When Berkeley High School sophomore Ian Ericksen first enrolled at the roughly 3,000-student school, he didn’t like what he found. 

“I was really scared,” he said. “It’s big and there’s nobody to welcome you.”  

Ericksen quickly retreated to independent study before returning to the high school and enrolling in Communications Arts and Sciences—an independent, tight-knit collection of teachers and students that the district hopes could be a model for the school’s future. 

“It’s such a good community,” Ericksen said. “It may as well be its own school.” 

Soon it will be. 

Last week, Berkeley High School took a big step towards becoming a much smaller place. 

With the goal of placing half the students in autonomous small schools by 2005, 29 teachers, administrators, students and parents spent Sunday and Monday attending a two-day retreat that generated four ideas for small schools that could round out the new face of Berkeley High. 

But Jack Jennings, a researcher with the non-partisan think tank Center on Education Policy, said that the small school trend is still too new for authoritative nationwide studies equating smaller schools with equal higher achievement. 

Small schools first sprang up in big cities during the early 1980s, but the movement has mushroomed during the past few years, bankrolled with hundreds of millions of dollars from Microsoft founder Bill Gates. 

Participants in the Berkeley retreat called for small schools focusing on social justice and the environment, international studies, visual arts, and the already established program Community Partnership (formerly known as the Computer Academy) to join CAS as future independent schools. 

CAS received district approval to become a small school earlier this year, and will soon provide offerings in all core classes. 

Berkeley is on course to join hundreds of school districts across the country in subdividing mega high schools once touted as beacons for scholastic opportunity and choice, and replacing them with autonomous schools with enrollments between 250-400 that proponents say will give students and teachers an added sense of community and accountability. 

The plan calls for divvying up the high school into one large school and four to five small schools, each reflecting the larger school’s ethnic diversity. 

There are as many rationales for going small as there are small schools, but Berkeley administrators say their move is geared to address one of the district’s most intractable dilemmas. 

“The goal is to decrease the student achievement gap,” said Matthew Huxley, a vice principal helping to coordinate the transition to small schools. 

On most student scorecards from standardized tests to honors classes to grades, African American and Latino students have lagged behind whites, with Asians somewhere in the middle. 

Small schools’ emphasis on personal relations between students and teachers and a community of people dedicated to supporting students can help stop minority and poor students from falling through the cracks, said Victor Carey, Berkeley’s small schools transition consultant. 

Already some research supports Carey’s claim. A study by the Northwest Educational Laboratory found that the bigger the school the bigger the test score differential between rich and poor students. 

“The students who are most adversely affected by attending large schools are members of racial minority groups and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds,” wrote researcher Kathleen Cotton. 

Carey’s nonprofit Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BAYCES), which is helping to fund Berkeley’s transition, counts Gates’ foundation as a major donor and is helping 34 local schools go small, with the former Fremont High School in Oakland the first to complete the transition this year. 

Ben Schmookler, a former vice principal at Fremont and now Principal of Media Academy—one of Fremont’s six successor schools—said going small has invigorated parent involvement, improved teacher collaboration, decreased discipline problems, and, perhaps most importantly, improved attendance, which the state factors in determining money allocated to the schools. 

“It’s been a positive experience so far,” said Schmookler who serves as principal and dean for the 400-student school. 

Like Fremont High, Berkeley has decided to form focused schools that appeal to students and teachers with similar interests. Huxley said that, for example, a school with an environmental focus would not just offer electives on environmental topics put would weave environmental issues throughout the curriculum, including non-science core classes. 

Kalima Rose, mother of a CAS student and one of the parents pushing hardest for small schools, envisioned future schools partnered with Berkeley organizations that fit the school’s specialty. 

Noting that CAS—which focuses on media and social justice—has collaborated with the Pacific Film Archive and Youth Radio, she said, “The idea is to create an interesting curriculum combined with partnership institutions to provide students with a lot of skills.” 

Teachers and students appear open to the idea. A teacher poll conducted last year found 85 percent favored some form of restructuring the BHS into smaller schools.  

An unscientific poll conducted in 2001 by Bradley Johnson, Berkeley High’s current student representative on the Board of Education, found that 55 percent of the students “think that small schools are better in providing education than large schools,” while 86 percent “feel that there is more one on one contact with teachers in small schools.” 

Bill Pratt, a history teacher who helped found CAS after several years at the high school, is convinced small schools will benefit everyone. 

“It’s hard to overstate the difference for me,” he said. “It’s deepened my experience as a teacher. One key thing is to work with talented teachers and have a real collegial community to develop curriculum. 

“It’s also transformed my personal relationship with the kids,” he added, pointing to a trip to Cuba he organized in which wealthier kids raised money alongside other students to ensure everyone could participate. 

“I don’t think that would happen at Berkeley High at large,” he said. 

Nick Streets, one of Pratt’s students, said the small school has given him a sense of belonging. “I can name all 90 people in my CAS Junior Class, but I probably can name only about five people in my math class,” he said. 

A small band of parents has pushed for small schools, but Rose acknowledged they would have to increase their ranks to make future schools successful. 

“It’s been 2 million hours to form CAS,” she said. “Finding other people willing to put in those hours will be the challenge. 

“In Berkeley parents tend to be really involved in elementary school, in middle school less so, and by High School they get more and more alienated,” she added. 

Carey agreed that any successful Berkeley small school requires parent support. “There has to be a real partnership between the school and community,” he said. Schools that can’t sink their roots deep enough won’t be successful.” 

A 2000 study by Bank Street College found that while Chicago schools did raise achievement for minority students, many schools-within-schools were fragile. 

“The minute they became more successful than the host school, things like this happen,” researcher Patricia Wasley told Education Week. “The principal will want teachers to come and do coaching with the larger school faculty, or the host school staff becomes resentful of the smaller unit and works to undermine it.” 

Implementing small schools presents logistical quagmires. Will small schools be in charge of discipline? Will they have their own counselors? How will teachers be assigned? Will they cost more? What if some small schools are more popular and some students are forced into less popular ones? How about students who need English training, advanced or remedial classes? 

“There’s absolutely no way to answer them right now,” Carey said, noting that each school will negotiate its autonomy with the larger high school. 

On the issue of class choice, Berkeley’s grand plan calls for granting students “passports” to take advanced or specialized classes if their school doesn’t offer them. CAS, for example, does not offer students Advanced Placement classes. 

Filling in the details starts Nov. 5, the deadline for teachers to submit a letter of commitment to form a small school. From there, a design team of teachers, parents and students will work to build a curriculum—and, if all goes well—by next year the program will emerge as a “learning community” within the high school gearing up for small school status the following year. 

Huxley said the proposals generated at last week’s retreat might offer a head start, but that the administration is still open to more ideas. This week, new Principal Jim Slemp—who oversaw a similar transition at his last school in Oregon—will discuss the small schools transition with faculty. 

Streets, the CAS junior, said he was all for the switch. “You need [the community] to succeed,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d be without it.”

TUESDAY, NOV. 4 

“Begging Children: Their Hope, Their Future” with Abdoulaye Tall, Claude Ake Scholar from Senegal, at 4 p.m. in 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for African Studies. 642-8338. asc@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Community Fund Celebrates Community Leaders at an awards dinner at 6 p.m. at Hs Lordship’s, 199 Seawall Drive, Berkeley Marina. Tickets are $45 and may be purchased by calling 525-5272. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Flu shots will be given by the Berkeley Health Dept. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Morris Dancing Workshop Learn the basics of an English ritual dance form that predates Shakespeare. Free and open to all. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. at Oxford. www.talamasca.com/berkmorris 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5 

Meetup for Howard Dean at 7 p.m. at three Berkeley locations: Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave.; Raleigh's (Generation Dean youth meeting), 2438 Telegraph Ave.; and Sweet Basil Thai Restaurant, 1736 Solano Ave. Free. Wheelchair accessible. 843-8724. 

Building a Portfolio, learn how to shoot slides of your artwork, matte and present your artwork, and write an artist statement, with Timothy Phelan, Wed. Nov. 5, 12 and 19, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $45. For information call 644-6893. 

“Hepatitis C and Traditional Chinese Medicine” with Tatyana Ryevzina, L.Ac., MS, at 5:30 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative, 1744 Solano Ave. 

“The Religious Imagination,” a talk by The Very Rev. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, with particular emphasis on the role of poetry in religion, at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755.  

“Exploring the Heart in Judaism and Jewish Spirituality,” with Ron Bedrick, Wednesdays, Nov. 5, 12, 19 and Dec. 3, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Communiity Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $35 BRJCC members, $40 public. To register call 848-0237, ext. 112 or email info@brjcc.org 

“Through the Gates of the Alhambra: Revisiting the Question of Islam and Pluralism,” with Dr. S. Nomanul Haq, a Muslim scholar who holds appointments in both the History of Art and in Asian and Midddle East Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, at 7 p.m. in the Dinner Boardroom at the GTU Hewlett Library, preceded by a reception at the Badè Museum at PSR, at 5:30 pm. 649-2440.  

“Beyond Words: An Interfaith Ritual for Peace” at 8:30 pm, in the University Christian Church, 2401 Le Conte. The ritual incorporates movements and chant forms from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Sponsored by the GTU's Center for the Arts, Religion and Education (CARE) and designed with Omega West Dance Company, under the direction of PSR's Carla DeSola. For more information, contact Joan Carter at joanlcarter@aol.com or Carla DeSola at carlart@mindspring.com 

North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Center Council meets at 10 a.m. 981-5190. 

Fun with Acting class meets at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome. 985-0373. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Prose Writers Workshop We're a serious but lively bunch whose focus is on issues of craft. Novices welcome. Experienced facilitator. Community sponsored, no fee. Meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. For information call 524-3034. 

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 the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Hide-A-Way Café, 6430 Telegraph Ave. For information call Fred Garvey, 925-682-1111, ext. 164. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 6 

“Elections and the Media: From Florida to California and on to 2004” with BBC investigative journalist, Greg Palast, at 7 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets cost $10 and are available from 415-546-6334 ext. 300. www.media-alliance.org 

Ethnic Migrations to West Berkeley with Sonia Carriedo on immigration from the Mexican village of Chavinda, and Willie Phillips on African Americans in West Berkeley, at 7:30 p.m. at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, 926 Hearst, at 8th St. Part of a lecture series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Ocean View, Berkeley’s early settlement village. Tickets are $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 841-8562. bahaworks@yahoo.com 

Government Information and Participation, a workshop on how to use the City of Berkeley website and obtain information, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Central Library, 3rd Floor Electronic Classroom. Sponsored by the City Clerk Dept. 981-6900.  

Best Hikes in the Bay Area, a slide presentation and talk by Linda Hamilton at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“We Interrupt This Empire” a collaborative work by Bay Area video activists providing a critique of the corporate media coverage of the Iraq war, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. A benefit for the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Chiapas and Central America. 527-2522. 

“Deceptions and Cover-Ups: Fragments from the War on Terror” film showing, “Palestine is Still the Issue” at 6:30 p.m. in the Main Meeting Room of the Berkeley Central Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. Co-sponsored by Berkeley Peace Walk & Vigil. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil.html  

Scenic Photography Seminar with award-winning Bay Area freelance photographer Gary Crabbe at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. Cost is $20, pre-register to save a seat. 843-3533.  

“Uncovering Ancient Kabbalistic Treasures for Creating Success Now” with Jill Lebeau and Joy Thomas at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10 general, $8 BRJCC members. To register call 848-0237, ext. 112 or email info@brjcc.org  

“Martin Luther and Shinran: The Presence of Christ in Justification and Salvation in a Buddhist-Christian Context,” with Dr. Paul Chung, lecturer in theology and Asian spirituality at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of the Cross, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, 2770 Marin Ave. 559-2731. 

“Prostate Cancer: Prevention and Intervention Strategies” with Daniel Herman, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Natural Grocery, 1336 Gilman St. 526-2456. 

UC Botanical Garden Docent Training at 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Fee and registration required. 643-1924. 

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM public meeting for all interested people at 7 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 595-0190. 

St. John's Prime Timers Tap Dancing class meets on Thursday mornings at 9:15 a.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church at 2717 Garber St. Class is free and open to anyone over 50. 527-0167. 

FRIDAY, NOV. 7 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Anthony Adamthwaite, Prof. of History, UCB, on “European and American Relations.” Luncheon 11:45 a.m. $11.50 - $12.50. Speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925 or 665-9020. 

“War on Terror: A War on the People of the Philippines” at 7:30 p.m. at Marian Hall, St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 843-2244.  

“Are Americans Still Liberal After all These Years?” with Prof. David Tabb at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 2301 Vine St. 848-3988, ext. 26. 

“Rumi: The Way of the Heart,” with Dr. Andrew Vidich, at 7:15 p.m. St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Sponsored by the Science of Spirituality. 707-226-7703. www.sos-ca.org 

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. 496-6000, ext. 135. www.bpf.org 

Overeaters Anonymous meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. Parking is free and is handicapped accessible. 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 8 

A Walking Tour of Gymnosperms, a diverse assemblage of cone-bearing plants, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Cost is $5. Registration required, space is limited. Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. 643-8155. www.mip.berkeley.edu/garden  

Canoes in Sloughs Join Save The Bay as we explore Arrow- 

head Marsh, one of the Bay's hidden gems, and the site of an ongoing restoration project. From 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Cost is $25. Pre-registration required. 231-9430. mary@aoinstitute.org, www.aoinstitute.org 

“The Untold Story of the CIA Coup in Iran,” with Cyrus Bina, Professor of Economics at Univ. of Minnesota, Morris Mansour Farhang, Professor of International Relations at Bennington College, and Nikki Keddie, Emeritus Professor of History at UCLA, at 6 p.m. in the Valley Life Science Building, Room 2050, UC Campus. 684-4781. 

Practical Art Fair, from 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Article Pract, 5010 Telegraph Ave. 652 7435. www.articlepract.com  

An Unholy Pagan Feast Day of the Antlered One Potluck, with live Tribal Metal, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Responding to Terrorism 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. 

Government Information and Participation, a workshop on how to use the City of Berkeley website and obtain information, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Central Library, 3rd Floor electronic classroom. Sponsored by the City Clerk Dept. 981-6900. 

Pet Adoptions, sponsored by Home at Last, from noon to 5 p.m., Hearst and 4th St. 548-9223. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. The class is taught by Rosie Linsky, who at age 72, has practiced yoga for over 40 years. Open to non-members of the club for $8.00 per class. For further information and to register, call at 848-7800. 

“Angst in the Moment: An Aesthetic Spirituality of Grief” with Rev. Dr. Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, at 10:30 a.m. at Congregation Beth El, 2301 Vine St. 848-3988, ext. 26. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 9 

Crush Festival, sponsored by the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel, 200 Marina Blvd. 549-7000. 

David Cobb, Green Party Candidate for President at 5 p.m. at the Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. This program is one of a series of “Green Sunday” discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. 

Basic Computer Use and The Berkeley Public Library Catalog will be taught from 1 to 2 p.m. Finding It on the Internet will be taught from 2 to 3 p.m. in the Central Library’s 3rd floor Electronic Classroom. Reservations are required. Sign up at the 3rd floor Paging Desk or call 981-6221. 

“Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush: A Documentary History,” with author Ava Kahn, at 10:30 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $4-$5. to register call 848-0237, ext.112.  

Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Palzang on “Padmasambhava: Founder of Tibetan Buddhism” 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.  

MONDAY, NOV. 10 

“Abandoned” an exposé of the results of the 1996 immigration law, with two videos, “The Betrayal of America’s Immigrants” and “Of Rights and Wrongs,” followed by a question and answer period. At 7 p.m. Grand Lake Neighborhood Center, 530 Lake Park Ave, Oakland. Wheelchair Accessible. $1 suggested donation, no one turned away for lack of funds. East Bay Community Against the War. 658-8994. 

Women’s Cancer Resource Center, volunteer training, every second Monday of the month, from 6 to 8 p.m. at 5741 Telegraph Ave. To sign up call Emily at 601-4040, ext. 109. emily@wcrc.org 

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 

We Give Thanks Month, Berkeley restaurants, Bar-Ristorante Raphael, Cold Stone Creamery, Downtown, La Note, Semi-Freddi’s, Skates, and Spengers will donate a portion of their proceeds to Berkeley Food and Housing Project during the month of November. 

International Circle K Awareness Week, Nov. 2 - 8. Students are invited to join a week of service. Look for the table on Upper Sproul, UC Campus. For informtaion call 849-1963. cki-publicrelations@uclink.berkeley.edu 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 4, at 7 p.m., with a Special Meeting at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruby Primus, 981-5106. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/firesafety 

School Board meets Wed. Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 6, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks

TUESDAY, NOV. 4 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Spirituality in Opera,” a talk by Kip Cranna, musical administrator of the San Francisco Opera at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. 

Leonard Shalin talks about “Sex, Time and Power: How Women’s Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anoush, music of Greece, Macedonia and Armenia at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Awakening: Buddhist Paintings from Tibet, China and Japan” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Gallery is open Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thurs. to 7 p.m. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Standby: No Technical Difficulties, Program 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gregory Maguire introduces his new novel, “Mirror, Mirror,” and interpretation of the Snow White tale, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

D. A. Miller presents “Jane Austen, or the Secret of Style” at 5:30 p.m. University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

Phil Cousineau will offer a multimedia presentation of his new book, “The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the True Spirit of the Great Games,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Robert A. Scott will show slides and talk about his new book “The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with Nazelah Jamison and Karen Ladson at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Noon Concert New Berkeley Compostions at International House, at the corner of Bancroft and Piedmont Aves. Admission is free. 642-4864. 

Eliza Gilkyson, folk rock originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightand- 

salvage.org 

Shaman Trance Dance with Lotus Tribal Fusion Belly Dance Performers and DJ Amar at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6-$10, sliding scale. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Nathan Clevenger, composer of new music and modern jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Jules Broussard, Bing Nathan and Ned Boynton at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Bryan Girard Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Breathe In, The Time Flies at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $5. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

THURSDAY, NOV. 6 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Charles Winstead, “Abstract Geometric Paintings” reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Doyle Street Café and Gallery, 5515 Doyle St, Emeryville. Exhibit runs until Jan. 5. 658-2989.  

THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theater, “Windows and Mirrors” stories by Paley, Malamud and Biller. A collaboration with Word for Word. At 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $20-$24 and are available from 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

“Continental Divide,” a two-play cycle examining a gubernatorial election in a fictional western state, by David Edgar, directed by Tony Taccone, at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater, today through Dec. 28. The two plays, “Daughters of the Revolution” and “Mothers Against” can be seen in either order. Tickets are $10-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Experimental Short Films by Antero Alli and Friends, with the filmmaker in person, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $7-$12, sliding scale. 464-4640. 

“The Seventh Seal” directed by Ingmar Bergman, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

First Impressions: “The Good Wife of Tokyo” at 5:30 p.m. and Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival: “The New Boys” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Michael Harper at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. Admission is free. 642-0137.  

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808.  

Gallery Talk: “Recent Research on Inca Archeology in Ecuador” with Dennis Ogbun, at noon at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, Bancroft Way at College Ave. Free with museum admission. 643-7648.  

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers John Rowe and Rita Bregman, followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985 or 205-1749.  

Tamora Pierce reads from her new novel for young readers, “Trickster’s Choice,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. www.codysbooks.com  

Ken Croswell introduces his new book, “Magnificent Mars,” with a slide show, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Bill Turner, former FBI agent specializing in assassinations, discusses his book “Farewell America” and “Rearview Mirror,” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 

Khaled Hosseini describes Afghanistan of the past thirty years in his new novel, “The Kite Runner” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Benefit for the Hope Flowers School in Palestine, with music by the La Peña Community Chorus, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation $15-$25, no one turned away. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jamie Isman, singer, songwriter performs at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Estero at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

George Pedersen and His Pretty Good Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

CV1 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Grateful Dead DJ Night from 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

David Knopfler, originals from the co-founder of Dire Straits, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitarist, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

FRIDAY, NOV. 7 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Kathleen Flanigan, “Birds of a Feather,” recent work including furniture. Reception from 5 to 8 p.m. at Epoch Gallery, 2284 Fulton St. 849-4596. 

“Art and Activism” Reception from 5 to 8 p.m., featuring Madonna Thunder Hawk, landscape photographer Justin Carder Black and social commentary painter Joanna Salska. Exhibition runs to Nov. 30. North Gate Gallery, 1862 Euclid. 540-8508.  

THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theater, “Windows and Mirrors” See listing for Nov. 6. 

Impact Theater, “Macbeth” directed by Melissa Hillman, opens at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheater.com 

FILM 

Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival: “Football, Iranian Style” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Weather Underground,” with a post-film discussion with director Sam Green, producer Carrie Lozano, and other guests, at 7:30 p.m. at The College Preparatory School, Buttner Auditorium, 6100 Broadway (north), Oakland. Free, but reservations required. 658-5202. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Simon Winchester looks at “The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary” at 12:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Adam Thirlwell discusses “Politics,” a novel, not about politics, but about sexual etiquette and other comedic topics, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

West Coast A Cappella Showcase, with the UC Men’s Octet and California Golden Overtones at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10 and are available from 642-3880. www.mensoctet.com 

Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Stompy Jones, formerly the Swing Session Band, plays small band music of the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson with Nick and Shanna at 8 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Vanessa Morrison and Roberta Chevrette perform indy folk at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Asylum Street Spankers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $14. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Fruitvale Project, a community-based experimental theater performance featuring Latino spoken word artists at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Henri-Pierre Koubaka performs ancient and contemporary mandingo music from Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Kongo, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $6-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Trio Paradisio, a dinner fund-raiser for the Jazz School, at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Chris Smither, blues-based originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Seventy at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Time for Living, Physical Challenge, Tarkaru, Wear the Mark 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. 

Realistic at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

JND, Coby Brown, Shaken at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $7. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SATURDAY, NOV. 8 

CHILDREN  

“The Wonderful World of Zaal,” a Persian legend, performed by Word For Word, at 3:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library. The free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library. For further information, contact the Children’s Library, 981-6224. 

Hillside Players, “Tangled Tales: Wishes, Witches and Weddings,” favorite fairy tales intertwined in comedy, at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults, and $4 for children under 12, seniors and students. 2286 Cedar St. 384-6418. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Independent Designer Wearables and Accessories brings together twelve of the Bay Area's most talented independent artists and designers. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527.  

www.accigallery.com 

THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theater, “Windows and Mirrors” See listing for Nov. 6. 

Word for Word, “The Killing Blanket” a short story about the Choctaw Nation by Rilla Askew, at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge, at 1 p.m. Free. 981-6139. 

FILM 

A Short History of Polish Animation, Program 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul Davidson discusses his research into customer service departments in “Consumer Joe: Harassing Corporate America, One Letter at a Time,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

The Bay Area Poets Coalition holds an open reading, 3 to 5 p.m., West Branch Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com 

Alan Colmes, co-host of Fox News’s “Hannity and Colmes,” talks about his new book, “Red, White and Liberal,” at 2 p.m. at Barnes and Noble. 

Bruce Balfour intruduces “The Digital Dead” at 2 p.m. at The Dark Carnival, 3086 Claremont Ave. 654-7323. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music of Three Worlds Concert, an encounter with Western, Arabic and African traditions, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Jacob Needleman will moderate a conversation with the audience after the performance. Tickets are $20-$30. 763-2869. www.musicofthreeworlds.com 

Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Choreographers’ Performance Alliance, “Works in the Works” at 7:30 p.m. at Eighth Street Studio, 2525 Eighth St. Cost is $10. 644-1788, ext. 2. 

Volti “OUR America is Singing!” at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $8-$20 and are available from 415-771-3352. www.voltisf.org 

Dick Hindman Trio, original music, jazz standards and Brazilian favorites at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Industrial Jazz Group performs at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $10-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Green Chimneys at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave. El Cerrito. 525-2129.  

Lichi Fuentes, CD release party at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12 in advance, $14 at the door. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Chris Smither, blues-based originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50 advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Peter Tosh Tribute with Andrew Tosh and Sister I-Live at 9:30 p.m., at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13.525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Palm Wine Boys perform West African influenced folk at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Brazilian Forro Party and Fundraiser for the Capoeira Institute, at 9 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck. Cost is $10-$12. 649-1686.  

Casey Nell and Little Sue at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com 

Rhonda Benin at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Thought Riot, F Minus, Affront, Go it Alone at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Rory Snyder, saxophonist, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Industrial Jazz Group, showcasing the music of Andrew Durkin at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donations of $6-$15 suggested. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

Boys Gone Wild! and 20 Second Cycle at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $8. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Hacksaw to the Throat, Fighting Riley, Kamikaze Vespa, The Hep, Ditch Raymond at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes On Telegraph. Cost is $6. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

SUNDAY, NOV. 9 

EXHIBITIONS 

Art Show on Allston Way, between Shattuck and Oxford from noon to 7 p.m., featuring 30 artists and 15 poets. Sponsored by Jupiter and organized by A. Roberts of Guerrilla Gallery. 

THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theater, “Windows and Mirrors” See listing for Nov. 6.  

Hillside Players, “Tangled Tales: Wishes, Witches and Weddings,” at 2 p.m. See ;isting for Nov. 8. 

FILM 

A Short History of Polish Animation, Program 2 at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“Tangled Roots,” with filmmaker and author Heidi Schmidt Emberling, at 2 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0237, ext. 112.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, Curator’s Talk with Constance Lewallen at 1 p.m., and Lecture with Barbara Stafford at 3 p.m. Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with Jacqueline Berger and Virginia Chase Sutton at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

“Going Home to a Landscape: Writings by Filipinas” with Marianne Villanueva, Barbara Pulmano Reyes, Michelle Macaraeg Bautista, Angela Narciso Torres, and Catalina Cariaga at 3 p.m. at Eastwind Books, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

“Towards an Archeology of the Soul” lecture with Berkeley author/ritualist, Antero Alli, at 5 p.m. at Alaya Bookstore, 1713 University Ave. 548-4701. www.verticalpool.com/archeology.html 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, “Splendori Italiani,” with British soprano Emma Kirkby at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $29-$60. 415-392-4400. www.philharmonia.org 

Jazz/Avant Garde Mass at 10 a.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. With Tom Bickley, recorder, Paul Hanson, bassoon, saxophone, Doug Morton, trumpet, John Schott, guitar, Ches Smith, percussion, and Marsha Thomas-Cooke, vocals. 848-1755. 

Life of the Worlds: Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music with Richard Kaplan in Concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. $10 donation suggested. 848-0237, ext. 112.  

Live Oak Concert with David Ryther, violin, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park. Tickets are $10 general, $9 students/seniors and $8 BAC members. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Waging Peace” UC Alumni Chorus fall concert, featuring songs of nonviolence and reconciliation, at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland, near Grand and Harrison. Tickets are $10-$15, available from 643-9645 or at the door. www.ucac.net 

Emanuel Ax, pianist, at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Hawaiian Music Environmental Benefit at 6 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Bill Amatneek and Charlie Chin, 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 

Aya de Leon, one woman hip-hop show with Bill Santiago’s “Spanish 101” at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6 for the matinee, $12 for the evening. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Montclair Women’s Big Band, celebrating the release of their first CD, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

UpSurge, with Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg, performs jazz poetry at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

MONDAY, NOV. 10 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Jim Campbell/Matix 208, Art Technology and Culture Colloquium at 7:30 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Page to Stage, a conversation with playwright David Edgar and Frontline/World series editor Stephen Talbot on the new production “Continental Divide” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Poetry Express, featuring Dale Jenson and Wendy Brown, open mic from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

Mary Monroe reads from her new novel, “God Still Don’t Like Ugly” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

A guilty plea by the fifth and final member of a notorious Berkeley real estate dynasty may spell the end of a sensational case that began with a young woman’s death by carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment building owned by the family. 

The case exploded into the headlines when the dead girl’s sister told police she and her sister had been brought over from India and subjected to unwanted sex and cheap labor. 

Prasad Lakireddy entered a guilty plea in federal court Friday to one count of conspiracy to employ unauthorized aliens. He will receive five years on probation, including one year of house arrest, pay a $20,000 fine and perform 300 hours of community service if U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken accepts the sentence federal prosecutors brokered with Lakireddy’s attorney, Paul Wolf. 

If Judge Wilken accepts the deal, Reddy will be the third member of his family to avoid prison time in return for a plea. 

Should the judge reject the plea bargain before the Feb. 9 sentencing hearing, Lakireddy could opt to stand trial. Conviction on one count of conspiracy carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. 

Lakireddy’s plea may end four years of prosecution against the family—a process some activists say has produced punishments too lenient for the crimes initially charged. 

The case surfaced in November, 1999, when 17-year-old Chanti Pratipatti died from carbon monoxide fumes caused by a blocked heating vent in a downtown Berkeley apartment owned by the Lakireddys. 

Her 15-year-old sister survived. 

“I think it’s a travesty of justice,” said Marcia Poole of the local group Women Against Sexual Slavery, who alerted police when she saw the dead girl being surreptitiously removed from the apartment building. “It’s gone from sexual trafficking and indentured servitude to visa violations with no jail time.” 

Wolf countered that new evidence, withheld from the public pending a civil claim against the family, vindicated his client of the more lurid allegations against him. “Once Judge Wilken has received all the facts, she will see that this is a fair and appropriate disposition,” he said. 

The U.S. District Attorney declined to pursue wrongful death charges against alleged ringleader Lakireddy Bali Reddy, Prasad’s father, settling for a plea bargain that sentenced him to eight years in prison for transporting minors for illegal sexual activity, conspiring to commit immigration fraud and filing a false tax return. 

Reddy’s brother, Jayaprakash Lakireddy, spent one year in a halfway house for conspiring to commit immigration fraud. His sister-in-law, Annapurna Lakireddy, served six months of home detention for the same offense. 

Prasad’s brother, Vijay, received a two-year sentence after he pled guilty last year to a single count of immigration fraud. 

Prasad had originally been charged with nine counts, including conspiracy to import aliens for immoral purposes and witness tampering.

CORRECTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Daily Planet’s Friday article covering the hearings of three Berkeley students charged with violation of the code of conduct contained several irresponsible errors. 

For one, on a more technical note, the protest in question is referenced as occuring March 23, which is not accurate. The protest was on March 20. 

More importantly, however, was giving a crowd estimate of “More than 4,000 students.” The only place where you can find this number, as far as I can tell, is in the full-page advertisement the protesters themselves bought in the Daily Californian, and the various activist papers and websites which followed their lead. While I understand that crowd estimates were not given by most major newspapers, it is grossly irresponsible to report the crowd estimate from the protesters themselves, who have a tendency to overestimate their numbers, without pointing out the source of the information. 

Justin Azadivar 

• 

FOR SUSAN PARKER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Wow, wow. What a picture you paint (“One Woman’s True Life Halloween Horror Tale,” Daily Planet, Oct. 28-31). I know more about you from your short, brilliant and entertaining article, than I do about some people I’ve know my whole life. The fact that I could relate to many of the times of your life didn’t hurt one bit. You are a great read, and when a book comes out with your name on it, I will be standing in line. I’ll be the one with the mask, the one I’m learning to recognize. 

Don’t stop (a closing to a letter that I’ve never heard, but seems to fit). 

Patti Hyland 

• 

IS MARTYRDOM A CRIME? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The currency of journalism is clear language. But clarity of language requires clarity of thought, a fact that seems to have escaped the attention of many journalists. Euphemisms like “collateral damage” abound. Self-absorbed bias—friends are killed but enemies lose their lives—and fuzzy categories like “supporters of the former regime” may be unavoidable but should be kept to a minimum. 

“Terrorist” is one of the most used words in journalists’ lexicon. A terrorist act is a crime and so we are led to believe that a terrorist is a criminal. Are journalists self-serving, servile or just plain lazy to habitually refer to suicide bombers as terrorists? Such labeling inexcusably denies the fact that to his countrymen the suicide is a martyr.  

Why is martyrdom ennobling for us but impossible for our enemies? 

If a person wants to spread fear then suicide is an extreme and stupid way to do it. Suicide is not done solely for the purpose of terrorizing. Were it so we’d have to interpret Patrick Henry’s famous cry, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” as an endorsement of terrorism.  

Finally, referring to suicide bombers as terrorists implicitly ignores the central fact of Jesus’ life. According to St. John’s Gospel, Chapter 15, verse13, “Greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends.” 

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo 

• 

HEALTHY FORESTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the fires in Southern California demonstrate, it is critical that we focus scarce federal resources in the areas where they will protect communities at risk. Unfortunately, President Bush’s so-called “Healthy” Forests Initiative, which the Senate may vote on this week, fails to adequately protect communities at risk from forest fires.  

It places the care and upkeep of our National Forests in the hands of the logging industry, rather than our National Forest Service and the public, calling for fire prevention management by said industry.  

Will they really do the job, or simply log the biggest, oldest, most profitable, and most fire-resistant trees, rather than the smaller unprofitable underbrush and saplings. The management of our forests cannot be placed in the hands of those who profit greatest from it; that makes no sense at all.  

It also weakens environmental protections, interferes with the independent judiciary, and undermines public participation in decisions that affect our public lands. But the worst is that it authorizes logging of old growth fire-resistant trees, whose thick bark can stop fire. We need these old growth trees to act as a bulwark against catastrophic wildfires.  

To protect lives and communities at risk from fire, Senators Feinstein and Boxer should vote against this deal and instead focus federal funding and resources on protecting communities at risk of catastrophic wildfire.  

Sierra Barnes 

Oakland 

º 

A review of California Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) documents relating to the temporary closing of Kimes Morris Construction’s Hayward building renovation site for asbestos violations two years ago reveals that another Berkeley businessman was cited in the violation as well. 

At the same time, an Oakland Cal-OSHA inspector who brought the charges against the Berkeley contractors cast doubt on assertions by the contractors’ attorney that the violations were unintentional. 

An appeal by Berkeley-based Kimes Morris Construction Company of 17 violations of Cal-OSHA regulations is pending before the Cal-OSHA Appeals Board. 

“There are only two explanations,” said Cal-OSHA Associate Industrial Hygienist Garrett Brown. “Either they are the densest guys in the world and don’t know that asbestos removal is a health hazard while everybody else does—or else they were trying to cut corners and pull something off.” 

Renovations on a 1948-era commercial building on Foothill Boulevard in Hayward were shut down by Cal-OSHA, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the Hayward Building Department in January of 2002 when it was discovered that Kimes Morris workers were illegally disposing of asbestos-laced ceiling tiles in an open dumpster next to the building.  

Work on the building was afterwards completed after Kimes Morris hired a licensed asbestos removal company to finish the job. Kimes Morris has admitted committing the violations, but said through their attorney that it did not know any asbestos was present in the building. 

Inhalation of asbestos fibers—even for short periods of time—is considered by most experts to be an extreme health hazard, leading to possible lung cancer and other cancers of the chest and abdomen. State law requires asbestos removal under strict health guidelines, including wetting down of the asbestos material and the wearing of surgical masks by workers. In addition, it should only be disposed of in sealed containers in order to prevent the public from breathing the airborne fibers. Cal-OSHA records show that none of these precautions were taken by the Kimes Morris workers at the Hayward site. 

While Andrew Kimes reportedly told Cal-OSHA officials that the ceiling on the Hayward building had been “worked wet,” a summary of the Cal-OSHA findings reported that “[o]f the interviewed employees only one said that, on one occasion, water was used in the demolition/renovation work. All the other employees stated unequivocally that no water was used on site. 

The Hayward Building Department confirmed that water to the building was shut off in January 2001 and, as of meter readings taken in December 2001, no water had been drawn on site during 2001 [the period in which the renovations took place].” 

Cal-OSHA also documents show that the Hayward building was originally purchased in January of 2001 by Richard Fishman and David Strykowski. Fishman is President of RAF Mortgage company in Berkeley, which specializes in construction loans. 

In 2002, Strykowski listed his business address as RAF Mortgage, and Cal-OSHA personnel identify him as a construction contractor. In October of 2001, Strykowski sold his 50 percent interest in the Hayward property to Coastal View Associates, a holding company owned by Kimes Morris owners Andrew Kimes and James Morris. 

Strykowski was not connected to the property when the asbestos removal violations were committed. 

The Kimes Morris renovation began shortly after the purchase. 

In January of 2001, the United Commercial Bank conducted a Phase One Environmental Site Assessment of the Hayward property for Fishman, which revealed that “Due to the age of the subject property buildings, there is a potential that asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) are present. … For buildings constructed prior to 1980, [federal law] states that all thermal system insulation … and surface materials must be designated as ‘presumed asbestos-containing material’ unless proven otherwise through sampling in accordance with the standards of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act.” 

According to Kimes Morris attorney Fred Walter, Fishman testified at the Cal-OSHA appeals hearing that he never looked at the report and never gave it to Kimes Morris. Fishman was cited by Cal-OSHA and fined $350 for failure to “determine the presence of asbestos in the structure prior to the initiation of construction activities.” Fishman did not appeal his citation or fine. 

Cal-OSHA inspector Brown said it doesn’t matter whether Fishman showed the Phase One report to Kimes and Morris. “They should have known it already, from the age of the building. And they had already contracted out for similar asbestos removal at the Artech Building in Berkeley the same year.” 

Cal-OSHA documents show that Kimes Morris contracted with an environmental company to determine if asbestos was present in the exterior of the building where an awning was to be demolished, but failed to conduct a similar asbestos survey in the interior of the building. 

“I think they did it [that way] because they were in a hurry,” Cal-OSHA inspector Brown said. “Construction is a cutthroat business. Companies bid low, and then some of them try to cut the costs. Unfortunately, when they cut costs, the people who suffered were the workers. And in this case, any of the Hayward public that was exposed to the loose fibers in the dumpster.”

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In your Oct. 28 story, “Scientist Mourns Gill Tract’s Demise,” Jeff Bond, planner for UC Capital Projects states that the Gill Tract “is not an agricultural area.” He says, “We’ve looked at the plan from all sides and we think we have the mix that the community wants.” 

As a concerned member of this community, I strongly disagree. The Gill Tract is an extraordinarily productive agricultural site that should only be used for agriculture. Furthermore, the Albany Teacher’s Union and the Board of Education do not agree with the planned development. On Sept. 9 the board passed a resolution in support of creating an educational, agricultural facility at the Gill Tract. UCB students and researchers need a site for research in sustainable urban agriculture. The Gill Tract is an ideal site, and the university has offered no reasonable alternative.  

The University Village Residents Association, as explained in the Daily Planet, also objects to aspects of the development, because rents will be unaffordable for graduate students. I have spoken with several Albany Little League parents who are going along with their fields’ move reluctantly, and wish to remain at their current site. The existing fields, which have been in their current location since the 1950s, have a small town, protected, community atmosphere.  

Local businesses should not welcome the development as planned. A large grocery store will take business from local independent markets like Berkeley Natural Grocery and the Tokyo Fish Market. 

If Jeff Bond had attended the Oct. Harvest Festival at the Gill Tract, he would have seen hundreds of attendees enjoying this valuable community agricultural resource. At several public meetings that Mr. Bond has attended, many concerned students and community members have repeatedly voiced their opposition to the development and presented alternative proposals. The San Pablo Avenue Mixed Use Development is definitely not “the mix that the community wants.”  

Urban Roots, a student and community organization, has developed a proposal for the Gill Tract that incorporates university and community needs with a working urban farm and gardens at the Gill Tract. A drawing of this vision, as well as the November 2002 proposal can be viewed at www.gilltract.com.  

Amy Kaplan

The mayor’s committee charged with cleaning up pesky development issues has just published its first draft. 

Since the group appointed by Tom Bates is heavily weighted with pro-development members, one can expect their recommendations will very likely reduce the ability of the public to have meaningful input. 

As was pointed out by members of the community some time ago, it was finally acknowledged that city planners had used fuzzy zoning when they granted State Density Bonuses to big box developers. The plain fact of the matter is that residential units in mixed-use R-3, R-4 and R-5 zones have no maximum number of units per building site. 

One wonders how the staff could have then determined a Density Bonus of 20 percent extra units beyond what is permitted, without having any real numbers serving as a base from which to make calculations. This situation causes great uncertainty and trouble—as the committee now realizes.  

One suggested way to patch up the inconsistency is to convince the lawmakers in Sacramento to accept Berkeley’s fuzzy zoning and make it legal. Berkeley could do as other cities have done and have the number of units permitted on each building site clearly specified in the zoning ordinance. 

The report contains news about a state bill already passed (Dutra AB-2392). It mandates that if densities are reduced in one area of the city, they must 

be increased in other areas. 

This is a problem for Berkeley because area plans for University Avenue and West Berkeley, though approved in the General Plan, have not had zoning ordinance changes in their unit density. The city has delayed acting for years. Is it now so late that the changes cannot still be made? 

The committee report wants more development and uses to be granted with a Zoning Certificate (ZC). That means there will be no notice to neighbors, no public hearings and no right of appeal. One suggestion is to allow construction of a single family house with only a ZC, if the footprint and height of the structure is smaller than current building standards. Where is the public’s right to have meaningful input? 

In several instances, the draft report refers to citizen’s comments about gross development as “acrimonious” (“harshness of temper, manner or speech”).  

It is to be expected that members of the public most immediately affected by detrimental aspects of a project would be critical in no uncertain terms. In fact, the neighbors have been well organized, well prepared and often correct in their criticisms. Describing their presentations of the opposition as “acrimony” is insulting, to say the least! 

One element causing problems not covered in the report is the propensity of developers to knowingly submit projects that far exceed the city’s building 

standards.  

For example: 1) Not allowing for necessary open space; 2) reducing the number of parking spaces for residents and shoppers; 3) encroaching on required set back from single family homes; 4) building heights that are out of scale and detrimental to adjacent communities. 

Developers know the zoning system very well and have exploited it to the maximum. 

Let it be noted that the report proposes some hopeful changes. For example, 1) notifying the community much earlier in the permitting process for large developments; 2) sharing information about staff meetings with developers, 3) putting up large, durable notice signs on project sites that illustrate the scale of the structure. 

Many thanks to the volunteer neighborhood supporters who attended meeting after meeting even though they were not appointed to the committee. The draft report will now be examined by various commissions for possible implementation.  

Will there be a public hearings? Ask your mayor. 

Martha Nicoloff is a former member of the Zoning Adjustment Board, the Planning Commission and is the author of the Neighborhood Preservation Initiative. 

With a Nov. 25 deadline looming to finalize any measures to be placed on the March, 2004 ballot, continuing discussion over four proposed ballot measures will dominate tonight’s (Tuesday, Nov. 4) Berkeley City Council meeting when members return from a one-week vacation. 

Council is also expected to receive a report at Tuesday’s meeting from City Finance Director Fran David on “escaped tax assessments.” 

That report was requested by Mayor Tom Bates at Council last meeting two weeks ago after a citizen informed Council that prominent developer Patrick Kennedy hadn’t been billed Berkeley fees and assessments on the Gaia Building, a downtown mixed-use development. 

Later that week, the Daily Planet reported that a second Kennedy building, the Berkleyan, had also not been billed for city fees and assessments. 

Two proposed March ballot measures would lower the percentage a Berkeley candidate needs to win an election outright without triggering a runoff, lengthen the time between the initial election and a runoff, alter the number of signatures needed to land a slot on the ballot and add a filing fee to requirements for candidates who want a slot on city election ballots. 

Council asked city staff Oct. 21 to come to this week’s meeting with preliminary ballot language for the measures. 

Council is also scheduled to receive a report back from city staff concerning an Instant Runoff Voting charter amendment for the March ballot. Several Council members have expressed a desire to hold the measure until next November’s election. 

News of the Kennedy properties’ “escaped taxed assessment” issue comes at an awkward time for City Council, as one of the proposed ballot measures would ask Berkeley voters to approve a parcel tax increase in order to help make up a city budget deficit projected at $10 million to $16 million. Some observors have suggested that Berkeley voters might not look so favorably on assessing themselves new property taxes if they believed the city was lax in collecting existing property taxes on large city developments. 

Last week, the city manager’s office, under the signature of retiring City Manager Weldon Rucker, issued a memo to the mayor and City Council entitled “Gaia Building and Tax Assessments” to try to explain how the building escaped Berkeley fees and assessments. 

“This memo is in response to…the allegation [raised at the Oct. 21 Council meeting] that the owners of the Gaia Building did not pay Berkeley assessments since the issuance of a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO),” the memo read. 

“The allegation is accurate… Generally, when a property is developed, its building square footage and land use code are updated in the city’s land database when a final Certificate of Occupancy (CO) is issued. This information is then used to calculate the various taxes and assessments… However, it is a common practice to issue a TCO [Temporary Certificate of Occupancy] when a building is almost complete and safe to occupy, but when minor modifications are still required… 

“Prior to [the Oct. 21 Council meeting], the Finance, Planning, and Information Technology departments were already working together to modify our process to capture properties issued a TCO… Staff had already identified the Gaia property as being eligible for taxation, and the Finance Department was in the process of billing the property for the current tax year, and applicable past years as well.” 

The Rucker memo also said that as for the Berkleyan property, which was issued a final Certificate of Occupancy two years ago, “Taxes should have started to be assessed effective 7/1/01, but were not. This property will also be back billed immediately.” 

The memo continued that “Staff from [the Finance, Planning, and Information Technology departments] is working to develop cost-effective techniques to identify escaped assessments in a more timely fashion.”

Dear Mayor and City Council,  

Our neighbor association, Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association, (CENA) discussed the City of Berkeley’s fiscal crisis at our October Board of Directors meeting. The Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose any parcel tax unless or until many other alternatives are considered. The Board of Directors will actively oppose the current proposal before City Council. We will ask our members and all of the residents of District 8 to oppose it as well. 

While we appreciate the efforts already undertaken to address our city’s budget deficit, we want to see efforts made in several other areas to generate funds before resorting to a tax increase. Given that passage of the parcel tax will only cure approximately 50 percent of the projected deficit, pursuing additional measures is required.  

1. With approximately 40 percent of Berkeley’s land area off the tax rolls because of nonprofit or institutional exemptions, any increase in assessments falls on a disproportionately smaller number of property taxpayers. Therefore, we want a concerted and systematic effort to negotiate payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT fees) from the major exempt landholders in Berkeley, as is done in other cities in similar circumstances. These fees must be proportional to the services received to eliminate the subsidy of these institutions currently paid for by property taxpayers. 

2. We believe that with approximately 75 percent of our general fund tied up in salaries, there has to be some limit on cost-of-living increases, which amount to about 5.5 percent per year. A negotiated reduction (or elimination for this year) would be preferable to other scenarios of layoffs and cutbacks in service. 

3. The city should explore other avenues of revenue generation, such as an entertainment surcharge on non-educational events, including at UC Berkeley. 

4. We urge City Council to establish a Nextus tax on all new development in Berkeley. This is a one-time tax correlated to the transportation and infrastructure modifications impacted by the development. The Transportation Department has been studying the legality of the Nextus tax and will be presenting this to City Council. 

5. The city must make a commitment to review all of its existing programs to make them more efficient. The city should continue a hiring freeze and staff reductions through retirements, until the budget is in balance. 

6. We want the city to review the PERS retirement system and change it to reflect the reality of the fiscal crisis. 

7. A large number of Berkeley residents who are voters are renters. The rent control laws must be changed to require these residents to pay their fair share of the city’s services they use. Under the current rules, the property owner cannot pass on any of the proposed parcel tax increase. 

We are proud to live in a city that has been so generous in supporting tax increases that have preserved our parks, enhanced our street lighting, given us a great library, supported our schools, and much more. Now, however, we feel we have reached the limit and cannot support the tax measure without serious and active consideration of alternatives. 

Thank you for your consideration, 

Dean Metzger 

President of CENA

CalTrans officials have given the green light to plans by Berkeley school officials to include a San Pablo Avenue driveway in their plans for the controversial Franklin Adult School. 

City transportation officials and neighbors had insisted the driveway was essential to keep adult school students from clogging residential streets around the school, bounded by San Pablo to the west, Curtis Street to the east, Francisco Street to the south and Virginia Street to the west. 

The Caltrans decision—announced Friday—also paves the way for the district to implement changes to the original site plan that calls for reorienting the former elementary school towards San Pablo with the driveway and a pedestrian walkway. Because San Pablo is a state highway, Caltrans has final authority over new driveways. 

“I’m thankful that so many people worked hard to get this accomplished,” said BUSD Superintendent Michele Lawrence. 

Neighbors who have fought the proposed adult school said that while they’re pleased by the inclusion of the driveway, they are still not sold on the overall plan. 

“Obviously it’s going to help, but it’s still unclear even with this that the school can really fit in the neighborhood,” said James Day, a neighbor who is serving on site committee comprised of neighbors and district officials. 

Caltrans had rejected an earlier appeal from the district, citing that the district’s application lacked adequate transit studies.

Paper Route Robbery 

A gunman robbed a man and woman as they delivered newspapers early Saturday morning. According to police, the two were making deliveries in the 2400 block of McGee Avenue when a gunman pulled up in a silver car and demanded their money. He grabbed the woman’s purse, the man’s wallet and a cell phone, then ordered them to close their eyes until he drove away. 

Robbery 

Two sound sleepers awoke to find that a robber had kicked open their front door and made off with their belongings. According to police, two roommates on the 2700 block of Durant Street went to sleep around 3 a.m. Sunday and woke up around 10 a.m. to find one’s wallet unfolded on the floor with $60 missing and the other’s $2,100 laptop computer gone.

Finally, a really cool assignment! I was asked to be a judge at the Third Annual Crabby Chef Competition. 

Hosted by Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto, with portions of the proceeds going to the Berkeley Historical Society, I prepared for my responsibilities by eating nothing and drinking only a large Peet’s Mocha (with no whipped cream) many hours before the event. 

And it WAS many hours. Held two Sundays ago at 2 p.m. in the Spenger’s parking lot on Fourth Street, I had to wait an extra 60 minutes because I forgot about the demise of Daylight Savings. I killed time by drinking an Anchor Steam, and interviewing some of the competing chefs. 

I spoke with Peter Scholte, Executive Sous Chef at Trader Vic’s and newly arrived to the United States from Holland, via Norway. He told me he was planning to prepare Pake Crab, a stir fry classic from the famous restaurant located near the Emeryville Marina. “A lot of fish in Norway,” he said and I nodded in agreement, not because I know much about the fish in Norway, but because the beer was going to my head. 

Next I spoke with Caffé Venezia’s Head Chef Cindy Deetz and Sautee Cook Nicole Grin. They had decorated their table with seaweed and sunflowers and they were the only competitors dressed, head to toe, in black. 

“You must be hot,” I said. 

“Compared to being in a cramped kitchen, this is heaven,” answered Cindy. “We’re getting ready to make a seafood dumpling soup with lobster, crab and the secret ingredient.” 

The competition allows the chefs 20 minutes to prepare a crab dish. They bring all their own ingredients and cooking equipment. Spenger’s provides the burners, two cooked crabs and a secret ingredient which the participants are not given until the competition begins. Every chef I spoke to had several alternative recipes planned, depending on the mystery ingredient. 

Charles Hochman, Executive Chef at California Cafe in Walnut Creek, was planning a crab and tuna “free-form” sushi with a Thai hot and sweet glaze, served with a mango and papaya salad. Lalimes Executive Chef Steve Jaramillo was scheming about something Spanish. “Maybe a tapa or a fajita,” he said, but I could tell he was purposely vague, not wanting to give anything away.  

Le Theatre’s Christine Mullen said she had brought along her lucky charm, Dan Rauch, also a cook at Le Theatre (at the old Gertie’s Seafood location). “He’s a Cancer,” she said with champion-like confidence. “The Sign of the Crab.”  

Brent Novotny, Executive Chef at Skates on the Bay, was defending last year’s first place status by doing something quite daring. “This is kind of a secret,” he whispered. “I’m going to make a lemon and roasted tomato sorbet to go with a chilled crab cocktail.” But like everyone else, he was waiting to find out the missing ingredient.  

A little after 2 p.m., organizer Tom Walton of Fortune Public Relations asked the judges to take their seats. Seven of us gathered around a small table covered with paper plates, napkins and plastic cutlery. Then Emcee David Michael Cane, who with his wife Rachel co-hosts the nationally syndicated food, wine and travel radio show “A Matter of Taste” (Saturdays KYCY-AM), told the chefs to get ready. Each was handed the secret potion, a bag of ripe green avocados. The cooking began! 

While the chefs chopped, minced, fried and boiled away, I met my fellow judges: several columnists from local newspapers, a travel writer, and Wade Daniels, Regional Correspondent for Nation’s Restaurant News. 

I sat next to Eric Schewe, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Californian. 

“What brings you here?” I asked. 

“Crab,” he said. 

I walked around, watching the cooks at work. Some were diligent, their heads down, earnestly preparing their entrees, but others were gregarious, talking to the crowd, handing out samples, tasting as they cooked. 

Todd Kniess, Chef/Owner of Bistro Liaison on Shattuck Avenue, worked alone while his very pregnant wife, Natalie, watched. “When are you due?” I asked. “Any minute now,” she answered. 

Executive Chef Neil Marquis of the Pleasanton Hotel wore lobster-decorated draw string pants and Michael Zeiter, Executive Chef of Postino (located in Lafayette) sported a Cal Berkeley cap. I wondered if that would influence my fellow judge, Eric.  

The Rattle Cans, a San Francisco-based blues band, played music while the chefs cooked. The crowd milled around drinking beer, eating crab cakes and shrimp cocktails from the Spenger’s booth and the Pacific Seafood “Roadshow” an 18-wheeler, walk-in, refrigerated truck that was packed with all kinds of seafood delights.  

When the drums rolled, indicating that the cooking was over, I went back to my seat and was served fourteen different dishes, all of them with crab and avocado, but there the similarities ended. 

Paul Despotakis, Sous Chef of San Francisco-based McCormick & Kuleto’s, served up Asian wontons stuffed with cream cheese, shrimp, scallops and fennel. Executive Chef Frank Palmer of the Duck Club (Lafayette) presented an entrée of crab-stuffed trout wrapped in prosciutto. Kevin Weinberg, chef/owner of the Walnut Creek Yacht Club, gave us the final sample. “A sun-baked Cuban cocktail,” he said, referring not to his gas burner, but to the heat provided by the unnaturally hot weather.  

I was stuffed, but I had performed my duty with serious integrity. I marked my ballot, judging the chefs on presentation, creativity and taste. I gave thumbs up to the California Cafe sushi boys, but it was the stuffed trout prepared by the Duck Club that won.  

Better luck next year, foodies. I drove through West Berkeley slowly, and when I got home I lay on my stomach on the couch and went to sleep. It was a lot of hard work, but someone had to do it. I’ll probably just lie here quietly until next year, when my expertise will most definitely be needed again.

In the last two or three years, the popular top end of Solano Avenue has seen noticeable improvement. The Oaks Theater, for ages just a marquee and a pylon, has stripped off its upper-level disguise of ‘mansard roofs’ to reveal a substantial office wing with matching Moorish windows. Round the corner on Colusa (heading north), an old Masonic temple, attractively remodeled as luxury condos, faces across the avenue to the sprawling new Thousand Oaks School, architecturally uninspired but lavishly landscaped and neighborhood-friendly. 

Now, finally, after 18 months of tedious-to-watch construction, a striking new building has replaced the abandoned Standard station on the corner of Solano and Colusa across from Andronico’s ‘Park and Shop.’ It is an ambitious 18,545-square-foot complex of shops and offices designed for developer Ari Nevo by the local firm Trachtenberg Architects. 

This generous corner site has allowed a more three-dimensionally complete building than most past infill development along Solano, and the architects have taken full advantage. 

Essentially, they have created a long commercial frontage of offices-over-shops, bent around the corner in a bold curve and terminated with a strong vertical features—on Colusa, the office entrance; on Solano, on the westerly end, a jaunty little tower. Already decidedly horizontal, the long pedestrian frontage has been further dramatized by facing the shop level with ceramic tile and the upper (office) level with stucco. 

Apparently, a limited budget dictated this half-tiling solution, but I personally see it as a blessing. My only reservation is about not totally tiling the little westerly tower to make a more dramatic statement at this important end. As for the handsome tiles themselves, they deserve closer inspection. Notice the interplay of the big square ones (smooth) and varying bands of narrow (rough), and particularly the elegant sill-like top. This subtly varied patterning, along with the positively glowing terra-cotta color, gives the project a level of quality beyond most speculative developments. It almost deserves to be a public building for a more enlightened time. 

But before going overboard with joy at the appearance of real architecture on this previously suburban gas station corner, let’s look at the new project’s weaker side—its relationship to the pleasant residential district next door. 

Not many years ago, some brave developer built a decently designed three-story block of condos immediately adjacent to the still-thriving Standard station, evoking some sardonic neighborhood comments. From Gray’s Books, of hallowed memory: “Who’d buy an apartment right next to that gas station, for Gods’ sake?,” forgetting that some units had actual Bay views from their back decks while living merely yards away from bookstores and coffee shops. 

Now the north side windows of those same pleasant condos face the blank “utility” wall of retail stores. The architects have at least carried the tiled Colusa frontage around the corner a few feet, and in an inspired move planted a bamboo hedge behind their new sideyard fence. But overall, we are still stuck here with the all-too-common brutal collision of residential and commercial. 

No such collusion occurs at the new building’s westerly end, where the windowless side of the big end store overlooks the parking lot of Wells Fargo. Architecturally, this is the most dramatic aspect of the design. The big blank wall projects out beyond the corner tower, relieved by a friendly-looking roof terrace. It’s all very impressive, but distressingly severe—for in a project noticeably short on street trees, this should be a great wall of greenery. Suitable flowering vines could have been trained onto a wall-sized trellis to create the grandest display of trumpetvine or bougainvillea in North Berkeley. 

But the most puzzling feature in Trachtenberg’s design is the projecting rail that runs around most of the building just below the flat roof. This assemblage of steel outriggers and mesh has a strangely arbitrary quality. A bit lower, and it could have been a glare-reducing canopy over the office windows. A bit higher, and it would be an updated “Maybeckian” overhang, effectively masking the roof’s undistinguished metal edge. Its main function would seem to be the casting of dramatic shadows on the stucco below, but this hardly works on the Solano frontage, which, inconveniently, faces north! Most irritating is the way this substitute classical cornice continues relentlessly across the projecting frontage of the office entrance on Colusa, reducing the effectiveness of that simple dignified facade, while failing to turn the corner at the garage end. Some Design Review! 

This anomaly somewhat takes the edge off the building’s truly impressive design achievement, which is the brilliantly handled relationship between twelve modest-sized office windows and five different shop-front conditions below, including rounding the novel but problematic corner. Stand across Solano and give it a hard look. You will find that all these openings are either centered, like the door and window, on the “corner” itself, or line up at the critical edges. Notice also how elegantly the shop-windows are recessed into the tiled wall and the delightful rhythms set up by the little clerestories (small windows) above the shade-giving canopies. 

Other masterful touches deserve listing: The friendly pivot-opening office windows and that remarkable dark gray-green trim used throughout, or the translucent panels in the big garage door that make it part of the night lighting; yet despite all the professional skill, this moment in time as uninhabited architecture is the building’s most severe test. 

To many, it is still an intruder, but when four lively retail businesses and their customers occupy the lower floor, and the offices show signs of life, attention will shift away from static design to human activity. Apparently, the much-admired French bakery La Farine will move in after Christmas, and that’s a promising start. Add to it that every month that slips by, the three new street trees on Colusa—Tristanias that grow to about 25 feet—will gradually mask and soften the less lively stretch of the public frontage. 

In the context of Berkeley’s conservative mindset about new architecture, the Trachtenberg building can be called “politically correct.” It is politely contextual. The signature rounded corner is a traditional feature of Solano Avenue, and occurs, for instance, at Frishman’s Berkeley Bakery at Peralta, the many-arched white-painted building at Modoc, and at many other intersections. 

This streamlined motif, along with the building’s distinct horizontality and quite old-fashioned windows, make it, essentially, a Moderne building that could well have been erected, visually at least, in the 1930s. The massive steel-framing inside could then be seen as Seismic Retrofit! It makes one long (me anyway!) for one of those less dignified metal-clad “workshop” buildings on Hollis, in barbarous Emeryville.

After more than four months of intensive organizing efforts, Berkeley Bowl workers rejected unionization effort in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)-supervised election Thursday.  

The final tally was 119 to 70. 

Many of the union advocates who weren’t working when the results were announced left the store in shock, gathering outside as the news sunk in. 

“I’m not beat down over this,” said Kevin Meyer, one of the most involved pro-union employees. “We’ve done good work.” 

Lea Hyke, the Berkeley Bowl’s Human Resource business partner, said she thought the vote was an accurate appraisal of the sentiment among employees. 

“While I don’t think we’ve been the best employer, we’re trying to work with employees,” she said. “I really think that the employees feel that the company is doing its best to take care of them.” 

Meyer and others union supporters attributed their defeat to a strong anti-union campaign. 

“I definitely think that if we had voted two weeks ago before their campaign I think it would have been different,” he said. 

Before the decision to file for an election, the union had signed up 70 percent of the employees on union authorization cards. They said the steep decline in support could only have come from the company’s campaign.  

Meyer said he isn’t going to walk away and hopes the store pursues the changes it has promised employees. 

“If they want me to make the store a better place I’m willing to do it,” he said. 

The announcement of the vote came the end of a day that for many had been characterized by nail-biting tension. Even though it was her day off, pro-union employee Cory Abshear arrived at the store at 6 a.m. and sat outside talking to employees or raced around town to track employees down and ensure they voted.  

The day began with the pro-union side challenging the anti-union side’s choice for election observer. Meyer and Eric Freezell, the pro-union election observers, arrived with Abshear in the morning and met with the National Labor Relations Board representative, lawyers from each side and anti-union observer David Craibe to ensure that everyone was clear about the voting process. They immediately challenged Craibe, saying they disagreed with his classification as a non-supervisor. 

Meyer said that Craibe closes the store on Sundays, the store’s busiest day, which is a duty performed by a supervisor. He also said he had recently been reprimanded by Craibe during one of his shifts. 

In a NLRB election only employees, not supervisors or managers, are eligible to vote, and one of the distinctions that defines a supervisor/manager is the ability to discipline employees. 

The NLRB agreed with the challenge and Craibe was replaced by Kai Huey, the head of the store’s accounting department. 

During the vote both Meyer and Freezell, switching off as pro-union observers, challenged more than 20 of the votes, claiming they were cast by supervisors. They said that over the past few weeks as part of the store’s anti-union campaign, many store and department supervisors had been demoted to make them eligible to vote and increase the anti-union numbers. 

“Everyone I challenged was a supervisor,” said Meyer. “I had no question about it.” 

He said one of those voting still had “supervisor” on his nametag and the tags of several other still bore the glue where the label “supervisor” had appeared only two days ago. 

A high point came for the pro-union side when Arturo Perez walked in and cast his ballot. Perez, one of the most outspoken supporters of the drive, was fired more than a month ago for what the store said were legitimate reasons but what organizers said was an attempt to silence him. 

Perez challenged the dismissal, and his case is pending—which meant that he was still affiliated with the store and thus eligible to vote. 

After the totals were announce Perez had to hold back tears and could only look at the store with frustration.  

“I’m going to win my case,” he said. “But I’m not going to go back. They don’t deserve people like me working for them to make them richer.”

FRIDAY, OCT. 31 

“East Asia at Berkeley” a series of panel discussions covering historical, political and cultural topics, through Sunday, Nov. 2 at the Faculty Club, UC Campus. For program information see http://ieas.berkeley.edu/aab 

Overeaters Anonymous meets every Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Northbrae Church at Solano and The Alameda. Parking is free and is handicapped accessible. 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 1 

East Bay Wetlands Restoration Join us for our regular drop-in volunteer days at Arrowhead Marsh, for a chance to learn about the ecology of the Bay and see some of the last remaining wetland habitat in the East Bay. We will be planting for the native plant project. Gloves, tools and snacks are provided. Please dress in layers and bring sunscreen and water. All ages and physical abilities are welcome. Please RSVP groups with 10 or more. Held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland. 452-9261.  

Native Plant Walk in Huckleberry Park Meet at Ashby BART, east side entrance to carpool at 12:40 sharp, or at Huckleberry Parking Lot at 1 p.m. Heavy rain cancels. $10 suggested donation. 658-9178.  

Carnivorous Plants Workshop Learn how to create a carnivorous plant bog garden with horticulturist Judith Finn. Participants can buy a kit at the workshop. From 10 a.m. to noon at the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $25-$35 and reservations required. 643-2755. garden@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Fall Permaculture: Native Plant Propagation Bring back the natives to your yard and soon the butterflies, bees and other native insects will follow. We’ll also cover how to set up a nursery. Any rain cancels. Held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Wildheart Gardens, 463 61st Street, at Telegraph. $10 Ecology Center members, $15 others, no one turned away. 548-2220, ext. 233.  

The Changing Face of Downtown Berkeley Historical Society tour, begins at 10 a.m. meeting at the north-west corner of Grant and University. Reservations and a donation of $8 required. Please make check payable to Berkeley Historical Society, and mail it to P.O. Box 1190, Berkeley, CA 94701-1190. 848-0181. 

Behind the Scenes at the Hearst Museum and Bancroft Library Berkeley Historical Society tour, from 2 to 4 p.m. Reservations and a donation of $8 required. Please make check payable to Berkeley Historical Society, and mail it to P.O. Box 1190, Berkeley, CA 94701-1190. 848-0181. 

Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling Class, taught by staff from the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, this course offers simple solutions property owners can use to safely repair and renovate their homes. Held from 9 to 11 a.m. at the ACLPPP Training Center, 1017 - 22nd Ave, Suite #110, Oakland. Free to homeowners, landlords, and maintenance crews of pre-1978 residential properties in Alameda, Berkeley, Emeryville, or Oakland. For information call 567-8280. www.aclppp.org/homeown 

Home Buyer Education Seminar, with Lois Kadosh, who will cover what you should know before you buy. This free event will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Berkeley Association of Realtors auditorium at 1553 Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Cedar St. Reservations can be made by calling Daniel at 528-3400.  

Show Ya Stuff B-Ball Classic, for 10 and under through 14 and under teams. Held Sat. and Sun. at Portola Middle School in El Cerrito. For more information call 978-6585 or email twoniknik@yahoo.com 

Transforming Anger Workshop with Leonard Scheff from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 525-3948. www.transforminganger.com 

Making Room for Balance, a meditation and daily practice workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Place. Wheelchair accessible. Cost is $65, scholarships available, lunch included. 843-6812.  

Pet Adoptions, sponsored by Home at Last, from noon to 5 p.m., Hearst and 4th St. 548-9223. 

Sick Plant Clinic is offered by the Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive, from 9 a.m. to noon. Free. 643-2755. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 2 

Dennis Kucinich, Democratic Candidate for President, in a town hall meeting, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Taylor Memorial Methodist Church, 1188 12th St., Oakand, followed by a fundraiser from 5 to 8 p.m. with Rep. Barbara Lee and Danny Glover at Zazoo’s, 15 Embarcadero West, Oakland. 415-927-2004, ext. 33. 

Free Sailboat Rides between 1 and 4 p.m. with the Cal Sailing Club. Bring warm waterproof clothes and come to the Berkeley Marina. For more information call 287-5905. www.calsailing.org 

Mysticism/Tibetan Buddhism Lama Ando on “Teachings and Stories from a Tibetan Mystic,” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Single Parent Family Picnic, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 2301 Vine St. No charge, donations accepted. 848-3988, ext. 26. 

MONDAY, NOV. 3 

Fish: Eating Right for the Environment Serena Spring of Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program will talk about choosing seafood that is good for you and the oceans also, at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. Sponsored by Friends of Five Creeks. 848-9358. 

The National Organization for Women, Oakland/East Bay Chapter, will hold its monthly meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Boardroom, Oakland YWCA, 1515 Webster St. Valerie Edwards from the UC School of Social Welfare will discuss diversity. 287-8948. 

Berkeley Ecological and Safe Transportation Coalition General Meeting at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Meeting Room B, 3rd floor, 2090 Kittredge. imgreen03@comcast.net  

“Deconstructing Democracy: Israel, Palestine and the Middle East” with Dr. Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Oslo peace process and former member of the Israeli Knesset at 7:30 p.m. at 2060 Valley Life Sciences Bldg. UC Campus. Sponsored by Berkeley Hillel, UC Center for Middle East Studies, and Tzedek. www.berkeleyhillel.org 

Berkeley Biodiesel Cooperative Orientation at 7:30 p.m. Some technical questions can be answered. Call for location. 594-4000, ext. 777, berkeleybiodiesel@yahoo.com  

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, NOV. 4 

“Begging Children: Their Hope, Their Future” with Abdoulaye Tall, Claude Ake Scholar from Senegal, at 4 p.m. in 652 Barrows Hall, UC Campus. Sponsored by the Center for African Studies. 642-8338. asc@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley Community Fund Celebrates Community Leaders at an awards dinner at 6 p.m. Hs Lordship’s, 199 Seawall Drive, Berkeley Marina. Tickets are $45 and may be purchased by calling 525-5272. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers We are a few slowpoke seniors who walk between a mile or two each Tuesday, meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Little Farm parking lot. To join us, call 215-7672. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Flu shots will be given by the Berkeley Health Dept. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 525-3565. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Morris Dancing Workshop Learn the basics of an English ritual dance form that predates Shakespeare. Free and open to all. From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar St. at Oxford. www.talamasca.com/berkmorris 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5 

Meetup for Howard Dean at 7 p.m. at three Berkeley locations: Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave.; Raleigh's (Generation Dean youth meeting), 2438 Telegraph Ave.; and Sweet Basil Thai Restaurant, 1736 Solano Ave. Free. Wheelchair accessible. 843-8724. 

Building a Portfolio, learn how to shoot slides of your artwork, matte and present your artwork, and write an artist statement, with Timothy Phelan, Wed. Nov. 5,12 and 19, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $45. For information call 644-6893. 

“Hepatitis C and Traditional Chinese Medicine” with Tatyana Ryevzina, L.Ac., MS, at 5:30 p.m. at Pharmaca Integrative, 1744 Solano Ave. 

“The Religious Imagination,” a talk by The Very Rev. Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral, with particular emphasis on the role of poetry in religion, at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755.  

“Exploring the Heart in Judaism and Jewish Spirituality,” with Ron Bedrick, Wednesdays, Nov. 5, 12, 19 and Dec. 3, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Communiity Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $35 BRJCC members, $40 public. To register call 848-0237, ext. 112 or email info@brjcc.org 

“Through the Gates of the Alhambra: Revisiting the Question of Islam and Pluralism,” with Dr. S. Nomanul Haq, a Muslim scholar who holds appointments in both the history of art and in Asian and Midddle East Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, at 7 p.m. in the Dinner Boardroom at the GTU Hewlett Library, preceded by a reception at the Badè Museum at PSR, at 5:30 pm. 649-2440.  

“Beyond Words: An Interfaith Ritual for Peace” at 8:30 pm, in the University Christian Church, 2401 Le Conte. The ritual incorporates movements and chant forms from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Sponsored by the GTU's Center for the Arts, Religion and Education (CARE) and designed with Omega West Dance Company, under the direction of PSR's Carla DeSola. For more information, contact Joan Carter at joanlcarter@aol.com or Carla DeSola at carlart@mindspring.com 

North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Center Council meets at 10 a.m. 981-5190. 

Fun with Acting class meets at 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Free, all are welcome. 985-0373. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Vigil at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Prose Writers Workshop We're a serious but lively bunch whose focus is on issues of craft. Novices welcome. Experienced facilitator. Community sponsored, no fee. Meets 7 to 9 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut, at Rose. For information call 524-3034. 

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

Free Feldenkrais ATM Classes for adults 55 and older at 10:30 and 11:45 a.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut at Rose. For information call 848-0237.  

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 the first and third Wednesdays of the month at 7:15 a.m. at Hide-A-Way Café, 6430 Telegraph Ave. For information call Fred Garvey, 925-682-1111, ext. 164. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 6 

“Elections and the Media: From Florida to California and on to 2004” with BBC investigative journalist, Greg Palast, at 7 p.m. at King Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Tickets cost $10 and are available from 415-546-6334 ext. 300. www.media-alliance.org 

Ethnic Migrations to West Berkeley with Sonia Carriedo on immigration from the Mexican village of Chavinda, and Willie Phillips on African Americans in West Berkeley, at 7:30 p.m. at the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, 926 Hearst, at 8th St. Part of a lecture series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Ocean View, Berkeley’s early settlement village. Tickets are $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. 841-8562. bahaworks@yahoo.com 

Government Information and Participation, a workshop on how to use the City of Berkeley website and obtain information, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Central Library, 3rd Floor Electronic Classroom. Sponsored by the City Clerk Dept. 981-6900.  

Best Hikes in the Bay Area, a slide presentation and talk by Linda Hamilton at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

“We Interrupt This Empire” a collaborative work by Bay Area video activists providing a critique of the corporate media coverage of the Iraq war, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. A benefit for the Pastors for Peace Caravan to Chiapas and Central America. 527-2522. 

“Deceptions and Cover-Ups: Fragments from the War on Terror” film showing, “Palestine is Still the Issue” at 6:30 p.m. in the Main Meeting Room of the Berkeley Central Public Library, 2090 Kittredge. Co-sponsored by Berkeley Peace Walk & Vigil. www.geocities. 

com/vigil4peace/vigil.html  

Scenic Photography Seminar with award-winning Bay Area freelance photographer Gary Crabbe at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. Cost is $20, pre-register to save a seat. 843-3533.  

“Uncovering Ancient Kabbalistic Treasures for Creating Success Now” with Jill Lebeau and Joy Thomas at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10 general, $8 BRJCC members. To register call 848-0237, ext. 112 or email info@brjcc.org  

“Martin Luther and Shinran: The Presence of Christ in Justification and Salvation in a Buddhist-Christian Context,” with Dr. Paul Chung, lecturer in theology and Asian spirituality at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of the Cross, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, 2770 Marin Ave. For more information call 559-2731. 

“Prostate Cancer: Prevention and Intervention Strategies” with Daniel Herman, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Natural Grocery, 1336 Gilman St. 526-2456. 

UC Botanical Garden Docent Training at 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Fee and registration required. 643-1924. 

Berkeley Liberation Radio 104.1 FM holds public meetings for all interested people first and third Thursdays, 7 p.m. at the Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 595-0190. 

St. John's Prime Timers Tap Dancing class meets on Thursday mornings at 9:15 a.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church at 2717 Garber St. Gil Chun, well-known Berkeley dance teacher is the instructor. Class is free and open to anyone over 50. 527-0167. 

ONGOING 

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

International Circle K Awareness Week, Nov. 2 - 8. Students are invited to join a week of service. Look for the table on Upper Sproul, UC Campus. For informtaion call 849-1963. cki-publicrelations@uclink.berkeley.edu 

Acting and Storytelling Classes for Seniors, offered by Stagebridge. Wednesdays and Fridays, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Arts First Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., close to BART and AC Transit. 444-4755. www.stagebridge.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., Nov. 3, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Mon., Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Gisele Sorensen, 981-7419. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/landmarks 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., Nov. 3, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/peaceandjustice 

Youth Commission meets Mon., Nov. 3, at 6:30 p.m., at 1730 Oregon St. Philip Harper-Cotton, 981-6670. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/youth 

City Council meets Tues., Nov. 4, at 7 p.m., with a Special Meeting at 5 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Ruby Primus, 981-5106. www.ci.ber- 

keley.ca.us/commissions/women 

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Nov. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/firesafety 

School Board meets Wed. Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m., in the City Council Chambers. Queen Graham 644-6147 or Mark Coplan 644-6320. 

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 6, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461. www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/commissions/environmentaladvisory 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5410. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/housing 

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., Nov. 6, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jeff Egeberg, 981-6406. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/publicworks

FRIDAY, OCT. 31 

CHILDREN 

Halloween Shadow Puppetry Workshop with the Balinese group, ShadowLight, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater. Cost is $5-$15 sliding scale. www.juliamorgan.org 

Halloween Costume Storytime with readings from Halloween stories, songs and shadow puppets, at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble.  

THEATER 

The Un-Scripted Theater Company, “Fear” a full-length thriller, no two shows are the same, at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $7-$10. 415-869-5384. www.unscripted.com 

Larry Reed, ShadowLight Productions with Gamelan Sekar Jaya Shadow Theatre perform “Wayang Bali: Danger- 

ous Flowers” at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $7-$15 and are available from 925-798-1300. 

FILM 

Genetic Screenings: “The Fly” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michael Dirda introduces his memoir, “An Open Book,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books.  

845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Jonathan Stroud reads from his new novel, “The Amulet of Samarkand,” at 7 p.m. at  

Cody’s Books, 1730 Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

California Bach Society, Arvo Paert: Kanon Pokajanen, at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Tickets are $12-$25, and are available from 415-262-0272 or tickets@calbach.org 

Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46, and are available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

Halloween Party with The Vesuvians at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenez. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

“Strictly Skillz,” a celebration of Hip Hop in its purest forms at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Halloween Havoc Costume Contest with 7th Direction, Grasshoppers, and Pocket at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5 at the door, $3 if in costume. 841-2082.  

www.starryploughpub.com  

Danny Caron and Friends at 9:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Leftover Dreams with Tony Marcus and Patrice Haan perform music from the great American songbook at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761.  

www.freightandsalvage.org 

Aphrodesia, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Babyland, Plan 9, John Baker and the Malnourished, Ashtray at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Sterling Dervish at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

SATURDAY, NOV. 1 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Betsy Rose at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Hillside Players, “Tangled Tales: Wishes, Witches and Weddings,” favorite fairy tales intertwined with comedy, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $4-7. 2286 Cedar St. 384-6418. 

“The Wonderful World of Zaal,” a Persian legend, performed by Word For Word, at 10:30 a.m. at the Central Library, 2090 Kittredge. The free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library. 981-6224.  

THEATER 

Larry Reed, ShadowLight Productions with Gamelan Sekar Jaya Shadow Theatre See listing for Oct. 31. 

The Un-Scripted Theater Company, “Fear” See listing for Oct. 31. 

FILM 

Berkeley Video and Film Festival, featuring independent producers from Cuba to Berkeley, with documentaries, short features, comedies, and experimental works. From noon to 11 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$10 for one day, $14-$18 for both days. For a listing of films see www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org 

“Down by Law” with Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni, John Lurie and Ellen Barkin, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Anime: “Space Firebird 2772” at 4 p.m., “Only Yesterday” at 7 p.m. and “Black Jack” at 9:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dao Strom, author of “Grass Roof, Tin Roof” in solo concert and reading at Berkeley Public Library’s Central Community Room at 2 p.m. 981-6100. 

Brian Alexander introduces “Rapture: How Biotech Became the New Religion” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“A Land Twice Promised” with award winning storyteller Noa Baum, at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $7-$10. 839-2900 ext. 256.  

Three Western Voices: Utah Phillips, Paul Foreman and Pack Browning read from their poetry in a benefit for the Berkeley Foundation for the Arts and ACCI Gallery at 8 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck. Suggested donation $10. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Improvised Comedy, at 8 p.m. at Cafe Eclectica 1309 Solano Ave., Albany. Cost is $5. 964-0571. www.eastbayimprov.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Flauti Diversi, “Follow the Lieder,” a program of rhapsodic instrumental music from 18th and 20th century Germany, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St. Albany. Tickets are $15-$18, reservations recommended. 527-9840. 

Trinity Chamber Concerts Kazuko Cleary, solo piano, performs Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Takemitsu at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Admission by donation, $12 general, $8 students, senoirs, disabled. No one turned away. 549-3864. 

Academy of Ancient Music, with Richard Egarr, soloist, perform harpsichord concertos by Bach at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church. 2345 Channing Way. Pre-concert talk at 7 p.m. Tickets are $42 and available from 642-9988.  

Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26-$46, and are available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu  

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

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

Wataka Ensemble performs Afro-Venezuelan music at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation of $8-$15 suggested. 649-8744. www.the 

jazzhouse.org 

Patrick Ball, Celtic harper, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Original Intentions perform reggae, roots, soul at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Brian Melvin at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Deadfall, Brain Failure, Hang on the Box, Love Songs perform at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Post Junk Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 2 

CHILDREN 

Hillside Players, “Tangled Tales: Wishes, Witches and Weddings,” at 2 and 7 p.m. See listing for Nov. 1. 

THEATER 

Larry Reed, ShadowLight Productions with Gamelan Sekar Jaya Shadow Theatre at 2 and 8 p.m. See listing for Oct. 31. 

FILM 

Berkeley Video and Film Festival See listing for Nov. 1. For a listing of films see www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org 

“Something in the Air” Helvacio Ratton’s story of Brazil’s first clandestine radio station, in Portugese with English subtitles, at 7 p.m. at La Peña. A benefit for indigenous community radio stations. Suggested donation $5-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Anime: “The Cat Returns” at 3:30 p.m. and “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 2 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Poetry Flash with Frank Lauria and friends at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Heather Woodbury will read from “What Ever: A Living Novel” at 4 p.m. at Diesel Bookstore, 5433 College Ave. 653-9965.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem” Mass at the 10 a.m. service at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. With Cheryl Keller, soprano, Paul Thompson, bass, and 1893 orchestration. 848-1755. 

Grupo Andanza presents “Antologia,” an evening of Spanish opera and dance, at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $18-$20 and are avaiable from 925-798-1300. www.juliamorgan.org 

Chamber Music Sundaes, San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends perform at 3:15 p.m. at St John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$18 and are available at the door. 415-584-5946. 

Richard Troeger in a clavichord performance on an instrument by Andrew Lagerquist, including works by Josef Haydn, Mozart and CPE Bach, at 5 p.m. at MusicSources, 1840 Marin at The Alameda. Cost is $15-$18. 528-1685. 

Wynton Marsalis Quintet at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$62. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Live Oak Concert with Solstice, female a cappella sextet, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. Tickets are $8-$10. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Michael Evans, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer, and Karen Stackpole, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $6-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.org 

UC Folk Dancers Reunion from 2 to 6 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Sponsored by the International Order of Aging But Still Game Folkdancers. Bring something to share: food, drink, photos and memories, Ace bandages. 524-2193.  

Rastafari Celebration of 73rd Anniversary of the Coronation of Haile Sellassie and Empress Menen at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Forward Kwenda with Erica Azim, Zimbabwe mbira master at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50 in advance, $17.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Art Lande, solos, duos and trios with Bruce Williamson and Andre Bush at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Box Set Duo, Gypsy Soul at 6 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Tickets are $15 and are available from www.new- 

thoughtunity.org 

MONDAY, NOV. 3 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Last Word Poetry Series presents Julia Vinograd and Steve Arntsen from 7 to 9 p.m. at Pegasus Bookstore, 2349 Shattuck Ave.  

Peter Balakian describes “The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Res- 

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

Poetry Express, featuring Karen Pojmann and open mic from 7 to 9:30 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ron Stewart, Roland White, Jim Hurst, Missy Raines and Bill Evans, bluegrass masters, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

TUESDAY, NOV. 4 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Spirituality in Opera,” a talk by Kip Cranna, musical administrator of the San Francisco Opera at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. 848-1755. 

Leonard Shalin talks about “Sex, Time and Power: How Women’s Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anoush, music of Greece, Macedonia and Armenia at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Balkan dance lesson with Lise Liepman at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dayna Stephens House Jam at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5  

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Awakening: Buddhist Paintings from Tibet, China and Japan” opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Gallery is open Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thurs. to 7 p.m. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Standby: No Technical Difficulties, Program 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Gregory Maguire introduces his new novel, “Mirror, Mirror,” and interpretation of the Snow White tale, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

www.codysbooks.com 

D. A. Miller presents “Jane Austen, or the Secret of Style” at 5:30 p.m. University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

Phil Cousineau will offer a multimedia presentation of his new book, “The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the True Spirit of the Great Games,” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Robert A. Scott will show slides and talk about his new book “The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave at Rose. 843-3533. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with Nazelah Jamison and Karen Ladson at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7, $5 with student i.d. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Noon Concert New Berkeley Compostions at International House, at the corner of Bancroft and Piedmont Aves. Admission is free. 642-4864. 

Eliza Gilkyson, folk rock originals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightand- 

salvage.org 

Shaman Trance Dance with Lotus Tribal Fusion Belly Dance Performers and DJ Amar at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6-$10, sliding scale. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Nathan Clevenger, composer of new music and modern jazz at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Nicole McRory at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Jules Broussard, Bing Nathan and Ned Boynton at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Bryan Girard Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, NOV. 6 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Charles Winstead, “Abstract Geometric Paintings” reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Doyle Street Café and Gallery, 5515 Doyle Sreet, Emeryville. Exhibit runs until Jan. 5. 658-2989.  

THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theater, “Windows and Mirrors” stories by Paley, Malamud and Biller. A collaboration with Word for Word. At 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater. Tickets are $20-$24 and are available from 415-285-8080. www.atjt.com 

“Continental Divide,” a two-play cycle examining a gubernatorial election in a fictional western state, by David Edgar, directed by Tony Taccone, at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater, today through Dec. 28. The two plays, “Daughters of the Revolution” and “Mothers Against” can be seen in either order. Tickets are $10-$55. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Experimental Short Films by Antero Alli and Friends, with the filmmaker in person, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Cost is $7-$12, sliding scale. 464-4640. 

“The Seventh Seal” directed by Ingmar Bergman, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Wheelchair accessible. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

First Impressions: “The Good Wife of Tokyo” at 5:30 p.m. and Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival: “The New Boys” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lunch Poems with Michael Harper at 12:10 p.m. in the Morrison Library in Doe Library, UC Campus. Admission is free. 642-0137.  

Guided Tour: Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m., Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808.  

Gallery Talk: “Recent Research on Inca Archeology in Ecuador” with Dennis Ogbun, at noon at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, Bancroft Way at College Ave. Free with museum admission. 643-7648.  

Word Beat Reading Series at 7 p.m. with featured readers John Rowe and Rita Bregman, followed by an open mic, at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985 or 205-1749.  

Tamora Pierce reads from her new novel for young readers, “Trickster’s Choice,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. www.codysbooks.com  

Ken Croswell introduces his new book, “Magnificent Mars,” with a slide show, at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Khaled Hosseini describes Afghanistan of the past thirty years in his new novel, “The Kite Runner” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Benefit for the Hope Flowers School in Palestine, with music by the La Peña Community Chorus, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Donation $15-$25, no one turned away. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jamie Isman, singer, songwriter performs at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$15, no one turned away for lack of funds. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Estero at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

George Pedersen and His Pretty Good Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

CV1 at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Grateful Dead DJ Night from 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054.  

www.ashkenaz.com 

David Knopfler, originals from the co-founder of Dire Straits, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $15.50 advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Keni El Lebrijano, flamenco guitarist, at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.

Although the very name “Faculty Club” perhaps conjures images of aloof inaccessibility, the 101-year-old Berkeley campus institution is anything but.  

You don’t need to be a Club member to eat there and the meals are remarkably affordable. 

You can purchase a sandwich or generous buffet lunch on a weekday and eat informally on an outdoor terrace or at one of the sturdy wooden tables in Maybeck’s Great Hall, since 1903 a gathering place for the intellectual giants of the university (they eat sandwiches, too). Or you can have lunch or dinner in the elegant, white tablecloth Kerr Dining Room, overlooking Faculty Glade. There’s also a cozy bar. 

Guests referred by members or campus departments can stay in the hotel rooms upstairs at the Club, and the Club’s rooms are also available for rental for meetings and special events. The Club has become a popular place for weekend weddings. 

For information on hours, policies and meal service, call the Club’s front desk at 540-5678 or visit its website at http://berkeleyfacultyclub.com. If you wish to see the O’Neill Room art display, please check at the front desk for directions to the room and to make sure it isn’t in use for a meeting. A description of the Club’s artworks, written by Phyllis Brooks, is also available for $1 at the front desk. 

The craftsman-style Faculty Club is located on the UC Berkeley campus, on the eastern edge of Faculty Glade just south of Strawberry Creek. Don’t confuse it with the nearby Women’s Faculty Club—another elegant and venerable campus establishment—that stands to its east.

TOLERANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The efforts of Terry Doran and others to “model, teach and preach tolerance” (“Violence Has Become a Political Football,” Daily Planet, Oct. 28-30) are clearly crucial in creating a less violent Berkeley (I calculate that without their efforts, I might have been beat up and robbed even more often than I have been). But let’s hear some new suggestions also. Other cities have reduced crime and built community using neighborhood civilian patrols. Berkeley should consider this idea, and not just reject it out of hand as “how un-Berkeley can you be.” (Do Berkeleyans visiting Spain object to the Spanish “sereno,” the neighborhood night watchman?) 

Al Durrette 

• 

NO DIRE SITUATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am responding to the Oct. 28 Daily Planet article, “Rosa Parks Test Scores Lag, School May Face Overhaul.” This is my sixth year as a parent at Rosa Parks School. We have many dedicated, experienced teachers and great staff. I feel that my children and I have benefited from the educational and social/cultural experience the school offers. We are fortunate to encompass many types of diversity at Rosa Parks. While the Academic Performance Index (API) formulated from standardized test scores may be one indicator of academic progress, it is no more than that. The results of several weeks of testing during the academic year tell but one piece of the story. Is it fair to penalize a school based solely on this one measure? What good could come of a complete restructure of our school? Why does the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation not focus on what all children truly need to succeed academically, socially and emotionally? In fact, to not be left behind? Youth welfare, education and family support are not prioritized as they should be to promote optimum well being in our society. Rosa Parks does not face a dire situation—the Berkeley Unified School District does, the State of California does and the United States of America does. Who is the laggard here? 

Rebecca Herman 

Rosa Parks School parent 

• 

ROSA PARKS NOT FAILING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m a parent of two students at Rosa Parks. My kids are doing great at this school, I mean great! They exceed the state standards and the national standards. They have friends of all colors, ethnicities, races. They get along well with the teachers and the students. Yet your article makes it sound like the school is drowning in chaos without any organized curriculum or commitment from parents, teachers or the administration. That is far from the truth. The whole issue over test scores and the “blame” that is being attributed to the school and indirectly to the teachers and Principal Shirley Herrera is completely out of line and misinterpreted by this article. 

First off, I’ve been involved there for six years. My daughter is in fifth grade and my son in second grade. My kids are doing exceptionally well and are high achievers and get excellent instruction from very committed teachers. The curriculum is very good and if my kids do their homework (by the way that’s the key) they do well in the testing. One of the challenges at Rosa Parks is reflected by the diversity and complexity of the demographics of the school. We have kids from all over the world—Africa, Russia, Turkey, China, Iceland, Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, India and I could go on. We have parents adapting to the educational system and culture all at once. We have some households that have serious economic and social problems that make it very difficult for kids in a learning environment. All these things come together in our little world at Rosa Parks. And, no simple out-of-the-box solution works for all these kids or their parents in an “instant mix formula.” 

On top of that we’ve gone through four principals in six years. This is very difficult for the teachers, the parents and most of all Principal Ms. Herrera. It takes more than one year to build a systematic approach to teaching that focuses on improving test scores, which they are trying to do. And, all the issues can’t be blamed on the school. Parents need to be involved with their kids learning that’s where the difference is made. 

The perception of the article written by Jakob Schiller, although accurate in the statistical facts, in no way reflects the parents who commit themselves to volunteer work at the school, to the hard work done by the teachers and to new approaches to teaching the curriculum that may have a significant effect on the test scores over a period of years. 

To come in to the school now, disrupt everything by bringing in a “major administrative overhaul” is absolutely absurd and shows no in-depth knowledge of the situation. It will have no immediate effect except to set back the progress that is being made right now. 

I encourage parents to check out this school for their kids entering kindergarten, to interview the teachers and talk with the principal you will see that this is a great place for an education and it’s only going to get better. What is needed is commitment and involvement, not broad, non-specific criticism based on statistics. 

Steven Donaldson 

• 

REPORTING THE TRUTH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Good for you Becky, I am so glad you didn’t back down to the demands of Patrick Kennedy. But most importantly I’m glad that you are a woman standing up to an arrogant business man who thought he could use a few big words like “libel” and “falsities.” I want to encourage you to continue to report the truth and not allow big business men to intimidate you. 

Sheila Goodwin 

• 

CIRCLE OF VIOLENCE  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is pursuant to your front page article of Oct. 7 (and the ensuing letter to the editor of Oct. 28, by “Name Withheld”). The headline was “Telephone Bomb Threat Following Campus Debate” of Israel vs. Palestine, against a woman-journalist who was a Palestinian advocate. It specified “On Monday you better not be in your office...to kill everyone of you sons of bitches.” That Monday was Yom Kippur. Even a non-religious Jew would never plan to kill on the holiest Jewish Holiday, which, incidentally, is devoted to forgiveness. 

The threat, therefore, was perpetrated by a non-Jew and was a device to garner public attention to vilify Israelis—and it was successful. 

Do you remember the “Yom Kippur War”? It was on that special day that Arab countries made the surprise attack on Israel, which resulted in exacerbating the situation dramatically. 

Violence begets violence, as we have regretfully witnessed. May the extremes on either side be laid to rest and not spill over the rest of the lands. 

It is so deplorable that right now during the holy period of Ramadan the virulence of violence is not diminishing in Iraq. 

Name also withheld 

• 

ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for running an article (“Racism Plays Role in Environmental Decisions,” Daily Planet, Oct. 24-27) that deals with the very important and underreported subject of environmental racism. The locating of hazardous sites in communities of color has existed for quite some time. Race and economic status continue to play an important role in an individual’s exposure to dangerous environmental contaminants. 

Why is it that “the effort to be fair in locating dangerous dumps and factories is simply a low priority,” as quoted in the article? Why is it that important information on the subject can be kept out of sight? This kind of practice can continue so long as those responsible continue to avoid accountability. 

With clear and sound policies explicitly aimed at eliminating these disparities there is hope that a solution can be reached. So that government agencies can no longer pass the buck, it is important that some agency or organization have both the ability to gather information and the authority to enforce regulations regarding the location of hazardous sites. The recommendation that the EPA broaden its authority in order to do this is one possible first step. 

How can we say that we are a society that cares about equality and human rights when people of certain race and economic status are disproportionately targeted for the health risks associated with dangerous exposures to pollutants? 

Michelle Loya-Talamantes 

Student, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley 

• 

STRAWBERRY CREEK 

Dear City Manager, 

The Friends of Strawberry Creek are writing to officials in the City of Berkeley to bring to your attention that any future construction at the current Berkeley Adult School (BAS) site on University Avenue must comply with Berkeley’s Creek Ordinance (Chapter 17.08 Preservation and Restoration of Natural Watercourses). We bring this to your attention because we have heard Michele Lawrence, the Superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD), claim that the district is not subject to this ordinance. 

As you may know, a culverted portion of Strawberry Creek flows under the property on which the BAS now sits. The Creek Ordinance acknowledges that channelization of Berkeley’s creeks has had negative impacts on the watershed and that “streams and their riparian environment should be held as an important public asset in an increasingly endangered environment that provides an unusual urban ecological habitat with recreational and esthetic value” (Section 17.08.020, F). The ordinance goes on to say that “[i]t is in the interest of the City of Berkeley to encourage the removal of culverts and channels…and to restore natural watercourses whenever safely possible” (Section 17.08.020, H). 

The city has given meaning to these findings by stating clearly and unequivocally that it intends to enforce the ordinance. Section 18.080.50 states in pertinent part “it is unlawful for any person, organization, institution, corporation or the City of Berkeley (emphasis added) to construct any structure…within thirty feet of the center line of any creek.” The only exemption provided in the ordinance is to the owner of a single family home who wishes to construct an addition. And even in this case, the conditions under which an exemption can be granted are very narrow. 

It is the position of the Friends of Strawberry Creek that, should new construction take place on the grounds of the BAS, every effort should be undertaken to “daylight” the culverted portion of Strawberry Creek and that in no event should the BUSD be allowed to place any new buildings over the creek. 

Sincerely, 

Janet Byron, President 

Friends of Strawberry Creek 

• 

HEALTHY FORESTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the fires in Southern California demonstrate, it is critical that we focus scarce federal resources in the areas where they will protect communities at risk. Unfortunately, President Bush’s so-called “Healthy” Forests Initiative, which the Senate may vote on this week, fails to adequately protect communities at risk from forest fires.  

It places the care and upkeep of our National Forests in the hands of the logging industry, rather than our National Forest Service and the public, calling for fire prevention management by said industry.  

Will they really do the job, or simply log the biggest, oldest, most profitable, AND most fire-resistant trees, rather than the smaller unprofitable underbrush and saplings. The management of our forests cannot be placed in the hands of those who profit greatest from it; that makes no sense at all.  

It also weakens environmental protections, interferes with the independent judiciary, and undermines public participation in decisions that affect our public lands. But the worst is that it authorizes logging of old growth fire-resistant trees, whose thick bark can stop fire. We need these old growth trees to act as a bulwark against catastrophic wildfires.  

To protect lives and communities at risk from fire, Senators Feinstein and Boxer should vote against this deal and instead focus federal funding and resources on protecting communities at risk of catastrophic wildfire.  

Sierra Barnes 

Oakland 

• 

MARTYRDOM A CRIME? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The currency of journalism is clear language. But clarity of language requires clarity of thought, a fact that seems to have escaped the attention of many journalists. Euphemisms like “collateral damage” abound. Self-absorbed bias—friends are killed but enemies lose their lives—and fuzzy categories like “supporters of the former regime” may be unavoidable but should be kept to a minimum. 

“Terrorist” is one of the most used words in journalists’ lexicon. A terrorist act is a crime and so we are led to believe that a terrorist is a criminal. Are journalists self-serving, servile or just plain lazy to habitually refer to suicide bombers as terrorists? Such labeling inexcusably denies the fact that to his countrymen the suicide is a martyr.  

Why is martyrdom ennobling for us but impossible for our enemies? 

If a person wants to spread fear then suicide is an extreme and stupid way to do it. Suicide is not done solely for the purpose of terrorizing. Were it so we’d have to interpret Patrick Henry’s famous cry, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” as an endorsement of terrorism.  

Finally, referring to suicide bombers as terrorists implicitly ignores the central fact of Jesus’ life. According to St. John’s Gospel, Chapter 15, verse13, “Greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends.” 

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The depth of the tragedy in Southern California cannot be imagined. Thousands of homes destroyed. 17 people dead so far. Governor Davis is doing everything he possibly can to help. Where is Arnold? According to Yahoo News and Alternet, he is in Nevada congratulating Mr. Olympus and in Washington congratulating Mr. Shrub. 

Most of the communities destroyed by this horrible plague apparently voted overwhelmingly for Schwarzenegger. Why isn’t he out on the front lines a la Mayor Guiliani—consoling his fan club and urging the sleep-deprived firefighters on? Apparently, Arnold prefers to hobnob with Republicans in Washington, the same people who are now infamous among firefighters throughout America for slashing “big government” aid that would have kept our fire departments strong. Bush and Co. have made every effort in the past two years to downsize the very firefighters who are now California’s front line defense against the “worst natural disaster of the century.”  

And these are the people that Arnold is asking to aid us now? 

The results of the California recall elections aren’t all that set in stone. They have not yet been certified and are, in reality, uncertifiable until the Secretary of State can examine Diebold’s software for irregularities—an act which Diebold has declared to be a felony activity. (Since when has vote verification become a felony?) In addition, at least 9% of L.A county’s punchcard ballots are questionable.  

As a citizen of California, I demand a recount. And I also demand that Arnold Schwarzenegger stop fiddling around while SoCal burns! 

Jane Stillwater 

A prominent Berkeley contractor has been cited for 17 violations of California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal-OSHA) regulations from their renovation of a Hayward commercial building, including the improper removal, handling, and dumping of asbestos material. 

If Kimes Morris Construction company does not win its appeal to the Cal-OSHA Appeals Board, it faces fines of nearly $36,000. 

A decision on the 15-year-old firm’s appeal, which was held during a three-day hearing before an Administrative Law Judge in Oakland earlier this month, is not expected for several weeks. 

Kimes Morris advertises itself as “developers and builders of commercial, residential and mixed-use community friendly buildings in the Berkeley area.” The Hayward building is part-owned by Coastal View Associates, a separate company owned by Kimes Morris owners Andrew Kimes and James Morris. 

An attorney representing Kimes Morris in the Cal-OSHA appeal said this week that the company had no prior knowledge of the presence of asbestos in the building, and said the contractors immediately corrected the problems as soon as they were brought to the company’s attention. 

“Kimes Morris regrets what happened out there,” said Attorney Fred Walter of the Walter Law Firm of Healdsburg, occupational safety and health law experts who represented Kimes Morris at the appeals board hearing. They have accepted that there was asbestos there, Walter said. “They have accepted all of the citations for asbestos exposure and the failure to [take proper precautions]. The one thing that they are adamantly set against is the allegation that what they did was deliberate. That’s not the way they’ve done business. That’s not the way they treat their workers. And they’re pissed off.” 

The asbestos removal violations, which Cal-OSHA inspectors said occurred in November and December, 2001, and early January, 2002, were discovered by landfill operators after Kimes Morris workers disposed of asbestos-laden building waste in a dumpster next to the building.  

Some of the violations involved failure by the company to provide workers with proper respiratory protection and failure to use cleanup methods that would keep asbestos dust from escaping into the air. Walter estimated that “10 or 12” workers were exposed to the asbestos without adequate protection for as short a period of “a few days” and as long as a month. The workers were regular Kimes Morris employees. 

The violations were originally reported to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which notified Cal-OSHA. After renovation of the building was shut down by Cal-OSHA in March of last year, Kimes Morris subcontracted the asbestos removal to a company specializing in that field, and renovations to the building have since been completed. 

The most damaging findings made by Cal-OSHA against Kimes Morris was that as part owner of the Hayward building, the contractors should have known about the presence of the asbestos before the renovations began. The other part-owner of the building, Richard A. Fishman, was informed of the presence of asbestos in an environmental survey released to him in January of 2001. 

Cal-OSHA inspectors also charged that Kimes Morris should have known how to properly handle asbestos removal because of the company’s past experience in demolition/renovation of a building containing asbestos. Kimes Morris was hired by Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy’s Panoramic Interests company to tear down the building that paved the way for the Artech Building on Milvia Street. 

While admitting that the company violated asbestos safety regulations, Walter denied the charges that Kimes Morris knew about the presence of asbestos in the building and intentionally violated the regulations. 

Walter said that the allegation that Kimes Morris knew about both the regulations and the presence of asbestos and then willfully sent workers into a potentially dangerous situation is “almost laughable. They’re just making the assumption that somebody who’s been in any kind of construction for fifteen years will know what to do when you walk into a building of a particular age.” 

“More than 95 percent of [Kimes Morris’] work has been new construction,” Walter continued. “The remaining two to five percent has been in remodeling. They only contracted for the demolition of the building that was in place of where the Artech Building is now. They were advised by that demo contractor that they would have to do asbestos abatement there. They coordinated the [asbestos] abatement work, but it was all done administratively from their office. Kimes Morris arranged for an abatement contractor to go in and do the abatement [at the Milvia Street site]. They didn’t do the abatement themselves. The Hayward building was the first time that [Kimes Morris has] done demolition work themselves.” 

“Both Andy [Kimes] and Jim [Morris] saw the building [before it was renovated], but did not realize that there was a potential for asbestos. It didn’t cross their minds. They’re too new to demolition work to have appreciated the dangers their employees were facing. They went ahead and did the work. In the middle of it, there was discovered there was asbestos.” 

As for the January, 2001 environmental report given to the Hayward building’s co-owner, Richard Fishman, Walter said that Fishman testified at the appeals hearing that he “never cracked it, never looked at it, filed it away, and never mentioned it to anybody, including Jim [Kimes] and Andy [Morris] when they became partners in the building.” 

A statewide coalition on immigrant workers rights has charged Kimes Morris with discrimination against immigrant workers in the Hayward asbestos case, citing its allegation that all of the workers improperly exposed to the asbestos were Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants. 

“Immigrant workers get hired [all the time] to do the dirtiest jobs in our society...for minimal pay and with blatant disregard for their health and safety,” Antonio Belmonte, a spokesperson for Working Immigrant Safety and Health (WISH), said in a prepared press statement. “Employers take advantage of Latino workers like those who don’t speak English and are desperate for any work they can get.” Belmonte works in the Labor Occupational Health Program at UC Berkeley. 

Walter refuted the allegation that “these are a couple of white contractors making victims of immigrant workers. Andy Kimes is part-Indian. He spent ten years living in Costa Rica doing subsistence farming after he graduated from UCLA as an economics major. He speaks Spanish fluently. The employees who testified at the hearing all were earning between $18 and $24 an hour, and all were receiving Kaiser benefits from the company. So for Mr. Belmonte to imply that Kimes Morris is giving these people minimal pay and blatantly disregarding their health and safety is just a failure of his own to check his facts.” Walter said that while the employee pay on the Hayward building job was “a little bit below union scale, it ain’t peanuts.” 

Walter said that “part of the undercurrent of the decision by OSHA to cite this one citation as willful is the idea that [OSHA] jumped to the conclusion that Kimes Morris was taking advantage of Latino workers who don’t speak English, are desperate for work, and will do anything that the employer tells them to do. In truth, none of that applies to Kimes Morris Construction.” 

Breathing asbestos particles can cause mesothelioma, an invariably fatal form of lung cancer that can take decades to develop.

With all the attention on the budget battles in Sacramento and Washington, the financial crisis facing cities has slipped mostly under the radar. But cities provide most of the front line services used by Californians, and throughout California those city services are on the chopping block. 

• Elimination of fire inspectors, a fire truck, and rotating closures of fire stations.  

• Cuts to youth programs, teen counselors, and health workers.  

• Complete elimination of police bicycle patrols and city arts programs. 

Those are just a few of the cuts being considered by Berkeley officials as they work to close a deficit that may top 13 percent of the city’s general fund—a $15 million cut out of a $110 million budget—next year alone.  

Berkeley and other cities are faced with stark choices—whether to raise new revenue or allow these core programs to be cut. 

In Berkeley, Mayor Tom Bates proactively convened a group of residents to examine how the city might meet this budget crisis. This group, the Mayor’s Task Force on Revenue, includes members of the League of Women Voters, members of the Chamber of Commerce, retirees, educators, business owners, UC students, and others. 

Task force members heard from experts on city finances, economic development, and public opinion. They debated tax options, seriously discussed ideas for business development, and considered all the potential impacts of additional taxes on homeowners and small businesses. (Agendas and meeting notes are available at the mayor’s website, www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/mayor.) 

The truth is that this budget crisis is not Berkeley’s fault. A UC Berkeley public policy professor recently wrote in a national magazine that Berkeley is “a model of how government ought to work.” The city used a hiring freeze and other measures to cushion the $6 million it has already cut from the budget. In fact, Berkeley’s astute financial management has earned it one of the highest bond ratings in California—saving the city millions of dollars in interest payments. 

The real problem is that the state’s budget woes are trickling down to cities, and Berkeley is no exception. As much as $6 million of the deficit was created when the state-run employee retirement system (CalPERS) required a far larger city contribution than they had previously projected. Another $6 million will be carved out of the budget if the governor-elect succeeds in eliminating the vehicle license fee. 

We can all hope that fiscal sanity returns to Sacramento, but we must take responsibility for making responsible choices here at home. In the end, it is Berkeley’s fire protection on the line.  

Faced with this choice, the task force did what the leaders in Sacramento and Washington have been unable to do. The members came to unanimous agreement that Berkeley cannot just cut its way out of this deficit.  

The task force recommended a balanced approach—careful cuts balanced with a tax increase. If placed on the ballot and passed by voters, this tax increase would raise $10 million per year by increasing the amount paid by homeowners an average of $250. The task force also recommended that this tax measure be accompanied by an exemption for low-income homeowners, as well as serious accountability measures such as a citizen’s oversight committee and a five-year sunset provision. 

Cuts will still be necessary, but this revenue increase allows the city to protect its front line services until the economy is strong and the state is out of its financial mess. 

Even the best-managed cities face difficult and painful choices. The best we can do right now is to take care of our responsibilities here at home. If we’re lucky, that fiscal sanity might rub off on those in the state capitol. 

Dion Aroner was chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Task Force on City Revenue. She previously served six years in the State Assembly and is currently a partner in the Berkeley-based government affairs consulting group AJE Partners.

Considering unusual places to see fine art in Berkeley?  

Maybe it’s time to visit the Faculty Club on the university campus.  

While it’s not a formal art gallery or museum, the club contains a growing display of permanent and historic art works, and also features intriguing temporary exhibits of art. 

In recent years, the main corridor has been used as a small gallery for changing art exhibits. The displays include paintings in oil or other media, watercolors, photographs, or other forms of visual art. All the exhibitors are associated with the Club as members or affiliates. 

The art displays change monthly and are generally very accomplished, although there’s an occasional exhibit demonstrating more enthusiasm than talent. Styles range from traditional to quite contemporary and avant garde. Many of the artists are also noted scholars. 

Elsewhere in the Club, several pieces of permanent art—some of them incorporated into the architecture—are on display.  

For example, in the O’Neill Room there’s a wonderful 1929 fresco by faculty member Ray Boynton showing a stylized view up Campanile Way, the Berkeley Hills beyond, and two golden allegorical nudes holding the sun and moon, respectively. 

In the Howard Lounge a relief sculpture of the Greek Theatre honors the university’s supervising architect, John Galen Howard. The artwork was created in 1955 by Jacques Schnier, who also did the monumental “St. George and the Dragon” sculpture on the northwest corner of Berkeley High School. 

In the Club’s Great Hall stained glass panels depict emblems of major universities with which Cal faculty have felt particular affinity, including Stanford, represented by a redwood tree on a vivid red and white background. Bernard Maybeck’s carved animal-head beams, constructed a century ago, flank the glass panels. 

The Club also has on display a number of prints and commemorative portraits by various artists, as well as several intriguing paintings by early 20th century professor Perham Nahl. In the words of the Club’s art historian, Phyllis Brooks, “Isadora-style young women dance and toss billiard balls to each other in a woodsy setting” across two murals Nahl did in the Heyns Room. Although no clear explanation of the paintings survives in Club records, it is known that billiards was a popular activity amongst early members. 

The permanent art collection at the Faculty Club was significantly expanded this fall with several important paintings by Berkeley faculty. Collectively called “The Berkeley School Collection, 1930-1950,” the paintings are gifts of several donors brought together by Professor of Art Emeritus Karl Kasten. 

“With Karl’s help we amassed a wonderful group of pictures,” says Brooks. The paintings are now all hung together in the Club’s O’Neill Room, creating a mini-gallery in the midst of the campus. 

Visual art has a long but somewhat unsettled heritage at Berkeley. Drawing was taught from the university’s early years, but typically as a skill necessary for practical subjects such as mechanical engineering, architecture, and even agriculture and military training. 

Three local notables—architect Bernard Maybeck, artist and writer Gelett Burgess, later famous for his “Purple Cow” rhyming, and Ross Brower, father of environmentalist David Brower—were UC drawing instructors at various points in those early years. 

The arrival of German-born painter Eugene Neuhaus finally began to establish a precarious formal foothold for the practice and teaching of fine art on the campus. Neuhaus would also later serve as a Faculty Club president. 

In 1923, he convinced the university administration to establish an art department. By that decade, according to Kasten, “California had to assert itself as not only a producer but a trainer of artists.” 

A decade later Neuhaus made another pivotal contribution to Berkeley when he suggested that the obsolete brick powerhouse on campus just east of Sather Gate be turned into an art venue. The resulting University Art Gallery conceived and hosted small scale but notable exhibits for more than 30 years. 

As inevitably happens in the art world, however, Neuhaus and his colleagues were ultimately displaced by a younger group of artists who viewed the established faculty as outdated traditionalists and took over leadership of the Berkeley painting scene from the 1930s through the 1950s. 

The accomplishments of that period drew the attention of a banquet hall full of alumni, faculty, and friends going nearly back to the beginning—the mid-1930s, in some cases—who gathered at the Faculty Club on Thursday, Oct. 23, to honor the donation of the artworks and the 80th anniversary of the department. 

Wine glasses in hand, guests admired the small exhibit of paintings then sat down to dinner in Maybeck’s Great Hall accompanied by a slideshow by Kasten, recalling his graduate school and early faculty days at Berkeley. 

In a three-decade period, Kasten said, beginning in the late 1920s when Worth Ryder joined the faculty, the Department of Art struck out in new directions, eventually cohering into what became known as the Berkeley School of painting. 

“Time is constantly modifying the views we have of artists,” Kasten observes. “The Berkeley School became less immediately important to a later generation moving more and more to abstraction and expressionism. But time also brings reassessment and the reputation of the Berkeley School and its followers is once again rising.” 

One of Ryder’s pivotal actions was bringing modernist German painter Hans Hoffman—with whom he’d studied in Germany—to the Berkeley campus as a guest instructor.  

Hoffman had two important impacts. First, he inspired several local painters. Later, in the 1960s, Hoffman, grateful for the opportunity the University extended to him in the 30s to work outside Nazi Germany, willed the university a large number of his paintings that became the nucleus of the university’s modern Berkeley Art Museum. 

In the art department’s early days, Kasten said, the “Berkeley School” was facetiously called the “One Hair School” by some San Francisco artists because of the delicate lines many of the Berkeley painters incorporated in their work with fine hair brushes.  

In friendly retaliation “the Berkeley people referred to the San Francisco crowd as the ‘Big Feet School’ because they were following Diego Rivera,” whose paintings and murals often featured figures with oversized appendages. 

Among the Berkeley faculty at the time was Professor Chiura Obata “a great teacher with real sensitivity,” Kasten said. One of the first non-white members of the Berkeley faculty, the Japanese-born Obata was interned by the government during World War II, but later returned to Berkeley.  

One of Obata’s paintings, a delicate filigree of peach-colored rhododendron blossoms, is now included in the Faculty Club collection. Other painters featured in the permanent exhibit are faculty members James McCray, Erle Loran, John Haley, Kasten himself, and graduate student Mary Dumas.  

Several of their paintings show Berkeley scenes, such as Haley’s 1932 view of the Church of the Good Shepherd in West Berkeley and Loran’s “The Berkeley Campus,” a lush view of the 1940s landscape north of the Life Sciences Building. All the artworks now adorn the walls of the O’Neill Room. 

“The Faculty Club is one of the jewels of the campus and another jewel is now the room in which the paintings reside”, says Brooks. 

In one corner of the room a vivid red and black Cubist-inspired portrait by Margaret Peterson stands out. Peterson, like Obata, had a bittersweet connection to the Berkeley campus; in 1949-50, she left her teaching job as one of those who refused on principle to sign the University’s McCarthy-era anti-Communist Loyalty Oath. 

But now, as with the other artists, one of her artworks has a permanent home on the campus. 

(SIDEBAR – INFORMATION ON VISITING THE FACULTY CLUB) 

Although the very name “Faculty Club” perhaps conjures images of aloof inaccessibility, the 101-year-old Berkeley campus institution is anything but.  

You don’t need to be a Club member to eat there and the meals are remarkably affordable. 

You can purchase a sandwich or generous buffet lunch on a weekday and eat informally on an outdoor terrace or at one of the sturdy wooden tables in Maybeck’s Great Hall, since 1903 a gathering place for the intellectual giants of the university (they eat sandwiches, too). Or you can have lunch or dinner in the elegant, white tablecloth Kerr Dining Room, overlooking Faculty Glade. There’s also a cozy bar. 

Guests referred by members or campus departments can stay in the hotel rooms upstairs at the Club, and the Club’s rooms are also available for rental for meetings and special events. The Club has become a popular place for weekend weddings. 

For information on hours, policies and meal service, call the Club’s front desk at 540-5678 or visit its website at http://berkeleyfacultyclub.com. If you wish to see the O’Neill Room art display, please check at the front desk for directions to the room and to make sure it isn’t in use for a meeting. A description of the Club’s artworks, written by Phyllis Brooks, is also available for $1 at the front desk. 

The craftsman-style Faculty Club is located on the UC Berkeley campus, on the eastern edge of Faculty Glade just south of Strawberry Creek. Don’t confuse it with the nearby Women’s Faculty Club—another elegant and venerable campus establishment—that stands to its east.

Berkeley scored a victory against the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), after a regional regulatory board ordered the lab to implement the highest possible standards to clean up contaminated groundwater at its Berkeley Hills campus. 

At a community forum on the cleanup Tuesday evening, the San Francisco Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board—acting on a written request from the city—announced that it will order the lab to reduce contamination to levels allowable for drinking water—a standard lab officials say might be impossible to achieve. 

“The public got a good deal today,” said Berkeley Hazardous Materials Supervisor Nabil Al-Hadithy, attending the forum sponsored by the State Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)—which will supervise the cleanup. 

In recent years, the water board has lowered standards for cleanups, allowing municipalities and other entities to decontaminate areas that pose a public health risk, but not requiring them to return the polluted groundwater to drinking standards. 

Although they found that the contaminants buried underneath the lab pose little threat to the surrounding community, the water board sided with Berkeley, holding that restoring groundwater to drinking standards would benefit the community. 

The city’s victory was not total, however. The DTSC, which has final say over the cleanup of contaminated soil, will permit a risk-based decontamination—meaning that the lab will can ignore the majority of the sites where cancer risks are minuscule. 

Residents at the meeting cheered the Water Board ruling, but criticized the lab for not giving more input into the cleanup process and for ignoring the nuclear waste which they claim also lies in the soils and waters underneath the lab. 

Al-Hadithy and residents also questioned whether the lab’s overseers in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) would pay for the more thorough cleanup sought by the water board. Hemant Patel, a project manager at the DOE, said he expected Congress to allocate about $3.5 million annually through 2006, which he said should be enough to meet the drinking water target. 

Most of the chemical contamination at the 71-year-old lab occurred decades ago, before hazardous waste disposal laws enacted in the 1970s ended indiscriminate dumping of toxic chemicals on the lab’s 200-acre campus. 

For the past 10 years the lab—which conducts research in physics, biology, geology and chemistry—has worked to identify contaminated areas, brainstorm ways to decontaminate the sites and perform some cleanups.  

Now, with the DOE requiring the lab to have all cleanup mechanisms in place by 2006, LBNL has until May to present for DTSC approval a plan to perform the requisite soil and groundwater remediation. Approval is expected to take about a year following a public comment period—leaving the lab roughly a year and a half to perform the cleanup. 

DTSC scientists at Tuesday’s meeting asserted that lab employees and visitors face no health risks, but acknowledged that some contaminated soils and groundwater plumes would have to be cleaned.  

Of the 29 contaminated soil sites, DTSC required cleanup at the four sites where the theoretical cancer risk was rated above 100 cases per million, the common standard used for “institutional” properties. 

The water board mandated that groundwater be cleaned to a higher standard: a theoretical cancer risk of 1 incident per 100 million. Under that benchmark, the lab will have to restore 11 of the 13 contaminated sites to drinking water standards. 

Although the city sought equally strict standards for both surface and ground water cleanups, Al-Hadithy said that groundwater poses a greater health risk because it slowly migrates downhill from the lab towards residential areas and is more difficult to manage if not cleaned up. 

Groundwater at the site is not used for human consumption, but the city had argued that in case of emergency or for future uses at the site, the community would benefit from being able to tap the groundwater for public use. 

The decision of the water board surprised city officials, who feared that with federal cleanup money dwindling, the water board would hold the lab to less rigorous standards. 

In 1996, the water board pioneered a relaxed cleanup standard—quickly adopted nationally—that allowed localities to pave over contaminated soils and groundwater to isolate them from human contact, rather than paying for costlier decontamination. Under those standards, Emeryville famously sealed huge plots of contaminated land as sites for shopping centers over them. 

The DTSC only has jurisdiction over chemical pollution, infuriating neighbors who insist that nuclear contamination—which falls under the authority of the DOE—also poses serious health risks. 

“They should have combined the chemical and radioactive information into one document,” said Pamela Shivola of the Committee to Minimize Toxic Waste, which has attempted to monitor lab activity for years. “We’ve received only a partial picture only analyzing a partial risk.” 

DTSC toxicologist Calvin Willhite replied that there was no scientific data to support a synchronistic effect between chemical and radioactive waste in soils or groundwater. 

Neighbors questioned claims by lab officials about the Summary of Radionuclide Investigations approved by the DOE in September, which held that there was no need to cleanup nuclear material in the soil, much of it produced from years of testing tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. 

Shivola said she has never been made aware of the lab’s study, which officials say is available for review at the public library. 

A senior scientist who requested anonymity said that tritium levels in the soil and groundwater around the lab are within acceptable standards, but that purifying some of the chemically contaminated groundwater sites to drinkable standards would be impractical.  

“If you spent the whole budget of the United States you cannot clean all of this,” he said. “We will attempt it but we will prove that it is impossible.” 

Most of the chemicals are solvents used to remove grease, he said.

I contemplate the depth beneath my stride 

and count myself most fortunate indeed 

for neither 'tis too broad nor 'tis too wide 

my pathway to entirely impede 

but cannot glance ahead nor look behind 

nor revel in the beauty of the trees 

nor can afford to note a cloud's design 

for fear of landing sudden on my knees 

I concentrate most carefully; each step 

a small but wondrous challenge to complete 

considering attention sidewalks get 

In Berkeley, unless owned by the elite 

connect the dots, O Council! fill a hole! 

we live too close to being on a roll

Depending on how you look at things, it’s either a wonderful or a terrible time to be an independent filmmaker. 

On the one hand, Indies have never been bigger, with the massive commercial success of movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and the Blair Witch Project. 

But success breeds imitation, and nowadays it seems like everyone with a digital camera is making an Indie. In a crowded field it is frustratingly difficult to find an audience for your flick, a feeling made unbearable other filmmakers go blithely Sundancing their way to riches and acclaim. 

The elemental human urge to tell a story is about one second older than the urge to have that story heard and declared magnificent. It’s hard not to worry that the world contains more storytellers than audience members. 

Luckily for these cinematic strivers (and for those of us who love to watch movies), there is the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, a modest but energetic celebration of independent filmmaking that gives a few talented filmmakers their moment in the sun. 

Sixty-five of these have been chosen for inclusion and will be screened in an eye-popping orgy of cineastic bliss, twelve hours a day from noon until midnight. 

Don’t worry about how nice it is outside; November sunshine is more than you deserve, frankly, and you really ought to be hunkered down in a dark room, hoovering popcorn like there’s famine afoot. 

The strength of this festival lies with the documentary films. In an era when tagging along on a stranger’s unpleasant first date qualifies as reality footage, these well-conceived, deeply felt investigations are particularly moving. While there is no requirement that the films have a Bay Area theme, many of them do, and the chance to see our home from a different perspective is much appreciated. 

Bounce: The Don Barksdale Story features one of the first black players in the NBA, a former Berkeley High Yellowjacket who distinguished himself in athletics, radio, business, and philanthropy. 

The footage of Berkeley in the 1930s is arresting, and interviews with Barksdale’s basketball descendants (and Bay Area locals) Jason Kidd and Gary Payton show just how valuable it is to turn away from the present and recall one’s progenitors. 

In general the documentaries tend to be activist, focusing on themes familiar to Berkeley viewers. There are two films that focus on opposition to the war on terror, one about the Black Panthers, one on the horrors of animal trapping and, of course, the obligatory Holocaust documentary. 

Suffice it to say that the fact that separate documentaries about nudists both won Best of Festival Awards firmly locates this collection of films here in the Land of the Free (Speech Movement). 

The best documentary (and possibly the best film of the entire festival) is Brothers on Holy Ground, an enormously affecting piece about the psychological aftermath of 9/11. Director Mike Lennon chooses to focus not on the horrible footage that we all now involuntarily replay in our own minds, but on the unscripted words of the survivors. In these raw interviews we see a young firefighter drowning with guilt over his decision to swap seats on the engine with a buddy, a chance event that left one man dead and the other standing on a downtown street, covered with ashfall and awash in misery.  

Lennon eschews the maudlin tone and imperious politicizing common to many 9/11 documentaries, focusing instead on the quiet rhythms of lives interrupted, the way a fireman calmly chops celery for a firehouse lunch as he muses about the violence of the job and the agony of losing one’s closest friends. 

Fortunately, the festival is not all portentous and important. The presence of animation, short comedies, music videos and even public service announcements gives the mind a bit of a yawn and a stretch before settling back down to the heavy lifting. 

These shorter efforts can be quite winning, allowing the viewer brief dips into the delightfully addled minds of a variety of talented filmmakers. In Lost and Found for example, an odd little man insists that a sculptor has stolen his dentures, and the interaction between the two men borders on the surreal. 

Young producers offer short films with whimsical names like Egyptian Rat War and subject matter such as an insect’s reaction to high culture. 

The music videos are also visually compelling, especially The Dive which was shot underwater and then hand-colored frame by frame for a unique look. 

There’s even a big name hiding among the short pieces—Eminem’s video White America, which was produced and directed by the local Guerilla News Network. It’s an excellent video; the graphics are simple and powerful, and Eminem’s lyrics are, as always, refreshingly self-aware and unsentimental. 

If anything, the video is too good in the context of the other films; Eminem’s star power and overwhelming marketing machinery feels a little unfair, like Shaquille O’Neal stopping by the Berkeley Y for a pickup game. 

Without the aid of an intravenous feeding tube and a vampiric love of the dark, there’s simply no way to see all of the movies on offer here. Viewers will have to look deeply into themselves and make tough decisions. 

Will you see Temptation, the Grand Festival Award winner, a lighthearted feature film about new-age pornographers—please, it’s erotica, not porn!—or will you stick with uplifting and earnest by picking the foot-stomping fun of Los Zafiros, a dance through the raucous world of Cuban music? 

However you choose, you’re bound to see a few stinkers. But the joy is in the hunt, and there are diamonds littered throughout this field. 

It’s a fine time to be an independent film watcher, and the Berkeley Video and Film Festival has done an impressive job of collecting compelling movies that may mark the emergence of big time talent. 

The festival runs from noon until midnight this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 1 and 2. Tickets and show times can be found at www.berkeleyvideofilmfest.org and the movies will be shown at Wheeler Auditorium on the UC campus.

Following a heated five-hour sentencing hearing Tuesday, three UC Berkeley students—Michael Smith, Snehal Shingavi and Rachel Odes—are waiting to learn what, if any, punishments the university will mandate for their actions during a March 23 campus anti-war protest.  

After hearing proposed punishments from campus Judicial Officer Neal Rajmaira and a spirited defense from the students, a panel of professors, staff and students has one week to draw up a letter spelling out its own recommendations to Dean of Students Karen Kenney. Once the recommendations are submitted, the students will be able to make an appeal before Kenney decides what, if any, punishments the students will receive.  

During an earlier hearing on Oct. 14, all three students were found responsible for one count each of disturbing the peace and non-compliance with the directives of a university officer, violations of the student code of conduct. 

Shingavi and Odes could receive 20 hours of community service and a letter of warning in their file that would be reported should the students apply for a government job or waive their rights to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Smith, who was also found to have committed a third and separate violation of resisting a university officer, faces a one-semester suspension that would start next spring. 

Rajmaira said the suggested penalties fall within a range where a nonreportable letter of warning—one that isn’t reported to law enforcement or governmental agencies—is the mildest penalty and full expulsion the most severe. 

From the onset, the students have called the disciplinary proceedings unfair and unwarranted. They denounced the recommended punishments Tuesday, charging that the university is trying to railroad them for a peaceful event. 

The students have drawn support from across the country, and activists signed a full page ad that ran in the Daily Californian’s Monday edition. One signatory, Green party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo, spoke at a press conference before Monday’s hearing, accompanied by Rachel Ode’s mother, Jackie McGlamery.  

“The U.S. is in violation of international law,” Camejo said, “and I’m here to say that the university should respect international law. These students are trying to defend the Constitution and international law and should be given medals, not expelled.” 

During Tuesday’s hearing, the three students vigorously challenged the proposed punishments, and complained that the university had violated their right to due process by not giving them sufficient time to mount an adequate defense for the earlier hearing. They were also challenged the university’s decision to press charges stemming from a peaceful event that they said the university knew about well in advance. 

One witness the students called Tuesday was Marcia Riley, Director of Student Group Administration for the Office of Student Life. She testified that she had talked to protest organizers “at least half a dozen times,” before the event, adding that she had seen several sit-ins in the past and that “this one was not more disruptful than others.” 

Shingavi, a veteran campus organizer, said he thought more preparation and communication had gone into the planning for the protest than for any other in the past 20 years. 

“I’ve been arrested five times for political protest, and the precedent for sit-ins in the past has been a letter of warning/no report,” said Shingavi, who said that the university was trying unfairly to make examples of the students. 

Shingavi derided the university for capitalizing on its image as the home of the free speech movement while prosecuting students for peaceful protests. 

“It baffles me that the university is willing to go after three protesters while no other university across the country is doing the same thing,” he said. “It will speak volumes to how this university has changed in 30 years if the convictions are handed down.” 

More than 4,000 students appeared for the March event on the steps of Sproul Hall, called to protest the beginning on the American war on Iraq. The arrests began after 400 of the students entered the hall a sit-in. 

Tuesday’s hearing grew heated when Rajmaira accused Smith of participating in a “racially motivated” incident two years ago where—Rajmaira claimed—Smith had been arrested by Berkeley officers after confronting a group of Asian men. Rajmaira called the event “a very serious case,” and cited it as the principal reason for increasing Smith’s punishment beyond the letter of warning and community service he recommended for the others. 

An angry Smith called Rajmaira’s characterization of the incident “untrue, offensive and disgusting.” 

“It is true that I was involved in a fight off campus,” said Smith, who said he had confronted not the Asian men but the officer—who he thought was harassing the Asians. He said Rajmaira’s version of the incident proved “that [the university] is going to go after us in any way to railroad us. It shows that [Mr. Rajmaira] is not interested in the truth.” 

The tribunal then retreated into a closed-door session in which tribunal members examined the university report and consulted both sides. When the panel re-emerged, they voted to reject Rajimira’s account of the incident. 

Both sides continued to exchange words over the incident, with the students accusing Rajmaira of introducing the allegation in an effort to railroad the defendants and lambasting him for trying to label Smith a racist. 

Rajmaira responded in an equally hostile tone, “I’m not backing off one bit from what I think these records indicate.”  

At that point, panel chair and Physics Professor Burt Jacobson raised his hand to silence both sides. 

The three students also questioned the process used to single them out for punishment. When they cross-examined Rajmaira’s assistant, he said the three had been singled out for punitive action after he checked the records of all 119 students originally arrested at the protest and found that only Odes, Smith, Shingavi and one other student (who later accepted a plea bargain) had prior offenses. 

That question proved compelling enough to convince Jacobson to propose conducting his own independent records check to make certain that the three hadn’t been unfairly targeted—but he quickly learned that his inquiry might be derailed by issues of student privacy. 

The hearing closed after both sides finished their arguments and rebuttals and Jacobson announced that the panel would issue its recommendations in one week. 

Most of the small crowd of spectators quickly departed, leaving the room to the three students and a few supporters, who engaged in a spirited discussion of what had just happened. 

“I knew beforehand the university was going after us and that they wanted a conviction instead of the truth,” Smith said. “But I’m a little flabbergasted at the tactics [Rajmaira] used.” 

Shingavi agreed. “The arrogance of Rajmaira betrays the university’s idea that this is not a vendetta,” he said. 

Odes was more positive, saying that she thought the hearing allowed the students to make their case—but he agreed that they were under attack. “It proves how much they want to convict us,” she said. 

Rajmaira told a reporter he “was happy both sides were able to appear and I am awaiting the panels’ findings and recommendations.”

My first memory of Roger Montgomery was when I was a graduate student in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley in 1978. I took his class on Community Development. Roger was well-known at the time as being a critic of the infamous federal “Urban Renewal” program that had displaced so many low-income minorities from inner-city neighborhoods during the 1960s that it had been informally renamed the “Negro Removal Program.” Roger had provided expert faculty support to a movement to block urban renewal in the west Berkeley flatlands, and had helped to stop a substantial degree of displacement that would otherwise have occurred. Roger was a passionate political progressive, and he brought his passions into his classroom teaching in a way that I greatly admired. I particularly remember him drawing a picture on the blackboard of the widely heralded urban renewal in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, home to the University of Chicago, and I was struck by the way a policy activist like Roger could think in such distinctly visual images.  

A short time later I was hired by Roger as a graduate research assistant and did a major project, inspired by Roger, on the history of urban renewal. My research was published in 1980 as what is now a quite well-known article in the urban planning field, “The Origins and Legacy of Urban Renewal.” This article was very controversial at the time, as it critiqued the prevailing view among planners that urban renewal was a “failure” that produced negative consequences that were not intended by the program designers and managers. I argued, with Roger’s enthusiastic support, that in fact urban renewal did exactly what it was designed to do, and that its intentions were clearly understood all the way back to the origins of the program originally called “district replanning” back in the 1920s. Roger helped stiffen my backbone and find the courage to stand my ground. In the end, with his help, we won this debate, and my historical argument, once so controversial, has since become the standard interpretation in the field, and within decade after publication the article was even called a “classic” by two distinguished urban planning scholars in a literature review. 

Many years after I left UC Berkeley as a “Dr.” I still frequently called upon Roger for advice and support. Two years ago I started working to create the Prague Institute for Global Urban Development, of which one of my other former UC Berkeley professors, Sir Peter Hall, is currently serving as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. From the very beginning I turned to Roger to assist in our efforts, and even though he was already retired from professional activity and severely ill with cancer, he readily agreed to serve as one of the founding members of our international Advisory Board. In his loving memory, the Prague Institute is now dedicating an annual fellowship and memorial lecture to Roger Montgomery 

I dearly loved Roger, and I will miss him more than words can say. My hope is that his soul is not completely resting in heaven, but that he is also still shaking up the system and fighting for social justice, which was always his favorite thing to be doing. May his life inspire many more urbanists to follow in his example, just as Roger as a young man was deeply inspired by his political hero, Norman Thomas. I suppose they will never give Nobel Prizes for urban radicals, but if they did, Roger Montgomery would be my prime candidate. 

Dr. Marc A. Weiss is Chairman of the Prague Institute for Global Urban Development in Prague, Czech Republic and Washington, DC.

Berkeley school district officials are preparing for discussions on an administrative overhaul for Rosa Parks Elementary School, after standardized test scores released last week showed that student performance declined. 

“It behooves us to start looking,” said Carla Bason, BUSD’s manager of state and federal programs. 

No administrative shakeup is imminent.  

Most parents taking their children to school this week said it was the standardized testing system, not the school, that was really failing the students. 

Results of the latest rounds of tests mandated under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act have thrust Rosa Parks into year three of a mandated program improvement regime, requiring the district to implement at least one of several corrective actions ranging from staff replacement to implementation of a new curriculum.  

The law requires substantial reforms for schools that fail to make what it defines as “Adequate Yearly Progress” on standardized tests for several years in a row, with each year bringing stiffer requirements. 

If Rosa Parks fails to meet state standardized test score goals next year, the district will be required to draft a plan to overhaul the school—which could include reopening it as a charter, contracting out management to a private company or a state takeover. The district would have the entire 2004-05 school year to submit the plan. 

The state would give BUSD discretion in drafting any plan, said Maria Reyes of the California Department of Education’s Title I Policy and Partnership Office. “It’s up to the district to do what they think is best,” she said. “I don’t think we’re going to second guess.” 

Reyes said a plan for alternative governance would not force the replacement of second-year principal Shirley Herrera, who parents have praised for bringing stability to the school after four consecutive years with four different principals. 

Rosa Parks first entered the program improvement track in the 1997-98 school year, Reyes said, after district tests showed lagging scores. To escape the process, the school must make “adequate yearly progress” for two consecutive years—which includes meeting state graduation and test participation rates, meeting mandated goals on math and reading proficiency tests and making continued improvements on overall test scores. 

The school faces also another significant obstacle: It’s classified as a “schoolwide school”— a status offered to schools with high percentages of students in federal free and reduced-price lunch programs—which gives the school greater flexibility in spending federal grant money but requires meeting stricter standardized testing goals. 

While many Berkeley schools only need to meet “annual measurable objectives” for the school as a whole and for economically disadvantaged children, all statistically significant subgroups at Rosa Parks must meet state standards. 

This additional requirement didn’t factor into the Annual Performance Index results released last week, which showed that the entire school had dropped 20 basis points on a variety of standardized tests. 

In August, a different round of tests showed that the school as a whole had surpassed state-mandated proficiency levels in English or Math but African American and economically disadvantaged students failed to meet state goals on both sections. 

To improve test scores, federal law requires the school to provide tutoring for struggling students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. 

In two weeks, as many as 30 students will begin the first in a series of eight-week programs designed to help improve English and Math skills. 

Rosa Parks was also required to provide tutoring last year as part of year two of program improvement, but the BUSD program—attended by 40 pupils—did not begin until February and only offered English assistance. 

This year, the program offers six tutors—mostly UC Berkeley students—with study groups consisting of three to five students. Enrollment has been tricky, administrators said, and because all parents received notices describing tutoring options irrespective of whether their child qualified, the school had to reject applications from parents of several high-scoring students. 

School administrators have been contacting parents of eligible students, urging them to apply. “The ones that I’ve called are interested, but that doesn’t mean they will turn in the applications,” said Mira Santos, a Rosa Parks administrator. 

To meet requirements for year three, the district is requiring all teachers at the largely Latino school to enroll in Project GLAD, a teaching method geared to teaching mixed classes of native English speakers and foreign students. 

The program helps teachers develop lessons that incorporate academic language so students are better prepared to take tests and read text books that rely on academic English, according to co-founder Marsha Brechter. She said the training can also help African American students—the subgroup struggling the most at Rosa Parks—if they come from an environment that does not use academic English. 

Program improvement also allows parents to switch their children to other schools. Some parents have complained that since there were no openings in the other two elementary schools in their zone—Thousand Oaks and Jefferson—they had been forced to stay at Rosa Parks. 

Bason said the district received approximately 20 requests for school changes from Rosa Parks. While some were denied due to lack of space in other schools, she said most requests were not related to concern over standardized test scores. 

Most parents interviewed said they had no thoughts of deserting the school. 

“The community is very motivated here,” said Cathy Duenas, the mother of a fifth grader, who said she was more concerned about the tests themselves than the student’s performances. She echoed several parents who expressed concerns about a district-wide trend toward larger class size, citing her son’s math class, which has one teacher for 37 students. 

Parents were universally opposed to any administrative shakeup. “That would be ridiculous,” said David Richie. “They have a great group of teachers and staff. That would only mess that up.” 

One seemingly insignificant requirement for standardized testing may soon land other Berkeley schools in a similar bind. 

Schools are required by federal law to test 95 percent of students, ostensibly to ensure that schools don’t pressure failing students to forgo the test to improve scores. But California doesn’t demand that students take the test, and many Berkeley parents who oppose standardized testing have opted out. 

Only three of Berkeley’s 15 schools met participation goals for tests released in August, and failure to do so for a second consecutive year would force them into program improvement as well.

Berkeley has sent seven firefighters and one engine to San Diego to do battle with the most destructive of the Southern California wildfires. 

Deputy Fire Chief David Orth said Berkeley likely would have committed an extra engine had local conditions also not been ripe for a wildfire. 

Firefighters remaining in Berkeley will work overtime to compensate for their reduced manpower, Orth said, adding that in the case of a brushfire, Berkeley can still field nine standard fire engines and two wildfire engines. 

“The problem now is depth,” he said, noting that many resources available to fight fires in Alameda County, including air support and prison crews trained to cut fire lines, have all been sent to Southern California. 

Of the seven Berkeley firefighters in San Diego, four were assigned to the engine, two are safety specialists and one is a member of his hometowns volunteer unit that was called into service.

The older son of notorious Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy was scheduled to enter a guilty plea today, Friday, Oct. 31, as part of the agreement that will complete the prosecution of family members for smuggling young Indian girls into the country for sex and cheap labor. 

Prasad Lakireddy, 44, was scheduled to stand trial in January on charges of immigration fraud and witness tampering. Last April, federal prosecutors had dropped the more severe charge of travel with intent to engage in sex with a juvenile. 

Lakireddy is the last member of his family to face prosecution. His father, brother, aunt and uncle all accepted plea bargains. 

The family members were charged after the death of 17-year old Chanti Prattpati from carbon monoxide poisoning Nov. 24, 1999, in a Berkeley apartment owned by the Reddys. The girl’s 15-year-old sister survived the gas poisoning, caused by a blocked heating vent. She told federal authorities that she and her sister were flown to the United States and forced to have sex. 

Lakireddy attorney Paul Wolf and federal prosecutor Stephen Corrigan did not return calls about the plea to be offered before U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, who will then schedule a sentencing hearing. 

Last November, Wilken sentenced Lakireddy’s younger brother Vijay to two years in a minimum security prison after he entered a guilty plea to one count of immigration fraud. 

Prasad, Vijay and their father, Lakireddy Bali Reddy, are the subjects of a $100 million class action civil suit filed last year by nine Indian women and the parents of two others.

Stymied Car Theft 

A Berkeley man risked life and limb to keep a thief from making off with his car yesterday. Police said the victim and a co-worker were in the upstairs of his house on the 2500 block of Regent Street at 11:10 a.m. Wednesday when the victim spotted his car motoring down the street. 

The two men ran to the co-worker’s car and raced after the car thieves tracking them down at a red light on the corner of Ashby and Telegraph avenues. The victim then jumped out of the co-worker’s car and reached into his car clutching the driver with one hand and the steering wheel with the other. 

The thief tried to head south on Telegraph with the victim hanging along the side of the car, skidding onto the sidewalk in front of Whole Foods Market and continuing for about 60 feet until he crashed into a tree, sending the victim flying from the car. 

The driver then continued on the sidewalk to Webster Street, where he made it back onto the road and sped away.  

The victim’s co-worker, seeing that the victim was not seriously hurt, followed the car to Ashby and Shattuck Avenues, where the two thieves abandoned the car, which had suffered two blown out tires.  

Berkeley and BART Police, working on descriptions from witnesses, arrested Michael Dow, 33, a transient who they believe was the passenger in the car, for auto theft and felony hit and run. The driver of the car remains at large and police did not have a medical update on the victim. 

Hot Prowl Burglary 

A burglary suspect, scared off by the screams of a resident, ran into the waiting arms of a police officer arriving on the scene Wednesday evening. Police said a woman on the 2900 block of Hillegass heard someone trying to break into her apartment and called 911. 

When a man broke a window and entered her home, the woman began to scream, sending the man running out the front door—where he was met by an policeman responding to the call. The officer ordered the burglar to drop to the floor while he waited for backup to arrive. A further investigation found a 14-year-old alleged accomplice hiding around the corner. Police arrested Prince Bruton, 30, a vagrant, and the juvenile from San Pablo for attempted burglary. 

Courtesy Notices 

In response to concerns about people in wheelchairs navigating through congested sidewalks, the police department has printed up thousands of bright green courtesy notices residents can stick on the windshields of cars parked blocking city sidewalks. The notices carry no penalty and are intended to educate drivers about the hazards they are creating and the penalties associated with the violation. Cars that police find blocking sidewalks are ticketed $47.

Well, you gotta hand it to 9th District State Senator Don Perata. Thanks, in part, to a calendar-challenged Superior Court judge and Attorney General Bill Lockyer (both of whom seem to think that four days equals four years), Mr. Perata has figured out a way to stretch his term limit from the voter -mandated two to a more convenient (for him) three. Now it looks like Mr. Perata, may have simultaneously managed to snooker his toughest opponent out of the race against him.  

And by toughest opponent, I don’t mean our current 16th District Assemblymember, Wilma Chan. 

Like Inigo Montoya said in The Princess Bride, there’s too much here to explain, so I’ll just sum up. 

In 1998, Perata barely edged out then-State Assemblymember Dion Aroner in the Democratic primary to fill the unexpired State Senate term of Barbara Lee. (Some folks say that Mr. Perata won because he snookered Keith Carson into running, thus splitting the vote, but that’s another story.) (Oh. And some of the same folks say that Mr. Perata won because he got a boost from an illegal, last-minute loan from his father in excess of the Special Election contribution limit, a violation for which Mr. Perata was found guilty and fined by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, but that’s another story, too.) (Gosh, these Perata stories are beginning to add up to a whole book of these things.) 

Anyways, Mr. Perata ran unopposed in the 2000 Democratic primary, and got himself re-elected to his second term (or first term, if you count along with the attorney general and Judge James Richman) in November. Meanwhile, Ms. Aroner stayed in the Assembly until she was term-limited out in 2002. In April of this year, a California National Organization for Women newsletter announced that Ms. Aroner “will run for the state Senate when Majority Leader Don Perata ( D-Oakland), is termed out in 2004.” 

Like they say in the Hertz commercial, not exactly. Stick with me gang, ‘cause this is where it gets complicated. 

A couple of things then happened. In 2000, Wilma Chan wins the 16th California Assembly seat from the woeful Audie Bock, with the help of Mr. Perata (the Oakland Tribune calls her Perata’s “protégé”). And then, in 2001, the state legislature rearranges the boundaries of the 9th Senate District to fit population of the 2000 census. The new 9th District boundaries—surprise, surprise—better fits someone running from the southern part of the district (like, say, Alameda and Oakland, where Ms. Chan and Mr. Perata live) than it does someone from the northern part of the district (like, say, Berkeley, where Ms. Aroner lives). Well, maybe not so much of a surprise, since Mr. Perata has a big hand—maybe the biggest hand—in drawing the new lines. 

So a couple of more things happen.  

Ms. Chan announced that she was going to leave the Assembly after only two terms (she has the right to try for three) to run for the 9th Senate District seat that Mr. Perata is (involuntarily) vacating. Thereafter Ms. Aroner, looking at a race against a popular legislator in a district with a lot of voters who don’t know Ms. Aroner, figures that she’d have to run too negative a race to win, and decides she’s not going to run for the State Senate. 

But, suddenly, an odd twist in the story.  

Out of the blue, Mr. Perata decides he wants to run for the State Senate again. He gets State Attorney General Lockyer to agree, even though the term limit law seems to mandate that Mr. Perata cannot serve another term. Everybody assumes that Ms. Chan will now drop out of the race in favor of Mr. Perata, but when I talk to her staff some days after the Lockyer opinion, they tell me that “Wilma is in the race to stay.”  

Okay. Looks like we’re going to have an interesting Senate race in 2004: Chan v. Perata.  

The Protégé Bites Back. 

It looked even more interesting when two East Bay women—with Chan’s support—bring a lawsuit into Superior Court, asking Judge Richman to rule that Perata can’t run for another term.  

Earlier this month, the judge denied their request. But here’s where it got bizarre.  

According to the Tribune: “Chan, who backed the lawsuit leading to this decision, said she’ll consult her attorney and supporters before deciding whether to support an appeal. But she also said she’ll consult Perata, a sign that this challenge to his candidacy was made with his consent—a politically shrewd tactic to preempt any similar lawsuit by Republicans.” 

That left some Aroner supporters absolutely fuming, in the belief that from the beginning this whole thing was a dance set to music by Mr. Perata, having Ms. Chan hold his place in line to keep Ms. Aroner out of the race, with Mr. Perata then jumping back in at the last minute, too late for any serious challenger (Ms. Aroner especially) to take him on. I’ve got calls in to Ms. Chan’s office to get their side of this interesting story, but so far, this looks like as good a case of political snookering as I’ve seen in quite a while.

In The New York Times the other day, Iraq’s new interim president, Iyad Alawi, thanked Americans for liberating his country and then made a simple request: please bring back the Iraqi army.  

Given what we just put into defeating the Iraqi army, that might sound like an odd proposal. But it’s difficult to find anyone today who thinks disbanding the Iraqi army was a good idea in the first place. And few thought it was a good idea at the time. Doing so not only worsened the security vacuum that now plagues the country, it took hundreds of thousands of armed men and—in a pen stroke—made them both unemployed and harder to control.  

Who was the senior administration official most responsible for this ill-conceived idea?  

Vice President Dick Cheney.  

If that surprises you, it shouldn’t. The rough patch the White House has been in since the beginning of the summer has provided an abundance of new evidence for the great open secret of the Bush era: the serial poor judgment and, in many cases, manifest incompetence of the vice president.  

Don’t believe me? Just start with the still-brewing scandal over the outing of Valerie Plame.  

Two weeks ago Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) gave voice to widespread and well-founded suspicions that Cheney’s office is the epicenter of the plot to expose Plame’s identity as a clandestine CIA operative. But the Plame story is just the latest chapter in an almost-two-year tug of war over claims that Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from Niger.  

It started when Cheney’s request for more information about the already-discredited Niger charges triggered the CIA’s decision to send former Ambassador Joe Wilson to Niger. It heated up in the fall of 2002 as the CIA and the White House wrestled over whether the uranium claims should appear in the president’s speeches. And it hit a climax when the charges got into the president’s 2003 State of the Union address.  

As those who have followed these stories know, the thread that connects each of these incidents is the central involvement of the Office of the Vice President. Cheney’s recent effort to revive the now thoroughly discredited tie between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11 attacks was only the most recent, most public and most embarrassing instance of his role in misguided and manipulated uses of American intelligence.  

As I wrote almost a year ago in The Washington Monthly, take almost any blunder, miscalculation or bad act from the Bush White House and you’ll find Dick Cheney behind it.  

Consider a few more examples.  

What was the main legacy of the vice president’s energy task force? A bill? No, it was embroiling the administration in a series of controversies and lawsuits all tied to Cheney’s insistence on running the outfit with a near-Nixonian and ultimately self-defeating secrecy.  

Cheney was also responsible for shelving the recommendations of the Hart-Rudman commission so that he could spearhead his own task force so that he could put the administration’s stamp on whatever anti-terrorism reforms eventually got adopted. But Cheney got distracted by other matters, and his task force didn’t get down to business until after Sept. 11.  

After the attacks, Cheney was one of several key advisers arguing that the White House should keep Tom Ridge’s Office of Homeland Security within the White House rather than upgrade it to a Cabinet department and thus open it to congressional scrutiny. Cheney’s obstinacy ensured that the administration’s efforts on Homeland Security were stuck in neutral for nearly eight months.  

In March 2002—right about the time he started poking his nose into the Niger uranium business—Cheney embarked on his only major diplomatic initiative: a tour of Middle Eastern capitals to line up support for war against Iraq. The initiative was a test-case for the first principle of Cheney’s foreign policy: that a strong hand from Washington is the key to building consensus among America’s allies.  

The vice president went to the region to get moderate Arab leaders to line up behind the United States against Iraq. But when he returned a week later, those friendly Arab states were reconciling with Iraq for the first time in more than a decade at a summit of the Arab League in Beirut. It was a major embarrassment for the White House and a signal rebuke for Cheney’s brand of clumsy, strong-arm diplomacy.  

Oh, one last goof: Cheney and the now-fired Larry Lindsey were the two principal voices responsible for the president’s early and self-defeating opposition to the serious securities law reform that eventually became Sarbanes-Oxley bill.  

Certainly those various Cheney initiatives are ones I would personally disagree with. But in almost every case time has shown they were substantively and politically misguided as well as damaging to the administration.  

Because he’s the consummate insider and so many Washington players have known him for years, Cheney has been able to maintain a reputation as the Bush administration’s steady hand at the tiller. The reality has always been otherwise.  

Now official Washington may finally be starting to see the light.

The name of artist-writer Karen Kemp in the story about Berkeley paths on page 20 of the Oct. 24-27 issue was incorrectly reported as Karen Kerm.

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series by UC Berkeley journalism students on the paths of Berkeley.  

At 1095 Keeler Ave., a modest modern house stretches across a small sloping lawn. Inside someone is playing the piano. Soon a honeyed, baritone voice joins in, singing “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” alongside. The effect is both beautiful and haunting, as the melody spills out of the windows on a hot afternoon. The voice belongs to George Turman, 76, a professional musician originally from Nashville. He’s also the pianist.  

“George came out to Berkeley in 1943 to go to Cal, “ says Nebraska native Janet Turman, his wife of 40 years. “He usually plays sax, but taught himself to play piano...Honey, do you sing as a tenor?” 

“No, I sing as a baritone,” replies George.  

Bret Harte Path begins two doors down from the Turmans. Five flights of concrete steps lead upward—ivy on either side—before the path dissolves into the dried grass and brush between the backyards of 1099 and 1103-5 Keeler Ave. Here it becomes impassable. 

The historic walk was named after the San Francisco writer and journalist who chronicled frontier California in the 1860s and 70s. It once served as a shortcut from Bret Harte Road to Sterling Avenue (named for writer George Sterling), and vice versa, cutting out a looping, circuitous route.  

A bit further on Keeler, Gail Greenwood, a 36-year-old strawberry blonde commercial lawyer, holds a baby boy with lively blue eyes. They’re cooling off in the shade. “I often take the paths around here for recreation, “ says Greenwood. “The entrance to Sterling Path is just past the orange van on the left.” 

The Sterling Path steps are concrete and uneven; utilitarian metal banisters parallel each flight. After the third flight, the path turns to dirt. Wild blackberry bushes meet large droopy pink flowers on long green stalks. The flowers grow haphazardly out of matted dry grass and give the path an ambiance of a science fiction set. Before long, the path becomes concrete again and ends at Cragmont Avenue—its final flight carpeted with the palest evergreen needles, blanched by the sun.  

About 30 years ago, A.J. Ayres and other kids in his neighborhood rode their BMX bikes to Crescent Park, a private park with three inlets in the Park Hills area of Berkeley. The park has served the neighborhood for more than a half-century. He remembers they would stage plum fights there in August, when their ammunition got spoiled and wouldn’t hurt as much. 

“(The park) is something everyone enjoys,” said Ayres, 34, from his house near the park. “Kids play there all the time. Everyone watches out for everyone in this neighborhood.” 

Each of the three paths leading to the park has its own character. Two of them slope, while the third is level. The park sits on top of a hill encircled by a street, the Crescent. 

The northern path features 25 wooden steps. In late summer, the ground beyond is dried and cracked. A weathered wooden gate at the edge of the park leads to a canopy of trees—the plum ammo dump, ripe with fallen fruit covered in ants. From the canopy, the path suddenly opens up onto the park. A stone wall forms the foundation of one corner. 

The south-facing path is paved with concrete. Somebody recently chalked a drawing that looked almost cubist on the path near the park boundary. This path is mostly flat, bordered by a brick-and-wood fence and tall shrubs. 

The widest path, facing northeast, is strewn with bark chips. A water fountain built from four cinder blocks sits on one side, with a box that dispenses plastic bags for dog clean-ups on the other.  

The park, surrounded by houses, has a swing set, basketball hoop with net intact, and a new children’s play structure. The park was empty early one Monday afternoon and at dusk. 

The neighborhood got its start in 1938, when the Mason-McDuffie Company bought about 70 acres from local water companies to form a residential development of upscale single-family homes, said Paul Grunland of the Berkeley Historical Society in a telephone interview. Grunland wrote in a guided tour of the area that the development was annexed by the city of Berkeley in 1958, the last expansion of the city.  

Olmsted Brothers, a landscape architect firm, designed the street layout and included parks within the blocks. Individuals bought sections of land, hired architects, and built their houses, which led to the diversity of architectural styles. 

Mason-McDuffie also created the Park Hills Homes Association to oversee maintenance of the parks, which it does today. Residents pay for maintenance and insurance of the paths and parks with annual dues, around $100, said Dave Quady, former president of the association.

There’s a for sale sign on the MLK-Dwight recycling lot. The BOSS community garden next to the South Berkeley branch library has been evicted (though it’ s found a new home for a while). Plans for Franklin School will turn a playground for families into a parking lot for adults. UC is taking over the Gill Tract garden for a shopping mall; its Oxford agricultural tract is already a building site. And there are several competing schemes for building on the BART lot which is now the Berkeley Flea Market on weekends. 

No individual one of these developments is exactly wrong in itself. But together they add up to a trend toward privatization of shared spaces which will eventually change the urban experience in Berkeley. Each of these sites, and others like them, have until now been used for activities that people do together. When the recycling lot first opened, it was a place for meeting friends and gossiping about community happenings. Curbside pickup is of course more efficient, but a point of human contact has been lost. Neighborhood-only schools gave way to the desirable goal of integrating students, but their playgrounds have remained as places where neighborhood children and parents could get together in an informal setting. The community garden movement, still alive and well in some parts of Berkeley, has been a good way for people to get to know one another by working side by side. The Berkeley Flea Market, though occasionally a thorn in the side of its neighbors, is a free gathering place for musicians and the most entertaining way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Berkeley.  

A few years ago, sociologist Robert Putnam made much of the decline of shared activities in his book Bowling Alone. He blamed easy scapegoats like television, computers, and the change in women’s roles, and he also included suburban living among his villains. But group activities like community gardens which flourished in the sixties and seventies were in part a reaction against urban isolation.  

The current push for infill development, if not properly managed, risks contributing to the privatization of public space. When the requirement that a building project incorporate a certain percentage of open space is translated into isolated rooftop gardens and gated courtyards, residents are encouraged to turn their backs on public life. At the same time that movements like the New Urbanism are preaching the gospel of building suburbs with shared common spaces, comfortable old streetcar suburbs like Berkeley are being pressured to convert their existing shared spaces into blocks of individual apartments, too small for families or voluntary affinity groups.  

A remarkable book captured many of the best lessons learned in the sixties and seventies about the way building and urban design affect people. A Pattern Language, written by Berkeley resident Christopher Alexander and others, is still in print, and should be required reading for members of Berkeley’s Planning Department, Planning Commission, Zoning Adjustment Board and City Council. Chapter 67, “Common Land,” states unequivocally that “without common land no social system can survive.” It further recommends that “common land must be provided separately, and with deliberation, as a social necessity, as vital as the streets.” The authors guess that “the amount of common land needed in a neighborhood is on the order of 25 per cent of the land held privately.” Our various planning decision makers should be made aware that most of Berkeley has a long way to go to meet this standard, and should at least be careful that their decisions don’t make things any worse.  

On Thursday the Zoning Adjustment Board will, perhaps, finally make their much-postponed decision on a massive five-story infill project for Durant Street above Telegraph. The building as proposed violates almost every one of the tenets established by Alexander et al. The first iteration had an unusable ten-foot courtyard at its center—the current version solves that problem by having no courtyard at all. The “studio apartments” are no bigger than dormitory rooms, but the building lacks even the shared dining commons which adds a social dimension to dorm living. 

A Pattern Language contends that “there is abundant evidence to show that high buildings make people crazy.” This is perhaps open to interpretation. However, the financial data provided for the Durant project proves once again the authors’ contention that such buildings “have no genuine advantages, except in speculative gain for banks and land owners.”  

The developers make the argument that this kind of construction, using every bit of available space right out to the sidewalk and to the property lines, is necessary for the project to “pencil out.” They provided ZAB with a laughable pro forma which purported to prove this point. It was based on data which actually refutes their financial claims if properly analyzed. In any case, the City of Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustment Board is not responsible for providing the investors with maximal speculative gain. Their job is to protect the public interest by insisting on good urban design, with a decent provision for common space, in the congested Southside Area. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet. 

Every day this week, a small group of janitors has picketed UC Berkeley’s well-known International House—home to many of the university’s international graduate students—in response to what they call unfair working conditions and harassment from the building supervisor.  

International House—also known as the I-House—has often been a focus of labor strife because of what union organizers and employees call its unique status in the university. 

Though International House is a self-supporting nonprofit organization, its employees work for the university under the same American Federation of State Municipal and County Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 contract as the rest of university. 

This mix of conditions, say the janitors, allows the I-House to treat them in a way that wouldn’t be tolerated elsewhere on campus. 

Among their concerns is what they call an uneven division of work, in which some employees are assigned twice as much as others. 

“We’ve gotten to a point where these unlucky custodians feel like they are working in Siberia,” said Nester Salo, a custodian who has been working at the I-House for 13 years. “They have more work that they can handle in an eight-hour shift.” 

Salo said other custodians are assigned spaces that only take two to three hours to clean. 

Employees and union organizers designed what they say are equitable work assignments for a scheduled meeting with building administration in July. According to the union, administrators rejected the new proposal, a move the employees called bad faith bargaining. The picket line is the result. 

Salo said he and his colleagues also say one supervisor is routinely disrespectful and unfair to employees, continually yelling inappropriate comments and creating an uncomfortable work environment. 

“They’re treating us like dirt and it shouldn’t be that way,” he said. 

The supervisor did not return calls about the employees’ comments. 

Both sides met Tuesday, this time with a representative from the university, and are set to meet again within the next two weeks to try to re-draw work areas. Howard Lewis, the university’s senior labor relations representative will attend. 

“I don’t know what is going to come out of the meeting,” said Lewis. “We have to have credibility on both sides, whereas I do represent the management I have to also represent the employees.” 

The janitors say they’ll keep picketing until the issues are resolved.