A campaign season that began with the possibility of a major overhaul of the Oakland City Council’s old guard ended quietly in the status quo early Wednesday morning, as two incumbent Councilmembers avoided run-offs against what had been expected to be stiff opposition, and two others easily swamped their opponents.  

Overall, as in Tuesday balloting all over the state, voter turnout in Alameda County was low. Of 725,098 registered voters in the county, 14.63 percent (106,093) cast absentee ballots and 9.6 percent (69,642) voted on election day, for a total turnout of 24.2 percent (175,735). 

In Oakland’s wide-open at-large City Council race, where incumbent Henry Chang had decided against running for re-election after numerous challengers had indicated their intention to run against him, At-Large AC Transit Board member Rebecca Kaplan and District 1 Oakland School Board member Kerry Hamill face a November runoff, with Kaplan comfortably ahead of Hamill in the first round of voting, 39.3 percent (17,086) to 21.6 percent (9,415), a margin of 7,671.  

With 19.63 percent of the vote (8,531), former Oakland Planning Commissioner and AC Transit Director Clinton Killian missed making the runoff by 884 votes. Senior volunteer Frank Rose and Oakland Residents For Peaceful Neighborhoods co-founder Charles Pine came in a distant fourth and fifth. 

A visibly pleased Kaplan said early Wednesday morning that while she had expected to be in the lead after Tuesday’s voting, she had not expected to come ahead by as large a margin. She attributed her victory in the first round of voting in part to a large cadre of campaign volunteers—including representatives from labor—and the fact that she said she was the only at-large candidate to open her own campaign headquarters. 

Killian, for example, ran his campaign out of his 8th floor downtown law office. A visit to his office while voting was still going on early Tuesday afternoon revealed no campaign literature, no signs, no volunteers, nor any other sign that a political campaign was in progress. 

Kaplan also said that what she called Hamill’s “scare tactics” may have backfired against the school board member. Citing campaign literature in which Hamill backed a controversial pending ballot measure to increase Oakland’s police force by 300 officers, Kaplan said that while “you can legitimately be for law and order, this seemed to be a way to frighten people over the issue of crime and violence, and I think people resent being frightened.” 

Council President Ignacio De La Fuente beat off a scrappy challenge by Fruitvale businessperson Mario Juarez, 53.8 percent (2,332 votes) to 33 percent (1,431 votes), with two other minor challengers making up the remaining 13 percent, and 3rd District Councilmember Nancy Nadel pounded political newcomer Sean Sullivan 51.7 percent (3,576 votes) to 27 percent (1,873 votes). Education consultant Greg Hodge, who represents the same West Oakland-downtown geographical area on the Oakland School Board as he was trying to do on the Council, came in a weak third at 20.7 percent (1,435 votes), leaving his political future in some doubt. 

With returns from Alameda County coming in unexpectedly late, De La Fuente’s victory was not announced until 1:20 in the morning. 

For the triumphant De La Fuente, however, it was a night of mixed emotions. The veteran council president missed the election day campaigning and electoral triumph altogether, flying out to Mexico Monday night to be at the bedside of a gravely ill uncle. Family members said that the uncle, 85-year-old Hiel Morales, had raised De La Fuente after the councilmember’s father died. 

In North Oakland, District 1 Councilmember Jane Brunner won easily over neighborhood activist Patrick McCullough, as expected, with 73 percent of the vote (7,835 to 2,933), and in the city’s farthest East Oakland area, District 7, Councilmember Larry Reid did the same, beating out neighborhood activist Clifford Gilmore 62.7 percent (3,122) to 36.8 percent (1,833). 

Despite the failure of challengers to oust any Council incumbents, Oakland City Attorney John Russo, who ran unopposed for re-election, said that he believed Tuesday’s races signaled a changing of the guard in Oakland. 

“For a long time, we’ve had a political alignment in Oakland dominated by the old Dellums-Barbara Lee faction on one side and the Perata-De La Fuente faction on the other,” Russo said. “But as the baby boomer generation is being replaced by the new generation, we’re beginning to see political newcomers who are not necessarily members of either faction, but are making their own alliances that cross many of these factional lines.”  

Russo said he expected that future elections would see a continuing shifting of Oakland’s political alignments. 

In other Oakland election news, parent activist Jody London easily defeated education philanthropist Brian Rogers 55.8 percent (5,707 votes) to 35.1 percent (3,592 votes) in what had been expected to be a closely contested North Oakland race to replace Kerry Hamill on the Oakland School Board (Tennessee Reed, daughter of Oakland author Ishmael Reed, came in a distant third at 8.7 percent with 885 votes).  

And despite Greg Hodge’s decision to give up his school board seat to run for City Council, the board will continue its uninterrupted string of having a Hodge among its members. Greg Hodge’s wife, West Oakland educational activist Jumoke Hinton-Hodge, will replace her husband on the board after beating program manager Olugbemiga Oluwole, Sr., 52.1 percent (3,011 votes) to 46.8 percent (2,703 votes).  

Sylvester Hodges was the longtime Oakland School Board member from the 7th District, replaced several years ago by Jason Hodge, no relation to Gregory Hodge. Jason Hodge, in turn, was replaced by Alice Spearman in the 7th District seat after Jason Hodge opted not to run for re-election after the 2003 state takeover.  

In Tuesday’s election, Spearman missed avoiding a runoff by 0.07 percentage points, beating out former Acts Full Gospel Christian School principal Doris Limbrick 49.54 percent (2,299 votes) to 32.45 percent (1,506 votes). Administrative assistant Beverly Williams placed a distant third at 17.35 percent (805 votes). Spearman and Limbrick will square off again in the November voting. 

District 5 School Board member Noel Gallo was unopposed for re-election. 

Veteran incumbent 4th District Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley easily beat retired business owner Steve White 74.3 percent (20,775 votes) to 25.1 percent (7,026). Fifth District Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson ran unopposed. 

In the races to succeed two retiring Alameda County School Board members, Gay Plair Cobb and Dennis Chaconas, business manager Conchita Tucker beat public affairs consultant Ernest L. Hardmon III to 54.6 percent (10,831 votes) to 44.3 percent (7,728 votes) in Area 2, and children’s nonprofit director Ken Berrick faces a November runoff in Area 3 against school superintendent John Bernard after beating Bernard 43.5 percent (8,862 votes) to 35.4 percent (6,484 votes) in Tuesday’s voting. Mentoring Center Executive Director Celsa Snead came in a distant third at 20 percent (2,334 votes). 

The champagne was flowing last night at victory parties for Nancy Skinner, elected to the State Assembly with 46.8 percent of the vote and Assemblymember Loni Hancock, elected to the State Senate with 56.5 percent of the vote.  

Seen as Democratic Party insiders, both overcame the challenges of strong competition and a passive electorate. 

The mood was grim among the three dozen or so volunteers at Councilmember Kriss Worthington’s modest campaign office at University and San Pablo avenues. Around 9:15 p.m., with only a fraction of the absentee ballots reported, Worthington, outspent he said by some competitors 3-to-1, stood on a chair to thank his supporters and concede victory to Skinner. 

Early Wednesday morning, with all precincts counted (absentee ballots turned in on election day and provisional ballots won’t be counted for another 30 days), Worthington had picked up 16.4 percent or 7,820 votes, falling behind Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond, who garnered 24.5 percent or 11,623 votes. Phil Polakoff got 12.3 percent or 5,857 votes. Skinner’s 46.8 percent translated to 22,234 votes. 

In stark contrast, the mood was celebratory at Skinner’s victory party where some 50 supporters crowded into the back room at the Downtown restaurant on Shattuck Avenue to applaud the apparent winner who made her appearance at around 10 p.m. and spoke more formally an hour later. 

“People in this state deserve better—California used to be top in education,” said the former city councilmember with long time personal and political ties to Mayor Tom Bates and Hancock, calling the governor’s antipathy to restoration of taxes “irrational.”  

Skinner promised not to wait until she takes office in December to start her assembly work.  

“I’m going to start building a statewide coalition now,” she said. 

In his concession speech, Worthington had called on his supporters to move Skinner to the progressive positions she espoused as a city councilmember in the 1980s.  

“We need to all reach out to Nancy—work with her—pull her, so she’ll be the Nancy of years ago,” Worthington said. 

Before her victory speech, the Planet asked Skinner whether she’d be pressured to vote against progressive values, such as the Hancock’s vote for 50,000 more prison beds. 

Skinner said that while she had support from labor and other “special interests,” no one group got her elected. “The money I raised was in over 800 individual contributions—that gives me more room” to vote independently, she said. 

Back down on San Pablo Avenue, Hancock and supporters—many of them having driven across town from the Skinner office—were celebrating victory at the Sierra Club office. Flanked by Assemblymember Sandré Swanson and Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan, Hancock delivered her second victory speech of the evening toward midnight. With all precincts reporting, Hancock won the race soundly with 56.5 percent to Chan’s 43.5 percent. Hancock got 46,694 votes and Chan picked up 36,037 votes. 

She said her victory shows that “it is possible to run a positive campaign, even when being outspent two-to-one.” Hancock was talking about the last minute barrage of hit pieces against her put out by Indian gaming interests in support of former Assemblymember Wilma Chan. 

While Worthington and Skinner both talked about vacations they planned to take soon, Hancock will be going back up to the assembly to try to get the state budget passed. She has introduced legislation aimed at taxing people who earn more than $250,000 annually, a levy that Gov. Ronald Reagan had instituted.  

“We don’t need new taxes—give us our old taxes back again,” she said. 

For more election results, see www.acgov.org/rov/current.htm 

The city has closed a lot on the 1400 block of Derby Street, across the street from a day care center, because of potentially dangerous levels of arsenic. 

Berkeley’s hazardous materials coordinator Nabil Al-Hadithy said that the contaminated soil poses little danger, but the fence was put up as a precaution. 

“We may have put up signs that are a bit overly worrisome,” Al-Hadithy said, referring to the sign on the fence that declares: “DO NOT ENTER—Unauthorized Entry Prohibited—Elevated Levels of Arsenic.” 

Neighbors who live near the old railroad line that slices through the Derby Street property had been worried about potential toxins in the now-fenced vacant property, so they worked with an city expert and tested six soil samples from the site. 

“The highest result was 140 parts per million,” well above the levels of metal naturally occurring in city soils, Al-Hadithy said. “The normal levels in city soils run from 2 to 3 parts per million to about 40 in the hills near the Lawrence Hall of Science.” 

While the amounts found on the abandoned rail line weren’t likely to cause problems with normal exposure, they could cause problems for youngsters with pica—the compulsion to eat dirt—still, he said, the safest course of action was to fence off the site and post the warning. 

As for the next step, “We’ve put in for funds to evaluate the site with the state toxicologist,” Al-Hadithy said, “so we can figure out how to use the site safely in the future. We believe that if we cover the site with clean soil and plants in above ground containers, there won’t be a risk. But we need an evaluation.” 

As for the soil of the metallic poison, “We believe it may have been applied as a pesticide” back in the days when trains steamed the neighborhood, he said. 

But until funds for the study are released so that a scientist from the state Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment can come up with a recommendation, the safest course of action is to fence off the site, he said. 

As for the future of the right of way, which runs for several blocks south of Sacramento Street, all ideas are on holding pending the outcome of the study. 

“Until such time as that happens, we are taking the precaution of keeping people out. That’s the precautionary principle,” he said, “and I like that. But there’s no reasons for parents to worry about their children who attending a day care center across the street.”

University of California service employees, working for 10 months without a contract, have scrapped plans to walk off the job for two days this week and are back at the bargaining table. 

Negotiations started Friday morning, went on Saturday and continued Monday and Tuesday, according to William Schlitz, spokesperson for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299.  

UC Berkeley custodians earn about 25 percent less than comparable workers at nearby Laney College, Schlitz told the Planet. 

What workers want is not limited to better pay and benefits, however, Schlitz said. It’s about creating working conditions such that workers want to stay in their positions, rather than move to other jobs.  

“There’s a lot of value in the consistency of the work force,” he said, “Look at the UC Berkeley police chief.” 

Schlitz was referring to the retirement and rehiring of UC Berkeley Police Chief Victoria Harrison last summer. Harrison retired last summer and got a lump-sum retirement payment of $2.1 million. She was then rehired at her rate of base pay, $175,000 annually (plus a merit increase that was to come in October 2007) and a stipend of $12,700 for “extra responsibilities.” 

Then there’s the cost of the new UC president’s dwellings. Incoming UC President Mark G. Yudof will live in a 6,800 square-foot home in Oakland, which the university will rent, with furnishings, at $11,360 per month, increasing to $11,750 per month in the second year. The university will pick up utilities expected to be at about $2,025 per month.  

(It is estimated that it will cost around $9 million to repair the 13,000 square-foot house in Kensington where UC presidents regularly live.) 

The question of the police chief’s pay and the university president’s rent, according to Schlitz, shows “it’s not an issue of resources—it’s an issue of priorities.” 

UC spokesperson Nicole Savickas said funding for different needs comes from different sources, so payment for renting the house would likely come from different funding than paying worker salaries. She added that she did not know with certainty what fund the police chief’s salary and the house are paid from. 

Savickas further pointed out that, even within the AFSCME workers, funding and therefore salary is not the same for hospital workers at university medical centers and the service workers at the campus. 

The hospital workers are being offered a 4-to-15 percent increase the first year, she said, making them competitive with the general market. 

Other university employees such as food service, grounds and security workers are funded through the state and are facing California’s budget shortfall. They’re being offered 2-13.5 percent increases “to address the most serious lags,” Savickas said.  

“We have proposed reopening wages once we have the final budget from the governor,” she said. 

Is Berkeley being railroaded? 

That’s the question that was raised at the last Planning Commission meeting, by both supporters and potential foes of a plan to upgrade and increase rail service through the West Berkeley. 

Some Richmond residents are also feeling that they’re on the other side of the tracks because of proposed routing of more mile-long trains through their city, disrupting access to neighborhoods like Marina Bay. 

Concerns in Berkeley were raised by an April 10 decision by the California Transportation Commission awarding the Port of Oakland $74 million to begin the process of upgrading a 37-mile stretch of Union Pacific Rail lines between Oakland and Martinez. 

That sum was part of a larger $456 million allocation of port-requested backing for rail upgrades reaching from the Tehachapi Mountains in the south to Donner Summit in the east—all designed to speed the move of goods through Northern California’s premier seaport. 

The immediate focus of the port’s $74 million grant is the improvement of a 6.6-mile stretch of the line running from the port to Stege area in South Richmond, where the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) line joins with the Union Pacific. 

At the time the application was filed last year, the rails between those two points were carrying 66 trains daily, with 44 Amtrak passenger runs and the rest consisting of freight trains from the two railroads. 

If funded, the improvements would boost freight traffic from its current handling of 30 percent of the port’s container traffic to 50 percent “without bringing gridlock to the corridor,” according to the funding application. 

As the nation’s fourth busiest port, Oakland handles 99 percent of Northern California’s waterborne goods, and while Oakland handles the lion’s share of agricultural exports from the Central Valley, its volume of imports jumped more than 80 percent in the five years ending in 2006, a rate of growth eight times that of exports. 

The proposal by Oakland officials calls for doubling the number of main line rail tracks along the 6.6-mile corridor to four, anticipating an increase of in size and frequency of freight trains. 

“This could have very significant impact on the community, and I want to be sure we’re all aware of it,” said Berkeley Planning Commissioner Harry Pollack, commenting on a letter on the plan submitted to the panel by Berkeley Design Advocates. 

Land Use Planning Manager Debra Sanderson said city staff had met with officials from the port a week earlier “trying to understand what’s actually being proposed.” 

“The conclusion I came away with is that nobody really knows.” she said. “Where the railroad is on this is a mystery ... but it will have a big effect on what happens in West Berkeley and how well we can protect the environment in West Berkeley.” 

Not only would all overcrossings from the bay to the High Sierra have to be rebuilt to accommodate the expanded lines, but accomplish the project’s goal would mean coordinating actions of a number of agencies, “including the railroad, which has a habit of acting somewhat independently,” she said. 

In addition to rebuilding the overcrossings at University and Ashby avenues, the project will impact the roads in West Berkeley that cross the tracks at grade level: Gilman, Camellia, Cedar, Virginia and Addison streets and Bancroft Way and Hearst Avenue. 

“They’re also talking about closing some streets,” said Chair James Samuels. 

Funds come from the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port Security Bond Act of 2006, which California voters approved on Nov. 7, 2006, when they endorsed Proposition 1B. The specific program involved is the Trade Corridor Improvement Fund.  

Just where the city would get funding for upgrading the overcrossings and grade crossings remains an open question, with the railroads unlikely to provide any of the cash, said Commissioner David Stoloff, though federal funds to supplement state funding were possible within the next three years. 

“The message is that we need to be involved in the planning process,” he said. 

Sanderson said there has been talk of reinvigorating a multi-jurisdictional planning group which had been involved early in the planning process “and becoming more proactive,” joined by all the impacted communities. 

Merilee Mitchell, a former City Council candidate who often speaks during the commission’s public comment sessions, said that unlike Berkeley Design Advocates, she doesn’t want to see a joint powers group created because “they all involve the seven key groups,” agencies which include the Air Quality Management District, the Association of Bay Area Government, the Congestion Management Agency. 

With a potential change in West Berkeley zoning regulations already under discussion by the commission, a major change in rail traffic, which could involve the railroad taking more land for right-of-way and reduced traffic access, adds yet another wrinkle to the complex policies of a part of the city under increasing development pressure. 

For more on the issue, see the Port of Oakland’s web pages at: http://www.portofoakland.com/maritime/tcif.asp 

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s section on Proposition 1B projects is here: http://www.mtc.ca.gov/funding/infrastructure/ 

The California Transportation Commission’s pages are here: http://www.catc.ca.gov/programs/tcif.htm. 

Richmond woes 

Meanwhile, some Richmond residents and City Councilmember Tom Butt are sounding alarms about BNSF’s plans to up the number of mile-long supertrains running along its line through that city. 

The railroad has filed a request for expedited action with the Department of Transportation in Washington to allow the company to expand the number of so-called “intermodal” trains through the city—freights carrying containers plucked from ships and trucked to rail cars atop which they are shipped across the country. 

But a decision by the board means that, effective Monday, the rail line has been forced to redirect from one to two of the lengthy intermodal trains through Richmond rather than along the main Union Pacific Line. 

That in turns means that people who need to cross the grade crossing in neighborhoods like Marina Bay may be forced to wait until the long, slow trains have passed—already a subject of much irritation from existing traffic. 

Unless Washington approves the BNSF request, Richmond residents can expect even longer delays. 

If education, health and other state services spent responsibly within their budgets, there would be no budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a group of local elected officials and community representatives at a meeting in Oakland City Hall Monday morning.  

The meeting was one of a number of meetings the governor has held in the state to talk about the budget crisis and share his solutions. 

The state is running at a $17 billion deficit and legislators are yet to approve the 2008-2009 budget, which must be passed by a two-thirds majority. 

“The responsible thing to do is to bring spending and revenues together,” Schwarzenegger said. “We have to live within our means.” 

The governor was questioned on inadequate school funding by Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson, Oakland State Trustee Vince Matthews and others. Matthews pointed out that California spending per pupil is 47th in the nation. 

The governor, however, said school districts waste money, spending millions of dollars on consulting fees. “The school system should be more efficient,” he said. 

Schwarzenegger said he was about to launch a website where the budget of each school will be made public, giving all an opportunity to see the spending going on outside the classroom. 

“We’ve got to let people know where the schools are spending their money,” he said. 

Sherry Hirota, chief executive officer of Oakland-based Asian Health Services, told the governor she blames Proposition 13 for the growing budget crisis.  

Schwarzenegger responded that raising taxes isn’t the answer: “You can’t keep going back to the people,” he said. “We have to live within our means.” 

While some “are screaming to raise taxes,” he said that is not the responsible way to move forward, especially given that funds the state borrowed four years ago have yet to be paid back. 

Several community speakers recommended reinstating the Vehicle License Tax, which Schwarzenegger eliminated when he took office.  

“For every dollar you take away from people, they’ll spend less in the economy,” he responded. The money people saved by not paying the vehicle license fee has gone back into the economy, he said. 

Someone suggested an oil severance tax, but the governor said California companies are not to blame. The profits on gasoline “go to the Middle East,” then, wealthy Middle Easterners “come back and buy up our stuff,” he said. 

Assemblymember Sandré Swanson said tax loopholes should be fixed to fund schools, but the governor answered, “What one person calls a tax loophole, another calls a tax incentive.”  

For example, the governor said New Mexico has given the movie industry tax incentives, and companies have left Hollywood for New Mexico. 

Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren Rupf called on the governor to increase funding for law enforcement. Schwarzenegger told Rupf to get 200 police officers to circle the capital and knock on doors and the funding would get into the budget. 

Encouraging such lobbying, the governor said, “I’ve had a lot of Democrats come to my smoking tent and light up a stogie ... The rule is the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” 

The governor’s solution is to balance the budget by borrowing $15 million against future lottery proceeds and changing the lottery to make it more profitable. Any additional funds needed to balance the budget would come from a temporary sales tax hike. However, the governor said the Republicans don’t want to raise the sales tax. 

If the legislature approves the lottery plan, it would go to the voters in November for approval. 

Berkeley Unified School District officials said they uncovered an athletic fundraising scam on Friday, when a resident of Glenview in Oakland called to report that a young man was going door to door saying he was raising money for the Berkeley High School baseball team to visit Maui. 

The man said he was a Berkeley High student and a member of the baseball team, neither of which is true, according to school officials. 

According to the resident, the man was offering neighbors the chance to receive books on literacy in exchange for $100 to $500, district spokesperson Mark Coplan said. 

Coplan said another caller reported a young man selling magazine subscriptions in Kensington to help fund the Berkeley High swim team’s trip to Hawaii. The man, the caller said, said he was a member of the swim team and the son of a neighbor who lived down the street.  

The caller remembered later her neighbor did not have a son similar in age to the young man and called Berkeley High Athletic Director Kristen Glencher to alert her. 

Coplan said the young man told neighbors he was representing the magazine subscription company Quality Services Inc. (QSI). 

“The trip to Hawaii and any connection to Berkeley High School is not true, and there is no reason to believe that these youths are actually Berkeley High students,” said Coplan, adding that all team fundraising efforts would seek checks made out to the Berkeley Athletic Fund, the Berkeley High School Development Group or the Berkeley Public Education Foundation. They would never ask for cash, he said. 

“The moment a fundraiser encourages you to give cash instead of checks, saying ‘cash is easier for non-profits to process,’ it should raise a red flag,” Coplan said. 

The district has warned residents about various scams involving people claiming to be raising money for schools in the past. District officials have continually warned community members against offering donations to a man who goes by the name Marcus Robinson. 

Robinson has reportedly been going around Berkeley neighborhoods for 20 years, asking for donations for a program he calls the Bay Area Scholastic Improvement Center, or BASIC, Coplan said. 

“I haven’t heard from Robinson in three to four months,” he said. “The athletic thing is a regular occurrence during this time of the year, so it’s important to warn the community.” 

Questions about school fundraising efforts should be directed to the Berkeley High Athletic Department at 644-8723 or the 

Public Information Office: 644-6320 

Berkeley resident Nathaniel Curtis Freeman, 19, who was charged with murdering Maceo Smith on Durant Avenue on May 13, did not enter a plea as he was scheduled to do at the Alameda County Superior Court today (Friday). 

Freeman did not enter a plea because he has yet to be assigned a lawyer in the case. He will be assigned a deputy public defender, and is scheduled to reappear in court at 9 a.m. Monday. 

The 15 or so family members and friends who gathered outside the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland around 2 p.m. Friday criticized recent media reports which indicated Smith was a good father, but that he coached kids in basketball and football and then made them sell drugs or recruited them as gang members. 

“They demonized him [Maceo] again today,” Smith’s mother Rita McIntyre, a food service worker at Willard Middle School in Berkeley, told friends. “Why are they demonizing the victim? He went up there without anything. He went there with his wife,” she said. 

“What gangs are they talking about? There are no gangs in Berkeley,” said another family member. 

McIntyre also told friends that Smith and Anthony “Tony” Beamon, the 29-year-old African American man who was shot Wednesday at the intersection of California and Tyler streets in South Berkeley, knew each other. 

A couple of Smith’s friends and relatives wore “R.I.P. Mace” T-shirts with the words “Berkeley will never be the same without you again” on them. 

Smith was a regular at the basketball games at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA and was quick to include children in his games, friends close to him told the Planet in an earlier interview. 

Freeman was also charged with assault with a firearm for allegedly shooting a second man, Marcus Mosley, who was Smith’s former brother-in-law, in the incident on Durant Avenue. 

According to authorities, Freeman fired at Smith and Mosley following a dispute, killing Smith and injuring Mosley. 

Court records indicate Smith was convicted for the sale of a narcotics controlled substance in June 2006. He was charged with the illegal possession of an assault weapon in 2004, but the charges were dismissed. Court records also show a conviction for petty theft dating back to 2000. 

Chris Infante, the district attorney assigned for prosecuting Freeman, could not be reached Friday. 

Freeman is being held at Santa Rita Jail. 

Court records indicate Freeman was convicted for disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor, on July 27, 2007. 

According to police reports, Freeman had been in a fight with Leigh Hunt, Jonathan Lamky and Mike Langston around July 25, for which he was arrested for battery on Hunt and Lamky, but the charges were lowered to disturbing the peace. 

Berkeley planning commissioners voted 8-1 Wednesday to approve a key legal document that paves the way for construction of a long-delayed 24-unit condominium building at 2701 Shattuck Ave. 

Then they headed into yet another discussion on a proposed new city density bonus law that rewards developers with increased building size in exchange for including affordable housing units in their apartment and condo projects. 

The condominium building project, originally proposed by developer Patrick Kennedy and later sold to a corporation headed by Gordon Choyce Jr., would rise to five stories, with one living unit, a garage and four commercial spaces on the ground floor. 

Residents of the neighborhood behind the project have criticized the building’s height, as well as the small size of the commercial spaces, which range from 346 to 1,275 square feet. 

But with the building plans already approved by the Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) and sustained by the City Council, the commission’s vote was largely a formality, said Planning Manager Debra Sanderson.  

None of the units will be reserved for sale at affordable rates to low-income, with the developers opting to pay the city’s new in-lieu fee, which will go to city-sponsored affordable projects. By choosing that option, the developer is still eligible for the city’s density bonus. 

“This project first came up back when I was on the zoning board back in the early Pleistocene,” quipped commissioner Gene Poschman, who ultimately voted for approval subject to some tweaking of the language of the staff report. 

But Patti Dacey, who lives nearby, said she felt that “the city has declared war on this neighborhood,” both by approving the installation of cell phone antennas at Kennedy’s University Storage building adjacent to the condo site and by allowing a “hulking five stories” next to a low-rise neighborhood of single-family homes. 

“I can’t in good conscience vote for anything in connection with this project,” she said, casting the lone dissenting vote. 

The map itself doesn’t affect construction, but sets up the legal framework that allows individual condo units to be sold. 

Density bonus 

The thorny subject of the density bonus raises issues that straddle the normal five-four split on the commission, since Susan Wengraf, who normally votes with the more developer-friendly majority, chaired the council-appointed subcommittee that came up with recommendations that have met with a less-than-welcome reception by her colleagues. 

Alex Amoroso, a principal planner on the city staff, said that the memo prepared for commissioners was intended “to reinvigorate discussion,” which drew a rare show of unanimity from the panel—a robust chorus of laughter. 

The report offered three possible courses of action: 

• First, to simply abandon the work of the task force and leave existing development regulations in place. 

• Second, to concentrate only on development rules as they relate to the interface between high-density avenue development and the surrounding residential neighborhoods, or 

• To take up the full range of recommendations developed by the subcommittee over the course of two years of work. 

Commissioner David Stoloff moved to adopt the second course of action, but ultimately withdrew his motion when it became apparent it was doomed to failure. 

The subcommittee, originally started by ZAB and expanded by the City Council to include members of the Planning and Housing Advisory commissions, began as a reaction to planning staff opinions about what size buildings developers were entitled to construct adjacent to residential neighborhoods. 

The final straw was the so-called Trader Joe’s building at the northwest corner of the intersection of University Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. City staff interpreted state law to require that the developers be allowed extra size for signing up the grocery store as a ground floor tenant of their five-story project. The zoning board and the city council accepted staff opinion and granted the requested permits. 

Critics charged that the bonus should only be granted for providing much-needed affordable housing. 

Wengraf said she hoped the city would seek the advice of outside counsel, given the conflicting interpretations of the state density bonus law in other cities. 

Another potential complication is AB 2280, legislation now pending in the state legislature, which would set definitive standards statewide and grant the bonus only for creating affordable housing. The bill has already cleared the Assembly and is now before the state Senate. 

A third complication is Proposition 98, the statewide ballot measure now pending which some critics say could severely restrict the abilities of local governments to limit building size. 

Upcoming events  

Commissioners will take up bus rapid transit again when they meet June 11, with a discussion on what alternative the city wants included in the AC Transit project’s environmental impact report. 

The central issue on the proposed service linking San Leandro and Berkeley is whether or not a dedicated bus line should be created down the center of Telegraph Avenue, which would mean an end to street parking on the avenue and restriction of non-bus traffic to one lane in either direction. 

The same session will also take up the council-driven push for West Berkeley zoning changes to ease rules that property owners and developers say limit their ability to bring in desirable tenants. 

During the June 25 session, commissioners are set to hold public hearings on the Southside Plan and the city’s proposed wireless telecommunications ordinance, to continue discussion on West Berkeley zoning and to talk about plans to update the city's General Plan housing element. 

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums proposed $14.4 million in cuts to the City of Oakland budget this week to offset a projected $15 million deficit in the next fiscal year, including calling for the closing down of non-essential city services for 12 days each year. 

Savings from the 12-day city holiday increase, in which most city offices would be closed and city staff would not be paid, is expected to be more than $4 million. 

The projected deficit is being fueled in large part by a $25.7 million drop in Oakland’s real estate transfer tax caused by the slowdown in the national, regional, and local housing market. The real estate transfer tax drop overwhelmed increases in some city revenues, including a $7.5 million increase in property tax proceeds and a $4.62 million increase in business license tax proceeds. 

The Oakland City Council, which has authority over the passage of the budget and any modifications, took the mayor’s proposal under advisement, asking detailed questions at a Thursday evening budget session but reserving final comment on the mayor’s reduction proposals themselves.  

The largest actual proposed budget reductions are in the Oakland Police Department, with a $3.7 million reduction, and the Oakland Fire Department, with a $3.2 million reduction, the proposed cuts being absorbed by the two largest line items in the city’s budget. But in line with city concerns over public safety, the mayor has proposed that the reductions in the two public safety departments come largely from accounting gimmicks and not from actual personnel reductions. City Administrator Deborah Edgerly said Thursday night that Head Start services would not be affected by the proposed 12-day city shutdown as well. 

The council is scheduled to take up the mid-year budget discussions again on Wednesday, June 11 at 5 p.m. in the council chambers, with a final deliberation and decision scheduled for Tuesday, June 17 at 6 p.m. 

The City of Berkeley currently operates five “reduced service days” as a budget-cutting measure, during which time services at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Civic Center Building, Finance Customer Service Center (1947 Center), and the Permit Service Center are not be available. Other city services in Berkeley, including police and fire services, main and branch libraries, and the animal shelter remain in operation during Berkeley’s “reduced service days.” 

Oakland put in place a similar 12 day reduced schedule in 2003 during the administration of former Mayor Jerry Brown in order to close a similar budget gap. Members of Service Employee International Union Local 790 filed an arbitration grievance over the mandatory work furloughs, but an arbitrator sided with the city, saying that the mandatory days without pay were legal.  

Vice President Jeffrey Levin of Local 21 of the Professional & Technical Engineers union (IFPTE), which cooperated in voluntary budget cuts during the 2003 budget shortfall, told councilmembers on Thursday that his union may have problems with this round of proposed mandatory layoffs. 

“Our members voluntarily helped out in ’02-03 with the promise that all employee groups would be treated equally,” Levin said. “Instead, we found that money that was saved from cutbacks to some union members went into the budget to finance police overruns.” 

Levin said that instead of looking at cutbacks on unionized city employees, “before we cut services and force employees to what is close to a 5 percent paycut,” the city should be looking at cuts in contracts with outside employees, as well as at reducing the city’s reserves. 

Levin did not give any indication what action his union might take if the suggestions were not followed. 

Meanwhile, in a prepared press release this week, Mayor Dellums called the mid-cycle budget cuts, including the proposed targeted city service shutdown, “a very difficult process,” but that faced with the $15 million deficit “it was our responsibility to make specific personnel adjustments to help ease the fiscal burden and to avoid widespread layoffs. At the end of the day we had to strike a balance between fiscal responsibility and sustaining Oakland jobs. Working with city staff, we concluded that shutting down non-essential services for one day a month around holidays when employees would welcome an extra day off was the most responsible way to proceed.”  

Departments proposed to be hit with the largest percentage cuts of their budget are the City Attorney’s Office ($8.47 percent of a $9.5 million budget), the Information and Technology Department (7.63 percent of an $11.5 million budget), and Library Services (7.33 percent of a $13.2 million budget). 

Breakdown of the Mayor’s Budget Cut Proposals 

Mayor’s Office: Current budget $3.2 million. $102,000 in cuts (3.19 percent reduction), including $97,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown. 

City Council: Current budget $3.8 million. $108,000 in cuts (2.84 percent reduction). $126,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown is offset by increases in the retirement rate and council salary increases. 

City Administrator’s Office: Current budget $9.4 million. $510,000 in cuts (5.43 percent reduction), including $271,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as position eliminations, reclassifications, and transfers. 

City Attorney’s Office: Current budget $9.5 million (8.47 percent reduction). $805,000 in cuts, including $346,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as the small staff cutbacks and program eliminations. 

City Auditor’s Office: Current budget $1.4 million (2.64 percent reduction). $37,000 in cuts, including $41,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown, offset by retirement rate increases. 

City Clerk: $2.5 million current budget. $104,000 in cuts (4.16 percent reduction), including $48,000 in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as position downgrades. 

Finance & Management Agency: $32.1 million current budget. $1.4 million in cuts, (4.36 percent reduction) including $1.2 million saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as reductions in operations and maintenance and personnel reclassifications and transfers. 

Contracting & Purchasing: $2.4 million current budget. $22,000 in cuts (0.92 percent reduction), including $86,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown, offset by the addition of two new positions mandated by the city’s new Prompt Payment Policy 

Information Technology: $11.5 million current budget. $877,000 in cuts (7.63 percent reduction), including $561,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown and personnel transfers and position eliminations 

Police Services: $196 million current budget. $3.7 million in cuts (2.8 percent reduction), including $1.6 million saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as transfer of 14 positions to be paid out of Oakland Redevelopment Funds and other assorted savings 

Fire Services: $111.4 million current budget. $3.2 million in cuts (2.8 percent reduction), including $350,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as personnel reductions. 

Museum: $6.8 million current budget. $437,000 in cuts (6.43 percent reduction), including $269,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as small personnel reductions. 

Library Services: $13.2 million current budget. $968,000 in cuts (7.33 percent reduction), including $618,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as the reduction of 4 positions and reductions in website budget. 

Parks & Recreation: $15.2 million current budget. $433,000 in cuts (2.85 percent reduction), including $40,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown offset by increases due to personnel additions. 

Department of Human Services: $7 million current budget. $295,000 in cuts (4.21 percent reduction), including $185,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as outside contract reductions. 

Public Works Agency: $2.4 million current budget. $135,000 in cuts (5.63 percent reduction), including $103,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown as well as positions eliminations. 

Ccommunity & Economic Development Agency: $2.4 million current budget. $142,000 in increases (5.92 percent increase), including $74,000 saved in the proposed 12 day shutdown and $140,000 in the reduction of operations and maintenance, offset by rent arbitration program increases. 

Non-Departmental: $59.9 million current budget. $1.4 million in cuts (2.34 percent reduction), the bulk coming from $1 million savings in the elmination of the seismic retrofit program and $500,000 in the reduction of the city’s contingency reserve. 

While UC Berkeley’s new downtown museum may attract praise from architecture critics, downward-directed thumbs may come from those already frustrated with the hunt for downtown parking. 

Construction of the sparkling white steel-over-concrete edifice will mean demolition of the university’s parking structure at Oxford Street and Allston Way, with no replacement yet on the drawing boards. 

That was the word from two university officials who gave city planning commissioners an overview of the striking structure slated to rise at the northwest corner of the intersection of Center and Oxford streets. 

Rob Gayle, the university’s associate vice chancellor for Project Management, made the presentation, assisted by Jennifer McDougall, the university planner who is overseeing the project. 

The new facility will house the university’s Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, which just last month received a new director: Lawrence Robert Rinder, who has been serving as Dean of the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland. Rinder had previously served on the Berkeley museum staff in the decade between 1988 and 1998. 

Probable costs of $1,000 per square foot—mandated by the demands for a high security, innovative structure—mean the likely construction budget for the three-level museum will run between $100 million and $110 million, Gayle said. 

Commissioner Susan Wengraf raised the issue of parking, noting that the construction will entail demolition of the university’s current parking structure at southwest corner of Oxford and Addison streets. 

“In the early designs we talked about connecting that parking to the museum as well as the hotel, and now we’re losing both,” added commission Chair James Samuels. 

Acknowledging that construction will mean the loss of 250 existing spaces, Gayle said, “the big idea is to look at a much larger capacity structure at the site of University Hall, the high-rise building with the exterior skeleton that stands at the southwest corner of Oxford and University Avenue. 

“Will that parking be in place when the museum is completed?” asked Samuels. 

“We don’t think that’s likely,” said Gayle, who added that between 80 and 100 spaces at the site of the Department of Health Services across University Avenue might be available. The university plans to demolish that structure as well as part of its plan to add 800,000 square feet of new off-campus construction in downtown Berkeley. 

McDougall also noted that the city lot near Berkeley Repertory Theater also has seismic problems and may need replacement, further complicating the downtown parking picture. 

“Where are people going to park when the museum opens?” Samuels asked. 

“We are going to have some more conversations about that,” said Gayle, adding, “The site is very well served by public transportation.” That drew some subdued gasps from the audience. 

Wengraf noted that many museum events would be happening at night, when public transit schedules had tapered off. “People are still going to need to be coming in their cars,” she said. 

Gayle said university fee lots were generally largely vacant at nights and on weekends, “and patrons will have to pay wherever they park.” 

He didn’t mention the plan now being studied by the city manager’s office, to extend parking meter hours at downtown pay-and-display meters until 10 p.m. 

Museum details 

Gayle’s presentation featured an animated walk-though of Toyo Ito’s edifice, a structure dominated by curves and strikingly free of the planes and vertical walls of more mundane designs. 

While some have compared the proposed structure to an egg carton or the interior of a packing crate, the commission’s architects—Samuels and David Stoloff—had high praise for the design, embodied in the scale model the two university officials brought to the meeting. Commissioner Patti Dacey was more skeptical. 

Commissioners noted some changes from ideas university officials had floated earlier, including the possibility of access to the new hotel/conference center/condo tower the university has consigned to a Massachusetts hotelier to develop—though Gayle dodged commission questions about the state of that particular project. 

The museum also lacks the broad expanse of an exterior plane that could serve as a projection screen for films, another idea floated by university representatives in meetings with the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. 

The university has already begun the process of selecting a general contractor, and the closing date for receiving prequalification applications was May. 20. 

The new building will feature: 

• 35,000 square feet of gallery space 

• a 265-seat theater for film 

• a second 135-seat venue for both film and lectures 

• a 2,290-square foot museum shop 

• 10,030 square feet of academic space, and 

• 37,670 square foot of art gallery space. 

According to the university’s call for contractors, construction is currently planned to start in April, 2010 and continue for 30 months. 

The UC officials didn’t have answers when Poschman asked for an estimate of the number of daily visitors, though he said “there is an incentive to have a public meeting as the project develops, sometime in the fall probably,” to address traffic and other issues. 

Questioned by Commissioner Helen Burke, McDougall said the university has no plans to perform an environmental impact review on the project. “We expect to be able to approve it under the Long Range Development Plan,” the same document that sparked the lawsuit that will result in the new downtown plan. 

The building now at the site, the former UC Press printing plant, produced the first printed copies of the United Nations Charter when that organization was founded in San Francisco in 1945. 

Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission recognized the structure as an official city landmark in June 2004.  

Gayle didn’t give a definitive response to Samuels’ questions of whether the museum would display some of its sculpture collection in the landscaped crescent on the campus just across Oxford. Conceptual drawings, and the model shown commissioners featured sculptures in the area. 

“It’s definitely something that’s being contemplated” was Gayle’s final response. 

With some 30 cities and 80 organizations on record opposing the state agriculture department’s plan to spray coastal cities and the Bay Area to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM), one city is bucking the trend. Reedley, a Fresno County agricultural community of around 24,000, has stepped up to support the state. 

In other LBAM news, a new study claiming to show the ill effects of the spray was unveiled on Thursday. 

On May 13, the five-member Reedley City Council voted unanimously to “support the Department of Food and Agriculture and the USDA’s efforts for using organic pheromones to eradicate the LBAM.” 

“We’re concerned with the health of everyone in California,” Reedley Councilmember Scott Brockett told the Planet Thursday. “I don’t want it to be us against them. We need to be able to protect one another’s interests.” 

It is not clear why Reedley was the first central valley community to support spraying the Bay Area. No LBAMs have been found in the Central Valley. 

According to the 2000 census, Reedley is a relatively poor community with 23 percent of the population living below the poverty line. Unemployment is also about 23 percent. About 68 percent of the population is Hispanic. Slightly more than half of the voters voted for Bush and Cheney in 2004. 

CDFA Spokesperson Steve Lyle said his department was reaching out “to provide information” to various communities in and outside the Bay Area and Santa Cruz area targeted for the spray. 

Brockett works as a paramedic and says he has high regard for the health and safety of all Californians. “We’re in support of them spraying an organic pheromone,” he said, underscoring that it was important to use the pheromone now, rather than having to resort to a more dangerous pesticide later. 

Those who oppose the state’s planned aerial spraying, however, say it is both dangerous and ineffectual. 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture sprayed Checkmate on Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in the fall, asserting they were not required to do environmental studies before they sprayed because the spread of the moth was an emergency that could devastate California’s billion dollar agricultural business. Judges in the Santa Cruz and Monterey area have since said that the state must do environmental impact reports before they spray those counties again. The CDFA said it will appeal the rulings but has yet to do so. 

After the fall spray, some 600 people fell ill. The public outcry that arose has been transformed into an effort to fight the state and stop the spray. (See stopthespray.org.) 

While Brockett said he was satisfied that the state agriculture department was giving the city good advice, numerous scientists, including a group of entomologists from UC Davis, have said that the light brown apple moth is a pest the state can live with and that the product used to eradicate it—some entymologists say eradication is impossible—is untested and dangerous. 

On Thursday Dr. Ann Haiden, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, unveiled a new study in a teleconference with reporters that honed in on adverse health effects resulting from the September spray. 

Among Haiden’s concerns are the size of the microcapsules in which the synthetic pheromone and other chemical ingredients of the spray are contained in order to be sprayed. 

“The smallest can reach the deepest part of the lung,” she said, noting that the particles can damage nasal passages as well. 

Among the ingredients in the product that was sprayed is BHT, or butylated hydroxytoluence. “It is used in lab studies to induce cancer,” Haiden said. 

“The effects of inhaled BHT in humans have not been studied,” says Haiden’s study, which can be read at http://drhaiden.com/moth. 

She said it was important to understand that the reaction to the spray would be different among different individuals. “The portion of the population with higher susceptibility needs to be studied,” she said. “Up to 50 percent of the population can be at risk.”  

Haiden condemned the CDFA for not studying the health effects of the product, including the long-term effects of repeated applications, which could include hormone disruption, developmental defects, lung disease or cancer.  

“Reliance on short-term symptoms, or lack thereof, as the major determinants of safety is misguided given our current, and growing, knowledge base,” the study says. 

“The acute symptoms after the spray are the tip of the iceberg,” Haiden said. 

CDFA spokesperson Steve Lyle reacted to the report Thursday with a press statement downplaying the study. 

“If a product other than Checkmate is chosen, this study would be obsolete as a forward-looking document of value to Bay Area residents,” he wrote. 

The statement further said that “aerial treatment will not resume until a thorough battery of toxicology tests is completed on the four products currently being considered.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for the tests in April. They are expected to completed by mid-August. 

Several individuals who participated in the phone press conference said they and their children had suffered ill health as a result of the September spray. Participants included naval officer Tim Wilcox, whose son, with no previous respiratory problems, was hospitalized twice with breathing problems after the spray. 

“Reports found no link between the illness claims and the Checkmate product,” Lyle wrote. 

Zanne Joi, organizer for Code Pink, was arrested this afternoon (Thursday) on charges of trespassing, battery on an officer and resisting arrest at the downtown Marine Recruiting Center. 

She’s been arrested there before, but that was in the course of committing civil disobedience—blocking the doorway or entering the recruiting office. 

Speaking to the Planet at around 4 p.m., just after her release from jail on her own recognizance, Joi said she was arrested while helping a friend get her toddler son out of a stroller. 

As Joi tells it, she was on the sidewalk in front of 64 Shattuck Square a little past noon. Fellow Code Pinker Judy Christopher was taking her 13-month old son out of his stroller and Zanne was assisting in getting the straps untangled from around his belly.  

“Then I hear a voice behind me,” Joi said. “Miss Joi, I want to talk to you. Then I get grabbed.” 

Joi said at that point she was facing Officer Melissa Kelly and yelling at her, “Get your hands off me—don’t touch me.” 

A number of officers then appeared—around six. 

Joi was handcuffed and told she was under arrest for spitting at an officer.  

Joi told the Planet she was angry and yelling—but not spitting. 

Joi’s story was confirmed to the Planet by Christopher and Amy Beaton, the third protester in front of the MRS.  

Police Spokesperson Andrew Frankel did not return calls for comment. 

“These are trumped up charges,” Joi said. Her court date is June 30. 

The Berkeley Board of Education took an in-depth look at Berkeley Unified’s 2007 Academic Performance Index (API) rankings at the school board meeting Wednesday. 

District officials expressed concern at the discrepancy between the statewide ranks and the similar school rankings for Berkeley public schools. 

State Superintendent Jack O’ Connell released the 2007 Base API report, growth targets and school rankings which allow comparisons between California schools on May 21. 

Berkeley Unified Superintendent Bill Huyett said he was concerned that the district was not keeping up with the progress rate in other districts. 

According to a report presented to the school board by district staff, the rankings indicate movement at some schools, with three schools (Arts Magnet, Longfellow and Willard) gaining a level on the statewide rankings and five schools (LeConte, John Muir, Oxford, Rosa Parks and Washington) losing a level compared to the previous year. 

In the similar school rankings, three schools (Cragmont, Oxford and Willard) made gains, while six schools (Arts Magnet, Jefferson, Muir, Rosa Parks, Washington and King) dropped. 

“When schools receive a lower ranking in comparison to similar schools than statewide, it raises questions about curricular and instructional practices, use of time and academic priorities at sites,” the district’s Assistant Superintendent Neil Smith said in his report to the board. 

Smith added that the issues would be addressed in the updated Local Education Agency Plan, which the board will consider whether to approve in June. 

Berkeley High School did not receive any rankings because it did not meet the benchmark for the 2007 API scores, due to a lack of student participation in the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests. 

Berkeley Unified School District’s API for 2006-07 was 747, five points less than the previous year. Ranging from a low of 200 to a high of 1,000, the API reflects a school’s or district’s performance level based on the results of statewide testing. The statewide API performance level goal for all schools is 800.  

Last year’s performance index was based on scores from 6,017 students, a participation rate of approximately 97 percent for elementary and middle schools and 84 percent for high school students.  

School officials said Berkeley High’s California standardized testing participation rates had decreased in 2006-07 in spite of efforts to increase student participation.  

Since the API score for Berkeley Technology Academy was based on less than 100 valid STAR test results, the alternative school did not receive a similar school ranking. 

The state education department establishes a list of similar schools by calculating a school characteristics index, which includes demographics such as student mobility, student ethnicity, percentage of English learners, percentage of students participating in the free or reduced price lunch program and percentage of teachers fully credentialed, district officials said. 

“We need to look at the data for schools similar to us, but achieving higher,” Huyett said. “We are not moving up in achievement at the rate other districts are. Other school districts in California have risen significantly. We need to do a longitudinal study on where we were, where we are and how we are doing. Some schools [in Berkeley Unified] are average or close to average but many schools are trailing behind in similar school ranking. A lot of study and research needs to be done. I am not sure if this has been done before.” 

Huyett went on to say the rankings characterized a mixed set of results. 

“The similar schools ranking is not very optimistic,” he said. “We need an average of at least 6 [out of 10] and aspire for 8. But we are certainly not there yet. We need to look for shining stars within the district and have principals collaborate with each other. It may be true that some of our schools have more similarities with each other than with schools outside the district.” 

The 2007 Base API for the state, which is calculated using the results from spring 2007 testing, shows 36.7 percent of elementary schools are at or above the statewide performance target of 800, up from 34.6 percent in 2006. 

The percentage of state middle schools at or above the statewide performance target of 800 is 24.6 percent, up from 23.9 percent, and high schools is 14.5 percent, up from 13.6 percent. 

According to a statement released by the California Department of Education (CDE) website, Base API reports help the public gauge how schools in their communities are doing in comparison to schools with similar socioeconomic characteristics. 

“This bright light on school performance is an important element in our school accountability efforts." O’Connell said in a statement. “I’m pleased that California schools continue to rise to the challenge of high expectations. Our Academic Performance Index pushes schools to make improvements each year. Since the inception of the API, the median score for each decile ranking has increased each year. This reflects significant gains in student achievement in our schools.” 

For more information about the rankings visit: api.cde.ca.gov  

A 29-year-old Berkeley man was shot and killed Wednesday night as he stood on a sidewalk near the corner of California and Tyler streets. 

When police arrived, they found the mortally wounded Anthony Beamon lying on the sidewalk. Rushed to Highland Hospital, he later died of his injuries, reports Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Andrew Frankel. 

Police received calls about shots fired at 11:32 p.m. and rushed to the scene. One neighbor said as many as a dozen shots had been fired. 

Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said police had to control a small crowd of neighbors, members of Beamon’s family and others who had gathered moments after the shooting. 

The homicide was the city’s eighth for the year, including the shooting by a Berkeley police officer of a South Berkeley mother who police said had been wielding a knife outside her home and threatening family members. 

For all of last year, Berkeley reported a total of five killings. The city has logged three homicides within the last four weeks. 

While neighbors identified Beamon as the victim, and his name was reported by at least one other newspaper, Officer Frankel declined to provide an identification. 

“Detectives are still interviewing his family members and witnesses,” he said. 

Frankel said he knew of no evidence to indicate that Beamon was armed at the time of the shooting, and when asked how many times the 29-year-old father had been shot, he said only “more than once.” 

Sgt. Kusmiss said a search of the area revealed that the killer’s bullets had also struck a home at 1536 Tyler as well as a car parked in front of the residence. No one in the home was injured. 

The officer asked anyone with information about the shooting to call the BPD Homicide Detail at 981-5741or the department’s non-emergency dispatch line at 981-5900. 

Oakland City Council incumbents running for re-election are taking in campaign donations from individuals who regularly require City Council approval for the business they do with the City of Oakland. While the practice is, for the most part, not illegal, it violates the spirit of the 1997 Oakland Campaign Reform Act, which sought to prevent a connection between City Council decisions and campaign donations to city councilmembers running for re-election.  

And at least in the case of donations from three separate companies, two councilmembers appear to have actually broken Oakland’s campaign finance laws.  

Violation of the provisions of the Campaign Reform Act is a misdemeanor. 

The Oakland Campaign Reform Act prohibits campaign contributions to candidates for Oakland city councilmember for at least 180 days (six months) between the start of and completion of contracts or other city business that requires City Council approval. 

But Councilmember Jane Brunner, running for re-election from District 1, received a $600 contribution from A&B Vehicle Processing company last October. Because A&B (under its new name, B&B Vehicle Processing) is currently seeking approval from the City Council for a one-year renewal of its longstanding towing contract with the City of Oakland, the A&B contribution to Brunner would appear to have directly violated the Campaign Reform Act. 

In addition, Brunner and City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente have each recently received $600 contributions from BCG Towing, an East Oakland-based towing company that is listed as a subcontractor with A&B (B&B) in its towing contract renewal request with the City of Oakland. 

Brunner could not be reached for comment for this story, but political consultant Larry Tramutola, speaking for the De La Fuente campaign, said by telephone that “the treasurer of the campaign was not aware that BCG Towing was a party to a contract that was being considered by the City Council.”  

Tramutola said that now that the campaign had been informed, the campaign treasurer was “checking with the Oakland Ethics Commission. If we find there was a violation, we will certainly return the contribution. Mr. De La Fuente is very strict on following the Campaign Reform Act.” 

Another potential violation by the De La Fuente organization was wiped off the books because, according to Tramutola, the checks bounced. The De La Fuente campaign reported two separate contributions of $600 apiece from officials with Pacific Thomas Capital, developers of the Gateway Development Project on the estuary waterfront. Carlos Plazola, former aide to De La Fuente, is the registered lobbyist with the City of Oakland for Pacific Thomas Capital, and has been closely associated with the proposed project.  

Last March, the Oakland City Council approved industrial zoning changes for the City of Oakland that would allow the Gateway Project to go through. That may have qualified as a Campaign Reform Act violation, but in the same March 17 campaign contribution report in which the $1,200 Pacific Thomas Capital donations were listed, the De La Fuente campaign also listed corresponding negative balances, showing that the contributions penciled back out to zero. 

But while there are few actual violations of the law, there appear to be widespread violations of the spirit of the Campaign Reform Act, which sought to break the connection between campaign contributions and City Council decisions. In that regard, the four council incumbents running for reelection have pulled in a total of $19,500 among them in contributions from companies or individuals with ongoing business interests with the City of Oakland.  

While those interests do not involve contracts or development proposals coming within the six-month Campaign Reform Act window, they involve entities that are expected to have future business ventures coming before the City Council for approval. 

De La Fuente has pulled in $9,300 in such contributions in his current reelection campaign, followed by Brunner with $7,200, Reid with $2,400, and Nadel with $850. De La Fuente has gotten $2,100 from the DeSilva Group alone, the powerful East Bay developers who are major players in Oakland development, including the recently approved Leona Quarry residential project. Both De La Fuente and Brunner got $1,200 apiece through Foster Interstate Media, which has contracts with the City of Oakland for billboards near the Alameda County Coliseum and Arena. 

De La Fuente and Brunner also received $1,200 in contributions through McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners Inc. Architects, which has no direct contracts or projects with the City of Oakland but is the architect for major projects requiring Oakland City Council approval, including the Fruitvale Transit Village, Forest City Uptown Oakland project, and Oak To Ninth. Reid received $600 in contributions from the architects. 

And De La Fuente received $1,800 in contributions through Barnes, Mosher, Whitehurst, Lauter & Partners, a San Francisco political consulting and lobbying firm with no contracts with the City of Oakland or proposals before the Oakland City Council itself, but with clients with significant contract interests in Oakland, including Signature Properties and the Shorenstein Company. Brunner received $600 in contributions from Barnes, Mosher. 

In addition, the four council incumbents running for reelection have taken in $6,700 from three Oakland Port Commissioners—John Protopappas, Anthony Batarse, and Kenneth Katzoff—who will need approval from the Oakland City Council if they wish to be selected for another term on the powerful Port Commission. 

Naomi Schiff, president of the nonprofit Oakland Heritage Alliance and a frequent participant in Oakland City Council meetings and hearings involving development projects, called the campaign contribution situation “murky.”  

“It doesn’t seem like a good setup,” Schiff said, adding that the Campaign Reform Act “was supposed to ensure that campaign contributions didn’t interact with City Council project approval.”  

While Schiff did not accuse councilmembers of voting on project proposals based upon campaign contributions, she did say that in observing how some proposals get through Oakland’s planning and approval process, “I sometimes wonder how these connections are playing out.” 

The Donations 

A&B Vehicle Processing 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600 on October 23, 2007 from A&B General Manager Robert A. Connor) 

A&B has a longstanding contract with the City of Oakland to run the city’s towing services. A one-year extension of that contract was considered by the Public Safety Committee of the Oakland City Council on Tuesday night of this week, with the full Council expected to vote on the contract extension sometime before the summer break. 

ABC Security Services 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600), Ignacio De La Fuente ($600) 

The company has long-standing contract to provide security services at various city facilities. In May 2007, the Contra Costa Times Political Blotter described Ana Chretien, ABC’s CEO, as a prolific political donor, supporting Democrats including Oakland City Council President Igancio De La Fuente, state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) and state Attorney General Jerry Brown.” 

In 2006, in response to a complaint that ABC “violated the Oakland Campaign Reform Act by making campaign contributions to [Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown and Councilmembers Ignacio De La Fuente and Henry Chang] during a period when ABC Security was negotiating contracts with the City of Oakland and the Oakland Base Reuse Authority,” the Public Ethics Commission concluded that no violation took place because administrative amendments to ABC’s contract with the City of Oakland that took place within the Oakland Campaign Reform Act’s 180-day window were not directly voted on by City Council. 

Mark A. McClure 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600), Ignacio De La Fuente ($600), Larry Reid ($600), Nancy Nadel ($100) 

He is a Oakland Port Commissioner 

Barnes, Mosher, Whitehurst, Lauter & Partners 

Contributions: Ignacio De La Fuente ($1,800 total, $600 apiece from Barnes Mosher Public Affairs Director Samuel Lauter, Political Consultant Mark Mosher, and Political Consultant John Whitehurst), Jane Brunner ($600) 

While it has no contracts with the City of Oakland or proposals before Oakland City Council, Barnes, Mosher is a San Francisco political lobbying firm with clients with significant contract interests in Oakland, including Signature Properties and the Shorenstein Company. 

BBI Construction 

Contributions: Nancy Nadel ($600 from BBI owner Tom McCoy) 

BBI has the City of Oakland contract to rehabilitate the Municipal Boathouse on Lake Merritt, and has bid on other contracts with the City of Oakland. 

BCG Towing 

Contributions: Ignacio De La Fuente ($600), Jane Brunner ($600) 

Listed as a subcontractor on the contract extension for B&B Vehicle Processing (A&B Vehicle Processing), it is currently being considered by the Oakland City Council 

Phil Tagami 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600) 

Tagami is a developer and Real Estate Investor and the owner of California Commercial Investments. He has numerous contracts and development-related relationships with the City of Oakland, including a current contract as consultant to the city on the Fox Oakland Restoration Project. He served on the Oakland Port Commission until former Mayor Jerry Brown replaced him in 2003. 

Clear Channel Worldwide 

Contribution: Ignacio De La Fuente ($600) 

Clear Channel has current contract with City of Oakland to place billboards throughout the city. In addition, Clear Channel has several ongoing contracts with the Port of Oakland to put up billboards on the approach to the Bay Bridge as well as at the Oakland Airport. 

Michael Colbruno, Vice President of Governmental Affairs for Clear Channel Outdoor, is an Oakland Planning Commissioner. 

Douglas Parking 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600), Nancy Nadel ($250) 

Company has ongoing off-street parking contract with the City of Oakland. 

The DeSilva Group 

Contributions: Igancio De La Fuente ($2,100 total; $600 from Ernest D. Lampkin, CFO of Oliver DeSilva Inc., $600 from Jim Summers, a civil engineer with The DeSilva Group, $600 from Stephen Vigar, an executive with The DeSilva Group, and $300 from Michael Willcoxon, attorney with The DeSilva Group), Jane Brunner ($600 from Jim Summers, a civil engineer with The DeSilva Group) 

It is a major player in Oakland development projects, including current work on the Leona Quarry residential development project. 

Foster Interstate Media 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($1,200 total, $600 from the company and $600 from Foster State Vice President Lars Skugstad), Ignacio De La Fuente ($1,200 total, $600 from the company and $600 from Foster State Vice President Lars Skugstad), Larry Reid ($600) 

The company has contracts with the City of Oakland for billboards near the Alameda County Coliseum and Arena. Contracts with the Port of Oakland for billboard placement on various Port of Oakland lands, including the Oakland Airport and the approach to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. 

Friendly Transportation Inc. 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600). 

It has a contract with the City of Oakland to provide paratransit transportation services. 

Hensel Phelps Construction Company 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600), Ignacio De La Fuente ($600) 

It is a major player in Oakland development projects. According to a September, 2001 Port of Oakland press release, Port of Oakland Press Release, “both the City of Oakland and the Port of Oakland are familiar with Hensel Phelps Construction. Recently completed projects include the City of Oakland Administration Buildings [and the] Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza [the old Merritt College Grove Street campus]…” Ignacio De La Fuente’s wife, Elvia Eloisa De La Fuente, has been a Hensel Phelps employee, according to East Bay News Service publisher and longtime Oakland City Council monitor Sanjiv Handa. 

According to reporter Robert Gammon, then with the Oakland Tribune, Hensel Phelps was connected to the 2003 ouster of Phil Tagami from the Oakland Port Commission by then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. According to a May 9, 2003 Tribune article by Gammon: “Sources said Tagami was ousted in part because of the Port Commission’s choice earlier this week of a prime contractor to preside over what will ultimately be a $1.5 billion expansion of the airport. The commission had been expected by some observers to pick Hensel Phelps Construction Co., which had the backing of City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and others, was generous with campaign cash and had hired the city’s top lobbyist, Lily Hu, a former aide to state Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland. Instead, the commission selected the less politically connected Turner Construction Co. following a process Tagami engineered…” 

Kenneth Katzoff 

Contributions: Ignacio De La Fuente ($600 from Katzoff & Riggs Attorneys At Law), Jane Brunner (($600 from Katzoff & Riggs Attorneys At Law) 

He is a Oakland Port Commissioner. 

Lily Hu 

Contributions: Ignacio De La Fuente ($600) 

She is a registered lobbyist with City of Oakland for Forest City Development and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, major players in City of Oakland development. 

Anthony Batarse 

Contributions: Ignacio De La Fuente ($600), Larry Reid ($600), Nancy Nadel ($600) 

He is a Port of Oakland Commissioner. 

McLarand Vasquez Emsiek & Partners Inc. 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($1,200 total, $600 from the company and $600 from McLarand Marketing Director Robert Apocada), Ignacio De La Fuente $1,200 from McLarand Marketing Director Robert Apocada), Larry Reid ($600) 

No direct contracts or project with the City of Oakland, but the firm is the architect for major projects requiring Oakland City Council approval, including the Fruitvale Transit Village, Forest City Uptown Oakland project, and Oak To Ninth. 

Pacific Thomas Capital 

Contributions: Ignacio De La Fuente ($1,200 total, $600 apiece from Pacific Thomas President Randall Worsley Whitney and executive Buhla R. Darrow, but the contributions were later reported as zero balances on De La Fuente’s campaign finance report because the two checks bounced) 

The company is project developer for the Gateway Community Development Project. Carlos Plazola, former aide to De La Fuente, is the registered lobbyist with the City of Oakland for Pacific Thomas Capital, and has been closely associated with this project. Last March, Oakland City Council approved industrial zoning changes for the City of Oakland that would allow the Gateway Project to go through. 

Shorenstein Realty Services 

Contributions: Jane Brunner ($600), Ignacio De La Fuente ($600), Larry Reid ($600) 

It has numerous development projects with the City of Oakland requiring Planning Commission and City Council approval. Major player in Oakland development. 

Signature Properties 

Contributions: Ignacio De La Fuente ($600) 

The firm is a major players in Oakland development, including, among other projects, the Oak To Ninth residential-commercial development project on the estuary waterfront and the Durant Square residential-commercial development in East Oakland. In November 2003, the San Francisco Business Times wrote that “once mainly a builder of upscale homes in the Bay Area’s suburban sprawl, Signature Properties has plunged into the urban in-fill market and quickly become Oakland’s most ambitious residential developer. With six different Oakland projects in various stages of development and the possibility of a seventh, Pleasanton-based Signature could produce well over 3,000 new homes and at least 170,000 square feet of retail space in the next decade.” 

In the tightly contested June 3 races for the Oakland City Council, incumbent councilmembers are predictably winning the important fund-raising battles, with 5th District Councilmember and Council President Ignacio De La Fuente leading the way.  

De La Fuente raised $66,380 in the two months March 18 to May 17, the most recent campaign finance reporting period, and has raised $147,480 in campaign contributions since the first of the year. 

By contrast, the council president’s main District 5 opponent, realtor Mario Juarez, raised $32,569 in the last two months and $50,401 since the beginning of the year. Juarez’ fundraising totals would put him near or at the top in campaign contributions in any of the other four contested Oakland City Council races this year, including the at-large position, but places him a distant second to the powerful incumbent. 

De La Fuente’s two other challengers, David Wofford, staff member to former Councilmember Wilson Riles, and small business owner Beverly Blythe, did not report contributions and are not expected to be competitive in the race. 

In Oakland’s third district, long-time incumbent Nancy Nadel was also ahead of her challengers in fundraising, reporting $46,124 raised in the last two months, $65,780 since the beginning of the year. Covenant House Development Director and political newcomer Sean Sullivan is second in fundraising with $29,180 in contributions in the last two months, $48,073 since the beginning of the year.  

District 3 Oakland School Board Member Greg Hodge, who was expected to provide the stiffest challenge to Nadel in the June 3 election, is trailing badly in fundraising, reporting $5,932 in contributions in the last two months, $7,232 since the beginning of the year. 

The results were similar in Council District 7, where incumbent Councilmember Larry Reid started fundraising late but quickly took the lead. Reid raised $34,509 in the last two months after raising less than $1,000 between January and mid-March. His opponent, East Oakland neighborhood activist Clifford Gilmore, raised $8,960 in the last two months, $13,145 since the beginning of the year. 

In District 1, incumbent Jane Brunner reported $42,535 in contributions in the last two months, and $7,000 more in the first two and a half months of the year. North Oakland neighborhood activist Patrick McCullough, her opponent, has not yet filed a campaign finance report for the current period. 

With at-large council incumbent Henry Chang choosing not to run for re-election, incumbents from two other East Bay political seats are running close together in fundraising in the five-way race to succeed him. AC Transit At-Large Director Rebecca Kaplan raised $40,460 in the last two months, $61,182 since the first of the year. District 1 Oakland School Board Member Kerry Hamill raised slightly more than Kaplan in the last two months, $40,711, and $48,708 total since the beginning of the year. 

Former AC Transit Director and Oakland Planning Commission member Clinton Killian reported $24,708 in contributions in the last two months, $33,189 since the beginning of the year. Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods co-founder Charles Pine reported $4,569 received in the last two months, $8,304 since the first of the year. Senior citizen activist and former Community Police Advisory Board member and retired U.S. postal worker Frank Rose has not yet turned in a campaign finance report for this period.

The questions posed to Senate and Assembly candidates at Tuesday evening’s forum presented by the Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action came from real life.  

Tania Marin has lived with an asthmatic child and no health insurance and asked the candidates how they would solve the health problems of the poor and undocumented immigrants.  

The fear of immigration raids has pierced the community, said Procesa Gorristieta, who wanted to know what the candidates would do to bring justice to immigrants. Nancy Williams asked candidates for solutions to education cuts and violence among youth. 

Some 50 people attended the forum put on by the 18-congregation multi-racial, multi-issue organization. All candidates for the June 3 election for the 14th Assembly District attended—physician Dr. Phil Polakoff, East Bay Regional Parks Board member Nancy Skinner, Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond and Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthing-ton. 

Vying for a seat in the state Senate, former Assemblymember Wilma Chan attended; Assembly-member Loni Hancock was represented by her campaign manager Terri Waller. 

All the candidates said they support a universal single-payer health care system that does not deny health care to undocumented immigrants, though Polakoff said it is unrealistic to hold out for such a system.  

Single-payer “is not going to happen today or tomorrow,” he said, arguing that he wants a system that would help children right away. He said he would “take on the insurance companies,” by stopping their practice of dumping patients with costly conditions and refusing to cover those with existing illnesses. 

“My number one priority is health care for all children, regard-less of immigration status,” he said. Polakoff said he has treated poor patients pro bono and has served as adviser on medical issues in the state legislature and in Liberia.  

Worthington said he has worked for single-payer healthcare, organizing rallies in Sacramento and testifying before the legislature. As a councilmember, Worthington said, he helped identify funds for the Berkeley Health Department disparity study, which showed the large gap in health outcomes between wealthier Caucasians living in the hills and African Americans living in the flatlands. 

He said immigrants with or without documentation deserve services: “Most immigrants in California are paying taxes. They are paying for education and health care,” Worthington said, arguing that the governor needs a better understanding of immigrant contributions. 

Thurmond said he understands the importance of universal health care—he works with youth in foster care who lose health insurance the day they turn 18.  

He said he led the support for single-payer health care on the Richmond City Council. Support for single-payer is economical, Thurmond said, pointing to the 3 percent administrative costs for Medicare. It is “immoral” to predicate seeing a doctor on immigrant status, he said.  

Skinner touted her support from state Senator Sheila Kuehl, author of the single-payer bill the governor refused to sign. She pointed out the economics of the situation, where families without health insurance take children to the more-costly emergency room, rather than getting less expensive preventative healthcare.  

“The governor is stupid economically—in the end this refusal is going to cost us more,” she said. Skinner noted she helped establish the teen health center at Berkeley High, as a city councilmember in the 1980s. 

Waller said Hancock supports single-payer and was one of two Democrats to oppose cuts in the governor’s health and human services budget. Hancock supports AB 32 and SB 1, legislation that provides health care for all children, Waller said, adding, “High quality affordable health care should be a right.”  

Chan said she had authored AB 772 in 2005, under which all children, regardless of immigration status, would have access to health insurance. She said, if elected, she would reintroduce the bill and if the governor vetoed it again she would put it on the ballot as an initiative. 

Health care should not be pitted against education, Chan said. “All of us know if our children are sick, they can’t learn—we don’t need more prisons; we need health care and we need education.” Worthington, who supports Chan, had pointed out earlier in the evening that Hancock voted to build new prisons. 

Immigration rights 

All the candidates said they support justice for immigrants. 

People have a right to come to the U.S. for political and economic reasons, Thurmond said, noting that he’s participated in rallies against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and supports Richmond’s position, which affirms that city officials will not help ICE officials in their raids. 

Education for all is key to creating a more equitable society, he said. “Because of my education I am standing before you,” he said.  

Worthington ticked off a number of pieces of legislation he sponsored in the Berkeley City Council, while admitting that it is easier to get items passed there than through the legislature: support for drivers’ licenses for people without documentation; support for legislation to allow people without documentation to get financial aid for college; support for funding to end immigration backlogs; opposition to English-only efforts; support for city sanctuary policies, and support to end deportation of people with misdemeaners. 

To get these policies through the legislature, Worthington said he’ll go beyond fighting the governor, “I’ll fight with the Democrats to get them to actually have a backbone and to stand up for us and all the people of the state of California,” he said. 

Skinner decried the raids: “Immigrants are the backbone of our community; the ICE raids are terrorizing our schoolchildren,” she said, arguing that immigrants are used as a smokescreen so that the real issues of education and health care are not addressed. 

She said she supported the sanctuary movement in the churches as a councilmember and supports California as a sanctuary state. She also supports drivers’ licenses for people without documentation. 

Skinner said to fund education it is necessary to tax corporations. She said that she would also work with the business community to get measures through the legislature. 

Noting that he is a child of immigrants, Polakoff said the ICE raids have caused post-traumatic stress. He spoke about his travels, which include Siberia, and said the repression of immigrants is a worldwide issue. 

Waller noted that Hancock was arrested for civil disobedience at the Emeryville Woodfin Suites Hotel in solidarity with cleaning staff under fire from immigration officials and hotel management. 

Having a driver’s license is important in a practical way—for safety on the road, Waller said, adding that Hancock supports access for immigrants to financial aid for college. 

Chan said she supports undocumented persons getting drivers’ licenses and said she fought against the English-only movement. She said she supports fair immigration reform that allows people to become citizens. 

She opposes the ICE raids and asked, “Why don’t they go after the employers? Why go after workers?” 

Education 

Skinner talked about the need to keep youth in school as part of the answer to address youth violence. To do that, there needs to be good vocational education as well as art, music and sports in schools, she said. 

“People feel desperate, without hope,” she said, arguing that there’s too much focus on college. “Not everyone wants to go to college,” she said. “The vast majority of people in prisons are high school dropouts.” 

Skinner pointed out that, as a Berkeley councilmember, she supported the East Bay Safety Corridor, a regional approach to fighting crime from Richmond to Oakland.  

Skinner said she supports new taxes. In Sacramento, there’s an “irrational refusal to raise revenue,” she said. 

It costs money to provide programs for education and to stop violence, Worthington said, noting that when he was on the City Council, he combed the budget and found funding for youth programs, affordable housing and more.  

In Sacramento, “I want to tax the rich, with a corporate real estate tax,” he said. If all else failed, he would reinstate the vehicle license tax that affects the middle class.  

Like Skinner, Thurmond said vocational education is important. He said he has supported jobs programs in Richmond, including a training program for solar panel installation. 

Thurmond said taxing the wealthy is important. He wants the vehicle license tax restored and wants the state to subsidize teachers who live in the cities where they teach. 

Polakoff said society is in decline: “We’ve lived so long on greed.” As for funding education programs, Polakoff said the state should go after uncollected taxes as well as getting corporations to pay their fair share. 

Waller said Hancock was alone in the Assembly to stand up to the cuts in education and pointed to her work with PTAs in the district. Like Skinner, Hancock takes credit for the East Bay Public Safety Corridor, implemented when she was Berkeley mayor and Skinner was a councilmember in the 1980s.  

Hancock wants to tax the rich and to support a tax on the production of oil. 

Chan said she supports universal preschool and, while she was unable to accomplish that, she was able to increase slots available for low-income children in preschool. “You have to start when the kids are young,” she said. 

Today the governor and legislature are wringing their hands around budget issues, but they knew the problems that lay ahead, she said. They could have put a tax measure on the ballot in February to alleviate this, she said.  

“Teachers are leaving the state because of the budget,” she said. “We need high-quality teachers.”

What seemed like typical lunch-time ruckus to visitors at Berkeley High School last week was in fact an act of solidarity with immigrants across the nation. 

More than 3,000 Berkeley High students trooped out of their classrooms May 22 at a prompt from their principal, Jim Slemp, and surrounded the 17-acre Milvia Street campus to protest the recent arrest of a Berkeley family by U.S. Immigration and Cus-toms Enforcement (ICE) agents. 

In less than 10 minutes, members of Fighting for Immigrants’ Rights and Equality (FIRE)—a group formed by Berkeley High staff and students—helped students form a human chain, dotted with posters and placards decrying what they said were violations to immigration rights. 

The May 6 arrest of a Latino family who lived near the Berkeley High campus sparked protest among local immigrant groups and advocates and prompted the Berkeley Unified School District to send out a telephone message advising parents not to panic, after rumors started circulating that ICE agents were rounding up students in Berkeley and Oak-land schools.  

“If you had seen our children’s faces when ICE officers took the family in Berkeley you could see the kids really cared,” said Slemp. “People were fearful. It’s important that we treat people equally and make Berkeley High a safe place for everyone. This is a statement about who we are. Kids could have gone out to lunch if they wanted to, but they chose to stay back for this.” 

Berkeley High sophomore Giovanni Guzman waved a red and blue “Fire Melts Ice” poster next to a 6-foot-long “Power to the People” banner. 

“I am here trying to show where we stand,” said Guzman, who was born in Mexico. “Many of my family members are undocumented, and I was afraid for them when ICE was in the city.” 

“Immigrants Are People,” chanted the crowd, as cars and buses stopped for a second to honk and absorb all the action. 

Beatrice Leyva Cutler of United in Action cheered the students on. 

“This really shows the unity we have in Berkeley,” Cutler, the mother of a Berkeley High sophomore, said. “It shows the support of the school for immigrants. The voice of students and teachers is extremely powerful for our community.” 

Although ICE agents did not enter any school campuses in Berkeley, the Berkeley Board of Education is drafting a policy that limits access to the district’s schools from outside agencies, including Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS, now ICE) officials. 

The district currently has no policy outlining whether or not it should cooperate with ICE agents. 

“While we are not asking our employees and students to break the law, we will not volunteer or cooperate with immigration officials,” said board member Karen Hemphill. “We have a legal responsibility to educate all Berkeley residents, regardless of their citizenship status or national origin, and we cannot do it unless our schools provide a safe and secure environment. We want to make it clear to immigrant families that they and their children are safe on our campuses. We also want them to know that we will not share student information with the INS.” 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 in Plyler v. Doe that public schools were prohibited from denying immigrant students access to elementary and secondary public education. 

“The reaction within the community [regarding the arrests] was fear and anxiety and part of [ICE’s] intent was intimidation,” said school board president John Selawsky. “Our kids have to be comfortable coming to school every day. We don’t want them to be afraid of outside agencies and worry about being questioned and detained and taken away in vans.” 

Hemphill said the district’s new policy will be modeled on the City of Berkeley’s 1971 resolution, which declares Berkeley as a “City of Refuge” and directs the Berkeley Police Department not to participate or collaborate with ICE. 

Hemphill said the panic around the May 6 incident had prompted board members to establish a new policy. 

“Even though ICE agents did not set foot on any school campus, they can do so with permission from higher authorities,” Hemphill said. “That’s not a warm and fuzzy feeling for me.” 

The district is researching several school district policies opposing ICE raids, including the one adopted by the San Francisco Unified School District in 2007, which was drafted after reports of ICE raids caused immigrant families to stop sending their children to school, afraid for them to leave their homes.

A massive manhunt scoured the Berkeley hills Friday afternoon as officers closed Highway 13 along Tunnel Road while they searched for the men who carjacked a San Ramon man in Oakland. 

The case began in Oakland Friday morning, when the San Ramon man was accosted by a trio of gunmen, then forced to drive them to his home, from which the bandits fled in his car after robbing him. 

Berkeley Police Officer Andrew Frankel said California Highway Patrol officers spotted the stolen Acura TL car as it headed back toward Oakland on Highway 24 and started in pursuit. The car chase ended with a wreck near the Highway 13 exit to Berkeley, and the two gunmen fled on foot up Tunnel Road. 

“We received word from Berkeley citizens that two suspects were attempting to get into a residence,” said Officer Frankel. Those calls, which came in about 12:30 p.m., sent Berkeley officers to the area, located near the intersection of Tunnel Road and The Uplands. 

About the same time as the Berkeley residents called, Berkeley police received word of the pursuit, “and we realized that these were probably the two outstanding suspects,” Frankel said. 

Within moments, a CHP airplane and an Oakland police helicopter were hovering over the scene, as officers from Berkeley and several other jurisdictions flooded the area. 

“Now it’s a joint operation with Berkeley police, the CHP, the Contra Costa County Sheriffs, the San Ramon Police Department and Oakland police,” Frankel said a half hour after the search began. 

After checking the site of the original call and finding no sign of the two men, officers began an area search. 

“There’s no indication of a hostage situation,” said the Berkeley police spokesperson at the time. 

The manhunt triggered a traffic jam on Tunnel Road, with traffic closed by a police roadblock at Claremont Avenue, and it left Berkeley streets short of officers, with one report that only two units were available for other service soon after the search began. 

The search was formally suspended at 2:52 p.m. Friday, though Tunnel Road had been opened to traffic about 20 minutes earlier, Frankel said Tuesday. The suspects remain at large. 

An early riser at 5:30 on Wednesday morning thought he’d spotted a thief in the act of committing a crime which is the subject of legislation that has passed the state Assembly and is now headed for the Senate. He saw a man loading many copies of newspapers from distribution boxes on College Avenue near Ashby into a pickup truck, and he called the Berkeley Police Department with a full description of the man and the truck, complete with license number. 

Officer Andrew Frankel, spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department, told the Planet on Wednesday afternoon that an officer was dispatched to the area, but there was no sign of a thief when they got there.  

He said that in order to pursue the possible theft further, the reporting party would have to be willing to sign a complaint. Witnesses who think they’re observing a theft and report it must be willing to provide their names and make a citizen’s arrest, Frankel said. He noted that poachers generally work in the wee hours of the morning and are observed by few people, and said the department does not track the number of citations given for theft of free newspapers.  

Free newspapers aren’t really free, however. Publishers know what newsprint costs. And professional poachers who rip off free papers and sell them to recycling companies know their value too. The price of newsprint is going up, the economy is tanking, and theft of papers from news boxes is on the rise. 

Though this particular witness was not willing to sign a complaint, he did email full information about what happened, including his own name and phone number, to a group of interested parties, newspaper publishers and honest recyclers who are working together to put an end to paper theft. They forwarded his information to the Planet. The witness asked in a followup email that his name not be published. 

He said in his report that he also called an Oakland buyer of recycled newsprint to report the likely arrival of the thief, and urged the woman who answered the phone to call the Oakland Police Department. He reported that she said the truck as described was at her location, but she wouldn’t call the police .  

So, he said, he called the police himself. The OPD dispatcher said “But the newspapers are free.” He told her that theft of free papers is a crime. By press time on Wednesday, no one had been arrested. 

Incidents like this one are why there’s a great deal of support among publishers of local free papers—the Examiner, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the East Bay Express, the Berkeley Daily Planet and more—for AB 1778, sponsored by Assemblymember Fiona Ma, which passed the Assembly 45 to 24 on May 22 and is now headed to the State Senate. 

Under AB 1778, recycling companies would be required to identify those who bring recyclables and newspapers worth $50 or more to sell. The bill also requires the recycling company to pay by check for recyclables worth $50 or more. 

“This should give us the ability to cut off the [poachers’] money supply,” Express Publisher Hal Brody told the Planet. 

A full pick-up load of newsprint will fetch $80 to $100, Brody said, noting that he would have preferred that the bill require identification and payment by check at the $25 level. He said he fears that the bill could be weakened in the senate by those who want the threshold set at $100.  

The bill doesn’t target the lone individuals seen scavenging for cans. One thousand aluminum cans is equal to about 34 pounds, for which recycling companies pay around $50.  

According to Brody, the bill targets professionals, some of whom have a fleet of trucks. These thieves vary their targets, going to various parts of town or different cities. 

“It’s a cat and mouse game,” Brody said. Originally, AB 1778 targeted only thieves who take large quantities of recyclables from bins provided by cities, according to Nick Hardeman, spokesperson for Ma. The thefts cause the cities to lose revenue, which the taxpayer must make up, he told the Planet on Tuesday.  

Newspaper theft was then added to the bill, at the request of Brody and other newspaper publishers, Hardeman said. 

Described as friendly, brilliant and bright-eyed—and at the same time as scary and cult-like—six LaRouche Democrats are running for Alameda County Democratic Central Committee (ACDCC) slots. 

Historical complaints about the LaRouchites—racism, homophobia and sexism—are not the salient characteristics noted by local Democratic Party activists concerned about the mostly under-30 crop of Lyndon LaRouche followers in Alameda County.  

“They’re trying to get a foothold in the Democratic Party,” said Edie Irons, who is running for a seat on the ACDCC on the Grassroots Progressive (GP) slate in the June 3 election. 

“We’re all really concerned—it’s anxiety-provoking,” said Sumi Parajape, also stumping for a slot on the Central Committee as part of the same slate. LaRouchites have run in the county before with one or two candidates. “There’s never been a full slate of Lyndon LaRouche supporters,” Parajape said. 

Concerns of a half-dozen local Democratic Party activists contacted by the Planet center around the group’s apparent intent to move the committee away from its current activities doing local organizing around concrete issues such as health care and improved working conditions. 

Repeated attempts by the Planet to reach the LaRouche candidates were unsuccessful. 

Irons described the behavior of LaRouchites when they come to the county meetings: “Mostly, they’re pretty quiet in meetings—then they’ll ask a non-sequitor question,” she said.  

Irons talked about her interaction with a member of the Lyndon LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) at a recent Democratic Party state convention.  

“He wound up telling me what we have to do is explore the planet Mars and bring back the space program,” she said.  

Irons described the group at a recent state convention: “It was a large group, all under 30-years-old—a lot of people of color. It was overwhelmingly men. They aggressively passed out literature.” 

And they were singing. 

Douglas MacLean, communications director for Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, observed them singing just outside the convention. “I think they were singing their platform,” he said, “something about FDR, global warming and an international conspiracy.” 

Several persons who have had contact with the LaRouchites said they were exceptionally bright. “He gets smart kids,” said Mark Briggs, who is running for a slot on the committee with the Grassroots Progressives. Briggs said that the LaRouchites talk impressively about international politics—but do so when the discussion is focused around other questions, such as how to build the local party.  

None of the local Democratic Party activists contacted by the Planet felt they knew the purpose of the LaRouchites’ attempted entry into the local party structure. 

“When they speak, it’s like they’re presenting an ideological statement, more like diatribes,” said Howard Egerman, a 14-year member of the ACDCC, describing a meeting held by Rep. Barbara Lee at the Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland: “They kept asking strange questions—and singing,” he said. 

“I’m not able to truly understand what they want to do,” Irons said. “Their weird evangelism is off-putting to me.” 

On the League of Women Voters’ website, LaRouchite candidate Ian Overton has posted a “position paper,” written by Amelia Robinson, of the Schiller Institute, one of the institutions associated with the LaRouche organization. The paper is more of a letter of advice to the six LaRouche candidates: Overton, Jon Stuart (incumbent), Ben Deniston, John Craig, Ramiro Bravo and Oyang Teng. 

In part, it says: “Though this is a seriously messed-up world, with Lyn’s and Helga’s [Lyndon and Helga LaRouche] wisdom and experience you can’t go wrong. You are building the foundation for bigger and better positions (be sure you keep your mind and body clean), so don’t stop keeping your eyes on the prize (President). Above all, keep your hand in the Hand (God’s) of the man who troubles the waters. To get to the top, be kind, patient, and loving, as well as truthful.” 

Another aspect of the group that worries local Democrats is that the LaRouchites apparently get paid for their work in the Democratic Party. 

“The rest of us have regular jobs,” said Howard Egerman, a 14-year member of the ACDCC. He said the question of paid activism came up at a Metropolitan Greater-Oakland Democratic Club candidates’ forum. “The question was, ‘Are you paid?’ They said, ‘yes,’” he said. The statement was confirmed by a second person attending the meeting. 

The purpose of the 40-member ACDCC is to build the Democratic Party at the grass roots—register voters, search out candidates, endorse people running for office and actively campaign for them. 

The LaRouche Democrats do not do the nuts and bolts work of building the party and supporting candidates, Egerman said.  

“I’d like to see someone from our party as governor” and getting good appointments for judges, but “they’re thinking only about Lyndon LaRouche.” Egerman said. 

Lyndon LaRouche, 85, has run for president eight times since 1978, seven times on the Democratic Party ticket. In the 1990s he was convicted of tax and mail fraud and served five years of a 15-year sentence. Researcher and writer Chip Berlet notes that LaRouche claimed he has no income “although he lived in a huge mansion surrounded by armed guards, and regularly jetted around the globe....” (See www.publiceye.org/larouche/truestory.html.) 

Sumi Paranjape, running on the Grassroots Progressive slate, told the Planet that most voters don’t know who is running. They will look at their ballot and all the information they’ll get are names and occupations. 

The cultlike nature of the group is of concern, Egerman said. “The overall goals are tied to one person—Lyndon LaRouche.” 

“Something about them makes you uneasy,” said Rodney Brooks, chief of staff to Supervisor Keith Carson.  

For information from Lyndon LaRouche, see www.larouchepac.com. 

In a move that closely resembled past efforts to thwart cell phone antennas from being located in Berkeley, the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) did not approve a permit for T-Mobile to construct a new wireless telecommunications facility on the roof of an Affordable Housing Associates-owned multistoried building at 1725 University Ave.  

The 4-2 vote in favor of the project was insufficient, with two zoning commissioners abstaining and one commissioner recusing herself from the vote. At least five members of the nine-member board must approve an item to pass it. 

According to zoning staff, the proposed project—which is consistent with the city’s zoning ordinance—will be back at the next zoning meeting to seek an approval. The project included eight cell phone antennas and related equipment. 

At the May 8 ZAB meeting, area residents raised concerns over the project. Zoning staff suggested the possibility of a mediation between Affordable Housing Associates and the residents. 

The city’s Land Use Planning Manager Debbie Sanderson said federal law prohibits cities from considering health impacts of antennas, and added that although federal law did not require it, Berkeley’s zoning ordinance allows local government bodies to consider necessity when it came to approving antennas. 

Zoning commissioner Jesse Arreguin stressed the need for an equitable cell phone policy, stating that there was a predominance of antennas in south and central Berkeley. 

“While the project is in conformation with the requirements of the city’s zoning code, the city needs to have a policy that cell phone antennas are equitably distributed throughout the city,” he said. 

“We ought to be actively defining how to find necessity,” commissioner Sara Shumer said. “What’s the bar? How many phone calls dropped? How many calls not made? To allow the carrier to define what it finds is an unacceptable threshold, and to define what they find is necessary, is to say we do as they say.” 

She said she doubted whether ZAB was the right body to answer those questions.  

“I think probably the City Council ought to be in the business of writing legislation which gives guidelines as to what counts as necessity,” Shumer said. “But I am very disturbed that we are not making any progress on that, which leaves us at the will and whim of telecom companies.” 

Sanderson said the burden of proof was on the zoning board if they decided to deny the project. 

The city’s Planning Commission is looking at a draft Wireless Telecommunications Ordinance, which the City Council has advised should comply with federal law. 

Verizon Wireless filed a lawsuit against the city in federal court last August for allegedly being in violation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, after ZAB and the City Council denied permits to install antennas on top of UC Storage on Shattuck. 

The Telecommunications Act requires cities to grant cell phone companies a permit within a reasonable period of time and allows the carrier to sue for unnecessary delay.  

In November, the City Council decided to allow Verizon to install the antennas, stating that federal law prohibits cities from denying use permits to telecom companies based on health reasons.  

The City Council recently voted against establishing a moratorium on further antenna installations in Berkeley. 

According to the report by RCC Consultants—the firm hired by the city to independently review T-Mobile’s proposal for rooftop antennas—the wireless facility will improve coverage and enhance 911 service. 

“We are acting as if we [the zoning board] or the City Council or the Planning Commission could set their own standards for a burden of necessity that would overrule the federal law,” said Zoning Vice Chair Bob Allen. 

AC Transit bus district directors took their first steps last week toward a possible fare increase this fall, holding a public hearing on the issue May 21 at Oakland City Hall. 

The City Council Chambers were packed with bus riders for the three-hour hearing and, predictably, most spoke out either against any fare increase at all or against fare increases for the riders who might be most adversely affected—the elderly, the disabled, and the youth.  

AC Transit officials say the fare hikes are needed because of rising employee health care and fuel costs, among other expenses. 

Typical of the two-minute statements from more than 50 citizens was one from Eugene Johnson, a retired Oakland homeowner, who said that “AC Transit is becoming more user unfriendly. The rates go up and the service goes down.”  

Complaining that AC Transit had earlier dropped a half-hour off the time in which a bus transfer can be used, Johnson said that the proposed fare increases would cause people to stop taking the bus, adding that “decreasing ridership is no solution.” 

Several citizens accused AC Transit of “mismanagement” in the handling of its finances—citing recent newspaper articles, for example, about the district’s controversial purchase contracts with Van Hool bus manufacturers of Belgium—and said that the district should clean up its finances before asking the public for more money. 

After the citizen testimony, what they said brought a response from Ward 1 Director Joe Wallace of Richmond, who said that he was disappointed to hear the district accused of mishandling its money, saying that “people who accuse us of mismanagement must realize we’re struggling, too. They’re accusing us of mismanagement, but the buses are showing up every day.” 

But for the most part, board members listened quietly to the testimony and made no comment. The board is not scheduled to take any action on a possible fare increase until its June 11 regular meeting, and Board President Chris Peeples said that decision may be pushed back to the June 25 meeting. 

The hearing took only one unexpected turn when, an hour and a half into the public testimony, with citizens still lining up to the microphone to speak, board members took a 30-minute meal break. When one woman complained that she had been at City Hall since 4 p.m., waiting to speak, and “it doesn’t seem fair” for directors to make her wait while they ate, Peeples told her that “if we keep going like this, we’ll never get the chance to take a break, and that’s not an efficient way to listen.” 

The hearing adjourned at 5:50 p.m. and reconvened at 6:20 p.m. 

AC Transit is considering four separate fare increase proposals, with directors having the option of accepting none of them, accepting one, or mixing elements between some of the proposals.  

All four proposals would raise adult fares 25 cents from $1.75 to $2, youth and senior/disabled fares 15 cents from 85 cents to $1, and adult monthly passes from $70 to $80.  

Proposal one, recommended by staff, also raises youth and senior/disabled passes. Proposal two raises youth and senior/ disabled passes by a lesser amount, while proposals three and four keep those passes at their current rates. Proposal three provides free transfers, while proposal four keeps the current 25 cent charge for transfers. 

The difference in the yearly amounts projected to be raised from the four proposals are significant, ranging from $9.3 million for proposal one to $6.5 million for proposal two, $4.5 million for proposal three, and $3.9 million for proposal four.

The Berkeley Sea Scout leader who was arrested in December for the alleged sexual abuse of his charges was hit with still more counts on Friday. 

Eugene Austin Evans, 65, spent the weekend in jail after he was rearrested on newly filed counts of exposing minors to pornography. 

Evans had generated headlines nationally two years ago when the Supreme Court turned down his appeal of a lawsuit he had filed against the city of Berkeley after councilmembers refused to grant his ship a free berth because of the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts of America. 

Deputy District Attorney Susan Torrence said Wednesday that with the new counts, Evans is charged with 18 counts of sexual abuse and displaying pornography to minors. 

The crimes charged include seven victims with offenses going back to 1988, the earliest date allowed under the statute of limitations for sex crimes. 

“There are other victims who would testify, but those offenses go beyond the statute,” Torrence said, with one victim telling investigators that the sexual abuse goes back to the 1970s. 

While Evans was originally charged with 19 counts, some of those counts were consolidated, she said. 

Crimes charged include lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, oral copulation with a minor under age 16, sexual penetration with an object of a minor and commission of sex acts on a youth of 15 by an adult at least 10 years older. 

Evans faces a potential minimum sentence of 30 years if convicted of all charges. 

When charged with the latest counts, Torrence was able to get Evans’s bail raised to a half-million dollars, and as a result, the former scoutmaster—he was expelled from the national organization after his initital arrest—was forced to spend the weekend at the Santa Rita jail. 

“We had asked for a million dollars,” said Torrence. Previous bail had been $190,000. 

“One of his friends posted a property bond,” she said. “He put up his $1.1 million home.” 

The seven victims in the current set of charges were between the ages of 15 and 17 at the time of the alleged offenses, Torrence said. 

Evans has until June 3 to enter pleas on the new charges, and his next scheduled court date is June 20. 

Torrence said she is hoping to reach a settlement on the case so that the victims aren’t forced to testify in open court. 

Evans’s attorney, Philip Schnayerson of Hayward, was unavailable for comment.

Thousands of patient care and service workers for the University of California system announced Friday they plan to strike as soon as June 2 because they feel their wages just don’t cut it.  

Workers who perform tasks such as driving buses, cleaning medical instruments and serving dorm food, voted between Saturday and Thursday this week on whether to strike.  

UCLA nurse Lakesha Harrison said she could not confirm how many of the 20,000 employees voted, but among those who did, 96.6 percent of patient care workers voted yes to a strike and the same with 97.5 percent of service workers.  

Harrison said the UC hospitals made $371 million in profits last year, but workers have not seen the perks.  

She said workers at other hospitals, such as Kaiser Permanente, make an average of 25 percent more in wages than campus workers.  

However, UC Office of the President spokeswoman Nicole Savickas said she was not sure how they came up with that percentage and that the UC proposed market-competitive rates to the patient care workers Thursday night, which would range from a 4 to a 15 percent wage increase depending on the job.  

The patient care workers did not present a counteroffer, Savickas said.  

“We don’t believe anything is going to be accomplished by a strike,’’ she said. “In order to reach agreement we’re going to have to continue to sit down together.’’  

Harrison said the proposals were not enough to compete with peers who work out of the UC system.  

“We didn’t get into our professions to become rich,’’ she said. “What we want from the universities is to bring our workers out of poverty.’’  

UC San Diego service worker Angela Velazquez said she had to get a second job to support her four children because, without it, her income is about $1,800 a month.  

Velazquez said she misses her children and wants to be able to provide for her family with one job.  

“I know what I do is not glamorous but I feel proud to work at UC and provide services for the students,’’ she said. “It is not fair that people doing the same jobs are making more.’’  

The UC system also proposed an increase in wages for service workers Thursday night, but Savickas said since their wages were state funded and there is a shortfall, the UC system could not offer market-competitive wages.  

She said they offered about $6 million in wage increases and a step-based salary structure.  

But again, no counteroffer was made, and Harrison said the strike could begin as early as 10 days and last at least 24 hours.

Berkeley firefighters found themselves facing two structure fires that erupted within minutes of each other Sunday afternoon, reported Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong. 

Both blazes broke out about 2 p.m., with the first call coming from the 270 block of Park Street, where a broken gas line set a car ablaze, with the flames spreading to the structure just before engines arrived. 

“There was minimal structure damage,” said the deputy chief, “and one resident received minor injuries.” 

As one crew of firefighters was knocking down the first blaze, a call brought others to the Pacific School of Religion at 1798 Scenic Ave., where a discarded cigarette had set ivy and other vegetation afire along an outer wall. 

The prompt arrival of firefighters kept the damage to a minimum, said Deputy Chief Dong. 

The masked takeover bandit dubbed “The Lone Gunman” has pulled off at least two more armed robberies in Berkeley, police announced. 

Though Berkeley police officer Andrew Frankel had announced on May 7 the arrest by Oakland police of a “person of interest” in the crime spree, the suspect has pulled off at least four heists in the weeks since, according to a May 22 department crime alert. 

“Takeover bandits” are so named because they invade a business, typically late in the day when cash registers are full, then proceed to rob not only the cash register but any unfortunate customers or clients who happen to be on hand. 

The Lone Gunman’s first known Berkeley robbery happened April 15, when he hit Famous Foam Factory at 2397 San Pablo Ave. The next day came a stickup at Eco Home Improvement, 2619 San Pablo. 

When he struck at Berkeley’s Good Vibrations on the 18th, 30 folks were attending a seminar in the 2504 San Pablo Ave. store. 

Police believe he’s the same masked man who later expanded his operations to strike the Subway sandwich shop at 1105 University Ave., just east of San Pablo, on the 29th and to hit two days later the New Economy Laundry at 3200 Sacramento St. 

Frankel said on May 7 that the robber is also suspected of at least three similar crimes in Oakland, two at adult bookstores and one at a bicycle shop. 

His latest victims include the Radio Shack at 1652 University Ave. on May 12, followed by the robbery of one restaurant—De Afghan Kabob House at 1160 University on May 14—and two cell phone providers, Wave Wireless at 1475 San Pablo on May 16 and Berkeley Wireless at 1955 Ashby on May 20. 

Because of the mask, the police description is vague: “An African-American male, late teens to late 20s, tall, thin build, wearing dark clothing, baseball or other cap, a mask, and armed with a handgun.” 

In the crime alert, police ask anyone spotting the suspect to call 911 immediately—981-5911 from cell phones—and if robbed, to provide the police dispatcher with a suspect description, the direction he took after the robbery and a description of any vehicle he may be using. 

Police also advise business owners to tell employees not to resist and to consider making cash deposits earlier in the day to lessen potential losses. 

Anyone with information on the crimes should call the department’s Robbery Detail at 981-5742. 

Correction: The name of De Afghan Kabob House has been corrected.

The University of California Board of Regents Tuesday signed off on the environmental impact reports on two controversial buildings at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

The finding clears the way—barring an adverse ruling in a pending court case—for a July construction start for facilities that will house the controversial agrofuel program funded by BP, the British oil giant, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center, a Department of Energy facility. 

The lawsuit, now being deliberated by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch, was filed by Berkeley preservationists—including a Daily Planet editor—in yet another legal challenge to university-related building plans. [see www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2007-08-24/article/27856?status=301] 

The regents adopted an earlier environmental review last July that focused on the lab’s Long Range Development Plan, approving a Statement of Overriding Considerations declaring that the impacts of the planned 980,000 square feet of new construction are offset by mitigation measures and the need for new facilities. 

Plaintiffs in that action include Lesley Emmington, a former city landmarks commissioner, Save the Bay co-founder Sylvia McLaughlin, Panoramic Hill Association activist Janice Thomas, Hank Gehman and Anne Wagley, this newspaper’s Arts and Calendar editor. 

Alameda environmental attorney Michael Lozeau is representing the plaintiffs, while Michael H. Zischke of San Francisco is arguing on behalf of the regents. 

“We’re very disappointed that the Committee on Grounds and Buildings decided unanimously in favor of the buildings,” said McLaughlin. “We haven’t regrouped yet.” 

McLaughlin said “I would like to think that a win” in Roesch’s court could halt construction, at least for the moment. The plaintiffs have asked the university to recirculate the Environmental Impact Report on the LRDP, the document under which the two projects are included—though each had a separate EIR. 

Of the two buildings, one, the Helios facility [see http://www.lbl.gov/Community/Helios/documents/index.html], directly overlooks Strawberry Canyon, which environmentalists contend is endangered by the lab’s construction agenda. The second building, the Computational Research and Theory (CRT) Facility [see http://www.lbl. gov/Community/CRT/documents/index.html], lies at the other end of the lab’s 202-acre campus. 

In an earlier session on May 13, regents approved budget increases for both buildings. 

While the Helios building’s budget was originally approved in March 2007, at $159.4 million, regents earlier this month increased the figure to $198.2 million, which includes $70 million from state revenue bonds specially authorized by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Total building costs will run $898 a square foot for the 85,536-square-foot lab and office structure. 

According to the report presented to the regents earlier this month, part of the increase was due to “significantly more problematic conditions” on the building site than had been anticipated, and the rest because of inflating construction costs. 

The CRT facility cost increased by $22.5 million from the originally approved $90.4 million, bring the total cost to $112.9 million, or $652 for each of the structure’s 73,000 square feet. No bond funding is included in the CRT project. 

Construction of the Berkeley Unified School District’s $10 million transportation facility at Sixth Street is scheduled to begin Monday, according to district officials. 

The project, which was unanimously approved by the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board in November 2006, will bring together functions now housed at three different sites in the city and host an office and classroom building, a mechanical shop and a washing station along with 32 slots for bus parking and 37 car spaces. 

The new facility will save the district approximately $450,000 annually, said Berkeley Unified Facilities Director Lew Jones. 

“We are in three locations, all of which are close by,” Jones said. “We are renting a bus yard and a mechanical shop which costs the district between $400,000 to $450,000 every year.” 

Funds for the construction of the new bus depot will come from the facilities bond, said Jones, and it will be ready for use by October 2009. 

Jones told the Planet the classrooms would be used to train bus drivers. 

Some area residents were concerned about increased pollution, noise and traffic, and also the construction of a bus depot on a street Mayor Tom Bates has proposed for increased commercial use. 

District officials said although they had explored alternative sites for the project, the Sixth and Gilman Street site—which the district purchased from a private entity in 2000—was the most suitable. 

Jones said a group of neighbors had expressed concern about the increase in traffic at the ZAB meeting. 

“We are right at the same location now, just across the street,” he said. “There will be very little change, and it will not increase the number of trips. We will notify folks if we have more traffic.”

The Berkeley Unified School District is a step closer to relocating its administrative offices from the seismically unsafe Old City Hall building on 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way to the southwest portion of the West Campus, between Curtis and Browning streets. 

At a meeting today (Thursday) the district will unveil plans to house about 100 employees in three modular buildings in the parking lot of the former Berkeley Adult School, Berkeley Unified spokes-person Mark Coplan said. 

The proposed project comes with an $8,249,106 price tag, with the modulars themselves costing more than $5 million. 

Coplan said that the move will take place as early as 2010 and that the Berkeley Board of Education will weigh options about the future of the original brick building—abandoned for a new adult school a few blocks away on San Pablo Avenue—over the next six to seven years. 

“The architects are trying to save the brick building,” Coplan said. “The cost per square footage of renovating the building is much cheaper than building a new structure.” 

Since the West Campus site was abandoned in 2004, the buildings have suffered minor vandalism and graffiti, Coplan said. The city does its part to maintain the 5.5 acre site along with the school district, he added. 

“It’s tough there’s no regular population,” Coplan said. “The neighbors need to see people there and some activity, and hopefully we’ll be able to take it to the next step.” 

City and school district officials are exploring options to use the new Adult School auditorium for school board, City Council and other commission meetings, Coplan said, since the West Campus was not a feasible location for TV recordings. 

According to a report presented to the school board in January, the district’s planning efforts include the possibility of daylighting Strawberry Creek and constructing a childcare facility at the site.  

West Campus now is the home of a private preschool, which is over an underground creek. 

The district proposes to submit its plans for the West Campus project to the Division of the State Architect for approval, because students will eventually be housed in the pre-K classrooms, instead of to the city of Berkeley, which would have jurisdiction over non-classroom construction. 

Some community members have expressed concerns about the district’s proposed exemption from the City of Berkeley’s planning process. 

According to a report prepared by Baker Vilar Architects—the firm hired by Berkeley Unified to design the modulars—the idea behind the proposed project is to create greater efficiency and collaboration between divisions. 

Community Meeting 

7-8:30 p.m. tonight (Thursday) at the childcare facility (between the swimming pool and main campus). The entrance is on Addison Street between Bonar and Browning.

The curtain went up on the Downtown Area Plan’s second act Wednesday night, with a sharply divided Planning Commission headed for a rewrite. 

Planning Commissioner Dan Marks stood center stage, with the author of his department’s staff rewrite taking notes and offering the occasional comment. 

Commissioners have until early January to prepare their own recommendations, said Principal Planner Matt Taecker, who was hired to guide the planning process. 

Sitting on the commission Wednesday night were five members of the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), which was appointed by the City Council to draft a plan for an expanded downtown area that will house a projected 800,000 square feet of off-campus construction by UC Berkeley. 

After the initial formalities, the meeting opened with a comment by former DAPAC Chair Will Travis endorsing Taecker’s proposed rewrite. “I support both the substance and the approach of the staff recommendations,” he said. 

While Travis was outvoted by his fellow DAPAC members on key votes in the committee, his critique of the plan seems destined to find friendlier ears on the commission, which is chaired by another member of the DAPAC minority, architect James Samuels. 

Samuels and colleagues Harry Pollack, David Stoloff, Susan Wengraf and Victoria Eisen—filling in for an absent Helen Burke—all expressed support for the staff’s approach, Gene Poschman and Patti Dacey were strongly critical, while Roia Ferrazares was more moderate in her critique. The latter three members plus Eisen all served on DAPAC as well. 

While another DAPAC member, Housing Advisory Commission Chair Jesse Arreguin, challenged the staff’s ability to rewrite the plan under the council’s directive to the committee, Marks said the changes fell within the Planning and Development Department’s mandated functions. 

“These are very substantial changes and they change the intent of what DAPAC had adopted,” Arreguin said. “It’s important to maintain that intent, and to try to maintain the consensus.” 

“The details are very important,” said John English, who said “some of the wordsmithing was very good, but some of it is problematic.”  

English, a retired planner, had worked closely with the joint subcommittee formed of DAPAC and Landmarks Preservation Commission members, which hammered out the chapter on historic preservation and urban design. 

“I am really disturbed about some of the perceived conflicts between the two chapters” on preservation, said Wendy Alfsen, a DAPAC member who helped draft the committee’s preservation chapter. 

Marks said that staff wanted commissioners’ comments without any formal action so his department could prepare revised drafts that would come back to commissioners in the fall. 

He said the revisions presented by staff to the commission “tried to maintain the integrity of what DAPAC intended.” But the commission is obligated by city statute to take its own recommendations to the City Council, which must adopt a plan by May 2009 that meets with the university’s requirements. 

The plan was part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by the city challenging the university’s Long Range Development Plan 2020. The city contended the university failed to adequately consider impacts of its planned projects on the city, and the settlement spelled out mitigation payments for some of these impacts and mandated that a new plan be created for adoption by May 2009. 

Marks said DAPAC’s creation will be before the City Council along with the Planning Commission’s recommended version and the staff’s rewrite, which he said was needed because the DAPAC plan was inconsistent in places and didn’t include needed measures to implement its policies. 

“I find myself in a classic double-bind,” said Poschman, because, while he didn’t think the staff’s revising efforts were legitimate and he felt inclined to walk out on the process, “I will participate in an effort to make it as good as I can.” 

It was Dacey who dropped the R-word. 

Should the revisions compromise DAPAC’s intent, she said, then citizens will take the DAPAC plan to the voters in a referendum—increasingly a tool of last resort for critics of local government. 

A referendum on another measure is scheduled for the November general election, when Berkeley voters will decide if they want the city to continue using the existing Landmarks Preservation Ordinance and to reject a substitute passed by the City Council. Other Berkeley advocates have promised a November ballot measure that would challenge AC Transit’s plans to eliminate some traffic lanes on Telegraph Avenue to make way for a Bus Rapid Transit lane that Telegraph merchants and neighbors fear will result in lost business and congested residential streets. 

While commissioners had been slated to work their way through two chapters of the staff’s Downtown Plan draft, by the end of the meeting they’d made their way only halfway through one, the economic development section. 

And it was clear at the end of the day that the process would be neither quick nor painless. 

For more on the DAPAC plan, see www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=832 

The California Department of Education (CDE) has retracted its statement that state school suspension data, which revealed that Berkeley’s Willard Middle School had one of the highest violent-suspension rates in the Bay Area last year, was inaccurate. In an article in the May 22 Planet, CDE information officer Tina Jung told the Planet the suspension data published in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 19 was “incorrect.” Jung said in an e-mail, “We should not have attested that the data used by the [Chronicle] reporter was inaccurate, only that CDE cannot verify its accuracy.” 

If you sometimes read the Planet online (and we hope you do) you will have seen our new experimental web-only feature, The Editor’s Back Fence. It’s a collection of items too small or too silly to dignify with print, and will appear randomly at the executive editor’s pleasure. Of course it has another goal, to motivate readers to check out the really-Daily-online Planet each and every day so that they don’t miss anything. This week I answered a teacher’s complaint that our education reporter didn’t talk to a school principal for a story she did. That’s one of those “thank you for asking” questions, and you can see the full reply online. But it also served the purpose of opening up a larger topic that can’t be addressed too often or too seriously.  

In the 30 or so years since I’ve been doing serious reporting the question of the citizen’s right of access to information about what the government’s up to has been central. The basic provisions of the federal Freedom of Information Act date back to the mid-’60s, when memories of abuses of government authority in the McCarthy era were still fresh.  

Further improvements were made in the mid-’70s, despite Republican vetoes, and it’s been up and down ever since. Many of us enjoyed getting records of government surveillance of our ’60s political activities in the late ’70s, often with humorous details of how the watchers had completely misunderstood what they were seeing.  

Ever since then, the concept of freedom of information has waxed and waned at the federal level. Some states, California being one, have jumped aboard the bandwagon with their own legislation applying to the actions of state government, with varying degrees of effectiveness. A related area is addressed by open meeting laws like California’s Brown Act, which seek to guarantee that citizens can always monitor activities of public bodies and comment on them. 

The value of laws like these in enabling democratic and effective governmental decision-making can’t be over-emphasized. It’s the parallel job of the press to make sure that even when citizens can’t attend all meetings in person or read every government document they will still be informed and active voters. A number of forward-looking California cities, notably San Francisco and Oakland, have taken the concept a step further and extended it to municipal government.  

Berkeley, surprisingly, has lagged way behind the curve—our own Sunshine Ordinance has been on the back burner for more than six years now. An energetic group of self-starters is now working to solve that problem, and, as of a few City Council meetings ago, they’re dragging city officials behind them, kicking and screaming all the way of course. 

Why wouldn’t public officials want citizens to know what they’re up to? That’s a question you probably don’t need me to answer for you, but I have a few suggestions.  

Number one: money. In this issue we have a Public Eye column by a fire-breathing civic activist who’s outraged by the high salaries and big raises public safety employees have managed to snag for themselves. It took a lawsuit by the Contra Costa Times to get information on police pay in Oakland released, but the result is that now it’s pretty widely available there and elsewhere, including Berkeley.  

Number two: embarrassment. Mistakes are made everywhere, but nobody likes to see them publicized. Nevertheless, if the Planet hadn’t learned that toxic dredging spoils were being dumped on sensitive habitat in Aquatic Park, it might still be happening. The California Public Records Act requests we filed made a big difference for our stories, though without citizen tips we wouldn’t have known about it at all. 

The fairly recent practice of inserting oxymoronic Public Information Officers in between government and the press seldom helps information flow. Unfortunately, many who hold these jobs seem to regard themselves as gatekeepers, eager to deliver the good news but to hide the bad.  

With occasional exceptions, getting information out of the Berkeley police has been like pulling teeth ever since the Planet was revived and before. PIOs come and go, but the problem persists. The Los Angeles Times, in a story on the recent killing of a student from southern California, mentioned, as if it were surprising, that they couldn’t get Berkeley police to return their calls. We’re used to it, although some individual PIOs have made more effort than others. 

Individual police officers at crime scenes are strictly forbidden to talk to press or public. This sometimes creates a lot of anxiety, as in last week’s chase of car hijackers through the Claremont District hills, with many police cars from several jurisdictions visible for hours. Concerned citizens often call the Planet in situations like this, but we can seldom tell them much, though we do our best to find out what’s up. Reporters with many years of experience on the crime beat say they’ve never worked anywhere that it was harder to get information from the police than Berkeley. 

Many, though not all, school employees seem to think they’re similarly restricted. We do get lots of enthusiasm about worthwhile projects from school sources, but there’s an understandable tendency to want to sweep problems under the rug. 

What could a Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance add to the provisions of the California Public Records Act and the Brown Act? Both have many loopholes easily exploited by officialdom. At best they’re bare bones, but a tough BSO would put some meat (or tofu, if you prefer) into the mix.  

A couple of examples: An enormous percentage of the information the City Council and commissions needs to make decisions is TBD, To Be Delivered. It’s not online. It’s not in the printed packets sent out ahead of time. Often it’s reviewed hastily during meetings, if at all, by the decision-makers, and it’s not given to the press or to citizens in time for meaningful public input into the decision process beforehand. 

And then there’s the public’s right to have input at the meetings themselves. Rules for how this is to be done have been modified in Berkeley in the past year under threat of a lawsuit because of actual Brown Act violations, but there’s still room for a lot of improvement. There’s a pressing need for rules which are clearly codified and always followed, especially when the moderator is a mayor who is, shall we say delicately, distractible.  

When the citizen committee’s Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance draft is in close-to-final form, we hope to put it up on the Planet’s web site, to give our readers a last chance to add their ideas to the mix. In the meantime, please send us your letters and comments about pressing issues which you’d like to make sure are addressed by the drafters, and we’ll pass them on. Open government is everyone’s responsibility. 

State Senate District 9: Wilma Chan 

Assembly District 14:  

Kriss Worthington 

Proposition 98: No 

Proposition 99: Yes  

Election Day is Tuesday, June 3. Don’t forget to vote!

LAST MINUTE ELECTION UPDATES  

What? You still don't know who to vote for? Even with the editor's endorsements? 

Here are a few tidbits of new information which might help you finally decide. 

Hancock v. Chan (state senate)  

Ignore all the icky mudslinging , theoretically from third parties commonly known as IEs (Independent Expenditures). Both candidates have benefited from these nasty mailers (or suffered from them.) The next reform to the election process should be to regulate this kind of activity, within constitutional limits of course. 

For one last chance to compare the contenders, check out their joint interview on KQED's Forum with Michael Krasny. 

I caught a couple of questionable Hancock statements in my distracted listening to it while doing other things.  

Asked about the possible fourth tube proposed for the Caldecott Tunnel (Orinda is pro, Berkeley mostly con), she waffled. She said she's been meeting with "neighbors", and that there's no money for it anyhow. But, she said, she thought a good "mitigation" would be to build more housing on this side of the hills.  

That's screwy, especially when coupled with the longstanding Hancock/Bates effort to gentrify West Berkeley for the benefit of land speculators. In the discussions she pointed with pride to her effort to spruce up San Pablo from Richmond to Oakland, but said nothing about where service and light manufacturing jobs all along the route would have to go once San Pablo's lined with big-box condos. Auto repair, salvage, upholstery, bakeries—we need them all. Some of them are messy, noisy or smelly, but building more condos with small, ugly and empty retail pods on the first floor isn't the answer. The condo-dwellers will have to work somewhere, and it’s probably going to be an office park in Dublin, through the tunnel. 

Worthington v. Skinner v. Thurmond v. Polakoff (assembly)  

A fragment of a poll was leaked to this space by a not-terribly-reliable source. It's a week or so old. At that time Skinner was ahead by about 7%, with Worthington next and gaining. Thurmond and Polakoff were far behind.  

Since then, however, Thurmond has been endorsed by the corporate press: Dean Singleton's Media News Group megaconglomerate, also known here as the Bay Area News Group ( including the Contra Costa Times, Oakland Trib, San Jose Mercury and the Hills papers, including the Voice, the Montclarion and the Journal) and the Hearst Corporation's San Francisco Chronicle.  

Worthington has been endorsed by the lonely outposts of the independent press, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and the Berkeley Daily Planet. Skinner and Polakoff haven't been endorsed by the press, but she's the designated successor in the Bates/Aroner/Hancock line.  

Will any of this matter? Who knows? Vote Early and Often, as they used to say in Chicago. 

May 27, 2008 

In today's experiment, the executive editor will answer a couple of letters. We've been longing to try this ever since the paper was started. For years letters to the editor and the editor's often sarcastic replies were the centerpiece of the much-enjoyed Anderson Valley Advertiser. The Greater Berkeley Area takes itself more seriously than the Anderson Valley, so what he did there might not work here. But occasionally we get letters that deserve an answer, serious and not-so-serious.  

Here's a serious one: 

I am sick and tired reading about how bad Willard is. Riya has never had anything good to say about us. Instead of investigating the reality here at Willard, she just rehashes old news about our ex-vice principal and reports on faulty data. Had she spoken with our Principal like any reporter worth their weight would do, she would have a more balanced report. But as with the other articles she has written about us, Riya again just publishes inaccuracies.  

I have been teaching here for 9 years and have seen Willard go from a rough school to a diamond in the rough. Report on our increased API scores last year (biggest gain of all middle schools), report on the fact that in a school survey completed by students and parents, 92% felt that Willard is a safe place, report about the fact that we were the only middle school to reach our participation percentages on the standardized testing last year, report on the fact that we don't hide any data about our school - we are an open book and we have nothing to hide. We know we are good, I just wish those who report about us do their job better and stop bashing Willard.  

Sharon Arthur
6th grade teacher.  

I emailed back to Ms. Arthur: The principal refuses to return phone calls. Perhaps you could discuss this with him. The data we published was also in the Chronicle. If the data was faulty, he or anyone is welcome to provide correct data, to us and to the Chronicle.  

But there's much more to say. This case is a good illustration of why Berkeley needs a sunshine ordinance, preferably one which applies to the public schools as well as to the city. Actually, we'd settle for compliance with the California Public Records Act, which is already the law. Riya Bhattacharjee, our education reporter, has gone to great lengths trying unsuccessfully to get accurate data about suspensions at Willard, including a string of CPRA requests which were largely ignored plus many letters and phone calls to all sorts of BUSD officials, also ignored.  

The Chronicle's respected and very experienced education reporter Nanette Asimov had similar problems getting accurate information about what's happening at Willard.. In case you no longer read the Chronicle, here's what she said: 

With 254 incidents, Willard reported one of the highest violent-suspension rates in the Bay Area last year: 1 for every two students, or 54 percent.  

Principal Robert Ithurburn said Willard actually had 177 violence suspensions, a rate of 38 percent. The discrepancy could not be readily explained.  

Either way, Willard's rate far exceeds 5 percent, and Ithurburn said he is working to change a culture of lax supervision.  

It's important to keep good track of what you're doing to know what effect it has. It looks like Willard is suspending lots of kids, but how many and to what effect can't be assessed with no data. 

As regards the departed ex-vice principal, whatever she did or didn't do about suspensions, it's safe to bet that without Bhattacharjee's investigative pieces she'd still be working at Willard. We still don't know exactly why she left so suddenly.  

What's wrong with lots of suspensions? you might ask. As an experienced parent whose three daughters went through Willard, and a grandparent of a current junior high school student in another city, I view suspensions as failures. Whether you're kicking half your kids out of school or only two-fifths of them, when they're not in school they're not learning. And if the parents are working as most are (or are absent, as is the case for all too many students these days) the student is out in the street looking for trouble. 

"Changing a culture of lax supervision" at school, if that's a problem, might be fine, but suspension doesn't solve that one—supervision is not done by students, but by teachers and administrators. And the school my granddaughter attends has almost identical test scores to Willard's when broken down by ethnicity, with a much lower suspension rate. Why is that? 

I answered the question of educators' eternal desire to have only the good news reported in the press long ago, in 2003. Through the magic of the Internet, you can find what I wrote then here. 

Not much seems to have changed. 

And now the less serious answer:  

Dear Editor, 

You comment on the front page of your website, in an article "The Editor's Soapbox," dated May 13, defending your frequency of publication of news, "Friends, there’s new stuff posted on this web site almost every single day: news, opinions both letters and commentary, columnists, you name it, something new every time you turn around..." Today is May 24, and there is not a single article less than ten days old on the front page. There is a "Flash News Update: Man Shot to Death on Durant Avenue" dated May 14. It is embarrassing to call ten day old events "flash news," and even more so to then harass your readers for calling for more frequent updates.  

Scott Fay
Berkeley Resident  

My answer to Mr. Fay: 

You don't seem to be looking at the current issue--perhaps you haven't refreshed your browser?  

I make the same mistake myself sometimes—it's easy to do. You can also hit the "current issue" button near the top left of the online Planet's home page to get the latest articles.  

May 20, 2008 

Every week a new experiment...this week, we're trying out a Web-only column of short items. People send us things that are not serious enough or big enough or current enough for a full-fledged news story or a full-dress editorial essay, but are too good to pass up. And increasingly they send us links to good stuff in other Internet locations which Planet readers would like to see.  

This spot (at least this week) will be where to find short takes on interesting or amusing topics between the Thursday print papers. Of course, we expect our readers to contribute most of the items, just as neighbors in the fabled small towns of yore shared gossip over the back fences. Hence the name. 

At first, we thought we should post these on Mondays, but Monday came and went this week. And why not just post them as they arrive? So that's the plan for this week.  

Our goal is to get our on-line readers to check out the Planet Website each and every day, maybe more than once a day, so that they don't miss anything. And it's not just this column....we have something new online—news and columns too—almost every day now.  

Here's just one juicy little item to get the ball rolling. A reader forwarded this invitation: 

From www.nancyskinnerforassembly.com:  

Wednesday, May 7th from 5:30 to 7pm
Don Yost & John Norheim
along with co-hosts: ... Mark & Erin Rhoades, Ali
Kashani & Ed Church
Invite you to meet and support Nancy Skinner
At the offices of Norheim & Yost
2332 5th St, Berkeley  

Just in case your program doesn't list the names and numbers of all the players: 

Yost and Norheim are the commercial real estate brokers who control most of the listings in beleaguered West Berkeley.  

Mark Rhoades is the former City of Berkeley Director of Current Planning (planning czar), who went through the Planning Department's revolving door to become the business partner of  

Ali Kashani, who was formerly with the non-profit Affordable Housing Associates, but has crossed over to the Dark Side to become an emphatically for-profit developer. 

Mark is also the marital partner of Erin Rhoades, who is also the president of the thinly-camouflaged developers' lobbying group Livable Berkeley. Until Mark left the planning department Erin used her maiden name of Erin Banks in her job with the DCE consulting firm, founded by David Early, which has had a number of lucrative contracts with the City of Berkeley and UC Berkeley. Early was also her predecessor at Livable Berkeley. Presumably Erin used her birth name in an attempt to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest with her husband's job. Caesar's wife, after all, must at least appear to be above suspicion. 

Ed Church is the man behind the attempt to turn the Ashby BART station into a condo-complex, an endeavor which is now on hold because of the huge public outcry which greeted it. No stake has been driven through its heart, or his, however. 

And Nancy Skinner ? She's the anointed candidate of the Bates/Aroner/Hancock organization (never call it a machine, unless you want to get angry letters from old friends) for their successor to the family seat in the California Assembly, and judging from this invitation she also seems to have inherited their developer campaign contributors. Not bad for a beginner. And she's already raised a bundle of money, with more TBD right before the June primary, too late to be reported by the media.  

(Full disclosure: I endorsed Kriss Worthington for the job, long before the B/A/H mantle dropped on Skinner's shoulders.) 

------------------------------------------------ 

Here's a half hour of comedy viewing for the city council junkies among you. The Acting City Attorney and several of the councilmembers skate right up to the precipice of contempt of court as they fool around with ignoring Judge Frank Roesch's order to rescind an earlier bit of foolishness (he called it "abuse of discretion"), granting extra perks to developer Patrick Kennedy for the notorious Gaia building, now owned by equally notorious rent control foe Sam Zell. The CA wanted to tack on a whole bunch of extra stuff that the Judge had not asked for, but plaintiff Patricia Dacey and her attorney Anna DeLeon finally managed to convince the unwilling members that they might go to jail if they carried on as they were. But you do have to watch the whole episode to get the full nuanced comic flavor. Jump the video to item 11 on the agenda. 

-------------------------------------------------- 

Randy Shaw of Beyond Chron has an excellent analysis of who those "angry working class white voters" who say they won't vote for Obama AREN'T. He says he media are afraid to call a racist a racist. 

---Becky O'Malley 

May 13, 2008 

As our Internet experiment ("daily online, weekly in print") moves forward, we’ve encountered a certain amount of guilt-tripping from our friends and neighbors for “deserting” them on Tuesdays. Everyone seems to like getting their weekend paper earlier, on Thursdays, but they whine that they’ve been accustomed to having another little news fix earlier in the week, and they hate to give it up. Friends, there’s new stuff posted on this web site almost every single day: news, opinions both letters and commentary, columnists, you name it, something new every time you turn around. . . Today, check out the surprise announcement of the Mayor's State of the City Address, something we didn't know about when we put the print paper to bed last week.  

Look for the red datelines to alert you to what's new  

The great thing about the Internet, something you just can't do with print, is that we can also direct you to interesting material that there would never be room for in print, or that we would never have time to organize into print even if we had the room. Case in point: the opinion submission from the people who aren't too happy with AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit proposal. Technically sophisticated, they turned in their thoughts as a nicely formatted .pdf (image) file, complete with all those clever indentations and bullets that are a newspaper formatting nightmare. After a little online negotiation, we persuaded them to add an executive summary suitable for print, but we were also able to put their full arguments online in all their organized glory. Online readers can experience this product in our Reader Commentary section today. 

And other media today are full of horror stories of the multiple disasters around the world, leaving our readers wondering what, if anything, they can do to help. With our online presence, we can pass along to you a message we received from a soprano friend now living in Japan, who sent us an appeal she received from a fellow musician who is working at a music school in Yangon (Rangoon) in Myanmar (Burma).  

The teachers and students there are organizing a relief effort to help the hundreds of thousands of people in lowland rural areas affected by the recent cyclone. Their web page www.gitameit.com/wp has been turned into an information site to let people in the outside world know what's going on, and to make it possible for them to donate to worthwhile organizations already operating inside Myanmar.  

The soprano writes from Japan: "As you can see from her website, she is practically ground zero for the recent typhoon and tsunami that hit Burma...I am trying to raise funds through concerts here in Japan; would it be possible for you all to consider a fund-raising concert project to help assist the disaster survivors? You can get information on the foundation (no money-grabbing; I vouch for Kit 110%) from her web-site; all money would go directly to the people of Burma, no ear-marking or deletions." 

The site is well worth a look. It has lots of current news and photos, with a number of buttons that can be used for one-click donations to a variety of responsible groups already doing what they can for the relief effort. You don't even have to organize a concert; just send money. 

Incidentally, the music school itself sounds pretty terrific too. Here's a description from its "about" page: "In Pali and Burmese, 'gita' means music, and 'meit' means friendship. Gitameit Music Center was started in 2003 by pianist Kit Young and colleagues from Myanmar in order to build a supportive community of musicians and audiences locally, and to encourage sustained, meaningful contact with international institutions, teachers and performers. Gitameit Music Center is a non-profit community center and music school in downtown Yangon devoted to music teaching & nurturing, performing, offering exchange possibilities for Burmese students to study abroad, and inviting international artists & teachers for performances and workshops in Yangon."  

Music is one of the best ways of crossing formidable borders. While you have your credit card or checkbook out to donate for cyclone victims, you might give some thought to what the future will be like in Myanmar, and give a bit to encourage Kit's musicians while you're at it. 

And now we come to the audience participation part of this program. On the right side of the page you'll find a simple survey, designed to let us know if anyone's actually reading the new and improved Berkeley Daily Planet on the Web. It won't take a minute, and it will help us understand how we can best serve our readers. 

PARATRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am disabled and have been using Paratransit for the past two years. In many ways it has been a God-send. For $3, I’m able to travel to anywhere in Berkeley or Oakland. Most of the drivers do their job well and are friendly and compassionate. 

My complaints are with management. The pay is too low and the scheduling often makes it impossible for drivers to be on time. It’s hard to be in San Leandro at 3 when your previous pick-up is at 2:45. 

Another serious criticism I have is that the best-conditioned and newest vans unfortunately do not go to the late shift drivers. One week, a driver had to bring back three vans because they mal-functioned. On too many occasions, vehicles have broken down twelve, one o’clock in the morning. At that time, everyone has gone home except the dispatchers. They’re not mechanics. They can’t fix transmissions or engines or anything else. So seriously disabled passengers are left in the lurch. One driver told me that all he could depend on when something went wrong was his wife. “Why would you give someone a good bus who’s coming on at 5 p.m. and has all the help in the world, when the person that’s gotta be out there ‘till 2 o’clock, gets a raggedy bus.” 

It seems a “no-brainer” to provide the late night drivers with the newest and best equipment, like such neighboring cities as Richmond and Hayward do. 

The supervisors of Paratransit have known about this serious problem since the beginning of the year. They have talked about getting new buses but so far nothing has been done. Saving money is a sad excuse for endangering the health, possibly lives of disabled passengers. 

It doesn’t make sense. 

Daniel Rudman 

• 

MORE MEETINGS, MORE PARTICIPATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The 2007 calendar for Berkeley City Council meetings, updated July 5, 2007, indicates that the council’s plans were to meet for 23 evenings in that year. It appears that they took 14 weeks of recess or vacation time in 2007. That leaves 18 additional Tuesdays on which they could have met. In the name of sunshining City Council procedures, 18 more meetings would allow for a more respectful integration of public participation in the democratic process. 

SuperBOLD  

Gene Bernardi 

Jane Welford 

Jim Fisher 

• 

BHS PROTEST 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The picture of Berkeley High School Principal Jim Slemp cajoling his students to street action (and skip classes) made my jaw drop! This is the job of a principal? No wonder the academic scores are so absolutely miserable! 

We accept UC students demonstrating, as a right of passage to adulthood. But young teens have no judgment, and propagandizing them is despicable. We protect minors. We have laws against pedophilia. But what about “pedo-politicking?” Jim Slemp is unfit to lead children! 

This picture eerily recalls photos of Albert Speer striding to inspect his Hitler Youth, and Stalin his Young Pioneers, except that these two were better dressed! 

Juergen Hahn  

• 

NEED A BOND MEASURE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Berkeley’s aging neighborhood pools are now nearing the half-century mark, and the wrinkles are showing. The necessary major repairs and the improvements in energy use and purification systems require an infusion of funds over and above what is currently in the budget. The warm water pool is soon to be demolished. Its absence will be devastating to the disabled who need water therapy, the injured who require rehabilitation, the seniors whose arthritis is debilitating, and the infants and toddlers who need to learn a relationship with water that is safe. 

Berkeley’s swimming pools are maintained by the city’s dedicated and diligent Aquatics Staff. Because of their efforts, many of us maintain our health with lap swimming, masters’ classes and senior water aerobics. Middle school kids learn to swim in P. E. classes. Children of all ages learn to swim and play safely in the water. Some of them move on to join the Berkeley High swim team. 

A city with a shoreline needs facilities (pools) where kids (of all ages) can learn to swim and understand how to survive in water. 

We can prevent drownings. 

I urge the citizens of Berkeley and the City Council to place a bond measure on the November ballot, and to vote for that measure. The City of Berkeley needs to continue to provide pools for swimming and water therapy, as well as for water recreation. Even in economically troubled times, we all need to maintain our health, and kids need to learn to swim. Let’s provide funding for our pools. 

Sally Nelson 

• 

VIOLENCE AGAINST WAR PROTESTERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Two recent incidents of police violence against peaceful war protesters—one to a mother in front of the Berkeley Marine Recruitment Center and another injuring Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin at the Commonwealth Club—need to be addressed. Neither incident occurred after the protester had “crossed the line” so as to interfere with the rights of others: one was bending over a baby carriage, and Ms. Benjamin was yanked out of her chair and thrown out by an off duty police officer simply because he recognized her. Except for Code Pink and those families directly affected by the war, Americans are largely in a state of numbed silence, but let us not be so numb that we allow violence against those few who refuse to give up. 

Tom Miller 

• 

HERRICK ADOLESCENT PSYCH UNIT LOSING ITS TEACHER 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The entire staff at Herrick Hospital is deeply concerned at the possibility that Kathleen Van Sandt, our full-time classroom teacher, may be moved. We are devastated by the letter of reassignment Kathleen has received from the Berkeley Unified School District. We wish for the school district to find an alternative solution. 

We are asking the Berkeley community to support us to this end. We are sending the Berkeley Unified School District a signed petition to urge a reversal of any decision to move Kathleen Van Sandt.  

We have listed a number of crucial points:  

• Kathleen has developed a comprehensive and engaging curriculum to support the hospitalized students served at Herrick. 

• Kathleen averages between 17 to 20 students daily. Students in day treatment and hospitalized students are able to continue their education. Independent study is offered as well. 

• A typical primary teacher in Berkeley has a top class size of 20 students.  

• Kathleen generates the same ADA (average daily attendance) monies that a K-3 teacher would generate.  

• The hospital census on the adolescent unit continues to fluctuate. However, our excellent physicians are actively seeking to increase the number of adolescent patients needing treatment.  

• Her personality and teaching style mesh remarkably well with the students and staff at Herrick. The students adore her. She brings multicultural awareness, scientific inquiry and Shakespearian language to our classroom. 

• The classroom has a long history of teachers with varying degrees of success. Kathleen has been the most successful. The classroom environment is enriched with technology, art and literature. 

• Herrick’s classroom has enjoyed a delightful renaissance since Kathleen’s arrival in 2005.  

Alta Bates-Summit is a major donor to the Berkeley Public Education Foundation. Herrick Hospital is a major community entity in Berkeley and supports the Berkeley Schools. We are asking for their support in return.  

We insist that Kathleen be permitted to remain in her present position at Herrick, until the hospital moves to Oakland in 2012. She is, in essence, irreplaceable. 

Please voice your opposition by contacting Bill Hyatt, the new Berkeley Unified School District superintendent at 644-6147 and/or Associate Superintendent of Educational Services Neil Smith at 644-6257. 

Contact Information for the BUSD Board of Directors: boardofed@berkeley.k12.ca.us will send your message to all of the board. 

Voicemail: 644-6550. 

Bart Foley 

Mental Health Specialist 

Herrick Hospital 

• 

U-SAVE MARKET 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks for the nice commemoration of the old U-Save Market. Another thing to mention, of interest to curious students who know there’s no source of all-night groceries within the city of Berkeley, is that the U-Save was 24 hours. Circa 1967, a co-owner and I had one of the first lunch carts at Sather Gate (brown rice and vegetables, another whole story) and we did all our shopping at Tay’s Produce, a concession inside the store. The late “Uncle Tay” was a fine and friendly greengrocer who sold us everything we needed in the way of reasonably-priced vegetables for our cooking in the early morning hours to be ready for lunch at 11 a.m. While it’ll be good to have a TJ’s in Berkeley (perhaps ideally not in that location), much of the chain’s produce is wrapped and packaged; Tay’s legacy of fresh fruits and vegetables is carried forward by his relatives at the long-lived Monterey Market, Berkeley’s friendliest and most reasonable produce shop. 

Sandy Rothman 

• 

PROGRESSIVE MEDIA 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It was a little startling to read Matthew Lasar’s rant against the Daily Planet in last week’s edition. I always thought Berkeley was a place that valued dissent, not one that implored newspapers to censor criticism. I am a member of KPFA’s board and hopefully not one of those described as “wanting power and pandering,” but regardless, his point is not well-taken. 

KPFA’s premiums are pretty darned expensive, ranging from $60-$120. I understand why, costs are always going up, and financial times are tough. For those who can afford to subsidize a voice for the voiceless at that rate, four times a year, that’s wonderful. God bless you and keep it up. You’re making an important contribution. But we all know not everybody can afford it. Nor does everybody have a fast, powerful computer that can handle fat audio streams. So if you’re really trying to get voices out to places that don’t have a lot of resources, the FM band is important, as are CDs you can toss into any $25 boom box. 

So Phelp’s point about making timely (not three-year-old) material accessible via the radio band is reasonable. It deserves consideration. There’s nothing distorted or incendiary about it. 

Fundraising is always a challenge. How do you do it so it blends with your mission and doesn’t detract from it? It’s a tough question. No easy answers. 

But its very dispiriting to see genuine questions about how money is gotten, the digital divide and class in American society greeted with such defensiveness. And such begging the question. 

It contributes to an atmosphere of slinging op-eds when we need to do better than that in order to meet the challenges. I don’t want to see KPFA staff “forced” to author combative op-eds. I don’t think that’s their job. I think its their job to acknowledge fair criticism, and try to work out solutions. I think it’s the job of the Planet to provide a forum for points of view to be aired and rationally discussed. And its the job of the stations community to engage with hard questions and try to figure how we want our local, listener-sponsored media to interact with us: those of us with the resources and those of us without. So we can get the maximum bang for the buck out of the progressive media we have left. 

Tracy Rosenberg 

Managing Director, Media Alliance 

KPFA Local Board Member 

Oakland 

• 

BRT AND THE N-JUDAH — BE AWAKE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to those who are holding up the N Judah light rail line in San Francisco as a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) style model for Telegraph, I have something to say. I grew up right next to the N Judah line in the Sunset District where it uses dedicated lanes on a slightly raised track bed. But it is not necessary to be as intimately familiar with the N Judah as I am to understand why it works there. Along it’s dedicated section (from Ninth Avenue to 48th Avenue), Judah is mirrored two blocks away by Lincoln Avenue, which is a four-lane major artery and an excellent example of a close parallel redundancy. When they made the N Judah tracks bed dedicated lanes, the majority of Judah traffic merely switched to nearby Lincoln Avenue. Today, a relative minority of cars use Judah here because it is so slow. The point is that Telegraph does not have a close parallel redundancy like Judah. There is nowhere else for the cars to go. This makes it clear to me that AC Transit does not appear to understand or is plain out not telling the truth about how traffic works in Berkeley when they predict that traffic congestion increases would be “not that bad” if BRT went in. As 

for the notion that people will switch from driving to buses because of the speed of the bus, can’t we please start thinking about the real reasons that people don’t take buses? I am on my knees begging. 

Joseph Stubbs 

• 

SENATOR CLINTON FOR VICE PRESIDENT? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As the contest for the Democratic party’s nominee for the next president seems more and more likely to go to Senator Obama, the issue of whether Senator Clinton should seek the vice presidency becomes increasingly interesting. 

No one doubts Senator Clinton’s sincere desire to be our president. Would becoming vice president help her chances?  

Historically, a number of vice presidents have, of course, become our president or made a strong run for the presidency. 

Most recently, the first President Bush was VP under President Reagan. President Reagan was shot by a would-be assassin in 1981 and survived. GHW Bush was later elected in his own right and became President in 1989 after Reagan had served two full terms in office.  

Gerald Ford was President Nixon’s VP and became president in 1974 when Nixon resigned after Watergate. 

Hubert Humphrey was President Johnson’s VP and made a strong but losing run for the presidency in 1968. (Johnson had declined to run for a second term because of the Vietnam War.) Humphrey was only .7 percent behind the winner in the popular vote count. 

Richard Nixon had been VP under President Eisenhower but lost when he ran for president himself in 1960. He ran again and won the presidency in 1968. 

President Johnson had been VP under President Kennedy and became president in 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated. 

In the last 45 years, four prior vice presidents have become president: two were elected in their own right, one succeeded a resigning president, and one after an assassination. And one VP (Humphrey) came quite close to being elected. 

In the same time period, no senator who ran for president was elected. But four governors became president (GW Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter). 

While none of the above predicts the future, such considerations might have some weight in the thinking of a senator who seeks the presidency but who may be denied the nomination for president. 

Senator Clinton would only be 61 in 2009 and would still be young enough to be a serious contender after either four or eight years of an Obama presidency.  

On the Obama side, what qualities do presidents tend to look for in a vice president? Two such qualities may be loyalty and competence. If Senator Clinton can demonstrate those qualities in her dealings with Senator Obama, her chances of reaching the presidency through becoming vice president may increase. 

Brad Belden 

• 

BERKELEY HYPOCRITES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Have you seen the bumper stickers “Stop the Aerial Spraying,” placed mere inches away from the cars’ toxic exhaust? We don’t know if the synthetic pheromones from aerial spraying are harmful, but we definitely know that the carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulates, and nitric oxides spewed by automobile drivers kill tens of thousands every year. I trust that spraying opponents Robert Lieber and Dick Andre, writing in the Planet, will tell us how many years ago they gave up emitting aerial toxins from their personal transportation choices. 

Then there are the locals protesting the impact of immigration raids on Berkeley High, even though the agents never set foot on school property. Wait a minute. Aren’t these the same folks who want to spend more and more money on education while they ignore that the flood of immigration has overwhelmed California’s schools, destroyed the fine educational system we once had, and created the problems they want to spend money to fix? 

Berkeley hypocrites. Don’t you love them? 

Mark Johnson 

• 

UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On May 27 a special teleconferenced public meeting of the UC Regents’ Committee on Grounds and Buildings was held in Oakland, to receive public comment and to vote on two big building development projects proposed to be constructed up on the steep hillsides of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and on the north side of Strawberry Canyon. The regents’ committee received considerable public comment, all requesting that these two projects be built elsewhere nearby, where there would be far less environmental damage, earthquake safety hazards and traffic congestion problems. However, after very little discussion among the regents themselves, they voted unanimously for the immediate approval of both projects. 

Edward Denton, the UC campus vice chancellor for planning, design and construction, stated on May 27 something to the effect that the proposed building sites are more than a half-mile away from the Hayward Fault. If he’s doing his job, then he had to know that assertion is false. Back in 1975, when I was the principal engineer in the campus Office of Architects and Engineers, we retained Civil Engineer B. J. Lennert, working conjunction with geology Professor Garniss Curtis, to trace the Hayward Fault. He traced it right through UC property, between LBNL and the campus. Dr. Curtis recently wrote the following admonition: “No! Major buildings of any kind should not be built in either of these canyons (Strawberry or Blackberry Canyons) bordering this huge block of unstable rock.” 

Many of the regents appear to be influential people, whose concern seems primarily biased in favor of private financial interests, with little concern for environmental problems and public safety. The Helios project, proposed to be located on the edge of Strawberry Canyon, is primarily funded by foreign oil money, BP (formerly British Petroleum), at an estimated half billion dollars, to do yet poorly defined research. As public support for university sponsored research dries up, the trend is to shift to corporate support. This clearly compromises the integrity of the research and the scholarship of the university. 

In my opinion the Tuesday meeting of the regents committee was a sham. I suspect the approval of these two big projects was privately discussed and decided well before the public meeting. Nonetheless they had to conduct a public meeting, to be in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The regents’ action is now on a 30-day hold pending their publication of the May 27 meeting minutes. Now is the time to pursue legal opposition to the proposed LBNL locations for these projects. 

John R. Shively 

Oakland

MISINFORMATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to set the record straight on the misinformation that has been circulating on these pages regarding Berkeley Bowl’s use permit. The characterization that the City Council had the option to place a requirement on Berkeley Bowl’s use permit to give workers the ability to achieve union representation is simply false. The assertion that the council or community members who supported the rights of workers to unionize argued against such conditions or voted no on Berkeley Bowl’s permit is also flat-out false. At the council meeting when the Berkeley Bowl’s land use permit was discussed, many councilmembers and community members like Nancy Skinner spoke during public comment and favored conditioning the Berkeley Bowl’s use permit to benefit workers. 

However, City of Berkeley legal staff ruled that the council did not have the legal right to add such conditions to a land use permit. As a result, the council discussed introducing a separate resolution urging the Berkeley Bowl ownership to honor their employees’ right to representation and to pursue an expeditious and open process. 

On the first action—the council’s vote on the land use permit—Councilmember Kriss Worthington, as well as two other councilmembers, abstained. No councilmembers voted no on the Berkeley Bowl’s use permit. The second action—urging the Berkeley Bowl ownership to pursue an expeditious and open process for employee representation—was not even considered on the night of the permit vote. I submitted it along with councilmembers Capitelli, Anderson and Worthington, and it was voted on at a council meeting a few weeks later. The City of Berkeley did not provide any funding or subsidy to the Berkeley Bowl. Had the city provided public monies to the proposed West Berkeley Bowl, we could have put a condition on such funds that the Berkeley Bowl ownership refrain from any anti-labor actions. The fact that the only action we took was the granting of a land use permit is what prevented us from legally placing such conditions. 

Nancy Skinner spoke before the council on the night we voted on the land use permit. In her comments, Nancy decried the Berkeley Bowl owners’ anti-labor actions and expressed support for requiring such conditions. Referring to the city staff’s ruling, Nancy acknowledged that it appeared the council did not have the legal right to put such conditions on the land use permit. She went on to express that it would be necessary that she, councilmembers and supporters throughout the community would have to once again join with the workers to ensure that employees at the new Berkeley Bowl could achieve collective bargaining rights without harassment. None of Nancy’s comments to the council were in opposition to the mandating of labor friendly conditions on the use permit which I and other councilmembers, had we been legally able to, would have gladly supported. 

Darryl Moore 

Berkeley City Councilmember, District 2 

• 

IN LOVE WITH KRISS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I cannot remember the first time I fell in love with Kriss Worthington, who we know is running for the state Assembly. Of course, I am one of the many who knows the goodness of his soul for he is not only the most humble man I have ever known, but I could go on and on—protector of the poor, the needy, the disabled, women the workers, and artists. Please vote for him on June 3. 

Diane Villanueva 

• 

NO ON WORTHINGTON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to urge voters on Tuesday vote against Kriss Worthington. Worthington votes for the current configuration of Marin Avenue a couple of years ago. 

This is an attempt by Berkeley’s bicycle coalition, or Bike Reich, along with brigands in the City of Albany to deprive residents of North Berkeley two lanes of traffic. No matter what you think of the outcome, the procedure reeked of arrogance, with this noisy minority believing in their ordination to make policy for everyone else. Worthington supports this and deserves punishment and denial of higher office. 

Frederick O. Hebert 

• 

HANCOCK’S RECORD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Loni Hancock writes many great-sounding bills—thirty-two—but passes few—six. 

She gets great publicity for good bills she writes, but little follow-up on those that fail, those she pulls ( ex: universities and their communities), and those she fumbles (ex: aerial spray). 

Merrilie Mitchell 

• 

BRT AND ARTICULATED BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I cannot possibly be the only one to observe, day after day, the extent to which AC Transit has flooded some routes with numbers of buses, increasingly the massive articulated buses, often traveling in tandem, sometimes side-by-side on our major thoroughfares. I see these buses daily from my office on Telegraph Avenue and frequently try to count the number of passengers and often see totally empty buses following other totally empty buses. Comparatively few buses are even moderately full, even during so-called commute hours, and often empty or nearly so at mid-day, when demand is at its lowest level. Often these buses are traveling at higher speeds than necessary and have become an increased danger to bicyclists and pedestrians crossing the wider thoroughfares. 

Is there some conspiracy by AC Transit to make Berkeley residents so accustomed to this greatly increased bus traffic that the creation of special bus lanes will seem to be a relief? Why is it necessary to have such large buses? And where are the statistics to show that they are needed now, let alone in the future, even if there were reduced automobile lanes of traffic?  

It seems to me the entire BRT plan and the purchase of large numbers of super-sized buses is simply a case of needing to find a way to spend the grant monies being offered for mass transit programs. There must be better alternatives. 

I always thought AC Transit was a well-managed public transportation system. I am no longer convinced this is the case. 

Michael Yovino-Young 

• 

CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Is it only me? Page 11 or your much-appreciated print edition is a destination reminiscent of the 13th floor of the Hilton: I just can’t get there! Forty inches of J.DA-T, with the inevitable “remains to be seen” hook, stands in stark contrast to your team’s many serious efforts at news and opinion—a figurative barbershop amid a small town mall for the mind. Weekly, I am delighted at the opportunity to cultivate an appreciation for the perpetually underpowered “UnderCurrents” column. Weekly. And not unlike Sisyphus. 

Lured again Thursday, hopeful for a perspective on the local struggle for safe neighborhoods and sane neighbors, albeit tempered by election-year finger-pointing and modest multi-level marketing propositions from a self-serving city hall, I was neither prepared for a treatise on the number “803” nor an encore of the previous week’s hit “50.” Fine vehicles they may be, but surely now better served by a graphic or a few choice bullet points, no? And, hmm, when will Allen-Taylor cease tagging the weaker artistry of Chip and Phil? Inquiring minds want to know. 

But imagine my frustration, teased mid-column by references to Measure Y street-level intervention, community-based re-entry, youthful diversion, and mayhem prevention programs—“solid, and defensible” he smoothly opined—to find the pathetic escape, “needs some time to jell.” This, after a full week of local headlines about one of Mayor Dellums’ test cases: a recent homicide long employed City-side and oft-diverted from criminal prosecution? Oh, Jesse, you leave me so unsatisfied! 

Jay Tharp 

• 

SHIFT BURDEN OF CELL TOWERS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In “South Berkeley Cell Antenna Dispute” ( May 29) Michael Barglow writes that “In many cities, high wattage antennas which face directly into lower income neighborhoods often serve high income neighborhoods much further away.” This dynamic is playing itself out right now in Kensington, where wealthy and politically connected residents have mobilized dramatically to block an antenna proposed above Colusa Circle. 

I urge city and county planners to step into the role of antenna planning, defining multiple sites based on objective criteria (such as equity, height, aesthetics, coverage, and distance from occupied building floors). These sites then need to become veto-proof, so that politically savvy neighborhoods can’t shift the burden. As Mr. Barglow states, having many smaller tower sites reduces the peak radio power needed to provide vitally beneficial cellular services. Excellent antenna sites, like the unoccupied top floors of a storage building, mausoleum, or utility building should be identified and cataloged. 

Every cell phone user should be willing to accept some of the burden providing cell service requires. Antennas must be close to cell phone users. And only governments can effectively ensure the burden is shared. 

Bryce Nesbitt 

Kensington 

• 

SPOTTY SERVICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I’m tired of spotty cell phone service in Berkeley. I understand people are complaining that cell phone towers are disproportionately placed in poor areas. I live in North Berkeley, in the hills. If any major cell provider would like to erect a tower on my house, please let me know. 

Russ Mitchell  

• 

ANTENNAS IN GOURMET GHETTO 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am sending this letter to let the people in North Berkeley know that there are plans to install so many cell phone antennas in Gourmet Ghetto and vicinity. There are already three antennas on the roof of Barney’s Restaurant at 1600 Shattuck disguised as chimneys. They are operating for more than three years. Four antennas were installed recently on the roof of the building at 2095 Rose St. (at Shattuck). They are across from the Jewish Community Center. 

There are plans to put 12 antennas on the French Hotel and eight with seven pieces of related equipment on the roof of the building at 1625 Shattuck, next to the parking lot of Elephant Pharmacy. So, within three to four blocks in North Berkeley, there will be a concentration of 27 seven antennas and many corresponding equipments. This is too many for such a small area. As many in Berkeley argue now: (a) there should be a moratorium on the installation of wireless facilities till a workable ordinance is put together; (b) antennas should be spread evenly in all neighborhoods. 

Mina Davenport 

• 

TORTURING THE FACTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Nobody should be fooled by Doug Buckwald’s latest attempt attempt to torture the facts. Mr. Buckwald thinks the tree-spassers are “a visible example of the concern that many in our community feel about the fate of this special natural place.” This ignores two undeniable facts. First, a handful of noisy hippies does not comprise “many” in our community. Second, the oak grove is an artificial creation of the university—not nature—as the trees were planted when Memorial Stadium was built. 

Next, Mr. Buckwald claims that the judge issued a preliminary injunction because she believed that the leftist Armada (including the turncoat mayor) was “likely to prevail in a hearing.” Not true. The standard is a “likelihood”—not “likely.” Given the fact that the “harm” sought to be prevented could not be undone absent the issuance of an injunction, I was not surprised to see Judge Miller issue the injunction. I would, however, be quite surprised to see her rule in the extortionists’ favor. 

Mr. Buckwald further exposes his ignorance of the law by arguing that “it is long past time for the university to agree to obey our city laws.” Why? A city is, by definition, subordinate to the state. Under Mr. Buckwald’s view of the law, the City of Topeka’s policy of separate but equal would have trumped federal law. Of course, zealots usually ignore the hypocrisy of their positions so I can’t say I’m surprised. The City of Berkeley has no authority to regulate the State of California. Case closed. 

Finally, Mr. Buckwald calls the trees a “special urban woodland.” Once again I have to wonder whether this self-proclaimed Cal fan has ever been to Memorial Stadium. This isn’t Muir Woods—we’re talking about a handful of trees lining a street. As for it being an “irreplaceable natural resource for the entire city,” I suspect the university’s plan to plant three trees for every one that is removed will create a better and equally natural make-believe “forest” for people to ignore in the future. And as for the “good of our children,” I guess that “our” doesn’t include the parents of our athletes who are forced to use seismically unsafe facilities because curmudgeons like Doug Buckwald and Tom Bates continue to use the courts in their dastardly attempt to thwart progress at Cal. To paraphrase one of Berkeley’s favorite presidents: Mr. Buckwald, cut down those trees! 

Jeff Ogar 

• 

A BAD GAMBLE 

Editors, Daily Planet:  

You’ve got to hand it to the governor: Just as the public began calling for raising personal and corporate income taxes to close the budget gap, Schwarzenegger came up with a truly madcap scheme instead. If he has his way, Wall Street will loan us $15 billion to expand the state lottery. The increased profits, if they materialize, will go into the general fund and into the pockets of our Wall Street saviors. As usual, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer with every lottery ticket they buy.  

There are dozens of fair and sensible ways of closing the $17 billion budget shortfall. Here are three: First, impose an oil severance tax on the production of crude oil. We’re the only oil-producing state that doesn’t do so and, at the modest rate of 6 percent (compared to 12 percent in Alaska and Louisiana), such a tax would generate a billion dollars in new revenue. As crude oil prices continue to soar in the years ahead, the state will reap even an even bigger windfall.  

ExxonMobil posted the highest profits in industry history last year to the tune of $40.6 billion, roughly the same as the gross domestic product for Serbia. I think this company and its peers can spare a bit of their loot without suffering too terribly. 

Next, legislators should raise the current 9.3 percent tax rate on the richest one percent of taxpayers (couples with joint incomes above $544,460 a year) to 11 percent and increase the rate on joint filers earning more than $272,230 to 10 percent. This adjustment would generate $5.3 billion in new revenue the first year and $4 billion in subsequent years, according to the California Tax Reform Association. Assemblywoman Loni Hancock has introduced a bill (AB 2987) that would do just that, generating in one fell swoop three times the revenue of the state lottery. 

Finally, if we really want to free up some cash, we can cancel the $15 billion prison expansion bill passed last year. On the other hand, if we keep cutting social services and education programs, we’ll need those 53,000 new prison beds to warehouse all the poorly educated, unemployed folks who resort to crime and substance abuse to cope with their position on the margins of society.  

There are plenty of ways to shore up the budget. If only we had a governor with the courage to make the rich and powerful pay their share instead of pretending that California can gamble its way to fiscal security. 

Erica Etelson 

• 

AN INSPIRING BUS RIDE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to commend the teenagers and two teachers on the 88 bus today, May 30. They were going from a school on Alcatraz Avenue to St. Joseph the Worker to do community service and help clean it up. I’m writing this because there are so many negative things said and thought about that age of young adults. To my and other passengers delight they were respectful and relatively quiet on the bus. There were 35-40 kids and two teachers. I thought, oh no, when I first saw them get on, but by the end of the trip my spirits were lifted up. One boy helped an elderly woman when she got off! 

Please print this so they might see it. I had a happy day because of them and their teachers. 

Ellen Levin 

Oakland 

• 

‘PUTTING’ THE RECORD STRAIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

President Bush, at the Alpine height of hypocrisy, has abjured playing golf out of consideration for our dieing and dead men and women in Iraq. This is Bush’s claim to empathy. Rumor hath it that Bush’s golf scores have been embarrassingly high lately. Need we say more? He kills two birdies with one stone. The record needs “putting” straight.  

Robert Blau 

• 

RESTORING FDR’S POLICIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In reading Judith Scherr’s article (“LaRouchites Try for a Foothold in County,” May 30), I couldn’t help but be puzzled by the apparent inability of “local Democratic Party activists” to understand my own and fellow LaRouche organizers’ “attempted entry into the local party structure.” As the name of our Franklin Roosevelt Legacy campaign slate clearly indicates, and as we have repeatedly stated in campaign leaflets and at public events, we are seeking to restore the policies of FDR within the Democratic Party. This includes a revival of the historic grassroots coalition of “forgotten men” and women, farm and industrial labor, minorities—and youth. Each of us running have demonstrated this political commitment, through our campaign to stop the Recall of Gov. Davis; our persistent organizing from 2003-2007 for the impeachment of Dick Cheney; our successful mobilization to stop the privatization of Social Security; our role in organizing campus youth to deliver a Democratic landslide in the 2006 midterm elections; and our recent efforts to organize grassroots support for a proposed Homeowners and Bank Protection Act, to freeze foreclosures and reorganize the chartered banking system. 

Because these are national issues, we have been accused of not doing “the nuts and bolts work of building the party and supporting the candidates.” But just what exactly constitutes the “nuts and bolts” of the Democratic Party, if not to fight—at all levels—on the issues that define the livelihoods of the majority of our citizens? 

Perhaps more to the point of why this article was even written, is that the very policies named above are opposed by a corrupted Democratic leadership that has acted against the will of its own base, while serving powerful financial interests like investment bankers George Soros and Felix Rohatyn. It is a leadership—under the disastrous Nancy Pelosi—that has squashed the prospect of impeachment, and therefore any serious action to end the war policy of the current administration. It is a leadership responsible for near criminal negligence in failing to address the very economic survival of the population, as we face the worst foreclosure and banking crisis (compounded now by a worldwide food shortage) since the Great Depression. 

The Democratic Party will not survive unless it returns to the basic commitment embodied by FDR’s policies on behalf of the “forgotten man.” Those who see our candidacy as a threat—as “anxiety-provoking”—either fail to comprehend this basic fact, or do not share that commitment. 

Oyang Teng, Candidate, Alameda County Democratic Central Committee, 16th Assembly District,  

along with Ian Overton, Jon Stuart, Ramiro Bravo, John Craig, and Ben Deniston 

Oakland 

• 

GUERILLA PLANTING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I hope Joann Conrad and the BCC Urban Anthropology Class have followed up their guerilla planting at Hearst and West by notifying Berkeley’s Department of Public Works of the planting, or better yet, asking the helpful neighbors to notify them. A friend of mine worked hard to plant and maintain an area of native plants at her child’s school only to come one day and find that a maintenance crew had mowed them down, thinking they were weeds. 

Otherwise, great story! 

Nancy Schimmel 

• 

AQUATIC PARK WATERFALLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Aquatic Park is a lovely albeit noisy place, nestled between freeway and railroad tracks. There are actually three bodies of water. The main body is long and is home to waterfowl, rowers, water-skiers, walkers, runners, and the odd homeless person. The two “upper” ponds are smelly wrecks. What all three ponds need is fresh water and just down the (rail) road is a great source. 

EBMUD’s water treatment plant is situated about a mile south, between the railroad tracks and the southbound Nimitz (is it still called that?). It discharges, according to its website, 80 million gallons of treated wastewater into San Francisco Bay every day.  

Why not use that (waste) water for purposes of clarification and beautification? Why not extend a mile of pipe north to the southernmost pond? The water could be discharged into the pond using whatever pressure the plant can supply. From pond one, solar-powered pumps could discharge the water over or under the highway on-ramp to northbound 80 into pond number two. Another set of pumps could move the water into the large pond.  

I know there will be objections to treated wastewater. However, not too many people, water skiers excepted, expose themselves directly to the water in any of the ponds. If there are other objections, please feel free to state them (nicely, please!). 

Waterfalls don’t have to be expensive or fancy. They can be made of rough cement–the point is to have falling water, both to look at and to hear.  

I haven’t heard too much recently about the “Living Wall.” Maybe a beautification project with waterfalls could jump-start that issue again. Maybe we could also let the state build its version, then we could build our version right behind it. A sound wall for the freeway and a living wall for the lakeside. 

Aquatic Park needs work. We have the water resource to make it better. Maybe a nice financial agreement between EBMUD, the city of Berkeley, and the state of California could provide us with some relief to smelly, murky ponds, livening up an underused area. 

Jack Jackson 

• 

LIES AND DEATH 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men” are sometimes brought to light. From the start of his presidency George W. Bush thought that if he could take the nation to war he would achieve greatness and a lasting legacy. 

Now, former press secretary Scott McClellan’s tell-all book, says that the president and his cadre misled the nation into war through a process of deception and propaganda. 

Each president is remembered for something; Richard Nixon was, Bill Clinton will be. George Bush will be remembered for lies and the death of untold numbers of human beings. Not a pretty legacy. 

If the pall that President George W. Bush has cast upon the world isn’t crimes against humanity, what is? When do they convene the International Criminal Court in the Hague? 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley 

• 

HOW PROFESSORS FIGHT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This week, Dr. Marilyn Dudley-Flores of Petaluma of Petaluma began Human Terrain Team training at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. After a month there, she will go to one of three other bases for an additional three months of training, then she will deploy either to Iraq or Afghanistan. When she was accepted into the program, I submitted my application, hopefully to share the danger and to watch her back, so I am still waiting on acceptance. I should hear one way or another in a few weeks, with a reporting date in late June. We have been advised to be prepared to move with the troops in 120-degree heat and wearing 40 pounds of “full battle rattle,” including a sidearm. In our mid-50s, we are going to war alongside soldiers one-third our age. 

Having successively lost several academic positions on North Bay campuses during the past few years, the Human Terrain Team program was Marilyn’s last, best opportunity. It is not what she would prefer; rather, it is an indictment of the deterioration of the American post-secondary education system and the militarization of the American economy. But, given the situation, and having served in the 1970s under Lieutenant Colonel Norman Schwarzkopf as the U.S. Army’s first female infantry soldier trained for arctic and mountain combat, she will do what she must. Her old unit, the 172nd Arctic Light Infantry Brigade, regularly deploys to Iraq as the 172nd Stryker Brigade. 

On the morning of 2 July 1863, brigade commander Colonel Strong Vincent inspected the position of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment on Little Round Top, south of Gettysburg, Penn. He explained to regimental commander Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, who had been a professor of rhetoric before the Civil War, that his position was the southern end of the Union line, to be held at all cost, for to lose this position would be to lose the battle, and probably the war. “Now we’ll see how professors fight.” 

Thomas Gangale 

Petaluma 

A DISAPPOINTED PROGRESSIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I found David Blake’s recent articles in the Planet on the performance of Berkeley’s mayor profoundly disturbing. Mr. Blake’s commentary presents a sad, but apparently true, tale of co-option and betrayal of progressive principles which have been the hallmark of Berkeley politics for decades. 

As evidence, Mr. Blake points to the mayor’s role in sabotaging the right of workers to form a union at the new Berkeley Bowl; his support for neighborhood-busting zoning changes; his futile attempt to oust the two most progressive members of the Berkeley City Council; his hijacking of a desirable sunshine ordinance; and generally selling out the city to well-financed developers. 

These are serious charges, but Mr. Blake could have easily added the fact that Mayor Bates has now chosen to oppose the progressive candidacy of Kriss Worthington for the state Assembly in the 14th District by supporting another candidate. Kriss Worthington is easily the most progressive candidate in that race and has ably represented Berkeley’s progressive community as a member of the City Council. (Worthington’s impressive credentials are aptly described in the excellent article by Ruth Michaels and Sydney Vilen which appeared in the May 22 Planet.) 

Nearly 40 years ago, I was fortunate to be elected to the same Assembly seat now being sought by Kriss Worthington. With immense help from Berkeley’s progressive community, we were able to defeat a 16-year Republican incumbent, take control of the district from the conservatives, and deliver it into progressive hands, Tom Bates, whom I have known for more than 50 years, was my personal friend and campaign manager, then became my administrative assistant, and ultimately succeeded me in that office. 

It therefore pains me personally to publicly challenge the mayor’s progressive integrity, but I have seen enough. By opposing Kriss Worthington’s candidacy, Mayor Bates has not only confirmed Dave Blake’s opinions of him, but has frustrated the hopes and desires of thousands of Berkeley progressives who have supported the mayor in the past, but who now want and need Kriss Worthington’s progressive leadership in the state Legislature. One can only assume that the motivation behind the mayor’s support of an opposition candidate is the fact that Kriss Worthington has consistently opposed the Mayor when the latter has attempted to betray the progressive movement in Berkeley. 

As one who played a small part in the formation of that movement and desires to see it succeed, I enthusiastically support Kriss Worthington’s candidacy for the 14th Assembly district position and urge all Berkeley and district progressives to do the same. 

Ken Meade 

Addendum 1: The term “progressive” as used extensively throughout this letter is intended by the author to mean one who supports or defends the greater public interest against the ambitions of those who comprise the concentrations of wealth and power in our community. 

Addendum 2: No one associated with the Kriss Worthington campaign has urged me to write this article, nor have I been an active participant in that campaign. The ideas expressed herein are entirely my own for which I am entirely responsible. 

• 

RAPID BUS PLUS, WHAT  

SMOKESCREEN? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am disturbed by the claim which has been made repeatedly by Friends of BRT that the proposed Rapid Bus Plus alternative is a smokescreen. There is no “smoke” in this proposal which is attempting to obscure the fact that this is a plan which attempts to create a workable alternative to lane removal on Telegraph, and welcomes collaboration from local planners. The contention, rather, is that whereas BRT may be appropriate for large metropolitan corridors with six-plus throughlanes and redundant parallel arteries nearby, that it is not appropriate for Telegraph which has only four throughlanes and which lacks nearby parallel redundancies. Furthermore, it is a plan which proposes that the same mode shift and emission reduction targets can be realistically achieved or exceeded with an alternate that does not create the significant congestion impacts that lane removal threatens in Berkeley and in the Oakland Telegraph area, impacts that many many Berkeley and Oakland residents reasonably believe are essentially non-mitigatable. 

Joseph Stubbs 

• 

RULES OF THE ROAD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Nice letter (“Bike Safety: Liberal Hot Button Issue,” by H. Scott Prosterman, May 15), but may I add a safety tip? Bicyclists need to heed stop signs just as autos are supposed to. How many times have cyclists sailed through intersections and looked at you with the look like they are in the right. Also, just because you are on a “Bicycle Boulevard” doesn’t mean that cyclists can disobey the laws. Some days I feel like I will have a daredevil cyclist on the hood of my car and I will be the bad guy because I am the driver. 

My son bicycles and I share the road. I get it. That is somebody’s loved one out there, but when they don’t obey traffic laws, they are taking their lives in their hands. I get angry when they put my safety and their own at risk. 

Helmets are nice, but when you are flying down Spruce Street and don’t stop at a stop sign, I don’t know what good they will do you. 

Don’t just enforce helmet laws, enforce all traffic laws as they apply to bicyclists and autos. 

Just another point (or question), will the “hands free” cell phone laws apply to bicyclists? 

Julie Dempster 

• 

CUTTING EXPENSES,  

NOT RAISING FARES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

This is to thank Joyce Roy for her letter to the editor on May 15 regarding AC Transit. I couldn’t agree more. San Francisco recently purchased Hybrid Electric buses made by Daimler-Chrysler. The buses are 40-foot, not 60-foot. 

Here is some information about those buses, which can also be found on the Muni website: 

The Muni hybrid buses are essentially electric buses just like Muni’s electric trolley buses. Rather than get their electricity from overhead wires, they use a small diesel engine (5.9 liter Cummins ISB found in pick-up trucks) to turn a generator that, together with traction batteries, supply the necessary electrical energy to move the bus through the streets of San Francisco. Muni’s hybrid buses are “series hybrids” meaning there is no mechanical connection between the engine and wheels: The engine turns a generator that produces electricity to power drive motors that propel the electric bus (note that “parallel” hybrid bus, more similar to a Toyota Prius, uses a blend of mechanical and electrical power to accelerate, rather than just electricity). The drive control system on Muni’s series hybrids operates the diesel engine at its optimum emission and fuel economy settings. Traction batteries supply energy for acceleration, hill climbing, and other peak load conditions. This reduces the diesel engine speed (rpm) fluctuations and helps minimize engine emissions and increasing fuel economy. A hybrid bus can also recover and store braking energy. During vehicle deceleration, the control system changes the traction motor into a generator. The traction motor/generator is then used to help slow the vehicle as the traction motor/generator stores braking energy in the traction batteries. This increases the vehicle’s fuel economy and brake life. Other major transit agencies including New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Toronto, and Seattle have adopted hybrid bus technology within their respective public transportation systems. 

The Muni hybrid buses, made by Daimler-Chrysler, cost roughly $500,000 (approximately $150,000 more than a conventional diesel bus). This Hybrid bus also gets 30 percent better fuel economy than a standard diesel bus. 

To quote Joyce in her article: There is a used bus market. And it should be easy to sell them for a good price because the board president, Chris Peeples, has declared them “the best buses in the world.” 

Chris Peeples apparently doesn’t spend a lot of time riding buses. In my opinion, the rattletrap, uncomfortable, badly designed, cheaply designed Van Hool buses are the worst buses of any age I have ridden on. 

Ian Griffith 

• 

TAX INCREASES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I must be one of a select few to have been asked to participate in two of Berkeley’s City Council’s marketing surveys about “what’s the most popular way to market” tax increases. And “which are the most dire consequences we can use the scare the voters.” 

Am I the only one in this city who finds these surveys offensive? As well as the fact that my tax dollars were used to pay for them? 

Am I the only who expects my City Council to determine what the dollar needs of the city are and then stand up before the voters, without artifice, and explain to me why the dollars are necessary?  

As a 30-year citizen of Berkeley, am I the only one who remembers all of the claims of the dire results that will occur if this next tax increase is not passed? How many library initiatives, firehouse initiatives, schools initiatives, etc. will there be to save Berkeley from these horrible consequences? 

I for one am one of the Berkeley taxpayers who demands to see a plan put before the voters about how Berkeley government can be streamlined, made efficient, and about how off-the-chart labor and benefit expenses can be brought under control. 

This is my prerequisite before I will consider any tax increase. 

David Sudikoff 

• 

MEDI-CAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the article by Angela Rowen on May 22 “Lawsuit Seeks Halt in Planned Cuts to Medi-Cal,” I am very pleased to learn of this lawsuit protesting the 10 percent cuts in Medi-Cal, and I hope it is successful. 

My daughter is severely handicapped and depends on SSI and Medi-Cal. Already the reimbursement rate to doctors who take Medi-Cal is extremely low, and I fear decreasing it even more will mean that my daughter won’t be able to find a doctor generous enough to treat her for such a low fee. 

What I don’t understand is why the governor and legislators are so loathe to increase taxes. It seems the obvious solution to me. I would be happy to pay more taxes so that my daughter and others could get proper medical care. I also want school children to have music and art teachers and after-school recreation programs; I want our libraries, fire and police departments to be fully staffed; I want more and safer bicycle lanes; I would like more public transportation. And I’m willing to help pay for them through taxes! Isn’t this part of what being a good citizen is all about? 

Kathleen Whitney 

Oakland 

• 

WILLARD SCHOOL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am sick and tired reading about how bad Willard is. Riya Bhattacharjee has never had anything good to say about us. Instead of investigating the reality here at Willard, she just rehashes old news about our ex-vice principal and reports on faulty data. Had she spoken with our principal like any reporter worth their weight would do, she would have a more balanced report. But as with the other articles she has written about us, Riya again just publishes inaccuracies. 

I have been teaching here for nine years and have seen Willard go from a rough school to a diamond in the rough. Report on our increased API scores last year (biggest gain of all middle schools), report on the fact that in a school survey completed by students and parents, 92 percent felt that Willard is a safe place, report about the fact that we were the only middle school to reach our participation percentages on the standardized testing last year, report on the fact that we don’t hide any data about our school—we are an open book and we have nothing to hide. We know we are good, I just wish those who report about us do their job better and stop bashing Willard. 

Sharon Arthur 

6th grade teacher 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter is answered by the Executive Editor online in the “Editor’s Back Fence” column at berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

• 

EDITOR’S BACK FENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really appreciate your “Editor’s Back Fence” experiment on your website and can see its validity. It gives the Planet a forum to set the record straight. Your staff does a lot of work in putting together each story and that first letter regarding Willard School demonstrates that. 

So instead of letting an insipid letter go unchallenged, you made your points—points well earned with a lot of reporting time, sweat and effort. 

And your point about the Sunshine Ordinance being expanded to the public schools is an excellent one—though one which could never happen. If the schools were actually held accountable, and the public knew more about went on behind the scenes, they wouldn’t fund them. So it’s in the schools’ best interest to stonewall—just like Willard School does so ably. 

Keep up the good work. We’re lucky to have such an excellent local independent publication in an era of media mediocrity. 

Richard Fabry 

Point Richmond 

• 

A PLEDGE OF OUR OWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On April 24, two busloads of Berkeley parents went on a road trip to Sacramento. Our destination: a rally at the Capitol Building, where we joined parents and students from all over California: Riverside, San Diego, San Mateo, Fremont, Davis, Alameda... we all joined together to call our legislators to “flunk the budget, not our kids.” It was here that we learned that, in the midst of our huge budget deficit, all of the Senate and Assembly Republicans but one (Roger Niello) have signed a pledge that they would never, Never, never agree to raise any taxes. Well, we have a Pledge of Our Own —to invest in our kids and our future.  

As you know, our governor has proposed a budget which lops $4.8 billion dollars off of the public education budget. Since our state (which, by the way, is the seventh richest entity in the entire world) already allots $2,000 less per pupil per year for public education than the national average, and ranks 46th in educational spending nationwide, this is a very low blow indeed. (Please pause here and remind yourself that there are only 50 states in our nation.) This will mean a loss of $700 per pupil. Last time I checked, we were already struggling pretty hard to make do with what little we have.  

By now, most of us have received an “economic stimulus” payment from the federal government, and it is substantial. President Bush thinks we should spend it all on consumer goods to stimulate the economy. What kind of long-term gain will a flat screen television (made abroad) bring us, do you think? If we really want to invest in our future, what do you think would be the wisest investment? I am banking on our kids. After you have addressed any pressing financial needs, won’t you please join me in pledging to give as much of the rest as possible to your school’s PTA so that they can fill the funding gaps our schools face everyday? With $700 less per pupil, the PTA will be picking up more of the tab than ever for the essentials which battle the achievement gap and make kids want to go to school; classroom aides, supplies, teacher training, library books, art, music, sports, and field trips. Since it’s run by volunteers, the PTA doesn’t waste any money on administrative salaries or overhead. And, by the way—it’s tax deductible! 

Christine Staples 

• 

BRT SILLINESS, INDEED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Oh, the irony! In his letter to the Planet (May 22-28 issue) Steve Geller cites BRT opponents as the source of “Berkeley silliness” stories. I have never read anything sillier than the draft EIR for this boondoggle of a project. AC Transit proposes to spend $400 million and 17 years on a project that is projected to increase transit use by 4,600 riders per day. Think of what the national press could do with this if BRT were to be built. Do the “bridge to nowhere” and the “$400 toilet seat” ring a bell? 

It appears to me that BRT proponents never read past the title page of the draft EIR. They saw the word “bus” and immediately some sort of “green” light went on in their brains and they didn’t look further. All they have to do is turn the page and read the one-page abstract of the DEIR to understand the magnitude of this folly. 

Jim Bullock 

• 

THINK BEFORE YOU DRIVE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

For the sake of the future I make effort to not drive anymore. And for the most part, my life has improved a lot. But I want to know that you are trying too. For instance, do you know which bus lines run near your home? Before you jump in your car, do you think; Do I have to drive today? Can I take the bus? Carpool? Ride a bike? walk? Can a friend pick something up for me? Do I really need to go? Changing our lifestyle patterns can be interesting and helpful. Maybe you have time to read on the BART. People-watching can replace your CD player for entertainment. Leaving your car at home is probably the most relevant act you can do today to help the earth. And any money you give to the public transit system is a real contribution to the environment. Try it! 

Douglas Foster 

• 

DON’T MOURN, VOTE! 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Would it be election week if your mailbox (and newspaper) wasn’t fat with desperate pleas from politicos? 

Here’s another one. Kriss Worthington is being outspent (almost 3 to 1) by Nancy Skinner, so little of that clutter is from him. Wilma Chan is closer to Loni Hancock in spending, but still well behind. (Skinner and Hancock will have spent well over $1 million between them, a record for the two seats.) 

Just because you see a flood of mailings from other candidates doesn’t mean Kriss won’t win this election. That’s exactly why Skinner is putting pieces out at an accelerated pace: she’s worried. 

Do not despair; be sure to vote; there’s still time to show up and work for effective, progressive candidates and save us from another decade of a machine that wears progressive coloring but is founded on serving the powerful. Kriss’s office: 849-1346; Wilma: 464-1077. Once more unto the breach! 

Dave Blake 

• 

WATER RATIONING 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

EBMUD wants us to curtail our wasteful water practices. OK, I have no problem with our low-flow shower nozzle, our low-volume toilet or our front-loading washing machine. There is absolutely no point in needlessly wasting water. However, I wish the same water use reductions could be imposed on the real water wasters in California. 

The wasteful ways of EBMUD customers are just “a drop in the bucket” compared to the state’s major water gluttons. Agri-business uses 80 percent of all water in the state. These giant agricultural enterprises waste water on a monumental scale. If they were required to make the same percentage cuts in their water use as EBMUD customers, the amount saved would be equivalent to all the water used by every household in the state. Now that would be saving water! 

Why aren’t stiff water restrictions imposed on these giant corporate water wasters? As usual, it’s all about money, power and politics. Only 10 percent of the very largest corporate farmers in the Central Valley use about 70 percent of the water. These powerful corporate farmers, like Southern Pacific, receive outrageous government water subsidies that keep their water so cheap and plentiful they think nothing of wasting it. 

These wealthy agro-estates pay about 2 percent of what EMUD customers pay for water. In 2002, an Environmental Working Group study found that just twenty-seven corporate farms received water subsidies worth $1 million or more. Year after year, the total value of these water subsidies has hovered at around $400 million. Citizens can’t help feeling cynical and angry when government subsidizes corporate farmers to waste gallons of water for every drop we save. 

Craig Collins 

• 

TONY THURMOND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to Dave Blake for exposing Nancy Skinner’s anti-union stance before the Berkeley City Council. In his support of Kriss Worthington, however, he failed to mention Tony Thurmond, also running for the 14th state Assembly seat vacated by Loni Hancock. Tony is a Richmond resident and community organizer, with a particular focus on at-risk youth. He currently sits on the Richmond City Council, and is endorsed by Representative George Miller. As an African-American and Richmond resident he would add needed diversity to the State Assembly. 

Tony is committed to the usual progressive causes: single payer health care (Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840), a healthy environment, jobs and education. He also has a depth of character and a cheerful but unintimidated attitude towards the powers that makes you want to pitch in and help. I hope the readers of the Daily Planet check out his campaign at TonyThurmond.com. 

Debbie Bayer 

• 

SUE OR BE SPRAYED 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

You may think you are safe from being sprayed by crop dusters because your city has passed a resolution opposing the spray. Don’t kid yourself. 

Regarding the plans of the California Department of Agriculture (CDFA) to spray your homes, schools, businesses, and yards with pesticides, your message to your city and/or county needs to be this: sue or we will be sprayed. 

Your city has passed a resolution opposing spraying until an environmental impact report (EIR) has been completed. Don’t expect the CDFA to pay any attention to that resolution. 

In Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, the CDFA paid no attention to resolutions, spraying in the fall. Finally, when court decisions in both counties ordered the CDFA to complete the EIR before spraying again, CDFA paid attention for those counties. 

Will the CDFA pay any attention to resolutions in the San Francisco Bay Area? No. Expect planes to start spraying you Aug. 17. And there is no reason to spray because the judges in both Santa Cruz and Monterey said there is no emergency and therefore no reason to exempt the CDFA from the EIR. 

Will a lawsuit actually stop the CDFA this August? It may be too late. However, if you want a chance to avoid being sprayed, you must urge your public officials to—as soon as possible—sue or we will be sprayed. 

Dick André 

California Alliance to Stop the Spray 

Aptos 

• 

EMINENT DOMAIN IN REVERSE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Albany City Council is considering a major project which, if approved, will affect residents and city finances for years to come, and which will forever change the habitability and financial viability of the city. This is a unique opportunity to enhance city revenues and provide ongoing financial support for city services as well as a steady funding source for Albany schools. The project in question is the so-called Whole Foods development on San Pablo Avenue at Monroe Street. 

The proposed project is on land owned by the University of California. It is the intent of the university to lease this property to a grocery store operator on one portion of the development and to build what is described as assisted living units on the north side of Monroe Street and lease this to a separate entity. Whether this is the best use for this property or not is open to debate, what is certain is that the property will still be owned by the state of California and as such, will be exempt from paying property taxes. There will be little sales tax generated, since food is not taxed. There will be no transfer tax revenue generated by the residential portion either. Other than increased traffic congestion, noise and pollution, there is little, if any, benefit for Albany or its over-taxed citizens. There is no property tax benefit for our struggling schools. 

The family housing at Albany Village provides our schools with gifted students who live in dwellings that do not pay property taxes. The new development would be more beneficial to Albany if the land upon which it stands is sold as surplus property by the university and put on the county tax rolls. It would then contribute directly to vital city services and provide much needed revenue to support and improve our schools 

The prudent course for the city of Albany to take would be to change the zoning for this parcel to allow development, but only after this land is converted to private property. In a different approach to eminent domain we seem to be allowing private development on public property. In a democratic society, this should be put to the vote of the community. 

Dennis Foster 

Albany 

• 

RAPID BUS PLUS: RELIABLE, FAST, BETTER FOR EVERYONE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Our “Rapid Bus Plus” proposal invited constructive comments from everyone who seeks better bus service. But apologists for AC Transit’s rival Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan instead attacked our plan in their May 22 letters, using arguments that don’t hold up. 

Alan Tobey asked whether Rapid Bus Plus is as well-established as BRT. Actually, its components are much more broadly implemented than BRT’s. 

In Los Angeles County alone, there are some 21 Rapid Bus lines—eight rolled out in just the last year. But there is only one BRT line, which has been popular but collision-prone. 

Alan asked whether Rapid Bus Plus would be better for mobility-impaired or elderly passengers. Absolutely: unlike AC Transit, we would maintain “local” bus service on this corridor—meaning shorter walks to the nearest stop. 

We would also replace AC Transit’s notoriously inaccessible, and rough-riding, Van Hool buses with state-of-the-art Orion hybrids. These genuinely “low-floor” buses have floor-mounted seats for easy access. And their hybrid powertrains offer smooth acceleration, with much less diesel pollution. 

Alan also asked where bus-only lanes have harmed businesses. In the extreme form of a “transit mall,” they nearly destroyed Chicago’s State Street, Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street, and main commercial streets in other cities. People won’t shop where they can’t park. 

Finally, Jacob Berman and April Mitchell (relying on a second-hand account) criticize San Francisco’s N-Judah streetcar line, which we’d described as approximating “Rapid Bus Plus on rails.” Ironically, not long ago, “Friends of BRT” were touting the N-Judah as a model for BRT. 

As a former Sunset District resident and daily N-Judah commuter, I can tell you this: It runs through the Sunset at a nice clip, in a shared lane that is also available to cars. Its real bottlenecks are UCSF (lots of people on- and off-boarding), turns (delays for signals, pedestrians, and cross-traffic), and extended stalls while queueing to enter the “Muni Metro” tunnel. 

Rapid Bus Plus gathers worldwide transit “best practices” into what may be a new overall package. But we make no apologies for thinking outside the bus for this proposal. Had the city of Curitiba, Brazil, not looked beyond existing transit models in the 1970s, it would never have invented BRT. 

We challenge everyone to move beyond passively defending AC Transit’s BRT tunnel vision. On the Telegraph/BART corridor, BRT threatens more detriments than benefits. There is a place for everything, and this is the wrong place for BRT. 

Michael Katz 

Member, Berkeleyans for  

Better Transit Options (BBTOP) 

• 

IN SUPPORT OF THURMOND 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Like many individuals, my focus had been on the national primaries. Thank goodness I turned my focus back on the local June 3 primary or I would have missed the opportunity to meet and support Richmond City Councilmember Tony Thurmond for state Assembly. 

To put it simply, Tony is a breath of fresh air. Candidates talk about what they want to do or what they hope to do, how refreshing to meet one who is already doing something to make real change in the community he lives and works in every day. This experience in real world, on the ground problem solving is what makes him unique among all of the other candidates. I could go on and on about his work with gang violence, creation of green jobs, battles with Chevron, education training programs, and his 15 years of social work, but I won’t because words cannot convey my admiration for this young man. 

His Berkeley opponents may be fine people, but having been a resident of Berkeley for 28 years, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with the musical chairs our council people have played with the local elected seats. Their self-indulgent governing has been a disservice to Berkeley residents and the surrounding communities. It’s time for Berkeley to let go of this Assembly seat for the good of the entire Assembly district. 

Tony Thurmond is the only candidate who can effectively represent the entire 14th Assembly District. His dedication, energy and intelligence will make him a formidable advocate in Sacramento. I am proud and honored to know and support Tony Thurmond. 

Mary Nicely 

• 

JOBS FOR ENGLISH MAJORS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As I sat watching a movie on TV with subtitles for the “hearing impaired,” it occurred to me that there are no accompanying narrations for the “visually impaired.” If I were blind, and I’m not, it still seems grossly unfair to me. And, if narration were programmed in, it might put unemployed English majors like me to work. We would give anything to be able to be paid to translate the visual into the narrative! For once, English majors might have, finally, a legitimate place in society other than reproducing English majors.  

Robert Blau 

• 

WHERE IS THE PROTEST? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As true today as it was then! Henry David Thoreau regarded the war with Mexico (then in progress) as an expedition to seize land, and in protest he refused to pay his poll-tax. For this he was jailed. Ralph Waldo Emerson asked his young friend: “What are you doing in there?” Thoreau’s famous reply: “What are you doing out there?” 

President Bush has two wars going and another one online. Seventy percent of Americans say they are against these unprovoked wars; so where’s the protest? 

Ron Lowe  

Grass Valley 

• 

FIX THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Uh-oh. It’s been eight years, and no one has fixed the Electoral College problem with our presidential elections. Naturally, the Republican Congress didn’t try to fix the problem for six years, but now we have a Democratic-majority Congress that hasn’t bothered to fix the problem either.  

The problem, of course, is that the Electoral College system enables the candidate with fewer votes than his opponent to take office. Under the current system, a million and one more California citizens could vote for the Democratic candidate than the Republican and it wouldn’t affect the outcome any more than if the Democrat won by just one vote. One million votes would be discounted. In Wyoming, voters’ ballots count four times as much as California’s.  

During the last eight years, this problem has cost us $3 trillion dollars, nearly 5,000 lives, and over 40,000 severe injuries, plus the loss of our country’s reputation as the best in the world.  

It’s a disgrace that our country, self-proclaimed beacon of democracy, does not elect its president on a one-person-one-vote basis.  

The Electoral College should be fixed or removed. We need to turn the United States of America into a democratic republic.  

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

INTERNSHIP PROGRAM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The College Internship Program here in Berkeley will be wrapping up its first school year. For those who don’t know, CIP is a social skills training program for young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome; as well the organization helps put people in college or job settings. The catch is its only open to those who can afford over $37,000 a semester.  

There are youth on the street who have Asperger’s, and the syndrome is the only thing keeping them on the street. Imagine the social impact that would occur if organizations with deep pockets, and their friends with deep pockets, reached out to the less fortunate young men and women who have the drive to work, or study, but are just blocked by Asperger’s or other such relatively simple hindrances. 

Treating poverty has to be done in a modern way, rather than just enacting anti-loitering, anti-smoking, anti-this-and-that ordinances to sweep young people away, and hide the problem of impoverished youth. Many young adults want to achieve a college degree, or get a job. Helping to make those goals a reality is far better than issuing out citation after citation after citation. 

Instead of looking down upon the young men and women who sit on the street or in the park, look down at us (with a smile). Look at the talented artists, musicians, writers, story tellers and et cetera. Take to the time to talk to us, ask us what are dreams are. Then those with means have to make the decision if they want to make more ordinances or actually help us accomplish those dreams. 

Also on the same subject: The state of California does not require ASD training, but it is imperative that the Berkeley Police

There was a time in the misty, not-too-distant past, when Sacramento’s Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA ) was passed along directly to their Teachers and Classified Staff. No More. 

In the Berkeley Unified School District, our Human Resources newsletter annually features a condescending little paragraph about how the COLA is not really for the living: “...but must also meet the increased prices of bus fuel, textbooks, light bulbs, etc....” Perhaps they are confusing the Cost of Doing Business Adjustment (CODOBA)? Among management prerogatives is not the power to bestow life upon light bulbs, textbooks, gasoline. 

We are the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees, representing 450 employees of the Berkeley Unified School district, the Office/Technical and Classroom Support units. To break it down further, we are: secretaries, accountants, instructional assistants, instructional technicians, program specialists, parent liaisons, interpreters for the deaf, library media technicians, computer specialists, and a dozen other jobs which may be harder to describe. We are essential, living components of this district. And we are negotiating a new contract. 

We believe our objectives are reasonable: 

1. Paycheck integrity 

Our (expired) contract stipulates that: 

A payroll overpayment shall be repaid to the district over the same period of time the error occurred unless other arrangements are made with the director of classified personnel or designee. (CBA 9.10.3) 

This passage wreaks havoc with our members, who may take on extra duties, change health plans, or make other changes, only to find later that they’ve been overpaid for months. We believe this passage to be in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Our sister classified union, IUOE Local 39, has contract language that requires the district negotiate repayment on an individual basis. This has the desirable side effect of requiring the district to explain and prove the error(s). 

2. Orientation for new hires 

Classifieds speak with one voice here: the Berkeley district is a complex, not to say labyrinthine, work environment. Why aren’t we educated about these complexities for an hour or two before we’re plopped into position? 

3. More training 

This district relies a great deal on classified staff, yet our inservice training days have typically consisted of pep talks from motivational speakers who have no idea what we do, and brainstorming sessions that render great ideas which are never implemented. For example: “We could include our paraprofessionals in team meetings!” 

4. Predesignation 

Among the “reforms” to Worker’s Compensation pushed through by Gov. Schwarzenegger, only one was of benefit to workers—the ability to predesignate one’s personal physician in the event of a work injury. The district is insisting that predesignation forms will only be accepted during the annual six-week open enrollment period; and that these forms must be re-submitted every year. We believe this burdensome policy violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. 

We have not had a salary offer yet from the district for the 2007-2008 school year. This is distressing. 

Further, the district want us to agree to a definition of total compensation that burdens the union with obligations that properly belong to the district. These are, specifically; retiree benefits, step movement, and new costs under the old caps. 

1. Retiree Benefits 

BCCE does not represent retirees. We do not bargain for retirees. The district is responsible for the cost of retiree benefits. 

2. Step movement 

In the first five years of employment, we are compensated for our growing expertise by “steps” up in salary. This is mandated by the district’s Merit Rules. By this nefarious logic, we are charged for those members in their first five years of employment, as well as those in promotional positions. To take the cost of this from BCCE’s annual salary adjustment is to make us responsible for the district’s poor retention of employees. 

3. New costs under old caps 

When we negotiated a cap of $880 for the 2006-2007 school year, we paid for it out of our total compensation. If my premium this year increases from $600 a month to $700 a month, I still pay nothing. The district pays $100 more. That’s already been agreed to. That’s already been bargained. 

We understand that these are legitimate costs that the district must meet. But we can not agree that they’re part of our compensation. These are prior agreements for which the district is liable. 

BCCE refused, in May of 2007, to sign an agreement that called these district costs part of our increase. The board agenda claimed and the Daily Planet reported “an increase of 4.7 percent in salary and benefits.” 

Our salary increase was 4 percent. The .7 percent consisted of these costs which were the proper responsibility of the district. These costs remain the proper responsibility of the district and we will never agree otherwise. 

We know that this year’s salary increase, like last year’s and next year’s, will be subsumed by increases in health and dental premiums. Such is the fate of the disappearing middle class. In this light, we feel deeply that the district should be making non-financial concessions, particularly those that make us more valuable and valued employees. We are confident that the Berkeley community will see the reasonableness of our position. 

Tim Donnelly is president of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employees. For more information or to read BCCE’s contract, go to BCCE6192.org. 

• 

SOME ROB YOU WITH A KEYBOARD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Councilmember Darryl Moore (District 2, southwest Berkeley) posted a letter on the Planet site Monday, June 2, in which he wanted to “set the record straight” regarding my, in his words, “flat-out false” claim in these pages that Tom Bates, supported at the mike by Nancy Skinner, voted against the Berkeley Bowl workers June 13, 2006. Moore’s letter doesn’t even rate the usual temperate response, “right, as far as it goes.” It’s a series of misrepresentations and distractions, one worse than the next; it’s ironic that his letter was entitled “Misinformation.” 

Moore complained that I had argued (again citing his letter) that “the City Council had the option to place a requirement on Berkeley Bowl’s use permit to give workers the ability to achieve union representation.” I made no such argument. Indeed, because Skinner has made (no surprise) the identical argument Moore makes to try to paint her activity that night as less despicable than it actually was (because there was nothing the council could do), I carefully deconstructed that falsehood in the very article Moore is supposedly ”setting straight”. I said her argument was “cynical misdirection: there were two independent issues before them: the permit and the zoning-map change. Though they couldn’t write a condition for a permit to operate a grocery store that would require a union election, nothing stood in the way of simply refusing to give Yasuda his $7 million industrial-to-retail change while they had the crucial leverage.” 

Moore further compounds his pastiche of distortions with a tedious recitation of all the votes the council took that night while leaving out the only significant one. As I explained in my article, Bowl owner Glen Yasuda had circulated a rumor that morning that he would abandoned the West Berkeley Bowl project if the council failed to approve it that night. The workers, having failed to get Bates or Moore to support them by refusing to vote for Yasuda’s zoning-map change request until he came to terms with the union, asked instead only for a one-week continuance to make it clear the council wouldn’t knuckle under to his second-hand threat and to pressure him to negotiate the issue. It was on this motion that Bates voted no, sealing the workers’ fate. 

Readers should know why this issue is of so much importance to Moore: he himself abstained on that crucial vote. While an abstention usually has no effect on the outcome of a motion, in the case of a continuance, it has the identical effect of a “no” vote. When the West Berkeley Bowl opens without a union, or even the right for the workers to vote on a union, Bates and Moore will share the responsibility equally. I’m sure the two of them will make a great show of support for the unionization effort that will ensue, because their votes that night will also prove to have been responsible for the likely eventual loss of the union at the Shattuck Bowl should the effort to unionize the new Bowl fail. 

Dave Blake is a former chair of the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board.

A group of well-intentioned individuals (North Oakland Cohousing) with a laudatory goal—creation of a cohousing community in the heart of Oakland’s Temescal District—partners with local entrepreneurs of several controversial projects. They enter a marriage of convenience with a high-density/multistory advocacy group. 

After turning out in force to support their developers on other projects, their own building doesn’t “pencil out.” They pretend the dream is still on the table when their project comes to City Council. Councilperson Jane Brunner enthusiastically promotes the development and her conviction that a deal will be struck. 

The sad saga of “Project Kingfish”—cold-hearted developer ambition in an ebbing housing boom leaves cohousers and neighborhood activists alike licking wounds. 

The backstory: “Project Kingfish”—a generic pseudo-Craftsman five-story block—would level the funky pub (and steal its name), two historic Victorian cottages, and another residential building—seven units of housing under rent control. The unwieldy, chevron-shaped parcel at the gore of Claremont and Telegraph that resulted when the garage at the tip of the gore wouldn’t sell was perhaps why the developers attempted to slough off the parcel. 

I had my own rrative of what came down as a member of Standing Together for Accountable Neighborhood Development (STAND), writing the nonrefundable $918 appeal to the City Council of the Planning Commission’s approval and meeting with cohousers looking for common ground. STAND had battled the same developers (Ron Kriss, Roy Alper, Patrick Zimski) over their projects at 4700 Telegraph Ave. and 4801 Shattuck Ave., the latter sparking a lawsuit. Their Civiq project (“coming soon”) is a lot opposite the eponymous Bakesale Betty’s. 

A glimpse into the workings of the “other side” was provided by a member of the North Oakland Cohousers’ yahoo group who shared internal e-mail communication. The co-housers were enlisted as foot soldiers in the development/density wars, prodded by the developers and Urbanists for Livable Rockridge Temescal Area (ULTRA)—a pro-development advocacy group. They saw STAND as their problem. We had made the logical argument before the Planning Commission and City Council that the project being touted as Cohousing was a massive, out-of-scale market rate condo project, but neither body would require the development ultimately be cohousing. 

Key leaders of the cohousing group were also stalwart ULTRAists. One urged the members to turn up in support of zoning changes, exhorting: ”If the master plan isn’t upheld, any building higher than four stories may be denied a building permit....Higher-density development will help renew the neighborhood, and make affordability possible. ” 

Greater height and more units were linked to affordability of the cohousing project publicly. Privately, the same spokesperson divulged: “At my request, and for the sake of argument at the City Council, Chris has prepared an alternative pro forma with 20 units to show how much less affordable the units will be if we can’t build five stories. One of the...complaints of the people who don’t want five stories is that these condos aren’t affordable. So I want to show that their opposition to five stories will have the opposite effect; lowering the density will limit the possibility of building affordably)...I have to stress that we purposely made it quite dire. (For example, we’ve included only 20 units when, in reality, with only four stories we are likely to have more than 20 units. Also, in the agreement with Project Kingfish...we would pay them less if we weren’t able to build five stories as planned).” 

The co-housers with their “heart-tugging coho stories” were especially useful as other condo projects and Temescal rezoning made their way through the approval process, since cohousing “has a ‘warmer, fuzzier’ feel” than “evil, congenitally rapacious developers.” 

One especially rousing appeal from Kriss to the co-housers: “Help!! The NIMBYs are massing and planning a full scale attack on Tuesday night at the City Council meeting. Various infill development projects are now on the boards for North Oakland, including my project at 48th and Telegraph...and things are getting hot... If the silent majority does not show up on Tuesday and speak it will be difficult for the politicians to hold their ground and do the right thing for N. Oakland, Oakland, the Bay Area, and the Earth. The politicians will kowtow to the NIMBYs....” Developer Kriss, wearing his other hat as principal of Lawton Associates Realty, purveyor of tony Rockridge houses, presumably parks his overheated anti-nimby rhetoric at the door. 

Co-ho fuzziness had a calculating side: “..the developers need us as much as we need them. If there is opposition to another 5 story building going up in the neighborhood, we can all go to the meeting...—with North Oakland Cohousing t-shirts and signs—and say that we are partnering with the developers and that we all expect to be living there...The developers are aware of this, too, which gives us some bargaining power. Moreover, they have gone so far down this road that it will be much more expensive for them to drop our project and change plans midcourse—especially with an unpredictable housing market.” Little lambies, whistling in the dark...That’s just what happened. Before the hearing on Oct. 16, the development had already gone south. 

Denouement: An internal feasibility study showed “the reality is that—even if the land was FREE, the project...would be totally unfeasible...Short of getting them to contractually agree to guarantee to personally build and sell units at the old pro forma unit prices, the project at that site is basically dead.” Prospective buyers wouldn’t even qualify for Oakland first-time homebuyers’ subsidies. 

The purchase price of the property from the developers by NoCoHo was $2.6 million. Some $150,000 in payments, perhaps nonrefundable, had already been turned over. Thousands was also spent by cohousers on consultants. 

There were a flurry of anxious e-mails about “misleading the City Council”: “[A]ll of the people being encouraged to come down on the basis of supporting the project AS cohousing (should) not be confused or feel misled in the way they were rallied to attend the hearing...one of STAND’s major arguments has been ‘what if we support this project at a larger scale because it is cohousing and then it later doesn’t turn out to be Cohousing?’ [T]hen they will say ‘I told you so’...” 

Coho members were already looking at alternate sites. Eerily silent at the hearing, they left the talking to the ULTRA diehards and the developer’s attorney, David Preiss, who made the de-coupling explicit: “The cohousing element of the project is not a basis of the city’s approval...The ownership configuration...is a purely private social and financial arrangement that has no legal nexus with any legitimate requirements for the Project.” 

All that was left was for Brunner to spin her upbeat scenario. Whether anyone had bothered to tell her the truth beforehand, who knows? As a recipient of $6,000 in campaign contributions from these developers, perhaps she didn’t find it necessary to care. 

Robert Brokl is an artist and activist and has lived in North Oakland (aka Dodge) for 37 years. This letter reflects his opinions, not necessarily those of any organization to which he belongs. 

Our state and our cities and counties are again in grave peril. At the November 2006 general election hugely harmful Proposition 90 failed by just a slim margin. Now the same greedy special interests are back with something even worse: Proposition 98. And they’ve cleverly timed it for the June 3 primary when (because the presidential-preference contest got moved earlier) voter turnout may be woefully low. 

Cunningly crafted and deeply deceptive, Prop. 98 is a multi-pronged assault on California’s ability to properly shape its future. 

It would mandate that (with very few exceptions most of which would apply very rarely) “Private property may not be taken or damaged for private use”—and would define some of those words in drastically and bizarrely sweeping terms. 

So-called “private use” would be defined to include, among other things, “regulation of the ownership, occupancy or use of privately owned real property or associated property rights in order to transfer an economic benefit to one or more private persons at the expense of the property owner.” But a great range of traditional and vital zoning, environmental, and other regulations that promote public health, safety, and/or general welfare necessarily have some effects that could be called a transfer of benefits. (Statutes and case law now give public agencies wide discretion in this regard.) To quote from a sober analysis done for the California Coastal Commission, “Many land use regulations can be construed to transfer an economic benefit from one property owner to another. For instance, regulations that limit the height of buildings confer a benefit on neighboring properties, at the expense of an owner who wants to build a taller building....Because taking or damaging property [for ‘private use’] is prohibited by the initiative, this broad definition [of ‘private use’] could prohibit outright many...types of government actions, rather than simply requiring [monetary compensation]....” 

And as the same analysis points out, “Unlike Proposition 90, Proposition 98 does not include a general ‘grandfather’ clause that would limit its provisions only to regulations and public agency actions taken after the enactment of the initiative....Public agencies could...be sued by individuals trying to invalidate existing land use ordinances and regulations....” 

Homeowners, the real threat here isn’t eminent domain but, instead, 98’s potential gutting of public agencies’ ability—through zoning and otherwise—to safeguard your property values and quality of life. 

Prop. 98’s banned “private use” would also include any “transfer of ownership, occupancy or use of private property or associated property rights to a public agency for the consumption of natural resources or for the same or a substantially similar use as that made by the private owner.” The “...for the same or a substantially similar use...” part of that evidently would ban actions such as public acquisition of a utility company’s electricity distribution system. As another example, it would prohibit conserving open space through a beneficial arrangement whereby a public agency acquires either fee title or an open-space easement but lets the former grazing or farming use continue. The “...for the consumption of natural resources” wording apparently would bar public agencies from even doing things like acquiring water rights, or land for reservoirs, to help ensure a stable future water supply.  

Prop. 98 would cripple governments’ ability to conserve and promote affordable housing. Though making an exception for sitting tenants for as long as they stayed in their present units, it would otherwise totally prohibit rent control. It apparently would ban inclusionary ordinances that require providing some affordable units within a project. It could also ban some kinds of requirements on condo conversions. 

It could severely impair agencies’ ability to provide needed public facilities and services. It could bar agencies from requiring subdividers or other developers to contribute sites or pay impact fees for school, recreation, or other purposes. It would even inhibit agencies’ ability, as needs change over time, to efficiently reuse land they’ve already acquired through eminent domain. Prop. 98 would say that where the new use would be “substantially different” from the originally stated one, the public agency must first offer to sell the property to the specific owner it was acquired from. 

In some cases where a property is bought, Prop. 98 would likely result in an agency—and ultimately taxpayers—shelling out more for it. To avoid the increased hassle with eminent domain, agencies might pay an inflated price that owners would be emboldened to hold out for. 

Prop. 98 would significantly change the rules for pertinent lawsuits. It would require that “the court shall consider all relevant evidence and exercise its independent judgment, not limited to the administrative record [as is now typical in eminent domain cases] and without [the currently usual] deference to the findings of the public agency.” It would also say that whenever the court found the agency didn’t comply with 98’s rules, the owner could stick the agency for costs and attorney fees. 

Much of Prop. 98 is vaguely worded and this would surely invite numerous and diverse lawsuits. Till the wording eventually got interpreted through the court system, there’d be prolonged and paralyzing uncertainty. 

Don’t let the greedy fat cats hijack California’s future. If you want a sound and sustainable economy, a clean and healthy environment, and a humane and equitable society, then vote no on 98. 

And while you’re at it, vote yes on Proposition 99: a simple and straightforward measure without destructive hidden agendas. 

Finally, a special plea to Cal students and other young people, too many of whom often don’t bother to vote. June 3 is a biggie. It’s especially your future that’s at stake. 

John English is a longtime Berkeley resident who cares strongly about planning issues. 

Time is definitely not the thing that flies when you are living in a tree. Birds fly, to be sure, and squirrels and insects, too, and—thanks to the people on the ground below—your food flies up to you on ropes, but time passes incrementally, governed by the rhythms of nature. Sunlight, moonlight, stars, rain, wind, and the changing seasons become your clock. It has been almost one and a half years since tree sitters first occupied the threatened trees in Memorial Stadium oak grove on Piedmont Avenue, and they are still up there. They are a visible example of the concern that many in our community feel about the fate of this special natural place.  

This issue has been slumbering for months now, but it will soon emerge again as a full-blown controversy. UC Berkeley would like to cut the grove down to build a new gymnasium/office complex on the site. This plan caused three lawsuits to be filed against the university, including one by the City of Berkeley. Barbara Miller, the judge in the oaks case, is scheduled to issue her ruling on the three combined lawsuits sometime within the next three weeks.  

When it does, it is important to keep certain key points in mind: First, the judge issued the temporary injunction that has protected the trees from harm up to now because, after reviewing the facts and law in the case, she believed that the petitioners (those who want to save the trees) were likely to prevail in a hearing. Given the strong interest of a number of very powerful individuals and groups in the resolution of this matter, she did not make that decision without careful thought. There is no question that she felt she was doing the right thing.  

Second, because there are so many causes of action and detailed issues involved, Judge Miller’s decision may not mark the end of the legal proceedings in this matter. There may be a split decision, granting some points to the petitioners and some to the university. The complexities may take considerable time to sort out. And of course, either side may elect to appeal the judge’s decision, so there may be further court action by the petitioners if she rules against protecting the grove—or by the university if she rules in favor of protecting the grove. 

Third, don’t forget that it is against the law in Berkeley to cut down any coast live oak tree. In fact, the coast live oak is the only tree species granted such protection in our city. This ordinance was passed in Berkeley for very important environmental reasons: Coast live oaks are under threat from Sudden Oak Death Syndrome, and oak woodlands are being cut down across the state as suburban development continues. We need to protect the ones we have left. Besides, it is long past time for the university to agree to obey our city laws. Nobody should be above the law—especially not a public university. 

This upcoming period of time is critical if the community wants to protect this special urban woodland. I encourage supporters to contact Mayor Bates and the City Council to tell them to keep standing up for Berkeley, and not drop out of the lawsuit by reaching a secret deal with the university. After all, the City Council has officially declared—by unanimous vote—that the oak grove is an irreplaceable natural resource for the entire city, and we need them to continue to support this position. Let’s do this for our own environmental health and for the good of our children. 

Doug Buckwald is the director of Save the Oaks, a community group dedicated to saving Memorial Stadium oak grove. More information is available at www.saveoaks.com.

Presidential campaign reporting wallows in the language of competitive sports, especially racing: who’s ahead, who’s losing ground, who dropped out. Political analysts, like Las Vegas odds makers, deploy their assessment of strengths and weakness in attempts to predict the outcome—“If the election were held today, so-and-so would be the winner.” The normal perspective of analysts and reporters is from outside and above the fray. What does the current presidential race look like from below, from the gutter? 

We are in the semi-finals of the race to be the 44th president and sadly far less is reported about the remaining three candidates’ abilities to solve a multitude of serious problems than about who’s ahead, why and how he or she can regain the lead.  

All professional observers agree that each is burdened with a uniquely American handicap. Who will best surmount their disadvantage: Can Clinton close the gender gap? Can Obama escape racial prejudice? Can McCain overcome age discrimination?  

These are the wrong questions. They are too remote and consequently too vague. Yet, ordinary citizens cannot know what goes on inside each camp. What you’re left with is a view from the gutter. 

Remember, it’s like a race, a sporting event, a game, and just as in any game (except playground pick-ups) players cannot be trusted. All players know the rules but you still need referees and umpires to penalize when the rules are violated. Players cheat and the best players are often the best cheaters. 

Mark Bowden whose resume is long and distinguished writes with unmatched insight that in football, cheating “…is as traditional as the coin toss” (“Sacks, Lies and Videotape,” New York Times, May 18). Since winning is “the only thing,” he concludes, then playing by the rules is “by definition a lesser priority.” 

If you watched the NBA semi-final championship game 2 between Detroit and Boston last week you’d have seen cheating—a slow motion re-play depicting a player pulling on the jersey of a sprinting opponent … so briefly the referees didn’t catch it. 

Therefore, the view from the gutter of the presidential semifinals must focus on cheating. Can Hillary supporters smear Obama with enough tar-covered bitterness to make up for gender disability? Can Obama’s strategists succeed in making Hillary pay for mistakes and mis-statements? Will McCain prove his sprightliness by doing one-arm push-ups as Jack Palance did at the Oscars a few years back? 

“Cheating,” wrote Bowden, whose books range from Black Hawk Down to The Best Game Ever, “will always be part of a game when victory comes with substantial rewards.” Is there any reward more substantial than the chair behind the desk in the Oval Office? 

Marvin Chachere is a San Pablo  

resident. 

At the end of the May 20 Council meeting, Linda Maio recused herself on a Max Anderson motion which calls for a moratorium on cell antenna applications in the city. Maio did not explain her action. However, her husband has for many years been a tenant of developer Patrick Kennedy. Kennedy owns UC Storage. And UC Storage is the site where Kennedy would like to rent cell phone antenna space to the telecommunications industry for over $200,000 a year.  

Before any discussion, let alone vote, could take place on the Anderson motion, the City Council took a 10-minute break, during which acting City Attorney Zack Cowan informed the council that a unanimous vote would be required to institute a moratorium. As of this writing, we do not know what city law requires a unanimous vote on moratoriums. 

After the break, at about 10:30 p.m., Le Conte Neighborhood residents lined up to support the moratorium. One by one, they told the council that a moratorium was imperative.  

For over three years, the Le Conte Neighborhood Association and Berkeley Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (BNAFU) have opposed a Verizon antenna application to place 18, now reduced to 11, antennas, on South Shattuck’s UC Storage. From the eastern wall of this building, alone, two very powerful cell antennas, will emit a total of 2,600 watts of radio frequency (RF) radiation. Twelve hundred watts of this total are for data transmission, and have nothing to do with cell phone conversations. In addition there are two 200-watt antennas also emitting RF radiation facing directly into neighborhood homes. Typically, antennas placed at the height of UC Storage only emit 200 watts of RF radiation each.  

Until this last month, after the city had hired an independent radiation measurement specialist, no one on the council, nor any other citizens, had been informed of the extraordinarily high wattage of two of these antennas. True, the antennas would still be legal under the Federal Telecommunications Act (FTA) of 1996. That act was crafted by the telecommunications industry and forbids any consideration of health concerns in city government deliberations. The telecommunications industry lobbied heavily in favor of the 1996 FTA, while European countries like Switzerland have RF radiation standards 100 times stricter than those of the FTA.  

In many cities, high wattage antennas which face directly into lower income neighborhoods often serve high income neighborhoods much further away. In Berkeley, for example, although the flatlands already receive excellent cell phone service, the Berkeley Hills have experienced mediocre cell antenna reception. Thus, Hills cell phone users would appear to benefit from more powerful antennas on UC Storage. However, unfortunately for Hills residents, they have received, and will continue to receive increased RF radiation, since the greater distance cell phone users are from antennas, the more radio frequency radiation these users receive from their cell phones. Cell phones are made to amp up their power and RF radiation in order to reach more distant antennas. 

The inequity of the present system of antenna distribution in Berkeley (14 locations in South Berkeley, two in North Berkeley, and none in the Berkeley Hills) means that our poorer neighborhoods are unfairly exposed to many more antennas than Berkeley’s wealthier neighborhoods. On the basis of aesthetic concerns alone, this imbalance is unjustified. Most of Berkeley’s antennas are quite visible. The unpleasant RF radiation burden of cell antennas should be shared more equally and wisely by all our citizens.  

Cell antennas can be much lower in wattage if they are dispersed evenly. A consensus has grown among independent RF engineers that low wattage cell antennas spread evenly throughout cities are wiser and more equitable than high wattage antennas concentrated in lower income areas. Hence the city of Irvine, for example, has already begun the process of re-drafting its own cell antenna ordinance. 

Low wattage antennas, mounted on city-owned poles, can also provide significant long-term revenue to cities rather than to big developers and landlords. Recall that Patrick Kennedy stands to earn about $200,000 a year for renting his four walls for antenna placement, and at no extra cost to himself. 

Berkeley needs time to assess this option—wider distribution of lower power antennas—and to examine how other cities are redrafting their ordinances along these lines. Initially, this option may cost the telecommunication companies more, but it will make the lives of Berkeley citizens safer.  

In the council meeting, following Linda Maio’s recusal, Zack Cowan’s comments to the council in private, and Le Conte Neighborhood support for a moratorium based on the above new information, three attorneys representing Verizon Wireless, Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile, told the council that a moratorium would be illegal. Verizon has already threatened the city with a lawsuit if the city dares to delay Verizon cell antenna permits Verizon is relying on the old adage, “Who pays the piper, calls the tune.” Verizon is paying the pipers, and the pipers are its very expensive and numerous attorneys. 

BNAFU has a pending lawsuit against Verizon, Nextel, the City of Berkeley, and Patrick Kennedy. We demand that the city take concrete steps to address our legitimate concerns for equitable cell antenna distribution and safe cell phone coverage in Berkeley. The city should be protecting us by taking this case to court themselves, or at least paying the neighbors’ expenses for doing so. Unfortunately, we must depend entirely on individual contributions. To find out more and to help keep our legal fight alive, please call 526-5075, 849-4014, or e-mail jonel@berkeley.edu 

Having appalled the Le Conte Neighborhood residents in attendance, the council meeting adjourned with no decision made. The Anderson moratorium motion was tabled until Tuesday, June 10. BNAFU is asking that the City Council prioritize our community’s need for equitable treatment and sound, thoughtful policy over quick and easy cell company profits.  

You can help our cause by attending the next City Council meeting, Tuesday, June 10, 7 p.m. at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. Check the Berkeley City Council website at: www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=9868 for the order of agenda items if you cannot make it at 7. 

Michael Barglow is a South Berkeley  

resident. 

One of the most compelling visions for Berkeley’s parks included in Louise Mozingo and Marcia McNally’s study, is the early 20th century proposal that parks be part of an integrated system of large and small open spaces linked together along the natural creek channels from the hills to the bay. Underlying this vision is the seemingly revolutionary idea that natural open space would be the primary infrastructure used to define the physical form of the built environment. A century ago as this city was being formed, an enlightened thinker imagined an urban structural system for this place with nature and the built environment deliberately and dynamically balanced. And it could occur throughout the city, with all citizens having equal access to open spaces. 

Berkeley did not choose that vision. Instead, Berkeley embraced a more predictable urban development pattern that would obliterate most of its internal open space, rather than integrate it with the built environment. Thankfully, the ridgeline, the UC campus, and a few select park sites were preserved. And over the past few decades, we have been able to buy back some parcels to create parks in under-served neighborhoods, but rarely along creeks. As Louise and Marcia’s study shows, most of our neighborhoods now enjoy parks, but they are largely isolated and not part of an interconnected green infrastructure system needed to both serve and counterbalance the relatively dense urban development. 

In my opinion, the primary emphasis and challenge for our park system over the next decades should be to create linkages among the parks and open spaces that will serve both recreational and environmental purposes. Berkeley could become a city within a park, not simply a city that has some nice parks within it. 

The logical place for a system of green linkages would be along our creeks, as suggested in the turn of the century vision, and by many activists as well. But realistically, that is a near impossibility for Berkeley today. With some notable exceptions, most of our creeks have been filled-over, with buildings and other urban developments allowed above. Our few remaining creeks carry only a portion of the water draining through the city, providing important but limited ecological and spatial linkages, mostly through private properties. Most of the stormwater has been diverted into a constructed drainage system in the public street rights of way. Our creeks and storm drainage now function as separate parallel systems with very few interconnections  

and a nearly incomprehensible division between public and private responsibilities. Past decisions have severely limited the option to make our creeks the centerpiece of our green infrastructure. 

I think we should be focusing on our streets to create the system of green linkages and, in so doing, nurture a new form of urban ecology. The water is there, rather than in the creeks. The streets are in the public domain and subject to direct public actions. We are required to make significant capital investments along the streets to address polluted stormwater runoff and serious flooding problems—both issues that can be addressed effectively by green infrastructure. The combination of these factors has created a rare opportunity to reconceive our streets to provide broader public benefits than they do today. We can seize this moment to simultaneously address serious environmental problems, enhance the city’s urban design with green infrastructure, and integrate our open space network within the public domain. Some specific considerations. 

Our streets are configured primarily for vehicles, with most accommodating pedestrians along the edges. They are generously sized in favor of vehicular traffic and parking. But of equal importance for the city’s infrastructure, streets are also designed as the central feature of our urban stormwater drainage system. Storm pipes, sized to carry small volumes of water from normal storms, lie below the streets with periodic drain inlets along the curbs. The street surfaces are designed to carry overflow floodwaters from the larger storms that can’t be contained within the pipes. Streets in combination with the subsurface pipes have, in essence, become our stream corridors. But as currently conceived, they serve only as flood conveyance without the ecological complexity, recharge potential, and aesthetic layering of streams. And they don’t work very well. 

We could reconceive our streets to be a multi-layered urban stream system that happens to convey vehicles, rather than a vehicular system that happens to carry stormwater. Within this context, the streets could be retrofitted to slow the storm water, filter it, support vegetation, and provide flood protection like a stream, but in an urban context. The landscaped portions of the street would trace the actual urban drainage patterns and provide functional green connections through the city. In areas with sufficient width, the sidewalks and landscaped areas could support expanded recreational activities in addition to connecting parks and open spaces together. 

The development of more complex, layered uses of the streets will challenge the spatial assumptions for the different uses. Vehicles could function just fine with less paving, for instance, especially when considering competing uses that might share the space. Narrowed and re-aligned driving lanes, re-structured parking areas, re-configured medians, and re-conceived pedestrian areas are just some of the ways in which additional space for retrofitting could be found. A new vocabulary of permeable materials and planting will be added to the public realm, a change from the impervious monoculture of our roads today. Changes like these will give our streets a more park-like character, making them feel like they are part of a larger open space system rather than simply roadways with sidewalks. 

A look at our cross-town north/south connector streets, like Shattuck Avenue, Adeline Street, California Street, Sacramento Street, and San Pablo Avenue might be instructive. The large rights of way and central medians will give them important roles to play in a new system of green infrastructure like flood control, for instance, which is a serious problem in west Berkeley. The north/south connector streets run across the prevailing westerly running slope and could serve to cut-off the floodwater from above, detain it, and then release it gradually to lessen the impacts downstream. Under this scenario, the medians as well as parking strips are prime candidates for re-configuration in order to slow, filter, and detain water. One option might be to relocate all or part of the medians from the center to the sides of the road to capture the water away from traffic lanes while creating a more park-like condition for the pedestrian environment. 

Selective east/west streets that run with the prevailing slope as well as some smaller north/south streets could also be re-worked along their edges with permeable paving and water gardens to slow the water down and filter it as it moves downstream. Parking along these streets could be clustered in counterpoint with the gardens, and the driving lanes realigned to slow traffic. These streets would become connectors to the various parks throughout the neighborhoods, linking the ecological functions as well as the people with the larger cross-town facilities. 

These are not inexpensive changes. But we are faced with enormously expensive, mandated infrastructure costs for pollution and flood control that will affect the streets anyway. We should use these imperatives to our advantage and re-imagine our community as a city in a park. 

John N. Roberts is a Berkeley resident. 

In a May 16 editorial on his department’s plan to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM) by aerial spray and other means, California Agriculture Secretary A. G. Kawamura ac-cuses those who oppose the LBAM program of spreading “misinformation” and urges us all to rely on “sound science” and to “draw the line” on “exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims” that cause “unwarranted fear.” (www.california progressreport.com/2008/05/california_secr_6.html.) 

Mr. Secretary, it is time to look in the mirror. You and your department are the primary source of misinformation and fear tactics. 

You claim the pesticides you sprayed last fall and want to spray this summer over our communities are “just pheromones,” neglecting to mention that the products in question are designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as pesticides and contain not only untested, synthetic pheromones but also a host of other toxic ingredients, dispersed in minute plastic capsules. 

You claim that LBAM is a “ravenous” pest that will destroy California agriculture and eat everything from redwoods to Scotch broom, when in fact this benign moth has caused no damage in California and almost no damage in the other states and countries where it is established.  

You claim that the spray is safe and has been tested, when your own department’s documents say otherwise. You claim that the state’s superficial review of the 643 illness reports after last year’s spray proves there is no link between the spray and the sicknesses, when in fact that report reviewed only 10 percent of the reports and concluded it could not determine whether or not there was a link. 

Who is relying on unsound science and unsubstantiated and exaggerated claims? 

At least two courts in the state of California have agreed during the past month that your science is not sound, halting the spray program in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and ruling that you and your department abused your discretion in exempting the program from any environmental review. 

Local governments all around the Central Coast and Bay Area where spraying is slated to start this summer also agree that your claims do not stand up to scrutiny. Almost every city and county—more than 25 at last count—where you and your department have made presentations about the LBAM program has now voted to officially oppose the program. 

You say you choose to rely on facts. So let’s look at some facts. 

Your own publications contradict your claims that the spray is safe. You say it is untrue that the pesticide used last fall has not been tested. In fact, the assessment published by the California Departments of Health and Pesticide Regulation and the California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment clearly says the active ingredient in those pesticides, a synthetic moth pheromone, has never been tested for human exposure. The “thorough review” that you claim those agencies gave the pesticide relied on short-term exposure data for other pheromones, assumed they would be applied only over unpopulated agricultural areas rather than the populous urban areas that will be affected by the LBAM spray, and ignored the other ingredients that made up more than 80% of the pesticide. Those other ingredients include carcinogens, mutagens, and chemicals associated with birth defects and miscarriages, and toxic to aquatic life. Your department repeatedly claims it is “unaware” of those health risks even though they are documented in the toxicology database of the United States Institute for Occupational Health and Safety and on Material Safety Data Sheets prepared by the chemical manufacturers. 

Now you are touting the “six-pack” toxicology tests being done on the pesticides proposed to be sprayed over our communities this summer. But you fail to mention that these are short-term exposure tests that determine how much of a pesticide or individual ingredient will be fatal to an animal in a very short period of time. These tests will tell us nothing about the actual risks faced by human populations to ongoing exposure from a pesticide that time-releases during the 30-day periods between sprays or about the risks of long-term health problems such as cancer. 

At a recent presentation in the Central Valley where CDFA is now trying to shore up its case for spraying Bay Area and Central Coast residents, a farmer who had researched the moth and found it is not a threat asked: “Why are you bringing alarm into the Central Valley?” 

The only fear being spread is by CDFA, claiming that LBAM is a “voracious” pest that will eat “anything green,” destroy California agriculture, and overrun the Central Valley. You have produced no science, substantial or otherwise, to support these claims. In fact, your own department has said the moth has done no damage to crops or plants in California. Respected scientists have shown that LBAM is just another of the many leaf-roller moths that do no harm in California and that it does almost no damage in other countries and states where it is established and which do little or nothing to control it. The USDA’s own research shows that LBAM will not reproduce in the extreme temperatures of the Central Valley. 

For months you told us that the reason there was no crop damage due to LBAM was that it had just arrived last year. But on a recent radio show you admitted that it has been here at least six or seven years. Meanwhile, entomologists across the UC system have been saying all along that it has been here 10-50 years. How many other claims have you made that will be revised when the moth of mass destruction turns out to be just another mild-mannered leaf roller? And, meanwhile, how many more people will have to get sick before your sham science and unsubstantiated denials crumble and the truth is revealed that the LBAM program is dangerous and unnecessary? 

We have read a lot in the news recently about interference with the work of government scientists charged with evaluating the safety of chemicals to protect public health. A Government Accountability Office report found that the White House and other agencies had “delayed or blocked efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to list chemicals as carcinogens,” (San Francisco Chronicle, Apr. 30) and that the U.S. EPA has bypassed the results of its own scientists’ research to instead rely on recommendations of an industry-funded group. Rules changes by the Bush administration have made deliberations about chemical risk secret so that there is no oversight or open scientific debate. An April 30 Washington Post article notes that this “makes it impossible to see whether agencies are acting in the interest of science or for less noble reasons.” It seems clear similar problems have trickled down to CDFA as you and your staff present cherry-picked and misrepresented science to the citizens of California in an effort to rationalize a dangerous program for which there is no justification. 

You claim that you are conducting the LBAM program “in an open, transparent manner.” In fact, East Bay residents have for some time been requesting CDFA’s schedule of LBAM presentations and asking that those presentations be balanced to include the scientists whose research counters the state’s unsubstantiated claims. Those residents have received no response. 

With all these lies, omissions, abuses of discretion, and failures in transparency to your credit, Mr. Secretary, and with the burden that has been placed on the independent scientists and citizens of California to bring the facts about the LBAM spray to light, the charge of misrepresentation clearly lands at your own doorstep.

City of Berkeley decisionmakers would like us to believe that circumstances beyond their control have forced them to consider new tax and bond measures for the November ballot. At the council’s May 6 budget workshop, City Manager Phil Kamlarz and Budget Manager Tracy Vesely blamed Berkeley’s fiscal crisis on Prop. 13, the real estate downturn and Sacramento’s past and possible future raids on municipal treasuries, while praising the council for its wisdom and foresight. Councilmembers returned the compliment.  

Councilmember Wozniak thanked staff “for keeping the budget on an even keel.” “We can see that staff and council made many wise decisions,” said Councilmember Anderson. Now, said Mayor Bates, “we have to continue to be prudent.” 

Nobody on the dais marred this exercise in collective self-vindication by alluding to circumstances that city officials could have controlled but chose not to, like their obscene handouts to big developers. To cite only the most egregious example: In May 2005 the council secretly voted to have Berkeley taxpayers give the biggest developer in town, the University of California, a $12 million annual subsidy for campus use of city services—fire, police and sewers—for 15 years. 

Nor did city officials bring up their capitulation to the Berkeley’s public safety unions. “What if labor costs are not controlled?” asked Budget Manager Vesely, flagging the biggest threat to the the city’s tenuous fiscal stability. “We just settled contracts with police and fire,” she said, “but negotiations are still open” with non-sworn employees. The implication was that labor costs, which consume 80 percent of Berkeley’s general fund (non-earmarked monies), had been reined in by the new contracts. 

Consider, then, that in February, with no public deliberation whatsoever, the council okayed a 14 percent salary increase for Berkeley police. According to city Human Resources Director Dave Hodgkins, the police were already averaging $98,292 in salaries and $55,056 in annual benefits. 

The new contract with the firefighters, approved in November with virtually no public discussion, raised salaries by 13 percent, as well as increasing annual benefits. Berkeley firefighters were already averaging $101,436 in salaries and $47,496 in annual benefits. 

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that in 2007 over 20 percent (372) of Berkeley’s 1700 employees had salaries greater than $100,000, and that’s not counting benefits, which run about 50 percent of salaries. Seventy percent of those six-figure paychecks went to public safety officers. The top earner, Police Sergeant Howard Nonoguchi, took home $217,880. 

This is controlling labor costs? 

In fact, Berkeley City Hall is being run a lot like a jobs program for city workers. At the May 6 workshop, Budget Manager Vesely said that Berkeley balanced its budget between 2003 and 2006 by making $20 million in cuts, mainly by eliminating almost 150 positions from the city workforce. During the 2006 mayoral and council campaigns, we heard a lot about those cuts. What we didn’t hear was what Vesely further observed: The 150 positions that got the ax were almost all empty. “You could probably count on the fingers of one hand” the number of city employees who were actually laid off, she told the council. Her tone suggested that this should be regarded as a major achievement. 

And so it should—if you think the needs of city staff ought to come before those of the citizenry. Here’s a different view: Municipal budgets should reflect the purpose of democratic government, which is to benefit the general welfare. In deciding what to cut, the council and the city manager should have asked, what will best serve the public at large?—not how can we ensure that the maximum number of current staff stay on the city’s payroll? 

The prioritization of staff welfare partly reflects the larger community’s admirable solicitude for workers and the organizations that represent them. It’s one thing, however, to defend Berkeley Bowl employees’ right to organize a union or Berkeley Honda machinists’ right to fair treatment and quite another to advocate raises for city staffers whose salaries already average upwards of $98,000 a year. 

Indeed, the council’s commitment to working people is highly selective. As Dave Blake recently noted in these pages, Mayor Bates and his allies on the council refused to defend workers’ rights to join a union at the forthcoming West Berkeley Bowl, owned by the notoriously anti-union Glen Yasuda. 

The council’s deference to city unions, and above all to the unions representing the city’s police and firefighters, reflects something besides solicitude for workers’ rights: the electeds’ fear of losing their seats. Unlike the workers at Berkeley Honda or the Berkeley Bowl, Berkeley police and firefighters have lots of money and clout. Cross them, and come election time, they’ll pay you back by withholding their endorsements and flooding your constituents’ mailboxes and voicemails with claims that you’re soft on public safety. 

The fear-mongering has already begun, with the city’s blessing: The city-funded Berkeley voter survey conducted on May 13-15 asked whether respondents would “approve a new parcel tax of $90 per year on the average homeowner to prevent rotating fire station closures, enhance existing emergency medical service response, increase the number of stations that are staffed with paramedics, establish compatible emergency communication systems between public safety responders in the Bay Area and improve community disaster preparedness.” 

Initially 62 percent of the respondents said or leaned toward yes. When the questioner added that “[e]mergency medical responses account for two-thirds of service calls for the Fire Department, with the highest level of care and intervention delivered by a paramedic,” and that “currently paramedics are stationed at only three of the seven fire stations,” the yeas went up to 66 percent, verging on the two-thirds vote necessary to pass new taxes. 

At the council’s May 20 meeting, the pollster averred that the questioner’s additional remarks about the paramedics constituted “unbiased information” and “representative facts.” Representative of what? City officials’ desire to hide their pandering and recklessness from the public? Needless to say, survey respondents heard not a word about the firefighters’ (or police’s) recent raises, the city’s 15-year, $12 million annual subsidy of UC or any of the council’s other extravagances. 

It now seems likely that a Fire and Disaster Preparedness Tax on the November ballot, as well as a Pools Bond and a Library Seismic Safetey Bond, will appear on the ballot. Given the Bates administration’s contempt for public process and open government—aptly symbolized by the mayor’s privatization of his latest State of the City address—there’s no reason to expect that City Hall will supply voters with truly unbiased information about Berkeley’s money troubles. This year, as in 2004, when the four city tax measures on the ballot went down to defeat, the truth will have to come from the community.

As the primary season grinds to a close, many Democrats expect a decisive victory in the November general election and look forward to four years of a Democratic president working with a partisan Congress. What isn’t being discussed is the possible end of the conservative era. The smashing defeat of John McCain and the Republican Party should signal that Americans reject the inept conservative ideology that’s dominated U.S. politics for 28 years. 

Since the Reagan presidency, four pillars of American conservative ideology have controlled political discourse. The first is the idea that America is best protected by a gargantuan military. Conservatives have contended that to keep the U.S. safe it is necessary to have by far the biggest defense establishment. This notion reached its apotheosis at the end of the Reagan era when the U.S. won the arms race with the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War. 

After 1990, conservatives insisted U.S. military expenditures should remain enormous, citing first the risk from “rogue states” and more recently the threat of terrorism. The fallacy of this position became clear during the George W. Bush Administration: having the world’s largest military didn’t protect the United States on 9/11; conventional military action didn’t bring the terrorist perpetrators to justice; and an exclusively military operation in Iraq didn’t produce stability and democracy. 

The past seven years revealed that the conservative illusion of protecting America exclusively by a gargantuan military has two logical flaws: In the modern world no problem can be solved by an exclusively military response. And it makes no sense for conservatives to argue for a small, well-managed Federal government while insisting that a humongous military establishment be run with no performance expectations. Yet Senator McCain advocates an inept conservative military strategy, to continue fighting the Cold War. 

The second pillar of conservative ideology is the promise of small government. Since the Reagan presidency, conservatives have contended that the Federal government needs to be transformed by professional management. Instead, they have reduced governmental oversight—causing problems such as the recent credit crisis—and filled the Federal government with incompetent political appointments such as Michael Brown and Donald Rumsfeld. Again, McCain promises to continue these dysfunctional conservative practices that decrease the effectiveness and integrity of Federal programs. 

The third pillar of conservatism is tax reduction. Beginning with the Reagan era, conservatives have argued that much of the federal government is a waste of money and, therefore, Americans shouldn’t have to pay for it. As a result, the marginal tax rates for individuals and corporations were diminished, until today they are roughly half of what they were in 1980. However, while federal revenues diminished, expenditures grew because of the growth of the military establishment and the reality that Americans rely upon federal services. During the Bush administration the federal budget deficit grew to the point where it became a serious impediment to U.S. economic growth. John McCain continues to advocate lower taxes for the rich and powerful, regardless of their impact. 

The fourth pillar of conservatism is the promise of competent management. Ronald Reagan recognized that when Americans have confidence in their leaders, particularly the president, they are optimistic about the future, which is good for the economy. But after eight years of George W. Bush, Americans no longer have faith in their Republican leaders. Eighty-two percent of Americans believe the United States is headed in the wrong direction, and two-thirds feel it’s Bush’s fault. 

For the past 28 years, conservatives have argued that while Democrats are “social engineers” who know only how to lash together ineffective federal social programs, Republicans are “professional managers” who know how to run government like a business. Eight years of George W. Bush, the first “CEO president,” have proven this to be a lie. Furthermore, John McCain’s candidacy is not run by professional managers, but by corporate lobbyists. 

John McCain’s presidential campaign is based upon a single premise: “I’m well prepared to continue the Bush era.” Despite his unearned reputation as a maverick, McCain is a rock-ribbed conservative who advocates the same flawed ideology that has driven every Republican administration since Reagan: a bloated military establishment, a neutered Federal bureaucracy, lower taxes for the rich and powerful, and incompetent management.  

If McCain is defeated, what Democratic ideology will replace the vacuum created by the failure of conservatism? Hopefully, one that favors a smaller, more flexible military coupled with diplomatic initiatives to effectively fight the war on terrorism. Domestically, this should be paired with a smaller, more effective government tailored to meet the needs of working families and provide the oversight required to protect all Americans. To balance the budget, and help get the economy back on track, Democrats should emphasize equitable taxation—a system where everyone pays their fair share. 

None of this will be possible without competent management. For the past 28 years, Republicans have substituted ideological dogmatism for managerial expertise. They’ve focused on amassing power rather than on governing America for the best interests of all the people. Beginning in January 2009, Democrats should have the opportunity to reverse the savage legacy of conservatism and turn America in a positive direction. 

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

I thought that last week’s column had completed my discussion of the “Safe Streets And Neighborhoods Act of 2008”—the proposed ballot initiative that would increase Oakland’s police force by 272 officers to a total of 1075—and Mayor Ron Dellums’ counter-proposal of a property tax increase initiative to increase OPD’s strength by 50 to 803.  

However, now comes the May 25 Matier & Ross item in the San Francisco Chronicle concerning the issue, and an interesting comment by Dellums Chief of Staff David Chai, and an addendum is clearly in order. 

The Matier & Ross column item revealed that when the Safe Streets initiative began circulating in petition form in the hopes of qualifying for the November ballot, the immediate result was “a meeting between Dellums, Police Chief Wayne Tucker and City Council budget committee Chairwoman Jean Quan, who was worried the measure would bankrupt the city,” and shortly thereafter, the mayor went public with his own idea of a counterproposal of a 50-police increase property tax initiative. 

“Dellums chief of staff David Chai told us,” Mr. Matier and Mr. Ross wrote, “the mayor had to get something going because ‘we couldn’t just let one side dictate the conversation.’ ” 

That sounds like something one of the mayor’s critics or opponents might say, rather than someone who has—supposedly—been closely involved in the Dellums administration. 

While one might not like what Mr. Dellums has been saying—or doing—about public safety over the course of the 17 months of his administration, it is difficult to argue, with any credibility, that the mayor has not been part of the conversation. As we detailed in last week’s column, Oakland—under the Dellums administration—is in the midst of a major restructuring of our police resources, including the division of the city into three geographical patrol units, the move to the 12-hour day, the signing of a new police contract, and, of course, the projected increase to 803 full strength. The signing of the new police contract is especially noteworthy, as it broke the Oakland Police Officers Association’s stubborn opposition to the civilianization of certain OPD positions currently being staffed by uniformed police officers. In lay terms, that means that OPD will be able to hire non-sworn police officers to work some of its desk jobs and administrative jobs, freeing up uniformed police for street patrol and investigative work—where the public wants them—and stretching the effectiveness of the authorized 803 uniformed strength. In addition, the Dellums administration has moved forward with many of the promised reforms in the area of preventing crime and violence before it begins, including, among other things, the initiation of a jobs program for formerly incarcerated persons through newly hired Reentry Employment Specialist Isaac Taggart (the first “Accessing Oakland Jobs” employment fair under this program was held in April, and Taggart is moving forward with efforts to prevent barriers to city employment for the formerly incarcerated), and the hiring of 20 violence prevention outreach workers through the Department of Human Services to provide street-level intervention services to individuals at high-risk of getting into—or continuing with—violent street life. 

That’s a solid—and defensible—program that needs some time to jell and see if it makes a dent in Oakland’s public safety and violence problems. 

Meanwhile, it is perfectly proper—though not necessarily advisable, but we’ll get to that in a moment—for the Dellums administration to advance the hiring of 50 more police above the current 803 limit to advance the mayor’s public safety initiatives. However, for the mayor’s chief of staff to imply to Mr. Matier and Mr. Ross that the mayor has not been part of Oakland’s public safety conversation is, well, oddly ill-informed about the administration’s own programs and actions in this area. 

But let’s get to the viability of the proposed 50-police increase property tax initiative itself. 

Choosing an increase of 50 may go back to the position of OPD Chief Wayne Tucker—stated on several occasions—that if the city wants to maintain a constant patrol strength of 803, we need to authorize 50 police officers above that number in the budget. Mr. Tucker’s reasoning has a sound administrative basis. While Dellums administration and Police Department officials are confident that the city will reach Mr. Dellums’ goal of 803 hired patrol officers by the end of 2008, that number can only be reached briefly, for a month or two, at best. Veteran officers are retiring at the rate of 5 or so per month, and so the numbers of hired officers will immediately begin to drop, with a significant lag time before they can be brought back up, again, to full strength. Police cannot simply be hired off the street and put into uniform and on the street again. They have to be trained in full police procedures, if they have never been officers before, and then, for all recruits whether veteran or not, in the Oakland Municipal Code and OPD procedures. That training procedure takes time. In addition, it’s my understanding that the city cannot even authorize a new round of police academies until OPD reaches a level of 25 officers under the 803 authorized strength. That means a significant lag time between the time the city starts dropping below 803 uniformed officers and when the academy graduates are finally hired to bring the department back up to full strength. The actual OPD numbers will always fluctuate, reaching 803 as the high point, dropping to some number below, and then, eventually, returning to 803, only to repeat the cycle again. 

Mr. Tucker’s theory—and, as I said, it has a sound administrative basis—is that if you want to maintain an actual police strength of 803, you have to authorize approximately 50 more. Under this scenario, 853 would be the high-water mark, which would only be reached for brief periods, but the normal attrition rates and lag time in recruitment and training would not drop the actual strength below 800. 

But what is administratively sound is not necessarily politically adviseable. 

There is no magic to the number 803, it is only a result of the calculations of the Measure Y authors as to how high a property tax increase Oakland voters would support. 803 police has become a community rallying cry and a potent political slogan only because that’s the authorized strength we ended up with after passing Measure Y in 2004. If Oakland were to pass a tax initiative increasing the authorized strength to 853, thus ensuring that 803 could be consistently reached, the number 803 would immediately lose its current political potency and would be quickly forgotten, and the citizens who are now demanding that Oakland hire the authorized 803 would only certainly begin to demand that Oakland hired the newly-authorized 853. If Mr. Tucker believes he needs a constant 800 police to address Oakland’s crime and violence problem, authorizing 50 above that is the right way to go. But if Mr. Tucker and Mr. Dellums are trying to stave off political demands for more police by this proposal, I’m afraid they’ll find they’ve gotten themselves in an endless loop of escalating demands. 

And that’s even if the Dellums administration could get a 50-police-increase property tax initiative passed. 

The people behind the “Safe Streets And Neighborhoods Act of 2008”— PG&E, developers John Protopappas and Mike Ghielmetti, and community activists Greg McConnell and Marcus Johnson with Larry Tramutola and John Whitehurst as hired political consultants, according to Mr. Matier and Mr. Ross—should certainly be commended for their cleverness. Their proposed initiative calls for the hiring of 272 more police, but is decidedly vague on how those extra police would be paid for, saying only, as we reported last week, that “the City Council is empowered to adopt ordinances necessary to effectuate the purpose of this section.” My guess is that, if the Safe Streets initiative makes it to the November ballot, it has a chance of passage. It would only need a simply 50 percent plus one majority, and it would play on that disturbing human tendency to believe that if the fine print details of how something is supposed to be paid for is not explicitly spelled out, somehow there’s a chance that we might be able to skip having to pay for it. 

The 50 police increase property tax initiative being floated by the Dellums administration does not have those advantages. The funding mechanism would be in plain sight for every voter to see. And because that funding mechanism would involve a property tax increase, the proposed measure would require a two-thirds approval for passage. 

That’s a tough hurdle to cross in these post-Measure Y days. 

Since the passage of Measure Y in 2004 with roughly three percentage points to spare for the two-thirds needed (69.6 to 30.4) there has been a growing disquiet over the failure of the city to reach the 803 police strength called for in the measure. That disquiet escalated during the fight over Mr. Dellums’ police augmentation plan (the plan intended to carry out his goal to reach 803 hired police), in which the escalated police hiring process was financed with Measure Y funds. Some citizens—including the chair of the Measure Y Oversight Committee—charged the city with “raiding” the Measure Y funds. 

I don’t agree with those charges, and I think Mr. Dellums’ police augmentation strategy was the only way to break the police hiring logjam and fully staff the police, including all of the 63 Measure Y problem-solving officer positions. But that’s not the point. During the debate over Mr. Dellums’ augmentation plan, many citizens said they had lost trust with the City on this issue, regretted their previous votes in favor of Measure Y, and vowed that they would not support such a tax measure again. History has shown us that doesn’t take much organized opposition to defeat a measure needing a two-thirds majority for passage. 

Mr. Dellums’ proposed 50-police-increase property tax initiative would fly right in the teeth of those political winds. 

If 50 more police are necessary at this time for the Dellums Administration to move forward with its public safety proposals and reforms, then they should show courage and move forward with it, just as the mayor showed courage last January in promising to fully staff the 803 authorized police positions by the end of this year. But if it is a political calculation designed to stave off the Safe Streets initiative, the folks on the third floor at Oakland City Hall might want to get out their calculators again. This idea needs a little retinkering. 

Among the fortune seekers lured to northern California by the Gold Rush, the Jewish contingent was small but significant. Jewish immigrants would go on to play an important role in the economic and cultural development of the Bay Area, and Berkeley was no exception. Although early accounts rarely discuss Berkeley’s Jewish community, some members figured among the young town’s prominent citizens. 

One pioneer Jewish family—the Fischels—established itself in downtown Berkeley in the late 1870s, gradually acquiring land around the Shattuck-University axis. A few of the buildings they erected are still with us today. 

The Fischels immigrated from Bohemia, then a Crown Land of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The paterfamilias, Simon Fischel, was born in 1846 or ‘47 (records vary in respect to the date) and arrived in New York as a teenager in 1865. For over a decade, he worked as a butcher, acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1872. 

In 1870, Simon married his compatriot Rosa Bauml (1844-1909), and while still in New York, they brought two sons and two daughters into the world (another daughter would be born in Berkeley). The Fischels probably arrived here in 1878; the 1879 directory listed them on the southeast corner of Shattuck and University Avenues. 

In the 1880 U.S. Census, the Fischel household included not only Simon, Rosa, and their four elder children, aged 2 to 8, but Rosa’s younger brother, Jacob Bauml, and E.C. Twicker, both butchers. Their neighbors at the time are familiar names in Berkeley history: John Acheson, who ran the Acheson Hotel on the northeast corner of University and Shattuck, and Jonathan G. Wright, founder of the Golden Sheaf Bakery at 2026 Shattuck. 

That year, the Fischels resided in the Antisell Block, an unprepossessing commercial building on the southwest corner of the same intersection. The 1881 U.C. Blue & Gold Yearbook carried a full-page ad announcing, “Liberty Market, cor. University & Shattuck Aves., Antisell Block - Berkeley. Simon Fischel, Dealer in Beef, Veal, Mutton, Lamb, Pork, Salt Meats, Sausages, etc. Families supplied with all kinds of meats of the best quality at the lowest market prices.” 

Home delivery was key to success at a time when few customers possessed their own means of transport, but it could backfire. On Nov. 6, 1890, the Berkeley Advocate regaled its readers with this anecdote: “A lady called on Fischel & Co. the other evening and made arrangements for that company to supply her family with meat. The team was daily sent to the house, when it was discovered that no such family resided there. It turned out that Mr. Fischel was deceived of a young man who donned the garment of a virgin to fool Fischel.” 

As the pig carcasses hanging in front of his store attested, Fischel was neither a kosher butcher nor an Orthodox Jew. Nonetheless, he involved himself in Jewish affairs and would be linked to the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland, a Reform temple founded in 1875 by Gold Rush-era settlers. At a time when Jews were barred from most fraternal societies, Fischel was a member of the Odd Fellows and the Freemasons. 

The Fischels didn’t stay long in the Antisell Block. On Dec. 11, 1880, the Berkeley Advocate reported: “Mr. S. Fischel’s family has removed from the Antisell Block to their new house on University avenue, near Shattuck street.” 

The new house was located on the north side of University Avenue west of Shattuck. When houses numbers were introduced, it became 2033 University Ave. The market, too, moved to the north side of the street, although Fischel’s annual advertisements in the Blue & Gold continued to list the Antisell Block as the address through most of the 1880s. 

Simon Fischel’s initial real estate investment was his mid-block home site, comprising lots 11 and 12 in the College Tract, on which he built a sizable two-story house with three bays and a side porch. Within two years, he had added lots 49 and 51, directly behind his home and facing Berkeley Way.  

In 1884, he and his brother-in-law and partner Jacob Bauml purchased a Shattuck Ave. lot directly to the south of the Antisell Block, on which they erected a narrow two-story building. The following year, Simon added two lots on the south side of University Avenue near Milvia Street. This was only the beginning. 

In 1888, Fischel and Bauml made a notable contribution to the downtown cityscape when they built the Fischel Block on the northwest corner of Shattuck and University. It was by far the most elegant building on the intersection, adorned with bay windows along the second floor, showy corbels under the eaves, a decorative metal railing along the roofline, and an impressive corner turret crowned by a witch’s cap. The Liberty Market occupied a storefront on the University Ave. side, next door to the University Bazaar. The rest of the building was given over to a hotel, which contained a dining room, kitchen, and office on the ground floor and guest accommodations above. The improvements were assessed at $10,000 in 1889.  

Initially called the Fischel Hotel, the establishment would become known as the California Hotel by 1891, when its image was included in the “Bird’s Eye View of Berkeley, Cal.” map distributed by land owner Charles A. Bailey as propaganda for the town’s charms. The hotel’s operator changed almost yearly, indicating a less-than-rosy balance sheet. 

On the other hand, the Fischel meat market flourished. Over the years, an ever expanding list of Fischels worked there. One of these was Isaac (aka Ignatz) Fischel, who appears to have been Simon’s brother. Isaac and his wife Elsie (aka Toni) purchased a double site at 2039 University Ave, next to Simon and Rosa’s house. Here they built a plain one-story house and raised a son and a daughter. A few doors to the west, Jacob and Lilly Bauml raised two girls at 2011 University. 

Isaac—not to be confused with another downtown butcher named Ignatz Fischel (1853-1912), a relative who ran a meat market at 2008 Shattuck and lived at 1924 University Ave.—bought a double lot on the northeast corner of Bonita (then called Louisa) and Berkeley Way, where in 1890 he built a one-story rental house. Isaac never got a chance to expand his holdings; death overtook him around 1893. 

Such was not the case with Simon and Rosa, who added two more lots to the pair on Berkeley Way and erected four identical rental houses, one of which was occupied by their son Charles, also a butcher. These houses survived until 1955, when the City of Berkeley purchased and demolished a row of seven houses to create the Berkeley Way parking lot. 

Simon Fischel died on April 4, 1907, two months before his younger daughters Sally and Rebecca were married. Rosa followed him on Feb. 6, 1909. She received brief obituaries in the San Francisco Call, which called her a “pioneer relict,” and in the Oakland Tribune, which described Simon as “the pioneer meat butcher of Berkeley.” Their various properties were divided among the surviving son, Charles, and his three sisters. 

Meanwhile, Elsie Fischel’s house at 2039 University burned down on July 4, 1908 after catching fire from a festive skyrocket. Elsie and her offspring, Charles and Clara, moved to their second house at 1923 Bonita Ave., which they had previously let to grocer George Hunrick of Rose Grocery fame.  

The following year, their old homestead on University sprouted the three-story University Apartments, with two storefronts—one of them a movie theater—on the ground floor. The building is now called the University Hotel. A launderette operates in the old cinema space. 

On her Bonita Ave. property, Elsie built two additional houses for rental. No sooner were they built than her tenants at 1933 Bonita, a plasterer and a sheet metal worker, ganged up on Charles Fischel and beat him with a broomstick during an argument over $1.25. Knocked off the porch and falling 15 feet to the ground, Charles cracked his skull and injured his vocal chords. The metal worker was sentenced to three months in jail.  

Charles eventually recovered his speech sufficiently to be arrested for using foul language in 1919, when a neighbor complained to the police that his Sunday rest was being disturbed. Fischel had been swearing at his smoking kitchen stove. 

A different mishap overtook Elsie’s daughter, Clara. Her 1907 engagement to an Alameda dentist came to nothing, and in 1912 she met one Joseph Guttman, a Hungarian who undertook to paint the Fischel home and was given room and board there. Within three weeks, Clara and Joseph became engaged, and she advanced him $70 to buy a ring. After borrowing an additional $135 from Elsie, Guttman vanished. Clara eventually found a husband but died in 1920, aged 36. 

Simon and Rosa’s youngest daughter, Rebecca, married David Roth, a San Francisco jeweler. In 1923, she decided to replace her parents’ home with a commercial building and obtained a permit for a one-story concrete building containing five stores.  

Early in 1924, she changed their mind and built three stories, including two hotel floors. Designed by San Francisco architect August G. Headman, the hotel was leased to James and Mary Reilley, who christened it after Mary’s maiden name, Nash. Rebecca owned the Nash Hotel until 1955. 

By the 1940s, the Fischel Block on the corner of University and Shattuck was gone, and in its place stood Berkeley’s first drive-in barbecue, the Cameo, housed in a concrete-and steel building with a glass and glass-brick façade. In 1950, the Cameo moved to the northeast corner of Shattuck and Channing.  

It was replaced by a modernist, two-story glass-and-aluminum building designed by Wally Reemelin, a Berkeley industrial engineer who was one of the first to build A-frame houses.  

The McDonald’s Department Store operated here until 1958, when it gave way to the House of Harris men’s clothing store, which had outgrown its Shattuck Square building. This legendary haberdashery remained until 1976. Since the late ‘70s, the site has been occupied by another McDonald’s—the hamburger chain. 

Elsie Fischel moved her Bonita house to 1624 Delaware Street in 1925. Having survived both her children, she died alone in 1934. During her last several years, she was dependent on the county for her welfare. Her 1890 house, which had fallen into disrepair, was purchased several years ago and restored. It is the recipient of one of BAHA’s 2008 Preservation Awards. 

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

Marriage is a mixed bag and no matter what anyone tells you, you will never find the perfect man or woman (assuming those two cover your range of preferences) to spend the rest of your life cooking vegan casseroles beside. Everyone has a truckload of unnerving habits, indefensible opinions and inexcusable friends. Everyone. That gorgeous guy or gal you see at the water cooler each day. Them too. Once you get closer enough to anyone, you soon find out that they pick their teeth, that they have some troubling disease or that they’ve never actually read a book. So how do we choose mates? We figure out what’s most important to us and try our best to ignore the rest, in the knowledge that around the corner the grass is actually brown and dying. This is the truth. Therefore, it’s important to decide what you really care about the most. What issues are strongest for you. What attracts you most and what you can bear. Buying houses is no different (you knew I’d get around to this, right?) 

I met a lovely young couple yesterday. Flush with the thrill of their wedding plans and breathless at the thought of acquiring a new house. After spending some tremendous time looking at the house, we ended up in their backyard drinking fizzy water when the question came up. It’s the question. Should I buy this house? We get it constantly. 

Of course, I can never answer the question any more than the psychologist (interestingly these young folks were both psychologists) can tell you whether you should marry the person you’re dating. It’s very personal. 

I had a few issues with this house and, after some time in the conversation we arrived at the point that nearly any house will have a range of issues. Not that those lists won’t vary in length and dollar size but most houses will have a list of some dimension.  

Also, I’ve noted that most people don’t tend to range that far in the overall list size while individuals tend to seek either shorter lists or longer ones. I think part of this is related to their risk aversion index. Some consistently seek out houses that are neat as a pin and well maintained while others are looking for a bargain; A great big house for a lot less than everything else around. This does vary and it’s not consistent but it is an interesting behavior that tends to emerge with some consistency. If I work for the same client three times in a row, the houses will tend to be similar in overall quality. I have watched many friends over the years as they tended to date the same kind of person over and over again. I think these are similar expressions of the same subtextual thinking. 

As I found certain things to criticize about the building (in response to their questions), this young woman nearly blurted out “but I just love this house.” I smiled and responded that that was probably the best reason of all to buy the house and that I thought it should be a major part of their decision whether to buy (or not) and a major element in how they would negotiate and think about the purchase. My reason, and I said it right out loud, was that every house was going to have its plusses and minuses.  

It’s rotten table manners and it’s messy college buddies but that the fact that there was something that she (and hopefully he) was just nutty about would help to offset the inevitable downsides of home ownership. 

Over the life of a house, many, if not most of the jobs that have to be done will financially wash out in the overall equation of home ownership. In truth, most of us will pay three or four times the actual sale price of the house in the form of mortgage interest, brokerage fees, closing costs and other fixed expenses. You can buy a lot of foundations for that, so there is no good reason to not buy a house simply because it has some necessary repairs. Buying because you love the house is actually a damned good and logical position because it will see you through and justify all of the expenses and problems that are inevitable. Further, I would say that when people love their houses and admire their own choices, they will tend to follow through with good maintenance and timely upgrades that will further improve the overall equation. 

Conversely, when someone buys for financial reason alone or buys the house that they think they SHOULD buy, the honeymoon ends all the sooner and may be coupled with a badly timed resale, another round of closing costs and disruption of the flow of life (buying and selling houses, for all the excitement is not something you want to do any more often that absolutely necessary). Again, the analogies with dating and marriage should be self evident; marrying the person your parents think you should marry, marrying for money and so forth. 

That said, I’ll finish by turning this all on it’s head. Love grows and the capacity to love will manifest anywhere the lover goes. Some people will always find fault and never settle down. Some people fall in love everywhere they go. I’ve seen buyers buy the first house they looked at and never look back and I’ve seen those who looked for year and year and are still renting. If I’m asked, I favor a balanced approach.  

Take your time, look around to see what’s out there, date a few bungalows and, perhaps, have a fling with a Victorian. Spend some time with a good sturdy 1950s model and then, when you see something that really turns your head, you’ll be able to make a smart decision knowing your heart and your head are both involved. 

So don’t get me wrong. I do believe that physical conditions matter in choosing a house. Taking a good look makes a lot of sense and including these elements in your thinking is prudent. That said, I often feel as though my process is akin to the tarot reader turning the cards. It’s an activity that houses the revelation of the inner intuition. It LOOKS like we’re analyzing wiring and bolts, but often, what we’re really doing is finding out if it’s really love. 

The northbound phalaropes passed through a few weeks ago. We saw them at the Hayward Regional Shoreline, a couple hundred at least, spinning around like little feathered tops in one of the fenced ponds. Every few minutes a portion of the flock, seized by some apprehension, would take off, circle, and touch down on the water again. 

These were mostly red-necked phalaropes, and at this season, unlike the gray-and-white birds of winter, they lived up to their names. It was easy to distinguish the brighter-colored females from the duller males. After a lot of time on the spotting scope, I was able to pick out a red phalarope among the rednecks, a bit larger and bulkier and vivid brick red on the neck, breast, and belly—probably a female. All I needed for the Phalarope Trifecta was a Wilson’s, but I couldn’t summon one up. 

I’ve written here before about the atypical behavior signaled by those colors. Like only a few other birds (jacanas, painted snipe,), all three phalarope species have socially dominant females that take the lead in courtship and territorial defense, and males that incubate the eggs and rear the chicks after the female has moved on to a new mate.  

Darwin thought of sexual selection as a process of female choice shaping male ornamentation, like the tail of the peacock. In phalaropes, it must have been male preferences that produced the gaudy female plumage. Maybe a female phalarope’s bright colors are cues to greater reproductive fitness or low parasite loads, as appears to be true of gaudy males in other avian species. Another project for someone in need of a dissertation topic. 

This piece isn’t about sexual selection, though. It’s about biomechanics. I have never been at all mechanically inclined, but I’ve always been fascinated about the way things work. Not that every adaptation is perfect; there are a lot of jury-rigged panda’s thumbs in the natural world. But evolution, in most cases, has done a splendid job with the material at hand. I remain impressed by the feet of the gecko, and now I find out that ivy roots also use nano-scale forces to stick to smooth walls. 

I mentioned the phalaropes spinning in circles. One bird was clocked at 57 rotations per minute. They do this to concentrate small aquatic organisms, as humpback whales build bubble nets to corral fish. Phalaropes, known to sailors as “bowhead birds,” hang around whales to feed on their leftovers. There were no whales at the Hayward Shoreline, but apparently plenty of small tasty creatures. 

But how do the phalaropes handle their prey? The first hint came from ornithologist Margaret Rubega in the 1990s. Watching film footage of a whirling phalarope, she noticed a dark blur moving up the bird’s beak. Although the phalarope appeared to be ingesting seawater, its beak wasn’t built for suction.  

The mechanism wasn’t clarified until this year, when John Bush, a mathematician at MIT, MIT graduate student Manu Prakash, and David Quere of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris published an article in Science. They built a stainless-steel replica of a phalarope beak and put it through a series of lab tests. With the technobeak in a vertical position, water leaked out, as did drops of silicone oil. 

Then the scientists tried opening and closing the beak at a range of angles. Open it too wide and a water droplet splits; too narrow and it spills. But there’s one point-the sweet spot of the phalarope beak-at which the water drop bends, and surface forces push it toward the bird’s mouth, in defiance of gravity. Bush, Prakash, and Quere say the key process is contact angle hysteresis, the force that causes raindrops to stick to windowpanes. Normally it creates resistance to droplet motion; in this case it promotes it.  

As Rubega and others had noticed, feeding phalaropes constantly tweezer their beaks open and shut. The motion exploits surface tension to ratchet a food-laden droplet up the beak and into the mouth. When the beak closes, the leading edge of the drop moves toward the mouth; when it closes, the trailing edge follows suit. Bush and his co-authors call the process the “capillary ratchet.” 

Shape is critical: this only works with a long, narrow beak.  

Prakash, whose department is the Center for Bits and Atoms, is looking at practical applications: microfluidic devices that allow controlled stepwise motion of microliter droplets. Not as dramatic as gecko Velcro, but a benefit nonetheless. 

The MIT group also sounds a cautionary note. If a phalarope encounters an oil spill and its beak becomes oil-soaked, the capillary ratchet doesn’t work. “Once they feed through that thin slick of oil, they are done,” says Rubega. How that translates into phalarope losses during spills is a huge unknown. These are sparrow-sized birds that spend much of the year on the open ocean.  

We may never notice the casualties. 

THURSDAY, MAY 29 

THEATER 

Willard Dramatic Arts “Turf” A student-created play about the experience of middle school, Thurs. and Fri. at 7 p.m. at Willard’s Metalshop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., enter on Regent St. Free. 883-1877. 

FILM 

9th Annual Berkeley High School Film Festival at 7 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater on Allston between Milvia and MLK. Tickets are $5-$10.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Karen Volkman and Paul Hoover, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Kala Artists in Residence Talk with Lisa Levine, Mary Shisler, and Susan Wolf at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. http://kala.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Big Jazz Band Bash fundraiser with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School Jazz Band and the Berkeley Jazz School Middle School Project Band at 7:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School Auditorium, 1871 Rose St. at Grant. Free, but bring your checkbook!  

From the Top, classical music showcasing young musicians, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$40. 642-9988.  

Project Greenfield, world jam, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054.  

Big Cheese & Jive Rats! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ.  

Country Joe McDonald Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662. www.cafedelapaz.net 

Scoop Nisker at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Courtney Janes at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Speak the Music Beat boxing with Butterscotch, Soulati, Syzygy, Eachbox and many others, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568.  

Charles Wheal at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Otis Taylor: Recapturing the Banjo at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, MAY 30 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “”No Child...” Wed.-Sun. at 2025 Addison St., through June 8. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. 

Altarena Playhouse “On Golden Pond” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 21. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Brookside Rep “Franz Kafka’s Love Life, Letters and Hallucinations” Thurs.- Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., through June 29. Tickets are $16-$34. 800-838-3006. www.brooksiderep.org  

Impact Theatre “‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $10-$15, through June 7. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Full Monty” Fri. and Sat. at 8, selected Sun. matinees at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond through July 5. Tickets are $20. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Shotgun Players “Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Asby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 22. 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. 

Willard Dramatic Arts “Turf” A student-created play about the experience of middle school, at 7 p.m. at Wilard Middle School’s Metalshop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., enter on Regent St. Free. 883-1877. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Steven Saylor reads from “The Triumph of Caesar: A Novel of Ancient Rome” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Volt War Issue Anti-war poetry reading with Dennis Philips, Donna de la Perriere, Leslie Scalapino, Maxine Chernoff and many others at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco Girls Chorus “Dance On, My Heart!” ar 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $12-$24. 415-863-1752. 

Marvin Sanders, flute, selections from Telemann “Twelve Fantasias ”at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $10. 848-1228. 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies with The Kymata Band at 7:30 p.m. at The Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$18. 868-0695. www.bayareabach.org 

Venezuelan Music Project “Canto, Fulia y Tambor” at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $14-$16. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Audra McDonald, soprano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Michael Smolens’ Kriya Jazz Octet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baguette Quartette, Parisian café music, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

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

What it Is at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Kakistocracy, One in the Chamber at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Otis Taylor: Recapturing the Banjo at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square,. Cost is $18-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 31 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Portraits of Palestinians from the Nablus and Jenin Regions” by Berkeley resident Larisa Shaterian. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibit runs to July 12. 644-1400. www.photolaboratory.com 

“Art Saves Lives” 2008 Oakland Youth Arts Festival with exhibits, art making, and performances from noon to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Musuem of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. www.museumca.org 

“Reflections of Me and My World 2008” The ArtEsteem annual exhibition. Opening reception at 3 p.m. at ASA Academy & Community Science Center, 2811 Adeline St., at 28th, Oakland. 652-5530. 

“Art of the Cotton Mill Studios” Paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media by Keiko Nelson, Bill Stoneham, Elizabeth Tennant and Susan Tuttle at 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116. 535-1702. www.thefloatcenter.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Field of Mirrors, An Anthology of Filipino American Writers” with editor Edwin Lozada and several authors at 3:30 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. www.ewbb.com 

Larissa Brown on “Knitalong” on knitting together for a common goal, at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Nuccia Focile, sporano, Paul Charles Clarke, tenor with the Berkeley Symphony Orhestra at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

La Peña Community Chorus at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$17. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jules Broussard Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Sambo Ngo, African, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

The Refugees: Cindy Bullens, Deborah Holland & Wendy Waldman at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Annual Middle School Invitational, a showcase of middle school jazz bands, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rivka Amando at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

George Cotsirilos Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Jinx Jones Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Heathen, Hatchet 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. 

Tom Scott; Cannon Re-Loaded at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 

CHILDREN 

Charity Kahn and the Jamband, rockin’ music, at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

Video Works by Lynn Hershman Leeson from noon on, with the artist in a virtual conversation. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Trevor Paglen “The Other Night Sky” Artist talk at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft. 642-0808. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Celebrating Hal Stein with Lee Bloom, John Wiitala, Danny Spencer, Larry Vuckovich, Eddie Marshall, Mark Levine, Harvey Wainapel and many others from 1 to 4 p.m. at Yoshi's at Jack London Square, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. Free, but donations welcome to support the ceartion of a documentary about Hal. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Danny Quynh and Danny Dancers at 3 p.m. at Expression Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

Americana Unplugged with The Backyard Party Boys at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Twang Cafe with Careless Hearts and Whisky Chimp at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $10. 644-2204.  

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

Soul Sanctuary in a benefit for Ashkenaz at 10:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is tba. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Howard Wiley: A Tribute to Dexter Gordon at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

Tom Rush at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $30.50-$31.50. 548-1761. 

Tom Scott; Cannon Re-Loaded at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

MONDAY, JUNE 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

James Scheihing, photographer and retired geologist, will present his “The Earth: by Wind, by Water, by Fire” series from June 2nd through July 4th at the Light Room Gallery, 2263 Fifth St. Hours are 9-6 weekdays and 10-2 on Sat. 649-8111. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bill Bell, aka The Jazz Professor, speaks as part of the Brown Bag Speakers Forum at 12:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Richard Schwartz discusses “Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley” at 10:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St., Oakland. 238-2022. www.museumca.org 

John Perkins discusses “The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Lius Garcia, James Schveill and Clem Stark, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Hew Wolffe at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Downtown Jam Session with Glen Pearson at 7 p.m. at Ed Kelly Hall, Oakland Public COnservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. Cost is $5. www.opcmusic.org 

Artists’ Vocal Ensemble, works by Claudio Monteverdi on period instruments at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $35-$15. www.ave-music.org 

Community Song Circle at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761.  

El Cerrito High School & Portola Middle School Jazz Ensembles at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 3 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lama Surya Das on “Words of Wisdom” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Shattuck. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sergei Podobedov, classical piano at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste St. Tickets are $10-$15. 415-990-3851. 

Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble “Rule Britannia!” A concert of sacred and secular compositions from 200 years of English musical tradition at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $5-$15. 233-1479. www.wavewomen.org 

Berkeley Festival “Wildcat Viols” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $28. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Gerard Landry and the Lariats at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Lost Weekend at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Nicolas Bearde at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

Bruce Conner “Mabuhay Gardens” Punk photographs, opens at Berkeley Art Museum. 2626 Bancroft Way and runs through August 3. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Get Acquainted with Tosca” with Berkeley Opera Artistic Director Jonathan Khuner and singers from the upcoming production at 7:30 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 

Jenny Block describes “Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Shattuck. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Sounds at Oakland City Center with Pure Ecstasy, motown, at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” music by Monteverdi and Manelli at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Berkeley Festival: The Concord Ensemble “El Despertar del Alma” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32. 642-9988.  

The Very Hot Club of Berkeley at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ed Neff and Friends, bluegrass, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

Whiskey Brothers, old time and bluegrass, at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Joseph Israel at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Socket Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 

CHILDREN 

Oakland School for the Arts “Once Upon this Island” Thurs.-Sat. at 7 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1800 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 873-8800. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Seeing Music” An exhibit inspired by traditional and folk music, in conjunction with Freight and Salvage’s 40th Anniversary. Reception at 5:30 p.m. at Addison St. Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. 848-2112. 

FILM 

“The Blank Generation” with filmmaker Mindaugis Bagdon in person at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thurs. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Love Grandma, Activists Write” with contributors from Grandmothers Against the War at 10:30 a.m. at North Oakland Senior Center, 5714 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, in the Old Merritt College Building, enter through parking lot on 58th St. www.gawba.org 

Oasis High School Spring Arts Celebration, with poetry, music and plays, at 5:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” Lecture by Vincent Dumestre, artistic director at 3 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Free. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Hillary Gravendyk and Craig Santos Perez, poets, read at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Khalil Bendib, author of “Mission Accomplished: Wicked Cartoons by America's Most Wanted Political Cartoonist” at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. www.revolutionbooks.org 

Mary Pols reads from “Accidentally On Purpose” about her first pregnancy at 7:30 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Susan Linn describes “The Case for Make Believe” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Shattuck. 559-9500. 

Chris Carlsson and Erick Lyle introduce their new books "Nowtopia" and "On the Lower Frequencies" at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674-A 23rd. St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra, with Rachel Barton-Pine, guest concertmaster, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. TIckets are $28-$42. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

Berkeley Festival: American Bach Soloists Baroque violin competition semi-finals at 5 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $16. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” music by Monteverdi and Manelli at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

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

Eric Swinderman & Terrence Brewer at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Emam & Friends, world music, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10 . 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com.  

London Street at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Selector: The Sound Capsule at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Diablo’s Dust at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 

CHILDREN 

Oakland School for the Arts “Once Upon this Island” Fri.-Sat. at 7 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1800 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 873-8800. 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “On Golden Pond” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 21. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “”No Child...” Wed.-Sun. at 2025 Addison St., through June 8. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. 

Brookside Rep “Franz Kafka’s Love Life, Letters and Hallucinations” Thurs.- Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., through June 29. Tickets are $16-$34. 800-838-3006.  

Impact Theatre “‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $10-$15, through June 7. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Full Monty” Fri. and Sat. at 8, selected Sun. matinees at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond through July 5. Tickets are $20. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Shotgun Players “Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Asby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 22. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Claudia Tennyson “Domestic IInsecurity” Art using common craft techniques such as knitting and sewing. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, 25 Grand Ave., upper level, Oakland. Exhibit runs to July 12. www.chandracerrito.com 

“What is a Book?” Explorations by a dozen artists. Recption at 7 p.m. at Oakopolis Creativity Center, 447 25th St., Oakland, to June 21. 663-6920. 

“The Hot Salon” Paintings by Scott Hove and Bethany Ayres. Artists’ reception at 6 p.m. at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., at Telegraph, Oakland. Exhibition runs to June 23. 444-7411. 

“Life is a Pigsty” New work by Jason Byers. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave, Oakland. Exhibition runs to July 7. www.thecompoundgallery.com 

“Global Menagerie” Works by Elijah Pfotenhauer and Kristi Holohan. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Mama Buzz, 2138 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. 465-4073. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Battlefield without Borders” with poet David Smith-Ferry and activist Jim Haber at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Proceeds to benefit medical aid to Iraqi refugees. 482-1062. 

Trevor Calvert and Eleanor Johnson, poets, read at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Melissa Marr reads from her novel “Ink Exchange” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 3 

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Jose Lius Orozco and Guitarra Mágica at 10 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12 for adults, $5 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Oakland School for the Arts “Once Upon this Island” Sat. at 7 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1800 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 873-8800. 

EXIBITIONS 

Digital Photography and Printmaking Exhibit at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. between Shattuck and Milvia, Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through June 15.  

“Karen Nierlich: Fragile and Resilien” color photography, photos of moss and children engaged in exuberant, messy art. Artist’s reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at 1251 Solano Ave., Albany. 526-9558. 

THEATER 

Stone Soup Improv at 8 p.m. at Temescal Art Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph. Tickets are $6-$9. 415-430-5698. www.stonesoupimprov.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Festival “The Pope, the Emperor and the Grand Duke The Rediscovery of a masterpiece of Renaissance Florence” at 3 p.m. at Wheeler Auditoriuml, UC Campus. Free. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Poetry Flash with F.D. Reeve, Jack Foley & Adele Foley at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading, 3 to 5 p.m., at Strawberry Creek Lodge (senior housing), 1320 Addison St., Berkeley. Park on the street (not in Lodge parking lot). Free. For information call (510) 527-9905, or email poetalk@aol.com.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The free 5th Annual Berkeley World Music Fest rocks with continuous music throughout the Telegraph Avenue district: Saturday, June 7th, Noon – 9 P.M., mainly in cafés & People’s Park. www.berkeleyworldmusic.org 

La Peña Open House with performances from La Peña’s msuic and theater workshops fromat 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Festival: Piffaro, The Renaissance Band A tour of instruments and music at 11 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $18, $9 for children 16 and under. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” music by Monteverdi and Manelli at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Chalice Consort, a new Renaissance ensemble, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph of Arimathea, 2543 Durant Ave. Tickets are $10.(415) 875-9544 

Berkeley Festival “Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Kensington Symphony Folkdances for String Orchestraat 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito.Suggested Donation: $15; Seniors, $12; Children free. (510) 524-9912. 

Darryll Anders & Agape Soul at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Prestige, Ras Kidus, reggae from Jamaica, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

The world is full of hope. But not for us,” Franz Kafka once replied to someone who questioned the “hopelessness” of his stories.  

In Mae Ziglin Meidav’s play, Franz Kafka’s Love Life, Letters and Hallucinations, staged at the Berkeley City Club by her Brookside Repertory Theatre with the direction of John McMullen (who directed Romeo and Juliet for Berkeley Opera), there’s an episodic series of glimpses of that “hopelessness,” the contrary characteristics of Kafka’s tales, in scenes from the author’s life.  

Meidav recalls writing a scene from an old photograph in a playwrights’ workshop, later realizing, when reading a biography of Kafka, that the scene expressed the novelist’s complex relationship with fiancée Felice Bauer. It has become one of the best of not a few comical vignettes, as a young photographer (Roy Landeverde), both discreet and frantic, tries to keep the couple (Carson Creecy and Julia Heitner) posed while they squabble. 

In a long string of over 30 scenes, the cast of 12 reveals the ongoing obsessions and frustrations of the great author from Prague, occasionally heightened by hallucinations like tableaux in his tales.  

In one, Felice becomes a mouse, while Franz shouts, “you can’t eat my stories; they’ll make you sick!” In another, a pretty young woman (Rosa Trelfall) in a fur coat and hat, from a photograph Franz has posted to his wall, enters and poses, smiling—then smothers Franz’s stream of speculative chatter with her muff.  

Kafka’s tales are notoriously difficult to adapt to the stage or screen. Steven Berkoff’s stage productions (“Metamorphosis” with Baryshnikov as the bug) and films of The Trial by Orson Welles and “In the Penal Colony” by Raul Ruiz have taken a sometimes oblique perspective, sometimes a very literal one, regarding the original stories. 

“My stories are full of autobiographical significance,” Meidav’s Kafka says, which for the writer himself may have been one reason he instructed his papers to be burned at his death.  

Where the scenes come closest to allowing Kafka’s fictional grotesquery to act on the anecdotes of his life, stylizing them, the play works best. Many scenes, though, delve unwittingly into the slough of clichés from literary potboilers and biopics about tormented artists (recently burlesqued in another Ruiz film, Klimt).  

The relentless chronology of the life also adds to the sameness of tone and rhythm that often plagues any long performance of a string of brief episodes. Meidav humorously thanks her colleagues for their editorial work, sparing the audience a much longer show. It would be interesting to watch a different arrangement of some of these scenes, perhaps with newer versions of some left out, with a different organizing principle—something more fantastic, dreamlike?—than following the events of Kafka’s life so linearly, inserting snippets of his work. 

Such reflections come from suggestive moments: entering the theater to find the writer’s parents (Jaene Leonard and Remi Barron) in bed; seeing the streams of old photographs between scenes projected above Don Cate’s sets; watching Jaene Leonard’s comic turn as a Lola Montez-like actress bearding the maladroit Franz at a bistro table, a cabaret act in itself; and Brian O’Connor taking on multiple roles—one moment, a crude, Jew-baiting soldier, the next a Kabbalistic doorkeeper in black robes and periwig—with Remi Barron, alternately sympathetic and a martinet as Franz’s father, equally convincing. 

Franz Kafka’s Love Life was performed about a decade or so ago by Subterranean Shakespeare, with Stanley Spenger—present in the opening night audience at the City Club—playing Franz. 

FRANZ KAFKA’S LOVE LIFE, LETTERS AND HALLUCINATIONS 

8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 5 p.m. Sundays through June 29 at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. $16-$24. (800) 838-3006. www.brooksiderep.org.

When I first became a jazz fan (short for fanatic) in high school, I saw European classical music as the enemy. The 19th century composers were easily characterized as a pack of pretentious, highfalutin, hoity-toity, high-hat, pompous, stuffy, overstuffed, snobby, snooty, effete and elitist fuddy-duds, not to mention being middlebrow, bourgeois, sententious and musically platitudinous, to boot; instigators of gargantuan aggregations of performers intoning their vast musical stories full of profound meanings, all of which reeked of the academy and salon and smelled of the lamp.  

Then I found out there were more flavors than vanilla at the classical soda fountain. Which brings us to this year’s Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, a celebration of the music of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries in Spain, Italy, Germany, England and Bohemia as composed by Biber, Corelli, Bach, Lawes, Byrd and Monteverdi for such diverse instruments as the shawm, sackbut, krumhorn, viola da gamba and theorbo.  

If you think you have slid into a parallel musical dimension, you have. This music is not only beautiful in itself, but also pre-classical and post-modern, a wonderful corrective to the narrow way we usually perceive the music of Europe. Early music will clean out your ears and, should you ever choose to return to the 19th century, you will find it not only both larger and smaller than you had thought but also stranger and refreshed.  

The festival kicks off on Tuesday, June 3, 8 p.m., in Hertz Hall on the University of California campus, with the Wildcat Viols, English music for six viols performing compositions by William Brade, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins and William Lawes. The harmonies produced by a viol consort can be ethereal, a little like the brotherly harmonizing of the Mills Brothers. To give you some historical context, it was Lawes’ brother Henry who composed the music for the songs in John Milton’s Comus.  

On Wednesday, June 4, 8 p.m., in Hertz Hall, the Concord Ensemble will perform 15th century Spanish secular music composed by Juan Vásquez and Cristóbal de Morales, with countertenor Paul Flight. 

One of the hits of the 2006 Festival was the performance of Baroque Carnival by Le Poème Harmonique. This year that group of singers and instrumentalists will present Venezia delle strade ai Palazzi, a combination of theater, lighting, costumes and Baroque gesture applied to the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Manelli, on Wednesday and Thursday, June 4 and 5, at 8 p.m., in Zellerbach Playhouse. 

The semi-finalists and finalists in the American Bach Soloists and Henry I. Goldberg International Young Artists Competition for Baroque Violin will perform on Thursday, June 5, 5 p.m., and Friday, June 8, at 3 p.m., in Hertz Hall. 

As revelatory as Bach’s Cello Suites or Tobias Hume’s Musicall Humors for viola da gamba are the Mystery Sonatas of Bohemian composer Heinrich Biber. Following the events of the Gospels from the Annunciation to the crowning of Mary, these haunting pieces were intended as an aid to meditation during the evening prayer services that follow the Feast of the Rosary on the first Sunday in October. Although the first piece and the concluding Passacaglia use the violin’s normal tuning, the other 14 pieces all use scordatura, unusual tunings, that allow for some exquisite sonorities. The trio of L’Estro Armonico performs the Sonatas on Friday, June 6, 5 p.m., in Hertz Hall. 

On Friday, June 6, 8 p.m., in Hertz Hall, Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, will join with the vocalists of the Concord Ensemble, to present Trionfo d’Amore e della Morte: Florentine Music for a Medici Procession. Themes familiar from Commedia dell’Arte, the Tarochi cards and Petrarch’s Triumphs will be heard in their musical incarnation. If you want to turn youngsters on to early music, catch Piffaro again on Saturday, June 7, 11 a.m., in Hertz Hall, for a demonstration of all manner of early horns, strings and percussion. 

One of the most romantic events of the festival will be the candlelight performance by ten of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s principal players of three of Corelli’s Opus 6 concerti grossi on Friday, June 6, 10:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Two other Corelli pieces, one arranged by Geminiani and the other in variations by Tartini, will also be performed. 

Finally, there will be performances on Saturday, June 7, 8 p.m., and Sunday, June 8, 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, of Alessandro Strigggio’s Mass for five choirs, Missa Sopra Ecco Sì Beato Giorno in 40 and 60 parts. This work, the largest known contrapuntal choral work in Western music, was recently discovered by UC musicologist and harpsichordist Davitt Moroney, who will be conducting its American premiere. 

These are only the highlights of a Festival that can provide total immersion in this beautiful and variegated music. To find out about all the events of the Festival visit its website at bfx.berkeley.edu and for even more events visit sfems.org/ fringe2008.htm.  

Poets James Schevill and Luis Garcia, both Berkeley natives, will be joined by Clemens Starck from the Oregon coast range to read at Moe’s Books on Telegraph, 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 2, as part of the Monday At Moe’s series. Admission will be free. 

“Luis Garcia gave a reading here recently,” said Owen Hill of Moe’s, who coordinates the series, “and did such an excellent job, we invited him back immediately. Lu approached me with the idea of all three poets reading together, and I was delighted, as Clem Starck read here a year ago or so, and James hasn’t read much at all the past few years. It’s a historic occasion.” 

James Schevill was born in 1920 and grew up in Berkeley, attending University High School in Oakland. In November 1938, while on vacation with his mother in Switzerland, Schevill went to Freiburg to meet a friend from back home, Jack Kent, and witnessed Kristallnacht, the nationwide riots in Germany, orchestrated by the Nazi party, in which synagogues and Jewish businesses were vandalized and destroyed and German Jewish citizens terrorized and attacked. Schevill wrote his first poem as a response.  

“It was a terrible poem!” he said at a reading at the Berkeley Art Center (organized by Luis Garcia) a few years back, “But after that, I knew what I was about.”  

He worked at a camp in Colorado for the political reeducation of German prisoners of war during the 1940s. His novel, Arena of Ants, was based on that experience. 

Schevill attended UC Berkeley and graduated from Harvard, later teaching at SF State, directing the Poetry Center there during the ’60s, and writing “about 20” plays of “poetic realism,” produced at Actors Workshop in San Francisco among other venues, and later at Brown University, where he went to teach in 1968.  

A play he co-wrote in Rhode Island with Mary Singer Gail, renamed The Judas Tree, was produced in New York this April at Multi Stages with a musical score and lyrics by Schevill. Based on a news story of a Sacramento woman with a boarding house for the disabled who poisoned her tenants and buried them in her garden, The Judas Tree won a prize for best play of the year. 

His play, The Last Romantics, was produced for the Berkeley Arts Festival in the ’90s. Directed by Hal Gelb, it ran for several weeks at Shattuck and Durant. He and his wife Margot returned to Berkeley in 1993, where they now live. 

Schevill’s poetry is unique, “not indebted to any school,” as poet David Gitin has remarked. Last year he finished a longer poem in sections about painter Edvard Munch:  

I was shaping my hand to my heart  

...  

And this marriage 

grows forever, 

the heart married to the hand. 

...  

You can’t escape from the real, 

But you can change it 

into the world of 

Expressionism.  

A short poem he intends to read at Moe’s is “The Will of Writing”:  

The will of writing is 

to make the pen 

sound a word, 

the sound neither hard nor soft, 

but of that balance 

which gives forth 

something surrounded 

shining and stopped.  

Luis Garcia is a Berkeley native who attended Berkeley High (“a dropout! but later dropped in to classes”) and Contra Costa Junior College. In 1963, Garcia spent a year in Chile, where his first book was published, becoming associated with poet Nicanor Parra and meeting the surrealist painter Matta and (on returning to the Bay Area) with Chilean poet Fernando Alegria, who taught at UC Berkeley and Stanford. 

Garcia met poet Robert Creeley “serendipitously” at the Berkeley Poetry Conference in 1965, later visiting him when he taught at SF State, living in Bolinas.  

“Out of that friendship came a lot of things of what I consider my better poetry,” Garcia said. “I have a history of failure at academic pursuits, but lifelong friendships with the teachers outside the classroom came out of that.” 

“I listened to a lot of jazz,” Garcia continued, “the notions of improvisation, of the transformation of notes—hitting them in a different way—of inflection and intonation influenced my style, one of brevity and lyricism,” which qualities are exemplified in “Music Man”: 

He plays himself 

like a violin. 

(With no strings 

attached.) 

He’s a snowball in hell 

with everything 

but the song 

in his head 

melting. 

Clemens Starck has worked as a merchant seaman, a reporter on Wall Street, a ranch hand in eastern Oregon, a construction foreman, and as a journeyman carpenter at Oregon State University, experiences that informs his poetry. 

This saw has a life, it uses my hands 

for its own purpose. Lucky, 

to know your own uses! 

along with the lure of literature, and the singular hope 

that words will clarify my life. 

His poems have a reflective, sometimes elegiac sense—“Approaching 50, a man starts/counting backwards”—with a wry humor, references to Zen and Taoism, Chinese and Russian history, and the urban, rural and seaboard landscapes where he’s lived and worked. 

Don’t ask stupid questions. 

Throw a quick glance over one  

shoulder, throw salt 

over the other. Soon, 

you shall speak perfect Russian—so flawlessly, 

so fluently, 

not even your comrades 

will understand. 

—“Studying Russian on 

Company Time” 

The dressing of the stage—Ashby Stage, that is—says it all in advance of curtain. With a platform that makes the audience feel savagely ringside or fashionably rampside; a long counter below the apron with microphones set for a panel, backed by a sextet at the ready; a bank of fans as a wall behind—it’s clear the epic poem of Anglo-Saxon academe is to be subjected to a deconstruction via The Media, Big Time Wrestling and Vegas floor shows ... alliterative Beowulf has finally arrived. A little unkempt, with a sweep of gore-matted hair, in the carefully dishevelled, talking head-laden, close-up world of the early 21st century, replete with Rabbit’s Foot Mead for sale outside (sweet, but not cloying) to swill while said hero waxes grandiloquent. 

For a rhapsode’s night’s work, this word-hoard with chewy epithets took centuries to resurface, buoyed up by the Germanic “Volk” movement and the historic nostalgia of Victoriana. Now maybe a different tradition is invoked by Banana, Bag & Bodice in co-production with Shotgun: something more like James Joyce’s model mythographer, Vico. Defining History as the Time of the Gods, then Heroes and finally Men, the recondite Neapolitan would see this Beowulf subject to the backwash, the undertow after a populist wave of the Age of Just Folks, diced up with pop-psych commentary and pop song, the story of a backwater hero who hit the big time long after his own had fizzled. 

Seamus Heany’s bestselling translation brought the heroic Geat back into the limelight, but the best way into the hoary web of words in clean English poesy is the first truly modern version, which UC Press put out over a half century back, by the now-nonagenarian Poet Laureate of Scotland, Edwin Morgan, who conferred the acid flavor of his World War II experiences to this fighting saga of eld.  

Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage (A Songplay) reads the show’s title. Banana, Bag & Bodice’s cofounder, Jason Craig, has written the book and the lyrics, besides handily taking on the role of the hero, who poses in silhouette, then appears by slicing his way through the screen, while chorines Anna Ishida and Shaye Troha (of Killing My Lobster) wail and wheel in their chainmail like Vegas Valkyries or Busby Berkeley Berserkers in Kaibrina Buck’s costumery on R. Black’s striking set, lit by Miranda Hardy with Brendan West’s sound design.  

Dave Malloy has put together a combo, the Heorot Band (including musical saw), that plays the gamut from klezmer to (appropriately enough) snatches of heavy metal. Malloy also doubles, borne onstage in a kind of palanquin, as “Mr. King Hrothgar, Sir.” Such is the title Beowulf uses to address his summoner to arms when he reports in song, “Well, I ripped him up good.” His ghastly, shredded opponent, Grendel, played as a sympathetic geek (as per horror flick tradition) by Christopher Kuckenbacker, has something more than a soccer mom in Jessica Jelliffe’s angular rendition of a monster’s smothering stage mother from hell. Beowulf rips both up good, when he’s not preening, posturing or sulking in his tent, playing with Action Hero figurines. But those rent asunder stick around anyway, outliving their bestial roles, as talking heads on a stately academic panel, joining sprightly, psychobabbling Cameron Galloway. 

Directed by Rod Hipskin of foolsFURY (with whom Jelliffe performed brilliantly), the B. B. & B. talent for movement and action is, strangely, only fitfully revealed. There’s a lot more trash-talk in the ring than limb-wrenching, and even more metalanguage on the panel than raucous, raunchy song on the ramp behind. The concept is not so deep as Grendel & Dam’s grotto, but the logistics are complex, so the fun of it—and perhaps its substance—will grow during the run (and in the New York version to follow). But for the moment, despite delirious Dane production numbers and aquariums turning red with subaquatic bloodletting, this otherwise-impressive Beowulf is so far missing something of the charm and craziness of the olden farceurs—well, not the mimes of the Middle Ages, but the middle-aged might remember with glee the slapstick epigonery visited upon myth and fable by the likes of Ernie Kovacs and Sid Caesar, or the word-hoards of Lord Buckley and Stan Freeberg expended on same. Or that early limited animation cut-up, “Fractured Fairytales.”

Among the fortune seekers lured to northern California by the Gold Rush, the Jewish contingent was small but significant. Jewish immigrants would go on to play an important role in the economic and cultural development of the Bay Area, and Berkeley was no exception. Although early accounts rarely discuss Berkeley’s Jewish community, some members figured among the young town’s prominent citizens. 

One pioneer Jewish family—the Fischels—established itself in downtown Berkeley in the late 1870s, gradually acquiring land around the Shattuck-University axis. A few of the buildings they erected are still with us today. 

The Fischels immigrated from Bohemia, then a Crown Land of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The paterfamilias, Simon Fischel, was born in 1846 or ‘47 (records vary in respect to the date) and arrived in New York as a teenager in 1865. For over a decade, he worked as a butcher, acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1872. 

In 1870, Simon married his compatriot Rosa Bauml (1844-1909), and while still in New York, they brought two sons and two daughters into the world (another daughter would be born in Berkeley). The Fischels probably arrived here in 1878; the 1879 directory listed them on the southeast corner of Shattuck and University Avenues. 

In the 1880 U.S. Census, the Fischel household included not only Simon, Rosa, and their four elder children, aged 2 to 8, but Rosa’s younger brother, Jacob Bauml, and E.C. Twicker, both butchers. Their neighbors at the time are familiar names in Berkeley history: John Acheson, who ran the Acheson Hotel on the northeast corner of University and Shattuck, and Jonathan G. Wright, founder of the Golden Sheaf Bakery at 2026 Shattuck. 

That year, the Fischels resided in the Antisell Block, an unprepossessing commercial building on the southwest corner of the same intersection. The 1881 U.C. Blue & Gold Yearbook carried a full-page ad announcing, “Liberty Market, cor. University & Shattuck Aves., Antisell Block - Berkeley. Simon Fischel, Dealer in Beef, Veal, Mutton, Lamb, Pork, Salt Meats, Sausages, etc. Families supplied with all kinds of meats of the best quality at the lowest market prices.” 

Home delivery was key to success at a time when few customers possessed their own means of transport, but it could backfire. On Nov. 6, 1890, the Berkeley Advocate regaled its readers with this anecdote: “A lady called on Fischel & Co. the other evening and made arrangements for that company to supply her family with meat. The team was daily sent to the house, when it was discovered that no such family resided there. It turned out that Mr. Fischel was deceived of a young man who donned the garment of a virgin to fool Fischel.” 

As the pig carcasses hanging in front of his store attested, Fischel was neither a kosher butcher nor an Orthodox Jew. Nonetheless, he involved himself in Jewish affairs and would be linked to the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland, a Reform temple founded in 1875 by Gold Rush-era settlers. At a time when Jews were barred from most fraternal societies, Fischel was a member of the Odd Fellows and the Freemasons. 

The Fischels didn’t stay long in the Antisell Block. On Dec. 11, 1880, the Berkeley Advocate reported: “Mr. S. Fischel’s family has removed from the Antisell Block to their new house on University avenue, near Shattuck street.” 

The new house was located on the north side of University Avenue west of Shattuck. When houses numbers were introduced, it became 2033 University Ave. The market, too, moved to the north side of the street, although Fischel’s annual advertisements in the Blue & Gold continued to list the Antisell Block as the address through most of the 1880s. 

Simon Fischel’s initial real estate investment was his mid-block home site, comprising lots 11 and 12 in the College Tract, on which he built a sizable two-story house with three bays and a side porch. Within two years, he had added lots 49 and 51, directly behind his home and facing Berkeley Way.  

In 1884, he and his brother-in-law and partner Jacob Bauml purchased a Shattuck Ave. lot directly to the south of the Antisell Block, on which they erected a narrow two-story building. The following year, Simon added two lots on the south side of University Avenue near Milvia Street. This was only the beginning. 

In 1888, Fischel and Bauml made a notable contribution to the downtown cityscape when they built the Fischel Block on the northwest corner of Shattuck and University. It was by far the most elegant building on the intersection, adorned with bay windows along the second floor, showy corbels under the eaves, a decorative metal railing along the roofline, and an impressive corner turret crowned by a witch’s cap. The Liberty Market occupied a storefront on the University Ave. side, next door to the University Bazaar. The rest of the building was given over to a hotel, which contained a dining room, kitchen, and office on the ground floor and guest accommodations above. The improvements were assessed at $10,000 in 1889.  

Initially called the Fischel Hotel, the establishment would become known as the California Hotel by 1891, when its image was included in the “Bird’s Eye View of Berkeley, Cal.” map distributed by land owner Charles A. Bailey as propaganda for the town’s charms. The hotel’s operator changed almost yearly, indicating a less-than-rosy balance sheet. 

On the other hand, the Fischel meat market flourished. Over the years, an ever expanding list of Fischels worked there. One of these was Isaac (aka Ignatz) Fischel, who appears to have been Simon’s brother. Isaac and his wife Elsie (aka Toni) purchased a double site at 2039 University Ave, next to Simon and Rosa’s house. Here they built a plain one-story house and raised a son and a daughter. A few doors to the west, Jacob and Lilly Bauml raised two girls at 2011 University. 

Isaac—not to be confused with another downtown butcher named Ignatz Fischel (1853-1912), a relative who ran a meat market at 2008 Shattuck and lived at 1924 University Ave.—bought a double lot on the northeast corner of Bonita (then called Louisa) and Berkeley Way, where in 1890 he built a one-story rental house. Isaac never got a chance to expand his holdings; death overtook him around 1893. 

Such was not the case with Simon and Rosa, who added two more lots to the pair on Berkeley Way and erected four identical rental houses, one of which was occupied by their son Charles, also a butcher. These houses survived until 1955, when the City of Berkeley purchased and demolished a row of seven houses to create the Berkeley Way parking lot. 

Simon Fischel died on April 4, 1907, two months before his younger daughters Sally and Rebecca were married. Rosa followed him on Feb. 6, 1909. She received brief obituaries in the San Francisco Call, which called her a “pioneer relict,” and in the Oakland Tribune, which described Simon as “the pioneer meat butcher of Berkeley.” Their various properties were divided among the surviving son, Charles, and his three sisters. 

Meanwhile, Elsie Fischel’s house at 2039 University burned down on July 4, 1908 after catching fire from a festive skyrocket. Elsie and her offspring, Charles and Clara, moved to their second house at 1923 Bonita Ave., which they had previously let to grocer George Hunrick of Rose Grocery fame.  

The following year, their old homestead on University sprouted the three-story University Apartments, with two storefronts—one of them a movie theater—on the ground floor. The building is now called the University Hotel. A launderette operates in the old cinema space. 

On her Bonita Ave. property, Elsie built two additional houses for rental. No sooner were they built than her tenants at 1933 Bonita, a plasterer and a sheet metal worker, ganged up on Charles Fischel and beat him with a broomstick during an argument over $1.25. Knocked off the porch and falling 15 feet to the ground, Charles cracked his skull and injured his vocal chords. The metal worker was sentenced to three months in jail.  

Charles eventually recovered his speech sufficiently to be arrested for using foul language in 1919, when a neighbor complained to the police that his Sunday rest was being disturbed. Fischel had been swearing at his smoking kitchen stove. 

A different mishap overtook Elsie’s daughter, Clara. Her 1907 engagement to an Alameda dentist came to nothing, and in 1912 she met one Joseph Guttman, a Hungarian who undertook to paint the Fischel home and was given room and board there. Within three weeks, Clara and Joseph became engaged, and she advanced him $70 to buy a ring. After borrowing an additional $135 from Elsie, Guttman vanished. Clara eventually found a husband but died in 1920, aged 36. 

Simon and Rosa’s youngest daughter, Rebecca, married David Roth, a San Francisco jeweler. In 1923, she decided to replace her parents’ home with a commercial building and obtained a permit for a one-story concrete building containing five stores.  

Early in 1924, she changed their mind and built three stories, including two hotel floors. Designed by San Francisco architect August G. Headman, the hotel was leased to James and Mary Reilley, who christened it after Mary’s maiden name, Nash. Rebecca owned the Nash Hotel until 1955. 

By the 1940s, the Fischel Block on the corner of University and Shattuck was gone, and in its place stood Berkeley’s first drive-in barbecue, the Cameo, housed in a concrete-and steel building with a glass and glass-brick façade. In 1950, the Cameo moved to the northeast corner of Shattuck and Channing.  

It was replaced by a modernist, two-story glass-and-aluminum building designed by Wally Reemelin, a Berkeley industrial engineer who was one of the first to build A-frame houses.  

The McDonald’s Department Store operated here until 1958, when it gave way to the House of Harris men’s clothing store, which had outgrown its Shattuck Square building. This legendary haberdashery remained until 1976. Since the late ‘70s, the site has been occupied by another McDonald’s—the hamburger chain. 

Elsie Fischel moved her Bonita house to 1624 Delaware Street in 1925. Having survived both her children, she died alone in 1934. During her last several years, she was dependent on the county for her welfare. Her 1890 house, which had fallen into disrepair, was purchased several years ago and restored. It is the recipient of one of BAHA’s 2008 Preservation Awards. 

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

Marriage is a mixed bag and no matter what anyone tells you, you will never find the perfect man or woman (assuming those two cover your range of preferences) to spend the rest of your life cooking vegan casseroles beside. Everyone has a truckload of unnerving habits, indefensible opinions and inexcusable friends. Everyone. That gorgeous guy or gal you see at the water cooler each day. Them too. Once you get closer enough to anyone, you soon find out that they pick their teeth, that they have some troubling disease or that they’ve never actually read a book. So how do we choose mates? We figure out what’s most important to us and try our best to ignore the rest, in the knowledge that around the corner the grass is actually brown and dying. This is the truth. Therefore, it’s important to decide what you really care about the most. What issues are strongest for you. What attracts you most and what you can bear. Buying houses is no different (you knew I’d get around to this, right?) 

I met a lovely young couple yesterday. Flush with the thrill of their wedding plans and breathless at the thought of acquiring a new house. After spending some tremendous time looking at the house, we ended up in their backyard drinking fizzy water when the question came up. It’s the question. Should I buy this house? We get it constantly. 

Of course, I can never answer the question any more than the psychologist (interestingly these young folks were both psychologists) can tell you whether you should marry the person you’re dating. It’s very personal. 

I had a few issues with this house and, after some time in the conversation we arrived at the point that nearly any house will have a range of issues. Not that those lists won’t vary in length and dollar size but most houses will have a list of some dimension.  

Also, I’ve noted that most people don’t tend to range that far in the overall list size while individuals tend to seek either shorter lists or longer ones. I think part of this is related to their risk aversion index. Some consistently seek out houses that are neat as a pin and well maintained while others are looking for a bargain; A great big house for a lot less than everything else around. This does vary and it’s not consistent but it is an interesting behavior that tends to emerge with some consistency. If I work for the same client three times in a row, the houses will tend to be similar in overall quality. I have watched many friends over the years as they tended to date the same kind of person over and over again. I think these are similar expressions of the same subtextual thinking. 

As I found certain things to criticize about the building (in response to their questions), this young woman nearly blurted out “but I just love this house.” I smiled and responded that that was probably the best reason of all to buy the house and that I thought it should be a major part of their decision whether to buy (or not) and a major element in how they would negotiate and think about the purchase. My reason, and I said it right out loud, was that every house was going to have its plusses and minuses.  

It’s rotten table manners and it’s messy college buddies but that the fact that there was something that she (and hopefully he) was just nutty about would help to offset the inevitable downsides of home ownership. 

Over the life of a house, many, if not most of the jobs that have to be done will financially wash out in the overall equation of home ownership. In truth, most of us will pay three or four times the actual sale price of the house in the form of mortgage interest, brokerage fees, closing costs and other fixed expenses. You can buy a lot of foundations for that, so there is no good reason to not buy a house simply because it has some necessary repairs. Buying because you love the house is actually a damned good and logical position because it will see you through and justify all of the expenses and problems that are inevitable. Further, I would say that when people love their houses and admire their own choices, they will tend to follow through with good maintenance and timely upgrades that will further improve the overall equation. 

Conversely, when someone buys for financial reason alone or buys the house that they think they SHOULD buy, the honeymoon ends all the sooner and may be coupled with a badly timed resale, another round of closing costs and disruption of the flow of life (buying and selling houses, for all the excitement is not something you want to do any more often that absolutely necessary). Again, the analogies with dating and marriage should be self evident; marrying the person your parents think you should marry, marrying for money and so forth. 

That said, I’ll finish by turning this all on it’s head. Love grows and the capacity to love will manifest anywhere the lover goes. Some people will always find fault and never settle down. Some people fall in love everywhere they go. I’ve seen buyers buy the first house they looked at and never look back and I’ve seen those who looked for year and year and are still renting. If I’m asked, I favor a balanced approach.  

Take your time, look around to see what’s out there, date a few bungalows and, perhaps, have a fling with a Victorian. Spend some time with a good sturdy 1950s model and then, when you see something that really turns your head, you’ll be able to make a smart decision knowing your heart and your head are both involved. 

So don’t get me wrong. I do believe that physical conditions matter in choosing a house. Taking a good look makes a lot of sense and including these elements in your thinking is prudent. That said, I often feel as though my process is akin to the tarot reader turning the cards. It’s an activity that houses the revelation of the inner intuition. It LOOKS like we’re analyzing wiring and bolts, but often, what we’re really doing is finding out if it’s really love. 

The northbound phalaropes passed through a few weeks ago. We saw them at the Hayward Regional Shoreline, a couple hundred at least, spinning around like little feathered tops in one of the fenced ponds. Every few minutes a portion of the flock, seized by some apprehension, would take off, circle, and touch down on the water again. 

These were mostly red-necked phalaropes, and at this season, unlike the gray-and-white birds of winter, they lived up to their names. It was easy to distinguish the brighter-colored females from the duller males. After a lot of time on the spotting scope, I was able to pick out a red phalarope among the rednecks, a bit larger and bulkier and vivid brick red on the neck, breast, and belly—probably a female. All I needed for the Phalarope Trifecta was a Wilson’s, but I couldn’t summon one up. 

I’ve written here before about the atypical behavior signaled by those colors. Like only a few other birds (jacanas, painted snipe,), all three phalarope species have socially dominant females that take the lead in courtship and territorial defense, and males that incubate the eggs and rear the chicks after the female has moved on to a new mate.  

Darwin thought of sexual selection as a process of female choice shaping male ornamentation, like the tail of the peacock. In phalaropes, it must have been male preferences that produced the gaudy female plumage. Maybe a female phalarope’s bright colors are cues to greater reproductive fitness or low parasite loads, as appears to be true of gaudy males in other avian species. Another project for someone in need of a dissertation topic. 

This piece isn’t about sexual selection, though. It’s about biomechanics. I have never been at all mechanically inclined, but I’ve always been fascinated about the way things work. Not that every adaptation is perfect; there are a lot of jury-rigged panda’s thumbs in the natural world. But evolution, in most cases, has done a splendid job with the material at hand. I remain impressed by the feet of the gecko, and now I find out that ivy roots also use nano-scale forces to stick to smooth walls. 

I mentioned the phalaropes spinning in circles. One bird was clocked at 57 rotations per minute. They do this to concentrate small aquatic organisms, as humpback whales build bubble nets to corral fish. Phalaropes, known to sailors as “bowhead birds,” hang around whales to feed on their leftovers. There were no whales at the Hayward Shoreline, but apparently plenty of small tasty creatures. 

But how do the phalaropes handle their prey? The first hint came from ornithologist Margaret Rubega in the 1990s. Watching film footage of a whirling phalarope, she noticed a dark blur moving up the bird’s beak. Although the phalarope appeared to be ingesting seawater, its beak wasn’t built for suction.  

The mechanism wasn’t clarified until this year, when John Bush, a mathematician at MIT, MIT graduate student Manu Prakash, and David Quere of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris published an article in Science. They built a stainless-steel replica of a phalarope beak and put it through a series of lab tests. With the technobeak in a vertical position, water leaked out, as did drops of silicone oil. 

Then the scientists tried opening and closing the beak at a range of angles. Open it too wide and a water droplet splits; too narrow and it spills. But there’s one point-the sweet spot of the phalarope beak-at which the water drop bends, and surface forces push it toward the bird’s mouth, in defiance of gravity. Bush, Prakash, and Quere say the key process is contact angle hysteresis, the force that causes raindrops to stick to windowpanes. Normally it creates resistance to droplet motion; in this case it promotes it.  

As Rubega and others had noticed, feeding phalaropes constantly tweezer their beaks open and shut. The motion exploits surface tension to ratchet a food-laden droplet up the beak and into the mouth. When the beak closes, the leading edge of the drop moves toward the mouth; when it closes, the trailing edge follows suit. Bush and his co-authors call the process the “capillary ratchet.” 

Shape is critical: this only works with a long, narrow beak.  

Prakash, whose department is the Center for Bits and Atoms, is looking at practical applications: microfluidic devices that allow controlled stepwise motion of microliter droplets. Not as dramatic as gecko Velcro, but a benefit nonetheless. 

The MIT group also sounds a cautionary note. If a phalarope encounters an oil spill and its beak becomes oil-soaked, the capillary ratchet doesn’t work. “Once they feed through that thin slick of oil, they are done,” says Rubega. How that translates into phalarope losses during spills is a huge unknown. These are sparrow-sized birds that spend much of the year on the open ocean.  

We may never notice the casualties. 

THURSDAY, MAY 29 

“Victory Gardens in America During Two World Wars” and how history can help us achieve victory for healthy food in today’s communities with Rose Hayden-Smith at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King Community Center, 360 Harbour Way South, at Virginia, Richmond. 232-5050. 

“Global Unions: Innovative Strategies from Cross-Border Labor Campaigns” A panel discussion on how unions can confront and address the implications of globalization at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way, near Telegraph Ave. 642-6371. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu 

“Green Collar Jobs” Discussion with Raquel Rivera-Pinderhuges, Professor of Urban Studies at San Francisco State University at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Cost is $10. Registration suggested. info@wencal.org 

“Teaching Race in Biblical Studies” A panel discussion at 3 p.m. at Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. Lecture on “Job’s Wife: A Minority Report” with Choon-Leong Seow of Princeton Theological Seminary at 6 p.m. 849-8239. 

“Beyond Conviction” Documentary by Rachel Libert on victim/offender mediation and restorative justice at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Parish, 2220 Cedar St., enter through the Spruce Street Courtyard. Suggested donation $20, no one turned away. 548-2377. www.ebcm.org 

CopWatch Training on ”Know Your Rights” at 6 p.m. at the Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Baby & Toddler Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a..m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

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. 

FRIDAY, MAY 30 

Compost Give-away at Berkeley Marina from 8:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. with first priority given to Berkeley Unified School District and Berkeley Community Gardens, self-serve after 11:45 a.m., at Berkeley Marina Maintenance Yard, 201 University Ave, next to Adventure Playground. 981-6660. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Eric Klinenberg on “Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media” 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.  

Burma Update with Nyunt Than, president of Burmese American Democratic Alliance at 7 p.m. at Newman Hall/Holy Spirit Parish, 2700 Dwight Way at College. Donations accepted for the victims of the cyclone. 649-8772. 

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, MAY 31 

Spring Faire at Washington Elementary School with fun activities for children including bike drawn hayride, boat and car races, obstacle course, science projects, and more, with live music and Mexican and soul food. 486-1742. 

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-EB-PARKS. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “McGee Tract” led by Paul Grunland and exploring three historic neighborhood tracts, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations call 848-0181. 

Berkeley Garden Club Plant Sale featuring perennials, succulents and some veggies, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 547 Grizzly Peak, at Euclid. 845-4482. www.berkeleygardenclub.org 

Celebrate Schoolhouse Creek and learn about restoration plans and progress at the creek mouth in Eastshore State Park, Berkeley, with Friends of Five Creeks, with a bug hunt led by Cal Bug People at 10 a.m., a short interpretive walk at 11:30 a.m. followed by bring-your-own picnic, make art with natural materials with environmental artist Zach Pine in the afternoon. Free, but numbers limited. Register for one or all events at 848-9358. f5creeks@aol.com  

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Remembering 1948” Personal narratives, poetry, and music by Jews and Palestinians about the events surrounding the founding of the State of Israel at 7:30 p.m. at Kehilla Community Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. Suggested donation $10. 547-2424. www.kehillasynagogue.org 

“Art Saves Lives” 2008 Oakland Youth Arts Festival with exhibits, art making, and performances from noon to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Musuem of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. www.museumca.org 

Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Shattuck Ave. in North Berkeley. 548-5335. www.northshattuck.org 

Workshop on Arts and Crafts Embroidery with Ann Chaves of Ingelnook Textiles. All day in Oakland. For information and to register email itextiles@earthlink.net 

Self-Defense Workshop for women and girls from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Rockridge Library. To reserve a space call 251-0559. 

Party for Socialism and Liberation with speakers and workshops, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Intertribal Friendship House, 523 International Blvd., Oakland. Near Lake Merrit BART/AC Transit 82, 82L, 801. Suggested donation $10-$20, no one turned away. 415-821-6171. www.pslweb.org 

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.  

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. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 

Nature Sleuthing for the Whole Family Learn how to recognize the evidence animals leave behind with Meg Platt, naturalist, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Farm Tales and Songs for the whole family at 1:30 p.m. at the Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Home Greywater Systems Slideshow & Tour Learn about the permitted greywater system at the Ecohouse, at 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. Cost is $15. Registration required. 548-2220 ext. 242. http://ecologycenter.org 

Build It Green Home Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. around Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Tour guidebook, which serves as admission ticket, is $30. 845-0472. www.builditgreen.org 

A Tour & Taste of Albany with samples from local restaurants, music, arts and crafts, fun zone for children, from noon to 4 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Aves. Free, but Tour and Taste ticket is $10. 525-1771. www.tasteofalbany.com 

Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center 20th Anniversary Celebration with music and live and silent auctions, at 7 p.m. at The Berkeley Yacht Club, 1 Seawall Drive. Tickets are $25-430. 548-2284. www.womensdropin.org 

“Awakening the Buddha Within” with Lama Surya Das at 7 p.m. at 2286 Cedar St. Sponsored by East Bay Open Circle. Suggested donation of $10-$15, no one turned away. www.eastbayopencircle.org 

Soul Sanctuary Dance Community dance benefit for Ashkenaz, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Donation $5-$20. www.soulsanctuarydance.com  

Berkeley Rep’s Family Series, a monthly theater workshop for the entire family from 11. a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, Nevo Education Center, 2071 Addison St. Free, but bring a book to donate to the library at John Muir Elementary School. 647-2973. 

Bringing City Children to the Redwoods Fundraising dinner and silent auction at 6 p.m. at Hs Lordships Restaurant, 199 Seawall Drive, Berkeley Marina. 232-3032.  

Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Congregation Netivot Shalom, 1316 University Ave. To sign up go to www.bloodheroes.com  

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 Tom Morse on “Mind and the Origin of Appearance” 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. Cost is $5 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

Ecstatic Dance East Bay A sacred freeform journey of dance and movement, every Sun. morning at 10:30 a.m. at Historic Sweets Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $15. www.ecstaticdanceeastbay.com 

MONDAY, JUNE 2 

Sunset Walk in Upper Codornices Creek Watershed Join Berkeley Path Wanderers Assn. and Friends of Five Creeks on a sunset walk exploring new and old paths, history, and ecology in the upper Codornices Creek watershed. Meet at 6:30 p.m. at Grizzly Peak Park, 50 Whitaker Ave. between Miller and Sterling. Walk heads straight down and then zig-zags slowly back up. Wear comfortable shoes; bring walking sticks if you use them. 848-9358. f5creeks@aol.com 

“Castoffs” Knitting Group meets at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 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. 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 

TUESDAY, JUNE 3 

“Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley” with author Richard Schwartz at 10:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St., Oakland. 238-2022. www.museumca.org 

Tilden Mini-Rangers Hiking, conservation and nature-based activities for ages 8-12. Dress to ramble and get dirty. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

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 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long Group from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s & Co. at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Richard Dawkins: Secular Humanist” A documentary from the 2007 Atheist Alliance International Convention at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

“Sufism: Its Relationship to Islam” with Sheikh Jamal Granach at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Pasta dinner at 6:30 p.m. for $6. For reservations call 526-3805.  

“Wandering the World: Essential Tips for Travelers” at 6 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $20. 527-4140. 

Jump Start Entrepreneurs Network meets to share info, support, business tools at 8 a.m. Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. Cost is $1-$5, first meeting free. 899-8242. www.jumpstartten.com  

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 

Empty Bowls Benefit for Alameda County Community Food Bank Join us for an evening of nourishment in this family-friendly event as we help fill empty bowls in our community. Cost is $20 per adult, $40 for a family. For more infomration call 635-3663, ext. 328.  

“Who Is Afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth?” Panel discussion and Community Brainstorm about all aspects of the LBAM eradication program and possible actions to stop it at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. www.bfuu.org 

4c’s of Alameda County’s Give Children the World Auction-Dinner with Assemblymember Sandre Swanson and Mayor Ron Dellums at 6 p.m. on at the Oakland Rotunda Building. Cost is $200 per person, $300 per couple. For reservations call Margaret T. Tobias at 582-2182. 

Take Action: Dig Into Urban Farming with Hands On Bay Area to learn about the food industry and how people can become more involved at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Seniors Explore Albany and North Berkeley Gardens for walkers age 50+ Meet at 9 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 843 Masonic, near Solano. AC Transit 18. Free but numbers limited; register at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122, or Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. 524-9283.  

Berkeley Festival Exhibition & Music Marketplace from noon to 6 p.m., Fri. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sat. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at First Congregational Church. www.earlymusic.org 

Baby & Toddler Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a..m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

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 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info  

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Birding in Tilden Park with Phila Rogers. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at the parking lot at the north end of Central Park Drive for a 1-mile stroll through a lush riparian area. 848-9156. 

“Proposition 13 at 30: The Political, Economic and Fiscal Impacts” A day-long conference from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Barrows Hall, Lipman Room, UC Campus. Free. http://igs.berkeley.edu/events/prop13.html 

Special Olympics Summer Games Opening Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Games are Sat. from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sun. from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Haas Pavilion, UC Campus. Free. www.sonc.org/summergames 

“Battlefield without Borders” with poet David Smith-Ferry and activist Jim Haber at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Proceeds to benefit medical aid to Iraqi refugees. 482-1062. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dustin R. Mulvaney, Ph.D., Environment and Society Fellow, UC- Santa Cruz on “Food and Energy Crises: New Contexts for Debate About the Social and Environmental Dimensions of Genetically Engineered Organisms” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 524-7468.  

Options Recovery Services Graduation Luncheon at noon at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 1931 Center St. 666-9552. www.optionsrecovery.org 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

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, JUNE 7 

The 5th Annual Berkeley World Music Fest with music along Telegraph Ave., in cafes and People’s Park from noon to 9 p.m. featuring Sila & the Afrofunk Experience, Andrew Carriere & the Creole Belles, (Cajun), Sambadá (Afro-Brazilian Funk),Sukhawat Ali Khan (Qawwali Sufi trance) & Stephen Kent (didjeridu). www.berkeleyworldmusic.org 

Special Olympics Summer Games from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sun. from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Haas Pavilion, UC Campus. Free. www.sonc.org/summergames 

Nature Exploration for Toddlers to visit the meadows, ponds and trails around the Tilden Nature Area, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. with Lind Yemoto, naturalist. 525-2233. 

Summer Ponds Join us to look for tadpoles, newt larvae, dragonfly nymphs and more, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets’ Family Fun Festival with live performances, hands-on activities, and informational booths, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Civic Center Park, Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Temescal Street Fair from noon to 6 p.m. along Telegraph Ave. between 51st St. and 47th St. with food, arts and crafts booths, live music, children’s activities, and information on alternaitive energy and transportation. www.temescaldistrict.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Got a problem in the garden?” Visit the master gardener booth at the Berkeley Famers’ Market, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center Street between ML King and Milvia. 639-1275. 

Learn to Row at Berkeley Paddling and Rowing Club’s free drop-in clinic for all ages and skill levels from 9 a.m. to noon at 2851 Bolivar Dr., south end of Aquatic Park. Bring comfortable clothes, not baggy, shoes to slip out of, extra socks, sun protection, hat and sunglasses, and a lawn chair. 913-3669. www.berkeleyrowingclub.org 

Jack London Aquatic Center Summer Splash A free water sports open house for ages 12 and up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Jack London Aquatic Center, 115 Embarcadero, Oakland. 208-6067. www.jlac.org 

The Kids’ Chalk Art Project will create the world’s larget chalk art drawing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Naval Air Base at Alameda Point, 1951 Monarch St., Alameda. Satellite photo of the drawing for the Guinness Book of World Recordswill be taken at 11:20 a.m. 395-3920. www.reenchantintheworldthroughart.org 

Bike Tour “Story of an Urban Creek” Follow Codornices Creek from its source to its end,exploring secret waterfalls, tracking elusive steelhead trout and learning the art/science of creek restoration Meet at Berkeley BARt at 10 a.m. For infomration on this and other bike tours see www.cyclesofchange.org 

National Trails Day Service Project at Redwood Regional Park Children welcome with supervising adult. Registration required. 527-4140, ext. 216. 

Trees in the Garden Docent-led tour at 1 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $10-$12, for one child and one adult. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

From the Big Bang to the Present: Galaxy Formation and Evolution at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. revolutionbooks.org 

Political Affairs Readers Group will discuss “Marx’s ‘Capital’ and Sustainable Developemnt” by Davis S. Pena at 10 am. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 595-7417. www.marxistlibr.org 

Sat. June 7, at 3 p.m.: “Is a Change about to Come?” A discussion of the November 2008 elections. Jarvis Tyner, Executive Vice Chair, Communist Party USA. Presented by California CPUSA. Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation, $5. Information: (510) 251-1120. 

Soroptimist International of El Cerrito 50th Anniversary Fundraiser with dinner, music, dancing, live &andsilent auctions at 6 p.m. at Masonic Hall, located at 5050 El Portal Drive, in El Sobrante. Tickets are $25. 662-8469. 

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 

Trees in the Garden Docent-led tour at 1 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $10-$12, for one child and one adult. 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.  

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, JUNE 8 

“The Lives of Bees” An interactive adventure for children to learn about the lives of honeybees, from 11 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Little Farm and Garden Open House Meet the sheep, turkeys cows and more, with crafts, music and games for the whole family, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park 525-2233. 

“Greening Albany: Community Efforts Against Global Warming” with workshops and community booths on energy efficient products and services, from noon to 5:30 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Builing, Memorial Park, Albany. james@greenchamberofcommerce.net 

“California Deserts: An Ecological Rediscovery” with Mills College Prof. Bruce Pavlik at 1 pm. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $8-$10. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Future Leaders Institute Legacy Awards, honoring seven Bay Area high school students, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. 292-8181. www.thefutureleadersinstitute.org 

Ross Parmer Memorial Patio Benefit concert and dedication at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St., Point Richmond. Donation $10. RSVP to 233-1792. 

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 Sylvia Gretchen on “Transorming Emotions” 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 

CITY MEETINGS 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., June 2, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510.  

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6406.