EDITOR’S NOTE: This was sent to the Planet on Friday evening by a veteran of the Free Speech Movement, using a pseudonym for reasons which will be obvious. 

Three hours ago, I joined some other veterans of UC Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement in a show of support for Berkeley students who are fighting UC’s plans to tear down a wonderful stand of towering oaks to build a $150 million sports facility on an active faultline. 

Half a dozen students spoke and then the microphone was passed to one of the first of the tree-sitters, a lithe young lady names Jessie, who was asked to say a few words. Jessie tried to speak but words wouldn’t come. Instead, she stood upright, clenching the microphone as her face began to tremble. She held the microphone—and the audience—in her grip for several emotional minutes before whispering quietly, “These trees saved me,” and stepping down. 

FSM leader/author/teacher Michael Rossman recalled how the students of the 1960s faced the same unresponsive corporate UC administration tactics. He pointed out the importance of the oaks not only as an ecological keystone species but as an important link in the social ecology of the city—a grove dedicated to the memory of the fallen soldiers from World War I that became a place where students have gathered for generations to enjoy a riff, a tipple, and the serenity of nature close-at-hand. The grove became an important place for friends to gather and socialize and for individuals to settle for quiet contemplation. Rossman recalled how he ventured to the groves to read and study. 

Rossman mentioned another infamous UC Berkeley fence—the one that was erected around People’s Park. And, making sure to note that he was in no way suggesting any form of direct action, Rossman recollected how one day buttons and fliers started to appear around town with a mysterious message. Nothing more than the words “People’s Park,” a date and a time. On that date and at that time, 3,000 people spontaneously walked to the park, surrounded the site and pulled the steel fence down with their bare hands. No one was hurt, the park was liberated and it remains an open space today. 

At the end of the speech-making, 20-plus students—young men and women all wearing orange T-shirts reading “Free Speech” and “Free Trees”—announced that they were going to “exercise” their rights to free expression. “Are you ready to exercise?” the dynamic young spokeswoman announced and, to the surprise of the onlookers, the students suddenly turned, leaped over metal police barricades, sprinted to the hurricane fence and climbed over to join the “imprisoned” tree-dwellers. 

It was a joyous act of civil disobedience that reminded us FSM vets of the afternoon we walked into Sproul Hall with Joan Baez, faced arrest and brought the university to a standstill. 

Somewhat swept away by the students’ spontaneous and joyous act of defiance, I found myself also climbing over the barricade and jogging toward the fence. I figured it would be fitting for a representative from the FSM generation to support the students in full measure. So I clambered over the fence and joined them. 

In the process, however, I punched two holes in my left hand as I swung over the sharp metal spikes atop the fence. After a minute inside, helping the students clean up the site, I notice that my hand (and my pants) were covered in blood where the fence had ripped my palm open. I had to beat a retreat. In the process of climbing back over the fence, I managed to punch another hole in my hand. Zachary Running Wolf patched me up at the scene. 

As I climbed out (with the assistance of some members of the tree-sit support team) a reporter asked my name. I pointed out that, since I had technically just broken the law, I’d prefer not to give my name. He allowed me to use an alias and I chose “George.” What I failed to reveal was that I was not just some aging geezer with a bloodied hand, but I was an FSM vet, a former draft resister, a troop train protester, a Port Chicago vigiler and a tax rebel. And there was one last thing I should have told that reporter: Dang, but if felt good to break the law again! 

The arrested students will appear at a hearing next month to answer to the trespassing charges. The hearing will take place on Oct. 15 at 9 a.m. in the Oakland Courthouse on 661 Washington St., Department 107.  

Dedicating one traffic lane for fast buses for much of the 16 or so miles between San Leandro and downtown Berkeley will get people out of their polluting vehicles and into speedy, comfortable, ecological public transport, says the AC Transit Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal. 

Opponents of the idea—many of whom like those BRT features that don’t remove automobile lanes—say dedicated bus lanes will cause a traffic nightmare in Berkeley, killing business on Telegraph Avenue and cramming autos into one very slow line of traffic. Instead of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it will increase them, with traffic crowding onto neighborhood streets and other already-congested traffic corridors, opponents argue. 

Praised by Mayor Tom Bates, a member of the AC Transit Board, BRT is before the City Council today (Tuesday), not for a vote on the $300-$400 million proposal itself, but for a process decision. Bates wants the council to agree that the BRT will be discussed by the Transportation and Planning commissions and their staffs and then come back to the council for a public hearing and decision in early 2008. 

When it comes to a vote, the council could approve the full BRT plan with dedicated bus lanes, cherry-pick from the proposal, or turn down the project altogether. 

The plan 

BRT is aimed at linking the heavily used transit corridors from San Leandro down East 14th Street, International Boulevard and Telegraph Avenue, ending up and turning around in downtown Berkeley, the destination of thousands of UC Berkeley students and university and downtown workers. 

By using dedicated bus lanes, the system imitates light-rail transport, with four- to five-minute intervals projected in service during peak periods. The draft environmental impact report says BRT will increase bus ridership along the targeted corridor from 56 to 76 percent. 

Some of the elements proposed by the plan include spacing the rapid bus stations farther apart than the local stations and using transit signal priority technology, where the green phase of the traffic light is extended for the BRT buses. Both of these features are already in place on Telegraph and San Pablo avenue rapid buses.  

The proposal also includes installing fare machines at stations, initiating pre-paid tickets with spot verification and providing real time transit information at bus stops. Low-floor buses with multiple doors would be used, allowing people to enter and exit more quickly. 

BRT needed 

In his memo to the council, Bates says the BRT “is a high-quality bus-based transit system that delivers fast, comfortable and cost-effective urban mobility” emulating light rail “at a fraction of the cost.” The mayor’s office did not return calls for further comment. 

The Northern Alameda County Group of the Sierra Club is among the BRT advocates. In a May 2007 resolution, the group lauded BRT for creating “an increase in transit ridership by providing a viable and competitive alternative to private automobile travel” and for providing a way to mitigate the growth of UC Berkeley’s and Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s workforce and student populations. 

On its website, the East Bay Bicycle Coalition says it supports BRT because it doubles bus frequency in the corridor, increases average speed from 10 mph to 17 mph, reduces AC Transit's operating costs by increasing ridership and can later be electrified for use by light rail and/or electric trolley buses 

Slow down 

Telegraph Avenue area Councilmember Kriss Worthington said in a phone interview that the city needs to study the full range of possible transit improvements before rushing into an expensive system whose outcome is unknown.  

“Why rush, rush, rush?” he asked. “There are an awful lot of question marks.” 

The first order of business would be “doing things to create a mode shift,” Worthington said, especially putting in place eco-passes for Telegraph area workers through which the state and employers in the transit corridor would subsidize the buses in an initial phase. 

Worthington points to the success of the Class Pass, through which all UC Berkeley students pay a fee with their registration and all can ride the bus without additional cost. City of Berkeley workers’ bus passes are funded by the city. 

Worthington points to “woeful deficiencies” in the BRT proposal: there is no rapid connectivity planned between the rapid buses on Telegraph and San Pablo avenues, he said, noting that many workers in downtown Berkeley live in the Richmond area. 

Before considering BRT, however, the city needs to study its impacts—will it really bring the new riders? What are the effects on businesses along Telegraph? What are the traffic impacts? Worthington said. 

Worthington also noted that the project is not funded, though Bates says in his council memo that funds are available through the Federal Transit Administration.  

According to AC Transit Spokesperson Clarence Johnson, “Nothing is secured at this point; we’re still at the beginning stages.” 

Responding to questions on whether the riders will jump on board, Johnson said it’s happened in Los Angeles, Brazil and Australia and will happen in Alameda County as well. 

Johnson argued for necessity: “The streets are jammed; the freeways are jammed; we have to move away from the status quo,” he said. 

Critics have said they fear BRT will bring with it more intense development along its trajectory and Johnson did not disagree. “Transit-oriented development is the wave of the future,” he said, noting that otherwise there will be “sprawl from the ocean to the Sierras.” 

The Telegraph Merchants Association and the Willard Neighborhood Association have weighed in against BRT which includes a dedicated lane. The LeConte Neighborhood Association took a straw poll that came out against it. 

George Beier, former District 7 council candidate and member of the Willard Neighborhood Association steering committee, speaking for himself, told the Daily Planet, while he likes the idea of buying tickets at bus stops and boarding the bus on level with the curb, the dedicated bus lane “will snarl traffic,” he said. People will choose to take College Avenue, “which is pretty jammed up now,” he said. 

Greenhouse gas emissions will increase. “People will be sitting idle on Telegraph Avenue,” he said. 

If Bates’ council item is approved, the Transportation Commission will hold a workshop in October on the BRT proposal to identify “remaining issues and appropriate solutions.” Planning and transportation staff will take the recommendations and formulate them into a proposal which will go back to the Transportation Commission, then the Planning Commission and then back to the council for a public hearing and then finally for a decision in January. 

“We will abide by the decision you [in Berkeley] make,” AC Transit’s Johnson said. 

Zachary Running Wolf, pointing to two little known UC documents, said that the university has admitted that the place where it plans to build its $125 million Student Athlete High Performance Center is a Native American burial ground. 

“They want to build a gym where my ancestors are buried,” he said. 

Running Wolf said he recently found the two short entries in the environmental impact report (EIR) the university assembled for its 2020 Long Range Development Plan—a plan that specifically excludes the stadium area projects. 

Buried in that EIR’s public comments section are two paragraphs, one from a local historian and the other an unsigned response from the university—or rather Design Community Environment, the Berkeley company hired by university to prepare the document. 

Richard Schwartz, a Berkeley author and amateur historian, notified the university that “there is a record of about 18 Indian burials unearthed when constructing the UC stadium. There would be many more still there.” 

His e-mail pointed to the state archaeological records repository at Sonoma State University. Those documents are unavailable to the press and general public—a measure to protect burial sites from those who raid burials for bones and artifacts. 

“UC Berkeley has conducted a records search at the Information Center and is aware of the burials you mentioned,” stated the university’s response. 

The university has prepared an “archaeological site sensitivity map” of the area, and if “ground-disturbing” work is begun in highlighted areas and, the brief report added, “UC Berkeley will take appropriate steps to ensure any resources that may be present are properly treated in accordance with archaeological protection laws.”  

“That proves there are burials here,” said Running Wolf. “Let them build their gym someplace else that isn’t over our graves. And it’s on the earthquake fault, too.” 

The four-story, $125 million combination gym and office complex is planned adjacent to the stadium’s western wall, which would be seismically retrofitted before gym construction starts. 

The stadium itself is literally split in half from end to end by the Hayward Fault, which federal geologists predict will be the source of the Bay Area’s next major earthquake. 

The city and three different community organizations have sued to block construction pending completion of a new EIR for the complex of buildings the school plans in its southeast campus quadrant. 

Those buildings were included in a second EIR approved by the UC Board of Regents last year. 

For the City of Berkeley and neighbors, the key questions involve the impacts of the stadium area development stemming from construction and increased traffic of heavy trucks it will bring, as well as long-term effects from the growing demand on city infrastructure and the potential for enhanced dangers from earthquakes, wildfires and landslides in an area with limited access and narrow roads. 

For environmental activists, concerns focus on the fate of a large stand of Coastal Live Oaks, some dating from before the stadium was built.  

Running Wolf said the trees are important to him, as they are to many Native Americans. But it is the burials that are his main concern. 

Leigh Jordan, coordinator of the Northwest Information Center for the California Historical Resources Information Center, located at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park—the office cited by Schwartz in his e-mail to the university—said she couldn’t comment on any burials at the site. 

“I really can’t say anything, particularly about Native American sites,” she said. 

The California Public Records Act, which gives public and press access to most official records of state and local governments, exempts information about archaeological sites, she said. 

“Only landlords and participants in a project with a need to know” are able to access the information in the state files, she said. 

A two-day court hearing starting Wednesday in Hayward will determine the fate of the lawsuit, and with it, the fate of any burials that may lay beneath the loamy soil at the foot of the oaks now occupied by the tree-sitters.

The Oakland Unified School District, struggling to regain local control after nearly five years of state receivership, was sent into turmoil at the end of last week with the abrupt and unexpected resignation announcement of State Administrator Kimberly Statham. 

California School Superintendent Jack O’Connell—who has run OUSD since a 2002 budget shortfall triggered the state takeover— immediately named OUSD Chief of Staff Vincent Matthews as Statham’s interim replacement, but that did little to stem the controversy over the rapid turnover in district leadership. 

Matthews’ selection means that all three administrators hired by O’Connell to run the Oakland schools under state receivership have been trained by the Broad Foundation, founded by Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist Eli Broad, who has been put millions of dollars into the training of superintendent candidates in order to promote his foundation’s goal of “dramatically improv[ing] K-12 urban public education through better governance, management, labor relations and competition.” 

In addition, despite the fact that the 2002 state takeover legislation required O’Connell to hire an administrator for OUSD with “recognized expertise in management and finance,” none of the three administrators hired by the state superintendent has had a specific background in finances. 

According to a press statement released by the district, “Before joining the Oakland Unified School District as Chief of Staff, [Vincent] Matthews was an area superintendent for the San Diego Unified School District from 2006 to 2007. He was an educator-in-residence at NewSchools Venture Fund in San Francisco from 2005 to 2006, and served as principal of John Muir Middle School in the San Leandro Unified School District from 2004 to 2005. From 2002 to 2004, Matthews was the California Regional Vice President of Operations for Edison Schools. He previously served as a principal and teacher in several San Francisco Bay Area school districts.” 

“This is the third state administrator hired since the state took over,” School Board President David Kakishiba said in a telephone interview, adding that “because this is an interim appointment, there is the potential of a fourth hire as well. If an elected school board did something like that, we’d be taken over.” 

Kakishiba said that it was “reflective of a growing sentiment in the Oakland community, a sentiment that is shared by the entire school board” that the state “allow the local community to begin the search ourselves” for the new OUSD district leader. The board chair said that the state was not following through on its responsibility to restore fiscal integrity to the district. 

“They may be focusing their efforts in that area but if they are, I am not aware of it, and that is the first order of responsibility under receivership,” Kakishiba said. “They keep telling us that they are concentrating on improving academic achievement, but in a school district, that’s supposed to be a given. It’s like the old Chris Rock routine where a parent is making a big deal about taking care of their children, and Rock says, ‘but you’re supposed to do that.’” 

OUSD has failed to balance its budget in the five years since the state took over, and last month district officials announced a projected $4.7 million deficit for the coming fiscal year, up from the $1.3 million deficit it anticipated only months before. 

In light of the leadership turnover and the district’s fiscal problems, a group of Oakland school parents have already begun circulating a petition calling on O’Connell to allow the OUSD school board to hire a superintendent in place of the state-appointed administrator.  

Oakland Education Association teachers union president Betty Olsen-Jones said that she was preparing a letter to O’Connell calling on the superintendent “to continue the process of returning local control in the area of governance that he began in July by immediately restoring the authority of the Oakland Unified school board to hire the district superintendent.” Olsen-Jones said that OEA was “concerned about the huge instability in district leadership” that has occurred under state receivership, including what she called “the enormous turnover in the district’s central administrative office that has led to an almost complete loss of institutional memory.” Olsen-Jones also said her organization was “concerned that the state is seeing Oakland as a test case to be experimented with.” 

Meanwhile, district officials, parents, and Oakland community residents were waiting for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision on whether to sign or veto a bill that they hoped would speed up the return to OUSD local control. Both houses of the state legislature earlier this month passed Assemblymember Sandré Swanson’s AB45 OUSD Local Control Bill, which would take return to local control in various areas of school operations out of the hands of O’Connell and leave it to the discretion of the state-funded school interventionist and assessment organization Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT). 

Kakishiba said he was hoping that when FCMAT completes its next scheduled report in mid-October, “it will conclude that the district has met its necessary threshold of progress under state receivership” and can recommend the return of local control in “one to three areas” by the beginning of next year. 

Statham announced her resignation, effective September 27, in a letter released to the public last Friday. In it, she said that “the Oakland Unified School District has made remarkable strides in the past two years and is on the cusp of even greater accomplishments in which I would love to take part. Determining to leave a district of such outstanding promise at a time when it is poised to reveal its potential was an agonizing decision, but a necessary one for me and my family. I gave my all to OUSD for the past two-and-a-half years and now it's time to lavish my family with the same level of attention and devotion.” 

In a prepared statement, O’Connell said that he had accepted Statham’s resignation “with regret … She is a respected curriculum expert, passionate educator and able administrator who has been completely committed to the mission of providing students in Oakland with desperately needed educational opportunities. [T]he District as a whole, [is] undoubtedly better off for her efforts.” 

Despite O’Connell’s statement, however, rumors immediately circulated throughout the Oakland school community that Statham had been forced out, either from political pressure by the board, or directly by the state superintendent’s office. Kakishiba, however denied that.  

“No, it wasn’t at the request of the board,” he said. “I also heard through the grapevine that she was not pushed out by Sacramento. As far as I know it involved a family matter, and it was her decision.” 

Kakishiba said that he was “supportive of Dr. Statham’s decision,” even though it left the district in a leadership crisis. “I really don’t believe there was anything else she could have done about it,” he said. 

Statham came without her family when she originally arrived at Oakland Unified in 2005, leaving at least one school-age child in Maryland, and sources in the district said she often worked a full week on district business and then flew back on the weekend to be with her family. “It has really been a strain for her,” the source said. 

There were reports, originally printed in the Washington [D.C.] Examiner and reprinted in the San Francisco affiliate of the paper, that Statham has been hired as the chief academic officer of the District of Columbia Public Schools at a salary of $170,000, but those reports could not be verified. The Examiner quoted former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb, now the president of the Washington, D.C. School Board, as saying that it was “great news that we have someone on board with such a depth of experience” and D.C. Superintendent Deborah Gist calling Statham “a real rock star. She's really, really strong on school turnaround. And that's something we're focused on.” 

Statham was hired as Oakland state administrator in September 2006 to replace Randy Ward, who had served as OUSD state administrator from the time of the state takeover in 2002 until August 2006, when he was hired as superintendent of the San Diego County Unified School District. 

Two civic bodies meet Wednesday to hash out transportation policies for Berkeley’s new downtown plan. 

Members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC) and the Transportation Commission will gather at 7 p.m. in North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 

Their goal: A plan that gets people to pound the pavement instead of stepping on the gas. 

“Downtown should be first and foremost oriented for the safety, comfort and enjoyment of pedestrians,” declared the proposed Access Chapter for the new plan. 

As drafted, the new plan would discourage car use and boost mass transit ridership through a series of policies, including: 

• Developing electronic signs pointing to real-time availability and location of downtown parking. 

• Ensuring availability of UC Berkeley-owned and private parking lots for public use. 

• Boosting meter prices to keep at least 15 percent of street spaces open for shoppers and using technology to stop workers from meter-feeding to keep spaces. 

• Ending monthly prices for space at downtown garages and reserved parking for city workers in city-owned garages. 

• Encouraging private employers to subsidize workers who bike, bus, BART or walk to work. 

• Creating incentives for public and school district workers who don’t drive solo to work. 

• Using meter and city garage revenues to fund downtown improvements and maintenance. 

• Creating frequent, low-cost, ecologically friendly shuttles connecting neighborhoods with downtown, UC Berkeley, and other major employers. 

• Implementing pedestrian- and bike-friendly streetscape and traffic policies. 

• Creating and implementing transportation demand management policies with cities, university-related entities, schools and Alta Bates Medical Center. 

• Consideration of mandatory employee transit subsidies and other similar programs for employers with 50 or more workers. 

• Support for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service in downtown Berkeley to Telegraph Avenue, with an ultimate extension of BRT or Rapid Bus service along University Avenue to West Berkeley. 

• Considering subsidies for bicycles for downtown workers. 

• Increasing bike parking downtown. 

• Making additions to the city’s dedicated bicycle lanes. 

• Requiring new office and retail buildings and renovations to add showers and changing rooms for workers who commute by bicycle. 

Rushed agenda  

DAPAC members are counting down the days until their mandate expires at the end of November. 

Three subcommittees are also scheduled to meet over the next seven days to work on their own respective chapters of the draft plan started after settlement of a lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020. 

All of the meetings begin at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center. 

The Streetscapes and Open Space Subcommittee is scheduled to meet tonight (Tuesday), followed Thursday by the Housing and Community Health and Services Subcommittee. 

Then the joint subcommittee of DAPAC and the Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Monday night to iron out details of what may be the most controversial element of the plan—defining the role historic buildings will play in shaping the face of the future of the city center.

Oakland City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee found themselves more divided this week than the council’s Blue Ribbon Housing Commission, with the committee’s four members—Chairperson Jane Brunner, City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, and Councilmembers Henry Chang and Larry Reid—voting to accept the commission’s 105-page report and pass it on to the full council, but without a recommendation.  

Brunner, the co-author of the proposed inclusionary zoning ordinance that led to the original council deadlock on the issue, urged the council to move forward on inclusionary zoning, despite the fact that housing starts are down. 

“The fact that housing construction is slowing down in the nation is no reason we should slow down on the development of city policy,” Brunner said. “We should pass our policies now, so that when construction picks back up again, those policies will be in place.” 

In its report, the 17-member commission split the difference on the two major issues handed it by council last fall, agreeing on recommendations for an inclusionary zoning ordinance for the city, but submitting two opposing “minority” reports on proposed changes to Oakland’s existing condominium conversion laws. 

Commissioners also recommended doubling the Redevelopment Agency’s contribution to the city’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Fund from 25 percent to 50 percent within five years, and sponsoring a $200 million bond measure to assist rental and ownership housing in Oakland. 

The Oakland City Council will now take up the contentious issues of inclusionary zoning and condominium conversion once more, issues which deadlocked the council in October and December of last year and led to the creation of the Blue Ribbon Commission in the first place. The council is scheduled to begin discussion on the commission report and the underlying affordable housing issues at tonight’s (Tuesday) meeting. 

The major difference between the situations last fall and this is that when council took up the two affordable housing issues last year, Jerry Brown was still mayor, while Ron Dellums has since succeeded him in office. 

Brown was an inclusionary zoning opponent and had crafted no independent language himself suggesting how he thought the existing condominium conversion ordinance might be changed, 

Dellums, on the other hand, is known to favor some form of inclusionary zoning in Oakland. In addition, his chief economic aide, Dan Lindheim, told CEDA Committee members on Wednesday afternoon that the new mayor’s office would soon come forward with its own affordable housing proposals for the council to consider, proposals that are expected to address the issue of condominium conversion as well as inclusionary zoning. 

“We waited until now to do so because we thought it appropriate to have the commission members have a full hearing on their own proposals before the mayor’s office weighed in,” Lindheim said. 

Dellums’ aide also indicated that the new mayor’s actions would be collegial and not confrontational, a far different strategy than that employed by Brown in his eight years as mayor. Asked pointedly by Brunner if Dellums would develop his affordable housing proposals in collaboration with the council, Lindheim replied, “We always try to present our proposals in collaboration with the council.” 

The inclusionary zoning ordinance recommended by commissioners would involve the city requiring some new residential developments to include housing that is affordable to low and moderate income buyers. The city’s existing condominium conversion ordinance regulates how existing rental apartments in Oakland may be converted into occupier-owned condominium units. 

The City Council created the commission last October after the council divided 4-4 on a proposed inclusionary zoning ordinance co-written by Councilmembers Jane Brunner and Nancy Nadel. Former Mayor Jerry Brown cast the tie-breaking vote, killing the proposed ordinance, and the council then adopted Councilmember Desley Brooks’ proposal to set up the commission to study the issue and come up with a proposal that a majority of the council could support. Brooks had opposed the Brunner-Nadel ordinance. 

The condominium conversion issue was added to the commission’s charge in December after changes to the existing ordinance sponsored by Brooks appeared headed for a council deadlock, as well. 

At Tuesday afternoon’s Community and Economic Development Committee meeting, those council differences appeared to be as deep as ever. 

Brunner made a motion for the committee to support the items the commission had agreed upon, with the full council itself taking up the issues of condominium conversion and support for more rental housing. But De La Fuente said he would not support a recommendation from the committee that dealt with inclusionary zoning only without consideration of the other affordable housing issues, and Brunner’s motion died for lack of a second. 

De La Fuente said that he was “surprised” that the commission had not come back with an “overall housing policy,” saying that this had been council’s intention when the commission was appointed. 

De La Fuente, Brunner, and Reid all said that Oakland had very different affordable housing needs in different parts of the city, with Brunner saying that the condominium conversion ordinance and Reid saying that the inclusionary zoning ordinance should have exemptions and set-asides to take into account those differences.  

De La Fuente added that “by neglect or accident, we have more housing needs in some areas of the city than in others. Ms. Brunner has some 50 residential development projects pending in her district alone, while we are fighting to get just a few projects in East and Central Oakland.” 

Saying that councilmembers probably all agree that “we need to continue building new housing for renters as well as moving some of our existing renters to home ownership,” De La Fuente said that “neither inclusionary zoning or condominium conversion by themselves alone are the answer. We have to have many options in our toolbox.”  

The commission’s report generated considerable public interest, with 45 speakers signing up to weigh in on the issue. With only a minute apiece to make their points, however, speakers were able to do little more than give their names and their bare positions either for or against the commission proposals, without the ability to go into details. 

Local union leader Andre Spearman, former campaign manager for Dellums’ mayoral campaign, said that he was “amazed to hear the rhetoric that affordable housing will scare developers off. If the murders on Oakland’s streets don’t scare developers off, this won’t.” Spearman charged that “developers had a free ride under Jerry Brown,” adding that they should now be required to help subsidize the housing needs of low and moderate income Oakland residents. 

And Mary Kruger, an Oakland apartment renter, opposed the relaxing of condominium conversions, saying that her apartment had recently been sold and was being converted to condominium. “Our rent was raised $381 a month, with 60 days notice,” Kruger said. “I can’t afford it. Our life is being turned upside down. Our community is being broken up.” 

But Steve Edrington, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Northern Alameda County, who said he has converted rental housing to condominiums, said that his concern was not with possible relaxing restrictions on such conversions but with the council “creating more restrictions.” Edrington also said that he was opposed to inclusionary zoning because “it is an embedded tax” that he feared would restrict residential housing development in Oakland. 

UC Regents are scheduled to vote Wednesday to approve a lease on an Emeryville building to house a federally funded $250 million biofuel program. 

But just where the lab will be housed, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab officials won’t say. 

Ron Kolb, the lab’s chief media officer, said he can’t disclose the location because the regents will hold their vote in closed session, and because officials at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must also give their approval. 

“When the lease becomes an official document, we are happy to share the information with you. This may not occur for a couple of weeks,” Kolb said in an e-mail. 

The DOE-funded Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) is a separate program from the $500 million Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) bankrolled by a grant from BP, plc—the company formerly known as British Petroleum. 

The BP lab will be housed in a specially constructed building planned for the LBNL campus on the slopes above Strawberry Creek in the Berkeley Hills. 

Meanwhile, the company founded by a UC Berkeley scientist who plays a leading role in both JBEI and EBI has just added 70,000 square feet to the space it leases in Emeryville, according to the San Francisco Business Journal. 

Amyris Technologies, founded by Jay Keasling and three graduate students, specializes in biofuels and in creating a cheap version of the antimalarial drug artemisinin, the latter with the help of funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Keasling and another academic-cum-corporate founder, Chris Somerville, are the two Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers who have key roles in both the federally funded and British-backed biofuel programs. 

Amyris’s new lease is in Wareham Development’s EmeryStation East; the company already leases another 20,000 square feet in Emeryville, most of it in Wareham’s EmeryStation North. 

And at least one source close to the negotiations said the university had been in active negotiations for a lease in the same building. 

Robert Sakai, technology and trade director for the Economic Development Alliance for Business, said that if JBEI locates there, it could encourage companies like ChevronTexaco to locate their own startups nearby. 

“To me, that’s good news,” he said. 

EDAB, a public/private consortium devoted to helping businesses locate in the Bay Area, was enlisted by lab officials early on in their search for support in winning the DOE grant. 

Keasling’s company also hired BP’s North American vice president while UC Berkeley and LBNL were making their pitch for the $500 million grant from the British oil company, and in June the firm hired three other officers who had also worked for BP: Paul Addams, who had headed the team managing BP’s American oil portfolio; Jim Alderman, who had held executive positions at Tosco and BP, and Ena Chen Cratsenburg, who had last worked at another Emeryville company, Pixar. 

The hirings were announced by Amyris CEO John Mello, the BP executive hired during the UC-BP negotiations. 

Amyris recently posted an on-line recruitment pitch for a director of facilities to oversee an “upcoming construction project on 75,000 to 90,000 ft. of office and laboratory space.” 

That size is considerably larger than the 50,000 square feet LBNL sought for the JBEI in solicitation issued on March 23. 

The lab would employ 158 scientists and support staff, and accommodate an additional 16 visiting scientists, according to the lease prospectus. 

Research would concentrate on three areas: feedstock (plants for conversion into fuels), deconstruction of the plants into useable component and the synthesis of fuels from those components. 

The JBEI project will involve scientists from UC Berkeley and its affiliated Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national labs as well as UC Davis and Stanford. 

Other regent actions 

The regents are also scheduled to vote this morning (Tuesday) on the $135 million budget for capital improvements at the Clark Kerr Campus, of which $6.75 million will come from the UC Housing New Revenue Fund and the remainder from external financing. 

Meeting Thursday, the board’s committees on Educational Policy and Finance are set to approved fee increases from professional degree programs for the 2008-2009 school year and a three-year program for increased fees in the professional schools. 

Members of the Grounds and Buildings Committee will receive updates this morning (Tuesday) and lawsuits challenging UC Berkeley growth plans and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Long Range Development Plan. 

Two sessions Wednesday will focus on the search for a replacement for UC President Robert C. Dynes, who resigned on short notice last month. 

While his four-year tenure had drawn fire over an executive pay schedule, Regents Chair Richard Blum had complained that university building projects were taking too long to get off the ground under Dynes’ tenure. 

In a 12:05 p.m. session, the Committee on Governance is scheduled to amend the board’s policy on filling the presidency, and at 3:30 a special committee on selecting a new president will discuss criteria for the search for Dynes’ replacement.

Government health officials who contend there’s no evidence of toxic health threats to most workers at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station (RFS) found themselves before a skeptical audience Thursday. 

Contra Costa County Public Health Director Dr. Wendel Brunner and a team from the state Department of Health Services presented their findings to the citizen panel keeping watch over the cleanup of contaminated sites along the southern Richmond shoreline. 

The Community Advisory Group (CAG) was created by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the state agency overseeing the cleanups. 

The DTSC was brought in after community activists demanded they replace the previous regulatory body, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. 

The two largest sites under the CAG’s purview are the university property and the adjacent Campus Bay site—both of which once housed plants that manufactured dangerous chemicals. 

The lead item of the CAG’s agenda was the 99-page Public Health Assessment of RFS compiled by the state and county team. 

Presenting the results were the two physicians on the team, Brunner and Rick Kreutzer, chief of the state agency’s Environmental Health Investigations Branch (EHIB). 

“There is no significant risk to anybody,” Kreutzer said, with the exception of workers who dig in contaminated soil still present at RFS and children who might spend thousands of hours playing in parts of Stege Marsh. 

That said, the two doctors said major parts of the property hadn’t been adequately tested, pointing in particular to an area of the property near a known hot spot of Campus Bay infested with a hazardous brew of toxins. 

Another potential threat arises from three possible sources of radioactive contamination: manufacture of phosphate fertilizers at Campus Bay, a process that concentrates radioactive components naturally found in phosphate ores; processing of uranium metal at Campus Bay, and the possible dumping of radioactive waste from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) at RFS. 

Brunner said that was a “legitimate concern” about phosphates manufacturing which would require further investigation to see if underground water at RFS may have been contaminated. 

Michael Esposito, a retired LBNL scientist who chairs the CAG’s Toxics Committee, said the CAG wanted to know more about the two other potential sources of radiation. 

Rick Alcaraz, a retired RFS employee, said he participated in dumping barrels of waste from LBNL and identified the site where a DTSC consultant identified the presence of buried metal about 30 feet beneath the surface. 

Barbara Cook, DTSC’s statewide cleanup operations branch chief, said plans are under way for a dig at the site to identify what set off the magnetometers. 

While Brunner and Kreutzer said the field station doesn’t pose current risks to workers who don’t dig in contaminated soil or children who don’t spent a cumulative 2,000 hours playing in the marshland, many CAG members remained skeptical. 

The scientists acknowledged that there is no current way to assess the potential additive effects of exposures to a variety of toxins, and Sherry Padgett expressed the concerns of other members worried about the impacts of exposures on people with compromised immune systems. 

Brunner also acknowledged the concerns of CAG member Eric Blum that the report didn’t account for past exposures during the years when chemical manufacturing was at its peak during an era when environmental regulations were either lax or non-existent. 

RFS workers and those who work in businesses near the Campus Bay site have repeatedly expressed their concerns about potential toxic exposures during the earlier cleanups at both sites when large dust clouds blanketed the area. 

Anger generated during that cleanup helped sparked the protests that led to the DTSC takeover. 

Brunner and Kreutzer also stressed that the RFS site itself hadn’t been fully “characterized”—meaning that comprehensive testing of all areas of the site remains to be finished. Both said they don’t expect to find any area more hazardous than those already identified. 

While the assessment called for monitoring dust around the margins of the site for potentials hazards during future cleanup operations, Richmond librarian Tarnel Abbott asked why monitors weren’t scheduled for placement at locations in the interior of the field station. 

“That’s a good point,” said Marilyn Underwood, chief of the EHIB’s Site Assessment Branch. 

Peter Weiner, the San Francisco attorney who has been volunteering his time on behalf of the CAG’s efforts, thanked the health experts, but stressed that he wanted to know what they could do to make sure the whole site is fully investigated to make sure all who worked at or lived near the site knew what their real risks were. 

He said he was concerned that UC Berkeley had declined to participate in the CAG’s activities, and had dismissed past illegal dumping of wastes at Campus Bay as simply paperwork violations. 

Marsh questions 

Under a unique arrangement negotiated by Weiner, Cherokee-Simeon Ventures, the owner of Campus Bay, has agreed to fund the CAG in connection with oversight of its cleanup efforts at the site. 

During Thursday night’s session, a consultant hired with their funds raised questions about the cleanup of Stege Marsh along the site’s bayside shoreline. 

Stewart Siegel, who trained as a student at RFS, is a scientist with Treadwell & Rollo, Inc., an environmental and geotechnical consulting firm based in San Francisco. 

While contaminated marsh soils had been removed and replaced with clean soil drawn from other areas of the bay, Siegel said that future contamination remains a threat. 

“The more I look at the data, the more likely it seems” the marsh will be contaminated again—so long as the 350,000 cubic yards of waste still buried at the site aren’t removed, he said. 

Under the water board’s oversight, a cleanup plan allowed for the burial rather than removal of most of the hazardous material on the site—now temporarily capped with a mixture of paper and concrete. 

Water drains out of the buried waste through a biologically active barrier which is supposed to capture most of the hazardous materials. But the marsh water contains elevated levels of selenium and mercury, Siegel said, which can concentrate in the soil because of limited drainage. 

Siegel said the project was also completed using incorrect tide level data. “The data is absolutely wrong” by about a foot, he said.

A fire-starting burglar and a six-year-old with matches topped the recent hotspots for the Berkeley Fire Department. 

Burning burglar 

Police followed firefighters to an apartment at 2627 Regent St. Saturday night after it was discovered that a burglar had apparently tried to cover up his crime with a greater offense—arson. 

“The tenants were able to put out the fire before we got there,” said Deputy Fire Chief David P. Orth. 

After burglarizing the place, the burglar had thrown a robe over a lamp, resulting in the blaze. 

“They either got very sloppy or they started a fire to cover up the burglary. We’re treating it as an arson,” said Orth. 

Fire-starter 

A 6-year-old who lives in an apartment in the 1600 block of Sixth Street ignited his bedroom curtains while playing with matches, said Deputy Chief Orth. 

“His mom was asleep and the smoke-detector woke her up” just after 7 p.m. Thursday night, Orth said. 

The blaze was kept in check by fire extinguishers until a BFD chief who happened to be in the area arrived and doused the flames with a garden hose. It was out by the time the engine company arrived. 

Suspicious blaze 

Flames broke out in the grass behind a two-story residence in the 1900 block of Parker Street just after 4 p.m. Friday. Firefighters are considering the blaze as suspicious since folks who weren’t supposed to be there had been spotted in the yard moments before, Orth said. 

Dorm room burns 

Quick response ended a fire that started on the roof of Cory Hall on the UC Berkeley campus last Wednesday shortly before 3 p.m. 

A torch being used by workers to install a new roof ignited the wooden supports to an air unit, and firefighters were forced to tear off some of the roofing before they could quell the flames. A fast response limited the damage to about $3,500, said Orth.

The Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) is investigating options to move its administrative staff to its West Campus location, according to school officials. 

The proposed move was discussed as part of Friday’s 2x2 Committee meeting between city and school staff. 

The district now uses the Old City Hall, renamed the Maudelle Shirek Building, as its headquarters as part of its 20-year lease with the city which runs out in 2009. “We know the Old City Hall is unsafe and unhealthy,” said board director Joaquin Rivera. “And it’s not retrofitted.” 

“You should get out of that old building immediately,” Mayor Tom Bates told Rivera and Lawrence. “You put yourselves at risk, you put us at risk.” 

The district’s Facilities Construction Plan states that West Campus should be used as BUSD’s headquarters in the future. It comprises nine buildings, several of which are connected. The administration, girls’ gymnasium, auditorium and classroom (Bonar Street) buildings are reinforced concrete construction, while the library, cafeteria and shop building are wood frame construction.  

“We are going through a couple of options for templates at the site but ultimately it would be nice to have a permanent structure there,” said district superintendent Michele Lawrence, who will be retiring in February. 

“Some modular buildings can be on the template for now. They can be placed in a corner so that you can have the University Avenue strip to see what kind of development goes in there. The staging has to be calculated ... We want the best short term that does not affect the long-term development.” 

Lawrence added that the district would also study the Creeks Ordinance, which safeguards the city’s many open and culverted waterways, before proposing any plans. 

Warm water pool 

Lawrence and school board vice president John Selawsky said the district was moving ahead with plans to make the Berkeley High School tennis courts on Milvia Street the new location for a warm water pool to replace the one now located in the school’s Old Gym. 

The district’s South of Bancroft Master Plan includes the demolition of the landmarked Old Gym to make room for new classroom facilities, with the option of relocating the warm water pool to Milvia Street. 

A lawsuit was filed earlier this year asking for a new environmental impact report on the district’s permit to demolish the gym building because the original environmental review did not adequately address the building’s historic status.  

The city is looking at ways to develop the tennis courts into a warm pool but has yet to come to an agreement with the school district about its use. 

A conceptual design was presented at a recent Disability Commission meeting for the second time. 

“It meets most of the requirements of the disabled community but the biggest issue is parking,” said Deputy City Manager Lisa Carona. “Parking is limited but it’s open for discussion depending on the needs of the school district.” 

She added that the proposed $10 million plan did not have any provision for parking above the pool, which would be on the ground floor. 

Corona added that the value of the land would be assessed Tuesday (today) and reported to the City Council. 

The district will first have to declare the Milvia Street property as surplus before leasing or selling it to the city. 

Bates asked the school board to identify legislation that would allow the school to donate the property to the city for use by the community. 

Downtown behavior 

Berkeley Police Department (BPD) chief Doug Hambleton informed the 2X2 committee that violence on the Berkeley High campus and downtown was under control. 

“We are not having a lot of violence downtown,” he said. “Merchants are pretty happy. We do have problems with kids congregating in front of Allston and Shattuck who are rude to police officers. We’d like to have more officers available to pay attention to that.” 

Hambleton added that some Berkeley High students continue to sit on the ledge outside the police department on Martin Luther King Way, apparently unaware of the possible $200 fine for sitting there. 

“The officers don’t like to fine kids, but it’s quite disruptive with all that screaming going on outside,” he said..

Here’s looking at you kid: George Pauly, 74, founder of the “Tely Rep,” one of the last art-house cinemas on Telegraph Avenue’s “cinema row,” is dead. He died Aug. 27 at Summit Hospital after a two-month shoot-out with multiple organ failure. 

A noirist to the core, Pauly would have appreciated that he was almost D.O.A. (one of his favorite films) when he was shot by police during the 1967 protests over People’s Park. 

James Rector, standing next to Pauly, was killed and a man on his other side was blinded. Pauly, who escaped serious injury, lived on to introduce now acknowledged film masterpieces (in 16 mm; this was before “best of” lists) to Cal students and “the usual suspects” from the neighborhood for 30 years. 

According to the website “Cinema Treasures,” which tracks nearly 20,000 U.S. theaters, Tely Rep was “one of Berkeley’s notable venues of cinema during the late ’60s and early ’70s. Originally located several doors south of 2519 Telegraph, it moved to a former apartment building at 2519 where it remained into the ’80s.” 

A patron from the ’70s recalled that Tely Rep “played titles that no one else played: Jodorowski, documentaries, and assorted arthouse fare, Hitchcock (one of Pauly’s favorites, was art house then), and shorts. The Rep was less commercial than its competitors.” 

According to Cinema Treasures, “in the ’80s, the Rep popped its own popcorn in a hot air popper—real butter was available. The entrance was through a nondescript street-level door up a narrow staircase that had the feeling of an apartment house.” 

Probably because it was an apartment house, Pauly lived above the theaters in a penthouse apartment overlooking Telegraph. From across the street, you can still view the steps to the theaters and the apartment house. 

But he soon found the movie exhibition business to be what Bette Davis called “a bumpy ride.” 

As Pauly recalled recently, audiences often threatened to riot when films broke: “Sometimes I was drenched in sweat as the crowd noise invaded the projection booth as I struggled to restore the film.” 

He had gotten the theater bug some years earlier in North Beach, where he alighted in 1969 in a cherry-red Jaguar he had driven to Colorado on a ski trip. He temporarily settled in North Beach in its heyday. 

He never returned to his father’s architectural firm. Instead, he became a habitué at the old Gateway Cinema, south of Market, where he formed his early dreams of movie exhibition. 

An architect trained at Carnegie-Mellon, he lived for a few years in Reno where he contributed to the Reno library system and the Carson City jail. 

But Berkeley and the theater beckoned, eventually consuming him in the details of scheduling and showing more than six films weekly. Sometimes the price was high, as when he was severely beaten by a patron in a beef over a refund. He could not always get distributors to release the films he wanted to show. 

It was not always possible to make the rent on time (he was relentlessly pursued in that period by his landlady). 

Born in Manhattan in 1933 to a well-known architect, George Pauly, Sr., and art teacher mother, he moved with the family to Camp Hill, Pa. where he attended a Catholic boy’s high school. At the University of Pennsylvania he was president of his fraternity, Sigma Nu. He dated the actress Barbara Felton. 

After closing the theater, he drove east to visit his dying sister (his mother had died the previous year). When he returned, he had changed, according to his friends. For nearly a decade, he wandered the streets of Berkeley (eight to 10 miles a day), but avoided his friends. 

Just as mysteriously, he snapped out of it, returning to his long-time headquarters at the Caffe Mediterraneum, a block from the old theater. He continued to live above the theater, which he often said was still vacant for anyone to take up the challenge (no one did). 

Back at the Med, he lost no time re-establishing himself as a dashing avenue figure (tall dark and handsome), Bon Vivant, and coffee house wit with an encyclopedic knowledge of films. 

He could quote long dialogue from hundreds of films, with credits, and other trivia. He admitted that many of the films he mentioned he had never seen (those cranky distributors!). These films went into memory anyway. 

Although not as well known as Tom Luddy, Ed Landberg, or Pauline Kael, he launched the careers of Tom Luddy, first director at PFA, and Prof. Albert Johnson of the UC Berkeley Film Studies Department.  

He leaves no survivors except his gang at the Med, three MGB’s, a generation of film nuts, and broken-hearted women, all of whom loved him. 

His friends remember him as a gentle giant, who, when asked why he didn’t fight back when assaulted, he replied, “that’s the last thing I’d do.” 

A mass will be recited at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Wed., Sept. 26 (7 p.m. 1640 Addison St.) and a memorial will be held at Caffe Mediterraneum, across from Moe’s.  

They sang, they spoke, they demanded, they were funny, serious—the group of some 100 people assembled by Code Pink at the Oakland Federal Building on Tuesday were doing whatever they could to tell the powers-that-be to stop funding the war in Iraq. 

They had to yell out their message above the traffic and downtown noontime buzz. “Our constitution doesn’t cover sound permits in Oakland,” Zanne Joi of Code Pink told the gathering, after police disallowed the group’s portable sound system. 

While most participants were in an oppositional mode, condemning George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and others, Joi reserved praise for Oakland Rep. Barbara Lee. “We need to give a shout-out to the one congresswoman who has voted from the outset against the war,” she said to the cheering crowd. 

Those gathered also took time to honor the war dead and praise the earth. “This is the ground that we hold for peace; no one will take it away from us,” they chanted. 

Sporting a “Fuck Bush” T-shirt, a woman identifying herself as Soul, spoke to the crowd. Soul identified herself as an anarchist from Berkeley Liberation Radio and said she had hung over the pedestrian bridge in Berkeley on Monday to make people aware of the high rate of suicide among troops in Iraq and those returning home.  

“We are the fertilizer, sowing seeds of dissent,” she told the crowd.  

East Bay Municipal Utility District worker Charles Smith, of AFSCME 444 (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) held a banner proclaiming the “Spirit of ’76” and calling for impeachment for Bush and Cheney. Smith said he hoped people would “kick King George [presumably Bush] out of the colonies.”  

Other groups supporting the rally included Grandmothers for Peace, Singing for Peace and United for Peace and Justice.  

Dana Dillworth was standing off to the side of the crowd, a huge cigar between her teeth and calling out: “Buy war bonds—or stock in Lockheed, Halliburton or Procter and Gamble.”  

When the Daily Planet approached, she said. “God Bless America. Thank God my stocks keep going up.” Dillworth said she had come from her home in Brisbane to mock those who get rich on the war effort. 

Despite a number of residents urging the City Council to oppose it, councilmembers unanimously approved a $396,000 county-federal grant aimed at delivering customized transit information to people living near Telegraph Avenue, San Pablo Avenue and the Ashby Avenue BART Station. (Councilmember Max Anderson was absent.) 

In other actions, the council held a workshop to discuss new policy for citizen comment at council meetings, honored a former department head who was forced out of his job (see accompanying story), approved a controversial new library trustee, and OK’d boycotts of Valley Power Systems in San Leandro and the Woodfin Suites Hotel in Emeryville. 

Travel Choice grant 

Most of the concern expressed by residents who spoke at the council meeting against accepting the grant for the project known as Travel Choice was directed more at the Transportation and Landuse Coalition (TALC), the nonprofit named as grant recipient, than at the program itself. 

That’s because the TALC is among the supporters of full implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a plan that many residents and merchants strongly oppose. If implemented, BRT would provide a dedicated bus lane on Telegraph Avenue, while removing automobile lanes. Opponents also say BRT could encourage inappropriate high-density housing projects.  

Supporters of Travel Choice, however, argued that TALC’s support for BRT was unrelated to accepting the funds. 

The grant “is intended to promote existing options,” Matt Nichols, Berkeley’s principal transportation planner, told the council. “BRT does not exist.” 

Stuart Cohen, TALC executive director, assured the council that the Travel Choice outreach workers would not be given information about the BRT and that the two issues would be kept separate. 

Before voting to approve the grant, the council added a clause that specifically would prohibit TALC from using the grant to promote BRT. 

Members of the public had other concerns, asking why the city did not put the project out for competitive bid. Nichols responded that TALC was the only entity familiar with Travel Choice in the Bay Area, having implemented the program successfully in Alameda and the Fruitvale district of Oakland. 

Speakers also questioned the project’s method of contacting residents by telephone, which, they said, could be a nuisance to those who get the calls. (They also go door-to-door in targeted neighborhoods.) John Knox White, Travel Choice Program Manager for TALC, responded that by offering free coffee and tickets on public transit they are able to keep most people on the phone. “Sixty-six percent took the time to have a conversation,” White said, of the project undertaken in Alameda. 

Mayor Tom Bates added his support: “If you’re going to get them out of their cars, they have to know their options,” he said. 

When it was his turn at the public microphone, Doug Buckwald told the council there’s a better way to get people out of their cars than Travel Choice: make public transit “low cost, more frequent and make it go where you want to go,” he said. 

Public Comment 

The council delayed a vote until October on new rules for public comment. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington and Mayor Tom Bates proposed competing ordinances each promoted at a 5:30 p.m. workshop. 

Among the most controversial questions was the issue of when to schedule public comment on items not listed on the agenda. Bates had proposed that these speakers be heard at the end of the meeting, generally around 11 p.m. for two minutes each. After listening to the public calling for public comment earlier in the evening, he said he would consider allowing three or four speakers, chosen by lottery, to speak early in the meeting; the others would speak at the end. 

Worthington’s proposal calls for the public to be heard on issues not on the agenda toward the beginning of the meeting, just after the vote on the consent calendar, where the council approves non-controversial items. 

“To have public comment (on non-agenda items) at the end of the meeting excludes the elderly and people with children. It takes away their democratic rights,” said Jane Welford of superBOLD (Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense). 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli responded, asking Welford: “How do you balance the public’s right to watch the council do its work with the citizen’s right to be heard in public comment?”  

Both Worthingon’s proposal and the mayor’s give the public time to address consent calendar items. The mayor limits consent calendar speakers to three in favor of an item and three against. If there are more than three in opposition, the item will be pulled from the consent calendar and discussed as an action item at the end of the meeting. 

Worthington’s measure allows all speakers to address the council on consent and action items, but limits their time according to their numbers—if there are fewer than five speakers, each can speak for two minutes; if there are 5-9 speakers the time is reduced to 1.5 minutes and if there are more than nine speakers, each can speak for one minute. 

The mayor’s proposal allows the first nine speakers on action items to speak for two minutes and the others for one minute.  

Public speakers pointed out, however, that the quick and nimble would get to the microphone first, thus being able to speak for the full two minutes. The mayor said he would consider choosing the two-minute speakers by lottery. 

But Councilmember Linda Maio pointed out that when the council used a lottery system—they put speaker cards into a hopper from which the city clerk drew the cards—people used to put their names in more than once, or come with a large group so individuals could cede their time to a designated speaker. People who submitted just one name had less of a chance than others to be chosen. 

The mayor urged the council to move forward and establish public comment rules. He’s been experimenting with various formats since last year, when SuperBOLD threatened to sue the city over restricted public comment. 

“We need to adopt some rules; the public is confused,” Bates said. 

Meet elsewhere 

The debate over public comment sparked a discussion—not on the agenda—on the need for a new place for the council to meet. “We are denying the public a chance to attend meetings,” Worthington said, referring to times when the Council Chambers are full and people cannot enter. 

“It’s pretty disgusting that in Berkeley, there’s not a decent place to meet,” said Councilmember Betty Olds, advocating for the rehab of the building in which the Council Chambers is located—the Maudelle Shirek building (Old City Hall)—which is the school district headquarters and is not earthquake safe. 

Bates said the city has done a search and found no other place in the city that is wheelchair accessible, large enough and can accommodate TV transmission equipment. 

At Longfellow School it is difficult to hear because the acoustics are bad, Olds noted, adding that the Berkeley Community Theater “is so depressing.” City College is overbooked and the dais is narrow, City Manager Phil Kamlarz said. 

Wozniak noted there are many ways councilmembers get feedback in addition to hearing speakers at council meetings, including phone calls, letters and email. “We have to have other avenues,” than council meetings, he said. 

Library trustee approved 

New library trustees are generally given “rubber-stamp” approval by the City Council, after having been approved by the five sitting trustees. But at Tuesday’s meeting the council was not unanimous, voting 6-1-1 to approve Carolyn Henry Golphin to replace Laura Anderson on the board, with Councilmember Kriss Worthington voting in opposition and Councilmember Dona Spring abstaining.  

Golphin is past president of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce and works as marketing director for Skates By the Bay. 

Skates unsuccessfully sued Berkeley several years ago, claiming it should not have to follow the city’s Living Wage Ordinance, which impacts businesses on bayside properties owned by the city. 

Speakers from SuperBOLD spoke against Golphin’s appointment, based on Skates’ activism against the ordinance. 

“I’m proud of the support you give to labor and good pay,” Jane Welford told the council. “Because Carolyn Golphin was such a hard fighter against the living wage ordinance at Skates By the Bay” she should not be appointed, Welford said. 

But Susan Kupfer, chair of the Library Board of Trustees pointed out that, in promoting Skates’ point of view, Golphin was simply doing her job. 

During the trustees’ interview process, no questions on labor issues were posed to the candidates. 

Other matters 

In other matters, councilmembers voted unanimously to support a boycott of Valley Power Systems in San Leandro, which is on strike—they do maintenance work on fire engines—and to also support a boycott of the Woodfin Suites Hotel in Emeryville, which has refused to comply with Emeryville’s Living Wage Ordinance for hotel workers. Emeryville has asked the hotel to comply with the ordinance by paying back wages owed the workers, but it has yet to comply.  

Olds abstained on the Woodfin Suite boycott. 

The Berkeley Board of Education began the search for a new superintendent for the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) Wednesday. 

The board hired Mission Viejo-based Leadership Associates—a search firm specializing in superintendent selection skills in over 130 California school districts—less than a week after BUSD superintendent Michele Law- rence announced her retirement starting Feb. 1. 

Board members discussed with the firm’s representatives criteria which would play an important role in recruiting a new superintendent and agreed upon a timeline. 

A small group of parents turned up at the meeting Tuesday night since most families were attending Back to School night and PTA meetings. 

Lee Glover-Owens, mother of a sixth-grade student at King Middle School, emphasized the importance of a superintendent who would fight to eradicate the achievement gap in the Berkeley public schools. 

“The next superintendent should not only tackle the problem but also eliminate it,” she said. “I want the next superintendent to be a humble person, well educated and with a hands-on love for children. He or she should open up every possible resource to teach a child and ensure that every child is successful by the time they leave Berkeley High.”  

David Manson—district representative for state Sen. Don Perata—told the board that it was important to include voices from communities of color during the selection process, an idea that was also emphasized by board member Karen Hemphill. 

“The new superintendent should be a leader in bringing together community groups,” she said, “someone who has demonstrated through prior activities a deep understanding of equity and how race and class affect student achievement.” 

The board agreed that the ideal candidate should be comfortable with being in the spotlight.  

“We will be giving a very careful look at what you are looking for,” Jake Abbott of Leadership Associates told the board. 

“It’s extremely important we hear what you are thinking about.” 

Board member Shirley Issel said it was important to focus on the district’s current needs during the selection process.  

“During the last recruitment process we had a lot of need to focus on financial stability,” she said. “The district was in a run down condition that needed to be repaired. We have made a lot of progress but there is continued weakness in personnel management and pupil achievement. The new superintendent will have to continue critical oversight on budget and respond to critical needs. I am particularly looking for someone who has demonstrated achievement in all these areas.” 

After joining the district in 2001, Lawrence saw it through a serious budget deficit and oversaw cost savings of up to $15 million in the last three years. 

Board president Joaquin Rivera said that Berkeley could not be a training ground for a new superintendent, and requested a candidate who had experience with school boards and state and federal issues. 

“We are still looking for the same things we looked at six years ago,” said school board vice president John Selawsky. “Someone who advocates strongly for public education, has strong leadership skills, experience, and values the culture of Berkeley. Someone with strong business knowledge and political sophistication. Even though we have around 10,000 students in our community we have a very politically conscious community.” 

Selawsky added that since the board would address the district’s facilities sometime in the next five to ten years, the new superintendent would have also have to understand the importance of a community process. 

“We want someone who will stick with us,” said Issel.  

“And also buys into our district’s concept of focusing on the whole child. He or she must have high expectations for all children,” quipped in Riddle. 

A majority of board members said that the next superintendent should respect negotiations with unions. 

“Someone who can count,” Riddle added. “I see a lot of facilities bonds in the future. It would be really nice to have a superintendent who knows what a parcel tax is since we rely heavily on those for a budget.” 

Robert Trig of Leadership Associates told the board that superintendent searches had increased in the last one year. 

“Superintendents are retiring,” he said. “The field is getting thinner. We are going outside California to look for candidates. This brings in some positives as well as negatives. The California finance laws are unique. If you haven’t worked in California and don’t have a network of people who can help you, it can be very difficult. This is an issue.” 

Abbott added that to attract the right kind of candidates, districts were providing “golden handcuffs,” or amenities such as health benefits and housing loans. 

Lawrence, whose contract stipulates an annual salary of $200,000, was also provided a $300,000 housing loan in order to encourage her to live within the district. 

“Berkeley is not a very large district but it is a high profile district,” said Trig. “We want the candidates to understand the challenges of the district.” 

Riddle said that the board wanted to cast a wider net to the district’s sister cities while Issel said that she preferred someone from within the state. 

Reading from a suggested timeline, Abbott said that the consultants would meet with district staff and community members on Sept. 24 and 25 for input. 

“We’d prefer if the board not be there during the community meetings,” Abbott said. “We want people to feel comfortable. The board can listen but not take part in the discussion.” 

According to the timeline, the consultants would begin identifying candidates and develop a recruitment brochure between now and October. After interviewing the finalists on Dec. 8 and 9, the board would visit the community of the leading candidate. The new superintendent would begin in January. 

Closed session 

Following the discussion, the board met with the consultants in closed session to discuss the contractual parameters of the future superintendent.  

Terry Francke of the California First Amendment Coalition told the Planet that the closed session might have violated state laws requiring open government meetings. He said the Brown Act, which governs when meetings can be closed to the public, had no provision which allowed closed sessions to discuss the financial terms of a contract in general. 

“If they want to decide the maximum they will pay in the abstract before entering into negotiations with a particular person, that cannot be in closed session,” Francke said. “Closed session is permissible when the board is discussing its agreement with a particular person.” 

Lawrence, however, told the Planet that the school board was legally permitted to establish the financial parameters of a contract for a prospective superintendent in closed session. 

“In terms of negotiating a salary of a prospective superintendent we can do it in closed session,” she said. “Once the parameters have been established and the contract settled the board must fully disclose it to the public. The same was done in my case.” 

Former Berkeley Housing Director Steve Barton, pressured to resign after what some say was a cursory investigation by the city attorney into problems at the Berkeley Housing Authority, was back before the City Council on Tuesday to accept a proclamation honoring him as a “stalwart and creative leader in achieving the city of Berkeley’s affordable housing mission.” 

While Barton said he was appreciative of the praise, he made clear in the statement he read thanking the council for the proclamation that he believes the city is obliged to thoroughly investigate the allegations made against him and others. 

City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque, absent on medical leave until Oct. 1, wrote two scathing memos, one May 22 and the other June 6, blaming Barton and a host of other city employees for the problems at BHA.  

In her June 6 memo, Albuquerque talked about “a pervasive abdication of duty on the part of line BHA employees,” and said, “city management at every level failed to follow legal advice on how to identify and rectify the full scope of the serious and growing operational problems at the BHA.” 

Barton’s statement was received with a standing ovation by the audience. He thanked the council, and spoke of the activism of his younger years participating in movements for racial equality, ending the war in Vietnam, supporting gay liberation, and participating in actions to protect the homes of low-income people.  

Barton praised the city for its ability to maintain a government “whose core values are democracy, social justice, a sustainable environment and an economy that values creativity over profit.” 

Nevertheless, the criticisms he raised were pointed. 

“Unfortunately, appreciative as I am of the honor you do me this evening, I can’t pass over the city’s recent violation of its principles of decency and respect to all people including its employees,” he said, pointing to the city attorney’s “statements regarding myself and many other city employees who worked with or at the Berkeley Housing Authority.  

“These statements were made without serious investigation, without any effort to hear from those who were criticized, and without reviewing all of the available information. I believe that you have an obligation to ensure that a careful and balanced third party review is carried out and made public.” 

Barton is not alone calling for an investigation. In a June 14 memo to the City Council, the Housing Advisory Commission called for an independent investigation and on June 19, the Rent Stabilization Board wrote: 

“On June 6, the city attorney issued a letter to council and the press blaming a number of city employees, including Dr. Barton for management problems with the Housing Authority and Housing Department. Because Dr. Barton strongly disputes the allegations raised … and fears if unchallenged, his professional reputation will be irreparably harmed, we ask that the city manager and City Council immediately initiate an independent and thorough investigation into the accuracy of the allegations….  

“We also ask that this investigation address … the appropriateness of the city attorney making these allegations in a public forum. None of the individuals named have had a chance to respond, and the validity of the allegations are in serious question.” 

Reached by phone Thursday, City Manager Phil Kamlarz said his response has not changed since the boards originally issued their letters: he will initiate an investigation after the HUD investigator completes his investigation. Kamlarz could not say when that would happen.  

“I haven’t talked to them for a month and a half,” he said. (The Housing Authority separated itself from the city in July.) The Daily Planet asked Kamlarz if his office would encourage HUD to finish its work quickly and Kamlarz responded: “They’re calling the shots. They’re the feds.” 

Carole Norris, chair of the Berkeley Housing Authority board, spoke of her “great regard” for Barton in a phone interview with the Planet on Thursday. She said she is concerned that the charges have not been thoroughly investigated and that Barton’s demand for an independent investigation is “a reasonable expectation.”  

While she said that shoring up the troubled agency is her first priority, she plans to place the question of an investigation before the board in October. 

Superior Court Judge Richard Keller Wednesday denied UC Berkeley’s request for a court order ending the tree-sit at Memorial Stadium. 

The Alameda County Superior Court judge said he needed more evidence before ruling on the move by the university to end the protest aimed at saving an oak grove the university hopes to chop down to build a high tech gym a stone’s throw from the Hayward Fault. 

“My intent is to maintain the status quo until we can get a full hearing,” said the jurist from his bench in a Fremont courtroom. 

Keller set Oct. 1 as the date for a 2:30 p.m. full court proceeding that will include testimony from both sides. 

The university had filed papers Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order, naming two participants in the ongoing protest that began Dec. 2 in the pre-dawn hours of Big Game day when Zachary Running Wolf scaled a redwood near the stadium wall. 

Others quickly followed up the trunks of nearby oaks. 

As days lapsed into weeks, and then months, punctuated by periodic arrests and sweeps by UC Berkeley police, the protest drew national attention. 

The suit, filed on behalf of the UC Board of Regents, seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions on the grounds that the protest is a case of illegal trespassing which violates “the regents’ policies” and “constitutes a nuisance ... that is injurious to the health and safety of members of the campus community and interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of Regental property.” 

“Someone is going to break her neck,” declared the papers filed Tuesday by Michael R. Goldstein, one of the two attorneys representing the Regents in the action. “And someone is going to start a fire ... They are living in filth and creating a health hazard.” 

A declaration by UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison filed with the court cited 217 incidents reported by her department between the first day of the protest and Aug. 24. 

On game days, Harrison declared, she will be forced to call on police from other university campuses to augment the typical deployment of 150 security officers, public and private—and said even more would be needed if not for the fence the university erected at her request around the protest site Aug. 29.  

But Dennis Cunningham, the attorney who represented the protesters, said the only disruption came from the fence itself. 

“I don’t think it is safe to go up in the trees,” Goldstein told the court. 

“The question is, how are you going to safely remove them unless they voluntarily came down,” Keller replied. “And that’s wishful thinking the way I see it.” 

The judge said he wanted to make sure that protesters have “food, water and the substances of life going up while the case is pending.”  

Goldstein said the university would make certain that happened, but he hoped the tree sitters and their supporters would return the favor with peaceful conduct.” 

The hearing wasn’t without its moments of levity. After Cunningham told the judge “your insight is considerable,” Keller quipped, “Would you tell my wife that?” 

As for any health crisis presented by the tree-sitters, Cunningham said the university itself had created it by putting up the fence. 

But Keller declined to issue an order forcing the university to maintain supplies to the arboreal activists. 

“I grew up in a part of the country where civil disobedience brought about major changes in human experience,” said the judge, referring to his childhood in the South and specifically citing the case of Selma, Ala., where on March 7, 1965, state and local lawmen bludgeoned and tear-gassed 600 marchers on their way to Montgomery. 

“I am not unfamiliar with the concept of civil disobedience,” he said. “But at the same time, there are consequences. My intent is to maintain the status quo” until the Oct. 1 hearing. 

“It went well,” said Running Wolf after the hearing. “He did not issue the restraining order and we are very satisfied with that.” 

“We intend to get a peaceful resolution to this illegal protest,” Goldstein told reporters outside the courtroom. “Any parent will understand what we are doing.” 

While the university wouldn’t allow any camping on the ground or in the trees at the grove, “we have a long-standing tradition of honoring free speech,” said UC Berkeley Executive Director of Public Affairs Dan Mogulof. 

But, he said, “there are limits to free speech.” Just as the courts have ruled it’s illegal to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater, so, he said, it was wrong to light cooking fires in the tops of trees at the height of fire season. 

At that point, he was interrupted by Ayr, an activist who has been supporting the tree sitters with food, supplies and moral support from the start. 

“The only reason they had fires was to cook their food after the fence went up,” he said. 

“Why not smoke them out?” asked a reporter. 

“We are not going to do anything that risks life or limb,” said Mogulof. 

Protest today 

Veterans of the Free Speech Movement and current university students will gather at the grove today (Friday) at 1:30 p.m. to speak out against the university’s actions against the tree sitters. 

Among those who are slated to appear are Michael Rossman and Michael Delacour, both veterans of the Free Speech Movement. 

Photograph by Richard Brenneman  

UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof and attorney Michael R. Goldstein talked with reporters Wednesday afternnon after Superior Court Judge Richard Keller denied their request for an order barring protesters from occupying trees near Memorial Stadium.  

The owner of the proposed Muse Art House and Mint Cafe on Telegraph Avenue said that the project might be dead after a ruling by the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) Thursday. 

ZAB voted 6-2 to approve the restaurant and an art gallery in the former location of the Blue Nile Restaurant, but did not grant the requested permits for distilled spirits and expansion of hours at the site. 

The board decided that the cafe could remain open until midnight on weekends and 10 p.m. on weekdays, turning down owner Ali Eslami’s request to stay open until 2 a.m. on weekends and midnight on weekdays in response to neighborhood concerns about noise and rowdiness. 

“This will kill the project,” Eslami, who said he has spent close to $1 million on the project so far, told the Planet Thursday. “I will appeal ZAB’s final decision to the City Council, but if I have to decrease the hours and eliminate liquor then the project will not be feasible.” 

Eslami said that the zoning board was forcing him to open a restaurant when he intended to create an art house. 

“My whole idea is modeled after the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco,” said Eslami, referring to the interdisciplinary artist space on Folsom Street which hosts collaborative exhibitions, classes and small concerts and doubles up as a working artist studio and gallery. “Being on Telegraph is a challenge. Forcing the Muse Art House to become a restaurant is a big disappointment for me.” 

He said that without a permit to sell hard alcohol and extended hours, the business wouldn’t be able to make a profit. 

“We are not going to be able to generate revenue from the art part of the project,” Eslami said. “Our main revenue will be from the food side and the alcohol will add a competitive edge. It will bring in a wider spectrum of people.” 

For a group of Telegraph neighbors who had come to the meeting to protest Eslami’s plans, the proposed project meant only one thing: drunken college kids sauntering past their front doors when the cafe closed at 2 a.m. 

“Mr. Eslami is trying to convince you that it’s going to be an art cafe, but I am calling it a night club because that’s what it is,” said Dione Cota, who lives near the proposed project. “The late-night disturbances on Telegraph make me call the police weekly. If you approve this project I will be calling them nightly.” 

Recalling drunken brawls, loud music and public urination that took place at the now-closed business called The Patio on Dwight Way, long-time neighbor Dean Hunsaker said that he wanted the new business to be responsible to the community. 

“We would not want to allow something like The Patio to happen again,” he said. “Making alcohol available in this part of town generates a red flag. The question is: what type of restaurant, and what type of drinks? ... What exactly is ‘occasional live entertainment? What kind of music, how loud, how frequently?” 

Berkeley Police Chief Doug Hambleton, in a letter to ZAB, said that he believed the proposed business would not call for additional police hours. 

“Eslami described artistic events, poetry readings and alternative live performances such as jazz, folk, foreign and ethnic music coupled with food service,” Hambleton wrote in his letter. “Alcohol service would be incidental to the other aspects of the business and his stated intention for his desire for a hard spirits license is to be able to serve high end liquors and cordials. [It’s] not a typical bar-type operation.” 

Hambleton added that the business plan should be clear in the use permit to avoid confusion. 

Eslami also recently met with Regent Street neighbors and members of the Willard Neighborhood Association to negotiate an agreement between the two sides about alcohol permits and late hours. 

Vincent Casalaina, president of the Willard Neighborhood Association, lauded Eslami on his efforts to reach out to the neighbors. 

“We sincerely hope that Mr. Eslami does indeed have an art cafe and we will be his best customers if that is the case,” he said. “The reality is that the proposed site is a few blocks from the university and that this area has significant problems due to alcohol use by the student population. We don’t want to add fuel to the fire with additional hours and a hard-liquor license in a site that is almost 6,000 square feet right next to a residential neighborhood especially when so many city, university, police and neighbor resources are spent trying to reduce the problem.” 

“We are not just catering to college students, but to a sophisticated artistic community,” Eslami said, “Right now there’s no place to have a decent late-night meal on the Southside.” 

He added that he hoped to open the project before January. 

“About 45 percent of police resources are tied up in the Southside,” said Telegraph resident Doug Buckwald. “Crime is up 25 percent in the Southside. If we open another establishment that is open late and serves hard liquor we will get more of these problems.” 

“This will not be a rowdy place.” Eslami told the board. “We will not serve them beer and let them out ... Alcohol is incidental here. We can’t create a concept and have unhappy neighbors. We understand the concerns but not letting a new business come in is not the answer.” 

Board member Terry Doran called the proposed project an “unique establishment for the South Campus.” 

“It appeals to a broad group of people, especially people from my generation,” he said. “I’d like to have a drink, I’d like to stay up till 2 a.m. and I’d like to hang out.” 

Board member Jesse Arreguin said that he was against the request for hard alcohol. 

“You haven’t demonstrated the necessity for that at this time,” he told Eslami. “Beer and wine is totally reasonable.” 

“To take the risk of hard liquor and later hours puts the risk on neighbors,” said board member Bob Allen. 

The board also decided that an acoustical study would be conducted on the noise levels and that the permit would be reviewed in six months. Cafe patrons would not be allowed to park in the residential parking zones and would instead be directed to park at a nearby UC parking lot. 

The laptop thief who stole eight laptops from eight customers at Cafe Strada on Bancroft Avenue on Sunday evening is still at large. 

The case has been handed over to the Berkeley Police Department, said UC Berkeley Police Lt. Mitch Celaya. 

According to Celaya, a man walked into the patio area of Cafe Strada at 9:50 p.m. on Sunday and sat down at a table where a number of people were working on their laptops. 

Displaying a handgun tucked in his waistband, he told the people at the table to put their laptops in his duffel bag. He repeated this at another table and then walked south on College. 

Although both campus and city police searched the area, they were unable to located a suspect. 

Celaya said that crime had risen around the campus in the past few weeks, as the fall semester began. 

“I am very concerned that property crime and personal crime is higher than in past years,” he said. “Last year there were 12 robberies committed from January to September. This year the number stands at 22 for the same period of time.” 

Celaya also said that a graduate student had been shot with a BB gun while resisting theft of his backpack on Monday night near Haviland Hall. Two suspects were arrested in this case. 

Cell phone thefts occurred outside the Unit One dorm courtyard and the Unit Two loading dock on Sunday night. No arrests have been made in those cases. 

Suspects were also arrested for a pair of strong-arm robberies on Channing and Kroeber Plaza on Sunday. 

“We are pushing community outreach and asking students to sign up for crime alerts which will be emailed to them,” Celaya said. “They can also take advantage of the BearWALK program and the night safety shuttle. Students should avoid dark areas and walk in groups. We always try to respond quickly when we get a call for help.”

The Berkeley Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union plans to protest this Saturday the lawsuit by Verizon Wireless against the City of Berkeley, an attempt to overturn the city’s protective ordinance regarding cell phone antennas. 

The group will hold a demonstration in front of UC Storage at 2721 Shattuck Ave. from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. and urge residents to boycott Verizon. 

Verizon sued Berkeley in federal court in August, alleging that the city was in violation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The cell phone giant asked the court to declare Berkeley’s ordinance regarding cell phone antennas illegal and to allow the cell phone company to install antennas at three locations, including the UC Storage building. 

The Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) voted 5-4 in July to reject a use permit application by Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications for 11 cell phone antennas atop UC storage. 

The Telecommunications Act requires cities to grant cell phone companies a permit within a reasonable period of time and allows the carrier to sue for unnecessary delay. In a confidential memo to ZAB, City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque had warned that a rejection of the Verizon application would be a violation of state and federal law.  

“The fact that they are going after the city’s ordinance means other neighborhoods will be affected as well,” said Laurie Baumgarten, a resident of South Berkeley. 

Baumgarten added that even though the federal law prevents cities from acting on cell phone radiation health issues, the community was concerned about the risk.  

“We have children in the neighborhood and a childcare center across the street. We as a neighborhood do not want these antennas dumped on us. We need to have a citywide discussion about the future of this technology and whether we want to put our health at risk.” 

At the last ZAB meeting, Verizon land use attorney Paul Albritton had said that minutes of cell phone use had increased between 2005 and 2006. “There really is hard evidence which shows that down the line cell phone lines will not work when there is congestion,” he said. 

By Judith Scherr 

Perhaps best known for his leadership in the fight against apartheid in South Africa and in the founding of TransAfrica, a lobbying group promoting “enlightened” U.S. foreign policy in Africa and the Caribbean, Randall Robinson is less known for his steadfast support for Haitian democracy and sovereignty. 

Robinson, who now lives on the island of St. Kitts with his wife and daughter—and wrote about his decision to get out of the United States in his book Quitting America—is a personal friend of ousted Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide. His wife Hazel Robinson and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums both worked as lobbyists for Haiti under Aristide. 

In his new book, An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President (Basic Civitas Books, New York, 280 pages, $26), Robinson tells the detailed story of the abduction of the Haitian president by U.S. officials. His primary sources are the Aristides and a Haitian pilot, who witnessed the event. 

The importance of Robinson’s landmark book is not simply the revelation of the true story of Aristide’s abduction. Through the story of the kidnapping, Robinson unwraps the history of Haiti, showing us how a singular act of aggression is but one significant action within 200 years of attempts by foreign powers to subjugate the struggling black nation. 

Randall Robinson will speak and sign books Thursday, Sept. 20 at 6:30 p.m. at an event sponsored by Marcus Books at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd, Oakland. Tickets are $5 for the event, $30 with the book. 

The setting 

“Poorest country in the Western Hemisphere” is a descriptor so often used for Haiti by State Department spokespeople and most the world’s news media that what many of us in North America have come to know about Haiti is limited to the tiny nation’s abject poverty, illiteracy, criminality and inability to govern herself. 

In this context, the media told us—when it bothered to report the event at all—that in 2004 a Haitian president faced with a fierce armed revolt took advantage of a waiting U.S. jet and benevolent American diplomats to escape to safety. 

Most North Americans believed that story disseminated by the Associated Press and others. 

In An Unbroken Agony, Robinson sheds fresh light on the Feb. 29, 2004 kidnapping of Aristide, whose name one finds today scrawled large on the walls of Port-au-Prince’s impoverished slums and whose photograph is still held high when protesters march through Haiti’s streets.  

Robinson places the Feb. 29 abduction—literally a U.S., France and Canada-backed coup d’etat—within the context of the nation’s 200-year struggle for sovereignty. 

That struggle begins with slavery. “French slavery in Haiti was not only the most profitable worldwide for the French but also the most cruel,” Robinson writes.  

Those who would become free Haitians began their revolt in 1791 and won independence in 1804. The nation of former black slaves, however, was not well received in Thomas Jefferson’s United States, where slavery wouldn’t be abolished for another six decades. 

“Most everyone everywhere—enslaved and enslaver alike—recognized that the countdown to slavery’s end … had been set ticking by the Haitian Toussaint L’Ouverture and his triumphant army of ex-slaves,” Robinson writes. 

The U.S. and Europe greeted the black nation’s birth with an economic boycott. And, strange as it may seem, in 1825 France imposed a debt on its former colony equal to $21 billion in 2004 U.S. dollars “as compensation from the newly freed slaves for denying France the further benefit of owning them,” Robinson writes. 

The ravaging of Haiti included a brutal U.S. occupation from 1915 to 1934 resulting in the deaths of some 15,000 Haitians. During that time the United States repaid Haiti’s debt to France, imposing its own $16 million obligation on the Haitian people, which Haiti did not pay off until 1947.  

The U.S.-supported dictatorial rule of father then son Duvalier (1956-1986) would further impoverish the exploited masses.  

“Haiti on an operational level could be likened to racialist South Africa,” Robinson writes. “In exchange for the trappings of state power, the dictator Francois Duvalier and his black successors gave to the white and mulatto upper class a free hand to exploit the huge black, largely illiterate labor force in any way it saw fit.”  

A priest who later gave up the priesthood, Aristide became known and loved among the masses for preaching the dignity and rights of the poorest of the poor. He was elected president in 1990, despite the hostility of the upper classes given free reign by the Duvaliers and the post-Duvalier regimes, but was toppled in a military coup after only nine months in office. 

Ending the brutal military rule, President Bill Clinton supported Aristide’s return to Haiti in 1994, imposing conditions including the privatization of some Haitian industries. 

Among Aristide’s first acts on his return was to abolish the military, some of whose former members would become rebel leaders in 2003-2004. 

After the five-year presidency of Rene Préval—president again today—Aristide was re-elected in 2001. His attempts to ease the burden of the poor, such as doubling the minimum wage to $2/day, provoked the anger of the upper classes and their American friends. 

Destabilizing the second presidency 

Robinson explains how the United States undermined Aristide’s second presidency through propaganda and support for both political and military opposition.  

He quotes Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., on the efforts of the International Republican Institute: “‘The fix was in: The U.S. Agency for International Development and the International Republican Institute (the international arm of the Republican Party) had spent tens of millions of dollars to create and organize an opposition—however small in numbers—and to make Haiti under Aristide ungovernable.’”  

To elucidate the U.S. role in training and arming the rebels, Robinson quotes from a report of the Investigation Commission on Haiti, written by attorney Brian Concannon, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and others, that says the rebels were armed and trained in the Dominican Republic.  

“‘U.S. military officials have confirmed that 20,000 M16 rifles were given by the U.S. to the Dominican Republic after November 2002 and admitted that many of those rifles were now in the hands of the Haitian rebels,’” the report says. 

Further destabilizing Haiti, Washington blocked $146 million Inter-American Development Bank aid that was to fund projects such as clean drinking water, health, education and roads. 

Feb. 29 

In the buildup to the Feb. 29 coup, the rebel band took over a number of small Haitian towns by seizing local police stations. Secretary of State Colin Powell reportedly told former Congressman Ron Dellums—and the media erroneously reported—rebels were poised to capture Port-au-Prince, a city of some 3 million persons, and kill the president.  

Robinson describes what was really going on: “The few police brave enough to contest [the rebels] had no way to answer their firepower. The rebels, outfitted smartly in baggy camouflage with bulletproof vests and steel helmets, had good reason to expect that the mere sight of them would scare the bejesus out of lightly armed policemen defending a lightly staffed police post, miles and mountains distant from Port-au-Prince.”  

The military activity was a “smokescreen” to pressure Aristide to resign, “not a serious army,” Robinson says. 

A truck carrying television crews followed the rebels, whose task “was to terrorize the countryside outside of Port-au-Prince—to hack, murder, burn, loot, raze—to tear a fiery swath of destruction across the northern half of Haiti … and maximize the news media’s coverage of what appeared to be the inexorable fall of the democratic government, village by defenseless village,” Robinson writes. 

‘Voluntary’ flight 

Did the Aristides leave voluntarily? 

Robinson says they would have packed bags and told close friends, which they did not. They were actively making preparations for interviews in the following days with Tavis Smiley and George Stephanopoulos. 

The U.S. media was complicit in making it appear that Aristide left voluntarily, Robinson says. “The American television networks had been airing old footage shot in natural light at the Port-au-Prince airport showing President Aristide without his wife, shaking hands and making his way along a line of government ministers before boarding a nearby commercial aircraft. The networks represented the footage to be pictures of the president’s voluntary departure from Haiti.”  

The reality, Robinson says, was that U.S. officials put the president and his wife on an airplane before dawn Feb. 29; the aircraft was not a commercial plane; no members of the Aristide government and no media were at the airport. The Aristides were taken to the Central African Republic against their will.  

Robinson tells how he, along with Rep. Maxine Waters and others, flew to CAR and secured the Aristides’ release.  

Despite having an elected president in Haiti today—after two years of U.S.-backed unelected rule—the country has not regained its sovereignty and Aristide remains in forced exile in South Africa. 

Haiti continues to be controlled by foreigners, including a military occupation by some 8,800 United Nations troops. 

“Sadly, real democracy remains a long way off for Haiti,” Robinson concludes. “For how can any reasonable observer contend to the contrary as long as foreign powers, directly or indirectly, remain bent on preventing Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s most widely respected humanist and democrat, from returning home to his own country?” 

Contributed photo  

Randell Robinson will talk about his new book Sept. 20 at Temple Baptist Church.

Two letters which came in over the weekend are worthy of comment: 

The pivotal political turmoil in Washington D.C. has been seriously ignored of late by the Planet in favor of local news. The Impeachment debate has also been silenced, we suspect by the Editor, Becky O’Malley, who disapproves of Impeachment. Within the last three weeks, two Commentary submissions, one from a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and at least two letters-to-the-Editor advocating the impeachment of Cheney and Bush, have not been published. It is very disappointing to realize that the Planet, heretofore an exemplary community debate forum, is now strangling news and opinions according to its own political bias. 

Libby Lhasan 

Oakland 

And (from early Saturday morning): 

I had heard there was a demonstration at the tree-sitters' site near the stadium yesterday, and checked your website today to see if you had a report. 

On the right side of the page there is a box:  

Special Report:  

Confrontation at the Oak Grove (Video). 

I assumed that this was a video report on yesterday's event.  However, the web link is to a YouTube video uploaded August 29th.  The video begins with a sign announcing the demonstration yesterday, then shows undated video of the police and protesters confronting one another -- clearly made prior to Aug 29.  

So what appears to be a BDP news report on yesterday's events is an *advertisement* promoting yesterday's event.  Shame on you. 

Nancy Van House 

Professor, School of Information 

University of California 

The interesting link in the two letters is the unspoken assumption—what some philosophers would call the presupposition—that whatever shows up in newspapers or on websites reflects considered intent, and that absent any other data it can be assumed to be malevolent intent on the part of the management. 

We should be so lucky. 

My initial response to the Frau Professor’s comment was “fair and balanced”: 

“I'm glad you were able to figure out that the bcitizen video on YouTube was from before Aug.29, which as you note is clear to some viewers, including you yourself.  Your suggestion that the date of material to which we link should be even clearer for the benefit of other viewers is a good one, and I have forwarded it to Mike O'Malley, who designs and maintains our web site, for his comments.  By the way, I think bcitizen, whom we could never afford to pay for the videography they do for the community, has a new video from yesterday posted on their YouTube site.  We'll link to it when we get around to it, but in the meantime you can access it directly.” 

However, my second paragraph perhaps reflected just a bit of annoyance: 

Your charge that a small understaffed community newspaper's having a slightly stale link to old news on someone else's site is intended to be an advertisement for anything is ridiculous on its face.  Shame on YOU, Professor!  

Not to be deterred from her quest for truth, beauty and the American way of life as she sees it, the professor snapped back: 

This looks like a news report from you -- instead it's intended to encourage people to turn out for a demonstration. That's NOT news. That's advocacy.  If it's editorial content, label it. If it's not your paper's opinion, label it.  If it's labeled, as it is, a "special report," we think that's NEWS. .... 

And to my personal email, when she figured out that she had a live human on the hook, 

No, I can't excuse a small NEWSPAPER for having outdated and misleadingly-labeled advocacy content on its dated front page -- we expect the web to be more up-to-date than the paper, not less.  

Then, I regret to say, it got worse. 

Editor to Professor: I'm not familiar with your byline.  What papers have you worked on? 

Prof. to Ed.: Snide, aren’t we? 

Well, it’s not the first time I’ve been accused of making snide remarks. In my defense I must say that at least I avoided vamping on the old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto surrounded by hostile tribes: “What’s this WE, white woman?” 

Instead, I sent the Professor (obviously a web junky, not a print reader) a link to Janet Malcolm’s excellent review of Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, which appears under the title “Pandora’s Click” in the latest New York Review of Books. Malcolm quotes the authors: “On email, people aren't quite themselves," Shipley and Schwalbe write. "They are angrier, less sympathetic, less aware, more easily wounded, even more gossipy and duplicitous. Email has a tendency to encourage the lesser angels of our nature." Yes indeed. 

But what’s fascinating about this exchange is that Dr. Van House seems to assume (“we expect”) that those she claims to speak for deserve instant service: that news on the web is something like fast food, and has to be served up hot or not at all.  

The Planet didn’t even have a reporter at the demonstration, that’s how much we knew about it before the fact. Mike and I are the only poor suckers working on a Saturday morning, but he and I, with the generous aid of a participant’s donated commentary and another of LA Wood’s bcitizen videos on YouTube, did actually get around to bringing our weekend web readers up to date on the action at the oak grove by 2 in the afternoon. But we didn’t have to do it. We could have taken time off, gone to the football game for example. 

Our print paper is published twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, as dated issues which go to press Monday and Thursday nights. The web version uses the same content which was sent to the printer, uploaded on the morning the print papers are put in boxes.  

We do put news flashes on the web between issues as often as we can. We’d like to be able to do it more often. But the idea that a faculty member whose job is funded by taxpayers like us has the right to demand anything (using her university-supplied email) from our small free paper is—sorry-- ludicrous. 

And what about the peace lady’s complaint? The latest weekend edition of the paper, as well as the web edition, was graced by a lovely front page photo of Code Pink protestors in Oakland, accompanied by a long article. On the one hand the peace lady accuses us of “strangling news and opinion” because we haven’t yet managed to fit a letter from a member of WILPF (an estimable old-time institution which I myself first joined in 1964) into our lavish opinion section, though her cause is amply reported on the front page. On the other hand, the Professor accuses us of promoting opinion just because we left up a link to an old video produced by admittedly partisan activists. You can’t win in this city. 

Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a whole lot worse, as the kids’ camp song says. We are surrounded by a culture of entitlement. I recently griped in this space that some members of the entertainment and real estate segments weren’t doing their bit to support local media’s reports on their activities with advertisements, but as ingrates they haven’t a patch on readers like these.  

Opening my Gmail on Thursday morning, I saw this click-through at the top of the page: 

“Problems with Panhandlers - www.actlocallysf.org - Join Mayor Newsom. Get a blog. Be heard. Shape Policy.” 

For me, as for many, that’s a hot-button issue, though my hot-button is more First Amendment-oriented than some people’s, perhaps. So I clicked through, something I don’t do very often with these Google text ads, though I do regard them as one of the more benign forms of advertising on the web. My click took me into a curious universe, a web page with the URL ActLocallySF.org: part on-line newspaper, part blog, part poll, part petition, and sub rosa, though not exactly hidden, a pitch for the Gavin Newsom for Mayor campaign. The centerpiece of the page is glowing reprints from all kinds of media, (“S.F.’s Red-light Cameras Credited with Big Drop in Accidents,” By Rachel Gordon, San Francisco Chronicle) interspersed with essays purportedly written by (or at least for) the candidate himself. He signs a “Welcome” letter which is reproduced not only in English but in Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Tagalog, which begins:” “Welcome to ActLocallySF.org—a forum for the brightest minds and the best ideas to tackle the unfinished business of making San Francisco a city that works for everyone, and a model for the world.” Oh sure ... 

Clicking on “contact us” produces a page where the media contact is listed as Eric Jaye at storefrontpolitical.com. The Storefront Political Media site reveals that it is a “Democratic” political consulting firm started by a former associate of Clint Reilly, with centrist Democratic clients like Ellen Tauscher, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Micela Alioto-Pier. Reading subheads on Storefront’s “about” page we learn that: “The Ultimate Product Is Victory.” They promise clients “An Ongoing Discussion with Voters...Using Every Communication Tool.” And they’ve delivered. 

As an old campaign manager myself, I have to say that it’s stone brilliant. The page designers have managed to corral every new form of political organization that has appeared in the last 10 years for their site, or perhaps the right verb here is co-opt. They’ve taken leaves from the Move-On playbook, the Howard Dean meet-ups, the best online blogs like Daily Kos and Huffington Post and more, and turned the whole megillah into a very credible simulation of political participation. Is there anything wrong with this? I’m not sure. 

One thing I am sure of, though, is that no one who clicks on the ActLocallySF.org page will be shaping any policy, especially as regards problems with panhandlers. The whole apparatus adds up to a very elaborate new implementation of the hoary political concept of a push poll: one that seems to ask for your opinion, but is actually designed to persuade you on behalf of a particular candidate or proposal.  

There have been a lot of indignant letters and commentaries and a few news stories in these pages in the last few months about various local manifestations of the tactic of soliciting opinions as a disguised way of pushing product. The Kitchen Democracy website has taken a big share of these complaints, from people annoyed that it received city funds from Councilmember Gordon Wozniak’s budget and then functioned to create pressure for projects favored by Wozniak’s supporters and campaign contributors, often accompanied by promotional propaganda on the KD site signed by Wozniak himself. But citizens have also criticized more objective-appearing promotional efforts which have been enmeshed in public funding in various ways.  

The “Sustainable Berkeley” organization got some city funding to promote greenhouse gas reduction, and was slated to get more until critics pointed out that spending public money should be supervised by public bodies like the Energy Commission, not by private groups. Now there seems to be some problem, as yet unspecified, with the Berkeley Community Energy Corporation, which is supervised by the Energy Commission, so that might not be the total solution. And last week we got a bunch of letters about the city’s passing more than $300,000 in grant money through to the advocacy group Tranportation and Land-use Coalition, from people strongly suspecting that taxpayers’ money would be used to shill for Bus Rapid Transit, a proposal which is very unpopular in some quarters. Other recent targets of reader wrath have been the West Berkeley Community Development District and the North Shattuck Plaza promotions.  

The shared thread which links all of these brouhahas is the use of pseudo-surveys as a way of influencing public policy. If public funds get tangled up in the pre-decision promotional process it makes people even madder.  

The ActLocallySF.org website is more upfront than any of the Berkeley examples, and no public money is used. Its connection to a candidate isn’t a secret, but since Newsom is running essentially unopposed the site also functions as a less-than-candid way of influencing future policy for San Francisco. Which brings us full circle to the original question: Is there anything wrong with all this?  

As a card-carrying First Amendment absolutist I must defend the constitutional right of citizens to try to influence public policy by any means necessary, but I also believe in truth in packaging, especially when The Ultimate Product is Victory. And, of course, ultimately it’s not personal victory for Gavin Newsom (or Tom Bates or Gordon Wozniak) that we’re talking about here, it’s victory for what their moneyed backers want. When Newsom was first elected, knowledgeable people said that he was just the front man for a small clique of rich folks and their corporations (what Upton Sinclair would have called “the interests”) and that turns out to be true, despite a few feel-good moves like the gay marriage moment.  

The teaser about panhandlers which lures visitors to the Newsom site is the best clue to what the real product is. In a brief phone conversation, Eric Jaye of Storefront Political told me that the goal of the site was to “blur the line between politics and policy-making.” He said that several thousand people had interacted with it in the nine months it’s been up, and that Newsom is a “voracious consumer” of their input.  

But what Gavin Newsom does about panhandlers as Mayor of San Francisco (or what Tom Bates is proposing to do about panhandlers as Mayor of Berkeley in the next week or so) will never be determined by any genuine open inquiry into public opinion. In both cities the sponsors, the big property owners and other corporate campaign contributors, will ultimately get what they want, the same thing their Manhattan counterparts got from Rudy Giuliani: unsightly poor folks off the streets in the areas they care about, out of sight and out of mind. 

And when was it ever else? It may be using new technology, but it’s the same old dominant paradigm. 

GOOD VS. EVIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Cal football fans and football: evil. Doug Buckwald: good and virtuous. How long has Doug worked for the Planet?  

Matthew Shoemaker. 

• 

BEARS FAN? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I read Doug Buckwald describe himself as a “Cal Bears fan.” Would a fan (or any decent person for that matter) value the lives of a handful of run-of-the-sawmill trees over those of student-athletes, coaches and his fellow fans? That is precisely what Mr. Buckwald and his cronies are doing in their attempt to block the construction of new sports facilities in Strawberry Canyon. Make no mistake—every day that construction is delayed by is another day that environmental fascists put lives at risk (including—as a season ticket holder—my own). Apparently Mr. Buckwald only cares about the lives of trees—people, not so much. 

I find it even more laughable that Mr. Buckwald thinks “it would be helpful if Chancellor Robert Birgineau, Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, and Coach Jeff Tedford would address their fans publicly to encourage more civil behavior toward the guests that come to our campus.” There has been a video from Coach Tedford or one of our student-athletes for years encouraging fans to act with class and dignity (which is more than I can say for Zachary Running Wolf or Ayr). I figured that a real fan—such as Mr. Buckwald—would have noticed that, but I guess he’s been too busy being an activist for the asinine to take in any football games over the past five years. Finally, as for Mr. Buckwald’s absurd claim that we should be respectful of our “fellow alumni who may feel differently from them about the appropriateness of current construction plans,” that is certainly the pot calling the kettle black. Maybe when Mr. Buckwald gives up his strategy of lies and lawlessness I’ll have some reason to respect him, but I won’t hold my breath. With fans like Doug Buckwald, who needs Stanford? 

Jeff Ogar 

Actual Cal Bears fan 

• 

BERKELEY REP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I completely agree with your observations about the Berkeley Rep as far as advertising in the Planet. They are getting a free ride. Certainly hundreds, maybe thousands, of their subscribers and donors are Planet readers. I don’t know how they know what your demography is or, for that matter, what newspapers their demography reads. I personally don’t remember being asked such a question. These arts groups ought to support other arts groups and other like-minded public institutions, such as the Planet, rather than merely maintain themselves as little fiefdoms. 

Bennett Markel 

• 

TERRORIST ATTACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Becky, your Sept. 11 editorial reads like a terrorist attack on the Berkeley Rep with whom you are angry for not advertising in your paper. Like Shakespeare’s Iago, you seek to poison our affection for one of Berkeley’s most beloved arts organizations by explaining how a minor marketing decision is really a personal insult to you and your readers. Next, you attempt to set one arts organization against another, sorting out the faithful from the wicked. To ensure that all the poisons will hatch out, you then invite the disaffected to send complaints about the Rep to you for publication. Oh, what a pretty mess you’ve made as “the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds upon.” How can any arts organization or civic-minded citizen now feel comfortable doing business with you?  

Mike and Shirley Issel 

• 

THEATER ADVERTISING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was surprised to read that Berkeley Rep does not advertise in the Daily Planet. The Rep seems to encourage supporting local businesses in its PR materials. I therefore agree with John McBride (Letters, Sept. 14) that the Planet would do best to focus on reviews of “smaller, perhaps semi-amateur or struggling groups.” As a volunteer usher at the Rep for more than 20 years, it is clear the Rep saves lots of money by having the more than 800 volunteers do all the ushering etc. It seems this might free up funds for local advertising. 

Although I and other ushers I know have always been treated extremely well by our supervising staff, I also agree with Debra Sabah Press (Letters, Sept. 14) when she says: “the Rep has a lot to learn about how to treat its patrons and its community.” 

Finally, most of the Planet readers I know also attend performances at the Berkeley Rep. 

Mary Ann Brewin 

• 

SUPPORT THE PLANET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the Sept. 11 editorial Becky O’Malley concerning the arts scene, I do think it would be a good that both the Berkeley Repertory theater and the Aurora Theater advertise in the Daily Planet. 

I personally don’t check advertisements as we do subscribe to both the Berkeley Rep and the Aurora. I will mention it to them. Thank you for the heads up. 

Wendy Markel 

• 

STADIUM PLANS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This letter relates to the city’s lawsuit against Cal’s plan to build a Student Athlete High Performance Center and retrofit Memorial Stadium. As a 28-year resident and homeowner on Panoramic Hill, my family and I should be strongly opposed to the University’s construction plans, since we would be some of the neighbors most severely affected. 

But we’re not. Instead, we wholeheartedly endorse and support Cal’s plans and hereby request that the city drop its lawsuit. 

The Panoramic Hill Association by no means represents the majority of people living on Panoramic Hill. It instead is the voice for a small number of selfish individuals with NIMBY attitudes. What did these people expect when they moved onto a hill behind Memorial Stadium? How can they make such a big deal out of stadium lights that will be used a few evenings/year, for the convenience of many and the slight inconvenience of very few? These are the same people who protest concerts at the Greek Theater. Again, what did they expect when they moved here? My wife and I attended concerts at the Greek Theater back in 1970, so I know they’ve been going on for at least 37 years. Imagine if Cal tried to build the Greek Theater today; what an outcry there would be! 

The City of Berkeley should not be fighting Cal on this issue. Please consider the following factors: 

• Cal is by far the most important element in what makes Berkeley the great city it is. Without Cal, Berkeley would be just another El Cerrito.  

• Does it really matter whether a new building is 10 feet, 100 feet or 10,000 feet from the Hayward Fault when the big one comes along? I suspect not. Just look at the damage in Oakland and San Francisco from the Loma Prieta Earthquake, whose epicenter was quite a few miles away.  

• Whatever risks there are from the Hayward Fault running underneath Memorial Stadium have been known for decades. For the city to now tell the University that they must retrofit the stadium before building the SAHPC rather than immediately after seems disingenuous to me. Cal is gonna retrofit the stadium, and with private funds. Five years ago, this wasn’t in the cards. So now the city files a lawsuit about the sequence of construction? Come on! 

Folks, it’s time to stop with the navel-gazing and instead look up and to the future: imagine it’s 2027, and we have hundreds of 20-25 year-old trees on the Cal campus that are not there today. In addition, we have the level of athletic facilities that a world-class University should have, and the University and city are proud of them. 

This debate reminds me of the bitter protests in San Francisco back in the early 70s against the construction of the Transamerica Pyramid. Today, this building is considered a city landmark and most San Franciscans are proud of it. 

So I ask Mayor Bates and Berkeley City Council members to please look up and to the future, and stop wasting city funds on this lawsuit. 

John McMahon 

• 

POLICE DEPARTMENT RESTROOMS 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Recently I had occasion to wait in the main lobby of the Berkeley Police Station on MLK Way to make a crime report. I had to “make my report” first into a phone extension in the lobby of the echo chamber of the waiting area in the main lobby while everyone there was privy to my particular concern, and I to others’ reports: some very serious, and personal. For instance, there was a young mother there who had experienced both a physical attack and a attack on her car, and had her young daughter, in tow, both traumatized.  

This little girl didn’t need to hear her mother recount the details of her trauma on the phone, in the lobby, and again in a interview room. Someone should have come out right away and taken them in, and while the mother recounted her trauma, the little girl could have been kept amused by another officer with a popsicle and a kind word: been more sensitive. 

We all needed to use the restroom facilities as the wait was quite long to be interviewed. The restrooms in the lobby were all marked “CLOSED.” Upon inquiry, we were directed to go to the Old City Hall Building, which meant losing our place in line, and in the case of this young mother: she needed to stay put and be seen ASAP, and to maybe wash away her tears and get her little girl to the bathroom!  

I asked about the “CLOSED” signs; ie: “Were they out-of-order? I was told by the officer who eventually took my report, that the bathroom had been “closed since 2003” due to “security concerns and terrorism...probably connected to 9/11.” This seemed a bit mis-placed, since the police could, on a case-by-case basis give the key to those of us waiting in line, if they are concerned about leaving it open and unlocked on a general basis. 

Something is wrong with this picture. The main lobby of the BPD is NOT “user friendly,” however the officer that took my report was the picture of professionalism! 

Linda Tumulty 

• 

STADIUM NOISE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Leaving my home last Saturday to escape the stadium noise, the Berkeley policeman who was stopping traffic told me “The games are just a few days!” Unfortunately, the impact from UC football, band rehearsal, other sports played in Strawberry Canyon are not just a few days. The games number seven this year. Band rehearsal is continual. This year the band practiced with simulated crowd noise. Yes, simulated crowd noise. 

And this noisy rehearsal was at night. The games used to begin at 12:30 p.m. One game this year will begin at 7 p.m.! Night time noise is more offensive because background noise lessens in the evening. Given a maximum of four hours, the noise may last until 11 p.m. In addition to the football games are games played in Strawberry Canyon, many again with simulated crowd noise. 

On top of all the games are the 14 or so Greek Theater events that blast so-called music until 11 p.m. Another Planet pays UC over $1 million to rent the outdoor theater and annoy many neighborhoods. Perhaps you can figure out the educational purpose of Greek Theater concerts? I cannot. 

To make things even worse, UC plans to rent out the stadium for other events. Perhaps they too will be as noisy as the Paul McCartney concert and flood UC with noise complaints as far away as Montclair. The Berkeley City Council could tax events at the stadium, as they once did when UC rented the stadium to the Raiders, but I doubt that will happen. Perhaps they could also tax the non-university events at the Greek. 

After all why should UC be the only governmental institution that makes money out of creating a noise nuisance? 

The noise problems from UC stadium, Strawberry Canyon, Peoples Park Concerts and the Greek Theater all add up to far more than just a few days. Weekend evenings without noise are few and far between. Unfortunately, the State Health Services office that controls noise nuisances created by state agencies is not funded. And because it doesn’t have to, UC pays no attention to the noise ordinance promulgated by the city. 

Noise has health impacts. Some places actually pay attention to such details, but not the University of California. 

Ann Reid Slaby 

• 

GREEN COMPOST BINS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was surprised to read Doris Nassiry’s concern about the new use of our yard waste containers. Oakland has had this system for a while and I haven’t heard any complaints from my Oakland friends. I live on the Oakland/Berkeley border and walk Oakland’s streets as much as Berkeley’s and haven’t noticed any “rodents and crawly critters” associated with food stuffs in the yard waste. I was thrilled to get my cute little green kitchen can and eagerly rearranged things under my sink to accommodate it. Our household of four has gone from two bags of garbage a week down to one. I’m on the cusp of exchanging our medium-size gray can for that little round one. Composting really does shrink our footprint at the dump. Berkeley needs to continue following Oakland’s example and start taking our plastic No. 1 and No. 2 yogurt (and other) containers. 

Laura Mahanes 

• 

WEEKLY VIGIL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In the report on the Code Pink demonstration at the Oakland Federal Building to end funding for the war in Iraq, Judith Scherr failed to note that there has been a vigil regarding Iraq at that same spot every Tuesday at noon for almost 10 years, and those vigilers were there that day, too. 

Spearheaded by Carolyn Scarr and the Ecumenical Peace Institute, the focus for the first few years was a plea to end the sanctions, which contributed to the deaths of many thousands of Iraqi children. The focus changed with the onset of the war against Iraq. Each Tuesday, several hundred informational flyers are distributed to those walking past. Every third Tuesday, there is a “Living Graveyard” street theater, with reading of names of Iraqis and Americans killed in this war. All are welcome to join. 

Dorothy Wonder 

• 

FISH AND GAME 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The public lynching of State Fish and Game Commissioner Judd Hanna (ironically himself a Republican and a duck hunter) by the National Rifle Association and their cronies, with the help of 34 ethically challenged legislators (Republicans all) is a despicable example of the dirty politics in Sacramento. Good timing, too, just as the legislative session ended. And they wonder why people hate politicians. A pox on all their houses! 

Judd Hanna is one of the best commissioners we’ve had in years. He’s bright, knowledgeable and committed to protecting our beleaguered wildlife. Mr. Hanna is “Old School.” He actually believes in good science, ethics and “fair chase,” unlike the majority of the hook ‘n’ bullet fraternity yapping on the fringes. 

According to the Sept. 14 Los Angeles Times, it was another Republican, former Commissioner Mike Chrisman, now secretary of resources, who told Mr. Hanna to submit his resignation. Mr. Chrisman is a decent man—I can only presume that he received his orders from higher up. Must politics always trump decency and the democratic process? So it would seem. And wildlife and all Californians suffer accordingly. We can likely kiss the condors goodbye, along with our vanishing game wardens. We must demand a public statement about this sorry affair from the commission, from the Department of Fish and Game, and from the Resources Agency. And the Fish and Game Commission should resign en masse, as a matter of principle. This is an unforgivable betrayal of the public trust. Meanwhile, the citizenry should raise hell by contacting the governor (governor@governor.com); the Fish and Game Commission (Executive Director John Carlson, jcarlson@dfg.ca.gov; Acting Director John McCammon, ltoof@dfg.ca.gov; Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, secretary@resources.ca.gov). 

Eric Mills 

Action for Animals 

Oakland 

• 

BERKELEY SNUFFS HOUSING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How moral and ethical is it for wealthy corporations to purchase government-subsidized buildings, full of elderly and disabled people, then force them out of their units which has been home for them for more than a decade? 

So far two disabled people have lost their Section 8 housing vouchers because they ran out of time. Relocation fees have not been provided. In a variety of meetings between homeless advocates and the City of Berkeley regarding what is to be done when Berkeley Housing Authority is closed. The city has repeatedly told advocates, that those who have been on Section 8 will be helped by the city of Berkeley to relocate. 

A 70-year-old disabled tenant of a Russell Street building is being asked to move by Oct. 1. Without the existence of Berkeley Housing Authority, and the existence of a very long waiting list in Oakland, what chance does she have to relocate? Such cases urgently need the help of the city. 

With the eminent closure of BHA, the City is solely responsible to those who need rent subsidies to continue with affordable low income housing. And while it may be argued that it is too late for those who were removed from the lists, those who are about to lose their contracts should be helped, as they are disabled, elderly and fit well within the low income requirements. 

The Berkeley city attorney in a previous Daily Planet article, stated that the fraud that has happened at the BHA is the worst in any department in 20 years. In fact, it is a disaster which shows the true color of this city demonstrating it’s uncaring policy towards the disabled, poor and elderly. In the wake of this disaster, some $25,000,000.00 designated for low income affordable housing is left unaccounted for. All parties who have been responsible for this disaster will one day be held accountable, as taxpayers, we ought to keep abreast of the current investigation underway by the Federal Housing Authority in San Francisco. 

Dianne Arsanis 

• 

9/11 COMMISSION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is painfully obvious that the 9/11 Commission failed to ask the pertinent questions, failed to grill witnesses with fervor and foolishly allowed the White House to dictate the investigation. No true investigation ever took place. Two buildings were hit in New York, yet three fell into their own footprints. Never before in the history, or since, has any thing like this ever happened. 

And what has our 9/11 fearmongering got us? Two wars, thousands more Americans killed and a tarnished, if not trashed, reputation around the globe. If anything, the failure to capitalize on our tragedy should be grounds for ignoring this president and opening a new, truly independent investigation. Today. 

Thank you and peace to us all, 

Rick Pickett 

• 

IRAQ WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For four years, the Bush administration keeps on asking for more time, and a lot more money, to keep its failed war-of-choice going. It is always the same prediction, “in 12 to 18 months the Iraqis will be able to govern without us.” The truth is that we can not “win” this war. No “victory” is possible for us in Iraq, only continued shame. 

Yet, Sen. John McCain has a point when he says that leaving Iraq in retreat would be a disaster. So, what is the way out of this mess that Bush and Cheney put us in? 

We should separate ourselves, our government, and our country, from the corrupt leaders who got us into this war through their deception and lies. We should prosecute these officials, who usurped our government, for being the war criminals that they are. Then we can leave Iraq in an orderly manner, with apologies for having confused Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden, and find redemption through bringing to justice the people who committed these war crimes in our name. 

Bruce Joffe 

• 

MORE CELL PHONE ANTENNAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This letter is to bring to the attention of neighbors of French Hotel at 1540 Shattuck Ave. in the heart of gourmet ghetto that cell phone antennas are planned to be installed on the roof of French Hotel. A meeting will be held by the City of Berkeley regarding these antennas on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. in North Berkeley Senior Center. Please come to this meeting to express your objection to the planned antennas. There are already too many of them in north Berkeley. 

Sanjay Sanwal 

• 

BIOFUEL OASIS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“A uterus is not a substitute for a conscience.” So said Barbara Ehrenreich in her 2004 essay, “Feminism’s Assumptions Upended,” following the revelations regarding Pvt. Lynndie England’s role in the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.  

Now comes Biofuel Oasis, a “women-owned cooperative that operates a biodiesel filling station...and sells fuel made from recycled vegetable oil,” who are attempting to displace Kandy Kar Wash, an African American business, by offering their landlord double the rent for the site they’ve been operating out of successfully for the past seven years. Oh, and they can’t afford to pay for the permit, so they’ve applied to the city to have this waived.  

We’re not told about the ethnicity of Biofuel Oasis cooperative members, so we can only assume. Will the City of Berkeley agree to subsidize the plunder of this historically African-American neighborhood? If even the citizens of Berkeley are unable to connect the dots, is there any hope for humanity?  

Lily Kay 

• 

PARTY GETS  

OUT OF CONTROL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This past Friday night another teen party meant to be a small, contained event spun out of control when uninvited people arrived to cause trouble. In addition to far too many people showing up, there was a gang of seven or eight guys behaving as menacing thugs robbing kids. By 9:30 the host shut the party down sending fifty of so kids wandering the streets. As the kids regrouped and walked towards BART and the 7/11 store, they were confronted by this gang. Dozens of teens lost money, phones, shoes, beanies, electronics, whatever. When my son’s group was taken by surprise, one of boys stepped up to protect the youngest member and he was assaulted, an unfair fight with six on one. The ring leader resorted to using a baseball bat, removed from it’s hiding place under his shirt. Luckily our boy will recover, but was injured enough to be sent to the hospital. It was at this point that my son quickly called 911 and provided the police with sufficient details leading to a positive ID and an arrest (a veteran of the street wars). 

What concerns me very much about all of this is that outside of my son’s group of friends, nearly all the kids, even those robbed and upset, expressed shock and surprise that my son called the cops. As if his decisive action violated some unspoken code or agreement. In Febrary 2006 a promising young man died from stab wounds when a party on Contra Costa Avenue got out of control and turned violent. Not one of the hundred party goers or the residents on that block called 911 when an emergency occurred. Is it more than the alcohol impairing their judgment?  

I am very disappointed to see time and again teens’ social events marred by violence. I am just as disappointed in the lack of public discourse to address these issues and the attitudes of so many of the community leaders who gloss over the facts and pretend that all is well. It is not! Is the anti-snitch mentality so pervasive in youth culture reinforced when our schools and community fail to provide an honest and realistic picture of youth crime and gang culture? Why is it that every discussion on youth crime is more concerned about any negative or stigmatizing view of the youth offender and rarely concerned about justice for victims?  

My son is content, his decisive and determined action brought some peace and justice for his best friend and stopped this crime spree from continuing that night. And just maybe this ring leader now under arrest will wise up and realize the evil in his ways. And yes, intentionally taking a baseball bat to hurt somebody is evil, for sure. 

Thanks to the El Cerrito Police, who were fast, responsive, decent and professional. 

Laura Menard 

• 

IMMIGRATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is nothing patriotic about white anti-immigration groups targeting a whole segment of society—Mexicans, Latinos and hard working immigrants. Discrimination, prejudice and intolerance characterizes the anti-immigration movement so why does the Republican party embrace and give sanctuary to these pundits of bigotry?  

Every day on the buses I hear and see angry white folk spewing out their hatred toward hardworking Mexicans. It’s like deja vu 1950s all over again when whites demonized blacks. 

The GOP will use border politics, politics of division as their mainstay in the 2008 elections to shift attention away from the failed war in Iraq. It plays well to core supporters and lowest common denominator of the party. 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley 

• 

PATIENCE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The president asked us in a prime time address last week to be patient.  

Seventy percent of us have indicated that we want the occupation to end. Does he think we feel that way because we’ve grown impatient?  

No. We want the troops to come home because they’re being killed and maimed for no reason!  

Besides, it was his impatience that got us into the mess so it’s only fair that our impatience should get us out. 

Marvin Chachere 

San Pablo 

REPUBLICAN KINGS 

President Bush: Time’s 2004 “Man of the Year” 

Soldier wife lives in Fear 

American blood in the sand 

President’s man Carl Rove smartest in the Land. 

Mr. Book of Virtues rolls the dice 

Whales in Las Vegas have no vice 

We are fighting for God and American Apple Pie 

“And that,” says Mr. Book of Virtues, “is no lie” 

Another Talk Show champ and chump lights cigar, 

his private plane flies so far 

“Thanks for the sacrifice,” he says 

“President Clinton was a mess” 

American nurses sporting head-scarfs in Iraq 

Trying to keep our Image in whack 

Rumsfeld’s condolence letters multiplied 

As more of our soldiers died  

Great Republicans on the golf course 

chatting about this war without remorse 

Another soldier returns without a limb 

America’s future is looking dim 

Our President hosts a dinner tonight 

And cannot discuss the fight 

Diplomats and Celebrities must be fed 

The President has no time to view the dead. 

—Theodore Willem

Glen Kohler, in his Aug. 24 commentary (“Empty Van Hool Buses on Telegraph”), provided a fairly good description of “bus bunching” when he said “A closely-spaced motorcade of double-size Van Hool buses now trundles up and down Telegraph Avenue at all hours.” Ironically, bus bunching would be remedied by the BRT system that Kohler expresses doubt about. It occurs when buses are operating in “mixed flow” traffic which results in buses being stuck in traffic and as a result thrown off schedule. Transportation engineers use the term “mixed flow” to describe the situation where buses are mixed in the same lane with autos, trucks, emergency vehicles, etc. The proposed BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system with dedicated lanes proposed for Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley/Oakland and International Boulevard in Oakland would go a long way to eliminating this problem. With dedicated lanes, buses flow unimpeded by other traffic. 

For instance, the new 1R Rapid Bus is operating with a 12-minute “headway”—the scheduled time interval between consecutive buses—on weekdays along Telegraph, and it is this frequency of service that is responsible for the bus bunching we see there. 

As any bus rider knows, being stuck in a traffic jam will result in the next bus catching up with your bus, and the result is two buses arriving at a bus stop at one time; if the traffic is bad enough, and a driver has trouble helping to load or unload a wheelchair passenger, it is possible to see three buses arriving at the same time. Bus bunching does not occur very often with buses that run with a half-hour headway, and it does not occur with buses running in dedicated lanes. 

Kohler also says: “I see an average range of six to 16 passengers occupying these cavernous vehicles.” 

A number of other letters to the Planet have similarly described seeing many empty buses on Telegraph. This perception may be explained by the fact that during the afternoon commute hours, the southbound 1R Rapid Bus from downtown Berkeley does not run on either Bancroft Way or on the section of Telegraph between Bancroft and Dwight. It only runs on Telegraph south of Dwight Way. Only the northbound 1R will be seen north of Dwight Way on Telegraph and on Bancroft. I recently boarded a southbound 1R Rapid Bus on a weekday evening at 6:30 at the corner of Dwight Way and Telegraph and counted at least 10 people boarding the bus at that stop. There were already 25 people on the bus when I boarded. 

These southbound buses carry large numbers of people during the afternoon commute hours, but they will not be seen by someone on either Bancroft Way or on the section of Telegraph between Bancroft and Dwight. People there will only see the northbound 1R on Telegraph and could be forgiven for believing that the “buses are running empty” since they don’t see the southbound 1R buses. It is also the case that these northbound buses may very well be lightly loaded—hence appearing to be “empty”—in the evening while traveling north on Telegraph between Bancroft and Dwight Way because their main job at that time of day is to carry students and workers away from downtown Berkeley and the campus on the southbound return trip to Oakland and destinations along the Telegraph Corridor south of Dwight Way. This is no different from BART running trains during peak hours which are relatively empty because they are getting ready to carry passengers to or from work, i.e. they are “deadheading.” Neither bus bunching or empty buses are the result of bad management of buses by AC Transit as the tone of some of the letters to the Planet on this topic seem to imply. 

Len Conly is co-chair of Friends of BRT. 

I would like to respond to Hank Gehman’s charge in his Sept. 11 commentary that the University of California (UC) is duping Berkeley citizens with misinformation. While it is clear Mr. Gehman is misinformed, UC is not the source of his misinformation. He starts his article by saying that UC is proposing a new high performance center (HPC) as a diversion for the building of a new expanded stadium to hold many nighttime events. He mentions rock concerts and other events attracting 600,000 to 700,000 people annually. That would be at least one event each month with about 60,000 attendees. This is not part of the environmental impact report. There has not been a commercial event in the stadium in over 20 years. He fails to mention that the capacity of the stadium will be reduced by 10,000 seats down from the current 72,000 seats. He must not know that in the 1950s the capacity was 85,000 as there were bleachers on the east rim of the stadium. The city will have the right to negotiate the parameters of the seven events noted in the EIR.  

The issue of congestion is puzzling to me as the athletes, coaches, and staffs are already housed at that location and the seating capacity will be reduced by 10,000 seats. Congestion may be further reduced if the women athletes do not have to change clothes in their cars. My daughter played lacrosse for a visiting team and said they had no place to change clothes. 

Mr. Gehman is concerned about the magnified shaking, landslides and fires which will occur in a massive quake. I heard Mr. Buckwald, while being interviewed on KQED’s Forum, state that he thought the west wall of the stadium might collapse in a quake. Given this might be true, then the HPC and the stadium must be built and retrofitted to preserve the remaining grove of trees from the destruction they describe.  

Is no one concerned for the safety of the residents on Panoramic? The fault runs right under the only exit from Panoramic. A quake with slides and fires would place the residents in grave danger even when there are no occupants in the stadium.  

Mr. Gehman asserts the university needs a high number of events to pay the debt service for the bonds sold for the stadium retrofit. In fact, the revenue from the interest on the endowment will service the debt. Mr. Gehman wrote that the funds donated for the HPC could be used for academic programs. This is true if that was what the donors had wished. It is not. The donors wanted to support the many athletic programs in the school. 

Mr. Gehman argues that the HPC is a “red herring” to distract the citizenry from the construction of a new and expanded stadium. There is in fact, a “red herring.” It is the discussion of congestion, “ancient grove of oaks,” parking garage, and Tight Wad Hill which is an effort, by some, to rid Cal of “big time football.” Some of the opponents of the retrofit have said or written the following; “Football was established by the elite in the early 1900s to train young men for war.” (Neither Japan nor Germany played football prior to World War II). “My dream is that Tedford leaves and people stop coming to Berkeley.” ( That person should be aware that Tedford is one of many fine Cal coaches going back as far as the 1920s. ) In a letter to your paper titled Muscle-Headed Jock School the writer wants Cal to become like the University of Chicago with no football. (Would she include schools such as Northwestern, Stanford, Duke, Harvard, and Michigan as muscle-headed jock schools?)  

Mr. Gehman uses the term “big time football.” I don’t know if he intends this to be a derisive term. For many of us 40,000 season ticket holders, it means we can take pride in the team’s successes. Attending football games is wonderful family entertainment. I see many multi-generational families, including my own, at the games. There is a cross section of our community there. I was introduced to Cal and football in 1944 when the Longfellow Elementary School traffic patrol was the guest of the university. I sold programs and soft drinks during my Berkeley days and earned money my parents could not provide. Lots of people have those jobs today. Many people and non-profit organizations sell parking space as far as a mile from the stadium. I see restaurants full on game days and people having fun. Studies have shown that donations to the institution increase when school teams have success. 

Finally, the idea of the university holding the city hostage must be addressed. Yes, the university has taken Berkeley property over the years. For example, the end of Telegraph Avenue and the end of College Avenue are now part of the campus. At the same time, the university is by far the largest employer of Berkeley residents. Thousands of students live and shop in Berkeley. Residents avail themselves of lectures, classes, musical performances, and plays all at modest cost to us. The fighting between the city and Cal obscures the missions of both institutions. Berkeley’s mission must be to provide a safe and healthy place to live for all. UC’s mission is to provide people with an education to help better their lives and the lives of others, as it did for me. We are one community. It seems to me the goals for both the city and the university are the same. It is time for us to work together to achieve those goals.  

Leo J. Gaspardone, Sr. graduated from UC Berkeley in 1957.

Berkeley’s City Council may be blundering into AC Transit’s controversial, misnamed Bus “Rapid” Transit (BRT) proposal with eyes wide shut. Hidden on tonight’s consent calendar is item 18, requesting that the “Transportation Commission, Planning Commission, and staff develop a city preferred alternative route for the Telegraph Avenue Bus Rapid Transit.” 

Given the deep public opposition to BRT, you’d think our City Council would pull this off “consent” for a full community discussion. Berkeley neighbors deserve to discuss not where to house AC Transit’s white elephant, but whether to accept it at all—or what to request from AC Transit instead. 

Telegraph (and downtown) merchants overwhelmingly oppose BRT. So do thousands of Southside customers and neighbors who’ve signed anti-BRT petitions. So tonight’s item is a poke in the eyes of both the struggling, core commercial districts that Councilmembers normally claim to support. 

However, the council could simply reject AC Transit’s wasteful, top-down BRT proposal, which offers Berkeley virtually no environmental benefits and no meaningful new transit options. 

That could pave the way for a made-in-Berkeley solution that meaningfully reduces our greenhouse-gas emissions, reduces fuel consumption, improves air quality, reduces congestion, and improves the whole region’s transit network. 

In particular, the council could tonight flatly reject AC Transit’s divisive proposal to create “exclusive bus lanes.” Those lanes would halve the capacity of Telegraph, and of other Southside and downtown streets. That would generate artificial congestion, diverting traffic onto residential streets. 

San Leandro’s city council clearly declined bus-only lanes years ago, and AC Transit listened: it now proposes no exclusive lanes within San Leandro. 

Indeed, bus-only lanes aren’t necessary to speed up buses. AC Transit’s new 1R “Rapid Bus” line has demonstrated this on Telegraph since June 24. Even light rail doesn’t need exclusive lanes to move quickly. San Francisco’s J through N lines demonstrate that, as do some speedy trams I recently rode along Prague’s shared lanes. 

Merchants oppose BRT because of its negatives: Exclusive lanes would remove or convert some 945 to 1,618 parking spaces along AC Transit’s Berkeley/Oakland route—reducing customers’ access, and hurting business. 

Many other people oppose BRT because AC Transit’s own recent draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) shows hardly any positives: no meaningful changes in energy usage, air pollution, carbon emissions, or transit alternatives. Read it yourself at http://Busduse.org/Brt-deir.pdf. 

That study predicts “negligible” impacts on energy usage by 2025 (page 4-152) and minimal reductions in six air pollutants (by a factor of 0 to just -0.0003; page 4-131). 

The DEIS says nothing about CO2 emissions—AC Transit didn’t study them. But with BRT hardly reducing energy consumption or other pollutants, one can assume virtually no progress on carbon either. If anyone claims that AC Transit’s BRT route would cut carbon emissions, they’re deceiving you with theoretical maximum figures from elsewhere. 

Why does this route yield almost no environmental benefits despite assumptions that it would switch many motorists to transit? Because it would add 90 bus runs per day, and the DEIS says: “Buses are not as energy efficient as autos” (page 4-151). Who knew? 

In fact, full buses are highly energy-efficient. But AC Transit proposes to run large diesel buses nearly empty during much of the evening—for show, to collect federal subsidies. That wasteful, rolling Potemkin village would squander the environmental benefits of motorists switching to buses. 

Even the “rapid” is missing: From Berkeley to San Leandro’s Bayfair BART, AC Transit estimates time savings of 0-19 minutes with BRT. In one scenario, BRT actually takes longer. But this is relative to a current trip length of 59-78 minutes. On nearby BART, you can already make this trip in 30 minutes. 

AC Transit relies largely on “proof of payment” to achieve even those trivial time savings: Riders would buy tickets offboard, then board buses through all doors. For this, AC Transit claims it needs exclusive lanes, BRT “stations,” and fancy ticket vending machines.  

But proof of payment is common across Europe, without any of those things. Riders buy single- or multi-ride tickets in advance at service counters, stores, or (if they insist) vending machines inside subway stations. 

The fancy machinery is onboard the buses, where riders cancel their own tickets with a timestamp. Crucially, in most of the cities represented here, that timestamp gives you a long window for free transfers to all other transit vehicles. (In our terms, other buses, BART, or even regional trains like CalTrain.) 

This is an outline of the affordable, conveniently linked transit the East Bay needs to productively shift a lot of motorists to transit—and to really reduce our carbon footprint. If Berkeley and neighboring cities led instead of following, we could persuade transit agencies to provide it. 

Imagine nudging AC Transit to implement advance-ticket proof of payment fleetwide, speeding up its whole network. With free transfers to and from BART. 

Imagine getting more-frequent bus runs on Telegraph using fuel-efficient vehicles. Not the diesel-guzzling, polluting giants AC Transit proposes for BRT, but smaller hybrids. Or the zero-emission, fuel-cell buses that AC Transit is proudly testing elsewhere. 

Grassroots activists near Telegraph are developing an alternative they call “Rapid Bus Plus,” which could include many of these genuine environmental benefits. 

What’s blocking the way is AC Transit’s backward-looking BRT proposal. That’s aimed at loopholes in federal and regional transit subsidies, not at communities’ needs. It’s a bid to extend our region’s old, unsustainable mess of competing and (in this case) redundant transit agencies and routes. Berkeley deserves better. 

If Berkeley rejected exclusive lanes, Rapid Bus Plus would cost much less than BRT. The funds AC Transit is eyeing for BRT are all earmarked for transit, so they wouldn’t be lost. They’d go to worthier transit projects—whether AC Transit’s or other agencies’. 

If they went to an environmentally beneficial project somewhere else, Berkeley could still be proud. Think of it as buying ourselves a giant carbon credit. 

Michael Katz is a Berkeley resident. 

The city bus has become a political scapegoat. Neighbors on Cedar Street have been trying to remove bus service there, because they think the bus is too noisy. These neighbors do not complain about the far louder noise generated by garbage trucks and commercial vehicles. The Willard neighborhood now officially opposes the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). The residents earnestly claim to support public transit, but fear that BRT will bring more congestion to Telegraph and cause cut-through traffic onto their quiet streets.  

They make the bus a scapegoat for the result of too much car driving. If enough people were to ride BRT to work instead of drive, there would be fewer cars, and less congestion and cut-throughs. Telegraph merchants claim that BRT will destroy retail business, but nobody seems to know any place where this has actually happened when a BRT was deployed. It hasn’t been a problem in Eugene, Oregon, for example, or in Los Angeles. I think the bus has been made the scapegoat for business problems that have nothing to do with buses. Some sidewalk merchants on Telegraph have complained about “speeding” buses spreading dirt on their T-shirt stock. Actual speed measurements I made show that the buses average 18 mph. I never saw one going over 20 mph. Only cars go faster, yet the bus is the scapegoat, perhaps because it is so big. One merchant called for relocating buses away from Telegraph. Of course, the buses were there long before any sidewalk vendor. Buses provide good transportation and are a reasonable alternative to driving, even when the buses on Telegraph and College must compete with car traffic. If the BRT is deployed with bus-only lanes where the car traffic is thickest, buses will be an even better alternative. I think the true scapegoat for congestion and pollution should be people who insist on using their car for all trips.  

A huge amount of congestion and pollution would be removed if most people just used the buses to commute to and from work. Even if they drove for all other trips, this one thing would make a major impact. The Cal students are very good bus riders; they provide a great example for Berkeley. Of course, most of them didn’t bring a car. Here’s a reality check—some actual observations. In the morning, I have watched the 1 and 1R buses on Telegraph traveling northbound into Berkeley, crossing Parker. I never see empty buses, but the number of people is low before 7a.m. From then until after 8 a.m., the buses vary from a quarter full, to standing loads. An occasional empty bus is seen heading South, opposite the commute traffic flow. I see a similar rider pattern during the afternoon commute hours. Some people look at the same buses and scapegoat them, claiming they are under-utilized. I have a clicker-counter gadget. I have used it to count the number of cars with just the driver, with two aboard and with more than two. I get an average of 1.22 people per car, which is about the same as government statistics. I consistently show over 80 percent of cars carrying just the driver. The cars are under-utilized! Shall we force these empty cars to pick up passengers, to act as jitney bus service? That would get the evil buses off the road. But then what would we do for a scapegoat?  

On the big articulated Van Hool buses, the exhaust blows sideways from the middle of the bus, where the engine is. The exhaust port appears as a round hole on the left side of the bus, pointing away from the right-hand sidewalk. Many cars vent their exhaust to the right. Vans especially have this type of exhaust. On the 40-foot Van Hools, the exhaust vents rearward, through a hole in the left half of the bumper. On some buses and trucks, the exhaust is vertical pipe. Many trucks vent exhaust downward, from the centerline of the vehicle. To check out what the buses are blowing, I rode one of the big Van Hool articulated buses northbound from Dwight to Bancroft. (The southbound buses go on Dana and Dwight, not on that part of Telegraph.) I sat on the left side in the middle of the front section, just behind the exhaust port . As the bus moved along, I watched for movement of bits of paper or dust in the street. I didn’t see anything being stirred up. Maybe the bus was moving too slowly. Maybe the exhaust stream is directed too high. On Sunday, I hung around the T-shirt stall for a while, just watching for blowing clouds of dirt or debris. None appeared while I was there. A light breeze was blowing. The wares looked clean to me.  

Concerning pollution, I found that most of the AC Transit bus fleet uses “clean diesel” engines and exhaust system. This generates less air pollution than natural gas engines. On the AC Transit website, one can read: “AC Transit has completed installation of exhaust after-treatment traps to 50 percent of its fleet, with 100 percent project completion expected this year. These traps not only cut particulate pollution by 85 percent; they also reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by an additional 25-30 percent and hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide by up to 90 percent. This program has helped AC Transit achieve a 95 percent reduction in particulate matter over the last 10 years.” Trucks, especially the older ones, generate far dirtier exhaust. A recent (Sept. 4) PBS TV documentary (QUEST) covered the health danger in West Oakland from truck, train and container ship exhaust at the Port of Oakland. Maybe other vehicles move too fast, and the wind from their wake blows dust on the sidewalk wares? Well, nothing moves very fast on that part of Telegraph. After accelerating away from a stoplight, most cars were going no faster than 18mph.. I have another fun toy—a speed radar gun. I point it at a moving vehicle, pull the trigger and get a display of vehicle speed, coming or going. Several times, I took my gun to Telegraph and measured speed of traffic between Dwight and Bancroft. I got an occasional apprehensive look from a driver, even though I don’t think I look like law enforcement. During 8:30-9:30 a.m. Friday morning Aug. 31, I used my radar gun to measure speeds of buses on Telegraph. They ranged from 10 to 20 mph, average about 18. Given that the local speed limit is 25 mph, this seemed a fairly law-abiding group, except for the ones going 36 and 37. Cars were nicely giving right of way to pedestrians in the crosswalks. I think the bottom line is to stop making the bus a scapegoat. There are plenty of faster-moving vehicles, plenty with exhaust streams pointed at the right-hand sidewalk and plenty of vehicles much noisier and more polluting than a bus. 

Steve Geller is a Berkeley resident.

ABAG HOUSING ALLOCATIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The housing that the Association of Bay Area Governments is pressuring the city to build would do nothing to reverse the trend of lower-income Berkeley residents being priced out of the market, since virtually all of the so-called “affordable” rental housing constructed in Berkeley by for-profit developers is rented at market rates. 

The currently allowed rents for “affordable” studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments are $961, $1,160, and $1,375 respectively. Despite this being the hardest time of year to find an apartment (since UC Berkeley students just returned from summer break), craigslist.org’s Berkeley listings include cheaper apartments in all three categories. 

Outside of buildings owned by nonprofits, the supply of genuinely affordable (that is, below-market-rate) housing is limited by the city’s Section 8 budget. 

Robert Lauriston 

• 

BUSD MOUTHPIECE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Is Riya Bhattacharjee on BUSD’s payroll, or is she just building up a portfolio for a job as BUSD’s official spokesperson? Her article on Superintendent Lawrence’s retirement announcement read like a cheerleading piece. I don’t think that with all the money we pour into our public schools that having test scores 1 percent above the state average is anything to crow about. (Not that the article mentioned anything untoward.) Neither is the fact that Berkeley has one of the highest achievement gaps between white and black students, and a very high drop-out rate at the high school. From my review of the recently released achievement scores, our high school has dropped significantly achievement in the scant six years of Lawrence’s tenure. I am reminded of how unfriendly and unneighborly our school district is every time I drive down MLK and see that lovely green field completely fenced off. Maybe it’s time to do a balanced piece that is well researched. I guess if one is on the “friends” list for the Planet, one can do no wrong. I guess it takes more than newsprint to be a real newspaper.  

Sandra Horne 

• 

A PAGE FROM THE  

GOP’s PLAYBOOK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The debate over the UC stadium renovation plan has taken on a surreal quality in which the extreme left is lifting pages out of the play books of the extreme right. During any of the Bush election campaigns, Karl Rove would have drooled at the chance to manipulate such a compliant group as those willing to believe that UC is an evil and corrupt institution bent on destroying the environment and taking over the city, among other evils. However, in this case, it is the liberal left, not the right, that must confront some “inconvenient truths."  

First, the trees by the stadium are not an ancient or rare grove of oaks. In fact oaks are quite common in the Berkeley flatlands at places including Live Oak Park, John Hinckle Park and the UC campus. Take a stroll across the Cal campus and then out into the town of Berkeley and ask yourself who is a better guardian of trees, UC or the city of Berkeley. While I’m at it, trees are a renewable resource, there are no burial grounds near the stadium, and the oaks are not a memorial grove, but are the landscaping for a memorial stadium. When the city and other activists claim that the project designed by one of the best engineering schools in the world to improve student and public safety is actually compromising safety, one is reminded of the Swift Boat Veterans propaganda claiming that Bush was a war hero and Kerry was a coward. And when the mayor paints a scenario of doom in which the stadium’s structure fails with catastrophic consequences, a picture of Colin Powell addressing the UN with a small vial of white powder emerges. Clearly, the city has on its agenda a confrontation with the University over this issue just as Bush had on his agenda an invasion of Iraq. 

People in the end will believe what they want to believe. However, no matter how many times a lie is repeated, it is still a lie. What might motivate the city to take on the university over these contrived issues? The answer is simple. Demonizing the university and challenging its aspirations is red meat for the tofu set, who are convinced that the greatest public university in the world is actually an evil organization. Moreover, a confrontation with UC makes heroes of the city’s leaders to the extreme leftists that currently dominate City Hall. Until a voice of reason emerges in our city government, we will be left with a legacy of deep wounds in city- university relations, and taxpayer dollars will continue to enrich the pockets of the lawyers representing both sides. 

David Drubin 

• 

TEDFORD AND OAK GROVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m a big fan of Coach Tedford. How nice it is to see 70,000 smiling and excited people headed to and from the stadium. As opposed to the dreary and dispirited sad-sacks from the previous regime. Tedford is a brilliant football coach, by any standard. And yet, football coaches, with their obsessive attention to the minutiae of Xs and Os, endlessly studying the smallest detail of film, deep in the bowels of sports complexes, are also notorious for suffering from tunnel-vision. Very few coaches—such as the beloved Bill Walsh—combine that attention for detail with a vision of the bigger picture, a picture that encompasses the entire community, and not just wons-and-losses on a stat sheet. 

I don’t now much about the oak grove issue, except that those oak trees nestled in front of the stadium are a lot of what gives that stadium its rustic charm. To have some monstrosity of modern architecture jammed in there, all the way to the sidewalk—against the will of the majority of the Berkeley community—would be a fatal mistake. And might I remind you, Coach Tedford, that its a community that includes not just a bunch of scruffy punk and hippie protesters, but a former mayor of Berkeley, as well as countless other prominent Berkeley citizens who stand firmly against this ill-fated, and poorly thought-out project. 

What is the average tenure of a Pac 10 football coach? About three or four years? Soon, Coach Tedford, you’ll be going on to bigger and better and higher paying things. Do you want your permanent legacy in Berkeley history to be that of a carpet-bagger? Please reconsider your position.  

Ace Backwords  

• 

THE FOLLY OF UC’S  

MEMORIAL STADIUM PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Kudos to Hank Gehman for so cogently spelling out the folly of the university’s plans to intensify use of the Memorial Stadium site, and for pointing out that this beloved but very dangerous building is occupied by hundreds of students and employees every day contrary to the university’s own advisors.  

After reading a July 9 San Francisco Chronicle op-ed by two eminent architects, a geologist, and a structural engineer—all retired—about the perilous condition of the stadium, I visited it myself. Like a recent visitor from Tennessee quoted by the Chronicle, I was shocked by what I saw. Throughout the structure I witnessed exposed aggregate and rusting rebar, twisting girders, and rotting wood seating and decking. How did this building reach such a state of decay, and why is it daily occupied, let alone with tens of thousands of people at a time? Is the university unaccountable to any official charged with protecting public safety?  

As Gehman states, I suspect that the university does not want to reveal its plans for retrofitting the stadium because that is impossible. Nothing but a virtually new replica of the present structure will suffice to make it somewhat safer in that location than what is there now, and the priority and cost of that would shine klieg lights on what the “greatest public university in the world” has, in fact, become.  

Gray Brechin 

• 

PETITION TO PUT AL GORE ON CALIFORNIA PRIMARY BALLOT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Petition to put Al Gore on California Primary Ballot 

Starting in early October, the California Draft Gore Ballet Initiative will begin collecting signatures in the East Bay and all other congressional districts in California. We need 50 signatures per district to get Gore on the California Primary Ballot in February 2008.  

Many people admire Gore for his integrity, his strong stand against the Iraq war before anyone else and his climate change campaign. He has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Many other states are also mounting a Gore Ballot Initiative. Check out the website at www.california4gore.org or join us at a meet-up on Saturday, Oct. 13 at Central Perk Cafe, (next to the El Cerrito Speakeasy Theater) at 11 a.m. We need your help getting signatures. 

Maureen Farrell 

• 

THOUGHTS ON THE UNIVERSITY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

First of all, why is UC Berkeley so intent on killing all those trees for six football games a year? The 49ers and Cal need a new football stadium; if they build one together it will be 14 games a year not including Niner playoff games. Earthquakes never happen on Saturday afternoons anyway. 

The Golden Gate Bridge District is going broke. Why can’t they just give the bridge to Caltrans? It is the easiest solution. 

Imagine $10 to cross the McDonalds Golden Arches Bridge. All the toll takers would be required to dress like Ronald in clown suits. 

At the expense of the rest of downtown Berkeley Telegraph is looking better. Five blocks of retail shopping. If you get off the BART train in downtown Berkeley you have to walk by countless storefronts that sit empty before you get to Telegraph. Every empty store front reeks of urine. You get the old Telegraph crowd hanging out on Shattuck panhandling for change but smoking pot all day long. Downtown Berkeley is not just Telegraph. 

UC Berkeley needs to support the downtown area . All those Tennessee fans going to the game walking around the downtown area got to see all of the above. Not everyone takes that glorious route to the stadium. From the Claremont Hotel driving buy all those big houses, wow, what a nice town. 

To all you Cal students from out of town, please look before you cross the street because the campus ends at Bancroft, Fulton and Heinz. When you get hit by a car it will hurt if your lucky. 

To the Berkeley Police Department, if you’re going to enforce the pedestrian laws by the campus you need to enforce them on the rest of Berkeley.  

Enough said. 

Sergio Blandon 

• 

A PROPOSAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m proposing that UCB construct an elevated/dedicated “express” bike pathway to connect Memorial Stadium with the existing Recreational Sports Facility and Hass Gymnasium. The distance is so short the ramp would provide a connection between these facilities of perhaps 60-90 seconds bicycle ride. The ramp could be beautifully landscaped with ivy or other plantings to be aesthetically pleasing. The new bikeway (and a fleet of dedicated to this purpose bikes) to issue the athletes could all be done and paid for with less than 10 percent of the monies the distinguished Mr. Barclay Simpson so generously donated, particularly since it would need to bear little weight and could be constructed quickly and cheaply with “recycled” green plastic lumber, which is extremely light and durable. Students might even volunteer to create this beautiful solution to an ugly controversy. 

This would provide “exercise” for the athletes, excellent lessons in mobility and ecology by bicycle, and save the university millions in cash, greenhouse gas credits for less cement, fewer trees cut down, injured and stressed town/gown relations, damaged public relations, Academic Senate exhausting controversy, and major legal expenses for UC to defend a rash of pending lawsuits. The saved funds could and should be plowed into desperately needed scholarships.  

Canadian bicycling advocates have seen to such bikeways, and UCB’s distinguished Canadian Chancellor Birgenau should be well aware of the many, many exercise and ecology benefits of bicycling by now. Also he should be aware of the statewide prohibitions on construction within “Special Studies Zones” for seismicity, created years ago by the state Legislature to prevent dangerous and wasteful construction in, on, or directly adjacent to, very active earthquake zones, via the Alquist-Priolo Act. Whether or not the proposed “Athletic Sports Facility” violates the letter of that law within a few inches or not, it certainly violates the spirit of the law. The Geological Survey (USGS.gov) has deemed the Hayward Fault one of the fastest “creeping” faults known on earth. A recent string of major tremors on that Hayward fault during the very controversy of these senior oaks, adds emphasis to the truths of this letter. 

I studied the charter of the University of California recently in Doe Library; the very purpose of UC as decreed by the Legislature is to provide higher education free to any California student who shows promise and works hard. My theory as to how this has disintegrated to a situation where students graduate with as much as $50,000 in debt for a BA (allowing for tuition, books, room and board) is that somehow the cement industry, developers, and the highway robbery, er lobby, have mesmerized the California Legislature, particularly in the peculiar era of our Sen. Don Perata, to spend itself into earthquake-risky cement oblivion with bonds for highways, bridges, and tunnels (to accommodate gasoline tanker trucks?) instead of spending on education and ecology. 

This tragedy does not have to be; nor does an entire grove of remarkable senior oak trees showing natural resistance to Sudden Oak Death Syndrome have to be clearcut. Sudden Oak Death threatens to wipe out oaks throughout California and arborists are mystified, horrified, and helpless against it to date. 

James G. Doherty 

• 

FOUR MORE YEARS... 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If another Republican is elected to the White House in 2008 this is what you can expect. Four more years of war, death and destruction thanks to unrelenting pressure from the GOP. Another Republican president will bring in new lifetime justices shifting the Supreme Court all the way to the right for a generation. There will be four more years of lies and dirty tricks and secrecy from the Republican executive in the Oval Office. The Constitution will continued to be trampled be a party that cares more about its ideology than the American people.  

Four more years of a Republican president and you can kiss Roe v. Wade good-bye. A word of caution for Democrats, independents, progressives, liberals—join together, work together. 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley 

• 

FLOURIDE IN THE WATER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“In August 2007, over 600 medical, dental, scientific, academic, public health and environmental professionals signed a petition to Congress urging a moratorium on fluoridation until hearings and additional research are conducted. Signers include Dr. Arvid Carlsson, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine, who said, “Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology. It’s really obsolete.” (FAN 2007.)” www.ewg.org/reports/cafluoride. 

The Environmental Working Group reports that the fluoride in drinking water is linked to bone cancer in children, the 3rd most common cancer for children. “the American Dental Association (ADA), scientists at Harvard University, and the prestigious National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences have all raised serious concerns about the safety of fluoridated water for infants and young children. This steady stream of science represents a growing consensus within the mainstream public health and dental community that the health risks of fluoride in tap water may substantially outweigh the modest dental benefits of tap water fluoridation.” 

It is time for our government to rethink the mandatory addition of fluoride into our drinking water. Please sign a petition asking the government to end fluoridation of our drinking water. www.actionstudio.org/public/page_view_all.cfm?option=begin&pageid=8276. 

Yolanda Huang 

• 

BERKELEY REP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

My husband and I are regular readers of the Planet. We usually go to at least two shows a year at the Berkeley Repertory Theater. We often bring family and friends. I am not sure why the folks at the Rep believe that Planet readers don’t go to the Rep. 

This is not the only example of the Rep’s misguidedness. At one point, we stopped going to the Rep after their fundraising staff persisted in asking us for money even after we informed them of the impending death of a loved one. After the incident, we e-mailed the Rep and received no response. 

Ultimately, we decided not to fault the actors, writers, and other artists who put together the Rep’s wonderful offerings for the behavior of its fundraisers.  

However, I believe the Rep has a lot to learn about how to treat its patrons and its community. 

Debra Sabah Press 

• 

A NOBLE CAUSE, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SIDE EFFECTS? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This open letter is to discuss the drawbacks associated with Berkeley’s new combination garbage/green collection plan. While the idea and urgency of reducing our total landfill volume is quite noble and probably essential, this new approach seems fraught with potential problems. Just imagine, for example, that after each weekly pickup of the green can(s), there will be the possibility of dripping debris of un-packaged foodstuffs coming off the garbage trucks here and there throughout the city. 

What an image. 

Then, too, there will always be some food residue remaining inside the green can after pickup. Assuming we’re really diligent and would like to keep our cans really clean after they’ve been picked up, we’d hose out the can periodically. But, where will we dump the water after it’s flushed out of the can? Oh, that’ll go into our garden(s) or may run down the gutter in front of our home or apartment. Now we have food residue everywhere. If we don’t clean out the can regularly, things could get even more scary. Either way, how exciting it’ll be for the rodents and other crawly critters! I don’t even want to imagine the havoc that would likely ensue. We already have rodent issues throughout the city, though they’re rarely openly discussed or acknowledged; we’re near water, so rodents are always about. But to invite them this way seems reckless and foolish. 

My suggestion is to continue disposing of any/all foodscraps and food-soiled paper, etc. the usual way, into our regular gray garbage cans or dumpsters. The garbage would, hopefully, continue to be enclosed in some sort of bag and not loosely thrown into a can, as is proposed and condoned by the new “green scheme.” 

This whole project needs much more review and more thorough re-evaluation. Yes, the goal of reducing total landfill is noble, but the very real side-effects are too serious and risky to ignore and must be considered. 

Doris Nassiry 

• 

A WAR OF CHOICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For four years, the Bush administration keeps on asking for more time, and a lot more money, to keep its failed war-of-choice going. It is always the same prediction, “in 12 to 18 months the Iraqis will be able to govern without us." The truth is that we can not “win” this war. No “victory” is possible for us in Iraq, only continued shame.  

Yet, Sen. John McCain has a point when he says that leaving Iraq in retreat would be a disaster. So, what is the way out of this mess that Bush and Cheney put us in? 

We should separate ourselves, our government, and our country, from the corrupt leaders who got us into this war through their deception and lies. We should prosecute these officials, who usurped our government, for being the war criminals that they are. Then we can leave Iraq in an orderly manner, with apologies for having confused Saddam Hussein with Osama bin Laden, and find redemption through bringing to justice the people who committed these war crimes in our name.  

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

PERSISTING IN FOLLY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I don’t read the Planet for lifestyle coverage or entertainment news, unless one deems the antics of the Planning Palace entertaining. It’s the hard news stories generally uncovered elsewhere that make me pick up the Planet first thing in the morning. 

As for the reviews, the Planet needn’t focus on the already well-publicized organizations with large budgets. The smaller, perhaps semi-amateur or struggling groups are particularly worthy of coverage. The gardening, building and preservation articles are also real gems.  

As the author a few years ago of an article on “The Celebration of Roses,” the festival held every May in El Cerrito, I urge the Planet to persist in its folly.  

John McBride 

• 

SIDESHOW LAW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you so much for J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s article on State Sen. Don Perata’s SB67 sideshow vehicle tow bill. I share his concern about the unwillingness of most media to examine this bill’s proponents’ unsupported claims that it has kept Oakland safe, or safer. I am so thankful that this excellent writer and the Daily Planet are paying attention. 

Our rights are now so fully eroded that I often feel as though I’m watching a wave go out to sea that doesn’t ever seem to come back. 

Carol Denney 

• 

FOOD ALLERGIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As you read this letter with your breakfast or lunch, more than 11 million Americans are carefully watching what they eat and how their food is prepared. You may be thinking that they are trying to lose weight, but that’s not the reason—it’s because they suffer from life-threatening food allergies.  

The statistics are frightening—particularly among children. Each year, allergic reactions result in 30,000 emergency room visits and over 150 deaths. The average school has 10 children suffering from food allergies. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of children under age five who suffer from food allergies doubled. 

Food allergies are a disease, and there is no cure. The only recourse is total avoidance of the foods that generally cause these allergies—everyday foods like milk, peanuts, eggs and shellfish. This is easier said than done. If your child attends a birthday party, the home-made milk- and egg-free chocolate chip cookies may have been baked in a pan that once cooked peanut brownies. Or perhaps her classmate spills a drop of milk on the school bus—if she touches or even inadvertently smells that dried drop, it could cause her severe harm. The favorite family restaurant? Out of the question for most people with severe food allergies. 

Everywhere you go and everything you do, you must be on guard. One slip-up could be fatal.  

Why have scientists been unable to develop a cure to a disease that has become so prevalent? It’s not for lack of trying, and it’s not for lack of hope. Using existing science developed to treat asthma, airborne allergens and bee sting allergies, researchers are confident that a vaccine for major food allergies can be found within a decade if the research receives sufficient funding. 

And that’s the catch—funding. Our federal government must treat this disease with greater urgency by dedicating needed funding to finding a cure. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends less than $10 million per year on food allergy research; by comparison, Attention Deficit Disorder receives $107 million and Diabetes receives $1.2 billion per year. These are all important diseases that deserve attention. 

It is much more cost-effective to fund needed research than to continue asking families and schools to unilaterally shoulder the burden of this burgeoning public health danger. Congress should take action now to help millions of American families and children who live in constant fear—and give them hope that soon they, too, can enjoy a carefree meal while they read the newspaper. 

Dr. Peter Xiao Jian 

San Francisco 

• 

ANTENNA PROTEST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A growing body of scientific studies indicates that radio frequency radiation (RF) emitted continuously from cell phone antennas may pose a health risk to residents, particularly children, who live close to them. With 14 antenna locations in South Berkeley and an unknown number of emitters at each location, we already suffer unequally from this form of pollution.  

Yet, Verizon is suing the City of Berkeley. It claims the city’s ordinance, which seeks to protect residents from unnecessary antennas, is unconstitutional. It also demands that applications for permits at the following three locations be approved: 2721 Shattuck Ave., 1540 Shattuck Ave., 2002 Acton St. 

It believes it has the right to put up antennas anywhere and everywhere in order to expand its business as long as emissions from these antennas are within Federal Communication Commission (FCC) guidelines.  

However, many concerned citizens, as well as many scientists, believe that these guidelines (100 times less protective than Switzerland’s) are too permissive and outdated.  

We urge the following actions: 

1. Boycott Verizon in Berkeley. 

2. Defend Berkeley’s Telecom Ordinance and our Zoning Board’s decision to deny unnecessary permits to telecom companies. 

3. Denounce the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the FCC’s standards as unsafe. 

4. Support the Precautionary Principle and the right of citizens to protect their health and safety. 

5. Demand full disclosure of health studies of wireless technology and discussion of safer alternatives. 

Stop Verizon from bullying the City of Berkeley with slap lawsuits and subverting the democratic process of local government. If you have a Verizon contract, please call the Verizon store. Tell its representatives to drop its lawsuit against the City of Berkeley. Beware: If we don’t stop them here, radiation will soon come to your neighborhood too!!  

A protest against more cell phone antennas in South Berkeley will be held from 10”30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 at UC Storage, 2721 Shattuck Ave. For more information, e-mail BNAFU at: JLLIB2@aol.com. 

Michael Barglow

The foundation of our freedom is the right to petition the government. Every Fourth of July, we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, a petition, and this right is protected by Article One, Section One of the United States Constitution. Are Internet polls a legitimate form of petition, and can they be used to measure public opinion? 

Berkeley taxpayers have financed Kitchen Democracy, and the results of their web polls have been endorsed by Berkeley officials as legitimate measures of community opinion. This encourages and perhaps demands that citizens participate in these polls. Unfortunately for our community, volunteer polls like Kitchen Democracy can only shape our opinions, they can never measure them. 

Kitchen Democracy polls their membership to gain their opinion on community issues, and then they publish “decisions” based on these polls. No matter how enthusiastic they are to decide things, Kitchen Democracy’s voters can only represent themselves. There is no reason to value a citizen’s vote on the Kitchen Democracy website over another’s signature on a petition, or over their upraised hand or voice-vote at an assembly. Unlike volunteer polls, petitions and assemblies are constitutionally protected. Unlike web polls, petitions require signatures, not disclaimers. 

According to AAPOR, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, “Polls based on submissions to websites...may be good entertainment but have no validity...If such unscientific pseudo-polls are reported for entertainment value, they must never be portrayed as accurately reflecting public opinion.” 

The vote in the North Shattuck area regarding the plaza provides a vivid example of what’s wrong with volunteer polls in general, and Kitchen Democracy in particular.  

Kitchen Democracy conducted an unpublicized election regarding our neighborhood project. Though I visit the North Shattuck Plaza area nearly every day, I’ve never seen a poster, flyer or any other public promotion regarding the plaza vote. 

On Sept. 5, Kitchen Democracy published a “decision” in favor of the North Shattuck Plaza, complete with a green checkmark symbolizing their affirmation. The culmination of a two month election, this “decision” masks significant neighborhood opposition to the Plaza which was revealed by the Kitchen Democracy election itself. 

Since Kitchen Democracy does not publish a time-based record of their election, I have used downloaded files and dated comments to reconstruct the voting pattern.  

Simply stated, a surge of votes and comments arrived in the last few days of the election, mostly favoring yes, and mostly from people listed as living over one mile away from the North Shattuck Plaza. This just-in-time manufactured consent produced a 199 to 180 margin, apparently justifying Kitchen Democracy’s “decision” favoring the plaza. 

This “decision” does not acknowledge neighborhood opposition to the plaza proposal, for the majority of Kitchen Democracy voters living within one mile of the plaza voted against the project. Despite the lack of public promotion of the vote in the neighborhood, and despite the last-minute surge, the plaza neighbors still managed to defeat the Kitchen Democracy proposal 132 to 119. So how should Kitchen Democracy’s plaza “decision” be received by the press, public and city? 

Last month I contacted the president of AAPOR, Nancy Mathiowetz, and requested her opinion, were Berkeley’s leaders abridging our right to petition the government directly by inferring undue value to Kitchen Democracy’s web-based polls? I described how their poll results had been used by the Zoning Adjustments Board in the Wright’s Garage case. She assigned two aides to investigate. 

On Sept. 9, I received a reply from AAPOR Standards Chair Charlotte Steeh, who examined the Kitchen Democracy website with her associate. Ms. Steeh’s response included, “It is unfortunate when a governing body takes the kinds of data produced by websites like Kitchen Democracy as measures of legitimate opinion.” 

She writes, “There are many examples of websites similar to Kitchen Democracy. As long as these sites do not try to promote the data collected on them as scientific and representative, they do not violate the AAPOR Code...We suggest you point the council to our code where we publicize the fact that these sorts of results do not have general validity and should not be regarded as if they do.” 

Ultimately, though web-based polls like Kitchen Democracy may provide citizens a new and legitimate means to petition the government, the results of volunteer elections should not be used to gauge the public’s opinion. Because they do not represent the general population and because they may produce deceptive results, I believe the City of Berkeley should formally discourage the use of volunteer polls, particularly those used to measure support for construction projects. I suggest it’s time for the press, the public and the city to regard all of Kitchen Democracy’s “decisions” with appropriate skepticism. 

David Cohn is a Berkeley resident.

The Planning Commission last week demonstrated commendable wisdom by removing auto dealerships from consideration in the thriving artisan, light industrial and building supply community in the MU-LI District south of Ashby Avenue, thus heading off the area’s destabilization. The same sort of clear thinking should also guide the commission’s approval in concept of auto sales as a permitted use in the Manufacturing District at the foot of Gilman Street. The Planning Commission will now consider the conditions under which that will happen. It can be done in a way that will benefit everyone in Berkeley, or it can be done in a way that could put all industry in that area at risk.  

Frontage Road is the only place that is perfect for auto sales. The current self-storage facilities there contribute very little to the city, and would meet with almost unanimous support if replaced by auto sales. The closed Flint Ink site is another possibility, but more problematic, since it is blocks from the freeway. The nine acre Recycling Center area should be entirely removed from the new regulations. 

Key to the West Berkeley Plan, passed unanimously by City Council in 1993, is industrial retention and preservation of manufacturing and artisan/art spaces, which were threatened by unregulated market forces. The zoning ordinance was later revised to conform to the plan, dividing West Berkeley into four districts, based on the existing level of industrial use: Manufacturing, Mixed Manufacturing, Mixed Use-Light Industrial, and Mixed Use-Residential. At th0e top of the scale, in the M District, all change of use away from manufacturing was prohibited. Self-storage was made a permitted use, but only in new construction.  

In the other districts, some flexibility of change of use was allowed. In the MU-LI and MU-R, up to 25 percent of manufacturing space in a building could be converted to a different permitted use; but over that amount, change of use could be made only with a finding that “appropriate mitigation has been made for the loss of manufacturing, warehousing or wholesale trade space... through providing such space elsewhere in the city, payment into the West Berkeley Building Acquisition Fund, or by other appropriate means.” The replacement space provision also applied to the MM District. The concept here is that of giving something appropriate back to the industrial and artisan/art community for what is being removed. 

Similar provisions for replacement space or mitigation payment were not included in the M District because there was no permitted use there that manufacturing space could be converted into. Since there was no problem, there was no need for a solution. Now the proposal to make auto sales a permitted use in the M District creates for the first time the possibility of change of use away from manufacturing in that district. This necessitates examining the proper conditions under which that conversion could be made. 

Among the Purposes of the Manufacturing District are “To the greatest degree possible, retain the stock of manufacturing and industrial buildings and sites, especially large buildings and sites, for manufacturing and industrial uses,” and “Encourage development of a manufacturing district dedicated unequivocally to manufacturing and industrial uses, so that manufacturers and industrial businesses will not be interfered with by incompatible uses.” How can we permit auto sales and yet be true to the purposes of the M District? 

Replacing self-storage with auto sales is in conformity with the district, and should not pose an issue. But unrestrained replacement of industrial sites with sales puts all manufacturing space at risk, because retail generates much higher rents than industries.  

In keeping with the concepts of the West Berkeley Plan, if auto sales are made a permitted use in the entire M District, then provisions similar to the replacement space or mitigation payment in the other districts should be placed into the M District regulations. With these provisions in place, for example, a self-storage site could be changed into an auto dealership with no replacement space or mitigation required. However, if Flint Ink or another manufacturing space were to be changed into auto sales, an appropriate mitigation payment would be required. This mitigation payment “into the West Berkeley Building Acquisition Fund, or by other appropriate means” would be intended to help purchase buildings or otherwise retain buildings for light industries and artisans/artists. This enforces the concept of giving something appropriate back to the industrial and artisan/art community for what is being removed. 

John Curl is a cabinetmaker and chair of West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies (WEBAIC). 

At next Saturday’s Peoples Park Peace Rally (September 15) you and everyone else are invited to play an active role. There will be speeches and music starting at 1 PM, and at about 3:40 we will all be given a choice of participating in 11 different discussion and action circles. And you will be able to form your own discussion group if you can announce it from the stage with three people. The discussion circles planned so far are as follows: 

1. Organizing for demonstrations and actions, Iraq Moratorium (third Fridays, Sept. 21) and others.  

2. Research, Publicity and Media. Get together to prepare articles, letters to the editors, talk radio and TV. 

3. Outreach to Military and Veterans. Counter-Recruiting. Support Returning Vets. 

4. Campus Organizing. UC and elsewhere. 

5. Congressional and Electoral Action, and Impeachment. (Impeachment may want to be separate.) 

6. Religious and Spiritual Contributions to the peace movement. With churches and faith and spiritual groups. 

7. Mediation & Non-Violent Conflict Resolution. 

8. Neighborhood Food and Gardens. Permaculture. Neighborhood Sustainability. 

9. Transportation and Sustainable Energy to End the War. 

10. Homelessness and Poverty.  

11. Supporting and Organizing in Diverse Communities. And Peace Making Projects in our City Streets. Hope to discuss such projects as “Oakland Parks for Peace,” “Silence the Violence,” and other community organizing efforts. 

There will also be two other participatory events at the rally. At noon, before the mike comes on we will have a meditation followed by a discussion. And at 5, after the mike goes off, bring your instruments. We’ll play some acoustic music, and perhaps a discussion of guerrilla music and theater. 

After four and a half years of illegal war the peace movement needs a change of strategy. In February 2003 millions of people around the world, and 200,000 in San Francisco, couldn’t stop the lies or the invasion; and now the clear majority of Americans who want a definite timetable for withdrawal can’t get Congress to vote for it, or to cut off funds when the Bush administration stands in the way. Our democracy is not working. 

The peace movement, therefore, has to be a democracy movement. It is not an impossible task. Oligarchies worse than ours have fallen to the democratic people: Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and some of the Eastern European countries have become vastly more democratic. But how do we do it? 

The answer is that we work on two levels. On the institutional level we need honest elections, election reforms including campaign finance reform and instant runoff voting; and we need an independent media and controls on corporations. But we also have to realize that none of this is going to happen unless we have democracy where we live—neighborhoods, jobs, schools, everywhere. And that is up to us.  

Unless we first have a society in which people talk to each other our political opinions are irrelevant. Political democracy cannot exist without community democracy. And that is our job. 

The average American spends four hours a day watching television. Can we create a community alternative for some of that time, starting with ourselves? 

We won’t stop wars, this one and the next few they are planning, we won’t save a livable planet, and we won’t restore American democracy, by listening to speeches by movement heavies. We have to participate, each one of us in our own favorite creative community. If we can create communities which are more fun than television, and more fun than right wing church picnics, we will win. 

Not that I have anything against good speeches. Come listen to Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Dan Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), David Hilliard (Black Panthers), and many others. And listen to the music of the “Funky Nixons,” and “Beatbeat Whisper,” and others. But always remember that a meeting or a rally is never complete until everyone has an opportunity to leave with a job to do and someone to do it with. If we stay active and keep communicating we will have a movement which is continually expanding. 

Laurence Schechtman is a Berkeley activist. 

Several of us from Save the Oaks at the Stadium took our marching trees to the Solano Stroll last weekend, and we got an overwhelmingly positive response to our “Go Green, Save the Oaks!” message. We quickly ran out of our flyers, and were repeatedly stopped by people along the way who wanted to hear the latest about the oaks campaign. We got encouraging words from across the political and demographic spectrum: young and old, male and female, local and out-of-town. Many Cal alumni joined in showing their support for our cause, and teens (who seem to be wearing a lot of tie-dye shirts these days) were by far our most enthusiastic supporters. It was very uplifting. 

There was one incident I want to mention, though. As I was passing through the crowd, an angry Cal Bears fan reached up high and snatched my “Save the Oaks” sign right out of my hands and tried to walk away with it. I was able to grab it back from him, but this seemed to make him even angrier. He stuck his face right in front of mine and yelled at me repeatedly, “Get that sign out of here!” The people in the crowd stared at him and noticed how out of control he was. I honestly thought he was about to hit me. Fortunately, he decided to walk away without any further incident. 

But this caused me to reflect on the sad fact that anger is frequently a big part of the emotional response of many sports fans—even on the collegiate level. And this anger is often purposely inflamed by rally committees and yell leaders—and sometimes even by coaches and university administrators—in the hope that it will be channeled against the current week’s hated foe. For the Cal fans, it was Tennessee last week, and soon it will be another team. But anger is a very powerful emotion to invoke, and it is difficult to manage once it has been unleashed. I witnessed how poorly some of the Cal students treated the Tennessee fans, and I was shocked by the level of verbal abuse that was directed at them—even after Tennessee had lost the game and their somber fans were heading home. What ever happened to good sportsmanship? Any true Cal supporter ought to be ashamed of these disrespectful incidents; they are a very poor reflection on the reputation of the University of California. 

Even more important, though, is this: once this anger is whipped up to a frenzy, it cannot be channeled exclusively against the opposing team; it sometimes becomes a volatile fuel added to the frustrations that some individuals experience in their everyday lives, and they act out in aggressive and dangerous ways. This is one of the aspects of the current football emphasis that is prevalent on the Cal campus, and it is important for us to consider the implications of it for our community. 

I think it would be helpful if Chancellor Robert Birgineau, Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, and Coach Jeff Tedford would address their fans publicly to encourage more civil behavior toward the guests that come to our campus—not to mention toward their fellow alumni who may feel differently from them about the appropriateness of current construction plans. It would be a step in the right direction, and it would help all of us Cal alumni and supporters feel greater pride in our team and our university. 

Doug Buckwald is a UC Berkeley graduate (1982) and a Cal Bears fan.  

Were it not for that distinctive T-shirt, it’s doubtful I would ever have known about the White Rose Society. But meeting a friend recently, I was attracted by his T-shirt. At the top there was a line of Arabic script, beneath that the phrase, “We Will Not Remain Silent.” I was informed that this motto dated back to 1943, when a small group of students at the University of Munich, sickened by the atrocities of the Nazi’s, especially the persecution of the Jews, formed a resistance movement, which they named “The White Rose Society.” The origin of that name has never been determined, though one historian wrote that the color white represents purity. Perhaps it was that romantic-sounding name that sparked my interest. In any event, I found myself utterly engrossed in the story of these idealistic and heroic young intellectuals. 

Spending almost an entire day at the Berkeley Public Library, and assisted by a reference librarian who was equally intrigued by this Society, I unearthed a wealth of materials, the most valuable being the book, “A Noble Treason: The Revolt of Munich Students Against Hitler.” Thanks to the librarian’s computer skills, I was provided with a print-out of all four leaflets written by these students—leaflets calling for German youth to overthrow the regime. "The name of Germany will be dishonored forever lest German youth finally rise to smash [Hitler’s] tormentors and invoke a new, intellectual and spiritual Europe.” These leaflets were not the rabid ravings of wild-eyed radicals, but rather were beautifully-written, scholarly documents with quotations from Aristotle, Friedrich Schiller, Goethe and Lao Tzu. I was especially taken by the opening sentence in the First Leaflet: “Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be ‘governed’ without opposition by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. It is certain that every honest German is ashamed of his government.” Given today’s shameful Iraq war debacle, might we not substitute “honest American” for “honest German"? 

Members of this newly formed resistance movement were Hans Scholl, his sister, Sophie Scholl (perhaps the most dedicated and effective of all), Christoph Probst, Alex Schmorell, and Kurt Huber, a psychology professor and their spiritual guide. This small group assembled several evenings a week, working on their leaflets, which were cranked out, one by one, numbering in the thousands on an ancient mimeograph machine. It was Sophie who purchased the paper and envelopes, going from store to store so as not to arouse suspicion by the large number of supplies. 

Circulating the leaflets was a perilous task, but Sophie, carrying them in a valise, wisely mailed them from other cities, such as Stuttgart and Augsburg to divert attention from Munich. Soon the leaflets appeared in cities all over Germany, even Salzburg and Vienna. The Munich Gestapo was understandably in a state of high alarm and it set out to search for the resistance group. 

On Feb. 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie entered the University for the last time, carrying a bag crammed full of leaflets. After scattering many of them in the halls and lecture rooms, they climbed to the roof, throwing the remaining leaflets onto the university courtyard. They were observed by a janitor who immediately informed the Gestapo. Reaction was swift. A “People’s Court", in an electrically charged trial, ruled that Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst, in defaming the Fuhrer “are sentenced to death.” That same day, the three marched bravely to the Guillotine. Before being executed, Christopf shouted “We will meet each other in a few minutes.” Hans responded, “Long live freedom.” Sophie followed calmly. So—the death of these three spelled the death of the “White Rose.” Yet their message endured. “We shall not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The white rose will not leave you in peace!” 

Absorbed as I’ve been with the dramatic account of these heroic young resistance leaders, I’m left with the disturbing question: Why are today’s university students not rebelling at the Iraq war and other injustices? Except for a tepid demonstration against Boalt Hall Law Professor John Yoo and his defense of torture tactics by the present administration, there have been few protests. Am I foolish to dream of a White Rose Society in this country to restore our honor and atone for the needless loss of American military and innocent Iraq’s?  

Dorothy Snodgrass is a Berkeley resident. 

On Sept. 13, George W. Bush spoke to the United States about Iraq. In his most somber assessment to date, the president claimed the surge has achieved modest results and a few troops can return home. However, “Iraqi leaders have asked for an enduring relationship with America,” therefore additional troops will only “return on success.” Bush implied that large numbers of Americans would remain in Iraq throughout the remaining 17 months of his presidency. He didn’t present an exit strategy, but rather a profession of faith: U.S. troops can “win” in Iraq. 

In his speech, President Bush emphasized he is following the advice of the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus. On Sept. 10 and 11, General Petraeus presented his status report to the U.S. Congress. He emphasized “progress” made in buttressing security and downplayed the political situation, where little has been accomplished. He argued that current force levels—20 combat brigades—are required for the security of Iraqi civilians and there should not be a significant drawdown of U.S. troops until next spring. He suggested that substantial U.S. force levels—roughly 15 brigades—would be required for an indefinite period. 

America continues to be deeply divided about the conduct of the war and its relationship to national security, in general. On Sept. 11, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Service Committee, John Warner (Virginia), asked whether the current strategy in Iraq was “making America safer.” General Petraeus replied, “Sir, I don’t know, actually.” 

The debate about U.S. involvement in Iraq should be conducted within the framework of national security strategy. However, the Bush administration, and most Republicans, refuses to engage in this debate. Instead, the White House continually changes tactics without addressing the larger issue of whether the current strategy in Iraq is making America safer. 

President Bush continues to lead the “stay-until-we-win” Republican phalanx. After having proffered various justifications for the occupation of Iraq, Bush has decided that it’s the central front of his “War on Terror.” “Iraq is one of several fronts in the war on terror—but it’s the central front.” Thus, President Bush and General Petraeus want an open-ended commitment to Iraq. 

Roughly a quarter of the American electorate supports the Bush stance. Because of the communication power of the White House, the stay-until-we-win perspective has gotten the most U.S. media airtime in recent months and support for the president’s position has increased. Furthermore, the front-runners for the Republican nomination for president all embrace the notion that Iraq is the center of the war on terror However, another quarter of the electorate feels the U.S. should immediately begin to withdraw troops from Iraq. Apparently, the remaining 50 percent don’t know what to do. Writing in the latest edition of the New Yorker, Iraq expert George Packer observed, “The country seems trapped in an eternal present, paralyzed by its past mistakes.” 

The United States desperately needs a strategic perspective on Iraq: a long-term view that determines the best course of action after considering national priorities. That’s what Sen. Jack Reed (Democrat, Rhode Island) argued for in his response to the President’s address on Iraq: “Do we continue to heed the president’s call that all Iraq needs is more time, more money, and the indefinite presence of 130,000 American troops…? Or do we follow what is in our nation’s best interest and redefine our mission in Iraq?” Reed called for the U.S, to disengage itself from Iraq’s “civil war” and to develop a strategy to deal with both the diplomatic issues in the Middle East and the pursuit of al Qaeda. 

Last December the Iraq Study Group, a non-partisan body, took a strategic perspective on Iraq. They cautioned, “The United States should not make an open-ended commitment to keep large numbers of American troops deployed in Iraq.” Both the Iraq Study Group Report and George Packer’s New Yorker article suggest that a strategic perspective needs to consider three questions: How does continued allocation of 15-20 combat brigades to Iraq affect military readiness? How does continuation of the occupation impact the “war on terror?” And, what are America’s strategic interests in Iraq? 

Unfortunately, the Bush administration has proven incapable of thinking strategically. The president and most members of his Party are locked onto one tactic: “stay until we win.” Sen. Reed’s speech, and the comments of Congressman Skelton and Sen. Warner, indicate there is growing Congressional interest in addressing the question of whether involvement in Iraq is actually making America safer. Historically, in the American system, it has been the job of the executive branch of government to develop strategy and the responsibility of the legislative branch to fund it and, occasionally, make changes at the margins. In order to change direction in Iraq, before George W. Bush leaves office, it will be up to Congress to redefine American strategy in the “war” on terror. While possible, it seems unlikely this will happen. 

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

A few years back, the Planet asked me to review a slim (hip-pocket-size, actually) volume called Sierra Birds: A Hiker’s Guide by John Muir Laws, a joint venture of Berkeley’s Heyday Books and the California Academy of Sciences. I gave it a thumbs up, calling it “ideal…for beginning birders or hikers with only a causal interest in birds,” but also useful to seasoned watchers. Laws, like Peterson and Sibley, had written and illustrated his own guide, which did not assume knowledge of formal bird classification: all the streaky brown birds were illustrated together. The art was lively, the text concise and to the point. 

That same summer, in one of those unlikely coincidences, Ron and I ran into Jack Laws at the Summit Lake campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Laws said the bird book wasn’t just a one-off: he was putting together a field guide, or series of guides, to the whole natural world of the Sierra Nevada—wildflowers, trees, insects, fish, mammals, the works.  

He happened to be at Lassen sketching bog-orchids and other montane flowers. Laws gave us a prototype of the mammal and fish sections of the project, which for the first time gave me some hope of telling the Sierra’s myriad chipmunks apart. (The range is in fact a hotbed of chipmunk speciation, but that’s a digression I’ll resist for now.) I later saw him as artist-in-residence at the Academy’s exhibit on California’s biodiversity, where more of his images were on display, and I’ve followed his work in Bay Nature. 

Well, the project is complete: The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada ($24.95) was published by Heyday and the Academy this summer. And I’m happy to say that it lives up to expectations. It’s thicker than the bird book, but would still fit comfortably in a backpack. 

I tend to carry a lot of reference baggage into the Sierra: not the Jepson Manual, but just about everything else. The old UC Press Sierra Nevada Natural History was good up to a point, but it had its limitations. So I found myself packing multiple bird guides, a regional flora or two, tree manuals, mammal and insect and reptile guides. And then I’d encounter an odd fish. No fish guide. Another time I found a meltwater pond in the Lakes Basin swarming with neon-green fairy shrimp. Not in the books. I remember stumbling across an extraordinary moth in a wet meadow in Lassen and having no idea what it was. There is no such thing as a field guide to western moths. Eventually, consulting a reprint of a 1903 moth manual, I concluded it must have been a common sheep moth. 

That identification would have been a snap with Laws’ new book. 

The coverage is inclusive. Not only are there moths, there’s a half-page of bumblebees, and pages after pages of those beetles of which God is so inordinately fond. There are spiders (with web diagrams), plant galls, obscure underwater things like freshwater sponges. Sponges in the Sierra? Yes, and bryozoans and hydroids. 

Fungi. Lichens. Tracks and scat.  

The wildflower section follows the precedent of the stand-alone bird book. You don’t need to know the ever-shifting terrain of plant taxonomy to use this book. (I’m now taking a taxonomy course at Merritt College, and I figure on learning this version—in which the lily family has been broken up, and water lotuses are next of kin to sycamores—and then not trying to keep up any more.) Laws provides simple keys to identification, based on color and other obvious features. There are helpful asides: “Difficulty identifying Arnica? Relax, it’s not you…” That made me feel a lot better. 

The guide covers all the Sierra’s national forests (Lassen to Sequoia) and national parks. Range maps are used sparingly, mostly with the small rodents—location is important in sorting chipmunks—and shrews. Did I mention the seasonal star charts? 

Omissions are inevitable in a project of this scope, but they’re few.  

The book went to press too late to include the newly discovered Yosemite bog-orchid, a tiny yellowish flower that smells, depending on your source, like feet, Limburger cheese, or a corral of horses on a hot day. Although the bizarre cave-dwelling creatures of Sequoia National Park, featured in this month’s National Geographic, are not included, most of us non-spelunkers will never encounter them. I would have liked to see larval amphibians (I’ve met more tadpoles in the Sierra than adult frogs and toads) and mosses, a truly underappreciated division of the plant kingdom. Geology isn’t covered, but there’s an excellent volume in the new UC press series of guides. 

Overall, though, well done, and a model work for other regional natural history guides. How about the Mojave and Colorado deserts? The Coast Ranges? Laws is still young, but there’s a lot out there.  

Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Ron Sullivan’s “Green Neighbors” column on East Bay trees.

Here's a footnote to the Save the Oaks demonstration, sent in on Friday evening by a veteran of the Free Speech Movement, using a pseudonym for reasons which will be obvious. 

Three hours ago, I joined some other veterans of UC Berkeley's Free Speech Movement in a show of support for Berkeley students who are fighting UC's plans to tear down a wonderful stand of towering oak to build a $150 million sports facility on an active faultline.  

Half a dozen students spoke and then the microphone was passed to one of the first of the tree-sitters, a lithe young lady names Jessie, who was asked to say a few words. Jessie tried to speak but words wouldn't come. Instead, she stood upright, clenching the microphone before her lips as her face began to tremble. She held the microphone -- and the audience -- in her grip for several emotional minutes before whispering quietly, "These trees saved me," and stepping down.  

FSM leader/author/teacher Michael Rossman recalled how the students of the 1960s faced the same unresponsive corporate UC administration tactics. He pointed out the importance of the oaks not only as an ecological keystone species but as an important link in the social ecology of the city -- a grove dedicated to the memory of the fallen soldiers from WWI that became a place where students have gathered for generations to enjoy a riff, a tipple, and the serenity of nature close-at-hand. The grove became an important place for friends to gather and socialize and for individuals to settle for quiet contemplation. Rossman recalled how he ventured to the groves to read and study.  

Rossman mentioned another infamous UC Berkeley fence — the one that was erected around Peoples Park. And, making sure to note that he was in no way suggesting any form of direct action, Rossman recollected how one day buttons and fliers started to appear around town with a mysterious message. Nothing more than the words "Peoples Park", a date and a time. On that date and at that time, 3,000 people spontaneously walked to the park, surrounded the site and pulled the steel fence down with their bare hands. No one was hurt, the park was liberated and it remains an open space today.  

At the end of the speech-making, 20-plus students — young men and women all wearing orange t-shirts reading "Free Speech" and "Free Trees" — announced that they were going to "exercise" their rights to free expression. "Are you ready to exercise?" the dynamic young spokeswoman announced and, to the surprise of the onlookers, the students suddenly turned, leaped over metal police barricades, sprinted to the hurricane fence and climbed over to join the "imprisoned" tree-dwellers.  

It was a joyous act of civil disobedience that reminded us FSM vets of the afternoon we walked into Sproul Hall with Joan Baez, faced arrest and brought the university to a standstill. 

Somewhat swept away by the students' spontaneous and joyous act of defiance, found myself also climbing over the barricade and jogging toward the fence. I figured it would be fitting for a representative from the FSM Generation to support the students in full-measure. So I clambered over the fence and joined them.  

In the process, however, I punched two holes in my left hand as I swung over the sharp metal spikes on atop the fence. After a minute inside, helping the students clean up the site, I notice that my hand (and my pants) were covered in blood where the fence had ripped my palm open. I had to beat a retreat. In the process of climbing back over the fence, I managed to punch another hole in my hand. Zachary Running Wolf patched me up at the scene.  

As I climbed out (with the assistance of some members of the tree-sit support team) a reporter asked my name. I pointed out that, since I had technically just broken the law, I'd prefer not to give my name. He allowed me to use an alias and I chose "George." What I failed to reveal was that I was not just some aging geezer with a bloodied hand, but I was an FSM vet, a former draft resister, a troop train protester, a Port Chicago vigiler and a tax rebel. And there was one last thing I should have told that reporter: Dang, but if felt good to break the law again!  

This is the summer of disquiet and discontent for supporters of Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and for those who may not have supported him in the last election, but still want him to succeed as mayor. 

It has been many weeks since the great, singular triumph of the Dellums administration, when reporters crowded the City Hall rotunda outside the mayor’s office to hear representatives of the Teamsters union and Waste Management, in turn, take the podium to praise Mr. Dellums for being the driving force that ended the garbage workers lockout. That bright and shining moment confirmed all the assertions made by his supporters during last year’s mayoral campaign that Mr. Dellums was willing to do the backbreaking, detailed work necessary to the mayor’s office, and that his legendary powers of persuasion and ability to forge unlikely coalitions through creative compromises would be valuable tools to work out solutions to Oakland’s deep problems. 

But Mr. Dellums is not in the position of a Henry Kissinger, the secretary of state and national security advisor under Nixon, who could disappear for weeks on end without public notice or concern, and then emerge, triumphant, with a China agreement in hand. The mayor is the face of a city. When things are going badly, the citizens want to see that face on a regular basis, and be constantly reassured that the mayor is on the job, working on their problems. 

And so we have people like NovoMetro editor-publisher Alex Gronke calling for Mr. Dellums to publish his daily calendar online, so we can see what the mayor is doing with his time.  

“The cynical, cheap shot response” to Mr. Dellums’ failure to post an online calendar, Mr. Gronke writes in a Sept. 8 blog, “would be to say that … [this] is probably an accurate reflection of his daily doings. Rather than hiding from the public a daily schedule of back room dealing, he is concealing long afternoon naps and occasional speech making in other cities.” 

My friend, Mr. Gronke is right. That is a cheap shot. Local politicians tend to dismiss the demands and concerns of the local media to the extent that we in the media are often far more interested in making an issue of the demand than we are in the actual receipt and dissemination of the information itself. 

Former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown started out religiously posting his calendar online. Nobody seemed to care, to the extent that when Mr. Brown’s staff failed to update it between September of 2005 and March of 2006, and then belatedly published the December and January schedules four months late before stopping, again, altogether, no one in the press (besides myself) raised a stir. 

And when a public records request by PUEBLO of Mr. Brown’s actual calendar—not the one he was posting online—revealed that the former mayor was listing significant time during the day to do fund-raising calls in support of his two private, independent charter schools as part of his daily activities, again, this column was the only place where it was mentioned that the mayor might have been using his time-on-the-clock working on things which actually involved his duties as mayor. 

Meanwhile, remember all the stink in the press about Mr. Dellums’ office allegedly hiding the results of last summer’s various task force meetings and demanding that the reports be made available to the public? Well, the mayoral task force reports have been available to the public for several weeks now, posted on the city website. Having received full access to those reports, many of my media colleagues who howled so loudly to get that information have failed to write a single article or column on what the reports contained. 

A good friend of mine, a long-time political observer and sometimes-activist, often tells me she believes the differences in the way the media scrutinized Mr. Brown and Mr. Dellums amounts to a double standard that has a strain of anti-black racism at its core. While anti-black racism can never be fully discounted in American life—it is, after all, as much a part of the fabric of this nation, from its onset, as was all of our constitutional, capitalist, and revolutionary, principles—I think there is another dynamic at work in how Mr. Dellums and his accomplishments, or lack of accomplishments, are being currently perceived in Oakland, and that stems from both a contradictory duality within the new mayor, some significant differences between how work gets done in Washington and how work gets done in Oakland, and some misconceptions on our own part as to how Mr. Dellums was able to make his mark in the past. 

Mr. Dellums won last year’s election over two tough, veteran city councilmember opponents in large part on the strength of a soaring message of hope that Oakland was a jewel of a city with significant assets—especially among its population—and whose fortunes could be turned around. Mr. Dellums’ high rhetoric—along with his international stature—raised expectations about what his administration would accomplish far and above what would have been looked for in a De La Fuente or a Nadel administration. 

That setting of high goals did not end with the casting of the votes last year. Once, when I was asking Mr. Dellums for details on his proposals to make Oakland into “a model city,” he reminded me, pointedly, was that his goal was to make Oakland “the model city.” 

But the problems facing Oakland—as Mr. Dellums fully knows, and informed any of us who were actually listening in detail—are not those that can be solved with clever strokes or flying phrases. There are significant differences within this city on the three major issues before us: how to lessen the violent crime on our streets, who should live in the city and who should city government serve, and in what form should residential and commercial development proceed. 

We are now hearing a rising chorus of I-told-you-so’s, presumably from supporters of Mr. De La Fuente in the late contest, who are eager to remind us that Mr. De La Fuente would have been a hands-on mayor, and if he had been elected, things would have been off and running in the city. That, however, is something like being told, after you reach the airport to find that your Southwest flight to Los Angeles is delayed, that an Alaska Airlines plane to Seattle is currently boarding and will soon to take off. Yes, the Alaska Airlines staff may be efficient and the flight on-time, but if it is not taking you where you want to go, what’s the point? 

In some areas, Mr. Dellums has waited to establish the city’s direction until citizens of the city—many of whom were left out of such direction-setting decision-making in the past—get the chance to weigh in on how we want our city to work, and what we want our city to be. That was one of the purposes that led to the creation of mayoral task forces, a process that Mr. Dellums believes did not end with the publication of the various reports, but is ongoing. Members of several of the task forces, in fact, are currently identifying themselves by that membership as they participate in the various debates and struggles over Oakland policy issues, and indicating that at least some of the task forces may be on the way towards institutionalizing themselves as both a citizen sounding board and a vehicle for community action. That, in itself, will pay benefits to this city in years to come. 

In some areas, Mr. Dellums appears to have a clear idea of where he wants to go, but cannot get there immediately until some roadblocks are removed. That is certainly the case with Oakland’s violent crime problem. OPD Chief Wayne Tucker has developed a new deployment plan that Mr. Dellums believes will help the police department make significant inroads into creating a community police presence and, in the long run, abating Oakland’s violent crime. But the Oakland Police Officers Association, the police union, is opposed to Mr. Tucker’s plan, and that debate is the subject of the ongoing city-union contract bargaining talks. One can assume that just as in the Waste Management workers lockout, Mr. Dellums is using his significant powers of persuasion to try to win concessions from OPOA and settle the contract talks. But until that is done, and some form of Mr. Tucker’s plan can be implemented, the reorganization of the police department cannot move forward. 

In some areas, such as conforming the city’s zoning code to its General Plan, there are no significant roadblocks, just many months of detailed work in front of city staff. That work was neglected—some say deliberately neglected—under Jerry Brown, and resulted in the sort of hodgepodge development we currently see in Oakland, with enormous subsidies to developers in some areas that will eat up redevelopment funds for years to come, while other large sections of Oakland go to seed. 

With the caveat that he has grown older—as have all of us—and can no longer put in the enormous hours himself that he once did, Mr. Dellums actually appears to be attacking Oakland’s problems in the same way he won international acclaim, successfully attacking problems while in Congress, combining periodic high-rhetoric and stirring speeches to shore up morale and get supporters to work harder with the detailed, background, behind-the-scenes commitment necessary to forge compromises, agreements, and legislation. 

The difference is that while nobody believed that apartheid could be toppled in a day, and saw it as a long-term fight, Oakland residents want solutions to their problems now, or at least some indication that there is significant work being done to solve their problems. That is just the nature of medium-to-big city politics. Along with Mr. Dellums’ own rhetoric, that has caused many citizens of this city to expect both immediate and sustained progress towards meeting the goal of “turning Oakland around.” When questioned about why that has not immediately happened, Mr. Dellums cannot get by with calling us “cynical,” as he so famously did to a television reporter during last month’s press conference announcing his public safety policy. Instead, the mayor must use the same patience with us that he is requesting we give to him, realize that these concerns are genuine and legitimate, and help give the public a better understanding of what is actually going on with the city and his administration, and what we can now reasonably expect. 

Among surviving Victorian homes in Berkeley, the 1877 Bartlett House, 2201 Blake St. at the corner of Fulton is rare, possibly unique. There are similar houses in San Francisco, and others in Oakland and Alameda, but not in Berkeley. 

It’s a substantially unchanged 130-year-old home, particularly on the outside. Retaining a spacious lot in a built-up district, it is designated a City of Berkeley landmark. 

The house is for sale for $1,349,000.  

The listing agent is Arlene Acuna, Marvin Gardens Real Estate, www.2201Blake.com, or 510-206-0793. There’s a real estate open house this coming Sunday afternoon, Sept. 16, 1-4 p.m. 

“The Bartlett houses, in their original setting with virtually no exterior alterations, no structures added to the site since 1892, and with some of the earliest accessory buildings which have survived in the city, are probably the most pristine representation of Victorian Berkeley still in existence,” the landmark nomination notes. 

The Italianate Victorian is a tall, deep and narrow, wooden two-story house with a hipped roof flattened on top and once provided with a widow’s walk observation platform. A formal front porch facing Blake Street leads to a double entrance door, adjacent to a window bay. The wide roof overhang is somewhat out of the ordinary. 

Inside, there’s the standard Victorian entry hall with a steeply impressive staircase rising straight to the second floor. The ground floor has two parlors, the second, inner, one provided with a marble fireplace and pocket doors. 

The hall and the second parlor open into a large room across the width of the house with bay window on the west. Here, things get architecturally interesting. 

This room was once divided in half, with kitchen on one side and dining room on the other. The partition is now gone and this is an airy space with marble fireplace, but kitchen fixtures, including sink, stove, and a closet-like pantry remain along the east wall. 

Directly behind this room there’s the original kitchen space, now fitted out as a bedroom or dayroom and opening to back porch and to a side hallway converted into a downstairs bathroom (note the pass-through from the pantry towards the hall-turned-bathroom). 

Off the rear covered porch there’s a narrow, freestanding, one story structure, reputedly once for servants. 

Spare a thought for Berkeley’s early domestic working class, often immigrants, living very simply in tiny rear or upstairs rooms like these. Their labors and quarters literally lay behind the comfortable lifestyles of the middle and upper classes. 

Other early features—a carved railing, a wall mounted wire mesh pie safe, a side storage room for firewood and coal, and laundry sinks—complete the back porch. 

Round the corner and across the yard is the original stable building. 

Venerable pear trees shed their autumn fruit. A new property line is reportedly being established to divide the freestanding houses at 2201 and 2205 Blake into two parcels for separate sale. 

There’s an ornate recessed side entry on the west of 2201 facing Fulton Street, almost a second front door to the house, approached between the trunks of two large cedars.  

Next to this entry you can see, through a west-facing window, a steep and extremely narrow staircase. Upstairs though, no stair appears; it’s concealed beneath a trap door in the floor of a second floor porch. 

The second floor begins at the south with a window-bayed master bedroom that spans the full width of the house. It’s furnished with a ponderous but impressive dark wooden bedroom set, scaled to the large, high, dimensions of the room. 

Along the east wall there’s a connecting bedroom (reportedly an original bathroom), then a smaller current bathroom. Tucked between the two is a closet-like room with built-ins and a winding stair to the attic (not 

open for viewing). A drawer in the bathroom wall is extremely deep and double-ended, opening to the closet on the other side. 

The back of the second floor contains two bedrooms, a small kitchen, and a glassed-in side porch. From the front staircase a narrow hallway with rounded corner walls zigzags towards the back of the house; it’s a bit like a passageway on a ship. 

In the 1940s the upstairs was apparently converted to two residential units, sharing the bathroom. 

The house retains many of the features that make Victorians special (and 

also sometimes hard to heat). There are high ceilings, large vertical double-hung windows, three window bays, two marble fireplaces, refinished wood floors, and decorative ornamentation. 

One feature of the house that was talked about for years in local historical circles is now irretrievably gone. The original wallpaper and floral ceiling decorations have vanished, replaced with a blandly pleasant interior paint job in neutral white, creams, and light yellows. 

Outside, the house has been painted a deep gray, with lighter trim, consistent with its color for many years. Sitting well back from the street behind a shadowy screen of large evergreen trees—deodar, atlas, incense cedars—the dark house has seemed mysterious for generations. 

A long-time neighbor says that in the 1970s it was called the “haunted house” and she met people who had called it that in the 1920s. 

Stately and reserved perhaps, but haunted, no.  

The house was built by Alfred Bartlett, born in 1841 on an English farm. He did a stint in the British Navy then stowed away to New York at age 15, learned carpentry and retailing, and worked his way aboard a ship to San Francisco in 1857.  

He bought a wagon and turned an early love of books into a career as a traveling bookseller. This brought prosperity enough to buy property and in 1868—the year the University of California was founded—he married Teresa Whitney, a New Yorker who would remain his “faithful and affectionate wife” for more than half a century. 

In 1876, Bartlett bought the Blake Street property at auction and the following year he built 2201 Blake and moved his family there “for the sake of the health of my wife and two daughters.” 

This is a recurrent theme in East Bay history—moving across the bay, glad to get away from chilly, foggy, San Francisco. 

Bartlett continued in book selling and real estate. The landmark nomination for 2201 Blake says the family was “frequently mentioned in the local newspapers, and appear to have been well-liked.” Bartlett even ran for town marshal, unsuccessfully, and two of his three daughters earned degrees from nearby UC. 

In 1892 the Bartletts built the house next door at 2205 Blake, apparently as a rental property. They eventually spent much of their time living in Fresno. Alfred died in 1924, Teresa in 1919. 

In the 1920s the Schendels purchased 2201 Blake. Howard Coleston, Sr. who grew up on Fulton Street, married into the family in the 1940s, the same decade the Bartlett House was reportedly converted to apartments. 

The adjoining houses descended through the Schendel/Coleston family until the present day. 

Alfred Bartlett had written once to his future wife, “You may like a city for a while, but I expect you would soon long for the liberty and natural pleasures of a country life.” Semi-rural Berkeley in the 1870s probably fit that bill. 

The Bartlett House stands on one of 140 “residence lots” put up for auction in October 1876 by Francis Shattuck, subdividing property homesteaded by Berkeley pioneer George Blake. 

This was just a few years after the University of California had moved to its Berkeley site, and the same year Berkeley was formally incorporated as a town. 

Shattuck had arranged for a steam train line to run up his property tract, and rail service began in 1875. The trains made a stop at “Dwight Way Station” just a block northwest of the Bartlett House site, and for years property owners and merchants around that nexus tried hard to make it the center of Berkeley’s growing Downtown. 

The neighborhood escaped that fate, meaning that many early buildings, commercial and residential and including the Bartlett House, survive on the surrounding blocks. 

As the 19th century wore on to a close, the neighborhood was a pleasant residential district of Victorian family homes, both substantial and modest, convenient to campus, commerce, and transportation. 

In the early 20th century, remaining vacant lots filled in with additional houses in newer architectural styles. Depression and World War II resulted in the subdivision of many larger, older, houses into smaller units, while the University population grew and rental demand increased. 

By the 1950s and ‘60s this was sometimes dismissed as a district headed towards dereliction, unfashionable in those days of “suburban flight.” On every block some houses were torn down and replaced with large apartment buildings, including some of Berkeley’s most intrusive stucco “ticky tacks.” 

By the 1970s this was also a district where grassroots neighborhood activism and revival began to emerge. There were rent strikes, communes, and residents successfully protested the “Fulton Freeway”, then a congested southbound commute route to Ashby Avenue. One of Berkeley’s earliest traffic barriers blocks Fulton next to the Bartlett House. 

Not unusual for a district so close to a large university campus, the neighborhood contains many multi-unit structures and short term residents. However, there are a surprising number of long-term residents, both owners and renters. 

For a feel of the neighborhood—-and the really significant collection of early Victorians it contains—stroll a block or two in each direction from the Bartlett House. 

The Bartlett House is well worth a visit on Sunday to see the fine traditional Victorian interior and setting.  

But if you think about buying it, I hope you are someone who truly wants to live in a classic Victorian and make it comfortable without unsympathetic modernist “updates”, “improvements”, and “remodels.” 

And I also hope you value a large, level, yard for its gardening potential, not as a place to build. 

Although this property is privately owned, it’s also a true community cultural treasure.  

Photograph by Steven Finacom. A path framed between cedars approaches the west entrance of the Bartlett House. 

I have always enjoyed looking at houses. I think it started in my childhood, when we used to visit open houses on Sundays after church. As an adult, I have chosen a profession in which I can get access to many, many homes.  

But it has come to my attention that there are others like me, and I think maybe it’s time to start a 12-step program for house junkies. Do you qualify? Answer these simple questions and find out.  

1. When you go on vacation you pick up the real estate magazines at the supermarket and check them to see what houses cost in that area. 

2. You sit on your front porch staring at the house across the street and consider various new color schemes for it. 

3. Your idea of a good time is a trip to the hardware store. 

4. Cabinet hardware excites you. 

5. You joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation just so you could look at the real estate ads in the back of the magazine, and imagine yourself buying a log house from 1790 or an abandoned insane asylum. 

6. While other people are out having brunch on Sundays, you’re on the computer perusing the Daily Planet’s fabulous interactive Open Homes and planning your strategy for touring them. 

7. You would be willing to buy a totally falling down house in the middle of nowhere if it was architecturally fabulous. 

8. If you know a house is vacant, you sneak up and peer through the windows. 

9. You are ecstatic if you find a house with an original kitchen. 

10.Your vacation photos consist entirely of pictures of window muntins. 

11. This line in a real estate ad would get your attention: “ First time on market in 80 years.” 

The good news is that it’s a fairly benign addiction, unless, of course, you act on it by buying the house even though you already have a house.  

Otherwise, 12-step meetings would consist entirely of discussion of houses seen, maybe with photos, and trading notes on which agents will let civilians in during the broker’s tour. Oh, and snacks. 

Photograph by Jane Powell  

The finest house in Ferdinand, Idaho, population 125. The author would have bought this had cooler heads not prevailed. 

Jane Powell is the author of Bungalow Details: Interior and an unreformed house junkie, though she swears she hasn’t bought anything in two years. She can be reached at janepowell@sbcglobal.net. 

We’ll have our usual autumn hot spell, and things will get all dusty and drab, and we’ll all want to grow something green where we can. We’ll plant winter veggies and herbs and something to flower in December maybe, camellias and manzanitas and azaleas.  

This year we’ll need to beware water rationing. It’s odd how mild the recent warnings and requests from EBMUD and the other water districts have been; the reservoirs that I and others who talk to me have seen are scarily low, and the idea that we’ll have a deep-snowpack winter, never mind a locally rainy one, is practically a fantasy.  

So why am I telling you about fountains? I’ve found it’s aesthetically and psychologically wise to concentrate the water you do have, and establishing watering zones—most of the supplemental watering done in one small area, usually close to the house, and more water-thrifty plants taking up the rest of the garden—is Step One.  

Step Two might reasonably be water at play, a focus for the eye and ear of moving water. I suspect it’s a human universal to enjoy the movement, sound, light refraction and diffraction and reflection, and cool hospitable atmosphere of dancing water. 

Given what I saw at TAG Fountains Garden Pottery (the business card has those last three words equitably arranged around the shop’s name; maybe the idea is not to play favorites?) the zone-planting idea is also a necessity if you include a fountain. They all splash a little, but not quite so predictably that you can count on that for the surrounding plants’ supply.  

I myself like fragrant-leafed plants where they can be jostled now and then and release their scent. The majority of such plants seem to be droughty desert- or chaparral-dwellers whose fragrant oils are part of their water-retaining capacity, holding moisture in the leaves and also discouraging herbivores from making a main dish of them. 

Notable exceptions are mints, and a ring of whatever mint strikes your fancy around a fountain—carefully contained of course, given their invasive tendencies—would be twice hospitable, throwing out the occasional zing of fragrance and garnishing (or composing) a cool drink. 

This TAG place has quite the variety of shapes to choose from: pillars, balls, nymphs, abstracts, your basic spitting lionhead, and one that struck me as startling, an apparent Buddha-head of the hobnail hairdo variety with water flowing smoothly from his topknot to veil his entire face and head.  

I guess it tweaked my attention because, though there are Jesus and Mary statues among the various sculptures there, they aren’t plumbed. No weeping Immaculate Heart, and the lamb The Good Shepherd carries in the crook of his arm isn’t piddling on him. Think of the possibilities left unexplored! 

Lots of pots, mostly large; ornaments to stand or hang, from Green Man to gazing ball; hanging votive-candle lamps with a dressy jeweled look; a chiminea and an alleged tiki that looks more like one of the moai from Rapa Nui.  

(For local tiki carving, go on down to the Templebar at 8th and University and see what Kem Loong Jr. has been doing.)  

TAG Garden Pottery Fountains 

725 Gilman St. 

849-1514 

http://www.tagpottery.com 

10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily 

My wife and I have been arguing about our house for 20 years. I know this isn’t unusual but it’s noteworthy and I’m going to take the long way ‘round in proving the point.  

People fight about houses. They fight about what color to paint, who gets to put a painting up on a particular wall, what repairs to make and how clean to keep it. It’s hard enough when one person owns and cares for a house but when two try to negotiate the arrangement of space, it’s congressional oversight 24/7. 

I, for one, feel like I’m having a serious debate every time I try to decide where to place a piece of furniture in a room. I’m quite capable of having an argument with myself (“stop that!”, “no, you stop that!”). 

Carl Jung argued, some 90 years ago, that I do this because I’m really whole bunch of neatly packed into one anatomy, and further, that I’m also identifying with the table, the room, the floor and the cat. So, it’s not so much that I’m rearranging the room, it’s more like I’m fixing my hair and deciding how tanned I should be. When the table isn’t just so, I look wrong. Just imagine when we get to painting the room! 

Berkeley is an exciting and wonderful place and due, in no small part, to our bountiful and delicious university. Nearly 30 years ago, I had the good fortune to study here and among the fascinating soldiers of knowledge I encountered on the field of battle was one Clare Cooper Marcus, a student of both Jung and of Architecture. 

Clare talked in class about what would eventually become ink in House As a Mirror of Self (published in 1995, some 15 years later. The paperback came out last year).  

She posits the notion that we experience the built world as an extension of ourselves. This perspective both enriches and also complicates our relationship with our houses, huts and garages. It also provides a valuable tool for looking into our relationships, particularly those we share real estate with. 

If I see my house as an extension of myself (Does this porch make me look fat?) and my partner sees the SAME house as an extension of herself, how the hell do we manage to remodel anything. Anyone who’s been through the arduous remodeling process with a partner can attest to the strain it can put on the relationship. In fact, while I’ve never seen any statistics (and would love to), I’m quite sure that a major remodel is one of the primary causes of a breakup or divorce. I say this simply having been around the remodeling (and marital) world for decades and having seen a shocking number of these in my own field of vision (or as stories shared by friends and colleagues). 

When two people are trying to express their own inner selves on the canvas of home, it’s a trial of mythological proportion. All the demons and homunculi come out, put on their little tiny tool belts and go at it, tearing down walls, throwing spaghetti and tiny balls of fire. Our distant pasts collide and can either blend into artistic visions (as in the case of the great collaborations of art and science history) or rail and raze the cities of our inner and outer lives. 

Again, this is hard enough when one person is involved. As a recovering remodeling contractor I can say with authority that helping a single person remodel their home is often quite trying. Remodelers usually try to keep their personalities out of the work and let the client have all the say (at least on what it looks like since how it’s built should be their domain) so you would think that this would simplify things. Well, it surely does but it’s still hard. Mr. Jung and Ms. Cooper Marcus have shed some light on why this is. Allow me to take this light and focus it a bit. 

If we accept the theorem that the house is a symbol of the self (Your self for example) what happens when someone starts remodeling your house is that they begin moving your nose a little to the left, your hairline backward or down to your eyebrows or your knees up to your hips. 

O.K., let’s set this grotesqueness aside for a second in favor of another. Remodeling is physically like surgery on your house, full of incisions, joint replacements and catheterizations. When we rewire your house, is this neurosurgery? When we replumb, is it a triple bypass? 

Remodeling is, in some psychological way, a reshaping of the person, people or relationships that exist inside the space. Even if we set the Zen-crystal-macrobiotic stuff aside for the moment, it’s not hard to see the Cartesian (republican) equivalents. Cutting up my house is disruptive and the dust and mess and lack of peace is harsh, dude.  

Nevertheless, I’m actually convinced that there IS something deeper going on and the test is in the identification that people clearly have with the smallest details in their homes.  

Anyone who has ever spent time with a really ob-com (obsessive compulsive) person can tell you that the relocation of the smallest object or the tiniest mess can set them off into flights of mania. This is due to the fragility of their inner I.D. When we have a deep, strong sense of ourselves and are grounded in a profound understanding of our place in the universe, a dirty car is not a big deal. When we’re not, we need to build masks that hold our identity (house, car, income) over the void of doubt. 

This suggests that in some sort of way, a remodel is a radical therapy, forcing the inner self to the surface and into the light of day. Remodeling contractors know this even if they don’t know that they know it. They know that at some point, even the nicest, sanest client is going to lose it when they’ve been deprived of their serene space for 10 weeks.  

When I was in the business, I used to interview clients and pay close attention to the neatness of the house. If it was fussy-perfection clean, I would find a way to avoid taking the job. This was the client that was going to go ballistic at some point when their image of the world (self, house) had literally crumbled into plaster dust.  

Now, that said, there are people who are just the opposite, looking for the extreme psychic makeover. The adventurous person who will go on Nepal treks or change jobs at the drop of a hat. Younger people more often fit this profile but that is definitely a generalization that wears thin fast. You get the point. The free and open-minded do better when we begin the psychic surgery of remodeling and the tight-as-a-drum go catawampus. 

If no other good comes out of this area of inquiry, I’m certain that the remodeling industry can gain greatly. Of course, they don’t tend to listen to this sort of thing so it will have to be “hammered” into them by academics, clients and writers so in say, 100 years, I think we’ll be good to go. 

This week’s column is dedicated to my old aerobics classmate Anita Feder-Chernila. Anita, a Berkeley gestalt therapist, consulted with Clare Cooper Marcus in the early years of Clare’s development of her theories and I’m certain that all those leg lifts and Cyndi Lauper records must have somehow insinuated themselves into Clare’s theories. Or maybe it only proves that Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. 

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

TUESDAY, SEPT. 18 

CHILDREN 

Daffy Dave the Clown at 6:30 p.m. Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. For ages 3 and up. 524-3043. 

FILM 

“It’s a Funny, Mad, Sad, World: The Movies of George Kuchar” with filmmaker George Kuchar at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Barsamian will discuss his book “Targeting Iran” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic featuring Eva Schlesinger at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761.  

Ian Klaus describes “Elvis is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Book. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Christian Scott at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Opens with a curator’s talk at noon at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, and runs through Dec. 23. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

FILM 

“Amax: La Memoria del Tiempo” on the 1932 genocide of the Nahua-Pipil of El Salvador, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$20. 849-2568.  

International Latino Film Festival “O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt describe “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donations accepted. 559-9500. 

Lucy Jane Bledsoe reads from her new novel, “Biting the Apple,” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Andrew Helfer introduces “Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jazz Masters Concert with Calvin Keys, jazz guitarist, at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

Wednesday Noon Concert, Jazz Faculty Recital at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Whiskey Brothers, old-time and bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

Mazacote at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Rebecca Griffin at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Le Vent du Nord, music of Quebéc at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. 

Christian Scott at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

Works by Ocean Quigley Artist reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon & Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. 527-3100.  

FILM 

“Fall of the I-Hotel” a film and panel discussion on the evictions in Manilatown, San Francisco in 1977, at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peter Dale Scott reads from “The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Randall Robinson discusses “An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President” at 6:30 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$20 and are available from Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Oakland. 652-2344. 

Writing Jewish History with Frances Dinkelspiel at 6:30 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Melanie O'Reilly and pianist John R. Burr, jazz and Irish traditional music at 12:15 p.m. in the Art & Music Room of the Central Library, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6100. 

Dubconscious, reggae with guest Kaptain Harris, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$8. 525-5054. 

Mark Morris Dance Group “Mozart Dances” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$72. 642-9988.  

Old Blind Dogs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Kitt Weagant CD Release Party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Citta di Vitti, Rubber City at 10 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. 

Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 21 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “Urinetown, The Musical” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Oct. 6. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre “Hysteria” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Sept. 30. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “King Lear” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through Oct. 14. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Rumors” by Neil Simon, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sundays at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Oct. 14. Tickets are $11-$18. 655-8974. www.cct.org 

Impact Theatre “Sleepy” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Oct. 13. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Shadow Box” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. matinees, at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Runs through Sept. 29. This show is not recommended for children. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “Alice in Wonderland” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Envision Academy, 1515 Webster St., Oakland, through Oct. 13. Tickets are $15-$30. 800-838-3006. www.raggedwing.org 

Shotgun Players “Bulrusher” opens at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. and runs Thurs.-Sun. through Oct. 28. Tickets are $17-$25. For reservations call 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Thunderbird Theatre Company “Aaah! Rosebud” at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $20-$25. 415-289-6766. www.thunderbirdtheatre.com 

FILM 

“Special Circumstances” about former Chilean political prisoner Hector Salgado at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Girls Will Be Boys “Hamlet” introduced by Jennifer Bean at 6:30 p.m. and “Viktor und Viktoria” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bjorn Lomberg reads from “Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Mark Morris Dance Group “Mozart Dances” Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$72. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Go-Go Fightmaster, Heavy metal country jazz, at 8 p.m. at Free-Jazz Fridays at the Jazz House, 1510 8th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$15. 415-846-9432. 

Dwight Tribble & Muziki Roberson Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

“Ashana in Concert” at 7:30 p.m. at acred Space at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way, at 6th. Tickets are $15-$20. 486-8700. www.rudramandir.com 

Cuarto Latinoamericano de Saxofones, lecture/demonstration at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Will Bernard Band, The Flux at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Bill Kirchen at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Splatter Trio, John Raskin Quartet at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Acts of Sedition, Thou at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

The Courtney Janes and KC Turner at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Dub Vision at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 22 

CHILDREN  

“The Stone Flower” Puppet show Sat. and Sun. at 11 a.m. and 2 and 4 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave. 452-2259 

EXHIBITIONS 

CCA Photography Retrospective Works by recent graduates as well as faculty. Opening reception at 4 p.m. at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

The Alameda Quilt Show Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Alameda High School, 2201 Encinal Ave., Alameda. Benefits the Humane Society of Alameda. Cost is $5. 749-6717. www.quiltsfans.com 

Ink Paintings of Changming Meng Artist reception at 5 p.m. at Gallery ZiZi, 2014 Park Blvd., Oakland. 251-8277. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Rhythm & Muse presents poet Garrett Murphy at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice & Rose Sts. 304-0483. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Paradigm Brass at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www. 

trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Julie Larson, singer-songwriter, at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Cuarteto Latinoamericano de Saxofones, from Chile, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $20. 849-2568.  

Rachel Z Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

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.  

Descarga Caliente and Eric Rangel y Orquesta America, salsa at 6 p.m. at Jack London Square, Oakland. 645-9292, ext. 233. 

Moss Henry at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Raya Nova at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

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

Bobby Broom Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kurt Ribak Jazz Group at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Steve Smulian at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Midline Errors, Blipvert, Run at the Dog at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Zoe Ellis, jazz vocals, at 9 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810.  

Insect Warfare, Unholy Grave, Population Reduction at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Guided tour at 2 p.m.at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

FILM 

Girls Will Be Boys “A Florida Enchantment” at 3 p.m. and Sylvia Scarlett: at 5 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Seeing the Sacred Everyday” Artist talk by Pauletta M. Chanco at 3 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. 465-8928. 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Panel discussion at 3 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

“From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations Some Call ‘Jazz’” with Dr. Karlton Tucker at noon at the Jazzschool. Cost is $30-$45. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland East Bay Symphony performs with winners of the Young Artist Competition at 3 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. Free. 444-0801. www.oebs.org 

Roy Zimmerman with George Mann and Julius Margolin at 7:30 p.m. at Redwood Gardens Community Room, 2951 Derby St. Sliding scale $5-$10. 848-6397. 

Cascada de Flores at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Grito de Lares Celebration for Puerto Rico’s struggle for independence at 4 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Bobbe Norris & Larry Dunlap Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Wailing Junk Symphony, Brazilian African junk jazz, at 4:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jacob Wolkenhauer at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Americana Unplugged with The Mercury Dimes at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Frank Martin Group at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373.  

William Beatty and The Unconditionals at 6:30 p.m. at Mt. Everest Restaurant, 2011 Shattuck Ave. 665-6035. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 24 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Garrison Keillor introduces “Pontoon: A Lake Wobegon Novel” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $5 available from Cody’s. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express with Julie Potter and open mic theme of “pride and prejudice” at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ellis Island Band, klezmer, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Orquesta America at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

While General Betray-us tells us to “stay the course” and while the glaciers are melting, the museums in the Bay Area are doing great. The celebrated artist Fernando Botero has made a munificent offer to donate his powerful drawings and paintings of Abu Ghraib to the Berkeley Museum upon their return from their international tour. The Fishers are about to build a museum at the Presidio to house their significant collection of contemporary art.  

And The Oakland Museum of California has received the donation of the extraordinary collection of California art assembled by Ted and Ruth Nash. Twenty-two works from a total of 275 pieces are currently on view there. 

Many of the pieces are ceramics, a medium which in spite of its great history—Pre-Columbian sculpture, Tang horses, Greek vases, Baroque terra-cottas—has been marginalized as “craft” for too long. Peter Voulkos, who was instrumental in re-introducing clay as medium for sculpture, is represented by Solano (1958), one of his early signature pieces of assembled bulbous forms coated with black slip. I am proud to say that I was able to exhibit works like this piece at the Museum of Modern Art in 1958. The current show has a sign in which Voulkos is quoted: “I became more and more intrigued with the tactile and emotional potentials of working in clay which took me beyond pottery into ceramic sculpture ... I was terribly impressed with ... breaking through old traditions.” 

The exhibition includes Stephen De Staebler’s stoneware “Black Figure Stele” (1975), a human torso, embedded in its clay matrix, with a detached arm by its side. Like the Action Painters and like Voulkos, with whom De Staebler once studied, he encouraged the subject to emerge from the material. This torso is chthonic, earth-bound. It is terra-cotta, Latin for “cooked earth.”  

This material, so suffused with history and myth, has been reclaimed for our time by this fragmentary form. It suggest effigies of the Sumerians and the Egyptians and it also assumes a symbolic function of human incompleteness and yearning, reminding us of our own vulnerability. 

Robert Arneson, a major pioneer in ceramic sculpture, turned to working in bronze later in his career. In the 1990s, following his ill-fated “Bust of Mayor Moscone,” he produced ceramic and bronze portraits of himself, of Voulkos, Picasso and of Jackson Pollock, as in “Wolf Head” (1989) in the current show in which Pollock is shown with a wolf on his head. This image probably refers to the wolf under the mysterious table in Pollock’s great painting, “Guardians of the Secret,” which Arneson had studied in SFMOMA, before making his own glazed ceramic re-interpretation of the famous painting. 

Richard Shaw’s “Walking Man with Sketchbook” (1976) and Marilyn Levine’s “Purse with Rope Handle” (1970) are fine examples of the ability by sculptors to use clay for the creation of trompe-l’oeil effects. It is hard to believe that Levine’s purse is ceramic and not leather, and Shaw manages to put an old tin can in place of the artist’s head on top of a skeletal whimsical figure. These elements and even the drawings in the sketchbook are actually porcelain. The viewer can only be astounded by the technical virtuosity, skill and imagination of these artists. And Viola Frey, known for her over life-size ceramic figures is seen here with “Oakland Myths” (1985), a delightful piece in which cars, motorcycles, bikini girls and pet animals seem to burst from a colorful cookie jar. 

A LEGACY OF ART:  

THE TED AND RUTH NASH ART COLLECTION 

Through Dec. 30 at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2200. 

www.musuemca.org. 

Image: Wolf Head (detail), 1989, by Robert Arneson. Bronze on wood base.  

Photo by M. Lee Fatherree 

A few years back, the Planet asked me to review a slim (hip-pocket-size, actually) volume called Sierra Birds: A Hiker’s Guide by John Muir Laws, a joint venture of Berkeley’s Heyday Books and the California Academy of Sciences. I gave it a thumbs up, calling it “ideal…for beginning birders or hikers with only a causal interest in birds,” but also useful to seasoned watchers. Laws, like Peterson and Sibley, had written and illustrated his own guide, which did not assume knowledge of formal bird classification: all the streaky brown birds were illustrated together. The art was lively, the text concise and to the point. 

That same summer, in one of those unlikely coincidences, Ron and I ran into Jack Laws at the Summit Lake campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Laws said the bird book wasn’t just a one-off: he was putting together a field guide, or series of guides, to the whole natural world of the Sierra Nevada—wildflowers, trees, insects, fish, mammals, the works.  

He happened to be at Lassen sketching bog-orchids and other montane flowers. Laws gave us a prototype of the mammal and fish sections of the project, which for the first time gave me some hope of telling the Sierra’s myriad chipmunks apart. (The range is in fact a hotbed of chipmunk speciation, but that’s a digression I’ll resist for now.) I later saw him as artist-in-residence at the Academy’s exhibit on California’s biodiversity, where more of his images were on display, and I’ve followed his work in Bay Nature. 

Well, the project is complete: The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada ($24.95) was published by Heyday and the Academy this summer. And I’m happy to say that it lives up to expectations. It’s thicker than the bird book, but would still fit comfortably in a backpack. 

I tend to carry a lot of reference baggage into the Sierra: not the Jepson Manual, but just about everything else. The old UC Press Sierra Nevada Natural History was good up to a point, but it had its limitations. So I found myself packing multiple bird guides, a regional flora or two, tree manuals, mammal and insect and reptile guides. And then I’d encounter an odd fish. No fish guide. Another time I found a meltwater pond in the Lakes Basin swarming with neon-green fairy shrimp. Not in the books. I remember stumbling across an extraordinary moth in a wet meadow in Lassen and having no idea what it was. There is no such thing as a field guide to western moths. Eventually, consulting a reprint of a 1903 moth manual, I concluded it must have been a common sheep moth. 

That identification would have been a snap with Laws’ new book. 

The coverage is inclusive. Not only are there moths, there’s a half-page of bumblebees, and pages after pages of those beetles of which God is so inordinately fond. There are spiders (with web diagrams), plant galls, obscure underwater things like freshwater sponges. Sponges in the Sierra? Yes, and bryozoans and hydroids. 

Fungi. Lichens. Tracks and scat.  

The wildflower section follows the precedent of the stand-alone bird book. You don’t need to know the ever-shifting terrain of plant taxonomy to use this book. (I’m now taking a taxonomy course at Merritt College, and I figure on learning this version—in which the lily family has been broken up, and water lotuses are next of kin to sycamores—and then not trying to keep up any more.) Laws provides simple keys to identification, based on color and other obvious features. There are helpful asides: “Difficulty identifying Arnica? Relax, it’s not you…” That made me feel a lot better. 

The guide covers all the Sierra’s national forests (Lassen to Sequoia) and national parks. Range maps are used sparingly, mostly with the small rodents—location is important in sorting chipmunks—and shrews. Did I mention the seasonal star charts? 

Omissions are inevitable in a project of this scope, but they’re few.  

The book went to press too late to include the newly discovered Yosemite bog-orchid, a tiny yellowish flower that smells, depending on your source, like feet, Limburger cheese, or a corral of horses on a hot day. Although the bizarre cave-dwelling creatures of Sequoia National Park, featured in this month’s National Geographic, are not included, most of us non-spelunkers will never encounter them. I would have liked to see larval amphibians (I’ve met more tadpoles in the Sierra than adult frogs and toads) and mosses, a truly underappreciated division of the plant kingdom. Geology isn’t covered, but there’s an excellent volume in the new UC press series of guides. 

Overall, though, well done, and a model work for other regional natural history guides. How about the Mojave and Colorado deserts? The Coast Ranges? Laws is still young, but there’s a lot out there.  

Joe Eaton’s “Wild Neighbors” column appears every other Tuesday in the Berkeley Daily Planet, alternating with Ron Sullivan’s “Green Neighbors” column on East Bay trees.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 18 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Garreston Point. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Memorial Ceremony at the Oak Grove with Country Joe McDonald and veteran’s groups to honor the Californians who gave their lives in World War I. At noon at the Oak Grove in front of Memorial Stadium, Piedmont Way. www.saveoaks.com 

Join in the “Living Graveyard” Bring a white sheet and join in the legal street theater to make visible the reality of the deaths caused by the war, at noon at Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay St. 655-1162.  

Clean up of Strawberry Creek on the UCB Campus Meet at Sather Gate at 11 a.m. 893-8556, ext. 159. 

Constitution Day at the Free Speech Cafe with Daniel Farber on “Bong Hits 4 the Constitution: Free Speech Rights of Students Today” and Loweel Bergman on “Lots of Talk and No Action: Free Speech in the New Millenium” at 6 p.m. at Free Speech Movement Cafe, UC Campus. 643-6445. 

Berkeley Garden Club “Color, Texture and Water in the Garden” with Paul and Robin Cowley at 1:30 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 845-4482. 

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Open House from 10 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. RSVP to 642-9934. olli.berkeley.edu 

Writer Coach Connection Volunteers needed to help Berkeley students improve their writing and critical thinking skills from noon to 3 p.m. To register call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org 

“High Crimes and Atrocities” A documentary on the lies of the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 6 to 8 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165.  

“Sleep? I Wish!!!” Why people with Fibromhyagia, ME/CFS and related conditions do not get full and restful sleep and what can be done about it, with Andrew Greenberg, MD, of the California Center for Sleep Disorders at noon at Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2001 Dwight Way. 644-3273. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577.  

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19 

Community Forum on the Plans for the Solano Safeway at 6:30 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Building, 1325 Portland, Albany. 849-4811. 

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234.  

“Troubled Waters: Health of the SF Bay” Learn about legislation and other steps being taken to protect and restore the Bay at 6:30 p.m. at Rosa Parks Environmental Science Magnet School, 920 Allston Way. 559-1406. 

“On Learning from Disasters” with Bay Area cultural historians Stephen Tobriner, author of “Bracing For Disaster: Earthquake Resistant Architecture and Engineering in San Francisco,1838-1933” and Gray Brechin, author of “Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Colloquium with Margaret Crawford on “Everyday Urbanism” at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall, Room 315A, UC Campus. All welcome. laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium  

“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” with John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donations accepted. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

“Amax: La Memoria del Tiempo” a film on the 1932 genocide of the Nahua-Pipil of El Salvador, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$20. 849-2568. 

Introduction to Marxism at 6:30 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 595-7417. 

Writer Coach Connection Volunteers needed to help Berkeley students improve their writing and critical thinking skills from noon to 3 p.m. To register call 524-2319.  

Camp Kesem Information Night about a summer camp for children who have or had a parent coping with cancer, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 2040, Valley Life Sciences Bldg., UC Campus. campkesemberkeley@gmail.com 

Free Estate Planning Seminar at 7 p.m. at Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth St. RSVP to 845-7735, ext. 19.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 20 

Emergency Benefit for Street Spirit Editor Terry Messman and Ellen Danchik with poetry readings, art and music at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. at Cedar. www. 

freedomvoices.org/streetspirit 

“Local History of the Codornices Creek Watershed” with Richard Schwartz at 6:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. 759-1689. 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll hunt for spiders, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will hunt for spiders from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Fall Plant Sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755, ext. 03. 

Students United For Peace “Committee on UnAmerican Activities” documentary by Robert Carl Cohen, also “Operation Abolition” at 7 p.m. in Dwinelle Hall, room 145, UC Campus. studentsunitedforpeace@gmail.com 

“An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President” with Randall Robinson at 6:30 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Advance tickets available at Marcus Books 3900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Oakland, $5-$30. 652-2344. 

“Two Rings Around the Bay: The Bay Trail and the Bay Ridge Trail” A slide talk with Bill Long at 7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers. 848-9358. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Border Patrol & Immigration Issues at 7:30 p.m. in the Home Room, International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

“Places Seen-Places Imagined: Reflections on Xuanzang’s Xiyu-ji” with Max Deeg, Senior Lecturer in Buddhist Studies at Cardiff University, Wales, at 5 p.m. in the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Flr. Sponsored by the Center for Buddhist Studies. 643-5104. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from noon to 1 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

“Fall of the I-Hotel” a film and panel discussion on the evictions in Manilatown, San Francisco in 1977, at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. 

Center for Elders Independence Gala “‘S Marvelous!” with food and music by the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, at 5:30 p.m. at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $125. RSVP to 839-3100. 

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 8:45 to noon at the Latina Center, 3919 Roosevelt Ave., Richmond. 981-5332. 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at the LeConte School, corner of Russell and Ellsworth. karlreeh@aol.com 

Easy Does It Board of Directors Meeting at 6 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. 

“Andropause: The Male Menopause” at 5:50 p.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 21 

International Peace Day & Iraq Moratorium Gather 2:30 p.m. at West Oakland BART Station, south parking lot, march at 3 p.m. to the Railroad Bridge to the Oakland Ports. info@bayareacodepink.org 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Booker Holton on “Water in Israel: An Environmental, Political and Security Issue” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.5, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

Protest the War in Iraq from 2 to 4 p.m. on the corner of Acton and University. Sponsored by the Strawberry Creek Lodge Tenants Assoc. and Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 841-4143. 

Second Annual Berkeley Sustainability Summit from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Krutch Theater, Clark Kerr Campus, 2601 Warring St. Tickets are $25. Use the #7 Arlington bus line. www.ecologycenter.org/summit 

“Peace One Day” A documentary film describing how the United Nations General Assembly chose September 21st as the annual International Day of Peace and Non-violence at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting Friendship Hall, 2151 Vine St, at Walnut. Potluck at 6 p.m. 848-7357. 

“Special Circumstances” A film on former Chilean political prisoner Hector Salgado at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 22 

Berkeley Historical Society Tour of the California Historical Radio Society and KRE Radio History from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10, season pass is $30. To register and for meeting place call 848-0181. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Oakland Walkways and Streetcar Heritage from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Call for reservations and meeting place. Tickets are $25-$30. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Last Day of Summer Stroll in Temescal Park Meet at 2 p.m. at the lawn area b, the north entrance off Broadway in Oakland. 521-6887. www.ebparks.org 

Cajun/Zydeco Festival at Ardenwood Historic Farm with music by Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie and Corey Lil Pop Ledet from Louisiana, Cajun/Creole food and more, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are $16-$20 for adults, $2-$3 for childen 4-15, children 3 and younger free. 1-888-327-2757. www.ebparks.org 

"War Made Easy” A film by Normon Solomon at 7 p.m. at Buena Vista United Methodist Church, 2311 Buena Vista, between Oak and Park, Alameda. Benefit for Alamada Peace Network. http://WarMadeEasy.bravenewtheaters.com/screening/show/9772 

Center for Urban Peace re-opening with yoga and kirtan at 5 p.m., program at 7 p.m. at 2584 MLK, Jr. Way. RSVP to 866-732-2320. 

AAU Boys Basketball Tryouts for ages 12U, 13U and 14U, from noon to 2 p.m. at Berkeley YMCA’s main gym, 2001 Allston Way. 665-3264.  

Fast Pitch Softball for Adults at noon on Saturdays in Oakland. For information call 204-9500. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, SEPT. 23 

Little Farm Fair Celebrate the completion of the new cow barn, meet the new calves and enjoy live music, carfts and games from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Little Farm, Tilden Nature Area, Tiden Park. Visitors encouraged to use ACTransit bus #67. 525-2233. 

Facilitated Labyrinth Walk from noon to 3 p.m. at the future site of Berkeley Community Peace Labyrinth, East Lawn of Berkeley Marina. 526-7377. 

Berkeley Partners for Parks Fundraiser with music and food from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Egret Center on Bolivar Drive, just north of Ashby. Suggested donation $30. RSVP to 540-7223. info@pbfp.org 

6th Anniversary Lake Merritt Walk/Roll for Peace at 3 p.m. at the colonnade, southeast corner of the lake between Grand and Lakeshore Aves. www.lmno4p.org 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Schilling Garden Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Lakeside Drive and Madison, near the Lake Merritt Hotel. Cost is $10-$15. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Cross-Pollination: Gardeners Unite Meet people from garden clubs, community gardens, plant societies, and urban farms from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Cost is $2-$7. 643-2755. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club Open House with lawn bowling demonstrations and chance to bowl, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 2270 Acton St., corner of Acton & Bancroft. Please wear sneakers. 841-2174. 

“Politics 101 Meets Web 2.0: Democracy or Demagoguery?” Political candidate now have web sites, participate in social networks, and can respond to folks via YouTube. So are we closer to democracy? From 4 to 6 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $15 at door. 

Autumn Equinox Gathering at 6:15 p.m. at the Interim Solar Calendar, Cesar Chavez Park, Berkeley Marina. Gathering led by Rabbi David Cooper, Kahilla Community Synagogue. Dress warmly. www.solarcalendar.org 

“Learn How To Build A Living Roof Garden” Learn how to convert a flat roof into a planted garden from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at EcoHouse, 1305 Hopkins St., enter via garden entrance on Peralta. Cost is $15, sliding scale. 548-2220, ext. 242.  

Health Care from a Marxist Perspective at 10 a.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 595-7417. 

Girl Army Self-Defense Class runs for 6 weeks from 1 to 4 p.m. at Suigetsukan Dojo, 103 International Blvd., Oakland. For information and to register call 496-3443. 

“A Taste of California” Rotary Club of Oakland fundraiser from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak St., Oakland. Tickets are $65 available from www.museumca.org/tickets 

Tour of the Berkeley City Club, Julia Morgan’s “little castle” at 1:15, 2:15, and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. Free, donations welcome. 883-9710. 

Solo Sierrans Walk Along the Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline Meet at 3 p.m. at the trailhead parking lot, off Talbart in Martinez. 925-458-0860. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair a flat from 10 to 11 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Carole Swain ”Living the Lasallian Mission” at 10 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 5 to 9 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Cost is $3 per hour. 644-2577.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Loosening Self-Image: A Buddhist Perspective” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, SEPT. 24 

Peace Corps Volunteer Information Session at 6 p.m. at the Rockridge Public Library, 5366 College Ave. at Manila, Oakland. 1-800-424-8580.  

“Chickens and Ducks in Your Garden” Learn how to raise chickens and ducks in your garden with Linnea Due, who has raised them in North Oakland, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at EcoHouse, 1305 Hopkins St. Enter via garden entrance on Peralta. Cost is $15 sliding scale. RSVP to 548-2220 ext. 242. 

“Building a Business from Scratch” A series of workshops held Mon. from 6 to 9 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. To register call 620-6561. 

Books and Ideas Group discusses “Whistling Season” at 1 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 981-5190. 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 548-0425. 

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues. Sept. 18, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Sept. 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601. 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Sept. 19, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center.  

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., Sept. 19 , at 7 p.m. at the South Branch Library. 981-6195.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7010.  

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 20, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7520.

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 in, working in or enjoying various neighborhoods in our area. We are looking for essays about the Oakland neighborhoods around Lake Merritt, Fourth Street in Berkeley, and the city of Alameda. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues in October. The sooner we receive your submission the better chance we have of publishing it.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 14 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “Urinetown, The Musical” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through Oct. 6. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre “Hysteria” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Sept. 30. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822.  

Black Repertory Group “Secret War” Fri. at 8 p.m., Gala on Sat. at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $25-$45. 652-2120.  

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “Rumors” by Neil Simon, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sundays at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Oct. 14. Tickets are $11-$18. 655-8974. www.cct.org 

Impact Theatre “Sleepy” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Oct. 13. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Shadow Box” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. matinees, at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Runs through Sept. 29. This show is not recommended for children. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “Alice in Wonderland” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Envision Academy, 1515 Webster St., Oakland, through Oct. 13. Tickets are $15-$30. 800-838-3006. www.raggedwing.org 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland, through Sept. 16. Tickets are$23-$36. 531-9597.  

EXHIBITIONS 

New Works by Carol Dalton and Emily Payne Opening reception at 6 p.m. at the Cecile Moochnek Gallery, 1809-D Fourth St., upstairs. 549-1018. 

“Garnish” An exhibition of wearable art. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at the ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. 843-2527. www.accigallery.org 

FILM 

Midnight Movies “The Big Lebowski” Fri. and Sat. at midnight at Piedmont Cinema, 4186 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Cost is $8. 464-5980. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John Curl and Marianne Robinson read their poetry at 7 p.m. at Nefeli Caffe, 1854 Euclid Ave., at Hearst. 841-6374. 

Richard Schwartz describes “Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher read from “Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas” at 7 p.m. at Beebe Memorial Cathedral, 3900 Telegraph Ave., Oakland.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Rafael Manriquez at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15.. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Mo’ Rockin Sextet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ras Igel, Razorblade, Carl McDonald, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Berkeley Old Time Music Convention with Tom Sauber, Brad Leftwich & Alice Gerrard, Lee Stripling Trio, Heidi Clare at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $15.50-$16.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Nomadics at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Polkacide, Fuxedos, Japonize Elephonts at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Dr. Know, Circle One at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Rainmaker at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Hiroshima at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$26. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 15 

CHILDREN  

“Mexica: An Aztec Tale” Sat. and Sun. at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave. 452-2259 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Inside Out” New works by painter Cheryl Finfrock and sculptor Michael Pargett. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, Unit #116, Oakland. www.thefloatcenter.com 

Positively Ageless A Celebration of Art & Aging at 6 p.m. at 4th Street Studio, 1717 Fourth St. Cost is $25. Benefits Adult Day Services Network of Alameda County. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Nelson Peery discusses “Black Radical: The Education of An American Revolutionary” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

“Addicted to Hope” with comic Mark Lundholm at the California’s Writer’s Club, at 10 a.m. at Barnes and Noble Event Loft, Jack London Square. 272-0120. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

East Bay Lesbian Poets read at 7 p.m. at Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru at Lincoln, Alameda. Open mic follows. 523-6957. www.frankbettecenter.org  

Robin Romm reads from her short story collection “The Mother Garden” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

String Band Contest and performance by Gallus Brothers at 11 a.m. at Berkeley Farmers’ Market, MLK and Center St.  

Berkeley Old Time Music Convention with The Tallboys, Dram County and Knuckle Knockers at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15, children ages 5-18, $5.. 525-5054.  

Interreligious Art & Music Festival from 1 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley, Ave. Free and open to the public. http://drbu. 

org/research/iwr/festival/ 

Araucaria, traditional Chilean music and dance, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

Robin Gregory & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Five Eyed Hand at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Don Villa & Ethan Bixby, guitar, at noon at Cafe Zeste, 1250 Addison St. at Bonar, in the Strawberry Creek Park complex. 704-9378. 

Jack Williams & Ronny Cox at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Royal Hawaiian Serenaders at 9 p.m. at Temple Bar Tiki Bar & Grill, 984 University Ave. 548-9888. 

Serenity Fisher, Zach Fisher at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Triple Ave. at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

The Unreal Band, Pat Nevins and Stu Allen of Workingman’s Ed at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082.  

Charles Wheal & the Excellorators at 9 p.m. at Downtown, 2102 Shattuck Ave. 649-3810.  

Ghoul, Funerot, Oskorei at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 16 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Face of Place” mixed media by Janet Brugos, opening reception from 2 to 5 p.m. at L’Amyx Tea Bar, 4179 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. www.lamyx.com 

FILM 

Tomu Uchida: Japanese Genere Master “Policeman” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Conversations on Art “Music, Liturgy and Cultural Fusions: The Making of Revisions Shahrokh Yadegari Through Music” at 2 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $10-$12. 549-6950.  

Rhoda Curtis introduces “Rhoda: Her First Ninety Years, a Memoir” at 4 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Lauren Bank Deen demonstrates crafts and recipes from “Kitchen Playdates” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sundays @ Four Chamber Music with Axel Strauss, violin and Miles Graber, piano at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center. Tickets are $12, free for children. concerts@crowden.org 

Americana Unplugged with Berkeley Old Time Cabaret at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

The Snake Trio at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10. 228-3218. 

Cabaret in the Castle with Mark Gilbert & Friends, in a fundraiser for Berkeley City Club at 4:30 p.m. at The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $45-$55. 883-9710. 

Araucaria, traditional Chilean music and dance, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

Vasen, Swedish folk revivalists, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Quejerema & Quarto Latino Americano de Saxafones at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

MONDAY, SEPT. 17 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ernest Bloch Lecture Series with Martha Feldman on “Of Strange Births and Comic Kin” 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864.  

Tea Party Magazine reading with poet Craig Santos Perez at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Suggested donation $10. 849-2568.  

David Leavitt introduces “The Indian Clerk” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express with Jan Steckel and Stephen Kopel at 7 p.m., at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Classical at the Freight with the Stern/Simon Duo at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. 

Ed Neff and Friends, bluegrass, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

Lavay Smith & The Red Hot Skillet Lickers at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, SEPT. 18 

CHILDREN 

Daffy Dave the Clown at 6:30 p.m. Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. For ages 3 and up. 524-3043. 

FILM 

“It’s a Funny, Mad, Sad, World: The Movies of George Kuchar” with filmmaker George Kuchar at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

David Barsamian will discuss his book “Targeting Iran” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic featuring Eva Schlesinger at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761.  

Ian Klaus describes “Elvis is Titanic: Classroom Tales from the Other Iraq” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Book. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $9. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Christian Scott at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19 

EXHIBITIONS 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Opens with a curator’s talk at noon at the Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, and runs through Dec. 23. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

FILM 

“Amax: La Memoria del Tiempo” on the 1932 genocide of the Nahua-Pipil of El Salvador, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$20. 849-2568.  

International Latino Film Festival “O Casamento de Romeu e Julieta” at 7 p.m. at Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond. 620-6555. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt describe “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donations accepted. 559-9500. 

Lucy Jane Bledsoe reads from her new novel, “Biting the Apple,” at 7 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698.  

Andrew Helfer introduces “Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jazz Masters Concert with Calvin Keys, jazz guitarist, at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

Wednesday Noon Concert, Jazz Faculty Recital at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Whiskey Brothers, old-time and bluegrass at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

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

Mazacote at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Rebecca Griffin at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Le Vent du Nord, music of Quebéc at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. 

Christian Scott at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

Works by Ocean Quigley Artist reception at 7 p.m. at Artbeat Salon & Gallery, 1887 Solano Ave. 527-3100.  

FILM 

“Fall of the I-Hotel” a film and panel discussion on the evictions in Manilatown, San Francisco in 1977, at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Peter Dale Scott reads from “The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Randall Robinson discusses “An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President” at 6:30 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$20 and are available from Marcus Books, 3900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Oakland. 652-2344. 

Writing Jewish History with Frances Dinkelspiel at 6:30 p.m. at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Cost is $6-$8. 549-6950. www.magnes.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Melanie O'Reilly and pianist John R. Burr, jazz and Irish traditional music at 12:15 p.m. in the Art & Music Room of the Central Library, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6100. 

Dubconscious, reggae with guest Kaptain Harris, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $13-$8. 525-5054. 

Mark Morris Dance Group “Mozart Dances” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32-$72. 642-9988.  

Old Blind Dogs at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Kitt Weagant CD Release Party at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Citta di Vitti, Rubber City at 10 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. 

Larry Harlow and the Latin Legends Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

“Motion picture stars bowing to admiring throngs and stopping before microphones to extend greetings. Dazzling klieg lights, brighter than a torrid desert sun. Powerful searchlights piercing the darkness above with sudden flashes. Music and flowers.” 

It would be, the Berkeley Daily Gazette said, “Hollywood transplanted here” and “the greatest theatrical event in the history of Berkeley.” 

That was 75 years ago, Sept. 16, 1932, as Berkeley’s new United Artists theater opened on Shattuck Avenue, just south of the Berkeley Public Library. 

The opening was big news in Depression-era Berkeley, which preened in the assurance that a national corporation was willing to invest in the community, despite economic hardship. 

Then, as now, there were several movie theaters downtown, but the new building with its fluid sculptural facade, enormous marquee with hundreds of lights, and towering sign that proclaimed “United Artists” in neon up and down Shattuck Avenue, changed the commercial and physical landscape. 

Berkeleyans flocked to the spectacle. 

“Every one of the 1,800 luxurious seats in the theater was filled within five minutes after the doors opened,” reported the Berkeley Daily Gazette the next day. “Twice as many filled the foyers, waiting for an opportunity to obtain seats for the second show.” 

“A solid mass of stargazers” outside ogled the celebrities who arrived in “a fleet of new sedans,” after dining at the Berkeley Country Club. Actors and actresses “mingled with their local admirers, laughing and 

chatting and writing autographs on anything that would take ink or lead pencil.” 

They included “beautiful blond Josephine Dunn” and “the vivacious Spanish dancer, Senorita Conchita Montenegro,” both splendid in evening gowns and “costly outer wraps.” Male stars included “broad-shouldered, swaggering George Bancroft,” “youthful Marty Kemp, suave Lou Cody” and “crooning, good looking, Bing Crosby,” who rushed over from a performance in Oakland to attend the opening. 

“Outside as late as 10 o’clock several thousand persons stood in the street.” Police and firemen managed the crowds, not only on Shattuck but around the corner of Bancroft where a “great throng” waited to see movie stars emerge from the stage door. 

Inside the theater, Bancroft recited a monologue and comic actor “Stuttering Roscoe” Ates paired with Kemp on “an impromptu dialogue which even had Master of Ceremonies Cody laughing.” 

Berkeley Mayor Thomas Caldecott came forward to “extend the City’s greetings to the United Artists and the Fox West Coast Theaters corporations for giving Berkeley such a magnificent theater.” 

Caldecott had earlier posed with two “pretty usherettes” to sign the “biggest proclamation in the world” which had noted “life in Berkeley and its surrounding communities takes on a new and bright aspect” with the opening of the theater. 

“Practically every city official and civic leader of Berkeley and the East Bay district was in the audience, including the entire City Council.” 

United Artists was founded by powerhouse stars Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith to make films and, as was typical of the time, show them in its own corporate theaters. 

Berkeley’s UA Theater “was an early link in the United Artists chain,” and “fairly deluxe,” says Gary Parks, southwest director of the Theater Historical Society of America. Southern California had several similarly designed UA theaters. 

Berkeley, though, has the only one where the allegorical figure of “Artistry” is on the left on the facade, “Unity” on the right. “Let’s hear it for Berkeley non-conformity,” Parks says. 

“The Berkeley UA was the work of Clifford Balch, with Walker & Eisen,” he notes, while the interior painted decoration were done by the Heinsbergen Decorating Company of Los Angeles. 

The Berkeley theater is perhaps the only one of its type still directly connected to United Artists, which merged with Regal Cinemas and Edwards Theaters to form Regal Entertainment Group, which runs 6,368 screens in 529 locations around the country and calls itself “the largest motion picture exhibitor in the world.” 

When the $300,000 UA Berkeley opened, it had a single screen and the filmgoer was offered a spectacle extending from curb to commode.  

“The brilliantly illumined marquee and the lobby give no idea of the beauty and space within,” the Gazette reported at the opening. 

The theater originally had a tile-floored atrium open to the street, with a four-sided dome; it’s now enclosed and carpeted. 

“Once through the outside doors patrons will be delighted with the artistic outer foyer with its high, richly toned ceilings, the great French plate glass mirrors on either side, the delicate warmth of color and the great black and gold illustrated panels, depicting above, on and below the earth,” the Gazette wrote. 

There was no concession counter. “Theatres in the 1930s in some cases did experiment with things like candy machines, but it wasn’t until the 1940s that concessions became common,” says Parks. 

From the lobby, “straight ahead the artistic mezzanine looms up with its polished aluminum railings like glistening silver” the Gazette wrote. “Then further ahead is the inner foyer with its wonderful murals depicting the drama. To the right is the main lounging room, replete with comfortable and handsome furniture, a gigantic solid mahogany table on which is mounted a beautiful silver statuette. Here there are roomy Chesterfields in Spanish and modernistic design sufficient to seat comfortably nearly 100 persons.” 

Within the theater one found, the Gazette said, “the massive stage, the artistic contours and decorations of the proscenium arch, the golden console and generously large orchestra pit which extends outward so far that it makes the front row of seats desirable ones at a distance sufficient from the silver screen.” 

The stage, 25 feet deep, had a dozen adjacent dressing rooms, and was equipped “to present all kinds of stage attractions at any time there is demand to offer vaudeville here.”  

Patrons could also luxuriate in non-theatrical amenities. 

The “ladies’ parlors” included “overstuffed furniture, lounges and individual chairs, beautiful French plate glass mirrors” and “inviting” lighting. The main women’s lounge has “smoking stands” and a “cosmetic room” with dressing tables. 

The men got their own smoking room with walls “stenciled with various sports—football, baseball, track, polo, hunting and fishing, tennis and basketball.” 

Many of these features are now gone or covered up. In the 1970s the main auditorium and balcony were partitioned to provide four separate screens, although liniments of the original spaces can still be seen. 

Further renovations in the early 1980s caused worries that the lobby would be compromised, and heartfelt appeals were made to the management. As a result, the original glass and wood entrance doors, set back from the street, were preserved, a matching new mural was added, and the lobby stayed intact. 

“The high standards of the original design are something that future generations would appreciate as theaters of this type are becoming increasingly rare,” wrote architectural historian Michael Crowe to the president of United Artists in 1982. 

“The glittering, labyrinthine Aladdin’s Cave of a lobby, belying the building’s small street facade, still conveys the feelings of surprise and splendor that were part of the great days of movie-going. This must not be lost now,” wrote the Berkeley Historical Society. 

The theater now has now seven screens serving about 1,400 seats, according to Regal Entertainment representatives. 

Outside, the original marquee is gone along with the neon tower. In the 1960s and ’70s, Parks says, civic and architectural distaste for neon brought about the demise of numerous theater signs, including Berkeley’s. 

The facade retains its original flowing Art Deco character but has been painted. It’s one of the more prominent and important architectural compositions from its era in Berkeley, complementary to the Deco-style Berkeley Public Library, just up the block. 

Some original furnishings are at the Oakland Paramount, while others are scattered among private collectors. The theater organ is now privately owned and may end up, Parks says, in a theater in Astoria, Ore. 

On opening night in 1932 the organ was central to the entertainment, with four virtuosos offering solos as a prelude to “a typical theater opening program” on film. 

A Will Rogers comedy, Down to Earth, was the feature film. “There was one of those almost tragically funny ‘Screen Souvenirs,’ a Magic Carpet Travel, a Mickey Mouse cartoon and the Metrotone news.” 

Tickets cost 30 cents for general admission and 40 cents for loge seats at matinees, 45 cents and 69 cents on evenings, Sundays and holidays, and “children 10 cents any time.” 

“Those who waited in the foyers were loud in their praise of the wonderful lounging rooms, the artistic decorations. Hundreds stopped to congratulate Manager Clarence L. Laws on the beauty of the theater and the wonderful service rendered by the house staff.” 

Back then, elaborately uniformed staffers ushered patrons to their seats and even posed for publicity photos. Today’s staffers are practically invisible in comparison and there’s no such thing as an usher, only an employee who slips in silently after each showing to clean up. 

In 1932 Councilmember Reese Clark said the theater “is one of the beauty spots of the downtown district.  

“Berkeley at one time was known as a ‘show town’ and, if the theaters continue to express their confidence in Berkeley with such luxurious structures, it again will assume that role.” 

Berkeley Police Chief Greening added “bright lights are a deterrent to crime—criminals fear them more than any other one thing. That is exactly what the new … theater has brought to the downtown business area—bright lights and plenty of them.” 

“Berkeley citizens are entitled to the best that the show world has to 

offer,” Greening concluded.  

And that’s just what they enjoyed on that brilliant night, 75 years ago. 

Photograph Courtesy Regal Entertainment 

In late 1966 the theater still had its original marquee, below the neon sign tower that dominated the façade.  

It’s only appropriate, after a play about Freud’s last days in England (“Freudian slips,” shots of morphine and meeting Salvador Dali), that what’s remembered breaks down to obsessive, recurrent actions and images, signaled by the insistent tapping of an unexpected visitor on a glass door leading from a study into a garden. 

Terry Johnson’s Hysteria, now on-stage at the Aurora, with Joy Carlin directing, is subtitled “or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis,” a sliver that cuts both—or all—ways. Swinging back and forth between a serious look at the Father of Psychoanalysis facing the immediacy of mortality while attempting to continue till the end, exiled in England after the Anschluss has driven him from Vienna, and a crazy, slapstick farce of pretension and self-deception, it’s a very English thing, strung out between a Cambridge seminar and an uptown music hall.  

In some ways, Johnson pulls out the stops on Stoppard, at least in posing a theatrical conundrum that’s a projection of its audience’s grasp of the subject at hand. 

And what better subject for a conundrum than a riff off the actual meeting between the investigator into the psychic meaning of slips of the tongue, jokes and riddles and the premier illustrator, mid-20th century, of the mental state which produces them? 

The encounter between Freud and Dali takes the form of a bad daydream, a mirage of how Freud might have felt about meeting the self-parodying autofarceur of Surrealist painting, who liked to grandstand in both personal meetings and public appearances. 

That stellar meeting is, however, sandwiched between a less explicable intrusion, that of a strange woman at the rainy garden door, who alternately seems to be seeking something or seeking to deliver something else, both threatening and vulnerable in both her tenacity at remaining in the master’s presence despite his commands for her to leave, and her determination to doff her clothes.  

The scene itself is hysterical, and becomes the unlikely, if eponymous, ground for an inquiry into the case which helped decide Freud’s shift in the theory of “family romance” from the more confrontational positing of widespread child molestation to the later complexities of “infant sexuality,” the repressed incidents explained as what the seeming victim imagined or desired to happen. 

It’s a heady brew both the actors and audience bolt down, like Alice sampling the bottle marked “Drink me” (and, as in Surrealism itself, besides English domestic life, there are many other reminders of “Alice” at odd moments during a roller-coaster evening.) 

The cast is top notch—Warren David Keith a stalwart yet bumbling Freud (without, alas, the charm exhibited in his books and remarks to the press, but with what Sherlock Holmes, that other intrepid unraveler of mysteries, dubbed “a pawky humor” in his otherwise straight man sidekick, Dr. Watson). The Dr. Watson of this adventure is a composite physician, administering the shots which will eventually euthanize Freud, and Jewish scholar, delivering another kind of shot, chiding the master for his agnostic Moses and Monotheism, produced at a desperate moment for those other Jews still stuck in the Reich from whence they fled. Charles Dean plays Abraham Yahuda with an admirable, dry poise, anchoring the antics of the rest of the bunch. 

The chimerical Salvador Dali is nicely portrayed with spread-eagled waxed mustache, an overwrought flourish and comic swagger worthy of Danny Kaye by Howard Swain, who hilariously makes every self-regarding move seem like both an entrance and an exit. 

But the most elusive, shadowy character, whose historical antecedents are legion, victims and children of victims all—Jessica the erudite intruder—is the most fully, profoundly portrayed, by splendid Nancy Carlin. Perhaps freed of the necessity (and temptation) to make up a half-historically accurate caricature, like the others, she is the catalyst, the reagent, for the strange alchemy that makes the play work, that takes it past the status of a Monty Python or Beyond The Fringe camping and into the realm of real theater. As Freud intones at the end, “The year I looked into myself is the year that is killing me!” 

The production values are practically seamless. All add to the total effect, constantly jostled by the seesaw dynamics and sometimes burlesque tone. The cast was still playing with the very British timing and humor the first weekend, but was out of the gate and running with it. They’re thoroughbreds—it can get to be muddy going, but the only slip will be Freudian—and this time, intentional. 

HYSTERIA 

8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 30 at Aurora Theater, 2081 Addison St. $40-$42. 843-4822.  

The names and their general significance may still be familiar, but the details of the lives and trials of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti have faded over time. The names have become shorthand for injustice, for political persecution, for America’s tendency to at times fall disastrously short of its ideals. Yet while these two men remain potent symbols, symbols do not live and breathe.  

Sacco and Vanzetti, an excellent documentary by Peter Miller, newly released on DVD, restores the humanity to these men, these Italian immigrants who came to America in search of the land of liberty and opportunity, only to find that much of the American Dream was just that.  

They found themselves faced with the conundrum of a nation of immigrants that despised immigrants, and Italians were ranked among the lowest of the low. They found a land where economic exploitation was rampant, and where opportunity was plentiful only for those who could afford it.  

The film uses photographs and archival footage of Sacco and Vanzetti as well as first-hand accounts and impassioned testimony from historians to paint a picture of the men, the times, the turmoil and fallout of their trial and persecution. But the most moving device is the readings, by John Turturro and Tony Shalhoub, of letters written by the two men from their prison cells. Vanzetti at one point wrote to his sister back home in Italy, telling her, “This is no longer the America that excited your imagination. America, dear sister, is called the land of liberty, but in no other country on Earth does a man tremble before his fellow man like here.” Other letters to family and friends reveal the two as men of great dignity and resilience, facing death with bravery, honor and sadness—sadness not for themselves but for their loved ones and for the wayward path of their adopted homeland. They spoke little to no English upon their arrival, yet by the time they faced execution each man had acquired an eloquence rarely attained by many native speakers.  

They were anarchists, non-violent as best anyone can tell, whose politics stemmed from first-hand experience of capitalism run amok. They came with dreams of democracy, liberty, opportunity and, perhaps above all, fairness and the rule of law. Yet what they discovered was the grim reality behind the facade, and in their search for answers to these vexing problems they settled on anarchism as the ideal solution.  

Some details may come as a surprise to many viewers. For instance, though it is readily apparent that neither of the men was involved in the murder for which they were convicted, it is not only possible that they knew the murderers but that they may have had knowledge of the crime before it occurred. The fact is, much of the case is still shrouded in mystery. 

What is known, however, is that two men were targeted for their ethnicity and their political beliefs, that evidence against them was falsified, and that neither man received anything resembling a fair trial. The story, of course, contains many parallels with modern-day America, links that are clear and obvious. But that doesn’t stop the filmmakers from hitting the point with excessive force in the final moment. It is a forgivable misstep in an otherwise fluid and informative documentary that gives shape, shading and meaning to one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice in the land of the First Amendment.  

Blood in the Face, another documentary examining the face of American bigotry, just released on DVD, was made in 1991. And if its subject matter no longer seems shocking or even surprising, that’s hardly the filmmakers’ fault. A film about neo-nazis and the threat of terrorism from within America’s heartland just doesn’t pack quite the punch in might have in the days before the Oklahoma City bombing. 

The title comes from a racist leader’s description of who should control America: white people, he says, those who can “show blood in the face,” and he demonstrates this by slapping his cheek to bring about a rosy blush. 

Filmmakers Anne Bohlen, Kevin Rafferty and James Ridgeway enlisted the newly famous Michael Moore to assist in interviewing a stunningly ignorant group of American fascists, but don’t expect a Michael Moore film here by any means. In fact, the man is barely recognizable in voice or profile. There is a bit of humor here, some confrontation and some point-blank questioning, but nothing like the style Moore has employed since 1989’s Roger and Me. It’s just not necessary. This is a group of people so misguided, so foolish, so narrow-minded and mean, that all one has to do is give them the rhetorical rope and let them hang themselves from their own burning crucifixes. So we just watch and wait and sigh as these self-proclaimed chosen ones struggle to choose their words, stumbling more often than not into rhetorical labyrinths that twist and turn and fold back on themselves, eventually spitting the speaker out at exactly the point where he entered. “Why are whites superior?” they ask themselves, and the answer, distilled from rambling rants about Hitler, the Bible and Manifest Destiny, repeats the question: “Because they’re white.” Or, more accurately, “Because I’m white,” as, oddly enough, there seems to be little support for their cause among non-whites. 

Image:  

Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco as depicted by artist Ben Shahn.

Among surviving Victorian homes in Berkeley, the 1877 Bartlett House, 2201 Blake St. at the corner of Fulton is rare, possibly unique. There are similar houses in San Francisco, and others in Oakland and Alameda, but not in Berkeley. 

It’s a substantially unchanged 130-year-old home, particularly on the outside. Retaining a spacious lot in a built-up district, it is designated a City of Berkeley landmark. 

The house is for sale for $1,349,000.  

The listing agent is Arlene Acuna, Marvin Gardens Real Estate, www.2201Blake.com, or 510-206-0793. There’s a real estate open house this coming Sunday afternoon, Sept. 16, 1-4 p.m. 

“The Bartlett houses, in their original setting with virtually no exterior alterations, no structures added to the site since 1892, and with some of the earliest accessory buildings which have survived in the city, are probably the most pristine representation of Victorian Berkeley still in existence,” the landmark nomination notes. 

The Italianate Victorian is a tall, deep and narrow, wooden two-story house with a hipped roof flattened on top and once provided with a widow’s walk observation platform. A formal front porch facing Blake Street leads to a double entrance door, adjacent to a window bay. The wide roof overhang is somewhat out of the ordinary. 

Inside, there’s the standard Victorian entry hall with a steeply impressive staircase rising straight to the second floor. The ground floor has two parlors, the second, inner, one provided with a marble fireplace and pocket doors. 

The hall and the second parlor open into a large room across the width of the house with bay window on the west. Here, things get architecturally interesting. 

This room was once divided in half, with kitchen on one side and dining room on the other. The partition is now gone and this is an airy space with marble fireplace, but kitchen fixtures, including sink, stove, and a closet-like pantry remain along the east wall. 

Directly behind this room there’s the original kitchen space, now fitted out as a bedroom or dayroom and opening to back porch and to a side hallway converted into a downstairs bathroom (note the pass-through from the pantry towards the hall-turned-bathroom). 

Off the rear covered porch there’s a narrow, freestanding, one story structure, reputedly once for servants. 

Spare a thought for Berkeley’s early domestic working class, often immigrants, living very simply in tiny rear or upstairs rooms like these. Their labors and quarters literally lay behind the comfortable lifestyles of the middle and upper classes. 

Other early features—a carved railing, a wall mounted wire mesh pie safe, a side storage room for firewood and coal, and laundry sinks—complete the back porch. 

Round the corner and across the yard is the original stable building. 

Venerable pear trees shed their autumn fruit. A new property line is reportedly being established to divide the freestanding houses at 2201 and 2205 Blake into two parcels for separate sale. 

There’s an ornate recessed side entry on the west of 2201 facing Fulton Street, almost a second front door to the house, approached between the trunks of two large cedars.  

Next to this entry you can see, through a west-facing window, a steep and extremely narrow staircase. Upstairs though, no stair appears; it’s concealed beneath a trap door in the floor of a second floor porch. 

The second floor begins at the south with a window-bayed master bedroom that spans the full width of the house. It’s furnished with a ponderous but impressive dark wooden bedroom set, scaled to the large, high, dimensions of the room. 

Along the east wall there’s a connecting bedroom (reportedly an original bathroom), then a smaller current bathroom. Tucked between the two is a closet-like room with built-ins and a winding stair to the attic (not 

open for viewing). A drawer in the bathroom wall is extremely deep and double-ended, opening to the closet on the other side. 

The back of the second floor contains two bedrooms, a small kitchen, and a glassed-in side porch. From the front staircase a narrow hallway with rounded corner walls zigzags towards the back of the house; it’s a bit like a passageway on a ship. 

In the 1940s the upstairs was apparently converted to two residential units, sharing the bathroom. 

The house retains many of the features that make Victorians special (and 

also sometimes hard to heat). There are high ceilings, large vertical double-hung windows, three window bays, two marble fireplaces, refinished wood floors, and decorative ornamentation. 

One feature of the house that was talked about for years in local historical circles is now irretrievably gone. The original wallpaper and floral ceiling decorations have vanished, replaced with a blandly pleasant interior paint job in neutral white, creams, and light yellows. 

Outside, the house has been painted a deep gray, with lighter trim, consistent with its color for many years. Sitting well back from the street behind a shadowy screen of large evergreen trees—deodar, atlas, incense cedars—the dark house has seemed mysterious for generations. 

A long-time neighbor says that in the 1970s it was called the “haunted house” and she met people who had called it that in the 1920s. 

Stately and reserved perhaps, but haunted, no.  

The house was built by Alfred Bartlett, born in 1841 on an English farm. He did a stint in the British Navy then stowed away to New York at age 15, learned carpentry and retailing, and worked his way aboard a ship to San Francisco in 1857.  

He bought a wagon and turned an early love of books into a career as a traveling bookseller. This brought prosperity enough to buy property and in 1868—the year the University of California was founded—he married Teresa Whitney, a New Yorker who would remain his “faithful and affectionate wife” for more than half a century. 

In 1876, Bartlett bought the Blake Street property at auction and the following year he built 2201 Blake and moved his family there “for the sake of the health of my wife and two daughters.” 

This is a recurrent theme in East Bay history—moving across the bay, glad to get away from chilly, foggy, San Francisco. 

Bartlett continued in book selling and real estate. The landmark nomination for 2201 Blake says the family was “frequently mentioned in the local newspapers, and appear to have been well-liked.” Bartlett even ran for town marshal, unsuccessfully, and two of his three daughters earned degrees from nearby UC. 

In 1892 the Bartletts built the house next door at 2205 Blake, apparently as a rental property. They eventually spent much of their time living in Fresno. Alfred died in 1924, Teresa in 1919. 

In the 1920s the Schendels purchased 2201 Blake. Howard Coleston, Sr. who grew up on Fulton Street, married into the family in the 1940s, the same decade the Bartlett House was reportedly converted to apartments. 

The adjoining houses descended through the Schendel/Coleston family until the present day. 

Alfred Bartlett had written once to his future wife, “You may like a city for a while, but I expect you would soon long for the liberty and natural pleasures of a country life.” Semi-rural Berkeley in the 1870s probably fit that bill. 

The Bartlett House stands on one of 140 “residence lots” put up for auction in October 1876 by Francis Shattuck, subdividing property homesteaded by Berkeley pioneer George Blake. 

This was just a few years after the University of California had moved to its Berkeley site, and the same year Berkeley was formally incorporated as a town. 

Shattuck had arranged for a steam train line to run up his property tract, and rail service began in 1875. The trains made a stop at “Dwight Way Station” just a block northwest of the Bartlett House site, and for years property owners and merchants around that nexus tried hard to make it the center of Berkeley’s growing Downtown. 

The neighborhood escaped that fate, meaning that many early buildings, commercial and residential and including the Bartlett House, survive on the surrounding blocks. 

As the 19th century wore on to a close, the neighborhood was a pleasant residential district of Victorian family homes, both substantial and modest, convenient to campus, commerce, and transportation. 

In the early 20th century, remaining vacant lots filled in with additional houses in newer architectural styles. Depression and World War II resulted in the subdivision of many larger, older, houses into smaller units, while the University population grew and rental demand increased. 

By the 1950s and ‘60s this was sometimes dismissed as a district headed towards dereliction, unfashionable in those days of “suburban flight.” On every block some houses were torn down and replaced with large apartment buildings, including some of Berkeley’s most intrusive stucco “ticky tacks.” 

By the 1970s this was also a district where grassroots neighborhood activism and revival began to emerge. There were rent strikes, communes, and residents successfully protested the “Fulton Freeway”, then a congested southbound commute route to Ashby Avenue. One of Berkeley’s earliest traffic barriers blocks Fulton next to the Bartlett House. 

Not unusual for a district so close to a large university campus, the neighborhood contains many multi-unit structures and short term residents. However, there are a surprising number of long-term residents, both owners and renters. 

For a feel of the neighborhood—-and the really significant collection of early Victorians it contains—stroll a block or two in each direction from the Bartlett House. 

The Bartlett House is well worth a visit on Sunday to see the fine traditional Victorian interior and setting.  

But if you think about buying it, I hope you are someone who truly wants to live in a classic Victorian and make it comfortable without unsympathetic modernist “updates”, “improvements”, and “remodels.” 

And I also hope you value a large, level, yard for its gardening potential, not as a place to build. 

Although this property is privately owned, it’s also a true community cultural treasure.  

Photograph by Steven Finacom. A path framed between cedars approaches the west entrance of the Bartlett House. 

I have always enjoyed looking at houses. I think it started in my childhood, when we used to visit open houses on Sundays after church. As an adult, I have chosen a profession in which I can get access to many, many homes.  

But it has come to my attention that there are others like me, and I think maybe it’s time to start a 12-step program for house junkies. Do you qualify? Answer these simple questions and find out.  

1. When you go on vacation you pick up the real estate magazines at the supermarket and check them to see what houses cost in that area. 

2. You sit on your front porch staring at the house across the street and consider various new color schemes for it. 

3. Your idea of a good time is a trip to the hardware store. 

4. Cabinet hardware excites you. 

5. You joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation just so you could look at the real estate ads in the back of the magazine, and imagine yourself buying a log house from 1790 or an abandoned insane asylum. 

6. While other people are out having brunch on Sundays, you’re on the computer perusing the Daily Planet’s fabulous interactive Open Homes and planning your strategy for touring them. 

7. You would be willing to buy a totally falling down house in the middle of nowhere if it was architecturally fabulous. 

8. If you know a house is vacant, you sneak up and peer through the windows. 

9. You are ecstatic if you find a house with an original kitchen. 

10.Your vacation photos consist entirely of pictures of window muntins. 

11. This line in a real estate ad would get your attention: “ First time on market in 80 years.” 

The good news is that it’s a fairly benign addiction, unless, of course, you act on it by buying the house even though you already have a house.  

Otherwise, 12-step meetings would consist entirely of discussion of houses seen, maybe with photos, and trading notes on which agents will let civilians in during the broker’s tour. Oh, and snacks. 

Photograph by Jane Powell  

The finest house in Ferdinand, Idaho, population 125. The author would have bought this had cooler heads not prevailed. 

Jane Powell is the author of Bungalow Details: Interior and an unreformed house junkie, though she swears she hasn’t bought anything in two years. She can be reached at janepowell@sbcglobal.net. 

We’ll have our usual autumn hot spell, and things will get all dusty and drab, and we’ll all want to grow something green where we can. We’ll plant winter veggies and herbs and something to flower in December maybe, camellias and manzanitas and azaleas.  

This year we’ll need to beware water rationing. It’s odd how mild the recent warnings and requests from EBMUD and the other water districts have been; the reservoirs that I and others who talk to me have seen are scarily low, and the idea that we’ll have a deep-snowpack winter, never mind a locally rainy one, is practically a fantasy.  

So why am I telling you about fountains? I’ve found it’s aesthetically and psychologically wise to concentrate the water you do have, and establishing watering zones—most of the supplemental watering done in one small area, usually close to the house, and more water-thrifty plants taking up the rest of the garden—is Step One.  

Step Two might reasonably be water at play, a focus for the eye and ear of moving water. I suspect it’s a human universal to enjoy the movement, sound, light refraction and diffraction and reflection, and cool hospitable atmosphere of dancing water. 

Given what I saw at TAG Fountains Garden Pottery (the business card has those last three words equitably arranged around the shop’s name; maybe the idea is not to play favorites?) the zone-planting idea is also a necessity if you include a fountain. They all splash a little, but not quite so predictably that you can count on that for the surrounding plants’ supply.  

I myself like fragrant-leafed plants where they can be jostled now and then and release their scent. The majority of such plants seem to be droughty desert- or chaparral-dwellers whose fragrant oils are part of their water-retaining capacity, holding moisture in the leaves and also discouraging herbivores from making a main dish of them. 

Notable exceptions are mints, and a ring of whatever mint strikes your fancy around a fountain—carefully contained of course, given their invasive tendencies—would be twice hospitable, throwing out the occasional zing of fragrance and garnishing (or composing) a cool drink. 

This TAG place has quite the variety of shapes to choose from: pillars, balls, nymphs, abstracts, your basic spitting lionhead, and one that struck me as startling, an apparent Buddha-head of the hobnail hairdo variety with water flowing smoothly from his topknot to veil his entire face and head.  

I guess it tweaked my attention because, though there are Jesus and Mary statues among the various sculptures there, they aren’t plumbed. No weeping Immaculate Heart, and the lamb The Good Shepherd carries in the crook of his arm isn’t piddling on him. Think of the possibilities left unexplored! 

Lots of pots, mostly large; ornaments to stand or hang, from Green Man to gazing ball; hanging votive-candle lamps with a dressy jeweled look; a chiminea and an alleged tiki that looks more like one of the moai from Rapa Nui.  

(For local tiki carving, go on down to the Templebar at 8th and University and see what Kem Loong Jr. has been doing.)  

TAG Garden Pottery Fountains 

725 Gilman St. 

849-1514 

http://www.tagpottery.com 

10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily 

My wife and I have been arguing about our house for 20 years. I know this isn’t unusual but it’s noteworthy and I’m going to take the long way ‘round in proving the point.  

People fight about houses. They fight about what color to paint, who gets to put a painting up on a particular wall, what repairs to make and how clean to keep it. It’s hard enough when one person owns and cares for a house but when two try to negotiate the arrangement of space, it’s congressional oversight 24/7. 

I, for one, feel like I’m having a serious debate every time I try to decide where to place a piece of furniture in a room. I’m quite capable of having an argument with myself (“stop that!”, “no, you stop that!”). 

Carl Jung argued, some 90 years ago, that I do this because I’m really whole bunch of neatly packed into one anatomy, and further, that I’m also identifying with the table, the room, the floor and the cat. So, it’s not so much that I’m rearranging the room, it’s more like I’m fixing my hair and deciding how tanned I should be. When the table isn’t just so, I look wrong. Just imagine when we get to painting the room! 

Berkeley is an exciting and wonderful place and due, in no small part, to our bountiful and delicious university. Nearly 30 years ago, I had the good fortune to study here and among the fascinating soldiers of knowledge I encountered on the field of battle was one Clare Cooper Marcus, a student of both Jung and of Architecture. 

Clare talked in class about what would eventually become ink in House As a Mirror of Self (published in 1995, some 15 years later. The paperback came out last year).  

She posits the notion that we experience the built world as an extension of ourselves. This perspective both enriches and also complicates our relationship with our houses, huts and garages. It also provides a valuable tool for looking into our relationships, particularly those we share real estate with. 

If I see my house as an extension of myself (Does this porch make me look fat?) and my partner sees the SAME house as an extension of herself, how the hell do we manage to remodel anything. Anyone who’s been through the arduous remodeling process with a partner can attest to the strain it can put on the relationship. In fact, while I’ve never seen any statistics (and would love to), I’m quite sure that a major remodel is one of the primary causes of a breakup or divorce. I say this simply having been around the remodeling (and marital) world for decades and having seen a shocking number of these in my own field of vision (or as stories shared by friends and colleagues). 

When two people are trying to express their own inner selves on the canvas of home, it’s a trial of mythological proportion. All the demons and homunculi come out, put on their little tiny tool belts and go at it, tearing down walls, throwing spaghetti and tiny balls of fire. Our distant pasts collide and can either blend into artistic visions (as in the case of the great collaborations of art and science history) or rail and raze the cities of our inner and outer lives. 

Again, this is hard enough when one person is involved. As a recovering remodeling contractor I can say with authority that helping a single person remodel their home is often quite trying. Remodelers usually try to keep their personalities out of the work and let the client have all the say (at least on what it looks like since how it’s built should be their domain) so you would think that this would simplify things. Well, it surely does but it’s still hard. Mr. Jung and Ms. Cooper Marcus have shed some light on why this is. Allow me to take this light and focus it a bit. 

If we accept the theorem that the house is a symbol of the self (Your self for example) what happens when someone starts remodeling your house is that they begin moving your nose a little to the left, your hairline backward or down to your eyebrows or your knees up to your hips. 

O.K., let’s set this grotesqueness aside for a second in favor of another. Remodeling is physically like surgery on your house, full of incisions, joint replacements and catheterizations. When we rewire your house, is this neurosurgery? When we replumb, is it a triple bypass? 

Remodeling is, in some psychological way, a reshaping of the person, people or relationships that exist inside the space. Even if we set the Zen-crystal-macrobiotic stuff aside for the moment, it’s not hard to see the Cartesian (republican) equivalents. Cutting up my house is disruptive and the dust and mess and lack of peace is harsh, dude.  

Nevertheless, I’m actually convinced that there IS something deeper going on and the test is in the identification that people clearly have with the smallest details in their homes.  

Anyone who has ever spent time with a really ob-com (obsessive compulsive) person can tell you that the relocation of the smallest object or the tiniest mess can set them off into flights of mania. This is due to the fragility of their inner I.D. When we have a deep, strong sense of ourselves and are grounded in a profound understanding of our place in the universe, a dirty car is not a big deal. When we’re not, we need to build masks that hold our identity (house, car, income) over the void of doubt. 

This suggests that in some sort of way, a remodel is a radical therapy, forcing the inner self to the surface and into the light of day. Remodeling contractors know this even if they don’t know that they know it. They know that at some point, even the nicest, sanest client is going to lose it when they’ve been deprived of their serene space for 10 weeks.  

When I was in the business, I used to interview clients and pay close attention to the neatness of the house. If it was fussy-perfection clean, I would find a way to avoid taking the job. This was the client that was going to go ballistic at some point when their image of the world (self, house) had literally crumbled into plaster dust.  

Now, that said, there are people who are just the opposite, looking for the extreme psychic makeover. The adventurous person who will go on Nepal treks or change jobs at the drop of a hat. Younger people more often fit this profile but that is definitely a generalization that wears thin fast. You get the point. The free and open-minded do better when we begin the psychic surgery of remodeling and the tight-as-a-drum go catawampus. 

If no other good comes out of this area of inquiry, I’m certain that the remodeling industry can gain greatly. Of course, they don’t tend to listen to this sort of thing so it will have to be “hammered” into them by academics, clients and writers so in say, 100 years, I think we’ll be good to go. 

This week’s column is dedicated to my old aerobics classmate Anita Feder-Chernila. Anita, a Berkeley gestalt therapist, consulted with Clare Cooper Marcus in the early years of Clare’s development of her theories and I’m certain that all those leg lifts and Cyndi Lauper records must have somehow insinuated themselves into Clare’s theories. Or maybe it only proves that Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. 

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

FRIDAY, SEPT. 14 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Eugenie Scott on “The Evolution of Creationism” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 526-2925.  

Emergnecy Free Speech Rally in the Memorial Oak Grove to protest the ten foot chainlink fence around a dozen tree-sitting environmental protesters and the chilling effect UC’s actions are having on free speech at 1:30 p.m. in the Oak Grove next to Memorial Stadium, Piedmont Way north of International House. www.saveoaks.com 

“Don’t Fall for It” Learn the right ways to maintain good balance and prevent falls at 10 a.m. at Salem Lutheran Home, 2361 East 29th St. Free individualized screening after the talk. 534-3637. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Children’s Hospital, Outpatient Center Basement, 747 52nd St., Oakland. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com  

Conscientious Projector Film Series “When the Levees Broke” by Spike Lee at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation requested. 528-5403. 

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. 

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, SEPT. 15 

Coastal Cleanup along the Berkeley Waterfront from 9 a.m. to noon. Meet at 9 a.m. behind Seabreeze Market at the corner of University Ave. and Frontage Rd. For other coastal clean-up sites see www.coastforyou.org 

Oakland’s Creek to Bay Day Volunteers need to remove litter and non-native invasive species at 16 locations in Oakland. For details about locations call 238-7611 or see www.oaklandpw.com/creeks 

Creek to Bay Day at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park A creek clean-up and beautification event. Tools, water and snacks provided. Bring sunscreen, hat, gloves and rubber boots. From 9 a.m. to noon at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, 2465 34th Ave., Oakland. 532-9142. 

Albany Waterfront Trail Cleanup Meet at 9 a.m. at the foot of Buchanan, west of 880. Bring water and be dressed to get dirty. 759-1689. 

Community Peace Rally & Concert from 1 to 5 p.m. at People’s Park with music, speakers, tables and action circles. peacerally07@hotmail.com 

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 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of Oakland Point Meet at 10 a.m. at Cypress Feeway Memorial Park, Mandela Parkway between 13th and 14th St. 763-9218. www.oaklandheritage.org 

Historical and Botanical Tour of Chapel of the Chimes from 10 a.m. to noon at 499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. RSVP to 228-3207. 

Chalk4Peace A chalk art project for children midday at Museum of Childrens’ Art, 538 9th St., Oakland. 465-8770, ext. 310. and at Cragmont Elementary School, 830 Regal Rd. 644-8810. www.chalk4peace.org 

“The Day the Earth Stood Still” Oakland Outdoor Movie Series at 8:30 p.m. on Ninth St. between Broadway and Washington, Oakland. Filmgoers are encouraged to bring thier own chairs and blankets. 238-4734. 

Free Earthquake Retrofit Seminar sponsored by the Association of Bay Area Governments from 10 a.m. to noon at Albrier Community Center, 2800 Park St. 418-1676. http://quake.abag.ca.gov/fixit  

Interreligious Art & Music Festival from 1-5pm at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, 2304 McKinley, Ave. http://drbu.org/ 

research/iwr/festival 

Vegetarian Cooking Class “Demystifying Tofu, Tempeh, and Seitan” 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. www.compassionatecooks.com  

Positively Ageless A Celebration of Art & Aging at 6 p.m. at 4th Street Studio, 1717 Fourth St. Cost is $25. Benefits Adult Day Services Network of Alameda County. www.fourthstreetstudio.com 

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Edith Stone Room of the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Chapel of the Chimes Historical and Botanical Tour at 10 a.m. at 4499 Piedmont Ave. RSVP to 228-3207. 

Kidpower Parent Child Workshop for chidren aged 4-8 to learn everyday safety skills, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Berkeley. Cost is $60, no one turned away. Email to register and for location. safety@kidpower.org www.kidpower.org 

“Crazy, Sexy Cancer Tips” with author Kris Carr at 3 p.m. at Elephant Pharmacy, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

Saturday Music Classes for Children and Youth in Choir, Marimba, bands, drumming and dance begin at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. 836-4649, ext. 112. www.opcmusic.org 

AAU Boys Basketball Tryouts for 12U, 13U and 14U teams from noon to 2 p.m. at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA, 2001 Allston Way. For information call 665-3264.  

Fast Pitch Softball for Adults at noon on Saturdays in Oakland. For information call 204-9500. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 16 

Bike Against the Odds for the Breast Cancer Fund at 6:30 a.m. at Lakeside Park, Lake Merritt, Oakland. Cost is $50-$75. To register see www.breastcancerfund.org/bao2007 

Transit to Trails Meet at the Downtown Berkeley BART station at 9:30 a.m. for an AC Transit bus ride to Tilden, followed by a guided walk through the park. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Mortar Rock Ivy-Pull Help clean up this historic site in North Berkeley from 10 a.m. to noon at 901 Indian Rock Ave. 848-9358. 

Musical Block Party at Peralta Community Garden hosted by the Friends of Westbrae Commons. Meet at 1 p.m. at 1400 Peralta Ave., by the corner of Hopkins to celebrate three community gardens. 524-2671. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m., Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. 526-7377. 

Oakland Heritage Alliance Walking Tour of the Eichlers of Oakland to learn about Oakland’s residential district of houses by Joseph Eichler, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Cost is $10-$15. Reservations required. 763-9218.  

Sycamore Japanese Church Bazaar with Japanese food, Taiko drumming, crafts and activities for children from noon to 5 p.m. at 1111 Navellier St., El Cerrito. 525-0727. 

Retromobilia Classic Auto Show 60+ vintage cars and the latest alternative fuel vehicles, food, fun, music from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the 1800 block of Fourth St. between Hearst and Virginia Sts. 526-6294.  

CodePINK Women for Peace Newcomer Orientation at 10 a.m. at the CodePINK Office, 1248 Solano Ave., Albany. Please RSVP to 524-2776. 

Green Sunday on Oakland’s Green Economic Development: How it is Being Affected by the BP Deal With the University of California and the “Progressive” Dellums Administration’s Partnership with the Oakland Chamber of Congress at 5 p.m. at the Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave. at 65th in North Oakland. 

Mac Lingo “Reflections on My Religious Journey” at 10 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

East Bay Athesists meets to watch the documentary “The Attack on Science” at 1:30 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 222-7580. 

“Updating Engels” a discussion of the achievements in Anthropology since Engels published “Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State” Led by Gene Ruyle, emeritus prof, CSULB at 10 a.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. 595-741. www.tifcss.org 

Urban Living Tour Benefit for Rebuilding Oakland Together. A self-guided tour of some of the most interesting living spaces and historical landmarks in the East Bay. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Starts at the Central Station, 14th & Frontage Rd. (adjacent to Historic 16th Street Train Station), Oakland. Costs $20. www.UrbanLivingTour.org 

Bike Tour of Oakland around the Fruitvale District on a leisurly paced two-hour tour that covers about five miles. Meet at 10 a.m. at the 10th St. entrance to the Oakland Museum of California. Reservations required. 238-3514.  

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 

Martial Arts Around the World A Family Exploration Day from 1 to 4 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. 

Introduction to Wellness Integration at 11:30 a.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 17  

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577.  

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at West Pauley Ballroom MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 18 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Garreston Point. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Memorial Ceremony at the Oak Grove with Country Joe McDonald and veteran’s groups to honor the Californians who gave their lives in World War I. At noon at the Oak Grove in front of Memorial Stadium, Piedmont Way. www.saveoaks.com 

Join in the “Living Graveyard” Bring a white sheet and join in the legal street theater to make visible the reality of the deaths caused by the war, at noon at Oakland Federal Building, 1301 Clay St. 655-1162.  

Constitution Day at the Free Speech Cafe with Daniel Farber on “Bong Hits 4 the Constitution: Free Speech Rights of Students Today” and Loweel Bergman on “Lots of Talk and No Action: Free Speech in the New Millenium” at 6 p.m. at Free Speech Movement Cafe, UC Campus. 643-6445. 

Berkeley Garden Club “Color, Texture and Water in the Garden” with Paul and Robin Cowley at 1:30 p.m. at Epworth Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 845-4482. 

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Open House from 10 a.m. to noon at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. RSVP to 642-9934. olli.berkeley.edu 

Writer Coach Connection Volunteers needed to help Berkeley students improve their writing and critical thinking skills from noon to 3 p.m. To register call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org 

“High Crimes and Atrocities” A documentary on the lies of the Bush administration’s to justify the invasion of Iraq, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

American Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 6 to 8 p.m. in Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165.  

“Sleep? I Wish!!!” Why people with Fibromhyagia, ME/CFS and related conditions do not get full and restful sleep and what can be done about it, with Andrew Greenberg, MD, of the California Center for Sleep Disorders at noon at Maffly Auditorium, Herrick Campus, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2001 Dwight Way. 644-3273. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577.  

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19 

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234.  

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Colloquium with Margaret Crawford on “Everyday Urbanism” at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall, Room 315A, UC Campus. All welcome. laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium  

“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foriegn Policy” with John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Donations accepted. Sponsored by Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

“Amax: La Memoria del Tiempo” a film on the 1932 genocide of the Nahua-Pipil of El Salvador, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Writer Coach Connection Volunteers needed to help Berkeley students improve their writing and critical thinking skills from noon to 3 p.m. To register call 524-2319. www.writercoachconnection.org 

Free Estate Planning Seminar at 7 p.m. at Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, 2700 Ninth St. RSVP to 845-7735, ext. 19.  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. 548-9840. 

THURSDAY, SEPT. 20 

Emergency Benefit for Street Spirit Editor Terry Messman and Ellen Danchik with poetry readings, art and music at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento St. at Cedar. www. 

freedomvoices.org/streetspirit 

“Local History of the Codornices Creek Watershed” with Richard Schwartz at 6:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth El, 1301 Oxford St. 759-1689. 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll hunt for spiders, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will hunt for spiders from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Fall Plant Sale from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755, ext. 03. 

Students United For Peace “Committee on UnAmerican Activities” documentary by Robert Carl Cohen, also “Operation Abolition” at 7 p.m. in Dwinelle Hall, room 145, UC Campus. studentsunitedforpeace@gmail.com 

“An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President” with Randall Robinson at 6:30 p.m. at Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Advance tickets available at Marcus Books 3900 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Oakland, $5-$30. 652-2344. 

“Two Rings Around the Bay: The Bay Trail and the Bay Ridge Trail” A slide talk with Bill Long at 7 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Sponsored by Berkeley Path Wanderers. 848-9358. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Border Patrol & Immigration Issues at 7:30 p.m. in the Home Room, International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave. Cost is $5. 642-9460. 

“Places Seen-Places Imagined: Reflections on Xuanzang’s Xiyu-ji” with Max Deeg, Senior Lecturer in Buddhist Studies at Cardiff University, Wales, at 5 p.m. in the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Flr. Sponsored by the Center for Buddhist Studies. 643-5104. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from noon to 1 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

“Fall of the I-Hotel” a film and panel discussion on the evictions in Manilatown, San Francisco in 1977, at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2022. 

Center for Elders Independence Gala “‘S Marvelous!” with food and music by the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, at 5:30 p.m. at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $125. RSVP to 839-3100. 

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 8:45 to noon at the Latina Center, 3919 Roosevelt Ave., Richmond. 981-5332. 

LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. in the cafeteria at the LeConte School, corner of Russell and Ellsworth. karlreeh@aol.com 

Easy Does It Board of Directors Meeting at 6 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. 

“Andropause: The Male Menopause” at 5:50 p.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. 527-8929. 

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers.644-6128 ext. 113. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/rent 

City Council meets Tues. Sept. 18, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www. 

ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Citizens Humane Commission meets Wed., Sept. 19, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6601. 

Commission on Aging meets Wed., Sept. 19, at 1:30 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center.  

Library Board of Trustees meets Wed., Sept. 19 , at 7 p.m. at the South Branch Library. 981-6195.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed. Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 20, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7010.  

West Berkeley Project Area Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 20, at 7 p.m., at the West Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7520.

In the Sept. 11 issue, the nonprofit corporation for which the city’s Energy Commission sits as the board of directors was misidentified: its name is the Community Energy Services Corporation. The headline should have read: “CESC Under a Cloud, Director Terminated.” 

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A story in the Sept. 11 issue about an incident between a security guard and a man with a knife at Berkeley High School misidentified the man. He was not a student, but a 20-year-old non-student.  

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The photograph of the 30-year celebration of Ecole Bilingue on the front page of the Sept. 11 issue was taken by Karoline Robbins. 

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 in, working in or enjoying various neighborhoods in our area. We are looking for essays about the Oakland neighborhoods of Temescal and around Lake Merritt, Fourth Street in Berkeley, and the city of Alameda. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues in October. The sooner we receive your submission the better chance we have of publishing it.