Though the thermometer hovered in the upper 40s and seemed even cooler beneath a mantle of oak leaves and an overcast sky, the crowd that gathered near Memorial Stadium Saturday was anything but cold. 

Students, residents, environmentalists and the merely curious gathered to watch and celebrate as the tree-in entered its third week, with protesters perched in the trees overhead as Country Joe McDonald led the small crowd in an enthusiastic rendition of the “Hokey Oaky.” 

Wavy Gravy, Berkeley’s unofficial jester laureate, clowned around, poets declaimed, singers serenaded and musicians played.  

“It was a great day,” said Doug Buckwald, who has been coordinating ground support for the protesters who have taken to arboreal platforms to protest the planned felling of the grove to make way for a four-story gym and office building planned for the site of the grove along the stadium’s western wall. 

“I estimate we got about 200 people to come out, and if you stage an outdoor event on a cold December day and get over 20, you’ve had a good day,” he said. 

Noticeably absent from the scene were the campus police officers who had been maintaining a constant and sometimes numerous presence over the past week. 

While as many as 13 at a time had been present in the days before, not a single officer was in evidence Saturday. 

Earlier in the week officers had cited Zachary Running Wolf, who had launched the protest by climbing up into a threatened redwood during the pre-dawn hours of Big Game day Dec. 2. 

He and non-tree-sitting fellow protester Asa Dodsworth had been served with orders barring them from campus for seven days. 

Following the arrest, officers had taken up a constant watch at the base of the redwood before abandoning the site before the Saturday celebration in support of the protest. 

Among those who showed up were Berkeley City Councilmember Darryl Moore, historian Gray Brechin and two long-time veterans of other tree-ins, Karen Pritchett and Hal Carlstad of Earth First. 

The small but determined protest to protect the last remaining grove of coastal live oaks outside the Berkeley hills stands in marked contrast to the last time students and activists confronted the university over a plot of land. 

While hundreds of students protested plans to develop the site they named People’s Park in 1969, the turnout at the grove 37 years later has been small—though more than 100 students did march in one Sproul Plaza demonstration for the trees.  

But the hard-core activist spirit was present Saturday, represented by graying Pritchett and Carlstad, who have organized similar protests in threatened redwood forests to the north. 

Both were friends of Judi Bari, the Earth First activist who with fellow activist Darryl Cherney was severely injured in a 1990 car bombing in Oakland. Bari died seven years later. 

In addition to Earth First, Pritchett also works with the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, which is based in Berkeley. 

“Wherever we go, we find ourselves fighting for last remnants,” Pritchett said. “Here in Berkeley it’s the last remnants of the grandmother oak trees. It’s the same with the redwoods on the coast, the last remnants of vanishing ecosystems.” 

Carlstad, a 1954 Cal graduate, said he became involved in Earth First “because they were the only ones getting out and into the action.” 

A retired science teacher, he’s been actively involved in environmental protests since joining Earth First a quarter century ago. 

“I’ve been arrested maybe 150 to 200 times,” he said. “I’d get arrested and Judi would bail me out.” 

In one memorable protest in Humboldt County, he and Bari were among 1,000 others arrested in a single event. 

Though Julia Butterfly Hill is the most widely known tree-sitter, Earth First had launched the tactic first and years before. 

“It remains an effective tactic,” Pritchett said, “and people haven’t grown tired of it. There’s something special about it, a kind of bearing witness that captures the imagination of the public.” 

Carlstad said he was saddened by the university’s plans for the grove. 

“I’m an avid fan of Cal sports, but I think they’re falling in line with the Forestry Department, which was the first to advocate clear-cutting,” he said.  

Meanwhile, two lawsuits have been filed challenging the adoption by UC Regents of the envrionmental impact report which includes the gym and other stadium area projects, said Michael Kelly of the Panoramic Hills Association, which represents homowners on the slope above the stadium. 

Kelly said the association is working with the city, which is preparing its own suit.

Rejecting the pleas of angry neighbors and threats of a lawsuit, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted 5-3 early Friday to approve the “Trader Joe’s Building.” 

Though the name’s not official, it has become a convenient handle for a five-story project that will include 148 apartments, a popular grocery store and a second commercial tenant. 

Neighbors fear it will overshadow their nearby homes, render already scarce parking almost non-existent and lead to more congestion at the heavily trafficked intersection of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. They have already retained a lawyer, Stuart Flashman of Oakland, to prepare a legal challenge. 

The 139,040-square-foot project includes 148 apartments, mostly one bedroom and studio units, 14,390 square feet of retail space, 109 tenant and 48 commercial parking spaces and two truck-loading spaces, one of them on University Avenue.  

“Like many people in this room, I have lived with this project for four years and through many hearings,” said ZAB member Bob Allen as he moved approval. “To me, this is far superior to the original proposal... I think it is a real amenity for the city. It’s terrific for the city and terrific for the street front.” 

“We have addressed all your concerns,” said Chris Hudson, project developer with partner Evan McDonald. “The project provides ample benefits with significant negative impacts.” 

But Steve Wollmer, a leading critic of the project, charged that developers Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald had deceived the city—“They lied and they knew it”—and demanded a 63 percent density bonus above the local zoning standard “for bringing Trader Joe’s to Berkeley.” 

And it was the trendy grocer that won the endorsement of the Downtown Berkeley Association, represent by its president, Mark McLeod. “The DBA has consistently supported the project because Trader Joe’s will be a major contributor to the economic development of the downtown,” he said. 

ZAB member Rick Judd asked the developers if in fact they had a real commitment from the grocer. 

“I have an executed lease with Trader Joe’s that is 100 percent binding provided we can deliver” the space on time and at the agreed cost, said Hudson. The lease was “for more than 10 years,” with an option extending the total period to “more than 20 years.” 

Hudson declined to elaborate on the terms beyond saying the store would pull out if they couldn’t get the parking spaces specified in the permit application. 

The final vote came at the end of a marathon session that began more than six hours earlier. 

Foes abound 

While project supporters sent in more than 500 letters urging approval, it was project foes who packed the ZAB meeting. 

Only one other supporter spoke to the board. UC Berkeley student Erik Panzer, who lives a block to the east, said “the objections now are all philosophical” since traffic and noise “have been shown to have minimal impacts.” 

Another project critic is Dean Metzger, who had just been removed from ZAB by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak and replaced by University of California executive and project supporter Michael Alvarez-Cohen. 

“Trader Joe’s has become the emotional vehicle for approval by you,” Metzger told his former colleagues. “You’ve got to get rid of the Trader Joe’s emotion and look at the facts.”  

“I believe they (the developers) are getting incredible benefits from the planning department when in fact this is student housing,” said Kristin Leimkuhler. “I wonder if you would be evaluating the project in the same way if it was a BevMo or a Pottery Barn instead of Trader Joe’s.” BevMo is a corporate trademark of Beverages & More, a discount liquor retailer. 

The maximum project allowed by city zoning ordinances would be 111 units, he said, and neighbors would accept a project with 130 units. 

“Have you carefully considered what you are giving up for a German-owned, non-union” store, said Regan Richardson. “There has been crude manipulation of the worst sort designed to circumvent [city zoning laws. Should Hudson McDonald be allowed to run roughshod over state laws?” 

“The developer is offering a very popular grocery store to wash it down with—a very popular grocery store with not enough parking,” said neighbor Gloria Artese. 

“Also, granting the developer 25 more (housing) units than required by law is opening a huge loophole,” said neighbor Rob Browning, spouse of City Councilmember Linda Maio. The project also calls for a major alteration of streets and a loss of parking, he said 

Parking spaces will be eliminated on both sides of Berkeley Way adjacent to the project to create an additional turn lane, all on-street spaces on the west side of MLK between Berkeley Way and University Avenue will be permanently removed, and parking will be banned in spaces on the east side of MLK between University and Hearst avenues between 3 and 7 p.m. daily except Sunday. 

In addition, a new traffic light is to be added at Berkeley Way and MLK and linked to the light at MLK and University Avenue. 

“It would be a very bad precedent to allow anything to trump local zoning,” said neighbor Tom Hunt. “You shouldn’t give anything away unless it is absolutely required.” 

“I believe this board has been manipulated and held hostage to approve this project,” said Hillary Goldman, who described the project as “a monkey on the city’s back that’s so complicated no one actually knows what kind of monkey it is.” 

Stuart Flashman, a lawyer hired by project foes Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way, called parts of the developer’s proposal “a masterpiece of obfuscation and double-talk,” and the neighbors have raised the threat of a lawsuit. 

“We’ll bear that risk,” said Hudson. “We’ll hire the attorneys for the lawsuit that’s promised by Mr. Wollmer. We’re comfortable.” 

Board musings 

One concern of ZAB members who voted against the project was the amount and size of affordable housing promised by the developers in return for the density bonus that allowed them to submit a project larger than would be otherwise permitted. 

The plans approved Thursday require the developer to provide 22 units at rentals affordable to individuals and families earning less that the area’s median income (AMI). The total includes 15 one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom units. 

Of the total, 11 apartments will be priced at rates affordable to those earning 50 percent or less of the AMI, with the rest affordable at 80 percent of AMI. 

“I don’t feel that distribution would meet the needs of families,” said board member Jesse Arreguin. “In June you had suggested that 100 percent would be at” the 50 percent rate, a figure he said was reasonable “given that you’re asking for a significant density bonus.” 

“We are meeting the city and state requirements,” Hudson said. “The 80 percent units are the ones that are affordable to teachers and others who couldn’t qualify for the 50 percent requirement.” 

When Arreguin repeated his request to up the number of the lowest price units, Hudson responded that he and his partner are the city’s largest affordable housing builders in Berkeley, with more than 100 units already built. “We haven’t tried to pull the wool over your eyes,” he said. 

Arreguin said he wanted more affordable two-bedroom units, and proposed that half the density bonus apartments be two-bedroom units at the 50 percent AMI rate and the other half one-bedroom units at 80 percent. 

“I wonder if we’re kidding ourselves,” said Alvarez-Cohen, who said the apartments weren’t amenable to families and would wind up going to grad students and others.  

After more discussion, Arreguin amended his amendment to read that all of the bonus units should be rented at 50 percent. 

Dave Blake suggested splitting the units equally between one- and two-bedroom units, with half of each at 50 percent and half at 80 percent. 

The motion failed 5-3, with Arreguin, Blake and Sara Shumer in support. 

The final vote on the project followed the same split. Voting with the majority was former school board member Terry Doran, who was filling in for Raudel Wilson.

A marathon Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) session Thursday ended with approvals for two major housing projects, new bus yard, a new home for Freight & Salvage and demolition of the Drayage. 

Besides their approval of the 183-apartment Trader Joe’s project, ZAB gave the nod to the 24-condo-over-commercial five-story project at 2701 Shattuck Ave. and the Berkeley Unified School District’s new bus yard at 1325 Sixth St. 

Members also praised another mixed-use project during their first look at a building planned for 2747 San Pablo Ave. that will include 41 condos, including two live/work units, and a commercial space. 

Drayage vote 

By a 5-1-2 vote, the board approved the request by Aquatic Park Enterprises LLC to demolish the 19,400-square-foot vacant warehouse at 651 Addison. 

Jesse Arreguin cast the sole dissenting vote, while colleagues Sara Shumer and Dave Blake abstained. 

The structure, once known as the Drayage, had housed the homes and shops of an eclectic group of Berkeley artists who found themselves threatened with eviction a year and a half after inspections by the city building and fire departments. 

After waging a long and ultimately unsuccessful struggle to save their illegally handcrafted dwellings constructed and equipped without the requisite permits, the remaining tenants accepted settlements last year.  

Developers Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald are planning a new project at the 651 Addison St. site, which is directly across the Union Pacific tracks from a block-square housing-over-commercial project ZAB approved earlier in the year. 

A last-minute addition requested by planner Greg Powell inserted the finding that the structure was unsafe, a fire hazard and a public nuisance, and “unsuitable for uses compatible with the district.” 

At no time during the brief discussion before the vote was the word “Drayage” mentioned. 

While Arreguin asked for a condition to be included that any new project include live/work units, developer representative Sean McKinney said, “Before there weren’t any live/work units, so we aren’t taking any away”—a statement that may conform to the official record but not to the reality. 

Bus yard 

Despite the pleas of neighbors worried about increased pollution, noise and traffic, ZAB members voted unanimous approval of the Berkeley Unified School District’s (BUSD) proposal to build a bus depot with office and classroom space at 1325 Sixth St. 

The new facility would unite functions now housed at three different sites in the city and would feature a 4,094-square-foot office and classroom building, a 6,553-square-foot mechanical shop and a washing station along with 32 slots for bus parking and 37 car spaces. 

BUSD Facilities Director Lew Jones said the district had devoted long effort to exploring alternative sites, but in the end found that the site at Sixth and Gilman streets was the only suitable location in the city. 

Eight neighbors spoke in opposition, including Joe Matera, who owns a commercial building directly across Gilman from the site and said he was representing five businesses who had hoped to see commercial development on a key site on a street that the mayor has proposed for increased commercial use. 

But most of the neighbors, like Ann Armstrong and Tracy Mills, said they were concerned about the effects of increased diesel emissions on their families. 

Jones said the district is increasingly reliant on the less-polluting biodiesel—which it buys from the city—and is now replacing its four oldest buses with new models that are run cleaner and more efficiently. 

Former BUSD board member Terry Doran, who was filling in for the absent Raudel Wilson, made his own plea for the project before voting with the others for its approval. 

Shattuck condos 

ZAB gave the green light to the 2701 Shattuck Ave. condo over retail project, with Arreguin dissenting because he felt the structure should have been restricted to the four floors prescribed in the South Shattuck Plan rather than the five the board ultimately approved. 

The project, which is being developed by the family of Rev. Gordon Choyce, will be the first to take advantage of the city’s new inclusionary fee, which allows developers to pay a fee to the city in lieu of building units reserved for lower-income tenants and buyers. 

Senior Planner Greg Powell said the developers will pay the fee for the 4.8 units they would otherwise have had to sell at reduced prices.  

The proposed fee allows developers to sell the units at market rates in exchange for paying a fee that amounts to 62.5 percent of the difference between the mandated inclusionary price—now a maximum of three times 120 percent of the area’s median income—and the market rate price. 

San Pablo plans 

The board had nothing but praise for the four-story condo project proposed for 2747 San Pablo Ave. by David Mayeri and Laura Billings. 

Presented as a preview for the board before the permit process begins, the project incorporates green materials and design along solar panels on the roof and concealed in the San Pablo Avenue frontage. 

Bob Allen and Sara Shumer, often at loggerheads on other issues, both said they admired the design—especially the rear of the building where the structure is stepped down and broken up to better meld with the houses across Tenth Street. 

The developer is also including eight inclusionary units for sale at 80 percent of the area median income and planned for only 39 units instead of the 52 permitted by city codes

Oakland’s newly elected state assemblymember, Sandré Swanson, has proposed setting up a Select Assembly Committee to investigate state takeovers of California schools, and the idea has already gotten support from key legislators from the affected districts. 

Swanson made the announcement at the same meeting two weeks ago at the Oakland Unified School District headquarters where he explained his newly introduced bill to return most aspects of local control to OUSD. 

Oakland’s schools have been run by the state since 2003. 

Swanson said that “the issue of education has been lost while we’re losing a generation of our children” and that the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) “must be held accountable.” 

FCMAT is the Bakersfield-based, semi-private organization created by the legislature to monitor school districts in the state and intervene in schools that are experiencing fiscal or other problems. 

Swanson said he has requested that California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez appoint a select committee—with Swanson as chair—“to hold hearings in every city where there has been a takeover of the schools, to see if there has been a pattern of neglect and decline under state takeover.” 

Swanson said the first hearing would be held in Oakland. 

A spokesperson for Swanson said late last week that the Assembly Speaker is not expected to act on any select committees until after the beginning of the year. 

There have been seven school districts that have been taken over by the state in recent years and have come under the authority of AB1200, the state legislation that create FCMAT and governs current state school takeovers. 

According to a 2005 FCMAT report, three districts—Oakland Unified, Vallejo City Unified, and West Fresno Elementary District—remain under complete state control, with a state-appointed administrator running the schools instead of an elected school board and a hired superintendent. 

Two districts—Emery Unified and West Contra Costa Unified—were originally run by a state-appointed administrator, but have since resumed most local control, with a state-appointed trustee who has the power to veto board or superintendent actions on fiscal grounds. 

Two districts — Compton Unified and Coachella Valley Unified-went through periods of a state — appointed administrator and then a trustee, and have since returned to complete local control. 

As of 2005, five of those districts had outstanding debt to the state, with corresponding annual payment responsibilities. 

Assemblymembers representing two of the affected districts—Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), who represents the West Contra Costa County area, and fellow Democrat Mervyn Dymally, who represents Compton—say they are in support of Swanson’s proposal for a select investigative committee. 

Warren Quann, Dymally’s policy director, said by telephone that “we’re aware of it and we are supportive of it, particularly in light of our experience here in Compton.” Quann said that Dymally’s office has “participated in sharing information [about the Compton takeover] with Swanson’s office.” 

Hans Hemann, Hancock’s chief of staff, called Swanson’s proposal “a good idea. There really is a need to take a look at what’s happening in the districts that have been the subject of state takeovers. They are bleeding from two places. Many of them are still paying back state loans. In addition, many of them are seeing a decline in enrollment. This is particularly true in Oakland. So they’re unable to right their ships because they’re losing Average Daily Attendance money from the state on the one hand, and they have to pay money back to the state out of their budgets to meet the loan payments.” 

Hemann says that while enrollment decline preceded the state takeovers in some instances, such as in Oakland, “the problem is exacerbated following the takeover. Public confidence in the districts is lost when the local school board is unable to respond to the needs of the community. They have to take their grievances to the state administrator, and in a district the size of Oakland, that can be daunting. There’s a level of frustration that grows,” Hemann concluded, which can lead to more parents withdrawing their children from the district. 

Another problem with state takeovers, Hemann said, is that repayment of the state loans become the district’s fiscal priority under the state administrator. “That obligation is put before such things as teacher pay raises, or money for the children, or other instructional needs. There is continued frustration in the West Contra Costa Unified School District because of the burden of the state loan.” 

Hemann said that “Loni and I have talked with Sandré about the problem. We have to deal with it.” 

Representatives in the offices of assemblymembers representing areas covered by two of the other takeover districts—District 31 Assemblymember Juan Arambula (West Fresno Unified) and District 7 Assemblymember Noreen Evans (Vallejo City Unified)—said they were aware of Swanson’s proposal for a select committee and investigation, but did not have a comment on it.

Freelance journalist Sarah Olson does not want to testify at First Lt. Ehren Watada’s court marshal in February. At around 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, she received a subpoena from the U.S. Army telling her to do so. 

Watada is the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment in Iraq. Because of his public comments against the war, Watada is charged not only with refusal to deploy, but with “contempt toward officials” and “conduct unbecoming of an officer.” 

Oakland-based Olson interviewed Watada in May and published a story in question-and-answer form in the June 7 online publication Truthout.org about Watada’s decision to refuse deployment. 

“My commanders told me that I could go to Iraq in a different capacity. I wouldn’t have to fire a weapon and I wouldn’t be in harm’s way,” wrote Olson, quoting Watada. “But that’s not what this is about. Even in my resignation letter I said that I would rather go to prison than do something that I felt was deeply wrong. I believe the whole war is illegal. I’m not just against bearing arms or fighting people, I am against an unjustified war.” 

For about a month, the army has been talking to Olson about testifying, “but she declined to appear voluntarily,” said James Wheaton of the First Amendment Project in Oakland. Wheaton is working with lead attorney David Greene, advising Olson of her options. Olson emailed the Daily Planet, declining an interview. 

“She feels it is not a reporter’s job to become an investigative tool of the state,” Wheaton said. 

Olson has not decided how she will answer the subpoena, Wheaton said.  

Joe Piek, spokesperson for the Army at Ft. Lewis, Washington, where Watada will be court marshaled in February, said, “The Army subpoena asked for Olson to report to verify the authenticity of the information contained in news stories.”  

He added that the army wants Olson simply to testify that the writing that appears in print is an accurate reproduction of what was actually said. “We’re not asking for notes or records,” he said. 

Olson’s apparently not the only reporter the army wants to testify for the prosecution. While Dahr Jamail, another Bay Area freelance journalist who has interviewed Watada, has not yet received a subpoena. His attorney, Oakland-based Dan Siegel, told the Daily Planet he believes through sources at Truthout, that Jamail will be subpoenaed.  

An independent reporter who has written for the London Guardian and the Independent, among other outlets, Jamail transcribed an Aug. 14 speech Watada gave to a Veterans for Peace Convention and published that in Truthout with a short introduction. 

“We need to make sure journalists are not treated as government agents,” Siegel said, adding that his client would have to decide whether he was going to comply with any eventual subpoena.  

According to Aaron Glantz, writing Dec. 14 for Interpress News Service, the military has also approached a Honolulu Star Bulletin reporter about testifying.  

Ehren Watada’s father, Bob Watada, is outspoken on the question of bringing in reporters to testify. “It’s intimidation,” he said in a phone interview Monday. “It’s harassment of the media.” 

If the journalists testify, it could hurt Watada’s case and, at the same time, it could help it, said Watada’s attorney Eric Seitz, speaking in a phone interview from Honolulu, Hawaii. “If they don’t testify, the government can’t prove they made the remark,” Seitz said. “They have to authenticate it—we’re not willing to agree [otherwise].” 

But it would help Watada’s case if they testified to the context of the remarks, that they were made off the base and not in uniform, Seitz said. 

By adding charges related to what Watada said and by trying to bring in journalists to attest to that, “they’re trying to suppress dissent,” Seitz said.  

Berkeley resident and Society for Professional Journalism ethics committee member Peter Y. Sussman, while not familiar with the details of Olson’s subpoena or Jamail’s possible subpoena, noted that this “appears to be part of a pattern of intimidation of using journalists as an arm of law enforcement, undermining the freedom of the press.” 

Sussman pointed to Josh Wolf, the San Francisco freelance journalist who refused to turn his videotapes of a demonstration over to police and is now serving time in federal prison. He may be jailed until the Grand Jury’s term expires in July. “Josh Wolf is currently in prison for acting as a journalist,” said Sussman, one of whose books is entitled, Committing Journalism. 

“Our mission as journalists is jeopardized if we are perceived, because of a subpoena, as agents of the government.” 

Army spokesperson Piek declined to comment on the ethics of compelling journalists to testify in court. “We don’t debate with SPJ on this,” he said.

Woodfin Suites housekeeper Alma Cruz has spoken out at City Council meetings, walked picket lines and talked to co-workers about the need for Emeryville’s Living Wage Law for hotel workers to be enforced. Voters approved the law—Measure C—in November 2005. 

On Friday, along with 23 other immigrant co-workers, Cruz, who has worked at the Woodfin one year and four months, was sent home with two weeks pay and told not to return to work without corrected Social Security numbers. She says the move was retaliatory. 

“As soon as we started talking about Measure C, they started asking about Social Security numbers,” Cruz said, speaking to the Daily Planet Saturday at an early morning emergency picket in front of the hotel at 5800 Shellmound St. that drew some 50 people with less than 24-hour notice. 

The demonstration was called by Oakland-based East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, which is helping to organize the workers. 

Workers were called in Friday to speak with management one on one, given two weeks pay and told that the hotel had received letters from the Social Security administration saying their Social Security numbers do not match their names. 

Friday’s suspensions, which the workers say amount to firings, come on the heels of last week’s raids on meatpacking plants in six states in which 1,282 people were arrested on immigration violations. 

“Social Security is the tool they use to shut people up,” Cruz said. “The hotel wants to make more money.” 

However, Woodfin General Manager Hugh MacIntosh told the Daily Planet on Monday that the hotel’s goal in giving workers two weeks with pay was to give them the time they said they needed to accomplish the task.  

MacIntosh said the action is not in retaliation for workers speaking out against Measure C. “We are trying to help them,” he said. “They have to resolve the issue. I prefer having them working.” 

Further, MacIntosh said the hotel is in compliance with Measure C. 

“We sent a lot of documentation to the city,” he said, noting that last May they reduced the number of suites the housekeepers had to clean from 17 to 11 rooms, bringing them into compliance with the law.  

But EBASE organizer Brooke Anderson said that, according to her calculations, the workers should be cleaning nine rooms every day to comply with the 5,000 square-foot maximum allowed under Measure C. 

The Woodfin had gone to court trying to get an injunction against implementation of Measure C, but three weeks ago, the court turned down the request. 

“Now the city is free to enforce Measure C,” said Emeryville City Councilmember John Fricke. At tonight’s (Tuesday) City Council meeting councilmembers will be asked to approve procedures for implementing the measure. 

“There were provisions in the law for workers to complain,” Fricke said, “but no details on how to adjudicate the complaints.” 

A number of the workers suspended on Friday were among those who had submitted formal complaints to the city saying the hotel was out of compliance with Measure C. 

“Once the procedures are in place, the city will adjudicate the complaint; it will have to be updated,” Fricke said. “The law has provisions regarding retaliation.” 

If the hotel does not comply with Measure C, the city could deny its permit to operate or it could fine the hotel, Fricke said. 

Amaha Kassa, EBASE executive director, who worked with Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union 2850 to organize the Doubletree Hotel at the Berkeley Marina, addressed the picketers on Saturday. 

“Maybe in Salt Lake City and Kansas City, they can get away with firing workers just before Christmas, but not in this community, not in Oakland, not in Emeryville, not in Berkeley,” he said, noting that representatives of the Alameda County Central Labor Council, SEIU, AFSME, the Berkeley Labor Coalition and the Double Tree Hotel had come to the 8 a.m. rally with less than 24 hours notice. 

“Mr. Hardage, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Kassa said, directing his message to hotel chain owner Samuel Hardage, a former chair of the San Diego Republican Party. 

The former bond counsel to the Peralta Community College District says that the list of projects in the Peralta’s troubled Measure A bond ballot statement last June may not be specific enough to have qualified the measure under the Proposition 39 requirements under which it was passed. 

Attorney John Hartenstein, chair of the School Finance and General Obligation Bond Practice Group of the San Francisco law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, said that although state courts have not clarified how specific bond project lists must be to qualify under Prop 39, “my advice to my clients is that language should not be included which indicates that the projects under the bond measure ‘are not limited to’ projects actually listed on the ballot measure. My legal view is that this does not meet the measure of Prop 39.” 

Proposition 39, passed by California voters in 2000, dropped the requirement for bond measure passage from two-thirds to 55 percent, but included the requirement, among other things, that the future bond measures qualifying under the new law contain “a list of the specific school facilities projects to be funded.” 

Last June, area voters overwhelmingly approved Peralta’s Measure A, authorizing the issuance of $390 million in bonds to finance facilities upgrades at the four-college district. 

The list of projects accompanying Measure A on last June’s language included the caveat that “project costs … may include, but are not limited to” the included projects. 

There has been growing controversy within the Peralta district in recent weeks about how the Measure A bond money will be spent, with several different “official” project lists released, Laney College faculty members complaining that their college is not getting its promised share of the projects, and members of the board of trustees narrowly rejecting $17 million of a district administration proposal for $21 million in spending on materials out of Measure A money. 

And now, if what Hartenstein says is correct, Peralta could also be vulnerable to possible lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the Measure A vote. 

Earlier this month, a Superior Court Judge in Santa Clara County overturned two lawsuits against Foothill-De Anza Community College District’s Measure C Prop 39 bond, which passed voters in June of this year. 

According to the Mountain View Voice, the citizens bringing the lawsuit “claimed [in part that] Foothill-De Anza did not provide a thorough and accurate list of funded projects to voters and was going to misappropriate funds. But in his ruling, Judge [C. Randall] Schneider found that “The ballot proposition for Measure C contained a list of specific projects to be funded which satisfied all requirements under California law.” 

While it may clarify the Prop 39 law, the Foothill-De Anza bond lawsuit ruling may not have a direct effect on Peralta’s Measure A. While Foothill-De Anza’s Measure C included a project list similar to Peralta’s Measure A, with no projected costs, Measure C did not include Measure A’s qualifying language that the bond money “may” be spent on the included projects, and that other projects could also be added. 

Instead, because Measure C referenced the Foothill-De Anza district’s Facilities Master Plan, Information Technology Strategic Plan and Renovation Master Plan, which Measure C indicated can be “amended from time to time,” the Los Altos Town Crier noted that the claimants in the lawsuit alleged that “there is not a binding list, thus casting the entire bond’s validity in doubt.” 

Earlier court decisions have ruled that Prop 39-qualifying bond measures do not have to include a specific list of bond projects, but can reference a list that has been passed by the district and is on file and available to the public. 

The petitioners in the Foothill-De Anza case have said they will appeal, and California bond attorneys are expected to study Judge Schneider’s 30-page ruling to see if it begins to clarify what is legally allowable and not allowable under Proposition 39. 

Hartenstein said shortly before the Foothill-De Anza ruling was announced that bond law firms in the state were “hoping we’ll get some guidance from the court from this ruling. Up until now, we have just been operating with guesswork. Prior court rulings have said that if a district includes a specific project list in a bond measure, they are bound to those projects. But now we have language in state law that specifically mandates a list of specific projects. We just don’t know how specific that must be.” 

Hartenstein’s firm—which represented the Oakland Unified School District in its successful Measure B bond vote last June and counsels school districts on bond matters in the Bay Area, throughout California, and nationally—did not represent Peralta in either last June’s Measure A vote or in the passage of Peralta’s previous bond, Measure E, in 2000. 

Orrick, Herrington last represented Peralta in its successful 1996 Measure A bond campaign which, according to the Oakland Greater Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, “allowed the district to use $7.5 million of [previous bond measure] funds for the construction of the new Vista facility and provided an additional $8 million for Vista.” 

Peralta’s current bond counsel, the Jones Hall firm of San Francisco, did not return a telephone message seeking comment for this article.

2007 marks 10 years since the passing of baseball legend Curt Flood. Many of today’s sports enthusiasts, including those who follow baseball, have little sense of the man and his contributions to the sport of baseball. 

There were two Curt Floods. There was Curt Flood the baseball player who had a 162 game average of .293 and a career high of .335. There was the Curt Flood who received seven consecutive Gold Gloves. There was Curt Flood the All-Star player. 

Then there was the other Curt Flood. There was the Curt Flood who challenged the notorious “reserve clause” which bound players to the clubs that owned their contracts. In 1969 when the St. Louis Cardinals attempted to trade Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies, he refused to move. Taking this to court, he proceeded to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that came to be known as Flood v Kuhn. Flood, with the backing of the Major League Baseball Players Association (the union of the players) attempted to break a system that was the equivalent of a 20th-century indentured servitude. Though the Supreme Court ruled against Flood, Flood’s actions set in motion a series of events that ultimately led to the elimination of the reserve clause and the emergence of the system of “free agency,” which most Major League baseball players take for granted. 

In taking these actions, Flood’s career was effectively ruined and the owners, who resented his actions, went on to ensure that Flood would not be considered for the Hall of Fame. Though many people over the years have raised the call to right this great wrong, it has fallen on deaf ears. With 2007 upon us, perhaps the time has come for more voices to be heard. 

Flood’s actions took place in the context of the great battle to expand democracy that was represented by the social movements of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. Flood became a champion for the goals of those movements on the field of baseball. While Jackie Robinson, by his presence, broke the color line in baseball, Flood, by his actions, challenged the feudal-like system that restricted the ability of players to get out from under the thumb of the team owners. In that sense, Flood was more than a symbol, but was as much an agent of change. 

In 1997 Curt Flood died from cancer. In the subsequent years, those who have raised his name to be advanced into the Baseball Hall of Fame have been dismissed. While there are many people who believe that Flood’s record, plus his sacrifice, deserve his being placed in the Hall of Fame, there is no organized constituency that has been willing to push the envelope. 

The time has come for this to change. 

The Major League Baseball Players Association, for instance, which stood with Flood in his legal challenge, does not normally take a position on who goes to the Hall of Fame. Given that they are a union of players, this makes sense under normal circumstances. Yet the Curt Flood case is not normal, and that is precisely why the Players Association should be at the forefront of demanding that Flood be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Flood took a stand on behalf of all baseball players. He is not simply an icon of a constituency of fans, such as “Shoeless” Joe Jackson from the Chicago White Sox of the early 20th century (denied entry into the Hall of Fame due to his being accused, though never convicted or proven, of being connected to the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” scandal). Flood was the person who threw himself on the barbed wire that encircled the baseball players, making it possible for others to jump over not only the restrictions imposed by the reserve clause, but to jump over him as well. 

Flood’s actions are those that organizations from within the Black Freedom Movement, whether the NAACP, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists or the Black Radical Congress, should embrace and extol. Yet even within our own movement, there has been silence, a silence that seems to have represented some combination of having taken for granted the courage and vision of this great man, along with simply forgetting him altogether. The fact that upon his death so few great baseball players, of whatever race or ethnic group, showed up to pay respect was an insult to Flood’s commitment. That black players did not show in mass is nothing short of humiliating. 

We need symbols of courage to inspire us forward, but also to remind us that the job of overcoming injustice has not yet been accomplished. 2007 needs to be the year where we take one small step in redressing a wrong: Curt Flood needs to be in the Hall of Fame! 

Black Commentator Editorial Board Member Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a long-time labor and international activist who currently serves as a visiting professor at Brooklyn College-CUNY. He is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum.

Immigrants whose lives are upended by unfair rules and arbitrary law enforcers should thank the day electrical engineer Jayashri Srikantiah decided to leave Intel to become a lawyer. 

The young San Franciscan is the enthusiastic director of Stanford University Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic, where students learn public interest law by doing actual asylum, domestic violence and deportation cases on behalf of immigrants. 

Students in Srikantiah’s clinic—more than a dozen sign up each term—learn not only the preparation and handling of immigration cases, which may involve representing individuals as well as impact litigation, but they also learn that community outreach, education and collaboration are critical parts of defending immigrant rights. 

Most recently, Srikantiah and her students had a hand in an important U.S. Supreme Court victory that can bring relief to immigrants facing unjust deportation. 

On Dec. 5, the high court ruled 8-1 that immigration authorities cannot use a felony under state law that is a misdemeanor under federal law to summarily deport Jose Antonio Lopez, a permanent U.S. resident for 16 years. 

Lopez, a grocery store owner in Sioux Falls, S.D., pleaded guilty to telling someone where to get cocaine. As a result, he was imprisoned for 15 months and then deported to Mexico in early 2006. Although Lopez’s crime is a felony in South Dakota, it is, as a first-time offense, a misdemeanor under the federal Controlled Substances Act. 

The Supreme Court ruled that immigration authorities should not have denied him the opportunity to ask for relief from deportation. Lopez now can return to his family here, which includes his 6-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, where an immigration judge will decide whether he can remain. 

Top lawyers from the firm Covington & Burling successfully argued the case for Lopez. “They did a wonderful pro bono job representing Mr. Lopez, says Srikantiah.” 

What Srikantiah and her law clinic did, through an amicus brief, was widen the impact of the ruling so that it may benefit the thousands of law-abiding immigrants whose otherwise blameless legal histories are marred by first-time drug convictions. 

The brief explained to the court the unfairly harsh and disruptive impact a ruling against Lopez would inflict on immigrant communities. 

As a result of the favorable ruling, legal immigrants with one drug-related conviction can now apply for relief from removal from the country instead of being automatically deported. 

Srikantiah explains that a large coalition of advocacy groups and community organizations came together as soon as the Lopez case appeared headed for the Supreme Court. The coalition knew the case could have an effect on entire communities. 

“The Immigrant Defense Project of the New York State Defenders Association led in coordinating the briefing in the case and developing the key legal issues facing the courts,” Srikantiah explains. The National Council of La Raza, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, its Asian American counterpart AALDEF and ethnic bar associations joined the brief. 

The perfect storm of drugs, wayward immigrants and crime doesn’t seem to be the best condition for fighting a pro-immigrant battle. Potential supporters could have easily been confused, “thinking that people deported for drug offenses, like Mr. Lopez, were dangerous individuals,” says Srikantiah. 

Immigration authorities, she notes, can reach back into an immigrant’s legal past and deport the person based on a single blot. She recalls that an Iraq war veteran married to a U.S. citizen was deported and separated from her family as a result of one drug conviction. 

“But people quickly learned that the Lopez case is one of many instances of people with a drug conviction turning their lives around and becoming law-abiding, but their lives are reduced to that one single conviction and they’re deported,” Srikantiyah explains. “At least now there’s a chance for protection against that automatic punishment.” 

Srikantiah warns that there are many hurdles ahead for immigrants as a result of the use of immigration law to “target, question and detain people based simply on their ethnicity.” 

The fusing of immigration control and national security, she says, brings in the new factor of secrecy, making unfair regulations and practices harder to challenge. “There’s a lot the press and the public can’t know because government won’t release information based on national security grounds,” Srikantiah says. 

Compounding the secrecy, she adds, is that government targets are very vulnerable, “usually they’re on unstable or temporary visas, and are more prone not to challenge the authorities.” 

The UC Berkeley engineering and New York University Law School graduate isn’t someone to shy away from a court battle, especially in defense of immigrants. Her choice of public interest law as an arena was particularly inspired by Prof. Burt Neuborn’s voting rights clinic at NYU. 

Her switch from engineering to law didn’t delight her parents at first. “But they’re now very happy and quite proud ever since I began working for the ACLU,” Srikantiah confides. Before joining Stanford Law faculty she was ACLU Northern California’s associate legal director. 

As an ACLU attorney Srikantiah successfully challenged the government’s denial of the existence of a no-fly list that barred certain passengers from boarding airplanes. The government was forced to turn over information about the list and pay attorney’s fees, and other ACLU lawyers are now trying to stop the government’s use of the no-fly list itself. 

As staff attorney for the ACLU’s National Immigrant Rights Project, Srikantiah represented the teenage victims of Berkeley entrepreneur Lakireddi Bali Reddy, who was eventually sentenced to eight years in prison for human trafficking and sexual abuse. Two Reddy sons received lesser sentences for conspiracy to defraud the INS as part of plea agreements. 

Srikantiah’s immigrant rights clinic is currently challenging before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights mandatory deportation as a violation of international law. The group also has a case before the U.S. District in Los Angeles challenging the indefinite detention of immigrants and asylum-seekers.  

Rene Ciria-Cruz is an editor at New America Media.

UC Berkeley Campus Police have cited two of the tree-sitters protesting plans to cut down a grove of Oaks for the new Memorial Stadium, including former mayoral candidate Zachary Running Wolf, and served court orders barring them from campus. 

Running Wolf said he was detained outside Barrows Hall where he was meeting with Native American faculty and served with an order barring him from campus for seven days. 

Other officers cornered Asa Dodsworth that same morning, serving him with a similar citation and order, and a third protester was cited Thursday morning. He had not been a tree-sitter but had worked the crew of volunteers supporting the tree-in. 

Kingman Lim, who granted from Cal earlier this year with a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, was the second tree-sitter cited, picked off Thursday after he left his perch concealed in a large bag. He was barred from campus for two weeks. 

“The campus cops were all over it, and they served him with an order to stay off campus for two weeks,” said Doug Buckwald, ground support coordinator for the arboreal protesters. “He wasn’t primarily a tree-sitter, and he helped us with ropes and climbing.” 

The tree-sitters and their supporters are protesting the proposed destruction of most of the trees to make way for a four-story high tech gym planned for the site along the stadium’s western wall. 

Running Wolf had left his perch briefly for a meeting with Ethnic Studies faculty when officers, assisted by a police dog, cornered him, cited him for trespassing and “ordered me to stay away from campus for seven days,” he said. 

To ensure that he—or a replacement—doesn’t return to his perch high in a California redwood, campus police have maintained a constant presence around the tree since Wednesday morning. 

“They’re so pleased with themselves. They captured a tree,” Buckwald said. Police brought a ladder to the tree late Thursday afternoon to begin removing Running Wolf’s sleeping platform and equipment. 

But the university’s victory is only partial, because other activists are in residence in nearby coastal live oaks, and supporters in ever varying numbers have kept constant watch from the ground. 

Meanwhile, supporters of the Great Berkeley Tree-in are asking the community to come to the stadium grove from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a festival honoring the tree-sitters. 

“There’ll be singing and dancing and poetry and good food and good people,” said Buckwald. “We want the whole community to come.” 

Ongoing public support has kept the tree-sitters and ground crew well fed, and participants have adopted a new name for themselves in keeping with a long Berkeley tradition—Free Speech in the Trees. 

“We like free speech so much we do it everywhere, including on the ground and 50 feet up in the trees,” said Buckwald. 

More cops 

Campus police maintained a beefed-up presence that increased as the day progressed Wednesday. Protesters grew worried as the day wore on and up to 13 officers were in evidence along with a van, and rumors spread of an impending sweep to clear protesters from the grove. 

Meanwhile, members of Copwatch were joined by activist videographer LA Wood as their cameras captured the images and voices of the officers watching them. 

Brendan Keenan said he was taping for Copwatch starting at 4 a.m. when the first officer came, followed by the arrival of another officer four hours later. 

During a break in the police presence, Running Wolf descended and was cornered and a detective and two more uniformed officers soon arrived, and thereafter police maintained a constant presence at the base of Running Wolf’s tree. 

The former mayoral candidate returned in late afternoon, carefully staying on the Gayley Road pavement. Keenan said one of the activists and a campus police sergeant got in a verbal sparring match. 

Andy Kramer, a student who has been helping to coordinate the protest, said he advised Running Wolf to run after two officers drove by and asked him to wait while they parked so they could “check some of the spellings” in their report. 

Figuring an arrest might be imminent, the activist left. 

Copwatch had been maintaining a presence for several days in response to what organizers called a campaign of police harassment. 

Officers made frequent nocturnal sweeps in which they awakened the tree-sitters as often as once an hour, a practice that ground support organizer Doug Buckwald called dangerous because it made the protesters groggy and disoriented. 

After leaving the scene earlier in the day, Running Wolf returned in the evening, this time walking into the grove where he talked with fellow protesters. 

“The police saw him but they didn’t do anything,” said Buckwald. 

If apprehended in violation of the order, the activist could be charged with a misdemeanor, rather than the simple infraction for which he was already cited. University officials are anxious to start excavation at the site, driven by the self-imposed need to have that part of the work done by the time football season starts in the next summer. 

Briefing protest 

UC Berkeley Capital Projects staff met with would-be project contractors Tuesday morning in their off-campus office at 1936 University Ave. prior to the submission of bids to build the glade-clearing Student Athlete High Performance Center, only to be greeted by a bullhorn call from protesters outside, “Hello up there. Welcome to Berkeley.” 

LA Wood said he attended the session, where developers greeted news that the site was filled with protesters “with only a nervous laugh or two.” 

It was during that protest that officers detained, cited and served Dodsworth, said Running Wolf. “They had four cars come, even though it was off-campus,” he said. 

Would-be bidders have until 2 p.m. today (Friday) to submit their pre-qualification statements spelling out their suitability to take on the massive project. 

A Native American and environmental activist, Running Wolf launched the protest by taking up residence in a California Redwood just west of Memorial Stadium in the pre-dawn hours of Big Game Saturday, Dec. 9. 

He was soon joined by UC Berkeley student Aaron Diek and environmentalist Jess Walsh, and In the days that followed, others have joined in, either taking perches of their own to spelling the sitters during their occasional descents to earth. 

The university intends to destroy 38 of the oaks—a protected species inside Berkeley’s city limits—along with a Giant Sequoia and a mixed collection of other trees to make way for a 132,500-square-foot, four-story high-tech gym and office structure to be built at the site of the grove at the base of the stadium’s western wall. 

Regents approved the project five days before Running Wolf ascended to his perch, simultaneously accepting a controversial environmental impact report (EIR) that greenlights a massive wave of construction at and near the stadium.  

The protesters are a mixed collection of neighborhood residents, environmental activists, civil libertarians and concerned students. Two UC Berkeley professors—Ignacio Chapela and Claudia Carr—joined them at the peak of tensions during the afternoon. 

Also on hand was Michael Kelly, an officer of the Panoramic Hill Association neighborhood organization which has already filed the first suit challenging the EIR. The city will be filing its own suit, an action already approved by the City Council, said City Manager Phil Kamlarz. 

A number of citizens urged the Berkeley City Council Tuesday not to approve the second reading of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which will make landmarking older structures and sites more difficult. 

The law was approved 6-to-2, with Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Betty Olds voting in opposition and Councilmember Dona Spring absent for that vote. 

In other business, the council voted to continue the Solano Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) and approved the city attorney’s interpretation of the city-university lawsuit settlement.  

Several citizens addressed the council on the landmarks law issue. Peace and Justice Commissioner Elliot Cohen reminded the council that any decision the landmarks commission makes can be appealed to the City Council: “You’ll always have the last say,” he said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington read from a letter written by attorney Stuart Flashman, which, Worthington said, pointed out that, in approving an ordinance that was revised by the city attorney several times over the weekend of Dec. 2-3, the first reading of the measure was “adopted in violation of the City Council’s own rules.”  

The council rule Flashman referred to says: “Matters listed on the printed agenda but for which support materials are not received by the City Council on the fourth day prior to said meeting as part of the agenda Packet, shall not be discussed or acted upon.” (The council can vote by 2/3 to waive this rule, but did not hold the vote on the first reading of the ordinance.) 

Without success, Worthington called on the council to delete “surprise” language in the last revision that would likely prevent a referendum on part of the law—an easier way to get support for a referendum—rather than on the entire ordinance. 

Solano BID 

The controversy around the Solano Avenue BID renewal is a “messy, complex situation,” Economic Development Director Michael Caplan told the Berkeley City Council Tuesday. 

Over the last several weeks, 83 Solano Avenue business owners signed formal protests calling for an end to the assessment district. However, the council voted 8-0, with Councilmember Laurie Capitelli recusing himself, to continue the BID with a 20 percent reduction in assessment fees for each business in the district, a promise from the city manager to review BID expenditures over the three years of its existence, and an agreement that the board of directors would write a new work plan. 

The businesses protesting the BID pay collectively an assessment totaling 41.73 percent of the district’s $34,000 total assessment. 

“That’s a fairly substantial percentage of opponents,” Caplan told the council. 

But it was not enough to shut down the BID. Had there been protests by business owners collectively paying more than 50 percent of the total assessment, the BID, which is governed by state law, would have been automatically disbanded. 

But Caplan said he met with leaders of the protest and came to the compromise agreement. 

Many protesters object to the BID being run by the Solano Avenue Association, which is made up of Albany business owners who join voluntarily. The BID is obligatory for those whose business is located within the district. It is run by a board of directors selected by councilmembers.  

The BID executive director, who recently quit, had been paid $60,000 annually, with half the salary funded by the BID and half by the Solano Avenue Association. 

After the question of possible conflict of interest was raised by some of the protesting business owners, and on the advice of the city attorney, Capitelli recused himself from the vote. He is a partner in Red Oak Realty, which has an office on Solano Avenue. One of Red Oak’s realtors is a member of the BID board.  

Jan Snidow, president of the BID and former president of the Solano Avenue Association, asked the council to renew the BID at its current assessment level—$65 to $500—and listed the accomplishments of the organization, including distribution of Solano Avenue merchant directories, street beautification and production of events such as the Chocolate and Chalk Art Festival and the Solano Stroll.  

A number of Solano Ave. merchants have expressed dislike for the Stroll, but Snidow argued, when addressing the council, that if you take the BID and the Stroll away “you take Mickey Mouse away from Disneyland.” 

Protesting merchant Susan Boat, owner of Scissors and Comb, called for cutting ties with the Solano Avenue Association. “Thirty thousand dollars of our $34,000 went to the salary of the executive director,” she said, adding, moreover, “I don’t want to pay for the Stroll.” 

Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniak, whose appointments to the BID board are vacant, called on protesting merchants to apply so that they can bring their ideas to the organization. 

City-university agreement  

The city attorney squared off at Tuesday’s council meeting with some citizens and councilmembers, when she supported a resolution she had written intended to counter those who have said the city has lost its sovereignty by signing the May 2005 agreement that settled a city lawsuit against the university’s Long Range Development Plan. 

“…it has been suggested that the settlement agreement improperly delegates the city’s home rule authority to the university,” Manuela Albuquerque wrote. 

The council majority agreed with the city attorney, voting 6-3, with councilmembers Dona Spring, Betty Olds and Kriss Worthington voting in opposition. 

But several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city disagreed.  

“There is no release of the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) without concurrence of both parties,” Anne Wagley (Daily Planet calendar editor), one of the plaintiffs, told the council, referring to the contention that no projects can be built downtown without the signature of the city and the university on the environmental document. 

“It must be acceptable to UC Berkeley,” Wagley said. “There’s no ambiguity, no confusion.” 

But Councilmember Gordon Wozniak countered: “If for some reason, we don’t like [the downtown plan] we can pull out.” 

The council did not discuss two agenda items: 

• Councilmember Dona Spring held over until January her resolution to have the city end its membership in organizations that endorse local electoral measures and candidates 

• Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Betty Olds’ resolution on term limits for commissioners was put off, due to the length of the council meeting, which ended just before 1 a.m. Wednesday. 

Even before the second and final City Council vote Tuesday establishing a more developer-friendly Berkeley landmark law, opponents were preparing their counterattack. 

Though voters rejected an alternative, neighborhood preservation-based alternative in November, in the hours before Tuesday night’s council meeting backers of the failed Measure J filed a petition to challenge the council’s ordinance through a voter referendum. 

Laurie Bright, one of the sponsors of both the initiative and the new referendum, said the referendum was moving forward despite the failure of the initiative last month. 

“We’re not holding a referendum on Measure J; we’re referending the mayor’s ordinance,” Bright said. 

The ordinance passed by the council was sponsored by the mayor and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli. 

“Well God bless ‘em,” said Capitelli when told the petition had been filed. “I would hope people would stop and think before signing.” 

“It’s kind of like that movie Groundhog Day, where the same things happen over and over again,” said Cisco De Vries, chief of staff for Mayor Tom Bates, who has left to spend the holiday break in India. 

Bright said copies of the referendum petition “were delivered to the eight or nine captains” Wednesday; they, in turn, distributed them to signature collectors. 

Announcement of the referendum campaign was posted on the www.lpo2006.org website, which was created for the Measure J campaign. The same text was sent to Measure J supporters who had signed up for campaign emails. 

City Clerk Pamyla Means’s acceptance of the petition triggered a 30-day period during which referendum supporters must gather the 4,100 signatures needed to force a special election. 

Article XIV, Section 93 of the City Charter mandates blocking enactment of a new ordinance if opponents gather signatures equal to 10 percent of voters in the last general election with a mayoral race. 

The block would remain in force until after the referendum is presented to voters in the next general or special election, when a majority vote determines the outcome. 

“The next general election is in 2008, although the council at one time talked about a special election to bring some new taxes to the voters,” Bright said. 

Deadline for gathering the signatures is Jan. 12. 

The strongest opposition to Measure J came the affluent Berkeley hills, while the strongest support came from UC Berkeley students and neighborhoods in South and West Berkeley. 

“We’ll have a good idea of how we’re doing by the end of next week,” he said. The initial drive will target on UC Berkeley students, many of whom are due to leave the city for the holiday break after finals conclude today (Friday). 

While Measure J basically tweaked the city’s existing Landmarks Preservation Ordinance to comply with provisions of state law, filing the referendum’s signature quota would keep the current law in effect until the election. 

DeVries said Mayor Bates wouldn’t call for a special election on the referendum, “if only because the cost would be $200,000 to $300,000.” 

A long shot might be a special election if the council needs a vote on proposals to save the warm water pool or voter authorization of Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), a power sharing plan for local governments. 

The former would be needed only if the Berkeley Unified School District moves forward with plans to demolish the old Berkeley High School building housing the pool, and a special election on CCA wouldn’t been needed unless other governments insisted, he said. 

Absent a special election, the matter couldn’t go to the ballot before the 2008 primary election, and in any case, the city would be forced to bear that part of the costs of the election related to the referendum, he said. 

Capitelli said deciding on an appropriate response if referendum backers get the needed signatures would be up the council. 

“I haven’t really given it that much thought,” he said. 

The other choice, Bright said, would be for the council to rescind their ordinance and let the old law stand. 

Developers wanted changes in the existing law in part because they content that their projects are often blocked when opponents file petitions to landmark the buildings they plan to demolish or alter. 

The landmark legislation created by Bates and Laurie Capitelli and adopted by the council adds a new provision that forces the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to rule on the potential landmark-worthiness of properties at an owner’s request, with a two-year exemption from any landmarking efforts from any quarter if the commission fails to initiate on their own. 

Once granted, developers can then file for project permits knowing no landmarking efforts could block their projects. 

Since the new law allows this “safe harbor” provision to be used by property owners before their permit applications for new developments are filed, critics like Bright and co-sponsor Roger Marquis contend that neighbors could be stuck with unwanted projects they didn’t know were coming when it’s too late to landmark the buildings already on the site. 

The city may have dodged one bullet by going along with developer Patrick Kennedy’s notion of how much time to devote to culture at the Gaia Building—Kennedy threatened to sue the city over the question—but by doing so, the city may be running head-on into a lawsuit Kennedy tenant Anna de Leon has promised to file. 

At issue is the 1998 city decision to allow Kennedy to construct the Gaia Building at 2120 Allston Way two stories higher than normally permitted in exchange for a promise to use the first two floors for cultural offerings. 

At issue before the council on Tuesday was what constitutes “culture,” how much time Kennedy must provide cultural events at Gaia and who should decide these questions. The council voted 5-3 to approve a planning staff resolution, a six-page document distributed to the councilmembers at the beginning of the 7 p.m. meeting, that details how much time Kennedy is obligated to hold cultural events on the first two floors and what constitutes culture. 

Councilmembers Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson voted against the resolution and Councilmember Linda Maio recused herself from the vote saying her husband, who now rents space from Kennedy, is negotiating to buy a storefront in a building the developer owns on University Avenue. 

A more complete discussion of the issue was to have taken place at the council’s closed session meeting on Monday. The public is not privy to what was discussed behind closed doors. 

“You’re being asked to modify a use permit for the developer,” de Leon told the council on Tuesday. “Only ZAB (the Zoning Adjustments Board) shall have the power to grant or deny use permits. The only power granted to council is the appeal process.”  

Dean Metzger, former zoning board commissioner, also argued that the correct venue to address changes to a use permit is the zoning board. “They can have a real public hearing,” he said. 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, however, argued that the council does have the right to make the decisions around the cultural requirements. “It would end up here” if appealed, he said. 

The resolution approved by council said it accepted the following “operator’s proposals”: 

• Ground floor theater space will be reserved for cultural use 51 percent of the weekend dates over one year plus rehearsal and setup time (80 days per year). 

• The theater space will be required to devote 30 percent of its time to performances, not including time for rehearsal and setup (109 days per year). 

• People who reserve the venue for cultural use can reserve 18 months in advance, but those reserving for non-cultural uses can reserve only 12 months in advance to give cultural groups priority. 

Jos Sances, member of the Civic Arts Commission, spoke to the council, contending that Kennedy’s original proposal to the commission was that the Gaia bookstore, which was to be the tenant in the building before it went bankrupt, would be hosting cultural events every night and that the expectation was 100 percent cultural use. 

Sances further argued against non-cultural use, which the council resolution allows. “Caterers and churches are not good uses,” he said. 

Further, Civic Arts Commission Chair Suzy Thompson wrote the council Dec. 4: “We find no record of the process by which 100 percent cultural use was changed to 30 percent cultural use, nor was the Art Commission ever consulted about this change …. If this is going to be the result of the zoning variance for cultural use—that developers receive big concessions form the city for uses that cannot be enforced—we must reconsider our positions on this issue.” 

“If the council does this, it will be the demise of the cultural bonus,” de Leon told the council. 

But developer Kennedy argued before the council that cultural uses in his building were subsidized by the profits from the receptions and dinners. And he lauded the use of his space by non-profit organizations that serve the homeless and people with HIV/AIDS. The Democratic Party also took advantage of the space, he said: “It was used for GOTV [get out the vote].”  

“Because of the influence of developers, we’ve changed our ruling,” Councilmember Max Anderson told the council. “ZAB never intended anything but 100 percent cultural use.” 

Reached Wednesday by phone, de Leon argued that by working with the developer on the resolution, city staff was doing his bidding. 

“I will be bringing suit,” she said, noting that when she was active as an attorney she sued municipalities 32 times, including Berkeley.  

With the Hallmark Card takeover of UNICEF cards, Berkeley’s United Nations Association Center that has carried the popular cards for almost half a century, is shutting its doors tomorrow (Saturday)—hopefully a temporary closure to change the center’s focus, says UNA volunteer Mary Lee Trampleasure. 

The center, tucked behind the University Avenue Andronico’s at 1403B Addison St., will be celebrating its 42 years in Berkeley Saturday with live Latin jazz, food and a sale of remaining UNICEF and fair-trade items from noon to 5 p.m. 

The ever-popular UNICEF cards and calendars never brought the center much money—the organization was able to keep about 10 percent of what it earned—but distributing them was critical in bringing people in the door, Trampleasure said. The store has also sold fair-trade gift items, flags and United Nations books. 

Hallmark Cards took over the creation and manufacture of UNICEF cards at the beginning of the year. Since June, the cards are distributed only to the 2,000 Hallmark Gold Crown stores and to Ikea and Pier 1.  

“UNICEF cards and gift items were without warning terminated in January 2006 by the U.S. Fund for UNICEF,” wrote Herb Behrstock, United Nations Association Eastbay Chapter president in the organization’s October-November newsletter. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is UNICEF’s funding arm. UNICEF is a world-wide child advocacy organization, under the auspices of the United Nations. 

Following Saturday’s store closure, the association board of directors will regroup to determine how to keep its storefront operating part time; they are looking for an individual to volunteer as the center manager.  

The reformatted center would continue distributing United Nations and UNICEF literature, such as a study on the state of the world’s children, Trampleasure said. 

“We’re the community voice for the United Nations,” Trampleasure added, underscoring that now is a time, more than ever, that people need education about the United Nations. For example, many people do not know that the United States does not support U.N. treaties, such as the Kyoto treaty against global warming and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Trampleasure said she supports the organization despite the widely-reported abuses by U.N. soldiers in Africa, Haiti and elsewhere. U.N. soldiers “are human beings—they need better controls,” she said. 

The local U.N. Association card, gift and information shop opened in 1964 at the old Shattuck Avenue Co-Op (now Andronico’s at Cedar Street and Shattuck Avenue) and moved three times before settling into its present headquarters in 2000. 

Wendy Miller, director of product marketing for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, said working with Hallmark is a “nice marriage. We couldn’t do it on our own.”  

Miller said she understands that the small U.N. Association outlets can’t come up with the approximately $30,000 it takes to buy the merchandise up front, which they formerly got on consignment. “It’s a different business model. There’s more risk involved,” she said. “The goal is to triple sales in five years.” 

The U.S. Fund gets 7 to 15 percent of the sales price of each item, she said, noting, however, that Pier I and Ikea turn over all profits to the Fund.  

The production of UNICEF cards is one more addition to the giant Hallmark Card business, which, in 2005 had net revenues of $4.2 billion and had more than half the U.S. market-share of the greeting-card industry. Hallmark’s subsidiaries include Binney & Smith (Crayolas and Silly Putty), the Kansas City Crown Center Redevelopment Corporation (an 85-acre commercial and residential complex), Crown Media Holdings (TV channels and film distribution), Dayspring Cards (“the leading creator of Christian personal expression products,” according to the Hallmark web site) and a half-dozen other corporations. 

The Eastbay UN Association is at www.unausaeastbay.org. The store can be reached at 849-1752. 

Photograph by Judith Scherr 

Mary Lee Trampleasure (right) and Sharon Braun staff the United Naitons Association Center store during its final days.

In what can only be considered good news for opponents of the proposed massive Oak to Ninth development in Oakland, a Superior Court judge has tentatively ruled that a lawsuit filed by the Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee can go forward, at least for now. 

Shortly after Oakland City Council approved the 64-acre development on the estuary just south of Jack London Square, members of the newly-formed referendum committee-which includes such groups as the League of Women Voters, the Sierra Club, the Coalition Of Advocates For Lake Merritt (CALM), and the Oakland Heritage Alliance-collected more than 25,000 signatures on petitions calling for a voter referendum on the project. 

When City Attorney John Russo invalidated the signatures because the wrong version of the ordinance authorizing the development agreement had been included with the petitions, the referendum committee sued, saying that they included the version that was given to them by city officials. 

With the lawsuit still in its preliminary stages, the city attorney’s office filed a demurrer, “a request made to a court, asking it to dismiss a lawsuit on the grounds that no legal claim is asserted,” according to the Nolo online legal dictionary. 

Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith tentatively denied that request last week, writing that “since the court is called upon in this case to decide whether the alleged technical deficiency in the referendum petition was significant enough to mislead or confuse electors who were asked to sign the petition, the disposition of the matter by demurrer is inappropriate.” 

Smith ruled that she has not yet received enough information to determine which side might be likely to win at trial, noting that “the case is merely at the pleading stage. The Court is not yet in a position to determine whether Petitioner will be able to prove its argument.” 

A hearing on the judge’s tentative ruling was held in court in Oakland on Wednesday, with a final decision expected within days. Two other separate lawsuits against the Oak to Ninth project are also working their way through the preliminary stages. 

The newly constituted board of directors of the Peralta Community College District acted swiftly to tighten up spending procedures at the four-college district, sending back to district administrators $17 million of a $5 million Measure A bond project authorization request after complaining about details missing from the request papers. 

The funding setback capped a day of bad news for the district. Shortly after reports were published in a Daily Planet article last Tuesday of discrepancies in a Measure A bond project list posted to the district’s website, the list was pulled from the website without explanation. 

Later that day, members of the Laney College Faculty Senate learned that district administrators have cut a promised $213 million in Measure A Laney projects down to $140 million. And far more ominously, the East Bay Express reported in its online blog that a federal grand jury is investigating a land development deal that was proposed two years ago between the Peralta district and a local developer. 

At Tuesday night’s trustee meeting in the Laney College Auditorium, trustees elected Area One trustee Bill Withrow (Alameda-West Oakland-Chinatown-Downtown Oakland) as president and Area Six trustee Cy Gulassa (North Oakland-Montclair-Berkeley Hills) as vice president, turning the officers positions over to the class of trustees that was first elected by voters only two years ago. In addition, newly-elected trustee Abel Guillen was sworn in to take the Area Seven (West Oakland-East Lake) seat formerly held by Alona Clifton, whom Guillen defeated in last November’s elections. 

Guillen was the swing vote in a 4-3 decision on Gulassa’s motion to send the major portion of a $21 million Measure A request back to the administration and colleges for further work (Withrow, Gulassa, Guillen, and Nicky González Yuen voting yes, Bill Riley, Linda Handy, and Marcie Hodge voting no). 

The request, backed up with 73 pages of supporting documents from the district and the four colleges listing specific items requested, would have set aside the $21 million in Measure A money for instructional equipment, furniture, computers and ADA-compliant equipment and library materials so that staff could begin the procurement process of those materials. $8.2 million of that money was requested by Laney, $5.3 million by Merritt College, $4.4 million by the College of Alameda, $1.6 million by Berkeley City College, and $1.3 million for district-wide needs. 

Saying that there were “significant problems with the presentation” in the request, Gulassa immediately moved to set aside $5 million of the request for approval, but to send the remaining $17 million back to the district and colleges for revamping. 

Gulassa complained that the requests for the four colleges were presented in different format with different wording, making it difficult for trustees to judge the requests uniformly, adding that “some of the requests are presented in a format that makes it difficult to understand what is being requested.” 

Yuen added that he was supporting the motion to send the request back because it did not include promised backup materials justifying the expenditure requests. 

That set off a storm of heated debate, with trustee Hodge saying that “I hope that the direction of this board isn't moving into micro-management” and Handy charging that rejecting the request because the forms were not uniform “is like handing in your masters thesis and having it rejected because it's signed on the left side rather than the right side. The presidents of the colleges went through these items and approved them. We should respect that.” 

A visibly angry Handy left the auditorium for several minutes while the debate was going on, and both Handy and Hodge left the meeting before it was adjourned. 

At one point, Gulassa said that he was “not challenging the needs presented in this request. I know these items are needed. I'm objecting to the format as it has been presented. It's unprofessional. It's presented in a helter-skelter fashion.” 

That got a sharp retort from Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris, who called the “unprofessional” allegation a “charged word.” Harris noted that the request was not for an allocation of the funds for the items, but only a request that the money be set aside for that purpose. 

But when Withrow asked if that meant all of the money requests would eventually come back to the board for final review, Director of General Services Sadiq Ikharo at first said yes, but then clarified his remarks by adding that “but some items have established long-term contracts already, and for those items, it will not come back to the board.” Ikharo did not clarify how much of the $21 million request came under that category. 

It was also not certain from the debate how long the actual purchase of the requested items would be held up, assuming the requests come back to the board and are eventually all approved. 

The debate also included impassioned pleas from college representatives for passage of the full $12 million authorization. Laney President Frank Chong said that while he understood the need for the board to have more backup detail, he urged approval. “There is a pent-up demand for these materials at the colleges,” Chong said. “There's some fatigue among the faculty and staff over getting this through--it's been a six month process.” 

And Laney College Faculty Senate President Shirley Coaston said that Laney faculty members “have cynicism about how this money is going to be spent. The faculty helped to pass Measure A. We need to get up-to-date equipment. That's why we passed this bond.” 

Coaston added that if the board did not approve the expenditures, faculty would have to go back to students and explain why they would have to wait longer to get the equipment. 

The disapproval of the full $21 million request was the second Measure A blow Coaston received that day. Earlier, at a noon meeting with General Services Director Ikharo to clear up discrepancies in the full Measure A expenditure going to Laney, members of the Laney College Faculty Senate learned that the college was, indeed, going to get a cut of some $73 million from the $213 million Measure A money promised to Laney by district officials when the bond measure was approved by district trustees last February. 

The total amount of the Measure A bond, passed overwhelmingly by area voters last June, is $390 million. 

Evelyn Lord, Laney's representative on the District Academic Senate, said by telephone following the Tuesday noon meeting that “I don't think we're satisfied at Laney about those figures. A lot of the faculty members are upset, particularly because of the poor condition of our campus.” 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Will Harper of the East Bay Express reported on its 92510 blog that a federal grand jury investigating corruption in Oakland politics “is investigating [Oakland] developer Alan Dones and his dealings with the four-college Peralta Community College District.” 

Dones won approval from the outgoing Peralta Board of Trustees in late 2004 for the exclusive rights to put together a development deal that involved portions of the Peralta administrative properties and adjacent Laney College sites. 

The proposal generated an enormous controversy in the district, causing Chancellor Harris to delay negotiating a contract to allow Dones to move forward with writing his proposal, and eventually Dones backed out of the deal himself. 

This week, the Express reported that last October, the federal grand jury issued a subpoena to Peralta district officials that demanded records of work performed for Peralta by Dones or his associates going back to 1998, with specific attention to the proposed 2004 development deal. 

Included with the subpoena was a request for such records on Virtual Murrell. Murrell, a former aide to former Oakland City Councilmember Leo Bazille and the brother of Peralta trustee Bill Riley. Murrell received a one year sentence in 1995 after pleading guilty to taking a $750 bribe from a developer while Murrell was working for Bazille. 

It was not clear from the subpoena whether Murrell actually has any involvement with Peralta. 

The Express reported that Dones has denied any wrongdoing in the abortive contract talks, and that Peralta spokesperson Jeff Heyman would only say that Peralta is cooperating in the investigation, and that “no district employees are targets” of the investigation. That left open the unconfirmed possibility that district trustees could be.

Holiday shopping unfinished? Unwilling to make one more trip to a multitude of malls or to … Emeryville? 

Let me suggest where to shop locally this season and also feel good about it. Come down to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. 

Maybe you’re terrified of Telegraph? Worried you’ll find only empty storefronts, aggressive panhandling, no parking, tumbleweeds in the streets? 

Settle down. You probably read too much campaign literature during the last election. Toss those screeds in the trash, and visit the real Telegraph where you’ll find the picture implied wasn’t, and isn’t, true. 

Endless vacant storefronts? I’ve counted. There are 63 commercial storefronts on Telegraph from Dwight to Bancroft, and only four appear both empty and unrented. Panhandlers are few and actually pretty polite, and regular pedestrian traffic is heavy, although with students now leaving town after finals it should tail off in the next few days. 

All the more room for you and me to do our holiday shopping. The special character of Telegraph at this time of year goes far back.  

“In the Christmas season, I almost always think of ‘The Avenue’ wet with fresh rains, pungent with the odor of freshly unpacked merchandise in gift and book stores, exciting with Christmas sounds and decor, and somewhat relieved for an excuse to affect an attitude completely ignoring the collegiate.”  

“It was on this street and its byways, during my last days before leaving for home for Christmas, that I would walk from one end of the business section to the other, shopping for tokens and trinkets.”  

That’s a Cal alumnus writing about Telegraph during the 1940s in the December, 1954, California Monthly magazine.  

And the sentiment is true today, almost word for word, down to the rain, which drenched, but did not extinguish, the Telegraph Holiday Street Fair last weekend.  

The Fair continues the next two weekends—Dec. 16 and 17, 23 and 24—from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.  

North of Dwight the main street is closed to traffic and filled with booths, and several of the regular storefront businesses are also putting on a show, with sales and specials. Street parking can be tight, it’s true. If you drive, head along Channing to Telegraph. Just east of that intersection you can park in the University’s Anna Head lot, for a fee. Just west you’ll find the City’s Sather Gate Garage, and the new underground parking owned by First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. Once on foot you’ll find craft booths with many regular Telegraph sidewalk vendors plus dozens who come in seasonally for the show.  

Here are just a few of the things I saw. 

The fair opens, appropriately enough for Berkeley, at Dwight with a booth selling sparkling stained glass peace symbols beneath colorful streetlight banners featuring doves on the wing.  

On up the Avenue were vendors with unique handmade t-shirts, many of art quality, or with local themes. Holiday ornaments, garden art, and hangings. Bamboo bowls. “Aroma crystals,” colorfully knit gloves and slippers, and gorgeous patterned silk scarves. Jewelry makers of all descriptions, some of them also offering unset stones and crystals. Old vinyl records bent into bowls or transformed into journal covers. Colorful glazed tiles. Handcrafted wooden cutting boards, and whimsical stuffed animals. All sorts of ceramics. And soybean candles with a multitude of scents, including chocolate. Soybean candles! Did you even know those existed?  

One craftsman was selling sinuous metal sculptures entwining glass or crystal balls. Each orb seem to endlessly descend along the metal spiral as it revolved in the breeze. “That is so crazy!” said a shopper standing next to me. “I could seriously just watch this for days.”  

If you want to eat while strolling, the fair includes booths selling freshly popped kettle corn, organic Tibetan fare, and Southeast Asian tidbits. Beyond the seasonal vendors and outdoor shopping, Telegraph is still the go-to place in the East Bay for music, with the enormous and varied Rasputin’s Records and Amoeba emporiums.  

And books? The closing of the original Cody’s this past summer did leave a hole, but there are still more bookstores concentrated along or near the Avenue—eight, by my count—than anywhere else I can think of in the Bay Area.  

The redoubtable Moe’s, Shakespeare and Co., and Cartesian Books all cluster near the Dwight/Telegraph intersection. Revolution Books and the Friends of the Library Bookstore (with a free book cart in front!) are be found in the Sather Gate Mall, and University Press Books, Ned’s Books, and the Student Store bookstore are up along Bancroft. The latter is no mere textbook warehouse. It hosts an extensive general book department with local interest and faculty author sections. 

Telegraph also has several interesting gift, art, and specialty shops. The Reprint Mint offers thousands of posters, framed and unframed. The Framer’s Workshop helps you do it yourself. Some more recent stores—including Land of Bliss, Kathmandu, and the newly relocated What The Traveler Saw (which occupies much of the old Cody’s building) make Telegraph a nexus for handicrafts from all over the world and South Asia in particular.  

The Berkeley Hat Company is well worth stopping in for that special chapeau, and kids might enjoy the several “vintage” and specialty clothing stores along the Avenue. If you finish up or take a break from shopping at brunch, lunch, or dinner time, Telegraph is also one of Berkeley’s best areas to eat. 

Pick your style. Standing room only grilled sausages at Top Dog, or perhaps white-table-cloth upscale Adagia in the renovated Westminster House two blocks up Bancroft at College Avenue. Burger or salad, Thai, Korean, savory crepes, sandwiches, “smart food,” greasy spoon, organic, pizza, fresh baked goods (two bakeries and one donut shop), sushi boats, the fastest take out, and the most leisurely sitdown … it’s all here.  

In the long Telegraph block south of Dwight down to Parker you can find a trio of Asian-themed restaurants where I’ve had good meals, including Unicorn (fusion), Norikonono (traditional Japanese setting and dining), and Saigon City (Vietnamese). 

Or you can take a nostalgic culinary tour of college hangouts dating a half-century back. Perhaps Larry Blake’s for the ’50s, Fondue Fred’s from the ’60s, Kips for the ’70s, Henry’s Pub from the ’80s, and Raleigh’s and Intermezzo for the ’90s.  

Coffeeistas need not fear caffeine withdrawal along Telegraph, which boasts numerous cafes including Berkeley’s oldest (Mediterraneum) and newest (the Telegraph Peet’s) just a burnt bean’s throw from each other near Dwight.  

And if you’re willing to wait until dusk these days Telegraph offers an additional treat. Five blocks of street trees are festooned with thousands of yellow and blue lights, and cheery, lighted, holiday decorations twinkle from the lampposts.  

After wandering through the street fair for an hour or two last weekend we bought a book of poems ($5) from Julia Vinograd, Berkeley’s venerable “Bubble Lady,” bundled up several small purchases, detoured around a Santa in shades, and sat down in Ann’s Soup Kitchen for a bite to eat.  

I was reading Vinograd’s “Punk Girl in the Coffeehouse” when I glanced up over the top of the book and saw, dining a few tables down, a young lady who, except for a slight variation in hair color (red instead of pink), was a living image of the literary subject. Life easily imitates art along Telegraph. Come on down, take it in, and shop around.

Threatened, robbed 

A 68-year-old Berkeley woman surrendered her wallet and cash to a short, fat and angry young man who confronted her as she walked along the 1600 block of Kains Ave. just before 6 p.m. on Dec. 4. 

The suspect, a man in his mid-30s who stands about 5’4” and weighs about 200 pounds, fled the scene in a white sedan. 

Wrong place, time 

Responding to repeated calls from concerned business folk worried about drivers using bogus handicapped placards to park in scarce spaces near the corner along Oxford Street and Addison Way, five Berkeley traffic officers were checking cars just before 8 a.m. on the Dec. 6 when they heard cries of “Help me! Help me!” 

Officers spotted a man wrestling a backpack off the back of a young Berkeley man. His prize in hand, the bandit leapt into a van that sped from the scene, and officers set off the hue and cry. 

The bandit, and Oakland resident, made it as far as Delaware Street before he was pulled over and given a pair of steel bracelets before a trip to the city lockup where he was booked on suspicion of robbery. 

Wrong again 

It was one minute after midnight when an undercover officer working near the corner of Ward and Sacramento streets spotted a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old trying to steal a 13-year-old’s belongings. 

The undercover officer notified his support team, who swooped up the two young bandits and escorted them to juvenile hall. 

Fake pistol? 

Given the choice of believing if the young bandit in the black hoodie really had the pistol in his pocket he claimed to possess, a 53-year-old Oakland woman decided not to force the issue and handed over her purse. 

The robber then ran with his loot to a nearby gray sedan and headed south. Officer Galvan said the incident happened just before 8 p.m. on the 7th as the woman was walking along Howe Street near the corner of Telegraph Avenue. 

Rat pack 

A gang of three or four teenagers menaced a 33-year-old Berkeley man as he was walking along the 1500 block of Shattuck Avenue at 2 a.m. last Friday, then strong-armed away his laptop and forced him to surrender his cell phone and wallet. 

The crew escaped in a beige, 1970s Detroit-made sedan. 

Upside the head 

Three 20-something bandits, including one in a gray hoodie and another wearing a similar model in red, walked up to a 23-year-old Berkeley man as he was strolling along Grant Street near the corner of University Avenue when one of the trio hit him in the head, shortly before 2 a.m. Friday 

Dazed, their victim was in no shape to resist as the robbers relieved him of his cell phone and cash, then departed in an American-made sedan. 

Domestic stabbing 

A 31-year-old Berkeley man refused the aid of paramedics after a woman friend stabbed him in the upper chest during a spat that happened shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday in the 1300 block of 66th Street. 

The suspect, an Oakland woman, remains at large, said Officer Galvan. 

Strong-armed 

Even though witnesses gave chase, a fleet-footed felon fled successfully after strong-arming a 26-year-old Oakland woman’s purse after he grabbed her from behind as she was walking along Shattuck Avenue near the Woolsey Street intersection shortly after 6:40 Sunday evening. 

Creepy crawler 

A Berkeley woman was stunned to find herself facing a man in black sliding into her home through an open window, armed with a shiny silver revolver just before 1:30 a.m. Monday. 

“He was wearing black clothes, including a turtleneck and a knit cap,” said Officer Galvan. 

After threatening the woman, the man scooped up cash and a digital camera before fleeing. Because a resident was home at the time of the incident, police are classifying the crime as a home invasion—an offense that carries a more severe penalty than a typical robbery. 

Skateboard attack 

A 27-year-old homeless man was rushed to a local hospital after he was bashed in the head with a skateboard outside the Center for Independent Living just before 6 a.m. Tuesday.  

The suspect, who remains at large, was described as a man with shaggy blond hair and blue eyes who is between 22 and 25 years old. 

Gang of three  

Police are looking for three juveniles who tried to steal another youth’s iPod near the corner of Milvia and Carleton streets just before 6 p.m. Tuesday. The young fellow managed to hang on to his Apple music-maker—a device that has become a common target of Berkeley heisters.

Over the weekend, talk at parties was how the project now known as Trader Joe’s got the green light from Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board to set up shop on University Avenue, accompanied by several stories of market-rate condos-in-waiting and a big parking garage. One Berkeley-reared guest at Saturday night’s event thought Trader Joe’s was a nice addition to Berkeley because it’s owned by a southern California family, and expands by bootstrapping, one store at a time. Well, no, we said. Since 1979 it’s been part of a German billion-dollar conglomerate, though the whole empire is indeed owned by two German brothers in a family trust. She seemed shocked, almost disbelieving, so cleverly has TJ’s (as it’s called by its devotees) marketed its downhome image. Founder Joe is long gone. But it treats its employees very well, she said. Well, yes, as long as they don’t try to organize a union, we said. That also seemed to surprise her. 

The store assiduously cultivates what Deutsche-Welle called its “Bourgeois Bohemian” image for “the socially conscious, well-educated middle class with income to spare.” Those are what used to be called “Upper Bohemians” in the ’50s — today’s Berkeley in a nut-shell, or more precisely, Upper Berkeley, those citizens who are protected by their R-1 zoning and elevated home sites from unpleasant incursions like the monster apartment complex the city plans to drop on the hapless Berkeley Way residents who will live next to the truck entrance to the TJ Building. The distribution of votes in favor of Measure J, the preservation initiative, was telling: it did much better in the flats than in the hills, where residents don’t need its protection. 

Upper Berkeleyans like TJ’s pseudo-ethnic specialties and cheap wine, and don’t like having to drive all the way to Emeryville or El Cerrito to get them. But you can be pretty sure that most of them won’t be walking down to University Avenue either. That’s why the big garage is needed, though some neighbors fear it’s still too small.  

Trader Joe’s PC aura, whether deserved or not, has made it easy for pro-growthers to recruit a claque to make speeches at commission meetings, and when the beleagured neighbors make their final appeal to City Council after the first of the year the pro-Joes will probably turn out again in force. But an El Cerrito citizen who doesn’t shop at the existing TJ’s, even though she lives not far away, buttonholed me at another holiday party to complain that the store might not be as politically pure as its public relations department would like us to believe. 

The evidence? A Trader Joe’s paper shopping bag brought by another guest. In honor of the season, the management saw fit to print a “Holiday Story,” a pretty bad piece of doggerel loosely patterned after “The Night Before Christmas,” on it. The punch line was that “Holidays are always so hectic and crazy. Trader Joe’s is nearby. Go ahead. Be lazy!” Her objection, however, wasn’t to the quality of the verse (though it should have been) but to one of the purchase suggestions: “…even some wrapped gifts for that sullen old biddy.” 

The outraged complainer, an Englishwoman of a certain age, sees that line as gratuitously nasty misogyny and age bias. She’s sensitive to traditional depictions of older women as evil hags, and thinks that even Trader Joe’s wouldn’t use similar deprecatory language about racial groups, for example. The online Urban Dictionary of usage says of “biddy”: “In the UK usually preceded by the word old to denote a generally annoying old woman getting in the way or ruining your fun.” That seems to be TJ’s European management’s intended meaning. I’ve also heard “biddy” used as an ethnic slur, taken from the Irish name Bridget and parallel to the similar use of “Paddy” (from Patrick) for men. As a sometimes sullen woman of a certain age myself, with an Irish name to boot, I do find the line offensive. But then I find the whole premise of the store offensive, with cutesy-poo ethnic names (Trader Giotto’s spaghetti sauce, Trader Ming’s won-tons) used to cover up what are basically generic house brands of no particular distinction. 

However such annoyances should be neither here nor there when the Berkeley City Council takes up the neighbors’ inevitable appeal. If Berkeley wants Trader Joe’s, there are other downtown sites where it would be welcome, as letter writers have suggested.  

In a case like this, councilmembers are not supposed to think about whether the groundfloor tenant is PC or consumer-friendly, but about whether the developer’s plans comply with all applicable laws. One possibility for grounds for an appeal is the California Environmental Quality Act. The city is trying to sidestep doing an environmental impact report, which is a dubious decision in view of the massive size of the project. Whether or not the ZAB decision complies with the requirements of the city’s iniative-passed Neighborhood Commercial Preservation Act is another potential appeal question. It will be interesting to see what happens after the first of the year, when the holidays are over. 

It’s the time of year when the lower-middle-brow fashionistas who inhabit the pages of the magazines I sneak peeks at in supermarket checkout lines say we should be wearing Winter White. That’s as it may be, but it certainly is the season for Winter Whine. Winter Whine is the sound you hear emanating from everyone who is dissatisfied with their relationship to winter holidays, or with other people’s mode of marking the winter solstice. 

Some of them are annoyed with people who celebrate a different holiday from their own, or, even worse, celebrate theirs in the wrong way. “Let’s put Christ back into Christmas” is one refrain. This means, often: who are all these tacky people who seem to be gathering around our Christmas tree and making up new songs on non-religious topics? Or the Jewish version, “When my children were small they got one tiny gift for each day of Hanukkah, and now my grandchildren insist on expensive video games.”  

The public schools get their share of Winter Whine: “Schools should ignore holidays altogether.” Or, “Schools should celebrate all holidays, everyone’s from all over the world.” In my lifetime the pendulum has swung between these two at least five times. Kids of course prefer the latter version, where they get both latkes and candy canes at school. 

Compared to the rest of the United States and much of Europe, Californians who indulge in Winter Whining look pretty wimpy. In Michigan when the trees are bare and the sidewalks are coated with ice and you can’t take the kids out without spending an hour dressing and undressing, there’s something to complain about. But in California December is the beginning of Spring. The hills are green, and all sort of lovely flowers are starting up in the garden: early narcissus, pansies, poinsettias, Christmas cactus. We’ve got a lot of salvias in our yard which grew from cuttings in gallon cans purchased at the Strybing Arboretum sales in years past. Only recently did we notice that they come from the Chiapas cloud forest section of the arboretum, so that they’re supposed to bloom in winter—their main show is just taking off. (We also didn’t notice that the mother plant of the Salvia Wagneriana was eight feet high and 10 feet across, which is why ours now threatens to uproot the sidewalk, but that’s another story.) 

Some Winter Whiners object to giving gifts—not all gifts, mind you, just commercial gifts, whatever that means to them. Excess consumption—consumerism—they say, between pursed lips. Well, they always have the option of rescuing attractive objects from the shelves of Goodwill or Urban Ore and gussying them up with wrapping made from color comics to make re-use fun. Or, if they have a lot of time on their hands, they can make old things into new things to give away.  

Every Sunday paper at this time of year is sure to have an article about SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is thought by some authorities to be caused by the dark and short days, so the recommended remedy is spending some time every day under a big, bright light. Is it possible that a well-lit Christmas tree or menorah has the same effect on those who suffer from SAD?  

Up in Seattle, Rabbi A asked the airport people to add an electric menorah to the array of Christmas trees on display, and their response was to take all the trees down, prompting Rabbi B to send an op-ed all over the country saying that his good friend Rabbi A risked making Jews look mean-spirited, and that opposing Christian symbols would contribute to further secularization of American society, which would be bad for all religions. We haven’t yet heard from the pagans—no, sorry, the Pagans—who might justifiably claim that the Christians stole the trees from them in the first place, not to mention the mistletoe and holly. Last I heard, the trees were back, though I’m not sure why. 

But what’s wrong with secularization, anyhow? And is it really new in the United States? There’s a credible body of scholarship that suggests that America’s founding fathers intentionally designed this country to be secular and wanted it kept that way. Allusions to the deity didn’t start sneaking into the civic culture until about the middle of the nineteenth century. They peaked in the middle of the twentieth before starting the current decline. Many would say that this secular trend is the result of disappointment with those disciples of the major religions who manage to consistently ignore the clear messages in their various traditions that they’re supposed to love others and take care of the poor.  

Here’s a radical suggestion for a cure to Winter Whining. We could all celebrate the season, whatever season we celebrate, by trying to live up to the noble aspirations of our ancestors to do good, even if we no longer practice the religions that prescribed them. My spiritual adviser Jon Carroll has preached the Untied Way for years: Go to an ATM, take out enough twenties that it hurts a bit, and hand them out to the first people who ask you for money. If that’s too radical for you, how about at least speaking kindly to beggars while putting serious money into the Salvation Army kettle? Many paths to enlightenment… 

ABAG GUIDELINES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m no public policy wonk so I have become quite puzzled having read the Dec. 5 article reporting on the revised ABAG guidelines doubling the quotas for the construction of new housing in Berkeley. This was followed by the commentary by Fred Dodsworth (Dec. 8) expressing concern that “Berkeley’s charm is at risk.” 

Up to now I have believed in the value of creating infill housing along the traffic corridors of University, Shattuck and San Pablo Avenues as a way to provide new living spaces for our residents and to reduce urban sprawl. But as I have been visiting these new buildings recently, I have noticed curious facts: The units are incredibly small and the rental or the selling price is incredibly high, not satisfying the needs of most of our long-time residents, many who are looking for ways to downsize. UC students may be able to afford renting by doubling up in each bedroom, but most of us cannot — nor do we wish — to do that. 

Someone needs to explain to me how ABAG directed infill housing for the Bay Area is going to stop middle class families from buying homes in the suburbs, or now the exurbs. Their needs are not met by simply requiring more units to be built without first establishing guidelines for livability standards. If under the current economic conditions this cannot be done in an affordable manner, then what are we doing to our cities? 

ABAG should come clean with what the real goal is, because affordable housing for families does not appear to be the magical result. 

Helene Vilett 

• 

THE PUPPET MAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Back in the ’60s there was a little old man named Tom Roberts who performed his street puppet act out on the Berkeley streets, and he also published his own books of poetry. One example: I Gotta Hunger — I Gotta Need, by Tom Roberts (The Puppet Man), Berkeley local folk artist and puppeteer, 44 pages, Cody’s Books, Inc. Berkeley, CA, 1971. In addition to poetry, it contains photocopied portraits of Tom, one of which was taken by Imogen Cunningham. Does anyone have a story to tell about Tom, or articles, photos, or additional info about him? Would be much appreciated. You can contact me at rhubarbfarm@hotmail.com. 

Nathan Rounds 

• 

TRADER JOE’S 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Zoning Adjustments Board voted on the 148-unit residential complex that includes a potential Trader Joe’s at MLK and University Thursday night, and Michael Alvarez-Cohen, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak’s sudden replacement for neighborhood activist Dean Metzger, hit the nail on the head as he was urging the board to approve the building exactly the way developers Christopher Hudson and Evan McDonald wanted it: “We’re kidding ourselves if we think anyone but students are going to live there.” But here’s where I don’t agree with him: I don’t think that’s what makes a good building for Berkeley. 

The building Hudson McDonald first showed the board had lots of units a family could live in. They told us that if we’d just accept a building that size, they’d come back with a Trader Joe’s. We got the Trader Joe’s, but the building had grown in mass by 7,000 square feet, and the size of the residential units had shrunk by more than 20 percent. All the three-bedroom units were gone. How many families can live in 700-square-foot apartments? 

The original building also had more affordable housing units, and all those units were to be priced for families making $33,000. Now there are fewer affordable units, and they’re priced much higher. Alvarez-Cohen was trying to convince the board not to approve a very modest amendment to make half of the affordable units family-sized (two-bedroom, now the largest-sized units available). The amendment lost by one vote. 

The sole purpose of the state law Berkeley interprets to require us to approve these immense projects is to increase the production of modest- and low-priced housing for a growing California. We’re supposed to be building housing for everybody, but what we got Thursday was just what we don’t need: another big dorm, especially since UC is not building enough housing for its students.  

Jesse Arreguin 

Zoning Adjustments Board Member 

• 

JERRY BROWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’ve just read J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s hit piece on Jerry Brown and I have ask what in the world could have motivated you to write that way? 

It seems to me that when Jerry came to Oakland he saw something he thought needed done and was willing to take a stand for it. As Oakland embraced Brown’s Oakland First and elected him, Jerry set about to make good on his promises when he was in office. 

In a continuum of his hope for a better city he walked the streets as virtually no elected mayor had ever done, and for that real ability to see the man , the city residents surely felt there was someone in government that was there, even in the dead of night on the mean streets. 

He looked at the city as it was, saw it as it could be and set about to make it happen. To be sure there was more that he could have done, and there must have been things he simply could not get done and there is the rub, but always I am sure he did what others failed to do and for that he has earned a place in Oakland’s future having left the city as mayor better than he found it, and that is a great deal more than what others throughout the country can honestly claim. 

Whether Jerry will stay in Oakland for the rest of his life or not I surely cannot say, but I do believe he will always have an eye on Oakland as the states top cop and in that capacity he will continue his assault on crime that he could not do as mayor as he will throughout the state and for that Oakland and every city in California will be better off too having seen first hand and standing against the violence he saw during his tenure. 

Your views on his planning scheme are yours and time will tell what the results of Brown’s vision will be over the long term but for today?  

I cannot see that his leadership failed Oakland at all. 

Stewart Resmer 

• 

KPFA VOTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just came across John C. Sanderson’s letter on the recent KPFA board election in your Nov. 24 issue. Although it was published several weeks ago, his misunderstanding of choice voting, the method used at KPFA, still requires a response. 

Sanderson wrote, “The voting system the station uses means that one top vote getter on a slate drags most others on that person’s slate onto the board with them. Other slates and individuals have a tough time winning a seat. It precludes the possibility of a diversity of people or ideas and is a winner takes all system.” 

Despite the different name, choice voting is actually the multi-seat sibling of instant runoff voting (IRV). It does exactly the opposite of what Sanderson says. When candidates run as members of slates, and most voters support one slate or another, each slate wins seats in proportion to its support in the community. An independent candidate can get elected by winning a percentage of votes that depends on the number of open seats being filled. Far from precluding diversity, choice voting guarantees it. 

The election method that best facilitates the sweeps that Sanderson doesn’t like — where the largest slate wins more seats than is justified by its support — is the vote for N method we use for many city councils and most school boards and special districts. Political scientists call this block voting because one block of voters can control all the seats. Choice voting overcomes this problem, while also reducing negative campaigning, promoting higher voter turnout, encouraging more candidates to run, and overcoming the inherent defects of district elections. One last note: when the proportional logic of choice voting is applied to elections to fill one seat, the result is majority rule, as guaranteed by instant runoff voting.  

Bob Richard 

Marin County Coordinator 

Californians for Electoral Reform 

• 

‘THE FOREST WAR’ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for Ken Bullock’s Dec. 15 review of The Forest War. He revealed layers of theatrical and filmic influences on Shotgun Players’ rich play that I’d entirely missed. 

All I can add is: Go see this remarkable production before its Jan. 14 closing date, or be prepared to kick yourself when it moves to some place like Broadway and wins something like a Pulitzer. 

While deep, Mark Jackson’s epic is also an accessible and transparent allegory about the last decade. It refracts the sabotage of the Clinton presidency, the Bush restoration, a needless war based on concocted “intelligence,” and the risks of flirting with apocalypse. 

This play runs just under three hours, but flies by at the pace of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. (The prologue ends halfway through the first speech, and there’s not a spare word or gesture afterwards.) It’s a tragedy leavened with laugh-out-loud slapstick. You’ll root for the hesitating good guys and hiss the neocon villains. 

The Forest War isn’t your uncle’s sackcloth-and-kazoos Brechtian performance. Its fluid, rigorously pure style might be called Screwball Noh/Kabuki/Kurosawan/Manga/WPA/New Deal/Brechtian/Shakespearean/Marlowean/Strangelovian/Pelepelosian/Lewinskyan/Looney Tunes/Austin Powers/Mimetroupean dell’Arte. Don’t worry, it all works. 

Michael Katz 

• 

IMPEACH BUSH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I totally agree with Ron Lowe’s letter urging the impeachment of George W. Bush. To those who would argue, “Why bother — he only has two more years in his presidency?,” I would say, in those two years thousands more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians would lose their lives, there would be utter destruction of a country that never posed a threat to the United States, and our standing among nations around the world would plummet even lower than it is now. What greater reasons do we need for impeaching this arrogant and obstinate man who doesn’t even fathom why his ratings are sinking to an all-time low? 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

• 

UNKINDNESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am concerned about the unkindness I find on buses and at bus stops. People bring their beer and wine bottles. They sit on the benches, drink the contents, and toss their bottles onto the pavement near the bus stop. The area around the benches is littered with cigarette ends and broken glass. Others bring their bottles into the bus, start acting funny, use abusive language and play their radio very loud. Most of us who uses buses travel on them to get to work and make our living. How can we feel safe from the recklessness of those who have forgotten about the caring for one another we poor people depend on? 

Romila Khanna 

• 

SHUTTLE SERVICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Dec. 8 letter from Margot Smith pointed out the inadequacy of AC Transit and proposed a shuttle service for Berkeley. This could be paid for by creating a Berkeley Residents’ Association. Dues-paying members would receive a pass that lets them ride on the shuttle at no charge. It could also be valid for AC transit. Landlords could be offered one membership for all their units, so that tenants would ride for free. There would then be no cost for an extra trip, which would get people to use the shuttle instead of their cars. The key is to make the transit riding a fixed cost, with no extra cost per ride, unlike today with the absurd extra charge for AC transfers. 

Fred Foldvary 

• 

JOIN THE 21ST CENTURY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You know, I’ve got a penchant for waxing nostalgic as much as the next native Berkeleyan. If an old timer wants to chat about the good old days, I’m always a happy participant in the conversation. I draw the line however, when it comes to people who refuse to join the 21st century when it comes to paying their way through life. The old rent control logic rears it’s ugly head again with the cry from tightwads who won’t buy a ticket to Cal football. “It’s always been this way, therefore it must stay” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Like the rest of the fans, buy a ticket, be a fan, support the Blue and Gold. Go Bears! 

Tim Cannon 

• 

SHOP TELEGRAPH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Nothing made me happier last Friday than to see Steven Finacom’s article encouraging shopping on Telegraph Avenue. The Ave needs us all. I’ve been having a good time lately there myself. The flower guy in front of old Cody’s always has incredible deals in bouquets — stunning ones for $5 — and plants — orchids for around $20. I bought the wonderful new (and expensive) book of Annie Leibovitz’s photographs at 10 percent off at Moe’s, may he rest in peace. The new guy on the block, What the Traveler Saw, is “testing” the waters of Telegraph. So for heavens sake, take a look! And I always browse Ed and Carol’s hat store south of Dwight for gifts and village gossip; it’s a social center. And on the weekend before Christmas, the sidewalk array of original and beautiful clothes, jewelry, pottery, etc. is stunning and is worth appreciation. Merry Christmas/Hanukuh!  

Heidi Seney 

• 

A SOLUTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Save the Oaks people and UCB need help so here it is: Build up and over the right of way of Piedmont Avenue. It’s free of trees and is public space.  

Richard Splenda 

• 

THE WHOLE TRUTH? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Anne Wagley and her compatriots deserve praise for their efforts to get the truth out regarding the city’s agreement with the University regarding the new Downtown Area Plan (DAP). However, I am wondering if her recent commentary gives the “whole truth” on this important issue. 

Based on the agreement’s wording, no one can deny that UC retains a veto power over the DAP. I’m not sure, however, if that is the same thing as a controlling voice in shaping Berkeley’s downtown. 

Suppose that, after a long contentious process, the city adopts a new DAP that is not satisfactory to UC. What would happen if UC determines that the DAP does not meet its needs? Section II.B.6 indicates that the DAP would not be released. 

In that case, it seems to me that the city (and UC) would be left with the existing downtown plan. (Can someone confirm this interpretation?) Since UC is obviously not content with the current plan, it would not be in their interest to veto a new DAP unless it presents them with a situation that they see as worse than the existing plan. 

If my interpretation is correct, the city need not bow to UC’s wishes. Rather, the city would have the power to create a plan that meets some of UC’s demands, and then say “Take it or leave it.” If the new DAP dies, I would imagine the city could conduct its own downtown planning process in the usual manner (drawing on the information gathering in the joint DAP process). 

One question: if the new DAP is not issued, is the entire city-UC settlement agreement void? 

Steve Meyers 

• 

WALKIN’ THE DOG 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This holiday season, when resolutions run high, let’s think about benefits. Ahhh, the good old lose-weight-and-excercise one is popular. May I suggest walking dogs at your local animal shelter? What a great way to get in shape and help homeless dogs. The Berkeley Animal Shelter on Second Street has friendly, fun, happy dogs that love to go out for walks. give it a try, you will be glad you did. These dogs need homes and foster care as well. 

Vanessa George 

• 

NUKES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have a very different take, a quite neglected one, on North Korea’s atomic bomb test: the disarmament (or “non-proliferation”) one. 

It is now high time to get rid of nuclear bombs by the countries most likely to first use them, especially the United States, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, along with Russia, China and India, before these bombs get rid of us. (Also the U.K. and France.) 

(Note: I have carefully thought about the order in which I listed these countries.) 

Bruce Provin 

P.S.: Too often of late the way world affairs are carried on reminds me of a cabal of sixth-grade boys in the playground running things. I think it’s time to try to regain our sanity. 

• 

PARKING, TRAFFIC COURT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Roy Nakadegawa is right about too much parking downtown. It takes up space without merchants selling anything from that space. Parking should be on the periphery of downtown and then planned very carefully. 

There is already a glaring instance of bad planning. The free charging for electric vehicles is on the top floor of the Center Street garage. By the time any drivers get up there, they may run out of any juice they have left, if they make it! 

On another topic, I’m suspicious of the traffic court’s move to Oakland. Doesn’t that mean more people will just mail in their fines on citations, rather than go to Oakland to contest them? This puts the mayor in a contradictory position. How does he oppose the move at the same time the city wants more money for the General Fund? 

Charles Smith 

• 

THE PRESS’ RESPONSIBILITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The New York Times has now published photographs showing the physical abuse of Jose Padilla under arrest by an arm of the United States. Yet, if memory serves accurately, I read quite recently that having obtained, by leaks or whatever means, information of the United States’ sending “terrorism” suspects to other countries, although they knew them, the Times has not printed the names of those countries that received the suspects and frequently tortured them. 

To me, the Times thereby sidestepped the highest calling of a free press — to shine light on matters needing urgent remedy, wherever and whenever. The citizens of those countries, that on request, and probably to cement expected or continuing “aid,” etc., took United States suspects, need to know and punish those responsible for what their own governments have done, and possibly are still doing. 

Here we struggle against secret repressive government (under the guise of protections), and I urge all who know their names to publicize the culpability of those countries guilty of scenarios like that imposed on Jose Padilla. The full facts can help ensure humane government abroad as well as in the United States. 

Judith Segard Hunt 

• 

OAKPAC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is amazing that the reader in the Nov. 17 edition would defend the undemocratic practice of OakPAC’s buying the District 2 City Council election when it had succeeded in having the Oakland campaign reform law lifted so they can spend their money in the last minute of the election, to the incumbent, Pat Kernighan. 

Kernighan is known to be pro-developer next to City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and the both favor outside developers’ interests over the majority of Oaklanders. With Kernighan still in the council seat, the developers can build as many condos as they want without any checks and balances. Their actions can result in further water shortages in the city. 

By criticizing commentary writer Paul Rockwell for exposing the dirty deeds of OakPAC for buying the District 2 City Council race, it seems that this reader is either part of the corporations or developers that want to encourage more water shortages in Oakland in order to build as many condos as they want. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland 

Now that the City Council has passed its community-compromise LPO, after more than six years of stalling and resistance by the hyper-preservationist community who brought us Measure J, we’re faced with the bad dream of a referendum campaign and up to 23 more months of additional delay. And for what? Basically, it comes down to objection to the “request for determination” provision of the new law. So let’s look at RFD and its alleged dangers: 

RFD gives to property owners (not to developers merely prospecting) the ability to neutrally ask the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) whether or not an owned property meets the city’s criteria for either landmark or structure of merit. An RFD application must include a thorough historic study that’s either conducted by a qualified consultant — chosen by the city, not the applicant, from a list established by the LPC, and at applicant expense — or written by the applicant but vetted by a qualified city-chosen consultant at applicant expense. At least 21 days after the application is complete, the LPC will decide after a public hearing whether or not to “initiate” the property for consideration of historic designation, which can be granted or denied after a second public hearing. If the LPC declines to initiate a property, citizens have the right to initiate by petition, which requires only 25 signatures. And if the LPC declines to designate an initiated property, citizens may appeal that decision to the council. 

The outcome of an RFD process therefore may, in fact, be the historic designation of the subject property. This would not necessarily prevent any changes to the property, but either proposed alteration or proposed demolition would have a much higher bar to clear. The new LPO grants to the LPC, for the first time, the authority to deny demoitions of historic resources (again subject to appeal to the council). If, after one or two public hearings and three to six months of public process, a property is declined for designation, then that non-landmark status can’t be revisited for two years (or longer if a valid building permit remains in force). This two-year protection is designed to allow property owners to consider potential changes with full knowledge of what constraints the LPO may impose. 

For those of us who worked to enact this provision, RFD adds to our ability to carry out historic preservation in Berkeley, rather than weakening that effort. From the perspective of a developer, or a property owner contemplating changes to his or her property, filing an RFD creates the very real risk that the property will be designated a landmark or structure of merit. With that real possibility, no one should apply for an RFD without a very high degree of confidence that the property does not qualify as an historic resource. And that creates the public benefit: that would-be developers are motivated by the RFD process to focus their attention on properties that don’t qualify as historic resources, and to leave alone those worthy properties we do want to preserve. As a second public benefit, the RFD provision will in many cases alert neighbors to potential development much earlier than now occurs, encouraging earlier developer-neightbor conversations instead of desperate battles at the ZAB. 

This neutral RFD provision, however, does not satisfy those Berkeleyans who want the LPO to be used as a weapon against development in general, and against any and all “growth” in particular. But all forms of the LPO — the former ordinance, the new council ordinance and even the Measure J alternative — are very properly silent on the virtues or vices of growth and development. That issue is the province of the Planning Commision and the council, and decisions are expressed via the General Plan. So opponents of RFD mainly mourn the loss of the ability to throw rocks in the development gears via the LPO — and rightly should they do so. 

Going forward with the referendum, of course, will mean that all right-thinking and mainstream preservationists will also be tarred as extremists. As a result, all progress on further improving our historic protection process — such as by establishing neighborhood conservation districts — will be put on the shelf for two more years. What’s the civic good of that? 

Alan Tobey has lived in Berkeley since 1970 and worked for the original Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. 

The 2006 elections are over, and the 2008 presidential race has begun. Most news coverage will focus on personalities, and once in a while on issues. What will go mostly unreported is the fact that we have a serious structural flaw in the presidential selection process that renders the issues and personalities almost superfluous. The “inconvenient truth” is that the primary/caucus system is an unfolding disaster, a bad process that produces presidential nominees who are less than America’s best. 

The problem is that every state wants to be first on the calendar. Being first means that all of the candidates desperately want to win your state to claim the mantle as the front runner. Being later in the season means being ignored by the candidates; by then, one of them has locked up the nomination, and the campaign is already over. 

Of course, as states shift their primaries and caucuses earlier in the calendar, Iowa and New Hampshire move their respective caucuses and primary forward to stay ahead of the pack. In 1972, New Hampshire held its primary on March 7. In 2004, the primary was held on Jan. 19. 

It’s going to get worse before it gets ... even worse. Earlier this year, when a bill was introduced in the California legislature to move its presidential primary ahead of all other states, to as early as Jan. 2 if necessary, New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner threatened to thrust his state’s primary into December. The best idea the Democratic Party can come up with to fix the problem only adds to it. In 2008, it is allowing Nevada’s caucuses and South Carolina’s primary to move near the front of the calendar. 

So what? Why should you care when presidential primaries occur, or when the parties’ nominees are determined? 

In 1976, there were four months of competitive campaigning. The delegates from every state had to be selected before it was determined that Gerald Ford had survived Ronald Reagan’s challenge. In 2004, when Dean suspended his campaign, only about one-fifth of the delegates had been selected from a handful of states. To 80 percent of the country, the Kerry nomination was a fait accompli. That’s not democracy. 

A shorter campaign season also means that any grassroots campaign operating on a shoestring budget is doomed from the start. There is no chance to score a few early victories in small states where campaigning is inexpensive, leverage these to bring in more media attention and more campaign contributions, and thereby grow the campaign to be competitive in the later, larger, mass-media markets. The real campaign is not about courting votes, it’s about counting cash. A Republican National Committee report lamented in May 2000, “It is an indisputable fact that in every nomination campaign since 1980, in both parties, the eventual party nominee was the candidate who had raised the most money by Dec. 31 of the year before the general election.” The early primaries dutifully rubber-stamp the decision of the donors. That’s not democracy. 

So, about a year from now, on Dec. 31, 2007, the presidential nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties will be determined. Just count the money, then indulge in New Year’s revelry as you may. The primaries and caucuses that follow will be an empty sham. 

The curious thing is that so few have noticed that the real decision has been taken out of the hands of the voters. If, in one quadrennial cycle, had gone from the campaign calendar of 1972 to that of 2004, we would, as Al Gore’s frog, have immediately jumped out of the boiling pot. However, we have sat in that pot for thirty years without noticing that our democracy was slowly being cooked.  

Thomas Gangale is an aerospace engineer and a former Air Force officer. He is currently the executive director at OPS-Alaska, a think tank based in Petaluma, where he manages projects in political science and international relations.  

The holiday season seems to open the flood gates of compassion, with volunteers and resources pouring in during the one time of the year the less fortunate are fed, clothed, and remembered. Meanwhile economists monitor the sales temperature, hoping feverish shoppers will exceed the boiling point and consumerism will bring balance to a system delicately suspended by a few coins in either direction.  

A recent West Coast transplant, I decided to spend my first Thanksgiving away among people who would truly value their meal. I volunteered to serve with Father River, the self-titled punk priest who ministers to the drug addicts, sex workers, and punk youth in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. 

Cheryl, a sociology grad student, posted an online ad looking for a place to volunteer for Thanksgiving. We met at BART at 4:30 to ride into the city. “Look for the girl with a red handbag,” she advised. I wondered if a girl with a red handbag would be prepared for the night ahead. 

Father River lives on Polk Street in a one-room apartment. Thirteen years have overgrown the four walls with photos and memorabilia branching onto the ceiling. Pictures of Jesus peek out from among the photos of the transient youth that have ebbed and flowed through River’s life. The logo of a cross crafted from hypodermic needles hangs above the desk. 

Roy, another volunteer, sits on the futon that slices the room in half. He’s brought two cans of baked beans. With nothing more than a microwave we decide to serve them cold from the can. Once Heidi and Jeff arrive with the turkey and dressing we’re off to Hemlock Alley, one of the dark, dank alleys that serves as home to drug addicts, sex workers, and other outcasts on the edge of the village.  

River navigates the nooks and crannies amidst the bars and cafes, winding through alleyways and the familiar haunts responding to the chorus of his name sung by the regular street residents, reminding them of a warm meal at 7 p.m. in Hemlock Alley. An emaciated woman sits in her wheelchair waiting for a customer. Matt, a bright young man whose intelligence is distorted by mental illness and drugs, falls in step and joins us in this sort of Thanksgiving Parade. We pass several well-dressed couples whose innate fear response signal a reflexive withdraw. I feel like saying “Boo” but instead march on. 

We serve Thanksgiving meal from the back of a pick-up truck. With our limited supplies we ration turkey and dressing, green bean casserole, baked beans, and a roll into Styrofoam bowls. For dessert and refreshment we have pumpkin pie, Capri Sun, and a pair of clean socks. One gentleman declines a serving of beans for his partner on account of her dialysis. I wish I’d brought yams. 

My hands are numb from the cold. Cheryl is shivering as she cuts pie with a plastic spoon. Someone has nabbed a bed in front of a vent blowing warm air. 

Bobby asks me if I believe in Jesus. He recalls the night he prayed for deliverance from his drug addiction and was saved by God’s grace. Still on the streets, he relapsed a month ago but that minor incident served as a reminder, he insists. Bobby was wondering how to stay warm tonight when River appeared with an offer of blankets, a beaming smile that affirms his newfound faith. He gives me a printed copy of his testimony warning, “It’s graphic.” River appears to take our picture and Bobby asks, “Do you mind if I stand next to you?”  

After 9 p.m. River dons his robes and begins liturgy. I eat of Christ’s body and share in his blood from the cup that’s passed around the few who’ve chosen to stay. We send leftovers with some and set the rest on the street that smells like raw sewage. Cheryl insists on leaving the plastic spoons too, a sort of symbolic grant of full recognition of human civilization. 

River seeks momentary respite in his room for what is still an early night where silence may crescendo in a cacophony before sunrise. At 10:30 p.m. Cheryl and I spot the neon warmth of the open sign at Bob’s Broiler and rush in to refuel. “I have to have a Thanksgiving meal,” Cheryl says. “I can’t go home and eat cereal.” She orders a turkey burger. I order an omelet and we both clean our plates. 

When I finally crawl into bed at 1:30 a.m., my mind is still saturated with the evening’s images and interactions. I can’t put the experience on a trophy shelf of good deeds. What’s so phenomenal about dishing up some food and a smile?  

We feel protected from the refuge of our homes and a steady paycheck, but what truly separates you from the person on the street? The eyes that glance at you are the very same you use to look away. An outstretched hand resembles your own. 

I am washed in tears of real gratitude for the respect and courtesy I received in the street home of my hosts. Serving, I remembered my own humanity— where people lingered hungry for something more than food. 

For more information about Father River Damien Sims and his ministry in the Polk Village area of San Francisco, visit www.temenos.org. 

Erin Wolfe is an East Bay resident. 

PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last Monday I attended the meeting of the People’s Park Community Advisory Board. During the public comment period people spoke about many issues around the question of removing the berms at the edges of the park—visibility, neighbor’s fears, drug dealing, the need for seclusion, and so on. No one mentioned the basic question: Whose park is it? Does it belong to the people who create and use it? Or to the University of Corporatia? 

It turns out that the university has backed down on removing the berms. But there is more mischief afoot. The advisory board and the university plan to hire a landscape design company. This company is to uproot 40 years of creativity and sweat by the local community and replace it with an outsider’s concept. This is completely inappropriate. People’s Park is more than berms, or grass, or even trees. It is also a monument to a community’s ability to create something beautiful, if only we can get out from under the bosses’ thumbs for a bit. That is what this new plan might destroy. 

At the meeting someone suggested that park supporters should pick their battles. I would add that we need to be clear about what we are fighting for. We are fighting for a park that belongs to the people. 

Helen Finkelstein 

• 

WHERE WAS THE PLANET? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Derby Street, one of the two or three most controversial land use projects in Berkeley in recent memory, went from community pariah to community feel-good project last Thursday night, but where was our local newspaper? After 12 years of discord, hundreds of letters to the editor, the field users, neighborhood and Farmers’ Market put down their war axes and reached a consensus on what is known as the Curvy Derby plan. Yes, there are still details to be worked out, and while it was clear that a majority of people attending the meeting supported this new plan, there are still a handful of people objecting. But without question the meeting on Thursday was an historic event if only because it was the first time since BUSD resurrected their plans for an athletic field at Derby that field users, neighbors and the Farmers’ Market were actually allowed to meet and discuss options for a baseball field at the site—and they reached consensus. Why this wasn’t newsworthy for the Planet is beyond me. 

Doug Fielding 

Chairperson, Association of  

Sports Field Users 

• 

BERKELEY, 1928 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

With regards to the proposed Memorial Stadium development, your readers may find this 1928 aerial image of interest. It clearly shows the existing and (then) freshly planted trees. My favorite detail is the lovely curve of north Piedmont Avenue. Bypassed in the 1940s perhaps for parking, it was replaced in the early 1950s by the courts at the Piedmont/Gayley intersection. http://sunsite.berkeley.edu:8085/AerialPhotos/airphotoucb28/. 

John Vinopal 

• 

TREE PROTEST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Panoramic Hill Association does not represent the feelings of quite a few residents on Panoramic in regards to the lawsuit it has filed against the university. After reading Richard Brenneman’s article I wondered if Doug Buckwald used to write for Saturday Night Live. “These harassments pose a direct threat to the safety of our tree sitters. Sleep deprivation could cause our tree sitters to accidentally stumble, tie a knot incorrectly or fail to clip a carbiner properly to the rope for the harness. Any of these mistakes could cause a fatal fall.” Well, considering they’re trespassing, that’s the chance they have to take. If you’re worried about losing oak trees, south of Leona Quarry there are about 400 that a developer wants to take out. So Doug, get your priorities straight.  

Matthew Shoemaker 

• 

TIGHTWAD HILL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Opponents to the plans for Memorial Stadium include the over 1,000 football fans from Tightwad Hill. They signed a petition against the UC design to add rows of stadium seats and sky boxes which could block the free view that the fans enjoy from above the stadium’s east side. Their mobilization complements the fighters on the west of the stadium who seek to save the old oak trees—earmarked for replacement by a fitness center.  

Asa Dodsworth of oaks group sees saving the trees as “one of a multitude of related problems.” He speaks of a potential coalition of tree-sitters on the stadium west, hill sitters on the east, homeowners with gripes against UC on the south, and to the north, the students and alumni trying to stop the conversion of Bowles student resident hall into a hotel for corporate visitors.  

For Planet readers who hate football: Tolerance is asked for the motley Tightwad Hill crowd, described by their spokesperson, Cal grad (PhD) Dan Sicular, as fans who either will not pay to see Cal football, or cannot afford to. Their hill “is a public resource” he says. And climbing it is “what goes around here for an age-old tradition.” The sitters have trudged up the steep slope since stadium opening in 1924. In the ’60s and ’70s, when our team was awful, the aroma of ganja was strong, as those on the hill did more viewing of the panorama of the Golden Gate than the action below.  

This year Sicular mobilized to publicize the hill. He and friends sold t-shirts, strung banners, circulated the petition, and Sicular wrote letters to the Regents. He welcomes our support. 

Ted Vincent 

• 

THE GREAT MOLLOCH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It looks like the great molloch, UC Berkeley, is finally and long-overly-dueelly being challenged by a couple of sweet tree-sitters and, just recently, some home owners above the stadium, to desist from felling oak trees around the stadium. Years and years ago I dated a girl in Sherman Hall, a UC student coop, and I would walk back, after taking her home, through that wonderful grove of beautiful oaks. I hope fervently that this fight to preserve the oaks will become a cause as powerful as our own People’s Park.  

Robert Blau 

• 

‘THE ORGANIZER’ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I see that Pacific Film Archive is finishing off a series of Italian films this Saturday with the 1963 The Organizer, starring Marcello Mastroianni, one of the three or four films that, at the end of his life he told an interviewer, he felt proud of having been in. It told of the terrible conditions in a textile mill and the aborted attempt to unionize and change them. I’ve seen the film maybe a dozen times. The first time was in 1963 at the SURF Theatre in San Francisco, the only place to see foreign films at the time. I remember going to visit my parents and saying, “This is not the usual Anna Magnani stomping grapes in the sun. This is northern industrial Italy. It’s like what you told me about your childhood in that factory town. You have to see it.” 

My parents replied, “If it’s about our childhood, we don’t care to see it.” 

Fast forward to 1985. Both of my parents have recently died, and Bob and I are going to Italy for the first time. We connect with my cousins in that factory town (my mother had kept up writing to them, then I had taken over) outside of Turin, called Balangero, which was no longer a factory town but a bedroom community for folks who commuted to Turin to work at Fiat. One day, I am walking with a cousin, stumbling through a conversation in my halting Italian, when she points to a crumbled heap of bricks, and tells me, “that was the factory where everyone worked. Funny thing, back when I was in high school, I came home, and there was a film company out here, trucks, equipment, movie stars....” 

Yes, it turned out that the interior factory scenes for The Organizer were filmed in that factory, which was no longer operating at the time, but still had the old machines intact. Various people in the village were employed as extras, so, yes, I had seen some distant relatives in the film. The video was just available, so I bought it and brought it home to my cousin’s house. My plan: We would watch it together, and they could point out neighbors, friends, and relatives who appear briefly. We set up the video. 

After about 20 minutes, my cousins began chatting, walking in and out of the room, generally inattentive, even avoiding looking at the screen or at me. I sat there feeling I had made some kind of mistake, but didn’t know what it was. Finally, one cousin took me aside and said, in slow, careful Italian to make sure I understood. “Look, we know you Americans admire all those post-war neo-realismo films, all that ‘Open City’ stuff. But we don’t like being depicted as a backward, ‘colorful,’ third-world, war-torn country. Those days don’t interest us. We don’t want to be reminded.” 

His response was like that of my parents. I was proud of the struggle of my family. But for my cousins, their parents’ hungry 12-hour days in the textile mill (that drove my family to emigrate to America and more struggles), were a reality that went on and on, along with two world wars (leaving memorials “ai caduti” all over the village.) It was all still too close. Maybe one day they’d feel distant, secure, like me—not yet. 

In any case, it’s a great film, and if you miss the Saturday night showing, you can rent it or borrow it from the Berkeley library. A classic. 

Dorothy Calvetti Bryant 

• 

END THE WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

All the new Congress has to do in January is to repeal/cancel the original Congressional Joint Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243)(Oct. 16, 2002). This action will end the occupation of Iraq immediately. It would pass and become the land of the land with a simple majority vote in both the House and the Senate. After this repeal vote passes, Bush will have to immediately withdraw all the troops from Iraq or else be will be acting illegally and unconstitutionally. If he goes down the route of defiance, he would be immediately subject to being impeached, tried, convicted and removed from office. Of course, Cheney should be impeached, tried, convicted and removed from office first. Can you say President Pelosi? 

This repeal of the original Congressional Joint Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 will not be able to be construed as “not supporting the troops,” because it will merely be terminating the troops’ current assignment. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

• 

SNOOP DOGG 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We are students at Berkeley High School. The rap icon Snoop Dogg has been in the business longer than we’ve been alive, his music is respected and appreciated. 

Because of this Snoop Dogg is a role model to youth all across the nation (meaning they are influence by his actions). Snoop Dogg’s music is legendary and popular but his lyrics send out the wrong message to the youth. He promotes marijuana use and gang affiliation. Smoking weed has many health risks, and many serious ones like cancer and damages to the reproductive and immune systems. Marijuana is more damaging to the bodies of youth than adults because everything in our bodies are still developing. 

Recently, we came across TMZ.com and found ads for Snoops Dogg’s own line of blunt wrappers called “The Blue Carpet Treatment.” We are shock by this, not only is he promoting marijuana use but it also adds to his personal message about perks of smoking. What is Snoop Dogg gaining from promoting these blunt wrappers except enslaving a new generation of addicts? There is no respect being gained from this. Respect of an artist comes from talent and music, not from promoting unhealthy behaviors. 

We all know many people who have gotten caught up in drugs or smoking and that have died because of it. We have dedicated ourselves to preventing the further use of tobacco and other drugs, and educating people about the harmful side effects. We respect Snoops Dogg’s talent in music but it would be more effective if he didn’t add to society’s destruction of youth. 

Shantel Mitchell 

Derwyn Johnson 

Nayiri Donikian 

Antonio Beroldo  

• 

STORMY WEATHER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ever so often the situation in Iraq hits the news cycle like a storm stirring up political bickering, drowning reason and lifting ordinary people like me from bewilderment through incredulity, to disgust, hopelessness and despair. Who could have predicted that the unprovoked invasion of a fifth-rate dictatorship would spread so much dissent, hatred and bloodletting? 

Scan the storm’s path: remove Saddam, implant freedom, foster democracy, suppress insurgency, stabilize Baghdad, and…exit strategy? Only the first was accomplished, the others form a succession of twisted mistakes and failed turns toward a very dark horizon. 

If you place the most recent news event energizing the storm, the Iraq Study Group (ISG) Report, alongside its earlier cousin, the 9/11 Commission Report, and strip away their sugar-coated bipartisan, pseudo independence so that you are able to view them with naked common sense, you’re bound to be profoundly flabbergasted. 

Our top leaders seem immune to empathy. Has politics and celebrity rendered them bloodless? Not one of them considers how he/she might react if 140,000 uniformed and heavily armed foreigners, ignorant of our language and culture, patrolled the Washington D.C. streets, supervised and sanctioned Congress and guided Supreme Court proceedings.  

Members of the ISG directed their efforts toward indefinable success and unrecognizable victory. It is unlikely that they, who cannot resist another bite and the juicy news apple, will move a president who perversely prefers saving face over saving lives.  

Marvin Chachere  

San Pablo 

• 

IMPEACHMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Car bombs killed 63 innocent civilians and wounded 106 more in central Baghdad Tuesday morning. 

A study produced by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and published online by the Lancet (one of the world’s leading medical journals), claims that the number of deaths in Iraq is more than 10 times greater than previously estimated. It is said the death toll in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion has topped 655,000—one in 40 of the entire population. This is an old finding with a new report putting the number of civilians killed at closer to 800,000. 

Are the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in George W’s misbegotten war grounds for impeachment? How many deaths will it take? 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

The Berkeley city attorney has stated that false claims have been made against the city in the lawsuit over the settlement agreement with the University of California (Friberg v. Bates, case no. 05230715).  

As one of the plaintiffs in this case, I take such allegations seriously, and appreciate the opportunity to respond. 

Let me begin with putting this in context: 

On May 17, 2005 the Berkeley City Council was presented with the proposed settlement agreement with the University of California. This was in closed session, council members were not allowed to make copies of the agreement, and were not allowed to discuss the agreement with their constituents prior to voting on it at the next City Council meeting. No councilmember, other than Mayor Tom Bates, had been party to the negotiations of this settlement agreement. 

We, the public, later learned that there was a confidentiality agreement between Mayor Bates UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, further precluding the council’s and the public’s participation in determining the content of the settlement agreement. 

On May 24, 2005, again in closed session, City Council voted to approve the settlement agreement, with Councilmembers Worthington, Spring and Olds voting no. 

The following morning, the Regents of the University of California approved the settlement agreement and the document was released to the public. 

It came as a great surprise to those of us who had been watching and commenting on the university’s development plans to realize that the majority of the settlement agreement was devoted to explaining the process of creating a new Downtown Area Plan for the City of Berkeley. 

The idea of a new Downtown Area Plan had not been raised by the University in their Long Range Development Plans, and not by the public in commenting on those plans. It had not been raised by the public at City Council meetings prior to the settlement agreement, and not by any council member nor at any council meeting that I know of. And it had not been raised at the Planning Commission, the city’s body charged with developing new area plans for the City of Berkeley. 

This was a new concept never before raised in public. And now it was the law, the settlement agreement having been filed with the Superior Court, Alameda County. 

And, as of December 2006, we still do not know where the idea of a new Downtown Plan came from, despite numerous Public Records Act requests and discovery relating to the lawsuit. 

Most disturbing to us, and the reason for our lawsuit, is the powers given to the university in the settlement agreement to craft and approve a new plan for the city’s downtown. 

The university may be the most important power in the city, but they do not have the legal power to plan or approve development in the City of Berkeley, any more than any other entity, the Downtown Business Association, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, the bicycle riders, the neighborhood groups or the arts venues. All deserve a seat at the table in drafting a new area plan, but none has more power than any other, and none has power over city council. 

The specific powers granted to the University of California in the settlement agreement are as follows. I will quote directly from the agreement, which is exactly what you and the Regents approved: 

“UC Berkeley will participate in a joint City of Berkeley/UC Berkeley planning process for the Downtown Area of Berkeley.” (Section II, p. 5) 

This new Downtown Area is larger than the area covered by the current Downtown Plan. This came as quite a shock to the residents of the newly incorporated areas, as there had never been any discussion about including them in the downtown. 

“Staffing for the preparation of the Downtown Area Plan shall include at least one … city planner and one ….UC Berkeley planner…” (II.A.1) 

“All public meetings regarding the Downtown Area Plan … must be jointly planned and sponsored by the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley. All DAP and EIR meetings before all city commissions and the City Council will be coordinated with UC Berkeley.” (II.B.5) 

“…because the DAP is a Joint Plan, there shall be no release of draft or final DAP or EIR without concurrence of both parties.” (II.B.6) 

“Any mitigation measures included in the EIR must be acceptable to UC Berkeley …” (II.B.6) 

“UC Berkeley reserves the right to determine if the DAP or EIR meets the Regents’ needs. The basis for making such a determination would be that the DAP or EIR does not accommodate UC Berkeley development in a manner satisfactory to the Regents.” (II.B.7) 

Unfortunately the settlement agreement does not include the equivalent statement the UC shall not build projects that do not accommodate the needs of Berkeley in a manner satisfactory to the City of Berkeley. 

The quotations above are the exact words City Council approved. These are the exact words the Regents approved, and these are the exact words filed with the Superior Court of Alameda County. There is no ambiguity, and no confusion over the intent of the settlement agreement. 

This is the plain language and it is quite extraordinary in its delegation of powers to the university, and even more extraordinary that Berkeley City Council approved this. (With the honorable exceptions of Councilmembers Worthington, Spring and Olds).  

So you can see why residents of the City of Berkeley, who value public participation and community involvement in determining the future of our city, should be so horrified by the terms of the settlement agreement. 

We did not elect the Regents, they may not even live in Berkeley, and their plans are not subject to our laws, so why are they given the power to approve what may happen in our downtown? 

Someone had to sue the city for improperly giving away our planning powers. But it is not an easy decision to sue one’s own city, and the people we have elected to represent us. It is even more daunting to include in the suit the very powerful UC Regents. 

But what was approved in the settlement agreement is illegal, wrong, violates our own planning processes, and is detrimental to the valued democratic tradition of public participation we have in our city. 

This is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

Anne Wagley is a Berkeley resident and works for the Berkeley Daily Planet. Further information on the lawsuit can be found at www.berkeleyblue.org. 

In 1969, I was among the many that originally built the park. I’m afraid (or delighted) that we didn’t have either a committee nor, unfortunately, the university’s permission. What we did have was... people. People directly affecting the park. Voting with their presence and participation. 

I spent many, many years away from Berkeley, only returning for some visits, until about a year and a half ago. During that time, I spent a great deal of time in the park. Days, evenings, even quite late at night. I’d make a point of walking through the park to and from Telegraph Avenue and where I was living a couple of blocks up the hill. Sometimes I’d just go out for a stroll, like on pleasant full moon nights, and sit for a spell in the park enjoying the space and touch of nature, perhaps sipping an espresso coffee or snack from the nearby cafes. So I’m having some trouble understanding quite what all the concern is supposedly about “safety.” 

No one ever bothered me. Well, unless some panhandling or offering of stuff for sale has to be considered as bothering. In fact, in all that time, the only people I’ve seen bothering one another has been between people that apparently know one another otherwise. But that’s usually the case, isn’t it? And that wasn’t too often, either. What is not the case, in my experience, is that the park is at all “unsafe.” 

Are we sure that some folks aren’t mistaking “no unsavory people” for “safety”? Because, yes, it’s not uncommon at all to see or be in proximity to any number of different kinds of people, in all manner of conditions. Many of these people could easily be regarded as unsavory, by most standards. Except theirs, of course. 

And some of these people, again in my experience, have been some of the friendliest—even generous—people I’ve ever run across anywhere. For instance, scruffy homeless people that offer to share or give food to complete strangers. Reckon the value of that as a percentage of their net worth and compare with the committee members’ comparable contributions in the park. 

Now, granted, there obviously are things that also go on there that I understand folks find objectionable. That clearly includes drug exchange, even use. And homeless folks camping out, not always too artfully. But that much doesn’t seem “unsafe” other than to those doing that. This also is maybe more accurately among the unsavory category. 

I might have some trouble imagining just who these fearful, safety-concerned persons are, since I’d have trouble matching them up with any of the many people I’ve seen actually in the park. But then, anyone who goes there and spends time there at all probably can see for themselves that it’s no more “unsafe” than most anywhere, and I happen to have found it to be demonstrably safer than many other places around the area. 

Maybe these people are suffering the dangers of their own thinking, imagination and judgmental stereotyping of other people not like themselves? Even people that would welcome them amiably, or simply leave them be—that is, if they ever might someday just go spend any time there. Voting with their own presence and participation there also could be a most direct, manifest commitment to supporting safety. While they are there. Among the people. At the park. That’s what it was all about, and still is, if that’s what they care about. 

Christopher Kohler is an Oakland resident.

I have been quite busy ever since three tree-sitters climbed into the trees at Memorial Oak Grove in the pre-dawn hours Saturday before the Big Game between Cal and Stanford. Our group, Save the Oaks at the Stadium, did not know of this plan in advance, but we support the tree-sitters fully in their endeavors and we will do everything we can to make sure that they are safe and have everything they need. It takes real courage to take such an action, and I believe that each one of our tree-sitters is a true hero. 

Even though there were many things to do at the grove, I took time off on the evening of Dec. 6 to attend the meeting of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee, made up of city and university representatives. I have regularly attended meetings of this group because it is very important to me to offer public input into these decision-making processes. For this particular meeting, I had been invited by a member to offer specific information about my experience regarding UC Berkeley’s construction projects in the Southside, a topic with which I am quite familiar. 

I stood up and spoke during the public comment period, with the understanding that I would be able to respond to questions from committee. After all, I had seen public comment time extended in the past to allow for such questions. Instead, I was cut off abruptly after my three minutes were up. I had gotten through my general overview of UC’s construction impacts, but had not offered any specifics yet. None at all. 

I was very disappointed. I explained to the committee that I had come to speak even though I had been working so hard that I had gotten only four hours of sleep in the last three days, and that I had also taken time to prepare material for the meeting. I requested the courtesy of at least being allowed to read a very short paragraph from a planning textbook used at UC Berkeley. I had timed the passage before the meeting, and knew that it would take close to one minute to read. I was not asking for much. (For your information, the paragraph may be found in The Practice of Local Government Planning, 3rd Edition, ” 2000, published by the International City/County Management Association. It’s on page 425 in the section entitled “Traditional citizen participation: The trouble with public hearings.”) Would the chair be kind enough to allow me to read it? 

I was not allowed to read the brief passage. My request was flatly denied. And the reason given was rather ironic: if I read my one-minute passage, I would “inconvenience the 22 members of the committee who would get home later” because of it. Well, OK—I certainly don’t want to inconvenience people.  

The official explanation for the refusal, of course, was that my remarks were not listed on the agenda for the meeting. Not being on the agenda is an excuse for many civic sins in this town, and that is an issue for another day. But, getting back to the meeting: I was disappointed, sure—but beyond that I did not appreciate being treated so rudely. For pity sakes, I did not have to be there. I was there to offer my experience to a group that I thought would appreciate it. It appears that they have no interest at all in the facts about UC’s construction policies and practices. Lord help you if you are a business owner or resident in the downtown. 

Things are a bit different up at the oak grove. Please come and pay us a visit, chat with our brave tree-sitters, and sit for a while under the splendid canopy of these irreplaceable trees. You’re welcome any time—even if you’re not on the agenda. 

Doug Buckwald is a Berkeley activist. 

It is good to hear that the Hotel and Conference Center (HCC) will adopt LEED’s principles to the optimum in its design. As I understand the LEED principles, the project is supposed to show “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.” The HCC is located in the heart of downtown Berkeley where it is in Berkeley’s most transit-intensive area. The Downtown Berkeley BART station, which has the second-highest station ridership use of East Bay stations, is just across the street. The BART station is utilized by more than 11,000 patrons per day and 10 AC Transit bus routes stop right at this area. Also there is a planned Bus Rapid Transit system similar to Boston’s Silver Line that will terminate in this locale. This BRT is projected to handle well over 60,000 riders a day over its route and could be extended down University to the Amtrak Station in the future. 

This location is not like the Gerry-designed Disney Center in Los Angeles, where they built seven floors of underground parking, which makes it very car-oriented. Because it is so car oriented It does not add to the area’s ambiance in promoting local activities . 

More and more studies conclude we need to recognize the effect of greenhouse gases (GHG) on climate change. The studies conclude that there’s a great need for their reduction. Autos are the major generators of GHG and if we do not reduce emissions it is projected that it would have dire effects on life. Therefore, we need to plan developments that will reduce of the use of the car. However, the design of HCC is complicit in encouraging auto use by utilizing considerable prime first floor space for cars. 

The proposed HCC design of the first floor, excluding the area of the bank, devotes about one third of the total floor area just for the auto to ingress, turn around and egress. This access will be the only street cut or driveway in most of the blocks along Shattuck, our main downtown street. 

To design such extensive access for the auto in the most intense transit oriented area of Berkeley is truly not adhering to LEED principles. The HCC should be functioning for decades, so it should be planned accordingly. Devoting so much space to the auto is not addressing this problem of increased auto emission of pollutants and GHG. If this valuable floor space is considered essential for the auto, its use should entail a charge where its use would not be subsidized but would provide a return similar to other spaces utilized. For parking, the rate for such a high valued property should be at least $20 per day or $1-2 per half hour. And even for the use of the turnaround drop off, there should be a charge, otherwise it would constitute a poor use of such a prime location. 

For numerous similar sites around the world having access to hotels and centers the drop-off is simply off the street and not within the building wherever there is good transit. Local examples are San Francisco’s Opera House, museums, theaters and Oakland’s Paramount, which do not provide such a valuable permanent space just for the auto. Also along the hotel frontage on Shattuck where the street cut is planned, there are presently several local bus route terminals or stops, including buses from the University, which would be a conflict that would need to be resolved. 

For a facility in a location with such excellent transit access, there should not be the need for providing such an extensive access plan for the auto. A plan in lieu, which I have advocated for years as an elected transit board member to AC Transit and BART serving 32 years, is to have the various planned activities absorb the cost of transit. Most large activities are over the weekend or evenings and by adding a nominal fee to all the tickets, it would subsidize the use of transit for the percentage of people who would use transit. A ticket holder would only have to show their event ticket and board free. Parking will be available at most of the local outlying BART stations, so they can take BART free as well. 

For the hotel, many of the people will be coming from out of town using the airlines where they can use BART that has good access at the airport as well as to HCC. 

For the condos, the living unit purchase should be separate from parking, which should be a separate cost. The number of parking spaces should be limited to around one half space per unit and there should be three to four spaces for car-sharing vehicles. Car-sharing membership should be included in perpetuity in the purchase of the Condos 

And if auto access and parking is mandated, the location of access should be a joint use with the museum, HCC and condos with the access along Addison. This location will not conflict with present bus transfers and boarding stops that are along Shattuck as well as the concentration of pedestrians. 

Oakland Museum has parking some distance from the museum itself. A little walking has not been a problem to the attendees to the Museum and this should be the same for HCC or condos. Overall, since HCC will hopefully function over several generations, we need to plan and design with consideration for improving our quality of life, conservation of energy and improving our environment, placing greater emphasis on of transit use for all types of trips rather than accommodating for the auto.  

Roy Nakadegawa is a professional engineer based in Berkeley who served for many years on the boards of transit  

agencies. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This commentary originally appeared in the Daily Planet’s web edition on Oct. 17.  

Since the war on drugs began some $47 billion a year is reserved from federal, state, and local treasuries to combat the so-called menace that encompasses the trafficking, sales, and use of drugs directly affecting the citizens of the United States of America. This obviously reflects the government’s view on the subject of drug abuse and related activities as very grave indeed. It is apparently serious enough to lawmakers who deem it necessary to spend that insane amount of tax money, and commit entire agencies of human resources annually in an attempt to try and bring the problem to a halt. The trouble is that through all the searches and seizures, television campaign ads, and mandatory minimum sentencing there is no end in sight and it seems to have fueled a kind of evolution in the world of mind altering substances. 

Has the use and proliferation of drugs actually come anywhere near to being reduced one may ask? It seems that there is still a rampant desire to obtain these illicits among the public with no short supply of those who are more than willing to supply these people who have become victims of psychological addiction, possibly brought on by the need to self-medicate in a society that breeds depression and despair among many socioeconomic levels. Perhaps the resources that are available due to the taxes paid by many of these citizens should be applied to mental health outreach programs or even simply making information available on the root causes of unhappiness and depression in various degrees of life that we all go through. Instead it appears that a majority of people are left to the wolves and are sometimes “forced” to obtain what they perceive as medication from much easier sources than “appropriate” channels that are not accessible to the common public. 

So then there we are back to the arrest and incarceration of many users who have never been involved with any sort of violent crime, which one would think only fuels the fire of hopelessness and despondency that caused them to medicate in the first place due to the harsh conditions in the jails and prisons of the nation supposedly devoted to the “rehabilitation” of these lawbreakers. 

A recent article in USA Today offers the point of view that most television ads over the years have actually convinced the youth population that “taking drugs is normal” through information gathered from the Government Accountability Office. The GAO is sanctioned by Congress and their job is to research whether or not programs initiated by the legislature are accomplishing the goals that they were designed to do, or perhaps convalescing into colossal failures. One instance of failed policy seems to be the stubbornly coordinated “War on Drugs” that although has the best of intentions has missed the mark entirely. 

This most recent report covers the $1.4 billion spent on attempts to curb the rise in use of MDMA more popularly known as “ecstasy”. The GAO spent an additional $43 million on the investigation on the validity of the ads just to find that they were not useful tools in dissuading young people from taking these pills. 

The office of current drug czar, John Walters, has disputed these findings based on the fact that the ads were used almost two and a half years ago (which strangely seems to be the time it takes to gather information on the results). They also countered through a survey conducted by the University of Michigan in 2005, that there has been a 5 percent decline in 10th graders who reported having used illicit drugs in the last year compared to statistics from 1998. Wow, seven long years of work involved in dissuading high schoolers to say no to drugs have really paid off, haven’t they? 

I think that drugs are certainly responsible for a portion of society’s ills and we cannot let their black market run amok, unchecked by law enforcement officers on the beat, but how much evidence must we see in order to come to the conclusion that there needs to be a shift in strategy here? I don’t know what positive effects might have occurred as a result of the seizures of large amounts of various drugs over the years. I would imagine however that this pressure has caused steep increases in the value of said product and the higher stakes involved have brought forth more violent means of control of this lucrative market. It also goes to reason that there would be less armed robberies and burglaries to pay for the high prices placed on the backs of those already addicted to the menace of crack cocaine and heroin through the free black market. 

Perhaps the $600 per second that the federal government spends on its failing and unwavering strategy could be used more effectively when those in power no longer fear to admit that past reasonings on the issue were not perfect and should not be continued on the basis of ego issues that they most be the most proper simply because they were instigated by those who are in charge. 

Travis C. Ash is a Richmond resident. 

As news coverage focuses on the upcoming round of six-party talks this Monday aimed at resolving the standoff with North Korea, I am reminded of an historical event that occurred more than 100 years ago. 

At that time Korea was one country but struggled to reconcile internal and external pressures for modernization with powerful forces determined to maintain the traditional Confucian system. Pro-reform groups like the Independence Club looked to Japan as a model for the successful modernization of an East Asian country, while despising China as a symbol of a tradition bound state, wholly in opposition to modern values. 

Traditionalists fought to resist modernization, which amounted to Westernization and the collapse of a system in place for half a millennium. 

In the midst of this struggle a rebellion broke out among disgruntled military men resentful of the favor shown by the Korean royal house to a new and elite group of Japanese trained soldiers. The ensuing turmoil engulfed the entire peninsula, forcing an already shaken Korean monarchy to call for aid from China, its traditional ally in times of crisis. 

What resulted was a confrontation between Japanese and Chinese forces on Korean soil, as each sought to defend their own national interests in a Korea barely in its infancy of national independence. 

War between the two East Asian powers would not erupt for another 10 years. Japan would emerge triumphant over a China in turmoil to become, along with Western powers, an imperialist nation. Prior to this, hostilities were abated by the signing of what came to be called the Tientsin Treaty, or more aptly the Li-Inoure treatry, named for the two men leading negotiations over Korea’s future status. Li Hong Zhang was the leading proponent of China’s self-strengthening movement. 

Inoure was Tokyo’s jingoistic ambassador general in Seoul. Significantly, neither name is Korean. In negotiating Korea’s position, both China and Japan had completely ignored the interests of Korea’s rulers. 

Today press coverage of North Korea is unanimous in its ignorance of this isolated nation. Adjectives like “mysterious,” “reclusive,” and “Stalinist” are used to disguise what ultimately amounts to a resounding question mark when it comes to understanding the position of North Korea and its leaders. Yet modern Korean history can shed important light on the reasons behind the North’s go-it-alone, juche mentality. 

Some 100 years ago China, Korea’s one-time suzerain and political ally, in its own struggle with encroaching Western powers and an increasingly militarist Japan, sought to annex the peninsula. Tokyo had interests in Korea to fuel its growing military-industrial complex and to prove to Western powers that it too could play the game at colonizer. More recently Russia made attempts at controlling Korea, halted only by the arrival of American military forces in Seoul after the Japanese surrender of WW II. What resulted was the 38th parallel, better known as Korea’s DMZ, drawn in Washington D.C. by the American secretary of Defense Dean Rusk, in 30 minutes. 

As the next round of six-part talks is set to take place Monday, leaders of Japan, China, the United States and Russia again prepare to discuss the fate of the peninsula, while South Korea remains relegated almost to the position of an insignificant bystander. Perhaps it’s the fate of a small nation surrounded by larger powers to have its future decided by outside intervention, yet it is striking that modern Korean history remains scarred by the aggressions of external powers acting to defend their own national interests, without regard to the independent and sovereign status of the Korean peninsula. 

The fissures wrought by outside interference on the Korean peninsula go beyond the DMZ. South Korean politics are divided not only over how to deal with North Korea, but also in its relations with the United States, Japan and the larger world. Conservatives favor a tougher stance against the North and friendlier policies towards America, while liberals support reconciliation with Pyongyang and a gradual distancing from America. 

The Japanese colonial legacy in Korea remains a sensitive and divisive issue as scholars and politicians argue over the nature of Japan’s role in Korea’s modernization and the role of Korean “collaborators.” 

In this globalized, nuclear age Japan, the United States and indeed the entire world have a stake in the outcome of the six-party talks, and yet it seems ironic that the very same powers involved in the initial division of the peninsula in 1950 should again be discussing the future of the Korean peninsula. 

Is it any wonder why North Korea proves the paranoid and unpredictable sixth member? As in the past, major powers are paying little heed to the concerns of the Korean people who are inheritors of this historical memory, and the prospects of a future unified Korean nation.  

Peter Schurmann, a UC Berkeley student in Asian Studies, has visited Korea several times.

Mexico’s new president Felipe Calderón took office on Dec. 1. In a televised inauguration, congressmen could be seen fighting for control of the podium where Calderón was to be sworn in—some attempting to block him, others to ensure that he was able to take his oath of office. Calderón and outgoing president Vicente Fox, both members of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), entered through the back door and hastily carried out the oath of office amidst shouting that made it impossible to hear what they were saying. 

Calderón has promised repeatedly that he will fight poverty in Mexico. He announced a cut in the salaries of government officials, including his own. But he failed to mention that his budget cuts include cuts to programs and services that benefit needy sectors of the population. 

A look at some of the personalities who make up the key posts of his administration shows that Calderón’s new cabinet has clear connections to Washington and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

Agustín Carstens, Secretary of Treasury, was educated in the United States and held an important position at the IMF. Luis Téllez, Secretary of Communications and Transportation, has a graduate degree from the United States and worked in the administration of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988 to 1994). He is indirectly linked to the Mexican broadcasting company Televisa and is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Javier Lozano Alarcón, Secretary of Labor, is also a member of the PRI. 

Calderón is following the programs implemented during the administration of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. But he doesn’t have the money to carry out the public work projects that Salinas was able to finance through the sale of government-owned corporations. 

Among his first actions in office, Calderón has ordered the public education budget be cut by the equivalent of 1.2 percent (approximately $3.281 to $3.236 billion U.S. dollars)—despite increases in the cost of living, the number of students and the need for school renovation throughout the country. 

Raúl Alejandro Padilla Orozco, PAN Congressman and president of the Mexican House of Representatives Budget Committee, supported the budget cuts to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which is considered to be among the 100 most important universities of the world. This has generated an outcry of protest throughout Mexico. 

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that a reduction in the education budget represents a threat to the social development of Mexico, where poverty has maintained at the same level for two decades. As more social programs are slated to be cut, critics say it’s unclear how Calderón will fulfill his promise to reduce poverty in the country. 

Two cabinet posts may offer a clue as to what to expect from Mexico’s domestic politics and administration of justice. Calderón’s appointment to Secretary of the Interior, Francisco Ramírez Acuña, has been accused of torture and the repression of protests in his term as governor of the Mexican state of Jalisco. Followers of the PRI have called him “arrogant” and uninterested in negotiating. 

Another controversial choice was Eduardo Medina Mora as Secretary of Public Safety. He is a member of El Yunque, an ultraconservative group similar to the U.S. Christian right, who has strong ties to banking interests. Critics worry that the application of justice could be influenced by politics—another lost opportunity, they say, in advancing democracy in Mexico. 

This may explain the new administration’s close involvement in the social conflict in Oaxaca, where leaders of the opposition were arrested while the disputed Oaxacan Governor Ulises Ruíz Ortíz remained in power. Oaxaca has been the center of a wave of protests in the past six months that have resulted in at least a dozen deaths, hundreds of injuries, the loss of millions and a profound social crisis. 

The brawls at Calderón’s swearing-in ceremony demonstrated the deep political divisions that exist in Mexico. Though many Mexicans didn’t take Calderón’s “express” inauguration seriously, critics say these divisions could become explosive if the new administration continues in the direction of Calderón’s first steps in office. 

Friday, 4:30 p.m.: Arrive at Oakland International Airport with sister-in-law, one four-year-old and one two-year-old. Stand in line to check in bags. Stand in line to pass through security. Stand in line to view flight schedule. Learn that all Southwest Airline flights to Las Vegas are delayed by at least two hours due to bad weather in the Pacific Northwest. Stand in line at gate to see if tickets can be changed to fly out on 4 p.m. flight that is now leaving at 6 p.m. 

Get sent to Customer Service at opposite end of Terminal Two. Wait in line. Request change. Told to sit in waiting area until flight is called. Four-year-old needs to use bathroom. Stand in line in Ladies Room, find stall, help flush, rush back to Customer Service. Miss 6 p.m. flight. Stand in line to get on waiting list of 5 p.m. flight that is now leaving at 7 p.m. Told to go to Gate 10 in Terminal One and wait at desk for standby list to be called. Rush to Terminal One. Lose boarding passes on way. Stand in line at Gate 10 and report that boarding passes are missing. Woman at desk says, “No problem.” Man at desk says, “Yes, it’s a problem.” Told to step back and wait for further instructions. At 6:55 p.m. name called. Proceed to counter. Asked by check-in lady for boarding passes. Explain again that they have been lost. Long consultation between multiple agents. Two-year-old begins to cry. Four-year-old joins in. Agents decide to issue new boarding passes. Instructed to rush to Gate 17 for immediate departure. Party of four will arrive in Las Vegas at 8:30 p.m. but baggage will not arrive until 10:30 p.m.  

Friday, 8:30 p.m: Arrive at McCarran International Airport but Granny and PopPop have read flight information board and expect flight to be two hours late. They sit on bench near baggage claim and are spotted by brilliant four-year-old. Pack everyone into rental van, depart airport, hit Friday night Strip traffic, wander through neighborhoods, eventually arriving at Sun City, Summerlin, winter home of Granny and PopPop. 

Friday, 10 p.m.: Discover diapers packed in luggage that has not yet arrived. PopPop and Auntie rush to Walgreens. Disaster diverted. 

Saturday, 6 a.m.: PopPop and Auntie drive to airport, pick up lost luggage, come home, everyone changes clothes. 

Saturday, 3 p.m.: Extended family of six loads into van and drives 80 miles to Sagebrush Ranch for covered wagon Christmas ride. Wait two hours around small campfire in freezing desert while horses are saddled, 30 riders are seated atop swayback steeds, and 30 revelers are packed into decrepit wooden wagon outfitted with Christmas lights and bad audio system. Head out onto the prairie just like in the olden west, singing Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. Hit many rocks and cacti. Spend one hour jostling back and forth within the wagon, viewing not the purple sage and fruited plain, but a Girl Scout Troop from Henderson crammed like sardines on the middle bench. Arrive back at camp in order to indulge in gruel-like “cowboy chili,” questionable hot dogs, bad hot chocolate, and Costco cookies. Tramp through horse manure-filled desert back to van, pile in, drive 80 miles to Sun City. Vow never to visit Sagebrush Ranch again. 

Sunday, 11 a.m.: Pack kids into van, head to Valley View Mall, stand in line at J.C. Penny’s Portrait Center in order to have Christmas pics of children taken. Stand in line in shoe department to buy new shoes for four-year-old. Rush back to Sun City in order to eat early dinner and head back out to Magical Forest for light display and visit with Santa. Stand in line to enter Magical Forest. Stand in line to buy tickets for rides within Magical Forest. Stand in line for merry-go-round. Stand in line for choo-choo train. Stand in line to see Santa. Stand in line to wait for picture with Santa to develop. Walk through Enchanted Garden out to parking lot. Wait in line of cars to leave parking lot. Head back to Sun City. Stand in line to use bathrooms at Granny and PopPop’s house. Children and mother take master bedroom, Granny and PopPop take guest room. Auntie stuck on couch in middle of small living room but she doesn’t dare complain for fear she will be left out of next adventure: trip to Ethel M. Candy Factory and lighted Cactus Garden. 

I’ll admit that I don’t have much of an ear for the language of crows. Ron says they have a specific call that means “Raven!,” uttered when the crows are harassing one of their larger relatives or escorting it out of the neighborhood. This wouldn’t surprise me at all, since they do have an extensive vocal repertoire. 

One researcher described eight variations on the basic caw, used in different contexts: territorial defense against other crows, warnings when a predator is sighted, and so on. Crows also have many non-caw vocalizations, even a kind of song, a mixture of “coos, caws, rattles, clicks, and grating noises” strung together in long sequences with “a rambling, improvised quality.” Crow jazz. 

It hasn’t been established whether these birds can recognize each other by voice, but it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch. Voice recognition is how seabirds find their own offspring in a crowded breeding colony, how emperor penguins locate their mates after that long trudge over the ice. It’s what allows territorial birds to distinguish a known neighbor from an unknown intruder, and flocking birds to synchronize their movements. 

But it was up to four New York biologists—Jessica Yorzinski, Sandra Vehrencamp, and Kevin McGowan at Cornell and Anne Clark at Binghamton—to demonstrate that the calls of individual crows have distinctive acoustic fingerprints, as reported recently in The Condor. 

Yorzinski and her colleagues focused on the inflected alarm caw, a short, sharp burst of sound given in the presence of a soaring bird of prey, or sometimes an unwelcome human. They worked with wild crow flocks in Ithaca, all of whose members had been tagged, banded, and identified as male or female. Each bird’s inflected alarm caw was measured in terms of 25 acoustic variables, including duration, bandwidth, and center frequency. 

I’ll spare you the math, but the researchers found that the crows had individually unique alarm caws, differentiated on seven factors. If the biologists could tell them apart by acoustic properties, presumably the birds could as well. They also found a gender difference: in general, female calls had higher frequency, stronger frequency modulation, wider bandwidth, and shorter duration than male calls. 

The exception was a male who was low in his flock’s pecking order and whose vocalizations were more like a female’s. Since male crows tend to dominate females, this would make you wonder about the confounding effects of gender and status. 

Why would it matter if a crow could identify the source of an alarm? Yorzinski and colleagues suggest that not all crows are equally reliable sentinels. Young, inexperienced birds may issue a disproportionate number of false alarms. 

It would be important to know if the warning came from some mistake-prone rookie or one of the flock’s keen-eyed elders. And if a neighbor’s alarm call sounded different from any made by a flock member, the birds could gauge the approximate distance of the threat. 

Mind you, this is only one call out of a couple dozen. The crows’ signaling system may also be able to specify the degree of danger. This appears to be the case for another bird, the black-capped chickadee, which had never been suspected of any kind of vocal sophistication. Black-capped chickadees, like our local chestnut-backed species, are known for mobbing predators like hawks and owls, giving a characteristic “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” call. This is often how birders are able to detect the presence of a roosting—and disgruntled—owl. 

In an ingenious experiment, Chris Templeton, then a doctoral student at the University of Washington, measured the responses of chickadees in an aviary to the presence of live predators. The hawks and owls came from Raptors of the Rockies, a rehabilitation facility in Florence, Mont. 

Templeton also used two mammalian predators, a domestic cat and a ferret (standing in for native weasels), and a bobwhite quail as a control. He found that different predators elicited different numbers of “dees” in the alarm call. In general, the smaller raptors triggered more consternation than the larger ones. 

Great horned owls rated only a few “dees”; northern pygmy-owls, up to 23. Since pygmy-owls are specialized predators on small birds and great horned owls take mainly mammals, this makes sense. “A great horned owl going after a chickadee would be like a Hummer trying to outmaneuver and catch a Porsche,” says Templeton. 

But the size of the test bird was clearly not the only factor. The chickadees didn’t react at all to the non-predatory quail. And a Cooper’s hawk, a mid-sized raptor that preys on smaller birds, drew more “dees” than would have been predicted from its size alone. These little birds are either equipped with some kind of mental field guide to the local raptors or are remarkably fast learners. 

If chickadees can pack that much information into their calls, Lord knows what the bigger-brained crows are capable of. They may well be saying not just “Raven!” but “Raven with a missing right primary feather at ten o’clock!” And the response from the other crows may be “George knows what he’s talking about—let’s scramble!” 

Next Tuesday morning, UC’s Berkeley Art Museum will host a public discussion of goals for its planned new downtown site. Attending will be Toyo Ito, the Tokyo architect whom the museum has engaged to design its new building. With this internationally renowned designer on board, and a downtown location on the map, BAM and its visitors face exciting possibilities. 

But surprisingly, the firmest foundation for this new museum sits neglected in plain view: the UC Printing Plant building that currently occupies part of the project site, at the corner of Oxford and Virginia streets. By preserving and adapting this existing structure, UC could provide the community with a truly ideal museum. 

The Printing Plant building has unique and irreplaceable historic value. In 1945, it printed the original United Nations Charter. For a community with Berkeley’s values, there is no structure more deserving of preservation. Its demolition would be a tragic loss. 

But just as importantly, the Printing Plant has inherent potential to be a really great museum space. It could be the next Tate Modern Art Gallery—the London sensation whose architects later won their profession’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize. 

The Tate is a converted electric power station. It was originally constructed in 1947, eight years after UC’s Printing Plant. The buildings are in similar styles, with facades that feature embossed columns. 

When our city declared the UC Printing Plant a historic landmark in 2004, it cited its role in printing the UN Charter. But the landmarking also recognized the building’s front office block as a superior example of 1930s architecture. Local buildings in this “New Deal Moderne” style are few, and diminishing. 

The building’s working area, at the rear, was almost designed for conversion to museum galleries. It gets gentle natural lighting from north-facing “sawtooth” skylights, and from south-facing glass blocks. This kind of diffuse natural lighting blesses several museums that were successfully converted from industrial uses. 

My favorite is the one where I really learned to love museum-going: the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MOCA) Geffen Contemporary gallery. This is a red-brick building that star architect Frank Gehry adapted from earlier uses as a warehouse and hardware store. 

When I first walked into MOCA on a university assignment, it shattered my stereotypes of museums. I’d thought museums were still, stuffy, reverential places. But the “Temporary Contemporary” (as it was then known) was daylit, wide-open, and welcoming. It had the vibrancy of lofts where art actually gets made. 

“Hey,” I thought. “This place is too much fun.” I ran back every time a new show opened there. 

And a rather large city agreed with my assessment. L.A. residents loved this “temporary” museum so much that it has become permanent—even after MOCA completed a long-awaited signature building by another star architect. 

The UC Printing Plant has the potential to become just this kind of lively, inviting museum space. But it occupies only part of the site that UC has reserved for this museum. The lot just to its north, now home to a parking garage, could host a new and very different building. 

Ito is an innovative architect whose designs deliberately challenge ideas of structural permanence and outside/inside separation. With the interplay of venerable and new structures on this block, his first major American commission could give Berkeley something really striking.  

And given the Printing Press’ unique heritage—as a sort of “Ark of the Covenant” for the United Nations Charter—we might gain a truly profound monument to postwar ideals of peace and international cooperation. 

UC is a big institution with a complex mission. Part of that mission is operating the world’s two leading design laboratories for weapons of mass destruction (at Livermore and Los Alamos). 

You’d think UC leaders would take at least equal pride in the university’s small role in establishing the United Nations—an organization designed to ensure that nuclear weapons were never used again. You’d think they’d want to preserve the humble temple at the corner of Oxford and Center Streets. 

Like the United Nations itself, the Printing Plant isn’t perfect. It needed work even before UC recently shuttered it—leaving it subject to vandalism and decay. The graffiti now marring the UN plaque near the doorway is an awful shame. 

But like the United Nations, this building is irreplaceable. It’s done a lot of good over the years. And it has great promise for fulfilling a new, ever more demanding mission. 

Michael Katz is a Berkeley civic watchdog.

In a scene in the Civil War movie Gettysburg, a Confederate spy named Harrison is sent out on a night mission to scout out the position and strength of the Union army encamped in the Pennsylvania valley. The spy, identified in the movie as a former Mississippi stage actor, takes the assignment, but tells the general “but I must confess, sir, the thing that bothers me about this job [spying] is the absence of an audience. When you do it right, no one knows you’re doing it. Nobody watches your work. It’s very hard on an actor.” 

Politicians are often actors, and if you think I’m only talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger or Ronald Reagan, you’ve already missed the point of this particular sermon. Some politicians—I won’t speculate on the number—are deeply sincere in their convictions, and try to carry them out to the best of their ability within a deeply flawed system. But to other politicians-again, who knows how many—it’s all a game, an act, an end within itself, they go about their days publicly posturing and promising while privately dealing, maintaining themselves in power by any means they can get a way with, with little or no intent to actually solve the problems we have sent them up there to address. 

Jerry Brown—formerly secretary of state and governor, lately mayor of the City of Oakland, currently on his way to the post of attorney general of the State of California—is one of the most adept of these politician-actors, charming his way through a succession of public offices on a minimum of accomplishments, a maximum of show, virtually untouched by the disasters left in his wake. 

That Mr. Brown has gotten away with it so long—and continues to get away with it to this moment—will be one of the more fascinating stories of this era to political historians of another time. But how Mr. Brown has gotten away with it is one of the most underreported political stories of the present time. To keep the act up, Mr. Brown must keep us blinded by the stagelights and draw attention away from what is happening backstage. But like actor-spy in the movie, sometimes he chafes that his best work is being obscured and, with a sly wink and smile, open up the curtains just a little to give us a small peek at the real performance inside. 

Asked by a New York Times reporter late last month if the newly empowered national Democratic Party will be able to shape events in Iraq, Mr. Brown unexpectedly replied with what could be described as his definition of his life-long profession as politician. “It’s possible that President Bush will learn from [the Democratic victory] and collaborate with the Congress,” the paper reported Mr. Brown as saying. “In fact, that is the essence of an effective politician—to shift ground when the ground he’s on is collapsing under him.” 

Although we certainly want our politicians to be able to listen to their constituents and admit error and change position when and if they discover that their position is in error, we hear none of that here, and how much of a stretch is it to turn the verb “shift” into “shiftiness?” 

In May of 2003—as reported two years ago in this column—Mr. Brown was more forthcoming in describing the politician’s role-his politician’s role—when he spoke to a gathering of the Los Angeles Bar Association. 

“There’s a law we passed while I was running for reelection [for California governor],” Mr. Brown told the L.A. lawyers, “that said every high school will establish strict graduation standards, and no student can graduate without meeting them. So I took out an ad. The ad said we solved the problem of standards and slack performance in schools, because now we have graduation standards ... Well that was 1978 and of course, Deukmejian had an education program, Wilson had something, Gray Davis has these exit exams and now even George Bush has a ‘no-child-left-behind’ with the same kind of idea: standards examination. The point I want to make is that if you’ve got a problem, you can milk that thing a long time.” 

Cynical enough? Unbelievably, there was more. 

“When my father was running for district attorney of San Francisco in 1943,” Mr. Brown went on to the assembled attorneys, “he had a slogan [that] said: ‘Crack Down On Crime. Pick Brown This Time.’ I tell you I’ve been using that slogan. I find it still works. Everybody keeps making similar claims: ‘...if you elect me you’re going to crack down on crime’... Between reducing crime and improving education, you can keep that going a long time.” 

The entire speech was once reprinted on Mr. Brown’s website at www.jerrybrown.org. While it has since disappeared, the late Oakland activist Jeanette Sherwin posted the transcript to her Oakland News website, where it still exists at www.oaklandnews.com/archives/000044.html. 

Given this information, then, no one should have been surprised to read the report by San Francisco Chronicle political columnists Matier & Ross this week that begins with the sentence “Stunning as it may sound, Oakland’s Police Department—which handles some of the toughest crimes in the Bay Area—doesn’t have anyone who can read or match fingerprints.” OPD’s three-person fingerprint processing department, the columnists report, has been shut down for the past seven months “for lack of money and staff.” According to Matier and Ross, Mary Gibbons, the OPD crime lab chief, says that “she was forced to close the unit when the last of her fingerprint experts, hired with grant money and therefore temporary, left for the security of permanent jobs elsewhere.” Money to reopen the unit with two new technicians was not put into the budget until this year, after the unit had been closed. Meanwhile, fingerprints from Oakland homicide and rape investigations are sent to outside agencies, but fingerprints from other crimes are seriously backlogged or, in some instances, not even being taken at crime scenes by Oakland police because they know they will never get processed. 

Fingerprints used to be one of the staples of crime scene investigations. In recent years, the use of DNA has gotten more attention. But DNA is not always left by criminals at a crime scene and, even if it is, that has not made fingerprints any less valuable, because having DNA and fingerprint evidence together makes it both easier to identify a suspect and to thereafter convict that suspect in court. 

How many crimes have been left unsolved, or perpetrators unconvicted, is impossible to determine. But logic tells us it must be some. And because of that, some perpetrators who should have been taken out of circulation were free to stay on the streets of Oakland and commit more crimes. 

But what is most shocking—and even disgusting—about this situation is that Oakland citizens were not told about the problem with the financing of the OPD fingerprint lab when those citizens were in a position to do something about it. 

During the fall of 2004, Oakland city officials campaigned extensively for the violence-prevention funding Measure Y, which raised city taxes in part to increase police services. While there was much discussion about the shortage of police officers in Oakland at that time, at no time during that period was the public made aware that there might be a problem in the fingerprint processing department because it was funded by grant money and, therefore, permanent money for the department should be included in the measure. Had the Oakland public known the problem, it is almost certain that we would have approved language in Measure Y that set aside some of the money for the fingerprint department. Instead, fingerprint processing is not listed as one of the approved purposes in the Measure Y expenditure language, which, according to its language and the city attorney’s analysis, is specifically limited to police department hiring “63 new sworn police officers, including at least one officer for each existing community policing beat, for combating truancy, for a crime reduction team, for domestic violence and child abuse intervention, and for community policing training and equipment.” 

Was Jerry Brown responsible for this lapse? Absolutely. 

While the Oakland Police Department is run by the chief of police, the mayor has ultimate authority, with the responsibility of seeing that the major budgetary needs of the department are met by the city. In addition, in preparing for his run of Attorney General, Mr. Brown made law and order his specific province and one of his top priorities. For someone serious about solving Oakland’s crime problems, keeping the fingerprint unit online should have been high on the list of things to get done. 

But that presupposes that when you promise that you are going to crack down on crime, it is more than just a campaign slogan that can be milked out over time. 

Mercy, as my old editor, Jim French, used to say. 

Between 1900 and 1910, Berkeley’s population more than tripled, from 13,214 to 40,434 inhabitants. Much of the growth was stimulated by the flight of thousands of San Franciscans to the East Bay following the 1906 earthquake and fire. 

The disaster heralded an unprecedented building boom on this side of the bay. 

On Sept.19, 1906, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that 135 building permits had been issued since the beginning of that month. 

That day alone, 32 permits were issued to one man: “C.M. MacGregor of 519 Thirty-Second Street, Oakland, who is to commence the immediate construction of twelve $1,500 cottages on Peralta Avenue, North of Hopkins between the Santa Fe railroad and the Peralta Park Hotel and twenty $1900 cottages on Pine Street, near Webster. The fees for these permits alone amounted to $116.” 

Charles Manning MacGregor (1871–1954), a.k.a. “One-Nail MacGregor,” was born in Nova Scotia. While still in his teens, he joined his sister in Boston, where he learned carpentry. A brother living in California persuaded Charles that there were opportunities in construction here, and in 1889 he moved to Oakland. 

Having begun as a carpenter for hire, the thrifty MacGregor soon accumulated sufficient savings to become a builder and real-estate entrepreneur. His first house of record, a 6-room cottage constructed at a cost of $1,160, went up in 1896. 

Between 1898 and 1906, MacGregor’s name frequently appeared on building permits for houses designed by well-known architects such as A.W. Smith, Leo N. Nichols, Maxwell G. Bugbee, William Knowles, Coxhead & Coxhead, Albert Farr, and Bakewell & Brown. 

Many of his early houses were built in San Francisco, Alameda, and the nascent Piedmont, where he lived from 1909 until his death, and where he continued to build in the 1910s and ‘20s. 

By 1904, MacGregor had begun to design his own buildings, which he would do exclusively from 1906 onwards until his projects grew too vast. 

One of the largest projects built by MacGregor in the post-earthquake period is the Madison Park Apartments (1908) at 9th and Oak Streets in central Oakland. This handsome five-story, 98-unit Edwardian-style building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 

Apartment buildings notwithstanding, the builder was best known for his cottages. He often bought lots that were odd-sized or smaller than average and therefore less in demand by his competitors. Rather than employ an architect or use ready-made plans from pattern books, MacGregor hired a draftsman with architectural training. 

Having assumed the presidency of an Oakland lumber company, he was perfectly positioned to offer home buyers a one-stop shop at competitive prices. 

Along the way, he acquired the moniker “One-Nail MacGregor,” either for his thriftiness or for never sparing an extra nail. He certainly brought both qualities to bear on his projects, which were affordable and built to last. 

All 32 cottages for which he obtained building permits on September 19, 1906, still stand. The twenty that line Pine Avenue between Ashby Ave. and Webster St. make up a charming, village-like enclave that is unique in Berkeley. 

Mixing Craftsman and Colonial Revival elements, the Pine Ave. cottages are modest yet playful, with enough stylistic variations to make each one stand apart. Unifying the ensemble and the entire block are a common scale and repeated design elements such as half-timbered gables, square porch posts, and multi-paned clerestory windows. 

Remarkably, these cottages, now 100-years old, have undergone few alterations over the past century, and MacGregor’s vision for the street is virtually intact. The 12 cottages on Peralta Ave. between Hopkins and Gilman Streets did not fare as well. All but one or two have been visibly altered, and not always successfully. What brought about this dramatic difference between the two groups? 

Unlike their Pine Ave. brethren, which occupy an entire block, the Peralta Ave. cottages share the block with other, non-MacGregor houses. Whereas Pine Ave. is a narrow, intimate street, Peralta Ave. is wide and impersonal. The sense of place and the ensemble feel that are so resonant on Pine Ave. have never developed here. 

Although the Peralta Ave. cottages were built for more modest pocketbooks ($1,500 vs. $1,900 on Pine Ave.), they are attractive and well-made, featuring many of the same design elements seen on Pine Ave. Yet as realtors often remind us, location, location, location is key. Magic on Pine Ave., ho-hum on Peralta. One is a village, the other, a suburb. This fundamental difference in ambiance is what fostered respect for precedent on Pine Avenue and lack of it on Peralta. 

Of course, these 1906 cottages were only an episode in MacGregor’s career, which continued in full force for several decades. With Harry Webb, he was responsible for developing significant parts of Ashby Station. By the age of 36, he had built 600 homes. 

MacGregor is best known for having built over 1,500 homes in Albany, where he began to develop tracts in the late 1920s. The Depression did not slow him down, since his working and selling methods were particularly suited to the circumstances. He eliminated the need for subcontractors by directly employing carpenters, lathmen, plasterers, painters, and finish craftsmen. He pioneered the practice of building several houses concurrently, thus keeping his crews continuously employed. He also evolved the “rent to own” policy, helping young families to acquire a home gradually. 

In 1936, his vast projects in Albany prompted MacGregor to move his office from Oakland to Solano Avenue. For many years, Albany celebrated MacGregor Day. His houses stand as proof that thrift and quality need not be mutually exclusive. 

The writer is indebted to Gail Lombardi and Dale Smith for their research. 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson. This MacGregor cottage at 2960 Pine Ave. exudes a palpable country atmosphere.

I met a nice couple the other day. Sadly, they were clearly in some distress over the fortunes of their remodeling process. They’d engaged a GC (builder-speak for general contractor) last year to do a rather sweeping and costly rehab on a mid-sized house in the hills of Oakland and things hadn’t gone quite as well as they’d hoped. 

It seems that the fellow was something less than the consummate businessman. In fact, I’d say that the fellow (after much questioning and examination in situ) was really (drum-roll please) a “carpenter.” “Oh my gawd” wails the woman with the baby. “For shame,” proclaims the preacher. “What are you talking about?” says everyone else. 

A carpenter is not a GC, but what is? A GC is an organizer of work, a writer of contracts and a supervisor. The GC is the person who makes sure that the client gets what they paid for as opposed to the person who provides the labor, although a GC can provide both services. 

When is it reasonable for a GC to provide both services? When the job is quite small and he or she is not running several other jobs at the same time. Nonetheless, the primary function and the most vital service isn’t the swinging of the hammer but the communication, conception and organization needed to make the job happen. 

This fellow our nice couple had working for them was cheaper than the rest (one of my first questions). This was the attraction and as you’ve hear me say a hundred times, it’s often, but not always a precursor to woes and lamentations. He was probably cheap for at least two reasons. First, he probably didn’t know how much things really needed to cost to cover all his expenses. Most people don’t and builders often take some years (moi included) to begin to figure out what all this stuff really costs. Construction costs are a lot more than lumber and labor. They include profit, taxes, office and shopping time, servicing of vehicles, continuing education, paying the accountant and phone bill. There are, most assuredly, a huge number of costs in the practice of general contracting as there are in the running of nearly all business, except that contracting is more complex in this regard than most. A GC is running a tiny corporation with shipping, inventory, highly skilled labor, PR, advertising and emergency room medicine. It’s amazing that there are so many successful small contractors who don’t end up in court and not at all surprising that so many do end up in trouble with their clients. 

The second reason that this fellow was cheap was that he didn’t value his time highly enough and didn’t know how to make sure he’d make money on the job. Every good GC values their time and make sure they make enough money to make each foray worth the trip. Believe me when I say that you don’t want to hire someone who doesn’t know their value and isn’t going to make money on the job. That path is paved with discontent. 

The GC in this case was a pretty good carpenter but he was a poor manager of time and of his labor force. He didn’t show up every day and, more importantly, didn’t have a reasonable facsimile of himself showing up every day to make sure that apparent progress on the job was to the satisfaction of the clients. 

It would also appear that he did not maintain a good set of accounts on the job because in the legal trouble which is now boiling-over, he is preparing to present tens of thousands of dollars of additional cost which he had never billed for. Now, this may be a ruse but I strongly suspect from previous experience that, at least some of, this is correct. 

Small timers and those who should rightly stick to carpentry and, perhaps some plumbing and wiring, often find themselves out of their depths when they begin functioning as general contractors (in this case, read accountant). A businessman with little experience in hammers and saws is probably more qualified in many ways to function as a GC than someone who has all the back issues of Fine Home Building. 

I’ll amend the previous lie with one major proviso and that is my strongly held believe that GCs should be very good at telling the clients what they should and should not be doing to their homes. One of the best things that a GC can tell a homeowner is that the “improvement” that they’re attempting to parley for is plainly a bad idea. 

A talented GC, like a talented architect (they’re more alike than you may think) can look at a clipping from Sunset magazine and tell the client how to make it look and feel like that that but a GC who lets the client decide where the joist should run is a fool (this appellation, sadly also goes to the client who so directs the action). 

Our young couple clearly had someone (possesed of great talents and high hopes) doing more than they were really capable of doing with impunity and reliability. As a result, they’re pissed off and disappointed. Also, I suspect, the contractor is feeling similarly abused since he probably worked his hiney off to keep them happy and may genuinely feel that this house contained some of this best work. He may not yet understand that his failings were not so much in his workmanship but in his business savy. Now, I’ll confess, there were a couple of stupid things he did in the actual construction but that can happen to even the best and I have a feeling that the architect played a small role him or her/self.  

Naturally, it’s these physical items that the clients are beating the war drums about and soon the fur will be flying (I hope the arbitration judge doesn’t wear a toupee). Nonetheless, I contend that had the Carpenter been a good GC and had money set aside to fix things that went wrong (and had maintained a good working relationship with the client through speedy work and clear paperwork), they would be splitting the costs of a major screwup and would be sharing a glass of holiday cheer right about now. 

As it is, the fellow is probably unable to make his mortgage and might even be suffering the maladies of a strained marriage (I’m not joking). 

By the way, I’d like to suggest that the additional cost of a more able GC might well be less than what these sweet folk will end up laying out by the time the lawyer’s bill and the court judgment all come due (not to mention the formidable cost of suffering and delays). 

That’s another thing to keep in mind: The court won’t necessarily take their side, even if I and their attorney think they’ve been fleeced and abused. Court, even arbitration is a crapshoot. 

At the risk of repeating myself, I’ll close with the following suggestions: 

Get several bids before hiring your general contractor. Start by calling their references and visiting some of their previous jobsites. Make sure you’ve heard from some satisfied clients and be sure that they’re not old friends or relatives. A good recommendation might include “she was a bit rigid on how she worked and a more money than we wanted to spend but everyone who comes to the house just oooo’s and aaaah’s at the work. We know we made the right choice.” 

You see, the results of good choices are not necessarily sugary-sweet, easy or cheap but that doesn’t mean that they’re not good choices. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

Oh my, this is a touchy time of year, all those cultural sensitivities waiting to be stepped on. Wishing someone “happy holidays” would seem universal enough, but I read a newswire piece the other day in which a guy was quoted as bragging that he’d bullied some hapless WalMart clerk into wiping that phrase off a window because, “It’s supposed to be ‘Merry Christmas!’” Honestly, sometimes it makes me miss good old Saturnalia.  

But worse traps await the holiday gift-giver. 

You’d think I’d’ve known better, but I stepped in the droppings bigtime some years back when I gave my mother-in-law a plant for her room. The bright places by the window were already filled, and I thought she needed something green in a spot that didn’t get much light.  

I thought I had the perfect idea, inspired by my own beloved Grammy Adams who’d always had a couple of big snake plants in the downstairs parlor. 

I’d developed a fondness for Sanseveria species after seeing them as curbside plantings in Honolulu, and I knew they were tough, not choosy about light, and easy to care for. 

What I didn’t know, or had forgotten, was that in some regions they’re called “mother-in-law’s tongue” and that’s a diss on mothers-in-law, as the plant is indeed tongue-shaped if the tongue is long and sharp. (Plus, it’s green. Ew.) 

Why of course my mother-in-law was from one such region, and she’d never heard of another name for the plant. Oops.  

I have to credit her patience, nevertheless. The plant survived her, and it’s on the hereditary sideboard in our dining room now – next to my snake Shep. I put a shorter Sanseveria species in the cage with him and he hasn’t squashed it flat yet; in fact, it’s given me two offsets to plant elsewhere. 

That’s one tough plant. I’d suggest it as a holiday gift to anyone but your mother-in-law. Just persuade them not to over-water.  

Lots of those granny plants are tough, which is probably why they’re granny plants. It’s a good idea to give a plant that’s not likely to die and leave the new owner feeling all incompetent and depressed.  

Grammy Adams had a few other plants in that little coal-patch row house, including one upstairs that my dad referred to, singing the British music-hall ditty, as “the biggest asssssssss-phidistra in the world.” 

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an asphidistra, though, from the story of Poppop Adams’ obligingly unraveling it from the picture rail, on which it clambered all the way around the room, and toting it downstairs to show off to visitors. I think it was a “Devil’s ivy” (Epipremnum) or a pothos (Scindapsus) of some sort, or maybe a heart-leaf philodendron.  

The last two are pretty sturdy and finesse the “Devil’s” superstitions. Asphidistra—“cast-iron plant”—is, as implied, another indomitable houseplant: upright but taller than Sanseveria, dark green. Asphidistra, Sanseveria, and Scindapsus all have lively-looking variegated versions.  

Go on, give one. It’s still less presumptuous than giving a kitten.  

TUESDAY, DEC. 19 

CHILDREN 

Fratello Marionettes “Peter and the Wolf” at 1 p.m.. at Oakland Public Library, Lakeview Branch, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bayo Seco with the Creole Belles and Andrew Carrier at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $59 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

The Christmas Jug Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Mike Stern at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sat. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20 

CHILDREN 

Circus Finelli’s Holiday Extravaganza at 1 and 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company “A Little Cole in Your Stocking” at 8 p.m., Wed.-Sat., at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 30. Tickets are $25. 843-4822. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joel Ben Izzy reads at 6:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for Advent with Ron McKean, organist, at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Kurt Ribak Trio, Mingus-inspired jazz and groove at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, DEC. 21 

CHILDREN 

Circus Finelli’s Holiday Extravaganza at 1 and 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“A Christmas Memory” Actor Thomas Lynch will perform an abridged reading of Truman Capote’s short story at 4:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6280. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Winter Solstice Concert with over 35 solo artists perfoming at 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland dress warmly and bring a flashlight. 228-3207. 

Ras Kidus, Undah P, Hurricane, McGuyva at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Benefit for Urban Community Action Network. Cost is $10-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Mike Stern at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sat. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Freight Holiday Revue and Fundraiser with Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum, Cascada de Flores, and others at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761.  

John Gordon Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ.  

Sueco, Naomi and the Courteous Rudeboys at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Loop Station, Knees and Elbows, Ragwater Review at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100. 

FRIDAY, DEC. 22 

EXHIBITIONS 

Don Clausen Oil Paintings Abstract and Portaits at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., #4. Runs through Feb. 4. 421-1255. 

The Photography of Matt Heron “Voting Rights: The Southern Struggle, 1964-1965” on display in the Catalog Lobby, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., through Jan. 6. 981-6100. 

THEATER 

“Amahl and the Night Visitors” Thurs. and Fri. at 8p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martinez St., Pt. Richmond. Donation $10. 232-4031. 

Aurora Theatre Company “A Little Cole in Your Stocking” at 8 p.m., Wed.-Sat., at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 30. Tickets are $25. 843-4822. 

Berkeley Rep “All Wear Bowlers” at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through Dec. 23. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. 

Circus Fellini’s Holiday Extravaganza at 1 and 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., through Sun. Tickets are $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

Shotgun Players “The Forest War” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Jan 14. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“A Christmas Carol” Actor Martin Harris reads the Dickens classic at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Donation $5-$10. 848-7800. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Christie McCarthy & Starting Five at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baguette Quartette at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

In Harmony’s Way, a cappella, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jim Grantham Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

David Gans, Mario DeSio, and Mokai at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The New Hour, 5 Cent Coffee, Stella at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Wounds, Have-Nots, Skyflakes at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Tracy Bartlow, Femi at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. All ages. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Grease Traps, Oaktown funk and soul, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

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

The Invisible Cities, Scrabble at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100.  

Mike Stern at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sat. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, DEC. 23 

CHILDREN  

Elmwood Theater Matinee Benefit for local schools showing “Polar Express” at 10 a.m. and noon, and noon on Sun. Cost is $2. Sponsored by Elmwood merchants. 843-3794. 

Circus Fellini’s Holiday Extravaganza at 1 and 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., through Sun. Tickets are $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

THEATER 

“Amahl and the Night Visitors” at 8 p.m. at Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. Tickets are $10. 232-4031. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Caroling with Terrence Kelly at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Steve Taylor and Derek See at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Solstice Celebration in Honor of David Nadel with Zydeco Flames, Sidewinders, Nigerian Brothers, Edessa and others at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Drum circle and potluck at 6:30 p.m. Free. 525-5054.  

The Zoopy Show, Sugar Butt Tiger, The Yard Dogs at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100.  

Matt Morrish & Trinket Lover, funk, afro-cuban, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Peter Barshay’s “Fog” at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Lady Soul, Sonny, Mr. Grench at 9 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. All ages. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Island of Misfit Music Orchestra at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. 841-2082.  

SUNDAY, DEC. 24 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Clairdee at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, DEC. 26 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Will Durst “Big Fat Year End Kiss Off Comedy Show” at 18 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$17. 925-798-1300. 

Reggae Reunion and Boxing Day Celebration with Fireproof at at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

McCoy Tyner Quartet at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $35. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

SOLSTICE CELEBRATION 

“From the Darkness, Solace,” a winter solstice concert, will be held at the Chapel of the Chimes Mausoleum from 7-11 p.m.Thursday. More than 35 solo artists perform original music throughout the columbarium in honor of the darkest day of the year. Dress warmly. Flashlights encouraged. $10-$20. 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 228-3207 

ABSTRACTS AND PORTRAITS 

Don Clausen, an East Bay resident and graduate of California College of Arts and Crafts, is showing his oil paintings, abstracts and portraits through Feb. 5 at the Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., #4. 421-1255. 

MATINEE TO BENEFIT 

LOCAL SCHOOLS 

Elmwood District merchants are sponsoring a matinee screening at the Elmwood Theater as a benefit for local schools. Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express (2004), starring Tom Hanks, is about a doubting boy who takes a magical train ride to the North Pole. 10 a.m. and noon Sunday. Admission is $2. schools. 2966 College Ave. 843-3794. 

FINAL DAYS FOR ‘BOWLERS’ 

All Wear Bowlers, the absurdist comedy by Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford, will finish up its run at the Berkeley Rep with performances at 8 p.m. Friday and and at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. 75 minutes.$23.50-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org.

“Both a little naughty and a little nice” is the apt description for husband and wife cabaret team Billy Philadelphia and Meg Mackay’s holiday season show, A Little Cole in Your Stocking, featuring hits and rarities from Cole Porter’s songbook (as well as a few “traditional and non-traditional holiday songs”), playing evenings at 8 p.m., Dec. 20-23 and 27-30, at the Aurora Theatre, where it debuted last year. 

This year’s show, however, will be the real debut of Billy Philadelphia at the Aurora with his wife. Last year, in “just one of those things,” Philadelphia was rushed into emergency heart surgery on opening night, replaced at the last minute at the keyboards by Larry Dunlap (himself comprising half another noted husband-and-wife jazz and cabaret act with Bobbe Norris). 

Though it was an anxiety-fraught situation, troupers Mackay and Dunlap put on such a show that the audience easily shed their own cares, whetting the appetite of anyone who sampled the tunes that evening, or those which followed, for Billy Philadelphia’s return to the stage, and the reprise of A Little Cole in Your Stocking, accompanying his talented partner. 

Meg Mackay demonstrated the range of Porter’s oeuvre, from melodic to finger-popping, dramatic to very intimate, with both spontaneity and poise—real style. Her patter between songs was often witty, and just as likely to be in a warm, conversational address, giving a personal touch to an evening of sophisticated salon and saloon songs. She’s familiar to Bay Area audiences from her appearances in three seasons of A Karen Carpenter Christmas (written and directed by Aurora artistic director Tom Ross), in Beach Blanket Babylon in North Beach, and TheatreWorks’ production of Gypsy! on the Peninsula, as well as on the cabaret stage and her two CDs, both produced by her husband. 

Energetic Billy Philadelphia has, in a quarter century of performing in the Bay Area, done everything from accompanying Dame Edna (on piano) during the San Francisco run of her Royal Tour, to staging Hoagy—a musical tribute to Hoagy Carmichael, to his role as KNBR radio’s The Man About Town. 

In addition to the Cole Porter classics like “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” and “Night and Day,” Mackay and Philadelphia dust off some seldom-played Porter tunes, as well as a few holiday songs, both familiar and offbeat, to celebrate the season. Porter, whose output covered so much of modern life, never wrote a Christmas number! 

A Little Cole in Your Stocking is a perfect escape from the commercial rush of the holidays, restoring a bit of real conviviality, as this talented couple air the witty, touching works of America’s premiere composer of sophisticated showtunes and intimate numbers for cabaret. 

A LITTLE COLE  

IN YOUR STOCKING 

8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday through Dec. 30 at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addision St. $25. 843-4822. 

Photograph by David Allen 

Meg Mackay and Billy Philadelphia in A Little Cole in Your Stocking.

A 16th-century Russian conspiracy swept Boyars and Old Believers last Friday night into the First Congregational Church at Dana and Durant, where they put on a private show of Modest Mussorgsky’s opera, Khovanchina, for an audience of friends and family. 

Scores in hand, the two dozen singers acted out in voice and gesture the tale of a thwarted rebellion of the Streltzy Guards and the harsh reaction of the tsar’s forces, with the able producing and stage direction of Phil Lowery, utilizing only a few scenic devices and bits of costumery—a couple of ornate armchairs, a fur cap or two, white scarves for the Old Believers who offer themselves up for martyrdom at the opera’s close. 

The libretto was translated into English from the original Russian. “This is an old Bay Area tradition,” said the conductor, whose name was also translated from its original language to be listed in the program as K. G. Longfield, but who was quickly recognized by local concert-goers. “Those participating have donated their time for the love of doing this. Some have corporate day jobs and are singers at night. Artists of all sorts have gotten together informally to sing and play this way for generations. It refreshes the rounds of professional performances.” 

The singers included amateurs and semi-pros, as well as some of the luminaries of the local music scene. Particularly fine were the performances of mezzo Valentina Osinski as Marfa, the lovelorn “young Old Believer,” and her love object, Andrei (tenor Codrut Birsan), son of the revolt’s leader, Prince Ivan Khovansky (played by bass-baritone Roger McCracken, a fine and appropriately haughty baritone). Sopranos Marcelle Dronkers and Eliza O’Malley sang and acted outstandingly in brief scenes as, respectively, Susanna, an Old Believer who heaps fire and brimstone on Marfa’s expressions of love, and Emma, a German Lutheran damsel in distress that the roving eye of Andrei latched onto. 

Clifton Romig’s bass rendition of Dosifei, leader of the Old Believers, was impressive in jousting with Susanna or Princes Ivan and Vassily Galitsin (tenor Mark Narins, with bass Andrew Brumana as his retainer), and in sympathy with Marfa, but touched profundity in his solo, glimpsing martyrdom, at the beginning of Act V. Indeed, Mussorgsky’s music became more and more profound, with soloists and duets more finely articulated from the chorus, as the tragic plot deepened. 

Ensemble members (Sibil Demirmen, Alexina Butler, Bianca Showalter, Ellen St. Thomas, Joanne Bogart, Marney Margules, Kelcey Poe, Miguel Fennick, Rick Bogart, Gregory Friedman and Puay Kua) doubled in the chorus and other roles—the women as wives mocking their drunken, or condemned, Guard husbands (Art Mahoney, Wayne Wong, Torlef A. Borsting), or as Prince Ivan’s serving women, strived to entertain him (Kelcey Poe as a Persian dancer) while awaiting repercussions of the downfall of the revolt. In the end, swelled by the voices of defunct soloists, the choir brings forth an unearthly sound, as the Old Believers accept their fate, trapped in a burning monastery chapel. 

Baritone John Burton provides a wry thread of sardonic humor as Shaklovity, a Boyar who early on hires a Scrivener (tenor Ross Halper) to pen an anonymous letter warning the Tsar, and later has a Mephistophelean laugh as Prince Ivan is assassinated on his way to a meeting with the Tsarevna which the boyar had urged the prince to attend. 

Pianist Doug Han, whom Phil Lowery credited with much of the musical preparation, accompanied the show with exceptional playing, laced with remarkable figures, arpeggios and arabesques. 

At the end—rebels defeated, assassinated, exiled or run to ground, and the Old Believers self-immolated—artists and audience retired in true Russian fashion to a pot-luck repast, marvelous in its diversity, though somewhat scant in black caviar, starka vodka and blinis.

I’ll admit that I don’t have much of an ear for the language of crows. Ron says they have a specific call that means “Raven!,” uttered when the crows are harassing one of their larger relatives or escorting it out of the neighborhood. This wouldn’t surprise me at all, since they do have an extensive vocal repertoire. 

One researcher described eight variations on the basic caw, used in different contexts: territorial defense against other crows, warnings when a predator is sighted, and so on. Crows also have many non-caw vocalizations, even a kind of song, a mixture of “coos, caws, rattles, clicks, and grating noises” strung together in long sequences with “a rambling, improvised quality.” Crow jazz. 

It hasn’t been established whether these birds can recognize each other by voice, but it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch. Voice recognition is how seabirds find their own offspring in a crowded breeding colony, how emperor penguins locate their mates after that long trudge over the ice. It’s what allows territorial birds to distinguish a known neighbor from an unknown intruder, and flocking birds to synchronize their movements. 

But it was up to four New York biologists—Jessica Yorzinski, Sandra Vehrencamp, and Kevin McGowan at Cornell and Anne Clark at Binghamton—to demonstrate that the calls of individual crows have distinctive acoustic fingerprints, as reported recently in The Condor. 

Yorzinski and her colleagues focused on the inflected alarm caw, a short, sharp burst of sound given in the presence of a soaring bird of prey, or sometimes an unwelcome human. They worked with wild crow flocks in Ithaca, all of whose members had been tagged, banded, and identified as male or female. Each bird’s inflected alarm caw was measured in terms of 25 acoustic variables, including duration, bandwidth, and center frequency. 

I’ll spare you the math, but the researchers found that the crows had individually unique alarm caws, differentiated on seven factors. If the biologists could tell them apart by acoustic properties, presumably the birds could as well. They also found a gender difference: in general, female calls had higher frequency, stronger frequency modulation, wider bandwidth, and shorter duration than male calls. 

The exception was a male who was low in his flock’s pecking order and whose vocalizations were more like a female’s. Since male crows tend to dominate females, this would make you wonder about the confounding effects of gender and status. 

Why would it matter if a crow could identify the source of an alarm? Yorzinski and colleagues suggest that not all crows are equally reliable sentinels. Young, inexperienced birds may issue a disproportionate number of false alarms. 

It would be important to know if the warning came from some mistake-prone rookie or one of the flock’s keen-eyed elders. And if a neighbor’s alarm call sounded different from any made by a flock member, the birds could gauge the approximate distance of the threat. 

Mind you, this is only one call out of a couple dozen. The crows’ signaling system may also be able to specify the degree of danger. This appears to be the case for another bird, the black-capped chickadee, which had never been suspected of any kind of vocal sophistication. Black-capped chickadees, like our local chestnut-backed species, are known for mobbing predators like hawks and owls, giving a characteristic “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” call. This is often how birders are able to detect the presence of a roosting—and disgruntled—owl. 

In an ingenious experiment, Chris Templeton, then a doctoral student at the University of Washington, measured the responses of chickadees in an aviary to the presence of live predators. The hawks and owls came from Raptors of the Rockies, a rehabilitation facility in Florence, Mont. 

Templeton also used two mammalian predators, a domestic cat and a ferret (standing in for native weasels), and a bobwhite quail as a control. He found that different predators elicited different numbers of “dees” in the alarm call. In general, the smaller raptors triggered more consternation than the larger ones. 

Great horned owls rated only a few “dees”; northern pygmy-owls, up to 23. Since pygmy-owls are specialized predators on small birds and great horned owls take mainly mammals, this makes sense. “A great horned owl going after a chickadee would be like a Hummer trying to outmaneuver and catch a Porsche,” says Templeton. 

But the size of the test bird was clearly not the only factor. The chickadees didn’t react at all to the non-predatory quail. And a Cooper’s hawk, a mid-sized raptor that preys on smaller birds, drew more “dees” than would have been predicted from its size alone. These little birds are either equipped with some kind of mental field guide to the local raptors or are remarkably fast learners. 

If chickadees can pack that much information into their calls, Lord knows what the bigger-brained crows are capable of. They may well be saying not just “Raven!” but “Raven with a missing right primary feather at ten o’clock!” And the response from the other crows may be “George knows what he’s talking about—let’s scramble!” 

TUESDAY, DEC. 19 

Visioning for Downtown Berkeley Art Museum at 10 a.m. a the Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive, Gund Theater, 2625 Durant Ave. 981-7487. 

Discussion Salon on The Next ? Years at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165. 

Free Diabetes Screening from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Do not eat for 8 hours before-hand. 981-5190. 

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. 

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. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20 

New to DVD “Joyeux Noel” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Music in the Community Fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 444-6979. 

Gingerbread House Party from 9:30 a.m. at 1 p.m. at Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. Please bring a bag of candy. 647-1111. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

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. Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, DEC. 21 

Candlelight Vigil to Save the Oaks and to Celebrate the Winter Solstice at 5 p.m. at the Memorial Stadium Oak Grove, 841-3493. www.saveoaks.com 

Winter Solstice Gathering at 4:15 at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. Led by Alan Gould, dress warmly. www.solarcalendar.org 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. Open to the public. 845-5513. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Make Money in Short Sale Foreclosures” at 1:30 p.m. at Barney’s on Solano. 433-2911. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info 

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, DEC. 22 

Muir Family Christmas Tours of the Muir House in Martinez decorated for the holidays on Fri. and Sat. Cost is $3. For details call 925-228-8860. 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

“Life of Mammals” The documentary by David Attenborough at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Apollo N Berkeley” with dancers, singers, comedians and a visit from Santa at 8 p.m. at Black Repertory Group, 3201 Adeline St. Cost is $5. 652-2120. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 8 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Potluck supper at 7 p.m. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, DEC. 23 

Telegraph Avenue Holiday Fair with more than 200 vendors, music and food, Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Berkeley Crew’s Annual Holiday Sprints with informal races between Berkeley High Crew Team and alumni, from 8:30 to 11 a.m. at the Jack London Aquatic Center, Oakland Estuary. www.berkeleyhighcrew.org 

SUNDAY, DEC. 24 

“Giving Birth to God” with Sarah Lewis of the GTU at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

ONGOING 

Help with Medicare Part D Enrollment Seniors who need to enroll in the prescription drug plan, or change their plan can get help and advice at Berkeley Senior Centers. Appointments required. Call 1-800-434-0222. www.lashicap.org 

Peace Action West, a local non-profit which promotes peace and justice, is looking for volunteers to do data entry, stuff envelopes and other tasks. Locates across from the Berkeley Boawl. 849-2272, ext. 104. 

Holiday Food Drive Sponsor a Food Drive to help the Food Bank reach its goal of collecting food for families in need during the holiday season. 635-3663, ext. 318. www.accfb.org  

Magnes Museum Docent Training Open to all interested in Jewish art and history. Classes begin Jan. 18th. cultural.arts@sbcglobal.net 

CITY MEETINGS 

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee meets Dec. 19 at 10 a.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, Gund Theater, 2625 Durant Ave., for a visioning session on the new downtown art museum. 981-7487.

FRIDAY, DEC. 15 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “ The Man Who Saved Christmas” at holiday family musical Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Dec. 17. Tickets are $15-$18. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “All Wear Bowlers” at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through Dec. 23. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. 

Masquers Playhouse “Company” by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Dec. 16. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

Naked Masks “Far Away” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. Sun. at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club. Tickets are $10-$20. Runs through Dec. 17. 883-9872. www.nakedmasks.org 

Shotgun Players “The Forest War” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Jan 14. Sliding scale $15-$30. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wondrous Possibilities” Abstract art by Sibylle Szaggers. Reception at 5 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. 465-8928. 

FILM 

Janus Films “Kill!” at 7 p.m. and “Sword of Doom” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

“El Cerco” screening and conversation with filmmaker and Argentine torture survivor, Patricia Isasa at 6:30 p.m. at The Uptown, 356 26th St., between Telegraph and Broadway. Donations accepted. 654-5355. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Before Columbus Foundation American Book Awards Celebration at 6:30 p.m. at the Afircan Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. Free. 228-6775. 

Gregory M. Franzwa with show slides and discuss the “Lincoln Highway in California” at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, Community Room 2090 Kittredge St. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater, “The Nutcracker” at 7 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $16-$21. 843-4689. 

California Revels “Christmas Revels” Celebrating the stories, songs, dance, and drama of 19th century Quebec, at 7:30 p.m. at Scottish Rite Theater, 1547 Lakeside Drive near Lake Merritt, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$42. 452-3800. www.calrevels.org 

The Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble, the Schola Cantorum of St. Albert Priory, and the instrumental ensemble Alta Sonora will perform 14th to 20th-century Christmas music from France, Italy, Spain and Germany at 8 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. www.wavewomen.org 

Rebecca Boblak, Ben Stolorow and Javier Trujillo perform Gershiwn and DeFalla at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228. giorgigallery.com 

Remembering the Ancestors, Modern and Afro-Caribbean dance, at 8 p.m. at at Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5, children free. 841-5580.  

Somos at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

John Santos Quartet “Clasicos Criollos” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

JukeJoint Sextet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Swingthing, holiday gala, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054.  

Al Stewart at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $25.50-$26.50. 548-1761.  

Bill Crossman Group at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th St., Oakland. Donation $5-$15. sfjazzmusic@yahoo.com 

John Thayer and Christina Kowalchuk at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Built for the Sea, The New Centuries, Pants Pants Pants at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Born/Dead, Young Offenders, Surrender 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. 

Bucho, soul and hip hop, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7. 548-1159.  

Sol Spectrum at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Rimshot at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Charlie Hunter Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, DEC. 16 

CHILDREN  

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

La Familia Peña-Govea plays Mexican children’s music at 11 a.m. at Studio Grow, 1235 10th St. Cost is $6. 526-9888. 

Elmwood Theater Matinee Benefit for local schools showing “Madagascar” at 10 a.m. and noon, and noon on Sun. Cost is $2. Sponsored by Elmwood merchants. 843-3794. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Bringing the Condors Home” A look at the Ventana Wildlife Society’s 20-year effor to restore California condors to the wild opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. and runs through April 15. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Gesture and Gestalt” Paintings of Albert Hwang and glass and metal sculpture of Victoria Skirpa opens at 6 p.m. at Float Art Gallery, 1091 Calcott Place, Unit #116., Oakland. 535-1702. 

Ceramics by Lizette Sanchez and Robert Bartlett-Edney Functional and decorative raku pottery and sculpture on display from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 728 Liberty St., El Cerrito. 847-7380. 

FILM 

Jacques Rivette “Up/Down/ 

Fragile” at 5 p.m. and Janus Films “The Organizer” at 8:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater, “The Nutcracker” at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $16-$21. 843-4689. 

Carol Alban “Miracles at the Chimes” solo flute music at 3 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Free. 228-3218. 

Pacific Boychoir “Harmonies of the Season” at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $20. 652-4722. www.pacificboychoir.org 

Voces Musicales “A Renaissance Christmas” Spanish and English music of the season at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Dana and Durant. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. 

California Revels “Christmas Revels” Celebrating the stories, songs, dance, and drama of 19th century Quebec, Sat. and Sun. at 1 and 5 p.m. at Scottish Rite Theater, 1547 Lakeside Drive near Lake Merritt, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$42. 452-3800. www.calrevels.org 

Black Nativity Holiday Pagent at 2:30 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church Family Life Center, 8501 International Blvd, at 85th and A, Oakland. Tickets are $7-$20. 544-8924. 

“Remembering the Ancestors, An Eclectic Mix of Modern and Afro-Caribbean Dance,” directed by Cherie Hill, 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theatre, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5, children are free. 841-5580. 

Melodikibolism, new works by graduates of Mills College at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. 

Robin Gregory & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Naivdad Flamenca at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $18-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

Musical Night in Africa with Kotoja, West African Highlife Band, Afro-Groove Connexion at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

“A Night in Persia” Persian dance celebration at 6 pm. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $20-$35. 925-462-6691. 

James Riddle and Heather Frederick at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Henry Clement & the Gumbo Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Fred Randolph Quintet at 8:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Larry Stefel Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Hammerlock, Cheap Skate, White Barrons at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100. 

Dale Miller & Powell St. John at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7-$10. 558-0881. 

Big B and His Snake Oil Saviors, Crooked Roads, Lariats of Fire at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

CV1, classic Jamaican dub grooves, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Fuga, La Plebe, Manicato, Son Del Centro at 7 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Babyland, Jewdriver, Yidcore at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, DEC. 17 

FILM 

Janus Films “Yojimbo” at 4 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Dahr Jamail, Peter Phillips & Larry Everest will discuss the new book “Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney” at 7:30 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way at Telegraph Ave. 848-1196. 

Island Literary Series with Floyd Salas reading from “Love Bites: Poetry in Celebration of Dogs and Cats” at 3 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $2. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater, “The Nutcracker” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $16-$21. 843-4689. 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra presents Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Copland’s “American Songs” and others at 4:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations welcome. www.bcco.org 

Pacific Boychoir “Family Holiday Celebration” at 2 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church, 400 Alcatraz, Oakland. Tickets are $10, children under 10 free. 652-4722. www.pacificboychoir.org 

Kitka “Wintersongs” music from Eastern European traditions at 7 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 444-0323. www.kitka.org 

Cantabile Chorale “‘Tis the Season” at 7:30 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $6-$25. 650-424-1310. www.cantabile.org 

Holiday Gospel Concert at 5 p.m. at the Linen Life Park Ave., Emeryville. 776-8222. 

Black Nativity Holiday Pagent Gala at 3:30 p.m., followed by performance, at Allen Temple Baptist Church Family Life Center, 8501 International Blvd, at 85th and A, Oakland. Tickets are $7-$20. Gala tickets are $35. 544-8924. 

Beth Custer Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Bowman/Beuthe/Wiitala Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ.  

John Santos and The Machete Ensemble at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6. 849-2568.  

The Everyone Orchestra, psychedelic improv, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Filly Fads Harp Trio at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Radio Suicide, Heart Shed, Blue Mire at 6 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $8-$10. 763-1146.  

MONDAY, DEC. 18 

CHILDREN 

Fratello Marionettes “Peter and the Wolf” at 7 p.m.. at Oakland Public Library, Main Library Children’s Room, 125 14th St. 238-3615. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PlayGround Six emerging playwrights debut new works at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $18. 415-704-3177.  

Poetry Express with Afrometropolitan at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

West Coast Songwriters Showcase at 7:30 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

E.W. Wainwright and friends in a tribute to John Coltrane, Annual Youth Arts Benefit at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, DEC. 19 

CHILDREN 

Fratello Marionettes “Peter and the Wolf” at 1 p.m.. at Oakland Public Library, Lakeview Branch, 550 El Embarcadero. 238-7344. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bayo Seco with the Creole Belles and Andrew Carrier at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $59 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Ellen Hoffman and Singers’ Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ.  

The Christmas Jug Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Mike Stern at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sat. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20 

CHILDREN 

Circus Finelli’s Holiday Extravaganza at 1 and 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre Company “A Little Cole in Your Stocking” at 8 p.m., Wed.-Sat., at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 30. Tickets are $25. 843-4822. 

Circus Fellini’s Holiday Extravaganza at 1 and 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Joel Ben Izzy reads at 6:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for Advent with Ron McKean, organist, at noon at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

Whiskey Brothers Old Time and Bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Calvin Keys Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $7. 841-JAZZ.  

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

Kurt Ribak Trio, Mingus-inspired jazz and groove at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

THURSDAY, DEC. 21 

CHILDREN 

Circus Finelli’s Holiday Extravaganza at 1 and 3 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$15. 925-798-1300. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Winter Solstice Concert with over 35 solo artists perfoming at 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland dress warmly and bring a flashlight. 228-3207. 

Ras Kidus, Undah P, Hurricane, McGuyva at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Benefit for Urban Community Action Network. Cost is $10-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Freight Holiday Revue and Fundraiser with Laurie Lewis, Tom Rozum, Cascada de Foores, and others at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $16.50-$17.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

John Gordon Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Sueco, Naomi and the Courteous Rudeboys at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Mike Stern at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sat. Cost is $22-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Loop Station, Knees and Elbows, Ragwater Review at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100. 

MUSIC FROM THREE GREAT COMPOSERS 

The Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra will present Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Aaron Copland’s American Songs and the world premiere of Julian White’s She Walks in Beauty, as well as excerpts from The Children’s Hour and Five Parables, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. www.bcco.org. 

CERRITO CLASSICS  

William Powell and Myrna Loy, as Nick and Nora Charles, set out to solve a murder mystery in the 1934 screwball comedy classic The Thin Man, the first in a series of successful Thin Man films based on a novel by Dashiell Hammet. 6 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday at the Cerrito Theater. 10070 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 814-2400. www.picturepubpizza.com.  

‘THE NUTCRACKER’ AT JULIA MORGAN CENTER 

The Berkeley Ballet Theater will perform The Nutcracker at 7 p.m. Friday, at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. $16-$21. 843-4689. 

‘THE ORGANIZER’ 

A screening of Mario Monicelli’s The Organizer (1963) will close out Pacific Film Archive’s six-week retrospective of films from the Janus collection at 8:15 p.m. Saturday. The film examines the beginnings of the trade union movement in Italy at the end of the 19th century, with Marcello Mastroianni playing a Genoa schoolteacher who finds his way to Turin to lead textile workers in a strike. $4-$8. 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

At the outset of The Forest War, Mark Jackson’s new play (which he also directs), produced by the Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage, a doddering old Grand Lord Karug (Drew Anderson) and his retinue slide out onto the stage, facing the audience, in an impression of Kabuki. 

The ancient lord announces he is relinquishing his office, something like the opening scene of King Lear (or the echo in Kurosawa’s Ran)—but not to his own son Kain (Kevin Clarke), the impetuous warrior. Instead, he hands over the reins (actually, the blade, sheathed) of command to another lord, Kulan (Cassidy Brown), a farmer and idealist, an aristocrat close to the people (shades of Thomas Jefferson!), a leader for a time of peace after a decade of war. 

Lord Kulan appoints his dignified wife, Lady Ema (Fontana Butterfield), as a minister to the common good, ombudsman for the voiceless. Lord Kain and General Mau Tant (Reid Davis)—a good team of villains out of an old potboiler—disgusted at the talk of peace and the ascendancy of a woman, start plotting mischief. 

Meanwhile, The People (as represented by a a cloth merchant, her son the painter, a child of the village, a drunken swordsmith and an herbalist called to the capital by Lord Kulan to be court physician, played by Carla Pantoja, Ryan Tasker, Lukas Ferreira, Richard Reinholdt and Anna Ishida), are glad the long war is over and that trusted Kulan is in command—but the gladness is expressed with the reserve of folk wisdom. The common lot is portrayed by a reflection of the Chinese Operatic look (not its style) familiar from American productions of Brecht. 

But the moral Lord Kulan has feet of clay. General Mau Tant spots him in a tryst with the old Grand Lord’s youngest concubine (Tonya Glanz) in the same meadow the painter has rendered over and over with his brush, and scandal grips the court. Later, Kulan and Ema’s daughter Ange (Caroline Hewitt) will also entertain a secret love in the meadow, and Lord Kain will further pursue his “National Security State” scheme with more trickery designed to reignite the Forest War of the title. The mood throughout darkens to one of foreboding of catastrophe, a sense of helplessness and betrayal on all sides. 

The Forest War fits in neatly in look—and outlook—with Shotgun’s last two plays, Ragnarok and Love is a Dream House in Lorin, Shotgun’s first two commissions. All are like fables or folktales that reflect contemporary events, done in a storybook style, The Forest War is a kind of Kabuki woodblock print done in Anime. In fact, there are Anime cartoon drawings in the lobby and in the program. 

Melpomene Katakalos’ set gives the sense of the bare boards of the Kabuki stage (across which skitter kurogos Erin Mei-Ling Stuart and Thu Tran, the “invisible” veiled stage assistants) with big shoji screens at back, and Valera Coble’s costumes are exotic with a dash of post-punk in some of Rhonda Kerr’s make-up, like Lord Kain’s hair. The players are well-cast, if a little restrained by the imitation of stylization, but with good presence and turns by Richard Reinholdt, Ryan Tasker, Thu Tran (as Mot) and Tonya Glanz in particular. Two talented musicians, Chris Broderick on winds and Daniel Bruno on drums (both on percussion) accompany the action—and indeed lend much in dynamics to it—taking their sound from various forms associated with Kabuki, Taiko and Gagaku. 

The overall effect, in different aspect from the last two plays, but very much in line with what seems to be a developing house style for Shotgun, is of a pageant, less stylized theater than storybook illustrations of it, promising a kind of contemporary fabulousness that goes back to the 18th-century sources of much of Brecht and modern epic theater: talking about the present situation by referring to what’s far away in time or space, like what Montesquieu did stylistically with The Persian Letters to signify the dislocations of French society of his day by describing imaginary goings-on in the exotic East. 

The play itself, though, is a curious blend, a fable without satire or irony (unless of the Alanis Morissette variety), a faux folktale without much relation to even urban myth, an impression of Asian theater without much stylization beyond a look-at-the-pictures illustrational sense. There are a few attempts at stylization with varying success: the execution of the too-honest courtesan is played simply and well, with a sense of humans being shifted around like dolls (though usually Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls); a recurring riff of dead characters shuffling backwards offstage holding white parasols (to a land where the sun don’t shine?) becomes increasingly awkward in its made-up schematism. Combined with the sometimes-fortune cookie diction of the dialogue, the neat storybook look begins to take on the qualities of the label on a Top Ramen package, “Oriental Flavor.” 

Mark Jackson, who seems to be fascinated by ingenuous characters who get into trouble by searching for something forbidden (to paraphrase Mort Sahl on Robert Redford, he wants to explore the dark side of Frank Capra—a shared trait with Steven Spielberg?), continues his pursuit of the stylized in theater, but something’s missing, or at least misplaced. I remember a teacher of Noh, after a stage adaptation of Greek tragedy featuring what was touted as Asian stylization, remarking that without the rigorous technique and dramaturgy of the old theaters, all a contemporary director could do would be to try to imitate the air of intensity that was attractive in the original. 

But the poetry—and therefore the true moral—gets lost in the process of a culinary reduction. The cover of the program gives the quote: “What is justice that it does not count love among its laws?” But what is the heart of the matter to be explored, and what really is the matter, is in what Grand Lord Karug says as a cautionary prescription at the outset of the play: “If we now have peace, it’s because we’ve forgotten why for so long we didn’t have peace.” 

THE FOREST WAR 

Presented by the Shotgun Players at 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday through Jan. 14. $15-$30. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org.  

Caroline Hewitt, Ryan Tasker and Erin Stuart in The Forest War. Photograph by Jessica Palopoli

Between 1900 and 1910, Berkeley’s population more than tripled, from 13,214 to 40,434 inhabitants. Much of the growth was stimulated by the flight of thousands of San Franciscans to the East Bay following the 1906 earthquake and fire. 

The disaster heralded an unprecedented building boom on this side of the bay. 

On Sept.19, 1906, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that 135 building permits had been issued since the beginning of that month. 

That day alone, 32 permits were issued to one man: “C.M. MacGregor of 519 Thirty-Second Street, Oakland, who is to commence the immediate construction of twelve $1,500 cottages on Peralta Avenue, North of Hopkins between the Santa Fe railroad and the Peralta Park Hotel and twenty $1900 cottages on Pine Street, near Webster. The fees for these permits alone amounted to $116.” 

Charles Manning MacGregor (1871–1954), a.k.a. “One-Nail MacGregor,” was born in Nova Scotia. While still in his teens, he joined his sister in Boston, where he learned carpentry. A brother living in California persuaded Charles that there were opportunities in construction here, and in 1889 he moved to Oakland. 

Having begun as a carpenter for hire, the thrifty MacGregor soon accumulated sufficient savings to become a builder and real-estate entrepreneur. His first house of record, a 6-room cottage constructed at a cost of $1,160, went up in 1896. 

Between 1898 and 1906, MacGregor’s name frequently appeared on building permits for houses designed by well-known architects such as A.W. Smith, Leo N. Nichols, Maxwell G. Bugbee, William Knowles, Coxhead & Coxhead, Albert Farr, and Bakewell & Brown. 

Many of his early houses were built in San Francisco, Alameda, and the nascent Piedmont, where he lived from 1909 until his death, and where he continued to build in the 1910s and ‘20s. 

By 1904, MacGregor had begun to design his own buildings, which he would do exclusively from 1906 onwards until his projects grew too vast. 

One of the largest projects built by MacGregor in the post-earthquake period is the Madison Park Apartments (1908) at 9th and Oak Streets in central Oakland. This handsome five-story, 98-unit Edwardian-style building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 

Apartment buildings notwithstanding, the builder was best known for his cottages. He often bought lots that were odd-sized or smaller than average and therefore less in demand by his competitors. Rather than employ an architect or use ready-made plans from pattern books, MacGregor hired a draftsman with architectural training. 

Having assumed the presidency of an Oakland lumber company, he was perfectly positioned to offer home buyers a one-stop shop at competitive prices. 

Along the way, he acquired the moniker “One-Nail MacGregor,” either for his thriftiness or for never sparing an extra nail. He certainly brought both qualities to bear on his projects, which were affordable and built to last. 

All 32 cottages for which he obtained building permits on September 19, 1906, still stand. The twenty that line Pine Avenue between Ashby Ave. and Webster St. make up a charming, village-like enclave that is unique in Berkeley. 

Mixing Craftsman and Colonial Revival elements, the Pine Ave. cottages are modest yet playful, with enough stylistic variations to make each one stand apart. Unifying the ensemble and the entire block are a common scale and repeated design elements such as half-timbered gables, square porch posts, and multi-paned clerestory windows. 

Remarkably, these cottages, now 100-years old, have undergone few alterations over the past century, and MacGregor’s vision for the street is virtually intact. The 12 cottages on Peralta Ave. between Hopkins and Gilman Streets did not fare as well. All but one or two have been visibly altered, and not always successfully. What brought about this dramatic difference between the two groups? 

Unlike their Pine Ave. brethren, which occupy an entire block, the Peralta Ave. cottages share the block with other, non-MacGregor houses. Whereas Pine Ave. is a narrow, intimate street, Peralta Ave. is wide and impersonal. The sense of place and the ensemble feel that are so resonant on Pine Ave. have never developed here. 

Although the Peralta Ave. cottages were built for more modest pocketbooks ($1,500 vs. $1,900 on Pine Ave.), they are attractive and well-made, featuring many of the same design elements seen on Pine Ave. Yet as realtors often remind us, location, location, location is key. Magic on Pine Ave., ho-hum on Peralta. One is a village, the other, a suburb. This fundamental difference in ambiance is what fostered respect for precedent on Pine Avenue and lack of it on Peralta. 

Of course, these 1906 cottages were only an episode in MacGregor’s career, which continued in full force for several decades. With Harry Webb, he was responsible for developing significant parts of Ashby Station. By the age of 36, he had built 600 homes. 

MacGregor is best known for having built over 1,500 homes in Albany, where he began to develop tracts in the late 1920s. The Depression did not slow him down, since his working and selling methods were particularly suited to the circumstances. He eliminated the need for subcontractors by directly employing carpenters, lathmen, plasterers, painters, and finish craftsmen. He pioneered the practice of building several houses concurrently, thus keeping his crews continuously employed. He also evolved the “rent to own” policy, helping young families to acquire a home gradually. 

In 1936, his vast projects in Albany prompted MacGregor to move his office from Oakland to Solano Avenue. For many years, Albany celebrated MacGregor Day. His houses stand as proof that thrift and quality need not be mutually exclusive. 

The writer is indebted to Gail Lombardi and Dale Smith for their research. 

Photograph by Daniella Thompson. This MacGregor cottage at 2960 Pine Ave. exudes a palpable country atmosphere.

I met a nice couple the other day. Sadly, they were clearly in some distress over the fortunes of their remodeling process. They’d engaged a GC (builder-speak for general contractor) last year to do a rather sweeping and costly rehab on a mid-sized house in the hills of Oakland and things hadn’t gone quite as well as they’d hoped. 

It seems that the fellow was something less than the consummate businessman. In fact, I’d say that the fellow (after much questioning and examination in situ) was really (drum-roll please) a “carpenter.” “Oh my gawd” wails the woman with the baby. “For shame,” proclaims the preacher. “What are you talking about?” says everyone else. 

A carpenter is not a GC, but what is? A GC is an organizer of work, a writer of contracts and a supervisor. The GC is the person who makes sure that the client gets what they paid for as opposed to the person who provides the labor, although a GC can provide both services. 

When is it reasonable for a GC to provide both services? When the job is quite small and he or she is not running several other jobs at the same time. Nonetheless, the primary function and the most vital service isn’t the swinging of the hammer but the communication, conception and organization needed to make the job happen. 

This fellow our nice couple had working for them was cheaper than the rest (one of my first questions). This was the attraction and as you’ve hear me say a hundred times, it’s often, but not always a precursor to woes and lamentations. He was probably cheap for at least two reasons. First, he probably didn’t know how much things really needed to cost to cover all his expenses. Most people don’t and builders often take some years (moi included) to begin to figure out what all this stuff really costs. Construction costs are a lot more than lumber and labor. They include profit, taxes, office and shopping time, servicing of vehicles, continuing education, paying the accountant and phone bill. There are, most assuredly, a huge number of costs in the practice of general contracting as there are in the running of nearly all business, except that contracting is more complex in this regard than most. A GC is running a tiny corporation with shipping, inventory, highly skilled labor, PR, advertising and emergency room medicine. It’s amazing that there are so many successful small contractors who don’t end up in court and not at all surprising that so many do end up in trouble with their clients. 

The second reason that this fellow was cheap was that he didn’t value his time highly enough and didn’t know how to make sure he’d make money on the job. Every good GC values their time and make sure they make enough money to make each foray worth the trip. Believe me when I say that you don’t want to hire someone who doesn’t know their value and isn’t going to make money on the job. That path is paved with discontent. 

The GC in this case was a pretty good carpenter but he was a poor manager of time and of his labor force. He didn’t show up every day and, more importantly, didn’t have a reasonable facsimile of himself showing up every day to make sure that apparent progress on the job was to the satisfaction of the clients. 

It would also appear that he did not maintain a good set of accounts on the job because in the legal trouble which is now boiling-over, he is preparing to present tens of thousands of dollars of additional cost which he had never billed for. Now, this may be a ruse but I strongly suspect from previous experience that, at least some of, this is correct. 

Small timers and those who should rightly stick to carpentry and, perhaps some plumbing and wiring, often find themselves out of their depths when they begin functioning as general contractors (in this case, read accountant). A businessman with little experience in hammers and saws is probably more qualified in many ways to function as a GC than someone who has all the back issues of Fine Home Building. 

I’ll amend the previous lie with one major proviso and that is my strongly held believe that GCs should be very good at telling the clients what they should and should not be doing to their homes. One of the best things that a GC can tell a homeowner is that the “improvement” that they’re attempting to parley for is plainly a bad idea. 

A talented GC, like a talented architect (they’re more alike than you may think) can look at a clipping from Sunset magazine and tell the client how to make it look and feel like that that but a GC who lets the client decide where the joist should run is a fool (this appellation, sadly also goes to the client who so directs the action). 

Our young couple clearly had someone (possesed of great talents and high hopes) doing more than they were really capable of doing with impunity and reliability. As a result, they’re pissed off and disappointed. Also, I suspect, the contractor is feeling similarly abused since he probably worked his hiney off to keep them happy and may genuinely feel that this house contained some of this best work. He may not yet understand that his failings were not so much in his workmanship but in his business savy. Now, I’ll confess, there were a couple of stupid things he did in the actual construction but that can happen to even the best and I have a feeling that the architect played a small role him or her/self.  

Naturally, it’s these physical items that the clients are beating the war drums about and soon the fur will be flying (I hope the arbitration judge doesn’t wear a toupee). Nonetheless, I contend that had the Carpenter been a good GC and had money set aside to fix things that went wrong (and had maintained a good working relationship with the client through speedy work and clear paperwork), they would be splitting the costs of a major screwup and would be sharing a glass of holiday cheer right about now. 

As it is, the fellow is probably unable to make his mortgage and might even be suffering the maladies of a strained marriage (I’m not joking). 

By the way, I’d like to suggest that the additional cost of a more able GC might well be less than what these sweet folk will end up laying out by the time the lawyer’s bill and the court judgment all come due (not to mention the formidable cost of suffering and delays). 

That’s another thing to keep in mind: The court won’t necessarily take their side, even if I and their attorney think they’ve been fleeced and abused. Court, even arbitration is a crapshoot. 

At the risk of repeating myself, I’ll close with the following suggestions: 

Get several bids before hiring your general contractor. Start by calling their references and visiting some of their previous jobsites. Make sure you’ve heard from some satisfied clients and be sure that they’re not old friends or relatives. A good recommendation might include “she was a bit rigid on how she worked and a more money than we wanted to spend but everyone who comes to the house just oooo’s and aaaah’s at the work. We know we made the right choice.” 

You see, the results of good choices are not necessarily sugary-sweet, easy or cheap but that doesn’t mean that they’re not good choices. 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

Oh my, this is a touchy time of year, all those cultural sensitivities waiting to be stepped on. Wishing someone “happy holidays” would seem universal enough, but I read a newswire piece the other day in which a guy was quoted as bragging that he’d bullied some hapless WalMart clerk into wiping that phrase off a window because, “It’s supposed to be ‘Merry Christmas!’” Honestly, sometimes it makes me miss good old Saturnalia.  

But worse traps await the holiday gift-giver. 

You’d think I’d’ve known better, but I stepped in the droppings bigtime some years back when I gave my mother-in-law a plant for her room. The bright places by the window were already filled, and I thought she needed something green in a spot that didn’t get much light.  

I thought I had the perfect idea, inspired by my own beloved Grammy Adams who’d always had a couple of big snake plants in the downstairs parlor. 

I’d developed a fondness for Sanseveria species after seeing them as curbside plantings in Honolulu, and I knew they were tough, not choosy about light, and easy to care for. 

What I didn’t know, or had forgotten, was that in some regions they’re called “mother-in-law’s tongue” and that’s a diss on mothers-in-law, as the plant is indeed tongue-shaped if the tongue is long and sharp. (Plus, it’s green. Ew.) 

Why of course my mother-in-law was from one such region, and she’d never heard of another name for the plant. Oops.  

I have to credit her patience, nevertheless. The plant survived her, and it’s on the hereditary sideboard in our dining room now – next to my snake Shep. I put a shorter Sanseveria species in the cage with him and he hasn’t squashed it flat yet; in fact, it’s given me two offsets to plant elsewhere. 

That’s one tough plant. I’d suggest it as a holiday gift to anyone but your mother-in-law. Just persuade them not to over-water.  

Lots of those granny plants are tough, which is probably why they’re granny plants. It’s a good idea to give a plant that’s not likely to die and leave the new owner feeling all incompetent and depressed.  

Grammy Adams had a few other plants in that little coal-patch row house, including one upstairs that my dad referred to, singing the British music-hall ditty, as “the biggest asssssssss-phidistra in the world.” 

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an asphidistra, though, from the story of Poppop Adams’ obligingly unraveling it from the picture rail, on which it clambered all the way around the room, and toting it downstairs to show off to visitors. I think it was a “Devil’s ivy” (Epipremnum) or a pothos (Scindapsus) of some sort, or maybe a heart-leaf philodendron.  

The last two are pretty sturdy and finesse the “Devil’s” superstitions. Asphidistra—“cast-iron plant”—is, as implied, another indomitable houseplant: upright but taller than Sanseveria, dark green. Asphidistra, Sanseveria, and Scindapsus all have lively-looking variegated versions.  

Go on, give one. It’s still less presumptuous than giving a kitten.  

FRIDAY, DEC. 15 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Rita Maran, Peace and Conflict Studies, UCB on “United Nations in a Hostile World.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Conversation with Patricia Isasa, filmmaker and Argentine torture survivor, and screening of “El Cerco” at 6:30 p.m. at The Uptown, 356 26th St., between Telegraph and Broadway. Donations accepted. 654-5355. 

Before Columbus Foundation American Book Awards Celebration at 6:30 p.m. at the African Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. Free. 228-6775. 

“Lincoln Highway in California” a slide show and discussion with author Gregory M. Franzwa, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Central Library, 3rd floor Community Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St.  

Movies that Matter “Field of Dreams” at 6:30 p.m. at Neumayer Residence, 565 Bellevue Ave. at Perkins, Oakland. 451-3009. 

Kol Hadash Humanistic Judaism Pot Luck Chanukah Party at 6 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. For potluck assignment and other info call 428-1492. 

SATURDAY, DEC. 16 

Celebration to Save the Oaks, with music, poetry amd refreshments from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the threatened oak grove in front of Memorial Stadium. 841-3493. 

“Bringing the Condors Home” An exhibit of the Ventana Wildlife Society’s 20-year effort to restore California condors to the wild, opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., at 10th St., Oakland. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Berkeley Farmers’ Market Holiday Crafts Fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center St. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way with local craftspepole, live music and prepared food. Benefits the Ecology Center. 548-3333.  

Telegraph Avenue Holiday Fair with more than 200 vendors, music and food, Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

The Crucible Holiday Celebration with fire dancers, stilt walkers and art, Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1260 Seventh St. 444-0919.  

Muir Family Christmas Tours of the Muir House in Martinez decorated for the holidays on Sat. and Sun. Cost is $3. For details call 925-228-8860. 

Lake Temescal Water Quality Monitoring We will be performing our monthly water chemistry test at the inlet of Lake Temescal. Meet at 10:30 a.m. at the Broadway Terrace entrance. 415-561-7762. www.ebparks.org/resources/pdf/trails/temescal_map.pdf  

Restore Arroyo Viejo Creek Have fun while helping to improve our local watershed. Sponsored by the City of Oakland Arroyo Viejo Watershed Awareness Program and the Oakland Zoo. From 10 a.m. to noon at Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center, 7701 Krause Ave., Oakland. 665-3508.  

Progressive Democrats Celebration of the work we have done this past year at 4:30 p.m. at Albatross Pub, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 636-4149. 

“Behind the Mask” A documentary about people who take direct action to save animals at 6 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Cost is $10. Benefits Animal Rescue, Media & Education and East Bay Animal Advocates.  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

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

SUNDAY, DEC. 17 

Christmas Bird Count Join Bay Area birders for the annual Audubon Society bird count in Alameda, Albany Berkeley and Oakland. For details on how to connect with a group call 704-9353, 910-1905. www.audubon.org 

Christmas Caroling in Point Richmond Join us for chili at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St., corner of Richmond Ave., Point Richmond, and then stroll with us through the town. 236-0527.  

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School on Telegraph Ave. between Derby & Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. 

“Impeach the President” Dahr Jamail, Peter Phillips & Larry Everest will discuss the case against Bush and Cheney at 7:30 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way at Telegraph Ave. 848-1196. 

“The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: It’s the Economy” with Israeli economist Arie Arnon at 3:30 p.m. at the JCC of the East Bay. Doantion $5. sf-bayarea@ 

btvshalom.org  

Code Pink’s Glad Voter Tea Party to celebrate recent election victories from 3 to 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2951 Derby St. 524-2776. 

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 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 

“The Divine Feminine in the World’s Religions: Christianity” with Anna Matt of the GTU at 9:30 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Bob Russo on “Holistic Work” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, DEC. 18 

“Acupuncture for Parkinson’s Disease” with Jacqueline Sohn at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

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, DEC. 19 

Visioning for Downtown Berkeley Art Museum at 10 a.m. a the Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive, Gund Theater, 2625 Durant Ave. 981-7487. 

Discussion Salon on The Next ? Years at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165. 

Free Diabetes Screening from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Do not eat for 8 hours before-hand. 981-5190. 

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. 

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. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20 

New to DVD “Joyeux Noel” at 7 p.m. at the JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Music in the Community Fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 444-6979. 

Gingerbread House Party from 9:30 a.m. at 1 p.m. at Habitot Children’s Museum, 2065 Kittredge St. Please bring a bag of candy. 647-1111. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

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 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, DEC. 21 

Candlelight Vigil to Save the Oaks and to Celebrate the Winter Solstice at 5 p.m. at the Memorial Stadium Oak Grove, 841-3493. www.saveoaks.com 

Winter Solstice Gathering at 4:15 at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. Led by Alan Gould, dress warmly. www.solarcalendar.org 

Easy Does It Disability Assistance Board meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. Open to the public. 845-5513. 

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Make Money in Short Sale Foreclosures” at 1:30 p.m. at Barney’s on Solano. 433-2911. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info 

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. 

ONGOING 

Help with Medicare Part D Enrollment Seniors who need to enroll in the prescription drug plan, or change their plan can get help and advice at Berkeley Senior Centers. Appointments required. Call 1-800-434-0222. www.lashicap.org 

Holiday Food Drive Sponsor a Food Drive to help the Food Bank reach its goal of collecting food for families in need during the holiday season. 635-3663, ext. 318. www.accfb.org  

UN Association’s UNICEF & Fair Trade Gift Center Closing Sale, Tues.-Sat. noon to 5 p.m. to Dec. 16, 1403 Addison St. 849-1752. 

Magnes Museum Docent Training Open to all interested in Jewish art and history. Classes begin Jan. 18th. cultural.arts@sbcglobal.net 

CITY MEETINGS 

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

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee meets Dec. 19 at 10 a.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, Gund Theater, 2625 Durant Ave., for a visioning session on the new downtown art museum. 981-7487. 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., Dec. 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Prasanna Rasaih, 981-6950.