A swarm of yellow descended upon the Greek Theater Friday when 700 Berkeley High School (BHS) graduates walked into its pit amidst a ceremony fit for kings. 

Seven thousand cheered them, and as strains of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 echoed through the bowels of the amphitheater, students realized that it was childhood’s end. 

“I am nervous because it’s over,” said Jenipher Washington, who will be starting school at Howard University this fall. “I am so used to going to school and meeting my friends everyday, I can’t believe that it’s going to end.” 

“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” said 2007 graduate Mike Hunt, five minutes before he walked up to the stage. “It’s definitely a weight off my shoulders, but the fact that I am no longer in high school has yet to hit me.” 

For the Class of 2007, Friday meant goodbye to all things juvenile. It meant goodbye to senior streak, goodbye to junior prom and goodbye to setting off stink bombs in class. It also meant responsibility, the dawn of a new chapter. Hunt, like Washington, will be off to Howard University in Washington, D.C. in the fall. 

Others, such as Mateo Aceves—who represented students at the school board in his senior year—will be talking a year off before starting college. 

“I’ll be in Jerusalem and then it’s off to Brandeis University in 2008,” said Aceves. “I will miss school. I will miss being sober on Rally Day and our wonderful Barbecue Club. I urge my juniors to take advantage of every minute at Berkeley High because they will never get any of it back.” 

English teacher Susannah Bell told the Planet that every graduation was different. 

“It’s not just the entertainment that’s different every year,” she said. “Every class is different.” 

Bell and 23 other teachers were each responsible for lining up 36 of the graduates. 

“It’s very hot today, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” she said. 

“It’s right to the left,” teachers instructed graduates as they fiddled with their tassels minutes before the ceremony. Last minute make-up was applied, stray locks pinned up and the graduates were ready for their big day. 

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful school and a wonderful, wonderful student body,” said Joan Marie Lucera who had come out from Virginia to see her grand-daughter Camilia Padilla graduate. “I looked into the yearbook and there’s such a wonderful representation of people. Look around! I went to a private girls’ school in Canada, it wasn’t anything like this. This is typically American. This is exuberant. Such a demonstration of joy.” 

Berkeley Unified spokesperson Mark Coplan pointed out that Berkeley High was one of the few schools in the country which did not have valedictorians. 

“We have an unwritten rule which says that we don’t pick one student over the other,” he said. 

The school was recently ranked 284 out of 1,300 top U.S. schools by Newsweek magazine. “Last year we were 378, so it’s a huge improvement,” Coplan said. 

Earlier this month, BHS Vice Principal Pasquale Scuderi announced that the school had not met the benchmarks to receive an Annual Performance Index (API) score, prompting principal Jim Slemp to remark that the tests were not an accurate reflection of the school. 

“Students in my class performed really well in school this year,” said Academic Choice English teacher Alan Miller during the ceremony. “We have got students getting into the finest programs at some of the finest schools in the country. We are sending out students who care about the world. It shows the uniqueness of our school.” 

Academic Choice, one of the schools within BHS, offers students more choice for advanced placement classes. 

Friday’s commencement did not come without surprises. One student tried to lift Slemp up; another cut off his own hair. 

“I had wanted to make up my speech with some jokes ... but then I realized that this school meant more to us than a couple of one liners,” said Rowan Spencer, who snipped off a lock of his hair. “It has given us things such as brotherhood and friendship, and other things, such as strength, generosity, compassion and love. But let’s not forget the things Berkeley High has taken away from us, such as fear, hate, ignorance and intolerance.” 

Students of the English Learning Program described Berkeley High as a boon which had helped them survive in a foreign land. 

“We come from different countries but we become friends here,” said Sara Nazeer. Nazeer and her friends will be scattered all over the world after graduation. Some will go back to Pakistan, some to Africa and some will begin college right here in Berkeley. 

When the graduates took their final steps together as the class of 2007, student speaker Zoe Siegel reflected on the past year. 

“Some of us fought hard for our grades and others didn’t have to work as hard. Some worked hard to balance both work and fun,” she said. “But in the end we are all winners.” 

As Slemp shook the hand of the last graduate, African American Studies Chair Robert McKnight gave a parting word of advice. 

“I see you are anxious to move forward, to move onward to a greater quality of life,” he told the graduates. “But in order for your life to be better, you need to change. There cannot be a difference without change. You are yellow jackets and may you swarm all over the Planet buzzing, envisioning a better world.”.”

Berkeley councilmembers’ multi-million dollar wish list of city services and physical improvements is likely to remain just that—a list of projects on paper. 

The council will hold a public hearing on the budget tonight (Tuesday) at which they will likely examine new budget proposals by Mayor Tom Bates, a list of social services that have been defunded whose funding Councilmember Kriss Worthington would like to see restored, and the lengthy councilmember wish list. 

The public hearing will be at the 7 p.m. meeting. The final budget vote is scheduled for June 26. 

In May, the city manager spelled out how he wants to spend the $9 million or so in limited funding available outside fixed personnel and ongoing project costs, and Friday evening the mayor added his priorities to the mix. 

Councilmembers over the last several months have been referring items to the city manager they want to see funded.  

Bates’ priorities include a number of consultants and studies to get specific work done: hiring a full-time consultant (rather than half-time, already funded) to plan rezoning for West Berkeley at $85,000; hiring a transportation planner for 18 months at $255,000; spending $50,000 to study what agencies are already doing in the area of youth employment; putting $50,000 toward studying the gaps in services for at-risk children ages 0-to-3; and spending $100,000 (augmenting the $100,000 already allocated) to fund a second year for the city’s greenhouse gas reduction position.  

Bates is also recommending $50,000 for a consultant to write ordinances for his Public Commons for Everyone Initiative. That will be a series of ordinances to rewrite some city laws to make them more enforceable, such as prohibitions against lying on the sidewalk and defecating in public, and modifying other laws, such as banning smoking in commercial areas. 

The mayor is recommending an expenditure of $376,800 to fund planning, referred to as engineering, for a number of projects: a Center Street plaza study; enhanced lighting on University Avenue between Sixth Street and San Pablo Avenue; San Pablo Avenue streetscape; Piedmont Avenue landscape rehabilitation and a planning exercise called a charrette for the Adeline corridor.  

Having this work done will facilitate the city getting state grant funding and getting developer fees for projects, according to Bates’ Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries. 

The mayor also wants to fund direct services: chronic disease/hypertension prevention at $100,000, a youth jobs program, beginning summer 2008 at $100,000 (in addition to the city manager’s allocation of $136,000 for 50 jobs for this year), two programs aimed at “ending chronic homelessness:” Options for Recovery—drug and alcohol treatment—at $100,000 and $59,000 to restore a number of cuts made by the city manager to various food and shelter programs for homeless people. 

(The mayor’s priorities are not part of the council agenda packet, but are available on his website at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/mayor/thebatesupdate.htm.) 

Worthington listed his budget priorities in a memo to the council contained in the June 19 council agenda packet. Most of the recommendations focus on funding direct services to homeless or disabled people. 

While Worthington said he has no specific disagreement with the mayor’s funding choices, he said he was disappointed that Bates did not prioritize restoring programs for the homeless that had been cut in the city manager’s budget. 

“It’s ironic that he’s cutting homeless services at all, when he’s saying they are an increasing priority,” Worthington said, noting the mayor’s budget was limited to just a few of the many programs whose budgets had been cut. 

Some of the programs Worthington identified for restoration of funding cuts that the mayor has not included in his budget are programs for the homeless: BOSS’ family shelter and transitional housing ($6,000); Lifelong Medical Care’s acupuncture detox clinic ($12,000); New Bridge Foundation’s drug rehabilitation program ($5,000); expanding Affordable Housing Associates’ housing acquisition and family-housing renovation ($15,000); and the Russell Street Supportive Housing for formerly homeless mentally ill persons ($32,500). 

Councilmember Linda Maio told the Daily Planet that she would look carefully at the program cuts. “I want to understand the impact of the cuts,” she said. 

Given the great influx in traffic along Rose, Cedar and Hopkins streets, one of Maio’s chief concerns is getting funding for traffic calming measures in that area. She had asked for $200,000 for the effort. Bates is proposing $200,000 for traffic calming, but Maio said the area targeted is not clear in the Bates memo. 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she is especially happy about the $25,000 the mayor is proposing to reduce city fees as an incentive to install solar panels. “That’s something real and concrete that we can do about greenhouse gases,” Spring said. 

She said she was happy the mayor’s budget “puts a priority on youth” with $100,000 proposed to fund youth jobs beginning in summer 2008.  

However, she noted, “I’m not so keen on a consultant [to study existing programs]; our city staff can do that.” 

She also questioned the proposed augmented expenditures on the greenhouse gas consultant. “I wonder why our regular staff can’t do that,” she said. She agreed that a transportation planner was needed, but said that allocating $225,000 for 18 months was excessive.  

Spring questioned the mayor’s proposal to spend more than $300,000 to fund the various planning/engineering projects in his proposal. “That money would go a long way toward restoring cuts in social services,” she said, noting that the projects listed had not come to the City Council. “Where did they come from?” she asked.  

Spring also pointed out that the Options drug and alcohol treatment program had asked for $200,000 rather than $100,000 to restore a counseling program that had suffered from the loss of a grant. 

Among the other unfunded referrals from the City Council are: 

• Seven thermal-imaging cameras for the fire department at $77,000 (from Councilmember Gordon Wozniak). 

• Crisis intervention training for police at $85,000 (from the Mental Health Commission). 

• Housing and services for disabled children in West Berkeley at $15,000 (from Spring and Councilmember Darryl Moore). 

• Malcolm X Neighborhood Arts Collaborative at $10,000 (from Councilmember Max Anderson). 

• Sweatshop-free ordinance implementation at $35,000 (from Worthington). 

• Girls’ Twilight Basketball at $45,000 (from Moore). 

• BOSS’ Ursula Sherman Village project at $280,000 (from Worthington). 

A full year away from the primary elections and with two of the East Bay’s most recognized women politicians interested in running, figuring out the odds on who will succeed termed-out state Sen. Don Perata in the District 9 Senate seat would be difficult under normal circumstances. 

Current District 14 Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and former District 16 Assembly-member and Assembly Majority Leader Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) have both announced their intentions to run in the Berkeley-Oakland district.  

More than anything, it is California’s legislative term limits law, currently limiting assemblymembers to three two-year terms, which is causing this potential clash of the political titans. Chan came to the end of her three terms in 2006 and Hancock will do so in 2008. 

In addition, the Oakland Tribune reported late last year that another former Assemblymember, Democrat Johan Klehs, is considering moving from San Leandro to Castro Valley to run for the District 9 Senate seat as well. 

The problem is, none of them might run. 

Instead, Perata, who is limited to two terms in the state Senate by California’s term-limit law (and got an additional term after winning a favorable state attorney general’s opinion four years ago), would be eligible for another run if a term-limit extension measure is approved by California voters next February. 

Hans Hemann, Hancock’s chief of staff, said flatly that if Perata becomes eligible and runs for the District 9 seat next June, Hancock will not. Chan was not available for comment for this story. But four years ago, she faced a similar situation when it looked like Perata was being termed out in 2008. Chan announced that she was running for the District 9 seat, but then, after the attorney general interpreted the term limits law to say that Perata was eligible for another term, Chan quietly withdrew. 

District 9 is one of California’s most liberal-progressive districts. It runs in a long East Bay corridor west of the foothills from Richmond in the north through Oakland, taking in the city of Alameda as well, and then turns east through the hills, picking up a portion of Castro Valley and all of Livermore. Only two-thirds of the city of Richmond is included, and more than 90 percent of the district is in Alameda County. The district is divided, with African Americans making up 25 percent of the registered voters, Latinos 19 percent, and Asian Americans 17 percent. Democrats make up 61 percent of the registered voters in the district, making whoever wins the Democratic primary next June virtually certain to be the next District 9 senator. Four years ago, Perata overwhelmed the field in the November General Election, getting 77 percent of the vote to 16 percent for Republican public relations executive Patricia Deutsche and 5 percent for Peace and Freedom Party writer Tom Condit. 

Meanwhile, the potential candidates for the District 9 Senate seat are not the only ones left in limbo by the upcoming vote on extending the term limits law. With Hancock currently termed out in 2008, several candidates have been making noises to run for her District 14 Assembly seat. 

Earlier this month, the Contra Costa Times reported that no less than seven candidates have expressed interest in Hancock’s job. Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond and East Bay Municipal Utilities District Director Lesa McIntosh, also of Richmond, have already announced their candidacy. The Times also reported that five other potential candidates are looking at the seat: Berkeley City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Daryl Moore, East Bay Regional Park Director and former Berkeley City Councilmember Nancy Skinner, and from Richmond Councilmember Jim Rogers and West Contra Costa School District Trustee Charles Ramsey. 

But if the term-limits extension initiative passes, Hancock will be eligible for three more terms in the state legislature. She has not indicated if she would run for the Assembly again in that event, but if she did, several of the potential candidates for Assembly District 14 would almost certainly not run. 

For their part, in order to prepare for a potential June 2008 primary, both Hancock and Chan must act as if the District 9 Senate race is on between them. 

Earlier this month, Hanock supporters sent out fund-raising letters to potential supporters, writing that “we need to raise at least $175,000 before June 30th to show that Loni is viable and can raise enough to defeat an opponent, who has been raising money for this race since before she ‘termed out’ in 2006.” 

Chan has already set up a Wilma Chan Democrat For CA State Senate campaign website [www.wilmachan.org], with a list of endorsements ranging from Congressmember Mike Honda to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez to Senate President Don Perata (who would presumably exercise the right withdraw his endorsement if he is able to run himself). Four of the endorsers are from Hancock’s backyard, Berkeley City Councilmembers Betty Olds, Kriss Worthington, and Dona Spring, and former Berkeley City Councilmember Maudelle Shirek. 

Presuming the Chan-Hancock race does materialize, it is difficult to tell at this stage who would be the favorite. 

The bulk of District 9’s registered voters are in the city of Oakland (44 percent), with Berkeley, at 17 percent, the city with the second highest registration percentage, but that doesn’t necessarily give the Oakland-based Chan an insurmountable advantage over the Berkeley-based Hancock. When Perata first won the District 9 seat, he was living in the City of Alameda, which only constitutes 9 percent of the district’s registered voters. 

For Chan, overcoming the loss of visibility after leaving the legislature will be her greatest difficulty. In 2005 and 2006, her last two years in Sacramento, when she served as Assembly Majority leader, Chan’s name was in the news on a weekly basis as she participated in, or commented on, events surrounding the state legislature. Since leaving Sacramento, she has virtually disappeared from public view, however. 

Chan sees identification with her old Assembly position as crucial to the Senate race, however, even without the accompanying power and publicity that goes with actually holding the office. The voicemail at her state Senate campaign headquarters identifies her as “Assemblywoman” Wilma Chan, going on to refer anyone with Assembly District 16 business to “the current District 16 Assemblymember, Sandré Swanson.” 

Meanwhile, Hancock has become more visible in recent months, sponsoring several pieces of legislation and hosting local high-profile conferences, including a March health care forum at Oakland City Hall and, the following month, a Global Warming forum at Berkeley City Council. 

Berkeley held its second public workshop on the downtown plan Saturday, a gathering as notable for heated tempers as for innovative visions.  

The session was the 38th gathering of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), the citizen panel charged with drawing up the rudiments of a new plan for the city center. 

DAPAC members aren’t drafting the final plan—that will be the work of city staff, the Planning Commission and the City Council—but they are drafting the policy statements city officials say will constitute the basis of the plan. 

With their mandate set to expire Nov. 30, DAPAC members are pushing hard to finish the work they started with their first meeting on Nov. 21, 2005. 

Gathered in the Berkeley High School Library, committee members, city planning staff and members of the public gathered around themed tables, each devoted to a central element of the plan. 

City Planning and Develop-ment Director Dan Marks opened the meeting, citing the committee’s “sprint to the finish line” as their two-year mandate nears its end. 

While the committee will focus on policy, rather than specifics or the city zoning ordinance amendments needed to implement any changes mandated by the final draft, their efforts will still be enough to initiate the launch of an Environmental Impact Report, which will be drafted while planning commissioners, staff and the City Council hammer out the final plan, Marks said. 

Councilmembers must adopt the final plan by May 2009, or the city risks losing some of the funds U.C. Berkeley promised to pay for its creation after the public outcry over the settlement of the city of Berkeley’s suit against the university, which mandated a new plan. 

UC Berkeley campus planner Emily Mathinsen, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Physical and Environmental Planning, praised the committee’s effort, declaring that the results so far showed more agreement than disagreement with the university’s plans to add 800,000 square feet of new off-campus construction and 1,000 parking places in the heart of the city’s central business district. 

Then committee members rose one at a time to report on specific areas of the plan’s focus, starting with Juliet Lamont’s report on the environmental components, Patti Dacey on historic buildings, Jenny Wenk and Linda Schacht on economic development, Victoria Eisen on transportation issues, Jesse Arreguin and Winston Burton on housing and social services and Dorothy Walker on city interests in university developments on specific sites. 

Matt Taecker, the planner hired by the city with university funds to help draft the plan, discussed land use policies and streets and open spaces. 

After the initial presentation, audience member Ena Aguirre challenged the format: “The agenda should have been set up differently so that we didn’t have to sit here for an hour and a half listening to you guys. We should have been given a chance to participate.” 

Committee members, planning staffers and members of the public then gathered around their choice of a paired rank of tables, each titled with one of the themes addressed in the earlier presentations, for a short discussion period followed by a report on issues raised by the staff members assigned to each table. 

Then came the public comments. 

Heated tempers 

Berkeley folks who turned up for Saturday’s downtown planning workshop had lots to say but little time to say it. 

And what they said, at least in the 60 seconds they were allowed in the public comments session, was sometimes testy—so much so that DAPAC Chair Will Travis lost his cool, yelling at one speaker and offering a “thank you for that lousy vote of confidence” to another. 

Travis, whose day job is as executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, has occasionally aimed sharply barbed comments at DAPAC members, but it was Doug Buckwald who finally managed to evoke a shouted “Doug, sit down!” 

Buckwald’s critique of AC Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and its proposed route through downtown—a centerpiece of DAPAC’s transportation planning—extended beyond the allotted 60 seconds and a more polite Travis request to end his remarks. 

At that point a visibly reddened Travis yelled, immediately drawing a rebuke from a man in the audience who called out, “Sir, this is inappropriate.” 

Buckwald spoke again, thanks to Gianna Ranuzzi’s surrender of her 60 seconds. When Buckwald contended that his remarks to earlier DAPAC meetings were cut short, as were “other members of the public not connected to developers,” Travis called him a “fifth-grader,” earning yet another rebuke, this one from Buckwald. 

“I apologize,” said Travis. “I was trying to compliment you because I find fifth-graders are usually quite bright.” 

“I think the committee needs to show respect for the public,” said Anita Thompson moments later, drawing applause from many in the audience and a few of the committee members. “I’d be very careful of what you say.” 

Moments later and after praising committee members and staff for their work, DAPAC member Dacey said she agreed that the committee should be hearing more from the public, and urged anyone with questions to submit them by email to Taecker and others (his email address is MTaecker@ci.berkeley.ca.us). 

“That shows there’s at least one person on DAPAC who isn’t rude,” Travis said. “Actually, there are quite a few.” 

While some of the comments dealt with BRT and density, two ongoing sources of contention, others, like those of Daniel Caraco, focused on fresh issues. 

After noting that state law requires all hospitals to meet strict seismic safety standards by 2014, Caraco said neither of Berkeley’s two major medical facilities—Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and the affiliated Herrick Hospital—conform to the requirements. 

“Herrick will probably close in five years,” he said. “What is being done to make sure the city has an acute care facility for the next 20 years?” Faulting the city for allowing Summit Alta Bates to locate in a residential neighborhood, Caraco said a hospital downtown would better suit the city’s needs. 

Elyce Judith added a more upbeat note, reporting that EcoCity Builders had just received the $150,000 in donations needed to retain internationally acclaimed landscape architect Walter Hood to prepare a plan for Strawberry Creek Plaza, the proposed pedestrian-friendly space that would be created by closing the block of Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue. 

While the plan wouldn’t be an official city document—planning staff referred to it as an “advocacy plan” during the last Planning Commission meeting—the addition of a famous name could help pave the way for a plaza with either a daylighted Strawberry Creek or another “water feature” as has been advocated by environmental groups and members of the city’s own UC Hotel Task Force. 

For DAPAC members, it’s back to work, starting with their next meeting Wednesday night, a joint session with the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Back in the darker ages of Berkeley City Council history—before Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense (SuperBOLD) threatened a lawsuit last year—citizens hoping to speak to their elected officials at the public comment period would fill out a card a clerk would throw into a contraption with cards from all the other hopeful speakers. The city clerk would spin the device and choose 10 cards.  

Only these 10 people would be permitted to speak. 

Prodded by the threatened litigation, Mayor Tom Bates abandoned the lottery system and began experimenting with various formats in order to let every person speak to the council who wishes to, as is required by the Ralph M. Brown Act, according to SuperBOLD attorneys from the First Amendment Project. 

Now Councilmember Kriss Worthington is calling for the experimenting to stop—the rules for public comment vary slightly at various council meetings—and to put the new rules into law. 

Other topics on tonight’s council agenda include the city budget, designating Berkeley’s transit corridors as “priority development areas” and adopting a pilot residential parking plan for the south-of-campus area. Before the regular meeting, the council will hold a 5:30 p.m. workshop on the city’s sustainability efforts. 

Codifying public comment 

If adopted, the new rules would: 

• Allow the mayor to adjust the time speakers would have to address the council: when there are five or fewer speakers, each can talk for two minutes each; when there are six to nine speakers, the mayor can ask each to speak for 1.5 minutes, and when there are ten or more speakers, the time would be reduced to a minute. 

• Allow public comment on items not on the agenda immediately after action on the consent calendar. 

• Mandate that all people be allowed to attend the public meetings; if the venue is too small, the meeting should be adjourned to a larger venue.  

“I think the public has a right to know ahead of time what the rules are,” Worthington said. “Having rules that keep changing and evolving is confusing. I don’t think any one person should be able to change the rules.” 

A few weeks ago, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque told the Daily Planet she was concerned that the large number of public speakers caused the council meetings to go too late. (She said she didn’t think adding more meetings to the council schedule would help.) 

But Worthington said public comment should be a priority. “Listening to the public is one of the most important things a councilperson does,” he said. 

Adopting Priority Development Areas 

Mayor Tom Bates is also urging the council to adopt “priority development areas,” designating locations along traffic corridors as appropriate for future development. 

In adopting the policy, “the council is not committed to requesting funding for or approving any project,” the mayor wrote in his report to the council. 

The urgency for the council to adopt the PDA quickly, Bates says, is so that, if the senate and assembly pass pending legislation, the city would be able to submit applications to the Association of Bay Area Governments/Metropolitan Transit Commission by the June 29 deadline. 

The areas targeted would be along Telegraph, University, San Pablo, South Shattuck avenues and Adeline Street as well as downtown. The Planning Commission approved a similar recommendation last week. 

Pilot parking for Southside 

Councilmembers Gordon Wozniak and Kriss Worthington are proposing a pilot parking policy whereby one side of the street in the Telegraph Avenue area would be parking for residents only and the other side would allow two-hour parking for transients and long-term parking for residents who have a sticker indicating they are residents. 

The area that would be designated is Dwight Way on the north, College Avenue on the east, Derby Street on the south and Telegraph Avenue on the west. 

Sustainability workshop 

The city runs some 80 programs with a combined $27 million budget that supports environmental sustainability, including greenhouse gas reduction, zero waste goals, environmentally preferable purchasing policies, watershed protection and more.  

“Sustainable development focuses on improving the quality of life for all of the Earth’s citizens without increasing the use of natural resources beyond the capacity of the environment to supply them indefinitely,” wrote former Housing Director Stephen Barton in a report that will be before the council tonight. 

“This will be first in a series of workshops on sustainability,” Energy Officer Neal De Snoo told the Daily Planet on Monday. 

Telegraph Avenue residents will soon be able to shop for groceries at a new Fred’s Market opening up at the former site of Owl Rexall Drugs. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted unanimously Thursday to approve a use permit requested by Fred Ayyad, owner of Fred’s Market at 1929 University Ave., which would allow carry-out food service (no seating) in a new retail food market at 2312 Telegraph Ave. 

The site—located half a block south of the UC Berkeley campus—is surrounded by food services such as Mrs. Field’s Cookies, Noah’s Bagels and Yogurt Park, as well as by other retail and multi-unit residential uses. 

The property, which houses a two-story commercial building previously occupied by Rexall, is in the process of being demolished to make room for the food market. 

“This should be a no brainer,” project applicant Rina Rickles told ZAB Thursday. 

“Both local and UC Berkeley police support Mr. Ayyad. I have been reading in the newspaper that businesses on Telegraph are declining. This store will bring students and Berkeley residents to the neighborhood who will not only use Fred’s but also patronize other businesses. It will serve the community and bring visitors back to Telegraph Avenue.” 

Representatives of Johnson’s Market, also located on Telegraph, told the board that they had collected 21 signatures opposing the proposed project. 

They also alleged that Fred’s Market at University Avenue had violated alcohol laws on several occasions in the past, although the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department later dropped these charges. The current permit does not include an alcohol license. 

A group of Berkeley residents turned up at the meeting to support the proposed development. 

“I live right around the corner from Fred’s on University,” said Reagan Richardson. “The owners care about the community and about complying with the law. The fact that they are moving up to Telegraph is great.” 

Berkeley resident Steve Wollmer described Fred’s as a very positive role model to the community. 

Rickles told the board that visitors to the store would be able to buy pre-cooked items such as barbecue chicken, roast beef and falafel at the deli counter, while salads, hot and cold sandwiches, hamburgers and Middle Eastern plates could be ordered for off-site consumption. 

“The market would stay open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Mondays through Sundays,” she said. “It would help meet an underserved need for retail food and groceries in the district. It would also incorporate green building elements such as energy-efficient lighting and kitchen equipment.” 

Board member Jesse Arreguin spoke in favor of the project. 

“One of the things that is sorely missing on Telegraph is a grocery store,” he said. “There is no place to buy fresh produce, groceries or meat for students who live in the dorms or apartments. I am very excited about the prospect. ... This is definitely the kind of business we want on Telegraph Avenue.” 

Other Items 

• The board set the appeal of a permit to construct a residential addition at 921 Ensenada Ave. for public hearing. 

The applicants had requested a use permit to expand the footprint of the building by 450 square feet, and by constructing a 1,084-square-foot partial second story, setback approximately 15 feet from the front of the house, with an average height of 24 feet. 

• The board continued the appeal of a permit for a residential addition to 2008 Virginia St. to June 28. 

Lorin Hill of Oakland, the project architect and applicant, had requested the permit to construct a 1,434-square-foot addition, raising the house approximately six feet to create habitable space on the ground level and expanding the building to create a two-story west wing. 

A group of neighbors had appealed the permit, voicing concerns that the additional height would block air and light. Staff informed the board that an agreement had been reached with neighbors which would be discussed at the next meeting. 

The lawsuits aimed at saving the grove at California Memorial Stadium are consuming a few trees of their own as the blizzard of paperwork continues in the leadup to an eventual courtroom showdown. 

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs in another suit triggered by university expansion plans are generating some more paperwork of their own, filing an appeal of their lawsuit against the City of Berkeley challenging the City Council’s settlement of a lawsuit suit that had challenged the university master plan for projects through 2020. 

The pulp friction that’s headed for the first courtroom showdown centers on the university’s grandiose building plans embodied in the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects, an architectural extravaganza that will result in three new buildings and expansion of the stadium, with a total new build-out equivalent to a third of the size of the Empire State Building. 

The immediate issue is the Student Athlete High Performance Center, a four-story high-tech gymnasium and office planned along the western wall of the venerable stadium. 

During a court conference, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller confirmed the Sept. 19-20 courtroom date for hearing the case, and set dates for depositions and submissions of paperwork in the case. 

The California Oaks Foundation, Panoramic Hill Association and the City of Berkeley are all challenging the university’s plans for a series of massive development projects at and around California Memorial Stadium, a city landmark and an entry on the rolls of the National Register of Historic Places. 

Approval by the UC Regents of the environmental impact report on the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects (SCIP) last December was followed a month later by the lawsuits, each challenging the regents’ action on similar grounds—though reflecting the somewhat differing interests of tree advocates, neighbors living near the project and a cash-strapped city. 

The gym is the first of the projects slated for construction, and the lawsuits forced at least a year’s delay, which UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Ed Denton has said will cost the school at least $8 million to $10 million. 

Construction had been planned to commence with the demolition of the grove of Coastal Live Oaks along the stadium’s western wall, which triggered both the lawsuits and an ongoing tree-sit that continues into its seventh month. 

The logging operation would have been followed by excavations for the four-story gym and office complex. Both were halted by the lawsuits and a subsequent injunction granted by the judge.  

A since-completed university-funded seismic study contends there are no active earthquake faults under the gym site, so the university argues that construction should commence. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say they are challenging the study’s adequacy and also say the presence or lack of a fault immediately under the gym site is only one of several key legal issues. 

Appeal revealed 

Meanwhile, Stephan C. Volker, the attorney who is representing the California Oaks Foundation in the SCIP lawsuit, has filed a notice of appeal in an earlier action against the city of Berkeley and the university of California because of their settlement of the city’s suit under the California Environmental Quality Act, which led to the ongoing city-university effort to create a new downtown plan. 

In that lawsuit, a coalition of plaintiffs, including Daily Planet Arts and Calendar Editor Anne Wagley, had sued both the City Council and the university to challenge the adoption of the university’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) 2020, which includes the SCIP projects. 

The plaintiffs lost that lawsuit in the trial court, but they are now appealing. 

Volker’s notice of appeal, filed with the court June 7, challenges the ruling of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jo-Lynne Lee, who filed her final judgment on the case May 1. 

It’s not easy getting ahold of King Middle School Principal Kit Pappenheimer, especially in the days before her school closes for the summer. 

There have been finals to supervise, meetings to hold, and, most important, a graduation to celebrate. Pappenheimer still has lots of odds and ends to finish before June 29, her last day at the school.  

“It’s going to be busy,” she said while investigating the source behind a fire alarm at the school early Monday. “Right now, I am just packing up all my stuff and getting things ready for Jason.” 

Pappenheimer will be leaving King to work at Del Mar Middle School in Tiburon. When students get back to school this fall, Jason Lustig, former principal at Cragmont Elementary School, will be taking over her position. 

“There’s one thing I really want to see get smaller at King, and that’s the achievement gap,” she said. “And I know from the work Jason has done at his previous schools, he will strive toward that.” 

The achievement gap between students of different races at King reflects the gap that exists in schools nationally, Pappenheimer said. 

“There’s a huge gap between our white kids and our African American and Hispanic kids,” she said. “The difference between whites and African Americans is especially glaring.” 

Pappenheimer said that she was leaving King to be closer to her family in Marin: “My kids are getting older and I need to spend more time with them. I need to downsize.” 

In her five years at King, Pappenheimer has seen the school change. She spent her first year as principal in portables on Rose Street, moving to a new building in the new school year. 

“Working with the Chez Panisse Foundation, the School Lunch Initiative and the Dining Commons has been interesting,” she said. “The school will have a beautiful new dining commons in fall of 2008 where the kids will be able to sit and enjoy their lunch. Right now they have to eat outside.” 

King also boasts the Edible Schoolyard—a project which has received national media attention and visits from celebrities, such as Prince Charles and Lady Camilla. 

“Although the Edible Schoolyard started a decade before I started at King, it has been exciting to share Alice Waters’ vision,” Pappenheimer said. “It has been exciting to work in Berkeley. There has never been a dull moment. I just hope that something can be done to make the size of the school less daunting. It needs to have a small community feel to it.” 

District officials credit Pappenheimer for starting Saturday School in lieu of the Summer School at King. Aimed at serving kids who were falling short of credits, the Saturday School has helped many students graduate on time every year. 

As 312 King eighth-graders were lauded by Berkeley councilmember Darryl Moore during the school’s commencement Friday, Pappenheimer stood in the background, letting her students bask in the glory. 

And yet, when the time came, she stepped forward to talk to her students, pat them on the back and impart words of motherly advice for their next big step—high school. 

“I was happy to have her as my principal for the last three years,” said eighth-grader Yessina Baeza, while posing with Pappenheimer for pictures. “She has always been there for us and I will miss her. I remember her as a person who has always helped the community.” 

Yessina’s friend Angelica Gonzales is quick to add that Pappenheimer is not strict. “She lets us get off easy,” she said grinning. 

King students might not have the same opinion of their new principal Lustig. At Cragmont, he banned candy, soda and chips and governed with a strict eye. 

“We have one of the strictest food policies at Cragmont,” Lustig said. “If we see a student with any of that stuff, we take it away immediately. It’s really funny, but one of the first things a student at King asked when he heard I was going to be the new principal was if I was going to ban chips at his school.” 

Lustig said he would wait on such food measures, but has plans to make his mark on the school immediately felt. He said he wants to initiate an active learning program and increase arts education at King. 

“I believe in small groups and hands-on work,” he said. “King does a good job with that, but I still think a lot more work needs to be done. We need to offer more different types of classes and recruit more students.” 

A product of the Berkeley public schools, Lustig graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in politics and teaching. 

At Cragmont, he was instrumental in organizing a system for disciplining students. 

“Any inappropriate physical contact, curse words, and vandalism were documented and handled appropriately,” he said. “We have very high standards for education in California, and it’s necessary to have rules in order to keep up with them.” 

He also knew all his 405 students by name. 

“I plan to do the same at King,” he said. “It’s important getting to know your students as people. I plan to know their academic progress as well.” 

King, with its 930 children and 100 staff members spread across the school’s sprawling 17-and-a-half acres, will be a change from Cragmont for Lustig. 

“I think I am ready for this change,” he said. “Cragmont has gotten better and better in the last three years. It’s a good time for me to move onto a bigger school. I want to stay in Berkeley and I love a good challenge, so I am excited about King.” 

Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee 

King principal Kit Pappenheimer talks to eighth-graders Yessina Baeza and Angelica Gonzales after the school’s graduation ceremony at the Berkeley Community Theater Thursday. Pappenheimer will be leaving King on June 29.

SB67 Vehicle Speed Contests and Reckless Driving (Sideshow 30-Day Car Confiscation) – Sen. Don Perata (D-Oakland) 

This is a renewal of the original 2002 legislation, aimed specifically at Oakland’s sideshows, which allowed cars to be towed and held for 30 days solely on a police officer’s word that the car was being used in “vehicle speed contests” (the legal definition of spinning donuts and other auto activity related to sideshows). 

Oakland police officials have said that the original law was an important tool in sideshow enforcement, but Oakland officials allowed the law to lapse in January of this year without providing required information on how it has been enforced. The information still has not been provided, but the bill has passed the state Senate, and is scheduled for a hearing in the Assembly Transportation Committee at 1:30 p.m. June 25 in Hearing Room 4202 in the State Capitol (Committee Chair Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara). 

There are only two Bay Area lawmakers on the Assembly Transportation Committee: Mark Desaulnier (D-Martinez) and Ira Ruskin (D-Los Altos). 

AB45 Oakland Unified School District Local Governance—Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland) 

Streamlines the procedure for a return to local control of the Oakland Unified School District, taking out the discretion by the State Superintendent and putting the decision solely in the hands of the semi-private, legislatively created Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team. 

The legislation has passed the state Assembly and was assigned to the Senate Education Committee last Friday. The committee holds hearings this Wednesday, but SB45 has not yet been included on the hearing roster. Committee members include Chair Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), Vice Chair Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad), Elaine Alquist (D-San Jose), Jeff Denham (R-Modesto), Abel Maldonado (R-Monterey), Alex Padilla (D-San Fernando Valley), Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), and Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch). 

Senate President Don Perata (D-Oakland), who wrote the original Oakland school takeover legislation, agreed to sponsor AB45 in the Senate after amendments to the original bill. 

SB1019 Peace Officer Records; Confidentiality—Senator Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), Co-Author Assemblymember Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) 

This bill would reopen civilian review board hearings to the public in cities across the state (including Oakland and Berkeley) that were closed following a recent ruling by the California State Supreme Court in Copley Press, Inc. v. The Superior Court of San Diego County. The bill originally provided wider public access to police disciplinary files, but those provisions were later taken out in amendments by the bill’s author. 

It passed the state Senate and was assigned to the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 11. The committee meets today, Tuesday, June 19, but SB1019 has not yet been placed on the agenda. 

Assembly Public Safety Committee members include Chair Jose Solario (D-Anaheim), Vice Chair Greg Aghazarian (R-Stockton), Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon), Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate), Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), and Anthony Portantino (D-Pasadena). 

Proponents of the proposed solar project at Washington Elementary School are getting ready to celebrate victory after the 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Board of Education meeting Wednesday at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

“We are so optimistic that the board will approve the project that we are going to throw a celebratory bash on Sunday,” said Tom Kelly, director of KyotoUSA—the organization behind the proposal—in an e-mail to supporters and the community. 

The project, estimated to cost $1.25 million, was first discussed by the school board in April. It proposes to cover 100 percent of the main building’s electricity needs. 

The board had refrained from approving the project in the last three meetings as they had wanted KyotoUSA to work out a more comprehensive report on the financial aspects of the proposed project. 

Kelly said KyotoUSA secured a 10-year financial municipal lease in the amount of $232,000 from Saulsbury Hill Financial to avoid bond funds. 

The Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) and PG&E will be providing $750,000 and $305,000 for the project, respectively. 

Mutual waiver 

The school board will also vote on whether to approve the proposed City of Berkeley Mutual Release and Waiver Agreement for payment of municipal charges. 

The city provides various services to the school district for which the district owes the city money. The agreement would settle a city and district dispute over what funds are due from each party to the other. 

Dining commons 

The board will vote on whether to approve a bid to install kitchen equipment and perform minor remodeling in the King Middle School dining commons. 

The project is currently stalled because of a delay in construction. It is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2008. 

2007-08 preliminary budget 

The board will review the preliminary budget for the next school year before it comes up for approval at the June 27 meeting. 

Police made an arrest Friday in connection with a fiery big-rig collision that killed three UC Berkeley students in 2005, the California Highway Patrol announced.  

San Francisco resident Eric Barnes, 26, was taken into custody on suspicion of three counts of vehicular manslaughter in connection with the crash, which occurred in the early morning hours of July 16, 2005, according to CHP spokesman Trent Cross. Berkeley students Benjamin Boussert, 27, Jason Choy, 29, and Giulia Adesso, 26, were all killed in the collision, which occurred when racing vehicles on westbound Interstate Highway 580 near Ashby Avenue caused a big-rig to catch fire and cross into the eastbound lanes early that morning, Cross said.  

Several eastbound vehicles were unable to avoid a collision with the burning big-rig, including the Toyota Camry carrying the three students.  

A special task force that included officials from the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and the Oakland office of the California Highway Patrol was formed to investigate the collision, Cross said.  

Nearly two years after the fatal incident investigators were able to obtain an arrest warrant for Barnes, as well as at least one other suspect whose arrest is pending, according to Cross.  

Barnes is currently being held in North County jail on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.

Landmarks commissioners and citizen planners will meet Wednesday night to decide—for the moment—the role of historic buildings in the new downtown Berkeley plan. 

A second land use group, the Design Review Committee, will meet Thursday night to review three projects. 

Wednesday’s meeting brings together members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) to consider a proposed chapter for the new city center plan. 

The new plan was begun after the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s development agenda through 2020, and the committee was appointed by the mayor and City Council to prepare basic policy documents for a plan to replace the city’s current 1990 downtown plan. 

While city staff and the mayor had proposed significant increases in downtown population density and DAPAC members have voted their agreement, a key issue remains the fate of downtown’s historic buildings, including both officially recognized landmarks and non-designated structures. 

The proposed language drafted by the subcommittee calls for concentrating development at sites without historic buildings, while allowing additions to historic structures if well planned and complementary in character. 

The proposal calls for preserving the character of “one of the few basically intact examples of an early-20th-century downtown of its size in California,” while recognizing the downtown as “an incomplete cityscape” with many “under-used and nondescript properties” and a need for more public amenities. 

Following the joint meeting, DAPAC members will consider their own Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Subcommittee’s recommendations for comments on the Environmental Impact Report for the new service planned by AC Transit. 

Members will also decide whether to transform the BRT panel into a transportation subcommittee with a broader role, and discuss the formation of additional subcommittees to review draft plan chapters prepared by the other subcommittees. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Design review 

While recent attention focused on plans to build a new “green” condo complex at 2747 San Pablo Ave., members of Berkeley’s Design Review Committee will examine plans for another project catercorner from the site. 

Two weeks ago, LPC members rejected a proposal to designate the “Googie” style former car dealership at 2748 San Pablo, paving the way for David Mayeri’s condo project. 

Thursday night, Design Review will take up the project planned for 2748 San Pablo, located at the northeast corner of the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Grayson Street. 

The four-story project would feature 18 residential units over a 2,624-square-foot ground floor commercial space. 

The project is currently slated to go before the Zoning Adjustments Board Aug. 9 for approval of its permits. 

City policy targets the whole of San Pablo Avenue for increased population density, and the City Council is scheduled to act on a proposal tonight (Tuesday) to name the thoroughfare as one of the city’s Priority Development Areas (PDAs). 

Planning Department staff and the mayor say the designations will help the city win state bond funds for affordable housing and urban amenities.  

Other proposed PDAs are downtown Berkeley, Shattuck Avenue south of the downtown, Telegraph and University avenues and Adeline Street. 

The project site is currently occupied by Clay of the Land Pottery. 

The committee will also look at plans to transform the former gas station at 1441 Ashby Ave.—currently used as an auto detailing shop—into a biodiesel fueling station. 

The station, built of brick with distinctive pagoda-style tile roofs over both the station and the pump islands, will be run by a cooperative. 

The final set of plans for review are those for a two-story office building designed for the rear of the property at 3237 Ellis St. The front section of the lot will be used for seven parking spaces. 

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave.

Hal Carlstad, known throughout Berkeley and neighboring communities as a leader in a wide range of progressive social and environmental causes, died Tuesday, June 12 after a long illness. He was 82.  

Hal was devoted to many issues, a few of which are saving old-growth forests, ending the death penalty, protesting nuclear weapons, stopping the war in Iraq, and solidarity with the peoples of Haiti, Cuba, Palestine, Central America, People’s Park and all who suffered from injustice. In embracing so many works, he moved in many different circles and touched thousands of lives. 

“He was full of a million ideas,” remembers one colleague. “He loved street theater and was always thinking of how to make a dramatic impact and get the media there.”  

Hal was a leader by example, who, as another colleague recalls, “never hesitated to go to the heart of the matter. He was always asking: how can we make a difference right now, with the people who are here? He truly believed that each one of us could make difference, today, and if we do, that’s how we create big changes.”  

Not usually inclined to seek a formal leadership role, his style was to think of a creative yet feasible action, get others on board, then help carry it out. He frequently ended demonstrations in jail for civil disobedience, wearing a sign proclaiming “This is my patriotic duty for today.”  

Hal Carlstad was born April 11, 1925 in Alkabo, North Dakota, where his parents were homesteaders. He volunteered for military service during World War II but was turned down for health reasons and worked on the railroad. Soon after the war, he left North Dakota for California by train. His family remembers him telling that he made the trip in January and when he arrived in Los Angeles, “I put my winter coat in a locker and never went back.” 

He completed a bachelor’s degree in natural science and social studies at UC Berkeley in 1954 and later a teaching credential at San Francisco State University. He was married, became the father of two children, and in 1956 became a seventh-grade science teacher at Martin Luther King Middle School (then Garfield Junior High). Fondly remembered by many students, he was known for getting the class’s attention on the first day of school by saying: “There might be a tarantula loose in the classroom. It got out of its cage, and I’m not sure where it is.” 

Hal is also remembered as a multi-talented hobbyist and naturalist. He was an avid and prolific potter, photographer, wine maker, beekeeper, hiker, gardener, and dahlia cultivator. He enjoyed games, especially playing cards, and was an accomplished pool player, frequenting the Richmond Senior Center in his later years. 

In the late 1970s, Hal became a member of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, which formed the home base for much of the peace and justice work that blossomed after he retired from teaching. While its Social Justice Committee was a main focus, he also served on its board and worked hard to maintain its facilities. With his children and later his grandchildren, he was a 40-year attender and supporter of Co-op Camp Sierra, an annual family camp that he especially valued after he was divorced and bringing up a son and daughter on his own. 

Hal Carlstad is survived by his companion of 12 years, Cynthia Johnson; son Chris and his wife, Eleanor Piez; daughter Amy and her partner, Steve Macari; and grandchildren Matthew Macari, Abby Carlstad, and Melanie Carlstad. 

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, July 15, at 2:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley, with a reception beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists. Memorial contributions may be made to the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, KPFA, the International Solidarity Network, or the Bay Area Coalition for the Headwaters. Stories of Carlstad should be sent to cyn1234@sbcglobal.net for the memorial.

Peralta Community College District Educational Services Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig passed away this week after a brief illness. 

The district reported she had been diagnosed with colon cancer. 

Haig was hired by the district in 2005 during controversy over Peralta’s International Education department, eventually issuing a report on the department that ended charges of mismanagement. Immediately afterwards Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris put Haig in the middle of another heated situation, assigning her to represent the district in mitigating the problems to student parents caused by the closure of a portion of the Laney College Children’s Center. 

Most recently, Haig was the district’s point-person on the development of its Educational Master Plan, which Associate Vice Chancellor for Education Gary Yee, who worked under her, says “we will now have to finish without her.” 

Yee called the uncompleted master plan Haig’s “most important contribution and legacy. She really understood that the education goals must drive all aspects of the district, including the facilities. She was always reminding us of that.” 

Yee said that Haig’s sudden passing “came as a real shock and surprise to us. She was always the picture of health and vitality. I’ll always remember her riding her bicycle several times a week between her home in Montclair and the district headquarters.” 

Memorial services for Haig will be held at the Peralta Administrative Building, 333 East Eighth St., Oakland, at 4 p.m. on Friday, June 22, with a reception immediately following the remembrance. The Peralta Foundation has set up a scholarship fund in Haig’s name. 

Separate fires struck Berkeley Wednesday, one doing over $1 million in damage to a 98-year-old home on College Avenue 

Deputy Fire Chief said all of the city’s firefighters and equipment were involved in fighting the flames at the home at 2726 College Ave., joined by the crew from Lawrence Berkeley Nation-al Laboratory. 

Fire departments from Oakland and Albany stood watch over the city until the fire was finally quelled. 

The battle continued from the time of the first report at 9:14 a.m. until well into the pre-dawn hours, Orth said. 

Orth put no dollar value on the second fire, which was reported five hours earlier, because the building involved had been slated for demolition starting Monday morning. 

The abandoned warehouse is located on the site of the planned new Berkeley Bowl in West Berkeley between Ashby and Heinz avenues north of Eighth Street. 

Firefighters got the call at 4:24 p.m., well after the blaze had taken hold. Five engines, two trucks and about 30 firefighters battled the warehouse fire, which was controlled at about 5 p.m., Orth said. 

College Avenue fire 

The second, and far costlier blaze, did heavy damage to a 98-year-old three-story College Avenue home. 

Firefighters received the first call at 9:14, and the blaze went to three alarms before firefighters finally got the upper hand. 

Owner Anne Whyte had gone to Oakland for dinner when she received a call that the spacious building had caught fire. 

“I almost didn’t go,” she said. “If I  

hadn’t, I might’ve been asleep inside when the fire broke out.” 

The stucco-sided home was in the final stages of a major remodeling effort, Whyte said. 

“The house had been heavily damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake, and we rebuilt it really strong, so it was capable of handling a 9.5 earthquake,” she said. 

“Shirley Dean used to quip when she was Mayor that if there was an earthquake that shut down city hall, they’d exercise eminent domain and take the house for a new city hall,” Whyte said. 

The Whytes have owned the home for nearly a quarter-century. The building is divided into two apartments, one on each of the lower two floors, while the uppermost level was being used for storage. 

Tenants were due to arrive soon to take both of the lower floors. 

“If anyone has some wonderful housing, I have a marvelous professor of philosophy and her husband, who is a renowned authority on French art and their two children, a kindergartner and a fourth grader, who were due to leave Philadelphia for Berkeley today,” Whyte said. 

“They desperately need new housing,” she said. “I sent them an email last night, and I called them this morning.” 

Whyte was just completing extensive remodeling work, and it was one of the workers who called to tell her about the fire. “We were just finishing the walls,” she said. 

“I’d just paid $4,000 to replace the front windows,” she said. 

“I have invested 18 years in this house,” she said, her voice breaking. “My husband and I were married in the back yard,” which she said she looked forward to seeing her children enjoy in the years to come. 

While the house was largely empty at the time of the blaze, Whyte was using the third level to store personal possessions, including an upright piano and an antique English officer’s table she cherished. 

And though her insurance carrier didn’t pay off for the quake damage—the agent was later stripped of his license and his company assessed the largest fine in state history—Whyte said she has good insurance this time around. 

Surveying the damage late Thursday morning, Whyte was pleased that the wooden garden frames in the front yard had been spared. “At least I’ll still have my garden,” she said, managing a faint smile. 

Orth attributed the fire to accidental causes, withholding the specifics until the final examination had been completed. 

“When we arrived, the upper rear portion of the structure was fully involved,” he said. 

Firefighters had some difficulty finding their ways through the building, he said, and one sustained a twisted ankle when his foot broke through the fire-weakened floor. 

By the time the flames were out, both the second and third floors had sustained heavy damage, while the first floor had significant water damage as well as some damage from flames. 

“We were still chasing hot spots at 3 a.m.,” he said, and firefighters stayed on-scene through most of the night. 

Warehouse blaze  

The first fire, a two-alarm blaze, broke out about 4:30 p.m. in the vacant, corrugated steel-sided warehouse directly behind the Ashby Lofts, the new 55-unit affordable housing project nearing completion at 1001 Ashby Ave. 

The building, earmarked for demolition before construction commences on the new Berkeley Bowl, was heavily damaged. 

Crews were at work Thursday morning clearing out debris, and preparing the way for an earlier-than-planned demolition, said one worker at the site. 

Workers were surveying the damage at the site of the Ashby Avenue fire shortly before noon Thursday, preparing for the demolition of the metal-sided warehouse. 

Water from the firefighters’ efforts had formed a muddy swamp to the northeast of the shed, and a massive backhoe had already gathered up some of the twisted debris and was awaiting the final takedown. 

And while crews were paving the way for the leveling of one structure, a dozen feet to the south, crews were busily putting finishing touches on another—the Ashby Lofts. 

An Affordable Housing Associates project, the 55-unit project was designed by Kava Massih, the same West Berkeley architect who drafted the plans for the new Berkeley Bowl that will rise at the site of the scorched warehouse. 

The apartments feature live/work spaces, and the project has been promoted as a means of housing artists whose living spaces in West Berkeley have been falling prey to development pressures. 

“We didn’t set a value on the fire because the building was going to be demolished anyway,” said Orth.

Planning commissioners voted Wednesday night to designate downtown Berkeley and five thoroughfares as targets for state-funded high-density development: Telegraph, southern Shattuck, University and San Pablo avenues and Adeline Street. 

The 6-2 vote followed an earlier failure to win a commission majority for a proposal in which only the downtown and San Pablo Avenue had been mentioned. 

The additional avenues were included in a three-page recommendation from Mayor Tom Bates, which is scheduled to go to the City Council for a vote next Tuesday. 

Adeline Street has been a development target of the Mayor’s for more than a year, and was first introduced after public opposition stalled the city’s plans to seek state funds for a 300-unit-plus housing project at the Ashby BART parking lot. 

The proposal would designate the five corridors and the city center as Priority Development Areas (PDAs), a term Bates and city staff say is needed to make them eligible for the $2.9 billion in state bonds approved by California voters last November when they passed Measure 1C. 

But many questions remain, including the role of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and other regional governmental agencies in doling out the funds, as well as just how the funds will be spent. 

According to the Bates memo, funds could be used for housing development, development of parks and open space, creation of infrastructure improvements such as sewers, water and utilities, transportation improvement and traffic mitigation. 

The final decision rests with the City Council, but Marks had told the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) and planning commissioners that a pro-PDA vote is essential before the city can apply for millions in state bond money to concentrate high-density development in designated areas. 

If state legislators draft the required legislation, $2.9 billion in bond funds for low-income housing and development would become available for projects in designated PDAs along urban transit systems. 

City Councilmembers would have to vote their approval to meet the June 29 deadline set by ABAG for filing applications. 

The moneys would presumably be allocated locally by ABAG, a regional government agency which administers funds and programs for cities in nine Bay Area counties. 

Marks initially presented the proposals to the commission on May 23, when it failed on a 4-3-1 vote after the planning director had made a pitch notable for its lukewarm endorsement of a proposal he said could provoke controversy because it was being rushed through without an extensive public process. 

But a week later, he was standing before DAPAC, offering an enthusiastic account of the designations and their benefits, winning a hearty endorsement from the panel charged with formulating a new plan for the city center, one of two possible PDA designation sites Marks cited—the other being San Pablo Avenue. 

The only no vote at DAPAC came from Gene Poschman, who had also cast one of the dissenting votes at the original Planning Commission presentation. 

The two opposing votes Wednesday night came from Gene Poschman and Roia Ferrazares. Poschman had also cast the lone dissenting vote a week earlier with 16 members of DAPAC voted in favor of designating downtown as a PDA. Two other members abstained. 

Helen Burke, who had voted against the designations earlier, switched sides and joined the new majority. A new vote for designation came from David Tabb, who was filling in for Susan Wengraf, whose seat had been unfilled during the earlier vote. 

Rio Bauce, the Berkeley High School student and frequent Daily Planet contributor who had abstained during the first vote, was absent Wednesday night, his seat unfilled. 

The designations received a hearty endorsement from Will Travis, in his capacities both as chair of DAPAC and as executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), one of four sponsoring regional agencies of the PDA proposal. 

In addition to BCDC and ABAG, the other two sponsoring bodies are the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. 

As Poschman pointed out in discussions prior to the vote, there is still no legislation in place spelling out how the funds will be allocated—nor whether the four agencies will pay a role in the choice of projects and other funding decisions. 

Dan Marks, who had made the earlier pitches to the commissioners and DAPAC, didn’t attend Wednesday meeting, leaving the presentation to Principal Planner Allan Gatzke. 

“The structure has changed” since the original presentation, Gatzke said, adding that the PDA proposal had been brought back to the commission at the request of Chair James Samuels. 

“Three of us weren’t here last time,” said Samuels. 

Poschman had challenged the reconsideration in an email to Marks, who later replied that City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque had said another vote was appropriate because a commission majority hadn’t defeated the proposal. 

In response to Poschman’s contention that nothing in any of the proposed legislation called for the type of applications spelled out in the ABAG proposal, Marks had replied that “the legislation is fluid, to say the least.” 

Poschman said that ABAG’s intent in pushing through the PDA application process was to force the legislature to respond by including the system in whatever legislation is eventually adopted. 

“There is an Alice-in-Wonderland quality to this, but I’m realistic, and I can count votes,” said Poschman. 

David Stoloff moved for approval of the Mayor’s proposal, and Harry Pollack made the second. 

The proposal calls for concentrating developing on corridors with mass transit, a policy favored by all four regional agencies. During previous meetings of DAPAC and the Planning Commission, Marks had said that concentrating development downtown was probably the most feasible move in Berkeley, given the frequent neighborhood opposition to increased density elsewhere in the city. 

But existing plans call for density along the designated thoroughfares, and no changes in existing plans would be needed to comply with the ABAG requirements, Marks had told DAPAC. 

Earlier, during the public comment period, Steve Wollmer, a long-time critic of the so-called Trader Joe’s high density project at University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, had urged commissioners to reject the proposal. 

“No three words cause people in the flatlands more anxiety that ‘ABAG,’ ‘legislation’ and ‘City of Berkeley,’” he said, urging commissioners to hold off.  

The proposal goes to the City Council Tuesday.  

Other actions 

Commissioners also voted to approve—with modifications—comments prepared by a DAPAC subcommittee on the Environmental Impact Statement for AC Transit’s planned Bus Rapid Transit System. 

DAPAC chair Will Travis, joined by planner Matt Taecker, presented an update on DAPAC’s progress on preparing the basics of a new downtown plan. 

That group must finish its work by the end of the November, when it will pass on the job to the commission and, ultimately, to the city council for final action. 

The meeting’s one planned hearing, on a five-unit condominium project at 1552-1556 Milvia St., was canceled after the would-be developer withdrew the project because he couldn’t meet the cost of the affordable housing fee required in lieu of selling one of the units at a reduced cost.

Ridiculed as the “Public Commons for Everyone but the Homeless” initiative and lauded as a measure badly needed to rid shopping areas of people who act inappropriately and drive customers away, the City Council approved in concept Tuesday night Mayor Tom Bates’ Public Commons for Everyone Initiative, a laundry list of proposals that will be further refined into laws, and considered again in about six months. 

“The goal is to create a comprehensive package with new services, clarify laws and make them more enforceable,” Bates told the council. 

The measure has changed since Bates first introduced it. “I’m not recommending any new laws against sitting on the sidewalk,” Bates said. “Prolonged sitting” was prohibited in the original concept. The proposed laws will target lying on the sidewalk, public urination/defecation and enforcing “quality-of-life” laws already on the books, such as hitching dogs to fixed objects, littering, possessing a shopping cart and making loud noises. 

About a dozen opponents of the measure lined up to ask the council not to pass the proposals. Several members of the business community were present to support the measures. 

“This is the Public Commons for Everyone except those who need it most,” Phoebe Anne Sorgen said, arguing that lying on the sidewalk is a problem only when people are blocking someone’s way. 

Aaron Aarons said there are other laws on the books that truly need enforcement, such as “people who park their cars on the sidewalk and disabled people have to go around them,” and people who don’t stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk. 

“You are criminalizing the homeless,” said Elizabeth Gill, who is homeless. 

Mark McLeod, president of the Downtown Berkeley Association, had another view. “The public commons for everyone is essential,” he said. Merchants sell goods, consumers purchase them, the city collects taxes on the goods and spends the tax money on services, which will help everyone, he said, adding, “That’s a local, living economy.”  

Approval of various aspects of the initiative took several votes.  

A number of items were passed unanimously in a single vote, including writing ordinances: 

• To prohibit smoking in commercial areas and to designate smoking areas. 

• To improve signage indicating where restrooms are and to expand hours for public restrooms. 

• To plan for public seating. 

• To direct donations away from panhandlers and to nonprofit agencies. 

• To expand supportive housing, linking mental health services with housing opportunities. 

The vote included soliciting feedback from a number of commissions which are expected to present their ideas at a fall council meeting. (To date, the Homeless, Mental Health and Human Welfare commissions have stated numerous concerns with the proposals.) 

The unanimous vote also included three items proposed by Councilmember Kriss Worthington: 

• Collecting data on quality-of-life citations issued, prosecuted and convicted in Berkeley and neighboring jurisdictions. 

• Delaying consideration of an ordinance that bans sitting on the sidewalk for a year, until the results of the other ordinances are seen. 

• Implementing community-involved policing features, including beat walking and use of a dedicated cell phone or pager when feasible. 

The council passed with a 7-1-1 vote the mayor’s proposal for making public urination/defecation an infraction rather than a misdemeanor. It was argued that police will be more likely to enforce the law if it is an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket. Those accused of infractions do not have the right to jury trials or public defenders. This proposal will be referred to the Police Review Commission. (Councilmember Dona Spring abstained and Worthington voted in opposition because he wanted the council to commit to installing an adequate number of public toilets before pursuing more arrests.) 

The council considered a plan to increase parking fees and the number of meters to fund these programs. This was approved 6-2-1, with Councilmembers Betty Olds and Dona Spring voting in opposition and Councilmember Max Anderson abstaining.  

“I will never vote to increase parking meter fees,” Olds said. “If people have to pay $1.50 an hour, they will not come.” 

The council voted 7-1-1, with Worthington voting in opposition and Spring abstaining to: 

• Hire a six-month planner to write the ordinances and get feedback from the commissions. 

• Enforce existing quality-of-life laws. 

• Modify the city’s lying-on-the-sidewalk law so that there would be no warnings or fewer warnings given; enforcing the lying law at night would be a low priority. This was referred to the Police Review Commission. 

While Olds voted in favor of most of the items, she seemed to question the idea behind the initiative because she favored programs that help people in need. “I like Options,” she said, referring to Options for Recovery, a drug and alcohol treatment program. “It’s better to spend our money there,” she said. 

Spring also voted in favor of a number of the proposals, but she said critical needs were not targeted. “There’s no detox available, there are no (new) services,” Spring said. “I see no place in this package to help people get out of poverty.”

The Berkeley City Council voted 4-3 on Tuesday in favor of holding a public hearing on the “Wright’s Garage” project proposed for 2629 Ashby Ave., but no such hearing is currently scheduled. 

In other decisions, the council passed measures to: streamline business permits on Telegraph Avenue, ensure equal opportunity for employment in Berkeley for people re-entering the work force after prison, oppose a reduction in transit funding in the governor’s budget, support the city’s sponsorship of the Solano Stroll, and more. 

Wright’s Garage 

Councilmembers Linda Maio, Dona Spring, Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson voted in favor of holding a public hearing on the Wright’s Garage project, which was approved by the Zoning Adjustment Board March 8. Councilmembers Darryl Moore, Betty Olds and Mayor Tom Bates supported the ZAB decision and opposed the public hearing.  

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak was required to recuse himself, having written in February on the Kitchen Democracy website: “I strongly support this project for various reasons.” (Councilmembers who vote on appeals are expected to have open minds on the projects.) Councilmember Laurie Capitelli owns a business within 500 feet of the project and thus was also required to recuse himself. 

Despite the two absences, the city attorney ruled that there had to be five votes in order to hold the public hearing: a majority of the full council, not just a majority of those voting. 

The project, hotly contested by both local merchants and residents, would transform the former Wright’s Garage into a large restaurant/bar and add a health club-dance studio and two to four retail spaces. The developer is John Gordon, one of the city’s primary commercial real estate brokers. 

The 6-3 ZAB approval included allowing the applicant “to exceed the full-service restaurant quota [for the Elmwood Commercial District] by allowing one restaurant for a total of nine restaurants in the district.”  

Speaking to the council for Gordon, Henry Pollack talked about Gordon’s long history of “reuse and restoration” of local properties. “The reuse of Wright’s Garage will be another fine re-use,” he said. 

But Elmwood Neighborhood Association representatives said the project would add vehicles to the already highly trafficked area. 

“ZAB accepted the idea that clients [of the new businesses] would be non-driving clients,” said Madeline Landau, underscoring the already-dangerous traffic situation in the area in which a pedestrian had been hit this year. 

Maio was among the councilmembers arguing in favor of setting a public hearing on the issue. “There are so many questions,” she said. “I’m concerned about traffic and parking and running over quotas, which I considered a respectful process.” 

But Olds countered that there have already been many meetings on the proposed development. “I don’t know how we’d benefit from a public hearing,” she said. 

Councilmembers supporting the public hearing realized they would not have the five votes needed, but Spring encouraged the neighborhood activists: “If you want to have a council that reflects your values, make a change at the ballot box,” she said.  

Streamlining Telegraph permits  

Getting permits to open a business on Telegraph got easier Tuesday night with the council voting 6-2 to streamline the permitting process. Councilmembers Linda Maio and Dona Spring voted in opposition, citing specific objections to the motion’s provisions. Councilmember Betty Olds had left the meeting by the time the vote was taken. 

A separate vote to oppose modifying the quota system lost 5-3, with Councilmembers Max Anderson, Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington voting in favor of maintaining the current more stringent quotas.  

“We need to loosen things up,” Councilmember Linda Maio admitted. The quota system “has a stranglehold on Telegraph,” she said. 

Making it easier to do business on Telegraph was part of a package of responses to a steady decline of revenue on the Avenue, particularly noted when Cody’s Books on Telegraph went out of business last summer. 

The new rules include: 

• Extending hours of operation of businesses on Telegraph. 

• Making permitting easier for various uses such as video stores, restaurants, banks and other kinds of businesses. 

• Making permitting easier when a business is changed from one use to another. 

• Making it easier to convert existing retail spaces to larger or smaller spaces. 

Still no sunshine 

While discussion of a Sunshine Ordinance was on the May 22 meeting agenda, the council adjourned before the item was addressed. However, the ordinance was not put back on the June 12 agenda, as skipped items usually are.

Graduation was a family affair at the Berkeley Adult School (BAS) Tuesday. 

Great aunts, cousins and grandmothers showed up with the rest of the clan to congratulate the newest member in the family to graduate from high school. 

2007 BAS graduate Marsha Griffin’s aunt Linda Shehee had rushed down from Oakland that afternoon. Aleijah, Aliyah and Jailen had waited with bated breath all day to watch their mom Britnee Love get her diploma. 

“You did it, mom,” five-year-old Jailen screamed, as Love scooped down to pick up Aleijah and Aliyah. 

In a perfect world, Love would have walked with the rest of her classmates at the Berkeley High School graduation Friday, but circumstances had led her to complete her degree from the adult high school instead. 

“There was too much to do, and too little time,” she said. “Bringing up three kids is a full-time job. On top of that I own a daycare in Hayward. It’s kind of hard providing food for your children and working to pass high school, but this place made it possible.” 

Love’s story was typical of most of the 67 graduates attending commencement that evening.  

In an enclave famous for being Berkeley’s ethnic gourmet ghetto, the Berkeley Adult School, with its sprawling campus at 1701 San Pablo Ave., has established itself as a local landmark. 

It is here that octogenarians earn high school diplomas, forty-somethings brush the dust off their old ukuleles and 20-year-old mothers fall in love with reading, painting and dancing all over again. 

“We make it possible for adults to live their dreams,” said BAS principal Margaret Kirkpatrick after the commencement ceremonies. 

“All you need to do is show up here and we take care of the rest.” 

Kirkpatrick, a 11-year-old veteran at the school, said that programs were also open to those living outside Berkeley. 

“A significant number of our students are not from Berkeley High School or B-Tech, but from Oakland, Richmond, San Leandro and Hayward,” she said.  

“We had about 150 graduates two years ago, but the numbers dwindled with the start of the California High School Exit Exam. The problem with the exit exam is not that it’s too hard for our students to crack, but that it’s only offered four times a year. Our students have families, they have kids and full-time jobs. All this makes it tough to find a time to study.” 

The school—which occupied the West Campus until 2004—is now located at the site of what formerly was Franklin Elementary School. 

“It’s clean, it’s safe, the lights work, the phone works, everything works,” Kirkpatrick said excitedly. “The district does a great job to support adult education. They put their money where their priorities are.” 

BAS is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., but classes are held all day. Students come from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. 

“I get single parents, Section 8 tenants, delinquents, gang members and the homeless,” said high school counselor Betsy Hoyt. 

“It takes a lot for our student to stay on track. They dropped out of school for a reason and it’s difficult for them to come back.” 

Students can enroll for high school or independent study at any time of the year. 

“Normally we will have someone in their 70s graduating,” said Kirkpatrick. “But this year our oldest graduate is in his 40s. The youngest is 18. We don’t accept people below that.” 

John McKeown, who counseled high school students for more than a decade at BAS, said that his oldest student had been Masuyi Makishima, a Japanese immigrant who got her high school diploma at the grand old age of 83. 

“Graduating from high school is like a rite of passage in our culture. People want to do it, no matter how late,” he said smiling. 

Students are taught in a regular classroom environment. The school’s largest program is English as a Second Language, while programs for older adults, computer skills, genealogy, dance and poetry lessons are some of the other popular picks. 

“Our high school students have to satisfy the same requirements as those of Berkeley High,” Kirkpatrick said.  

“They really work in the confines of what an adult has to do plus go to school. In adult education we don’t call them ‘drop outs,’ we call them ‘stop outs.’ We teach them the meaning of hope.” 

Hope was written in Tareva Early’s teary eyes as she went up on the stage to receive her certificate from Kirkpatrick. It was written all over Clydie Williams’ face and in Sarah Kenny’s smile. 

Early and Williams, both in their late teens, had been unable to graduate from their original high schools in 2005.  

“I didn’t because I wasn’t focusing enough,” said a wiser Williams. “This place made me think about my future. It helped me accomplish my goals. Today, I want to have a career in nursing.” 

Sarah, who lives in Santa Rosa, had made the trip to Berkeley to accept an honorary diploma on behalf of her father Paul Kenny, who drowned in a boating accident in the Berkeley Marina in February. 

“I am proud to be standing here today,” Kevin C. Broucaret said in his graduation speech. 

“Although many of us were unable to take part in our original high school graduations, we never gave up. Many of us will go on to become doctors, lawyers or work in corporations. Up until this year, I have never taken education so seriously. I have realized how important it is to receive credentials beyond a high school diploma.” 

In a room scattered with super moms and super dads and bright young adults waiting to go out and conquer the world, there were also those who had helped them get there. 

Students thanked vice principal Tom Orput. They thanked Betsy Hoyt, high school GED clerk Luci Rodriguez and teachers Lucia Owens and Dam Reamon. 

“This is an incredible place,” said Orput, and talked at length about the school’s famed Bread Project, a nine-week training program which teaches adults professional baking skills. 

“We have our very own cafe. Students make pastries, biscottis, bundts and lots of other amazing stuff. Some even end up with successful careers in baking.” 

As the auditorium exploded in cheers when the first graduate walked up get her diploma, families took their seats excitedly. 

“I don’t know what Marsha is graduating in,” said Shehee as she walked into the auditorium, “but I am going to see her graduate. If she goes on to Harvard, we will be right behind.” 

Photograph by Riya Bhattacharjee 

Aleijah, Aliyah and Jailen with their mom, Berkeley Adult School graduate Britnee Love.

On Sunday, June 3, the Berkeley High School Engineering Club (BHEC) designed, built, and successfully launched a trebuchet at the Albany Bulb. While BHEC may not strike a chord with most Berkeley residents, its presence is well known at the high school. 

“We had a great turnout,” said BHEC President John Stevick, 16. “We announced the event and got a lot of interested people to contribute to the cause.” 

The group launched a trebuchet, similar to a catapult, at the Albany Bulb, which runs along the water, making it an ideal location. The trebuchet was traditionally used as a medieval siege engine to smash masonry walls or throw projectiles over them. However, in this case, the trebuchet was built for educational purposes. 

The group spent a total of 10 hours aggressively building and launching their magnum opus. Their hard work started at the break of dawn in Albany and continued until the late afternoon. 

“We carried an actual ton of wood to the site, a half-mile from the parking lot,” said Stevick, describing their work. “When we arrived, everyone went straight to work and got the job done.” 

With the help of a local architect and a math professor, the BHEC has been holding meetings every Tuesday at their high school for the past academic year. They have been spending time planning and discussing ideas to construct an ideal trebuchet. After all this time, the group decided to test their masterpiece by an open shore. 

“We came, we saw, we conquered,” remarked BHEC Treasurer Connie Chan, 16. “I thought that the group planned it, prepared it, and executed it very well.” 

BHEC is a student-run organization, sponsored by Berkeley High School and the University of California’s Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honors society. The group is dedicated to the educational implementation of student engineering. In early 2006, Stevick brought together students interested in engineering and applied mathematics and founded the BHEC. The club is open to all interested students, regardless of previous engineering experience or skill.  

“We have a very large, diverse membership,” said Chan, 16. “Students from a variety of backgrounds came together in BHEC to concentrate their interests on a unifying topic: engineering.” 

Chan, described as a “natural” in engineering by others in the group, created a partnership between Berkeley High School and UC Berkeley. Her work has brought in donations from various groups, including Tau Beta Pi. 

“We’re very proud of the financial relationships we’ve been able to create,” said Stevick. “It wouldn’t be possible without the work of our treasurer, who works tirelessly to promote our club.” 

Many of the young engineers found that their successful launch of the trebuchet was a good first step, but that there is work yet to be done. 

“I thought that this was a good first project for all of us to learn and understand what we can accomplish as a team,” said Kyler Murlas, 17.” However, I hope that as a group, we continue to go above and beyond.” 

In the future, BHEC plans to host a variety of engineering events on their home turf in Berkeley. Interested contributors may send an e-mail to: john.stevick@gmail.com about possible donations. 

Photograph by Rio Bauce 

Members of the Berkeley High Engineering Club assemble a medieval trebuchet at the Albany Bulb on Sunday, June 3. This version of the engine was built in some 10 hours with a ton of wood and lots of planning and enthusiasm.

The Berkeley public schools could lose $60,000 in nutrition money in the new school year if the state legislature cuts funding from the California Fresh Start Program this month. 

Initiated in 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Fresh Start provides 10 cents for every school breakfast served that contains fresh fruits and vegetables. 

The program—which offers $18.2 million from the state general fund—aims at reducing obesity and diabetes among children. 

Although the governor approved $11.1 million in funds to take Fresh Start into the next school year, legislators are proposing to remove that amount to help cover a $366 million funding gap in the state budget. 

The proposal has perturbed parent groups, fresh food advocates and in particular Ann Cooper, Berkeley’s “Renegade Lunch Lady,” who has stepped up to the rescue. 

“There’s nothing the school district can do by itself,” Cooper, who heads Berkeley Unified’s school lunch program, told the Planet during a phone interview Wednesday, “but I am trying really hard to make the Legislature leave the money in the budget.” 

Cooper, a vociferous advocate of “eating fresh,” has been busy making calls to the Legislature and contacting the media to lobby against the budget cuts. 

Her biggest fear is that kids will be deprived of their fresh kiwis, strawberries and pears every morning if the cuts get approved. 

“We are expecting to hear something any time now, maybe even this week,” she said. 

“I am hoping for the best as I really don’t want to lose $60,000 worth of food,” she said. “That’s over 300,000 pieces of fruit.” 

School board vice president John Selawsky said that the school district was lobbying hard to keep the funding alive. 

“It’s horrible that the cuts have been proposed,” he told the Planet. “There’s nothing that gives you vitamins and minerals more than fresh fruit. We have spoken with our state assemblyperson and our state senator about this. People have also contacted the governor. This doesn’t just affect the school district, but also parents and providers of fresh fruit. The program is essential if we are going to have good nutritious food for our children. The governor has been touting fresh fruit and vegetables for students as one of his issues. And now they are going ahead and doing this. It’s like saying something and doing something completely different.” 

According to Cooper, the governor’s May 11 budget revision had a technical error which removed $366 million from education funding. 

“As a result, they are trying to balance the governor’s budget by doing this,” she said. 

Phyllis Bramson-Paul, director of nutrition services for the state Department of Education, told the Planet that it was possible that the program would be renewed. 

“It’s been a pilot program running for a year and preliminary evidence from Center for Weight and Health at the University of California, Berkeley has shown that it has met all its goals,” she said. 

“One of the goals was to promote fresh fruit and vegetables. Before the program, 26 percent of school breakfasts contained a serving of a fresh fruit or vegetable. After it was started, this saw an increase of 96 percent. Also, a huge portion of fruits purchased by the school districts were California grown. The program not only supports nutrition but also California agriculture.” 

Seventy-five percent of school breakfasts in the state make use of Fresh Start. This includes the Oakland Unified School District, the San Francisco Unified School District and the Alameda City Unified School District. 

Among California’s fifth, seventh and ninth graders, 28 percent were overweight in 2004. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified “eating additional servings of fresh fruits and vegetables as one of the four most effective obesity prevention strategies.” 

Selawsky said that he was hopeful that the legislature would figure out a way to reinstate the funds. 

“Until then, we will continue to lobby,” he said. “If they do go on to cut the funding entirely, then we would have to figure out our own source of funding our children’s fresh fruit and vegetables.”

The Alameda County Administrator’s office has issued a new county budget that closes a projected $52 million funding gap with no layoffs and no program cuts, but County Administrator Susan Muranishi warned reporters at a Wednesday briefing that the governor’s proposed “solution” to the state’s incarceration problem could throw her calculations out of whack. 

In addition, Muranishi said that the savings procedures used to balance this year’s budget may not be available if the county’s economic picture grows bleaker in coming years, and that in particular, steadily rising General Assistance costs may cause the county to come up with ways to curb its welfare program in the future.  

County general assistance cases per month are projected to jump 24 percent in the next two years (4,071 to 5,064), while SSI applications approved per year are expected to jump 79 percent in the same period (534 to 957). 

“Our case load is growing,” Muranishi said. “The supervisors are going to pull together a working group to address this problem. They won’t adopt any changes to general assistance when they adopt this year’s budget, but they will have to put something in place for next year.”  

County supervisors are scheduled to begin hearings on the proposed $2.36 Alameda County budget on June 26th. Muranishi called this year’s budget a “maintenance budget” that keeps services and programs intact, doing no more and no less. 

The county administrator’s guarded assessment puts Alameda County’s budget forecast decidedly ahead of the situation projected by the civil grand jury in neighboring Contra Costa County. In a report first highlighted on the East Bay Express 92510 Blog, the Contra Costa County Grand Jury is warning that county supervisors are courting financial disaster by failing to address the escalating cost of employee and retiree health benefits. 

Entitled “May Day, May Day, May Day! The County Drifts Ever Closer to the OPEB Rocks,” the Grand Jury report summary says that “Contra Costa County is facing a financial ‘perfect storm’ as the cost of medical and dental benefits granted to retirees are being driven upward by increases in the number of retirees, inflation, and costly advances in medical science. The County Board of Supervisors has not adequately addressed the financial obligations of the Other Post-Employment Benefits (‘OPEB’) facing the County and, as a result, is mortgaging the County’s future. Escalating retiree health care benefit costs are threatening the County’s financial condition, and with it the ability to deliver essential services.”  

In Alameda County, Muranishi believes that there are financial problems, but that the county is facing them. 

The administrator’s office estimated the $52 million shortfall last April, but closed that shortfall in the intervening two months with reductions across the board—$10 million apiece from general operations and the county Health Care Services Agency, $16 million apiece from public assistance and public protection. But only $6.4 million of those fund reduction strategies are ongoing and can be automatically used next year; the remaining $45.7 million in reductions are one-time strategies available for this year only. 

“There’s no guarantee that these savings can be replicated as our budgets get tighter,” Muranishi told reporters.  

In her letter to supervisors, Muranishi said that the lag in the state’s economy as well as state and federal budgetary problems paint a grim, though not catastrophic, picture for Alameda County’s budget. 

“The State’s economy continues to lag due to the downturn in the housing market,” she wrote. “Very slow economic growth is projected over the coming months, although the housing recession is not expected to spread into other business sectors. State’s Legislative Analyst predicts a multi-billion dollar State Budget operating deficit for FY 2007-08 that will continue into the next several fiscal years. At the same time, the President’s proposed Federal Fiscal Year 2008 Budget is not balanced and includes significant reductions in mandatory and discretionary spending for domestic programs in the upcoming and next several fiscal years. These trends, coupled with double digit increases in health and retirement benefit costs, have compounded the challenge of developing a balanced budget that preserves vital services.” 

Muranishi said that 25 percent of the county’s budget is non-restricted money that supervisors can use at their discretion. She added that with close to 60 percent of that money coming from property tax revenue, Alameda County is particularly vulnerable to downturns in the housing market. 

And a possible jump in the county’s incarcerated juvenile offenders also looms as a problem. 

Last December, as part of what he called a “comprehensive prison reform proposal,” Governor Arnold Schwarzen-egger proposed “placing some low-level and juvenile offenders in county facilities rather than state facilities to allow offenders who pose a minimal public safety risk to serve their sentences closer to their communities and families.” A press release by the governor’s office called this move “particularly important for juvenile offenders,” a position that was echoed by the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland-based progressive peace and justice advocacy organization, which said in a recent release that “for more than three years, we have been calling on Sacramento to close down California's abusive, expensive and woefully ineffective youth prison system. In his May revision to the state budget, Governor Schwarzenegger is looking to take us one step closer to that goal by permanently closing the DeWitt Nelson youth prison [in Stockton]. This is a major advance for our campaign. It’s becoming obvious to everyone, even the governor, that these prisons aren’t working and need to be closed entirely. A Department of Corrections spokesman said that they are already looking at closing the notorious [Heman G.] Stark [Youth Correctional Facility in Chino] next.” 

But Muranishi said the move to close state youth facilities and transfer some youth offenders back into the counties is a potential economic hit to Alameda County, with the size of the hit dependent upon the number of offenders transferred. 

“The governor is proposing to pay each county $94,000 per year, regardless of the county, for each youth inmate transferred to the county from a state youth facility under this program,” Muranishi said. “But our cost is $160,000 a year to house a juvenile offender. We will have to make up that shortfall.”

UC Berkeley’s plan to convert its historic six-acre Laguna Street Extension campus in San Francisco into a private rental-housing development moved a step forward when the San Francisco Planning Commission voted against recommending it as a local landmark last Thursday. 

First used as a city orphanage from 1854 until the San Francisco State Normal School was established in the 1920s to accommodate public school teachers, the campus has also served as the original home of San Francisco State University. 

Citing prohibitive maintenance costs to bring the campus up to current seismic and disability codes, the UC Regents closed the UC Extension building in 2004, and it has been sitting empty since then. 

The move by the university to hand it over to developers AF Evans for private use met with opposition from local preservationists as well as neighborhood groups who want to retain public zoning of the site. 

The SF Planning Department, the SF Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board and the State Historic Preservation Officer agreed the campus was eligible for Local Landmark Designation, but the planning commission voted 4-3 to not landmark it. 

Cynthia Servetnick, co-chair, American Institute of Certified Planners, told the Planet that the decision would most like be appealed to the Board of Supervisors. 

She added that the five-building campus qualifies for the National Register of Historic Places. The proposed plan calls for demolishing Middle Hall and the administrative wing of Richardson Hall. Fifteen percent of the proposed 450 residential rental units would be reserved for low-income tenants and would also include an 85-unit facility for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender seniors. 

Ruthy Bennett, vice president of AF Evans, informed the Planet in a letter last year that the project had met with a large amount of neighborhood support. 

New College of California has appealed the Market and Octavia Neighborhood environmental impact report (EIR)—which includes the six-acre public site as the largest developable parcel in the plan—because it failed to analyze the impacts of the proposed UC/AF Evans project on the plan and vice versa.  

The college has submitted an alternate plan in the project EIR that would preserve all the buildings and the current zoning.

This summer kids in Berkeley will be treated to free breakfast every day, courtesy of the Berkeley Unified School District. 

Four Berkeley public schools will serve Universal Breakfast from June to August to all children in the community.  

Martin Luther King and Willard middle schools—located on Rose and Stuart streets respectively—and Thousand Oaks and Cragmont elementary schools—on Colusa and Regal Road respectively—will open their doors every morning to any child who is hungry. 

“It’s open to any child who lives in the vicinity of these schools,” said Ann Cooper, who heads the school district’s lunch program. 

“We are already doing Universal Breakfast for our students, but this new program is going to be just great. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I am happy to see that something is being done to ensure that all kids get access to that.” 

Universal Breakfast was launched as a pilot program by Karen Candito, former food services director for the district, at LeConte Elementary School in 2005. It has caught on at other Berkeley public schools since then, the most recent of them being Berkeley Technology Academy (B-Tech). 

Funded through a federal grant and state reimbursements, the program aims to provide students with trans fat-free corn-syrup-free food in the morning. 

Cooper, who writes food menus for 10,000 students in Berkeley’s 16 public schools herself, has already made up a list of edibles she wants to serve at summer breakfast. Cereals, granola bars, fresh fruits and healthy muffins get top priority as do low-fat milk, yogurt and fruit juices.  

“I am not sure of the exact number, but I expect to feed a total of 300 children every day,” she said. “Cereal will be provided two days a week. On other days it may be a healthy muffin or a bagel.” 

School board vice president John Selawsky, who supported the program, called it a “great idea.” 

“There are many kids in the neighborhood who need access to a good breakfast in the morning,” he said. 

“We already have food available for kids attending summer school, so why not have it made available to all children? It’s going to start off as a pilot program. Hopefully, we will see it in all the schools in the future.” 

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said that the advent of the free breakfast program was vital information for families and neighborhoods in Berkeley. 

“It will be a seamless summer feeding program,” he said. “This means that all children in the neighborhood can eat breakfast at these sites for free, and they do not need to be enrolled in our program or our schools to participate. Like the Universal Breakfast that feeds Berkeley students during the school year, all children are served, and families do not have to qualify for the Free and Reduced program. The more participation, the more children that we serve, the better.”

Berkeley High School Vice Principal Pasquale Scuderi announced Thursday that the school had not met the benchmarks to receive an Annual Performance Index (API) score. The federal government requires a 95 percent participation rate in the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests. 

“I would say that the participation rate in the STAR testing was a little under 80 percent,” said Scuderi. 

Principal Jim Slemp reported that the state of California had previously allowed the adequate participation rate to be measured as 95 percent on the California High School Exit Exam and 85 percent on the STAR tests. However, that policy has changed.  

“It doesn’t look like they are going to allow us to do that this way again,” said Slemp. “Our students don’t just take a test because somebody says it’s a good idea. They make their own intelligent decisions and I don’t think that these tests are an accurate reflection of our school.” 

The state government allows students to opt-out of taking the STAR tests if they bring a note from their parent/guardian indicating their desires. Many students take advantage of that option, which brings down the API score. 

“I really don’t like taking the standardized tests,” said Delia Keller. “They don’t measure how smart you are and they’re really boring to sit through.” 

Slemp mentioned that according to a recent study in Newsweek magazine, Berkeley High ranked 284 nationally, above Bay Area schools such as Miramonte, Alcalanes, Palo Alto High, etc. 

Slemp said, “We are one of the best high schools in the country. It just shows the ridiculousness of this test. Under this standard, we are being categorized as underperforming and that’s just not true.” 

Scuderi concurred, “The idea of a common benchmark to measure student performance is a good impulse, but it needs considerable revision.”

It’s possible that democratic government as we’ve known it is on its way to becoming an endangered species in the United States of America, a richly endowed country that’s only managed to sustain itself for less than a quarter of a millennium so far. In Washington scoundrels of all descriptions, with Albert Gonzales the most prominent but by no means the only example, frolic with impunity in what used to be known as the federal government. While Gonzales has been busy dismantling the Justice Department, his allies have severely damaged the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, to name just two victim agencies. What’s remarkable is that no so-called expose by the press or even by congressional committees of the massive mischief of the Bush administration has made much difference. In a May 14 New Yorker piece that became an instant classic, George Packer asked: “Why has it become impossible to admit a mistake in Washington and accept the consequences?”  

Even in Berkeley, mistakes no longer seem to have consequences. A succession of city councils from both or all of the putative factions which have vied for control of City Hall, aided and abetted by a string of city managers with very different public personas, have managed to ignore the ongoing shenanigans in the Berkeley Housing Authority, unchecked by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development which has seen plenty of its own scandals in the last forty years or so. The one person who’s been on the scene the whole time, City-Attorney-for-Life Manuela Albuquerque, has issued a memo blaming everyone else in sight for everything that’s gone wrong, and all because her legal advice has always been ignored by those in power. She’s been on the job for more than 25 years, and one would think that she would have resigned after being dissed by management for 15 years or so, but evidently it’s finally getting to her. Unless, of course, the major problems finally surfacing started because her advice has usually been taken, and it’s usually poor. But in Berkeley, as in Washington, don’t look for anyone to admit their mistakes. 

Meanwhile, at its meeting last week the Berkeley City Council was its usual dysfunctional self. There were three major topics which the council should really have discussed in depth, but they all got short shrift in the rush to judgment. The mayor, like some of his colleagues now an affluent retiree, seemed eager to start his two-month summer vacation, usually devoted to world touring.  

The keys to the Housing Authority were turned over to a new set of hands without much ceremony except for a ritual sacrifice of guilty and innocent employees alike. Then a few minutes were devoted to a pro forma allocation of $50,000, presumably chump change in the city budget these days, to pay for an employee to draft a largely data-free implementation of the mayor’s pet program, the one designed to get the ugly poor folks out of the shopping districts.  

The poor folks and their friends protested, the shopping districts and their friends applauded, and it was all over in a hot minute. Councilmember Maio (the most reliable fourth vote on council) shed a few tears, perhaps crocodile, but that was all. If the city attorney has misadvised the council on the constitutional implications of this measure, as she did on an earlier version several years ago, we’ll just have to find out about it in court, to the tune of many hundreds of thousands of dollars more, as we did the last time. 

The smoke-screen over the council action was so successful, nevertheless, that the city’s new press officer felt obliged to issue a lengthy disclaimer later in the week regarding “the inaccuracies that have been reported in the last several days...While no new laws [emphasis sic] were passed Tuesday, the council’s action showed a clear determination to have a comprehensive approach to providing care to people who need it and a safe and comfortable street scene for everyone.” Unh-hunh.  

This was presumably aimed at correcting a triumphal communication earlier the same day from Kitchen Democracy, which claimed in an e-mail to its members that “On June 12, the Berkeley City Council voted to pass the mayor’s ‘Public Commons for Everyone Initiative.’” KD members, all users of high-speed Internet connections and none of them homeless, had endorsed the mayor’s plan, 251-30, and that’s what counts, legalities to the contrary not withstanding.  

The KD endorsement also figured prominently in another council non-action. In a bit of byplay that even experienced council observers found hard to follow, the majority of voting councilmembers asked to have a public hearing on a sizable project now planned for the city’s commercial gateway at Ashby and College, but they lost out because Wozniak, the councilmember for the affected district, had been lobbying for the project from its earliest days on the KD website. On the advice of the city attorney (she’s popping up everywhere these days) he managed to duck the vote (thus possibly avoiding offending his constituents among a number of nearby Elmwood residents who oppose the plan.) Capitelli also ducked on her advice, because he has Elmwood real estate interests. Without the numeric possibility of five votes from the nine-member council the hearing was automatically defeated, even though it got a majority of the votes of those allowed to vote.  

Did you follow that? Probably not. 

The sad circumstance here is that the Elmwood commercial district had pioneered an ordinance, the Neighborhood Commercial Preservation Ordinance, aimed at preserving neighborhood-serving shopping districts, but the variances granted by the Zoning Adjustments Board for this project simply ignored it. The pros and cons of this particular building or of the bar proposed for it are not terrifically important to the city as a whole, but the policy implication of the Zoning Adjustments Board’s decision for the future of sustainable retail within walking distance of homes deserves a full airing at the council level.  

Once again specious advice from the city attorney has been allowed to choke off necessary public debate in Berkeley. The Planet got an irate e-mail from an experienced local attorney because we inadvertently said that the city attorney had “ruled” on the question. Of course he’s completely right: Despite popular misuse of the term, city attorneys don’t “rule” on anything, they just issue opinions, and they’re often wrong.  

But 25 years of what might be called misrule by the current Berkeley city attorney have conditioned councilmembers to take her word as law. Our correspondent’s view of what happens: 

“Manuela’s legal opinions, although mostly unwritten, are like an addiction. She hooks city councilmembers, who don’t even know they are being manipulated by only listening to her views. This includes incorrect, even absurd legal views, plus intrusions into the realm of policy.” He gave as one example the mumbo-jumbo surrounding the city’s secret settlement of the lawsuit over the university’s long-term development plans, which has produced another lawsuit against the city. He suggests that all of the city attorney’s opinions (not her “rulings”) should be in writing, and that councilmembers should be authorized to get a second opinion at city expense if they want one. An easier course might be to find a new city attorney who knows the difference between legal advice and management decisions, which the current incumbent in the office appears to have forgotten.  

Heralded as a clean break with an inglorious past, a new board took the reins Tuesday of the “troubled” Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) and began immediately to plan to govern the 1,800 federally-funded Section 8 apartments and 75 units of public housing.  

The new body will be semi-autonomous. The City Council plus two tenants, which made up the old board, rarely spent more than an hour per month—often much less—on BHA business and willingly relinquished its authority in the hope that changes would convince the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) not to put the agency into receivership. 

But some charge that other changes were made with a sledgehammer. The city manager and/or the city attorney determined, as written in a May 22 report signed by City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, that all of the BHA staff should be laid off because they were responsible for numerous errors, including renting to dead tenants.  

(Attorneys at the Community Law Center have since told the Planet they believe “dead tenant” cases can be explained as family members continuing to live in apartments where the deceased was the tenant of record. The Daily Planet is attempting to look into this issue independently, to determine whether misreporting was the fault of the landlord, the tenant or the BHA worker, but has been unable to obtain the relevant documentation because Albuquerque has denied the paper’s Public Records Act request.) 

The housing authority “has been butchered,” Section 8 tenant David Collins told the council/BHA board, during a public comment period. “It’s criminal what you have done,” he said, referring to the laid-off workers. 

Albuquerque’s critique did not spare management. In a scathing June 6 memo she faulted City Manager Phil Kamlarz, who served as BHA executive director, Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna, former Housing Director Steve Barton—forced to resign June 5—an unnamed acting housing manager, and nonprofit Affordable Housing Associates for the agency’s “troubled” status. 

New body linked to city 

The new body will maintain close links to the city government. The board was chosen by Mayor Tom Bates and includes the same two tenants who served on the former board. The plan to guide the transition from the council to the new board was written by City Manager Kamlarz. New Executive Director Tia Ingram is a former managerial employee with BHA and she has recently been on board for almost 11 months as acting BHA director/assistant to the city manager. Her monthly salary will range from $8,100 to $10,700 plus about 50 percent benefits. 

Kamlarz said he would continue to advise and support the agency, which will depend on some city services such as payroll and personnel. 

While Albuquerque sat with the new board and gave them counsel Tuesday, moving around the table to whisper into BHA manager Tia Ingram’s ear once or twice, Kamlarz said she would not be advising the new board after July 1. 

Neither will she be continuing the investigation into missteps at the housing authority, leaving that function to a HUD investigator, he said. 

“How is this board going to get accurate legal advice instantaneously?” asked Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the only councilmember to vote against the city manager/city attorney’s transition plan. Worthington said he did not support blanket staff layoffs or the forced resignation of the housing director. 

In a phone interview Wednesday, Kamlarz said the housing authority director for Monterey County, Jim Nakishima, who volunteered to help for a few days with reorganization efforts, has recommended an outside attorney.  

A council investigation into the agency will be formally proposed in the next few weeks by Councilmembers Gordon Wozniak and Worthington. Kamlarz said such investigation should take place only after the 120-day transition period has concluded. 

Now “we don’t want another group of people in there,” Kamlarz said Wednesday. “Our first priority is to get the housing authority on track.” Responding to a question, he said correcting any errors that may have been in preliminary reports would be “down the road.”  

Moving On 

After the City Council approved the transition plan, City Clerk Pamyla Means swore in the new board, which immediately began work, with Carole Norris, appointed by Bates as chair, nominating Melissa Male as vice chair. Norris has 20 years professional experience working in affordable housing and Male works for Bates’ wife, Assemblymember and former Berkeley mayor Loni Hancock, in constituent services.  

The most important item on the new board’s plate was approving the transition plan. Part of that plan was accepting an infusion of some $950,000 from the city. 

“Some of the items have conditionals attached,” said Adolph Moody, one of the tenant members of the board, referring to the fact that in order to get the $950,000 the board was required to accept conditions imposed by the city manager. 

Albuquerque counseled the board to adopt the plan. “The City Council in prior action extended the subsidy on the condition that you agree [with the transition plan],” she said. 

Accepting the funding was part of the plan; accepting the plan was conditioned on accepting the money. 

“If we don’t accept it, there’s no money,” said Michael McBride, a pastor and student services coordinator at the city’s alternative high school.  

“This was put together with a lot of thought,” Kamlarz said. 

Moody abstained and the six others, Norris, Male, McBride, former city manager Wise Allen, Department of Justice attorney Marjorie Cox and tenant representative Dorothy Hunt voted to approve it. 

At the beginning of the meeting, citizens had lined up to address the board and council, some making suggestions for the transition, others decrying the forced resignation last week of former Housing Director Stephen Barton. 

Public speaks out 

Speaking for BASTA, Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes, Marie Bowman called on the board to turn BHA over to Alameda County to save money on administration. 

The BHA administration is funded as part of the overall HUD grant, most of which goes to Section 8 landlords to subsidize market rents. Funds available for administration have declined over the years.  

Tenants told the board they fear the Housing Authority of Alameda County taking over the agency because they could be told to use their housing vouchers outside of Berkeley. 

Service Employees International Union 1021 Field Team Supervisor Andre Spearman is working to see that laid-off BHA employees, who will be offered vacant jobs in the city, are treated according to union rules. The problems with HUD go far beyond Berkeley, he said, adding, “We need to be talking to [Rep.] Barbara Lee.”  

Marcia Levenson, a former Section 8 tenant, called on the body to have the Housing Authority of Alameda County, rather than costly consultants, run the Berkeley agency. This would be different from the agency taking over BHA as BASTA had suggested.  

In this scenario, some county housing authority workers would be stationed in Berkeley. “That would preserve the current 1,800 vouchers of tenants we have in Berkeley,” she said. 

And Levenson called for “a full investigation of what led to the resignation of Steve Barton.” 

Housing Advisory Commissioner Steve Wollmer, speaking on his own behalf, said: “As a city we have lost a valuable advocate for affordable housing,” he said. “Steve [Barton] led not only with his mind, but with his heart.” 

“Steve Barton was an ethical public servant, a true partner in affordable housing projects,” added Susan Friedland, executive director of Affordable Housing Associates. Friedland strongly criticized the June 6 city attorney memo that disparaged the quality of AHA’s management of the public housing units.  

In a four-page letter to the City Council, Friedland said the attorney “conflates two distinct issues—maintenance and capital improvements” and quoted from the agreement her organization works under, which says: “Routine maintenance services do not include capital improvements.” 

AHA has detailed records of all the maintenance work performed for the housing authority, said Friedland, noting that “AHA has not once been contacted by the city attorney to give our input or answer questions regarding these complicated issues.” 

Photograph by Judith Scherr 

Housing Authority Board is sworn in: left to right Wise Allen, Michael McBride, Adolph Moody, Marjorie Cox, Dorothy Hunt and Melissa Male. The new Chair Carole Norris is not pictured.

JAZZ IS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The argument over whether or not there are “qualified” black jazz artists in the Bay Area overlooks the fact that many a technically qualified black musician decided years ago to desert the jazz scene when its ambiance changed from one of boisterous joy to the quite reserve found at a string quartet recital. But the musicians did not desert jazz. They injected their beloved be-bop into pop, soul and funk songs. Among innumerable examples is “Dance to the Music” by Sly and the Family Stone. The group sings, “Dance to the Music” followed immediately by a sax riff worthy of Charlie Parker. 

In the 1960s and 1970s the moves to pop and funk by seasoned jazz artists were roundly criticized by the official pundits of “jazz.” The emphasis by the pundits upon reproduction of the classic formats intellectualized the product. Whereas jazz emerged a century ago as a music to get your booty shaking and the audience shouting and clapping, we now have Anna DeLeon’s jazz club where the audience is given written instructions to be silent during the performance. 

Ted Vincent 

Author, Keep Cool: The Black Activists Who Built the Jazz Age 

• 

BERKELEY/ROCKRIDGE SOLAR PROJECT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A city-wide large-scale solar project is under consideration for Berkeley and Rockridge. We met last week at Willard Middle School and the next informational meeting is 10 a.m. Saturday, July 21 at the Live Oak Park Rec Center in North Berkeley. Now is your chance to find out if your home or business is a good candidate for solar power. Joining with your neighbors can result is substantial savings. For more information about the Berkeley/Rockridge program, go to www.solarcity.com/Default.aspx?tabid=219. You can register for the meeting and request a free assessment of your home or business at that site. Hope to see as many people as possible at the next meeting. 

Linda Schacht 

P.S.: Since when is there an Elmwood Neighborhood Association? (Council Passes on Wright’s Garage, June 14) Elmwood has always been part of CENA, the Claremont - Elmwood Neighborhood Association. Now we hear there is a separate Elmwood group that opposes John Gordon’s plans to reuse the Wright’s Garage site. I believe this is an ad hoc group, with few members, attempting to represent themselves as THE Elmwood Neighborhood Association. There is no such thing. 

• 

MILLION-DOLLAR SYSTEM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On June 20, the School Board will vote on whether to pursue a million-dollar solar photovoltaic system for the rooftop of Washington School. In prior discussions of this proposal, board members have rightly asked why this project, which has not gone through normal procedural channels, should leap ahead of a long list of prioritized needs that exist throughout the district, including those at Washington. The compelling response is that we must address the global warming crisis that is upon us, even if we have to sacrifice limited education dollars.  

But that response implies a false choice—that our only option is to invest in the “Cadillac” of greenhouse-gas reducing measures. If the Board chooses to vote no, it will be properly representing the interests of both the school district and the planet IF it also commits itself to invest in the enormous untapped opportunities that the district has for reducing energy waste. These investments will reduce far more greenhouse gases for each dollar spent than would the proposed solar system, returning dollars far more quickly to our constrained school budget. 

The Washington School PTA adopted a resolution at its May meeting that supports the implementation of a solar system conditionally, “as the culmination of a multifaceted plan to make Washington School an example of energy efficiency and long-term cost saving … [and] one of many steps in a comprehensive program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions district-wide.” We are a long way from there.  

Were the board to begin its greenhouse gas reduction strategy with the proposed solar project, it would be akin to a family spending its limited income on a Cadillac for transportation, leaving no money for health insurance. The responsible thing, of course, would be to buy the health insurance and a Toyota. Likewise, the School Board can—and should—direct the administration to invest in better insulation, replacement of antiquated ventilation systems, installation of smart lighting controls and the like, which can dramatically reduce environmental impact while bolstering our school budget through reduced PG&E bills. 

Once the district is on the road to plugging all of its energy drains, it can revisit the “Cadillac” of greenhouse-gas reducing measures. But to expend limited public education dollars before plugging those drains would be inappropriate. 

Nancy Rader 

Dick Norgaard 

Jamie Greenblatt 

Washington School parents 

• 

‘HELPLESS VICTIMS’ 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The people at the UK’s trade union, behind the boycotting of Israeli academics, must feel rather stupid now—or at least embarrassed. They were concerned about the “moral implications” of how Israel treats Palestinians. This week, as Hamas took over Gaza, British academics saw, again, the immoral implications of how Palestinians treat Palestinians.  

Media reports show the “brave, heroic” Hamas fighters (with their faces hidden) posing with the feet on Mahmoud Abbas’s vacated chair, looting and stealing, using laptops with names of rival Fatah members, (more than 100 were killed last week), and executing anyone who disagrees with them. And all in the name of Allah. 

The union of British journalists also have mud on their faces. Three months ago their fellow journalist was kidnapped by Palestinians, who haven’t bothered even to say whether he’s alive or dead. Instead of demanding that the Palestinians release Johnston, a pro-Palestinian reporter, his British colleagues decided to boycott Israeli fruits and vegetables. That should make Johnston feel good. 

Several years ago, Israel left every inch of Gaza, including infrastructure to help the Palestinians to begin launching and governing their own state. They turned their potential state to Hamas, who was more interested in rockets that kill Israelis than in helping Palestinians achieve a two-state solution. Now Hamas occupies Gaza and is creating an Islamic, terrorist state. 

One wonders why Gaza is still an “impoverished area with an imminent humanitarian crisis.” One wonders why rich Arab countries—instead of American taxpayers—don’t pick up the tab for their Palestinians brothers. Or why Iran, who bankrolls Hamas, deliberately keeps Palestinians as “helpless victims.” 

June Brott 

Oakland 

• 

RACIST DIATRIBE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the Berkeley Landmark Commission meeting on June 7 and was appalled and insulted by the racist diatribe of Commissioner Gary Parsons in his attempt to validate his no vote regarding landmark status for the BHS gym building.  

As a former 33-year resident of Berkeley, a BHS graduate, and an African-American, I take great offense to his racist remarks; however, I guess the elephant in the room, racism at BHS, is finally standing up, raising its trunk and bellowing loud and clear. 

When I attended BHS, we where required to swim. We also had access to playing tennis, taking art, pottery, and etc. classes. We were also proud to be attending an accredited high school that really seemed to care about our academic achievements in spite of the color of our skin. Now all the School Board seems to care about is their jazz ensemble and a lot of sports fields, which obviously, in their estimation, is all that African-Americans can excel at. How many sports fields does one high school need? And why aren’t students swimming in the new pool on campus? 

The statement by Commissioner Parsons that when he took a tour of the BHS gym “all but one of the kids using the building were students of color”…I think that the ghetto-ization of this part of the student population….” While not only stupid and racist begs the question what the heck does that have to do with the BHS gym structure itself and its qualifications for landmark status? Where is the correlation? 

His making an issue of race in a landmark process is pathetic and says a lot about his character, qualifications, and the integrity of his even being on the Landmark Commission which is supposed to consider architectural issues which be also seemed to twist and misrepresent. For shame!  

Juanita Kirby 

Former BHS Student 

Oakland 

• 

BATES HOTEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Bates Hotel and Condo Complex is coming to Center and Shattuck? 

Horrors! This is scarier than Hitchcock. 

I am tired of hearing this project—which was first “a necessary part of a university conference center” and now must be 50 percent condos to “pencil out”—presented as though it were a fait accompli, or simply not discussed.  

The project is simply out of scale with downtown Berkeley and would be bad. It would seriously impinge on the views from the Berkeley campus and the Campanile, and the lower portions of the North Berkeley Hills. It would loom over most of downtown, and particularly Center Street, which we (our elected officials, the Planning Commission, DAPAC, and many local activists) are considering making a pedestrian-friendly mall or walk street. 

I would like to announce my strong and vocal opposition, and I would encourage those of you who are similarly inclined to make your opinions known publicly, and to the city Planning Commission and City Council (including the mayor). It may be appropriate and necessary for us to take initiative and electoral action to reduce this project to a scale that fits in downtown Berkeley, rather than one that takes us closer to “the sky’s the limit.” 

As I understand from reading the city’s maps of current zoning, the sky is not the limit—five stories is. 

Bob Sarnoff 

• 

UNIVERSITY AS NATURAL ALLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Recently there have been various articles about the success of university and community partnerships in cities such as Philadelphia (“University City gets rave review: A report touts job and retail growth. And the area feels safer and cleaner.” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 18).  

The formula is always the same: a community that is willing to trust the university to do the right thing, a university interested in improving its surroundings because it benefits the quality of life of faculty, staff and students, and politicians that want the partnership to work because it helps their community and voters. 

Berkeley fails in all of these requirements. We have a group of so called “progressives” that remember a university from the ’60s that they refuse to ever trust and therefore constantly see as an antagonist, not a natural partner. A university that feels backed into a corner and tries to protect itself from attacks by not being as open as it could or should be. And, finally, a representative to City Council who uses the university as a threat to justify his opposition to any changes in the community even if it means keeping the area poor, dirty and unsafe. These intimidation tactics such as a refusal to allow higher density housing near the university which we as students, faculty and employees desperately need, a refusal to allow “chain stores” to open (such as a Borders to replace Cody’s), a refusal to allow the university to clean up people’s park have made Telegraph Avenue a failed community. I know, I live on Telegraph. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia an area that was almost as bad as Telegraph is now revitalized and well on the way to success. Do we want to learn from them or just continue in our status quo of failure? 

Marlon Maus 

• 

POPULATION AND  

ENVIRONMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Many people fail to recognize the important connection between population and the environment, but that connection is there, it is real, and it needs to be acknowledged. 

Through everyday activities human beings not only contribute to global warming by releasing carbon emissions into the air, we change the actual surface of the earth, and with that, affect everything that depends on that surface for life. As of 2000 humans have altered two-thirds of Earth’s inhabitable surface; loss of wildlife and open space result from human’s need to take up more space. Overdraw and run-off from human related activities has considerably degraded/depleted the world’s fresh water supply. Humans depend on these things not only for sustaining life, but for creating a quality of living that makes lives better. Population growth ensures continued alteration, thus a continued depletion of availability for enhanced quality of life for all.  

I want to encourage readers to first off recognize the extent that population growth affects the environment and secondly push for stabilizing this population growth as a part of the struggle to maintain a happy, healthy quality of life.  

Your actions matter. By simply keeping the population connection in mind while voting on family planning issues, you can make a difference. You can make an even bigger difference by educating others, be it your friend, spouse, child, or parent. Imagine if you can affect the future of the world, how much all of you could do.  

Georgia Gann 

• 

REFORM HOUSING POLICY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ex-housing czar Steve Barton and BASTA’s Marie Bowman had a rare moment of convergence last week when they both called for Alameda County to take over the Berkeley Housing Authority. I agree that it’s time to say “Basta!” to BHA. If this had happened in 1999, when BHA’s corruption and incompetence first surfaced, Berkeley taxpayers (that’s us) would have saved the $2 million that BHA went on to squander.  

Seize the moment for reform. 

The meltdown of Berkeley’s Housing Department raises a host of questions about who knew what when. BHA may be the tip of iceberg, so these questions need answers. But there’s a parallel opportunity that Berkeley should not overlook. Our housing policy can and should be revamped to reflect the city’s current realities. Along with folding BHA into the Alameda County Housing Authority, two other reforms should be considered: 

Encourage Grassroots Projects and Ownership: Berkeley’s housing policy is locked into a mindset that was cast in stone with the publication of The City’s Wealth, a blueprint for red ink, in the 1970s. The Brower Center/Oxford St. project, a budgetary slashed artery ($6 million and climbing), exemplifies the follies of the City’s desire to play developer. Berkeley’s housing policy needs to encourage the grassroots creation of in-law units, modest additions, and reasonably scaled new projects where infill sites allow. It needs to encourage standing tenants and owners of TIC units to convert to condos by waiving the onerous fees that stand between them and owner-occupied housing. This is the fastest and least costly way to provide affordable housing options in Berkeley for the younger households that are the real future of our community as vibrant place and economy.  

Make Rent Control Part of Housing: Despite the constant diminishment of its activities, Berkeley’s Rent Board commands a $3 million budget for the routine handling of some 19,000 rental units (out of about 40,000 in total). The Board charges $170 per unit per year, up from $156 last year, of which only $1.00 per month can be reimbursed (through an onerous process). There is no evidence that the added service or protections offered justify the cost. Making the Rent Board part of Housing and paring staff to reflect the Board’s real activities would bring its fees in line with fair and reasonable benchmarks elsewhere in the region—$20 in San Francisco (half reimbursable) and $24 in Oakland. 

Like the 1989 earthquake, the current crisis can still get us to a better place. Existing housing policy is our Embarcadero Freeway—it’s time to tear it down and start anew. Consolidating the City’s housing roles, bringing its housing budgets and activities in line with reality, and encouraging the broad-based creation of affordable housing will honor Berkeley’s liberal, family-friendly tradition—without corruption or budgetary red ink.  

John Parman  

• 

STEVE BARTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Why care whether Stephen Barton is more of an idealist or an ideologue (see Planet, June 8)? It’s amusing to observe how Berkeley’s “Dead Tenants” escapade parallels Gogol’s “Dead Souls” in Tsarist Russia, cca 1842. But of more immediate concern to us is that fellow El Cerritan Barton, may soon spend not just nights and weekends, but also his days in our town. 

A year ago, Stephen Barton was the lone voice of El Cerrito City Hall support. I forget whether it was in favor of in of a massive housing project at The Plaza (to generate some $500,000/year for Redevelopment while ignoring the worsening Plaza traffic circulation mess), or in favor of increasing the City’s tax take. Maybe both. 

This is what I wrote in the “Plazaneighbors” Yahoo listserver, April 20, 2006: 

Barton said: “I came down to thank the Council for the hours you put in and the grief you take, for no pay (??????). I bought at the top of the market and am willing to be taxed six to ten times as much as my neighbors. The Council is doing the best it can with a very unfair system. The anti- people have it all tied up, and I’m willing to have them look up my name and address, and all of that.” 

So I did. A minute of Googling revealed that Stephen is a City of Berkeley Manager, its “Director of Housing,” now living way uphill, in El Cerrito. 

He is surely capable of looking out for his own interests if he chose to buy in El Cerrito “at the top if the market.” Before that, did he sell in Berkeley or Albany at the top of the market? It seems he started out there years before, as senior planner. Now, I’m told, he’s beginning to cut back and may wish to retire. Why suddenly come out of “nowhere” to be the sole City-Hall promoting flag-waver? I’d bet that what he’s angling for is consulting work, to advise us on how to spend the millions of dollars accumulating in El Cerrito’s redevelopment fund. 

Now, a year later, we’ll see if Barton will turn the Berkeley Housing mess to his advantage and seek pre-retirement sinecure refuge in “tranquil” El Cerrito. Proving that nowadays, city planners mainly plan their own careers. Consummate bureaucrats can sing with the “progressive angels” (?), howl with the “conservative wolves” (?), but always make sure they land on their feet while public money goes to waste.  

It’s not about ideals and ideology, it’s all about self-serving self-righteousness. 

Peter Loubal 

El Cerrito

“Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) is AC Transit’s plan to take over two lanes of Telegraph Avenue and eliminate up to 315 Berkeley parking spaces for humongous buses traveling from downtown San Leandro to downtown Berkeley. The draft environmental impact report (EIR) for this project, available at the library or from AC Transit, is a real eye-opener and an amusing read. 

BART, the only truly rapid local transportation, runs underground or on elevated tracks, and encounters no cross traffic. Its trains can therefore go up to 80 miles per hour, without endangering lives. Telegraph Avenue has a speed limit of 25 miles per hour in Berkeley. People live on this avenue, unlike the BART tunnel where no humans reside.  

I think I finally understand why traffic lights appeared on Telegraph Avenue at Russell and Stuart streets about a year ago, against the wishes of neighbors. Intersections with no traffic lights would be a problem for BRT’s monster buses. Pesky pedestrians think they have the right to cross the street in crosswalks. But traffic lights will be magically programmed to turn green, or stay green longer, when a bus approaches. 

Known as “transit signal priority,” this manipulation of stoplights is already in effect on San Pablo Avenue, reportedly with great success. However, the buses seem to be going about 40 miles per hour. Cars travel at similar speeds whenever a bus is nearby. Have police been told to ignore speeding vehicles on San Pablo Avenue to make this program seem like a good idea? 

If BRT buses are required to obey traffic safety laws on Telegraph, I doubt they will be much faster than the existing buses—and with way fewer stops than current service provides, they are most unlikely to attract drivers into buses. 

Riding AC Transit is costly. Lowering the prices, or providing eco-passes would do much more to persuade people to ride than a top-down “build it and they will come” (unless of course they don’t) source of unintended consequences. 

And who are the teaming hoards who wish to commute from downtown San Leandro to Berkeley? If they existed, why wouldn’t they just take BART, and travel rapidly on trains that are way more comfortable than the huge and hated VanHool buses? 

When I first heard about the plan to close two lanes of Telegraph Avenue (and parts of Shattuck), it sounded so loony that I thought this plan couldn’t really be in the works. During the 1970s and 1980s when traffic diverters were placed on residential streets, Telegraph and Shattuck Avenues were designated as arteries to keep cross-town traffic out of neighborhoods. Closing any portion of either street makes no sense at all. 

The plans for BRT have been chugging along behind the scenes for quite a while. Over the last year, strange alterations to Telegraph Avenue have appeared that were inexplicable until I read the EIR for this project.  

The EIR makes it very clear what BRT is all about. Here is a sample from page S-18, “Project would support intensified corridor development that is consistent with regional Smart Growth and transit-oriented development policies….” and from page 2-49, “Moreover, Telegraph Avenue has more opportunities for redevelopment that would meet the project need as described in Chapter 1.” There are scores of other similar statements in the EIR. 

In fact, the words “development” or “redevelopment” are used at least 179 times in the EIR, all in the context that increasing density along this route is a laudable goal. This project is a ruse, using transit “improvements” to encourage and enable yet more of the massive development so loved by our Mayor (and the money behind him), and so hated by an increasingly large segment of the Berkeley population. 

If BRT sounds like a bad idea to you, call, write or e-mail our City Council members and let them know how you feel. If you want more information, sign up to the “BRT E-mail Alert list” at: BerkeleyBRTalert@mail.org. Believe it or not, BRT is not a done deal (although it certainly would be a dumb deal). 

Gale Garcia is a long-term Berkeley  

resident who travels to work by bicycle. 

Over the past year and a half I have learned about the proposal from AC Transit to install a “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) program to connect San Leandro to Oakland to Berkeley. We are now near the end of the review period for the environmental impact statement/report (EIS/R) on the project. (You can read the EIS/R at www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=42622c20.)  

On June 15 there were three opinion pieces in the Daily Planet, all in support of the project. None of these articles gave a description of the project. I doubt that most Berkeley residents who will be affected by this proposal are aware of it. At the meetings I have attended, most of the positive comments have come from people who belong to specific advocacy groups and live at a distance to the project. Most of the people with concerns come from the neighborhoods that will be directly affected by it. The comment period on the EIS/R expires at the beginning of July, so if you want to have any input, you need to do it now. 

First, everyone needs to understand the current plan for BRT. The first stage will be to inaugurate the “Rapid Bus” system on Telegraph Avenue and on into downtown. These Rapid Buses will make limited stops and will have the ability to change a traffic signal from red to green as they approach an intersection with a light to ease their way down the road. There is already a “Rapid Bus” route along San Pablo that has been very well received. 

Once the rest of the money is raised (estimated at $330 to $400 million), AC Transit plans to modify Telegraph Avenue by taking the two middle lanes for an exclusive bus lane in each direction, separated from the other lanes by a curb, add stations every third of a mile, remove street parking as needed at each station location, and shift all other traffic into the remaining one lane each way—all cars, trucks, “Rapid Bus,” local bus service and emergency vehicles. The BRT will run from near the downtown Berkeley BART station on Shattuck, run through the Southside neighborhood and on to Telegraph Avenue (exact route to be determined), and proceed down Telegraph to Broadway in downtown Oakland, turn east on 14th Street, and continue to one of two alternative BART stops in San Leandro.  

If you look at the EIS/R without first putting on rose-colored glasses, you will notice some marked deficiencies in the analysis. The EIS/R looks at every conceivable impact of the project except for the impact of this system on the residential neighborhoods adjacent to the proposed BRT route. At this time Telegraph Avenue carries approximately twice the amount of traffic that is carried by College Avenue Removing one traffic lane in each direction will be like having Telegraph Avenue volume traffic drive on a street the size of College Avenue In addition, since the BRT buses will speed down the middle two lanes of the road, left turns will be curtailed at most intersections. When the traffic on Telegraph Avenue backs up, many drivers will be sorely tempted to make a right turn at the next intersection and cut through the neighborhood on the first street they encounter. AC Transit says they can mitigate all the impacts of this project, but so far I have not heard how they intend to solve this problem. Their report shows all sorts of lovely before and after pictures of what the streets along the route will look like after BRT is built. The problem is that these pictures show only two or three cars, which is not representative of realistic traffic volume. The solution in the EIS/R to the removal of approximately 150 parking spaces along Telegraph Avenue at the station locations is to move this parking to the adjacent side streets by installing parking meters, presumably in front of homes. 

The BRT system is being sold as a way to get many more people to ride the bus. The ride will be shorter, and the increased congestion will encourage car drivers to abandon their vehicles and take the bus. What AC Transit has failed to acknowledge is that the Berkeley to Oakland to San Leandro corridor is already served by many bus lines and BART and will soon get the Rapid Bus. The vast majority of riders on the BRT will be people who switch from BART or another bus line, not from people who are driving. If you are going where the BRT goes, you can already get there by public transportation. Speakers at the meeting last night suggested that a better way to get more people to ride would be to lower fares and/or stop buying any more Van Hool buses. 

The first meeting I attended about BRT a few years ago praised this system as being a low cost substitute for a rail system. BRT supporters point out how successful BRT systems have been in other cities in the United States and abroad. But they fail to acknowledge that we already have a rail system (BART) that works well and we don’t need a substitute. I think that AC Transit would serve the community better if it would design its service to compliment the BART system what we already have rather than build a system that will compete with it.  

We can have almost all of the advantages of the BRT system without spending the estimated $400 million it would cost by just implementing the “Rapid Bus” system. AC Transit lays this comparison out well by listing the advantages of “Rapid Bus”, called “No-Build alternative” on page 4-62 of the EIS/R and the disadvantages of the BRT “Build” alternative on pages 4-63 to 64.  

As long as I have lived here, the goal for transportation planning in Berkeley has been to get traffic out of the neighborhoods and concentrate it on the major roads. The BRT plan for Telegraph Avenue does just the opposite. It allows buses to take over most of Telegraph Avenue, the main north-south transportation corridor between Berkeley and Oakland, and drive the rest of the traffic onto the streets in the adjacent neighborhoods. 

Finally, the argument is made that we need to build the BRT because if we don’t, we will lose this money. What ever the local communities and AC Transit decide to build today will shape the way this part of the East Bay looks like in 2025 and on. This is an extremely important decision. I think that using this money to build this inflexible, neighborhood destroying limited transit corridor will be a terrible waste of taxpayer money. From the analysis contained in the EIS/R, we would reap almost all the benefits predicted just by using the “Rapid Bus” stage alone. I would much rather not spend the money for the fully implemented BRT system than to spend it with the damage I foresee it causing. I hope that the decision between the “Build” and “No Build” alternatives will be made for the benefit of all the community and not just for the benefit of AC Transit. 

Mary Oram is resident of Berkeley’s Willard neighborhood. 

Ignore all the diesel smoke and rumbling around AC Transit’s misnamed “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) proposal to take over two lanes of Telegraph Avenue, and two striking facts stand clear. 

First, as we’ll see from AC Transit’s own recent environmental study, BRT threatens real damage to Berkeley neighborhoods and businesses, yet promises almost no tangible benefits to the public. 

The only clear beneficiary is AC Transit itself, which would get a new stream of subsidies. While we all want stable transit funding, there are less-destructive ways to deliver $400 million in pork barrel. 

Second, and even more strikingly: A slightly modified plan—based on best practices elsewhere—could deliver broad benefits, with no detriments to anyone. It would also save most of that $400 million for worthier rapid-transit projects, which would do some real good for global warming and the environment. Think of that as Berkeley’s buying itself a big “carbon credit.” 

This alternative, which I’ll describe below, might be called “Rapid Bus with low-tech Proof of Payment.” But since that’s a mouthful, I’ll abbreviate it as “Rap with PoP.” 

If Berkeley’s decisionmakers are working for us—not in the service of a perennially broken bus agency, nor of some outmoded car-hating dogma—they’ll reject AC Transit’s proposed land grab, and demand a pragmatic alternative like Rap with PoP. 

What’s not right with BRT on Telegraph? AC Transit answered that question last month in its draft environmental statement (www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=42622c20) 

That study shows BRT delivering only “negligible” changes in overall energy usage (page 4-152). It also shows only negligible reductions in air pollutants: just three one-hundredths of one percent, by 2025 (page 4-131). 

How would BRT affect greenhouse-gas emissions? By extrapolation, hardly at all. 

For transit riders, this BRT proposal offers only minimal benefits. It would run just one to six blocks beside the existing BART line, for its entire length. AC Transit’s preferred spacing for Berkeley BRT “stations” (a half-mile) would be almost as wide as BART’s (a mile). 

This “rapid” route isn’t even very rapid: From Berkeley’s to Oakland’s downtown, AC Transit estimates only five to seven minutes’ savings. From Berkeley down to Bayfair BART, AC Transit estimates a trip length of up to 72 minutes with BRT, versus 78 minutes without it. But on the adjacent BART line, you can already get there in just 30 minutes. BART will always beat this bus. 

So the slim upside of this Emperor’s New Bus stands revealed: It won’t save the planet, and will hardly save transit riders any time. 

What are the downsides? AC Transit’s study makes it clear that these all stem from seizing those two bus-only lanes. By shoving all the other traffic into half as many lanes, this would create artificial congestion. 

Other vehicles would idle more, pollute more, and travel less efficiently—negating all the benefits of any additional bus boardings. Every congested intersection means more wasted gasoline, more CO2, and more traffic cutting across South Berkeley neighborhoods. 

For businesses and their patrons, AC Transit threatens to kill off some 945 to 1,300 parking spaces along its whole route. If you don’t like that impact, you’ll hate its proposed “mitigation”: converting another 187 to 318 spaces into yellow-curb delivery zones or metered parking. 

BRT’s worst impacts could fall on Southside’s struggling commercial district. AC Transit’s proposals include a daytime ban on all private cars on Telegraph, north of Dwight Way. They also include blocking Bancroft Way traffic at Telegraph. 

These are not new or innovative ideas. Lots of cities in the 1970s tried such “pedestrian/transit malls” on major commercial streets. Virtually all were disasters for business, and had to be undone—sometimes at staggering cost. 

Why does AC Transit’s BRT proposal so dramatically fail the cost/benefit test? One reason is the absurdly redundant route it has chosen.  

A rational transit agency might propose BRT somewhere like Oakland’s MacArthur/I-580 corridor—an area plagued by poor BART access and very slow bus service. These are places where bus-only lanes could really convert a lot of car trips to transit trips. 

The other reason, though, is what AC Transit is doing right: the “Rapid Bus” service that AC Transit will bring to Telegraph on June 24. 

“Rapid Bus” will add express buses that make limited stops, and will allow buses to keep stoplights green until they clear intersections. These enhancements will capture most of the speed benefits realistically available to buses in this BART corridor. 

AC Transit’s Jim Cunradi told a recent audience that BRT would further speed buses by instituting “proof of payment” (PoP). Indeed, much of the world already uses PoP, which speeds boarding because riders buy tickets before they board. 

Bus drivers open all doors for entry at every stop, and waste no time processing fares, passes, or transfers. Periodically, an inspector boards to ask riders for proof that they’ve paid. 

But PoP doesn’t require the bus-only lanes, bus “stations,” or high-tech ticket-vending machines in AC Transit’s BRT proposal. Those are arbitrary components copied from particular cities. 

Across Italy, Romania, and other European countries, I’ve seen a low-tech, low-cost approach to PoP that works just fine: Riders buy transit tickets from any corner store. They board their bus or streetcar, and punch their tickets on a hole punch located near the door. That time-stamped punch is their proof of payment. 

AC Transit could readily adopt this basic approach to PoP not just on Telegraph, but across its entire fleet—speeding up the whole system, and attracting new riders. Add basic PoP to Telegraph’s forthcoming Rapid Bus enhancements, and you get “Rap with PoP.” That especially sweet combination would speed up buses without worsening congestion, aggravating parking shortages, or diverting traffic into neighborhoods. 

If Berkeley officials are looking out for the public’s good, they will accept nothing more disruptive. But if they knuckle under to AC Transit’s wasteful proposal, take that as a sign that they’re stuck back in the 1970s—a decade when it was fashionable to inconvenience motorists, even if the nagging didn’t get them out of their cars. 

With today’s global-warming threat, and tight government budgets, we can’t afford to waste $400 million on outmoded notions that offer no net environmental benefits. Every dollar wasted on a boondoggle like this is just as harmful as a gallon of gas wasted driving an oversized SUV to the store. 

Let’s reserve our taxes for where they will really improve transit options and the environment. 

Michael Katz is a Berkeley resident. 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT  

ONLY MAKES SENSE  

WHEN SEEN THROUGH  

ROSE-COLORED GLASSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I attended the AC Transit public hearing on Thursday, June 14, on their plans for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along Telegraph, and made comments during the meeting. I am writing to share those comments with your readers, and to expand upon them a bit. My primary concern is the traffic analysis and projections in the recent draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). They seem to have been written while wearing rose-colored lenses. 

For example, the DEIS reports that College Avenue at Ashby experiences traffic-related delays of 33.8 seconds currently (as of 2003) during the afternoon peak times. They grade this as a LOS (Level Of Service) C. However, as anyone familiar with College Avenue would know, it is fairly common for southbound traffic to be backed up over two blocks in the evening commute. I timed it once at six minutes 48 seconds. I would call this LOS F. 

Of course, the bus line is planned for Telegraph, not College, so why is this relevant? 

It is relevant because AC Transit’s plans for the bus line would take away two traffic lanes for essentially the entire length of Telegraph Avenue, reducing its traffic capacity to that of College. Yet, by my own traffic measurements, Telegraph carries 990 vehicles per hour southbound during the evening commute, but College carries only 480. This is over twice the traffic. 

No doubt AC Transit’s answer to this is that traffic on Telegraph will decrease, and their Table 3.2-3a projects that there will be 871 fewer vehicles (total for both directions) during the hour of highest afternoon traffic. If you combine their figures with mine (which may be a bit dicey), Telegraph would still be carrying 16 percent more traffic than College carries now. In addition, they anticipate that some traffic will shift over to College (and Shattuck, Adeline, etc.), leading to a 17 percent increase for traffic on College (again combining their figures with mine). It’s hard to imagine a 16-1 percent increase of the traffic on College. The problem with decreasing the capacity of Telegraph and expecting other parallel arteries to make up for it is that there are no such arteries to the east of Telegraph that are not already overburdened. So people like myself who live near College Avenue, and take Telegraph to avoid the tie-ups on College, will have to go even further, to Adeline, to avoid the mess. 

An earlier speaker said, “Telegraph will still work.” I disagree. If BRT comes to pass, Telegraph Avenue will become like the Warring-Derby-Belrose corridor. And so will College. 

Paul Vojta 

• 

PRESERVING TELEGRAPH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I walked up Parker Street and then turned left to the amazing little Chilton Way where a woman and her husband were working in their garden, and I stopped to ask her about it. “How did it happen that you “It’s like a botanical garden.” “Yes,” she said, “It is beautiful, isn’t it?” “Did you all get together and plan it?” I said. “Not really,” she said, “but much of it is the work of the gardener who lives in that house over there with the big cactus. He was also the one who planted all these plants by the curb.” “I’ve been walking up to Telegraph for many years now,” I said, “and I always make a special point of passing through this little paradise on my way to Moe’s. It used to be to Cody’s too, but now there’s only Moe’s. I’m afraid Moe’s will be gone too one of these days.” "Why?” she said, and I told her about Mrs. Moskowitz’s letter to the Planet and the proposed traffic ban.” “If Moe’s goes,” I said, “that’s it for Telegraph, at least for people like me.” “For everyone,” she said. “Moe’s is Telegraph,” she said. “Without Moe’s there would be no Telegraph.” “Yes,” I said. “It would be the final blow.” 

Pete Najarian 

• 

A FEW COMMENTS AND  

QUESTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In reply to the advocates of BRT featured in the June 15 edition, I’ve got some comments and questions.  

I live on Telegraph near Alcatraz Avenue, and work at UC. I walk to work every day, rain or shine. It’s good exercise, it’s free, and I avoid having to haul myself up into the seats of the new buses, smell irritating scented products, and frequently listen to loud monologues by disturbed people and/or those on cell phones. 

I do, however, own a car. It’s old, and I only use it for heavy-carrying errands and distances. Parking in my neighborhood is already difficult. If BRT takes away a lane, and, as has been suggested, metered parking is added on the side streets, I will have nowhere to park. Sure, I could join one of the car share companies—but that’s an expensive proposition (you pay a fee even if you don’t use a car very much), and I’d have to walk to Ashby BART to get a car. Also, despite what proponents of BRT say, traffic will be congested if Telegraph is reduced to one lane each way. It’s naive and utopian to imagine that people will immediately see the light and jump on the bus. Rush hour is already quite an experience if you live on Telegraph—reducing the street to one lane plus a loud fast bus would make it much worse. People who rent do live on Telegraph—we’re a neighborhood too. 

Another issue is ridership on the new rapid buses. Have any studies been done of point of origin for the many drivers who now use Telegraph? The bus line along Telegraph through to San Leandro goes down major commercial corridors. To get to the bus, people who live at a tangent to the line have to take another (non-rapid) bus. I’d guess that they take BART instead, because they can park. Has anyone surveyed UC Berkeley employees who drive into Berkeley, since they are seen as a major source of traffic? 

Where do they live? Will it be convenient for them to get to the rapid bus? It would be pretty depressing to have an expensive, disruptive new rapid bus and still have the same old ridership, with very few new riders. If this does get built, I hope I’m wrong, and that everyone gets on the bus and that it’s worth it. I also hope I’ve moved away from Telegraph before it all happens. 

Aija Kanbergs 

Oakland 

• 

APPLES AND ORANGES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Comparing the Orange bus line in the San Fernando Valley and the proposed BRT line is the East Bay is like comparing apples and oranges. Other than buses they don’t have much in common. 

Please remember that the Orange line was constructed along an old unused train right-of-way and that no automobile lanes or public parking was taken away by the constuction. The orange bus runs on it’s own private transitway. 

The proposed BRT will reduce by 50 percent the automobile capacity of Telegraph Ave and eliminate hundreds of public parking spaces. 

That makes for one hell of a diffeerence between the two projects. 

Frank K. Greenspan

ROUGH LANGUAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really enjoy your paper, but why don’t you respect your readers enough to not include letters to the editor using offensive language (“Wish It Were True,” June 12)? Give me a break! I think I and the rest of your readership can comprehend what someone is trying to say without the derogatory, filthy verbiage! 

Look up, not down! 

Ms. Lee Glover-Owens  

• 

IMMODEST PROPOSALS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I have some immodest proposals that could work: 

Health care: We all want the same plan that members of congress enjoy. 

Waste, fuel: I’d like to see our biochemists work on turning the biomass we call “garbage” into biofuel. 

Visas for skilled workers: In addition, let’s grow our own techies, nurses, scientists and, yes, artists by teaching the bright eyed children now stuck in underfunded schools all they want and need to learn. That might help to reduce crime, also. Imagine gangs of computer kids! 

English as a Second Language on TV. Tired workers would not have to go out to a class or find a babysitter. Their children would benefit also. Other useful information could be included. 

Israel and Palestine: Junior year in Palestine for Israeli students and junior year in Israel for Palestinians. No more bombing. 

Those projects are expensive. Pay for them with peace. 

Ruth Bird 

• 

IMMIGRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Legalization of immigrants is widely backed in America, and yet, day after day, month after month, the immigration debate has been pushed in newspapers, on talk radio and Fox News, by a fringe minority of law and order types and angry white folk. Writers who barely disguise their discrimination and contempt for Mexicans and Latinos behind phony excuses that border on pathetic. 

These hypocrites are all too ready to take advantage of the services provided by immigrant laborers while at the same time hiding behind their coffee shop ignorance and fake patriotism? 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley  

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Transit is a vital tool to fight global warming, petroleum dependence and sprawl. To entice people out of their cars, cities need a robust transit network that can get citizens where they need to go quickly and in comfort.  

AC Transit’s new transit proposal, the East Bay bus rapid transit (BRT) is generating much discussion. So what benefits can BRT offer the Bay Area? 

BRT can promote more sustainable transportation choices. In a survey of Los Angeles Orange Line riders, about 80 percent said they got to the station on foot, bike or transit, and 18 percent said they left their car at home to use the BRT. In Eugene, Oregon, the new EmX BRT has increased corridor ridership by 50 percent in just six months. 

By attracting more people to transit, BRT can help fight global warming.Transportation accounts for one-third of US greenhouse gas emissions, and private cars are responsible for over half of that amount. 

BRT costs less than other rapid transit options, which means you can build more of it and faster. In the case of the East Bay BRT, the most expensive option costs around $24 million per mile. Most new light rail systems cost at least $45 million per mile, and many cost much more. 

Of course, some challenges need to be overcome to achieve these benefits.  

First, some see BRT as taking space and priority away from cars. The key question is, what is your vision for your community? If you aspire to provide mobility mainly by car, any transit system will be seen as a bad investment. A well-designed transit service can reduce car trips, mitigating the impact of losing some road space or parking. 

Second, buses can carry a negative image, sometimes rightly so. Here in the United States, we have under-invested in buses, even though they provide the majority of our transit trips. We allow them to get mired in traffic, with shortly-spaced stops further slowing the ride, and give passengers little more than a sign post at the side of the road. BRT resolves these problems and puts transit investment where it should be. 

Where properly implemented, BRT has achieved tremendous success, providing premium transit service at a reasonable cost. 

Lisa Callaghan 

Breakthrough Technologies Institute, 

Washington, D.C.  

• 

IMPROVING  

PUBLIC COMMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kudos to Mayor Bates for changing the format of public comment at City Council meetings in response to SuperBOLD’s 2006 threat of a lawsuit against choosing speakers by lottery. Members of the public are now afforded several opportunities to speak: on Consent Calendar items, on each Action item as it comes up and on non-agenda items. 

The latest edict on public comment titled “Welcome to Your Council Meeting” prepared by city attorney/city clerk indicates “the City Council is currently experimenting with its public comment procedures.” The mayor has been experimenting for almost a year now. Councilmember Kriss Worthington has submitted for Council consideration, Recommendation No. 5, to be on next Tuesday’s June 19 agenda, to revise existing Resolution No. 53, 575-N.S. which covers public comment in order to incorporate those exemplary procedures that the mayor has instituted. The recommendation will also remove those portions of the “Welcome…”, which, despite the prohibitions of the Brown Act, indicate the mayor may ask all persons in support of an item to stand (next, all those in opposition) and “the mayor will then entertain one speaker in opposition and follow the same process as for the speaker in support.” Allowing the mayor to select who will speak for or against an item is more egregious than selecting speakers at random by lottery and therefore certainly as illegal. 

The “Welcome…” also states the mayor retains the ability to limit the number of speakers speaking on a subject depending on the number of speakers and the number of items on the council agenda that night.” Worthington’s recommendation, rather than deny anyone the right to speak, instead, allows the Mayor to reduce the amount of time per speaker from two minutes to 1.5 minutes when there are six to nine speakers, and to one minute when there are 10 or more speakers. 

At the Tuesday June 12 meeting, throughout the evening, there were 29 speakers, each allowed two minutes, and despite considerable time spent on proclamations, awards and honorees at the beginning of the meeting, the council taking breaks totaling 20-plus minutes, and dealing with the contentious Public Commons Initiative, the meeting ended about 10:20 p.m. before the official max of 11 p.m. 

Worthington’s agenda recommendation No. 5 also places public comment on non-agenda items, required by the Brown Act, after public comment on the Consent Calendar. The “Welcome…” places it at the very end of the agenda. Not only has the mayor failed to call, without reminder, for such comment at the end of meetings, but most individuals, if not all, who have come to speak on non-agenda matters, with which they feel the city should be concerned, have left before the meeting’s end feeling most unwelcomed and unheard. 

If you support the Brown Act’s intent that all willing members of the public must be allowed to speak before the City Council, commissions, boards and task forces, please come to the Tuesday June 19 council meeting at 7 p.m. and express your support for Item No. 5. 

Gene Bernardi 

SuperBOLD  

(Berkeleyans Organizing  

for Library Defense) 

• 

TEACHING AND  

LEARNING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Teaching is an art and state credentialing has nothing to do with the outcome in learning. The students learn in a conducive environment. 

Every child or youth has a style to learn, if the classroom has a safe and positive environment where they are allowed to learn according to the way they are motivated and allowed to learn at their own speed. No forced curriculum of teaching science, math, or computer science can help them to focus in the class. It lies in the hand of a teacher to create the rich and learning environment for all children to learn. When interest is there, the learning takes place. The money or credentials or certificate is no proof of educating the young minds or youth in the classroom. It is the desire to learn some thing which will make them do any effort to inquire and expand their knowledge. 

The education department must think to select the teaching force to impart education along such lines. I think that the No Child Left Behind Act will not help to raise the standard of learners, nor will charter schools help. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

THEM VS. US 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The new immigration reform bill is generating a category 5 news hurricane with winds that expose prejudice, that is, the perceived differences between Them and Us.  

Not since the House un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the McCarthy era has the nation witnessed such virulent diatribes, such patriotic posturing, such self-serving intransigence.  

Every conceivable position is in the wind: Deport them. Fence them out. Arrest them. No amnesty. No medical care. No schooling and no citizenship for their children.  

Amend the constitution, if necessary. America for Americans! 

There’s no room today for those “huddled masses” that Emma Lazarus’ Statue of Liberty poem welcomed over a century ago. Today’s true blue Americans must purify the nation, dispose of illegal and unwanted foreigners, quickly and righteously. If immigration laws need reform, then let them echo the spirit of the Walter-McCarren Act that 55 years ago set quotas that favored whites and disfavored non-whites. 

Not since the Civil Rights Movement of 50 years ago has such widespread and intense hatred, anger, and meanness infected the body politic.  

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

• 

WARM POOL, ICELAND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Two articles in the June 12 Daily Planet have prompted me to present a solution to a couple of problems which, in my opinion, would result in the Berkeley community having a long-term win by save two unique Berkeley institutions, the warm water pool and Berkeley Iceland. To be clear up front, I am one of the leaders of the nonprofit organization trying to purchase, restore, and expand Berkeley Iceland as a recreation facility centered on our unique ice rink. A combination of the therapeutic warm pool with the ice rink can save both up front construction costs and the ongoing utilities costs that would make the combined facility strong enough to be self sustaining. 

The Landmark Commission’s decision not to grant landmark status to the old Berkeley High gymnasium means that it is much less likely the current pool will survive BUSDs plans to replace the building. Alternative locations, such as the old Milvia street tennis courts or West Campus are likely to involve significantly greater costs than restoring the current site. 

As Mayor Bates is quoted in the article on BUSD and city discussions that he has been approached about “...turning Berkeley Iceland possible relocation for the warm water pool...” In an earlier interview on KFOG morning radio show, Mayor Bates was even more positive on the energy benefits of combining the pool with the ice rink in a creative solution that helps preserve both.  

Generating ice creates a lot of heat which can be used to warm the water for a pool. This results in lower costs for both sides. Combine this with a solar panel covered roof and it would result in a self-sustaining site which benefits the entire community.  

Save Berkeley Iceland (SBI) has made an aggressive proposal to purchase Berkeley Iceland. Our plans have always been public and clear: update the ice rink, improve the facilities, expand the use to include broader community interests, and partner with the City, BUSD, and other community groups in what could be a new athletic district when combined with the BUSD plans for the new baseball field. While not part of our core plans, we have always hoped that the warm pool could find a home within the new “Berkeley Iceland Recreation Center.” If SBI is successful in it’s efforts to acquire Berkeley Iceland—and lack of confidence in our funding by the current owners is holding this back—we hope to have serious discussions with the city and those concerned about the long term home for the warm pool.  

We believe that combining our institutions will strengthen them both to the benefit of the entire community. 

Tom Killilea 

Executive Director,  

Save Berkeley Iceland 

www.SaveBerkeleyIceland.org 

• 

STRAWBERRY CANYON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

To the biking community of Berkeley, care of the Daily Planet: The once luscious undergrowth of the beautiful redwood grove in Strawberry Canyon, called the Woodbridge-Metcalf Grove, where I’ve been hiking for 40 years, has been devastated by mountain bikes. The grove is part of what is called the “Ecological Study Area” of the university, where bicycles are prohibited. Bikers, however, ignore the sign and the campus police department doesn’t have enough resources to patrol the trails, particularly the one that leads through the grove. Hence, the undergrowth, that was once full of ferns, is now rutted and worn smooth by tires. I was told that other parts of the canyon around Grizzly Peak have also been ruined by cyclists. 

Those of you who are concerned about the environment would do well to pay attention to your own backyard and do what you can to not only educate those among you who are so reckless, but to prevent them from causing further damage.  

Pete Najarian 

• 

RESPONSE TO STEWART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A response to Robert Stewart’s June 8 commentary, “Blacks Excluded from Yoshi’s and the Jazz School? No!”: 

On balance, I concur with your sentiments (though your tone flirted too much with the hyperbolic and overly strident; even so, your passion was admirable). That said, I have a not-so-small quibble—everyone’s a critic—I thought worthy of quick address. It’s this one sentence: 

“I’m quite tired of Blacks COMPLAINING, MARCHING, CRYING, and BEGGING to be where they are not wanted; This is DISGUSTING and PATHETIC, to say the least.” 

In truth, I believe you mixed apples and oranges. Distinctions between words and phrases are important, especially when offered for public consumption. In my view, our people “complaining and marching” in no way should be linked, in the minds of non-blacks (and blacks for that matter), with the notion of our collective “crying and begging.” A common similar mistake is made when people lazily link complaints about there being too much “sex and violence” on TV, in the movies, etc. Explicit sexuality is one thing; depiction of graphic violence is another. Each birth very different socio-political babies which, in turn, spawn equally divergent public debate. Same applies with your unfortunate linkage above. Our “complaining and marching,” called by its other more appropriate affiliations, is also known as making our grievances known—“goin’ public,” and “fightin’ the good fight”—taking action (though, admittedly, in this particular case, I can’t sanction all the proposed actions expressed in this controversy, some of which you noted well). God forbid our collective calls for examination be tragically linked with ideas of “crying and begging” to be where we weren’t/aren’t wanted, and us being “disgusting and pathetic” in the process. No, no... please, let us clearly separate such concepts of our attempted socio-politcal redresses—past, present and future—the same way we separate apples from oranges, church from state, and the sacred from the profane. I hope you’ll agree our people have earned better than that. 

Continued success with your music. 

Mac DeFlorimonte 

Jazz enthusiast 

• 

SOLAR PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As parents at Washington Elementary School we strongly support the KyotoUSA/Helios solar electric proposal for the roof of Washington. We urge the School Board to move ahead with the project at the June 20 meeting. 

KyotoUSA’s proposal is not perfect. The group introduced their proposal to the school board in May 2006 but not to the Washington community until this April. There are many in our community who have dedicated their careers to renewable energy and green building and could have offered much to this process.  

Comprehensive district-wide conservation and efficiency measures, while not as photogenic as solar, are critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the district. We must not fall into the trap of putting a solar electric system on the roof of one school, patting ourselves on the back, and feeling that we’re “doing our part.” Our part is much larger, for the climate crisis is dire and our solutions must be multi-faceted. 

Approving this solar electric system is a positive first step for the district. A reliable and complete energy efficiency audit, reviewed by all stakeholders, must follow immediately, and its findings must be integrated into the sizing and design of the system. The proposal has already sparked energetic discussions at our school about additional ways to reduce greenhouse gas generation, and involve children and families in the process. We are excited about the prospect of undertaking this challenge.  

We also urge the district to integrate the lessons of clean, renewable energy into Berkeley’s classrooms, taking advantage of this opportunity to support the city’s Measure G. 

KyotoUSA has made clear that, if rejected by the board at this juncture, they will reluctantly approach another district. They have also gone to great lengths to minimize fiduciary risk. That risk is outweighed by the good that can come from the project. This good includes, most importantly, it’s potential to help us empower and inspire a generation of students to do something about the intractable problems of climate change. 

Time is running out in our race against human induced climate change. If we say no to this opportunity, when will another one come our way? 

Geoffrey Holton 

Eli Cochran 

Nabih Tahan 

Abigail Surasky 

Linda Curry 

Stuart Fox 

When I was invited to join the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) last January, I thought, “What a cool name.” I thought it was pronounced dah pak, sort of hip hop sounding. And then I imagined 21 guys and gals with tattoos, bare midrifts, low slung pants, nose rings and rap songs in the background. Well, no such luck. This group of 21 takes its charge from the City Council dead seriously, and that charge is to create a new downtown plan by November of this year. They have been working for 18 months and now, having less than five months to complete their work, they are in crunch time.  

This group is much different from the group that created the 1990 plan. Then, there were some downtown merchants and property owners included: real stakeholders. Today, not one of these is represented on DAPAC. Most members of today’s group live in the lowlands. They include city commissioners, two architects, three lawyers, several environmental consultants and two former councilwomen. This membership is indicative of who uses the downtown, who cares for its future and what having a downtown is all about in a university town.  

Group dynamics are also different. There is a sincere attempt to find unanimity and a common voice. There is less posturing on political positions and a genuine affection and appreciation across the room for those representing diverse views. The few spats that I’ve witnessed felt more like those between family members. They quickly come, extinguish themselves with an outburst by each person, and then we move on. The support staff has prepared and presented a phenomenal amount of good information laying groundwork for the many issues. As they are intent in having us complete our work by November, they run some meetings like circus animal trainers cracking their whips; think, speak, vote!  

There are several good reasons for a new plan only 17 years after the 1990 plan. The first big reason for all this effort is the University of California’s sizable land holdings in the downtown. The university will soon formally expand beyond its historic west boundary of Oxford Street with its acquisition of the Department of Public Health building (DPH). Another reason is that there are already projects being planned which exceed the height limitations of the 1990 plan. The Gaia Building was actually completed to about eight stories in real building height, despite the limits in the 1990. Now in the planning stages, the Arpeggio complex will be nine stories and the university hotel complex 19 stories. Why have a plan that doesn’t match what developers are proposing?  

So here are the giant, blow-out, divisive issues with which these 21 people have been grappling and must resolve within five months: 

How do we continue 1990 Downtown Plan’s strong emphasis on historical preservation?  

The 1990 plan established that the foundation of downtown planning was to be historic preservation. This was based on its citizens’ strong appreciation of the downtown’s collection of buildings. One proposal under consideration is to create an historic district of the Shattuck Avenue frontage properties from Berkeley Way to Durant Avenue. This “Main Street” has retained its basic character as established during the 20th century’s early decades. Preservation of these blocks will develop the Downtown’s cultural tourism by celebrating its historical character, and conserving older buildings is very “green.” 

How much new growth do we desire to accommodate without threatening our history or overwhelming it? 

The 1990 plan moved away from having a 100-foot height limit throughout the downtown from University to Durant, and from King to Oxford streets. That plan curtailed heights and defined a core area surrounded by buffer areas. However, beyond this core, tall buildings now stand next to short buildings, creating an archipelago of urban shapes. It is this variation that is unique to Berkeley and defines its urban character.  

For growth, there are three height options being considered: 1) Leave the existing height regulations in place: a seven-story core and five-story buffers. 2) Allow mid-rise buildings of eight or more stories in an expanded core area. 3) Allow buildings of a height and shape similar to the 13-story Wells Fargo Building in a broader area and only on properties large enough. 

How much housing do we allow and what types do we want? 

The issue of providing housing stems from an assessment prepared by the Association of Bay Area Governments. Their report leads staff to project that the downtown should develop about 1,230 units in the next seven years and another 1,000 by the year 2035. For this amount, we would need sites for 16 projects of the size of the Stadium Place development at Durant and Fulton, which has 74 units on approximately 20,000 square feet of land. While most express the desire for family housing and want the downtown to be a residential neighborhood. the market has dictated student housing. Most units created in the last few years have been two-bedroom, student housing of 650 to 770 square feet. Family units are best at three bedrooms and about 1,000 square feet. 

How can improvements to the public transportation help to reduce car use? Specifically, will the benefits of the bus rapid transit (BRT) do the job and will its benefits outweigh its detriments to the downtown’s pedestrian environment? 

The bus rapid transit (BRT) has the potential of being a contentious issue. Its proponents champion it as the silver bullet to reduce car use and hence emissions. Those who desire a greening of the downtown look with horror at the enormous amount of trees and greenery that will be removed to implement the plan as idealized by AC Transit. There is a DAPAC sub-committee studying how to merge the BRT with the city’s environmental and aesthetic goals.  

What should Center Street become: a public square, a slow street or an opened, re-channeled Strawberry Creek Park?  

There is strong consensus that a public space, devoid of cars, should happen in the heart of the downtown on Center between Shattuck and Oxford. This space could be used for musical events that are now crammed onto the narrow and uncomfortable BART Plaza. A “Center Square” could also be used for political gatherings, educational events, fairs, carnivals, etc. There is a consensus for half the street becoming a public square and half becoming a green space.  

How do we define the university’s expansion west of Oxford Street, with a sub-text: where do we park UC’s 900 to 1,300 stalls and place 800,000 square feet of building area in the downtown?  

In the near future, UC will acquire the Department of Public Health (DPH) site, a block of land bounded by Hearst, Shattuck, Berkeley Way and Oxford which contains an eight story building of 120,000 square feet. It will also relocate and recreate the University Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive at the top of Center Street. This westward expansion could be compared to when the university in the 1920s and 1930s expanded southwards across Strawberry Creek. It ultimately created great benefits to both the city and campus. Specifically, Zellerbach Hall and Theatre, Haas Pavilion, Edwards Sports Field, Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Kroeber Hall and Sproul Plaza are facilities that have contributed greatly to campus as well as community life. In a similar way, DAPAC looks to the university to do likewise on its land development west of Oxford. The DAPAC has requested that one overall guiding development policy for the university to follow for its properties is that these developments contain public-serving functions at the street level. These could include the Eye Clinic, the Haas Business Center, other museums, visitors’ center, a commute store, administrative offices, faculty and student housing or a multi-cultural center. 

DAPAC desires the university to bring the natural features of the campus into the downtown along with its buildings. One greening idea is to continue the city’s desire for green pathways by extending the Ohlone Parkway along or through the center of the DPH site between Shattuck and Oxford, and thereby create a block-long natural feature integrated with building development. In the other direction, it is desired that Walnut Street be continued across the DPH site as a mid-block pedestrian walkway and continued from University Avenue to the proposed Center Street Square along the west side of UC development sites.  

So there you have it, a limited and individual view of some of the issues to be discussed and questioned at Saturday’s workshop on downtown planning. Bring your ideas and energies for a lively presentation by DAPAC members on the future of life at the core of our city. 

DOWNTOWN: PROGRESS AND OPTIONS 

10 a.m. to noon Saturday, June 16 at the Berkeley High School Library. 987-7487. 

Jim Novosel is an architect and a member of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

Peter Allen’s assertion in these pages that “The bus rapid transit proposal is an expensive compromise...” is inaccurate. 

In discussing the Orange Line, a bus rapid transit (BRT) line which opened on Oct. 29 of last year in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley, L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky pointed out: 

“This project (14 miles long) cost us $330 million. That is what it would cost to build about one mile of subway. And for every mile of light rail, we could build about 2.5 miles of busway, including the acquisition costs if we don’t already own the right of way.” (Metro Investment Report, October 2006.) 

“Opened just last November, the North Hollywood-to-Warner Center line became an unexpected hit.” (L.A. Daily News, Aug. 14, 2006.) 

Furthermore, according to the Oct. 24, 2006 L.A. Daily News: “The line (Orange Line), which debuted on Oct. 29, 2005, has averaged about 21,000 riders each weekday—more than the MTA’s Gold Line, a light-rail system that cost more than triple that of the $330 million, 14-mile-long busway.” 

In regards to the lack of discussion of greenhouse gas emissions in the environmental impact report, it should be pointed out that neither the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) nor the federal government’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that AC Transit discuss carbon dioxide emissions, and in fact, AC Transit cannot discuss these emissions in order to comply with these laws. As anyone following the global warming issue will understand, environmental laws with regard to reporting and regulating greenhouse gas emissions are in a state of flux, and the automobile and fossil fuel lobbies are fighting desperately to avoid regulating these gases. 

However, according to the American Public Transportation Association, if you travel to your destination using public transit instead of by car, you will on average produce half as much carbon dioxide in getting there. With auto use being the biggest contributor to GHG’s in our region, leaving our cars at home and taking a faster BRT that is convenient and reliable is the biggest, most immediate and most effective step Berkeley residents can take in reducing GHG’s. 

Len Conly is co-chair of Friends of BRT.

In his attack on bus rapid transit (Daily Planet, June 8), Peter Allen says that AC Transit should reduce fares and run more buses instead of implementing BRT. 

This is an impractical response to the real problems faced by bus riders and by AC Transit. In recent decades, as traffic has increased in Berkeley and the East Bay, bus travel time has gotten worse. Currently buses along the planned BRT route average only 10.9 miles per hour at peak periods. 

Because buses take longer to get from point A to point B, AC Transit’s costs have been rising and AC Transit has been struggling to maintain service. In fact, AC Transit has had to cut service and increase fares in recent years. They don’t have the money to hire more drivers and they can’t use the capital funds available for BRT for that purpose. 

Buses are slow and unreliable on many major routes because they operate in mixed-flow traffic lanes with cars. BRT addresses this problem head-on by providing buses with dedicated lanes, which will reduce travel time and increase reliability. Buses will be more able to stay on schedule. 

A survey of commuters conducted a few years ago found that the top reason given for not taking transit to work was that it “takes too much time.” BRT will attract more riders to transit by reducing travel time. Peak period travel speeds along the route are expected to increase by 28-55 percent compared to existing conditions. 

Also in the top five reasons for not riding transit is concern about transit’s reliability, which BRT also addresses. 

More and more, cities around the world are providing separate lanes or busways for buses on important routes. For example, as part of the “Mobilien” program, Paris has, since 2000, added bus lanes to routes on its principle bus network. Reducing travel time by 20 percent is one of the goals. Bike lanes and trees are also being added in space once dedicated to cars. A survey done last year found that Parisiens support the changes and want them to continue. 

While Europe is way ahead of us when it comes to improving transit and addressing global climate change, some American cities are also taking action. Los Angeles opened its BRT Orange line service in the San Fernando Valley in 2005. It’s been so successful in attracting new riders to transit that officials are thinking about extending the route. 

At the beginning of this year, BRT service began on a bus route that runs from Eugene to Springfield in Oregon. Ridership is already up 47 percent compared to previous bus service after just a few months of operation. 

BRT is planned for both Geary Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco and several other American cities also have BRT routes in the works. 

Critics of BRT, like Mr. Allen, tend to downplay the benefits of BRT, while exaggerating the impacts on traffic and parking. 

One clear benefit is that the East Bay’s long-suffering bus riders will benefit from faster, more frequent and more reliable bus service. They won’t have to spend so much time waiting at bus stops, or stuck on a bus in the middle of traffic. 

And, BRT will reduce the volume of automobile traffic on Telegraph and along the rest of its route by attracting new riders with its improved service. The environmental impact report (EIR) estimates that automobile vehicle miles traveled will be reduced by as much as 20,700 each weekday and that as many as 9,300 people will switch to transit.  

These figures use as a baseline the expected ridership after AC implements preliminary service enhancements; the improvement over current service conditions will be even greater. And every time someone boards a bus instead of climbing behind the wheel of a car, that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in the East Bay. 

As for impacts, BRT will require removal of some on-street parking spaces but AC Transit plans to replace parking where needed. 

Some BRT opponents have made irresponsible statements about BRT’s alleged traffic impacts. Last year, City Council candidate George Beier claimed in a campaign mailer that BRT’s dedicated lanes would cause “gridlock on Telegraph.” The EIR’s traffic analysis does not offer any support for this contention. Traffic will continue to flow at all Telegraph intersections. 

While traffic overall will clearly be reduced, some modest localized increases in traffic are projected for streets like Shattuck, Adeline and College as some motorists using Telegraph now may search out parallel routes. The EIR’s traffic analysis found only one intersection in Berkeley where BRT will cause significant, difficult-to-mitigate congestion problems, Bancroft and Fulton. But this problem can be avoided if one proposed alignment option for Bancroft is chosen. 

While citing parking and traffic impacts as reasons to oppose BRT, Mr. Allen also expresses support for light rail, which is interesting because light rail would require removal of 400 more parking spaces than BRT. Like BRT, light rail would also require dedicated lanes and stations and would have similar traffic impacts as a result. 

While transit ridership would have increased somewhat more with light rail, it was projected to cost more than 2 1/2 times more than BRT. So AC Transit chose BRT. Maybe if our Republican president and governor are replaced by more enlightened leaders, we might see an increase in funds available for public transit and AC Transit can consider upgrading BRT to light rail as well as improving service on other routes in Berkeley. 

While the need for and benefits of BRT are obvious, many important issues about how to implement BRT remain to be resolved. 

Should buses run both ways on all of Telegraph and on Bancroft and Shattuck? Or should buses use couplets of streets: Telegraph/Dana (north of Dwight); Bancroft/Durant; and Shattuck/Oxford? 

Where should replacement parking be located? What’s the best BRT station design(s) to enhance the areas where BRT stations will be located? 

I hope that Berkeley residents will take advantage of the numerous opportunities they will have to give their input on these and other BRT-related issues. 

Rob Wrenn is a member of the Transportation Commission and the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. He lives in the LeConte neighborhood, one of the neighborhoods that will be served by the BRT line. 

Bus rapid transit (BRT) in Berkeley has become a clash of ideologies. Prophecies of doom from global warming contend with the passionate assertions of a citizen’s right to drive, and to have a parking space. The BRT was proposed originally to be an attractive alternative to driving. Finally, a large number of people who work at UC and in downtown Berkeley will be able to commute faster and more conveniently in a bus than they have been while driving their car. But to hear some people talk, BRT will just take away parking and cause more congestion. These folks can’t see themselves riding a bus, and think that none of their fellow car drivers will use the bus either. Their view is framed by the belief that traffic after BRT will be just the same as it is now, with the added annoyance of big buses taking up bus-only lanes. Other ideologues include some Telegraph merchants, who see any reduction in parking causing a decline in business. Their view is framed by the belief that all their customers will come by car. 

A related ideology is framed by the belief of some residents that public transit is only a service for the lower classes: buses are a social necessity, but are not for the middle class. Some neighborhood activists smell diesel fumes and blame it all on the buses, despite the fact that more trucks are on the road, and nearly all AC Transit buses have “clean diesel” engines (unlike many trucks). I’m a regular bus rider now, and will definitely ride Rapid Bus and eventually BRT. I dislike driving in traffic and especially don’t enjoy hunting for a parking space. When I get off my bus downtown, I am free to go about my business, while ers anxiously seek a parking space. I’m not “anti-car.” Every couple months, I use a car for hauling heavy stuff or for going on an extended trip. I belong to City Car Share, and for longer trips, use one of the car rental companies. For the vast majority of my trips around the Bay Area, I have developed a well-honed skill for riding public transit. I can quickly tell you how to get anywhere in Berkeley on a bus. So I suppose I’m yet another ideologue, framed by my belief that a transit-oriented lifestyle is good. I think the benefits of BRT include a reduction in congestion and road rage, a reduced need for downtown parking, and a reduction in emission of pollution and greenhouse gases. I think the world after BRT deployment will be happier, cleaner, and not so wasteful of non-renewable resources.  

I tend to regard loss of parking spaces as a good thing—a motivator for more people to ride BRT. The BRT on its own won’t bring about a better world. It’s just one of the things, like solar power technology, which provide an opportunity to adopt a better lifestyle. The benefits come only after a good many people actually change their lifestyle. Right now, 80 percent of the cars on the Berkeley streets carry only the driver. One BRT-load could remove 60 such cars, with everyone getting a seat on the bus. There’s a lot of carbon dioxide coming from car engines. The typical car emits its own weight in CO2 every year. Berkeley’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions won’t be very meaningful if we don’t do something about our cars. Here’s how I frame the BRT in Berkeley: Most people use it during rush hour. The regular riders carry a monthly pass. All UC staff and students have a pass. Most downtown businesses provide their employees with a pass. Most other riders buy a day pass covering all trips for that day. The pass stays in a pocket. When the BRT arrives at a station, everyone gets on through any door—just like on BART—and takes a seat.  

I think BRT will have some of the ambiance of the BART. It won’t feel so much like a bus. More middle class people ride BART now because of this ambiance. I expect fare inspectors to present themselves once every few days, at random stations. An inspector waiting outside each door politely inspects each rider’s pass, day-pass or whatever. The occasional violator is taken aside for a lecture and a citation. I expect to have to walk to the BRT station at Dwight; there won’t be one at Parker. I’ll ride BRT to Whole Foods. When I go to the symphony, I’ll ride BRT to MacArthur BART. I don’t think I’ll ever ride BRT from Berkeley to San Leandro. The BART will be a better option for that long a trip. But for many people, the BRT will nicely augment BART on much of its route, providing service between the BART stations, with most of the speed and ambiance of BART.  

When the Berkeley ferry comes, I hope the BRT will be extended down University and have a station at the ferry terminal. When I go to San Francisco, I might prefer the sea breeze and sunlight to riding in the rumbling darkness of the transbay tube. I recently looked at a video of a BRT in Hangjou, China. Buses were rolling rapidly both ways along the curbside bus-only lanes of a major thoroughfare. At the stations, people quickly exited and entered through all the doors. Berkeley’s BRT should run like this. We need to use proof of payment for rapid boarding, but we don’t need the bus-only lanes everywhere. We need just enough of them to be sure the BRT will beat the car traffic. Probably we don’t need a bus-only lane on Telegraph between Dwight and Bancroft, but we should have one on Bancroft, and on Telegraph south of Dwight. Personally, I don’t care about a lot of the details. As a robust senior bus rider, I can deal with whatever lane and station arrangements make other people happy, but we should make very sure that the BRT can beat the cars. 

The Wikipedia article on BRT lists 26 BRT and rapid bus systems in the United States, 11 in Canada, two in Mexico, 13 in South America (including in Mr. Penalosa’s Bogota). Europe has five in France, nine in Britain, three in the Netherlands and one in Belgium (home of the Van Hool). There are seven BRTs in China, with several more on the way. We really should get BRT on the way in Berkeley, and not be frustrated by the framing of our anti-transit ideologues. 

Steve Geller is a Berkeley resident..

It must have been just about a year ago that a reader wrote to me via The Planet, asking about a row of trees on a street near Ashby and San Pablo. They were blooming—as they are now—and he’d been enjoying them for a long time and wondered what they were. 

A reasonable question, but as always, my good intentions were sabotaged by my very bad organizational skills. The letter vanished, and it turned up again only recently when I was cleaning out the office to make way for a new printer. My apologies to the gentleman for the lateness of the reply. 

I did, however, have the question floating around my consciousness and so I drove over to what I thought was the street in question. The trees are flaxleaf paperbarks, Melaleuca linariifolia. They’re covered in a froth of tiny creamy-white flowers, which on their rounded canopy evoke cumulus clouds or fluffy snowdrifts. Some folks call the species “snow-in-summer tree.”  

You can see others of its kind on Jefferson Street north of Dwight, and on the Albany border along the BART tracks. 

It’s an import, as so many of our street trees are, and from Australia, ditto. It’s kin to the infamous Melaleuca quinquenervia, which has invaded wildlands in Florida to the extent that it’s threatening what’s left of the Everglades. Like so many exotics, it’s less useful to the ecosystem it has invaded than the native plants it’s crowding out. That’s especially poignant in the Everglades, such a unique place that fosters unique life. 

On city streets both species are less of a problem. I like M. linariifolia better, personally, just because of that dizzy dazzling form it assumes in bloom; there’s nothing like it to make a passerby smile. My correspondent mentioned nicknaming the ones he encountered “Fluffula Truffula trees.” (Now, of course, that’s the way I think of them too. Thanks, I think.) 

Most of the time it’s just a tree on the street, giving shade and shelter and not much else to the city’s birds and other wildlife. Its foliage is a nice dark shade of green and its trunk is handsomely contrasting, white to buff-colored. 

Getting closer rewards the pedestrian. The bark is not only papery, it’s spongy; press it with your thumb and isn’t that the oddest sensation? Bouncy! It’s soft and smooth, too, between the fluffed-out seams. If you’re going to hug a tree I guess this would be the tree to hug.  

Sometimes I think the right to use exotic plants is rather like the right to keep and bear arms: It wouldn’t need so much frenzied defending if there were more information, consensus, and will to do it right. I know gun owners who are just fine, thank you, and I boast of a 100-percent accurate target record myself. (It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how I got that one.)  

But half the foofaraw would be nonexistent if everybody took the care my friends have to keep the guns locked up, learn gun etiquette and safety (which are pretty much synonymous), and know they’re not video games or penis-enlargement devices.  

Problem exotics are a similar matter of Things in the Wrong Hands. The wrong hands in this case are those of folks who haven’t bothered to educate themselves about the place that’s keeping them alive, that supplies the ground they stand on, the water they drink, the very air they breathe, to understand what’s being overrun.  

Unfortunately that includes many landscapers.  

It’s not that hard, really. Anything that thrives as well under tough conditions in cities should be considered dangerous as guns and motor vehicles and explosives are. Keep them in their place, and there’s less chance of disaster. Keep them well away from wildlands-—parks, preserves, and just plain “un-owned” spaces—and you can take pleasure in using them.  

Native plants aren’t appropriate everywhere. Yes, you read that right. Oleanders are just fine on freeway medians, because you wouldn’t want to attract wildlife there anyway, and because you know they won’t mess with the local gene pool of plants we don’t quite understand yet.  

In cities, though, I’d love to see more native trees, and I rejoice in any research I hear of into their use. (Street trees lead hard lives and must co-exist peacefully with paving, traffic, and humans with other things on their minds.) 

But there’s no reason we can’t be responsible and use imports too. When I look out the BART train window at that cluster of trees from Mexico, Australia, and elsewhere clustered on the plaza on MLK near Children’s Hospital, I think of a bunch of old guys from all over hanging out and socializing on benches in the town square. I like thinking of that. Gives me hope.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

“Fluffula Truffula” trees line a street in south Berkeley. Like fireworks, exotic plants are so much fun we shouldn’t screw the situation up with irresponsible use.

Five months into his mayoral administration, is Ron Dellums Oakland’s major problem? 

Given the vehemence with which the new mayor is being attacked in certain Oakland circles, one would certainly think so. 

Last week, Mr. Dellums took a stroll in the Fruitvale to talk to residents and activists about problems they are facing, and then to meet at the Bridges Academy to listen to and answer specific policy suggestions. Granted, the trip got a little over the top at times, with cameras and reporters and city staff and security all crowding the street along International Boulevard, but maybe that was the point of it. Mr. Dellums brought attention to a section of Oakland that, perhaps, does not get enough of it. 

After reporter Angela Woodall wrote an article on the event in the Oakland Tribune (“Officials Get Earful At Fruitvale March,” June 9), you would think that most readers who disagreed with Mr. Dellums’ policies would use the online comment section to advance some policies of their own. Instead, most took the opportunity to attack Mr. Dellums for, well, being Mr. Dellums. 

Some examples: 

From someone named “Anonymous”: “Dellums is all talk and no action. Just a bunch of ‘Believe’ garbage. Well Dellums, I believe you will run Oakland into the toilet with your do nothing attitude. Months into your administration and you still don't have a solid plan.” 

From someone named “Action”: “Dellum [sic] sucks. He is all rhetoric like his campaign slogans. He has not done a thing since he has been in office. We can all be mayor doing what he is doing. At least ex-mayor Brown brought development into the area. There is absolutely nothing new or exciting happening in Oakland since Dellum [sic] has been in office. The guy is too old and is use [sic] to being bogged down by bureaucracy like when he was in Washington. He has a committee for everything but no solution whatsoever.” 

And from someone signed “Didn’t Vote For Dellums”: ”Dellums doesn't want to work 24/7, he needs bodyguards, he needs more staff and he wants to spend 1 million dollars to upgrade his office...Yeah, that is the way to fix Oakland's problems.” 

There was more, much more, but I think you get the point. 

Part of this criticism stems from ignorance, and by that I use the original “not knowing” meaning of the word, rather than the “dumb” or “stupid” way it has come to be used. The Dellums administration has, in fact, been doing quite a bit in its first five months. In the area of development, the Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) has done two specific things at Mr. Dellums’ instruction: (1) begun the conformation of the city’s Zoning Code to the General Plan which was halted under Jerry Brown, and (2) put a moratorium on conversion of Oakland’s dwindling industrial-zoned parcels to mixed-use. Neither of these is “new and exciting,” of course, unless you are the type of person who understands the construction and development process enough to know that the foundation work is always necessary in order for the building(s) to eventually go up. A few well-connected developers came out big-time under Mr. Brown’s virtually unregulated zoning policies, true. But most developers, and neighborhood residents as well, like the idea that they will soon have a clear idea of what kinds of developments can be put where in Oakland, with no nasty surprises as they have now. And the moratorium on industrial land conversion to housing was absolutely necessary for those interested in bringing more jobs to Oakland for Oakland residents. If you don’t believe me, just ask Councilmember Nancy Nadel, who has been fighting for this for years, and in whose West Oakland district most of the city’s industrial-zoned land resides. 

Meanwhile, there are certainly legitimate policy concerns to talk about involving the Dellums Administration. So let’s talk about them. One of them is the issue of crime and police protection, which dominated so much of the concern and discussion during Mr. Dellums’ recent visit to the Fruitvale. 

The hiring of Wayne Tucker as chief of police was one of the best decisions of the Brown administration, and keeping Mr. Tucker in his job was one of the most sensible actions of the new Dellums administration. Mr. Tucker has brought a blend of professionalism, leadership, and maturity to the job that was lacking under his predecessor, Richard Word, a nice man, a good man, but a man over his head in the Oakland chief’s job. Still, change in Oakland Police Department policies has been slow in coming under Mr. Tucker. 

One of OPD’s worst policies in the old Brown/Word days was treating the flatlands of the DEO (Deep East Oakland, from High Street to the San Leandro border) almost like occupied territory, and those policies have, unfortunately, largely continued under the administration of Dellums/Tucker. 

An example? While you’re reading about the incident below, think about how many times in a week you see a police vehicle stop in the City of Oakland in the course of a week. Once? Twice? Never? More? Depends on where you drive and live. 

I live not far from Allen Temple Baptist Church, just off of International, and in the middle of a quiet Sunday afternoon earlier this month, I was clearing out weeds in my front yard while a series of rolling police vehicle stops took place within a four block area in front of my house. 

As I came out, police officers in two patrol cars had stopped a vehicle with a young African-American driver about a half a block away. They took the driver out of his car, put him in handcuffs, put him in one of the patrol cars, and then preceded to search his car. 

As I stood there watching, a green-colored Oakland police car—presumably, by the color, one of the park police who sometimes come down in our neighborhood to do street patrol duty—pulled over a second car about a block away in the other direction. 

Two traffic stops simultaneously within two blocks in a residential neighborhood? Not unusual for the DEO. 

Don’t know why the first car was stopped and searched, or the driver handcuffed, but the officers searching the first car apparently found nothing of interest, because they took the driver out of the patrol car, took off his handcuffs, and let him go. 

As he was driving away, a van went past the two patrol cars—with no license plate on the back—and one of the officers got in his patrol car pulled it over directly in front of my house. 

While that was happening another police car—perhaps the other of the two that made the first stop, though I’m not sure because I was busy watching the stop in front of my house—came down the street past my house and pulled over a fourth car just past the car stopped by the green police car. 

Four car stops, within 15 minutes, within a four block stretch of a residential neighborhood. Not long afterwards, the officers let all of the remaining cars drive away. This was not “sideshow” activity. Nobody was doing donuts, and there apparently wasn’t the type of reckless driving violation (California Vehicle Code 23103) to warrant arrests or auto tows. Within a few minutes, all of the vehicles, and the officers, were gone.  

Why, then, is this important enough to write about? 

Because such saturated traffic enforcement is a way of life out here in Deep East Oakland, a method of ongoing law enforcement that is not practiced in many of Oakland’s other neighborhoods. 

This is not accidental. You can go for hours out here not seeing a single patrol car and then, suddenly, you will see them in packs, cruising up and down International Boulevard. OPD black-and-whites and green-and-whites, Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies, California Highway Patrols.  

They do not appear to be targeting the area’s open-air drug markets—some of which have been operating in the same location for decades—or going after other serious crimes. Instead, from casual observation, they appear to be traffic patrol. It is not unusual during these traffic patrol saturation periods to see two or more traffic stops as you drive the 60 blocks along International between High Street and the San Leandro border. Sometimes, so sure police officials are that many of these stops are going to result in auto tows, you see tow trucks parked at strategic locations along International during these times, ready to go into action. 

Does this type of traffic patrol saturation happen in other parts of Oakland? I don’t know. But the saturation patrols began following the heyday of Operation Impact a few years ago, the city program that put scores of officers from several agencies into Oakland’s “sideshow zone,” the DEO, with the specific tactic of making saturated traffic stops. 

What is the purpose of these saturated traffic patrols? Is it getting dangerous drivers off the street? Is it stopping “sideshows”? Are the stops being made in the hope that something seriously illegal might actually turn up because of them—a gun or a bag of dope visible on the front seat, maybe, or a bench warrant on one of the passengers? Is it a self fulfilling program, meaning that if you put enough patrols cars out in the street and tell them to look for traffic violations, they will generally find a certain number of traffic violations, the program justifying itself? I don’t have an answer to these questions. 

What bothers me most is that in the Deep East Oakland, at least, the drivers being stopped are young Latinos and African-Americans, with the predictable result that the policy of traffic patrol saturation is creating a new generation that resents the police and believes they are being harassed and profiled simply because of their race. This is the same pool from which the Oakland Police Department is currently seeking to draw recruits in order to create a new OPD that reflects more reflects the race, ethnicity, and sensibilities of the city it is patrolling. 

And what worries me is when Mr. Dellums announces at the Bridges Academy meeting that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to send more California Highway Patrol officers into Oakland streets to do routine traffic patrol so that OPD officers can be freed to do work on more serious crime.  

It is policy issues like this, it would seem, that we should be talking about. Calling Mr. Dellums a do-nothing mayor at this stage seems silly. He appears to be doing a lot, some of which I like, some of which I don’t.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part in an ongoing series on Berkeley captains’ houses and the families that inhabited them. 

In 1894, when Captain John Slater built his house at 1335 Shattuck Ave., he was joining two other master mariners who had settled on the same block a decade earlier. They were Jefferson Maury and William B. Seabury, both high-ranking captains of the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company who ended their careers in succession as commodores of the PMSS fleet. While Captain Slater commanded square-rigged ships, Captains Maury and Seabury were at the forefront of the mechanized age. 

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848 by William Henry Aspinwall (1807–1875) of the New York merchant firm Howland & Aspinwall, which specialized in trade with the Caribbean. PMSS was incorporated to execute a Congress-authorized contract to carry mail from the Isthmus of Panama to the West Coast. 

Aspinwall (who also founded the Panama Railway Company) ordered three new steamships to inaugurate the trade. The S.S. California, first steamer on the West Coast, entered San Francisco Bay on Feb. 28, 1849 and was soon joined by the Panama and the Oregon. The California Gold Rush assured the company’s success. PMSS was well established by the time Captains Maury and Seabury came on board. 

Jefferson Maury (1826–1895) was born in Virginia and may have been descended from Rev. James Maury, teacher of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe and grandfather of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, known as the father of modern oceanography and naval meteorology. 

Maury entered the U.S. Navy at the age of 15 and received his warrant as a Passed Midshipman in 1847. The following year found him in the Gulf Squadron, participating in the Mexican-American War. In 1854 he was stationed in San Francisco and a year later left the service. 

It is not known when Maury joined PMSS, but shipping records indicate that in 1862 he commanded the company’s S.S. Northern Light, a wooden-hulled steamer with side paddle wheels and three masts on a sailing between Aspinwall (Colón), Panama and New York. The next year he was captain of the S.S. America, followed by the S.S. Atlantic, both plying the same route. From 1866 until 1870, Maury was master of the S.S. Arizona, which his future neighbor, Captain Seabury, would take over in 1874. 

Jefferson Maury’s character received a glowing testament from George William Curtis, editor of Harper’s Monthly, in November 1872. In his column The Easy Chair, Curtis wrote: “[…] there is a Legion of Honor which wears no sign, yet is the most honorable at all. And whoever read of the burning of the steamer Bienville on her way to Aspinwall, in August of this year, will agree that Jefferson Maury, her commander, merits the grand cross of that legion.” 

Curtis went on to describe at length Captain Maury’s steadiness and quiet confidence, which kept the passengers calm and the crew efficiently busy at their tasks. When the ship could not be saved, all aboard were evacuated to boats. The majority reached safety at Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, about 130 miles from the point where they had left the ship. Maury went to extraordinary lengths to search for the missing over the next week. Curtis concluded, “[…] the nerve of the captain paralyzed disaster and made safety possible. He knew what to do, and how and when to do it, and his moral mastery alone prevented a frightful catastrophe. His name is Jefferson Maury. There has been no name lately mentioned deserving of more sincere respect. Those who are going to sea will sleep in their berths more soundly if they know that Captain Maury commands the ship.” 

Maury married Adelaide Weeden (1840–1916), daughter of John Hull Weeden, a Rhode Island lawyer, assemblyman, and tax collector. In the 1860s and ’70s, the Maurys lived in New York, but the 1880 U.S. census found them boarding on New Montgomery Street in San Francisco. Five years later, the Maurys built a rambling one-story residence at 1317 Shattuck Ave. The main wing looked out to the west and was surrounded by a three-sided porch. A smaller square wing at the rear of the southern end featured a brick chimney and an obliquely placed square bay. 

Captain Maury died suddenly at midnight on Jan. 1, 1895. The Berkeley Advocate reported that he had suffered from heart disease. Adelaide Maury continued living in the house until her death in 1916. She was given to good works and for many years was active in the Ladies’ Protective and Relief Society, an organization dedicated to the support of destitute children and indigent women. 

The Maurys were childless. Following Adelaide’s death, the house was sold to Harold McCarthy, a title company employee, and his wife Anne. The McCarthys brought three sons to the house and would soon produce two more. With the birth of their fourth son, quarters must have become inadequate, and in 1922 the McCarthys engaged architect John Hudson Thomas to expand and modernize the house. Keeping the original footprint more or less intact, Thomas added a second story, transforming the house into a double-peaked, shingled English country cottage. 

While Captain Maury was building his house at 1317 Shattuck Ave., Captain Seabury was erecting his own at 1322 Shattuck. According to Lewis & Dryden’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1895), “Capt. William B. Seabury was born in New Bedford, Mass., in 1840, and commenced his marine service at Philadelphia while a boy on a vessel in the Brazil sugar trade. He was employed on sailing vessels out of New York until 1864, his last ship being the Gertrude, of which he was first officer. 

“He then joined the steamship Ocean Queen of Commodore Vanderbilt’s line as quarter-master and then as second and first mate. In 1865 he occupied the former position on the steamship Baltic, running to the Isthmus in December 1873, subsequently joining the Grenada as first officer. Soon after her arrival in San Francisco in March 1874, he was promoted to the captaincy of the steamship Arizona. 

“In March 1875, he was given command of the City of Panama, running north with her for four years, except for a few trips when she was relieved by the Constitution and Alaska, which he also handled, and was in command of the former when she was burned. 

“While in the employ of the Pacific Mail he had charge of all the large steamers owned by that company and superintended the building of the steamer China, nearly every detail of her construction being left to his judgment. He took command of her as soon as she was completed and has run her since between San Francisco and China.” 

Seabury married Maria Kelsey Almy (1848–1940), daughter of a prosperous New England cooper. Before moving to Berkeley, the couple lived in Pacific Heights, San Francisco and brought to the world two sons, Benjamin and Almy. 

The Seabury house was a substantial two-story Queen Anne whose asymmetrical roofline sheltered a second-floor balcony above the entrance porch. An unusual feature was the long corner window in the stairwell. The house was set in a triple lot and commanded open vistas in all directions. The Seabury family lived here until 1898, when they exchanged houses with the Parkhurst family. 

Daniel Webster Parkhurst (1839–1899), a Massachusetts-born Southern Pacific agent and capitalist, acquired lands in Fresno County, where he operated vineyards and orchards. He and his wife Marietta moved from San Francisco to Berkeley in 1892 because their eldest son had reached college age and the younger two were not far behind. The Parkhursts settled in an imposing Southside residence at 2401 Channing Way and Dana Street. Designed and built by the fashionable architect A.W. Pattiani of Alameda, the house was one of the earliest shingled structures in Berkeley. 

Parkhurst and Seabury probably knew each other via the Southern Pacific-PMSS connection (SP owned PMSS from 1893 to 1912). Why the two families exchanged houses is a mystery remaining to be solved. On Channing Way, the Seaburys shared their immense new home with widowed brother-in-law Joseph H. Matthews, a supervising ship’s engineer, and his teenaged son and daughter, as well as with an Irish man servant and a Chinese cook. 

The Parkhursts’ residence at 1322 Shattuck Ave. was short-lived. Daniel Parkhurst died within a year, and the house passed back to Seabury, who let it to tenants while continuing to live on Channing Way. Future Berkeley mayor Samuel C. Irving would purchase 1322 Shattuck in 1906, just months before the death of Captain Seabury. 

In December 1906 Seabury, who had been commanding the liner S.S. Korea, was close to completing a six-month vacation from his duties as commodore in the PMSS fleet. The family was rusticating at its country house in Guerneville when the captain received orders to take charge of the 27,000-ton S.S. Mongolia on its next trip to the Orient. He decided to spend a few days with his friend S.B. McNear (a member of San Francisco’s Committee of Fifty at the time of the earthquake and fire) in Ross Valley. While taking a postprandial walk on December 18, the captain slipped from a stone wall and fell into an excavation, suffering a paralyzing spinal injury. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital in San Rafael for surgery but died before the operation had begun. 

Maria K. Seabury continued living at 2401 Channing Way while her younger son Almy was studying civil engineering at the University of California (the elder son, Benjamin, was a metal manufacturer in Tacoma, WA). In 1909 they relocated to 2511 Virginia St., but in 1911 Maria turned to John Hudson Thomas, who designed for her a modern 8-room house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. 

Heavily buttressed, the house boasts three parapet gables with dormer windows; square and semicircular bays on the ground floor; an arched entrance porch; and foursquare motifs on the gables and chimney. Curiously, this up-to-the-minute house echoed the asymmetrical roofline of the Seaburys’ old-fashioned Victorian. 

Almy Seabury (1884–1953) worked as a draftsman at the California Highway Commission before taking a job in marine insurance at his cousin’s San Francisco firm, Matthews & Livingston. For three decades he lived with his family in a Craftsman bungalow at 6442 Colby St. Almy’s son, William Brownell Seabury (1917–1994), was a landscape architect and engineer with the California State Park System when he married Eleanor Jean Maddox (1924–2006), daughter of Brigadier General Louis W. Maddox and the first female field geologist to be hired by Standard Oil. 

The Parkhurst-Seabury home at 2401 Channing Way was turned into a fraternity house. It was torn down before 1950, when such buildings were considered passé. Ida Sproul Hall of UC’s Unit 3 dorms has occupied the site since the 1960s. 

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

Photograph by Daniella Thompson 

In 1911, John Hudson Thomas designed the above house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. for Captain Seabury’s widow. The Parkhurst-Seabury house (left) at 2401 Channing Way was one of Berkeley’s earliest shingled houses, designed and built by A.W. Pattiani in 1892.  

Just on impulse and because I spotted a parking space, I dropped into Green Jeans Garden Supply in Mill Valley the other day. I was looking for something else entirely, but there was a four-inch seedling in the Edibles rack that I didn’t recognize. The label called it “agretti” and I didn’t recognize that either. “Italian specialty green—eat raw or sautéed with garlic and olive oil.” 

So of course I had to buy it, never mind that the label also says “full sun” and I have approximately none of that in our shade-beset and crowded yard.  

The guy behind the counter asked if I liked agretti, and I admitted I’d never heard of it, let alone grown it. “Neither have I,” he said, ”So I took some home to see what happens. I mean, it’s Italian. It ought to be good.” 

Clearly a kindred spirit, and one of these days I’ll have to go there when business is slow, and swap tales with him. I am applying a sort of rhetorical discount to the label’s suggestion, though: there’s very little that doesn’t taste good sauteed with garlic and olive oil.  

The little plant itself looks a bit like the “moss rose” portulaca’s foliage, but longer: succulent green shoelace bits in a disorderly tangle, originating from a half-dozen reddish stem bases. Not your basic leafy green vegetable. 

We have a few books about odd garden plants, foodstuffs, and dietary habits. Agretti didn’t turn up in any of them. Intriguing!  

Joe went on-line and found the stuff. A Santa Barbara site says it’s available at the local farmers’ market, and is also called “roscano” and “barba di frate” and, better yet, had the Linnean binomial: Salsola maritimum. 

It’s a halophyte—tolerant of salty soils—and grows at the edges of marshes. It tastes a bit salty. In other words, it’s a lot like pickleweed. 

You can buy pickleweed at the Berkeley Bowl sometimes. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of paying over five bucks a pound for it when it’s so plentiful where I spend a lot of time chasing birds—until I start thinking about what’s likely to be seeping into the saltmarshes around Emeryville and Albany. Then I hope that the Bowl knows its pickleweed suppliers at least as well as it knows its wild-mushroom suppliers.  

Agretti supposedly tastes saline even when grown in normal garden soil; I snapped off a bit of leaf and it did taste just a tad salty as well as slightly tart.  

Looking at my single seedling next to the farmers’ market bunches pictured on the site, I began to wish I’d bought more. Maybe it should be grown from seed, to get more than a dainty sample. 

More googling around yielded a source for seed, hard to get because it doesn’t keep well. I know I’ve seen Bavicchi brand seeds in local shops like the big Long’s Drugs store at 52nd and Broadway. Maybe they could be encouraged to add agretti to their list. 

Meanwhile, shop online and try the stuff. If you manage to grow it in shade, let me know.  

www.italianseedandtool.com/index.html 

www.edhat.com/index.cfm

The kitchens of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s had terrific old stoves. They were simple, heavy, and used lots more gas because they lacked insulation. They had built-in lamps, clocks and spring timers, but other than that they were technologically very simple. Nothing fancy. That means that, if you are lucky enough to own one, they’re repairable, and if you are of a mind to, they can be disassembled, cleaned and repaired without a lot of technical skill. The pilots for both oven and top burner have a small screw that can be adjusted to elevate or reduce the flame, but many ovens did not have pilots (except for the one that ran during operation). They needed to be lit with a match.  

A professional can install a pilot for you on that old stove and this is a very worthwhile modification, because many a housewife has had her eyelashes singed by delaying the application of the match to the burner. This is really quite dangerous and the upgrade is a darned good idea. Also, some early stoves had gas heaters in them. These are, for the most part, unvented in any practical way and are, therefore, quite dangerous as well. The best thing to do with these is to disconnect the gas to the heater inside. But if you simply resolve to never use these heaters you’ll still be better off. 

The burners in nearly all older stoves can be removed with very little effort. Most of them simply lift up a bit and then slide off the nipple of the burner near the front face. They can then be soaked in a degreaser such as Simple Green (I like those orange peel degreasers). After a day or two, you can brush them out with bottle brushes (I like to get several sizes including a big one that will go all the way through), let them dry and slide them back in place. One thing you’ll want to do at the same time is to take a tiny rod (a paperclip works pretty well) and clear the petite vent holes located near the pilot tube. If you start taking things apart, you’ll quickly find one or two pilots that have several small aluminum tubes mounted around them on wires that carry the flame to the burners. Where each one meets the big cast-iron burner assembly, there is a tiny tile (or several). These often become quite clogged with grease and this is one of the main causes of burners that don’t ignite. By cleaning the tiny orifice on the burner, you’ll allow the flame to be captured by the burner. While you’re at it, check these aluminum tubes and make sure they’re all sitting in their little seats and hanging properly. When you remove burners, you’ll have to unhook them and then reseat them. It’s not complex. Just take a minute and you’ll see where they go. 

Spraying down the inside of the entire burner cavity with a degreaser and cleaning this area (with the burners and flames off, of course) is a great thing to do for both hygiene and fire safety. Eventually, the whole enclosure becomes quite flammable. There may be little trays that run below the burners that you can slide out for cleaning. These are the main repositories for grease and dead matches and they should be cleaned often. 

Many of these stoves have tube-shaped bulbs hiding up under the back cover that have simply died and can be revived with nothing more than a new bulb. If a switch or cord needs replacement, it’s a simple job for someone handy. 

You may have a stove with a cover that folds up to become a shelf. Many folks have never played with these to see that by pushing a button on either side, you can fold the legs up or down. Sadly, many of these have died and won’t do their business any longer. Also, the matching salt and pepper shakers are frequently missing, but take heart, mighty homeowner. There’s always eBay and a potentially successful season-long search for the right ones (they’ll only be 75 bucks!).  

There are a few websites out there on which you can salivate over the $5,000 red Wedgewood. Many offer replacement valves, thermostats and other parts for reviving Grandma O’Keefe. 

If you have a stove that’s old enough, you may have a “kindler.” These are easily distinguished at first by the set of nested iron plates on top of one side of the stove that may remind you of an early Franklin stove. If you lift one of the plates, you’ll see a firebox suitable for building a wooden fire (how do you spell carbon monoxide poisoning?) and at the bottom of it, a triangular reticulated bar for dropping ash while keeping the fire rolling. By turning a detachable crank, ash drops into a metal drawer in the bottom of the stove. Open the front, pull the drawer and you may get lucky and find the crank for the kindler and a little handle for picking up the hot metal cooking plates on top. I see them all the time. While these should not be used, they are antiques that we get to live with and remind us daily of a time when gas was distrusted and the utility company might be closed for the weekend. I like to imagine Grandma coming to visit the young marrieds and refusing to use that newfangled fuel gas. Perhaps this was Spark or Wedgewood’s solution to the technical generation gap of 1925. 

These stoves, like their Franklin predecessors, had stove pipes (that bluish metal piping is for these...and not for your water heater). These would attach to the back or top of the oven flue built into the unit and were intended to attach to a stove pipe in the house. Many of the houses of the East Bay still have either a Patent Flue (a huge ceramic lined, steel jacketed flue that takes up a foot-and-a-half square space in the wall next to the stove) or a brick flue (about the same size and location). The stove was intended to pipe into this to take away the grease and smoke from the all-day baking that characterized women’s lives in the early 20th century. Today, the need for oven ventilation is decreased by the design of equipment but most folks still don’t use a stove vent on their antique. I think venting for an old stove is a good idea but in its absence be sure you have plenty of window ventilation. 

There’s more evidence of the all-day bake that took place in this most important room in the house and that’s in the cabinetry. Many of the kitchens of this era will feature three (or sometimes only two) Baker’s drawers. See if you have three identical squarish drawers with metal liners. The liners slope the corners making it easier to scoop out and, of course, these were for flour, sugar and (if you have three) salt (or baking powder). This architectural institutionalization of women’s work tell us much of life in these days. If you were a worthy wife, you would bake bread (none of that store bought cardboard), cakes and cookies as well as roasts, potatoes and casseroles all day long (during which you washed, ironed and swept). 

Here are a few other kitchen features to look for in your early kitchen. The California Cooler was a vented cabinet that had a top and bottom vent through which air would “convect” or flow as a function of natural heating. Refrigeration didn’t become common until around 1930 and even those early fridges were very small and too cold for veggies (no salad crispers yet) so the cooler was used for root veggies and lot of other things that just needed a little change of air and a slightly cooler space (perfect for a cooking pie). 

Note the counters that are about four inches narrower than today. No Cuisinarts or all those other things to demand wider counters. They also had nice tiled borders and sloped, built-in dish drainers (that’s right, the counter was meant to slope like that). Some had double sinks with a drainer that covered the deep soaker sink that doubled up for clothes washing. Be sure and keep an “eye” “peeled” for the potato-bin found in many old kitchen cabinets. It was quite deep and tipped out for easy loading from the big sack. 

Life is very different today. In many ways much better and certainly more egalitarian (at least between the sexes) but there is something sweet and homey and romantic about this room full of wonderful smells, diapered children, crayons and cakes. Occasionally, while I’m probing the cabinets looking for leaks I can get just a small sense of the love and comfort that once filled these old kitchens. 

Don’t Be Frozen By Fear! 

In a recent QuakeTip, I reminded our readers that the difference between a 3.0 quakelet and a 7.0 major quake was huge. One reader chastised me for scaring her. 

Believe it or not, my purpose is not to scare you, but to wake you up. It’s no secret that the SF Bay area is sound asleep when it comes to earthquake preparation. A few fairly simple steps can go a long way in protecting you, your family, and your home. 

The wake-up call goes like this: have your retrofit checked, get an automatic gas shut-off valve installed, secure your heavy furniture, and assemble emergency kits for home, car, and office.  

Don’t let fear or anxiety keep you frozen – just make a check list of things to do and then do them, one by one.  

Wishing you a safe home and peace of mind. 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and gas shut-off valve installation service. Contact him at 558-3299 or visit QuakePrepare.com to receive semi-monthly quake safety reports. Quake Tip appears weekly in Easty Bay Home & Real Estate.

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Barry Gifford reads from “Memories from a Sinking Ship” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ and the Bon Vivants at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

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

Kaspar/Sherman Jazz Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Waco, The Altarboys, United Defiance at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

New Monsoon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“First Exposures: Bay Area Youth Photography” opens at the Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., and runs to Aug. 5. www.sfcamerawork.org 

THEATER 

Queer Cabaret featuring Big City Improv, Jessica Fisher, and Shaunna Bella & Claire Elizabeth, at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. All proceeds will go to Shotgun Players Solar Campaign. 841-6500. 

FILM 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pesetas” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Anne Fadiman reads from “At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays” at noon at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

David Rains Wallace describes “Neptune’s Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Dina Rasor describes “Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Cafe Poetry with Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $22-$24. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Denise Fraga & Kristan Lynch at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7 p.m. Cost is $7. 525-5054.  

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

Le Jazz Hot at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jim Page at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Frankye Kelly at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200.  

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

THEATER 

“Tea N' Crisp” with Quentin Crisp in tribute to national gay pride week at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave.Tickets are $25, reservations advised. 841-6500.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Works by Robert Bilensky” Reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon and Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. Exhibition runs to Sept. 6. 527-3100. 

“A Photographic Celebration of Culture in the Heart of Oakland” Evening viewing with photographers at 5 p.m. at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Bldg. Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. 

“Constructions” Works by Jenny Honnert Abell, Marya Krogstad and Thomas Morphis at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park, through July 1. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

Rebecca Camhi Fromer reads from her new book of poems “Out of Silence into Being” at 6:30 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

Poetry Flash with Lyn Hejinian and Cathy Park Hong at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

John Perkins describes “The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jacklas, and the Truth About Global Corruption” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble with Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 444-0323.  

Solstice Celebration with Caroline Casey and Amikayla Gaston at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $25. 525-5054.  

Solstice Concert with Terry Riley, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Todd Renolds and others at 5 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. www.gardenofmemory.com 

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

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

Pickpocket Ensemble, international cafe music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Fancy Dan, Nick Marcott, Nick Z at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082  

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

Marcus Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$26. 238-9200.  

The Dying Californian, Winfred E. Eye, Odessa Chen at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

FRIDAY, JUNE 22 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Bosoms and Neglect” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., SUn. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 22. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Oliver Twist” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through June 24. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org  

Berkeley Rep “Great Men of Genius” with Mike Daisey in four different monologues at 2025 Addison St. through June 30. Tickets are $30-$75. 647-2949. 

California Shakespeare Theater “Richard III” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through June 24. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs 8: Sinfully Delicious” Thurs.-Sat. through July 21 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Ring Round the Moon” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 14. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Tea N' Crisp” with Quentin Crisp in tribute to national gay pride week at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave.Tickets are $25, reservations advised. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Virago Theatre Comapny “The Death of Ayn Rand” and “A Bed of My Own” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda to July 7. Tickets are $10-$17. 865-6237. www.ViragoTheatre.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Summer Solos” Works by Yvette Molina, Chelsea Pegram and Amanda Williams. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at Pro Arts, 550 Second St., Oakland. 763-9425. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Country Joe McDonald “Tribute to Woody Guthrie” in a fundraiser for Save the Oaks at 8 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St.Donation $10-$50. 841-3493. 

Edmund Wells and The Bass Clarinet Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-1350. 

Company of Prophets, Kiwi & DJ PAtrick, Abyssinian Creole at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Miss Faye Carol & her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Vicki Virk & Dholrhythms, Fabio Moura and other world dancers at 8 and 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Free. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jill Knight, singer/songwriter, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Iris Dement at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. Cost is $26.50-$27.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

David Gans, Joe Rut and Mario DeSio at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Stiff Dead Cat, Joe Rut con Queso, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Attack Disarm Takeover, Worhouse, Arise at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6-$10. 525-9926. 

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

Chroma, electro-groove jazz, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Jonny Manak & The Depressives, New Earth Creeps, The Sore Thumbs at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $8. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Helepolis, Belair Academy at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Marcus Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 23 

CHILDREN  

Arts and Crafts Weekend with MOCHA and puppet shows from 12:30 p.m. on at Children’s Fairyland, at 699 Bellvue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Animals, Sea Creatures and Animation” Paintings, sculpture, digital and fiber art and more, in a benefit for Hopalong Animal Rescue. Narrated art galley tour from noon to 5 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2053 Ashby Ave. 644-4930.  

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “A Dream Play” Sat. and Sun. at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Wlnut St. at Berryman, through July 1. 841-5580. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Central Works “Bird in the Hand” Thurs-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 29. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Regan McMahon reads from “Revolution in the Bleachers: How Parents Can Take Back Family in a World Gone Crazy Over Youth Sports” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Open Mic at the Marina at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina. Sponsored by Cal Adventures. 642-4000. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Company C Contemporary Ballet at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. www.companycballet.org 

Music of Paul Bowles with Frank Johnson, piano; Elisabeth Commanday, soprano; author Michael Paller, commentary, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Art Peterson on the Accordion at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Venezuela: Tambores de San Juan at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568.  

Dan Hicks and His Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Baba Ken & West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson with Comfort Mensah at 9 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

Naomi Adiv and Adrienne Shamszad at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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

The Wailin’ Jennys at 5 and 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Love X Nowhere, Bye Bye Blackbirds, The Trenchermen, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Eskapo. A.N.F.O., La Grita at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

Hoods, Life Long Tragedy in a benefit for the Ernie Cortez Family at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Amel Larrieux at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, JUNE 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Moshi Moshi! Bridging Cultures through Art” Japanese and American art inspired by cross cultural influences opens at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, and runs through Aug. 10. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

THEATER 

“Nature v. Merger” a Sci Fi fairy tale by the Berkeley Pickup Troupe at 2 p.m. at 1631 Bonita Ave. 266-2069. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Courtney Martin describes “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters: The Frightening New Normalcy of Hating Your Body” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Conversations on Art: Evolution of a Live/Work Environment, in conjunction with the exhibition “Studio Man Ray” at 2 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $10-$12. 549-6950. 

“Something that Matters” edited by Elizabeth Fishel and Terri Hinte at 3 p.m. at Diesel Book Store, 5433 College Ave. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley International Folk Festival with Nerissa & Katryna Nields, the Aux Cajunals, Cascada de Flores, Austin Willacy, Hali Hammer and others, from 1 to 10 p.m. with p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Free. 548-1761.  

San Francisco Choral Artists “Someting Borrowed, Something Blue” at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave., at Bay Place, Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 415-979-5779. www.sfca.org 

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

Tom Huber at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Americana Unplugged: Jimbo Trout & The Fishpeople at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 

Flamenco Open Stage at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Rover City High, Upside, Stop the Malarchy at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. 

Fleshies, Hey Girl, Bobbie Joe ebola & The Children McNuggets at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, JUNE 25 

FILM 

“Jazz on a Monday Afternoon” Films and discussion on Latin Jazz and Jazz as Internatinal Music at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St., 3rd flr. 981-6100.at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Helen Oyeyemi reads from “The Opposite House” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express Open mic theme night on “Weddings and Funerals” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pickpocket Ensemble at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

Musica ha Disconnesso, paino and mandolins, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

Geno Delafose at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FIRST EXPOSURES 

First Exposures, an exhibition of photographs by local at-risk youth, opens at Mills College Art Museum on Wednesday. The exhibtion is named after the long-running mentoring program created in 1993 by a group of concerned photographers who wanted to use their artistic skills to help their community. Pairing homeless, foster and at-risk youth with qualified adult mentors who teach them photography, First Exposures has grown to become one of the nation’s most respected art mentoring programs. Mills College Art Museum. 5000 MacArthur Blvd. June 20-Aug. 5. www.sfcamerawork.org. 

TEA ’N’ CRISP 

The precocious Quentin Crisp lived a life without shame, reservation or compromise. Shotgun Company member Richard Louis James pays tribute to this international gay icon by bringing him back to life in an original solo piece. Tea ‘n’ Crisp is based on Crisp’s writing and public appearances and will be performed during national gay pride week in celebration of flamboyant autonomy. Tea ‘N Crisp also pays tribute 

to the Shotgun Solar Campaign, to which all proceeds will be dedicated. Let the sun shine in! Thursday, June 21, Friday, June 22 and Saturday, June 23, 8 p.m. The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. $25. Reservations strongly advised. 510-841-6500.  

www.shotgunplayers.org.

In black battle dress, a figure hobbles onstage to the unlikely strains of Patsy Cline belting out “Wheel of Fortune” over a big band. As he performs an exhausted striptease—one suited for a locker room—the battle-weary wraith launches into “Now is the winter of our discontent” and finally dons topcoat over white T-shirt: Gloucester, who will one day soon be Richard III. 

As played by Reg Rogers, Richard’s a twisted, evil brute, but of an almost whimsical humor in California Shakespeare Theater’s Richard III, playing in the Orinda outdoor Bruns Amphitheater through Sunday. 

His humped back and splayed foot become the trimmings of a kind of vaudeville eccentric—he skips and hops on and off, and such galumphing rhythms provide off-kilter rimshots to his slurred, strident, scathing punchlines. His woebegone demeanor, a kind of cartoonish, Wile E. Coyote goggle-eyed slouch, belies his mastery of hypocrisy and seduction—seduction even of Lady Anne over her husband’s coffin as she curses Gloucester, who killed him. (Susannah Livingstone and Rogers give this famous, fantastic scene a few good twists in their display of it.)  

Opposite Gloucester is his brother, Edward IV, “every inch a king,” though criticized for dalliance with courtesans. James Carpenter, in his delivery of Edward’s soliloquy eulogizing their brother Clarence (Max Gordon Moore), when Richard’s scheming brings about his death while imprisoned (the sleight of hand of warrants and interpreting royal wishes doesn’t quite come off here), brings off a coup of grand theater, as Edward is laid low with grief and remorse, a semidivine creature made mortal. 

The cast is generally pretty well spoken in a very talky play (though some, like Catherine Castellanos as Margaret, widow to Henry IV and general Cassandra, just declaim), but Carpenter’s high tone and manner rise above the rush of “Shakespeare Festivalese” the others sometimes slip into.  

With all the talk, the groupings are usually well enough choreographed by director Mark Rucker, as is the fight on Bosworth Field that brings Richard III, both the character and the play, and the War of the Roses itself to a close—despite a little unnecessary dry ice smoke, and a lot more cloying use of Patsy Cline to underscore the precarious state of the crown and the lives of those near to it. (At one point, Richard sings along while swinging a bloody plastic sack with the head of the latest he’s dispatched.) 

The more serious intricacies of public and private demeanor, and the personal ambition, fear and remorse that play behind the courtier’s face are best shown by Dan Hiatt’s performance as Buckingham.  

The gruesome is therefore combined with the whimsically insouciant to realize a breezy, black-edged humor for much of the show. At times this seems to underline, at others undermine, the point made: how Gloucester’s unscrupulous climb to the top—made by cutting a bloody swathe across Britain—opens up the floodgates to general dog-eat-dog mayhem. 

The plot is pretty well delineated by the way the action is represented, the lines delivered. The production attempts “that savage, old English humor” T. S. Eliot spoke of, which amplified and distorted the Tragic. But sometimes the reverberations of poetry and meaning are muffled by repetitive “sight gags” and riffs, or by the lack of will to go beyond making a scene or a turn and turn the corner into the lonely byways of the strange, hybrid form of Tragedy which bears The Bard’s name. 

RICHARD III 

Presented by California Shakespeare Theater through Sunday at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda. 

$15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org.

The Virago Theatre company, resident in Alameda, is currently staging the premieres of two short plays by Bay Area playwrights, The Death of Ayn Rand, by John Byrd (directed by Robert Lundy-Paine) and A Bed of My Own, by well-known Oakland actor and director Robert Hamm (directed by Laura Lundy-Paine) at Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda. 

The Death of Ayn Rand is “an absurd comedy about the final hours of Ayn Rand,” said Laura Lundy-Paine. “She has bizarre hallucinations; her views on life seemed so concrete to her that these disorient her—clowns, characters in movies appear, as well as a strange, lewd nurse. It starts out somber, then gets stranger and stranger. Her assistant keeps trying to tell her he loves her, but gets brushed aside. 

“It’s based on some facts from the circumstances of her death, but takes it much further. It was in our playreading series last summer, and we chose it for full production.” 

Robert Hamm, well known to East Bay theatergoers for his appearances in recent years with Aurora and Wilde Irish, among others, besides his directorial work (and past artistic direction of Altarena Playhouse in Alameda), has been writing since youth, taking up playwriting in the 1990s, but A Bed of My Own is his first play to be produced. “I’ve never submitted a play, nor have I been asked!” Hamm said. “But Laura [Lundy-Paine} had heard it some time ago in Will Dunne’s play-writing workshop showcases.”  

Hamm described the play and its hook: “It’s a three-person love-hate triangle. Rose invites her unassuming ex-husband Reager over for dinner, where he finds the real reason he’s there is to get rid of Stan, her live-in lover, who’s been in bed for eight months.” 

Hamm mentioned the background for this skewed, almost primal scene: “I was a substance abuse counselor in the Midwest; Rosie’s partly modeled on the leading prostitute and heroin addict in Rockford, Illinois. Also, I remembered a Life magazine story about Brian Wilson [of the Beach Boys], who was clinically depressed and stayed in bed two years. I’d say Stan’s making an extreme expression of power. He feels, because of some information he has, that he has power over Rosie. And Reager (I don’t know where that name came from; it just rang in my ear) is like a child trapped in the middle, feeling he should make it all right.”  

Both Hamm (who acted in Virago’s fine production of Lyle Kessler’s Orphans a couple of months ago) and Laura Lundy-Paine discussed what it was like to work together on a play by an actor-director. “We worked together first on a proper working arrangement,” said Hamm. “I spent more time away from rehearsal than I would have expected. It was the flip side of the coin for me. Actors and directors try to interpret a work, though in both roles I’m trying less to leave a personal stamp than to find the author’s truth, a more classical position.” 

Lundy-Paine commented on how she and Hamm talked through every page of the script and cast the play together. “It looks at different ways people can be utterly cruel to each other,” she said. “How they serve their own ends relentlessly, and somebody gets caught in the middle, as they fight, make up, and fight again.” 

Why the two plays together? “Well, for one thing, the bed’s centrally located in both plays, with a character who can’t or won’t get out,” said Lundy-Paine. 

Virago, committed to producing a musical and the premiere of a new play each year, emphasizes they accept new scripts for their staged play-reading series. The next musical hasn’t been chosen; Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is being considered. In the fall, a live sit-com by Dan Brodnitz will be filmed. 

THE DEATH OF AYN RAND and 

A BED OF MY OWN 

8 p. m. Fridays and Saturdays through July 7 at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave. in Alameda (not far from the Park Street Bridge). $17 ($10, students and seniors). 865-6237. ViragoTheatre.org.

It must have been just about a year ago that a reader wrote to me via The Planet, asking about a row of trees on a street near Ashby and San Pablo. They were blooming—as they are now—and he’d been enjoying them for a long time and wondered what they were. 

A reasonable question, but as always, my good intentions were sabotaged by my very bad organizational skills. The letter vanished, and it turned up again only recently when I was cleaning out the office to make way for a new printer. My apologies to the gentleman for the lateness of the reply. 

I did, however, have the question floating around my consciousness and so I drove over to what I thought was the street in question. The trees are flaxleaf paperbarks, Melaleuca linariifolia. They’re covered in a froth of tiny creamy-white flowers, which on their rounded canopy evoke cumulus clouds or fluffy snowdrifts. Some folks call the species “snow-in-summer tree.”  

You can see others of its kind on Jefferson Street north of Dwight, and on the Albany border along the BART tracks. 

It’s an import, as so many of our street trees are, and from Australia, ditto. It’s kin to the infamous Melaleuca quinquenervia, which has invaded wildlands in Florida to the extent that it’s threatening what’s left of the Everglades. Like so many exotics, it’s less useful to the ecosystem it has invaded than the native plants it’s crowding out. That’s especially poignant in the Everglades, such a unique place that fosters unique life. 

On city streets both species are less of a problem. I like M. linariifolia better, personally, just because of that dizzy dazzling form it assumes in bloom; there’s nothing like it to make a passerby smile. My correspondent mentioned nicknaming the ones he encountered “Fluffula Truffula trees.” (Now, of course, that’s the way I think of them too. Thanks, I think.) 

Most of the time it’s just a tree on the street, giving shade and shelter and not much else to the city’s birds and other wildlife. Its foliage is a nice dark shade of green and its trunk is handsomely contrasting, white to buff-colored. 

Getting closer rewards the pedestrian. The bark is not only papery, it’s spongy; press it with your thumb and isn’t that the oddest sensation? Bouncy! It’s soft and smooth, too, between the fluffed-out seams. If you’re going to hug a tree I guess this would be the tree to hug.  

Sometimes I think the right to use exotic plants is rather like the right to keep and bear arms: It wouldn’t need so much frenzied defending if there were more information, consensus, and will to do it right. I know gun owners who are just fine, thank you, and I boast of a 100-percent accurate target record myself. (It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how I got that one.)  

But half the foofaraw would be nonexistent if everybody took the care my friends have to keep the guns locked up, learn gun etiquette and safety (which are pretty much synonymous), and know they’re not video games or penis-enlargement devices.  

Problem exotics are a similar matter of Things in the Wrong Hands. The wrong hands in this case are those of folks who haven’t bothered to educate themselves about the place that’s keeping them alive, that supplies the ground they stand on, the water they drink, the very air they breathe, to understand what’s being overrun.  

Unfortunately that includes many landscapers.  

It’s not that hard, really. Anything that thrives as well under tough conditions in cities should be considered dangerous as guns and motor vehicles and explosives are. Keep them in their place, and there’s less chance of disaster. Keep them well away from wildlands-—parks, preserves, and just plain “un-owned” spaces—and you can take pleasure in using them.  

Native plants aren’t appropriate everywhere. Yes, you read that right. Oleanders are just fine on freeway medians, because you wouldn’t want to attract wildlife there anyway, and because you know they won’t mess with the local gene pool of plants we don’t quite understand yet.  

In cities, though, I’d love to see more native trees, and I rejoice in any research I hear of into their use. (Street trees lead hard lives and must co-exist peacefully with paving, traffic, and humans with other things on their minds.) 

But there’s no reason we can’t be responsible and use imports too. When I look out the BART train window at that cluster of trees from Mexico, Australia, and elsewhere clustered on the plaza on MLK near Children’s Hospital, I think of a bunch of old guys from all over hanging out and socializing on benches in the town square. I like thinking of that. Gives me hope.  

Photograph by Ron Sullivan. 

“Fluffula Truffula” trees line a street in south Berkeley. Like fireworks, exotic plants are so much fun we shouldn’t screw the situation up with irresponsible use.

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

Gay Day with entertainment by Gwen Avery, Happy Hyder, Land-a-Lakes and her Queens, and The Cheerleaders, food and door prizes from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Information for Senior Homeowners, including loan document review at 10 a.m. at the West Oakland Multipurpose Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St. Sponsored by AARP and Acorn Housing. RSVP required. 271-8843. 

Berkeley Library Board of Trustees Information Night for prospective trustees at 6:30 p.m. at the West Branch, 1125 University Ave. For more information call 981-6195. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. at Point Pinole. For information and to register call 525-2233.  

“Low Carbon Diet” Ideas from the Green Team Project on how to live sustainably at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 558-0821. susans@acterra.org 

“Religion and Environment” with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr at 8 p.m. at 433 Madison St., Oakland. Sponsored by The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California. Cost is $5-$10. iccnc.org. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Downtown Oakland Senior Center, 200 Grand Ave. 981-5332. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registraion required. 594-5165. 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 1247 Marin Ave. 524-9122.  

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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. 

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.  

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, JUNE 20 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www. 

oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” with investigative journalist Dian Rasor, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Reading in Common Berkeley Public Library’s community summer reading program will distribute copies of “The Kite Runner” at Senior Centers at 11:30 a.m. and at Library branches at 1 p.m. Related programs throughout the summer. 981-6257. 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Volunteer Orientation Night at 7 p.m. at 2530 San Pablo Ave., Suite G. 843-2222. 

“Ecological Design: Inventing the Future” A documentary on the emergence of ecological design, beginning with Buckminster Fuller, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Ernesto Che Guevara, The Bolivian Diary” a documentary at 7 p.m. at the Gray Panther Office, 1403 Addison, in the parking lot behind the university Ave. Andronico’s. 548-9696. 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pesetas” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

New to DVD Screening and Discussion at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at Healthy Oakland, 2580 San Pablo Ave. 981-5332. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil  

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

“Chasing Freedom” Talk and movie screening on the refugees seeking asylum in the US. with guest Arlette Kitenge, survivor of the Rwandan genocide, at 7:30 p.m. at Studio Rasa, 933 Parker St., between 8th and 9th. www.studiorasa.org 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

“Ripe for Change” A documentary film by Emiko Omori and Jed Riffe on the intersection of food and politics in California over the past 30 years at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar at Arch. Filmmakers will be present for discussion. Cost is $5. 843-8724. 

Summer Solstice Gathering at 7:45 p.m. at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. www.solarcalendar.org 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. in the LeConte School cafeteria, entrance on Russell St. karlreeh@aol.com 

Urban Luau for Entrepreneurs at 6 p.m. at Everett and Jones, 126 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $35, $60 for a couple. 655-1304. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info  

FRIDAY, JUNE 22 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with David Wallenstein on “EBMUD Water Conservation Projects” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

“Tribute to Woody Guthrie” with Country Joe McDonald in a fundraiser to save the Memorial Oak Grove at UC Berkeley, at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Donation $10-$50. 841-3493. www.saveoaks.com  

“When the Levees Broke” Parts 1 and 2, will be screened at 2 p.m. at the YWCA Berkeley. 2600 Bancroft Way. Free. 848-6370. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. at Ashby. 981-5332. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at East Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE. www.BeADonor.com (Code: UCB) 

“The Mission” the British film at 7:30 p.m. at The Center of Light, 2944 76th St., Oakland. 635-4286. 

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, JUNE 23 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Celebrates Piedmont Centennial with a 1.8 mile hilly walk with staircases. Meet at 10 am. at the monument at the edge of Piedmont Park, near the intersection of Highland and Magnolia, Piedmont. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Pet Parade and Art Gallery Tour of “Animals, Sea Creatures and Animation” Paintings, sculpture, digital and fiber art and more, in a benefit for Hopalong Animal Rescue. Narrated art galley tour from noon to 5 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2053 Ashby Ave. 644-4930.  

Dynamite History Walk Explore the explosive and peaceful past of the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline with former Atlas Powder Company employee Norman Monk from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For meeting place call 525-2233. 

Native Plant Gardening for the East Bay Learn how to use native plants that are naturally adapted to our local climate and that require very little water to thrive, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sponsored by the Alameda County Cleanwater Program. Cost is $10-$15. Pre-registration required. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Oak Grove Tree-Sit Summer Festival with music, food and art, from 2 to 8 p.m. at the Oak Grove on Piedmont Ave., just north of Bancroft Ave. and International House. 938-2109. www.saveoaks.com 

Common Agenda Regional Network meeting on reordering federal priorities from the military to human and environmental needs at 2 p.m. at the Peace Action West office, 2800 Adeline/Stuart, 4 blocks no. of Ashby BART. 527-9584. 

Know Your Rights Berkeley Copwatch presents a training in your rights with the police and how to be an effective police observer, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. www.berkeleycopwatch.org 

Art and Craft Courtyard Sale with origami, beadwork, knitting, and musical entertainment from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1901 Heast St. Benefits Berkeley’s Nikkei seniors. 

Berkeley Pickup Troupe rehearsal for “Nature v. Merger” a Sci Fi fairy tale at 3 p.m. at 1631 Bonita Ave. Performance on Sun. Call to claim a role. 266-2069. 

Great American Backyard Campout from 3 p.m. until Sun. at 10 a.m. at the Jaoquin Miller Park. Fee is $25 per family and includes parking, dinner, continental breakfast, snacks and activities. Register online at www.oakland.net.com/parks.registration or call 238-7275. 

Cork Boat Regatta and Bubble Extravaganza from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Museum of Children’s Art, 528 9th St., Oakland. Admission is $5, plus $5 for workshops. 465-8770. 

Free Seismic Retrofit Seminar from 10 a.m. to noon at Open House Senior Center, 6500 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 418-1676. bayarearetrofit@aol.com  

Live Reptiles from the East Bay Vivarium and kick-off of the Summer Reading Program at 2 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. For ages 3 and up. 524-3043. 

Preschool Storytime for 3 to 5-year-olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext. 17. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland uptown to the Lake to discover Art Deco landmarks. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of the Paramount Theater at 2025 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234. 

Origami Earring Workshop with Nga Trinhat 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Free. 981-6100. 

East Bay Baby Fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 540-7210. 

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from noon to 3 p.m. at 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500. www.hopalong.org  

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 24 

“Let’s Get Healthy” An educationa presentation, diabetes and hypertension screening, resources and other information for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. 540-7085. 

Health Care Forum from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1924 Cedar St. For information call 526-8419. 

Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden with chicken rancher Linnea Due who will help you decide which breeds are best for your situation, how to deal with predators, whether your chickens can free-range, and more, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at EcoHouse, 1305 Hopkins St., entrance on Peralta. Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. 548-2220 ext. 242. cohouse@ecologycenter.org  

Trails Challenge in Briones Regional Park Meet at 10 a.m. on the north side, Old Briones Rd. entrance for a 6.5 mile hike. Bring lunch, liquids, and sturdy walking shoes. 525-2233. 

“US Military Bases in Ecuador? Oil Companies in the Amazon?” A report back from Global Exchange at 6:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568.  

50 plus Berkeley Playreading Group reads “Flirtations” by Arthur Schnitzler at 2 p.m. at 1471 Addison St., entrance in rear of 1473 building, off Sacramento. RSVP to 655-7962.  

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Lilttle Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Social Action Forum with Larry Bensky, formerly of KPFA, on the role of the media at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Univresalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

“The Edukators” a film about the reactions to global capitalism at 8 p.m. at Long Haul Infoship, 3124 Shattuck Ave. www.thelonghaul.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Betty Cook on “The Stupa: Symbol of Enlightenment” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 25  

Pools for Berkeley meets at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst at MLK. Minutes of prior meetings and presentations available at www.poolsforberkeley.org 

Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning Workshop covering legal end-of-life decisions, elder abuse, revocable living trusts, runs for five mondays at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Adult School, 1701 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $40, pre-registration encouraged. 644-6130. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., June 19, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci. 

berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., June 20, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5344.  

Downtown Area Plan Advisory Commission meets Wed., June 20, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7487. 

Human Welfare and Community Action Commission meets Wed., June 20, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5427.  

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., June 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., June 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950.  

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., June 21, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Peter Hillier, 981-7010.  

CORRECTION 

The June 12 story “Landmarks Commission Deadlocks on BHS Gym” incorrectly reported the vote on landmarking the gym. Chair Robert Johnson voted in favor of landmarking, while vice-chair Steven Winkel abstained. Their votes were reversed in the original story. 

CLARIFICATION 

A recommendation by Berkeleyans Against Soaring Taxes (BASTA) on how best to administer the Berkeley Housing Authority as reported in the June 15 Daily Planet needs clarification: BASTA supports the Housing Authority of Alameda County establishing an office in Berkeley and overseeing the authority. This effort would keep Berkeley’s Section 8 tenants in Berkeley. 

OPEN CALL FOR ESSAYS 

Healthy Living 

As part of an ongoing effort to print stories by East Bay residents, the Daily Planet invites readers to write about their experiences and perspectives on living healthy. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues. 

East Bay Guide 

The Daily Planet invites readers to contribute to a guide for newcomers to the area. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, describing a favorite or little-known aspect of East Bay life, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Bosoms and Neglect” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., SUn. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 22. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Oliver Twist” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through June 24. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep “Great Men of Genius” with Mike Daisey in four different monologues at 2025 Addison St. through June 30. Tickets are $30-$75. 647-2949.  

California Shakespeare Theater “Richard III” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through June 24. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

“Colorstruck” Donald Lacey’s one-man show at 8 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. 663-5683. www.colorstruck.net 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs 8: Sinfully Delicious” Thurs.-Sat. through July 21 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Ring Round the Moon” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 14. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Pagbabalik” (Return) A multidisciplinary theater production by Aimee Suzara Sat. and Sun. at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 849-2568, ext. 20. 

Shotgun Players “The Cryptogram” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 17. Tickets are $17-$25. For reservations call 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

TheatreFirst “365 Days/365 Plays” at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts, 48th and Telegraph. Free, reservations requested. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

Virago Theatre Comapny “The Death of Ayn Rand” and “A Bed of My Own” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda to July 7. Tickets are $10-$17. 865-6237. www.ViragoTheatre.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Andrew Keen discusses “The Cult of the Amateur: How the Democratization of the Digital World is Assaulting Our Ecnomy, Our Culture, and Our Values” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. 559-9500. 

Roger Rapoport reads from “Citizen Moore: The Life and Times of an American Iconoclast” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

”Great Moments in American History” Oakland Opera and Oakland East Bay Symphony at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $24. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

“The Original Family Stone” at 8 p.m. at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $25-$35. 925-952-4585 www.ambassadorsofamericanculture.com 

Lisa Mezzacappa at Free-Jazz Fridays at 8 p.m. at 1510 8th Street Performance Space, 1510 8th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$15. 

Vidya “Redefining Jazz through Raga and Rhythm” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

Trio Paradiso at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ.  

Razorblade and Sister I-Live, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054.  

Dani Torres and Omar Makhtari Latin/flamenco at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Freight 39th Anniversary Revue with Phil Marsh and Hank Bradley at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761.  

Jared Karol and Eliza Manoff at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The Porch Flies, Glenn Earl Brown, Crooked Roads at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082.  

Aggression, Shattered Faith, Soul Control at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $8. 525-9926. 

The Ghost, CD release party, at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

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

The Girlfriend Experience, The Catholic Comb, The Hundred Days at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $6. 451-8100.  

Terence Blanchard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, JUNE 16 

CHILDREN  

Celebrate African & African American Heritage with Diane Ferlatte at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, at 699 Bellvue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“A Question of Belief” A group show of paintings, photography and sculpture featuring, Cherie Raciti, Nina Glaser and Marianne Hale. Artist reception at 6 p.m. at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116 , located in a store front loft of the historic cotton mill studios, Oakland. www.thefloatcenter.com 

“hitmewithaflower” Works by Walter Logue. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at The Gallery Of Urban Art, 1746 13th St. at Wood, Oakland. 910-1833. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “A Dream Play” Sat. and Sun. at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Wlnut St. at Berryman, through July 1. 841-5580.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bloomsday at Moe’s Books A day-long reading from 10 a.m. at 2476 Telegraph Ave. If you would like to read call 849-2087. 

Carol Pogash describes “Seduced by Madness: The True Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Celebrate Bloomsday with Thomas Lynch reading from Joyce’s “Ulysses” at 11 a.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Mary Ann Mason describes “Mothers on the Fast Track:” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Company C Contemporary Ballet at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. www.companycballet.org 

Cecelia and The Hats, a capella, at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar. 704-9378. 

Ed Reed with Peck Allmond Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Crooked Roads Band and Pushtunwali at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

FiddleKids Faculty FiddleFest at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Kellye Gray Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

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

Mario Desio & Dave Gans at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Wire Graffiti, Charm School Dropouts, Vincent’s Ear at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Joshi Marshall Project at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Chris Murray, Soul Captives, Golfcart Rebillion at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

DJ Heartbeat Night at 8 p.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. Tickets are $10 at the door. 496-6047. 

Terence Blanchard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$22. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, JUNE 17 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Women of Lockerbie” by Deborah Brevort, a staged reading at 7 p.m. at 469 9th St. Oakland. www.theatrefirst.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

”Great Moments in American History” Oakland Opera and Oakland East Bay Symphony at 2 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $24. 763-1146.  

Hal Stein Quartet at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10. 228-3218. 

5 Second Rule, 1,2,3...Not It!, The Skinny String Gals, Brescia Bloodbeard at 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz, in a benefit for CopWatch. Cost is $5. berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com 

Fathers’ Day Concert with Faye Carol at 6 p.m. at Black Repertory, 3201 Adeline St. Cost is $15 for fathers, $20 for others. keepersoftheculture@yahoo.com 

Rosalie Sorrels at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Pappa Gianni and the North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jamie Fox Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Americana Unplugged: The Saddlecats at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 

Dick Conte Quartet at 4:30 at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373.  

Markus James and Wassonrai, African, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. Cost is $5. 525-5054. 

Jacques Ibula at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Soulbop Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $14-$24. 238-9200.  

MONDAY, JUNE 18 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Stephen Ratcliff reads at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Julia Serano reads from “Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

“The Clearing” by Helen Edmundson, a staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at 469 9th St. Oakland. www.theatrefirst.com 

Poetry Express with Jesse Beagle at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Hot Frittatas at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

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

Blue Monday Jam at 7:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100.  

West Coast Songwriter’s Showcase at 7 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $5. 548-1761.  

Will Bernard at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Barry Gifford reads from “Memories from a Sinking Ship” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ and the Bon Vivants at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

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

Kaspar/Sherman Jazz Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Waco, The Altarboys, United Defiance at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

New Monsoon at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“First Exposures: Bay Area Youth Photography” opens at the Mills College Art Museum, 5000 MacArthur Blvd., and runs to Aug. 5. www.sfcamerawork.org 

THEATER 

Queer Cabaret featuring Big City Improv, Jessica Fisher, and Shaunna Bella & Claire Elizabeth, at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $15-$20. All proceeds will go to Shotgun Players Solar Campaign. 841-6500. 

FILM 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pesetas” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Anne Fadiman reads from “At Large and at Small: Familiar Essays” at noon at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

David Rains Wallace describes “Neptune’s Ark: From Ichthyosaurs to Orcas” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Dina Rasor describes “Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Cafe Poetry with Paradise at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $22-$24. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Denise Fraga & Kristan Lynch at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folkdance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 7 p.m. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Le Jazz Hot at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

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

Frankye Kelly at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

THEATER 

“Tea N' Crisp” with Quentin Crisp in tribute to national gay pride week at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave.Tickets are $25, reservations advised. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Works by Robert Bilensky” Reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon and Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. Exhibition runs to Sept. 6. 527-3100. 

“A Photographic Celebration of Culture in the Heart of Oakland” Evening viewing with photographers at 5 p.m. at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Bldg. Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. 

“Constructions” Works by Jenny Honnert Abell, Marya Krogstad and Thomas Morphis at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park, through July 1. www.berkeleyartcenter.org 

“Bridal Fantasies: The Fashion of Dreams” at Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, 2982 Adeline St., through August 4. Open Mon.-Sat. noon to 6 p.m. 843-7178.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

Rebecca Camhi Fromer reads from her new book of poems “Out of Silence into Being” at 6:30 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. 

Poetry Flash with Lyn Hejinian and Cathy Park Hong at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

John Perkins describes “The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jacklas, and the Truth About Global Corruption” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble with Merita Halili and Raif Hyseni at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 444-0323.  

Solstice Celebration with Caroline Casey and Amikayla Gaston at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $25. 525-5054.  

Solstice Concert with Terry Riley, Paul Dresher, Ellen Fullman, Todd Renolds and others at 5 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. www.gardenofmemory.com 

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

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

Pickpocket Ensemble, international cafe music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Fancy Dan, Nick Marcott, Nick Z at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5. 841-2082  

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

Marcus Miller at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24-$26. 238-9200.  

The Dying Californian, Winfred E. Eye, Odessa Chen at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

TEA ’N’ CRISP 

The precocious Quentin Crisp lived a life without shame, reservation or compromise. Shotgun Player member Richard Louis James pays tribute to this international gay icon by bringing him back to life in an original solo piece. Tea ’n’ Crisp is based on Crisp’s writing and public appearances, and will be performed during national gay pride week in celebration of flamboyant autonomy. 8 p.m. Thursday, June 21; Friday, June 22; and Saturday, June 23. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. $25. Reservations advised. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org. 

BLOOMSDAY JOURNEYS 

We may not be in Dublin but that doesn’t mean we can’t traverse its many winding paths, coursing through imaginary seas. In fact, better it be all in the mind. Saturday is Bloomsday, the 24 hours during which Leopold Bloom wandered Dublin—and the characters serially spoke their innermost thoughts—in James Joyce’s sprawling Ulysses. Moe’s Books on Telegraph is hosting an all-day marathon reading from the groundbreaking novel, beginning as the store opens at 10 a.m. and intoning on until closing time at 11 p.m. To chime in as a reader, call Owen Hill or David Brazil at 528-8191, or just show up with your own copy, or buy one from Moe’s. “To my surprise,” said Owen Hill, “one email seemed to gather a head of steam, and I’ve been getting replies for a week. Mark Singer, who writes for McSweeney’s, one of the Joyce scholars we went to for advice, warned us about crowd control, a crush of tipsy people, and we all laughed. But it seems a culture’s grown up around it, like St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo, and it can get like a pub crawl.” Moe’s offers a little Irish music around 2, and Joyce’s Gorgonzola, “but unfortunately, due to insurance restrictions, no red wine.” Nonalcoholic refreshments instead. (None of the author’s beloved lamb kidneys, either!) Everybody gets 15 minutes at the mic, and, according to Hill, “It’s loosely structured, no serious study of the novel—lighter than that ... maybe some attempted Irish brogues? It’s adding up to be a party.” 

Feeling like listening only? Thomas Lynch reads from our favorite Irish Odyssey beginning at 11 a.m. Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222.

Guy Maddin’s latest film is another avant garde piece, a pseudo-silent film that employs striking imagery, dubbed sound effects, intertitles and spoken narration in the creation of a unique and fascinating experience. Brand Upon the Brain! is a strange film that seems to exist in no particular era or idiom. It is both timeless and out of time, a film and a story that seemingly could have occurred anytime and anyplace, yet in no particular time or place that ever existed. 

Maddin uses some of the effects of the silent era, but filters them through memory, through the ravages of time. While films of the silent era were generally of excellent photographic quality, easily on a par with much of today’s imagery, they have been most often seen by succeeding generations only in degraded, shabby prints, with soft images, blurry text, and unseemly jumps where frames have been misplaced or simply disintegrated. Maddin takes this approach to his film, deliberately infusing his images with a shadowy, high-contrast glow and jump cuts that suggest the movie was found in a long-forgotten vault rather than produced in modern times. The effect is that Brand Upon the Brain! harkens back not so much to the golden-era silents of the 1920s but to the German Expressionist films of the late 1910s, such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.  

Even the intertitles and chapter headings flash quickly in blurry letters, and repeat themselves as though the negative fell in pieces to the cutting room floor and was hastily stitched back together by an errant hand.  

The story starts simply and progresses to absurdity, embracing the melodramatic aesthetic of the German Expressionist classics, yet with a decidedly 21st century attitude. The protagonist, Guy Maddin (played in his youth by Sullivan Brown and in adulthood by Erik Steffen Maahs), returns to his childhood home, an orphanage run by his parents on a remote, fog-shrouded island. He is there to grant his mother’s last wish, that he return to the island and give the lighthouse and orphanage a couple of fresh coats of paint. The walls are dirty and scarred with the troubled memories of his youth, and no amount of paint can cover the pain of those remembrances as they come flooding back in a mad rush. And thus begins a strange tale told in flashback of Maddin and his sister (San Francisco native Maya Lawson) and their mad, mad parents.  

The film is not a true silent. There are plenty of sound effects, which grant the proceedings an eerie and evocative atmosphere. The sounds are stylized however, not realistic; they are isolated sounds that suggest the dream-like reveries of memory, in which only the most necessary sounds are supplied while ambient noise recedes and disappears. An excellent score by Jason Staczek brings a strong atmosphere to the film as well, lending it a classical air. 

But most effective of all the elements Maddin throws into this eclectic mix may very be the spoken narration provided by Isabella Rossellini, in which the actress sometimes repeats the intertitles but more often complements the onscreen words with fuller description, emphasis and affect. This technique comes from another quadrant of silent film history, from a Japanese tradition in which an actor, known as a benshi, would accompany the film with live narration and dialogue, acting out the roles of each character on the screen and relating the action to the audience. 

Taken together, these disparate ingredients form a highly original whole, one that deserves a far greater audience than it is likely to reach. 

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! 

Directed by Guy Maddin. Photographed by Benjamin Kasulke. Edited by John Gurdebeke. Starring Erik Steffen Maahs, Sullivan Brown, Maya Lawson, Gretchen Krich, Katherine E. Scharhon, Andrew Loviska. 96 minutes.  

Not rated. Playing at Shattuck Cinemas. 

Photograph: Maya Lawson and Sullivan Brown in Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain!

Oakland Opera Theater will present two staged scenes from operas in progress by Mary Watkins—Dark River—and Clark Suprynowicz—The Panthers—this weekend, Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at The Oakland Metro Operahouse, 201 Broadway, near Jack London Square. 

“Oakland Opera had planned to re-mount last year’s production of Anthony Davis’ ‘X,’ about Malcolm X,” said Berkeley resident Clark Suprynowicz. “There were complications, and they weren’t able to do it, so they found out about our projects, which I think are well-matched. Mary’s opera is about the Civil Rights Movement, and ends as mine, on the Black Panthers, begins.”  

Suprynowicz’s opera, commissioned by the Oakland East Bay Symphony for their 2009 season, begins in 1967, “with the inception, here in Oakland, of the movement. The characters we’ve all heard of are characters in the opera: Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver ... but it’s important to remember that 98 percent of the Panthers were the rank and file, young black men excited to see people trying to make things right in America, volunteering for the school breakfast program, the sickle cell anemia outreach--which got picked up by the state, the donated shoes project, free ambulances, the good works ...” 

Suprynowicz continued: “Meanwhile, there are other factors, other forces, like a three-legged stool, all in conflict: all the revolutionary rhetoric being spouted, like ‘If America doesn’t give us what we ask for, we’re going to burn it down’—and the FBI, and the secret COINTELPRO project, active since the Red Scare, cannily reflecting that rhetoric as crazy, the Panthers as thugs. In 1968, J. Edgar Hoover announced his number one goal was to destroy the militant black movement in America. With everything else that was going on! Yet if you put aside outrage, and think of it as a power struggle, you can feel the dismay of the powerful: what if the black groups did come together? And they were always smaller than the media was portraying them, and torn by factional battles ...” 

For Suprynowicz, this is “where it becomes interesting theatrically, where you can’t psaint it black and white. It becomes a more human story. When we talked with David Hilliard of the Panthers, he was quite frank—one of the two founders had a drug problem. And there’s the sudden celebrity issue: could any of them imagine being interviewed by Playboy, being on the cover of Time? The whole weight was put on personality, like kids becoming rock stars.” 

“What people think about the Panthers is quite fluid,” Suprynowicz went on. “Their ideological bent will dictate what they say. The more I get into the story, the more Rashoman-like it gets. So we present the different perceptions, not the most sensational aspect, through the chain of the story.”  

Asked about the music, Suprynowicz said, with surprise, that he felt the project was in unexplored territory. “Frederica Newton, Huey’s widow, said that it’s kind of amazing that nobody’s ever done this before, to make this into singing theater, put it onstage this way. Talking to veterans of the Panthers, I asked what they listened to, and they said, Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone ...” 

Suprynowicz recalled his own background. “I played in bands, remember the aural sense of the late 60s, the funk and Motown sounds. And I’ve been a professional jazz bassist. My challenge has been to do more than draw on that vocabulary for orchestral music, to write songs that would have been credible in that day, then orchestrate ... and I don’t see that connection, surprisingly, having been made before. It’s not that much of a stretch to listen to Stravinsky, “The Firebird Suite,” and hear it as exciting syncopated music, not so far from James Brown, or Grand Central Station and the invention of slap bass. All you have to do is squint a little and see the connections.” 

“When I first thought about the characters,” Suprynowicz concluded, “I tried to see, say, Huey as an operatic tenor. But it’s in the situation of drug abuse, of the violence—real, that they were accused of, that was directed at them—that you find the places you can get at the pathos, and it’s heartrending. And best presented by an orchestra rather than a six-piece rock combo. This way, it has the best of both worlds.” 

GREAT MOMENTS IN  

AMERICAN HISTORY 

Works by Mary Watkins and Clark Suprynowicz, 8 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway.  

$24. 763-1146.  

Photograph by Stephen Shames 

Panthers stand just offstage at a Free Huey Rally in DeFremery Park. Cleve Brooks (at center, with arms folded) founded the San Quentin Prison chapter of the party. Oakland, 1968.

Ed Reed, the remarkable jazz singer who launched his first CD at Anna’s Jazz Island just a few months back, returns to the downtown club Saturday night at 8 and 10, with a stellar band, to display the warmth, range and interpretive style of his voice, making his album title, Ed Reed Sings Love Songs, a natural. 

Appearing with Reed are Peck Allmond, the Berkeley-raised, New York-based reeds and trumpet virtuoso who coproduced Reed’s CD; Jamie Fox on guitar; Rob Fisher on bass, and noted Bay Area band leader (for Peck Allmond and many others) Eddie Marshall on drums. 

Since the CD release party at Anna’s, Reed has continued his standing Tuesday evening gig at The Cheeseboard on Shattuck, but has begun to play bigger venues and festivals. He’s garnered some enthusiastic reviews: one from James Isaacs on Boston’s WBUR, one in the current issue of Jazz Is and others. KQED just shot footage to feature Reed in a local program. This fall he’ll sing in Boston on a bill headlined by George Benson. Reed will perform at the Jazzschool in November, and there are negotiations going on to have him sing locally with one of his own favorite vocalists, the masterful Bill Henderson. 

“It never occurred to me it would take off like this,” said Reed. “I never saw it coming. I was just doing my thing, and all of a sudden ...” 

He credits much of the new interest and recognition to Terri Hinte, the publicist formerly associated with Fantasy Records, who introduced herself to Reed at the CD party, and has been working with him since. “She knows everybody,” Reed said. “And she’s become a friend.” 

But Reed’s moment has come after a life of singing, at first onstage around LA with many of the musical greats he grew up with in Watts, and later featured in a popular radio show in Bakersfield. A career as a singer was thwarted many times, by years of drug use and prison terms. Ironically, Reed met well-known players in prison who were old friends, and performed with them there in shows and sessions that were never recorded. 

The break finally came when Reed met Peck Allmond (an alumnus of Berkeley High’s famous jazz program) who was teaching at a music camp, and Allmond joined forces with Budd Spangler to produce the CD, released just after Reed’s 78th birthday. 

Now—and for decades—a successful, self-employed group leader and speaker for approaches to living for ex-addicts and their families, which Reed once referred to as “how to get along with yourself,” the Richmond resident expressed his gratitude for the show of interest in his artistry. But he still was a little incredulous: “People figure, ‘I want to be known’ ... but I never dreamed ... I don’t know how to plan my days, so much is going on!” 

ED REED AND PECK ALLMOND QUARTET 

8 p.m. Saturday at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.annasjazzisland.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part in an ongoing series on Berkeley captains’ houses and the families that inhabited them. 

In 1894, when Captain John Slater built his house at 1335 Shattuck Ave., he was joining two other master mariners who had settled on the same block a decade earlier. They were Jefferson Maury and William B. Seabury, both high-ranking captains of the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company who ended their careers in succession as commodores of the PMSS fleet. While Captain Slater commanded square-rigged ships, Captains Maury and Seabury were at the forefront of the mechanized age. 

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded in 1848 by William Henry Aspinwall (1807–1875) of the New York merchant firm Howland & Aspinwall, which specialized in trade with the Caribbean. PMSS was incorporated to execute a Congress-authorized contract to carry mail from the Isthmus of Panama to the West Coast. 

Aspinwall (who also founded the Panama Railway Company) ordered three new steamships to inaugurate the trade. The S.S. California, first steamer on the West Coast, entered San Francisco Bay on Feb. 28, 1849 and was soon joined by the Panama and the Oregon. The California Gold Rush assured the company’s success. PMSS was well established by the time Captains Maury and Seabury came on board. 

Jefferson Maury (1826–1895) was born in Virginia and may have been descended from Rev. James Maury, teacher of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe and grandfather of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, known as the father of modern oceanography and naval meteorology. 

Maury entered the U.S. Navy at the age of 15 and received his warrant as a Passed Midshipman in 1847. The following year found him in the Gulf Squadron, participating in the Mexican-American War. In 1854 he was stationed in San Francisco and a year later left the service. 

It is not known when Maury joined PMSS, but shipping records indicate that in 1862 he commanded the company’s S.S. Northern Light, a wooden-hulled steamer with side paddle wheels and three masts on a sailing between Aspinwall (Colón), Panama and New York. The next year he was captain of the S.S. America, followed by the S.S. Atlantic, both plying the same route. From 1866 until 1870, Maury was master of the S.S. Arizona, which his future neighbor, Captain Seabury, would take over in 1874. 

Jefferson Maury’s character received a glowing testament from George William Curtis, editor of Harper’s Monthly, in November 1872. In his column The Easy Chair, Curtis wrote: “[…] there is a Legion of Honor which wears no sign, yet is the most honorable at all. And whoever read of the burning of the steamer Bienville on her way to Aspinwall, in August of this year, will agree that Jefferson Maury, her commander, merits the grand cross of that legion.” 

Curtis went on to describe at length Captain Maury’s steadiness and quiet confidence, which kept the passengers calm and the crew efficiently busy at their tasks. When the ship could not be saved, all aboard were evacuated to boats. The majority reached safety at Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, about 130 miles from the point where they had left the ship. Maury went to extraordinary lengths to search for the missing over the next week. Curtis concluded, “[…] the nerve of the captain paralyzed disaster and made safety possible. He knew what to do, and how and when to do it, and his moral mastery alone prevented a frightful catastrophe. His name is Jefferson Maury. There has been no name lately mentioned deserving of more sincere respect. Those who are going to sea will sleep in their berths more soundly if they know that Captain Maury commands the ship.” 

Maury married Adelaide Weeden (1840–1916), daughter of John Hull Weeden, a Rhode Island lawyer, assemblyman, and tax collector. In the 1860s and ’70s, the Maurys lived in New York, but the 1880 U.S. census found them boarding on New Montgomery Street in San Francisco. Five years later, the Maurys built a rambling one-story residence at 1317 Shattuck Ave. The main wing looked out to the west and was surrounded by a three-sided porch. A smaller square wing at the rear of the southern end featured a brick chimney and an obliquely placed square bay. 

Captain Maury died suddenly at midnight on Jan. 1, 1895. The Berkeley Advocate reported that he had suffered from heart disease. Adelaide Maury continued living in the house until her death in 1916. She was given to good works and for many years was active in the Ladies’ Protective and Relief Society, an organization dedicated to the support of destitute children and indigent women. 

The Maurys were childless. Following Adelaide’s death, the house was sold to Harold McCarthy, a title company employee, and his wife Anne. The McCarthys brought three sons to the house and would soon produce two more. With the birth of their fourth son, quarters must have become inadequate, and in 1922 the McCarthys engaged architect John Hudson Thomas to expand and modernize the house. Keeping the original footprint more or less intact, Thomas added a second story, transforming the house into a double-peaked, shingled English country cottage. 

While Captain Maury was building his house at 1317 Shattuck Ave., Captain Seabury was erecting his own at 1322 Shattuck. According to Lewis & Dryden’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1895), “Capt. William B. Seabury was born in New Bedford, Mass., in 1840, and commenced his marine service at Philadelphia while a boy on a vessel in the Brazil sugar trade. He was employed on sailing vessels out of New York until 1864, his last ship being the Gertrude, of which he was first officer. 

“He then joined the steamship Ocean Queen of Commodore Vanderbilt’s line as quarter-master and then as second and first mate. In 1865 he occupied the former position on the steamship Baltic, running to the Isthmus in December 1873, subsequently joining the Grenada as first officer. Soon after her arrival in San Francisco in March 1874, he was promoted to the captaincy of the steamship Arizona. 

“In March 1875, he was given command of the City of Panama, running north with her for four years, except for a few trips when she was relieved by the Constitution and Alaska, which he also handled, and was in command of the former when she was burned. 

“While in the employ of the Pacific Mail he had charge of all the large steamers owned by that company and superintended the building of the steamer China, nearly every detail of her construction being left to his judgment. He took command of her as soon as she was completed and has run her since between San Francisco and China.” 

Seabury married Maria Kelsey Almy (1848–1940), daughter of a prosperous New England cooper. Before moving to Berkeley, the couple lived in Pacific Heights, San Francisco and brought to the world two sons, Benjamin and Almy. 

The Seabury house was a substantial two-story Queen Anne whose asymmetrical roofline sheltered a second-floor balcony above the entrance porch. An unusual feature was the long corner window in the stairwell. The house was set in a triple lot and commanded open vistas in all directions. The Seabury family lived here until 1898, when they exchanged houses with the Parkhurst family. 

Daniel Webster Parkhurst (1839–1899), a Massachusetts-born Southern Pacific agent and capitalist, acquired lands in Fresno County, where he operated vineyards and orchards. He and his wife Marietta moved from San Francisco to Berkeley in 1892 because their eldest son had reached college age and the younger two were not far behind. The Parkhursts settled in an imposing Southside residence at 2401 Channing Way and Dana Street. Designed and built by the fashionable architect A.W. Pattiani of Alameda, the house was one of the earliest shingled structures in Berkeley. 

Parkhurst and Seabury probably knew each other via the Southern Pacific-PMSS connection (SP owned PMSS from 1893 to 1912). Why the two families exchanged houses is a mystery remaining to be solved. On Channing Way, the Seaburys shared their immense new home with widowed brother-in-law Joseph H. Matthews, a supervising ship’s engineer, and his teenaged son and daughter, as well as with an Irish man servant and a Chinese cook. 

The Parkhursts’ residence at 1322 Shattuck Ave. was short-lived. Daniel Parkhurst died within a year, and the house passed back to Seabury, who let it to tenants while continuing to live on Channing Way. Future Berkeley mayor Samuel C. Irving would purchase 1322 Shattuck in 1906, just months before the death of Captain Seabury. 

In December 1906 Seabury, who had been commanding the liner S.S. Korea, was close to completing a six-month vacation from his duties as commodore in the PMSS fleet. The family was rusticating at its country house in Guerneville when the captain received orders to take charge of the 27,000-ton S.S. Mongolia on its next trip to the Orient. He decided to spend a few days with his friend S.B. McNear (a member of San Francisco’s Committee of Fifty at the time of the earthquake and fire) in Ross Valley. While taking a postprandial walk on December 18, the captain slipped from a stone wall and fell into an excavation, suffering a paralyzing spinal injury. He was taken to the Cottage Hospital in San Rafael for surgery but died before the operation had begun. 

Maria K. Seabury continued living at 2401 Channing Way while her younger son Almy was studying civil engineering at the University of California (the elder son, Benjamin, was a metal manufacturer in Tacoma, WA). In 1909 they relocated to 2511 Virginia St., but in 1911 Maria turned to John Hudson Thomas, who designed for her a modern 8-room house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. 

Heavily buttressed, the house boasts three parapet gables with dormer windows; square and semicircular bays on the ground floor; an arched entrance porch; and foursquare motifs on the gables and chimney. Curiously, this up-to-the-minute house echoed the asymmetrical roofline of the Seaburys’ old-fashioned Victorian. 

Almy Seabury (1884–1953) worked as a draftsman at the California Highway Commission before taking a job in marine insurance at his cousin’s San Francisco firm, Matthews & Livingston. For three decades he lived with his family in a Craftsman bungalow at 6442 Colby St. Almy’s son, William Brownell Seabury (1917–1994), was a landscape architect and engineer with the California State Park System when he married Eleanor Jean Maddox (1924–2006), daughter of Brigadier General Louis W. Maddox and the first female field geologist to be hired by Standard Oil. 

The Parkhurst-Seabury home at 2401 Channing Way was turned into a fraternity house. It was torn down before 1950, when such buildings were considered passé. Ida Sproul Hall of UC’s Unit 3 dorms has occupied the site since the 1960s. 

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

Photograph by Daniella Thompson 

In 1911, John Hudson Thomas designed the above house at 2710 Claremont Blvd. for Captain Seabury’s widow. The Parkhurst-Seabury house (left) at 2401 Channing Way was one of Berkeley’s earliest shingled houses, designed and built by A.W. Pattiani in 1892.  

Just on impulse and because I spotted a parking space, I dropped into Green Jeans Garden Supply in Mill Valley the other day. I was looking for something else entirely, but there was a four-inch seedling in the Edibles rack that I didn’t recognize. The label called it “agretti” and I didn’t recognize that either. “Italian specialty green—eat raw or sautéed with garlic and olive oil.” 

So of course I had to buy it, never mind that the label also says “full sun” and I have approximately none of that in our shade-beset and crowded yard.  

The guy behind the counter asked if I liked agretti, and I admitted I’d never heard of it, let alone grown it. “Neither have I,” he said, ”So I took some home to see what happens. I mean, it’s Italian. It ought to be good.” 

Clearly a kindred spirit, and one of these days I’ll have to go there when business is slow, and swap tales with him. I am applying a sort of rhetorical discount to the label’s suggestion, though: there’s very little that doesn’t taste good sauteed with garlic and olive oil.  

The little plant itself looks a bit like the “moss rose” portulaca’s foliage, but longer: succulent green shoelace bits in a disorderly tangle, originating from a half-dozen reddish stem bases. Not your basic leafy green vegetable. 

We have a few books about odd garden plants, foodstuffs, and dietary habits. Agretti didn’t turn up in any of them. Intriguing!  

Joe went on-line and found the stuff. A Santa Barbara site says it’s available at the local farmers’ market, and is also called “roscano” and “barba di frate” and, better yet, had the Linnean binomial: Salsola maritimum. 

It’s a halophyte—tolerant of salty soils—and grows at the edges of marshes. It tastes a bit salty. In other words, it’s a lot like pickleweed. 

You can buy pickleweed at the Berkeley Bowl sometimes. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of paying over five bucks a pound for it when it’s so plentiful where I spend a lot of time chasing birds—until I start thinking about what’s likely to be seeping into the saltmarshes around Emeryville and Albany. Then I hope that the Bowl knows its pickleweed suppliers at least as well as it knows its wild-mushroom suppliers.  

Agretti supposedly tastes saline even when grown in normal garden soil; I snapped off a bit of leaf and it did taste just a tad salty as well as slightly tart.  

Looking at my single seedling next to the farmers’ market bunches pictured on the site, I began to wish I’d bought more. Maybe it should be grown from seed, to get more than a dainty sample. 

More googling around yielded a source for seed, hard to get because it doesn’t keep well. I know I’ve seen Bavicchi brand seeds in local shops like the big Long’s Drugs store at 52nd and Broadway. Maybe they could be encouraged to add agretti to their list. 

Meanwhile, shop online and try the stuff. If you manage to grow it in shade, let me know.  

www.italianseedandtool.com/index.html 

www.edhat.com/index.cfm

The kitchens of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s had terrific old stoves. They were simple, heavy, and used lots more gas because they lacked insulation. They had built-in lamps, clocks and spring timers, but other than that they were technologically very simple. Nothing fancy. That means that, if you are lucky enough to own one, they’re repairable, and if you are of a mind to, they can be disassembled, cleaned and repaired without a lot of technical skill. The pilots for both oven and top burner have a small screw that can be adjusted to elevate or reduce the flame, but many ovens did not have pilots (except for the one that ran during operation). They needed to be lit with a match.  

A professional can install a pilot for you on that old stove and this is a very worthwhile modification, because many a housewife has had her eyelashes singed by delaying the application of the match to the burner. This is really quite dangerous and the upgrade is a darned good idea. Also, some early stoves had gas heaters in them. These are, for the most part, unvented in any practical way and are, therefore, quite dangerous as well. The best thing to do with these is to disconnect the gas to the heater inside. But if you simply resolve to never use these heaters you’ll still be better off. 

The burners in nearly all older stoves can be removed with very little effort. Most of them simply lift up a bit and then slide off the nipple of the burner near the front face. They can then be soaked in a degreaser such as Simple Green (I like those orange peel degreasers). After a day or two, you can brush them out with bottle brushes (I like to get several sizes including a big one that will go all the way through), let them dry and slide them back in place. One thing you’ll want to do at the same time is to take a tiny rod (a paperclip works pretty well) and clear the petite vent holes located near the pilot tube. If you start taking things apart, you’ll quickly find one or two pilots that have several small aluminum tubes mounted around them on wires that carry the flame to the burners. Where each one meets the big cast-iron burner assembly, there is a tiny tile (or several). These often become quite clogged with grease and this is one of the main causes of burners that don’t ignite. By cleaning the tiny orifice on the burner, you’ll allow the flame to be captured by the burner. While you’re at it, check these aluminum tubes and make sure they’re all sitting in their little seats and hanging properly. When you remove burners, you’ll have to unhook them and then reseat them. It’s not complex. Just take a minute and you’ll see where they go. 

Spraying down the inside of the entire burner cavity with a degreaser and cleaning this area (with the burners and flames off, of course) is a great thing to do for both hygiene and fire safety. Eventually, the whole enclosure becomes quite flammable. There may be little trays that run below the burners that you can slide out for cleaning. These are the main repositories for grease and dead matches and they should be cleaned often. 

Many of these stoves have tube-shaped bulbs hiding up under the back cover that have simply died and can be revived with nothing more than a new bulb. If a switch or cord needs replacement, it’s a simple job for someone handy. 

You may have a stove with a cover that folds up to become a shelf. Many folks have never played with these to see that by pushing a button on either side, you can fold the legs up or down. Sadly, many of these have died and won’t do their business any longer. Also, the matching salt and pepper shakers are frequently missing, but take heart, mighty homeowner. There’s always eBay and a potentially successful season-long search for the right ones (they’ll only be 75 bucks!).  

There are a few websites out there on which you can salivate over the $5,000 red Wedgewood. Many offer replacement valves, thermostats and other parts for reviving Grandma O’Keefe. 

If you have a stove that’s old enough, you may have a “kindler.” These are easily distinguished at first by the set of nested iron plates on top of one side of the stove that may remind you of an early Franklin stove. If you lift one of the plates, you’ll see a firebox suitable for building a wooden fire (how do you spell carbon monoxide poisoning?) and at the bottom of it, a triangular reticulated bar for dropping ash while keeping the fire rolling. By turning a detachable crank, ash drops into a metal drawer in the bottom of the stove. Open the front, pull the drawer and you may get lucky and find the crank for the kindler and a little handle for picking up the hot metal cooking plates on top. I see them all the time. While these should not be used, they are antiques that we get to live with and remind us daily of a time when gas was distrusted and the utility company might be closed for the weekend. I like to imagine Grandma coming to visit the young marrieds and refusing to use that newfangled fuel gas. Perhaps this was Spark or Wedgewood’s solution to the technical generation gap of 1925. 

These stoves, like their Franklin predecessors, had stove pipes (that bluish metal piping is for these...and not for your water heater). These would attach to the back or top of the oven flue built into the unit and were intended to attach to a stove pipe in the house. Many of the houses of the East Bay still have either a Patent Flue (a huge ceramic lined, steel jacketed flue that takes up a foot-and-a-half square space in the wall next to the stove) or a brick flue (about the same size and location). The stove was intended to pipe into this to take away the grease and smoke from the all-day baking that characterized women’s lives in the early 20th century. Today, the need for oven ventilation is decreased by the design of equipment but most folks still don’t use a stove vent on their antique. I think venting for an old stove is a good idea but in its absence be sure you have plenty of window ventilation. 

There’s more evidence of the all-day bake that took place in this most important room in the house and that’s in the cabinetry. Many of the kitchens of this era will feature three (or sometimes only two) Baker’s drawers. See if you have three identical squarish drawers with metal liners. The liners slope the corners making it easier to scoop out and, of course, these were for flour, sugar and (if you have three) salt (or baking powder). This architectural institutionalization of women’s work tell us much of life in these days. If you were a worthy wife, you would bake bread (none of that store bought cardboard), cakes and cookies as well as roasts, potatoes and casseroles all day long (during which you washed, ironed and swept). 

Here are a few other kitchen features to look for in your early kitchen. The California Cooler was a vented cabinet that had a top and bottom vent through which air would “convect” or flow as a function of natural heating. Refrigeration didn’t become common until around 1930 and even those early fridges were very small and too cold for veggies (no salad crispers yet) so the cooler was used for root veggies and lot of other things that just needed a little change of air and a slightly cooler space (perfect for a cooking pie). 

Note the counters that are about four inches narrower than today. No Cuisinarts or all those other things to demand wider counters. They also had nice tiled borders and sloped, built-in dish drainers (that’s right, the counter was meant to slope like that). Some had double sinks with a drainer that covered the deep soaker sink that doubled up for clothes washing. Be sure and keep an “eye” “peeled” for the potato-bin found in many old kitchen cabinets. It was quite deep and tipped out for easy loading from the big sack. 

Life is very different today. In many ways much better and certainly more egalitarian (at least between the sexes) but there is something sweet and homey and romantic about this room full of wonderful smells, diapered children, crayons and cakes. Occasionally, while I’m probing the cabinets looking for leaks I can get just a small sense of the love and comfort that once filled these old kitchens. 

Don’t Be Frozen By Fear! 

In a recent QuakeTip, I reminded our readers that the difference between a 3.0 quakelet and a 7.0 major quake was huge. One reader chastised me for scaring her. 

Believe it or not, my purpose is not to scare you, but to wake you up. It’s no secret that the SF Bay area is sound asleep when it comes to earthquake preparation. A few fairly simple steps can go a long way in protecting you, your family, and your home. 

The wake-up call goes like this: have your retrofit checked, get an automatic gas shut-off valve installed, secure your heavy furniture, and assemble emergency kits for home, car, and office.  

Don’t let fear or anxiety keep you frozen – just make a check list of things to do and then do them, one by one.  

Wishing you a safe home and peace of mind. 

Larry Guillot is the owner of QuakePrepare, an earthquake consulting, securing, and gas shut-off valve installation service. Contact him at 558-3299 or visit QuakePrepare.com to receive semi-monthly quake safety reports. Quake Tip appears weekly in Easty Bay Home & Real Estate.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Robert Birgeneau on “Green Energy at UC Berkeley” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Conscientious Projector Film Series “An Inconvenient Truth” at 7 p.m., followed by discussion, at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St. 841-4824. 

“An Inconvenient Truth” will be screened at 2 p.m. at the YWCA Berkeley. 2600 Bancroft Way. Free. 848-6370. 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at West Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union, Bancroft and Telegraph. to schedule an appointment see http://www.beadonor.com Code: UCB. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253.  

SATURDAY, JUNE 16 

“Downtown: Progress and Options” A public workshop sponsored by the Downtown Area Plan Committee from 10 a.m. to noon at Berkeley High School Library, Allston and Milvia. 981-7487.  

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations (BANA) meets at 9:30 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, 2407 Dana St., Church Lounge, first floor. 

“No Child Left Behind? What is the Consevative, Corporate Agenda for Destroying Our Public Schools?” at 7 p.m. at 1300 Grand St., Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum. www.alamedaforum.org 

“Summer Time at the Little Farm” A puppet show about life on the farm and the mishaps of a farmer, at 10:45 and 11:30 a.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Preschool Storytime for 3 to 5-year-olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext. 17. 

Basic Organic Vegetable Gardening Learn to start growing foods and culinary herbs for your kitchen. We will cover the basics of starting a garden, including selecting and starting your seeds, building good soil, watering plants, and managing bugs and blights. Class is sponsored by the Alameda County Cleanwater Program. Cost is $10-$15. Preregistration required. Call for details and location. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Vegeterian Cooking Class: Mexican and Southwestern Cuisine from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $45, plus $5 materials fee. To register call 531-2665.  

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. and the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234.  

Natural History Field Sketching with Tara Reinertson at 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

ADD & Autism: Drug- free Treatment Options for your Child with Thauna Abrin, Naturopathic Doctor at 10 a.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. at Ensenada. 

“Leaning into the Great Mystery” A workshop on Christian-Buddhist meditation from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church, 7900 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $30, includes lunch. To register call 635-4949.  

Produce Stand at Spiral Gardens Food Security Project from 1 to 6 p.m. at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon St. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from noon to 3 p.m. at 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 17 

Working with Wool Watch how the spinning wheel turns wool into yarn, try a drop spindle or a felting project. from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Wheelchair accessible. 526-7377. 

Fathers’ Day Pancake Breakfast from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. aboard the Red Oak Victory Ship moored in Richmond Harbor at 1337 Canal Blvd. Take Hwy 580 and exit at Canal Blvd. Cost is $6. 327-2933. 

Father’s Day Campfire Bring hot dogs, buns, marshmallows and long sticks to the campfire at 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Accomodation for visitors with disabilities upon advanced request. 525-2233. 

“Climate Change: Nuclear Power in Today’s World” with Karen Street at 1 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting, 2151 Vine. 653-2803. 

Bike Tour of Alameda Explore Alameda on a leisurely 5-mile ride. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance to the Oakland Museum of California. Reservations required. 238-3514. www.museumca.org 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley Marina. Wear warm, waterproof clothing and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. www.cal-sailing.org 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at First Covenant Church, Recreation Rm., 3883 Aliso Ave., Oakland. Call to schedule an appointment. 531-5244. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair flats, from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Social Action Forum with a program on Delancy Street at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Univresalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Berkeley East Bay Atheists with a multi-media presentation on Carl Sagan by Marc Levenson at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, Comunity Meeting Room, 2090 Kitttredge St. 222-7580. eastbayatheists.org  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Joleen Vries on “Guarding the Mind” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JUNE 18 

“Mystery in the Big City” A summer reading game for adults runs June 18 to Aug 18 at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. For information call 526-3720 ext. 16.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Drop in Knitting Class at the Albany Library Work on your own project or make pet blankets and children’s hats to be donated to charity organizations. At 3:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 19 

Gay Day with entertainment by Gwen Avery, Happy Hyder, Land-a-Lakes and her Queens, and The Cheerleaders, food and door prizes from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

Information for Senior Homeowners, including loan document review at 10 a.m. at the West Oakland Multipurpose Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St. Sponsored by AARP and Acorn Housing. RSVP required. 271-8843. 

Berkeley Library Board of Trustees Information Night for prospective trustees at 6:30 p.m. at the West Branch, 1125 University Ave. For more information call 981-6195. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. at Point Pinole. For information and to register call 525-2233.  

“Low Carbon Diet” Ideas from the Green Team Project on how to live sustainably at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center 2530 San Pablo Ave. 558-0821. susans@acterra.org 

“Religion and Environment” with Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr at 8 p.m. at 433 Madison St., Oakland. Sponsored by The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California. Cost is $5-$10. iccnc.org. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Downtown Oakland Senior Center, 200 Grand Ave. 981-5332. 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation at 6 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registraion required. 594-5165. 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 1247 Marin Ave. 524-9122.  

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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. 

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.  

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, JUNE 20 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www. 

oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War” with investigative journalist Dian Rasor, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donation $10. 559-9500. 

Reading in Common Berkeley Public Library’s community summer reading program will distribute copies of “The Kite Runner” at Senior Centers at 11:30 a.m. and at Library branches at 1 p.m. Related programs throughout the summer. 981-6257. 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Volunteer Orientation Night at 7 p.m. at 2530 San Pablo Ave., Suite G. 843-2222. 

“Ecological Design: Inventing the Future” A documentary on the emergence of ecological design, beginning with Buckminster Fuller, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Ernesto Che Guevara, The Bolivian Diary” a documentary at 7 p.m. at the Gray Panther Office, 1403 Addison, in the parking lot behind the university Ave. Andronico’s. 548-9696. 

New to DVD Screening and Discussion at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 a.m. to noon at Healthy Oakland, 2580 San Pablo Ave. 981-5332. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 

“The Art of Sierra Biodiversity” with author and illustrator Jack Miur Laws at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of Califonia, 1000 Oak St. and 10th, Oakland. 238-2200.  

“Ripe for Change” A documentary film by Emiko Omori and Jed Riffe on the intersection of food and politics in California over the past 30 years at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar at Arch. Filmmakers will be present for discussion. Cost is $5. 843-8724. 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. in the LeConte School cafeteria, entrance on Russell St. karlreeh@aol.com 

Urban Luau for Entrepreneurs at 6 p.m. at Everett and Jones, 126 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $35, $60 for a couple. 655-1304. 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info