“A Portrait of Mills: Photographs by Imogen Cunningham,” like other significant art exhibitions, instructs while it gives pleasure. Visitors will find in it, to their satisfaction, some of the iconic images for which the artist has long been famous as well as images with which they are unfamiliar. 

The artist (1883-1976), who long graced the Bay Area with her active presence, ranks among our nation’s most important photographers for her role in establishing the medium as a fine art and may still rank as our most important female photographer.  

The title is ambiguous, for this is not only an exhibition of photographs that Cunningham took of the Mills campus and of some of its faculty, it includes images from the college’s permanent collections.  

Director Stephan Jost initiated the exhibition but, having accepted a new directorship in Vermont and having been devoted to student involvement in the Mills Museum, asked senior student Pamela Caserta to assume responsibility for completing its organization. 

As curator, Caserta, having had previous museum experience at the highly respected Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, brought a practiced eye to her task. Her resources were the museum’s substantial holdings of Cunningham materials and the college library’s collection of “snapshots.” Caserta also made use of the several indispensable volumes about Cunningham, including the work of Richard Lorenz, who subscribed to the tradition that all works of art in whatever medium are self-portraits of the artists. 

So it was with Cunningham. Despite arguments that photography is a cool and objective medium like no other and despite divergencies and eclecticism in the work of a very long-lived artist, there was a relatively consistent vision that ranks her among our master photographers. 

The occasion for the exhibition is the 100th anniversary of the firm of the Ratcliff Architects, headquartered in Emeryville. Led by patriarch Walter Ratcliff (now deceased), this firm was responsible for the design of the Mills music building and its art museum, surely one of the most beautiful and satisfying exhibition spaces in the Bay Area. 

Its proportions, while grand, are, nevertheless, humane in scale. Its ceiling of panes of frosted thermoplastic, permitting the use of natural light (now supplemented by artificial illumination) is supported by a beautiful grid of Spanish Baroque inspiration. The building’s exterior was also initially designed to be a Spanish Baroque fantasy rather than the minimalist form that appears in one of the several photographs of the structure appearing in the exhibition.  

Among the iconic images of great personalities, visitors will find formal portraits of poets Theodore Roethke and John Masefield, painters Morris Graves and Lionel Feininger, the artist’s father Isaac Burns Cunningham and photographer Alfred Stieglitz standing in front of a painting by his wife Georgia O’Keefe. Missing, unfortunately, is any image of dancer Martha Graham, a pivotal figure in the invention of modern dance and an artist whose career was closely linked to Cunningham’s throughout their long lives.  

Why should viewers concern themselves with images that have often appeared in books and catalogues? Because they will find in them a presence that is absent from reproductions, no matter how skillfully printed. Cunningham’s works permit person-to-person communication.  

The same observation holds true for portraits of other subjects, although unknown, probably, to most viewers. For example, Alfred Salmony, Chinese art scholar at Mills; Joseph Sheridan, painter, whose image with its network of rectilinear and curvilinear elements, including furrows in the subject’s forehead, may owe something to the influence of photographer Man Ray; German Olympic Fencer Helene Mayer, who taught German at Mills during the 1930s and 1940s. 

Informal portraits of faculty—scientists, humanities professors and artists—include French composer Darius Milhaud working with two students at a piano keyboard. The focused concentration is palpable, though music is the most evanescent of the arts.  

Cunningham’s images of the Mills campus convey the serenity that is still characteristic of the college today—at least in comparison with most other Bay Area campuses. “Patio of the Tea Room” (1940) with students in dresses, skirts and blouses and professors in suits and ties; “Music Building and Pond” (ca. 1940); “Amphitheater” (ca. 1920), a classic study of curving minimalist forms in which shadows appear as substantial as concrete; and “Lake Aliso” (ca. 1930), which now seems to be disappearing because of environmental abuse—all convey the ethos of a time seemingly gentler than our own.  

Five works in particular, however, make direct connections to the present and enduring themes of life, and not just in the Bay Area, specifically sex and politics. 

In “Mills Nursery School” (ca. 1950), a small boy and a somewhat larger and ostensibly more aggressive girl play in a sand box. In “Sunbathing/Legs” (ca. 1950) viewers see nothing more than the erotically charged, inverted V’s in four two-inch square snapshots assembled two-by-two in a work of art improvised by curator Caserta. 

“Election Week” will resonate especially with those who experienced the struggles for civil rights and free speech in the last century. An automobile of circa 1920 is crowded with and followed by jolly young ladies wearing what appear to be uniform jumpers and straw hats. Banners, streamers and balloons decorate the automobile. On the back of the photograph is written, “Down with Student Government”—which has been crossed out! 

Finally, two images of magnolia blossoms (1925), though often reproduced, are, here on the museum walls, such definitive statements of erotic beauty that they must ravish any viewer who is not dead. That is truly an awesome experience of art. 

“A Portrait of Mills: Photographs by Imogen Cunningham,” is on view through March 12 at the Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. For more information, call 430-2164 or see www.mills.edu. 

Berkeley students who don’t pass the high school exit exam may still walk with their peers on graduation day, the school board ruled Wednesday. 

Board members voted unanimously to support a proposal that grants seniors who meet all graduation requirements but have not passed the high school exit exam to participate in graduation ceremonies.  

The decision could affect as many as 74 Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) students who are on track to graduate but have not yet passed the test. 

The test assesses proficiency in math and English language arts at a seventh- to 10th-grade level.  

Students still will not receive diplomas or certificates of completion, and they must meet a number of additional criteria. They must pass and enroll in enough classes to meet standard graduation requirements, they must to take the exam on all but one of the dates when it’s offered and must take advantage of after-school tutoring. 

Those who still do not pass by the end of the school year can re-test one more time after graduation. They are also eligible to enroll in summer classes at Berkeley High School or the Adult School. 

The proposal was designed to encourage students to continue striving to pass, said Educational Services Director Neil Smith in an item submitted to the Board of Education. 

Board Director Shirley Issel commended the motion. 

“It requires the administration to provide support to ensure that the students can succeed and it encourages students to continue striving to succeed,” she said. 

Board colleague John Selawsky agreed. 

“I think kids who do the work and meet our graduation requirements and have not yet passed (the test) should still be able to walk the stage with their peers,” he said. “To deny them is cruel and unusual punishment.” 

The board will hear a final proposal to change board policy at the next meeting.  

This year marks the first year California students must by law pass the exam to graduate. The law has prompted backlash from parents, students and teachers who say the test is unfair, particularly for disabled students and English language learners.  

A lawsuit settled last year prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant a year-long exemption to disabled students who don’t pass the test. On Feb. 8, a group of parents and students filed suit against the state Department of Education on behalf of general education seniors. It alleges that the exam is unfairly biased against English language learners, fails to analyze alternatives to the test and deprives students of a fundamental right to an education. 

While legal recourse is pending, schools in the Bay Area have devised alternatives to the state mandate to recognize the efforts of students who would otherwise graduate if not for the test.  

In Alameda, the Board of Education ruled in November that students who have not passed the test are eligible to take part in graduation ceremonies and earn a certificate of achievement. 

In Albany, Superintendent William Wong said the board is considering granting students concessions, though specific details have not been laid out.  

Staff members of the West Contra Costa Unified School District are drafting a plan comparable to Berkeley’s that would allow eligible seniors to walk on stage with their classmates, so long as they meet specific requirements and “show an effort to try to pass the test,” said district spokesman Paul Ehara.  

The district, which serves Richmond, Hercules, Pinole, El Cerrito, San Pablo and several unincorporated areas, may also consider granting some form of certificate, but Ehara said details have not been spelled out. 

A student from West Contra Costa is the chief litigant in the lawsuit filed Feb. 8 against the state DOE. She reportedly has a 3.84 grade-point average and is a top member of her class, but as an English language learner, she’s failed the test’s English language arts section. 

Ehara said the district has multiple measures in place to assist struggling students.  

“We’re on a 13-year plan for getting all students to pass the CAHSEE (the exit exam),” he said. “We have been doing a lot of work to help students get over this hurdle.” 

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The Berkeley Board of Education approved an environmental impact report (EIR) of the East Campus/Derby Street field Wednesday, re-igniting debate over whether a baseball diamond will be built there.  

Board directors voted 4-1 to grant a consulting firm $100,000 to conduct an environmental analysis of the East Campus, a school district-run expanse surrounded by Ward and Carleton streets, and Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Milvia Street. The report is expected to shed light on a proposal to close Derby Street between MLK and Milvia to develop a regulation-sized baseball field, a proposal supported by the majority of the board. 

A second option would involve a mixed-use athletic field, and Derby Street would remain open. The street currently hosts the Berkeley Farmers’ Market.  

Because the Berkeley City Council has exclusive rights to close Derby Street, BUSD has beseeched the council to share EIR costs, which may run as high as $200,000.  

School Board Director Shirley Issel says it’s worth it. 

“I’m very interested in knowing what the environmental effects would be if we were to close the street, because I think that’s the preferred option,” she said.  

The Berkeley High School men’s baseball team currently practices at a San Pablo Park on Russell and Mabel streets. Building a diamond at Derby Street would provide players with a regulation-size field that’s walking distance to campus, proponents say. 

“I think it’s a legitimate expectation on the part of Berkeley citizens that our students would have access to a full-sized baseball field,” Issel said. “I think that’s kind of a standard expectation.” 

Opponents of development of a regulation-size diamond say the area would be better served if the street is left open and the field is able to serve multiple athletic activities. 

School board Director John Selawsky, who lives in the neighborhood, said he opposes “shoehorning a baseball field into a neighborhood that already has many things going on.” 

Selawsky was the board’s lone voice of dissent against the EIR Wednesday. 

Furthermore, he pointed out that at present, the school district doesn’t have enough money to build a field, which calls into question the necessity of conducting an environmental report at all. 

“There’s no money for it,” Selawsky said, “so why are we even debating it?” 

Berkeley’s city councilmembers face an array of business tonight (Tuesday), starting with a workshop on condo ordinance changes, then moving on to a regular meeting that will feature landmarks, a liquor store and ADUs. 

The workshop begins at 5 p.m. and the regular council meeting starts two hours later. 

One item conspicuously absent from the regular agenda is Councilmember Max Anderson’s resolution calling on the City Council to reaffirm its vote to support a state grant application to fund planning of a controversial development at Ashby BART. 

A proposal to build a large housing project with ground floor commercial space on the BART station’s western parking lot has aroused concern and opposition from neighbors and development critics. 

The council approved a resolution in December that endorsed an already filed grant application for state funds to do a project proposal. 

After a heavily attended Jan. 17 meeting called by project critics, Anderson had called for the council to re-endorse the application, a vote that was delayed once and rescheduled for tonight’s meeting. 

Anderson did not return calls about why the item is not on the meeting agenda. 

The council will also hold another discussion of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

During a public hearing a week ago, the council majority seemed willing to make changes in parts of the ordinance challenged by developers and their attorneys, who claim the law is being used as a means of blocking their projects. 

Only councilmembers Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington have voiced strong support for the current ordinance and the structure-of-merit designation which developers say has been their particular bane. 

Preservationists say the category and its protections are needed to protect historic homes and the character of neighborhoods in the Berkeley flats. 

The council is also scheduled to hear an appeal from the owners of Dwight Way Liquor at 2440 Sacramento St., asking them to overturn an Oct. 27 Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) decision to declare the store a public nuisance and order its closure. 

The council will also look at accessory dwelling units, so-called “mother-in-law apartments,” often garage conversions. The ordinance would allow demolition of the units or their conversion to previous uses so long as the actions didn’t require eviction of a tenant.  

Other business 

City councilmembers will also consider: 

• A proposal to hike the price of a flat-rate space at the city’s Oxford Street parking lot from $2 to $5. The move would bring the price in line with rates at other city-owned lots. 

• Two resolutions asking UC Berkeley to name three representatives to serve as ex-offico members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

While DAPAC simply asked for UC representatives to work with their committee, an alternative resolution from Councilmember Kriss Worthington asks for three DAPAC members to serve as ex-officio advisors to the university on their plans for development in Berkeley. 

And while the city staff’s proposal asks the university to appoint three senior faculty members and/or administrators, Worthington’s resolution asks for one of the representatives to come from the student body and another from UC staff. 

• Two resolutions supporting applications for federal funds to build the Ed Roberts Center at the eastern parking lot at Ashby BART, each for $2.5 million. One would come from the federal transportation budget and the other from the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education budget. 

To date, supporters of the center—which would provide homes for agencies and programs serving the disabled—have raised $30 million of the estimated $47 million construction costs. 

• A lease approving a major increase in the rent the city pays to UC Berkeley to lease space for storage of city records at the Marchant Building at 6701 San Pablo Ave. 

The city had signed a $1-a-year lease with the university in 1990 for 10,000 square feet at the building as a condition for accepting the accepting the university’s 1990 Long Range Development Plan. The agreement had been extended through the end of last year. 

The university now says it eventually wants the space back, and the new agreement covers $24,000 in rent plus $1,490 in other expenses—to cover the period from April 1 to Dec. 31. 

• An update on crime in the city from Police Chief Douglas M. Hambleton. The report includes figures on crimes for the first six months of 2005 showing that of seven East Bay cities (the others are Oakland, Richmond, Fremont, Hayward, Vallejo and Concord), Berkeley had the highest rate of property crimes and ranked third in violent crimes, though at 26.3 incidents per 10,000 residents, the rate was well below the 64.2 per 10,000 for Oakland and the 60.5 per 10,000 in Richmond. Fremont was the lowest at 13.8 incidents per 10,000 residents. 

Berkeley’s property crime rate was 379.1 per 10,000 residents, compared with 291.9 in Richmond, and 254.2 in Oakland. Vallejo ranked lowest at 80.7›

Two Richmond quarries are a threat to public safety, a Richmond councilmember and a state agency both say.  

Routine inspections conducted by the State Mining and Geology Board (SMGB) late last year revealed numerous code violations at the sites, including dangerous sliding slopes, negligent revegetation and rehabilitation activities, and operation without a use permit. 

The board and the city of Richmond have entreated mine operators to come into compliance, but results have yet to surface. 

The Richmond (Chevron) Quarry 

One of the quarries, the Richmond (Chevron) Quarry, has a carved-out hill that is vulnerable to landslides and borders a field of potentially flammable tanks, said SMGB Executive Officer Stephen Testa. 

Richmond City Councilmember Tom Butt, who publicized the issue on his website last month, said he fears a rockslide plummeting into the tank farm could spell disaster. 

“I could imagine 1,000 tons of rock going down the hill, knocking over one of those tanks. It could be a huge mess,” he said. “It could explode.” 

Brian Peer, the general manager for site operator Dutra Materials, said such a scenario isn’t likely. 

“Talking to my engineering firm and engineers from Chevron [which owns the land], they agree the slope had moved a period of time ago, but now it’s stable,” he said. “As far as a cataclysmic slide, they said that’s not going to happen.” 

The quarry is used as an asphalt plant; mining activities no longer take place there. 

SMGB, the lead agency regulating Richmond’s mines, also found that the Richmond Quarry has not accurately revegetated the grounds. 

If not dealt with, the SMGB could slap Dutra with fines of up to $5,000 a day. 

The agency notified Dutra of the infractions on Dec. 22, 2005, and gave the company 30 days to heed board demands. So far, requirements have not been met, Testa said. 

“We’re working on it,” Peer said, adding that he didn’t receive written word of the violations until Jan. 4.  

The Point Richmond (Canal Boulevard) Quarry 

The other mine under fire has been cited for six violations and six corrective measures, Testa said. Among them: slope instability and active slides, inadequate revegetation, a dated topographic map and an expired use permit.  

The Point Richmond Quarry, also known as the Canal Boulevard Quarry, is maintained predominantly as a materials recycling facility by Bauman Landscape—though it does not have a permit to do so. 

Richmond’s planning department confirmed that Bauman Landscape is operating illegally. According to Butt, the city could levy fees as high as $1,000 a day.  

An owner for Bauman Landscape, Michael Bauman, did not return calls for comment.  

Both city and state agencies have notified the company of its breaches. “They have not complied to date,” Testa said. 

He added, however, that the company expended some energy cleaning up soil erosion and other small offenses. 

Taking action  

The state board will address operators of both quarries at its March 9 regular business meeting in Sacramento. There was some talk of moving the meeting to Richmond to allow for public input, but Testa said there are scheduling conflicts. 

The city is also taking action. Planning Director Richard Mitchell sent letters to Bauman and Dutra last week, urging cessation of illegal activity by March 1. In an e-mail, the Richmond city manager advised fellow staff members to be prepared to pursue “additional legal remedies against Bauman and Dutra” in the event that the companies fail to clean up their act.  

Mining for negligence 

Butt said he is pleased to see some progress made toward better enforcement of the quarries, but thinks the city should have been more proactive. The Richmond City Council granted the Point Richmond Quarry a land-use permit in 1996, but Bates said there was never any follow-up. He claims the state tried to communicate with city officials over the neglected areas as far back as 1998—though Testa could not confirm this—and that city staff knew about the latest batch of misdeeds five months ago. 

“This is another sad example of how Richmond all too often goes through a protracted process of approving some kind of land use permit and then simply disappears, allowing the permittee to do whatever he wants to without regulation or consequence,” he wrote online.  

Neither the city manager nor the planning director returned calls for comment.  

Butt said he is developing an ordinance to align the city with state mining standards. He plans to present a draft at Richmond’s Feb. 28 City Council meeting.  

UC Berkeley officials will give the public and three city commissions a brief presentation of their plans for development at and around Memorial Stadium on Wednesday evening. 

The session, which starts at 6 p.m., will be held at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Members of the Planning, Landmarks Preservation and Transportation commissions will be joined by the Zoning Adjustments Board’s Design Review Committee as they hear about the university’s plans for the stadium, a massive new underground parking lot and changes to Piedmont Avenue and Gayley Way. 

Stadium plans include construction of a 132,500-square-foot student athlete high performance (training) center along the stadium’s western wall and a complete seismic retrofit and upgrade of the stadium itself—which would include the addition of luxury sky boxes, a press box level above the stadium rim, as well as permanent night lighting. 

The $60 million, 845-space underground parking lot would be built just north of the stadium at the site of the Maxwell Family Field, which would be reincarnated atop the structure when construction is done. 

The university’s plans represent only part of the institution’s development proposals in the immediate vicinity. Not up for discussion is the major new construction project immediately to the west of the stadium across Piedmont Avenue, where a new office building and meeting venue is planned that would link the university’s law and business schools. 

Also not listed in the agenda is a proposal that could lead to the conversion of Bowles Hall, a landmarked residential hall just across Stadium Rim Way from Maxwell Family Field. 

The hall is one of two possible sites named by the university for a business school program for working corporate executives. Bowles was the first residence hall on the UCB campus, and opened in 1929. 

The university has been parsimonious with information about the project, much to the annoyance of Berkeley Planning Director Dan Marks. 

Wednesday night’s agenda calls for the university presentation to be followed by comments and questions from the commissioners, followed in turn by a public comment period. 

Presentations to the city commissions about university development projects were mandated as part of the settlement of a city suit against the university’s Long Range Development Plan for 2020. 

The university isn’t obligated to heed the comments, however. 

Planners look at condo law 

Following the joint meeting, the planning commissioners will hold their own regularly scheduled meeting starting at 7:30 p.m. At that session, it will consider approval of amendments to the city’s Zoning Ordinance governing condominiums. 

Two items are on the table. The first is a one-year extension of an interim ordinance approved in 2004 that provided for increased prices on units in condo projects built under the inclusionary ordinance. 

That law, which calls for 20 percent of new apartment and condominium units to be reserved for people with lower incomes, had been amended to raise the price level to one affordable by households earning 120 percent of the area’s median income, rather than the 80 percent level that had been specified in the existing ordinance. 

That provision expired Sunday, and a Planning Commission approval of an extension would clear the way for a City Council vote that must occur before the extension can happen. 

A second item on the commission’s agenda would make permanent other amendments that expired at the same time, including ones requiring marketing of the reduced rate units to tenants with Section 8 vouchers and authorizing the city manager to set regulations establishing allowable rents and sale prices for inclusionary units. 

ZAB meeting 

The Zoning Adjustments Board will meet Thursday night at 7 p.m. in City Council chambers at the Maudelle Shirek building (Old City Hall) on the second floor at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Among the items on the agenda will be the election of a new vice chair for the board. 

The Peralta Community College District brought out the big guns to the district Board of Trustees meeting last week, with presentations by Chancellor Elihu Harris, two vice chancellors, and the chief financial officer to try to end the continuing controversy over the district’s office of International Affairs. 

“The office has been under not only some scrutiny and criticism but also under a microscope,” Harris told trustees. “The perceived excesses of the previous chancellor and trustees continue to haunt us.” 

But Harris said that past problems with the international affairs office have ended, that the office is “important and valuable to the district,” and the district is embarking on a program to make the office “stronger and more viable.”  

Along with Harris, trustees heard presentations by CFO Tom Smith, Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig, and Associate Vice Chancellor and International Affairs Office Director Jacog Ng, explaining Harris’ recently released 40-page report on the state of the office. 

The report contained no specific program recommendations. Harris’ office said earlier that the chancellor may present specific recommendations as part of its budget request for the next fiscal year. 

Ng told trustees that the purpose of his office was to “expose our students to cultures from around the world,” while Harris said that it was “vital to our educational program at Peralta to include students from other countries as well as afford our students the opportunity to travel abroad.” Both activities, he said, were carried out by the international office.  

“Most of our expenses involve support for international students once they are here,” Harris said. “This is not a travel junket program. Since I became chancellor, only a small portion of the budget is spent on international travel.” 

A chart included with the report showed that the office’s recruitment and travel budget peaked in 2000-01 at $78,700 out of a $480,000 total budget during the time when the office was under investigation, but by 2004-05 had dropped to $17,000 out of a total budget of $395,000. 

The International Affairs Office was developed in 1997 by Ng, who began his professional career 17 years ago as a counselor at Laney. The office first operated a program out of Vista College in Berkeley, now Berkeley City College, recruiting international students. 

International student tuition is an important part of the Peralta budget, bringing in some $2.5 million a year. 

Harris’ report noted that international students pay a minimum of $4,700 per year to the district on a $164 per unit tuition fee and a $26 per unit enrollment fee on their mandatory minimum of 12 units. Resident students pay no tuition fees, but only the $26 per unit enrollment fee.  

In addition, while the resident student fees are paid to the state with a portion siphoned back to the district, international student fees are paid directly to the district, and remain with the district. 

Haig told trustees that the international recruitment area was “a tough market. We hope to be extremely competitive in it.” 

The chancellor’s office has set a goal of 700 international students for the fall of 2011, up from the present 480. 

The chancellor’s report and administrative presentations were a carryover from the explosive September 2005 trustee meeting in which Trustee Marcie Hodge first leveled criticisms of the International Affairs Office. 

Ng did not appear at that meeting, leaving the reporting to his supervisor, Haig, who had only been on the job for 10 days at the time. Hodge’s criticisms of Ng by name at the September meeting led to her later censuring by the Board of Trustees. 

Harris made a backhand reference to that September meeting on Tuesday night, introducing Haig to trustees by saying that “unfortunately, she had a rude welcome to Peralta.” 

Hodge sat silent during Tuesday night’s presentations and did not ask any questions. Hodge did not respond when Smith made a point-by-point rebuttal of “travel excess” criticisms made by Hodge in a mass mailing to constituents in her Area 2 trustee district and in Oakland City Council District 6, where Hodge is challenging incumbent Councilmember Desley Brooks in the June election. 

In a telephone interview when the chancellor’s report was released two weeks ago, Hodge had said that she believed the chancellor “is beginning to put systems of accountability in place as a result of my criticism and the criticisms of other trustees,” but added that “I’m still not satisfied. A lot of questions remain.” 

In his report, CFO Smith spoke directly to Hodge’s original allegations about waste and mismanagement in recruitment-related travel, noting that “at my direction, Jacob now uses the IRS-based method of accounting, in which he documents everything he does every day he is overseas. I review every expense report submitted by Jacob, and I see no discrepancies.” 

Smith also pointed to a section of the chancellor’s report that outlined several audits and investigations of the International Affairs Office by outside agencies and the Peralta District in the past several years. 

Smith said that there had been “no adverse findings noted” in reviews by an internal Peralta audit, an external auditor’s review, and a California State Chancellor’s audit review. Smith also said that an Alameda Grand Jury investigation into the International Affairs Office ended with “no report or findings … issued.” 

The chancellor’s report also detailed a 2004 district investigation of Ng and the international office “upon receiving information from an anonymous source” of a conflict of interest within the department. 

Though it was not mentioned in the chancellor’s report, the allegations made against Ng were that he was working for pay for a college in China while he was supposed to be recruiting students for Peralta. 

The report said that Peralta General Counsel Thuy Thi Nguyen “concluded that Associate Vice Chancellor Ng did not violate the state law and district’s policy on conflict of interest,” but that another employee was disciplined as a result of the allegations and investigation and later resigned. A report by Vice Chancellor Trudy Largent on the matter had been turned over to both the board of trustees and the press. 

One of Hodge’s complaints in recent weeks has been that she was not given access to reports from that investigation. 

ô

With a possible teachers strike looming over stalled contract talks, the state-run Oakland Unified School District received a blow this week when the Service Employees International Union backed out of a tentative contract agreement that would have run through 2008. 

SEIU represents roughly 1,100 clerical workers, security officers, instructional assistants and early childhood education professionals in the Oakland district. 

SEIU and district officials had reached a tentative agreement last month that, in part, would have balanced proposed salary increases with a district-employee sharing of health care costs. 

At the time of the tentative agreement, OUSD State Administrator Randolph Ward praised “the hardworking men and women of SEIU … for working tirelessly to achieve a timely resolution that allows Oakland Unified to keep its commitment to improving classroom instruction and keeps us on the road to fiscal recovery.” 

But after SEIU officials reviewed district financial information contained in an independent fact-finder’s report on the district-teacher dispute, the union said that the proposals offered by the district were inadequate. It was not immediately known at this time as to when talks might resume. 

Meanwhile, the OUSD-teacher conflict continued to escalate. 

On Wednesday, teachers held an afternoon informational picket at the corner of International Boulevard and Fruitvale, passing out leaflets and holding up “Support Teachers” picket signs. 

And the Oakland Unified School District, which has been virtually inaccessible to the public since the state takeover and the hiring of Randolph Ward as administrator, began posting on its website what it calls a Daily Briefing of “the latest update on negotiations between Oakland Unified and the union representing Oakland teachers.” 

The briefing is produced by Alex Katz, recently hired as OUSD press secretary from his job as education reporter for the Oakland Tribune. In this week’s briefing, Katz disputes the independent fact-finder’s conclusions in the teacher’s dispute,  

In an item entitled “Fact Finder Flubs Basic Math, Badly Miscalculates District Finances,” Katz writes, “What the fact- finder report states regarding the district’s available finances is—in fact —incorrect. It suggests using one-time grants from the private sector as well as ‘restricted’ funds for salaries. To do either would be both illegal and financially unsound (and isn’t that how we got here in the first place). So, the district will continue to rely on financial data provided by the fiscal experts with the statutory authority to review and audit district finances.” 

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In the past week, Berkeley High School (BHS) student leadership has made changes to the school’s controversial attendance policy. 

Previously, a student had three days after an absence to clear it. After the three days, the student would be unable to excuse the absence and it would be marked as a “cut,” otherwise known as an “unexcused absence.” 

“Under the old attendance policy,” said Noah Praskins, BHS sophomore and school senator, “if you were absent for a four-day period, the first day would be marked as an unexcused absence. Now, you have five full school days after you return to school to clear your absence. This makes the system more student-friendly, as it should be.” 

Praskins is part of student leadership at BHS. Teal Miller, student representative for the School Board, meets with students every Monday to discuss issues that affect them. 

For a while, there was very little response to the pleas of Miller to students asking them to bring their concerns to her. Finally, the leadership had an idea that history teachers would pass out cards to their students and the students would write down issues that they want student leadership to deal with. 

“We got a relatively small amount of feedback,” remarked Praskins. “However, remarks about the attendance policy were helpful. Many kids were unhappy about the fact that they didn't have enough time to excuse their absences. It was something that we actually had power over.” 

And so Miller, Praskins, and other senators worked on an item for the Shared Governance Committee (a committee which consists of BHS department heads, the principal, and the vice principals that focuses on school issues). 

Praskins noted, “Everyone was in full support. If I can recall, the vote to approve the modified attendance policy was unanimous.” 

Following the vote of the Shared Governance Committee, the item went to the school board, where it was well received and approved. 

Some students didn’t see the necessity for attendance policy reform. 

“I didn’t really have a problem with the attendance policy before,” said sophomore Anna Akullian, “but I think that it is good that people have longer to clear their absences now. But I don’t know how much of a difference it'll make.” 

Nonetheless, this is seen as a measure to make the attendance system at BHS more friendly and many see this as a big improvement in the right direction. 

Rio Bauce is a sophomore at Berkeley High School. Comments, suggestions, and story ideas may be submitted to baucer@gmail.com. 

Belated report 

A San Francisco watchmaker called Berkeley police late in the afternoon on Feb. 10 to report that he’d been robbed of a laptop computer, a watch and some of the tools of his trade four days earlier in the 2700 block of San Pablo Avenue. 

The man said he’d finally been moved to report the heist for insurance reasons, said Officer Galvan. 

Shots fired  

Responding to calls of shots fired in the area of the 2900 block of Acton Street, Berkeley police officers found two shell casings and vague reports of people running on the street and a dark, two-door American car last seen heading away on Ashby Avenue. 

No victims of the shooting or any bullet holes were found. 

Robbery 

A 25-year-old man reported that he was robbed of a small amount of cash by another man shortly before midnight Feb. 10 in the 2700 block of Ellsworth Street. 

Unjust desserts 

A man carrying a note threatening violence if he wasn’t given cash walked into Gelato Milano at 3170 Shattuck Ave., downtown Berkeley’s newest ice cream store, just before 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 11. 

After ordering a young woman behind the counter to lie face-down on the floor, the bandit cleaned out the cash drawer and escaped, said Officer Galvan. The clerk was not injured, he said. 

Bowled over 

A man who robbed a Berkeley Bowl customer of his food outside the store on the afternoon of Feb. 12 was apprehended by officers who discovered that he had leapt over a fence into the courtyard of a building on Emerson Street nearby. 

The 38-year-old suspect, a homeless man, was taken into custody without further incident and booked on suspicion of robbery. 

Drive-by bust 

Summoned to the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Emergency Room at 6 p.m. Feb. 12 by a report that a gunshot victim had appeared at the hospital, Berkeley police found a man with a gunshot wound to the right elbow and little to say. 

“He refused to talk,” said Officer Galvan. 

Further investigation revealed that the man was one of two occupants of a car that had been involved in a drive-by shooting in Richmond earlier in the day and who had been fired on in return by a Richmond police officer. 

Berkeley officers kept the man in custody until he could be treated and handed over to their counterparts in Richmond. 

Stabbed but silent 

Berkeley police rushed to the 1400 block of Alcatraz Avenue just before midnight Feb. 12, responding to a caller who said a man had just been stabbed in the back by his girlfriend. 

Arriving at the residence, officers found the 28-year-old victim, who had next to nothing to say to them. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. 

Officers still want to question the missing companion, who is 25. 

Hot stuff 

A West Berkeley contractor with offices in the 900 block of Pardee Street called police Feb. 13 in the morning to report that sometime over the weekend, persons unknown had entered his property with a lock-cutter and made off with a $10,000 gas welder. 

Faked out 

Later that afternoon a man wearing a beanie and pointing a fake handgun proved less than convincing to the folks at the Chevron station at 1201 The Alameda, who refused to part with their cash. 

Frustrated, the faker fled. 

Knife threat 

Police took a 14-year-old boy into custody for brandishing a deadly weapon after he threatened another teenager in the 2800 block of Ellsworth Street just before 7 p.m. that evening. 

Two bandits 

A pair of robbers, at least one of them carrying a pistol, robbed a 27-year-old woman of her cash in the 2700 block of Claremont Avenue just before noon on Feb. 14. The woman was not hurt, said Officer Galvan. 

Rat packed 

A group of seven or eight teenagers from the Berkeley High School campus robbed a 16-year-old from Oakland of his iPod as he walked along the 2000 block of Kittredge Street last Wednesday afternoon, said Officer Galvan. 

Two carjacks 

A Richmond-based gang staged two carjackings in Berkeley last Wednesday, one successful and the other not. 

The first incident began near 1099 Murray St. where an Oakland man was approached by a gunman who ordered him out of his car, then got behind the wheel and sped away. The vehicle, a Honda, was later recovered on El Portal Drive in Richmond, said Officer Galvan. 

Those suspects remain at large. 

In the second incident, two bandits commandeered a car at 753 Hollis St. near the Emeryville border, then sped away. 

As they made their getaway, they managed to crash into the fence at Ashby Lumber at 824 Ashby Ave., where the duo—one 20 and the other 17—was taken into custody by Berkeley police and booked on suspicion of carjacking. 

Galvan said the two incidents were likely the work of the same gang.

Juan Carlos Ramos didn’t know how much he was loved, friends said through tears Wed-nesday at a memorial for the 18-year-old Contra Costa College student, who was mortally stab-bed Feb. 10 at a party in Berkeley. 

“He was the sweetest guy ever, it breaks my heart, ” said Victoria Castillo who helped plan the memorial and had accompanied Ramos to the party. “I wish I could go back in time. I’m sure he’s smiling down on us.” 

Police still have no suspects in the murder that took place on the 700 block of Contra Costa Avenue at an unchaperoned party, which attracted more than 100 young people. Many learned of the event through a posting on the Internet. 

The memorial, which drew some 200 students mostly from Albany and El Cerrito high schools, took place on the grassy median on Key Route Boulevard, just about where Albany meets El Cerrito. Friends, family members, and school staff spoke of Ramos, often glancing behind them at the large photograph of the young man to which Mexican and American flags were affixed. Flowers, balloons, and candles were placed on a table near the photograph. 

Linda Montecino, Ramos’ sister-in-law, thanked the young people for planning the memorial. 

“We came today to support the kids,” she said through tears. “Sometimes we forget in our grief, that you are hurting too. He was so sweet, so good and caring to all of us.” 

Ramos graduated in January from El Cerrito High and had begun studying to be an electrician at Contra Costa College. 

“He was a neat kid,” said Maureen Crowley, a math teacher who knew Ramos for more than three years. 

Ramos loved soccer, cars—especially his red Camaro—and his friends, even those he hadn’t seen in years, friends said. 

Jake Johnson, a student at Berkeley High, ran into him at the Friday night party. 

“We were talking about old times,” he said, adding that he was inside the house when the stabbings were taking place outside. 

“Inside, everything was completely normal,” he said. 

Several students pleaded with their peers, urging those with information about the slaying to come forward. 

“If anyone knows, say the name,” one young man said. “Just turn his ass into the police.” 

El Cerrito High teacher Bonnie Taylor urged the young people to stay safe. 

“Parties are to get dressed up and kick it. Death is forever. I don’t want that to happen to any one of you,” she said. 

Even before Ramos’ death, Albany High faculty was talking about creating a new curriculum to instruct young people on staying safe and “what to do when a situation gets out of hand,” said Albany High Principal Ron Rosenbaum, who attended the memorial. 

Rosenbaum said the youth’s death further convinced him of the need for such a curriculum. It will be taught next school year, he said..

Preservationists made passionate pleas to preserve the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Tuesday night, but by the time the City Council meeting ended, they had little to cheer about. 

Mayor Tom Bates had made it clear that change was coming, and only two strong council voices rose in protest, Kriss Worthington and Dona Spring, while Betty Olds said she was willing to hear more from the public. 

“The structure of merit, it’s a problem. No two ways about it,” said Bates at the end of the meeting, referring to the secondary landmark designation. “This is the $64 question, no doubt about it. If something is going to be a landmark it should be a landmark.” 

People should know the rules, he said. 

“We now have a second prize that receives all the benefits of first prize, and I don’t think that’s appropriate,” the mayor said. 

The council was headed in a direction strongly urged by Oakland land use attorney Rena Rickles, who often represents developers before city commissions. 

“I am essentially here for one purpose—to support the removal of structure of merit except in the case of historic neighborhoods,” said Rickles. 

Under the current law, a structure of merit is a fully recognized historic building, which, while altered, still reflects fundamental elements of the original structure and is considered worthy of preservation. 

Spring and others say Berkeley’s flatlands, though without the majestic creations of the region and country’s name architects, nonetheless contain buildings of equal historic merit to the people of the city because they are the best surviving representatives of different times and peoples. 

The structure of merit category was created to recognize such buildings. 

Rickles echoed another point which several councilmembers had voiced during appeals before the council from developers who had found their projects blocked by structures of merit recently named by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). 

It’s an open secret, she said, that when people want to stop a neighbor from building an addition or a developer from doing something, they turn to the LPO and “hijack the process.” 

“No one has ever demonstrated why it’s unfair to developers to have the structure of merit designation,” said Spring. “Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.” 

“I have a moral and legal obligation to stand up against the current threat to the goals of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance,” said Worthington. “What’s before us is an insult to our intelligence ... basically a slap in the face to the landmarks commission and the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance and basically undermines the whole process.” 

Jesse Arreguin, an affordable housing advocate who serves on several city commission, said the existing law offered strong protections from the kinds of developers who, in the past, had demolished many of Berkeley’s older, low-rent buildings so they could build bigger, higher-rent buildings. 

“Landmarks advocates and housing advocates both have an interest in making sure Berkeley doesn’t become a bland suburb,” he told the council. 

Both sides were well prepared, and the preservationists brought out a seldom used weapon, humor. 

Sally Sachs likened developers to the irascible centenarian tycoon C. Montgomery Burns, nuclear power baron of television’s The Simpsons. 

“I fear what we would have is, ‘Smithers, I need to build my condo on that property’” where Jedediah Springfield, founder of the animated family’s hometown, had made history,” she said. 

Merilee Mitchell said that at a recent meeting on the new downtown plan, she’d seen a slide show about beautiful landmark cities, while the speakers had only spoken about height and density.  

What if politicians had to fit into profiles like that? she mused. 

“What about (Berkeley Planning Director) Dan Marks? He wouldn’t fit. He’s got height, but he’s not dense.” Surprised by the laughter she provoked, Mitchell said, “I should’ve been a comedian.” 

As Councilmember Dona Spring later noted, of 47 speakers who rose to address the council, 41 wanted to protect the city’s existing Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO). 

But the other six—all with interests in development—found sympathetic ears on the council, starting with Mayor Bates. 

While the proposed changes to the existing ordinance were triggered by a call from the council for changes in the ordinance that would bring it into line with the state Permit Streamlining Act—which mandates timelines for approving development projects, Planning Director Marks acknowledged that the city had only gotten into one spot of legal trouble over the ordinance, which had to do with a city staff error and had nothing to do with a landmark. 

While no one from the Planning Commission appeared to speak for that body’s alternate draft of the LPO, the LPC was well represented by current and former members who spoke up in defense of the major provisions of the existing ordinance. 

Representatives of neighborhood associations from every council district appeared to argue in support of the ordinance, while the West Berkeley Business Alliance, (WBBA), a group formed by corporations (Bayer being the biggest), realtors, and professionals, said the mayor’s ideas didn’t go far enough. 

A key WBBA member is developer Dan Diebel, whose plans for a major housing-over-retail project at 700 University Ave. were placed on hold after the LPC designated the Celia’s Mexican Restaurant building on the project site as a structure of merit—a decision overturned by the City Council during a meeting when the majority of members complained that structure of merit designations were blocking projects they felt were worthwhile. 

Bates did say he was giving up on his previously floated idea of hiring a city historic preservation officer. 

Bates told councilmembers to formulate their ideas for the new ordinance, which would be discussed at next Tuesday’s council meeting. Bates said the council’s ideas would then go to city staff to prepare a proposed ordinance which would be available to the public—two months was a reasonable period, he said—followed by another public hearing. 

The LPC would have a chance to review the ordinance before it came back to the council for passage. 

If it follows Bates’ model, the measure will create a new review process that would give developers a chance for an initial city review through a new process called a request for determination, designed to make an authoritative finding about whether a property contains a potential landmark. 

Bates has also proposed allowing the structure of merit to have the legal protections now accorded under the California Environmental Quality Act only when found in a historic district. He has also floated the notion of a neighborhood preservation district. 

Under his proposal, future structures of merit outside districts would lose extensive protections, though structures already given the designation before the new ordinance takes effect would retain the protections. 

“Clearly we have to do something,” said Councilmember Linda Maio, though she, like her other colleagues, tried to assure the public that truly significant buildings would still be protected.  

The people banging on the door of the downtown Oakland Army recruiting center on St. Valentine’s Day weren’t your typical military wannabes. 

They were mostly women, mostly over 60. Some sported flowered broad-brimmed hats covering grey or white or tinted hair, others dressed for the occasion in camouflage chic or valentine red. A few steered walkers steadily through the crowd, others stood in silent vigil, while some leaned on friendly arms or rolled along in wheelchairs. Some held the hands of small children. 

“Let us in!” the women yelled at the locked glass door, with no person visible on the other side. “We want to enlist! Are you afraid of a bunch of old ladies?”  

The noon-time event, sponsored by Grandmothers Against the War, Women for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, and other organizations attracted some 300 women and a dozen or so men to the Armed Forces Career Center at 2116 Broadway. Similar protests were held in 13 cities around the country. 

“I want to try to enlist, but they locked the doors,” said Barbara Ellis, grandmother of a 7-year-old and a 10-month -old. Tongue in cheek, of course, Ellis said she had come hoping to trade places with a soldier fighting in Iraq. 

“I want to bring home one of the young people,” she said. 

Great-grandmother Mary O’Donnell carried a sign that read, “Great grandmother, take me, bring two home.” The sister of celebrated Berkeley peace activist the Rev. Bill O’Donnell, who died two years ago, O’Donnell said she was protesting in the spirit of her brother. 

“He stood for justice and peace,” she said. “He would be appalled by what’s going on in the country right now. I’m here because I love my country. And I want them to bring our troops home.” 

This was a protest without speeches, but the organizers read a statement in a call-and-response mode, which explained why they’d chosen Valentine’s Day for the event: 

“We are grandmothers heartbroken over the enormous loss of life and limb in Iraq,” the women chanted. “We are appalled by our leaders who make war on other people’s children—a war and occupation that our leaders justify with lies and deceit . . . On Valentine’s Day we are demonstrating our love for this country and its young people by enlisting in the U.S. military to replace the children and grandchildren too long deployed there.” 

Several choruses performed or led group singing during the hour-long event, often using old songs with new words. The San Francisco Chapter of the Raging Grannies sang a version of “God Bless America,” with lyrics written by Lynn Kalmar of Oakland: “American as apple pie / a loving grandma too / no more recruits for us must die / take us instead of you,” they sang. 

Reflecting on the significance of grandmothers demonstrating, Kalmar said: “It has real meaning when it is grandmothers who are trying to make life continue. It doesn’t matter if it’s an Iraqi grandmother that’s suffering or an American grandmother that’s suffering. I have a grandchild and if anything happened to that grandchild, I would be devastated. And I know that’s what many Iraqi grandmothers are feeling today. I want my grandchild to be able to grow up in health and in peace.” 

Hal Carlstad was among the grandfathers supporting the event. 

“I’m much better with a rifle than Cheney. He needs to go back and get in the military and learn how to shoot,” he said, referring to the recent hunting incident where the vice president shot another hunter. “Give him a chance to fight his war rather than other people fighting their wars.” 

Great-grandmother Miriam Singer, 86, used her walker to help her move along in a picket line that stretched along the block. “I want change,” Singer said. “I want the war to stop.”  

While demonstrators marched and sang and rapped on the glass door, the army recruiter who usually staffs the office was standing across the street, watching. 

“Everyone has a right to their opinion,” said the man, in an interview inside the spacious office later that afternoon. The recruiter declined to give his name. 

The recruiter was alone in the 10-desk office at the time of the interview—no one walked through the open door. The Daily Planet asked him if the Oakland office was having problems finding enlistees, as has been reportedly the case around the country. 

He said the army no longer is pushing for a specific number of recruits. “We want to recruit quality people to serve the country,” he said. 

Asked who would join the armed forces, given the possible danger, the recruiter said, “My job is to offer people an opportunity for education and a change of life. Some people have it bad here.” 

Some people live in dysfunctional families and Oakland is a place with high crime, drugs and drive-bys, he said. “It’s a way out.” 

The recruiter said he has been in the Army for 20 years, but had never seen combat. Asked how he felt about sending young people to Iraq to possibly die, he answered that he knew of only one of his recruits who went to Iraq. Another of his recruits served in the army for two years, then went to West Point, he said. 

If protester Carol Levy of Emeryville had her way, there would be no more recruitment and no more war. Levy’s grandchildren are 5- and 3-years-old. 

“I am so outraged,” she said during the protest and holding a sign that posed the question, “How many dead children? If we don’t do something, this war will still be going on when my grandchildren are 18.”  

Photo by Richard Bermack:  

Jane Scheer at the Grandmothers Against the War Valentine’s Day action in Oakland Tuesday..

There were tears shared at Wednesday’s memorial for Juan Carlos Ramos, victim of a stabbing Feb. 10 at a party on Contra Costa Avenue. 

But there was also anger and frustration related to questions about police treatment of the victims. 

At the memorial, one young man’s shirt bore the statement: “Shame on the Albany police.” He declined to talk to a reporter, but others accused police of treating the victims of the stabbing as if they were perpetrators and not moving swiftly to save Ramos’ life. 

On the night of the stabbing, an uninjured driver took three youths who had been stabbed to the Albany Police Department at the intersection of San Pablo and Marin avenues. 

Albany Police Chief Gregory Bone told the Daily Planet he was looking into exactly what happened that night. On Friday nights, the small police department has only three officers on duty, he said. All three were in the field at about 11:30 p.m.; two were in the process of making felony arrests 

A lone dispatcher was at the police station, Bone said. 

“The dispatcher gets a frantic knock at the west door,” he said, relating the sequence of events as he understood them. 

Then, Bone said, the person announced through the speaker box that he had been stabbed. Soon after there was pounding at the north door and the person was saying, “We’ve been stabbed.” Then the pounding came from the east side, with a similar cry for help, Bone said.  

Bone said it was probably the same person moving quickly around to the different sides of the building. 

The dispatcher, who does not carry weapons and is not permitted to open the door at the police station, was trying to assess the situation and put the information out into the field for the officers there. 

“One officer was able to break from the field,” Bone said. “He arrives to a chaotic situation. There are several people in the parking lot. Someone is lying on the ground. There is chaos, pandemonium.” 

Bone said the officer then has to assess the situation—who are the victims? Who are the suspects? 

“From the victims’ perspective, they know who they are, but from the police perspective, things are not so clear. There’s a sorting out process,” he said. 

The Albany Police Department’s review will pinpoint the time the calls were made and the police response, Bone said. 

Meanwhile, Berkeley police still have no one in custody for the slaying and continue to speak to those who attended the party. 

“There are a couple who are working with us,” Public Information Officer Ed Galvin said Thursday, without elaborating. 

Galvin confirmed reports that the other three stabbing victims were out of the hospital and recuperating from their wounds.  

Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call the homicide unit at 981-5900 or leave comments on the department's website at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/police..

Berkeley was Mayor Tom Bates’ sweetheart this Valentine’s Day when he announced he’ll pursue the city’s chief position for one more term.  

“It’s Valentine’s Day, and I love Berkeley,” he said to a few dozen supporters Tuesday, moments after declaring he will seek re-election in November. 

Bates, a former state Assemblymember, was elected to four years in office in 2002, beating out incumbent Shirley Dean 55.3 percent to 43 percent. This year, he will compete for a two-year term, in accordance with voter-approved policy aimed at aligning city and national elections for maximum voter turnout. 

No other candidates have submitted official statements of intent to run, City Clerk Sara Cox said. However, local resident Zachary Runningwolf announced a month ago that he would vie for the seat. Also, Daily Planet columnist and former Planning Commission Chair Zelda Bronstein has said she is thinking about running. 

“I haven’t made a final decision yet,” she said this week. 

Bates said he doesn’t know who his adversaries will be, though he isn’t worried about the competition. 

“No matter who my opponent is, I’m going to run on my record,” he said. 

Bates, 68, made the announcement on the steps of City Hall Tuesday.  

Though California code precludes office holders from using public facilities for private gain, a representative from Bates’ office said he’s legally allowed to announce his candidacy on public property. The city attorney could not be reached to confirm that by press time. 

Bates told his audience he wants to continue the work he started. 

“It’s been an incredible three years. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,” he said. “Things take longer than we could possibly imagine and that’s why I’m running again.” 

Bates enumerated several professional accomplishments as mayor, echoing his State of the City address Feb. 7. During his tenure, he said, the city has expanded youth programs, built more than 1,400 homes, heightened environmental awareness and balanced the budget. He also lauded the city’s joint agreement with UC Berkeley to develop the downtown area. 

In a press briefing following his announcement, Bates said he wants to use a second term to address Berkeley’s recent spike in property crime, among other issues.  

“It’s a lot we want to do,” he said. “The city—we need to get results. We need a clear guideline.” 

Councilmembers Max Anderson, Gordon Wozniak and Laurie Capitelli, who attended the event Tuesday, have endorsed the mayor. 

Additional early endorsements have come from councilmembers Linda Maio and Darryl Moore. Congressmember Barbara Lee, Bates’ wife Assemblymember Loni Hancock, Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson and other public figures have also declared their support. 

Wozniak, of District 8, commended the mayor’s decision to seek a second mayoral term. 

“I think Tom has been a great mayor,” he said. “As he said, a lot of things have started and he wants to complete things. … He has a really great vision.” 

Wozniak said he’s confident Bates will “win overwhelmingly.” 

However, the mayor is not without his critics. Some have lambasted his stance on city expansion, accusing him of pandering to developers. Last year, Bates and the Berkeley City Council came under fire for settling the lawsuit against UC Berkeley over downtown growth. 

Critics said the deal—which will fatten city coffers by $22.3 million over 15 years—did not extract enough money from the university and failed to assert adequate control over development. Though Bates conceded the city did not get everything it wanted, he continues to stand by the settlement. 

“For better or worse, this agreement is a landmark,” he said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington praised Bates for effectively civilizing the oft-quarrelsome City Council, but condemned him for neglecting progressive issues like affordable housing and the city budget. 

“Important progressive priorities are not making it on the priority list,” Worthington said. 

Worthington was a major proponent of Bates in 2002. “I begged him to run,” Worthington said. But this year, he is one of three councilmembers to not offer an endorsement. 

Still, he is hopeful the mayor will build a palatable progressive platform.  

“I’m hoping and praying Tom Bates can be encouraged to be as progressive as Loni Hancock was,” he said.  

Bates, a graduate of UC Berkeley, was elected to the Alameda County Supervisors in 1972 and State Assembly in 1976. He served in the Assembly until 1996..

Invective flowed Wednesday at the first of two hearings to address the future of Berkeley’s embattled waterways. 

More than 100 residents and concerned citizens gathered at the North Berkeley Senior Center to weigh in on possible revisions to the city’s hotly contested creek ordinance, a 1989 addition to Berkeley Municipal Code that regulates development on and near city watercourses. 

The meeting revisited a long-standing face-off between property owners who want unhampered rights over their creek-side land and environmentalists who say Berkeley’s waterways are community resources worth preserving. Agreement between the two sides was nowhere in sight Wednesday.  

The existing ordinance, affecting 1,191 residences, prohibits homeowners from adding onto properties within 30 feet of a creek—whether the waterway is open or interred. This includes rebuilding should a home suffer major damage, though concessions are made for structures destroyed by a natural disaster, such as a flood, earthquake or fire. 

But homeowners want more freedom to develop their properties—or the code should be overhauled altogether, they say. 

The 15-member Creeks Task Force, formed to study the issue, presented four options for retooling the ordinance at Wednesday’s hearing. 

In a summary of the choices, city planning staff said Option A mirrors the current legislation, Option B is a slight variation, Option C invokes case-by-case standards and Option D regulates only vacant lots. The proposals exclusively address open creeks. Buried creeks, which flow underground through culverts, are dealt with separately.  

Reaction from the crowd was a mixed bag. Options A and B garnered little support from the Neighbors on Urban Creeks contingent, a homeowners’ activist group, while C and D earned a warmer reception. 

Former Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean expressed support for D. 

“I want to protect my home that my husband and I bought on a teacher’s salary,” she said. 

The neighborhood organization also offered its own solution: a 12-step proposal that allows more development leeway and calls for financial incentives for homeowners who care for their waterways.  

“I think it’s critical that properties that already have homes on them, that they be allowed to rebuild for whatever reason—as a matter of right,” said Berkeley resident Linda Franklin. 

Another option drafted by task force members Tom Kelly, Joshua Bradt and Carole Schemmerling, and published in the Berkeley Daily Planet Feb. 14, was submitted too late for consideration on Wednesday’s agenda, but lays out more rigorous restrictions on creek-side properties, including the protection of all creek culverts and a ban on roofed structures within 30 feet of a creek. Environmentalists strongly endorsed the plan.  

“All of us have a responsibility to the environment,” said Vikrant Soot, a renter in Berkeley. “I support Option E.” 

Some activists denounced homeowners for failing to view city creeks as natural assets to the community as a whole. Homeowners shot back that such criticism reflected little more than textbook idealism, pointing out how many waterways are infested with flies and trash. 

Berkeley City Council approved the current creek legislation in 1989 to “establish policy on culverting, rehabilitation and the restoration of natural waterchannels,” according to a background paper distributed by task force representative Jon Streeter. 

The ordinance went into effect Jan. 4, 1990, with support from environmental advocates and other interested parties, but there was otherwise little public input or awareness. 

Shortly after, problems arose surrounding language ambiguities in the legislation, particularly apropos the definition of a creek. There were questions, for instance, as to whether culverted creeks are included in the definition. A 1991 ruling by the city attorney’s office said yes. Currently, there is general agreement—among environmentalists and homeowners—that culverts should be treated less stringently.  

Problems are further compounded by the fact that maps locating Berkeley’s water channels have changed over the years. As one resident said, “not even the city knows where the creeks are.” 

In 2004, pressure mounted by homeowners on the City Council netted an amendment that clarified property owners’ right to rebuild near a creek in the event of a disaster. But complaints over homeowner rights haven’t stopped there.  

Wednesday’s hearing was held to allow the creek authority to solicit public comment only; no action was taken. The task force will hold a joint hearing with the Planning Commission March 22. It will then forward a recommendation to the commission, which will hand off a proposal to City Council. The council will decide the ultimate fate of Berkeley’s creek ordinance.  

Kelly, who represents the creeks community, said he felt Wednesday’s meeting represented some progress toward forging a solution.  

“Certainly we’re talking more rationally and I don‘t think these proposals are that much apart,” he said, though moments earlier, he was booed by audience members when describing Option E, pitched as having the capability to “resolve many of the conflicts that have arisen from the original ordinance.” 

Still, he said, “I’m hopeful.””

A big five-story building is going up at the northwest corner of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way and there’s nothing neighbors can do to stop it. 

That’s the one thing 50 or so of them learned Monday night in a packed meeting room at the Lutheran Church of the Cross a block to the west of the project site. 

“They’re going to play hardball,” said Steve Wollmer of Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way, a group formed in response to the project. Wollmer is also the principal figure in PlanBerkeley.org, a group which has been active on development issues along the University Avenue and San Pablo Avenue corridors and which has posted project plans on their website. 

Should critics kill the current project, the developers say they’re already entitled to build something even bigger and denser—and without the sweetener awaited by lots of folks in Berkeley. 

The incentive offered by developers Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald is Trader Joe’s, the eccentric and eclectic market that’s as much a cult as it is a store, and the source of potentially lucrative sales taxes. 

The home of “Two Buck Chuck”—that popular and inexpensive red wine that even some ardent oenophiles admit to tippling—and countless gourmet oddities and delicacies, Trader Joe’s has spawned a zealous following in 20 states from coast to coast. 

With the closest outlets at the Powell Street Plaza in Emeryville and at El Cerrito Plaza, the prospect of the popular “T.J.’s” opening in Berkeley has many locals salivating. 

Not that there’s a done deal. 

“There’s lots of interest in Trader Joe’s,” said Nancy Holland, an aide to City Councilmember Dona Spring. “However we have had these other projects where interesting retail was proposed but never appeared.” 

What guarantee was there that the market would actually occupy the space? 

“We have a lease,” said Hudson. “It requires a signature, and that will probably happen next month. But if it doesn’t happen by a certain time, it would go away.” 

“Will Trader Joe’s be at ZAB to answer questions?” asked Holland. 

“I doubt it,” said Hudson. “We’ll be Trader Joe’s representative.” 

And Trader Joe’s will come to University Avenue and MLK if and only if the city O.K.s the project according to the store’s timeline, the developers told the attendees at Monday’s gathering. 

The subject of the market also came up at Wednesday night’s meeting of the city’s Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. 

Dave Fogarty, community development project coordinator for Berkeley’s Economic Development Department, said that no major grocery store was likely to locate in downtown Berkeley because rents are too high. Shopping centers frequently give major markets space at discounts simply to draw the traffic they bring, he said. 

Trader Joe’s, he said, “is the best grocery store that is likely to locate in downtown Berkeley.” 

Size and shadows 

Neighbors said they were also worried about the size of the building itself and the shadows it will cast, both literally and esthetically, on the adjacent neighborhood of single-family homes. 

The plans that will be presented to the Zoning Adjustments Board next month include 48 parking spaces for the store—twice the city’s requirement—all on the ground floor in an enclosed lot accessible only from Berkeley Way, the residential street that runs parallel to and north of University. 

And neighbors are worried about the traffic the store will generate from shoppers driving into and exiting the store’s parking lot from a residential street, as well as the impact from other shoppers who troll for the already scarce parking spots on the street. 

To accommodate the cars of residents, the building will also provide a level of underground parking with 110 spaces, some of them provide by the electric lifts that were the signature devices of the buildings the pair constructed for Patrick Kennedy. 

The underground lot will be accessible only from University Avenue via an entrance to the west of the truck access to Trader Joe’s. 

Asked about providing spaces for fewer cars than the number of apartments, Hudson said, “We are confident they will more than meet the demand. Apartment dwellers have fewer cars” than homeowners. 

Concerned that the mass of the building would overpower their one- and two-story homes on Berkeley Way, neighbors like Tom Hunt had asked that Hudson-McDonald build in the rear of the structure in tiers or steps, but the entire project ranges from 50 feet high to 55 feet at the midline of the structure along Berkeley Way. 

“Are you locked in at five stories?” asked an audience member. 

“It doesn’t meet the zoning,” said Wollmer. It’s going in under a super-duper exemption devised by the Planning Department because it is 30 units less than their original proposal. Even though it is higher, it is less intense.” 

The residential part of the structure—basically, everything above the ground floor—will offer 156 apartments, including 70 percent with one bedroom and the rest, except for four studios, with two. 

Unit sizes will range from 600 square feet to 850. 

The original version, said Hudson, was 186 units with only 4,000 square feet of retail and less parking. “It was deemed complete, and we believe that under state law is has to be approved as it stands. This is an alternate plan, and if this project is not accepted, we would go back to the 186 unit building that is grandfathered in.” 

“ZAB has recommended that the staff disapprove the project,” added Wollmer. 

ZAB member Jesse Anthony had no kind words for the original project when the board looked at it late last year. 

“Some buildings make you happy to see them,” Anthony said. But as for the original design, “Put bars on it, and it looks like a prison,” he said. “To me, it looks like San Quentin. It’s an indecent building. It just looks terrible.” 

Several neighbors did say the new design looks better. 

But the shadows cast by the big housing box are causing neighbors a lot of anxiety. 

“You have a big, substantive problem with this building,” said Rob Browning. “It throws year-long shadows on properties across the street, and that is simply not acceptable. Something has to give along the north wall, because an enormous quantity of shade is thrown on small scale properties for much of the year.” 

But Hudson said the design fit within the allowable construction envelope. 

Neighbors brought up the shadows several times during the course of the evening, but the developers repeatedly said the effects wouldn’t be so bad, and then only at their maximum extent during the solstice and equinoxes. 

The neighbors weren’t convinced. 

Other questions 

Merilee Mitchell and John McBride, Berkeley residents who frequently attend land use meetings, targeted their questions at the tenants’ cars. 

Mitchell suggested that the developers could reduce parking demand even more by offering tenants passes for BART and buses. 

“Put all that together and you could probably cut your spending on parking and still make your costs,” Mitchell said. 

Hudson said they had originally planned to offer fewer parking spaces, but upped the number in response to neighbors who feared residents would wind up parking on the streets. As it is, residents will have to pay extra if they plan to use one of the building’s spaces. He added that they do plan to participate in the city’s car share program. 

McBride asked the developers to commit to the city that their tenants wouldn’t be able to apply for residential preferred parking stickers, city-issued permits that allow for extended street parking beyond the normal two-hour limits imposed in most residential districts. 

“We’ve agreed to do that” in other projects, McDonald said, but not in this one. 

“We’ve already looked into that,” said Wollmer. “They’re going to play hardball.” 

At the end of the meeting, the developers thanked the neighbors for their comments. “We’ll look at what we can do,” said McDonald. 

Wollmer shrugged. “ZAB wanted us to have this meeting, but they (the developers) are going to do what they want to do.” 

The developers and critics did agree on one point. The project on 1885 University Ave. is probably the last of its kind along the heavily traveled thoroughfare. 

Limits on size in the University Avenue Strategic Plan, which was passed after the project was first proposed to the city, would preclude anything as massive in the future—and the developers say the plan may have effectively killed infill development along the corridor..

Trader Joe’s probably ranks as the most attractive bait the city’s seen skewered on a developer’s hook in recent years. 

Locating the popular market on Berkeley’s most popular street would offer something for almost everyone, ranging from Berkeley’s socially conscious shoppers to city officials desperate to balance the municipality’s ailing budgets. 

Proponents and critics of more residential development in the downtown area have pointed to the area’s lack of a major supermarket—and while the store would be a significant walk for a bag-laden resident of, say, the Fine Arts Building on Shattuck Avenue, it’s still closer than anything else. 

Groceries, which comprise the bulk of sales at traditional markets, are exempt from sales tax in California. 

Bulk sales of the taxable booze and snack foods that comprise a large segment of Trader Joe’s transaction are a powerful lure for a cash-strapped city, especially the numbers floated by the developers—maybe $600,000 or as high as a million dollars. 

Developer Evan McDonald said that figure compares to the $25,000 in sales taxes generated for the city by Kragen Auto Parts, the primary tenant in the strip mall that now occupies the site. 

And for the politically conscious and environmentally sensitive, the store won’t stamp its brand on genetically engineered foods or offer any seafood products from the eastern coast of Canada because of those infamous baby seal hunts. 

And Trader Joe’s own branded eggs don’t come from caged factory farm hens, thanks to an agreement the chain signed in November with the Humane Society of the United States. 

The store will, however, carry the controversial items offered under other brand names, though for Berkeley folk averse to enriching avaricious conglomerates, 85 percent of the store’s non-alcoholic products are private label stock rather than nationally known brand names, according to a June 2002 article in the trade publication Private Label Buyer. 

Trader Joe’s is owned by German Theo Albrecht, the 83-year-old billionaire who usually appears on listings of the world’s richest people—though estimates of his wealth vary widely. 

The store began in Southern California, the creation of grocer Joe Coulombe, who in the 1950s had started Pronto markets, fast food stores similar to 7-Eleven. 

According to the Trader Joe’s web site, in 1967 Coulombe decided to expand his product line to include gourmet and hard-to-find items, giving rise to his new brand. 

Albrecht bought the chain through a family trust 12 years later, carrying protecting the store’s image as a pleasant and slightly eccentric venue for would-be gourmets, gourmands and trenchermen.  

Trader Joe’s has avoided union organizers by offering higher pay, according to a Jan. 16, 2004 article in the German paper Deutsche Welle. 

The chain does little conventional advertising, preferring instead to distribute its own “Fearless Flyer” as inserts in local papers. The publication features descriptions of products and recipes illustrated with drawings and antique engravings rather than the more conventional photographs of typical grocery store ads. 

The formula works, and spectacularly. 

According to the cover article in the November/December issue of Private Label Magazine, Trader Joe’s—with its smaller selection and stores—generates about $1,200 to $1,300 per square foot in sales a year, about twice the revenue of conventional markets. 

The stores typically stock about 2,000 to 2,500 items, about one-tenth the stock of typical markets, reports the magazine, which also quotes estimates from industry experts who say that sales amount to about $12 million per store annually, or $2.6 billion for the chain. 

While the article says stores average about 8,000 to 9,000 square feet, McDonald said the chain has asked for 13,5000 square feet in the their building, of which 12,000 would be usable sales area.  

The store has also requested 48 parking spaces, which, with the store, will account for the lion’s share of the building’s ground floor. 

“Trader Joe’s expects it be a very well-performing store,” said Hudson..

A veteran Oakland progressive community police activist says that the combination of federal judicial oversight, the upcoming expiration of Oakland’s agreement with the police union, and a cooperative new police chief has the chance to result in significant positive reforms this year in the Oakland Police Department. 

“Chief [Wayne] Tucker knows he needs the community’s help to overcome some of the obstacles he’s facing,” said Rashidah Grinage, acting director of PUEBLO (People United For A Better Oakland), in an interview. “We’ve been meeting regularly with him since he was appointed. He’s working with us.”  

Tucker, a veteran of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, was hired by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown on an interim basis last February to replace outgoing Oakland Police Chief Richard Word. Brown appointed Tucker as permanent police chief last summer. 

One of the first results of that PUEBLO-OPD chief cooperation was the release this week of a PUEBLO-initiated, city-commissioned survey showing that one-third of Oakland citizens had a negative impression of their most recent contact with Oakland police officers, and that only one in ten citizens expressing such a negative police experience later filed a complaint with the Citizens’ Police Review Board or the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division. 

Tucker told members of the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee this week that the survey showed that “underreporting of complaints against the police is a serious problem. It’s very troubling that people don’t have faith in the department’s reporting and complaint process.” 

Tucker said the survey also indicated that “police services are delivered differently” to different constituencies in Oakland. 

“We have a culture in the police department that needs to be changed.” Noting that the survey showed that two-thirds of Oakland citizens were satisfied with the conduct of the police they encountered, Tucker said, “this is not where we want to be. That figure should be 80 to 85 percent.” 

Tucker also called on the City Council to establish the citizen survey as an annual procedure. 

The Public Safety Committee referred the survey results to the full City Council for consideration.  

In a prepared statement, PUEBLO’s Grinage said, “while we commend the city for undertaking this survey, and believe some of the results to be encouraging signs of progress, we are deeply alarmed at the under-reporting of possible police abuse or misconduct.” 

The Oakland Police Department is currently under the scrutiny of U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson because of noncompliance with the settlement agreement terms of the Allen v. Oakland police misconduct lawsuit (commonly called the “Riders” lawsuit). 

Under the agreement, the Oakland Police Department must meet a series of court-mandated conduct reform goals while being monitored by a court-appointed independent monitoring team. 

In addition, the city is currently in negotiations with the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) labor union over the city-union Memorandum of Understanding labor contract agreement. The current MOU expires this June. 

“Judge Henderson has been very critical of the union” during the procedures when the monitoring team report reports back to him on the police department’s progress in meeting the settlement agreement goals, Grinage said in an interview. “He seems very concerned that the existing Memorandum of Understanding allows the union to hold up compliance. That gives Chief Tucker a lot of leverage in negotiating with the police union for the new MOU. He’s the first Oakland Police Chief to have that.” 

Grinage said PUEBLO reached tentative agreement with the City of Oakland to commission the police complaint survey, but added that it was “held up for many months” within the police-city bureau-cracy.  

“We’re crediting Chief Tucker with pushing it through to get it done,” Grinage said. 

In the September 2005 telephone interview survey conducted by McGuire Research Services, 1,000 Oakland residents were surveyed about their contact with an Oakland police officer over the past five years. The survey was jointly designed by City of Oakland staffers and experts retained by PUEBLO. The results were then analyzed by the Oakland offices of the Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates research firm, which presented its findings to the City Council Public Safety Committee this week. 

The survey showed the expected: African-Americans and lower income citizens were more likely to claim negative experiences with the police department than whites or upper income citizens. Of those participating in the survey, 39 percent of African-Americans reported a negative police experience, while the negative percentage was 32 percent for Latinos, 30 percent for Asian-Americans, and 21 percent for whites. Of citizens making under $20,000 a year, 39 percent reported a negative experience, while 26 percent of citizens making more than $60,000 a year reported a negative police experience. 

There was little percentage difference in the ethnicity of the police officer being complained about. 

The analysis showed that of the 11 percent of dissatisfied citizens who actually filed a complaint with the city or the police department, almost 50 percent said that the officer involved was “harassing, rude, or insensitive,” while 17 percent claimed the officer was “physically abusive” and 8 percent believed they were “racially profiled.” 

“’Rude and discourteous’ jumps out of the page at you,” Tucker told Public Safety Committee members. “That should never be.” 

“Fully 84 percent of Oakland residents who have had negative experiences with the police don’t report it because they didn’t believe it would make a difference, didn’t trust the process, or felt it wasn’t worth the time or effort,” said PUEBLO’s Grinage in a statement. “This suggests a level of disconnect between the Police Department and the public it is meant to serve that must be addressed.” 

Grinage added that “positive and negative experiences are directly correlated to race and economic status: white middle-upper class people had favorable experiences while people of color of lower economic status tended to have negative experiences. This suggests strongly that there are two styles of policing in Oakland—one for the affluent and one for the rest of the residents. This is unacceptable.” 

PUEBLO is planning to release its own analysis of the police complaint survey later this year. In addition, the organization has planned a community speak-out for Saturday, March 4, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Frick Middle School in Oakland to discuss community complaints about the Oakland Police Department..

Fearing their jobs could be at stake if the plant was forced out of Berkeley’s shrinking industrial zone, some 200 Pacific Steel Casting workers bearing hard hats came to a Wednesday night community meeting at the West Berkeley Senior Center to laud their employer for the healthy working conditions they say they find at the plant. 

But several dozen neighbors of the 1333 Second St. foundry, many of them members of West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs or the Clean Air Coalition, came to the meeting called by City Councilmember Linda Maio with lingering questions and concerns regarding the adequacy of a December settlement between the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the 72-year-old steel plant. 

The agreement mandates a $2 million carbon filtration system and imposed a $17,000 fine for past emission violations. 

Calling the plan “seriously flawed,” and accusing the parties of having written it without community input, West Berkeley Alliance activist Janice Schroeder said her organization’s concerns include an “ineffectual” odor complaint process: neighbors say they call the air district, but no inspectors are available after 5 p.m. Schroeder also cited the lack of a public updated emissions inventory report and the possibility that new permits for the filtration system will allow increased emissions. 

Emissions listed in Pacific Steel documents can cause a number of health problems including cancer and organ damage, Schroeder said.  

The Clean Air Coalition shared many of the West Berkeley Alliance concerns. Spokesperson Willi Paul said that his organization wants PSC to study non-toxic alternatives to the binder process, part of the steel casting procedure. (Binders hold the sand molds together and emit toxic substances.) 

Further, Paul blasted PSC for what he called, “a dog and pony show,” bringing the PSC workers with their hard hats into the meeting so that a jobs-versus-the-community climate would be created.  

The Clean Air Coalition said it plans to use the courts to force PSC to better practices.  

Organized by the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union, the factory workers said they had come to speak to the fact that, even though they work inside the plant, they do not suffer from work-related health problems. 

Union representative Carlos Costa lauded Pacific Steel for its efforts to protect the environment. 

“Pacific Steel is always looking for new techniques,” he said. “Let Pacific Steel solve the problem.” 

Peter Hess, the deputy air pollution control officer for the Bay Area air quality district, promised that the community would be involved in the steps for choosing, permitting and installing a new filtration system. 

On March 31, Pacific Steel is scheduled to submit an odor abatement plan and an updated emissions inventory report will be released May 19. The new carbon filtration system will be installed by Sept. 30 and the abatement system is scheduled to be fully operational by Oct. 15. 

Councilmember Maio promised the city’s help in fast-tracking permits for the new filtration system. 

A health risk assessment is also underway and will be completed by June 10. 

“We’ll have a very good picture of what the emissions are,” said Brian Batement, the air district’s director of engineering. 

But the community wasn’t satisfied that the testing would resolve the health issues. In response to those concerns, Maio introduced Michael Wilson, an environmental health scientist and researcher at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. 

“I’m not confident that the health risk assessment will get us where we want to go,” Wilson said. 

Instead, he urged what he called a toxic use reduction initiative strategy. Rather than using funds to filter or reduce emissions, he said, it would be better to reduce the use of toxics such as lead and chromium from the outset.  

But finding new ways of casting steel would not be easy. “The problems facing us today won’t go away overnight,” he warned..

Downtown Berkeley’s never again going to be a major commercial center with department stores and other large retailers, a city economic development officer said Wednesday night. 

Instead, Berkeley should build on the core of the city center’s growing arts district, by attracting more niche business and restaurants, said Dave Fogarty. 

Fogarty talked economics and demographics when he briefed the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, the panel charged with helping shape a new vision for the city’s core. 

“I only know one planning joke, but I can’t repeat it,” said DAPAC Chair Will Travis. “It has to do with planners always believing that the future is reality.” 

In the case of DAPAC members, the question was whether to start with blue sky realities or those of the knottier realities of the past as they set about their course of creating a new plan for an expanded downtown area that will have to accommodate the massive appetites of the University of California. 

Dorothy Walker, DAPAC member and a retired assistant vice chancellor for property development at UC Berkeley, wanted to start with blue sky—to look at downtown and imagine the best possible vision for the city’s future. 

But Rob Wrenn, a DAPAC member who also chairs the city’s Transportation Commission and has served on the Planning Commission, wanted to start with the existing downtown plan, the effort of years of work by Berkeley citizens. 

“I’m not sure it is going to further our work to know what’s permitted now or not and what the existing (planning) elements are,” said Walker. “I would love to see us not get bogged down into things that’ve been done before. Everybody agrees we want it to be an exciting place to be.” 

Wrenn said the committee ought to begin by looking at the current plans and policies, then begin to build on them. 

“We need to balance the goals of the University of California by looking at our own existing goals and objectives. We ought to look at what are the development standards (now) as a starting point for our discussion of alternatives,” Wrenn said. 

“I don’t agree with Rob on getting into the existing policies, because we are generating a new vision for the downtown,” Walker replied. “Let’s do that first, and then look at how it relates to the existing policies.” 

At least two university planning officials, Kevin Hufferd and Jennifer Lawrence, were on hand for the Wednesday meeting, reserving their comments for when the university presents its own proposals for the nearly one million square feet of expansion it plans for the downtown area. They said that the university would be ready to make its presentation at the end of March. 

DAPAC’s second meeting this month—on Feb. 28—will feature a discussion of individual members’ goals for the downtown, a carryover of the discussion originally set for Wednesday. 

The first March meeting will feature a presentation on existing land use and conditions in the downtown, followed by the UC presentation at the end of the month. 

The committee will focus on goals again at their first April 19 meeting, incorporating the information presented by the university. That meeting will be followed three days later by a Saturday morning workshop that may or may not include public participation..

UC Berkeley’s Recreational Sports Facility will play host to the Western Open, a four-star table tennis tournament this weekend. 

Among the nearly 200 ping pong players registered for the tournament are San Jose resident Khoa Nguyen, a former U.S. Olympian and U.S. National Team member; Stefan Feth, who is the national men’s singles semifinalist from Germany and Western Open champion; and Freddie Gabriel, the top-rated local player from Richmond. 

The women’s side will include California powerhouses, such as Jackie Lee, who will be competing against the mother and daughter entry of Lily Yip (the top-rated U.S. woman over 40) and Judy Hugh (the top-rated U.S girl under 18). 

UC Berkeley will be the first stop on the 2006 STIGA North American Tour, the seventh in a series of professionally managed and organized events sanctioned by USA Table Tennis. Sponsored by STIGA, a Swedish manufacturer of sporting goods, the tour is owned and operated by the North American Table Tennis (NATT) and is America’s only professional table tennis series. 

“We’re very pleased to be at UC Berkeley,” NATT President Richard Lee said. “The school has been outstanding to work with, the facility is first-rate, and the students, particularly their table tennis team, should enjoy the opportunity to see top-flight competition. California is a hotbed of table tennis activity and is a popular travel destination as well. These two factors have combined to bring us a healthy turnout.” 

The open singles round robin play begins on Saturday starting at 4:30 p.m. and the championship matches of open singles begin Sunday Afternoon at 1 p.m. Spectators will be admitted to the recreation center, at 2301 Bancroft Way, free of charge..

Manslaughter bust 

Berkeley police arrested a homeless man from Pennsylvania on Feb. 9 on a Pennsylvania arrest warrant charging him in the Christmas Eve 2004 starvation death of his 19-month-old son. 

Berkeley Police spokesperson Officer Ed Galvan said Robert Martus was spotted outside the University Avenue Foster’s Freeze by the same officer who had rousted him from a homeless camp near the Marina right before Christmas. 

Robert Martus, 46, has already been extradited to Allentown, Pa., where he faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor conspiracy in the death of his son, Alexander. 

Also charged in the death is his spouse, Sharon, who had told Pennsylvania authorities of her husband’s presence in Berkeley after she returned there from Berkeley last month. She faces the same charges as her spouse, according to a report in the Easton, Pa., Express-Times. 

The paper reported that the child suffered from a heart malformation. 

“We knew he was in the area because we had a call from the police in Pennsylvania,” Galvan said. 

Double oops 

Patrolling West Berkeley streets because of a rise of car burglaries in the area, Berkeley officers spotted a 45-year-old man peering into cars in the 2700 block of 8th Street just after 7 a.m. last Thursday. 

When they stopped to talk to the fellow, they discovered that not only was he in possession of tools of the car clout trade, but the hapless guy also gave officers a false name—which gave them two legal reasons to bust him for violating his probation from a previous offense. 

Swallows, charged  

When Berkeley P.D. Drug Task Force officers stopped a 19-year-old man in the 700 block of Aileen Street last Thursday just after 8 p.m., their suspect swallowed something and resisted the officers. 

“He was taken to a local hospital for an examination and an OK by the doc to take him to jail,” said Officer Galvan. “We give them their choice of hospitals.” 

The swallower was booked on suspicion of possession of an illegal drug, destruction of evidence and interfering with a peace officer. 

Wild times 

Residents of the neighborhood around the corner of Etna Street and Dwight Way who wonder why that CHP helicopter was spotlighting the area in the wee hours of last Friday morning can rest somewhat peaceably now. 

The pilot was patrolling the Eastshore Freeway when he heard radio reports about a man with a gun acting erratically at the aforesaid location, so he grabbed the collective and steered eastward to help the locals. 

Officer Galvan said that while the hunt was on another call came in, reporting that a man was loading a pistol in the 2500 block of Elm Street. Officers arrived at the scene and took the 22-year-old man after he first threatened them and a civilian. 

Another pistol and some pepper spray were later discovered in the home of the suspect, who claimed to be a military veteran of the ongoing mess in Iraq. 

He faces a felony charge of brandishing a firearm at a police officer. 

Belated report 

A San Francisco watchmaker called Berkeley police late Friday afternoon to report that he’d been robbed of a laptop computer, a watch and some of the tools of his trade four days earlier in the 2700 block of San Pablo Avenue. 

The man said he’d finally been moved to report the heist for insurance reasons, said Officer Galvan. 

Shots fired  

Responding to calls of shots fired in the area of the 2900 block of Acton Street, Berkeley police officers found two shell casings and vague reports of people running on the street and a dark, two-door American car last seen heading away on Ashby Avenue. 

No victims of the shooting or any bullet holes were reported. 

Robbery 

A 25-year-old man reported that he was robbed of a small amount of cash by another man shortly before midnight Friday in the 2700 block of Ellsworth Street. 

Unjust desserts 

A man carrying a note threatening violence if he wasn’t given cash walked into Gelato Milano at 3170 Shattuck Ave., downtown Berkeley’s newest ice cream store, just before 5:30 p.m. Saturday. 

After ordering a young woman behind the counter to lie face-down on the floor, the bandit cleaned out the cash drawer and escaped, said Officer Galvan. The clerk was not injured, he said. 

Bowled over 

A man who robbed a Berkeley Bowl customer of their food outside the store Sunday afternoon was apprehended by officers who discovered that he had leapt over a fence into the courtyard of a building on Emerson Street nearby. 

The 38-year-old suspect, a homeless man, was taken into custody without further incident and booked on suspicion of robbery. 

Drive-by bust 

Summoned to the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Emergency Room at 6 p.m. Sunday by a report that a gunshot victim had appeared at the hospital, Berkeley police found a man with a gunshot wound to the right elbow and little to say. 

“He refused to talk,” said Officer Galvan. 

Further investigation revealed that the man was one of two occupants of a car that had been involved in a drive-by shooting in Richmond earlier in the day and who had been fired on in return by a Richmond police officer. 

Berkeley officers kept the man in custody until he could be treated and handed over to their counterparts in Richmond. 

Stabbed but silent 

Berkeley police rushed to the 1400 block of Alcatraz Avenue just before midnight Sunday, responding to a caller who said a man had just been stabbed in the back by his girlfriend. 

Arriving at the residence, officers found the 28-year-old victim, who had next to nothing to say to them. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. 

Officers still want to question the missing companion, who is 25. 

Hot stuff 

A West Berkeley contractor with offices in the 900 block of Pardee Street called police Monday morning to report that, sometime over the weekend, persons unknown had entered their property with a lock-cutter and made off with a $10,000 gas welder. 

Faked out 

Monday afternoon a man wearing a beanie and pointing a fake handgun proved less than convincing to the folks at the Chevron station at 1201 The Alameda, who refused to part with their cash. 

Frustrated, the faker fled. 

Knife threat 

Police took a 14-year-old boy into custody for brandishing a deadly weapon after he threatened another teenager in the 2800 block of Ellsworth Street just before 7 p.m. Monday. 

Two bandits 

A pair of robbers, at least one of them carrying a pistol, robbed a 27-year-old woman of her cash in the 2700 block of Claremont Avenue just before noon Tuesday. The woman was not hurt, said Officer Galvan. 

Rat packed 

A group of seven or eight teenagers from the Berkeley High School campus robbed a 16-year-old from Oakland of his iPod as he walked along the 200 block of Kittredge Street Wednesday afternoon, said Officer Galvan. 

Two carjacks 

A Richmond-based gang staged two carjackings in Berkeley Wednesday, one successful and the other not. 

The first incident began near 1099 Murray St. where an Oakland man was approached by a gunman who ordered him out of his car, then got behind the wheel and sped away. The vehicle, a Honda, was later recovered on El Portal Drive in Richmond, said Officer Galvan. 

Those suspects remain at large. 

In the second incident, two bandits commandeered a car at 753 Hollis St. near the Emeryville border, then sped away. 

As they made their getaway, they managed to crash into the fence at Ashby Lumber at 824 Ashby Ave., where the duo—one 20 and the other 17—was taken into custody by Berkeley Police and booked on suspicion of carjacking. 

Galvan said the two incidents were likely the work of the same gang.?

UC Berkeley clericals will get pay raises of about 12 percent—the first increase since 2002—but they’re not dancing in Sproul Plaza. 

“The university has not been fair to the people who deliver critical services,” said Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, chief negotiator for the Coalition of University Employees, an independent system-wide union that includes all 10 campuses, five medical centers and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

“It’s a terrible indictment of a university that purports to be the best in the world,” Alaji-Sabrie said. 

Had the union held off for a greater increase, however, the rising cost-of-living would have eaten up the benefits, Alaji-Sabrie said. The union ratified the agreement Feb. 16 with 92 percent in favor. 

“We’re very happy that we finally reached an agreement,” said UC spokesperson Noel Van Nyhuis. 

While recognizing that employee salaries continue to lag, Van Nyhuis expressed satisfaction that the clerical workers will get “much-deserved raises.” 

There are about 2,000 clerical workers at UC Berkeley and the office of the president, and 16,000 others system-wide who will see wages go up. The agreement, that went to mediation after a three-day strike in June, gives a 3.5 percent increase retroactive to October, another 3.25 percent next October and a 4.5 percent increase in October 2007. 

These raises, the first since 2002 when workers got a 1 percent increase, were critical and are still inadequate, Alaji-Sabrie said. Some clerks, for example, earned as little as $1,587 per month (which over a year would amount to $16,200) before the raise. (Median rents for a two-bedroom apartment in Berkeley is $1,350, according to Rent Stabilization Board figures.) 

Headlines of late have reported huge payments to UC faculty, such as the $355,000 paid to former UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl for a year sabbatical, even though he plans to quit before fulfilling his teaching commitment and a $300,000 payout to another employee who hired a business partner and, when confronted with the inappropriate action, went on leave. 

Asked to compare these kinds of payouts to the clerks’ salaries, Van Nyhuis said that UC “tries to pay market compensation.” He conceded, however, that a study showed UC was lagging in many instances. In response the Regents instituted a plan to bring compensation up to market rates over 10 years. 

Among the clerical workers affected are those who do telephone surveys for researchers, answer phones, process transcripts, prepare proposals and “support the university’s public service mission,” Alaji-Sabrie said. “People are dedicated and loyal to the institution.”  

Library assistants will receive an additional 5.1 percent raise retroactive to October 2005. 

“They earn about 15 percent lower than a comparable class at the state university system,” Alaji-Sabrie said, noting, for example that a library assistant currently earns $1,976 per month. 

“The workers come every day, but they’re living on the edge,” Alaji-Sabrie said. 

The Berkeley City Council’s special hearing on proposed revisions to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance was both impressive and discouraging. It was impressive because 40 articulate citizens showed up, many with statements written out in advance to take exactly three minutes, and many representing even larger numbers of signers including most of the city’s neighborhood organizations. All 40 and those they represented, probably adding up several thousand citizens, were in favor of maintaining the city’s current level of protection for historic resources. 

Only seven speakers spoke on behalf of loosening the city’s standards. Two of these were members of the Brodsky family, the owners of The Tile Shop, a long-standing Berkeley business. Their complaint was that they’d sought to tear down an old building on property they owned in order to build a warehouse, and that an adjacent neighbor had succeeded in getting the Landmark Preservation Commission to designate the building as a structure of merit under the LPO. Michael Brodsky, the family spokesperson, quoted moving language from the famous 1886 Yick Wo v. Hopkins case, where a land use law was overturned, which he claimed he uses in law school teaching. If that’s true, he must surely know that the reason the law was overturned in that case was because it was unequally applied to Chinese laundry operators and not to white ones. There’s no reason to claim racial discrimination against the Brodsky family or anyone else in the application of Berkeley’s historic resource preservation law. Brodsky’s impassioned quote in this context was disingenuous at best—a very distasteful spectacle to those of us who are familiar with the case. Furthermore, the Brodskys appealed the designation to the Berkeley City Council as the law provides, got it overturned as the law allows, and built their warehouse anyhow. So why are they grasping for the Yick Wo mantle of victims of injustice? Embarrassing. 

Of the remaining speakers, two more—business partners Rempel and Miranda—had similarly gotten a designation overturned by the City Council, and demolished one of the oldest houses in West Berkeley to build their condo complex. One speaker, Rena Rickles, is an Oakland lawyer with olden-times BCA juice, who usually fronts for developers these days and usually wins her Berkeley cases at the council level. Another one was a building industry professional, an architect, and one speaker was there to read a letter from the small pro-growth lobbying organization, Livable Berkeley, known as enthusiastic cheerleaders for the stacks of condos-to-be now being built all over town.  

No ordinary citizen, no one without a profit motive in the outcome, showed up to speak in favor of changing the law. It should therefore no longer be possible for councilmembers to say that they don’t know what the public wants, though some of them can be expected to hide behind ex V.P. Spiro T. Agnew’s discredited theory that there’s a “silent majority” out there that wants something else, but is afraid to speak up. It wasn’t true when Agnew claimed it was, and it still isn’t.  

The interesting question, of course, is not who was at the hearing, but who wasn’t there. When we see who turned out, we wonder why the council still appears (with the exception of Spring and Worthington) to be hell-bent on changing the ordinance. There are ample grounds for suspecting that certain proponents of change don’t need to come to public hearings because they have the ear of councilmembers behind the scenes. That’s what’s discouraging.  

And that’s why the Berkeley Daily Planet has filed a California Public Records Act Request asking to see the mayor’s and council members’ correspondence on this topic. We’re happy to learn this week that the California First Amendment Coalition has joined us in filing their own request, as has the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, so the public might actually have a chance of finding out who the real backers of gutting the law are. 

I myself spoke at the hearing as a private citizen, since I was a member of the Landmarks Preservation Commission for more than seven years and participated in the commission’s four-year attempt to revise the ordinance. The draft that finally got a majority vote from the commission represented a compromise, incorporating many changes which the city planning staff had lobbied hard for on behalf of their builder clients. I voted for it myself at the end, mostly because I was tired of the whole thing. As soon as we’d approved it, however, the backroom maneuvering to get even more drastic changes began again.  

Now I think our compromise was a mistake. My current opinion can be summed up by a business cliché which I learned when I had a software development company: If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. The current law works just fine for almost everything it’s supposed to do, and citizens are satisfied with it, if we believe the testimony at Tuesday’s public hearing. Why does it need any changes at all? 

There’s only one genuine problem with its language, and that can be fixed by adding one word. California’s Permit Streamlining Act guarantees development applicants a final decision within a certain time period which can then be appealed if desired. Berkeley’s LPO does not allow an applicant to get a final decision on an application to demolish a designated historic structure. All the Commission can do is suspend the demolition for a period of time. If the word “disapprove” is added to the ordinance, it would enable them to give the demolition applicant a clear, appealable “no” which would satisfy the state law’s final judgment requirement.  

The council, at its next meeting, if it has the guts, could enact that one simple little change, and the city would then be in full compliance. It would no longer be at risk of the dire challenges with which the city attorney’s office has been threatening the city for the last six years, which incidentally have never materialized. 

That done, there would be plenty of time, with no pressure, for full study of any and all further changes that many citizens are willing to endorse in the open public forum. Perhaps the backroom backers might be even be persuaded to come out of the closet. But if they don’t, case closed, no more changes. The city would save a lot of money and staff time now allocated for what increasingly looks like yet another expensive developer-driven boondoggle. 

—

To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit  

www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.



BLUE MEETING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Barbara Gilbert’s Feb. 14 letter mischaracterized the nature and substance of the BLUE meeting held on Feb. 8. Berkeleyans for a Livable University Environment did hold its regular monthly meeting on that date, with Marie Bowman and David Wilson attending as guests of Dean Metzger. 

After the official BLUE meeting was concluded, we held an informal discussion about possible mayoral candidates for the November election. Both Dean Metzger and Zelda Bronstein were mentioned during this discussion, but neither one was endorsed or discouraged from running. In fact, although one person did indicate support for Ms. Bronstein, the consensus of those present was that no candidate ought to receive any endorsement without clearly stating his or her positions on the critical issues facing Berkeley. 

It is understandable that Ms. Gilbert felt the need to protect herself from the ridiculously inaccurate reporting of Fred Dodsworth of the East Bay Daily News. But in doing so, there was no need for her to make inaccurate statements about the Feb. 8 meeting or take swipes at BLUE as an organization. In fact, Ms. Gilbert’s work on the city budget and other issues has been outstanding, and we in BLUE have particularly appreciated her long-standing opposition to UC’s unchecked growth and the city’s failure to address it. However, it is also true that Ms. Gilbert’s interests do not always coincide with the primary mission of BLUE, which is to improve the quality of life for those impacted by UC’s operations and continuous expansion. 

What is most interesting about this whole matter is how many people in different groups and different areas of the city are vigorously seeking a candidate to run against Mayor Bates in the coming election. I can hardly go to a public meeting anymore without this issue coming up at least once. And what is more striking is that people in groups that don’t often talk together have begun to realize that they share many of the same concerns about how the city is being run. It should be an interesting campaign. 

Doug Buckwald 

• 

DOWNTOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read an article last week that bemoaned all of that new development slated for Berkeley; the author listed the projects as if the development pipeline is an indictment in and of itself. Ironically, that argument against was more like an argument for: Berkeley may actually become cool to live in in the next couple of years. 

I live downtown, and if you want to preserve it unchanged then yeah, hold on tight to the streets clogged with students, litter, and mediocre restaurants. There is no quality retail, and no place to shop for food. The public art is terrible (what’s up with the tuning fork?!), and the BART plaza is ugly. So bring on the new Vista, and condos, and apartment buildings, and especially the museums. 

People around here seem to believe that they live in some bucolic small town, but the reality is that this is a city, and not such a great one to live in, really. I live in the Gaia building, and although there are too many Cal students for my taste, Gaia is one of the better things in downtown. Downtown shopping and dining is weak, and there’s too much jazz. If anyone wants to develop a downtown club/bar for live music that’s not jazz or world music, please do so!  

Also, people of Berkeley, please stop walking and driving as if you were the only lucky little soul that lived here, and no more naked yoga in the YMCA sauna. That shit is nasty. It’s called a city. Act accordingly. 

Lauren Giniger 

• 

UC EXPANSION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read with interest in the Feb. 16 New York Times that the dean of engineering at UC Berkeley, A. Richard Newton, “is trying to get Tsinghua University in Beijing and some leading technical universities in India to set up satellite schools linked to Berkeley. The university has 90 acres in Richmond, Calif., that [Newton] thinks would be an ideal site.”  

Meanwhile, the university administration’s 2020 Long-Range Development Plan calls for one million square feet of new development somewhere in downtown Berkeley. Instead of turning the city’s downtown into a UC office park, and quite possibly removing more land from the city’s tax rolls, why not put some of those million square feet, particularly the portions dedicated to research (as opposed to classroom instruction) on the 90 acres in Richmond?  

Zelda Bronstein  

• 

ANARCHISTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

By Becky O’Malley’s own account, the Santa Cruz artists seem like regular Americans who believed all that talk about civil disobedience in high school history class. The folks who organized a parade outside the bounds of the law were people with a strong sense of what is good and proper when confronted with the capriciousness of institutionalized power and its loyal opposition. Characterizing their politics as “somewhat rudimentary” and “tending toward anarchism” might make a smug bourgeois feel satisfied in her own illusions about the state and their watchdogs (the police), but it really says more about O’Malley’s prejudicial stereotypes about anarchism. While anarchists have always been weak on political economy, we have almost to a person been on the cutting edge of analyses of power and its effects on those who wield it and those who fall victim to it. 

For example, one will come away amazed at the prescience of Bakunin and Malatesta when they wrote of the certain future of a Marxist-controlled state (i.e. that it would be more despotic than the tyrannies the Marxists proposed to replace). This is hardly “rudimentary.” And what anti-anarchist could resist repeating that old ironic de rigueur slam, claiming that anarchists oppose organization? While it is true that most anarchists remain highly skeptical of organization for organization’s sake, we also know that without organization, nothing can be accomplished. Such a simpleminded and misleading characterization (as if the only kind of useful or successful organization has to be hierarchical and based on authority) is no less annoying for its ubiquity. 

C. Boles 

• 

DISHARMONY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I witnessed the most strident neighborhood disharmony imaginable when the doughty Urban Creeks League joined hands with the Berkeley Board of Education to unearth the course of Blackberry Creek on the property of Thousand Oaks School in North Berkeley in 1995. 

The creek became a painfully divisive issue that led to acrimonious debates and outright estrangements among people that had lived as neighbors for decades. 

The pivotal issue turned out to be a $110,000 federal grant that “had” to be applied for before the end of the year. At stake was a flat portion of the block bounded by Solano Avenue, Colusa Street and Ensenada Street that was regularly used by parents with small children, and Tai Chi adherents and that supported a very large redwood tree that was loved and appreciated by all park users. 

In the end the School Board proceeded despite vocal requests by neighborhood residents with young children to reconsider. So there came to be a deep, open ditch running a few yards before diving back underground, where it now threatens to bedevil Berkeley homeowners! 

During the fracas that became characteristic of the neighborhood meetings, the science teacher at Thousand Oaks School painted an impassioned picture of students busily studying the “life of the creek.” An “Awwww!” moment for sure; one could just picture Doonesbury’s scuba-masked Zonker Harris lounging in Walden Pond! 

Reality interceded shortly after the project was complete: E. Coli bacteria were found in the water, which was then put off-limits to the eager young minds, whose days did not appear to be irretrievably darkened. Let’s don’t forget that before the creeks were buried in culverts, there were not thousands of homes and businesses and ever-growing UC Berkeley emitting organic and chemical wastes into the sewer system! These days there is literally no telling what may crop up in Berkeley’s creekwaters, including radioactive waste once detected in Strawberry Creek from Cal! 

In view of the difficulties that open-creek enthusiasts are wont to create for communities, perhaps the City of Berkeley should be urged to consider this “issue” with all of the leisure at its disposal! 

Glen Kohler 

P.S.: The last public meeting on the issue of updating the Creeks Ordinance will take place on March 22 at the North Berkeley Senior Center at 7 p.m. 

• 

ALBANY PARKS COMMISSIONER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As Albany Park and Recreation Commissioners we were surprised by fellow Commissioner Brian Parker’s attack on the new Commission Chair Alan Riffer in his letter which appeared in the Feb. 3 edition of the Daily Planet. Brian’s letter asserts that Chairman Riffer has “politicized the commission” and “quash[ed] open debate… by offering Rick Caruso a special meeting of the commission.” We attended the same meeting as Commissioner Parker where the special meeting was discussed and it was explained that the city had asked Caruso to meet with several Albany commissions before Golden Gate Fields presents any proposal for the waterfront. The meeting was not instigated by Chairman Riffer. In the commission Meeting that preceded the special meeting, Commissioner Parker had the opportunity to ask that the meeting date be changed to accommodate his schedule—which the commission agreed to do—and the opportunity to argue that any special meeting should also include representatives for alternate plans for the waterfront. After the other commissioners present voted down his proposal to expand the special meeting to include Caruso and others, we stated that we would be prepared, if requested, to convene a second special meeting for others to present their waterfront plan, Commissioner Parker asserted that he was being “railroaded” and walked out of the commission meeting. Mr. Parker’s letter also faults Commission Chair Riffer for allowing the special meeting to be held at City Hall. The commission’s clear intent was to allow as many Albany residents as possible to attend a meeting that we expected to be standing room only. The meeting was as crowded as expected but, despite Mr. Parker’s concerns, un-televised. We enjoyed serving with Commissioner Parker and were sorry to see his resignation but even sorrier to see him make this parting and entirely undeserved slap at Commission Chair Riffer.  

Roger Carlson, John Kindle, Geoff Piller 

Albany Park and Recreation Commissioners 

• 

CREEK ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to urge the Creeks Task Force to adopt a creek ordinance that is respectful of responsible property use and of our natural resources. 

My name is Jane Kelly. I am the spouse of Creeks Task Force member, Tom Kelly. I am a long-time employee of Moore Iacofano Goltsman, (MIG), Inc., a Berkeley based planning and design firm that has directed and facilitated a large number of projects involving urban waterways. In my tenure at MIG I have seen repeatedly that an understanding and protection of the watershed is the key to protection of property rights. I fear that this simple principle is being obscured by misleading information that I am hearing from some city residents. The attitude that is engendered by these misunderstandings leads me to be very concerned that Berkeley will be pressured into adopting a regressive creek ordinance when we should instead be creating a progressive ordinance that is protective of both property and creeks. Other municipalities like San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, and Oakland are heading in that direction. Hopefully, the ordinance that we craft will incorporate the best ideas that these cities have developed and apply them in a way that is consistent with the values of the Berkeley community. 

Why does protection of our creeks benefit property owners? Here are some of the reasons: 

1. Structures that are significantly set back from the waterway are protected from erosion. We cannot consider anything less than a 30-foot setback from the centerline to be sufficient. I have personally witnessed creeks undercutting banks and putting homes in jeopardy because the homes were built too close to the creek. As the CTF knows, there is a prime, and current, example of this on Strawberry Creek at Strawberry Creek Lodge on Addison Street in Berkeley. In only the last six years, I have also witnessed Strawberry Creek at the Lodge shift its course at certain points by more than 1 foot. I would be glad to lead a tour to this site for any CTF member who has not yet seen it or who would like to revisit it. 

2. Respecting a 30-foot setback from the centerline gives the creek a better chance to reach full capacity without causing flooding or other water damage to homes. 

3. The riparian corridor created by the establishment of the setback provides habitat for birds, butterflies and other creatures and it provides a tranquil, green space for us. The property is beautified, the home is safe from erosion, and the value—to the owner and to the environment—is enhanced. 

I appreciate all the incredible work you are doing for our city on this important issue and am hopeful that you will provide a series of recommendations to the city that will reflect the thoughtfulness and values for which Berkeley is so renowned. 

Jane Kelly 

• 

CARTOON RESTRAINT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for not hurting the sensibilities of millions of Muslims by reprinting the offensive and provocative Danish cartoons in your paper. Thank you for using your freedom of speech in a responsible manner. While we as Muslims are deeply hurt, we are also embarrassed by the foolish reaction of some ignorant Muslims who had been incited by their violent religious leaders or mullahs. Their behavior is totally against the teachings of the Quran and the conduct of our beloved prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. 

Muslims around the world are burning flags, setting foreign embassies on fire and threatening more violence because they consider the printing of those cartoons blasphemy. This behavior is against the very definition of a Muslim. A Muslim is one who is at peace with him/herself and is at peace with all the creatures of the world. By definition, there should be no danger of any sort from a Muslim. 

I’ll mention one example of how Prophet Muhammad behaved when Abdullah bin Obeye bin Sulool blasphemed against Muhammad during his lifetime. Muhammad’s companions became furious and offered to kill bin Sulool, but Prophet Muhammad forbade them. Then bin Sulool’s own son, who was a Muslim, came forward an d sought permission to kill his father. He thought that the prophet probably did not allow anyone else to kill him because he might be hurt. But Muhammad forbade bin Sulool’s son, also. One of his companions, Hazrat Omar came forward and reminded prophet Muhammad of the Quranic verse telling him, “O prophet of God, don’t you know that Allah has said that He will not forgive bin Sulool even if YOU seek forgiveness for him 72 times.” Prophet Muhammad said, “Omar, I’ll seek forgiveness for him more than 72 times.” This was the noble character of the founder of Islam and his treatment of his enemies. He kept praying for his forgiveness. No violence can be attributed to him.  

Thus, whereas on the one hand I request the free press to use its freedom responsibly, I also humbly urge my fellow Muslims to instead pray for those who hurt their sensibilities and work to conduct themselves in the true spirit of Islam and follow in the footsteps of its great founder, the prince of peace and educate your communities about his excellent character. 

Saleem Qadir 

San Jose 

• 

THINK 2 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the Feb. 14 edition I challenged Becky O’Malley’s assertion that religious belief is in essence “silly.” I asked her to think thrice concerning that claim, and proffered think 1 at that time. Here I proffer think 2.  

The Lord hath annointed me to preach the good tidings to modern man. Man now has the rudiments of scientific knowledge and some grounding in the scientific approach to knowledge. He is now ready to understand the true criteria by which we can know who and what God is. The first criterion is of course love. Do you love God? However, this is premised on another question. Do you have even the faintest idea of who and what God actually is? If not, how can you love God? It would be sheer hypocrisy. Now, let’s be very clear—I have not yet had the experience of God, so I do not love God, but I have had the experience of the impersonal feature of God, known as the Great Emptiness in Buddhism and Brahman in Hinduism. In Christianity it is known as the Great White Light of the Christ and in Judaism it is known as Ain Soph Uhr, the crown of creation. I confess ignorance of Islam and cannot tell you what it is in that religion, but I am certain there is a corresponding element. 

The second criterion by which we can know the genuine God from mere imposters is absolute scientific knowledge of how the creation is put together. Miracles, healings, etc., cannot possibly prove the Presence of God, because even an advanced creature may be capable of doing extraordinary things and yet not be fully cognizant of how he does them. Only God possesses omniscience in this fundamental sense, not of events in the outer world, which could also be known by an advanced creature, but of the very essence of the creation and how it works at all levels. That is the summum bonum of the credentials of God. Man is now ready to receive this knowledge and this proof of the existence of the true God. 

Even as I am possibly dying from what man considers to be an absolutely fatal disease without treatment, namely cancer of an especially deadly variety, the Lord has annointed me to prepare His Way by beginning to reveal the absolute scientific knowledge, or what Nobel prize winner Steven Weinberg calls “dreams of a final theory.” 

Are you prepared to download this absolute knowledge? 

Peter J. Mutnick 

• 

ATMOSPHERIC  

CONDITIONS 

I have a theory where the frigid breezes blowing across the Bay originate. It is caused by Global Warming of course. Icebergs that break loose from the Arctic float down the Pacific Ocean a couple hundred miles off our west coast. When they arrive opposite the Golden Gate they tend to be sucked towards the San Francisco Bay on the incoming tidal currents. But wait, the bay’s in and out flushing action abetted by the current pouring out of the Delta, move the bergs back out. The resulting ebb and flow catches passing bergs in an eddy which causes them to bunch together. Shoreward winds from the northwest are cooled as they pass over the icy bergs; thus we are shivering outdoors and wearing ski clothes around town.  

How about that? 

Ken Norwood,

Since buying my first bungalow in Berkeley 19 years ago, I have restored eleven other houses, consulted on many others, and written six best-selling books about bungalows, including Bungalow Kitchens, Bungalow Bathrooms, and Bungalow: The Ultimate Arts and Crafts Home. 

What I’ve learned in my travels for these books is that historic buildings are just about the only thing that makes cities unique or gives them a sense of place. America now has a terrible sameness—everywhere the same chain stores, fast food, same dense new construction, all designed to “revitalize downtown” or whatever. But what is even more important than historic buildings is those buildings in context. For instance, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana-Thomas house in Springfield, Illinois, one of his finest Prairie houses, is now surrounded by ugly brick apartment buildings. My own house in Oakland, a 1905 Arts and Crafts mansion, has had its context destroyed by a 1952 fourplex resembling a double-wide trailer built only 10 feet from the north side. And I’m sure when all these things were built, the excuse was the same as now: We need more housing. 

Everyone seems to have drunk the smart growth Kool-Aid—“density in the inner cities will prevent the paving of farmland in the Central Valley.” Except the only real connection between density in cities and paving farmland in Turlock is money—the same developers lobbying for density in Berkeley are also paving farmland in Turlock—because there is money to be made. I’m sure it is developers who are lobbying for changing the Landmarks Ordinance. Explain to me exactly what is sustainable about tearing down buildings which are built with hundreds of board feet of old-growth timber, which have lasted 80 to 100 years or more, in order to throw up overly dense buildings with toxic vinyl windows, built from crappy second-growth lumber and fake stucco. As Russell Baker said, “Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things.” 

Trophy buildings are not enough. I’ve been to the cities that have nothing left but trophy buildings and strip malls. Other cities have Berkeley envy; people tell me things like, “Oh, Berkeley, they have such beautiful buildings there.” That should not be thrown away for some perceived short-term gain because you can’t ever get it back. 

There seems to have been a lot of hysteria in the past couple of years—“Oh my God, the preservationists are out of control!” I would submit that it is developers who are out of control, it is population that is out of control, it is politicians and city planners who are out of control. Preservationists are merely trying to defend the very things that make Berkeley a desirable place to live.  

Why is it always historic buildings that are threatened? Why doesn’t anyone ever want to demolish the cheaply built and architecturally dreadful buildings from the ‘60 and ‘70s that blight this city?  

John Ruskin, writing in the 19th century, said this, “Old buildings are not ours. They belong, partly to those who built them, and partly to the generations of mankind who are to follow us. The dead still have their right in them: that which they labored for… we have no right to obliterate.” 

The mayor’s plan to remove structures of merit from the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance merely takes away one of the few tools that ordinary citizens have to protect the historic fabric and context of their neighborhoods. A tiny bungalow, a working- class Victorian, a small commercial storefront, or an old warehouse has just as much right to protection as an elaborate building by a famous architect. Those who say otherwise have an agenda, and that agenda is money. 

Those who want to destroy cities or neighborhoods always say that change is inevitable and must be accepted. They lie. The kind of accelerated and usually awful change they promote is not inevitable, it is not progress, it is merely their moneymaking agenda. Never forget that. 

Jane Powell is the author of many books on Arts and Crafts architecture. 

I took the oath to become an American citizen this week. Presidents’ Day is a perfect time to take the monumental step of becoming a citizen of this great country. After all, on Monday Americans celebrate the birthday of two men who helped form the America that made it possible for this to happen.  

The ceremony marked the end of a long process of deliberation. I was not always convinced I wanted to be an American citizen. I immigrated to the United States from Israel as a teenager, and over the years I became concerned about the foreign policy decisions the United States was making that affected my family in Israel and the Arab world. Reaching a decision about applying for citizenship was all the more difficult when friends in Israel and Europe began questioning me about pledging my allegiance to a consumerist America that supports the policies of the Bush administration and drives gas-guzzling SUVs.  

After all, the American people had voted for a president and Congress that approved going to war in Iraq, despite the fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction and Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were not linked as was suggested by the government. Americans continued to consume large amounts of oil that put more money in the pockets of authoritarian regimes instead of supporting political reform. And America’s financial support to Israel did not come with requirements to halt settlement expansion, a policy pursued by Israeli governments to the detriment of both Israelis and Palestinians.  

But I soon realized that even behind bad policies were Americans with honorable intentions. For example, Americans chose to invade Iraq in 2003 because they were misinformed, not because they wanted to see Iraqis suffer. Their leaders may have gone to war under the guise of democracy, but the fact is that Americans agreed to it because they truly believe in the principles of democracy and wanted Iraqis to enjoy that universal right.  

America’s unyielding dedication to being a democracy is what allows its citizens to live their lives in freedom. The American dream allows you to work your way out of poverty to a better life. And Americans are gregarious, fun-loving people who pride themselves on the fact that their country is a refuge for foreigners who want to live in a free and democratic country.  

The U.S. exists in part thanks to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, whose birthdays we celebrate this Presidents’ Day. It was Washington who led the revolutionary troops to independence, and who refused to establish a kingdom after his victory. He created a system of checks and balances and set the precedence for a two-term limit for presidents. Abraham Lincoln led America through one of the most difficult periods of America’s history, fought to end slavery and maintain national unity. These men worked hard to make sure that America is a country of the people, by the people and for the people.  

Appreciating America’s principles of freedom, justice and liberty does not mean being naïve about the things America does that fuel criticism. But the experiences I have had with kind, open-minded and passionate Americans have led me to believe that America stands for something powerful. As I looked out over the crowd in the oath ceremony at the United States District Court, I saw men and women wearing saris and head scarves. By coming to the United States, they have been able aspire to rewarding careers, speak freely, practice their religion and recognize their heritage. And for that reason it is an honor to be celebrating my first Presidents’ Day as an American citizen.  

Nitzan Goldberger is a research assistant at the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Middle East Peace. 

›

Have you noticed there is a concerted effort on the part of the city to eliminate public parking? The idea of demolishing one of the best downtown parking lots (Hink’s) in the city, and replacing it with scores of housing units that have half as much parking as they will need for themselves and none for the public. Brilliant! Oh, and while we are at it, let’s eliminate half of the parking lot for the Ashby BART station (does anyone really use BART anyway) and install more housing and businesses, using the same model of no public parking. Is the strategy for downtown revival to provide a captive audience of shoppers within these housing developments only and to heck with shoppers from the rest of the city or other areas of the East Bay? Have you ever tried to find parking downtown on a rainy winter evening to do any shopping? And we wonder why businesses are closing and leaving? 

Where do all the extra cars park from the new housing developments, BART commuters, shop owners and employees, and shoppers? That’s right, in your neighborhoods. In addition to this growing problem, there is another one that is becoming more evident as we try and analyze where to park our cars: the problem of households accumulating more cars than they have drivers or off-street places to park those extra cars.  

I am very much interested in having the City Council discuss and perhaps publish for distribution as an agenda item, this topic for open discussion at the next City Council meeting. 

The topic is “Too Many Extra Cars in the Neighborhood.”  

At the Feb. 7, 2002, Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Association general meeting, I related the issue in a rhetorical question that really is how bad things have deteriorated and how little has been accomplished.  

“If a household has more vehicles than drivers, and these vehicles are not parked in that household’s driveways or garages, but parked on the streets, in front of their and their neighbor’s houses throughout the neighborhood, is this being considerate of the neighbors or the neighborhood?” 

The obvious answer is “No!” This is just how selfish, thoughtless, and irresponsible we have become with respect to our automobile addiction. The issue is not just the consideration of being able to park in front of your own house. Because those of us that actually do use our garages are at risk of not seeing oncoming traffic as we back out because invariably there is the ubiquitous, and voluminous Stupid Useless Vehicle parked on the street blocking our view.  

Our love affair with the automobile has morphed into a full-blown neurotic co-dependant relationship, with people, neighborhoods, and the environment as the ultimate casualties. Ironic how we as Californians espouse the virtues of healthy outdoor living and clean air, but flock to car dealers for the latest, biggest, rolling eco-criminal vehicles the automobile industry has to offer. We swallow those ads hook, line, and sinker. Those poor pathetic posers who derive their persona through their vehicle, or worse yet, collecting vehicles believing this gives them some sort of class or status. No one ever lost money overestimating the stupidity or ego of the automobile buying public.  

My challenge is this, Berkeley: Let your councilmember know what a problem this is in your neighborhood and come up with a win-win solution to rid this city of the extra vehicles. If your idea can generate income from the scofflaws that litter the city with their extra cars, so much the better. Maybe if the city sees a significant public outcry, they might actually put some energy into your solutions. In a city whose public sector has enormous intellectual resources, can we as neighbors, intelligent human beings, work to some kind of reasonable solution to this epidemic, or do we need to use existing and new city and/or state ordinances to bring about responsible change? If we can accomplish this, just think of the possibility of pressuring the city and merchants to have their employees use mass transit and not monopolize parking in our neighborhoods. First things first.  

This city deserves better than the look of a less desirable high density, industrial/commercial auto row district. As a 40-year resident of Berkeley, and 20 years in my neighborhood, I have seen this problem grow and the desirability of my neighborhood decline. In my one block alone, four households contribute seven extra, not regularly used, vehicles to the street. We can do better.  

Ed Young is a certified green building professional with 10 years of service in the environmental community in Berkeley. 

To view Justin DeFreitas’ latest editorial cartoon, please visit  

www.jfdefreitas.com To search for previous cartoons by date of publication, click on the Daily Planet Archive.



TRANSIT VILLAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have followed the issue of the Ashby BART transit village, attending both the Jan. 17 community meeting and the Feb. 11 city-called meeting, and listened to the many, many who have expressed opinions on this topic, and it is very clear to me that: 

The common good must be defined and affirmed by the many, not the few. 

What might be gained on one specific project is meaningless if trust is not established and maintained. 

And though I do not doubt anyone’s intentions here, nor wish to impugn the same, I believe the city has bungled community participation in the proposed project and should withdraw the Caltrans grant application, begin a six-month community outreach and true community process, and resubmit the grant application in October. 

Further, I question whether any development at the South Berkeley Ashby BART site (a public asset), with air rights held by the City of Berkeley (a public entity holding another public asset) should ever include a for-profit, private developer; many of us oppose privatizing national forest properties, school vouchers, and the move to shift social security funds into private investment. Why should we permit privatization in our own city? 

John Selawsky 

• 

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kriss Worthington deserves applause for forcefully questioning the paucity of students and minorities on Berkeley commissions. It seems to me that the issue is related to the shortage of young people and minorities on non-government as well as government agencies in Berkeley. The problem has long been ignored, in part out of reluctance to confront a prime cause. 

Berkeley has a huge glut of 1960s hippies, aged white radicals who happen to be experts in fields that lead to city commission or NGO positions. Years ago, averse to working for The Man, the longhairs chose to spend most of their waking hours researching, studying, writing and networking. They managed this lifestyle by living in communes, co-ops, and in lofts of Berkeley brown-shingle homes. The occasional financial problem has been handled by aid from the “square” brother or sister who “got a real job.” 

Berkeley of the ‘60s had its black hippies, but the sense of obligation to fight racism “in the hood” made most drift away. So, Bobby Seale, who spent many a day speechifying and selling the Black Panther newspaper in Sproul Plaza, went off to teach at Temple. Another Panther paper peddler at Sproul who went off to work with the masses in Philadelphia is Mumia Abu Jamal. He recently wrote fondly of his days in Berkeley. 

Kriss and the council could go beyond the hippie experts by creating commissions for which youth and minorities are the experts, such as a commission on poetry slams, commission on gospel church choirs, and commission on imports from India. A timely agency with an immediate task would be a commission to find a hiring hall for our day laborers. Numerous other “progressive” cities have established such halls. 

Ted Vincent 

• 

KPFA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Those who have listened to KPFA over the past decade will not be surprised to see Larry Bensky note (Daily Planet, Feb. 14) the loss of a quarter of its listening audience over the past decade and, despite the growing anger toward Bush’s failed policies, the loss of nearly 20,000 listeners from last summer to the present day. To understand this precipitous decline, Bensky need look no further than his own news department, whose incessant reduction of everything its designated villains—the United States, Israel, and white heterosexual males—do as evil incarnate, has succeeded in marginalizing a once appreciated community resource into a voice valued solely by ideological simpletons. Some at the station may believe that the new director will reverse this, but they are woefully mistaken as this personnel change will only be akin to putting lipstick on a pig. 

Speaking of which, a few Hamas spokespeople’s dressing in suits for news conferences underscores that attempting democracy in a Palestinian society where it never previously existed is also comparable to attempting cosmetic surface alterations on a sow. As these spokespeople have articulated, the basic credo of Hamas remains the same: genocide, discrimination against women and homosexuals, censorship, etc. So when Helen Finkelstein (Letters, Feb. 14) denigrates Daily Planet cartoonist DeFreitas for depicting thuggish figures dressed in black and brandishing weapons, she fails to note that DeFreitas’ drawings are only reflecting the most basic values of that organization, as well as the way Hamas has publicly exhibited itself since its inception.  

Dan Spitzer 

Kensington  

• 

SUNSHINE ORDIANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance has been “in-progress” for many years, but our City Council majority may prefer to keep citizens in the dark. Consider a new City Charter change “Signature In-Lieu of Candidate Filing Fee.” Neither the charter nor the city clerk’s office has the correct information available on when the signature gathering officially begins. Yet knowing this timely information can give a candidate six or more weeks head start in official campaigning!  

In 2004 after this charter change was adopted, the council majority’s favorite candidates, Daryl Moore, Laurie Capitelli, and Max Anderson, knew what to do. 

They used the signature-gathering time to meet and greet and get signatures from unlimited numbers of their district voters who can sign only one council candidate’s papers. Independent candidates seemed clueless about this process because information was so late. 

Even now, correct information is not available for the “Signature in Lieu” period for the November (mayor, council, auditor, schools, and Rent Board) election. But possible candidates should expect the “signature” process to begin as early as May.  

Merrilie Mitchell  

• 

JERUSALEM CRICKETS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just read Joe Eaton’s Feb. 14 article on potato bugs aka Jerusalem crickets. They have long been my favorite insect in the Bay Area. However, I must disagree with you that they don’t bite. Recently at school, I was holding one and everyone asked whether I wasn’t afraid. I cavalierly said that they aren’t dangerous and don’t bite, at which point the bug bit me hard, so hard that I couldn’t shake it off. No, not dangerous, but yes, they do bite! It actually broke the skin. Thanks for an informative article otherwise. 

Mary Wheeler 

El Cerrito 

• 

TOD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Bay Area badly needs transit-oriented development (TOD), and particularly needs major amounts of housing within walking distance of rail stations. It makes no sense for the land around Ashby BART station to serve only as parking lots.  

Tom Bates, Max Anderson, and Ed Church have mulled this over for a considerable time, appropriately to their roles as mayor, local councilmember, and SBNDC consultant, respectively. Early last fall, Church saw an opportunity to snag a $120,000 state grant for new planning work, including public consultation. He quickly filed an application to meet the deadline, letting the City Council know of this small coup as soon as it would listen. Now Church and his elected partners are being accused of closed-door crony politics and worse. This groundless charge seems mainly to vent their attackers‚ generalized mistrust of government.  

At the same time, the 2004 feasibility analysis sponsored by the East Bay Foundation probably over-limits itself by trying to shoehorn about 500 apartments into the four acre triangle west of the station while keeping heights to six stories and declining to think about exploiting nearby space given to roads. There are plenty of things to discuss about this proposal, and about the Ashby project broadly construed. Bates, Anderson and Church have signaled eagerness for such discussions, which could certainly be helped along by the small Caltrans planning grant if it is awarded to Berkeley.  

Some of the people who are calling for the dropping the grant application, and casting themselves as Davids fighting Goliath, have made genuine contributions: Robert Lauriston has put up a perceptive and informative web-site at “nabart.org.” A good “policy wonk,” as he calls himself, is a pearl of great price in this kind of work, and he shares with Kenoli Oleari a populist vision and an articulateness which are much needed in such public decision-making.  

Mayor Bates should maintain the city’s application for the Caltrans grant. In addition to the neighborhood living room discussions now planned, he could well put together a working group including Anderson, Church, Lauriston, Oleari, a flea market vendors’ rep, and others, perhaps including reps from BART and the MTC, to roll up their sleeves on serious, ambitious TOD planning for Ashby. 

Peter Lydon 

• 

OPEN SPACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Justifications offered (sarcastically) by Peter Levitt (Letters, Feb. 10) and remarks by Tom Bates and city staffers about obliterating the Ashby BART parking lot to put up yet more big buildings rely on assumptions that 1) something is wrong with the parking lot as it is, 2) “the neighborhood” will benefit from more buildings and businesses, and 3) that concerns over housing force a decision to proceed. 

A look about town reveals any amount of empty, recently built retail space and vacant older stores and offices. There is no crying need for more. And if we are talking about luring new business to South Berkeley, too many existing businesses now paying taxes to the city are on the verge of collapse. More competition will not do local small business people any good. 

The parking lot, on the other hand, does a lot of good for people who use BART, flea market vendors, and residents of the area who use both of these resources while enjoying the last bit of open space. Reducing available parking is a step backward—regardless of claims that filling “the air space over the parking lot” with more wood and stucco will somehow increase use of public transit. 

Housing? New apartments have sprung up all over town like mushroom children of the love fest between the city and developers. Rent prices are down and there are more vacant apartments in Berkeley now than in the last 20 years. Housing is not a pressing need either.  

Mr. Bates’s slip of the tongue by referring to “condos” during the recent meeting to drive development of the Ashby BART parking lot may offer a better clue to who the real beneficiaries are (and the reason the city attempted to circumvent public participation): dollars today for developers and builders and dollars forevermore for the city.  

Berkeley’s small businesses and working citizens should not always take a back seat to the machinations of the Must Have Mores, and we should all acknowledge that open space in Berkeley is precious and finite and needs to be preserved. 

Glen Kohler 

• 

RENT STABILIZATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In his Feb. 7, Mike Mitschang blithley dismisses any need for a city-operated rent level tracking/database system monitoring each of the city’s 19,000 rental units. 

Mr. Mitschang declares that the city’s Rent Stabilization Program “should not” maintain any computerized record keeping system, or provide an annual mailing to renters and property owners citing each unit’s legal rent amount. 

Instead, under Mr. Mitschang’s scenario, the Rent Stabilization Agency’s rent level monitoring system should be fully dismantled and abandoned, and the computerized database eliminated. 

Subsequently, Berkeley’s tens of thousands of tenants would then submit to an informal “honor system” between individual renters and owners to correctly monitor each unit’s legal rent level year by year. 

Other rent level variables such as the “Annual General Adjustment”—the annual unit rent increase (or decrease)—property owner capital improvement expenses, increases or decreases in rental property services, etc, would, presumably, also fall under Mr. Mitschang’s new, informal renter/owner honor system policy. 

Obviously, Mr. Mitschang’s vision of a “database-free” system represents not only the dismantlement of Berkeley’s voter-approved Rent Stabilization Ordinance, but would also contribute to a lack of renter housing security and stability. 

A rent level information blackout is exactly what Berkeley’s renter and owner communities do not need in one of the nation’s most expensive rental housing markets. 

Very briefly, to respond to Michael St. John’s Feb. 14 commentary: if the City of Berkeley were to follow Mr. St John’s “advice” and allow the conversion of “200 to 500” rental units per year into condominums—or “remove all restrictions” on conversions—the consequences would be devastating: mass tenant evictions from their units would follow and use of the state Ellis Act (used to empty buildings of renters) would likely increase dramatically.  

Mr. St. Michael’s idea should be considered dead on arrival. 

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

SELF-SERVING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Robert Clear delivers a simplistic and self-serving critique (Letters, Feb. 10) of Daily Planet editor Becky O’Malley who has expressed legitimate concerns regarding Berkeley’s current development bonanza. It is a good idea for cities along the I-80 corridor to reasonably increase downtown density to slow the spreading suburbs and the added global warming car trips that come with it. Berkeley’s downtown density already exceeds other towns because we are home to a huge University of California campus and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), state and federal facilities who already have acquired much of our taxable base through their awesome budgets and land acquisition powers.  

Mr. Clear, an employee of LBNL, is just supporting his employer’s position on lab-university mega projects by not mentioning the obvious differences between Berkeley and other corridor cities like Fremont or Crockett.  

The development plans are contrary to the best interests of most of the other people and families who currently reside in Berkeley and threaten the balance that has made the town an interesting and barely affordable place to live.  

Mark McDonald  

• 

RACIST COMMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a person of color and a producer at WBAI, KPFA’s sister station in New York City, I would like to point out a racially biased comment in the article “KPFA Staff, Board Eye New Pacifica Director” by Judith Scherr. Scherr wrote: “Pacific radio is facing familiar challenges—how to bring in new voices without silencing the old, how to diversify the audience without dumbing down programming and how to keep peace in the often confrontational staff.”  

Ms. Scherr assumes that in creating programming for “diverse” audiences, which today is typical code language for people of color, one might be tempted to engage in a “dumbing down” process. To clarify my objection, let’s change the phrase to “how to attract more women listeners without dumbing down programming.”  

Now is it clear?  

Actually, people of color audiences in the United States tend to be more sophisticated about foreign and domestic policy, racism, sexism, justice, etc. Typically immigrants speak more than one language while Americans are notoriously monolingual. The Indigenous peoples of the United States, who only receive token air time in Pacifica, likewise are highly educated like other peoples of color in the political reality of institutional racism.  

Speaking of institutional racism, it is the near failure of Pacifica to open the gates to peoples of color as producers (who will then attract “diverse” audiences) that is dumb. It is institutional racism that led to the defeat of affirmative action in Pacifica’s bylaws. Thanks to the racist gatekeepers in Pacifica, this year the majority of the Pacifica National Board is white, and Pacifica is going to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which it grants to “minority” stations. With political leadership like that, who needs Alito?  

So the issue is not whether Pacifica’s programming has to be “dumbed down” but rather can we be inclusive and smart enough to attract and meet the needs of sophisticated audiences of color. I suggest the Daily Planet interview a “diverse” range of the many talented voices within Pacifica, and not let someone like Larry Bensky, who is viewed by many progressives within Pacifica as the “voice of PNR,” speak for the network. People on the outside of Pacifica like Scherr may not understand the struggle over race and power in Pacifica is now couched in terms of “money” and “budget” and “quality programming” with a drive by some forces at WBAI, (which is referred to by some as a “black station”), to “bring back white audiences,” an argument itself based on the colonialist assumption that audiences of color have no money and can be equally well served by well-intentioned, predominantly white programmers and boards. Bensky’s total disrespect for the Pacifica boards must be understood in this context.  

Pacifica’s future does not lie in mainstream mimicry, in recreating a dumbed down white male dominated national star system. Rather, we must lay our free-range eggs in many small grassroots baskets. Next time, Daily Planet, interview Tiokasin Ghosthorse of First Voices, or Eddie Ellis and Ayo Harrington of On The Count. Or talk to some of Pacifica’s radical anti-racist white programmers, or to the producers of the upcoming national Spanish language programming coming out of KPFK Los Angeles, or talk to reporters at Free Speech Radio News out in the field in Nigeria, Iraq, or in the jungles of Nepal. As Arundhati Roy said, a new world is coming, and if we listen carefully, we can hear her breathe.  

Sheila Hamanaka  

Producer, WBAI Women’s  

Collective, East Asia Radio  

Collective  

• 

CHANGE POLICY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If KPFA wants to reverse its decline in listeners all it has to do is to emulate the editorial policy of the Daily Planet. How satisfying it is to read Planet commentary and letters from all sides of Berkeley opinion. But it is not so easy to get your voice out on KPFA. 

The number-one arbitron rating radio station in the Bay Area, for decades now, is KGO: 24 hours of audience talk-back. KPFA’s audience is vastly more articulate and educated than KGO’s. But except for a few shows, KPFA’s audience is shut out. And listener participation on KPFA is moving backwards. When C.S. Soong took over the noon hour Monday to Wednesday he immediately eliminated callbacks. Instead of Bill Mandel taking calls about the Soviet Union we have the one way voice of “North Africa and Middle East.” And who can ever replace Mama O’Shea? You always knew what she thought, but she was gracious and good-humored to everyone. 

OK, so I agree with about 75 percent of what I hear on KPFA. But if you want to win converts and new listeners and sharpen your own ideas, you have to have open dialogue. You can have self righteousness or you can have an expanding audience, but not both. Let us hope that the new Pacifica manager is aware of the choice. 

Laurence Schechtman 

• 

VETO POWER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m curious: How did neighborhoods get veto power over all development? When South Berkeley residents oppose development at Ashby BART, by what right does their opinion outweigh those of others who might like to live there, but who can’t because of the shortage of housing?  

Nicholas Kibre 

Redwood City 

• 

YES YOU CAN! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Yes, you can stop your City Council from doing stupid, costly, pointless things. You can stop the manipulative, imitation-grassroots manufacture of phony citizen groups. You can save your own tax dollars and the City of Berkeley from coming up with another laughing-stock opportunity to embarrass itself nationally, but only if you act now. 

It’s so easy. Tell Linda Maio and Tom Bates to quit it. Just quit worrying about the sound of train whistles. People who hate the sound of trains shouldn’t live in Berkeley, let alone West Berkeley, any more than people who hate the sound of the ocean should live at the beach. 

Train sounds may be an acquired taste, but once acquired, they seem as natural as moonlight, and as evocative as a saxophone. If Linda Maio and Tom Bates have their way, an “alternative system” will be put in place robbing us all of the sound of trains. 

They’ve even sent their flocks of operatives knocking door to door for petitioners, so the “alternative system” will resemble a response to a grass-roots request. Don’t think for a minute they knocked on mine. 

West Berkeley has problems. It has serious pollution, the life-threatening kind, which Maio and Bates only pose as opposing. It has constant threats to the plan which attempts to preserve its low-income art communities, probably Berkeley’s last, while Maio and Bates champion every condo project they see. Linda Maio was the crucial vote which brought my neighborhood the horrible Blockbuster/Pet Express building where once there was literally a beautiful gateway to Berkeley, and Bates, well, look around. 

West Berkeley needs a lot of attention in a lot of arenas; the list would be long. What it doesn’t need is a lot of money wasted on a project that is just a long, red carpet for the big condo project planned near the tracks, condos which won’t sell for as much money without the “alternative” to train sounds. 

Put down your foot. Pick up the phone. Tell your neighbors, and above all, start your own petition. Act now, before your town is, once again, the favorite focus of late-night comedians. 

Carol Denney 

• 

WARM POOL VANDALISM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Vandals or other agents unknown have smashed three of the four BHS warm pool south window panels. The breakage occurred in the lower portion of each panel. As a result, the panels, tall and narrow, slowly slip down in their frames. The frames are breaking up and need to be replaced as well as the glass. 

The south window provides generous and welcome sun and light to the south pool room. The users all appreciate the south window’s function. We all want the window for its function. We want and need the window repaired. 

The plywood and boards recently put in place over low portions of window are temporary, to hold back broken glass from falling on people. Weeks have passed sine boards were placed there. Months have passed since plywood was placed there, inside. Plywood blocks the light. 

It may be years before the warm pool moves elsewhere. We community users realize that various forces within the school district feel the warm pool no longer serves the school district. If by magic we could lift the building to a new home site, everyone might be pleased. Planners make it look easy to move functions around as if by magic. Planners have promised everyone happiness by moving the warm pool function. 

An architect told me today that “the warm pool rooms are rock solid” in their structural construction. Kers Clausen, structural engineer, told me essentially the same thing six or seven years ago; leading to the new roof at the south pool. I’ve always felt the same about the structure. 

For these reasons, I believe the window repairs should take place. More damage can only further endanger the users. More damage due to vandalism can occur “unnoticed” if present damage is not repaired. Lexan can replace glass to avoid future softball breakage. Rusted ugly screen can then be removed. The wire glass employed at the south window failed under the type of blows impacted. 

Terry Cochrell 

I haven’t seen the cartoons myself and frankly don’t care to (much in the same way if I hear that there is a porno picture that is being passed around, I probably wouldn’t want to see it; I rather personally dislike trashy things.) What I know is that they were printed in September and there were protests and outcries. Nothing was done. No apologies. Then, they were reprinted another time. And then the clerics caught on to it. And massive protests were organized and many people were genuinely outraged. I have to say, the stupidity of both sides astounds me and really shows some murky truths that further sadden me. First, how uncouth, how disrespectful, how racist, muslim-phobic do you have to be to mock another religion at its core of symbolism? All religions depend on symbolism. There is no imagery of the Prophet Muhammad because of a deep belief that no person should become a source of worship. Worship should be of God also left formless to take form in the individual. 

This past Christmas, I heard that hundreds people called into television stations because on “Everybody Hates Chris” they “revealed” that there was no Santa Claus along with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. The younger Chris Rock said to his little sister, “Look we don’t even have a fireplace, we have a radiator.” This clinched it for her and she ran away in a burst of tears. Hundreds of outraged letters and phone calls, and peppered in those were even some threats. I think the outrage stemmed from people feeling like their choice to allow their children to believe in something unreal was taken away from them. A few years back the Dixie Chicks, former musical darlings of the Bible belt who broke through to mainstream, were at a concert in London and before the concert, the lead vocalist said she was ashamed what Bush was doing with Blair. Thousands of people were in the streets of America. Open bonfires of all their materials, album, pictures, etc. Radio stations were forced by violent listeners to stop playing the Dixie Chicks. The Dixie Chicks who are sisters got death threats (hmmm, fatwas) on them and their children! They finally went on air, told their story in an interview and apologized through sobs just so the terrorizing would stop. And this, just because she voiced an opinion about what her president was about to do in another country. Personally, if people didn’t like it, I think a few “boos” and walkouts from the concert, maybe even a few demanding their money back would have sufficed. 

Dumb. Very dumb of the Danish newspaper to reprint the cartoons a second time. Even dumber that they would print this and refuse at the same time to print some material that would disgrace Jesus. What’s that all about? Also, there is a pervasive problem that Muslim minorities in European countries are treated like third class citizens. Like any minority group that is discriminated against, this is another blow. Can you imagine if a white actor/actress decided to put on black-face and did a fumbling routine and said it was just supposed to be funny, just free speech? Or, a cartoon of Hitler smelling flowers growing out of gas chambers, or something like that- that’s not free speech, it’s purposely offensive and that’s what I think these cartoons are. And yet, still, every so often an offensive thing does get printed, a quack professor tries to espouse the scientific basis for the racial superiority of “Caucasians” over “Negroids.” No one bands with this quack. Everyone draws in a collective breath of surprise and disgust (some only because he got caught openly saying it.) Everyone distances himself or herself from this professor. Statements of apology are put forth and they fire this professor. They do not stand in solidarity with this professor (like some Europeans are doing with the Danish paper.) There should be protests and a call for an apology and maybe even “fire the editor.” 

But violent protests and fatwas, come on! Some intelligent responses, please!! This sort of thing only feeds the frenzy. I wish this kind of mass protest would occur over lack of access to food or health-care or decent living in Muslim countries. There’s something to scream in the streets about or burn down flags about. I wish it would occur over lack of education and liberalization, global supply chains that only benefit the rich, rampant consumerism and environmental degradation, human trafficking and abuse of all kinds. But sadly it doesn’t or it isn’t covered when it does.  

I fear in many Muslim countries, right wing extremists who also happen to have thick wallets have squelched moderate voices. But so has the media. It seems that the more frenzied, violent episodes always get the coverage. The moderate voices as well as the varied voices are not given space. Coverage is simplistic and dumbed-down playing on and into stereotypes. Never mind, the imbalanced access to and coverage by the media megalomaniacs. I think money and mega-media has done much to hurt free speech.  

And what about all the violence that is hurtled at us all day in practically every form of the media? Is that free speech or simply taking away my freedom or my children’s freedom not to be exposed to certain things? That is offensive. But who is to play God and decide what is permissible under free speech and what is limiting free speech? I do feel the world is slowly going crazy, and the pace has quickened these past years.  

Mansura Khanam, who happens to be a female Bangladeshi American returning student, just recently moved to San Francisco.  

\

As a resident in the Ashby BART vicinity, I attended the city-sponsored meeting this past Saturday. The city had given us only four days notice before the meeting, and had not notified any area residents directly. Yet over 200 people were there, thanks in part to the Daily Planet’s good coverage of the City Council meeting. We were interested in learning the official view of the proposed BART parking lot project.  

I had read the proposal with interest. This document specifically said that the project would include 300-plus apartments, and that a developer would be selected by June 2006. It assured that the project came from broad community input. Since, like everyone else in the neighborhood, I had only learned of the project in January, almost five months after the city had originally submitted the proposal to Caltrans for funding, I was curious to learn more about this supposed community input.  

At the meeting on Saturday, we learned from Mayor Tom Bates, Councilmember Max Anderson, and Project Director Ed Church that the proposed project is premature and inaccurate.  

• The mayor and councilmember admitted that their process in making the proposal was mistaken. This was a good realization. They apologized but were not prepared to offer any action to rectify the mistake. A mistaken proposal should be withdrawn.  

• The mayor waved off our concerns by asserting that everything could be renegotiated after Berkeley gets the Caltran money. Are we really to believe that the state would fund the selection of a contractor to build a proposed 300-unit building and then allow the city to change its mind and use the money to plan, say, a pedestrian plaza instead?  

• The proposal offered no proof that building a 300-unit building in South Berkeley will solve the problems it is supposed to address: creating affordable housing and increasing BART ridership. In fact, data show that fewer than 10 percent of residents in transit developments across the country actually use transit. Also, the feasibility studies make it clear that this project cannot provide affordable housing and still be financially feasible. The problem and the proposed solution do not match.  

• Project director Ed Church conceded that the proposal contained blatant mistakes, such as a 30 percent overstatement of the buildable area on the BART west parking lot. Gross misstatements in a proposal destroy the city’s credibility.  

• The proposal implies that South Berkeley needs higher housing density. But the population density in the area surrounding the Ashby BART station already significantly exceeds what BART recommends. While other BART station areas lack the recommended density, the south Berkeley neighborhood should not be subjected to density levels dramatically higher than those required elsewhere. South Berkeley lacks open spaces, not housing density. 

• The proposal ignores the historic contribution of South Berkeley to the fabric of the city. This area has whole blocks of historic bungalows unique to Berkeley. In addition, the Ashby Flea Market represents a vital historic legacy. It is a lively, successful outgrowth of Berkeley’s political activism of the 1960s. It, too, deserves to be highlighted and supported, not shoved aside. The proposal displaces the flea market and depicts South Berkeley only as a broken place needing to be fixed. We as a community need to plan for enhancing the resources here that make all of Berkeley a special place to live. The proposal is premature and skewed.  

In short, this proposal, which involved no community input, imposes a straitjacket on the community. It builds on false information and destroys historical resources. It is flawed and inaccurate.  

Anyone concerned about the integrity of our irreplaceable resources needs to urge the city council to withdraw this second rate proposal for a 300 unit building on the west Ashby parking lot. Instead, the community needs to determine together what kind of a city we wish Berkeley to be, as Zelda Bronstein suggested in her Daily Planet column a couple of weeks ago. We look forward to conducting this process in collaboration with other Berkeley neighborhoods and with our elected representatives. We want south Berkeley and the Ashby BART area to represent and enhance the unique vitality and beauty of Berkeley as a truly livable city.  

Rosemary Hyde is a South Berkeley  

resident. 

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My friend Andrew is back in town for some high-level, covert schmoozing. I last wrote about Andrew Boyd in 2004 when he was in the Bay Area directing a street theater effort against the Bush administration’s economic policies. Andrew is the founder of Billionaires for Bush, a do-it-yourself grassroots media campaign using humor and drama to expose politicians who support big business interests at the expense of everyday Americans. 

Within the organization, Andrew is known as Phil T. Rich. While stomping against corporate greed, Andrew wears a top hat and tails, guzzles champagne, throws fake money around, and smokes an obscenely large cigar. 

Fresh from political action of a different kind in Kansas City, Andrew had scant time to talk with me about his current activities. But on Friday morning, while still in my pajamas, I was able to corner him in my kitchen for a few minutes to hear about his recent escapades. 

Last spring Andrew was involved in the Leave My Child Alone coalition, created by Working Assets, Mainstreet Moms and ACORN to protect high school students from unwanted military recruiting. Since the coalition was launched on Mother’s Day 2005, concerned parents nationwide have held over 450 “opt out” events, and thousands of kids have been removed from the lists public high schools turn over to military recruiters. 

Returning to New York midsummer, Andrew pursued his writing career, working on a humorous manifesto-advice book for men about how to be sexy and anti-sexy at exactly the same time, and a second manuscript about his 2005 trip around the world. 

Last month he worked with the Ruckus Society and ACORN on a campaign opposing Wal-Mart. While 6,100 Wal-Mart upper management employees met at a media-blacked-out gathering at the Kansas City Convention Center, Andrew and his fellow protesters (dressed in hazmat suits, dust masks, and rubber gloves) surrounded Bartle Hall with 5,000 yards of yellow caution tape and served the attendees with notice of quarantine. The action was created in an effort to bring public scrutiny to Wal-Mart’s employee health care policies. 

“Full-time Wal-Mart employees lead the Medicaid roles in 16 states,” Andrew told me over a bowl of Raisin Bran. “We got some good local media coverage and Wal-Mart’s attention.” 

Less you think I normally interview high-powered lefties in my flannel pajamas, let me explain. Andrew is staying at my house while visiting the Bay Area. I provide him with a roof over his head and clean linens when he’s in town and he provides me with a sense of political purpose. 

Below is Andrew’s personal website and the web addresses of some of Andrew’s favorite political organizations. Check them out. 

• Andrew Boyd (a guy with lots of projects): www.wanderbody.com. 

• Billionaires for Bush (you have nothing to lose but your job): www.billionairesforbush.com. 

• Leave My Child Alone (a family privacy project): www.leavemychildalone.org. 

• Working Assets (Founded on the belief that building a business and a better world aren’t mutually exclusive. Working Assets has been helping busy people make a difference by contributing over $50 million in donations since 1985 to nonprofits working for peace, equality, human rights, education and a cleaner environment): www.workingassets.com. 

• Mainstream Moms (The MMOB is an education-in-action project committed to big change through the accelerated engagement of women, particularly as they identify and self-organize as mothers): www.themmob.com. 

• ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is the nation’s largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities): www.acorn.org. 

• The Ruckus Society (The Ruckus Society provides environmental, human rights, and social justice organizers with the tools, training, and support needed to achieve their goals): www.ruckus.org. 

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You’ve probably seen Canary Island pines around Berkeley, though I don’t know of any that are official street trees. They’re spotted in groups around the UC campus—there’s one near the Campanile—and they show up in various civic plantings, on big lawns and open spaces. They’re big trees—the largest pine native to the “Old World”—with a soft look when they’re mature. 

That soft look comes mostly from their big, rather droopy needles, held on flexible horizontal branches. They’re less stiff than the average pine’s, so much so they move independently in the wind and sound more like a sigh than like oncoming traffic. The reddish bark laced with golden irregular grooves adds a glow to the deep-green foliage. Altogether romantic in a gentle, almost tropical-island way.  

They’re not quite tropical; they do in fact hail from the Canary Islands, just off north Africa, which have a Mediterranean climate. Several plants from the Canary Island and nearby are common in our landscapes here. Just offhand, there are these Pinus canariensis pines; Phoenix canariensis, Canary Island date palms; those big bush blue- or pink-flowered echiums, E. fastuosum, “pride of Madera” and E. wildpretii, “tower of jewels,” also called “pride of Tenerife.” Well, someone ought to be proud, that’s quite a plant too. 

The pines originate in the altitude belt just above the fog influence and below the alpine mountainous parts of those volcanic islands, but they don’t seem to mind living in the fog here, and in the decidedly non-volcanic clay soils we have.  

The Canary Islands, by the way, aren’t named after the domestic songbird canaries; they’re named after dogs,—remember “Cave Canem”?— and canaries are named after the islands. So Tweety is a bird named after a dog’s namesake. Stuff like this makes etymology almost as much fun as entomology.  

They’re mostly ornamental plantings here, but are used for lumber in other parts of the world including their homeland. Predictably, it’s escaped cultivation to become an invasive species in Australia and South Africa. The tree’s not hardy below 10 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The red heartwood of Canary Island pines, at least in their original range, is so dense it sinks in water—unusual in any tree, more so in “softwoods” like pine. They stump-sprout easily, and so recover from wildfires.  

Knowing a tree as an individual is one thing; in a forest anchored by its species, whole new aspects of its character show themselves. The original pine forests on Tenerife and Gran Canario are the world’s only habitat for a handsome little bird, the blue chaffinch, Fringilla teydea, in the Canaries also called “Teide finch.” It’s so determinedly resident in these western-Canaries forests that the only extralimital records that my references have are in the eastern Canaries. By way of perspective: we get extralimital birds here all the time; there’s a tufted duck in Aquatic Park right now that came, at a conservative guess, from Siberia to Berkeley instead of to Japan or south China for the winter; and a northern waterthrush that ought to be in eastern Mexico. 

Learning that the “true” chaffinch, F. coelebs, has a couple of subspecies there, and of course the more widely distributed Tweety canary, Serinus canaria, exists there as a wild bird with an intricate song (if a more subtle yellow-brown plumage) suggests it might be fun to bird the place. It has interesting plants, too, related to some of our landscape favorites: a rockrose, a different echium, some pretty legumes.  

That will be easier to do now that restoration efforts are happening. Also predictably, much of the old forests got clear-cut, taking who-knows-what unique systems with them. But Canarians are catching on to nuances like the place of the pines in their water cycle, catching rain and holding it in effective soil reservoirs, nurturing an understory that does the same. On small, rocky volcanic islands in saltwater seas, this might get attention faster than on a big soil-rich continent. Let’s hope the powers that be in our own place—that’s us, theoretically—catch on and act to preserve and restore, before we lose more of what we thrive on.  

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In the past two weeks the rhetoric on Iran has taken a chilling turn, in part because it doesn’t all come from the White House. Consider the following statements: 

President George W. Bush, subsequent to the Feb. 3 vote by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council: “The world will not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons.”  

On Feb. 4, U.S. Senator (and presidential hopeful) John McCain said at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, “There is only one thing worse than military action, and that is a nuclear-armed Iran.” 

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte testifying before the Senate Feb. 3: “Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shia militants with the capacity to build improvised explosive devices with explosively formed projectiles similar to those developed by Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah.”  

Robert G. Joseph, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security before the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee on Feb. 1: “A nuclear-armed Iran could embolden the leadership in Tehran to advance its aggressive ambitions in and outside the region, both directly and through the terrorists it supports.” Once so armed, it “would represent a direct threat to U.S. forces and allies in the region” “could provide the fuse for further proliferation,” and “would represent an existential threat to the state of Israel. Finally, Iran is at the nexus of weapons of mass destruction and terrorism.” 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Munich security conference on Feb. 4: “We want, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program further.” Merkel went on to compare Iran to the rise of Hitler Germany, arguing, “Now we see there were times when we could have acted differently. For that reason Germany is obligated to make clear what is permissible and what isn’t.” 

Quick analysis:  

Bush: The use of “the world” sounds a lot like the green light the White House took from the first U.N. vote on Iraq. Might the administration now argue that the IAEA referral means the “world” has condemned Iran, making it legal for the U.S. to put together a “coalition of the willing” to attack Tehran? 

McCain: The man had no problems bombing Vietnamese, why would anyone be surprised that he wants to pound Iranians? 

Negroponte: Iran is making bombs to attack U.S. and British troops, who are arming and protecting Iran’s clients in the Shia community? Come again? Of course John was the guy who covered for the Contra war against Nicaragua when he was ambassador to Honduras, so making things up—like the Sandinistas were a threat to the U.S.—is old hat for him. 

Joseph: Substitute the word “Iraq” for “Iran.” Then be afraid. 

Merkel: Her remarks may be the most troublesome. Add them to French President Jacques Chirac’s recent threat to use nuclear weapons against “terrorist states,” toss in Tony “The Poodle” Blair, and suddenly Washington has a coalition with considerably more clout than the one that invaded Iraq. 

The Beirut Daily Star is reporting that the United States plans to close the Straits of Hormuz and seize Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province on the pretext of cutting off supplies to the Iranian military. Khuzestan was the target of Saddam Hussein’s 1980 attack on Iran. 

Stay tuned. 

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is under fire by staff for bypassing World Bank hiring procedures, stacking the deck with Republican stalwarts, and concentrating power in the hands of a small cabal around the president’s office. 

The bank’s internal investigations unit is examining Wolfowitz’s appointments of Robin Cleveland, Kevin Kellems, and Suzanne Rich Folsom, who the staff charges were handed open-ended contracts at excessive salaries. Cleveland was formerly the associate director of the White House Office of Budget and Management and used to work for Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell. Kellems worked for Wolfowitz when he was undersecretary of defense, and for Vice President Dick Cheney. 

According to staff complaints, one of Folsom’s first acts as head of the Department of Institutional Integrity was to bypass the bank’s rules and snoop through e-mail accounts. 

In a Jan. 24 editorial, the Financial Times chided Wolfowitz for “draining authority upwards from those beneath him in the hierarchy to his clique of advisers.” 

After “almost eight months…Paul Wolfowitz has yet to set a course for his presidency, and staff disquiet is reaching deafening levels,” opined the Times. 

Institutional incompetence, breaking bylaws, and concentrating power in the hands of right-wing ideologues? Who would have thought? 

When Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko and his “Orange Revolution” toppled the corrupt regime of Leonard Kuchma, they were the toast of the Bush administration, the neo-cons, the Freedom House gang, and the European Union. But according to reporter and essayist Doug Ireland, the West was hiding a dirty little secret: the “Orange Revolution” was riddled with anti-Semites and was apparently as corrupt as the people it tossed out. 

On the eve of the International Day of Commemoration for Holocaust victims, Yuschenko awarded the “Hero of the Ukraine”—Ukraine’s highest honor—to Ivan Spodarenko, editor of the anti-Semitic mass circulation newspaper, Silski Visti. Silski Visti, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, once asserted, “400,000 Jews served in Nazi SS forces during the German invasion of the Ukraine during World War II.”  

Silski Visti, with a circulation of 500,000, is widely read in rural areas, and was sued for publishing anti-Semitic articles in 2004. The cases were dismissed in 2005. 

At the same time as Yushchenko was being hailed as a great democrat, the British Helsinki Human Rights organization reported “Western media and governments…edited out the manifestations of extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism,” but “key opposition leaders, including Viktor Yushchenko, Julia Timoshenko and Alexander Moroz defended anti-Semitic publications and accepted the backing of neo-Nazi groups.” 

Headed into March elections, Yushchenko is mired in corruption charges and his party is polling at around 15 percent. Kuchma’s handpicked candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, who lost to Yushchenko in the last election, is polling 25 percent. Julia Timoshenko, Yushchenko’s former coalition partner, and the person who blew the whistle on the president’s corruption, is polling at 12 percent. 

Quebec Solidarire, a new left-wing party recently formed in Quebec, is challenging the separatist and more conservative Parti Quebeçois. Formed by a merger of the L’Union des Forces Progressives and Option Citoyenne, the new party, according to one of its leaders, Françoise David, will “bring values like solidarity, ecology, equality between men and women” to the province’s voters. 

The party will support sovereignty, but according to Amir Kahdir of the L’Union des Forces Progressives, “Separatism is not a goal… It’s not an end in itself. What we are here for is social justice.” 

Parti Quebeçois has been accused of hostility toward immigrants in the past—even accusing the immigrants of torpedoing a sovereignty referendum—and it tends to be conservative on economic issues. But because it stood for sovereignty, it could depend on a solid bloc of voters. That bloc is now up for grabs, and with the new conservative government gearing up for an attack on social services, Parti Quebeçois will either have to shed its neo-liberal economic policies or lose some of its base to the new kid on the block. 

At what point should the citizens of Oakland begin declaring the two-term administration of Mayor Jerry Brown to be a failure? Massive. Total. Complete. 

This is a question I’ve been posing for quite some time now, but it was prompted (again) by the recent announcement of the demise of the Oakland Ballet, which is closing its doors after 40 years because of financial difficulties. 

So much for the Oakland Arts Renaissance Mayor. 

While a politician ought to be judged not only on what they promise to do while in office, at the very least they ought to be able to deliver on those promises, or explain why they couldn’t. 

Instead, Mr. Brown appears to be altering history in his last months in office as mayor of Oakland, pretending that he didn’t promise something at all. 

In the “About Jerry” link to Mr. Brown’s California attorney general campaign website (www.jerrybrown.org), Mr. Brown’s campaign writes that “Upon taking office [as Oakland mayor in 1999], Brown emphasized three goals: reducing crime, revitalizing the downtown and encouraging charter schools.” 

That’s not what I remember. Actually, upon taking office in 1999, Mr. Brown emphasized four goals. The fourth one, not listed on his “About Jerry” website link, was support for the arts in Oakland. It’s listed as one of Mr. Brown’s four policy goals in the fiscal year 2001-03 proposed policy budget, the document around which the city budget was fashioned. That fourth mayoral goal reads: “Arts: To encourage artistic expression and craft through public grants and civic festivals and establish a school for the performing arts.” Mr. Brown’s now-missing arts goal was also listed as one of Mr. Brown’s four policy goals in his January 1999 inaugural address (“The fourth element of my pledge is to support the arts and encourage festival and celebration in Oakland,” he told us), and as late as his 2000 State of the City speech, he was still listing “celebration of the arts” as one of his priorities. 

When, then, did support for the arts in Oakland get dropped as one of Mr. Brown’s goals and promises? 

Can’t exactly say for sure, but if we’d been paying attention, there were some signs along the way. 

One of them was Mr. Brown’s appointment of his longtime friend, aide, and used-to-be housemate, Jacques Barzaghi, as director of Oakland’s Craft and Cultural Affairs Department. (No romantic attachment between Mr. Brown and Mr. Barzaghi is implied, by the way; they just shared a big loft together with Mr. Barzaghi’s wife, and before Mr. Brown got married.) Anyways, while he may have served invaluably as a political advisor to Mr. Brown during his years as California secretary of state and governor and in his run for the United States presidency, Mr. Barzaghi never demonstrated the type of arts background needed to serve a city as sophisticated, ethnically varied, and artistically diverse as Oakland, and his appointment always seemed a way to get a buddy a nice city paycheck rather than as a way to actually help the city. 

Another indication of Mr. Brown’s flagging interest in arts in Oakland, was Mr. Brown’s failure to lift a public hand to try to save the Carijama Festival. 

Carijama, you may remember, was one of Oakland’s most successful festivals, a celebration of Caribbean and African-American dance, song, art, food, and artifacts that attracted hundreds of folks every Memorial Day to Mosswood Park in North-West Oakland since 1984. In 2002, the privately run festival ran into trouble with fights breaking out between youths who had not participated in the festivities, and only showed up when the entertainment was just about over and people were beginning to go home. After similar end-of-the-festivities violence broke out the next year, the city forced Carijama to move from grassy Mosswood to the sterile Frank Ogawa Plaza. Eventually, when the youth trouble continued, Carijama was sadly discontinued. 

Perhaps Carijama couldn’t have been saved. But while other Oakland officeholders put in efforts to keep the festival going—West Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel being one I especially remember—there’s no public indication that Mr. Brown even tried. So much for his 2001-03 city budget pledge to “encourage festival and celebration in Oakland.” 

Mr. Brown actually did worse with the Malonga Casquelord Center over on Alice Street, coming close to destroying one of Oakland’s most successful public art programs. The Casquelord Center—formerly the Alice Arts Center—is undoubtedly one of the most best public/private arts collaborations in the country, where several performing arts companies—mostly based in African dance—get free or reduced-price headquarters space in exchange for operating public dance classes through the City of Oakland. Thousands of Oakland citizens attend the dance classes every year. When Mr. Brown first formed his charter Oakland School For The Arts, he housed the school in a portion of the Casquelord facility, at one point putting in something like a million dollars in city subsidies to convert the basement and storefront space into classroom facilities. But instead of working out a partnership between the existing Casquelord programs and the Arts School, Mr. Brown eventually tried to take over the entire facility and muscle out the performing arts companies and the dance classes, suggesting at one point they house themselves in the storefronts surrounding the vacant Fox Oakland Theater. The companies—and a group of residential tenants on the center’s top floor—fought back, and eventually got City Council to make Mr. Brown back off his attempt to take over the whole Casquelord. If Mr. Brown had succeeded, he would have destroyed one of Oakland’s performing and participating arts treasures. That should have been another clue as to how he was viewing his goal to support the arts in Oakland. 

Now—under Mr. Brown’s watch—comes the demise of the Oakland Ballet. 

In 2004, citing financial problems, the Ballet had to take a year off to raise money. Until then it had been performing in the Paramount Theater, but moved to the Calvin Simmons Theater in the Kaiser Convention Center complex in 2005 as a cost-cutting measure. When City Council voted to close the Convention Center at the end of 2005 in order to balance the city budget, the Ballet had no performance home, and with bills mounting and low ticket sales for the 2005 season, the company had to call it quits. 

Could Mr. Brown have saved the Oakland Ballet, and, for that matter, the Kaiser Auditorium and the Calvin Simmons Theater? Again, I don’t know. There is every evidence that a city as diverse and culturally sophisticated as Oakland could have figured out a way to keep the ballet, given a massive, coordinated effort headed by the mayor’s office. But there is also no evidence that Mr. Brown—distracted, perhaps, by his run for California attorney general—even tried. Where were the press conferences? The City Hall meetings? The mobilization of city resources like we saw when he was fighting to get his military and arts charter schools approved by the Oakland Unified School District? The appeals to wealthy donors, both in Oakland, around the state, and around the country? Where were those fabulous contacts Mr. Brown promised us during the 1998 mayoral campaign that would “put Oakland on the map?” 

Instead, we got a prepared statement from the mayor’s office, which read: “The Oakland Ballet brought pleasure to generations of Oaklanders. It’s truly unfortunate that the financial challenges proved overwhelming.” 

Unfortunate?  

Meanwhile, Mr. Brown has spent most of his “arts” time in Oakland developing his charter Oakland School For The Arts. One of the curriculum paths at that school allow a student to build the foundation to become a professional ballet dancer. For the last 40 years, an Oakland kid could use those classical European-based dancing talents to become a professional dancer in her or his hometown. Now, under Mr. Brown, that opportunity is lost. 

At what point, then, should the citizens of Oakland begin declaring the two-term administration of Mayor Jerry Brown to be a failure? 

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When I need some retail therapy, you won’t be surprised to hear, I often go look for something for the garden. I spend time in the nurseries I write about in this space, and I have to be careful if I actually want to make my occupation produce income, rather than outgo. There’s just something so hopeful about a fresh seedling or seed packet, and the scent of wholesome dirt makes my spirits rise.  

Some places are even more dangerous to people like me than nurseries are. Urban Ore is one of them, though it’s easy enough on the wallet. I had the definitive shopper’s experience there years ago, when it was in its former Gilman Street spot: I went in to get a piece of used lumber, and came out with a hand-woven wool coat, probably of Afghan origin, that didn’t fit but really needed to come home with me. It hangs on my parlor wall; I’d rather look at it than wear it anyway. I still like it, it still gets compliments, and it cost well under ten dollars.  

I suppose I got the lumber too, but I don’t even remember what it was for. You don’t have to be the sort of alt-Berkeley gardener who puts a toilet planted with geraniums on the front lawn to like shopping at Urban Ore. There’s no shortage of plumbing fixtures in case you want to ring changes on the concept of a sink garden—rather a lot of them in Fifties Pink the last time I was there —but there’s lots of other stuff that integrates more gracefully into a landscape. I have a weakness for chimney flue tiles to plant succulents in a gravel-heavy mix, and sometimes there are enough there to build a sort of effigy pipe-organ.  

Used lumber, of course, and stone too: landscape rocks, granite countertop cuts. Rows of windowpanes, good for cobbling together a mini-greenhouse for your tropicals in winter, or a cold frame, not that we need them much here for the usual subjects. (They’re also good for group picture frames.) Cinderblocks, which don’t have to look industrial if handled cleverly; planters and containers including good old red clay pots. If you’re handy and willing with a wire brush, paint, any sort of tinkering and sweat equity, you can get anything from a barbeque kettle to outdoor furniture to edgers and lawnmowers at minimal cost. Last week there was a whole barrel of tiki torches.  

The idea behind Urban Ore is to stop dumping stuff that can be reused; to stop wasting things (and the energy that goes into manufacturing and transporting them) and to reduce what got dumped in “landfills.” (That term bugs me, as I have never yet seen empty land. Anyone who supposedly has needs to learn more.) This isn’t a high-end “salvage” yard, but I’ve found treasures here and compared to elsewhere they’re cheap.  

Take your work gloves and your imagination along, and remember that stock changes unpredictably. Have fun! 

Urban Ore 

900 Murray Street, Berkeley 

(510) 841-7283 

Monday–Saturday 8:30 a.m.–7 p.m. 

Sunday 10 a.m.–7 a.m. 

Receiving closes at 5 p.m. daily. 

Our friends the Shnozzles (names herein will be changed to protect me, the person I’m always most concerned about) are in the throws of a major remodel and the festivities attending this blessed event are reminding me of all the things I learned back in the days when I engaged in this most cruel and unusual of professions. I’ve been giving them a little advice here and there and hearing about their woes-du-jour so I’ll pass along a few of each in the hopes that you might be spared just a little of the misery that so often accompanies the day when our houses change. 

Nina Schnozzle came over one day and said that when she visited the job-site, it turned out that a major window that looked out over the bay was about a foot too low. She was genuinely shocked and assumed that this sort of thing couldn’t happen unless the contractors were drunk or recently lobotomized. It wasn’t necessarily so, I told her and continued to iterate the well known capabilities of this particular contractor (who charges all the arms and all the legs). That’s just the way it is. 

Contractors make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes. Not all of the time and everywhere but some of the time here and there. Therefore, I said, and this applies to all of you as well, keep an eye on the work. Go there often, being sure not to get hurt or get into fights with the help and look. Do not be afraid to ask if the light fixture is where it is supposed to be. It’s not an extraordinary question. If things look wrong, you might well be right and you might also be doing the contractor (and yourself) a big favor by point it out earlier in the process than they might otherwise figure it out.  

Contract work proceeds in phases and the earlier one identifies a problem, the easier and cheaper it is going to be to fix. In fact, if you find a mislocation or improper choice of some other type late enough, it might not be reasonable to fix it at all, given the expense and complexity. 

Construction is sort of a layering process. We being with ground-work, staking out the earth and deciding where things will end up being located. Mistakes made at this level can result in violations of set-backs that can result in having to tear off exterior walls and rebuild them. This is really expensive and you don’t want this to occur. 

Cities can be forgiving but they don’t have to be. Assuming the site work is done properly, foundations are dug and formed with reinforcing metal laid in place. This too must be laid out properly and inspected fully by the city because it is very hard to remove and replace a foundation once it has been poured. Next comes framing which is generally wooden and takes days or weeks to install and is followed by wiring, plumbing and heating. 

When we have the sheetrock in place and someone says, “Hey, that window is a foot too low,” it’s not any fun at all. There are so many layers including exterior siding, trims, framing and possibly electrical or plumbing that now will have to be changed and this can cost a lot.  

Many folks will, at this point, say, “Well, too bad. It’s their own fault” and they will be right. But being right has only so much going for it. If you can smooth the path for your contractor by pointing out things that you are aware of, you might stay out of trouble or at least lessen the trouble that is almost synonymous with remodeling a house (especially one you’re living in). 

If the contractor has the sense that you are on their side, you will be welcome at the jobsite and your participation can be beneficial in other ways. Contracts rarely give us a sense of all the small design details that make up a house, such as the way a trim is crafted and installed by the carpenter. If you see these in the early stages and don’t like the detail, it might be very easy to change them. If you only seen them after a thousand board feet have been installed, it can be very expensive and much less friendly.  

This is, however, very tricky business. It is important to keep a constant sense of friendliness present in these interactions, with compassion and respect. If these things are not present, it is very easy for the contractor to begin pointing out the limitations of the contract. It is likely that your preferences were not all written in and that the contractor has a certain amount of latitude in doing things the way that they prefer. 

This is a hard nut for many homeowners to crack. They assume many things and if it’s not in the contract, the assumption may be worth nothing. Therefore, calm, friendly exchanges are worth gold. Also be prepared to pay a change order fee if you want something different as you move along and it wasn’t specified in the contract. 

Be cautious about saying, “Well, I though it would so and so.” You will not be in a defensible position and you may find yourself shutting down the lines of communication. You may also end up getting passable work but not the kind of quality that this contractor is capable of and only provides when he or she is feeling appreciated. This is true for all of us, isn’t it? I certainly do better work when someone is stroking my ego and staying on my good side. 

So keep in mind that your contractor is, like you, just human, and that a little vigilance and a lot of pleasant communication will always produce a better finished product. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com.?

TUESDAY, FEB. 21 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Modernism in Israel: Works on Paper” opens at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., and runs through July 9. 549-6950. 

“Ansel Adams: Inspiration and Influence” opens at the Lindsey Wildlife Museum, 1931 First Ave., Walnut Creek. 925-935-1978. www.wildlife-museum.org 

FILM 

Women’s Preservation Film Fund with Alice Guy-Blanché, Meredith Monk, and actresses Grace Cunard and Francine Everett at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Prelim #1, for youth aged 13-19 at 7 p.m. at Berkeley High School, 2223 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Tickets are $4-$6. 415-255-9035, ext. 22. www.youthspeaks.org   

Kenji Yoshino describes “Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffmaan with Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Mike Marshall & Hamilton de Holanda, mandolins, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazz 

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Measure of Time” with works by Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Robert Brer, Dennis Oppenhiem and many others, opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Ave. 642-0808.  

FILM 

Film 50 “The Murderers Are Among Us” at 3 p.m. and Weird America “Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea” at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sister Helen Prejean talks about “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account to Wrongful Executions” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Prelim #2, for youth aged 13-19 at 7 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $4-$6. 415-255-9035, ext. 22. www.youthspeaks.org  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ned Boynton Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Candela at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Benny Lackner Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Mary Gauthier, American gothic orginals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, FEB. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The White Album” works in varying shades of white, at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs through March 25. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Charles Criner: A Colorful History” in honor of Black History Month. Reception at 4 p.m. at the LunchStop Cafe, Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. 817-5773. 

FILM 

Human Rights Watch “Mardi Gras: Made in China” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Measure of Time” Curator’s talk with Lucinda Barnes at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 5, at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Ave. 642-0808.  

Nomad Spoken Word Night at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Taylor Branch presents the final volume of his history of Martin Luther King Jr. and the history of the civil rights movement, “At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68” Reception at 6:15 p.m. followed by talk at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20, or $12 with purchase of the book. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Word Beat Reading Series with Lenore Weiss and Diana Q. at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra “Baroque Festival” at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$42. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org  

Sheldon Brown Group at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. 701-1787.  

Zion-I, Crown City Rockers, Serendipity Project, reggae, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Stephen Bennett, harp guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. 

Soul Jazz Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

The Seventh Season at 10:30 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville. All ages, free.  

Mark Little and Ricardo Peixoto at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Jessica Williams at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$6. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, FEB. 24 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “The Master Builder” Wed. through Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through March 12. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “9 Parts of Desire” about women in war-torn Iraq, at 8 p.m. at the Trust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through March 5. Tickets are $30-$59. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Black Repertory Group “The Piano Lesson” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St., through Feb. 25. Tickets are $7-$15. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest” Fri. and Sat at 8 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser Lane, El Cerrito, through Feb. 25. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

Impact Theatre, “Hamlet” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through March 18. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. www.impacttheatre.com 

The Marsh Berkeley “Strange Travel Suggestions” monologue by Jeff Greenwald, Thurs. and Fri. at 7 p.m. through March 3, at 2118 Allston Way. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006. www.themarsh.org 

Masquers Playhouse "Over the River and Through the Woods" Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Feb. 25 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

The Sun & Moon Ensemble, “Luna” a multi-media performance, Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. through Feb. 26, at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Avenue at MLK Jr. Way. Tickets are $10-$15. 415-621-7978. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Snap” The Art of Living Black Satellite Show, in conjunction with the Richmond Art Center at the Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Reception at 6 p.m. 601-4141, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

FILM 

Human Rights Watch “Video Letters” Program 1 at 7 p.m. and “Justice” at 8:35 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Maile Meloy reads from her new novel “A Family Daughter” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Julie Orringer will read from her short story collection, “How to Breathe Underwater” at 8 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Barbara Keesling introduces “Sexual Healing” at 4 p.m. at Good Vibrations, 2504 San Pablo Ave. 841-8987.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland East Bay Symphony performs Mozart’s Overture to “Lucio Silla” and Dvorák’s “Stabat Mater” at 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Pre-concert lecture at 7:05 p.m. Tickets are $15-$60. 652-8497.  

Rising Phoenix Brass Band with Ron Stallings and Berkeley High School Students at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14, $7 for students. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Sweet Honey & the Rock at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $24-$46. 642-9988.  

Marvin Sanders, flute, Lena Lubotsky, piano at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont at Ashby. Cost is $12. 848-1228. www.giorgigallery.com 

The Castrati, Mr Loveless at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886.  

Bud Spangler All-Star Reunion Band at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

King Wawa & the Oneness Kingdom Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Listen, 4Hz beating patterns and guitar drones, at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Cost is $10-$18. www.studiorasa.org 

Cascada de Flores, Mexican traditional music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Ojalá, Jme* Isman, Evelie Posch and others in a benefit concert at Changemakers for Women, 6536 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Donation $10-$100. RSVP to 655-2405. 

Ben Adams Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Wayblonde and Gery Tinkelberg at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Go it Alone, Verse, Deadfall, The First Step at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

John Howland Trio, Phonofly at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$8. 548-1159.  

Joseph’s Bones, trombone reggae, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Hiromi at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 25 

CHILDREN  

“Junie Jones and A Little Monkey Business” theater for ages 5 and up, at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $13-$18. 925-798-1300. 

Derique the Clown at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

African American Quilters of Oakland Demonstration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the West Oakland Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1801 Adeline St. 238-7352.  

THEATER 

Central Works “Shadow Crossing” opens at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., runs through March 26. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381.  

FILM 

Human Rights Watch “Winter Soldier” at 5 p.m., “Occupation: Dreamland” at 7 p.m. and “State of Fear” at 8:40 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Frederick Douglas on Slave Music” with historian Dr. P. Sterling Stuckey at 3:30 p.m. at West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St. Oakland.  

“A Retrospective in Black & White and Color” with photographer Susan Sai-Wah Louie at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Bay Area Photographers Collective with Berkeley photographer Margaretta K. Mitchell on Ruth Bernhard at 2 p.m. at Harvey Milk Photography Center, 50 Scott St., downstairs, at Duboce St., SF. 415-554-9522. 

Lupe Jacobson, age 10, will sign her new book, “My Grandma Has a Blackberry” at 3 p.m. at Analog Books, 1816 Euclid. All proceeds from the book will go to the U’ilani Fund for breast cancer patients. 843-1816. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kensington Symphony Orchestra “American Portraits” at 8 p.m. at 25 Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Tickets are $10-$15. 524-9912. 

Sacred & Profane “Works with Organ” at 8 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman St., at Cornell. Tickets are $12-$18. 524-3611.  

Medea Sirkas Dance Theater at 1:30 p.m. at the Golden Gate Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5606 San Pablo Ave., in celebration of Black History Month. 597-5023. 

Amrit Dhara Pouring Nectar Odisi dance at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-18. 486-9851. 

Rhythm and Muse with Tres Santos, Chokwadi, Mark G. and Muteado, followed by open mic, at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. 

John Richardson Band at 9 p.m. at Circus Pub, 389 Colusa Ave., Kensington. 

Mareda Gaither-Graves, soprano, at 7:30 p.m. at Regents’ Theater, Holy Names Univ., 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $25-$40. 601-7919.  

Sacred and Profane, works for chorus and organ, at 8 p.m. at St. Ambrose Church, 1145 Gilman at Stannage. Tickets are $12-$18. 524-3611.  

Nika Rejto Quartet, CD release party, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Kotoja, Afro-beat at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. 

La Peña Commnity Chorus at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568.  

The Tenders, Gayle Lynn, The Hired Hands at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Andre Bush Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Chookasian Armenian Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. 

Unauthorized Rolling Stones at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $10. 848-0886.  

Guaranteed Swahili at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Benny Lackner Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

Hali Hammer & Randy Berge at 7 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Trainwreck Riders, Lampshade Seranade at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 26 

THEATER 

Vagina Monologues will be performed in American Sign Language, and voiced in English at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theater. Benefit for Deaf Hope. contact@deaf-hope.org, http://deafvday.tripod.com 

FILM 

Human Rights Watch “Living RIghts” at 3:30 p.m. and “Videoletters” Program 2 at 5:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Prelim #3, for youth aged 13-19, at 7 p.m. at Youth Up Rising, 8711 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $4-$6. 415-255-9035, ext. 22. www.youthspeaks.org  

James P. Moore speaks on his new book, “One Nation Under God: The History of Prayer in America,” with music by pianist Peter B. Allen, at 3 p.m. at First Church of Christ, Scientist, 2619 Dwight Way. Cost is $10, benefit to Roof Fund. 925-376-3908.  

Poetry Flash with Sarah Arvio and W.S. Di Piero at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. Donation $2. 845-7852.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Progression of Black Music featuring Faye Carol in celebration of Black History Month at 4 p.m. at McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 843-1774.  

The Half Note Club—Then and Now at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, in celebration of Black History Month. 238-2200.  

Young Peoples Chamber Orchestra Winter Concert, at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College. Free. 595-4688. www.ypco.org 

College of Alameda Jazz Band at 2 p.m. at Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. Free, families welcome. 748-2213. 

Nigah: Indian Classical Dance and Music at 4 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $7-$15. 925-798-1300. 

Patrick Street, Irish music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Mauro Correa, Brazilian soul, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

A Class Act, Fine by Me, I voted For Kodos at 5 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. All ages show. 848-0886.  

Joel Dorham Latin Jazz Octet at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Adrian West at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe. 595-5344.  

MONDAY, FEB. 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

African American Inventors and Scientists at the Junior Center of Art and Science, 558 Bellvue Ave., Lakeside Park, Oakland, through April 8. 839-5777. www.juniorcenter.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Chilifiya Safaa will read from her new novel, “A Foreign Affair” on relationships through the Black Diaspora, at 7 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

John Nielson discusses “Condor: To the Brink and Back: The Life and Times of One Giant Bird” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852.  

Poetry Express with Theme night: Hope, at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CSU East Bay Jazz Ensembles with guest vocalist Jamie Davis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$25. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Ÿ

Two local singers who are starting to make their mark in the national and international opera world will come back to Oakland as featured soloists in Friday’s Oakland East Bay Symphony concert, conducted by Michael Morgan at the Paramount Theater in Oakland.  

Soprano Hope Briggs grew up in the Bay Area, has lived in San Francisco and Berkeley, and was a Metropolitan Opera national finalist in 1997. 

She appeared in Busoni’s Dr. Faustus with the San Francisco and Stuttgart operas, and in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera with Festival Opera in Walnut Creek. After her Oakland performance she will be going to Frankfurt, Germany, to sing the role of Dona Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a role she will repeat for the San Francisco Opera in July 2007. 

Kalil Wilson, a tenor whose family lives in Oakland, is an alumnus of the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley and the Oakland Youth Chorus. 

Though he is only 24, he has won many competitive scholarships and awards, including first place in the Palm Springs Opera Guild of the Desert Vocal Competition, second place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Western Region Auditions, and first place in the Los Angeles Young Artists of the Future competition.  

He is now a Gluck Foundation Fellow in the UCLA Music Department. This summer, he is to sing the title role in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring at the 2006 Aspen Summer Music Festival. There last season, he sang the lead tenor role of Egeo in Cavalli’s Giasone. 

Briggs and Wilson will sing Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Oakland Symphony Chorus. Stabat Mater is a moving choral piece written by Dvorak during a time when he had lost all three of his children in a short period of time. He used the composition to work through his own grief by attempting to understand the suffering of Mary contemplating the crucifixion of her son.  

Also on the program will be the operatic overture to Mozart’s rarely performed Lucio Silla. The performance is at 8 p.m. For more information, call 444-0801 or see www.oebs.org

You’ve probably seen Canary Island pines around Berkeley, though I don’t know of any that are official street trees. They’re spotted in groups around the UC campus—there’s one near the Campanile—and they show up in various civic plantings, on big lawns and open spaces. They’re big trees—the largest pine native to the “Old World”—with a soft look when they’re mature. 

That soft look comes mostly from their big, rather droopy needles, held on flexible horizontal branches. They’re less stiff than the average pine’s, so much so they move independently in the wind and sound more like a sigh than like oncoming traffic. The reddish bark laced with golden irregular grooves adds a glow to the deep-green foliage. Altogether romantic in a gentle, almost tropical-island way.  

They’re not quite tropical; they do in fact hail from the Canary Islands, just off north Africa, which have a Mediterranean climate. Several plants from the Canary Island and nearby are common in our landscapes here. Just offhand, there are these Pinus canariensis pines; Phoenix canariensis, Canary Island date palms; those big bush blue- or pink-flowered echiums, E. fastuosum, “pride of Madera” and E. wildpretii, “tower of jewels,” also called “pride of Tenerife.” Well, someone ought to be proud, that’s quite a plant too. 

The pines originate in the altitude belt just above the fog influence and below the alpine mountainous parts of those volcanic islands, but they don’t seem to mind living in the fog here, and in the decidedly non-volcanic clay soils we have.  

The Canary Islands, by the way, aren’t named after the domestic songbird canaries; they’re named after dogs,—remember “Cave Canem”?— and canaries are named after the islands. So Tweety is a bird named after a dog’s namesake. Stuff like this makes etymology almost as much fun as entomology.  

They’re mostly ornamental plantings here, but are used for lumber in other parts of the world including their homeland. Predictably, it’s escaped cultivation to become an invasive species in Australia and South Africa. The tree’s not hardy below 10 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The red heartwood of Canary Island pines, at least in their original range, is so dense it sinks in water—unusual in any tree, more so in “softwoods” like pine. They stump-sprout easily, and so recover from wildfires.  

Knowing a tree as an individual is one thing; in a forest anchored by its species, whole new aspects of its character show themselves. The original pine forests on Tenerife and Gran Canario are the world’s only habitat for a handsome little bird, the blue chaffinch, Fringilla teydea, in the Canaries also called “Teide finch.” It’s so determinedly resident in these western-Canaries forests that the only extralimital records that my references have are in the eastern Canaries. By way of perspective: we get extralimital birds here all the time; there’s a tufted duck in Aquatic Park right now that came, at a conservative guess, from Siberia to Berkeley instead of to Japan or south China for the winter; and a northern waterthrush that ought to be in eastern Mexico. 

Learning that the “true” chaffinch, F. coelebs, has a couple of subspecies there, and of course the more widely distributed Tweety canary, Serinus canaria, exists there as a wild bird with an intricate song (if a more subtle yellow-brown plumage) suggests it might be fun to bird the place. It has interesting plants, too, related to some of our landscape favorites: a rockrose, a different echium, some pretty legumes.  

That will be easier to do now that restoration efforts are happening. Also predictably, much of the old forests got clear-cut, taking who-knows-what unique systems with them. But Canarians are catching on to nuances like the place of the pines in their water cycle, catching rain and holding it in effective soil reservoirs, nurturing an understory that does the same. On small, rocky volcanic islands in saltwater seas, this might get attention faster than on a big soil-rich continent. Let’s hope the powers that be in our own place—that’s us, theoretically—catch on and act to preserve and restore, before we lose more of what we thrive on.  

›

TUESDAY, FEB. 21 

Birdwalk on the MLK Shoreline from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. to see the ducks here for the winter. Beginnners welcome, binoculars available for loan. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Garden Club, “Great Underused Garden Plants” with Bobbie Feyerabend, Landscape Architect, at 1 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 527-5641. 

The Sudan and Human Rights Law with Mark Massoud, Vision of Hope Essay Contest winner at 7:30 p.m. in the Home Room, International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

“Runner’s High” with ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Apartment Management Class begins at the Building Education Center. Cost is $250 for five sessions. For information call 525-7610. 

“Tax Hypocrisy and How it Can Work for You” with Randy Silverman, tax specialist, at 7 p.m. in the third floor Community Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Aquatic Park, 700 Heinz Ave., Building F., and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Claremont Resort, 41 Tunnel Rd. Sign up online at www.BeADonor.com  

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss unexpected pleasures from 7 to 9 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 601-6690. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Course begins at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams Office, 4341 Piedmont Ave., second floor, Oakland. Class runs for 8 sessions. Free, registration required. 531-2665. 

Mardi Gras History and Costume Making at 7:30 p.m. at Nabolom Bakery, Russell St. at College.  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

A Hard Days Knight Activities to learn about the Middle Ages for ages 5 and up at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

“Insight and Inner Peace” a lecture on on Sufism by Nahid Angha at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. 527-2935. 

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

“Sufism: Living in the Spirit of Surrender” with Seyedeh Nahid Angha, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley. 527-2935. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22  

UCB’s Proposed Southeast Campus Expansion Plans will be presented at a sepcial meeting ot the Planning, transportation, Landmarks Preservation and Design Review Commissions a 6 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. The public in encouraged to attend and comment. 981-7474. 

“A Taste of Urban Perma- 

culture” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

“The Truth and Lies of 9/11” at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but $5 donations accepted. 704-0268. 

“California Cleanup: Get the Money Out of Politics” A discussion of AB583 at the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers meeting at 1:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

“Let’s Get Conscious” on the role of youth in today’s activism, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Merritt College, Building A, Room 129, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland. Hosted by the Black Students Union. 703-3990. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Empire of Debt” by William Bonner at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Prose Writer’s Workshop An ongoing group made up of friendly writers who are serious about our craft. All levels welcome. At 7 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Stitch ‘n Bitch Bring your knitting, crocheting and other handcrafts from 6 to 9 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, FEB. 23 

Public Hearing on Inclusionary Housing Ordinance Proposed Amendments at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5420. 

“Dead Man Walking: The Journey Continues” with Sister Helen Prejean at 7 p.m. at 2050 Valley Life Sciences Bldg., UC Campus. Sponsored by International and Area Studies. ias.berkeley.edu 

African American Heritage Dinner & Gospel Extravaganza at 5:30 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $8.50 for the dinner, Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

Report from the Front Lines of Struggle: West Africa, Venezuela and St. Petersburg, Florida with Gaida Kambon, National Secretary of the African People’s Socialist Party at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. 569-9620. 

UnPlug Clear Channel Community meeting to turn 106.1 KMEL into a real People’s Station at 4 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Donation of $3 suggested. 849-2568.  

“Arctic Melting: ... Destroying One of the World’s Largest Wilderness Areas” with Chad Kister, Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 223. 

Question 9/11 A Call to Activism with a film and presentations in a benefit for Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave. Oakland. Donation $10. 339-9358. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Ask a Union Mechanic every Thurs. from 4:30 to 6 p.m., at Parker & Shattuck, until the Berkeley Honda strike is settled. They will offer advice on all makes of cars. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. All welcome. 845-5513. www.easyland.org 

“Understanding Senior Care Options” Learn about residential care facilities and how to find the right one, residents rights and other services, from 2 to 4 p.m. at North Oakland Senior Center, 5714 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at 58th St., Oakland. 638-6878, ext. 103. 

“Dogs and Children” at 7:30 p.m. at dogTec, 5221 Central Ave., #1, on the border of El Cerrito and Richmond. Free, but donations appreciated. 644-0729. www.openpaw.org 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, FEB. 24 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Frik Scott on “Overview of the Turmoil in Central Asia and Caucasus Region.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

McGee Family Night, in celebration of Black History Month at 6:30 p.m. at McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 843-1774.  

“Spiritual Enlightenment in Classical Islam” with Sufi Master Shaykh Hisham Kabbani at 7 p.m. at the Graduate Theological Union’s Starr King School, 2441 Le Conte Ave. 654-7542. 

How’d You Become Activists? What Now? with Peter Camejo of the Green Party and Jennifer Kidder, long-time peace, labor and voting rights activist, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation of $10 requested. 528-5403.  

Chechnya’s Past and Present: Russia’s “War on Terrorism” with Professor Michaela Pohl, Vassar College and Musa Khasanov, Public Interest Law Initiative fellow and Grozny-based human rights lawyer, at 6:30 p.m. at Vista College, Room 1, 2020 Milvia St. 415-565-0201, ext. 12. 

American Sign Language Conversation Group at 4 p.m. at 604 56th St at Shattuck. A Free Skool class. www.barringtoncollective.org 

Three Beats for Nothing sings early music for fun and practice at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 655-8863. 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

Berkeley Chess Club at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

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

“Jews In The Modern World,” the third annual Scholar-in-Residence Weekend Seminar, sponsored by Kol Hadash and the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, through Feb. 26 at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. The fee for the series for non-members is $100. Individual sessions are $40 each. 415-543-4595. 

Kol Hadash Humanistic Shabbat with Madrikha Susan Averbach, at 7:30 p.m., Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share, and non-perishable food for the needy. Info@kolhadash.org 

SATURDAY, FEB. 25 

“Honoring Our Community Legends” A Black History Month Celebration with music and performances, at 1 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 981-6674. 

African American Quilters of Oakland Demonstration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the West Oakland Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1801 Adeline St. 238-7352. www.oaklandlibrary.org 

Haiti Resistance Two Years After the Coup with Duclos Benissoit, President, Federation of Public Transport Workers of Haiti, a message from Father Gerard Jean-Juste, and music, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Donation $5-$10. 483-7481.  

“World Social Forum: Report Back” with Earl Gilman at 2 p.m. at the Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 

Puppet Theater Workshop for ages 8-11 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Party with a dramatization of “Green Eggs and Ham” at 11 a.m. at the Kensington Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave. Tickets required. 524-3043. 

Disaster Preparedness Workshop on Neighborhood Organizing from 10 a.m. to noon at 997 Cedar St. Sponsored by the Office of Emergency Services. To register call 981-5506. 

“Healthy Schools Inside and Out” A workshop for Alameda educators, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tyrrell Elementary, 27000 Tyrrell Ave., Hayward. The cost is $25, and scholarships are available. 665-3430. www.thewatershedproject.org 

“Energy Efficient Homes” from 9 to 11 a.m. at Truitt and White Conference Room, 1817 Second St. Free, but registration required. 649-2674. www.truittandwhite.com 

Vegetarian Cooking CLass “Demystifying Tofu and Tempeh” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45. Registration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com 

Spirit Walking Aqua Chi (TM) A gentle water exercise class at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $3.50 per session. 526-0312. 

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. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on Compassion Teachings from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. Cost is $80, registration required. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

QiGong Healing Energy Session with Master Zi Sheng Wang at 7:30 a.m. at Chinese Garden Center, 275 Seventh St., Oakland. Cost is $35. 415-983-5303. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 26 

A Cover Up! Learn about the new spring ground covers and new leaves on the trees on a guided hike at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Frederick Douglas on Slave Music” with Dr. P. Sterling Stuckey at 3:30 p.m. at the West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St. Oakland. 

“The Half Note Club, Then and Now” at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. A Black History Month presentation. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement Panel discussion with Jimmy Rogers, Chud Allen and Donald Jelinek at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

“Teens Touch the Earth!” Habitat Restoration work and fun. Meet at 10 a.m. at Skyline Gate of Redwood Regional Park, Oakland. RSVP to 636-1684.  

“One Nation Under God: The History of Prayer in America” with author James P. Moore and music by Peter B. Allen at 3 p.m. at First Church of Christ, Scientist, 2619 Dwight Way at Bowditch. 925-376-3908. 

Report from the Front Lines of Struggle: West Africa, Venezuela and St. Petersburg, Florida with Gaida Kambon, National Secretary of the African People’s Socialist Party at 4 p.m. at Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland. 569-9620. 

“Have a Heart for Farm Animals” Benefit at 5:30 p.m. at New World Vegetarian, 464 8th St., Oakland. 925-487-4419.  

“Creating An Ecological House” with Skip Wenz on modeling houses on ecosystems, natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $75. 525-7610. 

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. 

Wu-Wei Acupuncture & Healing Center Community Workshop on about health and wellness from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 2880 Sacramento St. 704-0593. 

Interfaith Families at the Movies: “Rashevski’s Tango” at 4 p.m. at Berkeley-Richmond Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Rosalyn White on “Tibetan Sacred Art” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, FEB. 27 

“Jamaica: The History, Politics and Culture of the Black World” at 11 a.m. at Merritt College, Building A., Room 218, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland. 434-3935. 

East Bay Impeach Bush Meetup at 7 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. 527-9584. 

“How do Tissues Turn into Tumors?” The role of the Microenvironment in Breast Cancer with Dr. Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2015 Addison St. 486-7292.  

Kensington Library Book Club meets to discuss “The Dive From Claussen’s Pier” by Ann Packer at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Positive Parenting Classes begin at 7 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 658-7353. www.bananasinc.org 

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50. 

Free Business Loan and Business Plan Writing Boot Camp Mon. and Fri. from 9 a.m. to noon at 519 17th St., 2nd Floor, Ste. 200, Oakland, through March 31. 395-6003. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Sing-A-Long from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

Beginning Bridge Lessons at 11:10 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. Cost is $1. 524-9122. 

ONGOING 

Free Tax Help—United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! program provides free filing assistance to households that earned less than $38,000 in 2005. To find a free tax site near you, call 800-358-8832 or visit www.EarnitKeepitSaveit.org 

Albany Library Free Drop-in Homework Help for students in third through fifth grades, Mon. - Thurs. from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Feb. 21, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533.  

Disaster Council meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434.  

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502.  

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Feb. 23, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.   

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FRIDAY, FEB. 17 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, “Twelfth Night” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Aurora Theatre “The Master Builder” Wed. through Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through March 12. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “9 Parts of Desire” about women in war-torn Iraq, at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through March 5. Tickets are $30-$59. 647-2949.  

Black Repertory Group “The Piano Lesson” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St., through Feb. 25. Tickets are $7-$15. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater, “One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest” Fri. and Sat at 8 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser Lane, El Cerrito, through Feb. 25. 524-9132.  

Impact Theatre, “Hamlet” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through March 18. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468.  

The Marsh Berkeley “Strange Travel Suggestions” monologue by Jeff Greenwald, Thurs. and Fri. at 7 p.m. through March 3, at 2118 Allston Way. Tickets are $15-$22. 800-838-3006.  

Masquers Playhouse "Over the River and Through the Woods" Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. through Feb. 25 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15. 232-4031.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Love Letters” New works by Susie Lundy. Reception at 6 p.m. at Deep Roots Teahouse, 1418 34th Ave., Oakland. 436-0121. 

FILM 

African Film Festival “Dolé” at 7 p.m. and “Niiwan” at 8:50 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Deborah Tannen introduces “You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Joseph Massey and Graham Foust, poets, at 8 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Xylem Folkestra Project, Balkan music at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St., at Castro. Balkan dance lesson at 7 p.m. Tickets are $16, $12 for children under 12. www.kailaflexer.com 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Perú Negro, Afro-Peruvian music on traditional instruments at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$40. 642-9988.  

Amy Likar, flute, Liisa Ruoho, flute, Miles Graber, piano at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont at Ashby. Cost is $12. 848-1228.  

Mobius Donut CD Release at 9:30 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Ellen Robinson and her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Frankie Manning at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Junius Courtney Big Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Eddie Pasternack Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Arnoldo Garcia and Linh Nguyen at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Born/Dead, Direct Control, Strung Up, Greivous at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Lauren and Judge Murphy with Lansdale Station at 9 p.m. at Roundtree's Rythym & Blues Museum, 2618 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $10. 663-0440. 

Vinyl, Get Down at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 18 

CHILDREN  

“Junie Jones and A Little Monkey Business” theater for ages 5 and up, at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Tickets are $13-$18. 925-798-1300. 

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Uncle Eye & The Strange Change Machine, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Art of Seeing: Nature Revealed Through Illustration” opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Susan Jenkins, Tim Mooney, H. C. Hannah, abstract art. Reception for the artists at 7 p.m. at Fourth Street Studio, 1717D Fourth St. Exhibit runs to March 4. 527-0600. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

“Beneath the Scratches” Paintings by Kazuyo Leue. Reception at 2 p.m. at Z Cafe, 2735 Broadway, Oakland. Exhibition runs to March 15. 663-2905. 

Zuni Fetish Carvers, Lena Boone and Evalena Boone, Sat. and Sun. at Gathering Tribes Gallery, 1573 Solano Ave. 528-9038. 

FILM 

Mikio Naruse “Yearning” at 7 p.m. and “Scattered Clouds” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Art of Living Black” Artist talk at 2 p.m. at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave. at 25th St. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

Michael Lerner introduces “The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trinity Chamber Concerts presents John Partridge on piano and organ at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St., bet. Durant & Bancroft. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. http:// 

trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Ensemble Galatea “Curiose Invenzioni” Italian music at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

Golden Gate Youth Jam, in celebration of Black History Month at 2 p.m. at the Golden Gate Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5606 San Pablo Ave. Free. 597-5023. 

West Coast Blues Hall of Fame Awards Show at 7 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive. Tickets are $20-$25, children 12 and under free. 836-2227. www.bayareabluessociety.net 

Noche Flamenca at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $ 24-$48. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Stephen Varney and Naomi Sanchez “Pas de Duo” featuring works of Brahms, Poulenc, Rzewski and Tchaikovsky at 7 p.m. at Regents’ Theater, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 436-1330. 

Robin Gregory and her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Zydeco Flames at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mas Con Menos, Afro-Cuban folkloric music and dance at 8 p.m.at La Peña. Cost is $18-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ken Mahru and Propel at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Bill Tapia, Hawaiian ‘ukele maestro, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

A Band Called Pain, Black Sun, Black Snake Moan at 9 p.m. at Blakes on Telegraph. Cost is $8-$10. 848-0886. www.blakesontelegraph.com 

Matt Small’s Chamber Ensemble at 8 p.m. at the Jazz 

school. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Snake Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810. 

The Urban Monks at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Falsano Baiano, alternative Latin, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Amber Asylum, Graves at Sea, Laudanum at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, FEB. 19 

FILM 

The Troubles We’ve Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bootstrap Productions Poets Andrew Schelling, Derek Fenner and David Michalski at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

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

“Let the People Speak” The International Women’s Writing Guild celebrates Black History Month with Bay Area poets and writers at 3 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Island Literary Series, jazz and poetry with Kathryn Takara, Ukali Johnson, Chandra Garsson, Karla Brundage and Wanda Sapir, at 3 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $3. 841-JAZZ. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco Chamber Orchestra “Valentines for a Cello” with Matt Haimovitz, at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. Free. 415-248-1640. www.sfchamberorchestra.org 

Volti, chamber singers, featuring the premiere of “Sound Explanations” by Eric Lindsay at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $8-$20. 415-771-3352. www.voltisf.org 

Jonathan Biss, pianist, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Noche Flamenca at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $ 24-$48. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Mas Con Menos, Afro-Cuban folkloric music and dance at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $18-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

John Kiskaddon Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Echo Beach at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Allison Miller Trio at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Bobby Hall and Friends Annual Gospel Concert at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina, at W. Richmond Ave., Point Richmond. 236-0527. www.point 

richmond.com/methodist 

Jez Lowe & The Bad Pennies at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

MONDAY, FEB. 20 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Derek Fenner and Ryan Gallagher, poets, at 8 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Poetry Express with Paradise at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tom Russell with Andrew Hardin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jeremy Pelt Group at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, FEB. 21 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Modernism in Israel: Works on Paper” opens at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., and runs through July 9. 549-6950. 

“Ansel Adams: Inspiration and Influence” opens at the Lindsey Wildlife Museum, 1931 First Ave., Walnut Creek. 925-935-1978. www.wildlife-museum.org 

FILM 

Women’s Preservation Film Fund with Alice Guy-Blanché, Meredith Monk, and actresses Grace Cunard and Francine Everett at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Prelim #1, for youth aged 13-19 at 7 p.m. at Berkeley High School, 2223 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Tickets are $4-$6. 415-255-9035, ext. 22. www.youthspeaks.org   

Kenji Yoshino describes “Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sauce Piquante at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffmaan with Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Mike Marshall & Hamilton de Holanda, mandolins, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazz 

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Measure of Time” with works by Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Robert Brer, Dennis Oppenhiem and many others, opens at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Ave. 642-0808.  

FILM 

Film 50 “The Murderers Are Among Us” at 3 p.m. and Weird America “Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea” at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Sister Helen Prejean talks about “The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account to Wrongful Executions” at 7:30 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com 

Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam Prelim #2, for youth aged 13-19 at 7 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $4-$6. 415-255-9035, ext. 22. www.youthspeaks.org  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ned Boynton Trio at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Candela at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Benny Lackner Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Mary Gauthier, American gothic orginals, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, FEB. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The White Album” works in varying shades of white, at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs through March 25. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Charles Criner: A Colorful History” in honor of Black History Month. Reception at 4 p.m. at the LunchStop Cafe, Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. 817-5773. 

FILM 

Human Rights Watch “Mardi Gras: Made in China” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Measure of Time” Curator’s talk with Lucinda Barnes at 12:15 p.m. in Gallery 5, at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Ave. 642-0808.  

Nomad Spoken Word Night at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Taylor Branch presents the final volume of his history of Martin Luther King Jr. and the history of the civil rights movement, “At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68” Reception at 6:15 p.m. followed by talk at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20, or $12 with purchase of the book. 845-7852. www.codysbooks.com  

Word Beat Reading Series with Lenore Weiss and Diana Q. at 7 p.m. at Mediterraneum Caffe, 2475 Telegraph Ave., near Dwight Way. 526-5985. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra “Baroque Festival” at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $28-$42. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org  

Sheldon Brown Group at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. 701-1787.  

Zion-I, Crown City Rockers, Serendipity Project, reggae, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Stephen Bennett, harp guitar, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. 

Soul Jazz Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

The Seventh Season at 10:30 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville. All ages, free.  

Mark Little and Ricardo Peixoto at 8 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Jessica Williams at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$6. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Junie B. Jones is a rambunctious 6-year-old—and 6-year-olds take things very literally. She doesn’t mean to get into trouble; it just kind of happens to her. 

When her grandmother comes back from the hospital and tells her that her new baby brother is “th e cutest little monkey you’ve ever seen,” Junie goes and brags during Show And Tell at school about her new brother, the monkey ... and the complications begin. 

That’s the hook to Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business, a musical play adapted by Joa n Cushing from the popular children’s book series by Barbara Park, playing today at noon, as well as this Saturday and next, Feb. 18 and 25 at 11 a. m. and 1:30 p. m., at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts on College Avenue.  

“We believe that giving ki ds a way to experience books encourages them to read,” said Nina Meehan, educational director of Active Arts For Young Audiences, the East Bay professional theater company for kids and their families that’s staging the play. “And that stories like Junie’s remind us of how many different ways there are of interpreting the world around us.” 

“Junie’s a little bit like what Ramona Quimby was for my generation, in the books by Beverly Cleary,” said Rachel Posamentier of Active Arts. 

She spoke of Active Artis ts and their mission to entertain whole families with shows drawn from both the real-life experiences of children and from literature, encouraging kids to read and to explore the other arts, without moralizing about lessons to be learned. 

“We’re adult ac tors who play all the parts, some of us trained specifically to perform for children and their families,” said Posamentier, “but all with longtime experience in Children’s Theater and as teachers and arts administrators in the performing and other arts. We work with visual artists and provide links to other artforms—music, dance, movement—to give a multi-arts dynamic to each show and the related workshops for our audiences.” 

Active Arts was founded by Posamentier, Meehan, Mina Morita and Jared and Tracy Randolph. Their first show was Heroes (a play about unexpected heroes, like a mouse, overcoming obstacles) during the fall 2004 at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, where the troupe maintains an ongoing program of performances as well as puppetry and storyte lling workshops. 

All five company members have been deeply involved in theater and children’s theater and education nationally and internationally. Locally, they’ve worked individually with companies like The Shotgun Players (Morita is on Shotgun’s Board of Directors), Berkeley Actors Ensemble, CalShakes, Playhouse West and Willows Theatre Co. in the East Bay, and A Traveling Jewish Theater and Thick Description in San Francisco, as well as with educational institutions like East Bay School of the Arts, Holy Names High School in Oakland and Playhouse West Academy.  

“We met through Kaiser Permanente’s Educational Theatre Programs [where Morita is a program coordinator],” Posamentier said. “Active Arts is modeled on Children’s Theatre Co. in Minneapolis a nd Seattle Children’s Theatre [where Jared Randolph worked in the drama school]; we’re geared to kids five and up and their families.” 

After Junie B. Jones, Active Artists will produce an original show, Building Bridges, in which the story of immigration and diversity in California is told by the workers building the Golden Gate Bridge. Building Bridges will premiere at the Discovery Museum in late April. 

“We aim to enchant audiences of all ages,” Posamentier said. “Entertaining, but with some kind of m eaning behind what we’re playing, taking our audience out of their own individual worlds for a moment. We believe kids in particular learn from seeing their own lives reflected back from the stage.” 

When the company does its job well, the actors, and the characters they play, connect well with the audience, she said. 

“It’s a challenge for the actors,” Posamentier said. “Kids are a very honest audience; they’ll believe in you. And we don’t underestimate their ability to get it. Something that tickles us is after bringing it alive onstage, at the end when we ask everybody to tell their friends about the show, the kids say, ‘It’s happening again? You mean, we can come back?’” 

Active Arts For Young Audiences presents Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business at noon today (Friday), Feb. 18 and 25th at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. $13, children 12 and under; $18 for adults. For more information, call (925) 798-1300 or see www.activeartstheatre.org. 

Active Arts will hold a Family Fun Workshop from 2:30-3:30 p.m. March 4 at at the Julia Morgan Center. Tickets are $10 for children and adults are free. Children are encouraged to bring their favorite Junie B. Jones book. 

Photo by Joshua Posamentier: Sharnee Nichols (Princess Lucille); Virginia Wilcox (Junie B. Jones); and Leslie Ivy (That Grace)..

When I need some retail therapy, you won’t be surprised to hear, I often go look for something for the garden. I spend time in the nurseries I write about in this space, and I have to be careful if I actually want to make my occupation produce income, rather than outgo. There’s just something so hopeful about a fresh seedling or seed packet, and the scent of wholesome dirt makes my spirits rise.  

Some places are even more dangerous to people like me than nurseries are. Urban Ore is one of them, though it’s easy enough on the wallet. I had the definitive shopper’s experience there years ago, when it was in its former Gilman Street spot: I went in to get a piece of used lumber, and came out with a hand-woven wool coat, probably of Afghan origin, that didn’t fit but really needed to come home with me. It hangs on my parlor wall; I’d rather look at it than wear it anyway. I still like it, it still gets compliments, and it cost well under ten dollars.  

I suppose I got the lumber too, but I don’t even remember what it was for. You don’t have to be the sort of alt-Berkeley gardener who puts a toilet planted with geraniums on the front lawn to like shopping at Urban Ore. There’s no shortage of plumbing fixtures in case you want to ring changes on the concept of a sink garden—rather a lot of them in Fifties Pink the last time I was there —but there’s lots of other stuff that integrates more gracefully into a landscape. I have a weakness for chimney flue tiles to plant succulents in a gravel-heavy mix, and sometimes there are enough there to build a sort of effigy pipe-organ.  

Used lumber, of course, and stone too: landscape rocks, granite countertop cuts. Rows of windowpanes, good for cobbling together a mini-greenhouse for your tropicals in winter, or a cold frame, not that we need them much here for the usual subjects. (They’re also good for group picture frames.) Cinderblocks, which don’t have to look industrial if handled cleverly; planters and containers including good old red clay pots. If you’re handy and willing with a wire brush, paint, any sort of tinkering and sweat equity, you can get anything from a barbeque kettle to outdoor furniture to edgers and lawnmowers at minimal cost. Last week there was a whole barrel of tiki torches.  

The idea behind Urban Ore is to stop dumping stuff that can be reused; to stop wasting things (and the energy that goes into manufacturing and transporting them) and to reduce what got dumped in “landfills.” (That term bugs me, as I have never yet seen empty land. Anyone who supposedly has needs to learn more.) This isn’t a high-end “salvage” yard, but I’ve found treasures here and compared to elsewhere they’re cheap.  

Take your work gloves and your imagination along, and remember that stock changes unpredictably. Have fun! 

Urban Ore 

900 Murray Street, Berkeley 

(510) 841-7283 

Monday–Saturday 8:30 a.m.–7 p.m. 

Sunday 10 a.m.–7 a.m. 

Receiving closes at 5 p.m. daily. 

Our friends the Shnozzles (names herein will be changed to protect me, the person I’m always most concerned about) are in the throws of a major remodel and the festivities attending this blessed event are reminding me of all the things I learned back in the days when I engaged in this most cruel and unusual of professions. I’ve been giving them a little advice here and there and hearing about their woes-du-jour so I’ll pass along a few of each in the hopes that you might be spared just a little of the misery that so often accompanies the day when our houses change. 

Nina Schnozzle came over one day and said that when she visited the job-site, it turned out that a major window that looked out over the bay was about a foot too low. She was genuinely shocked and assumed that this sort of thing couldn’t happen unless the contractors were drunk or recently lobotomized. It wasn’t necessarily so, I told her and continued to iterate the well known capabilities of this particular contractor (who charges all the arms and all the legs). That’s just the way it is. 

Contractors make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes. Not all of the time and everywhere but some of the time here and there. Therefore, I said, and this applies to all of you as well, keep an eye on the work. Go there often, being sure not to get hurt or get into fights with the help and look. Do not be afraid to ask if the light fixture is where it is supposed to be. It’s not an extraordinary question. If things look wrong, you might well be right and you might also be doing the contractor (and yourself) a big favor by point it out earlier in the process than they might otherwise figure it out.  

Contract work proceeds in phases and the earlier one identifies a problem, the easier and cheaper it is going to be to fix. In fact, if you find a mislocation or improper choice of some other type late enough, it might not be reasonable to fix it at all, given the expense and complexity. 

Construction is sort of a layering process. We being with ground-work, staking out the earth and deciding where things will end up being located. Mistakes made at this level can result in violations of set-backs that can result in having to tear off exterior walls and rebuild them. This is really expensive and you don’t want this to occur. 

Cities can be forgiving but they don’t have to be. Assuming the site work is done properly, foundations are dug and formed with reinforcing metal laid in place. This too must be laid out properly and inspected fully by the city because it is very hard to remove and replace a foundation once it has been poured. Next comes framing which is generally wooden and takes days or weeks to install and is followed by wiring, plumbing and heating. 

When we have the sheetrock in place and someone says, “Hey, that window is a foot too low,” it’s not any fun at all. There are so many layers including exterior siding, trims, framing and possibly electrical or plumbing that now will have to be changed and this can cost a lot.  

Many folks will, at this point, say, “Well, too bad. It’s their own fault” and they will be right. But being right has only so much going for it. If you can smooth the path for your contractor by pointing out things that you are aware of, you might stay out of trouble or at least lessen the trouble that is almost synonymous with remodeling a house (especially one you’re living in). 

If the contractor has the sense that you are on their side, you will be welcome at the jobsite and your participation can be beneficial in other ways. Contracts rarely give us a sense of all the small design details that make up a house, such as the way a trim is crafted and installed by the carpenter. If you see these in the early stages and don’t like the detail, it might be very easy to change them. If you only seen them after a thousand board feet have been installed, it can be very expensive and much less friendly.  

This is, however, very tricky business. It is important to keep a constant sense of friendliness present in these interactions, with compassion and respect. If these things are not present, it is very easy for the contractor to begin pointing out the limitations of the contract. It is likely that your preferences were not all written in and that the contractor has a certain amount of latitude in doing things the way that they prefer. 

This is a hard nut for many homeowners to crack. They assume many things and if it’s not in the contract, the assumption may be worth nothing. Therefore, calm, friendly exchanges are worth gold. Also be prepared to pay a change order fee if you want something different as you move along and it wasn’t specified in the contract. 

Be cautious about saying, “Well, I though it would so and so.” You will not be in a defensible position and you may find yourself shutting down the lines of communication. You may also end up getting passable work but not the kind of quality that this contractor is capable of and only provides when he or she is feeling appreciated. This is true for all of us, isn’t it? I certainly do better work when someone is stroking my ego and staying on my good side. 

So keep in mind that your contractor is, like you, just human, and that a little vigilance and a lot of pleasant communication will always produce a better finished product. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor, in care of East Bay Real Estate, at realestate@berkeleydailyplanet.com.?

FRIDAY, FEB. 17 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Daniel McFadden on “Consumers and Part D.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

“WELLSTONE!” A documentary sponsored by the Conscientious Projector Film Series at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation of $5 suggested. 528-5403.  

Circle Dancing Simple folkdancing in a circle, no partners; no experience needed, at 8 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut at University Ave. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

American Red Cross Blood Drive from 1 to 7 p.m. at Gelateria Naia, 2106 Shattuck Ave. To schedule and appointment call 1-800-GIVELIFE.  

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets Fridays at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

Women in Black Vigil, from noon to 1 p.m. at UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph. 548-6310. 

Meditation, Peace Vigil and Dialogue, gather at noon on the grass close to the West Entrance to UC Berkeley, on Oxford St. near University Ave. Sponsored by the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. 655-6169. www.bpf.org 

SATURDAY, FEB. 18 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Wildflower Restoration Join us for a morning of planting to restore rare grassland habitats, from 9 a.m. at noon. Watershed Project, 1327 S 46th St. Bldg. #155, Richmond. 665-3689. www.thewatershedproject.org 

Sushi Basics Learn the natural and cultural history of sushi. We will prepare seven basic types. Parent participation required for children 8-10 years old. From 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. Fee is $35, $30 for seniors and $25 for children age 8-12. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Black History Month Celebration from 2 to 6 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St., with entertainment, community dialog and soul food. 981-5218. 

West Coast Blues Hall of Fame Awards Show at 7 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive. Tickets are $20-$25, children 12 and under free. 836-2227. www.bayareabluessociety.net 

“Follow the Drinking Gourd” film and other activities in celebration of Black History Month from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Chabot Space and Science Center. www.chabotspace.org 

Alternatives to Water Needy Lawns & Landscapes at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens Landscape Nursery, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets at 9:15 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Sproul Conference Room, 1st Floor, 2727 College Ave. www.berkeleycna.com 

African American Literature Festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the McGee Avenue Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 843-1774. 

“Inherit the Wind” John Russo, Oakland City Attorney and and Matt Gonzales, former SF Supervisor, discuss creationism v. evolution theory, at 8 p.m. at the Parkway Theater, Oakland. Youth particularly encouraged to attend.  

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. All paperbacks and hardback books are 50 cents each, magazines are 25 cents each or 5 for $1. To volunteer for the sale, call the Albany Library at 526-3720, ext. 5. 

California Writers Club meets to discuss screenwriting with James Dalessandro at 10 a.m. at Barnes and Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

“The War at Home: The Corporate Offensive from Reagan to Bush” with author and economist Jack Rasmus at 7 p.m. at Home of Truth Center, 1300 Grand Street, Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

Preschool Storytime for 3-5 year olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17.  

Spirit Walking Aqua Chi (TM) A gentle water exercise class at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley High Warm Pool. Cost is $3.50 per session. 526-0312. 

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

Tibetan Buddhism with Abbe Blum on “Freedom to Change” from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. Cost is $80, registration required. 843-6812.  

SUNDAY, FEB. 19 

Reptiles at Tilden Touch a snake and meet a turtle at 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Native and Non-Native Trees of Tilden Park. Meet at 1 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Meat Market: Animals, Ethics, and Money” with vegetarian and animal rights activist Erik Marcus at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave. 486-0698. 

Musical Masterpieces: Making Art, Making Music, in celebration of Black History Month from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 238-2200.  

Berkeley Cybersalon meets to discuss The Future of Radio with Carol Pierson who represents community radio at the national and regional level at 5 p.m. at The Hillside Club 2286 Cedar St. 

Spartacist Black History Month Educational on Class Struggle and the Road to Black Freedom at noon and The Fight to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal at 3 p.m. at the YWCA Tea Room, 1515 Webster St., Oakland. Free. 839-0851. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Reawakening the Chakras with Suzanne Grace at 2 p.m. at Unity of Berkeley, 2075 Eunice St.Cost is $10-$25 donation. 528-8844.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Mary Gomes and Erika Rosenberg on “Mindful Parenting” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, FEB. 20 

Monday Night Movies “Lolita” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5.  

World Affairs Discussion Group for seniors at 10:15 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center. Cost is $2.50.  

McGee Avenue Toastmasters meets at 7:30 p.m. at McGee Ave Baptist Church, 1640 Stuart St. 501-7005. 

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, FEB. 21 

Birdwalk on the MLK Shoreline from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. to see the ducks here for the winter. Beginnners welcome, binoculars available for loan. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Garden Club, “Great Underused Garden Plants” with Bobbie Feyerabend, Landscape Architect, at 1 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 527-5641. 

The Sudan and Human Rights Law with Mark Massoud, Vision of Hope Essay Contest winner at 7:30 p.m. in the Home Room, International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

“Runner’s High” with ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Apartment Management Class begins at the Building Education Center. Cost is $250 for five sessions. For information call 525-7610. 

“Tax Hypocrisy and How it Can Work for You” with Randy Silverman, tax specialist, at 7 p.m. in the third floor Community Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Aquatic Park, 700 Heinz Ave., Building F., and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Claremont Resort, 41 Tunnel Rd. Sign up online at www.BeADonor.com  

Berkeley Salon Discussion Group meets to discuss unexpected pleasures from 7 to 9 p.m. at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 601-6690. 

Cancer Prevention and Survival Cooking Course begins at 6:30 p.m. at Keller Williams Office, 4341 Piedmont Ave., second floor, Oakland. Class runs for 8 sessions. Free, registration required. 531-2665. 

Mardi Gras History and Costume Making at 7:30 p.m. at Nabolom Bakery, Russell St. at College.  

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

A Hard Days Knight Activities to learn about the Middle Ages for ages 5 and up at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

“Insight and Inner Peace” a lecture on on Sufism by Nahid Angha at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley Ave. 527-2935. 

Family Story Time at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Branch Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Free, all ages welcome. 524-3043. 

Stress Less Seminar at 6:30 p.m. at New Moon Opportunities, 378 Jayne Ave., Oakland Free, but registration required. 465-2524. 

“Sufism: Living in the Spirit of Surrender” with Seyedeh Nahid Angha, at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley. 527-2935. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Free Handbuilding Ceramics Class 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Also, Mon. noon to 4 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Materials and firing charges not included. 525-5497. 

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. 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22  

“A Taste of Urban Perma- 

culture” at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

“The Truth and Lies of 9/11” at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Free, but $5 donations accepted. 704-0268. 

“California Cleanup: Get the Money Out of Politics” A discussion of AB583 at the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers meeting at 1:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center. 548-9696. 

“Let’s Get Conscious” on the role of youth in today’s activism, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Merritt College, Building A, Room 129, 12500 Campus Drive, Oakland. Hosted by the Black Students Union. 703-3990. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Empire of Debt” by William Bonner at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito Plaza. 433-2911. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Sing your Way Home A free sing-a-long at 4:30 p.m. every Wed. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Prose Writer’s Workshop An ongoing group made up of friendly writers who are serious about our craft. All levels welcome. At 7 p.m. at BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. georgeporter@earthlink.net 

Stitch ‘n Bitch Bring your knitting, crocheting and other handcrafts from 6 to 9 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198. 

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

vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, FEB. 23 

Public Hearing on Inclusionary Housing Ordinance Proposed Amendments at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5420. 

“Dead Man Walking: The Journey Continues” with Sister Helen Prejean at 7 p.m. at 2050 Valley Life Sciences Bldg., UC Campus. Sponsored by International and Area Studies. ias.berkeley.edu 

African American Heritage Dinner & Gospel Extravaganza at 5:30 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $8.50 for the dinner, Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

Report from the Front Lines of Struggle: West Africa, Venezuela and St. Petersburg, Florida with Gaida Kambon, National Secretary of the African People’s Socialist Party at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. 569-9620. 

UnPlug Clear Channel Community meeting to turn 106.1 KMEL into a real People’s Station at 4 p.m. at La Peña, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Donation of $3 suggested. 849-2568.  

“Arctic Melting: ... Destroying One of the World’s Largest Wilderness Areas” with Chad Kister, Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave., near Dwight Way. 548-2220, ext. 223. 

Question 9/11 A Call to Activism with a film and presentations in a benefit for Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave. Oakland. Donation $10. 339-9358. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Ask a Union Mechanic every Thurs. from 4:30 to 6 p.m., at Parker & Shattuck, until the Berkeley Honda strike is settled. They will offer advice on all makes of cars. 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board of Directors Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. All welcome. 845-5513. www.easyland.org 

“Understanding Senior Care Options” Learn about residential care facilities and how to find the right one, residents rights and other services, from 2 to 4 p.m. at North Oakland Senior Center, 5714 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at 58th St., Oakland. 638-6878, ext. 103. 

“Dogs and Children” at 7:30 p.m. at dogTec, 5221 Central Ave., #1, on the border of El Cerrito and Richmond. Free, but donations appreciated. 644-0729. www.openpaw.org 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, FEB. 24 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Frik Scott on “Overview of the Turmoil in Central Asia and Caucasus Region.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $13.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925 or 665-9020.  

“Spiritual Enlightenment in Classical Islam” with Sufi Master Shaykh Hisham Kabbani at 7 p.m. at the Graduate Theological Union’s Starr King School, 2441 Le Conte Ave. 654-7542. 

American Sign Language Conversation Group at 4 p.m. at 604 56th St at Shattuck. A Free Skool class. www.barringtoncollective.org 

How’d You Become Activists? What Now? with Peter Camejo of the Green Party and Jennifer Kidder, long-time peace, labor and voting rights activist, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Donation of $10 requested. 528-5403.  

Chechnya’s Past and Present: Russia’s “War on Terrorism” with Professor Michaela Pohl, Vassar College and Musa Khasanov, Public Interest Law Initiative fellow and Grozny-based human rights lawyer, at 6:30 p.m. at VIita College, Room 1, 2020 Milvia St. 415-565-0201, ext. 12. 

Three Beats for Nothing sings early music for fun and practice at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 655-8863. 

Berkeley Chess School classes for students in grades 1-8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at 1581 LeRoy Ave., room 17. 843-0150. 

Berkeley Chess Club at 8 p.m. at the East Bay Chess Club, 1940 Virginia St. Players at all levels are welcome. 845-1041. 

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

“Jews In The Modern World,” the third annual Scholar-in-Residence Weekend Seminar, sponsored by Kol Hadash and the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, through Feb. 26 at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. The fee for the series for non-members is $100. Individual sessions are $40 each. 415-543-4595. 

Kol Hadash Humanistic Shabbat with Madrikha Susan Averbach, at 7:30 p.m., Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger dessert to share, and non-perishable food for the needy. free. Info@kolhadash.org 

ONGOING 

Free Tax Help—United Way’s Earn it! Keep It! Save It! program provides free filing assistance to households that earned less than $38,000 in 2005. To find a free tax site near you, call 800-358-8832 or visit www.EarnitKeepitSaveit.org 

Albany Library Free Drop-in Homework Help for students in third through fifth grades, Mon. - Thurs. from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Emphasis is placed on math and writing skills. No registration is required. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Feb. 21, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533.  

Disaster Council meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. William Greulich, 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Neal De Snoo, 981-5434.  

Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. at 997 Cedar St. David Orth, 981-5502.  

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs. Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, Pam Wyche, 644-6128 ext. 113.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Feb. 23, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.   

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