Most Berkeley High School seniors who graduated last week will begin their studies at a college or university this fall. Others will work or travel. One will study ballet in Russia, another plans to move to India and a third will try his luck auditioning for Broadway plays in New York. 

In his commencement speech at the Greek Theater on Friday, graduate David Chernicoff spoke of the shared experience of his classmates: “Trying to explain the Berkeley High experience to an outsider is like trying to explain color to a blind person, or music to a deaf person,” he said. “There will always be elements whose essence you just can’t convey no matter which words you choose.” 

Chernicoff, who wrote for the school newspaper, the Berkeley High Jacket, acted in several school plays and musicals and was president of the Berkeley High Music Collective, begins his freshman year at Yale University in September. 

But though the 700 graduates shared the same hallways for four years, the graduates’ journey to center stage of the Greek Theater on Friday took various paths. 

Tina Walker, a member of the graduating class, watched as her six younger siblings bounced from foster home to foster home. When her parents divorced, Walker stayed with her mother, living out of relatives’ homes until they eventually ended up homeless on the streets of Sacramento. 

Walker eventually moved in with her uncle and his family while her siblings lived in many different places. She began at Berkeley High as a ninth-grader and excelled, often relying on her teachers and friends as the stabilizing forces in her life. She begins studies at Langston University in Oklahoma this fall. 

“You put a smile on your face and put all the issues away,” Walker said. 

Walker’s classmate, Gabby Miller, devoted the majority of her energy to art during her high school career. As a junior, Miller took a semester off from Berkeley High to study at The Oxbow School in Napa, a boarding school that provides an intensive semester in the visual arts for high school juniors and seniors. Though Miller had painted since she was young, her semester at Oxbow taught her formal techniques and the use of different media, she said. 

“It’s the way I filter the world,” Miller said. “It’s given me a much better understanding of who I am.” 

For her final project at Oxbow, Miller made a mural out of sheets of paper on which she wrote her stream of consciousness for five hours a day for two weeks. She combined the writings with a painting at the bottom. 

“It was about everything that was happening,” Miller said about her piece. “That was a very empowering experience.” 

Miller, who will attend Reed College in Oregon in the fall, recently was legally ordained as a minister in the Universal Life Church. This summer, she will preside over the ceremony to renew her parents’ wedding vows on their 30th anniversary. 

Tania Lown-Hecht had every excuse not to graduate on time. She was diagnosed with leukemia during her junior year and missed all of second semester while undergoing chemotherapy. But Lown-Hecht put her studies first throughout her ordeal, propping her heavy textbook for Advanced Placement Biology on the table by her hospital bed to continue to study. 

“I wasn’t going to lay there feeling sorry for myself,” Lown-Hecht said. “I wasn’t going to give up.” 

Lown-Hecht, who is now in remission from cancer, continued to study during the summer and used outside tutors to keep on pace with her classmates. 

She took classes through Berkeley High’s Independent Studies program this year and did much of her schoolwork from home while working as opinion editor of the Berkeley High Jacket. Lown-Hecht will attend Whitman College in Washington this fall. 

About 90 percent of each Berkeley High graduating class has gone on to college in past years. 

The most popular college choice for the class of 2003 was the University of California at Santa Cruz, with 25 students reporting enrollment there. Last year, an all-time high 47 graduates from Berkeley High enrolled at the school.  

Other University of California schools drew high numbers of graduates as well, with 21 reporting UC Davis as their college choice and 16 picking UC Berkeley. Ten students will attend UCLA, and four will head off to UC San Diego. 

Ten students will attend Laney College in Oakland and 14 will attend Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill. The most popular private college for the class of 2003 was New York University, which attracted nine students. 

Berkeley High School Dean Meg Matan said the unique experiences that the members of the class of 2003 bring to Berkeley High is what makes the school so special. 

“They’re what keeps the place running in the face of budget problems and principals leaving and everything else,” Matan said. “This class is amazing. I’m going to miss them.”

CRUCIAL COOPERATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks for your continuing coverage of the Franklin School proposals. Your reporter characterizes the current site of the Berkeley Adult School as a “beleaguered building on University Avenue.” The current site (at Bonar) is actually known as “West Campus.” Yes, it does need work, but it does function well as a central location for a crucial activity of the BUSD. It is on a major transit corridor; the 51 bus is one of the best and most reliable of ACs in Berkeley.  

Your reporter correctly highlights the very real problems the BUSD has in re-aligning and restoring its facilities with these limited bond funds and pinched budgets. 

Paul Shain (June 10 edition) makes an excellent case for careful and comprehensive planning. The involvement with the community is absolutely crucial, and will continue Tuesday night, June 17, at 7 p.m. at the Ala Costa building (Cedar/Rose Park, corner of Rose and Chestnut); the neighbors will gather to select a committee to work with the School Board over the what, if, when and how of the Franklin School site. Serious issues of site capacity and security, traffic flow and parking remain on the table. How to make a former elementary school in the middle of a residential neighborhood work for both the neighborhood and the district is not easy. That the school also borders San Pablo Avenue adds to the dilemma. 

Residents of West Berkeley should note that this proposal is but one of those “cumulative impacts” (the notorious phrase of many an EIR) emerging in this corner of Berkeley. A four-story, mixed-use building (51 units, with ground-floor retail) is proposed for the corner of San Pablo and Delaware (currently an auto-shop/used car lot, converted from a nursery/flower shop in the mid-nineties). Further large developments are likely along San Pablo Avenue, described in city plans as a “transit corridor.” 

Peter Hillier, the city’s traffic planner, is proposing serious changes along Delaware Street west of San Pablo Avenue, including the removal of the diverter at 9th Street which currently forces traffic back to University Avenue. With the installation of the new light at Virginia and Sixth, and the gridlock now seen on University Avenue both at San Pablo and at Sixth, one wonders if a new traffic funnel on Delaware Street west from the BART (at Sacramento) is being prepared to parallel University Avenue. 

These proposed projects will affect each other. AC Transit plans to cut bus service in a time when the city has allowed for large-scale development along so-called “transit corridors.” Residents can demand that the city’s planners and engineers provide the best for the neighborhood, as well as the commuters currently zipping through these streets. 

John McBride 

• 

GROWING CHAOS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The latest principal debacle at Berkeley High—a new, record-short tenure of one month—along with the resignations of both co-principals and all three district associate superintendents, reveals in breathtaking clarity the biggest achievement gap in the Berkeley Unified School District: the yawning chasm between the School Board’s pie-in-the-sky dreams for making everything better and the on-the-ground reality of growing chaos. 

No wonder disadvantaged students in the district can’t learn the basics, when the board itself endlessly condones the same dumb mistakes—now having chopped through four principals hired from the outside in almost as many years. In fact, the only principals/administrators who’ve been willing to stick with the school were those “temporarily” promoted through the ranks, such as Larry Lee a few years ago and Laura Leventer, both of whom came from the math department and provided adequate leadership. 

But instead of sticking with these insiders, who had some commitment to the institution, the board casts about for some outside “star” to implement yet more endless reforms, like the schools-within-a-school plan, distracting teachers’ precious time and energy. With the exception of Theresa Saunders (Remember her? She was going to save Berkeley High back in about 1999, but was forced out) these transient principals are no fools—as soon as they realize what working under this School Board is like, they’re outta here. And I haven’t even mentioned next year’s multi-million-dollar budget deficit. 

I lost my bid for School Board last election, opposing the School Board pay hike which passed; Berkeley voters now reap what they sowed. 

Lance Montauk  

• 

HUMANE SOCIETY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his report about the June 11 Berkeley Planning Commission meeting, John Geluardi omitted an important issue raised that evening. The purpose of the meeting was discussion about the West Berkeley Plan. The plan includes protection of artists’ work spaces. 

Mr. Geluardi did not mention that supporters of the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society were in attendance. The Humane Society for many years has rented space in its building, at below market rate, to an arts group. Because of provisions in the West Berkeley Plan, the Humane Society may be required either to relinquish control of the space and abandon any plans to expand the animal shelter or to pay for an alternative comparable space to house the arts group.  

Representatives from the Humane Society explained that it has been a struggling community-based nonprofit for 70 years and that provisions intended to protect West Berkeley from commercial exploitation may not be appropriate to be applied to the society. 

I wonder why Mr. Geluardi made no mention of this aspect of the meeting in his report. 

Mary Milton 

• 

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley Blues (to the tune of “Making Whoopee”): 

Another meeting,  

On the sixth floor,  

And when it’s over,  

They meet some more,  

In Tom Bates’ office,  

Without notice,  

They close the door.  

This song refers to the March 2003 meeting of the Two by Two Committee, but it could be about many meetings that occur in the Redwood Room in City Hall.  

The Two by Two is made up of two School Board members and two city councilmembers. All current members are endorsed by the same political slate, the left-leaning BCA. Because the school superintendent, city manager, mayor and various VIP city employees participate in the Two by Two, former Councilmember John Denton once aptly described the Two by Two as “a promiscuous use of staff.”  

The March Two by Two meeting included discussions on developing several Berkeley Unified School District playgrounds for other uses. Mayor Bates asked if the Berkeley High tennis courts might be used for a joint city and school district parking facility. Doesn’t he know that Berkeley High students deserve to have their courts back when construction ends? How could Mayor Bates miss the hypocrisy of taking school property to build parking lots while his City Council majority plans to give developers city-owned downtown parking lots such as those at Oxford and at Berkeley Way? (Note: The Oxford lot is valued at $10 million to $20 million dollars, generates a lot of cash for the city and allows people to park and shop locally, which in turn, generates taxes for the city.) 

Later in the meeting, Linda Maio raised the bizarre idea of building an extension to the West Berkeley Library on the grassy field (baseball diamond) of the Adult School.  

The sorriest idea of all was moving the Adult School, with more than 1,200 students, to Franklin Elementary School and converting Franklin’s new playgrounds and grassy field to an inadequate parking lot. Hundreds of students and personnel would need to circle the fragile and formerly quiet neighborhood to find parking.  

Some proposals put forth at this meeting were insensitive, mean-spirited or downright deceptive. Mayor Bates said he would like to put apartment buildings—20 stories high—at one school site. A participant said to Bates: “You’re lucky there is no reporter here! What you really mean is apartments 10 stories high, don’t you?”  

There have been many other important, but unpublicized, city meetings in addition to the Two by Two. Subjects of these meetings included: replacing small AC Transit buses with big, noisy, diesel buses in North Berkeley residential neighborhoods, encouraging huge housing developments, streamlining development permits by the mayor’s task force, redeveloping Berkeley as a high-rise urban environment and calling it “Livable Berkeley,” and much more!  

The effect of attending so many of these meetings in a few weeks was devastating for me. I got a clear vision of what the “powers that be” are planning for Berkeley and it’s ugly, noisy, polluted, unsafe and uncaring for the people who live here. I’ve lived here over 30 years and sometimes feel a kinship with those who lived on this wonderful land before us.  

I see our current politicians as the “Manifest Destiny Gang,” who think they can do whatever they want. But they do not dare show us their vision for the city, because we would not accept it. There are, after all, only about 100 of them, whereas there are more than 100,000 of us.  

Merrilie Mitchell  

Dear Editors, Daily Planet: 

I like Jerry Holl’s idea (Daily Planet, May 27) to write “Topple Bush” on every letter we send through the mail. However, my slogan of choice is: “Show Bush the Door in 2004.” Pass it on. 

T. Marcus 

A Bay Area basketball team, including four girls from St. Mary’s College High School in Berkeley, is on its way to the national basketball championship next month in Tennessee if the players can raise enough money to get there. 

The East Bay Xplosion team of 14 year olds--one of seven age brackets in the Xplosion program--has won four of their six tournaments this year, with the two defeats coming against teams of older girls. They are ranked 13th in the country heading into nationals, which will be held in Clarksville, Tenn., on July 10. 

But while Xplosion teams have been successful nationally, the program still has financial needs. A sponsorship deal with Adidas provides equipment and apparel, but money for travel comes mostly from parents and fund-raising. Coach Sean Dulan estimates the team needs to raise $10,000 to make the national tournament trip. 

Players are planning a soft-cloth hand car wash at Rossmoor Chevron in Walnut Creek on over the next two weekends. 

Now in its sixth year, the Xplosion is an Amateur Athletic Union program. This year’s team of 14 year old girls has some imposing shoes to fill after their predecessors, now in an older bracket, won the national title last year. 

Last year’s championship team featured Piedmont’s Paris twins, Courtney and Ashley, as well as St. Mary’s Shantrell Sneed and several other players who are now attracting national recruiting attention. Xplosion’s best shot at a national title this year will be the current group of 14-year-old girls—a group that may not be as heralded as last year’s, but has played some outstanding basketball. 

“This is a different type of team. We like to get into the transition game, a real tendency to go out and get it,” said Dulan, who also coached last year’s championship team. “This is a great group of kids. They’ll scrape and fight to win every game.” 

And if following in the footsteps of national champions wasn’t hard enough, this year’s 14-year-olds face those reigning champions in practice every week. While it can often be frustrating, players said, the full-speed scrimmages provide valuable experience for the younger group. 

“t’s a privilege to play them, a chance to help our games,” says St. Mary’s freshman Christina Johnson. “They’re so good already, it gives us something to shoot for and help reach our goals.” 

Fifty girls tried out for this summer’s 14-year-old team, the biggest tryout ever for the program. 

“We have the most elite group of kids in the area,” said Dulan, who is also the co-coach of the girls varsity team at St. Mary’s. The St. Mary’s-Xplosion connection is strong, with three coaches and 13 players from the Berkeley school among the various Xplosion age-bracket teams. 

St. Mary’s freshman Courtney Dunn is a good example of the Xplosion’s success. Dunn was playing for another team two years ago and impressed the Xplosion coaches who invited her to switch programs. 

Playing against the other talented players in the program, such as the Paris twins, on a regular basis has done wonders for the 6-foot-2 Dunn, her coaches said. Her improvement over the past year has been nothing short of remarkable. She is now an aggressive force on the court. 

“Even (Xplosion) practices are way more physical than high school games,” Dunn says. “You have to play hard all the time just to get on the floor here.” 

Dunn’s mother, Monika, sees a difference in her daughter that extends beyond the playing floor. 

“There’s most definitely a difference in Courtney,” she says. “She’s more confident and sure of herself. I don’t have to hold her hand all the time anymore.” 

Nathan Fripp, Xplosion assistant coach and the junior varsity boys’ coach at St. Mary’s, said the girls play an aggressive brand of basketball. His sister Nateanah, a St. Mary’s sophomore, is a member of the 14-year-old girls’ team. 

“I didn’t know it was going to be like this,” Nathan said. “We’ve got some egos out there just like the boys, but these girls are more competitive than the boys I coach. I see girls crying when we lose, just angry.” 

Despite the program’s success, finding enough money for travel and team expenses remains a challenge, said Mark Anger, founder and director of Xplosion. A former coach at Miramonte High and Holy Names College, Anger oversees all seven teams in the program. 

“The ideal is for each team to compete at a national level,” Anger said. “That was my whole vision when I started this thing, and we’re finally reaching that point.” 

For information about sponsorship or donations, call Mark Anger at (209) 579-0151.

Faced with heavy teacher layoffs and cuts in sports and music programs, a series of parent-led fund-raising groups are asking the city’s heavily taxed residents to pour more money into the schools. 

“We’re going to go to the entire community,” said Zasa Swanson, co-founder of a new group called Berkeley Schools Now! which hopes to raise $500,000. “We figure there isn’t one person in this community who doesn’t feel compelled to save education, even if they don’t have children.” 

Berkeley homeowners already contribute about $14 million annually in special, voter-approved taxes that fund everything from maintenance to class size reduction. Local voters have also approved almost $275 million in bonds for various school construction projects since 1992. 

But parents and foundation officials say they are confident that the community, even in the midst of an economic downturn, will make large donations to save treasured education programs. 

“The people I talk to just want good schools,” said Trina Ostrander, executive director of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, which raises more than $600,000 annually for the public schools. “If they have to rally, they rally.” 

Matt O’Grady, associate executive director for the San Francisco-based Management Center, which provides nonprofits with management advice, said advocates will likely face a divided public. 

“I think that, for the right audience, including parents of students who are in those schools, it would be a very compelling issue,” he said. “Others might say, ‘Well, I already pay taxes.’ And people in Berkeley might say, ‘It should be covered through tax dollars and not private philanthropy.’” 

The early returns have been mixed. A Berkeley High School concert featuring blues music and Afro-Haitian dance over Memorial Day weekend netted about $5,000 for the music program, falling well short of a goal of $10,000 to $20,000. 

“It wasn’t what we hoped for, but it certainly was a beginning,” said music advocate Karen McKie, who helped organize the event. 

Parents have now raised about $8,500 for the music program, according to organizer Bob Kridle, whose daughter will attend Berkeley High School next year. This summer, he said, parents hope to top $24,000 and restore a middle school band and orchestra program that has been chopped from five to two days per week.  

The music cuts are part of an $8 million package of reductions and fund transfers, approved by the Board of Education in February, that will eliminate 70 to 100 teaching positions next year, boost some class sizes and possibly eliminate freshman sports at Berkeley High. 

The cuts will go deeper next year when the board must chop an additional $3 million to balance the books, and $3 million more to meet a state requirement for a budget reserve. 

There is a precedent for successful, community-based fundraising. In 1994, advocates raised more than $300,000 to save the district’s fourth-grade music program—pulling in about $120,000 at a Grateful Dead benefit concert arranged by bassist Phil Lesh, who attended the Berkeley public schools. 

This year, parents are turning from tie-dyed T-shirts to tax receipts. Berkeley Schools Now! is asking Berkeley residents to contribute tax relief checks, of up to $400 per child, that the federal government will send in late July and early August to middle-income families with children under age 17. 

The money raised by the organization will not be targeted for any specific program. Instead, it will be distributed proportionately to each school based upon enrollment. Parents, teachers and administrators at each site will decide how to spend the cash. 

Meanwhile, members of the nonprofit Berkeley Athletic Fund are calling for a voluntary athletic fee next year. Under the proposal, parents of student athletes would have the option to contribute $75 or more annually to support Berkeley High School’s extensive sports program, which faces $127,500 in cuts next year. 

“There are concerns,” acknowledged Kathy Dervin, of the Athletic Fund. “Even if you do it voluntarily, does it put off people from participating in sports?” 

Parents and school officials said their biggest worry is that residents and businessmen may feel overwhelmed by appeals for money from multiple fund-raising groups. 

“To go out to the community and ask for dollars over a lot of different issues ... is probably not in our best interest,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. 

With that in mind, parents from Berkeley Schools Now!, music advocates, sports enthusiasts and others met June 10 to trade ideas and develop some sort of unified strategy. 

“People who were raising the money were starting to get worried that they would compete with each other,” said Ostrander, of the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, which participated in the meeting. 

Ostrander said the foundation, in its fall newsletter, will probably allow each group to make its case for donations, providing readers with an easy way to pick and choose. 

The foundation is also working out an agreement to serve as fiscal sponsor for Berkeley Schools Now! and the music advocates, allowing the foundation to accept checks on behalf of both groups. Other organizations, like the Berkeley Athletic Fund, are official nonprofits and do not need sponsorship. 

Lawrence said the Board of Education, scheduled to approve a final 2003-2004 budget Wednesday night, cannot restore programs at this point based on fundraising that may or may not materialize. But, she said, the district can make adjustments next year if parents collect heavy donations. 

Those interested in donating should call the Berkeley Public Education Foundation at 644-4865. Checks can be mailed to the Berkeley Public Education Foundation, 1835 Allston way, Berkeley, California 94703, with notations in the memo section if the money is to be allocated for any specific cause.

1963 became a watershed year in American History.  

Most notable was Nov. 22 as President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas, Texas. In 1963, a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama killed four young black girls. Ironically, the murder of those young girls was just two weeks after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King told the world about his “dream.”  

It was 40 years ago, Alabama Gov. George Wallace stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in a symbolic attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from enrolling at the school.  

While these events are indelibly etched in our collective minds, we must also remember June 12, 1963. On June 12, 1963, as he was returning home, Medgar Evers was killed by an assassin’s bullet.  

Medgar Evers was one of the first martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement. He was born in 1925 in Decatur, Miss., to James and Jessie Evers. After a short stint in the army, he enrolled in Alcorn A&M College, graduating in 1952. His first job out of college was traveling around rural Mississippi selling insurance. He soon grew enraged at the despicable conditions of poor black families in his state, and joined the NAACP. In 1954, he was appointed Mississippi's first field secretary.  

Evers was outspoken, and his demands were radical for his rigidly segregated state. He fought for the enforcement of the 1954 court decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which outlawed school segregation; he fought for the right to vote, and he advocated boycotting merchants who discriminated. He worked unceasingly despite the threats of violence that his speeches engendered. He gave much of himself to this struggle, and in 1963, he gave his life.  

Yet rather than snuffing out a fledgling civil rights movement, the death of Medgar Evers focused attention on the plight of blacks across the South and reverberated across the nation and the world. 

All of us, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or class stand on the shoulders of Medgar Evers and countless others who would not be denied the rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. It is tragic commentary on U.S. history that Medgar Evers has yet to assume his rightful place among those who moved the land of the free and the home of brave a bit closer to authenticating the American experiment.  

This peaceful man, who had constantly urged that “violence is not the way” but who paid for his beliefs with his life, was a prominent voice in the struggle for civil rights in Mississippi. Evers refusal to forego his efforts for equality in the face of danger further radicalized the Civil Rights Movement.  

Whether one is deemed radical is measured by the times in which they live. Was not the Apple Mac Classic considered radical in the early 1980s? Therefore, the challenge today is to embrace the spirit of Medgar Evers 1963 radicalism with the reality of 2003. 

The 21st-century struggle against injustice does not bring the comforts and conveniences of reducing everything to black and white. It is a far more complicated struggle that places more emphasis on one’s condition than the percentage of melanin in their skin. 

The injustices that still exist against low income workers, cuts in public education, declining government services for the elderly and youth, civic participation and AIDS services, especially for people of color, requires an unrelenting radicalism that is not afraid to speak truth to power, a radicalism that was demonstrated by Medgar Evers some 40 years ago. 

Denisha M. DeLane, 24, is a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors and a resident of Berkeley. She represents Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as the countries of Japan, and Korea.

Berkeley celebrated its 17th annual Juneteenth festival on Sunday. Sponsored by the Adeline-Alcatraz Merchants Association, the day was one of both celebration and education. 

“Any event that brings black people together to stimulate them to think about our present, past and future is a good thing. If we can do it for one day, we can do it for the next 364,” said festival goer Rasheedah Mwongozi. 

The festival commemorates President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863. But reform, in the midst of a bloodied war that divided a country, was not immediate. News was slow to spread, and it was not until June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, that the last slaves learned they were free. 

On Sunday, vendors stretched along Adeline Street, from Alcatraz to Ashby avenue, selling items that ranged from paintings and crafts to African instruments, crafts and Negro Baseball League memorabilia. Copies of the Emancipation Proclamation were also on display. Attendees roamed between two stages—the youth stage, hosted by Sean Vaughn Scott of the Black Reporatory Theater, and the main stage, hosted by local businessman and actor Lothorio Lotho. The hosts quizzed the crowd, which numbered in the thousands, about black history and interjected uplifting messages between acts. 

The Buffalo Soldiers occupied a prominent space on the Alcatraz side, where tents were set up across from horses that kids and adults could pet. Men dressed in period uniforms were eager to tell the story of an ignored contingent in the United States Army, which served from 1866 to 1912, in peacetime and in war both along the western frontier and in conflict overseas.  

Tables manned by local organizations included PeaceAction, the Berkeley Black Fire Fighters Association, East Bay Track & Field Club, African American History and Alameda County State of Emergency African American (AIDS) Task Force.  

For Los Angelean Frank Harris Sr., 84, attending the event has become a tradition. His grandson, Robert Haney, said:  

“The music is great, the ambiance wonderful. There’s a good vibe here, so we just continued to come each year and sit in the same spot.” 

Harris reflected that in Ferriday, La., where he was born, the black population celebrated Juneteenth on July 4, not June 19, because that was the day the plantation owner traditionally would “kill a cow and give the sharecroppers ice cream.” 

Joy Holland, a Berkeley resident, said what this year’s Juneteenth lacked was a sense of the ritual, customs and ceremonies associated with the 138-year-old holiday celebrated in most states across the country. 

“Juneteenth is an institution in Texas,” Holland said. “It recalls the horrors of slavery, a history that is being lost on our children when we’re one step from being slaves again with Homeland Security, homelessness, miseducation, unemployment.”

In the first week of June, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend a conference on taking back America from the radical Right. I went in search of signs that progressives are capable of mounting a serious challenge to the Republican gang that’s ravaging our country. One such sign, I’d become convinced, would be evidence of a concerted effort to move the Democratic Party to the left.  

This thought was a new one for me. I’d always registered Democratic and almost always voted Democratic. I’d volunteered for many Democratic candidates. But for over 30 years, working within the Democratic Party proper had seemed to me like a waste of time—and worse: a betrayal of my left-liberal principles. It took the Republican seizure of the White House in 2000 and its chilling aftermath to change my mind. Polls show that Bush’s policies are far less popular than his persona, and that given the choice, many—perhaps even most—Americans would support a progressive alternative to those policies. But first they must have that alternative. I now believe that our only hope of offering it to them is a Democratic Party that’s returned to its democratic roots.  

Early in May I was invited to the first meeting of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. Though the meeting had been publicized solely through personal e-mail lists, more than 70 people showed up at the North Berkeley Senior Center. The conveners told us that they were angry and scared, and that they wanted to stop moaning and start taking effective action. Their short-term goal was to beat Bush in 2004. But their larger purpose looked past 2004 and, for that matter, past all elections, toward the creation of a broad-based progressive movement with political clout. The message was right; the style was engaging; the meeting was well-run. I gladly paid the $25 membership fee, as did 40-odd others.  

At the Wellstone Club meeting I also learned that the Campaign for America’s Future was sponsoring a June conference dedicated to the same goal as our club. Presenters would include John Sweeney, Barbara Ehrenreich, Carl Pope, Arianna Huffington, Bill Moyers and Berkeley’s own Wes Boyd. All the would-be Democratic presidential nominees had been invited. A few local Wellstoneites were planning to attend. I decided to go, too. 

For somebody yearning for a progressive resurgence, the conference to Take Back America gave cause for cautious optimism. To begin, there was the fact that it happened at all. It had been a long time since representatives of the liberal left had come together in a gathering like this. Most of the 1,500-plus participants who thronged the Omni Sheraton represented one of the conference’s sponsors, who included Move.On.org, the Sierra Club, the NAACP, Working Assets, ACORN, the NEA and many unions—AFL-CIO, SEIU, United Steelworkers of America, among others. 

Also encouraging was the tone: progressive and pragmatic. Fringey groups like the DraftGore folks had a table in the hallway and little more. Speaker after speaker joined familiar liberal demands to issues that have too long been ceded to the Right. The most striking and, for me, most reassuring example: We heard repeated calls for civil liberties and real security. I was thrilled by the Apollo Project, a bold plan advanced by a coalition of organized labor and environmental groups, aiming at energy independence by 2015 and stimulating the economy with the creation of 2 million new jobs in construction, technology and public infrastructure. Braun, Dean, Edwards, Kerry, Kucinich and Sharpton all gave speeches that drew standing ovations (some more ardent than others). And Kerry’s address demonstrated that a show of progressive strength could draw wayward Democrats to the left.  

But the conference also had its frustrations. Missing was an overarching progressive agenda. The elements were certainly present, but they remained unassembled into a larger vision and strategy. More worrisome was the neglect of organizing. Many speakers closed with an exhortation to mobilize; only a few indicated what mobilization would involve on the ground. There was no chance to caucus with others from the same state. The program was so tightly scheduled there wasn’t even much opportunity to shmooze in the halls.  

Maybe grass-roots organizing has to start at the grassroots. On the last morning, veteran community organizer Heather Booth warned that if we wanted profound political change, we would have to alter our own lives accordingly. That would mean a lot more than writing checks (or op-ed pieces). For people living in progressives bastions such as the East Bay, it might well mean working far from home.  

I think I’m ready. I’m hoping others are, too. 

For more information: Campaign for America's Future, www.ourfuture.org, (202)955-5665; the Apollo Project, www.apolloalliance.org, (202)955-5445; the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, vlcandy@comcast.net, 733-0996. The next general meeting of the WRDC is Tuesday, June 17, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Berkeley Alternative High School. 

Zelda Bronstein is chair of the Planning Commission and a Berkeley resident.

If the AC Transit board of directors votes to eliminate discount monthly passes, Charles Menton said he will stop riding the bus. 

But Menton’s seatmate on the 43 line, Regina Phillips, has no other way to get to and from work. The problem is, Phillips said, she’s unsure if she will be able to afford the regular rate. 

“If they get rid of the discount pass, I’m going to be in a real bind,” Phillips said. “I’m not really sure what I’m going to do.” 

The board of directors will vote on the fare changes on Thursday. They will consider two options: one that would lower regular fares to $1 but eliminate all discount passes and transfers, and another that would retain the current $1.50 regular fare, keep discount passes for seniors, and maintain a limited transfer option. Adult and youth monthly passes would be eliminated in either option. 

Bus riders expressed their concerns at a series of public hearings last Thursday. AC Transit public information officer Mike Mills said the board was receptive to people’s complaints, but is at a loss for alternative measures to ease a projected $40 million deficit. 

“Ideally we’d like to keep everything, but with the budget deficit we need to find ways to increase revenue,” Mills said. 

But some riders said the transit organization is going about the problem the wrong way. “You can’t just cut the passes that make it possible for people to get around,” said Lenny Smart while riding the Number 43 to work. “That would affect so many people and it would hurt the poor people first. That’s not fair. They’re a service provider.” 

Some were more sympathetic to AC Transit’s struggle to combat its budget problems.  

“They’re doing everything they can,” said Patricia Fernandez, who said she would continue to ride the bus regardless of whether the monthly pass is cut. “They cut administrators and staffers first, and this is kind of a last resort. They don’t want this any more than we do, but in this economy something has to give.”  

Menton sees the fare changes as a “necessary evil” that might backfire if people stop riding the bus. 

“I don’t know how much they’re going to be able to increase revenue, because people will stop riding all together,” Menton said. “I understand why they would do it, but they’ve got to know there will be a lot more carpooling, a lot more biking to work or whatever to avoid the buses.”

One of former Mayor Shirley Dean’s clean-up events took place at the corner of San Pablo and University avenues, where brooms and trash bags were handed out to mostly non-area participants for a highly photographed moment. Blockbuster Video was just laying its controversial foundation. 

A handful of us stood with a sign that read “7,600 parts per billion benzene” and caused a stir. One campus researcher stopped his car to ask where we got our numbers, and we told him they were from the latest test of the wells that dot the intersection, mapping the spread of an underground plume from an old gas station storage tank. 

Blockbuster Video, the neighborhood was promised, would take up only a third of the building on the corner, leaving room for neighborhood retail services; would have an elaborate air ventilation system so that the benzene, which percolates upward, would be re-routed to the roof to protect the employees, and would have severely limited hours. 

Those promises became jokes for us locals, as one by one they were tossed like fast food wrappers and Blockbuster video bags. Blockbuster demanded more retail space, and the building was reconfigured so that the adjacent retail sites were ridiculously long and thin, and stood empty for months. 

Now Blockbuster is gone, leaving behind arguably the ugliest building at the prom thanks to architect Marcie Wong, whose sign proudly claiming responsibility used to hang on the outside wall, and District Rep. Linda Maio, the fifth vote whose excuse for supporting the compromised project was that no one else would build there if the opportunity wasn’t taken. 

The intersection that decades ago hosted the historic gateway to town has had asphalt dumped on its pretty brick walks rather than any honest repair, had two of its best retail spaces stunted by the imposition of zone-inappropriate nonprofits with ties to city council representatives and runs the risk of having its parking lanes turned into freeway on-ramps if the transportation planner gets his way. 

I doubt my neighbors are sorry to see Blockbuster go, since it proved our contention that its patrons had no interest in visiting the other neighborhood shops, and still insists on the ghastly practice of editing the films it rents to the public. It will be interesting to see if the space tailored to Blockbuster’s fussy demands can suit any other business. 

In the meantime, a few of us continue to wish the whole episode never happened, since the whole-hearted consensus of the Calthorpe “University Avenue Strategic Plan” sessions was that we needed our historic gateway rebuilt and a park. The relatively few vacant lots in town, most of which are burdened by unaddressed underground storage tanks, may garner little respect from a city teeming with energetic planners, but at least they’re not Berkeley’s lowest common denominator while they’re still an honest  

expanse of fennel and horizon. 

Carol Denney is a Berkeley resident and a frequent contributor to the Planet’s editorial pages.

Tuesday is the last opportunity for the public to sound off on next year’s proposed budget, which seeks to counter a $4.7 million deficit by raising parking fines and continuing a city hiring freeze.  

City Council holds its final public hearing on the budget at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall. Afterward, the council will consider increasing most of the city’s 135 parking fines by 40 percent in an effort to raise $2.5 million for the general fund. Also up for discussion is the 2004-2005 budget, for which city officials forecast a much larger deficit. While officials are confident the city will survive the coming fiscal year without too much pain, they are talking about opening up the city’s five union contracts the following year to avoid widespread layoffs. 

Council will adopt the final budget for fiscal year 2003-2004 at its meeting next week, on June 24.  

The fiscal year 2004 budget proposal calls for the elimination of 22.5 full-time jobs. Sixteen of those positions are currently vacant and the remainder are expected to be vacated through attrition by the end of the year. In addition to the proposed parking fine increase, the council approved a bundle of city fees on May 20. Some of the fees included ambulance user fees, garbage fees, recreation fees and annual fire inspection fees.  

Complicating the city’s budget planning is uncertainty regarding the state Legislature’s response to a statewide shortfall of $35 billion. If the Legislature adopts a draconian budget, Berkeley could lose an additional $3.6 million in fiscal year 2004. 

To contend with this uncertainty, council will likely adopt an alternative budget, which calls for the elimination, mostly through layoffs, of an additional 28.8 full-time city positions.  

The council will also take steps to prepare for fiscal year 2004-2005. The deficit is expected to soar to at least $8 million the year after next largely due to $5 million to $6 million in increased city employee retirement costs and $2 million to $3 million in reduced tax revenues due to the depressed economy.  

The unknown factor in fiscal year 2005 remains the state budget. Berkeley’s deficit could climb to $12 million depending on reductions in state funding. At that point, the city will consider closing city hall one day a week, rotating the closure of one fire station and laying off as many as 150 city workers. If the fiscal year 2005 budget forecast worsens and massive layoffs are considered, some officials have discussed renegotiating the five union contracts signed by the city in 2002. 

Mayor Tom Bates said the unions might be interested in renegotiating benefits and scheduled salary increases to avoid heavy layoffs. He said the city is feeling pressure from a statewide retirement benefit that gives police and fire personnel the option of retiring at age 50 with enhanced pensions. 

“Contracts cannot be opened unilaterally, the unions have to agree,” Bates said. “But I think public employees want to see people keep their jobs and avoid layoffs.” 

However, Sandra Lewis, president of the clerical chapter of Service Employees International Union Local 790, said she would have to know a lot more about the budget before she would consider reopening her union’s contract. For example, she said, she would have to know how many people would lose their jobs compared to vacancies created by attrition. 

“There has been no talk that has come to me formerly about opening up the contracts,” she said. “No union likes to hear that. We’re not even a year into the new contract and I’m not inclined to open it up, as chapter president.” 

The public hearing will be held during the regular City Council meeting at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall located at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 

Students who have still not passed both sections of the high school exit exam may soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Under intense pressure from teachers and civil rights advocates who say the high-stakes exam unfairly punishes students for the inequalities in the educational system, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell announced that he was canceling the July administration of the test and recommending that the State Board of Education vote to postpone the requirement until 2006. 

In a June 12 letter to county and district administrators, O’Connell said his decision to cancel the test this year and all future years was based on complaints from administrators who said the test didn’t coincide with their summer schools.  

But the most notable part of the letter was O’Connell’s decision to push the state board to vote for a two-year delay. O’Connell authored the 1999 education reform legislation that established the exit exam requirement. Under that legislation, all high school students, beginning with the class of 2004, would be required to pass the exam in order to receive a diploma. 

Proponents of the legislation say the exit exam is necessary to ensure that students have learned basic skills upon graduation. But critics of the requirement say it is unfair to expect students who are disabled, English learners or from schools that are poorly funded or have unqualified teachers to pass the exam. 

Opponents in Florida have waged a successful legal battle in Florida against the exit exam requirement there, and a similar case is pending in Massachusetts. 

According to data provided by the California Department of Education, as of January more than 172,000 high school juniors—38 percent of the class of 2004—still had not passed the math portion of the exam. More than 86,000, or 19 percent of the class, had not passed the English portion. 

A recent study of the state’s exit exam by an independent research firm found that the requirement was forcing steady increases in standards-based learning but that students from poorer communities were less likely to pass the exam. Other groups, including Californians for Justice, have found similar disparities. 

Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) said O’Connell’s decision “showed good judgment” and that she hopes the state board follows his lead and votes for the two-year delay.  

“For me it’s important that we give our young people adequate opportunity to learn,” she said. “We are below the national median and we’re cutting in this current budget crisis. Before we hold our young people accountable for passing a high-stakes exam we need to hold ourselves as adults accountable to adequately fund education and give our kids a realistic opportunity to meet our expectations.” 

Hancock is currently sponsoring legislation that would eliminate the state exit exam requirement and leave it up to individual districts to decide whether they want to use the test as a criterion for getting a diploma.  

Ann Bancroft, spokesman for Secretary of Education Kerry Mazonni, who is a strong proponent for the exit exam and standards-based curriculum, said O’Connell’s move doesn’t mean the administration has cooled down its enthusiasm for the test. She said the governor supported legislation that called for the independent study on the exit exam and left it open for the board to decide whether to delay the full implementation based on the information from the study. “The most important thing to this administration and O’Connell is that the test remain legally sustainable so that it can help students improve, which it has done,” she said. 

The Salvation Army dissolved its Berkeley Board of Advisers last Tuesday, a few months after the board recommended the organization sell their University Avenue property to a nonprofit agency that would either develop a senior service center or affordable housing. 

The Salvation Army’s facility at 1535 University Ave., near Sacramento Street, hosts social services such as church meetings and distribution of food and clothing vouchers. 

The 27,500-square-foot property has been listed with Emeryville-based Cornish & Carey Commercial Realtors since December for $3 million. A Cornish & Carey Realtor said there has been a lot of interest in the property although he wouldn’t comment on whether it was from nonprofit developers. 

The property is located in an area that has been identified by the City Council as preferred for housing development, which makes it highly attractive to developers who can pay high asking prices.  

Regional Salvation Army representative Patty Brooke told the Board of Advisers during its Tuesday meeting that, effective immediately, the board was dissolved. The board, which consisted of five community members, has advised the Salvation Army on local social service issues for the last 15 years. 

Salvation Army Capt. Douglas Reily and regional representative Maj. Eda Hokom, both of the army’s regional headquarters in Sacramento, did not return calls to the Daily Planet about the board’s dissolution.  

It was unclear whether the move was connected to the sale of the building, though some board members suspected it was. 

“It was abrupt and surprised everybody,” said former board member Bill White. “I was not prepared to hear what I heard at [Tuesday’s] meeting.” 

White said he thinks the Salvation Army wants to sell the property for top dollar, which probably would mean selling to a for-profit developer who would be less likely to develop affordable housing or a social services oriented facility. 

Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Rachel Ruppert has been on the Salvation Army Board of Advisers for 15 years. She said the Salvation Army lost a vital connection to the community by dissolving the board.  

“It was very important to the Berkeley community to feel like the Salvation Army was connected to the area,” she said. “By disbanding the Board of Advisers ... the Salvation Army is losing the pulse of the community.” 

Other board members included Peggy Casey, Barbara Garrett, Ove Whittstock and Berkeley police Sgt. David White. 

Last March, the Board of Advisers recommended that the Salvation Army not sell the property and continue to maintain services at the location that many have come to rely on. 

Furthermore, the board made a secondary recommendation that if they had to sell the property for financial reasons, it should sell it to a nonprofit developer who would develop either a senior services center or affordable housing on the site. 

Councilmember Linda Maio, who represents District 2 where the property is located, said she would be surprised if the Salvation Army sold the property to a for-profit developer when there is such critical need for affordable housing in Berkeley. 

“We have no idea why they’ve short-circuited the community process,” she said. “We’re dismayed because the recommendation the advisory board came up with would be totally consistent with the Salvation Army’s mission.”

On Monday at noon, a big white moving truck stopped in front of the downtown offices of public radio station KPFA, 94.1 FM, and unloaded 11 nondescript boxes and a whole lot of symbolism.  

KPFA’s parent organization, the Pacifica Radio Foundation, is moving its national headquarters back to Berkeley this summer after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus in Washington, D.C., a period which featured a bruising battle with its rebellious Bay Area affiliate, KPFA. 

“They have come back to Berkeley,” said Valerie van Isler, director of administration for the new Pacifica headquarters at 1925 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, next door to KPFA. “This is terrifically important for the tradition and legacy we’re trying to build here.” 

Pacifica and KPFA clashed in recent years over programming and local control. On the evening of Jan. 5, 2000, in the midst of the fight, Pacifica packed up its Berkeley headquarters and shipped out to Washington D.C. At the time, foundation officials said the move had been planned for three months, but KPFA staffers said they were surprised by the late-night exodus. 

In December 2001, the squabble—which included a 23-day lockout of KPFA staff in July 1999—ended with a legal settlement that left local control intact and forced a reconstitution of the Pacifica board. The next month an interim board, composed of partisans from both sides of the struggle, voted to return the national headquarters to Berkeley. 

Van Isler said Monday’s shipment, in broad daylight, signaled a shift away from the late-night move out of Berkeley in the winter of 2000. 

“It’s an indication of the integrity we’re trying to build, the transparency we’re trying to build,” she said. 

Lonnie Hicks, Pacifica’s first chief financial officer, said he opened the doors to the new office March 15. A skeleton staff has spent the last three months fixing up the space, transferring the foundation’s computer system to the new office and arranging a roughly $200,000 move of documents and other materials from Washington, D.C., to Berkeley. 

Movers arrived with more than 300 boxes of Pacifica papers Monday, dropping off 11 at the new headquarters in a symbolic move and unloading the rest at a storage facility in Oakland. A second shipment is expected in late June or early July. 

“This move is not just symbolic,” said Hicks. “We’re moving in a new direction.” 

In the coming months Pacifica, which operates five stations around the country and provides programming to 90 others, plans to syndicate more of its shows, expand its Web-based broadcasting outfit and build the capacity for a digital signal, Hicks said. 

An open house and official welcoming for new KPFA general manager and former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport is scheduled for July 20.

The potential demolition of the historic Ellen Blood House on Durant Avenue was supposed to be addressed at last Thursday’s Zoning Appeals Board meeting, but the matter was misstated on the agenda and postponed until next week. 

The board had planned to consider whether to approve the final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the project, but the agenda incorrectly stated that the board was considering the use permits for the project. The discussion of the final EIR will be held June 26. 

Opponents of a plan to remove the historic house to make way for the construction of a 31,000-square-foot, mixed-use project on Durant Avenue say the EIR for the development is dated and insufficient. They contend that the EIR for the Durant Apartments project was done so long ago that it lacks pertinent data concerning recent housing developments in the area surrounding the project. 

They say this information is important because the city, before approving a use permit to remove a designated city landmark, must issue a Statement of Overriding Considerations. The statement gives a reason or reasons why the benefit of a new development outweighs the loss of a historic resource. In this case, such a reason might be the city’s need to build more housing in order to meet regionally mandated housing production goals. 

The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Blood House a structure of merit in 1999. At the June 12 meeting of ZAB, Carrie Olson, commission president, said the October 2002 EIR fails to mention the fact that the University of California has added about 1,000 units of housing in the Southside Area in the three years since the developer initially applied for a permit in May 2000. Those units are either already built or in the pipeline, Olson said. 

“When the project was initially proposed, there was a need for housing. But to say it’s needed now is not based on the current situation,” she told the Daily Planet. She added that the city has identified three areas—along University, South Shattuck and San Pablo avenues—in which housing should be created. “The Southside is not a location that has been called out to be built on,” she said. 

Durant Apartments developer Ruegg & Ellsworth proposes to replace the two-story, 19th-century, Queen Anne style house with a five-story development that would include two ground-floor retail establishments and 44 units of housing.  

“We think the EIR is adequate,” said Paul Dyer, project manager for Ruegg & Ellsworth. He said the developer is willing to relocate the building rather than demolish it if an appropriate site can be found. 

The ZAB and City Council must “certify” the final EIR—that is, agree that it adequately addresses all the environmental issues as outlined by state law--before it can consider whether to issue a use permit.  

Observant neighbor spots thief 

On Saturday around 5 a.m., a 55-year-old resident of Edith Street opened her living room blinds and noticed a man peering in car windows and trying their doors. He approached a white Acura, found the door to be unlocked and began rifling through the inside of the vehicle.  

The resident called police who later detained a man who resembled the resident’s description. The woman identified the suspect. Officers searched the man and discovered burglar tools and a gram of methamphetamine.  

He was booked into Berkeley jail for a felony count of auto burglary, another felony count of possession of methamphetamine and a misdemeanor count of possession of burglary tools. He is being held on $31,000 bail. 

Couple finds stranger in their truck 

A couple who had parked their truck at Fifth and Gilman streets while they went shopping in the area returned to find a man inside rumaging through their vehicle. 

The car owner noticed the passenger window had been broken and confronted the man, who began to walk away and warned them to not follow him because he had a gun. 

The owner followed him anyway and after a short foot chase, wrestled the fleeing man to the ground. The car owner searched a plastic shopping bag that the man was carrying and determined he had not stolen anything from his truck.  

The car owner told police that he let the man go despite his truck’s broken window.

First, let’s make it clear that “The Wyrd Sisters,” which opened June 13 at the Berkeley City Club, couldn’t be any newer or more modern in its creation. This is important to remember since the play itself is so strongly reminiscent of an earlier period of playwriting.  

“The Sisters” is the product of Central Works, the Berkeley theater company that’s been creating its own plays with great success for the last 12 years, usually grabbing an idea or characters from some literary golden calf as a starting point. When they’re through working it over, the mama cow herself might have trouble claiming the relationship. Last year, for example, they took the three sisters from “King Lear” and ended up with a comedy—a successful comedy. 

So it shouldn’t be too surprising that “The Wyrd Sisters,” despite its Shakespearean genesis—very probably in “Macbeth”—is a long, long way from anything the Bard himself would have recognized. What we have here is a comedy which could have come straight out of the 1930s or 1940s: the kind of plays and movies people used to make before everybody went off to film school on their way to Sundance to do “meaningful” and “symbolic” (and totally incomprehensible) works requiring a really good grasp of the term “post-modern.” Whatever “The Sisters” is, it isn’t post-modern. Heck, it isn’t even modern. 

But it certainly is fun. 

In hallowed fashion, it’s a dark and stormy night and two sisters (Rica Anderson and Claudia Rosa), very modern young businesswomen, lose their way in the woods. In the best tradition of these things, they find a huge, old, spooky house and a mysterious old lady--who looks a little like a witch in a fairy tale—who lives there all by herself.  

Naturally (what else?), the sisters decide to spend the night. Ring in the thunder and the lightning and the cackling of their scary hostess (Sandra Schlechter), who says strange things and seems to have mysterious powers. 

So then we get to the middle of the night. Like all respectable ghost stories this one involves people getting out of bed and wandering around downstairs in order to get into trouble. And indeed they do. Things get properly harrowing as the old lady starts practicing black magic and the increasingly berserk older sister begins to think up new ways to get rid of the boss who stands in the way of her corporate climb.  

It would be unfair to go into further detail—but it involves a watermelon.  

By the start of the second act, things have become hysterical enough to warrant the appearance of that standard British figure, the proper detective: suit, vest, white shirt, tie, overcoat and all.  

It’s rather nice, and an interesting change in tone. (Nothing else about the play is particularly British, but who cares?)  

All in all, there’s a very satisfying ending to a very nice piece of fluff.  

Not surprisingly, Central Works, which makes a philosophy of offering affordable prices as well as occasional free or “pay what you can” performances, has not yet acquired its own theater. The productions frequently appear at the Berkeley City Club, and, for this play, the Julia Morgan building could not be bettered. The room is large with a high ceiling and an impressive fireplace—for this performance, draped with the kind of gewgaws one would expect to have accumulated over long years. 

It may be hard for some of us to go into that room in the future without half-expecting a witch to appear.

EXHIBITIONS 

ACCI Gallery, “Midstream” 

A photography exhibition of artists Alex Ambrose, Bar- 

bara Bobes, Dafna Kory, and Catherine Stone. Exhibition runs until June 24. “Barococo” ceramics by Tony Natsoulas. Exhibition runs until July 14. Gallery hours are Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. acciart@aol. 

com, www.accigallery.com 

Addison Street Windows, “The Color of Sound” 

Paintings, prints, and mixed media art about music, by Eve Donovan, through June 27, 2018 Addison St. 658-0585. 

Albany Community Center Arts Foyer Gallery, “Many Faces of the Middle East” 

Photographs by Ed Kinney, through July 11. Gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. 524-9283. 

Alta Bates Community Gallery, “Hot Flash Glass” An exibition by eight Bay Area artists, through June 20. “The Whole Story,” handmade paper art by Linda Lemon, through June 21. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily. 2450 Ashby Ave. 548-7333. 

Art of Living Center, “Watercolors” by William Webb. Exhibitions runs until July 18, Tues., Wed., Sat., noon - 5 p.m., Fri. 1 - 5 p.m. 2905 Shattuck Ave. 848-3736. 

Bancroft Library, 

“Then and Now” Student photographs of the Berkeley Campus,from the late 1800s to the present, through July 18. Mon. - Fri. 9 a.m - 5 p.m., Sat. 1 - 5 p.m. 642-3781. 

Berkeley Art Museum,  

“The Black Panthers 1968” Photographs by Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones, Free exhibition runs until June 29. “Far Away-Nearby” The 33rd Annual UC Berkeley Masters of Fine Art Graduate Exhibition, through July 28. Roger Ballen, “Photographs” May 12 - August 15. “Everything Matters: Paul Klos, A Retrospective” April 2 - July 20. “A Brush with Truth,” 13th c. Chinese ink paintings, “Haboku,” Japanese landscape paintings, through June 29. Fred Wilson’s “Aftermath,” selected objects on war and conflict from the museum’s collection, through July 20.  

“Turning Corners,” an exhibition of five centuries of innovative art, through the summer of 2004. The UC Berkeley Art Museum is open Wed. - Sun., 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Admission $8, free to UC staff, faculty and students, and free for general public the first Thurs. of every month, 2626 Bancroft Way, 642-0808.                   www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Historical Society, “Focus on Berkeley”  

A photography exhibit by the Berkeley Camera Club, Berkeley High School students and community photographers in celebration of the City’s 125th Anniversary. Exhibition runs until Sept. 13. Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. Sponsored by the Berkeley Historical Society. 848-0181.  

Graduate Theological Union Library, “Hand-crafted Books by Bay Area Artists,” Zea Morwitz, Mary Eubank, Nance O'Banion, Ted Purves, Susanne Cockrell, Karen Sjoholm, and Lisa Kokin. Each book is accompanied by a statement addressing the issues and process involved in the creation of the work. Exhibition runs until Sept. 30. 2400 Ridge Rd. 649-2541. 

Kala Art Institute, “Water World” Photograph-based images of water by a diverse group of artists. Photography, digital imaging and video reveal perspectives on the ways we see and think about water. Exhibition runs until June 21. 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

Lawrence Hall of Science,  

“Lego Ocean Adventure” 

The underwater world comes to life through role play and hands-on activities. Children learn how people eat, sleep, and work while living underwater as well as how scientists explore the ocean depths using unmanned rovers. Runs until Sept. 7. 

“K'NEXtech” Technology meets your imagination--without stumbling blocks. Construct models from colorful K'NEX pieces, which snap easily together, of whatever you can imagine. Or just examine the amazing K'NEX sculptures built by professional designers all made with more than half a million K'NEX pieces. Runs from May 24 to Sept. 14. Law- 

rence Hall of Science is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Cost is $8 for adults, $6 for youth 5-18, seniors and disabled, $4 for children 3-4, free for children under 3. Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive, above the UC Campus. 643-5961. www.lawrencehall- 

ofscience.org 

Phoebe S. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, “Photographs from the Great Age of Exploration, 1865-1915,” through March 2004. “A Century of Collecting” Exploring the variety of art and culture across the globe from ancient times to the present. Gallery hours are Wed. - Sat., 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Sun., noon - 4 p.m. Cost is $2 for adults, $.50 for children, free for museum members, UC students, staff and faculty, free to the public on Thurs. Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 643-7648. http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/outreach 

Photolab Gallery, “Images from the Ballroom Series” by Andy Stewart Black and white photographs on exhibit until July 19. Gallery hours are Mon. - Fri. 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., sat. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reception for the Artist, June 14, 6 to 8 p.m. 2235 Fifth St. 644-1400. www.photolaboratory.com  

Regional Parks Botanic Gardens Visitors Center, “Closeup Photographs of Wildflowers,” by Maggie Ely. Visitors center is located at the intersection of Wildcat Canyon and South Park Drive. 

Slater/Marinoff & Co., “All Animal Art” Forty photographers and artists have donated works to help fund the spay-neuter and food costs of the Milo Foundation’s work in finding new homes for abandoned dogs and cats. Exhibition runs until August 31. Hours are Mon. - Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun. 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. 1823 Fourth St. 548-2001. 

Thelma Harris Art Gallery, “Hopes and Dreams and Spring” Paintings by Bernie Casey, through June 30. Gallery hours are Tues. - Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat., noon to 5 p.m. 5940 College Ave., Oakland, 654-0443. 

Traywick Gallery, “Osmotica” Works by Linda Mieko Allen. Exhibition runs until June 21. Gallery hours are  

Wed. - Sat., 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. 1316 Tenth St. 527-1214. www.traywick.com 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center Gallery, “Painted Blessings” Painted breast castings by Bibiana Lai. Exhibition runs until July 3. 5741 Telegraph Ave. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org  

TUESDAY, JUNE 17 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “Meditations on Revolution” at 7:30 p.m at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lillian Rubin, Ph.D., gives insights into what makes therapy work, in her new book, “The Man with the Beautiful Voice, and More Stories from the Other Side of the Couch,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work, a discussion with Marie Arana, editor-in-chief of The Washington Post Book World; Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner and Berkeley resident; and Mark Danner, professor at UCB’s Graduate School of Journal- 

ism, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Francine Ward dicusses her new book, “Esteemable Acts,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Summer Poetry 

7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Cafe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. Free, open mic, poetry, prose, short fiction, amateur and advanced artists welcome. 549-1128. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Fling Ding: All Wrecked Up and Bluegrass Intentions at  

8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jazzschool Ensemble performs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter, 2181 Shattuck. 843-7625. www.jupiter 

beer.com 

Bang performs at 9:30 p.m.  

at The Starry Plough. Cost  

is $7. 841-2082. www.starry 

ploughpub.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 

FILM 

I Found it at the Movies: “About a Girl,” works by Julie Zando and Joan Baderman at 7:30 p.m. at the Paci- 

fic Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Unbound and Under Covers” Experiments in visual writing, with Suzanne Stein, at 7 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Steve Jones, British science writer and host of a popular BBC series, reads from “Y: The Descent of Man”at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Ariel Gore discusses her memoir “Atlas of the Human Heart,” on travelling through Asia and Europe as a teen-ager, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Brown Fist Collective at Café Poetry at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sarman Apt Russell reads from “An Obsession with Butterflies” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Brian Gore and Dusan Bogdanovic, acoustic guitar masters, perform at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Fuzz, The Influents, and The Effection perform at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, JUNE 19 

FILM 

Peter Watkins: “The Jour- 

ney,” episodes 1-6, at 6 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Hirsh, a senior editor in Newsweek’s Washing- 

ton bureau, discusses his new book “At War With Our- 

selves: Why America is Squandering Its Chance to Build a Better World,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.black 

oakbooks.com 

Patricia Unterman presents her updated and revised “The San Francisco Food Lover’s Guide”at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Guided Tour of “Everything Matters: Paul Kos” at 5:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

Joel Kovel, former Green Party candidate for President, discusses his latest book, “The Enemy of Na- 

ture: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lauralee Summer reads from her memoir, “Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 

845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

William C. Miller discusses his new thriller, “Long Pig,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Verbal Tea, an evening of original poetry with David Ari, Ed Aust, and Terence Keane, at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby at MLK. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with the Spirit of ‘29 Dixieland Jazz, a Berkeley tradition since 1982, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 549-2230. 

John Keawe, Hawaiian slack key guitar and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Odessa Chen, vocalist with classical and indie influences, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Steve Poltz performs at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 

CHILDREN 

“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” special release party with trivia contest, costume contest, magic show and other events from 10 p.m. Books go on sale at 12:01 a.m. Barnes and Noble.  

644-0861. 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “55 Days at Peking” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Better Shove this Letter into the Stove” with Robert H. Hirst, Ph.D., Professor, Doe Library; Director, Mark Twain Project, UC Berkeley. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 526-2925, 665-9020. 

Regina Louise talks about her childhood running away from over 30 foster homes in “Somebody’s Someone” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Carole Terwillenger Meyers will show slides and discuss her updated book, “Weekend Adventures in Northern California,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Fania, a Senegalese singer, performs at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $14 in advance, $16 at the door. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Latin Jazz Legacy Series, with Columna B and the Snake Trio. Panel at 7:30 p.m., performance at 8:30 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in ad- 

vance, $15 at the door.  

849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Wake the Dead, a Celtic tri- 

bute to the Grateful Dead, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Alessandra Belloni, Southern Italian percussionist, singer, and dancer performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Virus 9, The Enemies, The Frisk, Endless Struggle, Contraceptions perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Jucifer, Drunk Horse, and Replicator perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Orixa, The Audrye Sessions, and Fine by Me perform rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 

CHILDREN 

Kids on the Block Puppet Show, promoting acceptance and understanding of physical and cultural differences, at 2 p.m. at the Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave., lower level. Suggested donation $3, children under 3 free. 549-1564. 

Youth Music Clinic on Rhythm at The Jazz House. Cost is $10. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Celebrate Summer with readings of “It’s Summer- 

time” and “How Will We Get to the Beach?” at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

“Videodrome,” a film about video, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheel- 

chair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Douglas Sirk: “All I Desire” at 5 and 8:45 p.m., and “All That Heaven Allows” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Unbound and Under Covers” Experiments in visual writing, at 7 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Trinity Chamber Concerts 

Tom Heasley performs on his digitally manipulated tuba, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Suggested donation of $12 general, $8 students, seniors or disabled. 549-3864. 

Bay Street Arts and Music Festival, free live music, crafts and food vendors, and children’s activities area, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Bay St. in Emeryville. Proceeds benefit Emery Education Foundation. 655-4002. 

Vienna Teng performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Servants and special guests perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Hyim Sextet, Thunderpussy and Fiyawata perform pop funk at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Johnny Nocturne and Mz. Dee perform at 9:30 p.m., with a swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashken- 

az.com 

Under a Dying Sun, Light the Fuse and Run, Transistor Transistor, The November Group, Angry for Life perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 22 

CHILDREN 

Caribbean Kids’ Show with Asheba from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $5 for adults, $3 for children. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

“The Frisco Kid,” a humorous look at Jewish pioneers in the American West, with Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Suggested donation $2. 848-0237. 

Douglas Sirk: “The First Legion” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Teaching Teo,” a humorous short about raising a child in a lesbian household, by Ber- 

keley resident and former Willard teacher Diane Dodge, at noon at the Castro Theater in SF. 649-9956. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Summer Solstice Gathering of Poets with Adam David Miller, Rita Flores Bogaert, David Shaddock, Carolyn Scarr, Steve Arntson and Dennis Fritzinger, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Community Garden on Peralta St., between Hopkins and Gilman. 231-5912. 

Poets Miriam Sagan and Gary Young at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jerry Zolten chronicles the 75-year history of an important musical group in “Great God A’mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds: Celebrating the Rise of Soul Gospel Music,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Street Arts and Music Festival, free live music, crafts and food vendors, and children’s activities area, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Bay St. in Emeryville.Proceeds benefit Emery Education Foundation. 655-4002. 

Beck at 3 p.m. at the Greek Theater, Piedmont and Hearst Aves. Tickets are $39.50. 642-9988. 

Joseph Zitt's Calculating Codes and Naive Melodies, 

works for sextet, and Aaron Bennett's Electro-magnetic 

Trans-personal Orchestra at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House, 

3192 Adeline at MLK, Jr. Way. Admission is free, donations accepted. 649-8744. http://sfsound.org/acme 

African Drum Workshop, held every Sunday with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., experienced from 12:30 to 2 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advan- 

ced registration is encouraged. 533-5111.  

Mikhail Baryshnikov “Solos with Piano,” with Koji Attwood, piano at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse. Tickets are $86. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Piedmont Youth Bagpipe Band performs from noon to 4 p.m. at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Centennial Drive near Grizzly Peak. 642-5132.  

Listen and Bayonics perform hip hop at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Teatro Nahual presents “La Otra Cara del Indio,” en español at 2 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sourdough Slim, humor and music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, JUNE 23 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Huston Smith, a leading authority on world religions, discusses his new book, “Buddism: A Concise Intro- 

duction,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Will Ferguson presents his satirical anti-self help manual “Happiness” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

AT THE THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “The Bacchae,” directed by David Stein. Euripedes’ play about Dionysus and his revenge against a hateful king. Sat. and Sun., June 21 through July 6, at 5:30 p.m., outdoors in John Hinkle Park, off The Arlington at Southampton Ave and Somerset Place. Free admission. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theater Company, “Thérèse Raquin,” by Emile Zola, directed by Tom Ross. A sinister tale set among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Runs June 20 to July 27, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $32 and $34. 843-4822.  

www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, 

“The Guys,” by Anne Nelson, directed by Robert Egan. May 21 – July 5, Tues. - Sun., call for starting times. $10 - $54. The Roda Theater, 2016 Addison St. 647-2918. 647-2949.www.berkeleyrep.org 

California Shakespeare Festival runs May 28 to October 22. Performances this year will be Julius Caesar, Arms and the Man, Measure for Measure, and Much Ado About Nothing. Please call for dates and times. The Bruns Amphitheater, Orinda. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org  

Central Works Theater Ensemble, “The Wyrd Sisters” directed by Jan Zvaifler. June 13 - July 13,  

Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $8-$20 sliding scale. For reservations and information call 558-1381. 

Shotgun Players presents 

“under milk wood” by Dylan Thomas at Eighth Street Studio, 2525 8th St., May 24 through June 29, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 adults, $12 children and seniors, $10 on Thursdays. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org

The Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) presents Summer Noon Concerts 2003, a unique series of nine free concerts, Thursdays at noon in June & July, beginning June 5th. From Rhythm & Blues to Brazilian capoeira, these concerts at the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza (Shattuck Ave. at Center St.) are a showcase of the culturally rich performing arts in Berkeley. This outdoor summer celebration of Berkeley-based musicians & dancers is just a small sampling of the performing arts happening nightly in clubs, cafes, schools, theaters and concert halls in Downtown Berkeley. 

On Thursday, June 5th, our concert series opens with Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut performing some of the best in R & B, with a splash of jazz and a solid helping of the blues. Soulful Strut appears regularly at many Bay Area nightspots such Enricos Sidewalk Café and Restaurant. 

On Thursday, July 31st, our concert series closes with SoVoSó, a highly visual and imaginative a capella ensemble that sings a compelling mix of jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, world, pop, and improvisational music. The ensemble is made up of former members of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra, and McFerrin says, “SoVoSó is tight, soulful, and a whole lotta fun.” 

This event is easily accessible by transit and there is one hour free parking daily from 9 am to 5 pm in Center Street Garage. Seating will be available. 

For a complete schedule of entertainers for the Downtown Berkeley Summer Noon Concerts 2003 visit the Downtown Berkeley Association website at www.downtownberkeley.org!

It wasn’t your typical retirement party. Then again, Linda Mengel and James Harris aren’t your typical teachers. 

Two weeks ago, more than 300 parents, teachers and students packed the Jefferson Elementary School auditorium to honor Mengel, a 63-year-old Hawaiian with an infectious smile and gentle touch with children, and Harris, 61, an understated Southern Californian with a wry sense of humor and surprising ability to inspire.  

“I was overwhelmed,” said Harris, a fifth-grade teacher. “It was really nice.” 

The May 30 retirement party wasn’t the only one in the district. Harris and Mengel are just two of 23 Berkeley teachers who will spend their last day in the classroom Friday when the school year ends. 

“We’re going to miss them dearly,” said Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Barry Fike, of the group of retirees. “They’ve all provided such a wealth of experience and wisdom to the district and their colleagues.” 

Jefferson principal Betty Delaney said Mengel and Harris each brought their own gifts to the classroom. 

“[Mengel’s] sensitivity to children and their needs will be missed,” she said, and Harris “pushes children to recognize that they have a responsibility for their education.” 

Harris, a 36-year veteran of the Berkeley Unified School District, grew up in the Pasadena suburb of Temple City, the son of a nurse and a post office worker. After graduating from Arizona State University, where he spent several summers working with troubled youth, he moved to Berkeley with his wife, Veronica, in 1967 and began work as a substitute teacher at Longfellow Elementary School. Two weeks into the school year, a teacher fled to Canada to avoid the draft and Harris had a full-time job. 

At the time, the Berkeley Unified School District was still a year away from becoming the first district in the nation to voluntarily integrate its largely segregated schools, and Longfellow’s students were all black. As a teacher, Harris said he tried to shield his pupils from the psychological strains of segregation. 

“I didn’t want them to think they couldn’t do what everyone else could do,” said Harris. “I always wanted to keep expectations high.” 

In 1968, Harris moved to Lincoln Elementary School, later Malcolm X, where he would remain for 28 years, with a one-year hiatus in New Hampshire. 

Harris remembers the first year of desegregation in Berkeley as an exciting time. 

“It was a big experiment,” he said. “No one knew what would happen, but there was a lot of togetherness.” 

In 1972, Veronica gave birth to the couple’s only child, Scott, and five years later, the young family moved to New Hampshire for a change of pace. But, after a short time in the Granite State, the Harrises found that their new community hadn’t quite caught up with the liberal social currents that had swept through Berkeley a decade earlier. 

“We ran into a time warp,” Harris said. “They were about 10 years behind.” 

The couple, strapped for cash, bought an old school bus and horse trailer, packed them with furniture, and headed west—but not before some good-natured neighbors scrawled “Dirty Hippies” and “Berkeley or Bust” on the side of the aging bus.  

Harris returned to Malcolm X in time for the 1978-1979 school year. There, he found Lorenzo Franklin, a bright boy with a temper who was being raised by his great-grandmother in South Berkeley. Now 34, Franklin said his teacher disarmed him with jokes about his short fuse, taught him the importance of an education and took extraordinary steps outside the classroom to get him on the right track. 

“The things he did away from the school are what have stuck with me for 25 years,” said Franklin, who still lives in the Bay Area and has kept in touch with Harris. “He would take me to his place. He would take me to A’s games. He would take me to his son’s soccer games. He really made me feel a part of him, a part of his family. 

“I can’t say enough about this man,” Franklin added. “I only hope that I can reach someone the way Mr. Harris reached me.” 

Harris touched the lives of many other students through his annual Shakespeare productions, which he began in 1985 at Malcolm X and continued at Jefferson Elementary. 

“Since it’s basically a foreign language to all the kids, it made the playing field even for all the kids—high achieving and low achieving,” he said. “Kids who were shy became another character and they were fantastic.” 

Last year, Harris’ son Scott joined him at Jefferson as a kindergarten teacher. 

“He actually tried to talk me out of being a teacher, but I think he was a good role model,” said the junior Harris. “I’ll stop by his classroom from time to time. It’s been really fun working with him.”  

Mengel, a third-grade teacher, taught with Harris for a year at Lincoln in 1968-1969 before reuniting with him seven years ago at Jefferson, where the two teach in adjacent classrooms. 

Mengel, the daughter of a policeman and a postmaster, grew up in Hawaii. In 1957, Mengel left the island to attend Pomona College in Claremont and wound up at the nearby Claremont Graduate School of Education. 

“I didn’t want to go into education,” she said. “But I was widowed at the time and I had to find something to do.” 

Mengel lasted two weeks in her first teaching job, after following the advice of a free-wheeling professor who recommended that she allow students to “express themselves.” 

“I let them express themselves and they ran all over,” she said, with a chuckle. “I called in sick and never went back.” 

After a stint working at UC Berkeley’s School of Optometry, Mengel, who has two daughters, fell back into teaching, accepting a job at Berkeley’s now-defunct Franklin Elementary School in 1964. “In the old days, we had a lot of fun,” said Mengel. “It was an honor to teach in Berkeley.” 

After 20 years at Lincoln, Jefferson and Longfellow elementary schools in Berkeley, Mengel moved in 1989 to Jefferson, where she is perhaps best known for her annual Hawaiian cultural celebration. Every spring, she decks out a couple dozen students in grass skirts, colorful headdresses and red ukuleles, teaching them island songs and dances. 

Parents say the Hawaiian event is just one of many ways Mengel connects with her students and makes learning fun. 

“Not only does she teach the three R’s, but she teaches way beyond that—she teaches to the whole child,” said Allison Murray, whose son and daughter have had Mengel as a teacher. 

Both Mengel and Harris plan to remain part of the Jefferson School community in their retirement. Harris plans to volunteer at the school, possibly reviving his Shakespeare program. Mengel hopes to continue working with Jefferson students as an occasional substitute teacher, when she’s not traveling with her two sisters, who live in Hawaii.  

Mengel said she may also return to the school to teach the kids how to strum on the ukulele and sway in a grass skirt.  

“When you’re a teacher, you can see how [students] grow throughout the year and develop a sense of self,” she said. “I’ll miss that.” 

FRIDAY, JUNE 13 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft at Telegraph.wibberkeley@ 

yahoo.com 548-6310. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 496-6000, ext. 135. www.bpf.org 

Berkeley Critical Mass Bike Ride meets at the Berkeley BART the second Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 14 

City of Berkeley Summer Aquatics Program Register from 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at the West Campus Pool, 2100 Browning St. at Addison or at the Willard Pool, 2701 Telegraph, at Derby, or call 981-SWIM. 

Berkeley Special Education Parents Network End of Year Potluck and Gathering at 3 p.m. at San Pablo Park, Russell St. at Park. Wheel- 

chair accessible. For more information call 428-1131.  

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour, “McCreary-Greer House, The Berkeley City Club, and Environs,” 

led by Paul Grunland, 10 a.m. $5 members, $10 non-members. For reservations call 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc 

The Global War on Terror and Its Impact on the Philippines with Romeo Capulong, a human rights attorney in the Philippines, at 5:30 p.m. in Booth Memorial Auditorium, Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley. Sponsored by the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines. 415-244-9734. 

Free Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling Class Learn how to detect and remedy lead hazards in your older home from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Training Center, 1017 22nd Ave., Suite #110, Oakland. For information or to register, call 567-8280. 

Kids’ Garden Club: Aroma- 

tic Plants For children age 7 to 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Til- 

den Nature Area. Cost is $5 for Berkeley residents, $7 for non-residents. 525-2233, tnarea@ebparks.org 

Solo Sierrans Sunset Walk Meet at 6 p.m. behind Chevy's Restaurant, at the “Public Shore” sign, for an hour’s walk through the Emeryville Marina. Optional dinner after walk. For more information call 234-8949. 

Celebration of 30 Years of Curbside Recycling at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. www.ecologycenter.org 

Gaia and the Sacred: Religion, Science, and Ethics 

A conference exploring the ways in which religion, ethics, and the sciences shape our understanding of who we are. Keynote address by Carol P. Christ on her new book, “She Who Changes: Re-imagining the Divine in the World.” From 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, 2451 Ridge Rd. To register contact Christopher Evans 649-2560 or trees@gtu.edu 

Open House for the Acu- 

puncture and Integrative Medicine College for pro- 

spective students and neighbors. For more information and to register, please call Taj Moore, 666-8248, or info@aic-berkeley.edu 

SUNDAY, JUNE 15 

Juneteenth Celebration on Adeline Street between Ashby and Alcatraz. Two stages for music, food vendors, arts and crafts, and jazz in the Black Repertory Theater. 655-8008. 

Father's Day Campfire 

from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Tilden Park. Bring hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and join us for songs and stories around the fire. Dress for possible fog. Walk uphill to the campfire circle. Disabled accessible, call for transportation. 525-2233. www.eb 

parks.org 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk, facilitated by singer/ 

songwriter/activist Margie Adam, at 2 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. Join a growing number of people who have found that walking the laby- 

rinth, individually and in community, offers a powerful way to ground and focus healing and peace and justice work in the world. Free. Wheelchair accessible. Sponsored by the East Bay Labyrinth Project. 526-7377. 

Solo Sierrans Trip to Green Gulch Farm Zen Center Meet at El Cerrito Plaza BART Station, east side, at 8:30 a.m. We will attend a 10:15 lecture at the Zen  

Center, then walk to Muir Beach and back. Vegetarian buffet lunch is served at 12:45 for $8. Deadline for carpool reservations is June 13, call Marie at 658-3124 or Therese at 841-5493. 

Practices of Tibetan Yoga, with Kum Nye Instructors Charaka Jurgens and Donna Morton, at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 16 

Teaching About Africa and the African Diaspora A two-day institute, sponsored by the Center for African Stu- 

dies, UC Berkeley, for K-12 and college educators and librarians. Topics include Misconceptions and Stereo- 

types; Islam in Africa; Colonialism; Comparative Political Systems; Cultural Contributions of People of African Descent; and Literature. Cost is $40 for one day, or $50 for both days. Registration required, fee waivers available. Call 642-8338. amma@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Gray Panthers Homeowners Support Group on heaters and options for heating your home, at 3 p.m. in the Grey Panthers Office, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

Berkeley CopWatch meets at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Vol- 

unteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 17 

Discussion on “The Role and Value of Myth,” open to all from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. Cost is $1, bring light snacks or drinks to share. 527-5332. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 525-3565. www. 

berkeleycameraclub.org 

Community Food Mapping Workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Learn about an innovative mapping project that engages local residents in analyzing food needs. Held on the UC Berkeley campus. Cost is $50, limited scholarships available. tori@food 

security.org 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 

South Berkeley Mural Project Community members in South Berkeley are coming together to create a neighborhood mural on the side of the Grove Liquor Store on the corner of Ashby Ave and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Meetings are held every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. For further information on ways to get involved please call 644-2204.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough, 3101 Shattuck Ave. $90 cash prizes. Cost is $7 at the door, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. 

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. 

For information on the classes call 848-5143. 527-5332. 

Community Dances in Berkeley, traditional English and American dances, 8 p.m. every Wednesday, $9. 7 p.m. first Sunday, $10. Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. 233-5065. www.bacds.org 

Beginning Everyday Photo- 

graphy, five weekly meetings on Fridays, from 7 to 9 p.m. in Room 110 of Albany High School. Cost is $32. For information call 559-6580. 

ONGOING 

Figure Drawing Workshop 

Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to noon, starting June 14. This class is designed to sharpen your observation skills and enhance your drawings. Bring your own dry drawing tools and good paper. In- 

structor is Carol Brighton. Cost is $150 for four sessions. Contact the Berkeley Art Center to sign up, 644-6893. 

Marine Biology Classes for students ages 10 to 13, from Tues., June 17 to Fri., June 27, 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave., at the Marina. Cost is $90 for eight days of classes. For information call 644-8623. www.cityofberkeley.info/marina  

Educators Academy: Project WILD and Project Aquatic WILD Tues., June 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tilden Na- 

ture Area, in Tilden Park. Cost is $45 for Berkeley residents and $51 for non-residents. Insects and Crawling Creatures Tues., June 24 - Thurs., June 26, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration is required. Cost is $100 for Berkeley residents, $110 for non-residents. Financial assistance is available for both courses. For information 636-1684. tnarea@ebparks.org 

The Bay Area Shakespeare Camp for children 7-13 years of age, in a series of five, 2-week sessions beginning June 16 and ending August 22. John Hinkel Park, South- 

ampton Place at Arlington Ave. The cost is $340 per session. After-care is also provided for a fee. Scholar- 

ships are available; call 981-5150 for details. To register for the camp, or for more information, please call 415-422-2222, or 800-978-PLAY. 

Alameda County Hazardous Waste Drop-Off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 12 - 14 at Alameda County Household Hazardous Waste, 2100 E. 7th St., Oakland. For information on what can and cannot be dropped off, please call 1-877-STOPWASTE or visit stopwaste.org/fsrecycle.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee Meeting Monday, June 16, at 

2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 

981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

City Council meets Tuesday, June 17, at 5 p.m., for a Special Workshop on the Budget, and at 7 p.m. for a Public Hearing on the Budget, in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/citycouncil 

School Board meets Wednesday June 18, at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Monday, June 16, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wednesday, June 18, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging 

meets Wednesday, June 18, 

meets at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wednesday, June 18, at 6:30 p.m., at Berkeley Work- 

Source, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Human Welfare and Com- 

munity Action Commission meets Wednesday, June 18, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Marianne Graham, 981-5416. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/welfare 

Design Review Committee meets Thursday, June 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/designreview  

Transportation Commission  

meets Thursday, June 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/transportation

TASK FORCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Sharon Hudson’s June 10-12 commentary piece regarding the Task Force on Permitting chides me for not wanting to protect the rights of future Berkeleyans to a good urban environment. 

It was just a passing exchange, but in commenting on her call for consideration of “unborn stakeholders” I said in a humorous vein that I didn’t want voices from the grave telling me, inter alia, I couldn’t go to Woodstock, or we couldn’t have had the sixties. 

I hope Berkeleyans in 2050 have a good urban environment, but I want them to decide how high they want their buildings at that time, just as I want us to decide how we want our buildings we build now. I don’t have the hubris to speak for the unborn, in a country where they can speak for themselves in due time. 

I thank her for her kind observation that I realize there are at least two sides to every issue. Like most mediators, I actually think there are probably four or five sides to most issues. This includes her own views about the Task Force issues. 

Victor Herbert 

• 

DISTRESSING LANGUAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was distressed by the commentary piece authored by Art Goldberg in your June 6-9 edition. I understand disagreement, even very heated disagreement. And I have participated in my share of that. But to call any city employee, however much one disagrees with him, a “duplicitous insect” is stomach turning. The personally degrading insults in the piece do not further the exchange of ideas and do not encourage discussion. I suppose that language says more about the one who writes it than the one he is so childishly describing. 

But more than that, I am dismayed that the Planet would print such personally offensive language in the commentary part of the paper. There is no disclaimer regarding the views expressed in the section. Nothing like, “These commentary pieces are personal opinions and do not reflect the views of the editors.” So I am left to believe that the Planet stands behind the opinions expressed. Otherwise, I would think I would find such a hit piece in the Letters to the Editor, along with all the other personal opinions expressed by members of our community. 

Even so, thank you for all your efforts to bring us a local paper again. 

Anna de Leon 

• 

OUTRAGED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In reference to the recent sentencing of drug kingpin Ed Rosenthal, it is obvious that he is immune to the Supreme Court ruling that marijuana has not been accepted for medical use in the United States, and that it is not a legal defense. Justice did not prevail; it completely failed, leaving all of us who support sound drug policy outraged.  For the sake of our children’s future, we need answers now. 

How could Ed Rosenthal, who should have received a mandatory minimum of five years, get a downward departure of sentencing guidelines to one day, which he never served? How could a downward departure be considered because Judge Charles Breyer felt Rosenthal genuinely believed what he was doing was not against the law? Perhaps Judge Breyer needs to read Mr. Rosenthal’s book, “Marijuana: The Law and You, a Guide to Minimizing Legal Consequences.” It must only be a coincidence that the book is designed “to keep you out or get you out of trouble.” The back cover of his book claims that it has “saved people thousands of years of jail time.”  

It is well documented how legalization advocates make a mockery of even their own “medical” use arguments, including Mr. Rosenthal, who has said: “I have to be honest. There is another reason why ... I do use marijuana ... only in foreign countries, outside the three-mile limit and all that ... And that is because I like to get high!” This blatant facade of Mr. Rosenthal’s certainly belies Judge Breyer’s perception of reality. 

Judge Charles Breyer has done us a grave injustice by his contempt for federal guidelines and abuse of power, an injustice that will sacrifice the health and well-being of our children, and for that I will not stand. Instead of just say “no,” Mr. Breyer reinforces just say “go.” It seems as though he does not take the law seriously, but rather like a game: Don’t go directly to jail, do pass go and do collect 200 children to demoralize. This travesty should be investigated immediately. Criminals do not need another loophole, nor do our children need to be exposed to another drug dealer flaunting federal law. 

Calvina L. Fay 

St. Petersburg, Fla.  

• 

BE OF THE PEOPLE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have been so disappointed with the sell-out of The East Bay Express. I am now looking to you to take its place. Be of the people, decent, liberal, fair, ecological, interesting, artistic. Try not to put in too many ads. Try to avoid sex ads—I know they “sell” and you might have to do it ... but try to keep it to a minimum. 

Jeff and Paulina Miner 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you so much for the lovely picture of the Berkeley City Club pool in your June 10-12 edition. The BCC pool was named “Best Lap Pool in the East Bay” by the readers of the East Bay Express (2002), and there’s room here for you! Become a member of the Berkeley City Club and swim in the beautiful pool, dine in the elegant dining room, and enjoy all of the member benefits.  

The Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation host free public tours of this extraordinary Berkeley landmark the fourth Sunday of every month (except December) from 1 to 4 p.m. Visitors will enjoy seeing Miss Morgan’s unique architectural features—beautiful vaulted ceilings, a fanciful fireplace, leaded glass windows, a variety of decorative rosettes—that create this very special “little castle.”  

This beautiful building hosts many community group meetings, overnight hotel guests, weddings and other social events as well as being “a home away from home” for members. For details about membership or other BCC services, please take a tour or call the BCC at 510-848-7800.  

Established as a separate nonprofit corporation in 1965, the Landmark Heritage Foundation is dedicated to the preservation of this landmark and the promotion of the legacy of Julia Morgan. Gifts to the Foundation are fully tax deductible. For tour information, call the LHF office at 510-883-9710 or e-mail lhfjmorgan@earthlink.net. 

Mary Breunig, President 

Landmark Heritage Foundation 

FRIDAY, JUNE 13 

CHILDREN 

“Little Nut Brown Hare” at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Nicholas Ray: “King of Kings” at 7:30 p.m., Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 for members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon Series, “Racial Profiling and Counter-Terrorism” with Jack Glasser, Ph.D., Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations 526-2925, 665-9020. 

“Unbound and Under Covers” Experiments in visual writing at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Karen X. Tulchinsky returns with the Rabinovitch family in her new book, “Love and Other Ruins,” at 7:30 p.m. at Boadecia’s Books, 398 Co- 

lusa St., Kensington. 559-9184. 

Andrea Siegel talks about the father-daughter bond in her new book, “Snapshots From the Heart,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Gayle Brandeis, winner of the Bellwether Prize, reads from her novel, “The Book of Dead Birds,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. She will be introduced by Maxine Hong Kingston. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Latin Jazz Legacy Series, with Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Eddie and Mad Duran. Panel at 7:30 p.m., performance at 8:30 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $15 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra performs Brahms, Benoit/ 

Beintus, and Nodaira at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall. Tickets are $10-$45. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Jazzschool Students’ Spring Recital at 6 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Admission is free. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

María Bermúdez y Sonidos Gitanos perform flamenco at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $32 for adults, $29 for children under 12, students and seniors. 925-798-1300. 

Groundation, reggae classics with band originals, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Taos Hum, Club Dub and The Spindles perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

SoVoSó, jazz-inflected a cappella, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Inspect Her Gadget, Spag, Second Opinion, Solamente, Resilience, The Peels perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Jim Ryan’s Forward Energy with Eddie Gale and Marco Eneidi, jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. 649-8744. www. 

thejazzhouse.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 14 

CHILDREN 

Celebrate Father’s Day and Flag Day with readings of “What Dads Can Do” and “The Starry, Stripy Blanket” at 11 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861.  

FILM 

“Dersu Uzala,” a film by Akira Kurosawa about a military explorer who meets and befriends a hunter in the unmapped forests of Siberia, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheel- 

chair accessible. All events are free. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org  

Nicholas Ray: “Bitter Vic- 

tory” at 4:30 and 8:50 p.m. and “The Savage Innocents” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm and Muse Poetry reading at the Berkeley Art Center. Open mic sign-up at 6:30 p.m., reading at 7 p.m. 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. Admis- 

sion is free. 527-9753 or 569-5364. 

Daniel Glick discusses life as a single father in “Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Freight’s 35th Anniversary Concert with Phil Marsh, and members of the Clean- 

liness and Godliness Skiffle Band, East Bay Sharks, Darryl Henriques, Marc Silber and others at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Tickets are $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

La Peña Celebrates its 28th Anniversary with Bobi Céspedes, Cuban singer, percus- 

sionist and Yoruba Lucumi priestess, at 8 and 10 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ensemble 6-4-2 presents “A Musical Offering from Berlin to Paris: Virtuoso Sonatas of Bach, Leclair, Marais, Telemann” on period instruments at 8 p.m. at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15, $12 for seniors and students. 415-242-4348. 

Flamenco Fever with Yaelisa accompanied by singers Antonio Malena and Mateo Solea. Dinner Show at 7 p.m., $49-$67; Wine and Tapas Show at 9:45 p.m. $20-$37. Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662. www.cafedelapaz.net 

Jewish Soulfolk with Ira Scott English and Hebrew songs for the whole community at 8 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut Ave., between Vine and Rose. The concert will end with a short Havdalah service. 848-0237. 

Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra with Avram Fefer performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Transmission Trio, avant groove at 9 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $7. 644-2204. 

O-Maya performs a blend of Latin music and hip-hop at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ash- 

kenaz.com 

Calamity and Main, The Cowlicks, and Richard Marsh perform at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Phenomenauts, D. S. B., Assault, From Ashes Rise, Black Lung Patriots perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., Cost is $5, $1 if wearing prom clothes! 525-9926. 

Gil Chun’s “Bay Area Follies” A variety dance program including tap, ballroom and ethnic dances at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church at 2727 College Ave. Cost is $9, $6 for seniors. 526-8474. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 15 

FILM 

Douglas Sirk: “There is Always Tomorrow” at 5:30 p.m., at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

25 Years of Women’s Poetry, a celebration reading of “A Fierce Brightness” with Re- 

becca Gordon, Merle Woo and others at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Joseph McElroy reads from his new book, “Actress in the House,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Gallery Talk on The Painted Tales of India, with Lee Patterson, at 3 p.m. in Gallery D of the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Patti Smith and Her Band in Concert in Appreciation of the Anti-War Movement from 1 to 4 p.m. in the MLK, Jr. Park. Donations requested. Sponsored by KPFA, Slim’s, ANSWER Coalition, Middle East Children’s Alli- 

ance, and Code Pink. 415-821-6565. 

African Drum Workshop, held every Sunday with Wade Peterson. Beginners at 11 a.m., experienced at 12:30 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, advanced registration is encouraged. 533-5111. 

Pacific Mozart performs a cappella jazz and pop at 5 p.m. at the Crowden School, 1475 Rose St. Tickets are $20 general, $15 seniors and students, available from 415-705-0848. www.pacificmozart.org 

Kalajali: Dances of India at  

2 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $25 front rows, $12 general seating, available from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Country Joe McDonald, Berkeley’s world-renowned troubador, performs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

John Shiurba and Good For Cows perform at 8:15 p.m. at The Jazz House. Admission is free, donations welcome. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

E.W. Wainwright and the African Roots of Jazz at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, JUNE 16 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Express with Kirk Lumpkin at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave., near University Ave. 231-5910. 

Khaled Hosseini reads from “The Kite Runner,” the first novel about contemporary Afghanistan to be written in English, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Subhankar Banerjee will show slides and introduce his book on the endangered wilderness, “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

David White will read from his new book “The Kiss of the Yogini: Tantric Sex in its South Asian Context,” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2467 Telegraph Ave. 849-2133. www.moesbooks.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 17 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “Meditations on Revolution” at 7:30 p.m at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lillian Rubin, Ph.D., gives insights into what makes therapy work, in her new book, “The Man with the Beautiful Voice, and More Stories from the Other Side of the Couch,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work, a discussion with Marie Arana, editor-in-chief of The Washington Post Book World; Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner and Berkeley resident; and Mark Danner, professor at UCB’s Graduate School of Journal- 

ism, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Francine Ward dicusses her new book, “Esteemable Acts,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Berkeley Summer Poetry 

7 to 9 p.m. at the Mediterranean Cafe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. Free, open mic, poetry, prose, short fiction, amateur and advanced artists welcome. 549-1128. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Fling Ding: All Wrecked Up and Bluegrass Intentions at  

8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Bang performs at 9:30 p.m.  

at The Starry Plough. Cost  

is $7. 841-2082. www.starry 

ploughpub.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 

FILM 

I Found it at the Movies: “About a Girl,” works by Julie Zando and Joan Baderman at 7:30 p.m. at the Paci- 

fic Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Unbound and Under Covers” Experiments in visual writing, with Suzanne Stein, at 7 p.m. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Steve Jones, British science writer and host of a popular BBC series, reads from “Y: The Descent of Man”at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Ariel Gore discusses her memoir “Atlas of the Human Heart,” on travelling through Asia and Europe as a teen-ager, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Brown Fist Collective at Café Poetry at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sarman Apt Russell reads from “An Obsession with Butterflies” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Courtableu at 8:30 p.m. with a Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Brian Gore and Dusan Bogdanovic, acoustic guitar masters, perform at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

THURSDAY, JUNE 19 

FILM 

Peter Watkins: “The Jour- 

ney,” episodes 1-6, at 6 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Hirsh, a senior editor in Newsweek’s Washing- 

ton bureau, discusses his new book “At War With Our- 

selves: Why America is Squandering Its Chance to Build a Better World,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.black 

oakbooks.com 

Patricia Unterman presents her updated and revised “The San Francisco Food Lover’s Guide”at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Guided Tour of “Everything Matters: Paul Kos” at 5:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

Joel Kovel, former Green Party candidate for President discusses his latest book, “The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?” at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lauralee Summer reads from her memoir, “Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 

845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

William C. Miller discusses his new thriller, “Long Pig,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Verbal Tea, an evening of original poetry with David Ari, Ed Aust, and Terence Keane, at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby at MLK. Cost is $5-$10 sliding scale. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Noon Concert Downtown with the Spirit of ‘29 Dixieland Jazz, a Berkeley tradition since 1982, at the Berkeley BART Station. Seating available. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association. 549-2230. 

John Keawe, Hawaiian slack key guitar and vocals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Odessa Chen, vocalist with classical and indie influences, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $6-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

Steve Poltz performs at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

AT THE THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “The Bacchae,” directed by David Stein. Euripedes’ play about Dionysus and his revenge against a hateful king. Sat. and Sun., June 21 through July 6, at 5:30 p.m., outdoors in John Hinkle Park, off The Arlington at Southampton Ave and Somerset Place. Free admission. 525-1620. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theater Company, “Thérèse Raquin,” by Emile Zola, directed by Tom Ross. A sinister tale set among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Runs June 20 to July 27, at 2081 Addison St. Tickets are $32 and $34. 843-4822.  

www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Repertory Theater, 

“The Guys,” by Anne Nelson, directed by Robert Egan. May 21 – July 5, Tues. - Sun., call for starting times. $10 - $54. The Roda Theater, 2016 Addison St. 647-2918. 647-2949.www.berkeleyrep.org 

California Shakespeare Festival runs May 28 to October 22. Performances this year will be Julius Caesar, Arms and the Man, Measure for Measure, and Much Ado About Nothing. Please call for dates and times. The Bruns Amphitheater, Orinda. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org  

Central Works Theater Ensemble, “The Wyrd Sisters” directed by Jan Zvaifler. June 13 - July 13,  

Thurs. - Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $8-$20 sliding scale. For reservations and information call 558-1381. 

Shotgun Players presents 

“under milk wood” by Dylan Thomas at Eighth Street Studio, 2525 8th St., May 24 through June 21, Thurs. - Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Tickets are $18 adults, $12 children and seniors, $10 on Thursdays. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org

On the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Virginia Street in West Berkeley, a small yellow light flashes, day and night. Beneath it are the words “School,” and “Speed Limit 25 When Children Are Present.” But no one seems to pay much attention to the signs anymore. The City of Franklin Elementary School—which patterned itself after a small metropolis—has been closed for a year and the kids are long gone. 

Now, the Berkeley Unified School District is planning to move its Adult School, which provides English as a Second Language, dance, literature and financial planning courses to more than 1,300 students per day, from a beleaguered building on University Avenue to the Franklin site in time for the 2004-2005 school year. 

A growing group of about 40 neighborhood residents, who packed a community meeting on the proposed move Monday night, are concerned that the flood of adult students will create parking and traffic problems. Some say it may slow the progress of a rundown neighborhood that, in recent years, has seen crackhouses and cheap furniture stores give way to upscale food shops and a greater sense of cohesion and identity. 

“I’m worried that the improvement of the neighborhood ... might sort of stall,” said James Day, a Kains Street resident. “Each issue involved, whether it be traffic, economic development, noise, security, is too close to call. And if it’s too close to call, it’s not worth taking a risk with a neighborhood that is so close to reaching stability.” 

But school officials say the traffic impact will be minimal and argue that the Adult School will bring a new vitality to the neighborhood. 

“A vibrant, active education center is far superior to a vacant lot,” said Board of Education Director John Selawsky. 

Some neighbors and local businessmen say they have no objection to the plan, which is scheduled to go before the Board of Education Aug. 20. 

“It wouldn’t bother me,” said Jerry Koehler, owner of Koehler’s Auto Body on San Pablo Avenue, across from the Franklin site. “It’s too bad it’s sitting there vacant.” He added that the students might even provide a boost to local merchants. 

Neighbors of the Adult School, which sits five blocks from Franklin at 1222 University Ave., say they don’t want the facility to move. The Adult School’s constant foot traffic has warded off crime, they say, and moving it will expose the area to shady dealings. 

“We’re going to have dark alleyways,” said neighbor Connie McCullah, who has vowed to fight the move. 

The district plans to renovate the University Avenue building after the move, and then shift its maintenance and administrative operations to the site. 

Maintenance is currently housed in a seismically suspect building on Oregon Street and administration is based at Old City Hall on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. The district rents its central office space from the city for $1 per year, but the lease runs out in 2009, and the city wants the historic structure back. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence said the district is also considering a number of other functions that could sit alongside administration and maintenance at the University Avenue site. A professional development center for teachers, a new home for the district’s Independent Study program and “opportunity” classes for its most troubled students are all possibilities, she said. 

McCullah objects to the idea of large maintenance trucks and disruptive students in the neighborhood. But residents say they are most upset that the district, which has met repeatedly with the Franklin neighbors, is not planning to meet with University Avenue residents until July, just a month before the vote. 

“They’ve done absolutely nothing here,” said Lois O’Connell, administrator of the Strawberry Creek Lodge, an affordable housing complex that serves 163 seniors, many of whom take courses at the Adult School. “We’re a little angry.” 

O’Connell said many of her tenants will not be able to make the trip to the new Adult School site. 

City Councilmember Linda Maio, whose district includes the Franklin building, said she would prefer to keep the Adult School where it is, but understands the district’s planned move. “I just don’t see very many options the district has,” she said. 

Maio praised Lawrence for agreeing, at the Monday night meeting, to a small neighborhood advisory group which will meet with the district’s Oakland-based architect, Hardison Kamatsu Ivelich & Tucker, on the school’s renovation.

In light of the resignation of our new high school principal, Ms. Patty Christa, we the undersigned community representatives are sending this open letter to our school community to identify what we believe to be an opportunity for us all. We continue to believe that the success or failure of our schools to educate children cannot rest at the feet of any one individual in this district. We are in support of establishing a community approach to education and utilizing the candid assessment made by Ms. Christa as our catalyst for change. 

We are stepping forward to be actively engaged in doing this work. This commitment must be based on integrity, open and honest dialogue and the willingness to grapple with the difficult questions that have plagued this district. With these guiding principles in mind, we urge our superintendent and School Board to do the following. 

• Call Ms. Christa immediately to ask under what terms would she be willing to reconsider. 

• Convene a broad-based community group, facilitated by a professional, to lay Ms. Christa’s assessment on the table and have that be the beginning of an in-depth dialogue regarding the challenges at the high school and in the district. 

• If Ms. Christa is unwilling to return, we must convene a national principal search process, created, established and guided by a broad representation of administrators, teachers, parents and students. 

• Recognize, articulate and develop an immediate plan for resolving current challenges as identified in Ms. Christa’s assessment, the 2001 WASC report and those in the Diversity Project 2000 report. 

• Be prepared to implement solutions to resolve the most pressing challenges prior to the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year. 

In essence, we are asking that a community of individuals come together and do similar work as did the Small Schools Advisory Committee (SSAC). We must create and establish guiding principles for our high school and district. Highlighting the SSAC’s work was the School Board’s unanimous vote to adopt the proposal to move forward with school reform at Berkeley High School. It is more important now than ever that we come together as a community. 

Our students and school system cannot continue without strong leadership. An interim principal has not had the authority to create stability at the high school, so therefore we believe that the solution our superintendent offered in her letters is not suitable, i.e., “I have had conversations with the other finalists and discussions with retired administrators about possible short-term or long-term assignments.” We’ve waited too long to go back to an interim situation and our students have stated their desire very clearly in the Jacket: “Berkeley High needs someone who is committed to the job.” 

We are asking that the superintendent and School Board contact us ASAP so that we can establish this group and get our work accomplished.  

Sincerely: 

Parents of Children of African Descent: Michael D. Miller, Marissa Saunders, Gina Wolley, Irma Parker, Kathryn A. Burroughs, Barbara Coleman, Simone Young, Raychelle Lee, Vicki Davis, Valerie Yerger, Gwynn Easter, Sam Frankle. Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action: Father George Crespin, Liz Fuentes, Emma Fuentes, Michiko Murillo. Latinos Unidos: Santiago Casal, Beatriz Leyva-Cutler. Concerned Citizens for Equitable and Excellent Schools: Felicia Woytak. The Multicultural Institute: Rigoberto Caloca-Rivas, executive director. Communications Arts and Sciences (BHS): Rick Ayers, Lori Berlin, Deni Blustein, Stuart Lord, T.T. Nhu, Tom Miller, Elna Brunckhorst, Lyn Berry, Les Millett, Kathy Ruiz, Susana Witte, Ralph Nelson, Ankhasanamen Stone, Kimberly Nutting, Mercedes Ruiz, Kalima Rose. EBAYC-RISE: Adriana Betti. UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education: Jean Yonemura Wing. Community Members: Iris Starr, Hugo Lucero.

South Berkeley residents fighting to stop the construction of a three-story, mixed-use development on Shattuck Avenue scored a victory Tuesday night. 

City Council ordered the Planning Department to stop construction of the project pending an investigation into allegations that developer Ching “Christina” Sun made false claims on a building permit application. 

Sun’s project involves demolishing the first-story basement area, jacking up the second-story dwelling unit to the third story, rebuilding the first story as a 1,500-square-foot retail space, and adding a new second story, bringing the total size of the residential area to about 3,000 square feet. The stop work order was posted on the property around 8 a.m. Thursday. 

Neighbors of the 3045 Shattuck Ave. property have pressured the city for three months to issue a stop-work order on the project and schedule a public hearing. They argued that the development violates design review standards for the neighborhood, illegally seeks to convert a single-family dwelling unit into a group accommodation and doesn’t have the proper amount of rear yard space.  

Despite mounting pressure from neighbors—who have spoken out during several City Council meetings, collected more than 150 signatures of residents opposing the project and created a Web site detailing the reasons for their opposition—the city attorney’s office and Planning Department have, until this week, insisted that the city has no grounds to stop the project. 

The crucial bit of evidence that seemed to turn things around is a copy of a rental agreement between Daniel Adkins and Sun, which was obtained recently by neighbor Jennifer Elrod. According to the document, Adkins agreed to rent out a room in Sun’s 3045 Shattuck property from August 1, 2001, to July 31, 2002. Adkins, a graduate student who now lives in North Berkeley, told the Berkeley Daily Planet that Sun had rented to three other people in the building under separate leases during the same period.  

Project opponents say these revelations prove what they have suspected all along: that Sun gave false information on a May 2002 zoning permit application, in which she wrote that her Shattuck Avenue property was a single-family dwelling unit and would remain one after she completed renovation of the property.  

“If the city finds that she falsified information on the application, that is enough to invalidate the application,” said Rena Rickles, a land-use attorney representing the neighbors. “She will have to start the process all over again.” 

Neighbors have argued that Sun plans to convert the single-family dwelling unit into a group-living accommodation, which is defined in the zoning ordinance as “a building or portion of a building designed for or accommodating Residential Use by persons not living together as a Household.” The definition of a household, according to the city’s ordinance and established by case law, consists of two or more people living together and sharing the same lease. 

Chapter 23E.52.030 of the zoning ordinance states that a group living accommodation in the commercial southside area district, where the project is situated, requires a use permit and public hearing. 

At the May 20 City Council meeting, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque said the city could not stop construction of the project based on these claims alone and said the city could intervene only if Sun attempted to enter into separate leases with tenants, indicating that the structure was not being used as a single-family dwelling unit, which is defined as a building occupied exclusively by one household. 

Project opponents say they now have their smoking gun. And City Council, which has anguished over finding a reason to stop a project that the Planning Department has staunchly defended despite the staff errors, technical irregularities and legal ambiguities involved, seemed relieved to have found a way to accommodate the neighbors’ request without risking a lawsuit by the developer. Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose motion to stop work pending further investigation was passed unanimously by the council, put it this way: “If she lied on her application, it doesn’t matter how many mistakes staff made. We can throw the application out. It solves the whole problem. ” 

Sun defended herself in an interview shortly after the stop-work order was posted. She said the building had been rented out to a single family for 10 years before she began renting it out to students. She said that it’s “common practice” in the neighborhood to rent out rooms to four or more tenants separately and added in a faxed memo that “when the house was leased to four people, it [was] shared by a household. The tenants ... shared water and PG&E and cable.” 

Sun said she signed a deed restriction that requires that the unit remain a single-family dwelling unit. “That is my plan,” she said, adding that she will move into the house when it’s completed and run a business downstairs. 

“I’ve put my life savings into this and now I have contractors that I still have to pay while this is delayed,” she said. “And what will happen to the project if not finished? If it’s abandoned, it will look ugly. They are creating a neighborhood that is filled with fear and accusation. Why don’t they want to work together to build the community? Instead, I have to hear about all these things from a reporter. Why don’t they ever come and talk with me?” 

With construction halted, some neighbors now say they are willing to do just that. Robert Lauriston, who lives nearby on Woolsey Street, said he has contacted a mediator that neighborhood groups and developers used to resolve conflict over the 2076 Ashby project. “We are ready to mediate any time she is,” he said. “It will be better for everyone to come to an acceptable compromise.” 

The city attorney and Planning Department plan to report to City Council at the June 17 meeting on the group living accommodation issue. 

For more than a year the attention of the American people has been diverted from the deteriorating conditions at home and directed toward terrorism and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. While many are celebrating the “success” abroad, comparatively little attention has been paid to the economic problems brewing at home. 

Osama bin Laden is reportedly still very much alive and on the run, and Afghanistan is still in lawless ruin despite the well-deserved ouster of the Taliban. Billions of U.S. dollars have already been spent on the “War on Terrorism” and the continued search for bin Laden. Before the war 50 percent of the federal discretionary budget was spent on the military. To fund the war, the president asked for and received $79.5 billion from Congress. The money spent so far is equivalent to $31.4 billion per month, or $7.2 billion a week, and those numbers don’t even include homeland security.  

The $7.2 billion spent every week on military funding could provide child care for 1.2 million children of working families for one year. The economic stimulus from providing child care for 1.2 million children for one year could generate approximately $50 billion that could be recycled into the American economy. We’ve all seen what happens when working families do not have access to child care; the costs of health care, social services and criminal justice go way up. These combined costs will add up to billions over our lifetimes. 

The Bush administration has been extremely successful at diverting the attention of the American people and the media to the “victory” in Iraq. Most Americans at the same time are not aware that our federal deficit is approaching $300 billion; the entire budget for the federal government is $1.7 trillion. The combined deficit for all 50 states is $169 billion and some states have had to take extreme measures. The kindergarten through 12th-grade school year has already ended in the state of Oregon because the state cannot afford to send its children to school. 

Currently, the state of California is facing a budget deficit that is unheard of. A year and a half ago we had a $4.6 billion surplus and, according to Governor Davis’ May 2003 revision of the budget, we are facing a deficit that is approaching $40 billion. The U.S. dollar is at a three-year low against the Euro and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 23 percent. We are facing the highest rate of unemployment since the Eisenhower administration. Even Wall Street wizard and billionaire Warren Buffet thinks the president’s plan to stop taxing dividends is bad for the economy.  

CalPERS, California’s public employee retirement system and the largest retirement system in the world, lost more than $1.8 billion last year, primarily in the stock market. As any other employer, the state of California is responsible both for closing the funding gap and paying its employees’ retirement benefits. CalPERS is not a singular case; retirement systems across the country have lost similar amounts in the last year as a result of the slowdown in the stock market. Employers are responsible for making up those losses and to do so they are dipping into their general funds. These additional non-expected expenditures are affecting needed programs or delaying essential business investment. 

The effects of the budget shortfall at the federal level do more than just trickle down to state and local government. California receives 30 percent, or about $50.6 billion, of its operating budget from the federal government. Forty-five percent of California’s revenues come from personal income tax, which economic forecasters proclaim will be depressed for the next several years. On the local level, Alameda County receives half of its budget from the federal government and the state of California. When the federal government has a cold, local government has pneumonia.  

Local government is struggling to serve its people with one hand tied behind its back and no hope of relief in sight. California’s population will continue to grow and, at least for the foreseeable future, the federal and state government will not be equipped to serve all of these residents. The people on the front lines—those who suffer in lean economic times and those who serve them—are the last ones whose voices are heard. There is no media embedded in county hospitals or in the homes of families who have to choose between food, housing and getting to work. The slow death of a senior citizen on a fixed-income is not as eye catching as a $1 million tank tearing through the desert in search of weapons of mass destruction. The only weapons of mass destruction in plain sight are those here at home: a growing prison population, an escalating and fruitless war on drugs, the outrageous cost of prescription drugs for senior citizens and the lack of basic, comprehensive health care for working people are all among the factors that are tarnishing the nation and our Golden State. 

The job market will continue to be depressed if businesses continue to leave the state and the region because the infrastructure necessary for business to prosper does not exist. What is enticing about poorly maintained and understaffed schools, crumbling roads and inefficient government? It is easy to proclaim the biggest tax cuts in history, but apparently, it is even harder to make the difficult decisions that will help our state and country to prosper. Will the biggest tax cut in history matter when children can’t read or someone dies waiting for service at an emergency room?  

President Bush, Washington, D.C., and the media are looking in the deserts of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, but they don’t seem to see that the weapons of mass destruction are here all around us and in full view. 

Keith Carson is the Alameda County Supervisor, 5th District. 

No one who participated in this year’s Senior Streak at Berkeley High School will be punished because the school administration was unable to recognize anyone involved. 

Several administrators were present for Monday’s streak—and some even videotaped the event in an attempt to identify streakers—but no seniors were immediately caught and the video proved inconclusive. 

Dean Meg Matan, who is in charge of discipline for seniors, said the use of body paint, masks and other head coverings made it difficult to recognize individuals. In past years, many streakers ran without masks, but increased threats of disciplinary action—including suspension and exclusion from Friday’s graduation ceremony—led almost all of this year’s streakers to disguise their identities. 

“They hid their faces pretty well,” Berkeley High co-principal Mary Ann Valles said. “It was nearly impossible to figure out who each person was.” 

Seniors who did streak celebrated after learning that they had escaped punishment. 

“It serves them right,” one streaker said. “They shouldn’t have been threatening to punish us anyway.” 

“I’m glad I didn’t get caught,” another added. “I didn’t tell my parents that I did it, and I don’t think they would have been very happy if I had gotten suspended.” 

The number of streakers this year decreased significantly from past years. Streak organizers said they tried to allay fears by encouraging the use of masks and body paint, but conceded that the administration most likely convinced some students not to run. 

“[Co-principal Laura] Leventer probably scared off a few,” one streaker said. “I think we ended up getting about 25 or 30 people less than last year.” 

Valles and Leventer are both leaving after this year, and so policy regarding streaking could change before next spring. Dean Matan said she’d like to see community service replace suspension as the primary consequence for such pranks. 

If you have been following the city’s budget process, you have been appalled at the bad news. For next year, there will be bureaucratic belt-tightening, programmatic budget cuts, increased parking fines, increased general service fees, increased property-based service fees and a brand new fee for landlords to cover rental housing safety inspections. For subsequent years, the picture is much, much worse—big service cuts, big staff cuts and substantial fee and tax increases. 

Throughout this process, the city manager and his staff have done an excellent job of explaining various scenarios and rationales for budget cuts and revenue increases. However, they, along with other well-meaning civic participants, are burdened by inherited blinders which limit vision as to what is necessary and appropriate in these difficult times. There is an elephant, or at least a cow, in the room, which they do not see. 

The giant animal that has been outside of their vision is Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board. While almost every other city department and function has been microscopically examined for efficiencies and effectiveness, the Rent Board has gotten a free pass. Not only has it eluded all discussion and review, but, in city budget documents, the day-to-day work of the Rent Board has not even been described in any detail, so that a cost-benefit determination and performance audit is all but impossible. 

Here is what we do know about the Rent Board. It has 22.30 FTEs—that is, there are more than 22 full-time workers on hand to implement its mandate and operations. In comparison, the Police Review Commission has only four FTEs and a budget of about $350,000. The budget of the Rent Board is more than $2.7 million, and there are indications that, given its way with landlord fees, this budget will increase to almost $3 million over the next few years. 

One well may ask—what do these 22 staff people actually do on a day-to-day basis? If the Rent Board mission is mainly to regulate rents overall and respond to specific tenant questions and complaints, do they really need 22 staff people, various consultants and almost $3 million to accomplish this?  

Alternatively, if their mission (as stated in the city manager’s budget documents) is also “to ensure compliance with legal obligations relating to rental housing ... and to advance the housing policies of the city with regard to low- and fixed-income persons, minorities, students, disabled and the aged,” then why is the Rent Board budget not available for the myriad of city housing programs that actually perform these functions and are now paid for by the General Fund, including the Housing Trust Fund, the Rental Housing Safety Program, the First Time Homebuyers Program and the various housing advocacy programs that the city funds through nonprofit providers. 

Fellow residents, let’s get real. The Rent Board bureaucracy, as it now stands, appears to be a bloated relic cow from another era that is getting fatter and fatter while the rest of us get leaner. It overregulates a shrinking number of housing units and spends vast resources on petty disputes, while leaving the real job of housing creation, housing safety and land use resolution to others, who are scrambling for money that the Rent Board is simply handed.  

There is no reason, aside from blinders, sentimentality, political correctness and a fear of change not to subject the Rent Board budget and operations to the same type of review to which all city operations are being subject. Who knows, we may find that we have an extra million or two dollars available to fund our real housing programs and also to save some of our swimming pools, youth centers and public safety services. 

Barbara Gilbert is an occasional contributor to the Planet’s Commentary Page.

UC Berkeley administrators and professors welcomed the selection of UC San Diego Chancellor Robert Dynes Wednesday as the 18th president of the University of California. But some students, on the left and right of the political spectrum, raised concerns about Dynes’ position on UC Regent Ward Connerly’s controversial Racial Privacy Initiative. 

The initiative, which will go before California voters in March 2004, would prevent state and local government from collecting data on race. Supporters say the ballot measure marks a step toward a color-blind society, but opponents say it would block vital research and erase any evidence of racial discrimination in public health, housing and education. 

A small group of UC Berkeley students at the Dynes press conference Wednesday criticized the new president for delaying his own objection to the Racial Privacy Initiative until the UC Board of Regents opposed the initiative last month. 

Cintya Molina, external vice president for the UC Berkeley Graduate Assembly, said Dynes should have followed UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl’s lead and voiced his opposition earlier. The delay, she argued, represented a lack of leadership on “social justice” issues. 

“He waited a long time,” Molina said. 

Dynes said he did not want to take a public position on the Racial Privacy Initiative until the board, the university’s governing body, signaled its opposition. 

“Of course I did not take a position until the university took a position because I felt that it was appropriate for the university to stand together,” Dynes said. “Now that the university has taken a position, I am unequivocally supportive of the university’s decision.” 

Dynes’ opposition to the initiative did not sit well with conservative students. 

“Affirmative action is illegal in this state, and in my eyes anyone who opposes the Racial Privacy Initiative wants to see affirmative action reinstated,” said Ben Barron of UC Berkeley’s College Republicans. 

University officials suggested Wednesday that other UC chancellors were among the 300-plus candidates vying to replace retiring UC President Richard Atkinson. UCLA’s Albert Carnesale, UC Santa Cruz’s M.R.C. Greenwood and UC Santa Barbara’s Henry Yang were among those rumored to be in the running. But UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl did not compete for the job, according to UC Berkeley spokesman Marie Felde. 

“Chancellor Berdahl took himself out of the running from the beginning,” she said. “He was not interested.” 

Berdahl, in a statement, had hardy praise for Dynes. “This is a great appointment,” he said. “I’ve worked with him, I know him well, and I respect him enormously.” 

The UC Berkeley chancellor expressed confidence that Dynes would not overstep his bounds as system-wide president. “He has been a chancellor within the system who knows and respects the importance of allowing campuses a high degree of autonomy,” Berdahl said. 

UC Berkeley geophysicist Raymond Jeanloz called Dynes, a physicist with expertise in semiconductors and superconductors, an “inspiration.” He said Dynes’ decision to continue work as a scientist, even after accepting the job as UC San Diego chancellor in 1996, was “remarkable” and would garner the respect of faculty. 

“As someone in the trenches, I can only deeply appreciate someone who is still in touch with the trenches,” Jeanloz said. 

Jeanloz, who served with Dynes on a number of panels overseeing three UC-managed national laboratories, including the Los Alamos weapons lab, said the new president has the right temperament for the job. 

“He’s blunt, hard-driving, very energetic and has a whimsical side to him,” Jeanloz said. “He can be quite humorous.” 

Dynes, raised in the Canadian city of London, Ontario, spent 22 years as a physicist at AT&T Bell Laboratories before taking a job as a physics professor at UC San Diego in 1991. 

He inherits one of the most prestigious public universities in the country, and will have a bully pulpit on national education issues. Atkinson, his predecessor, used his position to push for changes in the SAT test. 

Dynes, who is married to UC San Diego physics professor Frances Dynes Hellman, will take the helm in the midst of a statewide budget crisis which threatens to chop $300 million from the university’s $13 billion budget.  

The new president will also decide if UC should bid for a contract to manage Los Alamos, which it has operated since World War II. A series of accounting scandals at the lab in recent months prompted the federal government to call for competitive bids to run the lab.

UC Berkeley paleoanthropologist Tim White and a team of researchers reported this week that the fossils they found in eastern Ethiopia in 1997 are the oldest known remains of near-modern humans. 

The discovery of three 160,000-year-old skulls, reported in the June 12 edition of the journal Nature, fills a major gap in the fossil record between pre-human ancestors, known as Homo erectus, and modern humans, or Homo sapiens.  

It also bolsters the theory that human beings originated in Africa and spread throughout the world. The European Neanderthal, this argument holds, is a relatively insignificant cousin who went extinct before significantly impacting human development.  

“These fossils show that near-humans had evolved in Africa long before the European Neanderthals disappeared,” said UC Berkeley biologist F. Clark Howell, who served on the research team, in an article on the university’s Web site. “They thereby demonstrate conclusively that there was never a Neanderthal stage in human evolution.” 

The team discovered the Ethiopian site on Nov. 16, 1997, near the village of Herto. White first noticed stone tools and the fossil skull of a butchered hippopotamus. 

“These were people using a sophisticated stone technology,” White said, in the Web article. “Using chipped hand axes and other stone tools, they were butchering carcasses of large mammals like hippos and buffalo.” 

Researchers returned to the site 11 days later and discovered the most complete of the two adult skulls the team would find. The team also unearthed a child’s skull and fragments of seven other skulls. 

An artist’s rendering of how one of the adults may have appeared is strikingly similar to the modern human. 

“We can now see what our direct ancestors looked like,” said White. 

—David Scharfenberg 

In the latest chapter of the struggle to define West Berkeley, the Planning Commission held a public workshop on proposed zoning amendments that would restrict office development and protect light industry and arts and crafts studios. 

About 150 people attended the Wednesday workshop, which sought public input on 12 recommendations made by a Planning Commission sub-committee. The recommendations include calls for an inventory of industrial property uses, that proposed office development meet higher standards before use permits are granted and that guidelines in the West Berkeley Plan be more thoroughly shifted into the city’s zoning ordinance. 

The meeting room in the North Berkeley Senior Center was filled to capacity with artists, craftspeople, manufacturers, property owners, architects, office developers and West Berkeley home owners. Of the people who spoke, many were concerned that additional office restrictions would create an economic backlash. Others said they felt unprotected against real estate market forces that could entice property owners to evict small businesses and craft studios in favor of office-oriented businesses, which can pay up to three times as much in rent. 

Industrial designer Darrell deTienne said the zoning ordinance should allow as much economic flexibility as possible to accommodate a constantly changing business environment. 

“We’re going down a slippery slope,” deTienne said about the sub-committee’s recommendations. “Over-regulation is a problem and social engineering is a problem.” 

Clover Catskill, who runs Wildcat Dance Studio in the Sawtooth Building, said the West Berkeley dance scene is already in need of space and that office conversation threatens what little space there is. 

“There is a fairly lively dance community in west Berkeley,” Catskill said. “We need a huge amount of square footage and there isn’t a whole lot of available space. If we lose what we have, there’s nowhere else in the Bay Area for us to go.” 

Richard Brooks, a two-year Berkeley resident who works in San Francisco, said high residential property values result in mostly white collar workers moving to Berkeley. He said the city should encourage office development to provide non-commute jobs for new property owners.  

“To live here, you have to make a lot of money and right now those jobs are in San Francisco,” he said.  

Painter Caitlin Mitchell Dayton, who has a live-work space in the Nexus Building at 2701 Eighth street said she’s seen studio space dry up in the 17 years she has lived and worked in west Berkeley.  

“It used to seem to be easier to find a little space where you could work in West Berkeley,” she said. “When San Francisco artists lost their places, they would come here to find a new space, now they go to East Oakland or Richmond.” 

The West Berkeley Plan was adopted by the City Council in 1993. The plan was the result of eight years of weekly meetings attended by West Berkeley stakeholders, many of whom spoke at Wednesday’s workshop. 

The plan was meant to guide development and, ideally, many of its guidelines were to become city policy or adopted into the zoning ordinance. 

Primarily at issue is the Mixed Use -Light Industrial District, also known as the MULI. The district covers approximately 60 blocks in West Berkeley and stretches between the city’s northern and southern borders. 

The MULI is characterized by a wide variety of land uses including arts and crafts studios, wineries, manufacturing, offices, warehouses and laboratories. 

Three planning commissioners are concerned that office development in West Berkeley will overwhelm light industry and change the district’s character. Chair Zelda Bronstein, Vice Chair Gene Poschman and Commissioner John Curl compiled a report, released in March, that contends the West Berkeley Plan has not been fully adopted into city policy or the zoning ordinance. They argue the result is the endangerment of blue collar jobs and arts and crafts studios by widespread office development. 

“The West Berkeley Plan represents an effort to protect the most diverse, most creative and in some ways the most vibrant part of Berkeley,” Bronstein said. “That diversity can only be maintained by public policy. If you go by only by market forces that essential part of the city will be destroyed.” 

However, a memorandum written by Planning Commissioner Harry Pollack and distributed at Tuesday’s workshop, counters that the sub-committee’s report mis-characterizes the goals of the West Berkeley Plan.  

According to Pollack’s memorandum, the sub-committee report inaccurately characterizes office development as “undesirable” and that the report lacks data about potential tax revenue impacts from restrictive zoning designed to protect arts and crafts uses. 

“We have to be very careful what we do in West Berkeley,” he said. “West Berkeley in many ways is the city’s economic engine and we shouldn’t mess with it unless we’re sure we’re improving it and not harming it.” 

The Planning Commission will discuss their next steps at its June 25th meeting at the North Berkeley Senior Center at 7 p.m. 

Stopping to chat with an old friend or lingering over coffee after lunch soon could mean a stiffer fine for those parked on Berkeley streets. 

Next Tuesday City Council will consider raising all parking fines by 40 percent. That means a few extra minutes at the meter could cost drivers $32. Nearly all of the city’s 135 parking penalties will be affected by the increase. 

Last Tuesday the council considered a recommendation by the city manager to raise fines by 30 percent. But the council delayed voting on the recommendation after Mayor Tom Bates submitted a last-minute proposal to increase fines by 40 percent, which he said would keep Berkeley’s parking penalties in line with other Bay Area cities such as Oakland and San Francisco.  

“The city has so few ways of raising revenue,” Bates said. “If we’re going to fund services, we have to do something.” 

The city issues about 240,000 tickets a year, which generates about $3 million in revenue after expenses. The fine increases would raise another $2 million annually, according to the city manager’s report. The additional revenue will go toward offsetting next year’s $4.7 million deficit. The city plans to make up the remaining $2.7 million by continuing its selective hiring freeze and through restrictions on city expenditures. 

The council is holding a public hearing on the budget Tuesday and will adopt next year’s budget the following week, on June 24. 

Bates’ recommendation appeared to have wide support on the council, although City Councilmember Betty Olds objected to meter fine increases.  

“I understand raising fines at red zones, yellow zones and fire hydrants,” she said. “But you have not committed a crime, for heaven’s sake, if you stay an extra 10 minutes at a restaurant.” 

She added that higher fines would send some shoppers to Albany where fines are not so steep.  

On Wednesday afternoon in downtown Berkeley, reactions were mixed. 

“To increase parking penalties by so much seems a little harsh,” said UC Berkeley student Elizabeth Nava. 

YMCA Executive Director Fran Gallati said he’s worried about what increased parking fines might do to downtown businesses. “Raising fines does not create a friendly business environment,” he said. “It’s a dilemma.” 

Tim Barnard, owner of the restaurant Top Dog on Center Street, wasn’t bothered by the increased fines. He said he would like the city to crack down on business owners and employees who park their cars at metered spaces and avoid fines by wiping off parking enforcement chalk markings. 

City Council is expected to vote on the higher parking fines during its June 17 meeting. During the same meeting the council will hold a public hearing on matters related to the budget. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.  

The California Arts Council handed out only 26 cash prizes this year to recognize exemplary California artists and the competition was fierce. When the winners were announced last week Berkeley residents Lia Cook, Mildred Howard, Nancy Selvin, Sharon Siskin, and Dean Smith each won a $4,567 fellowship. Christel Dillbohner of Kensington and Karen Kersten of Oakland also won fellowships.  

“The Arts Council recognizes the enormous value that arts and culture have in our daily lives,” said Arts Council Chair Barbara George. “By supporting these creative individuals, we are able to validate their artistic vision and further encourage their imaginations to make great things happen in California. These artists are among the best natural resources in California." 

The 11-member California Arts Council awards fellowships annually, rotating among four disciplines: literature, visual arts, performing arts, and media arts and new genre. This year, the Artists Fellowships were given to the visual arts. To be eligible, the selected artists must have demonstrated previous professional experience and artistic excellence for at least 10 years and be judged “exemplary” on a statewide basis by a panel of their peers. 

“I think the recognition by your peers is really tremendous,” said Nancy Selvin, a West Berkeley-based ceramic artist who has lived here since the mid-60s. “It really validates what you're doing. It really says, ‘keep going. You're doing a great job.’ I think that's the real significance of it. And it's always a boost to your career anytime you get any kind of an honor. People take notice. That's always a benefit.” 

Mildred Howard creates mixed media and installation works. Next week she’s leaving for a show of her work in New York. For more than five decades she’s made her home and art studio in South Berkeley. 

“I'm really grateful to get it,” Howard said. “It's not a lot of money but I'm glad to get it. Especially when the economy is doing so bad and they cut the budget of the California Arts Council.” 

Howard, who installed her site-specific installation piece “Blue Bridge” over Fillmore Street in San Francisco's Jazz Preservation District last week, said she doesn't know how she will spend her award money.  

“It'll do part of a project, I don't know what,” Howard said. “Maybe it'll go into the general budget of being an artist, keep things alive for another month or less.” 

As the mother of a new baby girl, Karen Kersten, a sculptor based in Oakland, knows exactly how she'll spend her fellowship.  

“I work with toxic materials,” Kersten said. “I can't just work when the baby's sleeping and then pick her up when she wakes.”  

Kersten intends to spend some of her fellowship money on a sitter while she works on her art. She also says the honor has boosted her confidence and encouraged her to keep working. 

“My work [which ranges in size from as small as four inches to as large as 22 feet] is not salable, especially in San Francisco. It's too large and odd and difficult. This will keep me from feeling limited.” 

That sense of freedom moved other winners as well. 

“You take more risks when you have a little more money on hand,” said Selvin. “You can experiment. You can hire somebody to help you a little bit. It all goes back into the work.” 

Lia Cook, a textile artist based in Central Berkeley, plans to use her award to enhance her weaving equipment. Utilizing photographs as a starting point Cook creates enormous weavings that have much in common with both modern paintings and medieval tapestries.  

“I like equipment,” Cook said. “That's where I like to spend my money. I already have committed to the widening of [my] loom so it's good. I'll be able to work bigger which is what I want to do because I like what happens to some of these things when they get really, really big. It changes them. Things that start out as little pieces of snapshots blow up and become something totally new.” 

None of the award winners claimed they were living on easy street. All of them said making ends meet as an artist was perhaps their most difficult task and that the cost of studio space was the most troublesome of expenses. 

“It's only recent that space has become expensive,” noted Selvin. “Historically it's been fairly affordable, so there's a lot of artists here, and a lot of very, very good artists. Now you have do other things. You work as a teacher. You work at the Cheese Board. A lot of male artists I know work at construction. You have to find a way to support what you do. It's very important that you support your art, your art doesn’t really support you. Emotionally it does, but you have to support your art."  

The Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) presents Summer Noon Concerts 2003, a unique series of nine free concerts, Thursdays at noon in June & July, beginning June 5th. From Rhythm & Blues to Brazilian capoeira, these concerts at the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza (Shattuck Ave. at Center St.) are a showcase of the culturally rich performing arts in Berkeley. This outdoor summer celebration of Berkeley-based musicians & dancers is just a small sampling of the performing arts happening nightly in clubs, cafes, schools, theaters and concert halls in Downtown Berkeley. 

On Thursday, June 5th, our concert series opens with Rhonda Benin and Soulful Strut performing some of the best in R & B, with a splash of jazz and a solid helping of the blues. Soulful Strut appears regularly at many Bay Area nightspots such Enricos Sidewalk Café and Restaurant. 

On Thursday, July 31st, our concert series closes with SoVoSó, a highly visual and imaginative a capella ensemble that sings a compelling mix of jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, world, pop, and improvisational music. The ensemble is made up of former members of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra, and McFerrin says, “SoVoSó is tight, soulful, and a whole lotta fun.” 

This event is easily accessible by transit and there is one hour free parking daily from 9 am to 5 pm in Center Street Garage. Seating will be available. 

For a complete schedule of entertainers for the Downtown Berkeley Summer Noon Concerts 2003 visit the Downtown Berkeley Association website at www.downtownberkeley.org! 

Berkeley may soon have the most expensive neighborhood parking in the Bay Area. 

As part of its meeting Tuesday, City Council will hold a public hearing for those who live and work in Berkeley to give their opinions about a proposal to increase residential parking fees. 

If approved, the cost for parking in one of the city’s 14 residential parking zones will go from $21 to $30, making Berkeley’s permits more expensive than Oakland, which charges $25, and San Francisco, which charges $27. 

The city manager is also proposing that one-day visitor permits be increased from 50 cents to $2 and that two-week visitor permits be increased from $2 to $20.  

For people who work in residential parking areas, the fees are also expected to be raised. For people working at a community-serving facility such as a retirement home or a hospice, the annual fee will go from $21 to $100. Merchant permits will be increased from $78 to $100. 

According to a report from the city manager’s office, the fee increases will raise an additional $250,000, which will go directly into the city’s general fund. The total revenue raised from the program will be about $590,000. 

In recent years, many residents have complained to City Council that the parking permit ordinance is not enforced. On June 24, along with the city budget, the council is expected to approve five additional parking enforcement officers to increase enforcement. 

The city first adopted the Residential Parking Permit Ordinance in 1980. The purpose was to protect neighborhoods from an influx of non-resident vehicles and create more available parking for neighborhood residents. 

If approved, the fee increase will be the first since the ordinance was instituted in 1981. 

The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. in Old City Hall at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.  

—John Geluardi

The press secretary for Jerry Brown says that the Mayor is backtracking from his stated goal of replacing the tenants and the resident performing arts companies at the Alice Arts Center with his Oakland School of the Arts.  

Or, perhaps more correctly, it seems as if the mayor may not have the five votes needed on City Council to break up one of the best city-owned cultural arts programs in the country.  

Or, even more correctly, the tenants and resident performing arts companies have let it be known that if they are going to be evicted from the Alice Arts Center in downtown Oakland it will not be easy, not without a drawn-out political fight that will surely spill out into most of the City Council’s districts.  

At least, that’s the sense you get after this week’s City Council Life Enrichment Committee meeting, and after the council’s Community and Economic Development (CEDA) meeting late last month.  

Two weeks ago, several hundred Alice Arts Center supporters marched in the midday heat from the center down to Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall, holding an hour-long carnavál in the plaza circle while the CEDA members inside tried to do their work and ignore the seductive rhythm of the drums. Some folks in the committee audience indicated their desire to go outside and dance, or, at least, watch. At Life Enrichment this week, the Alice Arts folks brought their drums, but their speakers took the mike and hit all the right notes. Ten years ago, the city made a pact with the performing arts companies: If the artists provided classes and services to the Oakland community, the artists would have a permanent home at Alice Arts. The artists lived up to their end of the bargain; why couldn’t Oakland live up to its? Alice Arts was making Oakland famous in performing arts communities throughout this country and in many other places around the world. Why mess with that? While parts of Oakland have experienced an epidemic of youth violence, the arts center has been a consistent haven for youth training and positive development. The performing arts companies were not opposed to the arts school, but if the center was not big enough for the two programs, why should the successful community programs be displaced and scattered in favor of the unproven newcomers? Good points, all.  

Dennis Power, director of museum services, reports to Life Enrichment on the conflict between the longtime center participants and the school. No offense to Mr. Power, who runs a pretty good museum, but in the crazyworld structure of Oakland government, the most lively community program in the city gets tossed about the bureaucracy until eventually ending up overseen by the guy who looks after our dead artifacts. “The principal concern at this time,” Power reports, “is how to accommodate the growth of the school [for the arts].” He is pointedly corrected by one of the Alice Arts folk. The principal concern is how to preserve the successful Alice Arts resident performing arts programs, they reply. It’s all a matter of priorities.  

Councilmember Nancy Nadel introduces a resolution in support of the arts companies and the tenants. If it passes at the July 15 council meeting it would be a direct and public rebuff to Jerry Brown, something this council has been reluctant to do. 

But Alice Arts Center may be different, and if he loses the fight to kick out the tenants and the resident performing arts companies, Jerry Brown has himself to blame, and himself only. This was a dumb fight to take on. At the mayor’s direction, the city put more than a million and a half dollars into the renovation of the arts center basement, to make it accommodable (if that’s a word) for the chartered Oakland School For The Arts. Brown has suggested that the performing arts companies could be relocated to the long-abandoned and rundown storefront area of the Fox Theater building, but has offered no suggestion as to how, in these lean-budget times, the city could come up with the money to make those storefronts habitable. Incredible. Two years ago, when the money was available, the mayor could have taken that million and a half and fixed up those same Fox Theater storefronts for the purpose of the Arts School, and by now we would have had both a continuingly successful Alice Arts Center program and a great start on the much-needed uptown development, with no conflict between the two.  

The mayor, having tumbled into this tarbaby and unable to find a way to unstick, falls back on his favorite defense: trashing Oakland. His target is the largely faceless tenants of the 74 single-room, upper-floor, live-in units. 

“They’ve had people hanging out there. When you have young children taking dance classes, you have to be careful about the people you have running around there,” Mr. Brown is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, managing to hit, simultaneously, those subliminal hot-buttons of race and molestation. “You can make an argument [that the Alice Arts upstairs tenants] are not compatible with dance studios and kids.” 

Without offering any data to back those contentions up, the mayor comes off sounding awfully sleazy, don’t you think? That is one of the reasons the tenants and the performing arts company folks are winning the public relations battle on this one.  

You can make an argument about anything. You can make an argument that pigs have wings. 

Making an argument don’t make it so.  

UC Berkeley paleoanthropologist Tim White and a team of researchers reported this week that the fossils they found in eastern Ethiopia in 1997 are the oldest known remains of near-modern humans. 

The discovery of three 160,000-year-old skulls, reported in the June 12 edition of the journal Nature, fills a major gap in the fossil record between pre-human ancestors, known as Homo erectus, and modern humans, or Homo sapiens.  

It also bolsters the theory that human beings originated in Africa and spread throughout the world. The European Neanderthal, this argument holds, is a relatively insignificant cousin who went extinct before significantly impacting human development.  

“These fossils show that near-humans had evolved in Africa long before the European Neanderthals disappeared,” said UC Berkeley biologist F. Clark Howell, who served on the research team, in an article on the university’s Web site. “They thereby demonstrate conclusively that there was never a Neanderthal stage in human evolution.” 

The team discovered the Ethiopian site on Nov. 16, 1997, near the village of Herto. White first noticed stone tools and the fossil skull of a butchered hippopotamus. 

“These were people using a sophisticated stone technology,” White said, in the Web article. “Using chipped hand axes and other stone tools, they were butchering carcasses of large mammals like hippos and buffalo.” 

Researchers returned to the site 11 days later and discovered the most complete of the two adult skulls the team would find. The team also unearthed a child’s skull and fragments of seven other skulls. 

An artist’s rendering of how one of the adults may have appeared is strikingly similar to the modern human. 

“We can now see what our direct ancestors looked like,” said White. 

—David Scharfenberg