A handful of Bay Area cities, including Berkeley, have exceptional tobacco control policies, but many more are in need of improvement, according to a statewide report released Wednesday. 

The American Lung Association in California's State of Tobacco Control 2015 report overall found that many Bay Area cities were leading the state in its policies but a larger number were stagnating, organization officials said.  

An A grade was granted to Berkeley, Dublin, Richmond, San Rafael, and Union City along with unincorporated Santa Clara County. 

San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose all received a grade of B in addition to Alameda, Albany, Belmont Campbell, unincorporated Contra Costa County, Daly City, El Cerrito, Foster City, Hayward, Martinez and Walnut Creek. 

The annual statewide report, which started in 2009, rated cities and counties based on three factors. 

The first factor looked at what's being done to reduce smoke in outdoor areas such as dining places, entryways, recreational sites and workplaces. 

Another dependent component among cities and counties was their smokefree policies in places including apartments, condominiums, common areas and housing, Finally, there were points given based on policies in place to decrease the accessibility and sales of tobacco products. 

Bonus points were issued for cities or counties that included e-cigarettes in its definition of tobacco products, zoning restrictions for tobacco retailers' locations from schools and prohibited or limited sales of tobacco at pharmacies. 

Failing cities included Antioch, Hercules, San Bruno, East Palo Alto, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Sonoma and all cities in Solano County. 

All of Napa County received a F grade with the exception of its unincorporated area, which was given a D grade. 

The state overall received a B grade in its smokefree air policies and a D grade in its poor performance of smoking cessation and treatment services. 

The state received F grades for its low tobacco taxes, which the association said hasn't been raised since 1999, and failure to finance tobacco prevention and control programs. 

Last year the association set goals for all federal, state and local governments to reduce smoking rates to below 10 percent by 2024 and protect Americans from secondhand smoke by 2019. 

The association is also backing the proposed California Tobacco Tax for Healthcare, Research & Treatment Act, which would add a $2 tax for every pack of tobacco. 

The money raised from the tax would fund Medi-Cal tobacco treatment services; research into strategies for treatment and prevention of tobacco use; and youth and adult programs by the state Department of Health Care Services. 

Olivia Gertz, president and CEO of the American Lung Association in California, said supporters of the act hope it will pass through the state Legislature or a ballot measure by the end of 2016. 

In this year's report El Cerrito Mayor Mark Friedman said the grades the city received in previous years has aided them in improving its secondhand smoking policies.

About 38,000 PG&E customers who lost power in the East Bay this afternoon have had their service restored, according to a utility spokeswoman. 

The outage started around 1:45 p.m. and the power came back on just before 3 p.m., PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian said. 

"We are still investigating the exact cause but we do know that the outage originated at a substation in Berkeley," Sarkissian said. 

The outage also affected customers in Albany, El Cerrito, Kensington, Oakland, Richmond and San Pablo, she said. 

The Downtown Berkeley BART station was shut down temporarily because of the outage, during which trains were not stopping at the station. BART officials said the station has since reopened and that normal service has resumed. 

Berkeley City College also shut down temporarily this afternoon, but reopened as of 3:30 p.m. 

Berkeley police said the outage affected several intersections, disabling stoplights for some time. Police advise the public to exercise caution when approaching an uncontrolled intersection and to treat it like a four-way stop.

King's American Dream: "A land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few." 

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death". 

"We need a radical reordering of our national priorities." 

"Laws only declare rights; they do not deliver them. The oppressed must take hold of laws and transform them into effective mandates." 

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." 

"There comes a time when people get tired of being plunged into the abyss of exploitation and nagging injustice." 

"The curse of poverty has no justification in our age." 

"Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which makes philanthropy necessary." 

"When Negroes looked for the second phase, the realization of equality, they found that many of their white allies had quietly disappeared." 

"I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls." 

"It is often easier to become outraged by injustice half a world away than by oppression and discrimination half a block from home." 

 

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men" 

 

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." 

 

 

 

"The time is always right to do the right thing." 

 

"Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase." 

 

"If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you to go on in spite of all. And so today I still have a dream". 

 

"An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." 

 

"The plea for unity is not a call for uniformity. There must always be a healthy debate." 

 

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." 

 

"Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation."

Kaiser Permanente reached a tentative agreement late Friday night with the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, averting a strike that was scheduled for next week, officials from both sides announced today. 

The three-year tentative contract impacts about 18,000 registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics in northern and central regions of the state, CNA officials said. 

Multiple strikes were scheduled to begin 7 a.m. Wednesday and last through 7 a.m. Friday at multiple Kaiser medical centers throughout the Bay Area including Antioch, Daly City, San Francisco, Oakland, Petaluma, Vacaville, San Rafael and Santa Clara, according to the CNA. 

The union announced today that it has canceled next week's strike. 

The nurses claimed Kaiser was cutting back on its patient care standards by decreasing hospital services, making restrictions on admitting patients for hospital care and discharging patients early though they needed further hospitalization, according to the CNA. 

They also claimed that Kaiser provided them with insufficient resources, equipment and training that put nurses and patients at risk, CNA officials said. 

The tentative agreement includes "groundbreaking workplace protections" for nurses from diseases such as Ebola, a 14 percent increase in pay for all nurses over the course of three years and a "substantial increase" in contributions by employers to nurses' 401(k) plans, according to the CNA. 

"We look forward to a new chapter in our interactions with Kaiser," RoseAnn DeMoro, CNA/NNU executive director, said in a statement today. 

"We especially appreciate the commitment of Kaiser's leadership to address our concerns, including working through the complicated problems associated with the changes in health care delivery, some of them related to the Affordable Care Act, and the attention it has paid in this contract to the health and safety of its registered nurses as well as its patients," DeMoro said. 

In a statement today Gregory A. Adams, regional president of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan, Inc., said, "This agreement is aligned with our commitment to improve our quality and affordability and to be a national model for the delivery of health care. 

"The agreement demonstrates that Kaiser Permanente and our nurses have a shared commitment to affordability for our members. Although we have had our disagreements at times with CNA, as this agreement reflects, we have been able to work through those disagreements, and ultimately agree on common goals that are in the best interests of our members, employees and our entire organization," Adams said. 

The tentative agreement impacts registered nurses and nurse practitioners at 86 Kaiser facilities from Santa Rosa to Fresno, according to CNA officials. 

CNA membership meetings are scheduled for next week starting on Wednesday and the nurses are expected to vote to ratify the contract in the next month, Kaiser and CNA officials said.

Three public meetings will be held on allocation of Measure WW funding for three neighborhood parks. Strawberry Creek Park will be the subject of the first meeting scheduled for Wednesday January 21 at 6:30 PM in the Green Room of the Corp Yard at 1326 Allston Way.

Willard Park Play Area will be discussed on Saturday January 24 at 10 AM at the Corp Yard, followed by the Marin Circle meeting on Wednesday January 28 at 6:30 PM at the Live Oak Park Community Center, 1301 Shattuck Avenue at Berryman. 

The meetings are planned as discussions between neighbors and staff, not formal public hearings. The funding is a grant from the 2008 East Bay Regional Parks District bond. 

Foxtails at Cesar Chavez Park 

Cesar Chavez Park is currently being studied, with comments sought on a biological assessment by Dr. James Martin on vegetation management options to deal with the foxtail problem at the off-leash dog park. 

Last summer’s growth of foxtails prompted user demands for further mowing, so the City asked Martin, who wrote an assessment in 1997 before the 17 acre dog park was established, to revisit the site and propose some alternatives for dealing with the nasty grasses, which can cause painful and expensive damage to canine visitors. 

The alternatives he suggests include no change, intensive mowing, increased management, and reconfigured footprint (moving the park to the southeast corner). These alternatives could be adapted and combined and others can be proposed, so user input, both from dog walkers and other visitors, will be valuable in determining how to proceed. 

Comments are due by Wednesday January 21 and should be sent to Roger Miller, Secretary of the Parks and Waterfront Commission, rmiller@cityofberkeley.info. 

Gift Opportunities  

Following Council action in October 2014, the donation policy has been expanded to allow for monetary contributions to specific parks budget accounts that the City uses to purchase items such as trees, equipment, landscaping, benches, picnic tables, fountains and other improvements. Donations over $3,400 may include a commemorative plaque or sponsorship signage. 

The accounts include the following funds: parks, camps, marina, nature center, and benches. Charitable contributions to governmental units are tax-deductible under section 170(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code if made for a public purpose. 

There is no limit on the amount that can be donated. So if anybody has a spare $5 million to rebuild the Willard Swim Center and rename it, please contact Scott Ferris at the Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Department. 

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Toni Mester is co-chair of the Parks and Waterfront Commission. 

 

NAM Editor's Note: In the past decade, the police department in Richmond, Calif. has undergone a dramatic transformation. Spearheaded by an openly-gay and white chief in charge of policing this largely African American and Latino city, the changes are now bearing fruit, with crime down and trust between officers and the residents they are meant to protect on the rise. As departments nationwide look for ways to improve community ties in the wake of police killings in Ferguson and New York, Richmond stands as a promising template.

RICHMOND, Calif. – Richmond’s police department is undergoing something of a renaissance these days, thanks in part to decades of reform that have moved the department from its longstanding enforcement-driven model to one that focuses more on building trust with the public. 

That transformation was thrust into the spotlight in December when an image of Chris Magnus, Richmond’s white, openly gay police chief, went viral, stirring a national response. In the image, Magnus is seen holding a “#BlackLivesMatter” sign while in full uniform at a demonstration against police brutality. The demonstration followed the acquittal of a white police officer in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. 

Magnus’ nine-year tenure is marked with like gestures: an extended hand to residents, viewed as enlightened by some and controversial by others. 

“But the biggest challenge,” Magnus says, “has been changing the perception black community members [have toward police], those who had experienced a legacy of mistrust.” 

That fraught legacy goes back decades, to the rough and tumble 1980s when “the cowboys” – a notorious, roving squad of undercover narcotics agents – were regularly accused of brutality, and more recently to the early part of the 1990s, when the city saw record homicides. 

More than two decades, and a handful of police chiefs later, crime still racked Richmond when Magnus came on board. In 2005, a year before Magnus took over, there were 40 homicides. 

“When I got here we were dealing with an extraordinarily high murder rate, off the charts,” Magnus says. “Officers were just crisis managers, moving from one hot call to the next.” 

Department shake-ups 

Along with the high crime rate, inner-department crisis and dissent greeted the new chief. He took the reins after a series of stagnant interim chiefs, save the progressive, but short-lived tenure of Chief William Lansdowne in the 90s. Other people wanted change in the past, Magnus says, but the culture of distrust and aggressive policing was too divisive. 

Early on, seven African-American officers accused him of racial harassment and discrimination in a civil lawsuit. Part of the allegation was that Magnus had blocked the promotions of black officers. The chief argued that he was dissolving the departmental “buddy system” that rewarded officers’ connections and seniority, instead of merit and performance. Magnus was acquitted in 2012. 

Richmond Police Capt. Mark Gagan says these early shake-ups and “unflinching discipline” were not merely a show of force. Since he took over, Magnus has demoted and fired more officers than two decades of previous chiefs combined, while increasing the size of the force from 155 to more than 195 officers. 

One of Magnus’ first steps was to decentralize the chain of command. Captains and other middle management positions were given more responsibility. For example, if a robbery occurs in the middle of the night, that sector’s captain will hear about it first, then coordinate officers and call community members in the area—often driving to the scene, too. Prior to Magnus, the sector captain might not have found out about the crime until the next afternoon. 

Magnus says even if just one officer can break through and form a bond with a neighborhood, it’s a victory for the department. 

“Cops are pragmatic,” Magnus notes. “They want to be viewed as partners in the community, not adversaries.” An ever-present fixture at city meetings, neighborhood events and volunteer opportunities—jeans dirty, shovel in hand—the chief has led the movement by example. 

That work appears to be paying off. In the past few years, following a crime, or suspicious activity, tips and witnesses come forward more so than ever, Magnus explains. There’s also been a significant drop in overall crime. 

According to Richmond crime data, total crime has fallen from 8,168 in 2004 to 5,961 in 2013. While total arrests (adult and juvenile) have gone down from 3,532 in 2005 to 2,705 in 2014. 

Richmond also saw a record-low of 11 homicides last year. 

A new approach 

Community policing, formerly a specialized tactic taught to a handful of officers, has become the mandated status quo in Richmond. Gagan says Richmond is one a few departments in the Bay Area to implement a “true geographic deployment.” Meaning, officers are assigned permanent beats and can’t choose new ones each year, as was the case in the past. 

Beat cops attend neighborhood council meetings in their coverage areas. They get out of their cruisers to walk around and meet people, building two-way rapport. Sometimes they’ll even give out their cellphone numbers. 

Sergio Rios, Vice President of the 23rd Street Merchants Association, says prostitution along 23rd street’s busy business corridor dropped significantly when Officer Yesenia Rogers made herself regularly present and available to business owners two years ago. “I can just call her whenever I see something,” he said. 

To gain trust in neighborhoods, RPD has also shifted from old-school force to preventative policing. “Verbal de-escalating” has made handcuffs, batons, and guns less and less necessary. 

This isn’t just the “technique and tactics” you learn in the police academy, Magnus says. “[My officers] need to learn how to talk to people and be problem solvers.” 

Gagan and Magnus say citizen-led, anti-crime organizations, like Ceasefire and the Office of Neighborhood Safety, contribute significantly to the improved situation. 

Bennie Lois Singleton, a volunteer with Ceasefire, says years ago she was afraid to even drive down Macdonald Avenue after witnessing shootouts in Nevin Park. Nowadays, she regularly walks the route without trepidation. 

“This is all because the community started interacting with police, and vice versa,” says Singleton, a longtime Richmond resident. 

“I’ve never been so comfortable with police,” she adds. “It’s like everything else, when you get to know a person, you look at them differently.” 

Bobbie Amos, a construction business owner who grew up in Richmond, recently walked into the RPD building on Regatta Boulevard and had a 30-minute sit-down with Magnus and Gagan—resident to badge. “I just wanted to meet them and say that we appreciate what can be a pretty thankless job,” Amos says. “We need to have relationships with the police.” 

The chief also introduced new technology to help with accountability. Body cameras, vehicle monitoring, and the “blue team” personal monitoring system have been key in holding officers accountable. These new, real-time strategies help watch commanders maintain everything, save a direct eye on beat officers. Interactions with residents, complaint histories, and even the cruiser speeds are closely monitored and digitally documented. 

“Now there are real consequences for bad behavior, bad police,” Magnus says. Consequences can come in the form of special training, missed promotions, demotions and even terminations. More often though, the chief says he chooses positive reinforcement to “get people to do their jobs in a new and better way.” 

Along with new technology, the department has implemented new rules for dealing with missteps. In-house investigations, like the one around last year’s officer-involved-shooting, a corruption-related firing, and a marijuana cache found in another officer’s house, are made public. 

“We’re transparent and proactive in dealing with bad behavior,” the chief says. “People [in the department] don’t want to stand by and let the one percent break the public trust.” 

Though Richmond has come a long way since its days on the FBI’s most dangerous cities list, Magnus knows there’s still work to be done. 

“We can’t drag people into a relationship,” he says. “But as long as they’re willing to meet us half way, we’ll be there waiting.”

Update on Wednesday January 28: The do-nothing Berkeley City Council has again done nothing on this urgent matter. They nattered on until the proposed ordinances, near the bottom of the agenda, had to be postponed once more, now until February 10. They should be ashamed of themselves.

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P.P.S. on Friday, January 23: I'm leaving this editorial up for a while longer because there have been so many additions to it, and the videos of the meetings are STILL not posted on the city's web site. If you want to get a better idea of what happened last Saturday, there's a good report from Frances Dinkelspiel, complete with short videos of speakers (including me) on the Berkeleyside site.
 

Afterword on Monday: Just call me Cassandra. As quasi-promised below, I went to the Berkeley City Council’s special meeting on topics racial which took place at the Ed Roberts center on Saturday, and as predicted it was pretty much of a shuck. 

Reliable estimates from several people I knew there called the audience at about 200—not much over the 123 or so seats in the regular council chambers, and not nearly as many as the number comfortably accommodated in the halls of Old City Hall with loudspeakers on occasion. This gathering could have been held there, and could have been streamed online, with decent planning.

There were many, many empty seats. As expected: no students except for an ASUC guy who confirmed that they're still out of town. Black students were at a long-scheduled conference in conjunction with the MLK holiday.

And yes, it was hard to see (councilmembers and panelists sat at floor level, not on a platform) or hear (unless you sat in a straight line in front of the portable speakers of the inadequate sound system.) Experts and politicians, fine folks all of course, said pretty much what I expected they would. County Supervisor Keith Carson did show up to give a rousing speech (though I had trouble hearing it), mysteriously however not as part of the politicos’ panel.

State Senator Loni Hancock wrung her hands. Both Congresswoman Barbara Lee and State Assemblymember Tony Thurmond spoke forcefully about legislative opportunities, using their hand-held mikes expertly so they could be heard by all. Unfortunately, although Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan was physically present during their talks, he sat at the very back of the audience and conversed audibly, loudly even, throughout both of their presentations.

City Manager Christine Daniel was barely visible, cowering in a corner at the left of the councilmembers. She said nothing. Newby District 8 councilmember Lori Droste didn’t say anything either, though all of her fellow councilmembers spoke up in predictable ways at the end of the meeting.

No video of the proceedings has yet been posted online by the city clerk—perhaps after today’s holiday one might appear, or not. Tomorrow the council will again take up related topics, starting with a 5:30 discussion of recommendations from the Peace and Justice commission.

Here's what I predicted last Friday, followed by a brief report of what happened on Tuesday:  

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It’s profoundly ironic that when the people who run Berkeley wanted to blow off civic anger about how the Berkeley Police handled the December 6 protests they re-scheduled the discussion for the Martin Luther King birthday weekend. (We’ll leave for another day an in-depth analysis of who these people might be.)

Monday is a holiday for Berkeley city employees and also for the Berkeley schools. A three-day weekend, right? So a lot of folks who might want to attend might also want to be out of town. Too bad for them.

One excuse for postponing the discussion in December was that U.C. students were out of town, but would be back by January 17. Sorry, most classes don’t start until next week, after the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, so we probably won’t see a huge student presence tomorrow either.

To add insult to injury, the chosen venue is on the very southwesternmost periphery of the city, just this side of the Oakland border. It will be held in a facility, the Ed Roberts Campus at 3075 Adeline St., which lacks the capacity for streaming or broadcasting the meeting for the home viewer—which would have been possible in the regular city council chambers and several other locations they could have chosen instead. The city clerk’s office told me they thought a video might be made of the gathering (billed originally as a “workshop”, lately as a “public town hall”), but they weren’t sure when or whether it would be posted online.

The people at the ERC tell me that the gathering is booked for their Osher room, which holds about 100 people but can be opened up to the center lobby. I’ve been to meetings and even operas in that space—the acoustics and sight lines leave something to be desired.

And how about the purpose of the get-together? There seems to be a bit of mission creep. 

 

 

Recall that Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates cancelled the first city council meeting after police teargassed and clubbed protesters on Telegraph on December 6. Here’s how Emilie Raguso reported (on berkeleyside.com) what happened at the subsequent scheduled council meeting on December 16, which was transferred to a school site: 

 

 

An emotional crowd nearly shut down the Berkeley City Council multiple times Tuesday night during a public comment period that lasted the better part of four hours. About 50 people spoke to council — and many more were in attendance — to share concerns about racial profiling as well as the actions of police on Saturday, Dec. 6, when officers used tear gas, projectiles and baton hits to control and clear a crowd that refused to disperse from Telegraph Avenue after several hours of demonstrations around the city. Council members considered but rejected the possibility of scheduling a special meeting this month to discuss the events of Dec. 6, and how police should interact with protesters going forward.

Now, finally, this gathering is taking place, but the published agenda indicates that it could easily turn into a whitewash. (And yes, the choice of metaphor was deliberate.) Since it is not a real, official council meeting, councilmembers will be unable to make decisions about solutions, should they want to, which they probably don’t. 

 

 

From the agenda: “ Improving Police and Community Relations: Discuss possible ways to improve community and police relations and addressing our response to what occurred in Ferguson, Missouri and beyond that will result in positive steps the City Council can pursue. “ 

Thank You for Sharing, and Have a Nice Day. 

Tempers will have cooled by now. Many Berkeleyans who were outraged at how this protest was handled will have moved on to deal with other pressing causes, all passion spent. That’s undoubtedly what the Mayor and his city manager hoped would happen. 

The first item on the agenda is “Public Comment”. If it follows the usual Bates scenario, it will be a series of one-minute rants from citizens more or less sane on a variety of related or unrelated topics of their choice. They will be largely ignored by the majority of whichever councilmembers deign to show up. 

Then there will be what was once pitched as a panel of “experts”, now called a Facilitated Panel Discussion: 

 

 

• John A. Powell - UC Berkeley Professor of Law and Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society
• Jack Glaser - UC Berkeley professor and author of the recently published book Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling
• Sheila Quintana - Principal of Berkeley's alternative high school, Berkeley Technology Academy
• Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira - Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy and writer/performer in a solo show, "Cops & Robbers".

Next, a panel of politicos. According to the latest press release, these will be the Mayor’s wife, State Senator Loni Hancock, Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (newly elected without the blessing of the Bates/Hancock apparatus) and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. According to the first press release from the city, these were invited but not confirmed, though some guy in the mayor’s office told me on Wednesday that they’re coming. Congresswoman Barbara Lee is probably dealing with the immigration struggle in D.C. but the latest update says she’ll come. Longtime Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson seems to have bailed since Wednesday. 

 

 

None of these estimable panelists, on either roster, have any jurisdiction over the Berkeley Police. They are being given the opportunity to express sentiments no one could disagree with—and will not know or say much about specific Berkeley complaints, I imagine. 

Serious questions about the Berkeley Police’s violent response to the December 6 protests most likely will be sloughed off. Berkeley City Manager Christine Daniel, who was presumably in charge that night, might or might not be in attendance. (Bates and Hancock were attending a testimonial dinner for old Sacramento buddy Bill Lockyer in South County.) Police Chief Michael Meehan, who presumably was issuing the orders, might or might not be there. You can be sure that neither of these two will be subjected to pointed questioning from panelists or audience. 

If this incident of police misconduct is not dealt with, it will happen again. Somehow Daniel and Meehan have missed the memo on how Berkeley should deal with protests, so they’ll make the same mistakes in similar situations in the future if they’re not instructed to do otherwise. 

In spite of the apparent futility of accomplishing anything in this context, you should show up if you can, particularly if you were a victim or a witness on December 6. I’d love to be proved wrong about the scenario, but I’d be very surprised. If you go, please send your observations to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com. If I go, I’ll post mine. 

There’s also the matter of other instances of questionable behavior by the Berkeley police department: things like eight police officers taking over a restaurant on a Sunday afternoon on the pretext of investigating a baseless child abuse charge, the death of a mentally ill person in police custody, and other problematic situations which haven’t been addressed by the city’s multiple but impotent review processes. 

For next week’s regular Berkeley City Council Meeting, Councilmember Jesse Arreguin has placed a couple of proposals on the action agenda which, if enacted, could make a difference. 

One proposes to enact a list of changes to the police department’s standing orders on the use of force, following a model recently adopted in Oakland. 

Specifically, the item asks the council to “adopt a motion declaring as a temporary City of Berkeley policy that the use of chemical agents (tear gas etc.), Specialty Impact Less-Lethal Weapons (“projectiles” or rubber bullets, wooden dowels, stinger grenades, rubber bullets) and over the shoulder baton strikes, are prohibited uses of force in responding to crowd situations, until such time as an investigation is conducted as to the Police response to the December 6, 2014 protests, and a review of General Orders C-64, M-2, and U-2 is completed.” 

The second asks the council to sponsor an independent investigation of December 6 events: 

“Direct the City Manager to initiate an independent investigation into the police response to protests on December 6, 2014 and to return to Council as soon as possible, but no later than 60 days with a contract to hire a qualified independent investigator. In considering who to select to conduct the investigation, the City Manager should give preference to former police chiefs or law enforcement officials with experience conducting internal investigations. To avoid the appearance of or possibility of conflicts of interests, the City Manager should avoid selecting an individual or firm who previously worked for the Berkeley Police Department or who previously or currently worked for any law enforcement agency in the San Francisco Bay Area. The City Manager shall ensure that the selected individual or firm has no apparent conflicts of interest.” 

If the council were to pass either or both of these proposals, it might prevent the December 6 situation from recurring the next time there’s a protest. But, as I say all too often, don’t hold your breath. The Bates Bloc is most likely to vote both down with little discussion. Watch Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting on Tuesday to see what they do. 

 

 

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POSTSCRIPT: What did they do? Nothing, nada, zilch. Videos of the Berkeley City Council have not been posted for three meetings now, the one on January 17 and the two on January 20. None of these meeting were live-streamed either. The City Clerk's office cites "technical problems". Uh-huh.  

 

 

Thanks to KPFK radio online, I heard the tail end of the evening meeting on the 20th, and deduced that Councimember Arreguin's proposals were postponed until the next council meeting, now scheduled for next Tuesday,January 27. Again, however, don't hold your breath in hopes that this do-nothing council will do anything then.  

Policing in Berkeley? No Problem. Oh sure: As brother Jimmy used to say: "God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water but fire next time".

it's hard to believe in the daytime
there where the brother was hit
shot like a dog by the dumpster
this was some serious shit
kissed by some fool with a shotgun
arguing over some buy
people just act like it's natural
everyone wants to get high

 

right near the dollar store entrance
right behind Everette and Jones
eaten alive by the hunger
in a neighborhood down to the bones
everyone hopes they'll get lucky
the next score just might be the one
death doesn't wait 'til you're ready
just for some fool with a gun

 

bouquets of needles and empties
halos of gulls in the sky
three murders ring Forty Acres
people have stopped asking why three murders ring Forty Acres
nobody's dropping a dime
three murders ring Forty Acres
four's just a matter of time

there where the brother was hit
shot like a dog by the dumpster
this was some serious shit
kissed by some fool with a shotgun
arguing over some buy
people just act like it's natural
everyone wants to get high

 

right near the dollar store entrance
right behind Everette and Jones
eaten alive by the hunger
in a neighborhood down to the bones
everyone hopes they'll get lucky
the next score just might be the one
death doesn't wait 'til you're ready
just for some fool with a gun

 

bouquets of needles and empties
halos of gulls in the sky
three murders ring Forty Acres
people have stopped asking why
three murders ring Forty Acres
nobody's dropping a dime
three murders ring Forty Acres
four's just a matter of time

On Tuesday, Dec. 13, a small number of environmental activists from West Berkeley met in a local café for the purpose of taking the next step in putting an end to air pollution in their neighborhood. West Berkeley has long faced various forms of health threat from industry in that area, principally from Hanson Asphalt and Pacific Steel Casting. 

At the meeting, one person reported lead in water that rose up out of his lawn, coating it with a white substance. Another, an engineer, reported that he had in the past measured nickel and manganese levels in the air that were way above EPA health thresholds. Another complained that the soot from Pacific Steel Casting at times is so heavy that it changed the color of her pet cat. The school buses that are garaged on 6th St where Urban Ore used to be are also often coated with soot. They are used that way without being cleaned first, and the children often get this soot on themselves. The steeple at St. Ambrose Church is being rented to ATT to put in a cell phone antenna. The church people know of the health risks of cell phone antennas. Residents have been fighting against the installation of these antennas in Berkeley for years. The antennas are being installed anyway. 

Another person reported walking her dog at midnight, and being seriously affected by malodorous gases coming from Pacific Steel Casting. She reported it to the Air Quality Control Board. When an agent from the Board phoned her about her complaint, he had already contacted Pacific Steel Casting, and they had said that no gases had been released that night, thus discounting her report. The gathering expressed the need for a reliable pollution reporting mechanism. 

An important issue raised was the proximity of elementary and middle schools to the sources of these noxious gases. It was mentioned that a number of schools in Berkeley are closer to air pollution sources than any other schools in the state. The Duck’s Nest Preschool is one block down wind from Pacific Steel. On this score, it was also mentioned that the new Whole Foods store on Gilman is itself in a toxic zone. 

This group is going to go to city council on Tuesday (1/20) to make two major demands. First, that a system of air quality monitors be installed along 6th St., to curtail industry denials, and provide real data concerning industry violations of standards. And second, that a public hearing be called to investigate whether Hanson Asphalt has complied with the conditions of a court decree of 1999. At that time, a Nuisance Suit was filed against Hanson (then Berkeley Asphalt) for unhealthy effluents, bad odors, and the use of toxic odor-disguising chemicals. The suit was dropped when a consent decree was reached that established a list of required mitigations for continuation of the company’s Land Use Permit. These mitigations have to do with the company’s truck traffic, dust production, odors, noise, etc. Those present at the meeting reported that Hanson has not complied with those mitigations. A public hearing would bring the situation to public attention, determine the degree to which the company had complied with the court settlement, and establish the need for some kind of rectification to the extent it had not. 

All who want to add their voice to this campaign should join these people at the council meeting on Tueday. 

A number of interesting issues were raised during the meeting. One was the use by industry of odor-disguising chemicals. They do not rectify the emission of toxic fumes, but simply cover it up. In many cases, they even add toxicity to the fumes emitted. Both Hanson Asphalt and Pacific Steel Casting have been reported to have used odor-disguising chemicals, rather than clean up the waste gases they produce. 

In another item of discussion, it was noted that Pacific Steel Casting had recently been purchased by an equity firm. They seem to be planning on "flipping" the property – that is, it was purchased on speculation. The new owner may put in exhaust gas scrubbers because it will increase the value of the property for resale. In those terms, the cynical conclusion seems to be the most realistic, that environmental protection and resident health concerns will be considered only if made profitable, and that will occur only in the event that the property becomes an object of speculation. 

Finally, the issue of the toxicity of electromagnetic radiation (EMF – now known as "electrosmog") was also raised, as another form of environmental pollution. EMF is emitted by cell phones, cell phone towers, and Smartmeters, among other things. Where noxious gases and odors are perceptible, the toxicity of EMF is not. Nevertheless, it pollutes the environment, and creates serious health problems for many people. The gathering recognized the conjunction between these forms of pollution but decided to focus primarily on the issues of air pollution by Hanson Asphalt and Pacific Steel Casting.

You give Councilman Jesse Arreguin far too much credit in your January 16 editorial ("Berkeley panels to discuss police issues on Saturday").

Arreguin does not propose to reign in excessive force by the police department.

Arreguin proposes to legitimize and indemnify the use of police violence to suppress dissent.

As you noted Arreguin has placed two items on the council's agenda. One of these calls for an independent investigation of BPD's response to protesters on December 6. The other item proposes to update the City's standing orders to the police department regarding so-called crowd control.

The outcomes are predictable, should these items pass. 

An independent investigation will be limited in scope. Arreguin has proposed it look only at December 6th and, in that context, investigate only a few possible technical violations of department policy. The only possible outcome for an investigation of this sort is (at best) a minor reprimand and some inconsequential recommendations to the city. 

Even with the stakes so low, Arreguin has to practically apologize for calling for the investigation at all. 

He writes, confessionally: "Initiating an independent investigation after a major policing event is not unusual. For example, the City of Oakland hired an independent firm to investigate allegations of excessive police force in response to the Occupy Oakland protest on October 25, 2011. The resulting report led to a number of findings and recommendations to improve crowd control policies, procedures, and tactics of the Oakland Police Department." 

Got that? Before any investigation has even started Arreguin is reassuring the police and the city that, just like in Oakland, the investigation will dissolve into nothing more than a toothless and easily forgotten report. Most of all, he promises to improve the functioning of so-called crowd control. 

The problem isn't police repressing dissent, apparently. No, according to Arreguin, it's just that police aren't repressing dissent quite correctly. "Repress better!" Arreguin says to the police. 

In his other item, Arreguin asks the Police Review Commission to offer some suggestions regarding where it is better and where is less desirable for police to beat people with a baton. The outcome is again predictable: the commission will suggest police try to avoid kidney and genital strikes when they can conveniently do so, but beating people's ribs and limbs will be generally approved. Cracking skulls will be frowned upon but breaking fingers overlooked. 

Berkeley progressive leadership says: "Oh Pharaoh, let my people have 48 lashes rather than 50 but you can still get the job done if make greater use of water cannons, OK? Please? If its no trouble. Otherwise, forget it." 

Arreguin, a supposedly progressive member of council, apparently approves of using a para-military force, not under meaningful civilian command, to violently put down peaceful protesters. His main concern is to slightly tweak the specific modes of violence police will use for this purpose. 

Let's step back from Arreguin's false progressivism for a minute and consider what we've witnessed: 

Berkeley police, armored and armed to the teeth, confront and menace peaceful protests. 

Berkeley police menace protesters until, inevitably, some sole obligingly throws a rock or bottle. Or not. The police can just say someone did and later, at a press conference, show the teevee reporters what rocks and bottles look like. "Can you imagine seeing one of these flying through the air at your helmeted head and armored body? We can!" 

Thereupon the police declare the entire assembly unlawful and commence their violent attacks on unarmed, peaceful protesters. 

Who could have seen that coming? I mean, police show up just looking for an excuse to attack protesters and, by gosh, wouldn't you know it, after hassling the crowd for hours they get an excuse to attack! 

During this time the police make no moves to protect property from the small number of vandals who show up. No, the police rely on such vandalism which they then present as proof that their violent collective punishment of protest was justified! 

In carrying out this repression the police even, from time to time, set aside civilian control and join a so-called "unified command": a tangible demonstration of how the federal government has worked to convert local agencies into an unaccountable and illegal standing army. 

In the context of this unified command local policies become worthless paper. 

At these exercises, what's more, so-called intelligence gathering is in full force. Nearly 50 years after the '65 and '68 the secret police are still gathering files on dissenters, setting out to destroy the lives of activists. 

And Arreguin wants to respond to these conditions by asking the police to please consider trying to avoid causing organ damage when they beat people with clubs. 

Berkeley needs better progressive leadership than that

While no religious groups are immune to violence, there is clearly a greater propensity of violent outrage from Islamist extremists. To murder innocent people, shouting “God is Great’ is surely an affront to Islam and the Creator whom they claim to worship.

However, before we drench ourselves in a false sense of virtue we need to view past events to better understand how we, in the Western world, might have stirred the collective outrage in Muslim countries. 

Islamic terrorists who have been wreaking so much havoc for the last quarter century were bred much the same way as killer bees. A few examples: In 1953 the CIA orchestrated a coup in Iran and overthrew the democratic elected government of Mosaddeq. We then trained, armed and organized young militant Muslims to help repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When we left them twisting in the wind they turned against us.  

We then aided and abetted Israel in cleansing Palestinians from their ancestral land. Following 9/11 the Bush/Cheney cabal ordered prisoners to be tortured and falsely confess that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attack. The shock and awe of Iraq resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths.  

We then followed Bin Laden to the caves of Afghanistan unleashing US firepower which fueled intense anger and resentment in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. While these actions were not generated by religious fever they nevertheless resulted in significant fatalities.

In an act of enormous courage, more and more Israelis are refusing to perform their mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Many of those who refuse are subject to opprobrium and portrayed as treacherous. Mimicking the playbook of former President Bush – “you are either with us or against us” a popular bumper sticker reads “A real Israeli doesn’t dodge the draft.”

The strong reaction of the government is indicative that their tight control of young Israelis is weakening. Open letters of ‘refusenicks” were published by a group of high schoolers, veterans of the intelligence Unit 8200, alumni and former staff members of the highly prestigious Israel Arts and Sciences Academy. 

Predictably, aggression towards those who refuse to be drafted is widespread. As one prominent activist Ms. Rotem, remarked “Israeli patriotism today means resisting anything which frames the occupation as normal.” Even ultra-orthodox, Haredi’s, such as Uriel Ferera, stated that the occupation was their primary reasons for their refusal. 

Many other “gray refusers” in the thousands, find more subtle ways to avoid the draft by siting mental health exemptions, known as a “Profile 21.” Most who refuse the draft will lose educational opportunities and housing. 

The voices are becoming louder and louder to end the occupation. The Israeli author, Amos Oz, urged politicians to act as “traitors,” and make peace. Let us hope sanity prevails and the occupation is soon ended and the siege of Gaza is lifted.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” So begins Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities,” set amidst the French Revolution in 1789. So might begin a tale of 2015 where the US economy is booming, yet citizens feel hopeless; where we are continually presented with technical wonders, but elect fools to Congress. The paradoxical tone of 2015 should not be surprising because Americans are laboring under the stress of four wars. This is an opportunity for liberals. 

The first war is on Terror. For most Americans, this war arrived on September 11, 2001, with the horrific attacks in New York and Washington. However, the Global Terrorism Database reports that from 1970-2011 there were 2600 terrorist attacks in the US . The Global Terrorism Database defines terrorism as "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation." This definition includes not only Al Qaeda but others such as the American militia movement responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. From 2001-2011 the three groups responsible for the largest number of US terrorist attacks were “the Earth Liberation Front” (50), “the Animal Liberation Front” (34), and Al Qaeda (4). 

While US political leaders call upon Muslim leaders to renounce terrorism, the Global Terrorism data indicate that all faiths and political movements need to renounce “illegal force and violence.” Clearly a way to combat terror is through increased tolerance. This was shown by the millions who marched in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo killings. But this will not be sufficient, because terrorism has an economic as well as a religious/ideological component. 

The second war concerns Class. It’s the same conflict between the rich and the poor that fueled the French Revolution. Now it’s cast in mythos that any American can become part of the one percent if they try hard enough and, conversely, if citizens are mired in poverty it is their own fault. 

It’s no accident that 15 of the 19 jihadists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks came from Saudi Arabia, where they is an economic gulf between the ruling elite and the average Saudi. However, the US has the worst income inequality in the developed world. 

Clearly the way to battle class is to equalize wealth and privilege. That’s the message of Senator Elizabeth Warren and the new populism. To complicate matters, the rich are also polluters. 

The third war is being waged on the Environment. At year end, the United Nations reported, “Climate change is not a far-off problem. It is happening now and is having very real consequences on people’s lives.” 

We’ve gone beyond the necessity for public awareness; something has to be done or the planet, as we know it, will perish. That’s the message of Pope Francis and other leaders. 

While laboring under the burden of three wars, Americans are suffering from an unprecedented attack on personal Privacy. In common law privacy is “the right of people to lead their lives in a manner that is reasonably secluded from public scrutiny.” 

In 2013, US whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed 

The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything. With this capability, the vast majority of human communications are automatically ingested without targeting. If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards.

Recently, the United Nations Human Rights office declared, “The use of mass surveillance technology effectively does away with the right to privacy of communications on the Internet altogether.” Surveillance inevitably becomes a tool for suppression. 

 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” Beset by four wars, it’s no wonder that many Americans are deeply depressed. Nonetheless, these challenging times are an opportunity for liberals to lead the US out of the darkness, to renew the struggle for a world of peace and justice. 

To find the courage to forge a new progressive movement, it’s wise to consider the words of liberal leaders of the past. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face.” Nelson Mandela advised, “It always seems impossible, until it’s done.” 

As we struggle against these four wars, we should remember the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” 

---

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at bburnett@sonic.net

Persons with a psychotic type disorder have brains that more easily accept thoughts as being facts. A person with a schizophrenic brain does not have the same ability, compared to someone non-afflicted, to know what is real versus what is merely a thought.  

Antipsychotic medication apparently increases the priority of the external environment and reduces the prominence of the internal environment in one's perceptions. Thus, initially it is harder for someone with schizophrenia to create insulation from the external environment. This allows mental health professionals to impress upon us a version of reality that is closer to what "normal" people have. It allows family members and other people with whom we come into contact to do the same.  

The problem with being psychotic is that the mind has split off from commonly accepted "reality" and has created its own version. This might be valid except that a psychotic version of reality is jumbled, constantly changing, and doesn't allow a person to survive in the human environment.  

If you had a different version of the world yet you could still meet your basic needs and stay out of trouble, you might be considered eccentric rather than mentally ill. Yet, usually, too much unconventionality, especially in the absence of tracking and acknowledging common beliefs, leads to the wrong path. 

It is fine to say, "I'm not crazy--it's everybody else that's crazy," but you won't score too many points if, for example, you think you are above putting a coin in a parking meter where you parked your car, or perhaps if you believe a loaf of bread ought to be free and you behave accordingly. It doesn't matter if the rest of the world is wrong and you're right, because there are more of them than there are of you.  

Again, for someone with a schizophrenic brain--either someone not in treatment or someone who has residual symptoms--almost any thought that occurs in the mind can often be accepted as truth. Someone with psychosis lacks the same filtering mechanism compared to a non-afflicted person.  

If someone with schizophrenia has a "buddy" who is not affected by psychosis, such a friend can help anchor the psychotic person. But even in order to accept a friend's "reality checking," rather than discarding it in favor of believing the delusional thoughts, the person needs to be in treatment.  

However, with training, a psychotic person can learn a number of compensatory mechanisms. Unfortunately, such training is not readily available, and it is more economical to just give the patient more medication, and impose more restrictions.  

For someone with mental illness, it is an almost magical moment when a light bulb comes on in one's head--the compensatory awareness that recognizes that one's mind is subject to extreme error. When error is acknowledged, it is the beginning of self-correction.  

It is common for people with schizophrenia to lack the insight that they have this condition. Anosognosia is the term. Anosognosia is believed to be one of the symptoms typically exhibited by someone with schizophrenia. Thus, the very thing that could help the schizophrenic person is denied them by their illness. 

However, I believe insight can be increased through educating an individual when in treatment.  

When I had relapses of my condition, it began with the attempt to reduce the dosages of medications because I wanted more comfort and wanted to be less restricted by the dampening effects of the medication. Unfortunately, at some point in the reduction of medication, I acquired the belief that I didn't need medication and that I could "think" my way clear of the illness. The result was fully-blown psychotic relapses, which I experienced a couple of different times.  

Once back on medication and in treatment, I had to start from square one in my recovery. Each time I had a relapse, I lost a little more ground as to my capabilities. A psychiatrist said that it takes about ten years to recover complete functioning following a psychotic episode. But if you are having relapses every five or six years, what then? Or, what about persons with mental illness who relapse every one or two years? What about them?  

In April of this year, it will be my nineteenth anniversary of my most recent hospitalization for mental illness. I believe it is within reach to not have any further of these episodes. Surviving in the world and maintenance of my responsibilities is a daily struggle, as is the endeavor to be a professional author. But I would not want to trade this struggle for being taken care of more, because with such care comes more restrictions.  

Yes, life is hard. But I am here for a reason, and that reason entails more than sitting around, watching television, smoking and drinking beer. Thus, while my path in life is harder than it needs to be, I haven't relinquished all of my ambitions in life quite yet

"Look up one day and all you got left is what you ain't spending."

The scene is the station office of a jitney outfit in Pittsburgh's Hill District, 1977, where the drivers sit around waiting for a call to pick-up, talking, arguing, playing checkers ... The rhythm of mostly street speech is cut only by the ringing of the phone, the invariable answer: "Car service"and— an occasional message for Shealy, the neighborhood numbers runner, who comes and goes ...

It's 'Jitney,' the eighth of August Wilson's 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle, a century of African American life, decade by decade, as performed by the Lower Bottom Playaz of West Oakland, directed by their founder, Ayodele Nzinga, in what was a good two-weekend run at the end of the holidays at the Flight Deck on Broadway in Uptown Oakland. 

There are several layers of story: urban "redevelopment" has arrived on the jitney service's block, threatening to close down the office. One of the drivers, Darnell ("Youngblood"), a Vietnam vet who returned to the neighborhood, gets accused by Turnbo, a folksy but busybody driver, of running around with the sister of Rena, Darnell's girlfriend since high school and mother of his child. And Becker, the jitney service's boss, finds out in a phone call that his son Booster is getting out of prison after 20 years' time for killing his white girlfriend, who had accused him of rape. 

I first saw the Lower Bottom Playaz in 2009, when they were performing plays by Marvin X, Opal Palmer Adisa and Nzinga in a little amphitheater, the Sister Thea Bowman Theater, a stage in the backyard of an old Victorian, a former convent, housing the Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement. They had that authentic feel of real community theater, individuals of various backgrounds from the same place, coming together to perform the kind of dramatic material that reflected and expanded on their common experience. 

The Playaz certainly brought that to Nzinga's staging of 'Jitney.' I've seen productions of other Wilson plays from the Cycle, some featuring actors or directors who worked with Wilson, but none had the sense of immersion, of the actors inhabiting and projecting the sense of place, of language and living Wilson loads his plays with. By comparison, no matter how professional, how successful in the sense of production values those other shows had been, they often seemed stagey—and "bitty"—by comparison to the earnest job of ensemble work Nzinga's crew has put into 'Jitney,' giving it an immediate yet integral feel—the finest sensitivity to what Wilson was after in his Cycle I've seen so far. 

The Playaz are just a couple of productions away from being the first company anywhere to perform all the Cycle plays in order. Nzinga points out that even Wilson never saw all of his historical—and historic—creation. She's said she had an epiphany with her first contact with Wilson's work years ago, realizing it spoke directly to her concerns today, and to those of West Oakland, though the plays are set over a century of time in Pittsburgh, and that her players immediately responded to what would seem like older styles of expression in the characters. 

The cast—Luchan Baker, III; Lorraine Nico Buchanan; Tony Butler; Adimu Madyan; Tory Scoggins; Pierre Scott; Koran Streets (who I remember seeing in "The Yard," the amphitheater in West Oakland, playing a young writer in Nzinga's play 'Mama At Twilight'); Tyler Thompson and Reginald Wilkins—unite to form an ensemble, a community representing a community. Wilkins, Madyan and Baker in particular represent their higher-profile characters well, Wilkins with humor, Madyan with a sense of stolid endurance and Baker an acute self-awareness amid desolation. 

Wilson is formidable at getting the place, the milieu, the language across, at setting up dramatic situations bristling with potential, especially here the almost Biblical scenes of a father denying his errant son, who hopes for rapprochement, but ends up revealing the shame that alienated him from his parent. What's delivered from them doesn't always meet up in power to that potential. The misunderstanding between Darnell and Rena is explained away too facilely, with good sentiment, but no theatrical probity. And the stand-off between long-suffering father and son influences Becker's decision to stand off the closure of the jitney station and keep his men working as long as he can, but doesn't completely pan out in his—once more, dramatically facile—disappearance from the action, leaving the men and especially his son—never fulfilled by acceptance or through real opposition, just pushed off by rejection—to eulogize the "old man" and try to pick up the reins he dropped. 

But where Wilson's at his best, building on what other African American dramatists have accomplished—and here Ed Bullins of, say, 'Goin' A Buffalo' comes to mind—the Playaz really shine, make the most of it in a way the more obviously professional, far better-funded productions I've seen have only approached or occasionally succeeded at. Nzinga and her collaborators' long, hard work has paid off—and—as Nzinga says, since Wilson's plays all foreshadow the next one in the Cycle—their future productions of the final two of the Pittsburgh Cycle, 'King Hedley II' and 'Radio Golf,' bringing the chronicle to completion in the 1990s, are something to be looked forward to, wherever they're staged, hopefully from sometime this summer. 

lowerbottomplayaz.com (also on Facebook) and anzinga.com

Noir City, the annual festival of film noir at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco will be running from this weekend through to next, January 16-25, with a dozen double (or triple) bills, priced at $10 per program—or a $120 "passport" for all programs, plus opening night reception with refreshments and entertainment at 6 p. m. 

Eddie Muller, of Alameda, co-founder of the Film Noir Foundation, and his cohorts (notably, longtime Bay Area film programmer and Silent Film Festival director Anita Monga), building off last year's extraordinary festival of international film in and around the genre (with noirs from Argentina and Norway, for example), have crafted a festival around the darker side of matrimony as a theme, but with another roster of filmmakers that cineastes would think would be shown mainly archivally: Visconti, Ophuls, Clouzot, two Douglas Sirks (one with a Sam Fuller script), Joseph Losey, Nicholas Ray, Robert Wise's 'The Set-Up' (with Robert Ryan), Ida Lupino, Hitchcock ... 

And two of the Foundation's restorations, one—'Woman on the Run'—declared by Muller to be maybe the finest location shooting of San Francisco of any film in the genre. (Indeed, a surprising number of the films to be screened—including the Nicholas Ray feature—were set and at least partly shot in the Bay Area, Monterey and elsewhere in Northern California. 

It's a grand festival, a San Francisco institution—and one for thrill-seekers and connoisseurs of film alike! 

noircity.com

Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony’s Music Director, presided over a 70^th birthday for himself in a gala concert Thursday, January 15, 2015, at Davies Hall. As might be expected, this concert came up short on great music but long on schtick. What can one expect from a concert whose featured work for six pianos and orchestra was sketched out by Franz Liszt in 1837 but apparently never com-pleted and never performed by Liszt in its intended version. This work, Hexameron, or “Grand Bravura Variations on the March from Bellini’s I Puritani, for Six Pianos,” was ‘reconstructed’, as it is said, by Robert Linn from orchestral cues in Liszt’s solo piano scores. Michael Tilson Thomas may well have been the first to organize a performance of the six piano and orchestra version in a 1971 concert in Boston. MTT also led San Francisco Symphony in a similar performance of Hexameron in a 1985 concert here. More about this work later in this review. 

To begin with, everything about this birthday gala concert smacked of an unabashed cult of personality. Black-and-white blown-up reproductions of photo-graphs of MTT as a child, as a teen, as an adult, as a graying senior, festooned the store-front windows in front of Davies Hall. Inside Davies Hall, balloons of three shades of blue festooned the rear wall separating the orchestra from the tiers located above the orchestra. Before the concert began, a montage of photos of MTT was projected on a large screen above the orchestra. When MTT entered, he did not im-mediately launch into music but instead grabbed a microphone and played emcee to 

his own birthday splash. As emcee, let’s just say that David Letterman he was not. 

When MTT finally got around to the music, the first piece he conducted, Georges Bizet’s Farandole from L’Arlésienne, Suite No. 2, was played so loud and so fast it was over, thankfully, in the blink of an eye. Next, Montreal native pianist Marc-André Hamelin entered to perform the third and final movement from Dimitri Shostakovich ‘s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F-major. This work, written in 1957 as a birthday present to Dimitri’s son, Maxim, on his nineteenth birthday, is full of delight and humor. The finale gallops along with unbridled enthusiasm to a rip-roaring climax. Pianist Hamelin executed this rambunctious but not very serious movement with show-stopping technique. 

If one wanted great music, the next item on the program was perhaps the only example to be offered – the famous Andante movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C-major, marvelously played here by Polish-born Emmanuel Ax. Mozart here demonstrates his uncanny ability to develop the simplest melodic lines into the most wondrously sustained mood of sublime beauty. This was unquestionably the highlight, for me, at least, of a night otherwise given over to superficial glitz. 

The next offering on the program, was a piano duet for four hands by Franz Schubert entitled Marche caractéristique No, 1. Pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet of France and American Jeremy Denk took on this rollicking scherzo. Perhaps inad-vertently, they managed to turn it into a comedy routine. Jean-Yves Thibaudet was the straight man, and Jeremy Denk played comic relief, the latter probably without realizing the comedic effect of his playing. Let us just say that Jeremy Denk plays with a flamboyant style that includes much lolling of the head, much arching of the back in his seat, much violent head-snapping, and, at the end of his pianistic runs, much triumphant upraising of an arm. I for one find Denk’s style enormously irritating and distracting. In this four-hand duet, Denk repeatedly swiveled his head to stare in-tently at his pianistic partner with a slightly demented or demonic expression on his face. The audience, thinking this was intentionally comedic, laughed loudly. I doubt there was any comedic intention in Denk’s histrionics. I have seen him play before. This is simply the way this gifted but utterly unselfconscious pianist plays. Denk either has no idea how ridiculous he looks; or, worse, perhaps he cultivates this as a personal style. To me, it is appalling. No matter how well Denk may play, I cannot forgive these clown-like mannerisms. He turned a fine duet for four-hand piano by Schubert into a cartoon. One must credit Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Denk’s partner in this fiasco, for ignoring Denk’s histrionics and playing Schubert as if he were oblivious to Denk’s clownish mannerisms. 

Next onstage was Chinese pianist Yuja Wang, who entered wearing a red dress slit very high on the thigh, showing much shapely leg. Wang performed the Scherzo from Henry Litolff’s Concerto symphonique No. 4 in D-minor. Litolff, who was born in 1818 and died in 1891, wrote only one piece that has survived – this Scherzo. Under Wang’s hands, this work proved exciting though not profound, simply a vehicle for pianistic virtuosity, which Yuja Wang provided capably. The final musical offering before intermission included three dances from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake –a Neapolitan dance, featuring a trumpet solo by Marc Inouye, a Russian dance featuring first violinist Alexander Barantschik, and a Mazurka involving the entire orchestra. 

There followed an extended intermission in which the audience was offered complimentary treats and wine in celebration of MTT’s 70^th birthday. When the second half of the program got underway, Michael Tilson Thomas relinquished the conductor’s chair to Teddy Abrams, while MTT repaired to one of the six pianos per-forming in Liszt’s Hexameron. Hardly stinting himself, MTT took the part of no less than Franz Liszt in this six-piano extravaganza, playing the introductory themes, the leading improvisation, and the conclusion of this ‘reconstructed’ work; and he took this lead role with a combined force of pre-eminent pianists in tow that included Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Marc-André Hamelin, Emmanuel Ax, Yuja Wang, and Jeremy Denk. The work itself offered much glitzy virtuosity but little in the way of the deep feeling that underlies the melody from Bellini’s I Puritani on which this superficial extravaganza was based.  

Before the final announced work on the program, Bernstein”s overture to Candide, four pianists stepped forth – Emmanuel Ax, Jeremy Denk, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Marc-André Hamelin – to perform a four-hand version of the overture to Rossini’s Guillaume Tell. Following this virtuoso rendition, MTT removed his suit jacket, put on a phosphorescent blue and silver sequined rock-star’s jacket, which he proudly preened to show the initials MTT on the back, and proceeded to sit down with his feet up while the orchestra began playing the overture to Bernstein’s Candide. The audience lapped it up. At the close of this jazzy piece, men in Mickey Mouse costumes raced down the aisles of Davies Hall, followed by women holding aloft balloons, while a sexy woman in a glitzy gown walked onstage from the wings with a huge birthday cake for a hat. Ribbons descended from the ceiling in tribute to MTT’s birthday. For his part, MTT stroked the ears of each Mickey Mouse impostor; and thus ended the 70^th birthday celebration of MTT at San Francisco Symphony.

Compared with his later St. Matthew Passion (1729), Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion (1724) may today seem somewhat stodgy. But to the congregation of St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig who heard the St. John Passion performed on Good Friday of 1724, this work must have seemed revolutionary. Only recently appointed Kappelmeister in Leipzig, (after this post was turned down by Georg Philipp Telemann and Christoph Graupner), Bach no doubt sought to show Leipzig what he could do; so for his inaugural work in Leipzig he transformed the musical account of Christ’s Passion from plainchant and an occasional chorale sung by the congregation to a multidimensional work with choruses, recitatives, arias, and chorales. 

On Saturday-Sunday, January 10-11, 2015, the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, led by Music Director Ming Luke, presented two performances of Bach’s St. John Passion at Berkeley Community Theatre. Opening with a chorus, “Herr, unser Herrscher/Lord, thou art master,” the St. John Passion begins by glorifying Christ’s name and establishing the theme of Christus Victor, i.e., of the victoriously resurrected Christ who overcomes even his crucifixion. Amidst the counterpoint lines of this chorus, there are repeated outcries on the word “Herr/Lord.”  

For these performances, Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra used the original German text for the large Chorus numbers and solo arias, but English was used for the spoken recitatives and sung chorales. Tenor Brian Thorsett took the role of the Evangelist, who narrates Christ’s Passion. Bass Paul Thompson took the role of Jesus, a largely speaking role. The first large solo aria, for alto, was capably sung here by mezzo-soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah, who has performed with American Bach Soloists. This aria, “Von den Stricken meiner Sünden/From the shackles of my sins,” is accompanied by cellos and oboes. Next came a solo aria for soprano, impressively sung here by Jennifer Paulino, accompanied by two flutes. There followed the narration of Peter’s three denials of Christ, with baritone Jeffrey Fields speaking the role of Peter. As a commentary on Peter’s denials, tenor Brian Thorsett sang the plaintively beautiful solo aria “Ach, mein Sinn/Ah, my soul,” followed by a brief chorale before intermission. 

As Part II begins, the story of Christ’s interrogation and flagellation is recounted. The tempo picks up when Pontius Pilate asks a mob what accusations they bring against Jesus. The mob responds with angry, agitated singing in which they declare, “If this man were not a malefactor we had not brought him here before thee.” When Pilate asks Jesus if he is King of the Jews, Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not of this world.” When Pilate, finding no fault in Jesus, offers the crowd to name Jesus as the man to be released, the Jews respond, “Nicht diesen, sondern Barrabam!/Not this man, give us Barrabas!”  

As a commentary on the flagellation of Jesus, baritone Jeffrey Fields sang the solo aria “Betrachte, meine Seel/Bethink thee, my soul,” which was immediately followed by tenor Brian Thorsett singing a solo aria lamenting the blood-spattered body of Christ and hailing the sign of God’s grace in a rainbow that appears. Here, as in general, Brian Thorsett’s solo arias were the high points of this St. John Passion. Thorsett’s angelic tenor and clear German diction admirably conveyed both the text and, more importantly, the emotion of the text. Speaking of diction, it must be mentioned that the large Berkeley Community Chorus, two hundred strong, did not always clearly project the words of the text, whether singing in English or German. Though they sang beautifully, one wished for more clarity of diction – or simply better acoustics to carry their voices from the specially built stage risers out into the audience. From the chorus, one word did in fact sound out loud and clear – “Kreuzige!/Crucify!” This word, shouted by the Jewish priests, and reiterated in their admonishment, “Weg, weg mit dem, kreuzige ihn!/Away with him, crucify him!,” was sung in agitated, angry fashion by the chorus just before Jesus was led away to Golgotha carrying his cross.  

As Jesus dies upon the cross, mezzo-soprano Danielle Reutter-Harrah movingly sang the mournful solo aria, “Es is vollbracht!/It is fulfilled. The end is come,” accompanied by a cello solo played by Andres Vera. Midway through this aria, however, the tone shifts, the violins join in, and the music becomes more lively as Jesus is praised for putting up a heroic fight. The final re-statement of “Es is vollbracht,” however, is intensely sobering. There follows a solo aria by baritone Jeffrey Fields in which this singer delivered perhaps his best singing in an otherwise lackluster performance.  

Then a mournful arioso was splendidly sung by tenor Brian Thorsett, followed by another mournful aria impressively delivered by soprano Jennifer Paulino. In a final shift of tone, the entire chorus then delivered a sad yet peaceful tribute, “Rhut wohl, ihr heilingen Gebeine/Rest well, sacred bones.” In this chorus, as in the final chorale in the final chorale that follows, the theme of Christus Victor is once again declared, and the resurrection of Christ is celebrated as the hope of all mankind for eternal life. 

Conductor Ming Luke often paused between musical numbers, thereby creating a disconcerting dead time, with the result that Bach’s St. John Passion seemed to proceed in fits and starts. Given that what drama there is in this work lies more in the Gospel’s stark narrative than in the music itself, which strikes a mournful tone throughout, the lack of dramatic continuity and musical flow inherent in Conductor Luke’s awkward pauses made for a choppy, sluggish rendition of Bach’s St. John Passion, which, notwithstanding, still managed some inspiring moments, largely thanks to tenor Brian Thorsett.