Residents in the vicinity of Magee Avenue and Blake Street became very much alarmed yesterday afternoon over the actions of a stranger. In fact, they became so alarmed that the marshal’s office was called upon to investigate the case and protect the people from what they supposed was a maniac—and all because the man was so thoughtless as to sit down on the edge of the sidewalk and remove one of his shoes. 

—Berkeley Daily Gazette, July 16, 1905, as cited by Richard Schwarz in Berkeley 1900. 

The Public Commons for Everyone Initiative, targeting people with behaviors some consider inappropriate for shopping areas, comes back to the City Council Nov. 27. It’s a proposal to enact restrictions on lying on the sidewalk and smoking in commercial areas, and it also calls for raising $1 million from increased parking meter fees to fund, in part, services for difficult-to-serve people with mental illnesses and drug and/or alcohol addictions. 

The controversial set of laws and possible services, proposed in various iterations over seven months by Mayor Tom Bates, pits some mental health and homeless advocates, who say the plan further criminalizes homeless and mentally ill persons, against many in the business community who argue that people with inappropriate behaviors keep shoppers away. 

The proposal the council will debate on Nov. 27 satisfies neither those in the business sector who wanted stronger prohibitions against inappropriate street behavior, nor advocates for homeless, addicted or mentally ill people who called for increasing services without the stick. 

If the plan were approved next week, lying on the sidewalk in all commercial areas would be banned, with police citing violators after one warning. The citation would not have to be complaint-driven. (The current law applies to fewer streets and requires two warnings and that the citation is complaint-driven.) 

The proposed law says enforcement would remain “low priority” between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., except when there is a complaint against the individual or there is a history of chronic problems of persons “lodging without consent” in a given location. 

Smoking would be banned on commercial-area sidewalks. 

Roland Peterson, chair of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce board and executive director of the Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District, says the proposed ordinances are weak.  

“Originally, I wanted to see no long-term sitting on the sidewalk,” he said. “So many people sit on the sidewalk and accost [others].”  

The council removed sidewalk sitting from Bates’ original proposal, saying it would reconsider it later in light of results from the other restrictions. 

Peterson had argued there should be no warning—“like most laws,” he said—before an officer cites people lying on sidewalks. 

Peterson was also critical of the no-smoking-in-commercial-areas component. “The issue is not smoking,” he said, explaining that smoking restrictions fail to address the central issue: inappropriate street behavior.  

While the lying and smoking restrictions would kick in 30 days after the ordinances get a second reading—Dec. 11 if the council gives its approval Nov. 27—the proposed services, if approved, would take longer to get started. 

If the council votes in concept on Nov. 27 to increase the parking meter rate from $1 to $1.25, the city attorneys still have to write a resolution to that effect to come back to the council at a later date. The meters would then have to be recalibrated and the increased funds collected to pay for any new services. 

Meanwhile, the council has yet to decide what services to provide and who would provide them if the money became available. 

The programs proposed in the staff report for Nov. 27, prepared by Management Analyst Lauren Lempert, who was hired at $7,200 per month to put together the initiative, include increasing the number and availability of public toilets, providing housing and support services to 10 or 15 of the most difficult to serve chronically homeless persons, expanding services for older teens and young adults, providing advocacy for people to obtain disability benefits, and more. 

Responding to the proposal, the Homeless Commission said in a report to the council that the concept remained too undeveloped to consider. “The Commission cannot support the enforcement aspects of the initiative without the opportunity to review them in the context of a fully developed plan that includes new housing and social services opportunities,” the commission wrote. 

Public bathrooms 

While the initiative underscores the need to treat public urination and defecation as an infraction, which police are more likely to enforce than a misdemeanor, the plan before the council Tuesday says the city will write no new laws prohibiting public urination or defecation until a sufficient number of public toilets becomes available. 

The initiative proposes spending $142,000 to increase the number of public bathrooms available, including new “porta-potties,” and increasing public toilet hours. The bathrooms would be cleaned through a work program designed to put unemployed people to work, the staff report said. 

The initiative includes a “visitor restroom program” on Telegraph in which business owners would open their restrooms to the public and the city would pay a stipend to them for restroom upkeep. 

Supportive housing 

For the Homeless Commission, Councilmember Dona Spring, Osha Neumann, attorney and advocate for homeless persons, and others, the most important component of any plan to help people with mental health or drug and alcohol issues get off the streets is housing linked to supportive services.  

Spring pointed out that the plan has to take a long-term view—it takes years to stabilize someone on the streets with multiple needs, she said. 

The staff proposal would dedicate $350,000 to housing subsidies and coordinated intensive services for 10 or 15 chronically homeless adults “who are hardest to reach and most likely to [exhibit] problematic street behavior.”  

Spring pointed to the difficulty of selecting which people receive these services, noting that some have been on waiting lists for such services for years. “We need to serve 10-to-15 people one hundred times,” she said. 

No Smoking 

The proposed ordinance expands prohibitions against smoking to include commercial areas, designated by streets, senior centers, health facilities and parks.  

Asked how the new law would affect small-business owners or their employees alone in their shops, who frequently step outside for a cigarette break, Lempert told the Planet that there won’t be “a cop posted outside every store.”  

The ordinance will be enforced by “peer pressure,” she said. “It will be complaint driven.” 

No Lying  

Neumann told the Planet he believes from talking to his clients that as soon as the mayor proposed new laws last spring, police in the Telegraph area stepped up ticketing homeless people for so-called “quality of life” violations, such as lying on or obstructing the sidewalk. 

The Daily Planet submitted a public records act request to see the numbers and kinds of violations being ticketed, but City Manager Phil Kamlarz responded that the data was unavailable: “We were unable to extract the information from our data base due to the way the data entry coding is done,” he said in a Oct. 31 email. (The City Council similarly requested but did not receive this information.) 

Fearing arbitrary enforcement, Spring called the ordinances “punitive” and “a giant step backwards.  

“Even if [the prohibition against lying on the public right of way] is low priority at night, people will still be harassed,” she said, noting that the men’s shelter has a 30-day stay limit. “What do you do when your 30 days are up?” she asked. 

Responding to her own question, she answered: “You go and try to sleep in some doorway.”

Berkeley city officials said that test results for the Aquatic Park dredging spoils showed high but not hazardous lead content. 

W.R. Forde, the contractor hired by the city’s Public Works Department to dredge the lagoon, was responsible for the tests. 

The city’s Public Works Department dredged the lagoon at the north end of the park and unloaded the spoils along the shoreline three weeks ago without requesting a permit from the California State Water Resources Control Board.  

Lauren Jensen, supervising engineer for Public Works, told the Planet Tuesday that the test results were favorable. 

“The soluble threshold limit contamination, which tells you whether the contaminants will leach out of the soil, is below hazardous level,” he said. “So it’s good news. Now it will be taken to a local landfill but I don’t have a plan worked out for that yet.” 

The Planet has requested a copy of the lab results from Public Works. 

The project drew criticism from city officials and local environmentalists because the spoils were discarded on a popular bird-watching site and adjacent to one of the main wading-bird foraging spots. 

The Sierra Club condemned the city’s decision to dredge the lagoon during migratory bird season in a letter to the state Water Board. 

It demanded that the city provide the board and the public with information on whether it had adequate staff and expertise to handle the project. 

“My understanding is that Berkeley is meeting at the site with a biological consultant this week to get her input on making the rest of the work more biologically friendly,” said Brian Wines, who oversees permits for Alameda County at the state water board. 

Laurel Marcus Associates—the consultants hired by the city to advise the Aquatic Park subcommittee on future projects—is reviewing the potential impacts at the excavation site and the temporary placement site. 

“I’ll be looking at what activities can take place at the site to improve it once the project is over,” Marcus said. “We’ve done some of the field work but we won’t comment on anything right now.” 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz said that the city would carry out its own tests to determine if the sludge was toxic. 

“I hope the city will test it independently and not rely on the hired contractor,” said councilmember Darryl Moore, who has demanded an explanation from the city about the project. 

“Getting the sludge tested by the contractors themselves doesn’t really help.” 

The approximately 30 truckloads of spoils near the Berkeley Rowing and Paddling Club have been covered by black plastic sheets and burlap bags to prepare for rain, which could wash contaminants into the water. 

When the decision to dredge at Aquatic Park was made, the city of Berkeley had recently lost its hazardous waste disposal and emergency response contractor, after the state Department of Toxic Substance Control ordered the company’s Palo Alto facility to close and revoked its operating permit in August because of a history of violations and accidents. 

On May 8, when the City Council approved a contract with Romic Environmental Techno-logies Corporation for “disposal of hazardous and universal waste generated by the city and to  

provide emergency response, cleanup and disposal services,” the controversial waste firm was already under investigation by the state’s toxics department for a May 2004 and March 2006 burn incident and June 2006 chemical release and employee burn incidents. 

The state also fined Romic $849,500 in 2005 for improper waste storage.  

The U.S. EPA was investigating Romic’s Chandler, Ariz., facility at the same time for violating federal waste handling and storage laws. EPA’s $97,000 in fines against Romic for violating environmental law came right after the agency shut down the Chandler plant by refusing to grant it a permanent use permit in August. 

The decision resolved EPA’s complaint about a series of emission releases into the air at Romic’s Chandler facility near the Gila River Indian Reservation on April 5 and the company’s subsequent failure to implement emergency contingency operations to mitigate the possibility of a release. 

Although some Berkeley city officials had advised the city’s Public Works department against hiring Romic, the company remained under contract for six months. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the Planet that he had not been aware of Romic’s controversial history. 

“I’ll have to look into it,” he said. 

“The general policy is that until there is substantial evidence about violations, we can’t disqualify the bidder.” 

Jim Mason, the city’s occupational health and safety officer, told the Planet that the city had not conducted any business with Romic during the contract period.  

“Even though they were under investigation it does not mean they are a bad contractor,” he said. 

Mason added that during the time Romic was under investigation by the EPA, it was under a temporary contract with the city for $25,000. 

According to the contract approved for renewal by the City Council in May, Romic had been the city’s primary hazardous waste disposal and emergency response contractor since 2006. The contract was supposed to be extended until 2011 for $450,000, but according to Mason it was never executed. 

In his recommendation to Kamlarz to approve the renewal, David Hodgkins, the city’s director of human resources, said that city staff had “thoroughly examined Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation’s references and credentials” and found it to be a responsible bidder. 

But Cheryl Nelson, manager of EPA's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facilities Management Office, said the city should have known enough to be wary of Romic.  

“The city would have found out about the ongoing investigations against Romic if they had contacted the State Department of Toxic Substance Control,” she said. 

“We don’t endorse any hazardous waste contractors but the city could have checked up on their permit and asked questions ... There’s a lot that could have been done.” 

Nelson added that city officials should have been aware of the June 2006 incident when 4,000 gallons of hazardous chemicals reacted with each other while being loaded into a tanker truck at Romic’s Palo Alto facility and created a cloud over two acres of nearby wetlands. 

“It was pretty serious,” she said. “It was all over the news.” 

Councilmember Darryl Moore told the Planet on Thursday that he was unaware of Romic’s history. 

“This is all new information for me,” he said.  

“It’s extremely disturbing that the city did not act with due diligence to check the company’s background. There are lots of hazardous waste contractors out there. There is no need for the city to deal with a firm that is under investigation.” 

Massachusetts-based Clean Harbors Environmental Services acquired certain assets of Romic in June but excluded its Palo Alto and Chandler, Ariz. facilities. 

A California Superior Court judge has voided the City of Oakland’s approval of the controversial Oak-to-Ninth development project, sending the project back to the Oakland Planning Commission and the City Council for a new round of environmental impact report certification and commission and council votes. 

In a 55-page decision issued last Friday, Judge Jo-Lynne Q. Lee agreed with the claims of a coalition of neighborhood and environmental activists that the Oak- to-Ninth EIR had not adequately addressed the issues in several key areas, including cumulative impact of past and present projects, traffic impact, and seismic risk mitigation. 

At the same time, the court ruled that the City of Oakland had properly considered alternatives in its EIR before concluding that much of the massive Ninth Avenue Terminal, the largest existing building on the Oak-to- Ninth site, could be largely dismantled for the project.  

The ruling comes at a time when Oakland will be losing its longtime Director of Planning, Claudia Cappio, who oversaw the original approval process in the Oakland Planning Commission and in the Oakland City Council for the Oak-to-Ninth Project. A spokesperson in the Oakland City Administrator’s office confirmed that Cappio has turned in her resignation, though a date for her leaving her position has not been set. 

“For me, personally, it’s going to be a devastating loss,” Public Information Officer Karen Boyd quoted Adminstrator Deborah Edgerly as saying. “It’s going to leave a big hole in our operation.” Boyd called Cappio a “great presence” and “an incredible worker.” 

Cappio, who was recently injured while riding her bicycle, was not available for comment. 

Last week’s Superior Court ruling was on two lawsuits filed sep 

arately in the summer of 2006 but later consolidated, one by the Coalition of Activists For Lake Merritt (CALM) and Oakland architect progressive and activist Joyce Roy, seeking to overturn the EIR, and one by the Oakland Heritage Alliance seeking to keep the Ninth Avenue Terminal from being essentially destroyed even if the project itself were approved. 

The Oak-to-Ninth project, which seeks to rebuild a stretch of aging Oakland waterfront property along the estuary just south of Jack London Square, was controversial from its inception, and became an issue both in last year’s mayoral election and in the later District Two election between incumbent Pat Kernighan and challenger Aimee Allison. 

• 

The final language of the ruling will be issued sometime after mid-December, and the parties will have 60 days after that date to file an appeal. The lead attorney for Oak To Ninth developer Signature Properties, Steven M. Bernard of Balgley & Bonaccorsi of Newark, California, was out of the office for the rest of the week and unavailable for comment on whether Signature would encourage the city to appeal. 

The ruling comes after some 25,000 pages of documents from the city’s original planning approval process were submitted to the court, as well as over 200 pages of written legal argument submitted by all sides. 

The Superior Court ruling comes barely a week after plaintiffs voluntarily dropped a separate lawsuit that challenged the Oakland City Attorney’s throwing out of petitions calling for a vote on the Oak To Ninth Project. 

A spokesperson for Mayor Dellums said the mayor has not yet read Judge Lee’s decision, which was issued on Friday but not available until late Monday, and said that the mayor would not comment until he had the chance to read the report and consult with staff. 

Alex Katz, Communications Director in the City Attorney’s office, said that “in legal terms, it’s a split decision, but a win for the city.” Katz said that the court agreed with the city on 14 of the specific EIR complaints made by the plaintiffs, and with the plaintiffs on 10 issues. “We see that as positive,” he said, adding that he believed the city can resolve the EIR complaints upheld by the court “relatively easily.” 

Katz conceded, however, that the decision means a new Planning Commission and City Council vote, which now gives opponents a second chance to gather signatures for a ballot referendum if they don’t like the outcome. 

Meanwhile, the EIR lawsuit plaintiffs themselves had always argued that they did not want to stop the Oak To Ninth project entirely, but wanted modifications. The judge’s ruling now gives them that opportunity. 

Because of that, the EIR lawsuit plaintiffs were ecstatic about Judge Lee’s ruling. 

“I’m feeling great. I’m dancing,” Joyce Roy said. “It’s such a bad project on so many levels in so many ways.” 

Naomi Schiff, president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, said that while “we’re sorry that the judge doesn’t think the salvaging of the Ninth Avenue Terminal is important,” she added that “my understanding is that all the city approvals are voided, and that this gives everyone a chance to take a second look at this project, including the terminal.” 

And even Oakland League of Women Voters president Helen Hutchinson, who had sounded drained and disappointed last week when announcing the Oak-to-Ninth Referendum Committee’s decision to withdraw its separate lawsuit, was decidedly more upbeat in reacting to the EIR victory. 

“In many ways, the ruling justified our decision to call for a referendum on the project.” Hutchinson said. 

Arthur Levy of Levy, Ram & Olson LLP of San Francisco, the Oakland Heritage Alliance attorney, said that he was “disappointed with respect to the Ninth Avenue Terminal,” but “extremely pleased, overall, at the outcome of the ruling. We’re hoping that the project will be improved as it comes back through the planning approval process.” 

Levy said that he had not yet talked with OHA officials about the possibility of appealing the court’s Ninth Avenue Terminal findings to the California Appeals Court. 

And Brian Gaffney of San Francisco, attorney for CALM and Roy, also said he was pleased with the ruling, adding that the decision left Signature Properties with three options: going back through the EIR process, filling in the sections that the judge ruled were incomplete or unaddressed, appealing the ruling, or trying to work out a settlement with the plaintiffs that could bring a modified form of the project to the Planning Commission and City Council. Gaffney called any Signature appeal “risky.” “An appeal could take a year and a half to get through the Appeals Court,” he said, “and if they lost, they would still have to go through all of the city processes again to get approval for the project.” 

If the proposed 3,100-residential unit, 200,000-square-foot commercial space development Oak-to-Ninth project does go back through the Oakland planning process, it will find a landscape distinctly different from when the project was approved on a 6-0 City Council vote in the summer of 2006. 

In 2006, Jerry Brown was mayor of Oakland. Brown was a strong supporter of the Oak-to-Ninth Project, and considered it a key part of his plan to bring commercial development and 10,000 new residents to the general downtown Oakland area. Ron Dellums is mayor of Oakland now, elected on a campaign platform of bringing all sides to the table in deciding development issues, as well as using the city’s development approval powers to promote the city’s diversity. 

Asked to comment on Dellums’ views on the development and diversity issue during last year’s mayoral campaign, president Mike Ghielmetti of Signature Properties, the developer of Oak-to-Ninth, told the Oakland Tribune a little dryly “There’s a great deal of concern in the development community. The remarks were not taken well.”

Editor’s note: This is the second of two articles on concerns arising from UC Berkeley $500 million biofuel program. Part 1 ran in the Nov. 20 issue. 

Supporters of the $500 million biofuel research pact between UC Berkeley and British oil giant BP have compared it to the Manhattan Project. 

And one inevitable parallel stems from the visions of cheap, world-saving energy supplies promised from the technology spawned by that massive World War II effort to build war-ending nuclear weapons. 

“Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter” declared Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chair Lewis L. Strauss to science writers in 1964, promising as well as the end of “great periodic regional famines in the world.” 

And all of it the gift of nuclear power. 

The AEC, eloquent promoter of nuclear power in the 20th century, was later renamed and elevated to cabinet status as the Department of Energy, today the ultimate sponsor of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where the BP-sponsored Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) will be headquartered. 

It’s the very same lab was the site of critical discoveries at the dawn of the atomic era, further cementing the Manhattan Project legacy. 

But a look backward at the history of atomic energy reveals a different and far more complex story, with a darker legacy woven in. 

While nuclear reactors do supply a significant portion of Europe’s electricity, the atomic legacy has also created massive contamination and hazards. Chernobyl and Three Mile Island weren’t factored into the original equations, nor the legacies of radiation-contaminated water and farmlands and the threats of cancer and long-term debilities. 

So too the promised energy bonanzas flowing from the Berkeley and Illinois labs of the Energy Biosciences Institute may have other legacies, perhaps those raised by critics such as UC Berkeley scientists Miguel Altieri and Ignacio Chapela. 

They and other scientists and social researchers warn of biological hazards and charge that lands which grow food to feed hungry billions in the Third World will be co-opted by corporate giants to sate the fuel demands of American vehicles, leading to grave social consequences. 

Land and patents 

Critics of what EBI and its proponents call biofuels use another word to describe fuels harvested from planted crops: Agrofuels. 

Environmental activists and supporters of indigenous people and the poor campesinos of Latin America charge that large-scale growing of genetically engineered crops for fuels have already scarred the global landscape, threatened critical food supplies and led to shootings of indigenous peoples who resist the powerful owners of the vast plantations of South America. 

Soy plantation owners of Paraguay—the people behind the 2005 shootings witnessed by a UC Davis doctoral student—are recent Brazilian immigrants who have been buying up small tracts and consolidating the land into same kinds of plantations already thriving in their former homeland. 

Brazilian government raiders earlier this year freed more than a thousand slaves on plantations where sugar cane is grown to produce ethanol, currently the world’s leading agrofuel. 

Meanwhile, Monsanto has found itself in confrontations with Latin American countries where it contends that its patented pesticide-resistant soy strains are being planted illegally on biofuel plantations without payment of royalties to the North American patent holder. 

That St. Louis-based company is also a major funding source for the private research company created by Chris Somerville, executive director of EBI. 

Critics contend that the high prices paid for patented seeds of Monsanto and other gene-tweaking companies are too high for small farmers, driving them from the land and paving the way for a new era of giant latifundia. 

During a June breakfast meeting of the United States Energy Association, Berkeley nuclear physicist Dan Kammen, who sits on EBI’s executive committee, said that BP had already funded three Berkeley students to head to India and Africa in search of native plants—“germ plasm,” in Kammen’s words—that might serve as new fuel crops. 

Kammen told the gathering that “from the beginning,” EBI researchers would be “looking at the social dynamics that you’ve got to work with, not against, to make sure the fuels that you start to work on are supported by communities (and) lead to better food security.” 

Kammen’s own lab is in Nairobi, Kenya. 

U.S. land worries 

As for the U.S., EBI’s Somerville told the gathering that most crops for domestic biofuel production would be grown “east of the Mississippi [where] there is adequate rainfall to grow very highly productive species.” 

That focus was the reason that led UC Berkeley and LBNL to team up with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), in the heart of America’s farm belt. 

While EBI backers say the farmlands will be marginal for food crops, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations warn that Acting Secretary of  

griculture Chuck Conner has announced that he is thinking of opening up some of the country’s most environmentally sensitive protected lands to farming because of the push for agrofuels. 

Conner’s department may allow farmers to withdraw from the 22-year-old Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) without incurring the currently mandated penalties. 

Farmers have currently enrolled 34 million acres of easily eroded land in the CRP program, acreage which environmentalists say provides critically needed wildlife habitat. 

Crops and GMOs  

The major research effort of EBI seeks an economical way to make fuels from plant fiber, rather than the more easily refined sugars found in the juices of such crops as corn, soybeans and sugarcane—currently the main staples of ethanol production. 

They also seek more efficient fuels than ethanol, which is considerably less energy-charged than gasoline and other petroleum distillates. 

The EBI’s project relies heavily on genetic modification to produce both the “feedstock,” as fuel-makers refer to crops, and the microorganisms they plan to engineer to break down the complex sugars in plant fibers for refinement into fuels. 

While Somerville has focused on switchgrass, Steve Long, another member of the EBI executive committee, focused on another grass, miscanthus, in his lab at UIUC. 

“Steve has calculated that, in his plots in Illinois, that on an annual basis he’s getting about two percent of the solar energy fixed by the plants into useful energy,” said Somerville. 

If production proves feasible at those levels, he said, “we’re talking slightly more than one percent of the terrestrial surface to meet all human fuel needs. That’s why so many of us feel optimistic about the long-term potential of the field.” 

But research projects aimed at creating genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have emerged as a stormy political issue across the globe because they give ownership of the stuff of life to corporations which create an economy of scale that favors massive plantations in place of traditional small holdings. 

Other concerns focus on the wisdom of large-scale introduction of man-made genes into a vastly complex biosphere, while others worry that GMOs could produce unknown forms of illness. 

EBI boss Somerville has ridiculed GMO health fears, contending that the worst result that's ever happened “has been a mild rash,” while opponents cite reports of intestinal ailments in GMO-fed animals killed to provide meat for human tables. Others point to the infiltration of GMO strains into native foodstuffs, an issue which almost cost Chapela his job at UCB. 

Economic pressures resulting from GMO rice strains in India have led to suicide, and Australia currently bans GMO crops, while three million Italians just signed a petition calling for a ban on GMOs in their country. 

But GMOs have played little part in the media coverage of EBI. 

Critical questions 

While the EBI proponents say they are confident they can develop crops that will reduce the global emissions of the greenhouse gasses cited as the key factor in the ongoing global warming crisis, other scientists aren’t convinced. 

Leading biofuel critics include Rajendra K. Pachauri, chair of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change—the organization which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. 

The two best-known American biofuel critics are UC Berkeley’s Tad Patzek and David Pimentel of Cornell University. 

They have been joined by Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), who has urged immediate adoption of standards that ensure that biofuel crop production doesn’t lead to destruction of more rain forests. 

Forests in Steiner’s native country of Brazil have been cleared to make way for fields planted in genetically modified soybeans and for sugarcane. 

Steiner also told BBC news that biofuel producers should be required to prove their fuels don’t produce more carbon dioxide emissions than they eliminate. 

Burning of forests to make way for palm trees for biofuel production have sent CO2 emissions soaring in Indonesia, as well as destroying the habitats of endangered species, including the orangutan. 

Meanwhile, BP is hedging its bets. On Nov. 5 the company announced that it was funding collaborative research at Arizona State University on transforming photosynthetic cyanobacteria into a feedstock for high energy transportation fuels. 

While no dollar amount was revealed, the university described the project as “significant.” 

BP also provides $1 million a year to the University of Texas as part of energy consortium which hopes to develop microscopic “nanosensors” to map oilfields. 

The Berkeley Board of Education will meet in closed session Monday to screen applications for the position of superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District. 

The search for a new superintendent began in September after current district superintendent Michele Lawrence announc-ed her retirement. She will leave the post Feb. 1. 

The district hired Mission Viejo-based Leadership Associates to conduct the recruitment process, which started with a community meeting. The application period closed on Nov. 5. 

“We got a good strong and diverse pool of candidates,” said board president Joaquin Rivera. “One of the best the consultants have seen in years.” 

After the board screens the applicants they will conduct interviews on Dec. 8 and 9th. After the final candidate is approved, dates will be set to visit his or her district. 

The board will then announce the name of the candidate to the community. 

The district has come under criticism from some community members and organizations for carrying out a closed selection process. Board members said the success of the search depends on its confidentiality. 

For more information on the search see www.leadershipassociates.org.

A California Superior Court Judge has voided the City of Oakland’s approval of the controversial Oak To Ninth development project, sending the project back to the Oakland Planning Commission and the City Council for a new round of environmental impact report certification and commission and council votes. 

In a 55 page decision issued last Friday, Judge Jo-Lynne Q. Lee agreed with the claims of a coalition of neighborhood and environmental activists that the Oak To Ninth EIR had not adequately addressed the issues in several key areas, including cumulative impact of past and present projects, traffic impact, and seismic risk mitigation. 

At the same time, the court ruled that the City of Oakland had properly considered alternatives in its EIR before concluding that much of the massive Ninth Avenue Terminal, the largest existing building on the Oak To Ninth site, could be largely dismantled for the project.  

The ruling comes at a time when Oakland will be losing its longtime Director of Planning, Claudia Cappio, who oversaw the original approval process in the Oakland Planning Commission and in Oakland City Council for the Oak To Ninth Project. A spokesperson in the Oakland City Administrator’s office confirmed that Cappio has turned in her resignation, though a date for her leaving her position has not been set. 

“For me, personally, it’s going to be a devastating loss,” Public Information Officer Karen Boyd quoted Adminstrator Deborah Edgerly as saying. “It’s going to leave a big hole in our operation.” Boyd called Cappio a “great presence” and “an incredible worker.” 

Cappio, who was recently injured while riding her bicycle, was not available for comment. 

Last week’s Superior Court ruling was on two lawsuits filed separately in the summer of 2006 but later consolidated, one by the Coalition of Activists For Lake Merritt (CALM) and Oakland architect progressive and activist Joyce Roy, seeking to overturn the EIR, and one by the Oakland Heritage Alliance seeking to keep the Ninth Avenue Terminal from being essentially destroyed even if the project itself were approved. 

The Oak To Ninth project, which seeks to rebuild a stretch of aging Oakland waterfront property along the estuary just south of Jack London Square, was controversial from its inception, and became an issue both in last year’s mayoral election and in the later District Two election between incumbent Pat Kernighan and challenger Aimee Allison. 

The final language of the ruling will be issued sometime after mid-December, and the parties will have 60 days after that date to file an appeal. The lead attorney for Oak To Ninth developer Signature Properties, Steven M. Bernard of Balgley & Bonaccorsi of Newark, California, was out of the office for the rest of the week and unavailable for comment on whether Signature would encourage the city to appeal. 

The ruling comes after some 25,000 pages of documents from the city's original planning approval process were submitted to the court, as well as over 200 pages of written legal argument submitted by all sides. 

The Superior Court ruling comes barely a week after plaintiffs voluntarily dropped a separate lawsuit that challenged the Oakland City Attorney's throwing out of petitions calling for a vote on the Oak To Ninth Project. 

A spokesperson for Mayor Dellums said the mayor has not yet read Judge Lee's decision, which was issued on Friday but not available until late Monday, and said that the mayor would not comment until he had the chance to read the report and consult with staff. 

Alex Katz, Communications Director in the City Attorney's office, said that "in legal terms, it's a split decision, but a win for the city." Katz said that the court agreed with the city on 14 of the specific EIR complaints made by the plaintiffs, and with the plaintiffs on 10 issues. "We see that as positive," he said, adding that he believed the city can resolve the EIR complaints upheld by the court "relatively easily." 

Katz conceded, however, that the decision means a new Planning Commission and City Council vote, which now gives opponents a second chance to gather signatures for a ballot referendum if they don't like the outcome. 

Meanwhile, the EIR lawsuit plaintiffs themselves had always argued that they did not want to stop the Oak To Ninth project entirely, but wanted modifications. The judge's ruling now gives them that opportunity. 

Because of that, the EIR lawsuit plaintiffs were ecstatic about Judge Lee's ruling. 

“I’m feeling great. I’m dancing,” Joyce Roy said. “It’s such a bad project on so many levels in so many ways.” 

Naomi Schiff, president of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, said that while “we’re sorry that the judge doesn’t think the salvaging of the Ninth Avenue Terminal is important,” she added that “my understanding is that all the city approvals are voided, and that this gives everyone a chance to take a second look at this project, including the terminal.” 

And even Oakland League of Women Voters president Helen Hutchinson, who had sounded drained and disappointed last week when announcing the Oak To Ninth Referendum Committee’s decision to withdraw its separate lawsuit, was decidedly more upbeat in reacting to the EIR victory. 

“In many ways, the ruling justified our decision to call for a referendum on the project.” Hutchinson said. 

Arthur Levy of Levy, Ram & Olson LLP of San Francisco, the Oakland Heritage Alliance attorney, said that he was “disappointed with respect to the Ninth Avenue Terminal,” but “extremely pleased, overall, at the outcome of the ruling. We’re hoping that the project will be improved as it comes back through the planning approval process.” 

Levy said that he had not yet talked with OHA officials about the possibility of appealing the court’s Ninth Avenue Terminal findings to the California Appeals Court. 

And Brian Gaffney of San Francisco, attorney for CALM and Roy, also said he was pleased with the ruling, adding that the decision left Signature Properties with three options: going back through the EIR process, filling in the sections that the judge ruled were incomplete or unaddressed, appealing the ruling, or trying to work out a settlement with the plaintiffs that could bring a modified form of the project to the Planning Commission and City Council. Gaffney called any Signature appeal “risky.” “An appeal could take a year and a half to get through the Appeals Court,” he said, “and if they lost, they would still have to go through all of the city processes again to get approval for the project.” 

If the proposed 3,100-residential unit, 200,000-square-foot commercial space development Oak To Ninth project does go back through the Oakland planning process, it will find a landscape distinctly different from when the project was approved on a 6-0 City Council vote in the summer of 2006. 

In 2006, Jerry Brown was mayor of Oakland. Brown was a strong supporter of the Oak To Ninth Project, and considered it a key part of his plan to bring commercial development and 10,000 new residents to the general downtown Oakland area. Ron Dellums is mayor of Oakland now, elected on a campaign platform of bringing all sides to the table in deciding development issues, as well as using the city’s development approval powers to promote the city’s diversity. 

Asked to comment on Dellums’ views on the development and diversity issue during last year’s mayoral campaign, president Mike Ghielmetti of Signature Properties, the developer of Oak To Ninth, told the Oakland Tribune a little dryly “There’s a great deal of concern in the development community. The remarks were not taken well.” 

The Ed Roberts Campus—an easily accessible center where disabled people will find legal advocacy and housing help, learn computer skills, find specialized day care, practice fitness routines and meet friends for coffee without the barriers most local cafes present—may have found the last $9 million it needs to start construction on the project that began 12 years ago. 

Funding for the project, however, could pit Aquatic Park advocates against the project for the disabled, as Mayor Tom Bates has proposed using funds for the center which were previously earmarked for a sound wall between the park and freeway. 

A Metropolitan Transportation Commission committee approved $4.5 million last week, contingent on matching funds. The full MTC will vote on the allocation on Nov. 28.  

Bates, an MTC commissioner, is asking the City Council to agree to spend another $2 million on Nov. 27, $500,000 from the city’s general fund capital budget and $1.5 million from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in a fund previously earmarked for the sound wall project. 

The sound wall was approved by the council in 2000, but was never fully funded by CalTrans. 

In addition to the new amount which Bates proposes allocating, the council voted on Oct. 23 for another $500,000 contribution, to come from Berkeley’s Housing Incentive Financing Program funds, aimed at improving transportation. BART has agreed to add $2 million.  

That would give the project the $44 million it needs to break ground next summer. 

Dimitri Belser, president of the Ed Roberts Campus board and the executive director of the Center for Accessible Technology, has been working on the project for more than a decade. Seven nonprofit organizations that focus on disability have come together to form the larger nonprofit ERC. Collaboration among the groups is the key to making the project go, Belser told the Planet on Friday. The member nonprofits are: Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program, Center for Accessible Technology, Center for Independent Living, Computer Technologies Program, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Through the Looking Glass, and World Institute on Disability. The project will be owned by the ERC. 

The organizations don’t duplicate, but “dove-tail services,” Belser said. 

Speaking about the project in an interview last month, CIL Executive Director Jan Garrett, vice president of the ERC board, said: “It will be a model. People will come from around the world to see it.”  

Councilmember Dona Spring told the Planet Friday that she supports the ERC, but is concerned about using the sound wall funds for that purpose. Before the city approves the allocation, Spring said, Aquatic Park users should be consulted.  

The barrier envisioned was to be a “living” sound wall, made of earth and plantings. While Caltrans funded the project at $1.5 million, real costs were in dispute at the time and Caltrans never approved the project, although the City Council supported it. 

“There’s no reason why we should not push for money for Caltrans to complete the sound wall,” Spring said.  

Aquatic Park advocates Mark Liolios, of EGRET (Environmental Greening, Education, and Restoration Team) and Lisa Stephens, member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, both said they were surprised when a reporter told them of the proposal. Both said they thought the sound wall project was still in the pipeline of projects to be done. 

“This is scandalous,” Stephens told the Planet. “They’re required to do something.”  

If the funds are approved and the project goes forward, the Ed Roberts Campus will be built on the eastern parking lot of the Ashby BART station. The lot will be redesigned so that no parking spaces will be lost, Belser said.  

In addition to offices each organization will have, the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program is planning to build a fitness center. “It will be the first ever fully accessible fitness center,” Belser said.  

The child development center will be run by Through the Looking Glass, which supports parents who are disabled. Meeting rooms are to be fully accessible, with smaller rooms that could open into a large one that could seat several hundred people.  

Forty HazMat professionals battled toxic gunk on the treacherous Berkeley Marina rocks as part of the Cosco Busan Oil Spill Response Monday. 

Their only weapon: hand towels. 

The city stopped deploying volunteers to rescue birds and clean up the Berkeley shoreline Monday to give the O’Brien’s Group, the private recovery firm hired by Cosco Busan owner Regal Stone Ltd., an opportunity to clean its beaches. 

Community members can still sign up at californiavolunteers.org for future volunteer opportunities. 

“We can’t have the volunteers and the contractors working on the same spot. There are liability issues involved for the contractors,” said William Rogers, interim director for Berkeley’s Parks Recreation and Waterfront Department. “They are being paid by the owners of the ship to do the cleaning. The community worked diligently, but there’s still a lot of oil out there that’s difficult to see from the shoreline. The professionals should really be the ones cleaning it.” 

Regal Stone Inc.—which leased the ship to South Korea-based Hanjin Shipping for the voyage—is also providing Tyvek coveralls, gloves, shoe protection, bags, and disposal containers for the cleanups. 

Rogers added that although the clean-up was slow, the situation had improved. 

“Volunteers have pulled over 100 bagfuls of pebbles, vegetation and other hazardous waste,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been able to clean up as well if it hadn’t been for them. Unfortunately, the situation with the birds is not great. There has been an increase in the number of dead birds found and a decline in the number of alive birds.” 

Dr. Kirsten Gilardi, supervisor for the makeshift bird rescue center set up by the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at the Marina, said that the pattern was typical. 

“The further you get into a situation like this, it is expected that there will be more dead birds,” she said, packing rescue essentials into a pick-up truck. “The birds are ingesting the oil while picking at their feathers and sometimes when the oil dries up they are unable to move.” 

Gilardi added that the rescue center was working independently to send volunteers to search for birds. 

The Department of Fish and Game released 38 birds into Pillar Point Harbor Friday afternoon, the first of hundreds taken to the International Bird Rescue and Research Center to be saved. 

Berkeley deployed two hundred volunteers to clean eight beaches Saturday including Virginia Beach, Brick Yard Cove and Albany Beach.  

Officials from the Department of Fish and Game delivered the HazMat trainings for the city.  

Rogers said that although the city had responded to the spills independently at first, it was now being advised by the incident command center at Treasure Island. 

“Some other cities were concerned about liability when the spill happened,” he said. “But Berkeley decided earlier on to train its folks and deploy them and make sure they were supervised. Berkeley felt this was an acceptable risk.” 

Fifty volunteers turned up Sunday, some with towels, others with pets and families in tow.  

Although the Marina had opened to boat traffic Thursday, the piers were still deserted. Crabbing equipment lay inside the boats untouched.  

“I am not using my boat right now,” said Michael Lamb, a boat-owner at the Berkeley Marina. “We have been asked not to wash our boats ... I leave it to the experts to make the decisions. I hope to use it next week.”  

City Manager Phil Kamlarz along with councilmembers Linda Maio and Darryl Moore toured Berkeley’s coastline Sunday. 

“It looked better than I thought until I came to the northern end,” Maio, dressed in an orange life-vest, said. “Some of the oil residues have stuck internally to the rocks and the HazMat crews are working to remove them.” 

“We are hoping that the teams will come around the houseboats and clean the scum,” said Moore. 

Families could be spotted along the shoreline looking for distressed birds, some braving the rocks to flag their location. 

Kamlarz—who declared a state of emergency Thursday—said that the smell of oil had receded from the bay. 

“There’s still a lot of residue from Skates on the north to the Yacht Club,” he said. “Same for the F and G docks ... People should put their dogs on leash and stay away from the sick birds. Two volunteers were recently injured in the Marina ... We want the professionals to take over now.” 

Jeff Topic, site supervisor for the HazMat crew contracted by O’Brien’s, said the teams had been working since Thursday. 

“We are scraping the oil off the rocks and using a rag to wipe it off,” he said. “That’s the best way. All my people go through 40 hours of training ... All of them have had spill experience before.” 

Dressed in steel-toed knee-high boots, safety glasses and gloves, the crew has cleaned more than three-quarters of a mile since Thursday. 

Shawn Weaver and Lawrence Davis had been wiping oil off the rocks for twelve straight hours. 

“It’s not time for break yet,” Weaver said. “We’ll be here for as long as it takes.” 

Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz took several emergency actions after the Nov. 9 oil spill. In a specially called meeting Monday afternoon, the council retroactively approved the measures:  

• Dogs at the Marina, Aquatic Park and all waterfront and shoreline areas of the city must be restrained by a leash of no more than six feet within 250 feet of the water. (Dogs can continue to be off-leash in the specially designated area of Cesar Chavez Park, however.) 

• Humans are prohibited within 50 feet of the shoreline, except at designated volunteer assembly areas. 

• Boat washing is prohibited, except for commercial vessels with written permission of the Regional Water Quality Control Board. 

While trained volunteers had been cleaning the shoreline, at present cleanup in Berkeley is restricted to professionals cleaning rock areas.  

“There are 75 people today [in Berkeley] working on the rock areas,” Kamlarz said. “We’re asking volunteers to stay away and let the professionals deal with the rocks.” 

No new volunteer trainings are scheduled, Kamlarz said. The city has lists of people who have been trained. After several days of high tides, the city may again need trained volunteers to work at the shoreline. 

If people find injured or oily birds, they should not approach them, but call 981-6720. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington added that the state’s delay notifying cities of the spill should be investigated.  

“The impact of the spill will last days, weeks, even years,” he said. “If the state had a faster response, we could have decreased the negative impact. We need to ask what caused the delay.” 

—Judith Scherr 

An Alameda County Superior Court judge awarded thousands of dollars in damages to a group of West Berkeley neighbors Friday who sued Pacific Steel Casting for loss of use and enjoyment of their property and mental distress. 

Judge Dawn Girard ruled that nine of the 19 plaintiffs who filed the small claims case in August 2006 would each get between $2,100 and $5,100 because of the “private nuisance created by Pacific Steel,” and “a real and appreciable invasion of the plaintiffs’ interests.” 

No judgment was awarded in any of the children’s cases. Girard dismissed five other adult cases for lack of appropriate paperwork. 

Elizabeth Jewel of Aroner, Jewel and Ellis, the public relations firm for Pacific Steel, told the Planet that the Gilman Street foundry was disappointed by the rulings and would appeal it. 

Lead Plaintiff Tom McGuire called the judgment “a victory for the small guys.” 

“It’s not about the money,” he said. “It’s a moral victory because we were able to stand up to the company that has been polluting with impunity and thumbing the community for decades. It’s like giving them a black eye. Let them appeal if they want to. They can spend more money and drag it through court.” 

Most of the plaintiffs complained of a burnt-copper-like smell which some said could be toxic. 

“This is a history that runs very long,” said Brant Bellamon, who rents an apartment close to the foundry. “They operate out of three plants now ... The molten metal goes airborne from Plant 3. I can smell it from my apartment every day. It’s one of the worst particulate matters. I am pleased with the judgment but it’s not over yet. We have won the battle but not the war.” 

The steel foundry recently settled a lawsuit with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and installed a $2 million carbon absorption unit on Plant 3 to reduce emissions and odor. 

It also settled a lawsuit with Communities for a Better Environment which requires it to install an air filtration system. 

Since the nuisance lawsuit was filed in small claims court, the parties were not allowed to be represented by lawyers. Attorney Kathleen Aberegg from Neighborhood Solutions advised them on the case. 

“I was responsible for the opening and closing statements,” said McGraw. “Each of us had to go before the judge and represent our own case.” 

Pacific Steel was represented by Barry Scott, the company’s human resource manager. 

According to McGuire, the judge awarded homeowners in the West Berkeley neighborhood a larger amount than the renters. “She gave all the homeowners $5,100 each with one exception. The renters received $3,600 each.” 

McGuire rented a house in West Berkeley in 2004 but moved to a different neighborhood seven months later. 

“My wife and I lived in the line of fire of the factory,” he told the Planet. 

“The minute we moved in, we knew something was wrong. Although I live in the North Berkeley Hills now, I can still smell the burning metal on my way to work. When we heard about this lawsuit, we decided to join on principle.” 

Air monitors set up by a group of West Berkeley residents in May to detect emissions from Pacific Steel Casting reveal high levels of the toxic metals nickel and manganese. 

According to Mark Cherniak, an independent international health expert, the levels of nickel and manganese found in the samples taken near the West Berkeley steel foundry were hundreds of times higher than considered safe by the World Health Organization. 

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District released Pacific Steel’s long-awaited health risk assessment report to the public in October and will be accepting comments until Jan. 31. 

Campus police have escalated their campaign against the tree-sitters at UC Berkeley Memorial Stadium, making arrests Sunday and Monday in the protest that began nearly a year ago. 

The university also sent word to the Alameda County Superior Court judge that the university intends to cut branches at the stadium grove that are being used to help send supplies to the arboreal protesters. 

An attorney who is representing environmentalists struggling to save the threatened grove said that no decision should be made without a meeting of all parties in the action now pending before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara J. Miller. 

Zachary Running Wolf, who launched the protest last Dec. 9, was arrested for the eighth time at 4:07 p.m. Sunday, while another member of the protest’s ground support crew, Arthur Fonseca, was arrested four hours earlier and booked on suspicion of resisting arrest and violation of a court order. 

Running Wolf was charged with violation of a court order and resisting arrest and taken to Berkeley’s city jail to join Fonseca—who was also served with an order barring him from campus for the following seven days. 

Ayr, who has been instrumental in organizing ground support for the protest, was arrested early Monday afternoon. 

Both Ayr and Fonseca were arrested within minutes after they had helped provide the tree-sitters with food and supplies, said Doug Buckwald of Save the Oaks at the stadium. 

“Ayr went to International House to use the restroom, and he was seen by a police spotter. When he came out, a police cruiser had blocked the sidewalk and he was handcuffed and taken away,” Buckwald said. 

Running Wolf, an unsuccessful candidate for mayor last Novem-ber, had just been released Friday from the Alameda County jail at Santa Rita. 

Wozniak’s visit 

Berkeley City Councilmember Gordon Wozniak met at the grove Monday afternoon with campus police and Dan Mogul of, the university’s executive director of public affairs. 

Wozniak represents the council district closest to the site of the protest, and his constituents include the residents of Pano-ramic Hill who are fighting the project in court. 

“My visit was prompted by concerns of some of my constituents who wanted to keep the tree canopy intact along Pied-mont Way to implement the vision of Frederick Law Olm-sted,” Wozniak said. 

Considered the founder of American landscape architect and the designer of New York City’s Central Park, Olmsted designed the Piedmont Way streetscape, which is a City of Berkeley landmark. 

“Some of the branches they want to cut are pretty big, and it would have a major impact on the appearance of the streetscape,” Wozniak said, noting that some campus officials have been actively working to help restore Olmsted’s vision for the street. “I don’t see any particular way for a win/win situation at this point. It’s pretty much a stalemate right now.” 

Wozniak said the university apparently wants the judge to give them an option that would allow them to cut the branches, a point Mogulof confirmed Monday afternoon. 

The university official said that there will be no changes in the university’s handling of events at the grove “pending notification that the judge in Hayward (Miller) has arrived at a ruling,” Mogulof said. 

Given that the judge has promised 48 hours advance notice of her decision, no decision is likely before the week’s end, he added.  

Asked if the university intended to cut off supplies to the protesters, Mogulof said, “We have neither the physical pieces nor the personnel in place to hermetically seal off the area.” 

In the same letter announcing the plan to cut branches, Kelly L. Drumm of UC’s Office of General Counsel wrote to Judge Miller Friday, asking her to delay issuing her ruling until next week. 

“UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison requests that the court not issue its decision before Nov. 26 ... to ensure the campus has adequate police staffing to respond to potential incidents resulting from a decision in this case,” Drumm wrote. “Chief Harrison and Chancellor Birgeneau believes (sic) that adequate officer staffing is necessary to ensure the safety of police officers and civilian security officers given recent events at the oak grove involving the tree sitters and their supporters.” 

Drumm cited last Wednesday’s tense confrontation between campus police and protesters as the deciding factor in the university’s decision to cut branches at the grove. 

Officers resorted to their batons after protesters set out to cut the dual fence lines erected to surround the grove. 

“The university intends to cut/trim the limbs/branches that compromise the security line and create safety risks to officers,” Drum wrote. “The proposed pruning would not compromise the health or integrity of the trees, which are outside the proposed footprint of the (gym) and are not covered by the injunction.” 

Dose of irony 

Michael Lozeau, the attorney who represents the Panoramic Hill Association in the multi-party lawsuit challenging the four-story mostly underground gym and office complex the university plans at the grove site, said Monday that he is somewhat bemused by the university’s fencing policies. 

“The university said it needed to build the fences to protect the tree-sitters from the 60,000 to 70,000 fans who attend” football games at the stadium. 

“But the season ended last week, so who is there to protect them from?” Lozeau mused. 

Noting that the university had gone to court to win an injunction barring support for the tree-sitters, Lozeau wondered why the university had erected the fence to safeguard those same tree-sitters. 

“That certainly seems like support,” he quipped. 

“We never said it was just about protecting them,” said Mogulof. 

On a more serious note, Lozeau said he wondered if the university planned to tear down the fence if construction is allowed to proceed, given its assurances to the court that it would do nothing that advanced the gym project until Miller had ruled. 

Among the issues Judge Miller is being asked to decide is whether or not the university followed the steps mandated in the California Environmental Quality Act before UC’s Board of Regents approved construction of the gym project and the environmental review that encompassed it and other projects dubbed the Southeast Campus Integrated Projects. 

With the impediments removed to the Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker’s plan for 12-hour shifts and dividing the city into three districts, community police advocates both inside and outside the Dellums administration are hoping that the way is now clear for the administration to move forward on a proposed Comprehensive Public Safety Plan as well. 

The plan, which was forwarded to Mayor Ron Dellums last summer, calls for the Dellums administration to implement community policing by fully staffing the city’s 57 problem-solving officer slots, bringing the number of civilian Neighborhood Services Coordinators to 30, organizing Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils (NCPCs) in all 57 beats and using them as the primary public safety contact within each beat, and layering the delivery of all of Oakland’s public-safety-oriented services through the already-existing Service Delivery System (SDS). 

Dellums has not made a final decision on the entire package, and some of the components are certain to be controversial. Advocates hope, however, that the plan will eventually unite all sides involved in Oakland’s currently raging public safety discussion and disputes under one programmatic umbrella. 

Public Safety Task Force co-convener Jason Victor Serinus said by telephone this week that moving to a comprehensive, integrated community policing plan is necessary “to deal with the roots of the crime problem in this city. I was surprised to learn when I started working with the task force that community policing is the law in Oakland, but it’s never been fully implemented.” Instead, Serinus said that the city is currently operating on what he called the “Keystone cops model. Meaning no disrespect to the police officers involved, someone reports a problem in East Oakland, so the city sends officers running out there to deal with it. And then someone says, ‘Holy shit! We’ve got a problem out in West Oakland,’ and the city turns around and sends the officers over into West Oakland. We’ve got officers constantly running back and forth, back and forth, putting blankets on the flames, but never getting at the root cause of the problems. That’s the reactive form of policing. The essence of community policing is the opposite; it’s proactive.” 

Serinus said that currently, Problem Solving Officers (PSOs) are not able to fully operate in their role as the centerpiece of the city’s community policing strategy. 

“They’re getting constantly pulled off their community policing activities to deal with immediate crime situations,” Serinus said. “They’re not able to take a long-range overarching look at the causes of crime. Therefore, the solution is to lock up more and more young black and brown people.” Serinus called that strategy similar to the federal and state model “which always needs to identify an enemy and then either lock up or kill the enemy, and then you ‘solve’ the problem.” 

A July report from the Community Policing task force on the Comprehensive Public Safety Plan released to Dellums says that Oakland’s community policing program “presently … sits in abeyance, stalled in labor negotiation sessions between city management and the Oakland Police Officers Association. A major issue is the proposed change from the present 4-day/10-hour work shift to a 3-day/12-hour shift.” 

Chief Tucker in July 2007 wrote, “twelve-hour shifts are an integral part of the plan to achieve true community policing.”  

Last week, that roadblock was lifted when an impartial arbitrator ruled that the Oakland Police Department could institute its shift from the 10-hour work shift to the 12-hour work shift.  

Tucker now plans to divide the city into three distinct police geographic zones, each of which is to be run by an individual commander, with officers restricted to the zone in which they are assigned. Under current police operations, police are constantly shifted from beat to beat, with no continuity or time for individual officers to understand the nuances of their individual areas. Tucker says that among other things, the 12-hour shift makes the geographically based staffing model possible. 

In a prepared release following the arbitrator’s decision, Dellums called the decision “a breakthrough for Oakland—we can finally move closer to true community policing.” 

But how much of the proposed Comprehensive Public Safety Plan will actually be adopted and eventually implemented remains to be seen. 

The plan envisions PSOs working full time in each of the city’s 57 beats to identify potential and actual public safety problems, both by walking the beats themselves on a daily basis and observing conditions and talking with individuals as they go along, and through regular meetings with the beat’s NCPC. 

The public safety proposal projects the NCPCs as the major community liaison portion of the program. Since only a handful of the city’s 57 beats have functioning NCPCs, the proposal envisions the PSOs organizing NCPCs in their beats where none currently exists. 

Both of those concepts may stir up controversy over the proposal. In the past, several of the NCPCs have been criticized in some community activist Oakland circles as being too close to the police and for promoting a “tough on criminals” approach to crime prevention, and having uniformed police officers actively organizing the NCPC in their beat can only be expected to increase that criticism. 

As the PSOs gather information on public safety problems in their beats, the Comprehensive Public Safety Plan proposal envisions them as bringing their concerns to Service Delivery System (SDS) units set up in each of the city’s six police service areas (PSAs). 

The six SDS units, currently operating under the city administrator’s office and consisting of roughly 10-12 police beats apiece, consist of service providers from all of the city’s public service agencies, including those responsible for such things as street lighting, community and economic development, and nuisance abatement. PSOs are expected to funnel their public service-related requests through these regular SDS meetings and then to make sure that those requests are actually implemented in their beats. 

Currently, the SDS units meet once a month. Advocates of the Comprehensive Public Safety Plan want those meetings to increase in frequency, possibly to as often as once per week, and want the meetings to include representatives of the various violence prevention organizations funded through Oakland’s Measure Y so that they become planning and sounding boards for all local violence prevention services in the city. 

Advocates also want the civilian Neighborhood Services Coordinators to play a more active role in both the communities and in the SDS meetings and follow-up. 

“That’s not happening now,” Serinus said. 

He described a recent situation in his own community to illustrate the current gaps in the system. 

“Two months ago, we had a young man killed near 27th Avenue,” Serinus said. “Young people held a vigil at the site for several days, but eventually the vigils began to drift into drinking and then roaming thought the community.” Serinus said that he understood how drinking became involved. “It’s a way to deal with the grieving process. For many people, it’s the only way. This entire city is grieving. We have suffered so many murders, and there’s no way to channel it.” 

But Serinus said that the vigil eventually got out of hand and broke into neighborhood disturbances, and after a window was broken and fights broke out, he and other neighbors had to call 911 for police to come in to disperse the gatherings. 

“But that wasn’t what was needed, it’s just what the situation made necessary,” Serinus said. “What was needed, initially, was the city to send out grief counselors for these young people to give them a way to channel their feelings. There’s so much that could have been done to help them, and the problem would not have not gotten out of hand.” 

Serinus said that if the proposed comprehensive community police plan were in effect, requests for counseling services—either from the city or from the Measure Y violence prevention organizations—could have immediately been coordinated through the area problem solving officer. 

“We need to have a common vision and a common strategy” in attacking public safety problems, Serinus said. “In addition, clear lines of communication are essential among all the agencies and organizations involved.”

Scott Slaughter, 31, of Oakland lost his life Thursday morning when he crossed the train tracks north of the Berkeley Amtrak Station on his way to his job at Truitt & White, located near the tracks on Hearst Avenue. 

Slaughter was talking on his cell phone and watched a train pass going south, but was hit by the Chicago-bound California Zephyr at 8:12 a.m. going in the opposite direction, according to Vernae Graham, Amtrak spokesperson. 

This was an eerie reminder to Berkeley Councilmember Linda Maio of the death in June of Bread Project founder Lucie Buchbinder, 83, at a train crossing in Jack London Square. Similarly, Buchbinder was talking on a cell phone, waited for one train to pass and was struck by another going in the opposite direction. 

“It takes three football fields [distance] to stop the train,” Graham told the Planet.  

The city does not have statistics available on pedestrians killed by trains in Berkeley. According to Operation Lifesaver, a nonprofit that provides rail safety education, there were six pedestrians killed by trains in Alameda County in 2005 and seven in 2006. From January through July 2007 there have been three such deaths in the county. 

With a new police department computer system, the city will do a more efficient job of tracking such accidents, Maio said. 

Speaking on Monday, Maio said she had not yet been briefed on the accident, but said there may need to be a prohibition against trains passing each other from two different directions in an urban setting. Or trains may need to be elevated when they pass through cities, she said. 

“There have been two accidents like this—it should be a wake-up call,” Maio said.  

In September, at Maio’s behest, the City Council voted to have a study conducted on the feasibility of mandating a quiet zone in Berkeley, where trains are not allowed to sound their horns. Rail safety issues within the city will be evaluated in that study being conducted by WilburSmith Associates. 

Operation Lifesaver provides rail safety education to interested groups. The organization can be reached through their website at www.oli.org. 

(Editor’s note: This is the first of two articles on implications of the just-concluded $500 million agreement between UC Berkeley and BP. Part two will be published Friday.) 

In the hands of British oil giant BP, the $500 million biofuel research deal at UC Berkeley’s Energy Bioscience Institute could change the face of the world. 

That’s the one thing critics and admirers agree on. The program has been hailed by supporters as either “our moon shot” or—in reference to a more controversial chapter of UC Berkeley’s history—“our Manhattan Project.” 

While the Manhattan Project reshaped the realm of world politics and the Apollo program shaped generations of new technologies, EBI’s record-breaking corporate academic partnership that was finalized last week—should it fulfill the promises of its boosters—will transform landscapes across the globe. 

Powerful evidence that agrofuels—crops farmed for fuel—are changing the face of the earth comes from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory website. 

Consider the satellite photo of the Bolivian Chaco, the second largest South American old-growth forest. Vast star-shaped patterns repeat in quilt-like patterns, consuming the Chaco with cleared fields planted with genetically modified soybeans—a food crop grown not to feed humans but to fuel their cars and trucks with ethanol. 

BP’s image 

BP has sought to recast its image from British Petroleum to BP plc, and is selling itself as “Beyond Petroleum.”  

But by whatever name, BP is the same multinational which has plotted coups in the Mideast and bankrolled paramilitary terrorists in Latin America. In its earlier incarnation as Anglo-Iranian Oil, BP triggered the CIA-planned coup that overthrew Iran’s first elected government. 

It is the same company fined $373 million last month in criminal and civil penalties by the U.S. Department of Justice for: 

• polluting the Alaskan wilderness by failing to maintain the Alaskan Pipeline; 

• killing by criminal negligence 15 workers and injuring another 170 when a Texas City, Tex., refinery exploded on March 23, 2005; and 

• conspiring to corner the propane market for much of the eastern U.S. in the middle of winter in 2004. 

BP’s offshore ownership and worldwide focus required a special waiver from the Department of Energy (DOE) to allow it to partner with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which had recently executed an agreement with UC Berkeley requiring research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to be aimed at domestic industries. 

The waiver was based in part on the program’s promise of energy independence for a nation embroiled in conflict, actual and threatened, with the world’s major petroleum-producing lands. 

Third World crops 

While UC Berkeley and LBNL—along with their project’s third partner, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign—have hailed EBI as a project designed to make the U.S. energy independent, BP is frank to say its own interests are global. 

BP envisions that crops developed by Berkeley and Illinois scientists will be grown across the globe but concentrated in the tropics. 

Which is precisely what critics have claimed from the start. 

Tad Patzek, a Berkeley engineering professor and former scientist for Shell, reports that there are slave camps on Brazilian plantations where sugar cane is grown for ethanol. And UC Davis doctoral student Kregg Hetherington says he witnessed firsthand the killings of two campesinos challenging the spread of agrofuel soy plantations in Tekojoja, Paraguay, describing the events in the July 24, 2005, ACTivist Magazine. 

Monsanto Corporation, which owns many of the patented strains of genetically modified soybeans grown in the global South, also provided millions of dollars in research funding for Mendel Biotechnology, the private startup founded by EBI Director Chris Somerville. 

BP’s scientist 

As controversy spread about the impact of agrofuel plantations in South America and Africa, BP’s own chief scientist admitted that oil companies have blemished records when it comes to protecting the environment and the rights of indigenous people. 

His remarks came during a June 13 breakfast gathering sponsored by the U.S. Energy Association, a video of which has been available on the internet. 

“BP is a global company,” said Steve Koonin, a nuclear physicist on leave from his post as provost of the California Institute of Technology. “And of course, while the U.S. may be currently 25 percent of worldwide petrol use or crude use, there’s a whole other world out there. And so we are interested in feedstocks and fuels for many different locales around the globe.” 

As for where those crops will be grown, Berkeley scientists and university and LBNL officials have stressed that their goal is an energy-independent U.S., with fuels created from fibrous crops grown on currently marginal soils. 

Asked if the company was looking at Africa, Koonin was frank, telling the energy association meeting: “If you look at a picture of the globe ... it’s pretty easy to see where the green parts are, and those are the places where one would perhaps optimally grow feedstocks. 

“Beyond the physical and economical considerations, there are social considerations when you march into the undeveloped or developing parts of the world with large-scale enterprises,” he said. “We are familiar with that to some extent in the oil business ... We don’t do it well all the time. We’re trying to do it better.” 

FRIDAY: Land worries and critical questions.

The Berkeley Board of Education held back last week from approving Emeryville-based Baker Vilar Architects to plan the demolition of the Berkeley High School old gym due to the lack of a timeline for the project. 

The board voted unanimously for the firm to design the school’s new bleachers and asked district staff to prepare a timeline for the demolition of the gym.  

The district will pay Baker Vilar $900,000 from the bond fund for the projects. 

School board vice president John Selawsky said he had received calls from community members concerned about the lack of a specific timeline for the projects. 

“There is not much information here,” he said. “We should pay attention to them separately as it’s a two-way process. The public deserves some notification.” 

The first two phases of the Berkeley High School South of Bancroft Master plan—which include construction of a bleacher building with athletic lockers underneath, the construction of a small facilities building off Channing Way, a small set of bleachers and restrooms on the west side of the football field, and the demolition of the old gym and existing bleachers—were approved at a school board meeting in September. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence said that the demolition was a long-term process. 

“I do understand the concern and the need for information but nothing is going to happen here within the next three months that’s going to affect the demolition of the gym,” she said. 

Board member Karen Hemphill asked for the name of the contractor who would be doing the actual demolition. 

“I haven’t seen a contract yet,” she said. “I have been to that gym. It would be good option to maximize whatever can be salvaged.” 

The State Historical Resources Commission unanimously approved the nomination for the Berkeley High School campus to be listed on the National Register as a historic district earlier this month. The proposed historic district includes the old gym, itself the subject of a landmarking battle. 

The Friends Protecting Berkeley’s Resources—the group responsible for writing the nomination—had sued the school district in March for what it charged was an inadequate environmental impact report on the demolition of the gymnasium and warm water pool within its master plan. 

Warm pool users are also opposed to the proposed demolition, which they feel threatens their use of the pool. 

Berkeley High principal Jim Slemp, along with a group of high school administrators, teachers, parents and students, was responsible for selecting Baker Vilar from among four firms. The firm took over the King Dining Commons project in April after its original architect defaulted on the contract causing delays and additional costs of up to $46,000. 

Mostly they play for the pure fun of it.  

“You’re playing around with your friends,” said volleyball player Charlotte Carver.  

“It’s fun to dive all over the floor,” said Carla Globerson-Lamb, one of the team captains. 

The popular game, invented in 1895 by a physical education director at the Holyoke, Mass., YMCA, is played by pick-up teams in the park and in the Olympics. When a team plays sloppily, coaches call it “family reunion volleyball.”  

A lot of the game is taken up with touching and bonding rituals. When players score—hit the ball into the floor on the opponent’s side—they make a circle with their arms around one another. When they lose a point—hit the ball into the net or out of bounds—they make a circle anyway. 

“It’s part of team chemistry,” said Coach Brenda Bertram. “If they did something well, they celebrate. If they did something wrong, they talk about it.” 

She says men aren’t the same. “There are a few huggers, but mostly it’s high-fives and hand slapping. In American culture it’s considered taboo for men to hug each other.”  

Globerson-Lamb said the lost-a-point huddle is devoted to encouragements such as “‘That’s O.K., we got the next one.’ We always support each other, no matter what.”  

Often the players are long-time friends, playing together  

in clubs in the spring and summer, giving Berkeley a big advantage.  

“Some people are more privileged,” Globerson-Lamb said, referring to Berkeley’s relative affluence. “If you have money, you can play out of school.”  

Berkeley rarely loses and usually is the league champion. At a recent game, Berkeley players huddled 20 or 30 times. Their opponents never did. Energy accumulated on the Berkeley side until it was palpable. You didn’t have to know the score or what the game was about to know they would win. 

Coach Bertram said she saw it too. It’s hard to understand—that people can gather, each with a portion of energy, and then ungather, each with a greater portion.

A Berkeley woman tearfully pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that she murdered her 9-year-old son at their Shattuck Avenue home last month.  

Misti Hassan, 31, who was dressed in red jail clothes and sobbed as she nodded to about 25 family members and friends who came to her brief appearance in Alameda County Superior Court, is scheduled to return to court Jan. 29 for a pretrial hearing on charges that she murdered Amir Hassan at her apartment at 3011 Shattuck Ave.  

An Alameda County sheriff’s deputy became upset when Hassan’s boyfriend waved to her and handcuffed him, hauled him out of the courtroom and arrested him for allegedly illegally communicating with an inmate.  

Berkeley police found Amir dead when they went to the apartment shortly before 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 10 after getting a tip from San Jose police. They said he may have been dead for up to 36 hours.  

Misti Hassan was suffering from cuts to her arms and neck and was taken to a local trauma center, where she was treated for non-life threatening injuries, Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said.  

Hassan later was taken to the John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro, where she was arraigned Monday. Since then she was transferred to the Alameda County in Dublin, where she’s still being held.  

Authorities have indicated that Hassan may have suffered from mental illness, and Berkeley police say that a friend of Hassan’s told authorities that Hassan phoned her the morning of Oct. 10 to report that Hassan said she killed Amir with klonopin, an anti-anxiety medication.  

People close to the case also have indicated that Hassan may have been upset that Amir’s father, Chad Reed, was seeking custody of Amir and that her boyfriend had recently broken up with her.  

Outside court today, Hassan’s attorney, Lewis Romero, declined to comment on whether her mental competency will be an issue in defending her against the murder charges. Romero told the large group of people who came to court on Hassan’s behalf that, “Your support is the healing she needs.”  

Romero said, “This defense will be about transcending the norms, transcending the jail walls and transcending the law.”  

He said Hassan “is an unusual human being” and “can’t do it without the love and intelligence of the community.”  

Romero said the arrest of Hassan’s boyfriend shows that the court staff “is discomforted with the sense of love” displayed by Hassan’s supporters.  

He said Hassan’s boyfriend “will be OK.”  

Alameda County sheriff’s officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

Editor’s note: This story ran in an incomplete version in the Nov. 16 issue. It is reprinted here in its entirety. 

As a local movement to censure U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein for supporting Michael Mukasey’s nomination for U.S. Attorney General began, more than 200 students gathered in front of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza Wednesday to witness a waterboarding demonstration. 

The noon-time rally, organized by World Can’t Wait and local activists, was staged to protest the appointment of Judge Mukasey, who has dodged questions of whether waterboarding terrorists could be considered torture. 

During his confirmation hearing, Mukasey refused to take a stand against the act, stating, “If it [waterboarding] amounts to torture, it is not constitutional,” and “hypotheticals are different from real life, and in my legal opinion the actual facts and circumstances are critical.” 

Mal Burnstein, California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus co-chair, wrote the resolution to censure Sen. Feinstein and is circulating it at party meetings. 

“She is supporting a man who refused to renounce the right of the president to resort to torture and who refused to recognize waterboarding as a form of torture,” Burnstein said.  

“She has not supported the principles of the Democratic Party for years. She voted for the war in Iraq and voted to confirm Judge Leslie Southwick for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit despite his clear record of racism and gender discrimination ... That’s three recent examples. It’s about time we should censure her.” 

The resolution, unanimously endorsed by the East Bay for Democracy Democratic Club, will be sent to the Democratic Party Executive Board this weekend as it meets in Anaheim. MoveOn.org an-nounced Thursday that it was also supporting the resolution to censure Feinstein. 

At the rally Wednesday, Joe Tugas, an Iraq War veteran, was taken up on the Sproul stage, hooded and handcuffed and placed on a waterboard. Volunteers dressed in army fatigues covered his face with a towel and poured several gallons of water on it. 

“Stop it, Stop it” cried out several students from the crowd, as the water continued to fall. 

Rising from the wooden board wearing an orange jumpsuit, Tugas described the incident as one of the scariest experiences of his life. 

“We did this to make a point about the torture that’s being carried out,” said Giovanni Jackson from World Can’t Wait. “The students really got a sense of what torture really is. It’s important that they take a stand against war, torture and the whole direction our government is going ... especially since this university has a professor John Yoo, who is responsible for writing the country’s torture policy.” 

Curious students flocked to the scene and asked questions about waterboarding. 

Organizers informed them that Tugas had been wearing a protective mask at the time of the demonstration, to prevent the water from entering his lungs. 

“I think that the debate about waterboarding is misleading,” said Troy Sanders, a second-year UC Berkeley Peace and Justice student. “Anytime you waterboard, you threaten someone’s life. Our bipartisan system has put a very bad regime in place. As far as I know, no studies have shown that torture actually works. People just give you information that you want to hear.”

Happy Thanksgiving to all and sundry. It’s the custom of the place to gather together family and friends and enjoy a lavish meal, to celebrate—well, to celebrate having family and friends and lavish meals. My Puritan ancestors in New England usually get the credit for popularizing the custom, with occasional nods to the generosity of their Native American neighbors, though Virginians and even Canadians also had Thanksgiving events early on. When you think about it, it’s a Puritan kind of thing at its theological heart, a tribute to how nice it is to be among the Elect, to be one of those lucky souls predestined for salvation, as per the beliefs of the first settlers who landed on Plymouth’s rocky shores. Due credit is given to the creator for choosing the right folks to save, of course.  

Over the years some new customs have grown up which include the less fortunate in the banquets. Institutions like the St. Vincent de Paul dining room in Oakland and the Alameda County Food Bank will provide even poor and homeless people with nice dinners on Thursday. But the not-so-attractive aspects of the Pilgrim thanksgiving still cast their shadows over our civic culture. 

An anonymous correspondent forwarded me an item from the draft agenda for the first Berkeley City Council meeting after Thanksgiving with this comment: “Looks like Mayor Bates wants to play Scrooge to the homeless for this year’s season of giving.”  

That’s right, the Public Commons for Everyone Initiative is back, just in time for the holidays. It’s still a shapeless mish-mash of carrots and sticks, with no clear purpose and no plausible solutions to the real problems which exist on city streets here and everywhere else in this country. 

The problem it purports to solve is the reluctance of the Saved, those who will go home to nice Thanksgiving dinners on Thursday, to be confronted on the street with the disorders of the Unsaved, the unlucky among us. The Mayor, for example, once told a radio host that he is made uncomfortable by a Street Spirit vendor who approaches him as he’s on the way to partake of the abundance which is the Berkeley Bowl.  

Street Spirit sellers are the elite among the homeless, people who can keep it together well enough to buy papers to resell for a bit of pocket cash. The ones I know are for the most part cheerful, energetic and even clean. Our favorite is the tall, robust African-American woman with graying dreads who hangs out at the Tuesday Farmers’ Market (which, by the way, has better produce than the Bowl.) She has a nickname and a quip for everyone, and she reads her paper before she sells it, so she can tell you what the best pieces are.  

If you can’t deal with Street Spirit vendors like her, you’ll really be frightened by the genuinely down-and-out, the street dwellers who may smell of alcohol or worse, the people who can’t even tell you to have a nice day when you look away from their outstretched hands. The guy on Shattuck who can’t talk at all but just stands on a corner howling his anguish is unnerving, perhaps even worse than the one who screams intelligible obscenities at passers-by.  

No one can deny that there are too many people with unsolved problems on the street. The Commons-for-Some proposal on the draft agenda references the need for social services and bathrooms and asks for higher parking fees to pay for them, but the only concrete action called for is passing new ordinances which penalize smoking on the street and lying around on the sidewalk. A lawyer who sometimes defends people accused of such crimes tells me there are already plenty of laws like these on the books to harass street people, and the Berkeley police have started enforcing them with even more enthusiasm ever since this new proposal first surfaced.  

If you are going to be able to sit down to a pleasant table on Thursday, you might devote a few minutes to thinking about how lucky you are. That’s what you really are, you know, lucky—the theological construct of predestination is just a fancy description of luck plus divine intervention. Some of us are saved, but some are not. Some are housed, others are a paycheck or two away from homelessness. Some of us are in our right minds most of the time, others lost their wits long ago through no fault of their own. Some have managed to parlay a comfortable middle-class upbringing into comparative wealth, others started on a lower rung of the ladder and now have slipped off altogether.  

Very little about how we’ve ended up is our own doing. 

Another correspondent is a woman who has lived in an apartment downtown for many years. She’s gotten to know and like many of the regulars on the street, even those who seem scary when you first encounter them. She writes this week: “It is important for us to speak up on this issue.” 

She’s organized the “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” Singers to urge the City Council to temper justice with mercy. They first serenaded the workshop on the proposal, held a month or so ago, which only a couple of councilmembers bothered to attend for even a few minutes. Here’s her plan to try to get their attention on the 27th: 

“We will assemble on the steps of Old City Hall at 6 pm and sing until time to go in to the meeting. Please send this on and try to enlist as many people as possible. This attempt to criminalize poverty is a cruel attack by a heartless city leadership on some of the neediest among us.”  

Songsheets include not only the classic song with words by Yip Harburg, but some Woody Guthrie selections—everything easy to sing even for the tone-impaired. If you are lucky enough to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving, you might be moved to add your voice to theirs at 6 p.m. on the 27th. 

—Becky O’Malley 

• 

BAN TOBACCO  

COMPANY FUNDING 

ON CAMPUS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing this letter in respond to tobacco companies’ attempt to manipulate research findings in UC campus. The University of California should reject any grants from the tobacco industry because that industry has a history of undermining academic freedom and distorting re-search results. The acceptance of grants from the tobacco industry creates a negative image of the UC system and significantly reduces UC research credibility. Besides, tobacco companies have been earning profits at the cost of public health. Both tobacco companies’ nature and practices are against the University’s fundamental missions of public service. As UC students, we feel obliged to persuade the university to forbid any academic units accepting tobacco grants in order to preserve the value of our university’s reputation and stature, which always outweighs short-term financial benefits. Money should not stand in our scientists’ way of seeking the truth. 

Junjie Liu 

• 

WALL OF ART 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Fifteen years ago the I-80 freeway was widened between University and Ashby avenues, adding four traffic lanes, moving the nearest lane 40 feet closer to Aquatic Park and removing the hedge that previously separated and hid the freeway traffic from users of the west side of the park. This mile-long voluminous hedge had been a remarkably effective baffle against the sight and roar of traffic. Before the freeway was widened the west side of Aquatic Park was frequented by walkers, joggers, bicyclists, birdwatchers, idlers, readers in shady nooks, etc. Removing the barrier of the hedge, adding four lanes of traffic and moving the ten lane total of its roaring, stinking, hurtling turmoil, with no intervening baffle 40 feet closer to the park has rendered the mile-long west side of Aquatic Park entirely desolate for 15 years. Hardly anyone uses this half of the park at all any more— a radical change in patterns of park use, for obvious reasons. 

When the freeway was widened the City of Berkeley conducted public hearings which concluded that, to address this obvious problem, a sound wall should be constructed between the park and the freeway. Later, city planners were persuaded to pursue the idea of a “natural” wall decorated with living plants, which after several years delay was rejected as impractical by Caltrans. Nothing has happened since—if you don’t count the 15 years of ruin of the west side of Aquatic Park. 

The decision to put up a soundwall along the west side of Aquatic Park was never revoked, just put aside and ignored, without any visible public process. When the I-80 to I-580 interchange was reconfigured in the late ’90s, the soundwalls in El Cerrito came down and went up again in a matter of less than three weeks. Now it is rumored that funds available for the Aquatic Park soundwall project will instead be diverted to other purposes. Whether the rumor is accurate or not, this matter is overdue for a public discussion, which includes the now well-demonstrated fact that continuing postponement of construction of a soundwall entails the continuing sacrifice of half a city park. Why? 

If Caltrans prohibits a “wall of nature,” maybe Berkeley can get away with a wall of art. Rather than leave it blank, it would be amusing to parcel the park side of the soundwall into about 130 40-foot segments surfaced to enable creation, over the years, by donation of artists, of an ongoing free public museum of mural art—with a quarter-century’s worth of panels set aside for Berkeley High Senior Art Class projects. 

Jim Powell 

• 

COMMUNITY INPUT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Re: “Housing Surveys” Letter to the editor from HAC Commissioner Casalaina: 

Making the housing recommendations short survey available at the Berkeley public libraries, on the second floor of City Hall 2 and online is a positive step. It’s notable that the city’s senior centers were not included among accessible well-trafficked pick-up places. A pile of surveys at the front desk of each of the city’s senior centers will reach not only seniors but also people attending meetings at these community senior centers as well. 

Helen Rippier Wheeler 

• 

SOLUTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The solution to climate change problems would also stop the pollution destroying our land and health. Slowing down climate change and pollution is not a solution that lasts. 

We are going the wrong way. Employment is not the goal, retirement is. If we turn to a retirement lifestyle of making a garden paradise with edible landscaping and useful pets, of goats, sheep, cattle and chickens, we can save our world and bring peace and joy into our lives. Foods would not need to be processed and transported. The multitudes of people who planted fruit and nut trees would make quick work of adding trees to the environment. 

A garden paradise solves many world problems. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated for the family gathering together with an abundance of food. We can have that all year long. 

Marie Devine 

Kansas City, MO 

• 

SCHIP BILL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The SCHIP bill that is currently in Congress, and vetoed by the President, is a strong bipartisan bill that would invest $35 billion over five years to provide health care to 10 million children. 

The purpose of SCHIP is to provide health coverage to children of working families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance. 

According to the Congressional Budget Office, it costs $3.34 per day to cover a child under SCHIP. One day in Iraq costs $300 million. 

Gene Ulmer 

Fort Bragg 

• 

RENT BOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In support of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board and in answer to recent criticism: 

During the past year, we have been tormented by the shady and unethical behavior of our landlady who has seemed to “fly beneath the radar” for many years in her disrespectful treatment of both her tenants and any requirements of the codes of The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board or Housing Departments. 

Our occupancy was never reported, according to the code, and therefore, in the eyes of our landholder, the rules just didn’t apply. 

Because we are not as naive as she presumed, we have had the consistently good counsel of the Rent Board who made us aware of the rights and responsibilities of both parties (landlord and tenant) and our landlord has had to behave accordingly. Accountability, by the way, that would never have occurred to her without our awareness of proper and legal decorum. 

To assume that the Rent Board is irrelevant is a ridiculous posture. The codes set by Berkeley Rent Stabilization actually “level the playing field.” Both tenant and landlord are expected to abide by the reasonable codes which support honorable correctitude on both parts. The tenant is treated and acts as a respectable and respectful occupant and the landlord is asked and obligated to provide healthy and safe environs at a reasonable rent and to repay the tenant’s investment in security with a fair rate of interest in a timely manner. Adequate time and consideration in writing is required for increases in rent and resources and appeals are available for either party. 

These may seem trivial expectations. Hardly. We have gone two years without our interest repaid; we have lived in sub-standard conditions (with numerable code violations) and have had to deal with countless mortgage holders, independent and bank, looking for the landlady or one of her pseudonyms. We have been asked for an unreasonable and illegal rent increase without suggestion in writing (due process) and have had to collect gas and electrical money from an adjacent tenant because the utilities were aligned without proper installation or code considerations. We have had no fire egress and unworkable and unsafe bathroom (a room included included in our rent) and other problems too complicated or covert to mention. 

Although, both of us are educated and consider ourselves worldly-wise, we have never had to deal with such unethical performance on the part of a landlord before and without the guidance and advice of Nick Traylor at the Berkeley Rent Stabilization we would have been just another pair of victims of a unscrupulous landholder. 

Kindly understand: The Rent Stabilization Board is neither an advocate for the tenant or the landlord. It does, however, keep watch that both parties treat one another decently and within the very realistic parameters of the codes. 

I would advise perspective Berkeley tenants and landlords to know your rights regarding the safety and comforts of your home and the financial terms of your agreement. Be aware that, as a tenant, you are entitled to receive the interest on your security funds yearly from a landlord and that penalties apply when not repaid to you in a timely manner or if your health or safety is jeopardized within your rental unit or if your rental price is not that registered with the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board. 

The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board works when all parties want it to work; when both the tenant and the landlord honor their contracts with one another clearly and honestly. 

Unfortunately, the reality of our “dog-eat-dog/what-the market-will-bear” society makes the role of The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board necessary. Of course, I wish this weren’t the case, but it is and fortunately for us, the Board enlightened and empowered us to get off the landlord victim list, utilize the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board codes and hold our landlady accountable to those codes. For this, we are grateful. 

J. C. Robinson 

• 

POLICE AND DRUGS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

According to the S.F. Police Officers Association president, all law enforcement agencies are having trouble finding recruits who can meet the required zero tolerance for drug use. That is for illicit drugs, not alcohol and tobacco, which cause more deaths annually than all illegal substances combined. 

We should welcome the common sense approach being initiated by California cities where there are 11,000 unfilled law enforcement jobs. Zero tolerance is not a realistic standard, and never has been, at any level of society, whether it’s in a public high school or police academy. 

If police and criminal justice resources were focused on serious crimes, the shortage of police officers would be less critical and police officers’ jobs would be less difficult…and less dangerous. Too much of our police effort is wasted on expensive drug busts chasing non-violent offenders. I agree with the Drug Policy Alliance that drug abuse is actually a health issue not one of criminal justice.  

The raids being conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (the notorious "Feds"), in cooperation with hundreds of local police, on harmless marijuana dispensaries smacks of terrorism. 

Our nation spends an estimated eight billion dollars on marijuana enforcement annually while arresting over 800,000 of our fellow citizens, 89% of whom for simple possession alone (FBI Uniform Report). 

Where are our public officials and our representatives in Congress? Our politicians? Are they afraid of alienating the powerful interests who benefit from the status quo? 

John Wagers, Oakland  

• 

KPFA POLICY FAILURES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

KPFA fails the public in a major way by its restrictive policy on announcement of demonstrations. As Henry Norr pointed out in the November 20 Planet, you must send your announcement weeks in advance. Any morning now, Bush could invade Iran, and KPFA would be loath to interrupt "Music of the World" to announce the noon rally. 

Every day the KPFA policy fails the Tree-Sitters in the Memorial Oak Grove. The cops take actions against the Sitters on very little notice. The Sitters need to rally supporters quickly to come to the trees. Presently, the Sitters use a phone list. How much more efficient, and politically educational, it would be if KPFA could give the word. But without long prior notice, KPFA rules ensure it proceeds with regular programing. 

Ted Vincent 

• 

WAYS TO STOP THE WAR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A concrete proposal to stop funding the war 

David R. Obey (D-Wis), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, is spearheading a drive to stop all appropriations for the war from leaving his committee unless a deadline is set for withdrawing the troops. John Murtha, chair of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee agrees with him. They and all members of the Appropriations Committee need to be lobbied not to give in to pressures to relent. Please let them and the other members know that you support this effort, and urge all your friends and family all over the United States to do the same. 

Most members can be emailed from the link on their websites. You can contact your representative, all of them in your state, and/or those out of your state in various ways. Via e-mail, they prefer to hear from constituents and will e-mail replies to them, but not to others. Still, they may notice a glut of e-mails on the subject. 

Other ways to reach them are by calling or faxing them at 202 225-3365. Or you can write to them. You can find all the information for each representative (plus district number) at www.visi.com/juan/congress or www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml 

Please contact members of both parties. 

Estelle Jelinek 

On Sept. 11, the Chronicle’s urban design writer, John King, an-nounced on the front page that an architectural jury had predictably chosen for the Transbay terminal site a 1,200-foot tower most resembling a titanic penis. A shaft the height of the Empire State Building thrusting out of the current plateau of glass and steel that now obscures the city’s hills would, correspondents to the paper opined, either wreck remaining views or assure San Francisco’s world-classiness. Can first-rate delis or Frank Gehry anythings be far behind for our retiring little city?  

Nine days before, the Chronicle’s revered and retired environmental writer, Harold Gilliam, published an essay in the Sunday opinion section entitled “Towering Above Quake Country.” Gilliam offered a sobering caution that aesthetic squabbles about highrises built between cocked fault lines display world-class hubris, for each tall building is a daring experiment in engineering whose risks grow greater as developers attempt to erect structures matching in height those of San Francisco’s age-old would-be rival, Manhattan.  

But even Gilliam missed a fundamental truth about modern cities. They are not simply agglomerations of structures but extraordinarily complex organisms, as dependent upon vulnerable life-support systems for public safety as is the human body upon its circulatory and lymphatic systems. Those systems are not keeping pace with San Francisco’s vertical hypertrophy. Indeed, they can’t.  

As the high rises grow higher and denser south of Market, few choose to remember what destroyed the city in 1906. In only one brief sentence did Gilliam name it: “What about fires in the upper stories?” Why just upper stories?  

In his non-fiction thriller The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself, Philip Fradkin reminded readers that San Francisco had been a fire underwriter’s nightmare ever since it sprang from the shores of Yerba Buena Cove in 1849. The influx of gold-seekers so fertilized land value that the grid of streets begun around the Mexican plaza (now Chinatown’s Porstmouth Square) leapt out in all directions, climbing precipices and leveling hills to bury low-lying marshes, creeks, and the harbor itself. As Simone de Beauvoir once remarked, the town seemed to have been laid out by someone who hadn’t been there.  

Buildings, at least, nodded to one threat only to fall to another. Robert Louis Ste-venson observed that frequent earthquakes so terrified San Franciscans that “in that rainless clime, the whole city is built of timber—a woodyard of unusual extent and complication.” Fear and necessity thus assured that “nowhere else in the world is the art of the firemen carried to so nice a point.” On the morning of April 18,1906, that woodyard spontaneously ignited at multiple points south of Market, and the city’s firemen could do little more than watch as the holocaust quickly moved into and consumed downtown’s “fireproof” structures.  

Seeking a scapegoat, many blamed the private Spring Valley Water Company whose system spectacularly failed after flames erupted in scores of damaged buildings after the shaking stopped. In response, the company’s chief engineer, Hermann Schussler, rushed out a folio volume just three months after the last flames were quenched. The Water Supply of San Francisco, California Before, During and After The Earthquake of April 18th, 1906, and the Subsequent Conflagration contained a map that illustrated at a glance why neither the water company nor the fire department were to blame: heedless growth and speculative fervor stacked the pyre that few wanted to acknowledge then, as now.  

Water mains (and gas lines as well) predictably snapped wherever streets crossed buried creeks, coves, lakes and swamps whose soils momentarily liquefied. South of Market Street, they broke along the snaking underground courses of Mission and Hayes Valley creeks, and north of Market on Yerba Buena Cove—otherwise known as the Financial District. As in New Orleans two years ago, “first responders” trained to deal with discrete crises were largely helpless when confronted with a sudden systemic failure.  

In 1983, Mayor Dianne Feinstein pressed for the departure of her rogue PUC chief Richard Sklar when he—as a member of the city’s Planning Commission—refused to OK more highrise growth unless developers contributed more to expand the city’s overstretched transit infrastructure. As usual, the mayor and her wealthy supporters saw soaring towers—no matter how banal—as proof of the city’s “world-class” status. That its firefighting life-support system lay upon jello foundations, and that skyrocketing land values were driving the city’s firefighters to seek cheaper homes across vulnerable bridges, was of little concern. They did not see the city as an organism, but as a lucrative marketplace the height of whose skyscrapers were for them the measure of its greatness.  

Under the best of circumstances, highrise fires are difficult enough to extinguish. Under the worst, when streets are blocked by fallen debris, flattened cars, and by panicked and dead people—well, I leave it to your imagination what could happen there and to the East Bay if high rises ignite like bundled faggots. A recent bridge collapse at rush hour momentarily woke the nation’s media to what tax cuts combined with headlong growth have done for public safety. Will San Franciscans tax themselves—or developers contribute—to substantially expand and reinforce water mains and the fire department? Can we learn from a century-old catastrophe that was, for all its adjectival overkill, truly world-class?  

One year after the centenary of its destruction, the city built on sand and goo debates the design merits of ever denser towers, while Yerba Buena Cove, Mission Bay, and the buried creeks of SoMa mapped by Herman Schussler quietly await their encore call on history’s stage.  

Gray Brechin is an historical geographer and the author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin

Does being pro-green mean being anti-black? 

Ordinarily one wouldn’t think so. But the mini-drama that is unfolding in Berkeley surrounding the eviction of Kandy’s Car Wash at the intersection of Ashby Ave. and Sacramento St. gives one pause for thought. 

Kandy Alford, the proprietor, has four full-time employees and many more part timers when the weather is warm and business is brisk. 

Local newspapers have given periodic coverage to the car wash’s current precarious situation but to date none have reported in a manner that put the eviction in a context that has any meaning to the surrounding community. 

The city apparently favors the plans of the Biofuel Oasis collective to relocate to the site of Kandy’s Car Wash and sell biofuel reconstituted from used vegetable oil from the car wash’s present location. 

Berkeley has granted the collective’s request to defer a $5,000 permit fee due to economic hardship. 

Ignoring, for the purposes of this discussion, the growing controversy over biofuels in general and the resulting impoverishment and starvation in the so-called Third World, does replacing Kandy’s Car wash with a biofuel station really make sense in the face of all the problems said to exist in South Berkeley? 

For instance, virtually around the corner from the car wash, at 1610 Oregon St., concerned neighbors of an elderly black couple who live there have filed more than one law suit designed to run them out of town. 

Why? Because young relatives of the couple have, it is said, taken over the house and deal drugs from there. Likely the allegations are true. 

Furthermore, by Berkeley standards, there is a high rate of crime in South Berkeley and there are numerous black youth who obviously are unemployed and apparently doing little to find the scant employment opportunities that exist for them. 

In other words, South Berkeley resembles other communities with significant black populations that have seen community life deteriorate over the past 30 years. 

Surprisingly, however—well, maybe not so surprisngly—on-line reactions to media reports on Kandy’s eviction run more to concerns that re-fitting the property to accomodate a biofuel station will destroy the historical integrity of the building’s design, or that Kandy should be evicted because the music is too loud. 

Clearly, some in Berkeley are challenged on the issue of race—so let’s try to use an analogy that many may more easily understand. 

Let’s assume South Berkeley is the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners are having a terrible season. Adequate defense but horrible offense. 

Then coach Mike Nolan announces, “Look, in order to turn this season around and score more points, what we need to do is get rid of our most consistent and prolific scorer, field goal kicker Joe Nedney!” 

Total nonsense. If Nolan were to make such an announcement he’d be looking for another job the same day, unless of course the city of Berkeley owned the 49ers, in which case the city’s deep thinkers would say, “Let’s hold a series of hearings to discuss this.” 

Well, Kandy Alford is South Berkeley’s field-goal kicker. He is the most consistent and prolific employer of more African Americans, actually at-risk African Ameri-cans, than any other private employer in the community. 

But Berkeley wants to run Kandy out of town. That may not be totally fair to say: after all, the city has offered to help Kandy relocate—but to where? What other enclave of small black busineses exist in Berkeley except the Alcatraz-Adeline corridor? No obvious space there. 

There are other concerns. 

The Ashby-Sacramento intersection is a small community of black and other minority owned shops. Economically they support one another and many seem to support Kandy remaining right where he is. 

Louis Grier, who operates a jewelry and watch repair business across the street from the car wash put it like this. “I don’t have any problem with the car wash or the people who work there. I’d rather have them out there washing cars than say engaging in other activities not so positive.” 

BB’s Restaurant and Seafood also sits across the street from Kandy’s. Owner Toddy Bayeme said, “Lots of times people who take their cars to be washed come over here and have lunch. I’m not happy about closing the car wash. And I understand they want to sell food there too. It will hurt my business.” 

Toddy has a menu taped to the window of Kandy’s office to encourage his customers to venture across the street and to get something to eat. 

Finally, one other point. Judith Scherr, in her Daily Planet article on the car wash informs us that there exists beneath the property a toxic plume, residue from a dry cleaner who used to occupy the space. It needs to be cleaned up if Biofuel Oasis is going to dig and install fuel tanks. 

Who’s going to pay for cleaning that up? 

If the biofuel collective can’t afford the permit fees, how is it going to afford a toxic chemical cleanup? Is the city going to pay for that also? 

Keeping in mind the law suits around 1610 Oregon, if the city of Berkeley is willing to go to all this trouble and expense to evict working blacks from Kandy’s Car Wash to enable a mostly all white women’s collective then what we’re really talking about is not promoting environmentalism but rather a genteel form of ethnic cleansing 

People who are concerned about this issue should attend the next Zoning Adjustment Board meeting scheduled for Nov. 26, 7 p.m. at the Berkeley City Council chambers. 

Jean Damu is a member of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration Steering Committee.

This is a minimally edited transcript of a speech improvised on September 14, 2007, from the steps below the oak grove near Memorial Stadium, where a small group of protesters had been occupying the trees since last December. Several weeks earlier, the university had put a chain-link fence around the grove, ostensibly “to protect the protesters” from maddened football fans, but actually to further harass the protest, which it was also attacking in court. On this day, after I spoke, 40 members of a new student group supporting the protest—wearing blue-and-gold T-shirts proclaiming “Free Speech” and “Free Trees”—scaled the fence to bring supplies and moral support to the protesters. Twenty-one remained, choosing to be arrested. 

Right before my turn, a young woman, introduced as one of the original tree-sitters, was brought to the steps to speak. Jessica Walsh began, “Wow … So, I ran up into a tree …” and fell silent. She just stood there, shaking slightly, her eyes bright with tears, so evidently moved that the small crowd of listeners remained completely transfixed, save for those who called out “We love you, Jess,” and “Thank you for doing this.” Finally she choked out, in a small voice, “These trees saved me.” After a longer silence, she said, “That’s all,” handed the microphone back to the moderator, and stepped back among her friends. After a brief introduction, thanking me for my role in the Free Speech Movement and ending, “… and let us learn from our elders,” I took the steps. 

That’s really a hard act to follow. Four words: “These trees saved me.” Jeepers. 

I don’t usually flaunt credentials, but I’m doing it here for a reason. Yes, I am a genuine relic from the Free Speech Movement. I was there, I helped do that. I also was a two-time varsity wrestler at the University of Chicago in my youth—so I’m not hostile to college athletics. And I was also a science teacher to young children for 29 years, so you’ll understand why I start by saying that I want to talk about ecology. And I want to talk about social ecology.  

Now you know, these oak trees, ravaged as the ground beneath them is, are home to 400 different creatures large enough to see with your eyes, from sowbugs on up to squirrels. It’s a real, little forest, it actually is doing its job. It’s not like the eucalyptus trees on Treasure Island, which back home in Tasmania have 400 things that live with them but here have practically nothing because their chemicals are weird and not adapted here. So that’s trees, not a forest. This is a patch of genuine forest. 

But I want to talk about social ecology. You understand what an indicator species is. The spotted owl is an indicator species. When the spotted owl numbers go down, it’s wrong not just because we care for the spotted owl, but because the spotted owl is a species that testifies to the health of the entire forest. If its numbers are declining, that means the whole forest is sick.  

The oak grove here is an indicator species in the social ecology. When the oak grove is going down, it’s not just about the oak grove. It’s a symptom of a general sickness in the whole social ecology. The oak grove is not separate from the rest of the university, which looks like it’s across the street. But there’s not a street dividing it into two parts, it’s one thing.  

The university acts in this town … lord, how can I begin? I should not go on too long, right? The university is a large corporate force in the town that is utterly impervious to social control. It uses city services and doesn’t pay for them, it expands one way and another into different parts of the town, and up into Strawberry Canyon, without adequate consideration of the environmental impact. You understand, I’m talking about the social environment. The problems of control right here are not different from the problems of control of the university in the entire town. We don’t want to crush the university. We love it. But we want it to act right. It’s a corporation, so it’s a “person,” unfortunately. So it should act like a good person in the social ecology that we live in, rather than befoul it and pollute it. [applause] 

Fifty years ago, when I was a student, I used to come and sit here at times, under these oaks, just to feel my life, to feel the environment, to try to understand who I was in this place, what I was doing here, what the place was. It gave me some breathing space, some perspective on the university. Kids had been doing that for twenty-five years before me, kids have been doing exactly the same thing here for the last fifty years. I’m talking heritage, I’m talking function. I can’t testify to the Native American bones that are buried here, but I understand that this grove was planted originally as a testament to those who fell in World War I. We’re in the middle of another war at this time, when why they’re falling makes much less sense. Just considering this isolated point, it’s not the best time to tear down a memorial to people who fought in a war that in some respects made more sense.  

Fifty years ago and up to this time, students have been using this space. It’s not just an empty space that’s decorated with some trees. It’s a functional part of the campus, it’s like a piece of lung where people can breathe. Forty years ago, I used to pause here while going up to the Greek Theater to see the Grateful Dead or whoever, because this was a good place to have a few puffs. For thirty-five years before that, kids had been pausing on their way to the Greek Theater to have a little tipple. And in the years since I did this, that’s been part of the night function of this little lung here. Hey, that’s part of the night-time university. They say it doesn’t count like the day-time university. That’s not true, you learn as whole people. What goes on in the night informs what goes on in the day, they should not be artificially separated. And these—how would you describe what I’ve just been talking about, “social amenities”?—should not be easily sacrificed to corporate greed.  

O my god, how can I speak of corporate greed? Well, let’s talk about it. I’m a friend of athletics. But baseball isn’t baseball any longer, you know that, not even Little League. We used to choose up teams ourselves and make our own field … Football isn’t football any more. The kids who play football here are not getting paid so much right now, but they’re going to make five million next year. It’s a feeder for the vast corporate entertainment industry. [applause] 

So put first things first. That the university wants to build its athletic center here is a sign of the corporate priorities. Hey, you’ve got a stadium here which many of us love, I used to go watch the Bears in the stadium. You’ve got a stadium here, it’s cracked, it’s broken. And you know that the ground’s going to shake. I’ve been living here since 1958 and the ground didn’t used to shake, and it keeps going more and more like this [demonstrates], I can feel it with my body, I’m an animal on the planet, I feel the ground shaking, this is not a joke. It’s going to shake big-time, and if it shakes when there are sixty thousand people in there, there’s going to be many more people killed than if they did something to fix it up.  

“No, no! We’ve got to build a $125 million athletic facility here, right next to the stadium, so the kids don’t have to walk so far.” There are places all over the campus where you could do it, there are places all over the town where there are ugly buildings, where there’s a university-owned parking lot. You just have to build a structure above the parking lot, it’s not taking anything away, it’s not where it will blight people’s vision. No, get the priorities straight. Fix the stadium before you build something else right on top of the Hayward Fault. [applause] 

You don’t have to be a graduate student in social policy, a graduate student in engineering, to understand that this is not smart. You don’t have to be a graduate student in political science to understand that there was something fudged in the Environmental Impact Report. And that when the university can get away with doing its own Environmental Impact Report, and have it sanctioned because it’s a high governmental agency already, without going through the offices of the town, then something is wrong. So, I’m still talking about indicator species, you understand? This is a profound indicator species.  

The university takes over more and more territory in the town, and the town, on the whole, has rolled over, because it’s just another big developer, in fact it’s the biggest developer, right? So the town has actually rolled over the most for the biggest developer. So much for our present city administration! You understand? You do understand, because you’ve followed these things. Your opinions ought to be respected, young people. That was true in my day, and it’s true now. How much of what I’m saying is new to you, aside from maybe the metaphor of the indicator species? Nothing! You know all this stuff already, right? How come no change happens? Whoa! It makes less sense to me now than it did when I was your age, and it didn’t make hardly any damned sense then.  

The campus itself … I stand before you as just another aging hippie, standing around a fence. Like when I was a younger hippie, with this hair, I was standing around the fence they put around the People’s Park. Whoa! They did the same thing then, they’re doing the same thing now. We made something pretty there, and they put a fence around it, and said “you can’t do that here, this is corporate property, you can’t touch it.” This grove was already here, it didn’t need any amenities, it was okay like it was. Let it be. Right? But you pointed out the problem, and so they put up a fence to keep you from parking here, from speaking here.  

Before the fence went up, three old ladies went and climbed a tree here. Only they weren’t just any three old ladies. The oldest of them is old enough to be my mommy, Sylvia McLaughlin, 91 years old, she’s not seen on the streets much these days. She comes out of her place to climb the tree to make a point. She’s not just any old lady, she’s the old lady who with her two buddies started Save the Bay, which stopped them from filling in the Bay, which looked like an inevitable consequence of unstoppable power. [applause] But they stopped filling in the Bay. And now we’re reclaiming the Bay. These things can happen. These things can happen. It doesn’t take very many people who are determined, to actually do it. This is the profound lesson from Sylvia.  

This is the profound lesson from the Free Speech Movement, also. You should get it straight. The press makes it look like, “oh, there were giants in the earth, in those days!” It’s not true. We were just like you. Except we didn’t have T-shirts like yours printed up, because it cost too much then. We had the same feelings of being outshouldered, neglected, bulldozed, nobody listens to us. We looked a little funny. We dressed a little funny. So it’s not the past. The past is still in the present. This is a profound free speech issue. These people in the trees, they’re there for me. I didn’t climb the tree. They did it for me. Thank you, people in the trees. [applause] I’d like to say, “because you were there, I didn’t have to climb the tree.” But you know, that’s a cop-out. That I didn’t come before this, that I didn’t climb a tree like Sylvia climbed the tree.  

A reverse metaphor here. They were filling in the Bay, they’ve stopped it. Look, the university before, when I was young, it had many lungs. You understand? There was a lot of breathing space in the university. There were more spaces like this one. And they’ve gone down, one by one. It’s like they’ve been filling in the Bay of Peaceful Spirit here, with this building here and that building there. And where you can go just to sit and relax and be yourself, and breathe with the earth, which is still in the middle of all of this, it shrinks smaller and smaller. “Well, that’s not important.,” they say. “That’s not important, it’s just some kind of amenity. What’s important is to build a new $300 million research facility funded by corporate pharmaceuticals.” Well, that may be important, in some ways. But hey, get it in balance! Don’t forget about it! 

Okay. I could go on and on, but I think I’ve hit the main points. [applause] Except for free speech. These people in the trees are canaries, singing for us. The university’s got no right to stop them from singing. This is sacred space, not only for the things we’ve listed, but also because this is one of the places where we ringed the campus with picket signs after a bunch of us got dragged off to jail in 1964. Zachary, the Free Speech Movement didn’t start on December 2, that’s when it peaked, with the Sproul Hall sit-in and strike. So starting an occupation here on that date was even more appropriate than Zachary indicated. 

Now, one last thing. I come walking along, right over there, and I see this big bronze bruin sculpture, right? It’s the Cal Bear! What kind of bear? A grizzly bear, right? Well, the last grizzly bear was seen in this state when? In 1896, or something like that, right? So, after the grizzly is safely extincted, they raise a monument to the grizzly. Now, I am the grizzly. Look on my chest, there’s a picture on my T-shirt, of all those people in the Plaza, sitting around the police-car in ‘64. You have now in the middle of the campus the Free Speech Movement Café. I helped to plan it. But I don’t want that to be the statue of the grizzly. There’s a picture of me there. One of the people walking through Sather Gate, on the right-hand side, one of the guys with his hand on the pole of the banner that says “FREE SPEECH” is me when I’m your age. Okay? That’s the grizzly. Okay?  

You don’t want the Free Speech Grizzly extinct on this land. You don’t want them boasting about how they got its pelt and its bones without live grizzlies in the streets, up in the trees, doing what grizzlies do. [applause] And you’ve got to live with them! That’s the thing about bears, the bears are coming back, and you’ve got to live with the bears. They’re people, right? They’re actual people, more so than corporations. The Native Americans had it right. The bears were people, we’re people. They lived with the bears. You’ve got to live with them, you can’t just go thunk and they’re gone. The free speech grizzlies are Bears. The university has to learn that it’s got to live with them. It can’t put up fences, make law-suits to extirpate them, because they’re going to come back, again and again and again.  

When whoever it was among you put forth this litany here – “oh, we knocked, we lettered, we petitioned, we had meetings, we gave this and that” – tears literally came to my eyes, because that’s what we did, and you know, the truth was, you’ve got to go through all those steps, and it won’t make a damned bit of difference to them, but you’ve got to cover your ass. And then you take the next step. Because of potential felonious conspiracy charges, I am definitely not urging you to go do such nasty things to this fence that they have to have a 24-hour armed police guard continually here to make clear to the public what is happening here. I can’t say that, I can’t ask you to do that, you know. But I will tell you what happened in 1972, after two and a half years, with the fence around People’s Park.  

Somebody printed up 500 copies of a flyer that gave a certain date. And on that date, three thousand people came to People’s Park, around the fence, and they pulled it down with their bare hands. [applause] And then what happened? Then they came in with the shotguns, and they killed one, blinded another, wounded many, I got a little buckshot … no, I’m sorry, that was the first time. The second time we did it, they didn’t do anything. Because the fallout from the first time, when they shot and beat so many, had been so extensive, that they actually let three thousand people pull down the fence and take the Park back. And the Park still, in its battered way, in the social ecology, is still limping along. God help us, it’s still an open space, for that long. May this fence come down! May this place still be an open space, thirty years from now! [applause] 

[Had I not been flustered at running on so long, I might have added: “How fine it is to see you grizzly cubs come back to this land. Go Bears!” But I think they knew how I felt about them.] 

Did any of you have a chance to watch one or more of the countless You Tube segments about the failures of the American education system recently? If you haven't had the chance, I highly recommend that you view at least one lengthy segment as an act of good citizenship on your part. No greater social disease exists today than the demise of our public education system. As a nation we have not seen such a glaring detriment to the collective spiritual growth of our Republic since the days when Jim Crow ruled the social landscape of America.  

So, whom do we blame for the diminishing intellectual returns of our youth over the last 25 years? What institutional failures can we identify in this time frame as the culprits? Why is it that our public education system has eroded from one of the best in the world, to one of the worst in little more than a quarter of a century? Have the jaded personalities that are so commonplace in modern America cultivated a socio-cultural norm that predisposes our public schools to failure? If so, then our public schools stand little chance of surviving this historical epoch in which individual success has taken on a god-like reverence, and collectivist ideals have become passé.  

I realize that we are all predisposed to expect nothing less than hyperbolic sensationalism from the media, yet I can assure you this is not the case with any of the reports I have seen, or read, during my years as a fledgling educator in a credential program. On some levels, I actually think that a bleaker picture could be drawn than the one promulgated by the media. For instance, the countless fights and racially charged violence that I witnessed nearly every day at a Richmond area middle school last year and Berkeley High School the year before that, are the types of events that I do not normally see covered by the media. Perhaps it is just too raw for us to look at these stark situations and admit to ourselves that, despite all of our talk about the virtues of plurality and social justice, the message is not clear to our young people. Their actions certainly bear witness to this fact.  

Sadly, circumstances like the ones I just described defined my time as a teacher. It is a sad fact that well meaning people such as myself, and other educators, become so overwhelmed by the multitude of problems in our schools that we run hard, and fast, away from this discord to seek employment in a more serene environment. The result of this phenomenon is the further alienation of our young people by the people they need the most between 8 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon.  

Many people suggest that the way to solve the problem of teachers fleeing the field is to pay them more money. That is flat out wrong in principle. Although more money is always appreciated in trades that are over worked and underpaid, people that propose money as the solution to our educational dilemma do not understand the complexities of our school system. To put it bluntly, very few people go into teaching for the money. There is a strong culture of idealism that defines most of the people who strive to become educators. The way to keep these individuals is to ensure a peaceful environment for them to practice their trade. The truth is that many of our young people increasingly lack respect for their teachers, and the ideals of solidarity and learning that are encouraged in the classroom. Until we create a classroom culture that can guarantee teachers will have the opportunity to practice their trade in peace and safety, the problems facing us will only get worse.  

I realize that this line of reasoning makes me sound like an undisputed fatalist with a cynical streak. However, I would more accurately describe myself as a realist from whom the youthful idealism that drove me to pursue teaching as a mechanism of social justice was squashed by the harsh reality of a heartless and uninspired social condition that our young people are all too willingly to oblige at the expense of their own intellectual growth.  

Ultimately, all of the words I have written are as meaningful as the diminishing return our tax dollars provide for our schools and the students therein. Learning is a state of being that is bequeathed upon us by the death of our own ignorance. It is not a commodity that can be quantified by a fiduciary bottom line in Washington or Sacramento. In this day and age we have become external manifestations of the internal metaphor we call stupidity. That is to say, we are witnessing the ascension of uselessness.  

As a final thought, I hope that our society reacquaints itself with the idea that teaching, and knowledge acquisition, is a mechanism of social Darwinism that serves the potential for self-actualization. Learning is as natural to our instincts as spinning in circles is to a toddler. We cannot turn off our inherent curiosity anymore than we can turn off our sexuality. In this respect I see hope for the future of the human race, for the drive to enhance the intellect can never truly be turned off, it can only be misdirected.  

Jonathan Stephens is an educator. 

veterans day 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Written on Veterans Day 2007 

“Time will not long remember us.” A. Lincoln, Gettysburg Address 

This letter addresses the grove of trees near Memorial Stadium Berkeley. 

We write this letter to remember the Veterans of WWI—especially those Cal graduates who served this country and are remembered at Memorial Stadium Berkeley. We note that the stadium, and the grove of trees surrounding it, are there for this purpose: to be a memorial. Mindful of the past and remembering these and other veterans, we decry the high human cost of all wars. We also decry removal or defacement of memorials to these veterans. 

So that these Cal graduates and veterans may be remembered, we urge that this grove of trees near Memorial Stadium not be removed to suit the University’s “immediate” and current priorities. 

Krishna Seshan,  

Veteran for Peace, Class of 1975 

Darwin Poulos, 

Class of 1982 

Roy Nordblom,  

Former Marine and  

Veteran For Peace 

Los Altos 

• 

HOUSING SURVEYS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Each year the Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) makes funding recommendations to the City Council for Housing Urban and Development, Community Development Block Grant funds for various community services such as: 

Public/Community Facility Im-provement, i.e., accessibility; Emer- gency Shelter Services, i.e., facility improvement; Housing Services, i.e. accessibility, emergency home repair and emergency relocation. 

Part of the process of making funding recommendations is receiving feedback from the community. In the past, public hearings conducted by the HAC and City Council have been our main sources of community input. 

This year the HAC is distributing a short survey to better understand our entire community’s views on the funding we oversee. The one page form offers an opportunity to prioritize the type of projects to be funded, to comment on currently funded projects and to give your suggestions about unmet needs in the com-munity. 

If you’d like to take part in the survey, you can fill out a form at any Berkeley public library, the Housing Department on the second floor of City Hall, 2180 Milvia Street or online via the City of Berkeley Housing Department home page: www.cityofberkeley.info/housing/ Default.htm. Choose either the RFP link or the direct link to the HAC survey in the same box. 

There is also a direct link from the RFP page to the HAC survey as well: www.cityofberkeley.info/housing/communityaction2yr/default.html 

Vincent Casalaina 

Commissioner,  

Housing Advisory Commission 

• 

BIKE INFRINGEMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As I was locking my bike to a signpole in downtown Berkeley today, two policewomen got out of their car which they’d just parked next to the pole. The told me that I “might or might not get a ticket for doing that.” I’ve been riding a bike in Berkeley for 35 years and had never heard that, so I exclaimed in amazement “You mean it’s illegal to do this?” They said yes, and added that it made it hard for them to get out of their car. 

We live in a town with a lot of cyclists and nowhere near enough bike racks. Global warming and the need for alternative fuels and means of transportation are uppermost in the media and people’s awareness. Given all that, doesn’t it seem insane to have a law which discourages bike riding? 

Carol David 

• 

warm pools 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Master Bates’ latest public display of moral fecal matter re: his refusal to let disabled and senior users of the warm pool speak early in the agenda is yet another disclosure of what the man’s all about.  

His manic emphasis on the city’s green proposals reveals still another pattern as well. Democratic Party (read DLC) strategy for the ’08 elections is to brand themselves as environmental leaders and throw a few eco-bones to the faithful who, apparently, can’t think of who else to vote for.  

The trade-off for the eco-bones will be DP support for reconfiguring the Middle East under various spins; growing income disparities that won’t bring forth legislative calls for progressive tax legislation; loss of single payer health care; the continued herding of minority youth into the prison system. Indeed, our very own Loni Hancock voted for the last round of prison construction funding in Sept. But maybe we’ll all have solar panels.  

The solutions are out there. One tiny example: Berkeley could have installed portable toilets for the homeless and others who need them years ago. But with a smiley green face, the Democrat political class will do what they can to maintain the status quo. To deeply challenge it would mean losing their jobs. 

Maris Arnold 

• 

PACIFIC STEEL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Pacific Steel Casting, the long-time East Bay polluter and Berkeley embarrassment, lost a major consolidated small claims action in court this week. They now owe tens of thousands of dollars in damages to the plaintiffs who have been affected for years by Pacific Steel’s runaway pollution. This significant loss in court will open floodgates of litigation against Pacific Steel from the thousands of residents who have had to put up with the nuisance for decades. Health data is being collected to assess the damage from Pacific Steel emissions, and community testing continues to reveal dangerous levels of emissions. Pacific Steel will of course throw a lot of money at their high-priced lawyers and a PR firm to try to weasel out of the whole thing, or spin it in a way that is somehow profitable to the family that owns this private company. Mayor Bates and Council member Linda Maio, will probably still continue their hand waving, and somehow try to appear concerned but be unable to do anything about it. And of course, Pacific Steel will play every trick in the book, even continue to play the “race” card and claim this is a fight between black residents and Latino workers or some other such nonsense. But no amount of spinning can hide the truth: Pacific Steel Casting is a nasty polluter that has poisoned a neighborhood for decades, and now they have to pay for it. Watch closely, they just might slip out of town and leave the city of Berkeley with its very own toxic superfund site. For a list of public information sources about Pacific Steel pollution, health problems, or legal issues, contact CleanUpPSC@yahoo.com 

Andrew Galpern 

• 

ARGONAUTIKA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Ken Bullock dismisses Mary Zimmerman’s Argonautika as “a banal pastiche.” Even the wonderful Atley Loughridge gets the stick: “badly miscast as Medea.” If, on the strength of this, you’re tempted to pass it up, read Robert Hurwitt’s review (“sheer genius”) in the Chronicle (9 November). If you can’t get to Argonautika at the Rep, he says, you should head east to catch it there. My vote’s with him: this is a terrific production and a great ensemble. Don’t miss it! 

John Parman 

• SERIOUS ENTERTAINMENT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

These days, the line between entertainment and seriousness is hopelessly blurred ... Has it always been so? I think not. Modern media in its need for viewership and readership, i.e., to make a profit, makes wankers of us all. It’s almost impossible to resist. Barry Bonds, the Reiser thing, is Gore too fat? Superficial conflict after superficial conflict ... all entertaining us ... all addicting us to the next day’s scandal. In the olden days when Paul Revere rode around announcing the approaching Brits ... and when Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address, etc. ... the line between entertainment and seriousness wasn’t blurred. Oh, to turn to days of yesteryear, when out of the west came the hoof beats of the mighty horse Silver and the Lone Ranger (if memory serves) screamed “Hi-Oh Silver Away!” ... But, alas, those days are gone forever, as Tonto knows. 

Robert Blau  

• 

REPUBLICANS EVERYWHERE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

State of Republican politics. GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson says he would have sided with Terri Schiavo’s parents and kept their brain-dead daughter alive. 

Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee doesn’t believe in evolution, the basic principle in nature. 

Front-runner Rudy Giuliani says if he were president he would select anti-abortion Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and John Roberts. 

Candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain are anti-abortionist and pro-war as ever. What an oxymoron: Save the fetuses and squander adult lives. 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley

Oregon has a Bus Rapid Transit system called the “Emerald Express” operating on a five-mile route between Springfield and Eugene. This bus system is generally regarded as a successful transit project, and transportation planners in Alameda County should pay careful attention to several important factors that have contributed to its success. Steve Geller mentioned some of these factors in his commentary “Bus Rapid Transit Success in Oregon” (November 2), but downplayed or neglected others. I think it is important to have a more complete picture. 

One thing we can learn from Oregon’s experience is that a BRT system does not need to use exclusive, bus-only lanes along its entire route to be successful. In Oregon, transportation planners decided to balance the need for improved bus service with the need to maintain traffic flow on their streets—and it works. Exclusive bus lanes are used only in areas where they will not cause disruption and diversion of traffic off of main roads into residential areas. In more developed areas, the buses share lanes with other cars and trucks. Only 60% of Oregon’s BRT route is in dedicated lanes, while the remaining 40% is in mixed-flow lanes. 

Second, riding on the “Emerald Express” BRT buses between Springfield and Eugene is free! This is a proven method to increase bus ridership, and if that is really our goal, we could do it here right now—without paying for the hugely expensive $400 million BRT infrastructure. Alternatively, we could provide Eco-Passes for all Berkeley residents to make bus travel possible at very low cost. Eliminating the need for fare collection also speeds up bus service and decreases air pollution, because buses spend less time idling at stops. 

Third, very few parking spaces were eliminated for Oregon’s BRT system. Over the entire five-mile route, less than ten parking spaces were eliminated. The Oregon transit representative I spoke with on the phone assured me that they would have had far greater difficulty getting their BRT system implemented if they had displaced parking to any significant extent. Contrast this approach with AC Transit’s current proposal that calls for the elimination of 75% of the parking on Telegraph Avenue between Woolsey and Dwight, and the removal of many heavily-used spaces downtown. Recent experience shows us that this parking reduction would cause significant disruption in business patronage in these areas. 

Fourth, the bulk of the seating on the “Emerald Express” is perimeter, bench-style seating—to make it easier for seniors and disabled passengers to get into and out of the seats. This is precisely the kind of passenger-preferred seating that has been entirely eliminated on AC Transit’s new Van Hool buses—to the displeasure of many longtime bus riders. Comfort is one of the factors that affects people’s transportation choices, and AC Transit’s decisions in this regard are actually discouraging people from traveling by bus. Sadly, these are the very same buses they intend to use on the BRT line. 

And last but not least, Oregon transportation planners realized that the choice of engines for their vehicles should be environmentally responsible, so they use hybrid-electric buses. AC Transit, in contrast, has just purchased many new diesel-powered buses for its fleet, and they will be in service for many years to come. So, if you live near a Rapid Bus stop, your neighborhood will experience higher levels of particulate air pollution from diesel exhaust. Fine particulate air pollution is implicated in diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, and lung cancer. 

Oregon transportation planners have worked with the public to develop a bus system that has many benefits and few detriments. In our own East Bay, unfortunately, AC Transit has adopted an autocratic, cram-it-down-our-throats approach that has alienated many neighborhood residents and business owners. 

It’s shameful, really, how poorly AC Transit responds to public input. Often, it seems, it even works in defiance of the public’s wishes. Eliminating bus routes, making schedules more inconvenient, limiting the use of transfers, failing to coordinate with other transit agencies—and buying more and more of the highly unpopular, painfully uncomfortable Van Hool buses—are all decisions made by AC Transit to the detriment of its customers. AC Transit apparently cares far more about its own pie-in-the-sky plans to compete with BART than it cares about the needs of the average bus-riding citizen. 

At every single public forum I have attended about the East Bay BRT proposal, skeptics have vastly outnumbered BRT supporters. Even so, the BRT proposal continues to move forward, propelled by an elite, inner group of planners and advocates who want to tell us how to run our lives. And this occurs despite the fact that AC Transit’s own Draft Environmental Impact Report shows that BRT will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and will convert only a small percentage of automobile drivers to public transit! 

Make no mistake: All of the time and money AC Transit has poured into this deeply-flawed BRT proposal has diverted millions of dollars from other important public transit needs. Enough is enough. Let’s stop this BRT mistake now. It’s time for AC Transit to work with the community to develop practical and effective transportation solutions. 

Sasha Lilley is right that KPFA needs dialogue, not demonization (Commen-tary, Nov. 13). But dialogue can be effective only if it’s honest; if not, demonization is sure to prevail. Unfortunately, parts of her commentary are anything but honest. 

Consider, for example, what she writes about the issue of demonstration an-nouncements. First, she says “people,” whom she does not name, have asserted in the pages of the Planet that the station’s interim managers “have prohibited the announcement of demonstrations on KPFA’s air.” She then declares this allegation “patently false” and, as proof, cites a couple of demonstrations she and Interim General Manager Lemlem Rijio personally promoted on the air. 

What Lilley writes is perfectly true—the allegation she lays out is false. But it’s a straw man—a charge no one has made. As she surely knows, the issue is not that KPFA never promotes any demonstrations on the air, but that it lacks a systematic mechanism, without undue restrictions, that would ensure that any progressive group could publicize marches and rallies, even if the event doesn’t have a champion in senior management. 

If you question whether this is a real problem, I suggest a glance at the web page (http://kpfa.org/psa/) where the station posts its guidelines on public service announcements. There you will see, in plain English, the restrictions that are the heart of the issue: 

• “All events must be submitted by an organization that qualifies as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Service Tax Code 501 (c)(3).” 

• “Organizations are allowed one announcement per month.” 

• Announcements of several kinds of events, notably including “Rallies/ Demonstrations,” “cannot be accepted!" 

The only alternative the guidelines offer is the station’s “community calendar,” which is aired several times every day. The problem with that solution is that the guidelines for the calendar (http://kpfa. org/calendar/) require that items be submitted at least three weeks in advance—a rule that excludes many, probably most, rallies and demonstrations. 

This is by no means a mere technicality. Last year, as Congress was about to adopt the horrendous Military Commissions Act (aka the torture law), a group I’m part of called Act Against Torture called a demonstration in protest at the offices of Feinstein, Boxer, and Pelosi—and we couldn’t get it announced on KPFA because we’re not a 501(c)(3) and we  

hadn’t scheduled it three weeks in advance! That experience was hardly unique—I myself have personal knowledge of rallies and other events concerning Haiti, Palestine, immigrant rights, and even the war in Iraq that weren’t announced on KPFA because of one or another of the station’s restrictions. 

Yes, there’s a way around these obstacles: If you have personal connections to station insiders, or you find a programmer who takes a fancy to your cause, you might get a one-time mention of your event on his or her show, but that’s hardly a fair or adequate solution. 

As a listener representative on the Local Station Board—a body charged under the Pacifica by-laws “to work with station management to ensure that station programming fulfills the purposes of the Foundation and is responsive to the diverse needs of the listeners (demographic) and communities (geographic) served by the station,” I offered what I thought was a co-structive solution: a resolution calling on the interim program director and the interim general manager to establish a “political calendar,” separate from the community calendar, for progressive events that don’t qualify under the station’s current restrictive rules; to create simple ways for activists to submit events for this new calendar by phone, e-mail, or the web; to post the calendar on the KPFA website; and to direct the news department to announce events from it daily, as part of regular newscasts. 

(If you want to read the resolution for yourself, write me at henry@norr.com; maybe someday it will be posted on the station’s website, but don’t hold your breath.) 

Last month the LSB adopted this resolution by a vote of 13-0 with three abstentions. A month later, the station’s interim managers have not offered a word in response—except the commentary from Ms. Lilley that ducks and distorts the issue. 

Is that the kind of dialogue KPFA really needs? 

Henry Norr is a professional journalist with a long resum´e.

Have you ever debated which was more essential to your Thanksgiving table—the mashed potatoes or the stuffing? Have you gone without turkey dinner all together? This is the reality facing numerous families in our community. Thanksgiving brings families together to celebrate a bounty of food. For many low-income families, Thanksgiving brings lean fixings as they struggle with the high cost of living in the Bay Area. A recent report released by the California Budget Project stated that in order to meet basic needs including health care, a family of four needs to earn more than $77,000 annually. Most Food Bank recipients live on a fraction of that and are continually faced with harsh choices—food or gas? Food or rent? 

Many families have turned to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and rely on a steadfast network of emergency food providers this holiday season. This year, they join 35 million Americans that turned to emergency food assistance, even before gas and milk prices spiked again. 

Calls to our food helpline have increased by 46 percent over the past year. The number of single mothers contacting the Food Bank has increased by 60 percent, children account for 37 percent of our client base, seniors make up 14 percent and most families contacting us are working but don’t earn enough to make ends meet. 

While our dedicated helpline manager and her group of loyal volunteers refer record numbers of callers to an emergency food bag or hot meal site, a number of our agencies report running out of food. The Food Bank’s food resources were taxed when we started the year. Our inventory, which used to be a robust 2 million pounds, now hovers around a million pounds. This means that more Food Banks like ours rely on community support—during the holiday season and throughout the year. 

After the decorations come down, hunger persists and is an ongoing threat to community health that requires long-term solutions. We ask you to help by donating money, food and time to our Food Bank or a nearby emergency food provider. But please don’t stop there. To put an end to hunger, we must work together to advocate for improvements in government nutrition programs, like the Food Stamp and School Meal programs that will help hungry families even when the holidays are over. Please call your State Senator to ask that they pass a new farm bill with substantial improvements to the food stamp program; we ask that you visit our website at www.accfb.org to learn more about hunger and how you can help. 

Having enough to eat on Thanksgiving—and the day after—should not be a privilege. 

Suzan Bateson is the executive director of the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

In its normal holiday tradition, St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County has begun preparation of its annual Thanks-giving Day holiday meal. The SVdP’s Free Dining Room, located on 23rd Street in Oakland, is the oldest and only facility in Alameda County to provide hot meals to homeless and low-income adults and children seven days per week. During Thanksgiving, the SVdP of Alameda County prepares a holiday meal consisting of turkey with all the trimmings to provide a seasonal meal for those in need. Approximately 1,000 meals will be served with almost as many adults and children in attendance to partake of those meals. 

In addition, SVdP of Alameda County’s volunteers come in full-force to help with food preparation, serving and clean-up. SVdP of Alameda County logs 88,000 volunteer hours per year, and partners with many corporations to develop community relationships. 

St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County offers numerous services to homeless and low-income adults such as the Women and Children’s Visitation Center, the Men’s Guidance Center, and the new Kitchen of Champions Culinary Program, a transitional employment program (KOC students will be helping to prepare and serve the meal). 

For more information, please contact Colleen Miller at 510 636-4255 or go to www.svdp-alameda.org. 

Colleen Miller is Director of Development and Communications, Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County.

Oh to have been a fly on the wall during the recent meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan., Nov. 1.  

Rice was in Ankara trying to forestall a major Turkish offensive into Northern Iraq aimed at rooting out the Kurdish PKK, who have launched several cross-border assaults, killing and kidnapping Turkish soldiers. The Bush administration claims a Turkish invasion would destabilize Iraq, but in fact, the story is a good deal more complex. 

For the past three years, the U.S. has armed the PKK’s Iranian-based counterpart, the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), to attack Iran. If the Turks cross the border in force, they are likely to blow the elaborate cover the U.S. has spun to camouflage its support for an organization it officially considers “terrorist.” 

According to Pepe Escobar in the Asia Times, the PKK is suddenly “flush with new mortars, anti-tank weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and even anti-aircraft missiles.” Where did they get them? The Turks suspect the U.S., in particular U.S. General David Petraeus, who oversaw a Pentagon program that flooded Iraq with weapons whose serial numbers were never recorded. According to the Turks, a lot of those arms ended up with the PKK. 

Ankara is not only unhappy about the attacks on its soldiers, it is deeply nervous about an upcoming referendum that will determine whether Kirkuk—with its 10 billion barrels of oil—will end up as part of an autonomous Kurdistan. The Turks want all Iraqis to vote on whether that comes to pass, but the Iraqi constitution restricts voters to city residents. And because the current Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri-al-Maliki depends upon the votes of Kurdish delegates to the Iraqi parliament to keep him in power, the Turks’ demand has gone nowhere.  

Maliki and the Kurds claim that Turkish intelligence recently helped organize a Cairo meeting of Sunni country intelligence chiefs, aimed at subverting the current Iraqi government. The meeting included Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, along with the U.S. and the British. 

Speaking at the Socialist International meetings in Geneva, Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani, a leader of one of the two main Kurdish parties, denounced “some Arab states” for “conniving” against the Baghdad government. 

Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Shiite, also blasted “foreign intelligence” and the Turks for “conspiring” against the Maliki government. 

In the meantime Turkey has 100,000 troops massed on the border of northern Iraq. If the Turks came across in force, would they keep to the border area, or would their troops push on to Kirkuk, essentially derailing any attempt to make the city part of Kurdistan? At least that is what the PKK charged in a Nov. 9 statement asking for a “dialogue” to reduce the current tension. 

So what happened in the Ankara meeting? 

There are indications that the Americans might have cut a deal with the Turks and the PKK. According to Patrick Cockburn of the Independent, the PKK has moved a substantial number of its forces into Iran. Osman Ocalan, brother of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and a founder of the organization, says the PKK has strong support among Iran’s four million Kurds, and that “In the last six months the PKK has started a war against Iran.” That war has already killed more than 150 Iranians, and Iran has periodically retaliated by closing the border and shelling Kurdish villages in Iraq. 

Was the PKK move to Iran part of a deal: The PKK vacates the Iraq-Turkish border and joins Washington’s jihad to overthrow the Iranian regime? In return, did the U.S. supply the PKK with arms and sophisticated weapons? While the U.S. State Department has kept a distance from the PJAK, the group’s leader, Haj Ahmedi, is reported to have met with mid-level Pentagon officials this past summer. 

Washington needs the Kurds because not only are they pro-American, but their well-trained Pershmerga militia also plays an important role in helping to fight insurgents throughout Iraq. If the Turks invade, the Pershmerga might go home to fight their traditional enemies. 

At the same time, the U.S needs to placate Ankara, because 70 percent of its supplies for the Iraq War pass through Turkey. Did the U.S. promise the Turks it would push for a nationwide referendum on the fate of Kirkuk, a referendum it is thought the Kurds cannot win?  

You don’t need a crystal ball to predict that this is all likely to end in disaster. The problem is that the people in that region of the world play a mean game of chess, while the folks in the Oval Office haven’t even mastered checkers. 

••• 

Lest we forget. When Jean Marie Le Pen, the anti-Semitic leader of the French right, called the Jewish Holocaust “a detail of history,” he was charged with a crime. It is against the law to deny the Holocaust in France, as it is in a number of European nations.  

But when President George W. Bush referred to the murder of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1916 as “historic mass killings,” and Secretary of State Rice called the systematic massacres “the events of 1915,” no one said a word.  

Bush and Rice, of course, led a full-court press to block a non-binding resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide from coming to a vote in the House because it would do “great harm” to relations with Turkey, said the President. The Democrats dutifully backed down and once again the Armenian Holocaust was interned, another victim of the U.S.’s war in Iraq. 

It is not the first time the Armenian Holocaust has been shelved in the name of opportunism and “state-to-state” relations. In 2001, Shimon Peres, the current president of Israel, told the Anatolia News Agency, “We reject attempts to create a similarity between the Holocaust and the Armenian allegations. Nothing similar to the Holocaust occurred. It is a tragedy what the Armenians went through but not a genocide.” 

Peres, Bush and Rice should spend a few hours with Viscount James Bryce and Arnold Toynbee’s “The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-1916,” or read the reports of Henry Morgenthau, U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Robert Fisk’s magnificent book, “The Great War for Civilization,” would also be illuminating.  

The three might take a trip to Margada where they can help rebury the 50,000 Armenian men, women, and children drowned and shot by the Turks. They might want to read a cable by Turkish Interior Minister Talaat Pasha to a prefect in Aleppo: “You have already been informed that the Government…has decided to destroy all the indicated persons living in Turkey…their existence must be terminated, however tragic the measure taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to any scruples of conscience.” 

All three might find it interesting that a young German teenager, Rudolf Hoess, served in the Turkish Army during the massacres. Hoess was appointed commandant of Auschwitz in 1940, and oversaw all the death camps by 1944. 

No “similarity” between the Jewish Holocaust and the “Armenian allegations”? As Fisk argues in his book, the latter was a blueprint for the former.  

In August 1939, Adolph Hitler commented on why it would not be a problem to liquidate the Jews: “Who, after all, is today speaking of the destruction of the Armenians.” 

Not Bush, not Rice, not Peres, and shamefully, not Congress. 

Once, it is said, a basketball fan came up to Oakland native and Boston Celtic star Bill Russell and asked him what it was like to guard Wilt Chamberlain. Russell, so the story goes, gave the fan one of his famous quizzical looks, thought about it for a moment, and then asked back, “What’s your frame of reference?” 

In many ways, during the recently concluded debate over police 12-hour shifts in Oakland, I felt the same way. Like a spectator, without any frame of reference to judge the various arguments. 

For those who haven’t followed, an arbitrator—they are always identified in the press as “impartial arbitrators” to differentiate them from the other kind, I suppose—ruled last week that the City of Oakland can institute 12-hour shifts. Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker wanted to institute the change to the 12-hour shifts, our powerful friends at the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) police union opposed it, and when they couldn’t settle it during negotiations, they sent it to the impartial arbitrator, Charles Askin. 

Following the initial breakdown is easy. Oakland police officers currently work shifts that consist of 10 hours a day. They do this for four straight days, then take a three-day weekend, if I understand it right, and then start their week all over again. This is a common shift pattern in some industries, giving the same hours of work in a week—40—that you have in the standard 5-day/8-hours-a-day office hour shifts, and the three days off for a weekend makes it popular among many workers. 

For managers trying to fit four-day/10-hour shifts into the standard five-day work week, this can be something of a challenge, as the manager has to make sure that there are enough workers coming in on Mondays (covering the Monday-through-Thursday shift) and enough workers coming in on Fridays (covering the Tuesday-through-Friday shift). 

The management problem becomes infinitely more difficult if you are trying to fit the four-day/10-hour shift into a 24-hour a day operation, such as are run by police departments. The reason for that difficulty is easily seen. If your first 10-hour shift works from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and your second 10-hour shift works from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., that leaves a 4-hour hole from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. The hole gets covered by having a third, overlapping schedule running from, say, 1 a.m. to 11 a.m. But doing that means that during some hours of the day, from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. and again from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., you end up having two shifts of officers out on the street. 

The Oakland Police Department actually runs a slightly more complicated schedule, with slightly different hours and two night shifts coming on at staggered times. 

From that light, one can easily see why the 12-hour shifts are so attractive to those who must manage a 24-hour a day system. You can schedule shift changes at noon and midnight, for example, and gone is the four-hour hole. You can’t fit that into a 40-hour week, of course (I’ll wait, while you try), but the City of Oakland got around that in the recent negotiations by proposing what you might call a staggered two-three/14-day system. Under that system, officers work two days on, two days off, three days on, two days off, two days on, and three days off over a 14-day period, adding up to 84 hours worked, or a 42-hour work week. For the schedule to operate, officers must work every other weekend. 

So far, this is standard time management stuff, and if you’ve got a good head for such things, or a spreadsheet program and about fifteen minutes of time to kill, you can fiddle around and figure out the angles yourself. Beyond that, however, you begin to get into insider baseball, or basketball, where the average observer gets lost. 

In the weeks leading up to the arbitrator’s ruling, we began hearing what you might call the 11th hour problem by the OPOA and their various community supporters in arguing against the 12-hour day. So the argument goes, a police officer catches a call on the 11th hour of their 12-hour shift, a dangerous call, in which they must pull their weapon and make a life or death decision. The officer is tired after pulling such a long shift, and their judgment could be impaired. Under such circumstances, so the argument went, do you want officers with guns out on the streets making such decisions? For anyone who has worked a 12-hour shift on any kind of job, the argument was compelling. It was particularly compelling for people who are normally critical of the police, with the sort of wicked twist that if you don’t trust these guys completely when they’re clear-headed, why would you want to trust them when they’re yawning and sleep-stressed. 

Even while ruling in favor of the 12-hour shifts, Mr. Askin, the arbitrator also noted another compelling argument against it, writing that “it appears that the 4/10 schedule as currently configured (in part because of the six-hour daily overlapping factor) provides superior staffing during weekend and late-hour periods when crime activity is greatest.” Mr. Askin called that “a disquieting and significant disadvantage of the City’s proposal.”  

The counter argument from police management and those who supported the city’s negotiating position was that Oakland police are racking up hours overtime as a norm under the current system, some of it mandatory, some of it voluntary. In either case, so the argument went, the same 11th-hour problem was now occurring, and the real howling from the police officers was about losing their overtime pay and veteran officers having to work on weekends when they’ve gotten used to being home. And even with that “disquieting and significant disadvantage” of losing the automatic police buildup during high crime hours, the arbitrator, Mr. Askins, concluded that the 12-hour shift “provides more advantages and will better serve the interest and welfare of the public in the [Oakland Police] Department’s mission to improve its ability to suppress and respond to crime.” 

But as I said, here we are getting into insider discussion where those who are not familiar with police practices in general and Oakland’s situation in particular start to get lost. 

I’ve pulled 12-hour shifts, and more, on a construction site, in a mill, and at a computer keyboard or a typewriter, and the last couple of hours of those activities can be brutal and my work efficiency down. But that’s steady work that is either physically or mentally taxing—or, in some cases—both. I have no frame of reference for how that compares to police work, and I suspect that this is the same for the average citizen. Both from observation and common sense, we know from the outside that police work can be alternately tedious and boring—writing or taking reports, for example—or extremely stressful—such as arresting a resisting suspect. But in any given police officer’s day, how much is there of one and how much of there is the other, how much is taken up with routine patrol, how much is done in some type of investigation or crime scene activity that could result in court testimony, how much effect do these highly different activities have on each other, and how has training and experience prepared officers to handle it? I freely confess, I have no clue. 

But in this case, I don’t think I need to have a clue. 

I don’t know if the 12-hour day will eventually end up being the best schedule for the Oakland Police Department or that what Chief Wayne Tucker calls “geographic accountability”—in which the existing six police service areas are consolidated into three geographical territories with a single commander and assigned police who stay within their area—is the best way to manage the department and get a handle on Oakland’s soaring crime situation. It may be that after the experience of six months or a year, the department decides that some tweaking in the system is needed. It may be that after the experience of six months or a year or more, the department decides that the 10-hour, 4-day model was actually more efficient, or there is another staffing model out there that is superior. It may be that the proposed geographic boundaries don’t fit Oakland’s character, and the territories should be expanded to four. Or five. 

For me, it’s a question of management and accountability. The current system is not properly working. Crime in Oakland is soaring along with overtime payments to police officers and in the current management configuration—where the OPOA has been able to block any changes—we appear to have reached a stalemate where we are stuck in place. It’s not the police chief’s 12-hour shifts that offers a way out of that stalemate. It is the freeing of the Oakland police chief to be able to make those types of management decisions that break the stalemate and move us forward. We hold the Chief of Police—and, ultimately, the mayor who has the hiring and firing power over the chief—accountable for the results. Do police officers come when we need them and call them? Are crimes being solved? Are the conditions that cause these crimes being reduced, however gradually? And to hold the chief and the mayor accountable for those results, we have to make sure that they have the freedom to manage. For me, that is what the recent arbitration was about, and that is what the current contract negotiations between the City of Oakland and the Oakland Police Officers Association are about. 

How did Bill Russell guard Wilt Chamberlain? Not to put too fine a point on it, that’s what they hired Red Auerbach for. 

I was hoping to pass along a wholehearted endorsement of one of my favorites in the odd category of “stores where I pretty much can’t afford anything but it’s all nice to look at”—I think of such a place as a museum if the staff is welcoming enough.  

As it turned out, though The Wooden Duck is absolutely perfect in that regard and also forwards the bright idea of making furniture out of salvaged teak, mostly from houses being torn down in Indonesia and China; salvaged Douglas fir from West Coast barns and such; and with lumber planed from dead or fallen trees more locally. Much of the last is in the form of great long tables, some with the edges unplaned and in their original wavy shape, to handsome effect.  

The garden furniture, though, is slightly less wonderful in origin: it’s all made of “plantation-grown teak.” This sounds like a good idea, and maybe is one, but one has to wonder what used to exist where these plantations are.  

There was nothing to document whether the teak for the garden furniture had been grown sustainably, and the salesperson had little information other than that the plantation grew shade coffee under the teak trees. 

What if the wood were certified? That’s still a matter of controversy. 

The Forest Stewardship Council, an international nongovernmental organization based in Germany, sets standards for sound forest management and accredits other groups to inspect and certify. 

After the timber is cut, its chain of custody from forest to consumer has to be documented. Some big names have signed on to one degree or another, including Home Depot, Lowe’s, and IKEA. And consumers have shown that, given a choice, they’ll opt for certified products even if they’re more expensive. 

One of the key players in the FSC, the Rainforest Alliance, audits forestry operations worldwide through its SmartWood program, covering everything from lumber to maple syrup. The Gibson guitarmaking company offers a line of Les Paul SmartWood guitars. 

Is it working? There are some apparent success stories. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, small farmers have been certified by SmartWood as growing teak sustainably on small plots, as an alternative to illegal harvests. Their practices include continuous planting and intercropping teak with cocoa, coffee, cashews, pepper, and candlenut trees instead of putting all their eggs in a monocultural basket. 

The fact that a teak operation has been certified doesn’t guarantee that it still meets FSC standards, though. SmartWood gave its blessing to the Javanese state-owned plantation forestry operation Perum Perhutani in 1990. Eleven years later, SmartWood decertified Perhutani, an action affecting 36 companies that used the wood for teak garden furniture. Teak certifications have also been lifted in Panama.  

But even the most diversified teak plantation isn’t a rain forest. It’s a brutal simplification of the intricate complexities of tropical ecosystems. Shade coffee plantations in Central America offer some space for biodiversity; they do this by leaving some of the original forest canopy in place rather than replacing it with a crop that gets harvested periodically.

I’m learning the guitar at the advanced age of 49 (don’t laugh, it feels old to me) and it’s mighty slow going. My friend and teacher, Scott, plays like the Almighty and it’s unimaginable to me that I’ll ever be able to play well enough to be heard in public. It seems an awfully steep slope between the novice and the expert, filled with layers of past experience and the gradual honing of our senses and practices. Further, there seem to be inherent advantages that some have over others. Gifts, we might call them, and it’s damn sure that the gift of guitar isn’t in me. Oh well, I’m having a good time and it’s an excuse to belt out a song. 

Visualizing construction is a lot like this. There appear to be some natural inclinations toward or against this skill, but I would argue that it’s mostly a great deal of learned experience that separates the nascent from the master. 

This leads to some strained (at very least) interactions between parties at either end of the chain of command when construction is under way. 

Contractors, when they’re good, are exceptionally skilled at visualizing a completed project before a single piece of plaster has been bashed from the old walls. Actually, I would argue that this is the central skill in the art of construction. A contractor does not need to be particularly strong, as there are tools and leverage to provide for that (although it can help), and this is why women are just as able to be great contractors.  

Business skills are important but this is true in any trade. It’s the ability to visualize how things come apart and go together that makes a contractor special. This IS, of course, also the skill of the architect, engineer and inspectors too. They must be able to see through the built environment and imagine things they cannot actually see. They must also be able to look at a set of plans and transfer these images (or mentally apply them) to the actual space. It’s sort of a 3-D mapping skill.  

Home or building owners run the full range when it comes to this skill. It’s common for a homeowner to have little skill in looking at a set of plans or in imagining what will happen to the kitchen when it gets remodeled. Naturally, this leads to a certain amount of mayhem in the construction process, and it starts the first time an architect or contractor meets with a client. A client may merely have wanted to create a bit more space for themselves in one end of the house and ended up with an addition on the back end, when all they really needed was to have a wall moved.  

Sadly, this bit of wisdom is often beyond the visualizing skill of the client and it falls to the designer or trade professional to explore what the client really wanted and to demonstrate how this might be accomplished. It’s a bit like translating a language. Most people, if walked through this process can be shown things that they just didn’t see on their own.  

Aside from the skill to see through walls and imagine a space in a new way (or a whole new building), design professionals and builders also have tools including drawing and modeling to show what their ideas will look like once completed. Any client of even a fairly small project (e.g., bath remodel) should avail themselves of these tools (although models are usually reserved for whole buildings).  

You might need to demand (STOP, I need to see a drawing before we move forward) some visual aids so that you can better participate in the process and get the product you’d hoped for. Don’t get pushed into a job that you don’t understand. 

Now, construction is often quite amorphous and things don’t end up exactly as we had planned. That’s O.K., it’s not a fixed target and there’s more than a little serendipity in it, gifting us with little (and large) marvels we didn’t bank on. If all goes well, it’s like a Christmas present that just keeps opening and revealing itself day after day until the day they carry their tools away. But, the more we are able to translate on a day-to-day basis, the closer we can get to having the project emulate our internal image.  

One of the things you, as a customer of this process, can do is to start a “phrase-book” for your meeting with the professional. Buy a stack of those magazines of houses or baths and start cutting out pictures of what you like. When you paste them in, jot a note about what you liked beside it. It need not be the right cabinet or flooring or trim style. It might have just been the light in the room or the color combination. It might have been the way the furniture all fits together in the space. Cut out pictures of the kinds of lighting you like, even if the fixture is different. 

You might like a picture that shows wall sconces or hidden, indirect lighting or a particular kind of touch-dimmer. When you sit with your contractor or architect, it will do wonders to be able to show them these pictures and say, “What I liked in this image was the way the wall curved” or “I don’t like these cabinets, but I like the way they pull out.” You’re speaking their language (and perhaps teaching them as well) and moving much more directly and quickly toward your goal.  

Ask the contractor or designer to provide you with drawings and samples or pictures to show you what you’re getting and then expect things to go, at least a little, awry. Remember that there’s magic in the deviations, like a road trip in the country (think Bridges of Madison County, not Blair Witch Project). 

If your visualizing skills are a little lean, remember to compensate through more active participation. While contractors do need to get their work done, it’s O.K. and actually essential to check in on what’s happening on a daily basis, showing what you like or don’t like and asking questions to help better understand what’s happening. There are few things in life more frustrating for a contractor than to have a client ask for a change a week later than necessary when so much more has been done to embed that work in place.  

Construction, like cooking or quilting, is a layering process, building one thing upon another. If the framing of a wall seems poorly placed, it may be quite easy to change after one day. A week later, that same wall may contain wiring, plumbing and wallboard. The client has a responsibility to speak up in a timely fashion when things are not coming out as they wished or imagined and to realise that the cost of these changes may reasonably rest at their doorstep when they don’t.  

Now, this isn’t to say that a failure to follow the plans on the part of the contractor is the client’s responsibility. It’s not. But understanding precisely what those plans will create is no small task for the contractor and frequently beyond the ken of the client. So it makes sense for you to keep your eyes peeled as drawings manifest as reality, so that, IF you come to realize that the plan isn’t quite what you wanted (or a paint color, or a trim style), you won’t have a lot of backtracking to do (or pay for).  

By the way, it is normal and fair for contractors to charge for any change that’s requested once construction has begun, and what you couldn’t visualize becomes your cross to bear, not theirs. Do the right thing and offer to pay for changes as you realize they’re needed and not strain the relationship by asking the contractor to make costly (yes, everything is costly) changes that come out of their profits. 

This is why good communication with your design and trade professionals is so vital from the very start. If you don’t feel as though you can chat and muse with them, it’s a good idea to change partners. Remember this: No matter how cordial it may be when you first meet, it’s going to be less so as time goes by. The best contractors won’t keep the process from being frustrating, at least part of the time. SO, be sure that you’re starting out with trust and a sense that this person (or people) will go the distance and represent your vision and wishes well.  

Lastly, after all the admonitions, let me say that this can be, and often is, a very exciting process and a lot of fun. Not as much as learning guitar but ... pretty close. 

My previous column about the birds Joseph Grinnell observed on the UC Berkeley campus drew a response from Allison Shultz, a recent graduate who is now the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology’s Centennial Coordinator (more about that below.) Shultz said that for her senior thesis, she replicated surveys done on campus by Margaret Wythe between 1913 and 1927, and by Charles Sibley and Thomas Rodgers in 1938-39. Her results reveal significant changes among those data points. “I saw that the number of species didn’t change much over the years—it actually went up a little—but the community composition changed,” she explains. 

Who were these people? Margaret Wythe was co-author, with Grinnell, of the 1927 Directory to the Bird-Life of the San Francisco Bay Region. She started working for Grinnell at the MVZ in 1912, earning 35 cents an hour. After receiving her Master’s degree, she was promoted to Assistant Curator of Birds in 1925. Wythe was on the Museum’s staff at least into the 1940s, when she prepared the distribution maps for The Distribution of the Birds of California by Grinnell and Alden Miller.  

Charles Sibley came to Berkeley as an undergraduate in 1937, spent part of his World War II service collecting birds in the Solomon Islands, and returned to UC for his PhD under Miller in 1948. He taught here for a couple of decades before moving to Yale. Sibley, a controversial figure who died in 1998, was on the cutting edge of biochemical studies of the evolutionary relationships of birds. He was the one who determined that New World vultures were actually storks of a sort, and that mynahs and mockingbirds were next of kin. Charles Sibley was not related to field guide author/artist David Sibley. 

Thomas L. Rodgers, another of Alden Miller’s students, seems to have been more of a lizard man, although he was the lead author of the article he and Sibley published in the Condor. 

As to methods, Wythe kept meticulous notes on the birds she observed for 14 years, using a workman’s time book. “It looks like an Excel spreadsheet,” says Allison Shultz. Sibley and Rodgers monitored birds for a shorter period, and apparently in a more limited area. Their surveys were bounded by Oxford on the west, Hearst on the north, the Campanile on the east, and Allston on the south. They made morning, noon, and evening walks through that area, recording all bird encounters. 

Shultz says she tried to mimic what Sibley and Rodgers had done, but using point counts instead of line transects. She also examined old photographs to document changes in landscaping on the campus, and mapped the location of buildings in 1939 versus 2006. Her study ran from October through March, so she may have missed some migrants and summer visitors the earlier study recorded. 

Between Wythe’s counts and the Sibley-Rodgers survey, the wrentit—a chaparral-haunting bird, more often heard calling than seen—disappeared from the UC campus. Other species, like the American kestrel, declined. But overall species composition was relatively stable. 

From 1939 to 2006, though, there were dramatic changes. New species appeared: Cooper’s hawk, red-shouldered hawk, mourning dove, white-throated swift, Nuttall’s woodpecker, American crow, common raven, chestnut-backed chickadee. These are not all necessarily nesting records, although Shultz suspects the swifts are nesting on some of campus buildings, maybe the Campanile.  

And there were losses. Sibley and Rodgers saw California quail on almost half their survey days. That species is completely gone now. So are the American kestrel and American pipit. Shultz also reports the disappearance of the spotted towhee, but my friend John Sutake, a keen observer, recalls seeing them recently when he was UC’s lead groundskeeper; maybe they were missed in the resurvey. 

It’s interesting that Shultz found no exotic house sparrows, Eurasian starlings, or rock pigeons in her survey area. “The Cooper’s hawks might keep the pigeons down,” she speculates. 

She also had only a few sightings of white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows, both common winter birds elsewhere in Berkeley. 

The gains and losses reflect an altered habitat. “A lot of open area and scrubby places had been removed,” Shultz says. “The Botanical Garden was where Memorial Glade is now until 1924, and some plants were left there until 1960.” Bushes and scrubby areas were removed in the ‘70s and ‘80s for safety reasons. There are also more, and larger, buildings now. 

Shultz describes plans for further surveys. In connection with the Museum’s centennial, the Grinnell Project is revisiting Joseph Grinnell’s study transects all over the state. Transects through Lassen Volcanic and Yosemite National Parks have been completed, and show significant patterns of range shifts by small mammals in response to climate change.  

If funding is available, the Project will be extended to parts of the Bay Area. “We’ll find qualified observers, have them follow a standard protocol, and enter their observations in an online database,” Shultz explains. Sounds like a great opportunity to get out there with your binoculars and do some Citizen Science. Watch this space for more information. 

FRIDAY, NOV. 23 

THEATER 

Anteres Ensemble “Human Voice” by Jean Cocteau at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $25. 415-531-8454.  

Aurora Theatre Company “Sex” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 9. Tickets are $28-$50. 843-4822.  

Berkeley Playhouse “Seussical, the Musical” Thurs.-Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sat. at 2 p.m., Sun. at 3 pm. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Dec. 2. Tickets are $18-$23. 665-5565.  

Berkeley Rep “After the Quake” at the Trust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Dec. 21. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Black Repertory Group “A Rasin in the Sun” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St., through Dec. 14. Tickets are $10-$20. 652-2120. 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona Ave., (at Moeser), El Cerrito, through Dec. 9. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. ccct.org  

Impact Theatre “A Very Special Money & Run Winter Season Holiday Special” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Dec. 22. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468.  

Masquers Playhouse “Little Mary Sunshine” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Dec. 15. Tickets are $18. 232-4031.  

Wilde Irish Productions “The Children of Lir” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m., through Nov. 24 at Gaia Arts Center, 2116 Allston Way. Tickets are $10-$12. 841-7287.  

EXHIBITIONS 

Touchable Stories “Richmond: The Story Continues” Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 6 p.m. at Old Kaiser Cafeteria, Shipyard #3, 1303 Canal Blvd., Richmond. Cost is $6-$12. Reservations required. 619-3675. www.touchablestories.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Women’s Will “Christmas Memories” readings of Christmas Classics Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at the Pardee Home Museum, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 420-0813. www.womenswill.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Raffi Garabedian, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

David Jacobs-Strain at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Sulky Darky, Tiger Fight at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The Steve McQuarry Group at 8 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave.  

The Revtones, 1/4 Mile Combo at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Married Couple at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, NOV. 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Made In Equilibrium” works by Michele Elizabeth Lee, Brady Nadell and Ross Drago. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at ABCo Artspace, 3135 Oakland, Oakland. www.abcoartspace.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Women’s Will “Christmas Memories” readings of Christmas Classics at 8 p.m. at the Pardee Home Museum, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 420-0813. www.womenswill.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dan Zanes & Friends at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $16-$26. 642-9988.  

Barbara Dane and Her Band at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ.  

Marimba Pacifica, Los Bros with guests at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mere Ours, Tyler Whitmore at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Gary Zellerbach with Georgianna Krieger on saxophone at 8 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave.  

Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Nathan Clevinger Group, Jon Arkin Trio at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

David Jeffrey’s Jazz Fourtet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 25 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chamber Music Sundaes featuring San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends, at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $18-$22, at the door. www.chambermusicsundaes.org 

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

David Grossman “Bach for Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Eliyahu & Qadim at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Eric & Suzy Thompson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Steve Shaffer and friends at 8 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave.  

MONDAY, NOV. 26 

FILM 

“Live at the Rainbow” Bob Marley & the Wailer’s 1977 show at 8 p.m. at Elmwood Theater, 2966, College Ave. at Ashby. Cost is $10. 433-9730. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alix Olson and friends perform from “Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Judith Thurman reads from “Cleopatra’s Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Poetry Express Between the Holidays Erotic Poetry Night at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Classical at the Freight with Trio Concertino at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. 

Babshad Jazzz at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

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

Louie Romero y su groupo Mazacote at 8:30 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

TUESDAY, NOV. 27 

CHILDREN 

First Stage Children’s Theater “Stone Soup: The Musical” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $5 at the door. 

FILM 

“Film and Video at CCA: Performative, Gestural, Collaborative Work” with filmmakers in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Freight and Salvage Open Mic at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

George Higgins & Jerry Ratch at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476.  

CJ Pascoe, author, in conversation with Barrie Thorne on “Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity & Sexuality in High School” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com  

Robert Kuttner discusses “The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Edmund Welles Bass Clarinet Quartet, avant jazz, heavy chamber music, black metal, and classic rock at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club. 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $20. 525-5211. www.berkeleychamberperform.org 

LeRoy Thomas & The Zydeco Roadrunners at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Kelly Park at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Randy Craig Trio , jazz, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Bilal, neo-soul jazz vocalist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paula Kamen disucsses “Finding Iris Chang” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Mark Schapiro and Michael Pollan in conversation on “Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products: Who’s at Risk and What’s at Stake for American Power” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $5-$13. 559-9500. 

Melanie West reads from her new legal thriller “Conflict of Interest” at 7 p.m. at Laurel Book Store, 4100 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. 531-2073. 

“Writing Teachers Write” teacher/student readings from the Bay Area Writing Project at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

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 

Oakland City Center Holiday Concert with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

U.C. Jazz at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $6. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Billy Dunn & Bluesway at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. West coast swing dance at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Crowsong at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

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

Bilal, neo-soul jazz vocalist, at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, NOV. 29 

EXHIBITIONS 

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now” Guided tour at 12:15 and 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“n+1: The Function of the Small Magazine at the Present Time” with editors of the journal on literature, politics and culture at 6 p.m. at 141 McCone Hall, UC Campus.  

Joanna Katz will show slides and talk about her paintings and mixed media pieces in the current show Magpies@Giorgi at 4 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave., at Ashby. 647-3513. 

Elizabeth Currid on “The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. 

“The Legacy of Berkeley Parks: A Century of Planning and Making” with Marcia Grady, Sadie Graham and Louise Mozingo at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

Alice Rothchild reads from her new book “Broken Promises, Broken Dreams - Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resiliance” at 7:30 p.m. at Kehilla Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont.  

Stephen Vincent and Pat Reed, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Adam David Miller introduces “Ticket to Exile: A Memoir” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tallis Scholars “Poetry in Music for the Virgin Mary” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Durant and Dana. Tickets are $48. 642-9988.  

Culann’s Hounds at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Irish dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $13-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

UC Berkeley’s The Movement Fall 2007 Showcase Thurs. and Fri. at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $9 at the door. ucb.movement.showcase@gmail.com 

Savoy Family Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

John Williams Gordon Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Tracy Sirota, folk rock, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Tresspassers, Bluegrass Revolution at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082  

Fred O’Dell & the Broken Arrows at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Roy Haynes and Birds of a Feather at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $16-$28. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

There’s a magical time in childhood when the fiction of film is nearly indistinguishable from the reality of life, a time when a child still has a willingness and an ability to believe that magic is possible, and that maybe, just maybe, he can be its agent.  

I was at that age when George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy was at its peak. It seemed to me entirely possible that such a cosmic drama indeed took place light years ago in a faraway galaxy, and that it might be still be in progress, maybe even somewhere in my neighborhood. Lucas’ attempt to construct a myth was successful, and I, and a gazillion other kids around the world, were his silent collaborators.  

It doesn’t take a battery of special effects and widescreen melodrama to grab hold of a child’s imagination, however. Another film held sway over my young imagination, one that approached the world of youth and dreams from the opposite end of the spectrum.  

Albert Lamorisse’s Academy Award-winning The Red Balloon (1959) was a major fixture in my childhood, a seemingly perennial treat bestowed on me and my fellow students throughout elementary school. And, judging by a casual survey of Internet posts on the topic, my school was hardly unique; it seems, when it comes to The Red Balloon, no American child was left behind. It seemed very real to me the first time I saw it, and though the reality of it faded as I grew older, successive viewings never failed to enthrall.  

The Red Balloon and White Mane (1953), another of Lamorisse’s children’s films, are getting a theatrical release from Janus Films. The two short films (approximately 35 minutes each) will screen as a double feature beginning today at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas in downtown Berkeley.  

The Red Balloon follows a few days in the life of Pascal (Pascal Lamorisse, the director’s son). In the opening scene he climbs a lamppost to untangle a red balloon, which he carries with him for the rest of the day. When he returns home in the afternoon, his mother discards the balloon by releasing it from their apartment window. But the balloon, grateful to the boy for having rescued it, hangs around, and in the morning it descends to street level again to join Pascal as he walks out the door and starts the long walk to school.  

From that point on the two are inseparable. However, the pair draws the attention of a pack of bullies who chase Pascal and the balloon through the streets and empty lots of Paris. The chase culminates in a remarkable scene in which we see just how well Lamorisse has managed to anthropomorphize the balloon. In a single long shot, the balloon slowly deflates—an oddly painful moment that drew tears from many a rapt child in my classes. But what follows is an uplifting scene that perfectly embodies the fantasies of childhood.  

The White Mane is also the story of childhood and friendship, this time between a boy and a seemingly untamable wild horse. Again Lamorisse produces an evocative tale, beautifully photographed, that examines the compassion and dreams of a young boy. 

White Mane is a horse among horses, the leader of his herd, proud, defiant and elusive. Ranchers try to catch and tame him, but none can hold onto him for long. But the boy is able to prove his devotion and sincerity to the horse, and what develops is another magical friendship that concludes with another of Lamorisse’s fairy tale endings.  

Down under at La Val’s Subterranean, the Impact theater company has already geared up for the season with their brand-new Very Special Money & Run Winter Season Holiday Special, complete with Xmas lights and a lit-up “Season’s Greetings” sign in red and green on the usual set, resembling a basement rec room. 

In this case, it’s the lobby, rooms and garage of a seedy hotel, where our intrepid couple of crooks on the lam, Bobby Jean Marshall (Jessica Rhodes) and Jimmy Jake McAllister (Alex Curtis)—aka Money & Run, the postmodern Bonnie & Clyde—are holing up for the holidays, hoping for a quiet Christmas, out of sight, mind and warrant or subpoena. 

Hard on their heels, as they strong-arm their way into the last room in a “no-vacancy” flea trap catering to hookers and crazies, are an expectant couple, Meryl (Seth Tygesen) and Josephine (Elissa Dunn), who get stabled in the garage. Everybody’s charmed at this cracker replica of the Holy Family, and the lucky pair themselves hold a loud, fractious talk about whether almost-due Josephine’s really a virgin, or if heavy petting in the back seat doesn’t count. 

Among others interested in the young parents-to-be is Big Momma Bob (Cynthia Brinkman, in a lusty turn), who wants the birth to be broadcast live from her liquor emporium—and is offering cash for the rights. And just when it seems to be a white trash Christmas, Frankie (ebullient Alan Bare) and his entourage blow in from the burg in full mafia fashion as The Three Wise-Guys, after Meryl to collect on a sucker bet and cash in on the Christmas kid. 

Rounding out the rout are Dr. Asswagon (comedic Jon Nagel) and Jimmy Jack Bodeen (Matt Gunnison), who seems to bear a personal grudge towards our hero. 

It starts out slow and amusing, but shifts into high and hysterical before too long, with funny fight and chase scenes. The cast of 14 does well, with Jeremy Forbing’s direction, in this burlesque of road and buddy pics, caper flicks, and pious holiday fare in general. Choco Couture’s costumes, like Big Momma Bob’s outsize Santa outfit with cowboy boots, add to the slightly surreal Tobacco Row decadence. 

It’s all a burlesque, perfectly suited to Impact’s entertainment mission, which often includes burlesque dancers, replaced here by hookers: Miyuki Bierlein (who doubles as a killer nurse and “assorted homeless”), Casi Maggio (also Angel, whose annunciation’s on a restaurant check, “like a fortune cookie,” and yet another killer nurse with a snap of the latex glove) and Sarah Thomas (Frankie’s moll as well). The chorus, whether dancing or, here, strolling by and taunting the leads, neatly vaudevillize this basement theater that packs ’em in, intent on fun, over their beer and pizza.

I was hoping to pass along a wholehearted endorsement of one of my favorites in the odd category of “stores where I pretty much can’t afford anything but it’s all nice to look at”—I think of such a place as a museum if the staff is welcoming enough.  

As it turned out, though The Wooden Duck is absolutely perfect in that regard and also forwards the bright idea of making furniture out of salvaged teak, mostly from houses being torn down in Indonesia and China; salvaged Douglas fir from West Coast barns and such; and with lumber planed from dead or fallen trees more locally. Much of the last is in the form of great long tables, some with the edges unplaned and in their original wavy shape, to handsome effect.  

The garden furniture, though, is slightly less wonderful in origin: it’s all made of “plantation-grown teak.” This sounds like a good idea, and maybe is one, but one has to wonder what used to exist where these plantations are.  

There was nothing to document whether the teak for the garden furniture had been grown sustainably, and the salesperson had little information other than that the plantation grew shade coffee under the teak trees. 

What if the wood were certified? That’s still a matter of controversy. 

The Forest Stewardship Council, an international nongovernmental organization based in Germany, sets standards for sound forest management and accredits other groups to inspect and certify. 

After the timber is cut, its chain of custody from forest to consumer has to be documented. Some big names have signed on to one degree or another, including Home Depot, Lowe’s, and IKEA. And consumers have shown that, given a choice, they’ll opt for certified products even if they’re more expensive. 

One of the key players in the FSC, the Rainforest Alliance, audits forestry operations worldwide through its SmartWood program, covering everything from lumber to maple syrup. The Gibson guitarmaking company offers a line of Les Paul SmartWood guitars. 

Is it working? There are some apparent success stories. On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, small farmers have been certified by SmartWood as growing teak sustainably on small plots, as an alternative to illegal harvests. Their practices include continuous planting and intercropping teak with cocoa, coffee, cashews, pepper, and candlenut trees instead of putting all their eggs in a monocultural basket. 

The fact that a teak operation has been certified doesn’t guarantee that it still meets FSC standards, though. SmartWood gave its blessing to the Javanese state-owned plantation forestry operation Perum Perhutani in 1990. Eleven years later, SmartWood decertified Perhutani, an action affecting 36 companies that used the wood for teak garden furniture. Teak certifications have also been lifted in Panama.  

But even the most diversified teak plantation isn’t a rain forest. It’s a brutal simplification of the intricate complexities of tropical ecosystems. Shade coffee plantations in Central America offer some space for biodiversity; they do this by leaving some of the original forest canopy in place rather than replacing it with a crop that gets harvested periodically.

I’m learning the guitar at the advanced age of 49 (don’t laugh, it feels old to me) and it’s mighty slow going. My friend and teacher, Scott, plays like the Almighty and it’s unimaginable to me that I’ll ever be able to play well enough to be heard in public. It seems an awfully steep slope between the novice and the expert, filled with layers of past experience and the gradual honing of our senses and practices. Further, there seem to be inherent advantages that some have over others. Gifts, we might call them, and it’s damn sure that the gift of guitar isn’t in me. Oh well, I’m having a good time and it’s an excuse to belt out a song. 

Visualizing construction is a lot like this. There appear to be some natural inclinations toward or against this skill, but I would argue that it’s mostly a great deal of learned experience that separates the nascent from the master. 

This leads to some strained (at very least) interactions between parties at either end of the chain of command when construction is under way. 

Contractors, when they’re good, are exceptionally skilled at visualizing a completed project before a single piece of plaster has been bashed from the old walls. Actually, I would argue that this is the central skill in the art of construction. A contractor does not need to be particularly strong, as there are tools and leverage to provide for that (although it can help), and this is why women are just as able to be great contractors.  

Business skills are important but this is true in any trade. It’s the ability to visualize how things come apart and go together that makes a contractor special. This IS, of course, also the skill of the architect, engineer and inspectors too. They must be able to see through the built environment and imagine things they cannot actually see. They must also be able to look at a set of plans and transfer these images (or mentally apply them) to the actual space. It’s sort of a 3-D mapping skill.  

Home or building owners run the full range when it comes to this skill. It’s common for a homeowner to have little skill in looking at a set of plans or in imagining what will happen to the kitchen when it gets remodeled. Naturally, this leads to a certain amount of mayhem in the construction process, and it starts the first time an architect or contractor meets with a client. A client may merely have wanted to create a bit more space for themselves in one end of the house and ended up with an addition on the back end, when all they really needed was to have a wall moved.  

Sadly, this bit of wisdom is often beyond the visualizing skill of the client and it falls to the designer or trade professional to explore what the client really wanted and to demonstrate how this might be accomplished. It’s a bit like translating a language. Most people, if walked through this process can be shown things that they just didn’t see on their own.  

Aside from the skill to see through walls and imagine a space in a new way (or a whole new building), design professionals and builders also have tools including drawing and modeling to show what their ideas will look like once completed. Any client of even a fairly small project (e.g., bath remodel) should avail themselves of these tools (although models are usually reserved for whole buildings).  

You might need to demand (STOP, I need to see a drawing before we move forward) some visual aids so that you can better participate in the process and get the product you’d hoped for. Don’t get pushed into a job that you don’t understand. 

Now, construction is often quite amorphous and things don’t end up exactly as we had planned. That’s O.K., it’s not a fixed target and there’s more than a little serendipity in it, gifting us with little (and large) marvels we didn’t bank on. If all goes well, it’s like a Christmas present that just keeps opening and revealing itself day after day until the day they carry their tools away. But, the more we are able to translate on a day-to-day basis, the closer we can get to having the project emulate our internal image.  

One of the things you, as a customer of this process, can do is to start a “phrase-book” for your meeting with the professional. Buy a stack of those magazines of houses or baths and start cutting out pictures of what you like. When you paste them in, jot a note about what you liked beside it. It need not be the right cabinet or flooring or trim style. It might have just been the light in the room or the color combination. It might have been the way the furniture all fits together in the space. Cut out pictures of the kinds of lighting you like, even if the fixture is different. 

You might like a picture that shows wall sconces or hidden, indirect lighting or a particular kind of touch-dimmer. When you sit with your contractor or architect, it will do wonders to be able to show them these pictures and say, “What I liked in this image was the way the wall curved” or “I don’t like these cabinets, but I like the way they pull out.” You’re speaking their language (and perhaps teaching them as well) and moving much more directly and quickly toward your goal.  

Ask the contractor or designer to provide you with drawings and samples or pictures to show you what you’re getting and then expect things to go, at least a little, awry. Remember that there’s magic in the deviations, like a road trip in the country (think Bridges of Madison County, not Blair Witch Project). 

If your visualizing skills are a little lean, remember to compensate through more active participation. While contractors do need to get their work done, it’s O.K. and actually essential to check in on what’s happening on a daily basis, showing what you like or don’t like and asking questions to help better understand what’s happening. There are few things in life more frustrating for a contractor than to have a client ask for a change a week later than necessary when so much more has been done to embed that work in place.  

Construction, like cooking or quilting, is a layering process, building one thing upon another. If the framing of a wall seems poorly placed, it may be quite easy to change after one day. A week later, that same wall may contain wiring, plumbing and wallboard. The client has a responsibility to speak up in a timely fashion when things are not coming out as they wished or imagined and to realise that the cost of these changes may reasonably rest at their doorstep when they don’t.  

Now, this isn’t to say that a failure to follow the plans on the part of the contractor is the client’s responsibility. It’s not. But understanding precisely what those plans will create is no small task for the contractor and frequently beyond the ken of the client. So it makes sense for you to keep your eyes peeled as drawings manifest as reality, so that, IF you come to realize that the plan isn’t quite what you wanted (or a paint color, or a trim style), you won’t have a lot of backtracking to do (or pay for).  

By the way, it is normal and fair for contractors to charge for any change that’s requested once construction has begun, and what you couldn’t visualize becomes your cross to bear, not theirs. Do the right thing and offer to pay for changes as you realize they’re needed and not strain the relationship by asking the contractor to make costly (yes, everything is costly) changes that come out of their profits. 

This is why good communication with your design and trade professionals is so vital from the very start. If you don’t feel as though you can chat and muse with them, it’s a good idea to change partners. Remember this: No matter how cordial it may be when you first meet, it’s going to be less so as time goes by. The best contractors won’t keep the process from being frustrating, at least part of the time. SO, be sure that you’re starting out with trust and a sense that this person (or people) will go the distance and represent your vision and wishes well.  

Lastly, after all the admonitions, let me say that this can be, and often is, a very exciting process and a lot of fun. Not as much as learning guitar but ... pretty close. 

FRIDAY, NOV. 23 

Golden Gate Audobon Society Walk along the Berkeley Waterfront Meet at noon behind Seabreeze Market at the corner of University Ave. and frontage Rd. Heavy rain cancels. 845-5908. 

“Speaking Truth in the Teeth of Power” with Ward Churchill at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674A 23rd St., between MLK and San Pablo, Oakland. Suggested donation $5. 208-1700. www.akpress.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. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 24 

The Icarus Project Five Year Anniversary Party Community potluck and story-sharing at 6 p.m. at AK Press 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

13th Annual Womyn of Color Arts and Crafts Fair featuring artists and craftswomen selling their original, handcrafted works, including paintings, clay sculptures, textiles, jewelry, wearable art, and more Sat. and Sun. from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios Sat and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Dec. 16. 845-2612. www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 25 

Solo Sierrans Sunset Walk at the Martinez Regional Shoreline Meet at 3:30 p.m. at the old Amtrak Station near railroad crossing, off Ferry for a leisurely stroll along scenic shoreline and marina, with an optional stop later for dinner. For info call 925-458-0860. 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Dec. 16. 845-2612. www,berkeleyartisans.com 

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. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Robin Caton on “Developing Inner Balance” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000 . 

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.  

MONDAY, NOV. 26 

Pools for Berkeley meets to discuss the results of the visioning committee, and November 2008 ballot possibilities to improve Berkeley aquatics at 7 p.m. at City of Berkeley Corporation Yard, Public Meeting Room, 1326 Allston Way. www.poolsforberkeley.org 

“Iraq: Status Report and Options” with Stephen D. Biddle, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations at 4 p.m. in the Lipman Room, 8th flr, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-7747. 

“Rising Tides: Helping Coastal Cities Adapt to Sea Level Change” with Kristina Hill, Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, at 7 p.m. at 112 Wurster Hall, UC Campus. 642-4942.  

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  

TUESDAY, NOV. 27 

El Cerrito Democratic Club meets to discuss the endorsement of February ballot initiatives, with Abdi Soltani, Executive Director of the Campaign for College Opportunity at 7:30 p.m. at ECDCs new location, El Cerrito United Methodist Church, 6830 Stockton St., near Richmond Ave. Members of the public are welcome. 375-5647. www.ecdclub.org 

“Bicycle Touring in Italy” A slide presentation with Paul and Teri Hudson at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Lead-Safe Painting and Remodeling Class for homeowners who want to learn to detect and remedy lead hazards in the home. From 6 to 8 p.m. at Emeryville Recreation Center, 4300 San Pablo Ave, Emeryville. Free, but resgistration required. 567-8280, http://www.aclppp.org 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets to discuss computer problems and remedies at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St., near corner of Eunice. MelDancing@aol.com 

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  

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

“Accupressure for Pain” with Lawrence Schectman at noon at the Fibromyalgia Education Group, Herrick Campus, Alta Bates Medical Center, 2001 Dwight Way, followed by pot-luck. 644-3273.  

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.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. www.watersideworkshops.org 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28 

Birding with the Golden Gate Audubon Society at Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park in Oakland. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the large spherical cage near Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue. 834-1066. 

“Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power” with Mark Schapiro in conversation with Michael Pollan at 7:30 pm at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. For tickets contact 415-255-7296. ext. 253. www.globalexchange.org/events 

“Holiday Giving: Think Green, Think Fair Trade, and Don’t Get Scammed” Program and Holiday Party with the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, corner of MLK. 548-9696. 

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Colloquium with Ruth Tringham on “Multi-scalar Spatial Context of Past Social Practices” at 1 p.m. at Wurster Hall, Room 315A, UC Campus. All welcome. laep.ced.berkeley.edu/events/colloquium 

Small Business Loan Application Night with Lenders for Community Development, a not-for-profit providing loans and business consulting to low-income business owners who cannot qualify for bank loans from 5 to 7 p.m. at Beckett's Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. RSVP to 1-866-299-8173. buildcredit@L4CD.com  

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

After-School Program Homework help, drama and music for children ages 8 to 18, every Wed. from 4 to 7:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $5 per week. 845-6830. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Teen Book Club meets to discuss derivative titles at 4 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue at Ashby. 981-6121. 

War and Peace Book Group meets to discuss “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut at 7 p.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, NOV. 29 

“The Legacy of Berkeley Parks: A Century of Planning and Making” at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St.  

BASIL Seed Library Meeting Learn how to support local garden seed saving at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 658-9178. 

“Using Science and Technologies for Environmental and Health Problems in Developing Countries” with Christina Galitsky of LBNL at the Association for Women in Science meeting, 6:30 p.m. at Novartis, Room 4.104, 4560 Horton St. Suggested donation $5-$10. www.ebawis.org 

Green Collar Jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area at noon at Morgan Hall Lounge, 114 Morgan Hall, UC Campus. 642-6371. 

“Broken Promises, Broken Dreams - Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resiliance” with author Alice Rothchild at 7:30 p.m. at Kehilla Synagogue located at 1300 Grand Avenue, Piedmont.  

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

TUESDAY, NOV. 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Site Revamped” Paintings by Marty McCorkle and Rachel Dawson opens at the Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., Oakland. 444-7411.  

FILM 

“Film and Video at CCA: Relational Aesthetics” with filmmakers in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell on on Tuesdays Storytelling at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $8-$12 sliding scale. www.juiamorgan.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tri Tip Trio at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

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

Kasper/Sherman Quartet at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Brian Bromberg’s Down Right Upright All Stars at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 21 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

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

Mo’ Fone at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Mikie Lee and Amber at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Brian Bromberg’s Down Right Upright All Stars at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, NOV. 22 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Mundaze Acoustic at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

FRIDAY, NOV. 23 

THEATER 

Anteres Ensemble “Human Voice” by Jean Cocteau at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Tickets are $25. 415-531-8454. www.AntaresEnsemble.org 

Aurora Theatre Cmpany“Sex” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Dec. 9. Tickets are $28-$50. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Playhouse “Seussical, the Musical” Thurs.-Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sat. at 2 p.m., Sun. at 3 pm. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Dec. 2. Tickets are $18-$23. 665-5565. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org 

Berkeley Rep “After the Quake” at the Trust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Dec. 21. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theatre “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. at 2 p.m. at Contra Costa Civic Theatre, 951 Pomona Ave., (at Moeser), El Cerrito, through Dec. 9. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. ccct.org  

Impact Theatre “A Very Special Money & Run Winter Season Holiday Special” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through Dec. 22. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. http://impacttheatre.com 

Masquers Playhouse “Little Mary Sunshine” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., selected Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Dec. 15. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Wilde Irish Productions “The Children of Lir” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m., through Nov. 24 at Gaia Arts Center, 2116 Allston Way. Tickets are $10-$12. 841-7287. www.wildeirish.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Women’s Will “Christmas Memories” readings of Christmas Classics Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at the Pardee Home Museum, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 420-0813. www.womenswill.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Raffi Garabedian, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

David Jacobs-Strain at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Sulky Darky, Tiger Fight at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

The Steve McQuarry Group at 8 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave.  

The Revtones, 1/4 Mile Combo at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Married Couple at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

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

SATURDAY, NOV. 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Made In Equilibrium” works by Michele Elizabeth Lee, Brady Nadell and Ross Drago. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at ABCo Artspace, 3135 Oakland, Oakland. www.abcoartspace.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Women’s Will “Christmas Memories” readings of Christmas Classics at 8 p.m. at the Pardee Home Museum, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 420-0813. www.womenswill.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Dan Zanes & Friends at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $16-$26. 642-9988. www.calperfs.berkeley.edu 

Barbara Dane and Her Band at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Marimba Pacifica, Los Bros with guests at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mere Ours, Tyler Whitmore at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Gary Zellerbach with Georgianna Krieger on saxophone at 8 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave.  

Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Nathan Clevinger Group, Jon Arkin Trio at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

David Jeffrey’s Jazz Fourtet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 25 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chamber Music Sundaes featuring San Francisco Symphony musicians and friends, at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $18-$22, at the door. www.chambermusicsundaes.org 

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

David Grossman “Bach for Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Eliyahu & Qadim at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Eric & Suzy Thompson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Steve Shaffer and friends at 8 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave.  

MONDAY, NOV. 26 

FILM 

“Live at the Rainbow” Bob Marley & the Wailer’s 1977 show at 8 p.m. at Elmwood Theater, 2966, College Ave. at Ashby. Cost is $10. 433-9730. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Alix Olson and friends perform from “Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books. 559-9500. 

Judith Thurman reads from “Cleopatra’s Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Poetry Express Between the Holidays Erotic Poetry Night at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Classical at the Freight with Trio Concertino at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. 

Babshad Jazzz at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100.  

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

Louie Romero y su groupo Mazacote at 8:30 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

“Appropriate for children—enchanting for adults”: It’s rare that such a formula pans out for both parties. But Wilde Irish’s staging of The Children of Lir, going into its second and final weekend this Friday through Sunday at the Gaia Arts Center, off Shattuck on Allston, fulfills that pledge on the cover of their program, the proof being the presence of so many kids, as rapt as the adults at last Sunday’s matinee.  

The Children of Lir is an old Irish story, told by bards and shanachies, then canonized in writing when much of the rest of Europe was undergoing the Dark Ages.  

It’s one of “The Sorrows” of Irish storytelling, and as it deals with the aftermath of one people being conquered by another and the bondage through transformation of the heirs of the older folk, it’s been used as an allegory of Ireland under “the rule of the Saxon.”  

Projected at the rear of the Gaia stage and pictured on the program is the sculpture in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin of a quartet of swans in flight upwards, and four human forms emerging, as if crawling, beneath them. 

The Children of Lir has many of the fabulous, yet matter-of-fact qualities of fairytale and folk stories, those popular reactions to oligarchic myth, which preserve the story, yet often play with, even reverse mythic meaning. There’s a king deprived of what he believes is his rightful ascendancy over his peers and his children, whose birth by a bride offered in atonement assuages him, and the transformation of the four children into swans by a jealous step- 

mother. 

The swans, who sing and cry out “in better Irish” than the folk who adore them, are condemned to their shape for 900 years, equal to the length of English rule of Ireland. They stick together, for “to lose each other is worse than losing human shape,” and are rescued by an Irish saint in this Christianized version (old Celtic tales were preserved in manuscript by monasteries)—but the old people and places and ways are gone with passing time. 

Wilde Irish stages the tale a little like a mummer’s play, with Ian Boyle, Siobhan Doherty, Amanda Prendergast, Martin Waldron and Ken Slattery in costume, facing the audience, and alternately telling the story and speaking in character.  

There’s music and song by the performers, and stepdancing at the climax, all beautifully integrated. Breda Courtney, a founder of Wilde Irish, has adapted the old narrative, shoehorning in a little of the story of St. Patrick and his use of the shamrock to explain the Trinity, in away that strikes a bargain between archaic and modern, old and young.  

It’s crystal clear, as was the original, in text and delivery, each player bringing a different mood to it, all blending together.  

A version of the tale may be found in a Dover reprint—and online—from Joseph Jacobs’ More Celtic Fairytales. Lir corresponds to the Welsh Llyr, seagod and unisputed king, whose children are heroes of The Mabinogion. Shakespeare’s tragic King Lear is thought by some to be a namesake of Lir/Llyr. 

There’s a convivial, holiday tone to the piece, which runs just an hour, perfect for the end of autumn and start of winter. Wilde Irish’s own holiday show, A Joycean Christmas, premieres Dec. 15 at Gaia Arts, which the company refers to as their new home. There’ll be more of Myths and Sagas, too, they promise—maybe “Deirdre of the Sorrows” or “Sweeney Astray”?  

In any case, it’s good to have this Berkeley institution in residence once more. 

Box 

The solo show has become a staple of the theater scene, overlapping into film and TV, ever since Emlyn Williams, Hal Holbrook, James Whitmore and Julie Harris took the stage in the ’50s and ‘60s to play Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Will Rogers (et al!) and Emily Dickinson.  

But these pioneering shows, of character actors impersonating historical figures soliloquizing before or speaking to an audience, have an even more theatrical predecessor—Jean Cocteau’s The Human Voice (1930), revived by Antares Ensemble this weekend at the Berkeley City Club, in which an unnamed woman talks to her lover on the phone, maybe for the last time, in a sometimes playful, sometimes desperate game to keep that voice (unheard by the audience) on the line, her hopes and illusions alive. 

According to Angelique Devoine, Antares’ Parisienne dramaturge for this production, Cocteau wrote The Human Voice for his close friend, the great chanteuse Edith Piaf, whom Devoine knew. Piaf, alas, never played the role, but over the decades since it premiered at the Comedie Francaise, it’s been done by Ingrid Bergman (both on film and record), Simone Signoret, Anna Magnani, Carmen Mora and Liv Ullmann.  

Cocteau’s play also has the distinction of inspiring composer Francis Poulenc’s last opera. 

It’s an emotional tour-de-force, but also a carefully and cleverly crafted piece of theatrical art, not a banal slice of life with a technological prop or a one-woman soap opera. As she waits for the call, speaks with charm, ingratiatingly or with anguish to her unseen, unheard lover, the audience can see the expression on her face contradict her voice, catch the funny and touching mannerisms that can’t be broken down into electric impulses and sent over the wire. 

Antares, a Berkeley-based company, has introduced a new wrinkle with the performance of Shruti Tewari as the forlorn woman on the phone. Best known in the South Bay, where she notably appeared in TheatreWorks’ Baby Taj, Tewari was in Golden Thread’s Island of Animals in Fremont last year. She has also performed classical dance here and in her native India. Tewari’s performance in The Human Voice—as seen at a house performance last year—goes beyond both ethnic typecasting and “non-traditional casting” in her creation, under the direction of Antares’ founder Anne Novak, by adding to the cosmopolitan character of the woman, stylizing mannerisms from Tewari’s own background, even adding some endearments in Urdu. 

Novak, who studied theater at the Cours Florent in Paris, and Tewari were both enthusiastic about the fusion of a French play performed by an Indian-American actress; their enthusiasm spills over into the many details, the emotional color and the unexpected humor of Cocteau’s little masterpiece. Tewari splendidly alternates and blends melancholy and playfulness, bringing out the theatricality of life itself, as the woman effectively stages her own tragedy with her hopes and fears, sometimes reminiscent of the piquant tone, the charm—the delicious agony of the ghazal, love song of Moghul India, still enormously popular today. 

The show runs for five performances, Friday through Sunday, as a benefit for the American Concert Association Scholar-ship Fund. It’s the perfect chamber play for the theater salon in the venerable, Julia Morgan-designed City Club. Tewari’s character could easily have lived in such a mansion—or, rare bird that she is, sung in such a gilded cage, over the instrument of the technological age which first transmitted the private conversations of the home over distances and into public space.  

Jean Cocteau, collaborator and friend to Picasso and Stravinsky, to Massine and CoCo Chanel, is probably best known in America for his film of Beauty and the Beast. In his greatest film, Orpheus, Cocteau’s conceit had the inspiration for surreal poetry come over a car radio in the voice of a dead young poet. He called his sped-up adaptation of Antigone “an aerial photograph of the Parthenon.” With The Human Voice, written originally for the star of the gramophone, the conceit is the reverse: the secrets of the heart spilling out in what at first seems just banal chatter, overhearing one side of a phone call. 

My previous column about the birds Joseph Grinnell observed on the UC Berkeley campus drew a response from Allison Shultz, a recent graduate who is now the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology’s Centennial Coordinator (more about that below.) Shultz said that for her senior thesis, she replicated surveys done on campus by Margaret Wythe between 1913 and 1927, and by Charles Sibley and Thomas Rodgers in 1938-39. Her results reveal significant changes among those data points. “I saw that the number of species didn’t change much over the years—it actually went up a little—but the community composition changed,” she explains. 

Who were these people? Margaret Wythe was co-author, with Grinnell, of the 1927 Directory to the Bird-Life of the San Francisco Bay Region. She started working for Grinnell at the MVZ in 1912, earning 35 cents an hour. After receiving her Master’s degree, she was promoted to Assistant Curator of Birds in 1925. Wythe was on the Museum’s staff at least into the 1940s, when she prepared the distribution maps for The Distribution of the Birds of California by Grinnell and Alden Miller.  

Charles Sibley came to Berkeley as an undergraduate in 1937, spent part of his World War II service collecting birds in the Solomon Islands, and returned to UC for his PhD under Miller in 1948. He taught here for a couple of decades before moving to Yale. Sibley, a controversial figure who died in 1998, was on the cutting edge of biochemical studies of the evolutionary relationships of birds. He was the one who determined that New World vultures were actually storks of a sort, and that mynahs and mockingbirds were next of kin. Charles Sibley was not related to field guide author/artist David Sibley. 

Thomas L. Rodgers, another of Alden Miller’s students, seems to have been more of a lizard man, although he was the lead author of the article he and Sibley published in the Condor. 

As to methods, Wythe kept meticulous notes on the birds she observed for 14 years, using a workman’s time book. “It looks like an Excel spreadsheet,” says Allison Shultz. Sibley and Rodgers monitored birds for a shorter period, and apparently in a more limited area. Their surveys were bounded by Oxford on the west, Hearst on the north, the Campanile on the east, and Allston on the south. They made morning, noon, and evening walks through that area, recording all bird encounters. 

Shultz says she tried to mimic what Sibley and Rodgers had done, but using point counts instead of line transects. She also examined old photographs to document changes in landscaping on the campus, and mapped the location of buildings in 1939 versus 2006. Her study ran from October through March, so she may have missed some migrants and summer visitors the earlier study recorded. 

Between Wythe’s counts and the Sibley-Rodgers survey, the wrentit—a chaparral-haunting bird, more often heard calling than seen—disappeared from the UC campus. Other species, like the American kestrel, declined. But overall species composition was relatively stable. 

From 1939 to 2006, though, there were dramatic changes. New species appeared: Cooper’s hawk, red-shouldered hawk, mourning dove, white-throated swift, Nuttall’s woodpecker, American crow, common raven, chestnut-backed chickadee. These are not all necessarily nesting records, although Shultz suspects the swifts are nesting on some of campus buildings, maybe the Campanile.  

And there were losses. Sibley and Rodgers saw California quail on almost half their survey days. That species is completely gone now. So are the American kestrel and American pipit. Shultz also reports the disappearance of the spotted towhee, but my friend John Sutake, a keen observer, recalls seeing them recently when he was UC’s lead groundskeeper; maybe they were missed in the resurvey. 

It’s interesting that Shultz found no exotic house sparrows, Eurasian starlings, or rock pigeons in her survey area. “The Cooper’s hawks might keep the pigeons down,” she speculates. 

She also had only a few sightings of white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows, both common winter birds elsewhere in Berkeley. 

The gains and losses reflect an altered habitat. “A lot of open area and scrubby places had been removed,” Shultz says. “The Botanical Garden was where Memorial Glade is now until 1924, and some plants were left there until 1960.” Bushes and scrubby areas were removed in the ‘70s and ‘80s for safety reasons. There are also more, and larger, buildings now. 

Shultz describes plans for further surveys. In connection with the Museum’s centennial, the Grinnell Project is revisiting Joseph Grinnell’s study transects all over the state. Transects through Lassen Volcanic and Yosemite National Parks have been completed, and show significant patterns of range shifts by small mammals in response to climate change.  

If funding is available, the Project will be extended to parts of the Bay Area. “We’ll find qualified observers, have them follow a standard protocol, and enter their observations in an online database,” Shultz explains. Sounds like a great opportunity to get out there with your binoculars and do some Citizen Science. Watch this space for more information. 

TUESDAY, NOV. 20 

“Darwin’s Nightmare” A film on the food supply and the global commodities trade at 6:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, at Arch. www.agrariana.org/film-series 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

Middle School Book Group at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 4th floor, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6223. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

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.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 21 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

After-School Program Homework help, drama and music for children ages 8 to 18, every Wed. from 4 to 7:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $5 per week. 845-6830. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, NOV. 22 

Food Not Bombs Thanksgiving Feast Pot-luck at 6 p.m. at Ashkenaz. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Thanksgiving Vegan Potluck Sponsored by the East Bay Vegans from 2 to 5 p.m. in North Berkeley. RSVP to 213-3250. Howarddy2@att.net  

FRIDAY, NOV. 23 

Golden Gate Audobon Society Walk along the Berkeley Waterfront Meet at noon behind Seabreeze Market at the corner of University Ave. and frontage Rd. Heavy rain cancels. 845-5908. 

“Speaking Truth in the Teeth of Power” with Ward Churchill at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674A 23rd St., between MLK and San Pablo, Oakland. Suggested donation $5. 208-1700. www.akpress.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. 

SATURDAY, NOV. 24 

The Icarus Project Five Year Anniversary Party Community potluck and story-sharing at 6 p.m. at AK Press 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. 

13th Annual Womyn of Color Arts and Crafts Fair featuring artists and craftswomen selling their original, handcrafted works, including paintings, clay sculptures, textiles, jewelry, wearable art, and more Sat. and Sun. from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios Sat and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Dec. 16. 845-2612. www.berkeleyartisans.com 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, NOV. 25 

Solo Sierrans Sunset Walk at the Martinez Regional Shoreline Meet at 3:30 p.m. at the old Amtrak Station near railroad crossing, off Ferry for a leisurely stroll along scenic shoreline and marina, with an optional stop later for dinner. For info call 925-458-0860. 

Berkeley Artisans Open Studios from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Dec. 16. 845-2612.  

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. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Robin Caton on “Developing Inner Balance” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000 . 

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.  

MONDAY, NOV. 26 

“Iraq: Status Report and Options” with Stephen D. Biddle, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations at 4 p.m. in the Lipman Room, 8th flr, Barrows Hall, UC Campus. 642-7747. 

Pools for Berkeley meets to discuss the results of the visioning committee, and November 2008 ballot possibilities to improve Berkeley aquatics at 7 p.m. at City of Berkeley Corporation Yard, Public Meeting Room, 1326 Allston Way. www.poolsforberkeley.org 

“Rising Tides: Helping Coastal Cities Adapt to Sea Level Change” with Kristina Hill, Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture at the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, at 7 p.m. at 112 Wurster Hall, UC Campus. 642-4942.  

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