State officials announced Saturday, May 9, that the Berkeley Unified School District will receive $2.4 million through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 

The money is part of the $2.56 billion allocated to California school districts toward state stabilization funds. An additional $1.1 billion will be available in the fall. 

Berkeley Unified Superintendent Bill Huyett said the district had applied for its share under directions from the state Department of Education in April. 

“It’s a formula-based amount,” he said. “The federal government sent it down to the state, which handed it down to the school districts on an equitable basis.” 

According to the state education department, the allocation was based on an amount equal to cuts made to each district’s funding in the February 2009 state budget. In about a month, additional stabilization funds will be calculated to restore cuts made to categorical programs from the same budget. 

The funds are in addition to $1.6 million in stimulus funds the district received for services related to disabled and low-income children for 2009-10. (See the Daily Planet’s May 7 story.) 

Huyett said the amount allocated to BUSD over the weekend would “reduce the impact of budget cuts” in the district. 

“The thing we don’t know is what will happen in the elections next week,” he said, explaining that if the six initiatives don’t pass in California’s special elections on May 19, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would make even deeper cuts to public education, estimated to amount to as much as $3.6 billion. 

“The money will certainly help in short-term improvements,” Huyett said. The purpose of the funds is to reduce staff layoffs, improve student performance and close the achievement gap.” 

Berkeley Unified was able to rescind the majority of its pink slips sent to teachers but is still planning to slash programs and lay off classified workers. 

Praising President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for their cooperation in distributing the funds, state Superintendent of Public Education Jack O’Connell said the funds would help the state education budget crisis. 

“These funds will have an immediate and noticeable impact on California’s K-12 and higher education systems by helping schools keep teachers and other important staff employed, by continuing our efforts to improve student achievement, and furthering our work to close the achievement gap,” O’Connell said. “While this is a brief respite for the education community, we should all recognize there are more tough times ahead.” 

To see how much state stabilization money a particular school district received, go to www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/ar

Berkeley's Board of Education voted unanimously April 29 to ask the school district to review classroom capacities and attendance zones to address overcrowded elementary schools. 

Although the Berkeley Unified School District's student assignment plan has had minor adjustments and the number of schools has changed since the board approved the three elementary school zones—north, central and south—in 1994, their geographic boundaries have remained the same. 

District Director of Facilities Lew Jones stressed that the north zone, especially, could not accommodate any more students. 

“We are very pinched in that zone,” he said. “We would like the board to formally ask us to review projected student population and look at either increasing capacity or changing zones.” 

Some board members attributed the overcrowding to the fact that the north zone currently has three elementary schools—Jefferson, Thousand Oaks and Rosa Parks—while the central and south zones have four each. 

The south zone includes Emerson, John Muir, LeConte and Malcolm X and the central zone is home to Cragmont, Oxford, Berkeley Arts Magnet and Washington. 

“There are more students who want to go to the schools in the north zone,” Board Vice President Karen Hemphill said. “If we change the boundaries, choices would change in terms of choice of school. Or we could just increase the capacity by adding new classrooms.” 

Board member John Selawsky told the Daily Planet the board had discussed the zones in 2002, when the district closed down Franklin Elementary, which was in the north zone and enrolled 150 to 175 students. Franklin’s closure, Selawsky said, may have led to the current lack of space in the north zone. 

Jones said the district would work over the summer to draw up a timeline for changing zones if necessary. A committee representing education services, student assignment and facilities will draw up a plan and present it to the board in August. 

“It’s possible that when we finish there will be no change, but we believe it is likely there will be change,” Jones told the board. He added it was important to study the K-5 population before looking at the middle schools because of the immediacy of space requirements in the north zone. 

“It’s really much better to look at elementary schools first. It makes it much easier to align middle schools after that,” said District Superintendent Bill Huyett, who has worked on this issue in other school districts. 

Board President Nancy Riddle made it clear that the board’s action would not open up the district’s whole student assignment plan for analysis. 

“It’s a much larger, more difficult process than looking at geographic zoning capacities,” she said.  

Board member Shirley Issel compared the task at hand to “opening up Pandora’s Box.” 

“To me it’s just a huge thing,” she said. 

“It will be complicated, but we have to do it,” Facilities Director Jones said. A review of zones and capacities, he said, would span several departments and raise questions about education equity, facilities and attendance. 

“While it is not yet clear that an adjustment in school zones is required, that is one possible outcome,” Jones said in a report to the school board. “Zone adjustments can have a large impact on citizens, and therefore public input is an important part of such a process. If zones are to change, sufficient advanced planning is needed to have time to inform the assignment process and to successfully implement the next lottery.” 

Superintendent Huyett said there will be ample time for public comment on the draft plan between mid-August and the end of September, following which a final plan will be developed. Huyett said any changes, if implemented, would occur in the 2010-2011 school year. 

Berkeley Unified currently has about 9,000 K-12 students, a third of which are elementary school students. 

Selawsky and Hemphill pushed for the rexamination of the three middle-school zones. 

Hemphill pointed out that there is a reason why Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School is more more crowded than Willard Middle School and Longfellow Magnet Middle School. 

“King has a new Dining Commons, while Longfellow has a basement cafeteria,” she said. “Compare the landscaping at King with the landscaping at Willard ... If you take pictures of King, Longfellow and Willard, parents who don’t have any idea of quality will want to send their children to King.” 

Hemphill told the Planet that although Longfellow has the highest test scores and the smallest achievement gap, it is also stuck with the poorest facilities and lacks a park and a track, features present at the two other schools. 

Longfellow, originally built as an elementary school, was converted to a middle school 14 years ago. The highlights of the school—which offers specialized curriculum and draws children from the entire city—is that it houses a theater, a dance studio and a computer lab. 

“My concern is, how can we have an equitable look at middle schools,” Hemphill said. “Good public relations is important. The community needs to know about all the wonderful things these schools have to offer. Additionally, the district needs to enhance some of these campuses.” 

UC Berkeley’s search for a dean for its Graduate School of Journalism came to an end Thursday when it selected interim Dean Neil Henry for the position. 

The university’s last two attempts to fill the position proved futile, with the most recent one ending when all three finalists dropped out. 

Henry had not applied for the position, which campus officials said was a five-year appointment. 

An award-winning journalist, author and professor, Henry has filled in as dean J-school since Orville Schell left two years ago. 

A graduate of Princeton University, Henry earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 1978. He has more than 16 years of experience as a metro, national and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and was a staff writer for Newsweek magazine before joining the Berkeley faculty in 1993. 

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer praised Henry’s “competence, dedication and skill,” during the announcement, which he said had been evident by the leadership Henry had portrayed since 2007 

“We are convinced more than ever that the finest possible dean for the Graduate School of Journalism, at this time and going forward, is the person who has led it through these past two years with such class and devotion,” he said. “These are incredibly challenging but exciting times in journalism filled with possibility. Berkeley is determined to remain a world leader in educating the new generation while also envisioning the future of this most important calling.” 

Henry launched the first-ever collaboration between a journalism school and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation during his tenure as interim dean and has helped to raise more than $5 million for new projects in the past. 

A former John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, Henry, 55, is still involved in reporting, following developments in Darfur, former baseball player Barry Bonds and the portrayal of race in the news. 

He is married to Letitia Lawson, a senior lecturer in political science at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. The couple have one daughter. 

The UC Board of Regents Friday approved a 9.3 percent student fee increase for the 2009-10 school year, despite criticism from students about the high cost of tuition. 

In a 17-4 vote, the regents approved UC President Mark Yudof’s proposal to raise undergraduate and graduate fees to balance the budget, with regents John Garamendi, Eddie Island, Odessa Johnson and D’Artagan Scorza voting against the increases. 

A statement from campus officials said that the increase—$662 for resident undergraduates—is consistent with the fee hike the state expected UC to carry out as part of the state budget adopted in February, which left UC with a $450 million budget shortfall. 

During a press conference in March, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau acknowledged that the fee hike would have a significant impact on middle-income students. 

He said student fee increase was considered as a last resort and was just one of the actions the university and other UC campuses were taking to in response to budget cuts. 

Yudof said in a statement that the university had created a robust scholarship program this year to help families in need. 

“While there is never a right time for a fee increase, especially during an economic downturn when families are facing hardships and uncertainty, I want to reassure our students that this year we will have an extraordinary amount of additional financial resources available to cover the higher fees,” he said, explaining that a substantial increases in federal, state and university student aid and tax credits will ensure that “81 percent of UC undergraduates with incomes below $180,000 will have access to enough new resources to fully offset the fee increase.” 

For the Daily Planet’s earlier story on the fee increase, see the March 12 issue. 

UC Berkeley officials announced Friday that Social Security numbers and other identification had been hacked from restricted university health services databases, putting students at risk of identity theft. 

The security breach, which campus officials said began in October last year, was discovered by university administrators during a routine maintenance check April 9, spurring a criminal investigation by UC police detectives and the FBI. 

Steve Lustig, UC Berkeley’s associate vice chancellor of health and human services, said a log entry had indicated the illegal access, but added that the hackers had not stolen medical records, which are stored in a separate system unaffected by the crime. 

“We give the highest priority to medical records,” he said. “We have appointed a team to evaluate millions of log entries to see what has been breached and to contact people whose information has been stolen.” 

Lustig said that in some cases, students’ names had been directly associated with Social Security numbers. 

The electronic databases contained personal information belonging to some university health services clients and their parents or spouses. Additionally, campus officials said “the hackers may have stolen information related to students’ health insurance coverage and some of their non-treatment medical information, such as Hepatitis B immunization histories, health services medical record numbers, dates of visits or names of providers seen, or for participants in the Education Abroad Program, certain information from the self-reported health history.” 

He said that financial information, such as students’ bank account and credit card numbers, had not been affected. 

One hundred and sixty thousand students were alerted about the incident Friday morning, of which 97,000 had their Social Security numbers illegally accessed. 

“We sincerely regret and apologize for any difficulty that this theft may create for you,” Lustig and Shelton Waggener, the university’s associate vice chancellor and chief information officer, said in an e-mail sent to students at 9:43 a.m. Friday. “We have alerted campus police detectives and the FBI, and we are doing all that we can to investigate this crime. We are also dedicated to assisting you with information about the incident and services that can help prevent or minimize the impact this theft may have on you.” 

Waggener said the breach was confirmed April 21 and had “occurred as a result of hackers using the system very surreptitiously.” 

He said the data thefts began on Oct. 9, 2008, and continued until April 6. As soon as the first activity was detected by authorities three days later, all the exposed databases were immediately removed from service to prevent future attacks.  

In order to understand the nature of the security breach and to minimize the chances of a recurrence, Waggener said the university had hired technical experts and an internal auditor, Price Waterhouse Coopers, to help with the investigation. 

“With this incident, UC Berkeley has joined a fraternity of institutions that have been victims of criminal attack,” Waggener said. “This deviant act came from outside the campus. The attackers accessed a public website and bypassed additional secured databases stored on the same server.” 

As for why the breach had not been identified earlier, Waggener said it was something that could be identified only while checking a log entry. 

“There were tell-tale signs,” he said. “The hackers had left messages to system administrators taunting them. This sort of thing is very common.” 

Waggener said he didn’t know whether the messages—which the university is not releasing because of the ongoing investigation—can be traced. He said that the IP addresses of the hackers originated in Asia, one of them in China. 

“These types of crimes are now global in nature. It’s not being done by a teenager down the street,” he said. 

UC Berkeley has spent more than $5 million in the past to protect its servers from hackers, campus officials said. 

The university has set up a website, www.datatheft.berkeley.edu, to assist with contact information for key resources, and has established a 24-hour Data Theft Hotline (1-888-729-3301) to answer questions. The university advises those affected to place a fraud alert on their credit cards. 

Waggener said that although lots of people were calling the hotline to get information, no one had yet identified themselves as a victim of identity theft. 

The Berkeley Police Department Friday identified the victim who died of gunshot wounds in southwest Berkeley earlier this week as 18-year-old Maurice Robertson. 

Berkeley police responded to a shooting at 1340 67th St. on May 4. Roberston, a Berkeley resident, died at the scene. 

BPD is asking for the community’s help with the investigation. Anyone with any information regarding this crime is urged to call the BPD Homicide Detail at 981-5741 or the 24-hour non-emergency dispatch line 981-5900 ot the Bay Area Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Planning commissioners are scheduled to hold what may be the final meeting on the downtown plan Wednesday, May 13.  

During the 7 p.m. session, commissioners will consider endorsing the plan’s environmental impact report and discuss any last-minute policy changes they might wish to make.  

Commissioners will also conduct a public hearing on general plan amendments needed to make the plan consistent with the changes in land use, parking, density and other policies in the new plan.  

A link to the meeting’s agenda will be available on the city’s Planning Commission website at www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=13072.  

Wednesday’s meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. at Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  

After the commissioners finish, the plan goes to the City Council for a May 19 workshop session, with formal action set for June 2.  

The council ordered the plan as the result of a settlement ending a city lawsuit contesting UC Berkeley’s Long Range Development Plan 2020, which calls for 850,000 square feet of new off-campus construction in the heart of the city.  

That figure doesn’t include the Golden Bear building, an existing structure on University Avenue the school purchased after the agreement was signed.  

The plan was initially crafted during a two-year effort by a 21-member Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), consisting of three planning commissioners and two citizens appointed by each of the nine councilmembers.  

The commission made significant revisions to the DAPAC plan, removing many of the committee’s green building mandates and boosting the height and number of high-rises allowed.  

Both versions of the plan will go to the City Council.  

With Bay Area schools starting to reopen this week, the anxiety surrounding swine flu has started to ebb, Alameda County public health officials said Wednesday, May 6. 

The county had one confirmed and four probable H1N1 cases as of Wednesday evening, including the parent of two Malcolm X Elementary School students in Berkeley. 

On Sunday, May 3, Berkeley’s acting Public Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman ordered Malcolm X closed for at least a week starting the next day, following the identification of the probable case, but lifted the restriction on May 5 based on new federal guidelines. 

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta announced that the swine flu had not turned out to be as fearful as initially thought, thereby eliminating the need to keep schools and childcare facilities closed if confirmed or probable cases showed up. 

“A lot of the concern and angst was generated around the school closures,” Alameda County Public Health official Sherri Willis said. “Once the CDC changed their guidelines, the number of calls we were getting from residents and the media declined. Closing schools was a big thing, because it disrupted the flow of things. All along in California, and nationally, the flu symptoms have been mild. We don’t know if they will continue to be mild.” 

Alameda County’s other three probable swine flu cases are all adults, Willis said. The confirmed case is the 50-year-old woman who was the first in the county to contract the virus last week. Willis declined to offer any other information about the cases. 

“The state is saying that 99 percent of the probable cases are turning out to be confirmed,” Willis said. 

So far 10 people with either confirmed or probable cases of swine flu have been hospitalized in California. 

Willis said the number of specimens being sent to the state lab had gone down from 50 or 60 a day to about 25. 

“The CDC has said the vast majority of tests have come back negative,” she said. “We’ve had so few cases so far that have been confirmed that we are trying to make some sense about the epidemiological curve—when the patients got sick, what symptoms they had, when was the apex of the symptoms—but we don’t have the information yet. At some point we will also have information on the number of negative tests, but we don’t have it yet.” 

There have been 99 confirmed cases of the H1N1 influenza virus in California, including 27 in San Diego County, 21 in Imperial County, four in Marin County and four each in Sacramento and San Bernardino counties, according to information posted online by the state Department of Public Health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website showed 67 confirmed swine flu cases in California as of Wednesday evening and 642 cases in 41 states nationwide, including two deaths in Texas. 

One hundred and nineteen probable cases have been reported in California, including 24 in San Diego County, 19 in Imperial County, five in Santa Clara County, one in San Mateo County and two in San Francisco County, according to the state health office. 

All Bay Area counties have declared local emergencies, with the Alameda County Board of Supervisors declaring a local emergency May 5. 

The county health office, Willis said, has been preparing for the epidemic ever since news broke of the cases in San Diego and Imperial counties. 

“Both counties were Southern California border cases, and then the cases in Texas cropped up,” she said. The Centers for Disease Control report 67 confirmed cases in Texas, second only to Illinois, which has 122. 

The county health office is working with the state health department to survey the new virus and lessen its impact. 

“The message we are giving out to everyone is consistent,” Willis said. “They need to practice good hygiene. It’s an airborne virus, so we need to take precautions that are common during a regular bad flu season.” 

Willis says those who have recently traveled to Mexico or who are experiencing persistent flu-like symptoms should see a doctor and get screened for the virus. Simple precautions are very effective, she said, advising people to wash their hands regularly, cover their mouths when coughing, and avoid large gatherings. 

“We are not recommending people run out and get a mask or get Tamiflu until we know more about the flu,” she said. 

Because H1N1 is a new strain of virus—a combination of pig, human and bird viruses—no one is immune to it. 

“This is a brand new virus,” Willis said. “Nobody has seen this virus before. There is no immunity and no vaccine. That is maybe why healthy people are getting it. Children don’t have a strong immune system, so we are seeing children getting affected.” 

Berkeley’s public health spokesperson Zandra Lee said city health officials had been busy working behind the scenes preparing for any kind of emergency, in case the flu changes its course. 

“We also want people to know that not all the cases in the Bay Area are linked to tourism or travel,” Lee said. “It’s also because of close contact with people who traveled to Mexico or did not. The association with travel to Mexico is getting less direct.” 

“People should remain calm,” Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said. “The flu could be a major problem, but, so far, symptoms have been mild. People should exercise precaution—when they are coughing they should cough into a tissue or their elbow. If they feel sick, they should stay home and go to bed, and if they get worse, they should report it to their doctor.” 

Berkeley residents without medical insurance who find themselves with flu-like symptoms can call the city’s nurse of the day at 981-5300. 

There is currently no vaccine, but there are actions that people can take to help prevent the spread of germs: 

• Stay at home if you are sick. 

• Cough and sneeze into a tissue or into your elbow. 

• Wash your hands often with soap and water, and use hand sanitizer. 

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. 

• Avoid close contact with sick people. 

• Avoid attendance at large gatherings. 

For further information: 

• Berkeley City Public Health Division: 981-5300 or www.ci.berkeley.ca.us. 

• California Department of Public Health. 

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

• World Health Organization. 

• For a list of products to have at home, click here. 

Malcolm X Elementary School reopened Wednesday after a two-day closure due to swine flu concerns. 

On Sunday, May 3, Berkeley’s acting Public Health Officer, Dr. Janet Berreman, ordered classes at Malcolm X to be dismissed for at least a week starting Monday, after the parent of two students at the school was identified as a probable swine flu case. The two children were also suspected swine flu cases. No one was hospitalized.  

Berreman said the decision to close the school was based on federal guidelines. 

A statement from the city’s Public Health Division released Tuesday, May 5, said Dr. Berreman and Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Bill Huyett had agreed to resume classes after receiving new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control. 

“I made the decision as soon as I saw the new CDC guidelines,” Dr. Berreman told the Daily Planet. “Over the last week or so, the issue of when and whether to dismiss class has been debated and discussed at the national, state and local level. At first, the CDC recommended closing schools to slow the disease. But the pattern of it being a relatively mild disease and not worsening has made us look at not dismissing school. Closing school is very disruptive and not worth doing when a disease is not severe.” 

There are about 36,000 deaths in the United States every year from seasonal flu, Dr. Berreman said, including 4,500 in California. Numbers for Berkeley were not available. 

Dr. Berreman said that the city was focusing on reducing the spread of the H1N1 virus by advising students, faculty and staff with flu symptoms to stay home while they are ill and recovering.  

“Control of the disease at this time depends on responsible personal behavior,” she said. “We have not seen a slowing of this disease in California and don’t expect it will slow down soon.” 

The CDC issued a revision to its school closure guidelines Tuesday because most U.S. swine flu cases had been less severe than initially feared, leading to few hospitalizations.  

A 2-year-old Mexico City boy visiting a border town in Texas was the first person to die of swine flu in the United States. Texas health officials announced Tuesday that a 33-year-old Texan woman had died from contracting the H1N1 virus, but they added that she had an unnamed pre-existing medical condition. The woman, who had recently given birth, was a schoolteacher who lived near the Mexican border. 

A message on the CDC’s website said that CDC and local and state health officials will continue to monitor the severity and spread of the H1N1 influenza outbreak closely. 

The CDC is recommending that schools not be closed for “a suspected or confirmed case” of swine flu. 

Health departments across the country are starting to reopen schools and childcare facilities based on the CDC’s current guidelines. 

Berkeley Montessori School asked its eighth grade class to stay home for at least seven days after returning from a trip to Mexico last week.  

Janet Stork, the head of the Montessori School, declined to be interviewed for this story. “I can confirm that there is no swine flu in our school currently,” she said. 

Parents of Montessori students are receiving e-mail updates about the situation. 

Zandra Lee, the city’s public health spokesperson, told the Daily Planet the city was aware that the students had recently returned from Mexico, but the city had not played a role in the decision to keep them out of school. 

“They can always consult with us if they want to, but because they are a private school they can proceed with their own decision-making,” she said. 

With classes continuing normally Wednesday at Malcolm X Elementary, the Berkeley Public Health Division and the CDC are asking all students, faculty, staff and volunteers with flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat) to stay home and not go out in public for a week after becoming ill, except to see a doctor. 

Ilona Sturm, whose daughter attends Malcolm X, said most parents were happy with the news. 

“We are glad that our kids don’t have to miss any more school,” she said. “My daughter, on the other hand, is not too happy about it. She just had the most fantastic two days playing nonstop at her friend’s house.” 

Sturm said that Burr Tyler, another Malcolm X parent, has been taking care of four children at her house since the school closed. 

“Burr is a saint and has been open to letting four other children play, eat, and even sleep over,” she said.  

Malcolm X PTA President Cheryl Eccles said parents had been scrambling for the last couple of days to provide alternative care for their children. Some parents managed to arrange for shared child care through the week to accommodate their work schedules, she said. 

Eccles called the initial decision to close the school “a bit drastic,” based on the flu’s mild symptoms. 

“I was forced off work this week. I teach drama to children at various local preschools, but am unable to, since our kids are quarantined,” she said. “My kids were selling our school raffle tickets outside our home to passersby. They had hand sanitizer readily available for anyone fearful of touching the same ticket.” 

Berkeley Unified spokesperson Mark Coplan said most students were back at Malcolm X Wednesday, with the exception of some whose parents had pre-arranged for child care. 

Solange Russell, the mother of a Malcolm X student, said that attendance in the kindergarten had seemed low. 

“Not sure why,” she said. “Maybe because families left town and weren’t able to get back in time, with the short notice. Or perhaps because there is still a cold—not H1N1—going around, and people are being very careful not to attend while sick right now. When I dropped my child off, the kids looked very happily engaged, nothing seemed different. Both my children were very indignant at the decision to reopen the school, as they’d been counting on this being a second spring break.” 

Tips from Berkeley’s Public Health Division for helping those who are sick with the flu: 

• Have them drink a lot of liquid (juice, water). 

• Keep the sick person as comfortable as possible. Rest is important. 

• For fever, sore throat and muscle aches, use ibuprofen (Motrin) or acetaminophen (Tylenol). Do not use aspirin with children or teenagers; aspirin use with viral illnesses (like flu) has been associated with the development of Reye’s Syndrome, a life-threatening illness. 

• Keep tissues and a trash bag within reach of the sick person. 

• Be sure everyone in your home washes hands frequently.  

• Keep people who are sick with the flu away from the people who are not sick.  

For more information: 

Call the city at 981-2489 or 981-5300, or the toll-free, English- and Spanish-language Swine Flu (H1N1) Hotline, 1-888-865-0564. Assistance in other languages is also available. The hotline is operational Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on weekends from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

There’s no stopping JaQuia Bolden. This B-Tech senior is going to college.  

Bolden usually doesn’t play favorites, but when Georgia’s Paine College accepted her during a whirlwind tour of black colleges last month, she knew it was meant to be. 

Four of her classmates got just as lucky, getting into other historically black institutions, something Principal Victor Diaz said was a first in the history of Berkeley’s only public continuation high school. Two students are still waiting for responses. 

At least four in Berkeley Technology Academy’s 40-student graduating class have been offered admission at Howard University, San Francisco State and other Bay Area colleges, and although the number is still fairly small compared with Berkeley High School, it’s no mean feat. 

Most of these teenagers come from broken homes and from tough neighborhoods, where drugs, alcohol and violence are daily temptations. For many, college always seemed like an unattainable dream. 

“These are kids who didn’t even want to go to school,” Diaz said, sitting inside his cramped yet colorful office at 2701 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, pictures of Che Guevera and hip-hop stars peeking out from behind him. “Watching them turn their lives around is amazing.” 

Diaz said that, because the annual black college tour, now in its third year, is not paid for by the Berkeley Unified School District, Mayor Tom Bates stepped in to help make it happen, bringing in nonprofit In Dulci Jubilo and other public education foundations to raise $10,000, about half the cost of the trip.  

The San Francisco Foundation’s Koshland Program contributed the other half, giving B-Tech enough money for 11 to travel to eight campuses in six states. 

“It’s pretty remarkable,” Diaz said. “These trips would not have happened without all these people and organizations coming together. Next year we will try to send them in the fall, so that they have time to choose between schools based on their financial aid packages.” 

Standing outside Diaz’s office on a recent Friday afternoon, basking in the warm April sunshine, Bolden can’t stop talking about her trip. 

“I just have to send them my SAT scores, everything else is in,” she said, explaining that her teachers had already helped to turn in a portfolio, complete with recommendations, transcripts and personal essays during the tour. “The colleges told us that, if we fill out applications on the spot, we would get accepted.” 

“That’s our star,” Diaz said, pointing at Bolden, before disappearing into a two-hour-long staff meeting. He later told the Daily Planet that Bolden felt her SATs had gone well. “Unless she does really poorly, she is going to Paine,” he said. 

Three years ago, Diaz wouldn’t have been able to exude that kind of confidence about Bolden. She missed classes, didn’t do her homework and barely made her grades. 

“Somebody is actually willing to take me into their school. I never thought I would make it,” Bolden said. “But here I am making myself into something. I can move on.” 

Last year, Bolden was, in her words, an “OK” student, scraping by with mostly Cs, sometimes Bs and Ds. She credits friends, B-Tech teachers and “Vic”—Principal Diaz—for turning her into a straight-A student. She is now considering a career in business management. Dressed in a violet sweatshirt, white leggings and long gold hoop earrings, Bolden has a sureness about herself that she hopes will come in handy in the real world. “I am going to be on my own now—my mom isn’t going to be there. I will have to handle my own business,” she said. 

Her peers, Tanoya Law and Cassandra Irvin, have the same attitude. They feel an urgency to graduate, to tell the world that “just because kids get sent to B-Tech” doesn’t mean they can’t achieve. 

“We are not a bad school, we are a good school,” said Law, who was accepted into Paine, Johnson C. Smith University and Howard. Mild mannered and fashion-savvy, the 18-year-old wants to study fashion in college and open her own boutique, maybe even appear on TV’s Project Runway. But right now she’s happy being a student.  

Her pride in her African-American heritage comes across when she recounts the history of the black colleges she visited for the first time. Spelman, Clark Atlanta, Morehouse—as the names rolled off her tongue, so did references to slavery, famous African-American clergy, men and women whom she considers role models, their stories pushing her forward every day. 

“It was really amazing to see how many African-Americans there were at all the places we applied,” she said. “It inspired me to apply. Over here I don’t see a lot of them applying to universities. Sometimes people aren’t even continuing with high school. Only a few go on to community colleges.” 

B-Tech secretary Nancy Williams, who chaperoned the group on the tour, said the experience had helped everybody a great deal. 

“A couple of them were not thinking of going to college,” she said. “But once they were on the tour, it changed their minds. It was a great opportunity for them to get accepted.” 

Both Law and Irvin, a junior who went on the trip as a preview for next year, will be the first in their families to consider studying in a four-year college. 

Law’s mother dropped out of high school, while Irvin’s mother attended junior college. Both their fathers are high school graduates. 

Both talked about feeling lost in their previous high schools—Berkeley High for Law and Oakland Tech for Irvin—and how B-Tech’s small classes, personalized environment and close-knit community had helped them raise their grades. 

“B-Tech’s like a family. Nobody has helped me like B-Tech,” said Irvin. “Anyone can come to Victor and say ‘Vic, I am having a bad day. Teachers have the patience to give you one-on-one.” 

Not everything is perfect at B-Tech, however. The school has received criticism for low state and local test scores, and like Berkeley High, has failed to get an Academic Performance Index score for the last several years due to poor participation. But Diaz contends that this year’s success stories are a turn for the better. The final leg, he said, was getting financial aid. 

“It’s difficult, because they have to pay out-of-state tuition,” he said. “Some of the students are trying to get local grants and have interviews lined up with several foundations.” 

Law said she was trying not to worry too much about it. 

“I have filled out my financial aid application and I plan to work,” she said. “I don’t have a lot of money, but I have faith. I feel like I am going to be OK.”

With considerably less rancor than two weeks ago, when it squabbled late into the night without taking a vote, the Berkeley City Council Tuesday night unanimously approved moving forward with its ambitious Climate Action Plan (CAP), designed to serve as a roadmap to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the city.  

The 139-page plan is now scheduled to go through what may be an abbreviated environmental review process, culminating in a final council vote June 2. 

While Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Kriss Worthington engaged in a brief but spirited blowout over a Bates ruling that delayed a vote on a Worthington substitute motion, the City Council appeared determined to move the CAP forward, and deliberations were marked by councilmembers going out of their way to accommodate and incorporate suggestions and amendments introduced by fellow members.  

The CAP proposal moved forward by the council on Tuesday included virtually all of the suggested additions submitted in written form by various councilmembers, although some of them came only after lengthy deliberation during the meeting between councilmembers and members of the city staff team that developed and wrote the plan. 

It was consideration of those same suggestions that prevented the council from coming to a decision on the plan two weeks ago. The council originally debated the CAP proposal at its April 21 meeting but ended the meeting in the early morning hours without taking a vote, after a lengthy discussion and an inability to come to a decision on how to handle suggested amendments. 

Following the meeting, Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said that, while he supported the plan and its greenhouse gas reduction goals, “there’s just not enough people in Berkeley to have a significant effect on global warming, even if all of the reduction goals in the CAP are reached, even if we all went around in sackcloth and ashes.”  

Wozniak said that his hope was that the discussions and actions eventually surrounding the implementation of the CAP would spur “innovative ideas” on greenhhouse gas reduction in the city that could be passed on and adopted by other communities.  

“This is a community full of pretty smart people,” Wozniak said. “I think our greatest value in this process is developing ideas that can affect the larger Bay Area and the nation.” 

Forty Berkeley citizens made public comments on the CAP, fewer than commented at the April 21 meeting, when speakers lined up all the way down the center aisle of the council chambers to the back door. The April 21 meeting had been dominated by Berkeley homeowners worried by a San Francisco Chronicle article predicting that building renovations “mandated” in the CAP would cost homeowners thousands of dollars. Mayor Tom Bates and several councilmembers and city staff members insisted there were no intentional mandated renovations in the plan, and Councilmember Maio introduced amendments taking out any references in the plan that might hint at requirements. That appeared to satisfy most residents, or at least mute the protests, and only two homeowners spoke on Tuesday night specifically protesting possible costs for renovations. 

Most speakers spoke in favor of passage, with Linda Swift, co-chair of the Climate Change Team of the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville, saying, “I don’t think anybody [at this meeting] would say that the plan is perfect. And we could discuss this plan forever if we want to. And we’re very good at that. But the need is very urgent. We need to get going on it. Let the plan be a guide.” 

Others, such as Planning Commission member Patti Dacey, were supportive of the CAP’s goals but felt that the CAP needed more work before adoption. “I think much in this plan is excellent, but there are some really bad things in it,” Dacey said, noting as one example that “there is no way that keeping in the items promoting increased density around selected transit lines and certain transit nodes won’t require a full public hearing under [the California Environmental Quality Act].” 

Several audience members at Tuesday’s meeting had signs clipped to their chests calling for a full environmental impact review under CEQA on the CAP. 

While a full CEQA hearing on the CAP is still possible, city staff has embarked upon an alternative course. Planning and Development Director Dan Marks told the Daily Planet that his office began moving forward with a “negative declaration” process under CEQA immediately following the April 21 council meeting (available online at www.berkeleyclimateaction.org).  

Under that process, the city declares that there will be no negative environmental effects from passage of the CAP. Under CEQA, the “negative declaration” must be issued and published at least 20 days prior to final council action on the CAP. Marks said he moved forward with the “negative declaration” even though the council did not vote to move forward with the CAP on April 21 because at that time he was still working under the timetable of a final council decision on the CAP on May 19. With the moving of the CAP decision back to June 2, Marks said he will re-evaluate the issued negative declaration in light of the council amendments at Tuesday’s meetings. If the amendments have substantially changed the CAP, Marks said that he can issue a new negative declaration and have the declaration posted for 20 days, in time to meet the June 2 deadline for final council approval. 

Marks said that, if he feels the council amendments are substantial enough to require a full environmental impact report, that process could take something in the neighborhood of six months before final passage of the plan could be considered by the council. 

The genesis of the CAP was City of Berkeley Measure G, passed by Berkeley voters in November 2006 by an 81–19 margin, that set the 2050 80 percent greenhouse gas reduction goal. The CAP was then developed by city officials to provide detailed plans through the year 2020, to set the city on the path toward that 2050 goal. While the CAP sets recommendations for action in three specific areas—sustainable transportation and land use, energy use in buildings, and waste reduction and recycling—it does not mandate any action, which must be approved on a case-by-case basis by the council.  

In other action Tuesday night, the council: 

• Approved on a 7-1-1 vote a Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) approval of construction of a five-story mixed-used building proposed by Ali Kashani and his partner Mark Rhoades for the corner of Ashby and San Pablo Avenues (Maio, Moore, Anderson, Capitelli, Wengraf, Wozniak, Bates yes, Arreguín no, Worthington abstain), rejecting an appeal by residents Stephen Wollmer and Toni Mester. The council earlier rejected, on a 2-4-3 vote, a motion by Worthington to have a public hearing on the appeal (Arreguín, Worthington yes, Bates, Maio, Capitelli, and Wozniak no, Moore, Anderson, Wengraf abstain). During the council deliberation, Worthington read into the record what he said may have been improper e-mail communications between the developers and city staff members, including acting City Attorney Zach Cowan, but gave no other details. 

• Set a May 19 date for consideration of a ZAB decision to allow the early opening of the West Berkeley Bowl at 920 Heinz Ave. without full completion of the traffic mitigations called for in the project’s environmental impact review. No appeal of the ZAB decision had been received by the city by Tuesday night’s meeting, but City Manager Phil Kamlarz said that any appeals received in the next few days would be part of the May 19 council consideration. 

• Deferred, without explanation, consideration of a proposed sweatshop free ordinance by Councilmembers Kriss Worthington, Max Anderson, Darryl Moore, and Jesse Arreguín. The item is now rescheduled for the June 2 council meeting. The proposed ordinance would ban any city contracts or purchases with businesses that “maintain or participate in sweatshop working conditions.” This is the second time the ordinance has been postponed. 

• Postponed until May 19 consideration of city co-sponsorship of the 22nd annual Juneteenth Festival, scheduled to be held on June 13. Festival sponsors say there have been some problems with the city’s permit for the event but gave no details, and Councilmember Max Anderson has been negotiating between city staff and event sponsors. Anderson said on Tuesday that he thought an agreement “can be worked out.” 

• Approved the appointment of Deanna Despain as city clerk, effective May 17. Despain has been serving as acting city clerk since the retirement of Pamyla Means in June of last year. 

If Safeway representatives thought fresh carrots and celery sticks would appease the disgruntled crowd at the Claremont Hotel Wednesday, April 29, they were wrong. 

The supermarket chain unveiled the latest design for its revamped College Avenue store, and, while there were some in the audience who applauded it and made a beeline for the nibbles, others fumed and fretted, arguing that the proposed expansion was out of scale with the neighborhood. 

Safeway’s current store at College and Claremont avenues is a modest 25,000 square feet. It sits right on the Berkeley-Oakland border against the backdrop of the Oakland hills and serves the Rockridge and Claremont communities. 

While some area residents understand the company’s need to upgrade, adding softer lighting, earthy tones and wider aisles, they don’t agree with its need to expand. They think a two-story structure will attract more people, leading to traffic snarls in an already congested neighborhood. 

The 61,972-square-foot project, which will be submitted to the City of Oakland May 6, includes a 50,400-square-foot Safeway on the second floor and eight new retail storefronts on College, totaling 11,572 square feet. Safeway itself will be enclosed in a glass facade, much like a design proposed last year, and customers will be able to access it via elevators and stairs. 

The gas station located at the edge of the Safeway parking lot, at the corner of College and Claremont, will be converted to about 3,500 square feet of retail space, with a public roof garden that connects with the grocery store through a skywalk. The underground parking lot, which Safeway promises to keep well illuminated and monitored by video cameras, will hold 173 cars. 

Many area residents who came to see the new design were bewildered by the fact that the dozen or so colored architectural renderings on display Wednesday lacked any mention of square footage. 

“There is no size under the drawings, which is a big problem,” said Anne Metz-ger, a neighbor. “Why don’t they have any figures? It’s ridiculous.” 

Metzger joined a group of people watching a Power Point presentation conducted by architect Ken Lowney, who was fielding questions about the size of the project. 

Lowney, the only person from Safeway at the event who agreed to talk to the Daily Planet, said that creating a pedestrian-friendly retail environment had been one of the highlights of the remodeling. 

“I was specifically told by Safeway to not look at any of their other stores,” he said, explaining that he had incorporated a lot of glass, copper, bronze and stone to help the new building blend in with the surrounding environment. 

A man in the audience praised Lowney for doing a terrific job with the retail space. 

“It’s honoring pedestrian culture, which is missing on that part of the street,” he said. 

Karen Nickel, who lives at College and Boyd, said that she was in love with the new plan. 

“I absolutely love it,” she exclaimed. “It’s awful to shop there right now. I think the building looks beautiful.” 

Dean Metzger, president of the Claremont-Elmwood Neighborhood Association and Anne Metzger’s husband, said he was disappointed Safeway had not taken into consideration the community’s feedback about keeping the new store small. 

“I don’t see anything that accommodated the neighborhood’s concerns at all,” he said peering at a drawing that showed a view from Cole Coffee on 63rd Street. 

Since last fall, Safeway has held a series of stakeholder meetings with neighborhood groups, local merchants and community members to get feedback on the expansion project. Requests ranged from improving a bulky grAy wall adjacent to College on the current Safeway building to controlling traffic. 

At the April 29 unveiling, Safeway displayed an informational chart that pointed out that the company had removed the wall in the new design. As for whether or not the redesign would make traffic conditions worse, the company’s display materials said it would carry out a traffic analysis. Next to the statement, someone had scrawled “When?” but no answer was forthcoming. 

The question on a lot of people’s minds, however, was why Safeway had not paid attention to concerns regarding the size of the new store. 

“It seems like they paid no attention to our feedback at all,” said Susan Shawl of Concerned Neighbors of College Avenue Safeway. “At each meeting, the overwhelming response was that Safeway needs to cut back on the size. Size has been our issue all along. We are really disgusted. They’re in for a major fight.” 

Safeway spokesperson Esperanza Greenwood did not return calls for comment by press time. 

Denny Abrams, developer of Berkeley’s very successful Fourth Street retail neighborhood, who lives a few blocks away from the store, called the design a “monster that looks like Walnut Creek.” 

“I am quite insulted by the sign on top that says ‘Rockridge,’ as if it’s supposed to represent Rockridge,” he said. “In fact Rockridge is the total antithesis of that. It doesn’t represent Rockridge at all. It’s an insult to what Rockridge is all about.” 

Abrams said most neighbors would like to see the existing market renovated, but didn’t want Safeway to turn it into a “$100 million vacuum cleaner” to suck money out of the local community. 

Joseph Anderson, who was shuttling from one end of the room to the other with a plate of food, agreed. 

“Too high, wall to wall with the sidewalk,” he said shaking his head. “Reminds me of the Broadway Plaza, which is a shopping mall. I don’t think anybody wants a shopping mall. The only thing that looks good is the food.” 

For more information on the Safeway expansion, see www.safewayoncollege.com.  

The Berkeley Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday, April 29, to provide as much as 1,900 additional square feet of land to build a pool that’s comparable in size to the existing Berkeley High School warm water pool, if the need arises. 

Board members also re-asserted their willingness to host the warm water pool at West Campus. 

At its April 15 board meeting, the board received the draft Citywide Pools Master Plan from a task force, which outlined a preferred option and two alternatives. The master plan seeks to improve and replace the city’s public pools. 

Board members were scheduled to vote on whether the city should move ahead with the environmental analysis. District officials had recommended that the board approve this step. The Daily Planet reported on April 16 that the board had asked city officials to proceed with the master plan’s environmental review, but the district’s facilities director, Lew Jones, told the Daily Planet May 1 that the board had not taken any action on the matter. 

“They didn’t ask them to proceed, but they didn’t ask them not to proceed either,” Jones said, explaining that the city did not need any formal direction from the school board to carry out an environmental review. 

Instead, the board voted unanimously to accept the report from the pools task force and affirmed its willingness to house a warm pool at the West Campus. 

The task force’s preferred plan includes a warm pool and a recreational pool at West campus, a competition pool at King and a lap pool with play features at Willard.  

The two alternatives presented include a smaller warm pool and maintaining the existing lap pool at West Campus, a competition pool at King and a lap pool at Willard. 

According to Jones, both the board and the council “appeared to express interest in exploring a modified alternative plan, which kept the current outdoor pool at West Campus and allowed the construction of a warm pool, similar to its current size, at West Campus.” This plan, said Jones, would likely see a warm pool built on the western edge of the property and the elimination of the dive pool, while the existing lap pool would be saved. 

“In order to build the warm pool at this size and maintain the existing outdoor lap pool, the warm pool must bump out to the north and go beyond the current fence line,” Jones explained in his report to the board, adding that the approximately 1,900 additional square feet needed for the job would extend approximately 32 feet north of the current fence and about 58 feet from east to west. 

At the April 29 meeting, district officials once again recommended that the board encourage the council to proceed with the environmental analysis of the task force’s preferred plan and the alternative plan that keeps the existing lap pool and builds a new warm pool at West Campus similar to the size of the existing one. 

But the board instead approved a motion to host a warm pool at West Campus, retain its existing lap pool and add up to an additional 1,900 square feet of land to build a pool comparable to its current size, which is around 2,250 square feet. 

“They are really kind of silent on it,” Huyett told the Planet of the board’s decision to not address the environmental review issue. “They are not for it or against it. They are leaving it up to the city. The board sees its role as very limited in terms of the pools—we give permission to the city to use our pools or our property.” 

Huyett said that it was now up to the city to take the master plan to the next level. 

“It [the board’s vote] does clear the way for the city,” Huyett said. “I think they have done the positive thing. They are welcoming the city to use district property and are also fine with giving additional land.” 

The city and the district, Huyett said, have yet to work out an agreement about the land. 

“It could be a very-long-term lease with the city or just permission to use the property,” he said. “We haven’t decided that yet.”

With their Downtown Area Plan off to the City Council and revisions of West Berkeley zoning already under way, planning commissioners are taking up the long-delayed Southside Plan. 

The plan will govern development in the city south of the UC Berkeley campus. 

Land Use Planning Manager Debbie Sanderson briefed commissioners on the update process during their April 29 meeting, assisted by Elizabeth Greene, the planner assigned to the project.  

Work on the plan began in 1997, with an initial draft ready by 1999, and further revisions added to a 2003 draft. 

“Most of the language is a museum piece of where things were in 1999,” said Greene, but some of the recent revisions were based on the 1990 census, because there was concern the 2000 count wasn’t accurate. 

The commission told staff last September to begin another round of revisions, a task completed last month after meetings with UC Berkeley staff, city staff and community members, Greene said, 

The completed document is available at the main library and at the Planning Department, and has been posted on the department’s website.  

Now it’s up to commissioners to make their own revisions, and they picked a three-member subcommittee—headed by Vice Chair Harry Pollack with James Novosel and Patti Dacey as members—to execute the task. 

The full commission will review and possibly revise their draft before adopting a final version to send on to the council. 

The goal, Greene said, is to have the final revisions and an accompanying environmental impact report ready for the City Council in Sep- 

tember, along with accompanying changes in the zoning code to accommodate the plan’s goals. 

Currently the area includes residential and commercial zones. 

The existing zones don’t reflect changes to local and statewide development standards, including city policies on so-called accessory dwelling units such as garage conversions and so-called in-law apartments, nor do they reflect changes to the state density bonus law made in 2004. 

While the existing height limit for most private residential development is three stories, bonuses and variances could bring this to as much as six stories in some residential areas if developers include significant low-income housing in the projects. 

Projects on university-owned property are outside the plan’s scope. 

The revised draft given to commissioners would also raise the maximum height for commercial buildings from 50 feet to 65 feet (or from four up to five floors). 

Commissioner Gene Poschman said he was troubled that low-income units built to qualify for the bonuses weren’t as nice as other housing units in the same projects. 

“If you look at the last six projects approved, the concessions were almost exclusively used to make sure the density bonus units don’t have to be as good as the others,” he said. 

Downtown zoning 

After their review of the Southside Plan, commissioners tackled a March 10 City Council directive charging them to come up with quick fixes to downtown zoning, designed to make things easier for new businesses and for changes in existing ones. 

“They asked us to come back with amendments we could adopt quickly to encourage economic development downtown and to report back by July 1,” Sanderson said. 

She and her staff came up with 20 proposals, all designed to reduce the level of permit review, dubbing the package “a trial balloon.” 

The city has three basic levels of permit for new businesses and changes in use. The strictest is the use permit, which requires a public hearing and approval by the Zoning Adjustment Board (UPPH). Next is an administrative use permit (AUP), which requires a review and approval by city staff. The last category, the zoning certificate (ZC), is granted “by right” and accomplished by a simple over-the-counter exchange of cash for paper. 

Even with the changes, Sanderson said, “there is not a clear idea how effective they will be in reducing vacancies downtown. It’s a question of hope.” 

After a lengthy discussion, commissioners voted 6-1-1 (Dacey opposed, Poschman abstaining) to ease permit requirements from UPPH to AUP for: 

• Department stores. 

• Gyms and health clubs. 

• Theaters not in existing film and performance spaces. 

• Child-care facilities. 

• Recording studios. 

• Full-service restaurants with beer and wine service that are more than 200 feet from a residential district. 

• Full-service restaurants without beer and wine that are within 200 feet of a residential district. 

• Quick-service restaurants within 200 feet of a residential district. 

Commissioners also approved a reduction from an AUP to a ZC for quick-service restaurants more than 200 feet from residential districts, and they decided that radio and and television broadcast studios should receive the full UPPH review. 

The other action item on the commission’s agenda, approval of a condominium tract map for Urban Housing Group’s development at 700 University Ave., received a quick, unanimous approval. 

URL for online version: 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=420

The state Department of Education announced Monday, May 4, that the Berkeley Unified School District will receive more than $1.6 million for 2009-2010 for services related to disabled and poor children. Of this $1 million is regular Title I funding. with the balance coming from stimulus funding . 

Although state public education officials announced in January that school districts would be receiving stimulus funds, they had not allocated the amount to each district. 

The district will receive the first installment—$614,718—in May. 

The state has also allocated $5 million toward the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act fund to the North Region, Berkeley Unified’s Special Education Local Plan Area. 

Berkeley will have to share the money with the Albany, Piedmont and Emeryville school districts, which are also included in the North Region, so the exact amount each will receive is not known. 

The U.S. Department of Education last month awarded California $564 million in recovery funds for socioeconomically disavantaged students and $634 million in IDEA funds for disabled students, which is half of what the state is expected to receive. 

The other half is scheduled to be handed out in the fall. The federal government is says these are one-time funds and is asking districts to use the money for short-term investments rather than ambitious long-term goals which cannot be sustained once the recovery funds are exhausted. 

Berkeley High School’s third Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony honored 24 former athletes Saturday, May 2, through a celebration that honored both the past and the present. 

Nineteen were former athletes, ranging from Colby “Babe” Slater, class of 1914 for rugby and football, to Kamani Hill, class of 2004 for soccer. They joined the ranks of former inductees such as Jack LaLanne, Billy Martin, and Phil Chenier. 

Additionally, five special contributors to Berkeley High athletics were also inducted, including retired athletic director and physical education teacher Don Davies and KTVU Channel 2 newsman and Berkeley High lacrosse founder John Sasaki.  

The children of James P. Donahue, after whom the school’s Donahue Gym was named, presented a plaque for the gym, which recounts the story of their father’s dedication to Berkeley High sports. 

The second annual Lee Franklin Scholarship was awarded to graduating senior Owen Krebs. For more information, see www.berkeleyathleticfund.org. 

In February of this year, the California Legislature came to a compromise agreement between Democratic and Republican lawmakers in order to balance the state budget. As part of that compromise, several budget-related propositions were put on the May 19 special election ballot for voters to decide. This article concentrates on two of the major propositions: 1A and 1B. 

What do they do? 

Prop. 1A attempts to smooth out some of the ups and downs in California’s future budgets by extending some of the temporary tax increases passed by the Legislature last February; placing limits on the percentage of state income that the state can spend each year; and making it easier for the governor to make midyear budget cuts without legislative approval. Prop. 1B increases state spending for K-12 public education. Because Prop. 1B cannot go into effect unless Prop. 1A also passes, and because the education funding increases in 1B were introduced in order to mitigate some of the spending cuts in 1A, these two should be considered companion pieces. However, if it is passed by voters, Prop. 1A would go into effect even if Prop. 1B does not pass. 

What are the effects on the 2009–10 budget? 

None. The tax increases in Prop. 1A are already in effect, and the spending cap would not go into effect until fiscal year 2010–11, the public education set-asides the following year. 

What are the long-term effects? 

Revenue Increases: In order to solve the immediate budget problem last February, the Legislature passed several temporary revenue increases: a 1 percent increase (from 8 percent to 9 percent) in the state sales and use tax through 2010–11; a .5 percent tax rate increase (from 0.65 of a vehicle’s value to 1.15 percent) in the vehicle license fee through 2010–11; and various raises in the personal income tax rate through 2010. If passed, Prop. 1A would extend the sales and use tax increase for one year, the vehicle license fee increase for two years, and the personal income tax increase for two years. Those increases are projected to bring in about $16 billion in state revenues through fiscal year 2012–13, helping to ease the state through the effects of the current recession. 

Spending Cuts: Prop. 1A has been described as putting a cap on state spending. The legislature can’t establish a long-term “spending cap” with a proposition saying the state can’t appropriate more than, say, $110 billion in a year because the money available to the state fluctuates from year to year, and $110 billion might break the budget in one year while it might fall far short of taxes and revenues in another. So instead, Prop. 1A proposes capping state spending each year by putting a larger percentage of the state’s revenue in the state’s reserve account, as well as making it more difficult for the governor to spend that reserve account money. Some of this reserve fund money will be left in the reserve fund for use in lean economic times, and some will be used to pay down the state’s current debt or to rebuild the state’s ailing infrastructure. Prop. 1A also makes it easier for the governor to reduce spending in certain circumstances following the passage of the budget without having to go back to the Legislature for approval. 

Fiscal conservatives say that the reserve account changes are necessary in order to ensure that the Legislature doesn’t overspend in future years. Liberal-progressives say that the reserve account changes are bad because they would prevent future Legislatures from being able to allocate enough state money in response to unforeseen new situations. Liberal-progressives also argue that while the revenue increases in Prop. 1A only last through fiscal year 2012–13, the reserve fund/spending cap provisions are permanent, meaning that the state will have less money to work with after four years. 

Finally, Prop. 1A establishes a special supplemental public education fund, while Prop. 1B authorizes the spending of that extra supplemental money for K–12 public education.  

Who supports them? 

California Taxpayers Association, California Teachers Association, California Fire Chiefs Association, California Police Chiefs Association, California State Conference of NAACP, Gov. Schwarzenegger. 

Who does not? 

California School Boards Association, California Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union State Council, California Nurses Association, ACORN of California, League of Women Voters of California, State Senator Loni Hancock, State Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, State Assemblymember Nancy Skinner. 

Teacher groups split  

The two statewide K–12 public education associations have split on these propositions, with the California Teachers Association in favor, the California Federation of Teachers opposed. The Oakland Education Association has broken with its parent organization, the California Teachers Association, and is opposing Prop. 1A. 

18-year-old murdered in South Berkeley 

An 18-year-old man was murdered Monday, May 4, on the 1300 block of 67th Street, according to Berkeley police.  

Around 11:30 p.m., the Berkeley Police Department received calls of shots fired in the area. Officers responding to the scene found the 18-year-old in the rear yard of a residence, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Berkeley Fire Department paramedics.  

The murder was Berkeley’s second of the year.  

The shooting rattled residents of Southwest Berkeley.  

“It’s a damn shame,” said Shay, a dreadlocked young man standing with two friends on the corner of 67th and Mabel, a short distance from the crime scene. Berkeley police would not release the name of the deceased or any information about the cause of the incident.  

Another area resident named Calvin said he was lying awake in bed when he heard several gunshots fired. However, he did not see the incident, choosing to take cover instead. “I grew up in West Oakland,” Calvin said. “When you hear shots, you don’t go looking out the window.” 

Detectives are asking for the community’s help with this investigation. Anyone who may have any information regarding this crime is urged to call the BPD Homicide Detail at 981-5741 (office) or 981-5900 (non-emergency dispatch line). Callers who wish to remain anonymous are asked to call the Bay Area Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). 

Bank robber at large 

Berkeley police detectives are asking for the public’s assistance in locating a man suspected of robbing the Telegraph Avenue branch of the Bank of America twice in 12 days. 

The suspect, a black man in his 40s, approximately 5’11” to 6’2” in height, of medium build and sporting a scruffy beard, was videotaped robbing the bank branch at 1:13 p.m. April 23 and again at 12:11 p.m. May 4. In both instances, the man handed a note to bank tellers demanding cash and indicating he had a gun. Pictures of the suspect are on the Planet’s website, www.berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

The Bank of America is offering a reward of $1,000 for any information leading to the suspect’s arrest. Anyone who may have information should contact the BPD Robbery Detail at 981-5742 or 981-5900. Callers who wish to remain anonymous are asked to call the Bay Area Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). 

Man dies after hit-and-run accident 

William Henderson, 55, of Berkeley died Sunday from injuries sustained during a hit-and-run accident in Berkeley last Wednesday evening.  

According to witnesses, Henderson was struck by a dark green Buick Park Avenue at the intersection of Adeline and Harmon streets on April 29. He was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland with serious injuries, but never regained consciousness.  

Berkeley police do not have any suspects in the incident and are asking anyone with information to contact them at 981-5900.  

Fatal DUI accident 

A unidentified man was killed in a fatal car accident on Tuesday evening on Shattuck Avenue.  

The black Chevy Camaro was fleeing a traffic stop at 24th street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. Oakland officers did not pursue the driver, who sped away from the stop. Berkeley police first observed the Camaro driving north on Adeline Street from Alcatraz Avenue with its lights off. Another BPD officer saw the same car crash into a tree in the center median of Shattuck Avenue north of Dwight Way. 

Berkeley firefighters freed the passenger and the driver, 22-year-old Jamar Devon Cleveland of Oakland, from the car. Both men were taken to the Alameda County Trauma Unit, where the passenger was declared dead shortly after 12:40 a.m.  

Cleveland was booked in the Alameda County Jail for vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol.

A couple of years ago I bought this black shirt and pants I’m wearing for $2—my first black outfit. A.O. Sachs, my friend, who always said, “Call me A.O., the Alpha & the Omega,” whose body recently passed from us, commented at our weekly gathering in this North Berkeley Senior Center’s Lunch Room before the Living Philosophers Group which meets upstairs in Room C from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., every Friday, “You’re dressed rather somberly this morning.” “You think so?” I replied. “I don’t see it that way. Black is a compliment of light—you can’t have one without the other.” “Perhaps,” I continued, “wearing black is a joyous celebration of life: guilt free, without a loss of self due to the loss of another, not lurking in the night to take advantage, not pedaling sins, no evil, but to call attention to the dance of shadow and light, an affirmation of the process of living-being in this universe, whatever that is. A point of view thing, I guess.” “Shall we dance?” says I. With a big grin, A.O. comes back, “Yes. ‘Shall we dance, ta da, da, da,’” (to the tune in The King and I) breaking into song along with Henry Bers (the sing-along dude here at the Senior Center). Now, this was not unusual for Henry and A.O. to do those Friday mornings; they both knew the words to quite a few songs, along with a general joining in by the coffee, tea, juice and buns crowd in the early light of the day. 

At 10 a.m., our philosophy table would rise for our meeting upstairs, but A.O. would depart to meet with someone, I never knew who, as he did every Friday morning, but would later come into the Living Philosophers group around 20 past 11. Most of the group went down for lunch at noon. A.O. would come over to me, pulling up a chair, and we would talk until 12:45, just the two of us for many months, until gradually others began to join us. A.O. and I particularly liked talking about process. He stated that as a cognitive therapist he had devoted much of his time to group process. And we would commiserate how few understood its importance rather than doting excessively on content—the way of, rather than just the events in relationships. His preference in communicating was one-on-one or in small, informal gatherings. He didn’t often offer an opnion even if asked. 

Whenever, I ran into A.O., surprisingly frequently, he seemed to be everywhere, I would say, “Aye! Lad!” And he, too, “Aye, Lad.” This was our standard hello and good bye, usually with a hug. He was big on hugging. When walking down the street with him here in Berkeley, he seemed to know more people than anyone else I knew. Smiles, hellos, hugs. But it moved along quickly. He rarely tarried—always going somewhere. 

The sign on his backpack offered himself as a listener, his phone number, 24 hours a day. Though interestingly, he frequently had his phone turned off and no answering machine. Messages could be left with a friend. 

Based on some of the professional journals he subscribed to and shared, I thought for some months after meeting him that he had once been a minister. His persona as I knew him for about five years was available, disciplined, usually warm, firm when needed, caring, systematic communication processes, self reliant, human ups and downs, take responsibility for your burdens, take life straight—neat, no boos—no fancy stuff in the sky. 

A.O. learned he had a short time to live. He accepted it and as far as I could tell he was calm and steady throughout his process of dying. A few days after he moved into hospice, he called me on the phone, primarily to say, “I want you to know, I love you, man.” I visited him on March 10, Tuesday, an hour before dinner. Martha was there. She later told me his mind was quite clear that day. The nurse came in to give him his dose of liquid morphine. He sucked it straight up, and the nurse commented, “You sure took that right in.” A.O. knew that he could request the morphine every hour, faster than it would take the four hours to clear from his system, in order to manage the pain. A few days after I visited him, he did just that and effortlessly and painlessly passed away. He had a steady stream of visitors; many friends kept coming during his hospice care. 

This brings us to some of the nitty gritty. Life is not just a bed of roses. There are plenty of thorns along the way. I think it’s safe to say that all of us have experienced much suffering in our lives, and, rather oddly, done our best to spread it around. 

Dying is just as important as being born; both have fundamental rights in the human process. I am against the death penalty, because the opportunity to experience our passing should not be deliberately tampered with without the individual’s consent. There is too much unknown here not to respect the manner in which one leaves this mortal coil. We cannot ultimately know another’s state of mind in that moment, nor can we know first hand what will happen before we die. 

I personally choose to celebrate all sentient creature’s passing, not because I am glad to see them go, I will miss them, but because throughout life our eventual leaving makes living so much more precious and valuable to make the most of it. 

How one chooses to die, if fortunate enough to have the choice, seems to me best not to be judged but taken by the living as an example to help us understand how to live a more meaningful and compassionate life within each of us which we can share. 

Inner peace opens space within us, to be able to look around in there which can allow us to have compassion for our self which can lead us to see ourselves in others and then have compassion for others, too. 

I can say that the life and death of A.O. Sachs, as I have known him, is a privilege for me to have shared—one of the billions of exquisite beings on this planet whose mystery, in the immediate sense, aids in the dipping into the deeper mystery, which just may be, standing at the gate to the secret of all life. 

“Aye, Lad, wherever we are or are not, 

I love you, man!” 

Why do some unions insist on shooting themselves in the foot? The current hysterical media campaign by San Francisco’s Building Construction Trades Council against the proposed implementation of voter-passed Measure J, establishing a Historical Preservation Commission, is a textbook example of how to do it.  

On Tuesday their sfbctc.org website popped up this message in mega-point bold type:  

We are fighting for our lives... 

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a measure on historical preservation that would kill much of our work… 

Work is hard to find now.  

Don’t let it go away forever. 

Clearly, the SFBCTC has never heard the story of the boy who cried wolf. The proposed regulations they’re inveighing against were sponsored by two of the city’s most progressive Democrats, Aaron Peskin and Chris Daly, people highly unlikely to be trying to kill off construction work in San Francisco.  

The pop-up message pitched a damp rally that took place at noon on Tuesday, intended to lobby supervisors to pass a watered-down set of regulations which would leave Measure J toothless. Preservationists planned a counter-picket. Various San Francisco pols showed up and said there, there, don’t worry. 

Maybe the Building Trades haven’t gotten the memo: we’re in a recession, no, maybe we should make that a depression. And the reason construction is down (and it is) is primarily because construction funding is tight. That’s not because of historical preservation, guys, but because financial shenanigans at a global level have sucked the cash out of the economy. But it’s much easier to blame problems on anyone who doesn’t want San Francisco’s historic buildings demolished to make way for the kind of industrial-technology building projects the SFBCTC seems to favor.  

This just in: re-habbing existing buildings uses more labor than new construction. Really. Check the figures. Also: re-using older buildings is the greenest alternative, when you consider the sunk environmental costs they embody, along with the very substantial contemporary impact of demolishing them and trucking away the rubble.  

And modern construction methods are resource hogs. Manufacturing new cement is a very energy-intensive process, as is making the steel for rebar.  

Chuck Nevius, of the Chuck ‘n’ Chip Show, the metro daily’s matched pair of suburban philistine columnists, gleefully knocked preservation in a recent column: “No one wants to tear down the Palace of the Legion of Honor, but preserving broken-down structures because they fall into a vague historical category isn’t useful either…historical advocates like Peskin maintain they are trying to protect the unique architectural feel of the city. That’s fine, but not if it means creating an urban museum.”  

He quoted a land use lawyer: “It’s like the Venice phenomenon… Venice is beautiful, but no one lives there.” 

Never mind that the tourist industry profits handsomely from marketing San Francisco’s historic beauty. Better San Francisco should have some nice strip malls like Concord, where Chuck is rumored to live, right? 

Writing about BCTC minions picketing a Democratic luncheon in San Francisco last week, Nevius left readers with the impression that it was all about historic buildings holding up construction jobs. Only from the Bay Guardian and Fog City Journal online could one learn that the fight was much more complicated (or perhaps much less complicated) than that. It seems to have to do with some plumbers’ union official, son and heir of another of the same, who failed get the liberal majority on the Board of Supervisors to appoint him to a commission for which he’s totally unqualified. His nose is out of joint…hence the picket.  

The building trades and historic preservation don’t have to be enemies. Our extended family contains both building trade union officials and architectural historians, so I’ve always been sympathetic to both perspectives. Last week I wrote a quick e-mail to the Trades Council website suggesting that they risked losing friends like me by knee-jerk anti-preservationism.  

Council Secretary-Treasurer Michael Theriault wrote back saying the press had gotten it wrong, but nonetheless, he said, “Someone had to throw sand in the gears, and fast. We’ve done so. I don’t regret the picket, even with the misreporting.”  

Mr. Theriault, like Mr. Nevius, seems addicted to quick takes and extravagant turns of phrase.  

On the council’s website is a column with his byline entitled “A Moment for Anger.”  

Why his anger this time? Well, a great big building proposed for 110 Embarcadero is being held up by a bunch of people whose opinion he disdains, among them some members of the International Longshoreman’s and Warehouseman’s Union. The project if approved and built would require demolishing a piece of union history, a building which played a key role in the famous 1934 general strike. A couple of ILWU locals oppose tearing it down, supported by someone characterized by Theriault as “a Marxist activist.”  

(That’s a phrase I haven’t heard used as an epithet in a while now, or at least since we got the last letter attacking our Dispatches columnist. Evidently McCarthy-like red-baiting is alive and well in the building trades, dead though it may be in other venues.) 

Sometimes people in the building industry, both bosses and workers, seem to believe that the main purpose of construction should be to provide jobs. Well, no. The buildings should also be needed. 

In cities like San Francisco and Oakland and even Berkeley numerous fancy and environmentally costly condos now sit empty, and in Stockton whole housing tracts are vacant. Office vacancy rates are up too. 

If we want to make work for the unemployed, there are many other things in contemporary society that need doing, such as providing decent home health care for the elderly. In an era when the threat of climate change is real, it’s not environmentally sound to tear down re-usable structures just to build new ones, or to continue to manufacture a steady stream of un-needed new buildings as an excuse for providing a paycheck for union labor accustomed to industrial construction methods and unwilling to learn adaptive re-use techniques.  

CLIMATE ACTION PLAN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The “rebuttal” by city officials is alert damage control. However it cannot erase the ominous intent as displayed in the direct quotes from the advocates for mandated “improvements” to our quality of life. 

I am retired, and my 401K has gone to hell. I pay $10,000 per year of property taxes on a one-bath home of less than 1,200 square feet. Paying out $30-50,000 will most emphatically not improve the quality of my life. Although I’m sure it would further the life-meaning credentials of some other folks. 

An interesting question comes to mind. Who would want to purchase a home in Berkeley? Why would anyone put a substantial part of their nest egg at the mercy of this crowd? Perhaps it would only be the people referred to by Willie Brown as “the no jobbers. Those who have no jobs, have never had a job, and will never need a job.” 

A quote from a friend, who is a longtime Berkeley resident and a lifetime liberal, may help communicate the disgust endemic regarding this proposal: “Our only hope may be that these idiots get caught up in a big battle with the preservationists. Double-paned windows aren’t part of the craftsman look—or any other of the wonderfully diverse and distinctive architectural styles that make Berkeley housing so interesting. This is the dumbest idea these idiots have ever come up with. I can’t believe it will go anywhere—even in Berserkeley.” 

Bill McIntyre 

• 

DOWNTOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Randy Shaw’s April 30 commentary offers an interesting proposal: “This could involve the city renting longtime vacant storefronts...and then subleasing the space at below-market rents to desirable users. Or the city could agree to subsidize the rents for desirable businesses that lease such locations...”  

While these ideas offer solutions to the vacancy problem, they both constitute a money drain that the city can’t afford. So let’s take the concept up a notch. How about a zoning ordinance stating that any storefront that remains vacant for a year must be put up for sale to the highest bidder. If no bids are accepted within six months, the city could then offer the highest bid and become owner of the property, rent it out, and enjoy the rental income. If the city’s bid is rejected, the nuisance property would be confiscated by the city to the same end. Such a law would provide a powerful incentive to property owners to reduce rental rates to realistic values. 

Jerry Landis 

• 

TRAFFIC AT  

WEST BERKELEY BOWL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The zoning board’s temporary fixes for the traffic problems at Berkeley Bowl seem inane, to say the least. Ashby and San Pablo are major streets without any consideration of Berkeley Bowl. To say that traffic coming off the freeway and up Ashby can’t make a left turn at San Pablo seems ridiculous. The same thing will be true of people headed west on Ashby. People will have to go a block further and wind their way back to San Pablo through a residential district. What a grand mess that will make! 

As far as Heinz and Ninth streets go, some of us who live in the neighborhood go to Orchard Supply by going down Ninth, crossing Heinz and going in the back way. It’s shorter and we avoid the major traffic congestion of San Pablo and Ashby. When I come out of Orchard Supply I go straight down Ninth to the stop sign at Dwight, which is the safest way to get across Dwight, and turn left at Channing to get to my house on Eighth. If I’m not allowed to cross Heinz, but must turn left or right, I will have to go across Dwight without a stop sign. I can do it, but it’s not as safe or as logical. Sometimes I will be doing this trip by bike, and Ninth is a bicycle boulevard.  

This is dumb. It’s like everything centers around Berkeley Bowl, as if the rest of our lives don’t count. Just leave things as they are until Caltrans can put in the lights on San Pablo.  

Connie Tyler 

• 

COLLEGE AVE. SAFEWAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What’s up with the plan to expand the Safeway at College and Claremont? I haven’t been involved in the process, but as a very frequent, satisfied customer of this Safeway, and happy neighborhood pedestrian, and occasional driver to this Safeway, I decided to attend the April 29 meeting “hosted” by Safeway at the Claremont Hotel. (If I hadn’t read the Planet, I would not have known about the meeting. I don’t think I saw a notice at Safeway until the day of the meeting, but I could be wrong on this.) 

I assumed that drawings and information, provided and prepared by Safeway would be available at the “meeting” in hard copy, but drawings and statements were on boards and the large crowd had to go up and attempt to read them—much like when one is attempting to read information at a crowded museum exhibit.  

Safeway reps and architects were stationed at video stations around the room. To me the most important question was and is, “Why do you want to expand?” The very limited response from the representative was “to better serve our customers.” Really? What customers? Did Safeway Corporation survey current Claremont/College customers? Do we want a bigger Safeway? I think the large majority is happy with the quality and quantity of our current Safeway. We certainly like the convenience and the warm and helpful staff. Does Safeway think it will be able to compete with the new giant Whole Foods? I doubt that an expanded Safeway will cut into Whole Foods’ clientele. Does Safeway corporate management really believe that a Safeway that looks like a Ralph’s in Encino, or perhaps a megamarket in Danville will draw customers from the other side of the tunnel?  

I can only surmise that the representative who said the reason for the expansion is “to better serve our customers,” misspoke. Perhaps he intended to say, “to better serve our “shareholders.” From the drawings and tenor of the April 29 meeting (which wasn’t really really a meeting), it looks like Safeway is more focused on the landlord business than the grocery business. It also seems to me that if a street needs to be widened to accommodate a proposed expansion, it is likely that the proposed expansion is too big. 

Kathie Zatkin 

• 

REFUSE FEE INCREASES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The Berkeley City Council has been talking trash—specifically, about increasing the rate of refuse and recycling services. Unfortunately, the council’s proposed rate increase in order to meet the very worthwhile goal of diverting 75 percent of waste from landfills by 2010 is not fiscally justifiable. The council has consistently failed to show budgetary discipline where it really counts. Approximately 77 percent of the city budget goes toward employee salary and benefits, yet the city manager (who has a $200,000 salary plus $100,000 in benefits) was given an 8 percent increase this year. Police and fire personnel received in 2008 a 14 percent raise over a period of four years, presumably because other cities have similar contracts. This is the same rationale Wall Street CEOs used to hopscotch their way to excessive compensation. Instead of asking citizens (some, such as myself, who have had their income cut this year) to pay more, the council needs to address the systemic problem of an unsustainable model of employee compensation. Admittedly, this will be a very unpleasant task. 

Robert Gable 

• 

SECOND-HAND SMOKE  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Even in our enlightened times I notice that bus stops in Berkeley and Albany are full of second-hand smoke. Smokers don’t stop, even when they are close to passers-by or to children waiting to board the bus. Smokers feel they have a right to light up anywhere. For example, they continue smoking near the rehab center where ailing and sick people come to recover and heal. 

All of us know that second-hand smoke is bad for our vital organs, especially the lungs of young children. But smokers don’t pay any mind to the health needs of others. I would like to know how the spirit of caring for others can reach those who are addicted to cigarette smoking. 

Romila Khanna 

• 

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As we listen with furrowed brows to the pundits trying to explain what caused the economy to go into the tank, one thing, unmentioned, keeps bothering me. Trillions were lost, no question about that, but where did the trillions go? CEOs got millions and the banks got billions. That still leaves billions unaccounted for. Some entity and/or people must have been the covert recipients as the bubble burst and the gap between the wealthy and poor widened. As Butch inquired of Sundance: “Who are those guys?”  

Robert Blau 

• 

BERKELEY MEADOW  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Carol Denny’s complaint about dogs in the Berkeley Meadow, there was never any “abuse” of it by “dog owners.” Even disobedient off-leash dog-walkers had to keep their dogs on the beaten path, since the brush was too thick for any dog to penetrate it. Nor were there any less migratory birds than since the area has been fenced. 

But even if Ms. Denny disputes this, she speaks not for the entire community but only the individuals I named, who, via the Citizens for Eastshore Parks, were instrumental in locking the public out. 

In the meantime, a creative landscape design could provide protected areas for wildlife while not excluding the public, since the area is so large that no amount of birds need it all to themselves. 

In regard to Gui Mayo’s letter, there was only one small temporary homeless camp before the fence, and though the meadow was, yes, wild and untended, it was not “dirty,” lest readers be misled. It was a wonderful place when it was free and open, and many of us, like Gui Mayo himself, enjoyed it for over a generation. I wish more of you out there would write and confirm this as well. 

Pete Najarian 

• 

SWINE FLU  

CONSPIRACY THEORIES  

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Dead pigs found in a southeastern province of China; an al Qaeda plot involving Mexican drug cartels; pharmaceutical companies working with the International Monetary Fund and G-7. These are just a few of the conspiracy theories attempting to explain the deadly swine influenza outbreak in Mexico and spreading to the United States. Unfortunately, after a big event like the current swine influenza epidemic, conspiracy theories inevitably appear. Too many Americans are uncritical consumers of information. Tell a whopper (the larger the better) often enough and many people will come to accept it as the truth. Now many of these same gullible consumers are falling for swine flu scams. Let the buyer beware (caveat emptor) when evaluating information and product claims. Trust, but verify. 

Governments and private entities do engage in conspiracies. However, most conspiracies do not hold up under critical inspection. The danger of succumbing too easily to a conspiracy theory in the present crisis is that it can be damaging to the needed immediate action to avert a possible worldwide pandemic. Conspiracy thinking can produce a deep cynicism towards positive action and long-term organizing upon which change depends. Conspiracy theories also increase the anxiety of an already frightened public.  

What we need is to find the source of the new virus and how it jumped to humans, which could lead to more effective vaccines and drugs to help prevent future outbreaks. Now we need sound science, not wild conspiracy theories. 

Ralph E. Stone 

San Francisco 

• 

SWINE FLU 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The World Health Organization has just ratcheted up the threat alert for the swine flu epidemic to Phase 5 (out of 6). Along with the avian flu of a decade ago, the Hong Kong flu of 1968, and the Asian flu of 1957, swine flu has been traced to animal waste in a factory farm. Its H1N1 type virus is nearly identical to that of the Spanish flu, which killed more than 50 million people in 1918-1919. 

Today’s factory farms constantly expose sick, crowded, highly stressed animals to contaminated feces, urine, and other secretions. They provide ideal breeding grounds for the replication and mutation of viruses and bacteria into more lethal forms. 

In fact, Wikipedia lists more than 70 human diseases that are developed and transmitted by animals, frequently through confinement and crowding. Among these are such infamous killers as AIDS, bubonic plague, cholera, diphtheria, Ebola and dengue fever, measles, SARS, smallpox, West Nile virus, and yellow fever. 

Every one of us can help prevent the development and spread of these killer diseases by replacing animal products in our diet with healthful vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains. These foods don’t carry deadly microbes (unless contaminated by animal waste), are touted by every major health advocacy organization, and were the recommended fare in the Garden of Eden. 

Jeff Garner 

Walnut Creek 

• 

CAN’T SAVE PLANET BY DESTROYING BERKELEY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

If Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) is worth doing, it is worth doing right with ample thought and discussion by the City Council and public—which has absolutely not yet occurred. I implore our council, in the interests of democracy and the well-being of this city, to postpone any adoption or pre-adoptive votes until: 

1. There have been several council 5 p.m. workshops or public hearings to thoroughly and publicly, together, discuss and vet the plan. No more strong-arming, please. 

2. There has been a full environmental impact report (EIR) to determine impacts. The idea of the proposed negative declaration (“because the CAP would not result in any significant adverse environmental impacts,” per Climate Action Coordinator Burroughs) is patently absurd. We cannot know the negative impacts without the EIR and a plan of this scope inherently has negative impacts. 

On specific CAP proposals, we need at least the following changes: 

1. Creation of homeowner incentives, not mandates, whether at time of sale or otherwise. Use of a transfer tax and other possible tax rebates as incentives is excellent. Yes, the city will get less revenue, but if the CAP goal is so worthy, the money will be well—and likely, better—spent. In these economic times, it is cruel and unusual punishment to suggest further financial burdens on our residents. 

2. Careful study and reconsideration of any measures that are inherently wasteful, like new appliances, cars, windows, buildings etc. when the old ones still work or can be made to work. 

3. The EIR needs to assess the impacts of the CAP on open space, solar access, views, historic resources, etc. These are also part of our physical environment and have climate as well as social impact. This assessment is exactly what a full EIR will do and why it is absolutely necessary. 

4. More attention paid to UC Berkeley impacts on the local environment and Measure G goals. What good will it to for the city and its stakeholders to reduce their impacts when UC Berkeley is ratcheting up negative impacts? 

Our city must not continue the strong-arm behavior that this CAP has thus far engendered. Let’s have a thorough and civil discussion. Measure G was not a license for a totalitarian remake of our city. The City Council should take no action now on the CAP other than to extend the timeline, recommend a full environmental impact report, and input several preliminary amendments based on the foregoing. 

Barbara Gilbert 

• 

ANOTHER UNINFORMED  

GARDEN PRACTICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

A few weeks ago I wrote about plans to install artificial turf at the Sankofa Academy adjacent to Bushrod Park in North Oakland, a plan with numerous problems, not the least of which is a playing surface subject to disease transmittal that has barely an eight-year manufacturers guarantee. 

Today I notice another gardening debacle: lovely three-foot-tall brown ceramic flower pots filled with plant material of varying hardiness installed along Telegraph Avenue below Ashby every few blocks into North Oakland, and perhaps further to the north and south. 

I have been in the business of urban landscaping for nearly 30 years, beginning with my career at the old California Street Nursery, and I can tell you that raised street planters, unless the local merchants or nearby residents adopt them, are a waste. Even if the city or merchant group responsible assigns gardeners to water them, it won’t be long before the plants are gone and the barren planters are filled with trash and cigarette butts. 

I hate to sound cynical, but this well-meaning project was recently completed in an area with acres of empty and weed-filled sidewalk tree cutouts and planting strips that would better support rugged trees and hardy perennials than large clay pots. 

Hank Chapot 

• 

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Two years ago the United Nations General Assembly in New York adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is a declaration that recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples to maintain their way of life such as identity, languages, cultures, health and education, as well as prohibiting discrimination against them. 

Unfortunately, four countries with large indigenous populations—the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia—voted against it. However, recently Australia, under a new government, has reversed course and supports the declaration. I hope that President Obama will follow Australia’s new government and support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland 

• 

POOLS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The city must be able to give the schools something of sufficient value such that the school district would be swayed to leave the warm pool where it is at Berkeley High School and to remodel the old gym into much needed and much wanted classrooms. The voters of Berkeley have always been generous to fund new buildings and maintenance, including remodeling older buildings for BUSD. 

The building on Milvia Street that housed Vista stands vacant; it is near both city hall and the other city offices and near the High School. Could the city lease that building, remodel it (it really needs some upgrading just for appearance), then give half the space to high school classrooms and other BUSD functions? Why not? 

A plan for remodeling the old gym has been worked out by Henrik Bull, a talented, semi-retired local architect—a major gift in itself. 

The local schools suffer from many problems related to education of their young charges; and we all want the schools to return to their old high status in the state and nation. We are all appalled at the so-called achievement gap here. 

Terry Cochrell 

• 

REFUSE RATE DECREASE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Even though the City of Berkeley seems certain to increase the rates we’ll all be charged for refuse collection, it’s still possible to reduce your bill. How? By reducing the size of your city-provided refuse container. 

For example, downsizing from a 32-gallon to a 20-gallon container also downsizes your cost by more than a third. 

Doing this would also help achieve Berkeley’s climate-action and zero-waste goals—so it’s a rare chance to save money by doing the right thing. 

And it’s no big sacrifice: Once we recycle cans, bottles and paper, and compost or recycle food scraps (in the green bin), all that’s left for the “garbage can” are a few still-unrecyclable containers and packaging and the occasional irretrievably broken object.  

If you now usually roll a partly-empty black container to the curb, you’ve been paying extra money every week for the empty space you didn’t need. Why pay the City to collect your air? 

To downsize your refuse container, call Refuse Customer Service at 981-7270 during city business hours.  

Alan Tobey  

• 

LIBRARY FEEDBACK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the Berkeley Public Library’s April 16 request for feedback from the public about our experiences with the Radiofrequency ID system: When I go to the main library with my mother, very often the gate alarm goes off when we are leaving with our checked out books. When this happens, the security person checks our paper receipts, but not our bags of books. It seems most odd that the gate alarm so often goes off for no apparent reason. 

At the South Branch, the gate alarm used to go off when anyone passed through and I observed the staff just waving people on through without checking them at all. 

I wonder how safe our collection of books really is with this RFID system. 

Send your feedback to Director of Library Services Donna Corbeil, 2090 Kittredge St., Berkeley, 94704. Or e-mail her at director@berkeleypubliclibrary.org. 

Jane Welford 

• 

BALLOT PROPOSITIONS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The likely defeat of the propositions on the May 19 ballot will cause many disadvantaged people to be denied help. But is this help really more than a scrap of moldy bread? A vote to reject would suggest a public that sees a scam and is disillusioned with the present government. 

Paul Hogarth notes in the April 30 Daily Planet that beyond the outcome of the coming election, it appears that the people of the state are ready for major political reform. He calls for elimination of the two-thirds requirement in the Legislature for passage of tax and budget matters. But his plan is time-consuming, involving collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment that will not go to a vote until next year. Meanwhile, short of massive fed funding, the cities and counties of California will likely see more tent cities, more service cuts, more empty shops, more suicides, more potholes, fewer buses, more crowded schools, more people driven to crime, a worse health care situation and more general malaise. If we survive to next year and the reform amendment passes, then we wait while the legislature gets around to voting something that our governor will sign. 

Personally, I see no meaningful change short of a California “velvet revolution” in which 10 million people descend upon Sacramento and force the whole corrupt government to resign. A rejection of the May propositions will be a sign that people are ready for the creation of a new deal, in that such a vote suggests that disgust at the present political system is at revolutionary levels. Perhaps our new government could be like what the Czechs got after their “velvet revolution,” a literary figure in a top office. They got Vaclav Havel, perhaps we can have governor Alice Walker. 

Should the polls be wrong and the propositions pass, well, then we have seen that the majority still has confidence in this government, which is a pity. 

Ted Vincent 

• 

TRANSIT AMENDMENTS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington had a list of 15 amendments for the latest Climate Action Plan. Most are good government, climate action best practices —buy local, hire local. 

But the three AC Transit items on his list are very controversial. 

Kriss’s no. 1 and 2 amendments are Bus Rapid Transit-friendly strategies that could hurt local business by forcing Eco-Pass fees on financially strapped small businesses. Shouldn’t we be advocating Eco-Pass for all residents and encouraging all to ride the bus? 

Kriss’s no. 8 amendment is a controversial AC Transit strategy, which includes plans to eliminate local bus stops. This strategy is being considered right now for AC Transit’s most popular bus, the 51, which is also AC Transit’s top moneymaker! Removal of stops, as well as building bus-sized concrete bulb-outs on College Avenue and other tactics being considered, would begin to turn our favorite local bus (es) into Limited, or Rapid, or BRT. This would diminish local bus service for Berkeley seniors, disabled, workers, students, and others, and discourage bus riding. 

It’s right for the entire community to be informed about BRT, Eco-Pass, and reducing local bus service in favor of Rapid BRT, etc.—huge, noisy, speeding buses that cause parking and trees to be removed! BRT is a strategy used to encourage redevelopment. 

When I asked Kriss at a public “Sunshine in Government” meeting how he felt about disclosure regarding government meetings held outside Berkeley, he said he did not have time for that. 

Kriss is an alternate for Mayor Bates representing Berkeley on Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, which allocates gas tax monies to transit. Kriss and Mayor Bates, together, represent Berkeley at the AC Transit BRT Policy Steering Committee, which meets in Oakland. 

Disclosure of meetings like these that take place outside Berkeley is necessary. 

They do “disclosure” in Albany in about five minutes—no big deal, but a critical part of sunshine in government—the people’s right to know what’s going on. 

Merrilie Mitchell 

l 

As Berkeley tackles major planning issues this year, let’s note very well some things voters said last November about historic preservation. In Berkeley preservation-minded voters decisively rejected Measure LL. And like-minded San Franciscans approved that city’s Proposition J—by a quite similar decisive margin. 

One attempted criticism of preservation here had been the claim that little Berkeley has more designated landmarks than big San Francisco (or even than San Francisco and San Jose combined). That argument was wildly misleading. Let’s look at the facts.  

Berkeley now has about 252 city-designated “landmarks” as such and 43 “structures of merit.” (By the way, some 15 of them have been wholly or partly demolished.) San Francisco so far has designated at least 264 “landmarks” per se, under Article 10 of its Planning Code. 

But that comparison ignores what both cities call “historic districts.” Berkeley has only four or five city-designated districts and most of them are quite small. Under its Planning Code’s Article 10, San Francisco has already enacted 11 or 12 historic districts and some of them are very large. The Alamo Square and Liberty Hill districts each cover literally hundreds of properties. 

The comparison also ignores the San Francisco Planning Code’s separate Article 11 under which different, and especially strong, preservation controls have been applied within the Downtown C-3 zone. There, 433 or more “significant buildings” or “contributory buildings” have been designated. Also designated there under Article 11 are six “conservation districts.” One such district covers nearly all of the big Union Square shopping area. 

And a great many other buildings in San Francisco enjoy protection because they’ve been identified as historic resources by various adopted area plans, by certain surveys, or by inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and/or the California Register. When alterations to these buildings are proposed, Planning Department staff compares the work against preservation standards. If a proposal doesn’t meet these standards, the staff can initiate what the Planning Code calls “discretionary review.” 

While San Francisco thus has long had extensive landmark, district, and other substantive controls, preservation lacked till now a strong and clear enough institutional voice within the municipal government. In essence San Francisco’s old Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board could merely make recomendations to the Planning Commission and staff. That board’s humble status was prominently illustrated when key parts of its advice about the historic Laguna Street campus were ignored by the Planning Commission. 

Now, voter-approved Prop. J has amended San Francisco’s Charter to correct that institutional weakness. It was sponsored by the Board of Supervisors’ then-president Aaron Peskin and backed by important groups including San Francisco Tomorrow, San Francisco Architectural Heritage, and the San Francisco Democratic Party. Prop. J gives preservation increased weight in municipal decisions. It replaces the old advisory board with a full-fledged commission having a clearly broad role: the new “Historic Preservation Commission.” (Preservation involves much more than just “landmarks.”) Prop. J explicitly gives this HPC strong and diverse powers as to regulations, historic-resources surveying, and other matters. 

Yes, all of this has happened in San Francisco—which has much higher densities than Berkeley’s and much greater development pressures! 

Voters in both cities evidently want historic preservation to be strong. They realize that preservation is green. Indeed it’s a truly vital ingredient for long-term environmental, cultural, and (yes) economic sustainability. 

Some time after the November election, Supervisor Chris Daly proposed a set of related amendments to the Planning Code’s Articles 10 and 11. The HPC, the Planning Commission, and staff have commented on them. The comments might be regarded as amounting to competing versions. 

Now a noisy alleged controversy has developed involving the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council (and abetted by unfortunate statements by San Francisco Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius). Claiming that Daly’s version “would kill much of our work,” the Trades Council instead supports the Planning Commission’s presumably milder version. At noon this Tuesday in Civic Center Plaza, it held a so-called “Rally for Jobs.” 

But the Trades Council’s concerns are basically unfounded. The future application of preservation controls in San Francisco clearly will include ample opportunities for public input. And very importantly, preservation is in fact quite good for building-trades jobs. Rehab of existing buildings tends to be much more labor-intensive than new construction. 

As for the presently competing versions of code amendments, it appears that the differences between them are fairly minor. In any event, the fact that Prop. J’s mandates are embedded in the charter will guarantee a strong voice for preservation in San Francisco. 

Longtime Berkeley resident John English is an avid aficionado of planning and preservation. 

First and foremost, a Berkeley Climate Action Plan should be a community effort. It should not be a top-down mandate for recommendations that might be effective in other areas, but make little sense and might actually be counterproductive in Berkeley’s unusually mild climate.  

The plan was made available to the public only a few days before the April 21 City Council meeting. Many attendees report that they were unable to access the document online even up to the start of the council meeting. Why is this plan being rushed to approval? This unseemly haste is no way to “work with the community”—the exact language of the measure passed by Berkeley voters.  

Although a Resolution approving the April 2009 draft of the Berkeley Climate Action Plan as the “preferred project” for the purpose of environmental review was not adopted on April 21, the Initial Study was nonetheless issued on April 24 claiming “no impact” for all categories on the initial study checklist.  

Clearly, this plan will have far-reaching impacts on Berkeley, and nothing short of a full environmental impact report (EIR) is acceptable. For example, on page 25 of the “Sustainable Transportation and Land Use” chapter of the CAP, the policies suggested include:  

• Reduce minimum lot size for construction of an accessory dwelling unit within a quarter-mile of selected transit lines in order to encourage more construction of these units.  

• Remove some of the restrictions on accessory dwelling units near certain transit nodes. These might include reduced parking requirements, increased size limits, or increased allowed densities.  

Commanding yet more density in our already crowded flatland neighborhoods is hardly designed to have “no impact.” Traffic increases, parking issues, noise, litter, the destruction of open space and back-yard gardens, loss of solar access, all will have potentially profound impacts on the quality of life near “selected transit lines” and “certain transit nodes” (terms which should be defined or specified).  

Moreover, why are homeowners and residences being asked to carry the burden of reducing CO2 levels, while commercial buildings are being given a pass? For instance, air-conditioning is much more prevalent in office buildings than in local homes. And while potentially intrusive and costly steps are pressed upon homeowners, the DAP recently passed by the Planning Commission weakens or removes the strict environmental requirements for large developments contained in the DAPAC plan. The city seems bent on heaping expensive duties upon homeowners while providing profit opportunities to developers.  

To date, the community has been left out of this process; indeed, many people who submitted comments report that their views were never even considered. This is further reason for requiring a full EIR to enable the community to be included in the process.  

We need to severely reduce our energy consumption. It is therefore important to develop a plan that will actually work. It would be shameful if the CAP fails because it is loaded with pork for developers and overly-onerous and intrusive burdens upon homeowners. The mayor and council should allow an open and transparent public process to study the details of this plan, in which the devil resides.  

Karl Reeh is president of the LeConte Neighborhood Association.

Berkeley Public Library recently invited library users to supply “ideas on what has worked and not worked in our current system,” so we decided to systematically test it.  

We found the existing radio frequency identification (RFID) self-check-out system suffers from serious weaknesses, and the security gates are almost completely non-functional. 

In late April and early May, we visited the library’s four branches, where we twice observed and tested each location’s security system and self-check-out machines, with a 10-day interval between tests. We also visited the Central Library once. Here is what we found regarding the security system: 

• More than half of branch libraries’ security gates were not operating at all.  

• The security gate at one of the branches operated properly on the first visit, but was unreliable on the second. On our first visit, our unchecked materials near the alarm set it off as we browsed a nearby library book shelf, as did passing materials between the gates. After we checked out the materials, we were able to leave without any alarm sounding. At this visit, we evaluated these gates as operating correctly. 

But, on our second visit the alarm did not go off as it should have when we placed un-checked materials between the gates. Unexpectedly, the alarm went off as we left the library, after we checked out the materials. We walked back in, puzzled—and as we did, the gates did not sound an alarm. The staff told us we were OK, we could leave. As we left a second time with our checked out materials, the gates sounded an alarm again. 

These same materials that had set off the alarm in the branch gates did not set off the Central Library’s alarm when we subsequently entered and exited there. 

• We tested the Central Library’s security system just once. It failed to sound when we passed through the gates a book that was not checked out. But then the alarm did sound when we brought the book back in through the gates.  

Our conclusion is that, despite the installation of a brand-new Checkpoint Systems, Inc. RFID system, completed four years ago, with maintenance contracts during that time, the library’s RFID security function is not reliable.  

Additional information suggests support for our conclusion. At the end of 2008, for example, we learned from reliable sources that the gates at one branch had been turned off for at least eight months because the false alarms were so numerous that staff was simply ignoring them.  

Another concern is that the RFID technology is far too easy to circumvent. Even if the security gates are working, their theft-prevention purpose can be rendered ineffective against accidental or intentional blocking of the radio frequency signal in a variety of ways that would allow materials that were not checked out to leave the library completely undetected.  

The so-called “self-service” Checkpoint RFID check-out machines are far from self-service, and so unreliable that staff intervention is routinely required. Following are some of the problems: 

• Just getting started can be a problem. The self-check machines provide a broad, flat surface that seems to invite patrons to rest their library materials on it prior to beginning the check-out process.  

When a patron rests library materials on the machine and then begins the check-out process by scanning his/her library card as described in the machine’s instructions—nothing happens. Check-out is impossible. There is no explanation from the machine. Some of the branches have a hand-written sign warning patrons to scan their library card before resting any library materials on the table. At one branch we were alerted by a staff member just as we rested our materials on the machine to remove them and scan the card first.  

• Far from being easy or intuitive to use, the Checkpoint RFID self-check-out machines require a separate step to unlock cases for media such as CDs and DVDs. The patron first checks out the media item, then inserts it into a small black box next to the check-out machine. These openers appear to be out of order often, but are not always marked as such. We did find, at one branch, an unlocking machine marked “out of order.” At another branch the unlocking machine would not at first pull in and unlock the boxed DVD when we inserted it, making noises like grinding gears. We tried again, giving an extra push, and the second time it took in the item. But it did not unlock. The librarian had to unlock the DVD case on an unlocking device at the circulation desk.  

We also observed other patrons having difficulty understanding what to do with DVDs and how to operate the DVD/CD case opener. 

Self-check-out machines have many functional limitations: 

• They do not check out materials if patrons have more than $10 in fines or fees. The machines cannot accept full or partial payment to eliminate the problem. But staff at the circulation desk can. 

• Self service check-out machines cannot renew a book if the patron does not have it in hand—the circulation desk can. 

• Self-check-out machines do not check out interlibrary loan (ILL) materials. 

• They do not check out LINK+ materials. 

• They do not work with an expired card, which the circulation staff can fix. 

• Only one book at a time can be checked out. The machine’s instructions tell patrons to pass only one item at a time over the reader. When we tried checking out more than one item at a time, the machines were unable to read two or more items at a time. Once, when passing a CD and another item over the reader, we received a message saying the case did not contain the CD contents when, in fact, it did. A staff member informed us that incorrect error messages appear all the time, and another said most patrons have trouble with the self-service machines.  

One of the major advantages of RFID, according to a 2005 library handout, was that RFID “makes it possible for us to have patrons checking out their own materials in a much more intuitive and user friendly way than our current self-checks.” 

• Importantly, self-check-out machines cannot perform many additional circulation desk functions. The machines cannot say, as circulation desk staff can, “You have a book due in three days, would you like me to renew it?” Or, “You have books that can be renewed, but you have already renewed your CD and DVD the maximum number of times.” 

We thank the library for soliciting information from its patrons on the workability of the RFID self-check-out system, and we hope other library users will respond by sending their comments to the Berkeley Daily Planet promptly. 

Note: The library Trustees will be discussing the biennial budget at their May 20 meeting. Now is the time for library users to express their opinions about, and suggest alternatives to, the existing RFID self-check-out system. 

Peter Warfield is executive director of Library Users Association and a member of Berkeleyans Organized for Library Defense (SuperBOLD). Gene Bernardi is a member of SuperBOLD. 

Many families in the Bay Area’s large adoption community have challenged the Berkeley Public Library Foundation’s (BPLF) current “Adopt a Book” fundraising campaign slogan. We are deeply disturbed by this unfortunate choice of words. And while we recognize that the usage was unwitting and not intentionally hurtful, we are disappointed that the foundation has ignored our requests to remove the word “adopt” and replace it with an inoffensive yet equally effective one, such as “sponsor” or “read.” 

Many people do not appreciate that using references to adoption in this commercialized way, applied to inanimate objects or a monetary donation, can be psychologically devastating to adopted and foster children, and offensive to many in the adoption community. The first thing I would urge everyone to do is to take this conversation away from linguistic abstractions and, instead, reflect on the tragic human stories surrounding them. Many children in the foster-care system want nothing more than to have their own, permanent loving-forever families. Because the library is free, many of them are frequent visitors. How do you think they feel when they find out that for $25 a book can be “adopted,” when they themselves are not? 

There is a growing awareness throughout the country, and especially in places like Berkeley with deep traditions of humanism and tolerance, that “Adopt-a” language contributes to a larger phenomenon, “Adopt-a-Confusion,” with accompanying negative social stereotypes. National adoption educator Patricia Irwin Johnston, a 2008 White House Adoption Angel recipient, has spoken out eloquently on this issue. (For more information, see http://perspectivespress.com/pjadopta.html.) 

In response to a similar oversight brought to its attention many years ago, the Oakland Zoo was happy to change the language of its “Adopt-an-Animal Campaign” to “Sponsor-an-Animal.” This campaign continues to be successful. Numerous recent appeals to BPLF Executive Director Roxanne Figueroa and the entire board, including Abigail Franklin, who is one of the campaign creators, however, have been unavailing. 

On March 18, Beth Hall, director of the non-profit Oakland-based Pact, an adoption alliance, serving adopted and foster youth, wrote to Ms. Figueroa, “Adopt-a projects, with their gimmicky ‘adoption certificates’ and ‘adoptive parent’ labels, trade on the primary definition of adoption, which relates to family planning and family building.” While adults are clearly able to distinguish between the adoption of human beings and sponsorships “sold” as adoption, 3-to-12-year-olds often cannot. Research has shown that this can lead to stress and long-term low self-esteem of the foster or adopted child.  

Nationally, about six out of 10 people are touched by adoption and foster care; that proportion may well be higher in the dense, diverse East Bay. Thus, many are familiar with the pernicious effects of “Adopt-a” confusion. But many others are not. That such a beloved institution as our local library system has found itself on the wrong side of this issue is itself a measure of just how much public education work lies ahead in this important realm. 

Upset by the BPLF campaign, concerned citizens are circulating a petition for submission to Mayor Tom Bates and the Berkeley City Council. We urge the readers of this article to go to www.petitiononline.com/94704lib/petition.html and add their name to the petition. You do not need to be a Berkeley resident to sign. 

In the meantime, we again ask the BPLF board publicly what we have repeatedly, and respectfully, implored them to address privately. As Peggy Scott, president of Families With Children From China—Northern California and co-author of this petition states, “This issue is not about overly sensitive or politically correct adults; it is about children who are sometimes vulnerable, and unable to speak for themselves. If you understand that this campaign will hurt even one child, why wouldn’t you just change the name?” The obvious solution is to set things right by editing out the hurtful “Adopt a Book” theme from the campaign. What is preventing the BPLF from doing this without delay?  

Lisa Handwerker is a medical anthropologist, and an instructor at California State University East Bay. For seven years she was a member of the Berkeley Community Health Commission. She is the adoptive parent of a kindergartner in the Berkeley public schools, and sits on her school’s Governance Council.

Can we criticize the Catholic Church without having our faith and loyalty called into question? 

It seems that the answer is no. A climate of theological McCarthyism has infected the institutional church, particularly around the issue of abortion. 

Selective public condemnations by a handful of conservative bishops are a Sword of Damocles over Catholic leaders who have experienced drive-by denunciations from the pulpit. 

It is unfair that a Catholic presidential nominee—or a Catholic United States senator or member of Congress—who personally opposes abortion but has genuine convictions that a blanket anti-abortion law would not work in a pluralistic society—can be randomly refused communion by any bishop who so decides. 

A boldface example of the intolerance for alternative views in the public square that is emerging in the Catholic Church is the push to ban President Barack Obama from speaking at Notre Dame University because of his pro-choice position on abortion. 

Great! Let’s not invite America’s first black president—elected with the enthusiastic support of the nation’s youth—to talk about the state of the world at our leading Catholic university. 

John Quinn, the retired Archbishop of San Francisco, recently published a courageous article in the March 30 issue of America magazine severely questioning the wisdom of banning President Obama from speaking at Notre Dame: 

“The demand from many Catholic bishops and lay leaders that the University of Notre Dame rescind its invitation to President Obama to deliver the 2009 commencement address is surely a critical moment in the relationship between the Catholic Church in the United States and the wider American society,” he writes. 

He plainly implies that banning a U.S. President would actually set back the pro-life agenda: “If the president is forced to withdraw, will that bring about fewer abortions in America? Will it enhance the mission of the church? Will it be used to link the church with racist and extremist elements? Will this action be seen as proof that the bishops of the United States do not seek dialogue on major policy questions?” 

Archbishop Quinn has it right. As a former Democratic political consultant, I have watched closely as Republican strategists like Karl Rove cynically manipulate the issue of abortion in campaign after campaign. 

President Bush’s public courtship of Pope Benedict XVI in two orchestrated meetings in Washington and Rome was never without the subtext of Bush’s pro-life stance on abortion. Contrast these camera-ready official encounters to the Pope’s 15-minute meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Vatican. After a short cup of coffee, Pope Benedict released a statement with an implied criticism of Pelosi’s position on abortion. It is too easy to mistakenly infer that Pope Benedict blesses Bush’s entire Republican political agenda while rejecting the totality of Speaker Pelosi’s Democratic platform. 

Second, pro-life politics have become the cultural dividing line in Republican campaigns to determine who is more authentically conservative. Look no further than the choice of pro-lifer Sarah Palin over more qualified pro-choice Republicans as the party’s 2008 vice-presidential nominee. 

Third, Republicans have blatantly used abortion to court Catholic Democratic votes across the nation in the last two presidential elections, relishing the attacks by conservative Catholic bishops on Democrats. 

But one thing is clear. Through all the television spots, brochures, speeches, photo ops and posturing by both candidates and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, there has been virtually no impact in making laws that have reduced abortion in the United States. 

I believe that Catholic legislators who personally oppose abortion but acknowledge the right of others to disagree ought to be respected. Let the Church challenge them to support voluntary education campaigns that discourage abortion or to write laws that eliminate the most outrageous practices of abortion-on-demand. 

The Church should redirect its massive powers of persuasion—now exclusively aimed at a failed and deeply divisive 30-year public sector campaign—toward public education and persuading pregnant women and their families, not targeting Catholic politicians. 

For nine years now, plans have been in the works to bring a Bay Area water ferry service to the Berkeley-Albany shoreline. The state-created Water Emergency Transportation Agency (WETA) is responsible for developing, and operating this regional ferry system.  

While WETA’s main legislated goal is a kin to providing a “water highway” in the event of a catastrophe such as the “Big One,” their ferry system will, at minimum, increase many people’s regional mobility, connect communities, decrease vehicular traffic congestion, and provide a more diverse mass and public transit system. This agency recently, and correctly, voted to choose the Berkeley fishing pier site for the location of the proposed Berkeley ferry terminal.  

Situated halfway between the Berkeley Municipal Pier and Hs Lordships restaurant, the site turned out to be the only practical and available real estate along the Berkeley shoreline. The benefits from the fishing pier site are numerous, and greatly outweigh the negative impacts. Foremost is the site’s ability to increase frequency of the ferries without causing significant impact to other users in the event of an actual “double bridge-out” disaster, where ferry transport becomes critical to the welfare of the citizens.  

Following close behind, is the economic benefit the nine or so marina businesses will reap from the increased foot-traffic that will be practically on their welcome mats. This last issue is important since the City of Berkeley’s Marina Fund has been regularly requiring large fee increases from it users, mostly the boat owners, to stay on an even keel. In fact, at the last Waterfront Commission meeting, the commissioners voted unanimously to raise the marina’s vessel berthing fess by a whooping 6 percent. This proposed rate increase will make the city-run marina the eighth most expensive in Northern and Central California.  

Geographically, this site is outstanding for the ferry terminal. Its commanding view of the bay is priceless, and will surly provide many memorable “Kiss and Drop” moments for countless commuting couples. Additionally, wind-powered watercraft tend to avoid this area because the adjacent mile-long fishing pier creates a “wall.” This wall puts the terminal in a corner area, and makes sensible use out of otherwise unless space. A Dadaism of the Bay, if you will.  

There are many more benefits to this area. Come explore this setting, I am sure you will fall in love with the place as much as I have. But remember take the bus! Ride the No. 9 to the end of the line; you will be 300 feet north of the terminal location. 

The other proposed sites all disrupted their existing environments for various and unique reasons. The site at the foot of Gilman street, which at first glance seems OK, was fatally affected by issues of increased traffic at the notorious I-80/Gilman intersection and mitigation of adjacent bay eel grass, which itself was planted as a mitigation for another project. The Albany/Buchanan Street site was taken out of consideration for being in the East Shore State Park and not fitting into the park’s vision, and because of explicitly stated opposition to the site from the Albany City Council.  

The Berkeley Marina site was just a bad choice to begin with. Existing marina users would not only face life-and-death dangers caused by large ferry vessels and small boats using the same sea-space inside the Berkeley marina, but would suffer many other negative impacts. For example, boat owners on F-G and H-I docks would have their vehicle parking taken away, and be forced to walk a considerable distance from their cars to their boats. The E and F dock boaters would also suffer from restricted seaborne slip access resulting from a would-be 500-foot gangway and attached ferry terminal. This ferry terminal footprint is so large that eight high-value slips in the marina would be removed to accommodate it, and the turning radius needed by the ferries. Another nail in the coffin for this site concerned the “water churn” caused by docking ferries. This Jacuzzi-like effect is very significant, and would absolutely smash the natural tranquility of the marina setting.  

As Berkeley Waterfront Commissioner Paul Kamen noted in his March 25 commentary published in this paper, parking is the main unresolved issue. The parking issue can be resolved in many ways. From simple measures like allowing parking on University Avenue or, to giving berthers at the marina parking stickers, like every other neighborhood in Berkeley, with some parking spaces set aside for their guests. Another solution could be construction of outlying parking lots or multistory garages. Or perhaps, like Mr. Kaman suggested, WETA, which has an explicit right to set fares as it sees fit, could create a progressive fare structure which gives large discounts to people who have used public transport to reach the ferry terminal. This last scenario seems the most pragmatic, progressive, and environmentally suitable, solution for guaranteed long term success of the Berkeley ferry service. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Kamen, who recently voted to place the ferry terminal inside the marina, misses on his other assumptions in his commentary. The most glaring is his list of impacted activities. I believe, from living in the marina for over 10 years, that these activities will be positively impacted from their increased use, public exposure and communal sharing of whatever marina space is available. Furthermore, Mr. Kamen seems to brand the ferry service as a commodity, when in fact it is emergency infrastructure for the public welfare, and therefore plays by a slightly different set of rules.  

Now, according to WETA spokeswoman Shirley Douglas, with “2012 as the optimistic date of first service,” Berkeley can have a shining beacon of light on the shore to guide their collective vessel out of the sea of the Great Recession. The fishing pier site should be enthusiastically supported by the local community. 

James McVaney is a live-aboard boater in the Berkeley Marina and an advocate for the Berkeley Ferry Terminal.

There are strange things done 

To make ferries run 

On the bay by the gate of gold 

And the money trails 

Have their back-room tales 

That would make your blood run cold 

Those bureaucrats 

Have committed strange acts 

But the strangest of all, I fear 

Is how they got votes 

To dock the new boats 

Right next to the Berkeley Pier 

Now the Berkeley Pier 

For year after year 

Was a place to go fishing for free 

Or walk on the bay 

At the end of the day 

With a jug of wine and thee 

The windsurfers know 

It’s the place to go 

Where the wind is steady and strong 

And the sailors too 

(well, the ones with a clue) 

Know it blows all summer long 

Shorebird park 

Right up ‘til it’s dark 

Is a popular place for the masses 

Tidepool studies are good 

For the youth from the hood 

In the Nature Center’s classes 

Adventurers play 

On a hot summer day 

In a junkyard playground mix 

Where the sea breeze is cool 

And they’ll lend you a tool 

To build a new house with old sticks 

The owners of yachts 

Need parking lots 

For families, guests and crew 

And restaurant diners 

And novice first-timers 

Who paddle the big canoe 

But it all has to go 

Cause a ferry, you know 

Is the public transit solution 

Even though it costs more 

And it’s not for the poor 

And it doesn’t help pollution 

But who pays the freight 

If it’s such a bad date? 

There must be public funders 

It’s bridge tolls, you see 

Supporting this spree 

And covering up the blunders 

The process was botched 

In horror we watched 

While the master plan was ignored 

And that EIR draft 

(Are consultants that daft?) 

Could have come from the brain-donor ward 

The parking supply 

Is the biggest lie 

They might need a thousand spaces 

Oh, they claim it’s much less 

But that’s only a guess 

And they say it with straight faces 

A fly on the wall 

Up at City Hall 

Says they still haven’t seen through the ruse 

Take our access away 

And who ought to pay? 

“Not I” said the WETA goose 

There are strange things done 

To make ferries run 

On the bay by the gate of gold 

And the money trails 

Have their back-room tales 

That would make your blood run cold 

Those bureaucrats 

Have committed strange acts 

But the strangest of all, I fear 

Is how they got votes 

To dock the new boats 

Right next to the Berkeley Pier 

Sam McGee is a geologist who lives in Whitehorse, Canada.

Tangled webs  

Piece by piece, the who, what, when, where and why of the Bush administration’s torture regime is unraveling—one by one, countries that either denied or publicly tsk-tsked the “enhanced interrogation” techniques of the CIA are being revealed as abettors and co-conspirators. 

Take Poland, which has long denied having anything to do with the CIA’s “rendition” program that transported detainees to secret prisons to be tortured. But Polish investigative journalist Mariusz Kowalewski, of the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita, has doggedly tracked down rumors that the United States has a prison and secret base north of Warsaw at Stare Kiejkuty. Kowalewski and his colleagues managed to find supposedly “lost” flight logs for nearby Szymany Airport that indicated that a Gulfstream, numbered N379P—nicknamed the “torture taxi”— landed at Szymany five times between February and July 2003.  

On board one of those flights was the so-called “architect” of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. According to the Red Cross, Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times and spent an entire month naked and standing, his wrists chained to the ceiling. 

For the past year, Warsaw public prosecutor Robert Majewski has been investigating the then governing Social Democrats to find out if then Prime Minister Leszek Miller and President Aleksander Kwasniewski abused their powers by turning over the secret base to the CIA. 

According to a report in Der Spiegel, an earlier investigation by the Council of Europe, a human rights organization, found that the secret base was known about at the highest levels of the Polish government. “The order to give the CIA everything they needed came from the very top, from the president,” a member of Polish military intelligence told investigators from the Council. 

Kwasniewski denies the charge, but the public prosecutor is closing in. “No European country is so sincerely and vigorously investigating former members of the government as is currently the case in Poland,” Wolfgang Kaleck from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin told Der Spiegel.  

Dick Marty, special investigator for the Council of Europe, says the ripples unleashed by the Obama administration’s declassification of the CIA torture memos will eventually spread all over Europe, revealing “which governments tolerated and supported the illegal practices of the CIA.” 

Next up in the box? 

Germany, which gave the CIA over-flight rights and refused to pursue 13 CIA agents implicated in the kidnapping and rendition of German citizen Khalid el-Masri? 

Italy, whose intelligence services helped the CIA kidnap Islamic cleric Abu Omar in Milan and render him to be tortured in Egypt? 

Spain, which may have given the “torture taxi” landing rights in the Canary Islands? 

Britain, whose MI6 intelligence agency worked closely with CIA torturers in Morocco? 

Romania, which is rumored to have hosted a secret prison like the one in Poland? 

There are a couple of ripples right here at home. As Black Commentator columnist Carl Bloice points out, why was then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice the first top official to green-light the torture? Certainly, part of it was a desperate drive by the Bush administration to get people to confess to a non-existent link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, thus giving the Bush administration cover for the invasion of Iraq.  

But as Bloice points out, there was also Rice’s odd comment in May 2002: “I don’t think anybody could have predicted…that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked plane as a missile.” The administration had been warned that something involving airplanes was afoot, so what was she talking about? Did the White House know that a hijacking was in the works and turned a blind eye because they figured they could use it to whack Iraq?  

And then there is Wolfie.  

Paul Wolfowitz, who was forced to resign under fire as president of the World Bank in July 2007 after he tried to get his girlfriend a cushy job and fill the bank with right-wing ideologues, was right in the middle of this all.  

According to Gordon Trowbridge of the Detroit News, when Wolfie was Vice President Dick Cheney’s number two guy, one of his jobs was to push the al Qaeda-Saddam Hussein link to justify the war. Apparently Wolfie was gung ho on using torture to do just that and, according to Trowbridge, demanded regular updates on the results of the interrogations. 

In the weeks ahead, the ripples are likely to spread in wider and wider circles.  

Red vs. yellow 

Sometimes it is hard to figure out who are the good guys and the bad guys in the ongoing crisis in Thailand, or exactly what is the meaning behind wearing red or yellow shirts. 

But shirt color does indeed tell a tale.  

The Red Shirts represent the urban and rural poor, who have traditionally been marginalized by the country’s army, wealthy elites and monarchy. Yet the Red Shirts also champion Thaksin Shinawarta, a billionaire former Prime Minister who brutally suppressed Muslim unrest in the country’s south and organized anti-drug death squads that killed some 2,500 people.  

The Yellow Shirts, on the other hand, represent the forces that have dominated Thai politics for decades. They backed the 2006 military coup that drove Thaksin out of power, and support a constitution that would enshrine the power of the elites. The Yellow Shirts are closely aligned with the army and the monarchy, and last year brought Thailand to a standstill by seizing its international airport. 

The Thaksin government came into power in 2001 with an odd mixture of populism combined with support for big business. Debt relief for farmers and a universal health care system recruited the poor to his Thai Rak Thai Party (Thais Love Thais), and big capital backed his business-friendly, free market policies. 

But Thaksin has a penchant for brutality. He took a scorched earth policy toward a low-level Muslim independence/autonomy movement in the South, and simply murdered Thais involved in the drug trade. He also pulled off an inside deal with his telecom group, the Shin Corp, that netted him and his family $1.9 billion.  

What scared Thailand’s traditional elites was the growing political strength of the poor, and the 2006 coup was aimed at re-establishing the power of the throne, the army and the middle class. But a 2007 referendum on a constitution that would have cemented the elites’ domination of the country was overwhelming rejected. 

While the Red Shirts still back the ousted Thaksin, the movement appears to be taking on a life of its own. Rather than just supporting the Thai Rak Thai Party, the Red Shirts have formed a movement called Real Democracy and that, according to Thai author and activist Giles Ji Ungpakorn, is demanding “an end to the long-accepted quiet dictatorship of the army and the palace.” 

According to Giles, every time a government is elected that the elites don’t like, they either overthrow it with a coup or use the courts to declare the government illegal. Thailand has had 18 military coups under its constitutional monarchy. 

There appears to be a growing division between Thaksin and his Red Shirt followers. The ousted Prime Minister—currently living in the United Kingdom to avoid a jail term for corruption—is a supporter of the monarchy and the Red Shirts are moving increasingly toward republicanism.  

“A republican movement is growing,” says Giles. “Many left-leaning Thais, like myself, are not Thaksin supporters. We oppose his human rights abuses. But we are with the citizens movement for Real Democracy.” 

Current Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has ruled out early elections but says he will lift the current state of emergency that was called after Red Shirts chased the Asian summit meeting out of the resort of Pattaya several weeks ago. 

In the face of army troops, the Red Shirts called off their demonstration March 13, but there is deep anger that while driving the Red Shirts off the streets, the army and the police allow the Yellow Shirts free reign to employ violence against their Red Shirt opponents. 

“The stakes are very high,” Giles writes in The Guardian, and he is worried about backroom politics. “The old elites might want to do a deal with Thaksin to stop the Red Shirts from becoming totally republican. But whatever happens, Thai society cannot go back to the old days. The Red Shirts represent millions of Thais who are sick and tired of military and palace intervention in politics.” 

The R word  

According to India’s leading independent investigative journalist, P. Sainath, Indian newspapers have instructed their staffs not to use the word “recession,” because it will “upset the happy buying mood.” In a scathing piece in The Hindu, he writes: 

“The year 2006 is on record in the media as one of our boom years. But it is the data from that year that places us at 132 in the United Nations Human Development Index. That’s a fall from the already dismal 128 we held—and places us below Bhutan. In terms of underweight children and malnourishment, India is a disaster zone. Many below us in the index fare a lot better on that front. We have the largest number of such children on the planet. And there are no issues? That the dominant political forces are able to evade the issues does not mean an absence of them. That we are unable to give coherence to the giant processes unfolding around us says more about the media, less about the issues.” 

Amen.

In the wake of the defection of Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter from the Republican Party to the Democrats, along with what most people are predicting is the ultimate seating of Al Franken as the U.S. senator from Minnesota, combined with the high polling numbers of President Barack Obama and the low national polling numbers of Republicans, national Democrats are feeling exceptionally giddy these days. 

“Arlen Specter’s break from Republicans is the latest in a trip-hammer series of reversals that leaves the GOP more beaten and less popular than either major party has been in decades,” reporter John F. Harris and editor Jim Vandehei wrote in an April 29 Politico.com piece (“GOP Is Specter of Its Old Self”). “Amid gloating among Democrats and recriminations among Republicans, the Specter divorce is both symptom and cause of the GOP collapse—leaving the opposition party on the brink of irrelevance in Barack Obama’s Washington and facing few obvious paths back to power.” 

It takes 60 votes to break a Senate filibuster, the minority Republicans’ most powerful tool in blocking the Obama and Democratic legislative agendas. With Mr. Specter and Mr. Franken on board, Senate Democrats would reach that magic number. 

But some commentators are looking at an even more far-reaching effect, the end of the two-party system as we’ve known it since the rise of political parties in America. 

DeWayne Wickham of Gannett News Service writes in a May 4 piece that the Republican Party “is now on the verge of disintegration” (“Specter’s Defection Shows Republicans Entering Death Spiral”). That phrase was echoed by the great Paul Krugman of the New York Times, who wrote in an April 28 blog entry that “we have a [Republican P]arty that seems to be in a death spiral: the smaller it gets, the more it’s dominated by the hard right, which makes it even smaller” (“The Specter of Republican Marginalization”). And “History Geek Examiner” Jeff Reed, blogging in the San Francisco Examiner, writes that “if the GOP doesn’t find its voice—and quickly—the party of Eisenhower and Reagan must not be surprised to find itself in the same position once filled by the party of [John] Adams and [Alexander] Hamilton: abandoned and forgotten, a political corpse fertilizing yet another single-party Era of Good Feelings.” (“Arlen Specter and the Death of the Republican Party”). 

A word of caution: Have we not passed this way before? 

Twice, in recent memory, we have seen predictions of the withering away of these same national Republicans.  

The first came following the presidential election of 1964, when Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater moved the Republican Party farther to the right than its members wanted to go and subsequently had his clock cleaned by Lyndon Johnson in a 486 to 52 electoral college landslide. The national Republican Party was dead, we were told. 

The resurrection didn’t take long. Four years later, Richard Nixon put into place his Southern Strategy, in which he appealed to longtime white Southern Democrats who were disenchanted with the Democratic Party’s adoption of civil rights goals. That, combined with the Democratic divide over the war in Vietnam, led Mr. Nixon to victory in 1968, followed by a 1972 landslide even greater than Mr. Johnson’s, 520 to 17 over Democratic North Dakota Sen. George McGovern. 

Following Mr. Nixon’s impeachment over the Watergate crimes and scandal and his subsequent resignation in 1974, the national Republican Party was supposed to be dead again. It was almost immediately revived again, this time by Republican California Gov. Ronald Reagan, who had led a conservative movement to shift the politics of the country to the right following the Goldwater defeat, and who himself defeated Democratic President Jimmy Carter in yet another electoral college landslide, 489 to 49, in 1980. 

Two Republican presidential landslides within a few short years after two previous predictions of permanent demise. That, in itself, should give the current predictors some pause. 

But further, even if the current crop of Republicans defies that particular history and manages to go belly-up, other examples of American political history show that this would not necessarily lead to some sort of semi-permanent Democratic Party dominance. 

Twice in American history, we’ve witnessed the actual and complete demise of dominant national political parties—that is, political parties whose members have won at least one presidential election. 

The Federalist Party, which twice elected John Adams as president, began its demise as a national party around 1816, its place in American politics taken by an organization called the National Republican Party, whose members eventually—around the early 1830s—formed the Whigs. Thomas Jefferson’s Democrat-Republican Party (yes, it’s somewhat confusing) won presidential elections through 1820, following which the D-R party split apart, one of the factions becoming the modern Democratic Party. 

Meanwhile, the Whigs won the presidency under William Henry Harrison (1840) and Zachary Taylor (1848) before eventually breaking apart over the slavery issue, some of its factions forming the Republican Party and electing Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860. 

The American political history lesson here, therefore, is that even when a major national party (the Federalists, the Whigs, or even Jefferson’s Democrat-Republicans) has actually died, its place in American political prominence has been taken over immediately by a newly emerging major national party, made up of factions of the demised party. 

That history would suggest that even if the modern Republican Party died off as a national power, as some are predicting, the conservative political banner that the Republicans have been holding would most likely be taken up by some other party, newly-formed. 

This scenario is made more likely by the fact that the current Republican travails are more the result of the party’s own bunglings and internal contradictions than by any clever strokes by national Demo-crats, and that the coalition that has made the Democrats currently dominant is likely to grow so big and unwieldy that the Democratic Party will be unable to hold it together for very long. 

The bunglings (if that’s not too mild a word for it) consist of the woeful record of the eight-year presidential administration of George W. Bush, which are so fresh in mind that they need not be recounted here and, in any event, are far too numerous to set out in a single column. The internal contradictions are the split between moderate fiscal conservatives and social conservatives within the Republican Party, with the social conservatives—the party’s spiritual and activist wing—now driving the moderate fiscal conservatives out. 

Democratic optimists and cheerleaders see a rosy scenario in which moderate fiscal conservatives join Arlen Specter in moving over to the Democratic Party—in the same way that old-line Democrats like South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond led a massive Southern turnover to the Republicans in the 1960s—while the social conservatives put a stranglehold on the national Republican Party, condemning it to more-or-less permanent minority status. 

But the success of that scenario—success for Democrats, that is—is based on the assumption that social conservatism will remain a minority political philosophy in America for the foreseeable future. There is hope by some that the spirit of tolerance and acceptance of difference that represents the best within the hip-hop generation will create a new and permanent spirit of national inclusiveness. But we have seen such hope before—in the generation that marched South in 1861 to rid the country of slavery and in their spiritual and physical descendants who rode and bussed in the same direction a hundred years later to rid the country of racism, both to be eventually dashed in what came to be called the “backlash.” And given the strain of violent racial and sexual intolerance that lies—at best—always just below the surface of American life, one should be careful of predicting the end of fear and hate as a dominant and dominating engine in American politics. 

Democrats are pleased that moderate conservatives like Arlen Specter are being driven out of the Republican Party by the party’s hard-liners, even predicting Senator Olympia Snow of Maine as the next possible-probable convert. They are also expecting to pick up more Democratic senators and representatives—as was done in the 2008 elections—by running moderate Democrats against vulnerable Republican moderates in “swing” states and districts. 

The result of these Democratic raiding efforts, if successful, would certainly be a larger Democratic Party, but not necessarily one that would be able to pass what we would call a Democratic—much less a progressive—agenda. And that would be a Democratic Party so large and ungainly, pushed and pulled both from the right and the left, that it would satisfy neither moderates nor progressives, a repeat of the bloated, directionless party of the ’70s and ’80s that was so vulnerable to the lean and hungry Republicans. 

There are many political scenarios that could spin out of the current national political situation. One could be a merging in the center, moderate Republicans and Democrats forming a coalition that eventually develops into a centrist party, leaving progressives and social conservatives holding the remains of the old Democratic and Republican parties respectively and turning the country into a three-party state. Or the death of the current Republican Party—if there is such a death—could result, merely, in the rise of a new Conservative Party, leaner, more disciplined, and better able to compete and regain political control. Or some unforeseen event could drive the country back to the right, reversing the recent Democratic Party gains. Any of those are just as possible as—perhaps more possible than—the current predictions of the Democratic Party building a multi-generational dominance similar to that fashioned in the depths of the Depression by Franklin Roosevelt. 

Picking away at the center is an adequate holding strategy to help prevent the immediate return of Bush-style government. But if progressives want a more permanent solution, the strategy remains the same as always—they must move the country to the left by constant teaching and confrontation and patient conversion. Progressives must develop their own governance strategy, independent of the charisma—however compelling—of a Barack Obama. Progressives, in fact, should begin thinking beyond Obama and planning and preparing for what will come next. Believing that our social-conservative friends will hand over permanent reins to the country by fumble and default, or that some great leader will always be available to pull the country out of the fires, does not even merit the status of false hope. It is no hope at all. 

We’ve been spending a lot of time with the peregrines lately, thanks to the folks at the Santa Cruz Predatory Research Group who operate the nest camera. This year the downtown San Francisco peregrines have chosen to nest on the PG&E building instead of the underpinnings of the Bay Bridge. Three of the four eggs hatched a couple of weeks ago, and Dapper Dan and Diamond Lil are busy feeding a trio of increasingly large and voracious chicks. 

(Dan is the former mate of Corona, the Queen of the East Span, with whom he displaced the former resident pair, George and Gracie, a few years back. Corona disappeared last year, and then Lil showed up. It’s a real soap opera. Dan was known as Tecate for a while, but the name didn’t stick.) 

A number of peregrine eyries worldwide, including one on the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Ron’s home town, have their own webcams. You can also watch bald eagle nests online: two in Washington State, probably others elsewhere. 

A friend who has been monitoring one eagle family informed me last week that the second egg had hatched. “Great,” I told her. “Stay tuned for the siblicide.” 

Yes, that’s a real word, and a widespread phenomenon among birds. In a few species, including some eagles, American white pelicans, and blue-footed boobies, the first-hatched chick almost always does in its younger brother or sister. That’s called “obligate siblicide,” or sometimes “Cainism.” In others, like the great egret and black-billed magpie, life in the nest is harmonious unless the food supply gets short, and then things turn nasty: “facultative siblicide.” 

Douglas Mock, a biologist at the University of Oklahoma, has written a book called More Than Kin and Less Than Kind, which discusses siblicide—and the broader category of brood reduction—in fascinating detail, and with a minimum of academic jargon. As he explains, siblicide has perplexed scientists for decades. It flies in the face of the idea that siblings should be predisposed to cooperate because of their shared genes (“I would risk my life for two brothers or eight cousins,” J. B. S. Haldane is supposed to have said.)  

The textbook case of obligate siblicide is the black eagle, an African species that preys on hyraxes. Calculating that only 2.5 percent of second-hatched chicks survived to fledge, ornithologist Leslie Brown called the female black eagle’s persistence in laying a two-egg clutch “an inexplicable example of apparent biological waste.” Food supply seems irrelevant; observers have watched alpha eaglets attack betas in nests piled with hyrax carcasses. Mock offers the caveat that the process has only been observed twice, since black eagles, like their relative the golden eagle, are wary birds that nest in inaccessible places. 

Mock also points to flaws in Brown’s logic, including the assumption that all the casualties in eagle nests that lost one of their two chicks were betas. He sees 20 percent beta survival as a more defensible figure. That would match the global average for the golden eagle, which conceals considerable geographic variation. Golden eagles in Scotland fledged an average eight-tenths of a chick per year; in Montana, just under a chick-and-a-half. 

In both black and golden eagles, the female begins incubating the first egg as soon as it’s laid. The second egg arrives two or three days later, by which time its older sib has had a considerable head start. The longer the lag time between eggs, the greater the tendency to obligate siblicide. Since females are the larger and stronger sex among eagles, a first-hatched female eaglet would have a near-insuperable advantage over a second-hatched male. 

Rather than inexplicable, Mock sees the production of the second egg as insurance. Birds that lay a single egg—kiwis and albatrosses, among others—are taking a considerable risk; if anything happens to it, there’s no time to replace it during the nesting season. A first-laid eagle egg is subject to the same hazards—infertility, mechanical cracking, predation. A second egg hedges the parents’ bets. If the second egg is smaller than the first, that lightens the parental investment. Although in theory the parents might be able to provision two nestlings to fledging, odds are that the prey base will fluctuate. That would make the first chick’s murderous behavior a preemptive strike against a future competitor. 

Facultative siblicide is not unknown among falcons. But Dan and Lil have an inexhaustible supply of city pigeons at their disposal, and the kids aren’t likely to get lethally hungry. (Not to equate siblicide with cannibalism; often the victim goes uneaten.)  

Siblinghood is deeply fraught even for those of us who didn’t have to fight our brothers or sisters to the death. I have to wonder if eagles are more neurotic than albatrosses.

Risk aversion varies from person to person. Some are comfortable on motorcycles while others prefer to walk. Some skydive or walk tightropes between buildings and still others, inexplicably, choose to remodel the only bath in their house. 

Remodeling your sole bathroom is not for the meek and certainly not for the unprepared. Frankly, I don’t know how some people survive it, and I know that it has been the source of much heartache and more than a few screaming bouts since the outhouse pushed its way inside and became the W.C. (For those of you under 50, that stands for “water closet.”) 

Remodeling is a surprisingly scorched path for many, but few projects carry with them the weighty burden of this one. If you are preparing for a remodel of your loneliest number (which would be ONE, of course), here are some suggestions that might save a portion of your sanity. 

First of all, be prepared. While some level of spontaneity can be enjoyed in many remodeling projects, this should be kept to a minimum in this case. Do your homework; plan this job out thoroughly; have your remodel drawn out to the quarter inch and have your contractor carefully selected. 

Picking a contractor for this particular job is different than for other jobs. You want to have a contractor who is very skilled in anticipating the many surprise items that can interrupt the flow of the job, but small enough (the crew, not the person) so that they will be able to stay on your job without a break for the entire period. That’s the key. From the time that the job begins, the job should proceed without a break until the day you enter and lock the door, sequestering yourself in secret joy. 

A crew of two or three is about right for this job. More members than this will be sitting on their hands and, one way or another, you’re going to pay for this. A single, very energetic person can do this job, but it’s not optimal in terms of time. 

A plan, a permit and a complete list of objectives should be in hand prior to commencement. Anything that can impede progress of the job should be eliminated prior to giving up your magazine-reading privileges and allowing Joe or Marge to place tools in your hallway or extra bedroom.  

Permits are required for virtually anything that can reasonably be called a bathroom remodel, and when in doubt, call the city building department and ask. Despite the fact that they will tend to fall on the side of administrative rigor (“Yes, ma’am, you have to have a permit to replace a light bulb”), the bath remodel is one job that will virtually always require a permit. And this permit is quite beneficial, because there are many code issues at play in the bath (though they do not splash, nor do they frolic). Despite the small area, these code issues carry with them significant safety and practical gnosis. Baths have changed a lot over the years and codes regarding baths continue to change at a steady rate.  

This means that you are quite likely to participate in some serious changes in the way wiring, plumbing and finishes are installed on this bath as compared with the one you are demolishing, or even the one you would have wrought 10 years ago. The latest code version has plenty of text in red (or underlined) as proof of this. So, again, to prevent undue delay (and puffy red eyes from crying), it is best that permits be obtained and a simple set of plans submitted. 

Shopping is incredibly important. Make it your objective to procure all components to the finished bathroom prior to commencement of the job and you will be a much happier camper. Have the tile (including plenty of extra to cover breakage, cutting and other waste), thin-set mortar, grout and tile backer board in the garage. Have the toilet in the basement (special orders can take weeks to arrive and this can bring your job to a halt if not properly considered), have the tub in the backyard. Buy the vanity, sink and light fixtures well in advance and pack them away. While it is possible to buy plywood, studs, nails and Wonderboard on a moment’s notice, many of the items that will go into the bath (a new window? a skylight?) may not be readily available once the job is under way and will certainly take time to buy while the job is in progress. If nearly every component is present and on site when you start, this will speed things along. 

Another thing that you can do to make sure that things will proceed swimmingly is to request that your contractor carefully examine all the accessible areas that may be affected by the work prior to starting the job. Have them get into the crawlspace and look at the configuration and condition of the waste pipes as well as the water supply piping. Is the piping old galvanized? (This must be upgraded in the confines of the bathroom walls, at least.) Is the waste piping corroded? Properly supported? Adequately sized? Make accommodations for upgrade in advance. Don’t leave these issues to be dealt with in the heat of construction. 

Ventilation requirements have changed in our newest codes, and vent fans are no longer optional for bathing spaces. Plan ahead to have the best ventilation, since good ventilation saves the paint, the tile and wood framing as well as making a space safer (less slippery) and more efficient (you don’t have to wait to see your God-like visage in the mirror). In-line fans are my personal favorite, although any good vent fan is a step above the open window approach that never worked very well anyway. Planning in advance should include shopping for your in-line or in-ceiling fan, identifying the output location (wall, ceiling) and the type of ducting. 

The same applies to lighting and heating. Shop early, buy all the parts, set them aside and be ready to install them the minute the preceding task is complete. Don’t miss out on in-floor heat or an extra duct and register from your existing furnace. Most baths lack adequate heat and the bath is certainly one place where this is de rigueur. Light is often and afterthought, and when rushing to get through to a completed bath, may get tossed aside. Consider a small sun-dome skylight (or any skylight), and consider a range of lighting types, despite the small space. Overhead, vanity and accent lighting all can fit nicely into the smallest bath to wondrous effect and need not cost a great deal. In fact, lighting and electrical wiring is downright cheap if you do it while the walls are open. 

Lastly, let me say that the single most important factor in the remodeling of your lonely bathroom is, perhaps, the selection of the contractor. This is not the time to pick your brother-in-law or the woman you really like on the next block. They may be the right person for the job, but you must pick someone who is dedicated to moving through this job with determination, sagacity and vigor. It must also be someone who you believe will be able to talk to you when you are angry and tired. Remodeling is trying under the best of circumstances. Those who have been through lengthily remodelings can testify to this and some can tell you, if they are honest enough, that they may have lost it a time or two when they were just overwrought and not their best selves.  

We are all private creatures to some extent. Some of us are very outgoing, but all of us need our privacy some time. There are few places in our lives where this is as rigorously true as in our relationship to the place where we bathe, make up and refresh ourselves. When this room is taken from us for several weeks (yes, I said several weeks—if all goes well!) we may begin to exhibit behavior and experience feelings that we can not justify. Working with an experienced contractor who can demonstrate progress each day and show us that things are proceeding toward completion can aid us (even you big, strong men) in understanding that everything is OK and that, soon, we’ll be showering in our grandly renewed space. A contractor who doesn’t over-react to our momentary moodiness and understands our feelings and the importance of staying the course in stormy seas is worth many drachmas (and is rarely the low-drachmas bid). 

Oh yes, there is one more bit of advice I’d like to add. To the best of your ability, try to create an alternative bathing situation for yourself prior to having your bath taken from you. A port-a-potty in the side or backyard (near the back door?) is just about essential, although you could purchase a camp toilet or a small incinerating toilet. These are nice to have in the event of a natural disaster anyway, and might be a worthwhile long-range investment. Add to this a shower or bathing option at your gym, workplace or a neighbor’s house and you might actually be well set. If it’s a neighbor or friend, you might want to have a backup so that you don’t strain the relationship after a few weeks. Joining a gym for a month might be well worth the cost. More sensitive (or self-knowing) shoppers might even find it worthwhile to rent a nearby apartment for a month. 

The difference that good planning can make is hard to demonstrate or prove until the wheels come off the bus, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one.  

The French author Andre Gide once said of risk that, “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” I’m not certain but it seems like this has to have something to do with waiting to use the bathroom. 

ASK MATT 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

THURSDAY, MAY 7 

CHILDREN 

Young Actors Workshop “Love’s Labors Lost” featuring students age 11-18 from middle and high schools from around the Bay Area, Thurs.- Sat. at 7 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Aesop’s Playhouse, Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave. Tickets are $9-$13. 

FILM 

Project YouthView: The Power of Youth in Film Fifth annual evening festival of winning bay area local youth film shorts, plus the documentary “Trouble the Water” at 6 p.m. at Historic Theatre of the Alameda Theater & Cineplex, 317 Central Avenue, Alameda. Sponsored by Alternatives in Action. Tickets are $5-$8, $100 for VIP section. 748-4314, ext. 304. www.projectyouthview.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Raka Ray and Seemin Qayum discuss “Cultures of Servitude: Modernity, Domesticity, and Class in India” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

“Mongol Zurag: Artist’s Talk with Narmandakh Tsultem” whose work is featured in the IEAS Gallery exhibition “Eternal Sky: Reviving the Art of Mongol Zurag” at 4 p.m. in the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Floor. 642-2809.  

“Art and Culture of Cuba” with Sue Matthews, at 6 p.m. at West Auditorium, Oakland Main Library, 125 14th St. at Oak. 238-3136. 

Judy Yung and Eddie Fung will give a slide talk on their book “The Adventures of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cowboy, Prisoner of War” at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 536-7512. 

Poetry Flash with Chad Sweeney and Farrah Field at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Eva Hoffman reads from “Appassionata” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Koto Concert with Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto and Brian Mitsuhiro Wong in celebration of Asian Pacific Islander month at 12:15 p.m. in the Art and Music Dept., 5th flr., Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6241. 

Piper Link at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Kelly Park Trio with guest vocalist Seaon at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Night of Roots Rock, Country Western and Blues with Natasha James, The Madison Blues Band and Pete Olson at 7:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082  

SalmonAID Festival with music, dancing and information about the salmon at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $25. 849-2568.  

John Seabury at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

FRIDAY, MAY 8 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Luv” with gay, straight and lesbian versions, rotating Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through May 23. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “A Streetcar Named Desire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 7. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Aurora Theatre “Miss Julie” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m., at 2081 Addison St. to May 10. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. through May 24. Tickets are $33-$71. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Saint Joan” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 951 Pomona Ave., El Cerrito, through May 10. Tickets are $11-$18. 524-9132. www.ccct.org 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs: Puberty” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through June 6. Tickets are $10-$17. impacttheatre.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“All Gurls” A group show by women artists. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at Eclectix Gallery, 10082 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. Exhibition runs to June 20. www.eclectix.com 

“Somebody Else” Group exhibition of six Bay Area figurative artists. Reception at 6 p.m. at ACCI Gallery, 1652 Shattuck Ave. Exhibit runs to June 7. 843-2527. www.accigallery.com 

FILM 

“Auntie Mame” at 7 p.m. at the Paramount, 2025 Broadway. Tickets are $5. Box office opens at 6 p.m.  

“Under a Shipwrecked Moon” A film by Antero Alli with filmmaker in person at 8 p.m. at Grace North Sanctuary, 2138 Cedar St., near Walnut. Tickets are $6-$10. 464-4640. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lucille Lang Day and Peter Tamases will read their poetry at 7 p.m. at Nefeli Caffe, 1854 Euclid Ave., a little north of Hearst, as part of the Last Word Reading Series. There is also an open reading. 841-6374. 

Zachary Shore reads from “Blunder” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC campus. Tickets are $5-$15. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Lina G Torio CD release concert of “Mestiza” at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Puska Sunda Gamelan Degung at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Lloyd Gregory Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Extra Golden with Makuru and Ousseynou Kouyate at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$12. 525-5054.  

Steve Seskin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Izabella, Alma Desnuda at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Coffins, Stormcrow, Adlebran, Alaric at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St. Cost is $10. 525-9926. 

2ME at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

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

SATURDAY, MAY 9 

CHILDREN  

California Revels performs songs and dances for May Day at 11:30 a.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. 452-2259.  

“Snow White” Puppet show by East Bay Waldorf’s School’s 7th grade class at 2 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. 536-7512. 

Family Film Series “The Princess Bride” Sat. and Sun. at noon at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood, 2966 College Ave. at Ashby. Tickets are $4. 433-9730. 

Living Arts Playback Ensemble “A Celebration of Mothering” at 2 p.m. at Glitter & Razz, 5951 College Ave, Oakland. 654-7166.  

Young Actors Workshop “Love’s Labors Lost” featuring students age 11-18 from middle and high schools from around the Bay Area, at 7 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Aesop’s Playhouse, Children's Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave. Tickets are $9-$13. 

FILM 

“A Life in Print” A documentary profile of the artist Xavier Viramontes at 1 p.m. at Madeline F. Whittlesey Community Room, Richmond Public Library, 325 Civic Center Plaza, near 27th and Macdonald, Richmond. A question-and-answer session with Xavier follows the screening. The Library is currently hosting a display of art work by the artist in the main reading room. 620-6561. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Images of Morocco” by Stephen Donwerth and “Photos of Mali” by Gary McIntyre. Reception at 1 p.m. at Alta Galleria, 2980 College Ave Suite 4. 414-4485. www.altagalleria.com 

“5 Takes” Photographs by Fraser Bonnell, Eric Kaufman-Cohen, Cathy Lozano, Martha Snider and Ted Williams. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Photolab, 2235 Fifth St. 644-1400. 

“The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present” opens at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. and runs through Aug. 23. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

“Becoming America: Becoming California” Exhibition on the history of the Peralta family and the Native People with food, crafts and games, dancing and tours, from noon to 5 p.m. at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, 2465 34th Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation $1. 532-9142. www.peraltahacienda.org/VisitUs.htm  

“Exoskeleton” Paintings by Philippe Janssens, sculpture and jewelry by Victoria Skirpa. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Float Gallery, 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116, Oakland. 535-1702. 

THEATER 

“Food For Thought” Comedians and speakers, including Johnny Steele, Kamau Bell, Richard Stockton and Carmen Tedesco of Slow Food San Francisco in a benefit for the Alameda County Food Bank at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15. Advance tickets can be purchased online at www.juliamorgan.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape” with anthology editors and contributors Jaclyn Friedman, Lisa Jarvis, Leah Lakshmi and others at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Mozart Matinee” The inaugural event of Midsummer Mozart’s new youth oriented concert at 11 a.m. at El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser Lane, El Cerrito. Tickets can be purchased at the El Cerrito Community Center for $5 per child, $10 per adult. 559-7000. 

Golden Gate Boys Choir Concert at noon at C’era Una Volta, 1332 Park St. at Redwood Square, Alameda. 769-4828. www.ggbc.org 

Pocket Opera “The Haunted Manor” at 2 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $20-$37. 415-346-7805. www.pocketopera.org 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra performs Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater” at 8 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Donations appreciated. www.bcco.org 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert at 8 p.m., silent auction at 6:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $12-$15. 849-9776. www.ypsomusic.net 

Community Women’s Orchestra Spring Family Concert “Music Around the World” at 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Donation $10, children free. Reception following concert. www.communitywomensorchestra.org 

Paufve/Dance Benefit Performance at 5:30 p.m. at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, 2704 Alcatraz Ave. Tickets are $50-$100. www.shawl-anderson.org  

University Symphony Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC campus. Tickets are $5-$15. 642-9988. http://music.berkeley.edu 

Nosotras at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $13-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Body Tales Improvathon “The Divine Feminine Rising” Fundraising performances at 5, 6:30 and 8 p.m. at Studio 12, 2525 8th St., just south of Dwight Way. Tickets are $10-$25. No one turned away for lack of funds. 649-1791. www.bodytales.com 

Eric Swinderman’s Straight Outta Oakland at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Tito y su son de Cuba at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Black Olive Babes, Balkan, Turkish, Romani, Shepardic roots and original music at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Robin Flower & Libby McLaren at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Alice Di Micele, solo acoustic, at 8 p.m. at Rose Street House of Music. 594-4000, ext. 687.  

Jacques Ibula at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Tempest, Avalon Rising at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

NoBunny, Ringers, R’N’R Adventure Kids, Street Eaters at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

RHW & The Jazz Triad at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, MAY 10 

CHILDREN 

Mothers Day Stories and Songs with Doug and Todd Elliott’s cultural tour of America’s backcountry, at 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

The Nigerian Brothers at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Oakland Museum of California Docent Tour A look inside the museum’s past, present and future, at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. www.museumca.org/tickets 

Jamie Erfurdt Art Gallery Art Opening from 2 to 6 p.m. at 1966 University Ave. & Milvia. 421-2912. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Ruth Reichl on “Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way” with desserts and drinks at p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $45-$65 includes copy of the book. reservations required. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Nuruddin Farah, author of “Knots” and “From a Crooked Rib” will discuss his work at 6:30 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra performs Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater” at 4:30 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Donations appreciated. www.bcco.org 

Celestial Sounds for Healing “Hovering Wings” a voice and Celtic harp duo at 4 p.m. in a private home in Berkeley, address to be emailed upon ticket purchase. Tickets are $15 available from www.eventbrite.com/event/318427425 

“Mother's Day Peace Fair” An afternoon of music and speakers including Carol Denney, Stephanie Hendricks, Anna -Lisa Smoker, Maxina Ventura, Hali Hammer, and The Brazen Squirrels, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St. at Bonita. Suggested donation $5. 841-4824. www.bfuu.org 

Bombazo de Madre Puerto Rican celebration of Mother’s Day at 3 p.m. in the lobby of Café Valparaíso, La Peña. Free. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Carlos Oliveira’s Brazilian Origins featuring Harvey Wainapel at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Soul of the Mahala at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Cascada de Flores at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761.  

Americana Unplugged: .49 Special at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

MONDAY, MAY 11 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Julia Morgan and the Bay Area’s Rustic Renaissance” with Dave Weinstein, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 848-7800.  

Subterranean Shakespeare Theater Company “Hamlet” Staged reading at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Cost is $8. 276-3871. 

Logan and Noah Miller, filmmakers, discuss thier book “Either You’re In or You’re In the Way” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Andrena Zawinski at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

University Baroque Ensemble at 2 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC campus. 642-4864.  

TUESDAY, MAY 12 

CHILDREN 

Sandi & Steve “Sealife Songs” at 6:30 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Reza Aslan on “How to Win a Cosmic War: Confronting Radical Islam” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Cost is $5-$10. berkeleyarts.org 

Javier Calvo, Spanish writer and translator Mara Faye Lethem at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

L.E. Leone reads from her newest collection of stories at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pine Leaf Boys, from Louisiana, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054.  

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13 

FILM 

Independent Filmmakers Screening Night Bring your 5 - 10 minute shorts & selects to screen every Wed. at 6:30 p.m. at Café of the Dead, 3208 Grand Ave., next to the Grand Lake Theater. Oakland. 931-7945. cafedeadscreening@gmail.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Brian Yaeger on “Red, White & Brew” at 7:30 p.m. at Triple Rock Brewery, 1920 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Peter Balakian reads from “Armenian Golgotha” at 2 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

South Berkeley Youth Arts Summit Performances by Longfellow Middle School Jazz Band, Ballet Folklórico, Dance Envisions and others at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Reid Whatley’s Big Cheese & Jive Rats at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Balkan Folk Dance at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Maacote at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. with salsa dance lessons. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

John Richardson Band at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Leftover Dreams, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

THURSDAY, MAY 14 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Our Art Show” Exhibition of works by the youth in the James Kenney programs at James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 8th St. 981-6650. 

“Then and Now” Photographs by Sebastiåo Salgado. Reception and 6 p.m. at The Hazel Wolf Gallery in the David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, at Oxford. 809-0900. 

“The Mud Wagon and More” A lecture on some of the iconic items in the museum’s History Gallery at 1 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

FILM 

“An Evening with Barry Gifford, Sailor & Lula” Screening of David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” in celebration of the publication of Barry Gifford’s “The Imagination of the Heart” at 9 p.m. at The Cerrito Speakeasy Theater, 10070 San PAblo Ave., El Cerrito. Cost is $8. Sponsored by Pegasus Books. 649-1320. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Re:con-figure” Panel discussion by the artisis, moderated by René de Guzman at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 2990 San Pablo Ave. Exhibition runs to June 27. 841-7000. www.kala.org 

Sunaina Marr Maira discusses “Missing Youth, Citizzenship, and Empire after 9/11” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Nafisa Haji reads from “The Writing on My Forehead” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra “Shadows and Light” with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Churhc of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $32-$54. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

Marley’s Ghost at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Boy in the Bubble, Farewell Typewriter, The Clarences at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Truth Be Told with Dynamic, hip-hop and spoken word at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Planet Loop at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Country Joe McDonald’s Open Mic and One Year Birthday Party at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar St, at Bonita. 841-4824. www.bfuu.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 15 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “Luv” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. at Berryman, through May 23. Tickets are $12. 649-5999. www.aeofberkeley.org 

Altarena Playhouse “A Streetcar Named Desire” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 7. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” at Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. through May 24. Tickets are $33-$71. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Berkeley Rep “You, Nero” at 2025 Addison St., through June 28. Tickets are $13.50-$71. www.berkeleyrep.org 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs: Puberty” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through June 6. Tickets are $10-$17. impacttheatre.com 

“So Fresh and So Clean” with Joe Hernandez-Kolski and Joshua Silverstein at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

FILM 

“On Love & Other Difficulties” Six short videos by Antero Alli with the filmmaker in person, at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St.,near Broadway, Oakland. Tickets are $6-$10. 444-7263. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Eve Pell reads from “We Used to Own the Bronx” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater “The Seasons & Collage” Fri. at 7 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Julia Morgan, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$21. 830-9524. 

“Rhythms of Life - a Fusion of Dance, Music, Theater, Song & Fashion” by Berkeley High School’s African American Dance Program at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Community Theater Berkeley High Campus. Tickets are $3-$10. 644-6120. BrownPaperTickets.com 

Oakland East Bay Symphony “Show Boat in Concert” with Julie Adams, soprano, Ben Jones, tenor, and Debbie de Coudreaux, mezzo soprano, at 8 p.m. at the Paramount Theater, 2025 Broadway in Oakland. Tickets are $25-$70. 800-745-3000. www.oebs.org 

West African Highlife Band at Utunes Coffe House at 8 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$18. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Michael Smolens’ Earplay Jazzquintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Soja, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $18-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Jen Shyu and Schumann’s Humanns at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

The Patrick Landeza Project at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

The Bottisini Project at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Anchor Down, Brickfight, Canadian Rifle, The Dopamines at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

The Green Machine at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

East Bay Soul & Funk Revue with BASSment, Stymie & The Pimp Jones Love Orchestra, Lord Loves a Working Man at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Sun House at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, MAY 16 

CHILDREN  

“Orca, The First Whale” A puppet show based on a tale from Native Americans in the Northwest, at 11 a.m., and 2 and 4 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. 452-2259. www.fairyland.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Reflections of Me and My World” ArtEsteems 11th Annual Art Exhibition. Reception at 3 p.m. at Oliver Art Center, California College of the Arts, 5212 Broadway at College, Oakland. 652-5530. 

“The Many Faces of Buddhism” Photographs by Adrienne Miller opens at the Berkeley Public Library, Catalog Lobby, 2090 Kittredge St. and runs trough July 31. 981-6241. 

THEATER 

“Foibles Mench” performance, robots, fire and live music at 10 p.m., doors at 8 p.m., at NIMBY, 8410 Amelia St., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/63231 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

24th Bay Area Storytelling Festival Sat. and Sun. from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Kennedy Grove Recreation Area, featuring Jay O’Callahan, Antionio Rocha, Gayle Ross, Judith Black and Doug Elliott. Cost is $40-$80. registration required. 869-4969. www.bayareastorytelling.org 

International Day for Sharing Life Stories, honoring the birthday of Studs Terkel, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Charles Hobson, book artist, speaks at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Berkeley Ballet Theater “The Seasons & Collage” Sat. at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. at The Julia Morgan, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$21. 830-9524. 

California Baroque Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864.  

Contra Costa Chorale and Contra Costa College Chamber Singers “From Brahms to Bernstein” at 7:30 p.m. at St. Jerome Church, 308 Carmel Ave., El Cerrito.Cost $12-$15. www.ccchorale.org 

The Women's Antique Vocal Ensemble 10th Anniversary Concert with selections from the WAVE archives of the past ten years including medieval works from Spain, England, and France at 7:30 p.m. at Montclair Presbyterian Church, 5701 Thornhill Dr., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$15. 233-1479. www.wavewomen.org 

Lady Bianca Blues at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Haitian Flag Day Cutural Extravaganza with Sophis & Kalbass Kreyol, drum and dance performances at 10 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Kompa dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $10-415. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Euphonia at 2 p.m. at Down Home Music, 10341 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 525-2129. 

Pocket Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

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

Ed Reed at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Kurt Ribak Jazz at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $3. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Reality Playthings improvisation with Frank Moore at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oakland. fmoore@eroplay.com 

Roger Rocha and the Goldenhearts at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

77 El Deora, Misisipi Rider, Gayle Lynn and the Hired Hands at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

SUNDAY, MAY 17 

CHILDREN 

Kathy Kallick Show at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

Squeak Carnwath “Painting is no Ordinary Object” Docent tour at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

“Tempered Fragility” New work by Reem Rahim. Afternoon tea at 3 p.m. at The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 655-9019. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Art and Constructs of Race: Casta Paintings and Contemporary Conversations about Identity” with Charlene Villaseñor Black at 2 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

14th Annual Jazz on Fourth Street Festival with performances by Charles Hamilton Alumni Band, Tito y su son de Cuba, Johnny Nitro & the Doorslammers and the Berkeley High Jazz Orchestra and Combos, from noon to 5 p.m. on Fourth St., between Hearst and Virginia. 

Berkeley Ballet Theater “The Seasons & Collage” at 2 p.m. at The Julia Morgan, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15-$21. 830-9524. 

Golden Gate Boys Choir & Bellringers Spring Concert at 2 p.m. at Calvary Christian Center, 1516 Grand St, Alameda. Suggested donation $5-$10. 887-4311. www.ggbc.org 

Vukani Mawethu Choir Concert of gospel, spirituals, labor, and freedom songs of Southern Africa, at 2 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway, Oakland. Donations accepted. 444-3555. www.firstchurchoakland.org 

Kairos Youth Choir “The Pirates of Penzance” with local singers, ages 7 through 14, at 4 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $12-$17. kairostickets@gmail.com 

Berkeley Akademie Ensemble, Kent Nagano, Artistic Director, at 7 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $20-$60. 841-2800. www.berkeleysymphony.org 

Contra Costa Chorale and Contra Costa College Chamber Singers “From Brahms to Bernstein” at 3 p.m. at El Sobrante United Methodist Church, 670 Appian Way, El Sobrante. Tickets are $12-$15. www.ccchorale.org 

Crowden Alumni Concert with David McCarroll, violin, at 4 p.m. at Crwoden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. Cost is $12, free for age 18 and under. 599-2941. 

Sacred & Profane performs works for a cappella women’s choir at 4 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $15-$20. 

On Ensemble, taiko drumming, at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Martín Perna and Adrian Quesada at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $8-$10. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

African Roots of Jazz at 7 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Americana Unplugged: Claudia Russel & The Folk Unlimited Orchestra at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

60s British Explosion Unplugged at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org

I have a confession to make,” confided English-born actress-director Sue Trigg, whose staging of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire opens Friday at Alameda’s Altarena Playhouse. “I’m not a Shakespeare fan! People get mad when I tell them. In school when I was 8, I wanted to do Malvolio, not the women’s parts. I will do Bottom in my old age!” 

“I never thought I could direct,” said Trigg, until six years ago, when she wrote and directed her own British-style “Panto.” Since then she has worked wonders with ensemble shows in a community theater setting, including a remarkable Death of a Salesman in the round (2006) and the pre-war chestnut Morning’s at Seven (2007), by Paul Osbourne. Both were staged at Altarena.  

“Now I love it more than acting,” Trigg said. “to watch the actors shine in their parts, watch them come together. Altarena gave me my start. I truly thought I’d be useless!” 

Trigg started acting in her home town in the Cotswolds “when I was 8—one of those precocious only children. I was around a lot of elderly relatives; entertained myself a lot. I remember singing ‘Born Free’ by my grandmother’s needlepoint. And I loved radio. It’s like those lines in Educating Rita: How would you stage Peer Gynt? Put it on the radio!” She recalled spending six to eight weeks of her summer school vacations “inside the theater. I started out playing Happy the Dwarf in Snow White.”  

She later studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where she learned “to be absolutely into the text itself—distinctly the playwright’s perspective. What the script says, not the subtext so much. I don’t think I’m anti-Method, but I believe, onstage, you’re a couple of people—one an actor, listening. I met my [present] husband, Chris [Chapman], 24 years ago, when we did Blythe Spirit together here, and he was amazed how I would just pop onstage right in character every night. I told him I could because I knew the words—and knew who I was.” 

Trigg left home at 18, “and took off for Greece. I married an American. We traveled around Greece, then came to America.”  

Trigg has lived in Alameda for 28 years. She started out acting here at the old Oakland Civic Theatre. “I thought the whole time we were in rehearsal that we were in some rehearsal room! My father, who’s only 70, was at Oxford when I was born, and remembers the prompter, who would give you your line if you forgot; the theater itself was a labyrinth of stairs and dressing rooms, different places where you could make an entrance ...” Her four children grew up in theater. “I was pregnant with one when I played in Easy Street. None of them really wants to act, but they know more plays than many actors do.” 

Trigg is also artistic director of Role Players Theater in Danville. “I’ve been in charge for three years. They’re more into musicals out there than drama. As a little girl, I said to my mum, ‘But how do they [the actors] know the words to the songs?’ It can be a difficult audience on the other side of the tunnel, spoiled by the riches out there. The Dean Lesher—everything looks pretty. They pay big ticket prices, but production values vary a lot. It can be an illusion because it’s a pretty place.” 

Talking about Streetcar, Trigg spoke of her actors with admiration and affection. “They give up a lot for six weeks [of rehearsal]. I wish it had been more! The line-load is horrendous, for Blanche especially. But Gigi Benson is a hard worker—and a hell of an actress, one of the most intuitive actresses I’ve ever worked with.”  

“The relationships are extraordinary,” she said of Williams’ masterpiece. “Incredibly complex. Stanley and Blanche in particular share a lot more than people would think: both are users, drinkers ... and Stella is torn so dreadfully between them. To save her marriage she sends her sister away. It’s really the seamy side of the South. Hard to do these American icons; always ironic when somebody with no background in American theater is chosen to do it!” 

“I’m extraordinarily confident—until about now!” Trigg quipped, as the last days before opening wind down. “And I’m a little sad opening night; my work is done, I don’t go back to see it a lot. I’m surprised Altarena chose Streetcar. It’s tricky to do, plot-heavy, all minutiae.” Streetcar, too, will be in the round. She appreciates her artistic director at Altarena, Frederick Chacon, coming to rehearsals. “You can’t direct in a vacuum. A director needs a sounding board; you don’t always know.”  

“It’s amazing in community theater,” Trigg reflected, “No understudies. We rely on the actors to make it through six weeks rehearsal, then the run. Lay people don’t really know what’s going on, don’t understand the concept. Years ago, artists were considered flakes. ‘Oh, it must be so much fun!’ Fun showing up every night, maybe to a bunch of neurotic actors; fun making lists? And it’s nerve-wracking, not to be in control of everything, though I’m not one of those directors who micromanage. A lot of directors have never acted, can’t be in the actors’ shoes. I like to work with actors who think, who come up with their own good ideas all the time. Without the actors, nothing happens!” 

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE 

8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays through June 6 at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda. $17-20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org.

Food For Thought: Laughing All the Way to the (Food) Bank,” a benefit for the Alameda County Community Food Bank, will be held at 8 p. m. this Saturday at the Julia Morgan Center. The performance will feature “homegrown” comedians Johnny Steel, W. Kamau Bell, Richard Stockton and David Pokorney; a guest speaker panel entitled, “If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get in the Kitchen! A Discussion of Food and Climate Change”; a clip from host Clark Taylor’s forthcoming documentary Deep Green, and a raffle,  

Food For Thought coincides with the 17th Annual National Association of Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, for which postal patrons can leave a box or bag with nonperishable food by a home or business mailbox Saturday morning for pickup by one of the more than 7,500 letter carriers in the Bay Area, who will transport the food to a collection box at a post office (140 participating in the Bay Area), hence to the local food bank. It’s the largest food drive in the nation. Last year, in Alameda County alone, 140,000 pounds of food was collected. 

This year, there’s even more need than last, due to the economic crisis. Calls to food banks have doubled in the past two years.  

“We’ve crossed the threshold that separates hard times from a hunger epidemic,” said Suzan Bateson of the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Brian Higgins, ACCFB Communications Manager, noted, “The statistics are off the charts. In March, the first or second lowest month for demand, normally, the record for the worst previous year were shattered by 21 percent. Thirty-five percent of the calls were from people who never used a food bank before—the freshly-minted hungry. Some had personal situations that had gone from great to zero. Often, they were two normally working parents supporting kids now on just one salary or none.”  

The benefit is produced by Whole Foods and Clark Taylor, with all proceeds going to ACCFB. 

“It’s a really unique way of raising awareness,” Higgins said. “It’s no laughing matter, normally, as an issue. But just because it’s serious doesn’t mean we have to always be serious about it. No reason saving the planet and feeding the hungry can’t be funny! Laughter gets the synapses sparking. It’s important people approach this problem creatively, as we’re now entering uncharted territory.”  

Johnny Steel, a performer and contributor to comedy websites, is from Berkeley. W. Kamau Bell—whose “The W. Kamau Bell Curve” was an election-year highlight—is founder of the Solo Performance Workshop in San Francisco. Richard Stockton has been a national comedy headliner and writes, produces and hosts Planet Cruz, a syndicated radio and Internet variety show from Santa Cruz. David Pokorney toured as a comic for 10 years; he’s now a worker at Whole Foods.  

Panelists, moderated by Betsy Rosenberg of Eco Talk from Green 960, include Helge Hellberg, executive director of Marin Organic; Greg Steltonpohl, founder of Odwalla and CEO of Adina; and Carmen Tedesco of Slow Food, San Francisco.  

The raffle features food baskets and discounts for local businesses, and can be entered with a nonperishable food item or $2 per ticket (three for $5). 

All proceeds from door and raffle go to the Alameda County Community Food Bank. The event is not affiliated with any business entitled Food For Thought.  

FOOD FOR THOUGHT 

A benefit for Alameda County Community Food Bank. 8 p.m. Saturday at Julia Morgan Center, 2640 College Ave. $15.  

845-8542. www.juliamorgancenter.org. 

The question of who killed a cat on a lonely road in the remote Aran Islands becomes an overheated matter of life and death in Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, now onstage at Berkeley Rep. 

Since Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” which suggested that the English upper classes sponsor poor Irish babies as an exotic foodstuff to replete their already groaning boards, Hibernian satire has been famous for its outrageous quality, taking the way of black humor as its via negativa of revelation of the human condition. 

The Lieutenant proves to be something of a reverse of Swift’s wild yet dispassionate logic. Here, internecine warfare, bloodletting and torture of one’s family and neighbors is promoted as the way to rid the Ould Sod of the perfidious Limeys, rendering it free for the love of Cats and Country. 

(On asking his old mentor for a one-word description of the Irish, Orson Welles reported that Micheal MacLiammor of Dublin’s Gate Theatre immediately replied, “Malice!”) 

An ailurophiliac lieutenant of an IRA splinter group leaves off torturing a local pot dealer for his crimes (mostly for paying the IRA protection money) and rushes home after hearing that his pet is “doing poorly.” He walks into a snare by the fellow terrorists he thought to be friends while his father and a long-haired young man who found the cat squashed frantically endeavor to cover up Wee Thomas’ demise. 

McDonagh employs an original blend of Celtic storytelling techniques that date from the pagan days of The Cattle Raid of Cooley up to Flann O’Brien, the 20th century’s “misanthrope’s misanthrope.” Some are old rhetorical tropes stood on their head. Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), one of the first to describe the Irish of the Middle Ages, compared Celtic humor to the deliberate confusion— and reversal—of dependency of large and small in Latin: “What’s that little soldier doing attached to such a big sword?” 

McDonagh uses these modes of humor, entangling true with false, confusing big issues with smaller ones, so the love of cats becomes a fanaticism like extreme nationalism, blurring the already vague causality of why something sociopathic is performed supposedly to defend a domestic virtue. 

McDonagh also shows great dramaturgical savvy, both in the way he carefully prepares the audience for bigger and bigger outrages (and leaves them laughing helplessly) through the solemn denial of what went on just before, bringing the “action” around a full circle of senselessness, casting light on the non sequiturs and plain nonsense language that informs so much programmatic talk and ideological explanation. 

He also realizes onstage something like an evil burlesque of the tableau of bodies of those killed offstage in Greek Tragedy.  

Yet love blossoms amid the gore. 

It’s a brilliantly fashioned play, on the whole well-cast and played. But the night I saw it, there was something slack, something flat to the show. Whether due to end-of-the-first-week letdown in some, or things overlooked in Les Waters’ direction, it was hard to tell. 

James Carpenter sets a consistent ground-level tone of invective and self-delusion as Donny, the Lieutenant’s dad and queasy catsitter. And Molly Camp is brightly funny and unnerving as Mairead, girl sharpshooter who feels the first flush of womanhood as an exciting conflation of romance with bloodlust. 

Mairead, with her tomboy dreams of going north and giving The Troubles a woman’s touch, is the only female in this bellicose, all-male world, exemplified by Danny Wolohan, Rowan Brooks, and Michael Barrett Austin, who are funny and pathetic as the squabbling, would-be assassins. Even the cats sport men’s names; the orange tom the hapless geezers ply with bootblack to be Wee Thomas’ stand-in bears the tragic name of Sir Roger Casement, hanged by the English in 1916 for his part in the Easter Uprising. 

Mairead’s a poor-town version of the bloodlusty queens who people the Gaelic epics she was undoubtedly brought up on, and Molly Camp radiates that manic energy. Adam Farabee, on the other hand, seemed too shrill as long-haired, derided Davey, Mairead’s querulous brother. And Bake Ellis, as Padraic the sadistic Lieutenant, was intermittently effective and rather vaguely distracted, or disconnected. 

Knowing that the New York production portrayed the Lieutenant as an extravagant oddball with an overwrought sentimental streak when it comes to his cat, it’s plain there was a directorial choice to instead show Padraic here as a dispassionate, business-as-usual—at times, almost bureaucratic—killer, except when it comes to avenging his pussycat. There are a couple other production features, too, that slightly undercut a perfectly stageworthy interpretation a little: an overblown set (thatched cottage out of a Hollywood feature), and some film-score flavored, Irish-type music blaring between scenes that distracts from the well-wrought interlocking surprises of plot and story. 

(And all the chatter—before the play, during and after—about gallons of blood spilled and splattered onstage defeats the purpose of its quantity, and ad nauseum counterbalance to the hurried affirmations of patriotism and the bland kitsch of pet love.) 

McDonagh’s dialogue and his shaggy-dog storytelling zeal are barbed and complex. The Rep gets it onstage, in many ways convincing enough, but doesn’t manage to hit all the registers. 

THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE 

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays;  

2 and 7 p.m.. Sundays; and 7 p.m. Tuesdays through May 24. $33-71. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org.

As Impact Theatre recently turned 13, the company is celebrating the awkward coming of age with Puberty, a compendium of original dreams and nightmares in sketch form. Wet dreams and scatological nightmares, to some extent. But they call it Puberty; you’re forewarned. More refined forms of crudity, like the burlesk flavor—and dances—of previous editions of Impact Briefs, have been removed like facial hair. But they’ll probably grow back. 

With that said, it can be a pretty funny show, especially the second half, in great part due to the exuberance of the seven players. Several are young vets of at least a previous Impact show, so they know how to bounce off the walls of the little theater in La Val’s basement, and seem to enjoy doing it.  

(Speaking of La Val’s—and of Impact’s mission to theatricalize to an audience eating pizza and drinking beer, like any self-respecting spectator sport—it’s time to join the groundswell of support for a pizza named after co-founder and managing director Cheshire Isaacs: The Cheshire Special, conjuring up a picture of which everything disappears but the smile.) 

Of the seven cast members, John Nagel, also tech manager, and Seth Thygesen are Impact members. They work together wickedly well in “The Talk,” a little father-son tete-a-tete with teeth in it. Nagel could be right out of an Edward Gorey picture; so could the play, perhaps the best of the lot. 

There are seven plays as well, two by previously Impact produced playwright, Andrew Shemin: “The Cat Lee Show,” a pubescent talk show, and “Community Outreach Theatre Program.” Cheshire’s “home alone” opus, “Suede,” explores character-building through confronting parents returning from a trip with the truth—or not. Emily Rosenthal proves herself the perfect leader of the “Puberty Support Group,” sometime Impact collaborator Pete Caslavka’s effort—and Emily shows herself (her character, rather) the perfect co-dependent as well.  

A couple of the plays come from as far away as Pittsburgh (“Check This Out,” by Sean McKee) and Paris (where Andrew Shemin is based.) 

Andrew Goy, member of San Francisco’s Un-Scripted Theater, directed.  

In between the mostly sketch-like plays, the cast holds forth with sex education questions from kids and other timekillers for set changes.  

As always with Impact Briefs, the focus is on quick, entertaining bits, good clean off-color fun. They succeed at it, too. 

IMPACT BRIEFS: PUBERTY 

8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through June 6 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. $11-18. impacttheatre.com.

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, founded 74 years ago in Berkeley, will perform its spring concert this Saturday at First Congregational Church. The orchestra, celebrating conductor David Ramadanoff’s 20th season at the helm, will perform Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo, Indiana composer Jim Beckel’s Musica Mobilis for Brass Choir, and selections from Prokofiev’s Rome and Juliet Suites I and II. 

The 8 p.m. performance will be preceded by a silent auction at 6:30 p.m. to benefit the YPSO scholarship fund for new members, who will audition by appointment May 19 and 21 at Crowden School. 

Cellist Bonnie Hampton is Berkeley born and raised. Her mother, Clarabelle Bell, inspired the founding of YPSO after returning from a trip to Oregon, where she heard the Portland Youth Philharmonic—then the only orchestra of its kind in the country—and suggested to her violin teacher, Jessica Marcelli, that Marcelli form a similar group. Bonnie later became principal cellist with YPSO, and has played the Schelomo with the orchestra twice before, commenting, “I am amazed at what David [Ramadanoff] has done with them over the years.” Hampton has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mills College, UC Berkeley and Stanford, is a founding member of the Francisco Trio, has appeared as guest artist with the Budapest String Quartet, and currently is on the faculty of the Juilliard School. 

Ernest Bloch, Swiss born and educated, but an American citizen the last 35 years of his life, taught at UC Berkeley (where an annual lecture series is named in his honor) and directed the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1925 to 1930. He composed the Schelomo, a rhapsody between a concerto and a symponic poem, in 1915, during World War I, drawing on “a kind of troubled solace” he found in the Book of Ecclesiastes (often ascribed to Solomon) and Jewish themes. “One may imagine that the voice of the cello is the voice of King Solomon,” said Block, “the orchestra the voice of his age ... his world ... his experience ... the orchestra seems to reflect his thoughts as the solo cello voices his words,” alternately singing, declaiming and lamenting against the combination of “charged color and powerful climaxes” of the orchestra. 

Jim Beckel, a trombonist with the Indiana Symphony who teaches music at DePauw University, was commissioned to write Musica Mobilis by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1996. The piece, written for brass choir, was inspired by Calder’s Five Pieces Suspended, the music centering on five basic notes, “while simultaneously setting them all in motion.” (An audio sample can be heard at www.jimbeckelmusic.com.) 

Prokofiev’s beloved Rome and Juliet Suites were originally written as a ballet for the Bolshoi in 1935. It became popular after the Bolshoi rejected them as undanceable. “Hearing musicians in their teens playing it is something special,” said Wendy Howe of YPSO. “The theme, the story are so youthful; there’s a freshness to their spin on it. It’s really lovely to hear.” 

YPSO is the oldest youth orchestra in California and the second oldest in the nation. Its 103 young players range in age from 12 to 19 and hail from 31 Bay area cities in five counties, many from Berkeley. 

YOUNG PEOPLE’S  

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 

8 p.m. concert (preceded by 6:30 p.m. silent auction), Saturday, May 9 at First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way. $15 general; $12 students and seniors. 849-9776. www.ypsomusic.net.

As part of their Shakespeare Super Intensive—the whole canon in staged readings over the next months—Subterranean Shakespeare is presenting Hamlet, directed by Stanley Spenger and featuring Patrick Alparone as the Melancholy Prince, for one night only. 7 p.m. Monday, May 11, at the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar St. $8. Tickets at the door, open at 6:30 p.m. Next up: The Merchant of Venice, May 18.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an excerpt from ‘Audacity of Hope,” chapter seven of Ayelet Waldman’s Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace. For a profile of Waldman, see the Daily Planet’s April 30 edition. 

I have been committing that worst of maternal crimes on a near daily basis. I have been lying to my children. I’ve been feeding them this tale about how if they came across a Bedouin in the Negev desert, he would welcome them into his tent and serve them a cup of mint tea, and that if they found themselves in Burkina Faso, a 7-year-old kid might kick around a soccer ball with them. 

It’s not that I would not warn them, say, that while on the Via Veneto in Rome it’s wise to clamp a hand over their wallets if rushed by a group of Gypsy kids, or that I would allow them to apply to a student exchange program in Harare, Zimbabwe. I’m not sheltering them from the truth, exactly. The older ones know what an IED is, and that hundreds of thousands of people, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed and maimed in Iraq. They know what happened in Abu Ghraib. They are not naive children. But in a way they are innocent. As honest as I’ve been about all the world’s calamities, I’ve also tried, despite knowing full well that I was deceiving them, to instill in my kids a faith that at heart all people are just like them, and that justice, if it is not prevailing now, is bound to one day. 

That woman who told me when Zeke was a baby that I was imposing my negative view of the universe on my children had it only half-right. On the one hand, I’ve successfully managed to raise at least one punk rock kid, Zeke, who periodically becomes convinced that the human race has, on balance, brought little but destruction to the world, and that it would be best if our species, like the saber-toothed tiger or the great auk, simply became extinct. But at the same time I’ve also so successfully sugarcoated the world that Zeke is able to have his faith in human decency completely restored just by listening to Rush (“And the men who hold high places, must be the ones to start, to mold a new reality, closer to the heart”). Which is worse? Lying about hope or telling the truth about hopelessness? 

The myth my husband, Michael, and I have been telling our kids—that each individual in the world shares a core of human decency—has a corollary in the way we discuss the history of America. Our kids get a slightly more honest view of American history than we did back in the 1970s, but the lessons being taught today are not that different in tone from those bygone rose-colored paeans to melting pot and opportunity. While our children learn in school that Columbus cannot be said to have discovered America, they are also told that he did make a very important journey. As the song they teach Berkeley schoolchildren every Indigenous Peoples Day goes, “It was a courageous thing to do, but someone was already here, yes, someone was already here.” Because their teachers wouldn’t, Michael and I taught them (with the assistance of the brilliant Sarah Vowell and Ira Glass’s “This American Life”) about the Trail of Tears, and the brutality of Andrew Jackson, but we also told them about heroes like Tecumseh and Sitting Bull. We wanted to make sure that while they understand this country’s history of brutality, they also saw grace and courage. We taught them that once, in the far past, women were not allowed to vote, but now, thanks to suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, California can be represented in the Senate by not one but two women. 

My kids are proud to live in the Bay Area, where there is a mayor like Gavin Newsom, brave enough to stand up for justice and allow gay people to marry. We spend a lot of time talking about injustice in our family, but the way we tell it, those days are mostly over. The Voting Rights Act passed into law, and equal protection means that every individual, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, or sexual orientation, is entitled to be treated the same. We tell them that the end of racism and prejudice of all kinds is inevitable. I spout to my children an optimistic version of America and the world, but I have always feared, in my heart of hearts, that I have been selling them a bill of goods. 

The stories we tell our kids come easier to Michael in part because, unlike me, he spent his childhood in a place that inspired patriotism. He grew up in Columbia, Maryland, in the 1970s, when that planned community came close to achieving its utopian ideal of racial integration. In Columbia black and white families lived side by side. White and black children rode their bikes together along the meandering paths, swam together in the neighborhood pools, got into arguments, made up. They were friends. My hometown wasn’t anything to be proud of, particularly when it came to race. I grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey, a town where real estate agents routinely steered minority families to certain neighborhoods. The African American kids were isolated, segregated, and we white kids made little or no attempt to cross over that divide. As a little girl, I knew there was a problem, but it never occurred to me that I could do anything about it. It was just another reason to hate my hometown. Now, as an adult, I am not only conscious of and ashamed of my failure to act, but I’m also damaged by it.  

Part of the story we’re teaching our own children is that things like that don’t happen anymore. America is different. And it’s not entirely a lie. Their America is different. Berkeley isn’t Ridgewood, or Indiana, or even Columbia. They go to schools that not only celebrate diversity but actually embody it. One of Zeke’s best friends is a kid whose parents between the two of them encompass four ethnic identities: Jewish, Greek, African American, and white. His other buddy came to Oakland as a refugee from Mississippi after Katrina. Together the three of them look like a Benetton ad. In the year 2000, the first in which the census permitted people to check a box to describe themselves as mixed-race, nearly 5 percent of Californians chose that option. One in 19 children in the United States is of mixed race, and in California that number is closer to one in ten. 

I was in Columbia, South Carolina, during the Democratic primary, volunteering for Barack Obama. The night of the election I was standing in a crowd of hundreds waiting for our candidate to take the stage. While they waited, people amused themselves by watching the news on the JumboTron. Bill Clinton’s face appeared five feet tall on the television screen, a replay of his now-notorious reference to Jesse Jackson having also won the South Carolina primary, with its implication that this year’s black candidate’s victory would be as fleeting and ultimately irrelevant. In response, a group of black college students took up the chant, “Race doesn’t matter, race doesn’t matter.” Within moments the cry spread throughout the room. 

Of course race matters. America is still a country where nearly a quarter of African Americans live in poverty and more African American men are in prison than in college. Sixteen years ago, when I was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and dating a black fellow law student, race sure as hell mattered. Even in the birthplace of the abolitionist movement people stared at us. Cabs refused to pick us up. People avoided sitting next to us in movie theaters or on the bus. 

But now there’s Barack Obama, who doesn’t so much espouse the rhetoric of equality and the end of racism as embody it. There is the evidence of my four white children, who count among their friends children of any number of races and permutations of racial identity. My kids no longer see the world in black and white. The other day Abe was describing two people. One, he said, was bald, with pink skin. The other wore a red shirt and had black hair and brown skin. Skin was something that could be described by color, like hair, but that’s all it was. No race, no politics. Just color. 

I’m not naive. I know that soon enough Abe will learn how racial differences and distinctions continue to preoccupy American society. But he’s growing up in a world where young people can lead a chant that embodies not only the feeling of a moment but the hope for our country’s future. He and his siblings are growing up in the America of our stories, and I can’t quite believe it. Maybe all along, like a Good Mother, I’ve been telling the truth about that good country, America.

Berkeley Symphony concertmaster Franklyn D’Antonio, a student of Jascha Heifetz, formerly with both the Chicago Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic, has founded a new chamber group, the Eidolon String Quartet. D’Antonio is first violin; Noah Strick, Berkeley Symphony’s assistant concertmaster, second violin; Clare Twohy, who teaches at Crowden School, on viola; and Gianna Abandolo, who teaches at UC Berkeley and Mills, cello. On Saturday night, the group will perform their inaugural concert, playing the music of local composers, including pieces by Crowden School teachers Twohy, Alexis Alrich, Clark Suprynowicz (whose work has also been played by Berkeley Symphony and Berkeley Opera), and Michael Kaulkin of the San Francisco Conservatory. 8 p.m. Saturday, May 9, in the Dalby Room at Crowden Music Center, 1475 Rose St. $15.

If you missed Mark Arax’s appearance at Black Oak Books Wednesday, you have a few more chances to catch him at other venues around the Bay Area. Arax has traveled up and down California, and his recent work, West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders and Killers in the Golden State, portrays the personalities and communities he discovers. His essays cover the inner-city strife in the south, to the immigrant families living on the edge in central California, to the hidden marijuana fields in the north—even an essay on Berkeley. 

“These swift, penetrating essays from former Los Angeles Times writer Arax take the measure of contemporary California with a sure and supple hand,” says Publisher’s Weekly. Kirkus compared Arax’s work to Joan Didion’s essays on the Golden State. 

Arax, a contributing writer at Los Angeles magazine and nonfiction writing teacher at Claremont McKenna College, will speak and read from his work at 7 p.m., Friday, May 8, at Book Passage in Corte Madera; at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 13, at Kepler’s Bookstore in Menlo Park; at 7:30 p.m., Friday, May 15, at Book Inc.’s Opera Plaza store in San Francisco; at 3 p.m., Saturday, May 16, at Orinda Bookstore in Orinda; and at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 19, at the San Francisco Public Library.

Risk aversion varies from person to person. Some are comfortable on motorcycles while others prefer to walk. Some skydive or walk tightropes between buildings and still others, inexplicably, choose to remodel the only bath in their house. 

Remodeling your sole bathroom is not for the meek and certainly not for the unprepared. Frankly, I don’t know how some people survive it, and I know that it has been the source of much heartache and more than a few screaming bouts since the outhouse pushed its way inside and became the W.C. (For those of you under 50, that stands for “water closet.”) 

Remodeling is a surprisingly scorched path for many, but few projects carry with them the weighty burden of this one. If you are preparing for a remodel of your loneliest number (which would be ONE, of course), here are some suggestions that might save a portion of your sanity. 

First of all, be prepared. While some level of spontaneity can be enjoyed in many remodeling projects, this should be kept to a minimum in this case. Do your homework; plan this job out thoroughly; have your remodel drawn out to the quarter inch and have your contractor carefully selected. 

Picking a contractor for this particular job is different than for other jobs. You want to have a contractor who is very skilled in anticipating the many surprise items that can interrupt the flow of the job, but small enough (the crew, not the person) so that they will be able to stay on your job without a break for the entire period. That’s the key. From the time that the job begins, the job should proceed without a break until the day you enter and lock the door, sequestering yourself in secret joy. 

A crew of two or three is about right for this job. More members than this will be sitting on their hands and, one way or another, you’re going to pay for this. A single, very energetic person can do this job, but it’s not optimal in terms of time. 

A plan, a permit and a complete list of objectives should be in hand prior to commencement. Anything that can impede progress of the job should be eliminated prior to giving up your magazine-reading privileges and allowing Joe or Marge to place tools in your hallway or extra bedroom.  

Permits are required for virtually anything that can reasonably be called a bathroom remodel, and when in doubt, call the city building department and ask. Despite the fact that they will tend to fall on the side of administrative rigor (“Yes, ma’am, you have to have a permit to replace a light bulb”), the bath remodel is one job that will virtually always require a permit. And this permit is quite beneficial, because there are many code issues at play in the bath (though they do not splash, nor do they frolic). Despite the small area, these code issues carry with them significant safety and practical gnosis. Baths have changed a lot over the years and codes regarding baths continue to change at a steady rate.  

This means that you are quite likely to participate in some serious changes in the way wiring, plumbing and finishes are installed on this bath as compared with the one you are demolishing, or even the one you would have wrought 10 years ago. The latest code version has plenty of text in red (or underlined) as proof of this. So, again, to prevent undue delay (and puffy red eyes from crying), it is best that permits be obtained and a simple set of plans submitted. 

Shopping is incredibly important. Make it your objective to procure all components to the finished bathroom prior to commencement of the job and you will be a much happier camper. Have the tile (including plenty of extra to cover breakage, cutting and other waste), thin-set mortar, grout and tile backer board in the garage. Have the toilet in the basement (special orders can take weeks to arrive and this can bring your job to a halt if not properly considered), have the tub in the backyard. Buy the vanity, sink and light fixtures well in advance and pack them away. While it is possible to buy plywood, studs, nails and Wonderboard on a moment’s notice, many of the items that will go into the bath (a new window? a skylight?) may not be readily available once the job is under way and will certainly take time to buy while the job is in progress. If nearly every component is present and on site when you start, this will speed things along. 

Another thing that you can do to make sure that things will proceed swimmingly is to request that your contractor carefully examine all the accessible areas that may be affected by the work prior to starting the job. Have them get into the crawlspace and look at the configuration and condition of the waste pipes as well as the water supply piping. Is the piping old galvanized? (This must be upgraded in the confines of the bathroom walls, at least.) Is the waste piping corroded? Properly supported? Adequately sized? Make accommodations for upgrade in advance. Don’t leave these issues to be dealt with in the heat of construction. 

Ventilation requirements have changed in our newest codes, and vent fans are no longer optional for bathing spaces. Plan ahead to have the best ventilation, since good ventilation saves the paint, the tile and wood framing as well as making a space safer (less slippery) and more efficient (you don’t have to wait to see your God-like visage in the mirror). In-line fans are my personal favorite, although any good vent fan is a step above the open window approach that never worked very well anyway. Planning in advance should include shopping for your in-line or in-ceiling fan, identifying the output location (wall, ceiling) and the type of ducting. 

The same applies to lighting and heating. Shop early, buy all the parts, set them aside and be ready to install them the minute the preceding task is complete. Don’t miss out on in-floor heat or an extra duct and register from your existing furnace. Most baths lack adequate heat and the bath is certainly one place where this is de rigueur. Light is often and afterthought, and when rushing to get through to a completed bath, may get tossed aside. Consider a small sun-dome skylight (or any skylight), and consider a range of lighting types, despite the small space. Overhead, vanity and accent lighting all can fit nicely into the smallest bath to wondrous effect and need not cost a great deal. In fact, lighting and electrical wiring is downright cheap if you do it while the walls are open. 

Lastly, let me say that the single most important factor in the remodeling of your lonely bathroom is, perhaps, the selection of the contractor. This is not the time to pick your brother-in-law or the woman you really like on the next block. They may be the right person for the job, but you must pick someone who is dedicated to moving through this job with determination, sagacity and vigor. It must also be someone who you believe will be able to talk to you when you are angry and tired. Remodeling is trying under the best of circumstances. Those who have been through lengthily remodelings can testify to this and some can tell you, if they are honest enough, that they may have lost it a time or two when they were just overwrought and not their best selves.  

We are all private creatures to some extent. Some of us are very outgoing, but all of us need our privacy some time. There are few places in our lives where this is as rigorously true as in our relationship to the place where we bathe, make up and refresh ourselves. When this room is taken from us for several weeks (yes, I said several weeks—if all goes well!) we may begin to exhibit behavior and experience feelings that we can not justify. Working with an experienced contractor who can demonstrate progress each day and show us that things are proceeding toward completion can aid us (even you big, strong men) in understanding that everything is OK and that, soon, we’ll be showering in our grandly renewed space. A contractor who doesn’t over-react to our momentary moodiness and understands our feelings and the importance of staying the course in stormy seas is worth many drachmas (and is rarely the low-drachmas bid). 

Oh yes, there is one more bit of advice I’d like to add. To the best of your ability, try to create an alternative bathing situation for yourself prior to having your bath taken from you. A port-a-potty in the side or backyard (near the back door?) is just about essential, although you could purchase a camp toilet or a small incinerating toilet. These are nice to have in the event of a natural disaster anyway, and might be a worthwhile long-range investment. Add to this a shower or bathing option at your gym, workplace or a neighbor’s house and you might actually be well set. If it’s a neighbor or friend, you might want to have a backup so that you don’t strain the relationship after a few weeks. Joining a gym for a month might be well worth the cost. More sensitive (or self-knowing) shoppers might even find it worthwhile to rent a nearby apartment for a month. 

The difference that good planning can make is hard to demonstrate or prove until the wheels come off the bus, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one.  

The French author Andre Gide once said of risk that, “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” I’m not certain but it seems like this has to have something to do with waiting to use the bathroom. 

ASK MATT 

Got a question about home repairs and inspections? Send them to Matt Cantor at mgcantor@pacbell.net.

THURSDAY, MAY 7 

Berkeley Democratic Club with Assembymember Nancy Skinner on the state of the State, and the League of Woman Voters presents the propositions for the May 19th Special Statewide Election, at 7 p.m. at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda.  

SalmonAID Festival with music, dancing and information about the salmon at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $25. 849-2568.  

Create Your Own Micro-Farm with a self-watering container. Learn how from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Housing Authority Community Room, 935 Union St., West Oakland on the corner of 10th St. Sponsored by Urban ROOTS. To reserve a spot, please call 655-1304. 

“Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money” with author Woody Tasch on his view of the world of capital markets and sustainability at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-3402. 

Project YouthView: The Power of Youth in Film Festival of winning bay area local youth film shorts, plus the documentary “Trouble the Water” at 6 p.m. at Historic Theatre of the Alameda Theater & Cineplex, 317 Central Avenue, Alameda. Sponsored by Alternatives in Action. Tickets are $5-$8, $100 for VIP section. 748-4314, ext. 304. www.projectyouthview.org 

“Reptiles and Amphibians” with Paul Hamilton as part of the Conservation Speaker Series at 6:30 p.m. in the Marian Zimmer Auditorium, Children’s Zoo, Oakland Zoo. Suggested donation $5-$20. 632-9525, ext. 122. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Laney College, ASLC Offices, 900 Fallon St., Oakland.. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com 

Film on Washington DC indepth exploration of this multi-cultural city at 1:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720. 

Teaching English as a Second Language Learn about the Foreign Language Certification Program offered by UC Berkeley Extension, at 5:30 p.m. at 1995 University Ave. To reserve a space call 642-4111. 

“Don't Be in Pain” with Dr. Ellliott Wagner on the benefits of acupuncture in relieving neuropathic pain at 1 p.m. at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 278 Grand Ave., Oakland. 653-8625. 

Circle of Concern Vigil meets on West Lawn of UC campus across from Addison and Oxford, Thurs. at noon and Sun. at 1 p.m. to oppose UC weapons labs contracts. 848-8055. 

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Buddhist Class on Shikan Meditation at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar at Bonita, through May 28. http://caltendai.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 8 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Douglas J. Long, Chief Curator, Dept. of Natural Sciences, Oakland Museum of CA on “The California Grizzly Bear in Fact and Fancy” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $15, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 527-2173.  

“What I Saw in Gaza” with Middle East Children’s Alliance Executive Director Barbara Lubin at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation $5-$10. 526-2900. www.bfuu.org 

The Orchid Society of California Annual Mother’s Day Weekend Show and Sale, Fri. noon to 6 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue, Oakland. Free. 582-3404. www. 

orchidsocietyofcalifornia.com 

Stockton Avenue Art Stroll Meet the artists at their studios or galleries, and have a great time exploring art along El Cerrito’s Stockton Ave. For more details, contact Well Grounded Tea & Coffee Bar, 6925 Stockton Ave. 528-4709. 

Love and Justice for Tristan & Palestine with Charming Hostess, Devin Hoff Platform, Molotov Mouths, Hillary Lehr and others at 7:30 p.m. at AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. Donation $7-$25. 208-1700. 

Womansong Circle “A Celebration of Mothers” An evening of participatory singing for women with guest Evelie Posch, at 7:15 p.m. at First Congregational Church, Small Assembly Room, 2345 Channing St. Suggested donation $15-20. www.betsyrosemusic.org 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Children’s Hospital, Outpatient Center Basement, 747 52nd St.,, Oakland.. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com 

Kamit Fest 36th Anniversary Ausar Auset Society Registration at 6:30 p.m., meditation at 7 p.m. Oakland Public Conservatory, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. Other events throughout the day on Sat. 536-5934. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Fri. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

SATURDAY, MAY 9 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Walk in Claremont Heights, Grand View, and Hiller Highlands Walk the old paths behind the Claremont Hotel that once helped commuters reach the Key Route trains, and look for traces of paths that are no more. Learn about historic Smith Lane and the family that built it. Finally, explore newer paths and streets in neighborhoods rebuilt after the 1991 Oakland-Berkeley firestorm. This route has long, steep hills and stairways, some with uneven footing. Meet at 10 a.m. at Peet’s, 2912 Domingo Ave. www.berkeleypaths.org 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Field Trip to Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve Join Rusty Scalf for a morning of bird watching at our own East Bay volcano. Drive south on Grizzly Peak Blvd until it ends; turn left onto Skyline, the park entrance is located a short distance, about a quarter mile, on Skyline on the left at 6800 Skyline. Meet at parking lot at 8 a.m. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

Blessing of the Animals at 11:00 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, on the front lawn at 2619 Broadway, Oakland. Please bring pets on leashes or in carriers. 444-3555. www.firstcurchoakland.org  

Jefferson School Mayfair Games, prizes, food, performances, cakewalks, root beer floats and rockets abound at this year’s space-themed Mayfair. Come in costume and compete for prizes. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1400 Ada St., Sacramento St.  

Edible Schoolyard Jamboree and 5th Annual Mother’s Day Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Edible Schoolyard, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, 1781 Rose St. Plant sale continues on Sun. 558-1335. 

Bike Day at the Farmer’s Market from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Center St between Milvia St. and M.L.K.jr. Way. Come learn to take care of your bicycle with workshops on everything from changing a flat tire to greasing your chain. www.bfbc.org 

California Rare Fruit Growers Golden Gate Chapter with Bill Grimes, CRFG National Office President, on “Growing California Bay Area Friendly Exotic and Heirloom Fruits and Vegetables” at 1 p.m. at 2009 Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr. Community Room, 2090 Kittredge St. www.CRFG.org 

“Opening Doors to Homes: A Walk for Affordable Housing” to raise awareness and funds for much needed affordable housing to the Bay Area from 1 to 4 p.m. at Memorial Glade, UC campus. Cost is $15-$30. Sponsored by Resources for Community Development. Register online at www.firstgiving.com/rcdhousing 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Urban Farming Basics: Grow Your Own Food” With Willow Rosenthal of City Slicker Farms from 2 to 6 p.m. at Berkeley Youth Alternatives Garden, Bancroft Way between Bonar and West St. Cost is $10-$15. 548-2220, ext. 239. 

The Orchid Society of California Annual Mother’s Day Weekend Show and Sale Sat. and Sun. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue, Oakland. Free. 582-3404. www.orchidsocietyofcalifornia.com 

California Lawn Bowls Day Open House from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the corner of Acton St. and Bancroft. 841-2174. 

Annie’s Annuals Mother’s Day Party with food, drinks, a clown and activities for children, and gardening information and raffle Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 740 Market Ave. Richmond. www.anniesannuals.com 

Free Car Seat Checks Officers from the Berkeley Police Department will administer a car seat safety check on the 5th level of the Allston Way Garage, 2061 Allston Way between Milvia and Shattuck, from 10 a.m. to noon. Parking will be validated by Habitot. 647-1111.  

“Becoming America: Becoming California” Exhibition on the history of the Peralta family and the Native People with food, crafts and games, dancing and tours, from noon to 5 p.m. at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, 2465 34th Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation $1. 532-9142. www.peraltahacienda.org/VisitUs.htm  

“Pakistan and Afghanistan: Obama’s and America’s Next Vietnam?” with speaker Conn Hallinan at 7 p.m. at the Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak St., Alameda. Sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum Suggested donation $5, no one is turned away. 814-9592.  

Common Agenda Regional Network meeting on reordering federal priorities from the military to human and environmental needs at 2 p.m. at 1403 Addison St. at the Gray Panthers’ Office, adjacent the back entrance of the Andronico’s Grocery. 

1st Annual Rock Paper Scissors Collective Cupcake Bake-off Benefit for the Community Collaborations Donor Campaign at 2 p.m. at Rock Paper Scissors Collective, 2278 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. 238-9171. www.rpscollective.com 

Origami Flowers with Margo Wecksler from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720. 

“Food For Thought” Comedians and speakers, including Johnny Steele, Kamau Bell, Richard Stockton and Carmen Tedesco of Slow Food San Francisco in a benefit for the Alameda County Food Bank at 8 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater, 2460 College Ave. Tickets are $15. Advance tickets can be purchased online at www.juliamorgan.org 

“The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to the Present” Community opening of the exhibition from noon to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

“Update from Haiti” with Seth Donnelly on the electoral climate in Haiti at 3 p.m. at Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.haitisolidarity.net 

Kensington Library Spring Book Sale Sat. from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sun. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Community Center, 59 Arlington Ave, Kensington, up the road by the library. 524-3043. 

Jitter-Bug Hunt Fun for the whole family trying to catch these bugs, at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Mad Hatter Tea Party and White Rabbit Adoption Fair from 1 to 4 p.m. at RabbitEARS, 377 Colusa Ave., Kensington. 525-6155. 

Kids Go Green: Protecting Chabot’s Redwood Ecosystem from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the redwood forest surrounding Cahabot Space and Science Center, 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. Cost is $10.95-$14.95. 336-7373. 

Preschool Storytime, including crafts and finger plays at 11 a.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720 ext. 16. 

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.  

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, MAY 10 

Grand Opening of the David Brower Center Tour the Center, celebrate the planet, and explore environmental and social issues of our time, from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at 2150 Allston Way, between Oxford and Shattuck. For a complete schedule of events see www.browercenter.org 

Friends and Family Day at the Magnes Join us in the garden and museum as we reflect on memory and personal history through arts and crafts from 11 a.m. t0 3 p.m. at 2911 Russell St. www.magnes.org 

Mothers Day Stories and Songs with Doug and Todd Elliott’s cultural tour of America’s backcountry, at 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Treat Your Mother Right Join a tour of the Tilden Little Farm to meet the animal mothers, and two farm grandmothers, at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Mother’s Day Peace Fair with speakers, music, refreshments from 3 to 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation $5, no one turned away. 841-4824. www.uucb.org 

CodePINK: Women for Peace Pink Follies for Mothers’ Day with music, dance, comedy, spoken word at 6:45 p.m. at a La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 540-7007. 

California Native Plant Society Walk Discover California native plants along the way. This loop has a 700 foot elevation gain, with many ups and downs. Round trip is about 5 miles. Meet at 10 a.m. in the Briones Reg. Park, Reliez Valley Staging Area parking lot. 223-3310. 

Welcoming the Three Sisters to the Garden Help us plant beans, squash and corn in the Childrens’ Garden and learn why they encourage eachother to grow, at 10 a.m. at Tilden Narure Area, Tilden Park. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Discussion of Marxist-Humanist Perspectives at 6:30 p.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Text available at www.newsandletters.org For information call 658-1448. 

Personal Theology Seminars with Rosa Grandillo-Schwentker on “My Experience with the Toltec Shamanic Tradition” 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. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “The Buddhist Path and the Scientific Method” 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 2 to 6 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Also on Thurs. from 2 to 6 p.m. Cost is $5 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

MONDAY, MAY 11 

Anna Head Student Housing Project Community Discussion at 7 p.m. in the All Purpose Room, Unit 1 Residence Hall. RSVP to 643-8677. Comments can be emailed to bpiatnitza@cp.berkeley.edu 

AC Transit Service Reduction Community Workshop Bus district seeks community input as it begins planning for service reductions, made necessary by looming deficit due to significant cut in state funding and other economic factors. Bus riders and the community are encouraged to attend at 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., West Berkeley Senior Center, 1900 Sixth St. 

“The Drought and Community Response” with Andy Katz, EBMUD director at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

“Hot Technology, Cool Science” with scientists from Berkeley Lab at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St. 

Dog Training Workshop: Come, Spot, Come! at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Hall, 1970 Chestnut St. Cost is $35. 849-9323.  

El Cerrito Art Association Painting demonstration Christopher Schink, author of two books on watercolor painting, at 7:30 pm in the Garden Room of the El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser Lane. 

Community Yoga Class 10 a.m. at James Kenney Parks and Rec. Center at Virginia and 8th. Seniors and beginners welcome. Cost is $6. 207-4501. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group, for people 60 years and over, meets at 9:45 a.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave, Albany. Cost is $3.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577.  

TUESDAY, MAY 12 

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 the Sibley Regional Preserve. Bring water, field guides, binoculars or scopes. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 544-3265.  

Alliance for California Tradtional Arts Information session on funding opportunities for folk and traditional artisits at 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 415-346-5200.  

Lawyer in the Library at 6 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. Cosponsored by the Alameda County Bar Association. Advance registration required. 526-3720 ext. 5. 

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 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991.  

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Bridge for beginners from 12:30 to 2:15 p.m., all others 12:30 to 4 p.m. Sing-A-Long at 2:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13 

Berkeley Housing Element Community Meeting To review the inventory of properties identified for possible future residential development at 7 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-7416. 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

“Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children and Consumer Culture” with Allison Pugh, Asst. Prof. Dept of Sociology, Univ. of Virginia, at 7 p.m. at North Oakland Community Charter School, 1000 42nd St., Oakland. 655-0540. 

“Paws to Read” Help your child practice reading with a friendly dog at 2:45 and at 3:20 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. Dogs and handlers are from Therapy Pets volunteering for Paws to Read. Children in grades 1-5 may sign up for 25 minute sessions with tested therapy pets. To reserve a session call 526-3720, ext. 5.  

“The Century of the Self—Episode Two: Happiness Machines” by Adam Curtis at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., uptown Oakland, between Telegraph and Broadway. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.org 

Free Screening of “Reds“ as part of the Radical Film Nite with free popcorn and post-film discussion, at 8 p.m. at the Long Haul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. 540-0751. www.thelonghaul.org 

Cycling: Improving Your Performance for Fun, Fitness, or Competition with Curtis Cramblett at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Confused by Computers? Novice computer users can get one-on-one assistance from noon to 1:45 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. Sign up for an appointment at the reference desk or call 526-3720 ext. 5. 

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 

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Berkeley CopWatch Drop-in office hours from 6 to 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

THURSDAY, MAY 14 

Bike to Work or School Day Celebrate bicycling as a healthy, fun, and economical form of transportation. For more event details and locations of energizer stations see bicycling.511.org 

“Richmond Riviera” Walk for Age 50+ Discover birds, parks, and WWII history along Richmond’s Bay shore on a level, paved, wheelchair-accessible walk. Meet at 9 a.m. at Shimada Friendship Park, S. end of Marina Bay Parkway, Richmond. Free but numbers limited; register at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave., 524-9122, or Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin, 524-9283. 

Book Bingo In celebration of Children’s Book Week, for ages 5 and up, at 3:30 p.m. at the Kendington library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043.  

East Bay Mac Users Group Meeting learn about iLife 09- iMovie & iWeb at 7 p.m. at Expression College for Digital Arts, 6601 Shellmound Street, Emeryville. ebmug.org 

Guided Meditation with Patricia Ellesberg on “Mystery Made Manifest” works by Susan Duhan Felix at noon at the Badè Museum, in the Hollbrook Building at the Pacific School of Religion located at 1798 Scenic. 848-0528. 

“The Heart of Islam: Essentials of Islamic Religion and Spirituality” A four week introductory course, open to the general public, Thurs. nights at 7 p.m. at Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, 1433 Madison St., Oakland. Cost is $25 for all classes. To register call 832-7600. www.iccnc.org 

Circle of Concern Vigil meets on West Lawn of UC campus across from Addison and Oxford, Thurs. at noon and Sun. at 1 p.m. to oppose UC weapons labs contracts. 848-8055. 

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Buddhist Class on Shikan Meditation at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, Cedar at Bonita, through May 28. http://caltendai.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 15 

Tommie Smith on “The 1968 Olympics” including a film “Return to Mexico City” at 9:30 a.m. at the Little Theater, Berkeley High School, 1980 Allston Way. 812-0121, 776-7451. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Prof. Richard A. Muller “Physics for Future Presidents” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $15, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 527-2173. www.citycommonsclub.org 

Volunteer at Berkeley Youth Alternative Gardens Tasks may include weeding, bed preparation, sowing, transplanting, composting and harvesting, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Berkeley Youth Alternatives Garden, Bancroft Way, between Bonar and West St. 647-0709. www.byaonline.org 

“Ecocities: An Environmentally Conscious Approach to Architecture” with Kirstin Miller on how ecocities can reverse sprawl development and create sustainable cities that promote walking, cycling and public transit, from noon to 1 p.m. at AIA East Bay Chapter Office, 1405 Clay St., Oakland. RSVP by email. events@aiaeb.org 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Why Be Jewish? at 6:15 p.m. at Jewish Gateways, 409 Liberty Street, El Cerrito. Cost is $7. RSVP required. 559-8140 . www.jewishgateways.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 

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Fri. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

SATURDAY, MAY 16 

Himalayan Fair A market bazaar of the great mountain cultures of the Himalayas with food, arts and crafts and traditional music Sat from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Suggested donation $5. www.himalayanfair.net  

Berkeley Garden Club Plant Sale with CA natives, succulents, perennials and other wonderful plants locally grown at bargain prices, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 547 Grizzly Peak Blvd., top of Euclid. 524-7296. 

24th Bay Area Storytelling Festival Sat. and Sun. from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Kennedy Grove Recreation Area, featuring Jay O’Callahan, Antionio Rocha, Gayle Ross, Judith Black and Doug Elliott. Cost is $40-$80. registration required. 869-4969. www.bayareastorytelling.org 

Sudden Oak Death Blitz Training meeting for people wanting to take part in the documentation of SOD affected trees, from 10 a.m. to noon at Regional Park Botanic Garden, Wildcat Canyon Rd at S. Park Drive, Tilden Park. Sampling will continue on Sat. afternoon and Sun. Bring GPS units if you have them. 847-5482. 

Teens Touch the Earth Earn community service credit while working with others who care about the environment, for ages 13-19 from 9 a.m. to noon at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

“Recycle, Restyle, Remake Your Clothes” A class on how to economize and stretch your wardrobe by remaking items that are already in your closet. Learn how old sweaters can be transformed into hats and arm warmers, sleeves can be shortened or removed, dresses can be turned into skirts. Bring those pieces still hanging in your closet that haven't been worn in ages and restyle them into something new. From 4 to 7 p.m. at Waterside Workshops, 84 Bolivar Drive, at Berkeley's Aquatic Park. Cos tis $25. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

TransForm’s 12th Annual Summit The Summit will focus on the critical role of transportation and land use in the health of our economy, pocketbooks, and planet, and highlight solutions, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Laney College, 900 Fallon St. at 10th, Oakland. Cos tis $20. To register call 740-3150. transformca.org 

Berkeley Buddhist Temple Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival with Japanese foods, crafts, children's games, silent auction and performances by Anthony Brown, storyteller, Brenda Wong-Aoki, Destiny Arts Center's youth hip-hop group, Sat. from 4 to 9 p.m. and Sun. from noon to 7 p.m. at 2121 Channing Way. Free. 841-1356. www.berkeleysangha.org/ev/bazaar 

Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Work-day Enter the park from Swan Way and follow the road to the end parking lot. Meet at 10 a.m. near the wooden observation platform adjacent to Arrowhead Marsh. Sponsored by Golden Gate Audubon Society. 843-2222. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

Fundraiser for New Oakland Farmers’ Market with art gallery, workshops, live music and dancing from from 5 p.m. at Oakland Noodle Factory, 1255 26th St., Oakland. Donations $5-$15, or work-trade. www.phatbeetsproduce.org 

On Hidden Pond Discover the life in this secret pond with naturalist Meg Platt from 2 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Bicycle Safety Day Cyclists of all ages and levels can drop in anytime to test their skills in a variety of obstacle courses, learn about basic bike maintenance, discover local bike resources, and talk with a police officer about the rules of the road, from noon to 4 p.m. at the DMV Parking Lot, 6400 Manila Ave, El Cerrito, behind the El Cerrito City Hall. There will be a BMX Stunt Team performing at 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m.  

Walking Tour of Oakland City Center Meet at 10 a.m. in front Oakland City Hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Children’s Community Center Silent Auction at 7 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Tickets are $20-$40, sliding scale, at the door. www.cccpreschool.org 

California Writers Club with Janis Cooke Newman on “A Many-Sided Talent” (Talking About Writing) at 10 a.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers Event Loft, Jack London Square, 98 Broadway, Oakland. 272-0120. www.berkeleywritersclub.org 

Friends of the Albany Library Book Sale Sat and Sun. from 10 a.m .to 4 p.m. at the Albany Library and Community Center, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. To volunteer to help at the sale, call the Library at 526-3720 ext. 5. 

“Innerscape” A Day of Art, Play and Transformation For adults from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy University, Berkeley Campus, 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd flr. Cost is $10, no one turned away for lack of funds. www.artplay.us/innerscape 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley Marina. Wear warm, waterproof clothing and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. Children 5 and over welcome with parent or guardian. www.cal-sailing.org 

Studio One Art Center’s Community Day with movement and art projects in various media for children ages 4 though teens from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at 36545th street off Broadway, North Oakland. Suggested donation $5. 597-5027. 

Otis School “Spring Fling” Fundraising Event with auction, Italian food and wine, at 6:30 p.m. at JC Cellars, 55 4th St., Oakland. Tickets are $20-$25. 465-5900. 

Small Critter Adoption Day Check out pet rats, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits, from 1 to 4 p.m. at RabbitEARS, 377 Colusa Ave, Kensington. 525-6155. 

Cartoon Weekend at Playland Watch hundreds of cartoons, meet a famous animator, enter our drawing contest and children in costume get in half off. Sat. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 10979 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. Cost is $10-$15. 232-4264 ext. 25. www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org 

Beginning Internet Class “Health and Medical Information” at 10 a.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Free, but call to sign up 526-7512. 

Preschool Storytime, including crafts and finger plays at 11 a.m. at The Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720 ext. 16. 

Shabbat Celebration for Young Children at 10:30 a.m. at Jewish Gateways, 409 Liberty St., El Cerrito. Free for first-times, RSVP required. 559-8140. www.jewishgateways.org 

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

Lawn Bowling on the green at the corner of Acton St. and Bancroft Way every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. for ages 12 and up. Wear flat soled shoes, no heels. Free lessons. 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, MAY 17 

Himalayan Fair A market bazaar of the great mountain cultures of the Himalayas with food, arts and crafts and traditional music from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Suggested donation $5. www.himalayanfair.net  

Heritage Rose Show Celebration of Old Roses with a large display of roses, plus rosey items for sale including plants, jewelry, crafts, books, stationery and food, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at El Cerrito Community Center, 7007 Moeser Lane, El Cerrito. Free.  

Little Farm Goat Hike Join a short hike with the goats as we explore the historic connections between humans and our ungulate friends at 11 a.m. at the Little Farm, Tilden Park. For ages 6 and up. Children , please bring your adults along. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Mend Those Fences Learn how to do traditional carpentry with hand-tools and our muscles to put up new fencing from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. For ages 9 and up. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Free Hands-on Bicycle Clinic Learn how to repair a flat, from 11 a.m. to noon at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Bring your bike and tools. 527-4140. 

Learn How to Repair Your Clothes A introductory class on simple hand and machine sewing techniques for patching jeans, replacing zippers, hems, buttons, and more from noon to 2 p.m. at Waterside Workshops, 84 Bolivar Drive, at Berkeley's Aquatic Park. Cost is $20, sliding scale. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

The Institute of Urban Homesteading Open House Tour of garden, bees, rabbits and greywater features, and a bake and brew sale with homemade beer and soda and strawberry and raspberry shortcakes, from noon to 5 p.m. Please email for location. iuh@sparkybeegirl.com 

Family Explorations Day: Shadow Puppets from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

Oakland on Two Wheels A bike tour exploration of Oakland with docents from the Oakland Museum of California. Meet at 10 a.m. at the museum’s 10th St. entrance. www.museumca.org/tickets 

Bunny Maintenance 101 Everything you need to know about basic care of your bunny. Class includes a take-home first aid kit for bunnies. From 2 to 4 p.m. at RabbitEARS, 377 Colusa Ave, Kensington. 525-6155. 

Egyptology Lecture “Stairsteps to the Gods—Building the Great Pyramid at Giza” with Craig Smith, architectural engineer at 2:30 p.m. at Barrows Hall, Room 20, Barrow Lane and Bancroft Way, UC campus. 415-664-4767. 

“Bums Paradise” Screening of the film with dinner and raffle at 7:30 p.m. at Longhaul Infoshop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. at Woolsey. Cost is $10 at the door. 984-2316. 

East Bay Atheists with Dr. Eric Maisel on his new book, “The Atheist’s Way” at 1:30 p.m. at Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr meeting room. eastbayatheists.org 

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