Posted Thurs., April 24—The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone the public hearing on the Berkeley city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance—which promises greater access to local government—to October and granted the citizens’ group working on an alternate draft a 90-day extension to complete their work. 

The citizens’ group had requested a postponement of the public hearing at the council’s agenda committee meeting last week, but the committee refused the request at the time. However, the full council this week agreed to a motion by councilmember Laurie Capitelli to grant the postponement. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, Bates said he felt the need to clarify his position on the ordinance drafting process. 

Community members and some council members had complained the city was rushing to establish an ordinance because it was campaign season, and the mayor wanted to list the sunshine ordinance under his accomplishments. 

“The issue of a sunshine ordinance has been in front of the City Council since 2001, since before I was even in office,” Bates said. “There are some accusations that I asked the public to form a committee to draft a sunshine ordinance and that now I am preventing them from completing their work.” 

The city has been working on a sunshine ordinance since 2001, when at the request of Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the City Council asked the city manager’s office to look into improving the city’s sunshine policies, including the adoption of an ordinance.  

A review of council’s March 20 work session records, Bates said, confirmed that council had discussed various options to address legitimate concerns and differences of opinion raised by the four workshop panelists—Californians Aware General Counsel Terry Francke, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville League of Women Voters President Jinky Gardner, American Civil Liberties Union Police Practices Policy Director Mark Schlosberg and Northern California Society of Professional Journalists member and Planet staff reporter Judith Scherr. 

According to Bates, the ideas included asking Francke and Schlosberg to work with the city attorney to develop a list of policy issues and options for council consideration, forming a citizen subcommittee to help them, and asking the League to sponsor a committee forum on a Saturday or Sunday. 

“None of these suggestions were moved or passed,” Bates said. “The final approved motion was to table the sunshine ordinance for action and have the city manager and mayor return with a process for moving forward.” 

A review of the March 20 workshop recording by the Planet revealed that Scherr had stressed the importance of having an expert such as Francke involved in drafting an ordinance—something the mayor had agreed with—but did not formally make a motion on at the end of the work session. 

The city manager returned to council on May 8, Bates said, with the recommendation to develop a matrix of policy issues and recommendations and to post it online for public comment. 

A matrix identifying issues raised by Francke, Schlosberg, Scherr, SuperBOLD and councilmember Kriss Worthington had been posted online by the city attorney in October 2007, he said. The matrix can be viewed on the city’s website. 

“The city attorney provided this document to the above-mentioned people and received no comment from them,” Bates said. “The document remained open for public comment on the city's website through March 2008.” 

Bates said the city attorney’s office contacted Francke in late March to inform him that the sunshine ordinance had been posted online for the last six months and that comments on it would be presented to Council on April 22. 

“In that call—made in March of this year—the assistant city attorney [Sarah Reynoso] learned from Mr. Francke that there was a group of people working on an alternative ordinance and that he was not at liberty to tell her who they were,” he said. “Mr. Franck told her that he did not represent the group and therefore could not give her comments on what was posted on the web. This group is self-appointed since neither I nor the council ever decided to set up a citizen group to write an alternative ordinance without the involvement our city staff.” 

Bates said that on April 2, the group sent him and the council a letter asking for a delay so they could complete their more extensive sunshine ordinance proposal.  

“Instead of this group providing comments and talking with staff to work out the issues, they printed their issues in the local paper today,” Bates said, referring to the April 22 publication of a commentary article the citizens’ group sent the Daily Planet. “Not much advance notice for any of us.” 

In the commentary, the citizens’ group stated that “sunshine-obstructionists, led by Mayor Bates,” were promoting “a weak, so called sunshine ordinance in an effort to preempt” the group’s proposal. “In reality, their bill is more of a sunset ordinance—an ineffective proposal with no enforcement provisions, only masquerading as sunshine,” the commentary said. 

Bates said at the meeting that he wanted to see a list of the disputed policy issues and options the council could consider. 

“I appreciate the commitment and the time this group has devoted to this issue over the years,” he said. 

Dean Metzger, who spoke on behalf of the citizens’ group, said he had been under the impression that the mayor had asked the League of Women Voters to form a group. 

“We met because the League sent out an e-mail,” he said. “We didn’t do anything in secret. We thought you had asked to form a group.” 

Capitelli’s motion—which was unanimously approved by council—asked the citizens’ group to get its final draft together by the end of July, before council breaks for summer. 

“I am going to call it the Ad Hoc Sunshine Committee, since their members are probably secret,” he said, at which around 10 members from the citizens’ group promptly stood up to prove him wrong. 

The six week summer recess, Capitelli said, would provide council adequate time to review the document. He added that alternate perspectives from the citizens’ group and city staff on the draft ordinance should be presented. 

Posted Tue., April 22—Oakland Police are investigating a Tuesday morning shooting in which neighbors say a North Oakland man shot an intruder breaking into his 59th Street home. 

The injured man, who had staggered up to Shattuck Avenue and collapsed near Dorsey’s Locker, a tavern at 5817 Shattuck Ave., was rushed to the Highland Hospital for treatment of a serious gunshot wound, police said. 

The man who fired the shot, a resident of a home in the 600 block of 59th Street, was being questioned by police investigators by late morning. 

“Right now, we’re just trying to determine whether the shooting was justified or not justified,” said Officer John Koster as he stood next to the police tape, which had sealed off the block of 59th between Shattuck Avenue and Whitney Street. 

Bob Brokl, a neighbor, said the intruder “was shot at the door as he was breaking into the house.” 

Ron Butier, who owns the house, said he was at work at the time of the shooting and declined to discuss the specifics of the shooting, which was done by his housemate. 

“There have been a lot of crimes in this neighborhood and people are feeling on their own, and they’ve been talking about taking matters into their own hands,” he said. 

Annie, a neighbor who lives a block south on 58th Street, said there was a fatal shooting on her block only three months ago. 

“He got shot in the middle of the block and staggered up to Shattuck before he collapsed and died,” she said. 

Annie said she knew the neighbor who had shot the intruder. “He’s a real nice guy. He has some nice things, and this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to break into his house. There are lots of break-ins in the neighborhood, and all the neighbors are trying to help. We’re all single people in studio apartments,” she said. 

“There are shootings all the time,” Butier said. “We hear gunshots all the time.” 

The scene of Tuesday morning’s shooting was just four doors down the street from the home of another North Oakland resident who figured in the shooting of a suspected criminal in 2005. 

Patrick McCullough shot a 15-year-old in the arm in the neighborhood where McCullough had been waging a campaign against drug dealers who neighbors said had been plaguing the neighborhood. 

McCullough, who is now running for the North Oakland City Council seat against three-term incumbent Jane Brunner, had told officers he had been surrounded by 15 young men in his front yard, who had yelled “Kill the snitch.” 

McCullough told police he shot the youth after another young man had told his companion, “Give me the pistol.” 

The Alameda County District Attorney’s office decline to prosecute McCullough at the urging of police. No charges were filed in that incident. 

Dona Spring dreams of visiting Point Reyes, something the 55-year-old Berkeley councilmember has never done before. After rheumatoid arthritis left Spring wheelchair bound in 1972, weekend getaways have been few and far between. 

That could change with today’s (Tuesday) launch of AccessMobile—the nation’s first wheelchair-accessible car share van—by Bay Area-based non-profit City CarShare at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center. 

The new van will be shared by city employees and disabled City CarShare members Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and available to all City CarShare members on evenings and weekends. 

The specially designed fuel-efficient AccessMobile Dodge Grand Caravan—which can carry six seated passengers and one wheelchair comes with a $50,000 price tag. 

Berkeley used $25,000 in award money from winning the 2007 National Organization on Disability’s Accessible American contest to split the cost with City CarShare, which matched the amount. 

“It just made sense,” City CarShare CEO Rick Hutchinson said. “We were looking at how to expand our services to senior centers, low-income and moderate income families, and this seemed like a great first step. But we don’t want to compete with public transportation. Before people jump into any of our cars, we make sure they have explored other alternatives, such as biking, walking or the bus.” 

Disabled residents who don’t have a driver’s license will also be able to register as members, as long as they have a family member or an attendant to drive them around, Hutchinson said. 

City CarShare spokesperson Anita Daley said that disabled members of the community would not be subject to a screening process or required to have any prerequisites. 

A disabled City CarShare member will have to pay $6.50 per hour to use the AccessMobile—which includes gas, insurance and maintenance, Hutchinson said. 

“Anything that includes the disabled is good but this just seems a bit elitist,” said Dan McMullan of Disabled People Outside, who gets around Berkeley on a wheelchair. “I would like to see the city use the money to reign in on the services they already have, such as the Taxi Scrip and discount fares for BART and buses.” 

The city’s Paratransit Services manager Angellique DeCoud said she revised the Taxi Scrip program in 2005 to make it more available to disabled residents. 

DeCoud sends out $120-vouchers every four months to seniors and wheel chair-bound people, which they can use to pay for taxi rides. 

“Some people take rides which cost $5 and others travel further, which costs more money,” she said. “Once the amount on your free voucher is up, you have to pay out of your own pocket.” 

When no City CarShare spots are available behind the Civic Center at 2180 Milvia St. to park the van, Spring has given permission for the van to use her personal parking spot. 

Spring also worked on the design, making sure the rear of the van could be accessed by wheelchairs.  

“I am so excited about the possibility of a day trip to Point Reyes,” she said smiling. “Oh, to just be able to go down by the beach.” 

Spring uses access-friendly taxi cabs, which she said were efficient but expensive. 

“It costs $15 to just go to the doctor, and nearly $100 to go to Fort Mason in San Francisco,” she said. “I can’t use Para Transit, it just involves too much driving around and waiting. This van will be more accessible for 85 percent of Berkeley’s disabled population, who need their own van only 85 percent of the time. It’s very liberating.” 

CarShare for Berkeley 

The city got rid of its fleet of 10 cars in 2004 and replaced it with hybrid City CarShare vehicles. The cars are used by councilmembers, the city’s Public Health nurses, traffic engineers and Environmental Health and Housing staff. 

More than 180 City of Berkeley employees are enrolled in the city’s CarShare program, said the city’s transportation planner Matthew Nichols. 

The city, which pays the standard CarShare rate of $5 per hour and 40 cents per mile for the service, has saved a significant amount of money from the program, about $50,000 per year, he said. 

“Not only does the program reduce fleet costs, but it also saves in personal mileage reimbursement costs, and it frees up public parking in the downtown, which supports economic vitality for our merchants,” he said. “The city doesn’t have to pay for gas, insurance, cleaning or maintenance, so we haven’t had to pay for the recent rise in gas prices. Of course, the program also reduces air pollution and Berkeley’s ‘population explosion’ of car ownership.” 

To attend the launch, show up at the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center, 2180 Milvia St., in the back parking lot today (Tuesday) at 1 p.m. 

For more information on the Taxi Scrip program visit: 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=3992 or call 981-7269. 

To become a member of City Carshare visit: www.citycarshare.org or call 352-0323. 

In a crowded field in which candidates are trying to distinguish themselves from one other—such as in the current four member June 3 Democratic primary to succeed Loni Hancock as California Assemblymember from the 14th Assembly District—individual and group endorsements can be a key factor in victory or defeat. 

If the backing of the local assemblymembers is one of the most important of those endorsements, East Bay Regional Park District Director and former Berkeley City Councilmember Nancy Skinner and Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond have hit the biggest prize. 

Skinner has won the trifecta, with endorsements from Hancock herself as well as the past two 14th District assemblymembers whom Hancock succeeded in office: Hancock’s husband, current Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, and Dion Aroner, who ran Bates’ Sacramento office for many years before term limits required him to step down. 

But Thurmond has won the endorsement of first-termer Sandré Swanson from the adjoining 16th Assembly District. 

Meanwhile, in a district that favors environmental issues, Skinner and Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington are splitting the important environmental organization endorsements. Skinner, Thurmond, and Worthington are splitting the labor organization endorsements. Thurmond is running away with the public safety employee organization endorsements, while Berkeley physician Phil Polakoff has gotten the individual endorsements of the two local county sheriffs.  

With announcement of the Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democratic Club still pending, and the El Cerrito and Wellstone Democratic clubs unable to decide on an endorsement, Worthington has swept the three local Democratic clubs that have decided on a nominee to back. 

Meanwhile Polakoff, the only non-elected official in the Democratic primary race, trails his three opponents in endorsements by elected officials, and lists only two organizational endorsements. 

Below are key individual endorsements either from inside District 14 itself or important statewide organizations, based on the four candidates’ campaign websites.  

ORGANIZATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS 

Business 

Thurmond and Worthington have split the two business-oriented endorsements, with Skinner getting the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and Worthington getting the East Bay Small Business Council PAC. 

Environmental 

Skinner and Worthington have split the environmental organization endorsements, Skinner getting the California League of Conservation Voters and the two candidates sharing the Sierra Club endorsement (the Sierra Club endorsement comes under the one heading of the organization, but is made up of the votes of several Sierra Club groups). 

Labor 

Endorsements by various labor organizations are spread out among all the candidates, the most diverse of all the endorsement categories. Skinner and Thurmond both list six labor endorsements, Worthington lists four, and Polakoff one.  

Skinner: SEIU State Council (dual-endorsed with Worthington), California Federation of Teachers, California Nurses Association, Contra Costa County Labor Council (dual-endorsed with Thurmond), AFSCME Local 2428, Teamsters Local 7;  

Thurmond: AFSCME AFL-CIO California, Contra Costa County Labor Council (dual-endorsed with Skinner), AFSCME Local 3299, Alameda County Laborers Local 304, Operating Engineers Local 3, Teamsters Local 70);  

Worthington: SEIU State Council (dual-endorsed with Skinner), AFSCME Local 3299 (dual-endorsed with Thurmond), International Association of Machinists Local 1546, Teamsters Joint Council 7 (dual-endorsed with Polakoff);  

Polakoff: Teamsters Joint Council 7 (dual-endorsed with Worthington). 

Political 

Worthington lists three political organizations among his endorsements (Cal Berkeley Democrats, East Bay LGBT Democratic Club, and Progressive Democrats of the East Bay), while Thurmond lists one (Black American Political Action Committee). 

Professional 

Worthington and Thurmond split the only two professional organization endorsements. 

Worthington: Engineers and Scientists of California Local 20;  

Thurmond: Contractors Alliance of Richmond 

Public Safety 

With five endorsements from public safety employee organizations, Thurmond has by far the largest number of endorsements in this category. The three other candidates have one public safety employee organization endorsement apiece.  

Thurmond: Berkeley Police Association, Contra Costa Deputy Sheriffs Association, Peace Officers Research Association of California, Richmond Firefighters Local 188, Richmond Police Officers Association;  

Polakoff: IAFF Local 55, Oakland Firefighters;  

Skinner: United Professional Firefighters of Contra Costa County IAFF Local 1230; 

Worthington: Berkeley Firefighters Association Local 1227. 

Miscellaneous Organizations 

Thurmond: Black American Political Action Committee; 

Worthington: Equality California, PAC devoted to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens. 

Newspapers 

Worthington: Berkeley Daily Planet. 

INDIVIDUAL ENDORSEMENTS 

AC Transit Board 

Skinner three endorsements (Board President Chris Peeples, Rocky Fernandez, Greg Harper), Thurmond one endorsement (Joe Wallace), Worthington one endorsement (Elsa Ortiz). 

Albany City Council 

Skinner four endorsements (Mayor Bob Lieber [dual with Worthington], Marge Atkinson [dual with Worthington], Jewel Okawachi, Joanne Wile). Worthington three endorsements (Bob Lieber [dual with Skinner], Marge Atkinson [dual with Skinner], Farid Javandel). 

BART Board of Directors 

Skinner one (Gail Murray). Thurmond one (Lynette Sweet). 

Berkeley City Council 

Skinner four (Mayor Tom Bates, Laurie Capitelli, Linda Maio, Max Anderson [dual with Worthington], Darryl Moore [dual with Worthington]). Worthington three (Dona Spring, Max Anderson [dual with Skinner], Darryl Moore [dual with Worthington]). 

Berkeley School Board 

Worthington two (John Selawsky, Rio Bauce). Skinner two (Karen Hemphill, Nancy Riddle). 

California State Assemblymembers 

Thurmond six (Amina Wilmer Carter, Mark DeSaulnier [dual with Skinner], Mervyn Dymally, Fiona Ma, Sandré Swanson, Alberto Torrico). Skinner four (Speaker Pro Tempore Sally Lieber, Mark DeSaulnier [dual with Thurmond], Lonnie Hancock, Mary Hyashi [dual with Worthington]. Worthington two (Mary Hyashi [dual with Skinner], Mark Leno). 

California State Senate 

Skinner two (Sheila Kuehl, Tom Torlakson). Thurmond one (Mark Ridley-Thomas). 

East Bay Regional Park Board 

Skinner five (Beverly Lane, Ted Radke, Doug Siden, John Sutter, Ayn Wieskamp). 

EBMUD Board of Directors 

Skinner two (Katy Foulkes, Andy Katz [dual with Worthington]). Worthington two (Doug Linney, Andy Katz [dual with Skinner]). 

El Cerrito City Council 

Skinner four (Mayor Bill Jones, Janet Abelson, Jan Bridges, Sandi Potter). Worthington one (Ruth Skinner). 

Emeryville School Board 

Skinner two (Joshua Simon, Cheryl Webb). Thurmond one (Miguel Dwin). 

Emeryville City Council 

Skinner three (Vice Mayor Ruth Atkin [dual with Worthington], Nora Davis, John Fricke). Worthington two (Mayor Ken Bukowski, Vice Mayor Ruth Atkin [dual with Skinner]). 

Oakland City Council 

Worthington two [President Ignacio De La Fuente, Larry Reid [dual with Thurmond]). Skinner one (Pat Kernighan). Thurmond one (Larry Reid [dual with Worthington]). 

Oakland School Board 

Skinner two (President David Kakishiba, Kerry Hamill). Thurmond one (Greg Hodge). 

Peralta Community College District Board 

Skinner two (Board President Cy Gulassa, Nicky Gonzalez Yuen). Thurmond one (Abel Guillen). 

Richmond City Council 

Thurmond six (Nat Bates, Tom Butt, Ludmyma Lopez, John Marquez, Harpreet Sanhu, Maria Viramontes). 

San Pablo City Council 

Thurmond one (Genoveva Garcia-Calloway). 

County Sheriffs 

Polakoff two (Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern, Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren Rupf). 

West Contra Costa School Board 

Thurmond two (Dave Brown, Audrey Miles). Skinner one (Madeline Kronenberg). 

Individual endorsements in the AD14 campaign can be found on the candidates’ website endorsement pages: 

Polakoff  

Thurmond  

Skinner  

Worthington

The Berkeley City Council will meet today (Tuesday) with a busy agenda, including putting tax measures on the ballot, the city’s proposed sunshine ordinance, competing density bonus provisions, its position on spraying to thwart the Light Brown Apple Moth and a proposal to charge for evening street parking downtown. 

Special meeting on tax measures 

The council is scheduled to hold a special meeting to discuss the Ballot Measure Voter Survey Results at 5 p.m. at Council Chambers at Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

The city manager’s office hired San Francisco-based David Binder Research a couple of weeks ago to conduct a 15-minute telephone survey of 600 Berkeley voters about potential ballot measures for the November elections. 

City Manager Phil Kamlarz told the Planet Monday that the results showed voters did not want large dollar amounts on bond or tax measures. 

“It clearly shows that the lower the dollar threshold is, the better chance the bond or tax measure has of passing,” he said. “The appetite for new taxes is not great. People are more in favor of taxes in the $50 to $75 range.” 

Kamlarz said the council would decide on what ballot measures to put on the ballot at the May 6 council meeting.  

Deputy City Manager Lisa Caronna told the Planet the results would help council decide what issues took precedence for the ballot. 

“It’s a preliminary survey about the ideas council has expressed,” Caronna said. “The city would like to get the perspective of the citizenry on what issues they might value.” 

The majority of the issues surveyed—including library and recreational improvements, the construction of a warm water pool and storm water upgrades—failed to receive a 66 percent voter approval rate, the amount required for a bond to pass on the ballot. 

“It doesn’t look good for taxes at all from the results,” said Councilmember Dona Spring. 

The split survey used cross tabulation techniques, at times asking two different sets of questions to groups of voters. 

“This was done to get a sense of what voters’ response would be to stand-alone measures, such as the warm water pool, as opposed to a bigger bond on recreation, which includes the warm water pool and other public pool improvements,” Caronna said. 

For instance, voters were split at 41 percent on a $47 million library and recreation seismic facilities omnibus bond measure that would cost $70 per year for an average homeowner for seismic safety and improved access for the disabled at Berkeley libraries, as well as increased recreational opportunities such as rehabilitation of three swimming pools, recreation centers and the skate park, including the construction of a new warm water pool. 

“That’s probably dead already,” Spring said. “The library didn’t like it. It didn’t want to be tied to the pools.” 

Further down the list, a $26 million stand-alone bond measure that would improve Berkeley’s public libraries by improving seismic safety and disabled access received a 58 percent voter approval, with 35 percent opposing it. 

A $23 million stand-alone bond measure to build a warm water pool, which would cost $30 annually for an average homeowner, received a 43 percent approval, with 41 percent saying no to new taxes. 

Sunshine Ordinance 

The council is also scheduled to hold a public hearing on the Berkeley city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance—designed to provide citizens with greater access to local government—at its regular session. 

A group of citizens who have been working on an alternative draft ordinance requested the City Council Agenda Committee last week to postpone the public hearing and provide them with a 90-day extension to finish the draft. 

Julie Sinai, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates, told the Planet Wednesday that although the mayor had not supported the postponement of the public hearing, he had agreed to hold off the first reading of an ordinance until June 10.  

Sinai said that Bates had refused to delay the public hearing since the council had been discussing the ordinance for a number of years.  

The city has been working on a sunshine ordinance since 2001, when at the request of Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the City Council asked Kamlarz and then-City Clerk Sherry Kelly to look into improving the city’s sunshine policies, including the adoption of an ordinance.  

Density bonus 

Two different versions of a proposed municipal density bonus are on the council’s agenda, one recommended by the Planning Commission and the other by the city planning staff. 

The regulations would govern the size and shape of multi-story mixed-use housing projects of the sort now being built along the city’s major traffic arteries. 

The commission is urging the city to pass an ordinance that will take effect before the June 3 general election to offset the possible impacts of Proposition 98. 

That measure, billed as an initiative to bar the use of eminent domain for the benefit of private developers, could—critics contend—seriously limit the ability of state and local governments to control development. 

The measure would also phase out the last vestiges of rent control in the state, generating large contributions from landlords. 

The Planning Commission said their version—based on nearly two years’ work by a panel drawn from three city commissions—would give the city more options than the staff proposal. 

Mayor Tom Bates had successfully urged the agenda committee to keep both proposals off the agenda, but he retracted his position at the urging of Councilmember Linda Maio. Bates now appears as a sponsor, along with Maio and Darryl Moore. 

Whichever—if either—measure is adopted, the ordinance would be automatically repealed should Proposition 98 fail at the ballot box. 

The proposed ordinance originated with concerns from members of the Zoning Adjustments Board, which felt that current city policies allowed them too little control over projects that could have major impacts on adjacent residential neighborhoods. 

The council adopted the staff version once before, when Proposition 90, another eminent domain measure, appeared on the November 2006 ballot. The law died when the proposition was rejected by California voters. 

Another measure now working its way through the state legislature could also render the need for a density bonus ordinance moot. 

Assembly Bill 2280, backed by Berkeley Assemblymember Loni Hancock and the League of California Cities, would exempt cities which already have inclusionary ordinances from the state density bonus law. 

Berkeley has an inclusionary ordinance, which requires developers of buildings with five or more living units to set aside 20 percent of the total for rent or sale to those otherwise unable to afford them—or to pay an “in lieu” fee to the city to fund affordable housing projects. 

Livable Berkeley chair Erin Rhoades has called on members to oppose the Planning Commission version, while other activists, including Merrilee Mitchell, are calling for support. 

Light Brown Apple Moth Resolution 

The council will also vote on whether to pass a resolution to oppose the aerial spraying of the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) on the grounds that exposure to the chemicals sprayed is detrimental to health. 

The council will vote on whether to accept wording changes introduced by Councilmember Gordon Wozniak. 

Councilmember Spring told the Planet that she would introduce a separate motion to ask the City of Berkeley to step up its legal strategy to stop the spraying before August. 

“We should follow Santa Cruz and take this to court,” she said. “We need to be aggressive about it. This will damage the tourist industry in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. I know I wouldn’t want to be in an area which is sprayed by these chemicals. We can’t afford to have people boycott the Bay Area ... A large part of our revenue comes from tourism.” 

Parking meter extensions 

The council will vote on whether to approve a proposal by Mayor Tom Bates and councilmembers Spring and Laurie Capitelli to offer extended parking times from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. and multiple hours of parking at night to drivers who park at Berkeley’s pay-and-display parking meters. 

The proposal aims to help the city meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 80 percent over the next 42 years. 

The plan would also help to develop the city’s arts scene and launch alternate forms of transportation, city officials said. 

The city’s current parking meters—which accept cash or credit cards—charge drivers from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.  

To view the Ballot Measure Voter Survey Results, see www.ci.berkeley. 

ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=18772. 

Planet staff writer Richard Brenneman contributed to this report. 

Foreclosures nationwide soared 57 percent in March, and rates may be running even higher in Oakland as East Bay cities are caught in the turmoil of the subprime mortgage disaster. 

Figures for Berkeley are harder to come by, although Realtytrac.com, a site cited as accurate by a well-placed industry official, reports that 88 Berkeley homes have been repossessed by banks, another 31 are slated for public auction and 103 are in the process of foreclosure—though owners could still pay off arrears and retain title. 

Other sites, considered less authoritative, list different numbers. Patrick.net, a site that tracks the housing bubble, cites a report that 61 percent of Berkeley homes for sale—156 out of 255—are foreclosures, with the comparable figures for Oakland as high as 73 percent, compared to 59 percent in Los Angeles, and 57 percent in San Diego and 30 percent in San Francisco. Bargain.com claims 91 homes are in pre-foreclosure status, with 44 in foreclosure, while AOL’s real estate pages cite 131 foreclosures. 

The numbers came as a surprise to two local real estate brokers, City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli of Red Oak and Gloria Polanski of Marvin Gardens. 

“I’ve only heard of a handful, and most of those are in southwest Berkeley,” Polanski said. 

“I haven’t heard of many,” said Capitelli. 

One industry official said Berkeley remains something of an island in a troubled market. “People are always going to want to live here,” he said. 

Whatever the current totals, the future remains clouded, with the Pew Center on the States predicting in a study released last week that 1 in 20 California homes will be foreclosed in the near future, most in the next two years. California is ranked third among the states, with Nevada’s 1 in 11 leading the list, followed by Arizona with 1 in 18. 

Nationwide, the anticipated foreclosure rate is 1 in 33 homes. 

Polanski said that after a quick search of the multiple listing service (MLS), she could find only two bank-owned houses and two short sales, while there were reports of troubles with two others. 

She said one West Berkeley home that sold for $705,000 last year was foreclosed and is currently on the market for $475,000. 

The Berkeley picture contrasts sharply with Richmond, she said, “where almost everything on the MLS has been foreclosed.” 

An industry official who declined to be identified said that generally Southern California is much worse off that Northern California. However, a recent 60 Minutes broadcast listed Stockton as the site of some of the worst foreclosure numbers in the country. 

DataQuick, another service relied on by the real estate industry, reports that default notices for Alameda County had jumped 119.4 percent between the fourth quarters of 2006 and 2007, compared to 151.8 percent in Contra Costa County and 93.1 percent for San Francisco. 

Home sales in the Bay Area are at a two-decade low, the company reported. 

Lender collapse 

Meanwhile, since the last months of 2006, 251 major U.S. lenders have collapsed or faced major restructuring, according to Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a website that tracks lender failures (see ml-implode.com). 

The problem comes when subprime loans convert to significantly higher fixed rates at the same time that housing values plunge with the collapse of the housing bubble, though one industry official was quick to point out that 80 to 90 percent of subprime loans are currently being paid on time. 

One major lender heavily hit is Wachovia Corp., which last year bought World Savings, then an Oakland-based, conservatively run and family-owned lender. Wachovia recorded a $393 million first quarter loss for 2008 and officials said $8.3 billion in loans are “non-performing,” meaning payments aren’t being made. 

Don Truslow, Wachovia’s chief risk officer, told investors in a conference call last week that “when a borrower crosses the 100 percent loan to value, somewhere north of that and they presumably run into some sort of cash flow bump ... (and) their propensity to just default and stop paying their mortgage rises dramatically and I mean really accelerates up” regardless of credit scores and past history. 

Foreclosure sales nationwide leaped 70 percent in the year’s first quarter, according to Foreclosures.com, a site that tracks trends. California leads the list with a total of 120,064. 

In California, many—and often most—homes for sale in regional markets are foreclosures. 

With economists like Paul Stiglitz openly declaring that the nation is headed into an economic downtown of a scale unseen since the Great Depression that followed the 1929 Wall Street crash, just what the downturn means to the city remains unclear. 

Berkeley collects a real estate transfer fee on property sales, and a downturn in prices combined with a declining number of sales could pose problems for an already strapped city budget. City Manager Phil Kamlarz did not returned a call for comment. 

While 24 percent of California’s homeowners hold their properties free and clear, according to a just-released study by the National Association of Realtors, 65 percent hold loans at standard, or prime, rates, and one percent hold federally backed FHA and VA loans, that leaves 10 percent holding the troubled subprime loans. 

And it’s subprime loans which comprise the lion’s share—65 percent—of the 2.2 percent of loans currently in foreclosure. 

Missing papers 

Another potential problem is just who may be actually holding the loan papers on any given mortgage. Reports that some sales have been stymied because of lost papers didn’t surprise Polanski, who said that during one sale, she started out dealing with the German lender Deutsche Bank, then the domestic Washington Mutual, only to wind up again with the German bank. 

Banks typically sell large blocks of loans on the secondary mortgage market, and paperwork often shows that loans are held by investor pools, and shared among groups of small lenders, she said. 

During the 1980s, the Davis-based Farmers savings rose to become one of the nation’s ten largest players on the secondary market, only to collapse in such disarray that the bank had lost track of its mortgages and was feeding back the federal government’s own data to the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (now merged with the FDIC) because it couldn’t find the paperwork. 

The International Monetary Fund reported earlier this month that total losses in the U.S. from mortgage failures may near $1 trillion, with $232 billion already written off. And the crisis has spread globally, impacting other areas of the economy. 

Renters 

While most of the focus has been on single family homes, Berkeley Housing Advisory Chair Jesse Arreguin said he’s concerned about renters who may be caught in a bind when their landlords default.  

“We’ve heard about a lot of problems in Oakland and Richmond and threats of foreclosure,” he said. “And a number of tenants here have contacted the rent board with reports that their landlords were saying they were threatened with foreclosure. We’ve been concerned that they may be using that as a way to increase rents.” 

He said the City Council passed a resolution in December directing City Manager Phil Kamlarz to prepare a report on foreclosures and what the city could do to help owners and tenants. “It hasn’t come yet,” he said, “but at some point there will be a report.” 

Meanwhile, he said, the Rent Board is developing information for tenants, and at some point will likely send out a mailing. 

Scattered news reports document apartment building foreclosures, and Las Vegas has spawned a blog devoted to apartment foreclosures—especially near the Strip—as investment opportunities. But stories about apartments place in comparison to the vastly more frequent accounts of home foreclosures. 

One reason may be that apartments are traditionally held longer than single family homes. 

Arreguin said the Berkeley City Council will consider a resolution tonight (Tuesday) on supporting Assembly Bill 2586, now pending before the state legislature, which would establish protections for tenants of foreclosed properties, including provisions allowing them to deduct utility bills from their rent if they had taken them into their own names after the landlord stopped making payments. 

Ripples spread 

The ripples of the subprime crisis are spreading through the economy. 

Reuters reported April 4 that strip mall vacancies have hit levels not seen since 1996, with major mall vacancies running at post-9/11 rates, while the list of major retailers in various forms of bankruptcy or restructuring continues to grow. 

Office vacancy rates nationally are also rising, according to Grubb & Ellis, and Dave Colgren of the California Society of CPAs, e-mailed reporters to say that with corporate earnings falling in the first quarter, “companies are looking for ways to cut expenses and increase profitability. Staffing is one area becoming increasingly under review.” 

A Berkeley peace activist, thwarted in one suicide attempt, apparently succeeded in another, more dramatic bid to end his life Friday. 

Jasper Summer, 46, died in a one-car, high-speed accident near the intersection of The Alameda and Yolo Avenue moments before 2 a.m. 

Summers described himself as a landscaper in his campaign contributions to the Democratic Party. He was also a donor to presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, and posted comments on peace sites and on sites questioning the official account of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 

Police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss told Bay City News the chain of events that ended in a crash that one nearby resident likened to an earthquake began at about 1:50 a.m. 

A homeless man riding a bicycle flagged down a police sergeant and told her he saw a man sitting in a silver Subaru parked near the intersection of Bancroft Way and Fulton Street. 

The homeless man said a piece of black plastic tubing was attached to the tailpipe of the vehicle and looped into one of the vehicle's windows, according to Kusmiss. He had pulled the tubing from the tailpipe and tried to talk to the man inside the vehicle, saying, “You don't want to do this,” Kusmiss said. 

The police sergeant was led to the vehicle, parked in a commercial area, and asked the man inside to roll down his window. The man refused, so the sergeant tried to break the window as the air inside began looking hazy, according to Kusmiss. 

The man suddenly drove off and the police sergeant followed him as he swerved through various lanes of traffic and ran stop signals, Kusmiss said. 

Officers following the man backed off due to his erratic driving, and last spotted him at about 1:55 a.m. driving northbound on Martin Luther King Jr. Way crossing University Avenue at a high rate of speed, Kusmiss said. 

Two minutes later, police dispatch was flooded with 911 calls from residents who heard a loud collision. 

Arriving officers discovered a crash scene on The Alameda just south of Yolo Avenue, with the Subaru resting upside down on the hood of a Ford pickup truck, according to Kusmiss. 

“This was a very dramatic collision,” she said. 

Summer was removed with the help of metal-cutting machines and pronounced dead on the scene, Kusmiss said. 

Investigators determined Summer had been driving northbound on The Alameda between 80 mph and 100 mph when his vehicle crossed into the southbound lanes, hitting a parked green BMW. 

The Subaru then hit a parked Dodge Shadow, pushing the Dodge into a tree and causing it to spin into the middle of the road, according to Kusmiss. 

The impact also caused the Subaru to become airborne, sending it crashing upside down onto the roof of the Ford pickup truck, Kusmiss said. 

Debris from the accident was spread about 246 feet down the roadway, and an investigation and cleanup kept the street closed for about 6.5 hours, Kusmiss said. 

There were no eyewitnesses, and investigators may never know if the fatal crash was intentional.

Berkeley planning commissioners will holding hearings Wednesday on the Southside Plan’s draft environmental impact report (EIR) and proposed amendments to the city’s wireless ordinance. 

Commissioners will also dissect the economic development chapter of the Downtown Area Plan as they continue to work on their own suggested revisions to the draft prepared by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). 

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

The Southside Plan has been revived after five years on the back burner while city staff and UC Berkeley officials worked on revisions sought by the university. 

The plan would create new higher density residential zones and allow denser development along Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way. 

The plan also calls for converting the currently one-way Dana and Ellsworth streets to two-way traffic, and for consideration of doing the same to Bancroft Way and Durant Avenue, with restricting through traffic on Telegraph Avenue. 

The draft EIR predicts construction of 472 new housing units with 1,038 residents, along with construction of 638,290 square feet of new commercial development that would provide an additional 2,130 jobs. 

Wednesday’s hearing will focus on the issue of whether or not the proposed EIR adequately addresses the impacts of the ensuing changes. 

The complete document is available for $30 at the city Planning and Development Department offices at 2120 Milvia St. or free online at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=17998. 

Revisions to the city’s wireless telecommunications facilities ordinance, which regulates the installation of cell phone antennae in the city must comply with federal law. 

With the federal law pre-empting most avenues to regulate wireless antennae, in December the City Council directed staff to find areas where the city could legally exert some control without provoking costly lawsuits by carriers. 

The package before the commission would require cell providers to pay a fee to monitor the signal strength of broadcast radiation—a health concern to many neighbors of cell towers. 

The ordinances would require an over-the-counter administrative use permit for new wireless antennae in the downtown commercial district and in manufacturing districts, and full use permits—complete with public hearings—for new installations in all other city zoning districts. 

And for all installations outside the downtown and West Berkeley manufacturing districts, cell providers couldn’t add antennae with proof they are needed to fill service gaps. 

However, the revised ordinances would also end the city’s ability to require that antennae be clustered at single sites as a way to limit the number of radiation sources and end the City Council’s ability to remand use permit appeals to Zoning Adjustments Board. 

The changes would also end the city’s ability to seek criminal sanctions for violations of the ordinances. 

According to a report by Deputy Planning Director Wendy Cosin, the city has approved 52 wireless broadcasters at 28 sites, most on rooftops or on building facades. 

While the main concerns voiced by neighbors have centered on the possible health impacts from the radiation frequencies that carry cellular phone signals, the 1996 federal Telecommunications Act forbids state and local governments from using radiation as a basis for denying permits to locate cellular antennae. 

“The city attorney developed the proposed amendments to maximize the city’s ability to accomplish its expressed regulatory goals within the confines of federal regulations and related court decisions,” Cosin reported.

Pacific Steel Casting’s appeal of a small claims court decision which went against the company in November began last week and is expected to go on for the next two months, a spokesperson for the steel foundry told the Planet Friday.  

On Monday Berkeley attorney Timothy Rumberger announced plans to file a class action lawsuit against the company. 

The west Berkeley-based steel foundry filed an appeal on Dec. 6 in Alameda County Superior Court against a judgment which awarded $35,000 in damages to a group of West Berkeley neighbors who sued Pacific Steel Casting for loss of use and enjoyment of their property and mental distress. 

“The company disagreed with the decisions made by the judge,” said Elisabeth Jewel of Aroner, Jewel and Ellis, the public relations firm representing Pacific Steel. “They will be appealing all of the judgments in each of the small claims cases.” 

Judge Dawn Girard ruled at the November hearing 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.” 

A majority of the plaintiffs had complained of a burnt copper-like smell which they believed could be toxic. 

Lead plaintiff Tom McGuire had called the judgment “a victory for the small guys” after the November hearing. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Tabor heard only McGuire’s case Wednesday, to determine how the remaining eight cases would proceed. 

“I think PSC is grasping at straws, sucker punching, anything to put up the facade of a case to wipe the toxic egg off their face,” McGuire told the Planet. 

“There is so much evidence that foul odors and noxious emissions are and have been emanating from their smokestacks that to deny it or try to defend it is folly.” 

Since the defendants’ expert witness in small claims would not be available for the trial, McGuire said the group had brought in local activist LA Wood. 

“We’re going to have to win this case based on our own strong and compelling testimony,” he said. 

Judge Tabor is retired and is returning to court only for this particular case. The hearing will take longer than usual since she will be working on the case only on Wednesdays, Jewel said. 

Berkeley-based attorney Tim Rumberger intends to file a class action lawsuit against Pacific Steel today (Tuesday) on behalf of “thousands of neighbors,” according to a press release his office faxed to the Planet late Monday afternoon. 

The lawsuit will seek an injunction to require the foundry to “reduce its off-site toxic emissions impact to safe levels or relocate from this neighborhood,” and demands a “compensation to the thousands of neighbors affected daily by the noxious odors and toxins.” 

Calls to the Aroner, Jewel and Ellis firm for comment on Monday were not returned by press time. 

Pacific Steel 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 last year. 

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

We were standing on the corner in front of Rice’s Barbershop. There were about six of us between the ages of 18 and 21, African American males who had grown up together in the same West Philadelphia neighborhood. A black Chevy slowly approached and someone from inside the car rolled down the window leaned out the passenger side and shouted, “The Republicans are paying $75, go to the Overbrook High gym; the Republicans are paying $75!”  

Last week I saw a headline in the Oakland Tribune (April 12, 2008), “‘Street money’ dispute threatens Obama.” The article was about the dispensing of “street money,” a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to foot soldiers and loyalists, who make up the party’s workforce, for getting out the vote. 

When I was a teenager Rice’s Barbershop was our local polling place, and my first foray into politics was as a foot soldier for the neighborhood ward boss. Our task included putting up signs, taking down opponents’ signs, escorting senior citizens, handing out literature and greeting people in front of polling places. One of our favorite assignments was riding around slowly through the streets on election day talking through a loud speaker or megaphone, “Vote for so and so,” or “Vote yes on no!”  

In our neighborhood we were used to people coming through yelling or sing-songing about whatever they were promoting. There was the Watermelon Man—“I got red ripe, red ripe watermelon.” The fruit vendor—“We got freestone, freestone peaches.” And people from the blind center selling their handmade products—“Broom man, broom man, we got brooms we got baskets!” I can’t imagine this being accepted in Berkeley today as it would probably violate some local ordinance regarding noise pollution or someone complaining that they work nights and need to sleep during the day! 

In the Oakland Tribune article it stated that “ward leaders see Obama airing millions of dollars worth of television ads in the city—money that benefits station owners … and people wonder why Obama isn’t sharing the largess with field workers trying to get him elected … hardscrabble neighborhoods across Philadelphia have come to depend on street money as a welcome payday for knocking on doors, handing out leaflets and speaking to voters … People are astute. They know the Obama campaign has raised lots of money.”  

This is true! There were two events that my friends and I looked forward to every year to make some legal money on the side—snowstorms and elections. Unlike cutting grass in the summer, which is mostly cosmetic, shoveling snow off people’s sidewalks and digging their cars out of snow mounds was a necessity and some hard-working person could easily make $100 a day. However, working on election day would pay at least $50 without working hard.  

Almost everyone in my old Philly neighborhood was a registered Democrat with one notable exception, my father. When I asked him why he said, “The Democrats take my vote for granted while the Republicans take me out to dinner. Besides, in the privacy of the voting booth I’m going to vote my conscience anyway!” He liked getting paid too. I must admit when I first got involved with local elections and political campaigns in Berkeley I wondered what happened to good old political wards with bosses that paid in cash! I kept looking for that familiar brown envelope with money in it or the handshake with a $20 bill in the palm, but no one ever offered me a dime. And on top of that candidates wanted me to give money to them! How backwards I thought.  

So going back to the day we were approached to defect to the Republicans, I was sorely tempted to take the $75 over the $50 we were getting paid by the Democrats. Some of my buddies took off immediately, most of us were too young to vote anyhow, but I stayed because this election was different. There was a neighborhood guy running for office, a black man with an Africanized name, which made this a historic event for us. Chaka Fattah won, and is now serving his seventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives. With his victory we knew we had political power and a say-so in our local community. The Philadelphia political machine is still running strong, and it’s still fueled with cash. Si, Se Puede!

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds,” Aldo Leopold wrote long before the first Earth Day. He was thinking about land abuse in the Southwest, but his words have a much broader resonance.  

Maybe we’re not quite so alone anymore. The bad news is better known: more of us are aware that we’re losing chinook salmon and delta smelt, whitebark pines and coast live oaks, polar bears and Tasmanian devils, bats, frogs, shorebirds, reef-builders, pollinators. It would be simpler to take stock of what we’re not losing. 

Last fall, while volunteering at the International Bird Rescue Research Center after the Cosco Busan spill, we met a veterinarian named Greg Massey who had previously worked in an endangered-bird program in Hawai’i, trying to save native songbirds from the effects of habitat destruction and exotic diseases. Massey told us he had watched the po’o-uli, a small brown bird endemic to Maui, go extinct. The population kept dwindling and was finally reduced to a male and a female, in separate territories. Efforts were made to get them together, but they didn’t hit it off. Then they were gone. 

The recent wave of bird extinctions in Hawaii is the second act of an old drama. When the Polynesians spread out across the South Pacific, on island after island-not just the Hawaiian chain, but New Zealand and others-they found unique communities of large flightless birds. And ate them.  

Mind you, these were people whose creation chant, the Kumulipo, shows a profound understanding of the connectedness of human and non-human life, and who had an enviable ethic of watershed management. What they didn’t have was a sense of limits. Why reject the gifts of the gods? Who knew that the next island wouldn’t have its own big slow tasty birds? 

The myth of the inexhaustible resource runs deep. Some of the Plains Indians believed the missing bison had taken refuge underground. Other Americans refused to credit the extinction of the passenger pigeon: maybe they had flown to Cuba, or to the moon. The cornucopia would never be empty. 

Now we know better. Or should. But collectively, we still act as if the bounty of the oceans will never be depleted; as if there will always be enough tropical forest to supply disposable chopsticks; as if there’s no conflict between runaway population growth and the survival of whole ecosystems. 

That’s why Earth Day, for all its compromises (I’m old enough to remember when it was attacked as a distraction from the Revolutionary Struggle), serves a purpose. We need to be reminded that we can push natural systems only so far before they collapse. If, as some have opined, environmentalism is dead, then we’re all in trouble. 

Of all our offenses against the earth, the conscious obliteration of other species may be the worst. Those of a religious bent may see it as annulling an act of creation; the rest of us, as destroying a product of eons of natural selection. Either way, it brings us closer to the future another naturalist, Archie Carr, invoked, contemplating the loss of the great beasts of Africa: “The rest of non-human nature will surely follow. And we shall head out into the rest of our time, masters of creation at last, and alone forever.” 

For anyone who has been ignoring the news as of late food is an enormous issue this year. Prices are up 83 percent since 2005, sparking riots in countries around the globe including Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. In Haiti the unrest has even led to deaths and the fall of the government.  

Big rice producers like China, India, and Vietnam are becoming worried about their own supplies and are moving to restrict their exports further fueling food insecurities. Through this all our policymakers at the World Bank and the IMF are calling for more of the same practices that got us into this mess. The question that confronts us is: how has this come about and what can we do to begin to address the problem? 

Food prices are up for a number of factors and most analysts agree that they are probably not going to decrease significantly anytime soon. Increasing consumption of meat (which requires vast quantities of feed to produce), bad weather, hoarding, and demand for biofuels (which use land that could be used to produce food) have all done their part to dramatically boost food prices.  

While some of these factors may become less influential in the future the fact remains that demand is going to continue to grow at a strong pace. The world’s billion plus people that subsist on less than a dollar a day are not going to enjoy affordable food anytime soon. 

In order to address this grave problem the officials at the World Bank have proposed an “action plan,” which includes emergency food aid and more loans to farmers, so they can increase their productivity with pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and genetically modified seeds. While this may sound reasonable at first, it is in fact precisely the same policy, which the Bank and massive agricultural corporations (who not so coincidentally sell pesticides, fertilizers, and seeds) have promoted over the past few decades, and a large part of the reason that we are in this mess.  

Food aid, while obviously needed in the short-term, does nothing to address the actual reasons why people cannot buy food or grow their own. We cannot allow ourselves to think that we are solving hunger by handing out some free bread. Actually tackling the issue requires a deeper examination of the problem. 

The fact is that hundreds of millions of people in the world face malnutrition and hunger because of policy failure. We have encouraged small farmers to take out loans to buy chemicals, fertilizers, etc. in order to boost their productivity; meanwhile when their crop fails or soil becomes infertile due to these same products we sold them and they lose their land, we tell them to just go to the city. 

So the displaced farmers go in great numbers to the mushrooming slums where there are far too few jobs to sustain them. Their options are mostly limited to subsisting on handouts or migrating to a richer country. Ten years ago this was a huge problem; now it has been greatly exacerbated by the massive hike in food prices.  

If we are to do something other than business as usual what should be our course? We need to start with policies that allow small farmers to stay on their land, and thus can continue feeding themselves and their neighbors far into the future. The first step in this direction would be to encourage agriculture that does not require expensive inputs and machinery, so farmers can avoid getting caught in a cycle of debt. Part of this will mean spending more money on agricultural research, which utilizes this low input model. An actual worthwhile foreign aid project would be helping finance land reform and training for those individuals that receive plots of land. This would ease the number of people moving to cities, which are then unable to support themselves. We could pay for this by slashing the billions of dollars in subsidies we give to our own agricultural giants here in the U.S. This would have the added benefit of strengthening small farmers against unfair (i.e. subsidized) competition from corporations.  

If more small farmers stay in business and on their land then they can in turn take advantage of the high food prices, and the profits they make from these sales they naturally spend in their local community boosting their neighbors’ wages and business opportunities. Instead of starvation and food riots we could have a dynamic and sustainable rural economy based upon small farmers. 

The sudden rise in food prices has dramatized the issue of food security throughout the world, but this has been a serious concern for years. We can allow our government (through the World Bank, agricultural subsidies, etc.) to continue the same policies, which have not worked over the past few decades, or we can force it to deal with the actual problem: hundreds of millions of small farmers who are unable to continue growing their own food. The rioting, poverty, and dislocation brought on by food’s increasing cost is only going to get worse if our policies do not change. 

Christopher McCourt is a UC Berkeley student

As a graduating Berkeley student majoring in the biological sciences, a left leaning member of the San Francisco Bay Area and a voter wishing to make informed decisions, not a day goes by that I don't hear something on campus or in the news about biofuels. Biofuels are the controversial topic of conversation today, and with politicians voicing their support and violent food riots occurring in Haiti, perhaps it is time to seriously question the merits of biofuels and take some time for self reflection.  

The first time I began to really hear people discuss biofuels was during the recent financial agreement my university made with British Petroleum to the tune of $500 million dollars. This money was to go toward the research and development of alternative energy solutions, primarily biofuels. This deal was immediately met with student, faculty and public outcry concerning the ability of Berkeley to maintain its academic integrity and whether biofuels should have such heavy funding over other types of alternative energy.  

After all, biofuels promote the use of controversial GMO crops, and actually increase greenhouse gases when conversion of natural ecosystems to biofuel production land is taken into account. Not only that, but even if all of America's corn and soybean farms were converted to biofuel production, only 12 percent of our gasoline and 6 percent of our diesel needs would be met. Some people may suggest that this unmet need could be an opportunity for farmers in third world countries. However, these opportunities manifest themselves only through environmental degradation, and the displacement and starvation of the worlds most impoverished. 

As developing countries create momentum for biofuel production, the intensified industrial farming practices and rapid expansion of agricultural frontiers into ecosystems results in regions of soil degradation, poor water quality, and strained water tables. More than 91 million acres of rainforest and grassland have already been cleared in South America for soybean production, with an addition 143 million needed to meet world demand.  

Along with a damaged environment, farmers are pushed off their land so that biofuels can be grown in place of food crops to meet the energy demands of the United States. These practices have put the food security of many countries at risk. Recent weeks have seen food riots and unrest in Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Haiti. World food staple prices have risen by 83 percent in the past three years and threaten to put 100 million of the world's most impoverished people deeper into poverty. Specifically, corn tortillas prices in Mexico have gone up 400 percent. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk for starvation and the recent rise demand for biofuels is no coincidence. When starving people are weighed against filling up a 25 gallon tank with ethanol that could have feed a person for a year, perhaps other solutions to our energy problems should be examined. 

Yet my left leaning colleagues, politicians and government energy policies continue to push for biofuels. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama support further research in biofuels and government energy programs believe that biofuels are the key to fixing our energy dependence problems and meeting the quotas we have set for ourselves regarding sustainable energy. 

Not only do politicians fail to see the problems mentioned above, but they fail to recognize that biofuels are only a band-aid to our energy consumption and transportation system problems. They allow us the illusion that we are doing our part for the environment and foreign policy troubles, while still affording us the luxury of driving everywhere to meet our most basic needs.  

If we are to truly try to reduce our energy consumption, we must rethink the built environments that we live in and recognize that our dependency on other countries for oil, and soon for biofuels, is due to most people's complete dependency on their cars. How do we fix this problem? Living in high density, mixed use areas or Transit Oriented Developments and opting to walk, ride bikes and take public transportation are much larger steps of progress than the millions of dollars going into the production of GMO seeds for biofuels. This is not a problem that is easily fixed by buying a different type of fuel for our SUVs. It is one that requires a commitment toward changes in our lifestyles. 

At the end of the day, we must realize that biofuels help neither the environment, nor our energy dependence and start to look more closely at the ways in which we live our lives to find the solutions that researchers, politicians, and my university are struggling to find. 

Elizabeth Jean Dow is a UC Berkeley  

student.

Posted Sat., April 19—Pacific Steel Casting’s appeal of a small claims court decision which went against the company in November began this week, and is expected to go on for the next two months, a spokesperson for the steel foundry told the Planet Friday. 

The west Berkeley-based steel foundry filed an appeal on Dec. 6 in the Alameda County Superior Court against a judgment which awarded $35,000 in damages to a group of West Berkeley neighbors who sued Pacific Steel Casting for loss of use and enjoyment of their property and mental distress.  

“The company disagreed with the decisions made by the judge,” said Elisabeth Jewel of Aroner, Jewel and Ellis, the public relations firm representing Pacific Steel. “They will be appealing all of the judgments in each of the small claims cases.” 

Judge Dawn Girard ruled at the November hearing 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.”  

A majority of the plaintiffs had complained of a burnt-copper-like smell which they believed could be toxic. 

Lead plaintiff Tom McGuire had called the judgment “a victory for the small guys” after the November hearing. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Tabor heard only McGuire’s case Wednesday, to determine how the remaining eight cases would proceed. 

“I think PSC is grasping at straws, sucker punching, anything to put up the facade of a case to wipe the toxic egg off their face.” McGuire told the Planet. 

“There is so much evidence that foul odors and noxious emissions are and have been emanating from their smokestacks that to deny it or try to defend it is folly.” 

Since the defendants’ expert witness in small claims would not be available for the trial, McGuire said the group had brought in local activist LA Wood. 

“We’re going to have to win this case based on our own strong and compelling testimony,” he said. 

Judge Tabor is retired and is returning to court only for this particular case. The hearing would take longer than usual since she will only be working on the case every Wednesdays, Jewel said. 

Pacific Steel 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 last year. 

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

Drivers who park at Berkeley’s pay-and-display parking meters could soon be shelling out money until 10 p.m. if Mayor Tom Bates and two city councilmembers have their way. 

The new metering stations, which allow payment with coin or credit cards, currently charge parkers from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Under the proposal by the mayor, Dona Spring and Laurie Capitelli, the meters would offer extended parking times from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. and permit multiple hours of parking at night.  

The move would be part of the city’s agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent over the next 42 years as mandated by Berkeley voters when they passed Measure G in 2004. 

Part of the funds would be directed to arts and to developing alternative transit modes. 

Spring said that given the limited choices for raising revenues for the city’s downtown Arts District. “This is a good option.” 

With live stage and film theaters and restaurants the main evening draws to downtown Berkeley, the extension of metered hours offered a way both to raise more funds for downtown public amenities and to encourage people to leave their cars in favor of public transit, she said. 

“The downside is that it will discourage some people,” Spring acknowledged. 

The new plan would also increase the number of pay-and-display meters downtown. Spring said it was Downtown Berkeley Association Executive Director Deborah Badhia who proposed extending the program to side streets, beyond the initial proposal to limit the extended hours only to slots on Shattuck Avenue.  

The item is on the agenda for Tuesday night’s council meeting, but only in the form of a request to City Manager Phil Kamlarz to direct the staff to develop a plan and cost analysis of the proposal.

A county judge has rejected the contentions of a legal challenge by Berkeley homeowners to the approval of the so-called “Trader Joe’s” building in downtown Berkeley, paving the way for construction. 

In a tentative ruling issued Tuesday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch rejected the claims by Stephen Wollmer and other plaintiffs allied as Neighbors for a Livable Berkeley Way. 

The five-story Old Grove building, otherwise known as Trader Joe’s, will feature 148 units of housing over ground-floor commercial and parking areas stretching the block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way between University Avenue and Berkeley Way. 

The building’s nickname comes from its promised primary commercial tenant, the popular and non-union grocery chain. 

Wollmer had charged that the Zoning Adjustments Board violated the city’s own zoning ordinance, an allegation specifically rejected by Roesch in his decision. 

The judge also rejected the claim that the approval violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires a full vetting of a project’s potential harm to natural and built environments. 

Wollmer contended that the city improperly gave developers Chris Hudson and Evan McDonald a bigger project with more market-rate apartments for providing grocery store parking rather than for creating new units at reduced rates for low-income tenants, which is the intent of the state density bonus law. 

He had also challenged approval of setbacks from adjacent residential properties and charged that the city’s actions in approving the project effectively allowed staff to create arbitrary rules without prior Planning Commission or City Council approval or review under CEQA. 

But Roesch’s tentative ruling, which awaits only the judge’s signature on a final decision draft prepared by the victors, tersely rejected his arguments without explanation. 

Wollmer told supporters, “The neighbors are considering the possibility of an appeal of the decision, as there are new areas of discretion, placing all Berkeley citizens at risk of an increasingly capricious Planning Department and the current pro-developer City Council.” 

That action would come well before the June 1 date that the developer Chris Hudson said has been set for demolition of the strip mall that now occupies the site. 

The city contends that the density bonus rewards developers with extra size for their buildings over and above that allowed in city zoning ordinances in exchange for public benefits that aren’t restricted to housing. 

The intent of the additional size is to compensate developers for the costs of providing the benefits, which in the past have been mainly in the form of housing for those otherwise unable to afford decent accommodations in the community. 

The Trader Joe’s project, Wollmer contends, “established new areas of discretion for the city to approve projects they consider to be in their current definition of ‘public good’ whether or not they conform to the letter of state or city law.” 

Acting City Attorney Zach Cowan said he wasn’t surprised at the judge’s decision. “After the hearing it seemed pretty clear which way he was going to go,” he said. 

Cowan said he will be preparing a full statement of conclusions, which he’ll submit to Wollmer and Stuart Flashman, the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the action. 

At that point, either the losing side will agree with Cowan’s draft or a further hearing will be held to work out the final version. 

“Hopefully this will dispense with some of the density bonus arguments we’ve been dealing with for some time,” Cowan said. “It all depends on whether they appeal.”

The race to succeed Don Perata as the Senator from California’s 9th State Senate District—already one of the feistiest of the campaign season—got a little testier last week as former 16th District Assemblymem-ber Wilma Chan traded direct mail and e-mail charges with her opponent, current 14th District Assembly-member Loni Hancock. 

Chan, who held a $100,000 lead in cash on hand ($507,000 to $406,000) at the last campaign finance reporting date a month ago, has been on the offensive against Hancock. Earlier this month, Chan filed a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission, charging that Hancock has illegally used her assemblymember officeholder account to pay a campaign staff member. Hancock has denied the charge. 

This week, in an e-mail to supporters, Hancock took issue with a mass surface mailing sent out by Chan, a mailing Hancock characterizes as a “classic hit piece.” 

In the Chan mailing, which is posted with no date on Hancock’s website, Chan seeks to separate herself from Hancock, saying, “Many have said Loni and I are alike. … While Loni and I have similar voting records, I have consistently taken on tough issues and have been successful in passing important legislation while Loni has not. I have also been willing to take risks for many progressive causes while Loni hasn’t.” 

Chan also charges that “In six years in the legislature, Loni did not pass one piece of major environmental protection.” 

After giving what she calls “a few examples” of her own progressive record, Chan then criticizes Hancock for promising to run a “clean money” campaign while at the same time refusing to join Chan in rejecting funds that “allow special interests to funnel money to political campaigns while avoiding campaign limits and donation disclosure rules.” 

In an e-mail rebuttal sent out early this week, Hancock calls Chan’s “clean money” pledge a “cheap publicity stunt,” saying that Hancock has already “signed the official California pledge (Prop 34) agreeing to limit spending in her Senate campaign to $724,000,” while Chan has not. 

While the charge that Hancock should have signed Chan’s money pledge is a matter of opinion and open to the interpretation of the individual voter, it is difficult to determine what the Chan campaign means by Hancock not passing “one piece of major environmental protection” during her six years in the legislature. Perhaps “major” is the operative word. 

In her e-mail rebuttal, Hancock cites several environmental laws which she says she has “successfully passed,” including AB1296 (establishment of the San Francisco Bay Water Trail, 2005, in which Hancock is listed as the main author), AB442 (strengthening toxic site remediation), AB2960 (continuation of volunteer program to improve parks and restore creeks and waterways), and AB1873 (expanding and making permanent Recycling Market Development Zones to develop products and businesses using recycled materials). 

While neither Hancock nor Chan have the blustering, larger-than-life presence and personality of Don Perata, Chan’s main problem in the race to succeed Perata is an issue of out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Hancock still serves in the Assembly and will do so until the end of this year, and is able to use that position to keep in the public eye, both speaking out in the press on various pieces of legislation and holding public conferences on major issues in Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond, the key cities in the district.  

For her part, Chan had a meteoric rise in the legislature after her 2000 election to the assembly, serving as the Assembly Majority Whip in 2001-02 and the Assembly Majority Leader in 2003-04. 

Chan was very much in the local headlines in those years, and was gearing up for a run for the State Senate in 2004 when Perata’s original term was scheduled to run out. When Perata won a favorable Superior Court judge’s ruling to serve another term, Chan was left floundering and, for the two years between 2006 and 2008, was without a public forum to keep in the public eye.  

Despite requests from citizens to postpone the public hearing on the Berkeley city attorney’s draft sunshine ordinance—designed to provide citizens with greater access to local government—the City Council Agenda Committee refrained from rescheduling it. 

The hearing will be held Tuesday at the City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

Julie Sinai, chief of staff to Mayor Tom Bates, told the Planet Wednesday that although the mayor had not supported the postponement of the public hearing, he had agreed to hold off the first reading of an ordinance until June 10. 

Sinai said that Bates had refused to delay the hearing since the council had been discussing the ordinance for a number of years. 

The city has been working on a sunshine ordinance since 2001, when at the request of Councilmember Kriss Worthington, the City Council asked Kamlarz and then-City Clerk Sherry Kelly to look into improving the city’s sunshine policies, including the adoption of an ordinance.  

“The City Attorney’s 26th draft was posted on the city manager’s website for public comment from October 2007 through March 2008,” Sinai said in an e-mail to the Planet. 

According to Sinai, the draft was also e-mailed to the council’s March 2007 Sunshine Ordinance workshop panelists—including Californians Aware General Counsel Terry Francke, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville League of Women Voters President Jinky Gardner, American Civil Liberties Union Police Practices Policy Director Mark Schlosberg and Planet staff reporter and Northern California Society of Professional Journalists member Judith Scherr in October. 

The city manager’s website posted the revised draft incorporating the public comment received online in the beginning of April, Sinai said. 

Bates’ decision to hold the public hearing next week met with protests from a citizens’ group—comprised of representatives from the League of Women Voters, SuperBOLD (Berkeleyans Organizing for Library Defense) and other community members—who have been meeting for almost a year at the League office to review former City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque’s 21-page draft ordinance.  

In a letter to the mayor on March 31, the four workshop panelists requested a 90-day extension on the hearing. 

“We have been working on an alternate draft since June,” said Gardner. “We are almost close to being done and we need a little bit more time than Tuesday. The sunshine ordinance is fundamentally important for citizens. With the ordinance, the city is taking open government one step further than the two state laws—the Brown Act and the Public Records Request Act—which address it.” 

The citizens’ group said that the mayor had wrongfully accused them of meeting outside of public view. 

“We all know that’s not true,” said Dean Metzger, a member of the citizens’ group. 

Metzger said Bates had asked the League of Women Voters to form a citizens’ group to review Albuquerque’s sunshine ordinance draft at the March 2007 workshop. 

Bates had also asked Francke to draft a new ordinance which he said would be compared with the city attorney’s draft. 

“I think the real reason is they don’t want to see our draft,” Metzger said. “The league sent out a general e-mail to the public inviting citizens to meet in their office in May. Anyone could have joined our meetings at any point. We have not excluded anyone. The meetings were not posted but people could check with the League of Women Voters and get their name on the list.” Meeting notices have been e-mailed to a long list of recipients, not all of whom chose to participate in meetings. 

Sinai defended the mayor’s decision. 

“The city attorney’s office called Terry Francke in March to inform him that it was going back to Council on April 22,” she said. “Mr. Francke told the Acting Assistant City Attorney [Sarah Reynoso] that he could not comment on anything because there was another group working on a new ordinance and he was not at liberty to tell her who they were—but he would pass on the information and have someone contact her.” 

Bates said at Monday’s meeting that adequate time and opportunity had been provided for public review and input, and that an additional hearing would be scheduled if necessary. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington called Bates’ decision an insult to the community volunteers reviewing the draft ordinance. 

“The mayor asked all these people to sit down and work on an ordinance,” he said. “This group has spent hundreds of hours on it. We are lucky to have so many people working to make the sunshine ordinance strong and effective. We need a sunshine ordinance, not a twilight ordinance.” 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she supported the citizens’ group request for postponement. 

“The group deserves to be heard,” she said. “We are not going to have a good ordinance without them. The council needs to compare it to Albuquerque’s draft which no one has spoken in favor of. Some of what the citizens’ group wants may be a legislative nightmare but we need it to be debated in public. The group is asking for too much exposure, that’s where the tension lies.” 

Gardner said that effective enforcement was missing from the city attorney’s draft ordinance. 

“What I’d like to see is the process be put in a more open arena with representatives from the citizens’ group, local businesses and the council,” she said. 

Councilmember Linda Maio said at Monday’s meeting that the hearing was being held next week because Planet staff reporter Scherr had pushed the council to move ahead with the ordinance, something that Scherr denied. 

“It’s absolutely wrong,” Scherr, who is on vacation until Tuesday, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “I am anxious to have a Sunshine Ordinance, but I am anxious to get a good sunshine ordinance. Of course I have been pushing for this for a long time but I thought that Albuquerque’s draft needed a lot of work.” 

Maio did not return calls for comment from the Planet. 

Spring said the city was rushing to establish an ordinance because it was campaign season. 

“It seems clear why Mayor Bates wants to force through a weak ordinance,” said Doug Buckwald, who attended Monday’s meeting. “He wants to put it in his campaign literature under his accomplishments for his upcoming mayoral election.” 

Sinai said a 90-day extension would mean a six-month delay since Council would be on recess from late July to mid September. 

“The mayor’s goal is to complete this process by the council’s 2008 summer recess,” she said in her e-mail. 

Francke said he was not sure why the process had to be completed by summer recess.  

“The issue has been on and off since 2001, so I don’t know what the hurry is now,” he said. “If the council really wants serious public participation, it would respect the request of the two dozen people working on it. Other than the mayor’s reason there are no legal or practical reasons to rush through this.” 

To view the city’s draft ordinance visit: http://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=5476  

For more information on the citizens’ group send an email to : drm1a2@sbcglobal.net  

California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) members joined UC Berkeley faculty and the Associated Students of the University of California on the steps of the Martin Luther King Student Union Tuesday to demand open textbooks in colleges across United States. 

Brandishing a poster comparing high-priced textbooks with free open textbooks, the group released a petition signed by 1,000 professors from 300 colleges announcing their preference for high-quality, affordable textbooks—including open textbooks—over what they said were “expensive commercial textbooks.” 

Open textbooks, which are still at a fledgling state, are complete, reviewed textbooks written by academics that can be used online for free. 

“What sets them apart from conventional textbooks is their open license, which allows users flexibility to use, customize and print the textbook,” said UC Berkeley geography major and CALPIRG member Genki Hara, who worked on the open textbook petition this semester. 

Hara said that open textbooks were used at some of the nation’s largest institutions, including the California community colleges and the Arizona State University system, as well as universities such as Harvard, Caltech and Yale. 

According to a study by the Government Accountability Office, students spend on an average $900 per year on buying textbooks, which is a quarter of tuition at an average four-year public university and nearly three-quarters of tuition at a community college. 

“I spent $750 to $900 in my freshman year on textbooks,” Hara tols the Planet. “It was a financial burden since I support myself and rely on financial aid. Open textbooks are much more affordable and some of them have equivalent quality compared to conventional textbooks.” 

Hara said although none of his current classes have incorporated open textbooks, most of his professors used online materials as course reading. 

Proponents of open textbooks also argue that publishers update textbooks every two or three years, which they said was unnecessary. 

UC Berkeley geography lecturer Darin Jensen spoke in favor of open textbooks. 

Although Jensen doesn’t use open textbooks for his class on cartographic representation, which teaches how to make maps, he has given his students an alternative to buying textbooks for the last seven years. 

“I provide my students with a reader which has content from textbooks and articles,” he said. “Making course content available to students for free is great. I would love to use open textbooks, but it is not available in my discipline. The textbook industry has a stranglehold on students’ textbooks. They dictate what content is available to students and what they put in their textbooks. Teachers are constrained by what publishers want. We should be doing our best to make course content available to students easily.” 

Jensen uses an authorized reader service to steer clear of breaking copyright infringement laws. 

“The last time I checked, the list price for the textbook required for Geography 183, the course I teach, was $98,” he said. “My reader costs $28. That’s a savings of $70. The students incur the printing charges, but they can print out only the pages they need.” 

Although open textbooks face several challenges, including the shortage of online materials, CALPIRG students have escalated their criticism of textbook publishers recently. 

“I understand that publishers need to make profit but I feel like they are really putting a monopoly on the market and forcing students to pay obscene prices for books,” said UC Berkeley junior Pardeese Ehya, who recently transfered from a community college. 

“At my community college enrollment kept dropping because the cost of text- books was often more than that of tuition.” 

Ehya, who is majoring in Mass Communications, said he spent $250 on textbooks this semester at UC Berkeley. 

“None of my classes uses open text books but I was able to find an open text book endorsed by an East Coast private school which I have often used for one of my courses,” he said. 

The Berkeley Unified School District rescinded 35 of the 55 potential layoff notices it sent out to teachers and counselors last month in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut $4.8 billion from the state education  

budget. 

The district’s Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Lisa Udell told the Planet Thursday that 26 teachers and nine counselors had been brought back from possible termination. 

“It’s great news,” said Berkeley Board of Education President John Selawsky. “Hopefully we will be able to remove more people from the list of layoffs. We are not going to know anything more about the state education budget until the governor’s May revise [of the budget], so we are working on this end to minimize layoffs.” 

A layoff hearing took place at Berkeley Technology Academy Wednesday for the 20 teachers still with pink slips, Udell said.  

An independent administrative law judge presided over the hearings to determine the order of seniority for the teachers who are in danger of losing their jobs. 

“The whole point is to provide teachers with due process as mandated in the state Education Code,” said Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Cathy Campbell.  

Campbell said she was hopeful the district would be able to rescind all the potential layoff notices. 

“While it’s encouraging that the district was able to bring back so many teachers, the fact remains that we are in this position because we have a governor who is willing to sacrifice teachers, students and education to balance our budget,” she said. “For every teacher the district brings back, it means something else will not be funded. It’s not like new money is being brought in. Our kids are going to be paying the price for these choices.” 

Teachers at Berkeley High and Willard Middle schools are the most affected by the current list of layoffs. 

Two art teachers and four counselors—including three academic counselors and one college career advisor—at Berkeley High still have layoff notices. 

At Willard, three teachers and one part-time art teacher still have their pink slips. 

Others on the potential layoff list include one teacher from B-Tech, two teachers at Oxford Elementary School, one teacher at Emerson Elementary School and one at LeConte Elementary School. 

“Just because they have received layoff notices doesn’t mean they will be laid off,” said Udell. “The final notices will be sent out on May 14. Our goal is to bring everybody back before then.” 

A majority of the teachers on the potential layoff list were hired this year, Udell said.  

“These are all very good teachers,” she said. “It’s very difficult for me because I respect every one of them and the work that they do for our district.” 

The state education code mandates that the district retain certain positions, including those with credentials pertaining to bilingual cross-cultural language and academic development, specially designed academic instruction in English and certain advanced degrees.  

Special education and single-subject credentialed teachers, including those teaching math and science, will be retained in the 2008-2009 school year regardless of their seniority.  

A list of classified employees who will receive potential layoff notices is to be delivered to the school board on April 23.

A Berkeley woman who admitted murdering her 9-year-old son will spend at least nine years in prison, under terms of a plea bargain announced Wednesday. 

Misti Mina Hassan has acknowledged the killing of her son, Amir, a student at Emerson Elementary School at the time of his death Oct. 10. 

Police learned of the death after Hassan called a friend in San Jose to say that her son was dead and she had been injured. 

The friend called San Jose police, who in turn notified officers in Berkeley, who found Hassan and the body of her son in their apartment at 3011 Shattuck Ave. The Alameda County Conroner estimated the youth had been dead for as long as 36 hours. 

Hassan was suffering from superficial self-inflicted wounds to her wrists and neck when police found her. 

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Venus Johnson said Hassan had agreed to the plea bargain, which was approved by Superior County Judge Edward Sarkisian, Jr. last Friday. 

Johnson said Amir Hassan died of multiple drug toxicity, but declined to identify which drugs were involved, except to note that they did not include Klonopin, the powerful anti-convulsant medication Misti Hassan had told her friend that she had used to kill her son, along with an anti-depressant. 

Hassan had initially pleaded not guilty to the murder but withdrew her plea before agreeing to the sentence handed down, which was to serve at least 85 percent of an 11-year sentence. 

She made no effort to enter a plea based on mental impairment, Johnson said. 

The youth’s death had sent shockwaves through his classmates at school and through the South Berkeley neighborhood where he was well known to local merchants, whom he often assisted in their chores. 

Brian Bloom, the deputy public defender who represented her in the case, did not returned calls by deadline Thursday.

Rejected by the mayor and the Berkeley City Council’s agenda committee Monday, competing proposals for a new city density bonus ordinance are back on the schedule for Tuesday night’s meeting. 

Mayor Tom Bates, following recommendations from city Planning and Development Director Dan Marks, said there was no need to rush either of the measures through, dismissing the impetus cited by the Planning Commission for adopting a new city law before the statewide election June 3. 

Gene Poschman had urged his commission colleagues to pass an ordinance so a city law would be in place in case Proposition 98 passed. The vaguely worded state measure would limit eminent domain actions, but critics say it could do far more—potentially stripping state and local governments of their powers to create new land use regulations limiting development. 

On a 5-4 vote April 9, the commission endorsed a set of recommendations drafted by a special subcommittee formed of members of the Zoning Adjustments Board and the Planning and Housing Advisory commissions. 

The subcommittee started because of concerns of Zoning Adjustments Board members about the scale and mass of mixed use projects on the city’s major thoroughfares, which city staff told them they had no choice but to approve.  

The council later added members of the two other commissions, and the subcommittee’s report was forwarded to planning commissioners before the 2004 general election, when Prop. 90, a more explicitly draconian predecessor to Prop. 98, was on the ballot. 

Commissioners rejected the subcommittee proposals in favor of a more developer-friendly city staff alternative. Both versions included a sunset clause that would render the law void if Prop. 90 failed—as it did. 

The commission wasn’t able to come up with a permanent ordinance in the intervening months, so Poschman pushed for a repeat of the 2006 effort, with two versions to be sent to the council, both with sunset provisions. 

But during the April 9 meeting, he convinced a majority to recommend the subcommittee version, on the grounds it would give the council more flexibility for creating a revised version should Prop. 98 pass. Commission Susan Wengraf, who had chaired the subcommittee, cast the decisive vote. 

To make it onto the statute books before the June election, a density bonus ordinance needs two hearings, making the upcoming session Tuesday the last date to start the legislative ball rolling.  

But the mayor dismissed the need for action, and none of the other members present objected to his call. 

Councilmember Dona Spring said she tried to get City Manager Phil Kamlarz to list the item on the agenda, but, she said, he wouldn’t put anything on the ballot without the approval of the agenda committee, even with a Planning Commission vote asking the council to take up the issue. 

“I and Kriss Worthington and Betty Olds have been trying to get it on the agenda for the April 22 meeting,” said Spring Wednesday afternoon. “So far Tom has us stymied.” 

But all that had changed by Thursday morning, after Councilmember Linda Maio intervened. 

It was Maio, who had gone along with the mayor’s decision to keep the Planning Commission’s referral off the agenda, who later made sure that the measures were restored to the agenda by agreement between Bates and Kamlarz. 

“We’re glad she changed her mind,” said Jesse Arreguin, Housing Advisory Commission chair. 

While current polls show Prop. 99, an alternative and less draconian measure, leading Prop. 98 in the polls, there’s big money behind 98 and, Spring said, “that can do a lot to change things in a month before the election.” 

Arreguin agreed. “They have a huge war chest and a lot can change in a few weeks,” he said. 

The housing activist said he is working with others to develop a campaign against Prop. 98 in Richmond, El Cerrito and other cities that don’t have organized campaigns against the measure, and a Berkeley group is also being formed by Rent Board Commissioner Lisa Stephens.  

Both 98 and 99 purport to limit the power of state and local governments to seize private land by eminent domain, banning its use to aid private developers. A U.S. Supreme Court decision which upheld the use of eminent domain to take homes in New London, CT, to build a shopping mall was the catalyst for the recent string of ballot measures.  

One famous beneficiary of eminent domain actions is George W. Bush, who helped engineer an eminent domain action in Arlington, Texas, to seize private land to build a stadium and entertainment complex for the Texas Rangers baseball team. Bush’s personal fortune was made when he later sold his interest in the club. Eminent domain has frequently been used to assemble parcels for sports facilities. 

But Proposition 98 is accused by opponents of going much further than needed to save private homes, setting in place mechanisms for eliminating all vestiges of rent control in the state. Those provisions have produced cash for its campaign coffers from landlords and their lobbyists, another concern for housing activists like Arreguin. Critics also charge it could be used to block water projects. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that according to the council’s own rules the agenda committee never had the power to dismiss the Planning Commission’s request. 

“The committee does not have the power to stop a recommendation of a city commission from appearing on the agenda,” he said. “Even if they voted unanimously, they have no power over an item from a commission.”

On Wednesday afternoon the State Assembly’s Agriculture Committee heard four bills and one resolution concerning the State’s plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM) by aerial-spraying the Bay Area and Central Coast counties with a pesticide called CheckMate.  

Hundreds of residents of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties reported various illnesses and negative health symptoms immediately following the aerial spraying of those counties last fall. The state plans to resume spraying Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in June and to begin spraying the Bay Area counties Aug. 1. 

Concerned Californians from all over the Bay Area, as well as from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, packed the AG Committee hearing room to voice their opposition to the spray plan and to express their support for the legislation before the Agriculture Committee. When Chairwoman Parra invited members of the public to voice their support for one or all of the bills related to the LBAM spray plan, approximately 250 people stepped up to the microphone to state their names, home town and support for the bills. Many added a plea to the committee member: “Please don’t spray us.”  

Although several were members of environmental or health advocacy organizations, the majority seemed to be individuals motivated by concern about their health and that of their families. There were many mothers with small children, working people who had taken the day off to make the trip to Sacramento, and elderly citizens including one 91-year-old woman, people with asthma and people with chemical sensitivities. It took half an hour for the committee to hear the public comment with the speakers rotating among three microphones. 

Opposition to two of the bills was presented by representatives of the Western Growers Association, the California Grape and Fruit Tree League, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Wine Institute, the California League of Fruit Processors, the California Agriculture Council and the California Association of Wine Grape Growers. 

Assemblymember Laird (D, Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties), in presenting his proposed legislation, said that his office had received more public input on the LBAM spray plan than on any other issue in his legislative career.  

The bills that passed were AB 2763 (Laird) and AB 2765 (Huffman). AB 2763 requires early planning for responses to invasive plant and insect species. Potential pest control treatments would be disclosed well ahead of time and subjected to greater scrutiny than they now receive. AB 2765, which requires full disclosure of pesticide ingredients, examination of alternatives to aerial spraying, and a public health assessment of the risks of aerial spraying, passed, but does not require disclosure of the formulation of the pesticide. These bills now head to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Neither of them was opposed by the agriculture industry. 

ACR 117 (Laird) also passed. This resolution calls on the state to address the unresolved health, scientific, and efficacy issues concerning the 2007 light brown apple moth eradication effort. 

According to Laird’s spokesperson, “Whether any of these efforts will succeed in derailing the feds’ trade-agreement-driven plan to spray for the moth this summer in Santa Cruz, Monterey and the Bay Area counties remains to be seen.” 

The bills that would have required the State to consider public input before aerial spraying, opposed by the agriculture industry, failed to pass out of committee, despite Chairwoman Parra’s declaration that “We have to bring the people to the table” on the LBAM issue. AB 2764 (Hancock) would have prohibited aerial spraying of urban areas without a governor-declared state of emergency. The current eradication program only needs approval by CDFA staff who are not directly responsible to the voters. The purpose of AB 2764 was to increase accountability by making the highest elected official in the state directly responsible to the population being sprayed, but the opposition prevailed by convincing the committee that this would amount to politicizing an issue best handled by appointed officials. 

AB 2892 (Swanson) would have required the State to obtain the approval of a community to be sprayed through the electoral process before conducting aerial spraying of pesticides over an urban area.  

The Swanson bill, AB 2892, generated the most controversy. Assemblymember Berryhill predicted that if the light brown apple moth gets into the Central Valley, it would be “Armageddon” for California agriculture. Assemblymember Swanson made the point that there are other methods that might be just as effective as aerial spraying, and potentially less harmful to human health, but they have been rejected as too expensive. He predicted that his constituents will not consent to four or five years of being sprayed, that people will insist on being heard when it comes to protecting the lives of their children. Swanson insisted that the people to be affected directly by the spray must be brought to the table on the issue.  

One of the proponents of the Swanson bill was a man named Mike De Lay, an insurance agent from Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. De Lay is a Republican and a self-described conservative who does not normally challenge the government. But both he and his wife, an asthmatic, were made sick by the spray, and she had to leave the area for several months. Delay shared pictures drawn by children in Monterey County depicting their fears of being sprayed again. 

Swanson summed up by declaring “The debate will not stop here regardless of the vote.” 

For more information about the State’s position on the LBAM program, see www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/PDEP/lbam/lbam_main.html. For information from groups opposed to the spray see www.stopthespray.org/ and www.lbamspray.com/. 

Berkeley’s landmark Wells Fargo Building has been sold to a company owned by the heirs to the Hills Brothers Coffee fortune. 

The new owner is Bollibokka Shattuck LLC, a subsidiary of the Bollibokka Land Company, which was incorporated in Nevada in May 2007 and is headquartered in Mill Valley. 

Leighton J. Hills, the company’s legal agent of record, lives in Mill Valley, while other members of the family live in Santa Rosa, Colusa, Reno and Farmington, Conn., according to legal filings. 

Hills did not returned calls, and details of the sale, including purchase price, were not available. 

Asked if Seagate Properties, the former owners, had sold the venerable Berkeley building, a receptionist for that company answered, “Yes, we have.” Calls left with Seagate for further comment were not returned. 

Bollibokka lists the building on the home page of their Internet site at www.bollibokka.com. 

According to the site, the Bollibokka Land Company was founded in 1904, though the corporation as it now exists was formed in Nevada in April 1935. For more than a century the firm owned land on the McCloud River, where it ran a private fly-fishing operation, the Bollibokka Club. 

The property, which was sold in 2006 for a reported $30 million, is adjacent to Wyntoon, the baronial resort built by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. 

According to their website, the land company “is in the process of building a portfolio of commercial real estate properties” and cites only one purchase to date, “an acquisition of the Wells Fargo Bank building in Berkeley.” 

Seagate still retains other properties in the city, including the ELS office building at 2030-2040 Addison St., the Berkeley Promenade at 2061-2065 Center St., the former National Guard armory at 1950 Addison St., and their newest acquisition at 2850 Telegraph Ave. 

“Wow,” said City Councilmember Dona Spring when she learned of the sale. “That just shows that downtown real estate continues to be a hot commodity.” 

Spring, who represents the district on the council, compared the sale to last year’s $147.4 million sale of the seven downtown apartment buildings owned by developers Patrick Kennedy and David Teece. 

Designated a city landmark in 1984, the building was completed in 1925, designed by Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr. and originally named the Chamber of Commerce Building for its primary tenant. 

Spring is the building’s number one fan, noting wryly “that it makes up in height for what it lacks in aesthetics.” 

The councilmember said she believes the new owners will probably have to do a significant amount of retrofit to bring the offices up to contemporary standards. 

“The last time I was in the building, I noticed that it was pretty antiquated,” she said. 

Berkeley Economic Development Director Michael Caplan said he hadn’t heard of the transaction before a reporter called, “but I had heard rumors on and off about a possible sale. When you have large property transactions, it means an infusion of transfer tax to the city, and that’s a good thing,” he said.

Today is the 38th anniversary of the first Earth Day, a media event created in the United States with the sponsorship of a senator, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. In other countries around the world, Earth Days coincide with the vernal equinox, around March 20, but in this country it’s been April 22 since it started. (The DAR once spread the scurrilous rumor that the date was chosen because April 22, 1969, was the centennial of Lenin’s birth.)  

From the left flank, so to speak, Earth Day is occasionally attacked for trivializing the serious. From a website from the World Changing organization: “The biggest problem with Earth Day is that it has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps, we’re told, ignoring the fact that most of the steps most frequently promoted (returning your bottles, bringing your own bag, turning off the water while you brush your teeth) are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well.” 

Well, yes. After all these years of schlepping paper bags, we’re now told to bring our own bags, but those among us who wonder what good that will do are not totally out to lunch. Little drops of water, little grains of sand, said the poet, make a mighty ocean, and a pleasant land. Or not. Maybe just a flood or a desert.  

Still, we wonder what more we can do, at what level, to Make a Difference. In the five years we’ve been running this paper, we’ve already taken the small steps. We’ve printed with soy ink on recycled paper, the only local paper to do so, and we’ve scrupulously recycled back issues. (The practice of some too-energetic community members of recycling bundles of Planets before anyone has read them is not good, however.) 

During the same period, more and more citizens seem to be getting more and more of their news from the Internet. We’ve had many requests to improve our website, to make it easier to use and to report more news more often, and we’ve been working on that. But our resources are limited, and it’s hard to be all things to all people all the time. 

After a lot of discussion, we’ve decided that the best course of action would be to print and distribute only one issue a week, instead of the current two, on Thursdays instead of the current Tuesdays and Fridays. This would have obvious environmental advantages: less paper and less gasoline consumed. We’re going to increase the number of pages in an issue, along with the number of copies distributed, so the savings aren’t as much as they might seem to be, but they’re not insubstantial.  

To keep our readers happy and well-informed, we’re going to shift gears and make sure that breaking news appears promptly on our website, along with new features, columns and opinion every weekday, with special postings over the weekend if anything big happens. Most of this material will show up in the Thursday print issue too, so readers without computers won’t miss much.  

Often readers tell us that they haven’t had a chance to read everything in one issue before a new one is on the stands. Others say that if they miss their regular pickup day, they’ve missed a whole issue. A paper that’s around for a full week will help with that problem. 

Thursday publication will also benefit those who use our arts and entertainment section and our calendars to plan their weekends. Friday is too late for many people to decide what they’re going to do on Friday night or even on Saturday and Sunday. 

We’re going to be able to provide extra web-only content, since space there is effectively free. We do have some entertaining new ideas we’ll roll out in the weeks to come. 

A good example of what we’ll be able to do: Recently UC teachers have been assigning students to write opinion essays for the Planet. We’re flattered to be taken so seriously, but it’s hard to find print space in one issue for six excellent commentaries on the dangers of biofuels. We could print just one, and have the rest on the web, or we might print excerpts from each and run them all in full on the web. You can see in today’s paper which we chose this time. 

For our loyal advertisers, weekly publication will probably be beneficial. If an issue remains on their prospective customer’s coffee table for a full week, the ads will probably be noticed more. And on the Internet, we’re planning to help our advertisers make full use of the searching benefits of computer technology by starting online directory pages with very low cost basic ads for businesses which can’t afford print display ads.  

And finally, we would not be truthful if we left you with the impression that our motives for making this change were 100 percent altruistic. We’re all five years older since the Planet was revived, and so are our children and grandchildren. The managing editor is now the proud parent of an active 2-year-old. The new schedule with one fewer major deadline will allow all of us to manage our time in more harmonious ways.  

This is our last Tuesday issue. We’ll have a Friday issue this week, and then the next one will come out on Thursday, May 1. To celebrate, we’re inviting all and sundry to attend our fifth anniversary open house that day, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Planet office, 3023A Shattuck Ave.  

One more thing: Our basic principle, which has kept us in business for these five years, is that in a democracy if people know what’s going on they’ll make the right decisions. Making sure that everything that happens in local government is exposed to the full light of day is central to what we’re trying to do here. We were part of the effort to get a decent Sunshine Ordinance in Berkeley even before we took over the Planet.  

No one—no one, prog or mod—who has followed the antics of Berkeley’s city government in the last five years is fooled by Manuela Albuquerque’s faux sunshine ordinance, which will be on the Berkeley City Council agenda again tonight (Tuesday). It’s what’s sometimes called a tin fiddle: looks like a fiddle, but sounds awful. If the councilmembers have any sense, they’ll reject it one more time, and give the multi-partisan citizens’ committee version a fair hearing in a month or so. The alternative is a citizen initiative, but that’s expensive and time-consuming. 

We look forward to the day that the inner workings of government are so open that news media will be able to wither away...well, not really. We’re aware that even with the best intentions on the part of officials both elected and hired, someone will always have to shine a light on their activities. We hope to be here to do that for a while longer.

As Earth Day approaches, Berkeley’s ever-growing Earth Day celebration is scheduled to take place this Saturday in newly-renovated Martin Luther King Park, right between the two city halls, Old and New, and next to the Farmers’ Market. It’s a perfect location to consider a few facts about sustainability, today’s buzz word for doing whatever we can not to harm Mother Earth any more than we already have. 

The New City Hall, more formally the Civic Center Building, the former Federal Land Bank building, a substantial edifice from the 1930s, stands witness to the enormous benefits of adaptive re-use of existing buildings. This topic was covered in exhaustive and entertaining detail in a recent lecture, Sustainable Stewardship:Historic Preservation’s Essential Role in Fighting Climate Change, which was delivered in Berkeley by Richard Moe, the President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. You can read the whole thing, complete with elegant illustrations, at http://berkeleyheritage.com/speeches/richard_moe.html.  

But the national organization has posted a tight summary of the facts on which Moe’s talk was based on its website, under the title is “Facts about Preservation and Sustainability: Why Our Existing Buildings and Neighborhoods Matter.”  

The key statistics bear repeating here verbatim: 

The Costs of Building Construction and Demolition: 

• The United States is responsible for 22 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, though we have only 5 percent of the world’s population. In the United States, building construction and operations account for 48 percent of Greenhouse gas emissions.  

• It takes a lot of energy to construct a building—for example, building a 50,000 square foot commercial building requires the same amount of energy needed to drive a car 20,000 miles a year for 730 years.  

• We are much too inclined to think of our buildings as disposable, rather than a renewable resource. A 2004 report from the Brookings Institution projects that by 2030 we will have demolished and replaced 82 billion square feet of our current building stock. Since it is estimated that there are about 300 billion square feet of space in the United States today, that means we anticipate demolishing nearly one third of our building stock in the next 20-25 years.  

• It will take as much energy to demolish and reconstruct 82 billion square feet of space (as predicted by the Brookings study) as it would to power the entire state of California—the 10th largest economy in the world with a population of about 36 million people—for 10 years.  

• If we were to rehab even 10 percent of this 82 billion square feet, we would save enough energy to power the state of New York for well over a year.  

• Construction debris accounts for 25 percent of the waste in the municipal waste stream each year. Demolishing 82 billion square feet of space will create enough debris to fill 2,500 NFL stadiums.  

Energy Efficiency of Historic and Older Buildings: 

It is often assumed that older and historic buildings are “energy hogs” and that it is more environmentally friendly to demolish these buildings and construct new energy efficient buildings than to preserve these existing buildings. However, recent work indicates otherwise. 

• Recent calculations indicate that it takes about 65 years for an energy efficient new building to save the amount of energy lost in demolishing an existing building.  

• Far from being energy hogs, some historic buildings are as energy efficient—or more so—than buildings constructed in later decades. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency finds that buildings constructed before 1920 are actually more energy-efficient than those built at any time afterwards—except for those built after 2000.  

• In 1999, the General Services Administration examined its building inventory and found that utility costs for historic buildings were 27 percent less than for more modern buildings.  

• Not all historic and older buildings are as sustainable as they should be—indeed, many are not. But an increasing number of case studies demonstrate that historic buildings can go green. 

None of this is hard to understand. So why do some otherwise progressive politicians seem determined to defy green logic by voting time and again to throw away valuable older stuctures in favor of new construction? The Berkeley City Council members, who rejoice in trying to appear greener-than-thou at every juncture, have even passed a revisionist version of the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance, which, if it’s not overturned by referendum voters next November, will substantially weaken protection and re-use of existing buildings.  

Other politicians try the same thing: “He is criticized by the left for his coziness with property developers and by the preservationists for his willingness to transmogrify the traditional ...skyline with new highrises—both of which policies he defends as levers for prying affordable housing out of developers.”  

Sound familar? No, it’s not Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, it’s London Mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone, described by Calvin Trillin in a recent New Yorker. There’s a peculiar blindness which some—though not all—who would like to call themselves progressives demonstrate when it comes to the very urgent environmental topic of conserving our urban heritage and taking advantage of the sunk energy cost which the built environment embodies.  

Others, thank goodness, do seem to manage to be real environmentalists, even advocates of the much-abused smart growth concept, while still working diligently to save and reuse older buildings. Richmond Councilmember Tom Butt is a good model, in business with a green architecture firm and at the same time a prime mover behind saving treasures great (the Richmond Plunge) and small (a modest railroad building now adapted as a bank office.) Berkeley School Board President John Selawsky, who ran for office as a Green, should take a leaf from Butt’s playbook and figure out how to adaptively re-use Berkeley High’s old gymnasium and the warm pool it houses. 

But some self-described progressives just don’t get it. We got a letter recently from an old-line Berkeley leftist, now working with the Progressive Caucus inside the Democratic Party, which illustrates the other side of the coin: “Organized in 2005, we have put into the platform of the C[alifornia] D[emocratic] P[arty] single payer health insurance, out of Iraq, public financing of elections, and other progressive measures. We are proud of our accomplishment in a few short years, but realize we have a long way to go. If the D[aily] P[lanet] were less fixated on Berkeley land use, KPFA and Bates-bashing, it might have noticed the caucus.” 

KPFA fans and critics will have to take care of themselves, but we wish that the old-school progs, both Red Ken and our local critic, could understand that urban land use issues, not only preservation but zoning and density, are every bit as important for modern progressives as health insurance. For many of us, our homes are our only financial asset, and if an awful development next door reduces the value of this investment we’re in serious trouble. Ignoring this fact is elitist at best. And Livingstone’s idea that highrises are levers for prying affordable housing out of developers has been disproven time and again, most recently in San Francisco, where the affordable housing advocates are up in arms about their city’s failures in that respect. 

As for the Bates-bashing, the mayor makes his own record and has to answer for it. He loves to wrap himself in the green mantle, but seems entirely ignorant of the facts quoted above. The emasculation of the LPO was his baby, and he’s still its biggest fan. His developer buddies are undoubtedly building their war chest for the fall referendum already.  

His most recent gaffe was his attempt to keep the city council from hearing the very crucial report on how to correct Berkeley’s problems with the state’s density bonus, which was produced by an improbable consensus of Zoning Adjustment Board members and planning commissioners who seldom agree on anything.  

Cooler heads seem to have prevailed, so the council will get the report on Tuesday after all. Alas, it comes too late to save the neighbors of the Trader Joe’s monstrosity. They will have to pay for this massive intrusion into, yes, their backyards, with loss of some of the value invested in their homes and some of their precious sunlight.  

But at least the council will now have the opportunity to hear what the commissioners have learned. Perhaps, just perhaps, at least five councilmembers will be paying attention on Tuesday, and maybe they can do something to prevent the same thing from happening again. But don’t count on Bates being one of them. After all, it’s not easy being green.  

THE MAYOR’S  

SUNSET ORDINANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was present at the March 17 Agenda Committee meeting when Mayor Bates brought up his “Sunshine Ordinance” by calling it a “Sunset Ordinance.” He did not catch his error until the numerous chuckles gave him pause. 

My reaction at the time was that it was a perfect Freudian slip, and nothing has occurred since to change my mind. The mayor’s ordinance would do a good job of keeping us right where he wants us—totally in the dark. 

Gale Garcia 

• 

LOW-INCOME HOUSING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley City Council has over $4 million to go to low-income housing but we must request what we want and people must speak and e-mail. 

Berkeley allows landlords to shamelessly overcharge Section 8 rents (way over HUD’s fair market rents). Above this fair rent, HUD will not pay, so Berkeley charges about $100 extra per month to the very people who have no way of paying it: the disabled (including veterans), the elderly and the very poor. According to Berkeley’s housing ordinances and state and federal law, this is against the law, and the overcharges are Berkeley’s responsibility. People can no longer move, as there are very few Section 8 places left anywhere. Because of fee waivers granted for two-bedroom and above, it is the Section 8 tenants in studios and one bedrooms who are at risk of homelessness now, but it could change back at any time. Come to the meeting, ask City Manager Phil Kamlarz and the City Council for equal treatment under the law, including disability law, and give them a chance to staunch the flow of homelessness on to Berkeley’s streets. If you’re not at the meeting, you know the developers and property owners will be. The Berkeley City Council is asking people to come to the April 22 meeting at 7 p.m. at Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way and send e-mails to kslee@ci.berkeley.ca.us and tstroshane@ci.berkeley.ca.us. You are also asked to call 981-5422 with any ideas or comments.  

P. Smith 

Berkeley Citizens for Fair Housing 

• 

CLINTON’S TITANIC FAILURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In retrospect, Hillary Clinton’s campaign probably hit its iceberg when it started spreading the vicious innuendo that Barack Obama, as a black candidate, was unelectable. Race is, after all, the quintessential American issue that is still 10 percent visible and 90 percent below the surface. Now, Clinton’s problem is more clinical: She has a hearing problem. In her head, she still hears the band striking up “Hail to the Chief”—but the sounds really are just her loyal musicians playing on deck as the ship sinks, realizing the futility of the situation but knowing that it would be pointless to tell the captain. In fierce denial, she seems determined to go down with the ship. One question remains: Is the Democratic Party one of the passengers on it? 

Doug Buckwald 

• 

STIMULUS PACKAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

Are you wondering what you’re going to do with that generous “stimulus package” check from the government? 

Why not use it to create a “Moral Stimulus Package” by donating to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is one of the most vigorous defenders of human rights in the United States? They are actively working to bring back habeas corpus and to press for criminal prosecutions of Bush administration officials. And not only the ones they have already admitted to on national television.  

Don’t you think a return to the rule of law and the protection of human rights will look much better on America than a new pair of shoes or a flat screen TV? 

If you can afford to turn your “stimulus package” check into a “Moral Stimulus Package” for humanity, then please consider donating to the Center for Constitutional Rights.  

For more information on the Center for Constitutional Rights visit www.ccrjustice.org. 

Bryan Bowman 

• 

BAD BICYCLE BABY BUGGIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As a native Berkeleyan, I am alarmed at the number of parents riding bicycles on the public roads, towing their small children behind them in little nylon trailers. These little trailers are about wheel-high, maybe three feet off the ground. They come in one- and two-child carrying sizes. 

I often see them on Ashby Avenue or Gilman or on the designated bicycle boulevards.  

Parents must be aware there is danger since I often see children in little bicycle helmets or orange flags attached to the tops of the trailers themselves. I think these protective measures are woefully inadequate. I believe that these bicycle baby trailers are a tragic accident just waiting to happen. A car taking a corner too fast or simply misjudging the distance could easily kill the children contained in the baby trailer. 

I don’t understand why it is illegal to drive with your toddler in the car absent car seat but it is legal to put your kid in a tiny little tent on wheels and trundle off down the road on a bike dragging them behind. 

The Berkeley City Council should pass a law to protect these children by ruling that these types of bicycle trailers are only appropriate for park and trail like settings. They should be barred from the public roads. 

Amanda Duisman 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent opinion piece claims that today’s Bus Rapid Transit opponents are like the Berkeley activists of a half century ago who wanted BART to be underground rather than elevated, so it would have less impact on Berkeley. 

But there is an obvious difference. Elevated or underground, BART would be separated from traffic and would provide the same level of service to riders. But without bus-only lanes, BRT would get stuck in traffic and would provide worse service to riders. 

For a real analogy to today’s BRT opponents, imagine that there were Berkeley activists a half century ago who wanted BART to run on surface streets in lanes that trains shared with other traffic, so BART trains would be delayed whenever traffic was congested. Under this absurd scenario, the unreliability of BART service in Berkeley would jam up the entire BART system. Likewise, without exclusive bus lanes in Berkeley, unreliability of service would jam up the entire BRT system. 

BRT opponents claim that their RapidBus Plus proposal would give most advantages of BRT at less cost. If that is true, then why is BRT with exclusive bus lanes being used or proposed in 25 cities across the United States? Why did New York’s plan for congestion pricing rely on BRT with exclusive bus lanes as its main means of extending transit service? The answer is obvious: because transportation planners around the country know that buses with exclusive lanes gives faster, more reliable service than buses that are stuck in traffic. 

If BRT opponents really know better, if they really have evidence that RapidBus Plus is as good as BRT, they should not confine their efforts to Berkeley. They should publish their findings in professional journals that have wide circulation, so they can enlighten the world’s transportation planners by sharing their superior knowledge. 

Charles Siegel 

• 

DEDICATED-LANE BRT IS  

CURRENT CITY POLICY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While some impassioned southside neighborhood activists continue to spread their worst fears about Bus Rapid Transit on Telegraph, it’s worth noting that the city already has an official opinion on the issue. On July 10, 2001, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution setting forth the city’s position on how AC Transit should orient its “major investment study” for improving bus service to downtown. That resolution, still in force today, noted that Berkeley has a “Transit-first policy that supports the use of exclusive transit lanes,” and affirmed that the “preferred alignment will be Telegraph Avenue and the preferred mode will be bus rapid transit.” 

Voting for this initiative were current councilmembers Maio, Olds and Worthington—along with then-mayor Shirley Dean, now a leader of the opposition. (I’m sure Ms. Dean has a perfectly good explanation as to why she voted for BRT before she was against it.) 

This resolution shows the context in which the current “controversy” (the Planet’s favorite headline word) should be placed—it’s a tempest in a teapot. Whenever the project is looked at in its full scope there is widespread support for BRT—including recent recommendations in three new city plan documents (the Climate Action Plan, the Downtown Area Plan and the Southside Plan). 

Once more facts-based information comes out in months to come, support for BRT will continue to grow. Bus Rapid Transit is good for Berkeley, good for the environment, and even good for the southside. 

Alan Tobey 

• 

BRT OR DEDICATED  

LANE CORRIDOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I think this is another horrible idea for getting people out of their cars. (And this is again coming from someone who is dedicated to not using his car; the same cyclist who in 2003 panned the idea of adding bicycle lanes on Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland because of the congestion and safety issues.) 

I am all for getting people out of their cars. But I would not promote the use of AC Transit’s buses until they become much freer of the personal safety/harassment issues than is currently the case. Do not go about “putting the cart in front of the horse”! 

Michael Sachs 

Oakland 

• 

ISRAEL-PALESTINE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

John Gertz’s April 15 letter is an explicit endorsement of war crimes against the captive people of Gaza. The claim that Israel is no longer occupying Gaza and has no responsibility for the Gazans welfare is bogus. Although Israel redeployed its illegal colonial settlers from Gaza to the West Bank, it continued to control and enforce a land, sea and air blockade. Even the border with Egypt is under Israeli control and Egypt is treaty bound not to interfere. I know, I was a member of an American delegation to observe the Palestinian elections in January 2006 and our delegation was stranded on the Egyptian-Gaza Rafah crossing for 24 hours waiting for Israeli approval. Former President Carter who is now visiting Israel-Palestine stated this week that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a “crime and atrocity” and noted that Gazans were being “starved to death.” 

Israel atrocities and systematic abuse and liquidation of Palestinians led Professor Richard Falk (professor emeritus of international law and practice at Princeton University) to, I am sure painfully for an American Jew, describe the abuse as a Palestinian holocaust. Falk also writes that compared to Darfur “Gaza is morally far worse.” 

Shifting the blame to Hamas is also fraudulent. As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pape, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine started in 1947 and continues to this day. That is, it started 40 years before the 1987 founding of Hamas. One of many examples is the massacre of Deir Yassin when European Jewish gangs (later incorporated into the Israeli army) massacred between 107 and 120 native villagers. That massacre took place on April 9, 1948, not only long before Hamas was founded but also weeks before the initiation of hostilities with neighboring Arab States. Readers should note that Deir Yassin village is located in West Jerusalem far from the area intended for the Jewish state by the UN partition plan. This exposes another frequent lie that Israelis only attack in self defense.  

Everyone knows Hamas is not in control of the West Bank and that no rockets are fired from this occupied territory. Yet, just as in Gaza, a reign of terror is inflicted by the Israeli army on West Bank Palestinians daily and is documented in the UK newspaper The Independent. 

That American media is silent on Israeli atrocities and that, like John Gertz, many American Zionists (Jews as well as Christians) feel duty bound to justify and even cheer Israeli crimes is shameful. 

Hassan Fouda 

Kensington 

(The author serves on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHDUSA.org). Opinions expressed here are his own.) 

• 

THE REAL NEWS  

ABOUT PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If you ask people what’s happening in People’s Park lately, they might tell you about the mass resignation of the pave-the-park faction of the advisory board, or the uppity consultant group that refused to submit a clear, permanent redesign proposal, or the refusal of the university to support a public design contest for a newly configured park.  

The probability of anyone mentioning the SLAPP-suit would be low.  

Only a few people remember that the University of California attached a $100,000 price tag to the free speech of a few People’s Park advocates in 1992, hoping to silence the entire community. The silence about the SLAPP-suit sixteen years later is strong evidence that Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are very effective.  

Imagine waking up to a voice machine message from a UC lawyer letting you know you were expected in Superior Court the following day to answer charges that you were the nexus of a violent conspiracy with people whose names you’d never heard before.  

Imagine scrambling down to the courtroom to find out you’d been accused of creating cardboard stage props and carrying roses, and that the sixth largest nuclear weapons manufacturer in the world was arguing that you therefore constituted a public danger, for which they needed a temporary restraining order, followed by a permanent injunction.  

Imagine that the injunction including digging in People’s Park, an activity you had enjoyed since the park’s creation as a part of years of working in the community garden.  

It should be obvious that none of the 50 Jane and John Does included in the still current injunction could possibly feel free to attend public meetings and express opinions about the park, since those very activities were the charges against them in the SLAPP-suit. Those who still do are risking another $100,000 gauntlet through Superior Court, another five years of their lives.  

People’s Park may need a few repairs, some weeding, and better drainage during the rains. But the most important repair is the one they won’t let anyone discuss; dropping the SLAPP-suit so that all of us can share equally in any discussion about the park’s future. 

Carol Denney 

• 

THE OIL MEN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Was gas $4 a gallon when oil men Bush and Cheney took office seven years ago? Did you vote for Bush twice? Are you happy with the return? Sky-high gas, food, and housing prices. Was it costing $50, $70, $100 to fill up when Oil Ministers Bush and Cheney arrived on the scene? Did anyone think to ask the president and VP, wedded to the oil industries as they are, what might be the results of their energy policy seven years down the road? Have you heard either of these Republicans explain away the excessive and obscene profits Corporate Oil continues to make? 

The one bright spot might be that the environment and nature are taking a breather as gas prices continue to rise and people drive less and less. 

Ron Lowe 

Grass Valley 

Most of us hold an unshakable belief that an informed citizenry is the very heart of democracy. Motivated by this belief, our citizens group is drafting a Sunshine Ordinance intended to make the workings of our local government transparent. Similar ordinances have already been adopted by several Bay Area cities, but the effort has been repeatedly delayed here. Who in Berkeley could possibly oppose this idea? Not surprisingly, officials who benefit from keeping the public ill-informed have for years resisted shedding light on City business. Now, however, these sunshine-obstructionists, led by Mayor Bates, have sprung into action; they are promoting a weak, so-called “Sunshine Ordinance” in an effort to preempt our proposal.  

In reality, their bill is more of a sunset ordinance—an ineffective proposal with no enforcement provisions, only masquerading as sunshine. It’s based on a skeleton draft prepared by former City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque before she left office. It’s on today’s (April 22) council agenda, because the Agenda Committee refused to postpone the matter long enough to hear a presentation from our citizens’ group, which has, for over a year, worked on its own open-government measure that provides real sunshine for Berkeley residents. 

So, why is Mayor Bates suddenly in such a rush? Maybe it’s because this is an election year, and he’d like credit for passing a sunshine ordinance, no matter how ineffective it is. Maybe he really prefers Albuquerque’s weaker version to the one written by citizens, for citizens. Her draft is based on a resolution passed by the council nearly five years ago, but never implemented. It’s loaded with discretionary language allowing officials and bureaucrats (rather than citizens) to determine how much open government the public will be allowed. Put bluntly, the mayor’s proposal is empty rhetoric. It does nothing to expand existing law; it would, in fact, allow the city to continue current practices, which shut the public out of the decision-making process. 

Yet, it was the mayor who convened a Sunshine Workshop in March of 2007, to which four distinguished panelists were invited to give their views; they were Terry Francke of Californians Aware, Jinky Gardner of the League of Women Voters, Mark Schlosberg of the ACLU, and Judith Scherr of the Society of Professional Journalists. All petitioned the mayor in a hand-delivered letter, dated April 2, to postpone voting on the Albuquerque proposal until citizen alternatives have been heard; none favored the mayor’s proposal. So why, after having solicited their opinions, is the mayor prepared to ignore their advice? There is only one answer—Mayor Bates and his allies want to keep the current system with its built-in barriers to open government—barriers like these: 

• Present practice is to publish the City Council’s agenda on the Thursday before each Tuesday meeting, leaving only two to three business days for interested parties to study the items, obtain information, and respond. This leaves almost no chance for councilmembers to receive and consider dissenting opinions. 

• Key documents relating to agenda items are sometimes posted on Thursday, but are often listed as “to be delivered.” In these cases, neither the public nor councilmembers see the documents until the beginning of the meeting; there is no time to seek background information, let alone prepare a reasonable response. 

• Published documents are often sanitized to include only arguments supporting staff recommendations; key internal staff memos stating contrary possibilities never see the light of day. 

• Members of the public are typically given no more than two minutes each to state their case—and often are allowed only one minute to speak. Once public comment is received, the floor is closed to citizens, while staff and Councilmembers are allowed to discuss the issues among themselves. There is no procedure by which the public may correct misstatements before councilmembers vote. 

• The public has the right, under state law, to examine documents that were not revealed prior to the debate, but the city typically delays its response to such requests—and when it does reply, it often claims that these documents are “privileged” or “confidential.” Usually, the city refuses to produce any draft memoranda or preliminary studies exchanged among staff and elected officials. 

Given all of the above, it’s no surprise that staff recommendations are usually adopted word-for-word. Where staff is overruled, it’s because of behind-the-scenes lobbying, rather than as the result of public debate. The Albuquerque/Bates draft does nothing to address the above issues. In fact, it perpetuates Berkeley’s practice of government-by-stealth, and it ignores the hard truth, that when the city acts outside of the public good, citizens may only learn about it too late to react.  

The people who have signed this commentary are members of a citizens’ Sunshine Committee, which has written a Sunshine Ordinance that lives up to its name. The meetings are open to everyone and include people who call themselves “progressive” and people who call themselves “moderate.” Some may like the mayor, and others may not. What unites us all is a concern that the council has routinely made policy without full disclosure to the public and without its valuable input.  

Berkeley is in desperate need of a strong Sunshine Ordinance. The mayor’s proposal is nothing of the sort and is only another sad example of how important matters are decided in the dark. It should be rejected until the public has had a chance to consider the strong Sunshine Ordinance written by Berkeley citizens, for Berkeley citizens. Then a public hearing should be held, and only after that, should the City Council take action. This is what good government is all about.  

Jim Fisher  

Jane Welford 

Gene Bernardi 

Al Wasserman 

Patti Dacey 

David Wilson 

Dean Metzger 

Doug Buckwald 

Judith Epstein 

Judith Scherr 

Marie Bowman 

Zelda Bronstein 

Martha Nicoloff 

Shirley Dean 

The Berkeley Sunshine Committee meets weekly and welcomes new members. Write to drm1a2@sbcglobal.net or contact the League of Women Voters for more information.

Chelsea Clinton recently forwarded me an article by New York feminist Robin Morgan in support of her mother’s candidacy. Though Chelsea and I have never met, I somehow ended up on one of her thousands of listserves. Morgan’s piece listed contemptible misogynistic behaviors practiced in various locations around the world and in different periods of history. By way of somewhat questionable logic, she bundled them all together as proof that Hillary is the best candidate, and angrily denouncing naysayers, fired it off. 

I would like to support Hillary. I am a feminist and Hillary’s candidacy represents the chance to witness the shattering of the last glass ceiling. Like many of my ilk, Hillary represents our unrealized or postponed opportunities, and for our mothers and grandmothers, the never-dared-to-dream dreams of roads untraveled. I would like to support Hillary, but I can’t. 

It’s not the acerbic, attack-dog demeanor of her campaign. It’s not her discomforting air of entitlement or her unfortunate lack of charm. I’m not much of a charmer myself. It isn’t even her embarrassingly childish proclamations such as, “I’m ready to lead!” or the “red phone” fairy tale. After all, her campaign rhetoric fits the Checkers speech mode established by Richard Nixon in 1952 and which, according to George Packer, still dominates our elections. 

I can’t support Hillary because I don’t know who she is and I don’t think she does either. I followed a trail of clues in search of this woman and found myself at the feet of a political party hack whose core values are—and have been for a long time—a liquid gas poised to morph into anybody or anything it takes to win. 

Hillary’s friend, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, was active and at her side in all the photo-ops at the start of her campaign. Hillary was apparently completely comfortable with Madeline’s part in Bill Clinton’s policy of the seven year sanctions against Iraq which caused the deaths of 567,000 children (the lowest approximation), comfortable with Madeline’s statement when asked about these numbers: “The price was worth it.” She was comfortable until a lot of 2008 voters let her know they were unhappy about the whole Iraq affair, including her vote to attack the country. She was comfortable with Madeline until hordes of young people and new Democrats came rushing in to support Barrack Obama. From one day to the next Hillary switched horses and Madeline disappeared. 

From the start, Hillary not only proudly assumed credit for everything that happened when her husband was the President, but absurdly added her years as First Lady to her political resume. We knew that her actual “experience” started with her position as a U.S. senator, but, like the plumber’s wife who talks handily about clogged toilets even though she has never wielded a plunger, we overlooked it. It was close enough. She could have been the president if she’d had the chance. However, when she came up against real, live disgruntled Pennsylvania voters who had lost their jobs offshore, she switched horses, telling us she hadn’t agreed with the NAFTA pact pushed through by her husband, anyway. 

Hillary and Bill have always openly supported “free trade” agreements. Hillary was highly comfortable with the fact that Bill and Mark Penn, her chief campaign strategist, were aggressively working to seal the trade agreement deal with Colombia. Lori Wallach of Global Trade Watch expressed dismay with Bill’s “chummy relationship” with a Colombian president whose administration is “under a cloud” for association with paramilitaries, assassinations of hundreds of labor unionists, and the forced displacement of thousands of Afro-Colombians. On the campaign trail Hillary learned that dealing with Colombia was considered not so cool. She switched horses again, and Penn disappeared. The fact that Bill is—and will be in the future—Hillary’s closest advisor in this and other matters, Ms Wallach found to be “extremely disconcerting.” As do I. 

I’m afraid that Hillary’s calculated lie about being under sniper attack in Bosnia—which she and Bill continue to write off as a late night memory lapse but which obviously wasn’t because she repeated it three different times at different times of the day—made me cringe. A mother would never willingly take her daughter into a war zone. Even the fuzziest of brains would fade in Chelsea and fade out snipers on the way to the vocal chords. Calculated lying may be endemic to politics and certainly George W. Bush has perfected the art form, but frankly I need (and I think we need) something better. 

The sad and hollow Hillary Clinton-as-feminist myth came into purview when I learned that she had served for six years on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors while she was the wife of the governor of Arkansas. A feminist, even a Republican feminist, wouldn’t serve on the Wal-Mart Board of Directors. Wal-Mart is not only anti-worker and anti-union, but it is anti-woman. Two thirds of the Wal-Mart employees are women, ten percent are managers. A gender bias class action suit against Wal-Mart on behalf of one million women is pending. 

There will be a woman president. She may even be Hillary, but I hope not. We can do better. A woman of integrity will step forward. She’ll use “we” instead of “I” when she thinks about the country and when she addresses voters. She won’t be married to an ex-president or carry the burdens or reap the political rewards of his reign. She’ll be more thoughtful, more truthful and more comfortable in her own skin. She won’t lean on or spout the old male-driven military solutions to the country’s problems. She’ll have a political vision, an inspirational, redemptive, feminine vision of peace and social justice that will tap so deeply into our national pulse that we’ll sweep her into office and we’ll all go to work again reinventing our democracy. 

In the meantime, we have a highly promising young male alternative.  

Laura Santina is an Oakland resident.

Dear Christopher Edley Jr., Dean of UC Berkeley Law School: 

If a mathematics professor would suddenly proclaim that one plus one equals three, the mathematics department would have some concerns about the ability of that professor to continue as a teacher of students. If a history professor were to teach his students that Columbus first landed in the Americas at Times Square, Manhattan, in 1992, the history department would likewise wonder about whether that professor should teach at UC. So why, when a law professor gets the law wrong and says that torture of prisoners is legal, should “academic freedom” protect his right to teach law? And is that still true when the law professor advises criminal activity that is then carried out? 

Professor John Yoo not only has taught, but has advised the present Bush administration that it is legally permissible to torture prisoners. In one exchange in 2002, he stated that there was no legal reason why the president could not crush a prisoner’s child’s testicles if the president deemed it necessary. That’s not something enshrined in the Constitution. The U.S. Constitution does not contain any provision which would allow a president to ignore the Constitution when the president finds its restrictions inconvenient. Our constitution isn’t a mere suggestion. Nor is the Constitution a document which invites the president to comply with the parts he likes and forget about the rest.  

Article Six of the Constitution provides that it is “the supreme Law of the Land.” Despite Professor Yoo’s memos, I haven’t found anything in the Constitution that says George W. Bush is the supremer law of the land. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution—part of the Bill of Rights—provides that “cruel and unusual” punishments shall not be inflicted. The words in the Constitution which set forth that it is the supreme law and which prohibit cruel and unusual punishments are put in simple, declarative statements. The drafters of the Constitution didn’t use any weasel words there. The Supremacy Clause and the Eighth Amendment embody some of the fundamental principles upon which this nation was founded. Governments before the Bush administration may have governed badly, but until the Bush administration, no government has come close to contending that it could just ignore the U.S. Constitution whenever it felt like it. 

For this alarming position taken by the government, we can thank John Yoo. He is the person who told the Bush-Cheney administration that it was legal to ignore the Constitution of the United States and torture prisoners who have no recourse to contest either their imprisonment or their treatment. 

The drafters of the Constitution carefully put together a document which placed limits on executive power. They did this because they had lived under, declared independence, and fought for independence from an English sovereign who had abused his power in his treatment of the American colonies. The drafters did not want an American president to repeat these abuses. Thus the drafters of the Constitution placed strong barriers in the way of unchecked executive power. 

What UC Berkeley Professor Yoo has advised is simply and demonstrably wrong under the law. One would hope that a professor at a major law school would at least believe in the rule of the law. That should be a requirement to teach law—it’s basic to the discipline. But Professor Yoo believes in a government not subject to law, but to the whim of an executive, and worse, has advised the government to that it is free to ignore what the laws plainly say. 

Professor Yoo has advised the administration that despite the limitations of the constitution, laws, and treaties the United States has entered into, it is legal to inflict extreme pain on prisoners. Yoo knew that his advice would result in real prisoners being tortured. His memos were not theoretical constructions. Yoo wrote them as a high-level employee of the Justice Department in order to give permission for the administration to go out and torture prisoners. Apparently Yoo is a smart guy. He was not ignorant of the fact that real consequences would result from his actions. 

According to UC Law Professor Yoo, torture is really not torture unless it causes organ failure, impairment of bodily function or death. And, according to Yoo, even that isn’t torture if the person inflicting it says it was a mistake. In short, he told the administration that it could commit crimes against humanity and that they were not really crimes. Unlike the imaginary math and history professors I used in my examples above, Law Professor Yoo’s perversion and denial of the Constitution’s provisions—as well as his repudiation of U.S.-ratified treaties such as the Geneva Convention and the Convention Against Torture—has had ugly and horrendous consequences. 

For some reason, Dean Edley, you seem to believe that Professor Yoo’s responsibility for the criminal acts he authorized the government to commit is of a lesser culpability than the responsibility incurred by those who read his memos and ordered those criminal acts. Your point is that advising the government that it is legally permissible to torture actual prisoners it holds is in the same realm of academic disagreements among colleagues as are disputes about the commerce clause, quorum requirements of the Senate, or the taking of the census. Apparently because Professor Yoo is intelligent, speaks civilly, wears a suit when appropriate, blends in well at faculty gatherings and has good table manners, he should not be held responsible for the natural and probable consequences of his own actions. 

I dispute your contention that the responsibility incurred by those who advise horrific actions, knowing they will be carried out, is of any lesser degree of culpability than the responsibility incurred by those who acted on that advice. This administration has committed war crimes. That fact cannot honestly be disputed. The Bush administration has done the same things to prisoners that the United States claimed were crimes when committed against U.S. prisoners of war during World War II. The United States executed Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American prisoners. Put in simple terms, John Yoo is a co-conspirator in war crimes. 

Yet Professor Yoo has given the Bush administration the aura of respectability, of legality, for these crimes. Professor Yoo has consciously and intentionally given this administration pseudo-legal cover to violate all minimal civilized standards of behavior. He has shamed this nation and undermined its standing in the world. I strongly advise you to view the film Judgment at Nuremberg. That movie was not about the trial of the top Nazis who ordered war crimes. The film instead dealt with a later and lesser known trial of those in the legal profession who, while they would never have committed war crimes themselves, had, through their learning and prestige, provided a veneer of legality to the crimes of the Nazi government. I cannot see the difference between ordering torture and giving wrongful legal permission to order torture when one knows that the permission will be used to justify the later wrongful act. 

And the worst thing, from the standpoint of Boalt Hall, is that the Bush administration can justify itself by contending that it only acted upon the advice of a professor at the esteemed UC Berkeley School of Law who is still in good standing as a faculty member at that law school. In continuing to employ Professor Yoo, UC Berkeley is lending its name and legal backing to Yoo’s incompetent, immoral and unlawful advice to the Bush administration. Further, UC Berkeley School of Law is ratifying those wrongful acts every day it employs to teach its students about the law a man who advised the commission of war crimes.  

If Yoo’s actions are not a crime that will be prosecuted, this is only because he acted as an employee of the same Justice Department which is charged with the prosecution of such crimes. The Justice Department itself was complicit at the highest level. John Ashcroft, Yoo’s then boss, participated in a meeting which planned in detail the torture of prisoners. 

Don’t claim academic freedom. Thirty-six years ago I was denied entrance to Boalt Hall as a law student because a faculty member did not like my political views and vetoed my admission. Somehow academic freedom at Boalt seems to favor those who praise, enable and advise the very powerful. I am not upset that I didn’t go to Boalt. I went to another fine school and have been practicing law since 1975. I am, in fact, very thankful that I do not have to explain the complicity of my law school in bringing about this era of shame to our nation. 

While the employment of Professor Yoo has not stained the law school I did attend, what all of us cannot easily wash out is the stain that John Yoo and the UC. Berkeley School of Law have put on the entire legal profession in this country. 

Paul Glusman is an attorney practicing in Berkeley, about five blocks away from Boalt Hall. He attended Golden Gate Univiersity School of Law.

House Democrats’ decision to delay consideration of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until the next administration represents a move to protect the rights of the Colombian indigenous communities and U.S. national security interests. The decision comes after President Bush sent the controversial trade agreement to the House, which under presidential “fast track authority” requires an up or down legislative vote after ninety days. “Free trade” has most recently been a thorny topic, especially among Democrats, with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent dismissal of a top advisor, Mark Penn, for his work on the Colombia deal. Although the White House claims that the trade pact will “enhance national security” by “strengthening a key democratic ally” in the region and “bring economic gains to both sides,” the reality of the situation is quite another matter.  

So what do indigenous rights in Colombia have to do with U.S. national security? A great deal. I argue that the two are more connected than one would have thought. In Colombia, agriculture is the third most important sector, employing more than twice as many as the industrial sector. However, since the passage of the Andean trade preference program in 1991, the trend has been to export food rather than to provide for local markets. In 2006, 40 percent of Colombia’s population was food insecure. Under the U.S.- Colombia Free Trade agreement, Colombia will be forced to open its markets to U.S. agricultural goods, which are highly subsidized thanks to aggressive U.S. farm policy. Colombian agricultural products, especially from small- and medium-sized farms, cannot compete with the heavily subsidized U.S. agricultural goods such as corn and rice. And who owns and works these small to medium farms? Typically women, indigenous and Afro-Colombians: all members of the population that historically have been marginalized. The competitiveness of U.S. agriculture will drive these farmers from their land as they no longer find market access for their goods. In 2005, the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs concluded in a report that full liberalization would lead to a 35 percent decrease in employment.  

Decreased employment in small and medium farms means those farmers will seek employment in other sectors, threatening food sovereignty and increasing internal displacement. Colombia has the world’s second largest internally displaced populations (IDPs) of 38 million, second only to Sudan. However, this displacement is not only due to paramilitary violence, but also expropriations from large landholding elites and unemployment on small and medium farms. Many of the displaced will work on the very plantations that displaced them: large agro-business plantations, often environmentally and socially destructive. Others will seek employment in the more profitable coca plantations, exacerbating the cocaine drug trade. One contributor to the Washington Post opinion page said it best when they stated, “If farmers can’t grow rice, they are more likely to grow coca.” (Feb. 17, 2006)  

Even more yet will migrate to the cities in search of manufacturing jobs, where the destitution and isolation will put them at risk for joining left or right wing paramilitary groups. The Washington Office on Latin America, a Washington based NGO, contends, “that there is not a national security rationale for passing the trade agreement with Colombia and that a strong argument to the contrary can be made.” It is the cycle of economic liberalization, displacement, inequality and drug production that reinforces the proliferation of the paramilitary groups. The Colombian Minister of Agriculture even admitted the prevalence of this vicious cycle in 2004 when he stated, that the FTA would give small farmers little choice “but migration to the cities or other countries (especially the United States), working in drug cultivation zones, or affiliating with illegal armed groups.”  

The strength and pervasiveness of these terrorist organizations threaten democratic institutions in Colombia, regional stability and thus U.S. security interests in the Andes. U.S. agriculture and trade policies only serve to entrench the inequality and poverty in the Colombian countryside. Developing nations, such as Colombia, should not be subject to the same economic principles as the United States. Inherent inequalities in Colombia’s economy and political institutions create a situation in which liberalization would only serve to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the economic elites. Our government must learn from its mistakes (i.e. NAFTA) in order to stop the perpetuation of blow-back, the unintended consequences of U.S. foreign policy.  

House Democrats should be applauded for their strong stance against the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  

Natalie Danielle Camastra is a student of political economy at UC Berkeley.

THE IRS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

While we’re all thinking about the IRS, have other people noticed that, although we’re penalized and charged whatever interest it pleases for a late payment, it pays no interest at all on the withholding and prepayments it collects? Deposited in any bank it would make some interest, and the government, I’m sure, uses it in ways that make a lot more for it than we get in our local banks. 

Isn’t that our money? Shouldn’t we be credited that amount? 

Ruth Bird 

• 

TELEGRAPH NUISANCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For more than a decade now, we the street vendors, merchants, shoppers, and residents on the block of Haste and Telegraph, have been forced to endure a group of out-of-towners who invade our city nearly every Saturday with their message of hate. I’m talking about the Bay Area Outreach Ministries. With amplifiers blasting so loud that you can hear it two blocks away, they harangue us with their message that we’re all going to hell if we don’t believe the same beliefs as them. Even worse is the no-talent on the guitar who uses the amplifiers for a bully-pulpit to play the same five dull, inane songs that he’s been playing week after week, year after year. Just one of those blowhards that you know will never get tired of the sound of his own voice. We are now collecting signatures on a petition to get the city to do something about these pests. Please drop by any weekend on the corner of Haste and Telegraph and sign our petition. 

Ace Backwords 

• 

TALK IS CHEAP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If the whining of a few vocal NIMBYs manages to stop Bus Rapid Transit, Berkeley will be the laughingstock of California. It will send the message that the city of Berkeley, for all of its talk about saving the planet, is unwilling to actually do anything to reduce our automobile dependence. 

Jacob Berman 

• 

BERKELEY HYPOCRITES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley hypocrites. Don’t you love them? 

Residents of Berkeley are all for stopping global warming, stopping pollution, and stopping the war—until it actually means doing something. Yes, we’re for mass transit, but not if it means eliminating a traffic lane for our beloved gas-guzzlers or losing some parking spaces for our hallowed automobiles. 

And, of course, Code Pink, in order to protest the War for Oil needs a humongous, polluting truck and a free parking spot for it in front of the Marine recruiting office. What a laugh! 

Mark Johnson 

• 

PAUL ROBESON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Halfway through his otherwise excellent article on the Paul Robeson birthday celebration, J. Douglas Allen-Taylor made the double mistake of characterizing Robeson as “an almost stereotypical baritone.” In the first place, Robeson was not, strictly speaking, a baritone. The two of us, who remember the profundity of the first two notes of Robeson’s “Old Man River,” were ready to say that he had one of the greatest bass voices of the twentieth century. 

When we looked him up in the Grove-Norton Encyclopedia of Music, however, we found that it called him a bass-baritone. And then we remembered how he soared up to the final “Old man” at the end of that song, and we realized that he had risen into the baritone range at that point. But the bass part of his voice must never be ignored. 

Furthermore, there was nothing stereotypical about Paul Robeson. His voice, his extensive musical repertoire, and his versatility as a performer set him apart from the other singers and actors of his day. Both of us had the privilege of seeing and hearing Robeson in person. In the spring of 1944 Virginia was present when he played the role of Othello for a Des Moines audience and she listened to that unforgettable voice say Shakespeare’s heart-piercing lines. 

In 1952 Henry heard Robeson sing spirituals and Russian folk songs at a small gathering in Palo Alto to raise funds for refugees from the Spanish Civil War; (Franco was still very much in power). At that time, Henry recalls, Robeson seemed a true bass, a worthy heir to Fyodor Chaliapin. 

But we don’t wish to quibble. Thank you and Mr. Allen-Taylor for an enjoyable article about an important occasion. 

Henry Anderson 

Virginia Foote Anderson 

• 

JUBILEE ACT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On Thursday, April 16, the House of Representatives voted 285 to 132 to pass the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation (HR 2634). This strong bipartisan legislation urges expanded debt cancellation to impoverished countries that need it to meet the Millennium Development Goals and provide much needed clean water, health care without fees, and food to its people. 

Just two months ago, President Bush made an historic trip to Africa to review the progress of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and other administration-sponsored development programs in the region. He observed and praised increased investment health care and education, made possible by MDRI debt cancellation. 

Right now, Haiti, the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, is suffering from a food shortage. Its citizens are literally starving for justice. The Associated Press reports that many Haitians are eating cookies made of dirt to stay alive. And this year, the Haitian government is scheduled to pay more than $1 million a week to the World Bank and Inter-American Bank to repay money these banks loaned to the Duvalier regime. An amendment included in the Jubilee Act urges the Bush administration to work to immediately cancel or stop the payments of these debts. 

Debt cancellation is an essential element of any real, long-term development progress in Africa and Haiti. The Jubilee Act, which now moves to the Senate for consideration, should be supported by our Senators. The act provides debt cancellation for more poor nations and would help put an end to the kind of irresponsible lending that caused crippling debt burdens in the past. 

Tom Luce 

• 

RADIO FREQUENCY RADIATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

How much radio frequency radiation is your home receiving? A few of us who live near UC Storage in South Berkeley and near the French Hotel in North Berkeley are about to find out, for our homes anyway. The battle over the siting of cell phone antennas in Berkeley is far from over. This Friday, starting at 11 a.m., a group of South and North Berkeley neighbors will be observing and monitoring the measurement of ambient RF radiation around UC Storage at 2721 Shattuck Ave. Later Friday afternoon we will head for the French Hotel at 1538 Shattuck Ave. for more measurements. 

Last month Berkeley Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (BNAFU) convinced the City Council to pay an outside firm, EMF Services, to take before and after antenna installation measurements of RF radiation at the above two locations. 

The history of this struggle goes back over two years. During that time, Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board twice rejected the Verizon/Nextel cell antenna application for 2721 Shattuck Ave. This past November, however, the City Council caved in to Verizon’s demand to install eleven antennas at 2721 Shattuck. The council apparently had considered it no small matter that Verizon Wireless had launched a 65 page lawsuit against the city in federal court. So the council, with five out of nine votes in favor, overturned the ZAB decision rejecting the Verizon/Nextel application.  

BNAFU is currently suing the city, Verizon, and Patrick Kennedy, the owner of UC Storage, in Alameda Superior Court. Our goal is to stop the installation altogether.  

This Wednesday, Nov. 23, at 7 p.m., we will also be present at the Berkeley Planning Commission meeting at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst and MLK. On the agenda is a proposed new cell antenna ordinance for Berkeley. 

If you would like to join us, today, Friday, or this coming Wednesday, call 849-4014. If you want more information about our group or about the RF radiation issue we are so concerned about, you can e-mail us at: jllib2@aol.com. You can also Google the “Bioinitiative Report” to look at one of the latest comprehensive, research-based summaries of the dangers of cell phone antennas. 

Michael Barglow 

• 

SPEEDO CHEATS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

speedo cheats 

Have you heard about the other Olympic story? Speedo has a swimsuit that boosts swim times 1-2 percent, and the U.S. team will use them. The suits considerably increase buoyancy. Something like 45 of the 46 records broken recently have been with the new suit. Some countries have contracts with other swimsuit manufacturers and so they won’t be able to use them. The Olympic committee has agreed to allow the new suits to be used in China—from my point of view an unfair and unsportsmanlike decision. Should we boycott Speedo? If you want to read more about this, go to: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=oly&id=3343795#. 

Estelle Jelinek 

• 

IMAGE COUNTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In a world in which image counts, the city of Berkeley is losing the battle to maintain its image. Berkeley no longer offers people a genuine hope for freedom and peace. Certainly, nobody looks to this city as a problem solver to our environment woes. The efforts to deny the People’s Park to the people and the attempted closure of its flea market are in part a strong indication of the direction in which the city is headed. Very definitely, the sustained efforts to remove the downtrodden from its vicinity cannot be counted as liberalism in any sense of that word.  

By contrast, the city’s inclination to protect authority figures is a clear indication of what image it wishes to cultivate. The theft of several bags of drugs stolen by police from their department and yet nobody - nay not a single one – has been prosecuted speaks volumes of a Bush/Cheney type privilege. As if this is not terrible enough we now learn that the cops have killed an elderly woman. This is not the first time that Berkeley cops have killed women. However, it is a stark reminder that this a repressive police force is exactly what conservatives are seeking to quell any dissent in this country. 

Evidently, Berkeley’s residents lack of involvement in its city’s affairs has come back to haunt them. Already the city is under the rule of a sovereign entity—the University of California. UC’s Board of Regents, which is an out and out dictatorship, has hijacked the city and enjoys control of most of it downtown plans. Notably, its proposed developments are not only tax free. Nay it requires that the residents foot the bill. 

As a further insult, the university has chosen to prostitute itself to BP—yes the selfsame oil pollution company. The scheme apparently aims to bring a cleaner solution to the fossil fuel problem. This arrangement smacks of the same circumstances in which a tobacco company was exposed today for funding cancer research at another university. Such research is tainted because of the conflict in interest. Besides, who in his or her right mind can believe that BP wants to give up its profits in the oil industries because they care about you and me? Now, they really cared they would be supporting the electric cars and all the other feasible solutions that are already out there.  

More than ever, it is important to note that the Berkeley residents’ actions to bless or banish the anti-liberal stance of UC to aligning itself with BP is a test of just how conservative they are willing to become. The fact that Mayor Bates is in favor of that unholy alliance is already another blow to the city’s image.  

Zachary Runningwolf

Sunshining (making public) city government in Berkeley has been a long and daunting task. Sometime in early 2001-2003 Kriss Worthington held a series of public meetings to begin the process of writing a sunshine ordinance for Berkeley and its citizens. This effort was followed up with the city staff drafting an ordinance. Consensus could not be found, but in March of 2007, Mayor Bates called a special council meeting to hear from the community and a panel of four people considered to be experts in sunshine laws on its reactions to staff draft no. 24. 

The panel consisted of Terry Franke of Californians Aware; Jinky Gardner, president of the League of Women Voters; Judith Scherr of the Society of Professional Journalists; and Mark Schlosberg of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. 

The Sunshine Ordinance was placed on the May 8, 2007 information calendar and on May 20, 2007 a draft ordinance and matrix of issues was to be posted on the city’s website along with notice of a subsequence public meeting. 

In May 2007 Mayor Bates asked the League of Women Voters to form a group of citizens to review the staff sunshine ordinance, draft no. 24, and bring back to the City Council an ordinance for the city of Berkeley. The League sent a general e-mail to the public inviting interested citizens to meet in their office on May 30, 2007. This was the beginning of the public group’s review of staff’s draft no. 24. 

It became clear that the staff draft needed to be supplemented if real open government was to be achieved in Berkeley. 

Since that day in May of 2007 a group of citizens has met twice a month and now every week to try to complete an ordinance that is friendly to the citizens of Berkeley. It has taken this long because the group has studied sunshine laws that exist or are being proposed in many other cities in California. 

Terry Franke lives near Sacramento and is considered the expert in sunshining government in California. He has donated his time to our group and the citizens of Berkeley. 

The review of other cities’ sunshine ordinances and the supplement being written to staff’s draft no. 24 are 30—60 days away from completion and need another 30 days for editing. In March 2008 it was announced that the city would put staff draft no. 25 on the council agenda of April 22, 2008 for public comment and possible action. It was only when staff called Terry that the League learned about draft no. 25 and the proposed agenda item. Terry along with the other members of the original panel wrote to Mayor Bates and the City Council requesting a delay of 90 days so the group could finish its work. 

On April 14, 2008 the council Agenda Committee met. After public comment, Mayor Bates told the group that it had been given plenty of time to complete its work and that draft no. 25 on been on the city’s website for a month with no community recorded comments. 

Mayor Bates also accused the group of meeting outside of the public (in secret). This is not true, the group has grown to almost 30 citizens and all meetings have been scheduled at the League office and open to anyone wishing to attend and participate. 

What the citizens of Berkeley are left with is a staff draft which, if adopted, will keep the status quo in place, and Berkeley will continue to have a government of backroom deals, pre-determined legislation without adequate public discussion and little if any way to obtain documents, except through the courts.  

Any sunshine ordinance (and there are none we could find) that is worth the paper it is written on must have a valid and workable enforcement segment. 

If the Agenda Committee (Mayor Bates, Linda Maio, and Gordon Wozniak and other councilmembers) wish to keep Berkeley from having a sunshine ordinance that will actually bring sunshine to Berkeley they are doing a good job. If you want an open government and want to help, call your councilmembers and ask them to support the proposed postponement request so our work can be completed. 

Dean Metzger is president of the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association.  

As Hillary Clinton continues to wage vicious attacks on likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama, many have suggested that John McCain now has a good chance to win the November election. But political reality says otherwise. Consider that in 2004, when the economy was not a national problem and public opinion remained almost equally divided on Iraq, a relatively weak Democratic presidential candidate came within 50,000-100,000 votes in Ohio from defeating a Republican incumbent benefiting from an unprecedented turnout of conservative voters. Ohio will go to the Democrats in 2008, as will Colorado, Iowa, and likely Virginia, three states Bush won in 2004. John McCain is on the wrong side of both Iraq and the economy, and there is no chance that voters will elect a candidate who will implement George W. Bush’s third term. 

A surprising number of progressives are convinced that John McCain will be our next president. This is partly attributable to a hard-earned pessimism about national politics, but is also based on the erroneous view that voters will focus on personality and cultural issues rather than on health care, the economy and Iraq. 

2004 spells Democratic victory in 2008 

Ironically, those most pessimistic about the Democrats chances point to the 2004 race, which, in fact, provides evidence to the contrary. 

George W. Bush entered the 2004 campaign with a decent national economy, and with voters still split over the wisdom of invading Iraq. His campaign had also amassed record new voter registration of Christian evangelicals in key states like Florida (the Bush campaign boosted Republican registration in 2002, while Democratic-linked groups did not begin huge voter reg drives until 2004). 

Bush’s Democratic opponent, John Kerry, never had a strong grassroots base. Kerry won the nomination in what in retrospect appears to be a particularly weak field, which had an obscure Vermont governor named Howard Dean as its longtime frontrunner. 

Try as he might, John Kerry could never get away from his patrician background. He was a true war hero who courageously spoke out against the Vietnam War upon his return from combat. 

But Kerry showed no such fire during his lengthy Senate career. And his efforts to relate to rural voters by proving he was a longtime hunter—he even discussed how he split apart doves—did no more to establish himself as a “regular guy” than did Hillary Clinton’s recent attempt to effectively portray herself as most happy when crouched in a duck blind. 

Kerry soundly defeated Bush in the three presidential debates, and galvanized the nation’s progressive activist base, but Kerry was not a candidate who could win the southwest, mountain and Midwest states that Bush won in 2000 and would win again in 2004. 

Despite all these limitations, Kerry would have defeated Bush but for record turnout in conservative parts of Ohio, and an intensive effort by the Republican Secretary of State to limit black voter participation. 

If Republicans nearly lost the presidency with an incumbent president, a decent economy and with many Americans still believing that Iraq was behind 9/11, the party has at best a remote chance to keep the White House in 2008 with a deep recession, rising gas prices, continued chaos in Iraq, and a strong Democratic opponent. 

Latinos increasingly favor Democrats 

Since 2004, both Latinos and young people have dramatically increased voter turnout and have shifted toward the Democratic Party. 

As recently as 2000, the national Republican Party viewed Latinos as part of its future political coalition. Media disinformation about the 2004 Latino vote implied a pro-Bush shift that did not exist, but the facts notwithstanding, a “message” from that November was that the Latino vote was still up for grabs. 

But after Congressional Republicans passed legislation to turn millions of undocumented Latino immigrants, and those that provided services to them, into felons, Latino voters moved en masse to the Democratic Party in November 2006. 

John McCain was the Republican Senate sponsor of comprehensive immigration reform, and his campaign manager has argued that this should attract Latino voters. He’s kidding himself. Latinos continue to see the Republican Party as anti-immigrant, and Latinos are projected to cast at least 70 percent of their votes for Democrats. 

That’s why the Democrats are a deadlock cinch to win the former red state of Colorado in 2008, and will likely win New Mexico, which Bush took in 2004. Republicans will even have to prop up McCain in Texas, whose Latino voters are both increasing in number and in their preference for Democrats. 

Young people now favor Democrats 

In the November 2006 elections, young voters significantly increased both turnout and their preference for Democrats. Based on the enthusiasm generated among young people toward the Obama campaign, these trends will continue in November 2008. 

This demographic group is not focused on a single state or region, but will increase the Democratic vote across the nation. Young voters could make the difference in states like Virginia, which has been leaning Democratic but went for Bush in both 2000 and 2004. 

It’s the economy, stupid 

James Carville is a tired Clinton hack, but his famous four-word analysis of the 1992 election also applies this year. The Party occupying the White House cannot win another four years with a bad economy, and it looks like the U.S. economy will be in a particularly bad place this November. 

Last Friday, the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan found that consumer confidence is at its lowest point in over twenty-five years. And a recent Pew report found that a smaller percentage of Americans said they were better off now than five years ago than at any time during its 44 years of polling. 

Adding to this woeful economic environment is McCain’s recent assertion that he doesn’t really know much about economics, and his claim that the government should not help distressed homeowners facing foreclosure. Voters in November are not going to give Republicans four more years of running the economy. 

Hopelessness in Iraq 

Americans have lost interest in Iraq, and are increasingly angry over the billions we are spending there. But McCain sees great progress in Iraq, and is asking voters to support his plan to keep troops in Iraq if not for 100 years, at least for the indefinite future. 

Voters are not going to elect a president who supports continuing the Iraq War. Some held their breath and reluctantly voted for the pro-war Bush in 2004, but the public has lost any sense of a link between “terrorism” and the civil war in Iraq. 

George W. Bush has driven the nation into such a deep ditch that even the combined efforts of John McCain and Hillary Clinton cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again. 

Barack Obama will trounce McCain, and then it will be up to the grassroots and netroots to prevent the media and elite institutional forces from sabotaging his presidency.  

Randy Shaw is the editor of BeyondChron.org.

Standing at the corner of Vine on Saturday morning, I look south down a vibrant Shattuck Avenue thronging with pedestrians. They fill the sidewalks and spill out across busy traffic to claim and use the grass median strip (illegal though that is.) That so many people risk tickets and traffic to create a 21st Century town square illustrates once more the deep human need for shared public spaces. Then I turn around to look north towards Rose Street. I see a perplexing expanse of impermeable asphalt and concrete, starkly contrasting with the view to the south.  

I came to North Shattuck in the summer of 1966 landing in a lovely old flat above what would, the following summer, become a coffee shop opened up by an immigrant named Alfred Peet. My roommates and I shopped in the neighborhood…groceries at the Coop and Lucky’s (which is now Long’s)…miscellany at Bill’s Drugs (which later moved to Lucky’s and is now Black Oak Books and a real estate office). We did our laundry where the beautifully restored Earthly Goods now stands. There was no Chez Panisse, no Walnut Square and no Cheeseboard. I don’t remember Saul’s although my budget precluded dining out much. 

One thing I do remember was walking down to Vine and Shattuck to catch the F bus to San Francisco (and a date with my future wife) viewing all those cars and asphalt and, I might add, two gas stations. I often thought…too many cars…too much asphalt. Of course, dozens of years earlier I would have seen a coal yard for the steam train and three sets of tracks that served the neighborhood. The train system was eventually dismantled, and we were left with this curious island of space that has challenged planners ever since. 

I began thinking about this because of the city’s Draft Pedestrian Master Plan, released to the public last month. (Though the public comment period has closed, I do encourage residents of Berkeley to review the draft online at www.altaplanning.com/berkeleypedestrianplan. There are discussions to come at both the commission and Council level.) An unexpected consequence of the Draft Plan’s recent release has been renewed discussion about the creation of pedestrian-friendly public space on North Shattuck between Vine and Rose. As I hear once again from people who hold a range of opinions about the concept, I think it would be useful to make a quick review of how we got here, much of which took place before my time on the Council. 

In 1995 the Public Works Department received funds for public improvements along the North Shattuck corridor. A public participation process resulted in the neighborhood business group recommending that some of the funds be used for a circulation/design study focused on the section of Shattuck between Vine and Rose. An ad-hoc committee was formed of residents, businesses and representatives from six city commissions—Planning, Transportation, Public Works, Landmarks, Disability and Design Review—to develop a conceptual design. The committee met six times in 1998-1999 and held three public workshops including a walking tour of the neighborhood. It completed a Draft Conceptual Design Plan in July 2000. After a public hearing the Planning Commission modified the conceptual plan to enhance its pedestrian focus and traffic calming measures from Delaware Street to Rose, with a pedestrian plaza, the project’s focus, at the confluence of asphalt and sidewalk just south of Rose Street.  

The City Council unanimously approved the plan on Jan. 16, 2001. Some of the plan’s minor recommendations were enacted as part of the roadway and sewer repair, including the mid-block crossing near the post office and some of the street trees. But ultimately, as many plans do, it collected dust on a shelf until momentum and capital could be put together to continue the project.  

Flash forward to 2004…almost 40 years after my initial arrival at Walnut and Vine. One fine October day I’m walking along Shattuck, enjoying a car free avenue all the way from Rose to Delaware—a temporary commons if you will. It’s the Spice of Life Festival. As I stroll north toward Rose I think again…too much asphalt…cars taking up too much space…and way too little space for people. 

After I was elected to the City Council in the fall of 2004, I learned about the conceptual plan that had been vetted through public process and adopted by the council. The North Shattuck Association, whose business and property owner members tax themselves to pay for pedestrian improvements and maintenance in the district, were eager to pursue the plan and contributed organizational time and seed money to flesh out a more specific design. A group of volunteers carried on the planning effort and organized to begin fundraising with the approval of the council. In 2005 and again in 2006 the council unanimously reaffirmed its earlier support for the concept of a public space in the area. 

Certainly the process has run off track. Because so many years have passed since it began our memories of the history of the project have grown faint leading to concerns by some that matters such as parking, traffic circulation and business impacts have not been and are not being duly considered as the crucial issues they are. The inclusion of the plaza concept in the Draft Pedestrian Master Plan was a legitimately responsible decision by planners who must routinely include related and formally adopted area plans in planning documents of greater scope. My hope is that they amend the plan to reference not just the plaza, but the entire 2001 plan that describes pedestrian amenities and safety improvements along the length of Shattuck from Delaware and to Rose.  

I do hope at some future time we can continue this discussion of pedestrian-oriented space without preconceived notions as to the design, with mutual respect and with a shared commitment to bring improvement to our neighborhood, as the community members did in the late ’90s. We have a template for the creation and positive impacts of public space every Thursday in our thriving farmers’ market, and annually with the Spice of Life Festival. And soon, Safeway hopes to bring more vitality to our pedestrian experience by reorienting its new market towards Shattuck Avenue. We can expand those moments to celebrate our community in a 21st century public commons, or we can continue to make believe that a grass covered median strip is a pedestrian mini park. 

City Councilmember Laurie Capitelli represents Berkeley’s District 5.  

It is past time for the city of Berkeley to complete its long-delayed civic improvements in the North Shattuck commercial district. Approximately eight years ago, after intensive community involvement, a program of modest, incremental, civic improvements was created and approved by the community and the city council. That program became stalled when Planning Commission member David Stoloff initiated his “grand” North Shattuck Plaza plan. Mr. Stoloff’s scheme is dead, but the problems remain. Among those is the necessary redesign of the intersection at Shattuck Avenue and Vine Street.  

The current design of that intersection is murderously and poorly conceived. The city has planned pedestrian bulb-outs there, which will make walking across that intersection much safer. In the last 20 plus years, that intersection has been the site of least two pedestrian deaths. My youngest son saw one of those accidents, where a young pregnant woman was torn in half. There have been many more less horrific accidents, and many more near misses.  

While it’s just a hop across the crosswalk for the young and agile, for those moving more slowly it is a journey too dangerous and too far, with too many distracted motorists gunning desperately for that ‘last’ parking space. Like many elderly in our neighborhood, my 82-year-old mother-in-law refuses to attempt to cross Shattuck Avenue at Vine Street if she can’t begin her journey immediately upon the light turning green. She’s not alone. I see elderly pedestrians standing out in traffic regularly at that intersection.  

Complicating the problems is that Safeway has announced it plans to double its size in North Berkeley. Less than a block away, this will dramatically and dangerously increase both pedestrian and automotive traffic at the intersection of Vine and Shattuck. 

Again returning to the plan already designed and approved eight years ago, the barren, useless and underutilized concrete peninsula in front of Coldwell Banker’s realty firm is too small to be effectively re-purposed and too large to be wasted as no more than a plinth for newspaper stands. That wasteland is a perfect place to transition from the current, sad strip-mall aesthetics to something more environmentally friendly, more pedestrian friendly and more attractive for all of the users of this community. Make it greener, make it safer, make it better looking and more useful!!! 

Any revitalization of North Berkeley’s critically important shopping district must also address the disgraceful condition of the sidewalk fronting the shops along the eastern side of Shattuck Avenue between Vine and Rose streets. So many contractors have hacked into it over the decades that it more resembles a washboard than a place to stroll. 

Additionally, now that Saul’s Deli and Masse’s Pastries offer outside seating, the width of the sidewalk is too narrow for both tables and pedestrians. Like hundreds of shoppers each day, I use the tables and chairs in front of Saul’s Deli and Masse’s Pastries. Every single time I sit there I see folks get blocked up and stuck between the seated diners and the storefronts – legs tangled in dog-leashes, wheelchair users forced to beg for passage, babes and their mothers playing bumper-cars with their strollers. Every time I have a cup of coffee out in front of Masse’s Pastry I see vehicles bump into my fellow diners. It’s a serious injury-accident waiting to happen. A great example of how that sidewalk should work can be found in front of the French Hotel where the city created a slightly widened sidewalk that allows both uses while also making it safer to cross the street from the post office. 

By failing to address the concerns of merchants in the area the Stoloff “Grand Plaza Plan” united much of the residential community against that proposal, but not against any improvements. At every meeting I attended, both public and private, the vast majority of those in attendance were in favor of modest, incremental, ecologically sound improvements. Unfortunately there also were always a few loudmouths who screeched out their complaints (out of turn) and made ridiculous inflammatory personal attacks. As a result each public meeting had fewer and fewer folks in attendance. One of the few neighborhood community meetings that actually accomplished its goals, and didn’t dissolve in rancor, was the North Berkeley Vision Committee chaired by Linda Bargmeyer.  

There were two key points developed by that group, both of which were endorsed by two of the area’s neighborhood associations. The first point is called “Goodness of Living”: 

“We want North Berkeley to remain a strong and cohesive neighborhood community, not a domain of anonymity. We do not want it transformed into a high-density city, like San Francisco. We want to increase opportunities to interact with neighbors, friends, and business owners and their employees, which includes protecting neighborhood streets from the incursion of high-volume traffic; and, promoting the needs of children, teenagers and seniors.” 

“Goodness” is defined as a strong sense of community; close proximity to nature; the availability of quiet and environmentally safe public transportation; close proximity to intellectual, cultural, and outdoor activities; opportunities to participate in the democratic process and influence living conditions; opportunities to know and interact with neighbors; opportunities to savor good food and drink; access to vibrant and diversified local shops; an ability to preserve our connection to the past; the opportunity to understand diverse people; and the ability to afford living here. 

The second key factor was protecting our small independent businesses: 

“Businesses are an integral part of our community. Some of the local businesses are particularly excellent and are models for the kind of customer/business relationship that we desire and would like to foster. These businesses have excellent products as well as excellent customer interaction. We know many of the owners and their employees. We care whether they survive. 

“We would like to support small, independent businesses by improving what we have, not by … increasing the financial burden of current proprietors. We are concerned about raising rents. We are also concerned that the construction process itself can drive current proprietors out of business. Therefore, if there is to be change, it should be incremental rather than massively disruptive.” 

If the community and the city can work within those constraints, not only will we preserve and improve our contributions to the local sales tax base, we’ll improve our neighborhood as well.  

Fred Dodsworth is a Berkeley journalist. 

Ben Bernanke has a lot in common with the next president. The pinnacle of his career will mostly involve cleaning up someone else’s mess. When he took over as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in 2006, Bernanke stepped into a quagmire so deep and wide that he sometimes has that stunned, wide-eyed look of a drowning man.  

Meanwhile his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, is telling anyone who will listen that it’s not his fault that the economy might slide into a crippling recession and that the nation’s financial system is teetering on the edge of systemic failure. Greenspan is worried about his place in history and the yet-to-be-written books that will trash his record as America’s economic steward.  

Even Paul Volcker, the stern and widely revered Fed chairman who preceded Greenspan and wrestled inflation to a standstill in the 1980s, has lately been wagging his finger at Bernanke for orchestrating the rescue of Bear Stearns and at Greenspan for his Wall Street boosterism that helped to get us in this mess. Recently, Volcker told the Economic Club of New York that our “bright new financial system” had failed the test of the marketplace.  

It was lost on no one that Greenspan had played midwife to the birth of that new system and for years had defended it against criticism and calls for regulation by many in Congress. That of course made Greenspan a hero on Wall Street, and so long as the good times kept rolling he was feted by the media as a financial god. Well, the good times have stopped rolling.  

“We have moved from a commercial bank-centered, highly regulated financial system, to an enormously more complicated and highly engineered system,” Volcker told his audience. Much of today’s financial activities “takes place in markets beyond effective official oversight and supervision, all enveloped in unknown trillions of derivative instruments,” he added. “The sheer complexity, opaqueness and systemic risks embedded in the new markets—complexities and risks little understood by even most of those with management responsibilities—have enormously complicated both official and private responses to this the mother of all crises.”  

Well, that sure doesn’t sound good. How bad are things? If you listened to Bernanke’s testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, you heard him say, “Clearly, the U.S. economy is going through a very difficult period. But among the great strengths of our economy is its ability to adapt and respond to diverse challenges. Much necessary economic and financial adjustments have already taken place, and monetary and fiscal policies are in train that should support a return to growth in the second half of this year and next year.”  

But minutes of the Fed March 18 policy meeting were recently released, and they paint a decidedly darker picture. Some of the policy committee members were predicting a continuation of the drop in housing prices and possibly “a prolonged and severe economic downturn.” In March alone the U.S. economy lost 80,000 jobs, the biggest drop in five years, and the losses are spreading beyond the housing and finance sectors to a wide cross-section of industries. In all likelihood, we are already in a recession. What isn’t known is how long it will last and how deep will it cut.  

The frustration and fearfulness of the Fed rate cutters is nearly palpable. Usually they speak in nearly indecipherable jargon about economic growth, inflation, and what they’re planning on doing with the short-term rates they use to control the flow of money into the economy. Now the Fed is warning that there’s only so much a central bank can do: “Monetary policy alone could not address fully the underlying problems in the housing market and in financial markets.” That is the Fed’s way of introducing the new guiding principle of our economy: Have high hopes, but low expectations. Last week the International Monetary Fund added to those low expectations when it announced that the global banking and financial system would suffer losses of about $1 trillion due to the mortgage crisis and that “systemic risks have risen sharply.”  

In other words, the possibility of a worldwide financial meltdown has increased and despite the current calm we are still deep in the woods. If the IMF estimate is even close to correct, this will make our current problems the most expensive financial crisis in history, according to the Financial Times. The IMF puts the chances of our borrowing binge ending in a worldwide recession at one in four. Some economists are arguing that the losses will be a minimum of $1 trillion and are likely to exceed that if there are unforeseen shocks to the system: Say, for example, a major international bank collapses or the U.S. military attacks Iran or one of the world’s current riots over escalating food prices seriously destabilizes an important country such as Egypt. If you think gasoline is expensive now, you don’t want to think about what $150 a barrel oil will do to the world.  

But even if we leave aside those dire possibilities, there are many current realities that suggest we may soon find ourselves caught up in a rough cycle of financial crises followed by deeper economic downturns. You’ve heard of that fabled “soft landing” of our falling economy? Well, there are a lot of reasons we could lose altitude in a hurry. Consider these sobering facts: Oil now costs $117 a barrel and commodity prices across the board are hitting new highs. Meanwhile, the dollar continues its steady downward retreat. The severe credit crunch in mortgages is now spreading to other segments of the consumer credit market, for example, credit cards and car loans. Without government intervention, nearly two million homes will face foreclosure over the next two years. Most option ARM loans—those adjustable rate mortgages that have low teaser rates and let you pay less than you owe—have not yet adjusted upward. When those loans adjust up to the new higher rates and the lenders demand full payment each month, the other shoe in the mortgage crisis will begin to fall. 

Remember, our high household debt ratio—136 percent of income—means tens of thousands of households are barely able to shoulder the monthly payments even when rates are low. The U.S. economy has lost at least 230,000 jobs since the start of this year. Meanwhile the number of people who stopped looking for jobs because they didn’t think there were any out there rose to 401,000 in March. Consumer spending, the engine of our boomtime growth, is dropping fast.  

It’s enough to keep you awake at night. Unless you’re Alan Greenspan. Mr. Greenspan—who in fairness is not responsible for everything that has gone wrong, just a whole lot of it—recently told the Wall Street Journal that he doesn’t regret a single decision he made while he was chairman of the Fed. Let’s hope that Ben Bernanke isn’t quite so sure of himself.

On April 8, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker told the Senate the president’s Iraq surge strategy has “worked” and, therefore, current troop levels should be maintained. The hearings came at a time when public attention has shifted from the occupation to the economy. Given the looming recession, why should Americans care how long our troops stay in Iraq? 

On Jan. 10, 2007, President Bush announced the troop surge and additional forces started showing up in March. Nonetheless, media coverage of Iraq diminished. A March Pew Research poll found “the percentage of news stories devoted to the war dropped from an average of 15 percent of all stories last July to just 3 percent in February of this year.” 

In the face of the prospect that nothing will change in Iraq until a new president takes office, why should Americans care what happens over the next 10 months? There are three critical considerations that demand our attention. 

The United States does not have unlimited resources 

At the heart of the Bush ideology lurks the belief that America can pursue a neo-conservative foreign policy agenda without negatively impacting lives of average Americans. The Bush administration has disdained the notion of sacrifice and repeatedly suggested that the occupation of Iraq has no impact on the economy. After five years of war, most Americans don’t believe this. At the April 8 hearing, Ohio Republican Senator George Voinovich observed: “We've kind of bankrupted this country” and “The American people have had it up to here.”  

The continued occupation has not made America safer 

When the Bush administration deigns to discuss the cost of the occupation—either in lives or dollars—they use the argument that no matter what the cost, it is worth it because it is better to fight terrorists in the streets of Iraq than in the streets of the United States. Continuing the occupation for as long as it takes is the centerpiece of Sen. McCain’s foreign policy; he asserts that if the United States were to “abandon” Iraq, it would destabilize the entire Middle East. However, most Americans no longer buy the Bush-McCain argument. At the April 8 hearing, Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner asked, “Is all this sacrifice [in Iraq] bringing about a more secure America?” While General Petraeus hedged, Democrats, and many Congressional Republicans, believe the occupation has not made America safer and is damaging our military. 

In parallel with the Petraeus-Crocker hearings, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody told a congressional committee “how troops and their families are being taxed by long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Appearing on Good Morning America, former Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed similar concerns about the health of the military. 

Rather than make the United States safer, the occupation has weakened the military and homeland security, emboldened terrorists, and diverted attention from the pursuit of al Qaeda leaders in northwest Pakistan. 

The occupation has no clear objective and, therefore, no predictable endpoint 

President Bush, General Petraeus, and Ambassador Crocker conflate security and political progress. There was never any question that if the U.S. Army decided to become Iraq’s police force, the level of violence would subside. The key question is not about security; it is whether the Iraqis have the wherewithal to achieve political reconciliation. Unless they develop the capacity to form a stable state, the civil war will continue. 

Last year, when President Bush announced the surge, he also stated “America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced.” (In August 2006, the White House and the Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed to 18 key benchmarks.) In January of this year, The Center for American Progress reviewed Iraqi political progress using the same benchmarks. Of the 18 only three had been fully accomplished; five were viewed as partially accomplished; and 10 were seen as not accomplished. The last set included critical elements such as holding provincial elections, passing legislation to distribute oil revenues, and disarming militias. (This agreed with the Sept. 4 GAO assessment.)  

Nonetheless, since January 2007, President Bush has minimized the importance of these benchmarks and they were downplayed during the most recent Petraeus-Crocker testimony. Thus, the role of U.S. forces in Iraq has shifted from “nation building” to “keeping the peace.” 

While Americans are distracted by the recession, we must pay more attention to the occupation of Iraq: America doesn’t have unlimited resources and can’t afford to extend the occupation indefinitely. Not only has the occupation made the U.S. less safe, it is hurting our troops. And, while U.S. troops serve as Iraq’s national police force, the Iraqis have done little to develop a stable government.  

Lyndon Johnson famously observed, “No matter how hard you try, you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit.” The Bush administration is trying to sell Americans “chicken salad.” Hopefully, we’ll recognize what we’re actually being offered. 

Last week’s column gave an overview of expansion plans by the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, including two huge new buildings in Strawberry Canyon: the Computation Research and Theoretical Facility (CRT) and the Helios Facility. A group called Save Strawberry Canyon is fighting the expansion for a whole litany of reasons: earthquake and fire risks; impacts on air and water quality and greenhouse gas emissions; damage to a significant cultural landscape; procedural flaws in the lab’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP); and, not least, endangered species issues. 

These folks could really use a web designer. If you’re interested, email Phila Rogers (philajane6@yahoo.com). 

UC concedes that the development sites are known or potential habitat for several protected or sensitive animals and plants. Some of these species get only a cursory mention in the LRDP, CRT and Helios EIRs. But UC has developed plans for dealing with the federally threatened Alameda whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis euryxanthus), the bane of East Bay developers. Whether those plans are anywhere near adequate is another question. 

My only encounter with a whipsnake took place in Briones Regional Park a few years ago. A ripple in the grass resolved from a black-and-yellow blur into a four-foot-long snake. It stopped and looked back at me, head raised like a cobra’s, neck weaving back and forth. It had large eyes for a snake, and a jet-black tongue that flickered in and out. Then it turned, and in an instant was gone in the nearby brush before I even thought to reach for my camera. 

Whipsnakes are active by day, waiting out the night in rodent burrows. When the morning sun has raised its body temperature to the optimum level, a whipsnake goes on the prowl, hunting by sight, not smell or thermal cues like many other snakes. Its primary quarry is the western fence lizard. If you’ve ever tried to catch a fence lizard, you can appreciate what the snake is up against; they’re fast and skilled in evasive maneuvers. But the whipsnake chases them down, pinning them and swallowing them alive and thrashing. It wastes no time on constriction. 

For a whipsnake, prime real estate has tall enough grass to conceal it from its own predators, patchy shrub cover to let the sun in, and rock outcroppings where lizards bask. Females also require grassland for egg-laying. This mosaic of microhabitats has become increasingly rare. Freeways and housing developments have fragmented the snake’s range, isolating remnant populations and obstructing gene flow among them. 

The Alameda whipsnake, found only in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin Counties, was state-listed in 1971 and federally listed in 1997. A suit by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Christians Caring for Creation forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FSW) to identify 400,000 acres as critical habitat. That was set aside after litigation by the Home Builder’s Association of Northern California, claiming the habitat criteria were too broad.  

FWS’s second critical habitat designation in 2005, under the aegis of Interior Department hatchetwoman Julie MacDonald, cut the protected area by over 62 percent. Last November CBD declared its intent to go back to court on this and other endangered-species determinations. See their website for details: www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/reptiles/Alameda_whipsnake. For now, critical habitat officially includes the eastern portion of the Lawrence Lab’s territory, although not the CRT or Helios sites.  

Surveys by contract biologist Karen Swaim have not detected Alameda whipsnakes in the portion of Strawberry Canyon targeted for the next round of development. However, both the CRT and Helios project sites were designated as “highly suitable potential habitat” for the snake. In the case of a creature that hibernates for a good part of the year and is very good at not being seen, the old adage “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” would seem to apply. 

According to the UC EIRs, any whipsnakes encountered during pre-construction site surveys would be dealt with in accordance with the Alameda Whipsnake Relocation Plan. Although this phrase has a reassuring solidity, there does not appear to be an actual plan, at least not in writing. 

UC also goes into detail about efforts to minimize incidental take (a semantic cousin of “collateral damage”) of the whipsnake, which would include hiring a Whipsnake Monitor for the construction sites, whipsnake awareness training for the crews, and building snakeproof fences once a site has been cleared.  

But the fate of individual snakes isn’t really the issue here. It’s how the CRT and Helios projects, and whatever follows them—the buildings, the parking lots, the roads, the vegetation management—would fragment existing habitat. Without connectivity between suitable patches, any Strawberry Canyon whipsnake population would be doomed to extirpation. 

Rumors that UC has retained Samuel L. Jackson as a consultant could not be confirmed. 

Next week: the harvestman paradox.

Running for elected office—especially for local elected office—can be an extraordinarily stressful time, as candidates struggle to get their messages heard and understood amidst the general cacophony. 

Thus it is not surprising that Oakland City Council at-large candidate Charles Pine takes me to task in the Daily Planet’s letters section for what he says is my misquoting of one his statements during a recent League of Women Voters candidates’ forum. 

In an April 11 UnderCurrents column, I wrote that Mr. Pine had mentioned sideshow culture and “boom boxes” specifically while talking about how crime and violence are ruining Oakland. In rebuttal, Mr. Pine writes: “I referred not to boom boxes but to boom cars, vehicles equipped with speakers that blast hundreds of watts of pounding bass. ‘Boom car’ is a street term; perhaps Mr. Allen-Taylor would like to get out of his office more often.” 

My notes from the debate reflect “boom boxes” rather than “boom car,” but I’ll defer to Mr. Pines’ memory—since he was the one who said it—and apologize for the error. I have one or two things to quibble about concerning Mr. Pine’s political platform. Whether or not he is more concerned about loud music coming from a handheld speakerbox or a moving car is not one of them. 

(I’ll offer no rebuttal to his “get out of his office more often” remark. In the absence of any direct knowledge of me or my work habits—which I don’t believe Mr. Pine has—such a comment is, well, silly.) 

But the exchange highlights what I believe is a more serious problem with this campaign season. For the first time in many years, the inner East Bay has a wide array of hotly contested political races, from Senate District 9 (now held by the outgoing Don Perata) to Assembly District 14 (now held by the outgoing Assemblymember Loni Hancock) to the crowded race Mr. Pine is running in—at-large Oakland City Council—to challenges to Oakland City Councilmembers in several districts as well as serious races for the newly empowered Oakland School Board. 

Unfortunately, the process hasn’t kept up with what could be very lively and informative campaigns. 

Perhaps with no clear plan, but only by force of habit, we have developed two major types of forums--sometimes optimistically called “debates”--by which candidates are allowed to present their views, side-by-side, to the public. The first are the endorsement sessions sponsored by various organizations. The second are the forums sponsored by the League of Women Voters, most of which are taped at Oakland City Hall, and then rebroadcast over Oakland’s cable station, KTOP. For different reasons, the two venues have identical problems: neither give the public much of an opportunity to explore and understand the differences between the candidates. 

Although none of the candidates will talk about this publicly--for obvious reasons--some candidates privately complain that decisions made in the endorsement debates have nothing to do with anything said during the debates. And how could it be otherwise?  

In March of 2006, I went over to the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club endorsement meeting on the Jack London waterfront, in part to hear the debate between Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, since it was the only time the two men had planned a head-to-head matchup in their race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for California Attorney General. But I also wanted to hear the debate between Sandré Swanson and Oakland City Attorney John Russo in their race for the 16th Assembly District Democratic Party nomination. 

The Brown-Delgadillo AG race got all of the attention in the next day’s Oakland Tribune, getting the first 15 paragraphs and the headline. Concentrating on the Brown-Delgadillo matchup was to be expected in the city’s newspaper, with Oakland’s mayor one of the candidates for statewide office. What was interesting was that the Tribune gave no coverage to the other races involved in the lawyers club debate. Following details of the Brown-Delgadillo debate, the Tribune story said that “Also debating at Friday’s event…”, thereafter merely giving a listing of the races and the candidates. 

Unfortunately, the debate itself was little better. Nine candidates in four separate races were asked to present one-minute answers to various posed questions as the assembled attorneys sipped wine and munched on lunch. It is hard to believe that those attorneys could glean much from the limited answers to limited questions given by Mr. Russo and Mr. Swanson. Instead, as candidates privately complain about the endorsement meeting process in general (not the Alameda attorneys’ process in particular, but all of them), the only way for an organization member to give a fair and conscientious vote is by having come to the endorsement meeting with their minds already made up. 

The endorsement meeting debates, in other words, are not designed to unveil information about the campaigns, but only to put a neat and pleasing cover on a process wherein the decisions—if not a foregone conclusion—are reached by the membership resorting to other means to get their information. Nothing underhanded or wrong implied in this. Only that for voters looking to make their decision based upon how the candidates answer detailed questions head-to-head, the endorsement debates are not the best way. 

Unfortunately, although the League of Women Voters candidate forums do not contain an endorsement at the end, these forums suffer from a similar problem: too many candidates, too many questions, not enough time. Typical League candidate forums run an hour apiece—whether they involve two candidates or five—with the candidates given a minute to answer questions. 

The League forums have an added twist. In an attempt to ask questions that the public, ourselves, are interested in, the League solicits written questions from the audience prior to and during the debates and, after screening and sorting, those are the questions which are asked. 

There are two problems with this type of format. 

The first is that, bless their hearts, most people don’t know how to ask a question in a political forum. Most of the questions allow the candidates to give a generalized answer if they want, without getting to the heart of the matter. And sometimes, while the questions may be of some interest, they are not of enough interest to have been included in the debate for that campaign. 

In a recent League debate in the Oakland Council District Five race, for example, in which incumbent Ignacio De La Fuente is being challenged by two opponents, the candidates were asked about their position on term limits for Oakland City Council. Mr. De La Fuente has served 16 years on City Council, and perhaps the question was aimed, in some way, at that fact. But term limits are generally unpopular in Oakland and, to my knowledge, there has not been a serious attempt either to bring the matter before City Council or to bring it to the voters in the form of a ballot measure. As such, it caught the candidates by surprise, particularly challenger Mario Juarez, who had to answer it first. 

But more important, the one-and-done type of questioning format for the League of Women Voters forums does not allow for follow-up questions, either from the audience or the moderator, to make sure that, at the very least, the original question was understood and answered. (I hate to jump on the League about this, since they are the only group stepping up to the plate to provide non-endorsement forums in these campaigns. Without them, we’d have nothing. Sorry guys, and please take this as constructive criticism.) 

We return to Mr. Pine. 

In his letter to the Daily Planet complaining about my references to his campaign, Mr. Pine writes that while he is not a law-and-order ideologue (something I never accused him of), he does “call for increasing Oakland’s police force, currently half the size of most major cities, to a modest 1,100. … Would Mr. Allen-Taylor tell Atlanta, Boston, St. Louis and all those other cities to cut their police forces in half? Then their residents could live and die as we do in Oakland. All we want in Oakland is the relative peace of an average American city.” 

I have visited Mr. Pine’s websites, both for his campaign and for the Oakland Residents For Peaceful Neighborhoods of which he is the co-founder, and have seen this particular argument before. On the front page of his campaign website, he writes that Oakland has 18 police officers per 10,000 residents, only half the number that “Atlanta (35), Boston (34), Cleveland (34), St. Louis (39) and most major cities have. Fewer than San Francisco. Fewer than Los Angeles.” 

But judging how many police officers Oakland should be gearing towards by looking at how many officers are in other cities is something like a family deciding what kind of car they should have by walking around the neighborhood and seeing what is parked in other peoples’ garages. The question is not what the other cities are doing. The question is, at the present time, what can Oakland afford? 

The cities cited by Mr. Pine--Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles--are all major regional retail centers, with no city of comparable size in their vicinity to provide competition. Thus, they have enormous tax bases to draw upon that is not available to Oakland. Much of the retail sales tax revenue in Oakland that might go to Mr. Pine’s increased police force—or to other city services, if that’s what we decide we want—instead go the retail mall developments in Emeryville, San Leandro, Alameda, Hayward, and other surrounding East Bay cities, and across the bridge to San Francisco. The question for Oakland City Council candidates is not how they would spend money we don’t currently have—an interesting exercise, but not very probative—but how they would gather new revenue to make spending for their preferred programs possible. 

Alternatively, candidates—beginning with Mr. Pine—might want to say, in detail, what existing programs they would cut or city positions they would end in order to make up the shortfall. 

If you think I am picking on Mr. Pine, I am not. He is an easy target only because he is one of the few candidates this campaign season—or any campaign season—who has committed himself to a specific number and a specific solution, and has not tried to hide behind generalities. I admire that, even while in disagreement. It is my hope that with this dearth of able and qualified candidates in so many fields, we could figure out a way to have a campaign that could draw out more of the differences and specifics from candidates, so that the public could be in a better position to make an informed choice. 

So far, we haven’t. 

John Albert Marshall (1868-1924), commonly known as J.A., was a small and hot-tempered man. In 1906 he had two brushes with the law—one as a recalcitrant witness for the defense, threatening to thrash a much larger prosecuting attorney, the other when he was convicted of battery after pummeling John Koch, owner of a delicatessen at 2520 Bancroft Way. 

A Berkeley resident since 1895, Marshall began his profitable career in building as a cement contractor (the material was euphemistically known as “artificial stone”). On Jan. 1, 1896, the Berkeley Herald credited him with having paved nine-tenths of Berkeley’s new sidewalks the previous year. His stamp is still faintly visible on the northeast corner of Hillegass Avenue and Parker Street, across the street from his own residence. 

By the early 1900s, Marshall had branched out into real estate development. Among his enterprises were two of Telegraph Avenue’s earliest business blocks, the Marshall Apartments (1904) and the Alta Vista Apartments (1907), on the southwest and northeast corners of Telegraph and Bancroft, respectively. He also constructed many private residences-some for clients, others speculatively. His own home address kept changing as he completed a new house, lived in it for a while, then sold it and moved on. 

In 1897, when Marshall set out to build “the prettiest home in Berkeley,” he was a 29-year-old newlywed. Whether his ultimate aim was to please the bride or to embark on a speculative venture, Marshall spared no expense. The builder he hired was Jonas Irving Bowers, a prosperous carpenter who would accumulate considerable real estate holdings in Berkeley before decamping for Southern California. To design the house, Marshall selected the sought-after firm of Cunningham Bros., two young architects then at the height of their fame. 

Harry L. (1869-1919) and Gerald C. (1872-1900) Cunningham were born in Calcutta, India. Their father, a captain in the British Royal Engineers, died before Gerald was born. His widow and the boys came to California in 1874, settling in Oakland. 

The brothers began their architectural apprenticeship in their teens (Gerald at 14). First Harry, then Gerald worked as draftsmen for the prominent San Francisco architect John J. Clark. At the age of 20, Harry transferred to the office of A.W. Pattiani, a fashionable East Bay designer and builder, but in 1891 both brothers disappeared from Oakland for two years. In 1893, Gerald opened his own practice in Portland, Oregon, but the pair reappeared in Oakland in 1894, this time as partners. The first buildings bearing their combined name date from that year. 

“Although both members of the firm were young then,” stated the Oakland Tribune in its obituary for Gerald in June 1900, “they had attained to a coveted position in their chosen profession and had built more than their share of the modern structures of this State and in various places along the coast.” The Cunninghams’ best-known Berkeley building was McKinley School (1896) on Dwight Way. 

Gerald Cunningham was considered one of the best pen-and-ink artists in California, and his renderings paved the way for many public commissions, from the Modesto High School to the Contra Costa County Courthouse in Martinez, listed in the National Register of Historic Places but erroneously attributed to William Mooser, who designed the adjacent jail. 

The firm’s progress was cut short by Gerald’s death from cerebral meningitis. He was 27 years old and had been married only two months. Harry then brought in Matthew Politeo as a partner, and the two went on to design Art Nouveau buildings in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as many of the early farm buildings on the U.C. Davis campus. 

J.A. Marshall’s house, still standing at 2601 Hillegass Avenue and a City of Berkeley Landmark, began its life as an opulent 8-room residence. Designed in the Colonial Revival style, it is graced with massive corner pilasters and an L-shaped porch supported by six Ionic columns. Extensive ornamental balustrades, only some of which remain, lined the porch above and below. A Palladian window, since replaced, was set above a bay window in the façade. The property extended all the way to Benvenue Avenue, with tennis courts, windmill, a barn, and a carriage house in the rear. 

In December 1899, less than two years after the house was completed, John Marshall put the “prettiest home in Berkeley” on the market. The asking price must have been salty, since the next owner was Erik Olof Lindblom (1857-1928), a newly minted millionaire. 

One of the “Three Lucky Swedes” who discovered gold near Nome, Alaska, Lindblom has been the subject of many biographies, as well as inspiring the character of Dextry in Rex Beach’s novel “The Spoilers,” which was twice adapted for the screen. Piecing together details from variously credible accounts, one gathers that Lindblom’s father, a school teacher in Dalarna, died early, leaving his widow and children in penury. After completing his public schooling at the age of 14, Erik learned tailoring, and three years later began traversing Europe as an itinerant journeyman. Spending some time in London, he obtained additional schooling at the YMCA Polytechnic and met his first wife, Mary Anne Smith, a tailor’s daughter. The two were married in August 1886 and sailed to New York a month later. Their daughter, Brita Margaret, was born in New York in December 1887. By the time their son, Olof Henry, was born in 1890, they were living in Pocatello, Idaho. A few years later, they had moved to Montana, where Lindblom was naturalized in 1894. 

When the news of a gold discovery in Kotzebue Sound swept the nation in 1897, Lindblom was eking out a living as a tailor on 23rd Avenue in east Oakland. Already interested in mining and having attended Professor George Davidson’s lectures on Alaska, he borrowed money and, on April 27, 1898, shipped before the mast on the bark Alaska, which carried prospectors to the new gold fields. Mary Anne was left in Oakland to work as a seamstress at a dry goods store, earning $1 a day. 

Upon reaching the Bering Sea, the Alaska was obliged to wait for the ice to break up. Lindblom had learned from whalers that the Kotzebue yields were meager, and he seized the opportunity to jump ship at Grantley Harbor, starting on foot for Golovin Bay. Surviving several mishaps, he arrived there three weeks later with the aid of an Inuit trader. 

After prospecting on his own for several weeks, Lindblom met John Brynteson and Jafet Lindeberg. In stormy weather, the three embarked on a 100-mile sea voyage to the mouth of the Snake River. They reached their goal on September 15, 1898 and a week later struck gold at Anvil Creek, quickly filing as many claims as they could in their own names as well as in others’. The Nome gold rush had begun. 

Lindblom invested his proceeds from the Nome bonanza in U.S. and Mexican mines, and holdings in banks, transportation, and real estate. He would become sole owner of the Parral Electric Light, Telephone & Water Co. in Chihuahua, Mexico; president of the Swedish-American Bank of San Francisco; vice-president of the Pioneer Mining Co. of Nome, Alaska (incorporated in Seattle); director of the Davidson-Ward Lumber Co.; and owner of the Claremont Hotel. 

Along with wealth came a flamboyant lifestyle, much travel, at least two automobile accidents caused by his reckless driving, and a goodly number of lawsuits. Some of these were brought by claim jumpers, others by professionals and tradesmen who had not been paid, but the lengthiest of all, lasting nearly six years and keeping 18 lawyers employed, was the Lindbloms’ divorce trial. 

It began in February 1902, when Mary Anne charged her husband with extreme cruelty. “Mrs. Lindblom says that since her husband acquired his wealth he has been consumed with a desire to pull her hair out by the roots, that he has threatened to shoot her head off, and that on one occasion he forcibly removed a handful of her tresses and she was compelled to go to the Fabiola Hospital for treatment,” reported the San Francisco Call on March 1, 1902. The same article cited “lively stories of how Lindblom used to spend $2000 on a little ‘time’ with some of his friends, and then take his wife out to a dinner consisting of a plate of soup.” 

Lindblom quickly found a new life partner, taking up with Hanna Sadie Sparman—a tall, blond and blue-eyed 18-year-old daughter of a Swedish basket manufacturer. Twenty-seven years her senior, the new boyfriend moved into the Sparman family’s Oakland home. They made a handsome couple, apparently inseparable and spending much time in travel. They were married in Bellingham, Washington on June 7, 1907, a month after Mary Anne was granted her final divorce decree. 

As part of the divorce settlement, the first Mrs. Lindblom-now declaring herself a widow-received the house at 2601 Hillegass Ave. Soon thereafter, she rented it to Wigginton E. Creed, attorney (at the time he was Louis Titus’s law partner), capitalist, and future president of PG&E. In 1911, after traveling for a few years, Mary Anne built an apartment house on the eastern part of the property, at Benvenue and Parker. Two years later she sandwiched a pair of flats between the apartments and the house. 

Further augmenting her income in 1916, Mary Anne divided her house into two flats, reserving the lower floor for herself and Brita. Erik, meanwhile, had allied himself with Frank C. Havens in 1914, injecting funds into the Claremont Hotel (begun in 1906 and still unfinished) and completing it in time for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Three year later, he took complete possession of it. He would live in the hotel until his death, and the hotel would remain in the Lindblom family’s possession until 1937. 

The Marshall-Lindblom House will be open for viewing on BAHA’s Spring House Tour, May 4, 2008, from 1 pm to 5 pm. 

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

Beautiful Benvenue, Elegant Hillegass 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Spring House Tour 

Sunday, May 4, 2008 

1 pm to 5 pm 

Tickets: $35; BAHA members $25 

(510) 841-2242 

berkeleyheritage.com

So I was licking nectar off the base of an orchid blossom the other night ... See?That’s why people keep pets, in which category I place houseplants. Most of us don’t live the wildlands any more, which of course is why they’re still “wildlands,” and there’s all this unpredictable, unrepeatable, unmediated experience we don’t get to have every minute of every day.  

There are so many things people don’t write into literature (including scientific literature) or nature documentaries. Why the heck were our four box turtles alerting in unison, all facing the same way, all with their necks stretched at the same angle, for a good three minutes while we were eating dinner Sunday night? I haven’t seen them behave like that since Bruce played us a wonderful morning serenade on the uillean pipes some years back.  

Memo: Box turtles are very very interested in bagpipe music. We haven’t had the intestinal fortitude to try the Great Pipes in the dining room yet, and maybe never will. Great Pipes, like bombards, belong outdoors. 

By some standards, of course, so do box turtles and cymbidium orchids. I can make a case for ex situ conservation of both, especially after seeing so many box turtles crushed along roadsides back East. My everlasting curse on people who do that. May they tread on their own intestines someday soon. 

There are ex situ conversations to be had, too. I’d bet I can find out somewhere what’s going on with the cymbidiums in the parlor just now, but I wouldn’t have known to look for it without having seen the clear drops of nectar in such odd places on each flower, reflected in the lamplight the other night. After a couple days’ concentration, they’re intensely sweet.  

But I couldn’t detect any nectar where I thought it should be, inside the throat of the flower. My first assumption was that it was a My-cup-runneth-over situation, since there aren’t any nectar-eating birds or bugs from the home range flitting about our flat to drink the stuff before it got to me. Dammit. 

Now I’m going to need to chase that down, that intricate puzzle of sex and deception and time that made those flowers what they are, so incredibly erotic, at close range, even to us animals. What a reach across eons of beings! I hope somebody has written about it in the scientific literature, so I can see the next observational step—the hard one, that takes hours and days of observation and charting.  

While I’m standing on the shoulders of those giants, let me say that I’ve seen enough painted lady butterflies on Point Reyes, in inland Marin, and right here in Berkeley to think that there’s a migration going on right now.  

If you notice those fluttering shapes while you’re out walking, if you sit in your yard or a park and watch awhile, note how they tend to fly over, not around, obstacles, if you’ve planted nectar-source flowers to sustain them overnight, you can watch the spectacle too. 

That’s a reason we keep gardens. 

As you go for that morning jog ( You are jogging every morning, right? Immediately after that low-fat, lemon, poppy-seed, caramel muffin and the soy latte) you probably note amidst the quiet and still of the neighborhood that there are little puffs of smoke that come from the tops of every house and business. 

If you stop long enough to think about it (as a child might do more than we busy adults) you’ll realize that there are no fires in fireplaces and that, probably, there are no similar fires comprised of oil and smoke being generated in all those buildings. What all that stacks are actually emitting in our California landscape is mostly steam (I mention the locale because there are oil-fired devices that really are smoky in other parts of the globe). 

As though unchanged from the 19th century we are a culture full of steam generating equipment. While we’re not all running little steam engines in our houses, most of us are running incredibly simple heating devices that use burned natural gas to heat our water, cook our food and heat our houses. These devices have some requirements and some problems that are peculiarly endemic to this heating method and while much of this is beyond the technical capacity of the typical homeowner, you might be surprised at how much of this you can understand and how many problems you can begin to diagnose for yourself. 

First, let’s understand a little about what natural gas is. The gas that comes to your house is primarily methane. The same thing our bodies, and many organisms on earth produce as a product of digestion. It’s a small molecule just filled with energy and when combusted with a little oxygen, it produces lots of warmth as well as quite a bit of water vapor. That’s the steam you see above all the roofs. It’s not smoke at all, it’s mostly water vapor and carbon dioxide.  

That last part makes the exhaust a greenhouse gas and one reason we all want to turn off the furnace, turn down the water heater or turn off the dryer as soon as possible. The good news is that natural gas has less carbon output per unit of energy than all of the other fossil fuels by a goodly margin (30 percent less than oil and 45 percent less than coal) so we can feel pretty good about using CNG (compressed natural gas) for our heating. 

Now, back to some basic science and diagnosing your own heating devices. You may notice that when you cook in the kitchen that it steams up the windows. That’s the water vapor that the gas burners are producing. What may be less obvious is that your dryer, water heater and furnace are doing the same thing. If these devices are vented properly, you shouldn’t be seeing the steam (or the paint peeling off the wall, which actually happens sometimes when gas devices are poorly vented). 

We can use this knowledge to see if our gas devices are vented property. Let’s start with the water heater. If you have a water heater inside your living space (and it shouldn’t be reached through the bedroom or bathroom (e.g. bedroom closet)) you can check to see if it’s exhausting properly to the exterior by putting a mirror (I use my glasses) at the top of the water heater where there are air inlets just before the pipe goes upward. If you kick the unit on by running some hot water or by turning its thermostat up just a bit you can check to see if exhaust comes out of the inlets and steams up your mirror. If this is happening (and we call it spillage) you’ve got an exhaust leak and it needs to be fixed. 

By the way, it not just steam that’s coming out of the pipe. This can also include carbon monoxide, an odorless, toxic (and potentially deadly) gas as well as a range of other unpleasant hydrocarbons, so exhaust leaks are serious business. 

If you run your gas dryer empty, you can do the same test and just see if there are signs of moisture (again, use a little mirror or your glasses) around the outside of the device (especially near the vent at the rear). If you can get to your furnace, you can look at that same flue for signs of the same thing. While many furnaces don’t have “draft-diverters” (the inlets we noted on the top of the water heater) you still may see signs of spillage. 

Most furnaces have metal exhaust pipes and, again, these are carrying mostly water vapor and plenty of it. This vapor is hot when it first enters the pipe but if it has a chance to cool off too early, it will rain down inside the pipe creating all sorts of havoc. These gases also contain acidy impurities that like to eat metal and when its happening and you look in the right places, you can actually see it. I see it all the time. Sometimes so much that the exhaust pipes have actually fallen completely apart and the exhaust is just pouring out into the crawlspace below the house. If you can get to where your furnace flue is, look for signs of moisture. One of the clearest signs is a white powdery “precipitate” built up at the joints in the pipe. These are the impurities in the gas crystallized on the surface and they show us that there’s been water cooling and leaking inside. Sometimes they’ll also be lots of corrosion and you might just see a hole or crack or worse.  

All gas heating devices can be subject to these effects so it’s a really good idea to have an expert take a look at these devices every year. Still, looking and learning for yourself is a great idea as long as you remember to rely upon professionals for the final call and any work on a system like this. By the way, remember that flues get very hot. 

When I do see flues that rain inside or seem to spill, its often the result of poor configuration. Steam doesn’t stay hot for long when its asked to take a long trip on a cold day so the best flues go strait to the roof with a minimum of twists and turns. They’re also built of “double-wall” metal that acts like a thermos bottle and keeps the exhaust nice and hot for the whole trip. If you look carefully at metal flues, you can see that the double wall material has dimples where the inner and outer layers meet and locking rings at the ends. More high-tech. 

I don’t intend for grandma to use this article to diagnose her furnace problem and I always think twice before taking you down such a complex path but I still think that a little knowledge is a useful thing. You might actually see a real defect and take action or you might just be able to have a more fruitful discussion with your heating contractor the next time they come to check out your furnace. If you start out by telling your furnace guy or gal that you think that flue gases are condensing inside your furnace flue and that you’re concerned about the configuration of the flue, you can bet that they’re going to take this job very seriously (just as soon as they’ve found their eyeballs and put them back in their head). 

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 

CHILDREN 

First Stage Children’s Theatre “Inside/Outside Blues” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $7, children under 12, $5.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Christina Gillis discusses her new “Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Garrett Caples on the poems of John Hoffman and Philip Lamantia at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jen Sorensen discusses “ Slowpoke: One Nation, Oh My God!” book-length collection from the cartoonist at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tri Tip Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

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

Matt Morrish with Beep at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

The Return of the Mo’Rockin Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 238-9200.  

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

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Diversity in Play” Paintings by Rita Sklar. Reception at 3 p.m. at Dimond Cafe, 3430 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland. www.ritasklar.com 

FILM 

“Daughters of the Dust” at 3 p.m. at “Society of the Spectacle” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bernard Maybeck: An Arts and Crafts Architect in California Lecture by Sissel Hamre Dagsland at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. $15 at the door. 

Melanie Abrams reads from her debut novel, Playin” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

College of Alameda Creative Writing Faculty, staff and studetns share their writings at noon at College of Alameda Library, first floor, L Building, 555 Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway, Alameda. 748-2213. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Keynotes, exploring the interface between early and modern keyboard music at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Ian Carey Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ed Neff and Friends, bluegrass, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

Rebecca Riots, Melanie DeMore, Betsy Rose and Kelly Takunda-Orphan in a benefit concert for Code Pink at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568. 

The Adrian Xavier Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Green films for Earth Day at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$8, free before 9 p.m. 525-5054.  

La Verdad 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.  

Regina Pontillo, songs from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Mike Seeger at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, APRIL 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Grandmothers Against the War Book Discussion at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

June Jordan’s Poetry for the People featuring Francisco X. Alarcón at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ariana Reines and Angie Yuan read as part of The Holloway Series in Poetry at 6:30 p.m. in 315 Wheeler Hall, The Maude Fife Room UC Berkeley Campus. 642-3467. http://holloway.english.berkeley.edu  

James Howard Kunstler describes “World Made By Hand” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak describe “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Four Bitchin’ Babes: Saly Fingerett, Debi Smith, Nancy Moran & Dierdre Flint at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761.  

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

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

Speak the Music, beatboxing performances, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Akousa Mireku, Ghanaian-American folk-singer, at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Mingus Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200.  

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Uncle Vanya” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through May 17. Tickets are $10-$12.. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Aurora Theatre “The Trojan Women” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 11. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822.  

Berkeley High School “Grease” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., through May 3 at Florence Schwimley Little Theater, BHS Campus. Dance contest at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5-$15. hypedrama@aol.com 

California Conservatory Theatre “The Turn of the Screw” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at 999 East 14th St., San Leandro City Hall Complex, near BART, through April 27. Tickets are $20-$22. 632-8850. 

Contra Costa Cvic Theater “Foxfire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser, El Cerrito, through May 11. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Tartuffe” Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., at 105 Park Place, Pt. Richmond, through April 26. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Refugee Nation” Stories of Laotian refugees and their descendants, Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Shotgun Players “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw. Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m., through April 27, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Theatre de la Jeune Lune “Figaro” through June 8 at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $13.50-$69. 647-2949. 

TheatreFirst “Future Me” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through May 3. Tickets are $23-$28. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

El Cerrito Art Association Annual Art Show, featuring “How I See Emotion” and “Art from Scrap.” Reception at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Community Center at 7007 Moeser Lane, El Cerrito. Exhibition open Sat. from 1o a.m to 5 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  

Works by Lori-Marie Jenkins, assemblage, collage and sculpture. Opening reception st 7 p.m. at Eclectix Gallery, 7523 Farimount Ave, El Cerrito. www.eclectixgallery.com 

FILM 

“Mad Hot Ballroom” at 3:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Folowed by “Boogie in the Books” dance lessons in the library on Sun. April 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. 981-6241. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lynne Knight, Nina Lindsay, Murray Silverstein and Helen Wickes read their poems for National Poetry month at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Garrett Murphy and Steve Martinot read their poetry, followed by open mic at 7 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

Steven Greenhouse describes “The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way. 642-6371. 

Kevin Phillips describes “Bad Money: Wreckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Free. 559-9500.  

Bill Soto-Castellanos reads from “16th & Bryant: My Life and Education with the San Francisco Seals” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies with Donne Di Mezze at 7:30 p.m. at The Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$18. 868-0695.  

Berkeley Dance Project 2008 Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-8827. theater.berkeley.edu 

Ramblin Jack Elliott and Country Joe McDonald An evening of song, stories and more at 7:30 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $40. 843-0662. 

David Berkman New Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373.  

Daria & Her Trio with Frank Martin at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

The Uptones and a Shakin’ Dance Contest at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. 

The Cowlicks at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Tracy Grammer at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

DJ Fflood, rare vinyl remixes and mashups, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Pulling Teeth, Conquest for Death Circles at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $8. 525-9926. 

The P-PL at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Raya Nova, alt rock and latin, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 26 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Colibri, songs from Latin America at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568.  

Active Arts Theatre, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $14-$18. www.activeartstheatre.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“In the Midst of Things: Street Photography 1988 - 2008” Black and white photographs by Ilona Sturm. Opening reception at 5 p.m. at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibit runs through May 17. Gallery hours Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 644-1400. 

THEATER 

San Leandro Players “Redwood Curtain” Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at San Leandro Museum Auditorium, Casa Peralta, 320 W. Estudillo Ave., through May 4. Tickets are $10-$15. 895-2573. www.sanleandroplayers.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

National Poetry Month Reading Celebrating the Bicentennial of the Birth of John Greenleaf Whittier, at 2 p.m. in the Poetry Garden, Berkeley Arts Magnet/Whittier School, Milvia and Lincoln. Open Mic follows, children and their poems especially welcome. 

2nd Annual Bay Area JazzPoetry Festival at 7 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $20. 848-3227. www.hillsideclub.org 

Poems Here and There, featuring readings by Jeff T. Johnson, Kaya Oakes, Claire Donato, Jesse Nathan, Jared Hawkley, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Jared Bernstein reads from “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Sparking Art with Soul: A Workshop for Arts Educators from noon to 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley Business Center, 2956 San Pablo Ave. Free, but registration required. www.jfku.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chelle and Friends “The Queens of New Orleans” at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15, children under 12 free. 228-3218. 

Benefit Concert for AIDS/Lifecycle with GQ Wang, tenor, Gemini Soul, jazz quartet, members of Oakland Youth Orchestra and others at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Donation $15-$25. 449-4402. 

Heidi Hau, piano, performs works of Debussy, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Cost is $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Korean-American Annual Cultural Show at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $5. 

Ramblin Jack Elliott and Country Joe McDonald An evening of song, stories and more at 7:30 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz. Tickets are $40. 843-0662. 

Kitka: Nostalgic Cafe Songs from Bosnia, Croatia and Beyond at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 444-0323. 

University Chorus at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864.  

Lady Bianca Blues Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Baba Ken & the Afro-Groove Connexion at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $10-$15. 525-5054. 

Duck Baker at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

“Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi in Three Cantos” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

Zoe Ellis Group, jazz, blues, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Big Lion, folk-rock, at 9:45 p.m. at Beckett’s, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Moment’s Notice Improvised music, dance and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 Eighth St. Tickets are $8-$15. 

Space Heater at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Guttermouth, United Defiance, Pour Habit at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Mingus Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Berkeley, A City of Firsts” Exhibition opening from 3 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Historical Society, Vterans Memorial Building, 1931 Center St The exhibit runs to September 27. Regular hours are Thurs.-Sat. 1- 4 p.m. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/histsoc/ 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Caroline Murphy reads from “Murder of a Medici Princess” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MATRIX/REDUX A conversation with Peter Doig and Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

“Pearls from the Sea: Music & Dance of Tahiti” Lecture and video at 3 p.m. at Expressions Gallery 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Orchestra “The Mozart Requiem” at 4:30 p..m at St. Joseph The Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Free, donations appreciated. 

California Bach Society Cantatas by Buxtehude and Bach at 4 p.m. atSt. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way, at Ellsworth. Tickets are $10-$25. 415-262-0272.  

Balkan Cabaret Sevdah Singing Workshop with Mary Sherhart from 3 to 5 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20. 444-0323.  

Qui, Emerald Bay, hip-hop cypher for the whole family at 8 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cos tis $5.  

University Wind Ensemble at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Salvadora Galan, flamenco, at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12-$14. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Dima Birich & Calvin Keys at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Tribute to Vibraphonist Cal Tjader at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15-$18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Patty Larkin with Peter Mulvey at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761.  

The Estranged, Spectres, Stiff Jeans at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 28 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Subterranean Shakespeare Intensive staged reading of “Cymbeline” at 7:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Tickets are $5. 276-3871. 

Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium “The Medium is not the Message” with Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, at 7:30 p.m. at 160 Kroeber Hall, UC Campus. 643-9565.  

Steven Farmer and Steve Dickison, poets, with music by John Schott, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express “Favorite Poems Night” for National Poetry Month at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Classical at the Freight: Johannes Brahms’ 175th Birthday Celebration at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $6.50-$7.50. 548-1761 www.freightandsalvage.org 

Cowboy Junkies at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $30 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

What the eye don’t see, the heart don’t grieve.” Foxfire, now onstage at Contra Costa Civic Theatre in El Cerrito, is about the grieving of a vernacular culture for what’s gone, whether it’s seen or not. 

Aunt Annie Nations (portrayed splendidly by Pat Parker) has lived on the farm at Stony Lonesome in the Appalachian country, Rabun County, Georgia, “since I got married.” It’s all she’s looked at in her no-nonsense manner for a long while. 

Her husband, Hector (another sterling performance by T. Louis Weltz, showing a man both diffident and occasionally ebullient), who inherited the farm from his father and worked it all his life, died five years before the curtain goes up, buried in the orchard offstage. But Annie still sees him, talks to him, listens to him and argues with his jealously framed scriptural quotations, all designed by this matter-of-fact phantom to keep her there, on the land, tending to him in death as well as life. 

The neighbors have been selling out, moving on—or into trailers with TVs. Nearby Ruby Ridge is all development. Prince Carpenter (wryly played by Joe Fitzgerald) shows up, a realtor, trying to buy the farm from Annie, who instead gets him to pop out the eyes in a sow’s head for cooking and gather apples in the orchard. 

Prince mistakes Dillard (Malcolm Rodgers in a dead-on portrayal of a simple man grown complicated), Annie’s musician son visiting with a sack of oranges, for a rival developer from Florida. Dillard, touring for his career, wants Annie to move in with him, away from the mountains, and help care for her grandchildren, but resents the intrusion of the hick realtor, turning farmland into tract homes. 

“What is troubling you, Dillard?” “Nothin’. Just livin’” Rodgers’ Dillard shows the glib smile from town and honkytonk that is covered over the deadpan of the hills. Yet there is a mournful twinge to his grin, the same catch heard in his songs. 

When his mother finally consents to see a show of his, her first, the pretty schoolmarm who accompanies her, Holly Burrell (Jennifer Antonacci), later tells Dillard she doesn’t like him so much as an entertainer, a professional hillbilly, dressed up “like an ice cream soda” and talking about his old neighbors so they sound like they are “out of L’il Abner.” She preferred his amateur style, “just your voice and guitar.” “It wouldn’t pay the rent,” Dillard dryly replies. 

On Eugene DeChristopher’s set, rough-hewn wood structures above fog-shrouded valleys and distant ridges, where a picnic table serves in memory as the site both of a birth and of laying out the dead, a great deal unfolds in scenes from the past and present.  

There are some particularly fine moments: Wendy Welch as the young Annie, ecstatically stepdancing, when Matt Davis’ young Hector comes to awkwardly ask her hand, after pocketing a red cob of corn at the shucking so he could kiss the prettiest girl; Holly as a student, recording the Nations family’s stories, being put on and charmed by Hector as Dillard listens, amused, later singing “Sweet-Talkin’ Man”; fine repartees between the living and the dead over duty and steadfastness, and equally fine soliloquies delivered straight to the audience, which amount to Hector’s show-within-a-show, revealing both his hard life and not-so-stern humor at times. 

And throughout, from before the lights go down to the curtain call, there’s lots of good, well-played, well-sung country music, written by Jonathan Holtzman for the original show, directed for CCCT by Alan Spector, and performed by Rodgers, Chuck Ervin on bass, Polly Frizzell and Tony Phillips on fiddle and George Martin on banjo, with a few airs sung rough by other members of the cast. 

Foxfire’s a good entertainment that never quite becomes either a play or cabaret, not that its value as entertainment is compromised. The different modes of presentation, all enjoyable in themselves, sprawl rather than coalesce. The character of Holly seems important at first, then fades away. And the part of ghostly Hector, obviously a vehicle for coauthor (with Susan Cooper) Hume Cronyn for a star turn, ends out of proportion with how it began. 

But director Mark LaRiviere gets a lot of juice from his cast of nine (including Roger Craig and Zak Filler), making the contradictions of a homecoming yet leavetaking play that both goes against and plays off the hillbilly stereotype seem natural enough, and regretfully over too soon. CCCT has a hit with this one, in which simple folk, who seem to have the consolation Hector enunciates: “Maybe we’re lucky—we got no choices,” find out they have a few simple, difficult choices to make, after all. 

FOXFIRE 

8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through May 11 at Contra Costa Civic Theatre 

951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito. $11-$18.  

524-9132, www.ccct.org.

Last week’s column gave an overview of expansion plans by the University of California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, including two huge new buildings in Strawberry Canyon: the Computation Research and Theoretical Facility (CRT) and the Helios Facility. A group called Save Strawberry Canyon is fighting the expansion for a whole litany of reasons: earthquake and fire risks; impacts on air and water quality and greenhouse gas emissions; damage to a significant cultural landscape; procedural flaws in the lab’s Long Range Development Plan (LRDP); and, not least, endangered species issues. 

These folks could really use a web designer. If you’re interested, email Phila Rogers (philajane6@yahoo.com). 

UC concedes that the development sites are known or potential habitat for several protected or sensitive animals and plants. Some of these species get only a cursory mention in the LRDP, CRT and Helios EIRs. But UC has developed plans for dealing with the federally threatened Alameda whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis euryxanthus), the bane of East Bay developers. Whether those plans are anywhere near adequate is another question. 

My only encounter with a whipsnake took place in Briones Regional Park a few years ago. A ripple in the grass resolved from a black-and-yellow blur into a four-foot-long snake. It stopped and looked back at me, head raised like a cobra’s, neck weaving back and forth. It had large eyes for a snake, and a jet-black tongue that flickered in and out. Then it turned, and in an instant was gone in the nearby brush before I even thought to reach for my camera. 

Whipsnakes are active by day, waiting out the night in rodent burrows. When the morning sun has raised its body temperature to the optimum level, a whipsnake goes on the prowl, hunting by sight, not smell or thermal cues like many other snakes. Its primary quarry is the western fence lizard. If you’ve ever tried to catch a fence lizard, you can appreciate what the snake is up against; they’re fast and skilled in evasive maneuvers. But the whipsnake chases them down, pinning them and swallowing them alive and thrashing. It wastes no time on constriction. 

For a whipsnake, prime real estate has tall enough grass to conceal it from its own predators, patchy shrub cover to let the sun in, and rock outcroppings where lizards bask. Females also require grassland for egg-laying. This mosaic of microhabitats has become increasingly rare. Freeways and housing developments have fragmented the snake’s range, isolating remnant populations and obstructing gene flow among them. 

The Alameda whipsnake, found only in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin Counties, was state-listed in 1971 and federally listed in 1997. A suit by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Christians Caring for Creation forced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FSW) to identify 400,000 acres as critical habitat. That was set aside after litigation by the Home Builder’s Association of Northern California, claiming the habitat criteria were too broad.  

FWS’s second critical habitat designation in 2005, under the aegis of Interior Department hatchetwoman Julie MacDonald, cut the protected area by over 62 percent. Last November CBD declared its intent to go back to court on this and other endangered-species determinations. See their website for details: www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/reptiles/Alameda_whipsnake. For now, critical habitat officially includes the eastern portion of the Lawrence Lab’s territory, although not the CRT or Helios sites.  

Surveys by contract biologist Karen Swaim have not detected Alameda whipsnakes in the portion of Strawberry Canyon targeted for the next round of development. However, both the CRT and Helios project sites were designated as “highly suitable potential habitat” for the snake. In the case of a creature that hibernates for a good part of the year and is very good at not being seen, the old adage “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” would seem to apply. 

According to the UC EIRs, any whipsnakes encountered during pre-construction site surveys would be dealt with in accordance with the Alameda Whipsnake Relocation Plan. Although this phrase has a reassuring solidity, there does not appear to be an actual plan, at least not in writing. 

UC also goes into detail about efforts to minimize incidental take (a semantic cousin of “collateral damage”) of the whipsnake, which would include hiring a Whipsnake Monitor for the construction sites, whipsnake awareness training for the crews, and building snakeproof fences once a site has been cleared.  

But the fate of individual snakes isn’t really the issue here. It’s how the CRT and Helios projects, and whatever follows them—the buildings, the parking lots, the roads, the vegetation management—would fragment existing habitat. Without connectivity between suitable patches, any Strawberry Canyon whipsnake population would be doomed to extirpation. 

Rumors that UC has retained Samuel L. Jackson as a consultant could not be confirmed. 

Next week: the harvestman paradox.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Inspiration Point in Tilden Regional Park. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

“The Costs of War: The U.S. in Iraq” with Prof. Samera Esmeir, Porf. Ramon Grosfoguel, at 6 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle, UC Campus. costofwar@gmail.com 

“Texts We Wish Were Not In the Bible” with Aaron Brody, associate professor of Bible and archaeology and director of Badé Museum, at 11:10 a.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

Berkeley High School Governance Council meets at 4:15 p.m. in the Comunity Theater Lobby, Berkeley High. 644-4803. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St. MelDancing@aol.com 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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 

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 

Teen Playreaders meets to read and discuss plays at 4:30 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 981-6121. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long Group from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for signs of spring, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

“Waking from the California Dream: How Our History Affects Your Future” with Gray Brechin and Jan Spencer at 6:30 p.m. at Cocina Poblana, Jack London Square, Oakland. to register see www.EWcoNowUSA.org 

Berkeley Gray Panthers with Jim Soper of the Voting Rights Task Force on electronic voting and Julia Cato on Prop. 98 at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, corner MLK. 

“The Art of Being Present” A lecture and demonstration with Denise Berezonsky at 7 p.m. at Three Stone Hearth, 1 Bolivar Drive at Addison. Threestoneheath.com 

“With God on Our Side” A documentary tracing the roots of the Christian Right movement at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

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. 

Theraputic Recreation at the Berkeley Warm Pool, Wed. at 3:30 p.m. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Warm Pool, 2245 Milvia St. Cost is $4-$5. Bring a towel. 632-9369. 

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 Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

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, APRIL 24 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for signs of spring, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will learn about plants from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Are Peace and Impeachment Possible? Strategies to end the war, stop war on Iran, save our constitution and economy with David Swanson of afterdowningstreet.org; Daniel Ellsberg; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, and others at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $8-$10 at independent bookstores.  

“Grandmothers Against the War” book party at 6 p.m. at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library. 981-6250. 

“Darfur Now” documentary screening at 6 p.m. at VLSB 2050, UC Campus. For more information see www.Darfurnowtour.com 

“American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau” with Paul Hawken at 7:30 p.m. at 2121 Bonar St., Studio A. RSVP required. 540-4800. 

Creative Movement and Sign Language for ages 5-10 at 3:30 p.. at Elephant, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200.  

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

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 

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 

“Saying No to Torture” with Fr. Louie Vitale, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Free, donations appreciated. Sponsored by Pace e Bene and Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture. 499-0537. 

“On Our Watch: The Urban Small Schools Symposium” Fri. and Sat. at EXCEL High School, 2607 Myrtle St., Oakland. For information see www.bayces.org 

Legacies of War and Center for Lao Studies Benefit performance of Refugee Nation and reception at 8 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave. 849-2568. www.lapena.org  

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Margaret Conkey, Prof. of Anthropology, on “The Human Engagement with Art: Going Back to the Caves.” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 524-7468.  

“The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker” with author Steven Greenhouse at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way. 642-6371. 

“The Narrow Path” A film on the lifestyle of non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and Oscar Romero at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Church Sacramento & Cedar. www.berkeleyfriendschurch.org  

“The Real Dirt on Farmer John” A film on Growing food in our neighborhoods at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St at Bonita, a block east of MLK Jr Wy. Discussion follows. 540-1975 www.bfuu.org 

“Waiting to Inhale” A documentary on marijuana, medicine and the law at 6:30 p.m. at Wheeler Hall, UC Campus.  

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, APRIL 26 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “The Elmwood: or “I Ain’t Gona Work on Kelsey’s Farm No More” from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations call 848-0181. 

Berkeley Friends Church Annual Quaker Heritage Day “Quaker Testimonies in our Time Living the Quaker Question Now” from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Donation $15-$20. Reservations required. 524-4112. www.berkeleyfriendschurch.org 

Cerrito Creek Restoration Help Friends of Five Creeks on their resotation project, from 9 a.m. to noon at Creekside Park, south end of Santa Clara Ave., El Cerrito. Wear clothes that can get dirty, and shoes with good traction. BBQ for volunteers follows. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Secret Garden Tour Benefit for the Park Day School, Oakland, on Sat. and Sun. For information call 653-6250. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class on Hearty Homestyle Italian from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $49 plus $5 materials fee. Wheelchair accessible. Regsisration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com  

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Native Plant Garden Tour “Meet the Designers” A self-guided tour of gardens in Oakland and Berkeley, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $30. To register see www.bringinbackthenatives.net 

International Family Fair with a variety of live entertainment, games and activities for children, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at New School of Berkeley, Bonita St. at Cedar. 548-9165. newschoolofberkeley.org 

Asian Food and Cultural Fair “Not an Asian Ghetto: More than Just Take Out” from noon to 3 p.m. on Telegraph Ave., between Channing and Durant. Sponsored by UC Berkeley Asian Pacific American Coalition and the Telegraph BID.  

UC Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 200 Centennial Dr. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Introduction to Homeopathy and Open House from 1 to 3 p.m. at Ohlone Herbal Center, 1654 University Ave. RSVP to health@homeopathy-academy.org  

Casino Royale Nite Benefit for Mercy Retirement & Care Center, with live music performed by Jazz 4U, food, raffle prizes, and games of chance, from 7 to 11 p.m. at St. Paschal’s Parish, 3700 Dorisa Ave., Oakland. Cost is $60. 534-8540, ext. 322 

Sparking Art with Soul: A Workshop for Arts Educators from noon to 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University Berkeley Campus, Berkeley Business Center, 2956 San Pablo Ave. Free, but registration required. www.jfku.edu 

Liturgical Praise Celebration in Dance at 3 p.m. at St. Paul AME Church, 2024 Ashby Ave. 848-2050.  

Ancestral DNA Testing Workshop from noon to 3 p.m. at the College of Alameda. Follow-up workshop to discuss results on May 17. Cost is $150. To register call 748-2352.  

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.  

SUNDAY, APRIL 27 

Berkeley City College Open House Noon to 5 p.m. at 2050 Center St., with games, tours, films, interactive workshops and more. 981-2852. www.berkeleycitycollege.edu  

People’s Park 39th Anniversary Celebration from noon to 6 p.m. with music and poetry, clowns and activities for children. 658-9178. 

“Berkeley and Military Recruiting: What is all the Fuss?” A town hall meeting at 4 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St. info@codepink.org 

“Environmental Heroes: Past, Present, and Future” An afternoon fundraising cruise on the San Francisco Bay, from 2-6 p.m., departing from the Berkeley Marina. Benefit for Shorebird Nature Center. Tickets are $65 per person; $75 for one adult and one child; $100 for two adults. Sponsored by Berkeley Partners for Parks at www.bpfp.org 

Meadow Meander Hike Join a five-mile hike to see the flowers, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Inspiration Point, Tilden Park. Bring layers and lunch. 525-2233. 

Bay-Friendly Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout Alameda County. Tour is free, but registration is required. www.BayFriendly.org 

Native Plant Garden Tour Meet designer Gary Schneider on a self-guided tour of gardens in Berkeley, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $30. To register see www.bringinbackthenatives.net 

The Friends of Sausal Creek Plant Sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Joaquin Miller Native Plant Nursery, with a demonstration garden of local native plants and a propagation talk at noon. 928-6675. www.sausalcreek.org 

Berkeley Citizens Action Endorsement Meeting for candidates running for the 14th Assembly District and 9th Senate District. Also hear presentations on Props. 98 and 99. From 4 to 6 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, MLK and Hearst. 

El Cerrito Historical Society meets at 1 p.m. at the El Cerrito Senior Center, behind the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507. www.elcerritowire.com/history 

“Boogie in the Books” meringue dance lessons with Gale Robinson followed by dancing, at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241. 

Oakland Community for Imigrant Rights Meeting for businesses and community members to defend against criminalization at 3 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Educational Center, 2825 International Blvd., Oakland. 535-1909. 

“Organic Gardening 101” Learn basics to get started growing your own food, herbs and flowers, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Oakland. Cost is $20-$25 sliding scale. www.sparkybeegirl.com/iuh.html 

“Creating Your Ecological House” Learn about natural building materials, solar design and alternative construction methods, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Building Education Center, 812 Page St. Cost is $85. RSVP to 525-7610. 

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Little Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Class on safety inpsections at 10 a.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Paddle Demonstration Day at the San Pablo Reservoir, from 10 a.m. to noon for REI members, noon to 3 p.m. for all. Free. Children under 18 must be accompanied by a parent/legal guardian. For information see www.rei.com/paddle 

4th Annual Circus for Arts in the Schools at 1 and 4 p.m. at Kofman Auditorium, 2200 Central Ave, Alameda. Tickets are $10-$15. 800-838-3006. www.circusforarts.org 

“The Internet and the Truth” with salon.com writer Farhad Manjoo, Wikipedia Foundation general counsel Mike Godwin, and blogger Zo Spencer at 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $15. Sponsored by Berkeley Cybersalon. www.sylviapaull.com 

“Women Philosophers: Nancy Cartwright” A lecture by H.D. Moe at 11 a.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland.  

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

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Experiments in Awareness: Going Deeper than Our Stories” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. 

MONDAY, APRIL 28 

“Environmental Impact: The New Deal and Berkeley’s Environment” with Gray Brechin at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, central meeting room, 2090 Kittredge.  

Kensington Library Book Club meets to discuss “Blindness” by Jose Saramago at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group, for people 60 years and over, meets at 9:45 a.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave, Albany. Cost is $3. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. www.dragonmax.org 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577.  

CITY MEETINGS 

City Council meets Tues., April 22, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900.  

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484. 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., April 23, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Mental Health Commission meets Thurs., April 24, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213. 

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., April 24, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. 981-7410.

FRIDAY, APRIL 18 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Uncle Vanya” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., through May 17. Tickets are $10-$12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org  

Aurora Theatre “The Trojan Women” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through May 11. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

California Conservatory Theatre “The Turn of the Screw” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at 999 East 14th St., San Leandro City Hall Complex, near BART, through April 27. Tickets are $20-$22. 632-8850. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Foxfire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave. at Moeser, El Cerrito, through May 11. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Masquers Playhouse “Tartuffe” Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m., some Sun. matinees at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Pt. Richmond, through April 26. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Medea, A Tragedy by Euripides” Fri. and Sat. at 7 p.m. at Oakland School for the Arts, 1800 San Pablo, Oakland , 1 block from 19th St BART. Tickets are $5-$10. 873-8800. www.oakarts.tix.com 

Shotgun Players “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” by George Bernard Shaw. Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m., through April 27, at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

TheatreFirst “Future Me” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through May 4. Tickets are $23-$28. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Diversity in Play” Paintings by Rita Sklar. Reception at 3 p.m. at Cafe Diem, 2224 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland. www.ritasklar.com 

FILM 

“The Archeology of Memory: Villa Grimaldi” about Chilean exiled musician Quique Cruz at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine & Lebanon” with readings by Elmaz Abinader, Barbara Berman, Alexis De Veaux, Kathy Engel, Sam Hamod, Jack Hirschman, James Scully, and Deema Shehabi. Recption at 5:30 p.m., readings at 7:30 p.m. at St. John's Church, 2727 College Ave. RSVP to 548-0542.  

Amy Arbus “The Fourth Wall” A multi-media presentation on the stories behind her most iconic images at 6:30 p.m. at Sibley Auditorium, UC Campus. For ticket information see www.fotovision.org/pages/home.php 

Amanda Nadelberg and John Sakkis read their poems for National Poetry month at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Ernest Bloch Lecture with Steve Mackey on “The 21st Century and the Composer/Performer” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Jannell Moon and Jeanne Lupton, read their poetry, followed by open mic at 7 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

Don Lee reads from his comic satire, “Wrack and Ruin” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Will Allen describes “War on Bugs” on the chemical industry’s deep roots in agriculture, at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Bruce Anderson reads from his new book, “The Mendocino Papers” at 7 p.m. at Book Zoo, 6395 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 654-2665. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Friday Noon Concert, with University Baroque Ensemble at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

April Paik, Melissa Lin, violins, Garrett McLean, viola and Ting Chin, 'cello, at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $10. 848-1228. giorgigallery.org 

Spotlight on Local Composers New Works by John Blakelock at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-1350. 

UC Berkeley’s The Movement Spring Showcase, Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $9 at the door.  

Berkeley Dance Project 2008 Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m., through April 27 at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $8-$14. 642-8827. theater.berkeley.edu 

Los Boleros in a Havana Dance Party, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Back Porch Pickers at 7:30 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Tickets are $12-$15, children under 16 $5.  

Rebecca Coupe-Franks Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Youssoupha Sidibe at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $11-$14. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Acoustic Son at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

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

Andrew Sammons Solo Guitar, jazz, swing, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Extreme Noise Terror, Stormcrow, Strong Intention at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

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

Devin the Dude, hip hop, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15-$18. 548-1159.  

Terrence Brewer Quartet with Lorca Hart at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Billy Cobham & Friends at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $16-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, APRIL 19 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Betsy Stern, songs in Spanish, French and English, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Active Arts Theatre, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $14-$18. www.activeartstheatre.org 

THEATER 

San Leandro Players “Redwood Curtain” Sat. at 8 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at San Leandro Museum Auditorium, Casa Peralta, 320 W. Estudillo Ave., through May 4. Tickets are $10-$15. 895-2573. www.sanleandroplayers.org 

Best of the Bay Comedy Series with Derrick Ellis, Marc Howard, John Alston, B.T. Kingsley and others at 10 p.m. at Black Repertory Theater, 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $20. 652-2120.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Photographs of the West” by J. Williams, jewelry and pottery. Opening reception at 2 p.m. at Maison d’ Art Gallery, 2729 San Pablo Ave. 207-9509.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

West Coast Live with authors Patrick McGrath, Melanie Abrams, Nathanial Rich and Tin Cup Seranade at 10 a.m. at Freight & Salvage Coffee House, 1111 Addison St. Tickets are $13-$18. 415-664-9500. www.ticketweb.com 

Samantha Le reads from her novel “Little Sister Left Behind” at 4 p.m. at Eastwind Book of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. www.ewbb.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Earth Day Cultural Performances with Marcia Flores Cantillana, Shawl-Anderson Youth Ensemble, Antoine Hunter Urban Jazz Dance Company and others, from noon to 5 p.m. at Civic Center Park.  

The American Recorder Orchestra of the West “Fancy Free” a concert of American music at 8 p.m. pre-concert reception at 7 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2220 Cedar St. Donation $10, $5 for students and children under 12. www.arrowmusic.org 

American Bach Soloists “1685 and the Art of Ian Howell” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m., Tickets are $16-$42. 415-621-7900. www.americanbach.org 

African Music and Dance Ensemble, directed by C.K. Ladzekpo at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $4-$12. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

San Francisco Renaissance Voices at 4 p.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$15. 415-456-1102 www.sfrv.org 

Journey Into Dance at 8 p.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way, at 6th. 486-8700. www.rudramandir.com 

Vladimir Vukanovich, Peruvian guitarist, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Faye Carol at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Tom Rigney & Flambeau at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ben Adams/Terrence Brewer Quartet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The Brothers Goldman, funk, at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

Grupo Falso Baiano, Brazilian Choro, at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Sweet Crude Bill & The Lighthouse Nautical Society at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Consider the Source, ethno-fusion, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Mike Park, Captured by Robots in a Memorial Benefit for Lynette Knackstedt at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 20 

EXHIBITIONS 

Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia Guided tour at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Matt Hart, Darcie Denningan and Joseph Massey read their poems for National Poetry month at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Alonzo Addison describes in planet’s most extraordinary and endangered palces in “Disappearing World” at 4 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Patrick McGrath reads from “Trauma” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Animal Crackers! Funny Songs & Delicious Desserts, music by Gershwin, Whitacre, PDQ Bach at 1 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $15-$20; no one turned away for lack of funds. 525-0302. 

California Chamber Players in a concert of string quartets at 3 p.m. at St. John's Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets at the door $18-$22. 415-753-2792. www.chambermusicsundaes.org  

University of California Alumni Chorus, University Men's and Women's Chorales, and Francisco Unitarian Universalist Church Choir perform Brahms’ German Requiem with Jeffrey Fields, baritone, and Nancy Cooke Munn, soprano, at 3 p.m. at Hertz Hall, U.C. Campus Tickets are $6-$15. 643-9645. 

Taylor Eigsti, “Solo/Duo/Trio” with bassist John Schifflet and drummer Jason Lewis at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Oakland. Tickets are $25-$50 for concert and reception. Fundraiser for the Jazzschool. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.inhousetickets.com  

Dalby-Rabin Duo at 4 p.m. at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. $12 for adults and free for children 18 and under. www.crowden.org 

Sound Poems Poetry and percussion by Kirk Lumpkin, Paul Mills, guitar, Mark Wieder, double bass, at 3 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ.  

Garrett McLean, violin, Marvin Sanders, flute, perform solo works by J. S. Bach at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. Cost is $10. 644-6893. berkeleyartcenter.org 

Don Neely’s Royal Society Jazz Orchestra at 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Grupo Falso Baiano with guest Carlos Oliveira at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Athena Tergis & John Doyle at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Have Heart, Blacklisted, Killing the Dream at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, APRIL 21 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Green Ahead of His Time?” Paintings by Alex Maldonado at The Ames Gallery, 2661 Cedar St. Hours are Mon.-Fri. 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 845-4949. www.amesgallery.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Subterranean Shakespeare Shakespeare Intensive Staged reading of “Much Ado About Nothing” at 7:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, Fireside Room, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Tickets are $5. 276-3871. 

Steve Lopez talks about “The Soloist:A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Poetry Express with MK Chavez at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Chabot College Jazz Band at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 

CHILDREN 

First Stage Children’s Theatre “Inside/Outside Blues” at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $7, children under 12, $5.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Christina Gillis discusses her new “Writing on Stone: Scenes from a Maine Island Life” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Garrett Caples on the poems of John Hoffman and Philip Lamantia at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Jen Sorensen discusses “ Slowpoke: One Nation, Oh My God!” book-length collection from the cartoonist at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Tri Tip Trio at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 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 

Matt Morrish with Beep at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

The Return of the Mo’Rockin Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$14. 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, APRIL 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Diversity in Play” Paintings by Rita Sklar. Reception at 3 p.m. at Dimond Cafe, 3430 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland. www.ritasklar.com 

FILM 

“Daughters of the Dust” at 3 p.m. at “Society of the Spectacle” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bernard Maybeck: An Arts and Crafts Architect in California Lecture by Sissel Hamre Dagsland at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. $15 at the door. 

Melanie Abrams reads from her debut novel, Playin” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

College of Alameda Creative Writing Faculty, staff and studetns share their writings at noon at College of Alameda Library, first floor, L Building, 555 Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway, Alameda. 748-2213. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with Keynotes, exploring the interface between early and modern keyboard music at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Ian Carey Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Rebecca Riots, Melanie DeMore, Betsy Rose and Kelly Takunda-Orphan in a benefit concert for Code Pink at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Adrian Xavier Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Green films for Earth Day at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$8, free before 9 p.m. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

La Verdad 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.  

Regina Pontillo, songs from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

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

Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$20. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, APRIL 24 

EXHIBITIONS 

Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia Guided tour at 12:15 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Grandmothers Against the War Book Discussion at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library North Branch, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6250. 

June Jordan’s Poetry for the People featuring Francisco X. Alarcón at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ariana Reines and Angie Yuan read as part of The Holloway Series in Poetry 6:30pm 315 Wheeler Hall, The Maude Fife Room UC Berkeley Campus http://holloway.english.berkeley.edu 642-3467. 

James Howard Kunstler describes “World Made By Hand” at 7 p.m. at Cody's Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak describe “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Four Bitchin’ Babes: Saly Fingerett, Debi Smith, Nancy Moran & Dierdre Flint at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

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

Speak the Music, beatboxing performances, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Akousa Mireku, Ghanaian-American folk-singer, at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Mingus Big Band at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com

Red means War,” said Harriet March Page of Goat Hall’s San Francisco Cabaret Opera to explain “The Red Horse,” the title of the second concert in the series Horsewomen of the Apocalypse, featuring all female vocalists Saturday at St. Gregory’s Church in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill.  

“Red also means domestic strife, battles with depression—and the Red Horse District, where the fillies of the night hang out!” she added. “Come and enjoy.” 

Page talked about the evolution of the series concept. “I had the initial idea myself. I wanted something with women, a little strong ... I stretched the theme a little bit further than I intended!” 

This production is not at Goat Hall, which is undergoing renovations, but further up the Potrero slope. 

“The Red Horse” follows, naturally, “The White Horse,” which was performed in February, and will in turn be followed by “The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray” on May 9.  

“Since they are only three performances for Four Horsewomen, we have to include Death, The Gray Horse,” Page said. “First is Pestilence, Plague, Famine, which are fun, but Strife and Death are more fun.” 

“The Red Horse” features Judith Weir’s just under 10-minute solo a capella opera “King Harald’s Saga,” (from Snorri Sturluson’s Helmskringla Saga, about the first invasion of Britain in 1066, ending 19 days before the Battle of Hastings, with soprano Marilyn Pratt “playing eight roles, as well as the Norwegian Army”).  

It also features “A Set of Songs,” from Susannah by Carlysle Floyd, “More Songs of Woe” by Zachary Watkins and from Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret, “Three Questions” from Mark Alburger’s opera Antigone, as well as “Fire!” from The Bald Soprano, arias from Saga—Portrait of a 21st Century Child by Sheli Nan (of Berkeley), who will also accompany on piano, selections from Oakland’s Allan Crossman’s “The Log of the Skipper’s Wife,” Benjamin Britten’s “The Trees They Grow So High” (with Crossman on piano) and “The Red Horse District,” songs from Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera and Happy End.  

“The Brecht and Weill material is tinged with horrible wars about to happen,” commented Page. 

Singers are Erin (Kat) Cornelius, Sarah Hutchinson, Kristen Jones, Janet Lohr, Eliza O’Malley and Marilyn Pratt, sopranos, and mezzo-sopranos Meghan Dibble, Elizabeth Henry and Harriet March Page. Besides Crossman and Nan, John Partridge will accompany on piano. 

“The Black Horse with a Touch of Gray” will include, among other pieces, more of Nan’s Saga, songs from poetry by Mary Holmes with music by Peter Josheff of El Cerrito and a potato famine song by Cynthia Weyuker (from Alameda) who will perform it with electric saw and loops. 

San Francisco Cabaret Opera will present more opera selections at St. Gregory’s, including scenes from on May 25, and this fall their Fresh Voices VII Festival of New Music: Opera Apocalypse! will premiere Nov. 14 and 16 at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes, with Alburger’s Antigone in full, Amy Beth Kirsten’s Ophelia Forever, and, by John G. Bilotta and John F. McGrew, both of Contra Costa County, Quantum Mechanic, paying homage to Aesop, backed up by the Quark Sisters. 

HORSEWOMEN OF THE  

APOCALYPSE 

8 p.m. Saturday at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, 500 De Haro St., San Francisco. $20-$25, $15 seniors. (415) 255-8100. www.saintgregorys.org.

Poet Robert Hass won a Pulitzer prize last week for his most recent collection Time and Materials, a book that also won the National Book Award last year. 

Awards are not unfamiliar to the Berkeley-based poet, who began his distinguished career by winning the 1973 Yale Younger Poet Competition for his first book, Field Guide. He also won the William Carlos Williams for his second book of poems Praise (1979), the National Book Critics Circle Award for his lucid essays on poetry and poets, Twentieth Century Pleasures (1984), as well as for his poetry collection Sun Under Wood (1996).  

From 1995 to 1997 Hass served as U.S. poet laureate. His tenure was characterized by his concern for cultivating public awareness of the role of poetry in our lives and his active role in developing literacy throughout the U.S. He was also the first Westerner to serve as poet laureate. 

It is being a Westerner, particularly a Northern Californian living on the Pacific Rim, that most characterizes Hass’ work and sensibility—though one could argue that his clear love for food places him more exactly, smack dab in Berkeley. Who else but a Bay Area child, born and raised, could write: “… ham in thin, almost deliquescent, slices/ Mottled ovals of salami … crabmeat,/ With its sweet, iodine smell of high tide …” and then relate the careful attention of serving this feast, with its tenderness of lettuce leaves, to the death of a child? 

A more frequent inhabitant of his work is the California landscape and its wildlife, especially birds, which seem to follow him even when he is out of the environment he is most bonded with, as in “Twin Dolphins,” set in an unnamed Hispanic country: “Harlequin sparrows in a coral tree/ One halcyon harrying another in the desert sky.” Likewise, the landscape of his dreams is invested with birds: “In my dream, I notice, to my surprise, a bird,/ Brilliantly yellow, a European goldfinch, perhaps,/ Red in the wingtips” (“Pears”). 

This basking in the details of nature is more than an academic obsession with categorization or a poetic naming of the harbingers of ecologic concern. They are for Hass a path into the spiritual, the portals to a cosmic world underlying the everyday. This, to me, is a profoundly Californian attitude: 

If there is a way in, it may be 

Through the corolla of the cinquefoil 

With its pale yellow petals, 

In the mixed smell of dust and water 

At trailside in the middle reaches of July. 

Soft: an almost phospher gleam in twilight. 

—from “Poet’s Work” 

Totally lucid language is formed in easily discernible lines that reveal a thoroughly approachable perception of the natural world. These are the traits of Hass’ poetic style. And he uses them to draw the reader into his philosophy, which is more complex and involved with the complications of interconnectedness. Often Hass takes us on a ride of associations from, for example, the rain on the windshield to a schoolgirl crossing the street, to the imaginary book she carries in her backpack, Getting to Know Your Planet. And from there to the revolution of the earth around the sun, to greenhouse emissions, to spilled milk and hunger, to the Latin of Lucretius. And on and on, finishing at last with the Earth, who is a “she”: “the birds just keep arriving,/ Thousands of them, immense arctic flocks, her teeming life.” 

In Time and Materials, Hass also addresses the war. Except through his constant return to ecology, politics is not a subject he is comfortable with. In a 1991 interview, he commented: “I think political writing is problematic .. I know what I hate, but I know less and less about how to change it.” But the war poems in this Pulitzer prize-winning book are some of the most powerful in the book. 

… 

Nightingales singing at the first, subtlest, 

Darkening of dusk, it is a trick of the mind  

That the past seems just ahead of us, 

As if we were being shunted there 

In the surge of a rattling funicular. 

Flash forward: fire bombing of Hamburg 

Fifty thousand dead in a single night, 

“The children’s bodies the next day  

Set in the street in rows like a market 

In charred chicken.” Flash forward: 

Firebombing of Tokyo, a hundred thousand 

In a night. … 

—from “Bush’s War” 

Hass is a superlative editor of poetry, and one of his finest accomplishments is the Addison Street Poetry Walk. The Poetry Walk is a collection of some 120 poems cast in iron plaques that are imbedded in the sidewalk and introduced by artistic tiling in the pavement along Addison Street in downtown Berkeley. The poems range from songs from the Ohlone tribe to lyrics from the punk band Operation Ivy, and pretty much everything in between. Berkeley publisher Heyday Books has released a book of the poems, The Addison Street Anthology: Berkeley’s Poetry Walk (2004: Robert Hass and Jessica Fisher, eds.). 

TIME AND MATERIALS:  

POEMS 1997-2005 

By Robert Hass. Ecco Books (Harper Collins, New York.)

First Run Features has released three provocative films on DVD that delve into the complex consciousness of the German people. From the atrocities of the Holocaust to the repressive post-war socialist government of East Germany, these films offer fascinating glimpses of artists and historians struggling to come to terms with their nation’s past while battling forces—in the form of both the government and the people—who would rather keep such horrors hidden. 

The Second Track 

Joachim Kunert’s The Second Track went unseen for decades, only recently resurfacing and taking its rightful place among Germany’s greatest films. This 1962 noirish thriller examined the burden of the Holocaust on the German conscience at a time when the country as a whole was eager to forget and move on.  

A freight yard inspector stumbles upon a robbery but does not inform the police that he has recognized one of the perpetrators, a man from his past whom he is eager to avoid. This sparks a chain of events in which the inspector’s daughter begins delving into her father’s past as well as her own, uncovering a debilitating cache of Nazi-era secrets. 

The movie is filled with spectacular black and white photography, juxtaposing emotional close-ups with stunning imagery of trains and railroad tracks, of steam drifting across black skies, of glistening cobblestone streets, and impressionistic shots of industrial architecture: freight yard bridges, passageways, stairwells, and gleaming tracks that merge and separate and crisscross the frame.  

The film has been compared to the dark tales of suspense crafted by Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock, but its most apparent influence is Carol Reed’s English masterpiece, The Third Man (1949). Traces of that film can be seen in the angled shots, atmospheric nighttime photography and zither score, and most decidedly in the closing shots, which seem to deliberately draw a parallel with the earlier film. But whereas Reed’s film ends with a single long take of the heroine walking toward and past the hero in what amounts to a romantic rejection, The Second Track closes with a much more troubling and ambiguous rejection, as a woman walks along railroad tracks, toward and past a man who turns to follow her until they approach a gate. The gate may represent passage to another plain, but does it lead to a purgatory in which the German people acknowledge and do penitence for the past, or does it mark entry into a hell of recrimination and reproach? And will the these two figures pass through the gate at all? The image fades to black before we find out. 

Extra features include a short film about Second Track’s cinematographer, Rolf Sohre, and an essay and newsreels about the film.  

The Rabbit is Me 

A few years later, Kurt Maetzig’s The Rabbit Is Me (1965) shined a light on the opportunism, careerism and political calculation that undermined the professed principals of the repressive East German socialist government.  

A young woman’s brother is imprisoned for subversion, though his crime is never revealed to the public or to his family. The sister embarks on an affair with the judge who sentenced her brother, and eventually the truth behind the sentencing is exposed. Though the film was made with solid studio backing, the final product proved too hot to touch, the film’s politics, sexuality and frank moral discussion deemed too dark and skeptical by government censors.  

It was not the only film to draw the government’s ire that year. Many more were likewise banned in the wake of Rabbit Is Me, the whole lot of them thereafter referred to as “the Rabbit films.” The Rabbit Is Me was not screened for the public until after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

Rabbit calls to mind the films of the French New Wave, and anticipates the edgy youth-centered films of America in the 1950s. The movie not only challenges the validity of government institutions but sets up a generational conflict between the young heroine and her much older lover, between the energy and idealism of youth and the stodgy, self-interested avarice of the establishment. Maetzig delights in some of the new tools available to filmmakers, most notably the zoom lens, which would become a common fixture in American films of the 1960s and ’70s, allowing the director to create both establishing shots and close-ups without a cut.  

The disc includes a 1999 interview with director Kurt Maetzig and an essay and brief documentary about the banning of the Rabbit films. 

The Unknown Soldier 

First Run has also just released an intriguing documentary, The Unknown Soldier (2006), that tracks the volatile controversy surrounding a museum exhibit that first opened in Germany in 1996. The Wehrmacht Exhibition documented the complicity of the German Army in the atrocities committed by Hitler’s Waffen SS and the Gestapo. For decades, the accepted portrait of the German soldier was that of an innocent pawn, who knew nothing of the crimes being carried out by the Third Reich. While many were oblivious to the horrors of the Holocaust, many were fully aware, and the exhibit featured evidence, in the form of personal letters, photographs and film footage, of knowing collaboration between the army’s common foot soldiers and Hitler’s Nazi forces. The exhibition sparked riotous protests from an outraged populace and revealing a split in the German psyche as the nation struggled to pay tribute to its veterans while confronting once again the horror of its past. 

It wasn’t only the neo-Nazi skinheads who were angry; World War II were incensed, as were the children and grandchildren of deceased soldiers who felt the memories of their loved ones were being tarnished. A second exhibit a few years later, which sought to correct a few troubling issues with the first, elicited a similar response. Michael Verhoeven’s film captures the pain and conflict of a nation caught in the midst of an identity crisis. 

Other films new to DVD: 

Who Is Henry Jaglom? 

Who Is Henry Jaglom? is a ragged but entertaining little documentary about the gadfly film director and his methods. It features behind-the-scenes footage of the director at work and interviews with the man himself and many of his associates—including Orson Welles, Candice Bergen, Karen Black and Milos Forman, among others—who appeared in two of Jaglom’s films. 

It’s an amateurish film, often charmingly so, but Jaglom is right when, in an interview included as an extra feature on the disc, he challenges some of the decisions of directors Henry-Alex Rubin and Jeremy Workman. The 32-minute interview, like the documentary, has the feel of a home movie as Jaglom sits down with an amateurish interviewer who  

is quickly overwhelmed by Jaglom’s force and charisma. Jaglom goes on to point out that, though he enjoyed the film, the directors failed to get a very broad array of responses to him and his work, and at some point shoved in a completely out-of-the-blue shot of a woman, identified as a sociologist, standing at the top of the stands during a football game and railing that Jaglom is a misogynist. Who this woman is and how she’s relevant are never made clear. And if she’s simply stating her interpretation of his work, sound, reasoned arguments might have made the case better than a brief rant full of unsubstantiated accusations. 

But Jaglom himself is prone to ranting, so perhaps it’s all fair play. Who Is Henry Jaglom? is by no means a definitive statement on the art and character of the man, one of America’s most distinctive auteurs, but it’s an entertaining glimpse into a career that doesn’t get much mainstream attention. 

1997. 52 minutes. $24.95. www. firstrunfeatures.com. 

Pierrot Le Fout 

Criterion has released Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou (1965) shortly after having released a new edition of the director’s seminal French New Wave classic Breathless. Pierrot, like Breathless, stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a self-consciously iconoclastic character. Belmondo’s Ferdinand leaves his wife and family for the babysitter (Anna Karina) and sets off on a madcap road trip that allows Godard to mix and match an array of disparate cinematic styles and references into a sort of post-modern pastiche. 

Bonus features include a new interview with Karina, a documentary about Godard and Karina, and a booklet with reviews by Andrew Sarris and Richard Brody. 

1965. 110 minutes. In French with English subtitles. $39.95. www.criterion.com. 

Dragon Painter 

Sessue Hayakawa is primarily remembered today for his performance in David Lean’s Bridge on the River Kwai. But long before that, he was a major star in the silent era—in fact, the first Asian Hollywood star. His silent-era career is finally getting greater recognition. 

Milestone Films has released The Dragon Painter (1919), a simple, almost fantastic tale, partially filmed in the Yosemite Valley, featuring Hayakawa as Tatsu, a painter and a madman, an artist driven by his muse—his relentless pursuit of his princess fiancé, who he believes was captured by a dragon. When he is adopted as an apprentice by an aging master, Tatsu falls for his mentor’s daughter, believing her to be the dragon woman whom he has long sought. But having achieved his goal, his work suffers, for he cannot create his obsessive art when living in a state of complacent bliss, and thus he must give her up if he is to reclaim his greatness. It’s a simple allegorical tale, told simply and beautifully. 

The film was lost for decades, until a French print was discovered and restored, complete with the original color tints. It was screened in 2004 by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, with acted narration by Tokyo benshi artist Midori Sawato, recreating the traditional manner in which silent films were presented in Japan. The DVD presents the film with the same score by Mark Izu performed live at the San Francisco screening. 

Bonus features include another Hayakawa vehicle, Thomas Ince’s The Wrath of the Gods (1914); a short film called Screen Snapshots (1921) that features Hayakawa along with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and Charles Murray; and the original novel of The Dragon Painter, by Mary McNeil Fenollosa, in PDF format. 

1919. 53 minutes. $29.95. www.milestonefilms.com. www.newyorkerfilms.com. 

John Albert Marshall (1868-1924), commonly known as J.A., was a small and hot-tempered man. In 1906 he had two brushes with the law—one as a recalcitrant witness for the defense, threatening to thrash a much larger prosecuting attorney, the other when he was convicted of battery after pummeling John Koch, owner of a delicatessen at 2520 Bancroft Way. 

A Berkeley resident since 1895, Marshall began his profitable career in building as a cement contractor (the material was euphemistically known as “artificial stone”). On Jan. 1, 1896, the Berkeley Herald credited him with having paved nine-tenths of Berkeley’s new sidewalks the previous year. His stamp is still faintly visible on the northeast corner of Hillegass Avenue and Parker Street, across the street from his own residence. 

By the early 1900s, Marshall had branched out into real estate development. Among his enterprises were two of Telegraph Avenue’s earliest business blocks, the Marshall Apartments (1904) and the Alta Vista Apartments (1907), on the southwest and northeast corners of Telegraph and Bancroft, respectively. He also constructed many private residences-some for clients, others speculatively. His own home address kept changing as he completed a new house, lived in it for a while, then sold it and moved on. 

In 1897, when Marshall set out to build “the prettiest home in Berkeley,” he was a 29-year-old newlywed. Whether his ultimate aim was to please the bride or to embark on a speculative venture, Marshall spared no expense. The builder he hired was Jonas Irving Bowers, a prosperous carpenter who would accumulate considerable real estate holdings in Berkeley before decamping for Southern California. To design the house, Marshall selected the sought-after firm of Cunningham Bros., two young architects then at the height of their fame. 

Harry L. (1869-1919) and Gerald C. (1872-1900) Cunningham were born in Calcutta, India. Their father, a captain in the British Royal Engineers, died before Gerald was born. His widow and the boys came to California in 1874, settling in Oakland. 

The brothers began their architectural apprenticeship in their teens (Gerald at 14). First Harry, then Gerald worked as draftsmen for the prominent San Francisco architect John J. Clark. At the age of 20, Harry transferred to the office of A.W. Pattiani, a fashionable East Bay designer and builder, but in 1891 both brothers disappeared from Oakland for two years. In 1893, Gerald opened his own practice in Portland, Oregon, but the pair reappeared in Oakland in 1894, this time as partners. The first buildings bearing their combined name date from that year. 

“Although both members of the firm were young then,” stated the Oakland Tribune in its obituary for Gerald in June 1900, “they had attained to a coveted position in their chosen profession and had built more than their share of the modern structures of this State and in various places along the coast.” The Cunninghams’ best-known Berkeley building was McKinley School (1896) on Dwight Way. 

Gerald Cunningham was considered one of the best pen-and-ink artists in California, and his renderings paved the way for many public commissions, from the Modesto High School to the Contra Costa County Courthouse in Martinez, listed in the National Register of Historic Places but erroneously attributed to William Mooser, who designed the adjacent jail. 

The firm’s progress was cut short by Gerald’s death from cerebral meningitis. He was 27 years old and had been married only two months. Harry then brought in Matthew Politeo as a partner, and the two went on to design Art Nouveau buildings in San Francisco and Oakland, as well as many of the early farm buildings on the U.C. Davis campus. 

J.A. Marshall’s house, still standing at 2601 Hillegass Avenue and a City of Berkeley Landmark, began its life as an opulent 8-room residence. Designed in the Colonial Revival style, it is graced with massive corner pilasters and an L-shaped porch supported by six Ionic columns. Extensive ornamental balustrades, only some of which remain, lined the porch above and below. A Palladian window, since replaced, was set above a bay window in the façade. The property extended all the way to Benvenue Avenue, with tennis courts, windmill, a barn, and a carriage house in the rear. 

In December 1899, less than two years after the house was completed, John Marshall put the “prettiest home in Berkeley” on the market. The asking price must have been salty, since the next owner was Erik Olof Lindblom (1857-1928), a newly minted millionaire. 

One of the “Three Lucky Swedes” who discovered gold near Nome, Alaska, Lindblom has been the subject of many biographies, as well as inspiring the character of Dextry in Rex Beach’s novel “The Spoilers,” which was twice adapted for the screen. Piecing together details from variously credible accounts, one gathers that Lindblom’s father, a school teacher in Dalarna, died early, leaving his widow and children in penury. After completing his public schooling at the age of 14, Erik learned tailoring, and three years later began traversing Europe as an itinerant journeyman. Spending some time in London, he obtained additional schooling at the YMCA Polytechnic and met his first wife, Mary Anne Smith, a tailor’s daughter. The two were married in August 1886 and sailed to New York a month later. Their daughter, Brita Margaret, was born in New York in December 1887. By the time their son, Olof Henry, was born in 1890, they were living in Pocatello, Idaho. A few years later, they had moved to Montana, where Lindblom was naturalized in 1894. 

When the news of a gold discovery in Kotzebue Sound swept the nation in 1897, Lindblom was eking out a living as a tailor on 23rd Avenue in east Oakland. Already interested in mining and having attended Professor George Davidson’s lectures on Alaska, he borrowed money and, on April 27, 1898, shipped before the mast on the bark Alaska, which carried prospectors to the new gold fields. Mary Anne was left in Oakland to work as a seamstress at a dry goods store, earning $1 a day. 

Upon reaching the Bering Sea, the Alaska was obliged to wait for the ice to break up. Lindblom had learned from whalers that the Kotzebue yields were meager, and he seized the opportunity to jump ship at Grantley Harbor, starting on foot for Golovin Bay. Surviving several mishaps, he arrived there three weeks later with the aid of an Inuit trader. 

After prospecting on his own for several weeks, Lindblom met John Brynteson and Jafet Lindeberg. In stormy weather, the three embarked on a 100-mile sea voyage to the mouth of the Snake River. They reached their goal on September 15, 1898 and a week later struck gold at Anvil Creek, quickly filing as many claims as they could in their own names as well as in others’. The Nome gold rush had begun. 

Lindblom invested his proceeds from the Nome bonanza in U.S. and Mexican mines, and holdings in banks, transportation, and real estate. He would become sole owner of the Parral Electric Light, Telephone & Water Co. in Chihuahua, Mexico; president of the Swedish-American Bank of San Francisco; vice-president of the Pioneer Mining Co. of Nome, Alaska (incorporated in Seattle); director of the Davidson-Ward Lumber Co.; and owner of the Claremont Hotel. 

Along with wealth came a flamboyant lifestyle, much travel, at least two automobile accidents caused by his reckless driving, and a goodly number of lawsuits. Some of these were brought by claim jumpers, others by professionals and tradesmen who had not been paid, but the lengthiest of all, lasting nearly six years and keeping 18 lawyers employed, was the Lindbloms’ divorce trial. 

It began in February 1902, when Mary Anne charged her husband with extreme cruelty. “Mrs. Lindblom says that since her husband acquired his wealth he has been consumed with a desire to pull her hair out by the roots, that he has threatened to shoot her head off, and that on one occasion he forcibly removed a handful of her tresses and she was compelled to go to the Fabiola Hospital for treatment,” reported the San Francisco Call on March 1, 1902. The same article cited “lively stories of how Lindblom used to spend $2000 on a little ‘time’ with some of his friends, and then take his wife out to a dinner consisting of a plate of soup.” 

Lindblom quickly found a new life partner, taking up with Hanna Sadie Sparman—a tall, blond and blue-eyed 18-year-old daughter of a Swedish basket manufacturer. Twenty-seven years her senior, the new boyfriend moved into the Sparman family’s Oakland home. They made a handsome couple, apparently inseparable and spending much time in travel. They were married in Bellingham, Washington on June 7, 1907, a month after Mary Anne was granted her final divorce decree. 

As part of the divorce settlement, the first Mrs. Lindblom-now declaring herself a widow-received the house at 2601 Hillegass Ave. Soon thereafter, she rented it to Wigginton E. Creed, attorney (at the time he was Louis Titus’s law partner), capitalist, and future president of PG&E. In 1911, after traveling for a few years, Mary Anne built an apartment house on the eastern part of the property, at Benvenue and Parker. Two years later she sandwiched a pair of flats between the apartments and the house. 

Further augmenting her income in 1916, Mary Anne divided her house into two flats, reserving the lower floor for herself and Brita. Erik, meanwhile, had allied himself with Frank C. Havens in 1914, injecting funds into the Claremont Hotel (begun in 1906 and still unfinished) and completing it in time for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Three year later, he took complete possession of it. He would live in the hotel until his death, and the hotel would remain in the Lindblom family’s possession until 1937. 

The Marshall-Lindblom House will be open for viewing on BAHA’s Spring House Tour, May 4, 2008, from 1 pm to 5 pm. 

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

Beautiful Benvenue, Elegant Hillegass 

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Spring House Tour 

Sunday, May 4, 2008 

1 pm to 5 pm 

Tickets: $35; BAHA members $25 

(510) 841-2242 

berkeleyheritage.com

So I was licking nectar off the base of an orchid blossom the other night ... See?That’s why people keep pets, in which category I place houseplants. Most of us don’t live the wildlands any more, which of course is why they’re still “wildlands,” and there’s all this unpredictable, unrepeatable, unmediated experience we don’t get to have every minute of every day.  

There are so many things people don’t write into literature (including scientific literature) or nature documentaries. Why the heck were our four box turtles alerting in unison, all facing the same way, all with their necks stretched at the same angle, for a good three minutes while we were eating dinner Sunday night? I haven’t seen them behave like that since Bruce played us a wonderful morning serenade on the uillean pipes some years back.  

Memo: Box turtles are very very interested in bagpipe music. We haven’t had the intestinal fortitude to try the Great Pipes in the dining room yet, and maybe never will. Great Pipes, like bombards, belong outdoors. 

By some standards, of course, so do box turtles and cymbidium orchids. I can make a case for ex situ conservation of both, especially after seeing so many box turtles crushed along roadsides back East. My everlasting curse on people who do that. May they tread on their own intestines someday soon. 

There are ex situ conversations to be had, too. I’d bet I can find out somewhere what’s going on with the cymbidiums in the parlor just now, but I wouldn’t have known to look for it without having seen the clear drops of nectar in such odd places on each flower, reflected in the lamplight the other night. After a couple days’ concentration, they’re intensely sweet.  

But I couldn’t detect any nectar where I thought it should be, inside the throat of the flower. My first assumption was that it was a My-cup-runneth-over situation, since there aren’t any nectar-eating birds or bugs from the home range flitting about our flat to drink the stuff before it got to me. Dammit. 

Now I’m going to need to chase that down, that intricate puzzle of sex and deception and time that made those flowers what they are, so incredibly erotic, at close range, even to us animals. What a reach across eons of beings! I hope somebody has written about it in the scientific literature, so I can see the next observational step—the hard one, that takes hours and days of observation and charting.  

While I’m standing on the shoulders of those giants, let me say that I’ve seen enough painted lady butterflies on Point Reyes, in inland Marin, and right here in Berkeley to think that there’s a migration going on right now.  

If you notice those fluttering shapes while you’re out walking, if you sit in your yard or a park and watch awhile, note how they tend to fly over, not around, obstacles, if you’ve planted nectar-source flowers to sustain them overnight, you can watch the spectacle too. 

That’s a reason we keep gardens. 

As you go for that morning jog ( You are jogging every morning, right? Immediately after that low-fat, lemon, poppy-seed, caramel muffin and the soy latte) you probably note amidst the quiet and still of the neighborhood that there are little puffs of smoke that come from the tops of every house and business. 

If you stop long enough to think about it (as a child might do more than we busy adults) you’ll realize that there are no fires in fireplaces and that, probably, there are no similar fires comprised of oil and smoke being generated in all those buildings. What all that stacks are actually emitting in our California landscape is mostly steam (I mention the locale because there are oil-fired devices that really are smoky in other parts of the globe). 

As though unchanged from the 19th century we are a culture full of steam generating equipment. While we’re not all running little steam engines in our houses, most of us are running incredibly simple heating devices that use burned natural gas to heat our water, cook our food and heat our houses. These devices have some requirements and some problems that are peculiarly endemic to this heating method and while much of this is beyond the technical capacity of the typical homeowner, you might be surprised at how much of this you can understand and how many problems you can begin to diagnose for yourself. 

First, let’s understand a little about what natural gas is. The gas that comes to your house is primarily methane. The same thing our bodies, and many organisms on earth produce as a product of digestion. It’s a small molecule just filled with energy and when combusted with a little oxygen, it produces lots of warmth as well as quite a bit of water vapor. That’s the steam you see above all the roofs. It’s not smoke at all, it’s mostly water vapor and carbon dioxide.  

That last part makes the exhaust a greenhouse gas and one reason we all want to turn off the furnace, turn down the water heater or turn off the dryer as soon as possible. The good news is that natural gas has less carbon output per unit of energy than all of the other fossil fuels by a goodly margin (30 percent less than oil and 45 percent less than coal) so we can feel pretty good about using CNG (compressed natural gas) for our heating. 

Now, back to some basic science and diagnosing your own heating devices. You may notice that when you cook in the kitchen that it steams up the windows. That’s the water vapor that the gas burners are producing. What may be less obvious is that your dryer, water heater and furnace are doing the same thing. If these devices are vented properly, you shouldn’t be seeing the steam (or the paint peeling off the wall, which actually happens sometimes when gas devices are poorly vented). 

We can use this knowledge to see if our gas devices are vented property. Let’s start with the water heater. If you have a water heater inside your living space (and it shouldn’t be reached through the bedroom or bathroom (e.g. bedroom closet)) you can check to see if it’s exhausting properly to the exterior by putting a mirror (I use my glasses) at the top of the water heater where there are air inlets just before the pipe goes upward. If you kick the unit on by running some hot water or by turning its thermostat up just a bit you can check to see if exhaust comes out of the inlets and steams up your mirror. If this is happening (and we call it spillage) you’ve got an exhaust leak and it needs to be fixed. 

By the way, it not just steam that’s coming out of the pipe. This can also include carbon monoxide, an odorless, toxic (and potentially deadly) gas as well as a range of other unpleasant hydrocarbons, so exhaust leaks are serious business. 

If you run your gas dryer empty, you can do the same test and just see if there are signs of moisture (again, use a little mirror or your glasses) around the outside of the device (especially near the vent at the rear). If you can get to your furnace, you can look at that same flue for signs of the same thing. While many furnaces don’t have “draft-diverters” (the inlets we noted on the top of the water heater) you still may see signs of spillage. 

Most furnaces have metal exhaust pipes and, again, these are carrying mostly water vapor and plenty of it. This vapor is hot when it first enters the pipe but if it has a chance to cool off too early, it will rain down inside the pipe creating all sorts of havoc. These gases also contain acidy impurities that like to eat metal and when its happening and you look in the right places, you can actually see it. I see it all the time. Sometimes so much that the exhaust pipes have actually fallen completely apart and the exhaust is just pouring out into the crawlspace below the house. If you can get to where your furnace flue is, look for signs of moisture. One of the clearest signs is a white powdery “precipitate” built up at the joints in the pipe. These are the impurities in the gas crystallized on the surface and they show us that there’s been water cooling and leaking inside. Sometimes they’ll also be lots of corrosion and you might just see a hole or crack or worse.  

All gas heating devices can be subject to these effects so it’s a really good idea to have an expert take a look at these devices every year. Still, looking and learning for yourself is a great idea as long as you remember to rely upon professionals for the final call and any work on a system like this. By the way, remember that flues get very hot. 

When I do see flues that rain inside or seem to spill, its often the result of poor configuration. Steam doesn’t stay hot for long when its asked to take a long trip on a cold day so the best flues go strait to the roof with a minimum of twists and turns. They’re also built of “double-wall” metal that acts like a thermos bottle and keeps the exhaust nice and hot for the whole trip. If you look carefully at metal flues, you can see that the double wall material has dimples where the inner and outer layers meet and locking rings at the ends. More high-tech. 

I don’t intend for grandma to use this article to diagnose her furnace problem and I always think twice before taking you down such a complex path but I still think that a little knowledge is a useful thing. You might actually see a real defect and take action or you might just be able to have a more fruitful discussion with your heating contractor the next time they come to check out your furnace. If you start out by telling your furnace guy or gal that you think that flue gases are condensing inside your furnace flue and that you’re concerned about the configuration of the flue, you can bet that they’re going to take this job very seriously (just as soon as they’ve found their eyeballs and put them back in their head). 

FRIDAY, APRIL 18 

Oakland Street Retreat: Bearing Witness to Homelessness Participants will live on the streets without money, bedding, change of clothing, books or watches. Participants will eat in soup kitchens and beg for money or food at times when soup kitchens are closed. Retreat lasts from Fri.-Sun. Cost is $225 to benefit service providers of the Homeless & the New Dharma Scholarship Fund. Participants urged to beg to raise the funds. For information and to register call 549 3733 ext 2. www.newdharma.com 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dr. Harold Palmer on “Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Comparison of Democrat vs Republican Positions” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 524-7468.  

Expo 50+ for Boomers and Beyond The public is invited to attend Expo 50+, featuring class exhibits and demonstrations, live entertainment, health screenings, vendors, musicians, a raffle and complimentary refreshments, hosted by Pleasant Valley Adult School. The Expo will be held from10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 4700 Lincoln Ave., Oakland. Admission is free. 879-4090. 

Iraq Moratorium Day and Vigil to Protest the War from 2 to 4 p.m. at the corners of Unvirsity and Acton. 548-9696. 

Friday Films for Teens at 3:30 pm. at the Berkeley Puplic Library, 2090 Kittredge St. For details call 981-6121. 

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, APRIL 19 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “Berkeley and the Wars: A Look Back at Local Military Sites” from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations call 848-0181. 

Berkeley Earth Day 2008 with demonstrations of biodiesel and electric cars, solar power, farmers’ market, food and craft booths, from noon to 5 p.m. Civic Center Park, MLK Jr. Blvd & Allston Way. 

“Clean It, Green It, Mean It!” Help out at Peralta Hacienda HIstorical Park to remove graffiti, pick up litter, clear the creek of invasive plants, and help plant some more native species, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 2465 34th Ave., Oakland. 532-9142. 

Oakland Earth Day 2008 Join your neighbors and friends on Earth Da y to make a difference in our Oakland communities. Participants will receive a free event T-shirt. For featured locations and a complete list of citywide project sites please visit www.oaklandearthday.com  

Earth Day Shoreline Clean-up from 9 a.m. to noon at Albany Waterfront Trail Head, end of Buchanan St. Wear sturdy shoes, a hat and sunscreen, and bring your own water bottle and gloves if you have them. Snacks provided. Children must be accompanied by an adult.665-3508. staff@thewatershedproject.org 

Hi-Tec Recycling electronics recycling from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 631 So 31st St., Richmond. 488-4564. 

Wildflower Walk Learn to identify wildflowers with linda Yemoto, naturalist, from 2 to 4 p.m. on the Big Spings Canyon Trail. Meet at the Big Springs Picnic Area. 525-2233. 

California Native Plant Sale with California shrubs, trees, perennials, and many plants that are not available in a nursery, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Botanic Garden, Tilden Park, Wildcat Canyon Rd., at South Park Dr. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

The Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society 44th Annual Iris Show and Potted Iris Sale Sat. from 1 to 5 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lakeside Park Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. http://bayareairis.org  

STAND Oakland Candidates Forum / Earthday Event from 1 to 3 p.m. at Faith Presbyterian Church, 430 49th St. and Webster, Oakland, just off Telegraph. Sponsored by Standing Together for Accountable Neighborhood Development. www.standoakland.org 

California Wildflower Show Sat. and Sun. at the Oakland Museum of CA, 1000 Oak St., at 10th St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. 

“Lead-Safe Painting & Remodeling” Learn to detect and remedy lead hazards in the home to prevent lead poisoning, from 10 a.m. to noon at Berkeley Public Library, South Branch, 1901 Russell St., at MLK. Registration required. 567-8280. www.aclppp.org/homeown.htm 

Green Building Open House from noon to 5 p.m. at 2619 San Pablo Ave. www.ecohomeimprovment.com  

Brooks Island Trip Paddle across the Richmond Harbor Channel to Brooks Island to explore the rocky island, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For experience boaters who can provide their own canoe, kayak and safety gear. For ages 14 and up. Parent participation required. Cos t is $20-$22. To register call 1-888-EB-PARKS. 

United-Front Protest to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal at 2:30 p.m. at 14th St. and Broadway, Oakland. Called by Partisan Defense Committee and Labor Black League for Social Defense. 839-0852. 

The War Comes Home: Campus Antiwar Network Western Regional Conference, from 1 to 6 p.m. at 200 Wheeler Hall, UC Campus. Cost is $5. For information contact katrina.yeaw@gmail.com 415-335-0953. 

California Writers Club “Welcome to SoMa” with author Kemble Scott at 10 a.m. at Barnes and Noble Event Loft, Jack London Square, Oakland. 272-0120. 

“Spring/Summer Veggies and the Edible Landscape” with Stephanie Bittner at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave., off Seventh St. 644-2351. 

Storytelling Workshop with Liz Mangual from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

Teen Knitting Circle at 3 p.m. in the 4th Flr Story Room of the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Bring your own needles in size 8. 981-6107. 

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. 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.  

Oakland Artisans Marketplace Sat. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jack London Square. 238-4948. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 20 

East Bay Labyrinth Project Community Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. Rain cancels. 526-7377. info@eastbaylabyrinthproject.org 

Mad Science for the Whole Family A introduction to chemistry from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. For ages 7 and up. Cost is $4, registration required. 1-888-EB-PARKS.  

East Bay Crop Walk A fundraiser for the Alamenda County Comunity Food Bank around Lake Merritt, Oakland. Registration at 1:30 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave. Crop Walk begins at 2 p.m. For information call 635-3665, ext. 328. 

The Sydney B. Mitchell Iris Society 44th Annual Iris Show and Potted Iris Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lakeside Park Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. http://bayareairis.org.  

Spring Family Hike Join an easy walk around Jewel Lake from 1:30 to 3 p.m. with Meg Platt, naturalist. 525-2233. 

Waddle and Swaddle East Bay Baby Fair from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kehilla Community Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. Free. 540-7210. www.eastbaybabyfair.com  

Pachamama Alliance “Awakening the Dreamer Symposium” from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at New Spirit Community Church at Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. pachamama.org 

East Bay Atheists Berkeley Meets to discuss what to do when you find yourself in a situation where you are expected to join a religious ritual, at 1:30 p.m., 3rd flr. meeting room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 222-7580. eastbayatheists.org 

SF AIDS Benefit Brunch at 10:30 a.m at T-Rex Barbeque, 1300 Tenth St. at Gilman. 

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

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Experiments in Awareness: Making Friends with Experience” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000 www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 4 to 8 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Also on Fri. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $5 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

MONDAY, APRIL 21 

“Environmental Impact: Evolution of the Berkeley Landscape” with Chuck Wollenberg and Dave Weinstein at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, central meeting room, 2090 Kittredge.  

Berkeley Green Mondays Berkeley & Military Recruiting: What's All the Fuss? with Zanne Joi and Rae Abileah at 8 p.m. at Anna's Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. www.berkeleygreens.org 

“'The Two Faces of Breast Cancer with Genes and the Microenvironment” with Joe Gray, LBNL Life Science Director, Mina Bissel, LBNL Distiguished Scientist, Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, LBNL Senior Scientist, at Berkeley Lab Friends of Science, at 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. www.lbl.gov/friendsofscience/  

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group, for people 60 years and over, meets at 9:45 a.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave, Albany. Cost is $3.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org  

TUESDAY, APRIL 22 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Inspiration Point in Tilden Regional Park. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

“The Costs of War: The U.S. in Iraq” with Prof. Samera Esmeir, Porf. Ramon Grosfoguel, at 6 p.m. at 145 Dwinelle, UC Campus. costofwar@gmail.com 

“Texts We Wish Were Not In the Bible” with Aaron Brody, associate professor of Bible and archaeology and director of Badé Museum, at 11:10 a.m. at Pacific School of Religion Chapel, 1798 Scenic Ave. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

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 

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 

Teen Playreaders meets to read and discuss plays at 4:30 p.m. at Claremont Branch Library, 2940 Benvenue. 981-6121. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long Group from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for signs of spring, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

“Waking from the California Dream: How Our History Affects Your Future” with Gray Brechin and Jan Spencer at 6:30 p.m. at Cocina Poblana, Jack London Square, Oakland. to register see www.EWcoNowUSA.org 

Berkeley Gray Panthers with Jim Soper of the Voting Rights Task Force on electronic voting and Julia Cato on Prop. 98 at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, corner MLK. 

“The Art of Being Present” A lecture and demonstration with Denise Berezonsky at 7 p.m. at Three Stone Hearth, 1 Bolivar Drive at Addison. Threestoneheath.com 

“With God on Our Side” A documentary tracing the roots of the Christian Right movement at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

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. 

Theraputic Recreation at the Berkeley Warm Pool, Wed. at 3:30 p.m. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Warm Pool, 2245 Milvia St. Cost is $4-$5. Bring a towel. 632-9369. 

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 Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

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, APRIL 24 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll look for signs of spring, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will learn about plants from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Are Peace and Impeachment Possible? Strategies to end the war, stop war on Iran, save our constitution and economy with David Swanson of afterdowningstreet.org; Daniel Ellsberg; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, and others at 7 p.m. at Grand Lake Theater, 3200 Grand Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $8-$10 at independent bookstores.  

“Grandmothers Against the War” book party at 6 p.m. at North Branch, Berkeley Public Library. 981-6250. 

“Darfur Now” documentary screening at 6 p.m. at VLSB 2050, UC Campus. For more information see www.Darfurnowtour.com 

“American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau” with Paul Hawken at 7:30 p.m. at 2121 Bonar St., Studio A. RSVP required. 540-4800. 

Creative Movement and Sign Language for ages 5-10 at 3:30 p.. at Elephant, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200.  

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

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 

ONGOING 

E-Waste Recycling St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County accepts electronic waste including computers, dvd players, cell phones, fax machines and many other ewaste products for disposal free of charge at many of its locations throughout Alameda County. Free bulk pick-up available. 638-7600.  

CITY MEETINGS 

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Mon., April 21, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-7368.  

City Council meets Tues., April 22, at 7 p.m in City Council Chambers. 981-6900. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Mary Ann Merker, 981-7533.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., April 23, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484. 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., April 23, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., April 24, at 6:30 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213. 

It is wonderful and exciting that many businesses are waking up to the fact that “going green” can make a lot of green ($$, that is). It is not so wonderful that a whole bunch of products that claim to be green are actually far from good.  

Paint, for example. Some companies have removed certain chemicals, only to substitute even more offensive ones. There are other products that claim to be green because of recycled content that can still be extremely toxic to use.  

These days, the greenest companies are using the Triple Bottom Line Standard—i.e. social responsibility, environmental responsibility and profitability. 

While no one is perfect, certain brands do have good green track records while others are new and still superb. So what is a consumer to do? How to judge? Here are some questions to ask across the board:  

• What is the material? Is its content natural and non-toxic? Not all that is natural is meant to be used in everyday products (lead and arsenic, for example).  

• Is it genetically engineered? (Soy and corn products, for example, are most likely made from G.E. crops if they are not certified organic)  

• What was the impact of manufacturing this product? Was the environment harmed in the process? Were people producing this product treated fairly, with healthy working conditions? The International Fair Trade Federation certifies products to have been made under decent working conditions and adequate pay for the people involved. 

• Where does it come from? Is it locally produced?  

• How much embodied energy does it hold?(Embodied energy is the amount of combined resources used to access, manufacture, transport and dispose of a product.) 

• Is this product healthy to use?  

• What is the finishing on the product—is it natural and healthy? What is the packaging material, and is the packaging actually necessary? 

• Can this product be healthfully recycled, reused or bio-degraded? Does it have a third-party verification of its eco-claims? 

In addition to the Fair Trade Federation, there are a growing number of verification and other non-profit organizations that are excellent resources for answering many of these questions. And while it isn’t always possible for us as individual consumers to find the answers, the more questions we ask and the more often we ask them, the greener and cleaner the products we buy will become. 

Berkeley resident Alisa Rose Seidlitz is a certified green building professional, eco-interior and landscape desinger, and green feng shui consultant. She owns Optimal Environments garden design company. She wrote “Simple Green Solutions: 12 Steps to Make a Difference” in the April 15 issue. 

Resources:  

www.fairtradefederation.org and www.rugmark.org verifies that no child labor has been used.  

www.foreststewardshipcouncil.org and sfiprogram.org to verify sustainably grown and harvested wood products. 

www.energystar.gov for verification of energy saving appliances.  

www.environmentaldefense.org is an all around good informational source. 

World agriculture appears to be approaching a crossroads. The globalized economy has placed a series of conflicting demands on the 1.5 billion hectares of croplands.  

Not only is this land required to produce food for a growing human population, but also it must meet the increased demands for biofuels, and it must do so in an environmentally sound way preserving biodiversity and reducing greenhouse emissions while still representing a profitable activity to millions of farmers.  

These pressures are setting in motion a crisis of the global food system of un-precedented scope already signaled by food riots in many parts of the world.  

This crisis, which threatens the livelihoods of millions more than the already 800 million hungry people, is the direct result of the dominating industrial farming model, which is not only dangerously dependent on fossil fuels but which has also become the largest source of human impact on the biosphere.  

In fact, there are now so many pressures on dwindling arable ecosystems that farming is overwhelming nature’s capacity to meet humankind’s food, fiber and energy needs. 

The tragedy is that agriculture depends on the very ecological services (water cycles, pollinators, fertile soil formation, benevolent local weather, etc.) that intensive farming continually degrades or pushes beyond their limits.  

Before the end of the first decade of the 21st century, humanity is quickly realizing that the fossil fuel-based, capital intensive western industrial agricultural model is not working to meet the food demands of various countries. Soaring oil prices will inevitably increase production costs and food prices, which have escalated to the point that today one dollar purchases 30 percent less food than a dollar did a year ago.  

This situation is rapidly being aggravated by farmland being turned from food production to biofuels, and by climate change, which already reduces crop yields via droughts, floods and other unpredictable weather events.  

Expanding land areas devoted to biofuels and transgenic crops will further exacerbate the ecological impacts of vast monocultures that continually override nature’s services.  

Moreover, industrial agriculture presently contributes at least one-quarter of current greenhouse gas emissions, mainly methane and nitrous oxide. Continuing this dominant degrading system, as promoted by the current neoliberal economic paradigm, is no longer a viable option.  

The immediate challenge for our generation is to transform industrial agriculture by transitioning the world’s food systems away from reliance on fossil fuels. We need an alternative agricultural development paradigm, one that encourages more ecologically biodiverse, sustainable and socially just forms of agriculture. Reshaping the entire agricultural policy and food system in ways that are environmentally sound and economically viable for farmers and consumers will require major changes in the political and economic forces that currently determine what is being produced, by whom and for whom.  

Out-of-control trade liberalization is the key mechanism driving farmers off their land and the principal obstacle to local economic development and food security. Only by challenging the control that big multinational corporations exert over the food system and changing the export-led and free-trade-based agriculture model can the downward spiral of poverty, low wages, rural-urban migration, hunger and environmental degradation be halted.  

The concept of food sovereignty, as promoted by the world’s movement of small farmers, Via Campesina, constitutes the only viable alternative to the current and collapsing global food system, which failed in its assumption that international trade was the key to solving the world’s food problem.  

Instead, food sovereignty focuses on closed local circuits of production and consumption and community action for access to land, water, agrobiodiversity, etc., which are of central importance for communities to control in order to be able to produce food locally with agro-ecological methods.  

There is no doubt that an alliance between farmers and consumers is of strategic importance. In addition to moving down the food chain, that is eating less animal protein, consumers need to realize that their quality of life is intractably associated with the type of agriculture practiced in neighboring rural areas, not only because of the quality of the food produced, but also because agriculture is multifunctional, producing a series of environmental services such as sustaining water quality and biodiversity conservation.  

But this multifunctionality can only emerge if agricultural landscapes are dotted by small, diversified farms, which studies show can produce from two to 10 times more per unit area than do larger, corporate farms. 

In the U.S. the top quarter of sustainable-agriculture farmers, which are mostly small to medium size, exhibit higher yields than conventional farmers, and exert a much lower negative impact on the environment, reducing soil erosion and conserving biodiversity.  

Communities surrounded by populous small farms experience fewer social problems and have healthier economies than do communities surrounded by depopulated large, monoculture, mechanized farms.  

Thus it should be obvious to city dwellers that eating is both an ecological and political act; that buying food at local farmers markets will support the type of beyond-peak-oil agriculture that is urgently needed, while buying food in supermarkets perpetuates an unsustainable agricultural path. 

The scale and urgency of the challenge we face has no precedent but what needs to be done is environmentally, economically and politically feasible The speed with which changes must be implemented is great, but it is doubtful that we can gather the political will to radically transform our food system before hunger and food insecurity reach planetary and irreversible levels. 

Miguel Altieri is a professor at UC Berkeley 

A friend who works for Solano County said that the Anna’s hummingbird nesting in her office courtyard was being harassed by county employees who’d been sticking their noses and cameras rather literally into the nest and even bending the branch it’s on down, for closer looks. The hummingbird has been tenacious but she’s clearly agitated, and diverting her even occasionally from feeding the newly hatched chicks endangers them. 

The overeager bird botherers got indignant when the groundskeeper roped off the nest area.  

That evening one of my sisters back East emailed a forwarded copy of a Chron story from a year or two ago: a humpback whale had been entangled on a string of crab pots, and a volunteer crew of divers, at serious personal risk, had cut her free. My sister asked: Was the story was for real? 

Sure it was. So was the hummingbird story. So were the many stories that accumulated after the Cosco Busan oil spill. Joe and I played a very minor part in that rescue effort; you should have seen the outpouring of time and sweat and skill and, yes, love, by volunteers who spent long hard days at the rescue centers and on the beaches and in boats in the middle of Bay in the middle of the night.  

Maybe you did. Maybe you were among them. If so, you know what I’m talking about.  

Both the good and the bad stories there arise from something E. O. Wilson calls “biophilia,” something as basic to us as music or an oxygen-based metabolism. We’re alive, and we’re drawn to everything else alive. We’re part of something, and vice versa: it is what we’re made of. That’s Darwin’s most compelling idea, that we’re related to every other living being on the planet. You want family values? We got ’em. 

But, like parents who’ve never learned child care, sometimes we stumble in ignorance. It’s appalling that anyone is allowed to grow up without a feel for, say, the requirements of breeding birds; the knowledge that they’re utterly different and still the same as us, that they’re not puppets or cartoons. We still crave their company after we’ve paved them half out of existence, but sometimes we hurt them further even in reaching out. 

It’s not unusual to be ignorant. I’m still learning, and I’m nearly 60. The bit of work I did for the bird rescue gave me the organized guts to grab a sick barn owl in my spare shirt when we saw him as we strolled in a marsh a day later.  

We took him to the Suisun wildlife center and he died in two days anyway.  

Did I do him any good? Don’t know. Would I do it again? Yes, I’m a used nurse, and know about trying anyway. I also know the oath: First, do no harm. Funny, how we’re barely beginning to learn how to carry that one off. 

We’re born with biophilia. It’s hard to kill it. Nurturing it will do more for us—whatever age we are—than banning Grand Theft Auto or requiring organized sports. We don’t need more regimentation; we need knowledge, access, and release.