A day after Berkeley High School students mourned the sudden death of Vice Principal Denise Brown, over 800 Berkeley High sophomores filed into the gymnasium to take the California High School Exit Exam Tuesday. 

The students tested for the English Exam on Tuesday and for the Math exam on Wednesday. Students can’t graduate from high school until they have passed the exit exam 

“No one was in the right state of mind, but there was nothing we could do about it,” said BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan. Brown died Friday of a blod clot following a knee operation. 

BHS Principal Jim Slemp had called the State Department of Education to request postponing the exam but was told that they would have to go ahead with the testing. 

The sea of bent heads quietly working on the math problems in the gymnasium adjacent to the BHS food court was a sign of how important the test was. Most students who took the exam said that it had gone well but were nervous about the results, which will be out in May. 

Vice Principal Amy Frey and Acting VP Flora Russ administered the test on Tuesday morning and were assisted by about a dozen staff and parent proctors.

Is the referendum fast becoming the weapon of choice for Berkeley voters to challenge City Council decisions? 

Certainly there’s reason to think so, given that no sooner did signature gatherers delay implementation of a new council-appproved landmarks law than a second campaign was launched to derail the city’s largest ever low-income housing project and a high profile environmental center. 

Gale Garcia, one of the referendum drive’s two principal backers, said she decided to challenge the project “because I think it’s going to bankrupt the town” and because she was outraged at the transfer of the site to non-profit developers for a dollar.  

The referendum seeks to block enforcement of the Jan. 30 council vote that transferred surface rights at the city’s Oxford Street parking lot to a consortium that plans to build a six-story low-income housing project and a high profile center named after Berkeley-born environmentalist David Brower. 

Mayor Tom Bates said the allegations are unfounded, noting that the city retains control of the property, and is gaining an underground garage that will be worth more than the appraised value of the land. 

The mayor said the city has spent comparatively more money on other housing projects. 

Garcia and Barry Wofsy filed papers with City Clerk Pamyla Means to begin circulating petitions calling for a voter referendum on the council’s adoption of Ordinance 6,965. To force a vote, Garcia and Wofsy must gather the signatures of 4,073 registered Berkeley voters and submit them to Means by 5 p.m. March 1. 

If a review by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters determines they’ve met the requirement, implementation of the ordinance—and the transfer of a valuable 1.06-acre piece of property at a key downtown location—will be halted until city voters can say yea or nay to the deal. 

But unlike another referendum already certified for the next citywide election, the battle against the Brower Center doesn’t offer a built-in constituency already mobilized to fight the good fight. 

Backers of a referendum to overturn the council-adopted revision of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) could rely on the 42.8 percent of Berkeley voters who cast ballots in November for Measure J to preserve the city’s existing law, with some minor tweaks added. 

But the project known collectively as the Brower Center is a much harder target, featuring as it does housing for those least able to afford it as well as offices for environmental organizations, as the project has been depicted.  

While the latter promise is less than certain—the developer has acknowledged UC Berkeley could become the major tenant of the office component—affordable housing is a popular cause in Berkeley, an almost universally acknowledged need. 

Coordinating the charge against the referendum is Rob Wrenn, a member of the city’s Transportation Commission and a former planning commissioner. He fired the opening salvo of his campaign in a Feb. 1 email, sent within hours of an email from Means notifying city officials of the referendum drive. 

Dismissing the two referendum proponents as “a landlord” (Garcia) and “another well known Berkeley crackpot” (Wofsy), Wrenn outlines his suggestions for a counter-campaign designed to discourage would-be signatories. 

“I own a duplex in which I reside, an old building which I restored from very poor condition with my own labor,” Garcia responded. “Rob is a neighbor of mine, and knows that this is the extent of my landlord status.” 

She said she doesn’t not oppose affordable housing, but prefers the funds goes to those in need “rather than to developers and consultants.” 

But even Jesse Arreguin, a housing activist and city commissioner who argues for creating affordable housing by restoring existing buildings, says the proposed referendum “is not the right way to express concern about the project.” 

One of Arreguin’s major concerns is that the Garcia/Wofsy referendum could derail support for the other referendum, one he supports along with Garcia. 

“I really don’t think it helps the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance referendum,” he said. 

Garcia was active in the signature campaigns both for Measure J and, after it was rejected by Berkeley voters, and for the pending referendum challenging the council’s revised LPO. 

The city has committed $6,2 million in direct funding to the project, tying up the city’s Housing Trust Fund through 2008 at a time when the Bush administration is calling for drastic cutbacks in funds for housing programs 

And while Bates said the city has not agreed to any funds for the office building, the City Council approved in December an additional $2.2 million in loan guarantees to the project—including $1 million required after eco-retailer Patagonia pulled out of its planned lease of space in the office building component. 

Current total cost estimates for both buildings top $55.2 million and could rise an additional $2 million or more, given current the current inflation in building supplies, city Housing Director Steve Barton warned last month. 

The increases include the replacement of planned sheet metal siding for Oxford Plaza with cheaper stucco. 

Bates noted that the city’s actual land value will increase when the developers complete the underground parking garage they agreed to build to replace the spaces that will be eliminated from the surface lot. 

“So we’re getting a free underground garage that’s worth $2 million more than the land value,” Bates said, “In addition we’re getting a wonderful center devoted to David Brower that will have the highest environmental rating of any building in the city.” 

The decision was prompted by the council’s vote, which transfers the land to the non-profit developers for $1. “I had thought the land had already been transferred, but when I learned that it hadn’t,” Garcia said, she decided to launch the referendum drive. “People are shocked when they hear the land is being given away for a dollar. Most people aren’t aware of it.” 

Construction funding is coming primarily from tax credit financing, which gives lenders hefty tax credits in return for their funds, and through grants, the mayor said. 

“It’s a great opportunity to get low-income family housing in downtown Berkeley,” Bates said. “We haven’t had any in the city since Salvo Island in the 1960s.” 

Garcia said her concerns were reinforced by the Dec. 12 report Steve Barton prepared for the City Council which included admonitions about possible cost overruns for which the city would be the funder of last resort. She underlined a sentence in the report that noted: “It is important to realize that ... there is no guarantee that costs will not rise to unexpected levels after the land transfers and construction begins.”

When residents and merchants of North Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto walked into the North Shattuck Plaza workshop on Wednesday evening, the walls were sans plans, sans easels. 

“We had promised the community we would start from ground zero and we have kept our word. There are no design plans for the plaza tonight. We will start from scratch,” said North Shattuck Plaza Inc. (NSP) chair David Stoloff. 

Wednesday’s workshop—organized by NSP and the North Shattuck Association (NSA)—was an exercise in finding common ground about the proposed $3.5 million plaza that would be constructed on what is now a paved service road adjacent to the existing shops on the east side of Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose Streets.  

After more than two hours of tussling, it was agreed that a steering committee would be formed from members of NSP, NSA and the Live Oak Codornices Creek Neighborhood Association (LOCCNA). All three, it was decided, would work jointly on the North Shattuck Plaza plans. 

This agreement, however, did not come easily.  

Boos, jeers, catcalls and hisses were aimed at the organizers and some community members turned hostile when the organizers proposed to break up the gathering of two hundred into smaller groups for discussions. 

“Divide and conquer, is that what you want to do? We don’t want small groups,” said a visibly angry Steve Martinot, a neighbor. 

At least four dozen people shared Martinot’s apprehension but in the end small groups were formed to address some of the key issues. 

Art Goldberg, a north Berkeley resident, addressed one of the concerns of his group. 

“Keep parking convenient,” he said. “There should be no decrease in parking.” 

Parking and traffic were the two main issues on everyone’s mind at the workshop. Some merchants feared the loss of angular parking that runs from Coldwell Banker’s to Longs Drugs would affect businesses negatively. 

The proposed plan replaces the current angle parking and access lane along the eastern side of the avenue with a 50-foot-wide pedestrian walkway with landscaped plantings, two rows of trees and benches, something that has been opposed vehemently by Allen Connolly of the Earthly Goods clothing store. 

“Seventy-five percent of the merchants have signed a petition opposing the development. We want extra parking. If you want to convert that triangle in front of the stores to extra parking, then that’s welcome,” Connolly said.  

Pete Jensen, who has lived in the neighborhood for 45 years, told the organizers that taking parking away from the already struggling independent stores would kill them.  

Goldberg’s group also wanted to know whether the plaza was a precursor to high-rises along Shattuck. 

“What about the proposed restrooms on the plaza. Who is going to maintain them?” asked another group. 

Heather Hensley, executive director of the North Shattuck Association Business Improvement District, said that a coalition of the three groups would be useful. 

“My board doesn’t want to go ahead and put money on a project where the major stakeholders disagree with it,” Hensley said. 

There were those, like area resident Michael Katz, who pointed out that successful institutions such as Chez Panisse and the Cheese Board Collective were living proof that the area needed no changes. 

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” he said. 

Kim Marienthal of the Coldwell Banker real estate company voiced his support for the plan. 

“I would love to see the plaza develop,” Marienthal said. “There’s a net loss of three parking spots and yes, we might see homeless problems increase, but I am ready to take chances. My favorite cities in the world are those which have plazas.” 

Also ready to go ahead with the plaza plans were Karen Adelman and Peter Levitt, owners of Saul’s Deli on Shattuck. 

“I see people eating pizza on that strip and it makes me sad,” Adelman said. “I am willing to do anything to improve the area.” 

Sally Heinman, who lives a few blocks down from the Gourmet Ghetto, said that she had no place to eat and play with her six-year-old when she was shopping in the area. 

“I can’t believe they are fighting over one strip of land. Especially something that could be a great asset to the community,” Heinman said. 

A deep mistrust of the organizers, Goldberg told the Planet, was the reason behind the current scuffle over the plans. 

“The neighborhood is deeply divided. We don’t want this private self-selected group telling us what we need. The plan that was approved by the city council in 2000 at least had some public input,” he said.  

Rodney Wong, a long-time resident of the North Shattuck area said that the project was receiving so much attention from residents because the neighborhood had a character of its own. 

“We have lots of leaders in North Shattuck, veterans of the ‘60s movement. They are not scared to speak up against councilmembers or the city,” Wong said.  

Julie Ross, representing LOCCNA, said that the neighborhood group wanted to improve the area but unlike the workshop organizers did not have an agenda. 

“LOCCNA wants to make sure that the plan reflects the ideas of residents and merchants. We want to make sure that the process is equal. This group cannot come from outside and tell us what to do. Our distrust in outsiders rises from when the Temple Beth El was built,” said LOCCNA member Margot Smith. 

LOCCNA members locked horns in the past with members of the Beth El congregation over a plan to build a temple on Oxford Street behind Codornices Park. 

“We would like to see a consensus come out of the deep distrust the community has for some of the people,” said Smith. 

Rita Maran, a former member of the Peace & Justice Commission, condemned the entire process that was being followed with respect to the proposed Plaza. 

“How can a group of people take it upon themselves to decide what to do with a strip of land that belongs to the city.” Maran asked standing up at the end of the meeting. 

“The process has not been democratic from the very first.”

While Councilmember Gordon Wozniak thinks it would be a stellar idea to develop the old Wright’s Garage at 2929-23 Ashby Ave. as a restaurant and shops, some criticize the District 8 councilmember, saying he should keep an open mind on land-use questions that may come before him. 

“I strongly support this project for various reasons,” writes Wozniak on the Kitchen Democracy website, in which the public can weigh in on various municipal questions. (The site is www.kitchendemocracy.org.) Responding to a Wednesday call for comment from the Planet, Wozniak checked with the city attorney, who did not return the Planet’s repeated calls for comment. He said she advised him that he might have to recuse himself if the project comes before the council.  

“I did talk to the city attorney,” Wozniak said Thursday morning. “I may have to disqualify myself if [the zoning board] passes the project and it has an appeal [to the council],” he said.  

“If the city attorney rules that I’ve pre-judged the case, I’ll follow her advice,” he said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington is among those questioning Wozniak’s post on Kitchen Democracy, contending that councilmembers are required to maintain open minds on land-use matters that could come to them on appeal.  

He pointed to a document called “Key Ethics Law Principles for Public Servants,” written by the Institute for Local Government: “Public officials cannot participate in quasi-judicial proceedings in which they have a strong bias with respect to the parties of facts,” it says. 

Wozniak has “predetermined the merits of the project before a public hearing,” Worthington said. 

Councilmember Dona Spring is also critical of Wozniak’s post on the Kitchen Democracy site. She told the Planet that the city has precedent for asking councilmembers to recuse themselves when they have taken a position on land-use projects. Pointing to an incident in 2002 where she had spoken out publicly in opposition to a matter regarding Tune Up Masters on University Avenue, Spring recalled that the city attorney insisted she disqualify herself from participating on the question. 

“You’re supposed to come in with a clear and open mind,” Spring said. 

Spring pointed out another precedent: former councilmember Miriam Hawley followed the city attorney’s advice in March 2001 when she recused herself from a vote on a project proposed for 2700 San Pablo Ave., based on a letter supporting the project she had written when she was an AC Transit board member. 

In a phone conversation Wednesday, Wozniak explained why he had posted his thoughts on the web site, where people would view them. “A number of constituents had been asking me what my position was of [the proposal],” he said and added on Thursday that the discussion on the web site allowed him to understand the public’s concerns, such as parking. 

Wozniak noted that some 81 percent of the 187 people expressing their opinions on the web site supported the project and 9 percent opposed.  

But one “no” voter posted an angry comment, condemning Wozniak for taking the Kitchen Democracy poll into consideration. Karen MacLeod wrote: “People can vote more than once and so can the people trying to ruin our neighborhood, even if they do not live in our city! I could live in San Jose and vote. Using this information is an irresponsible way of representing your constituents.” 

Still, “yes” voter Ginger Ogle writes: “Gordon Wozniak’s argument makes sense to me. I agree that particular block is very ramshackle, and the proposed improvements would be a benefit….” 

Worthington said he further objects to Wozniak using the site as a public platform, since it is partially funded by monies from Wozniak’s city officeholder account and approved by a vote of the council (although the $3,000 has yet to reach Kitchen Democracy, Wozniak says). 

Wozniak, however, contends that opportunity to respond on Kitchen Democracy is “open to anyone in the city.”  

Despite heated opposition from representatives of both bus drivers and the bus riding community, the Board of Directors of Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District voted unanimously last week to go forward with a contract that would put 50 new revised models of the controversial Van Hool 40-foot buses on East Bay streets. 

“We’re pretty excited about the 40-foot buses,” AC Transit General Manager Rick Fernandez told the seven board members and an audience of skeptical members of the public. “We believe it’s the best bus we’ve ever had.” 

But East Bay community activist Joyce Roy disagreed, telling board members that she had “hoped that the board would focus on attracting new riders, but these [Van Hool] buses are discouraging to new riders. If Muni put them on the streets in San Francisco with all of their middle class riders, the outcry would be so great, they’d be off the streets in a week. But in Oakland, so many of your riders are disabled and the elderly who have no choice but to ride the bus, you can get by with it.”  

Following the meeting, Roy referred to the buses as “Van Hells” and called the decision to move forward with the Van Hool contract “par for the course for a district and a board that regularly ignores the wishes of the public.” 

AC Transit currently operates 100 40-foot Van Hools, along with 63 60-footers and 12 30-footers manufactured by the same company. 

AC Transit staff members promised that the new buses, now being built in the prototype stage by Belgium-based bus manufacturer Van Hool, will have significant improvements from the current 40-footers, including a reduction from three doors to two, and structural changes which staff members said would provide for a “smoother ride.” 

No firm date has been given for the delivery of the prototype. A recent memo from General Manager Fernandez only said that “sometime later this year the prototype is anticipated to be shipped to the District for testing in our service area.”  

The contract also carries an option for AC Transit to purchase 1,500 more Van Hools in the event the first 50 prove acceptable. 

Last Wednesday morning’s vote was not directly on the Van Hool contract itself, but on changes in the funding mechanism related to the purchase. Fernandez said, however, that because of the anticipated funding changes, the contract signed in Belgium last month included a clause that the contract was “subject to board approval,” and said that the board had the option of postponing the contract, if it wished. 

But Fernandez urged moving forward with the Van Hool purchase, however, saying that suspending the already-signed contract for the reconfigured Van Hools “would send a bad message to Van Hool.” The General Manager added that when he and other AC Transit staff members traveled to Belgium in early January to sign the contract, “we pushed them on completing the prototype, and they had already begun soldering metal” by the time the AC Transit staff was leaving. 

Board Vice President Rebecca Kaplan (At-Large) spoke in favor of going forward with the contract, saying that “while I prefer the 30-foot buses and everybody I’ve talked to prefers the 30-foot buses,” the plans for the new 40-foot Van Hools “took into account what we liked in the 30-footers and didn’t like in the [current] 40 footers.” Kaplan also said she was persuaded by the fact that staff members promised that “minor modifications” can still be made to the bus design. “The new prototype will come months before mass production, so we can try it out and ask people to suggestion further modifications before the rest are manufactured,” Kaplan said. 

But that did not satisfy the small crowd of bus riders and activists gathered at the Wednesday morning meeting. 

Doug Buchwald of Berkeley, the organizer of the “save the oaks” campaign at UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium, who said he rides the 51 bus every day, called the original Van Hool purchase “the worst mistake ever made by this district. It seems like that decision was made by people who don’t ride buses.” (That brought an angry retort by several board members, some of whom said they ride buses either regularly or exclusively.) 

And Bonnie Hughes, another Berkeley resident, said that “I used to be a dedicated bus rider, but I suffer from bus rage now. The whole world is turned upside down. We don’t want war, and the war escalates. We hate these [Van Hool] buses, and you buy more. Do you hate your bus riders? I’m really upset.” 

And Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192 Recording Secretary and Executive Board member David Lyons, an AC Transit driver, called the Van Hools “the poorest bus the district has purchased in 27 years. They have an unstable ride and make the drivers prone to injury. A lot of us are hurting from driving these buses. The district is going to face an increase in workers’ compensation in the future because of them. Did anybody do a survey of the drivers before you decided to go ahead with the new purchase? It would be very valuable to get our input.” 

Lyons’ question provoked an exchange between AC Transit Board President Greg Harper (Ward Two—Emeryville, Piedmont, and portions of Berkeley) and General Manager Fernandez in which Fernandez admitted that AC Transit has taken no “formal” driver survey of the Van Hool buses, and he and Harper revealed that they had both taken informal surveys, with completely opposite results. 

“A majority [of the drivers] say they like the Van Hools, but the passengers didn’t,” Fernandez said. 

But Harper countered that “every time I take the bus, I ask the drivers how they like the [Van Hools]. Over time I’ve talked to between 12 and 20 drivers, and I’ve yet to find one who liked them. They generally say that if the passengers don’t like the buses, they don’t like them either.” 

Referring to complaints that the Van Hool design is prone to causing passenger falls, Harper said that for four to five months he has been asking staff members to provide him with “on-board falls by bus type, but I haven’t gotten it yet. I’m troubled about making a decision without having that information.” 

Fernandez said that a passenger survey of the existing Van Hools has not been done since “early on.” 

But Board member Rocky Fernandez (Ward 4—San Leandro, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, and Ashland)—not to be confused with General Manager Rick Fernandez—said that he had taken an informal survey of the Van Hools himself. “A lot of the younger riders do like the new buses,” he said. “They like the European style.” 

Photograph by Richard Brenneman.

“Our goal is to bring the 1910 feeling back to the Bay Area with 2010 amenities that appeal to the corporate traveler,” said the man who will oversee the renovation a downtown Berkeley landmark. 

Parimal “Perry” Patel briefed the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee Wednesday night on plans for the Shattuck Hotel. 

“We promise you it will be a four star hotel,” he said. “Our financing is completed and we will probably close on the property in March.” 

Renovations and a reopening could occur as soon as seven months after closing, he said. 

Patel said the city suffers from a chronic shortage of hotel rooms, with many of the areas existing 1200 rooms unsuitable for the corporate travelers the Shattuck will target. “Our goal is to bring a product in here and really make it stand out in downtown Berkeley,” he said. 

“We plan to restore the furnishings, the fixtures and the electrical equipment,” Patel said. “There will be a nice restaurant and tons and tons of emphasis on public space. And we want to carve out some meeting space as well.” 

Patel is the son of Bhupendra P. Patel, the founder of BPR properties, which owns nine California hotels and which is now making a major move in Asia. 

“We have just been granted the Best Western franchise for the next ten years for all of India, and we are planning 30 hotels there over the next five years,” he said. 

While Best Western’s U.S. line appeals to budget travelers, the overseas brand is more luxurious and considered a prestige brand, he said. 

The Shattuck Hotel sale is the second transfer of a major Berkeley-area hotel property announced in the last three weeks. On Jan. 18 came the announcement that the Claremont Resort & Spa is being purchased by Morgan Stanley Real Estate as part of the $6.6 billion buyout of CNL Hotels & Resorts.  

CNL had purchased the hotel just 35 months earlier from its previous owner, KSL Recreation Corp. 

Meanwhile, plans are moving forward for the new UC Berkeley-promoted high rise hotel planned for a block north of the Shattuck Hotel at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street. 

Carpenter & Co., a Massachusetts hotelier, is planning a hotel, conference center and condominium complex sought by the university to house conference attendees, parents of students and fans attending university sporting events. 

Fast track approval 

While Roy Nee, the previous owner, had announced plans to make a major addition to the hotel at the northwestern end of the property, Patel said his plans are all included in the hotel’s existing footprint. 

Dave Fogarty of the city’s Economic Development Department said that would ease the city approval process. 

“There would be no use permit required because the work would be done within the building’s existing parameters he said. “No discretionary permit would be needed.” 

Robert Richmond of the San Luis Obispo firm of R2L Architects, the firm hired by the Patels to work on the Shattuck Hotel, made a brief appearance., 

Patel said interior designer Ziv Davis would be responsible for the interiors. “He has worked on historical buildings,” including the Langham and Britton hotels in London, ”and he has been looking at historical artifacts from the original period of the hotel. 

DAPAC member and architect Jim Novosel asked if the new design would restore the hotel’s historic entrance on Shattuck, but Patel said that wouldn’t be possible because Nee has retained ownership of the commercial frontage there. “It would be virtually impossible,” he said. 

The only planned exterior modifications would be “a new paint job” and accommodations to make the entry accessible to the disabled, he said. 

While the hotel currently includes 205 residential rooms, 32 of them have no bath facilities, and several others would have to be changed to make legally mandated alterations to stairwells, Patel said. 

No-bath rooms would be consolidated with other rooms to made suites, and the final arrangement would include a total of 160 to 170 accommodations, he said. The average room size would be about 250 to 275 square feet. 

Photograph by Richard Brenneman. 

Developer Parimal “Perry” Patel briefed the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee on his plans for the Shattuck Hotel.

The question before DAPAC Wednesday night was whether to give the elephant in the room its own corner or simply treat it as part of the furniture. 

The committee charting the future of downtown Berkeley also showed signs that it wanted to take responsibility for writing a key section of the document away from city staff and assign it to the group’s own members. 

The metaphorical elephant much discussed Wednesday is UC Berkeley, and the “room” is the Downtown Area Plan (DAP) now being drafted with the assistance of the advisory committee—hence the “AC” in the acronym—which faces a November deadline for completing its work. 

The new plan will be created specifically to address the university’s plans to add 800,000 square feet to its already considerable off-campus presence in the heart of the city, the result of the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the university’s long range planning document for its growth plans through 2020. 

City Planning and Development Director Dan Marks and Matt Taecker, the planner hired to work on the new document with university funds from the settlement, presented a draft outline of the document Wednesday. 

“There’s no UC element, and that boggles my mind,” said Gene Poschman, a city planning commissioner who is often regarded as city’s preeminent “policy wonk.” 

An element is a specific section of a plan focusing on a specific facet of development, and elements often cover such areas as transportation, design, land use, public safety and historic preservation. 

“What UC said to us from the beginning was that they want to be treated to some degree as the rest of the city,” said Marks. “They don’t want specific development standards for UC.” 

“It’s a joint plan,” said Jennifer McDougall, a university planner who has attended DAPAC meetings as an observer. “I don’t know why if it is a joint plan that there would be a special UC element.” 

“A UC element would be largely duplicative of other elements of the plan,” said Taecker. 

When committee member Linda Schacht joined the call for a UC section, she raised the pachyderm analogy “because it’s really the elephant in the room. It’s a great elephant, but it’s an elephant,” she said. 

When other members joined the call, Marks implored the committee to hold off on a formal vote pending further discussion. “UC feels they are part of the city,” he said. “They fit in everywhere in each of the sections” and shouldn’t be singled out. 

Jesse Arreguin, who along with Poschman was the target of a recent council ordinance imposing term limits on key city commissions, joined in the call for a UC element, noting that the committee had already formed a subgroup dealing with UC plans for the old state Department of Health Services building west of the campus and north of University Avenue. 

In response to Marks’s pleas, no vote was taken Tuesday, but Jim Novosel, one of the committee’s newest members, seemed to sum up the prevailing sentiment. 

“It’s like we’re a city next to an ocean,” he said. “And if we were next to an ocean we would not ignore it,” noting that the university is, in fact, not part of the city but a legally separate jurisdiction. 

No vote was sought, though one reason may have been the absence Wednesday of some of the most stalwart members of the bloc which has repeatedly steered the committee in new directions against the wishes of staff and chair Will Travis. 

Other elements 

Poschman pointed out another element typically found in plans that was missing in the staff outline—housing. 

“The housing element to me is one of the hearts of the plan, if not the heart,” Poschman said, focusing on the nature of housing as well as who can and cannot afford it. 

“Good point,” said Marks. 

“There’s also no economic development element,” Poschman said, though Marks said the same concerns were dispersed throughout other sections of the outline. 

An ongoing theme throughout recent discussions has been sustainabilty, and members agreed with Juliet Lamont that the plan should not only contain a separate sustainabilty element, but that each of the other elements should include a section addressing the issue as it applied to they particular concerns they address.  

Lamont also called for a special section in the land use section of the plan focusing on the development of Center Street between campus and Shattuck Avenue, a concern echoed by Novosel. 

“Our job is to give you the ideas we believe in,” said Novosel, an architect and former planner. “How do we want UC to develop along Oxford? How do we want Center Street to develop? I really want to talk about what I’m going to be leaving for my children.” 

Committee member and Planning Commission chair Helen Burke recommended that the Center Street section should include the results of her commission’s task force on the university-backed hotel planned for the northeast corner of Center and Shattuck Avenue. 

Billy Keys and Maria Gallegos-Diaz both called for giving more emphasis to public safety, which had been addressed last in the outline and conjoined with social services, and Arreguin argued that social services might be better addressed in the absent housing element. 

Remaining work 

The committee has a massive amount of work remaining if it is to complete its task by November—a date specific in the settlement of the city/UC lawsuit. If the committee takes longer, the university can penalize the city by subtracting funds from the total stipulated in the agreement. 

“The only way to speed up the process is for DAPAC to organize itself into subcommittees” and starting writing out specific elements, said Burke. Dorothy Walker, a committee member who is also a retired UC Berkeley administrator, raised the lone voice of disagreement. 

Burke also called for public hearings so that Berkeley residents could express their concerns before DAPAC finishes its work, a suggestion backed by Arreguin, Lamont and others, though Novosel said the hearings that the document would receive before the planning commission and city council would be sufficient. 

The committee is currently scheduled to focus on land use and transportation over the course of its next three meetings. 

“We need to hear from the public,” Burke added.

Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio had planned a very civil two-hour evening, focusing on Pacific Steel Castings whose “burnt potholder” smell and possibly dangerous emissions have been a community concern for more than two decades. 

It was not to be. 

The agenda called for long presentations by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District staff monitoring the plant’s progress, Pacific Steel management working to decrease the emissions and representatives of two community organizations, monitoring the Second Street plant and BAAQMD. 

There would be about a half-hour left over for audience questions, posed via three-by-five cards. 

The community would have none of it. Bates scarcely had time to greet the 75-or-so attendees at the West Berkeley Senior Center Wednesday evening when David Landon jumped to his feet and interrupted the mayor: “This agenda does not work for the community,” he said, arguing that the public had come to speak to the elected officials and pose questions to BAAQMD and PSC, not to hear lectures from them.  

Half the audience members jumped to their feet to support Landon, calling out: “Respect us.” “Change the agenda.” “No question cards.” “We won’t sit down for a dog-and-pony show.” “If it’s going to be a lecture, do it by cable TV.” 

Bates retorted, “If you don’t like it you can leave,” but Maio took the mic and managed to pull the meeting together and the BAAQMD speakers promised to speak no more than five minutes each and the idea of question cards was tossed to the winds. 

At issue are the emissions that continue to come from the Second Street foundry, despite new filtration systems and the illnesses the emissions might cause. 

“All three plants have pollution abatement equipment,” said Kelly Wee, BAAQMD director of enforcement, keeping his remarks short. “We need to look at fugitive emissions,” emissions not passing through the filters. 

Brian Bateman, BAAQMD’s director of engineering division, said BAAQMD was waiting for an emissions report that was six months late. “I hope we have a revised report we can approve. Once we get the emission report, it feeds into the health assessment,” he said. “If [the report] is deficient, we’ll send it back.” 

The need for transparency of the data on emissions was raised a number of times by the community. In PSC’s Nov. 2006 emissions report: “they redacted flow diagrams and other pertinent information necessary for fully informed community comments, claiming the redacted data were trade secrets, another ploy to drag their feet and refrain from full transparency,” said Janice Schroeder, speaking for the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs. 

The audience was decidedly restless and tired of hearing that they had to wait for information on emissions. “There’s a lot of methodology, but nothing about what we’re being exposed to,” one person said. 

Speaking in a phone interview Thursday, Maio agreed that a transparent emissions report is key. The Air District has asked for complete information to be made public and if the plant refuses, the district could sue to get the information, she said, noting that the district has to wait about one more month giving PSC the legally-required time to respond. 

Peter Guerrero, among others, expressed concern about what he called “perfumes” used to cover over the “burnt pot-handle smell,” characteristic of the plant. The central problem is not the smell itself, but the possibly-dangerous emissions that create the smell, people said. 

They also complained, as they have over the decades, that Air District inspectors were not responsive. They don’t work during the night hours when the plan is running full tilt, and they don’t come quickly enough to verify the complaints, people said. 

A number of people had gone by the plant night and day and observed that doors were ajar, allowing the escape of “fugitive” emissions.  

Schroeder called on the city to add stringent conditions to the plant’s use permit “to stop PSC’s cooling of castings outdoors, operating with doors open and blocking public streets and sidewalks with their operations.” 

In the phone interview, Maio told the Daily Planet she thinks updating PSC’s permit with conditions is one route to go. They have to be asked first formally to clean up their operations, before they are brought to the zoning board, she said. 

While there hadn’t been concrete answers to most the questions the community had asked, many were happy to have been able to ask them. “It could have gone on longer,” said Guerrero, who had been one of those demanding the agenda change at the beginning of the meeting. “It was a good meeting. Clearly there are ongoing concerns.”  

The next public meeting on PSC will be in April, after the Health Assessment Report is released.

Deputy superintendent Eric Smith presented board members of the Berkeley Unified School District with information on the governor’s budget for fiscal year 2007-2008 on Wednesday. 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger presented his budget proposals for 2007-08 on Jan. 10. The K-12 budget funds the cost of living allowance (COLA) and helps to neutralize the effect of declining enrollment.  

Currently, the growth rate of students in California schools is negative on a state-wide basis as the state’s birth rate has been going down consistently since 1990. This issue was presented by Smith with the help of a graph titled “Where Have All the Kindergartners Gone?” 

Smith also said that more than half of California’s students are now in districts that are declining in enrollment. 

The Governor fully funds the 2007-08 statutory COLA, estimated to be 4.04 percent, which applies to revenue limits, special education and virtually all state categorical programs. The exact COLA will be known in April 2007.  

The budget includes two controversial proposals: 

• shifting all state support for home-to-school transportation from Proposition 98 to the Public Transportation Account (PTA). This shift of $627 million would be followed by a downward re-benching of the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee. 

• The state administration has proposed that $269 million in funding for the Stage II CalWORKs Child Care Program be paid for with Prop. 98 dollars. Historically, these expenses are funded outside of Prop 98. 

Prop. 98 guarantees that a certain percent of revenue from the state of California be dedicated to education every year. Smith said that there would be huge lobbying against the proposals from the education community. 

Lunch program 

The Berkeley school board was also received a report on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program which will help to review the success of the program. LeConte Elementary School topped the list for the most number of students receiving free and reduced price lunch in elementary schools for the 2006-07 school year (65.30 percent), and Longfellow (56.45 percent) topped the three middle schools. 

B-Tech recorded 53.61 percent students for the program and Berkeley High School 27.49 percent. 

Student board member Mateo Aceves said that he was curious to know why the numbers in the BHS program were less compared to the rest of the schools, given that the population in the different schools were the same. 

School Superintendent Michele Lawrence said that the numbers were significantly less at BHS because the kids were “self-reporting” at the high school level. BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan said that there was a certain stigma attached to the lunch program for high school kids.  

BHS advisory program report 

BHS principal Jim Slemp also presented the school board with the Berkeley High School Advisory Program Report. The high school has been trying for a few years to start a school-wide advisory program which will be implemented this fall. 

Slemp said that this program would have some scheduling implications that would modify the high school bell schedule. 

Some of the aims of the program are to personalize the BHS experience by providing a safe and caring community that evolves over four years and to provide students with adult advocates. 

By their junior year, students will develop a five-year plan which will help take them through graduation and post-secondary education.  

Adult school 

Board members also approved the Adult School BSEP Site Plan for 2006-07. The Adult School, located on San Pablo Avenue and Virginia Street, was upgraded recently with a grant of $3 million.

Following up on an issue he originally raised in last fall’s election campaign, freshman Peralta Community College District Trustee Abel Guillen questioned ongoing renovation work on the district’s board room, saying that it should not come before renovation at Peralta’s colleges. 

Guillen’s comments at Tuesday night’s regular trustee meeting, and support from those comments by fellow trustee Cy Gulassa, drew heated rebuttals from Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris and from the normally publicly mild mannered trustee board president, Bill Withrow. 

Meanwhile, following the meeting, the Planet learned that former California Assemblymember Wilma Chan has tentatively agreed to become the sixth member of the Measure A Oversight Committee called for in last June’s Peralta facilities bond measure. That would that one slot on the committee remains to be filled, several months after its called-for organization. The committee has yet to meet. 

Tuesday night’s debate began when Guillen pulled for discussion an item for approval of $249,000 for a contract to upgrade audio visual equipment in the trustee boardroom, located in the Peralta administrative headquarters on East 8th Street in Oakland. That is expected to be the final piece in the boardroom overhaul, which has been ongoing for the past several months and is scheduled for completion in mid-March. 

“I’m trying to understand the rationale of renovating administrative facilities as opposed to dealing with the health and safety needs of the campuses,” Guillen said. “A year from now, I don’t want us not to have money to complete projects like the Laney library renovation. It’s not clear to me what our prioritization of our Measure A [bond] money is.” 

Guillen raised that same point during last year’s election. At an Oct. 17 Laney College debate with incumbent trustee Alona Clifton, who Guillen later defeated, Guillen said that renovating the boardroom at this time reflected “poor planning. The district should never put administrative needs in front of classrooms.” Guillen noted that “they have cushy chairs in the boardroom, while the students have to sit on bad chairs.” 

But with Guillen now sitting in one of those cushy chairs, Chancellor Harris disputed Guillen’s contention at Tuesday’s board meeting, denying that administrative needs were taking priority and saying that “the bulk of the bond money has gone to the colleges.” 

Harris ticked off a litany of problems in the administration that he said needed to be addressed. “The floors were falling down. Equipment was falling down. We have safety issues. The boardroom is part of public access to the district, but we couldn’t get the meetings televised at some point.” 

Harris called the expenditure on the boardroom renovations “a small part of the bond measure expenditure.” 

But the Chancellor appeared to lose his temper after trustee Cy Gulassa expressed agreement with the thrust of Guillen’s concerns. 

“One thing that concerned me was the symbolism of working on [the boardroom] first,” Gulassa said. He said that the board member’s student advisory trustees were “very upset” about the boardroom renovation decision when it was first voted upon by the board last year. “They felt that there were bad conditions at Laney College that weren’t being addressed.” 

After the boardroom renovation vote, Gulassa said that he took a tour of Laney with Laney President Frank Chong “and I was appalled at the conditions. Since then, we have passed Measure A and are moving towards correcting those problems. I’m just concerned about that image that this was the first priority.” 

Harris immediately disputed that contention. 

“This is not the first priority,” he said, then telling Gulassa that “you don’t have to work here. The heat doesn’t work here. It’s freezing in the winter. These are modular buildings that should have been torn down years ago, but they’re still here. The employees who work here in the administrative buildings are just as much employees of the district as the employees who work in the colleges. They shouldn’t be treated as second class citizens.” 

That brought a rebuttal from Gulassa that “despite your eloquence, I stand on my comments.” 

That brought Withrow into the debate, His voice rising, Withrow called the complaints about the boardroom renovation “sound bite communication. Saying that we’re working on the administration building first creates a tension that shouldn’t be there. The boardroom renovation is not at the beginning expenditure of Measure A money. It’s at the tail-end of Measure E, and most of that bond measure money went to the colleges.” 

The Measure E Peralta construction bond was passed by voters in 2000, with all of its money not yet expended. The Measure A facilities bond was passed last June.  

Part of the confusion at Tuesday’s meeting came from the fact that the audio visual contract is projected to be funded with Measure A money. Harris said that the bulk of the boardroom renovation is being done with Measure E money. The distinction between the two bond measures is that while Measure A money can be spent on equipment, Measure E money is limited to construction costs. 

Trustee Linda Handy said that “people are under the mistaken impression that the boardroom belongs to the board. The board uses the room only two days a month, but the staff and the general public use it five days a week. Even though it’s called the board room, it’s not the board’s room.” 

Trustees approved the audio visual contract on a 5-1 vote, with only Guillen voting against it, and the two student trustees abstaining in their advisory votes (trustee Nicky Gonzale Yuen was absent from the meeting). Guillen said following the meeting that his vote on the contract was “symbolic.” 

He added that he spoke with district officials immediately following the meeting, but though he is still seeking a list of priorities for the Measure A expenditures, “I haven’t gotten one yet.”

Following a breakfast gathering in which local law enforcement officials painted a bleak picture of youth crime in Alameda County, representatives of Alameda County’s black elected officials and black clergy took one of the first public tours the other week of the county’s soon-to-be-opened Juvenile Justice Center. 

Some 75 ministers, city councilmembers, and County Supervisors walked the two-story dormitory tiers, lay down on rubber mattresses in tiny cells, and viewed spacious classrooms, a vast gymnasium, and a grassy exercise yard with spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay and the coastal hills beyond. 

The meeting and tour was sponsored by the Black Elected Officials and Faith Based Leaders of the East Bay organization, currently chaired by Alameda County Supervisors President Keith Carson. The organization represents officials and faith-based leaders in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. 

Other local elected officials attending the meeting and tour were Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson, Oakland City Councilmembers Larry Reid and Desley Brooks, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond, Oakland School Board member Greg Hodge, Alameda County School Board member Gay Plair Cobb, and a representative of State Senator Don Perata’s Violence Task Force. 

Carson’s chief of staff, Rodney Brooks, said one of the purposes of the meeting and tour was to encourage individuals in both the political, economic, and faith-based communities to provide volunteer counseling and other help at the Juvenile Justice Center. Officials from the center as well as several youth organizations said with the limited budget provided, it was impossible for the county to provide adequate education and other services to youth incarcerated at the facility. 

Sometime this spring, county juvenile law enforcement officials expect to bus some 200 to 240 youth offenders to the new facility on San Leandro’s Fairmount Drive, just up the hill from where they are currently living at the present Juvenile Hall. But last week, the new Juvenile Justice Center was eerily quiet, the only sound coming from an army of construction workers doing finishing touches on the facility, and the sound of visitors’ footsteps echoing along the polished floors of the empty hallways. 

“It looks like a prison,” one visitor told one of the corrections officers conducting the tour. 

“Any time you have to house offenders in a controlled environment, it’s going to have elements of containment and observation,” the officer replied, pointing out that each individual section of the facility, from dormitories to recreation rooms, is designed so that every space in the room can be observed by officers from a central location. In the center of the building, officers and construction workers in a darkened monitoring room watched all sections of the facility on television monitors connected to security cameras. 

While the new justice center was built for a capacity of 360, with a handful of the dormitory rooms set up with two beds, Alameda County Probation Department Chief Don Blevins said he does not expect the actual population to exceed 250. 

Earlier, however, Berkeley Police Chief Doug Hambleton and Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker and Berkeley Police Chief cited grim statistics on youth crime and violence in the two cities that showed there does not seem to be a letup in youth candidates for the juvenile facility. 

Hambleton said that Berkeley has one of the highest crime rates in the state, a situation he called “troubling.” He said that while property crimes in Berkeley are “down significantly, some 15 percent, we really don’t know why, though we’re glad about it,” the “trend is up in the violent crime rate” over the past year. 

Hambleton said that with 43 percent of the adults arrested in Berkeley and 42 percent of the juveniles non-Berkeley residents, there was a need for cooperation between East Bay cities to provide a regional solution to the problems of violent crime. 

Tucker, whose city saw a jump to 148 homicides last year, said that “the homicide rate is not the best measure of how serious the violence is in Oakland.” He said that the best measure was violent crime-rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault-all of which were up in the last year (25 percent increase in aggravated assault, 8.3 percent increase in rape, and 28.8 percent increase in armed robbery). “Without modern medicine,” the chief added, “we’d probably have two to three times the homicides we had last year.” 

Tucker said the solution to Oakland’s crime problem lies in community-police cooperation. 

“We’re never going to enforce ourselves into a safe city,” he said. “We recognize that. We acknowledge that. Historically, the police department has concentrated on the enforcement aspect of crime reduction. Now we want to move more in the area of intervention and prevention.”

The man with the sparkling eyes and shoulder-length salt and pepper hair who laughs and jokes with a visitor and shares his passion for photography and writing could have spent much of his life homeless, living in backyards in what he describes as a tube, or shut away in a mental institution. 

Instead, John Endicott works every day at focusing on reality, practices his art, moves freely about the community and has friends at the Russell Street House where he’s lived in a supportive community of people with mental illness since its inception in 2001.  

The 17-person residence and four-person annex is a Berkeley Food and Housing Project endeavor that has been successful in permanently housing people with mental illnesses.  

The project, which costs about $460,000 annually, is funded by the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD), residents’ fees and city funds. It faces possible cuts in some services, as a result of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to terminate AB2034 mental health money, according to Harvey Turek, director of the city’s mental health division. (See related story.)  

Sporting a spotless white short-sleeved shirt, tie and smart wool pants, Endicott—who has learned if you’re careful you can launder clothes yourself despite the “dry clean only” label—spoke to a reporter on Tuesday in the sun-drenched dining room on Russell Street.  

Born in San Francisco, the 63-year-old graduated from Berkeley High, attended community college and then UC Berkeley. After a bad break-up of a relationship, Endicott said he began living in yards of various property owners with their blessing. At one point, he found an apartment to rent, but circumstances led him to be taken, in a manner he won’t forget, to a mental hospital, where he stayed for a year and a half. “Some of the things I saw there would curl your hair,” he said. 

Then Endicott was sent to a board-and-care home where the Russell Street House is now located, and soon was given a choice to go to a different board-and-care or to enter the new program. “My program manager said, ‘stay, something wonderful is going to happen,’” he said. “And in a way, that phrase would underline what would really happen in the program.”  

This is the kind of project that can permanently take people off the streets, Turek said. It’s staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week—people get nutritious meals, counseling and recreational activities. Four participants live semi-independently in a house next to the main residence. 

There are obstacles duplicating a program like this: one is funding and another is location. Neighbors in Berkeley often refuse to allow a home with mentally ill people locating on their block. Some of Berkeley’s formerly homeless, mentally ill people are housed in single-room occupancy hotels in Oakland, where conditions are not optimal, Turek said. 

Neighbors at the Russell Street program welcomed the city taking over the site, which already had a permit, because the previous board and care facility had been badly managed, Turek said. 

More such programs are needed: the chronically-homeless (homeless for more than a year) mentally ill are highly visible on Berkeley streets and Berkeley residents are growing more intolerant of what they see as their inappropriate behavior, Turek said. In 2005 the city counted 529 chronically homeless people, out of 836 individuals living on Berkeley streets at one time. Seventy-six percent of the chronically homeless have been diagnosed as mentally ill.  

While Berkeley is home to 12 percent of the county’s homeless population, some 40 percent of the chronically homeless live in the city, according to 2005 statistics. (The city conducted a count of homeless people on Jan. 31, but has not yet released its findings.) 

Turek explains that the approach to housing chronically homeless people has shifted. Professionals used to believe a person’s mental instability and/or substance abuse had to be addressed before that person could be offered housing. 

Now it is understood that housing with case management, counselor and food services is the best way to get people off the street for the long term. “The policy shift is a move away from the safety-net/emergency shelter model,” he said. 

Still, the city cannot give up its emergency shelters. During the intense cold snap last month, Berkeley was able to house all the people who wanted shelter, some in the emergency shelter in Oakland, some at the shelter run by the Catholic Worker and some with motel vouchers.  

Today’s service-intensive approach means one case manager has 10-15 clients, often seeing them daily, rather than 30-50 clients, as in the past. Although the cost is higher, “It is way cheaper than hospitalization,” Turek says, noting the cost of a psychiatric bed is about $1,000 per night. 

People used to work under the assumption that homeless people “had to get stable before they got housing or they would blow out of a program,” Turek said. 

That was a “blame-the-victim” mentality, Turek said, explaining, “The idea that the client has to be motivated for treatment is not necessarily true. Homelessness itself can give an individual more problems, with increased drug and alcohol abuse.” 

While most people come to Russell Street voluntarily, Endicott talked about one person a judge sentenced to the residence. And it worked out. “He found himself,” Endicott said. “It is a mutually supportive place.” 

How do residents support one another? “By saying it softly, when it can be said harshly by staff,” Endicott said, adding that he supports others with praise—“Honest praise.” 

When Russell Street House first opened, it was Endicott’s job to work with staff to “prep” the meals, help get things out of the oven and load and unload the dishwasher. “Many, many times, staff would say something wonderful,” he said. Soon one of the staff gave Endicott a “Wonderful Book,” where he would write down wonderful things staff would say and other interesting daily events. 

Endicott helps others as he has been helped over the years to focus on reality. For example, he’ll take a walk with another resident and look for leaf prints on the sidewalk. “You get anchored in reality and decide to do something with it. No television, no movies, no drugs,” he said. 

There are no window bars or locked gates at Russell Street House. These days, Endicott walks to a nearby senior center for lunch where he’s made friends, and he sits in the front pew and joins others in song at church on Sunday. 

Endicott calls himself a cheerleader for the program. “The magic comes when somebody can’t set the table and they talk to you and decide to do it,” he said. 

Photograph by Judith Scherr. 

John Endicott of the Russell Street House.

When the governor released his budget in July, he terminated funds for mental health programs, best known as State Assembly bill AB2034, saying that this funding source, available since 2000, would be replaced by the 2004 voter-approved Proposition 63. 

But state and local officials say Prop. 63 funds should be in addition to, not instead of, AB2034 money, and they are gearing up to fight for the AB2034 funds—flexible funds to pay for housing and services for some of the most difficult-to-serve mentally ill/hard-to-house persons in the state. 

In an interview Wednesday H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the state Department of Finance, said AB2034 funds would be more than replaced by voter-approved Prop. 63, the Mental Health Services Act, a surtax of 1 percent on persons earning more than $1 million.  

But Hans Hemann, spokesperson for Assemblymember Loni Hancock, argued in an interview Thursday that “the Democrats and Loni [Hancock] are concerned about using Prop. 63 to offset the mental health program.” Prop. 63 says the funds are not to supplant existing mental health funding, he said, pointing out that mental health services are underfunded. 

Moreover, given that Prop. 63 funds are slow to be released, “there’s a fear that the funding will come to a screeching halt,” he said. “It’s shortsighted and against the will of the voters.” 

A report recently released by Berkeley’s mental health division lauds the local achievements of AB2034, noting that at least 68 adults with serious mental illness are no longer homeless as a result of the funding.  

• Eighty-one participants were homeless or living in emergency shelters when enrolled in AB 2034 services; 13 among them were homeless by May 2006. 

• Two-thirds of the participants are now in permanent housing, including nearly half in permanently affordable housing with support services. 

• Nearly half have stayed in the same place for a year or more. 

• A total of 51 participants had a psychiatric hospitalization in the year prior to their enrollment in AB 2034, while just 16 have been hospitalized since enrollment.  

• The number of participants who spent some time in jail decreased from 37 in the year prior to enrollment to 11 annually after enrollment, a two-thirds reduction.  

• Total participant income increased by more than $500,000 annually through qualifications for SSI and SSDI. After enrolling in AB 2034, 52 participants gained approval for SSI or SSDI. 

A news analysis article on page 17 of the Feb. 6. edition misidentified one of the recipients of research funds from British Petroleum. It should have been Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, not Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, as reported.

Roving firefighters discover trailer fire 

They may not be psychics, but Berkeley firefighters managed to arrive at the scene of a fire Wednesday morning even before the blaze could be reported. 

It happened at 10:10 a.m. when the crew of a ladder truck who had been out performing fire prevention duties spotted a column of smoke in West Berkeley. 

Arriving at the scene, they found a fellow with a garden hose battling a blaze that had erupted in a small trailer at the rear of a residence at 2112 Eighth St. 

Because ladder trucks aren’t equipped with water supplies or fire suppressants beyond canister type extinguishers, the crew took over the hose until the blaze was out. 

Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth said the blaze totaled the small trailer, and placed the blame on a small electrical space heater which had been plugged into the current of the nearby dwelling with a long extension cord, which he said is never a good idea.

“Is there a president anywhere in the history of America as bad as George W. Bush? I believe there is. It is Jefferson Davis. He came from privilege. He wasn’t elected. And he marched thousands of young men to their death in a long war for immoral ends,” declares Chris Chandler of the Chandler and Roe political/musical duo in a rap he gives between songs—as he did recently at Berkeley’s La Pena night club.  

Bush/Davis similarities are a topic among bloggers, one of whom asked, “Was Davis a better uniter than Bush?” to which another replied, “Davis only divided the nation in half. Bush busted it to pieces.”  

Much discussion awaits on the topic of the similar abilities of Bush and the president of the Confederacy to act against the will of the majority. We saw in the November 2006 voting, in polls and in mass demonstrations, that Bush lacks a majority. He carries on, thanks to his rants and his shills who warn of the “terrorist threat,” in the manner of Davis and his crowd warning of the “Yankees” in the months leading to secession and the creation of the Confederacy.  

Davis had far below a majority of Southerners with him in his crusade to save the South. For instance, 34 percent of Southerners in the 1860 census were African Americans, most of whom were enslaved. Unable to state their views in the 1860 presidential election, nor in the state conventions that voted for secession, blacks subsequently showed their support for Lincoln and the Union by marching off the slave plantations in numbers greater than even the numbers of anti-Bush marchers today. Once on the Northern side, a quarter million blacks served in the Union army, and many more were aides-de-camp, including black women, (women of either race were denied expression via votes and polls).  

The people in Dixie in 1860 of basic European roots are stereotyped in some history texts as eager to protect “the Southern way of life” and “the rights of the white man.” But the Southern voters showed in November 1860, and in referendums and legislatures in the months after Lincoln’s victory, that a majority of whites were not enamored of the secession adventure pushed by Jefferson Davis. Regrettably, the evidence is often overshadowed by the success of Davis in forming a new country.  

Great numbers of poor white farmers in the South lived in geographic areas apart from the slave economy and gave the system little support. For instance, in Virginia’s 1861 referendum on secession, the western counties of small farmer “hillbillies” voted 89% pro-Union. After the vote, West Virginia seceded from Virginia and was admitted to the Union as a “free state” in 1863.  

Hill country whites in East Tennessee refused to join the Confederacy, and Tennessee Senator Andrew Johnson, who was from their region, stood by the Union and northerners made him Lincoln’s running mate in the 1864 election.  

The Confederates claimed that Kentucky and Missouri were two of their states. But almost all of their territory was run throughout the war by rival pro-Union legislatures that drew solid support from counties in those states where slaves were few.  

In a number of states the declared votes in 1860-1861 were questionable. Georgia, for instance, joined the Confederacy after a popular referendum that allegedly gave a 56% majority for secession. But a recount conducted in 1972 found the non-secession vote in Georgia had a slim majority, one that might have been a larger except that data from some counties had been lost over the years. 

Bush has step by step taken the nation into more dangerous territory, with a possible war against Iran looming. Southern secessionists stepped quickly to generate enough fear over the Republican Party nomination of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to keep Lincoln off the presidential ballot in ten states. And note, Abe was not an anti-slavery firebrand; he merely didn’t like the institution.  

Featured in the 1860 election in the ten states was Stephen A. Douglas of the old Democratic Party, John Breckenridge of the new Southern Democratic Party (heralded by secessionists), and John Bell of the Constitutional Union party (the old Whig party that tried to be both pro-South and pro-Union). Breckinridge and Bell debated often and said little about the Republicans. One historian writes, “Neither of the two threatened secession, although they often challenged each other ... as to who was the more loyal to Southern rights and interests,”—shades of the Iraq debate today wherein no party seems willing to mention negotiation with the “insurgents.”  

In November 1860 the Breckenridge party that fronted for separation took only 44.5 percent of the total popular vote in the future Confederate states, and this with Lincoln off most ballots and blacks excluded. Undaunted, as Bush is undaunted by this past November, the secessionists pressed for state conventions to vote secession up-or-down. In Texas, the aged Sam Houston was governor, and having helped Texas secede from Mexico, he wasn’t up for another secession. He vetoed the call for a convention. It was held anyway. In Georgia the Whig leader Alexander Stephens managed to delay a secession convention, but he changed his mind when Jeff Davis offered him the Vice Presidency in the Confederacy. Explaining his shift, Stephens declared that the “cornerstone” of the new government rested “upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”  

By early February the Confederacy had seven states across the deep South. Davis knew that any hope for a viable new nation required membership of states closer to the North. To entice them he needed an incident. He found it at Fort Sumpter, South Carolina. The state had seceded and its governor told the Union Army commander in the Fort that it was no longer U.S. territory and he and his men should withdraw. Col. Anderson refused to withdraw, and within weeks there was starvation in the ranks at the besieged Fort. Then Anderson told the Confederate authorities that he would abandon Ft. Sumpter on April 15. Davis learned of Anderson’s offer and ordered that the fort be fired upon on April 12, the reason being, that Lincoln had sent a supply ship South. Davis declared Lincoln had committed an act of war. Hysterical propaganda against the Northern aggression filled state houses and newspapers. Four more states joined the Confederacy.  

In the propaganda world: a culture of greed helped Davis, as it helps Bush. Many a wavering Southern white in 1861 might have remained a Unionist were it not that Thomas Jefferson’s adage that success is your own farm had given way to the lure of slave plantation ownership. Davis asked Southern whites to stay in the economic crap shoot that offered the chance to become the one in 660 Southern white families that owned a plantation or the equivalent in wealth. Today, we see a shift from the “New Deal” infused post-World War II bonanza of cheap tract homes for the rising working class to the construction of enormous plantation-like mansions, some with white columns in front. 

Davis and company stoked the fear of an influx of Northern life-style, with its dirty cities, corruption, uncontrolled women, and Godless Catholic and Jewish immigrants. Had 1860 immigrants worn turbans, Davis’ propaganda probably would have won him the war. Behind the complaints was envy. During the 1850s, the South fell year by year farther behind the North in industry, infrastructure, education, health care and overall modernization. In education, one of the first acts of the new West Virginia legislature was to fund a public school network—a mainstay in the North. Jeff Davis led pre-war Southern politicians who opposed taxes for public schools.  

Regarding medical care: it was common in the Davis’ era for wealthy Southerners to go North for operations—what we call today “medical tourism.” From Georgia came William and Ellen Craft to the North, much of the distance by stage coach, in the absence of the train service that was then common in the North. Ellen grimaced at each bump of the coach, although the bandages covering her jaw were really not for an impacted tooth, but a disguise. She and William were slaves who escaped with the ruse that pale skinned untalkative Ellen was a male and the master of William, the servant who could decipher her nods.  

Davis managed to create an autocratic government—so dictatorial that at one point Georgia threatened to secede back into the Union because of his heavy-handed tactics. Bush appears to be trying his best to replace our democracy. What’s to stop him? It took Abraham Lincoln’s armies to defeat Davis.

1. Sleep shmeep 

Forget the old “8 hours” prescription, I have always preferred 9 or 10, even 11 on a luxurious sleep-in weekend. But my little man has yet to sustain an elongated sleep pattern, so I’m still getting by on a nighttime series of catnaps, punctuated by rocking him back to sleep while sneaking a peek at late night television. (Oh, the hidden treasurers on QVC at 4 AM! 

Dishrags that absorb ten times the liquid normal ones do, magic clothes-hanging devices that take up a quarter of your closet space, supersized candy and nut-covered carmel apples...) 

2. Parenthood: Control freaks need not apply  

It is impossible to ‘control’ an overly tired baby who’s been denied access to his favorite toy du jour (the broom or a spatula?) so you can clean the spit-up off of it. 

3. I’ll be fine if I lose a limb 

I’ve been pleasantly shocked at how much I manage to get done while one arm serves as perpetual baby carrier. Making breakfast, washing dishes, folding laundry—plus a few things better left unsaid. 

4. Telecommuting is less glamorous than it sounds  

Spending the day working in your jammies sounds cozy but it’s somewhat less so when you haven’t had a shower in two days, and even less so when your work is constantly interrupted to flip the baby from his back to his tummy because he’s learned to turn over but hates it on the other side once he’s there. 

5. All weight gain is not equal 

This baby belly is way more stubborn than any prior excess calorie deposits, O God bless whoever first blended spandex with denim. 

6. Parental aspirations are a nice idea 

But they melt in the glaring daylight of reality. I fully intended to err on the side of strictness and mold an obedient little shining star, but my resolve turned to mush the first time those big brown eyes gazed into my own. 

7. Parents don’t just ditch single friends— 

the reverse is also true 

My husband and I have tried to keep in touch with our old circle, but some of our single friends seem to have lost our number. 

Granted, not everyone is a baby person, but we’re not insisting that they’ve “gotta see the baby.” We do still have brain cells that hold information unrelated to breastmilk expiration dates or Baby Einstein toys! 

8. Babysitting is a nice idea 

But tell it to our son, whose wicked stranger anxiety makes him currently unwilling to accept care from anyone outside his personal mommy-daddy entourage. 

9. That “look” stings from the other side 

My husband and I have given parents with crying and meandering offspring in public places that look of impatient disdain more than once over the years. Now we are on the receiving end—karma! 

10. They weren’t kidding about the Grinch 

It really is possible for one’s heart to grow three sizes in one day. “Every” day. Every time your mini-me reaches out for you from the crib, or flashes an endearingly toothy (or toothless) grin. 

Sonja Fitz works at a downtown business that let her bring her baby to work part-time until he started crawling under tables and finding all those removed staples people don’t bother to toss into actual garbage receptacles. 

At a time when Americans throughout the country are frustrated by the failure of public schools to teach their children, Mexico is increasing its efforts to help struggling school systems deal with immigrant children who speak Spanish. 

“We are grateful that the Mexican Consul and the Mexican government have taken such an interest in helping Denver Public Schools and its students,” Jerry Wartgow, superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, said when Mexico donated 30,000 Spanish-language textbooks for elementary students. “This donation is just one example of how we can work together to improve the lives of all children through education.” 

From San Diego to Orlando, from Chicago to Las Vegas, the Mexican government, through its 42 consulates throughout the United States, is accelerating its ambitious “foreign aid” program designed to deliver millions of Spanish-language textbooks to American schools this decade. 

“This is more than an ‘outreach’ program,” notes Raquel Romero, director of Mesoamerica Foundation, a Mexican nonprofit organization. “This is part of a concerted program to educate Hispanic children in the United States, and to help the United States make the transition into a bicultural society this century. It is a way of understanding that Mexican culture is expanding across the border, that it is in ascendance, and that Hispanic and Latino children in the United States will never be blond, blue-eyed Anglos.” 

Mexico’s efforts are part of a subtle program, one that traces its origins to the presidency of Jose Lopez Portillo, who governed 1976-1982. A university professor before entering politics, Lopez Portillo feared that English would dominate Mexican business life. To defend the integrity of Spanish, he launched a program called “Palabra,” or “Word,” that sought to inculcate an appreciation for the Spanish language. 

This campaign proved so successful that as Mexican television and radio programs began to be exported throughout the Spanish-speaking world, “Mexican” Spanish began to emerge as the “standard” spoken Spanish. This process was not unlike what occurred in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. As the CBS, NBC and ABC broadcast companies established national networks, regional accents – the Southern drawl, the New England clip – gave way to a “neutral” English, exemplified best by Walter Cronkite and Johnny Carson, both of Midwestern stock. It is this “Nebraska” accent that is the “standard” English for the national networks, and local reporters who want to make it in the big league have to drop their regional accents in favor of “Nebraska” English. 

Similarly, in Latin America, it is “Mexican” Spanish that is the neutral accent, and reporters from Buenos Aires to Madrid, New York to Lima, have to speak in this manner if they want to make it in the big league. 

Emboldened by this success, Mexico’s subtle, but ambitious, effort to emerge as the leading cultural force in the Hispanic world accelerated. In 1989, president Carlos Salinas launched the “Paisano Program,” designed to assist Mexicans, and their U.S.-born children, increase their cultural, social and political literacy about Mexico. This program not only reached out to Mexicans living in the United States, but it also helped them resist assimilation into the American mainstream, something seen as desirable, since Hispanics find Anglo culture cold and distant, fraught with ruined families and strained social relations. The alienating nature of American society, first exposed by David Riesman in his groundbreaking book, The Lonely Crowd, was a fate Mexico wanted to spare her children living on the other side of the border. 

Mexico is intent on fighting “Latino Cultural Illiteracy,” or what happens to good Hispanics who grow up ignorant of their culture. Vicente Fox called Mexicans who emigrated to the United States in search of work “heroes,” and launched the Program for Mexican Communities Abroad as a set of policies for empowering the Mexican Diaspora. What has alarmed Mexican officials is the loss of Spanish fluency among the children born to Mexicans in the United States. 

“These ‘Latinos’ are incapable of reading Spanish more complicated than what one finds on a Taco Bell menu,” an official at the Mexican Consulate in New York said. “We want them to be fluent in Spanish, so they can be successful both in the United States and in Mexico.” 

Mexicans blame this cultural alienation—not being fluent in Spanish, not being entirely accepted by their Anglo compatriots—as one reason why Hispanic youth drop out of school, resort to substance abuse, join gangs and end up in prison. An example of their cultural and linguistic illiteracy is seen among gang members. When two gangs in conflict reach an agreement to cease hostilities, there is a word for this. In English, it is “truce.” In Spanish, it is “truega.” 

Latino illiterate gang members, who are fluent in neither English nor Spanish, use the word “trucha.” “Hey, bro’ there’s a trucha” makes as much sense to an English speaker as “Oye, ‘mano, hay trucha” does to a Spanish speaker. 

This cultural and linguistic ignorance is what Mexico is striving to address. 

“Reaching out to young Hispanics in their formative years, and while they’re in public school is the way to go,” Raquel Romero said. “Mexico has to be there for them, reminding them that they come from a great civilization, and can be proud of their who they are, and where their families come from.” 

That Mexicans should be proud of Spanish offends some American conservatives, however. “In U.S. areas with large Hispanic (including illegal) populations, the Mexican consul donates to the local public schools the same textbooks that are used in every elementary school in Mexico, grades one through six,” Phyllis Schlafly wrote in her article “Is it Assimilation or Invasion?” which was widely circulated among nativist organizations. “The books, written in Spanish and including all academic subjects, teach that America ‘stole’ the southwest from Mexico and that Mexico is entitled to take it back.” 

The books, correctly, point out that the United States reneged in its obligations under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which ended the Mexican-American War in 1848 when the U.S. Congress established a commission to review property titles in 1851, designed to expropriate the land of Mexican nationals who were now living in U.S. territory. 

The cultural importance of Spanish was an idea that defined Vicente Fox’s term as president, from 2000 to 2006. Two months before taking office in 2000, speaking before the Congress of the Spanish Language in Madrid, Fox exhorted Mexicans in the United States to speak Spanish. Fox said, “To continue speaking Spanish in the United States is to ‘hacer patria’ (fulfill one’s patriotic duty).” 

They have done just that: the United States has the fastest-growing Spanish-speaking population in the world. Felipe Calderon, Mexico’s new president, has moved forcefully, ordering that Mexican diplomatic missions throughout the United States reach out to America’s failing public schools and assess their educational needs. 

Mexican American folklorist Américo Paredes has called what we are witnessing as “Greater Mexico”—achieved one textbook at a time. While Americans may fret that Johnny Can’t Read, Mexico wants to make sure that Juanito Puede Leer. 

New America Media contributor Louis E. V. Nevaer is author of the forthcoming book, HR and the New Hispanic Workforce (Davies-Black Publishing, March 2007).

The purple ribbons fluttering in the wind inside the Berkeley High School courtyard symbolized the loss of BHS Vice Principal Denise Brown for the entire Berkeley Unified School District Monday. 

Purple, as those close to the 50-year-old vice principal know, was her favorite color. And in a tribute on Friday, hundreds of grieving students and staff spread hues of purple throughout the school in her memory. 

Recuperating from a knee replacement surgery at home for a month, Brown felt dizzy on Friday afternoon and was rushed to the intensive care unit at around 3 p.m. She was declared dead two hours later. 

Brown’s son Justin Real, 22, told the Planet that the probable cause for his mother’s death was a blood clot. 

“She didn’t really have any serious illnesses, although the doctors told me that she was diabetic. I guess we will have to wait until the autopsy results come out to find out what really happened,” said Justin, adding that arrangements for a memorial service were still pending. 

Justin, who recently graduated from the University of Oregon, was with his mother at the hospital when she died. 

“It’s difficult for me, but it’s more difficult for my sister Sarah, who was really close to her,” he said. As friends and family gathered inside Brown’s house on Monday afternoon to comfort the two children, Justin told the Planet that his main concern at the moment was his sister. 

A senior at Berkeley High, Sarah, 18, is also an accomplished dancer.  

“She’s applying to dance programs and auditions all over at the moment,” Justin said. “My mother was a really big support in that field, especially when it came to applying to schools such as Julliard. I really hope she gets into a good program in New York, because that’s where she wants to go.” 

Sarah told the Planet that although her mother had had pains from her knee surgery during her recovery, there had been no indication that it was life-threatening.  

“The doctor said it was normal. We didn’t really think twice about it,” she said. 

Both Sarah and Justin described Brown as the “coolest mom ever,” whose favorite things included The Color Purple (both the book and the color), watching “I Love Lucy” and author James Baldwin. 

“She was just amazing. A real people person,” said Justin, whose first memories of his mother were from when she was a teacher at LeConte Elementary School. 

“I never got her as a teacher though. My mom would never allow that. Even when she joined as an administrator at Berkeley High, I had already graduated,” he said. 

At Berkeley High, as students gathered around her memorial to put flowers and write messages on Monday, many remembered her from their days at LeConte. 

“I knew her from Kindergarten,” said Rosey Chardak, a sophomore who did not go to class on Monday. 

“I was sitting here all day. I just don’t feel like doing anything after I heard the shocking news on Friday,” she said scribbling a message on the memorial. 

Rosey’s message to Brown read: 

“I am going to miss your ability to create a relationship with everyone you met. May you rest in peace but never be forgotten.” 

News of Brown’s death spread over the popular social networking websites MySpace and Facebook over the weekend. 

Maddie Trumble, a senior at Berkeley High, encouraged the BHS community to wear purple on Monday in honor of Brown. 

“Denise Brown—teacher, dean, and mother to all, passed away Friday night. Her favorite color was purple. It’s vibrant, loud, and beautiful—everything she was ... wear a purple shirt, headband, hat, anything. But make it purple. And spread the word,” her message on Facebook read. 

A native of Oakland, Brown graduated from Oakland Tech and went on to meet her future husband Juan Real—from whom she is now divorced—while she was pursuing acting at the Black Repertory Theatre in Berkeley. 

Brown taught kindergarten at LeConte Elementary School for ten years, where she introduced innumerable students to music, dance and theater. She later went on to serve as a vice principal as well as dean of discipline at Berkeley High, where she became a “second mother” to many students. 

Nia Shina Franklin, who had Brown as her kindergarten, first-grade as well as fourth-grade teacher at LeConte, described her as a warm and loving person. 

“If she liked you she would hug you. I remember acting in legendary school plays such as the Vegetable Coup and The Biz which she scripted,” Nia said. “There will never be a community as wonderful as the one she had created. She will always be our hero, our Queen of Berkeley.” 

Seven years ago, the Atlantic Monthly published “The Kept University,” a story about a $25 million five-year liaison between the giant Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis and California’s premier public university, UC Berkeley. 

Today, critics say the university has not sold itself so cheap, having announced last week that it sealed a $500 million deal with BP (formerly know as British Petroleum), ignoring a 2004 Michigan State University report on the Novartis-university experiment that cautioned the university against entering into future agreements with industry involving large groups of researchers. 

The 10-year partnership with the oil giant, whose 2006 net income was $22.5 billion, also includes Lawrence Berkeley National Labs (which the University of California runs for the Department of Energy) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.UC Berkeley/LBNL will get $400 million over four years for the new Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) and the University of Illinois will receive $100 million. 

“In launching this visionary institute, BP is creating a new model for university-industry collaboration,” said UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research Beth Burnside, professor of molecular and cell biology, quoted in a UC Berkeley press statement. 

The project is “dedicated to long-term research into the production of alternative fuels, converting fossil fuels to energy with less environmental damage, maximizing oil extraction from existing wells in environmentally sensitive ways, and finding ways to store or sequester carbon so that it does not get into the atmosphere,” the UC Berkeley statement says. 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, at UC Berkeley for Thursday’s ceremonial announcement, said the state would kick in another $40 million to construct a building for EBI, proposed for the Strawberry Canyon area of campus, near, but not within, the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs property. The funds would come from bonds that would have to first be approved by the legislature. (Other politicos present to cheer on the partnership included the mayors of Berkeley and Oakland, State Sen. Don Perata and Assemblymember Loni Hancock.) 

The deal raises a host of questions for UC Anthropology Professor Laura Nader: “Do they have academic freedom?” Nader asked in an interview with the Daily Planet Friday. 

Nader’s concern was that if some scientists were to begin their research at the institute in one direction, they might not be free to shift gears to follow their inquiry in another direction, if they came to believe that more appropriate. 

“The university has more to give BP than BP has to give the university,” Nader added, noting that the link to the university is “one way for BP to clean up its reputation. BP is in legal trouble from Texas to Alaska.” 

Nader was referring to a March 2005 explosion at a Texas refinery that killed 15 people and injured 170. BP accepted full responsibility for the blast. 

And she was talking about BP’s March 2006 leakage of 200,000 gallons of crude oil in Alaska, one of the state’s largest oil spills.  

BP’s reputation has been further tarnished: 

• According to CNN reports, in June 2006, the U.S. futures market regulator said BP tried to manipulate U.S. propane prices by cornering the market in February 2004, which BP denied. 

• In July 2006, the Independent of London ran a story about a group of Colombian farmers who had won a multimillion-dollar settlement from BP “accused of benefiting from a regime of terror carried out by Colombian government paramilitaries to protect a 450-mile pipeline.” BP was not accused of having direct involvement in the paramilitary activities. 

• Building up to a boycott of BP that Rainbow/Push would announce the following week, the Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote an editorial in the June 20 2006 Chicago Sun Times, blasting the oil companies for the high price of gas and heating oil and signaling out BP: 

“BP made $5.3 billion in profits in the first three months of the year. African Americans are major consumers in the U.S. market that BP controls. But they aren’t in on the rewards. BP has 800 gas distributors who now own more than 10,000 gas stations around the United States. None are African American,” he wrote. 

“Of 1,200 senior managers in the United States, BP has zero African Americans. Of 33 vice presidents, zero African Americans. BP does some $16 billion in procurement each year—less than one-third of 1 percent of which goes to African-American businesses.” 

British Petroleum, originally known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company when it was established about 100 years ago, merged with Amoco, formerly Standard Oil of Indiana, in 1998 and renamed itself BP in 2000 at which time it adopted the tagline “Beyond Petroleum.” Arco is a subsidiary of BP. 

Ignacio Chapela, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, is another faculty member questioning the wisdom of the new partnership. Chapela was one of the chief critics of the Novartis deal. 

“I feel bad about this,” Chapela told the Daily Planet. “I feel like a broken record. Ten years ago, Novartis tried to do the same thing.”  

Just like the announcement a decade ago, this one came as a surprise, he said. “There was no discussion.” 

Among the questions that need to be raised, in addition to the independence of academic research, is whether the university will be used by BP to shield it in questions of legal responsibility, he said. “The university is under a lot less scrutiny” than companies standing on their own. 

“How come nobody asked these questions?” he asked. 

In addition to legal protections involving BP research and product development, the university also shields private corporations in other ways: the public-private institute, on university property and exempt from city zoning regulations, will come under less strict environmental review when it constructs its building. It will also be exempt from city property and business taxes. 

William Drummond, professor of journalism and chair of the Academic Senate, said he is happy Nader and Chapela are raising questions about researchers’ academic freedom.  

“I don’t want a repeat of Novartis,” he said. “Their concerns are valid.” 

However, he supports the venture. “This area of research is important to our future,” he said. “It’s good for the campus, for the students and for the planet.” 

Drummond asked, “What is the alternative? Wait for the glaciers to melt?” 

Still, Drummond said he doesn’t have an idealistic view of BP. “What do you expect of capitalists? They do bad things,” he said. “We need to protect ourselves so that they don’t steal the farm.”  

One safeguard will be the vetting of new hires for the project through the Academic Senate.  

A professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, Miguel Altieri shares many of Chapela’s concerns, further pointing out possible environmental devastation that could be caused by the need for corn production for corn-based ethanol, the major alternative fuel to be studied in the project. Because there’s not enough land in the United States for production, companies would go to foreign countries to grow the crop, using herbicides and pesticides and depleting the land, he said.  

“It would cause huge environmental damage, including deforestation,” Altieri said. “We need an open discussion of this new deal.” 

Pratap Chatterjee, executive director of CorpWatch in Oakland and author of Iraq, Inc., said by putting money into research for alternative fuels, BP is “greenwashing” its reputation. 

While it is not a bad thing to try to develop alternative fuels, he added, BP won’t be funding the critical need. “What we really need is public transportation—more buses and trains,” he said. “Producing ethanol is not going to make a big difference—it’s just a diversion.” 

With the final campaign expenditures for the November elections in on Jan. 31, it became definitive that the top spender was the losing challenger for District 7: George Beier. 

In all, Beier spent $107,658.82 on the elections, taking $61,841 from his own deep pocket. (The $107,658 does not include the $18,000 contributed to Beier’s campaign by the Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee.)  

The amount the campaign paid per vote comes to $57.57. 

Some of the big spenders donating to the Beier campaign during the Oct. 22–Dec. 31 period include a number of developers who signed up for $250 a pop, including, Fourth Street developer Denny Abrams, Library Gardens developer John DeClerq, John Gordon of Gordon Commercial and the California Real Estate Political Action Committee. Development company Hudson-McDonald was represented by separate donations from the principals, Evan McDonald and Christopher Hudson, and their wives.  

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who won the election for District 7, said he was particularly concerned by the large amount of personal funds contributed. 

“I pray it doesn’t start a trend that rich people try to buy elections,” he said. 

Worthington spent $51,383 on the election and won with 2,119 votes. He spent about $24.25 per vote, none of it from his own pocket. 

While Beier collected donations from 76 contributors during the period, Worthington collected donations from 126 sources.  

Worthington received seven $250 donations from unions, including: Public Employees Union Local 1; Northern California District Council, ILWU; Sprinklers, Fitters and Apprentices, Local 438 Political Action Committee; Service Employees International Union 616; SEIU Local 535, Berkeley Firefighters Association; SEIU Local 790; and SEIU Health Care Workers.  

City officials who gave Worthington funds during this period included City Councilmember Darryl Moore, $200, and Mayor Tom Bates, who, notably, gave his $250 donation only on Dec. 1, after the close election was clearly decided in Worthington’s favor. 

District 4 

Challenger Raudel Wilson, who moved to Hercules soon after losing the election to Dona Spring, picked up $19,304 to garner 1,228 votes. He spent $15.72 per vote. 

Wilson’s late contributors include a number of developers and their spouses who gave $250 each, including Carolen and Doughlas Herst, Evan McDonald and Christopher Hudson, of Hudson McDonald LLC, and UC Berkeley professor and developer David Teece at $250. 

None of the 15 contributors for the last period live in District 4 and eight of the 15 contributors were from outside Berkeley. 

Incumbent Councilmember Dona Spring spent $21,620 on the campaign, winning with 3,127 votes, each costing $6.91. 

Spring got 12 contributions for the last period, five from within the district, nine from Berkeley and three from elsewhere. Spring’s donations per individual were more modest, with only one of the 12, Landmarks Commissioner Carrie Olson, giving $250. Other funders included environmental attorney Norman La Force at $175 and $100 from Lesley Emmington Jones, an employee of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association and $150 from progressive author Michael Parenti. 

Dictrict 8 

In District 8, incumbent City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak spent $57,743 to win and received 2,730 votes, which means that each vote cost him $21.15. 

Supporters include community activist Martha Jones, who gave $150 and a number of scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, from which Wozniak is retired, including Warren Byrne ($100), Chuck McFarland ($200) and Art Poskanzer ($100). 

He also received $250 from the California Real Estate Political Action Committee, $100 from John DeClerq of Eng Properties, $100 from Anika Thede of Northbrae Properties and $250 from Fourth Street developer Denny Abrams. 

Student Jason Overman spent $9,053 to win 1,580 votes, spending $5.73 per vote.  

Contributions included those that came from SEIU 535 ($250), fellow Rent Board Member Howard Chong, ($200) and Councilmember Dona Spring ($250). 

District 1 

In District 1, Linda Maio spent only $2,707 to win 3,746 votes. That’s 72 cents per vote. Maio reported two contributions, one $100 check from veterinarian Diane Sequoia and a $250 donation from SEIU 535. Challenger Merrilie Mitchell, who received 1,126 votes spent no funds on the election. 

Mayor 

In the mayor’s race, incumbent Mayor Tom Bates spent $104,626 and won with 25,680 votes. That’s $4.07 per vote. Challenger Zelda Bronstein, who picked up 12,652 votes, spent $35,085—or $2.77 per vote. 

Bates received a mix of contributions from unions, developers and elected officials. The unions which supported Bates at $250 each during this election period included Northern California Carpenters, Operating Engineers Local 3, SEIU Healthcare Workers West, SEIU 790, SEIU 535, Sheet Metal Workers Local 104 and Teamsters Local 853 and $250 from the Drive Committee PAC, affiliated with the Teamsters. 

Developers who weighed in with $250 donations include Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald of Hudson McDonald, Phil Tagami of California Commercial Investments and UC Berkeley professor-developer David Teece. Elected officials contributing $250 included former Assemblymember Wilma Chan and Supervisor Keith Carson. 

Bates also got $250 from the California Real Estate Political Action Committee (as Bronstein had earlier). 

Bronstein’s contributions came from a wide range of donors: the Berkeley Board of Realtors gave $200, Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association employee Lesley Emmington Jones gave $100, Phyllis Dalhinow, retired professor from UC Berkeley contributed $250, Rebecca Dalhinow, assistant professor at Fullerton State University gave $150. 

Mayoral hopeful Christian Pecaut filed campaign statements only through Oct. 21, indicating he had spent $176, and candidate Zachary Running Wolf did not file any campaign finance statements at all. 

Detailed campaign spending can be found at the Berkeley City Clerk’s website: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Elections/campaign/default.htm 

When Charles Hamilton teaches jazz at Berkeley High, every note has to be perfect. 

It is perhaps dedication to excellence which earned Hamilton the Coca-Cola Company/National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts 2007 Distinguished Teacher in the Arts Award in January, and helped the BHS Jazz Combo win at the Folsom Jazz Festival last week. 

The Berkeley Unified School District honored Hamilton with “Jazz in Motion: In the Day of Charles Hamilton” at the Berkeley High Little Theatre on Saturday. 

In attendance were BUSD arts program coordianator Suzanne McCulloch, Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp and Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, who presented Hamilton with a proclamation. 

Described as the “glue that holds the BHS jazz program together,” Hamilton has been the guiding light for Berkeley High’s jazz ensemble for the last 25 years. 

During one of his practice sessions at Berkeley High for the Folsom festival, Hamilton spoke about his passion for music, his love for his native state of Louisiana and his desire to help students reach for the stars. 

“At Berkeley High, we do jazz differently,” Hamilton said smiling, sitting on a stool at the center of the music room with the BHS Jazz Ensemble. 

As a young boy in Baton Rouge, La., Hamilton grew up listening to different kinds of music. Jazz, the maestro said, was something he had picked up a lot later when he got hooked on artists such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. 

Hamilton’s move to California was primarily to study music at San Francisco State University. He also received his Standard Teaching Credentials at SFSU and went on to achieve a Masters Degree in Performance at the College of Holy Names in Oakland.  

“Jazz was the kind of music that excited me. I was just as eager about it as my students are now,” Hamilton said, as he proceeded to take his students through a phrase from Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.” 

“The thing that the Berkeley High ensemble does differently from other schools is that we swing and we are able to improvise,” he said. “Jazz is about improvising, about expressing ourselves. The kind of music we play is what makes us stand out.” 

When one of the band members makes a mistake, Hamilton is quick to offer more advice than criticism. 

“He doesn’t get frustrated. He lets us do a lot of things on our own,” said Arianna Kandell, a junior who is in her first year of training under Hamilton. “The Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble is his band. He made it what it is today. You can come here and be yourself and still go through a professional playing experience.” 

Also present during the late afternoon practice session was noted Bay Area drummer Scott Amendola. “He really listens to them,” Amendola said. “He knows how to work with kids.” 

Hamilton said: “I tell my students that the ability to read well, to improvise and knowledge of the instrument are what goes into making a great jazz player.” 

Under Hamilton’s watch, the jazz program has won national and international acclaim, sending many students on to become professional jazz musicians. The band has performed at prestigious venues such as the Vienna Jazz Festival in Southern France and the Umbria Jazz festival in Italy and will tour Japan this summer. 

At the practice session, as the band reached a crescendo during “Come Rain or Come Shine,” a quieter piece, Hamilton was quick to point out a flaw in what would perhaps sound like a perfect composition to the untrained ear. 

“You need to be more sensitive,” was the advice he bestowed on one of the trombone players. “If you don’t do that you can end up scaring the hell out of whoever’s listening instead of making them enjoy it. The objective of this piece is to be laid back,” Hamilton, a trombone player himself, warned. 

Hatem Elgaili, who plays the alto sax, told the Planet that it was Hamilton’s attention to subtle details that made the difference. 

“He has been doing this for 25 years, you see. The band trusts his judgment on the smallest things completely,” Elgaili said. “For us, it’s not just about winning competitions, it’s also about playing good music.”  

Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee 

Berkeley High School Jazz Program Director Charles Hamilton gives alto saxophonist Hatem Elgaili a few pointers during a practice session for the Folsom Jazz Festival. BHS placed first and second in the Combo Division competition at the festival last week.

With a November deadline looming, the panel of citizens charged with helping the city draft a new downtown plan will pause to take stock Wednesday. 

The Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee—DAPAC—is charged with charting the course for the city center’s future in light of UC Berkeley’s plans to add more than 800,000 square feet of new uses within expanded downtown boundaries. 

Under the terms of the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the university’s environmental documentation for their Long Range Development Plan 2020, the city is drafting the new plan with financial support from the school. 

The panel has tasked subcommittees with working out details of proposals for plan sections dealing with historical buildings, transportation and the future of Center Street. Another subcommittee focusing on the city’s interests in development of university-owned sites downtown will present its report Wednesday. 

Matt Taecker, the city planner hired with university funds to oversee drafting of the plan, will present a draft of a general outline for the plan Wednesday, when the committee gathers at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Following the presentation, DAPAC members will discuss the schedule for drafting key plan segments, with the goal of setting general policy directions for each by mid-summer and preparing a draft plan for committee and public review in the fall. 

Members will also get their first look at plans for a major renovation of the venerable Shattuck Hotel, once the downtown’s signature landmark. 

William Howard and Robert Richmond of R2L Architects will make the presentation for BPR Properties of Palo Alto, which plans to redesign the aging hotel’s interior, reduce the number of rooms and transform the structure into upscale accommodations.

The School Board will be meeting on Wednesday to receive information on the governor’s budget for fiscal year 2007-08, which was released on Jan. 10. 

The report would help the Berkeley Unified School District learn what the school district should expect monetarily in the next school year. 

Board members will also be approving the Adult School BSEP Site Plan for 2006-07. The Adult School, which is located on San Pablo and Virginia, was formerly an elementary school. It was upgraded recently with a grant of $3 million and is now used by thousands of adults who take classes there during the day and at night. 

The board will also receive a report on the Free and Reduced Lunch Program which will help the school district review the success of the program. 

Exit exam 

Berkeley High School students are taking their exit exam today (Tuesday). The exams take all day and are given at the gymnasium adjacent to the cafeteria. They test students’ knowledge of English and math to make sure they are up to graduation standards. 

With royal fanfare, British Petroleum just donated $500 million in research funds for UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois to develop new sources of energy—primarily biotechnology to produce biofuel crops. This comes on the anniversary of Berkeley’s hapless research deal with seed giant Novartis ten years ago. However, at half a billion dollars, the BP grant dwarfs Novartis’ investment by a factor of 10. The graphics of the announcement were unmistakable: BP’s corporate logo is perfectly aligned with the flags of the Nation, the State, and the University. 

CEO/Chairman Robert A. Malone proclaimed BP was “joining some of the world’s best science and engineering talent to meet the demand for low carbon energy … we will be working to improve and expand the production of clean, renewable energy through the development of better crops…” This partnership reflects the rapid, unchecked and unprecedented global corporate alignment of the world’s largest agribusiness (ADM, Cargill and Bunge), biotech (Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dupont), petroleum (BP, TOTAL, Shell), and automotive industries (Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, SAAB). With what for them is a relatively small investment, these industries will appropriate academic expertise built over decades of public support, translating into billions in revenues for these global partners.  

Could this be a “win-win” agenda for the university, the public, the environment and industry? Hardly. In addition to overwhelming the university’s research agenda, what scientists behind this blatantly private business venture fail to mention is that the apparent free lunch of crop-based fuel can’t satisfy our energy appetite, and it will not be free or environmentally sound.  

Dedicating all present U.S. corn and soybean production to biofuels would meet only 12 percent of our gasoline demand and 6 percent of diesel demand. Total U.S. cropland reaches 625,000 square miles. To replace U.S. oil consumption with biofuels, we would need 1.4 million sq.mi. of corn for ethanol and 8.8 million square miles of soybean for biodiesel. Biofuels are expected to turn Iowa and South Dakota into corn-importers by 2008. 

The biofuel energy balance—the amount of fossil energy put into producing crop biomass compared to that coming out—is anything but promising. Researchers Patzek and Pimentel see serious negative energy balances with biofuels. Other researchers see only 1.2 to 1.8 returns, for ethanol at best, with the jury still lukewarm on cellulosic biofuels.  

Industrial methods of corn and soybean production depend on large-scale monocultures. Industrial corn requires high levels of chemical nitrogen fertilizer (largely responsible for the dead zone in Gulf of Mexico) and the herbicide atrazine an endocrine disruptor. Soybeans require massive amounts of non-selective, Roundup herbicide that upsets soil ecology and produce “superweeds.” Both monocultures produce massive topsoil erosion and surface and groundwater pollution from pesticides and fertilizer runoff. Each gallon of ethanol sucks up three to four gallons of water in the production of biomass. The expansion of irrigated “fuel on the cob” into drier areas in the Midwest will draw down the already suffering Ogallala aquifer.  

One of the more surreptitious industrial motives of the biofuels agenda—and the reason Monsanto and company are key players—is the opportunity to irreversibly convert agriculture to genetically engineered crops (GMOs). Presently, 52 percent of corn, 89 percent of soy, and 50 percent of canola in the United States is GMO. The expansion of biofuels with “designer corn” genetically tailored for special ethanol processing plants will remove all practical barriers to the permanent contamination of all non-GMO crops.  

Obviously the United States can’t satisfy its energy appetite with biofuels. Instead, fuel crops will be grown in the developing world on large-scale plantations of sugarcane, oil palm  

and soybean already replacing primary and secondary tropical forests and grasslands in Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Ecuador and Malaysia. Soybeans have already caused the destruction of over 91 million acres of forests and grasslands in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. To satisfy world market demands, Brasil alone will need to clear 148 million additional acres of forest. Reduction of greenhouse gases is lost when carbon-capturing forests are felled to make way for biofuel crops.  

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of small-scale peasant farmers are being displaced by soybeans expansion. Many more stand to lose their land under the biofuels stampede. Already, the expanding cropland planted to yellow corn for ethanol has reduced the supply of white corn for tortillas in Mexico, sending prices up 400 percent. This led peasant leaders at the recent World Social Forum in Nairobi to demand, “No full tanks when there are still empty bellies!”  

By promoting large-scale mechanized monocultures which require agrochemical inputs and machinery, and as carbon-capturing forests are felled to make way for biofuel crops, CO2 emissions will increase not decrease. The only way to stop global warming is to promote small-scale organic agriculture and decrease the use of all fuels, which requires major reductions in consumption patterns and development of massive public transportation systems, areas that the University of California should be actively researching and that BP and the other biofuel partners will never invest one penny towards. 

The potential consequences for the environment and society of BP’s funding are deeply disturbing. In the wake of the report of the external review of the UCB-Novartis agreement that recommended that the university not enter into such agreements in the future, how could such a major deal be announced without wide consultation of the UC faculty? The university has been recruited into a corporate partnership that may irreversibly transform the plant’s food and fuel systems and concentrating tremendous power in the hands of a few corporate partners. 

It is up to the citizens of California to hold the university accountable to research that supports truly sustainable alternatives to the energy crisis. A serious public debate on this new program is long overdue.  

Miguel A. Altieri is a professor at UC Berkeley and Eric Holt-Gimenez is executive director of Oakland’s Food First. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board will once again hear the request for a use permit for the conversion of Wright’s Garage on 2629-2635 Ashby Ave. into a multi-tenant commercial building on Thursday. 

At the Jan. 25 ZAB meeting, residents voiced concerns primarily about parking and traffic, which they said would become worse if a large-scale fine dining restaurant was housed at the proposed commercial building. 

Applicant John Gordon told ZAB members at the last meeting that he had met with representatives of the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association, Willard Neighborhood Association, Bateman Neighborhood Association and the Elmwood Merchants Group to discuss the project and address the concerns raised at the January 11 ZAB meeting. 

Gordon added that with the help of the neighborhood groups, he had created multiple conditions to help mitigate project concerns related to noise, traffic, parking and use types. 

An open house was hosted at the project site on Jan. 20. Gordon told board members that he would try to mitigate the impact of cars in the area but wouldn’t be able to solve it completely. 

Board members urged Gordon and community members to think about creative solutions with respect to parking in the neighborhood. 

Other matters 

The board will once again hear a request for a use permit to increase alcohol service at the Ethiopian Restaurant on 2953-2955 Telegraph Ave. by adding service of distilled spirits to the existing service of beer and wine, and by increasing operating hours from 8 a.m. to midnight daily to 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily to Jan. 

The board will also hear a request by Timothy Carter to demolish an existing dwelling and build a two-unit building with three stories, a floor area of about 4,372 square feet and two parking garages, on a 4,996-square-foot lot at 2717 San Pablo Ave. 

At earlier meetings, ZAB members had concerns about the proposed building towering over the neighboring buildings on the east and had asked the owner to scale it down. 

East Bay Municipal Utilities District officials are urging their customers to ease off on the taps—at least until they can finish a much needed retrofit of the Claremont Tunnel. 

Failure to comply could lead to rationing, warns an announcement issued Friday. 

The source of a significant amount of the water used by customers form Crockett to Oakland, the tunnel has been closed to accommodate repairs that will enable it to better withstand earthquakes, reported utility spokesperson Charles C. Hardy. 

EBMUD has set a goal of reducing daily water use by 10 percent—or eight million gallons a day. 

If customers fail to trim their taps, the utility warns it could be forced to implement mandatory rationing.  

Customers affected are residents of Berkeley, Oakland north of Highway 24, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, Emeryville, San Pablo, Crockett, El Sobrante, Hercules, Rodeo, Kensington and Pinole.  

Like everything else these days, the risk of rationing is quantified in a color-coded scale—this one consisting of four levels ranging from green (low) through red (high). The current coding for the affected area is orange, for urgent. 

According to the utility’s code, orange means “demand is still too high ... to guarantee a reliable water supply,” with an uptick in the thermometer likely to lead to greater problems. 

EBMUD is asking customers to check their water systems for wasteful leaks, turn off all their sprinklers and stop washing their cars and driveways. 

The utility will update the alert every Monday for the duration of the repairs. 

Steal music player, lose their bikes 

The bad guys went 1 for 2 Sunday afternoon when they made the mistake of trying to rob the wrong UC Berkeley student. 

Their target, a 19-year-old woman, was waiting for a bus on Bancroft Way near the Recreational Sports Facility when a pair of bandits clad all in black and wearing the inevitable hoodies pedaled up on their bikes. 

One of the pair grabbed the woman’s MP3 music player out of her hand, and she responded by grabbing back. Clutching the end of one of the hooded sweatshirts, she gave a yank, sending both tumbling off their two-wheelers and onto the pavement. 

The robbers, described as a pair of 16-to-17-year-olds, then fled on foot. 

The woman was unharmed during the incident, reports UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria L. Harrison. The two suspects remain at large.

Some of Berkeley’s poorest older residents will soon be living in comfortable new quarters with the opening Thursday of the Margaret Breland Apartments. 

Named for the former Berkeley City Council member who died two years ago, the complex features 28 apartments in a four-story building at 2577 San Pablo Ave. 

The project is a joint effort of Resources for Community Development (RCD) and Jubilee Restoration, both Berkeley developers specializing in non-profit projects. 

Jubilee is headed by the Rev. Gordon Choyce Sr., who was pastor of Breland’s church.  

RCD is the developer which is developing a city-backed 97-unit, six-story low-income Oxford Plaza housing project at the site of the city parking lot on Oxford Street between Kittredge Street and Allston Way. 

Thursday’s opening ceremonies will begin at 4 p.m. and will continue until 6 p.m.  

One of my favorite cartoons of all time—I think it was in the New Yorker—shows a stream of little men in stovepipe hats and knee britches hurtling off a cliff. An observer off to one side says to another, “Flemings…” The message? (Do cartoons have messages?) Even Flemings, the sober inhabitants of Flanders, what is now the northern part of Belgium, pictured in britches in late Gothic and early Renaissance paintings, could be gripped by the kind of mass hysteria that sometimes causes little animals (lemmings) to jump off cliffs during frantic migrations. Never mind the natural historians who say that lemmings have gotten a bad rap in this story, that they’re not committing suicide but just fall by accident—the image is compelling, and it certainly applies to human behavior all too often.  

Searching the Daily Planet archives for the word “lemmings” produces quite a few usages by our correspondents and columnists in the spring of 2002, all referring to the inexorable push toward invading Iraq. The revived Planet started just about the same time as the second Iraq war, and our community of readers and writers at the time wasn’t fooled for even a minute by the claims of WMDs. It’s remarkable that all kinds of important people in Washington and the rest of the country, from Senators down to newsies, were fooled into rushing to support the invasions, lemming-like. 

Recent news from Washington has been better. Congressional Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi, and even a few Republicans, have finally figured out what we in Berkeley have known all along—it’s a phony war started on false pretenses which is leading nowhere. Even the Washington press, notably slow off the dime, is catching on. 

The new critical attitude is spreading to other arenas—Thursday’s news had Sen. Barbara Boxer questioning the bona fides of Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency, which comes as no surprise to many of us around here. 

We’ve asked the same question repeatedly in these pages: why does it take so long for people in power to figure out what those of us on the ground know from the git-go? Why, more often than not, do political leaders and big media join together like lemmings to endorse unwise endeavors which small fry like us have questioned from the start? 

Last week’s announcement of the pact between British Petroleum (now coyly known as BP) and the University of California at Berkeley conjured up new images of lemmings going over cliffs. The press and the pols fell all over each other in their rush to endorse it. BP has been engaged in vigorous greenwashing of its environmentally dubious activities since at least 2002, documented by the Times of London among others, but you’d never know it from the first day stories about the project in major news outlets. 

Four hundred million dollars for commercially controlled research puts a heavy thumb on the UC scale. Many environmental scientists, including those whose opinions appeared in the Planet’s coverage of the story, have serious questions about the long-term sustainability of the kind of biologically-produced fuels which the UC-BP deal promotes. What would happen, for example, if a UC Berkeley researcher wanted to study the global effect of clearing tropical rainforests in order to grow soybeans for auto fuel? Would BP pay for it? 

And how about the close-to-home local-scale environmental effects of building yet another big lab on the Hayward fault in an over-crowded urban area, which is what’s planned to accommodate BP’s needs? Politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Don Perata are such avid cheerleaders for the deal that they’ve offered $30 million more in California tax dollars to add a special structure next to LBL to house it. Tom Bates and Loni Hancock appeared on the platform along with UC and BP at the press conference announcing the pact. 

Political leaders and the press have the responsibility of acting as watchdogs for the public interest, but all too often they act like lemmings instead. Even research scientists are all too often dazzled by large sums into joining endeavors that they ought to be asking a few questions about. UC professors Miguel Altieri and Ignacio Chapela are to be commended for taking a skeptical stance about this one.  

There are many more reasons to worry about the accelerating privatization of the research done at what used to be the best public research institution in the world, even if the outcome of the research is socially desirable. In fact, the outstanding successes predicted in the hype about the deal might turn out to be the worst case of all. Until very recently research results from public universities quickly entered the public domain. What if the true key to unlocking the auto fuel potential in plants is discovered in this project, but Big Oil has patents locking it up for private gain? Are there safeguards against that? 

We’ll be interested to see how long it takes for others in government, the press and academia to start asking some of these hard questions.  

Lately opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com has been getting complaints not only about outrages and abuses in the wider world, and about our own supposed transgressions in the pages of the Planet, but about letters to the editors and other responsible parties in other media which the proprietors of same didn’t print. For example, we ran a couple of letters lambasting the San Francisco Chronicle for a particularly lame editorial on Lt. Ehren Watada’s refusal to fight in what he terms an illegal war. The editorial writer claimed that “no soldier can be allowed to pick and choose assignments, a notion that undercuts the necessary hierarchy of military order.” He or she must have been out the day they studied the Nuremberg Trials in history class in high school. To be fair, the Chronicle did publish one snappy letter the next day making this very point, but two other good ones which the Chron didn’t see fit to print ended up in the Daily Planet instead. Which is fine. Happy to be of service.  

Last week we were copied on a bunch of complaints about the KitchenDemocracy.org website, which evidently doesn’t offer a complaints column. The site says it’s based on the premise that “Elected officials want to interact with their residents. Because they rarely have such easy access to the opinions of so many citizens, Kitchen Democracy is a valuable channel through which they connect with their residents.”  

How are residents supposed to connect with these electeds? By signing up with Kitchen Democracy (K-D to fans), of course, in order to record votes on their proprietary website. 

Several e-mail writers objected vigorously to K-D’s practice of requiring would-be voters to disclose personal information before being allowed to join, and others complained that they’d tried to enroll but their comments never appeared on the site as promised. These complaints weren’t intended for publication in the Planet, so we won’t reprint them here, but readers should sample the page in question and form their own opinions about the virtues and faults of the process. 

What did catch my eye among the forwarded emails was a copy of a letter from District 8 councilmember Gordon Wozniak, addressed to “Berkeley residents.” Here’s what he said: 

“Recently Kitchen Democracy has launched an issue that is important to the vitality of the Elmwood Business District. Should Wright’s Garage convert to various retail uses and a restaurant? On Feb. 8, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) will probably decide whether or not to approve the application to convert the garage. Some are concerned that the conversion would exacerbate traffic and parking problems, while others believe it would benefit business throughout the Elmwood District. What do you think? Go to www.kitchendemocracy.org/22, read the article and your neighbor’s comments, then vote and tell ZAB what you think. Thanks for participating!” 

Well, I’m signed up as a member of K-D’s voting group myself, having long since abandoned any claims to privacy. I’m also personally concerned, since I live on Ashby Avenue, and any adverse effects from this project would impact my home. So I went to the site to see what was going on. I was amazed to discover that the “article” about the Wright Garage application was an effusive tribute to the virtues of the proposal signed by none other than Gordon Wozniak, complete with large color picture of his smiling face.  

What’s wrong with this? Well, for starters, after ZAB makes its decision on the project, no matter which way it goes, there’s sure to be an appeal. An appeal to whom? To the City Council, of course, on which the same Gordon Wozniak sits in a quasi-judiciary capacity to hear appeals of land use and zoning decisions by commissions. (What does “quasi-judiciary” mean? Acting as a judge.) 

When I was on another quasi-judiciary body, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the city attorney successfully prohibited three LPC commissioners from hearing Temple Beth-El’s application for a variance to build on a landmarked site just because we were board members or employees of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, even though we had not expressed or even formed any opinion on the particular project. And here’s Councilmember Wozniak touting this project on the Internet before it’s even gotten to ZAB! How could he possibly be allowed to vote on it when it reaches the council level?  

I posed the same question to a long-time ZAB member, and heard an explosion in which the words “propriety” and “ethics” figured prominently. He certainly didn’t think that ZAB members would ever be allowed to vote if they’d already expressed an opinion on a project before them. On the other hand, city councilmembers vote all the time on things that they’ve previously endorsed in campaigns and elsewhere, and no one complains.  

What does our city attorney have to say about this? Will Councilmember Wozniak be allowed to vote on a Wright’s Garage appeal if there is one? It will be interesting to see what happens. 

LT. WATADA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for covering Lt. Watada story. Lt. Watada’s courage and honesty are what I believe in. He gives me hope. I need true heroes. Lt. Watada and Congresswoman Barbara Lee both speak for me. I know my dad, who was a World War II vet, would agree. 

A. May Kandarian 

• 

DENISE BROWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I feel very fortunate to have known Denise Brown and am deeply saddened by her passing. For the many people in her extended community this is a terrible loss. 

On a more personal note, Ms. Brown was my daughter’s after school theater arts teacher throughout her years at Le Conte Elementary and her classroom teacher in fourth grade. More recently, as my daughter began her first year at Berkeley High I felt confident that Ms. Brown would be there for her if she ever needed to talk to someone she knew and trusted. 

Denise was a remarkable leader whose strength and magnetism quickly brought the community together to help achieve the highest goals she had for the students she tirelessly served. She was wise and caring and always took the time to inquire about how things were going, offering her assistance whenever necessary. 

Thank you, Denise, for all of the support and energy you gave to the many people whose paths were fortunate to have crossed your own. I will miss you and I will always treasure the time I had in your beautiful presence. 

Suzanna Aguayo 

• 

FIRE STATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For the health and safety of the citizens of Berkeley, the city needs to allocate sufficient funds to keep all the Berkeley fire stations operating full time at all times. Rotating closures endanger the health and safety of Berkeley citizens. The mayor and city council need to allocate the funds to keep our fire stations open and fully staffed. 

Edith Hillinger 

• 

TELEGRAPH AVENUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Does any sane person out there actually think turning two lanes of Telegraph Avenue over to AC Transit for bus only traffic is a good idea? Regardless of what the studies and impact reports to be commissioned have to say, this is what will happen: 

1. A few more people will ride the bus. 

2. Just as many people will say the hell with Berkeley and go to El Cerrito, Oakland and Emeryville for shopping and entertainment. Of course that migration is nothing new. But it will accelerate. 

3. The vast majority who drive will simply choke up the remaining two single lanes of Telegraph, as well as Shattuck, MLK and Sacramento. Not to mention all the side streets on southside. 

So what is really to be gained? 

Frank Greenspan 

• 

CAMPAIGN SPENDING STORY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have to take issue with the tone of the article written by Judith Scherr titled “Election Report Highlights City’s Big Spenders” in the Feb. 6-8 edition. The article opens with a summary of election contributions to George Beier’s campaign for the Berkeley City Council last November. The article lists “some of the big spenders donating to the Beier campaign ... include a number of developers who signed up for $250 a pop...” I cannot see how a $250 contribution can be considered as “big spending.” The article then points out that each vote Beier received cost $57.57. With this logic each “big spender” was accountable for less than five votes each in Beier’s losing effort. The remainder of the article summarized the contributions received by the candidates in other districts but the term “big spender” was not used again. However you spin it, it is still spin. 

By the way I very much enjoy the articles written by Joe Eaton, Ron Sullivan and Matt Cantor. 

Art Kapoor 

• 

HARRIET TUBMAN TERRACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to describe that there is no evacuation procedure or structure for those who cannot access the stairs at Harriet Tubman Terrace. On Monday, Feb. 5, there was a small fire in one of the apartments. The fire personnel tried to get all of the tenants on that floor out of their apartments and into the elevators but before that could happen the elevators locked down and could not be used. 

The fire was quickly contained. We here in the building know that there is no evacuation procedure in place for those tenannts who cannot access the stairs at Harriet Tubman Terrace. Our HUD representative thinks disabled tenants should find other subsidized housing. It’s too expensive to build evacuation structures. Either that, or the management should move them to the first two floors of the building. Not a bad idea but it will never happen. I hope that a major fire never happens. 

Name withheld 

• 

STATE OF RAPTURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Walking home this afternoon after the exhilarating Wednesday Noon Concert at Hertz Hall, I was in a state of rapture, having just heard a brilliant young pianist, Jared Redmond, in a truly dynamic recital. Call it an exaggeration, if you wish, but I wonder if there’s been a finer performance in any of the world’s great concert halls than today’s superb program. A large, enthusiastic crowd gathered at the stage door to congratulate this virtuoso, who, I’m convinced , is destined to become an internationally famous performer. Reflecting on other memorable programs I had enjoyed in just the past week, I thought how very, very fortunate I am to live within walking distance of UC. Topping off the list of programs was the stimulating conversation between Professor Robert Hass and the artist Bernardo Botero, which launched the exhibit of the haunting paintings of the torture victims at Abu Ghraib. A few days later a young Iraq poet read her verses at the Thursday Noon Poetry Program in the Morrison Room at Doe Library. That same evening, Robert Pinsky , a U.S. Poet Laureate, spoke in Wheeler Hall. At Zellerbach Hall we were treated to flamenco music by guitarist Paco de Lucia. The list goes on and on (i.e., a talk by Robert Reich at Wheeler Hall on Feb. 21). It seems to me I meet myself coming and going to campus to take in all these events. My energy level is running low! Once again, I can only say how grateful I am to the University of California for enriching my life with the wealth of cultural events if offers our community. 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

• 

DECISION MAKING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your Feb. 6 editorial “Wozniak’s Vote: A Conflict of Interest” got me thinking about the difference between the legal and scientific approach to decision making. In a court case the juror evaluates information that is presented by the attorneys. It is the attorneys’ responsibility to make sure that all the relevant information is presented. You are supposed to know nothing about the case when it starts, and you are explicitly admonished against gathering information on your own. The judge is supposed to make sure that the information that is presented in court is relevant. You are not presumed to be competent to make this determination yourself, although amazingly you are supposedly competent to evaluate the information that is presented to you. At least this is how it has looked to me from my limited jury experiences. 

This passive approach is not what is used in the sciences. The scientist is free to gather information, and determine relevancy. Furthermore, you are expected to hypothesize and form opinions. You are expected to test those hypotheses and opinions, and change them if new information warrants the change. 

The editorial suggests that it is a conflict of interest and unethical for Wozniak to have an opinion on Wright’s garage before the issue is brought to council. From the scientist’s perspective it is irresponsible, and even unethical, not to take an active role in gathering information. A council member is not a juror. I think the city attorney’s ruling on the Landmarks Preservation Commission was a disaster, and I suggest that it would be even worse if applied to the City Council. It would certainly make campaigns interesting if the successful candidates were not allowed to vote on any issues on which they had previously expressed an opinion. 

Disclaimer: I am a scientist and Wozniak’s appointee to the environmental advisory commission. 

Robert Clear 

• 

KITCHEN DEMOCRACY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In your previous edition you attacked our community website www.KitchenDemocracy.org, and tried to frighten our members. You wrote: 

“Several e-mail writers objected vigorously to K-D’s practice of requiring would-be voters to disclose personal information before being allowed to join, and others complained that they’d tried to enroll but their comments never appeared on the site as promised. These complaints weren’t intended for publication in the Planet, so we won’t reprint them here...” 

You also stated: “I’m signed up as a member of K-D’s voting group myself, having long since abandoned any claims to privacy.” 

First, I repeat facts which are on our website, and were easily available to you as you prepared your editorial: 

1) KD is an Internet Forum for civic discourse. Among other things, we tally opinions. We collect name, address and e-mail to prevent vote fraud. 

2) We zealously protect our members’ privacy. Our privacy policy, which can be accessed from a link on every page of our website, clearly states that we do not share contact information. We publish names next to comments only when the writer gives us permission. 

3) To further prevent vote fraud, users need to click on the link we e-mail them in order to verify their comment. A small percentage of members need help doing that, and we have published every comment of every person who asked for that help. 

4) We publish every verified comment which does not contain personal attacks or obscenities: more than 99 percent of verified comments are published as is. For the remaining 1 percent, we contact every author and invite them to revise the offending language. More than half of them do. 

My question for you is this: If your e-mail writers’ complaints weren’t intended for publication, why do you publish them? Why, without any proof, do you write that voting on KD compromises our members’ privacy and that KD does not publish voter comments? Why are you afraid of an all-volunteer organization whose only goal is to help people engage in civic dialog? 

You’ve done a disservice to me and all the other KD volunteers who have tirelessly produced KD as a free public service for almost a year purely out of our dedication to open, civic dialog. You’ve done a disservice to our 1,200 Berkeley members who, despite intimidating reports about privacy on the web, love to be able to learn about Berkeley issues and participate in City Hall deliberations from their own home on their own schedule. 

But most of all, you’ve done a disservice to every Berkeley resident who loves this town as a symbol of what she loves best about America: a place where every person has the right to express her opinion without fear of intimidation or attack. You, as editor of the town newspaper, abrogated your responsibility to protect that tradition when you attacked Kitchen Democracy and tried to frighten its members. You’ve done a disservice to the City of Berkeley. 

Robert Vogel 

Kitchen Democracy 

• 

CELL PHONE TOWERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A letter to my friends in the LeConte Neighborhood: 

First let me say that if nothing else had come out of our efforts to prevent this awful intrusion of our corner of town, I felt that this struggle had brought us closer as a neighborhood, and for that I was grateful. However, something did come out of it. Actually, we achieved a lot. 

It certainly is no small feat when a group of individuals, relatively unknowledgeable about law, and certainly not backed by truckloads of money (as is the case with our adversaries), pool their talents and resources to fight and win a battle that at first seems daunting. We did just that, and we should all be very proud of our accomplishments. 

Verizon and Nextel have millions if not billions of dollars backing them; and Patrick Kennedy, too, is certainly not strapped for cash. Yet none of this mattered for one simple reason—our sheer determination. We did not back down. Each and every individual involved showed an amount of courage that made me proud to live in this neighborhood. 

Personally, I don’t put much stock in politics. I look at our collective history as a species and see a legacy of power leading to corruption. I believe in the individual, and his/her potential to change his/herself, eventually influencing others through their actions. Now, and much thanks to you all, I can add another impetus for change to my list—the community. Although global and certainly statewide politics seem in an utter state of dismay, at least now I know that there is the possibility for change on a local level and I am truly inspired by this, so thank you all. 

Chris Restivo  

P.S.: Should Kennedy and his cronies appeal this decision, there is no doubt in my mind we will once again triumph. 

• 

ROUNDABOUTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Feb. 3 that Berkeley intends to resolve the problem intersection in Berkeley at I-80 and Gilman Street by installing a roundabout there. This will only make that intersection much worse, as drivers slow to figure out how to navigate this misplaced island and what they’re supposed to do.  

Berkeley Public Works officials have a sick infatuation with roundabouts, recently installing them at small residential intersections in large numbers. This has created a potentially grave hazard for bicyclists. These circles are so wide that they force traffic into the sidewalks as they swing wide around the traffic circles, without stopping. Berkeley officials from Mayor Bates and City Manager Kamlarz on down have been totally unresponsive to letters about this! 

Roundabouts are designed to facilitate traffic flow where five or more busy streets come together—and they work very well all over Boston, D.C. and other major cities. The roundabout at Marin Circle is a good example of thoughtful placement of this device. The many new ones at small, residential four-way intersections, create confusion for drivers and hazards for pedestrians and bicyclists. More important, they do nothing to enhance the safety of pedestrians, cyclists or cars. 

Berkeley City Councilmember Linda Maio has championed these things all over town, with a heavy concentration in her district. Maio has been unresponsive to many memos objecting to these things. At one of her few public meetings (two weeks before the election), she denied having seen letters expressing these objections, and has since avoided responding to e-mails, phone calls and attempts at personal discussion. 

At her meeting, when a speaker expressed that there may be some unseemly financial arrangements behind this proliferation of expensive and unnecessary construction projects, Maio was very quick to defend them saying, “Oh no, there could not possibly be any kickback scheme behind these things.” Maio used the word, “kickback” in the conversation without prompting from anyone else. Hmm? Perhaps an investigation is in order. Why have so many of these out-of-place impediments been constructed in the past three years? Which construction company (or companies) are awarded these contracts? And what is their relationship to Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Maio? 

As for I-80 and Gilman Street: Replace the stop signs on the two frontage roads with a “smart” traffic signal that can read the traffic volume, and adjust the flow accordingly. A roundabout, without a signal, will only cause worse backups onto the southbound I-80 freeway and eastward on Gilman Street. Perhaps the City of Berkeley can fix this mess, without awarding yet another lucrative and totally unnecessary construction project. 

H. Scott Prosterman 

• 

THE MARTINSVILLE SEVEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In light of Black History Month, please allow me to share with your readers the story of the largest mass execution for rape in United States history. It is the story of the Martinsville Seven. 

In 1949, in Martinsville Virginia, seven black men were arrested for the rape of a 32-year-old married white woman. Within 30 hours of this rape, all seven men had signed written confessions. Within 11 days, all seven were tried, convicted and sentenced to death by all white juries. Two of these men were tried at the same time. The youngest was only 17 years old at the time of arrest and the oldest 37, with a wife and five beautiful children. 

Two years later, in Feb. of 1951, within a 72-hour period, eight black men were executed in Richmond, Virginia, seven of them for the rape of one white woman. They were the Martinsville Seven. The day before the youngest one died, he said “God knows I didn’t touch that woman and I’ll see ya’ll on the other side.” 

The Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Russia and China sent telegrams to the White House where President Harry Truman refused to grant clemency. Around the world, they became known as the Martinsville Seven, the largest mass execution for rape in U.S. history. 

No white man in Virginia has ever been executed for rape. Finally, in 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that rape could not be punishable by death. The Martinsville Seven case was instrumental in helping change the rape laws that govern this great nation. 

One last thing: Every person I’ve ever interviewed in Martinsville, young and old alike, said that the victim was having an affair with one of the Seven. The true story of the Seven has never been told. 

And for the record, three of the these men were Hairstons, relatives of mine, and I was born and raised in Martinsville. Thanks for listening. 

Pamela A. Hairston 

Washington, D.C. 

• 

MIDDLE EAST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

One wonders whether Dan Spitzer (Letters, Jan. 30) is intentionally misleading, or merely ignorant, in his flawed attempt to debunk Joseph Lifschutz’s Jan. 23 column. 

For one thing, to use the opinions by the likes of Dennis Ross or Kenneth Stein as “substantiation” is mildly amusing. And to suggest that the “...14 members of the Carter Center’s board who resigned...” is a serious matter without pointing out that it is an advisory board of over 200 members comprised mainly of people who have made donations to the center is intellectually dishonest. 

Spitzer also repeats the tired party line that “...it has been the Palestinian leaders...who have been the primary obstacles...as Dennis Roth (!) has frequently noted...” If Spitzer actually knew what the 2000 Camp David talks called for I doubt that even he would make such a claim. In fact, many leading Israelis have already debunked that claim (See Israeli academic Tanya Reinhart’s seriously documented analysis, for example). 

What is urgently needed is a comprehensive proposal for a solution to this long-standing problem. The only remotely reasonable and workable proposal visible so far was the Geneva Initiative, produced with the help of none other than Jimmy Carter (it was rejected out-of-hand by Sharon while the Palestinians dithered)!  

Rather than continuing to gradually squeeze out the Palestinians, Israel should be the one to make such a proposal. It is urgent because, as David Grossman says, “If you hesitate, we’ll soon be longing for the days when Palestinian terrorism was an amateur affair.” (www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/784034.html) 

Finally, Carter’s use of the term “apartheid” to describe Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian (spare me the Palestinian treatment of women, etc. red herrings) was apt and accurate (many call it worse) and is recognized as such by the vast majority of impartial and intellectually honest leaders in the world, starting from the top: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. 

In the long run, those who continue encouraging and blindly supporting aggressive hard line Israeli military tactics are the ones who are working for the destruction of Israel. 

S.L. Rennacker 

Ft. Jones, CA 

• 

TRADER JOE’S PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Friday, Feb. 2, I filed an appeal on behalf of Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way of the Zoning Adjustments Board’s decision to grant permits to Hudson McDonald for their massive mixed-use project at the corner of University and Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

Why did we appeal an affordable housing project anchored by a popular supermarket? 

• It is a bad affordable housing project that fails to conform to the letter and spirit of state law. 

• It is 20,000 square feet and 25 units larger than the Zoning Ordinance allows and state law requires. 

• It ignores our Zoning Ordinance development standards for building height and setbacks. 

• Its size and design elements cause significant detriment to the surrounding neighborhood.  

• Its retail tenant will cause traffic and parking chaos in an already congested area, impacts far beyond those foreseen by a deeply flawed transportation study. 

• It sets a dangerous precedent for the city by granting density bonus units reserved by state law for affordable housing to subsidize a commercial use, here for Trader Joe’s parking lot, in the next project for any commercial use an applicant may propose and the ZAB determines that the city needs or wants. 

The appeal is available (with and without attachments) on the PlanBerkeley website: www.planberkeley.org/1885ua_files/1885ProjHmPage.html. 

We recognize that many of you are tired of hearing about this project and simply want to move on, however the project as it stands is so detrimental and blatantly illegal we believe as a neighborhood that we must pursue all legal means to preserve the livability of our city and neighborhood. What can you do to promptly correct the problems with this project and its approval process? 

Add your name on a letter (e-mail to swollmer@pcmagic.net) supporting our appeal to the Berkeley City Council requesting an open and fair hearing on the project, and subsequent to the hearing exercise its right and duty to minimize the project’s detriment to the citizens of Berkeley and the neighbors of the project. 

Stephen Wollmer 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a series of columns submitted in response to the Daily Planet’s call for tributes to Molly Ivins. 

It can be depressing to be politically progressive, and because she took my depression away from me more than once I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Molly Ivins. Her spirit, and that of Ann Richards, was a reason I felt comfortable moving to Texas in the last year. It has been a hard year.  

Austin is a place where peace is taken seriously. My wife’s and my neighbors, in our otherwise nondescript new development, put up Christmas decorations in December, including a lighted “Peace” sign on their fence. When the season ended, the home’s other decorations came down but the “Peace” sign stayed. In point of fact, it is not difficult to find peace symbols and signs throughout Austin. You’re free to believe that such displays have no effect on the world, just as you’re free to believe that the current resident of the White House is one of the best presidents we’ve ever had.  

The war Ms. Ivins had taken it upon herself to help end is not good. Not only are thousands dead, tens of thousands maimed, and billions misspent—but the whole enterprise is a geopolitical debt in my country’s name that will be difficult, if possible at all, to repay. Bush took one of the most brutal countries on earth, Iraq, and made it more so. He took one of the most complex and troubled regions on earth, the Persian Gulf, and made it more so. And, not incidentally, he avoided required service by American presidents to monitor and work to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the consequences of his dereliction in Jerusalem may one day rival his more obvious misdoings in other parts of the Middle East.  

Over the last couple of days, U.S. and Iraqi forces, fighting side by side, engaged in one of the more ferocious battles of the war. Their opponent was a “death cult” comprised of several hundred Shiite fanatics bent on wiping out the mainstream Shiite leadership during a religious holiday. I only mention it because I want to draw attention to how unlikely it is that our commander-in-chief understands what underlay this battle or, at least, that he would be willing to acknowledge understanding the reality on the ground. To wit, the fight, in which three hundred of the death-cultists perished, is just a single wrinkle in the hideous tapestry of religious fanaticism and vengeance that the United States has helped to uncover, and in some places weave.  

But despite many similar instances of internecine havoc, Bush has chosen to pretend that al Qaeda was the greatest threat to stability and peace in Iraq, and that the far more copious bloodletting achieved by other actors was somehow not real. The reason? Because the name al Qaeda, connected to Sept. 11 as it is, helps to resell and rejustify our own bloodletting in Iraq, of our own boys and girls, and anyone else’s boys and girls.  

The “decider” managed to put al Qaeda in a country where it wasn’t and then to keep repeating its name, almost religiously. He may have hoped to confuse his less-educated countrymen about what more potent evil had been unleashed in his own name in Iraq, and, for a time, he may have succeeded. But there are fewer and fewer people of any educational level willing to buy such malodorous waste. 

Molly Ivins didn’t get to see the end of the Iraq war; she would have taken deep satisfaction in seeing that day come. She would also have been happy to know that her brothers and sisters in peace were fighting to prevent the beginning of the Iran war. Dick Cheney, our vice-president only in name, is working hard on expanding the madness eastward, which means that his putative boss is working hard on it, too. 

Harold Ambler is an Austin-based writer, editor, and musician. He kept a year-long blog about his baby daughter, which can be found at http://dadwrites.blogspot.com. 

In her Jan. 30 article, “ZAB Rejects Cell Phone Antennas on UC Storage,” Riya Bhattacharjee writes:  

“Applicants Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications argued at the meeting that the need for cell phone towers had stemmed from complaints of South Berkeley residents about dropped calls and poor reception. Several Verizon Wireless employees as well as customers testified about poor cell phone service in the area and urged the board to approve the use permit.”  

A fuller account may help readers understand this meeting’s importance. First, neither our neighborhood group, the Le Conte Neighborhood Association, nor even the neighbors within 100 of the proposed project, ever received any city or developer notice of the project. On May 25, 2006, the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) by a vote of 8-0-1 (Abtain: Shumer) voted to allow the installation of 17 new cell phone antennas at 2721 Shattuck Ave. In September the City Council sent the matter back to ZAB for review. Thankfully, a handful of our neighbors had gotten wind of developer Patrick Kennedy’s, Nextel’s, and Verizon’s plans and managed to stall a second ZAB decision until Jan. 25 This delay allowed our neighborhood time to organize, conduct research, and get out the word. According to the ZAB minutes, 167 people were in attendance at the Jan. 25 meeting. This turnout far exceeded the ZAB’s highest attendance in the past 12 months. 

Shortly before the Jan. 25 meeting our newly formed group, Berkeley Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (BNAFU), presented the ZAB with a City Planning Department map of Berkeley which lists all cell phone antenna locations in the city. The map indicates that South Berkeley already has 15 separate antenna locations, 12 of which are located in our part of town. North Berkeley has two locations, while the Berkeley Hills have none. South and Central Berkeley, supposedly suffering from poor cell phone service, have seven times the number of locations that North Berkeley has.  

At the January meeting, the developer, cell phone company reps, and a corporate attorney presented their case. Then a dozen Nextel/Verizon managers/employees and sincere-sounding Nextel/Verizon customers also pleaded for improved cell phone service. One manager was from the Emeryville Nextel store, which I had contacted a few hours before the meeting. I spoke shortly after he did and conveyed the following information: That afternoon I not only had called the Berkeley Nextel and Verizon stores, but the Emeryville Nextel Store, as well, to inquire about the quality of service in the proposed coverage area. I spoke to one store manager and three employees at these stores. All of them looked on their store computers at a color-coded map of the area. They told me that our area was receiving their number one, highest rating for excellent phone service. They stated that their own Nextel and Verizon phones provided excellent service and reception in Central and South Berkeley. One remembered a few complaints about poor service, but every one of these had been resolved with a free software upgrade. Two employees mentioned that the North Berkeley Hills and Claremont Hotel had received less than excellent ratings due either to no service available or dropped calls. Why don’t the suffering Berkeley Hills residents get together and demand that at least a few antenna towers be placed in their neighborhoods?  

Finally, our neighbors testified that they had no problems with their cell phone service. Many also expressed deep concerns about the health risks of radio frequency (RF) radiation emanating from these antennas, even though it is illegal for cities to use RF radiation as a reason for denying a use permit, as long as it is within FCC “safe” limits. This policy is part of the Federal Telecommunications Act, pushed through Congress in 1996 by the telecommunications industry.  

How can we ever understand and resolve our health concerns, if, during our city’s decision-making discussions, we can’t even consider the risks to our heath without the fear of being successfully sued in court by the cell phone industry? The FCC established what they consider safe emissions levels from antennas. Even the EPA thinks these are too low to be safe. Why would we need emission limits in the first place if there is no danger? The applicants were actually considering erecting a huge wall in order to separate their antennas from a proposed five-story condominium development next door in order to reduce 24/7 radiation exposure from the current project. Why would they need a wall if emissions do not present a health risk?  

As the meeting continued, one resident after another from our part of town spoke about their satisfaction with their current cell phone service and about what they had learned of antenna dangers (The King Early Childhood Center, serving 85 3- to 6-year-olds, is located 800 feet from the proposed site). ZAB members listened. Just before midnight, the ZAB overturned their May decision and voted 6-3 to reject the argument of need made by Verizon/Nextel spokesmen, attorneys, employees, and recruited customers. Members Allen, Doran, and Judd opposed the majority and supported the antenna installation. 

This victory represented one of those sweet moments, when the power of the people overcomes developer and corporate domination and manipulation. Stay tuned. The next round may see Kennedy, Verizon, and Nextel appeal the ZAB decision to the Berkeley City Council. You can purchase a taped copy of the meeting at the downtown Berkeley ZAB office, where cell phone reception is great. For more information about BNAFU, e-mail: jllib2@aol.com. 

Michael Barglow is a Berkeley resident. 

Matthew Taylor’s recent op-ed blaming Israel for just about everything is filled with every manner of distortion, falsehood, reliance on dubious and partisan sources, and a very selective reading of history. Here are just a few examples: 

“Sharon was a fervent supporter of Israel’s illegal colonies during his entire career.” Sharon, the hawk, indeed was a key driver of the settlement movement throughout much of his career, but certainly not for his “entire” career. In 1982, Sharon personally oversaw the dismantling of the large Sinai settlement of Yamit when this became a necessary precursor to a peace deal with Egypt. This foreshadowed his most recent action when he ordered and oversaw the complete uprooting and eradication of each and every Jewish settlement in Gaza, making Gaza judenrein. Sharon then founded a new political party, Kadima, which swept the Israeli elections on the promise that it would similarly uproot Jewish settlements on the West Bank. That promise has not yet been fulfilled largely because the Israeli public has now been twice burned, and has every reason to be triply cautious when it comes to unilaterally abandoning its positions. In exchange for its unilateral withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, carried out by then prime minister, Ehud Barak, Israel had to look on helplessly at the steady buildup of Hizbollah on its border. In response to its complete withdrawal from Gaza, Israel has withered under a ceaseless missile bombardment of its nearby town, Sderot, and surrounding villages. Taylor mentions none of these inconvenient truths. 

“Gaza is now the world’s largest open-air prison.” Gaza has three borders. One with Israel, the second with Egypt, and the third with the open sea. I fail to see how that makes it a prison. Goods flow in both directions over all borders. Is there a border fence between Israel and Gaza? Sure. I recently crossed the U.S./Mexican border at Tijuana and saw a high fence there also. And the Mexicans aren’t even lobbing missiles into San Diego, or attempting to send suicide bombers across the border. 

“Hamas appears inclined to recognize Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders.” Really? Hamas has never said anything of the sort. True there have been some transparent efforts to massage the subject linguistically, when one or another Hamas official says in effect that “Israel exists as a fact.” But Hamas has always meant this in the same way that one would say that AIDS or malaria exist as a fact. Exist, yes, but only until the day of their eradication. 

Israel has built roads on the West Bank that are only open to settlers, as Taylor says. But Taylor conveniently neglects to mention that those roads were only built in response to the intifada, since Israelis were routinely shot dead while traveling on roads shared with Palestinians. This is the far left’s shabby definition of apartheid: kill Israelis, then accuse them of apartheid when they put up a defensive shield to prevent more killing. I would suggest that it is the Palestinians who are practicing apartheid when they insist that not one Jew shall be permitted to live amongst them. And Christians aren’t much welcome either. Just ask your local Palestinian grocers whether they are Christian or Muslim. I’ll bet they’re Christian Arabs. Then have a real heart to heart with them about just why it is they have come to America. Dig a bit deeper than the usual anti-Israel slogans. Or, better yet, visit Bethlehem or other towns or villages in Palestine that until recently were majority Christian Arab. They are almost all majority Muslim now, the Christian inhabitants having fled for their lives since the advent of Palestinian self-rule under the PA and that flight has accelerated now that they have come under the rule of Hamas.  

There has been much talk of recent about the “new anti-Semitism,” as evidenced by mono-maniacal condemnation of every manner of imagined or real Israeli misbehavior. I have seen the arguments back and forth, and think that much of it misses an essential point. As a lot, the DP’s many anti-Israel contributors are not anti-Semities, they are racists. DP editor, Becky O’Malley, expressed this best when she once told me that she doesn’t hate Israel, but rather expects more of Jews. Let’s follow this reasoning to its conclusion. When the far left relentlessly condemns Israel, while almost completely ignoring Arab behavior, they are in effect saying that while they expect human perfection from Israelis, they expect nothing whatsoever that might resemble even minimally acceptable human behavior from their little brown brothers, the Arabs. Are they not in effect arguing that Arabs are barbarians and animals from which so little can be expected that to even bother writing articles in the DP about the Arab slaughter of blacks in Darfur, the Sunni/Shiite Civil War, the Palestinian Civil War, the murder of homosexuals, the “honor killing” of women, suicide bombings, al Qaeda, Middle East kleptocracies, Middle East theocracies, and so forth and so on, would be pointless. While I am left unsure whether Berkeley’s far left is classically anti-Semitic, I am increasingly sure that their sub-human expectations of Arabs amounts to blatant racism. 

John Gertz is a Berkeley resident.

Since, with respect to Mideast policy, the United States and Israel are inseparable, it is not surprising that, with the disastrous collapse of the Iraq project, for the first time in a long time criticism of Israel’s policies is being heard in this country. Not only political realists like James Baker, Jimmy Carter, and professors Mearsheimer and Walt, but also the anti-war left have been almost forced, despite their reluctance, into looking anew at the occupation of Palestine. Many American Jews, liberal and anti-war by inclination, have been experiencing some discomfort from this turn of events. This discomfort has been deliberately aggravated by a Zionist campaign, mounted for several years now both here and in Europe, to convince Jews that they are experiencing a huge new wave of anti-Semitism, coming, against all expectations, from the left. 

Right on schedule, therefore, on Jan. 28, the day after UFPJ’s mass anti-war mobilization, a conference called “Finding our Voice: The Conference for Progressives Constructively Addressing Anti-Semitism” was held in San Francisco. No actually progressive—and anti-occupation—Jewish organizations, such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Tikkun, and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, were invited as either co-sponsors or presenters, although BlueStarPR, an aggressive promoter of Israeli interests, was. Curious, the excluded eventually outed the anonymous conference organizer as the Anti-Defamation League. 

I bring this esoteric subject to the attention of Daily Planet readers because of one interesting local connection. The person who put the conference together was Rabbi Jane Litman of Congregration Beth El. Thus we learn three useful things about Rabbi Litman. She has connections with the ADL. She conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. And she is not averse to deceptive packaging. 

In light of this information, let’s look back at the Daily Planet’s “anti-Semitism” controversy of last summer. On August 8, the Planet published Kuresh Arianpour’s eloquent, angry, and distressed op-ed which was, unfortunately, marred by a number of false statements about Jews. Subsequently, a woman identifying herself only as “Tami from the ADL” called Becky O’Malley and asked for a meeting about the piece. O’Malley told her she thought it would be a waste of time. Finally, on Aug. 22, O’Malley published two group letters condemning anti-Semitism in the Planet. 

One letter, signed by a number of prominent Bay Area politicians, was “forwarded to the Planet” by Rabbi Ferenc Raj of Congregration Beth El. The other, signed by twenty-three representatives of 16 organizations and claiming to speak “on behalf of the Berkeley Jewish community,” claimed that “we” requested a meeting with O’Malley and were denied. O’Malley has asserted since that she was never contacted by anyone except the ADL rep; further, that none of the signatories has ever replied to her subsequent offer to meet. 

Despite the claim to represent “the Berkeley Jewish community”—a phrase which readers might assume to mean “all Jews residing in Berkeley”—in fact nine of the undersigned organizations represented in whole or in large part the interests of the state of Israel. A few of the signatories could be readily so identified: New Israel Fund, Israel Action Committee of the East Bay, and Bridges to Israel; Many others, such as the ADL, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and Hillel, function mainly, though not exclusively, as part of the huge Israel lobby machine, as do the regional Jewish community federations. Thus, if one means “Jewish” in any commonly understood sense of that term, rather than “Zionist,” on the list of signatories you were pretty much down to the synagogues. But were the synagogues representing the “Jewish community”? 

O’Malley speculated at the time of the controversy that there might have been extraneous reasons for the ferocity of the attack on the Planet—which includes, by the way, a still-ongoing boycott. For one, Julie Kennedy, president of Congregration Beth El and one of the undersigned of the Aug. 22 letter, is the wife of developer Patrick Kennedy, whose projects the Planet often opposes. I am not forgetting the great Beth El parking controversy which produced many passionate letters pro and con, some of which leveled the charge of anti-Semitism. Both of these issues change “Jewish” as in that resonant phrase “the Jewish community of Berkeley” to the perfectly local, secular, and political interests of Congregation Beth El, or members thereof. 

But finally, the Berkeley Daily Planet has been unique among Bay Area newspapers and, I would guess, American newspapers, in assuming that Israel, like any other topic, may be discussed. As soon as I had read, and published, letters in the Planet critical of Israel and the Lobby, I knew that sooner or later a boycott would be in place. What I couldn’t know was what incident would finally set it off. 

Which brings me back to Jane Litman and the ADL conference. What is shockingly noticeable about the accusatory letters now, six months after the fact, is what they leave out. Arianpour’s letter was, of course, a response to Israel’s war on Lebanon—as was the tragic attack on the Jewish federation in Seattle, mentioned in the Litman et al letter. Yet you cannot tell from reading it (or the one forwarded by Rabbi Raj, or Kris Worthington’s, published in the same issue) that a war was taking place, since the war is never mentioned. The context for the rise in anger against Jews has been carefully excised, so that the “anti-Semitism” under scrutiny appears to be still another instance of eternal hatred, not a rough-and-tumble response to Israel’s brutal attack. As we all rushed in the ensuing weeks to decry racism or defend free speech, why did we not notice that the topic of discussion had been neatly flipped from Israel’s war to the Planet’s anti-Semitism, from Jews as perpetrators to Jews as victims? 

Joanna Graham is a Berkeley resident.

OAKS, BEVATRON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You could solve both the oaks and Bevatron demolition controversies by building the proposed athletics training center on the site of the old Bevatron, sparing the oaks on the fault line and commemorating the Bevatron with a suitable bronze plaque on the new building. 

Steve Juniper 

• 

ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Seeing the city map of cell phone antenna locations was a lesson in environmental injustice. Two locations in North Berkeley approved and 15 in South Berkeley—how surprising. Patrick Kennedy has done all the work on his building necessary to install 12 to 18 more antennas here in South Berkeley, abutting a residential neighborhood, across the street from Savo Island, a housing development with many seriously handicapped, vulnerable citizens, and one block from a child care center servicing our youngest, most of whom are minorities. 

The Zoning Board denied his permit for these antennas and of course Kennedy will appeal, since most of the work is done and the only approval for it is missing. I’m sure there will be serious pressure put on the mayor, council and ZAB members by Mr. Kennedy and the cell phone companies to change the ZAB decision or override it. Will their concern be for the people of South Berkeley or out-of-town developers and international corporations? We await their decision. 

The cell phone representative argued that UC Berkeley needs these particular towers in this particular location. Now that really caused me to guffaw—Cal owns half the town, has hundreds of buildings and a large hillside so they surely have a place for antennas and don’t need to add to ours down here. 

Rosemary Vimont 

• 

SPOTTY COVERAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Anyone with a cell phone knows that coverage in Berkeley is spottier than coverage in surrounding areas. My own business has suffered as a result. Perhaps our city leaders could add a new message to the Nuclear Free Zone signs: “Welcome to Berkeley: A Business-Free Zone.” Of course, they’d have to raise residential property taxes to pay for those signs, because business sales tax dollars are going to Albany and Emeryville. 

Tom Case 

• 

CELL PHONE ANTENNAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your Jan. 20 story, “ZAB Rejects Cell Phone Antennas on UC Storage,” was quite interesting. It seems that some activist-citizens in Berkeley did not want to see Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications be able to improve their local cellular telephone service offerings. I trust that none of these activist-citizens are currently users of cell phones or any other modern electronically-based technology, including television, radio, Internet, e-mail, WiFi or even the traditional telephone. For if they are, they are thus being schizophrenic, plain silly or as the folk saying goes, cutting off their noses to spite their face. Many people seem to want to enjoy the fruits of modern technology without allowing the needed supporting infrastructure to be placed locally in their neighborhoods. 

As for alleged health concerns, we are all already taking a 24/7 daily bath in a cornucopia of electromagnetic energy: electricity, radio waves, television broadcasts, microwaves, radar, WiFi and satellite television signals. This is on top of all the natural electromagnetic radiation, which we receive from the sun, plus cosmic radiation originating from beyond our solar system. This radiation has been showering down on our Earth for billions of years; all species of plants and animals have evolved and lived in this radiation bath. There is also radioactivity from natural sources in the earth’s rocks. 

In a similar vein to our Berkeley protests, some of the good citizens through the tunnel out in Lafayette are up in arms about whether to continue to allow cell phone service antennas to be disguised as artificial “trees” with their blue-green needles and branches. And I thought that the corporations were quite smart in making these broadcast antenna/trees an obviously artificial blue-green color to stop ignorant woodsmen or tree trimmers from cutting down the antenna-trees in a fit of harvesting or pruning mania. Hmm, artificial Christmas trees are fine and dandy, but artificial cell phone tower/trees are not. Wonders never cease with the human species. 

James K. Sayre 

Oakland 

• 

INSINUATING LANGUAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I must protest a statement made in your Jan. 9 article “BSEP Extension Best News for BUSD in 2006.” Your writer insinuated that the former staff of B-Tech, or, Berkeley Alternative High School as it was known then, did not care about the students. My domestic partner was a teacher at Berkeley Alternative. I got to know the story of Berkeley Alternative, and saw how hard some of the staff worked to not only keep the students interested, but keep the students showing up. Knowing that my partner would get up at 4 a.m. to create curriculum, and stay up until 10 p.m., doing the same, I know she cared. I got to know other staff at the school through my partner. These were some genuinely dedicated people. I’d like to know how your writer concluded that these teachers didn’t care at all about their pupils. Unless you’ve worked with students, you really don’t have a right to pass judgment in such a sweeping way as your writer did in your paper. And I assume he/she has never worked with students, otherwise he/she would not have been so quick to put down a group of educators so casually. Trust, I know that things were not perfect at that school, but then, when you’re talking about a majority students-of-color school in an urban area, “perfect” is rarely a qualifier. But what your paper wrote was offensive and inappropriate.  

I’ve worked with at-risk kids myself, and no matter how much you care and remain engaged in your work and your commitment to the children, you’re never really appreciated enough… but, boy, are folks ready to tear you apart at the slightest twitch, or in this case, glitch in the system! But it’s still not necessary to see it printed in such a careless, back-handed and unsolicited fashion. I hope that in the future you think twice about assigning topics to writers who probably don’t have a clue about what they’re being asked to comment on through a medium like the Daily Planet. No wonder we’re struggling to find folks who are willing to go into teaching. To be treated this way? 

Pablo Espinoza 

Oakland 

• 

MOLLY IVINS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Molly Ivins was a woman of will and wit. Her death was not like a ship passing in the night, but more like a speed boat going full throttle across your front lawn—big, noisy and gunning for your living room, especially if the taxpayer furnished it. 

Until her last published breath, Ivins’ engine was revved and running. Her final column of Jan. 11 stated “Stop it Now,” referencing the president’s proposed surge in troops. “Hit the streets,” Ivins implored, “banging pots and pans.” 

She’d probably prefer demonstrators with big spoons and cookware at her funeral than flowers and eulogies. For Ivins, anti-Bush sentiments supersede all others. 

Mary Alice Altorfer 

New Braunfels, TX  

• 

BROWER CENTER EXPENSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I sat in the City Council chambers many years ago when inclusion of the David Brower Center in the Oxford Lot development was approved. The Planning Commission, HAC, ZAB, DRC and council have all publicly worked on this project for years. The city did a great thing when it decided to finance an affordable family housing project, especially downtown.  

What makes this project expensive is not the Brower Center and it is not the Oxford Plaza housing—it is the public parking. Downtown merchants and others insisted on public parking to replace the spaces on the surface lot. And as many of us tried to explain at the time, parking spaces are extremely expensive to construct and parking fees do not pay for that cost. It is this cost which is driving the price so high and is no reason to oppose the project itself. If you feel that the city cost is too high, don’t sign an initiative to stop the project— just stop the parking garage and make the project car-free, saving the city several million dollars. 

The Brower Center will be a four-story office building that will house environmental groups including Earth Island Institute. It is privately funded. It will be the first LEED platinum green building in Berkeley. It will serve as a model for how to build buildings that won’t guzzle energy. For information, see: www.browercenter.org. 

The Oxford Plaza housing project next to the Brower Center will have 96 affordable housing units, the largest number built anywhere in Berkeley since the 1980s. It is one of the few projects built anywhere in Berkeley in the last 20 years that has affordable family-sized units. As with any below-market housing, the project is not viable without a city subsidy. The project has been hit hard by rising construction costs, as have other projects in Berkeley and in the Bay Area. Oxford Plaza will also be a green building. For more information see RCD’s website: www.rcdev.org/what_development_oxford.html. 

The city’s requirement that parking at the Oxford lot be replaced underneath has greatly added to the costs. That is the real culprit and if anything has to be changed, that’s it. Let’s not throw out the baby with the dirty bath water. 

Wendy Alfsen  

• 

SUGGESTED READING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just finished reading a Jan. 21 New York Times Magazine story about Vermont’s socialist Congressman, Bernie Sanders. Berkeley’s political leaders and Berkeley’s voters ought to read it. These lines were standouts: “(As mayor of Burlington) Sanders spoke out against poverty in the third world and made good-will visits to the Soviet Union and Cuba...But a funny thing happened on the way to what many had dismissed as a short-running circus. Sanders undertook ambitious downtown revitalization projects and courted evil capitalist entities known as businesses. He balanced budgets...” If socialists like Sanders are working to attract job-creating businesses, in what category shall we place most of our elected city leaders, and most of our city’s bureaucracy, who are busy chasing business away? 

Russ Mitchell 

• 

PROPAGANDIST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On the basis of his two op-ed pieces, there is little doubt Matthew Taylor is a Palestinian propagandist and not a reliable commentator. The symptoms could not be more pervasive: Selected details are repeated without context (a “home” demolished here, a road built there, but not a single mention of Kassam rockets, shootings at civilians or the barbaric suicide bombers culture); supporting “sources” are invariably among the worst detractors of Israel (Ilan Pappe, Uri Avnery, Jeff Halper, John Pilger, without any cross-checking from official Israeli sources); instances of baseless accusatory words, such as “colonization”, “colonial” “land theft” number over 30 in just two short articles; intentional distortion of official documents, such as the Mandate for Palestine, where he selectively notes the “civil and religious rights” of the Palestinian Arabs while he conveniently omits the “national rights” of Jews over the whole land. 

Is there any point in engaging a propagandist with rational arguments? Not likely. True believers have their minds hopelessly twisted and the more they try to be convincing, the deeper they sink into a hole of their own digging. But it’s always a delight to see how ineffective any attempt to coherently defend Carter’s opinions can be! 

And since Carter’s book was the object of Matthew Taylor’s misguided praise, the latter should know that during Carter’s presentation at Brandeis University last week, he himself apologized for his infamous passage on page 213 of his book where he condoned Palestinian terrorism. He even characterized the inclusion of this passage as “stupid.” But this did not seem to alter Taylor’s views of the matter. For him, the Hamas tactics are still a “comprehensible as a desperate and misguided response to oppression.” Need I say more? 

Rachel Neuwirth 

Los Angeles 

• 

AMAZON PETITION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would have been only too happy to sign Henry Norr’s petition [requesting that Amazon remove a negative description of Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid]—and I’m sure there are many others as well—had I known about it. I saw the obvious bias and was appalled. 

M. McCormick 

• 

THE SPIRIT OF MOLLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Molly Ivins lives in me and in everyone who stands up and voices their opinion. “It’s up to us”! Seniors live on $600—that’s a sin and shameful. Our poor welfare moms and handicapped live on pennies—that’s shameful. We care so little for those that gave us life! I get sick when I hear the rich use tax loop holes to get a free ride and the average Joe is paying $2,000 a month in taxes! For what? To see Americans be killed—so we can make a group of Good Old Boys from Texas Rich! Come on America! Schools are in shambles with no books and prisons are decked with weights and TVs! That’s stupid! Buildings and transportation spend fortunes that could help our communities. What does this say about us? Nothing—we are not making all the rules! It says we are losers if we don’t do something about this mess were in! Are we losing our human spirit?  

Life is not a video game! We need a new sheriff in town and I’m voting for Hillary! Come on girls, this place stinks—high gas prices, no healthcare, pollution... Shall I go on? Please, let’s let the girls give the place a shot. We are better homemakers and the country is our home! End Iraq! End War! Begin life! 

Julie Parker 

• 

QUAKE THREAT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While I love trees as much as the next guy, I’m more concerned about a possible misunderstanding stemming from suggestions that the proposed gym would be safer somewhere else on campus. 

The Alquist-Priolo Act attempts to mitigate the specific danger of a surface rupture (tear along a fault line). But earthquake danger isn’t limited to a rupture and doesn’t stop a few feet from the fault. 

Please recall that Loma Prieta (Santa Cruz) collapsed the Cypress Structure (Oakland). When the Hayward Fault goes (and it is overdue), it won’t matter where in Berkeley you’re doing pushups if your building is unsafe. 

Homeowners, install an automatic gas shutoff valve and bolt your foundation! Renters, nag your landlords! 

John Vinopal 

• 

SCHOOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am preoccupied with the question of how we can make elementary school classrooms places of self discovery for our children. Two things are lacking: a supply of teachers who love to teach, and training in restoring the self-confidence of children who come from stressful family situations. How shall we encourage the idealism of teachers? How shall we recognize the imperfect character of the home environment for many children? We want all our children to become self-learners. More is needed to achieve such a goal than the No Child Left Behind Act. 

Romila Khanna 

• 

COMMISSIONER TERM LIMITS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a surprise move against Berkeley’s long-standing democratic political traditions and values, the Berkeley City Council on Jan. 16—by a one-vote margin—forwarded a proposal to the city attorney that, if implemented in the future, would effectively remove progressive-leaning Berkeley citizen volunteers from the city’s most high-profile commissions and boards. 

If passed again by the council in March, the measure would remove—and bar future—citizen volunteers from serving on two or more commissions or boards simultaneously.  

Originally initiated by Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, the proposal is a thinly-veiled attempt to target and remove progressive commissioners who currently serve on Berkeley’s four most powerful and influential commissions: the Planning Commission, Zoning Board, Housing Commission and Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

The four above commissions effectively determine Berkeley’s city-wide public policy directions for new and existing commercial/residential development, affordable housing, transportation and city land use policies. 

Mr. Capitelli’s proposed regulation would remove current commission volunteers with years of public policy experience and expertise from providing their input, concerns—and votes—on the four above commissions. 

More significantly, the regulation would unilaterally strip City Councilmembers of their sovereign prerogative to appoint the commission members they see fit for volunteer positions. 

Mr. Capitelli’s proposal strikes at the heart of the council’s democratic process: It removes each councilmembers’ right to select the representative of their choice to city commissions. This goes against the grain of Berkeley’s long established democratic traditions and values. 

I urge Berkeley citizens to attend the council’s March meetings when Capitelli’s proposal will again return before the council for a vote. It is critical that Berkeley citizens demand that their respective councilmembers vote against this blatantly anti-democratic measure. 

Chris Kavanagh 

• 

OPEN OUR STREETS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Not every street in town needs to be paved. Consider an ordinary street, where space is reserved for sidewalks, bike lanes, parking, and so on. Although sandwiching these spaces together seems to be the democratic way to share our city, experience shows that it amounts to an absolute monopoly in favor of cars. It’s both unsafe and unpleasant for the unmotored masses to dodge through endless armies of traffic. What we need is a network of paths dedicated to walking, wheelchairs, and bikes, which criss-cross the city, overlaying a fresh and open alternative to the stifling world of gray and dangerous roads. I hear that the lucky and illustrious residents of Boulder, St. Paul, and even Walnut Creek for God’s sake, already have such networks. 

We could do even better: imagine if every fourth street were overturned—made into gardens, slow and flowered paths, amphitheaters, block parties, trolleys sheltered from rush hour traffic, bazaars... anything, really. 

Opening Center Street to foot traffic will create a sorely needed oasis among downtown’s pestilence of swiftly-erected towers. The fight may be bitter, and the petro-maniacs are generally richer and more powerful. Fortunately for Center Street, the usual bogeymen of parking shortages and muffled shopping can be brushed aside. Assuming we will win, hats off to a future Berkeley wisely chosen. A standing ovation to the real visionaries fighting from within the bowels of city policy, within the hostile corridors of the new downtown planning “DAPAC.”  

Adam Wight 

• 

EARTHQUAKES AND A  

FLU PANDEMIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The slow governmental response to Hurricane Katrina convinced many Bay Area residents to prepare to fend for themselves for at least a week after the inevitable big earthquake that’s coming. Emergency preparedness courses here are now oversubscribed, and one thing people are learning is that they should store at least one week’s supply of food and water for themselves, their families, and their pets. 

A bird flu pandemic is not inevitable, but it is a real possibility. Can one prepare for it? Federal guidelines concerning a flu pandemic, issued Feb. 1, advocate that in such an epidemic sick people and their families, including apparently healthy members, stay home for seven to 10 days. So while you’re stocking up to survive the Big One, you might store a bit more food in case there is a flu pandemic during which public gatherings might well be discouraged. Since normal business transactions at banks and filling stations will be disrupted, you might also visit your ATM now and keep your gas tank at least half full at all times. You could also purchase now some face masks to reduce the spread of the virus; ask your local health department about the type of mask they recommend. 

Dick White 

Member, Berkeley Disaster and  

Fire Safety Commission 

• 

OIL DRILLING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush is at it again. In his State of the Union address concerning energy, Bush insisted on drilling oil at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, which is home of the Gwich’in people. The Gwich’in people live their own way of life, which includes being with nature and living among the caribou and other animals. 

The Arctic National Wildlife refuge is their sovereignty and it shouldn’t be disturbed by oil drilling. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland 

• 

DETAINEES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The detainees are not the worst of the worst: The government’s own documents show that few of the men had ties to Al Qaeda or the Taliban, and most were, in fact, turned over to the United States in exchange for bounties. 

Demand that the fundamental right of habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions be upheld, despite attempts to legislate their demise. The men at Guantanamo deserve their day in court. Respect for these rights is essential to democracy. 

Holly Brownscombe 

• 

THE NEW PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush’s address to the nation Wednesday evening has left many people, politicians, and specialists in doubt about the “success of his “new”/revised plan of action in Iraq. Indeed, many of us could not even understand exactly what “success” in Iraq is to the President. 

Will the sending of 20,000 plus troops change the course of the War in Iraq? No. 

This President’s inability to look at the world situation with clear eyes and a respect for the many issues involved will preclude this success. In addition, Mr. Bush has engaged in a pattern of communication with his country and with the world in which his words, his intentions and his actions have been shown to be in conflict with one another. 

Since the beginning of his presidency, Bush’s lack of dealing with North Korea—until a crisis erupted recently—shows his lack of judgment, ability, and skill in foreign relations. North Korea’s erratic dictator does have the real WMDs. Bush’s dismissal of working to avoid a nuclear maelstrom casts doubt on his “intention” of going to Iraq to stop Saddam’s procurement of WMDs. The publication of the Downing Street memos show that the US knew there were no weapons. 

George W. Bush is a proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. His appearances (sheep/wolf/good natured Texan), his words, and his intentions cannot be trusted. As John Knowles wrote in A Separate Peace, “wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.” 

We must stop this bearer of an ignorant, inauthentic heart. Support Congress in stopping all funding of the war and the movement of more troops to Iraq. Bush and Cheney must be impeached. The deaths of over 600,000 innocent Iraqis, 3,000 US soldiers, and the severe disablement suffered by people of both countries demand the condemnation of the world. Never again should the leaders of our country be able to pursue such wanton murder, torture, and terror on the world. It is time to say “enough”! 

Teresa Paris 

• 

HEADLINE QUESTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Above a Jan. 5 article, written by Richard Brenneman, the headline reads “UC Stadium Tree-Sitter Arrested for Tresspassing.” 

I have a question: Why would anyone be arrested for passing bunches of hair around?  

Is there a law? Just asking. 

B.M. Jensen 

• 

TWO FILMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We saw to films at one go. The juxtaposition of Children of Men with Freedom Writers was astonishing. P.D. James had the brilliant idea of paring away the non-essentials of our suicidal earthly romp so that we might, just possibly, see the truth. From there, in that light, to view the reality of our children’s live, affirmed the earlier warning, and solution. See them. Both. Together. 

Pamela Satterwhite 

Compared to adjacent communities, Berkeley is in many ways an attractive city to live in or to visit. But our city is very vulnerable to pressures brought by commercial real estate developers. A case in point is the pending application by Gordon Commercial for a use permit that includes a 5,000-square-foot restaurant and bar at Ashby just below College. If this application is granted, it will increase retail floor space in the four-block area surrounding College and Ashby by 11 percent, and quality of life in the neighborhood will decline for residents and visitor alike. 

The proposed development project violates Zoning Ordinance regulations. The developer is asking for approval of his application prior to stating in detail to which kinds of retail businesses he proposes to lease. This in effect cedes to the developer control over the character of these businesses and their impacts on the neighborhood—a concession that would be highly irregular in the history of the city’s application approvals. (Once a use permit is granted for a restaurant, for example, it is extremely difficult to revoke that permit, regardless of the restaurant’s policies, type of food served, etc.) Granting the developer this “blank check” to profit from his property as he pleases is not in keeping with Berkeley residents’ wish to assure the quality of life in their city.  

The Berkeley Zoning Ordinance allows a maximum of seven restaurants in the Elmwood District. The developer’s application exceeds this quota. As the Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Association (CENA) has pointed out, this application also requests that additional official quotas be overridden and parking space waivers be given. The Berkeley Ordinance does stipulate that a quota can be overridden, but only on the condition that the intended use will not “Generate traffic and parking demand beyond the capacity of the commercial District or significantly increase impacts on adjacent residential neighborhoods.” The developer’s proposal for a large, full-scale restaurant/bar clearly fails to satisfy this requirement. 

The only access to the restaurant for trucks delivering food and supplies will be Ashby Avenue, which is already the most congested street in Berkeley. Traffic on both Ashby and College backs up for blocks, and parking—for Elmwood Theater goers as well as for shoppers—is difficult to find. Drivers roam residential side streets to locate an available space. Residents routinely find it difficult to park in the vicinity of their own homes. As might be expected, traffic accidents have taken a toll in this neighborhood. Making this situation worse will be detrimental to quality of life and health in the district. 

In addition to food delivery vehicles, workers as well as patrons of the restaurant/bar will exacerbate the traffic gridlock and parking problems. The neighborhood was not designed for, and cannot now be feasibly transformed to handle, the intense demands that developers propose to place upon it.  

The Berkeley Zoning Ordinance permits the serving of alcohol “only as incidental consumption with meals in food service establishments.” Violating this condition, the developer proposes to install a bar, where drinks can be purchased apart from—and notoriously not necessarily “incidental” to—a meal. The proposed bar will be open every day until late at night, which will increase drunkenness, rowdiness, and noise. Are these what the neighborhood needs? 

Are vacant storefronts in the Elmwood district a good reason for inviting in over-sized development projects? Elmwood commercial vacancies are in fact very few, and result from commercial landlords demanding higher rents than prospective store owners can afford to pay. I moved into the neighborhood in 1980 and remember a shoe repair shop and a tailor on College Avenue. Around the corner on Ashby was Burnafords, a fresh-produce store. But small, locally-owned businesses of this kind could not afford relentless rent increases. 

Commercial landlords tell city government, in effect: “If you do not let us do what we want with our properties, we will hold them vacant until we get our way.” This coercive strategy has been successful in the past because the owners have been able to hold out as long as it takes to get political support for their plans. And they can pay their way into City Hall by supporting pro-development ballot measures and political candidates who will return the favor and support them. 

A new large restaurant would increase fees and sales-tax revenue to the city, but at what price? Please consider: 

• Increasing the business activity and congestion at this intersection entails new city expenditures for maintaining the streets, handling sewage, etc. Increased revenues to the city will be diminished by these infrastructure costs. 

• Berkeley’s Planning Department is funded largely by developers’ fees, and (much more importantly) the planning profession is ideologically as well as economically linked to development interests. Notwithstanding the conscientious intentions of individual planners, this situation results in a conflict of interest that may favor inadvisable development projects and regard neighbors’ concerns merely as obstacles to be overcome. 

• Berkeley government exists to serve our community, not vice-versa. Yes, the city needs revenue in order to provide services, and city workers deserve to be adequately paid. But selling our community to developers is not the only or best solution to fiscal crisis. Budgetary reform and better planning are needed to make Berkeley government sustainable. 

The Elmwood remains a wonderful neighborhood—but unless Berkeleyans rally to its defense, much that is wonderful about it will be lost.  

Raymond Barglow is a member of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. 

The world’s best-loved cities all have something in common—beautiful public squares and plazas surrounded by magnificent buildings. They are the places where people meet and things happen, the places we tell stories about. Across the United States, public squares and plazas are being rediscovered as a powerful way of revitalizing and transforming downtowns. 

Cities are also taking stronger steps to heal the natural environment within their borders. They have discovered that restoring nature in the city not only helps the environment, but also connects people with place, while, in many cases, enhancing local prosperity via tourism, increased visits by local citizens and increased land values. As one model of a successful strategy that celebrates nature in the city, the City of San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza and San Luis Creek restoration has unequivocally contributed to bringing the downtown commercial vacancy rate from 60 percent to current full occupancy. 

Berkeley recently took an exciting and positive step towards transforming its downtown into a world-class destination with nature as inspiration when the City Council appointed Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee voted for the pedestrianization of one block of Center Street, between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue, as their preferred option for the site. And, in acknowledgment of a decades-long community vision of restoring, honoring and celebrating Berkeley’s “green” infrastructure, her creeks, the DAPAC also said that a “maximum practical” creek design should be prepared as part of putting together a plan for Center Street. 

The Berkeley Center Street project site is not only the core of the downtown but is also a transit hub served by the downtown Berkeley BART station and several AC transit lines. Approximately 10,000 pedestrians already traverse Center Street each day, walking from BART to campus. If there is any one place in downtown Berkeley that is practically begging to become a pedestrian plaza, this is it. It is a location that has great importance to the citizens of Berkeley and the greater Bay Area as a destination for the arts and entertainment, as well as education and commerce.  

Also coming to this central location are a “green” hotel/conference center and a world-class art museum, to be designed by one of the most exciting architects alive today, Toyo Ito. It’s an exhilarating time for downtown Berkeley, especially now, with the newly added hope of a beautiful and functional world-class public space accessible to all citizens, regardless of age, ability or income. A trademark of a great community! 

We hope that residents of Berkeley and the Bay Area will join us in advocating for this promising vision. 

Kirstin Miller is a member of Citizens for a Strawberry Creek Plaza Steering Committee.

Sept. 11, 2001 was a terrible tragedy. For those of us who were up early that morning and were called to turn on the TV, we saw a horrible series of events—not read, not imagined—in real time. A worse tragedy occurred when our country, under false pretenses, attacked Iraq. Although the bombs, mortars, other sophisticated weapons were directed at Iraqis, the attack was also a less obvious one against Americans. 

Although more than 3,000 U.S. military personnel are dead, more than 22,000 maimed, and a yet-to-be-determined number suffer from post-traumatic-stress-disorder, the human physical toll paid by Iraqis is off the scale compared to our numbers. We have effectively destroyed the Cradle of Civilization. 

In a different manner, the Bush administration has grievously harmed the United States. The National Priorities web page (http://nationalpriorities.org) has a frightening microsecond report on the cost of the war: at 6:50 p.m. on Jan. 21, we had spent $362,772,925 or $2 billion a week. National Priorities also reported that the cost to California is $46 billion and to Berkeley, $130 million. Our social, physical, ethical, moral condition is tattered. Our environmental condition is fragile. We are much weaker in every way from each of our wars since World War II, but the Iraq war is perhaps the most evil. Individual profiteers from Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, Bechtel, have become fabulously wealthy. The rest of us are poorer in every way.  

We have also become in the years after the attack on Iraq the moral pariahs of the world. As a nation we shuddered to see (and also imagine) people jumping, falling off the top floors of the Twin Towers, the employees, the fire fighters and the police trapped in the buildings. And, I, as an individual cannot forget the Iraqi men, women and children, innocent or not, who never attacked the United States, being shot, mortared, shrapnelled, beaten, humiliated, tortured, raped, pushed out of their houses, out of their cities, out of their living and pushed to the brink of and over to death. Their condition is never far out of my mind. I cannot enjoy any event without feeling guilt that it is my tax dollars, my complicity as an American that is doing such barbarous acts. 

I go to demonstrations, write letters, engage in political activity, as efforts to stop the war, to assuage the horror felt, the guilt over what we have done and continue to do. Individuals like Cindy Sheehan can galvanize part of the population with her just and emotionally effective call to end the war and we are grateful for our leaders against the war. 

Lt. Ehren Watada, is one of these leaders. Lt. Watada, is the first U.S. Army officer to refuse to serve in Iraq. He enlisted in patriotic firmness after 9/11. Over his mother’s protests, he insisted that he did the right thing. His military superiors consider him to be exemplary as an officer, “a leader of men” and told him that he would have a bright future in the Army. While stationed in Korea, his superior officer told him that he would undoubtedly be posted in Iraq, and as a good officer, he should learn everything about the country to which he was to be sent. And he studied. In the process, he learned that the attack was based on lies told by the Bush administration: that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that there was no connection between the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and wherever the downed plane in Pennsylvania was approaching and Iraq. 

Watada was also aware of the Nuremberg Principles that essentially places responsibility on the individual, even if that person is the head of state, or a member of the military, to not obey orders that violate international law. 

He tried to resign three times (an officer submits his resignation to the president) and was denied each time. He is now court-martialed in Ft. Lewis, Washington facing four counts: two for missing troop movement and two for criticizing the president. Two other speech counts, which depended on the testimony of freelance journalists Sarah Olson and Star Bulletin’s Gregg Kakesako, were dropped when other journalists joined in defending freedom of the press. 

Watada is a young man (27) with extraordinary clarity about his moral responsibility and I am grateful for his principled and clearly articulated thoughts about his obligation to defend the Constitution, the U.N. Charter, and the Nuremberg Principles, He said, in talking to a roomful of veterans: “...that to stop an illegal war and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fight it.” 

My gratitude to him is expressed in committing civil disobedience by blocking the doors of the San Francisco Federal Building (450 Golden Gate Ave.) last month and again this first Thursday of February (every first Thursday) as well as joining a dozen or so Bay Area people, including Berkeley resident Betty Kano, who are traveling to Ft. Lewis to support Lt. Watada and to stand in protest of the war. 

Molly, you made many of my dark days brighter by your wit, your humor, your clear disgust with what the Bushies were doing. I shall miss you terribly but will struggle on against the dark forces in this country just as you did.  

Ying Lee is former member of the Berkeley City Council who served on Congressman Ron Dellums’ Washington staff for many years.

Let us begin this week’s discussion with the question where we ended a previous column: “So what actually happened at the Paramount, and how did the allegations of anti-Latino racism get blown up by some into the defining moment of that event?” 

If you missed the Paramount controversy, it concerned reports of anti-Latino slurs amongst the booing that took place in the audience following the re-election of Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente as president of the Oakland City Council during the Jan. 8 Citywide Inaugural Event. While the booing was immediately reported, it wasn’t until several days following the event itself that reports on anti-Latino slurs accompanying that booing began dominating media coverage of the inauguration. 

Analyzing news reports that came out both immediately after the Paramount inauguration and afterwards, conversations with several people who attended, and various email exchanges, with readers and officials, the conclusion is that, yes, some openly anti-Latino slurs were made during the booing. These anti-Latino slurs were apparently only made by a handful of people, at the most, and were not heard by most people who attended the event including most, if not all, of the reporters and media representatives who were covering it. 

Emails from two City Councilmembers who were on different sides of the Council President issue give a clearer picture of what took place that day. 

“I have been asking people the same question because I didn't hear racial slurs either from the stage,” Councilmember Nancy Nadel wrote. “However, one of my staffmembers, Marisa Arrona, heard someone say ‘go back where you came from.’” 

And from Councilmember Jean Quan: “My two staff who are Latina and the several Asian guests heard anti-immigrant comments ranging from making fun of his accent to ‘go back to where you came from’ to more nationalist ‘black is back.’ On stage I only heard booing but when we held staff meeting the next day they were very teary and upset. My two white staff members confirm their statements. It made me very upset. When I left the theater one of the Latino news reporters was very upset and asked me what I thought. I didn't know what he was talking about.” 

But while this begins to give us a clearer picture of what actually happened at the Paramount, it does not explain how or why reports of the anti-Latino slurs came eventually to dominate the coverage of the inaugural, as if that was the major thing that happened rather than something which was both precipitated and witnessed by a few. 

For that, we need to examine a timeline of the media coverage itself. 

In a letter published in both the Daily Planet and the online Grand Lake Guardian following my first column on this subject, Jim Puskar, Business Manager of the Jack London Acquatic Center, expressed skepticism that I would actually be looking into whether anti-Latino slurs were made, and that reports of the slurs in the Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle ought to be enough to confirm them. 

“While I applaud J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s insistence in ‘tracking down what actually happened...’ at the mayoral inauguration ceremonies, I can’t help but suspect that he is more interested in disproving the reports of bad conduct toward Mr. de la Fuente,” Mr. Puskar writes. “I read accounts of this behavior in both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune, both of which I consider to be responsible newspapers. In fact, one of the most vociferous critics of the behavior was offered by Chip Johnson, an African-American columnist in the Chronicle.” 

And later, after I queried Mr. Puskar in the Grand Lake Guardian why he believed I was “more interested in disproving the reports of bad conduct toward Mr. de la Fuente" he replied that “I base my suspicion on your decision to investigate the veracity of statements made by reputable journalists from two news organizations and by members of the community, who stated that the conduct at the inauguration actually did take place.” 

Regular readers of my column will know that I make a habit of investigating the veracity of statements made by reputable journalists. Sorry guys. I know too many journalists. 

What did the reputable journalists of the Tribune and the Chronicle actually say about the anti-Latino slurs at the Paramount event? 

Chronicle reporter Chris Heredia filed two stories immediately following the Jan. 8 inaugural, neither of which mentioned anti-Latino slurs. 

In his story “Dellums Sworn In As Oakland Mayor” filed on January 8th, Mr. Heredia wrote only that “Dellums stepped up to address the audience—many of whom cursed De La Fuente's re-election—calling for civility and to set a good example for Oakland's youth.” And the following day, in “Mayor Calms De La Fuente Protest,” Mr. Heredia only described the booing that followed Mr. De La Fuente’s re-election as “angry heckling.” Mr. Heredia’s article concluded by saying that “De La Fuente said in an interview later that he was disappointed in the crowd's reaction, calling it a bad day for Oakland,” again with no mention of anti-Latino slurs. 

Reference to such slurs did appear in both of the stories filed immediately after the inaugural by the Tribune’s Heather MacDonald. In her Jan. 9 article “Dellums Promises Better Days” she wrote that “several people said they were embarrassed by the bitter partisan fight amongst the council members over the re-election of Ignacio De La Fuente as president and appalled that some in the audience booed him, mocked his Mexican heritage and cursed him.” In a companion story filed the same day, “Council President Booed But Re-Elected,” while MacDonald reported that Mr. De La Fuente “said he felt racially attacked by the cat-calls and curses,” Ms. MacDonald herself did not include anti-Latino slurs in describing the outburst in her lead paragraph, saying only that “the raucous audience booed loudly when De La Fuente was nominated.” 

But three days following the inaugural, on Thursday the 11th, Mr. Heredia’s Chronicle accounts of the disruption, at least, had taken a distinctly different turn. 

In an article “Reid Speaks Out On De La Fuente Re-Election” (the “Reid” part referring to former De La Fuente Council ally Larry Reid, who unsuccessfully challenged Mr. De La Fuente for the Council presidency), filed on the same day that Latino and Asian-American Oakland leaders were holding a press conference denouncing the anti-Latino slurs, Mr. Heredia was now writing that “the 6-2 vote in favor of De La Fuente, a Latino, was preceded by a citizens' public comment session that included calls by African American leaders for De La Fuente's removal as well as some name-calling and racially tinged criticism of his leadership.”  

Calls by African American leaders for De La Fuente’s removal? Why the emphasis on African Americans? Those who were at the Paramount event remember that there was a long line of citizens who spoke during the public comment period requesting that Mr. De La Fuente not be re-elected to the Council presidency, some of them African-American, some of them white. The first person to speak during public comment, in fact, was a white woman, local progressive political activist Leslie Bonnett, who asked that Council elect another white woman, Councilmember Nadel, to the presidency. Of the 15 citizens who spoke at public comment at the inaugural and took a position on the Council Presidency, six African-Americans and three whites spoke against Mr. De La Fuente’s re-election. Four whites, one African-American, and one Asian-American spoke in favor. Other than the fact that no Latinos spoke, it seemed a typical multicultural Oakland mix on both sides. While race may have certainly been a factor—it is hard to get away from that in this country—political factors appeared to predominate. Mr. Heredia himself referred to that in his January 11th article, noting that Mr. De La Fuente “also upset progressive activists who have accused him of being in the pocket of developers and unsympathetic to the plight of Oakland's poor and working class.” The race of those “progressive activists,” however, was left undefined in Mr. Heredia’s article. 

And in an article filed the day after the press conference denouncing the anti-Latino slurs, Mr. Heredia continued to put emphasis on the opposition to Mr. De La Fuente’s Council Presidency re-election as an African-American affair, writing in “A Call For Unity After Racist Incident At Inauguration—Dellums' Swearing-In Tainted By Crowd Mocking De La Fuente,” the Chronicle reporter said that “the racial divide to be bridged remained apparent. The news conference had no members of the African American community who had called at the inauguration for City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, a Latino, to step down.” But Mr. Heredia himself described the January 11th news conference as being held by “Asian American and Latino community leaders,” and no white leaders were mentioned in his account among the citizens denouncing the anti-Latino slurs. So why emphasize only that no members of the African American community showed up? Why not point out that no white folks who had called for De La Fuente to step down showed up, either?  

How, and why, did the Paramount inaugural disruptions and its aftermath segue into becoming an exclusively African-American/Latino “racial divide?” in some parts of the local media? Some thoughts on this, to follow. 

If you’ve ever dined in the rear portion of the Great China restaurant on Kittredge Street, you might have noticed that this space is markedly different from the front part. Redwood board-and-batten wainscots; redwood doors and window trim; a beamed tongue-and-groove ceiling with elegantly carved brackets; and a doorway incorporating a fan of Victorian spindlework all suggest that these rooms were part of a former home. 

A home is exactly what the building at 2117 Kittredge used to be. Behind the 1920s stucco façade and its two storefronts hides a late 19th-century house. Clad in shingles but sporting the cross gables and the square turret of a Queen Anne house, this hybrid creation was constructed in 1894, at a time when practically the entire block was residential. The designer-builder was prominent Berkeley contractor, pioneer civic figure, and amateur artist A.H. Broad.  

Alphonso Herman Broad (1851–1930) was born in Maine to a farming family. He came to Berkeley in 1877, on the eve of the town’s incorporation, and immediately took an active part in its civic life. In 1878, he was elected to Berkeley’s first board of trustees on the Workingmens’ Convention slate and served for two crucial years in which the board put in place our property assessment mapping system (still in use); instituted the position of Town Engineer and the first infrastructure works; devised business licensing and tax collection systems; and created a police force. 

In 1887 and ’88, Broad would serve as town marshal and ex-officio Superintendent of Streets, in which capacities he would improve Berkeley’s sanitation by building an underground sewage system and forbidding the discharge of “offensive effluvia” into Strawberry Creek. 

Long after his death, Broad was remembered as a man of action. In the 1950s, when the city council was debating how to deal with the menace of pigeons in Constitution Square, it was goaded into action by a letter from Bertha Whitney Nicklin (1878–1964), who wrote: 

I only wish Mr. A. H. Broad were still a member of our City Council, as he would certainly do something about it. The Southern Pacific built a new station but they would not put a “Chic Sale” (rest room) inside. They left the old one outside. So when the last SP train roared down from North Berkeley at midnight one night, Mr. Broad tied a rope around the “Chic Sale” and fastened the other end to the train, and it was scattered all the way to Sixteenth St. station. They put one inside the Berkeley station. 

Having begun as a carpenter, Broad went into business as a building contractor and designer in 1880. Within five years, he was well-known throughout Berkeley and Oakland for his Eastlake cottages. Over the course of five decades, Broad not only supervised construction of a large number of structures in all parts of Berkeley but also designed many of them. 

For many years, Broad’s office was located on the east side of Shattuck Avenue between Center and Addison, across the street from the SP station. His display ad in the 1894 directory proclaimed, “Architect and Builder, Special Attention Given to Jobbing. Plans and Specifications Furnished. Houses Built on Installments. Cabinet Work of Every Description Neatly Done. SHOP, Near Odd Fellows’ Hall. RESIDENCE, Center St., near Shattuck Ave.” 

The Odd Fellows Hall had been built by Broad, a long-standing Odd Fellow himself. The building was razed to make way for the Mason-McDuffie building on the corner of Shattuck and Addison. 

In 1892, Broad built the Whittier School, the Le Conte School, and the Columbus School. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire, Mr. Broad became “superintendent of reconstruction of Berkeley Schools injured by the earthquake,” rebuilding various sections of Berkeley High School and other academic buildings. It was at this time that he gained the distinction of being the first city official ever to seek a reduction in salary, on the grounds that reconstruction work was almost complete. 

Broad kept up with the changing styles in home design, and his work ranges from the early Stick-Eastlake to the rustic Brown Shingle of the early 1900s. He often worked as Bernard Maybeck’s contractor, and his early 20th-century work reflects the influence of the First Bay Region Tradition architects. 

While constructing Maybeck’s Boke house (1901) at 23 Panoramic Way, Broad built next door a shingled house of his own design for Margaret A. Dean, grandmother of Dan Dean, retired Berkeley High School counselor and husband of our former mayor. 

A year earlier, Broad built a shingled Dutch Colonial house at 2683 Le Conte Ave. for Rev. Dr. Robert Irving Bentley of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The house is a City of Berkeley Landmark, as is Broad’s earliest surviving building, the George Edwards house, a Queen Anne-Eastlake cottage at 2530 Dwight Way (1886). Several years ago, the derelict Edwards house was rehabilitated as the anchor of an attractive housing development on the edge of People’s Park. 

Another designated landmark, the shingled Haste Street Annex of McKinley School, (1906), was similarly destined for demolition but is now preserved as the First Presbyterian Church McKinley Hall. 

Broad’s fourth landmark is his own residence at 2117 Kittredge St. This was just one of several houses he occupied over the years—all of them in downtown Berkeley. A few hundred feet away, at 2207 Atherton St. (now the site of Edwards Stadium), lived his close friend and artistic mentor, the famed landscape painter William Keith. The two made many joint sketching trips to the Sierras. 

Largely self-taught, Broad was influenced by the Barbizon school of plein-air painting. He specialized in landscapes of California and his native New England. One of the many A.H. Broad stories circulated by Berkeley Gazette columnist Hal Johnson recounted that “Keith once said he wished he could paint trees as well as Broad. ‘If you had sawed and pounded as many trees into houses as I, you might be able to paint them better,’ replied Broad.” 

As his artistic skills developed, Broad began to paint a “signature” picture to be hung in each of the houses he completed. Many of his paintings are prized in Berkeley homes. Examples of his art are to be found at the Oakland Museum’s collection of California Art, the Shasta Collection at the College of the Siskiyous, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, and the Elks Club building. Broad’s name is mentioned in several art history books, and he is now better known for his art than for his buildings. 

Broad, his wife Julia (1850–1921), and their two daughters, Ursula and Julia Luella, lived at 2117 Kittredge St. from 1907 until 1915. Daughter Julia was married twice during this period but remained in the parental home with her successive husbands. In 1915, Broad built his final residence, a 3-story, 6-unit apartment building at 2030 Bancroft Way. The move may have been prompted by the building of the California Theater next to his Kittredge home, but Ursula continued to live there for the rest for the her life, and the Broad family kept the house as income property until the younger Julia’s death in 1962. 

It was Broad himself who added the storefronts to the Kittredge house in 1926. He was a practical man who adapted to the circumstances and often built two houses on one downtown lot, as was also the case at 2117 Kittredge. 

While Broad and his wife appear to have occupied one of the apartments at 2030 Bancroft, Julia and her second husband, Leslie Graham, lived at 2032 Bancroft, a Victorian house at the rear of the same lot. In 1930, the year of Broad’s death, the family was landlord to numerous tenants residing in various downtown buildings, including the houses occupied by the Broads themselves. 

The tenants represented a wide spectrum of the lower middle class and working class, including salespeople, bookkeepers, truck drivers, restaurant employees, a railcar upholsterer, a nurse, a sign painter, a telephone operator—people who today would be squeezed out of Berkeley. 

A Broad-designed Victorian at 2232 Haste St., now divided into 14 units, was the childhood home of Sierra Club leader David Brower. Brower planted the large redwood tree in the front yard. 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

CORRECTION: The following sentence has been omitted from the original version of this article: 

A Broad-designed Victorian at 2232 Haste St., now divided into 14 units, was the home of Sierra Club leader David Brower’s parents in the 1940s and ’50s.  

It has been replaced by: 

A Broad-designed Victorian at 2232 Haste St., now divided into 14 units, was the childhood home of Sierra Club leader David Brower.  

A couple of months ago, I wrote about Berkeley Indoor Gardens, an indoor gardening (surprise!) store down at the tidal end of University Avenue. I got to feeling bad because I hadn’t written about the other indoor gardening store across the street. This one even advertises on KPIG, my favorite radio station. (So does Memphis Minnie’s, home of the best Sunday brunch in San Francisco. Don’t take my word for it—go eat!)  

So here’s the other side of the street, Berkeley’s Secret Garden, just to be fair. Also because I enjoyed visiting both. 

Both places have the requisite cute dog. At Secret Garden, we were greeted by a youngish smooth-coated somebreed-or-other with decent manners and a short attention span. Both places have prominent wall décor alluding to perfectly legal™ applications for their technology: here, more orchids; across the street at Indoor Gardens there were a few more references to the likes of home-grown salads.  

Both have the (also requisite) space-station arrays of silvery foil, fat PVC piping, moving water, whirring fans, and psychedelically whirling light arrays nurturing lush green tropicals and houseplants. Both sell sacks of soil replacements and amendments, and a great many supplements.  

Both are conveniently located in the neighborhood of Templebar and a number of Indian clothing and jewelry stores for a certain flavor of one-stop shopping. (I used the occasion of the scouting visit to discover that not only do those little bangle bracelets, the ones made to wear in multiples, come in designated sizes, but I need the largest one. No surprise, I guess. My glove size went up measurably after I’d spent a few years with my Number Eight Felco shears practically imbedded in my right hand, pruning for a living.)  

Secret Garden might have the edge on sheer numbers of arcane secret recipes. You could theoretically assemble everything a sane plant would need, from minerals and micronutrients to the best approximations of a number of mycorrhizal fungi, and add a few ecogroovy pesticides besides: several predatory bugs, including pirate bugs (Yo ho ho!) and a bacillus I hadn’t heard of: B. subtilis, used pretty much the way B. thuringiensis is and apparently as a disease control for lawns, of all things.  

Places like this seem to be cutting-edge for low-toxin gardening in general, maybe because people are touchy about introducing nasty stuff into their own homes. No doubt the Green Triangle granola culture has an influence too; there are handmade glass jars and “potpourri grinders” in the window, and a Seeds of Change rack.  

There’s also a bewildering variety of plant “nutritional” supplements—the scare quotes here are because plants do photosynthesize their own food. It’s evidence of a hundred lines of inquiry and theorizing about what plants and soils do together. One interesting product was a tank array of Humtea, a version of manure tea that has never seen the inside of a herbivore.  

Might be fun to use, but I’m still not drinking it, thanks.  

Berkeley’s Secret Garden 

921 University Ave. 

486-2117 

Monday-Friday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. 

Saturday: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. 

Sunday: Noon-5 p.m. 

www.berkeleyssecretgarden.com/ 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in the Daily Planet’s East Bay Home & Real Estate section. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.

Breakers of the space-age: In 2003 there were over 73,000 electrical fires and nearly 600 resulting deaths, not to mention about a billion dollars in property loss. Most of these fires were caused by electrical “arcing.”  

Now what IS arcing and why does it cause fires? 

When I think of arcing, I always think of those early science fiction movies where an electrical current can be seen bridging across a pair of metal prongs held upright (they call this a “Jacob’s ladder”). The arc climbs up and disappears, replaced by a new shorter one that then also climbs up and out of sight. “It’s ALIVE!” screams Gene Wilder. Yes, that’s an arc, although that particular one is under control and doing what we wish it to do. There are also tiny arcs occurring inside of motors all the time as the little copper brushes sweep across the magnetic core, causing the whole thing to rotate. Motors seen in the dark usually issue some flecks of orange light. Get down on the kitchen floor and look beneath the fridge at night and you might see what I’m talking about. Now, all arcing is not good. In fact, most arcing isn’t good at all and the majority of electrical fires are caused it.  

When two wires are separated by a tiny space, the power attempts to jump the gap. This gap creates resistance and this creates heat. This effect can built upon itself (heat melts metal creating more of a gap and more resistance and so on) until wires begin to melt and nearby combustibles, such as insulation or wood, catch fire. These gaps can be caused by a cord that has been worn from repeated bending or from prolonged heat. A cord or wire may have been stepped on or punctured in use or a pair of wires in a “wire-nut” (these are used to join wires in most houses) may have pulled just a teensy bit apart.  

Any of these conditions can begin to create heat and lead to a fire. If you notice that you have an outlet that glows or gets hot, it has likely developed an “arc-fault,” A cord may also feel hot in one place and the same might well be true. There are lots of ways and places that this can occur and for years, the only thing we could do was to rely upon our wits and sluggish old style breakers and fuses to eventually notice the increased heat on the circuit. Sadly, these devices are not good at detecting arc-faults and fires continued to break out. But wait, computer technology is here to save you, Mr & Mrs. Ludd. 

Just as electrical engineering has learned to “see” and “hear” for robots, cars and so many other devices in our brave new electronic world, circuit breakers, too, have begun to think in a very exciting new way. They have learned to hear the sounds of arcing, which I think is incredibly cool.  

Arcing has a particular sound or wave-form, if you speak oscilloscope. The amazing thing is that these devices can ignore the arcing of a motor but attend to the wave form of a wire that has begun to spark and overheat. If they sense this particular kind of arcing going on, they kill the circuit, preventing a deadly fire. This new breaker, the Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter or AFCI is new and not in widespread use … yet. These are not required in older houses that have electrical repairs and is only required for the bedrooms in new houses. Even this requirement is only true where city inspectors are using the 2002 code book and amazingly enough, many cities are 7-10 years behind on code enforcement.  

One might also ask why we’re not using this life-saving technology on all of our circuits and one should! The truth is, it’s being discussed in those gray rooms that you and I are never invited into. Might be a security clearance thing. Nevertheless, those who write the codes are doing what they can to push this technology forward and get it into homes across the U.S. and Canada. I have no idea where the EU stands and can find nothing on AFCIs in the U.K. either. 

The good news is that you can go forth and procure these lovelies for your home and put them in as a means of decreasing your fire risk. There are, however, some things you need to know about them since nothing is ever as sweet as it seems from across the street through the shop window. 

Older homes tend to have lots of tiny/minor arc-faults and installation of an AFCI breaker on your bedroom circuit might result in a breaker that trips when energized and will not reset. I’ve seen it myself. You can then set about to find the tiny arc-faults, which is certainly a worthy, if not valiant attempt but you may find it beyond your purse size or the skills of your electrician to complete such a task. Nonetheless, I think it’s worthwhile.  

Be aware that old, worn electrical cords and certain appliances are more likely to be the cause of an arc-fault than your old knob and tube wiring. An old outlet may be the cause or perhaps an old poorly wired lamp or switch. In short, it’s easier to put these in a new house but worthwhile to try to use in an old one. I think one could even argue that this is good way to challenge the most problematic portions of an older electrical system. 

Sometimes an inspection client will jokingly tell me that they don’t want to hear what’s wrong with the house but if I challenge them, they will typically smile and say that they really DO want to know. I think they just want me to be gentle, which, of course, I always am (he smiled to himself). I think this is a similar issue. It’s better to find out and now there’s a really good way to do it. By the way, I’d very much recommend using our new friend the AFCI in all parts of the house. There’s no reason not to use them in bathrooms, kitchens or garages as well, although you may find out that your toaster oven needs to be tossed out. 

AFCIs cost about 100 bucks a piece so they’re not cheap but I’m sure they’ll be coming down in price, just as the GFCI has. (That’s the Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter, the AFCIs shock preventing cousin, seen in baths across America.)  

So installation of AFCIs, including the troubleshooting they can induce, may cost hundred or even thousands of dollars. For now, you’ll have the be the judge of their value since you’re not likely to have them foisted upon your older home. If you buy new, you may be buying them any way. 

So, whether you retrofit them into your older home or receive them with your new one, please do take advantage of these space-age sentinels and you won’t have to keep the home-fires burning. 

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

The weekend of Jan. 26, speaker of the House and six-time grandmother Nancy Pelosi traveled to Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to get a personal view of George Bush’s “war” on terrorism. Judging from her initial comments, the trip hardened Pelosi’s opposition to Bush’s escalation of the war in Iraq. So, what should we expect the Pelosi-led Dems to do about Iraq? 

Five Democrats—representatives Lantos, Lowey, Murtha, Reyes, and Skelton—and one Republican, Representative Dave Hobson, accompanied Speaker Pelosi on her brief trip. Most are involved in the House of Representatives Appropriation process and, therefore, would be important players in any move to restrict funding for Bush’s folly. 

In her statements at the conclusion of the trip, Speaker Pelosi didn’t address reducing funds for the war in Iraq. She explained her purpose “was to salute our troops and commend them for their patriotism, their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families.” After meeting with U.S. troops at the base at Bagram, Afghanistan, Pelosi remarked: “We owe them better policy. We owe them better initiatives ... I believe redeployment of our troops is a step toward stability in the region.” Her choice of words is significant, because “redeployment” suggests a different scenario than “withdrawal,” a middle ground between “stay the course” and “get out.” 

On Feb. 1, House Democrats began a four-day retreat. It’s a safe bet that Madame Speaker has some ideas about what Dems should do beyond passing a “sense of the House” resolution opposing Bush’s latest escalation. The fact that her trip included Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, is an indication that Democrats plan to attack Bush Administration foreign policy on a broad front. 

Afghanistan: Democrats characterized the plight of allied forces in Afghanistan as “the forgotten war.” After meeting with Afghani President Hamid Karzai, Pelosi expressed support for additional US forces for Afghanistan and endorsed the Bush Administration request for $10.6 billion in assistance. She believes the White House has mismanaged the “war” against terrorism. It’s likely that House Dems will argue that US troops should be pulled out of Iraq and sent to Afghanistan and other venues threatened by terrorists. 

Pakistan: On Jan. 12, John Negroponte, outgoing national intelligence director, told Congress that Al Qaeda is “cultivating stronger operational connections and relationships that radiate outward from their leaders’ secure hideout in Pakistan.” Democrats proposed a bill linking Pakistan Military aid to success combating Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border; if the bill becomes law, President Bush would have to certify that Pakistan was doing its best to combat terrorists. 

Iran: Pelosi’s brief trip did not include a stop over in Teheran, but it’s a safe bet that Iran was a topic of conversation during the long plane flight. On Jan. 19, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held a joint news conference. Speaking for both of them, Reid made it clear: “The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking Congressional authorization—a the current use of force resolution for Iraq does not give him such authorization.” Democrats favor a diplomatic solution to the nuclear confrontation with Iran, one of the key differences between the Bush Administration and Congressional Democrats. In his response to the President’s State-of-the-Union address, Senator Jim Webb called for “an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy.” 

Iraq: The immediate aftermath of the Pelosi trip suggests that Democrats who want House Democrats to vote for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq are going to be disappointed. Webb did not call for an immediate withdrawal and it’s unlikely that Speaker Pelosi, or anyone in her traveling group, will support such a plan. They will seek to define a middle ground, what Senator Webb referred to as: “a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But ... a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq’s cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.” In other words: Recognition that there’s a civil war in Iraq. Policy that follows the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group: increased diplomatic efforts, pressure on the Iraqi government for a political solution, and a shift in US military strategy from providing security to training Iraqis to do the job. 

Pelosi’s plan will gradually reduce the need for American troops in Iraq. However, it won’t necessarily bring them home. Many will be needed in Afghanistan and Pakistan to finish the bungled campaign against terrorism. 

What Democrats propose is not the quick end to the war that many Americans envisage. But, as compared to the collage of tired rhetoric and wishful thinking proffered by the White House, it is a plan. 

Americans are hungry for leadership. Many who trusted Generalissimo George Bush transferred their allegiance to grandma Nancy Pelosi. This is an opportunity for her to not only present a way out of Iraq, but also a realistic campaign against terrorism that features economic initiatives and protection of human rights. A campaign whose underlying slogan is: in grandma we trust. 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This week Susan Parker turns her column over to guest columnist Jernee Suga’ Baby Carter, writing in response to the Daily Planet’s call for writers to follow in Molly Ivins’s footsteps.  

Susan comes to me asking me to write an article. “How much do I get paid?” was the first thing out of my mouth.  

She asked me, “How do you feel about the war in Iraq?”  

This question put my mind to work. I hear people talk about it all the time, but I never really say anything myself. Teachers ask us about it at school, but I never raise my hand.  

I hear all the time that the war is wrong. I don’t know what we’re really in it for. I ask different people and the answer is always different. They say things like, “They won’t share their oil.”  

“Why should they?” I ask. “It’s their oil.”  

How would you feel if someone asked you for money? Would you give it to them, or would you keep it to yourself, thinking you have to look out for you and only you? 

Some people tell me that the war is about 9/11 and how Saddam Hussein killed all those people. I was always told two wrongs don’t make a right. Why would America go there and do the same thing? Adults are always making rules up for us kids, but they don’t ever take their own advice. They tell us killing is wrong, but every day people are killed in Iraq. 

Some people say Bush is an idiot. They don’t want him as president. Some say they never voted for him. I saw on the news that they took a poll and nobody likes him. If this is true, then how the hell did he become president? 

Some people come to my school and try to recruit new soldiers. None of my friends want to join up. To them, even going to the wrong neighborhood is like going to war. Some of my friends have been shot over little stuff, like being in the wrong place, talking to the wrong people, or because they make more money than the next guy. So why would they want to get shot in a country that probably doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them?  

A little hint to all those people in charge of getting recruits: try and send someone who is actually good at making a presentation. Send someone who can answer my questions.  

A guy came to my school and told us that the army is all about teamwork, and that when you get out, they will pay for your college education. Paying for my college education is a good thing, but what about if I don’t get out? What if I get killed? I asked the guy and he said that not everyone comes back. “So why would I want to go?” I asked. He went into a ten-minute speech, but he never answered my question. 

I go to a continuation school. Everyone there is about 16 or older. He told us that we could enter the army at 18 and not have to finish school. Wait, I’m confused again. I thought the adults wanted us to get our education. Everyone in my class was excited that they could quit school and go into the army. But then a light bulb went off in my brain. Without being called on or raising my hand, I yelled out “I’m not old enough to drink or vote yet, but I’m old enough to die for a country that don’t really care about me or my education?” The class fell silent. The teachers looked at me as if I’d just broken the law. I’m waiting for the man to give me the answer. He takes too long so I yell it again. Then I got kicked out of the classroom. 

I just wanted to know why I was old enough to maybe die over there in Iraq, but not old enough to buy a drink or even vote for what I think is right.  

The End.

All right, the season’s over. Put down that polesaw. I don’t mean the pruning season, exactly. I mean the pruning free-for-all season: that season where a pruner’s only concern is the anatomy and physiology of the tree being pruned.  

(If you don’t know from tree anatomy and physiology, you have no business pruning—just as, if you don’t know the anatomical differences between a dog and a squid, you have no business clipping your puppy’s toenails, never mind doing veterinary surgery.)  

If you’re messing with a tree or shrub now, you’d better take a long close look within it for inhabitants first, because our local songbirds’ nesting season has begun.  

Anna’s hummingbirds are year-round residents here. Two other hummingbird species are commonly seen in Berkeley: Allen’s hummingbird, which breeds here but migrates out in fall; and rufous hummingbird, a migrant that passes through on the way north in spring. (In fall, most of the rufous population migrates south via the Sierra, taking advantage of the summer flowers that bloom months later there than their brethren down here around sea level.)  

Male Anna’ses have been putting on their aerial territorial displays since December, at least. We have a mad turf war going on at our place as a younger male is trying to usurp our longtime resident, Himself. This is made difficult by the fact that our feeders are on the front and back porches and not visible from any one point. Intense crazy chases around the house and around the house again occur daily.  

More significantly, a female Anna’s—distinguishable by her more cryptic coloring, with no red throat gorget—was buzzing the windowframes and conifers last month and snatching up bits of spiderweb. She used these, along with lichens and bits of fuzz and her own spit, to build her tiny, neat, sturdy nest. We take care of our spiders here at the Blake Street Belfry, and that’s one reason why. Everything really is, as Muir said, hitched to everything else.  

Now she’s snatching bugs, which she’ll feed her kids. They need the protein to grow. Hummers usually supplement their nectar diet with insects, but when you see a female going for them persistently it’s a safe bet she’s feeding chicks.  

That’s quite an act to see. She thrusts that long bill down their eager little throats and pumps madly; it looks like a sword-swallower’s performance gone mad.  

She might have built that nest, by our standards at least, any old where. The nest in the photo was built in an office-complex courtyard on University Avenue, just above eye level, over a well-trafficked walkway. Joe and I have run into Anna’s hummers nesting in several local plant nurseries, once on an eye-level twig (I’m five-foot-four) in a 10-foot-tall potted ficus tree that was indoors, in the office shed, maybe 10 feet from the cashier’s desk.  

No shortage of traffic there, and lots of gawkers; the nursery managers had staked a card in the pot alerting everyone to the nest’s presence. The hummingbird was incubating her eggs, and as steadfast as Horton the Elephant. Every human there was on his or her best behavior, and didn’t get closer than, oh, arm’s-length, but we all looked and she looked right back, a fierce glare in her beady little eye.  

The nest in the picture is small—half a walnut shell would stretch the inside—and easy to miss if you haven’t seen one before. Right now, when the leaves are most sparse on the trees, is the best time to spot them. Get up a ladder and look for them before cutting. If you can’t do that, at least watch your trees for a few days, and see if there’s hummer traffic to one particular place. 

Remember: The bugs they’re all eating now are the ones that would otherwise be the parents of the generations that would spend next summer chomping on your garden.  

Other local species are working up to nesting season, too. You might have noticed that the house finches and goldfinches are singing, and that the musical males have female audiences. Some of those robins you’re hearing are getting ready to migrate north, and working off their hormones; others will likely hang around and establish breeding territories in the next month or two. Still others will migrate in from farther south. Jostling will ensue.  

Great horned owls might have great big chicks in the nest already; they start early. The Bewick’s wren that has been singing in our neighborhood all winter might be getting seriously amorous this month, and will nest early next month.  

We’re not the only species that inhabits our cities, and we’d be much worse off if we were. The least we can do is to be aware of our neighbors, and behave well accordingly.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

A female Anna’s hummingbird (Callypte anna) on her nest. 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Green Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in the Planet’s East Bay Home & Real Estate section.  

FRIDAY, FEB. 9 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “True West” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through Feb. 17. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse Rogers and Hammerstein’s “A Grand Night for Singing” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Feb. 17. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre Company “The Birthday Party” Wed. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through March 4. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “The Pillowman” at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through March 11. Tickets are $33-$61. 647-2949. 

Black Repertory Group “Love Don’t Cost a Thang” a gospel play at 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Cost is $15. 472-5608. 

“Colorstruck” Donald Lacey’s one-man show at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland, through Feb. 11. Tickets are $5-$15. 663-5683. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito., through March 3. Tickets are $15-$24. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theatre “Cartoon” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, through March 10. Tickets are $10-$15. www.impacttheatre.com 

The Marsh “Shopping for God” Thurs.-Sat. at 7 p.m. at 2120 Allston Way, through March 3. Tickets are $15-$22. 1-800-838-5750. www.themarsh.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Arsenic and Old Lace” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., though Feb. 24, at 105 Park Playhouse, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “The Tempest” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at The Metal Shop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., behind Willard Middle School. Runs through Feb. 24. Tickets are $15-$25. 800-838-3006. www.raggedwing.org 

TheatreFirst “Nathan the Wise” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Old Oakland Theater, 481 Ninth St. at Broadway, Oakland, through March 4. Tickets are $21-$25. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Obsession” Works of Fire and Passion Group Show opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave., and runs to March 3. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Tony Bellaver “Interventions” Performance art from 1 to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Donations accepted. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

FILM 

The Lubitsch Touch “The Love Parade” at 7 p.m. and “Monte Carlo” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

P.J. O’Rourke reads from “On the Wealth of Nations” at 6:30 p.m. at The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Reception at 6:30 p.m., program at 7 p.m. Cost is $15-$30. For reservations call 632-1366. 

Jonathan Raban introduces his novel “Surveillance” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alan Chen piano, at noon at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Healing Muses “Trillium” Three harps and two fiddles, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Alam Kahn, Indian classical music at 8 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $15. 526-9146. 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición, Cuban charanga music, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Spanish Harlem Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Hurricane Sam & The Hotshots at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Callaloo, Caribbean, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sarah Manning, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Darryl Henriques “The Social Security Show” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Arlington Houston Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Nomadics, jazz, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Tartuffi, Pillows, Tippy Canoe at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Psychokinetics, Kirby Dominant at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Albino, Afro-beat, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

SATURDAY, FEB. 10 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Uncle Eye & the Strange Change Machine at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Dragonwings” An Active Arts Theater production for ages 7-14, Sat. at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater for the Arts, 2640 College Ave, through Feb. 25. Tickets are $14 children, $18 adults. 925-798-1300. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Richmond Art Center Winter Exhibitions Reception for artists at 3 p.m. at 2540 Barrett Ave., entrance at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“All Heart” A collaborative show with Children’s Hospital Aokland and Art For Life Foundation. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. Runs through March 9. 644-4930. 

“Found Object Robots” Reception for the artist, Richard Amoroso, at 2 p.m. at the LAkeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. 

“Sexicon: The Art and Language of Erotica” Reception at 9 p.m. at Living Room Gallery, 3230 Adeline St. Cost is $6. www.myspace.com/livingroomcollective 

FILM 

A Theater Near You “The Cabinet of the Brothers Quay, Program 1” at 6:30 p.m. and “Institute Benjamenta” at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mary Ellen Jones, Gary Norris Gray and Patriece read from their works at 3 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

Selene Steese and Jan Steckel, featured poets, at 7 p.m. at The Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru St., Alameda. Admission free, donations accepted. 523-6957. 

Renay Jackson, author of “Oaktown Devil” reads from his latest book “Crack City” at 2 p.m. at the Elmhurst Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1427 88th Ave. 615-5727. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Arts Festival: John Schott’s Dream Kitchen, guitar, tuba, drums trio, at 8 p.m. at The Fidelity Bank Building, 2323 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert at 8 p.m. at Valley Center, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 849-9776. 

Healing Muses “La Vie en Rose” at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Martha & Monica “100 Years of Russian Revolution” music for cello and piano at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Steve Taylor-Ramirez at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

“Queen of Spain” musical theater at 5 p.m. at Music Sources, 1000 The Alameda. For reservations call 528-1658. 

Spanish Harlem Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Alúna, traditional Colombian music, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Embers, 100 Suns, Mausolea, Passive Aggressive at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Ed Reed & Peck Allmond All-Star Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Samba Ngo, African-Congolese, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Joshua Eden and Jeremy Hox at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Upsurge! jazz-poetry ensemble, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Dave Rocha Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Moment’s Notice with Deanna Anderson, Antyne, Peter Giordano and others at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Tickets are $8-$10. 847-1119. 

Dangerous Rhythm with Tim Fox at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473.  

The Lost Cats, swing, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Battle of the Bands: Finals at 6 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. All ages. 763-1146.  

John Howland Trio, Nucleus, Wayward Monks at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

SUNDAY, FEB. 11 

CHILDREN 

Asheba at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mitali Perkins introduces “Rickshaw Girl” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Ira Marlowe sings songs for children under ten, at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Recent Works of Changming Meng” Reception for the artist at 3 p.m. at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., Suite #4. 421-1255. www.altagalleria.com 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Guided tour at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Screenagers: Bay Area High School Film and Video Festival at noon and 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Architecture Tour of the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. Meet at the koi pond, first level at 1 p.m. 238-2200. 

Luis Garcia and Richard Krech read at 7:30 at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

“Measure of Time” Gallery talk with Bill Berkson at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Poetry Flash presents Martha Collins and Diana O’Hehir at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert at 2 p.m. at Valley Center, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Special outreach concert, free for students and seniors. 849-9776. 

Chamber Music Sundaes featuring San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends in concert at 3 p.m. at St John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets at the door are $18-$22. 415-753-2792. www.chambermusicsundaes.org  

Dawn Upshaw, soprano, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $68. 642-9988.  

Community Women’s Orchestra at 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1331 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation $10, children free. 463-0313. www.communitywomensorchestra.org 

Healing Muses “Sweet Persuasions to Enjoy” music from 17th centry England at 5 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Seth Montfort and Thomas Penders, piano, at 5:30 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228. 

Soulful Swing Jazz Duo, Yancie Taylor, vibraphone, Ben Stolorow, piano, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893. berkeleyartcenter.org 

Aileen Chanco and Raja Rahman, piano duo at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. at Sacramento. Tickets are $12. 559-2941. www.crowden.org 

“Sounds New” Contemporary American classic music at 7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kendington. Suggested Donation $10-$15. 524-2912. www.SoundsNewUS.org 

Ms Pumpkin’s Talent Show at 6 p.m. at Black Reportory Theater, 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $35. 652-2120. 

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The Black Irish Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Aleph Null, CD release party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Bob Marley Birthday Tribute with Soja, Native Elements at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

MONDAY, FEB. 12 

FILM 

United Nations Association Film Festival “Armenian Lullaby” and “Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $8-$10. 769-7350. www.unaff.org 

SF Independent Film Festival “Stalking Santa” at 7 p.m. and “Unholy Women” at 9:30 p.m. at the California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St. Tickets are $10 for each screening. 464-5980. sfindie.com 

THEATER 

Shakespeare Intensive “Henry V” staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1925 Cedar at Bonita. Other plays to be read each Mon. to Feb. 26. Cost is $5. 276-3871. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Monday Night Blues Lecture and performance held every Mon. night during Black History Month at 8 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St. Donation $5. 836-2227. 

Poetry from the Heart, readings and open mic at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. Kensington. 524-3043. 

Poetry Express with Amy Ehrlick at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Livingston Taylor at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Parlor Tango at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Brandon Marsalis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

TUESDAY, FEB. 13 

CHILDREN 

Alison Jackson, childrens’ author, reads at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. For age 3 and up. 524-3043. 

FILM 

SF Independent Film Festival “Viva” at 7 p.m. and “Gypsy Caravan” at 9:30 p.m. at the California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St. Tickets are $10 for each screening. 464-5980. sfindie.com 

Yoko Ono: Imagine Film “Grapefruit” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cavani String Quartet and Sharon Mann, piano, in the “Mathematics + Music” concert series at noon at MSRI, 17 Gauss Way, near the intersection of Centennial Dr. and Grizzly Peak Blvd. Free. 642-0143. 

Cake, Honeycut, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Cost is $20-$35. 642-0212. 

Gator Beat, Cajun/Zydeco at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 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.  

Cheryl Wheeler at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $25.50-$26.50. 548-1761.  

Debbie Poryes & Friends at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Brandon Marsalis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 14 

EXHIBITIONS 

Fine Press, Artists’ Books and Fine Art Editions at the Codex International Bookfair, Wed. and Thurs. from noon to 6 p.m. at the ASUC Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. Cost is $5-$15. www.codexfoundation.org 

FILM 

SF Independent Film Festival “The Hawk is Dying” at 7 p.m. and “Beyond Hatred” at 9:30 p.m. at the California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St. Tickets are $10 for each screening. 464-5980. sfindie.com 

Film 50: History of Cinema “The Lady Vanishes” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“El Pachuco and La Virgen de Guadaloupe” A reading by playwright Luis Valdez at 7 p.m. at the Dinner Boardroom, Hewlett Library, GTU, 2400 Ridge Rod. Seating is limited, RSVP to 649-2424. 

Spoken Word Love Fest 2007 hosted by Aya de León at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Storytelling with Ed Silberman at 7 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert with songs and poetry for life, love an dmotherhood, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

The Dreamers sing music from the 20s to 60s for Valentine’s Day at 1:15 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 981-5190. 

Teri Odabi Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Chirgilchin, Tuvan throat singing at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$17. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Yaelisa and Caminos Flamencos at 6 and 8:30 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. For reservations call 287-8700. 

Paul Manousos, guitar, at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Cheryl Wheeler at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $25.50-$26.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Brandon Marsalis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, FEB. 15 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Still I Rise” Recent art by Bryan Keith Thomas. Gallery walk through with the artist at 6 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. Runs through Feb. 26. 465-8928. 

“Paintings of Abu Ghraib” by Fernando Botero at 190 Doe Library, UC Campus, through March 23. 643-5651. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“Flight Out of Time” Exhibition of contemporary prints by Barbara Foster, Jimin Lee and Tadayoshi Nakabayashi at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. to March 17. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“Used and Re-Used: decorative objects made from utilitarian materials” at the The Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St. through March 31. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

Michael Howerton “Portraits” at Chachie’s Coffee Shop, 1768 Broadway at 19th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs though Feb. 28. www.howertonphoto. 

blogspot.com 

“100 Families in Oakland: Art & Social Change” at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland, through April 22. 238-2200. 

“Transforming Vision: The Wood Sculpture of William Hunter, 1970-2005” at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland, through March 18. 238-2200. 

“Obsession” Works of Fire and Passion Group Show at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave., and runs to March 3. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

“Street Portraiture” Photographs by Tom Stone at The LightRoom Gallery, 2263 Fifth St., through Feb. 28. 649-8111. 

“Fire in the Heart” Paintings by Foad Satterfield influenced by African art at the Community Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave., through March 2. 204-1667. 

“Berkeley: 75 Years Ago” at the Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Hours are Thurs.-Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. Exhibit runs through March. 848-0181. 

"The Children of Chaguitillo” Photography exhibition by Harold Adler at Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave. through March 31. 472-3170. 

“Revisions” Works by Amy Berk using Jewish ceremonial textiles on display at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., through Aug. 5. 549-6950. 

“African Art” by Okaybabs, Yinka Adeyemi, Adeyinka Fashokun, honoring Black History Month at the LunchStop Cafe, Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibit runs to March 30. 817-5773. 

“Recent Works of Changming Meng” at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., Suite #4. 421-1255. www.altagalleria.com 

“Art of Living Black” at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through March 16. 620-6772. www.richmondartcenter.org 

“Environmental Surrealism” works by Guy Colwell and Michelle Waters at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland, through Feb. 23. 444-7411. www.estebansabar.com 

Oakland Art Association Juried Show at the MTC Offices, Bort MetroCenter, 3rd floor, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to March 30. 817-5773. 

THEATER 

Level 9 Enterprises “Buffalo Soldiers, A Tale Lost” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$30. 925-798-1300. 

Advanced Theatre Projects Directors Lab “Ten Little Indians” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at the Florence Shwimley Little Theater, Berkeley High Campus. Tickets are $5. 

FILM 

SF Independent Film Festival “Green Mind, Metal Bats” at 7 p.m. and “Ten Canoes” at 9:30 p.m. at the California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St. Tickets are $10 for each screening. 464-5980. sfindie.com 

Film Series with David Thomson “Pierrot le Fou” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peggy Orenstein describes “Waiting For Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, An Oscar, An Atomic Bomb, A Romantic Night and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Poetry Flash celebrates “New” magazine with poets Etel Adnan, Irina Dyatlovskaya, Norman Fischer, Joanne Kyger, Michael Rothenberg, John Olivre Simon and Gary Snyder at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St.. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Melanie DeMore and an African American Cultural Celebration with St. Paul’s Episcopal School Choirs at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr., Oakland. Free.  

Rachid Halihal & Friends, Middle Eastern/North African at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Steve Taylor-Ramirez at 6 p.m. at MamaBuzz Cafe, 2318 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Free. All ages. 289-2272. 

Akosua at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Christy Dana Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Amy Obenski, singer/songwriter at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Joel Streeter, DRB, Young Moderns at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Brandon Marsalis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

ACTIVE ARTS THEATER FOR KIDS 

Dragonwings, an Active Arts Theater production for kids age 7-14 will be held at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturdays and at 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 25 at the Julia Morgan Theater for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., Berkeley. $14 for children, $18 for adults. For more information, call (925) 798-1300.  

DREAM KITCHEN LIVE AT ARTS FESTIVAL 

John Schott plays his guitar all over the Bay Area with muscians as diverse as fiddler Suzy Thompson and the Paul Dresher Ensemble. His own group, Dream Kitchen, which specializes in jazz from 1900 to 1930 and features a tuba, is starting to attract a cult following. They’re appearing as part of the Berkeley Arts Festival at 8 p.m. Saturday at the now-vacant Ratcliff-designed Fidelity Bank Building, 2323 Shattuck Ave.www.berkeleyartsfestival.com. 

RECEPTION FOR CHANGMING MENG 

Painter Changming Meng has won many awards in his native China, and was recently featured in an exhibit at UC Berkeley. A new show of his work opens Sunday with a 3 p.m. reception at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave. in Berkeley.421-1255. www.altagalleria.com. 

UNITED NATIONS FILM FESTIVAL 

Armenian Lullaby and Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars will be screened as part of the United Nations Association Film Festival at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12 at Pacific Film Archive. 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. $8-$10. 769-7350. www.unaff.org.

Jazz singer Ed Reed will celebrate the release of his first CD, Ed Reed Sings Love Stories, this Saturday (Feb. 10) at Anna’s Jazz Island, performing a rare date with the stellar band that made the album, led by Berkeley favorite (now New York-based) Peck Allmond, a triumph for an unusual vocalist of real excellence, whose hour is long overdue. 

Ed Reed—a life-long singer who grew up in Watts, who was taught to sing over chord changes by Charles Mingus, shared the stage with many of the luminaries of the Central Avenue L. A. jazz scene and was once featured regularly on a radio station owned in part by Frank Sinatra, earning kudos from some of the greats of the music—just turned 78 last week, full of enthusiasm and in complete possession of his remarkable baritone range and classic style. 

Peck Allmond, the notable multi-instrumentalist who emerged from Berkeley High, gracing the Bay Area scene before departing for New York 14 years ago, met Reed at a Santa Cruz mountains music camp where Allmond was teaching two summers ago, when the musical camper sang at a fireside jam. “He had such a mature voice and style,” Allmond said, “That I approached him to ask about his records, surprised I’d never heard his name—only to find out he’d never recorded.”  

Allmond went to work, recruiting noted producer and radio personality Bud Spangler to produce a CD, finding himself co-producer, arranger and band leader, assembling a brilliant backup combo: New York pianist Gary Fisher, San Francisco’s Eddie Marshall (whose group Allmond had played with) as drummer (moonlighting on recorder), John Wiitala on bass, with Allmond himself playing an array of instruments from trumpet and all the reeds, to trombonium and kalimbas. 

And through the lush, exciting group sounds, Ed Reed’s clear, warm baritone glides and glistens with rare ease and grace, completely in the tradition of post-Eckstine vocalizing, yet carving out a niche of its own, with particularly fine versions of tunes by Ellington, Strayhorn and Monk, an adventuresome “Bye Bye Blackbird,” Carmen MacRae’s arrangement of “If The Moon Turns Green,” “A Sleepin’ Bee” (a favorite of Reed’s in the Bill Henderson version) and a poignant a capella of “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child,” which must be full of personal meaning. 

To answer Sheila Jordan’s query, Ed Reed’s great talent was hidden away in San Quentin and Folsom prisons, where he drew four stretches over a 40-year period for drug-related charges. 

Reed is an engaging man, by turns thoughtful and humorous, even a little mischievous. He speaks freely of his troubles more than 20 years after he finally got clean, confirming what Peck Allmond said: “Ed’s remarkably free of bitterness or vindictiveness. He spends his time teaching people how to get along with themselves.” 

A self-employed group leader and lecturer (”Kaiser made me an employee—otherwise, I don’t work for anybody but myself”), Reed says one moment of epiphany came when he was leading a group of co-dependents. “I was a black ex-convict, ex-junkie from Watts, and they were mostly middle class Anglo women. I thought had everything—and I understood they had the same blues that I had.” 

Reed, an ever-inquiring lifelong reader, whose mother was a classical singer who wanted to sing opera (“but her mother was born on a plantation and thought it was the craziest thing she ever heard”), reflected on his long bouts of addiction and incarceration with pointed words (“they call it Justice, and they’ll kill you”), but with the focused immediacy of a man who has successfully sought himself, and works to extend that realization to others. He has tart stories about many jazz greats he knew: Dexter Gordon, Hampton Hawes, Art Farmer and Wardell Gray at a jam where Reed was singing with them, trying to keep a bib-overalled, long-haired Ornette Coleman off the bandstand (“they wore suits!”) ... or the time he was arrested with a celebrated player: “I went to Folsom—and he went to Europe! Man! But you know, in a way, I felt kind of honored ...” 

Reed sings every Tuesday evening from 5-7 p.m. with a duo backing him at The Cheeseboard on Shattuck—a long way from his standing gig at the Folsom warden’s weekly show in the mid-’60s, with Art Pepper blowing solos on every tune—none of it recorded. “If I don’t sing, I’m unhappy. One way to be happy is do what you love.” 

He’s been married to his wife Diane for 39 years (they live in Richmond); he sang a duet of “Sleepin’ Bee” with Bill Henderson in Santa Monica the year before last. And now his first CD’s out, for which he has great ambitions. “If you want a life, you’ve got to paint a picture of it. You’ve got to see it or you can’t get there ... but if it’s not fun, I’m gone!” 

Ed Reed’s music can be heard at www.edreedsings.com; Peck Allmond’s at www.myspace.com/peckallmond. 

There are more than 400 prisoners in the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, rotting away with little or no recourse to the law, no contact with families or lawyers or the governments of the nations from which they came. Tragic as the situation may be, these men are almost celebrity cases in comparison to the hundreds or possibly thousands of wrongly incarcerated men who bide their time in our state and federal prisons.  

After Innocence, a 2005 documentary newly released on DVD by New Yorker Video, takes a thoughtful look at seven of these men, men whose innocence was finally proven by DNA evidence after five, 10, even 23 years in prison.  

And this is just a small sample; for every prisoner who manages to mount an appeal with DNA evidence there may hundreds more without legal help, or whose case evidence has been lost or mishandled to the point where there is nothing left to test.  

It’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially now, here in California, where our prisons are so overcrowded that the governor has begun shipping prisoners out of state to make room for still more. There are many unjustly serving life sentences under the Three Strikes law, many serving stiff sentences for relatively minor crimes, and who knows how many serving time for no reason at all. 

As After Innocence demonstrates, vengeance seems to be in our blood. Violent crimes can tear apart families and communities, and afterwards the public and the victims’ families need closure, putting police and police are under great pressure to imprison someone, anyone, to put the everyone’s mind at ease. The need can be so strong that we can convince ourselves that we have seen things we have not seen, or that evidence that is dubious or incomplete amounts to conclusive proof. As the film makes clear, eyewitness testimony, usually considered reliable, is often anything but; in fact, most of those wrongly incarcerated in this country were convicted on the basis of eyewitness testimony that was later proven false.  

Wilton Dedge has one of the more extraordinary stories. He was locked up essentially because he had long blond hair, though he was nearly a foot shorter than the description of the rapist he was taken for. He then spent 20 years in jail before finally proving his innocence; and yet, he was still not released for another three years as the Florida legal system fought to keep the finality of its decisions from being undermined.  

The complexities of identification only worsen across racial lines. A white rape victim thought she had identified her black assailant in a police lineup and her testimony sent him to jail. When DNA evidence finally proved his innocence, she not only apologized but joined forces with him to publicize the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, the injustices of the legal system, and the organizations to which the wrongly incarcerated can apply for help. When the true assailant was finally found, he and the man sent to prison in his place had little in common but the color of their skin.  

What is remarkable about the men in this film is how little anger they have; they have no need for vengeance, or even justice. Nick Yarris spent more than 20 years in solitary confinement and comes closest to losing control of his emotions, at times displaying anger and exasperation, but this is as far as it goes, though he could certainly be forgiven for going a lot further. But apparently the years of injustice have only instilled within these men a stronger sense of the value of justice and forgiveness. Sure, they’d like an apology and maybe some kind of program to help them readjust (since they are innocent men and not ex-cons they are entitled to none of the programs and benefits granted to parolees). And it might be nice if the authorities would finally get around to the bureaucratic task of actually erasing their criminal records so that they can find employment and housing more easily. But vengeance is not on their agenda.  

In times when we are quick to lock up undesirables, and when those who express empathy for the incarcerated are vilified as America-haters, as terrorism-enablers, or, epithet of epithets, “soft on crime,” these wrongly incarcerated men, martyrs of a faulty legal system, have much to teach us about compassion and forgiveness.  

An old Brooklyn mansion, stuffed with memories—and more than memories—of an eccentric, even grisly past, presently populated by two smiling old spinsters who only want to help lonely men find peace; one nephew, a gangster, who barges in with his drunken plastic surgeon, Dr. Einstein; a chorus line of Irish cops; and the other nephew, in love with the minister’s daughter next door, himself the grisliest thing of all—a drama critic. 

(Oh yes, and that corpse—whichever one it is at the moment—in the window seat.) 

Such is the cheerfully frenetic unreality of life on a quiet street across the river from the New York of yore, in that still hilarious send-up of respectability colliding with the further reaches of genteel insanity—and a lot of craziness not quite so genteel—Arsenic and Old Lace, now onstage in a delightful rendition at the Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond. 

Betsy Bell Ringer has conducted her cast through the casually farcical uproar that’s predicated by the maiden sisters Brewster plying their would-be gentlemen boarders with a tainted glass of elderberry wine. There’s a unanimity of purpose here, which is probably the only way this old burlesque of so many long-forgotten conventions of the stage—and of society—can be brought off. 

And they succeed quite handsomely: Martha Luehrman and Theo R. Collins as the brightly poisonous sisters, David Bintinger as their thug nephew (who flies into a murderous rage when anyone identifies his much-lifted face as like Boris Karloff’s), C. Conrad Cady as the shyly tippling Dr. Einstein, Michael O’Brien charging up the stairs as if San Juan Hill in his sanguine delusion of being Teddy Roosevelt ... these and their fellows in an ensemble of 14 have the right idea: play it upbeat and straight, and the laughs will follow. 

Only Dan Garfinkle as critic Mortimer and Steph Peek as minister’s daughter Elaine, ingenues equally incorrigible as the crazies they’re surrounded with, have a sometimes rough go of it—though Dan Garfinkle manages to get into the swim, while Steph Peek seems caught in another time zone at moments. The comic lovers are a fragile convention; it’s difficult to make them seem true to type when that type’s been covered over and supplanted so many times in the past seven decades or so. 

The closest relatives, in the conventional sense (of humor), which we have to the denizens of the Brewster manse would probably be Edward Gorey’s deft, mock-melancholic procession of tintypes, or the late Charles Addams’ hoary cartoons (not the eponymous “Family").  

As is so often the case with Masquers’ shows, the parlor decor and tea set (Rob Bradshaw’s) and Loralee Windsor’s exceptional costuming give the production just the right, slightly stagy, comfortable touch to ease the audience into the charming hysteria of these characters out of a family so famously mad, that the most triumphant note struck is a cry of discovery: “I’m a bastard!”  

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE 

Presented by Masquer’s Playhouse at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Feb. 24. $15. 

105 Park Playhouse, Point Richmond.  

232-4031. 

Luis Garcia and Richard Krech, two lifelong Berkeley poets, will read for Monday At Moe’s, the series produced by Owen Hill at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave., 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 12. 

Admission is free. Books by the poets will be available. 

Garcia, a native of Berkeley, had his first book published in Chile, 1963, where he was studying with poet Nicanor Parra. Later books were published by George Hitchcock’s Kayak Press, Robert Hawley’s Oyez Press, and White Rabbit Press—three of the best-known Bay Area poetry presses of the ‘60s-’70s. 

In 1965, Garcia met poet Robert Creeley “by chance” at the Berkeley Poetry Conference. Some years later, after taking a course with Creeley through S.F. State, Garcia was invited to his home in Bolinas. “We didn’t discus writing poetry; he seemed relieved I didn’t ask about it! We just drank wine together, but I came away with more subliminal information than ever came out of any class or lecture.” 

Though he never stopped writing, Garcia withdrew from the poetry scene in the 80s, but has been active again since the 90s, His book The Token (Summit Press) came out last year. He also organized poetry events at the Berkeley Art Center in Live Oak Park, notably reading with poet James Schevill. 

Garcia says he’s not a metaphysical poet, but one who writes about feelings: “I feel my way through a poem.” Those poems play with shades of meaning and the musical assonance of words. “I’ve come to have a small body of work about process; some about time and mortality—and a few do a little muckraking.” 

Richard Krech grew up in Berkeley, producing a single issue mimeo magazine in 1965, then starting Undermine Press in ‘66, publishing the six issues of The Avalanche and a series of chapbooks, and running a free open reading series every Sunday at Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore. 

Meanwhile, his first book was issued by poet d. a. levy in Cleveland. He read at the Bowery Poets Co-Op in 1965 (“a bunch of anarchists sitting around, drinking wine!”) and at SF’s Rolling Renaissance in 1968. Further collections were published by Gunrunner and Runcible Spoon; in 1976, Litmus Papers put out The Incompleat Works of Richard Krech. That year, he entered law school and stopped writing poetry. “Ron Silliman, who I published first in my mimeo magazine, calls it a 25-year linebreak,” said Krech. “But I never stopped writing, just writing poetry.” 

After a trip around the world, from the journals of which a North African entry found its way into a poem last year, Krech opened his ongoing criminal defense practice in Oakland, representing clients charged with “everything from murder to shoplifting—but also antiwar and antiapartheid demonstrators, pro bono, and the only KPFA demonstrator arrested whose case went to trial [in 2000].” 

“Lawyers are considered bad writers,” Krech continued. “I liked to write appeals for others in my office. Some opponents may well have thought it was fiction.” 

In 2001, concerned about family health crises, he read about the demolition of the giant statue of Buddha in Afghanistan (“I once meditated while sitting in a cave atop the statue, looking over the Bamiyan Valley”), and thinking about life and death, wrote his first poem in a quarter century, “The Statue with No Face.” Since then, poems have appeared in chapbooks, magazines, and online. 

If you’ve ever dined in the rear portion of the Great China restaurant on Kittredge Street, you might have noticed that this space is markedly different from the front part. Redwood board-and-batten wainscots; redwood doors and window trim; a beamed tongue-and-groove ceiling with elegantly carved brackets; and a doorway incorporating a fan of Victorian spindlework all suggest that these rooms were part of a former home. 

A home is exactly what the building at 2117 Kittredge used to be. Behind the 1920s stucco façade and its two storefronts hides a late 19th-century house. Clad in shingles but sporting the cross gables and the square turret of a Queen Anne house, this hybrid creation was constructed in 1894, at a time when practically the entire block was residential. The designer-builder was prominent Berkeley contractor, pioneer civic figure, and amateur artist A.H. Broad.  

Alphonso Herman Broad (1851–1930) was born in Maine to a farming family. He came to Berkeley in 1877, on the eve of the town’s incorporation, and immediately took an active part in its civic life. In 1878, he was elected to Berkeley’s first board of trustees on the Workingmens’ Convention slate and served for two crucial years in which the board put in place our property assessment mapping system (still in use); instituted the position of Town Engineer and the first infrastructure works; devised business licensing and tax collection systems; and created a police force. 

In 1887 and ’88, Broad would serve as town marshal and ex-officio Superintendent of Streets, in which capacities he would improve Berkeley’s sanitation by building an underground sewage system and forbidding the discharge of “offensive effluvia” into Strawberry Creek. 

Long after his death, Broad was remembered as a man of action. In the 1950s, when the city council was debating how to deal with the menace of pigeons in Constitution Square, it was goaded into action by a letter from Bertha Whitney Nicklin (1878–1964), who wrote: 

I only wish Mr. A. H. Broad were still a member of our City Council, as he would certainly do something about it. The Southern Pacific built a new station but they would not put a “Chic Sale” (rest room) inside. They left the old one outside. So when the last SP train roared down from North Berkeley at midnight one night, Mr. Broad tied a rope around the “Chic Sale” and fastened the other end to the train, and it was scattered all the way to Sixteenth St. station. They put one inside the Berkeley station. 

Having begun as a carpenter, Broad went into business as a building contractor and designer in 1880. Within five years, he was well-known throughout Berkeley and Oakland for his Eastlake cottages. Over the course of five decades, Broad not only supervised construction of a large number of structures in all parts of Berkeley but also designed many of them. 

For many years, Broad’s office was located on the east side of Shattuck Avenue between Center and Addison, across the street from the SP station. His display ad in the 1894 directory proclaimed, “Architect and Builder, Special Attention Given to Jobbing. Plans and Specifications Furnished. Houses Built on Installments. Cabinet Work of Every Description Neatly Done. SHOP, Near Odd Fellows’ Hall. RESIDENCE, Center St., near Shattuck Ave.” 

The Odd Fellows Hall had been built by Broad, a long-standing Odd Fellow himself. The building was razed to make way for the Mason-McDuffie building on the corner of Shattuck and Addison. 

In 1892, Broad built the Whittier School, the Le Conte School, and the Columbus School. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire, Mr. Broad became “superintendent of reconstruction of Berkeley Schools injured by the earthquake,” rebuilding various sections of Berkeley High School and other academic buildings. It was at this time that he gained the distinction of being the first city official ever to seek a reduction in salary, on the grounds that reconstruction work was almost complete. 

Broad kept up with the changing styles in home design, and his work ranges from the early Stick-Eastlake to the rustic Brown Shingle of the early 1900s. He often worked as Bernard Maybeck’s contractor, and his early 20th-century work reflects the influence of the First Bay Region Tradition architects. 

While constructing Maybeck’s Boke house (1901) at 23 Panoramic Way, Broad built next door a shingled house of his own design for Margaret A. Dean, grandmother of Dan Dean, retired Berkeley High School counselor and husband of our former mayor. 

A year earlier, Broad built a shingled Dutch Colonial house at 2683 Le Conte Ave. for Rev. Dr. Robert Irving Bentley of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The house is a City of Berkeley Landmark, as is Broad’s earliest surviving building, the George Edwards house, a Queen Anne-Eastlake cottage at 2530 Dwight Way (1886). Several years ago, the derelict Edwards house was rehabilitated as the anchor of an attractive housing development on the edge of People’s Park. 

Another designated landmark, the shingled Haste Street Annex of McKinley School, (1906), was similarly destined for demolition but is now preserved as the First Presbyterian Church McKinley Hall. 

Broad’s fourth landmark is his own residence at 2117 Kittredge St. This was just one of several houses he occupied over the years—all of them in downtown Berkeley. A few hundred feet away, at 2207 Atherton St. (now the site of Edwards Stadium), lived his close friend and artistic mentor, the famed landscape painter William Keith. The two made many joint sketching trips to the Sierras. 

Largely self-taught, Broad was influenced by the Barbizon school of plein-air painting. He specialized in landscapes of California and his native New England. One of the many A.H. Broad stories circulated by Berkeley Gazette columnist Hal Johnson recounted that “Keith once said he wished he could paint trees as well as Broad. ‘If you had sawed and pounded as many trees into houses as I, you might be able to paint them better,’ replied Broad.” 

As his artistic skills developed, Broad began to paint a “signature” picture to be hung in each of the houses he completed. Many of his paintings are prized in Berkeley homes. Examples of his art are to be found at the Oakland Museum’s collection of California Art, the Shasta Collection at the College of the Siskiyous, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, and the Elks Club building. Broad’s name is mentioned in several art history books, and he is now better known for his art than for his buildings. 

Broad, his wife Julia (1850–1921), and their two daughters, Ursula and Julia Luella, lived at 2117 Kittredge St. from 1907 until 1915. Daughter Julia was married twice during this period but remained in the parental home with her successive husbands. In 1915, Broad built his final residence, a 3-story, 6-unit apartment building at 2030 Bancroft Way. The move may have been prompted by the building of the California Theater next to his Kittredge home, but Ursula continued to live there for the rest for the her life, and the Broad family kept the house as income property until the younger Julia’s death in 1962. 

It was Broad himself who added the storefronts to the Kittredge house in 1926. He was a practical man who adapted to the circumstances and often built two houses on one downtown lot, as was also the case at 2117 Kittredge. 

While Broad and his wife appear to have occupied one of the apartments at 2030 Bancroft, Julia and her second husband, Leslie Graham, lived at 2032 Bancroft, a Victorian house at the rear of the same lot. In 1930, the year of Broad’s death, the family was landlord to numerous tenants residing in various downtown buildings, including the houses occupied by the Broads themselves. 

The tenants represented a wide spectrum of the lower middle class and working class, including salespeople, bookkeepers, truck drivers, restaurant employees, a railcar upholsterer, a nurse, a sign painter, a telephone operator—people who today would be squeezed out of Berkeley. 

A Broad-designed Victorian at 2232 Haste St., now divided into 14 units, was the childhood home of Sierra Club leader David Brower. Brower planted the large redwood tree in the front yard. 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). 

CORRECTION: The following sentence has been omitted from the original version of this article: 

A Broad-designed Victorian at 2232 Haste St., now divided into 14 units, was the home of Sierra Club leader David Brower’s parents in the 1940s and ’50s.  

It has been replaced by: 

A Broad-designed Victorian at 2232 Haste St., now divided into 14 units, was the childhood home of Sierra Club leader David Brower.  

A couple of months ago, I wrote about Berkeley Indoor Gardens, an indoor gardening (surprise!) store down at the tidal end of University Avenue. I got to feeling bad because I hadn’t written about the other indoor gardening store across the street. This one even advertises on KPIG, my favorite radio station. (So does Memphis Minnie’s, home of the best Sunday brunch in San Francisco. Don’t take my word for it—go eat!)  

So here’s the other side of the street, Berkeley’s Secret Garden, just to be fair. Also because I enjoyed visiting both. 

Both places have the requisite cute dog. At Secret Garden, we were greeted by a youngish smooth-coated somebreed-or-other with decent manners and a short attention span. Both places have prominent wall décor alluding to perfectly legal™ applications for their technology: here, more orchids; across the street at Indoor Gardens there were a few more references to the likes of home-grown salads.  

Both have the (also requisite) space-station arrays of silvery foil, fat PVC piping, moving water, whirring fans, and psychedelically whirling light arrays nurturing lush green tropicals and houseplants. Both sell sacks of soil replacements and amendments, and a great many supplements.  

Both are conveniently located in the neighborhood of Templebar and a number of Indian clothing and jewelry stores for a certain flavor of one-stop shopping. (I used the occasion of the scouting visit to discover that not only do those little bangle bracelets, the ones made to wear in multiples, come in designated sizes, but I need the largest one. No surprise, I guess. My glove size went up measurably after I’d spent a few years with my Number Eight Felco shears practically imbedded in my right hand, pruning for a living.)  

Secret Garden might have the edge on sheer numbers of arcane secret recipes. You could theoretically assemble everything a sane plant would need, from minerals and micronutrients to the best approximations of a number of mycorrhizal fungi, and add a few ecogroovy pesticides besides: several predatory bugs, including pirate bugs (Yo ho ho!) and a bacillus I hadn’t heard of: B. subtilis, used pretty much the way B. thuringiensis is and apparently as a disease control for lawns, of all things.  

Places like this seem to be cutting-edge for low-toxin gardening in general, maybe because people are touchy about introducing nasty stuff into their own homes. No doubt the Green Triangle granola culture has an influence too; there are handmade glass jars and “potpourri grinders” in the window, and a Seeds of Change rack.  

There’s also a bewildering variety of plant “nutritional” supplements—the scare quotes here are because plants do photosynthesize their own food. It’s evidence of a hundred lines of inquiry and theorizing about what plants and soils do together. One interesting product was a tank array of Humtea, a version of manure tea that has never seen the inside of a herbivore.  

Might be fun to use, but I’m still not drinking it, thanks.  

Berkeley’s Secret Garden 

921 University Ave. 

486-2117 

Monday-Friday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. 

Saturday: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. 

Sunday: Noon-5 p.m. 

www.berkeleyssecretgarden.com/ 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in the Daily Planet’s East Bay Home & Real Estate section. Her column on East Bay trees appears every other Tuesday in the Daily Planet.

Breakers of the space-age: In 2003 there were over 73,000 electrical fires and nearly 600 resulting deaths, not to mention about a billion dollars in property loss. Most of these fires were caused by electrical “arcing.”  

Now what IS arcing and why does it cause fires? 

When I think of arcing, I always think of those early science fiction movies where an electrical current can be seen bridging across a pair of metal prongs held upright (they call this a “Jacob’s ladder”). The arc climbs up and disappears, replaced by a new shorter one that then also climbs up and out of sight. “It’s ALIVE!” screams Gene Wilder. Yes, that’s an arc, although that particular one is under control and doing what we wish it to do. There are also tiny arcs occurring inside of motors all the time as the little copper brushes sweep across the magnetic core, causing the whole thing to rotate. Motors seen in the dark usually issue some flecks of orange light. Get down on the kitchen floor and look beneath the fridge at night and you might see what I’m talking about. Now, all arcing is not good. In fact, most arcing isn’t good at all and the majority of electrical fires are caused it.  

When two wires are separated by a tiny space, the power attempts to jump the gap. This gap creates resistance and this creates heat. This effect can built upon itself (heat melts metal creating more of a gap and more resistance and so on) until wires begin to melt and nearby combustibles, such as insulation or wood, catch fire. These gaps can be caused by a cord that has been worn from repeated bending or from prolonged heat. A cord or wire may have been stepped on or punctured in use or a pair of wires in a “wire-nut” (these are used to join wires in most houses) may have pulled just a teensy bit apart.  

Any of these conditions can begin to create heat and lead to a fire. If you notice that you have an outlet that glows or gets hot, it has likely developed an “arc-fault,” A cord may also feel hot in one place and the same might well be true. There are lots of ways and places that this can occur and for years, the only thing we could do was to rely upon our wits and sluggish old style breakers and fuses to eventually notice the increased heat on the circuit. Sadly, these devices are not good at detecting arc-faults and fires continued to break out. But wait, computer technology is here to save you, Mr & Mrs. Ludd. 

Just as electrical engineering has learned to “see” and “hear” for robots, cars and so many other devices in our brave new electronic world, circuit breakers, too, have begun to think in a very exciting new way. They have learned to hear the sounds of arcing, which I think is incredibly cool.  

Arcing has a particular sound or wave-form, if you speak oscilloscope. The amazing thing is that these devices can ignore the arcing of a motor but attend to the wave form of a wire that has begun to spark and overheat. If they sense this particular kind of arcing going on, they kill the circuit, preventing a deadly fire. This new breaker, the Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter or AFCI is new and not in widespread use … yet. These are not required in older houses that have electrical repairs and is only required for the bedrooms in new houses. Even this requirement is only true where city inspectors are using the 2002 code book and amazingly enough, many cities are 7-10 years behind on code enforcement.  

One might also ask why we’re not using this life-saving technology on all of our circuits and one should! The truth is, it’s being discussed in those gray rooms that you and I are never invited into. Might be a security clearance thing. Nevertheless, those who write the codes are doing what they can to push this technology forward and get it into homes across the U.S. and Canada. I have no idea where the EU stands and can find nothing on AFCIs in the U.K. either. 

The good news is that you can go forth and procure these lovelies for your home and put them in as a means of decreasing your fire risk. There are, however, some things you need to know about them since nothing is ever as sweet as it seems from across the street through the shop window. 

Older homes tend to have lots of tiny/minor arc-faults and installation of an AFCI breaker on your bedroom circuit might result in a breaker that trips when energized and will not reset. I’ve seen it myself. You can then set about to find the tiny arc-faults, which is certainly a worthy, if not valiant attempt but you may find it beyond your purse size or the skills of your electrician to complete such a task. Nonetheless, I think it’s worthwhile.  

Be aware that old, worn electrical cords and certain appliances are more likely to be the cause of an arc-fault than your old knob and tube wiring. An old outlet may be the cause or perhaps an old poorly wired lamp or switch. In short, it’s easier to put these in a new house but worthwhile to try to use in an old one. I think one could even argue that this is good way to challenge the most problematic portions of an older electrical system. 

Sometimes an inspection client will jokingly tell me that they don’t want to hear what’s wrong with the house but if I challenge them, they will typically smile and say that they really DO want to know. I think they just want me to be gentle, which, of course, I always am (he smiled to himself). I think this is a similar issue. It’s better to find out and now there’s a really good way to do it. By the way, I’d very much recommend using our new friend the AFCI in all parts of the house. There’s no reason not to use them in bathrooms, kitchens or garages as well, although you may find out that your toaster oven needs to be tossed out. 

AFCIs cost about 100 bucks a piece so they’re not cheap but I’m sure they’ll be coming down in price, just as the GFCI has. (That’s the Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter, the AFCIs shock preventing cousin, seen in baths across America.)  

So installation of AFCIs, including the troubleshooting they can induce, may cost hundred or even thousands of dollars. For now, you’ll have the be the judge of their value since you’re not likely to have them foisted upon your older home. If you buy new, you may be buying them any way. 

So, whether you retrofit them into your older home or receive them with your new one, please do take advantage of these space-age sentinels and you won’t have to keep the home-fires burning. 

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

FRIDAY, FEB. 9 

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 Ed Klinenberg on “Dramatic Impressions of China.” 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.  

Forum on Bullying In The Workplace and The Role of The Unions In Fighting It from 4 to 6 p.m. in Room G-209, Laney College, Oakland. Go up the stairs where Eighth St. ends at Fallon St. and turn right. 464-3181. 

First Annual Chinese New Year Sidewalk Parade at 6 p.m. starting at the top/east of Solano Ave. 527-5358. 

“On the Wealth of Nations” A evening with humorist P.J. O’Rourke at 6:30 p.m. at The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Reception at 6:30 p.m., program at 7 p.m. Cost is $15-$30. For reservations call 632-1366. 

Womansong Circle A participatory circle of song for women at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing. Donation $15-$20.  

“An Inconvenient Truth” screening at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Unit 4 Dorms, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code UCB) 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 10 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Exploration of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park with ethnologist and wildlife biologist Jim Hale. The walk includes several rock sites used by Native Americans and is followed by an optional drive to see rock art at nearby Poinsett Park in El Cerrito. Meet at 10 am at the Wildcat Canyon Staging Area, Park Ave. 0.1 mile northeast of McBryde Ave., Richmond. Bring water and lunch. Dress in layers and be prepared for rain and mud. 925-939-4304. www.berkeleypaths.org  

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $3-$5. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “Demystifying Tofu and Tempeh” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45, plus $5 materials fee. To register call 531-2665. www.compassionatecooks.com 

Grandmothers Against the War Come and sign Valentine post cards urging Congress to Bring the Troops Home Now from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at various locations, including College and Ashby, Farmers Market at Civic Center, and the Flea Market and Ashby and Martin Luther King. 

“Taking Out Country Back From the Right: A Strategy for Liberals and Progressive for the Coming Two Years” with Rabbi Michael Lerner at 7:30 p.m. at Twin Towers United Methodist Church, Oak and Central, Alameda. Presented by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

“Principles and Controversies of Evolution” with David Seaborg, evolutionary biologist, to Celebrate Darwin Day at 1 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. 393-5685. 

“Conservation Biology” A symposium from 8 a.m. to 7 pm. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Register on-line www.bacbs.org 

“Ethnography of Roses” with horticulturist Peter Klement from 10 a.m. to noon at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $15-$20. Registration required. 643-2755. 

“The Orchid Guy” Brian Petraska will give an overview of orchids and their culture, at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. Bring an orchid that you want to re-pot. 704-8222. 

“Does Humor Belong in Buddhism?” A conference beginning on Fri. at 4 p.m. with a lecture by Donald Lopez on “What’s So Funny About the Laughing Buddha?” in the Toll Room, Alumni House, UC Campus. Conference continues on Sat. For details call 643-6536. http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/events 

Great War Society, East Bay Chapter, meets to discuss “German & British Military Revisions, 1917-1918” by Robert Deward, at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

Origami for Valentine’s Day from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Art and Music Room, 5th Flr., Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale Sat. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sun. from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. To volunteer call 526-3720, ext. 5. 

Choosing Green Building Materials For Your Remodel from 9 to 11 a.m. at Truitt & White, 1817 Second St. Free, but registration required. 649-2674. 

Healing Muses Balkan Dance Workshop with Catherine Sutton from 10 a.m. to noon at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Healing Muses Workshop on Songs from the French Renaissance from 4 to 6 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

“Love Stories From the Heart” at 9 a.m. at Dramatically Speaking Toastmasters, at 1950 Franklin St., Room 2F. RSVP required, ID needed to get into building. 581-8675. 

Petite Pooches Playgroup for small dogs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., one block north of Solano on Ensenada at Talbot. 524-2459. 

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. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

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, FEB. 11 

Rainbow Berkeley’s 8th Annual Berkeley Pride Celebration at 5 p.m. at the Gaia Building, 2120 Alston Way. Suggested donation at the door is $10 to $20. No one turned away for lack of funds. 658-8143. 

Berkeley Hiking Club Explores Berkeley Pathways This 8-mile hike begins at 9 a.m. For information on how to join, please call 524-4715. 

“Open Garden” Join the Little Farm gardener for composting, planting, watering and reaping the rewards of our work, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cancelled only by heavy rain. 525-2233.  

Oakland 2007 Tet Festival Celebrate Vietnamese New Year from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Clinton Park, Oakland, with food, entertainment, and traditional cultural rituals. 436-5391. www.vaced.org 

Workshop on Rounds and Harmony Singing at 1:30 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

“A Rabbi’s Consideration of the Da Vinci Code” with Rabbi Harry A. Manhoff at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 535-0302, ext. 306.  

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 

Tibetan Buddhism with Robin Caton on “I Can’t Meditate!” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, FEB. 12 

“The Evolution of Influenza Viruses in the 20th and 21st Centuries” with Dr. Arnold Levine at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Free. www.msri.org 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, FEB. 13 

History of San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunters Point at 10:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. Free. 238-2200. 

Evolve! Darwin Day at Revolution Books featuring the book “Science of Evolution and The Myth of Creationism” by Ardea Skybreak at 7 p.m. at 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196 

“Faith Under Fire” with Bishop Eli Pascua on human rights violations in the Philippines at 5 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. www.pana.psr.edu 

“The Wit, Wisdom and Life of Richard Pryor” Videos, at 7 p.m. at The Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. mumiache@yahoo.com 

New Tax Saving Strategies with Dorotha Bradley, of H&R Block, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 526-7512.  

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

Books and Ideas Group will discuss “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World” at 1 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 981-5190. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and thinking skills. Commit to 1-2 hours per week during the school day and work one-on-one with students in their English classes. Training from noon to 3 p.m. For information call 524-2319. 

Berkeley High School Governance Council meets from noon to 4 p.m. in the Berkeley Community Theater lobby to finalize the advisory proposal. 644-4803. 

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. 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. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 14 

“New Era/New Politics” A walking tour of Oakland which highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. at the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234.  

Teach-In and Vigil Against American Torture every Wed. at noon at Boalt Hall, Bancroft Way at College Ave.  

Fine Press, Artists’ Books and Fine Art Editions at the Codex International Bookfair, Wed. and Thurs. from noon to 6 p.m. at the ASUC Pauley Ballroom, UC Campus. Cost is $5-$15. www.codexfoundation.org 

Poetry Writing Workshop with Alison Seevak at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

Knitting/Crocheting Bee and Yarn Swap at 6:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at 6:30 p.m. at the Berkeley BART Station. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, FEB. 15 

“Where Have All the Frogs Gone? Amphibian Decline in the Sierra Nevada” with Dr. Gary Fellers at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. 238-2200. 

“The Birds and Wildlife of Botswana” A photographic journey with Grant Reed at the Golden Gate Audubon Society meeting, at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, 843-2222. 

East Bay Wildlife and Native American History with wildlife biologist and ethnologist Jim Hale at 7 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Le Conte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. at the LeConte Elementary School, Russell St. entrance. Agenda includes a report from Beat Officer Bartalini, updates on the cell phone antennas, the mixed use building proposed for 2701 Shattuck/ 

2100 Derby, zoning/hours changes on Telegraph Ave., the “Save the Oaks” success, and board elections. 843-2602. 

Rebuilding with Straw Bale in Earthquake Affected Pakistan A talk and slideshow with Berkeley architect Martin Hammer at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233.  

“Transgender Meets Pagan Spirituality” Brown Bag lunch and discussion at 12:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion, Mudd Bldg, Room 100, 1798 Scenic Ave. www.pana.psr.edu 

“Did God Have a Wife?” with Prof. William G. Denver on the archeology and folk religion of of ancient Israel, at 7 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion Bade Museum, 1798 Scenic Ave. www.pana.psr.edu 

Teen Book Club discusses favorite gory and creepy books at 4:30 p.m. at the Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. Bring a book to share. 981-6107. 

Parents and Teens: Getting Beyond the Fight Learn techniques to resolve conflicts at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Family Story Time for children ages 3-7 at 7p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, at Hopkins. 981-6107. 

Storytime for Babies and Toddlers at 10:30 a.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

ONGOING 

Berkeley Winter Campaign for Cats We are providing free trapping assistance and spay/neuter to feral and homeless cats in Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and Piedmont, through March 2007. The cats will be spayed/neutered, vaccinated, treated for fleas and returned safely back to their neighborhoods. To report a neighborhood in need or to volunteer, please contact Caitlin at 908-0709. 

Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League Open to girls in grades 1-9. Spring season begins March 3. To register call 869-4277. www.abgsl.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., Feb. 13, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Homeless Commission meets Wed., Feb. 14, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Jane Micallef, 981-5426.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., Feb. 14, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. J981-7484. 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., Feb. 14, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Waterfront Commission meets Wed., Feb. 14, at 7 p.m., at 201 University Ave. 981-6740.  

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 644-6128 ext. 113.  

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Feb. 15, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7010.

TUESDAY, FEB. 6 

FILM 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Leslie Scalapino and Rae Armantrout read at 7:30 p.m. at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jon Sullivan with show slides and talk about “Berkeley: The One and Only” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Donna Bee-Gates discusses “I Want It Now: Navigating Childhood in a Materialistic World” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zabava and Yalazia, Balkan, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 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. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

S.F. Bluegrass & Old Time Festival with Earl Brothers, Circle R Boys and Dyad at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Barbara Linn & John Schott at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Ignacio Berroa Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7 

THEATER 

“Colorstruck” Donald Lacey’s one-man show at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland, through Feb. 11. Tickets are $5-$15. 663-5683. 

FILM 

“Race to Execution” on the factors that influence who lives and who dies at the hands of the state, at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

Film 50: History of Cinema “The Man with a Movie Camera” at 3 p.m. and Compilations “LunchFilms” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Brian Copeland, author of “Not a Genuine Black Man, or How I Claimed My Piece of Ground in the Lily-White Suburbs” will speak at 6 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

Woodruff Minor describes “The Archecture of Ratcliff” at 7:30 p.m. at Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St. 845-6874. 

Brenda Webster reads from her translation of Edith Bruck’s “Letter to My Mother” a memoir of her life in wartime Auschwitz, at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert with Jared Redmond, piano, at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

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

Mack Rucks Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Gerard Landry & the Lariats, Cajun/Zydeco. at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Ignacio Berroa Trio at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Clive Carroll, fingerstyle guitarist, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

THURSDAY, FEB. 8 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Flight Out of Time” Exhibition of contemporary prints by Barbara Foster, Jimin Lee and Tadayoshi Nakabayashi opens at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave., and runs to March 17. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

“Paintings of Abu Ghraib” by Fernando Botero at 190 Doe Library, UC Campus, through March 23. 643-5651. www.clas.berkeley.edu 

“Used and Re-Used: decorative objects made from utilitarian materials” at the The Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St. through March 31. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

"The Children of Chaguitillo” Photography exhibition by Harold Adler Reception form 6 to 9 p.m. at Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave. through March 31. 472-3170. 

Michael Howerton “Portraits” at Chachie’s Coffee Shop, 1768 Broadway at 19th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs though Feb. 28. www.howertonphoto.blogspot.com 

“100 Families in Oakland: Art & Social Change” at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland, through April 22. 238-2200. 

“African Art” by Okaybabs, Yinka Adeyemi, Adeyinka Fashokun, honoring Black History Month. Reception at 4:30 p.m. at the LuchStop Cafe, joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibit runs to March 30. 817-5773. 

“Transforming Vision: The Wood Sculpture of William Hunter, 1970-2005” at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts.. Oakland, through March 18. 238-2200. 

“Fire in the Heart” Paintings by Foad Satterfield influenced by African art at the Community Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave., through March 2. 204-1667. 

“Street Portraiture” Photographs by Tom Stone at The LightRoom Gallery, 2263 Fifth St., through Feb. 28. 649-8111. 

“Revisions” Works by Amy Berk using Jewish ceremonial textiles on display at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St., through Aug. 5. 549-6950. 

“Environmental Surrealism” works by Guy Colwell and Michelle Waters at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland, through Feb. 23. 444-7411. www.estebansabar.com 

“Berkeley: 75 Years Ago” at the Berkeley History Center, Veterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St. Hours are Thurs.-Sat., 1 to 4 p.m. Exhibit runs through March. 848-0181.  

“Art of Living Black” at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through March 16. 620-6772. www.richmondartcenter.org 

Oakland Art Association Juried Show at the MTC Offices, Bort MetroCenter, 3rd floor, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibition runs to March 30. 817-5773. 

FILM 

“Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey” at 7 p.m., at Ellen Driscoll Theater, Frank Havens School, 325 Highland Ave., near Oakland Ave., Piedmont. Judge Henderson will speak after the film. Presented by Appreciating Diversity Film Series. 835-9227. 

Film Series with David Thomson “Rio Bravo” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Conversations on Museums with David Behar, Israeli artist, at 6:30 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

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

Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell describe “A Thousand Names for Joy: A Life in Harmnony with the Way Things Are” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Suggested donation $10. 559-9500. 

Dana Whitaker describes “Transforming Lives $40 at a Time: Women and Mircrofinance” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Pauline Chen describes “Final Exam: A Young Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

John Searle will discuss “Freedom and Neurobiology: Reflection on Free Will, Language, and Political Power” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

SF Bluegrass & Old Time Festival with The Mercury Dimes, Flat Mountain Girls, Jeff Kazor & Lisa Berman at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Martyn Joseph, contemporary folk, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Mark Robinson & His Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Tom Duarte, guitar, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Chaplain, Dead Ringer, Scene of Action at 8:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. All ages. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Pat Martino at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, FEB. 9 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “True West” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through Feb. 17. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse Rogers and Hammerstein’s “A Grand Night for Singing” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Feb. 17. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre Company “The Birthday Party” Wed. - Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through March 4. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “The Pillowman” at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through March 11. Tickets are $33-$61. 647-2949. 

Black Repertory Group “Love Don’t Cost a Thang” a gospel play at 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Cost is $15. 472-5608. 

“Colorstruck” Donald Lacey’s one-man show at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland, through Feb. 11. Tickets are $5-$15. 663-5683. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito., through March 3. Tickets are $15-$24. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theatre “Cartoon” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, through March 10. Tickets are $10-$15. www.impacttheatre.com 

The Marsh “Shopping for God” Thurs.-Sat. at 7 p.m. at 2120 Allston Way, through March 3. Tickets are $15-$22. 1-800-838-5750. www.themarsh.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Arsenic and Old Lace” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., though Feb. 24, at 105 Park Playhouse, Point Richmond. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “The Tempest” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at The Metal Shop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., behind Willard Middle School. Runs through Feb. 17. Tickets are $15-$25. 800-838-3006. www.raggedwing.org 

TheatreFirst “Nathan the Wise” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Old Oakland Theater, 481 Ninth St. at Broadway, Oakland, through March 4. Tickets are $21-$25. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Obsession” Works of Fire and Passion Group Show opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave., and runs to March 3. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Tony Bellaver “Interventions” Performance art from 1 to 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Donations accepted. 644-6893. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

FILM 

The Lubitsch Touch “The Love Parade” at 7 p.m. and “Monte Carlo” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

P.J. O’Rourke reads from “On the Wealth of Nations” at 6:30 p.m. at The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Reception at 6:30 p.m., program at 7 p.m. Cost is $15-$30. For reservations call 632-1366. 

Jonathan Raban introduces his novel “Surveillance” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Alan Chen piano, at noon at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Healing Muses “Trillium” Three harps and two fiddles, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Alam Kahn, Indian classical music at 8 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Cost is $15. 526-9146. 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición, Cuban charanga music, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Spanish Harlem Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Hurricane Sam & The Hotshots at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Callaloo, Caribbean, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Sarah Manning, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Darryl Henriques “The Social Secutiry Show” at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Arlington Houston Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

The Nomadics, jazz, at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Tartuffi, Pillows, Tippy Canoe at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Albino, Afro-beat, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Pat Martino at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 10 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Uncle Eye & the Strange Change Machine at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $4 for adults, $3 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Dragonwings” An Active Arts Theater production for ages 7-14, Sat. at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater for the Arts, 2640 College Ave, through Feb. 25. Tickets are $14 children, $18 adults. 925-798-1300. 

EXHIBITIONS 

Richmond Art Center Winter Exhibitions Reception for artists at 3 p.m. at 2540 Barrett Ave., entrance at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“All Heart” A collaborative show with Children’s Hospital Aokland and Art For Life Foundation. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. Runs through March 9. 644-4930. 

“Found Object Robots” Reception for the artist, Richard Amoroso, at 2 p.m. at the LAkeview Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland. 238-7344. 

“Sexicon: The Art and Language of Erotica” Reception at 9 p.m. at Living Room Gallery, 3230 Adeline St. Cost is $6. www.myspace.com/livingroomcollective 

FILM 

A Theater Near You “The Cabinet of the Brothers Quay, Program 1” at 6:30 p.m. and “institute Benjamenta” at 8 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Mary Ellen Jones, Gary Norris Gray and Patriece read from their works at 3 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 154th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

Selene Steese and Jan Steckel, featured poets, at 7 p.m. at The Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru St., Alameda. Admission free, donations accepted. 523-6957. 

Renay Jackson, author of “Oaktown Devil” reads from his latest book “Crack City” at 2 p.m. at the Elmhurst Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 1427 88th Ave. 615-5727. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Arts Festival: John Schott’s Dream Kitchen, guitar, tuba, drums trio, at 8 p.m. at The Fidelity Bank Building, 2323 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert at 8 p.m. at Valley Center, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$15. 849-9776. 

Healing Muses “La Vie en Rose” at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Martha & Monica “100 Years of Russian Revolution” music for cello and piano at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Steve Taylor-Ramirez at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

“Queen of Spain” musical theater at 5 p.m. at Music Sources, 1000 The Alameda. For reservations call 528-1658. 

Spanish Harlem Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $22-$42. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Alúna, traditional Colombian music, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ed Reed & Peck Allmond All-Star Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Samba Ngo, African-Congolese, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Joshua Eden and Jeremy Hox at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Upsurge! jazz-poetry ensemble, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Dave Rocha Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Moment’s Notice with Deanna Anderson, Antyne, Peter Giordano and others at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Tickets are $8-$10. 847-1119. 

Dangerous Rhythm with Tim Fox at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

The Lost Cats, swing, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Battle of the Bands: Finals at 6 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. All ages. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

John Howland Trio, Nucleus, Wayward Monks at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Pat Martino at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, FEB. 11 

CHILDREN 

Asheba at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mitali Perkins introduces “Rickshaw Girl” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Ira Marlowe sings songs for children under ten, at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Recent Works of Changming Meng” Reception for the artist at 3 p.m. at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave., Suite #4. 421-1255. www.altagalleria.com 

“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” Guided tour at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Screenagers: Bay Area High School Film and Video Festival at noon and 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Architecture Tour of the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. Meet at the koi pond, first level at 1 p.m. 238-2200. 

Luis Garcia and Richard Krech read at 7:30 at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

“Measure of Time” Gallery talk with Bill Berkson at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. 642-0808. 

Poetry Flash presents Martha Collins and Diana O’Hehir at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert at 2 p.m. at Valley Center, Holy Names University, 3500 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Special outreach concert, free for students and seniors. 849-9776. 

Chamber Music Sundaes featuring San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends in concert at 3 p.m. at St John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets at the door are $18-$22. 415-753-2792. www.chambermusicsundaes.org  

Dawn Upshaw, soprano, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $68. 642-9988.  

Community Women’s Orchestra at 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1331 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation $10, children free. 463-0313. www.communitywomensorchestra.org 

Healing Muses “Sweet Persuasions to Enjoy” music from 17th centry England at 5 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Seth Montfort and Thomas Penders, piano, at 5:30 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228. 

Soulful Swing Jazz Duo, Yancie Taylor, vibraphone, Ben Stolorow, piano, at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893. berkeleyartcenter.org 

Aileen Chanco and Raja Rahman, piano duo at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. at Sacramento. Tickets are $12. 559-2941. www.crowden.org 

“Sounds New” Contemporary American classic music at 7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kendington. Suggested Donation $10-$15. 524-2912. www.SoundsNewUS.org 

Ms Pumpkin’s Talent Show at 6 p.m. at Black Reportory Theater, 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $35. 652-2120. 

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The Black Irish Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Aleph Null, CD release party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Bob Marley Birthday Tribute with Soja, Native Elements at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

MONDAY, FEB. 12 

FILM 

United Nations Association Film Festival “Armenian Lullaby” and “Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $8-$10. 769-7350. www.unaff.org 

SF Independent Film Festival “Stalking Santa” at 7 p.m. and “Unholy Women” at 9:30 p.m. at the California Theater, 2113 Kittredge St. Tickets are $10 for each screening. 464-5980. sfindie.com 

THEATER 

Shakespeare Intensive “Henry V” staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1925 Cedar at Bonita. Other plays to be read each Mon. to Feb. 26. Cost is $5. 276-3871. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Monday Night Blues Lecture and performance held every Mon. night during Black History Month at 8 p.m. at Kimball’s Carnival, 522 Second St. Donation $5. 836-2227. 

Poetry from the Heart, readings and open mic at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. Kensington. 524-3043. 

Poetry Express with Amy Ehrlick at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Livingston Taylor at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Parlor Tango at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Brandon Marsalis at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $26-$30. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

OLD TIME MUSIC IN BERKELEY 

The San Francisco Bluegrass and Old Time Festival journeys across the bay to Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse with a show featuring the Earl Brothers, Circle R Boys and Dyad at 8 p.m. Tuesday. $15.50-$16.50. 1111 Addison St. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org.  

NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN 

Brian Copeland, the author and performer behind Not a Genuine Black Man, or How I Claimed My Piece of Ground in the Lily-White Suburbs, will speak at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the African American Museum and Library. 659 14 St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

‘FLIGHT OUT OF TIME’ AT KALA INSTITUTE 

An exhibition of contemporary prints by Barbara Foster, Jimin Lee and Tadayoshi Nakabayashi entitled “Flight Out of Time” opens Thursday and runs through March 17 at the Kala Art Institute.  

1060 Heinze Ave. 549-2977. www.kala.org. 

A THOUSAND DECISIONS IN THE DARK 

Film critic David Thomson continues his film and discussion series examining the state of cinema toward the end of the 1950s with a screening of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo (1959) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Pacific Film Archive.$4-$8. 2575 Bancroft Way. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

In his interview with Robert Hass to an overflowing crowd at International House, the Columbian artist Fernando Botero mentioned that when reading Seymour Hersh’s article in The New Yorker about American soldiers using torture in the same prison at Abu Ghraib where Saddam Hussein used similar violent tactics, he was deeply shocked. 

This, he had not expected of the North Americans. Compelled to respond to this outrage with pencil and brush, he spent the next 14 months creating over a hundred drawings and paintings, based on the photographs which had been published showing the humiliation, abuse, depravity and torture. 

Botero, Latin America’s most celebrated artist, has been known for his whimsical, lighthearted pneumatic figures. Retaining aspects of his personal style, he now addressed issues of deep human concern. The victims in the paintings, currently on view at Doe Library are still volumetric and refer to the Renaissance tradition. 

Botero, growing up in rural Colombia, went first to Mexico and was indelibly impressed by the by the murals of Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros which used modern syntax for an art that would speak to the people. Botero went on to Paris, but was drawn to Florence. It was the Florentine Renaissance painters—Giotto, Massacio, Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, who gave volume and flesh to the human body and who conveyed space in artistic terms. The large bodies in the Abu Ghraib series occupy this Renaissance space. The grid of the cell bars in many of the paintings give clear structure to the compositions. 

But we have to look for precedent of these powerful works beyond the formal aspects. They relate to all the paintings of tortured martyrs and, above all, to the pictures of the Crucifixion. In later art they reiterate the horrific paintings and etchings by Goya, especially the bleeding corpses and severed limbs in his “Disasters of War.” And, of course Picasso, whose painting of “Guernica” has eternalized and universalized the first bombing from the air of the small Basque town. “Art is permanent accusation,” Botero said.  

Close to our own time Leon Golub’s “Mercenaries” of the 1980s, relating America’s covert operations in Latin America come to mind. Whereas Golub focused on the perpetrators, Botero spares us the well known images of Pfc England leading naked prisoners on a dog’s leash. We must remember that, while these uneducated soldiers were court-martialled, the initiators of the torture program were never touched. Indeed, Alberto Gonzales, who probably was in charge of the program, was rewarded by the “Decider” who appointed him attorney general of the United States. The banality of evil is only too apparent. 

Botero shows us the degradation, the pain and suffering of the prisoners. They are blindfolded while pain is inflicted on their persons. Nakedness is great humiliation to Muslims. Here they are made to wear brassieres and pink panties. The torturers are indicated by green gloves and heavy boots or the stream of piss directed at the helpless bodies. Sado-massochistic acts as well as forced homosexual ones are displayed. And there are the grey-green hellhounds, staring at the victims, bearing their razor-sharp teeth as they brutally attack the defenseless naked victims. 

The exhibition at Doe Library on the Berkeley Campus was organized by the Center for Latin American Studies, which transformed a computer room into a fine exhibition space in record time. The exhibition was offered to the Berkeley Art Museum, which did not have the space, the time slot or the inclination to mount this exhibition, which is without doubt the most controversial and important show seen hereabouts in many years.

Robert Ernst, cofounder of ’70s-’80s Berkeley experimental performance cooperative The Blake Street Hawkeyes and writer, director, teacher, musician and actor, has a new play, Catherine’s Care, onstage for two more weeks in San Rafael. 

Ernst’s play—in which he performs as a musician in a three-man band backing the constant action onstage—is the story of an older country woman from the Border States and her confinement, against her will, in a care facility, spun out in her dreams, her squabbles with the head nurse, her private anguish and considerable humor. It’s told in the latest edition of Ernst’s celebrated performance style, as directed with choreographic precision and imagination by Jon Tracy and performed by a talented four-player ensemble. 

“It’s a little like combining film acting with stage,” said Ernst. “When the audience is this close, everybody can see the smallest expressions.” 

Ernst became a big part of the local cultural scene in the ‘70s, after he arrived with playwright John O’Keefe from Iowa, where both had been involved with the famed Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa, and where Ernst cofounded a performance group inspired by Polish Theatre Lab’s Jerzy Grotowski’s ideas. 

Ernst and O’Keefe worked with The Magic during its Berkeley days, and when founder John Lion parted company with the troupe, “he kept the warehouse that had been the scene shop for storage, and let us live and work there. Our wonderful, eccentric landlord never figured it out! [Clown] Dave Shine joined us from Iowa. [Mime and author] Leonard Pitt, another Grotowski connection, was just up the street. It was our whole world—I seldom had to travel much, just from cafe to cafe, and often just on Shattuck.” 

From 1975 until the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989, Ernst was resident in Blake Street, mainly doing solo performances and teaching workshops. He kept the warehouse into the 1990s, “but the earthquake did us in; the advanced legacy of Reaganomics didn’t help either.” 

Then “love brought me to Marin,” where he now resides, “and I was driving all the time back to the East Bay, the city, down the Peninsula, wherever I was working,” wearing his different hats as playwright, teacher, and, increasingly, actor in demand with professional companies like ACT and touring shows. 

Jeanette Harrison of Alter (short for Alternative) Theater called him up two and a half years ago, but Ernst was committed to projects and couldn’t perform with the brand-new troupe. “I told Jeanette about the play, then a solo piece for an actress with band, and she shepherded it through a long—and continuing—development, including staged readings at a rocking chair store and Z Space in the city. And got us grants. It’s from the experience of having my own mother in a care facility. Catherine isn’t my mother, but a lot of the situations are the same.” 

Ernst teaches as guest artist at Marin’s Tamalpais High and in SF’s Mission High for the California Young Playwrights Project through the Magic. “It took me 20 years to realize the Bay Area isn’t a theater town, but a place where artists meet. I don’t know what it is, the mountain, the latitude ... Catherine’s Care’s a bit dark—the essence of life is a kind of tragedy—so the audience is unsure when to laugh. But the other night we had a bunch of college kids in to watch, and they had no problem knowing when to laugh.” 

CATHERINE’S CARE 

7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 18. $20 (pay what you will Thursday, Feb. 8). 1557 Fourth St., San Rafael (Central San Rafael exit).www.altertheater.org (415) 454-2787. Free parking.

All right, the season’s over. Put down that polesaw. I don’t mean the pruning season, exactly. I mean the pruning free-for-all season: that season where a pruner’s only concern is the anatomy and physiology of the tree being pruned.  

(If you don’t know from tree anatomy and physiology, you have no business pruning—just as, if you don’t know the anatomical differences between a dog and a squid, you have no business clipping your puppy’s toenails, never mind doing veterinary surgery.)  

If you’re messing with a tree or shrub now, you’d better take a long close look within it for inhabitants first, because our local songbirds’ nesting season has begun.  

Anna’s hummingbirds are year-round residents here. Two other hummingbird species are commonly seen in Berkeley: Allen’s hummingbird, which breeds here but migrates out in fall; and rufous hummingbird, a migrant that passes through on the way north in spring. (In fall, most of the rufous population migrates south via the Sierra, taking advantage of the summer flowers that bloom months later there than their brethren down here around sea level.)  

Male Anna’ses have been putting on their aerial territorial displays since December, at least. We have a mad turf war going on at our place as a younger male is trying to usurp our longtime resident, Himself. This is made difficult by the fact that our feeders are on the front and back porches and not visible from any one point. Intense crazy chases around the house and around the house again occur daily.  

More significantly, a female Anna’s—distinguishable by her more cryptic coloring, with no red throat gorget—was buzzing the windowframes and conifers last month and snatching up bits of spiderweb. She used these, along with lichens and bits of fuzz and her own spit, to build her tiny, neat, sturdy nest. We take care of our spiders here at the Blake Street Belfry, and that’s one reason why. Everything really is, as Muir said, hitched to everything else.  

Now she’s snatching bugs, which she’ll feed her kids. They need the protein to grow. Hummers usually supplement their nectar diet with insects, but when you see a female going for them persistently it’s a safe bet she’s feeding chicks.  

That’s quite an act to see. She thrusts that long bill down their eager little throats and pumps madly; it looks like a sword-swallower’s performance gone mad.  

She might have built that nest, by our standards at least, any old where. The nest in the photo was built in an office-complex courtyard on University Avenue, just above eye level, over a well-trafficked walkway. Joe and I have run into Anna’s hummers nesting in several local plant nurseries, once on an eye-level twig (I’m five-foot-four) in a 10-foot-tall potted ficus tree that was indoors, in the office shed, maybe 10 feet from the cashier’s desk.  

No shortage of traffic there, and lots of gawkers; the nursery managers had staked a card in the pot alerting everyone to the nest’s presence. The hummingbird was incubating her eggs, and as steadfast as Horton the Elephant. Every human there was on his or her best behavior, and didn’t get closer than, oh, arm’s-length, but we all looked and she looked right back, a fierce glare in her beady little eye.  

The nest in the picture is small—half a walnut shell would stretch the inside—and easy to miss if you haven’t seen one before. Right now, when the leaves are most sparse on the trees, is the best time to spot them. Get up a ladder and look for them before cutting. If you can’t do that, at least watch your trees for a few days, and see if there’s hummer traffic to one particular place. 

Remember: The bugs they’re all eating now are the ones that would otherwise be the parents of the generations that would spend next summer chomping on your garden.  

Other local species are working up to nesting season, too. You might have noticed that the house finches and goldfinches are singing, and that the musical males have female audiences. Some of those robins you’re hearing are getting ready to migrate north, and working off their hormones; others will likely hang around and establish breeding territories in the next month or two. Still others will migrate in from farther south. Jostling will ensue.  

Great horned owls might have great big chicks in the nest already; they start early. The Bewick’s wren that has been singing in our neighborhood all winter might be getting seriously amorous this month, and will nest early next month.  

We’re not the only species that inhabits our cities, and we’d be much worse off if we were. The least we can do is to be aware of our neighbors, and behave well accordingly.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan 

A female Anna’s hummingbird (Callypte anna) on her nest. 

Ron Sullivan is a former professional gardener and arborist. Her “Green Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column. Her “Garden Variety” column appears every Friday in the Planet’s East Bay Home & Real Estate section.  

TUESDAY, FEB. 6 

Disaster Preparedness in Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville A brown bag lunch event sponsored by the League of Women Voters, at noon at Albany Library Edith Stone Room, Marin and Masonic Avenues, Albany. 843-8824. 

“Thirst” A documentary on the politics of the bottled water industry in the U.S. and the world, followed by discussion with producers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Cost is $5-$10. Part of the BFUU Social Justice Committee's Conscientious Projector series. 644-4956. 

Kayaking Alaska’s Inside Passage A slide show with Julie Hinkle and Zephyr Sincerny at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Livable Streets: Celebration, Reflection, And The Future Of A Path-Breaking Legacy at 7 p.m. at 112 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley Campus. 

Free Legal Assistance the first Tues. of the month at 6 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Advance registration required. 526-3720, ext. 5. 

WriterCoach Connection seeks volunteers to help students improve their writing and thinking skills. Commit to 1-2 hours per week during the school day and work one-on-one with students in their English classes. Training from noon to 3 p.m. or from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. For information call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org 

Sports Nutrition with Carol Lourie on genomic testing, nutritional suppements and accupuncture at 7 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Volunteer Storyreaders Needed Training classes begin at 6 p.m. at the Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. Registration required. 238-7453. 

Animal Communication Consultations from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. For appointment call 525-6255. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Discussion Salon on Social Change and Activism at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda.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 always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Explore Oakland’s Shoreline Parks Meet at 10 am at the restrooms adjacent to parking lot at 7th St. and Middle Harbor Rd, Oakland. Dress in layers and bring water and snack for this level, wheelchair- and stroller-friendly walk of about two hours. 848 9358. www.berkeleypaths.org 

“Waves, Wetlands, and Watersheds” An interactive workshop for educators that covers watershed, coastal, and marine issues. From 4 to 6 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Registration required. 636-1684. www.ebparks.org 

Volunteer with the Native Plant Nursery Your help in the nursery will enable Save The Bay to continue restoration of some of the last remaining wetland habitat in the East Bay and help us reach our goal to plant 10,000 native wetland plants at Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Park this winter. From 1 to 3 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline, Oakland. RSVP requested. 452-9261 ext. 109.  

Community Meeting on Pacific Steel Casting Tell the Mayor and Berkeley City Council: Stop Pacific Steel Casting's pollution. Our community deserves clean air & environmental justice! It is important for residents to show up and express their concerns about the ongoing pollution and violations at PSC. at 7 p.m. at the West Berkeley Senior Center, 1900 6th St. at Hearst. 415-248-5010. 

“Little House on a Small Planet” with Shay Salomon on the small house movement at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall, 315A, UC Campus. http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium 

“Race to Execution” a documentary on the factors that influence who lives and who dies at the hands of the state, at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Oakland. Free. 238-2200. 

Wild Goose Qi Gong classes at 5:45 p.m. at Rudramandir, Room 106, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th St. Cost is $15. 496-6047. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. 548-9840. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

THURSDAY, FEB. 8 

“Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey” at 7 p.m., at Ellen Driscoll Theater, Frank Havens School, 325 Highland Ave., near Oakland Ave., Piedmont. Judge Henderson will speak after the film. Presented by Appreciating Diversity Film Series. 835-9227. 

“Breaking the Gridlock!” What will it take to have better transit in Berkeley? Panel and discussion, with Chris Peeples, AC Transit Board of Directors; Matt Nichols, City of Berkeley Transportation Planner; Betty Deakin, Director, Institute for Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley at 7:30 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar at Arch St. Free. 843-8724. 

“Little House on a Small Planet” Live in less space but have more room and enjoy it, with Shay Salomon of the small house movementand photographer Nigel Valdez at 7 p.m. at Builders Booksource, 1817 Fourth St. 845-6874. 

“The Hydropolitics of Israel & Palestine” A slide presentation by Skip Shiel, followed by discussion at 7:30 p.m. at Friends Church , Fellowship Hall, 1600 Sacramento St. at Cedar. http://teeksaphoto.org 

Richmond Southeast Shoreline Area Community Group meets at 6:30 p.m. at the Richmond Convention Center, Bermuda Room, 403 Civic Center Plaza, Nevin and 25th Sts. For information call 540-3923. To volunteer call 367-5379. 

East Bay Macintosh Users Group Learn how to sync your Mac to your cell phone or PDA, at 7 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound St., Emeryville. www.ebmug.org 

Café Literario, a Spanish book discussion group begins a new session at 7 p.m. at the West Branch of the Berkeley Public Library, 1125 University Ave. 981-6140. 

Storytime for Babies and Toddlers at 10:30 a.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Family Story Time for children ages 3-7 at the Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, at Hopkins. 981-6107. 

Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, writer, on “False Self/True Self” at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito St. off Grand Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 625-5831.  

FRIDAY, FEB. 9 

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 Ed Klinenberg on “Dramatic Impressions of China.” 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.  

Forum on Bullying In The Workplace and The Role of The Unions In Fighting It from 4 to 6 p.m. in Room G-209, Laney College, Oakland. Go up the stairs where Eighth St. ends at Fallon St. and turn right. 464-3181. 

First Annual Chinese New Year Sidewalk Parade at 6 p.m. starting at the top/east of Solano Ave. 527-5358. 

“On the Wealth of Nations” A evening with humorist P.J. O’Rourke at 6:30 p.m. at The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland. Reception at 6:30 p.m., program at 7 p.m. Cost is $15-$30. For reservations call 632-1366. 

Womansong Circle A participatory circle of song for women at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing. Donation $15-$20.  

“An Inconvenient Truth” screening at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Unit 4 Dorms, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com (code UCB) 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 10 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Exploration of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park with ethnologist and wildlife biologist Jim Hale. The walk includes several rock sites used by Native Americans and is followed by an optional drive to see rock art at nearby Poinsett Park in El Cerrito. Meet at 10 am at the Wildcat Canyon Staging Area, Park Ave. 0.1 mile northeast of McBryde Ave., Richmond. Bring water and lunch. Dress in layers and be prepared for rain and mud. 925-939-4304. www.berkeleypaths.org  

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $3-$5. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “Demystifying Tofu and Tempeh” from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45, plus $5 materials fee. To register call 531-2665. www.compassionatecooks.com 

“Taking Out Country Back From the Right: A Strategy for Liberals and Progressive for the Coming Two Years” with Rabbi Michael Lerner at 7:30 p.m. at Twin Towers United Methodist Church, Oak and Central, Alameda. Presented by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

“Principles and Controversies of Evolution” with David Seaborg, evolutionary biologist, to Celebrate Darwin Day at 1 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., midtown Oakland. 393-5685. 

“Conservation Biology” A symposium from 8 a.m. to 7 pm. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Register on-line www.bacbs.org 

“Ethnography of Roses” with horticulturist Peter Klement from 10 a.m. to noon at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $15-$20. Registration required. 643-2755. 

“The Orchid Guy” Brian Petraska will give an overview of orchids and their culture, at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. Bring an orchid that you want to re-pot. 704-8222. 

“Does Humor Belong in Buddhism?” A conference beginning on Fri. at 4 p.m. with a lecture by Donald Lopez on “What’s So Funny About the Laughing Buddha?” in the Toll Room, Alumni House, UC Campus. Conference continues on Sat. For details call 643-6536. http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/events 

Great War Society, East Bay Chapter, meets to discuss “German & British Military Revisions, 1917-1918” by Robert Deward, at 10:30 a.m. at 640 Arlington Ave. 527-7118. 

Origami for Valentine’s Day from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Art and Music Room, 5th Flr., Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6100. www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org 

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale Sat. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sun. from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. To volunteer call 526-3720, ext. 5. 

Choosing Green Building Materials For Your Remodel from 9 to 11 a.m. at Truitt & White, 1817 Second St. Free, but registration required. 649-2674. 

Healing Muses Balkan Dance Workshop with Catherine Sutton from 10 a.m. to noon at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

Healing Muses Workshop on Songs from the French Renaissance from 4 to 6 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

“Love Stories From the Heart” at 9 a.m. at Dramatically Speaking Toastmasters, at 1950 Franklin St., Room 2F. RSVP required, ID needed to get into building. 581-8675. 

Petite Pooches Playgroup for small dogs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., one block north of Solano on Ensenada at Talbot. 524-2459. 

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. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

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, FEB. 11 

Rainbow Berkeley’s 8th Annual Berkeley Pride Celebration at 5 p.m. at the Gaia Building, 2120 Alston Way. Suggested donation at the door is $10 to $20. No one turned away for lack of funds. 658-8143. 

Berkeley Hiking Club Explores Berkeley Pathways This 8-mile hike begins at 9 a.m. For information on how to join, please call 524-4715. 

“Open Garden” Join the Little Farm gardener for composting, planting, watering and reaping the rewards of our work, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cancelled only by heavy rain. 525-2233.  

Oakland 2007 Tet Festival Celebrate Vietnamese New Year from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Clinton Park, Oakland, with food, entertainment, and traditional cultural rituals. 436-5391. www.vaced.org 

Workshop on Rounds and Harmony Singing at 1:30 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington St., Albany. Tickets are $15-$20. 524-5661. www.healingmuses.org 

“A Rabbi’s Consideration of the Da Vinci Code” with Rabbi Harry A. Manhoff at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 535-0302, ext. 306.  

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 

Tibetan Buddhism with Robin CAton on “I Can’t Meditate!” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

MONDAY, FEB. 12 

“The Evolution of Influenza Viruses in the 20th and 21st Centuries” with Dr. Arnold Levine at 8 p.m. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. Free. www.msri.org 

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

ONGOING 

Berkeley Winter Campaign for Cats We are providing free trapping assistance and spay/neuter to feral and homeless cats in Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and Piedmont, through March 2007. The cats will be spayed/neutered, vaccinated, treated for fleas and returned safely back to their neighborhoods. To report a neighborhood in need or to volunteer, please contact Caitlin at 908-0709. 

Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League Open to girls in grades 1-9. Spring season begins March 3. To register call 869-4277. www.abgsl.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Tues., Feb. 6, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7520.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Community Health Commission meets Thurs., Feb. 8, at 6:45 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5356.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Feb. 8, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.