The historic 1911 Herschell-Spillman “Menagerie Edition” carousel at Tilden Park was closed earlier this month after state officials said that under state law it is unsafe without a guard fence around it. 

Every year the Tilden Carousel—one of only two of its kind still operating—gets 150,000 visitors who come to enjoy its hand-carved and painted animals and its irreplaceable band organs. 

It recently won $97,000 in grant money for floor and organ restoration as one of the 25 historic sites in the Bay Area competing for the American Express Partners in Preservation grant award. 

Jeff Wilson, unit manager for Tilden Park, said that the Park District was working to comply with the state safety standards. 

“We are buying temporary fencing that meets the state requirement. If that doesn’t work out then the district will fabricate its own fencing. We want the carousel to be safe and running before March,” he said. 

Wilson added that the grant money would also replace the raggedy curtains in the carousel building with a permanent glass case. 

Carousel operator Terri Holleman—who has leased the ride from the East Bay Regional Park (EBRP) for the last 15 years—disputed the existence of a mandate for a barrier. 

“The same California code which mandates that a barrier be built between the amusement ride and its riders also states that rides installed before 1993 are exempt from it,” she said. “But the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is enforcing the suggestion that a fence be put around the carousel and we are complying with it.” 

According to Dean Fryer, spokesperson for DOSH, the California Code of Regulations states that all permanent rides are required to have a barrier between the public and the ride.  

He said the law “states that in the case of rides installed before 1993, the structure itself can be grandfathered in, but the lack of a barrier cannot be grandfathered in. This means that if the Tilden carousel had a fence prior to 1993, we wouldn’t have asked for any changes to it. But this is not the case.” 

The agency first asked Holleman to install the fence in 2005 and has repeated the request twice since then, Fryer said. 

“We are not asking something out of the ordinary here,” he said. “It’s basic public safety. But Holleman just thumbed her nose at it even though she was out of compliance with the law.” 

Holleman said DOSH’s inspectors had asked her to put up a fence in the past but that they had always added that it was not mandatory for the 94-year-old carousel. 

A surprise visit by DOSH inspectors during the carousel’s annual Christmas program in December led to a report that expedited the need for the fence. 

“I had 12 ride operators helping me during Christmas but even then it got really crazy,” Holleman said. “When the inspectors came in, the people were crowding in around the carousel. We striped out a caution line 20 inches behind the first red line but people were still crossing over.” 

According to her, the inspectors wrote up a report that described the situation as complete mayhem and told Holleman that she had 30 days to put up a fence. 

Holleman closed the carousel and told the parks district it had to install a safety fence. “As a concessionaire, I simply lease the ride from the park district. I can’t just walk in and put the fence up,” she said. “EBRP is now responsible for the fence and until that’s installed, the ride will stay closed.” 

Austene Hall, a boardmember of Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), described the carousel as a “cultural icon.” 

“BAHA will support the Tilden carousel in keeping it running,” she told the Planet on Thursday. 

“It’s a really important structure, not just structurally, but also culturally,” she said. “People who grew up in Berkeley have fond memories of it. They now bring their children and their children’s children to enjoy this beautiful work of art.” 

Dan Horenberger, caretaker for the Tilden carousel for the last 20 years and editor of the Carousel News and Trader Magazine, told the Planet that DOSH was gradually destroying the business for independent carousel owners. Alterations have been made at carousels at the San Francisco Zoo and the Seaport Village in San Diego. Recently, Disneyland traded their original 1920’s Dentzel carousel for a newer model. 

“Carousels are being protected all over the world except in California,” Horenberger said. “DOSH fails to understand that antique carousels don’t comply to modern standards. There are a lot of private operators who cannot afford, see the need for or agree to the upgrades that DOSH wants of their carousels. As a result they are either closing down or moving out of state.” 

Fryer said that this was not the case. 

“Coming into compliance with state codes is not a huge request,” he said. “These are pieces of machinery that are moving. The fence helps to add a line of safety and keep the crowds back.” 

Fryer pointed out that a plexi-glass fence had recently been put around the Golden Gate Park carousel. “The fence doesn’t need to be an eyesore,” he said. “The only requirement is that it needs to be 42 inches high. It can easily be blended to fit the aesthetics of the surrounding area.” 

UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate probably won’t have a vote about the planned half-billion-dollar alternative fuel program now being negotiated with BP—the company formerly known as British Petroleum. 

“I doubt if we get a preview of the contract,” said William J. Drummond, the journalism professor who chairs the Academic Senate. “The terms will be proprietary information as far as the university and BP are concerned.” 

“Clearly, they haven’t learned anything from Novartis,” said UC Berkeley Assistant Professor Ignacio Chapela, a leading critic of a controversial $25 million agreement between the Swiss agro-chemical giant and the university’s College of Natural Resource. 

That five-year pact drew heavy criticism down on the university, along with charges of exploiting public scientists for corporate gain. A study commissioned by the university’s Academic senate faulted the university for its handling of the accord, while denying any serious breaches of conduct had occurred. 

Chapela and other critics remain skeptical.  

Meanwhile, more details of the research planned for the newly created Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) emerged Wednesday night at the Berkeley Planning Commission when members questioned LBNL Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) project manager Jim Krupnick. 

The basic agenda—dubbed The Helios Project by LBNL after the Classical Greek sun god—consists of using microbes harvested from the guts of termites to digest plant matter and ferment it into ethanol. 

“Helios will be the lab’s “centerpiece for the next 20 years,” Krupnick said, with the goal of “transforming sunlight into energy fuel for transportation, using the microbes to transform cellulose into the combustible alcohol. 

During the next 5 to 10 years, scientists will engineer targeted grasses to grow faster and thicker while using less water and fertilizer than do the existing strains. Likewise, “scientists are taking the bacteria” from termites “and trying to make it more effective.” he said. 

Inherent to the research is the tweaking of the genes of both plants and microbes to maximize productivity, a project BP has already begun. Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are the subject of great scientific and political controversy. 

Genetic leaps 

“It’s the microorganisms that really freak me out,” said Chapela, whose research on the ability of artificial genes to spread into native varieties provoked a bitter a backlash, most from industry-funded scientists. 

While Chapela’s research focused on the leaps of engineered genes over hundreds of miles into native strains of Mexican maize, similar transfers are being documented almost daily in research reports, litigation and news accounts from around the globe. 

GMOs have also killed Monarch butterflies, contaminated domestic strains of soybeans and rice and are blamed for the death of sheep in India. Federal court rulings allow patent holders to sue farmers who grow accidentally contaminated crops. 

Chapela was denied tenure and effectively fired despite a 35-1 vote of confidence by colleagues and a unanimous endorsement by the Academic Senate. That decision was endorsed by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, an enthusiastic supporter of the BP deal. 

The scientist stood outside the meeting room where the Academic Senate committee met, handing out a statement that criticized the project to members as they filed into the meeting where Calvin Moore, the UCB math professor who serves as the university’s point person for the controversial contract, conducted the briefing.  

“He (Moore) doesn’t represent the senate,” Drummond said. “The way I understand it, he was appointed by Vice Chancellor Beth Burnside.” 

Moore also chairs the Senate’s Committee on Academic Planning and Resources Allocation. 

A professor of molecular and cell biology, Burnside is the university’s Vice Chancellor-Research and works directly under Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Drummond said he had discussed the project with Burnside, but in none of the discussions, either with Moore of the Vice Chancellor, was the issue of GMOs raised. 

During that session, Moore described a program where research would be conducted by two 25-member teams of scientists, one from BP and the others from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Krupnick told the Planning Commission that 24 of the 25 UCB/LBNL researcher hold dual appointments with the two affiliated taxpayer-funded institutions. 

Drummond said a Chinese Wall would separate the two programs “to protect intellectual property.” 

He said the two teams—each pledged not to share information with the other—would share two separated halves of the same building, prompting him to wonder what would happen when they sat down together in a dining room or the university’s faculty club. 

“The social dynamics of great discoveries show that a lot of them were accidental, the result of chance meetings” where information was shared, Drummond said. 

An LBNL spokesman said Wednesday that while some of the research will be conducted at the lab, most of the work will be done on the UCB campus itself. “All the laboratory space is not worked out yet,” she said.  

Other critics 

Two other faculty members have joined Chapela in the critique of the proposed BP contract. Miguel Altieri and Claudia Carr, like Chapela professors at UCB’s College of Natural Resources, have also have begun writing and speaking out. 

One of their major concern is the reliance of biofuel research on GMOs. 

GMO is academic shorthand for a genetically modified organism—a biological species with genes tweaked by researchers to add or enhance a commercially desirable property. They fear that’s just where part of the research efforts may be headed. 

BP is bankrolling the effort, spreading at least a half billion in cash around between the university, the affiliated Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and the University of Illinois, which would oversee production of test crops. 

But the critics are also concerned about what they perceive as a lack of disclosure as university and state officials finalize details of one of the most lucrative contracts in American academic history. 

Altieri and Eric Holt-Gimenez of Oakland’s Food First prepared a written statement published in the Feb. 6 edition of the Daily Planet, and Chapela and Carr have both sent letters of protest to Drummond. 

Chapela said he also raised his concerns during a “very tense” meeting with faculty from his college. 

“I used the word ‘prostitution’ in the meeting, and they said nothing,” he said. “Right now, I wish there were more details. It’s clear they’re pulling a fast one on everyone.” 

Carr, who has protested the university’s handling of toxic contamination at the university’s Richmond Field Station and fought for tighter oversight of the cleanup there, expressed her concerns over the BP contract in her letter to Drummond. 

She wrote that “the corporate subject of the proposed contract (BP) has an international reputation for environmental pollution, habitat devastation, local livelihood destruction and association with human rights abuses in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central Asia.” 

Carr is a scholar of the role oil companies have played in African politics.

The proposed agreement between one of the world’s largest oil companies, BP (formerly British Petroleum) and UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois has ignited a firestorm that promises to burn long and hot. 

But the largest issue raised by the proposed half-billion-dollar agreement involves a long-standing campaign by powerful conservatives to substitute private funding for public support of America’s universities. 

Ironically, one of the best expositions of the trends at work was sketched out by then-UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl in a May 23, 2000, address to Erfurt University in Germany titled “The Privatization of Public Universities.” 

Berdahl traced the history of American land-grant universities, funded with cash raised from the sales of vast tracts of land provided by the federal government, through their heyday during the post-World War II years of the GI Bill and federally funded Cold War research programs. 

He cited as a seminal moment in the decline of public funding a U.S. Chamber of Commerce-backed effort headed by future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell in the late 1960s which was cemented in place during the presidency of former California Governor Ronald Reagan. 

Powell laid out a series of strategies designed to give big business the upper hand both in the mass media and on campus, a simultaneous attack on liberal educators coupled with a move to dominate business schools by severing their ties with the more liberal social science departments. 

“To a very large extent, this program has been successful,” Berdahl said. It has been aided by conservative foundations and think tanks and speakers like former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, Dinesh D’Souza and Alan Bloom. 

The era of the great liberalizing institution had been displaced by what Berdahl described as “the emergence of an industry-university research partnership,” as the Reagan era shifted educational costs from taxpayers onto the students themselves and universities began seeking out ever-larger amounts of private funding. 

The result, Berdahl said, was the “emergence of a substantial ‘university-industrial complex.’” 

Among its dangers, the chancellor wrote, were the “loss of common ground, common unity, common purpose within the university” and the emergence of major salary differentials between scientific and engineering departments which were favored by corporate largess and the humanities departments which corporate funders ignored while devaluing their work. 

Another major danger he cited was the perception that academic researchers backed by corporate grants lost objectivity. 

Those charges were directed at the University of California during the most controversial move of Berdahl’s tenure, the 1998 $25 million funding package negotiated between Swiss agro-pharmaceutical giant Novartis (more recently Syngenta) and UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources. 

Bayh-Dole 

Another wrinkle in the transformation of academia—and not cited by Berdahl—was provided by the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980, which gave universities and corporations the right to patent federally funded research. 

The measure was introduced by the two senators, a Kansas Republican and an Indiana Democrat, and gave schools the right to patent if they made serious efforts to commercialize their discoveries. Prior to passage, discoveries made with federal funds were in public domain, available to one and all. 

While the measure was strongly opposed by then-President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of Commerce Phillip Klutnick and by Carter’s mentor, retired Admiral Hyman Rickover, Carter signed the bill into law. 

The bill was buttressed six years later by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, which gave scientists at federal laboratories the right to cut deals with corporations, effectively privatizing the fruits of most taxpayer-funded research. 

Federal courts and regulators have since ruled that the laws allow, for example, pharmaceutical manufacturers to charge American patients several times more for drugs than firms charge in other industrialized countries. 

Critics like David Boltier, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center, have cited cases when pharmaceutical- company-funded university researchers were barred from disclosing potentially lethal effects of drugs or cases where expensive treatments proved no more beneficial than far cheaper alternative regimens. 

Similarly, researchers who publish in prestigious journals have no legal obligations to disclose the source of funding for their research, though journal editors have been tightening their own disclosure rules in several notable cases. 

Berdahl’s research park 

Another attendant phenomenon cited by Berdahl in his Erfurt address was the university research park, “intended to attract industrial partners ... dependent both on the intellectual capital—the ideas generated in research universities—and the human capital—the students educated in these universities.” 

Under Berdahl, UC Berkeley launched a program to create just such a center at its Richmond Field Station, a program with plans to partner with a San Francisco developer to create Bayside Research Campus, featuring more than two million square feet of space for corporate and academic research partnerships. 

The university selected a developer, Simeon Properties, to oversee the massive construction effort on a site contaminated by a century of industrial waste dumping and the manufacture mercury-based explosives. 

Simeon was already developing the adjacent site to the southeast, the highly contaminated former site of a major chemical manufacturing complex. 

But those plans were derailed, at least for the moment—over strong objections from the university—when Richmond activists and environmental organizations forced a change in state oversight of the cleanup effort. 

UC Berkeley, which prides itself on being one of the world’s leading scientific institutions, fought in vain to prevent oversight by the only state regulatory agency staffed by experts in handling toxic chemicals. 

Thanks to the efforts of Assemblymember Loni Hancock and colleague Cindy Montanez, backed by a Richmond City Council Resolution and support from Contra Costa County officials, the state Environmental Protection Agency transferred jurisdiction from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. 

The water board has no staff toxicologists, while the toxics agency is well staffed with scientists.  

Ironically, the firm which bears financial responsibility for much of the mess at the Richmond Field Station and the nearby chemical plant site is now part of a company which drew the wrath of critics down on UC Berkeley for the most controversial research collaboration since Berkeley scientists teamed up with Washington to bring the atomic bomb into being. 

Agro-chemical giant AstraZeneca had the legal responsibility for cleanups at both the Richmond Field Station and the adjoining site, dubbed Campus Bay by the developer. 

In 2000 AstraZeneca merged its agricultural chemical branch—which manufactured herbicides, insecticides and other compounds at Campus Bay—with Novartis to form Syngenta. 

Novartis 

Two years before the merger, Novartis had created the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute and created a university-industrial partnership that would rock UC Berkeley and set the stage for the emerging furor over the newest and far larger deal with BP. 

The agreement, which fused the interests of a Swiss biochemical giant with the university’s College of Natural Resources, produced a cause celebre that continues to the present day. 

Discontent and the lack of prior review triggered a controversy that ultimately led the university’s academic senate to commission a $300,000 study of the agreement by investigators from Michigan State University’s Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards. 

That report, while finding no evidence of serious misconduct, noted that the dispute had surfaced long-simmering tensions at the university and “highlighted the crisis-ridden state of contemporary public higher education in California” and the nation. 

Among their nine specific recommendations, the authors urged that the university avoid future agreements “that involve complete academic departments or large groups of researchers” and to engage in large-scale debate before embarking on new research agendas and conducting discussions with transparency to the public. 

The Novartis contract expired, with the company left with no commercially viable research to show for its investment. A proposed extension of the contract was never negotiated, and a planned research building was never erected. 

But Wlliam J. Drummond, the journalism professor who chairs the university’s Academic Senate, said he didn’t see how the controversy over the Novartis agreement applied to the BP proposal. 

“I don’t know that that really applies here,” he said. “That happened under the previous regime and one department was the sole beneficiary. There was no discussion beforehand and there was no decision to share the information learned. Here there is.” 

Chapela also agreed that was at least one significant different between the two proposals. One was for $25 million, the other for $500 million.

Ousted Berkeley Planning Commission chair and environmentalist Helen Burke, defeated in a carefully staged coup Wednesday night, said Thursday that David Stoloff, her replacement, told her after the vote that he knew the only way he could beat her was by lying. 

Stoloff denied the allegation. 

Burke said Stoloff told her he hadn’t consulted with the mayor or his chief assistant, Cisco DeVries, “because he said he knew they would shut him down.” 

The mayor had backed Burke a year earlier when she was elected to the chair, a position traditionally held for two years. 

Burke was ousted by a 5-4 vote that saw Stoloff joined by Larry Gurley, Harry Pollack, Susan Wengraf and James Samuels against Burke, Gene Poschman, Mike Sheen and Roia Ferrazares. 

Stoloff, appointed by Mayor Tom Bates on Dec. 2, 2002, won on the votes of commission members considered more developer-friendly than the pro-Burke contingent. He was elected vice-chair last year during the same meeting when Burke was voted in as chair. 

James Samuels, who moved to the Planning Commission after a short term on the Landmarks Preservation Commission—where he found himself frequently on the losing end of votes—was elected vice chair. 

Wednesday’s vote comes at a time when the commission is confronting a range of critical development issues, including the new Downtown Area Plan, which will be submitted to the commission in November. 

The plan, which will govern the future of the city’s heart during as UC Berkeley adds 800,000 square feet of new off-campus uses west of campus, was mandated in the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the legality of the plan’s Environmental Impact Report. 

Burke, a Sierra Club activist, was named to the commission by Councilmember Linda Maio on Sept. 10, 2004. 

For the last 10 years, most city commissions have elected chairs for two consecutive one-year terms, and Burke said she had expected to be reelected to her position, based in part on statements she said Stoloff had made. 

“I was totally blind-sided,” she said. 

Burke said Stoloff told her he “was not happy” that she had been elected chair last year. “He said he felt I had basically blindsided him, and that he needed to do what he did to become chair. But if he’s mad at me, it’s misplaced. He should be angry at the mayor for supporting my election as chair [last year],” she said.  

Stoloff said Thursday he didn’t tell Burke that he felt he was wrongly deprived of the position, but acknowledged that when she asked him if he would support a continuation of her current position, “I said I’d think about it, and I believe she took that as an acquiescence. It was a misunderstanding I did not correct.” 

The new chair said he didn’t want to discuss more of the details of the conversations. “I don’t want to carry on a debate in the newspapers,” he said. “I wanted to be chair because I have a vision of what the Planning Commission can do, and I believe I can be the most effective in implementing it.” 

“What concerns me is that I had taken strong environmental positions, and I hope this vote is not an indication of things to come,” Burke said. 

When it came time for nominations, Ferrazares—the commission’s newest member—moved to reelect Burke as chair, Lawrence T. Gurley—the second-newest member—nominating Stoloff. 

Before the vote, Burke told her colleagues that “for the past 10 years, every chair has served a two-year term.” 

Following Stoloff’s 5-4 victory, the newly elected chair nominated Samuels, an architect and the third-newest member, as vice-chair. The votes were identical. 

Attorney Harry Pollack, who has also served as chair, said he voted for Stoloff because he felt the retired UC Berkeley planner would be better able to handle the commission’s work plan for the years ahead and to fulfill the vision expressed by Mayor Tom Bates in his State of the City address presented to the City Council Tuesday. 

Pollack said Burke’s actions on the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) didn’t factor into his vote. 

Following the vote, Pollack smiled. 

Burke, who serves as a commission representative on the citizen panel outlining the shape of the downtown plan, has emerged as a leading environmentalist on the panel as well as a critic of some of the proposals of DAPAC Chair Will Travis, a Bates appointee. 

Stoloff said Thursday that Burke will remain on DAPAC as one of the commission’s representatives. 

Cisco DeVries, chief of staff for the mayor, said he and Bates had learned of the move only after the fact. 

“The mayor was taken by surprise by what happened,” said DeVries. “He’s talking to the people who were involved, and he’ll have something to say about it in the near future. 

DeVries said “it’s fair to say” that Bates had supported Burke for election as chair last year. He declined to comment on Burke’s allegations about Stoloff’s allegedly misleading statements in the days before the vote. 

Pollack said Burke’s election a year ago had shattered another commission tradition, in which the vice chair was elected chair. Pollack had been serving as vice chair at the time. 

“The last time she benefited” from breaking tradition, he said. “This time she didn’t.” 

“Well, it looks like the commission has got its marching orders,” said City Councilmember Dona Spring, whose own appointee to the Planning Commission will probably be forced out at the end of June if the council passes, as expected, new commission term limits legislation now being drafted by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque. 

Gene Poschman represents the panel’s institutional memory, with the longest experience in Berkeley planning policies and politics. He was on the committee that hired Dan Marks, the current city Director of Planning and Development. 

Linda Maio, the councilmember who appointed Burke, was out of town and unavailable for comment Thursday, said administrative aide Brad Smith. 

Susan Wengraf, the aide to Councilmember Betty Olds and also her appointee to the commission, who voted with the majority for chair, is also slated to go if the council passes the limiting measure. 

While Berkeley’s revenue is higher than expected and the city will be able to write checks for $3.3 million above budgeted expenditures, the City Council may need to go to the voters to pay for essential services such as police and fire, City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the council at a budget workshop, part of the council’s regular Tuesday meeting. 

Also at the meeting, the council put off adopting two ordinances which they had previously recommended, one aimed at fining those responsible for hosting parties where underage people are served alcohol and the other penalizing those responsible for excessive noise at private gatherings. Students came to the council asking that these measures be less punitive. The council will address them on Feb. 27 agenda. 

In a Housing Authority meeting, before the regular meeting, the Housing Authority director confirmed an increase in the monthly out-of-pocket tenant payments made by some low-income Section 8 renters, for studios by approximately $35 and for one-bedroom apartments by $55. Section 8 renters normally spend one-third of their income on rent and the federal government pays the balance. The federal government, however, will not fully subsidize Berkeley’s high rents, making additional out-of-pocket payments necessary. This will be back on the Housing Authority agenda for a vote on Feb. 27.  

Budget outlook—good and not-so-good 

In the short term, city staff had good news for the council: there will be an estimated $3.3 million revenue over previously predicted income, due mostly to income on investments and greater-than-expected revenue from parking fines.  

In the long term, however, the city manager is looking at new taxes to keep the city in the black. 

Meanwhile, the manager recommended that the funds be spent in the following way: $1 million for the fire department, to end rolling station closures until Dec. 2008; $200,000 to continue police, mental health and cleaning services in the Telegraph Avenue area; $100,000 to a nonprofit, Sustainable Berkeley, for planning reduction of greenhouse gases; $200,000 for maintenance agreements and other elements of the upgraded police and fire computer systems; $500,000 for various economic development projects, including funds to start south and west Berkeley business improvement districts and $1.3 million for infrastructure repair and maintenance—“That’s streets, storm drains and a new sound system for the City Council,” joked Kamlarz, as the council passed a lone microphone back and forth, due to problems with the Council Chamber’s sound system. 

Councilmembers, however, presented other priorities and will vote on spending the $3.3 million Feb. 27. 

For Councilmember Linda Maio, the priority was installing traffic-calming measures in her district, and for Councilmember Betty Olds it was improving the “rough roads.” Councilmember Darryl Moore said he wants funding for youth employment programs. 

Maio said she wanted to see a plan for the use of the $500,000 before approving the funds for economic development. 

While budget manager Tracy Vesely said she asked all department heads to submit next year’s budget with 5 percent cuts, she said that the city might need “new tax measures for public safety staffing.” 

Kamlarz agreed that new taxes might be necessary. “We face some tough choices,” he said. “We need to generate more money for public safety.” Public safety includes police, fire and disaster preparedness. 

But Councilmember Laurie Capitelli said it is not the right time to talk about new taxes.  

“We need to redevelop our economic base for the long term. It’s premature to talk about putting a tax on the ballot until councilmembers commit to economic development,” he said, adding that he did not want to commit new funds to Telegraph Avenue until he had heard a report on how city funds had been expended in the area. 

Saving Skating 

Hundreds of children as young as 4, youth, UC Berkeley students and adults paraded through the council chambers with signs and pleas, asking for council support to save Iceland, the 67-year old Ice Skating rink in central Berkeley that is up for sale. 

“Berkeley Iceland is my home away from home,” said Jimmy Duval, a student at Martin Luther King Jr. High and one of some dozen Iceland supporters who were able to address the council directly. 

“Where can I write my check?” asked Councilmember Kriss Worthington, which is exactly what the group wanted to hear. They are forming a nonprofit to try to purchase the facility, which is on the market for $6.7 million. They said that as soon as they get state approval, they’ll be able to collect funds. 

Unlike many nonprofits, they said they are not coming to the city for funds—just the council’s blessing, which the smiling council seemed to give. (Iceland was not on the agenda and was not discussed.)  

The group can be reached at www.saveberkeleyiceland.org. 

Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith issued a decision, made available this week, agreeing with the Berkeley Police Association, which had filed suit against the city, that open hearings on complaints against the police violate the officers’ privacy rights.  

And so the community and Police Review Commission members are scrambling to address the issue. Should closed-door hearings be held? Should open hearings be held without the presence of a police officer? Should the decision be appealed? 

The city suspended its 30-year open hearing process in September after the California Supreme Court ruled, in Copley Press v. San Diego, that public police misconduct hearings conducted by agencies that employ police officers violate the Police Officers Bill of Rights Act. The city argued that the city of Berkeley and not the Police Review Commission is the employing agency and has the sole responsibility for disciplining officers, but Smith rejected that argument. 

In a phone interview Wednesday, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California Police Practices Policy Director Mark Schlosberg, who submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the city, told the Planet that he had asked the Police Review Commission earlier to be prepared with a game-plan already in place in case the city lost in court. 

The commission has 40 outstanding complaints.  

The PRC “needed to prepare for the outcome,” Schlosberg said. The commission should “go forward and hold the hearings in private … Complaints are in limbo,” he added. 

“It’s hard to tell how effective hearings will be without the public, but it’s better than not holding hearings,” he said. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque was invited to the Wednesday evening PRC meeting to discuss options, but declined to come, according to PRC Officer Victoria Urbi. She intends to advise the City Council and PRC on their options in a joint closed session on Tuesday.  

The public can comment before the council meeting, which will take place at 5 p.m., in the 6th floor conference room at the Civic Center Building, 2180 Milvia St.  

At the Wednesday PRC meeting, Urbi outlined the closed-door procedures Oakland has adopted: After a public comment period, the public and press leave the hearing room. The complainant, the subject officers and their legal representatives remain with the hearing panel. Witnesses stay outside the hearing room and are called in only when it is their turn to testify. The parties, representatives and witnesses must all sign confidentiality statements. The final reports are different for the panel, officer and complainant.  

“It’s not my recommendation to adopt the Oakland model,” said Commissioner Bill White, calling for a separate meeting to discuss the various possibilities. He said he believes that any changes in procedures would have to go through the City Council, which would have to re-write the ordinance that guides the way the PRC does business. 

Audience participant Andrea Pritchett of Copwatch argued against closed hearings, noting that it is the public pressure that is brought to bear on the department that creates positive change in police conduct.  

“I don’t want to go to a closed hearing,” she said. “If I had a big issue, I’d go to court.” 

Pritchett further said she thinks there may be a way to hold pubic PRC hearings without officers, who might choose voluntarily to attend the hearings in order to present their viewpoints. 

Commissioner Michael Sherman said he thought closed PRC hearings might violate the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. 

Because the city attorney was not present, those questions were deferred. Albuquerque authored a short statement on the decision, but, through a spokesperson, said she would not talk to the press about the various possibilities for future hearings. 

Pritchett noted that the planned discussion of the closed hearings in the PRC-City Council closed-door meeting is “kind of ironic” and advised the commissioners: “Please don’t meet under those conditions.” 

Copwatch is holding a public meeting Monday to look at various strategies for holding the police accountable, at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 

Other matters 

In other PRC business, the commission voted Wednesday 6-0 to have a “full-blown investigation” of the drug-theft issues in which Sgt. Cary Kent was found to have stolen drug evidence from some 286 sealed evidence envelopes. Commissioner Jack Radisch was absent and Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Linda Maio have vacant commission slots. 

A newly-hired investigator will assist a commission subcommittee with the investigation, which will go beyond the 900-page police report to try to uncover how this problem might have occurred and whether other officers in addition to the single convicted officer might have been involved. 

“We’ll need direction from the city attorney on what we can do in light of the court case,” Urbi told the commission. 

State Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) is planning to introduce legislation, which, if passed, could reopen police complaint hearings around the state.  

The California Supreme Court decision Copley Press v. San Diego resulted in cities with police complaint boards either suspending their public police complaint hearings, as Berkeley did, or closing them to the public, as Oakland has done.  

The Supreme Court case involved San Diego Union-Tribune publisher Copley Press which filed suit after the San Diego County Civil Service Commission, which has the power to discipline police officers, blocked the newspaper’s access to a complaint hearing on allegations against a sheriff’s deputy. 

The lower court ruled in Copley’s favor, but police unions appealed. In a 6-1 decision in August, the California Supreme Court said the public doesn’t have the right to access discipline records of officers who come before panels that consider police misconduct, because such records are private personnel records, maintained by the officer’s “employing agency” and exempt from public disclosure.  

In November, Berkeley contested a lawsuit brought by the Berkeley Police Association, similarly contending that police officer hearings and records of the hearings must remain closed to protect the privacy of police officers. The city lost to BPA last week in Superior Court. 

The definition of an “employing agency” was germane to both this week’s Berkeley v. BPA decision as well as to the Copley Press case; it is central to the legislation Leno plans to introduce. 

In a phone interview Wednesday with the Planet, Leno said the current law “prevents public access [to records] held by the employing agency.” He said the key to reopening the hearings and the records of them is redefining the notion of “employing agency.”  

In his legislation, a department or agency that does not directly employ the officer would not be considered an “employing agency.” 

The legislation “would overturn that specific component of Copley,” he said. It would allow commissions that conducted open hearings before Copley to resume doing so, he said. 

In San Diego, the Civil Service Commission was deemed the employing agency; in Berkeley, Judge Winifred Smith ruled, contrary to the Berkeley City Attorney’s argument, that the PRC is the employing agency. “PRC records are protected under Penal Code section 832.7 because they are maintained by the peace officers’ employing agency, the city of Berkeley,” Smith wrote. 

Among the problems closed complaint hearings present, Leno said, is that the public is excluded from important information regarding police conduct: Is the disciplining body exhibiting a pattern of leniency toward a particular officer? Has an officer engaged in repeated misconduct? Has a department hired an officer who had disciplinary problems in a previous department? 

Leno’s legislation would allow the public access to the name of the subject officer, the complaint against the officer, a summary of findings and the resultant discipline. 

Leno underscored that the legislation would protect the officer by revealing information only on charges that were sustained, and keep confidential those that were not. Frivolous complaints would not be made public.  

“We want to be respectful of the important work police officers do,” Leno said.  

Leno is working in tandem with State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles). The legislation introduced in the two state houses will be identical. 

With a major courtroom victory in hand, Berkeley protesters aren’t giving up their arboreal perches high in a threatened grove adjacent to UC Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium. 

“We’re here to stay,” said Zachary Running Wolf, the former mayoral candidate who launched the tree-in during the pre-dawn hours of Big Game Saturday, Dec. 2. 

Protesters had a brief but strained encounter with campus police Wednesday morning after a group of eight officers, including one detective, arrived at the scene along with a contingent of university groundskeepers and the equipment needed to take down platforms. 

But supporters of the tree-sit had already complied with the university’s key demand the day before, removing the tarps, cooking gear and sleeping equipment they’d been asked to clear out earlier. 

“It was tense for awhile until we started calling the media,” said Running Wolf. 

Officers briefly wrapped crime scene tapes around the trees occupied by the sitters as they removed one unoccupied platform, the site of a high profile Jan. 22 sit-in by 90-year-old environmentalist Sylvia McLaughlin, 84-year-old Berkeley City Councilmember Betty Olds and former Mayor Shirley Dean, 71. 

“That just means we’ll have to put up another one,” said Michael Kelly, vice president of the Panoramic Hill Association, one of the groups which successfully sought a preliminary injunction that has halted for at least a year the university’s ambitious plans to add more than $330 million in new, donor-financed construction at and near the landmarked stadium. 

The new platform offered the public a chance to join the tree-sitters for 30- to 60-minute increments starting at 10 a.m. Thursday and continuing until 9 a.m. today (Friday). 

“Our membership supports the tree-sitters staying as long as it takes to save the trees,” said Doug Buckwald, who has been coordinating ground support for the protest. 

While protesters say they fear the university plans to throw up a fence to keep them out of the grove, UC Police Lt. Mitch Celaya said no such action is planned—at least for now. 

“Enough is enough. We have told them they are trespassing and they need to leave. The ball’s in their court, and if they don’t leave, then we need to look at our options,” Celaya said. 

“We prefer not to fence, and at the moment we don’t plan to, but it’s clearly an option,” he said. “The police department has a duty to maintain university property and to prevent trespassing.” 

The threat of an immediate chainsaw attack on the grove has been removed for the moment, at least until an Alameda County Superior Court judge can conduct a full-scale hearing on the issue several months hence. 

Jurist Barbara J. Miller has reaffirmed her preliminary injunction in an action brought by critics of the university’s plans to build a costly four-story high-tech gym at the site of the grove. 

Her rulings have forced at least a year’s delay in the project, one that university officials say will cost them between $8 million and $10 million as the prices of concrete, steel and other construction materials continues to soar in the face of China’s ongoing economic boom. 

But the judge ruled that the university’s economic claims were outweighed by the plaintiffs’, who “have made a sufficiently strong showing of likelihood of success on their claims under the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)” to merit a preliminary injunction. 

The ruling halted all further development on a collection of building plans dubbed the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects, or SCIP. 

Projects include: 

• a 911-space mostly underground parking lot northwest of the stadium; 

• changes to the landmarked Gayley Road streetscape; 

• construction of a new Connection Building bridging functions and offices of the university’s law and business schools; and 

• a major seismic upgrade of Memorial Stadium, where the interior would be gutted, new seats added and two levels erected above the western rim, including luxury sky boxes for deep-pocket donors and a new level to accommodate the media and their cameras.

Candy and balloons were not the only things Berkeley High students got to sift through on Valentines Day Tuesday. A group of juniors from the School of Social Justice & Ecology (SSJE)—a small school at Berkeley High—met up with their peers at BHS to dig through the school’s trash and dissect it. 

The event “Trash Heap for Valentine’s Day,” marked the beginning of a major campaign to accelerate the level of recycling at Berkeley High.  

BHS custodians were asked to stack all the school’s trash in the center of the quad from Feb. 12-14, so that students could see what they were throwing away in three days. 

“We wanted them to say ‘eww,’ we wanted them to say ‘gross.’ We wanted them to stop and open some of these trash bags on Valentine’s Day and evaluate some of the stuff inside.,” said Kate Trimlett, lead teacher at SSJE. 

“Kids learn about the four R’s—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot—from third grade onwards. But they also need to learn how to use less to produce less trash than needed,” she said. 

Pointing to an apple core that came out of a trash bag, Trimlett told her group of students that the fruit was an excellent example of what should have been recycled but wasn’t. 

“There are hundreds of other things that kids throw into the trash every day that are actually compost,” she said. “We carried out a survey on students and most of them want recycling. Bottles, paper, pencils, batteries, food scraps -- the list is endless. They also want recycling bins in the courtyard.” 

Recycling bins are only in the classroom and in the food court at Berkeley High.  

BHS is also the only school in the Berkeley Unified School District to receive a grant under the Service Learning Waste Reduction Program (SLWRP) funded by Stopwaste.org, also known as the Alameda County Waste Management Authority. 

Marcy Greenhut, Berkeley High recycling coordinator for the City of Berkeley, said that awareness had been the main purpose behind this little exercise. 

“We wanted to illustrate how much waste we produce and how much of the trash could have been recycled instead of becoming landfill. People just go to Cosco and Walmart and keep on buying stuff. We need to learn how to reuse some of the things we buy,” she said. 

Greenhut told the Planet that the recycling program at Berkeley High had really picked up after principal Jim Slemp took over the administration. 

Jen Marks, a representative from the Alameda County Office of Education, said teachers often found it difficult to incorporate recycling into the curriculum. 

“But there are ways to do it,” she said. “Economics, language, math and art are all great subjects through which recycling can be taught.Teachers just need to be a little creative.” 

The entire school district is implementing mixed paper and cardboard recycling. “Thirteen out of 17 schools have been diverting food waste,” said Greenhut.  

“Instead of going into the trash, the food waste goes into biodegradable green bags which get collected by the city and transported to the compost facility. The recycled material is then brought back to the city to be used in different ways.” 

Terrence Womack, a ninth-grader at SSJE, said that he hated to see school money going to waste for not recycling. 

“BHS spends $3,500 per month on trash removal. This money could be used toward more purposeful things, such as textbooks and fieldtrips. If we don’t recycle, we could be living next to trash heaps in the future,” he said. 

A few students who were passing by the 200 plus bags of trash on Tuesday did not believe that it was generated by the students.  

Victoria Harmon, a sophomore, said that students were aware of recycling but were sometimes too lazy to carry it out. 

“Most of the time my friends would rather throw stuff on the ground,” she said. 

Kayla Miller, who was getting credits to dissect a bag of trash during her English period, said that she had found money, hair, pencils and even a condom that afternoon.  

“It’s kind of disgusting, but shameful at the same time,” she said. 

“I know we are doing really great with recycling bottles because we got three of them from two bags. But what is really sad is most of this stuff doesn’t belong in the trash. It is compost and should have been recycled.” 

With Oakland Police officials insisting that no police chase preceded a Sunday evening North Oakland accident that resulted in the death of a 41-year-old Stockton woman, a North Oakland resident living within two blocks of the crash says she witnessed a police chase immediately before the fatal crash. 

Monica Lucky was killed in the intersection of West MacArthur Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Way when her Honda was struck by a Lincoln Continental driven by 21-year-old Oakland resident Kevin Jackson. Jackson, who was apprehended at the scene by Oakland police, was treated at a local hospital for injuries sustained in the accident, and is currently under arrest and charged with vehicular manslaughter. Several passengers in Jackson’s car fled from the scene on foot. 

Asked in a telephone interview if a police chase preceded the fatal accident, Acting OPD Traffic Sergeant Vincent Fratangelo said, “No. No chase was involved in this one.” And asked by telephone if it was correct that no police chase immediately preceded the accident, OPD Lieutenant Paul Berlin answered “Right.” 

But a neighbor who says she witnessed the incident from her North Oakland home says differently. 

Software developer Amy Badore says she was looking out the window of her third floor home Sunday night and “saw a car going by really fast” on Martin Luther King Jr. Way near 37th Street, going towards the MacArthur Boulevard intersection. Badore says that immediately afterwards, “I saw a police car following with its sirens and lights on.” 

Badore says that she was looking out the west window of her house, which faces Highway 580. She said that she heard an automobile crash and went to the south window of her house, which faces towards West MacArthur Boulevard. “I couldn’t see the crash scene itself, because four police cars had already surrounded the crash by the time I looked out,” Badore said. “But I saw a lot of people running away from the scene.” 

Two days after the crash, following an Oakland Tribune article that reported on the accident but did not mention a police chase, Badore posted a comment to the Tribune article, writing that “This crash was a direct result of a police chase. I live 1 block from the intersection of MacArthur and Martin Luther King and saw the car going north on MLK followed by a police car.” When a followup-poster wrote that “I would certainly hope that any witnesses to the event would file their observations with the authorities,” Badore wrote back, “As far as filing observations with the authorities. Authority was following the racing car at 200 yards. Not to mention the 4 other OPD cars immediately following on the scene when the crash occurred. OPD knows EXACTLY what happened.” 

The February 13 Tribune article listed a police number (510 238-3156) to call with any information about the accident. Badore says she called that number, but no one answered. She also says she has contacted the office of Councilmember Nancy Nadel, who has promised to investigate. 

A staff member in Nadel’s office said that they have been informed by Oakland police officials that there was no police chase involved, but that the accident resulted from “a person roaming the streets at high speed who ran a red light.” 

A Summary Of Facts of the accident by the OPD Traffic Investigation Department mentions no police involvement in the crash, but says that a police officer was a witness to the crash. 

“At 19:40 hours an OPD officer on-viewed a collision involving two vehicles at the intersection of West MacArthur and Martin Luther King Jr. Way,” the summary reads. “The officer witnessed a Lincoln traveling northbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Way at a high rate of speed. The Lincoln failed to stop for the light at West MacArthur Boulevard and collided with a Honda which was traveling westbound on West MacArthur Boulevard.” 

A report by the Bay City News Wire published on February 14 tells a slightly fuller version of the story. 

“According to [Oakland Police Department spokesman Roland] Holmgren,” the BCN story says, “Kevin Jackson, who was on probation for robbery and drug-related charges, is suspected of hitting Monica Lucky’s vehicle after he nearly collided with an Oakland police patrol car and ran a red light. The police officer who was nearly hit by the suspect vehicle made a U-turn to try and pursue Jackson, but before the officer could successfully do this, the other vehicle collided with Lucky’s car, killing her, according to Holmgren.” 

For her part, eyewitness Badore says she is not anti-police. “I really appreciate the job the police are doing in this neighborhood,” she said. “But it’s a little scary to have them doing high-speed chases here. It’s a very busy neighborhood. What if I had been riding on my bicycle or backing out of my driveway when this happened?” Badore also said that she found it “irritating that they’re not admitting they were chasing the car.”

On Wednesday, the Berkeley High School’s (BHS) School Governance Committee discussed the creation of a schoolwide advisory program for all students. Under the BHS Western Association of Schools and Colleges Action Plan, the school agreed to implement such a program, which would create a mandatory advisory class for students starting for the 2007-2008 school year.  

“We had a productive half-day meeting on the plan,” said BHS Principal Slemp.”We’re getting a lot of constructive feedback from the community.”  

If enacted as planned for next year, students will be randomly assigned a staff advisor for their entire four years at BHS. Groups will include an equal number from each grade in each class. The class will be between 22 and 24 students. Students will be graded on a pass or a fail basis, and the grade will be based on attendance and participation.  

The stated purpose of the advisory program is to: 1) personalize the BHS experience by providing a safe and caring community that evolves over four years; 2) empower students to be their own advocates; 3) develop habits of successful students; 4) provide students with information on policies, resources, opportunities, etc; 5) provide every student with an adult advocate.  

To accomplish these goals, the students will have an advisory program, of which there are four possible scenarios on the table. In Option #1, every Wednesday (excluding the one late start day per month), periods one through six would be shortened to 46-48 minutes per class to accommodate the advisory period, which would be 41 minutes between periods two and three. In Option #2, all the class periods would be extended to 58 minutes to account for required instructional time and school would let out at 3:28. However, every Wednesday there would be a late start day (school would start at 10 AM), which would include a 41 minute advisory between periods one and two.  

“I think Option #2 is the most feasible option for the student body,” said BHS Junior Flor Juarez. “I don’t object to spending 13 more minutes in class if I get a late start day every Wednesday ... I don’t think the options with block scheduling would work very well.”  

In Option #3, BHS would implement block scheduling: Periods 1, 2, 3 would alternate every other day with Periods 2, 4, 6, where each period would last 103 minutes. Under this option, the advisory class would be on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for 31 minutes. There would be a late start day every Wednesday and 10-minute passing periods.  

In Option #4, there would be block scheduling, but the periods would only be 97 minutes. In this scenario, school would let out at the same time. Advisory would take place Tuesday and Thursday for 45 minutes, but there would only be one late start day per month.  

BHS Junior Joanna Cheney likes option #4 the best: “It breaks up the advisory time, so you don’t have it every  

day and unlike the others, it doesn’t stick the advisory spot randomly between classes.”  

The possible scenarios are scheduled to be presented to the BHS staff on Wednesday, March 7, before the School Governance Committee takes its final vote on the proposal on Tuesday, March 20th. Slemp said that the school is receiving feedback from the community and that it really helps the decision-making process.  

“We’re trying to get through this with enough support and feedback,” commented Slemp.”I think it is important to help all students be successful.”

The Zoning Adjustments Board closed the public hearing for Wright’s Garage on Thursday and continued the matter to March 8. 

Applicant John Gordon of Gordon Commercial had requested a use permit to convert an existing commercial building at 2629-2635 Ashby Ave. (the Wright’s Garage Building) into a multi-tenant commercial building on January 25.  

City staff is working with the applicant to address parking concerns raised at previous meetings by area residents.  

Some residents are worried that a large-scale full-service restaurant at the proposed building—currently zoned for a car repair shop—would exacerbate parking and traffic problems in the neighborhood. 

Apart from the restaurant, the proposed commercial building would also house retail and a yoga center. The building, which was bought and is being renovated by Gordon, is bordered on two sides by private homes.  

Gordon has met with the Claremont-Elmwood Neigh-borhood Association, Willard Neighborhood Association, Bateman Neighborhood Association and the Elmwood Merchants Group to address concerns related to parking, noise and traffic. 

Board members have asked Gordon as well as the community to think of creative solutions—valet parking was one idea mentioned—to help mitigate parking problems. 

Other matters 

• Berkeley resident Steve Wollmer informed the board that on behalf of Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way, he had appealed ZAB’s decision to grant permits to Hudson McDonald for their mixed-use project on 1885 University Ave.—known as the Trader Joe’s project—to the Berkeley City Council on Feb. 2. 

The project—which received opposition from area residents—appeared before ZAB nine times and the Design Review Commission (DRC) five times respectively before being finally approved on Jan. 1.  

Wollmer said the project fails to conform to state affordable housing law, is larger than the zoning allows, hampers the surrounding neighborhood, causes increased traffic and parking problems in the area and sets a dangerous precedent for the city by granting density bonus units reserved by state law for affordable housing to subsidize a commercial use. The appeal will be heard by the City Council in March. 

• The board continued the request for a use permit by Meskerem Tsegaye to increase alcohol service of the Ethiopian Restaurant on 2953-2955 Telegraph Ave. by adding service of distilled spirits to existing service of beer and wine, and by increasing operating hours from 8 a.m.-12 a.m. daily to 8 a.m.-2 a.m. daily to March 22. 

Staff told the ZAB they were working with the applicant on the project and that the she might withdraw her request. 

• The board approved a request for a use permit by Timothy Carter to demolish an existing dwelling at 837 Bancroft Way and build a two-unit building with three stories, 4,372 square feet floor area and two parking spaces, on a 4,996 square foot lot. 

• The board approved a request for a use permit by Rani Ranade of Toby Long Design to construct a new three-story, 2,486 square foot duplex with two spaces on a 6.750 square foot lot at 1522 Fairview St., that already contains a residential duplex. 

• A request for a use permit by Adam Block to construct a new commercial building totaling 11,249 square feet on a previously undeveloped lot at 1331 Seventh St. was also approved. 

• The board continued the request for a use permit by Bruce Kelly to construct a new two-story single-family dwelling with 1,460 square feet of floor area, two parking spaces, at an average height of 24 feet, on a 3,295 square foot vacant lot at 161 Panoramic Way. 

• The board elected Rick Judd as the new vice chair of the ZAB. Judd replaced board member Dave Blake—who will step down from ZAB in July—as vice chair. 

Section 8 renters living in apartments of two or more bedrooms will apparently escape the rent hike anticipated on March 1, according to city manager Phil Kamlarz. But those living in studio and one-bedroom apartments may be paying an additional $35 to $45 each month for rent. 

The Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department subsidizes Section 8 rents, generally providing two-thirds of an individual’s market-rate rent, with the individual paying one-third. 

The City Council, sitting as the Berkeley Housing Authority, will hear an oral report on Section 8 rents at 6 p.m. tonight (Tuesday). 

The Housing Authority meeting will be preceded by the mayor’s State of the City address at 5 p.m. and the regular council meeting at 7 p.m. 

Section 8 

HUD has apparently said that it will not continue to subsidize full Berkeley rents, which are higher than the area median for renters of studio and one-bedroom apartments. 

“Any increase is an unacceptable burden to Section 8 renters,” said Marcia Levenson, a housing activist and Section 8 renter. 

The Planet learned little on Friday of the details of the changes; Housing Director Steve Barton was not in the office and Berkeley Housing Authority Manager Tia Ingram did not respond to calls. City Manager Phil Kamlarz responded to questions with a brief voice mail, but could not be reached personally. Monday was a city holiday. 

City Aims at Fair Salary Schedule  

Because Land-Use Planning Manager Mark Rhoades’ monthly earnings are $10,581 ($126,972 annually) and Building and Safety Manager Joan MacQuarrie’s are the same, a personnel problem came to the fore: Wendy Cosin, MacQuarrie and Rhoades’ boss, earns just $10,250 per month, less than her two subordinates.  

“The deputy director of planning has not received equity increases during [the time that those she supervises received raises]; therefore the building and safety manager and the land use planning manager five-step salary ranges are now 3.2 percent above the deputy director of planning deep salary range,” writes Human Resources Director David Hodgkins in a Feb. 13 report to the City Council. 

The Personnel Board and Hodgkins, however, have crafted a solution: “Based on internal alignment, overall fairness and equity, it is reasonable to increase the salary range for the deputy director of planning as a result of the equity increases received by the Public Employee Union Local One classes that are now compensated at a higher rate.” 

The Personnel Board and Hodgkins recommend that Cosin get a 10.6 percent raise effective Feb. 25, bringing her salary to $11,338 per month or $136,056 per year. 

The council will be asked to approve the salary hike at tonight’s meeting. 

A quick glance at city salaries, available on the web at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/hr/Salaries/SalaryListPage(a).asp, indicates that there are some 105 city staff members who earn $100,000 or more—slightly less if they’re not at the top of their salary range. A few of the 105 positions are not filled at this time and actual earnings may be less for some who take all or part of the 12 voluntary salary-savings days off, and actual earnings are likely to be higher for police and fire overtime. And add 50 percent in benefits to city salaries. 

The city’s top earners include: 

• City Manager Phil Kamlarz: $198,060 

• City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque: $178,068 

• Police chief: $141,324 – $194,208 

• Fire chief: $135,708 – $186,504 

• Deputy fire chief: $135,708 - $164,652 

• Deputy city manager: $132,042 - $178,068 

• Director of Health and Human Services: $125,612 – $174,108 

• Directors of housing, information technology, library services, and planning: $126,612 - $166,992 

• Directors of Parks and Recreation and Public Works: $126,612 - $174,108 

Budget Update 

While Berkeley’s revenue is up from last year at this time, staff predicts, in a Feb. 13 report, that, over the long term, the income will not meet the dollar-hungry city appetite.  

Still, in the short term, if the City Council gives the green light to the plan it will discuss tonight and vote on Feb. 27, more-than-expected funds could keep fire stations open, improve Telegraph Avenue, pay for a local plan to address global warming and more. 

The city’s year-end revenue is expected to be $3.3 million more than originally estimated, with interest income and parking fines both bringing in more-than-anticipated funds. 

The city manager has recommended: 

• $1 million to restore Fire Department overtime, which will eliminate rotating fire station closures; 

• $200,000 to continue police patrol and mental health service outreach in the Telegraph Avenue area;  

• $100,000 for a nonprofit, Sustainable Berkeley, to write a local plan for Greenhouse Gas emission reductions 

• $500,000 for economic development, including setting up Business Improvement Districts in south and west Berkeley, developing a system to track city-wide economic development data, loan funds and matching funds for a Brownsfields grant; 

• $200,000 to update the fire and police records system 

• $1.3 million for infrastructure maintenance. 

Commenting on the Telegraph area expenditures, Councilmember Kriss Worthington said the funding should be a permanent part of the budget. “I don’t think Telegraph should have to come to the council every six months,” he said. “Clearly this is a major shopping district.” 

Worthington said he fears, as in the past, that once the problems on Telegraph subside, the funding for police and mental health services will be withdrawn. 

In his report, the city manager wrote that he has long-term concerns for budgeting city services, including park maintenance, keeping up an aging infrastructure, and implementing the voter-approved greenhouse gas reduction. “Skyrocketing health costs and the pressure for salary increases further strains our ability to control costs,” the manager wrote. 

Iraq War 

While hundreds of cities all over the country have passed resolutions calling on the president and congress to end the war in Iraq, the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission has recommended that the city pass a fourth such ordinance, but is updating it with specific demands to support some of the stronger legislation introduced to Congress: 

• H.R. 508 authored by Reps Barbara Lee (D-Oakland-Berkeley), Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), which requires the United States’ forces to leave Iraq within six months; 

• H.R. 413, authored by Rep. Sam Farr, (D-Monterey), which repeals the authorization for the use of military force against Iraq; 

• H.R. 448, authored by Sens. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), which prohibits the use of funds to continue deployment of the U.S. armed forces in Iraq beyond six months from the date the act is enacted. 

The city council will also consider 

• The designation of Feb. 28 as Ardella Carter Day to honor her on her 100th birthday. 

• Acknowledging that the referendum petition against the Landmark’s Preservation Ordinance 6,958-N.S. referendum petition has the required number of valid signatures and that either the ordinance will be repealed or that it will be submitted to the citizens in a special election or the next regularly scheduled election. 

The meetings are at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and are broadcast on cable Channel 33 and KPFB, 89.3-FM.

The city went to court in November to fight a Berkeley Police Association lawsuit which argued that open police complaint hearings and public availability of records of those hearings violate a police officers’ right to privacy. 

In an opinion dated Friday, Alameda County Superior Court Winifred Y. Smith denied the city’s claim.  

The city had countered the police association claim by contending that because the city manager and police chief discipline the officers and the Police Review Commission does not, the hearings and the records thereof should continue to be public. 

But Smith wrote: “It is undisputed that the city manager and the chief of police have the authority to impose discipline on an officer based on PRC findings.” 

Further, she wrote that the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act “affords peace officers important rights when ‘any public safety officer is under investigation and subjected to interrogation by his commanding officer, or any other member of the employing safety department that could lead to punitive action.’” 

And she said that PRC records are maintained by the peace officers’ employing agency, the city of Berkeley. 

Attorney James Chanin, who helped write the initiative that created Berkeley’s Police Review Commission and was a member of the city’s first PRC, noted that the open hearings and records had survived numerous court challenges over the 30 years of its existence.  

The judge’s ruling, he said, is within the context of today’s political climate in which “California is moving to be the most restrictive state in the nation” with respect to police and prisons, including denying the right of journalists to interview prisoners.  

It will take the legislature to reverse this trend, Chanin said, adding, “But legislators are intimidated by the Police Officers Association and by the money from the Prison Guards Association.” 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque was not available for comment Monday, a city holiday, but has said she would appeal the case if she lost in court.  

The Police Review Commission will discuss the decision at its regular meeting on Wednesday 7 p.m., South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis. 

The Academic Performance Index (API)—the basis of California’s Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999 which measures the academic performance and growth of schools on a variety of academic measures—showed significant progress in most Berkeley public schools in 2006 with the exception of Berkeley High School. 

Berkeley High did not receive an API score in 2006, an incident BUSD spokesperson Mark Coplan attributed to the school’s not reaching the 95 percent participation rate for the California Standardized Test (CST). He said many high school students opted out of taking the tests, which left the school without an API rating. 

B-Tech—formerly Berkeley Alter-native High School—showed significant progress with scores rising from 372 to 532. 

Berkeley Arts Magnet (BAM) elementary school exceeded its state API target growth of two points and achieved an API score of 774, meeting targets school-wide and for numerically significant groups. 

Scores for 2004-2005 confirm a decline for African-American students during that year, and the 2006 improvement only returns African-American students to previous 2004 levels. 

Despite meeting API targets, BAM ranks below average and records a decline since 2003 when compared to 100 similar California schools. The situation was described as “troubling” in a report presented to BUSD by the school authorities. 

The API scores for Cragmont Elementary School has grown from 607 in 1999 to 808 in 2006, representing a 32 percent increase since the base year. 

According to the state of California, 800 is “excellent” performance on the Standardized Testing and Reporting Results (STAR). 

The achievement gap on the API between white and Latino students at Cragmont has narrowed, but there has been a slight increase in the gap between white and African-American students.  

Emerson Elementary School is slightly below an 800 on the API with between 70 percent to 80 percent of white and mixed race students scoring at proficient levels. 

African-American students at Emerson are still performing significantly below other subgroups with a recent API of 663. 

Jefferson Elementary School showed a drop in similar school rank for the API but gained 24 points from 2005 to 2006. 

The performance gap between white and African-American students at Jefferson was evident, with white students scoring 967 and African-American students scoring 633.  

Rosa Parks Elementary School has made consistent growth on the state API for the past four years. The score for 2006 is 741.  

At Washington Elementary School, the 2005-2006 API scores for white and African-American students were 871 and 661 respectively.  

Longfellow Middle School made significant growth in the 2005-2006 school year with an API score of 722. All subgroups at Longfellow improved during the 2005-2006 school year with African Americans and Latinos recording a growth of 15 and 21 points, respectively.  

Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School’s overall performance on the API has increased for the past four years.  

However, the school is in “Program Improvement” status for the third row in a year. 

The school attributes this to the gap in achievement test results between “student subgroups differentiated by socio-economic status and ethnicity.” 

Supporters of Save Berkeley Iceland plan to show up in their skating and hockey gear at the Berkeley City Council tonight (Tuesday) to request the city’s help in saving the historic ice rink scheduled to close March 31. 

Nearly 2,000 supporters have signed petitions to support preservation of the 67-year-old skating rink at 2727 Milvia St. 

“We will be presenting these signatures to the councilmembers as a proof of how much the rink means to the old and the young alike,” said Caroline Winnett, a Berkeley resident who grew up learning to skate at the Iceland. 

Volunteers of Save Berkeley Iceland have been meeting weekly since parent company East Bay Iceland announced its decision to close the rink on Jan. 18, blaming low profits and bad publicity. 

Fifty members from Save Berkeley Iceland met at the rink on a gray Saturday morning to establish a fundraising committee which would help collect funds to turn the facility into a sustainable athletic facility. 

“Right now we are concentrating on organizing funds to upgrade the structure and putting a business plan together,” said Tom Killilea, president of the Bay Area Blades. “We are looking at establishing a non-profit which would turn it into a general athletic facility, broadening its appeal to the community.” 

He said that his plans for the facility include installing solar panels on the roof, building an effective refrigeration system and use the heat generated from the refrigerator to generate hot water for a therapeutic pool. 

The Berkeley Fire Department had considered Iceland’s permanent ammonia-based cooling system a hazard in 2005 and had forced the rink to install a temporary system. 

Berkeley-based Assembly Architects is helping redesign the rink for its proposed community center expansion, and a local solar energy supplier has offered aid toward installing a green energy system. 

Individuals representing area organizations such as the Berkeley YMCA have also expressed interest in setting up fitness programs. 

Berkeley Iceland, which has been on the market for the last year with a price tag of $6.45 million, has yet to receive any active bids. 

Winnett said that Save Berkeley Iceland would be stepping up efforts to collect funds in the next few weeks so that operations at the rink could go on uninterrupted. 

“Since the Berkeley Unified School District is looking to build a baseball field right across from the rink, it could become a nice little area for people to congregate and have fun,” she said.

Staff is breathing easier at Berkeley’s 14-year-old support center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. 

A man suspected of making death threats against Pacific Center for Human Growth staff and vandalizing the Telegraph Avenue headquarters was arrested in Concord Saturday night, according to Juan Barajas, Pacific Center’s executive director. 

“It’s nice to know this person is in custody,” Barajas said. 

A man matching the suspect’s description showed up at the Rainbow Center in Concord on Saturday night, asking about suicide hot lines. The Concord Center had already received information about the threats and was looking out for the individual, Barajas said. 

Over the past several weeks, the Pacific Center had received three death threats and experienced one instance of vandalism on Feb. 3, when a man, believed to be the same person making the threats, had kicked in glass on the center’s front door (or, according to Berkeley police, had thrown something through the glass in the door).  

The suspect was described by the Pacific Center staff as a white male in his mid-to-late 20s, with blond hair, about 6-feet-tall, weighing 220 pounds. (Berkeley police describe the man as similar in height and weight, but at 40 years old with gray hair.)  

“Anxiety at the center was really high,” Barajas said. “People were afraid to come to work.” 

The center hired security guards as a result of the incidents and will keep security higher, even though the suspect is in custody, Barajas said. “We are especially at risk of being targeted.” 

The center is no stranger to threats, but Barajas said these were especially frightening because the individual targeted youth, referring to Columbine High School, where 12 young people were killed by two classmates in 1999. The suspect also made reference to Matthew Shepard, a gay man brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998, Barajas said.  

The threats have been especially disheartening because “the center is a sanctuary for a lot of people,” Barajas said, calling them, “the ultimate punch in the stomach.” 

Center staff believes that the suspect may have participated in youth programs at a Pacific Center youth program in Walnut Creek in the mid-1990s. 

According to Barajas, the suspect has been hospitalized and is on suicide watch. Neither Concord nor the Berkeley police could be reached on Monday for details or to confirm the arrest.  

On Friday, Berkeley police spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss told the Planet that even though the suspect may have participated in programs at the Pacific Center, the crimes were investigated as hate crimes. 

The California Penal Code specifies that death threats to a “protected class” are considered hate crimes, she said, explaining: “It is possible for a person of a protected class to threaten violence to persons of their own class. We take these threats particularly seriously.” 

It will be up to the district attorney to charge the suspect.

Berkeley Planning Commissioners will get their first official look at expansion plans for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) Wednesday night. 

On Tuesday (today), a subcommittee of the panel helping to formulate a new plan for downtown Berkeley will discuss possible university developments both on and off campus. 

Both meetings begin at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

LBNL will present the Planning Commission with their final draft of the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) through 2025. 

The document proposes construction of nearly 1 million square feet of new buildings, some replacing older structures destined for the wrecking ball, and the addition of 1,000 new jobs. 

“I’m very concerned about the cumulative impacts of this development along with all the other construction that’s planned nearby,” said commission Chair Helen Burke. 

“The university is planning a lot of construction near Memorial Stadium and elsewhere on campus, as well as downtown,” she said. “All of this will impact the city and its services.” 

The commission will also take up technical amendments to the recently passed regulations governing so-called by-right residential additions. Burke said the two proposed ordinances simply clean up elements missed in the revisions recently adopted by the commission and City Council. 

Also up for action Wednesday is the election of new officers. If the commission follows precedent, Burke will be re-elected to the chair, as were each of her three predecessors. 

Tuesday night’s meeting will be the fourth session of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) Subcommittee on City Interests in UC Properties. 

The largest part of the meeting will focus on developing visions and concepts for the new downtown plan, which was mandated by the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging the university’s’ own LRDP through 2020. 

Among the ideas to be considered will be what kinds of university uses the city might like to have downtown, along with their possible locations. 

Members will also make recommendations about the possible scale of development on university-controlled sites downtown, as well as possible changes to the landscape crescent section of campus that faces Oxford Street at the main entrance to the campus and along the Oxford Street. 

Members will also discuss possible changes to the Oxford Street right-of-way. 

Subcommittee chair Dorothy Walker, a retired UC Berkeley administrator, has previously proposed a suggestion she said she realizes would be financially impossible—undergrounding much of the thoroughfare between campus and the city. 

In addition to already announced plans for a major hotel at Shattuck Avenue and Center Street that would be built partly on land it owns, the university has announced plans to build a major art museum and film archive at the Oxford Street end of the same block. 

Also planned for development is the site of the state Department of Health Services high-rise that occupies much of the long block bounded by Berkeley Way on the south, Hearst Avenue on the north, Oxford Street on the east and Shattuck Avenue on the west. 

Much of the 800,000 square feet of new university uses could be contained on that single site, but many DAPAC members have expressed hopes that any new project there would include housing and perhaps a major retailer as well as university uses.

By Kalima Rose 

denise brown [she preferred her name to be written without capitals] was an artist and educator who earned the expansive love of this community. Raised on the Berkeley-Oakland border, she lived her life here at the center of endlessly creative pursuits. Common to each of them was her ability to draw out the unique gifts of each person she touched. She created collective beauty out of that raw material and delivered it back in a living example of how to be a better person in the world.  

When she died Feb. 2, 2007, everyone who knew her considered themselves her friend—especially her students.  

denise’s life moved from staging backyard childhood productions to helping build the Berkeley Black Repertory Theater, to creating community theater in the schools, to teaching kindergarten, first and fourth grades over a decade at LeConte school, to raising talented and artistic children of her own, to her most recent pursuit of building the new Arts and Humanities high school at Berkeley High.  

denise’s life was a whirlwind of inclusion. Her world embraced black, brown and white people, young and old people, powerful and powerless people, the disenfranchised and the privileged. Whether as kindergarten teacher or as dean of discipline at Berkeley High School, she treated everyone with respect. 

The center of a large family  

Born in 1956, denise was 50 years old when she died. She was born in Oakland, California, to Sarah Lee Brown and Esever I’dell Brown, the youngest of six children, including Mary, James, Esever, Harold and Edward. She was raised on Alcatraz Avenue between M.L. King Jr. Way and Shattuck Avenue, where the family house is still the center of the community. 

She is survived by her children Justin LeJuan Real (22) and Sarah Mary Rose brown-Real (17), and siblings Mary, Robert (James), Harold and Edward Brown.  

Since childhood, denise organized young people in her community into creative productions. Her 25 cousins were always both enthralled and at her mercy when she cast them in plays, circuses, dance repertoires, and other performances that kept bringing them out into the world.  

“Since the time she was little, ‘Nisey’ was in charge of everyone,” said her elder brother Robert. “She could stage an entire play herself,” recalled Toska McQueen, a cousin and best friend from childhood. “She could generate all the sound effects and play every character herself, or she could organize 30 participants on the spot into a play. She worked with whatever she had in front of her.”  

She was married to Juan Real, whom she met acting and with whom she had Justin and Sarah, from 1984 until 2004.  

Justin and Sarah attended Berkeley public schools and helped their mother get recruited to teach in them. Justin recently graduated from the University of Oregon in Eugene with a B.A. in Policy, Planning and Management. Sarah recently completed her senior year at Berkeley Independent High and after years of studying with Berkeley Ballet Theater and Alvin Ailey is in the process of auditioning at prestigious dance colleges in New York City.  

“She was such a supportive mother of everything we did,” said Justin. “The biggest fear I had of her was not meeting her expectations because of the high confidence she had in me.” 

Well versed  

denise attended Washington Elementary, Claremont Middle School, and Oakland Technical High School in Oakland. She started her post-secondary studies at San Jose State, and graduated from San Francisco State with a B.A. in English (1979). After college, she worked in administrative positions at UC Berkeley in the Department of Labor Relations and Affirmative Action. 

She accomplished her teaching certificate through New College of California (1992), and after teaching elementary school for 10 years, she acquired her Masters of Education Administration at U.C. Berkeley in 2002. She taught classes in family literacy to students at UC Berkeley, who in turn led Shakespeare-for-Kids workshops in Berkeley public schools. She was making plans to pursue her Ph.D. in English at Oxford University when she died.  

A community-building career 

After college, she applied to the Berkeley Black Repertory Theater as an aspiring director. Told she needed to develop experience acting, she won parts in two plays before being selected as artist in residence for directing productions. She won artist in residence appointments for three years in the mid- 1980s. 

In 1990, Justin entered LeConte Elementary School, where denise became distressed that the stage was being used as a storage area. She set out to refurbish the entire auditorium into a state-of-the-art performance facility. She recruited dance teacher Soyinka Rahim (of Our Thing Performing Arts Company) and choral director Michele Jordan (Choir director at East Bay Church of Religious Science) to help produce musical theater with the students.  

LeConte principal Barbara Penny- James, impressed by her leadership, recruited denise to become a teacher at the school, where she taught kindergarten, first grade and fourth grade for ten years. “She belonged to the world,” said Penny-James. “Her classroom reflected everyone who was there and she empowered every student. She had endless followers in her classroom.” 

Along with Rita Pettit and Linda Jackson, she founded the LeConte Performing Arts summer camp, which served hundreds of students each summer and produced magnificent productions authored by denise, including “The Vegetable Coup” where vegetables were the heroic good guys trying to win the world back from sugars; “The Wizard of Bezerkeley” who help kids solve the crises of broken families, self-doubt, poverty, and racial conflict from his home in the Campanile; “Who Was Mother Goose Anyway?” that explored the esoteric meaning of those nursery rhymes through musical theater and dramatic dance; and “The Biz,” premised on people landing on earth from different planets without a common language figuring out how to get along.  

“She could always hold the most conflicted and the most gifted children together,” said Jeannie Gee, her long-time co-teacher at LeConte, “and touch them all.” Pandora Thomas, who studied to become a teacher under denise, said “Ms. brown just poured her passion into whatever she taught, so learning math and science also became an act of poetry for her students.”  

Shortly after earning her administrative credential, the new principal at Berkeley High hired her as the Dean of Discipline and later promoted her to Vice Principal at Berkeley High, where she was working until she died. 

At Berkeley High, she ended a revolving door of discipline deans where complaints had centered around unfair discipline directed at students of color. denise built a sense of partnership and collaboration with security staff, and together they transformed the environment to one of trust and respect for students.  

denise remembered her own childhood fights to protect her developmentally disabled brother from taunting and knew there were often deeper things troubling the youth she counseled. Berkeley High authorities once tried to protect her from a large male student who they thought might be dangerous. When she insisted on seeing him, he wept at her sight, as she had been his kindergarten teacher.  

“She disciplined with dignity when dealing with kids,” said Thelette Bennett, a co-vice principal during denise’s tenure. “She was brilliant, gentle and forceful.”  

Jim Slemp credits her for vastly reducing discipline problems at the school. “Her goal would be to have the students say ‘thank you’ at the end of process, and 98 percent of the time, she succeeded.” 

As Berkeley High was breaking up the larger school into smaller schools, denise partnered with Arts Department chair Miriam Stahl and Dance Program director Linda Carr to create the Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA), now in its second year of operation. As vice principal to two small schools—AHA and the Community Partnership Academy—she mentored new teachers to deliver on the visions of the schools. “She welcomed parents. She built community. She pulled out what she thought was the best of us as teachers,” said Stahl. “She didn’t go by a prescribed book of what should be happening in the classroom, but was a really good observer. She would watch, and then go from there—always good at improvisation.” 

Student comments that poured into the memorial tell the deepest story. Lizi Freeman wrote, “You started something amazing. You’ll be missed greatly, but you’ll live on in the spirit of AHA, and we’ll make you proud.” 

Former student Orissa Stewart-Rose wrote, “Her love and lifestyle affected everyone she interacted with deeply. We all can say in one way or another that she changed us for the better, helped us through a tough situation, encouraged us when we were faithless or provided wisdom when we were in need.” 

The California State Senate closed early in her honor last week, and colleague Miriam Stahl drafted her memorial portrait, casting her as the Queen of Hearts, with the caption, “Our Queen of Berkeley.” 

Her son Justin and Jim Slemp proffered the same reflection. “She was just so loving and always put kids first.”  

A community memorial service will be held at the Berkeley Community Theater on Feb. 15 at 5 p.m.  

For information about how to contribute to the family, contact BUSD public information officer Mark Coplan at 644-6320.

Mayor Tom Bates praised the city’s role in protecting the environment and the economic growth in many of Berkeley’s shopping districts, but spent most of his State of the City address Tuesday evening setting the stage for the future:  

Berkeley will become a town where “green” building is a must, he said, a place where research and development corporations can locate more easily on properties now restricted to manufacturing; where people with inappropriate street behavior are offered services, but whose actions are also restricted by police; where innovative businesses such as those researching nanotechnology and stem-cells are welcomed; where the university is condemned when necessary, but honored for its good works, such as its innovative approach to the public-private partnership proposed for UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories with BP (formerly British Petroleum).  

With every seat in the council chambers filled for the annual speech—which will be repeated with modifications for the Chamber of Commerce on March 1—and, despite a makeshift sound system rushed in at the last minute to substitute for the regular system, which wasn’t working, the speech began with only a 10-minute delay. 

Cheers for Brower Center  

The mostly silent audience broke into cheers when the mayor raised the issue of the Brower Center/Oxford Plaza project, a two-pronged development proposed for the city-owned parking lot at 2200 Oxford St., slated to include office space for environmental organizations and large apartments for low-income families.  

“There are a few people out there right now spreading misinformation in an effort to kill this project,” he said. “I urge you not to sign the referendum.”  

Bates, a former 20-year assemblymember, underscored the need for regional planning in economic development, crime fighting and ending chronic homelessness. “No city can do it alone,” he said. 

Praise for BP-University Liaison 

While he promised to be tough on the university when necessary—the city is trying to stop UC Berkeley from building a sports training facility on an earthquake fissure next to Memorial Stadium—he promised the city would continue to work in partnership with the university on other projects and praised the UC Berkeley-LBNL-BP deal to research biofuels announced two weeks ago. (While many faculty members support the partnership, some have told the Daily Planet they fear its potential to interfere with academic freedom and the possibility that it would open the door to university support for genetically-altered plants such as corn and grasses for use as biofuels.) 

“We are poised to be an international center for the development of new environmental technologies,” he said. “That opportunity grew with the award of a $500 million biofuels research center to UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab two weeks ago.” [The University of Illinois is expected to get a fifth of that sum.] 

West Berkeley Zoning May Change  

Bates further pointed to Berkeley’s role in inviting stem cell and nanoscience research to the city: “We need to make it easier for these new businesses to open and expand in Berkeley,” he said. 

In fact the mayor was advocating a radical change in West Berkeley zoning. “Right now, a company doing research in new alternative energies or fuels could not locate in much of West Berkeley without major delays because our current zoning does not permit them,” he said. “As the economy shifts, we have to adjust the rules.”  

That proposal is likely to be met with scrutiny by some West Oakland businesses, said Mary Lou Van Deventer of West Berkeley’s Urban Ore. Speaking to the Planet after the speech, Deventer pointed out that the area had been set aside for manufacturing and the good jobs that accompany it.  

Jesse Arreguin, zoning board commissioner, shared Deventer’s concerns. The mayor’s plan could “increase gentrification and drive up rents,” he said. 

Outsiders Fuel Arts Growth 

Bates told the audience that he sees the arts as an economic boon, bringing outside money into the city. “The vast majority of people attending Berkeley arts events come from out of town, which also makes it clear that we must think regionally how we grow,” he said, proposing that a portion of the city’s 12-percent hotel tax be earmarked to support arts organizations. 

To support small businesses, Bates promised a shop-local campaign and his advocacy for a change in zoning laws to make it easier for a business of one type to be replaced by one of another type. This change is in the process of being adopted in the Telegraph Avenue area. 

Looking out for young people, Bates noted that last year the city had filled just 120 slots for summer employment out of 400 applicants. There need to be 400 jobs available, he said.  

Homeless Need Services and Police Intervention 

Addressing chronic homelessness—there are some 530 people who have been homeless for more than a year in Berkeley—Bates promised: “Funding for homeless services will not be cut.”  

He also said he would address the disturbance created by people exhibiting inappropriate behavior on city streets. Bates called for more mental health programs and praised the countywide detox center slated to open next summer in San Leandro. 

“We need to set community standards for street behavior and provide our mental health and social service, and police with the tools they need to improve the climate on our commercial streets,” he said. 

Bates aide Julie Sinai said details are not available on the plan, as the mayor continues to confer with the city attorney on the question. (During the mayoral race, Bates said he would support anti-sleeping and lying ordinances.) 

Plans Will Attack Greenhouse Gases  

Bates is probably best known for his consistent stance on environmental protection. In his speech, he called climate change the city’s “greatest challenge” and, although Measure G, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions measure passed overwhelmingly by voters in November, was advisory, he said he is “going to act like it was legally binding.” 

Berkeley emissions come from transportation at 45 percent, commercial buildings at 29 percent and residences at 26 percent, Bates said, noting that the city will contract with a nonprofit corporation, Sustainable Berkeley, to write a local plan to diminish greenhouse gasses. The city council will vote Feb. 27 on whether to give $100,000 to Sustainable Berkeley for that effort.  

The plan is likely to include expanding car-sharing programs, “green” requirements for new construction, residential efficiency requirements and city funds devoted to solar energy, he said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington noted with regret that last year the mayor spoke about passing a city sunshine ordinance, but did not mention it in this year’s State of the City address. Sunshine ordinances extend the state’s open meeting laws. A draft sunshine ordinance will be discussed at the council’s Feb. 27 meeting.  

“I’m counting on his strong support for a strong sunshine ordinance,” Worthington said. 

A recent issue of the snarky British magazine New Scientist discusses a concept we must have missed, one which clearly is a good description of the web-wired political landscape. The writer notes that some large entities, an oil company in the particular example, are starting fake grass-roots political campaigns to promote ideas advantageous to the promulgators, for example touting the environmental soundness of running cars on corn. (Where have we heard that one recently?) They generate email letters to the editor which seem to be from real people, but aren’t. This kind of faux-grass-roots politicizing is coming to be known as “astroturf,” after the simulated grass now seen on many an American football field.  

A newspaper like ours receives a fair amount of obvious astroturf, to be sure—the Internet makes it easy. But there’s an interesting category in between outright astroturf and genuine organic grassroots political communication. Is there a special name for non-organic produce? Probably not, but if there were, we might use it for some of the letter-writing campaigns we experience, clearly produced with the aid of heavy doses of synthetic fertilizer. 

There are various ways to spot these slightly-faux campaigns. There’s some kind of robotic letter-writing program which is beloved of many worthwhile people with whom we often agree. It produces a flood of one-graf letters to what seems to be a vast list of papers which insist on the two-hundred-word-soundbyte type of communication. But that’s exactly what the Planet doesn’t find terribly interesting: “Dump Bush now! The future of the nation is at stake!” Who around here would argue with that one, but how many column inches do we want to devote to endless repetitions of it? The format is a clue that most of the names attached to these letters are not those of people who actually read this particular paper, though they may have filled out a form with their sentiments for mass delivery.  

And we find out about some of these—ahem—artificially nourished letter-writing efforts because they’re solicited via email trees, and some helpful person on the email list forwards the solicitation to the Planet. Members of the Livable Berkeley lobbying organization, which is run mainly by professional planners looking for a second bite of the political apple, have recently been promoting correspondence on three projects dear to their hearts, the TJ-ville megaplex on University, the North Shattuck Plaza proposal and the Brower Center. It’s not that these letter writers are not sincere fans of what they’re endorsing, but when we see a bunch of letters with roughly similar arguments clearly manufactured from a master template, we do wonder how many we should print in our limited space.  

Another way we know that we’re being targeted is when the letters go to the wrong address. Letters intended for publication in the Berkeley Daily Planet should be addressed to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com, as our regular readers know, because the address is printed right here on the opinion pages.  

Over the weekend a bunch of letters from one perspective on the “new anti-Semitism” was sent to my personal email address. It doesn’t bother me from a privacy standpoint since this address is not a secret. But when this happens, we know that some advocacy group is drumming up letters from people who don’t normally read the paper. We just inform the writers that if they’d like their letters published they should send them to the opinion mailbox instead. But how many letters from an obvious campaign like this one should we run in print?  

There are other things going on in the world, and many of our regular local readers have been telling us in not-so-subtle ways that they frankly could care less about this particular controversy. Those who do care are passionate, but those who don’t seem to be pretty disgusted with some of the parties involved. Perhaps we should try to pretend for a while, à la Dr. Pangloss in Candide, that Berkeley is the best of all possible worlds, that ugly disputes which happen in other places don’t exist here.  

One piece of advice we should probably take to heart is to limit publication in our opinion section to letters and commentary about facts and ideas instead of attacks on personalities. Thus, “Jimmy Carter’s new book offers some valuable new information about recent history” or “There’s a mistaken date on page XXX of the Carter book,” not “Fourteen of Jimmy Carter’s former associates have called him an anti-Semite and you’re one too so there.” Or “The Oxford Street affordable housing project will provide safe and attractive homes for XXX families,” not “The people behind the referendum petitions are landlords and crackpots.”  

It is tempting, though, to take a perverse pleasure in allowing some correspondents to expose themselves in print as the idiots they clearly are—but there we go again, doing the same thing we’re criticizing! That’s not going to produce a better world any time soon, though it might make for an entertaining newspaper. 

HOMELESS IN WILLARD PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a concerned Willard neighborhood resident, I implore you to help bring attention to the problem of the homeless who reside in Willard Park. Berkeley’s tolerance of this problem is historic, and our police (or at least the dispatchers at BPD) cannot do anything. WHY? They regularly receive calls about this problem, however, they won’t dispatch until there have been about 10 phone-in complaints. When pressed for explanations they have stated that because Willard Park is open until 10 p.m. the homeless can reside there.  

What legitimate reasons are there for allowing a park in a residential neighborhood to stay open this late? We don’t have a basketball court and the few residents who are served by the tennis courts do not justify the problems that occur at nightfall. 

I have regularly called the numbers listed in our city’s directory that work with homeless. It has been a definite lesson in futility. Apparently the only way to change this is to put pressure on our city. If you are bothered by this problem, PLEASE let Mayor Tom Bates, the City of Berkeley’s recreation department, and our police know. It is not all right for the city to ignore this problem any longer. 

Sabrina Kabella 

• 

WONDERFUL BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

What makes Berkeley such a wonderful city in which to live? 

It’s a combination of so many wonderful things, such as its proximity to open space, its climate and its setting between the hills and the Bay. However, what truly makes a city buzz are the people who inhabit it, and Berkeley, like San Francisco, has a diverse mix of cultures, yet on a smaller and more manageable scale. 

People from different parts of the world bring a little bit of their culture with them and that enriches each of our experiences. We can go to Berkeley Bowl and have the choice of 10 or more different kinds of mushrooms, or several different kinds of eggplants, any variety of tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, etc. We have a range of exciting restaurants and stores to equal S.F. Our city Berkeley, however, is so much “greener” than San Francisco and it’s so pleasant to walk and smell all the fragrances from the variety of plants.  

When I heard about the proposed plan to make a “walking plaza,” i.e. one without cars, on the service road next to Shattuck, between Vine and Rose, I was thrilled at the idea. Who wouldn’t support it, I thought? This will be Berkeley’s “piazza”—the place in so many European, South and Central American cities, where everyone congregates. It’s the place that “throbs” with life on the weekends and on holidays, where children can play safely, where teenagers can hang out with their friends. It would be a place where the locals can eat their take-out food from the Epicurean Garden, or Cheese Board, or The Collective, or Massi’s or any other eatery in the neighborhood, a place where we can hang out with our friends, and an area set up already for the Farmer’s Market, without having to close the street, a place for our artists and musicians.  

Who would not want this? 

Well, there are some loud opposing voices full of prophecies of doom and gloom. There are some valid issues that they raise, but all these issues can be addressed. Please don’t let these negative voices put a stop to a wonderful idea, that I think would revitalize and enhance this neighborhood. Berkeley, let’s come together to make our city an even better place. 

Robert Brower 

• 

NOT SO PUBLIC WEALTH 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Did you know that a gift of approximately $17 million in public wealth is being given away in Berkeley? Yes, the Tom Bates-Loni Hancock political machine is giving away the largest downtown surface parking lot (over 1 acre) to a private developer, who is their friend and political supporter. This is not only improper but is probably illegal in California, since it is not legal for public officials to give away the public’s wealth to their personal or political friends.  

This is the main reason behind the referendum petition being circulated to stop this improper giveaway. If the referendum drive is successful, the community will be able to think about and discuss whether the public’s wealth should be handed over to Loni Hancock’s and Tom Bates’s supporter.  

During last week’s City Council meeting, late at night, Mayor Bates had this extremely valuable Berkeley City property given to his friend for the incredible price of one dollar. It is obvious that Bates timed this for the beginning of the rainy season, which he knows is an almost impossible time to collect the necessary signatures required in a thirty day period. Bates wanted to prevent the public from discussing this serious matter and possibly overturning this giveaway.  

There are only two weeks left to sign the petition. Only if 4,000 Berkeley citizens sign it will we have an opportunity to decide whether or not this $17 million property should be given away to a private developer. Berkeley City staff claims that this property is only an $8 million giveaway, but that is a ridiculously low amount for this Berkeley asset.  

Twenty, thirty, or forty years ago, Loni Hancock and Tom Bates were active supporters of most referenda and initiatives in Berkeley. Unfortunately, now that they are entrenched in power, they are trying to violate the rights of the citizens of Berkeley to gather signatures and are refusing to discuss the issues that I am raising here. The Bates political machine assigned a low-level political operative, Rob Wrenn, to personally attack and harass the people circulating these legal petitions. This is a violation of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States of America. This is certainly not the first time that Mayor Bates has violated the people’s rights. Think about the recent time when Bates destroyed the newspapers that did not endorse him. This is proof that the Tom Bates and Loni Hancock political machine is no longer democratic.  

Please help stop this illegal and improper transfer of Berkeley’s public wealth by signing or circulating the petition for the referendum.  

Barry Wofsy 

• 

A COMPLEX ISSUE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This letter is in response to Joshua Greenbaum’s opinion that the BDP has become a forum for intolerance, racism, ad hominem attacks and anti-semitism. 

While I do not agree that this is the role that BDP serves, I do want to validate that sentiment. 

In addition to that, it is true that this issue (Palestine/Israel) remains a complex issue. I do not think it is urgent that people see eye to eye on it. That is part of the problem. There will always be two versions of history. Jews and Arabs will likely never see eye to eye. This is, I believe where we all get stuck. And until we can move past finding common ground on historical facts, we will never resolve the unnecessary and illegal DAILY, CURRENT suffering of both peoples. This is what we need to bring the focus to. What cannot be argued is what continues on a day to day basis for both Palestinian and Israeli civilians. Is it anti-semitic to talk about the apartheid-like conditions that Palestinians live under? Is it anti-arab to talk about the fear that Israelis live under from potential violence against them? It is not.  

The truth that no one can refute is that Palestinians have not been given their rights under international law, nor have they been given their rights to their land, water, education, borders or air space. Israelis, on the other hand, do live in fear. That is truth. No one can refute that. None of these statements are either anti-semitic or anti-arab. What they are is truth. If we can get past debating the history, perhaps we could see eye to eye on the human suffering level. And, isn’t that what counts? 

Tracie De Angelis Salim 

• 

JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I would like to correct Jane Litman’s assertion that the Anti-Defamation League did not exclude or censor Jewish Voice for Peace, a major Jewish progressive organization, from the ADL conference on anti-Semitism on the left. 

I am a Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) board member. I did speak on a conference panel about anti-Semitism in the queer community—but I was invited not by the ADL but by a conference presenter. And the ADL did everything they could to conceal my JVP affiliation. They expunged my JVP role from the bio I sent them for publication in the conference program, thus hiding my accurate organizational identity from the media who were trying to find JVP panelists there to interview. 

Additionally, the ADL conference website invented a non-JVP affiliation for me, listing me as representing the “LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Federation.” Even after I protested, the ADL continued to post the misleading affiliation on its website, and even reprinted it on the schedule taped to the front door of the conference. While it is true that some JVP literature was allowed to remain on a conference table, this ADL conduct makes plain its disregard towards truly progressive Jews generally, and towards JVP in particular. 

Penny Rosenwasser, PhD 

Secretary, Board of Directors,  

Jewish Voice for Peace 

• 

XXXXXXXXXX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Joanna Graham obviously did not attend the conference on anti-Semitism on San Francisco last month. If she had, she would have learned the difference between mere criticism of Israel’s government or policies, and true “neo-anti-Semitism”—which is opposition to the very existence of the state of Israel. Just as criticism of the U.S. government is not anti-American, opposition to Israel’s policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians does not make one anti-Israel. However, when the underpinnings of such criticism include false claims that Israel is an “apartheid state,” that it is the “greatest human rights violator in the world,” that it is committing “genocide” (how is it that there are twice as many Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza as there were in 1990?), and when the critics of Israel have as their goal the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state—that’s when the line is crossed into anti-Semitism.  

No speaker at the conference made the claim that criticism of Israel is, in and of itself, anti-Semitic. For that matter, no major Jewish organization or opinion leader in this country has made that claim. It seems that critics of Israel are pre-emptively playing the anti-Semitism card in order to muzzle substantive, factual responses to their mistaken claims. After all, if all pro-Israel voices are dismissed as “you’re just calling us anti-Semitic”, then that straw man argument draws the attention away from their original mistakes. 

Michael Harris 

As a Jew, Joanna Graham’s column of Feb.9 gives me the shudders. It is full of conspiracy theories, innuendo, false statements and suspiciousness that echo rhetoric all too familiar. In addition, she rationalizes the admitted “rise in anger against Jews,” including Arianpour’s anti-Semitic screed, as merely “rough and tumble” response to a war that, may I remind you, is Israel’s, and not a religious one. This is the very sort of thing—conflation of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism—that the thoughtful ADL conference sought to distinguish, and whose existence Graham denies. I guess she just thinks it’s OK! I applaud Rabbi Jane Litman, who Graham excoriates, for her part in the effort.  

Even Kriss Worthington, a darling of the left, can’t get away with a peep in support of the Jews from the Daily Planet, which seems obsessed with us. I don’t purport to represent the entire Berkeley Jewish community. I trust and pray that your paper doesn’t represent the wider Berkeley populace!  

Jane Falk, Ph.D

Meeting my father for the first time in 38 years forced me to think about the experience of many young adults who transition out of the foster care system and proceed through life without forging connections to caring adults.  

I lost my mother in my youth and grew up without a father, but I was adopted by an older cousin and always had plenty of relatives and mentors who provided me with a stable, caring home and support that ultimately helped me persevere and prosper. The experience is much different however, for the more than 4,000 young adults who emancipate (age out) of the California foster care system at the age of 18 and are forced to live on their own without the benefits of family, support, or resources.  

Many of these youth become homeless and in turn face other problems such as prostitution, drug addiction and incarceration. There are some programs to provide these youth with transitional housing and training to help them develop the life skills they need to live independently, but ultimately, need far outweighs the supply. 

In spite of these challenges, there are ways to support emancipated youth that are not exclusively tied to funding. Specifically, host housing programs and mentoring programs can help.  

Host housing programs allow caring adults in the community to house an emancipated youth in an extra room in their home and to provide some basic mentoring and life coaching support. In many California counties, these hosts qualify for small subsidies to help with food and incidentals. The hosts get help from social workers who provide training and support. These efforts make dramatically positive changes in the lives of both host and youth. 

Opportunities exist in programs for everyday citizens to get involved in hosting emancipated youth or in helping them as mentors. These programs are part of a menu of services being used by child welfare advocates to help emancipated youth move from transition to permanency.  

More and more child welfare systems are investing in programs to promote permanency—like “family finding,” where professionals trained in advance search techniques help youth locate extended family members who can be part of their extended network of caring adult supporters.  

It is the goal of all child welfare systems to reduce the number of youth in foster care, to reduce the length of time youth remain in care and to help youth make permanent lifelong connections with caring adults.  

Serving as a host or a mentor is an excellent way to pitch in while the child welfare system continues to make progress towards those goals. 

Please consider becoming a host or mentor today. Your efforts will add tremendous value to the experience of a young person. Those interested in hosting or mentoring a young person or making donations to support housing programs should contact Beyond Emancipation at (510) 261-4102.  

Beyond Emancipation is a nonprofit program that helps emancipated youth in Alameda County find housing, employment, health services, scholarships and other resources to support their independence. 

Tony Thurmond is the Executive Director of Beyond Emancipation and a member of the Richmond City Council.

After years of public process, the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza Family Housing are scheduled to break ground in April. Any major project, especially in Berkeley, receives close study. The City Council, all the various City agencies, commissions, and departments that have a voice in this civic process have carefully considered these two projects, and all have given their approvals. 

Now a few individuals are circulating a petition against both projects, providing incorrect and misleading information while soliciting signatures. We would like to set the record straight for your readers concerning the following: 

1. The David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza are two separate projects, with independent financing, and ownership. The David Brower Center is a $28 million investment in downtown Berkeley that will stimulate the economy, and greatly enhance Berkeley’s reputation for progressive leadership. The Brower Center is privately financed through donations, foundation grants, low-cost loans, and federal tax credits.  

2. Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice activists have traditionally been somewhat distanced from the environmental/conservation communities. David Brower sought to build bridges between these movements, so that we could see our commonality and join together for progressive change. While the Brower Center and Oxford Plaza are separate entities, we made a decision at the outset to link our missions, so that the Brower Center can succeed only if Oxford Plaza’s 96 units of family affordable housing are built. We have worked and supported each other’s projects for over four years, and we will continue to do so. We are proud of our work together.  

3. The Brower Center building will be owned by the David Brower Center, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, controlled by its Board of Directors (see www.browercenter.org for a list), which is composed of leaders from the nonprofit community, including Ken Brower, David Brower’s son. No individual is making a profit creating the Brower Center. Construction expertise is being provided by Equity Community Builders, they have no ownership interest and make no profit other than a fee for their professional services.  

4. The Brower Center is being built to support the current generation of activists, and to provide a foundation for future generations; it is affordable today, and will be for decades to come. Over four years ago, we planned to lease office space for $2.00/sf (inclusive of all services). Today rents start at $2.10/sf (inclusive), still very affordable to most nonprofits. The well-equipped, attractive Brower Conference Center is budgeted to operate at a break-even level, again making it very affordable for nonprofits, as well as the entire Berkeley community.  

5. The Brower Center has no intention or plan to rent office space to U.C. Berkeley, because that is not our mission, not the reason we are going to the trouble and expense to build the Center. We were asked if it was contractually possible to rent to U.C., and we answered “yes.” We could theoretically rent to Exxon Oil, as well, but obviously are not planning to do so.  

6. The Brower Center represents state-of-the-art green design, and is on track for a LEED Platinum rating, the highest possible for high performance buildings.  

7. The City of Berkeley is not giving away anything. Current above-ground parking is being replaced by an underground garage, which will belong to the city. If the city sold the property, it would have the sales price but no parking. Now the city retains the parking and associated income, and also creates 97 units of housing precisely where it is most useful, and brings in the Brower Center investment and all the associated benefits of that project for Berkeley.  

The city of Berkeley has the opportunity to transform a parking lot into a vibrant center that will reinvigorate downtown, and honor the best of Berkeley’s heritage for progressive leadership. All of us who have worked for years on both projects hope that mean-spirited misinformation does not result in yet more delay, and increased costs. We respectfully ask for the entire community’s support in creating both projects, knowing that they will serve the community well for decades to come. 

Peter K. Buckley is Chair of the David Brower Center

The Berkeley Housing Authority Special Meeting held on Tuesday Feb. 13th was an unusual event. Not only was it not previously announced, we read about it in the Daily Planet in the Tuesday edition, consequently it was not well attended by people whose shelter depends upon BHA. With the exception of one woman who spoke right to the point: that the City Council, who sits as the Housing Authority Board of Directors, have failed for 4 or 5 years to lift the agency out of it’s “troubled,” read failing, status, the other speakers recited jargon, statistics, and acronyms. I watched the performance, or should I say charade, on television. I was shocked at the lack of passion, outrage, or meaning that was expressed by Tia Ingraham, BHA Managing Director, or Steve Barton, Berkeley Housing Director, or the City Council members. Have none of these people ever suffered insecurity? Have none of these people ever serious been faced with the prospects of poverty? Darryl Moore thanked the two for an “informative report.” I was as mystified by his accolade as if indeed English was not my native language! 

As I understand the problem, the rents to the landlords that were set by the (BHA) Berkeley Housing Authority exceeded the National (FMR) Fair Market Rent level accepted by (HUD) Housing and Urban Development. But, when BHA contracted those rent levels HUD acceded to that contractual agreement. Now BHA is being punished for its delinquent (troubled) status, and the rents to the landlords are to be cut to be more in line with the national average. This seems like a breach of contract to my layman’s eye. However, the landlords want to pass that shortfall on to the tenants, rather than take a reduction in rent and absorb the fact that they have been overpaid for the last how-ever-many years, as any welfare recipient would be forced to do if they had been overpaid. We learned at the BHA meeting that 2, 3, and 4 bedroom units would not be affected by the March 1st rent hikes, but studio and 1 bedroom apartments would be increased by $35 and $45 a month respectively. The people who occupy studio and 1-bedroom apartments statistically are disable and/or elderly single people. SSI (Disability Insurance), and many seniors on Social Security get a little over $800 a month. An extra $35 or $45 a month is a substantial sum on that sort of budget. If that is considered a victory I fail to see it! 

It is not news that the rents in Berkeley are prohibitive to all but the affluent. A 1-room apartment is over $900 a month, 1 bedroom over $1100, 2 bedrooms over $1200. Under these conditions, without our Rent Stabilization Ordinance, Berkeley will lose the character of cultural and intellectual variety that has made this city the New York of the West. Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, now a Berkeley resident and University of California, Berkeley, scholar recently voiced the same concerns in the Planet. 

The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Ordinance was orchestrated and passed by a few social activists and though it’s been gutted and remodeled by the landlord lobbies at the State level we still have viable rent control in Berkeley. Can rent control laws be configured to extend to tenants who live in Section 8 and Public Housing? This is a question we must pursue. Homelessness and the fear of homelessness is not something we can tolerate. 

Eleanor Walden is an advocate for low-income tenants.

The DAPAC recently recommended limiting the options for a future design study of the Center Street corridor in Downtown Berkeley to that of closure to vehicular traffic (except for service and loading) and allowance for a maximum feasible creek. In making this recommendation, the DAPAC has rejected alternate street right of way considerations that would accommodate vehicular traffic and/or parking in some manner. 

There are precedents throughout the country for “pedestrianization” of a street corridor, some with full closure and some with partial closure of the street to vehicular traffic.  

A number of cities have made such a change with distinct success. Santa Monica’s conversion of 3rd Street to a 3-block long vehicle-free pedestrian precinct has established it as a renowned urban destination and it is a lively commercial success. It, apparently, took 3 tries, but they finally got it right. Boulder, Colorado is another impressive success story, and there are other similar examples that are excellent models for us to consider. It is likely that the DAPAC members had these successes in mind for closure of the key Center Street block in downtown Berkeley. It is a very compelling image and of real interest to many people in Berkeley, including me. 

There are, on the other hand, at least as many dramatic examples of total street closures that have failed. Reasons for failure frequently cited include, among others, insufficient visitor traffic for viable commercial activity; poor visibility and ineffective promotion; poor maintenance; and perceived safety problems. A thriving industry has evolved over the past few years to re-open and re-energize streets once enthusiastically closed to vehicular traffic. These retrofits often maintain broad sidewalks and other amenities of a full pedestrian precinct at certain times, while allowing vehicles and limited parking as a slow street at other times. These failures and retrofits offer important lessons for cities contemplating new street closures. 

I trust that DAPAC members weighed the lessons of failed street closures, as well as the successes, when coming to their recommendation. They are responsible for filtering rational choices for public benefit. However, the reporting of their action does not reveal how or why they believe closing downtown Berkeley’s most successful commercial street to vehicles will avoid the failures seen elsewhere, or what the measure of success would be. The certainty of their recommendation and rejection of the study of options calls for a clear explanation. This is not a matter to be left to intuition and faith alone. There is too much at stake for the community at large as well as for those directly and personally at risk.  

If an honest assessment of real options has occurred, it must be shared with and evaluated by the community during the next design phases. If not, it must be done in order for the community to make an informed and rational choice. We, as a whole community, may ultimately wish to "give pedestrianization a chance", but we first need to understand the implications of our choices. 

John N. Roberts is the owner of John northmore Roberts & Associates, Landscape Architecture and Land Planning. 

UC CORRUPTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The recent articles by Judith Scherr, my colleague Miguel Altieri and Eric Holt Gimenez concerning the BP-UC Berkeley agreement were timely excellent analyses of many of the current and future issues associated with the agreement. Yesterday I attended an Energy and Resource Group meeting that was supposed to explain the agreement to interested faculty. Unfortunately it raised more questions than it answered. It was clear that the faculty, other than the few who participated in writing bits of the proposal, and the public had been totally left out of the loop. Furthermore, it was clear that those sent to explain the details of the deal didn’t know them. It was apparent that this was merely another Novartis top down deal with none of the details of the agreement available for review before it is implemented. (I was a member of the College Executive Committee that forced faculty review of the Novartis deal, and I find the parallels of that early agreement to the BP agreement highly disturbing.) What does a brown corporation like BP gain from this agreement, how is the funding to be administered, how are the social science questions raised by Altieri and Holt-Gimenez going to be addressed, and why wasn’t an investigation of say the Brazil experience done? I have seen the Brazil experience develop first hand and can only say it is ecologically not sustainable—we are mining the soil and destroying the forests for short-term gains.  

As one of the pro-proposal attendees said, “…even if it doesn’t work out, it is a lot of money.” Can the agreement be viewed as the shipment of bales of millions to a scientific Iraq—is it corrupting? Maybe UC should enlist the help of Ambassador Paul Bremmer in allocating the money. 

We certainly need new cleaner sources of energy, but we also need to solve our addiction: to cheap energy, to increasing population growth that will always increase demands for resources, to the political hucksterism that promise quick fixes to important economic and environmental problems and, in the case of the BP-UC agreement, to accepting exploitive capitalism as the convenient path. What does BP get out of this deal, is it a permanent marriage with UC? What do the people of California get from it and is this deal in the best interest of the public University of California? 

Andrew Paul Gutierrez 

Professor in Ecosystem Science 

University of California  

• 

SHEEP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We cannot rely on the sheep we’ve elected to execute the will of the people to end the war in Iraq. Bush and Cheney won’t stop. We have to stop them. We, the people, must force our newly elected Congress to begin the process of impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney. He has failed to protect and defend the constitution as he swore to. He has consistently and perniciously lied about our reasons for going to war in the first place and now says we can’t leave because if we do things will get worse. He’s a liar and he needs to be held accountable. Bush is merely the pawn, paper work, window dressing used by Cheney as cover for his treason. Cheney would be easier to impeach anyway, he’s an obvious war profiteer and nobody likes him. He has publicly lied many, many times.  

Many of his lies have been caught on tape. Let’s make a movie of his taped interviews and count the lies he’s told. There are several groups calling for his impeachment; we can join them and grow their grassroots “Impeach Cheney” campaign into a movement. Let’s take Howard Zinn’s suggestion to hold “Impeach Cheney” town halls all over the country and screen the movie. We’ll get someone to write a catchy “Impeach Cheney” tune as a soundtrack to the movie. So many of us rely on commercial media for our information, we’d have to saturate as many media markets as we can to get the word out and motivate people to come out in support. 

I know these are dangerous ideas to write, and I believe I may even suffer consequences for speaking my mind. But silence is no longer an option. I implore the people of the United States and its Congress to act! Impeach Cheney now!! 

Joy Moore 

• 

WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Isn’t it time we stopped talking about the situation in Iraq as a war? 

The president and Congress are in a tizzy; everybody has a plan for cleaning up the mess and every plan uses the language and/or imagery of war—“win,” “surge,” “succeed,” “withdraw,” etc. But is war the correct and most useful way to see it?  

To be sure, there is a great deal of killing. It is heartbreaking to see men, women and children by the hundreds getting killed and maimed daily; tragic that some killing is done by our own uniformed soldiers and repugnant and obscene that many more are killed by suicidal young people yearning for paradise.  

In Iraq our soldiers fight an enemy in civilian clothes who possess no military training and operate under shifting and illegitimate chains of command. In Iraq (and Afghanistan) there is nothing resembling a conflict between opposing military forces. It is not war in the ordinary sense. 

War on terror, like war on drugs, war on crime, war on poverty, is war in the metaphorical sense. Also, the “war on terror” is everlasting precisely because acts of terror cannot be prevented by acts of war. Indeed, an act of terror is often a tactic of war. 

What we name a situation has a huge impact on how we deal with it. No one questioned calling 9/11 an act of terror. But was that the correct and must useful way to see it? Was it not a criminal act? And if president Bush had described it as “unprecedented wanton destruction resulting in mass murder” and acted accordingly, would he now be agonizing about what to do in Iraq? 

The people in authority today, the president and Congress, cannot agree because they see the situation in Iraq as something it is not, a war. We, the people who matter because we pay in lives and treasure, see it for what it is, a catastrophe from which we want out. Now! 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

WHERE IS UNITY? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Headlines says it all: The GOP is thwarting debate on the war. Republican gridlock continues much as it has for six years.  

What happened to President Bush’s call for unity and bipartisanship in Congress? Republicans obviously didn’t hear that or what the American voters had to say in their November referendum: No more escalation of war. 

Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted with the Republicans saying, “Its (the resolution’s) passage would compromise America’s security.” Joe, you’ve bought into the Bush administration spin. There is no relationship between Iraq and our security here at home. 

Why do Bush and Republicans continue to think they can bomb their way to Peace? 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

The recent articles by Judith Scherr, my colleague Miguel Altieri and Eric Holt Gimenez concerning the BP-UC Berkeley agreement were timely excellent analyses of many of the current and future issues associated with the agreement. Yesterday I attended an Energy and Resource Group meeting that was supposed to explain the agreement to interested faculty. Unfortunately it raised more questions than it answered. It was clear that the faculty, other than the few who participated in writing bits of the proposal, and the public had been totally left out of the loop. Furthermore, it was clear that those sent to explain the detail of the deal didn’t know them. It was apparent that this was merely another Novartis top down deal with none of the details of the agreement available for review before it is implemented. (I was a member of the College Executive Committee that forced faculty review of the Novartis deal, and I find the parallels of that early agreement to the BP agreement highly disturbing.) What does a brown corporation like BP gain from this agreement, how is the funding to be administered, how are the social science questions raised by Altieri and Holt-Gimenez going to be addressed, and why wasn’t an investigation of say the Brazil experience done? I have seen the Brazil experience develop first hand and can only say it is ecologically not sustainable—we are mining the soil and destroying the forests for short-term gains.  

As one of the pro-proposal attendees said, “…even if it doesn’t workout, it is a lot of money.” Can the agreement be viewed as the shipment of bales of millions to a scientific Iraq – is it corrupting? Maybe UC should enlist the help of Ambassador Paul Bremmer in allocating the money. 

We certainly need new cleaner sources of energy, but we also need to solve our addiction: to cheap energy, to increasing population growth that will always increase demands for resources, to the political hucksterism that promise quick fixes to important economic and environmental problems and, in the case of the BP-UC agreement, to accepting exploitive capitalism as the convenient path. What does BP get out of this deal, is it a permanent marriage with UC? What do the people of California get from it and is this deal in the best interest of the public University of California? 

Andrew Paul Gutierrez 

Professor in Ecosystem Science 

University of California  

I have been a resident in the North Berkeley neighborhood for 40 years and am in favor of a plaza in the North Shattuck area. I have seen many changes in this area over the years and believe this newest idea is advantageous to the neighborhood. This is an intelligent and innovative community and if we are in favor of this plaza we have what it takes to find solutions to any problems that might arise in the planning. Those of us who are in favor of this concept need to speak up to be heard over the cacophony of the naysayers. I add my voice to the many others who want to see this improvement take place. 

Barbara Lewis 

The letter published in The Daily Planet (Feb. 9), written by Ms. Joanna Graham, contains a gratuitous attack on Rabbi Jane Litman of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley. I am outraged by the vile and irresponsible statements made in the attack. As a resident of Berkeley and as a member of the Beth El community I know Rabbi Litman well and I am inspired by her honesty, devotion to fairness and commitment to this community.  

The letter states that: “She (Rabbi Litman) has connections with the ADL. She conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. And she is not averse to deceptive packaging.” What is wrong with having connections with the ADL? Rabbi Jane does not conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. What deceptive packaging is Ms. Graham referring to?  

The “Conference for Progressives Constructively Addressing Anti-Semitism” which was was held in San Francisco on Jan. 28 had many voices, including critics of Israel. The sponsors included several organizations that are highly critical of Israel, including Americans for Peace Now and the New Israel Fund. Prominent critics of Israel such as Rabbi David Cooper were speakers and led workshops.  

Ms. Graham writes that Rabbi Jane Litman’s letter to the Daily Planet never mentioned that a war was taking place in Lebanon and that a war was never mentioned. Of course not. The letter to the Daily Planet, which I signed, was not about war but about anti-Semitism.  

Sanne DeWitt 

Chairman,  

Israel Action Committee of the East Bay (IACEB) 

Condo Insanity 

Every week we hear of a new condo project. And the first we hear about it is as a “done deal.” These projects are not just on abandoned lots or broken-down buildings. They plan to replace beautiful old Victorians or vibrant local businesses; our fantastic nursery, our consignment shop, nonprofit offices, our local printer. Where’s the neighborhood planning? Where’s the local government, the public meetings? There has got to be a way to stop these greedy land sharks from destroying all that is good in our communities. How can virtually every building in downtown Broadway have a “for lease” sign on it, and there is a seven-story condo going up in my little neighborhood? I call on local governments to make a public and democratic process for making these decisions that alter our town so drastically and permanently. 

Douglas Foster 

Oakland 

A recent reassessment of the damage done by the huge 1868 Hayward fault earthquake by Jack Boatwright, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, concluded that it was of magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale, not 6.7 as previously believed. He did this by mapping in meticulous detail the damage that had been done, including damaged homes and structures that had not been previously mapped in the prior risk analysis. Although the difference between 6.7 and 7.0 may not seem very large, it actually amounts to a DOUBLING of the amount of energy released, due to the base-10 logarithmic nature of the Richter scale. There is a predicted 27 percent chance of a big temblor hitting the Hayward fault within the next 25 years—the highest likelihood of a large quake on any Bay Area fault, according to Jim Lienkaemper, a geophysicist at the USGS.  

It is estimated that tens of thousands of homes could be destroyed by an earthquake of such magnitude. Even with seismic upgrade, it is unlikely that any man-made structure directly straddling the Hayward fault line could withstand such an earthquake. This being the case, the regents of UCB would be exposing some 73,000 spectators to grave danger by insisting on keeping the decaying California Memorial Stadium. This is extremely irresponsible. It would be wiser to tear down the aging structure and play the six home games a year at the Oakland Coliseum until a new stadium in a safe, permanent location can be built. A forest of California native live oak, redwood and other trees could be planted on the existing site alongside their older brethren (the specimen 84-year-old trees of the California Memorial Live Oak grove currently adjacent to the stadium). This would provide a lovely continuity of forest from Gayley Road up into Strawberry Canyon for students and residents alike to stroll and meditate in.  

Ronald H. Berman, MD 

I was in Berkeley last weekend. These returns home are always bittersweet: I love Berkeley but live in Portland now. My new home is a fine place as cities go; downtown Portland is alive with possibilities and crowded with people. The Portland formula: Live where you work, and make your place inviting, innovative, interesting—and sustainable. 

Why is it so difficult for the strident critics of the Brower Center, who are circulating petitions to stop this project, to understand how the powerful combination of creative workplace and affordable housing will enliven Berkeley’s downtown? 

My daughter—David Brower’s proud granddaughter—encountered these petitioners shortly after she’d detoured by the parking lot now at Oxford and Kittredge to see where the Brower Center, Berkeley’s challenge to Portland, will rise.  

It upset her a little; it’s hard not to take this personally when Brower is part of your name. But more to the point: the petitioners not only lack vision; they haven’t done their homework. Despite the very tall order mandated by the city (requiring that the project squeeze not only an office-and-public space complex, and almost a hundred family housing units, but also underground parking onto that small lot), the project has lined up funding, prospective tenants, and the support of nearly everyone who’s been paying attention over the last several years of City Council deliberations and public discussion. 

Here is Berkeley’s chance to lead with a LEED platinum building and a lively live-and-work environment. I hope this ill-informed and mean-spirited effort dies quietly. Even though it means I’ll have yet another reason to be sad I don’t live there any more, Berkeley needs the Brower Center and Oxford Plaza. 

Barbara Brower 

What makes Berkeley such a wonderful city in which to live? 

It’s a combination of so many wonderful things, such as its proximity to open space, its climate and its setting between the hills and the S.F.Bay. However, what truly makes a city buzz are the people who inhabit it, and Berkeley, like San Francisco, has a diverse mix of cultures, yet on a smaller and more manageable scale. 

It’s what makes these cities so interesting. People from different parts of the world bring a little bit of their culture with them and that enriches each of our experiences. We can go to Berkeley Bowl and have the choice of 10 or more different kinds of mushrooms, or several different kinds of eggplants, any variety of tomatoes, potatoes, bananas, etc.; the variety is astounding and the population is present here, in this city to take advantage of these choices. We have a range of exciting restaurants and stores to equal S.F. Our city Berkeley, however, is so much “greener” than San Francisco and so pleasant to walk and smell all the fragrances from the variety of plants.  

When I heard about the proposed plan to make a “walking plaza” ie. no cars, on the service road next to Shattuck, between Vine and Rose, I was thrilled at the idea. Who wouldn’t support it, I thought? This will be Berkeley’s “piazza” – the place in so many European, South and Central American cities, where everyone congregates. It is the place that “throbs” with life on the weekends and on holidays. This will be our place where children can play safely, where teenagers can hang out with their friends, a place where the locals can eat their take out food from the Epicurean Garden, or Cheese Board, or The Collective, or Massi’s or any other eatery in the neighborhood, a place where we can hang out with our friends, an area set up already for the Farmer’s Market, without having to close the street, a place for our artists and musicians.  

Who would not want this, I thought? 

Well, there are some loud opposing voices full of prophecies of doom and gloom. There are some valid issues that they raise, but all these issues can be addressed. Please don’t let these negative voices put a stop to a wonderful idea, that I think would revitalize and enhance this neighborhood, an area where I would shop more, eat more and where generally I would love to spend more time. Berkeley, let’s come together to make our city an even better place. 

Robert Brower 

As the never-ending polemic regarding the Middle-east heats up in the Berkeley Daily Planet once again, it’s distressing to see how the pages of our local paper have become a forum for intolerance, racism, ad hominem attacks, and, yes, blatant anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, instead of fulfilling a much-needed role as a bridge for understanding, the editorial pages of the BDP have become a place where divisive, antagonistic, and hostile accusations are hurled about, all too often regardless of either fact or any attempt at mutual understanding. I challenge the editors of this paper to change the unfortunate role the BDP has come to serve in our community, and instead attempt to fill a more positive role than that of a mirror that reflects only the ugliest side of Berkeley’s much-vaunted diversity. There is no magic bullet that will make everyone in this infinitely complex problem see eye to eye, but it is certain that the current editorial free-for-all only contributes to the polarization in our city. It’s time for the BPD to take the lead and stop allowing itself to be a forum for divisiveness, and instead become a forum for building a stronger and more cohesive community. 

Joshua Greenbaum 

There’s been so much spin about the “Brower Center” that I assumed most people in Berkeley had heard about it. Those of us who watch local land use in stunned dismay certainly have. 

While gathering signatures for a referendum of the giveaway of city land, I’m amazed at how few people actually have heard of this project. Even fewer know that it means the Oxford Street parking lot will soon disappear, to be replaced by fewer underground spaces two years hence. And almost no one seems to know that the land is being given away to developers. 

In fact, it’s often difficult to convince people that the City Council is giving valuable land away—they simply cannot figure out why the Council would do something so stupid (their words, not mine). 

I assumed that the local businesses had been carefully informed of the imminent loss of parking for their patrons, but many I’ve talked to hadn’t a clue. Patrons of the parking lot have, for the most part, been unaware—even passing pedestrians I’ve talked to were in the dark. And where’s the big yellow Planning Department sign to warn people what’s coming down the pike?  

One avid proponent of the project asserts that “…it has undergone more public review than probably any housing/office project in recent memory.” Well, perhaps in some dark recess of City Hall where secret deals thrive, but the Berkeley public seems to have been left entirely out of the process. 

No environmental impact report (EIR) was prepared for this project, a travesty of environmentalism given its proximity to Strawberry Creek, which ran down Allston Way in the early days of Berkeley. The land on either side of the original creek is a seismic liquefaction hazard zone. Underground parking a few feet from the creek bed might be a maintenance problem, and this part of the project alone—the underground garage—will revert to city ownership upon completion.  

If an EIR had been performed, those who live or work nearby and the Berkeley community at large would have had the chance to comment on whether they thought this improbable project was a good idea. 

The loss of at least $5,700,000 for the land—and this is a very low estimate of its value—is only the beginning. A report written by Housing Director Stephen Barton for the City Council meeting of December 12, 2006, reveals a history of shoveling city money into the project, including money from the general fund. A million here, a million there —eventually it starts to add up! 

The Barton report says that because construction bids for the project were higher than expected, “value engineering” has been performed—that’s developer-speak for “make it cheaper.” What if the underground parking, for which we will be paying the future repair bills, gets “value engineered” a tad too much? 

I do not think that anyone can read the Barton report in its entirety and still believe that this project is a good idea. The report is available on the City Council’s website for the meeting of that date. 

Another cautionary voice comes from Christine Carr, a member of the City’s Housing Trust Fund Technical Advisory Committee and an expert in affordable housing finance. In a letter to the council dated November 9, 2006, she discussed the amount of money the City is putting into the project: “more than the City has ever expended on a site in the past…. The City’s total commitment is $9.7 million, without cost overruns.” She recommended in the letter that the City Council not move forward with the David Brower Center as currently structured. 

How can citizens be heard when a project needs reconsideration? We have few remedies when our “leaders” run amok. But because the transfer of land was done by an ordinance, the citizens can attempt to “referend” that ordinance. If we can gather 4,073 valid signatures on the referendum petition, it would suspend the land transfer until the voters can decide whether to give their land away. 

It’s no fun gathering signatures, and the disinformation campaign is in full swing. Even if we succeed, the City Council might find some other way to use this site for financial suicide. If the citizens were actually able to reconsider the use of the land, we might decide the lot is just fine as it is. After all, the “greenest” option might be to build nothing at all. 

Gale Garcia is a Berkeley activist. 

There is no need for divisiveness about the North Shattuck Plaza at Shattuck and Vine. We’re going to build anyway, so why should there be rancor about it? There is no need for you to worry about it, talk about it or disturb yourselves. We have already obtained the approval of the City Council for its development. For the good of the community. We got the council’s approval based on your approval. If you don’t remember approving, trust us. You did. Your failure to object loudly will be deemed further approval. 

We are doing what’s best for everyone. The Plaza Development will be parking neutral. Cars will be neutralized. All the present parking spaces will be located in the parking lot to be built on the site of the Farmer’s Market. There will be plenty of parking, except on the day(s) the Farmer’s Market will occupy the lot. And except on days of special events to be held in the parking lot. And except when a fire truck has to drive through the fire lane that is required to go through the parking lot. On those days all parked cars will be towed out of the fire lane. With or without the drivers (who may then be shopping). The Business Improvement District (BID) will pay all towing fees and keep all storage and salvage fees. 

We have worked very hard behind the scene for over six years to develop and enforce this plan because it has everything that is good for urban happiness. It will have “bulb outs” to further reduce parking spaces. Perhaps roundabouts and traffic barriers to further impede undesirable driving. 

We will remove the excess asphalt from the Shattuck Avenue driving roadway and put it on the sidewalk where you will enjoy several more feet of concrete and asphalt on which to stroll. 

So relax and let us improve your neighborhood. If you insist on further disruptive discussion, it should be done in small groups with poster boards on which grown adults can write down their concerns as an exercise in community input and democracy. The BID will pay for hotel rooms and conference rooms in cities of your choice to facilitate these meetings and scribblings so that when you return, the Plaza will have been built and the concrete sidewalks expanded. There shall be a kiosk with old coffee. (Bring your own janitorial services to clean up the cups.) We do recommend that you leave your undesirable cars elsewhere in the city because when you return there will be no place to park them. It is also recommended that you bring a book to read in the lovely concrete Plaza because the book store will then be out of business. Bring a change of clothing because the clothes stores will have left the area. Please eschew Live Oak Park and bring your children to one of the busiest (child friendly) intersections in town. 

So let us all be civil and love each other. Those who refuse to do so will be detained in our Center for the Very Disruptive to be erected in the parking lot. 

NDP, inc. (Non Driving Personages) 

and CAD (Cars Are Dirty) 

and Julie Ross, alleged badgerer 

Julie Ross lives and works near the proposed development.

Sometimes the writings of the far end of the political spectrums, both on the right and on the left, are so bizarre, one is left shaking one’s head in near disbelief. Joanna Graham’s strange conflation of unprovoked personal attacks; justification for and rationalization of what she characterizes as “the rise in anger against Jews” (what I would call anti-Semitism); and cryptic allegations of conspiracies between a local developer, the “Israel lobby machine,” and the rabbis of Congre-gation Beth El is one such example. 

The most substantial issue Graham raises is that there is a “rise in anger against Jews” associated with events in the Middle East. I agree. Recent local examples of this anti-Semitism are the chant “the Jews are our dogs” at a local anti-war rally and a letter in this very paper accusing Jews of responsibility for their own oppression. That’s why I helped organize (Graham is not correct that I alone organized the conference—it was the fruit of many wonderful people’s labor) a conference for progressive people who are looking for ways to constructively address this “anger against Jews” when it appears in progressive circles. 

The conference was a big success, sold out, and if any readers wish more info or help in this matter, I hope they will call me or the local ADL.  

Graham’s portrayal of the conference is not accurate. The topic of the conference wasn’t Israel or its policies, but rather how American Jews, as Graham says, “liberal and anti-war by inclination” can effectively address anti-Semitism in progressive venues without becoming overly fearful or confrontational. It was planned over twelve months in advance and not, as Graham asserts, on schedule the day after UFPJ’s anti-war mobilization. This was a co-incidence, not a conspiracy. The conference was filled with progressives, such as Americans for Peace Now, Jewish Mosaic (an lgbt org.), B’chol Lashon (a Jewish multi-cultural org.), and New Israel Fund. Mark Leno and Kriss Worthington were presenters. Its keynote speaker, Anthony Julius, said in his speech that he did not support the occupation. Graham is wrong that Brit Tzedek was not invited to co-sponsor, and indeed though Brit Tzedek did not co-sponsor, they graciously sent out information about the conference to their membership. I am aware that Jewish Voice for Peace was unhappy with some aspects of their inclusion; however one of their board members was a presenter and their literature was on the main table at the conference, so it can hardly be said they were excluded or censored. The goal of the conference was to include a very wide spectrum of progressive people who are dealing with anti-Semitism so that they can connect with each other and lower feelings of isolation, and communicate strategies of how to successfully deal with anti-Semitism. Interested readers will be pleased to hear that there will be more local programs on this topic. 

Lastly, in response to Graham’s personal attack on me: I have no connection with the ADL except that I think the local ADL is doing very good work in its mission to educate for tolerance and to help people of good will deal with hatefulness; I do not conflate specific criticism of Israeli government policies with anti-Semitism; I am well known for direct communication and not known as a deceptive person. I am not aware of ever having met Ms. Graham, and she is not speaking from reasonable experience in this regard. I have a lifelong history of progressive activism, particularly in feminist, reproductive choice and gay rights circles, and currently serve as the chair of the local Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice (a faith/labor coalition) and as co-chair of the local Progressive Jewish Alliance Rabbinic Advisory Board. I am well used to personal attacks against me from right-wing anti-gay or anti-choice fanatics, and I am deeply saddened to see the same kind of political smearing appear in these pages. 

Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman directs the Beth El Religious School. 

As the fables about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and clandestine ties with al-Qaeda began to unravel following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the flagship of U.S. news reporting, the New York Times, took itself to task for its failure to challenge its news sources. In May, 2004, the Times wrote: “Information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged … Articles based on dire claims about Iraq tended to get prominent display, while follow-up articles that called the original ones into question were sometimes buried. In some cases, there was no follow-up at all.”  

And yet a little more than two and a half years later, the same newspaper highlighted a story about a Jan. 28 “battle” near the holy city of Najaf that is filled with the same sloppy reporting, inadequate research, and just plain disinformation that characterized the Time’s pre-war coverage of Iraq. 

According to Times reporter Marc Santora, “Iraqi forces were surprised and nearly overwhelmed by the ferocity of an obscure renegade militia …which calls itself the Soldiers of Heaven.” The story went on to quote “Iraqi government officials” who claimed the group was preparing to storm Najaf and assassinate Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leader of Iraqi’s Shiites. 

The supposed attack took place on the eve of the Ashura holiday, which commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Muhammad and Shiism’s most revered saint. 

However, journalists from the Inter Press Service (IPS) and the British Independent, as well as numerous media outlets in the Arab world, say the “battle” was against two local tribes, not the “Soldiers of Heaven,” and was nothing less than a systematic massacre by U.S. air and ground forces of Shiia opponents to the ruling clique in Baghdad. 

The avalanche of Iraqi government information—some of it contradictory—on the so-called “renegade militia,” should have alerted the U.S. media that things were not quite what they seemed. Officials said the group was a Shiite zealot “death cult”; a group of “foreign fighters” dressed in Afghan and Pakistani tribal robes, (carrying British passports); Sunni Arab nationalists; Saddam Hussein dead-enders; and/or al-Qaeda. Baghdad officials also said the scene of the battle was a “fortress,” filled with “heavy weapons.”  

None of the charges could be corroborated because the Iraqi Army barred all press from talking to survivors or examining what the Times called a “network” of trenches and bunkers lacing the “militia camp.” 

Some of the government statements should have immediately failed the smell test: “Shiite zealots” do not rub shoulders with Sunni al-Qaeda. The “Soldiers of Heaven” is not an armed group, and Pakistanis and Afghans in southern Iraq? 

Reporting near Zarqa, a town a few miles north of Najaf and some 60 miles south of Baghdad, Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily of the IPS discovered a very different version of the battle than the one making the rounds in the Times and other U.S. news outlets. 

Rather than “Soldiers of Heaven,” the target of the attack were the al-Hatami and al-Khazaali tribes, both of which oppose the current government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. According to the IPS reporters, the Iraqi Army fired on Hatami pilgrims on their way to Najaf. “We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers,” Jabber al-Hatami, leader of the tribe told IPS.  

Khazaali tribal members went to their aid. “Our two tribes have a strong belief that Iranians are provoking sectarian war in Iraq which is against the belief of all Muslims,” one witness told the reporters, “and so we announced an alliance with Sunni brothers against any sectarian violence in the country. That did not make our Iranian-dominated government happy.” 

The tribes, according to Patrick Cockburn of the Independent, are opposed to the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIR) and the Dawa Party, both of which are close to Iran and which dominate the Maliki government. Some Iraqi tribes object to Sistani because he is an Iranian, and they feel that religious leadership should be kept in the hands of Arabs. 

The governor of Najaf, Assad Abu Khalil, is a prominent member of SCIR, and was one of the major sources on the incident in stories that appeared in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.  

Tension between Arab and Iranian Shiites has been building in Iraq’s south since death squads linked to the Maliki government began assassinating local tribal leaders. Sheikh Faissal al-Khayoon, head of the large Beni Assas Shiia tribe, was murdered by a death squad with ties to Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior, according to another IPS report. Beni Assas tribal members attacked the Iranian consulate in Basra in retaliation. 

On Jan. 1, the Madhi Army of Moktada al Sadr assassinated Sheikh Hamid al-Suhail of the Shiia/Sunni Beni Tamin tribe. Sadr is a key ally of the Maliki government. According to Jamail and al-Fadhily, the Beni Assas and Beni Tamin tribes have worked for Shiia –Sunni unity. 

The Independent claims that the “battle” began when the leader of the Hatami tribe, along with his wife and driver, were gunned down at an Iraqi Army checkpoint. The Iraqi Army is riddled with death squads, in particular the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the SCIR. When Hatami tribe members assaulted the checkpoint in revenge, the Iraqi Army called in U.S. helicopters and F-16s, and British Tornados. Tanks and humvees from the U.S. 25th Division were also summoned. 

The tribe members fled into a plantation where they were pounded with 500-pound bombs that killed 263 and wounded 210. The Iraqi Army lost 25 soldiers, a casualty imbalance that Cockburn suggests means the battle was “a fabrication: that was instead an unprecedented massacre.” 

However, despite the IPS, Independent, and Arab media reports, the New York Times continues to report that the battle was with a “renegade militia.” 

Indeed, more than a week after the incident, a Times editorial chastised the Iraqi Army for allowing “hundreds of armed zealots” to set up “a fortified encampment, complete with tunnels, trenches, blockades, 40 heavy machine guns and at least two antiaircraft weapons,” adding “a successful attack on top clerics and pilgrims in Najaf would have been disastrous.” 

The details on the camp, the weapons and the charge that Najaf was the target is straight from Iraqi government sources.  

The way the U.S. media has reported the “battle” of Zarqa is a virtual replay of the kind of reporting that characterized the run up to the Iraq War. What is chilling is that the media seems to be taking a similar tack in its reporting about “Iranian interference” in Iraq. 

A recent story in the New York Times reports that Iran may have been involved in the recent kidnapping and murder of five Americans. But the story presents nothing but a series of unnamed sources and speculations. 

Bush Administration charges that Iran has set up insurgent training camps and built anti-personnel bombs that have killed and maimed U.S. soldiers have been routinely reported on all the major networks and daily newspapers with virtually no dissenting voices or questions raised concerning the motives of sources.  

Such reporting paves the road to war. Will its next victim be Iran? 

This being the third (and final) column on the subject of the disruption at the City of Oakland’s Paramount Theater Inaugural last month, some readers may be wondering with all of the other issues to talk about, why so much time is being spent on this. 

The problem is that there were three separate events within the inaugural that have gotten confused together, as well as misreported, and that confusion and misreporting could have serious consequences both in Oakland and elsewhere. So setting the record straight is important.  

The first of these events involved the speakers who came up to the microphone to request that the Council elect someone other than Mr. De La Fuente as president, the second was the booing that ocurred both during and following the Council’s vote, and the third was the anti-Latino slurs that were called out by some audience members in the midst of that booing. 

One of the articles most responsible for muddling up these issues together was San Francisco Chronicle reporter Christopher Heredia’s “A call for unity after racist incident at inauguration: Dellums' swearing-in tainted by crowd mocking De La Fuente” was published on January 12, four days after the inauguration itself and on the same day that Latino and Asian American leaders held a news conference denouncing the anti-Latino slurs. 

In his article, Mr. Heredia wrote, in part, that “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. After those calls were not heeded and De La Fuente was re-elected in a special council meeting at the inauguration, loud jeers—some racially offensive—interrupted the ceremony.” 

But loud jeers—some racially offensive—by who? Since African-Americans were the only race highlighted in Mr. Heredia’s article as opposing Mr. De La Fuente’s re-election, the reader is left with the impression that when Mr. De La Fuente was re-elected, it was African-Americans—and only African-Americans—who then resorted to racially-offensive taunts and jeering. 

In the first two columns in this series, we pointed out that the anti-Latino shouting was a very small part of the booing that accompanied the Council presidency election, so small that reports of it only showed up in one newspaper account immediately following the event—the Oakland Tribune—and most reporters present said later they hadn’t even heard it. 

Were the anti-Latino racial taunts at the Paramount made only by African-Americans? To my knowledge, no one has come out and publicly charged that they were. 

Was the booing and jeering itself against Mr. De La Fuente’s re-election—the vastly larger part that did not include racial slurs—done solely or even primarily by African-Americans? No subsequent newspaper account has mentioned the race of the people who booed. For my part, I was sitting in one of the front rows and taking notes, and while I heard the boos, I was paying attention to the reaction of the officeholders on stage and did not look around to identify any of the people who were participating in the demonstration. But knowing the long tradition of boisterous activism among Oakland’s white progressives, and knowing how many times they have clashed with Mr. De La Fuente in the past and how vociferous has been their opposition to some of the Council President’s actions and positions, I find it amusing that someone, anyone, would think that some of our good, white radical friends and neighbors did not let their voices be heard when the booing began. 

A talk with one attendee at the inauguration confirmed that belief. 

“I was sitting upstairs in the balcony,” a city employee told me this week (her name is not being published with this column so that, well, she can remain a city employee), “and I heard the booing and catcalling from people in the balcony. I didn’t hear any racial remarks. And I was quite surprised at the fact that so many white people were booing and whistling. I don’t think there was any racial aspect to it, at least where I was sitting. I just feel it was people who were frustrated with the status quo.” 

The city employee added that “what happened during that short time shouldn’t overshadow the whole event, which was very dignified and positive.” 

Meanwhile, because of the booing and the disruption—by a minority of inaugural participants—it is now widely misunderstood how polite the speeches actually were during the public comment period preceding the Council vote, particularly the comments from African-American leaders. 

From Oakland Black Caucus Chairperson Bishop Keith Clark: “Let’s continue the spirit of change, please, ma’am, please, sir, and let’s get a new president of the council.”  

From African-American Small Business Council President Daryl Kay: “I want to thank Mr. De La Fuente for eight years as president of the Council. You have done a yeoman’s job. But for all of us who have faith in the future direction of this city, I believe, brother, it’s time for you to step down. Mr. De La Fuente, brother, you’ve been great. Everybody has their day, but it’s time.”  

And from Frank Tucker of the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area: “We respect what you’ve done, Mr. De La Fuente, but we also know that we’ve got talent in the rest of the Council. Let’s put another one of our talented people in the most powerful Council position we have.”  

(Mr. Tucker, by the way, has been widely reported to be romantically linked to Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks, the top African-American publicly associated with opposition to Mr. De La Fuente. Although talk of African-American/Latino disunity dominated some area media several days after the inaugural, the most enduring visual memory of the inauguration itself, captured in several published photographs, were the old political enemies Ms. Brooks and Mr. De La Fuente standing onstage, eyes closed, heads bowed and pointedly hand-in-hand during Allen Temple Baptist Church’s Reverend J. Alfred Smith’s prayer. This was hardly the picture of black-Latino discord that later came to be characterized as the spirit of the inaugural event.) 

As a matter of fact, the impression that there was widespread anti-Latino talk by African-Americans during the public comment period at the Paramount inaugural ends up boiling down exclusively to one man, the last speaker, who identified himself as Reverend Daniel Willette of the Fruitvale District. 

Several people who attended the inaugural said they remembered that in opposing Mr. De La Fuente, Mr. Willette accused the Council president of only working for Latinos, and that immediately afterwards, Mr. Willette then said that what Oakland should be doing is concentrating on helping African-Americans. 

What this only shows, however, is that eyewitness memory is not always the most reliable record of an event. 

A review of the KTOP videotape of Mr. Willette’s remarks shows that he never mentioned the word “Latino,” and that what he actually said was that “we can’t have one who’s working only for one ethnic group in our City Council. We’ve got to have one who works for all America. We can’t have one who is just going to work for one type of people.” In the context of his position opposing Mr. De La Fuente, it is fair to assume that Mr. Willette—who was by far the most belligerent of the public speakers—was accusing Mr. De La Fuente of only siding with Latinos. But it’s hard to argue with his sentiment that “we can’t have one who’s working only for one ethnic group in our City Council,” and it becomes a stretch to bend that statement into an anti-Latino statement. 

And as for Mr. Willette’s advocating for only African-Americans? 

Well, what he said was that “Afro-American people is the ones here in Oakland who is being affected by the murders. So we’ve got to cut that down by communicating with our young children.” It’s hardly the pro-black, anti-Latino diatribe that some thought it was, but it is understandable that many in the audience that may not have fully heard what he was saying, since as he was saying it—because Mr. Willette had filled out no speaker card and had gone over his time limit with no sign of slowing down—Mr. De La Fuente was interrupting Mr. Willette at that point, saying “excuse me, sir,” and trying to get him to stop talking. In addition, people’s memories may have been clouded by the anti-Latino slurs that a few audience members were reported to have shouted out. 

The conclusion to all of this investigation? Were there anti-Latino slurs shouted out by a few people at the Paramount city inaugural? Yes. Were those people, whoever they were, wrong to shout out anti-Latino slurs? Of course. Did those anti-Latino slurs characterize the bulk of the event? Not even remotely. Is there racial tension between African-Americans and Latinos in Oakland? Yes. But it’s complicated—as all issues are that mingle race and politics and power—and that’s another issue to be tackled in another column, on another day. 

••• 

NOTE: In last week’s column, Mr. Jim Puskar was identified as the Business Manager of the Jack London Aquatic Center. The comments that were included with the column were Mr. Puskar’s alone and not those of the Aquatic Center. Mr. Puskar did not associate his quoted remarks on the Paramount inauguration controversy with the Aquatic Center, and the identification in the column was not meant to imply that those remarks were connected with the Aquatic Center in any way. Sorry if there was any confusion about that. 

I met a very nice fellow today. A composer. Funny how homeowners end up being something other than just … homeowners. Neat guy, writes music for films, TV, industrials (corporate film) and the like. He also had the composure of musician, smooth and philosophical. Good thing for all those involved in selling him this house because let me tell you, he had some pain and it would be very easy to acrimonious with this particular type.  

Seems the guy just bought a house way up in the hills. Must have cost a wee bit too. Very stylish, loads of room, views to-die-for and all those things that conspire to create the oh so modern manse. I near expected to see Hef and some bunnies lounging before the fireplace. 

About a day after he moves into the house, there’s a bit of rain and he starts to notice paint sheets scrunching up on the wall downstairs from the entryway. Next, water starts dripping through the ceiling. Oh my! It’s not supposed to rain inside the house. Well, he started by doing the right thing and removing some of the sheetrock from where the water was dribbling in. This does two things, it makes it possible to examine the area where the leak is occurring but also helps to lower the atmospheric moisture level in the space, thus decreasing the growth of funguses that eat wood and all the pulpy stuff we building houses with these days. 

After a short while we found the leak. Funny, it was inside the door. They’d looked for several hours and ran hoses all over the place and couldn’t get it to leak but we inspectors have the magic of hindsight working for us and I’ve seen my share of leaks that first required water to blow under the door to begin their soppy work. We both did the happy dance (his being more subtle and artist-like than mine). 

Now as fun as all of this stuff is, it’s not what I want to talk about. It’s the porch itself. It wasn’t what he had me over about but when I walked down to the front door, my face nearly turned white. The front door was at the bottom of a set of about 5 or six steps and had walls all around, except for the front door, which for purposes of full disclosure, I will refer to as “the drain.” 

Now, there was a drain in this swimming pool of an entryway but it was small and half clogged with caulk and a bunch of other stuff I couldn’t identify. When the dog drops his gooey tennis ball and it rolls into the unscreened drain (that’s where drains are, you know, at the bottom of the incline, just waiting for the ball) the next rain fall is going to be able to put 4’ of water right against the doorway (glug, glug). Not to worry. The door doesn’t hold water all that well. It will just drain right into the house until you get back from Maui all tanned and relaxed. 

This particular house was virtually all downstairs from the front entry door. One of those hillside beauties where you park on top and walk down to the living room and down some more to the bedroom (glug, glug, glug). Oh my G-d. Now don’t get me wrong. It had not happened but hey, misery lies in wait just around the corner, does it not? So here’s what I had to say to our friend, the musician. Please, oh please, add a “secondary drain.” OK, it’s not the only thing I recommended but it was the absolute number one. The porch will, sadly, have to be replaced due to the damage caused at the doorway.  

The plywood was rotting away and this extended back toward the exterior porch quite some distance.  

Therefore, the porch was going to have to be ripped up and replaced anyway; so my strong advice to him was to install a secondary drain when he put the porch back together. Now what is a secondary drain? Is it just another drain? No, it’s different in a couple of respects but to answer the question, let’s get up on your flat roof. If you have a flat roof with some short (or not so short) walls, called parapets, around the edge, you have a …. swimming pool, just like our friend’s entryway.  

I see these all the time and you may well have one. They’re everywhere. The code books demand (and good builders provide) secondary drains on these roofs. First, they’re elevated somewhat above the main drain. This often means that they are up on the parapet wall a few inches above the drain in the roof surface or the “scupper” in the bottom of the parapet wall.  

This placement means two thing. First it means that nothing is going to readily clog this drain because it’s not on the roof (or porch?) surface. Things can’t fall into a hole that’s up on a wall. It also means that it will be clear and unused until that fateful day when the main drain clogs and the swimming pool starts to fill. 

Secondary drains should NOT have downspouts 

When we put these life-savers in, we should not use a downspout. This may sound odd but there’s a really good reason for it. When the secondary drain starts to discharge, it means that something is very wrong and we don’t want it going about its business in a nice quiet friendly way. We want it to splash on your neighbors house or to knock your trash can lid off onto the cat. It should announce itself. Although I’ve never seen it, every secondary drain should have a set of wind chimes dangling from the spout just to broaden the effect. You want to take notice and get up there and clear drain number one as soon as you can because flat roofs with parapet walls can hold hundred (or even thousands) of gallons when the drains clog up. 

So, that’s what I would like our musical fellow to have. A porch with a drain and one more for good measure. That secondary drain could easily prevent $100,000 worth of damage if the surfing junket goes on long enough. 

There’s another message embedded in this experience that’s a little harder to see but just as vital and this is that looking at houses is a tricky business. If you have a list of things to check, it’s easy to miss the forest. Sometimes you need to back up, cross the street and just stare at the thing until it hits you. I never know what it’s going to be but if I slow down a little it’s often there. There are no books for this stuff but my clever clients often pick them out without any building education at all. So when you’re looking at your house or a new house or a friend’s house. Take a minute, sit down and look and you might just find yourself turning white and saying “Oh my G-d!” 

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

Molly Ivins would just love this story: her fellow Texan and journalist, PBS’ Jim Lehrer, reported on the NewsHour that billions are missing in funds allocated for Iraq reconstruction. According to inspector general Stuart Bowen, one item among the rabbit holes this money fell into was one leading straight to—get this—an Olympic-sized swimming pool in Baghdad. I can’t figure out if Baghdad is the Emerald City, Wonderland, or a WETA creation. 

How the hell can an Olympic-sized swimming pool be built in Iraq, while New Orleans has to wait for a rebuilt sewer system? Easy! Congress rubber-stamps the money for Dick Cheney’s pals at Halliburton et al., but doesn’t demand accountability. But then again, on further reflection, that big a pool could be a good thing. After all, the plumbing job in one rebuilt police station near Sadr City is so bad that raw sewage runs out of the pipes and onto the floors. You’ve got to have someplace for the new policemen to take a bath. Bowen says he’s got fifty-five inspectors on the ground to go after the fraudsters, but that sounds like an awfully small contingent. Why can’t he have more auditors? 

The new equivalent to our FBI which was put into place in Iraq is failing to pursue corruption cases because they are absolutely overwhelmed. There’s simply so much of it that they don’t even know where to start, and who to go after first. 

All of the infrastructure projects have suffered from continued hits by the insurgents. What’s the use of building electrical substations when they’re just going to be blown up? Baghdad still can’t get more than six hours worth of electricity per day. And we’ve spent billions on rebuilding Iraq? New Orleans and the entire northern Gulf Coast would LOVE to have half of what we spent in Iraq.  

If we’d poured even half this much money into New Orleans, all the displaced could go home—to freshly remodeled or rebuilt houses and apartments. They could have had a jobs program, brand-new schools with brand-new textbooks and properly paid teachers. The hospitals could have been back up and functioning far faster they were. They could have had a real mass transit system. The police, fire and EMT departments could be fully re-equipped, with new state-of-the-art facilities, a new academy, and full mental health benefits to help these embattled professionals (many of whom suffer PTSD from the immediate aftermath of Katrina) regain their inner balance and be more effective at their jobs. 

Every resident of the city could have had post-disaster therapy, and maybe, just maybe that would have forestalled the astronomical rise in the New Orleans suicide rate. And even more important than all that—New Orleans could, right now, be seeing a brand-new levee system taking shape, one that even the Dutch would find impressive. 

But for me the most important reason for getting out is the thousands of service members—soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines—who are trapped in the middle of a civil war by the terms of their service. What are the odds that they will get the help they need after this is all over? 

I went to the march around the Capitol on Jan. 27. I live in Pennsylvania, close enough to drive to the westernmost Metro station, ride in and then go home the same day. I wound up sitting near a young couple from New York City. The husband, who looked to be about my niece’s age, was wearing a gray T-shirt emblazoned with the legend ARMY. He told me he had served in Afghanistan, and then Iraq twice, in the 82nd Airborne. He didn’t have a problem with his service in Afghanistan, but he was so horrified by what he saw in Iraq that he left the Army. He was wounded physically, and suffers from PTSD. He’s not getting his group therapy from the VA, but from a civilian group. His sign read: “I went to Iraq and all I got was PTSD.”  

That this young man could go to Mr. Bush’s war of revenge and not receive the care he needs from the government that sent him into that hell enrages me to the point of bitter laughter. Neither he nor his comrades-in-arms nor the embattled and exiled New Orleanians matter a damn to this administration. But their lives are not expendable, and if Messrs. Bush and Cheney just can’t get it, then Congress should just show them the door and make them head on down the road. And then Congress and a new president (dare I say President Pelosi?) should bring home our troops and make New Orleans livable again.

After Ralph died, I went to Scottsdale, Manhattan, Atlantic City, and Las Vegas (twice). I painted walls and furniture in my house, cleaned closets, and returned the downstairs furniture upstairs and the upstairs furniture to its rightful place downstairs. I perused farmers markets and street fairs, attended readings and spoken-word events. I took my niece and nephew to parks, museums, and Berkeley’s Iceland. I watched them perform wobbly somersaults at Head Over Heels and throw themselves, joyfully, into the plastic ball pit at the Emeryville Public Market.  

On New Year’s Day I drove over the Bay Bridge and met my friend Katie at the Dolphin Club. Together we jumped into the San Francisco Bay. Katie swam to the end of the pier and back. I waited for her on the deserted beach and made a firm resolution not to repeat this particular activity again.  

I visited Jernee’s school several times and met with her teachers and the principal. I fixed my bicycle so I could pedal to the Berkeley Bowl, purchased new climbing equipment because mine was outdated, looked for my rollerblades in the garage, but couldn’t find them. I went to Karim Cyclery on Telegraph Avenue and bought a used pair, then skated down to Eastshore State Park, and bladed over to Richmond. On every bump my teeth rattled and my knees vibrated. I went home and got into bed, then got up the next morning and tried it again.  

My friend Sue convinced me that an Afro Rhythm and Drum class could change my life, so I signed up for ten sessions at a studio on Ninth Street. Once a week I skip around a huge drum, slapping, thumping, and shouting Oh Yeah and Unh Ahh in harmony with my fellow dancers. 

But I still think about Ralph everyday, often at unexpected, odd times. Caught off guard, I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and wait for the moment to pass.  

I went to the San Francisco Ballet, (Program 2), the Julia Morgan Center, (Word for Word’s Strangers We Know), and the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone). At the Paramount I saw the Oakland East Bay Symphony perform Black Suit Blues, the “Prelude” and “Liebestod” from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Schubert’s Symphony Number 9 in C Major. I recently saw The Tubes sing at The Independent, but I wouldn’t recommend it. 

One Sunday I sat on a folding chair at the East Bay Church of Religious Science and listened to a service that involved fish, bread, miracles, and resurrection. I was encouraged to forgive and love myself, which I did.  

I bike to Ironworks fitness center and take classes in abdominal conditioning, core strengthening, sports training, palates and yoga (Hatha Flow, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Iyengar, and Power). I plant bulbs, pull weeds, meet friends for coffee, lunch, and dinner. I swim hundreds of laps at Temescal Pool, hike up and down Claremont Canyon, think about getting a job, a pet, and a new attitude.  

I’ve experimented with different forms of meditation, prescription drugs, and deep breathing exercises.  

I’ve baked cookies and muffins, cupcakes and brownies. I’ve mended holes in socks and reattached buttons. I’ve pruned back the bushes and vines, sharpened the scissors and knives, changed light bulbs, and replaced the rubber washer inside the leaky kitchen faucet.  

But the house still feels cold and empty, despite filling it with music, flowers, friends, and a rebellious teenager. 

“Give it time,” advise relatives, the Yoga teachers, and the preacher at the East Bay Church of Religious Science. “Take another walk, attend another class, breathe deeply, stretch fully, stand up straight, roller blade carefully, pedal mindfully, beat the drum softly.” And so I do.  

Talk about your misperceptions: for years, I thought the California towhees in my yard were having boundary issues. Two towhees would fly toward each other, one or both uttering a loud squealing call that was nothing like their normal “chip” or “tsip.” It sure sounded like fighting words. The towhees would appear to confront each other with fluffed-out feathers. Then they’d break off and go back to scuffling through the leaf litter for bugs. 

But it turns out this was not an exchange of invective but a duet performed by a mated pair: the towhee equivalent of “Oh June, I’m home!” “In here, Ward!” The California towhee and its close relatives, the Abert’s towhee and canyon towhee, are among the few known duetting North American birds (others include the wrentit, pygmy nuthatch, and northern cardinal.) 

If you have an older field guide, you may still think of this bird as the brown towhee. That name was discarded in the 1990s when biologists discovered that the two populations included in the species—one coastal, one interior—were not each other’s closest relatives. Coastal brown towhees became California towhees; interior ones, canyon towhees. The two forms look different, behave differently, don’t hybridize, and in short seem to be distinct species (except for that odd population in southern Baja California; but let’s not get started on that). 

Anyway, North America is poor in duetting birds, compared with the New World tropics, Africa, and Australia. Some of the tropical duetters’ performances are remarkable exercises in vocal coordination, sounding like a single bird’s performance. Our towhees don’t carry it that far: their squeal duets overlap rather than synchronize. 

Just why birds do this has been a matter of some debate. UC-Berkeley graduate student Lauryn Benedict, whose dissertation work involves California towhee vocalizations, says there are a number of competing hypotheses. Duets used to be explained as a way of reinforcing the pair bond: “making the mate happy.” But a less anthropomorphic view would look at the costs and benefits of the behavior for each member of the pair. 

What we know, thanks to earlier studies by Charles Quaintance and Joe T. Marshall, Jr., is that California towhees are sedentary birds that appear to pair for life. Benedict says several of the pairs she observes at UC’s Hastings Reservation in the Carmel Valley have been together for the length of her five-year study. Their vocalizations have been well documented, although it’s still not clear whether they’re learned, as in Luis Baptista’s famous white-crowned sparrows, or innate. 

In some other birds, song duets have been interpreted as mate surveillance—the male making sure of his mate’s whereabouts at all times, so she can’t get together with any rivals who may be lurking around the territory. If this works, the male would not wind up helping rear nestlings sired by someone else. “All the other duetting species that have had their genetics done have been genetically monogamous as well as socially monogamous,” Benedict says. Her data on towhee genetics are awaiting publication, so she couldn’t discuss her findings. 

The California towhee’s regular “chip” seems to function effectively enough as a contact/location call, though. A couple of years back a towhee got into our house through the open back door. It flew from room to room as if looking for an exit, chipping all the while. Meanwhile a second towhee, presumably the mate of the first, was chipping outside. The inside bird appeared to follow the outside bird’s chips into the bathroom and out the window into the plum tree where its partner had been calling. 

Or what seems like cooperative behavior may really reflect a conflict between mates. “Maybe,” says Benedict, “the female sings and then the male sings on top of her song to signal that she already has a mate.” But the squeal duet is very different from the male towhee’s mate-attracting song, which is basically a sequence of chips. (He sings until he finds a mate, then shuts up for the rest of the season. Instead of territorial song, he makes a pre-dawn circuit of the perimeter of his domain, chipping away. Territorial males will also attack their reflections in windows, hubcaps, or bumpers.) 

Duets may also signal the strength of a towhee’s commitment to its mate, or its general health and fitness—although the latter seems less likely for towhees then for the part-singing tropical birds. They may be a way for mates to coordinate their behavior: feeding their chicks or defending their territory. In territorial conflicts, two duetting birds can produce a stronger signal than one (and duets sometimes occur during clashes between neighboring pairs). 

“When they duet, they always approach each other,” Benedict continues. “They do seem to be signaling something to each other.” 

When her articles, now under review by The Auk and other journals, see print, we’ll have a better idea of what it’s all about. Stay tuned! 

Photograph by Ron Story. 

A California towhee, the bird formerly known as the brown towhee.

FRIDAY, FEB. 16 

CHILDREN 

Dan Chan the Magic Man at 10:30 a.m. at Berkeley Public Library, South Branch, 1901 Russell St. 981-6260. 

EXHIBITIONS 

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 

“CelebratingOur Own” an exhibition preview from noon to 6 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 154th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

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 

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. 

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 “Triumph” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $10. 652-2120. 

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 

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. 

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 

Travelling Jewish Theater, “Rose” at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Asby Ave., through Feb. 25. For ticket information call 415-522-0786. 

FILM 

The Lubitsch Touch “Heaven Can Wait” at 7 p.m. and “Cluny Brown” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Youth Speaks’ 11th Teen Poetry Slam, preliminary round at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Wild About Birds” Artist talk with Rita Sklar at 2 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. www.ritasklar.com 

William Poy Lee describes “The Eighth Promise: An American Son’s Tribute to His Toisanese Mother” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Laurel Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 848-1228. giorgigallery.com 

Brazilian Friends in Concert at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-1350.  

Simon Shaheen & Qantara, fiddle and oud, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-9988.  

Walter Savage Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Frankie Manning and Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Lecture with Frankie Manning at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Bittersweets, Americana, rock, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Kat Parra Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

A.J. Roach and Kate Isenberg at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

John Richardson Band, Amy Lou’s Blues, Captain Mike & the Sea Kings at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Wes Robinson Tribute with Fang, Verbal Abuse, Mad at Sam at 8:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. All ages. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Kirtan: Jai Uttal at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Tickets are $16-$18. 843-2787. 

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

The Girlfriend Experience, Wire Graffiti, Machine Green at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Yoshida Brothers, shamisen, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 17 

CHILDREN  

“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. 

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

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Art of Living Black” Artists’ talk at 2 p.m. Richmond Art Center, at 2540 Barrett Ave., entrance at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

Michael Howerton “Portraits” Artist reception at 2 pm. at Chachie’s Coffee Shop, 1768 Broadway at 19th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs though Feb. 28. www.howertonphoto. 

blogspot.com 

“Celebrating Our Own” a reception and artist forum at 6 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 154th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

“Passengers” Paintings by Martin Webb opens at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, Unit #116, Oakland. 535-1702. 

FILM 

A Theater Near You “Satantango” at 1 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Amiri Baraka and Ngugi wa Thiango in conversation at 7 p.m. at the Third World Book Fair, Eastside Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd. www.eastsideartsalliance.com 

Robert Johnson will talk about his book “Wake Up Black America” at 2 p.m. at Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kensington Symphony at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Suggested donation $12-$15. 524-9912. 

The Galax Quartet “Consort Songs, Old and New” the music of John Dowland and Roy Whelden at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

The Ravines at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

The Dave Matthews BLUES Band at 8 p.m. at the Warehouse Bar, 4th and Webster, Oakland. 451-3161. 

Chick Corea, piano, with Gary Burton, vibraphone, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$52. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lua Hadar and Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Stop the Malarky, Broken Paradise, A Class Act at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Ajaia Suri and Vanessa Lowe at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Pipers “Tional” Concert, bagpipers, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Unleashed, Krisiun, Belphegor at 9 p.m. at The Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $20. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Tribute to James Brown at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Eddie Marshall Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Megan McLaughlin, folk, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Sun House, Pockit at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Yoshida Brothers, shamisen, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, FEB. 18 

CHILDREN 

Lunar New Year Celebration Year of the Pig Activities and performances for the whole family from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. 238-2200. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“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 

African Film Festival “Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Diablo Ballet “The Tale of Cinderella” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26. 642-9988.  

“ Jazz at the Chimes” with Brazilian Duo vocalist Claudia Villela and guitarist Ricardo Peixoto at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. Tickets are $20. 228-3218. 

Sanford Dole Ensemble “O Shout with Gladness: The Vocal Quintet Then and Now” at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20. 845-6830. 

Seth Montfort and Thomas Penders, piano, at 5:30 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228. 

Dana Bauer CD release party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Duct Tape Mafia, The Rage, Hijinks, Silhouette and Secret Cat in a benefit for the Camp Winnarainbow scholarship fund, at 7 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. All ages. TIckets are $8. www.future-builders.org  

Stephanie Crawford at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The True School Hip Hop Family Reunion at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Samite at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Yoshida Brothers, shamisen, at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, FEB. 19 

THEATER 

Shakespeare Intensive “King John” 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. 

PlayGround Six emerging playwrights debut new works at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.Tickets are $18. 415-704-3177. 

Cole Swenson and Norma Cole, poets at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Tom Odegard and Da Boogie Man at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Pickpocket Ensemble” world folk and instrumental traditions, from Eastern European and Balkan, to Klezmer, to North African and Mediterranean, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Blue Monday Jam at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

San Francisco Brass Quintet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Don Byron Plays Junior Walker at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, FEB. 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“What Becomes of a Broken Soul” Letters from Prison, America’s New Plantations. Exhibition opening at noon at the African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

FILM 

Alternative Visions “v.o.” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“P’ungmul: South Korean Drumming and Dance” with author Nathan Hesselink a 4 p.m. at IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Flr. 642-2809. 

Vincent Katz and Cedar Sigo read at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jean Davison, anthropologist, discusses “The Ostrich Wakes: Struggles for Change in Highland Kenya” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Paul Barrett on “American Islam, The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mardi Gras Celebration with The Joyfull Noise Brass Band and Blue Roots at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Line dance lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $12. 525-5054. 

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $5.841-JAZZ.  

Beppe Gambetta with David Grisman at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

Rebecca Griffin at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Don Byron Plays Junior Walker at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 21 

FILM 

“Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” on the anti-Nazi White Rose student movement, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Gary Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

History of Cinema “Singin’ in the Rain” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Roger Rappoport shows film footage and talks about his biography of Michael Moore “Citizen Moore” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Floyd Salas and Reginald Lockett read at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Bich Minh Nguyen describes growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant in America’s heartland in “Stealing Buddha’s Dinner” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

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  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Music for the Spirit Music celebrating African-American composers at 12:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway. 444-3555. 

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

Terrence Brewer Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Charley Baker, guitar, at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. 

Mickie Lee and Amber at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

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

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

THURSDAY, FEB. 22 

CHILDREN 

“We Are Africa and Africa Is Us” with storyteller Marijo at 10 and 11:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. 238-2000. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Flight Out of Time” Exhibition of contemporary prints by Barbara Foster, Jimin Lee and Tadayoshi Nakabayashi. Reception ofr the artists at 6 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. to March 17. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

“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. 

“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. 

“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. 

“Street Portraiture” Photographs by Tom Stone at The LightRoom Gallery, 2263 Fifth St., through Feb. 28. 649-8111. 

“Obsession” Works of Fire and Passion Group Show at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave., and runs to March 3. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

Paintings by Allan Reynolds at the Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 3rfd flr., 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibition runs through March. 817-5773. 

“Art of Living Black” at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through March 16. 620-6772. www.richmondartcenter.org 

“African Art” by Okaybabs, Yinka Adeyemi, Adeyinka Fashokun, honoring Black History Month at the LuchStop Cafe, Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth St., Oakland. Exhibit runs to March 30. 817-5773. 

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 

“The Other Side of the Mirror” Stories written and performed by Lynn Ruth Miller at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza Parlor, 3290 Adeline. For all ages. Tickets are $10 at the door. 558-0881. 

FILM 

Film Series with David Thomson “Bonnie and Clyde” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alex Espinoza reads from his novel “Still Water Saints” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Nona Caspers, Toni Milsevich and Barbara Tomash read from their new short stories at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“The Forsythe Company” the West Coast premiere of the ballet “Three Atmospheric Studies” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$58. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Aux Cajunals, Cajun music, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Mamadou & Vanessa, Mali blues, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Angry John, Dead Ringers, Isabellas at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com  

Headnodic & Raashan Ahmad at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5. 548-1159.  

Buck Shot Boays, Jack Spade Band, Stigmata 13 at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is TBA. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com

THE ART OF LIVING BLACK ARTISTS’ TALK 

The Art of Living Black, the only Bay Area event that exclusively features the work of local black artists in an exhibition and art tour, will host an artists’ talk at the Richmond Art Center on Saturday at 2 p.m. TAOLB 2007 features over 90 emerging and established artists who participate in a group exhibition (through March 16) at the Richmond Art Center. Additional work is featured by the 2006 Jan Hart-Schuyers Artistic Achievement Award recipients: Aaron Carter, Patricia Patterson and Roosevelt Washington. A Self-Guided Art Tour takes place Saturday-Sunday, March 3-4, where participating artists will display and invite the public to visit their studios at various locations throughout the Bay Area. The Richmond Art Center 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. Tue.-Sat. noon-5 p.m. For more information call 620-6772. 

DIABLO BALLET AT THE ZELLERBACH 

Diablo Ballet present the world premier of Nikolai Kabaniaev’s The Tale of Cinderella, a one act ballet based on Perrault’s fairy tale and set to a score by Sergei Prokofiev, Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley on Sunday at 8 p.m. Completing the program will be Viktor Kabaniaev’s abstract Opus for a Table. To purchase tickets call 642-9988. www.diabloballet.org. 

TRAVELING JEWISH THEATER 

Traveling Jewish Theater presents Rose at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Feb 25. For tickets and information, call (415) 522-0786.

In Shopping for God, her solo piece now playing at The Marsh-Berkeley in the Gaia Building, Erica Lann Clark, an accomplished storyteller with a distinctive stage presence, seems at first to cover familiar territory, albeit in her own, humorously idiosyncratic, sketchy way. But once she gets down to brass tacks, what she has to say—and act out—is much more than just another autobiographical story. The shopping is over. Or has it just begun? 

Taking the stage with a funny panache, engaging the audience members as if they were at once her fans, yet guests in her home or old friends met by chance (”Darling, you look so much better than last time!”), Lann Clark finally declares, “Let me put my cards on the table. I’d like to say I’m an atheist ... but you have to commit!” 

What follows is pleasantly rambling sketch material, studded with some of the info necessary as backstory for later theatrics. Lann Clark’s parents were atheist Jews (though with a mystic for grandfather) from Vienna, who fled all over the map after the Anschluss, ending up in Brooklyn, some relatives in tow, but others left behind who perished in transport or the camps. 

Lann Clark spiels out her pre-New Age searching for the Truth, through Methodism, Quakerism—then pulling out “the big gun” and giving Orthodox Judaism a try. “I got hipped by a rabbi from Fresno that the man’s prayer thanking God for not making him a woman was really just thanking Him for ‘making me a man’!” “Shopping, shopping, shopping--I really tried (If all goes well with this show, I will be an Equal Opportunity Offender!”) Her commentary on the various creeds is tart: “Catholics--they do social causes good ... but, the pot lucks?” She was “driven to the East,” then “I did Carlos Castenada!” and became a “wannabe Cherokee who spoke a couple of words of Lakota ... I chanted and panted, tranced and danced ...” 

The off-the-cuff type sketch material gives way to her description of her special relationship with her older cousin; they’re Marsha and Ricky to each other, close-knit—”You know what it is to be everything to each other: there’s always something!”—until Ricky accuses Marsha of being a Republican over her stated regret that life isn’t more sedate, controlled. 

“I have enough abiding sense of tragedy to tide me over recurrent bouts of joy,” Erica says. She finds herself, once again, going out into the world to prove herself to her beloved cousin--who remains unimpressed and incommunicado. 

This is the set-up for the truly theatric event of the evening, Lann Clark’s excruciating (both funny and painful) acting-out of her at first reluctant adherence--with the help of some liberally applied guilty snake oil by the “facilitator”—to a Holocast survivor/children of Nazis Reconciliation Group. Acting out in every way (”I become the Immaculate Victim!”), Ricky’s ethnic primal scream has her confronting a tall, leggy German immigrant actress (”she was just here to get some schtick for an audition!”) to a Mercedes dealer, demanding a test ride. The group leader eggs her on: “He says I’m a born emotional leader, and he wants to train me!” It’s a funny, savvy turn that, ultimately, brings her to a different sort of understanding than she expected when Marsha breaks the deadlock, explains her view of their relationship (and her own diffidence)—and then, in true reconciliation, they go shopping. “When we go shopping, Marsha and I, it’s a spiritual event. We don’t care if we buy a thing!” she says. 

Lann Clark accomplishes much of what a good solo show’s supposed to do: show you the life of another from the inside out, bringing about some kind of realization. And she makes it funny as well as engrossing. There’s a strikingly spare use of music-bytes that puts many a mainstage show to shame. David Ford has directed her with taste though not eliminating that contradictory sense that some of the opening—and very amusing—sketch-type material was there just to flesh out the show. 

This will be the last show, at least for a while, of The Marsh in Berkeley. Stephanie Weissman, Marsh founder, announced with regret that she’s been asked to stop programming at the Gaia Building until further notice, cutting out an anticipated extension of Shopping for God.  

“We hope the Gaia Building will still be our home in Berkeley,” Weissman said. It’s a shame that conflicts in scheduling have forced The Marsh into this position. It’s a perfect addition to the entertainment scene downtown, with early, no-fuss shows that fulfill a good deal of what more formal theatrical and nightlife venues often strive in vain to deliver. 

Shopping for God 

Thurs.-Sat. 7 p.m. 

The Marsh-Berkeley, 2120 Allston Way 

through March 3  

Tickets $15-$22 

(800) 838-5750, www.themarsh.org

I met a very nice fellow today. A composer. Funny how homeowners end up being something other than just … homeowners. Neat guy, writes music for films, TV, industrials (corporate film) and the like. He also had the composure of musician, smooth and philosophical. Good thing for all those involved in selling him this house because let me tell you, he had some pain and it would be very easy to acrimonious with this particular type.  

Seems the guy just bought a house way up in the hills. Must have cost a wee bit too. Very stylish, loads of room, views to-die-for and all those things that conspire to create the oh so modern manse. I near expected to see Hef and some bunnies lounging before the fireplace. 

About a day after he moves into the house, there’s a bit of rain and he starts to notice paint sheets scrunching up on the wall downstairs from the entryway. Next, water starts dripping through the ceiling. Oh my! It’s not supposed to rain inside the house. Well, he started by doing the right thing and removing some of the sheetrock from where the water was dribbling in. This does two things, it makes it possible to examine the area where the leak is occurring but also helps to lower the atmospheric moisture level in the space, thus decreasing the growth of funguses that eat wood and all the pulpy stuff we building houses with these days. 

After a short while we found the leak. Funny, it was inside the door. They’d looked for several hours and ran hoses all over the place and couldn’t get it to leak but we inspectors have the magic of hindsight working for us and I’ve seen my share of leaks that first required water to blow under the door to begin their soppy work. We both did the happy dance (his being more subtle and artist-like than mine). 

Now as fun as all of this stuff is, it’s not what I want to talk about. It’s the porch itself. It wasn’t what he had me over about but when I walked down to the front door, my face nearly turned white. The front door was at the bottom of a set of about 5 or six steps and had walls all around, except for the front door, which for purposes of full disclosure, I will refer to as “the drain.” 

Now, there was a drain in this swimming pool of an entryway but it was small and half clogged with caulk and a bunch of other stuff I couldn’t identify. When the dog drops his gooey tennis ball and it rolls into the unscreened drain (that’s where drains are, you know, at the bottom of the incline, just waiting for the ball) the next rain fall is going to be able to put 4’ of water right against the doorway (glug, glug). Not to worry. The door doesn’t hold water all that well. It will just drain right into the house until you get back from Maui all tanned and relaxed. 

This particular house was virtually all downstairs from the front entry door. One of those hillside beauties where you park on top and walk down to the living room and down some more to the bedroom (glug, glug, glug). Oh my G-d. Now don’t get me wrong. It had not happened but hey, misery lies in wait just around the corner, does it not? So here’s what I had to say to our friend, the musician. Please, oh please, add a “secondary drain.” OK, it’s not the only thing I recommended but it was the absolute number one. The porch will, sadly, have to be replaced due to the damage caused at the doorway.  

The plywood was rotting away and this extended back toward the exterior porch quite some distance.  

Therefore, the porch was going to have to be ripped up and replaced anyway; so my strong advice to him was to install a secondary drain when he put the porch back together. Now what is a secondary drain? Is it just another drain? No, it’s different in a couple of respects but to answer the question, let’s get up on your flat roof. If you have a flat roof with some short (or not so short) walls, called parapets, around the edge, you have a …. swimming pool, just like our friend’s entryway.  

I see these all the time and you may well have one. They’re everywhere. The code books demand (and good builders provide) secondary drains on these roofs. First, they’re elevated somewhat above the main drain. This often means that they are up on the parapet wall a few inches above the drain in the roof surface or the “scupper” in the bottom of the parapet wall.  

This placement means two thing. First it means that nothing is going to readily clog this drain because it’s not on the roof (or porch?) surface. Things can’t fall into a hole that’s up on a wall. It also means that it will be clear and unused until that fateful day when the main drain clogs and the swimming pool starts to fill. 

Secondary drains should NOT have downspouts 

When we put these life-savers in, we should not use a downspout. This may sound odd but there’s a really good reason for it. When the secondary drain starts to discharge, it means that something is very wrong and we don’t want it going about its business in a nice quiet friendly way. We want it to splash on your neighbors house or to knock your trash can lid off onto the cat. It should announce itself. Although I’ve never seen it, every secondary drain should have a set of wind chimes dangling from the spout just to broaden the effect. You want to take notice and get up there and clear drain number one as soon as you can because flat roofs with parapet walls can hold hundred (or even thousands) of gallons when the drains clog up. 

So, that’s what I would like our musical fellow to have. A porch with a drain and one more for good measure. That secondary drain could easily prevent $100,000 worth of damage if the surfing junket goes on long enough. 

There’s another message embedded in this experience that’s a little harder to see but just as vital and this is that looking at houses is a tricky business. If you have a list of things to check, it’s easy to miss the forest. Sometimes you need to back up, cross the street and just stare at the thing until it hits you. I never know what it’s going to be but if I slow down a little it’s often there. There are no books for this stuff but my clever clients often pick them out without any building education at all. So when you’re looking at your house or a new house or a friend’s house. Take a minute, sit down and look and you might just find yourself turning white and saying “Oh my G-d!” 

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

FRIDAY, FEB. 16 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

“The Untold Story Of Emmett Lois Till” A documentary by Keith A. Beauchamp at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Discussion with Rosemary Patton follows the screening. Donation $10. 528-5403. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Susan Fisher on “Human Embryonic Stem Cells.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Manga and Anime Club for Tweens and Teens meets at 3:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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.  

SATURDAY, FEB. 17 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets to discuss neighborhood and citywide issues at 9:30 a.m. in the Sproul Conference Room, St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave.  

Black History Month Community Celebration “Making the Connection: To Family, History, Purpose” with entertainment, presentations, and a soul food meal, from 2 to 6:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 981-5218. 

Animal Amore Day Learn all about animal love and ask the questions you’ve been afraid to ask, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Oakland Zoo, 9777 Golf Links Road, Oakland. Cost is $10-$15. 632-9525. 

Soccer for Youth with Disabilities Information Day from 9 a.m. to noon at Prospect Sierra Middle School, corner of Avis & Moeser, El Cerrito. For information call 301-1747. www.topsoccerleague.org 

“Getting Children Interested in Genealogy” will be discussed at the meeting of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at the Diamond Branch Library, 3565 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland. Anyone interested in genealogy is welcome. www.aagsnc.org  

African-American Feast Celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lake Shore Ave., Oakland. Cost is $20, includes food and entertainment. 653-6055.  

“Are We a Democracy? Vote Counting in the United States” with Steven Freeman, Univ. of PA., Paul Lehto, of Verifiable Democracy, Joshua Mitteldorf, Univ. of AZ, and others, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by Elections Defense Alliance. www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org 

Amiri Baraka and Ngugi wa Thiango in conversation at 7 p.m. at the Third World Book Fair, Eastside Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd. www.eastsideartsalliance.com  

Memorial Celebration for Tillie Olsen at 1 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland.  

Celebrate Black History Month on the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 707 W. Hornet Ave., Pier 3, Alameda. Admission is $14 adults, $6 for children, $20 for a family of four. www.hornetevents.com 

“Treads ‘N’ Tracks” Animals we don’t see leave behind clues of where they have been, and where they are going. We’ll search for tracks, then make some of our own to take home. At 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Kids Garden Club We plant, harvest, build, make crafts, cook and get dirty! For ages 6-9 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. 636-1684. 

Open House and Volunteer Opportunity at Gateway Park in El Cerrito Learn about the ongoing restoration activities and the Baxter Creek Watershed Stewards, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Dress to participate in weeding and planting activities. The Gateway site is located on the right-hand side of Key Blvd. at the end of the Ohlone Greenway, a 5-minute walk north from the El Cerrito Del Norte BART. 665-3686.  

The Last Drag Berkeley Free LGBT Quit Smoking Class begins at 10 a.m. at The Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. and runs for six Sat. and one Sun. to register call 981-5330. 

Valentine Crab Fest & Dance at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Dinner seatings at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $10-$50. 526-3805.  

California Writers Club meets to discuss crime and ethics at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Remodeling Free class on lead safe renovations for older homes, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Temescal Branch Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 567-8280.  

SUNDAY, FEB. 18 

Huey P. Newton Birthday Commemoration from 2 to 5:30 p.m. at Black Repertory, 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $10. 652-2120. 

Open Garden at Tilden Park 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. Heavy rain cancels. 636-1684. 

Newt Hunt Every winter, newts return to our freshwater ponds to breed. Catch a glimpse of the incredible mating behavior of newts, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 636-1684. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, on Telegraph Ave. between Derby & Stuart. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. 

Mental Health Workshop and Training on Trauma with Will Hall, at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

“Duality and Non-Duality; Salvation in Abrahamaic Traditions” with Alex Pappas at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 535-0302, ext. 306.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “Tibetan New Years: Culture and Tradition” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, FEB. 19 

“More Than Your Standard Garden” A workshop on creating a school garden as an outdoor classroom for science, math, or language arts. Learn how to develop standards-based lesson plans and link existing activities to California Content Standards, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Watershed Project, 1327 S 46th St. Bldg. #155, Richmond. Cost is $25, scholarships available. 665-3430. www.thewatershedproject.org 

“Creating An Ecological House” A seminar with Skip Wenz on modeling houses on ecosystems, natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $85. 525-7610. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, FEB. 20 

The Berkeley Garden Club meets at 2 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. The topic will be “National Trust Gardens of England” presented by Carole Austin. 845-4482. 

Woodfin Town Hall Meeting in support of immigrant and worker rights at 7 p.m at Emeryville Senior Center, 4321 Salem St., Emeryville. 893-7106, ext. 27. www.democracyinaction.org 

“Hiking the Pacific Coast Trail” A slide show with Scott Williamson at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Animal Communication Consultations from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at RabbitEars, 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. For appointment call 525-6255. 

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. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Discussion Salon on Changing Religion at 7 p.m. at JCC, 1414 Walnut.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 21 

Cynthia McKinney, Voting Rights and the American Blackout with at screening of the documentary 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theatre, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland Tickets are $12-$15 at independent bookstores. 415-255-7296 ext. 253. www.globalexchange.org/ 

mckinneyevent 

A Plan for North Shattuck? Contribute ideas on what, if anything, should change on N. Shattuck at 7:30 p.m. at Live Oak Park Recreation Center. Sponsored by the Live Oak Coordinices Creek Neighborhood Association.  

Teach-In and Vigil Against American Torture every Wed. at noon at Boalt Hall, Bancroft Way at College Ave.  

Robert Reich on “The Four Narratives of American Public Life” at 5 p.m. in Room 315, Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. 

“Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” a film on the anti-Nazi White Rose student movement, at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Gary Panthers, 1403 Addison St. 548-9696. 

“Contemplation and Education” a conversation on the contemplative practice in different religions at 7 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

“Terrestrial Laser Scanning in Landscape Architecture” with Toby Minear at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall, 315A, UC Campus. http://laep.ced.berkeley.edu/ 

events/colloquium 

Albany Library Evening Book Club meets to discuss “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri at 7 p.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, FEB. 22 

“Preserving the Past and Embracing the Future” with Byron C. Williams in celebration of Black History Month at 6 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Services Center, 1730 Oregon St. 981-5158. 

“Sankofa” A celebration in honor of Black History Month at 6:30 p.m. at the Frances Albrier Community Center, 2800 Park St. 981-5158. 

“Seafood Watch” Learn about the status of the oceans and how you can make sustainable seafood choices, at 5 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, in Tilden Park. Registration required. 636-1684. www.ebparks.org 

“Insects Make the Green World Go Round” A presentation on conserving invertebrate biodiversity with entomologist Leslie Saul-Gershenz and special insect guests at 7 p.m. at the Oakland Zoo, 9777 Golf Links Rd., in Knowland Park, Oakland. Suggested donation $12-$20. 632-9525 ext.122. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Setting the Table for Impeachment Panel discussion with Larry Everest and Dr. Peter Phillips and screening of “High Crimes” by Jacob Clapsadle at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-4154. www.impeachbush-cheney.com 

Berkeley School Volunteers Training workshop for volunteers interested in helping the public schools, from noon to 1 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. 644-8833. 

“Sacred Hospitality between the Religions” a lecture by Fr. Pierre-François de Béthune at 7:30 p.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. Free. 848-9788.  

Family Story Time for children ages 3-7 at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, 1170 The Alameda, at Hopkins. 981-6107. 

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 call 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 

Fast Pitch Softball for Girls ages 10-12 with Bears Softball Association. For information call 748-0611. www.berkeleybearssoftball.com  

CITY MEETINGS 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Feb. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed. Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Homeless Commission meets Wed., Feb. 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5426.  

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6195.  

Mental Health Commission meets Thurs., Feb. 22, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213. 

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets with the Transportation and Planning Commissions Thurs., Feb. 22, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. Iris Starr, 981-7520.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., Feb. 22, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.

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. Tickets are $65. 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.  

“Baroque Masterworks for Recorder & Viola da Gamba” at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bancroft at Ellsworth. TIckets are $18-$22. 848-5591. 

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 

FRIDAY, FEB. 16 

EXHIBITIONS 

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 

“CelebratingOur Own” an exhibition preview from noon to 6 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

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 

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. 

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 “Triumph” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $10. 652-2120. 

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 

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. 

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 

Travelling Jewish Theater, “Rose” at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Asby Ave., through Feb. 25. For ticket information call 415-522-0786. 

FILM 

The Lubitsch Touch “Heaven Can Wait” at 7 p.m. and “Cluny Brown” at 9:15 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Youth Speaks’ 11th Teen Poetry Slam, preliminary round at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $3-$5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Wild About Birds” Artist talk with Rita Sklar at 2 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave., Albany. www.ritasklar.com 

William Poy Lee describes “The Eighth Promise: An American Son’s Tribute to His Toisanese Mother” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Laurel Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 848-1228. giorgigallery.com 

Brazilian Friends in Concert at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-1350.  

Simon Shaheen & Qantara, fiddle and oud, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$32. 642-9988.  

Walter Savage Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Frankie Manning and Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Lecture with Frankie Manning at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Bittersweets, Americana, rock, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Kat Parra Quartet at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

A.J. Roach and Kate Isenberg at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

John Richardson Band, Amy Lou’s Blues, Captain Mike & the Sea Kings at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Wes Robinson Tribute with Fang, Verbal Abuse, Mad at Sam at 8:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. All ages. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Kirtan: Jai Uttal at 8 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St. Tickets are $16-$18. 843-2787. 

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

The Girlfriend Experience, Wire Graffiti, Machine Green at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Yoshida Brothers, shamisen, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, FEB. 17 

CHILDREN  

“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. 

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

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Art of Living Black” Artists’ talk at 2 p.m. Richmond Art Center, at 2540 Barrett Ave., entrance at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

Michael Howerton “Portraits” Artist reception at 2 pm. at Chachie’s Coffee Shop, 1768 Broadway at 19th St., Oakland. Exhibition runs though Feb. 28. www.howertonphoto. 

blogspot.com 

“Celebrating Our Own” a reception and artist forum at 6 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 154th St., Oakland. 637-0200. 

“Passengers” Paintings by Martin Webb opens at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, Unit #116, Oakland. 535-1702. 

FILM 

A Theater Near You “Satantango” at 1 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Amiri Baraka and Ngugi wa Thiango in conversation at 7 p.m. at the Third World Book Fair, Eastside Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd. www.eastsideartsalliance.com 

Robert Johnson will talk about his book “Wake Up Black America” at 2 p.m. at Rockridge Branch of the Oakland Public Library, 5366 College Ave. 597-5017. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kensington Symphony at 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. Suggested donation $12-$15. 524-9912. 

The Galax Quartet “Consort Songs, Old and New” the music of John Dowland and Roy Whelden at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$25. 528-1725. www.sfems.org 

The Ravines at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

The Dave Matthews BLUES Band at 8 p.m. at the Warehouse Bar, 4th and Webster, Oakland. 451-3161. 

Chick Corea, piano, with Gary Burton, vibraphone, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $30-$52. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

De Rompe y Raja, Afro-Peruvian, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Lua Hadar and Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Stop the Malarky, Broken Paradise, A Class Act at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Ajaia Suri and Vanessa Lowe at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Pipers “Tional” Concert, bagpipers, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Unleashed, Krisiun, Belphegor at 9 p.m. at The Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $20. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Tribute to James Brown at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Eddie Marshall Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Megan McLaughlin, folk, at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Sun House, Pockit at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. All ages show. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Yoshida Brothers, shamisen, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, FEB. 18 

CHILDREN 

Lunar New Year Celebration Year of the Pig Activities and performances for the whole family from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St. 238-2200. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“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 

African Film Festival “Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $4-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Diablo Ballet “The Tale of Cinderella” at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $26. 642-9988.  

Brazilian Duo vocalist Claudia Villela and guitarist Ricardo Peixoto at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. Tickets are $20. 228-3218. 

Sanford Dole Ensemble “O Shout with Gladness: The Vocal Quintet Then and Now” at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20. 845-6830. 

Seth Montfort and Thomas Penders, piano, at 5:30 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. 848-1228. 

Dana Bauer CD release party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Duct Tape Mafia, The Rage, Hijinks, Silhouette and Secret Cat in a benefit for the Camp Winnarainbow scholarship fund, at 7 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway, Oakland. All ages. Tickets are $8. www.future-builders.org  

Stephanie Crawford at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The True School Hip Hop Family Reunion at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Samite at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Yoshida Brothers, shamisen, at 7 and 9 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

MONDAY, FEB. 19 

THEATER 

Shakespeare Intensive “King John” 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. 

PlayGround Six emerging playwrights debut new works at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St.Tickets are $18. 415-704-3177. 

Cole Swenson and Norma Cole, poets at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Tom Odegard and Da Boogie Man at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Pickpocket Ensemble” world folk and instrumental traditions, from Eastern European and Balkan, to Klezmer, to NorthAfrican and Mediterranean, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Trovatore, traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Blue Monday Jam at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

San Francisco Brass Quintet at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Don Byron Plays Junior Walker at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

International Bookfair 

Fine Press, Artists’ Books and Fine Art Editions presents the Codex International Bookfair, Feb. 14-15, at UC Berkeley. The fair, a gathering of fine private presses, book artists and artisans, curators, collectors and scholars, showcases contemporary artists’ books, fine press and fine art editions, bibliophile organizations, bookbinders, hand papermakers, booksellers and programs in the book arts. Noon-6 p.m. at ASUC Pauley Ballroom, Telegraph Ave. and Bancroft Way. Tickets $5-15. For more information, www.codexfoundation.org. 

‘Buffalo Soldiers’ 

Level 9 Enterprises presents Buffalo Soldiers, A Tale Lost ..., which tells the story of the lives, struggles and conflicts of the Negro cavalry, army officials and Indian warriors, while a lone soldier risks his life to convince his comrades that fighting in a war where there are no victors is wrong. Julia Morgan Center of the Arts, 2940 College Ave., Feb. 15-17, 8 p.m. Tickets $15-$30. For more information, (925) 798-1300 or www.buffalosoldiersplay.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 is showing at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave. in Berkeley. 

421-1255. www.altagalleria.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.

Conductor Nicole Paiement and Ensemble Parallèle present the world premiere of Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Feb. 16 and 17. 

This opera is about the coming of age of Julius Caesar, of his travels east to the kingdom of Bithynia and his love affair with King Nicomedes—all traced out in Harrison’s interweaving of eastern and western musical modes, a blending characteristic of this composer.  

Harrison, who died in 2003, was always reexamining his work—altering, revising and refining it. Young Caesar was no exception and the coming production will be the third and final version of this complex opera. 

Part of Paiement’s challenge in mounting the opera was to resolve its many difficulties. She was blessed in that task by being able to work in close collaboration with Harrison during his final years. Paiement had been Harrison’s favored conductor since the early 1990s and he wrote of her: “Her sense of the telling detail is acute; and although she is physically short and slight, she wields big music.”  

Young Caesar premiered in 1971 as a puppet opera, written for five vocalists, narrator and five instrumentalists playing a variety of instruments including ones designed and built by Harrison and his longtime partner Bill Colvig. The three-foot-tall puppets played in front of an unwinding panoramic scroll that gave the impression of movement through the long journeys described in the opera.  

The opera was not well received and Paiement said that Harrison felt that the puppets had not been able to express the necessary emotional range. It is, after all, a drama about the passions of men who rule the world.  

Harrison rescored the opera for standard western orchestra for the second version performed in Portland, Ore., in 1988. He added soloists and a male chorus. Again, there were problems. This time with the libretto. 

San Francisco playwright Robert Gordon had written the two-act, 14-scene text as a historically accurate treatment of Caesar’s youth. But his text was primarily narration rather than dialogue or poems suitable for song. Critics complained that it was repetitive. 

In response to the criticism, Harrison added a group of lyrical arias. And in 2000 the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center agreed to stage a third version of the opera with Mark Morris as director. Morris, however, wanted to cut more of the narrative, and a series of misunderstandings followed that resulted in the project’s cancellation.  

Nicole Paiement was with Harrison when he received the letter from Lincoln Center rejecting the project. She told the disappointed composer: “I will do this.” And from that moment until his death in 2003, they talked about what needed to be done to make the score “right.”  

Paiement also worked closely with Gordon to make the text more suitable for dramatic theater. 

Now, true to her word and in celebration of what would be Harrison’s 90th birthday, Paiement will present the final Young Caesar, one mapped out with Harrison and synthesizing the best features of the previous versions.  

“We’ve replaced the flute part with the original ocarina that Lou made,” said Paiement, smiling. That is only one of the original musical instruments that have been reinstated in the score. Her love of Harrison’s work clearly extends beyond the music on the page.  

The puppets now take the form of the narrator who has become the “puppetmaster,” and the chorus will become like a Greek chorus, commenting on the action.  

The scroll has been transformed into a series of 20’x6’ rolling panels that allow the characters to move easily through the many scene changes of Caesar’s voyage from Rome to Bithynia.  

Stage director Brian Staufenbiel comments that the greatest difficulty in the staging has been to make the scenes move smoothly, so that the journey is “seamless.” 

Staufenbiel directed the award-winning UC Santa Cruz production of Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is aided in his staging of Young Caesar by choreographer and principal dancer, Lawrence Pech. 

The cast includes internationally acclaimed tenor John Duykers singing the narrator, tenor Eleazar Rodriguez singing Caesar, and Adler Fellow Eugene Brancoveanu singing King Nicomedes. The 21-piece orchestra Ensemble Parallèle provides the music.  

The music itself has distilled into an intricate weaving of repeating patterns, much of which is percussive and Asiatic in flavor. The patterns often act as a drone over which floats the singer’s melodic line. Sharp percussive moments are used to punctuate the field of sound. As the action of the story moves from Rome to Bithynia, the music becomes more eastern in mode. 

Spanning the composer’s last 30 years, Young Caesar is a musical diary of Harrison’s capacious musical interests. Although the opera deals with the love between two men of radically different cultures, it is finally about the immense landscape of human desires and emotions.  

Young Caesar 

Nicole Paiement and Ensemble Parallele  

Feb. 16-17, 8 p.m. 

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theatre 

700 Howard St., San Francisco 

$45–60 

For information (415) 978-ARTS (2787). 

Photograph by Eva Soltes 

Conductor Nicole Paiement

TheatreFIRST brings to the stage G. E. Lessing’s masterpiece, Nathan the Wise, the original play of ideas (and of religious and cultural toleration and understanding) in the modern sense at the Old Oakland Theatre in a witty and exhilarating production in Edward Kemp’s illuminating new translation. 

Nathan the Jewish merchant has been called before the sultan Saladin, reputedly a “virtuous infidel,” in Jerusalem. Expecting to be asked for a loan to finance the war against the invading Crusaders, Nathan instead is queried which religion of those of The Book is the true one—after all, he’s traveled widely and thought much, and is revered as The Wise. 

Uncomfortably on the spot, Nathan knows if he denies his own creed, he loses believability and face; if he exalts Judaism, or even Christianity, he might anger the Muslim sultan.  

Instead, he asks if the sultan would like to hear a story. “There’s always time to hear a story, if the storyteller’s good,” says Saladin.  

Nathan spins out the old parable, The Story of the Three Rings, of how a father bequeaths his ring to each of his three sons, who approach a magistrate after his death to settle who possesses the true ring, the true legacy. 

The magistrate’s judicious response is more than Solomonic, for though it demands the most from the litigants, it divides nothing. The sultan is profoundly impressed—and the much-befriended Nathan has acquired yet another friend. 

This vignette, and the Story of the Ring itself, are the jewel set in the midst of a playful, constantly shifting carousel of scenes that pose the same question as the ancient tale, as well as its various corollaries. 

Nathan’s daughter, Rachel, the light of his life, has been raised by a Christian woman. Rescued from a burning house by a Knight Templar—who has been captured, then mysteriously pardoned by Saladin—a budding romance between Rachel and her hero is on and off again, due to the knight’s abrupt moodiness, to tolerant Nathan’s strange balking at the match—and questions over Rachel’s actual lineage. 

In the background, there’s a conspiratorial Christian patriarch, a friar (the patriarch’s go-fer) with a warrior’s past and the sultan’s treasurer, formerly a dervish who played chess by the Ganges. 

The play’s set in the city sacred to all three faiths during a time of war and mistrust. Yet, “welcome to the land of miracles!” it is a utopic Jerusalem, in many ways the heavenly city, where opposition’s mysteriously recounciled, the hidden ways made plain.  

It’s also a comic, even satiric utopia. The manners and mores of all three confessions are hilariously put to the test, though never ridiculed. The dialogue excels in a droll repartee that is nonetheless rich in thoughtful implication and tempered with irony. 

Lessing, along with Diderot, is considered the founder of what became modern dramaturgy, breaking away from the academically classic drama of the mid-18th century and substituting for it a theater that could test ideas, could argue philosophical and social problems from the mouths of characters with interests like those they (and their audience) had in life—and constructed plays from a theory of the image that led to its more modern conceptions. 

What Diderot called “tableau,” Lessing referred to as “the Pregnant Moment.” 

And Nathan the Wise is rife with such moments, in which everything we’ve seen hinges on a question, a discovery, a true moment of intellectual and emotional tension and suspense. 

TheatreFIRST, a small, game troupe with high production standards and an ambitious, socially aware repetoire based on an internationalist perspective, has come close to outdoing itself with this show. 

The importance of such a play being staged at such a moment in a world overflowing with strife and suspicion on all sides is matched by the fine direction of Soren Oliver of a lively, perfectly cast ensemble. 

Their crystal-clear characterizations parade and speak on Jacquelyn Scott’s wonderful set that rises up from the earth tones of a chessboard floor to the fanciful geometric abstraction of the domes, spires and towers of a city in the desert. 

Will Huddleston as Nathan, Terry Lamb as Saladin (and the scheming patriarch), Megan Briggs as ingenue Rachel and Jessica Powell as Daya, her nurse; Christopher Maikish as the Templar, Sandra Schlechter as Saladin’s sister Sittah, and Clive Worsley as both grave friar and comic dervish—all deserve applause, both as performers of excellence and as excellent ensemble. 

Nathan the Wise, seldom produced, should be seen because of its importance and rarity and the timeliness of this staging. 

But also because TheatreFIRST, at the top of its game, is faced with a radical cut in funding, and possible disbanding after their next production in their best-programmed year, the eagerly-awaited revival of John Arden’s hit of the ‘60s, Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance this spring. 

They’ve made themselves the only company resident in downtown Oakland, with shows consistently thoughtful and entertaining; TheatreFIRST needs the kind of support that will guarantee a future they truly deserve. 

Talk about your misperceptions: for years, I thought the California towhees in my yard were having boundary issues. Two towhees would fly toward each other, one or both uttering a loud squealing call that was nothing like their normal “chip” or “tsip.” It sure sounded like fighting words. The towhees would appear to confront each other with fluffed-out feathers. Then they’d break off and go back to scuffling through the leaf litter for bugs. 

But it turns out this was not an exchange of invective but a duet performed by a mated pair: the towhee equivalent of “Oh June, I’m home!” “In here, Ward!” The California towhee and its close relatives, the Abert’s towhee and canyon towhee, are among the few known duetting North American birds (others include the wrentit, pygmy nuthatch, and northern cardinal.) 

If you have an older field guide, you may still think of this bird as the brown towhee. That name was discarded in the 1990s when biologists discovered that the two populations included in the species—one coastal, one interior—were not each other’s closest relatives. Coastal brown towhees became California towhees; interior ones, canyon towhees. The two forms look different, behave differently, don’t hybridize, and in short seem to be distinct species (except for that odd population in southern Baja California; but let’s not get started on that). 

Anyway, North America is poor in duetting birds, compared with the New World tropics, Africa, and Australia. Some of the tropical duetters’ performances are remarkable exercises in vocal coordination, sounding like a single bird’s performance. Our towhees don’t carry it that far: their squeal duets overlap rather than synchronize. 

Just why birds do this has been a matter of some debate. UC-Berkeley graduate student Lauryn Benedict, whose dissertation work involves California towhee vocalizations, says there are a number of competing hypotheses. Duets used to be explained as a way of reinforcing the pair bond: “making the mate happy.” But a less anthropomorphic view would look at the costs and benefits of the behavior for each member of the pair. 

What we know, thanks to earlier studies by Charles Quaintance and Joe T. Marshall, Jr., is that California towhees are sedentary birds that appear to pair for life. Benedict says several of the pairs she observes at UC’s Hastings Reservation in the Carmel Valley have been together for the length of her five-year study. Their vocalizations have been well documented, although it’s still not clear whether they’re learned, as in Luis Baptista’s famous white-crowned sparrows, or innate. 

In some other birds, song duets have been interpreted as mate surveillance—the male making sure of his mate’s whereabouts at all times, so she can’t get together with any rivals who may be lurking around the territory. If this works, the male would not wind up helping rear nestlings sired by someone else. “All the other duetting species that have had their genetics done have been genetically monogamous as well as socially monogamous,” Benedict says. Her data on towhee genetics are awaiting publication, so she couldn’t discuss her findings. 

The California towhee’s regular “chip” seems to function effectively enough as a contact/location call, though. A couple of years back a towhee got into our house through the open back door. It flew from room to room as if looking for an exit, chipping all the while. Meanwhile a second towhee, presumably the mate of the first, was chipping outside. The inside bird appeared to follow the outside bird’s chips into the bathroom and out the window into the plum tree where its partner had been calling. 

Or what seems like cooperative behavior may really reflect a conflict between mates. “Maybe,” says Benedict, “the female sings and then the male sings on top of her song to signal that she already has a mate.” But the squeal duet is very different from the male towhee’s mate-attracting song, which is basically a sequence of chips. (He sings until he finds a mate, then shuts up for the rest of the season. Instead of territorial song, he makes a pre-dawn circuit of the perimeter of his domain, chipping away. Territorial males will also attack their reflections in windows, hubcaps, or bumpers.) 

Duets may also signal the strength of a towhee’s commitment to its mate, or its general health and fitness—although the latter seems less likely for towhees then for the part-singing tropical birds. They may be a way for mates to coordinate their behavior: feeding their chicks or defending their territory. In territorial conflicts, two duetting birds can produce a stronger signal than one (and duets sometimes occur during clashes between neighboring pairs). 

“When they duet, they always approach each other,” Benedict continues. “They do seem to be signaling something to each other.” 

When her articles, now under review by The Auk and other journals, see print, we’ll have a better idea of what it’s all about. Stay tuned! 

Photograph by Ron Story. 

A California towhee, the bird formerly known as the brown towhee.

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.  

Ecology of Berkeley’s Strawberry Canyon What is at stake with the filling in of the canyon with UC-LBNL Rad-Labs and now British Petroleum? Join UC Prof. Ignacio Chapela on an walk of the canyon. Meet at 5 p.m. at the Memorial Oak Grove, next to International House. canyonwalks@gmail.com 

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. 

THURSDAY, FEB. 15 

Memorial for Denise Brown at 5 p.m. at the Community Theater, Berkeley High School. Reception to follow in the Food Court. 644-6320. 

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. 

“No Small Dreams: A Politics of Hope for Urban America” with Van Jones, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, at 7:30 p.m. at College Preparatory School’s Buttner Auditorium, 6100 Broadway, at Brookside, Oakland. Tickets are $12.50-$15. www.college-prep.org/livetalk 

“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 

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.  

“Nicaragua and the IMF: What are the Socio-Economic Issues facing Daniel Ortega?” An illustrated presentation by participants in Jubilee USA and Witness for Peace Delegation to Nicaragua, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. 525-5497. 

“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 

Simplicity Forum on relationships and friendships at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Claremont Branch, 2940 Benvenue Ave. 549-3509. 

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. 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  

FRIDAY, FEB. 16 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

“The Untold Story Of Emmett Lois Till” A documentary by Keith A. Beauchamp at 7:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Discussion with Rosemary Patton follows the screening. Donation $10. 528-5403. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Susan Fisher on “Human Embryonic Stem Cells.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Manga and Anime Club for Tweens and Teens meets at 3:30 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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.  

SATURDAY, FEB. 17 

Black History Month Community Celebration “Making the Connection: To Family, History, Purpose” with entertainment, presentations, and a soul food meal, from 2 to 6:30 p.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. 981-5218. 

African-American Feast Celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lake Shore Ave., Oakland. Cost is $20, includes food and entertainment. 653-6055.  

“Are We a Democracy? Vote Counting in the United States” with Steven Freeman, Univ. of PA., Paul Lehto, of Verifiable Democracy, Joshua Mitteldorf, Univ. of AZ, and others, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Rockridge Library, 5366 College Ave., Oakland. Sponsored by Elections Defense Alliance. www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org 

Amiri Baraka and Ngugi wa Thiango in conversation at 7 p.m. at the Third World Book Fair, Eastside Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd. www.eastsideartsalliance.com  

Memorial Celebration for Tillie Olsen at 1 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland.  

Celebrate Black History Month on the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 707 W. Hornet Ave., Pier 3, Alameda. Admission is $14 adults, $6 for children, $20 for a family of four. www.hornetevents.com 

“Treads ‘N’ Tracks” Animals we don’t see leave behind clues of where they have been, and where they are going. We’ll search for tracks, then make some of our own to take home. At 2 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Kids Garden Club We plant, harvest, build, make crafts, cook and get dirty! For ages 6-9 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. 636-1684. 

Open House and Volunteer Opportunity at Gateway Park in El Cerrito Learn about the ongoing restoration activities and the Baxter Creek Watershed Stewards, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Dress to participate in weeding and planting activities. The Gateway site is located on the right-hand side of Key Blvd. at the end of the Ohlone Greenway, a 5-minute walk north from the El Cerrito Del Norte BART. 665-3686.  

The Last Drag Berkeley Free LGBT Quit Smoking Class begins at 10 a.m. at The Pacific Center, 2712 Telegraph Ave. and runs for six Sat. and one Sun. to register call 981-5330. 

Valentine Crab Fest & Dance at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Dinner seatings at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $10-$50. 526-3805.  

California Writers Club meets to discuss crime and ethics at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble, Jack London Square. 272-0120. 

Lead-Safe Painting & Remodeling Free class on lead safe renovations for older homes, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Temescal Branch Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 567-8280.  

SUNDAY, FEB. 18 

Huey P. Newton Birthday Commemoration from 2 to 5:30 p.m. at Black Repertory, 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $10. 652-2120. 

Open Garden at Tilden Park 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. Heavy rain cancels. 636-1684. 

Newt Hunt Every winter, newts return to our freshwater ponds to breed. Catch a glimpse of the incredible mating behavior of newts, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 636-1684. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, on Telegraph Ave. between Derby & Stuart. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. 

Mental Health Workshop and Training on Trauma with Will Hall, at 7:30 p.m. at the Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. 

“Duality and Non-Duality; Salvation in Abrahamaic Traditions” with Alex Pappas at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 535-0302, ext. 306.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “Tibetan New Years: Culture and Tradition” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, FEB. 19 

“More Than Your Standard Garden” A workshop on creating a school garden as an outdoor classroom for science, math, or language arts. Learn how to develop standards-based lesson plans and link existing activities to California Content Standards, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Watershed Project, 1327 S 46th St. Bldg. #155, Richmond. Cost is $25, scholarships available. 665-3430. www.thewatershedproject.org 

“Creating An Ecological House” A seminar with Skip Wenz on modeling houses on ecosystems, natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $85. 525-7610. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 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 call 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.