UC Berkeley police arrested one current and one former member of the Cal Bears football team on Monday in connection with the Sept. 30 break-in robbery of two students in their suite at the university’s Clark Kerr residential complex. 

Authorities said that they believed the robbery had been motivated by a desire for retaliation against racial slurs made at an off-campus party on Sept. 27 by a white member of the university’s crew team, which the two suspects had learned about second-hand. 

The desire for revenge turned into a case of mistaken identity when the suspects robbed two members of the UC Berkeley crew team whom university police said the suspects had though to be the ones making the slurs, but apparently were not. 

R.J. Garrett and Gary Doxy, both 21-year-old African American undergraduates at UC Berkeley who live off-campus, have been charged on suspicion of robbery and attempted robbery, Lt. Doug Wing of UCPD’s Investigative Unit said Wednesday. 

Garrett, a member of the UC Berkeley football team, was also charged for possession of an illegal, stolen weapon, Wing said. He was suspended from the Cal Bears football team immediately after his arrest, authorities said. 

Doxy, a junior, is a former member of the team who was dismissed this summer for violating team rules, according to the school. 

The two were taken into custody by UCPD without incident after a warrant was issued by an Alameda County Superior Court judge. Bail for each has been set at $60,000. Both students will face student conduct charges in addition to criminal charges. 

“I know that the entire Cal Athletics community shares my profound disappointment in the wake of these incidents,” said the university’s Athletic Director Sandy Barbour in a statement. “They are contrary to everything we stand for. The suspension of the implicated student-athletes should be viewed as an initial step. It is now my responsibility to make sure that every member of our athletic program fully understands the extent to which these behaviors were, and will always be, completely unacceptable.” 

Three days before the robbery took place, Garrett and Doxy went to a party at a residential house off-campus, which the two victims also attended, Wing said. 

A white male crew member, whose name police are not releasing, who had been drinking at the party made comments and racial slurs which were overheard by a black female student athlete standing close to him. 

“She believed that the comments might have been directed toward her but even if they were not, they were inappropriate anyway,” Wing said. “There was a confrontation at the party and then everybody went their own way.” 

Wing said that although both the victims, who are also crew members, were at the party, they did not take part in making the comments. 

“Neither knew about the racial slurs,” Wing said. 

On Sept. 30, Wing said two men police believe to be Garrett and Doxy entered the bedroom of the two 18-year-old students through an open kitchen window and held them at gun point. 

The two suspects then proceeded to steal a laptop, a laptop bag and computer accessories after which they fled. The residents were not injured. UCPD said that the suspects had used a BB gun during the robbery. 

“Through our investigation we managed to tie the two suspects to the racial slurs,” Wing said. “There were things that led us to believe that the two incidents were connected. The two suspects had heard about the incident at the party and were trying to even the score card.” 

Wing said a number of students had come forward to help with the investigation and to provide substantial evidence that led to the arrests. 

“We reiterate our deep sympathies for the victims of the robbery and hope this case is resolved judiciously,” the university’s Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Harry LeGrande said in a statement “Obviously, we are greatly saddened whenever UC Berkeley students are involved in a criminal act, whether as victims or suspects.” 

UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Gibor Basri condemned the racial slurs in a statement. 

“The campus has made it clear through our Principles of Community that racial slurs are deplorable and unacceptable, and that is why we have mechanisms in place to deal with such incidents,” he said.  

Campus officials have suspended the student who made the racial slurs at the party shortly after the incident. He is facing student conduct charges. 

MEASURE HH City Expenditures 

Shall the appropriation limit under Article XIIIB of the California Constitution (or ceiling on city expenditures) be increased to allow for the expenditure of taxes previously approved by voters for parks maintenance; libraries; emergency medical services (EMS); and emergency services for severely disabled persons for fiscal years 2009 through 2012? 

Majority Approval Required 

City of Berkeley Measure HH is a product of the so-called Gann Initiative, the Constitution amendment originally passed by California voters as Proposition 4 in 1979 during the Prop 13 tax revolt era. 

Under these measures, California cities may raise property taxes for specific city projects through a two-thirds majority vote of its citizens. But in order to maintain those raised taxes, the cities are required to have them renewed by a majority vote of city residents every four years. In separate ballot measures between 1988 and 1998, Berkeley residents voted by two-thirds majority to raise city property taxes for libraries, city parks (1997), emergency medical services (1997), and emergency services for severely disabled persons. Rather than having separate ballot measures to renew each of these tax increases, the City of Berkeley has combined the four projects into one renewal measure. That's what Berkeley voters will be voting on in Measure HH. If approved, the raised tax revenue will continue to be in existence through 2012. 

The measure has drawn some hyperbole from proponents. 

In their ballot argument in favor of Measure HH, Mayor Tom Bates, Councilmember Darryl Moore, Berkeley Library Trustees Chair Therese Powell, Center for Independent Living Executive Director Jan Garrett, and City of Berkeley Disaster & Fire Safety Commission Chair Zachary Weiner all argue that “if Measure HH does not pass, the City will lose tens of millions of dollars in already approved tax revenue-forcing dramatic reductions in city services.” And in the companion rebuttal argument to the argument against HH, Bates, Powell, Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Gordon Wozniak, and North Berkeley Hills resident Barbara Allen calls the anti-HH campaign a “backdoor attempt to subvert the will of the voters,” adding that “the opponents of Measure HH do not accept the will of an overwhelming majority of Berkeley voters and are now attempting to overturn their decisions by denying the reauthorization of these voter-approved revenues” (emphasis in original). 

Both of these arguments are a little disingenuous. 

While rejection of Measure HH would mean a reduction in some level of city services (opponents put the amount at $25 million while proponents say it amounts to “tens of millions of dollars”), it is not true that this will mean a reduction in “already approved tax revenue.” The various measures by which Berkeley voters approved the original property tax increases were done so only for a specified time period, with the understanding that voters would be able to come back when the time period expired to approve or disapprove renewal. The time period of the original measures has expired. And since that is the case, opposition to Measure HH cannot properly be called a “subversion of the will of the voters” or an attempt to “overturn” previous decisions by voters, since Berkeley voters earlier expressed their will on the property tax increases under ballot language that specifically said that such re-evaluation would later come back to them. 

Prop HH opponents (which include Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations President Marie Bowman, Council of Neighborhood Associations Laurie Bright, Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association President Dean Metzger, Le Conte Neighborhood Association President Karl Reeh, Oregon Street Neighborhood Watch member Betty Hicks, CAN Vice-President David Krasnor, former Housing Advisory Commission Chair Gregory Harper, Blake and California streets neighborhood activist Robert Baum, and Berkeley Property Owners Association President James Kilpatrick), do not argue that the city services to be supported by Measure HH (parks maintenance, libraries, emergency medical services (EMS), and emergency services for severely disabled persons) are bad services that should be eliminated. Instead, the opponents are arguing that the City of Berkeley has essentially engaged in a “bait-and-switch” operation over the years. 

“Yes, we approved these taxes in the past,” the ballot argument against Measure HH reads, “but we were deceived. We thought we could get improved streets, parks, EMT and other services. Instead, what the City did, was for every penny we added as additional taxes, the City took away City funding. SO the amount of funding for these essential services has not increased. This is why, although we are paying for more taxes, we don't receive better services. Council has used our regular tax dollars to pay for pet projects, and then asked us to pay for essential services.” 

Opponents conclude that “it's time to tell the City to prioritize essential services.” 

It would seem that this is the heart of the battle over Measure HH, and how voters can make their decision. 

For those who believe that the Measure HH services (parks maintenance, libraries, emergency medical services (EMS) are overfunded, not important, or not as important as other city services, the decision is easy. Vote no on Measure HH, and funding for those services will be reduced. 

For those who think the Measure HH services are some of the most important in the city--and also think that Berkeley's tax rates are within reason--the decision is also easy. Vote yes on Measure HH, and both the funding for the HH measures and Berkeley's current property tax rate will remain the same. 

For those who support the Measure HH services, but believe the opponents' “bait-and-switch” argument, the decision is more difficult. Those voters will have to gamble that if Measure HH is voted down, City Council continue to support the Measure HH services at something near their present level by making cuts in other parts of the city budget, either voluntarily or under pressure from Berkeley citizens. 

MEASURE JJ Medical Marijuana 

Shall the City's ordinances be amended to eliminate limits on medical marijuana possessed by patients or caregivers; establish a peer review group for medical marijuana collectives to police themselves; and permit medical marijuana dispensaries as a matter of right under the zoning ordinance rather than through a use permit subject to a public hearing? 

Majority Approval Required 

If Measure JJ looks awfully familiar to Berkeley voters, there's a good reason. The issue originally appeared on the November, 2004 ballot as Measure R, with Alameda County declaring the measure a loser by 191 votes out of more than 50,000 cast. Measure R proponents filed a lawsuit charging that the ballots were improperly tallied by the old Diebold electronic voting machines. But in large part because the machines were returned to Diebold and erased, thus making it impossible to verify if the count had been accurate, a Superior Court judge ordered the measure put back on the ballot for this November. 

So here we are again. 

Measure JJ adjusts the laws governing legal medical marijuana growing and dispensation in Berkeley in several ways.  

To help the city regulate existing medical marijuana dispensaries and to try to ensure that new dispensaries have a proper management and safety plan, Measure JJ proposes establishing something called a Peer Review Committee for such purposes. The Peer Review Committee will consist of appointed representatives of the marijuana dispensaries themselves, and will have no enforcement powers, only the power to make referrals back to city officials. While this would not eliminate the Berkeley Police Department from the regulation and law enforcement process, it would appear to serve to put the police in more of a criminal law enforcement mode with regard to the dispensaries, rather than the city's first line of regulation. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to voters to decide. 

The measure would raise the amount of marijuana that a single medical marijuana user could keep or grow in the City of Berkeley, as well as limiting the amount in the possession of a dispensary itself, substituting a statutory quantity for “a reasonable quantity of dried cannabis and cannabis plants to meet the medical needs of patient members.” If Berkeley residents who use marijuana for medical purposes need more marijuana than is called for in the present Berkeley ordinance, the raised amounts in the new ordinance would serve to reduce the amount of illegal marijuana bought by legal users in Berkeley. On the other hand, if the medical marijuana need is actually less than the newly proposed amounts, the excess will probably make its way onto the illegal market. Again, voters have to decide which is the best way to go. 

Probably the most significant change proposed by Measure JJ would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to open in the City of Berkeley “as a right” with the status of a retail sales outlet in locations zoned for that purpose, rather than having to apply for a use permit under the current process . Medical marijuana advocates will say that the current ordinance allows the city--intentionally or unintentionally--to freeze the number of dispensaries in the city, eliminating a legal and medically necessary treatment for some residents. Opponents will say that eliminating the need for a use permit--which can only be granted after a public hearing--also eliminates any say residents might have in keeping medical marijuana dispensaries out of their particular neighborhood. Again, Berkeley voters will have to decide which right is the more important. 

The ballot argument in favor of Measure JJ was signed, in part, by Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson. 

No argument against Measure JJ was submitted. 

Maybeck High School—a private school in Berkeley—may be moving to a new location in February. 

The coeducational, teacher-coop prep school will request the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board on Thursday for a use permit to relocate from its current location on Bancroft Way to St. John’s Presbyterian Church at 2727 College Ave. 

The move would help the school to bring all its programs and classes—some of which are held at the Wesley Center a block away—under one roof and to function more smoothly, Maybeck’s head teacher John Muster said Monday. 

“We are very excited,” Muster said over a telephone interview. “The St. John’s facility is a beautiful architecture. It will provide a sound conducive space for students to learn. It is still close to the UC Berkeley campus and will help us to conduct all our programs simultaneously rather than one after the other. We have very limited space at the old space and had to go out and rent classrooms.” 

Founded in 1972, the school was named after renowned Berkeley architect Bernard Maybeck. It moved into the Sunday school wing of the United Methodist Church at 2362 Bancroft two years later. 

Muster said enrollment had not played a factor in the relocation, adding that the school was committed to keeping the number of students at 120. 

St. John’s, which has experienced a decrease in its membership over the last two decades, hopes to rent out space to different organization to meet renovation costs, church officials said. 

Nelly Coplan, church administrator, said the church drew up to 1,400 members in the ‘70s but that the number had decreased to 140 recently. 

“A lot of people moved away,” she said. “Maybe people lost faith and moved on. The whole building was built with the idea of having people there all the time using all the rooms. Our membership does not sustain our building use. We need all kinds of things happening in our church to draw revenue. It’s an aging facility-- there’s all kinds of things that need to be repaired.” 

The church, Coplan said, had recently raised $1 million through a capital campaign project, most of which would be used toward improving the building’s infrastructure. 

“We just bought a fire sprinkler alarm system which cost $42,000,” she said. “We need money to repair our heating and plumbing. ... We need someone to help us. Someone who is on the same scale as us—on a progressive course of peace and justice.” 

Coplan acknowledged that Maybeck High School would be a good match for the church especially since they both had a common mission of further advancement. 

St. John’s has been home to the East Bay School for Girls—which was closed two years ago—and now houses Monteverde, a pre-school. The St. John’s Childcare—an autonomous institution which has members of the church on its board—has existed at the church for the last 31 years. 

Some area neighbors have opposed Maybeck High School’s relocation plans on the grounds that it would bring congestion and noise to the neighborhood. 

Muster, who has met with neighbors, said that there would be very little traffic impact to the neighborhood from the school. 

“Cars won’t be allowed to park cars in the residential areas during school hours,” he said. “A majority of our students and teachers use public transportation. There won’t be any adverse effects on traffic.” 

Citywide Pools Master Plan 

The community will get a chance to comment at three scheduled meetings on the Citywide Pools Master Plan that is being developed by the city and the school district over the next six months. 

The zoning board will be notified about these meetings on Thursday. 

The master plan—being developed by a 16-member task force, assisted by architecture and pool experts—will address citywide needs and interests related to existing pools and aquatic programs. 

Key topics of the plan include the Warm Water Pool in Berkeley High School’s Old Gym, the existing pools and options for new swim facilities. 

Three community meetings have been scheduled on the following dates: 

• Wed., Oct. 22, 7-9 p.m., Live Oak Recreation Center (Fireside Room), 1301 Shattuck Ave. Topics: Existing Conditions and Community Needs 

• Wed., Nov. 19, 7-9 p.m., Malcolm X Elementary School (Library), 1731 Prince St. Topics: Site Plan Concepts and Preferred Alternatives 

• Wed., Jan. 28, 7-9 p.m., James Kenney Community Center (Community Room), 1720 8th St. Topic: Draft Citywide Pools Master Plan 

For more info, visit: www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=28522 

Berkeley planning commissioners will tackle the downtown plan again Wednesday as they rush to meet the deadline for getting their own version to the City Council. 

In addition to finishing the draft environmental sustainability chapter, commissioners will also consider the plan’s access chapter as well as proposed streetscape designs if the city decides to reduce lanes to handle the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system. 

Commissioners must finish with their proposed revisions to the draft prepared over the course of two years by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee. The council must adopt a new plan before the end of May or face the loss of some UC Berkeley funding for the planning effort. 

Commissioners are also set to hear updates on the progress towards proposed zoning changes in West Berkeley and to hold a hearing on converting 12 apartments in a three-building complex at the northeast corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Parker Street into condos. 

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

The race for the Area 2 Peralta Community College District Trustee seat suddenly grew a little chippy last week with the charge that the brother of incumbent Marcie Hodge improperly tried to gain confidential employment information about challenger Marlon McWilson from one of McWilson’s former employers. 

Hodge’s brother, Vallejo City Unified School District Public Information Officer Jason Hodge, says that he met with McWilson’s former employer “to get a feel about him,” but denies that anything improper was done. 

“I keep my professional duties separate from the political,” Jason Hodge said in a telephone interview. 

However, Debra Lindo, the Chief Executive Officer of Oakland-based nonprofit College Track, backs McWilson’s version of the event. 

In a letter sent to Vallejo City Unified Superintendent Mary Bull on behalf of the McWilson campaign last week, Sacramento attorney Rafael Icaza said that late in September, Jason Hodge tried to get employment information about McWilson from Lindo and the Chief Operating Officer at College Track, where McWilson previously worked. 

In the letter, Icaza said that “Mr. Hodge claimed that he was there representing the Vallejo City Unified School District (VCUSD) to follow up on an employment application that Mr. McWilson submitted to VCUSD.” 

McWilson has not applied to Vallejo City Unified for a position. 

In his letter to Bull, Icaza said that Hodge’s actions “are at best inappropriate and defamatory. At worse, they constitute illegal pretexting if he was not truly acting on behalf of VCUSD.”  

Icaza asked the school district to “confirm or deny” whether Hodge was acting on his own or as a district employee in the contact with College Track in order to “enabl[e] Mr. McWilson to decide how next to proceed.” 

“Pretexting” is a relatively new term involving a practice in which an individual seeks to illegally obtain personal information by pretending the information is for legal purposes. 

Hodge said he believes the allegations are an unimportant sideshow to the political race between McWilson and his sister. 

“I suggest they [the McWilson campaign] focus their attention back on Marcie Hodge and the issues in this race,” Hodge said. “She’s the one he’s supposed to be running against, not me.” 

While Hodge says he did meet with Lindo and College Track’s Chief Operating Officer Marshall Lott, he says, “I never said he [McWilson] was applying for a position at Vallejo Unified. I had a discussion with [Lindo] based upon my personal relationship with her.” 

Lindo and Hodge previously knew each other from the period when Lindo was principal at East Oakland’s Castlemont High School. Hodge represented that area on the school board of the Oakland Unified School District from 1996 to 2004. 

Lindo, however, contradicts Hodge on what Hodge said was the reason for soliciting the information on McWilson. 

“He dropped into the office [at College Track] and it was like old home week,” Lindo said. “I gave him a tour of the center. Afterwards I asked him what brought him there. He said that he was there from Vallejo City Unified, and that he was doing a reference check for a position at the school district that Marlon was applying for. I wasn’t head of College Track when Marlon worked here, so I brought in [COO] Marshall Lott, and we gave him [Hodge] the dates and times when Marlon worked. And Marshall Lott shared some positive traits about Marlon.” 

Lindo said that no confidential employee records on McWilson were released to Hodge. She also said that at no time during the discussion did Hodge inform her that McWilson was running for the Peralta Board of Trustees against Hodge’s sister, Marcie. McWilson said he learned about the Hodge-Lindo meeting during a later conversation with Lindo, when Lindo told McWilson she hoped he would get his new position at Vallejo City Unified. 

In his telephone interview, Hodge said that the scenario laid out in Icaza’s letter was implausible because employment information cannot be obtained in such a manner. 

“If [Vallejo City Unified] was really trying to obtain information about McWilson, they would have done so by correspondence with a waiver signed by the former employee,” Hodge said, adding that it would have been improper for College Track to release any information without such a written request and waiver. 

Asked why he felt College Track could share that same information with him as a private citizen that they could not release to Vallejo City Unified, Hodge said “because it was not obtained in any official capacity” regarding his employment with the school district. 

Marcie Hodge campaigns are no strangers to controversy. In 2006, when Marcie Hodge ran against 6th District Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks, Alameda County election officials ordered the Hodge campaign removed from the East Oakland church where her mother was pastor, saying that it was an improper mixing of church and state. 

A Jefferson Elementary School third-grade teacher has resigned following allegations that she might have violated the separation of church and state by teaching creationism to her third-grade class, district officials said Friday. 

District Superintendent Bill Huyett confirmed that Jefferson teacher Gwen Martin—who joined the school over summer and has been on personal leave since the last week of September—resigned but declined to comment on the outcome of the investigation regarding her alleged conduct in class explaining that it was a personnel matter. 

“She [Martin] resigned a little bit ago,” he said. “I can’t comment on that [investigation].” 

Parents of children who attend Jefferson Elementary School told the Planet that Martin was discussing the differences between fiction and non-fiction with her students on Aug. 29 when she told them that the only thing they should believe in was God. 

They said that Martin had also told the students that she didn’t believe in evolution or the Big Bang theory either.  

A group of parents at Jefferson, worried that the teacher’s alleged actions violated their civil liberties, complained to Jefferson’s new principal Maggie Riddle and the issue ultimately reached the Berkeley Board of Education and the superintendent. 

Messages left at Jefferson Friday for Riddle and Martin by the Planet were not returned. 

The Planet reported earlier this month that school board President John Selawsky had confirmed that the district was investigating the allegations against Martin, and that if they turned out to be true, the district would likely seek some form of discipline against her. 

When reached Friday, Selawsky also refused comment on the outcome of the investigation citing personnel issues. 

“The teacher has resigned and we have posted the position,” he said. “I don’t have any other comment. It has yet to come to the board for final approval but the superintendent has accepted her resignation.” 

Selawsky added that a substitute teacher had been assigned to fill Martin’s position until a replacement could be found for her. 

The courts have ruled that public schools may not sponsor religious worship, but they may teach about religion as an academic subject without teaching dogma.  

For the Oct. 2 story see: www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-10-02/article/31218 

Pink and green ceramic tiles—stacks of them—lay outside Berkeley High’s Community Theatre Thursday, waiting to be used to make a table honoring one of the school’s newest but most-loved teachers, who died from a heart attack in August while she was in the Phillipines on a Fulbright Scholarship.  

Students, friends and family of Kalpna Mistry, who had joined Berkeley’s International Baccalaureate program a year ago, gathered in the theatre a little before 6 p.m. to share memories and celebrate her life, which although short left an indelible mark on a remarkable number of people. 

“It’s for Ms. Mistry,” said Berkeley High sophomore Maisy Bolgatz, using her Squeeze pen to draw a simple pattern of hearts and flowers on a blank tile. Bolgatz was in Mistry’s Global Studies class last year and came up with the idea of a ceramic tile table along with her classmate Vivian Ponte-Fritz. 

“We were thinking of doing a mosaic at first—a portrait of her—but we decided that since there were so many people who wanted to contribute that it will be better to do a table,” said Ponte-Fritz, who performed Bharatnatyam, a classical Indian dance, at the end of the memorial. 

The table will be placed in the school library or in the gallery in Building C where students' artwork is displayed, she said. 

The line leading to the tiles grew longer every minute with Mistry’s family, cousins, students and colleagues pausing to write something or admire someone else’s handiwork. 

“English class is fun and I really miss you and I know you are watching always, L. Mills,” wrote sophomore Latifah Mills with a green pen. 

Kalpna’s sisters Priya and Rakhee Mistry stood nearby watching her. 

“The students have been fantastic,” Priya said. “I was sitting with the students hearing about Kalpna and it’s easy to see that even though she has been here for only a year she has made a big impression on them.” 

She later told the audience that although Mistry made her students answer some tough questions during their last finals, she always wanted them to have fun. 

“After question 22, she writes: ‘Now whisper your favorite ice cream,’” Priya said, reading aloud from one of Mistry’s tests. “After question 26, she writes: ‘Now say mmmm’ ... She loved you guys. I want you to leave here today knowing that you gave her an opportunity to do what she loved—teach.” 

Mistry’s mother Ramaben Mistry looked at an altar the school had put together to display some of Kalpna’s favorite things. Among the green and red bangles, Indian jewelry and saree, books—one of them was “Sally Goes to Sea” written by Kalpana when she was in elementary school—and the awards she had won was a travel book on the Philippines. 

“That’s because she went on that trip to the Philippines,” she said, pausing. 

Mistry’s sisters told the Planet that although no definite conclusion had been drawn about what happened on that fateful day two months back when Mistry died, autopsy results had revealed that she had been born with small arteries, a condition they said the family had been previously unaware of but had also been present in their grandfather. 

Mistry’s parents Amratlal and Ramaben immigrated to the United States from Zambia in 1976, following which her father started a photography studio in the Bay Area. When competition from digital photography forced Amratlal Mistry to close his business two years ago, he took up a job with Sears. 

Mistry, who graduated from Mountain View High School, pursued a bachelor’s degree in social welfare and international development studies from UC Berkeley, graduating in 2003 and went on to get her master’s degree in education from Harvard University four years later. 

Mistry’s husband Sidarth Khoshoo was also at Thursday’s memorial. 

“From a very young age she was interested in education,” Mistry’s mother said. “She was always upfront and as she grew up she had a lot of friends. And she loved books. Actually she had so many books that she had to give them away to the library.” 

Nestled among some of Mistry’s favorite food—strawberries, cookies, Indian sweetmeats and chai—was “Kaffir Boy” by Mark Mathabane, a book about a young black boy’s coming to age in apartheid South Africa, and Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel.” 

Mistry’s wall clock, which never had the standard time but simply said “time to learn,” lay next to a deity of Ganesh. 

Students and teachers of the International Baccalaureate program spoke about Mistry’s quest for social justice and her painstaking efforts to close the achievement gap at Berkeley High. 

“When I think of Kalpna, all these images flash through my mind,” said Ross Parker, one of Mistry’s colleagues who taught on the same floor as her. “When I walk past her room everyday I feel I will still see her in her Cal sweatshirt, with her scarf on even if it’s 80 degrees outside, making gigantic packets for the freshmen or arranging dinner for a group of parents ... I realized that there was something very different about Kalpana because she didn’t wait for anyone to ask for her help. If there was a way to connect she would reach out to make that happen.” 

Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp described Mistry as “an extraordinary teacher and friend,” an advocate for the underdogs. 

Mistry’s former students Lucy Sundelson and Rina Li described how Mistry worked hard to put together a trip to Sacramento earlier this year to protest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenenger’s proposed budget cuts to state education funds.  

“She would only eat a bite or two at lunch,” Sundelson said, describing Mistry’s dedication to her students. “She once told me that her lunch consisted of five almonds because her students had to talk to her.” 

Two funds have been created in Mistry’s honor:  

The Kalpna Mistry Memorial Fund, which will support a summer institute for entering freshmen at Berkeley High School, and  

The Kalpna Mistry Memorial Fellowship Fund at Harvard University, which will be directed toward teachers who wish to work with youth on behalf of increasing social justice in the world. 

Though called a climate action plan, the document presented to Berkeley planning commissioners Wednesday night looked more like a developer’s dream. 

The draft by city climate action planner Timothy Burroughs won the praise of Livable Berkeley, the city’s leading “smart growth” advocacy group, now headed by executive director Erin Rhoades, spouse of former city planning manager Mark Rhoades, who is now a developer himself. 

Livable Berkeley and allied groups had been less kind to the earlier draft, issuing a joint statement that faulted the document for its failure “to challenge the status quo,” “leaving out any real discussion or education on the importance of increasing urban density on major corridors,” and neglecting to “unequivocally state that increased density near transit provides the most significant greenhouse gas reduction.” 

But Rhoades had no such problems with the new draft, declaring the group’s support because of “changes that emphasize land use and transportation.” 

But the same changes that delighted Rhoades worried Gene Poschman, the commission’s resident policy analyst and an outspoken minority member of a commission dominated by a development-friendly majority.  

“Erin Rhoades is quite happy with this. Livable Berkeley is quite happy with this. The pro-growth people are quite happy with this,” Poschman said. 

“Its motto is build, baby, build,” said the retired academic. 

“In Berkeley, it doesn’t matter what the problem is: The solution is increasing density,” said Patti Dacey, another member of the commission minority. 

And it took audience member Merilee Mitchell to point out one flaw in Burroughs’ plan, the claim that “automobiles account for 47% of Berkeley’s total greenhouse gas emissions.” 

But that was true, Mitchell noted, only when diesel-gobbling buses and trucks were added it. 

Burroughs told commissioners he considered them automobiles as well, drawing a head shake from Poschman, who noted that, in Berkeley at least, a bus is not considered a car. 

Poschman had prepared a detailed critique of the chapter presented to the commission, but Burroughs said that the papers presented represented only a policy document, and commissioners would have plenty of opportunity to shape the resulting plan when they helped crafted later implementing regulations that would give the plan teeth. 

Burroughs said density wasn’t the plan’s goal. “The goal is getting people to move around without a car,” he said. 

Susan Wengraf, a commissioner running for the City Council seat held by the retiring Betty Olds, said that for people in the hills, getting out of cars requires now largely non-existent sidewalks and shuttles, given that AC Transit buses don’t serve most of her hoped-for constituency. 

Walking along sidewalk-less streets crowded with parked cars is dangerous, she said, leaving residents little choice but to drive. 

And Commissioner Roia Ferrazares said she was concerned that the plan failed to include any coordination with current and planned conservation programs run by UC Berkeley. 

During the meeting’s public comment session, David Room, who served on the city-appointed Oil Independent Oakland by 2020 Task Force, said their efforts had also been aimed at getting people out of cars. 

Jack Sawyer, a social psychologist and president of the Parker Street Foundation,which buys up property to covert into cooperative housing, asked why the plan didn’t reflect the emissions represented by the goods consumed locally but produced outside the area. 

Burroughs said calculating such embedded emissions was difficult, but added that some estimates were included in the plan. 

Dacey later asked about emissions involved in new buildings, but the calculations cited by Burroughs in response involved only building operation, and not the substantial greenhouse gases (GHGs) generated by production of building materials such as concrete and steel. Dacey has been an advocate of retrofitting existing buildings, which studies show generates far fewer GHGs than new construction. 

Jim Novosel, an architect and a commission swing voter, said he liked the plan's proposal to concentrate density on transit corridors. He said he would also like to see a requirement for publicly accessible open space requirements for new projects, rather than the little-used but expensive rooftop spaces builders now create. 

Commission Chair James Samuels congratulated Burroughs and others on the city staff for creating a plan he said “is very well done.” 

“The goal of increasing density along transit corridors has been around a long time without ever achieving this level of clarity,” he said.  

But Ferrazares said that while the plan proposes that development follow transit routes, “we only have one fixed transit line, which is BART. It’s a bit like putting the cart before the horse.” 

Commissioner David Stoloff, a stalwart of the majority with Samuels, Harry Pollack, Larry Gurley (absent Wednesday) and Wengraf, said that he foresaw “a huge backlash” resulting from any attempt to change zoning laws to create a buffer zone between greater density transit corridors and adjacent lower-density residential neighborhoods. 

Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan—available online at www.berkeleyclimateaction.org—has thus become the latest focus in the city’s ongoing battle about the role of development in the city’s future in which every issue, from preservation of the past to protection of the future, is recast into the language of builders, planners and their critics. 

While the planners focused on their own particular charge—land use and related policies—the Climate Action Plan is much broader in scope, though many of its elements relate to planner concerns ranging from transportation to construction technologies. Burroughs is also assigned to the city’s Planning and Development Department. 

The plan’s public comment period closes Nov. 7, and the final plan, after comments have been addressed and final editing concluded, will go to the city council for adoption in January. Wednesday night’s meeting was the last public forum on the plan before the council holds hearing when the final draft is up for adoption. 

Comments may be made online after registering at www.berkeleyclimateaction.org/signup.php 

The Berkeley Rep announced Thursday that it had raised $6,000 at the world premiere of Yellowjackets to help the Berkeley High School student newspaper The Jacket stay afloat. 

The Planet reported in August that the Jacket, an award-winning bi-weekly non-profit independent paper which has about 50 student editors, reporters, photographers, and business staff members, was in danger of folding next year due to rising print and mailing costs and a bleak economic scenario. 

Stephanie Ratcliff, the Jacket’s business manager, said the article had helped to inform the community about the Jacket’s problem, following which Berkeley residents and local businesses had stepped up to help the ailing paper. 

“I definitely want to thank the Berkeley Daily Planet,” Ratcliff said over a telephone interview. “The article helped to put the Yellowjackets in touch with our situation. We also got a lot of wonderful response from the community.” 

The Jacket, Ratcliff said, had raised $20,000 on its own over the last few months by raising subscription fees and advertising. 

During her interview with the Planet in August, Ratcliff had said that printing expenses for the paper could run up to $12,000 and $16,000 every year—with individual issues costing between $800 to $1,000 to print—and that Jacket staff were hoping to raise between $8,000 and $10,000 through community outreach. 

“It’s really wonderful that we have $6,000 from the Rep,” she said. “We have enough money for this year already but we won’t have to worry about our future generations. There won’t be a need to scramble for resources.” 

The paper, which typically prints 2,600 copies for every issue, around 200 of which are distributed to subscribers and the rest free-of-cost to students, also reported a drop in advertising and subscriptions, according to former staff members. 

Ratcliff said that the paper had raised annual subscription rates from $70 to $80. The subscription price for one semester is $55 and sponsors pay $225. 

“A lot of people are actually paying the full subscription fee now instead of just making a donation,” Ratcliff said. “We are comfortable now but still worried about the future.” 

Susan Medak, managing director of Berkeley Rep, said that she had read a news report about the Jacket’s financial problems during a Yellowjackets rehearsal which initiated an effort to save the paper. 

“We have a special interest in all things Berkeley but a particular interest in the Jacket because the play Yellowjackets highlighted the value of a student newspaper,” she said. “We are blessed in Berkeley to have an unusual student newspaper. We [the Berkeley Rep] are about words and we want to see good journalism continue in this community and other communities. We think it’s important to encourage young journalists. There are times when we have the opportunity to be a bull pulpit and this was one of those times when we had an opportunity to help another non-profit.” 

Medak said the Rep raised the money through old-fashioned civic engagement: by asking their patrons to donate money in a coffee can on their way out of the theater.  

“People have responded with tremendous generosity,” she said. “They've already contributed $6,150—enough to keep the paper alive for at least another year—and there are still five shows left in the show's run." 

Written by Berkeley native Itamar Moses, the play Yellowjackets takes a look at racial tensions which surface at Berkeley High—Moses’ alma mater—when the school paper publishes an insensitive story which leaves students and teachers perplexed. 

Moses, 31, reported for the Jacket as a teenager and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

The cast of Yellowjackets will present a check to the Jacket’s staff during a special ceremony after their final performance Sunday. 

Yellowjackets is now playing at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison Street at Shattuck Ave. through Oct. 19. 

To contact the Jacket, email faculty advisor Matt Carton at mcarton@berkeley.k12.ca.us 

The persistent efforts of 30 to 40 Berkeley neighbors have given Berkeley a new law, one that proponents say promises relief from a chronic, unhealthy and all-too-frequent menace. 

The neighborhood threat targeted by the recently passed ordinance? The particulate emissions otherwise known as smoke. 

If you’re building a new home in Berkeley these days (market peregrinations notwithstanding), there’s one thing you can’t have—a feature that attracted loving attention from such stellar architects as Julia Morgan and Bernard Maybeck. 

In Berkeley, it seems, you simply can’t build an open hearth fireplace. If you want one, you have to buy a house built before the city’s ban, enacted in January 2003. Otherwise, you’re limited to wood stoves and fireplace inserts that meet federal requirements. 

That ban resulted from the efforts of the Community Environmental Advisory Committee (CEAC)—the same council-appointed citizen body that proposed the new smoke ordinance. 

CEAC, in turn, was acting on the basis of a 1999 request from the San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) urging local jurisdictions to enact wood smoke regulations. 

It’s existing fireplaces—or rather their emissions—that are the targets of the new legal process, one that transforms a physical and experiential nuisance into a Berkeley legal process. 

The neighbors targeted by the new ordinance are heavy users of open hearth stoves, as well as those who use approved wood stoves—usually in the form of fireplace inserts—in ways that result in emissions above the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

While both the state Air Resources Board and BAAQMD have enforcement programs that target wood burners who fail to comply, several problems confront residents plagued by noxious neighbors. 

“Right now, neighbors have no recourse,” said CEAC Chair Jason Kibbey when he presented the committee’s ordinance to the council on Sept. 23, noting that “most of these problems occur after 5 p.m. or on weekends, times when the BAAQMD is very unlikely to send someone out.” 

Another problem might be called the nostalgia factor, the cumulative effect of all those pleasant memories conjured up by the smells, sight and sounds of a roaring fire on a cold night or a festive holiday—call it the “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” factor. 

According to the staff memo that accompanied the measure to the city council, “there is general acceptance of smoke as an entirely acceptable form of pollution if it emanates from a chimney but not from a cigarette or from a vehicle exhaust tailpipe. People who complain of adverse health effects from wood smoke are generally dismissed by society and redress becomes difficult, if at all possible.” 

While EPA-compliant stoves are limited to spewing out 7.5 grams of soot per hour, the report stated, “Non EPA-compliant wood burning devices typically emit up to 10 times this level of particles.” 

Open hearth fires, which lack the catalytic converters and other technologies embodied in the federally approved stoves, are the worst offenders, but even in the stoves that have earned Uncle Sam’s blessing, noxious output can come from improper operation and from burning the wrong things, such as green wood and trash. 

While the state and regional laws define violations in terms of measured emissions of particles, meeting those standards requires equipment and technological savvy beyond the likely reach of neighbors, so CEAC decided on an alternative course, using the conflict resolution model already incorporated into the city’s tree ordinance. 

“What this is, is just a process,” Kibbey told the council. “What it is not, is a step creating smoke cops ... It is simply a way so that if there is a complaint, there is a process. If there is no complaint, there is no problem.” 

The ordinance poses no threats for most Berkeley residents who lay on the occasional fireplace blaze, he said. “It will be an issue for the 30 to 40 people that call the city” every winter “to complain about wood smoke inhalation from their neighbors, and they’re finding themselves with no recourse and no way to solve this problem.” 

CEAC, which includes Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Robert Clear among its membership, took on the task of defining the standards for enforcement of their ordinance, running a thousand computer simulations to model fireplace smoke-dispersion patterns. 

Those calculations yielded a figure embodied in the new ordinance, which states that half of the people living 120 feet downwind from a fire burning in a non-EPA certified hearth could be exposed to unhealthy levels of smoke. 

The radius includes all adjacent and cater-corner homes, including at least two or three homes across a typical residential street. 

And at its worst, on a still air day, anyone within 40 feet of a noncompliant hearth can receive the state-regulated maximum particulate exposure within 15 minutes, Clear told the council. At 120 feet—the figure established by their new ordinance—approximately half the residents would exceed the maximum exposure in three hours. 

Those neighbors include people like Madelyn Landau, who told the council that she suffers from allergic asthma triggered by wood smoke. 

“I guess I’m one of those 30 or 40 people. There are two other people in my household who also have problems,” she said. “I myself have been sent to the emergency room a couple of times” because of a neighbor’s fires. 

While city Planning Director Dan Marks had given a qualified endorsement to the CEAC proposal in a memorandum to the council, he had cautioned that city staff “has a general concern that any code which gives authority to complain against a neighbor may enable disputes and litigation.” 

But Landau said that “based on three years of experience involving eight households where we have tried to mediate with this fellow, I would say quite the opposite.” 

And despite his concerns, Marks concluded in his reports that “given the serious concerns with the adverse health impacts from wood smoke expressed by the Commission and the limited action from the BAAQMD, the proposed ordinance provides a tool that may be useful in some cases.” 

The only voice of opposition came from Councilmember Darryl Moore, who abstained from the otherwise unanimous vote that approved the new statute. He said he was concerned that the council’s discussion had been scheduled late in a long session, and because few people had attended CEAC’s discussions of the ordinance. 

He urged his colleagues to delay action until they could hold a full discussion and public hearing, but in the end could only abstain while his colleagues endorsed the ordinance. The measure appeared as a consent calendar item when it came back for its final vote Oct. 7. 

Acting City Attorney Zach Cowan told councilmembers how the law will work before the Sept. 23 vote. 

“You have to allege and eventually demonstrate that the neighbor you’re complaining about is either using a noncompliant wood-burning appliance or that they’re using a compliant one with improper fuel. So that’s some level of burden,” he said, referring to the burden of proof required to prevail in a court case. 

Before reaching a trial court, neighbors would first have to try to resolve the issue among themselves, and failing that, would have to offer the smoky neighbor the opportunity to resolve the dispute through arbitration. 

If the neighbor refuses arbitration, then the neighbors could file a nuisance action through the civil court system. 

“It’s ultimately going to be that person’s judgment as to what’s an appropriate remedy,” Cowan said, referring to the arbitrator or judge charged with resolving the case. 

He offered as possible resolutions could include orders to burn not more than three hours a day or to not burn at all on still air days. 

The new law and the CEAC report are available online in a single document file at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/uploadedFiles/Clerk/Level_3_-_City_Council/2008/09Sep/2008-09-23_Item_19b_Wood_Smoke_Nuisance_Ordinance.pdf 

Passage of the new law doesn’t mean CEAC has finished with smoke. Next up on their particulate agenda? Barbecues. 

To the world, 1931 Center St. in downtown Berkeley is little more than what it claims to be at first glance: the historic Veterans’ Memorial Building. 

Those who have cared to scratch beneath its stately surface also identify it as a place for recovering crack addicts, alcoholics and former convicts for the better part of the day. 

But when the clock strikes 5 every evening, the building’s massive gray columns overlooking the Civic Center Park mean only one thing to a particular group of 50 men: home. 

Ever since the Berkeley Food and Housing Project has been partnering with the City of Berkeley to provide overnight shelter to homeless men in the basement of the Veterans’ Memorial, thousands have lined up outside its doors for a hot meal, a friendly smile and, most important, a warm bed for the night. 

The agency—which also runs a shelter for destitute women and children on Dwight Way and several other programs that offer the homeless transitional housing, meals as cheap as a quarter and free counseling—received some bad news recently, the effects of which have yet to be felt but are inevitable eventually. 

Terrie Light, executive director of the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, said that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had decided to eliminate the Emergency Housing Assistance Fund—which accounts for 4 percent of the shelters’ total budget—to balance California’s staggering budget deficit. 

The governor’s announcement meant that almost $300,000 in shelter money was lost in five Bay Area counties, including $114,000 in Alameda County. 

The Berkeley men’s and women’s shelters—which have an annual budget of $735,000—are set to lose $30,000 on Dec. 31, when their state funds run out. 

“It’s shocking,” said Light, who has been with the agency since 1998. “It was so not expected. It’s just out of the blue. But then who’s advocating for homeless shelters? We don’t have the money to send people to fight for this in Sacramento. All our money goes in services. Our budget has no extra, it’s worn thin.” 

The agency also receives city and county funds—a resource Light said was secure for the time being—and has been blessed over the years with generous donors, a bit of luck she said she was afraid might soon run out given the plight of the current economy. 

Light added that although it was too soon to start making cuts in services and staff, the agency was holding an emergency meeting today (Thursday) to plan how to tackle the funding crunch. 

“It seems a small amount of money, but some of that money will go to salaries, to pay for toilet paper, utility bills,” she said. “We will have to look at reducing staff salaries. But it’s impossible to reduce staff at the men’s shelter because of a safety problem. It will become a dangerous place for people to stay.” 

On Tuesday night, 46 men had a spot reserved for them in one of the shelter’s four well-lighted cozy cubicles. Six of them were tuned in to MSNBC, listening to updates on the federal government’s bailout package, a group sat at the dining table playing dominos and some read the newspaper, keeping an eye out for the buzzer to go off at 7 p.m. for dinner. 

“It wasn’t always like this,” said Wanda Williams, who manages the shelter, smiling. “Twelve years ago it was pretty chaotic. Fights broke out all the time. We couldn’t figure out who should be here and who shouldn’t. But now we lock the doors at 7 p.m. Late-shows are only allowed if they have permission slips from us.” 

After Williams took over the agency eight years ago, she fought to remodel the shelter, located in the basement of a seismically unsafe building, and replaced 67 folding cots—which came with army blankets and little else—with 50 more-comfortable beds, each provided with a pull-out drawer that can be locked.  

“I love my guys. I will fight for them till the end,” she said, sitting in her tiny office next to the common room, which attracts a constant string of young and old men trying to get “a minute alone with Wanda.” 

Dinner on Wednesday night consisted of spaghetti and meatballs, tossed green salad, French bread and cake prepared by volunteers from Covenant Church. 

“They treat you good here,” said William Cooper, a recovering drug addict who has been at the shelter for four days. “You have to follow the rules, but they give you a place to study.” 

Cooper, who is from Oakland, is also taking a culinary class at Laney College and hopes to get a job at a local grocery store. 

When the shelter’s “clients”—as Williams’ assistant Mark Jackson calls them—get a bed from the drop-in center for the first time it’s good for 30 days.  

If the men can stay away from trouble during that time, which includes sticking to the 23 commandments handed out during orientation on the first day, they are given a 30-day extension. 

If someone turns out to be a “no-show,” his bed is stripped and disinfected for the next person on the waitlist. 

“When we open at 5 p.m. and I talk to the guys, I smell liquor on their breath,” said Williams, who signs the men in along with her staff of 10. “Some are high on weed, but I can’t throw them out, because this is not a dry shelter. If they are belligerent or use profanities or can’t walk because they are so drunk, then we will ask them to leave because they might be a danger to themselves or us. Other than that, anyone who is over 18 and has an ID is welcome.” 

Everyone has to be out by 7 a.m., when the space is used by another homeless service center. Some parts of the building are also used by Options Recovery Services, which provides case-management for alcoholics and addicts. 

Most of the men at the shelter who are unaware of the recent cuts become concerned when it’s mentioned. 

“What if I decide to get a job?” asked Secondo Fairley, who transferred from a transitional house to the shelter last week because he wasn’t able to quit smoking. “Will I be able to get one? This is the longest I have been unemployed. It’s been almost three months now.” 

Cooper sits down next to him, moisturizing his arms before retiring to his cubicle for the night. 

“I am worried that the cuts will force me out on the streets again,” he said, looking worried. “And I don’t want to go back there.” 

Tina Estes and Val Hammel first learned that two dozen or so Berkeley schoolchildren had stopped outside their McGee Avenue apartment Wednesday when they heard the “Ohhs.” 

“That’s Obama,” came one small voice, with assent quickly following. 

What had caught the eyes of the youngsters and their teachers was the bright blue face smiling beside the window that overlooks the street. 

There’s no doubt that the happy visage—soon to be accompanied by a blue hand making the thumbs up gesture on the north side of the window—belongs the man who all polls show may well become the next president of the United States. 

The excitement of the two apartment dwellers at 1649 McGee Ave. is evident in the ready smiles and enthusiastic tones that accompany their praise for their candidate. 

For artist Diana Hartman, painting the mural counts as her vote for the candidate, since she’s a Canadian citizen and can’t vote at the polls on Nov. 4. 

Because they’re renters, Estes and Hammel looked into Berkeley municipal codes before they acted, discovering that even tenants can paint their endorsements of a person or cause as long as the sign is taken down after the event and the sign consumes no more than an area totaling two feet by three feet. 

“But then we decided the temporary event is the 2012 election,” Hammel said, offering a mischievous smile. 

The next step in their plan was recruiting an artist, which they did by posting an ad on Craigslist.com reading “Have Canvas, Need Artist,” said Estes. 

Hartman was one of many artists who responded, a New York graffiti artist who offered to pay his own way to California to create his work. They chose Hartman and they’re delighted with the result. The artist, who lives in Sunnyvale, has even been house-sitting to care for their cat. 

“We’re hoping we can find other people who would like her to work on their houses or apartments,” said Estes. 

“It’s my first mural, and I’d love to do more,” said Hartman, who can be reached by email at Diana.Hartman.Art@gmail.com. 

The bright blue Barack was drawing lots of attention from pedestrians during a reporter’s brief visit Wednesday afternoon, and even won a horn salute from a passing Model A.

Subject: regarding certification of final environmental impact reports for the proposed computational research and theory facility and the helios energy resource facility and project approvals. 

As the request for my geologic opinion on the advisabilty of constructing large buildings in the lower part of Strawberry Canyon and in the next canyon to the north known as Blackberry Canyon came to me on May 4, I have to be brief and rely on my memory. I shall first say as strongly as I can “absolutely do not construct any buildings in those two canyons,” then I shall go into the reason based on the work I did as consultant to Mr. Ben Lennart 25 to 35 years ago who was contracted by the University to investigate a number of sites for possible constructions or for stopping landslides that were threatening buildings. 

First, the geologic setting of the two areas: The active Hayward Fault goes across the mouths of both canyons. Further east, the Wildcat Canyon fault parallels the Hayward Fault behind the Botanical Gardens and northward joins the Hayward near the town of San Pablo. Southward the Wildcat Canyon fault can be easily traced to Sibley Park and beyond. A few small epicenters lie along this fault near its junction with the Hayward, but it does not seem to be active elsewhere to the south. However, in the past the area between the two streams and the two faults, which includes the whole of the Lawrence Laboratory complex, lay four miles to the south next to Sibley Park.  

The volcanic rocks in both areas have potassium-argon dates of approximately 10 million years, and the rhyolite found in both of them is the same rhyolite. The volcanic rocks underlying most of the Lawrence Lab complex fill an old crater, a collapse caldera. The old volcano that once rose above these rocks collapsed after the expulsion of a very large amount of rhyolite ash, now largely removed by erosion. The volcanic rocks broke up as the collapse occurred and many show crushing and deformation and are mixed with large amounts of ash and volcanic fragmental debris. This material should never have been built on as it is so clay-rich and unconsolidated. The western rim of this caldera is easily traced trom its arcuate shape which is cut off by the Wildcat Canyon Fault just south of the Botanical Gardens near the upper part of Strawberry Creek.  

It swings around very close to the old Cyclotron and continues north to join the Wildcat Canyon Fault in Wildcat Canyon not far from the Merry-go-Round in Tilden Park. The boundary rocks to the west are sandstones and shales thought to be of Cretaceous age, that is, they are older than 65 million years. Exposures of these sandstones and shales are good below Bldg 50 down to Bowles Hall, and they dip westward at angles of 20 to 25 degrees, about which more later. The Hayward Fault passes very close to the rear of Bowles Hall after going through the Stadium where it has caused major deformation of the support pillars and offset of the two sides of the stadium since its construction in 1927.  

Behind Hearst Mining Bldg and a few feet to the east, is the Lawson Adit which is a tunnel going eastward. Begun in the 1920s or earlier, it was completed in 1938 when it reached the Hayward Fault. Professor George Louderback told me (personal communication) that it was not ordinary fault gouge that he found in the Hayward Fault zone but a peculiar mixture of serpentine and metamorphic rocks that also appear on the surface and underlie Stern Hall and part of Foothill Student Housing. Founders Rock near the corner of Hearst and Gayley Road is in this melange. Also in the tunnel are several exposures of the offset of Strawberry Creek as determined from the contained rounded cobbles of Strawberry Canyon origin. Thus this indicates a displacement of more than 600 feet north along the Hayward Fault. 

Still further north along the Hayward all the way to San Pablo huge amounts of the melange similar to that in the Lawson Adit have been squeezed out of the Hayward Fault and are gradually sliding down the slope below the fault. Much of this melange has reached the bottom of the hill back of El Cerrito. Along the Arlington many houses built on this melange are sliding and have caused a great number of legal problems. Within the fault itself no movement can be detected in these deposits, some of which are more than 100-feet thick. Thus we believe that movement and expulsion of this melange takes place during major earthquakes on the Hayward Fault. 

A great deal of research has been done recently on the Hayward Fault by the USGS at Menlo Park which was reported in a talk on the last Thursday of this past April. They have established a return time of major quakes of 6.5-7 magnitude on the Hayward Fault of 130 years. The last major quake along the northern part of the Hayward Fault was 140 years ago, so we are over-due. They estimate that there is approximately a 65 percent chance a major quake will occur in the next 30 years. 

Lennart was able to get survey notes from East Bay Municipal Utility District for the San Pablo Dam water tunnel to El Cerrito which crosses the Hayward Fault and shows that the right lateral horizontal movement of approximately one centimeter per year is matched by uplift of the east side of the fault of approximatelly one centimenter per year also. So, with the evidence of the horizontal displacement of the old Strawberry Creek of 600 feet horizontally along Galey Road, the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks east of the Hayward Fault there have also risen 600 feet . Building 50(?) sits on these Cretaceous strata which, as mentioned dip westward 20-25 degrees. If an earthquake occurs when these beds are soaked with winter rains the chance of a major landslide are great along the slippage planes of shale dipping westward. Minor slides have already occurred in these beds behind Bowles Hall. Indeed, the Foothill Student Housing was planned to be built there until I called attention to the landslide. A major landslide would probably destroy all the buildings on both sides of Galey Road from the Stadium to the buildings on both sides of Hearst Avenue and would probably reach Dow Library, destroying everything in its path to that point and possibly beyond. Buildings in the lower parts of both Strawberry and Blackberry Canyons would be buried if not destroyed.  

Major landslides of the type I have described here are not rare along the Hayward Fault, as was shown to us during our study of the Hayward fault at the base of the hill behind the Clark Kerr Campus. We discovered that most of that campus was underlain by a large landslide that had originated in Claremont Canyon, and was gradually moved northward along the Hayward Fault. Trenches and drill holes showed this landslide to be up to 30 feet thick. It extends westward to and possibly beyond Piedmont Ave. Further south is a huge landslide that underlies most of the campus of Mills College and extends westward another quarter mile Still further south are more large slides that have originated in canyons and steep slopes east of the Hayward Fault. As the hills rise and become unstable, earthquakes cause them to break loose and slide. Very few large slides have occurred on the eastern slopes of the Berkeley Hills, hence the relationship to earthquakes of major land slides close to the Hayward Fault along the western slopes of the Berkeley Hills. Normal erosion rounds off unstable areas on the eastern slope of the Berkeley Hills before they break loose and slide. 

Most of the buildings of the Lawrence Lab. are on the unstable ground filliing the old caldera. particularly the Bevatron and associated buildings. As the Cretaceous beds immediately west of these buildings have been eroded away there is nothing to keep these soft caldera-filled beds from sliding. The buildings on them will certainly move a few feet in a major earthquake if not hundreds of feet. Keep in mind the Loma Prieta quake of l989 of magnitude 6.9 which from a distance of over 60 miles destroyed a section of the Bay Bridge, a section of the overhead freeway in Oakland killing 63 people, and many houses on filled ground in the Marina of northen San Francisco some 70 miles from the quake! 

No! Major buildings of any kind should not be constructed in either of these canyons bordering this huge block of unstable rock. 

Garniss H. Curtis is UC Berkeley profesor emeritus in the Deptartment of Earth and Planetary Science. 

With the alacrity of a dying sloth, the San Francisco Chronicle waited until the University of California had evicted and arrested the remaining tree-sitters at California Memorial Stadium before asking what it should have at the top of the hour: Is the stadium safe, and can it ever be made safe enough to accommodate anyone, let alone 75,000 spectators?  

The front page of the Sept. 21 sporting section featured an article entitled “Stadium on the Brink” with a photograph of rotted wooden seats and the lead sentence that the structure would be “definitely the worst place to be, as a player or a fan or anybody else, during an earthquake.” Four days later, reporter Carolyn Jones detailed the latest plans to make safer a structure straddling a fault that is cocked, loaded, and ready to rip. She gave the university’s public relations front man, Dan Mogulof, final word: “We remain completely confident we’re compliant with [the] Alquist-Priolo [Act.]” insisted Mogulof. “We’re excited to finally move forward with this retrofit project. Our primary goal has always been safety.” 

If that assertion had any meaning for those still in the reality-based community, the university would have long ago closed the stadium to high occupancy events and moved its daily occupants—including its star coach Jeff Tedford—to a surge building where they would indeed be safer. Indeed, it would never have built the stadium and much else in Strawberry Canyon against expert advice in the first place.  

But that is not how an ever less public, ever more commercial university operates as it attempts to raise millions from loyal alums for the stadium retrofit while proceeding quietly and knowingly to build on extremely hazardous footings above it. “That’s the way the university operates,” says emeritus geology professor Graniss Curtiss in frustration. ”They take nobody’s advice, they do what they want to do.” It is presumably easier to beef up the university’s public relations and marketing arm that occupies the same safe surge facility as Intercollegiate Sports west of Hearst Gym.  

Cal Memorial Stadium was originally a bait-and-switch job that sundered previously good relations between Town and Gown while poisoning the academic grove itself. As the university began to solicit private donations in 1921 to build a football coliseum memorializing Californians killed in the Great War, it led alumni to believe that the stadium would be located near public transit on the southwest corner of campus, its long axis on line with Ellsworth Street. At its Jan. 7 meeting in 1922, however, the Regents decided to move the project to the constricted mouth of Strawberry Canyon, a designated nature area and much-loved passage from the campus into the Berkeley hills. Their ostensible reason was that land acquisition at the initial site would have been too expensive, but when interviewed in his late 80s by the Bancroft Library’s Regional Oral History Office, architect and seismic engineer Walter Steilberg recalled that a relative of one of the regents whom he called a “super salesman” persuaded the trustees to create a “dirt bowl” like those recently built at Stanford and Yale. Such a project in the canyon would require extensive blasting and land fill, but the “salesman” got a job in the process  

It could have been worse, Steilberg added. He credited himself with stopping the university from entirely tearing down Big C Hill by making a model showing the “horrible scar” that would result. The damage done by dynamite and hydraulic monitors in the opening months of 1923 was bad enough; a scrim of trees hides some of the scar on the hill sluiced into the canyon to make a podium for the stadium.  

Steilberg fought the new location, recalling that “many of the faculty, especially the engineering and scientific people, [were] opposed; and the geologists were shocked by the idea of putting it right on the fault line.” A committee of citizens bitterly opposed the university’s plans to sacrifice “one of Nature’s priceless gems to the purpose of commercialized ‘sport,’” warning that it “must bear the responsibility for the safety of thousands.” Panoramic Hill resident William Henry Smyth further wrote at the time that “last come the Regents who are interested and will be deemed responsible for the outcome in all its phases whether of glorious success or of tragic disaster flowing from the selection of the canyon site.”  

The director of the California Academy of Sciences, Dr. Barton W. Evermann, and Botany Professor Harvey M. Hall wrote a letter calling Strawberry Canyon an irreplaceable asset for study, “the largest and best equipped laboratory on the campus and the most valuable because no amount of money can buy another. Zoology and botany are of the first importance in the development of hygiene, medicine, and scientific agriculture. The university cannot do its work properly in these important fields if deprived of its most precious means of instruction and research.” The Regents ignored the letter: the botanical garden recently removed to the canyon mouth from campus retreated farther back into the hills.  

Steilberg recalled that campus architect John Galen Howard at first “emphatically” opposed the chosen site but eventually agreed to design it. He needed the money and, he probably felt, another architect would not have been as competent. Unfortunately for public safety, Howard’s stately Roman design succeeded so well that the vast coliseum in the spectacular site is consistently rated the most beautiful venue for watching collegiate football. So freighted is it now with sentiment, history, and fundraising potential that it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. No proposal to condemn it is taken seriously.  

With no environmental impact reports to hinder its builders, the huge edifice was rushed to completion in just eleven months with lax supervision. Excavation began in mid-January 1923 and actual construction in May. It was ready for the Big Game on Nov. 24 of that year. Almost exactly one year later, the Regents sacked John Galen Howard as supervising architect of the campus while he was on vacation. His opposition doubtlessly contributed to his abrupt dismissal after a quarter of a century of service to the university.  

Many in the community and faculty knew that criticism of the stadium could be professionally hazardous, especially when Coach Andy Smith’s “Wonder Teams” were winning an unbroken string of victories in the early twenties. Nonetheless, several prominent architects and engineers spoke out, Steilberg among them. He never fully forgave noted architect Bernard Maybeck for failing to do so after Maybeck demurred, telling him, “That’s too controversial.” Philosophy professor Charles Rieber, whose house overlooked the canyon, embarrassed the university by very publicly leaving Berkeley to help establish the new southern campus in Los Angeles.  

Howard’s mammoth stadium nonetheless provided an unintended public service by giving generations of geology and engineering students a convenient and dramatic example of where and how not to build. As the Hayward Fault creeps north, it torques the structure, twisting its girders, popping its rebar, and spalling concrete. But the stadium and its neighboring buildings present other hazards that the University treats with insouciance.  

As my book Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin explained, the University of California’s public relations problems only began with the Memorial Stadium controversy. In 1939, the Regents gave star physicist Ernest O. Lawrence permission to move his growing “Rad Lab” into Strawberry Canyon above and east of the stadium. Lawrence was delighted, writing at the time that the nature reserve gave privacy and sufficient distance to alleviate the possible ill effects of radiation upon Berkeley below. With the coming of the World War II, the Rad Lab became a vital unit of the Manhattan Project, an ever-growing industrial complex in the former nature reserve of which few below were fully aware.  

Although the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is avowedly no longer involved in nuclear weaponry, the university’s other National Laboratories are. Photos of the publicly supported but publicly inaccessible campuses at Livermore and Los Alamos hang with the 10 better known units in the lobby of UC headquarters in Oakland.  

When infrequently quizzed on what business the university has developing and promoting new generations of omnicidal weapons 63 years after primitive prototypes erased two Japanese cities, its public relations department explains that it is performing a public service and serving national security, claims that the local press obligingly echoes. Three days before Christmas of 2005, for example, the Chronicle announced that the Department of Energy had renewed the university’s contract to jointly run with the Bechtel Corporation its Los Alamos campus “more like a business whose product is nuclear weapons.” The following day, the Chronicle’s lead editorial cheered for the home team: “The new seven-year contract is worth up to $512 million, but its greater importance to UC is the scientific prestige.”  

Unfortunately for the university, the labs’ record of poisoning its workers and host communities while threatening everything else with sudden extinction when something or someone goes wrong has required constant spin. When an Illinois woman recently sued the Board of Regents for her father’s cancer due to his exposure to radioactive waste at Los Alamos, a university spokesman replied that “Safety of employees and the community is a top priority for the laboratory and for the University of California and has been since the beginning of our management responsibilities at the lab.” That sounds familiar.  

The university does what it will because it can. Its unelected and unaccountable governing board operates with seigneurial disdain for laws such as California’s Alquist-Priolo Fault Zoning Act which the measure’s authors wrote to insure public safety by moving dangerous structures away from active earthquake faults and preventing the construction of new ones like the gym soon to rise where the oak grove was. As in the initial stadium controversy, the university continues to ignore expert advice from its own renowned faculty members, if they have the courage to speak up. Public relations omit what happens during an earthquake besides fault shear.  

While the tree-sitters were attracting public attention last May, Professor Garniss Curtis submitted an extraordinary letter (see sidebar) to the Regents based on decades of detailed geological research in the Berkeley hills. He did not mince his words, recommending “as strongly as I can ‘absolutely do not construct any building in [Strawberry and Blackberry] canyons.” The letter detailed the reasons for and evidence of enormous quake-induced landslides along the western front of the Berkeley hills. The Regents again ignored his advice and certified the construction of two more giant lab buildings on the unstable slopes underlying the LBNL and overlooking the stadium.  

I do not fault Carolyn Jones for failing to inform her readers what the university has suppressed about the dangers at Memorial Stadium when she reported on the latest “solution” to public safety there. Omission was in full flower at a presentation to Old Blues at Cal Homecoming Day on Oct. 4. As engineers reassured alumni that they had devised ingenious means to counter sudden fault shear by breaking it into sections, they neglected to mention the possibility of landslides onto the site, or that the quarter million cubic yards of fill on which the building could suddenly lurch westward if it liquefies in a major quake.  

Yet another salient fact was as absent from that presentation as from Dan Mogulof’s assertion that “Our primary goal has always been safety.” When Professor Jack Moehle assured worried alums that the chances of them dying in the stadium during a sudden fault rupture were miniscule because of the infrequency of its use, he neglected to mention that 20 years ago—and against expert advice—the university inserted locker rooms and offices into the structure’s dangerous western wall. Since then, hundreds of athletes and staff have been using the structure daily, Coach Tedford among them. 

Large capital investment resists change no matter what mistakes were initially made. But in the case of Cal Memorial Stadium and the labs perched precariously above it, those mistakes should not be compounded by ignoring them as well as what we have subsequently learned about the precarious geology of the Berkeley Hills. A great public institution has an equally great responsibility to protect the public’s safety. Public relations does not.

After undergoing a $700,000 renovation, which lasted nearly nine months, the rare 1911 Herschell-Spillman Menagerie edition merry-go-round has reopened in Tilden Park. 

The East Bay Regional Parks District unveiled the restored carousel Oct. 4 and announced that it would turn into a “Scary-Go-Round” on special nights this month to put visitors in the mood for Halloween. 

The hundreds who hiked or drove up to Grizzly Peak Boulevard last weekend to get spooked in the moonlight caught a glimpse of the antique carousel’s remodeled hardwood floors and renovated band organ sheltered inside a brand new state-of-the-art weatherproof glass enclosure, a feature park officials said was inspired by the carousels at Golden Gate Park and the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. 

Restoring the carousel’s nearly century-old wooden platform was no easy task, said Dan Horenberger, who was hired by the parks district to carry out the renovation.  

“To replace the floor we had to use the same type of wood that was originally there,” he said. “That stuff is not made anymore and costs thousands and thousands of dollars. We also had to make sure that the platform was the same size as the old one.” 

A quick trip to Oregon in search of the perfect vertical grain fir turned into four long months, the time required to cut the wood in a special way to keep it from being angular and riddled with knots. 

If that wasn’t tedious enough, Horenberger had to take the 1909 band organ completely apart and rebuild it from scratch. 

“It has thousands and thousands of parts inside it,” he said. “It’s an automatic music machine—an organ which plays by itself.” 

According to Jeff Wilson, unit manager for Tilden Park, the enclosure was built to protect the carousel from the elements. 

“I am so happy with it,” said Anne Scherr, the district’s chief of maintenance and skilled trades, who oversaw the building of the enclosure. 

“It does the job of protecting the carousel and also reflects the original architecture. I had really high hopes for the project but the architects and craftsmen really did an outstanding job. The merry-go-round is really important to so many people, we all wanted it to be perfect.” 

Horenberger, who has maintained the Tilden Park Carousel for the last three decades, said the carousel’s gears and bearings had been replaced three years ago to make the machine mechanically safe. 

“There were new ride laws and we had to bring the carousel up to code,” he said. “That was the first phase of the renovation. This year we replaced the platform and rebuilt the band organ.” 

The carousel closed down for a short while in February 2007 when state officials mandated that a fence be installed around it to comply with the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health. 

That suggestion, Horenberger said, sparked the need for a temporary fence which he hopes will become a more permanent structure when park officials raise funds for the next series of renovations over the next couple of years. 

“That will be the final phase,” he said. “We will also be painting all the horses and other animals then.” 

The carousel’s handcarved frogs, zebras, sea serpents, roosters and horses were inspired by whimsical characters from turn of the century nursery themes, and restoring each figure will take up to 60 to 80 hours—about the same amount of time it took to carve each of them. 

Each animal was handcarved from poplar in as many as 100 separate pieces, park officials said. 

The Tilden carousel—which has a total of 54 animals, 14 made of fiberglass and 40 of wood—is valued at $2.5 million today and is said to draw an estimated 150,000 people a year. 

Built by the Herschell-Spillman Company of North Tonawanda, New York for Ross Davis in 1911, the Tilden Park carousel debuted in San Bernardino County, where it operated from 1912 to 1916 in a trolley park in Urbita Springs. 

Its next stop was San Diego but unfavorable weather forced its owners to dismantle and store it until 1935, at which point it traveled to Griffith Park in Los Angeles. 

When a much bigger carousel replaced it two years later, the Carousel was brought to Tilden Park and has been there ever since, mesmerizing young and old alike with its fairytale-like lights and music. 

“There’s no other form of entertainment like a carousel,” Horenberger said. “It transcends generations. I can go to Tilden Park today and see four generations of the same family riding the carousel. There’s no other place you will see that.” 

The carousel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. 

“The carousel is the Park District's most beloved asset,” said District General Manager Pat O'Brien.  

“As with any antique, it requires continuous repair and renovation. We've restored various components of the carousel over the years, including replacing mechanical workings. But, this new enclosure is by far the largest undertaking of its kind, and definitely the most important. Thankfully, we received the funding from Measure CC and also a large grant to enable us to move forward.” 

Funding from the project came from Measure CC, a parcel tax measure passed by voters in 2004, an American Express Partners in Preservation grant, the Regional Parks Foundation and the park district.  

Terri Holleman—who has leased the ride from the parks district for the last 15 years—said visitors had been treated to cocoa and hot apple cider during the Scary-Go-Round ride last weekend. 

“The lights were dimmed—we scaled down the scare factor of course, keeping in mind our target audience,” she said. “But all over the new carousel looked beautiful, simply beautiful.” 

Carousel “Scary-Go-Round”: 5:30-8:30 p.m. every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 31. 

Carousel “Christmas Fantasy”: 5:30-8:30 p.m., Nov. 28-Dec. 23. 

After the New Year, the carousel will be open on the weekends, weather permitting. It will be open daily after Memorial Day. $2 ride (all riders must pay) or $10 for a seven-ride ticket book.  

To the world, 1931 Center St. in downtown Berkeley is little more than what it claims to be at first glance: the historic Veterans’ Memorial Building. 

Those who have cared to scratch beneath its stately surface also identify it as a place for recovering crack addicts, alcoholics and former convicts for the better part of the day. 

But when the clock strikes 5 every evening, the building’s massive gray columns overlooking the Civic Center Park mean only one thing to a particular group of 50 men: home. 

Ever since the Berkeley Food and Housing Project has been partnering with the City of Berkeley to provide overnight shelter to homeless men in the basement of the Veterans’ Memorial, thousands have lined up outside its doors for a hot meal, a friendly smile and, most important, a warm bed for the night. 

The agency—which also runs a shelter for destitute women and children on Dwight Way and several other programs that offer the homeless transitional housing, meals as cheap as a quarter and free counseling—received some bad news recently, the effects of which have yet to be felt but are inevitable eventually. 

Terrie Light, executive director of the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, said that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had decided to eliminate the Emergency Housing Assistance Fund—which accounts for 4 percent of the shelters’ total budget—to balance California’s staggering budget deficit. 

The governor’s announcement meant that almost $300,000 in shelter money was lost in five Bay Area counties, including $114,000 in Alameda County. 

The Berkeley men’s and women’s shelters—which have an annual budget of $735,000—are set to lose $30,000 on Dec. 31, when their state funds run out. 

“It’s shocking,” said Light, who has been with the agency since 1998. “It was so not expected. It’s just out of the blue. But then who’s advocating for homeless shelters? We don’t have the money to send people to fight for this in Sacramento. All our money goes in services. Our budget has no extra, it’s worn thin.” 

The agency also receives city and county funds—a resource Light said was secure for the time being—and has been blessed over the years with generous donors, a bit of luck she said she was afraid might soon run out given the plight of the current economy. 

Light added that although it was too soon to start making cuts in services and staff, the agency was holding an emergency meeting today (Thursday) to plan how to tackle the funding crunch. 

“It seems a small amount of money, but some of that money will go to salaries, to pay for toilet paper, utility bills,” she said. “We will have to look at reducing staff salaries. But it’s impossible to reduce staff at the men’s shelter because of a safety problem. It will become a dangerous place for people to stay.” 

On Tuesday night, 46 men had a spot reserved for them in one of the shelter’s four well-lighted cozy cubicles. Six of them were tuned in to MSNBC, listening to updates on the federal government’s bailout package, a group sat at the dining table playing dominos and some read the newspaper, keeping an eye out for the buzzer to go off at 7 p.m. for dinner. 

“It wasn’t always like this,” said Wanda Williams, who manages the shelter, smiling. “Twelve years ago it was pretty chaotic. Fights broke out all the time. We couldn’t figure out who should be here and who shouldn’t. But now we lock the doors at 7 p.m. Late-shows are only allowed if they have permission slips from us.” 

After Williams took over the agency eight years ago, she fought to remodel the shelter, located in the basement of a seismically unsafe building, and replaced 67 folding cots—which came with army blankets and little else—with 50 more-comfortable beds, each provided with a pull-out drawer that can be locked.  

“I love my guys. I will fight for them till the end,” she said, sitting in her tiny office next to the common room, which attracts a constant string of young and old men trying to get “a minute alone with Wanda.” 

Dinner on Wednesday night consisted of spaghetti and meatballs, tossed green salad, French bread and cake prepared by volunteers from Covenant Church. 

“They treat you good here,” said William Cooper, a recovering drug addict who has been at the shelter for four days. “You have to follow the rules, but they give you a place to study.” 

Cooper, who is from Oakland, is also taking a culinary class at Laney College and hopes to get a job at a local grocery store. 

When the shelter’s “clients”—as Williams’ assistant Mark Jackson calls them—get a bed from the drop-in center for the first time it’s good for 30 days.  

If the men can stay away from trouble during that time, which includes sticking to the 23 commandments handed out during orientation on the first day, they are given a 30-day extension. 

If someone turns out to be a “no-show,” his bed is stripped and disinfected for the next person on the waitlist. 

“When we open at 5 p.m. and I talk to the guys, I smell liquor on their breath,” said Williams, who signs the men in along with her staff of 10. “Some are high on weed, but I can’t throw them out, because this is not a dry shelter. If they are belligerent or use profanities or can’t walk because they are so drunk, then we will ask them to leave because they might be a danger to themselves or us. Other than that, anyone who is over 18 and has an ID is welcome.” 

Everyone has to be out by 7 a.m., when the space is used by another homeless service center. Some parts of the building are also used by Options Recovery Services, which provides case-management for alcoholics and addicts. 

Most of the men at the shelter who are unaware of the recent cuts become concerned when it’s mentioned. 

“What if I decide to get a job?” asked Secondo Fairley, who transferred from a transitional house to the shelter last week because he wasn’t able to quit smoking. “Will I be able to get one? This is the longest I have been unemployed. It’s been almost three months now.” 

Cooper sits down next to him, moisturizing his arms before retiring to his cubicle for the night. 

“I am worried that the cuts will force me out on the streets again,” he said, looking worried. “And I don’t want to go back there.” 

A pair of newspaper pilferers were cited for a variety of offenses early Wednesday morning following a citizen’s arrest in North Berkeley. 

Hal Brody of the East Bay Express said the paper’s circulation manager watched as two men in a white van, who were also making home deliveries of the San Francisco Chronicle, scooped up free circulation newspapers from street mounted racks near Solano Avenue. 

“The Berkeley Police arrived, and although they were reluctant to write out a citizen’s arrest warrant, after some extended discussion I was able to convince them it was necessary,” said Brody in an e-mail. 

The two suspects were charged with theft of free publications, driving on the wrong side of the road and driving with expired plates. 

It has weathered the Great Depression, World War II, the McCarthy Era and the Free Speech Movement. 

But a century of rain, hail, wind and storm has played havoc with UC Berkeley’s Sather Gate, and now the famous Beaux Arts south portal will undergo a $1.5 million renovation, which will help it battle the elements for at least another century. 

Christine Shaff, of the university’s Capital Projects, said scaffolding was erected at the gate’s central archway last Friday to remove the ornate bronze and steel metal work. 

By Thanksgiving, only the gate’s four granite pillars, topped by glass orbs, will be left, said Shaff. The metal arch and portal will be restored to the columns by April. 

“The gate is a hundred years old and has been out in the weather for a long time,” she said. “The steel frame behind the decorative bronze frame has deteriorated over time and needs to be replaced. People who I have talked to are intrigued and pleased that we are taking care of this icon. It’s one of the most recognized structures on campus and it needs attention, and we are giving it that.” 

In the 1950s, when unauthorized political and religious activities were banned from the campus, students gathered at Sather Gate to hear activists and politicians—including Richard Nixon during his bid for the U.S. Senate—campaign on Telegraph Avenue, which at that time extended north all the way up to the gate. 

In 1964 hundreds of supporters of the Free Speech Movement marched through Sather Gate carrying a Free Speech banner, and the structure continues to be a spot for political rallies to this day. 

University officials were alerted to the gate’s deterioration by members of the UC Rally Committee in 2007, when they were putting up lights on it for homecoming, Shaff said. 

An engineering study and consultation with metal workers paved the way for UC to advance funds for its restoration, and, around the same time, members of the Class of 1950 decided to initiate a “Save Sather Gate” fundraising campaign to pay for the renovation. 

Donated to UC Berkeley by Jane K. Sather in memory of her late husband, banker Peder Sather, Sather Gate was designed by John Galen Howard and reflects the French baroque style. Completed in 1910, the gate has a star at the very top with the campus motto, Fiat Lux (“let there be light”). 

The male and female nudes sculpted on its eight marble bas-relief panels by Bay Area artist Melvin Earl Cumming stand for the eight fields of learning: letters, mining, medicine, law, electricity, agriculture, architecture and art. 

In 1910, public outrage and embarrassment over the nudes became a concern, and the panels were promptly dismantled. Sixty-seven years later, the panels were rediscovered under the bleachers at Edwards Stadium and at the Amador Marble Company in Oakland and were reattached to the granite columns. 

Shaff said the century-old gateway would not be closed during construction, although some rerouting of traffic could occur at certain phases. 

“The Sather Gate has never been closed,” she said. “It’s more of an archway or a gateway than a gate. It has never kept people from coming in.”

While the battle over the North Oakland portion of AC Transit’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit line has not reached the level or volume that it has in neighboring Berkeley, a Saturday morning political forum at Peralta Elementary School showed that the battle lines are drawn around similar issues. 

The political forum was part of the regular monthly community advisory meeting held by Oakland District One Councilmember Jane Brunner, who represents North Oakland. 

AC Transit is proposing to run BRT from downtown San Leandro to downtown Oakland via East 14th Street and International Boulevard, and then to downtown Berkeley via Telegraph Avenue, but at a quicker pace than the current 1 and 1R lines. In order to speed up the service and make it more reliable, the bus district is proposing, among other things, carving out dedicated bus-only lanes along the route, putting a wider distance between bus stops than on the current routes, and eliminating the ticket purchase time on buses by having ticket vending machines at busstops, so that tickets can be bought in advance. 

At Saturday’s meeting, after hearing presentations by AC Transit, BRT Project Manager Jim Cunradi (pro BRT, obviously), Bruce Kaplan of Berkeleyans for Better Transit Options (opposed to BRT), and Roy Alpert of the Temescal Merchants Association and the Temescal-Telegraph Business District (generally supportive of BRT but with modifications), a long line of North Oakland residents gave one-minute summations of their own positions. 

Some had not yet made up their minds on the issue, like 66th Street resident Stephanie Sullivan, who said that she was “quite ambivalent—the devil is in the details, and I haven’t heard the details.” 

Sullivan said that she was “concerned” that lane closures caused by dedicated bus lanes would shunt through traffic onto residential side streets paralleling Telegraph Avenue. “I want to hear more about traffic calming measures” in the adjacent neighborhood, Sullivan said. 

On the other hand, North Oakland resident Joan Etlinger was already opposed, at least for her area. “I think BRT is good in some locations, but Telegraph Avenue is not one of those locations,” Etlinger said. 

She added that the increased speed of travel projected by BRT advocates would not pan out, saying that “going short distances will not be that much quicker.” She also criticized AC Transit’s projection of the controversial 60-foot Van Hool bus as the workhorse of the proposed BRT system, saying that because of the Van Hools’ high rider platforms, they are “bad for disabled.” 

Others, like Telegraph Avenue resident Rebecca Saltzman, were in favor of BRT. “I think it’s a great idea. Buses are currently unreliable” in meeting their scheduled arrivals, Saltzman said, and “BRT addresses that reliability.” 

Saying that BRT does not duplicate service already offered by BART—an argument used by some BRT opponents—Saltzman said that she rarely uses BART. “It’s a 15-minute walk to the Rockridge BART station from my home, and it’s too dangerous to walk at night.” 

AC Transit is negotiating with the three cities through which BRT is proposed to pass—Berkeley, Oakland, and San Leandro—about proposed alterations to the plan. Once the district’s board of directors votes on a final proposal, final approval of the project will be voted on by the respective city councils of each of the three cities. Brunner said that the Oakland City Council is scheduled to take up discussion of BRT sometime after the first of the year.

People’s Park might not get a free clothing box any time soon, but an owl box is more than welcome, especially if it acts as a rat patrol. 

A drastic increase in rats in the 2.8-acre UC Berkeley-owned community park just off Telegraph Avenue in the last month has resulted in university officials brainstorming ideas to control the rat population. 

Although the proposal to use the barn owl (Tyota alba), the City of Berkeley’s official bird, to get rid of the rodents is still being discussed, the university’s director of community relations, Irene Hegarty, said Monday that she was open to volunteers putting up an owl box in the park to see if it yielded positive results. 

“The rat problem comes in cycles,” Hegarty said. “It was not that bad a year earlier, but it is noticeably worse now. They love the agave and the food scraps in the park. We did some careful baiting in certain places—the kind of baiting that is not poisonous to cats and dogs. But with that all you are doing is reducing the population. You are not getting rid of the problem.” 

The university also brought in pest control to exterminate the rodents, Hegarty said, but the rats made an aggressive comeback soon after. 

Devon Woolridge, a UC Berkeley Office of Community Relations staff member, who is in charge of maintaining the park, said that, although he couldn’t give an estimate of the number of rats in the park, there were clear signs that the rodents were thriving there. 

“The reason it became such an issue is that we began to see rats during the daytime,” he said. “We can’t do much about it at night, but I saw rats moving back and forth between the agave plants early in the morning. No one was bitten or hurt but they make people uncomfortable. Some of them are six to seven inches long—and that’s just the body—and it’s a bit scary.” 

Woolridge said that he usually spots the rats scurrying across the park before university employees arrive around 8 a.m. every day to pick up the trash. 

“We have been asking groups such as Food Not Bombs, who bring food to the park, to clean up after they leave,” Hegarty said. “But sometimes people will take a plate of food from them and leave it anywhere in the park.” 

James Reagan, a homeless advocate who spends a good amount of time at People’s Park, agreed that there was a sudden infestation of rats in the park. 

“More rats than you can shake a bag of cats at,” he said. “The compost pile and Mario’s kitchen next to the park have certainly created a big colony.” 

Hegarty said that the new compost bins at the park were higher up from the ground than the old ones and had chicken wire to ward off scavengers. 

Most Berkeley residents and environmental activists who heard about the university’s plan to use barn owls to control rats said it would act as a nontoxic alternative pest control. 

“It is an ecological, nontoxic way to a balanced ecosystem,” said Terri Compost, a community gardener. “The barn owl is a magnificent animal whose population is in danger. They can be extremely helpful in keeping down populations of mice, pigeons and rats. Having owls as neighbors could also help humans in a paradigm shift to understanding the benefit of encouraging diverse healthy ecosystems rather than trying to annihilate all species that dare to live near us.” 

Compost said that she had seen rats in the community garden at People’s Park, a small plot of land where she spends a good amount of her time gardening. 

“There have been rats in all community gardens I have worked in,” she said. “The problem is when they get out of balance, which seems to have occurred this year. Perhaps rodentcide has killed their predators; perhaps it has just been a favorable climate year for rats. Providing housing for owls could be a great solution.” 

Hegarty said that although an owl box was one way to approach the problem, it was not foolproof. 

“An owl may not nest in the box or it may nest in the box once and never again,” she said. “We have other birds of prey, such as hawks, that come into the park and attack rats, but they do not eliminate the problem. The best way to address the problem is to not have food lying around for them and not have the kinds of ground cover that attract rats, like ivy. Even then, we will have to bait from time to time.” 

Lisa Owens Viani, founder of Keep Barn Owls in Berkeley, said it would be worth giving the owl box a try. 

“Barn owls eat hundreds of rodents every week,” she said. “I think it is a great idea. But it is critical that the city or university not use any poisons when an owl box is put up. Otherwise, it negates the whole effort, because owls and hawks eat poisoned rodents and die.” 

Two weeks ago, for the second time in a year, the Berkeley Police Department and city officials sent out a letter to 400 restaurants in Berkeley, warning them against holding late night parties, which have resulted in fights, gunfire and unruly crowds. 

Gregory Daniel, the city’s Code Enforcement Officer, said a similar letter had been sent to 396 restaurants last October in response to a series of parties that had ended with people being arrested for drinking on the streets, violating the noise ordinance or simply making a nuisance of themselves on public property. 

Daniel said that since July 2007, Berkeley police had responded to eight unauthorized parties or after-hours activities at Berkeley restaurants, organized by party promoter Eugene Cockerham, who promised unsuspecting restaurateurs a lot of money under the false pretense of renting out space for small private parties. 

When 10 police officers from Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office were required to break up a fight outside Priya Indian Cuisine on San Pablo Avenue in August—which ended with hundreds of young people spilling out onto the street and shots being fired in the air—city officials decided to issue a warning to local restaurants to avoid dealing with a certain party promoter, seemingly referring to Cockerham, although not naming him directly. 

Parvata Seelam, who owns Priya, said Cockerham had cheated him by saying he was hosting a birthday party for 50 guests. 

“I know my capacity is 49 people, so one more was OK,” he said. “But after 9 p.m. the number grew to 60, then 100, and then 400. The organizers were selling tickets outside, and people were dancing inside, I am in business for 25 years, and I have never had a problem before. This is the first time and the last time. I have learned my lesson.” 

Most restaurant owners in Berkeley said they had never encountered disruptive behavior at their restaurants simply because they did not rent out space to large crowds. 

“We have personally never been approached and don’t have the space for something like that,” said Natalie Kniess of Bistro Liaison on Shattuck Avenue. “Restaurants with large banquet rooms may be more susceptible to these shenanigans. But it’s good that the city is getting the word out about this kind of deceptive behavior and event planning. Restaurants should know that it’s illegal.” 

Kneiss recently co-founded the Berkeley Restaurant Alliance with six other local restaurants. The group hopes to address concerns city officials might have about restaurant operations. 

Rajen Thapa, who owns Taste of the Himalayas on Shattuck Avenue and Namaste on Telegraph Avenue, said he was strict about ending fundraisers and private parties at his restaurant by 10 p.m. 

“And we never take more people than what is allowed within our capacity,” said Thapa, who received the letter from the city last Friday. “When there is a big crowd, people will eventually grab a bottle of beer and hang outside. That doesn’t make our restaurant look too good.” 

The “citation warning” issued by Daniel states that city officials had received numerous complaints about “food service establishments” operating as “entertainment establishments” in violation of the Berkeley Municipal Code. 

“Using your building and property in a manner not consistent with local laws will result in administrative citations up to $1,000 per day per violation,” Daniel wrote. “These citations will be issued to you on a weekly basis by personal service. ... It is your responsibility to ensure that your business and property are being used in accordance with Berkeley laws.” 

The letter adds that rowdy parties could be labeled a nuisance subject to abatement under city law and recommended restaurant owners contact the city’s Code Enforcement Unit if they were approached by people looking to rent space for private parties or after-hour events. 

“We want restaurants to keep an eye out for this person, question what he’s doing,” Daniel said. “He’s obviously creating a problem. This letter is a heads-up, a warning for businesses. The bottom line is it’s your business and you are accountable for it. If you choose to do business with the wrong person, you will have to pay the penalty, and it could be as much as $5,000.” 

Although most restaurant owners support the city’s efforts to send out a letter to curb illegal parties, some city officials said they had been put off by its tone. 

“It sounds like a scare tactic,” said councilmember Kriss Worthington. “There are sizable parties celebrating weddings, birthdays and graduations everyday in Berkeley. It’s great to inform people about this issue but I think it’s the wrong tone. A letter saying that ‘it’s sad that happened and that we want to help you’ would have served better. The city is already threatening to charge restaurant owners a fee for serving wine and beer to subsidize liquor store problems. A lot of people come to Berkeley because of the foodie culture—we should be welcoming restaurants. Just because something happened at one place doesn’t mean we have to scare everyone else.” 

According to authorities, fewer than 10 businesses in Berkeley have permits that would allow them to rent out their establishments for private events. 

“I know that 90 percent of restaurants downtown are of a fairly small size and they won’t be having big parties,” said Deborah Badhia of the Downtown Berkeley Association. “We have music venues and clubs but I haven’t heard of any problems there. However, many people are vulnerable to this kind of deception, so it’s important to have your ears and eyes open.” 

Officer Andrew Frankel, spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department, said that incidents like the one at Priya were not common due to recent efforts by city officials to curb out of control parties 

“We have routinely responded to complaints about public drunkenness and loud noise near the campus, but it’s very rare that we come across parties that result in shots being fired,” he said.

Measure KK (Berkeley Bus Ordinance)

Shall the initiative ordinance Requiring Voter Approval of Exclusive Transit-Only and HOV/Bus-Only Lanes be adopted? 

Majority approval required. 

Measure KK is in many ways an extension of the battles over AC Transit’s proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, so to understand KK, you must also understand the underlying issues surrounding BRT. 

BRT is a proposal by the transit district to have speeded-up bus service along what is currently the 1 and the 1R line route from downtown San Leandro to downtown Berkeley. Just as the 1 and 1R do now, the Berkeley portion of BRT would run from the Oakland borderk, along Telegraph Avenue, to the entrance to the university, then down Bancroft Way, and loop around the downtown BART station. 

The best way to describe BRT is as an inner-city light-rail system without the rails, and using regular AC Transit buses (in this instance, AC Transit’s 60-foot accordion-type buses at the beginning). In place of the rails, AC Transit proposes taking over the center lanes of Telegraph Avenue for bus use only. In place of the current bus stops, BRT would establish light-rail-type stations roughly at the locations of the current 1R stops, complete with ticket vending machines. The local 1 bus line would be eliminated in the process.  

To help speed up the bus trip, the district proposes to eliminate payment of fares at the fare box when entering the front of the bus; instead, riders could enter from any of the bus doors (the 60 footers have several) and would only have to have a bus pass or a proof-of-payment slip received from the outdoor ticket vending machine. Finally, in the same way that the district operates the rapid buses along San Pablo Avenue, BRT buses would be able to modify traffic signals to some degree, ensuring that the buses would meet mostly green lights on theit trips. 

Because the dedication of bus-only lanes would require the elimination of some parking spaces along the BRT route, the BRT proposal also includes some plans to have replacement parking just off the route. 

Because BRT would require extensive changes along Telegraph Avenue in particular, AC Transit cannot impose the system on Berkeley but must work in conjunction with the Berkeley City Council (as it must with the Oakland City Council and the San Leandro City Council in those respective cities). AC Transit is currently conducting negotiations with representatives of those cities around possible modifications to the BRT proposal. 

In practice, this means that under the present BRT approval process, Berkeley residents get two chances to influence the ultimate shape of the proposal, as well as three chances to influence its adoption or rejection. The first comes when the Berkeley City Council formally considers BRT and either supports the proposal as written, or suggests what are called “preferred local alternatives,” or modifications to the proposals.  

The second chance comes when the AC Transit Board—an elected body, with three of its seven directors voted on by Berkeley residents—considers the “preferred local alternatives” suggested by the three affected city councils and then votes on the entire BRT proposal. The proposal would then go back to the three respective city councils for a final up-or-down vote of approval. 

Essentially, the proponents of Measure KK are seeking to add a direct Berkeley resident approval vote on the BRT proposal to any influence residents might have on the Berkeley City Council or AC Transit Board of Directors approval process. If KK passes, AC Transit and the City of Berkeley could not establish transit-only lanes on Berkeley streets—one of the major components of BRT—without first taking the proposal directly to Berkeley voters in a special or general election. 

If passed, the measure would apply not only to BRT but to any possible future transit proposal that involved the dedication of transit-only lanes along Berkeley streets. 

Opponents of Measure KK—most of whom are vocal BRT and public transit supporters—generally say that the measure would tie up the city’s transit planning process, and would probably doom implementation of BRT in the city. Proponents of Measure KK—many of whom are also public transit supporters—generally say that their purpose is not to scuttle BRT entirely, only to make sure it is not forced down residents’ throats without a chance for significant modifications. 

Measure KK has been one of the most discussed ballot measures in recent years, and the various aspects of the debate are far too complicated to sum up in one story. Readers are invited to read the ballot measure itself, including the arguments in favor and against, as well as to read the Daily Planet reader commentary and letters to the editor archives over the past several months to see the extensive discussion. 

Measure II (Berkeley Council District Reapportionment Charter Amendment) 

Shall the City of Berkeley Charter be amended to give the City until December 31st of the third year following the decennial census to adopt new council districts that are as nearly equal in population as feasible? Majority approval required. 

From arguably the Berkeley election’s most controversial ballot measure (KK), we move on to its least contentious. 

The boundaries of Berkeley’s City Council districts are set so that each of the eight districts has roughly the same amount of population. The size of the city’s population is determined by the United States Census, which is completed every 10 years. Because the population declines, or grows, or grows more slowly from neighborhood to neighborhood and district to district, the district lines must be readjusted every 10 years, following the completion of the national census, in order to get the district populations back into balance. This procedure is known as reapportionment. 

Under the current City of Berkeley schedule mandated by the City Charter, that reapportionment must be completed by Dec. 31 of the year following the completion of the census. For the next census, scheduled for 2010, that means the council district realigning must be done by within one year.  

The proponents of Measure II, including the entire Berkeley City Council, believe this is simply not enough time to make the district line changes, including handling any disputes about census counts. Instead, through Measure II, they want to add two more years to the deadline by which the new district boundaries must be drawn. 

Practically speaking, if Measure II passes, it would mean that the currently drawn Council districts would stay in place for 12 years (through the end of 2013), rather than the current 10. That would only be a temporary hiccup. All of the district realignments following would be in ten year intervals (2023, 2033, 2043, etc.).  

No arguments in opposition to Measure II were filed for this election. 

Because Measure II does not mandate that Council realign the districts by the end of the third year, it only sets that as the last date, there is always the possibility that some future council—seeing an upcoming election where an earlier realignment might influence who gets elected and who gets defeated—could conceivably manipulate an election by redistricting earlier than the third year. But the process of reapportionment is so complicated, with no way to change one district without generally affecting the entire city, that the chances of such a manipulation seem remote.  

While UC Berkeley is betting big on biofuels—a half-billion-dollar wager funded by British oil giant BP—the notion of fueling cars with crops is drawing international fire. 

Organizations like Oxfam, the United Nations and even the World Bank are questioning the rush to turn plants on Third World lands, increasingly hacked out of threatened forests, to slake the First World’s thirst for transportation fuels.  

Oil companies and agrochemical giants like Monsanto are partnering with universities across the country to develop patented processes and proprietary patented crops to keep the wheels of the world’s planes, trains and automobiles rolling with fuels they control from plantation to pump. 

While UC Berkeley scientist Chris Somerville—head of the BP-bankrolled Energy Biosciences Institute—has insisted the program is about making the U.S. energy independent from nonfood crops grown on marginal existing farmlands east of the Mississippi, the BP scientist in charge of the program says the oil company is interested in “the green parts” of the entire globe. 

Though Berkeley scientists say their goal is production of new forms of synthetic fuels similar to gasoline and other petroleum-derived fuels, the first commercial program to arise from Berkeley’s efforts will be a plant designed to produce ethanol, a fuel considerably less energy efficient than gasoline. 

The program that will be building a plant in Broadman, Ore., to turn wood chips and the non-edible parts of food plants into fuel is a partnership of Berkeley’s second biofuel program, the Joint Bioenergy Institute, and Pacific Ethanol, a Fresno-based firm headed by former California Secretary of State and legislator Bill Jones. 

The Department of Energy is bankrolling half the costs of the plant, with the other $24.3 million coming from Pacific Ethanol and a second company, BioGasol ApS, which is based at the Technical University of Denmark in suburban Copenhagen, where it developed the technology to be used in the plant. 

Pacific Ethanol has been hard hit by the stock market, where it has fallen from an all-time high of $32 a share two years ago to 85 cents a share Wednesday morning. Earlier this year the firm lost a major investor when software tycoon Bill Gates dumped his stock in the company. 

Gates had been a major funder of another program headed by JBEI Executive Director Jay Keasling—the efforts by Amyris Technologies, a private company Keasling founded, to harness microbes as miniature factories to produce a key anti-malarial drug at a fraction of the cost of traditional factory methods. 

Both Keasling and Somerville have been entrepreneurs in the patented microbe business, though Somerville has said he will give up his corporate interests. 

Somerville’s previous work as an academic-cum-entrepreneur has produced patented soybeans, created through genetic modification, for agribusiness giant Monsanto, which produces both plants and pesticides as well as a host of other chemicals and products. 

Scathing studies 

While the professed goal of Berkeley researchers is to create more efficient fuels than ethanol, it is that fuel—otherwise known as “white lighting,” “moonshine” and corn liquor—which is the main form of so-called “green energy” now in production. 

And the increasing demand for ethanol, spurred by mandates from state and national governments, has played a central role in the rapid increase of food prices before the recent stock market crash that triggered food riots in several cities across the globe. 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently issued a major report that warned of the dangers posed by current biofuel policies. 

“There are many concerns and challenges to be overcome if biofuels are to contribute positively to an improved environment as well as to agricultural and rural development,” warned FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf in the report’s foreword. He also warned that too-hasty adoption of restrictions could “limit opportunities for sustainable agricultural development that could help the poor.” 

Current policies, the FAO concluded, were driving 30 million people worldwide deeper into poverty and hunger. 

But there is no doubt that large swathes of virgin forests—home to the world’s richest biodiversity—are being slashed and burned to make way for fuel crop plantations. 

Oxfam International, one of the world’s most respected NGOs and devoted to feeding the world’s malnourished, issued a scathing 58-page briefing paper in June, which declared that “rich countries’ biofuel policies currently offer neither a safe nor an effective means to tackle climate change.” 

Oxfam cited an analysis published in Science, the leading science journal in the U.S., which “calculates that the emissions from global land-use change due to the US corn-ethanol programme will take 167 years to pay back.” 

Those policies include Bush administration rules changes that allow farmers to plant fuel crops on environmentally sensitive land that had been held in a federal reserve program that compensated farmers for banking the land to prevent erosion of more valuable farmland. 

Oxfam called on developing nations to give priority to biofuel programs  

that “provide clean renewable energy sources to poor men and women in rural areas,” adding that “these are unlikely to be ethanol or biodiesel projects.” 

Those countries should also carry out their obligations “to protect the right to food, to ensure decent work and to ensure that the Free, Prior and Informed Consent [CQ] of affected communities is obtained before biofuel projects commence.” 

Oxfam also called for programs that focus on small farmers, not the huge agricultural plantations that often characterize Third World corporate agriculture. 

Brazil alone recorded the loss of 300 square miles of Amazon rain forest in August, an increase of 228 square acres over the previous year. Large agricultural plantation owners were cited as the main culprits. 

Grist magazine reported that the rise in deforestation was produced in large part by the soaring price of soybeans. At one of his pre-EBI startups, Somerville developed patented soybeans for Monsanto, a major source of soy seed for much of Latin America. 

One major backer of the Latin American agrofuel industry is the Inter-American Development Bank, which has been making extensive agrofuel sector loans. Bank president Luis Alberto Moreno is a co-founder, with U.S. presidential brother Jeb Bush and former Brazilian agricultural ministry executive Roberto Rodrigues, of the Inter-American Etha-nol Commission, created to boost the industry throughout the region—a fact that drew the attention of Friends of the Earth in a critical report issued in April on the bank’s agrofuels strategy. 

Other critical studies declaring that extreme caution is needed have come from the World Bank and, most recently, from the International Risk Governance Council, a Swiss-based NGO. 

An earlier FAO report, released in April, concluded that “Rapid increases in the large-scale production of liquid biofuels in developing countries could exacerbate the marginalization of women in rural areas, threatening their livelihoods” 

Even Somerville has become more cautious in his public statements, noting in a Sept. 15 interview with the university’s public relations department that “Our goal is truly to understand it. I think that’s actually more valuable than making any specific discovery—is to understand all of the pieces as a whole. There’s no other organization that’s actually doing that right now.” 

That statement is a long way from earlier declarations asserting the EBI’s goal was to create energy independence for the nation—in essence, an issue of national security. 

The reports are available online: The FAO report on agrofuel impacts on women is at http://www.fao.org/Newsroom/en/news/2008/1000830/index.html 

The FAO’s broader review of agrofuel subsidies and policies released last week may be found at http://www.fao.org/ docrep/011/i0100e/i0100e00.htm 

The Oxfam report, “Another Inconvenient Truth,” is at http://www.oxfam. org.uk/resources/policy/climate_change/downloads/bp114_inconvenient_truth. 

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If I could choose only one green leafy vegetable to eat for the rest of my life, it would be parsley. I almost put my money on the versatile cabbage, delicious raw or cooked, stuffed, grated and even fried, but for sheer flavor, and ease and speed of growth, parsley edged cabbage by a nose. 

Ease and speed of growth? I had not tried to grow parsley until this month, because all my gardening books said that parsley seed has to go to the devil and back before it will germinate. One could try soaking the seed for 24 hours before sowing, and then it might take four weeks, accompanied by prayer. This seemed a long time to spend on one’s knees, so I bought plants. Even these were balky, never doing well. 

It was not until I came across Patrick Bowe’s book The Complete Kitchen Garden that illumination arrived. This book advocates growing vegetables with an eye to their overall appearance—color, texture and so forth. Although this results in Byzantine, even dotty suggestions, such as harvesting one’s vegetables according to their color (so as not to spoil the overall pattern), Bowe has one stupendous idea for a rotation plan. 

First, a word about rotation. Rotating plants is critical for healthy vegetables. The home grower gardens intensively, in raised beds (even a slight elevation, says Bowe, quoting UC Davis research, is the equivalent of moving 30 miles south), which are narrow, three to five feet, so that they are never trodden upon. Even though these beds ideally are constantly enriched with organic matter, manure, compost, and hay, growing the same vegetable in the same bed year after year causes disease to build up. Soon the tomatoes will catch a virus and fail to produce (not that they ever do well in my garden), the brassicas will develop clubroot, eel worms will run rampant, and so forth. 

So a three- to five- or even seven-year rotation plan is critical for the health of all vegetables except disease-free peas and beans. Bowe’s idea is to group vegetables according to their families. Thus all the members of the Solanaceae family for example, the tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and peppers, are grown in the same bed one year, planted en famille in a different bed the following year, and so on, until they return to their original bed after a gap of several years. Brilliant! 

This rotation plan by plant families greatly simplifies life for the gardener, for it is always a complex exercise to decide what to grow, when, and where, in our almost year-round, half cool, half warm growing climate. 

This turned my thoughts to my parsley, which, if it ever grew, I was going to put in a bed of herbs. But parsley is an umbel, in the family Umbelliferae, as are celery and carrots. Carrots were already up in a newly prepared bed with plenty of extra space, and since I had just sown celery seeds in a container, waiting for the cool weather they like, this would be my umbel bed. Celery also likes wet feet, it is a marsh plant, so its container of tiny seeds was set in a saucer of water. I knew they would take two weeks to germinate. 

But how could I persuade the parsley seeds to germinate? I had plenty of fresh seed from a plant that had flowered during the summer. I knew that moisture is one of the major agents in breaking the dormancy of seeds, whose embryos are protected effectively with a tough outer skin. Might parsley be so closely related to celery that its seeds too would prefer constant moisture? I sowed the seed accordingly, placing the pot in a tray of water. In less than two weeks up came seedlings, sturdier than their cousin celery, growing rampantly almost before my eyes. Far from devilish, these looked like little miracles. 

Small wonder that parsley has naturalized in the British Isles. Now I know I can grow a constant supply of it, unlike the cabbage, which takes months to mature, and while both are rich in vitamin C, parsley provides other vitamins, and minerals too, so parsley must take the prize. 

Many umbels are biennials, producing seed in their second year. The flower heads do look like umbrellas (the name derives from the Latin for parasol), with spokes radiating from the stems. Other edible umbels include parsnips, lovage, chervil, dill, sweet cicely, Florence fennel and angelica, cumin, and coriander, whose green leaves we call cilantro. As indicated by its simple ending, Umbelliferae was one of the first flowering plant families to be recognized by 16th-century botanists. 

Botanists call umbels promiscuous, for they are pollinated by a variety of insects. Like most flowering plants they outdo birds and bees in reproductive invention, for geitonogamy can occur, in which a flower is pollinated by a neighbor on the same umbel. 

The Indian spice asafetida is an umbel, as is poison hemlock. Rodale’s Herb Book tells us that Pliny found parsley of paramount importance in medicine. It is now considered a diuretic, probably with health-protective properties. Ancient Greeks fed it to race  

horses and wove it into the results: victory garlands. It is slow to grow, says Rodale, and dislikes being moved. 

I too prefer a slow life in one spot and am willing to spend time on my knees now, gently weeding around these amazing plants. However, one does not wish to go to extremes, like the parsley seed of myth. As part of my rotation plan I will include a bed of the family Brassicaceae, growing collards, turnips, radishes, and above all, the one that was only just pipped at the post, the cabbage. 

We went to three Obama fundraising parties last week, and there’s another one scheduled for this week. As the polls look better and better, the atmosphere has changed from apprehension to a carefully modulated exhilaration. One of our hostesses, an elegant African-American classical singer whose husband is a professor, no hippie she, confessed that though she seldom has visions, she had experienced a clear mental image of Obama’s inauguration ball which she took as a sign that he was going to win. Her party, co-hosted in Oakland by an assortment of young couples, featured comedy-show videos starring Tina Fey and others projected on the wall. General hilarity prevailed, and $3,500 was added to Obama’s war chest, contributed by people who didn’t seem to be the idle affluent. And yet, our hostess confessed, she still wakes up in the middle of the night worrying about the election.  

Don’t we all! 

Party No. 2 was very classy, an afternoon art auction in the barn and garden of a charming Victorian in Temescal, hosted by the artists who contributed their work for sale, with donated fancy food from trendy Temescal establishments like Bakesale Betty’s, and even a jazz trio. Again, it seemed like a slightly restrained but unmistakably confident victory celebration—everyone was in great good humor, though making wry jokes about the collapsing economy.  

No. 3 was at a Berkeley restaurant, organized by a large group of educators of various stripes, including several Codys. It was another big success—the grand total was more than $10,000. 

Yes, yes, I know that these events are not in the big league of political fundraisers. There prices start at a thousand dollars a head and easily soar into the stratosphere. But it’s a very good sign that regular people with kids and day jobs, the ones who can’t drop everything and go to Nevada to campaign, are serious about getting involved in doing what they can for this election.  

It’s a phenomenon that I haven’t seen since the early ‘70s. I never went to a fundraiser for Chairman Bill, who despite his populist rhetoric was largely funded by the rich and famous. A painting in our living room did come from an art sale for the Shirley Chisholm campaign, but we only paid five dollars for it.  

It’s too soon, though, to kick back and enjoy the ride down the back stretch. Ronald Reagan did pull away from Carter at about this point in the campaign. There’s an outside chance that the latest round of fixes to the economy might be perceived as successful by the electorate and cause some to vote Republican after all, though it’s doubtful.  

One good sign is that the left pundits in The Nation have already started grousing about Obama. It was a bit worrisome early in the campaign when people like Alexander Cockburn were unduly enthusiastic about him, since their role in political discourse is usually to needle the Democrats, but things are starting to look normal now. They must be pretty sure he’s going to win.  

(As I was typing the last paragraph, I got a call from The Nation’s phone solicitation boiler room—are they monitoring my computer? No, probably not...)  

The anticipated Obama landslide in California could create a problem with the downticket items on the ballot. The good news for the top of the ticket is that an exciting candidate like Obama will bring out everyone and their brothers-in-law. The bad news for the bottom of the ticket is that a lot of these voters will be amateurs, people who don’t keep up with politics or vote in most elections. Their votes on obscure initiatives and local candidates might be somewhat random.  

One good rule is “if you don’t understand it, skip it.” California state ballots are bedevilled with obscure initiatives which seem to solve real problems, but which have a few crackpot provisions which will do more harm than good. A case in point, some would say, is the particular high-speed rail proposal on the ballot, which some environmentalists, though not all, think would do serious damage to the areas it crosses without sufficient benefits to justify itself. It’s hard to know which side is right. 

Proposition 8, however, is pretty clear. It aims to reverse the California Supreme Court decision saying that heterosexual people don’t have an exclusive lock on the institution of marriage. Its supporters make strange bedfellows. The Mormons, whose views on marriage haven’t always been exactly mainstream, are sending thousands of letters from Utah and pumping millions of dollars into the Yes On 8 campaign. Catholics in my childhood taught that marriage was a religious contract between the spouses, with the priest only a witness and the state an unwelcome intruder, but now some of them seem to have elevated state-sponsored marriage to a civil sacrament equal to the religious Sacrament of Matrimony. The Protestant evangelicals in times past called the Catholic Church the Whore of Babylon, and they were tough on polygamy too, but now all three religious groups are promiscuously in bed together promoting 8.  

One long-term solution might be to abolish state-sponsored marriage altogether, allowing people to make any deals among themselves that their personal religion allows, but giving everyone equal rights to civil unions with legal benefits the same for all. Until that happens, fair-minded people should vote no on 8, and send money too, because the Yes churches are eager to spend a fortune to control other people’s lives. 

How about Berkeley? A reader begged for guidance on the rent board candidates. It looks to me like they’re all fine, can’t go wrong—but of course that’s because rent control has just about collapsed, so the evil landlords don’t bother to run candidates any more. The good landlords—yes, Virginia, there are some—think what’s left of the rent board does a good job of mediating landlord-tenant disputes, but most of the credit should really go to their excellent staff.  

You’re on your own with local measures, too, except for LL. That’s the one which lets you vote No on the city council’s ill-conceived attempt to get rid of Berkeley’s historic preservation ordinance. The environmental cost of demolishing our viable existing buildings, even if they were replaced with diamond-studded platinum towers, would be incalculable. We’ll never be able to build our way out of global warming. Vote no on LL. 

I’m still thinking about KK. On the one hand, it’s a clumsy way to affect policy. On the other hand, no one currently in local elective office seems willing to do the hard work necessary to make an informed decision on the pros and cons of AC Transit’s seemingly goofy bus rapid transit plan. Passing KK might get their attention. 

The previous discussion of Berkeley’s mayoral race in this space was described by one critic as “praising Shirley Dean with faint damns.” I’m still planning to vote for her myself, but some of us here, including me, would like to have a clearer look at what the two candidates hope to do if elected, and readers have said the same thing.  

We’ve invited them to participate in a local debate, and as of this writing we delighted to say that they’ve both accepted. The date will be Monday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m., the place, the West Berkeley Senior Center. Former Albany Mayor Bob Cheasty has graciously agreed to moderate. It should be fun. 

BERKELEY SCHOOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am the parent of two school-age students in Berkeley public schools. I take the upcoming BUSD election very seriously. Unfortunately, most of the candidates don’t. On Oct. 1, I e-mailed each of the candidates, asking them their position and opinions on the biggest elephant in the room in BUSD—unauthorized out-of-district students. Sadly, three of the four candidates have ignored my question. Only one, Beatriz Leyva-Cutler, bothered to respond. If the candidates won’t answer fair questions from a parent/voter, how can we trust them to make fair and open decisions with millions of tax dollars and the precious resources that are our children? Berkeley parents and voters: Demand answers from these candidates and demand attention to the serious issues facing our schools. 

Peter Shelton 

• 

LINDA MAIO AND ANTENNAS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Oct. 9 article “Court Orders Maio To Testify” is informative and eye-opening. Linda Maio has caused enormous suffering for people on the southside in the past three years by approving cell-phone antennas on the UC Storage building owned by Patrick Kennedy. She was later rewarded with a loan by Mr. Kennedy. This is really shameful. Linda Maio must resign. 

I remember distinctly that when the City Council was voting on the antennas, she said, “My heart is with the people, I want to vote no, but I vote yes.” She should have said, “My heart is with the people, I want to vote no, but 45K is coming from Patrick Kennedy, so I vote yes.” 

This is selling out the people of Berkeley. I have been witnessing how people have been struggling since 2002 to stop cell-phone antennas. Bates, Maio, Moore, Capitelli, Wozniak, and Terry Doran have been consistently approving these antennas. You wonder whether they do so in return of loans, gifts, etc. 

Now I know how I am going to vote. For Mayor, my vote goes to Shirley Dean. For council seats in Districts 2, 4, 5, and 6, my votes go, respectively, to Jon Crowder, Jesse Arreguin, Sophie Hahn, and Phoebe Sorgen. Hopefully, we will bring the power back to the people and stop behind-the-door deals between the city officials and those who have cash. 

Mina Davenport 

• 

SHIFT POWER FROM FEW TO MANY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In 1933 Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act to control the financial speculation which had caused the 1929 Stock Market Crash. In 1999 Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealing the Glass-Steagall Act that has resulted in the current market crash. 

The Republicans and the Democrats are now blaming each other for this crash; however, the 1999 bill was passed in the Senate: 90-8-1 and in the House: 362-57-15 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. 

The recent bailout bill which helps Wall Street but keeps Main Street disenfranchised was passed in the Senate: 74-25 and in the House: 263-171. 

Until the late 1970s Democrats still represented the workers’ interests and Republicans represented business interests, but it is evident that both parties are now vassals of the business interests. They have co-opted political debate so that the only issues that the voters can weigh in on are social issues but they have no say in the economic issues which are the basis of power. (The people need to turn to politics and work to shift the power from the few to the many; otherwise, as can be seen, the politics will turn on us.) 

Akio Tanaka 

Oakland 

• 

THE ADDISON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Where will the hundreds of residents of the proposed The Addison project shop? There is the Grocery Outlet for the budget-minded, and Fourth Street for those few left with disposable incomes. This deal ought to be quite interesting. 

Phil Allen 

• 

SOUTH BERKELEY TABLEAUX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On a recent sunny Berkeley weekday morning, blue, bright, clear and crisp, I could not help but think of the sad irony seeing a group of young people lounging in the Tot-Lot of our neighborhood park swathed in plumes of pot smoke as they idled by while toddlers played gleefully on the slides and stairs of the play-structures oblivious to the wafting clouds of second-hand elective pollutants. Add to this the adjacent Neighborhood Drug Watch sign so lovingly adorned with new posters, to wit: “Neighborhood Watch, Police Not Welcome.” 

Now, I am not going to bore you by drifting off into the obvious lectures, regarding this all too common occurrence in Berkeley, about how Berkeley citizens are currently being murdered and maimed over this “harmless” substance, or how these young people should be engaged in constructive academic or vocational pursuits, or how drug use at a young age stunts mental, emotional, and physical development, or that, while the tides come and go, that we really are not , in this period of American history, endangered by the presence of Police in our neighborhoods, etc. 

But I will bore you by submitting a question to the Abeyant Leadership currently dictating policy for the citizens of Berkeley: 

What vested interest do you have in avoiding and dismissing neighborhood concerns about the serious problems that afflict our young people, keeping them at risk, marginalized, and unprepared to participate on an equal level to take advantage of the prosperity our society still (despite current economic woes) engenders, especially in a town with the intellectual, financial, and visionary resources at your disposal? 

John Herbert 

• 

HISTORICAL OBSERVATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Back in 1929, when the stock market crashed, some depressed CEO s and bankers, feeling disgraced for having brought the country into financial chaos, jumped out of tall Wall Street buildings. The result: “Plop!” Today, CEO s and bankers jump out of Wall Street buildings securely strapped to golden parachutes. The result: “Whoopee!” 

Robert Blau 

• 

CHECKING UP ON TOM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I met a friend for tea at Peet’s Friday morning and on the way back down Solano I stopped at Colusa to pick up my weekly Planet. There were none. A little odd, as it just came out yesterday, but I would pass another at Ensenada and Solano. None again. Hmmm. Oh well, I had another chance as I was getting on BART in North Berkeley a little later. Really? None here either? It wasn’t until the afternoon dog walk past Strawberry Design center that I finally found one. Ohhhh, the Planet endorsed Shirley Dean! Time to check Tom’s garage? 

Jackie Simon 

• 

LIES, DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I can’t figure out if Berkeley Transportation Commissioner Rob Wrenn hasn’t read the Bus Rapid Transit draft environmental impact report or if he is willingly parroting AC Transit’s deceptions about the project. 

In his Oct. 2 letter to the Daily Planet, Mr. Wrenn accuses me of misrepresenting the draft EIR. I guess Mr. Wrenn has read as far as the executive summary of the report, since that’s what he quoted in his letter. Too bad he didn’t read the entire report. Then he would have understood what Mark Twain is supposed to have said about statistics and lies. 

Mr. Wrenn is right about one thing. The EIR does say that BRT would increase corridor ridership 56 percent to 76 percent. The key word in that sentence is corridor. In other words, ridership along the International Boulevard-Telegraph Avenue corridor would increase. 

Had Mr. Wrenn bothered to read the chart on page 3-26 of the EIR, however, he would have seen the entire ugly picture. As a result of BRT, AC Transit ridership is projected to increase between 3.7 and 6.2 percent. BART ridership, on the other hand, is projected to actually decrease, somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 percent as a result of riders switching to BRT. The resulting net increase in total transit usage in the East Bay would be between 0.7 percent and 1.4 percent. 

How did Mr. Wrenn and AC Transit get to that 56 to 76 percent increase? By counting people who switch to BRT from other bus lines or from BART. These are not new transit riders. By switching from one bus line to another they do nothing to reduce greenhouse gases. People who switch from BART to BRT will, in fact, generate more greenhouse gases, not less. 

Here is the fabled bottom line, direct from the EIR: Without BRT, transit use in the East Bay is projected to be 659,800 trips per day by 2025. With BRT, the number of trips is projected, at a maximum, to be 670,100. That’s a 1.4 percent increase. This number is so small that the draft EIR says that the energy savings from BRT would be negligible. This number is so small that the projected decreases in air pollutants are nearly zero (0.03 percent to be precise). 

So who’s misrepresenting the draft EIR, Mr. Wrenn? And tell us again, Mr. Wrenn, if you would, why we should spend $250 million on a project which is expected to do, essentially, nothing? 

Jim Bullock 

• 

GET WITH THE PROGRAMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is a disconnect between the on-air program messages at KPFA and the actions of the management toward staff and volunteers. This inconsistency was revealed to the public when management and personnel at the radio station called the police on Nadra Foster during a dispute. This decision resulted in the police brutalizing Nadra, who is a long-time, black woman programmer. 

KPFA radio, 94.1 FM, has many programs denouncing racism and the prison, military industrial complex. Among these programs are Hard Knock Radio, Flashpoints, JR and the Block Report, Without Walls, Critical Resistance, and Mumia Abu Jamal’s Commentaries from Death Row. Reporters address the abuses of the police and of the dominant culture. The economically powerful and privileged use the police as a tool to control political dissent and to oppress people of color. 

Police are not a solution to resolving our conflicts or solving any problems at the radio station. We should utilize alternatives such as sensitivity training, NVC-Non Violent Communication, and Conflict Resolution. These approaches, which have also been presented on-the-air, could be facilitated at teach-ins and community meetings. Additionally, management and staff should be familiar with de-escalation techniques and should have trained community support available if disputes and difficulties arise. 

Management, with paid and unpaid staff, need to support the intention of KPFA in the studio, as well as on the air, by utilizing alternative approaches to calling the police. We need to do as we say at KPFA. Management, there is a better way—get with the programs. 

Beverly Dove 

• 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really want to know from presidential nominees how a low-income individual can survive, unlike rich people who have plenty to throw away and waste. I heard the Republican candidate say that a $5,000 government credit will enable people to buy health care of their choice in the open market. I am a dedicated teacher with limited means. Is $5,000 the total amount I will have to pay? The government credit must make sense not just for rich and upper-middle class people, but for poor people as well. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

MEASURE KK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just realized that many politically powerful people and organizations are opposing Measure KK! 

Why am I surprised and upset? Answer: I live near Telegraph Avenue. The prospect of losing two out of the four lanes of traffic to busses only was unpleasant. Probably the most important problem to me is losing most of the parking on Telegraph. Parking is already tight near here because of Cal students. Neighbors like me and merchants on Telegraph have worked hard to put KK on the ballot—the merchants for customer parking, the neighbors for local parking near our homes. 

If you do think of voting no on KK, please think that if it wins, it will decrease customers for the merchants on Telegraph, and, worst for the local residents, it may keep us from having visitors! (In most cases, it will not affect your life at all.) 

Julia Craig  

• 

SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for devoting space in your Oct 9 issue to school board candidate statements. Local school boards make important decisions that affect every family in their community, yet it’s often hard to determine which candidates offer the best solutions. I confess to not voting for local candidates in the past who are running for positions such as school or park district boards because I just didn’t know enough to make an informed choice. 

Having read the statements of the three school board candidates who chose to present their case to Berkeley residents, I was very impressed with Priscilla Myrick’s knowledge of the issues and her prescriptions for improvement. 

I don’t understand why the schools in my hometown of New Delhi are so much more rigorous than those in Berkeley. New Delhi schools have less funding, more students and extreme poverty. But the academics are highly valued and produce better results than many U.S. schools, including my adopted town here in Berkeley.  

The United States needs well-educated students now more than ever. 

Kavita Mohindroo 

• 

OAKLAND’S MEASURE N 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Oakland Measure N provides inequality for charter school teachers 

At the last Oakland School Board meeting, State Administrator Vincent Matthews explained that it was his concern for “equity” that lead him to make $1.8 million charter school tax a part of Measure N. 

State Administrator Matthew could have placed the question of funding Oakland’s corporate charter schools on the ballot as a separate measure and provided equity for charter school taxpayers. The Oakland voters could then have decided if they wanted to fund successful charter school programs.  

Instead of going to the public with a straight forward request to fund Oakland corporate charter schools, he buried the charter schools’ request for local funding in a parcel tax designed to fund Oakland Public teachers’ pay increase. 

Under Measure N, all the parcel tax money for Oakland Public Schools must go to pay for Oakland teachers’ salary increase. Yet, each charter school administration qualifying for the money gets to decide how to spend the money at its school. 

Measure N leaves charter school teachers behind. If State Administrator Matthews truly wanted equity, why didn’t he at lease write Measure N to provide equity for Oakland’s charter school teachers and ensure they too get a raise? 

Inequity for charter school teachers is only one of many reasons to vote no on Measure N Nov. 4. 

Jim Mordecai 

Oakland 

• 

NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last Saturday, Oct. 11, was National Coming Out Day! This happens once a year, every year, but this year it is of extreme importance with the upcoming election, and Proposition 8! 

In an unprecedented display of solidarity and diversity, in April of 1993, an estimated one million people came together for the National March on Washington for GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) rights! 

One of the highlights of that day came when Martina Navratilova gave an emotional speech on the importance of coming out and on the need to be open and honest about one’s sexual identity. 

The parts of her speech that moved me the most, and that I believe are the most pertinent to the issue of the marriage amendment known as Proposition 8 coming up for a popular vote this Nov. 4, I quote below: 

“What our movement for equality needs most, is for us to come out of the closet! We need to become visible to as many people as possible, so that we can shatter all those incredible myths that keep us in the closet! 

Our goal is not to receive compassion, acceptance, or worse yet, tolerance, because that implies that we are inferior, we are to be tolerated, pitied, and endured! I don’t want pity, do you? Of course not! Our goal must be equality across the board. We can settle for nothing less, because we deserve nothing less! 

One’s sexuality should not be an issue, one way or another. One’s sexuality should not become a label by which that human being should be identified! My sexuality is a very important part of my life, a very important part of my being, but it is still a very small part of who I am! 

Being homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual is not good or bad. It simply is. 

So now we are here today so that one day in the hopefully not-too-distant future, we will be referred to not by our sexuality, but by our accomplishments and abilities, as all Californians, Americans and people everywhere have the right to be! 

Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, Elton John, Greg Louganis and many, many others have come out of the closet, including recently, Clay Aiken! Each and every one had something to lose by that action, and each and every one could have made all kinds of excuses not to come out, but they didn’t! 

So, now, I urge all of you who are still in the closet to throw away all the excuses! 

If we want the world to accept us, we must first accept ourselves! If we want the world to give us respect, we must first be willing to give ourselves respect! We must be proud of who we are and we cannot do that if we hide! 

By coming out to our friends, family, employers, and employees, we make ourselves personable. We become human beings, and then we have the opportunity to show the world what we are all about—happy, intelligent, giving, loving people. We can show our moral strength, dignity, character.” 

We can be ourselves! I urge you to come out now and be true to yourself and tell your family, friends and everyone you know to vote no on Proposition 8, and that to do otherwise they will be hurting someone they know and love—you! 

Robert Sodervick 

Justice and Equality for All 

San Francisco 

• 

HEALING AND  

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The KPFA management talks “healing” from their recent police incident. But more is required here, there’s also gaining progressive understanding of the social forces involved. 

There’s a historic struggle to change the present objectification approach to madness/mental illness’ to a humanistic model based on community values and responsible self-expression, a struggle that falls within the framework of Kuhn’s paradigm shift in science. Ignoring that is—politically—like ignoring gender role, ethnicity, or the exploitation of labor. 

Some 15 years ago, Berkeley Mental Health came together around a “denial” strategy regarding “paradigm shift,” and moved systematically to break every ongoing initiative in sync with the historic change process. Wendy Georges was fired from the Berkeley Food Project, sell-out deals were offered the prominent client/survivor activists (I refused mine and was personally threatened by BMH). 

A general climate of stigma/discrimination promotes what activists call the “freedom train “problem. Are the “crazy people” invited; is there a role for our values in the progressive movement? Or do people practice what Martin Luther King, Jr. called the behavioral science that accommodates or embraces oppression, denying torture, when dealing with us? 

KPFA has had programs related to this concern. Once a leader of the client/survivor movement helped run Youth Radio, for instance. Yet—like most progressives, KPFA management and programming still does not take the stigma/discrimination process into account. Recently for instance Phil Zimbardo, a progressive social psychologist who is still confused about the freedom train, was shamelessly praised on the Morning Show when interviewed about his new book (on the behavioral science of attitude management). I shuddered when I heard that. 

The Aug. 20 incident showed the face of racism, many say. It also showed the face of denial, what—by civil rights metaphor—is the watermelon approach to the movement to bring the client/survivor activists into the freedom train. Where is principle hiding? 

In September, the American Psychological Association voted 60 percent by referendum ever to ban psychologists from involvement in torture in the service of national security. The questions implicit in King’s advocacy for reforming behavioral science so as to promote creative maladjustment based on the values of freedom and dignity are now, at last, on the table: When does “treatment” mean “torture"? 

Andrew Phelps 

Former Chair, Berkeley Mental Health Commission (1990-93) 

P.S.: King’s 1967 speech to the APA can be found at www.apa.org/monitor/jan99/ king.html. 

• 

SHIFT POWER FROM FEW TO MANY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In 1933 Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act to control the financial speculation which had caused the 1929 Stock Market Crash. In 1999 Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealing the Glass-Steagall Act that has resulted in the current market crash. 

The Republicans and the Democrats are now blaming each other for this crash; however, the 1999 bill was passed in the Senate: 90-8-1 and in the House: 362-57-15 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. 

The recent bailout bill which helps Wall Street but keeps Main Street disenfranchised was passed in the Senate: 74-25 and in the House: 263-171. 

Until the late 1970s Democrats still represented the workers’ interests and Republicans represented business interests, but it is evident that both parties are now vassals of the business interests. They have co-opted political debate so that the only issues that the voters can weigh in on are social issues but they have no say in the economic issues which are the basis of power. (The people need to turn to politics and work to shift the power from the few to the many; otherwise, as can be seen, the politics will turn on us.) 

Akio Tanaka 

Oakland 

• 

THE ADDISON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Where will the hundreds of residents of the proposed The Addison project shop? There is the Grocery Outlet for the budget-minded, and Fourth Street for those few left with disposable incomes. This deal ought to be quite interesting. 

Phil Allen 

• 

SOUTH BERKELEY TABLEAUX 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

On a recent sunny Berkeley weekday morning, blue, bright, clear and crisp, I could not help but think of the sad irony seeing a group of young people lounging in the Tot-Lot of our neighborhood park swathed in plumes of pot smoke as they idled by while toddlers played gleefully on the slides and stairs of the play-structures oblivious to the wafting clouds of second-hand elective pollutants. Add to this the adjacent Neighborhood Drug Watch sign so lovingly adorned with new posters, to wit: “Neighborhood Watch, Police Not Welcome.” 

Now, I am not going to bore you by drifting off into the obvious lectures, regarding this all too common occurrence in Berkeley, about how Berkeley citizens are currently being murdered and maimed over this “harmless” substance, or how these young people should be engaged in constructive academic or vocational pursuits, or how drug use at a young age stunts mental, emotional, and physical development, or that, while the tides come and go, that we really are not , in this period of American history, endangered by the presence of police in our neighborhoods, etc. 

But I will bore you by submitting a question to the Abeyant Leadership currently dictating policy for the citizens of Berkeley: 

What vested interest do you have in avoiding and dismissing neighborhood concerns about the serious problems that afflict our young people, keeping them at risk, marginalized, and unprepared to participate on an equal level to take advantage of the prosperity our society still (despite current economic woes) engenders, especially in a town with the intellectual, financial, and visionary resources at your disposal? 

John Herbert 

• 

HISTORICAL OBSERVATION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Back in 1929, when the stock market crashed, some depressed CEOs and bankers, feeling disgraced for having brought the country into financial chaos, jumped out of tall Wall Street buildings. The result: “Plop!” Today, CEOs and bankers jump out of Wall Street buildings securely strapped to golden parachutes. The result: “Whoopee!” 

Robert Blau 

• 

CHECKING UP ON TOM 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I met a friend for tea at Peet’s Friday morning and on the way back down Solano I stopped at Colusa to pick up my weekly Planet. There were none. A little odd, as it just came out yesterday, but I would pass another at Ensenada and Solano. None again. Hmmm. Oh well, I had another chance as I was getting on BART in North Berkeley a little later. Really? None here either? It wasn’t until the afternoon dog walk past Strawberry Design Center that I finally found one. Ohhhh, the Planet endorsed Shirley Dean! Time to check Tom’s garage? 

Jackie Simon 

• 

LIES, DAMNED LIES , STATISTICS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I can’t figure out if Berkeley Transportation Commissioner Rob Wrenn hasn’t read the Bus Rapid Transit draft environmental impact report or if he is willingly parroting AC Transit’s deceptions about the project. 

In his Oct. 2 letter to the Daily Planet, Mr. Wrenn accuses me of misrepresenting the draft EIR. I guess Mr. Wrenn has read as far as the executive summary of the report, since that’s what he quoted in his letter. Too bad he didn’t read the entire report. Then he would have understood what Mark Twain is supposed to have said about statistics and lies. 

Mr. Wrenn is right about one thing. The EIR does say that BRT would increase corridor ridership 56 percent to 76 percent. The key word in that sentence is corridor. In other words, ridership along the International Boulevard-Telegraph Avenue corridor would increase. 

Had Mr. Wrenn bothered to read the chart on page 3-26 of the EIR, however, he would have seen the entire ugly picture. As a result of BRT, AC Transit ridership is projected to increase between 3.7 and 6.2 percent. BART ridership, on the other hand, is projected to actually decrease, somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 percent as a result of riders switching to BRT. The resulting net increase in total transit usage in the East Bay would be between 0.7 percent and 1.4 percent. 

How did Mr. Wrenn and AC Transit get to that 56 to 76 percent increase? By counting people who switch to BRT from other bus lines or from BART. These are not new transit riders. By switching from one bus line to another they do nothing to reduce greenhouse gases. People who switch from BART to BRT will, in fact, generate more greenhouse gases, not less. 

Here is the fabled bottom line, direct from the EIR: Without BRT, transit use in the East Bay is projected to be 659,800 trips per day by 2025. With BRT, the number of trips is projected, at a maximum, to be 670,100. That’s a 1.4 percent increase. This number is so small that the draft EIR says that the energy savings from BRT would be negligible. This number is so small that the projected decreases in air pollutants are nearly zero (0.03 percent to be precise). 

So who’s misrepresenting the draft EIR, Mr. Wrenn? And tell us again, Mr. Wrenn, if you would, why we should spend $250 million on a project which is expected to do, essentially, nothing? 

Jim Bullock 

• 

GET WITH THE PROGRAMS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

There is a disconnect between the on-air program messages at KPFA and the actions of the management toward staff and volunteers. This inconsistency was revealed to the public when management and personnel at the radio station called the police on Nadra Foster during a dispute. This decision resulted in the police brutalizing Nadra, who is a long-time, black woman programmer. 

KPFA radio, 94.1 FM, has many programs denouncing racism and the prison, military industrial complex. Among these programs are Hard Knock Radio, Flashpoints, JR and the Block Report, Without Walls, Critical Resistance, and Mumia Abu Jamal’s Commentaries from Death Row. Reporters address the abuses of the police and of the dominant culture. The economically powerful and privileged use the police as a tool to control political dissent and to oppress people of color. 

Police are not a solution to resolving our conflicts or solving any problems at the radio station. We should utilize alternatives such as sensitivity training, NVC-Non Violent Communication, and Conflict Resolution. These approaches, which have also been presented on-the-air, could be facilitated at teach-ins and community meetings. Additionally, management and staff should be familiar with de-escalation techniques and should have trained community support available if disputes and difficulties arise. 

Management, with paid and unpaid staff, need to support the intention of KPFA in the studio, as well as on the air, by utilizing alternative approaches to calling the police. We need to do as we say at KPFA. Management, there is a better way—get with the programs. 

Beverly Dove 

• 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I really want to know from presidential nominees how a low-income individual can survive, unlike rich people who have plenty to throw away and waste. I heard the Republican candidate say that a $5,000 government credit will enable people to buy health care of their choice in the open market. I am a dedicated teacher with limited means. Is $5,000 the total amount I will have to pay? The government credit must make sense not just for rich and upper-middle class people, but for poor people as well. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

MEASURE KK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I just realized that many politically powerful people and organizations are opposing Measure KK! 

Why am I surprised and upset? Answer: I live near Telegraph Avenue. The prospect of losing two out of the four lanes of traffic to busses only was unpleasant. Probably the most important problem to me is losing most of the parking on Telegraph. Parking is already tight near here because of Cal students. Neighbors like me and merchants on Telegraph have worked hard to put KK on the ballot—the merchants for customer parking, the neighbors for local parking near our homes. 

If you do think of voting no on KK, please think that if it wins, it will decrease customers for the merchants on Telegraph, and, worst for the local residents, it may keep us from having visitors! (In most cases, it will not affect your life at all.) 

Julia Craig  

• 

SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thank you for devoting space in your Oct 9 issue to school board candidate statements. Local school boards make important decisions that affect every family in their community, yet it’s often hard to determine which candidates offer the best solutions. I confess to not voting for local candidates in the past who are running for positions such as school or park district boards because I just didn’t know enough to make an informed choice. 

Having read the statements of the three school board candidates who chose to present their case to Berkeley residents, I was very impressed with Priscilla Myrick’s knowledge of the issues and her prescriptions for improvement. 

I don’t understand why the schools in my hometown of New Delhi are so much more rigorous than those in Berkeley. New Delhi schools have less funding, more students and extreme poverty. But the academics are highly valued and produce better results than many U.S. schools, including my adopted town here in Berkeley.  

The United States needs well-educated students now more than ever. 

Kavita Mohindroo 

• 

OAKLAND’S MEASURE N 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Oakland Measure N provides inequality for charter school teachers. 

At the last Oakland School Board meeting, State Administrator Vincent Matthews explained that it was his concern for “equity” that lead him to make $1.8 million charter school tax a part of Measure N. 

State Administrator Matthew could have placed the question of funding Oakland’s corporate charter schools on the ballot as a separate measure and provided equity for charter school taxpayers. The Oakland voters could then have decided if they wanted to fund successful charter school programs.  

Instead of going to the public with a straight forward request to fund Oakland corporate charter schools, he buried the charter schools’ request for local funding in a parcel tax designed to fund Oakland Public teachers’ pay increase. 

Under Measure N, all the parcel tax money for Oakland Public Schools must go to pay for Oakland teachers’ salary increase. Yet, each charter school administration qualifying for the money gets to decide how to spend the money at its school. 

Measure N leaves charter school teachers behind. If State Administrator Matthews truly wanted equity, why didn’t he at lease write Measure N to provide equity for Oakland’s charter school teachers and ensure they too get a raise? 

Inequity for charter school teachers is only one of many reasons to vote no on Measure N Nov. 4. 

Jim Mordecai 

Oakland 

• 

NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last Saturday, Oct. 11, was National Coming Out Day! This happens once a year, every year, but this year it is of extreme importance with the upcoming election, and Proposition 8! 

In an unprecedented display of solidarity and diversity, in April of 1993, an estimated one million people came together for the National March on Washington for GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) rights! 

One of the highlights of that day came when Martina Navratilova gave an emotional speech on the importance of coming out and on the need to be open and honest about one’s sexual identity. 

The parts of her speech that moved me the most, and that I believe are the most pertinent to the issue of the marriage amendment known as Proposition 8 coming up for a popular vote this Nov. 4, I quote below: 

“What our movement for equality needs most, is for us to come out of the closet! We need to become visible to as many people as possible, so that we can shatter all those incredible myths that keep us in the closet! 

“Our goal is not to receive compassion, acceptance, or worse yet, tolerance, because that implies that we are inferior, we are to be tolerated, pitied, and endured! I don’t want pity, do you? Of course not! Our goal must be equality across the board. We can settle for nothing less, because we deserve nothing less! 

“One’s sexuality should not be an issue, one way or another. One’s sexuality should not become a label by which that human being should be identified! My sexuality is a very important part of my life, a very important part of my being, but it is still a very small part of who I am! 

“Being homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual is not good or bad. It simply is. 

“So now we are here today so that one day in the hopefully not-too-distant future, we will be referred to not by our sexuality, but by our accomplishments and abilities, as all Californians, Americans and people everywhere have the right to be! 

“Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, Elton John, Greg Louganis and many, many others have come out of the closet, including recently, Clay Aiken! Each and every one had something to lose by that action, and each and every one could have made all kinds of excuses not to come out, but they didn’t! 

“So, now, I urge all of you who are still in the closet to throw away all the excuses! 

“If we want the world to accept us, we must first accept ourselves! If we want the world to give us respect, we must first be willing to give ourselves respect! We must be proud of who we are and we cannot do that if we hide! 

“By coming out to our friends, family, employers, and employees, we make ourselves personable. We become human beings, and then we have the opportunity to show the world what we are all about—happy, intelligent, giving, loving people. We can show our moral strength, dignity, character.” 

We can be ourselves! I urge you to come out now and be true to yourself and tell your family, friends and everyone you know to vote no on Proposition 8, and that to do otherwise they will be hurting someone they know and love—you! 

Robert Sodervick 

Justice and Equality for All 

San Francisco 

• 

HEALING AND  

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The KPFA management talks “healing” from their recent police incident. But more is required here, there’s also gaining progressive understanding of the social forces involved. 

There’s a historic struggle to change the present objectification approach to madness/mental illness’ to a humanistic model based on community values and responsible self-expression, a struggle that falls within the framework of Kuhn’s paradigm shift in science. Ignoring that is—politically—like ignoring gender role, ethnicity, or the exploitation of labor. 

Some 15 years ago, Berkeley Mental Health came together around a “denial” strategy regarding “paradigm shift,” and moved systematically to break every ongoing initiative in sync with the historic change process. Wendy Georges was fired from the Berkeley Food Project, sell-out deals were offered the prominent client/survivor activists (I refused mine and was personally threatened by BMH). 

A general climate of stigma/discrimination promotes what activists call the “freedom train “problem. Are the “crazy people” invited; is there a role for our values in the progressive movement? Or do people practice what Martin Luther King, Jr. called the behavioral science that accommodates or embraces oppression, denying torture, when dealing with us? 

KPFA has had programs related to this concern. Once a leader of the client/survivor movement helped run Youth Radio, for instance. Yet—like most progressives, KPFA management and programming still does not take the stigma/discrimination process into account. Recently for instance Phil Zimbardo, a progressive social psychologist who is still confused about the freedom train, was shamelessly praised on the Morning Show when interviewed about his new book (on the behavioral science of attitude management). I shuddered when I heard that. 

The Aug. 20 incident showed the face of racism, many say. It also showed the face of denial, what—by civil rights metaphor—is the watermelon approach to the movement to bring the client/survivor activists into the freedom train. Where is principle hiding? 

In September, the American Psychological Association voted 60 percent by referendum ever to ban psychologists from involvement in torture in the service of national security. The questions implicit in King’s advocacy for reforming behavioral science so as to promote creative maladjustment based on the values of freedom and dignity are now, at last, on the table: When does “treatment” mean “torture"? 

Andrew Phelps 

Former Chair, Berkeley Mental Health Commission (1990-93) 

P.S.: King’s 1967 speech to the APA can be found at www.apa.org/monitor/jan99/ king.html. 

• 

BURIAL GROUNDS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last Tuesday’s publication of the Daily Californian mentions that archeological tests are been done near the proposed athletes’ complex near Memorial Stadium. 

The mentioned place is a sacred burial ground for the Muwekma Ohlone who inhabit the Bay Area from San Jose to beyond Berkeley and the San Francisco Peninsula. For instance, the Moscone Center and the Presidio National Park in San Francisco, the Bay Bridge ends, Emeryville Shopping Mall, Fourth Street in Berkeley, the University of California campus at Berkeley, and many other places in the Bay Area contain sacred burial grounds. The oak grove and Memorial Stadium, where a waterfall existed, are also burial grounds. 

On Thursday, June 19, the Daily Californian reported, “Ohlone tribe member Andrew Galvan agreed with the university’s claim that native burials at the site are unlikely, saying that he is “unaware of any proof saying current burials exists in that area.” But allow me to let you know that Andrew Galvan is a not an Ohlone representative, he is three quarters non-native mexican, half-quarter sicilian and less than half-quarter Ohlone, therefore he is not even Ohlone, and obviously, neither by spirit. 

Andrew Galvan is a divisive figure among the Ohlone community who since his early age has been a traitor to his almost non-Ohlone controversial identity. During the Alcatraz Occupation of the 1970s he wrote a letter and sent it to president Nixon opposing the Native American Alcatraz occupation. As a teenager he was a Franciscan seminarian and his brother Michael is a priest. Andrew Galvan has promoted the saint hood of father Junipero Serra who was the cause of the great devastation of California’s Native Nations including the Ohlones. I remember when Andrew Galvan opposed the Ohlone Nation for the repatriation of the 13,000 human remains by UC Berkeley, such incident happened at the International House Auditorium 20 years ago. 

Andrew Galvan has a B.A. in history from the California State University at Hayward and co-owns an archeological firm that has repatriated over 5000 human skeletal Ohlone remain and charges $60 an hour during excavations where construction will disturb Ohlone sacred burial grounds. For instance, he charged the county of Contra Costa $58,000 for 12 skeletal remains during a project of Big Break Regional Shoreline in the year 2002. He reburies the remains at the Ohlone Indian Tribe, Inc. cemetery in Fremont where he has denied the access to Ohlone tribe members who are looking for federal recognition. 

The list goes on and on with this alleged “Ohlone,” (see the San Francisco Weekly, Nov. 21, 2007 article for more information about Andrew Galvan misrepresentation). 

Well, the University of California at Berkeley is alleging that the current archeological tests at the oak grove are being supervised by a “representative of the local Ohlone tribe on site every day to oversee the excavation.” But they don’t give the name of such “Ohlone.” Who is he/she? Most likely the traitor and renegade Andrew Galvan, curator of Mission Dolores. 

I must add that Chancellor Birgenau of the University of California at Berkeley is another traitor to the Native American community for not protecting the oak grove and the sacred burial Ohlone ground and for not returning the 13,000 human Ohlone remains for proper reburial. Ironically, Chancellor Birgenau alleges to be a Canadian First Nation Native. 

Bernardo S. Lopez 

• 

VP PALIN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Imagine if you will: President John McCain all of a sudden keels over, and Vice President Sarah Palin has become the leader of the free world. That is inexperienced and figurehead Sarah Palin is now the commander in chief of the United States. Palin was selected in the 2008 presidential election to attract millions of evangelical voters to the GOP ticket. 

President Palin has transformed the Supreme Court into a fundamentalist sounding board with the addition of more anti-abortion and anti-gay justices. Roe vs Wade is a memory and women no longer have freedom of choice over their own bodies. 

America is experiencing a population explosion as the Palin administration pushes its “abstinence only” policy on the country. Sex education in the schools has been banned under the threat of lost funding. 

Under President Palin, “Onward Christian Soldiers” has become the battle cry of the foreign policy and the economy is still stumbling along under Bush-like ecomomic policies. Far fetched? 

Ron Lowe 

Nevada City 

• 

VOTE ARREGUIN, DISTRICT 4 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

L A Wood’s campaign slogan, as written on his campaign signs, is to “carry on Dona’s legacy.” That seems a bit hypocritical now since Wood opposed and tried to oust Dona Spring from her District 4 council seat when she recently ran for re-election. 

But we can elect someone who will really carry on Dona’s legacy. 

Jesse Arreguin’s record and activism shows he is a true progressive in the mold of Dona Spring and is supported by the likes of Kriss Worthington and the Sierra Club, along with many other Dona supporters. Jesse wouldn’t just say he’d carry on Dona’s legacy, he’ll do it. 

Don’t split the progressive vote. Vote for Jesse Arreguin for City Council, District 4. 

Steve Mackouse 

• 

MEASURE WW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In regard to Measure WW and East Bay Regional Parks, I will abstain from voting for it after what the park system did to the meadowland at the Berkeley Marina by fencing it and prohibiting the public from enjoying it. To call the area a park is really an abomination. I don’t know what the park system has done elsewhere, but here in Berkeley they did something not only horrible but unjust.  

Pete Najarian 

• 

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Could you please do a story on the new Pedestrian Bridge sculptures? They ruin the bridge.  

Perhaps they could be located next to the bridge at the entrances on ground level. They look out of place, like an afterthought.  

It does a disservice to the bridge and the sculptures to have added them in this manner.  

It seems their placement was designed for people in cars more than for people on bikes and foot. Also it looks as if there was never a study model done of the bridge, showing the addition of two giant sculptures stuck on either end. Because if the study was done, any reasonable person could see how out of place they look. 

Lastly, the way in which they are added, on giant poles, supporting the type of base that looks as if it would traditionally be on the ground—also seems like an afterthought. If the sculpture needs to live on big poles, why does it have a ground base? 

Everything about this project seems like it was kluged together. It is a shame that we in Berkeley project our unsophisticated half-baked thinking for the world to see. 

Before we stuck these sculptures on we had a beautiful, clean, simple, borderline Calatrava bridge to tell the world of our values.  

Why did we need to embellish this simple message? We have live people on it every day doing the embellishing job for us! Real people, not bronze fiberglass. 

Larry Raines 

• 

BUS RAPID TRANSIT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I was surprised to see the headline on J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s Oct. 13 article: “North Oakland Residents as Divided as Berkeley Over Bus Rapid Transit Proposal.” I attended this meeting and left feeling that most of the Oakland attendees were united in our support for AC Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) proposal. 

Equating the sentiments of residents in Berkeley on BRT to those in North Oakland is simply disingenuous. I’ve attended several Berkeley hearings on BRT, and they have been filled with many angry BRT opponents. In stark contrast, only five Oakland residents spoke against BRT at this forum, while ten Oakland residents spoke in support of the project. Of course, Allen-Taylor might have been fooled into thinking the community was split on the issue because several Berkeley residents attended the forum and spoke against BRT. 

It is also significant to note that Oakland Council Member Jane Brunner could not find an Oakland opponent to sit on the panel. Instead, she had to turn to Berkeley and ask Bruce Kaplan to speak against the project. If North Oakland residents were as divided as Allen-Taylor would have us believe, Council Member Brunner would have had no trouble finding a local BRT opponent to speak. 

Though BRT is stridently opposed by some neighborhood activists in Berkeley, Brunner’s forum shows that BRT doesn’t have to be so divisive in Oakland. Unlike their Berkeley neighbors, Temescal merchants support the project and are working constructively with AC Transit to address their concerns. If Berkeley neighborhood groups and merchants could put aside their heated rhetoric and work with AC Transit like their neighbors in Temescal have done, Berkeley could be leading instead of following the East Bay’s move toward world-class bus service. 

Rebecca Saltzman 

• 

ISLAMOPHOBIC RANT 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I wish to address some points made by Rachel Raskin-Zrihen in her Islamophobic rant (Oct. 9, “Correcting Sapir’s Facts on Israel and Palestine”). She criticizes Marc Sapir for referring to Israel’s actions against Palestinians as “ethnic cleansing.” I guess it depends on how you would define that term. When one group of people (Israelis) cuts off access to water supplies of another group (Palestinians), that is a form of “ethnic cleansing.” When they destroy thousands of olive trees and the livelihoods of farmers, erect checkpoints and block roads which prevent them from seeking education, medical care and employment, dump tons of garbage next to their villages, demolish their homes by the thousands, and make life as hard to live as can be, that is what I would call “ethnic cleansing.” It doesn’t have to be achieved with the bullet or the bomb, but with bulldozers, cement and chainsaws. It makes life nearly impossible on a daily basis. This is what millions of Palestinians endure today. 

As well, she equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, a false claim made by many in the pro-Israel camp. Throughout its history, Zionism has been opposed by many Jews, and many to this day are opposed to this ideology for a variety of reasons. 

Robert Kanter 

• 

MAIL-IN BALLOTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Another fellow alerted a friend of mine to the fact that his digital postage scale showed an Alameda County mail-in ballot with envelope to weigh 1.1oz, requiring 59 cents postage. I checked with my own electronic scale and my own ballot, and got exactly the same result. The envelope isn’t marked to alert people to the need for the extra postage, it just calls for a “first class mail stamp” which is going to be interpreted incorrectly by many as meaning the 42-cent one-ounce rate. And of course, .1 oz overweight isn’t noticeable, you have to actually weigh it on an accurate scale. There’s a possibility that this could result in mail-in ballots being returned to senders for additional postage. Just a word to the wise.  

David A. Coolidge 

• 

TAKE NOTE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Regarding Richard Brenneman’s Oct. 9 story “Court Orders Maio To Testify Over Loan From Developer” (Pages 1 and 24), it is apparent that Mr. Brenneman had not seen—or comprehended—my Sept. 25 letter to the editor. Your reporter wrote, regarding the subject of cell phones, “Neighbors had appealed ZAB’s approval of the application, but were unable to allege health concerns, which state and local governments are barred from using when considering applications for the antennae. “ (Does he accept that?) 

Dear reader, please take note: The section of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 under consideration, begins: “No State or local government ...” It says “State”; not “state.” 

The Telecommunications Act defines the legal term “State” in this way: ‘“State”—The term “State” includes the District of Columbia and the Territories and possessions.’ However, the word “includes” is “A term of limitation.”—(Ex parte Martinez). Such a “State” means a Territory such as Guam or Puerto Rico, or federal possessions like American Samoa, or the Berkeley Main Post Office. But not all Berkeley, and not California state as a whole. 

Unfortunately, the common misunderstanding is aided and abetted by acting City Attorney Zack Cowan, who (I predict), would not be able to declare—under penalty of perjury—what he has claimed; namely: that the city cannot deny permits based on location or health considerations. It is shocking that the “public” accepts this sort of subjugation... 

What does it take to clarify a re-“definition” by Congress “respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States” (per Article IV., Section 3., Clause 2. of the Federal Constitution), that is now over 140 years old? Will the people continue to accept what is, in fact, a species of Tyranny from their municipal employees? (Or, the president-select?) 

Please remember: The 9th Amendment assures us that “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” And also remember: The 10th Amendment asserts that: “The powers not delegated to the United States [federal government] by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States [read “states”], are reserved to the States [“states”] respectively, or to the people.” 

Such “Acts” are for the Territories, etc. The Congress rules only over “U.S. citizens.” 

Are you one? 

Arthur Stopes, III 

• 

DOES MEASURE GG ADD UP? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A recent brochure supporting Berkeley’s ballot Measure GG (Fire Protection and Emergency Preparedness Tax) contained errors and omissions. For example, the brochure states that there are “over 8,400 emergency medical calls each year.” The Fire Department actually reported rescue and medical emergency responses of 7,707 for 2007, 7,479 for 2006, and 7,214 for 2005. More important, the brochure does not mention that Berkeley residents are charged for medical calls. The base rate for ambulance service is $1,260, plus $29.00 per mile (yes, dollars per mile), and $95 for oxygen (if needed). If ambulance transportation is not used or refused, the resident is billed a non-transport fee of $350 just for the call. The anticipated 2008 income from these fees is $2.7 million. However, lack of restraint on the part of the City Council had allowed the cost of the Emergency Medical Service program to balloon to $6.3 million. The starting salary of a firefighter/paramedic is between $84,578 and $106,556 plus bonuses, medical insurance, retirement benefits, overtime pay, and job security. In 2007, approximately $2 million was spent on overtime.  

To assert that such salaries must be paid in order to be competitive is not convincing. In December 2007, the City of Oakland had more than 2000 applicants for 24 firefighter/paramedic positions. In terms of sound fiscal management, the Berkeley Fire Department budget and Measure GG do not appear to measure up. 

Robert Gable 

• 

NO ON PROP. 8 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Alfred Crofts, my longtime partner, and I are asking voters to reject Proposition 8. 

Al and I have lived together 37 years, all but one of those years in the same house in North Oakland. If that’s not stability, I don’t know what is. We waited in long lines outside San Francisco City Hall in 2004 to get married, after Mayor Newsom’s brave move. The long lines with so many couples lesbian and gay, many with kids, illustrated to us what was really at stake and how the 1950s Liberace stereotype of the gay community certainly didn’t fit now (or then, for that matter). 

Like us (and most people), same-sex marriage was not on our radar screen, nor did it ever seem possible we would live to see the day. How much has changed, and yet how fierce the reaction. (Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s prepared us for that.) But it still makes me angry to know that the tax-exempt, out-of-state Mormon Church and the Knights of Columbus are pouring millions into the Yes On 8 campaign, spreading the basest of lies about “scary” gay marriage with saturation TV and radio ads, and seem to be succeeding if the recent polls are any indication. 

Al and I will probably tie the knot again before the election, and wouldn’t be surprised if this “right” that most people take for granted is taken away from us again. But we would be disappointed, and the civil rights cause for everyone would be set back in a very big way.  

Please tell your friends and neighbors to vote no and donate money to the campaign if you can. Send checks to Equality California, Northern Calif. Office, 2370 Market St., San Francisco, 94114 or www.actblue.com/page/calitics. 

Bob Brokl 

• 

SUPPORT PROP. 11 FOR  

FAIR ELECTIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

California voters need to approve Proposition 11 so that they can begin to hold their elected representatives responsible for what they do and do not accomplish in Sacramento. 

At present, virtually all legislators run in safe districts and are immune from being voted out of office. That is because they choose the voters who will be in their electoral districts, by defining the district boundaries. With Proposition 11, a panel of voters would define district boundaries based on non-partisan rules, including those contained in the Federal Voting Rights Act.  

Proposition 11 was created by California Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of California and AARP, and is supported by the ACLU of Southern California, a large number of local Democratic clubs and non-partisan community and business groups. 

The main opposition comes from the leaders of the State Democratic and Republican parties. They like the current system which they created and they control. Under this system, elected representatives are primarily responsible to their respective political parties, instead of being responsible to the voters. 

Unlike the current system, which is secretive and self-serving, Proposition 11 would put into place an open and transparent process. It explicitly states that “the commission must establish and implement an open hearing process for public input and deliberation that shall be subject to public notice and promoted through a thorough outreach program to solicit broad public participation … .” 

The initiative also states that new district boundaries, to be redefined after the 2010 Federal Census, must ensure that the new boundaries respect city, county and neighborhood boundaries, rather than seeking out pockets of like-minded voters wherever they can find them, as is presently done. 

In summary, Proposition 11 creates an independent commission of voters to redefine electoral districts, it provides clear criteria for how the district boundaries shall be drawn, and it requires an open and transparent process with opportunities for public input. It deserves your support. 

Jean Safir 

Co-Vice President 

Action, League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville 

There are a lot of good reasons to vote no on Measure LL, but perhaps the best one is that the campaign to pass it is based on lies. Measure LL would repeal our current, green Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (LPO) and put in its place a loophole-laden ordinance, designed to expedite the demolition of our historic homes and neighborhoods. The fact that proponents refer to it as a landmarks preservation ordinance may be the biggest lie of all. That’s because if a developer chooses the right options among the new and confusing bureaucratic procedures for landmarking, a historic building could be cleared for demolition before the public even knows what’s going on. In effect, Measure LL provides a means to keep historic structures from being preserved. 

Measure LL contains a controversial provision called a “Request for Determination.” Measure LL backers claimed that it was needed, based on an allegation that our current LPO didn’t allow property owners to obtain a determination if their properties were historic or not. That’s patently false, since under our current LPO, property owners can and do come before the Landmarks Preservation Commission for such determinations. There’s a good reason for them to do so; the Mills Act provides property tax rebates for the restoration of historic buildings. So there was never any doubt about what our LPO allowed, but determinations weren’t what Measure LL backers really wanted. They wanted what they call a “safe harbor” for the demolition of potentially historic structures—a period of time in which they would be unprotected by law. The RFD procedure provides this cover, by allowing property owners, developers, or their agents to obtain decisions that properties aren’t historic, using a process with confusing timelines and limited public disclosure. Measure LL is a stealth anti-landmarking ordinance.  

How did such an ordinance come to be written? It all began with a lie. The city attorney said that our current LPO was in violation of the 1999 Permit Streamlining Act, because our ordinance didn’t provide specific timelines for environmental review. This was nonsensical, since a state law prevails over a municipal ordinance and would simply impose the required deadlines on the permitting process. Furthermore, in 2000, the state Office of Historic Preservation certified our current LPO as being in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws. But the lie took on a life of its own, and it became the premise for repealing our LPO and creating the developer-driven ordinance that became Measure LL. Ironically, the new ordinance is the one in violation of law. It violates both the California Environmental Quality Act and the Berkeley Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance. Measure LL will cost the City of Berkeley tens of thousands of dollars in lawsuits, but proponents never divulge this fact.  

The campaign to pass Measure LL has been a litany of lies. Proponents call Measure LL a “compromise.” Now, if our current LPO had actually been in violation of state law, as alleged, then correcting it could not truthfully be called a compromise. It would be a necessity. But people who tell lies often forget to keep their stories straight, and so the story about Measure LL being a compromise was born. This clever façade puts a reasonable-looking face on the ruthless pro-development agenda behind Measure LL. 

What city officials never disclose is that Berkeley’s stock of affordable housing lies almost completely within older neighborhoods. That’s a lie of omission, but a significant one, and it may be the key to understanding why developers want Measure LL to pass so badly. There’s virtually no room for new development in Berkeley without demolishing existing buildings, and that means affordable rental housing will be destroyed if Measure LL passes. The profitable, high-density buildings that replace small apartment buildings and single family homes will in turn lower the property values of the remaining residences. 

Finally, Measure LL undermines the city’s green goals, because preservation is an integral component of our sustainable future. This is a betrayal of global proportions, because according to the Environmental Protection Agency, 48 percent of the Greenhouse Gases produced in the United States come from the demolition, construction, and operation of buildings. We waste less energy and fewer resources by preserving and retrofitting historic buildings than we do by constructing new buildings to replace them, even when those buildings are energy-efficient and made from some recycled materials. That’s because new buildings don’t last long enough to recoup the cost in embodied energy that it takes to construct them. 

There would be no need for misrepresentations, if there was even one good reason to pass Measure LL. But there are none. Vote no on Measure LL and keep our strong and green Landmarks Preservation Ordinance! 

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) recommends a no vote on Measure LL. The Berkeley Green Party and the Green Party of Alameda don’t just say to vote no on Measure LL; they say, “NO! NO! NO!” The Berkeley Neighborhood Preservation Organization is the proponent of this referendum. For more information on BNPO and Measure LL, go to www.savethelpo.org. 

Judith Epstein writes on behalf of the Berkeley Neighborhood Preservation Organization.

The Berkeley police and Abraham Lincoln? What the...? What’s the connection? Hang with me a minute. I’ll explain. 

On Friday Oct. 10, I was walking down South Berkeley’s Sacramento Street and passed my niece and two nephews who were walking in the opposite direction. One nephew was on a bike. They were on their way to the store. 

Several minutes later on my return trip my nephew on the bike was waiting outside the store for his sister and cousin who were inside. I had plans to go to the store also. 

But as I approached the store unmarked Berkeley patrol car number 1522, driven by an Asian female officer and her partner, a white male, pulled up to curb next to my nephew on the bike, and got out to approach him. 

As I walked into the store they were merely talking to him and I didn’t pay real close attention to what they were talking about. But when I returned to the front of the store, after having picked up a few items toward the rear, I saw that the white officer was restraining my nephew by holding onto his wrist. 

“What’s going on here?” I said. “Has he done something?” 

“No we just want to talk to him,” responded the white cop. 

Then my niece came out of the store. 

“Why are you treating my brother like that? He’s not on any paper (not on probation or parole.) You have no right to treat him like that.” 

At that point the female officer told my niece to keep out of it. Then words escalated and the woman cop grabbed my niece and shoved her against the wall of the store and told her to keep out of it. 

It looked as if thing were going to get out of hand, people were yelling and a crowd was beginning to gather. The clerks came out of the store to see what was happening. I bolted down the street to inform my sister that half her family was about to be arrested. When I returned the female cop asked me what was my interest in all this. I told her that I was the uncle of all the three youths. 

Then she responded, “Well, get the fuck up out of here.” 

I was shocked. “What did you say?” 

“You heard me, get the fuck up out of here.” Twice. Wow. 

As my sister approached they jumped into their patrol car and drove off. 

Then the store clerk emerged and said, ”That was outrageous. They always confront kids who don’t sell drugs, and never the ones who do.” 

A valid observation in my opinion. 

This was the third time in a week I had seen Berkeley police attempt to line up and search black youths and then walk away without making any arrest, while at the same time never once, as far as I know, confronting any of the men who are older and bigger, who hang around a business down the street, who I know to be armed and carrying drugs. 

Berkeley has a gang problem all right, gangs of unsupervised, poorly trained police roaming our neighborhoods intimidating and harassing black youths under the color of law. 

For the past 35 years I’ve lived in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco and I can’t remember ever seeing a more poorly handled interaction between police and the community. It was a great example of how riots start due to the arrogance and ill-tempered nature of police. Can you imagine nearly starting a riot because you claim to want to talk to kid because he’s riding his bike on the sidewalk? Terrible policing work, in my opinion. 

Afterwards I though about the policewoman’s suggestion that, “I get the fuck up out of here.” Hmmm, maybe she’s on to something. 

Buried deep in the multi-volume collection of John Hay and John Nicolay’s seminal collection of the papers of the Lincoln administration is a record of an intriguing moment in U.S. history. 

On the eve of the Civil War, just after moving into the White House, Lincoln called to his office a New Jersey contractor. 

How much would it cost, Lincoln wanted to know, to move all the black people in the United States to Texas? What an inspiration! Give Texas to the blacks. Of course the Texans would have objected but when you consider than only 1,500 Texans participated in the state-wide vote on whether to secede, opposition to Lincoln’s plan would have been minimal, most likely. 

The contractor said he’d get back to Lincoln on that one, but if he did his response is not recorded. No need to dwell on what happened afterward. 

So my modest proposal is this: Since Berkeley police and other various agencies of the Berkeley city government have made it abundantly clear that it would be preferable if there were no blacks in Berkeley, why doesn’t mayor Tom Bates, and other deep thinkers on the City Council, emulate “the Great Liberator” and see if some scheme can be hatched to get black folks “the fuck up out of here”? 

Here’s one option. For most of the 20th Century, California has been beset with debates, from time to time, on whether the state should be divided into two. Well, why not three? 

Give one-third to the whites, one-third to the Latinos and one-third to blacks. And the Asians can vote on where they want to live. I’ll bet the government in Mexico City would go for it. How about you? 

Jean Damu is a Berkeley resident.

Sen. Barack Obama recently made public a video (http://my.barackobama.com/keatingvideo) outlining Senator John McCain’s role in the Keating Five scandal. The release may be in response to the personal attacks on Obama by McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin. Bringing up McCain’s role now isn’t just about the past because his role in that scandal has possible implications to the present financial crisis. The video shows McCain as someone who helped out a constituent, Charles Keating, while—just like today—taxpayers got stuck with the bill. Is his admitted poor judgment then an indication as to how he would handle the current financial crisis as president? You will have to decide that on Nov. 4. 

I have compiled a more complete account of his role in the Keating Five scandal.  

Sen. John McCain was one of five senators accused of corruption in 1989 in the savings and loan (S&L) crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The other four senators were Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI). The crisis was the failure of 747 S&Ls in the United States costing an estimated $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the taxpayers.  

These five senators were accused of improperly intervening before the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) in 1987 on behalf of Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was a target of a regulatory investigation by the FHLBB. The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln. By failing to take action, Lincoln was able to operate for two more years until its collapse in 1989, at a cost of $2 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. 

McCain and Keating had become personal friends following their initial contacts in 1981, and McCain was the only one of the five senators with close social and personal ties to Keating. McCain considered Keating a constituent as he lived in Arizona. McCain, his family, and their baby-sitter made nine trips at Keating’s expense, sometimes aboard Keating’s jet. Three of the trips were made to Keating’s luxurious retreat in the Bahamas. McCain did not pay Keating—some $13,433—for some of these trips until years after the trips were taken, after he learned that Keating was under investigation. Between 1982 and 1987, McCain received $112,000 in political contributions from Keating and his associates. In addition, McCain’s wife Cindy McCain and her father Jim Hensley, invested $359,100 in a Keating shopping center in April 1986, a year before McCain met with the regulators. In 1989, the Phoenix New Times writer Tom Fitzpatrick called McCain the “most reprehensible” of the five senators. 

The Keating Five were investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee. The Committee’s work, however, was made difficult because at the time there was no specific rule governing the propriety of members intervening with federal regulators. During the investigation, McCain said, “I have done this kind of thing [intervene] many, many times,” and said the Lincoln case was like “helping the little lady who didn’t get her Social Security.” In 1991, after a lengthy investigation, the committee cleared McCain of impropriety but said he had exercised “poor judgment.” Some of the committee members were concerned that letting the senators off lightly would harm their own reputations. Nevertheless, the existing Senate rules did not specifically proscribe the actions taken by DeConcini, Riegle, Glenn, and McCain. After the finding, McCain admitted his poor judgment and would write in 2002 that attending the two April 1987 meetings with Keating was “the worst mistake of my life.”  

Keating ultimately was sentenced to five years in prison for fraud. His conviction was later overturned on appeal because of the trial judge’s faulty jury instructions. Keating ultimately pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and was sentenced to the four years time already served.  

Not everyone was satisfied with the committee’s conclusions. The president of Common Cause, who initially demanded the investigation, thought the treatment of McCain and the other senators was far too lenient, and said, “[The] action by the Senate Ethics Committee is a cop-out and a damning indictment of the committee,” and “The U.S. Senate remains on the auction block to the Charles Keatings of the world.” The president of Public Citizen called it a “whitewash.” Newsweek said it was a classic case of the government trying to investigate itself, labelling the Senate Ethics Committee “shameless” for having “let four of the infamous Keating Five [including McCain] off with a wrist tap.” A San Francisco bank regulator felt that McCain had gotten off too lightly, saying that Keating’s business involvement with Cindy McCain was an obvious conflict of interest. 

The present financial crisis is, as that wise philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “Like deja vu all over again.” 

Ralph E. Stone is a retired Bay Area attorney. 

The two opposing mayoral candidates both have had the position of mayor, both with highly marred terms. First, let’s revisit the Shirley Dean administration which started off with Mrs. Dean not giving up her job with the largest employer in the town (UC Berkeley) while mayor. Can you say conflict of interest? One might say that Shirley Dean is the Dick Cheney of Berkeley. Even Dick Cheney quit Halliburton before taking the vice president’s job after awarding most of the post-war contracts to his former employer. It got worse when Mrs. Dean decided to go after our favorite city councilmember (at that time), Kriss Worthington. She decided to go to Mr. Worthington’s alma mater (in Ohio) posing as his aunt to pull information to get dirt on Mr. Worthington and had it sent to her summer home in Lake Tahoe. Mrs. Dean has also had her share of backroom deals with developers.  

As for Tom Bates, he started off on the wrong foot by stealing over 1,000 Daily Californian newspapers and throwing them in the trash because they had endorsed his opponent, Mrs. Dean. It was an ominous sign of our mayor having to report to his own Police Department on his first week on the job for theft. This would be the canary in the coalmine as for the next six years of empty promises and backroom deals (the downtown plan—a land grab by UCB that the maintenance bill will be on the taxpayers back for the next 15 years and removing dire business revenue from the city’s coffers) would mar this criminal administration. This administration has also not been fair to the homeless and people of color and in fact downright racist.  

On Sept. 22 an African American woman held a day-long vigil on the steps of City Hall holding a sign which read: “Eliminate Bates, he discriminates,” underscoring the fact that Mayor Bates is racist. Also, the cancellation of the city’s lawsuit against the university in the oak grove case is also disrespect to the Ohlone people; without the city’s backing this burial ground is going to be desecrated, not to mention the desecration of a World War I memorial. Also, the Juneteenth debacle where for the first time in so many years the permit was no granted because of time constraints and the police department’s non-staffing on Father’s Day. These actions show the complete disconnect and utter disrespect the current administration has for the people of color in the Berkeley community. 

Voters need alternatives to the status quo and I’m it, being a Native American leader/elder, I am not a politician. I’m a traditional indigenous leader who follows the belief of the seven generations; always asking what our action will mean to those who will arrive on this earth in seven generations, it’s not what kind of world you are leaving for your children but what kind of a world you are leaving for your children’s great great grandchildren. I’m bound to this and this is why if elected I’m donating the entire mayor’s salary to the under-represented groups in our society. The groups start with our elders who teach us not to touch the flame as they have already lived it; they have great wisdom to benefit us all.  

Secondly, to our future generation, the youth, who must be nurtured, trusted and guided thru landmines of life; not criminalized and disempowered. And finally to the homeless, who we give services to but never allow them to come and sit at the decision making table.  

As a long-time resident of Berkeley, coming to the city in 1967, I grew up in South Berkeley in a multi-racial family with adopted parents of European decent and a brother with Japanese and Hawaiian ancestry; I want to see Berkeley be what is always has been: a catalyst for change. My extensive experience in dealing with the university stretches from 1999 during the Ethnic Studies, where the people prevailed, to the recent longest urban tree-sit in U.S. history. I have also served on the Peace and Justice Commission in 1999. I spearheaded the movement to get AC transit to begin a biodiesel pilot program and the name change of Columbus Elementary to Rosa Parks Elementary School. I have also sat on the board of directors for the Intertribal Friendship House, helping the native community center out of $385,000 of debt. As before and present, I will work to keep the university accountable and fight for the needs of our community. 

The direction of the current leadership in City Council and the mayor’s office needs to change to reflect the signs of a global economic crisis and of the crisis of global warming. It must be noticed that neither of the candidates listed have the ability to stand up against the largest employer of this town which has global implications like the British Petroleum (BP) deal to cut down the Amazon rain forest to make “green” energy. Mayor Bates cheers this marriage of a corporation and a public institution as a stimulus for Berkeley’s economy. However, the BP deal with UC Berkeley will create more environmental damage in Strawberry Canyon’s most sensitive area and the ecosystem but also threatens to cut down our last rain forest, our last lungs. Berkeley city government should not fall prey to the corportization that of the university, it should retain its global view acting locally to create the change which is so needed in our world today.  

I can guarantee that the health of our planet and our community will receive the highest priority when I become the mayor. My Native American heritage compels me to value the gifts of nature. Therefore, it is only natural that I give my life’s blood to ensure that future generations will enjoy a planet that is committed to eradicating pollution.  

It’s time for change: RunningWolf for mayor. 

Zachary RunningWolf is a write-in candidate for mayor of Berkeley.

For close to 30 years I have worked my way up the ranks from teen youth worker in a child care program in the Mission District to the position that I have held for over 20 years, as Executive Director. I have worked for BAHIA Inc., located in West Berkeley since 1980. This year I celebrate 28 years with the organization. My work most of my adult life has been in Berkeley, and I live within walking distance from my child care center.  

I was born and raised in the Mission District of San Francisco and attended the public schools from elementary through high school. I attended San Francisco State in 1973 and graduated in 1979 with my Bachelor of Arts in La Raza Studies. I received my Masters of Arts from Pacific Oaks College in 2000 in Human Development with an emphasis on Leadership Development. I received a Community College Instructional Credential in 1985 and have taught in the community college as adjunct faculty in the early childhood department in Los Medanos College, San Francisco City College and Santa Rosa City College and adjunct faculty for Pacific Oaks College. I am a fellow of LeaderSpring, a two-year fellowship program for non-profit executive directors and I am a fellow of Emerge California (class of 2007) which prepares democratic women for political office. I have also received two-day training from Emily’s List. These credentials are what bring me to run for school board, more importantly my work has always been in the non-profit sector and working with children.  

If elected, my goals and priorities in office will be to implement the 2020 Vision that was jointly signed on to by the Berkeley School Board and the City of Berkeley. I see my primary role as an elected board member to address the issues of equity in education while also assuring quality education in our schools. I will work to develop the All City-Wide Equity Taskforce and create a blueprint for assuring equity exists throughout all of our Berkeley schools from the child development programs, elementary, middle, high schools and including the adult school. I am committed to the academic success of ALL of Berkeley’s children. To do this requires the willingness to partner, collaborated, ask difficult questions and create space for doing things differently, because the same methods we have implemented in educating children has not worked, so it is time to do something different – and not just in one school – but all schools.  

The 2020 Vision for Berkeley’s Children and Youth outlines eight priorities that will help to address the achievement gap. This vision says that all children, regardless of race, ethnicity and income, who enter Berkeley public schools beginning in 2007 (and remain in the district) will achieve equitable outcomes with no proficiency differences by the time they graduate in June, 2020; and that all children born in Berkeley in 2007 and beyond, receive a healthy start and are equally ready to learn and success in the Berkeley schools. The strategies for moving forward the 2020 Vision include: 1) Plan for Educational Success for All 2) Plan for Healthy Child Development for All; 3) Address Barriers to Learning; 4) Professional Development and Human Resources; 5) Parent/Guardian and Youth Engagement; 6) Community Engagement; 7) Leverage local, state and national public and private resources; 8) Shared Accountability and Measurable Outcomes. These eight points and the 2020 Vision can all be found on the Berkeley Unified School District website and on the City of Berkeley’s website.  

I am fortunate to have the sole endorsement of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers. Teachers have demonstrated with their vote that they see in me as their candidate the one that will address what they too see as a needed priority and where leadership is needed in our district.  

I will continue to create opportunities for dialogue, listening and learning and being open to all possibilities before forming any decisions. I am part of the Futures Committee at Berkeley High School which is creating with teachers, parents, students and administration the plan for advisories, a key component to creating equity in the small schools. I am also for a second year the elected parent representative on the School Governance Council at Berkeley High.  

It is important to note that what distinguishes me from the other candidates is that I am one of the co-founders of United in Action (UIA) a grassroots group that has been active since our inception five years ago in finding ways to address the achievement gap in Berkeley Schools and created the original 2020 Vision Plan that is now endorsed by the city and the school district. UIA is a diverse coalition of whites, black, Latinos and progressive whites/biracial community members that are committed to the academic success of all children. Together with partners such as the community college, the university and the business/family community we will and can develop a city-wide approach to addressing the achievement gap. The responsibility of the achievement gap is not just that of our school district but of our entire city, as we will benefit from an educated work force of young adults and community members in our city and in our nation.  

I am proud of having 28 years devoted to being an educator, building community, managing and administering a non profit, working with teachers and advocating for families. I know city, county and state resources, community leaders and programs that are active in serving the needs of children, families and community on a local, county, statewide and national level. I have been an educator for longer than the candidates – what our school district needs is someone that is an educator and life long advocate of teachers, children, families and youth and knows that Berkeley schools are good, and can be better, vote for Beatriz Leyva-Cutler for Berkeley School Board.  

With so much discussion about transportation planning in Berkeley focused on details like street width, the number of on-street parking spaces, or the decision-making process, it’s easy to lose the sight of the big picture. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a regional system that will serve the interconnected East Bay. Even though I live in Oakland, I am one of the many people outside of Berkeley’s borders affected by its transportation decisions. I ask Berkeleyans, when thinking about the transit questions posed on their November ballot, to consider their neighbors in Oakland and San Leandro who use regional buses. 

My family, living in Oakland and Berkeley, is an example. I travel from downtown Oakland for Sunday dinner at my parents’ home in South Berkeley or to shop for records at the end of Telegraph Avenue. My sister commutes to Cal from her home in East Oakland. My aunt lives in West Oakland and works on Telegraph, my aunt and uncle live in North Oakland and one of their daughters attends school in Berkeley. All of us can benefit from improved bus service connecting the two cities. 

Bus Rapid Transit, particularly its rail-like reliability from dedicated lanes, will allow people who travel regularly from Oakland to Berkeley to reduce our travel and waiting times and better plan our excursions. Oakland’s population is growing much faster than Berkeley’s, so better transit service will help businesses in downtown Berkeley and Telegraph remain competitive with downtown and North Oakland. East Oakland and downtown San Leandro will also benefit from improved service along their shared boulevard. 

Unfortunately, some Berkeley residents have opted to fight any attempt to take some street space away from private cars with Measure KK, which would render irrelevant the years of study and public input that currently go into the City Council’s transportation planning decisions. They ask the voters to “leave our streets alone” as if cars need every last inch of the public roadway. But the No. 1 corridor’s 24,000 bus riders are not asking for very much. 

Virtually all street lanes in Berkeley are dedicated to cars and parking, with some exclusive bike lanes and a handful of taxi stands and shuttle stops. Telegraph Avenue, originally a stagecoach route, is so wide because it was designed to house multiple competing streetcar lines, not because cars require two lanes in each direction as well as turn lanes and exclusive street parking. In most of the commercial districts along Telegraph, on-street parking spaces are far outnumbered by parking structures and lots. Both Oakland and Berkeley have recently narrowed major streets without causing excessive traffic delays. BRT does represent a step away from a car-centric society, but not a radical or unprecedented one. 

As an Oaklander with family in Berkeley, I ask Berkeley residents to consider the regional benefits of a dramatically improved transit corridor when deciding how to vote on Measure KK. Allowing the most heavily used bus line in the East Bay to have a portion of one street in Berkeley is a good investment for the city and its neighbors, allowing shoppers, workers and families to better connect across Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro.  

Jonathan Bair is chair of the Oakland Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a three-part series. 

In my previous commentary, “Where Has All the Power Gone?” (Oct. 9) I provided some examples of bad governance in Berkeley and its costs for all of us. This commentary addresses the role our district elections play in this bad governance. 

The district election system was instituted by initiative in 1986 because the previous system, in which all councilmembers were elected city-wide, was perceived to give disproportionate power to the majority, who in citywide elections could easily fill most council seats with candidates of like mind. Those outside the old progressive in-crowd felt they had little voice on the City Council. The expense of citywide elections also encouraged candidates to pool their resources, leading to “slate” politics. In addition to consolidating power, slate politics diminished the exchange of ideas among candidates and presented a simplistic choice to the electorate. Therefore, the disenfranchised minority pushed for district elections, and they succeeded at the ballot.  

Unfortunately, while eliminating some of the problems of citywide elections, district elections introduced its own unforeseen problems. These have become more noticeable in recent years, as economic and demographic changes have increased controversy around both residential and commercial development. 

There are three major problems with district elections. The first is the unaccountability of councilmembers to the non-district electorate. This causes the second problem, the balkanization of Berkeley. The third problem is that councilmembers have too much power over their own districts. The results of this third problem are “orphan constituents” without representation, and the inhibition of free expression. 

Unfortunately, our district election system violates the first principle of democracy: government’s accountability to the voters. When voting on any issue, seven of nine councilmembers never have to answer to the voters they impact. For this reason, most councilmembers feel free to vote for offensive developments in other districts, or conversely, they have no reason to support targeted civic projects that might greatly enhance life in another district. This has led to the approval of bad developments all over town, and inaction on some serious localized problems. In fact, all incentives in the district election system foster parochialism and selfishness. 

One may argue that district elections are no different from representative government at the state and national levels. But at those levels, the potential tyranny of the majority is substantially mitigated by many factors: (1) constitutional limits on power, including states’ rights, (2) the bicameral system, (3) sufficient funds to access the court system, (4) the threat of executive veto, (5) the filabuster, (6) greater numbers of interacting participants and issues, (7) an almost evenly divided electorate, and (8) a large pool of economically viable candidates. We have none of these in Berkeley.  

So what difference might we see right now if we had citywide elections instead of district elections? Well, if a citywide council member voted to (1) develop the Ashby BART parking lot without notifying anyone, (2) turn West Berkeley over to big developers, (3) allow the university and developers to control our downtown planning, (4) ignore crime in South Berkeley, (5) use People’s Park as a dumping ground for social problems, (6) ignore university damage to surrounding neighborhoods, (7) threaten to close fire stations to blackmail residents into not demanding budget responsibility, (8) remove and further constrain scarce downtown parking, and (9) waste taxpayers’ money on inefficient employees and social programs—enough people around town might eventually get mad enough to kick the bum out. And voting together, they would be able to do so. But a majority of our council supports all of these things. Each council member is careful to vote “correctly” on the issues that impact his or her own constituents, paying no attention to the damage done to others, without fear of retribution at the polls. In fact, they will be rewarded for dumping municipal problems elsewhere.  

Twenty-plus years of this system has balkanized Berkeley, undermining our united vision and diminishing our ability to work together. Candidates narrowly focus on their own district issues and are not forced to address or reveal their views or competency on citywide issues. Well-intentioned Berkeley voters perhaps assume that their councilmembers will be as responsive to other districts as they are toward their own constitutents, but history indicates otherwise. What should voters do when their council member gives them good service, but ignores the pain of other districts? Shall we look the other way? How does this impact community relations?  

District elections also damage the comity of the council itself. Many members of the council seem to thoroughly dislike each other. Perhaps having other councilmembers vote to damage their districts makes them mad. Perhaps there is an uneven distribution of stress, labor, and reward among councilmembers, based on unequal distribution of problems and resources around the city. Perhaps they simply have fewer common philosophies and personal relationships than they did under the citywide system. Whatever the reason, the council’s internal conflicts compromise its ability to work together on even simple issues. This, in turn, gives more power to staff, and less to the citizens the council is supposed to serve. 

The third major drawback of our current district election system is that district elections give councilmembers too much power within their own districts. There is no political reason for a council member to address an issue within another district. Instead, given their low salaries and the desire not to alienate a colleague, they have every reason not to. This is a perverse incentive for councilmembers not to serve the public. When councilmembers routinely defer to their colleagues on internal district issues, they call it “respectful,” but it is really self-serving and damaging to the polity.  

This deference produces “orphan constituents”: citizens who have nowhere to turn for help if their own council member is ineffective or uninterested in their problem. Only a few councilmembers have been responsive to the problems of residents of other districts, or to their own constituents who disagree with them. More common under district elections have been cases of indifferent, unproductive, and occasionally even vindictive councilmembers, which have sometimes deprived their constituents of effective representation for years. 

Even worse, this excessive power over the district inhibits free expression of ideas, and even democracy itself. Well aware of the orphan constituent problem, which is common around town, people fear alienating their current or future council member. Because they are entirely dependent upon their council member, many constituents avoid vigorously confronting them on issues about which they disagree.  

Given this dependency, and the high likelihood that the incumbent will win the next election, running for office against incumbents is dicey. Challenging a district incumbent is more personal than running in a field of citywide candidates. So while the intensity of much needed political debates may be reduced, races become more personalized. This increases the likelihood that the loser’s supporters will have their voices ignored for the next four years. 

Berkeley is a complex, diverse city with many problems and many potentials, tight budgets and little land. We must all work together. Unfortunately, the district election system, as it now stands, makes it very difficult to do so. In my next commentary I will suggest some solutions to the problems created by district elections. 

Sharon Hudson is a longtime Berkeley resident, southside renter, and old-style progressive.  

Berkeley residents who are interested in swimming and who care about public recreation for youth have something to cheer about. City of Berkeley staff, Berkeley Unified School District, PTA representatives, neighborhood pool representatives, Park and Recreation and Disability Commissioners, and representatives of the warm pool are sitting down together as a citywide Pools Task Force. 

The Pools Task Force is charged with coming up with a pools master plan. Their intent is to consider the needs and desires of the residents of Berkeley for new or enhanced facilities. The proposed outcome of their discussions and meetings is to develop a bond measure for the June 2010 election. The potential for improving aquatic service in Berkeley for the next several decades is great. The efforts of the warm pool users to find a new home for their pool and the need to remodel, reconfigure, or replace the current outdated, and limited, neighborhood pools has created an opportunity to rethink public swimming in Berkeley. 

Berkeley Aquatics for All (BAA) is a group of swimmers and parents who think it is time to bring all season swimming and recreation to underserved populations, especially children and families, and all Berkeley residents. One of our ideas is to build an indoor multi-pool Aquatic Complex in a location accessible and attractive to everyone. 

Our concept for an aquatic complex in Berkeley would include an indoor facility that would house a warm pool, an indoor children’s recreation pool with water features, and an indoor or outdoor lap/competition pool. Looking to save in operating costs and to keep Berkeley in the forefront of environmental leadership the facility would be built with the latest, most efficient and sustainable technologies available. 

The aquatic complex model has been tried with stunning success in many suburban and urban communities. One such local example is the Silliman Aquatic Center in Newark, California. The popularity of this aquatic center has enabled the City of Newark to recover most of the operating costs for this facility. The Silliman Center also serves as a community center offering meeting rooms for groups and parties. We think these elements, and possibly others, could be incorporated into an aquatic center in Berkeley. 

The Pools Task Force will have several community meetings where the public is invited to express their ideas and needs. We believe that it is extremely important that all residents who are interested in aquatics, health, recreation, and community building come together to develop the best Master Pool Plan possible to put before the voters and taxpayers in 2010. We especially encourage families from underserved communities in Berkeley to become a part of this process. Together all of us can build an exciting new future for aquatics, and more, for the City of Berkeley. 

UPCOMING COMMUNITY  

WORKSHOPS 

Wednesday, Oct. 22, 7-9 p.m. 

Live Oak Recreation Center, Crafts Room, 1301 Shattuck Ave. 

Topics: Existing Conditions and Community Needs. 

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 7-9 p.m. 

Longfellow Middle School, Library,  

1500 Derby St. 

Topics: Site Plan Concepts and Preferred Alternative. 

Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009, 7-9 p.m. 

James Kenney Community Center,  

Community Room, 1720 8th St. 

Topic: Draft Citywide Pools Master Plan. 

Bill Hamilton, James Cisney and members of BAA

Every major political campaign has at least one memorable moment—the point, either, where you later could say that the contest turned, or where some great insight was gained into what it was really all about. 

In the campaign between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain for the United States presidency, you will undoubtedly choose yours. My most memorable moment of the election came during a widely broadcast exchange between Mr. McCain and a supporter at a McCain Minnesota political rally last week. 

During an audience question-and-comment period, an unidentified middle-aged woman took the microphone and told Mr. McCain, “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not”—here she paused, searching for the right word—“he’s an Arab.” 

The woman did not explain what she meant by her comment, and since she was not a recognized political figure or some writer whose speeches or writings we can research, we can only guess at her meaning. It’s clear she meant the term “Arab” as something distasteful, to be shunned, but whether she meant the term to mean members of al Qaeda, or some loosely defined collection of “Arab Muslim fundamentalist terrorists,” or to apply to all non-American Arabs or any Arab (including Arab-Americans) is impossible to determine. Each of the interpretations has its own particular brand of bigotry, however, so if you’re keeping score, there is no way to make the woman come out good. It’s one of those worse or worser situations. 

What struck me about the moment was not the woman’s statement, however. Anyone who finds something remarkable about prejudice by some American against Arabs (or Muslims or anyone wearing a turban, such as an Indian sikh) in these days and times needs to either get outside more often or, at the very least, turn on the television. 

And what made the moment memorable was not even Mr. McCain’s response. Shaking his head, he immediately cut her off, taking the microphone back from the woman and telling her, “No, ma’am.” (Meaning, it would seem, that he was disagreeing with the assertion that Barack Obama is an “Arab.”) Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain then explained, is “a decent, family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.” 

In other words, in case you missed the point, an “Arab”—by whatever definition either Mr. McCain or the unidentified woman were using to categorize “Arab”—were not decent, family people, or citizens. 

Sip on that a second, cousin, as they say back out in the country.  

One of the things I found revealing about the moment was that Mr. McCain did not bother to ask what the woman meant by the term “Arab.” Perhaps he already knew or, at least, thought he knew, and he and the woman and the Minnesota crowd were communicating through some mutually understood code words. Or perhaps Mr. McCain was worried where such an inquiry might lead, a sudden, illuminating journey into the dark heart of American prejudice that he preferred not be attached to his campaign and preserved, forever, on YouTube. It should be noted that the exchange with the unidentified woman came after a young man—saying that he and his wife were expecting a child—told Mr. McCain that he and his wife were “frankly … scared of an Obama presidency” because of allegations of Mr. Obama “consorting with a domestic terrorist.” When Mr. McCain responded that Obama “is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared (of) as president of the United States,” he was roundly booed by the crowd. Perhaps Mr. McCain felt himself on sinking sand, and when the unidentified woman tried to draw him back into that territory, his instincts told him simply to scramble away as quickly as he could. 

So the moment with the unidentified woman was not so much what happened, but what did not. How much different the moment would have been if—when the woman said that Mr. Obama was an “Arab”—Mr. McCain had simply asked, “What do you mean by that?” 

If the woman had responded that it meant she thought simply that Mr. Obama was of Arab ancestry, or that he was of the Muslim faith, Mr. McCain could have replied, “He’s not. He’s of Kenyan ancestry—African, in more general terms—and he’s a Christian. But if he were Arab and Mulsim, what would be wrong with that?” Or if the woman had said—by way of explaining what she meant by Mr. Obama being an “Arab”—that she meant he was a terrorist sympathizer who secretly hated America and wanted to bring it down, Mr. McCain could have repeated the line—braving the boos—that “no, Mr. Obama is not a terrorist sympathizer. He deeply loves America and wants it to succeed. He and I simply have fundamental disagreements about how the nation should go about achieving that success, and that is what this presidential campaign is all about.” Mr. McCain could then have gone further and told the woman, gently, that in any case, she was using the wrong word. “I know you don’t mean any harm by equating ‘Arab’ with terrorist,” he could have told her. “But the two are not synonymous. Terrorists come in all nationalities, and only a small percentage of Arabs in the world are what we would call terrorists, or even terrorist sympathizers. To equate the two, Arab with terrorist, is to slur many good people around the world who are as opposed to terrorism as you and I are.” 

What a moment that would have been, a Lincolnesque moment, a moment that would have defined the 2008 presidential campaign in a far different way. 

But we drift away from the real world, here. Mr. McCain clearly wants the lines blurred between Mr. Obama, and Arab, and terrorist. Such a connection is designed to stir voter doubts about Mr. Obama, and slow the Democratic juggernaut. That is the only reason why the McCain campaign continues to try to link Mr. Obama with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground member, with vice presidential candidate Palin famously asserting that Mr. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” It is the only reason why the warm-up acts at McCain-Palin rallies continue to refer to Mr. Obama by the inclusion of his middle name, Hussein. We hear—from McCain campaign representatives—that Mr. McCain has no control over these references, which are made by independent politicians from the localities where the rallies are held. But they would stop the moment that McCain came up to the microphone immediately afterwards and publicly directed people to stop, saying that he wanted no connection with such bigotry. 

If you wonder how it could be done differently, with the candidate coming out on top, consider how the Obama campaign has handled a similar situation. The Democratic Party is permeated with veterans of the anti-war movement—both from the Vietnam era and the present—and we have all heard the disparagements of Mr. McCain’s fighter pilot and prisoner of war experiences once it was clear Mr. McCain would be the Republican Party nominee. In 2004, the re-election campaign of George W. Bush unleashed the Swift Boaters, attacking the military service of Democratic nominee John Kerry. But in 2008, Mr. Obama would have none of that. Pointedly, redundantly, sometimes to the point of boringly, at every mention of Mr. McCain in his early speeches, Mr. Obama began by referring respectfully to Mr. McCain’s military record. Even in February, for example, still in the midst of the Democratic primary, Mr. Obama was telling Wisconsin voters that “John McCain is a great American hero, a war hero. We honor his service.” He’s caught some flack for it. In a September post on Daily Kos, during that brief period following the initial Sarah Palin excitement when Mr. Obama dropped behind in the national polls, blogger Iguana Boy asked, “Why Should We Respect McCain When He Doesn’t Respect Us?” and suggested that attacks on Mr. McCain’s military record should not be considered off-limits. But Mr. Obama held firm, his poll numbers rebounded, and Mr. McCain has allowed his campaign to sink deeper into the morass. 

How deep a morass is exemplified by an offering this week by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh. In a Tuesday broadcast, Mr. Limbaugh managed to smear Mr. Obama, ACORN organization, Mr. Ayers, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and an entire generation of African-Americans and their parents. We quote from the Crooks And Liars transcript, at length: 

“We thought that it was just liberal welfare policies and all that that kept blacks from progressing while other minorities grew and prospered,” Mr. Limbaugh said, “but no, it is these wackos from Bill Ayers to Jeremiah Wright to other anti-American Afrocentric black liberation theologists with ACORN, and Barack Obama is smack dab in the middle of it, they have been training young black kids to hate, hate, hate this country, and they trained their parents before that to hate, hate, hate this country. It was a movement. It was a Bill Ayers, anti-capitalist, anti-American educational movement. ACORN is how it was implemented, right under our noses. They’re doing far more, folks, than just cheating when it comes to elections and registration. They are in deep in this mortgage crisis. ACORN and Obama and Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, the Democrat Party, have their fingerprints all over the subprime mortgage crisis. The whole concept of affordable housing was people that can’t afford a mortgage are going to get one, because America is unfair. It has been a movement, it has been a religion, and Obama and Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers were all up to their big ears in it.” 

This is a preying on deep and angry American prejudices, a stirring of a volatile and dangerous and violent pot. We have seen such dogs unleashed in this country before, in our lifetime, and though they have been chained for a time, they have never been tamed, and certainly never eliminated. There are thousands upon thousands—perhaps millions—of Americans for whom this such beliefs are a religion, their daily bread. In the tenor and tone and direction of his campaign, Mr. McCain has led us to the brink of this abyss. Worried, perhaps, that he may be held responsible for the consequences of his rhetoric and the unleashing of such prejudices and passions, he has temporarily “dialed back” his rhetoric, and begun insisting that Mr. Obama is a decent man, not to be feared. Only history will reveal if this was enough to stop the flow over the edge, or if it continues, unchecked, to the sorrow of us all. 

A woman at a McCain rally says she cannot trust Mr. Obama because he is “an Arab.” And Mr. McCain misses a moment to lead his followers—and the nation—back out of the wilderness. 

My column about chorus frogs a couple of weeks ago drew a couple of reader inquiries: Why are chorus frogs more resistant to the fungus that is devastating other amphibian species? And how are the chorusers able to stop calling at the same time? 

Good questions, both. Unless I’ve missed some recent research, the first question is still open. The fungus in question is Batrachochytrium dendrobatis (BD for short). In a 2006 article, Andrew Blaustein and his colleagues at Oregon State University explained that biologists are not sure how BD kills its victims. It may produce lethal toxins; it may disrupt respiration; it may do both. In some studies, infected amphibians died within two days, suggesting the work of a toxin. In others, death occurred two weeks after exposure. Some frog and toad species are vulnerable at different developmental stages. Blaustein’s group found that Cascade frog tadpoles resisted the fungus but recent metamorphs (ex-tadpoles that had just shed their tails) succumbed.  

Conversely, western toad metamorphs showed more resistance to BD than toad tadpoles. Both larval and young adult northern Pacific chorus frogs (Pseudacris regilla) just shrugged it off, even when the fungus was coupled with a hit of ultraviolet-B radiation. They’re tough little guys. 

As for the timing, my best answer is that members of a frog chorus pay close attention to their neighbors and are capable of extremely rapid responses. But why are they chorusing in the first place? Some contend that male frogs and toads obtain a collective benefit from calling together: making themselves more detectable by females, or confusing predators. Others say the chorus is an artifact, the result of a bunch of selfish individuals trying to jam each other’s signals. 

The best evidence for the collective-benefit model comes from the tropical treefrog Smilisca sila, in which individual calls tend to overlap. This has been interpreted as a defense against their major predator, a species of frog-eating bat. Otherwise, the structure of a frog chorus seems to be most affected by the preferences of the listening females. 

Frogs can have fairly large vocabularies. Four call types have been described in the Baja California chorus frog (P. hypochondriaca.) The biphasic call, the well-known “ribbet,” is an advertising call: “I’m here!” The monophasic call is given when a female approaches a calling male. The trill is used in hostile interactions between males. Finally, there’s the release call, the response of a male which has been amplexed, as the herpetologists delicately put it, by another male: “Hey! Get off me!” Lustful amphibians are not very discriminating; male cane toads will amplex roadkill. 

Chorus frogs are antiphonal callers. The first biologist to try and parse the structure of the chorus was Woodbridge Foster of UC Berkeley. In the spring of 1964, when other Americans were registering voters in Mississippi or rallying for Goldwater, Foster spent his evenings along Putah Creek in Yolo County listening to Sierran chorus frogs (P. sierra.)  

He found that the chorus was composed of small groups of two or three interacting males. A male would respond to the call of his loudest neighbor, and calling would spread from one duo or trio to the next subgroup. Followers would shut up when their leader did. This might occur when a car passed, or when two frogs happened to call at the same time.  

A few years later, Frank Awbrey of San Diego State, working with Baja California chorus frogs in San Diego County, reported that individual callers adjusted the timing of their calls to avoid overlapping recorded calls that were played to them. Awbrey concluded that the lead frog acted as a pacemaker, and that the frogs spaced themselves out so two or three neighbors could call without interfering with each other’s vocalizations. Another biologist, Douglas Allan of UC Irvine, reported that chorus frogs in Anaheim used trills at the beginning of a calling session to establish the spacing. 

Why do the calling males alternate? Although I couldn’t find any relevant studies, female preferences must have something to do with it. Research on other frog species strongly suggests that audience response determines whether males call simultaneously, antiphonally, or with some degree of overlap.  

In Tungara frogs (Physalaemus pustulosus), another New World tropical species, playback experiments show that females prefer the males that call first. That puts pressure on males to match their neighbors’ calls. But female West African running frogs (Kassina fusca) prefer following calls that just slightly overlap the leader’s call. If the follower calls too soon, the female opts for the leader. 

Why the variation? Females of different species may have different ways of assessing male fitness, or it may just be a matter of how their sense of hearing is wired. Another good question. 

It’s amazing to me how differently two professionals can do their jobs. This applies to price, efficiency, safety and our comfort in working with the varied commercial connections we all make in our lives. It’s true with medical professionals, auto mechanics and tax accountants and it never ceases to stun me when I encounter either end of the scale. At the low end (and we know how bad things can get there, right?) there are those behind the counter at stores who have such small mandates and cannot seem to manage to provide us with even the most modest bits of service. My personal pet peeve is the clerk who can’t get off the phone with her boyfriend to sell me a roll of floss.  

And then there is the person who manages to wow me by knowing their job really well (no matter how large or small), by being courteous and by fearlessly hurling themselves through burning hoops to get me what they believe I have coming to me. In the latter case, I often end this call by asking to talk to their supervisor and by making damned sure that the company knows just how high Suzy or Chad jumped and how much loyalty the company garnered from one satisfied customer. 

This week I had the opportunity to see what the bottom of one particular barrel looked like in the electrical trade. And how a different recent patron of said dark art stood both blameless and agnostic. 

I’m in the business of looking for red flags, since much of what may have formerly transpired will be beyond view. Like a physician, I must look at the outside of the patient for signs of illness without cutting into flesh. 

At one particular job, signs abounded that there was much wrong and before long, I was inside of sealed junction boxes just to be sure of exactly how bad it was. The sad news in this case was that major upgrades had been done so badly that virtually all these recent paid improvements would need to be scrapped and redone. It was pretty much all money down the drain. It was also scary because, had this person not been moving and having the house looked over, they might have lived in a set of circumstances that were really dangerous. This isn’t true of roofs or paint jobs but it can easily be true with wiring. 

But despite the salience of all these thoughts, they are not my objective.  

One very notable feature of the attack on this house was the fact that there were chunks of wall removed from many a room. Little ones below outlets, several higher up on walls and a general scattering of little and larger ones all around. These were access portals used by the electrician (a term I use here with the greatest largess) to pull wires through to the next point on their route to a finished junction (a lamp, a switch, an outlet). 

While the nascent recipient of these services might well not know that this was wholly unprofessional, I’ve had the good fortune to examine a lot of wiring in my time, both in progress and upon completion and it’s a rare day that one will see an electrician who cannot do most of this work with only a minimum of wall damage. This is not to say that electricians do not need to make holes in walls for the pulling of wires from time to time but it’s striking the degree to which a good one can do their work with few to none beyond the ones that get closed off with fixtures and cover plates.  

Every trade has tricks (you know the term so I won’t abuse you). Physicians now have laparoscopic methods for a range of organ remodelings and electricians aren’t so very different. Possessing flexible drill bits up to six feet long, they can drill up through walls directly to the single hole cut for the switch or sconce allowing even for hidden blocking in the wall. A common example of this is the Greenlee Diversa-bit. These come in this extravagent lengths but also have extensions to work their way across long ceilings. Along with these come “fish-tapes,” long spools of tempered flat steel terminanted with hook so that they can either meet one another in a hidden recess and pull one through to the other end of the cavity or so that they can grasp a bundle of wires and do the same. Now there are also fish poles (no joke, but it gets worse), fish sticks (told you) and various reels, blowers (again, no joke. These blow or suck plugs connected to wiring through long runs of conduit). So as you can see, the magician has a lot of tools with which to avoid any sign of her having been there. 

With clever planning and a good knowledge of how houses are framed, a clever electrician can wend their wires through the framing of walls, ceilings and floors with the stealth of the Mission Impossible team. This not only keeps clients happy, it makes the electrician’s job easier and faster. It does, however, require years to learn and usually at the knee of a master. The combination of learning the many complications of the electrical code (possibly the longest and densest part of the many building codes) as well as acquiring that really big bag of trick takes years, smarts and diligence. Many aspire and far fewer arrive at the highest level of this trade. 

Really good electricians seem almost compulsively neat and somewhat ritualistic in the way that they will “make-up” a junction box in preparation for installation of a “device” (an outlet, a lamp, a switch). These small details, along with the way in which a junction box is affixed or a panel set on a wall can make big differences over time in the safety of these systems. 

Though this day was a sad one (and cause for both concern and strong words), I do have days when I get to see the master’s work. But what’s funny is that I usually don’t see it at all unless I’m paying careful attention. If I don’t look inside the panels or inside the attic or crawlspace, I will often be completely unaware the new circuits have been cleverly snuck through these walls. 

Magic has fallen out of style, at least as compared to its heyday a hundred years ago. In those days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, great magicians were the rock stars of the age. Names like Thurston, Chung Ling Soo (the faux Chinese guise of William E. Robinson) and Carter the Great (immortalized in the delightful and engaging read, Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold) were as common as our current magicians, Lucas, Spielberg and Cronenburg.  

But magic can also be found alive and kicking still in the seemingly mundane building trades and especially in the hands of the best electricians. 

One of the most disappointing opinions I am ever likely to hear is that one professional is worth about the same as another. This opinion is doubly damaging because not only does this individual miss out on greater treasure but every person who promotes and promulgates this thesis also participates in the slow deracination of the most highly skilled professions that we have and the nurturing of low standards and bad work. 

This is so wrong. One guy or gal may be easily worth twice the wage of another in either (or both) speed or guile. 

Perhaps it is no longer an age of magic, but, to some degree, that’s up to each of us. You may have magic hidden in your very walls. Do you believe in magic? 

Matt Cantor’s recent survey of local hardware resources, which I agree with entirely, got me thinking about how much I love hardware stores. I even have a copy of The Periodic Table of Hardware (and you can too, for a mere $11.95 at www.thisandthat.com/periodictable.htm—not only is it printed on an excellent pegboard background, but you’ll be supporting a local artist as well).  

I suspect my love of the hardware store goes back to accompanying my father to Vonnegut’s Hardware in Indianapolis, where we lived before moving to California. Yes, the very hardware store owned by Kurt Vonnegut’s parents. Usually we were going to Vonnegut’s to use the tube tester, a device which all hardware stores had in the days before circuit boards. Unlike modern electronics, which can’t be repaired by normal humans and are built to be thrown away when they break, it used to be that if your TV, radio, or stereo broke, you simply opened up the back, removed the vacuum tubes, and took them down to the tube tester at the hardware store. The tester told you which one was bad, you bought a new one, took it home and plugged it in, and presto!—your TV or whatever was functional again.  

Occasionally we bought other things too—nails, screws, doohickeys, thingamabobs, or whatchamacallits, bringing them home in small brown paper bags to my father’s workbench in the basement. I was lucky, because there were no boys in my family. My father had no one to teach his fixit skills to except us girls. So he did. By the time I was 8 I knew how to stop the toilet from running, how to fix flat tires on my bike, and other useful skills. When I was 10 I built a skateboard by nailing my old keyed roller skates to a piece of wood. I know I’m dating myself here—this was 1962, way before fancy skateboards or polyurethane wheels.  

So I started out way ahead of most women who were not taught these things. But even for women who have these skills, the playing field at the hardware store and the lumber yard in particular is still not as level as it might be, though it’s WAY better than it used to be. And for that, we may have to thank the dreaded home centers—H.D. and their ilk. Because their service is nearly non-existent regardless of your gender. There is a certain freedom in that, at least provided you are strong enough to lift a sheet of drywall onto the cart by yourself. But they did figure out on some level that their customers are not just men. 

Back before home centers, women often had the experience of being completely invisible at the lumber yard, and only partly visible at the hardware store. That is less the case these days, but construction is still a male-oriented world. So for women, or even men who aren’t contractors, here are a couple of tips for hardware store and lumber yard shopping. 

First, unless you’re buying everything you need to put a large addition on your house, don’t show up at the lumberyard early in the morning when all the contractors are there (builders don’t call Truitt and White “Try It and Wait” for nothing)—wait till later, when the staff may actually have time to help you. And pick out your own lumber if at all possible. Even back in the good old days all the boards weren’t perfect, and getting lumber that is twisted or warped will not make your life easier. This is particularly true of pressure-treated lumber—I think they pick the crappiest lumber for pressure-treating. And if you need something resembling real lumber, DO buy it at a lumber yard or a specialty place like The Lumber Baron—I would only buy a 2x4 at a home center if I was desperate and it was 8:45 in the evening, when lumberyards aren’t open. 

Which leads me to my #1 rule of fixing: Never Do Plumbing On Sundays. Even if you think you won’t need some specialty part, I guarantee that you will, and you don’t want to find yourself wandering around the Long’s at 51st and Broadway on Sunday evening hoping against hope that they have the thingamajig you need. (Though you would be amazed at the things you can get at that particular Long’s.)  

A corollary to this rule is that any plumbing repair will require at least TWO (if not more) trips to the hardware store. 

Third, if you’re replacing a part of something, take the part with you if possible. It’s so much easier to show the doohickey than try to describe it, plus it will help if the part has to be a certain size. Also, that way you won’t actually have to know what it’s called.  

If your house is old, you may find yourself needing things which are not available new, and you will end up at the salvage yard, where things are likely NOT to be neatly sorted and packaged. Instead, small items will be in crates or bins or drawers (sometimes outside) that you will have to paw through to find what you’re looking for. If you do find the item, it will likely be overpriced, given that is it worn or rusted or whatever. Face it, they have you by the short and curlies, so pay up. 

A particular problem for women is tools, since tools are generally designed for men, who have larger hands and more upper body strength. Most hand tools are not that much of a problem, although personally I have a lot of trouble with staple guns. (You can always get an electric one.) There are a couple of companies that make tools for women, including Barbara K Tools (www.barbarak.com) and Tomboy Tools (www.tomboytools. com), but the closest they get to a power tool is a cordless drill (except for Tomboy’s impact drill). Tomboy Tools are also pink, which I have mixed feelings about. It makes them stereotypically girly, but it might also keep the various men in your life from making off with them, which guys seem to have a tendency to do. (Unfortunately, Tomboy Tools are sold through home parties, like Tupperware, and that alone would probably keep me from buying them.) But if you need a reciprocating saw or a finish sander, you’ll be looking at tools that were designed for men.  

The best thing to do is to try them out—make sure they fit your hand, and that they’re not too heavy to use comfortably. I tend to favor Japanese brands (Ryobi, Makita, etc.) because they tend to be smaller. And let me rant here about the disappearance of chuck keys for drills—a fine item which allowed one to use leverage to tighten the chuck, now replaced by hand tightening, which works against those who don’t have a lot of hand strength. And frankly, I preferred my old reciprocating saw with an Allen wrench for blade tightening over the current one with spring-loading.  

Oh, and Rule #2 of fixing: If you’re doing ceramic tile, get a tile saw. You can get a cheap one for $60 or $70, and it will be worth it. Yes, you can rent them, but two days rental will be more than $60, and you won’t want the time constraints, especially if it’s your first attempt at tiling. 

I haven’t even mentioned a whole other category of hardware: builder’s hardware. That encompasses lock sets, cabinet hardware, window hardware, and all sorts of hardware you can see and touch.  

But that’s for another article. In the meantime, support your local hardware store—they are rapidly becoming an endangered species. 

Jane Powell is the author of Bungalow Kitchens and offers consulting on older homes. She can be reached at hsedressng@aol.com. 

Two unusual poetry events at Moe’s Books on Telegraph: Jack Marshall of El Cerrito, long an influential Bay Area writer and teacher, reads Mon. Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m.; the following Monday the great Nathaniel Tarn, poet, translator and anthropologist, celebrates his 80th birthday, reading and in conversation with Moe’s Owen Hill, after a week of Bay Area events. see sfsu.edu-poetry or call the Poetry Center (415) 338-2227. Moe’s readings are free.

THURSDAY, OCT. 16 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Walls” Paintings by Joel Isaacson on contemporary social and political concerns, at Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, 2400 Ridge Rd. Exhibition runs to Jan. 30. 649-2500. www.gtu.edu 

Karl Kasten Retrospective Tues.-Sat. noon to 4 p.m. at Worth Ryder Gallery, Kroeber Hall, UC campus, through Oct. 24. 642-2582. 

Habitot Children’s Museum Art Show Works by children on display at BirthWays, 1600 Shattuck Ave. and Children’s Hospital, Outpatient Center, 744 52nd St., Oakland. 647-1111. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Preservation Works” How the Berkeley community was able to save architectural and cultural treasures, and what we need to do to ensure that we will be able to save others in the future. Panelists for this illustrated talk include Susan Cerny, Stephanie Manning, Arlene Silk, Marie Bowman, and others. At 7:30 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Free. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.org  

Patrick Coffey describes “Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities & Rivalries that Made Modern Chemistry” at 6 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Poetry Flash with Ed Pavlic and Sean Hill at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

“Love Never Fails” Works by Kelvin Curry. Artist talk at 7 p.m., music at 5 p.m., at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building - Atrium, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. 

Peter Orner and Annie Holmes describe “Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bobby Tenor, Binghi Drummers, in a Perter Tosh Birthday Celebration at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Laura Love with Orville Johnson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

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

Beth Waters at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Bright Black Morning Light, Meara Feather’s Avocet at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082  

Gregg Cross at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Faye Carol at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is TBD. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

FRIDAY, OCT. 17 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “Bat Boy: The Musical” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through Nov. 1. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Witness for the Prosecution” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through Oct. 19. 524-9132. www.ccct.org  

Galatean Players Ensemble Theater “Rivets” A musical based on Rosie the Riveter and Richmond’s Kaiser Shipyards, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. onboard the SS Red Oak Victory, 1337 Canal Blvd., Berth 6A, Richmond, through Oct. 26. Tickets are $20. 925-676-5705. galateanplayers.com 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “The History of the Devil” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Central Stage, 5221 Central Ave., Richmond, Through Nov. 1. Tickets are $10-$30. www.raggedwing.org 

Shotgun Players “Vera Wilde” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Oct. 19. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

UC Dept. of Theater “Measure for Measure” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC campus. Tickets are $10-$15. 642-8827. 

Woman’s Will “Macbeth” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Retail Theater Space, 95 Washington, Jack London Square, Oakland, through Oct. 26. Tickets are $15-$25. 420-0813. www.womanswill.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Manifest Dreams” Contemporary Aboriginal art. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. Tickets are $10-$15. Exhibition runs through through Jan. 6. 665-0305. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Living Word Festival “Race is Fiction” at 7 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St. A panel and presentation with Adam Mansbach and Jeff Chang, and Urban Word NYC. www.youthspeaks.org 

“China Transformed: Artscape/Cityscape” Keynote address by Wu Hung at 4 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum Theater, 2651 Durant Ave. 642-2809. 

Dave Weinstein reads from “It Came from Berkeley: How Berkeley Changed the World” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

“Love, Loss and Longing” The story, in photographs, of Cuban families torn apart. Reception at 5:30 p.m. Oakland City Hall, HR 3. 832-2372. 

Open Mic Literature and Poetry at 7 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kirov Ballet & Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $50-$125. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Dave Matthews Soultet & Tony Lindsey at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Arian Shafiee: Margin Project at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Trio Garufa at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Tango lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Orquesta La Moderna Tradición at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Acoustic Son at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Eliza Gilkyson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Garrin Benfield at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

The Whoreshoes, The Barefoot Nellies, The Mighty Crows at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Plan 9, Verse, Killing the Dream at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Justin Ancheta at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

“Prepare for a Future” Pre-election party with Valerie Troutt & The Fear of a Fat Planet Crew, Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir, plus voter registration and ballot information at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Jerry Kennedy, acoustic soul, at 7:30 p.m. at 33 Revolutions, 10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 898-1836. 

Arturo O’Farrill at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, OCT. 18 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Asheba, Caribbean music, at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

John Weaver, storyteller, Sat. and Sun. at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $6. 452-2259.  

EXHIBITIONS 

Neighborhood Public Arts Project Artist reception at 2 p.m. at Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave. at 25th St., Richmond. 620-6772. www.therichmondartcenter.org 

“Poorman’s Art Show” Works on cardboard. Opening party at 6 p.m. at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, #116, Oakland. Runs through Nov. 8. 535-1702. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Telling Tales: A Fall Storytelling Festival featuring Awele Makeba, Kirk Waller, Nancy Schimmel and Walker Brents III, from noon to 5 p.m. at Berkwood Hedge School, 1809 Bancroft Way. Cost is $7, $20 per family. 883-6994.  

“An Evening of Spoken Word” with Charles Ekabhumi Ellik and Berkeley Poetry Slam team at 7 p.m. at Sconehenge Cafe, 2787 Shattuck Ave. 526-5075. 

Susan Quinn reads from “Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art Out of Desperate Times” at 5 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Lee Herrick and Jennifer Kwon Dobbs read from their works on the Korean Diaspora at 3:30 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. 

“China Transformed: Artscape/Cityscape” Symposium on art in contemporary China from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum Theater, 2651 Durant Ave. 642-2809. 

Eliezer Sobel describes “The 99th Monkey: A Spiritual Journalist’s Misadventures with Gurus, Messiahs, Sex, Psychodelics, and Other Consciousness-Raising Experiments” at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Rhythm & Muse spoken word & music open mic with Leah Steinberg at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., between Eunice and Rose Sts., behind Live Oak Park. 644-6893.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philharmonia Baroque “Bach Reconstructed” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing. Tickets are $30-$72. 415-252-1288. 

Tree Talk, music for two bassoons with Alice Benjamin and David Granger at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Ray Obiedo Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Emeryville Taiko and Voices of Praise at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Churhc of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. Tickets are $20. www.kellytakundaorphan.com 

Kabile, Balkan at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

red black and green Environmental hip hop concert with Mos Def, Los Rakas and others from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at deFremey Park, 1651 Adeline St., West Oakland. Free. www.youthspeaks.org 

“Gimme a Cuppa Joe” with Country Joe McDonald at 7:30 p.m. at Café de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck. Tickets are $25. 843-0662. 

David Greco, not an Airplane at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Eliza Gilkyson at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $22.50-$23.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Ed Reed, CD release, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Amy X Neuberg at 8 p.m. at Wisteria Ways, Rockridge, Oakland. Not wheelchair accesible. Cost is $15-$20. Reservations required. info@WisteriaWays.org 

Bluegrass Revolution at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Dave Matthews Blues Band at 8:30 p.m. at Royal Oak Pub, 135 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. 232-5678. 

The Lloyd Family Players, Gamelan X at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

Harry Gray with the Kreinberg Brothers, rock’n’ reggae, at 7 p.m. at 33 Revolutions, 10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 898-1836. 

Oppressed Logic, SMD, Crucial Cause at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 19 

FILM 

Envisioning Russia: “Jewish Luck” at 1:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Talk Cinema Berkeley Preview of new independent films with discussion afterwards at 10 a.m. at Albany Twin Theater, 1115 Solano Ave., Albany. Cost is $20. http://talkcinema.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“crushed” An installation of manipulated paper by April Banks. Opening reception at 5 p.m. at Guerilla Cafe, 1620 Shattuck Ave. at Cedar. 845-2233. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Day of the Dead Artists A conversation with Miriam Martinez and Yoland Garfias Woo at 2 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Dave Weinstein on his new book “It Came From Berkeley: How Berkeley Changed the World” at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. 

Nayland Blake and Lawrence Rinder in conversation on the 30th Anniversary of the MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art at 3 p.m. at BAM/PFA Museum Theater. 642-8691. http://bampfa.berkeley.edu 

Stephen Ingram describes “Cacti Agaves, and Yuccas of California and Nevada” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Leon Chisholm, organ, “Baroque Inventions and Re-inventions” at 4 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$20. 684-7563. 

California Bach Society performs “Gott ist mein König” and “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way, at Ellsworth. Tickets are $10-$30. 415-262-0272. www.calbach.org 

Jazz at the Chimes with Jamie Davis, baritone, at 2 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15, children under 12 free. 228-3218. 

Teresa Trull & Barbara Higbie at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Piotr Anderszewski, piano, at 5 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $46. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Philharmonia Baroque “Bach Reconstructed” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing. Tickets are $30-$72. 415-252-1288. 

The Micha Patri and The Junk Jazz Symphony, celebrating the African roots of jazz, at 6:30 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Classical Trio at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St., Point Richmond. 236-0527. 

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

Thomas Lavigne at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Pappa Gianni & North Beach Band at 2 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

UC Berkeley Folkdancers Reunion at 1:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054.  

MONDAY, OCT. 20 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

PlayGround, short works from new and emerging playwrights at 8 p.m., pre-show discussion at 7:10 p.m., at Berkeley Rep, 2025 Addison St. Tickets are $15. 415-704-3177.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Adele Clara, flamenco, at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Acoustic Mandolin Ensemble traditional Italian music, at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

West Coast Songwriters Competition at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $5. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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.opcmucsic.org 

George Cole, gypsy jazz, at 8 p.m. at 33 Revolutions, 10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 898-1836. 

“An Evening of Blues, Jazz & Broadway” to benefit the Oakland Youth Chorus at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $25-$35. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, OCT. 21 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Residency Projects, Part 4” Artists’ talk with Adriane Colburn and Leslie Shows at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs through Nov. 22. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

CZ & the Bon Vivants at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Beep at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Tanaora at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $5-$10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 22 

FILM 

Envisioning Russia: “Bed and Sofa” at 7 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“small film festival” through Sun. at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Free for BAC members, $6-$8 for non-members. 644-6893. 

“Lioness” A documentary about five women in the military who went to Iraq as cooks, clerks and mechanics, at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Gas Zapper” an exhibition featuring an interactive online game about global warming opens at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul Ekman reads from his new book with the Dalai Lama at 6 p.m. at North Gate Library, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Hearst and Euclid. www.greatergoodmag.org 

Richard Scheffler discusses “Is There a Doctor in the House? Market Signals & Tomorrow’s Supply of Doctors” at 6 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Ishmael Reed on “Mixing It Up: Taking on the Media Bullies and Other Reflections” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10 at the door. 

Garth Stein reads from “The Art of Racing in the Rain” at 7:30 p.m. at Black Oak Books. 486-0698. www.blackoakbooks.com 

Writing Teachers Write at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with University Gamelan Ensembles at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

UC Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Nader Deaik, Mediterranean pop at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Percussion Tribute Show with Little Johnny Rivero, Ralph Irizarry, Karl Perazo, Michael Spiro & Ten Piece All Star Band at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Dance lessons at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 23 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Bay Area Basket Makers” An exhibition of contemporary basketry and gourd art. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at The Albany Arts Gallery, 1251 Solano Ave.  

THEATER 

Kung Pao Kosher Comedy “The 5th and Final George Bush Going Away Party” at 8 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Cost is $20-$30. 800-838-3006. 

FILM 

I Love Beijing: “For Fun” with filmmaker Ning Ying in person at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“small film festival” through Sun. at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Free for BAC members, $6-$8 for non-members. 644-6893. www.berkeleysrtcenter.org 

Arab Film Festival “Paloma Delight” at 9 p.m. at Parkway Theater, 1834 Park Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$12. www.aff.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Strange Harbors: Two Lines World Writing in Translation” with translators from the Center for the Art of Translation at 6 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Joshua Henkin reads from his novel “Matrimony” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Amistead Maupin reads at the Barbary Lane Open House, at 1:30 p.m. at 1800 Madison St., Oakland. Free, but RSVP required 903-3600. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pat Nevins & Joe Balestreri at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Berkeley Symphony conducted by William Eddins at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC campus. Tickets are $20-$60. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Carol Lukenback & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Lindsay Tomasic at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Form and Fate, Vir, Parker Street Cinema, post punk progressive rock at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

Beat Boxing with Butterscotch, Soulati, Infinite, Syzygy, Eachbox and others at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

John Seabury at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Chris Dadzitus at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

FRIDAY, OCT. 24 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Doctor Faustus” Fri. and Sat at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave., at Berryman, through Nov. 22. Tickets are $10-$12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “Bat Boy: The Musical” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through Nov. 1. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Bay Area Performing Arts Collective "A Raisin in the Sun" Fri. at 8 p.m. and Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $25. 575-7112. www.araisininthesunplay.com 

Central Works “Blessed Unrest” by Paul Hawken, Thurs, Fri, Sat at 8 p.m., Sun at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. through Nov. 23. Tickets are $14-$25. 558-1381. centralworks.org 

Fusion Theater “The Piano Lesson” with Donal Lacy Thurs.-Sat. at Laney College Theaater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland, through Nov. 1. Tickets are $5-$10. 464-3543. 

Galatean Players Ensemble Theater “Rivets” A musical based on Rosie the Riveter and Richmond’s Kaiser Shipyards, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. onboard the SS Red Oak Victory, 1337 Canal Blvd., Berth 6A, Richmond, through Oct. 26. Tickets are $20. 925-676-5705. galateanplayers.com 

Laurie Anderson “Homeland” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $28-$56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Oakland Opera Theater “Histoire du Soldat” and “Renard” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Oakland Metro Operahouse, 630 3rd St., Oakland, through Nov. 2. Tickets are $25-$32. 763-1146. www.oaklandopera.org 

Ragged Wing Ensemble “The History of the Devil” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Central Stage, 5221 Central Ave., Richmond, Through Nov. 1. Tickets are $10-$30. www.raggedwing.org 

Woman’s Will “Macbeth” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Retail Theater Space, 95 Washington, Jack London Square, Oakland, through Oct. 26. Tickets are $15-$25. 420-0813. www.womanswill.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Karl Kasten Retrospective” the Berkeley School 1930-50, Students, 1950-83. Closing reception at 4 p.m. at the Worth Ryder Gallery, Kroeber Hall, UC campus. 642-2582. 

FILM 

Arab Film Festival Fri. through Sun. at Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$12. www.aff.org 

I Love Beijing: “On the Beat” with filmmaker Ning Ying in person at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Christian Lander describes “Stuff White People Like: The Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $10 at the door. 

Therese Poletti describes “Art Deco San Francisco: The Architecture of Timothy Pflueger” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Witches Fly & Devils Dance” music from opera to Broadway at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Alameda, 2001 Santa Clara at Chestnut, Alameda. Suggested donation $13-$15, children under 13 free. 522-1477. 

Cenk Karaferya, male soprano, at 8 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. Cost is $15-$20. 525-1716. 

Mal Sharpe & Big Money in Jazz! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Swingthing at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $11-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Montclair Women’s Big Band at 5:30 p.m. at Barbary Lane, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. Cost is $19.43 for age 65 and older, $25 for others. 903-3600. 

Maya Kronfeld Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

“Treasure” with David Helpling and Jon Jenkins at 8 p.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. Tickets are $15-$20. 486-8700. www.rudramandir.com 

Dave Matthews Blues Band at 8 p.m. at The Warehouse Bar & Grill, 4th St. and Webster, Oakland. 451-3161. 

Houston Jones at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Nell Robinson & Red Level at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Dave Lionelli, Jason Gouveia at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Todd Mack, Scen Eberlein, Josh Fix in a benefit for Daniel Pearl, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Donation accepted. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

One in the Chamber, Maggot Colony, Progeria at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Green Machine at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Dana Salzman at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Jerry Kennedy, acoustic soul, at 7:30 p.m. at 33 Revolutions, 10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 898-1836. 

Chante Moore at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $40. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, OCT. 25 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Bonnie Lockhart in a Halloween sing-a-long at 10:30 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5 for adults, $4 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Trickster Tales” Puppet show Sat. and Sun. at 11 a.m., 2 and 4 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10. 452-2259. www.fairyland.org 

FILM 

Arab Film Festival through Sun. at Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$12. For film details see www.aff.org 

“I Love Beijing” with filmmaker Ning Ying in person at 6:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

“small film festival” through Sun. at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Free for BAC members, $6-$8 for non-members. 644-6893. www.berkeleysrtcenter.org 

Animation Film Festival Works by Bay Area middle and high school students at 9:30 a.m. at Bay Street AMC Theaters, Emeryville. 655-4002. 

Post-WWII Japanese Films with Prof. Frederick Hsia, in Mandarin and English, from 1:45 to 4:45 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr., 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6107. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Oakland Civic Orchestra Free Children’s Concert at 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. 238-7275. http://www.oaklandnet.com/parks/programs/ca_civicorchestra.asp. 

Oakland Ballet Company’s Fall Program with excerpts from Ronn Guidi’s Romeo and Juliet; Michael Lowe’s Bamboo; and Ron Thiele’s How’d They Catch Me? at 2 and 8 p.m. at Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $15-$50. 465-6400. 

Betsy Rose and Judy Fjell, “Musical Wit and Wisdom” at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. Suggested donation $15-$20. 525-7082. 

Coco Lopez, The Oakland -East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus and Leslie Hassberg at 6 p.m. at Barbary Lane, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. Free, but RSVP required 903-3600. 

Lloyd Gregory Sextet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baba Ken & West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

“A Harmony Happening” with Fran Avni in an interactive musical event co-sponsored by the JCC and The Aquarian Minyan at 8:30 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $15. 528-6725. 

Bang Data, Latin Alternative/Hip Hop with Mezklah, The Hot Pocket, and DJ EKG at 9 p.m. at Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7-$10. 418-6985. 

Joe Hickey, Scott Waters at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Tempest, Celtic, at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Avotcja & Modupue at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kurt Ribak Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

The Todd Shipley Band at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Dave Matthews Blues Band at 8:30 p.m. at Royal Oak Pub, 135 Park Place, Pt. Richmond. 232-5678. 

Dave Ridnell and Alex Calatayud, Brazilian jazz at 7:30 p.m. at 33 Revolutions, 10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 898-1836. 

The Mother Hips, Micki Bluhm and The Gamblers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $15. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Bucky Sinister, Us Kings, Wardogs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 26 

FILM 

Arab Film Festival at Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $10-$12. For film details see www.aff.org 

I Love Beijing: “Railroad of Hope” at 1:30 p.m. and “Perpetual Motion” at 4 p.m., with filmmaker Ning Ying in person, at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Randy Shaw discusses his new book “Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggles for Justice in the 21st Century at 4:30 p.m. at Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita.  

Conversations on Art with Nomi Talisman on her work with the Magnes as part of META/DATA, an online project, at 2 p.m. at 2911 Russell St Cost is $6-$8. Seating is limited, RSVP to gmarkham@magnes.org  

Jan Wahl on “Food and Wine in Film” at 3:30 p.m. at Barbary Lane, 1800 Madison St., Oakland. Cost is $19.43 for age 65 and older, $25 for others. 903-3600. 

James D. Houston talks about “Snow Mountain Passage” as part of the Albany Reads program at 2 p.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 16. 

Egyptology Lecture “Remembering the Ancestors: New Discoveries in Hierakonpolis, Egypt” with Dr. Renee Friedman, Heagy Research Curator, British Museum, and Director of Hierakonpolis Expedition, at 2:30 p.m. at Barrows Hall, Room 126, Barrow Lane at Bancroft Way, UC campus. 415-664-4767. 

Julia Glass reads from her novel “I See You Everywhere” at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Crowden Music Center Community Music Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1475 Rose St. Free. 559-6910. www.crowden.org 

Berkeley Symphony Under Construction “Democracy in America” conducted by William Eddins at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley. Tickets are $10-$20. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Duo Trujillo, Rebecca & Javier Trujillo, piano and guitar, perform Bach to Bossa Nova at 6:30 pm. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Donation $12-$25. 654-4053.  

Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra at 7 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $38-$80. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

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

Kellye Gray & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Ravines at 3 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. at Alcatraz. www.spudspizza.net 

Ron Thompson at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Jeff Johnson, Judah Retterman, gospel reggae, at 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Dave LeFebvre Group at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Angry Philosophers at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Halloween Show with Violation, Gain to Use, Throat Oyster at 4 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Not since the 1930s, facing a previous great depression and the impending danger of a fascist New World Order, and the ’60s with a previous illegal and immoral war, has there been such a great outpouring of political art.  

At the present, a great many artists, working in media old and new, have again picked up their brushes, cameras, and computers to protest against foul war, destruction of the environment, obscene financial gains and abnegation of constitutional rights to express their rage and speak to the public. 

At present 40 exhibitions entitled “Art of Democracy” are taking place throughout the country. In the Bay Area, the Meridian Gallery in San Francisco is the venue of an exhibition of about 100 pieces by 45 artists. In the South Bay the Santa Cruz Art League will present its component, called “Visual Politics, Art and the American Experience.”  

The San Francisco show is called “War and Empire.” Here the roster of artists includes Fernando Botero, represented with two of his famed Abu Ghraib series of naked prisoners tortured by the American military, and evocative pieces by William T. Wiley, Enrique Chagoya and Sandow Birk as well as Oliphant cartoons.  

This review will focus on the fine selection of East Bay artists. Pride of place belongs to an installation of a series of War Toys (2003-present). These are invented deadly weapons, made of blown glass and steel; sculptures of true craftsmanship that manage to combine grace with malice. A series of words such as “Imminent Threat” and “Weapons of Mass Destruction” placed beside the Toys complete the narration. On the wall behind this installation the viewer will see a fine digital print by Ala Ebtekar in which we see a war story painted on a page of the Koran done in a style that is in keeping with the artist’s Iranian heritage.  

On the first floor, also, there is a large evocative panting by the Chinese-American Hung Liu of two strong-armed coolies straining to pull a weighty unseen object with the pigment’s drip signifying their sweat. Connoting the class struggle, Liu has put an elegant insert of lacquered wood showing a fine old Chinese vessel in the center of the painting. 

The exhibition’s second floor is dedicated to works on paper, including two watercolors done with informed sarcasm by Ariel; Rumsfeld Bush, shows the former Secretary of Defense and Vice President Cheney above the president, all caricatured as running hogs. Dubya is an explosion with Mr. Bush as a brainless Jack in the Box, a dancing puppet from which maggots, vermin and various demons seem to emerge. There is also an exemplary drawing with a huge imaginary bust of Bush with words like War, Speculation, Profit, Pollution, Waste supplying the message. Mary Marsh has two assemblages of book covers in the show, such as The Course of Empire. which has the seal of the University of California on its cover, pointing to the Imperialist mission of this university.  

Relating to the Botero paintings, there is Guy Caldwell’s The Abuse, in which we see three hooded naked men with electrodes on hands and genitals, administered by grinning American soldiers with the Stars and Stripes prominently displayed. Jos Sanches’ DaVinciWar Machine is one of his sardonic assemblages; there is an imaginary toy tank and cartoon figures on horseback and lying in blood on the floor. A painting of a clear blue sky with a fighter-bomber plane graces the background of the battlefield.  

There are also a number of well executed woodcuts on display. Reminiscent of the political graphics of the 1930s, they are made with expertise, progressive in their message but retardataire in style, ignoring that much has occurred in the history of modern art since that time. And a fine presentation of fiery political posters on the third floor is not to be missed. 

MERIDIAN GALLERY 

Society for Art Publications of the Americas 

535 Powell St., San Francisco. 

www.meridiangallery.org. (415) 398-7229. 

“All difficulties are but easy when they are known.” This line from Measure for Measure is like a key to The Bard’s comedies—and maybe comedy in general. Howard Hawks, who pioneered the screwball comedy on screen, said the difference between comedy and drama was one of perspective: in drama, obstacles are to be overcome; in comedy, they’re embarrassing roadblocks (or banana peels on the road), getting in the way of what’s desired, making the seeker look ridiculous. 

In Shakespeare’s comedies, the difficulties (many due to ignorance, of self and others) are resolved in marriage, justice, a communal enlightenment. In his tragedies, the realization is one of a communal mourning. 

Peter Glazer has directed a spare, elegant Measure for Measure in the Zellerbach Playhouse for the UC Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. Both the comedy and the serious issues that play with and jeopardize the protagonists are rendered clearly in this version featuring both students and more seasoned performers. 

Measure for Measure isn’t played quite as much as, say, The Merchant of Venice, which also deals with justice and corruption, with a comparable storyline. Maybe something of the theological edge of meaning which pervades the story, and of the cruelty (maybe rigor is a better word, in Leonardo Da Vinci’s sense: Obstinate Rigor, his motto) of justice in a hierarchial society, where the law has cosmic significance and must uphold the heavens in every judgment, is incomprehensible or unpalatable to contemporary audiences.  

The Duke of Vienna gives over the reins of government to two gentlemen he deems incorruptible—then he pretends to go away, all the while observing them, disguised in the habit of a friar. A novice in a convent, the sister of a man condemned to death for impregnating his fiancee, pleads with one of the deputies for her brother’s life and receives the obvious proposition. She believes her brother would die to protect her chastity. (Perhaps it’s an incomprehension of codes of honor and the hierarchies which sustain them that lend this difficulty today—and the theater of the Baroque is fixed on honor and majesty. As Orson Welles said, “The problem with playing Shakespeare in America is, to an American, a king is a gentleman wearing a crown.”).  

Misunderstandings abound, all to be dissipated on the Duke’s triumphal return--or self-unmasking. But first there are a few hard words and hard knocks. And somebody’s head has to roll.  

Measure for Measure boasts an unusual gaggle of clowns, with Pompey (“servant to Mistress Overdone”) the chief one, rendered by Drew Ledbetter and Daniel Desmarais in black and shades as Lucio, “a Fantastic.” Froth, “a foolish gentleman,” is portrayed by Ricardo Salcido. Benedict N. Tufnell makes an impression as Barnadine, “a dissolute prisoner,” condemned to death. The aptly named Abhorson, a headsman, is played with relish by Nicholas S. LoCicero.  

Reya Sehgal is appealing as Isabella, loyal sister and novice, and as Mariana, Lyndsy Kail plays an abandoned fiancee, part of the solution to the conundrum. Will Austin as the disguised Duke gains in strength throughout the play, and Ken Jensen shows the magnanimity as “ancient lord” Escalus his fellow deputy, Angelo (Carl Holvick-Thomas) lacks. 

Melpomene Katakalos designed the spare set, lit by David K. H. Elliott, and the costumes, a mix of traditional with a swathe of various modern fashions, are by Caitlin Kagawa. 

Identities change; there’s a mortal substitution; the tone swings from dire to wry. “We must not make a scarecrow of the law” contrasts readily enough with the executioner’s cheery politeness: “Your friend, sir, the hangman. If you would be so good as to rise and be put to death.” What a way to wake up! As the clown echoes, “And sleep afterward!” 

TheatreFIRST is celebrating their 15th anniversary with a fete for supporters, 7 p.m. Saturday at Chapel of the Chimes on Piedmont Avenue with a staged reading and Paul Bregman’s piano music, special guests including performers Dana Kelly, Wanda McCaddon, Sandra Schlechter and Simon Vance, with co-founder and Artistic Director Emeritus Clive Chafer and TheatreFIRST’s new artistic and producing team, Dylan Russell and Allison Studdiford. 

The company had announced at the end of August that Chafer would be stepping down while negotiations were still in progress for a home performing base for TheatreFIRST near the Paramount Theatre, an effort that now seems exhausted. The company is continuing the search for a permanent theater in Oakland, where in recent years they were the only resident troupe with a season program. 

Dylan Russell, longtime Bay Area freelance director, staged World Music for TheatreFIRST two years ago, and this year’s successful Future Me, by British playwright Stephen Brown, last spring at the Berkeley City Club. Allison Studdiford, a founding member of the company, has been a Bay Area actor for over 25 years, Future Me being her most recent TheatreFIRST show. 

Clive Chafer recalled the history of the company and his involvement. Chafer, who came from the London area to UC Berkeley for the MBA program, “then found it was not my calling,” trained as an actor with the Drama School of London in Berkeley, “having thought I was going back to England and could transfer my credits.” But he stayed on, thinking “why go back and be one among so many others,” working as an actor locally (Berkeley Shakespeare Festival and Cal Shakes) as well as regionally (American Players in Wisconsin, Utah Shakespeare Festival) for a decade.  

“I came back to the Bay Area at one point,” Chafer said, “and realized I didn’t see in this very cosmopolitan area of an insular country the kind of international theater I was used to as an audience member in Britain. The population here at all levels was highly diverse, many being people like myself who had come for an education and stayed, or for work opportunities. There was a need to address multiculturalism, but in a more outward-looking sense, not just the cultures as represented in the Bay Area.” 

Inviting 12 theater artists to cofound a collective, the company began to produce in 1994. It grew to 18 members, “from the start insisting on high artistic standards within a restricted budget, staging plays having political or social interest with an international perspective.” During the first six years, four of them at the Julia Morgan Center, the company worked play to play, without a season program. 

They began their local “peregrinations,” never resident for more than two years at a time, at one point going dark for two years, then invited to Mills College in 2005 for a year residency, during which they found that, though their subscriptions increased, their ticket sales dropped. “We had been victims of the dotcom years,” Chafer said, “when any space right for a company like us was also suitable for a start-up, at a time of 1 percent commercial vacancy in the Bay Area.” After that peaked, they produced in storefronts in Old Oakland. “But as new tenants came in, we found theater didn’t fit in with development plans.”  

The troupe has always been based in Oakland, where Chafer has lived over 20 years. Chafer commenting that he was “passing on the reins at this time ... after wearing every hat in the closet. The company has been almost completely identified with my artistic vision—not a healthy basis for a theater that wants to become a permanent part of the community.” He remains on the board, an enthusiastic advocate. 

TheatreFIRST and fete info: 436-5085 or allison@theatrefirst.com. 

Jazz and soul singer Valerie Troutt and Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir will headline “Prepare for a Future,” an intergenerational pre-election concert in downtown Berkeley, featuring more than a dozen other local performing artists, Friday Oct. 17, at Shattuck DownLow, 2284 Shattuck Ave. The concert comes three weeks before the election and three days before the deadline for voter registration in California, Mon., Oct. 20.  

The Berkeley League of Women Voters will collect voter registration cards at the event and present bipartisan ballot information for local voters. Doors open at 8 p.m., concert at 9:30 p.m. Tickets on a sliding scale of $12–$20 are available at myspace.com/valerietroutt. 

Other acts at “Prepare for a Future” include singer-songwriters Dana Salzman and Jo Boyer, the Oakland Passion, Fear of the Fat Planet Crew, dancer Rashad Pridgen, Hip Hop Theater spoken word artist Nicole Klaymoon and performing artist Thandiwe (most recently seen in Oakland Public Theater’s Richard Wright Project play, Before the Dream). The evening will close with dance music from DJ Afrikan Sciences. 

“Prepare for a Future” is named after Valerie Troutt’s debut album, which will be released this coming spring. EPs (extended plays) will be given out at the concert. Troutt, a Berkeley High and New School of New York alumna and member of Cultural Heritage Choir, sang alto in the Oakland Youth Chorus after starting to sing publicly with Love Center Ministries. Backed by noted Oakland jazz saxophonist Howard Wiley with Maya Kronfeld on piano, drummer Darian Grey, bassist Lorenzo Farrell and vocalist Kimiko Joy, Troutt has been praised by John Murph on National Public Radio: “her voice is a thing of rare beauty—stunning in its deceptive simplicity and expressive without resorting to melismatic melodrama.” 

About the songs collected on her forthcoming album and their tie-in to the spirit of this election, Troutt said she hoped her original music would “be the change you want to see” in the community. “Most of our learning takes place at home ... we have to work at rebuilding the trust in our families and within intergenerational communities ... if you think about it, we are the living dreams and visions of our ancestors. Look how far we’ve come.”

Soldiers of Conscience, a new documentary airing at 9 p.m. today (Thursday) on PBS, begins with a surprising fact: Approximately 75 percent of World War II combat soldiers, when presented with the opportunity to fire on the enemy, did not pull the trigger. Turns out the inhibition that keeps a man from killing was stronger than all the training, conditioning and propaganda thrown at them in preparation for just such a moment. 

Since then, the U.S. military has implemented methods to decrease the impact of that inhibition and maximize the lethal effectiveness of its soldiers. Current data suggests that as much as 90 percent of Iraq War soldiers pull the trigger when the enemy is in sight.  

But despite the success of these training techniques, the essential moral dilemma remains for the individual. The decision to fire, made in just a fraction of a second, is still a life-altering experience, whether one goes through with it or not. Directors Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg have focused their cameras on eight soldiers; four of them pull the trigger and find ways to cope with the decision after the fact; the other four could not overcome that inhibition—at least not in the questionable moral context of the current war and its dubious execution—and risked career, disgrace and jail time in applying for conscientious objector status. 

One solider, from a deeply religious background, is forced to grapple with the contradictions between his faith and his notions of patriotism. Another, a 10-year veteran, comes from a long line of soldiers, making his change of heart at the age of 40 an especially wrenching decision, resulting in a court martial and a year in jail. A third became an anti-war activist. 

Soldiers of Conscience goes beyond politics and the artificially bifurcated discourse of patriotism to examine the moral fog of war and its impact on the human soul. 

It’s amazing to me how differently two professionals can do their jobs. This applies to price, efficiency, safety and our comfort in working with the varied commercial connections we all make in our lives. It’s true with medical professionals, auto mechanics and tax accountants and it never ceases to stun me when I encounter either end of the scale. At the low end (and we know how bad things can get there, right?) there are those behind the counter at stores who have such small mandates and cannot seem to manage to provide us with even the most modest bits of service. My personal pet peeve is the clerk who can’t get off the phone with her boyfriend to sell me a roll of floss.  

And then there is the person who manages to wow me by knowing their job really well (no matter how large or small), by being courteous and by fearlessly hurling themselves through burning hoops to get me what they believe I have coming to me. In the latter case, I often end this call by asking to talk to their supervisor and by making damned sure that the company knows just how high Suzy or Chad jumped and how much loyalty the company garnered from one satisfied customer. 

This week I had the opportunity to see what the bottom of one particular barrel looked like in the electrical trade. And how a different recent patron of said dark art stood both blameless and agnostic. 

I’m in the business of looking for red flags, since much of what may have formerly transpired will be beyond view. Like a physician, I must look at the outside of the patient for signs of illness without cutting into flesh. 

At one particular job, signs abounded that there was much wrong and before long, I was inside of sealed junction boxes just to be sure of exactly how bad it was. The sad news in this case was that major upgrades had been done so badly that virtually all these recent paid improvements would need to be scrapped and redone. It was pretty much all money down the drain. It was also scary because, had this person not been moving and having the house looked over, they might have lived in a set of circumstances that were really dangerous. This isn’t true of roofs or paint jobs but it can easily be true with wiring. 

But despite the salience of all these thoughts, they are not my objective.  

One very notable feature of the attack on this house was the fact that there were chunks of wall removed from many a room. Little ones below outlets, several higher up on walls and a general scattering of little and larger ones all around. These were access portals used by the electrician (a term I use here with the greatest largess) to pull wires through to the next point on their route to a finished junction (a lamp, a switch, an outlet). 

While the nascent recipient of these services might well not know that this was wholly unprofessional, I’ve had the good fortune to examine a lot of wiring in my time, both in progress and upon completion and it’s a rare day that one will see an electrician who cannot do most of this work with only a minimum of wall damage. This is not to say that electricians do not need to make holes in walls for the pulling of wires from time to time but it’s striking the degree to which a good one can do their work with few to none beyond the ones that get closed off with fixtures and cover plates.  

Every trade has tricks (you know the term so I won’t abuse you). Physicians now have laparoscopic methods for a range of organ remodelings and electricians aren’t so very different. Possessing flexible drill bits up to six feet long, they can drill up through walls directly to the single hole cut for the switch or sconce allowing even for hidden blocking in the wall. A common example of this is the Greenlee Diversa-bit. These come in this extravagent lengths but also have extensions to work their way across long ceilings. Along with these come “fish-tapes,” long spools of tempered flat steel terminanted with hook so that they can either meet one another in a hidden recess and pull one through to the other end of the cavity or so that they can grasp a bundle of wires and do the same. Now there are also fish poles (no joke, but it gets worse), fish sticks (told you) and various reels, blowers (again, no joke. These blow or suck plugs connected to wiring through long runs of conduit). So as you can see, the magician has a lot of tools with which to avoid any sign of her having been there. 

With clever planning and a good knowledge of how houses are framed, a clever electrician can wend their wires through the framing of walls, ceilings and floors with the stealth of the Mission Impossible team. This not only keeps clients happy, it makes the electrician’s job easier and faster. It does, however, require years to learn and usually at the knee of a master. The combination of learning the many complications of the electrical code (possibly the longest and densest part of the many building codes) as well as acquiring that really big bag of trick takes years, smarts and diligence. Many aspire and far fewer arrive at the highest level of this trade. 

Really good electricians seem almost compulsively neat and somewhat ritualistic in the way that they will “make-up” a junction box in preparation for installation of a “device” (an outlet, a lamp, a switch). These small details, along with the way in which a junction box is affixed or a panel set on a wall can make big differences over time in the safety of these systems. 

Though this day was a sad one (and cause for both concern and strong words), I do have days when I get to see the master’s work. But what’s funny is that I usually don’t see it at all unless I’m paying careful attention. If I don’t look inside the panels or inside the attic or crawlspace, I will often be completely unaware the new circuits have been cleverly snuck through these walls. 

Magic has fallen out of style, at least as compared to its heyday a hundred years ago. In those days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, great magicians were the rock stars of the age. Names like Thurston, Chung Ling Soo (the faux Chinese guise of William E. Robinson) and Carter the Great (immortalized in the delightful and engaging read, Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold) were as common as our current magicians, Lucas, Spielberg and Cronenburg.  

But magic can also be found alive and kicking still in the seemingly mundane building trades and especially in the hands of the best electricians. 

One of the most disappointing opinions I am ever likely to hear is that one professional is worth about the same as another. This opinion is doubly damaging because not only does this individual miss out on greater treasure but every person who promotes and promulgates this thesis also participates in the slow deracination of the most highly skilled professions that we have and the nurturing of low standards and bad work. 

This is so wrong. One guy or gal may be easily worth twice the wage of another in either (or both) speed or guile. 

Perhaps it is no longer an age of magic, but, to some degree, that’s up to each of us. You may have magic hidden in your very walls. Do you believe in magic? 

Matt Cantor’s recent survey of local hardware resources, which I agree with entirely, got me thinking about how much I love hardware stores. I even have a copy of The Periodic Table of Hardware (and you can too, for a mere $11.95 at www.thisandthat.com/periodictable.htm—not only is it printed on an excellent pegboard background, but you’ll be supporting a local artist as well).  

I suspect my love of the hardware store goes back to accompanying my father to Vonnegut’s Hardware in Indianapolis, where we lived before moving to California. Yes, the very hardware store owned by Kurt Vonnegut’s parents. Usually we were going to Vonnegut’s to use the tube tester, a device which all hardware stores had in the days before circuit boards. Unlike modern electronics, which can’t be repaired by normal humans and are built to be thrown away when they break, it used to be that if your TV, radio, or stereo broke, you simply opened up the back, removed the vacuum tubes, and took them down to the tube tester at the hardware store. The tester told you which one was bad, you bought a new one, took it home and plugged it in, and presto!—your TV or whatever was functional again.  

Occasionally we bought other things too—nails, screws, doohickeys, thingamabobs, or whatchamacallits, bringing them home in small brown paper bags to my father’s workbench in the basement. I was lucky, because there were no boys in my family. My father had no one to teach his fixit skills to except us girls. So he did. By the time I was 8 I knew how to stop the toilet from running, how to fix flat tires on my bike, and other useful skills. When I was 10 I built a skateboard by nailing my old keyed roller skates to a piece of wood. I know I’m dating myself here—this was 1962, way before fancy skateboards or polyurethane wheels.  

So I started out way ahead of most women who were not taught these things. But even for women who have these skills, the playing field at the hardware store and the lumber yard in particular is still not as level as it might be, though it’s WAY better than it used to be. And for that, we may have to thank the dreaded home centers—H.D. and their ilk. Because their service is nearly non-existent regardless of your gender. There is a certain freedom in that, at least provided you are strong enough to lift a sheet of drywall onto the cart by yourself. But they did figure out on some level that their customers are not just men. 

Back before home centers, women often had the experience of being completely invisible at the lumber yard, and only partly visible at the hardware store. That is less the case these days, but construction is still a male-oriented world. So for women, or even men who aren’t contractors, here are a couple of tips for hardware store and lumber yard shopping. 

First, unless you’re buying everything you need to put a large addition on your house, don’t show up at the lumberyard early in the morning when all the contractors are there (builders don’t call Truitt and White “Try It and Wait” for nothing)—wait till later, when the staff may actually have time to help you. And pick out your own lumber if at all possible. Even back in the good old days all the boards weren’t perfect, and getting lumber that is twisted or warped will not make your life easier. This is particularly true of pressure-treated lumber—I think they pick the crappiest lumber for pressure-treating. And if you need something resembling real lumber, DO buy it at a lumber yard or a specialty place like The Lumber Baron—I would only buy a 2x4 at a home center if I was desperate and it was 8:45 in the evening, when lumberyards aren’t open. 

Which leads me to my #1 rule of fixing: Never Do Plumbing On Sundays. Even if you think you won’t need some specialty part, I guarantee that you will, and you don’t want to find yourself wandering around the Long’s at 51st and Broadway on Sunday evening hoping against hope that they have the thingamajig you need. (Though you would be amazed at the things you can get at that particular Long’s.)  

A corollary to this rule is that any plumbing repair will require at least TWO (if not more) trips to the hardware store. 

Third, if you’re replacing a part of something, take the part with you if possible. It’s so much easier to show the doohickey than try to describe it, plus it will help if the part has to be a certain size. Also, that way you won’t actually have to know what it’s called.  

If your house is old, you may find yourself needing things which are not available new, and you will end up at the salvage yard, where things are likely NOT to be neatly sorted and packaged. Instead, small items will be in crates or bins or drawers (sometimes outside) that you will have to paw through to find what you’re looking for. If you do find the item, it will likely be overpriced, given that is it worn or rusted or whatever. Face it, they have you by the short and curlies, so pay up. 

A particular problem for women is tools, since tools are generally designed for men, who have larger hands and more upper body strength. Most hand tools are not that much of a problem, although personally I have a lot of trouble with staple guns. (You can always get an electric one.) There are a couple of companies that make tools for women, including Barbara K Tools (www.barbarak.com) and Tomboy Tools (www.tomboytools. com), but the closest they get to a power tool is a cordless drill (except for Tomboy’s impact drill). Tomboy Tools are also pink, which I have mixed feelings about. It makes them stereotypically girly, but it might also keep the various men in your life from making off with them, which guys seem to have a tendency to do. (Unfortunately, Tomboy Tools are sold through home parties, like Tupperware, and that alone would probably keep me from buying them.) But if you need a reciprocating saw or a finish sander, you’ll be looking at tools that were designed for men.  

The best thing to do is to try them out—make sure they fit your hand, and that they’re not too heavy to use comfortably. I tend to favor Japanese brands (Ryobi, Makita, etc.) because they tend to be smaller. And let me rant here about the disappearance of chuck keys for drills—a fine item which allowed one to use leverage to tighten the chuck, now replaced by hand tightening, which works against those who don’t have a lot of hand strength. And frankly, I preferred my old reciprocating saw with an Allen wrench for blade tightening over the current one with spring-loading.  

Oh, and Rule #2 of fixing: If you’re doing ceramic tile, get a tile saw. You can get a cheap one for $60 or $70, and it will be worth it. Yes, you can rent them, but two days rental will be more than $60, and you won’t want the time constraints, especially if it’s your first attempt at tiling. 

I haven’t even mentioned a whole other category of hardware: builder’s hardware. That encompasses lock sets, cabinet hardware, window hardware, and all sorts of hardware you can see and touch.  

But that’s for another article. In the meantime, support your local hardware store—they are rapidly becoming an endangered species. 

Jane Powell is the author of Bungalow Kitchens and offers consulting on older homes. She can be reached at hsedressng@aol.com. 

Two unusual poetry events at Moe’s Books on Telegraph: Jack Marshall of El Cerrito, long an influential Bay Area writer and teacher, reads Mon. Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m.; the following Monday the great Nathaniel Tarn, poet, translator and anthropologist, celebrates his 80th birthday, reading and in conversation with Moe’s Owen Hill, after a week of Bay Area events. see sfsu.edu-poetry or call the Poetry Center (415) 338-2227. Moe’s readings are free.

THURSDAY, OCT. 16 

Berkeley Solar Financing Program Information Session for residential and commercial property owners at 7 p.m. at South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. solar@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

“Preservation Works” How the Berkeley community was able to save architectural and cultural treasures, and what we need to do to ensure that we will be able to save others in the future. Panelists for this illustrated talk include Susan Cerny, Stephanie Manning, Arlene Silk, Marie Bowman, and others. At 7:30 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Free. 841-2242. www.berkeleyheritage.org  

Bay Area National Latino AIDS Awareness Day with music and food, from 6 to 9 p.m. at La Peña. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

LeConte Neighborhood Association Meeting with Mayoral candidate Shirley Dean at 7:30 p.m. at the LeConte School, Russell St. entrance. Other agenda items include a mini-park for Oregon/Fulton, anti-blight procedures, better traffic control. karlreeh@aol.com  

First 5 Alameda Community Meeting on services for local children at 6 p.m. at Alameda Behavioral Health Care Services, 2000 Embarcadero, Oakland. 875-2400. www.first5ecc.org 

Workshops for Healthcare Activists, and those who want to be, Single Payer Health Care/SB840 Kuehl at 7 p.m. at Hillside Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito between Portrero and Moeser Lane. 526-0972. 

“Merritt College: Home of the Black Panthers” A documentary at 7 p.m. at James Moore Theater, Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St., followed by a panel discussion. For tickets call 466-7373. 

University of California Press Annual Sidewalk Book Sale with hundreds of new and slightly scuffed books from the warehouse at a significant discount from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 2120 Berkeley Way, one block north of University, between Shattuck and Oxford. www.ucpress.edu 

“Starved for Attention: The Neglected Crisis of Childhood Malnutrition” with Dr. Buddhima Lokuge at 5:30 p.m. at Berdahl Auditorium, Stanley Hall, UC campus. Presented by Doctors Without Borders. 

College Night for High School Students to meet college representatives from 6 to 8 p.m. at the College of Alameda Gymnasium, Building G, 555 Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway, Alameda. 337-2314. 

“Voices of Courage” Family Violence Law Center’s Annual Dinner at 6 p.m. at Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Oakland. Tickets are $100. RSVP to christina@fvlc.org 

Hall of Health Educator's Open House with Eileen Murray, Children's Hospital & Research Center on “Sickle Cell Disease and Trait” at 4 p.m. at Hall of Health, 2230 Shattuck Ave. (lower level). RSVP to 705-8527. 

LiveTalk@CPS with Robert W. Fuller, former president of Oberlin College on “Overcoming the Abuse of Rank” at 7 p.m. at College Prepatory School, Buttner Auditorium, 6100 Broadway. Tickets are $5-$15 at the door. www.college-prep.org/livetalk 

“Natural History of Birds in Ecuador” at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 843-2222. 

“Turkey Vultures: Fact vs. Fiction” with Douglas Long, chief curator of Natural Sciences, at 12:30 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. 238-2200.  

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. Bring photo ID and two references. 644-8833. 

Transportation Forum for Northern Alameda County with a presentation of projects at 5:30 p.m. at ACTIA Offices, 1333 Broadway, Suite 300, Oakland. 893-3347. 

Reel Rock Film Tour Climbing adventure films at 8 p.m. at Pyramid Alehouse Boardroom. Tickets are $12-$14. www.reelrocktour.com 

Three Beats for Nothing South Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Thurs. at 10 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ellis at Ashby. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza , 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@avatar.freetoasthost.info  

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, OCT. 17 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Linda Swift on “Climate Change: A Primer” 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. www.citycommonsclub.org 

“Global Slavery and the Plague of Poverty” A conference Fri. at 6 p.m., Sat. from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., Sun. from 8:30 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana St. Cost is $20-$60. To register see www.fpcberkeley.org/ 

gcc2008.asp 

“Dias de los Muertos” Community altar on display from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., through Nov. 3 at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Families are invited to bring personal ofrendas. 228-3207. 

Iraq Moratorium Day and Vigil to Protest the War from 2 to 4 p.m. at the corners of University & Acton. Sponsored by Strawberry Creek Lodge Tenant’s Assoc & Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

“Stand Against Poverty” with UCB’s Amnesty International and information on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals at noon at Upper Sproul Plaza, UC Campus. www.standagainstpoverty.org 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

Three Beats for Nothing Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Fri. at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst at MLK. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

SATURDAY, OCT. 18 

Brazilian Parade and Festival with Capoeira, Brazilian music and dance starting at 11:30 a.m. at the corner of Hearst and Sacramento, to Civic Center Park for a festival. www.capoeiraarts.com 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Rebuilding Together Oakland Block Building Program in the Elmhurst neighborhood of East Oakland. Volunteers will work in teams to restore and rehabilitate the homes of six elderly or disabled low-income homeowners and the neighborhood school. Skilled and unskilled volunteers welcome and must be at least 14 years of age to volunteer. RSVP to 625-0316. www.rtoakland.org 

“Landscaping with Native Grasses” A class on how to use grasses in a variety of landscape situations from 9 a.m. to noon at Tilden Park. Cost is $40-$45. registration required. www. 

nativeplants.org/events.html 

Reptile Rendevous Learn about the reptiles that live in Tilden Park, from 2 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Bunny Adoption Day Come meet our rescued bunnies and learn how to train and care for a house rabbit, from 2 to 5 p.m. at RabbitEars, 377 Colusa Ave., Kensington. 525-6155. 

Native Plant Fair with plants, bulbs and books from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Native Here Nursery, 101 Golf Course Dr,. Tilden Park, across from Tilden Golf Course entrance. Sponsored by California Native Plant Society East Bay. www.ebcnps.org 

Telling Tales: A Fall Storytelling Festival featuring Awele Makeba, Kirk Waller, Nancy Schimmel and Walker Brents III, from noon to 5 p.m. at Berkwood Hedge School, 1809 Bancroft Way. Cost is $7, $20 per family. 883-6994.  

“Global Slavery and the Plague of Poverty” A conference Sat. from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m., Sun. from 8:30 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana St. Cost is $20-$60. To register see www. 

fpcberkeley.org/gcc2008.asp 

University Students Cooperative Association 75th Anniversary Gala at 6:30 p.m. at Hs Lordships, Berkeley Marina. For ticket information and reservations see www.bsc.coop/75th 

Home Movie Day Screenings begin at 12:30 p.m., and a special progam at 4 p.m. at PFA, 2575 Bancroft Way. For information on how to submit your old home movies, see www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN17187 

Benefit for Chaplain James Yee, former U.S. Army Muslim Chaplain at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. 495-5132. www.bfuu.org 

El Cerrito Democratic Club Annual Meeting and dinner with speaker Normon Solomon on “End of an Error - Beginning of an Era: Achieving Our Goals in a Post-Bush America” and music by Vukani Mawethu, at 6 p.m. at Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave. For reservations see www.ecdclub.org 

“An American Blackout” A film about the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004 at 5:30 p.m. with catered dinner at Sky Lounge in El Cerrito, 10458 San Pablo Ave. Donation $5-$10. Sponsored by the El Cerrito Green Party. 526-0972. 

Berkeley Alliance of Neighborhood Associations meets to discuss the three local tax/bond measures at 10 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 2407 Dana St., Westminster Bldg., 1st flr, College Lounge. www.berkeleycna.org 

“Writing a Memoir That Sells” with David Henry Sterry, Beth Lisick and Alan Black at the California Writers Club, at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Nobel, Jack London Square, Oakland. 272-0120. 

“Sufi Peacemaking: A New Model of Mediation” led by Nura Laird and Lynn Hammond from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Cost is $45. To register call 233-2666. 

“Love, Loss and Longing” A conference on Cuban families torn apart from 10:30 a.m. to 230 p.m. at Chabot College, 25555 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward. 832-2372. 

Jewish Literature and Discussion Series meets to discuss “The Lover” by A.B. Yehoshua at 2 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Ancestral DNA Testing A workshop from noon to 3 p.m. at College of Alameda, 555 Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parway, Alameda. Cost is $150. Registration required. 748-2352. 

USS Hornet Museum Open House with tours of the ship and its airplanes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 707 W. Hornet Ave., Pier 3, Alameda. 521-8448. www.uss-hornet.org 

Free Internet Classes “All About Email” at 10 a.m. at the El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton St., El Cerrito. 526-7512. 

Jewish Harvest Holiday for Preschoolers at 10:30 a.m. at Jewish Gateways near the El Cerrito BART station. RSVP to Rabbi Bridget Wynne at 559-8140 or rabbibridget@jewishgateways.org.  

Preschool Storytime, for ages 3-5, at 11 a.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, OCT. 19 

Spice of Life Festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on North Shattuck Ave. from Virginia to Rose. 800-310-6563. www.spiceoflifefestival.com 

Family Bird Walk Learn birding basics during a short walk through various avian habitats, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center. Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Bountiful Berries A mile-long hike to learn about native berry-producing plants, and the wildlife that enjoys them, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Native Plant Fair with plants, bulbs and books from noon to 3 p.m. at Native Here Nursery, 101 Golf Course Dr,. Tilden Park, across from Tilden Golf Course entrance. Sponsored by California Native Plant Society East Bay. www.ebcnps.org 

“Selecting and Pruning Young Native Trees and Shrubs” A class on choosing the right plant for the right place in the garden, placing the plant, what to expect in growth, and how to prune young plants in the garden from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Tilden Park. Cost is $40-$45. Registration required. www. 

nativeplants.org/events.html  

Friends of the Kensington Library Fall Book Sale from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the parking lot behind the Library at 61 Arlington Ave, Kensington. The ‘Bag Sale’ will begin at 2 p.m. 524-3043. 

Community Labyrinth Peace Walk at 3 p.m. at Willard Middle School, Telegraph Ave. between Derby and Stuart. Everyone welcome. Wheelchair accessible. 526-7377.  

“It Came From Berkeley: How Berkeley Changed the World” with author Dave Weinstein at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center St. 848-0181. 

El Cerrito Historical Society Meeting will feature a video about the Technical Porcelain and Chinaware Company, or “TEPCO” which was for years the biggest employer in El Cerrito, at 1 p.m. at the Senior Center, 6510 Stockton Ave. 526-7507. www.elcerritowire.com/history 

Berkeley CyberSalon with freelance Wired and Variety journalist Scott Kirsner at 6 p.m. at Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $10-$15. whoisylvia@aol.com 

Berkeley/North East Bay Chapter of the ACLU Annual Meeting at 1 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. Guests welcome. 558-0377. 

East Bay Atheists meets at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Main Library, 3rd Floor, 2090 Kittredge St. 222-7580. 

“Update on Childhood Vaccinations” with Dr Thauna Abrin on ingredients in vaccinations and how they affect the body and how to prepare your child's body for a vaccination at 10 a.m. at Pharmaca, 1744 Solano Ave. 282-2104. 

“The Roots of the Unitarian Controversy” with Bill Hamilton-Holway at 10 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Robin Caton on “The Silent Sound of the Mind” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 4 to 8 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Also on Fri. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $5 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

MONDAY, OCT. 20 

Berkeley Mayoral Debate between Tom Bates and Shirley Dean, and a discussion of the Berkeley ballot initiatives at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church Sanctuary, 2727 College Ave. Sponsored by Claremont Elmwood Neighborhood Assoc. www.claremontelmwood.org 

Carquinez Strait Trails Challenge An easy two mile stroll to learn some natural and cultural history, and view a beautiful sunset. Meet at 4 p.m. at Eckley Pier. 525-2233. 

“International Law, Human Rights, and Torture” with Rita Maran, United Nations Assoc., East Bay at 12:15 p.m. at Room 150, University Hall, 2199 Addison St. Free for OLLI members, $5 others. 642-5254. 

“The Recent Jump in Food Prices” and the relationship to oil price increases, biofuels policy, weather problems, and food import and export policies with Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center at noon at 290 Hearst Memorial Mining Bldg., UC campus. 642-4274. 

“Google Scholar, What Is It Good For?” A workshop on the search engine for online scholarly material at 2 p.m. at 350C Moffitt Undergraduate Library, UC campus. 643-9959. 

“Wall St. Meltdown: Impacts on Venture Capital Funding?” A panel discussion with funders at 7 pm. at 1995 University Ave., Suite 375. Cost is free for eBig members, guests $15-$20. www.ebig.org 

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.  

Red Cross Blood Drive from noon to 6 p.m. at UC Berkeley, West Pauley Ballroom, MLK Student Union. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

TUESDAY, OCT. 21 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Pinole Shores, San Pablo Bay Regional Trail. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Garden Club with Emma Connery, Master Gardener, Contra Costa County, speaking on “Managing Common Garden Pests” at 2 p.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, 1953 Hopkins St. 524-7296. 

Berkeley Solar Financing Program Information Session for residential and commercial property owners at 7 p.m. at West Berkeley Senior Center, 1900 Sixth St. solar@ci.berkeley.ca.us 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from noon to 1 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. Bring photo ID and two references. 644-8833. 

“Approaches to an International Career” A conversation with Peace Corps Deputy Director Dr. Jody Olsen at 7 p.m. at International House, 2299 Piedmont Ave., UC campus. Free. 452-8444. 

New Deal Film Festival “Our Hope for the Future: Building Community” at 1 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, Corner of MLK. Sponsored by the Berkeley Gray Panthers. 548-9696. 

“The Financial Meltdown and the Madness of Capitalism” discussion at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

“Five Core Skills of Mentally Fit Athletes” at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

Caribbean Rhythms Dance Class begins at 5:30 p.m. at Redwood Gardens, 2951 Derby St., and meets every Tues. eve. Donations accepted for Community Rhythms Scholarship Fund. 548-9840. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

Ceramics Class Learn hand building techniques to make decorative and functional items, Tues. at 9:30 a.m. at St. John's Senior Center, 2727 College Ave. Free, materials and firing charges only. 525-5497. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long Group from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

Yarn Wranglers Come knit and crochet at 6:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 22 

“It’s Time for a New New Deal” with Harvey Smith of California’s Living New Deal Project at the Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers at 1:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. 548-9696. graypanthers.org 

“Lioness” A documentary about five women in the military who went to Iraq as cooks, clerks and mechanics, at 6 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan Learn about and comment on the city’s recommendations for reducing local greenhouse gas emissions at the Energy Commission at 6:30 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. www.BerkeleyClimateAction.org 

Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan: How Berkeley Citizens Can Make a Difference with Nancy Skinner at 7 p.m. at the City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. Suggested donation to Livable Berkeley $5-$10. Please RSVP to info@livableberkeley.org 

“American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree” at 6 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Registration required. Cost is $7, free for members. 643-2755, ext. 03. 

Albany Reads Community reading of “Snow Mountain Passage” by James D. Houston about the Donner Party. Viewing of the PBS film “Donner Party” at 7 p.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. For other related events, and for a copy of the book call 526-3720. 

Urban Bicycle Safety Class Learn how to share the road with cars on busy streets of the East Bay, from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at Kaiser Oakland Medical Center. Sponsored by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. Free. For information see www.ebbc.org/safety 

“The Take” A documentary on the impact of globalization in Buenos Aires, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

“Revolution” newspaper discussion at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

Red Cross Blood Services Volunteer Orientation from 6 to 8 p.m. at 6230 Claremont Ave., Oakland. Registration required. 594-5165. 

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. 548-9840. 

Theraputic Recreation at the Berkeley Warm Pool, Wed. at 3:30 p.m. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Warm Pool, 2245 Milvia St. Cost is $4-$5. Bring a towel. 632-9369. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www.geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Family Sing-Along for toddlers, pre-schoolers and their families at 4:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

Berkeley CopWatch Drop-in office hours from 6 to 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, OCT. 23 

Meet the Candidates for Mayor, City Council and School Board at 7 p.m. in the Chapel of the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda at Los Angeles. www.northeastberkeleyassociation.org 

The Oakland Bird Club “Birds of Asia” A slide presentation by Jeff Robinson at 7:30 p.m. at Oakland Public Library, Rockridge Branch, 5366 College Ave. 444-0355. 

MGO Democratic Club meets to discuss five government initiatives in a package called Real Oakland Administrative Reform with John Russo, City Attorney; Courtney Ruby, City Auditor; Ignacio De La Fuente, Council President, Dist 5, and Pat Kernighan, City Council Member, Dist. 2, at 7 p.m. at Dimond Branch Library, Oakland. 595-7402. www.mgoclub.org 

“Monterey Market Live” A documentary by Bill Fujimoto, owner of the produce market, at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. 526-7512. 

“California Native Plants for Your Garden” at 7 p.m. at El Sobrante Library, 4991 Appian WAy, El Sobrante. Free. 374-3991. 

Easy Does It Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. www.easydoesitservices.org 

“Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival” at 5 p.m. at Clif Bar Headquarters, 1610 Fifth St. Tickets are $10-$15. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Workshops for Healthcare Activists, and those who want to be, Single Payer Health Care/SB840 Kuehl at 7 p.m. at Hillside Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito between Portrero and Moeser Lane. 526-0972. 

Barbary Lane Senior Community Open House with East Bay Symphony Trio and author Armistead Maupin from noon to 5 p.m. at 1800 Madison St., Oakland. Free, but RSVP required 903-3600. 

Art from the Heart Silent Auction benfitting East Meets West Foundation, a nonprofit development agency serving the poor in Vietnam at 6 p.m. at Piedmont Community Church, Clara Barton Room, 400 Highland Ave., Piedmont. www.piedmontchurch.org 

“Life for Sale” A documentary on our ailing health care system at 7:30 p.m. at Shattuck Cinemas. Tickets are $10. 1-877-7LIFE4S. www.lifeforsalemovie.com 

Auditions for “That’s Our Snow White” with East Bay Children’s Theater for 14 M/F adult actors/singers from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Kahilla Community Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave. For information call 537-9957. zaniladi@comcast.net 

Three Beats for Nothing South Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Thurs. at 10 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ellis at Ashby. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

FRIDAY, OCT. 24 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Antonio Rossman, Land Use Attorney on “How Communities Deal Effectively with Government Entities” including the Caldecott Tunnel issue and the UC Stadium issue. 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. www.citycommonsclub.org 

United Nations Day honoring East Bay Nobel Prize winners for work in climate change at 6 p.m. at International House at 2299 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $15-$30. For reservations call 642-9461. www.unausaeastbay.org 

“The Phantom’s Masquerade” The East Bay Dance Center’s Fourth Annual Halloween Show and Dance, a family-friendly event featuring dance performance, party and treats at 7 p.m. at 1318 Glenfield Ave., off of Park Blvd., Oakland. Tickets are $2-$5. All proceeds benefit the EBDC’s Scholarship Fund. 336-3262. 

Cinema Dreaming “Nosferatu” Screening and discussion at 7 p.m. at The Dream Institute, 1672 University at McGee. Cost is $12. 845-1767. 

Kol Hadash Humanistic Shabbat at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger dessert or snack to share for the Oneg, and non-perishable food for the needy. 428-1492. info@kolhadash.org  

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

Three Beats for Nothing Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Fri. at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst at MLK. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

SATURDAY, OCT. 25 

“Peace in the World and Social Services at Home” A gathering with Dan and Patricia Ellsberg, Cindy Sheehan, Barbara Becnel and others at the Civic Center Peace Wall in Civic Center Park from noon to 4:30 p.m. 841-4824. 

Community Celebration for Days of the Dead with craft activities, demonstrations, music, dance and food, from noon to 5 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

Infinity Walk Against Domestic Violence from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Mosswood Park at Broadway and MacArthur in Oakland and will include music, performances, refreshments, youth activities and more. Benefits A Safe Place, Oakland's domestic violence program for battered women and children. 205-0855. asafeplacedvs.org 

“Down Memory Lane” 35th Anniversary of the Oakland Community School from noon to 5 p.m. at 6118 International Blvd., Oakland. 434-1824, 652-7170. www.ocs-communications.com 

New School Halloween Bazaar with face painting, children’s games, rummage sale, book and bake sales, live entertainment and more from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1606 Bonita at Cedar. 548-9165.  

Fiesta de los Angelitos Build a memorial kite, a “nicho” or other crafts from 2 to 4 p.m. at at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Dias de las Muertos procession at 6 p.m. 228-3207. 

Haunted House in Berkeley with levels of scariness for all ages from 6:30 to 8:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Come in costume. Donations benefit homeless children. 845-6830. 

Skytown Preschool Fall Festival and Open House Age appropriate activities for 18 months to 5 years from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Skytown Preschool, One Lawson Road, Kensington. Come in costume. 526-8481. www.skytown.org 

Haunted House and Costume Contest for children at 5:30 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave. Alameda. Cost is $5-$10. Haunted Cabare at 8 p.m. Cost is $35-$50. www.rhythmix.org 

“Boo at the Zoo” Oakland Zoo Halloween Celebration Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with scavenger hunt, animal feedings, and a visit with creepy crawlies. Cost is $7-$10.50. 632-9525. www.oaklandzoo.org 

Monster Bash aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet, with music, haunted tours of the lower deck, and children’s activities at 7:30 p.m. at 707 W. Hornet Ave. Pier 3, Alameda. Tickets are $20-$25 for adults, $10 for children. www.hornetevents.com  

Halloween Music, with Broadway and television favorites for the whole family at 6:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Alameda, 2001 Santa Clara at Chestnut, Alameda. Party follows with tours of the Haunted Parlor. Free, but donations accepted. 522-1477. 

Farm Songs and Stories, including a visit to feed the chickens from 2 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour of Claremont Paths from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations and starting point call 848-0181. 

Fall Bird Walk to observe and listen to resident and migrant birds at 9 a.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr. Registration required. Cost is $12-$15. 643-2755, ext. 03. 

Small Pet Adoption Day Come meet our rescued rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and mice, and learn how they can be a member of your family, from 1 to 5 p.m. at RabbitEars, 377 Colusa Ave., Kensington. Come in costume to have your photograph taken.525-6155. 

Pt. Richmond Silent Art Auction from 5 to 8 p.m. at Point San Pablo Yacht Club, 700 West Cutting Blvd., Pt. Richmond. For tickets, or to donate your artwork call 235-0165. 

SEEDS Community Resolution Center Celebrates 25 Years of Service with dinner, music and dancing from 7 to 11 p.m. at Berkeley Yacht Club, 1 Seawall Drive. Tickets are $40. 548-4051. Jaimee@ebcm.org 

Vegetarian Cooking Class Comfort Food from Around the World Learn to make Potato Latkes, Scotch Broth, Cuban Black Bean Soup and more from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $50, plus $5 food and material fee. Advance registration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com 

Bay Area Cohousing Tour A guided bus tour of several communities Cost is $95, includes lunch. 834-7399. www.cohousing.org/tours 

Residential Earthquake Retrofits A free seminar at 10 a.m. at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Art’s Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd., Oakland. 418-1676.  

“Growing Herbs” Learn the climate needs, fertilizer requirements, watering techniques, and pruning of different herbs that you can grow all winter long at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. Free. 644-2351. www.magicgardens.com 

Kennedy High School/Eagle Foundation Community Meeting to discuss the needs of the high school and the role of the community at noon in the cafeteria, Kennedy High School, 4300 Cutting Blvd., Richmond. 231-1433. www.jfkeaglefoundation.org 

Make a Box Sculpture with Emily Kuenstler,from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Cost is $45. To register call 415-505-7827. 

Animation Film Festival Works by Bay Area middle and high school students at 9:30 a.m. at Bay Street AMC Theaters, Emeryville. 655-4002. 

Sacred Art & Sacred Space Art Auction at 6 p.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way. Proceeds will benefit Himalayan HealthCare. RSVP to auction@TantricArt.net 

Free Internet Classes “Useful Web Sites” at 10 a.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton St., El Cerrito. 526-7512. 

Floral Art and Design Class with Devon Gaster at 1 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. 644-4930.  

Preschool Storytime, for ages 3-5, at 11 a.m. at Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

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 

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 B