Asked what he thought would be Jim Slemp’s biggest challenge as Berkeley High School’s new principal, BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan responded, “managing a small city.” 

“We have almost 3,000 students there. When you add the staff and faculty we have over 3,000 at that location. It’s a small city,” said Coplan. 

In the last four years the task of being both mayor and principal of Berkeley High has overwhelmed everyone who accepted the responsibility. Very few principals in Berkeley High’s history have lasted more than two years. 

It’s been a month since Patricia Christa, the fourth principal to be hired in four years, resigned after just one month on the job; the academic year hadn’t even started yet. 

“It’s really intimidating,” said Frank Lynch, a former Berkeley High principal who left in July 2001 to become District Administrator for Del Norte County. “I didn’t think I was going to make it through the first three days.” 

When BUSD asked him to take the position, Slemp had already agreed to a principal position at Gaithersburg High School in Maryland. But he didn’t think twice; Slemp promptly resigned and headed for Berkeley. 

When asked why he chose Berkeley over Gaithersburg, Slemp said among other things “I like the challenge.” 

Before Slemp could begin the interview he had to tie up a few loose ends, or more accurately squeeze a half-day’s work into ten minutes. He seemed to be everywhere at once; having conferences with staff, speaking with assistant Karen Olsen, and trying to locate other staff—all at the same time. Even after the interview had started Slemp continued to manage the office and his paperwork continued to pile up. 

For 2003-2004, Slemp has a full plate in front of him. Along with attempting to solve Berkeley’s ongoing problems of violence, racial tension, and an ailing budget, Slemp will be kicking off a major reform effort that aims to place half of Berkeley High students in a series of schools-within-a-school by the 2005-2006 academic year. 

First up will be the Communications, Art and Science Academy, which will involve new teachers, new classes, and an application process, which Slemp will create and manage. 

The school has also hired new staff, including two more vice principals, for a total of five. Slemp will be teaching the ropes as he learns them himself. 

Is the heavy workload intimidating or stressful? 

“No,” said Slemp. “I like complexity and I like managing people to solve complex problems.” 

When Slemp finally sat down for the interview he seemed calm, relaxed, even a bit cheery. He sat in his office chair like it was his living room couch; he slumped down so far that his head rested on the top of the back support.  

There wasn’t a drop of sweat on him. 

“Slemp has been down this road before. Nothing is new to him,” said Coplan. “He’s a seasoned professional.” 

“Seasoned” is an understatement. Slemp has over 30 years of experience in the education field. 

His career began in Eugene, Ore. as a Social Studies and History teacher at a middle school. Since then he has been an middle school assistant principal, a principal at both the middle school and high school level, and for several years a Deputy Superintendent for the 4-J School District in Eugene. From 1993-95 he was an administrator for the American School in London. 

Every challenge that Slemp faces seems to be old hat. He has already set up smaller school programs in Eugene, among other alternative education programs. Winston Churchill High School in Eugene had the highest crime rate and lowest enrollment in the 4-J district before he became its principal.  

After six years it had the highest enrollment and its crime rate had virtually disappeared. As he puts it, “I probably have dealt with everything I will face while working here, just on a smaller scale.” 

Slemp is 56 years-old, a towering 6 feet 7 inches, yet speaks more like a customer service representative rather than an authority figure. Every word seems to leave his mouth through a smile. 

Removing the intimidation of authority figures is a critical part of Slemp’s educational philosophy. In his many years of experience Slemp has found that building personal relationships between students and adults creates a better connection to school for students, he said. These relationships are achieved in smaller school programs and that’s why Slemp feels they are successful. 

Slemp also feels that this philosophy can also apply to Berkeley’s violence and crime problems. To Slemp, these problems won’t be solved with more rules, but more adult participation. He hopes he can organize a group of community members to help monitor the hallways, and in turn provide more chances for students to bond with adult figures. He doesn’t want to institute a police state, just bring in more adults that are trained in such matters but also care. 

“Students need to feel positive about what’s happening in the school so they help take ownership and make sure the school is safe,” said Slemp. “Adults can’t do it to students.” 

Slemp’s goal as principal is to “bring every student to a level of success, and take it one higher,” he said. “Berkeley is wonderful place, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get better.”

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Sandy Nunn from Hospice will talk about their work and how you may want to volunteer. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 

“Good Morning Berkeley!” a networking event, from 7:30 to 9:15 a.m. The speaker will be Cynthia Meyer of Merrill Lynch, Oakland, on “Earn What You Deserve: 5 Practical Strategies for Developing Harmony with Money.” Cost is $10. At The Jazzcaffe, 2085 Addison. Wheelchair accessible. 843-8868.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

tion, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Native American Games Make and play with traditional games of California Indians, including tule dolls, cricket, Indian football, stick dice and steal the stick, from noon to 2 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science. 463-5961. www.lawrencehallofscience.org  

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. Join fellow human rights activists to help promote social justice one individual at a time. 872-0768. 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop in to file complaints, assistance available. For information call 548-0425. 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets at 7:15 a.m. at Hide-A-Way Café, 6430 Telegraph Ave. For information call Fred Garvey, 925-682-1111, ext. 164. 

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

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Jennifer Stone and David Solnit at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation $5. Wheel- 

chair accessible. 415-927-1645. 

Friends of Strawberry Creek will meet at 6:30 p.m. at the West Berkeley Public Library Community Room, 1125 Uni- 

versity Ave., across from the Adult School. To confirm call 987-0668 or janet@earthlink.net or jennifemaryphd@hotmail.com or 848-7128. 

Lawyers in the Library at 6 p.m. at the Claremont Branch, Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6280. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 

Caltopia 2003, a festival of fun, music and Cal Spirit, on Fri. and Sat., open to UC Berkeley students, staff, faculty and the community, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with events at the Recreational Sports Facility, Evans Field, Lower Sproul Plaza, and the Haas Pavillion. http://calbears.berkeley.edu/festival/  

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com, 548-6310, 845-1143. 

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 

“Welcome to BHS” Reception for 9th Grade Families, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Little Theater on Allston Way. “Veteran” parents and students, along with high school staff, will be happy to answer your questions about life at Berkeley High. This is a great opportunity to meet people, get lots of information, and connect with BHS. Students are encouraged to attend with their adults. Please bring a dessert to share. Coffee, tea, and punch will be provided by the PTSA. For more information email boricuastylez13@yahoo.com or cpapermaster@earthlink.net 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 

Berkeley High School Volunteer Workday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Enter on Allston Way, sign in at the information table, and pick a job to do. The main jobs are weeding, picking up trash, watering, sweeping, and planting. Please bring work gloves, sunscreen, hat, hoses, trowels, weeding tools, push brooms, dust pans, 4” to 1 gallon perennials or annuals in shades of red and yellow. We will supply bottled water, snacks, trash bags, and disposable gloves. For information email cpapermaster@earthlink. 

net or Calysto123@aol.com 

Caltopia 2003, see listing for Fri. http://calbears.berkeley.edu/ 

festival 

Summer Days and Nights in Albany, a small-town street fair, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Aves. Features live entertainment including music, a lion dance, jugglers, and more. For more information call 525-1771. 

Sistahs Steppin' in Pride, the second annual East Bay Dyke March, meet at 9:30 a.m. at the pillars at Lake Merritt, El Embarcadero between Grand and Lakeshore. March starts at 10 a.m., ending in a festival with live entertainment from 1 to 5 p.m. at Snow Park, 20th and Harrison Sts. For more information call 551-8330. www.sistahssteppin.org 

UC Berkeley Circle K Garage Sale This is a garage sale fund 

raiser held by the UC Berkeley Circle K, a non-profit community service organization run by students in college. All money raised will go towards Pediatric Trauma Prevention, and research for Lou Gehrig’s Disease. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Berkeley ACE Hardware parking lot, 2145 University Ave. 841-2756. cki-fundraising@ 

uclink.berkeley.edu 

The Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society will be holding its Annual Plant Show from noon to 4 p.m., at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Many of the world's most enthusiastic growers of these deadly (to insects anyway!), diverse and often stunningly beautiful plants will be displaying their best specimens. For information see the Society's web page at www.bacps.org or call the Garden at 643-2755. 

Alternative Building Materials: Cob and Strawbale workshop from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Two natural building methods are currently undergoing renewed popularity. Cob is an ancient technique using a mixture of earth, sand and straw; it requires only simple handtools and can easily be shaped into imaginative structures. Strawbales are highly insulative and create an Old World character of thick walls and deepset windows. The methods are gaining building code approval in many communities. Cost is $75. Held at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. 525-7610.  

SUNDAY, AUGUST 24  

Historic Kenney Cottage moves from 1725 University Ave. to 1275 University Ave. at 7 a.m. The Cottage, a prefabricated panel house whose design was patented by William H. Wrigley in 1881, may be the oldest existing example of this type of prefab construction in America. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association will offer coffee and doughnuts at the new site. 

Herb Walk Learn to identify and use many edible and medicinal plants that grow wild in the Bay Area. Meet at noon at the Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail head, below the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens on Centennial Drive. Call for directions. Cost is $6-$25 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds. Sponsored by the Pacific School of Herbal Medicine. 845-4028. www.pshm.org 

Equity in Affordable Housing, a public dialog hosted by The Oakland Coalition of Congrega- 

tions, from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 27th and Broadway in downtown Oakland. For information call 625-9490. 

UC Berkeley Circle K Garage Sale See listing for Aug. 23. Berkeley ACE Hardware parking lot, 2145 University Ave. 841-2756.  

MONDAY, AUGUST 25 

“Cuba - What Next?” A Commonwealth Club panel, including three prominent Cuban Americans and a former U.S. mission chief in Havana, will re-examine trade and travel restrictions from noon to 1:30 p.m. at 595 Market Street in SF, with a reception at 11:15 a.m. Cost is $12 or free to students and Commonwealth Club members. For reservations, call 800-847-7730 or 415-597-6700. Co-sponsored by the International Diplomacy Council and the Pan American Society. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

ONGOING  

Vista Community College Program for Adult Education (PACE) Enrollment through Sept. 6. PACE is a college alternative for adults with job and family responsibilities. Enrollment in American Sign Language classes is also being accepted. For information call 981-2864 or 981-2800 or email mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

Free Energy Conservation Retrofits for Berkeley Residents CA Youth Energy Services is a nonprofit sponsored by the City of Berkeley that trains and employs high school students to provide conservation retrofits. Call for an appointment, 428-2357. 

Free Energy Bill Payment Assistance The City of Berkeley has money to help low-income households pay their gas and electric bills. For applications and more information, contact the Energy Office at 644-8544. TDD: 981-6903. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/energy 

Berkeley Youth Orchestra will hold auditions during the first week in September, and will offer an audition clinic on Aug. 23 at 9 a.m. To schedule an audition appointment or to request an application form please call Marion Atherton at 525-8484 or email manager@byoweb.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

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

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Aug. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m., at Berkeley WorkSource, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.-berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/designreview  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/transportation 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Monday, August 25, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste

On my way to the BART station earlier this summer, I noticed an unfamiliar bird skulking in the shrubbery near the tennis courts at the corner of Martin Luther King and Russell. It was pretty nondescript: bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a robin, pale grayish-brown with vague streaking. But it had this furtive look about it. 

The plain brown bird was, in fact, a female brown-headed cowbird, North America’s best-known avian brood parasite. (There are a couple of other cowbird species with similar proclivities in the Southwest and Florida.) Like the cuckoos of the Old World, cowbirds have dispensed with the onerous routine of building nests and feeding chicks. They simply dump their eggs in another bird’s nest and go on their way. 

Brood parasitism is such an energy-saver that it has evolved independently in several unrelated groups of birds: cuckoos, cowbirds, honeyguides, some African finches, and a South American duck. It’s also been documented in many species of bees and wasps, and even one catfish.  

Fans of Walt Kelly’s immortal Pogo strip may recall the pair of cowbirds who were the sole members of the Okefenokee Swamp’s CPUSA cell, and who tried to infiltrate one of the possum’s presidential campaigns. 

Among the cowbirds, the degree of commitment to the parasitic lifestyle varies. The bay-winged cowbird of South America takes over other birds’ nests, but incubates its own eggs and rears its own young. The screaming cowbird specializes in parasitizing bay-winged cowbirds. Brown-headed cowbirds are generalists, having been known to victimize over 200 other species of birds. They’re not as sophisticated about it as some cuckoos, whose eggs mimic a specific host’s in size and color. But they make up in volume what they lack in deceptiveness. 

Female cowbirds rival battery hens in productivity, averaging 40 eggs a year. If even a small percentage of those eggs hatch and if the chicks are reared to fledging by their foster parents, that’s enough to keep the population going. Cowbirds eggs tend to hatch sooner than those of other birds, and the fast-growing chicks dwarf their nestmates.  

The changelings monopolize the food delivered by the harried parent birds, starving out the hosts’ own young. Lately it’s been discovered that some cowbirds improve their odds by killing any nestlings they find in the host’s nests. (Among cuckoos and honeyguides, it’s the young parasite that does the dirty deed.) 

In their original range—the fringes of the Great Plains, where they followed the bison herds to feed on insects stirred up by all those hooves—brown-headed cowbirds have been at this long enough for their hosts to have evolved counter-measures. Some species toss out the alien egg; others roof over the nest—dooming their own eggs along with the cowbird’s—and start a new brood, or rebuild elsewhere for their second attempt. 

But cowbirds have moved far beyond the Plains, expanding eastward into forest clearings during the colonial era and treating cattle herds as surrogate bison. Their arrival in California was a bit later. They had reached the Colorado River by the late 19th century, then the Salton Sea and the Kern River Valley by about 1910. By 1927, when ornithologists Joseph Grinnell and Margaret Wythe published their “Directory of the Bird-Life of the San Francisco Bay Region,” they had made it as far north as the Bay Area. And they kept on moving, up the coast as far as British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. 

Wherever they went, the cowbirds encountered naïve hosts. Grinnell and Wythe described yellow warblers as commonly nesting in city parks and gardens. No more. Thanks in large part to cowbird parasitism, they’re now rare in the urban Bay Area. Other California birds, like the least Bell’s vireo and southwestern willow flycatcher, have been pushed to the edge of extinction. Bird behavior is pretty much hard-wired, and there just has not been enough time for western species to develop effective defenses. 

There’s another odd thing about cowbirds. In his book “Orioles, Blackbirds, and Their Kin,” Alexander Skutch, who has been observing birds for decades in Costa Rica, describes a bit of behavior called the interspecific preening invitation. Preening—grooming the feathers—is an important social lubricant; it seems to strengthen pair bonds and family ties. But most birds preen only their mates or close relatives. 

Cowbirds, though, will go up to total strangers and solicit preening. And I’m talking about birds of other species, not fellow cowbirds—in one instance, even a caged budgerigar. The other birds appear nonplussed, but most eventually give in. When they don’t, the cowbirds become testy, sometimes physically abusive. 

It’s tempting to relate this somehow to brood parasitism. Skutch speculates that it might function to appease hosts whose nests are about to become cowbird nurseries. But both sexes engage in it, and males seem to have nothing to do with the females’ skullduggery; it’s not a team operation. He suggests that maybe it just feels good to a cowbird to have its head scratched. Who knows? It remains a small mystery, and a salutary reminder that not everything in nature is susceptible to a neat explanation.

PROVOCATEUR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

LA Weekly and Nation magazine contributor Marc Cooper apparently relishes playing the role of political provocateur. His commentary (“Five Myths About the Recall,” Daily Planet, Aug. 15-18) dismissing the Green Party of California as a factor in the election gravely underestimates the party’s established statewide infrastructure and political potential. 

Apparently Cooper is unaware that the Green Party holds 63 elected offices across California, including the mayors of Santa Monica, Sebastopol, Menlo Park, Arcata, Vice Mayor of San Luis Obispo and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ presidency among other offices. 

In 2002, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Miguel Camejo achieved California’s highest third party vote in 68 years—since the 1934 election. Camejo’s vote total represented a 400 percent increase over the party’s 1998 gubernatorial results. 

Significantly, the Green Party received unprecedented vote totals across a broad swath of Northern California: From Humboldt County to Santa Cruz County, the party captured from 10 to 17 percent of the vote in a dozen counties, including a historic 15.5 percent—second only to Gray Davis—in San Francisco. 

If the Green Party of California chooses to enter into an electoral alliance with another strong, progressive candidate prior to the Oct. 7 recall election, I would submit that Cooper’s smug assertions about the party’s influence and viability will be seriously tested.  

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

BASTARDIZED BARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I totally agree with writer David Sundelson (“Tarting Up Shakespeare Mars a Lively Comedy,” Daily Planet, Aug. 15-18) about the horrible practice of tarting up Shakespeare. I recently saw “Comedy of Errors” at the Santa Cruz Shakespeare Festival. The actors spent most of their time riding bicycles and scooters up and down the aisles and on the stage. Directors seem to feel they must do something new in spite of the fact that the power and beauty of the language is lost. 

Another problem is that American actors seldom get he voice training that English ones do. They aren’t taught to project. The result is that when the play is outdoors, the actors, especially the women, shriek their lines. 

Nancy Ward 

• 

A TRULY DAILY PLANET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ben Bagdikian is right about your putting out “one hell of a good community newspaper.” I just wish we could see it six (even five) days a week—but I realize it all has to do with economics. 

You did mean “hail,” and not “hale,” in your Roman farewell salute for Michael Howerton, didn’t you? 

Isabel Escoda 

• 

A MODEST CAMPAIGN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Hats off to J. Douglas Allen-Taylor to be the only guy in Berkeley who can smell bigotry in our city, as exemplified in the Gary Coleman for governor article.  

Here we have the City of Berkeley which stands foremost in the nation for equality and lack of bigotry and bias, and possibly the foremost newspaper standing for the same, and brother Allen-Taylor, by God, ferrets out potential bigotry.  

When Jonathan Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal,” which saw the end of Irish starvation by eating plump Irish babies, I thought we all knew that he was using irony and satire to make a serious point. Not so Allen-Taylor, who, having read Swift’s proposal, would have submitted an article to the Dublin Times, decrying this horrible solution to starvation as cruel and insensitive....and an example of English bigotry and pro-cannibalism. 

Robert Blau 

• 

SADNESS, OUTRAGE 

Thank you so much for J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s well written article about the Gary Coleman exhibition in the East Bay Express . He caught my feelings of both sadness and outrage at their printing such a regressive thing.  

Rachel DeCarlo 

• 

BUYING VOTES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yesterday I got my check for $400. It came from the IRS, and it has “Tax Relief For America’s Families” printed across the bottom. That’s a lie. 

First of all, consider the cost of sending such a check to every taxpayer who claimed a dependent child exemption in 2002. Second, think about how many ways the administration could have provided the same amount of relief to the same people at far less cost. Finally, consider that either Deujkmajian or Wilson pulled the exact same stunt, sending a state refund check for $60 or so to everyone in order to purchase a better rating. This isn’t wisdom or benevolence, it’s a Republican campaign mailer sent COD. 

I can use the money of course—I’m out of work at the moment. 

Paul Mackinney 

• 

OCCUPATION OF IRAQ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The recent massive electricity blackout experienced in New York City, the Northeast and Ontario, Canada, may give a brief taste to millions of North Americans of the 24/7 misery that Bush has unleashed in Iraq with his invasion and continuing occupation of that country. Bush has managed to turn Baghdad, Basrah and other Iraqi cities into living hellholes. 

Most every day, we hear about the awful summer desert heat, the lack of air-conditioning, the lack of electrical power, the lack of water and the lack of personal security. Even the supposed “democracy,” “freedom” and “liberation” that Bush has trumpeted are all hollow shells at best.  

Bush’s recent upbeat assessment of the Iraqi situation is as phony as his several stated lies about why we had to invade Iraq in the first place.  

For daily updates on the miserable situation in Iraq, please check the new website, www.occupationwatch.org/. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland  

• 

LUNATIC LEADERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It’s August. I’m back from vacation. Checking the email. “What’s this? The extreme heat wave caused by global warming is shutting down nuclear power plants all over Europe?” 

What kind of nincompoops are running this planet? That their main answer to global warming is to produce nuclear power plants—which are disabled by global warming? Do the people who run the world think at all? 

Read my lips, world leaders: Space Ship Earth cannot afford to be driven by lunatics who have absolutely failed driver training and have no idea how close they are to crashing us all into a brick wall. 

It is time for the more rational among us to dump the George Bushes and Osama bin Ladens of the world—as well as the various members of the Billionaires’ Club whose only goals seem to be to create Swiss bank accounts and to buy bigger and better war toys at the expense of everyone else. 

It’s time for the human race to dump its lunatic leadership, learn to drive with care and to keep their eyes on the road ahead. 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

GREEN PATCH BLUES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The proposal to move the Adult School to Franklin is infested with things that don’t make sense, but one of the strangest is this: How can a group of elected Berkeley officials even consider paving over the last remaining open green space on San Pablo Avenue for miles either way and filling it up with cars? 

The green patch at Franklin doesn’t look like much, but it’s a breezeway for the neighborhood, an absorber of traffic noise and, for kids who climb the chain link fence, a playground. In addition, the open space at the eastern end of the site is important for the people who live there, and most of it will be filled with cars most of the day. 

Instead of shoving the Berkeley Adult School into this space with a plan that lacks all creativity, the school district should make the current BAS site a better campus and use the Franklin site for something that could include an enhanced community green space. That’s the kind of thing this city stands for. Does the school board? 

Jamie Day 

Phyllis Orrick 

• 

CIVIL RIGHTS PLEDGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We still have a dream! 

We remember the eloquence of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. 

We remember the struggle it took to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the 1963 National Civil Rights March on Washington. We remember the Civil Rights Pledge which helped many to commit themselves to march, vote and work for jobs and freedom for all. 

We realize that legislation and litigation which grew out of the March helped reduce discrimination and partially opened the doors of opportunity to schools, businesses and government. We realize too that there is still a long way to go to full equality. 

We see some of those doors slammed in our faces by Propositions 209, 187, and the new threat of Prop. 54’s attempt to ban information on racial discrimination. 

We represent the resumption of the Civil Rights Pledge. High school and college students and people of all ages are now signing the Civil Rights Pledge.  

We represent an approach to the 40th Anniversary as the time for a fitting tribute to those who were there, who are re-committing themselves to the pledge. We see it as equally fitting to welcome new generations, young and old, to become part of history by taking the Civil Rights Pledge now. 

The Pledge can be taken in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and Youthspeaks! Other languages can be added by request to 981-7170 or berkeleycivilrightsanniversary@yahoo.com. 

Over 100 community leaders on the 40th Anniversary Host Committee, and the Berkeley NAACP invite you to come on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. to Berkeley City Hall for this wonderful event. 

Darryl Moore  

• 

LENDING LIBRARY LOST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Tool Lending Library used to be a joy to use. Pete and his crew were friendly. They always had a smile. They were patient. They explained how to use a tool, how to get something repaired. They were the best of “reference” librarians. And I never minded waiting in line, because I knew when it was my turn at the counter, I would also get their wonderful, competent, service. Often, I preferred getting tools from the Tool Lending Library (even with their three day limit, having to reserve popular tools, etc.) rather than renting them from a commercial place, because Pete and his crew always made sure I had all the parts, the tool worked and worked well, and answered all my questions so I felt competent using the tool. For a woman, it was very empowering.  

Now, Pete and his crew are gone! Replacing them are surly, unfriendly staff, who not only don’t smile, they barely look up. I’ve been told by the library management that the City Attorney ruled that Pete and his crew were out of line because they could not legally give advice because they lacked a contractor’s license. And the staff now has been ordered to not give tool library patrons any advice, which I’m sure is contributing to the surliness. “I will look surly, to head off any question you may even be thinking of asking.”  

What idiocy! What the library should have done is encourage Pete and his wonderful crew to get their contractor’s licenses in order to continue this great service. Instead, in a case of bureaucracy not being able to think out of the box, this service has been terminated, there’s surly staff, and the library has lost wonderful employees. I feel really sad, since Pete was the creative passion that led to the development of the Tool Lending Library in the first place.  

The Tool Lending Library needs to change its tack.  

Yolanda Huang  

In 1994 Josh Kornbluth got hit with what was, for him, an enormous tax bill. He suddenly owed Uncle Sam and the state of California a combined total of $27,000. 

For most of his life as an actor/monologist, Kornbluth has been happy to scrape by. He doesn’t drive, his rent was modest and his needs were met by his theatrical successes. 

Fortunately, or unfortunately, those same successes sparked interest in Hollywood, and several of his monologues were “optioned.” Dreaming of future Hollywood riches, he spent the original option payments paying off debts he’d accumulated as an actor, without taking into consideration his new tax liabilities. 

But the sad reality is that, for every movie made, hundreds if not thousands more are optioned, and Kornbluth was soon left with nothing more than an expired option and a huge tax bill. 

At the same time his then-girlfriend, a Vallejo public school teacher, was about to become his wife and she wasn’t eager to shoulder Kornbluth’s staggering debt. Scrambling desperately to wriggle out of his tax liabilities before his wife-to-be scrambled out of their relationship, Kornbluth engaged a tax attorney who turned his $27,000 tax liability into a $80,000 tax and legal-fees liability. 

Does this sound like a likely premise for an engaging and funny monologue on the responsibilities of citizenship, family and paying your fair share for the world we live in? 

As unlikely as it sounds, this is exactly what has happened as Josh Kornbluth’s new monologue, “Love and Taxes,” comes from a highly successful world premiere run at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco to Berkeley Rep starting Wednesday, Aug. 20 for a limited four-week engagement. 

Produced by Jonathan Reinis and The Z Space Studio, this is Berkeley-based Reinis’ first foray into theater in Berkeley after a 22-year run in San Francisco, most recently at Theater On The Square. Reinis has been quoted in the press as hoping to purchase the too long closed UC Theater on University Avenue as a new theatrical venue in the East Bay. 

Kornbluth, now 44 and married and living in Berkeley with his wife and their six-year-old son, is eager to perform at Berkeley Rep. For one, he can walk there. Also, although he grew up in New York, Berkeley is a Kornbluth kind of town. 

“The Bay Area and specifically Berkeley, where I live is... and I hate to use a word that is so very un-New York, but it’s nurturing. I just really love it here. I’m very proud to be here and I feel blessed. When I was doing my first piece, ‘Josh Kornbluth’s Daily World,’ about growing up communist, I came to La Val’s Subterranean Northside. But I had laryngitis—the only time I’ve ever had it in my life—and there were a bunch of these revolutionary folk songs in it but I couldn’t sing. So I came in and I told them — though it was obvious because I couldn’t even inflect — ‘But I’m sure you’ll know the songs, so when I get to them, sing it.’ And absolutely every song, they sang. It was really great. It was a really great experience.” 

When he first moved to Berkeley in 1997, Kornbluth was enchanted to see signs posted on the public schools thanking the citizens of Berkeley for their support. 

“That’s a big part of ‘Love and Taxes,’ the idea of public and what is important about things that are public. So the piece starts from that experience but what’s really going on in this is how do I become a citizen? Understanding the dawning of my consciousness as a proud taxpayer.  

“I want to pay taxes. Taxes are really important. Not only that but taxes are under attack, and they have been under attack both here in California and nationally, especially for the last few decades. And very much now under the current presidential administration. So, I was angry about it. They want to destroy everything that I care about. But how ironic and contradictory. I’m laissez faire about how I owe all this money in taxes and I haven’t paid it. And then there are also questions about, ‘are the taxes fair?’ 

“Is it fair that I owed that much when a rich person can hire a fancy lawyer and get out of it? So [I used] the story as an opportunity to bring people along on my journey to learn about taxes and also to learn about my relationship to ‘The System.’ I go from the way I was raised: ‘The Man is behind all the bad stuff. The Man is evil. The System is bad.’ And then my character starts to wonder: ‘Who is The Man? Who are They? And if it’s only They, it doesn’t seem like I have anything to do with it. But if it’s Us, it’s our problem and it’s our responsibility.’ Which is something that started to occur to me very strongly as our son was gestating.  

“To me this is a coming of age story. To me, this idea is, if we’re just talking and complaining and kvetching and bitching, we’re not actually changing anything. We’re not actually taking responsibility for anything. In fact, we’re washing our hands of it. And that’s not what it’s about. That’s not what my dad did. He was active.” 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “A Bibó Reader” at 7:30 p.m. and “Remembrance of Things to Come” at 9 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 

Ishmael Reed presents his new book, “Another Day at the Front,” with his daughters Timothy reading from her new book, “Shouting Out” and Tennessee reading poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Emily Wise Miller presents ”The Food Lover’s Guide to Florence” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533.  

www.easygoing.com 

Harry Potter Discussion Group at 7 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Summer Poetry, with Debra Khattab, from 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 

Le Temps des Cerises with accordionists Daniel Thonon and Dominique Dupre at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested $5 donation. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 

FILM 

Excess of Evil: “Salvation!” 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 

Tongues United, open mic, hosted by Brownfist Collective at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Kimberly Snow reads from her new book, “In Buddha’s Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Medita- 

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

“I Should Have Just Stayed Home: Award Winning Tales of Travel Fiascoes” with editors Roger Rapoport and Bob Drews, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Joseph Itiel reads travel stories from his new book, “Gay Traveler: Sexual, Cultural and Spiritual Encounters,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

José-Luis Orozco, children’s singer and author, will perform a family concert at 7 p.m. at West Branch Library, 1125 University Ave. 981-6224. 

Nels Cline Singers perform avant, free and improv jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Guy Klucevsek, accordion, 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 

Jules Broussard and Ned Boynton at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

The Herms, Wolf Colonel, Fenway Park, Grand Unified Theory perform Indie Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “For One More Hour With You” 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 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sixth Berkeley Carillon Festival, Thurs. through Sun. at Sather Tower, UC Campus. For information call 642-8454 or see http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/music/FestivalRegistration.html 

Djelimady Tounkara, guitarist with the Super Rail Band of Bamako, from Mali, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight’s Fiddle Summit, with Alasdair Fraser, Bruce Molsky and Ellika Frisell, at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Steve Poltz, Phil Roy at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough.Cost of $12. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Greg Glassman, trumpeter, at 8:30 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $7-$15 suggested donation, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 

CHILDREN 

Where the Wild Things Are at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Czech Horror and Fantasy on Film: “Invisible” at 7:30 p.m. and Shorts by Jan Svankmajer at 9:35 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 

Disinformation Film Series: “Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death,” at 7:30 p.m., at Fellowship Hall, Cedar and Bonita. Donations requested. 528-5403.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Belle & Sebastian at 7:30 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212. 

Near East Far West performs Balkan music at at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Stephanie Bruce performs jazz-influenced originals at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Muriel Anderson, classical, folk, jazz guitarist, 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 

Paulo Bellinati and Harvey Wainapel, Brazilian guitarist and Bay Area sax/clarinet player, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Lisa B., featuring Ian and Eric Holljes at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $12-$15 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Whore, Ramona the Pest, She Mob at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Pitt of Fashion Orches- 

tra at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Fast Times at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Neal Cronin’s World Beat Party at 8:30 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $7-$15 suggested donation, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 

SF Mime Troupe, “Veronique of the Mounties in Operation Frozen Freedom” addresses militarism and empire at 2 p.m. in Civic Center Park. www.sfmt.org 

FILM 

An Evening of International Animation at 7 and 8 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 

“Can Dialectics Break Bricks?” at 8:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, a reading room, library and community center in South Berkeley located at 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm and Muse with Mack Dennis, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music in the Garden from 10 a.m. to noon at the 59th Street Community Garden, between Market and Adeline Sts. Come for an afternoon of improvisational song, poetry, harmony and rhythms with Sally Rademaker.  

Blues and Beer Festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Live music, micro-brewery beer, and crafts fair at the Saturday Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center St. at MLK, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

The Dave Matthews Blues Band performs a free blues concert at 2 p.m. at the corner of Solano Ave. and Santa Fe St. 525-1771. www.davematthewsbluesband.com 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición performs classic Cuban dance music at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Great Night of Rumi, celebrating the 13th century Persian poet with spoken word, music and dance, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Red Pocket, My Hero at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Adria, jazz CD release party and benefit for the Jazz House, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation is $6-$10 sliding scale. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

World Beat Party at 8 p.m. at The 1923 Teahouse, 1923 Ashby Ave., across from Ashby BART, between Adeline and MLK Way. Cost is $10. 654-1904. neal@nealcronin.com 

Will Bernard Trio, blues-tinted, electronic-tinged jazz at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Felonious at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0866. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

California Brazil Allstar Band at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Frank Jackson Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Thought Riot, Scattered Fall, Love Songs, Kadena, Eskapo 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, AUGUST 24 

SF Mime Troupe, “Veronique of the Mounties in Operation Frozen Freedom” addresses militarism and empire at 2 p.m. in Willard Park. www.sfmt.org 

FILM 

W. C. Fields: “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break” 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 

Guided Tour of Fred Wilson’s “Aftermath” at 2 p.m. at The Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808.  

www.bampfa.berkeley.edu  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Front Row Festival, music, dance, improv, film from noon to 7 p.m. in the Downtown Berkeley Arts District. Featuring an outdoor mainstage and op- 

portunity to visit The Jazzschool, Aurora Theatre, Berkeley Rep's Thrust Stage and Nevo Education Center, Downtown Restaurant and Capoeira Arts Cafe. Children's art activities, food booths, arts and crafts, a wine and beer garden, and more! Admission to street festival free, admission to indoor venues is $5. Sponsored by the Downtown Berkeley Association 654-6346. www.downtownberkeley.org  

Cantus Magnus, directed by Richard Mix will present “Missa De Beata Virgine” by Josquin DesPrez, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6873.  

Where Art Meets Garden: Green Songs, songwriters with an ecological focus, featuring Sam Johnston, Nancy Schim- 

mel, Mokai and Green, from 2 to 5 p.m in the Peralta Com- 

munity Garden on Peralta St., between Hopkins and Gilman. 231-5912. 

Gypsy Kings at 5 p.m. at the Greek Theatre, UC Campus. 642-0212. 

People Love Pie at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Duck Baker, folk and jazz fusion guitarist, 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 

Palenque performs Cuban Son at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

MONDAY, AUGUST 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jim Hightower returns with his latest commentary, “Thieves in High Places: They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time to Take it Back,” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10, free with purchase of the book, and are available at Cody’s. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Poetry Express, theme night: Jobs, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave.  

AT THE THEATER 

Impact Theatre, “Impact Briefs 6: Shock and Awe,” an evening of ultra-short comedies, directed by Joy Meads. Runs from Aug. 22 to Sept. 27, at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $15, $10 seniors and students. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Josh Kornbluth’s “Love and Taxes,” a tale of falling in love while wrangling with the Kafkaesque IRS. Runs Aug. 20 - Sept. 14. Performances Wed. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 and 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $25-$40, available from 647-2949 or 888-4BRT-TIX. www.zspace.org 

Opera Piccola, “The Guests,” Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. An ancient Iranian tale of hope for peace in a world of uncertainty, with traditional and contemporary music. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for seniors, students, available from 925-798-1300.  

Shotgun Players, “Mother Courage and Her Children,” by Bertolt Brecht, translated by David Hare, directed by Patrick Dooley. Runs Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. in John Hinkle Park, until Sept. 14. No show Aug 9. Show Sept. 13 is at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Free. 704-8210.  

www.shotgunplayers.org 

Teen Playreaders, “Bizarre Shorts,” a festival of brief and absurd dramas for a mature audience. Sat., Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

EXHIBITIONS  

Berkeley Art Center, 19th National Juried Exhibition: “Works on Paper,” runs to Sept. 13. Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. Open Wed. - Sun. noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Berkeley Art Museum, Matrix 207: Anne Von Mertens “Suggested North Points,” hand-dyed and hand-stiched quilts, to Sept. 7.  

“Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Gennomics” featuring contemporary artists’ visions of a genetically modified future, August 27 through December 7.  

“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 the 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.  

Berkeley Public Library, “The Lighter Side of Crop Circles,” photographs by Ben Ailes. Runs until Aug. 30. First Floor Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6100. 

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. Graduate Theological Union, 2400 Ridge Rd.  

649-2541. 

Kala Art Institute, Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Part II Runs until Sept. 6. Call for gallery hours. 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

A New Leaf Gallery/Sculpture Site, “Four Elements of Sculpture: Fire, Air, Water and Earth,” Exhibition runs to August 31. 1286 Gilman St. Call for gallery hours. 527-7621. www.sculpturesite.com 

Red Oak Realty “Mixed Media,” by Stan Whitehead. Exhibition runs through Oct. 23, Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387. 

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 Aug. 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. 

Sway Gallery, “Secret Summer” paintings, installations, collages, prints, drawings, and mixed media by Nana Hayashi, Greg Moore, Marc Snegg, Gab- 

rielle Wolodarski. Runs to Oct. 5. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. 2569 Telegraph Ave. 489-9054.

Rosa Parks Elementary School received failing marks and Washington Elementary School got an incomplete on the latest round of state testing, overshadowing an otherwise solid performance by Berkeley students on the California Standards Test. 

Results of the latest round of tests, required under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, mandate that Rosa Parks Elementary School must rewrite its basic school plan and that Washington Elementary must provide extra tutoring services to struggling students. 

Mirroring a statewide trend, local students, rich and poor, black and white, scored gains on the English language and math portions of the exam, administered last spring to students across California in grades 2 through 11. 

Test results released Friday show that, in many categories, Berkeley students outperformed the rest of the state, cheering top administrators. 

“I think we’re pleased with the measure against the state,” said Superintendent Michele Lawrence. “But I think our school district, like 85 to 90 percent of the other school districts in the state, is grappling with No Child Left Behind.” 

Under the federal law, schools that repeatedly fail to make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP), as defined by the state, face increasingly strict reform. Subpar participation in testing or a failure by poor students, English learners or any statistically significant racial group to reach performance goals prevent a school from making “adequate” progress under the law. 

Rosa Parks, a largely Hispanic school, is entering the third year of the process, and has already ramped up teacher training and given parents the choice to send their children elsewhere. 

This year, after black, “socioeconomically disadvantaged” and English learner students failed to meet testing goals, the school faces intervention from district administrators. Carla Bason, the BUSD’s manager of state and federal programs, said intervention will come in the form of a revised education plan for the school. 

Bason said the district would work with Rosa Parks administrators and staff to determine precisely what the overhaul will entail, but he noted that it could, for example, include intervention for black students, who have traditionally struggled at the school. 

Second-year Rosa Parks Principal Shirley Herrera said she was concerned about the test scores. 

“It was really disappointing,” she said. “It’s kind of a bad way to start the year.”  

Herrera said she hopes to improve interventions aimed at struggling students and bring in a consultant to train teachers on test preparation. She said her return for a second year at the helm after years of rapid turnover in the principal’s office should help to stabilize and improve the school. 

Washington, which has large black, Hispanic and Asian student populations, met test targets for every student subgroup, but did not reach the 95 percent test participation rate required by the state. 

Parents and administrators cried foul, noting that, while the state requires lofty participation rates, it also allows parents who object to the state’s testing regimen to opt their students out of the process. 

“If they’re going to give this kind of test, they should give a school credit for the students who take the test instead of penalizing it for the students who opt out,” said Judy Greenspan, a Washington parent. 

Echoing the views expressed by many Berkeley parents, Greenspan derided the state testing system as a high stakes pressure cooker that does not accurately reflect student achievement. 

“I was so disturbed by how incredibly stressful the whole process was,” said Greenspan, who volunteered to help Washington prepare for the last round of tests. 

The number of Berkeley schools that must undergo reform could increase in October with the next batch of test results, said Neil Smith, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction. 

The numbers could balloon even further next year. Twelve of Berkeley’s 16 schools did not meet adequate yearly progress goals this year, setting the stage for possible intervention down the line. All but one of the 12 schools—Rosa Parks—met performance goals but fell short on participation measures. 

Under the law, a school in the fifth year of the reform process can face large-scale replacement of its staff or a state takeover. 

About 4.6 million students statewide took the California Standards Test this year. In addition to the basic English test for grades 2 to 11, and the standard math test for grades 2 to 7, students take exams in everything from world history to chemistry, based on their grade level and courses. 

The California Standards Test is aligned to state curriculum guidelines, but students also took an off-the-shelf national test, called the CAT6, which replaced the Stanford 9 exam they have taken since 1998. 

But the state’s testing system relies on the California Standards Test.  

In Berkeley, the biggest jump in scores came on the fourth- and sixth grade English tests and on the second- and fourth-grade math assessments. 

On the English tests, 49 percent of fourth-grade students scored in the “advanced” and “proficient” categories, up from 39 percent last year. Among sixth-graders, 44 percent were advanced or proficient, versus 36 percent last year. 

In math, the percentages leapt from 47 percent last year to 59 percent this year for second-graders, and from 41 percent to 52 percent in fourth grade. The biggest drop came on the tenth grade English test, where 61 percent tested as “advanced” or “proficient” last year, versus 55 percent this year. 

Smith said it was too early to determine what had lead to the upward and downward shifts at certain grade levels. 

But he did raise concerns about consistently poor participation rates at Berkeley High School. 

“We hear that a lot of students at the high school level do not see the impact on their grades,” Smith said. “It’s not a priority for them.” 

View the test scores at http://star.cde.ca.gov/. 

The Board of Education is poised to formally decide on Aug. 20 whether to move the Berkeley Adult School from its present West Campus location on University Avenue to the School District’s Franklin site on Virginia Street.  

Citizens should also be aware that the Franklin proposal is part of a much broader scheme that could potentially include major land use changes at sites in several other neighborhoods.  

The Big Picture 

For understanding the relevant big picture, one source is the “Facilities Study” that was done for the District in 2002 by California Financial Services, and was described in December by Superintendent Michele Lawrence as “a base document that can support and accompany the District’s traditional Facilities Plan.” The consultants’ report stressed “asset management”—defined as “the utilization of District property for commercial, retail, or residential developments, which may provide the District with revenue to assist in providing educational programs or support the Capital Facilities Program.” It accordingly recommended “aggressively pursu[ing]...the development potential” of the District’s Oregon/Russell Street, Derby Street (East Campus), and Hillside properties--and of the Franklin site. However, it recommended fully retaining the West Campus, to accommodate not only District administrative uses (relocated from elsewhere) but also the Adult School. 

Another pertinent document is the District’s latest official Facilities Construction Plan, which was adopted by the Board in March. While this Plan is coy about the future of some sites, it seems generally compatible with the consultants’ report. It notably departs from that report, though, by positing use of the Franklin site for the Adult School.  

Piecemealing 

On July 29 City Manager Weldon Rucker wrote to comment on the proposed MND (Mitigated Negative Declaration) for the Franklin project. In his strongly worded letter, he characterized the Franklin project as just one part of a much bigger overall project that includes consolidation of the District’s administrative functions at the West Campus as well as reuse of sites elsewhere that those functions would vacate. He concluded that the District appears to be avoiding full analysis by chopping the overall project into smaller pieces--a practice prohibited under CEQA. He therefore urged the District to withdraw the proposed MND, and circulate a revised environmental document disclosing and analyzing “the full scope” of the overall project.  

The Mitigated Negative Declaration’s Inadequate Traffic Analysis 

The traffic analysis in the MND looks almost exclusively at the “level of service” functioning of seven intersections along San Pablo Avenue and Sacramento Street. It pays little attention to impact on minor streets like Kains Avenue and Francisco: quiet residential streets on which increases in traffic volume that might seem insignificant to a traffic engineer could in fact substantially affect neighborhood character and quality of life.  

Arguments Against Moving the Adult School 

Many cogent arguments have been or can be made against moving the Adult School to Franklin.  

For the Adult School and its clientele, the Franklin site would be quite inferior to the present location. It would be less central, less convenient to reach by bus, and much less prominently located. Instead of being right on well-lit, heavily traveled University Avenue--Berkeley’s great east-west spine--the Adult School’s main pedestrian entry would be on a residential side street, hundreds of feet away from San Pablo Avenue. This could pose safety concerns, particularly in the evening for female students.  

And moving the Adult School to Franklin would conflict with the city’s official General Plan. The Plan’s University Avenue component treats the Adult School as an important anchor of the University corridor--and calls for it to stay at the West Campus.  

The area around the Franklin site would suffer in terms of traffic and open space. The District’s proposal would replace large play areas—existing or potential recreation space for people--with parking spaces for cars. That’s hardly a green thing to do. And it seems inconsistent with the General Plan’s Open Space and Recreation Element, which calls for zealously protecting existing open spaces. 

Even the District’s own consultants concluded that the Adult School can and should stay at the West Campus. The consultants’ Facilities Study said that: 

“The site and buildings currently housing the Adult School appears to provide the most favorable location for relocating District Administration and all other support functions, other than transportation, into a single complex. The size of the site and square footage of the buildings is sufficient to accommodate administration, maintenance and operations, food service and other support functions with little or no new construction required...With proper design, the Adult School functions could remain housed on the site with other consolidated District administrative uses. The site is well located and...its highest and best use would be for the above stated purpose.” 

In surprisingly marked contrast, the staff report that was before the Board on Jan. 15 said, “However, staff does not think that the Adult School and administration can fit together if all the functions currently at 1720 Oregon, 1707 Russell and auxiliary space located at the old East Campus are included in administrative needs.”  

But even assuming that that staff contention is valid, why must literally all those alluded-to functions be located together? (For example, couldn’t the Oregon/Russell site’s maintenance-yard function be grouped, instead, with future Transportation Department uses at the District’s property on Sixth Street?) Having them all in one place may indeed be more convenient for administrators, but what about convenience for Adult School pupils? Maybe I’m naive, but shouldn’t student needs come first? 

A possibly revealing passage on page B-46 of the Facilities Construction Plan says that moving the Adult School to Franklin would make the West Campus available for other uses like a central administration building—and then remarks that the West Campus is “more than large enough” to house those functions. Could it be that an unstated reason for kicking out the Adult School is to make it easier to sell off part of the West Campus for private development? Could the West Campus’s ballfield get replaced by one of Patrick Kennedy’s growing chain of big buildings along the avenue? 

Zoning Complications 

The District seems to have overlooked major complications posed by the city’s Zoning Ordinance. Although under the California Government Code a school board may exempt a project from local zoning, it can do so only by a two-thirds vote. Even more to the point, the Code clearly indicates that the exemption procedure can’t be used at all for “nonclassroom” facilities like administrative buildings. The Berkeley Zoning Ordinance evidently classifies such administrative buildings as offices rather than schools. And most of the West Campus is presently zoned in residential districts that don’t permit office buildings. So one implication is that if the District moves the Adult School to Franklin, it could then be nastily surprised to find that a large part of the vacated West Campus space couldn’t be used for offices.  

The present zoning of most of the Franklin site similarly complicates the potential alternative of instead locating the District’s offices there.  

Conceivably the city might amend its zoning so as to facilitate office relocation, if it were convinced that doing so would serve the broad public interest. But that would need to involve much fuller intergovernmental consultation than the District has recently done.  

Referral to the Planning Commission 

Another example of the School District’s failure to consult is that it has never referred the Franklin proposal to the City’s Planning Commission. 

Section 65402(c) of the California Government Code says that agencies such as school districts shall not undertake certain kinds of projects “until the [project’s] location, purpose and extent...have been submitted to and reported upon by the planning agency [of the city or county having a relevant adopted general plan]...as to conformity with said adopted general plan or part thereof....” It’s very arguable that this requirement applies to the proposed relocation of the Adult School. Even if the School District were not legally required to refer the Franklin proposal to the Planning Commission, such referral would still be called for in the interest of good planning, openness, and simple courtesy. 

This Week’s Procedure 

At its Aug. 20 meeting the Board of Education is slated to decide whether to adopt a final MND on the Franklin project and whether to approve the project itself. The District reportedly has arranged for the meeting to include an actual, supposedly hour-long public hearing specifically about the MND and the project itself. I’ve been told that for this purpose, the Board will convene unusually early, at 6:30 PM.  

The Board probably will get quite an earful. 

John English is a planner by profession and has lived in Berkeley most of his life.  

Mark Twain, who chronicled America’s Gilded Age in the 19th century, joined the digital age this month when UC Berkeley researchers put 700 of his letters online. 

The university’s Mark Twain Project placed five volumes of the author’s letters, covering the years 1876 to 1880, on the Palo Alto-based ebrary, Inc. web site on Aug. 4. The letters are available in a page-by-page, printable format at www.discover.ebrary.com and will appear separately as a full-fledged e-book on Amazon.com in the coming weeks. 

“Moving into the electronic arena is a big, big step for us,” said Anh Bui, associate editor with the Mark Twain Project. 

The author’s letters, housed at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, include about 11,000 written by Twain and his immediate family and 17,000 written to them. 

The project has already published six printed volumes of Twain’s letters along with lengthy explanatory notes. The latest, “Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 6,” was published in November.  

The print volumes cover the years 1853 to 1875, and the online letters will pick up where the more traditional books left off—in 1876.  

The speedy move to put the latest batch of letters online means that readers will not have the benefit of the historical notes included in the old print volumes. UC Berkeley researchers say they have some concerns about the public deciphering the letters without annotation. But, in the end, they said, students of the “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” author will benefit from easy access to the new letters long before they can be published in book form. 

“It doesn’t have any of the editorial bells and whistles that the print versions do, so it’s not ideal,” said Bui. “But you don’t need to wait years to see the latest letters.” 

The foray into e-books is the first of several digital projects planned by the Mark Twain Project. This fall, the group is set to join with the University of California Press and the California Digital Library to announce a collaborative effort making a host of Twain resources available online. The project will include private and public writings by Twain and supplementary material about his era, according to a UC Berkeley statement. 

UC Berkeley’s Mark Twain Papers includes the world’s largest collection of Twain’s letters, notebooks, manuscripts, documents and scrapbooks, along with 150 books from his personal library. 

Viewing “Mark Twain’s Letters 1876-1880: An Electronic Edition” through ebrary, Inc.’s web site is free for account holders but will cost 25 cents per page to print. The e-book will go for $9.95.

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a faculty member of the Berkeley Adult School, I support the School District's plan to move the Adult School to the Franklin School site. The present west campus facility is inadequate for teaching courses in some subjects including the course I teach, Public Speaking for the Camera, which must be taught again this fall at a temporary facility provided by Berkeley's public access TV station a mile away.  

The Franklin School is a choice location for adult students seeking to develop skills in communications and electronic media because Franklin includes an oversized multi-purpose room called the Cafetorium, ideal for serving double duty as both classroom space and media sound-stage. With its level floor, windowless walls and high ceiling, students learning English As a Second Language, for example, can monitor their own progress using TelePrompTers mounted on video cameras to improve their public speaking skills.  

With a no cost up-link to the public access cable channels provided by contract agreement with Comcast, student work, neighborhood community meetings, cultural events and class projects taking place at the Adult School can be broadcast throughout the city from west Berkeley's emerging arts district.  

Moving the Berkeley Adult School to the Franklin School with its uniquely flexible Cafetorium provides an opportunity for the adult population in Berkeley to develop media literacy in the growing field of independent media without having to travel off campus to do it. Renovations to the current west campus facility would be too costly to produce the space flexibility that already exists just three blocks away at the Franklin School site.  

Moving the Berkeley Adult School is in the best interest of faculty and students eager to benefit from an improved quality of adult education that the Franklin School site makes possible. And the Franklin School neighborhood will benefit from a vibrant and thriving learning center to replace the abandoned school building and crime sponge that sits there now.  

George Coates

Alameda County’s first West Nile Virus victim has survived her encounter with the deadly disease—contracted not here but in Colorado—say local public officials who remain deeply concerned about the virus’s spread into California. 

The 47 year-old woman, whose name and city have not been disclosed, was released from the hospital Friday in good health, according to Alameda County Public Health Department spokesperson Sherri Willis. She was the first Californian infected this year. 

Public health officials say they are almost certain she acquired the virus last month during a hiking trip in Colorado—a hot spot for the disease this year. 

There is not yet any evidence of infected mosquitoes, which carry the disease, in California. But officials say the virus could reach the state in a matter of weeks. 

West Nile first appeared in New York in 1999, and has moved about a quarter of the way across the country each summer, when the virus peaks. 

“We expect to see it in California this year—this month or next,” said Ken August of the California Department of Health Services. 

Dr. Vicki Alexander, Berkeley’s director of maternal, child and adolescent health, said the Alameda County victim is not a Berkeley resident, to her knowledge, and that city officials have not changed their readiness level. 

“Everybody’s on alert, no matter what,” she said.  

Bruce Kirkpatrick, entomologist with the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District, said his agency set up 11 mosquito traps around the woman’s condominium to make sure that she wasn’t infected locally. Kirkpatrick shipped off captured mosquitoes to UC Davis’ Arbovirus Research Unit Monday for testing. He expects results in about a week. 

“We don’t anticipate anything positive,” he said. “I would guess [the odds are] a million to one. We just want to make sure she didn’t get the virus in California.”  

Last week, the victim was suffering from acute flaccid paralysis, a rare neurological syndrome which has created severe weakness in her legs, according to the state health department. 

The woman reported getting bitten by mosquitoes while traveling in northeast Colorado in late July. She returned to the state July 26, exhibited the first symptoms of the disease July 30 and was hospitalized Aug. 7. But health officials said they did not have enough proof to announce the case until last week. 

Colorado has become the heart of West Nile country, with 247 human cases and six deaths reported as of Monday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the heaviest hit state this year by far. South Dakota was second with 66 cases and no deaths as of Monday. 

Nationwide, there have been 470 reported human cases and 10 deaths this year. Last year, there were 4,156 reported cases and 284 deaths across the country. 

The only California case last year involved a Los Angeles County woman who recovered from the virus. Health officials believe she was infected by a mosquito that arrived in the state by way of car or airplane, since they found no evidence of infected California mosquitoes. 

West Nile is a “flavivirus” commonly found in Africa, West Asia and the Middle East and is closely related to the St. Louis encephalitis virus found in the United States. 

Mosquitoes spread the disease by biting an infected animal—usually a bird or a horse—and passing the virus to a human or another animal.  

August, of the state health department, said mosquitoes cannot pick up the disease by biting an infected person because humans develop antibodies to the virus once infected. The Alameda County woman infected in July and all other human victims, he said, pose no threat to the public health. 

Most people infected with West Nile Virus have no symptoms, but about 20 percent develop a fever, headache or body aches. About one in 150 come down with more severe symptoms, including encephalitis, a life-threatening swelling of the brain. 

Public health officials recommend that residents eliminate standing pools of water, where mosquitoes breed, from their property. They also suggest wearing long sleeves and using insect repellent.

Clusters of tall white wind turbines spin gracefully atop green hillsides. Solar photovoltaics (PVs) are integrated into windows and rooftops of modern homes, factories and office blocks. Even the old renovated seat of government is fitted with solar panels. 

A utopian fancy? No, just Germany today. Remarkable considering that in 1990 Germany had virtually no renewable-energy industry and appeared an unlikely candidate for it. Utility monopolies, entrenched nuclear and coal industries and a general conservatism made Germany appear barren ground for renewable-energy advocates. 

Joschen Twele, a wind-energy expert recalls: ‘When I started my job in wind energy [in the 1980s] I thought it had only a chance in remote areas of developing countries. So I concentrated on Africa.’ 

Yet by the end of the 1990s, Germany had transformed itself into a renewable-energy leader. With a fraction of the wind and solar resources of the U.S., Germany now has almost three times as much installed wind capacity (38 percent of global capacity) and is a world leader in solar photovoltaics as well. 

And it has created a new, multibillion-dollar industry and tens of thousands of new jobs. The German wind industry now employs more people than nuclear power (an industry that provides 30 percent of the nation’s electricity) without a commensurate increase in electricity costs. 

Germany now generates 4.5 per cent of its electricity with the wind and appears on track to meet government targets of 25 per cent by 2025. The government also considers solar photovoltaics an option for future large-scale power generation. 

What’s more, the government recently pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, much of this to be achieved by switching to renewable energy. Not quite the 60 percent many climate-change experts say is required worldwide, but vastly more impressive than commitments made thus far under the Kyoto Protocol. 

How has Germany done it? 

The main obstacles that keep renewables from producing more than a small share of energy in most of the world are lack of access to the transmission grid, high up-front costs, lack of information, and biased, inappropriate and inconsistent government policies. 

Germany’s dramatic success has been achieved through a combination of consistent, ambitious policies designed to address these barriers and create a market for renewable energy. These policies were driven by the public’s rising concerns about global climate change, risks associated with nuclear power, and a need to reduce dependence on imported fuels. 

Most significant has been the grid access and standard pricing law, enacted in 1991 and inspired by effective Danish policies. Under this law, renewable energy producers receive above-market payments for power they feed into the grid and the costs are shared among all electricity consumers in Germany. These preferential payments for renewables are not considered subsidies, but means of internalizing the social and environmental costs of conventional energy and providing compensation for the benefits of renewables. 

But some barriers remained. For example, as the number of wind turbines skyrocketed in some regions, local opposition and lengthy, complex siting procedures had the effect of stalling the development of new projects. The government responded by encouraging communities to zone specific areas for wind energy—a step that addressed concerns such as noise and aesthetic impacts and assured prospective turbine owners that they would find sites for their machines. 

To address the start-up costs barrier, the German government has offered long-term, low-interest loans and income tax credits to projects and equipment that meet specified standards. 

These initiatives have drawn billions of dollars to the renewable energy industry, while technology standards have reduced risk and created confidence by keeping out substandard machinery. The government has also promoted awareness of renewable technologies and available subsidies through publications and training programs. 

Such rock-solid policies ended uncertainties about whether producers could sell their electricity into the grid and at what price. They also provided investor confidence—attracting investment money and making it easier for even small renewable power producers to obtain bank loans. Germans from diverse backgrounds and income levels have been able to invest in renewable energy projects, leading to a surge in installed capacity and associated jobs, and reinforcing political support. 

Increased investment has also driven improvements in technology, advanced learning and experience, and produced economies of scale resulting in dramatic cost reductions. Between 1990 and 2000 the average cost of manufacturing wind turbines in Germany fell by 43 percent. Between 1992 and 2001, PV capacity experienced an average annual growth rate of nearly 49 percent. German PV manufacturers plan to expand their facilities significantly over the coming years to meet rapidly rising demand, a step that will further reduce costs and increase employment. 

Germany has demonstrated not only that it is possible for renewable energy increasingly to meet the energy needs of industrialized society but also that the transition to a more sustainable energy future can happen rapidly with political will and the right policies. To begin with, policies must be consistent and long-term. On-and-off policies in the US have created market cycles of boom and bust, making it difficult to develop strong domestic industries. As a result, the U.S. is the only country where total wind-generating capacity has actually declined in some years. 

Market creation must also be prioritized. Germany began funding research and development of renewable energy in the 1970s but saw little commercial development until market incentives were enacted two decades later. Today at least 300 companies are involved in supplying solar panels. Last year Germans installed more than 2,000 new wind projects, all of them feeding into the grid. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Germans own shares in wind energy projects, while many own shares in solar PV and other renewable projects as well. 

The issue of who owns the production and distribution of electricity is highly significant. When a nation’s electric system is centralized and utility-owned, power is concentrated in the hands of a few, both literally and politically. In the U.S., for example, some of the most politically powerful voices are those of the various energy-related industries. But when almost anyone can be an energy producer, as in Germany, the public can play a greater role in decision making, creating a more democratic society. 

Renewables now generate eight percent of Germany’s electricity and the country has nearly two-fifths of the world’s wind capacity. But the share of total wind capacity owned by large companies is also rising, as the sizes of machines and projects—and thus costs—increase. 

The advantages of shifting away from conventional energy and towards greater reliance on renewables are numerous and enormous: climate stability, air quality, health, job creation, political and economic security, to name but a few. Renewable energy also offers models for diverse and democratic ways of producing, buying and selling power. Yet change is never easy and there are strong forces globally—including politically powerful industries—that wish to maintain the status quo. While resistance to change is inevitable, the world cannot afford to be held back by those who are wedded to energy systems of the past. 

Janet L Sawin is an energy and climate change writer and researcher based at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC.

All you recall junkies, listen up.  

UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) has launched a web site on California’s recall effort at www.igs.berkeley.edu/library/htRecall2003.htm. 

The site covers the history and legal basis of the state’s recall provisions, an overview of the key developments in the effort to oust Gov. Gray Davis, links to websites and polls, information on candidates and a summary of the legal challenges to the recall effort. 

The first version of the site appeared in April 2003, when the recall seemed far-fetched, and has been continually updated. 

—David Scharfenberg

Ah, this is the life. To be on vacation near the ocean, sunning on the beach by day, and, by night, hearing Hardball’s Chris Matthews, of all people, repeatedly liken Bush to Ted Baxter, the obtuse anchorman on the old “Mary Tyler Moore Show.” As I eat fried calamari and striped bass, I get to see Matthews, hardly a friend of progressives, hammer Team Bush over their serial lying about weapons of mass destruction and yellowcake. Was Bush such a clueless puppet, sputters Matthews, that he simply read whatever Cheney or Rumsfeld put in front of him and told him to sell to the nation? Why, I must be in Margaritaville. 

Since Team Bush came to power, those of us lucky enough to have the time and money to go on vacation have tried to escape from, or forget, however briefly, the totalitarian and imperialistic schemes of our in-house American Taliban. Nonetheless, it was difficult to shake the sense of doom unleashed by the forces of darkness, and some of us spent previous vacations looking longingly at maps of Canada, fantasizing about where to move. A supine media reinforced our sense that we were exiles in our own land. 

But this summer, the worm is turning. The inside story of how and why so many in the press have finally begun to ask hard questions remains to be told. But cracks in the edifice are everywhere. And while, understandably, we on the left are prone to seeing the political glass as always half empty—or less—it is summer, things are falling apart for Team Bush, and we need to appreciate that, for now, the glass is starting to look half full. 

As the days pass, my vacation gets better all the time. First off, Jamie McIntyre of CNN, clearly weary of denials and evasions, reads the dictionary definition of “guerrilla war” out loud at a Rumsfeld press conference to drive home the point that whatever the administration says, our troops are, in fact, engulfed by a guerrilla war. I can barely believe my eyes when, after a day of sun and surf, I turn on ABC News to see Jeffrey Kofman’s now infamous interviews with soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division in Fallujah who had been told three times they were going home, only to have their reprieve rescinded. “If Donald Rumsfeld were sitting here. . .what would you say to him,” Kofman asks. “I don ‘t know if I can really say that on camera,” responds one soldier. Another was more forceful, “I’d ask him for his resignation.” I nearly drop the tequila—is ABC really airing this? Even better, “Good Morning America” replays the interviews the next morning. 

The next night, when ABC News learns that the army might discipline those soldiers who spoke out, the network airs portions of the interviews yet again, and then puts on some of the soldiers’ middle-America, young blonde wives who demand to know why their husbands suddenly have no free speech rights. Then, cut to adorable African-American kids holding up signs asking when their daddies are coming home. Peter Jennings closes the segment by quoting a commanding officer who said, “We are in Iraq to defend democracy, not to practice it.” Jennings gives a slight but telling grimace. 

In this same week I can read, on the beach, the Wall Street Journal’s Al Hunt write about the “Fog of Deceit” and demand an investigation into Team Bush’s “pervasive pattern of exaggeration and distortion.” Next I can turn to the Boston Globe’s truly brilliant op-ed piece by James Carroll ironically titled “Bush’s War Against Evil” that makes clear how all-out campaigns to allegedly purge the world of evil have always deeply corrupted the crusaders, leading to “the most ignoble deeds.” He asks whether “ridding of the world of evil,” as Bush promised, justifies torture, the killing of children, the “launching of dubious wars,” and the “militarization of civil society.” Of Bush, Carroll writes, “there is nothing at the core of this man but visceral meanness.” After that, I can flip through a Time magazine whose cover shows Bush giving the State of the Union address under a huge headline reading “Untruth & Consequences.” 

Even the latest Harry Potter book takes on the consequences of creeping totalitarianism. Harry and Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, insist that the Dark Lord Voldemort is back, and is recruiting followers to his evil cause. But the Ministry of Magic, in total denial, refuses to believe this, and sends a “high inquisitor” to the school to silence dissent, suppress certain kinds of knowledge, and identify and punish traitors. The official newspaper, the Daily Prophet, toes the Ministry of Magic line until its deceptions can no longer stand scrutiny. Millions of kids, through the book, feel the infuriating injustices of autocracy. And in theaters, the movie “Seabiscuit” sneaks in paeans to FDR and the importance of government social welfare programs in between dramatic horse races. 

Yes, the Dark Lord is still president. Ann Coulter’s book is still on the bestseller list. But maybe in the wake of Jayson Blair’s plagiarisms, the Private Lynch fictions, Bush’s inadvertent admission of how highly he regards the lives of Iraqis (and even our own troops) by daring Iraqis to “bring ‘em on,” and the mounting evidence of repeated bald-faced lying, the press and others in the media will rediscover that portion of the body known as a spine. I know one thing—along with millions of others I’m having a much better summer this year than those hunkered down in the “beloved ranch” in Crawford. 

Margaritas, anyone? 

Susan Douglas is a columnist with In These Times.

After my husband’s bicycling accident on Claremont Avenue, our lives turned topsy-turvy. I spent six months at home taking care of him, but to pay our bills, I had to go back to work. Five years later, after his health stabilized and the stock market went gangbusters, I quit my job and set out to make our house more wheelchair accessible. 

Then the economy took a nose dive. I needed to return to work, or I needed a really good excuse for why I couldn’t.  

“Why don’t you go to school?” suggested my friend Corrie. “I’m applying to San Francisco State. We can go together.”  

It sounded like a good idea. 

Corrie was applying because she couldn’t return to work after recuperating from a back injury. I didn’t want to look for employment because I didn’t think I could find an employer who wanted me. But most of all we both wanted to write.  

We applied to the MFA Program in Creative Writing at SF State. It’s reasonably priced; a semester there doesn’t mean we have to mortgage our homes.  

Applying was easy. It was the waiting to find out if we were admitted that was terrifying. 

But, lo and behold we got in without ever having set foot on campus. 

It was a far cry from 32 years ago when I was looking at colleges. With my parents in tow, I visited universities up and down the East Coast. I read brochures, corresponded with students already enrolled on campus, and had personal interviews. This time around I didn’t have time to look at brochures. I didn’t even know it was a three-year program until after I was accepted. 

“No way,” I said to Corrie. “We gotta finish this degree in two years.” 

“Suzy,” said Corrie, “you can’t do it in two years. It’s not set up that way. It’s so hard to get the required classes, we’ll be lucky if we finish in seven.” 

She was right. Registration, which took place on my home computer at the assigned time of 6:40 p.m. two weeks ago, proved to be more difficult than actually getting into school. I was able to enroll in two of the five classes I wanted. I reconfigured my schedule and got another class. After an hour of frantically punching in numbers and looking for courses that I had a slim glimmer of interest in, I finally had four confirmations. I was waitlisted for a fifth. 

“During the drop/add session we have to beg the profs to let us in the classes we really want,” advised Corrie. 

“Beg?” I asked. “Back in ‘72 I got into everything I wanted. Even when I transferred, forgot to register, and showed up a week late, I was able to enroll in Pottery 101, Ballet 101 and Fairy Tales and the Meaning of Life, my all-time favorite class.” 

“Suzy, times have changed.” 

Yes they have. When I tell people I’m going back to school at the age of fifty-one, most are excited for me. My neighbors, some who have yet to get their GEDs, yell “You go girl. We’re proud of you.” I get hugs, pats on the back and encouragement from almost everyone.  

A friend who finished up an MFA degree not long ago at Yale said that graduate school was difficult. “It’s a lot of hard work,” she advised. “I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.” 

“A lot of work?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that it would be any work at all. After what’s been going on in my life for the past nine years, I can’t imagine that graduate school will be anything but fun. 

My friend Jernae was also less than encouraging. “Why can’t you wait six years so we can go together?” she asked. “I’ll be finished with high school by then and I’ll need a ride to class.” 

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “There’s a good chance I’ll still be there when you arrive on campus. It’ll be a lot of hard work, but it will also be  

As the Silicon Valley economy sputters, the ubiquitous H1-B engineers who came to the United States on temporary work visas have become a vanishing breed. Their impact on the cultural landscape, however, is here to stay.  

Not so long ago, industry titans lobbied Congress to raise the cap on H1-B engineers every year, to meet the software industry’s ravenous appetite. Young, eager engineers streamed into the Valley, particularly from India, which in 2001 alone gobbled up 77,000 visas.  

Those H1-Bs were easy to spot, particularly for us blasé, cosmopolitan types who had lived in the United States for a few years and learned not to call erasers “rubbers.” They moved in packs, drove only Honda Accords or Toyota Corollas and did all their “India shopping” at Walmart. The dead giveaway: shiny-white Reeboks or Nike sneakers, often worn with formal black trousers.  

How quickly things change. Last year, for the first time, more than half of 195,000 possible H1-B visas remained unclaimed. This year, with little fanfare, the H1-B visa cap will slip back to 65,000—the number it had been before the onset of dot-com fever.  

But the H1-Bs have left a cultural legacy that will likely endure in California and nationwide.  

By the crest of the dot-com wave, Bay Area cities like Sunnyvale and Fremont had turned from a string of strip malls baking in the California sun into Little Indias. Enterprising Indian housewives started catering services that dished up home-cooked food for the lonely engineers, mostly men with rudimentary cooking skills. Failing movie theaters showing Hollywood films switched over to the latest Hindi film hits, with samosas and chai during intermission.  

Suddenly, instead of complaining that Indian food was just too spicy, everyone could name their favorite lunch buffet. The Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, better known for massage parlors and drug deals, became a hub for tandoori, as over half a dozen restaurants sprang up within a block of each other. On weekends they would be buzzing with twenty- and thirty-something Indians tearing into naan and chicken tikka before they hit the freeway back to the suburbs.  

Now “For Rent” signs hang on the sprawling cookie cutter apartment complexes that dot cities like Milpitas and Mountainview. But the restaurants are still there. “The engineers might have gone back to India, but the taste of India remains,” says one of the owners. “They introduced their co-workers to this food before they left.”  

In many ways, the H1-Bs were able to introduce Indian culture to America more successfully than the Indian surgeons and high-flying software entrepreneurs who had come before them. All of us had starry-eyed dreams of being the next Sabeer Bhatia and founding a little upstart company called Hotmail. But while Sabeer Bhatia might best represent the American dream, it was the nondescript H1-B engineer worker bees dotting the Valley who put Indian Americans on the cultural map.  

Their appetite for the food they were used to made restaurants veer from old faithfuls like tandoori to offer up regional delicacies, like the giant rice crepes of South India or the lentil stews from Gujarat. Their need to stock their kitchens made Indian shopping bazaars pop up in old drugstores and pawnshops. Their hunger for entertainment made Indian soaps and comedies show up on satellite television. Fox Searchlight pictures just decided to expand Gurinder Chadha’s hit comedy “Bend It Like Beckham” to 1,200 screens after a 19-week limited release, taking the Indian experience into the American heartland.  

Now those engineering jobs are gone, often outsourced back to the mothership. Some 40,000 H1-B visa holders returned to India in the past two years, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Companies like Oracle and Intel are opening mega-research facilities back in India. There is no need to ship the H1-B engineers over here anymore. They can do the work back in India, often for a third of the cost.  

Not many people remember the Ranganathans and Reddys who shared cubicles next to them. But when they turn on their television in the fall and tune into NBC’s hospital drama ER, they will see for the first time a regular Indian character on national TV. Parminder Nagra, of “Bend it Like Beckham” fame, joins the cast as an intern. And though Rajiv Ranganathan, formerly H1-B programmer, may not realize it as he eats his mutton Maharaja Mac back at the McDonalds in Bangalore, India, he helped engineer that revolution.  

As the Silicon Valley economy sputters, the ubiquitous H1-B engineers who came to the United States on temporary work visas have become a vanishing breed. Their impact on the cultural landscape, however, is here to stay.  

Not so long ago, industry titans lobbied Congress to raise the cap on H1-B engineers every year, to meet the software industry’s ravenous appetite. Young, eager engineers streamed into the Valley, particularly from India, which in 2001 alone gobbled up 77,000 visas.  

Those H1-Bs were easy to spot, particularly for us blasé, cosmopolitan types who had lived in the United States for a few years and learned not to call erasers “rubbers.” They moved in packs, drove only Honda Accords or Toyota Corollas and did all their “India shopping” at Walmart. The dead giveaway: shiny-white Reeboks or Nike sneakers, often worn with formal black trousers.  

How quickly things change. Last year, for the first time, more than half of 195,000 possible H1-B visas remained unclaimed. This year, with little fanfare, the H1-B visa cap will slip back to 65,000—the number it had been before the onset of dot-com fever.  

But the H1-Bs have left a cultural legacy that will likely endure in California and nationwide.  

By the crest of the dot-com wave, Bay Area cities like Sunnyvale and Fremont had turned from a string of strip malls baking in the California sun into Little Indias. Enterprising Indian housewives started catering services that dished up home-cooked food for the lonely engineers, mostly men with rudimentary cooking skills. Failing movie theaters showing Hollywood films switched over to the latest Hindi film hits, with samosas and chai during intermission.  

Suddenly, instead of complaining that Indian food was just too spicy, everyone could name their favorite lunch buffet. The Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, better known for massage parlors and drug deals, became a hub for tandoori, as over half a dozen restaurants sprang up within a block of each other. On weekends they would be buzzing with twenty- and thirty-something Indians tearing into naan and chicken tikka before they hit the freeway back to the suburbs.  

Now “For Rent” signs hang on the sprawling cookie cutter apartment complexes that dot cities like Milpitas and Mountainview. But the restaurants are still there. “The engineers might have gone back to India, but the taste of India remains,” says one of the owners. “They introduced their co-workers to this food before they left.”  

In many ways, the H1-Bs were able to introduce Indian culture to America more successfully than the Indian surgeons and high-flying software entrepreneurs who had come before them. All of us had starry-eyed dreams of being the next Sabeer Bhatia and founding a little upstart company called Hotmail. But while Sabeer Bhatia might best represent the American dream, it was the nondescript H1-B engineer worker bees dotting the Valley who put Indian Americans on the cultural map.  

Their appetite for the food they were used to made restaurants veer from old faithfuls like tandoori to offer up regional delicacies, like the giant rice crepes of South India or the lentil stews from Gujarat. Their need to stock their kitchens made Indian shopping bazaars pop up in old drugstores and pawnshops. Their hunger for entertainment made Indian soaps and comedies show up on satellite television. Fox Searchlight pictures just decided to expand Gurinder Chadha’s hit comedy “Bend It Like Beckham” to 1,200 screens after a 19-week limited release, taking the Indian experience into the American heartland.  

Now those engineering jobs are gone, often outsourced back to the mothership. Some 40,000 H1-B visa holders returned to India in the past two years, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Companies like Oracle and Intel are opening mega-research facilities back in India. There is no need to ship the H1-B engineers over here anymore. They can do the work back in India, often for a third of the cost.  

Not many people remember the Ranganathans and Reddys who shared cubicles next to them. But when they turn on their television in the fall and tune into NBC’s hospital drama ER, they will see for the first time a regular Indian character on national TV. Parminder Nagra, of “Bend it Like Beckham” fame, joins the cast as an intern. And though Rajiv Ranganathan, formerly H1-B programmer, may not realize it as he eats his mutton Maharaja Mac back at the McDonalds in Bangalore, India, he helped engineer that revolution.  

After three years rooted in leafy North Berkeley, with occasional escapes to even leafier Seattle, a week in Paris and four more in small-town Britain proved a salutary shock to the system for a commentator on East Bay buildings. 

A few impressions might be of interest in our present heated debate on appropriate development, for even though it’s a stretch to compare Shattuck Avenue to the Boulevard Saint Germain, some useful lessons can be learned from the Parisian centuries-old experience of crowded urban life.  

One is the importance of big street-trees. 

Lining the main avenues, elegant cliffs of apartments—typically six floors plus penthouse levels—are almost always accompanied by huge deciduous trees on generously wide sidewalks, often with a double row down the center strip, 

As a result, five or more stories are shaded for half the year by lush greenery, while the top—privileged—levels look down on a veritable linear park. 

Here in Berkeley, new and proposed apartment blocks like those on University Avenue at Martin Luther King and Acton respectively, could have similar sun control if the developer, in a fit of public spirit, would step his buildings back just a few feet. 

Small market towns in the still-extensive rural stretches of Britain offer myriad comparisons with our urban East Bay, particularly in the realm of traffic. Lovely old paved-over plazas—“market squares” in England—have become problematic parking lots, while the narrow streets through the old center are a test of nerve and skill even for natives. 

Saddest of all, the charmingly narrow roads contained between flowering hedges that weave over and around bright green toy hills are no longer safe to walk along or even cross, so that to go for a relaxed country stroll you must drive, just like here, to some distant regional park. 

And even on the narrowest roads—about one and a half cars wide—traffic goes mercilessly fast, making our driving up around, say, Point Reyes or Bodega Bay, seem absolutely quaint. 

Hay on Wye, an ancient stone-built town on the Eastern border of Wales 22 miles from Hereford, could hardly be more different from our East Bay garden suburbs. Locally famous these days as the “second-hand book capital of Britain,” Hay is an overgrown village of two-story row houses and dignified Georgian terraces, occupying a ridge parallel to the River Wye. Everything is part of a larger harmonious whole. You walk between gray stone blocks that contain apartments, shops, cafes and the ubiquitous bookstores, down alleys too narrow for urban trees, yet you feel no lack of greenery—for everywhere, over and between buildings, you see great wooded hills or the lush banks of the river. 

Here on our gentle East Bay shelf, the situation is reversed. Everywhere, a rectilinear grid of wide streets is bordered by small wood-frame houses in fussy gardens. Typically, it’s the city’s street trees, aided by huge off-street pines, redwoods and cedars, that constitute the real architecture. 

Except for the telephone poles! 

More often than not, the American suburban grid—no mean cultural achievement—has coexisted with utility poles and their sagging wires. Indeed, as neighborhood photographs reveal, we unconsciously block them out. 

Here in Berkeley, however, we can no longer achieve this visual denial, for almost suddenly, increased power demands plus improvement in wire protection and insulation have doubled the number of overhead lines and introduced cables that are thicker, blacker and uglier than ever—cables that, in the opinion of PG&E and the City of Berkeley, take undisputed precedence over trees (as the utility company makes clear in its flier on “reasons why we trim trees”). 

Looking through the stack of photos in my desk from my weeks in Britain of canal scenes, old market towns, etc., I find at most an isolated telephone pole out in the fields, but none at all in the town views. Presumably they’ve all been undergrounded, for the inhabitants of, for instance, Hay on Wye, enjoy exactly the same “high tech” as we do. 

One last observation for Anglophile friends who pine for thatched cottages and limestone farmhouses. To live in such harmonious pre-industrial settings, protected as lovingly as any BAHA Victorian, is to be under constant siege from the modern developer world of dull housing estates, huge edge-of-town Home Depots and even glassy office parks. Here, in our garden suburbs, with nothing to protect earlier than about 1880—other than endangered street trees—we might even be better off!

Peter Jennings has tossed a Molotov cocktail into a bitter Upper West Side real-estate battle. The ABC newsman is charging that Congregation Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in America, is pulling strings to destroy the character of his neighborhood by erecting a 14-story residential building on West 70th Street next door to its synagogue on Central Park West. 

“The synagogue gives the impression of having worked to bypass the neighbors, to have its way whatever the neighbors think,” Mr. Jennings wrote in a July 1 letter to the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. “I realize we may all be a bit paranoid at the moment, but I must tell you that those of us who harbor productive feelings about government—and the governing process—feel that in this instance our rights—yes, it is not too strong a word—are being ignored by people who wish to serve their own interests at the expense of the community.” 

The strong words from Mr. Jennings have riled the congregation, which argues it needs the proceeds from the apartment building to finance renovations on its landmark synagogue. 

But opponents charge that the proposed tower—whose height would exceed zoning restrictions by over 80 feet—is out of character with the rest of the low-lying brownstone buildings on the block. 

And despite a public debate on the issue that has stretched back almost a year, many neighborhood residents and advocacy groups are arguing that the congregation has been working behind closed doors to gain the city’s approval for the project—a claim that the congregation dismissed as specious. 

But that’s the gist of the letter that Mr. Jennings, a nine-year resident of 101 Central Park West, which is across the street from the proposed building, wrote to Robert Tierney, the chairman of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

“Here’s what else I hear on the street,” his letter continues. “That people have lost faith in the process—the governing process—because they believe ‘the fix is in.’ It’s a horrible phrase, but many of my neighbors are convinced it is true.” 

It’s a characterization that Congregation Shearith vigorously denies. 

“We have provided well over a dozen presentations; we have gone to co-op meetings, neighborhood meetings … we have briefed elected officials,” said the congregation’s attorney, Shelly Friedman, one of the city’s most effective real-estate lawyers and the go-to guy for institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center when they meet resistance to construction plans. “We have gone well beyond any requirement to at least make sure people are informed about what Shearith Israel is proposing, and why it’s proposing it.” 

Shearith Israel’s neo-classical synagogue on the corner of Central Park West and 70th Street has been the congregation’s home since 1897, but the congregation’s roots in the city stretch back to its founding in 1654; it remained the only Jewish congregation in New York City until 1825. Presently, the synagogue and its “community house,” on the south side of 70th Street, are home to its twice-a-week Hebrew school, a toddlers’ program, cultural events and a Shearith Sisterhood. The community house, a non-landmark four-story building built in 1954, would be razed to make room for the 14-story apartment building. The bottom four stories would be used as a new community center, and the remaining 10 stories would be high-end condominiums, which would hit the market as sale units. The congregation plans to split the profits with the developer and use its share to finance ongoing renovations at the synagogue. 

To date, the congregation has spent $8 million restoring the synagogue, and much work remains: a new copper roof, grates and grillwork, glazing the Tiffany stained-glass windows and a complete overhaul of a parsonage townhouse directly south of the synagogue on Central Park West. 

Mr. Friedman said the congregation’s proposed 14-story building would provide an “economic engine” for the renovation work. To erect it, however, the congregation needs a zoning variance, because the 157-foot building would be over double the height allowed on that block, which is part of the Upper West Side–Central Park Historic District. 

In fact, this is a battle that Congregation Shearith has been waging for more than 20 years. In 1983, it proposed erecting a 42-story tower that would cantilever directly above the existing synagogue. It abandoned that plan in face of widespread public opposition. In 1995, the synagogue proposed building a 33-story tower, but the Landmarks Commission dealt an early death blow to that plan, calling it equally unrealistic. 

Then as now, most of the plan’s opponents object to the building because they say it’s grossly inappropriate for a brownstone-laden block. But Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields and the New York Landmarks Conservancy disagree with that assessment, noting that the proposed building is so close to the end of the block that it’s practically a Central Park West building; the block is already home to two relatively tall buildings, No. 18 West 70th St., a nine-story apartment building, and No. 30, a 10-story building. 

“We thought it was a reasonable height and design,” said Peg Breen, president of the Landmarks Conservancy. “It would have a minimal impact on the historic district, as it would be at the end of the block.” 

Only the City Planning Commission can grant a building variance. But before that happens, the congregation must get an OK from the Landmarks Commission. The agency last held a hearing on the issue on July 1—and officials there said they don’t plan to take the matter up again until September. When they do, it will be the commission’s fourth public hearing on the matter. The synagogue’s attorney, Mr. Friedman, cites that—and about a dozen other meetings the congregation has held with community members—as evidence of the synagogue’s determination to give the public its fair say in the process. 

But critics of the project, including elected officials and community-advocacy groups, note that Mr. Friedman and the synagogue began meeting privately with members of the Landmarks Commission about a year before they first publicly announced their plans in October 2002. This has fueled speculation that the commission may have informally greenlighted the project before it was ever subject to public scrutiny. 

“It’s incredibly frustrating when an advocacy group reviews a project and spends time and intelligence and energy to influence the process, only to discover that the project is already way down in the pipeline and a lot of the decisions have already been made—so all you’re managing to affect is the color of the paint,” said Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, which opposes the project. “That does not exactly inspire faith in the public process.” 

Mr. Friedman doesn’t dispute that he and the synagogue participated in private meetings with the Landmarks Commission prior to October 2002, but he and the commission both called those meetings “standard operating procedure” for an application of this nature. 

“It’s in the nature of these things for an applicant to work very hard before putting its case before the public,” he said. “That requires a bit of time, and invariably a community can say, ‘Why didn’t you come to us sooner?’ The simple response to that is: How can we come before we know precisely what we want to say and what it’s going to look like?” 

State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who has been a vocal opponent of the project, said he sees a double standard in the city’s allowance of such private meetings. 

“If a community group said, ‘So-and-so developer got to meet with the Mayor, and we’d like to do that,’ they’d look at you like you had two heads,” he said. “In a criminal case, if the defense attorney—or the district attorney—worked on that basis with the judge, it would be a constitutional outrage.” 

Kate Wood, executive director of Landmarks West, a local preservation group that opposes the project, said that while she believes the public has been given ample time to react to the project, she is beginning to wonder if those arguments haven’t been falling on deaf ears. 

Since the synagogue first publicly announced its intentions of seeking the variance in October of 2002, hundreds of neighborhood residents, elected officials, community-advocacy groups and historic-preservation organizations have come out in vocal opposition to the plan. 

Along with Mr. Jennings, they include the historian Robert Caro, the former New York City Opera director Julius Rudel, City Council member Gale Brewer, State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, State Senator Tom Duane, the preservation groups Landmark West and the Historic Districts Council, and hundreds of neighborhood residents. 

In his letter, Mr. Jennings wrote that many of his neighbors “believe that people over whom they have no influence have been working against the best interest of the neighborhood, even though the neighborhood is overwhelmingly opposed to the project.” 

He proceeded to single out developer Jack Rudin, a Shearith honorary trustee, as being a congregation member who is spoken of as trying to push the project through over the objections of concerned residents. 

“Jack Rudin’s name comes up a lot,” Mr. Jennings wrote. “He’s done a great deal for New York City, but in this neighborhood these days I hear him discussed as a member of the synagogue who wishes to have his way, and the synagogue’s, no matter what the neighbors think.” 

Mr. Rudin, for his part, denied having any formal or informal involvement with the project aside from having once spoken in favor of the project at a November 2002 Landmarks meeting, and his spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, took issue with Mr. Jennings’ characterization of his actions. 

“Jack Rudin is concerned about his neighbors’ opinions,” said Mr. Rubenstein. “He sat in on three and a half hours of his neighbor’s opinions. He believes many of the neighbors are in the belief that [the project] is a good thing for the community.” 

Mr. Friedman said that the community’s reservations have indeed made their impact on the congregation’s plans. 

“This project was proposed in an excess of 40 stories, and that was cut down to 33 stories, and now it stands at 14 stories,” he said. “That is, over the longitudinal view, attributable to the fact that the community made its views known, and the Landmarks Commission reacted to it.” 

The project does have its supporters. Aside from the congregation members themselves, they include Manhattan Borough President Fields, who originally opposed the project but reversed herself last month after reviewing updated building plans; the New York Landmark Conservancy, a prominent preservation group; and, according to the congregation, many residents citywide. 

Still, even the plan’s supporters concede that the opposition has been well organized and has done a good job drafting some prominent New Yorkers into its cause. Mr. Caro, for example, whose Pulitzer Prize–winning book The Power Broker made issues like zoning and neighborhood preservation sexy, wrote a letter in February to the Landmarks Commission about his fear that the proposed building would set a dangerous precedent for the future of the city’s historic districts. 

“If you walk along Central Park West today, there are a number of low-rise religious buildings whose membership could, for the same reasons, request the same series of ‘waivers,’ ‘variances’ and ‘special permits,’” wrote Mr. Caro. “Setting a precedent is often only the first step in changing existing rules and regulations.”

With its curvy shape, sleek long neck and rounded butt, a wine bottle kind of looks like a voluptuous Marilyn Monroe. But there’s more than meets the eye—there’s utility. 

Starting in the 17th century, people began storing wine in glass bottles and using cork as a stopper. Before that, everything from animal skins to ceramic jugs housed the people’s favorite beverage. After years of trying to establish uniform bottle size, capacity and shape, wine producers agreed on a tall, cylindrical shape for easy stackability during transportation. Sideways storage also helped keep the cork moist to prevent leakage. 

By the mid-18th century, different wine regions invented signature-style bottles to mark their wine-growing territory, as well as adjust for needs according to the regions’ grapes. In the United States and around the world, wineries still use these bottle styles, bottling according to the originating grapes in the wine. For instance, because the Riesling grape comes from Germany, a Washington state Riesling comes in a tall, thin German-style bottle known as a “flute.” Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc, all grapes derived from the Bordeaux region of France, come bottled in containers with wide, stern shoulders. The bottles were designed this way because these wines, after several years of aging, can generate sediment and the shoulders trap some of the gunk before it flows into your glass. 

Burgundy-type bottles, which all Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs come in, have a shapelier, tapered neck since the Burgundian founding fathers didn’t seem to think they needed a trap for the dregs. Rhone varietals, such as Syrah and Viognier, also use the Burgundy-shape bottle. 

For Champagne, wineries want a thicker, heavier container to battle the tremendous pressure of carbon dioxide inside. The deep, concave indentation in the bottle’s butt is called a “punt.” The punt works to diffuse pressure and helps balance the gas as well. Normal wine bottles don’t really need the punt for any special reason, but fine wine producers keep the deep dent for tradition. Punts date back to when glass blowers produced bottles by hand, using a wooden stick to hold the glass from the neck end. After forming the bottle, the glass blower would pull out the stick, creating the punched-in bottom. 

Then there’s bottle color. Like beer bottles, wine bottles are often colored glass—especially those meant for aging to prevent light from spoiling the wine inside. Bordeaux red wines are always in green glass, whereas the whites from this region have clear bottles. Burgundy has its signature green as well, but the area is not quite as stringent as Bordeaux. The Germans, often the contrarians, use brown glass for wines from the Rhine region and green from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region. 

Of course, there are always the other fun, nontraditional bottle colors, such as bright blue, orange and red. Those producers are trying to get your attention—and it often works. 

A Stanford dropout who won a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for literature, John Steinbeck began his life in Salinas on February 27, 1902. His life’s journey ended when his wife Elaine and his son Thom took his ashes to the shore at Whalers Bay south of Monterey for a last visit to his favorite place and a memorial service on Christmas Eve, 1968.  

Steinbeck’s entire life is chronicled artfully and humorously at the National Steinbeck Center, a valiant and entertaining effort to honor one of America’s best known writers and an attempt to revitalize downtown Salinas. Ironically, among the donors whose money built the Center are many descendants of the leading local farmers who wanted Steinbeck’s books banned and once burned copies on Main Street. 

Seven themed interactive, multi-sensory galleries depict scenes from Steinbeck’s novels: You can feel the cool air of an “East of Eden” lettuce boxcar, smell the fish and hear the seagulls in “Cannery Row,” and listen to classical music in Ed “Doc” Ricketts’ lab. 

Seven theaters show Steinbeck’s films—which together chalked up 29 Academy Award nominations—and you can walk around “Rocinante,” the green camper that plays a central role in “Travels with Charley,” before stopping off at the center’s superb gift shop, which offers nearly every book in print by or about the writer. 

For serious scholars, the Steinbeck Center offers its invaluable archival collection of Steinbeck’s original manuscripts, rare editions, correspondence, photographs, taped interviews, and other memorabilia recently donated by the John Steinbeck Library. You may access all of these materials from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday by calling ahead for an appointment. 

And when it all gets to be too much, you can take a break at the restful café on site. (1 Main St., Salinas; 831-775-4720 or 831-796-3833 to reach living bodies; open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; www.steinbeck.org) 

Steinbeck House (1897), where Steinbeck was born and lived for 19 years, is maintained and run by the Valley Guild, and includes a rather old-fashioned dining room where you can enjoy a tearoom-like luncheon served by volunteers. Docents lead tours of the rooms in which Steinbeck wrote his first stories and worked on parts of “The Red Pony,” “Tortilla Flat,” “The White Quail,” and “The Chrysanthemums.” In the basement, The Best Cellar gift shop offers rare editions and memorabilia as well as the lunchroom’s recipes. (132 Central Ave., Salinas; 831-424-2635; open Monday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.) 

To visit Steinbeck in his final home, go to the Garden of Memories Cemetery, where his ashes are buried in his mother’s Hamilton family plot No. 1, surrounded by his parents, sister Mary, William “Uncle Will” Hamilton, friends, and neighbors, many of whom appear in East of Eden. To get there, drive south on Main Street, turn left on East Romie Lane, continue longer than you think you should, make the rather difficult right turn onto Abbott Street, then right again onto the cemetery’s Memory Lane, and right again after the mausoleum. Follow the signs. 

My favorite restaurant in Salinas is Spado’s, which offers an antipasto bar and excellent polenta, delicate pizza, crisp innovative salads, stuffed grilled Portobello mushrooms, pastas, an irresistible five-clove garlic chicken sandwich, sand dabs, lamb shanks, and daily Italian stews and pastas, at very reasonable prices. (66 West Alisal, Salinas; 831-424-4139; open from 11 a.m. daily). 

To walk off your repast, try a stroll down Main Street—a journey back in time, with the occasional gallery and a few new restaurants to ponder if you decide to linger. 

Steinbeck made frequent trips to Carmel, often to visit muckraker Lincoln Steffens in his home on San Antonio, south of Ocean Avenue, where the two writers chewed the fat with an eclectic collection of radicals, liberals, and humanitarians, as well as farm labor activists who inspired The Grapes of Wrath and In Dubious Battle. 

One of Steinbeck’s favorite hangouts—and the place where he met Elaine Scott, his third wife and love of his life—is the Pine Inn on Carmel’s Ocean Avenue. 831-624-3851 or 800-228-3851.) 

Another Carmel compatriot, Robinson Jeffers, was one of the few contemporary poets Steinbeck admired and respected, and the author made many memorable visits to Jeffers’ Tor House, south of Carmel Point. Jeffers built both the house and the adjacent Hawk Tower stone-by-stone, decorating them with pottery and artifacts donated by interesting characters from around the world. Usually there’s a lovely garden party the first Sunday in May, as well as a Tor House Festival on Columbus Day weekend in October for a fascinating poetry walk. Call for tour reservations. (26304 Ocean View Ave., Carmel; 831-624-1813 or 831-624-1840; open for tours every hour 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday-Saturday.) 

For lunch or dinner in Carmel try Grasing’s, right across the street from the Carmel Fire Station. The baby of Narsai David and Chef Kurt Grasing, Grasing’s presents a simple and impressive menu based on Central Coast harvests and the best of the Monterey Peninsula wines. Specialties might include Roast Rack of Lamb Narsai, marinated with pomegranate and red wine over ratatouille, seared duck breast with figs, pearl onions and star anise, or grilled swordfish with baby bok choy. The lunchtime bronzed salmon salad is divine if on the menu, as are the medallions of pork with shiitake mushrooms. Medium-expensive. (Sixth Avenue near Mission; 831-624-6562). 

Kathleen Hill writes a series of Hill Guides to the West Coast with her husband Gerald Hill, including “Monterey & Carmel--Eden by the Sea.”  

The University of California plans to appeal a court ruling it claims could shut UC out of some of the most lucrative investment opportunities on the market. 

At issue is the July 24 ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Richman who held that the university must disclose the “internal rate of return” (IRR) for its investments with various venture capital firms.  

UC claims that IRRs, used to determine the value of investments, are trade secrets and that the disclosure requirement could scare off the venture capital firms which sink millions of dollars into start-up companies, hoping to reap big payoffs if the up-and-comers succeed. 

“If [a venture capital firm] is presented with the opportunity of taking $10 million from a private institution that will keep the IRR secret and a public institution that is compelled by the courts to make it public, the [firm] will choose the private institution,” said UC spokesperson Trey Davis. 

The university, whose portfolio is valued at $53.3 billion as of June, claimed in court papers that forced disclosure could cost the university “billions of dollars in returns.” Any losses would impact funds for research and academic programs and the university’s $35.2 billion retirement fund, which serves over 170,000 employees. 

But representatives of the Coalition of University Employees (CUE) and the San Jose Mercury News, which joined UC Berkeley professor emeritus Charles Schwartz in bringing the action, said IRR disclosures by other public entities have not provoked retribution from venture capital firms.  

They also argued that the benefits of informing the public about UC’s investment decisions far outweigh any perceived risk of financial losses. Without a transparent process, they say, the powerful UC Board of Regents—many of them business leaders appointed by the governor—could direct public funds into poorly-conceived investments with their cronies in the financial world. 

“We’re afraid that they will just give the money to their friends,” said Mary Higgins, who serves on the executive board of CUE, which represents 18,000 clerical employees throughout the UC system. “There should be full disclosure.” 

In his 20-page ruling, Richman agreed with the plaintiffs. 

“The Court concludes that the public’s interest in [the release] of the IRRs clearly outweighs any public interest in keeping them secret,” he wrote. 

Part of Richman’s ruling rested on the finding that a host of public institutions—from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to the University of Illinois to the University of Michigan—have made IRRs public without any ill effects. 

“None of [UC’s] ‘the sky will fall’ concern has manifested,” Richman wrote. 

The judge said he found “particularly persuasive” evidence that top venture capital firm Sequoia Capital had accepted a new $8 million investment from the University of Michigan after the school publicly released IRR information. 

But one day after Richman’s ruling, the University of Michigan received a letter rejecting the $8 million bid and asking the school to withdraw all its existing investments from the Menlo Park-based Sequoia. 

UC has filed a motion asking Richman to reconsider in light of the Michigan incident and of a decision by Portola Valley’s Three Arch Partners two days later to reject a UC investment in its new fund. 

“This ‘particularly persuasive’ evidence now supports the University, not the Petitioners,” the motion reads. 

But Mercury News attorney Judy Alexander said the Sequoia and Three Arch arguments don’t hold water.  

“Neither of them have much bearing on our case,” she said. 

Sequoia has stated publicly that it asked the University of Michigan to divest because of wide-ranging public information requests from the public and the press that cover much more than simple IRR disclosure, Alexander noted. 

The lawyer added that Sequoia, which also handles UC investments, has not asked UC to divest, despite the Richman ruling. 

Furthermore, Alexander said, Three Arch has said publicly that it rejected UC because it had too many investors bidding to get involved in its new fund, not because of disclosure concerns. 

“We didn’t have enough room,” Wilfred Jaeger, a founding partner at Three Arch, told the Bloomberg News service last week. 

But Jaeger said disclosure could make a difference in selecting future investors. 

“If that’s the distinguishing feature between investors, we probably would take that into account,” he said. 

If, as expected, Richman denies the motion for reconsideration at an Aug. 28 hearing, UC has indicated that it will take the case to the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. UC’s filing is due Sept.. 8. 

At stake is $646 million invested in the “private equity” market with venture capital firms. UC’s private equity investments have gained an average of 32 percent per year over the last five years, surpassing a benchmark of 8.4 percent, according to the UC treasurer’s annual report. 

But CUE’s Higgins said she still has concerns about the management of an overall endowment that fell 10.7 percent last year—more than any of the other ten largest U.S. university endowments, save for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—before rising again this year. 

That concern was at the heart of the request Richman also granted to order the university to release records from a pair of Fall 2000 closed Regents’ meetings that resulted in the firing of UC’s internal equity investment staff and transfer of fund management to several outside firms. 

Richman ruled that while the law allows the Regents to remain in closed session when discussing specific investments, it does not shield general discussions of investment strategy. 

The university disputes Richman’s finding. 

“The meetings under contention relate to investment matters, so it’s perfectly appropriate for those sessions to be closed,” said UC spokesperson Davis. 

Alexander, the Mercury News attorney, said Richman’s ruling on the closed meetings covers new legal ground and could persuade the First District Court, which is not obliged to hear UC’s appeal, to take up the case. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 

Reception for New BHS Principal, Jim Slemp The Berkeley High School PTA cordially invites the Berkeley High Community to a reception welcoming new BHS Principal Jim Slemp to Berkeley, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Community Theater on the BHS campus. Light refreshments will be served. To volunteer or for more information call Barbara Coleman, 704-9939. colemanbarbara@comcast.net 

Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! Open to all youth familiar with the games, at 2 p.m. in the Story Room at the Berkeley Central Library, 2090 Kittredge. 981-6223. www.infopeople.org/bpl 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. wibberkeley@yahoo.com 548-6310, 845-1143. 

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.  

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 

City of Berkeley Party For Your Health A free day-long health fair starting at 11 a.m. with information and activities on nutrition and fitness, breastfeeding, HIV, children’s head start, blood pressure checks, cholesterol/diabetes screening. Workshops, presentations, health food samples, children activities and live music. At San Pablo Park Community Center, 2800 Park St. For information call Joy Moore, 981-5364.  

Berkeley Association of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. in the Fireside Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 587-3257. www.berkeleycna.com 

Tribute to Barbara Lee and Ron Dellums and fundraiser to combat HIV/AIDS in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, from 4 to 8 p.m. at 5188 Coronado Ave., near 51st and Broadway. Cost is $20. 329-1314. 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Disaster First Aid, for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St., between 8th and 9th Sts. Register on-line at www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/fire/oes or call 981-5506. 

Summer Days and Nights in Albany, a small-town street fair, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Aves. Features live entertainment including music, a lion dance, jugglers, and more. 525-1771.  

The Importance and Magic of Butterflies in the Garden A free presentation, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, with butterfly experts Andy Liu and Sally Levinson. Learn how to attract butterflies to your garden by creating caterpillar habitat. The presentation will include an amazing lifecycle video and live specimens of all life stages. This is a fragrance-free event. Please do not wear perfume, cologne, etc. Held at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College will hold an Open House from 9:45 to noon at 2550 Shattuck Ave. For more information or to register please call 666-8248. www.aic-berkeley.edu 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 

From Sheep To Sweater What happens to the sheep fleece? Find out as we demonstrate carding, spinning, weaving, felting and knitting, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area. Free. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233.    

Urban Habitat Bicycle Ride  

Hop on your cycle and pedal to the restored wetlands of Oakland’s Arrowhead Marsh. Easy, flat, and accessible by public transit! 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. 415-255-3233. http://greenbelt.org/getinvolved/outings/green_reservation.html 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Repair Clinic, at 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Tibetan Buddhism, Robin Caton on “Sacred Breath” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Eckhart Tolle Talks on Video Free gathering at 7:30 p.m. to hear the words of the author of “The Power of Now” at the Feldenkrais Ctr., 830 Bancroft Way. 547-2024. EdShorelin@aol.com 

MONDAY, AUGUST 18 

Teachers’ Eco-Networking Lunch High school and middle school teachers interested in environmental education are invited to EarthTeam’s 3rd annual luncheon, co-sponsored by the CREEC Network and UCB’s Env. Sci. Teaching Program at 11:30 a.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, entrance on Dana. The free event will include a panel of teachers, each making short presentations about their areas of expertise, followed by questions and answers. For information call 925-274-3669. CindyS@earthteam.net 

www.earthteam.net 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 6 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Sandy Nunn from Hospice will talk about their work and how you may want to volunteer. 845-6830. 

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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 

“Good Morning Berkeley!” a networking event, from 7:30 to 9:15 a.m. The speaker will be Cynthia Meyer of Merrill Lynch, Oakland, on “Earn What You Deserve: 5 Practical Strategies for Developing Harmony with Money.” Cost is $10. At The Jazzcaffe, 2085 Addison. Wheelchair accessible. 843-8868.  

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

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

tion, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Native American Games Make and play with traditional games of California Indians, including tule dolls, cricket, Indian football, stick dice and steal the stick, from noon to 2 p.m. at Lawrence Hall of Science. 463-5961. www.lawrencehallofscience.org  

Amnesty International Berkeley Community Group meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1606 Bonita Ave., at Cedar St. Join fellow human rights activists to help promote social justice one individual at a time. 872-0768. 

Berkeley CopWatch open office hours 7 to 9 p.m. Drop in to file complaints, assistance available. For information call 548-0425. 

Berkeley Communicators Toastmasters meets every 1st and 3rd Wednesday at 7:15 a.m. at Hide-A-Way Café, 6430 Telegraph Ave. For information call Fred Garvey, 925-682-1111, ext. 164. 

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 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios at 1923 Ashby Ave. For further information on ways to get involved please call 644-2204.  

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

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 

“So How’d You Become an Activist?” with Jennifer Stone and David Solnit at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation $5. Wheel- 

chair accessible. 415-927-1645. 

Friends of Strawberry Creek will meet at 6:30 p.m. at the West Berkeley Public Library Community Room, 1125 Uni- 

versity Ave., across from the Adult School. To confirm call 987-0668 or janet@earthlink.net or jennifemaryphd@hotmail.com or 848-7128. 

Organic Farmers’ Market from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Ele- 

phant Pharmacy parking lot, 1607 Shattuck Ave., at Cedar. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Lawyers in the Library at 6 p.m. at the Claremont Branch, Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6280. 

ONGOING  

Free Marketing Workshops, sponsored by Sisters Headquarters, for women entrepreneurs, every Wed. from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 643 17th St. Oakland. For information call 238-1100. 

Vista Community College Program for Adult Education (PACE) Enrollment through Sept. 6. PACE is a college alternative for adults with job and family responsibilities. Enrollment in American Sign Language classes is also being accepted. For information call 981-2864 or 981-2800 or email mclausen@peralta.cc.ca.us  

Free Energy Conservation Retrofits for Berkeley Residents CA Youth Energy Services is a nonprofit sponsored by the City of Berkeley that trains and employs high school students to provide conservation retrofits. Call for an appointment, 428-2357. 

Free Energy Bill Payment Assistance The City of Berkeley has money to help low-income households pay their gas and electric bills. For applications and more information, contact the Energy Office at 644-8544. TDD: 981-6903. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/energy 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., Aug. 18, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Aug. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m., at Berkeley Work-Source, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.-berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Anne Burns, 981-7415. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/designreview  

Fair Political Practices Commission meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/faircampaign 

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Aug. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7000. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/transportation

This issue of The Planet marks a watershed. It’s the last one for which Michael Howerton is managing editor. The house joke is that we decided to hire him because we knew that if we didn’t like him he’d be gone soon. In fact, we had already decided to hire him when he learned that his historian wife had been awarded a prestigious fellowship to spend a year in Rome, and, oddly enough, he wanted to go with her. Because he seemed so well suited to the job, we decided to hire him anyway for the four month duration, and we haven’t regretted it. 

His best qualification has always been that he genuinely loves Berkeley, where he grew up. Besides that, though, he’s demonstrated many other virtues which have been essential to getting the new Planet launched. He’s well-educated and well-read (not always the same thing), qualities not needed for all papers but required in Berkeley where we have many intellectually fastidious readers. He’s curious—usually the first one out the door when we hear a siren or a crash on our horrendous Shattuck corridor. He’s patient, but not excessively so, with writers who are late on deadlines or turn in sloppy copy (it’s been know to happen, even at the Planet). He’s even been patient with a ridiculously demanding executive editor on occasion. He’s cool in a crisis, and we’ve had a few. For example, when the copy editor stood up from her desk after laying out an early issue and fell over in a faint, he got the paper out on schedule while she went off to the hospital in an ambulance. 

It’s hard to believe, but thanks to Michael we’ve actually got a routine going now. It no longer seems a minor miracle that bundles of newspapers come back from the printers on Tuesdays and Fridays. As our advertising grows, our page count has grown with it, and we’ve been able to expand the scope of our coverage. He’s brought in some good new writers, not much published elsewhere until he found them. He has a sure sense of what it means to be a community newspaper in a very unusual community, and that’s guided our decisions as we expand. 

Of course, the dark side of the house joke is that since we turned out to like Michael Howerton a great deal, we’re really sorry to see him leave. We do realize that he’d have to be crazy to pass up a year in Rome. 

Because he’s created such a strong foundation, we’ve been able to hire a successor managing editor with complementary qualifications, who will be able to build on the good things we’ve got going and add new dimensions. Richard Brenneman has had a long and distinguished reporting and editing career at excellent papers like the Sacramento Bee. Early in his career, he worked for a family-owned paper in Santa Monica, a town which is often compared to Berkeley, which gave him a strong interest in bucking the corporate media tide. We’re lucky to have him. 

Fortuitously, just as we were closing today’s letter page, we got a short letter in the mail which provides the perfect capstone to the work we’ve done under Michael’s stewardship. Here it is: 

“You put out one hell of a good community newspaper. Congratulations and thanks. Best regards, Ben.” 

We’re really proud to get such a letter from Ben Bagdikian, the dean of American journalism, and Michael Howerton deserves a lot of the credit. Thanks, Michael, for what you’ve done for the Planet. 

Since you’ve been here a relatively short time, and you’re going to Rome, we’re tempted to offer you the ancient Roman salute, ave atque vale ( hale and farewell). But we prefer the modern Roman ciao, which means both hello and goodbye. The underlying hope it expresses is that we’ll meet again before too long. And while you’re away, do write. The Planet would love to have a European correspondent. 

Becky O’Malley is Executive Editor of the Daily Planet. 

“Measure for Measure” has more than enough for a contemporary American audience: a corrupt official who tries to extort sexual favors, misguided attempts to legislate morality, squeamishness about the death penalty. 

There is obvious psychological interest in the puritanical deputy suddenly overwhelmed by lust and in a central figure, the Duke, who fears his own authority and prefers to rule by hidden manipulation. There are haunting meditations about death (“O but to die and go / We know not where”) that rival anything in Hamlet.  

None of this is enough for Daniel Fish, the director of the new production at Cal Shakespeare. He feels obliged to throw in interludes of pop music (at one point the whole cast sings along with Johnny Cash), clownishly contemporary costumes (Claudio, the young man condemned to death for fornication, is dressed for some reason for work at a fast-food stand), and a half-naked teenager who wanders through the production but doesn’t exist in Shakespeare’s text. (She gets one of the Duke’s most important lines, seriously undermining the complexity of the final scene). 

Fish’s sight gags pander to the audience. Some are simply irrelevant (a character chops up a watermelon to keep us from nodding off during one not-so-compelling passage). Others, like the executioner who wears a rubber George W. Bush mask, hammer us with over-explicit connections to today’s issues and push a delicately-balanced play into farce. 

Why, oh why, do directors feel compelled to tart up Shakespeare? Do they think we just can’t tolerate the unfamiliarity of the language or the strangeness of the plot in works? Do they think us too dull to appreciate the Bard’s richness and subtlety? Do they feel the need to compete with television? 

I didn’t hate my evening. The play, one of Shakespeare’s most ambiguous and disturbing, survives even Mr. Fish’s innovations. There was one compelling performance: As Lucio, Andy Murray has the energy and bite missing from Bruce McKenzie’s Angelo and Michael Emerson’s Duke. Carrie Preston also had a few strong moments as Isabella, the young woman who won’t sacrifice her virginity to save her brother’s life.  

The final unmasking scene was dramatic and effective, and there were the reliable pleasures of the lovely outdoor setting and the informal atmosphere (sip your wine as you watch the show). Still, this production makes one long for actors who can do justice to Shakespeare’s language and characters and, even more, for a director wise enough not to compete with him. Surely Cal Shakespeare can do better for us.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 

CHILDREN 

Dog Days with stories and songs at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

FILM 

Czech Horror and Fantasy on Film: “The Fifth Horse- 

man is Fear” at 7:30 p.m. and “The Ear” at 9:30 p.m. at Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4 members, UC students, $5 UC faculty, staff, seniors, disabled, youth, $8 adults. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Disinformation Film Series: “Hidden Wars of Desert Storm,” investigating the impact of the use of depleted uranium weapons on US troops, to be shown at 7:30 p.m. against the side of the KTVU Channel 2 building at 2 Jack London Square, Oakland. 528-5403. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ben Harper and Jack Johnson at 6:30 pm at the Greek Theatre. 642-0212.  

Valle Son, from Cuba, with vocalist Lázaro at 8 p.m., at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $16 in advance, $18 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Malika with Riddimystics and Shashamani Soundsystem perform reggae at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Radio Noise, Shit Outta Luck, Shrinkage at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages welcome. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Crooked Jades, innovative old-time and bluegrass, 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 

Jovino Santos Neto and Friends, Brazilian jazz pianist, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373.  

www.jazzschool.com 

Leonard Thompson at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Carvell Wallace, Jaime Jenkins and Damond Moodie, at 8:30 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $7-$15 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. 

Ludicra, Brainoil, Worm- 

wood, Fall of the Bastards, In the Wake of the Plague 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. 

vSoul, featuring Vernon Bush, sing gospel, rhythm and blues and soul, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested donation $10. 649-8744. www.thejazz- 

house.org 

AC Dshe at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8.  

848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 

Jupiter Outdoor Fine Arts Show, from noon to 8 p.m. on Allston Way, between Shattuck and Oxford. Twenty-five Berkeley and East Bay artists will have over 100 works on display. 843-0410. 

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. Sug- 

gested donation $3. Children under 3 free. 549-1564. 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks - Part Three: “Rails” 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 

“The Warriors” free screening of cult classic drama about NYC gangs in the 1970s, at 8:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751.  

www.thelonghaul.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

SEEN Festival 2003, roots and culture reggae at noon at People’s Park. 383-2949. 

Solstice, with Dan Cantrell and Ryan Francesconi at 8 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $10 suggested donation, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

New Millennium Strings, Laurien Jones, conductor, Joe Gold, violin, Gwyneth Davis, ‘cello, perform at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft, at Ellsworth. Suggested donation $10, children under 12 free. 524-4633. 

North Indian Classical Music, The New Maihar Band, Dr. Sisirkana Chowdhury, violin, and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, tabla, at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$20. 415-454-6264. 

African Drum Workshop with Wade Peterson. Beginners from 10 to 11:30 a.m., experienced from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at The Jazz House. Cost is $15-$25, and advance registration is encouraged. 533-5111. 

Ben Harper and Jack Johnson at 6:30 p.m. at the Greek Theater. 642-0212. 

John Stowell, innovative guitar featuring John Shifflet and Jason Lewis, at 8 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

High Country, bluegrass band’s 35th anniversary, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

African Rhythm Messengers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sol Americano, Dank Man Shank, Charles Cooper Quartet, at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Captain Fatass, 86 the Band, Little Fuzzy at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Brian Melvin at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Annihilation Time, Iron Lung, The Gate Crashers, Out of Vogue 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, AUGUST 17 

Brian Wallace, Brush Painting Prints, opening reception from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Fertile Grounds, 1796 Shattuck Ave. 548-1423. 

FILM 

W. C. Fields: “The Bank Dick” 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 

“Crime and Forgiveness: Does Shakespeare Reject the Death Penalty?” California Shakespeare Theater’s InSight Discussion, led by husband and wife professors Hugh Macrae Richmond and Velma Bourgeois Richmond, following the 4 p.m. matinee performance of Shakespeare's “Measure for Measure.” Bruns Amphitheater, Gateway Blvd off Highway 24, Orinda. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert, La Monica, period instrument sextet with soprano, performs works from the Baroque at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center. Cost is $10, BACA members $8, Students and seniors $9. Children under 12 free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

New Millennium Strings, Laurien Jones, conductor, Joe Gold, violin, Gwyneth Davis, ‘cello, perform at 4 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Suggested donation $10, children under 12 free. 524-4633. 

Ben Harper and Jack Johnson at 2:30 pm at the Greek Theatre. 642-0212.  

Egyptian Style Belly Dance at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rusty Evans and Ring of Fire, rockabilly, 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 

Caught in Between at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $3. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Jeff Massanari Trio blends classic jazz and originals at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Desperate Measures, Far From Breaking, Lights Out, With or Without You perform at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, AUGUST 18 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Lighter Side of Crop Circles,” Ben Ailes discusses his photographs at 7:30 p.m. in the Central Library Community Room, 2090 Kittridge at Shattuck. 981-6100.  

Poetry Express, with Judy Wells, plus open mic, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “A Bibó Reader” at 7:30 p.m. and “Remembrance of Things to Come” at 9 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 

Ishmael Reed presents his new book, “Another Day at the Front,” with his daughters Timothy reading from her new book, “Shouting Out” and Tennessee reading poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

Emily Wise Miller presents ”The Food Lover’s Guide to Florence” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop and Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533.  

www.easygoing.com 

Harry Potter Discussion Group at 7 p.m. Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Berkeley Summer Poetry, with Debra Khattab, from 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 

Le Temps des Cerises with accordionists Daniel Thonon and Dominique Dupre at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Suggested $5 donation. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Mimi Fox, solo guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

The Herms, Wolf Colonel, Fenway Park, Gran Unified Theory perform Indie Rock at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 

FILM 

Excess of Evil: “Salvation!” 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 

Tongues United, open mic, hosted by Brownfist Collective at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Kimberly Snow reads from her new book, “In Buddha’s Kitchen: Cooking, Being Cooked, and Other Adventures in a Medita- 

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

“I Should Have Just Stayed Home: Award Winning Tales of Travel Fiascoes” with editors Roger Rapoport and Bob Drews, at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. at Rose. 843-3533. www.easygoing.com 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Joseph Itiel reads travel stories from his new book, “Gay Traveler: Sexual, Cultural and Spiritual Encounters,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-0861. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Rigney and Flambeau at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Nels Cline Singers perform avant, free and improv jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Guy Klucevsek, accordion, 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 

Jules Broussard and Ned Boynton at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 

FILM 

The Inquiring Camera: “For One More Hour With You” 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 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Djelimady Tounkara, guitarist with the Super Rail Band of Bamako, from Mali, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight’s Fiddle Summit, with Alasdair Fraser, Bruce Molsky and Ellika Frisell, at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Steve Poltz, Phil Roy at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough.Cost of $12. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitar, at 8 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810. 

Greg Glassman, trumpeter, at 8:30 p.m. at the 1923 Tea House, 1923 Ashby. $7-$15 suggested donation, no one turned away. 644-2204. 

AT THE THEATER 

Impact Theatre, “Impact Briefs 6: Shock and Awe,” an evening of ultra-short comedies, directed by Joy Meads. Runs from Aug. 22 to Sept. 27, at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $15, $10 seniors and students. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

Josh Kornbluth’s “Love and Taxes,” a tale of falling in love while wrangling with the Kafkaesque IRS. Runs Aug. 20 - Sept. 14. Performances Wed. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 and 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $25-$40, available from 647-2949 or 888-4BRT-TIX. www.zspace.org 

Opera Piccola, “The Guests,” Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. An ancient Iranian tale of hope for peace in a world of uncertainty, with traditional and contemporary music. Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for seniors, students, available from 925-798-1300. For information on the production call 658-0967. 

Shotgun Players, “Mother Courage and Her Children,” by Bertolt Brecht, translated by David Hare, directed by Patrick Dooley. Runs Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. in John Hinkle Park, until Sept. 14. No show Aug 9. Show Sept. 13 is at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Free. 704-8210.  

www.shotgunplayers.org 

Stage Door Conservatory, “Bye Bye Birdie,” Aug. 15 at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 16 and 17 at 5 p.m., at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $13 for adults, $8 for children and seniors. 527-5939. www.stagedoorconservatory.org  

Teen Playreaders, “Bizarre Shorts,” a festival of brief and absurd dramas for a mature audience. Fri., Aug., 15 and Sat., Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

Woman’s Will Shakespeare Company, “The Rover,” a restoration comedy by Aphra Behn. Sat., Aug. 16 at 8 p.m. in Live Oak Park. 420-0813. www.womanswill.org  

EXHIBITIONS 

ACCI Gallery Annual Seconds Sale Aug. 14 - 17. 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. www.accigallery.com 

The Ames Gallery, “Conversations with Myself” Works by Barry Simons. By appointment or chance. Exhibition runs until Aug. 15. 2661 Cedar St. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com  

Berkeley Art Center, 19th National Juried Exhibition: “Works on Paper,” runs to Sept. 13. Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, 1275 Walnut St. Open Wed. - Sun. noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

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.  

Berkeley Public Library, “The Lighter Side of Crop Circles,” photographs by Ben Ailes. Runs until Aug. 30. First Floor Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6100. 

Kala Art Institute, Kala Fellowship Exhibition, Part II Runs until Sept. 6. Call for gallery hours. 1060 Heinz Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org  

A New Leaf Gallery/Sculpture Site, “Four Elements of Sculpture: Fire, Air, Water and Earth,” Exhibition runs to August 31. 1286 Gilman St. Call for gallery hours. 527-7621. www.sculpturesite.com 

Red Oak Realty “Mixed Media,” by Stan Whitehead. Exhibition runs through Oct. 23, Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1891 Solano Ave. 527-3387. 

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 Aug. 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. 

Sway Gallery, “Secret Summer” paintings, installations, collages, prints, drawings, and mixed media by Nana Hayashi, Greg Moore, Marc Snegg, Gab- 

rielle Wolodarski. Runs to Oct. 5. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. every day. 2569 Telegraph Ave. 489-9054.

It’s older than the Campanile, older than Sather Gate, older than the city of Berkeley itself. And on Aug. 30 Gorman & Son Furniture, a Telegraph Avenue fixture that grew out of a tragic fire and an immigrant’s pluck, will pack up and leave town. 

The shop, run by four generations of Gormans before owners Chuck and Andrea Rosenberg bought it six years ago, will move to 3400 Broadway in Oakland, and sit alongside the car dealerships of Auto Row. 

Berkeley old-timers said they are sad to see it go. 

“All of us newlyweds, 30 or 40 years ago, depended on that place to furnish our homes,” said long-time Berkeley resident Heidi Seney. “I’m going to miss it, because I thought it was an honest business, a good business.” 

The 2599 Shattuck Ave. building, a ramshackle wood structure that includes a converted horse stable and a hodge-podge of additions, dates back to at least 1876, according to a written history prepared several years ago by neighbor Patricia Dacey, with help from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, when the city moved to landmark the building. 

Chuck Rosenberg said he had an opportunity to buy the three-story structure when he took over the furniture business in 1997, but decided to rent instead. The old building, he explained, is susceptible to fire and earthquake. 

“We’re four blocks from the Hayward fault and if that ever went off...the building would collapse,” he said.  

About two years ago, the Gorman family sold the building to Berkeley developer Ali Kashani and local architect Kava Massih, who plan to restore the facade, spiff up the first floor retail space and put four housing units on the second and third floors, which currently serve as storage space. 

With the developers hoping to start work this fall, the Rosenbergs have signed a five-year lease on the 3400 Broadway property—taking up the residence of an old competitor that recently went out of business, the Saw Mill furniture store.  

Chuck Rosenberg said he’s been expecting the move for years and is looking forward to the new space. But he is eyeing a possible satellite store in the old Telegraph Avenue building when the restoration is complete. 

“Gorman’s is a Berkeley institution,” Chuck Rosenberg said. 

The store, according to Dacey’s history, began in 1876 as a small furniture and upholstery outfit operated by John Gorman, an Irish immigrant who made stops in New York, Chicago and San Francisco before settling in Berkeley with his wife Margaret Carter. 

Gorman’s first big break came during his first year in business when Berkeley’s old “Dumb and Blind Asylum,” which later became the California School for the Deaf and Blind, burned down. The upholsterer, who had learned his craft as a teenager in Ireland, got the contract for providing all the mattresses for the rebuilt institution. 

In the 1890s Gorman’s son Wesley joined the company as an undertaker. Undertaking and furniture-making were often intertwined in those days, according to Dacey’s history, as it was the local furniture-maker who was best qualified to construct coffins. 

Gorman’s served as an anchor for a Telegraph Avenue commercial area that was growing rapidly at the turn of the century. A May 1901 article from the old Berkeley Gazette newspaper chronicled the transition. 

“The heretofore quiet and unassuming neighborhood near Dwight and Telly has evolved into a busy and disquieting scene of commercial activity,” a correspondent wrote. “The click of the hammer and the hum of the saw” leads one “old resident” to “fancy that the business center will be transferred from Berkeley Station to Dwight Way and Telly.” 

As the district grew, Wesley Gorman’s son, Wesley Robert Gorman, succeeded his father in the firm, and his sons, Bob and Gary, ran the shop until 1997 when the Rosenbergs took over. 

Andrea Rosenberg said the couple had been looking for some time for a business to buy when they came upon Gorman’s, and were quickly enamored with the place. 

“When we walked in the door, I think the first thing we noticed was how great it smelled—the wood,” she said. 

After taking it over, the couple built on a long-standing reputation for honesty and customer service. 

General manager Bob Maass, who has worked at the store since 1975, recalls an elderly woman who bought a large mattress from the store several years ago. 

“A few weeks later she called and said, ‘This mattress has to be flipped doesn’t it? You guys do that, don’t you?,’” Maass recalled. 

So the staff drove out to her house and flipped the mattress—the first of many such visits. 

“She’d call every few months and say, ‘this is Grandma,’” Maass remembered with a laugh. 

Andrea Rosenberg said the locals, after all these years, view Gorman’s as a resource for all kinds of household projects. “People call us with the strangest things—‘I know you sell furniture, but you’ve been there for so long. Do you know someone who can refurbish a bathtub?’” 

At the end of the month, shoppers will have to take their questions—about mattresses and bathtubs—to Oakland. The Gorman’s staff is hopeful that loyal customers will keep coming, but they say they’ll miss the old green building on Telegraph Avenue. 

“You become attached to a building,” said Maass. “You become attached to the people you see everyday.”  

GET INVOLVED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for publishing Sharon Hudson’s lively and informative account of Berkeley’s planning process for large developments. It is truly shocking to learn how a few favored developers have been able to manipulate the process in order to supersize their buildings at the expense of neighborhoods throughout the city.  

We can thank Ms. Hudson and a handful of other dedicated citizens for calling these issues to the public’s attention, but we have to do more than that. Bad developments harm the city for decades! We must become active participants ourselves in monitoring and reshaping these proposed large developments. Do you live anywhere near a busy street? A commercial district? A building taller than two stories? Well, your neighborhood may be next on the list. The time to get involved is now.  

Doug Buckwald 

• 

CONTAMINATED LIVES 

The following letter was addressed to Mayor Bates and City Council members: 

A large number of residents of the Cedar/Shattuck area are very concerned about the health consequences of electromagnetic field emissions (EMF) from Sprint's planned base station antennae on top of Starbucks at 1600 Shattuck Ave. 700 neighbors signed petitions protesting the antennae earlier this year. 

Sprint announced an “information session” on this issue for Aug. 7. Instead of the community taking the lead with questions, the company set up six tables each staffed by a specialist on one aspect of the base station installation. The idea was to defuse the presentations so that only a few people would hear answers to specific questions and the group as a whole would neither be heard nor informed. (Same tactic used by LBNL in response to community concern about the planned nanotech facility.) 

Sprint is now collecting signatures at Andronico's and BART asking whether people want improved coverage for their cell phones. 

With revenue as its only goal, there is no concern in any corporation with the cumulative health effects of all the gadgets they produce, particularly the wireless ones. But EMF is known to have carcinogenic and other negative health effects, and since we are dealing throughout our lives with emissions from dental x-rays, mammograms, computer and TV sets, electric transmission wires, natural radiation during airline flights, radon in the soil, etc., we are accumulating a body burden that can only result in illness for many of us. 

The officials in our city have a primary responsibility to protect in any way possible the health and well being of its citizens. I hope, therefore, that you will do all in your power to stop the proliferation of any further contamination of our already highly contaminated lives. 

Joan Levinson 

• 

MISSING SOMETHING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is an old environmental adage, “Think globally, act locally.” Unfortunately, acting locally does not always appear to be in one’s own immediate interests, and many people find ways to rationalize non-action or opposition. Becky O’Malley’s editorial comment, “Maybe we’re missing something, but we’re still not clear how this award proves that 22 Big Ugly Buildings in Berkeley...will slow down development in the exurban fringe...” (Daily Planet, Aug. 1-4,2003) is a prime example of a common Berkeley rationalization. Ms. O’Malley asserts that urban fringe living and urban apartments represent such totally different markets that they have no impact on each other. There seems to be no recognition that if people aren’t living in Berkeley apartments then they have to be living somewhere else. And that further, if other cities take the attitude that they already have enough people, then that somewhere else is going to be at an urban fringe. If there is no choice but single family homes or low density apartments on the fringe, then that is where growth will go. It may not be our urban fringe, but it is still an environmental problem. 

The Planet (and its predecessor) has had numerous articles and letters on the evils of inappropriate neighborhood development and the sins of the Planning Department. The attacks on the Planning Department appear aimed at stopping growth rather than helping it do a better job, and what comes through loud and clear is “not in my back yard.” What has not come through is any evaluation of the environmental consequences of somewhere else. One letter writer even suggested that new towns should be built, and that environmentalists should donate more money to the Nature Conservancy to buy the land they don’t want built over. It is irresponsible to allow the debate to remain at this level of naiveté, ignorance and selfishness. 

Yes, I think you are missing something. If you want to convince me I am wrong, you need to replace the sarcasm about BUBs with a convincing, environmentally sensitive vision of growth outside of Berkeley. 

For the record: I live in a single family dwelling next to an eight-unit apartment in the flatlands of Berkeley. I have no financial ties or personal connections to Patrick Kennedy. I don’t think the GAIA building is ugly. 

Robert Clear 

• 

DERANGED PARENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I hope Executive Editor Becky O’Malley’s superb editorial, “The Cassandra Factor,” (Daily Planet, Aug. 12-14) will be widely disseminated, the same way that the recent article about the wonderful UC Professor George Akerlof should have maximum exposure. As a new citizen of this country, I am like a child who finds that her father is gradually losing his faculties and is turning into a monster endangering the neighbors. I can feel hope, when I read articles like O’Malley’s and Akerlof’s, that a cure may be possible for my deranged and dangerous parent. 

Isabel Escoda  

• 

A CITY IN CONFLICT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a bystander and observer of ongoing permitting and environmental review (CEQA) processes for the proposed housing project at 2526 Durant Ave., I can only say that what is assumed to be the inevitable result saddens me. I cannot accept that the only viable alternative to what may, or may not, be a housing crisis is to demolish the Blood House, which is one of only three remaining pre-1900 structures in the College Homestead Tract area. 

CEQA offers a process and a set of procedures to discuss competing values. But the City's process has become highly bureaucratic, technical, and without soul. The spirit of environmental law seems to get reduced to questions of definitions, e.g. what is and is not an historic resource, while meanwhile the fabric and texture of the town gradually and imperceptibly disappears.  

We seem to be a city at odds with itself, in endless conflict, following the processes and procedures required by law, but clueless about reconciling competing values. The Blood House could be saved through an infill alternative to preserve the structure on site or through relocation. Instead, if city recommendations are followed, the wrecking ball seems inevitable by a process that might be legally airtight but filled with holes of vision.  

I respect the need for housing, but demolition of the few remaining reminders of our past is too great a price. The Landmarks Preservation Commission  

denied the demolition permit for the historic Blood House. I hope the Zoning Adjustments Board will do the same on Aug. 28.  

Janice Thomas 

• 

A HIGH PRICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Who in the world approved aluminum siding for the outside of Acton Courtyard on University Avenue? The Design Review Board? The Planning Commission? The City Planning Department? Not only is the building too big and the parking too little, it looks like something from a mobile home park of the 1970s. I’m a strong supporter of affordable housing (although I’d like to see more that’s suitable for families with children), but having to look at this monstrosity every day is a very high price to pay. 

Honor Thompson 

• 

CELLULAR LOGIC 

The following letter was addressed to Mayor Bates: 

Sprint Telephone has requested permission to install another cellular phone antenna in Berkeley. I object to their proposal. 

Dependence on the automobile has reduced the quality of life throughout the United States. Most cities had good trolley systems at one time. But the automobile offered freedom and pushed public transit out. The auto industry helped this process along by advertising and pressuring governments and has realized a hefty return on their investment. 

Communications is following the course taken by transit. Public telephones are being replaced by cellular phones because of the freedom they appear to offer. This freedom has come at a cost of overall quality of life. People talk on their cell phones in formerly public places such as the sidewalk, public transit, schools, and parks. Based upon our experience with the automobile, I don’t expect phone users to become more considerate over time.  

The communications industry will spare no expense as they attempt to convince the public to become cellular phone subscriber. I hope that our city government is insulated from the advertising barrage. Please weigh the drawbacks as well as the benefits when considering whether to encourage cell phone use within the city of Berkeley.  

Gregory Kalkanis 

After years of preaching by animal advocates, pet owners are finally getting the message and spaying and neutering their animals, and Bay Area animal shelters are getting smaller numbers of abandoned cats and dogs. The flip side is that the ones they do take often prove the most difficult to place, requiring considerably more human investment than newborn pups and kittens. 

That’s the reason why the diminishing number of critters has resulted in an explosion of volunteers at the Berkeley Animal Care Shelter, reports Amelia Funghi, who coordinates volunteer efforts for the facility which takes unwanted or abandoned animals from Berkeley, Albany, Piedmont, and Emeryville. 

Similar programs have sprung up in animal shelters across the country since the mid 1990s, playing a central role in slashing euthanasia rates. 

The first decision workers must reach when an animal shelter takes in an animal is whether or not the animal is immediately suitable for adoption or whether it needs additional care and training before it’s ready to go home with a family. If not, it’s up to shelter staff work to provide necessary training and human contact. 

Fughi said that because most hard-to-place critters are adult dogs or cats that have had limited positive interactions with humans, volunteers start out by playing with the animals daily to make the animals comfortable with two-legged types. 

The program is enjoying particular success in Berkeley, Funghi said, because residents have contributed to the shelter’s low euthanasia rate by “buying into the idea of adopting an animal from us.” 

One key factor in Berkeley’s success has been Funghi’s skill in recruiting volunteers, leading to an almost seven-fold increase in the last two years—from fewer than 50 in 2001 to 330 today—after the city hired Funghi in February 2001, to focus on getting the word out into the community. As a result, animals in the Berkeley shelter are receiving lots more play time and training. 

“People are responding to our outreach efforts,” Funghi said. “To make more animals ready for adoption takes a lot of work by a lot of different people, and volunteers have really come through.” 

A major focus of the volunteer program in Berkeley is direct human-animal contact as often as possible. Almost all of Berkeley volunteers do hands-on work with animals, walking and training dogs and petting cats. 

“I’ve made contact a priority so animals could really get the care that they need,” Funghi said. “I think that’s the most important thing in terms of helping animals move away from the shelter to live in somebody’s home.” 

Funghi and shelter director Katherine O’Connor have implemented a variety of special events and programs to keep Berkeley residents aware of the shelter’s presence and work. The mobile adoption program brings animals to the Fourth Street shopping district every Saturday to publicly display some of the potential pets at the shelter and appeal to people to adopt an animal. 

“I got involved when I saw the animals down on Fourth Street,” said volunteer Lucy Tyler. “I knew I couldn’t have a pet myself, but I wanted to help make sure the word got out to other people that would be able to take an animal.” 

O’Connor said that although very few people adopt animals directly from the Fourth Street station, many people come in shortly after seeing the mobile adoption team and choose an animal to take home. This, in turn, raises awareness about the shelter’s work. 

Additionally, partnerships with animal rescue groups allow the shelter to share resources and receive help with particular aspects of its work. For example, the Oakland-based Home at Last Rescue places almost all of the Berkeley Animal Care Shelter’s kittens, a number that has already reached 160 this year. 

“We do work with the humane societies and the Oakland and San Francisco SPCAs (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals),” Funghi said. It’s the partnerships that allow us to get more animals adopted and fewer euthanized.” 

In the film “The Sum of All Fears,” last year's Ben Affleck nuclear terrorism flick, actor James Cromwell plays a president up for reelection who in one scene recounts his political assets in a humorous speech to the press. That he admitted to smoking a little weed while serving in Vietnam, he jokes, should help his reelection campaign to carry California. 

If that’s true, chalk up one more electoral plus for Austrian native Arnold Schwarzenegger, the headline-writer’s bane; the actor who would be California governor shouldn’t have a problem with his appearance toking up on a big fat doobie as the star of the career-making 1977 documentary “Pumping Iron.” 

Nor should the hefty doses of steroids he admits taking back in his heyday as a world champion body-builder. That’s all behind him, he said when word of his former indulgence leaked out during his tenure as chair of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under the first President Bush. 

Californians will probably tolerate his full frontal beefcake, too—another legacy from his doobie-puffing, ‘roid-popping days. 

Voters even seem indulgent when it comes to his widely reported grab-and-grope behavior and what some pundits are calling his “Nazi problem”—his Austrian policeman-father’s membership in Hitler’s party and Arnold’s own never-disavowed friendship with former Wehrmacht officer and Austrian president Kurt Waldheim. Comedian Bill Maher put his own spin on the issue by turning it into a joke: “Arnold Schwarzenegger—finally, a candidate who can explain the administration’s positions on civil liberties in the original German.” 

So the real question is: Will voters’ indulgence endure after they spend some time chewing on the fact that he was one of the state’s political elite sought out for support by Enron’s Kenneth Lay in the midst of his firm’s electricity rate manipulations—the same ones that landed the state in the fiscal crisis that prompted the recall drive that’s landed Schwarzenegger on the gubernatorial ballot? 

The Enron albatross isn’t unique to the actor. Richard Riordan, then another prominent GOP gubernatorial hopeful, attended the same Lay-led Beverly Hills hotel room strategy session as did Schwarzenegger and felonious former junk bond king Michael Milken, Lay’s mentor. 

According to multiple accounts, Lay called the May 11, 2001, meeting to shore up support for electrical rate deregulation from California Republican powerhouses. The meeting came three days after the Golden State suffered its third round of manufactured electrical blackouts, which only ended when the state agreed to finance continued power purchases through the country’s largest-ever bond issue. 

According to later press accounts, Lay had sought Schwarzenegger’s and Riordan’s support for his deregulation campaign since both men were widely perceived as probable Republican gubernatorial candidates. 

Enron and sundry other energy traders picked the pockets of California consumers and looted the California treasury through artificial price-inflating schemes carrying such sonorous handles as “Death Star” and “Get Shorty.” 

The media have also been notably reluctant to report on the simple fact that the state’s fiscal crisis was largely caused by folks like Schwarzenegger’s host at that private Beverly Hills confab two years ago. Huge electrical bills brought by state and federal deregulation of the utility industry were the main culprit—the fruits of laws pushed through by an acting governor-turned-president named Reagan and a non-acting governor named Pete Wilson, both members of Arnold’s own party. 

Until Enron imploded, Lay was a favorite of Republican politicians in search of cash. He was a close friend and major supporter of another Republican governor-turned-president, George W. Bush, who affectionately called the Enron boss “Kenny Boy.” 

Of course, ‘Ah-nuld’ isn’t the first actor to run for office in the Golden State. At one time the state had both a president and a U.S. senator who came to politics from the silver screen. 

Like another prominent GOP member, the beefy entertainer has been noticeably shy when it comes to candid interviews with the press. He announced his candidacy not at a press conference but on the “Tonight Show,” and the only interview he gave any reporter in the week afterwards appeared in a small Austrian paper. 

Most of the press coverage so far has been gushing, though noted uberconservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been cautioning his listeners that Schwarzenegger may be a liberal in Republican drag. 

And speaking of drag, Californians probably won’t be bothered by persistent rumors about the candidate’s sexual preferences—rumors ridiculed by his press agent and many who know the man. 

But Enron could be another story. 

Richard Brenneman is the incoming Managing Editor of the Berkeley Daily Planet.

Berkeley-based Youth Radio scored yet another journalistic triumph when the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) awarded the innovative program its Salute to Excellence honors for a radio documentary examining the violent culture created by the high murder rate in Oakland as seen through a teenager’s eyes. 

Youth Radio offers young people from around the Bay Area the chance to learn about radio broadcasting and then put their perspectives on the airwaves on KPFA, KQED, and National Public Radio. The NABJ award went to a collaborative piece entitled “Welcome to My World.” 

Gerald “Whiz” Ward II, Youth Radio’s broadcast training director, said that, as with many Youth Radio broadcasts, the program aimed to offer listeners a unique perspective on a newsworthy event. 

“There was always a lot of press coverage about all the murders going on in East Oakland,” Ward said. “As a group of young people, our kids wanted to show what it’s like for a kid that lives there, how kids are affected by the violence.” 

To provide that perspective, Ward interviewed Youth Radio student and East Oakland resident Bianca Yarborough and her mother. In the resulting piece, Yarborough chronicles her difficulties maintaining a normal life in the face of the violence in her town and neighborhood. 

“Even with all the murders and things in their minds, kids are still expected to wake up and go to school every day,” Ward said. “They need to maintain normal relationships, but they are often scared.”  

Making the honor doubly sweet was the fact that the “Welcome to My World” segment was created and produced primarily by students, many of whom were entry-level Youth Radio students at the time. 

Ward said that the idea for the piece came from the students in a beginning news reporting class roundtable discussion of important issues in their own lives. Yarborough herself was also a member of that beginners’ class. 

“The students really did this as their own project,” said Youth Radio development director Erin Callahan. “We’re proud of the award because it recognizes just one of the great things that talented kids are producing.” 

The NABJ awards committee cited the new spin Youth Radio took on everyday news as a major factor in their selection of “Welcome to My World” for the award. 

The Salute to Excellence, which usually goes to professional media outlets, aims to recognize programming that has taken an innovative approach to a story or explored it in more detail than most other news outlets would have done. 

“A program like Youth Radio winning the radio award is extremely appropriate,” said awards coordinator Warner Williams. “They are not the mainstream media, and that gives them a lot of freedom. They took a risk with the piece, and it paid off.” 

The Salute to Excellence award was presented to Ward at the NABJ’s conference in Dallas last week. Yarborough was unable to attend the conference because she was involved in preparations for beginning college fall. 

“It was an honor to be there,” Ward said. “It was an impressive assembly of great journalists. I was just really excited that they would recognize our work.” 

The NABJ award came close on the heels of the last in a long list of accolades presented to Youth Radio. The New York Festivals honored the program for excellence in communications media earlier this year, and Youth Radio staffers have won the prestigious DuPont and Peabody Awards in recent years.  

The parade of National honors has earned increased visibility for the program in Berkeley and around the Bay Area, and that, in turn, has helped the station grow and expand its ties with the community. 

Just last month, the station opened Airwaves Café, a weekend hangout for teenagers next to the Youth Radio office at 1801 University Ave. The café serves food and drinks and uses program students to DJ or perform music and poetry in a “safe space” for teens. 

Open from 6 to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, the cafe is expected to grow as it gains popularity. Any proceeds from the café go directly into the main Youth Radio fund, which helps the station provide training to its students for no cost. 

“It should help,” Ward said. “It’s great because it provides a hangout space for teenagers, allows our students to practice their skills, and is good for Youth Radio on a whole. It’s a good addition.”

Confronted with a blistering state report on the state of Berkeley’s schools, Board of Education Directors took their first step toward addressing the 500 concerns raised in the evaluation by meeting with its authors earlier this week. 

Describing the mammoth 740-page report as “daunting” and “overwhelming,” the five boardmembers praised the document for providing a roadmap for dealing with district problems ranging from student achievement to employee training and financial matters. 

Berkeley Schools Superintendent Michele Lawrence opened the meeting by noting that no district in California has been able to meet the standards laid out in the report. She then passed out a battle plan from the report’s authors to boardmembers for dealing with approximately 20 percent of the problems. 

Instead of trying to tackle all the issues in the report at once, the list of “District Performance Standards” singles out 93 deficiencies in each of the report’s five categories—community relations, pupil achievement, and personnel, financial and facilities management—that should be addressed by October. Each category contains 15 to 20 problems to be addressed immediately and another 80 or so for later consideration. 

The district’s performance on each issue is rated on a zero to 10 scale as of last month. The document prioritizes each issue as a high, medium or low concern and assigns responsibility to a district administrator. They will be reevaluated again within three months. Standards highlighted in bold reflect issues the district had already begun to deal with before the report was released in May. 

Areas given the lowest possible rating, a zero, include the district’s ability to provide a “clear operational framework” for student body organizations that “deposit, invest, spend and raise funds” and the district’s maintenance of “project records and drawings.” 

On the plus side of the ledger, the district’s effort to “actively encourage parental involvement in their children’s education” is given the highest rating in the report at seven. 

The state says the district needs to focus on items rated a zero or one, while a two indicates that it’s in place in part and already being worked on. The state does not expect low-rated items to be completed by October, but does want to see progress.  

While a “one” rating calls for district personnel to attend training sessions and workshops to keep current in their field, district spokesman Mark Coplan said, “We don’t have any money for that. The dilemma here isn’t that we don’t want it. We have an $8 million deficit coming up this next year.” 

The state’s Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) prepared the report as the result of a deal brokered by former Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley) between the school district and the state after the district was fined $1.1 million for filing late payroll paperwork. 

Thanks to legislation authored by Aroner, the state forgave the fine and instead put $700,000 of the money into the FCMAT report. The bill requires the district to spend the remaining $460,000 to implement the study’s recommendations over the next two years. FCMAT will file the first of four bi-annual reports on progress made on the report in December. 

At this week’s meeting, FCMAT official Joel Montero stressed that the report’s findings do not constitute “a report card” on the district. 

“Zero is not an F, ten is not an A,” he said. “It is a deficit analysis. It’s not designed to be a positive analysis. We analyze those things that we think need attention.” 

He added that the report’s rankings are not “very scientific” but that they allow for FCMAT to assess growth over time.  

School Board Vice President John Selawsky, armed with a copy of the report festooned with dozens of Post-it notes, asked Montero about the fiscal impact, for a cash-strapped district, of taking action on all the items listed. 

“There will be some fiscal impact,” said Montero. “You have to decide what you can afford, what’s important. Sometimes those are mutually exclusive.” Montero also encouraged the board to get over the initial sticker shock of the report. 

FCMAT, which conducts similar audits at districts all over the state, is used to being in an adversarial position with school board members and rarely holds public meetings with them. Montero described Berkeley’s plan for dealing with FCMAT’s findings as 100 percent better than what they usually get from most districts. He also encouraged the board not to rely on consultants to address the issues raised in the report.  

Boardmember Nancy Riddle said the report affirmed “what we already know or perceived,” but deemed it “managerially impossible.” 

Later in the meeting, Boardmember Shirley Issel asked Board President Joaquin Rivera to appoint a subcommittee on how to proceed with addressing all the issues raised by FCMAT. Rivera indicated that such a subcommittee should be in place in a matter of weeks.

University of California students who sued to block fee hikes will have to fork over the cash, at least for now. 

A San Francisco Superior Court judge denied their request Wednesday for an injunction that would have prevented UC from raising fees for law, medical and other professional students this fall. But while no immediate relief is available, the suit will go forward. 

“This isn’t an indication of how it will end up,” said Jonathan Weissglass, an attorney for the students.  

The suit, filed July 24 by students from UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, UC Davis and UCLA, also seeks refunds on spring and summer 2003 fee hikes for graduate and undergraduate students. 

Students claim the nine-campus university breached a contract with the students by raising spring and summer fees after students had already registered and been billed for classes. 

The suit claims, separately, that UC broke a promise to law, medical and other professional students that they would not face any fee hikes during their time at the university. 

“We all understand the university has a budget problem,” said Weissglass. “But the issue is whether the university can break promises to balance the budget.” 

The UC Board of Regents raised fees for the Spring 2003 semester by 11.2 percent in December 2002. In July, the board followed with a 25 percent fee hike, that jumped to 30 percent when the final state budget passed.

It’s time to tune out the bleating elites and vacant talking heads whose doomsday warnings about these exciting times raise questions about their sanity. They need to spend more time with their de Tocqueville, who could have warned them that here in America nothing is more chaotic than democracy itself. Let’s debunk five myths about the recall. 

Myth No. 1: The recall election is a circus. 

It’s a circus only to the degree that cynical, shallow media make it so. Especially the electronic media in which the ringmasters are the TV news directors—a species that wouldn't recognize a “serious” election if it fell on their empty heads.  

We’re now going to get civics lectures from a bunch of ratings whores who long ago traded in their Sacramento bureaus for freeway telecopters? 

Every election cycle attracts marginal and aberrant candidates, and the media usually ignore them after the one or two initial and totally predictable soft features. Angelyne, Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt et al. loom so large in this election only because the telephoto lenses remain so tightly locked onto them. 

The L.A. Times (and other major metros) have also helped promote the circus theme, giving undue attention to the carnival candidates. A strange twist, as this is the same Times that barred Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader from the presidential debate it organized during the 2000 campaign. Times management argued at the time that Nader wasn’t a serious enough candidate to warrant inclusion.  

Nader’s mistake, apparently, was to not have Gary Coleman chauffeur him down to Spring Street in Agelyne’s pink Vette. 

Myth No. 2: The recall election will throw the state into chaos. 

Whenever encrusted elites lose control of one of their processes, they always warn of chaos, catastrophe and dire consequences. Only they are wise enough to guide our lives. Nothing strikes so much fear into their manipulative little hearts as when the hoi polloi spin out of control— out of their control. 

An election in which pliant, predictable candidates are handpicked in backrooms and bankrolled by special interests, in which the victor comes to power through a $75 million campaign of slash-and-burn TV ads with a record-low turnout, well, that’s just one more serious and orderly round of balloting, we’re supposed to believe. But let just any dumb bastard citizen off the street run for office, totally beyond the reach of the party and lobbyist elites, and that is a sure sign that California is sliding into the sea. What has the establishment so panicked about this election is hardly the threat of chaos. It’s rather the unpredictability of the process and its outcome. Imagine electing some candidate that hasn’t already been bought and paid for. The horror, the horror. 

We’re told the recall is a hijacking, a coup, the illegitimate overturning of a legitimate election; ultimately, we’re warned, this is the unwashed and witless electorate running riot. Pundits beware: This “circus” election is likely to generate a bigger turnout than last year’s “official” contest. A staggering 90 percent of voters say they plan to cast ballots on Oct. 7. In a recent Gallup Poll, almost 70 percent of likely voters said they want to oust Gray Davis. 

Those who continue to insist this recall is a sham perhaps ought to take the advice Bertolt Brecht once gave the East German regime: Maybe the government should dismiss the people and elect a new one? 

The latest apocalyptic warning from the panicked elites is that with more than 100 names on the ballot, it could take 10 minutes (!) for a voter to go through and maybe 40 hours for some small counties to tally. As a reporter, I’ve been to more than one country where people braved jail and gunfire in order to vote, or even to just suggest an election should be held. Somehow I think the republic will survive if a lengthy ballot makes a few Californians late to Pilates classes on Election Day. 

Myth No. 3: Organized labor is the force behind progressive politics. 

It could be and should be. But it isn’t. Ask just about any group of frontline union organizers—those 60-hour-a-week troops who actually pick up the authorization cards—what they think of Gray Davis and they’ll start to gag. In private conversation, even the labor bosses openly disdain Davis. These are the same folks, after all, who every couple of years mumble the same pie-eyed gibberish about “taking back the Democratic Party.” 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But when served up the golden opportunity to dump a Lite Democrat like Davis (one who had to be threatened with hunger strikes before he signed pro-UFW legislation) and actually take a stab at remolding the party, the labor hierarchy still refuses to make the break. Instead, County Federation chief Miguel Contreras threatens that he will sink any Democrat who breaks ranks in labor’s defense of Davis. If only Contreras and the rest of Big Labor had been half that tough with the weenie governor during his first four years. Instead they now circle the wagons around Davis and begin their ritual moaning about right-wing conspiracies. It’s boring. And disheartening. 

What spectacular evidence of the political bankruptcy of the Democratic Party. Now all those “progressive” labor Democrats can spend the next eight weeks arguing over whether just to vote no on the recall or also vote affirmatively for Cruz Bustamante, the soporific darling of the anti-labor Indian casino lobby and dogged booster of the conservative Joe Lieberman. These self-styled progs are now reduced to almost comical blackmail: Support the most conservative and sluglike Democrat—Bustamante—or be accused of “spoiling.” Spoiling what? 

Myth No. 4: The Green Party is a viable alternative. 

This should be a historic opportunity for Green candidate Peter Camejo, who got 5 percent of the vote in last year’s gubernatorial election. 

Fuggeddaboutit. 

Camejo has pushed marijuana legalization and instant-runoff voting to the top of his agenda. These might be cutting-edge issues along the Venice boardwalk or in the UC Santa Cruz dorms, but they are not even remotely now on the minds of most California voters. The Greens’ preference for talking to themselves rather than to others destines the party to soon wash up and splinter like the Peace and Freedom folks. Eventually the California Greens will be meeting in one guy’s house with different sectarian groups caucusing in the living room and dining room. 

Myth No. 5: An independent governor couldn’t govern. 

Nonsense. Only a populist independent could break up the special-interest logjam in Sacramento. That’s why I’m pulling for Arianna, the most progressive candidate with the broadest appeal. When it comes to solving the state’s economic crisis, the most Arnold has offered is that he will make sure all Californians have “fantastic jobs.” Right. 

And Bustamante panders by vowing to roll back auto-registration fees. 

Only Arianna has addressed the 900-pound gorilla of California politics: Proposition 13. Her number-one campaign vow is to start collecting fair—that is, radically increased—taxes on commercial (not residential) property. She says if elected, she would take that proposal, along with measures for public financing of elections, and a guarantee of universal health care and adequate education, to the Legislature. If, as expected, the Legislature balks, Huffington says she would place the whole package before the voters as a set of ballot initiatives and would use her bully pulpit as governor to push for their approval. That’s a serious, responsible and plausible outline for deep reform. The only one on that very long ballot. 

But beware: To be successful, it would require actually trusting the voters. 

Mark Cooper writes for the LA Weekly.

I guess I’m just the kind of gal who likes to sleep around. I wasn’t always this way. From the time I was four, until I was eighteen, I had my own bedroom: two single beds, (one for an occasional invited friend to use), wall-to-wall closets and an orange and green shag carpet. I didn’t have to share it with anyone. I lived like a princess in my parent’s home for fourteen years. It’s the longest I’ve stayed anywhere.  

At college I had to share a dormitory room with another entering freshman, but that didn’t last long. By second semester I’d found a small private room for myself in an off-campus apartment. I moved several times during the next four years, but I always had my own place, unwilling, and unable, to share with anyone.  

After graduation, I rented rooms and houses in Virginia and California, and even when I married and became a homeowner, I always had a room in which to be by myself. 

Times are different now. I share a house with a wheelchair-bound husband, two helpers, a bird and a dog. On the weekends a small child comes to stay with us. I no longer have a room of my own. It’s not even clear that I have my own bed. 

After his bicycling accident, my husband wound up in a hospital bed in the middle of our living room. He could no longer go upstairs to our bedroom. Jerry, a home care attendant, moved in to help me with the daily chores of keeping my husband alive. I gave him our former bedroom. I couldn’t bear to be in that room. It held too many memories. 

I experimented with sleeping in our guest room, in my husband’s hospital bed, on the couch in the TV room, upstairs in the attic and on the futon in the nook. But nothing felt comfortable. When Harka, a second attendant, settled into our house to assist with the mounting responsibilities of taking care of Ralph, he took the spare bedroom. My choices of where to sleep narrowed.  

But I don’t care. After nine years of rotating sleeping arrangements, I’ve adapted. Ralph’s hospital bed is too narrow for both of us, so I only sleep there between the hours of 10 p.m. and midnight. Then, when Ralph’s attendants are ready to put Ralph to bed, I move to the couch or the futon. When Jernae, Jerry’s daughter, visits, I put her on the spare mattress in the attic. But inevitably she shows up beside me—on the couch or the futon, the hospital bed or even in the living room chair. There have been times when I’ve considered going down the street to sleep with my neighbor, but Mrs. Scott passed away a few years ago. Her bed was covered in homemade quilts and was well broken in. 

I’ve gotten used to sleeping around. I never know where I’m going to end up. The other night Jernae and I started out on Ralph’s hospital bed, then moved to the attic. But it began to rain and the pitter-patter on the skylights bothered us. We moved downstairs to the futon. Then the dog, (who ALWAYS sleeps with me, no matter where I am), needed to go outside. We migrated to the couch off the kitchen. When Whiskers barked, alerting us that she wanted back inside, Jernae and I hauled our pillows and blankets back upstairs to the nook. Naturally, Whiskers followed. 

Last month I went back East to visit family and friends. It was all I could do to keep myself from crawling into bed with my parents. And when I went into Manhattan to visit my friend Amy, we had no choice but to sleep together. The only other space available was her bathtub. But I didn’t mind. In fact, I was happy to share Amy’s bed. My only disappointment was that Jernae, Mrs. Scott and Whiskers weren’t there with me. As I said, I’m now the kind of gal who likes to sleep around.  

Ahmed Amin just wants to play football. He’s 17, and Cupertino High’s starting tight end. His older brother Hassan, 19, would rather chase girls around the DeAnza College campus. But Ahmed has to miss school and practice every third Wednesday to report to the INS office an hour away. And Hassan recently spent a night in jail for immigration violations. 

Last February, the boys went with their mother to an INS office in compliance with a new special registration policy. The policy requires males over 16 from a handful of countries—mostly Arab and Muslim—to report to the INS and have their paperwork scrutinized. Initially, Hassan didn’t have a problem complying. “I guess the policy was cool. I mean, a criminal wouldn’t go to an officer and say, ‘Sir, I'm a criminal—arrest me.’ We went in there voluntarily to tell them, ‘We're living in the United States legally. You know, do whatever with us.’” 

What the INS did was place the teenagers in deportation proceedings. Hassan was thrown in jail and Ahmed would have shared a cell with him except that the INS has no detention facilities for minors. The brothers went to be voluntarily fingerprinted, photographed and registered under the program, but were told they would be deported to Pakistan. 

Hassan couldn’t believe what was happening. “I had no idea that they were gonna detain me for a night—my brother had to get me out on bail for $4,000. That happened so quickly that I couldn’t even think what was going on. I was like, ‘This is just dreaming.’ I haven’t done anything. I haven’t ever been in this kind of situation. This is really happening to me. I haven’t done anything.” 

Their mother, Tahira Manzour, left Pakistan for the United States with her sons years ago. Hassan and Ahmad grew up in San Jose and are self-described American kids. 

The boys’ older brother, Imran Mughal, who is a citizen, petitioned for legal residency for their mother in 1998. The family says the lawyer told them the younger boys would be covered under their mother’s application. Years later, they found out that the brothers had to be petitioned separately to get temporary visas. Those applications were still pending at the time of the INS special registration, and the INS determined that the brothers were in the country illegally. 

Ahmad says he doesn't know anything about Pakistan or what he’ll do there if he’s deported. “I don’t even really speak the language, dude. How am I gonna survive? I haven’t seen my dad for seven years because my mom divorced him. If I live with my cousins, we’re probably going to stay for like two weeks and then me and my brother are on our own.” 

Hassan is close to completing the accounting program at DeAnza College and is afraid that his degree will be worthless if he's forced to leave. “The major I'm doing over here is totally different in Pakistan.” 

Between court appearances, the brothers carry on with their lives. Hassan is going to summer classes and handing out flyers for a regular dance party that he and his friends throw. Ahmed is on the football field most days of the week, vying for his starting position. His legal problems might threaten his standing on the team. “I told my coach that I have to go to court and the judge is going to decide if I can stay here or not. We don’t have any other tight end.” 

If the brothers are deported, they’ll be going without their mother. She’s not affected by the policy, which applies only to males. The family was forced apart once before due to the parents’ divorce, a time Hassan remembers clearly. “We were living happily, but now the deportation policy has put us in the situation that our family is going to be separated again.” 

They’ll also be leaving behind a tightly knit circle of friends and, in Hassan’s case, a legion of girlfriends. One of Hassan’s friends, Benish, nearly fought back tears when she first heard he might be deported. “I’m gonna lose a friend. I’m going to miss him if he leaves,” she says. 

Between dance parties and football practice, the brothers have become their own public-relations machine, trying to garner support for their cause from teachers and the people in their community. In their rare down time, they reflect on what they’ll be losing and what it means to leave. 

Ahmad, half-smiling, stares at his lap and shakes his head. “I’m going to miss school the most because I've been in high school for three years and this is my senior year. I love school, man. High school is fun. My friends, football team, everything.” He looks up for a second and takes a breath. “My biggest fear is moving back to Pakistan. I don’t wanna move back.” 

PNS contributor Russell Morse, 22, is an associate editor for YO! Youth Outlook (www.youthoutlook.org), a publication of Pacific News Service.

Deep in the East Bay Express's Gary Coleman for California Governor issue, you find an interesting, and disturbing, passage:  

“[W]e’re pretty sure [Coleman’s] got the black vote tied up in October,” reporter Chris Thompson writes. “After all, who else are blacks gonna vote for—Bill Simon? … [B]lack voters will finally have someone they can believe in and will turn out in droves. Our analysis: Coleman wins big in Oakland and Richmond!” 

I suppose Mr. Thompson and all of my good friends over at the Express thought this was funny. I don't.  

I’ll return to that point in a moment, but, first, some background. A few weeks ago, working on its theory that the gubernatorial recall had caused California to “reclaim its rightful place as the wackiest state in the union,” the East Bay Express decided to join in the fun. They called former child actor Gary Coleman (from the old series “Diff’rent Strokes”) and asked him if he wanted to run for governor in the Gray Davis recall election this fall. When a surprised Coleman agreed, the Express sent out its editor and several reporters to collect the 65 necessary signatures on a nominating petition, paid the $3,500 filing fee, and got Coleman on the ballot. Last week the newspaper devoted their entire cover and news section to their caper, using it, as they wrote, to show “how absurd [California] politics have become.” 

It’s difficult to complain about the circus in town after you show up with greasepaint and a clown nose on your own face. Further, one wonders why the folks at the Express felt they needed to intervene to make that point, since there were several odd entries among the hundreds of California citizens making noise about filing to run for governor, including porn businessman Larry Flynt, porn actress Angelyne, and the watermelon-smashing comic Gallagher. Still, the East Bay Express’s reputation as a serious journalistic effort is its own to build or squander, as it sees fit.  

My problem comes with their choice of a black individual to use as their object of ridicule. Two centuries after our arrival in California, no African-American has served as governor of this state and only one has come close to winning—former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who lost in 1982 and 1986. This is not because no African-American has been qualified to serve as governor in the 250 years since California became a state. It is because a majority of white Californians have not yet demonstrated that they will vote for a black candidate for governor. They might laugh about this in certain parts of eastern Contra Costa County. In certain parts of Oakland and Richmond—the places where Mr. Thompson says that there’s no choice but the ridiculous Gary Coleman—it’s probably not so humorous.  

The nomination of Mr. Coleman—whose character on “Diff’rent Strokes” was a barely-disguised reprisal of the old eye-rolling, mouth-poking black minstrel caricatures of the nineteenth century—opens the door for a descent into black-ridicule humor. The deliberately absurd picture of Coleman on the cover of the Express , grinning like a tom-fool, buck-and-wing coon from one of the old Harper’s slavery-day cartoons is a good example. For many of my generation, it is a hurtful reminder of the infamous photo of a slack-jawed drool-lipped, bleary-eyed old black man with a sheriff’s cap on his head, passed around by white Alabama and Mississippi racists back in the mid-60s to “demonstrate” why black people should never be considered for political office.  

Now comes this week’s East Bay Express “Bottom Feeder” column by Will Harper, which features a headline takeoff from one of Coleman's trademark “Diff’rent Strokes” sayings: “Whatchoo Talkin’ ‘Bout, Gary?” The use of apostrophes and misspellings to recreate language is only widely used in this country these days with African-American dialect. It’s used so often with African-American speech that my friend, Mr. Harper, probably didn’t consider its historic roots—the attempt to justify slavery by insisting that African captives were too stupid to grasp the intricacies of Western speech and therefore, by inference, Western technology and civilization. (Think for a moment of the national shouts of anti-immigrant bigotry that would have ensued if the Express had used that same technique to try to recreate the speech of Austrian immigrant Arnold Schwarzenegger.)  

Once you begin rolling down this road of ethnic “humor,” however, it’s hard to stop. In an item in their recall issue on why Californians should vote for Coleman over Schwarzenegger, the Express writes that “Schwarzenegger wasn't even born here.” Eight years after Prop 187, it’s another thing that’s simply not funny.  

Am I saying, therefore, that the folks at the East Bay Express are bigots? Nope. Just that their “Gary for Governor!” caper gave a lot of aid and comfort to people who are. One wishes that my good friends over there had thought a bit before they pulled the trigger on this issue. This one hurt, guys.

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The seventh exchange between Berkeley and Japanese progressives culminated earlier this month in an invitation for Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates to attend a mayoral conference in Hiroshima.  

“We want Mayors representing a billion people to issue a Peace Declaration,” said Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, in extending an invitation to Bates. 

When a resolution asking the U.S. to stop the bombing of Afghanistan was adopted the Wall Street Journal labeled the Berkeley City Council “headless idiots.” But Japanese citizens opposing their national governments’ support for U.S. military operations saw it as a new tactic to enforce Japan’s constitutional provision that renounces war and states that no land, sea, air forces or war potential may be maintained.  

They invited Berkeley City Council member Dona Spring, who sponsored the resolution, to Japan. Unable to accept the invitation she sent two Berkeley Commissioners. Following that visit a Japanese delegation came to study and make a video about Berkeley’s system of citizen participation. Already some Japanese cities have started permitting public comment and rescheduled City Council meetings for evening session.  

For the last two years members of the Peace and Justice Commission have nurtured the citizen diplomacy, sending Commissioners to Japan and helping schedule events for visiting Japanese delegations. These visits cost Berkeley taxpayers nothing, as the Japanese have paid expenses for visiting Commissioners and have contributed to Berkeley’s economy by paying their own expenses during visits to Berkeley. At a time when creating peace solidarity is so important, the Peace and Justice Commission has managed to fulfill its mandate to promote foreign educational and cultural exchange at no cost to tax payers.  

This seventh exchange began with an invitation for Berkeley to send a representative to attend the 33rd National Assembly for Peace and Democracy. About 70 people attended a workshop on creating “Undefended Localities” laws based on the Geneva Convention, and heard about how provisions of Berkeley’s Nuclear Free Zone law could be used to campaign against nuclear weapons. 

About 600 people attended the Assembly, which pledged to involve Japanese activists in a series of international actions beginning with the Aug. 15 anti-war Festival in Seoul, South Korea. September will bring national actions across Japan opposing the Iraqi occupation and demanding a halt to environmentally damaging seabed boring for construction of a new U.S. military base. In Mexico anti-globalization protests will target a World Trade Organization conference, and in Manila, Philippine activists will hold an International Criminal Tribunal to gather information on Bush’s war crimes against Afghan civilians. 

October will see the another Japanese exchange visit to Berkeley, an international protest targeting the Pentagon, a conference in Cairo, the creation in Tokyo of an International Criminal Tribunal to investigate war crimes against Iraqi civilians, and the setting up of an international occupation watch center in Iraq. In November people will seek to convince the International Union for Conservation of Nature to protect habitat for the endangered Dugong, and December will bring the International Criminal Tribunal on Afghanistan to Tokyo. 

Following the conference, we made stops in Kyoto, where Amnesty International arranged a dinner with environmentalist and peace activists, and then Osaka, where a dozen activists working on a campaign to declare the City an Undefended Locality, a protocol of the Geneva Convention, watched the video on Berkeley and asked questions about the strengths and weaknesses of using Berkeley’s Nuclear Free law to campaign against nuclear weapons.  

The final stop was Hiroshima, where there were workshops on the war on Iraq, the use of depleted uranium, a moving display of pictures painted by survivors of the atomic bombing, a brief address to other international guest, and the presentation of a letter from Mayor Bates to Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima advising him of the Berkeley City Council’s endorsement of the second annual Peace Lantern ceremony. Mayor Akiba then requested an invitation be delivered inviting Mayor Bates to attend a Japanese-American Mayor’s conference. Before leaving Hiroshima I was able to witness the annual Paper Lantern Ceremony in which the park and the river are filled with candle-lit paper lanterns bearing messages of peace. 

Upon returning to Berkeley the invitation was delivered to Mayor Bates and I had the opportunity to see the cultural exchange continue by participating in a Peace Lantern Ceremony organized by Peace and Justice Commissioner Steve Freedkin. This fall the Peace and Justice Commission will consider further proposals to nurture citizen diplomacy, as Commissioners arrange scheduling for a Japanese delegation coming to Berkeley this October. 

Elliot Cohen is a member of Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission.

It doesn’t take long to be charmed by Point Richmond. Moments after leaving Interstate 580 and turning south, away from the sprawling unsightliness of the ChevronTexaco oil refinery, you are in a town square that seems to have escaped time. 

The downtown restaurants, stores and offices bustle with activity although there is very little automobile traffic and parking is rarely a problem. Many of the buildings—mostly brick and wood—were built in the early 1900s. And because downtown Point Richmond was the first-ever district to make the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, a good effort has been made to design new buildings that are architecturally consistent with the old. The focal point of the square is a statue of a Native American called “The Sentinel” which stands watch over the small park where residents sit on benches and chat or read the newspaper while sipping coffee. 

Many who visit Point Richmond to attend the popular community theater, enjoy the multiple restaurants or tour the area’s rich historical resources find themselves transported back to a more innocent time in the American consciousness when everybody knew their neighbors by name, the owners of the corner market remembered your kids’ birthday and the town barber has been cutting your hair since you were four years old. Surprisingly, those things still exist in Point Richmond. 

Of course, Point Richmond is not really a town. It’s actually a neighborhood of the City of Richmond. But try not to let that break the spell (an incongruous Starbucks Coffee House that opened last year on the square—to the chagrin of many locals—is startling enough). Perhaps because of its physical isolation, the small locality seems to exist not only apart from greater Richmond but the entire Bay Area. 

To the south and west is the Bay, to the north Interstate 580 and the oil refinery, and to the east the 295-acre Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline Park. 

“It has the feeling of an island here,” says Lora Bartlett, one of the founders of the Point Richmond Association of Mothers (PRAM). “So many people live and work here that many of us call it the last village in the Bay Area.” 

Thanks to lower-than-average home prices, large numbers of young couples were able to buy homes in Point Richmond in the mid and late 1990s (home prices have since caught up to the rest of the Bay Area). The result was something of a baby boom in the small community. Bartlett, along with some other new mothers, began PRAM in 1998. 

With a membership of 75 parents, PRAM fosters friendship, support and instruction for young families. Besides regular meetings and managing a number of pre-school programs, the group also delivers home cooked meals to families with new babies whether they are members of PRAM or not. 

Bartlett says the Point Richmond community inspires that kind of social participation.  

“This is an incredibly close knit community,” she says. “Where else can you live where the owner of the local market remembers your son’s name and his birthday?” 

Town barber John Viers, who has been operating the Park Place Barbers on the square for the last 41 years, agrees. A friendly and soft-spoken man, Viers always has a warm greeting when customers come in for a trim. The two-chair shop is comfortable and the brown metal National cash register that Viers has used since he opened the shop, gives the décor a sense of familiar continuity. “There hasn’t been any reason to get a new one,” he says with a shrug. 

The folksy charm offers its own rewards, and it’s not unusual for former Point Richmond residents to come from as far away as Sacramento and Oakhurst to have Viers cut their hair. “I just had a guy come in who moved to Castro Valley. He said people just aren’t friendly there the way they are here,” Viers says. “He needed a Point Richmond fix.” 

Point Richmond is perhaps best known as a popular lunch destination. When noontime nears, the nine restaurants in the small downtown fill up with refinery workers, City of Richmond employees and lab technicians from the new $18 million state DNA lab. 

However, the town has another life as a secret weekend getaway. The seven rooms in the 92-year-old Hotel Mac are booked a month in advance by Bay Area residents who come to Point Richmond to escape the kids, work stress or just to get away enjoy themselves. 

“We have people come here for a variety of reasons,” says hotel manager Griff Brazil. “They come to have a good meal in the restaurant and attend the Masquers Playhouse, or go to the Ginger Spring Day Spa. We even have people who are visiting San Francisco but want to stay here because it’s close and not as hectic.” 

In keeping with a turn-of-the-century town, Point Richmond is especially rich in history. It was founded as a railroad town in 1897 when the Santa Fe line chose nearby Ferry Point as the terminus of its transcontinental rail line. Passengers and goods were loaded onto boats and ferried across the bay to San Francisco. In the early 1900s, Standard Oil built the refinery which also added to the town. 

Homes began to sprout on the hills that rise up from the town square and soon, like many boon towns in northern California, Point Richmond soon acquired a bawdy reputation. Railroad Avenue, on the east side of the square, once sported as many as 20 bordellos along with a sizeable collection of taverns. One survivor, the Baltic, still operates as a restaurant and bar, but the upstairs bordello has long since vanished, according to owner Chuck Wise. 

While a bordello wasn’t unusual in Point Richmond at the time, it’s telling of the era that it was able to exist in harmony with the police station and jail, which was right next door.  

The Red Light Abatement Act of 1913 signaled the death knell of the bawdy houses, but bars remained a popular pastime in Point Richmond. According to second generation resident David Vincent, the town housed 64 taverns at the height of World War II.  

Richmond’s population exploded during the war as people from the South and Midwest flocked to the area in search of jobs in the four Kaiser shipyards. Those workers cranked out 747 Liberty and Victory ships for the war effort. 

The area is rich with World War II history. Near Point Richmond, military history buffs can tour the SS Red Oak Victory or the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park, which was dedicated in 2000. 

Other points of interest include the Golden State Model Railroad Museum, the Point Richmond Historical Museum, which is housed in a surveyor’s shack built in 1902, or “just walking around the Point Richmond hills and enjoying the town’s sleepy atmosphere and breathtaking bay views,” Vincent says.  

For more information about historical resources in and near Point Richmond or local festivals and arts and crafts shows go to http://www.pointrichmond.com. 

Box Info: 

The second annual 2003 Point Richmond Music Festival will be held in downtown Richmond Friday, Aug. 16th. The music begins at noon and will continue until 7:30 p.m. Nine bands will play including Johnny Dilks & His Visitation Valley Boys, The Rhythm Doctors and the Masquers Stage One. Arts and crafts vendors will also be setting up booths along the sidewalks and streets.

Strong-arm Robbery 

Five or six men strong-armed a victim out of his black leather jacket at 2 a.m. Friday at the intersection of Sacramento and Ashby. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said the suspects, aged 18 to 20 and wearing sports jerseys and baseball caps, fled on foot. Police had not made any arrests as of Monday afternoon. 

Grand Theft of Earrings 

A middle-aged man entered a store on the 3300 block of Adeline at 1:54 p.m. Friday, grabbed a case of earrings valued at over $800, and sprinted out the door, according to Berkeley Police. Officers apprehended the suspect, 52-year-old Lavell West of Oakland, on 61st Street, recovering the earrings. West was taken into custody. 

Burglary Through Unlocked Door 

Entering through an unlocked rear door, a burglar entered a residence on the 2400 block of Prospect Street Friday and made off with a bicycle. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield cautioned residents to keep their doors and windows locked since they provide access to many residential burglaries in the city. 

Car-Jacking at Marina 

A gunman carjacked an Oakland resident at the Berkeley Marina early Saturday morning as the victim was sitting in a parked rental car. The robber broke a window and pointed a gun at the victim, who fled on foot. The suspect got in the car and drove away at 3:43 a.m. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said several officers responded, but the car and suspect have not been located. The gunman is described as an Hispanic male in his late teens or early twenties, 5’6”, 165 pounds. He was wearing a dark knit cap, gray sweatshirt, and dark blue pants. 

Robbery by Simulated Weapon 

A robber pretending to have a weapon in his pocket entered a business on the 1500 block of San Pablo Ave. at 9 p.m. Sunday, demanded that an employee hand over all the cash, then fled on foot with a small amount of cash. Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said responding officers captured the suspect, Damien Stuart, 21, of Berkeley, six blocks from the crime scene. He was taken into custody. 

Fleeing Felon Caught 

Officers from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department chased an armed parole violator into Berkeley Thursday night. Multiple units from Berkeley Police joined in the chase, along with a helicopter. The pursuit entered Berkeley on University Avenue and ended when the suspect was surrounded and captured at McGee Avenue and Delaware Street. 

Berkeley Police Public Information Officer Kevin Schofield said the helicopter was brought in by the Contra Costa County Sheriff.

Robbery with a Caddy 

Two men brandishing a gun and driving an old Cadillac stole a pair of purses early Tuesday morning, according to police. 

Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said the two men pulled up alongside two women in the 2400 block of Telegraph Avenue just before 1:00 a.m. Tuesday, and one leapt out with a gun, demanding that the victims turn over their purses. 

The suspects made off with the purses, which included over $100 in cash, in an “older gold or gray” Cadillac and were last seen heading north on Telegraph, according to Schofield. 

The witnesses described the robbers as men in their twenties, one of medium build and one of large build. Police had not made any arrests as of Thursday afternoon. 

—David Scharfenberg 

Vodka heist 

A young man, described as 16 to 18 years old, entered Andronico’s Market at 1850 Solano Ave. Tuesday afternoon and stole six bottles of vodka, according to police. 

Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said the burglar, described by witnesses as 5 feet 8 inches tall and 140 pounds, was wearing a white t-shirt and baseball cap, with dark pants. 

The burglar escaped on foot and was last seen fleeing west on Solano Avenue. Police, responding to a 1:31 p.m. call, could not find him, Schofield said. 

—David Scharfenberg 

Mid-day robbery 

A gun-wielding robber made off with an undisclosed amount of cash in a brazen mid-day stick-up on the corner of Curtis Street and Bancroft Way Wednesday afternoon, according to police. 

Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Kevin Schofield said the robber approached the victim from behind and demanded money, before fleeing westbound on Channing Way. 

The suspect was described as a 25-30 year-old male, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 150 pounds with brown eyes, a medium build and “a round face.” The robber was wearing a cap with a visor and a short-sleeved shirt, according to police.  

—David Scharfenberg 

High-speed chase 

A 50-minute high-speed chase stretching from Berkeley to Sacramento came to an end just before 2 p.m. Thursday, according to the California Highway Patrol. 

According to Officer J.D. Cook, an unidentified suspect driving a stolen car got on Interstate Highway 80 and was pursued by CHP officers at speeds up to 110 mph. Cook said the suspect was taken into custody near Sacramento. 

No further information was immediately available. 

—Bay City News