The Berkeley Planning Commission’s examination of the proposed UC Hotel-Conference Center-Museum Complex project was thrown into temporary confusion early this week when Mayor Tom Bates formally asked the panel to delay creating the project task force Bates himself had sought less than two months ago. 

“While the proposal [for a 20-member task force to examine the hotel/conference center proposal] has considerable merit,” Bates wrote in a Jan. 20 letter to the commission’s four-member hotel complex subcommittee, “I believe it is premature to initiate at this time. ... I would prefer to see major decisions [on the project] be made as part of an overall framework and not done piecemeal. We risk setting up a confusing and cumbersome process that endangers the success of the hotel/conference center project.” 

Bates chided the task force proposal for “not address[ing] the role of the Zoning Adjustments Board and the Design Review Committee in reviewing the project.” Noting that “the city and the university are currently engaged in negotiations,” with a UC/city joint draft proposal expected “in the next month or two,” he “respectfully request[ed]” that the task force “not make decisions about the review process” until then. 

Last November, Mayor Bates formally recommended to the that “council direct the Planning Commission to examine the [hotel complex project] and report back to Council no later than May 2004 with preliminary recommendations.” Bates wrote that a Planning Commission Task Force was mandated by the city’s General Plan, and noted that Planning Commission Chair “has activated this provision [of the General Plan] and is working to schedule the first task force meeting.” 

The issue was left in limbo after Planning Commissioner Rob Wrenn, the Commission subcommittee chair, made adjustments and clarifications to a proposal he had written setting out guidelines for creating the UC Hotel task force. 

Bates aide Cisco DeVries said he couldn’t answer for the mayor and said he’d pass on the revisions to Bates, now in Washington, D.C. for a meeting of the National Conference of Mayors. 

At the beginning of last Monday’s subcommittee meeting in which the mayor’s letter was released, Wrenn said subcommittee members “understand that we are not trying to supercede ZAB,” adding that his adjustments to his proposal made it plain that the task force “is going to be looking at the front end of the project while it’s in its first stages, while ZAB and Design Review will be involved once concrete proposals have been presented to the city. We [the task force] are not going to be part of that end of the process.” 

Wrenn called the dispute a “misunderstanding by Mayor Bates” of the task force’s role in the development of the hotel complex. After the meeting, he said the Planning Commission “has a role in the hotel complex development, and we can’t just be told to stand to the side while all of this goes through.” He said holding off on an examination of the project at this point would essentially mean that the Planning Commission would have no role in shaping the development. 

Asked if he thought his proposed clarifications would satisfy the mayor’s concerns, Wrenn said “I hope this resolves it, but I don’t know.” He said he plans to move the task force plan forward. 

DeVries and Planning Commission Chairperson Zelda Bronstein held a brief, animated discussion over the mayor’s request outside the elevator shortly before the Jan. 20 subcommittee meeting. Bronstein declined to comment on the content of the discussion, but she was heard making the point to DeVries that she believed she had activated the task force at the city council’s official request and in full compliance with the city’s General Plan. 

UC Berkeley proposed the hotel/conference center/museum complex for a downtown Berkeley block at the edge of the campus bounded by Shattuck Avenue, Oxford Street, Center Street, and University Avenue. 

The university contends the project is exempt from Berkeley’s zoning ordinances and review—a claim that is reportedly the subject of some of the negotiations between the university and city officials.  

Kevin Hufferd, who is managing the hotel complex project for the school, says he is not participating in those negotiations, but calls them “sensitive.” 

In response, councilmembers unanimously authorized creating the planning commission’s hotel complex task force on Dec. 9. 

Since then, a subcommittee consisting of Commissioners Wrenn, Bronstein, Gene Poschman and Susan Wengraf has met with an ad hoc group of interested Berkeley citizens almost weekly in a second floor conference room of the Berkeley Planning Department. Participants have discussed a wide range of topics, including traffic mitigation issues, community accessibility, benefits and detriments to the city, and possible proposals to turn Center Street into a pedestrian mall and to open the currently closed Strawberry Creek in that block. Mayor Bates and UC Project Manager Hufferd regularly attend and give updates to participants. 

Wrenn sent out a memo last week outlining a plan to formalize the ad hoc nature of the task force, offering a detailed list of what the task force will look at, setting out a meeting timetable, and calling for the nomination of “about 20 people” to serve on the task force—subject to the planning commission ratification. In response, Bates requested that the task force be put on hold. 

Participants at the Jan. 20 subcommittee meeting nominated close to 25 people representing architectural, ecological, business, transportation, and labor interests for planning commission approval at their Feb. 18 meeting.

FRIDAY, JAN. 23 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Chi-an Hu, Visi- 

ting Professor, International Law, UCB, on “China’s Role in the United Nations.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $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. 

Docent Training for Berkeley Historical Society, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Veteran’s Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. 

Literary Friends meets from 1:15 to 3 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. We will discuss the Women’s Movement during the past century. For information call 232-1351. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Players at all levels are welcome. 652-5324. 

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. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

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. For information call Katherine, 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 24  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Fire Supression for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Fire Department Training Center, 997 Cedar St. Register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/fire/oes or call 981-5506. 

Winter Bird Walk Join Chris Carmichael, Associate Director of Collections and Horticulture, and expert birder Dennis Wolff on a morning walk from 9 to 10 a.m. to discover the Botanical Garden’s bird life. Heavy rain cancels. Cost is $10, members free. Registration required. 643-2937. Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Winter Color in the Garden 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Cerrito Creek Work Party Help remove blackberries and plant trees on Cerrito Creek north of Albany Hill. Meet at Pacific East Mall, 3288 Pierce St, El Cerrito at 10 a.m. For information email f5creeks@aol.com  

Kids Garden Club Experience the water cycle through our watershed model and see how water effects our garden and you. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park Cost is $3. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org   

Salamander Saunter We’ll look for wet weather animals, learn the difference between newts and salamanders, and see what they are doing at this time of the year. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Berkeley Copwatch Orientation: Know Your Rights! Join us for this hands-on workshop including: What rights we have when we are stopped, what to look for when someone else is getting stopped, keeping safe while observing police and more. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. This event is free and open to the public. 548-0425. 

Share Your Gear Party Your recycled sports equipment can help keep children playing. Donations accepted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sports4Kids Swap Shop, 2095 Rose St., between Shattuck and Henry. 868-1591. 

Bauman College Open House Visit the new Berkeley campus and learn about classes in holistic nutrition and culinary arts, 3 to 6 p.m. at 901 Grayson St., at 7th. 800-987-7530.  

Veg 101: Compassionate Living Workshop A one-day workshop introducing the many reasons why vegetarianism is a healthy, environmental, and compassionate diet. From 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Berkeley Public Library Main Meeting Room, 3rd floor, 2090 Kittredge St. 925-487-4419. www.generationv.org/veg101  

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. Open to non-members of the club for $8 per class. For further information and to register, call 848-7800. 

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, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 25 

Introduction to Homebrewing Biodiesel Learn the basics of making biodiesel, and see the whole process from testing the veggie oil, brewing the bio- 

diesel, washing it, filtering it, and putting it in your vehicle. Bring a dish to share for a potluck lunch. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. RSVP by email to jenniferradtke@yahoo.com for directions and more details.  

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Tibetan Peace Ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 26 

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthing at 1:15 p.m. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas from the other side of the Pacific Rim and learn their cultural and natural history. Then take a walk to see wintering birds and dormant lady- 

beetles, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. Cost is $5 for residents, $7 for non-residents. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, JAN. 27 

Tuesday Morning Birdwalk at Tilden’s Inspiration Point from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Call if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

“Fly the Friendly Skies under Ashcroft” Refuse and Resist’s monthly meeting at 6 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 704-5293. RNRBAYAREA@yahoo.com 

“How to Save for Your Children and/or Grandchildren’s Education: College Planning 101” at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0327, ext. 112. 

“We Are Called: Vocation in a Swiftly Changing World” a three-day conference at Pacific School of Religion, with lectures, workshops, creative worship and conversations with scholars, pastors, community organizers and artists on issues of faith and vocation. For a complete schedule please see www.psr.edu or call 849-8239.  

“Tu B’shvat: An Awakening” Explore passages that shed light on the development of rituals and meanings related to Tu B’shvat, with Avital Plan, from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $5. 848-0327, ext. 112. 

“Judaism, What is it all About?” an interactive lecture series with Rabbi Judah Dardik, at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays at Beth Jacob Congregation, 3778 Park Blvd., Oakland. 482-1147. www.bethjacoboakland.org 

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. 234-4783. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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

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.  

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28 

Forum on Land Use in Berkeley, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Fireside Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We will have the opportunity to speak with Dan Marks, Director of Planning, Steve Barton, Director of Housing, and various commissioners to discuss current land use issues and Berkeley’s future as it relates to land use. Sponsored by BANA/CNA and the Berkeley Party. www.berkeleycna.com, www.berkeleyparty.com 

“Shelter From The Storm: A Benefit for the Homeless” with Country Joe McDonald, Carol Denney, Buzzy Linhart & the Big Few, Will Scarlet with Mark Silber & Steve Mann. Mayor Tom Bates will give awards to homeless activists. At 8 p.m. at Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison St. Cost is $15.50. 548-1761. debbie-moore@xplicitplayers.com 

“Wesley Clark and Environmetal Sustainability” with Susan Andres, Executive Director for the Farallones Marine Sanctuary at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave. Sponsored by East Bay for Clark.  

Gray Panthers General Meeting, “Think Globally, Act Locally” with Peace and Justice Commissioner Elliot Cohen on how local actions can affect national policy, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

“Perspective on 9/11: Exposing the Lies of the Official Story” a free multimedia presentation by Ken Jenkins at the Fellowship of Humanity, 390 27th St., Oakland. 415-721-2844. 

“Jews of the Bay Area,” with Fred Rosenbaum, author and historian, from noon to 2 p.m., at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. Bring your own lunch; coffee and tea provided. Cost is $5. 848-0327, ext. 112.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

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

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

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. 

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.  

THURSDAY, JAN. 29 

Travel 2004: A Panel Discussion Learn how to travel the world with ease at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Going to Extremes: From El Capitan to Everest with Jonathan Chester, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

ONGOING 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra misses its alums! As our nation's second oldest youth orchestra, based in Berkeley, YPSO is in possession of a treasure trove of memorabilia dating as far back as 1936. To preserve and share these photographs, letters, programs and other interesting materials YPSO is creating a Digital Online Museum. If you participated in the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra please contact David Davis at davisde@yogashorts.com or 543-4054. 

Support the Berkeley Public Library On-line Auction Visit www.bplf.org and bid to name a character in a work by Michael Chabon, have dinner with Elizabeth Farnsworth and Khaled Hosseini, let Bill Schechner tell your story, work with Adair Lara on a memoir, hear Maxine Hong Kingston at your book club, and much more. 981-6115. 

Learn About Howard Dean and see why he is our best bet against George Bush. Alameda County for Dean is sponsoring a series of informational gatherings at private homes throughout the county. Experienced campaign volunteers will present Dean’s positions and achievements, and can answer your questions. Call 548-8414 or go to www.eb4dean/houseparties for the time and place best for you! 

Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League offers an exciting opportunity for East Bay girls in grades 1-8 to learn softball, make friends and have fun! Registration starts in January; the season runs March 6 through June 5. For information call 869-4277. www.abgsl.org 

Creating Economic Opportunities for Women offers training programs for immigrant and refugee women. Orientations held during January, at 655 International Blvd., 2nd flr. Call 879-2949. 

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 

Acting and Improv Classes for Adults begin Sun. Jan. 25. Cost is $290 for 8 wks. On- 

going classes for children and teens. Verna Winter Studio, 1312 Bonita Ave. 524-1601. 

Tae-Bo, a cardiovascular workout composed of kick punches and stretches will be offered at Frances Albrier Recreation Center, 2800 Park St., on Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30-7:30 p.m., beginning Jan. 13. Cost is $20 per month or $4 drop-in. For information call 981-6640.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Jan. 26, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/parksandrecreation 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Mon., Jan. 26, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste 

City Council meets Tues., Jan. 27, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil

An open letter to Berkeley City Councilmembers Linda Maio, Kriss Worthington, Margaret Brelund, Maudele Shirek, and Dona Spring: 

The five of you have brought pain to many Jewish members of our city with your insensitive vote this past October (you were in the 5-4 majority) to demand an investigation into the accidental death of Rachel Corrie by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza. You demand to know if negligence was involved (no one suspects murder). What pains us is that you explicitly have chosen to ignore the deaths of the almost 50 other Americans, most of whom were Jewish, who have been killed by Palestinian terrorists during the current intifada. You did this even though you knew that Corrie had intentionally walked into a war zone, had burned an American flag in front of reporters, and was guarding Hamas’ weapons smuggling tunnels. You knew that among the 50 Americans you ignored was Berkeley’s own Marla Bennett, who was blown to pieces as she sat eating in a cafeteria on the campus of Hebrew University. And you took this vote just hours after you learned that another Jewish American, Dr. David Applebaum, who as head of an ER unit in Jerusalem had treated hundreds of terror victims, was himself murdered along with his 20-year-old daughter. She was to have been married the following day. They were blown up in a cafe. 

I have heard all sorts of excuses as to why you chose to canonize Rachel Corrie at the expense of Marla Bennett, David Applebaum, and the others. My favorite for cynicism is that we do not need to investigate anyone else’s death but Corrie’s, since the others were victims of suicide bombings (actually many were shot, knifed, or killed by remotely detonated bombs), and by the very nature of that crime we know who did it and the perpetrator is dead. The White House used this very argument right after the Watergate break in. Burglars caught, case closed. I would think that you would want to know who indoctrinated and recruited these very young suicide bombers, and you would want to know who trained them, who chose their targets, who prepared the explosives, and who transported them to their civilian targets in Israel. Most of all, you would want to know who issued the deadly orders, and you will want to follow the chain of orders up the ladder. Oh brave city councilmembers, you will not fear to go wherever the evidence may lead, even if it is into the offices of Yasir Arafat and Hamas leader Sheik Yassin. And while you continue to spend city time and money on your Middle East foreign policy, maybe Emeryville, in its admiration of your courage, will fix our budget deficit. 

Perhaps a parable can help you understand our pain. Imagine a city of Berkeley’s size, but in Alabama. While the high school band plays patriotic tunes, and with appropriate ceremony, the mayor removes the tarp from a new marble memorial to the city’s Vietnam dead. Most in the crowd applaud, but a few notice that the stone is engraved only with the names of the white soldiers who had fallen. Blacks have been left off the memorial. Particularly troubling to some is that one of the white soldiers listed on the memorial, Richard Corrie, had taken part in the Mai Lai massacre, and would certainly have faced court martial had he lived, while one of the black soldiers, Mark Bennet, was shot while fixing the roof of an orphanage he was building in his off duty hours. One member of the city council, Linda May, who is also the local chapter president of the Daughters of the American Revolution, lamely pleads that she had received a letter from Corrie’s mother supporting the monument, but had received no such letter from Bennet’s mother. One city councilmember, Chris Worth, is quoted in the local press as saying that this omission must be all right since the blacks in town hadn’t (yet) openly revolted. Another city councilmember insisted that she had just last year approved a zoning plan for a new black church, so there is nothing wrong in honoring only white folk at this time. Yet another city councilmember insisted that he is not a racist, after all “he loved his mammy almost as much as he loved his own mother.”  

Jesse Jackson, along with five outraged members of the city council of faraway Berkeley, California show up in Alabama to protest. One city councilmember notices that the leader of the Berkeley protesters is Linda Meyer (poor sighted, he had misread the name, Linda Maio) and concludes that a Jewish conspiracy is afoot. The others nod knowingly. 

I don’t know exactly how my parable ends, except that the city’s fallen black soldiers were eventually added to the memorial. But was it because those Alabama politicians got it in the end, or did they just cave in to unremitting pressure? 

John Gertz

Are we standing at the pinnacle of civilization, or tumbling from the broken guardrail? While there is a lot to endure in these burdensome times (traffic, mad cows, Republicans), it is an easy and available pleasure to graze through the treasure trove of history that has accumulated in the five centuries or so while we’ve been otherwise occupied. 

Members of the ensemble American Baroque play period instruments. Period instruments, like the shawm and the viola de gamba, are sometimes found in museums. But old instruments don’t ever seem to really die, they just move into the hands of specialists who love them all over again. The baroque flute, the baroque oboe and violin, the harpsichord—these instruments sing to us from an earlier era, their graininess and hushed subtlety a bit surprising, catching us unawares. 

If something was lost as flutes began to be cast from metal, as the violin was fashioned for greater carrying power, as the piano edged the harpsichord from the stage, it was not lost forever. When the musical experiments of the 20th century got underway, these quiet survivors of bygone days were dusted off. They found new enthusiasts. They were recorded, carried around the world on concert tours. And, after a few centuries of forgetfulness, composers began writing new music for them.  

I saw American Baroque perform in San Francisco in the late ‘90s, a collaboration with the Common Sense Composers Collective. The sound of these instruments playing music written by contemporary composers was revelatory. Now they’re at it again. 

This Saturday, in Berkeley, Emeryville-based American Baroque will balance a program of 18th century composers Marais and Rameau with works by composers considerably younger: Mark Mellits, Karl Stone, and Roy Whelden (who also plays voila de gamba in the ensemble) all have pieces on the program written in very recent years. 

Whelden’s piece is based on J.S. Bach’s once-lost Goldberg Canons, discovered, with attendant excitement, in France in 1974. These are 14 very short studies, which Whelden has arranged to form an extended suite. Gonzalo Ruiz, who plays oboe with the ensemble, compares what Whelden has done to a jeweler’s task in creating settings for a string of tiny, brilliant gems. 

What many of these pieces—old and new—have in common is the musical practice known as continuo playing. One of music history’s unsolved mysteries is the lapse of improvisatory practice, once integral to western classical music, now heard almost exclusively in the jazz tradition and in folk music. In the 1600s and 1700s, any credible harpsichordist needed to be able to improvise variations from a written bass line. 

Good early music players (and American Baroque’s Katherine Shao is certainly one) have revived this tradition, bringing some of the ad-lib back into the classical music world, where it once resided. The lutist and cellist need to be similarly skilled to play this music, making something cogent and fully realized out of a simple set of prescribed pitches. 

This improvised material is known as the continuo. It is what one hears when music is performed in the true baroque tradition, surrounding and accompanying the written material. As in jazz, performances of this kind are unique, involving a set of variations that will never be heard again.  

The baroque era has come to imply, for us, something a bit straitjacketed. J.S. Bach conjures up a fellow in a powdered wig. And, in truth, contemporary performance often seems to invite something more like polite attention than delirium. Perhaps this has to do, in part, with the loss of the improvisation. Improvisation of all kinds, when carried off well, always feels a bit like dancing on the edge of a precipice. Or it may be that in our time we need an electric guitar to make us feel we are being given an urgent message. 

Still and all, the descriptions handed down to us of the music from the period we now call baroque are surprising. A French treatise published in 1702 describes the playing of Arcangelo Corelli; “I never met with any man that suffered his passions to hurry him away so much whilst he was playing on the violin. His eyes will sometimes turn as red as fire; his countenance will be distorted; his eyeballs roll as in an agony; and he gives in so much to what he is doing that he doth not look like the same man.” Thomas Mace, in 1676, described the listener’s state-of-mind as hardly less extreme: “Fervently, and zealously captivated, we are drawn into raptures.” 

Many of the members or American Baroque are also principals in Philharmonia Baroque. ASCAP awarded the ensemble an award in 2000 for Adventurous Programming. They’ve toured far and wide. All this to say it’s a top-notch group, well worth a visit. You’ll not only be hearing fine musicians and fine music. You’ll be reminded, in the best way possible, what it was to hear music played when the world was just a wee bit younger. 

American Baroque performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24 at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, 2727 College Ave., and at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 25 at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Tickets are $22 for SFEMS members and seniors, $25 for non-members, $10 for students. 528-1725 or www.sfems.org. 

Clark Suprynowicz is a composer living in Oakland. 

FRIDAY, JAN. 23 

CHILDREN 

Chinese New Year Celebration at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Light my Fire,” an exhibition by 10 Bay Area glass artists. Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Exhibition runs until Feb. 21. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

THEATER 

Actor’s Ensemble of Berkeley, “Helen of Troy (Revised),” written by Wolfgang Hilesheimer, translated and directed by David Fenerty opens at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and runs Fri. and Sat. evenings through Feb. 21. Admission is $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

“Yellowman” by Dael Orlandersmith, directed by Les Waters, opens at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St., and runs through March 7. For ticket information call 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Mann’s World: “The Furies” at 7 p.m. and “Side Street” at 9:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anne Sofie von Otter, Swedish mezzo-soprano, at 8 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Oakland East Bay Symphony with Michael Morgan, conductor performs at 2025 Broadway, Oakland. 625-8497. www.oebs.org  

Rose Street Women perform at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Irish music violin and guitar duo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $19.50 in advance, $20.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Double Standards, jazz duo, at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Microphone Mayhem at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

All Ages Show with The Phenomenauts, Three Bad Jacks, October Allied at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

Vinyl, Brown Baggin at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

The Quails perform indie-punk at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Tickets are $7, available at the door. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Mimi Fox at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

CV1 at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Evaporators, The Clarendon Hills, System and Station at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 24 

CHILDREN 

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

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“The Art of Nature” featuring Inge Behrens, Andrea Markus and Vickie Resso. Reception from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at 4th Street Studio, 1717D 4th St. Exhibition runs to Feb. 10. 527-0600. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

FILM 

Mann’s World: “Border Incident” at 7 p.m. and “The Black Book” at 8:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm and Muse, a benefit for Berkeley Public Swimming Pools with poets Summer Brenner, Adam David Miller, Gael Alcock, Eliza Shefler, and Yassir, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Dr. Dean Edell discusses “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Healthiness: Dr. Dean’s Commonsense Guide for Anything That Ails You,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco Early Music Society, American Baroque, presents “Uncommon Grounds” a concert of new and baroque music built over ground basses, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $22 for SFEMS members and seniors, $25 for non-members, $10 for students. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

The Novello Quartet performs Boccherini, Haydn, and Foerster at 8 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Suggested donation $10-$20. 415-794-1100.  

Music from Around the World, a benefit concert for Middle East Children’s Alliance, featuring The Dunes, North African music with jazz/rock grooves, Pachasiku, traditional music from the Andes, and The Brass Menagerie, a Balkan brass band. At 8 p.m. at International House, Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. Tickets are $25 at the door. 548-0542. 

Piedmont Choir performs at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$12. 547-444, ext. 4. 

Trinity Concerts Chamber Music with Amari Barash, Carlberg Jones, Lynn Schugren at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. 549-3864.  

Christin Hablewitz and her Musical Friends perform chamber music from classical to contemporary at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Tickets are $5-10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Paco de Luciá, flamenco and jazz guitar concert has been cancelled and rescheduled for March 4 and 5. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Natural Vibrations and One Groove with guest McMarty Dread at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Naked Barbies at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Matt & Patti 3, improvisational world fusion music, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

The Scramblers, High Speed Scene, Good for You at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Quartet San Francisco at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

International Guitar Night with Pierre Bensusan, Andrew York, Guinga and Brian Gore at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Michael Bluestein at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Shelley Doty, singer, songwriter, guitarist at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Babyland, Midnight Laserbeam, Apocalipstick, Drk Sct Lv, Giant Haystacks 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. 

Rory Snyder Group at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SUNDAY, JAN. 25 

CHILDREN 

Baba Ken and the Nigerian Brothers at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6 for adults, $4 for children. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

Victor Sjostrom, “The Outlaw and His Wife” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ant Farm: Guided Tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 

Women of Berkeley Lecture Series “Ocean View: Past and Present” with author Barbara Gates and historian Stephanie Manning at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

“Re-Imagining Collections” a panel discussion in conjunction with the Judah L. Magnes Museum’s “Brought to Light,” featuring curators from three Bay Area museums reflecting on how to re-imagine intellectual and educational content of collections. From 2 to 4 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Free with museum admission. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

Robert Guter, Lee Williams, Jean Stewart and Marsha Saxton read excerpts from “Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act” at 3:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Poetry Flash with Carrie St. George Comer and Brian Teare at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Dennis E. Anderson will show slides and introduce “Hidden Treasures of San Francisco Bay” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert with Bill Ludke, piano, Elizabeth Durand, soprano, Aurelio Viscarra, tenor, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park. Tickets are $8-$10. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

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

Paco de Luciá, flamenco and jazz guitar concert has been cancelled and rescheduled for March 4 and 5. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Piedmont Choir performs at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$12. 547-444, ext. 4. 

A Night of Egyptian Dance Music with Alexandria and the Newar Eastern Dance Company at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hurricane Sam, boogie woogie, blues and r&b piano at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

CKW Trio, The Scott Hill Ensemble, improvisational jazz, at 2 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

Claudia Villela and Ricardo Peixoto, old roots, new language at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 26 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Indira Martina Mesihovic “Mind LineScapes” paintings and Jacob Stewat-Halevy, “The Myth of the Homunculi” paintings, opens at the Worth-Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley. Reception from 4 to 6 p.m.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sandra Scofield introduces her new memoire, “Occaisions of Sin” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“The Way Things Are” A Conversation with Huston Smith on the spiritual life at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Co-presented by Pacific School of Religion, First Congregational Church of Berkeley, and Cody’s Books. This is a pre-conference event for Pacific School of Religion’s Earl Lectures. $10 suggested donation at the door. For more information, call 848-3696, ext. 23. 

Bob Guter and John R. Killacky, editors, read from “Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

TUESDAY, JAN. 27 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: “Double-Edged Sword” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chalmers Johnson introduces “The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

Robert Guter, Shawn Casey O’Brien and Jean Stewart read excerpts from “Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act” at 4 p.m. at Maude Fife Room, Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. sschweik@uclink4.berkeley.edu 

Kim Addonizio introduces her new book of poetry, “What Is This Thing Called Love” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

The Whole Note Poetry Series with HD Moe reading poems from Maui at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ensemble Vermillian with Frances Blaker, recorders, Barbara Blaker Krumdieck, baroque cello, and Katherine Heater, harpsichord, will perform chamber music from 17th century Germany by Buxtehude, Biber, Kinderman and others at 8 p.m. at at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave. at Curtis in Albany. Tickets are $18 general, $15 students and seniors. 559-4670. 

Austrian Musical Evening, with Gabriele Sima, Kammersangerin and Adalbert Skocic, cello at 8 p.m. at International House, Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. Tickets are $25. 642-9460. 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson with Annie Marie Howard at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28 

CHILDREN 

Preschool Storytime, a program introducing books and music to promote early literacy skills, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6270. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Addison Street Windows, “Aerial Views and Bead Forms,” paintings by Audrey Wallace Taylor and sculptures by Jenny Cole. Reception for the artists from 6 to 9 p.m. at 2018 Addison St. 981-7533. 

FILM 

Film 50: Edison to Early Griffith at 3 p.m. and Works by Nam June Paik at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ted Roszak, author of “The Devil and Daniel Silverman” at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0327, ext. 112.  

Vincent Sarich and Frank Miele talk about “Race: The Reality of Human Differences” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

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

Berkeley Acdemic Quiz Bowl at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble.  

Charlene Sprenak discusses “Missing Mary: The Queen of Heaven and Her Re-Emergence in the Modern Church” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance Theater of Harlem, at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$52, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Za’Atar plays Jewish music of Arab and Muslim lands at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18.  

525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sam Bevan Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. Cost is $10. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, JAN. 29 

THEATER 

Oxford Elementary School, Fifth Grade, “Yo soy un Americano,” a celebration of Mexican American history as told through the eyes of a Mexican American grandmother and her grandson, Carlos, at 9 a.m. at 1130 Oxford Street. For more information, please call Ms. Inniss at 644-6300.  

FILM 

Victor Sjostrom: “The Girl from the Marsh Croft” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chris Dresser, Richard Rhodes and Mark Schapiro discuss “Living with the Genie: Essays on Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Ant Farm: Guided Tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 

Joan Steinau Lester discusses her biography of Eleanor Holmes Norton, “Fire in My Soul” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series with Charles Curtis Blackwell and Mark G. at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave. 526-5985.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dance Theater of Harlem, at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$52, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Jessica Lurie Ensemble at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

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

Mas Cabeza at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

After an initial, incomplete agreement last year between the University of California and the Coalition of University Employee’s Union (CUE) ended a two-year labor battle, both parties are back at the table, sitting down to the negotiate at CUE’s Berkeley offices Wednesday to hash out unresolved issues on the current contract before it expires in September. 

Angry CUE members from across the state gathered outside CUE’s Telegraph Avenue headquarters after marching from campus—part of a strategy to pressure university officials they say are dragging out the negotiations.  

“UC regularly undervalues those who support the students the most,” Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, president of UC Berkeley’s local CUE office, told the small rally before the march. “The little people are on the march for social justice.” 

Just last May, the two sides drafted a short contract agreement after a long struggle that at one point saw several campuses across the state largely shut down after CUE members walked off the job in a three-day strike with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union. 

Negotiations for the initial contract dragged on for over a year-and-a-half, leaving three key issues unresolved—parking, wages, and benefits. The resulting preliminary agreement included a clause calling for further negotiations to settle on terms, hence Wednesday’s session. 

Final terms were slated to go into effect last October, and any settlement is to include payment for the intervening period. 

CUE’s pay demands include: 

•A 1.5 percent across the board cost of living increase 

• A half-step merit increase, the equivalent of a 2-3 percent raise.  

•A full step added to each classification  

They also want the university to guarantee equity pay for library assistants and police dispatchers—who they say earn less than those in the same positions at California state schools, and whose pay varies from campus to campus—and for the university to move the funds from the incentive awards program into base salary. 

Before the May settlement CUE had demanded a 15 percent pay increase over two years, compromising on a 7.5 percent increase, the first half of which they received in May. The 1.5 percent across-the-board cost of living increase plus the half-step merit increase currently on the table will translate into the remaining 3-3.5 percent. 

Parking has been a consistent issue for the union, which wants the university to adjust parking fees on a sliding scale according to each permitee’s income. During the first round of negotiations, CUE officials said without the 15 percent raise over two years. Members would lose money in the end if forced to pay more for parking. They say the current wage compromise must include negotiations over parking fees. 

As for health care, CUE officials say they’re pleased with the university’s creation of salary “bands” that adjust monthly premiums based on income. Now the union wants the university to cap any future increases and guarantee that health-care costs remain constant for the remainder of the contract. 

CUE members reported mixed feelings about the university’s recent decision to settle with the graduate student instructors represented by the United Auto Workers. 

“We are just not a priority in their budget,” said Claudia Horning, CUE’s statewide president. “We’re thrilled for [the graduate students], but we think [the university] really takes our work for granted.” 

CUE leaders say the state budget crisis gives the university a shield to hide behind, but they insist the picture is much larger. 

“We are extremely concerned about adequate wages and maintaining affordable health care for our employees, but the only way we can give system-wide raises and help shield our employees from skyrocketing health care costs is if the state adequately funds us,” said Paul Schwartz, a spokesman for UC. 

CUE recently hired economist Peter Donohue from PBI Associates in Portland, Oregon, who conducted an analysis of the university’s annual financial report for 2002-2003. According to his findings, while the university did receive a $127 million dollar cut in state funding, the system reported an overall net income increase of $1.9 billion—a 14 percent increase from 2001-2002—leading CUE to believe the university is hiding behind state cuts instead of bargaining in good faith. 

According to Donohue, only one third of CUE positions are funded by state money, figures drawn from the university budget. 

CUE members point to the pot of money called the university’s unrestricted net assets, which according to the university’s financial report totals $4.74 billion. Because these funds aren’t restricted by grant or bond rules, union officials said that could be easily be used to meet their contract demands. 

“[Their] resources are growing, why is the university saying that they facing a fiscal deficit?,” said Donohue. 

UC spokesperson Schwartz, while agreeing that allocation isn’t predetermined by an outside entity, disagrees with the union’s broader characterization of the funds. 

“Unrestricted does not mean the funds are uncommitted or available for any use,” said Schwartz. “All UC funds—restricted and unrestricted—are 100 percent committed each year to UC’s vast array of academic programs, salary and benefits programs for employees, construction projects, and countless other obligations.”  

Nevertheless, CUE representatives say they’ll continue to pressure the university to negotiate on their demands, and once contract negotiations are over for the current contract they hope they can move on to negotiating a longer pact after the current agreement expires in September. 

“I think [the solution] is going to be a combination of things,” said Margy Wilkinson, CUE’s chief steward. “The university is going to have to move into the 21st Century in its approach to labor negotiations. It will also take the commitment of clerical workers to demand what’s fair.”

Open Letter to the Berkeley City Council: 

I am writing about the issue of the RF frequency meter readings submitted as evidence in the people’s appeal from the Zoning Adjustment Board decision to grant Sprint a use permit for cellular antennas at 1600 Shattuck Ave. The appellants found data suggesting that existing levels of such radiation, even before the installation of three new proposed antennas, exceed the FCC safety standards.  

Though many people believe and scientific studies conclude that the Federal Communications Commission regulations permit imprudent levels of radiation as it is, the regulations govern and the appellants have not raised that issue. 

Questions were raised by Sprint and the consultant they paid regarding the implications of the fact that the appellants had not tested the meter used for calibration, though brand new.  

As a person trained in science myself, I recognize that the data produced cannot be considered to be conclusive. However, the data must be taken into account as it raises the reasonable question of whether or not RF radiation exceeding FCC standards at the site presently exists. The fact is that a serious question exists, and there is data that clearly supports getting it answered in a conclusive manner. 

Dr. Shahruz, who borrowed and operated the meter, testified that the more sophisticated meter available to be borrowed would have cost him $300 to calibrate. Hardly a level playing field with the resources Sprint brings to bear. 

Nevertheless, the data produced is valuable because it demonstrates the reasonable necessity that the issue of cumulative radiation levels should have been studied as part of any competent engineering study. The failure to run such studies by the firm contracted to do the report is clear evidence of the inadequacy of the study.  

The need to establish present ambient levels is a no brainer. The failure of the Sprint paid consultant is more evidence to support my belief that the author of the study was biased in favor of Sprint. The entire effort appeared to be to show that the application should be approved. This is no surprise since the cellular industry is the bread and butter of the people who contract to do these things.  

In theory, city staff should be assuring the independence and fairness of the study. It is my understanding that the firm hired, apparently using either Sprint’s own equipment or equipment funded by Sprint, conducted the study with a city staff person in attendance.  

The problem is that from the time I first discovered the Nextel stealth application, which led to a couple of communities joining together to get passage of the cellular ordinance, city staff at several levels have been consistent advocates of the cellular industry. The present study is shot through with holes and omissions. The city staff, with an agenda opposed to and flagrantly violating the ordinance passed by the lawfully superior city council, is cozy to the cellular industry and is this flawed study’s cheering section.  

It is the city’s duty to the people to study this issue in an unbiased way. I do not trust the “independent” contractor nor do I trust the city staff to protect the legitimate interests, rights and welfare of Berkeley’s citizens. I think that the city should be required to allow a representative of the people’s appellants to be present as such studies are being done. I nominate the People’s Electrical Engineer, Dr. Shahram Shahruz, to be the peoples monitor in the future. For a variety of reasons I call upon the city council to keep its covenant with the people and uphold the people’s appeal to deny the placement of the antennas in a heavily populated area very near schools, residences and otherwise heavily used areas.  

Leonard Schwartzburd, Ph.D. 

Berkeley Unified School District unveiled a new plan Wednesday for assigning students to elementary schools that supporters hailed for expanding diversity beyond race and critics blasted as a sitting duck for a legal challenge already mounted against the district. 

If adopted by the school board, two new factors—parental income and education level—will be added to race in determining how students are placed in elementary schools.  

The proposal, four years in the making, follows the lead of districts nationwide in using socioeconomic factors to achieve school diversity, but draws the line at race at a time when California courts have interpreted state law to forbid any consideration of race in public education. 

“They’re fooling themselves if they think this thing is going to fly,” said Hastings Law Professor David Levine, who in 1999 won a federal court case that struck down a San Francisco school assignment plan that included racial quotas. “They’re just wasting everyone’s time and money.” 

School board members praised the plan at Wednesday’s meeting, but opted to delay final approval until the following meeting Feb. 4 to gauge public support. 

Last year the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation sued Berkeley Unified over its current assignment plan—which requires each school’s racial mix to come within five percent of the district-wide tally—charging that it violated Proposition 209. 

That measure, passed by voters in 1996, precludes racial preferences or discrimination in public education, employment and contracting.  

Lead PLF attorney Cynthia Jameson said she would pursue the case as long as Berkeley Unified insisted on using race as a factor. 

The PLF suit was not the driving factor behind the new plan,” Superintendent Michele Lawrence said. “I was concerned we had only considered race. I wanted to make sure we recognized other elements that make up diversity.” 

The proposal retains several features of the old plan. Elementary schools will still be divided into the same three zones, and students will still pick their three preferred schools and have priority to attend a school that a sibling already attends or that has a language program needed by the child. 

But instead of placing children into elementary schools based, in part, on self-declared race, the new system will rely on assumed diversity characteristics of a planning area where the student lives. 

Each planning area, about four to eight city blocks, will be given a value for parental income and education based on 2000 census information and racial breakdown, between white and non-white, based on multi-year K-5 enrollment.  

The planning areas will be assigned a value from 1-3 ranging from neighborhoods that tend to be more white with wealthier and highly educated parents to neighborhoods that have more minorities with poorer and less educated parents.  

Forms asking for student’s racial information will still be collected, in part, to monitor how well the system maintains racial balance at the district’s 11 elementary schools. 

Models calculated by District Admissions and Attendance Manager Francisco Martinez show the new system maintaining nearly identical levels of racial diversity while improving socioeconomic diversity. For example, Rosa Parks and Thousand Oaks Elementary Schools have similar student populations, with about 40 percent Latino students, but under the current system, Thousand Oaks, which is located in the Berkeley Hills, has about twice as many students whose parents fit into the most advantaged category and about one-half as many students who fall into the least advantaged category. 

That is significant, said PTA Council President Roia Ferrazares, because schools serving wealthier families tend to have a greater base of parents to volunteer time and fund-raise for the school. 

Other diversity factors were considered, Martinez said, including single parent status, test scores, and second language skills, but they were more didn’t provide reliable data.  

Choice would be slightly sacrificed under the new plan; Martinez estimates 67 percent of students would have received their first choice of schools this year, compared to 75 percent under the current system. 

Berkeley Unified and the PLF have been shadowboxing on school assignment since 2000. Faced with threats of a lawsuit, then-Superintendent Jack McLaughlin formed a subcommittee to devise a new school assignment plan that could pass muster with Proposition 209. The committee saw both its proposals rejected, the first by McLaughlin for recommending to keep the old system in the face of unfriendly legal decisions from the California courts, and the second by the board for excluding race entirely as a diversity factor. 

“If you look at San Francisco or Oakland or any large school district in California there has be a reversal of large scale desegregation which is not to the benefit of any student,” said Board President John Selawsky. 

Proponents of school desegregation hope the current proposal, devised in consultation with BUSD attorney Jon Streeter, can use its indirect and imperfect consideration of race to wiggle its way under Proposition 209, but Levine said legal precedent is not on their side. 

The California Supreme Court has taken a strict interpretation of 209, he said, forbidding any consideration of race. And in a similar case last year the PLF won a suit against Huntington Beach Union District for a race-conscious student transfer policy. “That slams the door on this,” Levine said. “They say no how, no way can you use race as a formula.”

TUNE-UP MASTERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I appreciate Andrew Becker’s recent article “City Tries New Tactic With Tune-Up Masters Site” (Daily Planet, Jan. 20-22). In addition to correcting the spelling of my name (Kibby, not Kibbey) I wanted to add a point of clarification. 

At Thursday’s ZAB workshop for Tune-Up Masters, both of the “options” under consideration are at 350 percent of the General Plan density for this site, and exceed the University Avenue planning standards by one and two stories. 

The most important detail of this building is its bulk and mass (denser than Acton Court, five stories tall on a small quarter-acre site abutting a neighborhood), and there are no “options” presented which address this. 

Where’s Option 3? 

The state’s Density Bonus law is not dictating the size of this building. It’s the city’s current interpretation of the state’s Density Bonus law that is pushing these huge buildings up.  

I want a building that can have a graceful street presence as well as blend well with my neighborhood and complement existing avenue merchants. Berkeley published planning guidelines describe such a building, and I hope that we will explore this. 

Robin Kibby 

• 

CORRECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Andrew Becker’s article on the Tune-Up Masters development was excellent. However, I did not mean to give Mr. Becker the impression that it was “at [my] suggestion” that the task force recommended an early informal ZAB workshop. It was an idea favored by Planning Director Dan Marks, everyone on the task force, and other development observers. 

Sharon Hudson 

• 

LADIES BEWARE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ladies beware: George Bush says “I love you” but he only wants to get into our pants!  

He knows what we want to hear. His eyes brim with sincerity as he murmurs the “L” word to us and opens up his heart. During his recent State of the Union message, he was like some late-night Lothario at a singles bar, desperately trying to get laid. 

You take him home with you. And he turns out to be Ted Bundy. 

“I’ll give you schools!” says Bush. I want schools. 

“I’ll give you democracy in Iraq, good medicine and make you safe,” he says. I wanna be safe! 

And the next morning, we wake up and find that he’s gone—and so is the television set, the VCR, the Toyota, the cat and our best friend Suzie. We’re pregnant, have an STD and three of our fingers are missing. 

Ladies, beware. George Bush is the man our mothers warned us about. 

Jane Stillwater 

• 

COMMISSION SYSTEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley is facing a large budget deficit. The mayor and the city manager seem to be intent on cutting down on one of the few parts of our local system that should be completely insulated from any budget cuts—the democratic process.  

Measure J, which makes running for local office more inaccessible for non-incumbents and working people, was put on the March ballot at the mayor’s behest. This measure will invite further involvement of big money donors and consultants, which have helped degrade our state-wide and national elections. 

Now, the city manager is working on “streamlining” city commisions—i.e.: eliminating some and consolidating others. City commissions are an important method for citizens voices to be heard by commissioners and therefore by the city council. Also, the commissioners themselves add their own diverse expertise and experiences to the breadth of information the city council receives on various vital issues facing all of us. The commission system allows our elected officials to use the wonderful spectrum of voices and knowledge of our city.  

This appears to be a cynical attempt to consolidate power by current officials. I hope that we, the Berkeley voters, choose to reject such attempts to muffle the sometimes raucous sounds of democracy.  

Jesse Townley 

Commissioner,  

Disaster Council 

• 

BUSH BASHING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am fascinated by the outraged letters [in other papers] berating Democrats for bashing Bush for his policies. My guess is these same people had no trouble bashing Clinton for everything single thing he did. If I feel upset or uncomfortable with something President Bush has done, I ask myself, “How would I feel if Clinton did the same thing?” If I still feel uncomfortable, I object to what is happening. If not, I keep my mouth shut. 

Anne Smith 

• 

9/11 AFTERMATH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This article told about a woman having a hard time obtaining her driver’s license because of a name change due to her divorce and the trials and 

tribulations that she went through (“Homeland Security Foils a Fifity-ish Blonde,” Daily Planet, Jan. 16-19).  

Well, I have one better. 

In her case, her name was different due to divorce. In my case, my name was the same and did not change. My story is that I went to the DMV in Fremont to renew my driver’s license. They told me that I could not do that because the name on my Social Security Card was different than the name on my driver’s license. The name on my Social Security Card was “Bob Sparkman, Jr.” I got my Social Security Card when I was 16 and carried the same one since. The name on my driver’s license was “Robert Sparkman.” I argued with them to no avail that the names were the same that Bob meant Robert, etc. They did not care and told me it was due to the 9/11 issue. 

They told me at the Social Security office that I needed to show a document with the name “Bob Sparkman” on it and something with my “Robert Sparkman” on it. Well, since I got the “Bob Sparkman” version 42 years ago, I most certainly did not have anything with that name. I ended up driving around without a license scared of the cops on patrol for almost a year. One day I said to myself, “What if someone at the Social Security office might be more empathetic than the others have been?” I then called and they said that all I would need would be my passport and that I did not need anything with “Bob Sparkman” on it. 

After a year, I now have my new driver’s license. 

I know that we need to be protected from the terrorists, and I also think that we need to be protected from the stupidity that strolls through the DMV and Social Security offices. 

Bob Sparkman 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The president who fabricated war in Iraq supposedly to bring democracy to that country is opposed to elections there. 

Bush’s so-called Healthy Forests Initiative allows increased clear-cutting of our dwindling resources. 

His so-called Clear Skies Initiative weakens air pollution standards. 

“No child left behind” actually means that all children are left behind to pay back his borrowing on the national debt that gave tax breaks to his very rich backers. 

Now, he wants to excite us with his vision of going to Mars, while at the same time the director of NASA canceled the scheduled maintenance of the  

Hubble Space Telescope. If new batteries and gyros are not installed as planned, the most productive scientific instrument ever built will cease functioning, thereby wasting our expensive investment and squandering our opportunity to learn more about the universe. 

It’s time to replace this twisted administration. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

Tuesday’s long-delayed public hearing on Sprint Communications’ North Shattuck cellular antennae application dragged into the early morning hours of this week’s city council meeting, their decision on the controversial installation at least a week away. 

The hearing was held under Berkeley’s Wireless Telecommunication Facility Ordinance, which gives the city power to approve or disapprove new cell phone operation stations. 

Earlier that night, sitting as the Berkeley Redevelopment Agency, the council approved an extension to the ground lease for the low-income Ocean View Gardens apartments on Delaware Street—but not before bowing to tenant complaints and tacking on some oversight provisions. 

Sprint first asked sought city permission two years ago to locate three rooftop cell phone antennae and some basement hardware in a commercial building at the corner of Cedar Street and Shattuck Avenue. The company, which already has 58 antennae in Berkeley, said the new facility was needed in order to correct what they called “dead spots” and poor coverage in areas of North Berkeley. 

Though a coalition of neighbors complained that Sprint didn’t need the new station and that the proposed antennae posed a health hazard, the Zoning Adjustments Board approved the application in December, 2002.  

Then councilmembers took up the matter on appeal from the neighbors coalition, delaying a hearing until they got an independent technical evaluation. Twelve months later, at the request of Berkeley officials, San Francisco-based CSI Telecommunications produced a report concluding that Sprint’s installation complied with federal standards, and declaring that Sprint needed the facility—its only alternative—to “resolve existing coverage problems in the area.” That evaluation was the subject of much of Tuesday night’s hearing. 

After Bill Ruck, a principal engineer with CSI, explained what he called the “pretty arcane and technical” background that led to his company’s conclusion (“I can’t go into this too much, or I’ll put you to sleep,” Ruck confessed), Councilmember Dona Spring said, a little bitingly, “I want to compliment the representative for CSI for doing a very good job advocating for Sprint.” 

That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the hearing, in which two groups of neighbors spent 30 minutes apiece challenging CSI’s findings that Sprint cell phone coverage is poor in North Berkeley, charging that Sprint wanted the new station either to enhance non-verbal cell phone communications (the newly-emerging e-mail and photo by cell phone) or to make Sprint more attractive to a potential buyout by another cell phone firm, or else presenting what neighbors called evidence that area communications emissions already exceed FCC guidelines. 

Mixed in were catcalls and shout-outs by neighbors responding to various points made by the CSI engineer or Sprint officials, discussions of how dead is dead in a cell phone “dead zone,” and an admittedly arcane but somewhat entertaining cross-examination by research scientist and Councilmember Gordon Wozniak of neighbor Dr. Shahram Shahruz, who conducted radio wave level tests in the area, over the proper calibration of power level meters. 

In the end, the council remains open to any written comments which may be coming in, with their final decision to come at their Jan. 27 meeting. Mayor Tom Bates, who missed Tuesday’s meeting to attend a National Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C., can cast his vote next week after reviewing the videotape and the written record of the hearing. 

Sitting as the city’s Redevelopment Agency, councilmembers debated whether to add another 22 years to the city’s lease on the Ocean View Gardens low income housing project, from its scheduled end in 2037 on to 2059. 

Ocean View houses are currently rented to residents who are earn 50 to 60 percent of Area Median Income—roughly between $40,000 and $48,000 a year for a family of four. AF Evans Company of Oakland currently leases the site for the 62-unit complex to the City of Berkeley. 

AF Evans officials said they needed the extension to get a $4.3 million loan from the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) and to prevent the Ocean View houses from reverting to market rate housing as early as 2012. 

When the council agreed to the extension, several Ocean View tenants charged that the city and AF Evans representatives had been unresponsive to complaints about alleged substandard conditions in some Ocean View units. The council then amended the lease, imposing city staff inspections of the dwellings, ordering a staff survey of tenants looking into management services at Ocean View, and making AF Evans meet with tenants on a regular basis to address issues of concern. 

Both the extension and the amendments passed unanimously. 

Following a request by Councilmember Kriss Worthington, his colleagues agreed to withhold approval of new rates for Comcast Cable pending negotiations over a revival of discount rates for low-income seniors and disabled citizens. At Dona Spring’s request, fellow councilmembers tabled approval of a plan to extend the Bay Trail to the Berkeley Marina because they didn’t see enough evidence to convince them of the need to cut down nearly 100 trees. 

For the second straight week, Councilmember Margaret Breland didn’t attend due to illness.

Local community college officials fear a proposal to push 10 percent of incoming University of California and California State University freshman into community colleges will end up pushing some Berkeley students straight out of higher education. 

“We’re already bulging at the seams,” said Howard Purdue, executive vice chancellor for admissions of the Peralta Community College District—which includes Vista College in Berkeley. “If we have to accept student A, we won’t have space for student B.” 

On the surface, Peralta officials should be thrilled with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal. While he recommended steep cuts to UC and CSU, the governor pledged roughly $200 million in new spending on community colleges—more than enough to pay for his plan to divert about 7,000 UC and CSU students through the state’s less expensive 72 community college districts. 

But Peralta, which in addition to Vista oversees three other schools in Northern Alameda County, won’t get its fair share, said Tom Smith, the district’s associate vice chancellor of budget. 

The problem, he said, is that most of the money directed towards enrollment growth is tied to a formula that penalizes Peralta and other urban districts with stagnant populations and high school graduation rates. 

“Places where they’re building lots of houses will get the majority of this,” Smith said. “We’re not so lucky.” He estimated Peralta would net about $1 million from the budget proposal—not enough to absorb the anticipated wave of several hundred new students and still meet the needs of its core population. 

Potentially compounding the problem, said Steve Boilard of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office, is that Peralta could see a disproportionate number of the new transfers, since those who are guaranteed admission to UC Berkeley as juniors could choose to attend a Peralta school to be near UC.  

“The way funding gets allocated doesn’t take into account that some districts in the system might face a bigger burden,” he said. 

Frederick E. Harris, California Community Colleges (CCC) assistant vice chancellor for finance, said the chancellor’s office was aware of Peralta’s concerns, and that “it’s definitely something we’re going to look at.” 

Smith doubted the CCC would reform its formula for distributing growth revenue this year and warned that without a bigger share of the pie, financial hardships would continue. 

Earlier this month, the CCC reprimanded Peralta and 12 other districts for allowing cash reserves to fall below five percent of expenditures. 

Squeezed between back-to-back budget cuts that reduced state funding by over $3 million and spiraling enrollment rates driven by students eager for job training and a low cost alternative to UC, Peralta dipped into its reserves to enroll 2,200 students above a state-mandated cap. 

To deal with its budget crunch, the district cut 11 percent of class offerings this fall and denied full-time enrollment to 3,000 prospective students, Purdue said. 

If Peralta, with 19,100 full-time students, is required to bump up its advanced classes for an influx of transfer students, Purdue predicted it will have to cut back on its vocational and basic skills classes, reducing access to two of its primary constituencies. 

“We’re facing decisions that have ethical and political overtones,” he said.

Tell the doctor, “It hurts, here.” Then listen to the diagnosis and instructions. Sounds simple.  

But people who live in the United States communicate in more than 300 languages, and more than 30 million residents speak little or no English. And when it comes to who should pay for medical interpreting, everyone passes the buck. Horror stories of the consequences of amateur medical interpreting abound, from violations of patient privacy to death.  

Now—as President Bush appears to be calling for dignity for immigrants with his proposal to extend temporary legal status to undocumented workers—many legal and healthcare professionals are questioning the administration’s real commitment to newcomer communities. They charge the Bush administration with weakening federal advice that guarantees medical interpreting for this population. And many doctors blame the Bush administration for failure to promote the only federal dollars earmarked for medical interpreting—matching funds to states through the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). 

Former President Clinton put the civil rights of America’s burgeoning population of limited English proficient residents on the federal map in 2000, with an executive order and subsequent policy guidance guaranteeing free oral and written translation to them as patients. Although President Bush has upheld the order, his health agency has issued a new “guidance” that his administration calls “more flexible” and critics attack as a “shocking departure” from Clinton’s.  

In a recent letter to federal civil rights health officials, the National Health Law Program (NHELP), a public interest law firm, charges that by changing mandatory orders to voluntary language, the Bush guidance invites providers to disregard their interpreting obligation by stating that language assistance is not necessary in “certain circumstances.” Fifty-nine national and local health and legal organizations are on record supporting the letter.  

Gone is the Clinton guidance that said using amateurs for interpreting and translating is “life-threatening.” Critics charge that softened language in the Bush guidance opens the possibility that, for instance, a victim of domestic violence or child abuse could end up with the alleged abuser as his or her interpreter.  

Chong Choa Cha’s missing right foot is one of many examples of how the medical system can break down without professional interpreting. The 47-year-old refugee, who only speaks Hmong, is suing the University Medical Center in Fresno, Calif., for amputating his infected foot. An investigation by the state health department agreed with Cha’s story. Cha, who had no professional interpreter present, believed doctors would only cleanse his foot.  

Less dramatic encounters happen every day, with similarly profound consequences, says Barbara Reyes, president of the Arizona Interpreters and Translators Association and secretary of the National Council of Interpreting in Healthcare. In the absence of professional interpreters, “little children deliver awful news to the parent they love. Friends and neighbors hear sexual and other personal history that should be private,” Reyes says.  

Medical interpreting is a tool that doctors need and want, says Cindy Roat, co-chair of the National Council on Interpreting in Healthcare. “The patient population has changed. We need to communicate.”  

Richard Campanelli, director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, says the new Bush guidance offers providers flexibility and adds that the guidance “is not a regulation.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) has the lead on questions each federal agency must address in its guidance on language access, he says, and the health department follows the DOJ template.  

The NHELP letter disputes Campanelli’s claim that his agency’s guidance is in line with DOJ’s.  

Alex Acosta, assistant attorney general for civil rights at DOJ, declined to speak on the record. 

Four years ago, CMS issued a letter offering states federal matching funds for medical interpreting for Medicaid recipients and low-income children receiving federal funds. Only 10 states have applied for and received these funds, according to the NHELP, which has monitored the issue for the past decade. Besides states, the American Medical Association (AMA) has unsuccessfully urged Medicaid officials for the past three years to re-issue the Clinton-era letter and clarify what mechanism would unlock funds to states.  

The AMA warned the administration that physicians might stop accepting Medicaid patients if doctors have to bear most interpreting costs.  

“The bottom line here is that interpreting services for limited English proficient patients are mandatory,” says Mary Kahn, CMS spokesperson on language access. “Saying that interpreting is too expensive when you receive federal funds is not an acceptable excuse not to pay for it.”  

The AMA has been in contact with high-level administration representatives in the relevant agencies about the issue, says Robert Mills, AMA senior public information officer. “Unfortunately, both the (health department’s) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and CMS keep passing the buck. CMS tells us it’s not their issue, and OCR tells us they have nothing to do with payment issues.” 

Most hospitals are aware of their interpreting obligation, but advocates say countless doctors and small clinics may not believe they have to pay for it unless threatened with state and federal enforcement. 

One longtime, high-level federal health staffer who requested anonymity characterizes Washington’s commitment to the issue this way: “Language access is not a high priority around here. The way bureaucrats know something is not high priority is when they’re told NOT to do something, like re-issuing the matching funds letter.  

“This administration will not force—or help—states provide language access.” 

PNS contributing editor Hilary Abramson has covered health care issues on a national level for over a decade.

Two Robbers Nabbed 

Police arrested two young men in connection with an armed robbery Thursday afternoon at Black & White Liquors at the corner of Adeline Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

According to the store clerk, who refused to give his name, three men entered the store, two brandishing guns, while the third made off with two 12-packs of beer. They raced out without demanding money, one jumping into a white Cadillac with someone waiting in the driver’s seat, the others running south with the beer down Adeline.  

Police converged on the car at Shattuck and Ashby avenues, arresting both driver and passenger, Gabriel Gutierrez, 20, and Emanuel Martinez, 18 , both of Berkeley. The other pair remains at large, police said. 

Senior Kidnapped 

A 76-year-old Berkeley resident was kidnapped at knifepoint in Downtown Berkeley Monday evening and forced to remove money from an ATM machine. Police said it was the third kidnapping in the past three months. 

The woman parked her car at Addison and Oxfords streets about 7:20 p.m., and she was getting out when a man ordered her into the passenger seat and drove her to an ATM machine at the corner of Ashby and Telegraph avenues, before leaving her unharmed in the car at Ashby Bart Station. 

Police are looking for any possible connections between this incident and the kidnapping and robbery of an elderly man in October and the kidnapping sexual assault of a woman in November, said BPD spokesperson Kevin Schofield.  

Give Me The Damn Wallet 

A mugger interrupted NFL star Keyshawn Johnson’s cell phone chat outside a South Berkeley barber shop Wednesday afternoon. 

The two-time All-Pro Wide Receiver, a frequent patron of Johnson’s House of Styles (no known relation) on the 2900 block of Sacramento Street, had stepped outside at 3:29 p.m. to handle a call, police said, when two men walked up, one carrying either a rifle or a shotgun.  

The men grabbed cash and jewelry and during the incident Johnson backed into the barber shop’s window pane, knocking it out of place. The star was unhurt and the muggers fled in a light blue ‘70s American-made car, police spokesperson Kevin Schofield said. 

I can’t remember who told me this story. Could have been my father—it sounds like something he would have said. Could have been something I read someplace. Anyhow, in the version I remember, a guy works for years in a warehouse, along with a lot of his buddies. All day long he tells jokes, and he has all the guys cracking up. Jokes about the boss. Jokes about their small paychecks. Jokes about how fat one of his buddies is getting. Jokes about himself. When they knock off at five o’clock every evening, they all stop at a bar a block down from the warehouse, and they drink a couple of beers apiece, and this guy is always in the center of the crowd, all his buddies surrounding him, and he’s telling jokes, and everybody’s laughing. He’s one of those natural comics. Everybody loves him. He ought to be on Comedy Central. 

And then one day the warehouse foreman retires, and the boss calls him into the office and gives this guy the job. And when he walks back out onto the floor, he’s no longer just one of the guys. Sure, he tries to be. But now he’s the one who decides who has to stay over late to load a truck, and who gets to go home. He’s the one who has to write up the reports for the guys coming in late. When work gets slow and someone has to be laid off, he’s the one who sits in the meeting with the boss, where they decide who that someone is going to be. 

This guy tries hard to be the same guy he always was. On the warehouse floor all day, and at the bar after hours, he tells the same jokes he always did, but he doesn’t seem to get the same kinds of laughs. The guys give a weak grin, just for show, and then they turn and walk away. So the guy goes home and explains the situation to his wife and asks him what’s wrong—is he losing his comic touch?—and she says, no, it’s just that when you are in charge, your jokes stop being funny. 

One has to always be careful, taking your impression of an event from a newspaper account. Being a reporter myself, I know the danger. There’s no such thing as objective, unbiased reporting. You see the world through your own eyes, and that viewpoint filters back through how you describe what you’ve seen. A word changed, here or there, and you get vastly different impressions of a scene. 

You have to be doubly careful when that scene describes something being said or done by Mayor Jerry Brown. I don’t fancy myself a Brown expert, but I’ve had the chance to interview him a time or two, and observed him from a bit of a distance during his five years or so as mayor of my native city. He’s one of the more enigmatic men you are likely to meet. I’ve watched him fumble and stumble over himself behind that deadpan delivery and wondered, is this a mind so bright and brilliant that it’s just too preoccupied with reaching that far distant mountaintop to worry about the stray trip over a pebble in its path, or is this merely clever posturing by a charlatan, a wink and a nod to the knowing while the magician dupes the rest of the crowd? Concerning Mayor Brown, there is no definitive answer. 

All that being said, even within those many Brown-as-Oakland’s-savior believers amongst us, there must have been a bit of a pause in reading Heather MacDonald’s recent Oakland Tribune account of Mayor Brown’s power-breakfast, State of the City address to members of Oakland’s Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. I will quote liberally. 

“Mayor Jerry Brown had Oakland’s business leaders rolling in the aisles Wednesday morning as he painted a rosy picture of the state of the city,” Ms. MacDonald’s story begins. “[A]s leaders networked between mouthfuls of scrambled eggs and potatoes” the mayor delivered “punch lines.” “The crowd of business people, lawyers and public officials laughed easily at Brown’s seemingly ad-libbed jokes.” And, then, the remarkable story recounted: “As he was leaving City Hall late one night this week, Brown said he was stopped by a man who told him how wonderful downtown Oakland was, as compared with where he was from. ‘Then he told me he had just come from prison,’ Brown said, prompting gales of laughter.” 

Everybody is free to have their own interpretation of these remarks. The members of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, their mouths stuffed with scrambled eggs and potatoes, had theirs. You can have yours. Here is mine. 

Jerry Brown ran for mayor of Oakland on three promises. He would bring and economic revival to the downtown area. He would improve the public schools. He would make our streets safer. 

Five years have passed. While there have been a few improvements here and there—and there are always a few improvements, here and there, under any administration—downtown Oakland remains pretty much the way it was left when Elihu Harris closed the door behind him. A few bright spots, but mostly a wandering wasteland without coherent plan for correction. In that same time, Oakland’s public school system is in complete disarray, seized by the State of California, threatening bankruptcy, parents and students fleeing to other systems, on the verge of losing several of its campuses. And as for our safer streets? Oakland’s murder rate is soaring, the city has become more dangerous, with whole neighborhoods at risk. It’s hard to make a case that we are better under Brown. 

But now comes the mayor, over toast and eggs, making jokes about it all with the business leaders of the city. “I guess we’re nation building there,” Ms. MacDonald quotes Mr. Brown about President Bush’s policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. “There are some blocks in Oakland that I’d like to nation build.” 

The business leaders laughed. Living on one of those blocks, and listening to the man who is responsible for our welfare, I apologize, but I don’t find it quite so funny.

Public events are mirrors through which we may read ourselves. I’d like to say brazenly that the wave of eulogies following the death of the noted liberal educator Clark Kerr reminds me of what happened to the Democratic Party during his lifetime—the long slide from reaching for popular spirit to abject “centrism,” shamelessly greasing the gears of late-stage global capitalism. 

But my bravado leaks like a punctured lung. I wince with shame at how petty and mean-spirited I will seem to go against the general tide of good feeling about Kerr and his accomplishments. 

How can my grumble not be in bad taste, revealing me as a pinched creature, an old hippie still trapped in attitudes of youth, fixated on a few things that happened 40 years ago, as if they still mattered? 

In this age of Ashcroftian terrorism, every good liberal’s instinct is to bow to the story told so eloquently by the patient FOIA researcher Seth Rosenfeld. As a leading liberal reformer and president of the world’s greatest multiversity, Kerr was targeted not only by then-Gov. Reagan’s wrath, but by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, which secretly derailed his career and his chances for greater national influence. Kerr was thus a hero, worth remembering and mourning in a time when basic civil liberties and liberal values are again so threatened. 

All this is true enough, in its own terms; I can scarcely quarrel. Even so, some other truths should be recalled. 

For I remember what it was like, down there at Ground Zero, in the actual trenches of making history, during the Free Speech Movement in 1964. The eulogies credit Kerr with “saving us” from assault by 600 armed police, as our thousand sat around the police car we had trapped, with the civil rights worker inside, arrested for daring to set up an informational table in the plaza, right in front of the administration building. 

They don’t mention that Kerr himself had been the key architect of the prolonged despoilment of student civil liberties that brought us to this desperate gesture and condition. From 1957 on, as student activism emerged in the New Left, Kerr liberalized certain features of campus governance while overseeing increasingly strict regulation of key activities—essentially thrusting student activism off-campus just as its energies were rising. 

Caught between his younger liberal values and the business and governmental pressures to which his administration increasingly responded, Kerr’s policies were riddled with contradiction. So was the agreement he signed that night with Mario Savio as our representative. 

Every term beside our own agreement to withdraw was a betrayal: the charges weren’t dropped, the “fair” committee was completely stacked, and so on. Under pressure of the crisis, but along natural faultlines, Kerr had argued and signed in condescending ignorance and ultimately in bad faith. 

A deeper form of bad faith soon became apparent. It was bad enough that the higher administration adamantly opposed our struggle for basic civil liberties on campus. Beyond, in the eyes of the larger community, we were at the mercy of the media, which sensationalized us even more than we invited, without much bothering to report on the serious and intellectual content of our protest. 

In this inflammatory milieu, so shortly after the wane of Congressional Red-hunting, Clark Kerr was quoted in the metropolitan news as saying that nearly half of the FSM’s leaders were “followers of the Mao-Castro line,” i.e.: dirty Commies. 

Of course, this was a dirty lie, though we did treasure the one Commie highest among us, Bettina Aptheker, because she was righteously conservative and wise. But though Kerr later privately claimed he had not said this, the damage was well done, and he never bothered to retract his statement before the Public in whose name eight hundred of us eventually were arrested and many sent to jail. 

I must note that during our subsequent trial—for the first sit-in to paralyze a university’s administration—Kerr’s lawyers had to take him out into a corridor to explain the key technical point about advocacy speech, which had been a center-post of our argument since early on, but which Kerr had never clearly understood until seven months after our jailing swung the faculty decisively to support us. In this ignorance—born ultimately of distance from and contempt for students—Kerr’s manner of governing as well as a personal dereliction of duty were revealed. 

But my deeper bone to pick with him, then and since, is as an educator. 

Clark Kerr never understood that the key reason we white kids involved ourselves in the civil rights movement was not simply compassion, but our desire for learning how to be citizens, for learning democracy by exercising it. This was a species of education beyond his effective comprehension. He spoke and planned in other terms. 

Our complaint was not only that he would never meet with us directly, never talk with us nor listen to us; it was that he had no center, that he was a technocrat of the depersonalizing institution. Already his book had established him as the leading theoretician of the modern multiversity. We mocked him in song for proclaiming that “the Knowledge Industry now accounts for 29 percent of the G.N.P.” 

In retrospect, it is even clearer that during his rise and regime from chancellor of the Berkeley campus to president of the whole state university system, Kerr presided over a key transition of elite higher education—from an institution having some of the liberal and Ivory Tower qualities that we simultaneously derided and respected, into one geared increasingly and shamelessly into the dominant mechanisms of capitalist society and culture. 

I can scarcely count the ways in this brief piece, nor mourn properly at the depths to which humanistic education is being sacrificed from lower levels up in a melange of testing, pre-professionalism, “standards” and technology. But of course, all this takes office space, and I chuckle wryly whenever I pause at the stop sign outside the main entrance to the satellite Clark Kerr Campus, only half a mile from the main quads. I used to read to blind students, and grew accustomed to them on campus. 

Long before sidewalks were first ramped here to allow wheelchair mobility, Berkeley was already a national leader in mainstreaming the handicapped. A unique 58-acre campus for blind and deaf students offered them unrivaled, direct access to the full resources of the university for half a century … and oh, my, how time does fly! Midway between the FSM and now, a cruel trick was played on the deaf and blind: Their precious buildings and grounds were judged uninhabitable due to earthquake danger, far too vulnerable and too expensive to repair. 

Too bad; and whisk! off went the deaf and blind, trucked to some facility forty miles away, tucked away out of contact, out of sight, out of mind. Maybe every mind but mine? 

Who knows who remembers? No one ever talks about what happened and why. It’s not mentioned in the glossy promo lit for the Clark Kerr Campus, which houses international students and visiting scholars, and rents its facilities to endless varieties of corporate conferences and educational affairs, in gracious surroundings well-braced against temblors. Turned out to be cost-efficient after all, once the defenseless were cleared away. 

I doubt that Kerr had anything to do with this personally. His name is simply enshrined there, over a pit of silent shame. In somewhat the same style, his name is burnished now in public eulogies as a symbol of liberalism, above unmentioned pittings of shame. 

Another involves then-Chancellor Edward Strong, whom Kerr left at safe distance—without saving guidance or restraint—to complete the mishandling of the FSM affair all the way to the final dramatic assault on Mario Savio before ten thousand in the Greek Theater, which Kerr the experienced labor mediator mishandled on his own. The whole experience was ruinous to Strong, who emerged a broken man, in fair part from his abandonment by Kerr. 

Such personal costs are so far outside the usual calculus in which Kerr’s institutional accomplishments are measured, that they’d seem unsporting to mention, if abandonment were not a deep theme here. “Joy to UC,” we sang in early carol that year, “Clark Kerr has called us Reds!” 

What we could not sing was our longing for who he might have been, other than our newspaper assassin. We could hardly imagine a university president who could lead constructively, who could read the Constitution and our careful explanations for himself, and help teach the public: “Yes, these are student rights; this is how learning to be citizens makes sense.” 

There was no vision of learning, geared to deep values; only the same waving and bowing to pressures, to power. And so it was in a larger frame too. Clark Kerr’s response to our awakening in the FSM was an earnest of his response to the entire predicament of the university during a deep phase of historical transformation. He will not be remembered for promoting visions and values of education that might balance its increasing corporatization. Indeed, his failure will pass beyond mention, invisibly, for no one expects the head of a major public institution to provide this sort of leadership now. And that’s a genuine, deep shame.

If you’ve spent any time at Cesar Chavez Park on the Berkeley waterfront this winter, you may have had an odd encounter: a meeting with a small brown owl, perched on a coyote bush or popping out of the riprap at the water’s edge.  

That would have been a western burrowing owl, one of the few owls that hunts by day, and the protagonist in yet another battle in the endangered-species wars. 

Biologist Steve Granholm, who monitors shoreline bird populations, tells me that a couple of the birds are spending the season along the park’s northern edge, and that others have been seen south of University Avenue and near Golden Gate Fields. 

You may have noticed the owl bobbing and bowing at you. That wasn’t a greeting—it was a sign of agitation—but it’s why the species has been nicknamed the “howdy owl.” It’s ironic, since, as ornithologist Paul Johnsgard has written, “in most western states the familiar ‘howdy owl’ is saying a long, sad farewell.” 

What the burrowing owl lacks in stature—I believe it was Carl Hiassen who described it as about the size of a beer can—it more than makes up in personality. It has fierce yellow eyes and white eyebrow and throat markings that set off its brown plumage. Male owls flare their eyebrow and throat feathers and stretch to their maximum height while cooing to prospective mates. They may also perform a circular courtship flight. 

Our local owls are only winter visitors, probably from east of the hills, although they do nest elsewhere in the East Bay. They’re unique among their family in using holes in the ground as nest sites. “Burrowing” is a stretch, though. The disjunct population of burrowing owls in Florida, where the soil can be loose and sandy, do tend to excavate their own homes. But their western cousins usually appropriate a burrow from a ground squirrel, prairie dog, or other mammal. The owls’ association with burrowing rodents is what led the Zuni Indians to call them the Priests of the Prairie Dogs. 

In our area, the original architect of a burrowing owl’s nest will most likely be a California ground squirrel. Lise Thomsen, who studied the owls at the Oakland Airport more than 30 years ago, found that owls had no trouble evicting squirrels from a desirable property. She also reported that although the birds’ diet included mice and young jackrabbits, they didn’t prey on the squirrels, even vulnerable youngsters. Insects, notably Jerusalem crickets, and small birds were on the menu as well. 

Burrowing owls also diverge from normal owl behavior in furnishing their nests. Thomsen’s owls used divots from the adjacent golf course, along with gum wrappers and other bits of litter. They’ll also bring home cow chips and dog feces, apparently to mask the smell of their nestlings from predators. Owls, perhaps fortunately, do not have a keen sense of smell. 

The owlets have a second line of defense: a distress call that bears an uncanny acoustic resemblence to a rattlesnake’s rattle. (In South America, where burrowing owls did not co-evolve with rattlers, the call hasn’t been documented). It’s accurate enough to have fooled ground squirrels, who need to have a good ear for snake sounds, and it may deter badgers and other predators. Unfortunately, it has no effect on earth-moving equipment. 

Western burrowing owls have been hard hit by the conversion of grasslands to farm fields and the extermination of the rodents that provide their housing. They’re losing ground in most of the western states, including California where they’ve been extirpated from 22 percent of their former range and are declining in another 50 percent. There have been sharp decreases in the Bay Area, much of the Central Valley, and the Southern California coast. Most of the remaining population is on private land, almost three-quarters of them on farmland in the Imperial Valley, where they’re at risk from agricultural chemicals and urban sprawl. 

The South Bay may still have about a hundred pairs. But owls don’t carry much weight in Silicon Valley. In one of those gestures corporate PR types like to brag about, burrowing owls have sometimes been relocated from properties slated for development. This may be good for the company’s image but seems to be of little benefit to the birds; one study found only one relocation in eight led to successful nesting at the new site. The owls often try to return to their now-uninhabitable homes. 

Since state status as a Species of Special Concern and inclusion in local Habitat Conservation Plans hadn’t stemmed the decline, environmental groups petitioned last April to have the western burrowing owl listed as endangered. It turned into a classic faceoff: in the owl’s corner, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Santa Clara Valley and San Bernardino Valley Audubon Societies; in the other, agribusiness and builders’ associations. 

The Farm Bureau alleged its constituents were already protecting the owls and legal requirements would be counterproductive. Madera County rancher Clay Daulton said that with “en-croaching regulations…maybe my last resort is to pave [my land] over and make some money and retire.” The state’s scientists claimed there was no good evidence that the owl was approaching extinction—although 71 percent of California’s burrowing owl population is confined to less than three percent of the state’s area, there’s really nothing to worry about. 

When push came to shove, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to deny the listing petition. “Sometimes populations relocate”, said Commissioner Bob Hattoy, a former Sierra Club executive. “We all have.” The owl’s fate is expected to wind up in court. 

Relocation is easier for politicians than for owls. But the birds have been flexible enough to use farmland and parks, and a few seem willing to entertain other alternatives. The burrowing owl that turned up a couple of years ago in the Embarcadero BART station may have thought it had discovered the Ultimate Burrow.

Berkeley could become the first city in the nation with public financing of local elections if voters approve the proposal supported by Mayor Tom Bates and at least two city councilmembers for the November ballot. 

In approving the idea in principle on a 6-2 vote, Commissioners suggested that public financing might begin with the mayor’s and councilmember’s offices and later expand to school board races and other citywide offices. 

Bates and Councilmembers Linda Maio and Dona Spring promoted the idea at last Thursday’s meeting of the Fair Campaign Practices Commission. 

According to the nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based Public Campaign organization, public financing of political campaigns are currently in effect in Arizona and Maine, and has been authorized in New Mexico, North Carolina, Vermont, and Massachussetts. 

At the same meeting, commissioners expressed little interest in a proposal to raise the individual campaign contribution limit in Berkeley elections from $250 to $500—letting the idea die without a formal vote or even a discussion. 

Bates suggested that a public campaign program could be financed by a $1 to $3 hike in parking ticket fees. While that suggestion evoked some skepticism from commissioners, they agreed that the money had to be raised somewhere, and left it up to City Council to fill in the details. 

While a city public campaign financing law could be authorized by a two-thirds vote of both the council and the Fair Campaign Practices Commission, Bates says he prefers bringing the matter before voters in a referendum. City Clerk Sherry Kelly said that for a measure to be ready for the November ballot, city staff would have to start drafting a detailed proposal this winter. 

Jim Ferguson, East Bay coordinator for Common Cause, told commissioners that Berkeley campaign expenditures have “shown a significant increase” over the past two elections, offering a chart that showed “the biggest [election] spender in the 2002 [Berkeley elections] was 50 percent higher than the previous high” (jumping from under $50,000 to more than $70,000), and “the lowest spender in 2002 was higher than two thirds of the candidates in previous elections.” 

Calling Berkeley races “godawful expensive,” Bates rejected “tinkering with the existing campaign finance system” by raising individual campaign contribution limits and told commissioners that “we need to scrap the whole thing. Most incumbents don’t want to change the laws under which they get elected, but our system is too out of whack, we need to change it.” 

Maio said that while she’s been interested in running for mayor for some time, she’d have to take out both a second mortgage and dip into her retirement savings to compete in a campaign. Calling the campaign costs “daunting,” the UC Berkeley retiree said, “I’m not a lawyer who can rely on fees from big cases.” 

Spring said she supported the public financing proposal “beaus it will probably give more candidates a competitive edge against an entrenched incumbent. As an entrenched incumbent myself, I’m not too happy about that. But I have to look at what’s best for the city as a whole.” 

Peralta Colleges Commissioner Darryl Moore, whose name has been floated as a possible candidate for Margaret Breland’s District 2 City Council seat should Breland decide not to run this fall, called Berkeley campaigns “too expensive...they have become obscene. Good candidates don’t get the chance to run, especially candidates of color.”

TUESDAY, JAN. 20 

Berkeley High School Parent Teacher Student Association invites you to attend the first General Membership meeting of 2004, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the new Library, in the new D Building. Jim Slemp, Principal, will speak, followed by a question and answer period and a tour of the new building. Enter using the Milvia St. entrance.  

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Advance sign-up needed. 594-5165.  

A Critical Look at the Biodiesel Industry at 7 p.m. at BioFuel Oasis, 2465 4th St. at Dwight. Donation of $5-$10 requested. 665-5509. www.biofueloasis.com  

Friends of Strawberry Creek meets from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library’s Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St. The meeting will focus on creek-water monitoring with a presentation by Civil Engineer/ 

Hydrologist Ed Ballman.  

Berkeley Garden Club “Jepson Herbarium: Its Purpose and Origin” will be the topic presented by Staci Markos, Public Program and Development Coordinator at 1 p.m. at the Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. Non-members welcome. Free. 524-4374. 

Public Hearing on Proposed Cellphone Antennas for the roof of Starbucks Cafe and Barney’s Restaurant on Cedar St. At 7 p.m. in the Berkeley City Council Chambers, 2134 MLK, Jr. Way. 

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. 234-4783. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Slide show of Sweden and Lappland with Jackie Hetman at 11 a.m. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

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 for information or check our web page, http://home.comcast.net/~teachme99/tildenwalkers.html or email teachme99@comcast.net 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21 

Neighborhood Forum with the City Manager and Fire Dept. from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Fireside Room, St. John’s Presbyterian, 2727 College Ave. Presentation on the City’s budget at 6:10 p.m. Sponsored by CNA/BANA.  

EmbracingDiversityFilms and the Albany High School PTA co-host the screening of “Daddy & Papa” at 7 p.m. at the Albany High School Library, 603 Key Route Blvd., Albany. A discussion will follow the movie. Free. 527-1328. 

Writers’ Room Coach Training is offered from 7 to 9:30 p.m. for volunteers who would like to help students improve their writing and critical thinking skills. To attend please call Terry Bloomburgh at 849-4134 or email Bloomburgh@sbcglobal.net 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “The Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown at 6:30 p.m. at Liu’s Kitchen, Solano Ave. 433-2911. 

Gray Panthers “Trekking into 2004: Where Do We Go from Here?” Bring your ideas and inspiration. At 7 p.m. at 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

An Evening with Mountaineer Joe Simpson at 6:30 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

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. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and  

Vigil at the Berkeley BART Sta- 

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

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

THURSDAY, JAN. 22 

Pro-Choice Rally, to celebrate the 31st Anniversary of Roe v Wade, Meet at 5 p.m. in front of the Powell St. BART station, in SF, for a march to Civic Center. 415-334-1502. 

Prepare for the March 2 Election A presentation on ballot measures by the League of Women Voters, at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Central Library, 3rd floor meeting room, 2090 Kittredge St. 526-5139. 

Winter Back-Country Travel Safety and Survival Tips at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

FRIDAY, JAN. 23 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Chi-an Hu, Visiting Professor, International Law, UCB, on “China’s Role in the United Nations.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $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. 

Docent Training for Berkeley Historical Society, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Veteran’s Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. 

Literary Friends meets from 1:15 to 3 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. We will discuss the Women’s Movement during the past century. For information call 232-1351. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 7:15 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Players at all levels are welcome. 652-5324. 

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. People of all traditions are welcome to join us. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

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. For information call Katherine, 525-5231. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 24  

Free Emergency Preparedness Class on Fire Supression for anyone who lives or works in Berkeley, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Fire Department Training Center, 997 Cedar St. Register on-line at www.ci.berkeley.ca. 

us/fire/oes or call 981-5506. 

Winter Bird Walk Join Chris Carmichael, Associate Director of Collections and Horticulture, and expert birder Dennis Wolff on a morning walk from 9 to 10 a.m. to discover the Botanical Garden’s bird life. Heavy rain cancels. Cost is $10, members free. Registration required. 643-2937. Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. http:// 

botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Winter Color in the Garden 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Cerrito Creek Work Party Help remove blackberries and plant trees on Cerrito Creek north of Albany Hill. Meet at Pacific East Mall, 3288 Pierce St, El Cerrito at 10 a.m. For information email f5creeks@aol.com  

Kids Garden Club Experience the water cycle through our watershed model and see how water effects our garden and you. From 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park Cost is $3. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org   

Salamander Saunter We’ll look for wet weather animals, learn the difference between newts and salamanders, and see what they are doing at this time of the year. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. in Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. 525-2233. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Berkeley Copwatch Orientation: Know Your Rights! Join us for this hands-on workshop including: What rights we have when we are stopped, what to look for when someone else is getting stopped, keeping safe while observing police and more. From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. This event is free and open to the public. 548-0425. 

Share Your Gear Party Your recycled sports equipment can help keep children playing. Donations accepted from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sports4Kids Swap Shop, 2095 Rose St., between Shattuck and Henry. 868-1591. 

Bauman College Open House Visit the new Berkeley campus and learn about classes in holistic nutrition and culinary arts, 3 to 6 p.m. at 901 Grayson St., at 7th. 800-987-7530.  

Veg 101: Compassionate Living Workshop A one-day workshop introducing the many reasons why vegetarianism is a healthy, environmental, and compassionate diet. From 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Berkeley Public Library Main Meeting Room, 3rd floor, 2090 Kittredge St. 925-487-4419. www.generationv.org/veg101  

Yoga for Seniors at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., on Saturdays from 10 to 11 a.m. Open to non-members of the club for $8 per class. For further information and to register, call 848-7800. 

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, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JAN. 25 

Introduction to Homebrewing Biodiesel Learn the basics of making biodiesel, and see the whole process from testing the veggie oil, brewing the biodiesel, washing it, filtering it, and putting it in your vehicle. Bring a dish to share for a potluck lunch. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $10-$20 sliding scale. RSVP by email to jenniferradtke@yahoo.com for directions and more details.  

Berkeley City Club free tour from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tours are sponsored by the Berkeley City Club and the Landmark Heritage Foundation. Donations welcome. The Berkeley City Club is located at 2315 Durant Ave. For group reservations or more information, call 848-7800 or 883-9710. 

Tibetan Peace Ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 26 

Fitness for 55+ A total body workout including aerobics, stretching and strengthing at 1:15 p.m. every Monday at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5170. 

Tea at Four Enjoy some of the best teas from the other side of the Pacific Rim and learn their cultural and natural history. Then take a walk to see wintering birds and dormant lady- 

beetles, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. Cost is $5 for residents, $7 for non-residents. Wheelchair accessible. 525-2233. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

ONGOING 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra misses its alums! As our nation's second oldest youth orchestra, based in Berkeley, YPSO is in possession of a treasure trove of memorabilia dating as far back as 1936. To preserve and share these photographs, letters, programs and other interesting materials YPSO is creating a Digital Online Museum. If you participated in the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra please contact David Davis at davisde@yogashorts.com or 543-4054. 

Support the Berkeley Public Library On-line Auction Visit www.bplf.org and bid to name a character in a work by Michael Chabon, have dinner with Elizabeth Farnsworth and Khaled Hosseini, let Bill Schechner tell your story, work with Adair Lara on a memoir, hear Maxine Hong Kingston at your book club, and much more. 981-6115. 

Learn About Howard Dean and see why he is our best bet against George Bush. Alameda County for Dean is sponsoring a series of informational gatherings at private homes throughout the county. Experienced campaign volunteers will present Dean’s positions and achievements, and can answer your questions. Call 548-8414 or go to www.eb4dean/houseparties for the time and place best for you! 

Freedom From Tobacco A free quit-smoking class offered by the City of Berkeley Tobacco Prevention Program on six Thursday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m., Jan. 22 to Feb. 26, at the Central Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. To enroll please call 981-5330 or e-mail at quitnow@ci.berkeley.ca.us.  You will receive a confirmation of your registration.   

Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League offers an exciting opportunity for East Bay girls in grades 1-8 to learn softball, make friends and have fun! Registration starts in January; the season runs March 6 through June 5. For information call 869-4277. www.abgsl.org 

Vista Community College Classes in Computer Software begins Jan. 15. Enrollment is open through Jan. 24. Register on-line at www.peralta.cc.ca.us or at 2020 Milvia St., or call 981-2863. 

Creating Economic Opportunities for Women offers training programs for immigrant and refugee women. Orientations held during January, at 655 International Blvd., 2nd flr. Call 879-2949. 

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 

Acting and Improv Classes for Adults begin Sun. Jan. 25. Cost is $290 for 8 wks. On- 

going classes for children and teens. Verna Winter Studio, 1312 Bonita Ave. 524-1601. 

Tae-Bo, a cardiovascular workout composed of kick punches and stretches will be offered at Frances Albrier Recreation Center, 2800 Park St., on Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30-7:30 p.m., beginning Jan. 13. Cost is $20 per month or $4 drop-in. For information call 981-6640.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues. Jan. 20, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St., Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/city 

council/agenda-committee 

City Council meets Tues., Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Sherry M. Kelly, city clerk, 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Jan. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Katherine O’Connor, 981-6601. www.ci.berkeley.ca. us/commissions/humane 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Jan. 21, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Lisa Ploss, 981-5200. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/aging 

Commission on Labor meets Wed., Jan. 21, at 6:30 p.m., at Berkeley Work-Source, 1950 Addison St., Suite 105. Delfina M. Geiken, 644-6085. www.ci.-berkeley.ca.us/commissions/labor 

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs. Jan. 22 at 7:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400. www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/commissions/housing 

Parks and Recreation Commission meets Mon., Jan. 26, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Deborah Chernin, 981-6715. ww.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ 

commissions/parksandrecreation 

Solid Waste Management Commission meets Mon., Jan. 26, at 7 p.m., at 1201 Second St. Becky Dowdakin, 981-6357. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/commissions/solidwaste

We’ve all read “Dear Abby” and “Miss Manners,” but now I think it is time for Berkeley to have its own “Ask Mayor Tom” column.  

I may not be the best source for questions about etiquette or troublesome in-laws, but I can offer suggestions, and advice about issues facing our city. There is no doubt in my mind that offering the opportunity for the Berkeley community to present their ideas, concerns, and questions will help me do a better job and hopefully become a useful venue for people to have their concerns addressed. 

If you have a question or an issue you would like covered in this column, please drop me a note (my contact information is at the bottom). I will answer as many of the submissions as space will allow. I’ll also reach out to experts and others in the community that might be able to shine some light on an issue.  

As this is my first column, I’ll start off by providing a quick update on what I’ve been working on recently.  

The Budget. Unfortunately, the city’s budget crisis continues to be the single most important issue facing us. We’ve taken several steps to get ahead of the problem, but there will certainly be difficult, controversial, and painful choices to be made over the next several months. On Jan. 27, the city manager will present options to the City Council for making 20 percent across the board cuts to city departments and programs. We all hope that the cuts will not be that significant, but it is best to begin planning for the worst-case scenario.  

Berkeley’s Champions for Kids. This has been my top priority during my first year in office and, working with a lot of dedicated people, I think we really are making a difference. For example, we launched Berkeley Champions for Kids—a three-pronged program that includes new volunteer recruitment and coordination efforts, a city employee release time initiative, and a new workplace giving program to fund important after school and other programs. In addition, the city and the school district have worked to improve coordination on a whole range of family support and health services. My website has more information about these and other initiatives.  

A Better Development Process. There are few things in Berkeley more contentious than decisions about development and land use. That is why the mayor’s 14-member Task Force on Permitting and Development surprised so many people by finding common ground in its 72 unanimous recommendations for improving Berkeley’s process for approving residential, commercial, and large-scale development. Recommendations covered everything from better notification of pending projects, to concrete timelines for city staff and commission reviews, to making it easier for new businesses to open and expand in Berkeley. The City Council will consider an implementation work plan next month. In the meantime, feel free to read the entire report on my website. 

Downtown Development. Big changes are in the making for Berkeley’s downtown. UC Berkeley’s planned 200-room hotel and museum project at Center Street and Shattuck Avenue has received a lot of attention, but there are a number of other projects underway or being discussed – from Vista College to Library Gardens. As a community, we need to plan around issues of streetscape, traffic, parking, and transit. One of my top goals this year is to engage in a community process to work through these important design and transportation issues. 

New Playing Fields. Pull those soccer balls out of the garage! Last month, the City Council officially joined with four neighboring cities to jointly oversee the construction and operation of up to five new playing fields off Gilman Street in Albany. Assuming state funding comes through as hoped, at least a few of the fields should be ready in the next year or two. I would like to thank the city staff, members of Citizens for the Eastshore State Park (CESP), and the Association of Sports Field Users (ASFU) for their ongoing work on this important project. 

I look forward to receiving your questions, comments and suggestions. 

Please send questions, concerns, and ideas that you’d like to see discussed in this column to “Ask Mayor Tom,” 2180 Milvia St., Berkeley, 94704, or by e-mail to mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us. Fax: 981-7199. Phone: 981-7100. Website: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/mayor.  

Editor’s note: The opinion pages are open to all contributors writing on topics of interest to greater Berkeley, and we are pleased to include Mayor Tom Bates among them. Readers may send their ideas and opinions about anything on these pages directly to the contributors, as Mayor Bates suggests, but they are also welcome to submit their comments on what appears here to the Daily Planet for publication (opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com).  

Most of us celebrate an important anniversary by remembering the best of the years we are marking. Not so for the ever-adventurous Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kent Nagano. For their Wednesday evening concert (Jan. 21) at Zellerbach Hall on the UC campus, Nagano and the BSO will continue to celebrate the conductor’s 25th season with the orchestra by exploring new musical directions.  

The 8 p.m. concert will feature some outstanding guest artists, a spotlight on the orchestra’s growing connection to the contemporary music of Japan, and an instrument you don’t normally expect to hear at an orchestra concert, the electric guitar. 

The orchestra will perform the American premiere of La Corde du Feu (“Fire Strings”), a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra by Ichiro Nodaira. Nodaira, one of Japan’s leading contemporary composers, writes in an eclectic style that incorporates everything from ragtime to the latest avant garde techniques. He has become one of Nagano’s favorite composers in recent years, with the BSO performing several of his recent works. 

La Corde du Feu was written in 1989, and reconceived on a larger scale in 2002. The new version was premiered in Tokyo that year with Nodaira conducting and electric guitar virtuoso and former Frank Zappa sideman Steve Vai performing as soloist. 

For the Berkeley program, the soloist will be guitarist David Tanenbaum. Tanenbaum, who lives in Berkeley and directs the guitar program at the San Francisco Conservatory, is celebrated as one of America’s finest classical guitarists. This concert is a rare occasion for the guitarist, who regularly premieres new works but seldom performs on the electric guitar. The work’s enhanced electronics will be provided by UC Berkeley’s renowned Center for New Music and Audio Technologies. 

Continuing the surprising focus on the guitar, the orchestra will also present the world premiere of the Concerto for Two Guitars and Orchestra by the Symphony’s composer-in-residence, Naomi Sekiya. Sekiya has quickly emerged as one of the leading younger Japanese composers in recent years, winning several international competitions. The soloists will be Duo ASTOR, the young French/Spanish team of guitarists Gaelle Chiche and Francisco Bernier.  

The duo, who met Sekiya in Italy, has been working on the piece since mid-summer and say it is one of the more challenging they’ve played. To her credit, they also say that is the best calibrated piece they’ve performed. 

“Guitar is such a soulful instrument that balance is a really important,” said Sekiya, who had to tone down the orchestra during the guitar parts.  

Both Chiche and Berneir say they are excited to play with the Berkeley Symphony. They are also a little star struck about playing with Nagano, even though they’ve performed around the world. 

“We’re quite nervous, you don’t have many chances to play with an orchestra, and Nagano is so famous.”  

Performance goers are also in for a little theatrical treat when the two play. Having practiced so much together they’ve created a vibrant energy that adds to the music, swaying as they cradle their guitars. The intense exchange of glances as they play can easily distract the listener but in the end adds to ambiance.  

The orchestra will turn to the classics to finish the program, but again Nagano will take a creative approach. In addition to conducting Mozart’s rarely performed Symphony No.19, he’ll lead the orchestra in a new edition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 that reflects recent research into the composer’s original manuscripts. 

Daily Planet reporter Jakob Schiller contributed to this article.

TUESDAY, JAN. 20 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players, “The Death of Meyerhold,” through Jan. 23 at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Thurs. - Sat. performances at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12-$18, available from 925-798-1300. 704-8210. www.shotgunplayers.org 

FILM 

Alternative Visions: Animation and Anti-Animation at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Molly Ness, a Teach for America alumna, discusses “Lesson to Learn: Voices from the Front Lines of Teach for America” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Poets Gone Wild an evening of open mic poetry at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Claus Bossier-Ferrari & Teja Gerken, acoustic guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50 in advance, $16.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Dayna Stephens House Jam at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21 

CHILDREN 

Preschool Storytime, a program introducing books and music to promote early literacy skills, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library West Branch, 1125 University Ave. 981-6270. 

EXIBITION OPENINGS 

Ant Farm 1968-1978, an exhibition exploring the renegade and radical vision of the ‘70s art and design group, at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Exhibition runs to April 26. Gallery hours are Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thurs. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

FILM 

Film 50: “Introduction to Film Language” at 3 p.m. and Ant Farm: Video Screening at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Travel Book Series Harry Pariser introduces “Explore Costa Rica” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble.  

The Whole Note Poetry Series with Jesse Beagle at 7 p.m. at The Beanery, 2925 College Ave., near Ashby. 549-9093. 

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

Rabbi Michael Lerner introduces “Healing Israel/Palestine: A Path of Peace and Reconciliation“ at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. Co-sponsored with the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Symphony, “21st Century Guitars,” at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Pre-concert talk at 7:10 p.m. at the Haas Pavilion. Tickets are $21-$45, available from 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphonyorg.  

Wisdom, Hip Hop/Conscious Roots, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Whiskey Brothers perform old-time and bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Mark Wright Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, JAN. 22 

FILM 

Victor Sjostrom: “Terje Vigen” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Vijay Vaitheswaran, energy and environment correspondent for The Economist, describes “Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform and Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Change the Planet,” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Carla Blank introduces “Rediscovering America: The Making of Multicultural America, 1900-2000” at 7:30 p.m. at Easy Going Travel Shop & Bookstore, 1385 Shattuck Ave. 843-3533. 

Curator’s Talk: Ant Farm with Constance Lewallen at 12:15 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 

Lisa Lenard-Cook reads from her novel “Dissonance” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Word Beat Reading Series with Anna Mae Stanley and Tim Donnelly at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985, 205-1749.  

Guy T. Saperstein introduces his memoir, “Civil Warrior: Memoires of a Civil Rights Attorney” at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Sam Bevan Band, The Saul Kaye Band, Pat Jordan at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryplough.com 

Mas Cabeza at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Irish music violin and guitar duo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $19.50 in advance, $20.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Moore Brothers, folk singers at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744. www.thejazzhouse.com 

FRIDAY, JAN. 23 

CHILDREN 

Chinese New Year Celebration at 10:30 a.m. at Barnes and Noble. 644-3635. 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“Light my Fire” an exhibition by 10 Bay Area glass artists. Reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Exhibition runs until Feb. 21. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

THEATER 

Actor’s Ensemble of Berkeley, “Helen of Troy (Revised),” written by Wolfgang Hilesheimer, translated and directed by David Fenerty opens at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck at Berryman, and runs, Fri. and Sat. evenings through Feb. 21. Admission is $10. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

“Yellowman” by Dael Orlandersmith, directed by Les Waters, opens at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St., and runs through March 7. For ticket information call 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

FILM 

Mann’s World: “The Furies” at 7 p.m. and “Side Street” at 9:10 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Anne Sofie von Otter, Swedish mezzo-soprano, at 8 p.m. in Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$56 available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Donation $5. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

Oakland East Bay Symphony with Michael Morgan, conductor performs at 2025 Broadway, Oakland. 625-8497. www.oebs.org  

Rose Street Women perform at the 1923 Teahouse at 8 p.m. Suggested donation of $7-$10. 644-2204. www.epicarts.org 

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, Irish music violin and guitar duo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $19.50 in advance, $20.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Double Standards, jazz duo, at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Microphone Mayhem at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

All Ages Show with The Phenomenauts, Three Bad Jacks, October Allied at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com  

The Quails perform indie-punk at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Tickets are $7, available at the door. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Mimi Fox at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

CV1 at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Evaporators, The Clarendon Hills, System and Station at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St.Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SATURDAY, JAN. 24 

CHILDREN 

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

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

“The Art of Nature” featuring Inge Behrens, Andrea Markus and Vickie Resso. Reception from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at 4th Street Studio, 1717D 4th St. Exhibition runs to Feb. 10. 527-0600. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

FILM 

Mann’s World: “Border Incident” at 7 p.m. and “The Black Book” at 8:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm and Muse, a benefit for Berkeley Public Swimming Pools with poets Summer Brenner, Adam David Miller, Gael Alcock, Eliza Shefler, and Yassir, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

Dr. Dean Edell discusses “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Healthiness: Dr. Dean’s Commonsense Guide for Anything That Ails You,” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco Early Music Society, American Baroque, presents “Uncommon Grounds” a concert of new and baroque music built over ground basses, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $22 for SFEMS members and seniors, $25 for non-members, $10 for students. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

The Novello Quartet performs Boccherini, Haydn, and Foerster at 8 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Suggested donation $10-$20. 415-794-1100.  

Music from Around the World, a benefit concert for Middle East Children’s Alliance, featuring The Dunes, North African music with jazz/rock grooves, Pachasiku, traditional music from the Andes, and The Brass Menagerie, a Balkan brass band. At 8 p.m. at International House, Piedmont Ave. at Bancroft. Tickets are $25 at the door. 548-0542. 

Piedmont Choir performs at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$12. 547-444, ext. 4. 

Trinity Concerts Chamber Music with Amari Barash, Carlberg Jones, Lynn Schugren at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. 549-3864.  

Christin Hablewitz and her Musical Friends perform chamber music from classical to contemporary at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Tickets are $5-10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Paco de Luciá, flamenco and jazz guitar, at 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Natural Vibrations and One Groove with guest McMarty Dread at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Naked Barbies at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ancient Future, world fusion music, at 8 p.m. at The Jazz House. Sliding scale donation $8-$15. 649-8744.  

www.thejazzhouse.com 

The Scramblers, High Speed Scene, Good for You at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Quartet San Francisco at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

International Guitar Night with Pierre Bensusan, Andrew York, Guinga and Brian Gore at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50 in advance, $18.50 at the door. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Michael Bluestein at 8:30 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Shelley Doty, singer, songwriter, guitarist at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Babyland, Midnight Laserbeam, Apocalipstick, Drk Sct Lv, Giant Haystacks 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. 

Rory Snyder Group at 9 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

SUNDAY, JAN. 25 

CHILDREN 

Baba Ken and the Nigerian Brothers at 3 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6 for adults, $4 for children. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

Victor Sjostrom, “The Outlaw and His Wife” at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ant Farm: Guided Tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 

Women of Berkeley Lecture Series “Ocean View: Past and Present” with author Barbara Gates and historian Stephanie Manning at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

“Re-Imagining Collections” a panel discussion in conjunction with the Judah L. Magnes Museum’s “Brought to Light,” featuring curators from three Bay Area museums reflecting on how to re-imagine intellectual and educational content of collections. From 2 to 4 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Free with museum admission. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

Robert Guter, Lee Williams, Jean Stewart and Marsha Saxton read excerpts from “Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act” at 3:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Poetry Flash with Carrie St. George Comer and Brian Teare at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Dennis E. Anderson will show slides and introduce “Hidden Treasures of San Francisco Bay” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Live Oak Concert with Bill Ludke, piano, Elizabeth Durand, soprano, Aurelio Viscarra, tenor, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park. Tickets are $8-$10. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

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

Paco de Luciá, flamenco and jazz guitar, at 7 p.m., Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$48, available from 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Piedmont Choir performs at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10-$12. 547-444, ext. 4. 

A Night of Egyptian Dance Music with Alexandria and the Newar Eastern Dance Company at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Hurricane Sam, boogie woogie, blues and r&b piano 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 

Claudia Villela and Ricardo Peixoto, old roots, new language at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazz- 

school. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, JAN. 26 

EXHIBITION OPENINGS 

Indira Martina Mesihovic “Mind LineScapes” paintings and Jacob Stewat-Halevy, “The Myth of the Homunculi” paintings, opens at the Worth-Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley. Reception from 4 to 6 p.m.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sandra Scofield introduces her new memoire, “Occaisions of Sin” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

“The Way Things Are” A Conversation with Huston Smith on the spiritual life at 7:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Co-presented by Pacific School of Religion, First Congregational Church of Berkeley, and Cody’s Books. This is a pre-conference event for Pacific School of Religion’s Earl Lectures. $10 suggested donation at the door. For more information, call 848-3696, ext. 23. 

Bob Guter and John R. Killacky, editors, read from “Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Berkeley, in all her splendor, turned out en masse Sunday evening to hear four Bush-bashing media icons. 

“Unraveling the Lying Liars of the Bush Dynasty,” a benefit supporting KPFA and Global Exchange, featured three best-selling authors—Al Franken, Paul Krugman and Kevin Philips—hosted by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman. 

The show drew over 3,000 people to the Community Theater and sold out a week in advance as everyone scrambled to see the first-ever convergence of three high-profile progressive writers. 

The ensuing show left the crowd sometimes rolling in the aisles in laughter, sometimes glued to their seats throughout a two-and-a-half-hour event that featured individual presentations by each speaker followed by a Goodman-led roundtable discussion. 

Franken, co-founder and an original member of Saturday Night Live and author of the best selling book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, wooed the crowd with his charismatic wit, lobbing hits at Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, and President Bush, his four favorite targets. 

“If you could ask Ann Coulter one question, what would it be?” asked Goodman during the roundtable discussion. 

“Why are you such a bitch!?,” replied Franken to rolling laughter. 

“We went to Orange Alert the other day. It’s the highest alert where Bush still encourages you to go to the mall. If it had been red he would have said stay home and shop on-line.” 

Interspersed within the jokes were stories of what Franken does best—catching Coulter, O’Reilly and others in their lies. 

The show had its own touch of added comedy when the microphones failed during the roundtable discussion, continually cutting off Franken’s punchlines and leaving him red-faced. The large numbers also added to the chaos, particularly as the show opened up and the crowd ran like frenzied teenagers for the best seats.  

After Franken came Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and Princeton professor of economics. In his segment Krugman answered the question many in the crowd wanted to ask: How could he, a progressive, work for the Times? The bottom line, he said, was that his columns sell papers and he knows he can return to his job as a professor if he’s ever fired.  

The real crowd favorite however, was Kevin Philips, author of the American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush. Philips, once chief political analyst for the Nixon administration and still a self-described moderate Republican, stole the show. Offering a series of examples connecting the Bush family to the crisis in the Middle East, he cited Bush Jr. and Sr.’s involvement in the arming and then disarming of Iraq as he mapped the family’s push towards dynasty. 

After the show, Bob Baldock one of the organizer of the events and public events coordinator for KPFA, said he hoped the event would act as a catalyst for the new social movement that has begun to take shape as the country nears the primaries. 

“This [event] will have legs,” said Baldock, who has organized over 200 events for KPFA. “People don’t want to sit at home and watch the TV, they want to be active. We’re building community, people are starved for it.” 

Goodman, whose team of assistants were selling the newly released Democracy Now DVD, quickly agreed in a backstage interview that the event resulted from a growing movement of those ready to insure change.  

“I think people across the political spectrum are fed up and want an alternative… If this were a larger space there would have been thousands more.” 

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange, neatly summarized the event afterwards: “I think [this event] shows the energy to get rid of Bush, there is hunger for coming together, to talk, people could have staid for hours. People want to get down and dirty. [Berkeley] is a very special community. It’s a community that can play a key role in the debate. It is here in Berkeley that you get a sense for the power that is latent in other communities. If we can come together in Berkeley, that will say a lot about whether we can come together nationally.”  

For those who missed the show, it will be aired on Democracy Now and on upcoming World Link TV segments and will also be given to MoveOn.org.

The University of California recently released its Notice of Preparation (NOP) for an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the next Long Range Development Plan (LRDP), which will “present a framework for campus land use and physical development to meet the academic goals and objectives of UC Berkeley through the year 2020.” 

When the university prepares an EIR, we know we’re in for a major spurt in construction and campus expansion. In fact, major construction sometimes proceeds without an EIR, as we’re witnessing in the case of the Molecular Foundry. 

Side-by-side with the LRDPs and the EIRs, the university is nurturing the New Century Plan (NCP), whose second most-important stated goal is “to ensure that each new investment preserves and enhances our extraordinary legacy of landscape and architecture,” and whose Strategic Academic Plan lists as its first principle “Limit Future Growth.” 

An important component of the NCP is landscape preservation, where the first strategic goal is “protecting significant natural areas and open spaces from further development,” and for which Policy 2.1 was created to “ensure no new projects intrude into the landscape preservation zones, as defined in the Design Guidelines.” 

In the campus architecture component of the NCP, one of the stated strategic goals is “ensuring new buildings enhance the spatial and architectural integrity of the classical core.” 

These and other noble goals pepper the NCP, while all the while mega-construction proceeds at full-tilt and planning for further expansion continues unabated. 

The recent NOP gives us a tidy demonstration of campus planning schizophrenia, embodied in the proposal for the Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies, tacked onto the 2020 LRDP although it should have been part of the current LRDP (which runs through 2005). 

The NOP states: “The Tien Center is envisioned as a composition of two rectangular buildings. Phase 1 will be located at the south base of Observatory Hill on the site of the existing parking lot, facing Memorial Glade and Doe Library, and aligned with the central axis of the Glade. Phase 2 will be sited at the west base of Observatory Hill adjacent to Haviland Hall, oriented 90° to Phase 1.” 

The LRDP siting plan differs considerably from the plan displayed on the Tien Center website and the University Library website, where Phase 2 of the Tien Center is located on the east flank of Observatory Hill, near McCone Hall. 

Why is this difference in siting important? Because it affects two key resources on campus—Haviland Hall and Observatory Hill—and is directly at odds with the New Century Plan’s stated goals and policies. 

Haviland Hall (1924) is one of the campus’s architectural treasures. Designed by John Galen Howard, it was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark in 1981 (the bulk of the campus Landmarks were designated in 1988). It is number 82002161 on the National Register of Historic Places, added in 1982. 

Among the major academic buildings on campus, Haviland Hall is the most secluded. On all four sides, it is surrounded by landscaped open space, much of it consisting of dense tree and shrub plantings. On the eastern side of Haviland lies the historic Observatory Hill, home to a variety of native species, including Manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.), Pacific Madrone (Arbutus Menziesii), Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), and California Buckeye (Aesculus Californica), as well as to remnants of the old Students’ Observatory. 

A significant portion of Observatory Hill would be excavated and its nature areas sacrificed if Phase 2 of the Tien Center is built next to Haviland Hall. Adding insult to injury, the campus preservation zones plan treats the Tien Center as a fait accompli, making believe that the green area that still exists on the west flank of Observatory Hill is already gone and therefore not in need of preserving. So much for “protecting significant natural areas and open spaces from further development.” 

Haviland Hall itself is doomed to be overshadowed by the considerably taller Tien Center buildings (according to the NOP, “each building will be roughly 75 feet in height above the existing ground plane”). McCone Hall is several stories higher and can handle the competition (it’s also no beauty queen and possesses no historic significance). Haviland, situated on lower ground, will be severely overwhelmed and trivialized. It will no longer be visible from the steps of Dow Library or from the Campanile esplanade. This flies in the face of Policy 3.1 in the Campus Architecture Strategic Goals: 

“Projects within the Classical Core shall enhance the integrity of this ensemble, and complement rather than compete with existing historic buildings.” 

Building on Observatory Hill is not consistent with the goals of the New Century Plan. If I may make a modest suggestion to the campus planners, sometimes moving a department is preferable to adding yet more buildings to an already overcrowded campus. If the School of Social Welfare were to move to another location, Haviland Hall itself could make a fitting and stately new home for the Tien Center. 

Daniella Thompson is the webmaster for the Berkeley Landmarks website.

Paradise is only a few miles or so north of Berkeley, but the parking lot may be full so give yourself a little extra time. 

This particular promised land is disguised as “Pacific East 99 Ranch Mall.” The Pacific is of course to our west, so the name itself is deceptive. 

As for the “99” various authorities ascribe portents of longevity and good luck to the number in Chinese, and in fact the chain, which started in Southern California, is growing. 

However, “ranch” can only be understood as genuine American realestatespeak. It is doubtful that any piece of property in the greater Bay Area less resembles a ranch, but this is completely consistent with, for example, developments called “Rio Vista Rancheros” in which too many homes are squeezed onto tiny tracts of land that has neither river nor views available. 

But all these concerns dissolve once you enter the mall—and find yourself, like Dorothy newly descended from the tornado, in another world. 

Here is the mysteriously named “168 Restaurant” as well as the more informative Phuping Thai, Shanghai Gourmet, Pacific East Seafood, Coriya Hot Pot City, VH Noodle House, and more.  

Of course, there are further mysteries within. 

One tiny shop offers, according to its multilingual posters, 30 milk teas including mocha, 30 black and green teas including hot passion fruit, 30 icy smoothies (among them pina colada), 30 juices, including avocado juice with milk and watermelon juice with milk, coffee, eight flavors of ice cream, and “giant toast” with sesame, peanut or garlic butter or strawberry jam. One handwritten sign taped to one side offers “fresh sushi 50 percent off after 8 p.m..” 

All is not food. The “Just In Shop” features fashion (newly arrived?). A Korean-American ginseng store features the root in many incarnations, as well as tea sets and other accessories. “Crystal Land” has thousands of tiny crystal figures. Wind-up pets, fresh royal jelly and bee pollen, preserved fruits, and gewgaws of all sorts are on display. 

A beauty parlor features “Vitaviv” with drawings of a cartoon figure energetically applying Vitaviv to various parts of the body. 

With the right amount of money, you can have your picture taken and reproduced in a sheet of tiny postage stamp images.  

There is a Charles Schwab office, open weekdays. 

One restaurant is featuring “shepherds purse and pork in clay pot.” One wonders nervously what a shepherd’s purse might be. 

But the heart of the center is the market itself, with row upon row of arcane products—or familiar ones in bewildering variety. A stroll down the noodle aisle reveals, among other delights, elephant rice stick, kimbo dried imitation noodle, long life sliced rice stick, bon pho rice stick, new jam rice stick (medium, large or small), spring roll skins, Japanese style noodles, sei men, chow mein, soroban, soba noodles, dry noodles yellow, egg noodles, Chinese noodle, buckwheat noodle, flour vermicielli, packaged noodles with sauce, abalone flavored noodles, ribbons, green bean sauce noodles, green bean thread noodles...Fresh noodles fill another, refrigerated case. And if you prefer Golden Grain macaroni, that’s available too (in the exotic foods section?). 

Frozen soy beans share space with a frozen whole goose, near a frozen silky (Hmmm...looks like a chicken soaked in soy). 

Produce always includes at least one surprise, among the many kinds of greens, the durian looking like some kind of lethal weapon, pomelos and passion fruit. Today’s wonder is banana buds at $1.99 a pound—enormous and a beautiful color, though it is difficult to see what is or could be edible. 

Fishes and sea creatures of every cut, size, shape and description are available, and will be prepared to your liking—even if your liking is to have the whole fish deep fried, a kettle of boiling oil awaits. Live crab is a traditional ingredient of the new year feast. 

One could easily spend a day, even a weekend. Over in one corner of the market, a cafeteria offers colossal servings for ridiculously low prices. Free sample givers offered two kinds of soup and a warm (but formerly frozen) black bean cake.  

Because it is almost New Year, there are thousands of red-wrapped boxes of treats: dried fruit, salty fried flour, rice cake, ginger candy, etc. etc. etc.  

Outside the main building is a separate restaurant called Daimo. It may be outside because it is closer to chaos than an ordinary mall could tolerate. Its chefs work in a gleaming kitchen to produce an astonishing variety of dishes. Waiters and waitresses talk to each other over cell phones, and when things are especially busy you may not see the same waitperson twice. Tanks high in one corner hold fish and other sea creatures ready to be dispatched at your order. 

Somehow it all seems to work, usually, although there can be language problems. It is a good place to try something you’ve never heard of. Far more often than not, the food passes the test proposed by the late Dr. Y.R. Chao, a prominent linguist:  

“To test whether the cooking has been done properly, observe the person served. If he utters a voiced bilabial nasal consonant with a slow falling intonation, it is good. If he utters the syllable ‘yum’ in reduplicated form, it is very good.”

Berkeley schools have come a long way in the past six months, according to a progress report issued by state auditors. 

The 200-page document, released last week by the state’s Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), commended Berkeley Unified School District for tackling several of its administrative shortcomings—including its special education program and finance systems—in the six months after auditors issued their scathing initial report. 

All five operational areas—Community Relations, Personnel Management, Pupil Achievement, Financial Management and Facilities Management—showed improvement, with finance, long the district’s Achilles heel, singled out for special praise. 

“They’ve done good work. You can see the change in their culture,” said FCMAT Management Analyst Roberta Mayor. 

School officials cautioned against reading too much into improved scores, considering that many of the 98 standards FCMAT decided to review in the progress report had already been identified by the district for reform and that FCMAT had incentive to grade low in the on the initial audit so scores can rise. 

“Any consultant wants to show that they made an impact,” said Facilities and Maintenance Director Lew Jones. “If the choice [on the initial report] is to give you a two or a four, they’ll give you a two so they can jump from two to six really quickly.” 

A look at FCMAT’s website reveals that of the four districts to receive six-month progress reports all but one—West Fresno Elementary—showed across-the-board improvement similar to Berkeley’s. 

FCMAT itself faces an audit ordered by Assembly Education Committee Chair Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) to review oversight issues as well as its effectiveness in helping districts stave off bankruptcy. 

The agency has faced local criticism after failing to keep Oakland Unified solvent and under local control. 

Berkeley Unified Superintendent Michele Lawrence said she was pleased with the progress demonstrated in the latest report and said FCMAT intervention had been positive for the district as it pared down its deficit from $6.5 million to $2.4 million over the past year. 

“We had many systems and processing areas that had deteriorated over time,” she said. “This gives the community confidence that we’re getting out from under our financial problems.” 

The report is the first of four follow-up evaluations scheduled after FCMAT issued a 740-page comprehensive review last year. Each progress report will review the district’s progress towards implementing around 100 of the 472 standards measured by the initial audit. Berkeley faces no penalty if it fails to improve its score or implement standards. 

The audit was funded from a 2002 bill authored by former Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley) that forgave Berkeley Unified $1.1 million owed the state for filing late paperwork in 2000, and poured $700,000 towards the audit, with the rest allocated towards helping the district implement FCMAT suggestions. 

FCMAT analyst Mayor said Berkeley Unified had “made tremendous gains” at installing systems and processes to monitor its budget. The report also credited the much-maligned Special Education program for reforming students’ education plans to conform to state law and developing systems to promptly place students into appropriate courses, though it warned the program continued to burden the general fund. 

Berkeley Unified was also commended for standardizing curriculum throughout its schools and improving the dissemination of information, though auditors wanted to see plans for increased student participation on mandated tests and parent outreach. 

On a grading scale from 1 to 10, Community Relations rose from 5.67 to 6.03, Personnel Management 4.40 to 4.71, Pupil Achievement from 4.30 to 4.96, Financial Management from 3.08 to 3.88 and Facilities Management from 5.75 to 6.08. 

Sentiments towards FCMAT vary throughout the district. Dan Lindheim, co-president of the Berkeley Schools Excellence Project Planning and Oversight Committee, questioned why the state required such an extensive study, costing hours of staff time, for essentially a financial management problem. 

“Look at pupil achievement,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of bright people in Berkeley looking at the achievement gap for long time. I’d be surprised to see a consultant come in and say just do XYZ and the problem will be solved.” 

However Tina Brier, director of classified personnel, said FCMAT consultants did more than just help her prioritize reforms and set deadlines for implementation. “The consultants gave us a lot of ideas of how to fix some things. Some were jewels,” she said. “You don’t hear about that part of things.”

OAKLAND SCHOOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Congratulations to the Daily Planet on J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s columns covering Oakland School Trustee Randolph Ward’s threatened school closures. The columns make clear that Ward’s plan for Oakland is to degrade, downsize, and privatize Oakland’s public schools.  

Ward should be removed and the people of Oakland should regain our democratic right to elect a school board that is accountable to us. As the turnout of 1,500 to protest Ward’s announced school closings last Thursday showed, the community of Oakland cares deeply about the future of its youth, and will not allow that future to be degraded. 

I was one of the activists who organized the protest against school closings, and publicized Ward’s affiliation with the right-wing anti-affirmative action, anti-immigrant American Independent Party (AIP). Ward tried to dodge the anger of Oakland’s students, teachers, and parents by claiming he joined the AIP by mistake. I view his claim with skepticism.  

In 1998, while trustee of the predominately Latino Compton schools, Ward implemented the anti-immigrant Unz Initiative (Prop. 227) in the harshest manner possible, dictating that classrooms in Compton use “English only” 90 percent to 98 percent of the time. His policy—perfectly mirroring the anti-immigrant, anti-affirmative action positions of the AIP and praised by the right wing National Review (Oct. 12, 1998)—was in stark contrast to virtually every other majority Latino district in California.  

These were the actions of a conscious conservative who chose to impose the harshest possible educational conditions on Compton’s Latino students. Randolph Ward is a would-be dictator whose corporate style downsizing plan threatens the future of public education in Oakland. Randolph Ward must go. 

Mark Airgood 

Oakland Teacher 

Equal Opportunity Now  

Caucus  

• 

CANNABIS CLINIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for your front page article “City Kills Nonprofit Center Move, Cites Cannabis Clinic Concerns” (Daily Planet, Jan. 13-15). Proposition 215, the Medical Marijuana Referendum, was approved in 1996 by 85 percent of Berkeley’s voters I believe, so this story deserves attention. 

Also, I especially appreciated included in the story the cogent, insightful, and pertinent comments by Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Reverend Mark Wilson of McGee Avenue Baptist Church. I would like to mention some information that was overlooked. James Church of the Berkeley Community Resource Center applied for the nonprofit business license. Cannabis Buyers Cooperative of Berkeley (CBCB) is a member of BCRC. Furthermore the founder of CBCB, James Blair, is himself disabled (a recovering quadriplegic). CBCB operating for the past seven years has never had a robbery. The University Avenue “pot distribution” cooperative was shut down before 2003, not last year.  

I question the actions of Permits and Zoning. From what I have heard, CBCB, acting on the advise of Councilmember Dona Spring, was planning to apply for a medical marijuana permit after the nonprofit business permit had been issued to BCRC. How could planning not know that CBCB would dispense medical marijuana after the permit process was completed when CBCB has been operating so long with city approval? On what possible legal grounds was this non-profit business permit revoked? 

I am fortunate enough to be a college graduate, and after dealing with the zoning and Zoning Adjustments Board myself a few years ago in a neighborhood matter, I found the process to be difficult and complex, not always clear-cut or easily understandable. Personally, I am very sensitive to neighborhood concerns, as well as the importance of marijuana as a medicine for many patients. The mayor and City Council should consider and adopt a revised medical marijuana initiative which has been recommended by the existing medical marijuana dispensaries in Berkeley. I look forward to our community, public officials, and city employees taking a truly fair and balanced approach to the distribution of medical marijuana.  

Charles Pappas 

• 

IRV DEBATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a recent op-ed piece, (“Rush to IRV Ballots Raises Troubling Questions,” Daily Planet, Dec. 26-29), Berkeley City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak announced his opposition to an upcoming March, 2004 Berkeley ballot measure—Measure I—that will allow Berkeley citizens the opportunity to vote yes or no on possibly implementing an Instant Runoff Voting voting procedure (ranking candidates by “first choice,” “second choice,” “third choice,” etc. on a ballot) for future city candidate elections. 

Contrary to Mr. Wozniak’s claims, IRV is a very simple, straightforward voting process that has been used successfully in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland for decades. Ireland’s president is selected using IRV voting. The City of London uses IRV voting to select its mayor and city council offices. 

Several dozen eastern US cities, including Cleveland and Cincinnati, used IRV voting for local elections from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. IRV voting is currently an election option in Santa Clara County, the City of San Leandro and for special elections in Oakland. 

After its citizens voted overwhelmingly to pass a ballot measure mandating its use, San Francisco’s voters are set to use IRV voting in the November, 2004 general election. Berkeley’s upcoming March, 2004 IRV ballot measure is directly modeled on San Francisco’s successful IRV initiative. 

In his article, Mr. Wozniak erroneously states that “no voting machine can handle mixed traditional and IRV voting” on the same election day. Mr. Wozinak’s remarkable claim is directly contradicted by the fact that San Francisco—with hundreds of thousands of voters—is set to conduct its November, 2004 election using traditional and IRV voting procedures simultaneously. 

This dual voting technology already exists and will be operational for San Francisco’s November, 2004 Board of Supervisors elections. The company Election Software and Services (ESS) is the provider of San Francisco’s dual traditional/IRV voting machine technology.  

What is deeply disconcerting—and cynical—about Mr. Wozniak’s opposition to Berkeley’s Measure I is that Mr. Wozniak originally voted against allowing Berkeley citizens themselves the right to vote yes or no on the IRV ballot measure. 

As a City Councilmember, Mr. Wozniak voted against placing Measure I on the March ballot—in effect, pre-empting the ability of Berkeley’s voters to decide the merits of the issue for themselves. 

Given the political dynamics of Mr. Wozniak’s own 2002 City Council District 8 election—when he was one of four District 8 candidates at the time—it is possible to conclude that Mr. Wozniak’s personal opposition to IRV likely stems from the concern that he could be vulnerable if IRV voting is used in a future District 8 election. 

In his November, 2002 City Council election, as one of four candidates, Mr. Wozniak received less than a majority of all votes cast, and only managed to win his office during a low turnout, runoff election 30 days later in December. 

Under Measure I, IRV voting will avoid the need for a second, low turnout election which typically costs the City of Berkeley hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

IRV voting insures that elected representatives have majority voter support—50 percent or more—during an election once ranked votes (”first choice,” “second choice,” etc.) are fully tabulated.  

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

MORE IRV DEBATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

No wonder City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak has been going on an obsessive rampage against instant runoff voting—which is set to be on the Berkeley ballot March 2 as Measure I. He knows that he would not be on the City Council today if IRV had been in place.  

In the 2002 City Council race for District 8, progressives split their votes between candidates Andy Katz and Anne Wagley. A December run-off that was entirely vote-by-mail pitted Gordon Wozniak against Andy Katz (a 22-year-old graduate student), during the week after Thanksgiving Break and before Final Exams.  

As someone who worked tirelessly to get the student vote out in that election, the task of getting students who had not mailed in their absentee ballot to go to City Hall when they had a million other things on their minds proved far too daunting. Voter turnout in the student precincts declined substantially between November and December, totally disenfranchising a large portion of District 8 residents. 

I hope Councilman Wozniak will admit that the motive behind his campaign against a common-sense reform is that he knows he benefits from low turnout runoff elections where most students don’t vote. 

Paul Hogarth 

Berkeley Rent Board Commissioner 

• 

MALCOLM X FLOOD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to know the superintendent’s response on the Malcolm X flood and why there is no better oversight on the maintenance committee, especially after the resignation of these key maintenance committee members. I have just read Yolanda Huang’s letter (Daily Planet, Jan. 16-19), which quotes the meeting minutes. I find it appalling that there seem to be no checks and balances system in place.  

Did the superintendent personally get involved then when these resignations took place? It seems to me, as a parent whose daughter attends kindergarten at Malcolm X, the responsibility of the flood (which sounds like it could have been entirely avoided with consistent preventative maintenance) falls squarely on her shoulders. 

What kind of systems are being put in place now by the superintendent to avoid this from happening again? 

Catherine Huchting 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I suggest a different approach to Gov. Schwarzenegger in dealing with the Indian tribes to balance the budget.  

If talks are going nowhere with the tribes, I suggest that we erect toll booths. Maybe we don’t own the tribal property the casinos are on. But we sure own the property outside the casinos. I suggest we set up toll booths and charge $10 per person to go onto Indian property. This will help bring in hundreds of millions towards the deficit. 

John Ramirez 

San Diego 

It’s not every day a high-ranking Bush Administration official pays Berkeley a visit. So when President Bush’s homelessness czar Philip Mangano shuffled into a shelter Friday wearing a sharper suit than the TV reporters following his every move, people took notice. 

“People were treating him like a movie star,” said Cleo Smith, one of several shelter residents to approach Mangano. “I don’t think this means Bush will give us any more money.” 

That’s not necessarily the case, said Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness—who, along with Mayor Bates, made a brief pit stop at Berkeley’s Veterans Building as the last leg of a Bay Area visit to pitch the development of 10-year plans to end chronic homelessness. 

“I’m at the budget table. We’re constellating the political will to make this happen,” he said, pointing to a nine percent increase last year in federal spending on the homeless.  

With fresh funding comes new directives. While the Clinton Administration focused on providing the homeless with a web of services, Mangano wants to shift money away from services and towards housing, a policy he said worked while he directed a homeless advocacy group in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

“We have to give the customer what he’s asking for,” Mangano said. “When you talk to people on the street, they don’t want pills, they want a place to live.” 

Berkeley officials backed Mangano’s policies, but questioned his administration’s sincerity. 

“My strong fear is this is a fig leaf of compassion from an administration whose objective is to destroy the federal government as we know it,” said Berkeley Housing Director Stephen Barton. 

At a meeting before the shelter visit, Barton asked for more money and urged Mangano to loosen restrictions on Section 8 housing grants so Berkeley could better fund programs that combine housing with support services. 

A Section 8 voucher won’t work in most cases, Barton said, because the chronically homeless don’t get counseling, mess up and get evicted. He estimated that with greater spending flexibility and about $5 million more in federal funds—on top of the roughly $9 million Berkeley and its care providers already receive—the city could end chronic homelessness within four years. 

Alameda County has already started work on its 10-year plan, scheduled for completion in the fall. County Homeless Continuum of Care Coordinator Megan Schatz said neighboring counties will align their plans so homeless have no incentive to cross county lines for better service and that in addition to building more supportive housing for chronically homeless, Alameda will address housing for AIDS patients and tackle some of the chief feeders of homelessness—prisons, foster care, and psychiatric hospitals. 

A countywide survey conducted last year counted 835 homeless people in Berkeley, about two-thirds labeled chronic. That was about 200 fewer than previous estimates. But Robert Long who runs services for Berkeley’s homeless at the shelter said he’s seeing on average as 140 per day, up significantly from several years ago. 

“For every one we get into permanent housing there are two more to take their place,” he said. “I’d love to go out of business, but I don’t think in 10 years this is going to be a thing of the past.” 

For those who want to see Mangano succeed, they can only hope the charm he displayed Friday works as well on Republicans in Washington.  

Strolling through the shelter he pressed the flesh of residents and crashed a group session for recovering addicts, proclaiming, “Man I thought this was the Oakland Raiders. You guys look like the Oakland Raiders.” When a member told him they had “become like a family,” he said, “That’s what I meant, you guys look like a team.” 

Shortly thereafter when Cleo Smith assailed Bush, Mangano protested, “We can’t be partisan on this. We can see the end of homelessness, but we won’t solve it if we divide into Democrats and Republicans.” 

Smith shook his head, prompting Mangano to end the conversation saying, “Pray for your president. He needs your help. You don’t have to like him to pray for him.” 

A 20-year-old UC Berkeley women’s basketball player died Monday at Kaiser Medical Center, and university officials say the probable cause is bacterial meningitis. 

Alisa Marie Lewis, a junior from Spokane, Washington, was rushed to the emergency room Monday morning with a severe headache, rash, and flu-like symptoms, according to the University’s Media Relations Department. 

Lewis’s team members and coaches were informed of her death at a meeting later in the day, where school officials provided counseling and health information. They were told the diseases is rare and not spread through casual contact. 

A final determination of the cause of death is pending. 

Lewis, a graduate of Fairfield High School in Northern California, was a scholarship student who lived in off-campus housing.

In hopes of creating a new approach to community involved development in Berkeley, developers, neighbors and city staff will meet Thursday to discuss plans for a proposed mixed-use redevelopment of a University Avenue auto lubricant shop.  

A disputed interpretation of a state law that requires more density in new developments to allow for affordable housing has led to frustration for neighbors and city staff. Some homeowners, opposed to increased housing density and taller buildings along University Avenue, believe city staff isn’t doing enough to represent residents when it comes to the proposed redevelopment. 

City staff, however, contends that a recent state law requiring more affordable housing for new developments forces them to accept what developers want to build at the Tune-Up Masters site, located at 1698 University Ave. 

The crux of the issue is that the state law mandates a 25 percent density bonus for new developments in order to provide more affordable housing. Developers can build more than the maximum developable area allowed by local zoning and can construct higher buildings closer to property lines because of the law. 

Before the law was passed Berkeley already required a 20 percent bonus for affordable housing. Now planning staff says that the city must make added concessions for affordable units, to the detriment of some neighborhoods, according to residents. 

Tune-Up Masters neighbors like Michael Popso believe city staff can come up with more creative ways to represent residents while satisfying developers’ financial needs. They would like to see the city try to get a state exemption for its affordable housing efforts, Popso said, or at least push for re-examination of the state density bonus law.  

“It feels like staff is guiding developers to five stories,” he said. “The city is not defending residents.”  

University Avenue corridor residents, city staff and the developers met last week to discuss the plans and to air frustration over a seven-year-old University Avenue Strategic Plan that has languished. Members of the Addison Allston Roosevelt California Neighborhood Group called the meeting to ask city planners why the strategic plan isn’t being applied to this development.  

Despite the fact that the strategic plan has guidelines that dictate building heights along the University Avenue corridor, state law pre-empts the plan at present, said City Planner Mark Rhoades. Where four story buildings are supposed to be the maximum, five stories are allowed because of the density bonus. 

The University Avenue Strategic Plan is finally being revisited after Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio recently called for the city to develop new zoning code to implement the plan, which was adopted by the City Council in November 1996. Until then, some residents fear, projects that are inconsistent with the plan’s guidelines will continue to be proposed and built, if state affordability law can override the current Berkeley zoning standards. Tune-Up Masters is one such project. Because the plans for redevelopment of the site were complete before the renewed interest, the guidelines would not apply, Rhoades said.  

At the meeting, Kwan Lam Wong, the architect, presented what he called a “a more neighborhood friendly design.” City planners asked him in August to come up with a design which was no more than 5 stories high. A 50-foot five-story mixed-use building is now proposed, with 32 residential units in a 28,516-square-foot space. A 43-foot four-story alternative was also presented, consisting of 33 residential units in a 28,958-square-foot building. The previous design was 62 feet tall, with 38 residential units. It had a smaller area, by a few hundred feet. 

Thursday’s experimental workshop will take place at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers at Old City Hall before the Zoning Adjustments Board meeting. The workshop was born out of the Mayor’s Task Force on Permitting and Development, at the suggestion of neighborhood activist Sharon Hudson, who was an observer of the Mayor’s Task Force. She does not live in the immediate vicinity of the Tune-Up Masters site. 

At the workshop the developers, Quality Bay Construction, will make a presentation on the two updated design proposals. A question-and-answer and comment period will follow. 

Organizers say they want the workshop to alleviate the acrimony between stakeholders, while avoiding a “rubber stamp” approval by the Zoning Adjustments Board. If successful, the workshop will bring “a new day for Berkeley,” Hudson said.  

The idea comes, Hudson said, because of developers’ complaints. After maneuvering through the review process, many were frustrated to have the Zoning Adjustments Board put a stop to the plans. With an earlier review at the workshop, the Zoning Adjustments Board can get a sense of where the project is, what the concerns are and what would make the project more acceptable to neighbors, developers and city staff, Hudson hopes. It also diminishes the “unfair advantage” these developers enjoy over laymen neighbors.  

“It’s not the most intelligent thing to let the most important board or commission go last,” Hudson said. Nonetheless, “how much of a problem this actually is for developers, is probably an arguable question.”  

But the workshop concept doesn’t come without some potential future pitfalls, Hudson said. One is a buy-in from the Zoning Adjustments Board and staff. Part of that has to do with developers thinking that what is advice could be construed as approval. With more time and money invested in the project, and the misperception of approval, the board might be forced into accepting a proposal that isn’t the best for neighbors, Hudson thinks. 

As it stands, the system (and its inefficiencies) gives neighbors more time to organize and learn the laws concerning redevelopment in their area, she said. This inefficiency levels the playing field of what is often an adversarial situation, Hudson said. With this presentation pushed up in time, neighbors still might not have enough time to prepare.  

This is probably not as likely in the case of Tune-Up Masters site, she said. Developers submitted a proposal and received staff design review before plans were sent back to the architect last August. 

Aaron Sage, the city’s project manager for 1698 University Ave., said that the Planning Department strives to do what’s in the city’s best interest. He acknowledged, however, the frustration of both residents and city staff.  

“If I lived two houses down from this site I would be very frustrated,” he said. “Given our interpretation of state law and application of state law, this is the size of building we must accept. We don’t want five stories up and down the avenue.”  

Resident Robin Kibbey said she was surprised that the proposed building is roughly the same size as the original design submitted in August. She worries that the workshop is “illusory” because the project has already been decided.  

“The staff talk about doing something [with the University Avenue Strategic Plan] but where’s the real action?” she said. 

In the interim the strategic plan will be a work item on the Planning Commission’s agenda next month, Mark Rhoades said. A staff report will indicate the strategic plan and the zoning ordinance are not consistent.  

“I am somebody! We can be the dream!” chanted the students led by third grade teacher Kim Burton at the Washington Communication and Technology Magnet School Jan. 12 as they celebrated the 75th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday. 

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was an amazing human being. We all know he fought long and hard so that African Americans and all Americans would have equal rights.” 

The special multi-media assembly organized by Burton and other teachers at the school also recognized the nine winners of the school’s Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest for third through fifth graders—one of which is reproduced in today’s paper. 

Burton said the contest, which comes at the beginning of the school’s upcoming Civil Rights curriculum, was meant to ground the leader’s message in the lives of the students by forcing them to think and write about how and why their lives relate to his. 

Asked to reflect on one of three quotes from Dr. King—“Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that,” “Love is the key to the problems of the world,” and “Sooner or later, all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together”—the winners were chosen on their ability to take the quote apart and apply it to their own lives or the modern world. 

Fifth-grader De’Janae Russell was chosen for the following essay. 

—Jakob Schiller 

An Essay in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

By De’Janae Russell  

I agree with Dr. King’s quote “Hate cannot drive out hate.” Because love is the only thing that can do that. Everyone should be treated in the same way no matter what color their skin is. Dr. King wanted white people and black people to be able to share things and let black kids and white kids play together and go to the same schools. He always told other people to solve their problems in nonviolent ways. Dr. King made a lot of speeches. When he said his “I Have A Dream” speech, 250,000 people listened to this speech in 1963. Dr. King helped black people by changing some of the unfair laws. Dr. King helped change the bus law that black people had to sit at the back of the bus and white people could sit where they wanted to. He also went to hospitals to make all of the sick people feel better. I think that Dr. King was a very brave man because he did a lot of brave things in his life to make the world a better place. I think that Dr. King did the right thing by changing the unfair laws because everyone should have equality. I think Dr. King was a great person and a good leader. Dr. King always tried to do the right thing by helping other black people. Dr. King is very famous today because in the past he has helped black and white people stop fighting and now people can have their own freedom. Because of Dr. King black people can go to any hotel, restaurant, bathroom, water fountain, beach, vacation place, school, store, and now black people can have any job that they want. It does not matter what color your skin is because everyone’s skin color might be different from everyone else’s skin. Dr. King always stood up for his rights and other black people’s rights because black people should have their own rights too. White people should not judge black people by the color of their skin. If Dr. King wasn’t born, there would be a lot of war in the world. Dr. King was an excellent example for showing people how to do nonviolent things because he wanted peace on earth, and he did not want war. He used words, marches, speeches and bus boycotts to solve problems, not cannons. 

“You forgot the worm,” said Irit. 

“What worm?” I asked.  

“The worm in the story about the onions and oranges. I told you that it was a worm that lived in the onion and never got to taste oranges.” 

“Jeez,” I said. “I forgot all about the worm. How could that be?” 

Irit was referring to a tale she had told me at a dinner party about how a worm who tastes only onion thinks it is the sweetest taste in the world, until the day he/she/it gets to eat an orange. I had written an essay about Irit’s story and I had e-mailed it to her for her approval. 

“I’ll change it,” I said. 

“Don’t bother,” answered Irit. “I like it the way it is, except you made me sound old. I never peer over my glasses.” 

“You think that makes you sound old? I’ll change it.”  

“No,” said Irit. “Leave it as it is. You got the essence right and that’s what matters. Really, I don’t know where I learned that orange-onion-worm story. I’d like to find out.” 

“We can do a Google search,” I suggested. 

“I already have,” said Irit. “I put in “worm + onion + orange”. Then I tried “onion + orange + worm”. And then I tried “orange + worm + onion”. It was no use. I got millions of hits and none of them were right.” 

“Did you try Yiddish proverbs, Jewish folktales, Israeli stories?”  

“Yes, all of them.” 

“Listen,” I said. “I’ve got a friend in Israel who knows about these things. I’ll e-mail him and see if he remembers anything about onions, worms and oranges, okay?”  

“That would be great. And while you’re at it, can you find out about the monkey and the glasses?” 

“The monkey and the glasses?” 

“Yes. It was my favorite story while growing up in Jerusalem. The monkey wanted a pair of glasses and when he finally got them he put them on his feet, his knees, his tail and his head, but he never figured out how to use them. The moral is something about you don’t need to accumulate things that you don’t know how to use.” 

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see what I can find out about the worm, the onion, the orange, the monkey and the glasses. Anything else?” 

“Yes,” said Irit. “Don’t make me sound like I’m fat when you write about me, okay?” 

“Did I make you sound fat?” I asked. 

“No,” said Irit. “I’m just warning you.” 

When I got off the phone I e-mailed my friend Ephraim in Haifa. Ephraim is 81 years old, a Holocaust survivor, a 1948 freedom fighter, a former kibbutz resident, a scholar of the Old Testament. If he didn’t know about the onions, oranges, monkeys, worms and glasses, then nobody did. 

I received an answer from Ephraim within 24 hours. “The worm is in a horseradish,” said his message. “He thinks that the horseradish is the best place to be. There are no onions in this tale though your friend got the gist of the story right.” 

I called Irit. “You forgot the horseradish,” I told her.  

“Ohmigod!” shouted Irit. “But of course! How could I have forgotten the horseradish?” 

“I don’t know,” I answered. “Maybe the same way I forgot the onion?”  

“You didn’t forget the onion,” corrected Irit. “You forgot the WORM.” 

“Yes, you’re right. I forgot the worm.” 

“What did your friend Ephraim say about the monkey and the glasses?” 

“He didn’t,” I said. “He must have forgot.” 

“You know, there is an old proverb about forgetting important details. I just can’t remember it right now.” 

“Good,” I said. “Keep it to yourself with the worm, the horseradish, the oranges, onions, monkeys and glasses. I’ve had about all I can stand on this subject.” 

“Me too,” said Irit. “But remember, don’t make me sound fat.” 

“Of course,” I assured her. “How could I possibly forget?” 

Footnote: Further searching on Google discovered the following: “To a worm in a horseradish, the whole world is a horseradish.”—Yiddish Proverb [Also considered Hasidic Proverb] 

“The Monkey and the Spectacles,” By Ivan A(ndreyevich) Krylov, 1769-1844/Russia. 

Found in: Ride the East Wind: Parables of Yesterday and Today, ed. Edmund C. Berkeley, New York: Quadrangle 1973. 

It’s still hard to believe birding has become so mainstream. We used to be considered eccentrics—caricatured at best as bores (remember John McGiver in Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation?), at worst as wimps.  

No longer. 

Now there are 71 million of us, a multi-billion-dollar market for binoculars, spotting scopes, field guides, magazines, software, feeders, seed, guided tours. And there’s a year-long calendar of festivals and other special events, tied to the natural calendar of the birds’ movements north and south: Godwit Days in Arcata, Lodi’s Sandhill Crane Festival, the Aleutian Goose Festival in Crescent City, and others at Los Banos, Morro Bay, and the Salton Sea. 

One of the most successful of these events, the San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival, takes place this weekend (Friday through Sunday) in Vallejo. This will be the festival’s eighth year, and it keeps growing. Coordinator Myrna Hayes estimated 5,000 or 6,000 attended in 2003. 

The free festival is centered on the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard, with field trips to outlying areas. There’s something here for all levels of birding expertise and degrees of interest. At the Family Wildlife Exploration and Birding Expo (Saturday and Sunday only), over 50 environmental groups and public agencies will have informational exhibits, along with binocular and scope vendors.  

The Expo will also feature visits by live birds of prey, a duck decoy carving demonstration, a Native American intertribal Red Tail Drum performance, readings by author Stephen Ingraham, and a showing of the film Winged Migration. Eighteen walking tours on Mare Island take visitors to areas not yet open to the public, including the historic shipyard and St. Peter’s chapel with its Tiffany windows. 

The Festival’s field trips cover a wide range of mostly North Bay bird habitats. In keeping with this year’s spotlight on the Napa River, designated a Globally Important Bird Area, there will be guided river cruises to a reclaimed marsh. Early birders can sign up for a 5:30 a.m. rail-ing tour, for a chance to hear—and with luck, see—these secretive birds in their marshland haunts. 

For raptor fans, Sonoma City Councilman Dick Ashford will lead several tours to normally off-limits Skaggs Island where multiple species of wintering hawks can be found. (Due to anticipated high demand, participants in the Skaggs Island trips will be chosen by lottery). Farther afield, there’s a banding demonstration at the Coyote Creek Field Station at Alviso and a hike at Rush Creek Marsh near Novato. 

Three of the Flyway Festival’s events combine birding with another Bay Area obsession. A Friday morning outing includes a visit to the Napa-Sonoma Marsh Wildlife Area, followed by wine-tasting at Acacia Vineyards. A presentation on sustainable vineyard management at Bouchaine Vineyards is scheduled for Friday afternoon. On Sunday, participants can tour the Viansa Winery’s restored wetlands, the subject of Kenneth Brower’s The Winemaker’s Marsh. 

This sounds like a great way to celebrate the annual spectacle of migration, which brings hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese and over a million shorebirds to San Francisco Bay.  

For more information, visit the Festival’s website (www.sfbayflywayfestival.com) or call (707)649-WING or (707)557-9816.

People from around here who went off to Iowa to stump for their candidates of choice could be feeling pretty discouraged right about now. I’m on e-mail lists for Dean, Kucinich and the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, so I’ve been reading about how bad some are feeling. It’s safe to say that not many Berkeleyans were trying to persuade Iowa Democrats to support caucus winners Kerry or Edwards. 

A few points to keep in mind before you feel too bad about the primaries: 

1) It’s Anyone But Bush, remember? This might explain the recent spate of letters touting General Clark which I’ve gotten from all kinds of folks: Michael Moore from Michigan, George McGovern from South Dakota, and my friends Nelle from West Virginia and Bobbie Sue from Arkansas. All of them are heartland people, natives of what we coast-dwellers call, snobbishly, the Fly-Over States. To beat Bush, we need to win these Fly-Over States. As a Fly-Over State native myself, I can’t disparage their instincts about who can win—they could be on to something that writers for The New Yorker and The Nation don’t understand. Though Clark skipped their primary, Iowa Democrats seemed to agree with Clark supporters that Dean and Kucinich don’t have curb appeal in the heartland. Even Edwards, totally discounted by the publications Berkeleyans read, did fine there. (Texan Molly Ivins says some nice things about Edwards.) 

2) Primaries are good because they keep the Democrats in front of the cameras. That’s Kevin Phillips’ idea, and it makes sense. Primaries can be bad if the candidates cut each other up too badly, but a modest show of controversy builds ratings. There’s plenty to say about Bush, and a few good topics Democrats can debate with each other without doing any harm. 

3) Unions won’t save us now. Gephardt got their support, and it didn’t do much for him. No one should count on unions alone anymore to win elections or even nominations. 

4) It really doesn’t matter which of the four remaining viable Democrats wins the nomination. It will certainly be Yet Another Boring Old White Guy (YABOWG), like all of the winning candidates in my lifetime. Turns out, though, that there’s YABOWGs and YABOWGs, and some YABOWGS (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft) are a good bit worse than others. Dean, Kerry, Clark, Edwards—all pretty much cut from the same cloth, none of them all that bad, really. They all have their bad points, but let’s not talk about that, okay? Makes no difference in this race. 

5) It’s fun to vote for outsiders, and when you live in California, it usually doesn’t matter. Be glad that none of these people actually win, however. Many who know Ralph Nader think that he’s a jerk, on a personal level. I voted for Eldredge Cleaver, and it’s just as well he lost, given his subsequent political history. (Though I also supported Shirley Chisholm, and she would have made a great president. She got five percent of the vote in the 1972 Michigan primary, better than Kucinich in Iowa in 2004.) 

6) No third party is ready for prime time. Until Greens can put forward candidates who actually come from their ranks and participate in party organization, it’s dangerous to vote for them. Celebrity candidates like Ralph Nader are potential (and in his case actual) loose cannons. 

So what do we do now? Me, I’m saving my time and money for the main event. Let those who know and love the current version of the Democratic Party choose their candidate if they want, on their own time. (I trust they’re not stupid enough to choose Lieberman.) 

When the Dems make up their minds, we AnybodyButBushers in secure Northern California should consider heading off to work in those Fly-Over States which are in the swing voting category. Planes do land in mid-America, trains are possible, and chartered buses might be fun. The weather in the fall will be much nicer than it was in Iowa. We could help out the locals with basic stuff like voter registration and taking people to the polls.  

If we can’t travel, we should turn out our pockets and shake down our friends for campaign contributions, because Democrats are always behind in fundraising.  

Prayer, if it works for you, probably wouldn’t hurt either. 

Becky O’Malley is executive editor of the Daily Planet.

The new three-antenna Sprint Wireless Communication facility proposed for the corner of Cedar Street and Shattuck Avenue—one of those Freddie Kruger-like city issues that never seem to die or quietly go away—is back on City Council’s agenda for another go-round at tonight’s regular meeting (Tuesday, Jan. 20). 

The issue has sharply divided Berkeley residents, with some welcoming more towers to improve cellphone reception, others yearning to kill a facility they believe will create adverse health effects. 

City staff members claim that all health issues are beyond the scope of Berkeley ordinance, subject only to federal law. 

The facility was originally approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board in late 2002, survived two appeals by disgruntled neighborhood residents, and has been stewing around City Council since last spring, suffering three separate postponements of public hearings while awaiting an outside consultant’s report. With the feasibility report on the Sprint facility now in hand, city staff says it is ready to move forward for Council to make a decision. 

In his report to Council, City Manager Phil Kamlarz writes that “the independent consultant...confirmed that the project meets all [Federal Communications Commission] requirements and is needed to provide adequate coverage to Sprint customers within the area. ... The project satisfies the city’s requirement.” 

In other action for tonight’s meeting, Council is soliciting public comment on Comcast’s proposed cable rate increases in the city. 

At its 6:45 Berkeley Redevelopment Agency special meeting, Council will consider approval of a 22-year extension of the ground lease for the land beneath the Ocean View Gardens Apartments. 

The California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA) current holds a separate loan agreement and a Section 8 housing contract with the Delaware Street low income housing project, but those are scheduled to run out in eight years. 

AF Evans management company of Oakland, which owns and operates Ocean View, wants a new loan from CalHFA, and the Berkeley city loan renegotiation is necessary to ensure it. AF Evans says without the renegotiations, Ocean View could change to moderate-income or market rate housing when the CalHFA agreement runs out in 2012. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz has approved the loan renegotiation.