America’s angst. At the same time we have been rendered numb by fear, the public has lost confidence in our economic system. At one time Americans believed if we worked hard and played by the rules, we would inevitably improve our lives and those of our children; in any event, we felt certain that at the end of our days we would accomplish a dignified retirement—if we were sick or infirm, we would be cared for. Now many of us fear for the future: the average American believes things are getting worse rather than better; we regret the world we are bequeathing to our children; and we fear what will happen to us in our old age. In place of the myth of the benevolent community we find ourselves marooned in an inhospitable landscape, continually threatened by malevolent entities. 

Who should we blame? According to Hollywood, the fault lies with American adults. What’s the solution? Juno for president. 

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

Never mind that it’s caught me unarmed and ill-prepared, as usual; I love this sample of early spring we’re getting. We didn’t have it quite the same way last year, I guess. As happened, I was ‘way out of town and in another climate for most of last February on a most urgent and unfortunate errand, so I’m only guessing.  

The last two weeks, though, I’m feeling rewarded, compensated for missing that time here. All of a sudden, Bang!, the plums started blooming and the glorious trend is rolling across town in its syncopated way. They’re overlapping with the winter manzanita and magnolia blossoms, with the flowering quince who can’t make up their minds whether they’re winter or spring bloomers, never mind what the books say.  

The purple-leaf plum that overhangs our yard from the east fenceline is so floriferous that its scent fills the lot. Plums aren’t strong-smelling flowers and their effect is usually subtle; this one just has such an abundance of blossoms they create a mass scent chorus, like a choir of soft voices that becomes orchestral by sheer harmonizing numbers.  

There’s such abundance that the birds who nibble the petal bases for that bit of sweetness—taste one and see!—make no discernible reduction. They just leave single, clipped barely-pink petals all over the car parked underneath, along with what the tree sheds on its own. We drive off down the street merrily trailing floral confetti like a bridal procession. You can’t buy that kind of accessory at Kragen. 

The English sparrows nest under eaves or in any handy hollow, damn them. (They’re invasive exotics and have played hob with North American natives like bluebirds by taking over nesting spots, sometimes outright killing the bluebirds to do so.) The housefinches and the goldfinches, two species of them, nest in trees and therein lies the rub of our early warm weather.  

There’s a male lesser goldfinch sounding his querulous-to-inquisitive call notes in one of the plums out back as I write this. He’s great company, never mind the whining, and I hope he and the female I startled off the back porch a few minutes ago decide to set up housekeeping here this year. It’s worth tolerating shade on the garden beds to leave enough of that eastern row of undistinguished yellow-fruited plums for birds to feel welcome. 

He’s sometimes on a branch near an old nest, probably last year’s, maybe his or a family member’s. It seems to be a good homesite. But I haven’t quite finished pruning that tree of its overhang, and we’ve barely started on the lady Banks rose that climbs up to the second-story kitchen window. There was a bushtit nest in that one last year, a complex construction that looked like an old gray woolly sock. I love having bushtits around; aside from eating bugs, they’re just so merry on their rounds.  

There’s a hummingbirds nest somewhere but I haven’t found it yet; I know it’s there because we have both male and female Anna’s hummers at the feeder (and once, in the house: safely caught and released) and they start nesting in January. Last year’s nest was in the culinary-bay laurel, not five feet from the back stairs. 

The Lindsay Wildlife Museum (www.wildlife-museum.org) in Walnut Creek issues a plea every year for care and kindly attention to birds and squirrels nesting in trees we’re pruning. The best time for pruning most trees and shrubs—birds like towhees and song sparrows tend to nest pretty close to the ground—is before nesting season, but there’s overlap between early nesters and available time, for most of us.  

That includes professionals. You don’t get to call yourself doing “sustainable landscaping” if you’re not taking care of the householders in your clients’ trees. Doublecheck any snags or dead trees you’re asked to remove, as those are ideal sites for woodpeckers and other hole nesters. 

The Lindsay folks advise looking first, which is easier in bare trees. Make noise; don’t try to sneak up on a nest because panicked birds might injure eggs or young. Watch for birds flying out of a tree, a clue there might be a nest there. 

If you find an occupied or new nest, hold off pruning that plant till the young are grown and gone. If you’ve dislocated a nest, put it back and tie it in if necessary. If it’s structurally damaged, put it into a small bowl, box, margarine tub or somesuch with drainage holes in the bottom. Don’t use a berry basket; they snag nestlings.  

If you’re sure you have abandoned nestlings, wait another hour or two; you might be wrong. Then put them in a box or paper bag; keep them warm and quiet. Don’t offer food or water. Call the Lindsay Wildlife Museum Hospital for advice: (925) 935-1978.  

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Satellites” at 8 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through March 2. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822.  

Berkeley Rep “”Wishful Drinking” with Carrie Fisher, at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St., through March 30. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. 

Black Repertory Group Theatre “A Raisin In The Sun” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $5-$25. 652-2120.  

Central Works “Wakefield; or Hello Sophia” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City CLub, 2315 Durant Ave., through March 23.Tickets are $14-$25. 558-1381. 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “The Cocoanuts” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., some Sun. matinees at 2 p.m., at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through March 2. Tickets are $15-$24. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Frank Oliver’s “Twisted Cabaret & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$25. 1-800-838-3006. 

Impact Theatre “Jukebox Stories: The Case of the Creamy Foam” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through March 22. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Angel Street” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. through Feb. 23 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Virago Theatre Company “Candide” the comic opera at 8 p.m. Fri and Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda, through Mar. 9. Tickets are $15-$25. 865-6237. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Ami Vitale “Photographs of Kashmir” Opening reception at 6 p.m., lecture by the photographer at 7 p.m. at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. www.fotovision.org 

“All That Jazz” The Art of Living Black Works by James Gayles, Nanette Harris, Leroy Parker and others. Reception at 7 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. at 58th St., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. 

FILM 

Terence Davies “The Long Day Closes” at 7 p.m. and “The Neon Bible” at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Charles Baxter reads from his new novel “The Soul Thief” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Percy Lang, piano, at noon at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

Oakland East Bay Symphony Works by Stravisnky, Adams, Tan Dun and Jon Jang at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m. 444-0801. www.oebs.org 

Dan Plonsey’s “Daniel Popsicle” at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2213 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

The Dave Matthews BLUES Band in a fundraiser for Berkeley Food and Housing Project, at 7 p.m. at Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. 649-4965. 

History and Harmony Black History Concert Series “Slab Town Convention: A Youth Drama” dramatization of the 1960s Baptist Convention at 7:30 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$10. 544-8924. 

The Mirage Ensemble perform a program of Americana at 8 p.m. at the Hillside CLub, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $15. www.hillsideclub.org 

Toshi Reagon at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $16-$18. 849-2568.  

Dena DeRose at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. 

Terry Disley Experience at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Gamelan X, Gamelan Jegog at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

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

Country Joe McDonald’s “Tribute to Woody Guthrie” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$29.50. 548-1761.  

Ronnie Cto, Dave Lionelli at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Joel Streeter, Brad Brooks, Walty, indie rock, at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

Green Machine at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Patrick Green Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Jennifer Johns, Kevin Choice, reggae, R&B, at 9 p.m. at Maxwell’s Lounge, 341 13th St., Oakland. Cost is $15-$20. 839-6169. 

SATURDAY, FEB. 23 

CHILDREN  

Music with Hanna Banana at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 Tenth St. Cost is $7. 526-9888. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Tilden Odyssey” Textured paintings, collages, and monotypes by Sheila Sondick on display at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park, through Feb. 28. 525-2233. 

“Double Vision: Artist Partners” Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, 25 Grand Ave., upper level, Oakland. Exhibition runs to March 15. www.chandracerrito.com 

“Yea We Said It, And No We’re Not Sorry” works by Malik and Milton Bowens for Black History Month. Opening reception at 5:30 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. Exhibit runs to Feb. 29. 465-8928. 

“Impressions on Paper” Works by six local printmakers opens at the Addison St. Windows Gallery, 2018 Addision St. 981-7546. 

“Storytelling and Paper Dresses” Lecture and art display with Patricia Bulitt at 2 p.m. at North Berkeley Public Library, 1170 The Alameda. 

FILM 

United Nations Assoc. Film Festival with films from Israel/Palestine and Haiti, at 7:30 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Free. www.unausaeastbay.org 

Terence Davies “Distant Voices, Still Lives” at 2:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse with poet Jeanne Powell at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753. 

Alan Greene, pediatrician, describes “Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dream Kitchen at 8 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. tickets are $10-$12. 848-0237. 

“B-Free” with Bill Crossman, Robin Nzingah Smith, Akinleye Sadiq, Cheryl Schwartz at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2213 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Artists’ Vocal Ensemble and The Whole Noyse “1508: Music for Renaissance Winds and Voices” at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$25. www.ave-music.org  

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lloyd Gregory Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Hot Hot Hot Caribbean Nights at 9:05 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. 

Jon Roniger, Jayde Blade at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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

Jean Fineberg & Saxophunk at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373.  

John Calloway Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

George Cotsililos, jazz, at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. 

Todd Shipley at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Moment’s Notice with Harmony Gates and TraceyJoy Miller at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Tickets are $8-$15. 992-6295. 

Mars Arizona at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $TBA. 841-2082.  

Martin Turkis Afro-Cuban Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 24 

CHILDREN 

“African-American Rhythms On and Off the Canvas” activities for the whole family from 1 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2002. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Capturing the Moment Jazz and photography with James Knox at 1:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

“2 Days with Allen Ginsberg” Photographs by Harold Adler from 2 to 6 p.m., readings at 3 p.m. at Regent Press Gallery, 4770 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 845-1196. 

FILM 

United Nations Assoc. Film Festival with films from Kenya/Uganda and Cuba at 2 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Free. www.unausaeastbay.org 

Human Rights Film Festival “Lumo” at 2 p.m., “Enemies of Happiness” at 3:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Margo Peller Feeley reads from “Cashing Out and Coming Back” her memoir of leaving Berkeley and returning, at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Egyptology Lecture: “The Satellite Survey of Western Thebes; a Horus-Eye View of the Theban Tombs” with Dr. Peter Piccione, College of Charleston, South Carolina, at 2:30 p.m. in Barrows Hall, Room 20. UC Campus. 650-363-8081. ltbak@sbcglobal.net 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Joshua Bell, violin, and Jeremy Denk, piano, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$62. 642-9988.  

John Adams Young Composers Program Faculty Concert with The Ariel String Quartet premiering new works by Alexis Alrich, Molly Axtman, Alan Crossman, Arkadi Serper, Clark Suprynowicz, and Katy Wreede, at 8 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St., at Sacramento. Free. 559-2941.  

Berkeley Symphony “Under Construction” at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley. Tickets are $10-$20. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

“Gospel Roots: A Musical Celebration of African-American History” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988.  

Pat Wynne at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12-$25. 849-2568.  

Parlor Tango at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Howard Wiley “A Tribute to Dexter Gordon” at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373.  

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

MONDAY, FEB. 25 

FILM 

United Nations Assoc. Film Festival with films from Sudan and Nigeria at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

The History of African American Women During World War II with Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 238-2200. 

“Civil Rights Tales” with Stagebridge, at 6:30 p.m. at Golden Gate Branch Library, 5606 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 597-5023. 

Ed Lin and Lisa Chen will celebrate Lunar New Year by reading from their works at 7:30 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

Aurora Theatre “Events with Life’s Leftovers” at 7:30 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. 843-4822.  

Philip Fradkin introduces “Wallace Stegner and the American West” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium “Attention Depiction Disorders” with Naut Humon and V. Vale at 7:30 p.m. at 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 643-9565.  

Frank Portman reads from “King Dork” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express Open mic theme night on “rights” at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Arts Festival Jerry Kuderna Piano Concert at noon at 2213 Shattuck Ave.  

Valerie Bach Girl Talk Band at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. 

Musica ha Disconnesso, piano and mandolins at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 

FILM 

Experimental Documentaries “casting a glance” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Garrett Caples, Susan Gevertz at 7:30 p.m. at Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Samantha Power on “Chasing the Flame: Sergio Viera de Mello and the Fight to Save the World” at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $10. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Kelly Park at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island,. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

CSU East Bay Jazz Ensembles at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-25. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27 

FILM 

History of Cinema “The Woman in the Window” at 3 p.m. and Terence Davies “The House of Mirth” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Scott’s Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh” with author Ian Duncan, in coversation with Catherine Gallagher at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

Jewish Writers in the Bay Area: Readings from Persimmon Tree with Chana Bloch, Martha Boesing, Sandy Boucher, and others at 7 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 655-8530. 

Writing Teachers Write at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Schhubert Piano Trio at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

Music for the Spirit Celebrating Black History Month with music by William B. Cooper and Fela Sowande at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

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

UC Jazz & Dave Brubeck Institute Collaboration at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ.  

“Paul Robeson: Words Like Freedom” Freedom Archives CD Release Party at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568.  

Fishtank Ensemble, 3 Leg Torso, Bohemian Chamber music, at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

Annie and Elizabeth’s Gruaranteed to Satisfy SingAlong at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Tres Mojo at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Jonathan Poretz at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, FEB. 28 

THEATER 

Contra Costa College Drama Dept “Rivets” A musical based on Rosie the Riveter and Richmond’s Kaiser Shipyards, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at John and Jean Knox Center for Performing Arts, Contra Costa College Campus, San Pablo. Tickets are $10-$15. 235-7800, ext. 4274. 

FILM 

African Film Festival “Juju Factory” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul Hawkin in conversation with Kevin Danaher on “The Green Movement: Hope for the Future of the Earth” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$13. 559-9500. 

Michael Dumanis, Tracy K. Smith, and Rick Barot, poets, read at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kitka “Sanctuary” at 8 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Joshua Redman Trio at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$48. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

The Karan Casey Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Very Hot Club of Berkeley at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

High Country, Dark Hollow Band, bluegrass, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

Speak the Music, beatboxing, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568.  

Chris Waltz at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. 

Goapele at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20-$26. 238-9200. 

Jovelyn Richards of Oakland is a born storyteller. When she was little, her mother would have visitors by for coffee “and I heard things that weren’t said; I put language to their secrets. After they left, I told my mother their story. She knew the truth from them and would say, ‘Where did you get that?’ I was putting language to their secrets. I didn’t know how to decode that for her.” 

This continued on in school. “My mother told me she’d got so tired of coming to the principal’s office to get me. She was exhausted! Then, when she’d be walking in front of me on the way home, the clicking of her high heels, the sound of her dress, her silk stockings ... the stories about her would just come out. She’d stop to lecture me, and I’d tell her a story—and she’d say, ‘I just came to get you for doing the same thing!’” 

Richards’ solo play with live music, Come Home, the story of 26 African-American men leaving a rural Arkansas town to serve in World War II with only 13 returning, is playing at The Marsh in San Francisco through March 8.  

In it she plays the wife of one of the black soldiers, Miss D.  

“Donna Ray at the start, but who has to become Miss D. when he comes back,” she said. “It’s about what she has to give up in order to sustain life, to keep the passion they had for each other—or at least renegotiate what that looks like. It’s about what war does to the community, how the soldiers carry war back home.” 

When her husband returns after “they’ve been away from each other for two years, the very first night, Miss D. decides what he needs—she makes his favorite liquor, prepares a bath for him—and it comes to him as an assault. He’s holding images of dying soldiers in his mind, of seeing the racism ... how do you sit down, make love? Navigate the simple pleasures. A lot of men came back silent from the war. Others had to digest that silence, like Miss D. in the play. And that was given to their children, who gave it to their children ...” 

One of the spurs to go off to war was racism. “Two children were lynched. For many African-Americans, going to the war created a foundation to be seen as Americans. In some ways, it empowered them to go to war, to see what fighting for freedom was. My daddy recently told me his uncles said that’s why they left Arkansas after the war—they couldn’t tolerate that kind of racism anymore. And that’s why I grew up in Milwaukee.” 

In the play, the story of the other soldiers who return is told by Miss D. through the effect they have on their families, the community. And those who don’t return are talked about. “One, specifically, couldn’t read or write, but drew pictures of the war. Not of battles, but the faces of war, like a Polish girl who’d lost everything. And one night, the lost soldiers show up in the room when Miss D. and her husband are making love.” 

The survivors also engage in a courageous act, when there’s an attempted lynching of a 14-year-old young man in the town. “They went off to fight for equality and then have to deal with the fact that one of their own sons is going to be killed.” 

Veterans and members of peace groups have attended the show, “George from Veterans For Peace, people from Rosie The Riveter ... two Vietnam vets came out of the audience and asked me, ‘How did you know?’ Something of what happened to my characters happened to several of their friends.” 

“Storytelling is the oldest form of art,” said Richards, “and it’s been neglected. We neglect our own stories. The characters in stories are templates for what it’s like to be human. And we go on to find the stories within ourselves. What jazz and blues did for the 20th century, the story will do for the 21st century.” 

COME HOME 

8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through March 8 at The Marsh, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. 

(415) 641-0235. www.marsh.org. 

A clerk at a Florida resort hotel during the 1920s property boom leaps out from behind his desk and joins in a lively production number. The villainess in an engagement con on a wealthy mother and daughter leads a line of dancers doing the Charleston. 

And all the while, three zanies—one silent, one humorously challenged in English and the other a loquacious hotel manager on the skids—slice, dice and shred the lovely fabric of a period Irving Berlin musical, their playground to burlesque. 

The Marx Bros. in El Cerrito? Well, it’s not the first time. The musical that became their second Hollywood feature, Animal Crackers, was successfully staged a year ago by Contra Costa Civic Theater, and now, in a backward glance, Animal Crackers’ predecessor from Hollywood, and their second Broadway hit, The Cocoanuts, is up and running at Contra Costa Civic Theatre. 

By the late ’20s or so, the Marx Bros. (originally five, with Gummo and Zeppo), who had started decades before as kids in vaudeville, couldn’t get bookings on the circuit. They decided on a long shot: financing their own musical comedy revue—something they could comically work over with their own brand of improvised mayhem—in Brooklyn, hoping it would attract attention and bring the press—and producers—across the river from Manhattan. 

The ploy worked and the Brothers’ career took off, on Broadway, then in Hollywood. Most people know them through later films, like Night at the Opera, where the Brothers take center stage. But The Cocoanuts is a good way to catch how they made their big breakthrough as the wild comic team getting around and tearing down the mannered edifice of musical comedy. 

And with the directorial hand of Kate Culbertson (who is now in the artistic chair at CCCT as Mark Manske, successor to CCCT’s founder, the late Louis Flynn, is on hiatus), what could easily be an exercise in academia, a mere museum piece—an Irving Berlin period musical, book by the great George Kaufman—flowers on a community stage in El Cerrito, with splendid songs and production numbers, first rate (and often sumptuous) costuming by Helen Slomowitz (whose historical sense is always on the mark) and a perky jazz quartet (piano, Peter Ruszel’s bass, trumpeter Brian Montone and Mary Hickox on violin) swinging away on their elevated bandstand, above the hotel lobby, led by Joe Simiele from the keyboard. 

The cast—about 20 in all, counting the choruses of bellhops and hotel guests—brings their own various talents into the mix, with particularly good performances by R. Martin Newton as desk clerk Jamisen (Zeppo’s role originally) and Nan Ayers in the Margaret Dumont role of Mrs. Potter (amorously scheming Groucho’s society matron foil), as well as first rate romantic ingenues (Benjamin Scott and especially Jillian Seagrave, who do Berlin’s big hit “Always” in front of an enormous travel poster of Florida in Dayglo colors that drops from the flies) and Greg Milholland and (again, the ladies) Jessica Kiely in particular as hissable evil schemers.  

There’s even a well-rendered Feydeau-esque door slamming scene as the action—and laughs—revolve from one hotel room to another, and Alex Shafer makes his mark as stern lawman Hennessey, who loses it in a silly, sung encounter with the Brothers, sadly warbling “I want my shirt!” to the operatic music from Carmen. 

The ne’er-do-well trio of Groucho, Harpo and Chico are played with brio by Timothy Beagley, Amy Nielson (who also did the stellar choreography) and Tom Reardon. It’s almost impossible to render the peculiar improvised anarchy of Marx Bros. “staging” (a famous George Kaufman anecdote has him excusing himself from a chat in the wings during a show with the excuse “I thought I heard one of my lines”), which reputedly was quite tame in the wildest of their films compared to their stage shows. 

Nielson has something of Harpo’s sweet innocence, but none of his ferocity; Reardon tries out some un-Chicoesque shuffles sans rimshots to up the burlesque ante, and Beagley is a bit too sanguine (and tuneful) as Groucho. Dare it be said?—they’re a bit too goy. Stars, not outsiders. More screwballs than maniacs. 

But the final scene, the Spanish costume ball—again, with splendid costuming by Slomowitz and Hennessey’s comic turn to “Toreador,” et al, so different than in the movie—comes about as close as anyone’s likely to get, especially the wild tango number, with crazy lyrics, as Groucho beats up on the long-suffering Mrs. Potter with his ultra-eccentric dancing that seems more like bumper cars. Ayers comes out smelling like a crumpled rose, and Beagley shines with moves more Upper West Side Manhattan, sub-Harlem, than Buenos Aires—unless it’s The Pampas ... Yes; Groucho could’ve said that. 

THE COCOANUTS 

8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 2 at the Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito.  

524-9132. www.ccct.org.

Of all the architects who resided in Berkeley during the first four decades of the 20th century, the one who received the most coverage in the local press was not John Galen Howard or Bernard Maybeck but William Hatch Wharff. And only occasionally was the press coverage related to his profession. 

Neither a classicist nor an innovator, Wharff was a practical builder who incorporated the prevailing idiom of the day into his designs. His four designated Berkeley landmarks—Carlson’s Block (1903) at 3228 Adeline in Lorin Station; the Masonic Temple (1905–06) at Shattuck and Bancroft; the Pfister Knitting Mill (1906) at 8th and Parker; and the F.D. Chase Building (1909) at 2107 Shattuck—blend into their surroundings rather than making individual statements. 

Born in Guilford, Maine, Wharff (1836–1936) did not study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have attended any architectural school, although in 1932, at the age of 96, he would tell the Gettysburg Times that he “studied architecture in Maine and Massachusetts in his earlier years.” 

Wharff’s obituary in the Berkeley Gazette of January 1, 1936, tells a different story. A farmer’s son, he disliked farming and from the age of 18 spent his summers learning the carpenter’s trade from his maternal uncle, Hiram Hatch. In 1857 he graduated from the Foxcroft Academy and began teaching school during the winters. 

By 1860, Wharff had become a master carpenter and his uncle’s partner. In the spring and summer of that year, they constructed a new building for the Foxcroft Academy. While in Foxcroft, Wharff married Lydia J. Paul (1840–1929), and the following year their first son, Frank, was born. 

In 1864, Wharff enlisted in the Union Army as a private in Company C of the 11th Regiment, Maine Volunteer Infantry. His Civil War engagements included the siege of Petersburg, the battle of Chaffin’s Farm, the siege of Richmond, Hatcher's Run, and Appomattox. 

He saw Lincoln on March 26, 1865, when the President came to rally the troops before the march on Richmond. That night, Private Wharff wrote in his diary, “This day I have seen Lincoln—I can never forget the care-worn face of the noble President as he rode past, while the band played Hail to the Chief.” 

At Appomattox on April 9, Wharff wrote, “Grant and Lee met under an apple tree, later going to the McLane [McLean] house where the terms of surrender were discussed.” Sixty-seven years later, the Portland Press Herald of Portland, Maine, would quote from Wharff’s diary and note, “Filled with many other notations, now of historic value, the yellow diary is Private Wharff’s most prized possession.” 

Mustered out of service on June 12, 1865, Wharff returned to Guilford, eventually settling in Bangor, Maine, where in 1870 the U.S. census listed his occupation as carpenter. The Wharffs’ second son, Frederick, was born in 1867, and eight years later, the family sailed to California, entering San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate. 

They were not the only Wharffs migrating west. William’s younger brothers—John Fairfield Wharff, a blacksmith and veteran of the First Maine Cavalry, and Joseph Hiram Wharff, a carpenter—also made their home in San Francisco. 

Charting Wharff’s architectural career in San Francisco is not an easy task, since more than 100 buildings he designed there are said to have perished in the 1906 earthquake and fire. While he called himself an architect in the 1880 U.S. census, the San Francisco directory of 1889 listed him as a draftsman with an office at 330 Pine St., room 11. The following year, still in the same office, he was listed as contractor and builder. 

At some point, Wharff joined the American Institute of Architects’ San Francisco chapter. He was present at the chapter’s meeting of May 7, 1904, when famed Chicago architect and city planner Daniel H. Burnham addressed that body on the task of beautifying the city. Among the 20 AIA members gathered to hear Burnham were Seth Babson, Ernest Coxhead, Charles W. Dickey, William Baker Faville, John Galen Howard, William Knowles, and Willis Polk. 

Seven years before the earthquake, William and Lydia Wharff moved to Berkeley, apparently following their son Fred, who had obtained a position as language instructor at the university. At the time, the architect was 63, an age when most other people would be contemplating retirement. Wharff, however, launched into a fruitful period of building activity that would last another decade and a half. When he finally retired at the age of 79, he took up insurance, which he practiced well into his 90s. 

The steady demand for Wharff’s architectural services can be chalked up to his enduring personal popularity and a vast circle of connections. A lifelong Mason, in 1870 he joined the Rising Virtue Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Bangor, Maine. In San Francisco he was a member of the King Solomon Lodge, and after coming to Berkeley he joined the local Durant Lodge. It’s no wonder, then, that when the Berkeley Masons wished to build a new temple, they entrusted the design to Wharff, giving him carte blanche. 

Both Wharff and his wife were high-ranking charter members of the Harmony Lodge, Order of the Eastern Star in San Francisco. Wharff was also a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.), a fraternal organization of Union Army veterans who had served in the Civil War. At one time he was commander of Lincoln Post No. 1 in San Francisco, while Mrs. Wharff served as president of the city’s Lincoln Relief Corps (the women’s auxiliary to the G.A.R.). 

On several occasions, the Wharffs were delegates to the G.A.R. national encampment and the concurrent Women’s Relief Corps national convention. In 1904, they traveled to Boston for this purpose. “Having been chosen the official architect of the Masonic Temple Association,” informed the Oakland Tribune on August 8, “Mr. Wharff will visit a number of temples in the East before presenting designs for the new temple that is to be erected in Berkeley.” 

As the temple neared completion in August 1906, the San Francisco Call provided this description: 

It is four stories high, with facings of cream-colored brick and granite trimmings. The lower floor is to be devoted to stores. On the second floor will be found the supper room, ladies hall, banquet hall and armory of the Masonic lodges. 

The main lodgeroom will be on the third floor, 47 by 62 feet, elaborately finished, with Corinthian pilasters and ornamental frieze work extending around the entire room. The ceiling will be 42 feet high. This lodgeroom, with others on the same floor, are to be available Sundays for church purposes or uses of similar character. 

On the fourth floor will be a small lodgeroom, which with the anteroom and hall will be used for smaller lodges and societies requiring moderate accommodations. 

The temple’s most talked-about features were the twin pairs of granite pillars flanking the entrance on Bancroft Way. These were financed by Rosa Shattuck in memory of her late husband, Francis Kittredge Shattuck. A few years later, the pillars were removed and the portico set back when the city enacted an ordinance designed to rid the downtown of overhanging wooden awnings. 

When dealing with the City of Berkeley, Wharff had his share of professional frustrations. In December 1905, the Board of Education adopted his plans for a new school building on Bancroft Way between Milvia and Grove Streets, to replace the Longfellow School and to cost $50,000. The board modified the architect’s plans before instructing the town clerk to advertise for bids. When all the competing bids came in above budget, Wharff offered to build the school himself for $50,000 on condition that his original plans be adopted. This did not sit well with the directors, resulting in a heated argument and the scrapping of the plans. 

Far more pleasant times were had by Wharff in the company of his fellow Maine natives. The State of Maine Association, of which he was a director and officer, held an annual June picnic at Shell Mound Park, where the Downeasters partook of traditional fare such as baked beans, brown bread, and coffee. One of Wharff’s many friends in this society was Frank W. Durgin, head of Durgin & Bleakley Furniture Co. and of Pioneer Funeral Directors and Embalmers, both located on Shattuck Avenue. Durgin would later ally himself with Walter A. Gompertz and eventually move his undertaking business to University Avenue. Later yet, after such enterprises were banned from the avenue, he would establish the Hull & Durgin mortuary on Adeline Street. 

The Wharffs lived in a large Colonial Revival house, built at 2000 Delaware Street shortly after their arrival in Berkeley. Here they frequently entertained their large circle of friends. Their card parties were famous—especially those for the Busy Bees Whist Club. 

Each Wharff wedding anniversary witnessed a gathering of the tribes from near and far. The couple’s 64th anniversary in 1924 even drew in Hiram W. Ricker, owner of the celebrated Poland Spring resort in Maine. 

Toward the end of his life, as the ranks of Civil War veterans dwindled, William Wharff would become a national figure. He was president of the Abraham Lincoln Fellowship, an organization composed of those who knew or saw the Great Emancipator. Newspapers would refer to him as “Berkeley’s Grand Old Man” and mark every birthday and anniversary of his. 

In 1933, at the age of 97, he was feted as the YMCA’s oldest member. On his 99th and final birthday, Wharff was believed to be the nation’s oldest living Mason and Civil War veteran. He died in his 100th year, having seen Berkeley grow sevenfold over the course of 36 years. 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).

“Music will be an Old Time Music Jam, bring yer fiddle,” is what Terri Compost, the exquisitely named point person of the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (acronym’ed, equally exquisitely, “BASIL”) replied to my query. I wanted to know who would be playing the music promised for BASIL’s Ninth Annual Seed Swap tomorrow, Saturday February 23, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Ecology Center. Dang, I don’t have a fiddle. Guess I’ll just send the cat. 

BASIL’s mission is to preserve and share local and interesting varieties of food-garden seeds. It’s inspired by such organizations as Native Seeds/SEARCH in Arizona and Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa. These got started by people who noticed that unique varieties of corn, chili peppers, beans, or other garden plants were disappearing as gardeners who’d grown them year after year died or lost their gardens, and as buying rather than saving (or swapping!) seeds became the normal thing to do.  

Doubtless there are unnamed and mostly unnoticed heirlooms in Bay Area gardens: some lettuces that hang tough all winter and don’t bolt in May; a fava that produces larger, sweeter beans than most; maybe even a basil with different flavor overtones or that thrives in the fog.  

As agricultural conglomerates consolidate and concentrate on fewer seed varieties—mostly those favored by commercial growers and with the broadest marketing appeal—BASIL’s efforts are becoming more urgent. Big seed companies preserve the qualities that big produce growers prize, like shelf appeal, good appearance, and sturdiness for shipping; more subtle qualities like flavor take second place.  

Just as important, a variety that has a superior ability to thrive in a particular place gets lost when only seeds for plants with nationwide appeal are left in the market. 

BASIL started as just a few people’s seed collections, coordinator Terri Compost says. Sascha DuBrul officially founded the Ecology Center project in 2000. Aside from perpetuating locally adapted and interesting plant varieties, the project concentrates on open-pollinated seeds that will breed true, unlike commercial hybrids that must be bought every year from seed companies.  

She passed along a couple of seed-saving secrets: for one, that it's easiest to start with plants like lettuce, beans, and tomatoes that don’t readily swap pollen with the neighbors’ gardens, which would result in hybrid fruit and seeds. A counterintuitive tip: tomato seeds keep best if you put them, still goopy, on a shelf for a few weeks. Mold will form, which can be rinsed away before drying and storing the seeds. The mold seems to reduce disease and aid germination. 

Compost says the “library” of seeds— a bookcase full of seeds, carefully labeled and preserved in re-used (of course!) jars—kept at the Ecology Center provides “the same exchange we do at the swap meet, but spread out over time.”  

Tomorrow, expect heirlooms from local gardeners and small seed companies. Bring some to share; take only what you can really grow out, and save seed to return; bring a potluck dish and your musical talent too. (Lacking those, bring $10.) Wildheart Nursery plants and other goodies will be raffled off.  

(BASIL) 9th Annual Seed Swap 

Saturday Feb. 23, 6:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m. 

Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley. 

(510) 658-9178, terricompost@yahoo.com or 

http://www.ecologycenter.org/basil/

I was inspecting a house out beyond the Naugahyde Curtain the other day (Walnut Creek, if memory serves; landing strip for white flight). The house was unillustrious but amongst the artifacts that brought me sufficient intrigue to set the day aglow was a brand new fireplace.  

Actually, it wasn’t really new, but it may as well have been, because it was clear that it had never been used. The house was at least 30 years old and this fireplace had never once been used. I’m not sure if it was fear of fire, religious prohibition, lack of clarity on local restrictions or a general absence of romantic spirit on the part of the occupants; but there it was, all clean and shiny and boring. 

Actually, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this. Maybe once every couple of years I find a fireplace that has never been used. After all, we ARE in sunny Cah-li-fah-ne-ah (no matter how many times Ah-nold says it, my glee refuses to evaporate). California does get cold, but fires in fireplaces don’t really do all that much to abate the chill anyway. And although they’re fun, cozy and perfect for gatherings, they’re also time-consuming, expensive and dirty. In short, it’s far easier on the coldest of nights to leave the damper shut (is YOUR damper shut?) turn up the furnace and put on that ugly cable-knit sweater your girlfriend’s parents gave you last year.  

The fact that so few fires get built around here is due to several factors: 

1. Most people don’t know how to build a proper fire. 

2. Most people don’t know how to maintain their chimney. 

3. Most people don’t know when it’s time to call for professional maintenance or repairs, or even how to make that call. 

So let’s take a look at each of these in some detail. 

We don’t build fires to get them over with as soon as possible. We build them to last for a few hours or until we’ve managed to finish reading Rilke’s entire elegy cycle to the object of our affections. Therefore, the way we build a fire is of some importance. Those heavy welded log-holders are better suited to murder than to building a fire. Building our fires up that high allows far too much oxygen to get to the bottom of the wood, causing those hard grained logs to burn hot and fast. This also destroys fireplaces over time. A fire of lower temperature not only lasts longer but preserves the brick firebox. Although fireboxes are built using special firebrick (they’re yellow rather than red and a little larger than regular brick), these, as well as their mortars, become damaged over time as a result of very hot fires. 

To build a fire without a fire-grate or rack, just build it as one would a campfire. Stack logs against one another so that there are small air spaces created in the process. Starting a fire usually requires some tinder or small pieces, newspaper or finely split wood (kindling), but one can also use those newfangled fire starting materials such as Hot-Wood or somesuch. Mostly they’re paraffin-soaked sawdust and they burn quite well. It’s up to you. 

Be sure to open your damper (that little door above the fireplace that leads to the flue) at least 10-20 minutes before building a fire. As my friend Paul Mickiewicz, a master of chimneys and fires, explains, this allows a draft to begin flowing long before there’s any fire. This is a simple function of convection and occurs between any warmer and colder spaces that are put in contact with one another. It’s colder outside on the roof than inside the house (one hopes) so this induces a slow flow upward through the flue. This can be amplified by the use of a lit piece of newspaper (not this piece, please) held upward into the “throat” of the fireplace. This works in the same was as natural convection, only faster. Be sure to avoid burning one’s self.  

Having built a few fires, you’ll end up with a heap of ash in the fireplace. Don’t toss the ash. According to Paul, this makes a great insulating bed that improves the operation of the fireplace. Tamp the ash down in a slightly wedge-shaped plane that is higher at the back. This will force heat to flow backward and continue to warm the rear wall, which, in turn, will drive the plume of smoke and heat up the flue shaft, lessening the propensity for smoke to enter the room. The bed also keeps the fire warm. 

When you clean the excess ash away, take it to the garden. Plants love potassium. “Pot Ash” is so called because they used to hang cooking pots in fireplaces afore y’all were young’ns. 

Although most fireplaces come with ash-pit cleanout doors of metal in the floor of the firebox, these don’t have to be used at all. They often become rodent entry points and you need to be sure that they’re really closed or covered over with a metal surrogate if they’re broken. Sometimes replacements can be found, but often not.  

If you look on the outside of the chimney, you’ll find a matching door that’s also too-often out of commission. I like to think of these silly cleanout doors as elements of a time when servants would service the fireplace and keeping the master’s chamber tidy was imperative so we had a method by which we can remove the soot from the outside; a sort of servant’s chute. I’m not sure how accurate my imagined history is but it works for me! 

Once the fire is going well, you want to continue to push it toward the back wall. Logs tend to roll forward and should be moved back toward the rear-canted wall periodically. Be sure to feed new logs into the fire in the same way. The object is to keep this rear “firewall” as hot as can be, thus maintaining the draft and minimizing smoking. 

Here are a couple of reasons that fireplaces smoke and things you can think about if my recipe for firebuilding still proves insufficient: 

The ratio between the opening of the fireplace and the size of the flue shaft should be roughly 1/10. If your fireplace opening is, say, 30 inches wide and 25 inches high then you have 750 square inches of space. The flue should then be about 75 square inches of space or, roughly eight inches by nine inches. If the fireplace opening (where you load the wood) is much larger than this, the air supply is too large and the flue will not be able to pull air fast enough. In such cases a shield can be installed at the top of the opening to reduce the size. I’ll be you’ve seen at least one. (Aha, you say, that’s what that thing was!) 

Another thing that causes smoking is flue length. If the flue is too short, it won’t create enough draft. Extending the flue upward into the sky can often improve drafting and put that useless fireplace back into happy employment. 

I’ll don my inspector goggles for a few parental admonitions to close with since no day is complete for me without uttering something harsh. 

If you want to use your fireplace, spend the small amount of money necessary to have a good local fireplace inspector come by and check things out. Fireplace flues get dirty and the soot and creosote (a shiny, tar encrustation) can catch fire if there’s enough if it and the fire is hot enough. A chimney fire is too hot to put out and is usually allowed to run its course, after which a chimney may need to be replaced at some serious expense. It can also burn a house down in cases where an old flue has gaps that lead to framing. 

Cleaning a fireplace is cheap and prudent. The inspector will also have the chance to check out the other aspects including dampers, spark arrestors, covers and overall configuration. 

In another 20-30 years, I believe that our fireplaces will have largely gone to the salvage-yard of history. They are, after all, a lapel that we no longer need but continue to wear for their fun and familiarity. For these last days, let’s sit with them, record their beauty for when they’re gone, keeping their important purpose in mind, that being to draw us together around the fire. 

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 

“Como Angeles” A film about six students from Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine who return to their countries of origin to serve their communities, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St. Event honors long-time solidarity activist for the Cuban democracy, Hal Carlstad, and the 40th Anniversary of IFCO, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizing, umbrella organization for Pastors for Peace. 219-0092. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Mel Lavine, former TV journalist on his new book “A Strange Breed of Folks.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Golden Gate Audubon Society with Dr. Rauri Bowie on “The Importance of Habitat Association in the Diversification of African Birds” at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 843-2222. 

Benefit for Berkeley Food and Housing, North County Women’s Shelter with dinner at 6:30 and dancing from 7:30 on at the Gaia Arts Center. Tickets are $40-$50. 649-4965, ext. 304. 

Two-Day Photography Workshop with Ami Vitale on “Reaching Across Borders” organized by Fotovision. Information and enrollment at www.fotovision.org 

Easy Does It Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. 

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. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 8 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Pot luck at 7 p.m. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 23 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Reptile Rendevous Learn about the reptiles that call the Tilden Nature Area home, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bay Area Seed Interchange Library Seed Swap and pot luck at 6:30 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Bring garden seed to share and a potluck dish or $10 for entrance. 658-9178. 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Field Trip “Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park” with Hilary Powers. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the large spherical cage near Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue to look at wintering birds. 843-2222. 

Retirement Party for Michele Lawrence Celebrating 35 Years in Public Education. Cocktails and dinner at 6 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 472-3811. party@berkeley.k12.ca.us  

Billabong Ball Fundraiser for Young People’s Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. at the Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $10-$75. www.ypsomusic.net 

Community Dialogue “The Collective Experience in the Moment of YouTube” with members of various media collectives, including PTTV, First Voice, Poor News Network, Video Machete & Video Feedback, at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Community Media, 2239 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. www.betv.org 

Castlemont High School Annual General Membership Luncheon at 11 a.m. at Francesco’s Resturant, 8200 Pardee St., corner of Hegenberger Rd., Oakland. Cost is $30. 828-1481. www.castlemontalumni.org 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “The Joy of Vegan Baking” featuring currant scones, apple strudel, peanut butter chocolate bars, oat bran muffins and more, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $49 plus $5 material fee. to register call 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com 

“60th Annual Festival of the Oaks” International Folk Dancing Workshop from 9:30 a.m. to noon, dancing from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Ave. No partners needed.Cost is $7-$12. 527-2177. meldancing@aol.com 

Spartacist Black History Month Forum: From Mumia Abu-Jamal to the Jena Six at 2 p.m. at Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. 839-0851. slbayarea@sbcglobal.net 

Energy Efficient Homes A workshop from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at 1817 Second St. Sponsored by Truitt & White. Free, but registration required. 649-2674. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Remodeling Free class to learn about lead safe renovations for your older home from 2 to 4 p.m. at Mark’s Paint Mart, 2317 Blanding Ave., Alameda. Presented by Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 567-8280. www.ACLPPP.org 

Kids Go Green Activities centered on ecology and climate change from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $9-$13. 336-7373.  

“Everybody Eats Lunch” Lunchbox recipes from around the world at 2:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

“Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products” with author Mark Schapiro at 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Teen Knitting Circle at 3 p.m. in the 4th flr Story Room, Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Bring your own knitting needles in size 8, sample yarns provided. 981-6107. 

Preschool Storytime, for ages 3-5, at 11 a.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Oakland Artisans Marketplace Sat. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jack London Square. 238-4948. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 24 

Hike in Briones Join a leisurely 4-mile hike out to the Maricich and Sindicich Lagoons to see California newts. Meet at 10 a.m. at the Alhambra Creek Staging Area off of Reliz Valley Rd. Bring lunch and water. To register call 925-862-2601. 

“African-American Rhythms On and Off the Canvas” activities for the whole family from 1 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2002. 

“Aerial Pesticide Spraying in the Bay Area for the Apple Moth” A community information meeting at 5 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 524-5185. www.stopthespray.org 

Films for the Future: The Future of Food at 2 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Little Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Kensington Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave. at Amherst, Kensington. 525-6155. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

"beat.sit.asana: urbanYOGA Soul Sunday Jam from from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Center for Urban Peace, 2584 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Free. 549-3733. ext. 1. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “Path of Liberation” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000 www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, FEB. 25 

“The History of African American Migrant Women During World War II” with Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, at 10:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2002. 

New Soul Cooking with Tanya Holland of “Melting Pot Soul Kitchen” at 5:30 p.m. at the Elmhurst Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1427 88th Ave., Oakland. 615-5869. 

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

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visitMartin Luther King Regional Shoreline. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Docent Training for Tilden Nature Area Learn to assist the naturalists in providing interpretive programs at the Little Farm and nature area gardens, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Fee is $35. Application required. For information call 544-3260. 

“The (in)Accessible Wilderness: Mountain Adventures in Patagonia, Utah and British Columbia” with Topher Donahue at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

History and Future of Berkeley’s Downtown A discussion with Austene Hall and Carrie Olsen at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2213 Shattuck Ave. 

Davey D, KPFA Radio personality and news journalist at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley, Public Library, 3rd floor Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6107. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

“Israel: the worst thing to happen to the Jewish People since the Holocaust” Discussion with Larry Everest at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books 2425 Channing Way, Berkeley. 484-1196. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 10 to 11 a.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

Writer Coach Connection Volunteers needed to help Berkeley students improve their writing and critical thinking skills from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. To register call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

Nutrition for a Healthy Heart at 3:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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. 

Parents’ Book Discussion Group meets to discuss “Each Little Bird That Sings” by Deborah Wiles, at 6 p.m. at University Village, 435 Goodling Way, Building 123, Apt. 456, Albany. Sponsored by the Albany Library. 526-3720. 

Teen Playreaders meets to read and discuss Hamlet and related plays at 4:30 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 981-6121. 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org  

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. www.ecologycenter.org 

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. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27 

“The Rebirth of the University of California: From Imperial University to People’s University” A teach-in and forum featuring Gray Brechin, author, “Imperial San Francisco” plus speakers from Tuition Relief Now, Berkeley Stop the War, Berkeley NOW, Fiat Pax, Stop BP-Berkeley, and many others at 7 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle, UC Campus. www.freetheuc.org 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Field Trip “Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park” with Hilary Powers. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the large spherical cage near Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue to look at wintering birds. 843-2222. 

“Immigration: Facts, Fiction and Action” with Rolando Rodriguez of the East Bay Sanctuary Coalition at the Gray Panther General Meeting, at 1:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, corner of MLK. All welcome.  

“Why Can’t We Be Good?” An interfaith lecture with Prof. Jacob Needleman at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation $5. 655-8936. 

Radical Movie Night: “Medium Cool” filmed during the 1968 political conventions, at 8:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave.  

“Empowering Consumers and Transforming Business” at 6:30 p.m. at Green Moters, 1500 San Pablo Ave. www.econowusa.org 

“Natural Selection” A discussion of the book “The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism” at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

“The Lion’s Roar” a documentary on Rangjung Rigpe Dorje Tibetan Buddhist master, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

Cycling Lecture with Joe Breeze on “Why more of us should ride bicycles” at 7 p.m. at Velo Sport Bicycles, 1615 University Ave., enter at 1989 California St. RSVP to 849-0437. 

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

Theraputic Recreation at the Berkeley Warm Pool, Wed. at 3:30 p.m. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Warm Pool, 2245 Milvia St. Cost is $4-$5. Bring a towel. 632-9369. 

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 

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

After-School Program Homework help, drama and music for children ages 8 to 18, every Wed. from 4 to 7:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $5 per week. 845-6830. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, FEB. 28 

“Does TV Persuade Us That Torture is OK?” with Richard Walter, UCLA School of Film, Television, and Digital Media, Spc. (Ret.) Tony Lagouranis, U.S. Army Interrogator, Margaret Stock, Dept of Law, U.S. Military Academy (West Point), David Danzig, Primetime Torture Project Director, Human Rights First at 5 p.m. at Room 110, Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Campus. www.hrcberkeley.org 

“Green Movement: Hope for the Future of the Earth” Paul Hawken in conversation with Kevin Danaher at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$13, at independent bookstores. www.globalexchange.org 

“The Color of Fear” A film about the struggle of individuals learning about racism. Screening and panel discussion at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$10, available from 1-800-838-3006. 

Teen Book Club meets to discuss urban fantasy titles at 4 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 981-6121. 

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

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

CITY MEETINGS 

Zero Waste Commission Mon., Feb. 25, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. 981-6368.  

City Council meets Tues., Feb. 26, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Feb. 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed., Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/policereview 

Mental Health Commission meets Thurs., Feb. 28, at 5 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213. 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Feb. 28, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. 981-7410. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/zoning  

ONGOING 

E-Waste Recycling St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County accepts electronic waste including computers, dvd players, cell phones, fax machines and many other ewaste products for disposal free of charge at many of its locations throughout Alameda County. Free bulk pick-up available. 638-7600.  

Free Tax Help If your 2007 household income was less than $42,000, you are eligible for free tax preparation from United Way's Earn it! Keep It! Save It! Sites are open now through April 15 in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. To find a site near you, call 800-358-8832. www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org 

Donate the Excess Fruit from Your Fruit Trees I’ll gladly pick and deliver your fruit to community programs that feed school kids, the elderly, and the hungry. The fruit trees should be located in Berkeley and organic (no pesticides). This is a free volunteer/ 

grassroots thing so join in!! To scehdule and appointment call or email 812-3369. northberkeleyharvest@gmail.com

TUESDAY, FEB. 19 

CHILDREN 

Clown Unique Derique performs for ages 3 and up at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“@60.art.israel.world” A survey of recent work by over 20 contemporary Israeli artists opens at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. 549-6950. 

FILM 

Experimental Documentaries “Paper Tiger Reds Paper Tiger Television” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761.  

Neeli Cherkovski, Kelly Lydick at 7:30 p.m. at Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

David Roche, humorist, actor, and speaker, discusses “The Church of 80% Sincerity” at 1 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6107.  

Kevin Danaher discusses “Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots” with co-authors Shannon Biggs and Jason Mark at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054.  

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

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

Diablo Valley College Night Jazz Ensemble at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$12. 238-9200.  

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20 

FILM 

History of Cinema “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” at 3 p.m. and “The Terrence Davies Trilogy” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dagoberto Gilb reads from his new novel “The Flowers” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Maude Barlow on “Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$13, available from Cody’s or www.kpfa.org 

Peace Symbol 50th Anniversary with Arnie Passman’s Peace Symbol history, Stoney Burke’s autobiography, folksingers Carol Denney, Hali Hammer, Brook Schoenfeld, Gary LaPow, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival Gallery, 2213 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 845-5481. 

Cafe Poetry hosted by Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit Celebrating Black History Month with music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Florence Price at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Wednesday Noon Concert Brazilian Jazz at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

Kaspar/Sherman Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $6. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Ezra Gale Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

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

Martin Luther Experience, and Urban Ledgeds of the Bay Area, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, FEB. 21 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Casual Labor” Sculpture and photography by Alex Clausen, Zachery Royer Scholz and Kirk Stoller. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. 

“Opening Doors” An exhibit celebrating the contributions of African American surgeons to medicine and medical education opens at the African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

FILM 

Terence Davies “Distant Voices, Still Lives” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry for the People with Tyehimba Jess, Def Poet Rafael Casal at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$15. 849-2568. 

Cultural Connections: The Art of Living Black Conversations with the artists at 5 p.m. at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, State of CA Office Building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. 

Anne Elizabeth Moore reads from “Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity” at 7 p.m. at Pegasus Books, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 913-2447. 

Greil Marcus Examines Nathan Zuckerman, the protagonist in Philip Roth’s novels, at 7:30 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$12. 848-0237. 

“Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil” with author JAmes Holston, in coversation with Paul Rabinow and Peter Evans at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Sylvia Sellers-Garcia discusses her new novel “When the Ground Turns in Its Sleep” at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. www.revolutionbooks.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Symphony, Hugh Wolff, conductor, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$60. 841-2800.  

Anthony Smith’s Trunk Fulla Funk at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

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

Steve Carter Group with Kenneth Nash at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Ross Hammonds Teakayo Misson, Singularity, jazz, at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $67 841-2082. 

Adrian Gormley Jazz Ensemble at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Satellites” at 8 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through March 2. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822.  

Berkeley Rep “”Wishful Drinking” with Carrie Fisher, at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St., through March 30. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. 

Black Repertory Group Theatre “A Raisin In The Sun” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $5-$25. 652-2120.  

Central Works “Wakefield; or Hello Sophia” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City CLub, 2315 Durant Ave., through March 23.Tickets are $14-$25. 558-1381. 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “The Cocoanuts” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., some Sun. matinees at 2 p.m., at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through March 2. Tickets are $15-$24. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Frank Oliver’s “Twisted Cabaret & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$25. 1-800-838-3006. 

Impact Theatre “Jukebox Stories: The Case of the Creamy Foam” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through March 22. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Angel Street” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. through Feb. 23 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Virago Theatre Company “Candide” the comic opera at 8 p.m. Fri and Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. at Rhythmix Cultural Works - 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda, through Mar. 9. Tickets are $15-$25. 865-6237. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Ami Vitale “Photographs of Kashmir” Opening reception at 6 p.m., lecture by the photographer at 7 p.m. at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. www.fotovision.org 

“All That Jazz” The Art of Living Black Works by James Gayles, Nanette Harris, Leroy Parker and others. Reception at 7 p.m. at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave. at 58th St., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. 

FILM 

Terence Davies “The Long Day Closes” at 7 p.m. and “The Neon Bible” at 9:05 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Charles Baxter reads from his new novel “The Soul Thief” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Percy Lang, piano, at noon at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

Oakland East Bay Symphony Works by Stravisnky, Adams, Tan Dun and Jon Jang at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m. 444-0801. www.oebs.org 

Dan Plonsey’s “Daniel Popsicle” at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2213 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

The Dave Matthews BLUES Band in a fundraiser for Berkeley Food and Housing Project, at 7 p.m. at Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. 649-4965. 

History and Harmony Black History Concert Series “Slab Town Convention: A Youth Drama” dramatization of the 1960s Baptist Convention at 7:30 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$10. 544-8924. 

The Mirage Ensemble perform a program of Americana at 8 p.m. at the Hillside CLub, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $15. www.hillsideclub.org 

Toshi Reagon at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $16-$18. 849-2568.  

Dena DeRose at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. 

Terry Disley Experience at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Gamelan X, Gamelan Jegog at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

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

Country Joe McDonald’s “Tribute to Woody Guthrie” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$29.50. 548-1761.  

Ronnie Cto, Dave Lionelli at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Joel Streeter, Brad Brooks, Walty, indie rock, at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

Green Machine at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Patrick Green Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Jennifer Johns, Kevin Choice, reggae, R&B, at 9 p.m. at Maxwell’s Lounge, 341 13th St., Oakland. Cost is $15-$20. 839-6169. 

SATURDAY, FEB. 23 

CHILDREN  

Music with Hanna Banana at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 Tenth St. Cost is $7. 526-9888. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Tilden Odyssey” Textured paintings, collages, and monotypes by Sheila Sondick on display at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park, through Feb. 28. 525-2233. 

“Double Vision: Artist Partners” Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, 25 Grand Ave., upper level, Oakland. Exhibition runs to March 15. www.chandracerrito.com 

“Yea We Said It, And No We’re Not Sorry” works by Malik and Milton Bowens for Black History Month. Opening reception at 5:30 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. Exhibit runs to Feb. 29. 465-8928. 

“Impressions on Paper” Works by six local printmakers opens at the Addison St. Windows Gallery, 2018 Addision St. 981-7546. 

FILM 

United Nations Assoc. Film Festival with films from Israel/Palestine and Haiti, at 7:30 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Free. www.unausaeastbay.org 

Terence Davies “Distant Voices, Still Lives” at 2:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse with poet Jeanne Powell at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 527-9753. 

Alan Greene, pediatrician, describes “Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dream Kitchen at 8 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. tickets are $10-$12. 848-0237. 

“B-Free” with Bill Crossman, Jim Hrabetin, Dale Sophiea and others at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2213 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10.  

Artists’ Vocal Ensemble and The Whole Noyse “1508: Music for Renaissance Winds and Voices” at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$25. www.ave-music.org  

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lloyd Gregory Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Hot Hot Hot Caribbean Nights at 9:05 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. 

Jon Roniger, Jayde Blade at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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

Jean Fineberg & Saxophunk at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373.  

John Calloway Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

George Cotsililos, jazz, at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. 

Todd Shipley at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Moment’s Notice with Harmony Gates and TraceyJoy Miller at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Tickets are $8-$15. 992-6295. 

Mars Arizona at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $TBA. 841-2082.  

Martin Turkis Afro-Cuban Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 24 

CHILDREN 

“African-American Rhythms On and Off the Canvas” activities for the whole family from 1 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2002. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Capturing the Moment Jazz and photography with James Knox at 1:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

“2 Days with Allen Ginsberg” Photographs by Harold Adler from 2 to 6 p.m., readings at 3 p.m. at Regent Press Gallery, 4770 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 845-1196. 

FILM 

United Nations Assoc. Film Festival with films from Kenya/Uganda and Cuba at 2 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Free. www.unausaeastbay.org 

Human Rights Film Festival “Lumo” at 2 p.m., “Enemies of Happiness” at 3:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Margo Peller Feeley reads from “Cashing Out and Coming Back” her memoir of leaving Berkeley and returning, at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloway’s, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Joshua Bell, violin, and Jeremy Denk, piano, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $34-$62. 642-9988.  

John Adams Young Composers Program Faculty Concert with The Ariel String Quartet premiering new works by Alexis Alrich, Molly Axtman, Alan Crossman, Arkadi Serper, Clark Suprynowicz, and Katy Wreede, at 8 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St., at Sacramento. Free. 559-2941.  

“Gospel Roots: A Musical Celebration of African-American History” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-9988.  

Pat Wynne at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12-$25. 849-2568.  

Parlor Tango at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Howard Wiley “A Tribute to Dexter Gordon” at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373.  

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

MONDAY, FEB. 25 

FILM 

United Nations Assoc. Film Festival with films from Sudan and Nigeria at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

The History of African American Women During World War II with Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo at 10:30 a.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 238-2200. 

“Civil Rights Tales” with Stagebridge, at 6:30 p.m. at Golden Gate Branch Library, 5606 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 597-5023. 

Ed Lin and Lisa Chen will celebrate Lunar New Year by reading from their works at 7:30 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

Aurora Theatre “Events with Life’s Leftovers” at 7:30 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. 843-4822.  

Philip Fradkin introduces “Wallace Stegner and the American West” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium “Attention Depiction Disorders” with Naut Humon and V. Vale at 7:30 p.m. at 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 643-9565.  

Frank Portman reads from “King Dork” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express Open mic theme night on “rights” at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Arts Festival Jerry Kuderna Monday Lunch Piano Concert from noon to 1 p.m. at 2213 Shattuck Ave. Free.  

Valerie Bach Girl Talk Band at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. 

Musica ha Disconnesso, piano and mandolins at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

A Korean-American architect and her African-American husband move with their baby daughter into a fixer-upper Brooklyn brownstone—holes in the plaster, boxes everywhere, a makeshift architect’s office—when a black neighbor, who seems to have been the original kid-on-the-corner, drops by repeatedly offering one deal after another, and the husband’s ne’er-do-well adoptive brother blows in from an Asian getaway, wanting to move in and start a business with his bro’—and the new Korean nanny inadvertently starts pushing a new mother’s buttons. Then a brick comes crashing through the window. 

Diana Son’s new play, Satellites, in a well-acted, well-directed production at the Aurora, brings up a lot of issues—what “race” has morphed into, the welter of contradictions a young professional couple (and new parents) find themselves in, the sometimes hidden anguish of the locals trying to swing with gentrification (and the perceptions and misperceptions of their new neighbors), the dilemmas of an immigrant woman who’s been sidelined by her own family—and, opposite number to the professional mother, the realizations of her middle-aging collaborator in an architectural competition that she doesn’t have all she expected in life by her 40th birthday. 

There are particularly good performances by Michael Asberry as Reggie, the aging homeboy, the street corner entrepreneur, viewed with suspicion (even secretly monitored on video) by his new neighbor, and by Lisa Kang as the well-meaning Mrs. Chae, caught in the middle as she adopts a family that’s hired her to take care of a multiracial, multicultural baby. 

Darren Bridgett as the loose, fly-by-night adoptive brother, demonstrates again why he’s in demand around the Bay as a comic character actor, all insouciant charm and bright reassurances as he swaggers through the fixer-upper after landing and getting mugged, rolling up his pants legs to show the plastic-wrapped Asian currency taped to his skin, swag from his Third World-hopping scams—and come-on capital for a flakey partnership. And Ayla Yarkut gracefully takes the part of Kit, a kind of stock type in film and on stage, not so much fleshing out her slender frame as giving her character, in every sense, vying with her own desires and anguish. 

As husband Miles, Michael Gene Sullivan (well-known as a longtime Mime Troupe regular) also shows a magnanimous presence, communicating the recently laid-off, rebuffed (or so he feels) husband and father’s sense of being adrift more with body language and discreet glances than with dialogue. 

Miles was raised by a white suburban family, and his racial cause is taken up more vigorously by his Korean-American wife, Nina, than by himself. Conversely, Nina supposes her nanny—and others—are judging her baby racially, even as she’s conflicted that her daughter be an American girl, yet learn Korean, all the while remembering going back to the neighborhood where she grew up, and getting shouted at, to go back where she came from. 

Julie Oda’s a fine character actor, but outside of a few, rare quiet moments and their opposite, complete hysteria when Nina loses it in her pursuit to satisfy all her ambitions at once, it’s difficult for her to take Nina, as written, out of (to coin another contradiction) her cloying shrillness. It’s the crux of an interesting, committed play’s problems—its most complex character and centerpiece becomes understandable, but never quite sympathetic, only slightly sentimentalized instead—still too much a type. 

With all the play’s aspirations to social drama, there’s a few too many merely conceptual constructions and too-quick TV-style resolutions (Son wrote for “The West Wing” and produces for “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”). But there’re moments when a dramatic necessity tugs undertow, and fine passages, like Reggie ecstatically enumerating the constellations he could see during the great New York blackout—saying acerbically, when he gets to Hercules in his recitation of astral myth, that they could’ve used a hero like that in the social mayhem that followed. 

The cast and Kent Nicholson’s steady directorial hand add much tone to a rather monochromatic sketch at times, one which lays claim to being a mural of a society of dislocated individuals, crossing signals as they try to come together as family, neighbors, coworkers, friends. That many of the situations and vignettes work, if sometimes in isolation (like their characters that play them out), and that the playwright seems as insouciantly ambitious as her fraught female lead, may mean Son’s next one will really tell the story. 

SATELLITES 

Through March 2 at the Aurora Theatre.  

$40-$42. 2081 Addison St. 843-4822.

Never mind that it’s caught me unarmed and ill-prepared, as usual; I love this sample of early spring we’re getting. We didn’t have it quite the same way last year, I guess. As happened, I was ‘way out of town and in another climate for most of last February on a most urgent and unfortunate errand, so I’m only guessing.  

The last two weeks, though, I’m feeling rewarded, compensated for missing that time here. All of a sudden, Bang!, the plums started blooming and the glorious trend is rolling across town in its syncopated way. They’re overlapping with the winter manzanita and magnolia blossoms, with the flowering quince who can’t make up their minds whether they’re winter or spring bloomers, never mind what the books say.  

The purple-leaf plum that overhangs our yard from the east fenceline is so floriferous that its scent fills the lot. Plums aren’t strong-smelling flowers and their effect is usually subtle; this one just has such an abundance of blossoms they create a mass scent chorus, like a choir of soft voices that becomes orchestral by sheer harmonizing numbers.  

There’s such abundance that the birds who nibble the petal bases for that bit of sweetness—taste one and see!—make no discernible reduction. They just leave single, clipped barely-pink petals all over the car parked underneath, along with what the tree sheds on its own. We drive off down the street merrily trailing floral confetti like a bridal procession. You can’t buy that kind of accessory at Kragen. 

The English sparrows nest under eaves or in any handy hollow, damn them. (They’re invasive exotics and have played hob with North American natives like bluebirds by taking over nesting spots, sometimes outright killing the bluebirds to do so.) The housefinches and the goldfinches, two species of them, nest in trees and therein lies the rub of our early warm weather.  

There’s a male lesser goldfinch sounding his querulous-to-inquisitive call notes in one of the plums out back as I write this. He’s great company, never mind the whining, and I hope he and the female I startled off the back porch a few minutes ago decide to set up housekeeping here this year. It’s worth tolerating shade on the garden beds to leave enough of that eastern row of undistinguished yellow-fruited plums for birds to feel welcome. 

He’s sometimes on a branch near an old nest, probably last year’s, maybe his or a family member’s. It seems to be a good homesite. But I haven’t quite finished pruning that tree of its overhang, and we’ve barely started on the lady Banks rose that climbs up to the second-story kitchen window. There was a bushtit nest in that one last year, a complex construction that looked like an old gray woolly sock. I love having bushtits around; aside from eating bugs, they’re just so merry on their rounds.  

There’s a hummingbirds nest somewhere but I haven’t found it yet; I know it’s there because we have both male and female Anna’s hummers at the feeder (and once, in the house: safely caught and released) and they start nesting in January. Last year’s nest was in the culinary-bay laurel, not five feet from the back stairs. 

The Lindsay Wildlife Museum (www.wildlife-museum.org) in Walnut Creek issues a plea every year for care and kindly attention to birds and squirrels nesting in trees we’re pruning. The best time for pruning most trees and shrubs—birds like towhees and song sparrows tend to nest pretty close to the ground—is before nesting season, but there’s overlap between early nesters and available time, for most of us.  

That includes professionals. You don’t get to call yourself doing “sustainable landscaping” if you’re not taking care of the householders in your clients’ trees. Doublecheck any snags or dead trees you’re asked to remove, as those are ideal sites for woodpeckers and other hole nesters. 

The Lindsay folks advise looking first, which is easier in bare trees. Make noise; don’t try to sneak up on a nest because panicked birds might injure eggs or young. Watch for birds flying out of a tree, a clue there might be a nest there. 

If you find an occupied or new nest, hold off pruning that plant till the young are grown and gone. If you’ve dislocated a nest, put it back and tie it in if necessary. If it’s structurally damaged, put it into a small bowl, box, margarine tub or somesuch with drainage holes in the bottom. Don’t use a berry basket; they snag nestlings.  

If you’re sure you have abandoned nestlings, wait another hour or two; you might be wrong. Then put them in a box or paper bag; keep them warm and quiet. Don’t offer food or water. Call the Lindsay Wildlife Museum Hospital for advice: (925) 935-1978.  

TUESDAY, FEB. 19 

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 Botanic GArden. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

“Hiking New Zealand” with Peter Potterfield at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Berkeley Garden Club “Why Would You Want Bugs? Integrated Pest Management in the Home Garden” with Martha Berthelsen, Public Programs Manager, The Watershed Project, at 1:45 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church,1953 Hopkins St. Bring a plant to exchange. 845-4482. www.berkeleygardenclub.org  

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival Screenings of “The Story of Stuff,” “Straight Outta Hunter’s Point,” Black Gold” beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Laney College Theater. jlin@peralta.edu 

“The Corporation” Screening of Part 1 of the film at 7 p.m., followed by discussion, at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. Donations accepted. 495-5132. 

BAY-Peace Youth Workshop: The Military: It’s Not Just a Game A free event for youth from 4 to 6 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Cesar Chavez Branch, 3301 E. 12th St., Ste. 271, Oakland. 809-7416. www.baypeace.org 

“The Struggle Against Racism and Repression” Commemorating Black History Month at 7 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Donation $3-$5. 

“Sacred Music, Sacred Space, Sacred Arts” Tea and talk with Don Frew and Jack Lundin at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. 848-3440. 

Board Game Days at the Albany Library. Play Monopoly, Blokus, Connect 4, checkers, chess and much more from 1 to 4 p.m., Tues.-Thurs. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. For 4th through 8th graders. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St., near Eunice. MelDancing@aol.com 

Business Training for Women Immigrants and Families offered by AnewAmerica. For information call 540-7786. www.anewamerica.org 

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. 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

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. 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, FEB. 20 

“Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water” with Maude Barlow at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$13, available from Cody’s or www.kpfa.org 

“Amongst White Clouds” A documentary on the Buddhist Hermit Masters of China’s Zhongnan Mountains at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th S., Oakland, between Telegraph and Broadway, below Pill Hill. Suggested donation $5. www.HumanistHall.org  

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival Screenings of “The Meatrix,” “Power of Community,” King Corn” beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Laney College Theater. jlin@peralta.edu 

Cycling Lecture with Jobst Brandt on “Cycling in the Alps” at 7 p.m. at Velo Sport Bicycles, 1615 University Ave., enter at 1989 California St. RSVP to 849-0437. 

Watch the Lunar Eclipse from 6 to 9 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, below Grizzly Peak. Free. 642-5132. www.lawrencehallofscience.org 

Total Lunar Eclipse “Red Moon Rising” a guided hike of about 3 miles roundtrip, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $8-$10, advance purchase recommended. 336-7373.  

Writer Coach Connection Volunteers needed to help Berkeley students improve their writing and critical thinking skills from noon to 3 p.m. To register call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org  

Jericho Deliverance Fellowship Open House Wed.-Fri, at Fresh Manna Christian Center, 3201 Shattuck Ave. 459-5559.  

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

After-School Program Homework help, drama and music for children ages 8 to 18, every Wed. from 4 to 7:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $5 per week. 845-6830. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, FEB. 21 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll learn about animal defenses, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

“The California Serengeti: A Tour of the Bay Area, 15,000 BCE” with Breck Parkman, senior state archeologist, California State Parks at 12:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2002. 

“The Corporation” Screening of Part 1 of the film at 7 p.m., followed by discussion with Jess Bell of the CA Food and Justice Coalition, at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. Donations accepted. 495-5132. 

Sustainable Peralta Film Festival Screenings of “The Story of Stuff,” “Homeland,” “Who Killed the Electric Car” beginning at 3:30 p.m. at Laney College Theater. jlin@peralta.edu 

Academy Awards Preview Night with Harry Chotiner at 7 p.m. at the College Preparatory School, 6100 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50- $15, $5 for students. http://loiivetalk-chotiner.eventbrite.com 

“Rebuilding with Straw Bale in Earthquake Affected Pakistan” with Berkeley architect Martin Hammer who recently returned from Pakistan where he has been working to bring straw bale and other sustainable building practices to the mountainous region devastated by the 2005 earthquake, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

Berkeley Stop the War Coalition meets at 7 p.m. at 258 Dwinelle, UC Campus. All are welcome. 

“Remedies to Reduce Depression: The Role of Vitamins, Hormones, Toxicity, and Acupuncture” at 7 p.m. at Piedmont Adult School, Oakland. Cost is $25. Sponsored by Foundation for Wellness Professionals. to register call 849-1176. 

Holistic Menopause & Intimacy at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

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

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. Free, all are welcome. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Mel Lavine, former TV journalist on his new book “A Strange Breed of Folks.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Golden Gate Audubon Society with Dr. Rauri Bowie on “The Importance of Habitat Association in the Diversification of African Birds” at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 843-2222. 

Benefit for Berkeley Food and Housing, North County Women’s Shelter with dinner at 6:30 and dancing from 7:30 on at the Gaia Arts Center. Tickets are $40-$50. 649-4965, ext. 304. 

Two-Day Photography Workshop with Ami Vitale on “Reaching Across Borders” organized by Fotovision. Information and enrollment at www.fotovision.org 

Easy Does It Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. 

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. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 8 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Pot luck at 7 p.m. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 23 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Reptile Rendevous Learn about the reptiles that call the Tilden Nature Area home, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bay Area Seed Interchange Library Seed Swap and pot luck at 6:30 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Bring garden seed to share and a potluck dish or $10 for entrance. 658-9178. 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Field Trip “Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park” with Hilary Powers. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the large spherical cage near Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue to look at wintering birds. 843-2222. 

Retirement Party for Michele Lawrence Celebrating 35 Years in Public Education. Cocktails and dinner at 6 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 472-3811. party@berkeley.k12.ca.us  

Billabong Ball Fundraiser for Young People’s Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. at the Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $10-$75. www.ypsomusic.net 

Castlemont High School Annual General Membership Luncheon at 11 a.m. at Francesco’s Resturant, 8200 Pardee St., corner of Hegenberger Rd., Oakland. Cost is $30. 828-1481. www.castlemontalumni.org 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “The Joy of Vegan Baking” featuring currant scones, apple strudel, peanut butter chocolate bars, oat bran muffins and more, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $49 plus $5 material fee. to register call 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com 

“60th Annual Festival of the Oaks” International Folk Dancing Workshop from 9:30 a.m. to noon, dancing from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Ave. No partners needed.Cost is $7-$12. 527-2177. meldancing@aol.com 

Spartacist Black History Month Forum: From Mumia Abu-Jamal to the Jena Six at 2 p.m. at Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. 839-0851. slbayarea@sbcglobal.net 

Energy Efficient Homes A workshop from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at 1817 Second St. Sponsored by Truitt & White. Free, but registration required. 649-2674. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Remodeling Free class to learn about lead safe renovations for your older home from 2 to 4 p.m. at Mark’s Paint Mart, 2317 Blanding Ave., Alameda. Presented by Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. 567-8280. www.ACLPPP.org 

Kids Go Green Activities centered on ecology and climate change from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $9-$13. 336-7373.  

“Everybody Eats Lunch” Lunchbox recipes from around the world at 2:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

“Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products” with author Mark Schapiro at 4 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Teen Knitting Circle at 3 p.m. in the 4th flr Story Room, Central Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Bring your own knitting needles in size 8, sample yarns provided. 981-6107. 

Preschool Storytime, for ages 3-5, at 11 a.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Oakland Artisans Marketplace Sat. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jack London Square. 238-4948. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 24 

Hike in Briones Join a leisurely 4-mile hike out to the Maricich and Sindicich Lagoons to see California newts. Meet at 10 a.m. at the Alhambra Creek Staging Area off of Reliz Valley Rd. Bring lunch and water. To register call 925-862-2601. 

“African-American Rhythms On and Off the Canvas” activities for the whole family from 1 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2002. 

“Aerial Pesticide Spraying in the Bay Area for the Apple Moth” A community information meeting at 5 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. 524-5185. www.stopthespray.org 

Films for the Future: The Future of Food at 2 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Little Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Kensington Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave. at Amherst, Kensington. 525-6155. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

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

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

"beat.sit.asana: urbanYOGA Soul Sunday Jam from from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Center for Urban Peace, 2584 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Free. 549-3733. ext. 1. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “Path of Liberation” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000 www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 5 to 9 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Cost is $3 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

MONDAY, FEB. 25 

“The History of African American Migrant Women During World War II” with Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, at 10:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak, Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2002. 

New Soul Cooking with Tanya Holland of “Melting Pot Soul Kitchen” at 5:30 p.m. at the Elmhurst Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1427 88th Ave., Oakland. 615-5869. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues. Feb. 19, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Feb. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601. 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

ONGOING 

E-Waste Recycling St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County accepts electronic waste including computers, dvd players, cell phones, fax machines and many other ewaste products for disposal free of charge at many of its locations throughout Alameda County. Free bulk pick-up available. 638-7600. www.svdp-alameda.org 

Free Tax Help If your 2007 household income was less than $42,000, you are eligible for free tax preparation from United Way's Earn it! Keep It! Save It! Sites are open now through April 15 in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. To find a site near you, call 800-358-8832. www.EarnItKeepItSaveIt.org 

Donate the Excess Fruit from Your Fruit Trees I’ll gladly pick and deliver your fruit to community programs that feed school kids, the elderly, and the hungry. The fruit trees should be located in Berkeley and organic (no pesticides). This is a free volunteer/ 

grassroots thing so join in!! To scehdule and appointment call or email 812-3369. northberkeleyharvest@gmail.com

From my sixth-floor living room window I have a glorious panoramaic view of the Berkeley and Oakland hills. I never tire of this view, gazing out at the Campanile, International House, the Claremont Hotel and numerous campus buildings. When I pull my drapes apart in the early morning, it’s almost as though I were opening curtains to a stage. This comparison may sound a bit fanciful, but is it really? 

After all, when we go to the theater, we don’t know what we’ll be seeing. Similarly, when I pull my drapes apart in the early morning, I never know what sights will greet me. Will there be a gorgeous sunrise, with brilliant streaks of red in the sky? Will dozens of crows circle noisily outside my window and then perch on telephone wires, looking for all the world like Supreme Court Jjustices? Will this be a crystal-clear day where I can see the Lawrence Hall of Science, the Radiation Laboratory and practically the entire campus? 

Or will fog hang so thick and heavy I won’t even be able see houses across the street, much less read the clock on the Campanile? Not to worry—I love fog. 

From my living room window I’ve witnessed many unforgettable scenes, none so heart wrenching as the Oakland Hills Fire Storm in 1991. That day will forever be etched in my memory! With several neighbors joining me at my picture window, we watched nearly that entire day, in grief and disbelief, as hundreds of homes went up in flames. I didn’t know it at the time, but several of those homes belonged to good friends and colleagues at UC. To this day, whenever there’s a hot, dry wind, I shudder and pray to the Almighty that this tragedy will not be repeated. 

Another scene I’ve witnessed all too often is that of fire trucks and ambulances racing down Parker Street, sirens blaring, then turning the corner, pulling up to my apartment building. It’s a sound I’ve come to dread. I run to the window to see firemen and paramedics rushing into the lobby, first aid equipment in hand. I hurry out to the hall to see where the elevator has stopped, then stand at the window waiting to see who will be carried out. If the person carried out on a gurney is sitting up and talking, I breath a sigh of relief; perhaps it was only a nasty fall or minor heart attack. But when the firemen and paramedics remain in the building for a long period of time, then place someone in the ambulance and drive off slowly, no sirens blaring, I know that I’ve lost a friend and neighbor. Oh, yes, how I dread the sound of those sirens! 

But let me reassure you that not all the scenes I witness from my window are somber. Some are lighthearted, such as the group of Hare Krishnas parading down Telegraph Avenue in saffron robes, with shaved heads, chanting and beating their drums. On the eve of Big Game Day I’ve seen the Cal Marching Band also parading along Telegraph to the cheers of onlookers. Then, of course, there are the hundreds of UC students, backpacks and cell phones in tow, hurrying to their classes. I’m always gratified at the great diversity of Cal’s student body. 

By now you probably understand why I dearly love the view from my living room window, reflecting small human dramas and the exciting flavor of this wonderful university city.