Berkeley High School will allow the public to participate in meetings held by a committee charged with planning a new schedule for the high school, Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Bill Huyett said Tuesday. 

The first public forum will be held Wednesday, May 28, at the Berkeley High School Library, giving parents a chance to ask questions about the process, Huyett said. 

The Scheduling Committee was formed in April under direction from the Berkeley Board of Education, when the board approved an organizational redesign for the high school at the beginning of the year. 

This overhaul—which will introduce advisory programs for smaller learning environments, a new small school, new bell schedules and late-start Mondays geared toward teacher development—is part of the citywide 2020 Vision program, which seeks to close the achievement gap in Berkeley’s public schools. The changes would be implemented for the 2010-11 school year. 

A report by San Francisco-based School Wise Press shows Berkeley Unified as having the highest achievement gap in the state. 

Huyett said the decision to include community members in these scheduling meetings was made by Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp after the Scheduling Committee’s May 13 meeting in response to parent concerns. 

Now, “anyone can participate,” Superintendent Huyett said. “Of course, the committee will need to do its work and come up with a schedule, but it will be a participatory process.” 

A group of parents, including Berkeley High Parent, Teacher and Student Association President Mark van Krieken had complained about the lack of transparency and parental involvement in the redesign process. They had said during the formation of the scheduling committee—essentially the second phase of the redesign—that despite promises from Berkeley High administration about a more open approach in the future, school officials were still leaving parents out of the process. 

In a letter to PTSA members Tuesday, May 26, van Krieken described the recent development as “good news.” 

“We would like to thank the principal and superintendent for making the process more open for the BHS community,” he said. “It’s much appreciated.” 

Krieken informed parents that from now on, all meetings organized by the scheduling committee will be announced in advance, and that the minutes and agendas from the first three meetings had been posted on the Berkeley High website. 

The committee will be looking at various different scheduling models over the summer and submit a proposal to the board in the fall, Huyett said. 

Although the high school had initially been interested in pursuing a block schedule, under Huyett’s recommendation the board told school officials to investigate a different schedule from the current six-period model, which would incorporate more courses annually and provide time for advisory programs and academic support. 

Van Krieken also said that he was pleased with the diversity on the 14-member committee, which is comprised of Huyett, Slemp, district Director of Student Evaluation and Assessment Rebecca Cheung and several parents and teachers. 

Cathy Campbell, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers said she was hopeful that a more “open transparent process would benefit everyone.’ 

“The last time some people were surprised because they saw the end of the process and missed the earlier part,” Campbell said. “As a result they were not aware of the urgency, the intricacy of some of the problems. But this time, with more information out there, even if they don’t agree with whatever decision the school board makes, at least the process will get more support.” 

The public forum on Berkeley High’s schedule changes for the 2010-11 school year will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 28, in the Berkeley High School library. 

• The agendas and minutes of the Scheduling Committee’s first three meetings can be found on the Berkeley High website at bhs.berkeley.net/index.php?page=berkeley-high-redesign-plan, and on the PTSA website at bhs.berkeleypta.org/docs/redesign/redesign.htm.  

Ten Berkeley citizens and leaders of Corporate Accountability International (CAI) protested in front of McDonald’s in downtown Berkeley Tuesday to draw attention to the restaurant’s proximity to schools. 

It was the day before McDonald’s corporation’s annual shareholder meeting, the protesters having timed their demonstration to publicize the fact that there are five schools located within half a mile of the fast food franchise, including Berkeley High, Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary, and Maybeck High School. 

“This is not coincidental and needs to stop,” said Todd Anderson, CAI member. “In the midst of this health crisis, McDonald’s should do their part and remove franchises that are near these schools.” 

Edith Monk Halberg, a homelessness activist and substitute teacher, said fast food has affected her students. 

“It is important for school-age children to get good nutrition,” said Halberg. “I have noticed that it affects the behavior and learning capabilities of children. While school lunches in Berkeley are nutritious, not every city has these programs. I hope that the fast food industry measures up to some level of corporate accountability.” 

At the demonstration, local registered dietitian Juliette Simms offered her first-hand experience on the effects of fast food on children. 

“I used to do surgery on geriatric patients,” said Simms. “I have seen children with Type 2 diabetes. When I ask them about their eating habits, many of them eat fast food. McDonald’s advertisements to kids often go under the parents’ radar. If McDonald’s cares about customer health, they need to stop advertising to our kids.” 

“Americans are getting wise to their public relations strategy,” said Anderson. “It is now time for McDonald’s to stop playing their public relations game. We need to focus on zoning laws for these franchises.” 

Attempts to contact Nick Vergis, manager of the downtown McDonald’s franchise, were unsuccessful. 

Simms says that the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) should partner with the City of Berkeley to work on some of these issues. 

“Schools in these school districts can and should work with the city to rewrite the zoning laws,” said Simms. 

Berkeley Unified School District spokesperson Mark Coplan said citizens should go to the city if they have ideas. 

“We really count on the city to deal with these kind of issues,” said Coplan. “Many people would like to see the school district be involved in their cause and be carriers for their issue. However, all of our time has been spent on the budget and we really don’t have time for other things. From our standpoint, there are so many good restaurants in the area that the only time students go to McDonald’s is if they don’t have much money.” 

In 1999, the Berkeley City Council passed a moratorium on new “quick service” restaurants and “carry-out” restaurants on University Avenue between Oxford Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way. However, in February 2009, the council revised it to allow construction of new “quick service” restaurants, which include cafes and pizzerias, but continued to ban “carry-out” restaurants, which can include fast food establishments. 

Berkeley Councilmember Jesse Arreguin said the city is committed to preventing future fast food places on that strip of University Avenue, but can’t remove current franchise establishments. 

“While many people think that McDonald’s should not be there, all the council can do is regulate to make sure that future fast food business don’t construct there,” said Arreguin. “Childhood obesity is a concern and a priority for the city.”  

Corporate Accountability International is a 30-year-old corporate watchdog organization centered in Boston, Mass., that runs campaigns against what they perceive as “the world’s most destructive global corporations.” This campaign is the latest attempt to call on the fast food industry to end their marketing appeals to children, to end their influence on public policy and nutritional science, and to urge them to provide complete nutritional information on all their products. 

San Francisco police arrested at least 150 protesters this afternoon after a large crowd blocked a major intersection in response to the state Supreme Court’s ruling upholding Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.  

Hundreds of people filled the intersection of Grove Street and Van Ness Avenue late this morning after word spread of the ruling. The court also ruled that roughly 18,000 existing same-sex marriages in California remain valid.  

Around 12:45 p.m., officers were seen placing plastic handcuffs on protesters and leading them to police vans waiting nearby. With each new arrest, the crowd cheered.  

Police Sgt. Lyn Tomioka said the protesters were arrested for failing to obey an officer and being outside a crosswalk.  

At 1 p.m. the intersection was still closed to traffic and hundreds of people remained in the street.  

The state Supreme Court by a 6-1 vote today upheld Proposition 8, passed by California voters in November. The initiative was approved by 52 percent of voters as an amendment to the state Constitution.  

In its ruling, the court rejected three lawsuits in which same-sex couples and local governments claimed the measure could not be passed simply as an initiative because it was a constitutional revision rather than an amendment. 

News of the ruling ignited passion on both sides of the issue today, with gay marriage supporters vowing to renew the fight via a ballot measure in 2010. 

“It is impossible to square the elation we felt just a year ago with the grief that we feel today,” said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, at a news conference inside City Hall. 

Kendell said it is “impossible to reconcile” today’s Supreme Court ruling with its previous May 2008 ruling allowing the marriages. 

“As soon as I heard the decision, I started crying,” said Eva Paterson, president of the Equal Justice Society. “It’s just wrong. It’s just wrong.” 

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said he was disappointed by the ruling but “grateful” the court allowed the approximately 18,000 same-sex marriages to stand. 

He acknowledged that there would be a lot of sadness and even anger in the gay community, but asked opponents of Proposition 8 not to vilify the judges for their decisions. 

“Courts deserve respect for the difficult job they have to do,” Herrera said. 

Herrera said the final decision won’t happen in the courts, but rather in the “electoral arena.” 

A crowd gathered near the state building this morning to await the court’s decision. Colorful signs bore slogans like “No H8” and “Marriage = One Man + One Woman.” 

The details of the ruling just after 10 a.m. spread through the crowd via cell phones and text message. Immediately, opponents of Proposition 8 began chanting, “shame on you” to the smaller assemblage of people who support the measure. 

George Popko, 22, held one side of a large sign saying “Celebrate Prop 8.” He said he was expecting today’s decision based on the questions justices asked when they heard arguments on the matter in March. 

Popko said he traveled from Sacramento with a dozen classmates from American River College. Popko said his student body was the first in the state to officially support Proposition 8. 

“I am a Christian, but I’m also here to defend my state constitution,” he said. 

Emotions ran high after the ruling. Several people surrounded Popko and his sign, decrying his position. 

“I expected some hostility,” he said. “Although it’s a little worse today.”

OAKLAND — An Alameda County Superior Court judge said today he won’t allow witnesses to testify that they overheard former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle mention using his Taser stun gun before he fatally shot Oscar Grant III on New Year’s Day.  

At least one witness for the defense in Mehserle’s preliminary hearing on a murder charge was expected to testify that Mehserle said he planned to use a Taser on Grant.  

The defense has contended that Mehserle, 27, meant to fire his Taser gun when he shot and killed 22-year-old Grant on the platform of the Fruitvale BART station.  

Mehserle’s attorney, Michael Rains, said this morning the testimony should be admissible because it would help show Mehserle’s state of mind at the time of the shooting.  

However, Judge C. Don Clay decided not to allow the testimony, concluding that it would amount to hearsay. 

Clay also opted to allow the defense to present a short segment of slow-motion video of the interaction between Grant and the BART officers just before the shooting.  

The defense claims the enhanced video will show that Grant was resisting the officers. The prosecution contends Grant was cooperative. 

The shooting occurred after Mehserle and other officers were called to the Fruitvale station to respond to reports of a fight on a train.  

Mehserle’s partner, Officer Jon Woffinden, began testifying last week and was being cross-examined this morning. BART Officer Tony Pirone is expected to testify later today.

The defeat of five of the May 19 special election ballot initiatives means trouble for the economic future of California’s universities, colleges and community colleges. 

UC President Mark Yudof announced May 20 that Gov. Schwarzenegger’s revised budget would bring the UC system’s budget shortfall to $531 million, with $322 million in cuts for the 2009-10 academic year. 

“Such a severe budget reduction, following years of chronic underfunding, would force the university to weigh a number of stark choices,” said Yudof in a press release. “Salary reductions, employee furloughs, decreases in enrollment, increases in class sizes, cuts to programs and student services, and, unfortunately, even higher fees—at this point, all options must be placed on the table for consideration at some point in the future.” 

In light of the state’s fiscal crisis, the UC Board of Regents at its May 7 meeting approved a 9.3 percent increase in tuition for 2009-10. The tuition hike includes a 10 percent increase in educational fees and a 4.2 percent increase in registration fees, totaling $152 million.  

The board will reconvene July 14 to discuss budget cuts as a result of the failure of the state ballot initiatives. 

University of California Office of the President spokesman Ricardo Vazquez said administrative cuts and salary freezes are crucial to surviving the economic crisis. 

“Student fee increases were considered only as a last resort, and constitute just one element in a series of actions the university and the campuses have taken to confront continuing cuts in state funding, while working to protect the academic program and student services to the greatest extent possible,” said Vazquez in a press release earlier this month. “These include freezing senior managers’ salaries, restructuring and downsizing the UC Office of the President, curtailing faculty recruitment, and implementing hiring freezes at the campuses, among others.” 

Vazquez said the regents also discussed the possibility of implementing furloughs and salary reductions in the event that additional savings were required. 

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told the Daily Planet the university is waiting for direction from the office of the president on how to proceed with the economic situation. 

“Nobody knows what the effects will be like at the local level,” said Mogulof. “If the university system does not do anything about the situation, the hole is going to get a lot bigger.  

The California State University system (CSU) is also feeling the effects of the budget crunch. Due to the results of the special election, $410 million must be cut from the 2009-10 budget. 

“We know that there will be very challenging and difficult times ahead,” said California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed. “In the coming weeks, the campus presidents and I will be meeting to address how to move forward to address these fiscal issues and to develop a plan of action in consultation with our Board of Trustees. These are all very hard decisions and there are no good options. We will all need to work together to explore what is feasible with the primary goals of serving our students and preserving as many jobs as possible.” 

Shawn Bibb, vice president of administration and finance for Cal State East Bay, said the effects of the failed state initiatives on the school’s budget is still unclear. 

“As Chancellor Reed indicated in his statement about the impact of the special election on the CSU, the accumulated cuts total $410 million for the 2009-10 budget,” said Bibb. “Cal State East Bay will not know the impact on us until Chancellor Reed meets with President Qayoumi and the other presidents to develop the plan of action for the CSU.” 

Before the election, the CSU system had already made cuts in salary and hiring freezes, as well as passing measures to curb enrollment. 

“CSU has already implemented a number of cost-cutting measures, including a salary freeze for vice president/chancellor level positions; a hiring freeze on non-essential positions; cancellation of all non-critical equipment and supplies purchases and travel restrictions for employees,” said Reed. “In addition, for the first time in its history, CSU declared systemwide impaction to limit the number of new students entering in fall 2009, due to the state’s inability to fully fund enrollment growth and operational needs. CSU currently has more than 450,000 students attending its 23 campuses.” 

Earlier this month, CSU’s the board of trustees approved tuition hikes for fall 2009. Undergraduate fees were increased by $306; fees for students in the teaching credential program increased by $354; and fees for graduate students went up $378. 

“It is never an easy choice to raise fees, but we are faced with a dire state budget, and today’s increase is necessary to maintain and operate our university campuses,” said CSU Board Chair Jeffrey Bleich. “It is critical that students get their financial aid requests in. This year, benefits for programs such as the Pell Grant are more generous than ever. Through financial aid and grants, nearly half of our students will see no increase in their fees. In addition, due to financial aid, CSU students with family incomes of $75,000 or less will pay no fees at all.” 

The California Community College system has not been immune from budget cuts either. City College of San Francisco Chancellor Don Griffin was blunt about the effects of proposed cuts on the school’s budget. 

“[The] election results will make it impossible for City College of San Francisco to maintain its current levels of services and student access,” said Griffin. “Our district serves 105,000 students and if the budget scenarios recently unveiled are enacted our summer school enrollment will be reduced by up to 85 percent and our student services programs will be dramatically cut by as much as 50 percent. These services include admissions and enrollment, and disabled student programs. Major reductions in course offerings will also result in a loss of access for 10,000 students in our district. We will be forced to reduce our hours of operation and there will also be a 15 percent loss of part-time faculty and administrative positions.”  

Calls to H.D. Palmer, the governor’s spokesman in the finance department, were not returned. 

Two gang members who remain at large following a triple homicide in the East Bay last weekend have been identified, the Berkeley Police Department announced today. 

Arrest warrants were issued for 27-year-old Rafael Campbell and Samuel Flowers, 21, on Friday. Police say they are wanted for three counts of murder and are considered armed and dangerous. 

A $47,000 reward is being offered by the Berkeley Police Department for information about Flowers and Campbell following the May 16 fatal shooting in Berkeley that led to a high-speed chase that killed two innocent bystanders in north Oakland. 

The incident began shortly after 6:30 p.m. Saturday when a Berkeley police officer heard gunshots in the area of Allston Way and 10th Street in west Berkeley. 

Officers responded and found 25-year-old Charles Davis, of Berkeley, on Allston Way west of San Pablo Avenue. He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Police then chased a Cadillac occupied by four men who were fleeing the area. 

The Cadillac crashed into a Mazda and a pedestrian at Aileen Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland, killing both the pedestrian and the driver. 

The driver of the Mazda was 27-year-old Brentwood resident Todd Perea and the pedestrian was 41-year-old Floyd Ross of Berkeley. 

After the crash, police arrested 24-year-old Anthony Price of Oakland and 22-year-old San Leandro resident Stephon Anthony, but Flowers and Campbell managed to flee the area on foot. 

On Tuesday, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office charged Anthony, whom authorities believe was driving the Cadillac, and Price with three counts each of murder as well as the special circumstance of committing multiple murders, which could make them eligible for the death penalty. 

They also were charged with weapon and gang enhancements.

Zellerbach Auditorium was filled to capacity Thursday, May 21, for Berkeley City College's 2009 graduation ceremony.  

Two hundred and six graduates walked across the stage to receive their associate degrees.  

“Education is discovering what is in you,” said commencement speaker Harry Le Grande, UC Berkeley's vice chancellor of student affairs. “Education is about finding out your personal desires.”  

The ceremony opened with a few words from Berkeley City College's Associated Students President Tiana Renee Wilkes, who told how she persevered and made it through college after dropping out of high school in her senior year.  

“The biggest thing that has allowed me to grow is all of you,” said Wilkes. “Through this economic crisis, I was able to see BCC emerge as a caring community. ... I encourage everyone here to increase community wherever you go. If I had not had a community here, I might have dropped out again.” Graduating senior Angela Brathwaite won this year’s Chancellor’s Trophy award. According to the Peralta Community College District website, the award “is given at the end of the spring semester to recognize and honor outstanding second-year students who best exemplify leadership, commitment to academic excellence and community service, and who demonstrate clear goals for the future.”  

Upon arriving in Berkeley from Atlanta, Brathwaite found herself homeless. But after a lot of determination, according to one of her teachers, she enrolled at BCC and began an internship in the office of Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates.  

History professor David Johnson encouraged students to reflect upon their years at college.  

“I feel honored to sit before all these splendid students,” said Johnson. “Please understand that you have inspired your other students. You all need to see each other wearing your robes tonight. Not everyone who started with you made it here tonight. You are looking at people around you who are special and who have persevered. On behalf of the faculty, I would like to welcome the class of 2009 to the company of scholars.”  

Perhaps the loudest applause of the evening came when the Berkeley City College Choir performed two songs, including Natasha Bedingfield’s "Feel the Rain on your Skin."  

The star of the night, however, was class valedictorian David McMullen, an East Bay Municipal Utility District retiree who began his higher education career at Laney College in 1978. After many years at EBMUD, he enrolled at BCC in August 2006. He plans to go on to Cal State East Bay and get a bachelor's degree.  

“I love education, and it has afforded me much,” said McMullen. ”I believe I want to major in environmental education, because I like doing things in the outdoors. The outdoors is an aspect of our society that is increasingly diminishing."  

McMullen also expressed his gratitude to Berkeley Community College.  

"Despite its architectural oddities," he said, "BCC has served me very well.”  

Linda Handy, a trustee for the Peralta Community College district, reminded the graduates that their work is not over. “This is an incredible day,” said Handy. “The joy for me is when we see you all walk across the stage. Some of you think that you have finished, but you are just starting. Your education is our gift to you. What you do with your education is your gift to the world.”

A significant drop in the number of immigrant students in the Berkeley Unified School District has resulted in the loss of federal funding for some services and programs meant to help them.  

The district’s 2008-09 Student National Origin Report (SNOR) shows that the district did not have the annual immigrant student growth rate required by the federal No Child Left Behind act to guarantee them funding for the 2010-11 school year.  

The state Department of Education uses the SNOR to determine the annual count of eligible immigrant students—foreign-born K-12 pupils who have been enrolled in a school in the United States for three years or less—as required by Title III of No Child Left Behind.  

Title III money funds immigrant education programs, including basic instructional services, family literacy, parent outreach, and tutoring, mentoring and counseling.  

The state education department receives a grant from the federal Department of Education based on the number of qualified immigrant students enrolled in California and allocates the money to school districts which show a significant growth in immigrant enrollment.  

Data from the 2008-09 SNOR will be used to determine whether school districts statewide can receive funding for subsequent years, starting with 2010-11.  

Berkeley Unified reported a total of 380 immigrant students for the current school year, a decrease of almost 100 students from a year ago.  

The district reported 403 students in 2006-07. That number went up to 469 in 2007-2008, but then dropped again in 2008-09, showing a decrease from the numbers reported in the last two years. A district must show 5 percent growth in the total number of immigrant students over the average of the two previous school years.  

“The numbers are significantly down this year and we won’t get funding in 2010-11,” said district Assistant Superintendent Neil Smith while presenting the report at an April 29 school board meeting.  

The decline will result in a decrease of about $40,000 for 2010-11.  

When Berkeley Board of Education Director John Selawsky asked Smith if the drop indicated a trend in the district, Smith said that it did not. Smith said the loss of funds would affect the district’s English language learner program.  

Selaswky later told the Daily Planet that he would like to investigate the trend in immigrant enrollment for the last five to 10 years.  

“The numbers are all over the place,” he said. “They went up last year and went down this year, so I couldn’t see a trend in the last three years. I am curious if there is a trend and what it is.” Selawsky said that although the amount of money lost was not huge, any reduction in district funds, especially during the current state budget crisis, was problematic.  

“It’s not that much money—it’s only a part of the total funding we receive for immigrant students,” he said. “It’s not going to make that kind of impact, but if it does I hope we have a plan in place for the reduction.”  

Selawsky said it is hard to pinpoint exactly why the district's immigrant enrollment dropped.  

“It could be an anomaly or maybe it’s the economy,” he said. “The job market is bad right now and people want to stay where they are instead of moving to a new place.”  

Monte Blair, an education programs consultant in the state Department of Education’s Language Policy and Leadership Office, said Berkeley Unified was not the only district losing funding due to a shrinking immigrant population.  

Blair said large districts like Los Angeles Unified did not get funding this year because they did not show growth either.  

Troy Flint, spokesperson for Oakland Unified School District, which has 44,000 students compared to Berkeley Unified’s 9,000, said he was not aware of a drastic decline in immigrant students in his district. “There are cycles of immigration,” said Carmelita Reyes, principal at Oakland International High School. Reyes said that previously Oakland had seen a large number of immigrants coming from Vietnam and Cambodia, but that right now there was an influx of people from Latin America.  

“People come here from other countries depending on what’s going on in their country,” she said. “When America was booming, people wanted to come here, but that’s not the case right now.”  

Last year, Reyes said, her school also got a lot of refugees from Burma, whereas this year the school has a lot of students from Nepal.  

Berkeley’s report shows that the district drew students from 71 countries. The largest number of immigrant students come from Mexico (69), followed by China (24), Germany (21), Nepal (19), Morocco (19), Norway (16) and India (15).

Berkeley police have announced rewards for information leading to  

the arrest and conviction of suspects in two recent homicide cases. 

Police announced a $47,000 reward for information about two  

suspects who are still at large following a fatal shooting in Berkeley last  

Saturday that led to a high-speed chase that killed two innocent bystanders  

in North Oakland. 

The incident began shortly after 6:30 p.m. Saturday when a  

Berkeley police officer heard gunshots in the area of Allston Way and 10th  

Street in West Berkeley. 

Officers responded and found 25-year-old Charles Davis of Berkeley  

on Allston Way west of San Pablo Avenue. He had been shot multiple times and  

was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Police then chased a Cadillac occupied by four men who were  

fleeing the area. 

The Cadillac crashed into a Mazda and a pedestrian at Aileen  

Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland, killing both the pedestrian  

and the driver of the Mazda. 

The driver of the Mazda was 27-year-old Brentwood resident Todd  

Perea and the pedestrian was 41-year-old Floyd Ross of Berkeley. 

After the crash, police arrested 24-year-old Anthony Price of  

Oakland and 22-year-old Stephon Anthony of San Leandro but the other two  

suspects managed to flee the area on foot and are still at large. 

On Tuesday, the Alameda County District Attorney's office charged  

Anthony, whom authorities believe was driving the Cadillac, and Price with  

three counts each of murder as well as the special circumstance of committing  

multiple murders, which could make them eligible for the death penalty. 

They also were charged with weapon and gang enhancements. 

Berkeley police today also announced a $17,000 reward for  

information on the shooting death of 18-year-old Maurice Robertson in the  

1300 block of 67th Street in Berkeley about 11:30 a.m. on May 4. 

Although the 2008 Base Academic Performance Index (API) report released Thursday shows progress for California’s public schools, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell warned that the mounting budget cuts to education could be a major threat to improving student achievement. 

The 2008 Base API takes into account results from spring 2008 testing, mainly the California Standardized Tests (STAR) and the California High School Exit Exam. The 2008 results form the baseline against which the 2009 Growth API—due Sept. 2—is compared. 

Areas tested include English, math and the social sciences. 

This year’s Base API includes public school rankings ranging from 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), which will help parents see how their child’s school is doing in comparison to similar schools statewide. 

API scores are on a scale of 200 to 1,000, and the state Department of Education asks schools to perform at a level of 800. 

Forty percent of California public elementary schools are at or above the state requirement, up 3.3 percentage points from 2007, according to the state education department website. 

Thirty percent of state middle schools are meeting or exceeding the performance target, an increase of 5.7 percentage points over last year. Seventeen percent of high schools meet or exceed the target, a gain of 2.8 percentage points over 2007. 

Schools in the Berkeley Unified School District seem to have met or are well on their way to meeting the state’s performance target, with six of the district’s 11 elementary schools exceeding the mark. 

Cragmont, Emerson, Jefferson, John Muir, Oxford and Malcolm X have already met the statewide performance target of 800 and did not receive a growth target. 

State Department of Education spokesperson Tina Jung said that although this was good news, the state always encourages schools to perform even better. Jung said some schools receive the maximum score of 1,000. 

Of the remaining four elementary schools, Berkeley Arts Magnet is only four points behind the statewide performance target and LeConte, Rosa Parks, Thousand Oaks and Washington elementary schools are each five points behind. 

All three middle schools—Longfellow, King and Willard—showed considerable progress toward reaching their state performance targets, each school falling behind by five points. 

For the third year in a row, according to the state education department website, Berkeley High School did not receive a Base API score because of low student participation. 

District Superintendent Bill Huyett was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment. 

Richard Ng, assistant to Berkeley High Principal Jim Slemp, said the school did not have information on the participation rates yet. 

Increasing student participation for the STAR tests has been a long-standing problem at Berkeley High, and district officials and educators have yet to find a solution. Student can—and often do—opt out of the standardized tests by bringing a note from parents. 

Rio Bauce, a recent Berkeley High graduate who is currently attending Pitzer College, said students often avoid taking these tests because they think of them as “boring” or “stupid.” 

“When I was at BHS, many students thought that the STAR tests were as important and less exciting than a student survey,”said Bauce, who occasionally writes for the Daily Planet. “One category of students don't take them because they feel that they are boring and unimportant for their own individual success. Another category sees the STAR test exemption as a week of no school. Either making these tests mandatory or offering incentives to taking them are the only ways to improve the past couple years of low participation at BHS.” 

Berkeley Technology Academy, the district’s only public continuation school, shows a 2008 Base API score of 596, which is 10 points less than the 2009 API target the state has set for it. 

The state education department website warns that because B-Tech’s API score was based on the participation of a small number of students (23), it might be less reliable. 

B-Tech received a statewide ranking of 1 last year, which places it in the bottom 10 percent of all schools of its type, Jung said. 

O’Connell singled out elementary schools for their “spectacular progress.” Although he was pleased that California schools were meeting the high expectations set for them every year, he stressed it was important to sustain the momentum. 

“This kind of progress happens only through the hard work and focus of dedicated school staff, parents, and students,” he said. “However, I worry that these real gains in student achievement are in serious jeopardy because funding for our public school system is in serious danger,” he told reporters during a teleconference after making the report public. “What kind of education will we be able to offer next year and the year after that with the kind of drastic and unprecedented cuts now under consideration?" 

O’Connell noted that the report pointed out a persistent achievement gap between African-American and Latino students and their peers. 

“When we examine the achievement gap, the truth again is in the numbers,” he said, adding that 70 percent of California public schools were made up of a majority of African-American and Latino students who were lagging behind their peers. 

“We cannot afford to leave a majority of our students behind,” he said. “In fact we can’t afford to leave any of our students behind.” He said that an antidote to closing the glaring gap between low- and high-achieving students was to create “culturally dynamic classrooms” and focus on collecting academic data. 

O’Connell said that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal to cut $1.4 billion in the last month of the current school year and another $2.3 billion when school starts in the fall could mean larger class sizes, fewer nurses and librarians and another round of teacher layoffs. 

“Schools will be doing all they can to keep the lights on and the doors open,” he said. “It will take a major budget reform to get us back on the right track.” 

The 2008 Base API reports, including school rankings and growth targets are posted on the API Web Page at www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/ap/apireports.asp.

Berkeley teachers may have come to terms with the school district over their 2008-09 and 2009-10 contracts.  

After months of deliberation with Berkeley Unified School District officials, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT) struck a tentative deal Wednes-day, May 13, which gives teachers a 1 percent pay increase for the current academic year, but leaves them without any raise for 2009-10.  

The contract will maintain current class sizes, improve maternity leave, and support National Board Certification, professional development for substitute teachers, and parent-teacher conferences in pre-school.  

Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Cathy Campbell said that while she was relieved that both parties had reached an agreement, teachers will “continue to bear the entire burden of the increase in health benefit programs.”  

District Superintendent Bill Huyett declined to comment on the agreement as it has not yet been approved by the union and the Berkeley Board of Education.  

BFT members will begin voting on the contract May 21.  

“The district’s agreement represents some significant gains for teachers’ living and working conditions,” Campbell said. “It has not been ratified yet, but it represents a significant gain. It is a realistic contract and reflects the times we live in.”  

Campbell said the fact that the agreement was reached more quickly than in the last round of negotiations, when the services of a state mediator were required, demonstrates improvement in labor relations with the school district.  

“Hopefully these improvements will lay the groundwork for successful future negotiations,” she said.  

Campbell said the contract is short-term and that union representatives would be negotiating a “successor agreement” for 2010-11 sometime around March of next year.  

Campbell said union members were disappointed that none of the contracts continued the revenue-sharing formula, which increases teacher salaries in accordance with the district’s revenue. She said the arrangement had been successful in the past.  

“A revenue-sharing formula is excellent for labor relations,” she said, but the union understood such an arrangement was not possible in the current economic climate. “We hope it will return in the next contract.”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered a ban on two controversial sprays used to battle the light brown apple moth (LBAM), ending a lawsuit filed by attorney Stephan Volker on behalf of environmental activ-ists and the mayors of Albany and Richmond. 

A judicial order filed Wednesday, May 13, in U.S. District Court in Oakland ends the suit filed by the mayors, the North Coast Rivers Alliance and a group of citizens against the EPA and former agency administrator Steven L. John-son. 

The lawsuit alleged that CheckMate LBAM-F caused “widespread, physical harm to infants, children, the elderly, and the chemically sensitive, as well as to seabirds, upland birds and other wild and domestic animals” during a three-month spraying program in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties in 2007. 

The local mayors became involved after the state Department of Food and Agriculture and the federal De-partment of Agriculture an-nounced a plan to begin a similar spraying campaign in Ala-meda County. 

Among the plaintiffs were Air Force Major Timothy Wilcox and his then-infant son Jack, whom the suit alleged suffered severe, permanent in-juries from exposure to CheckMate ORLF, a companion spray.  

Plaintiff Krista Marie Alongi Aron charged that her then-9-year-old daughter and co-plaintiff Nora Aron suffered acute, long-term respiratory injuries from exposure to LBAM-F. 

Other plaintiffs came from Marin, San Mateo, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. 

The Albany City Council passed a resolution opposing the spraying in January 2008, shortly after the joint state and federal Bay Area spraying campaign was announced. Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a Green Party activist, also joined the lawsuit. 

Further complicating the issues raised by the introduction of a new spray into the state was the hefty weight of political contributions. 

Stewart and Lynda Resnick, a Los Angeles couple, had made a $144,600 donation to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 gubernatorial campaign. They co-chair Roll International, a Los Angeles holding company with subsidiaries that include Paramount Agribusiness, Fiji Water, and Suterra Inc., the Oregon company that manufactures the pesticides. 

The chemical hadn’t been tested on humans, nor formally registered with the EPA, despite a $75 million federal grant for the spraying program, including a $497,500 contract for a private-sector public relations firm to sell the public on the safety of the sprays. 

Several scientists had also questioned the need for a wide-scale spraying program, contending that the pest was restricted by temperature and humidity factors to a very small range, an area much smaller than that targeted by spray advocates. 

The plaintiffs won a major victory when Lois Rossi, director of the EPA’s pesticide registration division, issued orders on April 16, revoking the emergency exemptions granted the two compounds on the grounds that an already-registered pesticide was available. 

Berkeley Unified School District sent pink slips to 10 classified employees Thursday, May 14, informing clerks, custodians and bus drivers that they would be losing their jobs at the end of the school year.  

The Berkeley Board of Ed-ucation approved the layoffs at a public meeting the previous night, where more than a dozen members of the Berkeley Council of Classified Employ-ees (BCCE) showed up to protest.  

Berkeley Unified is required by law to send layoff notices 45 days before the employees’ last day of work in the district.  

The reductions were in addition to 62 layoff notices mailed out to classified staff last month in light of state education bud-get cuts.  

With the failure of the May 19 ballot measures, state educators warned districts to brace for more cuts. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May budget revision plans to close Califor-nia’s staggering $21.3 billion shortfall with massive cuts to public service, including education. 

His plan will take away $1.4 billion from schools this year and $3.3 million in 2009-10. 

This would be in addition to the more than $11 billion cut from the education budget in February.  

Some BCCE members said they were concerned that layoff notices were not being given out properly.  

BCCE President Paula Phillips told the Planet after the meeting that the district was not keeping the seniority of employees in mind while laying them off, which she said was a violation of the state education code.  

“The employee who was hired in 2006 got a layoff notice,” she said. “But there were three employees hired in 2009, and one of them didn’t get a layoff notice. A bunch of them were hired in 2008 and they didn’t get layoff notices either. They say it’s based on cuts to site funds, but it’s not.”  

District Superintendent Bill Huyett told the Planet that he was aware of the union’s concerns.  

“I know about them, but the district uses the layoff list according to law,” he said. “There are lots of different classifications, so you go further up the seniority list than you would according to the classifications. There is a difference of opinion between the district and the union.”  

Some classified staff from the Berkeley Adult School were present at Wednesday’s meeting. The Adult School is facing a million-dollar shortfall in the new school year, forcing the district to cut back on some of its services. At least 11 classified employees have had their work hours reduced and two have been laid off completely, Phillips said.  

Ann Butts will be laid off in June after eight years helping Berkeley Adult School students with retraining and job placement.  

“In 2009, my employment with the Berkeley Unified School District will end,” Butts told the board. “Although I have eight years of experience, my job no longer has any value to my district.... My problem is I am not being given any more choices. I think I deserve more respect. I think the Berkeley Adult School deserves more respect. It’s a great institution, and I wish it would get more support from the district and the community.”  

BCCE members make up 57 percent of the most recent layoffs, Phillips said, reminding the board that the district would be unable to function without the hard work and dedication of classified employees.  

“We want to be part of the planning process to help reduce the layoffs, and not a solution,” she said.”  

Huyett said the layoffs were a difficult decision for the administration and the board, and he hopes to rescind as many of the pink slips as possible.  

“I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart, I feel very badly about it,” he said. “These are difficult budget times. Classified staff does wonderful work and we need more, not less. But we are being pressured by low budgets not only in this district but all over California.”  

Huyett said that although the federal government had released some stimulus funds to the schools, he wasn’t sure the money would be enough to bring back laid-off workers.  

“We need to push the government to not make further cuts in education,” he said. ‘If [the governor] doesn’t make more cuts, we can rescind these layoffs.”  

Berkeley Unified is facing a $4.9 million budget shortfall in 2009-10.  

The district sent out 129 layoff notices to teachers in March, but was able to rescind most of them, bringing that number down to 25.

The Berkeley City Council got its first formal look at its competing Downtown Area plans, with disagreements erupting immediately over the differences, in-cluding a debate on whether or not the two plans were substantially different. 

On the one hand is the plan adopted by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), a two-year effort put together by representatives selected by the City Council. On the other hand is the plan adopted by the Berkeley Planning Commission, five of whom served on the DAPAC, which made modifications to the DAPAC plan. 

In a two-hour workshop preceding the City Council meeting, councilmembers heard staff presentations on the two plans, community comment, and got a scant three minutes apiece to speak their own minds. Full council debate on the proposed plan is scheduled for June 2, with July 7—just before the council summer break—tentatively penciled in for final adoption. 

Once adopted, the Downtown Area Plan will set the city's policy and direction for development of its downtown core for years to come.  

What could eventually result is either council adoption of one of the two plans, some sort of compromise version attempting to split the difference, or even a plan that brings in new elements not advocated by either DAPAC or the Planning Commission. As Mayor Tom Bates told DAPAC and Planning Commissioners Tuesday night, the final version won't be the DAPAC or the Planning Commission plan. “It will be the council’s plan.” 

Planning and Development Director Dan Marks’ memo presented to the council for the work session said that the Planning Commission used the DAPAC plan as a “foundation, adding implementation measures, removing redundancies, clarifying language and recommending modifications.” 

Marks’ memo also listed what he called “some significant differences” between the Planning Commission and DAPAC plans, including the commission proposing raising building height limits between Durant and Dwight from a maximum 65 feet to a maximum 85 feet, and allowing four buildings of up to 180 feet in the core downtown area, 60 feet higher than the DAPAC height limit recommendation. Marks said DAPAC recommended creating a pedestrian-only Center Street Plaza on Center between Shattuck and Oxford while the commission did not, and that DAPAC’s plan generally discouraged automobile travel in the downtown area (“DAPAC viewed the automobile as an evil that should not be encouraged,” the Planning Director wrote). Marks wrote that the Planning Commission, on the other hand, “felt that while the effects of the automobile … should be minimized, the automobile … is here to stay and should be accommodated” in the downtown area. 

In formal presentations to the council before the comment period began, selected members of the DAPAC and the Planning Commission, reading from separately prepared written statements, sought to minimize those differences. 

DAPAC chairperson Will Travis said that while the DAPAC conclusions deserve the council’s respect, “in the short 18 months since DAPAC completed its work, there have been dramatic changes in the world that have had profound impacts on Berkeley,” including global climate change and the economic recession. Travis said that DAPAC’s recommendations “reflect the tensions that exist within the Berkeley community” over development issues, adding that “that was present in DAPAC. Some on DAPAC felt that taller buildings and greater density would make downtown more attractive, sustainable, and economically successful. Others on DAPAC were skeptical that more development in downtown would actually achieve these goals. Their primary goal was to protect Berkeley’s neighborhoods from the impacts of downtown development. The membership of DAPAC was pretty evenly divided between these two camps. As a result, DAPAC’s final work product contains some internal inconsistencies. The Planning Commission’s job was to resolve these inconsistencies and craft implementation measures that carried out DAPAC’s goals. The Planning Commission has done this job very well.” 

For his part, Planning Commission Chair David Stoloff called the DAPAC plan “thorough and comprehensive,” adding that “the vision, goals, and most of the policies are exactly or virtually the same in the two plans.” And Planning Commission member Victoria Eisen (who also served on the DAPAC but voted with its minority on most questions, as did Travis) also tried to minimize any differences, saying that “the increased building heights in the Planning Commission’s plan” are not the result of a new group “hijacking the process, rather these changes were made because the Planning Commission was working with the same mission DAPAC had, but in a new landscape” of added conditions and information. 

Others who were allowed to speak for just one minute during the comment period were not so convinced. 

DAPAC member Rob Wrenn said there were “really radical differences between the two plans. There were literally hundreds of changes that have been made, particularly in the land use and transportation elements. The way [those  

differences] have been characterized by some speakers tonight is just plain wrong.” 

Another DAPAC member, Juliet Lamont, called the DAPAC plan “a community-based vision crafted over two years by a diverse, multi-stakeholder citizen body” while the Planning Commission plan was created in a “much more restricted setting and simply uses private development economics … as the driver for its recommendations and policies.” Saying that the Planning Commission plan weakened enforcement measures, Lamont urged passage of the DAPAC plan. 

But Dorothy Walker, another DAPAC member, called the revised Planning Commission plan “a fine plan that deserves the support of the council.” 

Planning Director Marks said that so many changes had been made between the two plans that it was impossible to provide the standard computer file that indicated in strikeout and underline form what was different between the two, as requested by Councilmember Kriss Worthington. Instead, at Councilmember Jesse Arreguín’s request, Marks said that his staff would provide a detailed analysis of the differences between the two plans prior to Council’s June 2 session on the plan. 

Planning commissioners gave the downtown plan a final sendoff last week, passing their approval of the plan’s environmental review on to the City Council. 

Commissioners also voted for amendments to the city’s all-encompassing General Plan, needed to make it conform to the new district plan. 

The commission voted 7-1 on both measures at the May 13 meeting, with only Gene Poschman in opposition. Patti Dacey was absent. 

City Planning and Development Director Dan Marks said he believed the draft and final environmental impact reviews (EIRs) are adequate. “All the issues that were raised have been adequately addressed,” he told commissioners. “We’re ready to consider endorsement.” 

Poschman said he had submitted a lengthy list of comments, and had been surprised at some of the answers provided in the final document. 

When he pointed out that the commission’s revisions to the Downtown Area Plan Advisory’s Committee’s own version of the plan would lead to a significant loss of views of the Berkeley hills to some flatlands residents, the EIR’s authors responded that views of the hills are only protected by law for other residents of the hills. 

Poschman also charged that the EIR’s assessment of greenhouse gas generated by the plan had failed to adequately address the impacts of building new high-rises. 

After Poschman finished, James Samuels moved for approval of the plan, followed by the vote. 

Commissioners spent more time revising the language of the General Plan amendments, changing or largely eliminating old sections of the plan referring to downtown development based on the previous 1990 downtown plan to bring them into alignment with the new area plan. 

By the time the commissioners had finished, even Poschman said he’d vote for the revisions—if he were in favor of the commission’s revisions of the new downtown plan. 

But when Harry Pollack moved for approval, Poschman cast the lone dissenting vote. 

Both the commission’s revisions and the original DAPAC draft will be before the City Council when they deliberate on a final document. But given the short time available, councilmembers will have little time for serious changes. 

DAPAC’s version is more restrictive in the numbers of tallest buildings allowable in the city center, and would impose more stringent “green building” requirements and other amenities to be financed by new development. The commission’s draft is considerably more developer-friendly. 

While councilmembers received their first briefing on the plan and accompanying documents Tuesday, May 19, formal action isn’t scheduled until June 2, when a hearing on the plan and amendments is scheduled, with a second meeting on the plan tentatively scheduled for Bastille Day, July 14. 

The plan was created as the result of the settlement of a city lawsuit challenging UC Berkeley’s projected off-campus growth through 2020. In addition to compensatory payments offsetting some of the costs of the planned 850,0000 square feet of new construction, the university also agreed to share costs of preparing the new plan. 

The university must also approve the new plan, which was originally scheduled for city adoption by May 28, then approved delay without imposing cost sanctions that might otherwise have applied. 

With the downtown plan out of the way, commissioners will be focusing in upcoming meetings on completing the long-delayed Southside Plan and on making revisions in West Berkeley zoning to make bigger projects easier to build.

Even while the votes were being counted on statewide ballot measures whose defeat will hit Berkeley’s budget hard in the near future, the Berkeley City Council was approving a series of fee increases to deal with the budget problems of the immediate present. 

As part of the necessity to close the upcoming fiscal year budget gap, the council approved increases in six separate fees, including those for fire inspections and fire permits, permit and inspection services by the Environmental Health Division, rental housing and safety programs, parks recreation programs and facilities, marina rates, and street light assessments. In addition, a new fee was created for inspection of aboveground petroleum storage tanks in the city, an action city staff said was necessitated by a new state law. 

In a brief presentation on the proposed fiscal years 2010 and 2011 budget that the council must adopt before July, Budget Director Tracy Veseley said that “there is no room for adding new programs” in the upcoming year, adding that the city’s budget situation based upon the economic recession and the state’s falling fortunes is “even more restricted than what we thought when we introduced the budget two weeks ago.” City Manager Phil Kamlarz added that “the room to move has shrunk,” and said that he has already received indications that state cuts to the city’s health care programs—not yet reflected in the current city budget proposal—will probably be forthcoming. 

With residents and councilmembers already resigned to continuing gloomy economic news, most of the fee increases went by on unanimous votes and without even a public speaker coming to the microphone to voice a protest. That was not true with the proposed $9 per unit and $4.50 per room increase (from $17 and $8.50, respectively) in fees for the rental housing safety program. 

Several rental property owners spoke in protest, including Berkeley Property Owners Association President Robert Cabrera, who said that he was “concerned about the cumulative effects” of the various property-based fee increases that was “forcing [landlords] to get the highest rents that they can.” Noting that none of the fee increases can be passed on by landlords to their current renters, Cabrera told council if they approved any decrease in any of the proposed property fee increases applicable to rental landlords, “I pledge to match that decrease dollar for dollar” with a comparable decrease in rents for his student tenants. 

The council did not take up Cabrera’s offer, instead approving the fee on a 7-2 vote (Bates, Maio, Moore, Anderson, Arreguín, Capitelli, Worthington yes, Wengraf, Wozniak no). 

In other council action Tuesday night: 

The council set a timetable for approval of its City-Wide Pools Master Plan which immediately came under criticism from warm pool advocates, who said that the proposed calendar gave little time for pool advocates to campaign for an expected June 2010 bond measure to finance the plan. 

The council approved moving forward with environmental review on two different pool plans, both of which would include four pools. The major difference between the preferred plan of the Berkeley Public Pools Task Force, which would cost $29.2 million, and the alternative plan, which would cost some $4 million less, is that the preferred plan places both of the West Campus pools indoors—a more expensive project—while the alternative plan has one of the West Campus pools outdoors. Both plans put the warm water pool indoors at West Campus. 

Complicating the city’s actions on implementing the pools plan is that it must complete negotiations with Berkeley Unified School District, where each of the four pools will be housed. 

In its timetable, city staff has proposed California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) compliance running between May and November of this year, with council certification of CEQA and Master Pools Plan adoption in December. Council action approving a bond measure to finance the pools construction is tentatively scheduled for February of 2010, with the bond measure itself on the June 2010 ballot. 

Several warm water pool advocates urged the council to speed up the approval process in order to give bond measure advocates more time to campaign for the measure. Council and staff members said that they would try. 

A resolution supporting a card-check-only union election for the new West Berkeley Bowl supermarket complex was removed from the council’s agenda after union and management representatives announced that they had reached an agreement to hold one. 

Though a report prepared by the city’s Planning Department and a letter to the Zoning Adjustments Board from the Bowl’s architect had stated that the store would open May 14, the store has not yet opened and no specific opening date has been announced.

The Berkeley Board of Education approved a new grading system for the city’s public middle schools last week, which will replace the traditional A through F scale on report cards with two grades. 

Students will be given a score of 1 to 4—with four being the highest—on two separate columns, one illustrating their performance standards and the other their work habits, something some middle school educators hope would improve student performance and communication with parents. 

The board voted to approve the proposal unanimously following a presentation on the new grading system by a group of middle school principals and teachers at a school board meeting May 13.  

All three middle schools in the Berkeley Unified School District—King, Longfellow and Willard—have been placed in Program Improvement status by the state for not meeting the Adequate Yearly Progress goals under the federal No Child Left Behind regulations. King Principal Jason Lustig said the grade change was one way to address the issue. 

Lustig first proposed the grade change plan for King at a school board meeting in June last year after consulting with his staff on ways to improve student achievement, but board members were somewhat reluctant to implement it at only one middle school. 

“We saw these new grades as an opportunity to interact with parents and boost student motivation,” Lustig told the Planet. “Globally people understand what A to F means, but we have also seen districts shift to standards-oriented grading. We didn’t have a system that provided direct feedback, and we thought this would do that. By separating performance standards and work habits into two grades, things become more clear.” 

The work habits will measure a student’s classwork, homework, on-time attendance and participation while the performance standards will be a mix of big and small assessments. 

Lustig said that a model report card on the state Department of Education website is closely aligned with his school’s suggestion. 

After listening to Lustig’s proposal last year, the board decided to introduce a pilot program at King, which would allow teachers to try out the two-grade system as long as the school, which has half the district’s middle schoolers, still had the old A to F grading in place. 

“We felt that having the pilot in place would help us to see how parents and teachers responded to it,” Lustig said. He said that as the school progressed with the pilot program, Longfellow and Willard became interested in learning more about it and all three schools teamed up to talk about the possibility of introducing the new grades at their institutions. 

“They were not ready to do a pilot, but they wanted us to work through some of the bugs and learn from it,” he said. Lustig said that although 90 percent of teachers had supported the new grading system, it had required some re-structuring and a lot of work. 

King has 50 teachers, and although nobody voted against the new grades, a few took a neutral stand. 

Most parents were enthusiastic, with 75 percent saying in a school-conducted survey that they supported the idea, 12 percent saying they were confused and did not think it would help, and 13 percent expressing indifference. 

“When some parents saw their children were slacking, that they were getting a four in proficiency and a two or three in work habits, they got a chance to tell them to bring up their work habits,” Lustig said. 

Although teachers were nervous about how parents would react at first, Lustig said most families understood the concept quickly because they had gone through a similar standards-based grading system in the Berkeley elementary schools. 

Longfellow Principal Pat Saddler told the board at last week’s meeting that parents had embraced the new grading system, which had been announced by e-mail as well as on the school’s online message board. 

Patrick Collins, a teacher at Longfellow, said that some teachers had been concerned that the new method would be another way of negatively identifying low-achieving students. 

“It’s two grades instead of one, so there was a concern that these kids would be singled out,” he said. 

Robert Ithurburn, principal at Willard, said that although parents at his school had misunderstood the new grades at first, their doubts were cleared after a 25-minute discussion with school staff. 

The school board said the new grades would provide a great opportunity to learn more about a student’s personality, with student director Eve Shames saying that a similar concept should be introduced at Berkeley High School. 

“This is all powerful work,” said director Shirley Issel. “It represents the best kind of partnership with the board, superintendent and the schools. It’s quite an achievement for us as a district.” 

Commending the middle schools on their work, district Superintendent Bill Huyett said that the new system would put more focus on whether a student was actually mastering the subject matter. 

“The only thing left to do now is getting parents used to it,” he said.

There were many celebrities at the Berkeley Public Education Foundation’s “Seeding the Vision” spring luncheon May 15, but the real stars of the evening were less conspicuous.  

They were ordinary people—the teachers, administrators, volunteers and community members who make a difference in the lives of Berkeley’s children every day.  

The Berkeley Public Education Foundation (BPEF), now in its 26th year, honored three individuals and a cooperative whose hard work and compassion reflect the spirit of the 2020 Vision, a citywide initiative to close the achievement gap by taking the effort beyond the campus and into the community.  

The luncheon was held at Hs Lordships Restaurant on the Berkeley Marina.  

Among the honorees was Karen Meryash, founder and coordinator of Willard Elementary School’s Mathworks tutoring program, which pairs struggling middle-schoolers with Berkeley High students for tutoring and mentoring.  

An active parent volunteer who often dons bumble bee costumes to support important causes, Meryash’s background in biology inspired her to write grants for a science lab at her daughter's school, Emerson Elementary, in the mid-1990s. Meryash later became a teacher at Emerson.  

North Berkeley’s Cheese Board Collective, which has donated food, funds and services to Berkeley classrooms since it opened in 1967, was named BPEF’s “distinguished partner,” receiving a standing ovation for its years of service and generosity to the community.  

The “distinguished educator” title went to Cheryl Chinn, principal at Malcolm X Elementary, and Berkeley High English teacher Susannah Bell.  

Bell spoke passionately about the success of her augmentation class, which prepares students for the Advanced Placement exam, while Chinn shared memories of triumphs and challenges at Malcolm X, including the recent swine flu scare, which shut the school down for two days.  

BPEF Executive Director Molly Fraker acknowledged in her welcome address that while the impact of their work could not “gloss over a broader persistence of troubling disparities in achievement,” it demonstrated creative ways of moving forward.  

In his speech, Berkeley Unified Superintendent Bill Huyett referred to a recent report which cites the district as having the largest achievement gap among all school districts in California.  

The report, prepared by San Francisco-based School Wise Press, took data from API scores reported by schools to the state Department of Education in November 2007 and calculated gaps between the highest and lowest APIs for ethnic groups alone.  

School districts in the Bay Area account for 17 of the 20 districts with the largest API gaps, the report said, explaining that this could be a reflection of the large gaps in household income typical of the region.  

Oakland Unified showed the third-highest achievement gap (280), San Francisco Unified was seventh (268), and Fremont Unified came in at number eight (265). Berkeley High’s API ethnicity gap topped the list at 286.  

“The difference between our highest-achieving students and lowest-achieving students is more than [those of] thousands of school districts in California,” Huyett said. “That’s why I came to Berkeley Unified School District. The achievement gap is due to the great diversity we have in our school district. It doesn’t mean we don’t work hard, it means we have a lot of challenges. We have to address the needs of all students, and the city needs to get involved.”  

Huyett said the district had come up with a five-point plan, which includes ways to improve curriculum development, parent involvement and student performance in pre-school, explaining that the achievement gap is present even before kids reach kindergarten.  

“It’s a little embarrassing being number one,” Board Vice President Karen Hemphill told the Daily Planet. “The good news is we have a community that has made bridging the gap our number one priority.”  

Hemphill said that it was disturbing that on average the district’s black and Latino students were getting almost 300 points less than their white peers, who receive an API score of around 900.  

“It’s a class issue as much as anything else,” she said. “We have very well educated, affluent households sitting with less-educated, poor families. If you have a school district that is homogenous in terms of affluence, then there is less of a gap.”  

At a Berkeley Board of Education meeting last month, board members approved an 18-month plan, as part of the five-point strategy, to help close the achievement gap for the current school year and the next, calling on 2020 Vision's citywide equity task force to establish long-range goals.  

Highlights of the plan include creating and implementing a comprehensive curriculum for pre-school through 12th grade; instruction and assessment which will embrace district-wide math assessments; increased support for English language learners; and intervention programs for students facing multiple suspensions or expulsions. Board Director John Selawsky called for a truancy policy in the district to address students who willfully cut school and sometimes commit daytime street crimes  

There are also plans to involve parents, hire and retain minority teachers, and conduct focus groups with African-American and Latino teachers to get an idea of what is lacking in the district.  

Hemphill said the district should look at creative ways to complete graduation requirements, calling the current approach “punitive.”  

For more information on the School Wise Press achievement gap report, see www.schoolwisepress.com/compare/links/AchievementGap.pdf. 

About 20 angry parents from Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School (BAM) rallied in front of Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) headquarters Tuesday, May 19, to protest what they said was poor leadership at the school. 

The group expressed frustration with the district, saying that BUSD has been unresponsive to their claims that Berkeley Arts Magnet leadership has proved unable to help struggling students, especially students of color, and has alienated teachers and parent volunteers.  

Most of their complaints were leveled at the school’s principal, Kristin Collins.  

Collins was a middle-school teacher in the Berkeley public schools before replacing Lorna Skantze-Neill as BAM principal three years ago. 

Superintendent Huyett said, “The school district has met with parent leaders and has communicated with them,” but would not comment further. Messages left for Collins at BAM were not returned by press time. 

In an April 20 letter to Huyett and the Berkeley Board of Education, at least 17 parents—the number grew to 40 families three days later—asked that some sort of accountability and mentoring be put in place for Collins to ensure better communication and support for all teachers. 

District officials met with parents on April 23 to discuss their concerns, and Assistant Superintendent Neil Smith wrote them a letter a week later saying that the district would work with Collins to “help her succeed in her job as principal.” 

Smith added that both he and Huyett had received letters from staff and parents who supported the principal and the direction in which the school is moving. 

At least six of the parents delivered another letter to Huyett and Smith after the rally, saying that they had lost confidence in Collins and that Smith’s letter gave no clear indication of how the district would resolve their concerns. 

“Some parents have said that Ms. Collins may have our kids’ best intentions at heart, but she needs help,” said Becky Leyser, parent of a BAM kindergartner and a third-grader, who is also dean of students at the Starr King School for the Ministry. “We have been saying all along that Ms. Collins needs assistance in being able to take care of things, but at this point my confidence level is really low.” 

With a heavy majority of the Bay Area Rapid Transit directors now on record in favor of moving forward with its $550 million Oakland Airport Connector (OAC), proponents of an alternative rapid bus route are shifting their fight to a critical funding source for the proposed project: the Port of Oakland. 

The Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners is tentatively scheduled to take up consideration of $44 million in funding for the OAC when the board meets in June. The Port of Oakland operates the Oakland Airport. 

BART is seeking to run an elevated railway the 3.2 miles between the system’s Coliseum Station and the Oakland Airport, hoping to increase the number of riders who use the transit system to get to the airport. The proposed OAC would not be an extension of the existing BART line, such as the connection of the Daly City line to the San Francisco Airport, but would involve driverless elevated rail cars that BART riders would board from a separate station immediately adjacent to the existing Coliseum Station. 

At the board’s May 14 meeting, BART directors voted 7-1 (Joel Keller, Bob Franklin, Carole Ward Allen, John McPartland, Thomas Blalock, Lynette Sweet, James Fang yes, Tom Radulovich no, Gail Murray absent) to approve moving forward with the final financial piece of the proposed project, an application for not more than $150 million in low-interest loans through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program. 

The BART TIFIA vote does not mean a final go-ahead for the airport connector project, which BART is hoping to put out for bid in June. Higher-than-expected contractor bids or other financial variables—including the failure of the Port of Oakland to approve its $44 million share of the cost—could make the project financially untenable for the transit district and could cause it to turn to a less costly alternative. 

District 4 BART Director Carole Ward Allen, who represents the Coliseum Station area on the board and has been the board’s chief supporter of the airport connector, told board members at last week’s meeting that the OAC has had “lots of controversy” and “no doubt it’s a project that people can find many things wrong with, if you want to go there.” But Ward Allen said that she had been working on aspects of the connector for 30 years, many of them as a Port of Oakland Commissioner, and that “this is the first time we’ve been able to line up the port, the city (of Oakland), and BART going down the same track on this particular project. The project will look at ‘Buy America,’ and it will give an opportunity for young people from Oakland to work. I think it’s a solid project. Are we taking a chance? Yes. But it does provide a stimulus package, and that’s what the stimulus money is for, to get people back to work. I’m for what President Obama is for. You’ve got to spend some money to make some money.” 

Ward Allen said the project would particularly help minority and women contractors. 

But Marcia Lovelace, a member of Genesis, the faith-based social justice organizing network that is part of the coalition opposing OAC, said that the project was an example of what she called “institutional racism” that favored public transit systems that have predominantly white suburban riders over systems that have predominantly minority riders. “When you are talking about taking away some of the first money we’ve had [in years] from buses for people who can’t get to school, can’t get to the doctor, can’t get to work, [just] to make it more convenient for someone to get to an airport, that’s racism.” 

Last month, the BART board approved the receipt of $70 million in federal recovery act money for the airport connector project through the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC), and another $50 million from MTC reassigned from BART’s Transbay Tube Seismic Retrofit Project. MTC had earlier approved assigning the recovery act money to BART over objections by some transit advocates that the money go instead to the ailing AC Transit and other local bus agencies. 

OAC would replace the AirBART vans that currently run between the Coliseum Station and the Oakland Airport along Hegenberger Avenue. Instead of the overhead rail OAC, a coalition of Bay Area transit advocates want BART to create a dedicated rapid bus shuttle running along the same route as AirBART, but using traffic signal coordination technologies and line-jumping that would allow the rapid bus to run considerably faster than AirBART. 

The transit advocates, who have been joined by unions representing BART workers, say that their rapid bus shuttle proposal would run almost as fast as reliably as the proposed airport connector rail line, at a fraction of the cost. 

The dual proposals have split the Bay Area labor committee down the middle, with members of the building trades unions supporting the airport construction and the jobs it would bring to construction workers and members of the transit unions and the Service Employees International Union in opposition. 

Pacific Ethanol, the corporate partner with UC Berkeley scientists in a pilot biofuel plant, filed bankruptcy petitions for its four refineries Monday, May 18. 

The Sacramento-based company has teamed with the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI), a Department of Energy-created lab in partnership with the university, its Lawrence Berkeley, Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories, along with UC Davis and Stanford University. 

JBEI was funded by a $135 million grant from the federal Department of Energy. The federal agency has also put up $24.3 million for a Pacific Ethanol plant in Oregon that would transform plant fibers—rather than sugars—into ethanol. Pacific Ethanol is headed by Bill Jones, former California secretary of state and legislator. 

The bankruptcy action filed Monday doesn’t include the parent company of the refineries, Pacific Ethanol itself, or the company’s two marketing subsidiaries, according to a statement released Monday at the time of the filing. 

Biofuels—the major goal of at least $635 million in corporate- and federal-funded research at UC Berkeley—face an increasingly complex and troubled future. 

Even larger than the federal JBEI grant is the $500 million pledged by BP, the former British Petroleum, for a broader spectrum of alternative fuel projects by scientists and UC Berkeley and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

A wave of bankruptcies has swept through the synthetic fuel sector, triggered in part by last year’s soaring cost increases for corn and other agricultural commodities used as so-called feedstock for the refineries. 

Pacific Ethanol is planning to use JBEI technology to produce ethanol from plant fiber, cellulose, rather from the sugars contained in crops like corn and sugar cane. JBEI and the BP-funded Energy Biosciences Institute are also aiming to produce other fuels than ethanol that burn more like gasoline. 

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has warned that ethanol—a fuel that readily combines with water and burns at lower temperatures than gasoline—can damage engines of older cars. The Australian government has also reported that ethanol blends can lead to increased emissions of some carcinogens, according to a May 18 report by the non-profit Environmental Working Group. 

Another potential problem confronting all fuels derived from harvested plant crops is grouped together under the heading “indirect land use effects.” 

A major debate ensued after the California Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed considering indirect land use effects when evaluating the impacts of biofuel—called agrofuels by their critics. 

The effects in question range from increases in carbon dioxide emissions from plowing up new land to impacts on food prices in low-income nations, and many of the UC scientists conducting research in synthetic fuels urged the board to reject inclusion of indirect land use impacts in their evaluations. 

But CARB ruled on April 23 that indirect impacts must be considered when evaluating just how green biofuels are. 

Synthetic fuel advocates have received one major boost, however, with installation of one of their strongest advocates as U.S. secretary of energy. 

Former LBNL Director Steve Chu, now a member of the Obama cabinet, has made biofuels a major plank in his platform for Department of Energy research while killing off federally funded research on electric- and hydrogen-powered vehicles. 

Santa Clara County will pay $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed over the suicide of Andrew Martinez, Berkeley’s “Naked Guy,” three years ago, attorneys representing his mother in the case announced Tuesday, May 19. 

Martinez, 33, suffocated himself May 18, 2006, in a maximum-security cell in the Santa Clara County Jail where he had been detained for three felony charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon during a fight at a halfway house where he had been living. 

Andrew’s mother, Esther Krenn, sued Santa Clara County Jail a year later in San Francisco federal court for failing to prevent his suicide in prison.  

Krenn’s lawyer, Geri Lynn Green, said Martinez had not been convicted of a crime at the time of his suicide because the court had deemed him incompetent to stand trial due to a severe psychiatric disorder. He was reportedly seeing mental health professionals in the weeks leading up to his death. 

Andrew had been sent to a state mental institution in Atascadero in June 2005. Krenn told the Planet during an earlier interview that her son had come back in January 2006 happy and competent enough to stand trial, but that the torment of solitary confinement and his illness had proven to be too much for him to handle. 

“When I saw him for the last time in April last year, I could see the sadness in his eyes,” she said during that interview. “I called up people at the public defender’s office and the mental health services to alert them about his condition. The next thing I heard was that he had passed away.” 

Lead Deputy Counsel for the case John Winchester said the county had agreed to settle the lawsuit because the trial would have been too costly for them. 

The county contributed its insurance deductible of $500,000 and the balance was paid by its insurance provider, he said. 

Winchester said that as part of the settlement, the county had agreed to notify family members when an inmate attempted suicide or underwent a severe psychiatric crisis.  

He said the county already had a long-standing practice under which social workers in acute mental health units provided families with that information if they were given consent by the patient, but it would now be formalized in writing. 

“Andrew was a victim of a failed system of criminalizing mental illness and warehousing sick people in jails without adequate facilities and qualified medical staffs for the treatment of their sickness,” Green said. “And what little safety net exists in Santa Clara County just completely fell apart. There was a total failure by the jail to provide necessary care, which led to this avoidable tragedy.” 

Martinez gained notoriety in 1992 when he was suspended from UC Berkeley for attending class in little more than sandals and a backpack. He staged a campus “nude-in” on campus, explaining that he was trying to make a point about the freedom of expression.  

Martinez’s refusal to wear clothes ultimately led the university to expel him in 1993. He was also arrested for violating a Berkeley ordinance by showing up naked at a City Council meeting. 

Green said Martinez was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent the last 10 years of his life battling the disease. 

“For Andrew, incarceration without adequate medical care was a death sentence,” Green said. Although doctors warned that he was a suicide risk and “in need of close medical oversight,” Green said, Martinez was placed in an isolated cell in Santa Clara in an understaffed wing without adequate medication or medical supervision, dying of asphyxiation while prisoners in adjacent cells called out for someone to help him. 

“This case exemplifies the problem facing millions of American families dealing with mental illness,” she said. “It should be a special wake-up call to the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Santa Clara County rakes in millions per year providing acute psychiatric care for prisoners from Alameda, Marin and San Mateo counties. Every one of us is at risk of harm when such a large segment of our population goes without adequate medical treatment. This award should signal to jails throughout the country the need to ensure that detainees with mental illness receive appropriate medical care and treatment.” 

Winchester said that although he could not discuss Martinez’s medical history or treatment at the Santa Clara County Jail, the facility had an extensive suicide prevention and training program, including acute psychiatric trained staff to handle mental health crises around the clock. 

A 2006 national survey by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons shows that 24 percent of state prisoners and 21 percent of local jail prisoners as having a recent history of mental health disorders. 

“If we have jails rather than hospitals functioning as our mental health system for a vulnerable population, they must provide appropriate facilities staffed with trained mental health professionals,” Green said. “Warehousing sick disabled people in jail isolation, without adequate medical care is tantamount to torture.” 

Krenn told the Daily Planet after filing the lawsuit that she believed that “the system” had led to her son’s death, explaining that she wanted to “expose what happened in the custody of people” who had been charged with taking care of her son. 

Santa Clara County officials and Krenn agreed to the settlement on April 22. 

“The lawsuit is over,” Krenn said in a statement. “For me, it is the beginning of the effort to promote the mentally ill agenda by increasing public awareness and helping to bring about a change in policies for the mentally ill in jails and prisons.”

Child murder 

On Tuesday the Alameda County District Attorney charged a 21-year-old Berkeley man with murdering his 5-month-old son.  

On the afternoon of May 15, Berkeley police received a report of a choking infant in a home on the 1300 block of Ward Street. Officers responding assisted the boy’s father with CPR: the infant was transported to Children’s Hospital by Berkeley Fire Paramedics, where he died of his injuries.  

The father, Lamar Franklin, was arrested on May15 based upon information provided to officers by hospital staff. Franklin is charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault resulting in the death of a child under eight. 

The incident was Berkeley’s fourth homicide of the year. 

Sexual assault 

A 42-year-old El Sobrante man was arrested at his home on May 13 and charged with sexually assaulting a woman in Berkeley last month. 

According to Berkeley police, on April 4 Jerry Brown Jr. picked up a 27-year-old woman on San Pablo and Carri- 

son Street, an area of southwest Berkeley often frequented by prostitutes. Police alleged that while driving around in his 1996 Ford Ranger, Brown flashed a badge, claimed he was an undercover Berkeley police officer, and implied he had a gun under the driver’s seat. 

They said that Brown stopped the truck on the 700 block of Heinz Street and sexually assaulted the woman multiple times.  

A resident provided police with a license plate number which matched that on Brown’s Ford Ranger.  

Brown was charged with false imprisonment, oral copulation and sodomy. He has been released on bond.  

A group of West Berkeley residents expressed concern Thursday regarding traffic, scale and the lack of historic preservation in Wareham Development’s proposed project on the Aquatic Park Campus. 

The comments were made during a public hearing conducted by the Zoning Adjustments Board on the draft environmental impact report of the project, which plans to tear down the landmarked Copra Warehouse at 740 Heinz St. and replace it with a 92,000-square-foot, four-story biosciences lab. 

Wareham hopes to attract organizations from the life science, physical science and nanotechnology sectors and create at least 276 new jobs. 

The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission questioned the lack of relevant historic data in the EIR during a similar hearing two weeks ago. Some commissioners went as far as to say that Wareham’s attempt to save the historic building by keeping only two of the original facades could not be considered preservation. 

The Copra Warehouse has been vacant for the last 10 years, according to the EIR, and its seismically unsafe condition makes it impossible to lease. 

The building was constructed in 1916 for the Stauffer Oil Company and later housed the Durkee Famous Foods plant. The property originally had eight buildings, but that number is now down to three. 

David Clore, principal at Berkeley-based LSA Associates, the firm which prepared the EIR, told the board that the proposed project would result in “significant unavoidable impact” to the city’s cultural resources. He said that that Wareham would document the history of the Copra Warehouse through drawings, photographs and a historical narrative which would be displayed in a kiosk on the site. 

The demolition, he said, would have “less than significant cultural impact” on the two other remaining buildings, the Spice Warehouse and the Durkee Building, something at least one member of the landmarks commission said was not true. 

Clore added that the project would also lead to significant traffic delays and an increase in cars at a number of intersections which would be mitigated by traffic signals.  

He said that sound from the construction site, especially pile driving, would exceed the city’s noise standards and would be addressed with the help of noise barriers and by notifying neighbors on the days they were likely to be impacted. 

The zoning board needs to come up with a variance to approve the project, which at 72 feet would exceed the current area zoning of 45 feet. 

Clore spoke about the project alternatives, which include rehabilitating the existing structure for industrial use, preserving the existing structure and building a new research and development building similar in mass and height to the buildings once dotting the Durkee Famous Foods plant or constructing a life science building which would keep to the current zoning standards. 

Chris Noll, of Noll and Tam Architects, which is located right across from the Copra Warehouse, criticized Wareham’s failure to suggest a viable alternative. 

“The building can be lower and fulfill the needs,” he said. “The project can be redesigned to preserve three walls instead of two, which essentially don’t do much about preservation.” 

Speaking on behalf of the Temescal Business Center and the Berkeley Industrial Artworks Complex, Michael Ziegler and Pietro Mussi urged the zoning board to deny Wareham the use permits, explaining that the project would be out of scale and impact traffic and quality of life negatively in the neighborhood. 

“A super-sized project comes with super-sized environmental impact,” Ziegler said, adding that the project, if approved, would set a precedent for West Berkeley. 

“It is essentially a rewriting of the zoning code which will ensure that other developers will do the same,” Ziegler and Mussi wrote in a letter to the board. “How would the ZAB be able to grant this variance to one developer and deny it to others?” 

They warned that on the “heels of this approval would come the request” from Wareham to develop more properties into a similar scale. 

Barbara Bowman, who has lived in the neighborhood for the last 30 years, called the development a “Let’s-see-how-many-rules-you-can-break sort of a project.” 

“I feel astonished that you are even considering it,” she said. “Please, please, please hold the line.” 

Rick Auerbach, of West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies, called the Copra Building an integral part of Berkeley’s working-class history where thousands came to work. 

He complained that the building would cast shadows over Magic Gardens, a nursery and landscaping company located at 729 Heinz, which would threaten the business. 

The city’s planning manager, Steve Ross, told the board that the final EIR would have responses to all the public comments. The comment period ends on June 8, 2009.  

The zoning board and the landmarks commission are scheduled to vote on whether to certify the EIR at a joint meeting July 2. The landmarks commission will also vote on whether to grant an alteration permit, and the zoning board will vote on whether to grant a variance and a use permit to Wareham on the same day. 

Police Monday released the names of two suspects who were arrested Saturday, May 16, after a fatal shooting in Berkeley that led to a vehicle pursuit and crash in Oakland that killed two bystanders.  

Anthony Price, a 24-year-old Oakland resident, and Stephon Anthony, a 22-year-old San Leandro resident, were arrested after the crash, Berkeley police spokesman Andrew Frankel said. Officers also recovered two assault weapons from their vehicle, according to Frankel. 

Two other suspects in the case remained outstanding as of this afternoon. 

The incident began shortly after 6:30 p.m. May 16 when a Berkeley police officer heard gunshots in the area of Allston Way and 10th Street in West Berkeley, police said. 

Officers responded and found a 25-year-old Berkeley man on Allston Way west of San Pablo Avenue. He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. 

Frankel said investigators were not releasing his name this afternoon. 

As the officers were arriving, they saw a Cadillac occupied by four men fleeing the area. 

The officers pursued the Cadillac through Berkeley and into Oakland, where it crashed into a Mazda and a pedestrian at Aileen Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, police said. 

Both the pedestrian and the driver of the Mazda were killed. 

The driver of the Mazda has been identified as 27-year-old Brentwood resident Todd Perea, Frankel said. 

Police were not releasing the name of the pedestrian because the victim’s family has not yet been notified, Frankel said. 

After the crash, police arrested Price and Anthony, but the other two suspects managed to flee the area on foot. 

Berkeley and Oakland police searched the area using a helicopter and police dogs into the early morning hours, but didn’t find the two outstanding suspects.  

Frankel said they should both be considered armed and dangerous, but police were not releasing any description of them this afternoon. 

Frankel said the officers had followed protocol in the pursuit and were chasing suspects who were involved in a violent crime involving great bodily injury. 

“The pursuit was very much by the book,” Frankel said.

Mark Coplan 

The Obama mural at King Middle School is a community project designed to brighten up the school’s sixth grade plaza, often described as the school’s “Grand Central Station” according to Sarah Herman, the King PTA gardens and yard coordinator. King’s Art Deco building will see its auditorium’s west wall painted with stories depicting the inauguration of Barack Obama, which the school hopes will inspire students for years to come. Designed by San Francisco-based muralist non-profit Precita Eyes, the mural has been painted by at least 70 people and is expected to be completed by June 12, the end of the school year.

After what seems like years but in fact has only been months of reading everything available and going to endless panel discussions, lectures and conferences about the state of the News Biz, we’ve finally come to a conclusion. We’d like to say we were the first to have this immortal insight, but in fact it seems to be the same conclusion now being reached by our colleagues at other papers large and small. 

Consumers of news are going to have to pay for the privilege from now on. For a generation or more advertisers have picked up the check, but that seems to be over. 

Why not go online only? Well, despite the sorry state of print advertising revenue, it still exists, though less than it used to be. Online advertising revenue is much, much worse, essentially non-existent for most papers. There’s been a folk belief that anything Internet should always be free, coupled with a lack of awareness about where the “news” on popular sites like Daily Kos and Huffington Post originates. Some papers (like all the Bay Area papers owned by Media News which now ring Berkeley) are starting to charge readers for online access.  

Anyone who suggests that part-time non-professional volunteer reporters online, or even bloggers, will be able to fill the gap hasn’t studied the volunteer online press very carefully. While there are some competent reports in such publications, there’s a frightening amount of blatant fabrication and boring self-promotion as well.  

Serious career reporters and competent editors are needed for high-quality news reporting regardless of medium, and someone has to pay them. Printing and distribution account for only a third of the cost of print papers, so eliminating them isn’t the silver bullet it might seem to be.  

Some papers are compensating for loss of ad revenue by dramatically raising their home delivery and per issue prices, often unfortunately coupled with cost reductions which dramatically lower the quality of their product (the San Francisco Chronicle.). Charging more while giving the readers less is the solution du jour, but it doesn’t seem likely to succeed in the long run.  

Molly Ivins once said about this tactic: “I don’t so much mind that newspapers are dying—it’s watching them commit suicide that pisses me off.”  

Others, including us, have suggested that newspapers should become nonprofits, and that would solve the problem. We’ve read a lot and tested the waters in the last couple of months, and like most others now believe that won’t work. The money still has to come from somewhere, and—no surprise—foundations are already hurting for funds in this economy. 

But newsgatherers have to pay rent like everyone else, so if there are going to be papers there will have to be a solution. Bigger richer organizations have spent big bucks on massive market research efforts and learned little.  

The bottom line question is still the same: who’s going to pay for reporting? And by reporting we don’t just mean the kind of flashy investigative spectacles whereby shocked readers learn that athletes take drugs. We also mean the more mundane local stories: “There’s a cement factory going in next to your block.” Reporting includes compiling the often underestimated calendar sections which in community papers provide news not available anywhere else: “There’s a special meeting of the school board which will decide whether to close playgrounds at neighborhood schools on weekends.” (Aside to the nervous: neither example is real.) The Planet’s calendars are the best-read part of the online paper.  

Our first experiment with solving this problem was establishing our Fund for Local Reporting. We’ve been very gratified to see that hundreds of citizens have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the fund, but it’s now clear that voluntary contributions from a select group whose civic consciousness is above average won’t cover our costs for a paper if we want to maintain the current quality level. So we’re moving on to Experiment Number Two. 

We’re starting the transition from completely free distribution to asking for some form of payment from every reader. Our colleagues at the Piedmont Post have persuaded more than 2,000 readers (in a population of about 10,000) to become “underwriters” of their community paper at a variety of levels. Underwriters get home delivery by carrier, though individual copies are also available for a minimal donation at Piedmont’s very few retail locations.  

Here in Berkeley and the rest of the urban East Bay we have many more potential retail distribution possibilities: convenience stores, cafes, laundromats, bookstores, medical offices—anywhere people might want to find some reading matter. Maintenance of free boxes on the street has become more and more difficult, and coin boxes are vandalized by would-be thieves, so we plan to move distribution indoors, gradually over the summer.  

A “suggested minimum donation” of $2 will be asked for each copy, to be either deposited in a sealed box or paid directly to retailers who are willing to handle cash and make change. As we reach critical mass of such locations, the outside free boxes will be gradually removed.  

We’ll publish a list of outlets where the Planet can be found in every issue. These will benefit from the added visitors to their establishments, and they’ll also share in the donated revenue. We’ll also deliver bundles of papers to institutions and even homes where someone can take collection responsibility. 

As this system becomes established, we’ll be working to set up home carrier delivery for regular donors, and online access will eventually be limited to such donors as well. Everyone who’s already either a subscriber or a contributor to the Fund for Local Reporting will automatically be put on this donor list, and we’ll be very actively looking for more new sustaining donors like these (hereinafter “sustainers” for short.)  

How can you, the individual reader, help in our transition to reader-funded sustainability? Please look around your neighborhood for likely distribution points and let us know what you find out, by phone, mail or e-mail. Talk to your friends, and get them to sign up to be sustainers, and of course sign up yourself if you haven’t already done so.  

Current rough calculations suggest that if 5,000 of the Planet’s more than 30,000 readers in the urban East Bay signed up to contribute at least $10 a month, the paper would be sustainable.  

We think that if we all work together, that’s a goal we can achieve.

BULLIES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

It is well known that bullies are afraid of being beaten up. That’s why they beat up on younger, smaller kids. Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh exhibit the same kind of braggadocio as they advocate torturing people under U.S. custody who are bound, gagged and hooded. 

We’ve heard from experienced CIA agents that torture doesn’t provide actionable intelligence; it only elicits what the torturer wants to hear. We’ve heard from political scientists that torture helps terrorists recruit new terrorists. We’ve heard from clergy and from listening to our own hearts, that torture blemishes our country’s moral character, rendering us indistinguishable from the bad guys. 

Yet, Cheney, Limbaugh, and their followers continue to advocate torture, claiming the security of the county depends on it. If torture worked, the terrorist Zarkawi wouldn’t have been water-boarded 185 times. In fact, he gave information during normal interrogations before water-boarding, and then clammed up when the torture began. 

Why do Cheney and Limbaugh continue calling for torture? Is it because they themselves are cowards, so afraid of torture they would start blabbing immediately, who figure that terrorists are equally afraid? Yet, we know that many of our sons and daughters under arms, and frankly, some terrorists as well, have the courage and conviction to resist the torturer’s coercion. They’d rather die than betray their country to bullying sadists who reveal themselves as moral degenerates. 

There’s a reason Cheney and Limbaugh are called “chicken hawks.” 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont 

• 

CLEAN COAL FRAUD 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I appreciated James Singmaster’s commentary concerning the clean coal fraud. I agree with him on every point, and I want to add that when you trap CO2, you also rob our atmosphere of oxygen. The “O2” in CO2 stands for two atoms of oxygen in the CO2 molecule. When fossil fuels are burned, it is a matter of combining the carbon atoms in the fossil fuels with oxygen from the atmosphere. When you then trap this CO2 you are losing that oxygen, rather than returning it to the atmosphere where it has a chance of being “reprocessed” by plant life into its original components of carbon and oxygen. 

When you burn hydrogen, the waste product is water. Plant life then has the ability to turn some of this water into oxygen plus the hydrogen that exists in carbohydrates and in other plant substances. 

Fossil fuels are a problem because you’re taking carbon from deep in the earth’s crust that was deposited in prehistory, and are introducing it into our present day atmosphere. This changes the total carbon in the earth’s biosphere and this in turn makes climactic change inevitable. 

These are just more reasons why coal isn’t clean, and never will be. 

Jack Bragen 

Martinez 

• 

SPORTSMANSHIP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that the Berkeley High boys basketball team has been suspended from post-season play for two seasons (2010-2011) because BHS players severely vandalized the office of an opposing team’s coach at Newark after a February loss. This poor sportsmanship is in total contrast to BHS basketball tradition. 

Today’s BHS players obviously are unaware of the great East Bay high school basketball heritage of which yesterday’s BHS players were integral parts. Great sportsmen like Bill Russell, Frank Robinson, Paul Silas, Phil Chenier, Ruppert Jones and Gene Ransom made the East Bay game the best in the state for decades. Restoration of the BHS program to respectability must now be an urgent priority for BUSD administrators. I believe today’s BHS players are fully capable of measuring up to yesterday’s standards. 

Nathaniel Hardin 

El Cerrito 

• 

PEOPLE’S PARK 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am a Berkeley resident and business owner and I think the painting of the stage at People’s Park makes UC Berkeley Director of Community Relations Irene Hegarty, and the whole of UC Berkeley, look at best silly and petty, and at worst, outright confrontational.  

If this is the relationship UC Berkeley wishes to have with the people of Berkeley (and the rest of the world), they should continue with what they are doing. If not, they should consider spending their time doing something that would actually enhance the image of UC Berkeley. But just makes them look like bored bullies. If they remember the volleyball courts fiasco, they might want to try some other way of relating to the community.  

Phil Rowntree 

• 

DOWNTOWN 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

“Downtown.” The word evokes images of a bustling dynamic place set to the theme of Petula Clark’s pop song. Isn’t that what we all want? An uplifting place to go where all our cares and worries can melt away, a place for bright lights, movie shows and chance encounters with friends or somebody who can become a friend? 

OK, now think “Downtown Berkeley.” Hhmm, we have some work to do. Yes we have a good selection of movie shows, some bright little places to go and the opportunity for those chance encounters if we are so plucky as to venture downtown. But the reputation and oftentimes the reality of downtown Berkeley has not been very inviting and even less uplifting. I won’t recount the numerous problems as they are pretty well known and along with many solutions are being well documented at www.opentownhall.com/electeds/22. 

How can we make it a more pleasant place to be? By building point towers which will create looming shadows for passersby and from a distance jut up here and there in the skyline as the physical manifestation of the developer/planner trysts taking place all too often down at city hall? By calculating the maximum allowable building heights and determining how many residents can be packed therein? And as a nod to “bright lights” binding the trees and tossing some strands about and calling it a job well done? I don’t think so. 

A city is people and a city is the physical surroundings and people are greatly affected by their physical surroundings. Put them in cracker boxes and they are likely to act like crackers. Put them in harmonious surroundings and they just might sing. Downtown Berkeley lacks harmony and the current downtown plan recommended by the Planning Commission exacerbates this problem. If there is an overall vision it was not built with the concept of creating a pleasant, friendly place. I urge the mayor and the Berkeley City Council to reject the current Planning Commission’s plan and to adopt the previous incarnation of the DAPAC plan which was well conceived over many years by conscientious citizens of Berkeley. 

Dianne Ayres 

• 

BERKELEY MEADOW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to Toni Mester’s letter: There are about 20 people in the Citizens for East Shore Parks and not all of them were in favor of the fence around the meadow. My letters were never about the group as a whole but about Robert Cheasty, its president; Norman La Force, its former vice president and now director of the East Bay Regional Parks; Arthur Feinstein; and perhaps some others whose names I didn’t learn when I attended one of the meetings and presented my questions that were summarily dismissed with rudeness and inconsideration. It became clear to me then that they had used the organization for their own special interests that were indifferent to the entire Berkeley community. I was never ungrateful for how the meadow was acquired by the city, but because of the fence it is not really “public open space,” as Toni Mester calls it. Instead it has become in effect the private development of her Sierra Club and the Audubon Society where the public is locked out. I have nothing against bird sanctuaries, but the question I presented to CESP remains unanswered: why can’t the “174 acres” be shared by people and wildlife together with a more creative and less draconian landscape design? 

Pete Najarian 

• 

DROPOUT RATE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

In response to the May 14 article, “Berkeley Dropout Rates Still High for Minorities”: 

Berkeley High School has a “college adviser,” but no “technical trades,” or “vocational” counselor. Who in the school district administration made this decision given the high drop-out rate?  

Not every Berkeley High student is destined for college. The drop-out rate is not that of students, but administrators and school board members who dropped out of teaching trades and vocations, eliminating, for example, shop classes where students learned carpentry, metal, electrical, auto mechanics, welding, and masonry. And while the drop-out rate is cited as high for minorities, it’s equally high for non-minorities who simply disappear from Berkeley High without follow-up. 

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, but public school administrators are wasting the use of hands.  

Your May 14 article, “Berkeley Dropout Rates Still High for Minorities,” quotes the California state school chief Jack 0’Connell: “We need to build bridges to colleges and community colleges.” The chief made no mention of trades, technical or vocational schools. And he wonders why the public high school drop-out rate is high, and getting higher? Jack is blinded by his doctorate in education, if not master’s degree.  

Yes, there might be a few classes (computer and theater arts) with hands-on training, but such are available only to a few.  

If by the 10th grade a regular course of high school study during a regular day included hands-on, technical and vocational training, numerous students would discover their actual gifts, talents, abilities and intelligence. Such is often not discovered siting in chair watching a chalkboard, listening to a lecture.  

Four long years at Berkeley High—from the 9th to 12th grade—with nothing but academics for the majority of students is four years of boredom. Anyone reading this who has any connection to Berkeley High will know of at least one student if not more who simply stopped attending, finding the education one-dimensional, ignorant, and irrelevant. 

Why have numerous school administrators and school board members failed? Most have never worked in a trade or technical field, or outside a Monday to Friday, eight to five job. Such are completely unaware of the diversity of hands-on occupations available for a high school student to pursue.  

The only way to stop the high school drop-out rate is to remove college and university trained administrators, and instead hire leaders from the trades, vocations and technical fields. Such leaders would renew and inspire students to find their true abilities and intelligence.  

The emphasis during a high school education should be to prepare the majority of students to enter into a two year trade, technical, or vocational school so that at the completion of such they can earn a livable wage.  

Robert Valentine 

• 

VIOLENCE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Every day we read about the increasing amount of violence in our society. In spite of our punishment and detrimental dealing with these law breakers, we all are suffering due to lawlessness of a handful of such people who hurt the community all the time. Locking in the prison or house arrest has not made them deter from such ruthless behavior patterns. Maybe instead of solitary confinement to deal with their antisocial behavior patterns, we need to focus on other ways of treatment by which they learn to act a little better. They need to learn to understand the value of life and its importance. All medical intervention, body and mind health issues of such people should be considered for helping them change. We need our society to grow more human qualities rather than becoming ruthless killers. 

Romila Khanna 

Albany 

• 

GOLDMAN ENVIRONEMTAL PRIZE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Last April 20, an extraordinary environmental award ceremony took place in San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. The Goldman Environmental Prize (www.goldmanprize.org) was given to seven environmental activists. The $150,000 prize was established in 1989 by San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist Richard Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda Goldman. This year was the 20th anniversary of the prize. The prize ceremony can be experienced only if one receives an invitation. Since it was an important anniversary, Christiane Amanpour was the MC, and Al Gore and Robert Redford gave speeches. The Goldman Prize is the world’s largest and most prestigious prize for grass roots environmental activism, and is given to one or more people from each of six continents, designated as follows: North America, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Island Nations. This year, for example, Wanze Edwards and Hugo Jabini of Suriname shared the prize for South and Central America for saving rainforest from destruction by foreign timber companies. The ceremony is always followed by a reception in City Hall. Environmental leaders, such as Carl Pope, the head of the Sierra Club, and civic leaders, such as former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan, attended, and were accessible for conversation at the reception. Here, delicious food is served, and a reception line with the Goldman family and the prize winners affords the opportunity to meet these people. I have attended several Goldman ceremonies, and found this one particularly special. I have had the opportunity to attend two Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden, and have told the Goldman family that that I find the Goldman Prize ceremony more inspiring than the Nobel Prize ceremony! 

David Seaborg 

Founder and president, World Rainforest Fund 

Walnut Creek 

• 

LOAN INSPECTORS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

When I was building houses years ago, I was subjected to a constant barrage of tough building inspectors at every stage of construction. This was to protect the potential buyer of my houses from a substandard building. The houses had to be built according to “code.” The same process should be applied to selling houses. There should be a set of “code” regulations as strict and as compelling as building a house. The role of government should have been to protect buyers from a substandard loan, just as presently, buyers are protected from a substandard new house. What we need is a constant barrage of tough “loan inspectors!”  

Robert Blau  

• 

OOPS! A CORRECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Due to a transcription error in the third paragraph of my May 14 commentary, “New Barcode Checkout System Less Expensive Than Berkeley Library’s Aging RFID System,” a phrase was omitted. It should have read as follows:  

“The Peace and Justice Commission recommended in early January 2009 that the City Council deny the Library’s request for a waiver of the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act, but the City Council, nevertheless, approved the waiver in its Jan. 27 resolution that allowed the library to contract with 3M (a company involved in the nuclear industry) to maintain the RFID system.” 

Gene Bernardi 

• 

INCREASED AIR TRAFFIC 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What in heaven's name is happening to our sky? Your know, the sky that belongs to all of us, that used to be blue? I have never seen and heard so much aircraft activity as I do now. At 6:30 this morning I watched 10 planes go over my house within 10 minutes. One morning three jets crossed paths right over my head. 

As we conscientious chumps on the ground are desperately working to reduce our personal carbon footprints, bicycling, forming carpools, joining climate change groups, driving Priuses, (don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it), is anyone monitoring what seems to be an even greater contributor to atmospheric pollution caused by the increased fuel usage and emissions from these jet aircraft flying to and fro, on what mission we know not? Many of these jets seem to be emitting a white mystery substance. I also notice weird scratchy scrawls and blotches in the sky that I never used to see. The breathing air left to us is worse than ever. By the end of the day, sometimes even as the day begins, the sky has a bright blinding white hazy quality. Is the pollution coming from our activities on the ground or is it coming down on us from above? Given the dire predictions of “climate change” why is nothing being done to limit this? Are others of you noticing this? Shouldn’t we notify our Congress people? 

Vivian Warkentin and Wanda Warkentin 

• 

FRENZY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The stark contrast between our frenzied reaction to unfamiliar hazards and our reckless tolerance of familiar ones never ceases to amaze me. 

The current incidence of swine flu, which killed five Americans, has captured the headlines, canceled public events, and closed dozens of schools. At the same time, we have blithely continued our consumption of meat and dairy products, which has been linked conclusively with elevated risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and other chronic diseases that kill 1.3 million Americans annually. 

But it’s not just about chronic diseases. According to the United Nations, animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, leading to catastrophic floods, droughts, and sea level rises, which threaten human survival. It uses more fresh water and dumps more deadly wastes into our water supplies than all other human activities combined. 

Each of us has a shared responsibility for our society’s health and welfare. The best time to exercise this responsibility is on our next trip to the supermarket, where we can explore the rich variety of meat-free and dairy-free ready-to-eat frozen dinners, veggie burgers and dogs, lunch “meats,” and plant-based cheese, ice cream, and milk. Helpful transition hints and recipes galore are available at www.tryveg.org and www.chooseveg.org. 

Harold Kunitz 

Walnut Creek 

• 

NEW SUPREME COURT JUSTICE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

The retirement of Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court will give President Obama an opportunity to pick a judge that will support the sovereignty of American Indians. The Supreme Court’s recent actions on Indian issues have not been positive. For example, on April 6, the court ruled against the Navajo Nation over the payment the Navajo are seeking from the Peabody Coal Company for mining on the Navajo land in Arizona. 

Writing for the majority of the court, Justice Scalia said the Navajo’s claim for the compensation had failed and should be stopped. That is not the kind of attitude that I need from a judge. I hope that President Obama will pick a judge who will be sensitive to the issues of American Indians. 

Billy Trice, Jr. 

Oakland 

• 

THE MEADOW 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Several years ago when the Berkeley dump was a large pit in Cesar Chavez Park, I was in the hauling business. I was down there at least once a day, sometimes twice. I got into the habit of stopping to rest in front of the meadow. It was a great place for me and other business people to stop and rest and use the public phones in front of the boat docks. They were used by sales and delivery people and many others that passed by.  

I would walk out into the meadow and felt so peaceful and relaxed. It was free then, no fences or signs. People ran their dogs, walked through the wilderness area and out to the water.  

Yes, there were homeless camps but nobody bothered anyone.  

There was plenty of wildlife, both living there and passing through to enjoy. I remember in particular the red-winged black birds and the countless jack rabbits which seem to have vanished. I still go down there, but with everything clear cut and fenced off there is nothing there any longer and all the wildlife is gone. Why did EBRPD have to destroy this great place? 

Randall Broder 

El Sobrante 

• 

TWO FOR ONE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Your writer, J. Douglas Allan-Taylor is such an interesting enigma. When he pens a column like “Demise of G.O.P. Is Not Necessarily a Good Thing” (May 7), his writing is well documented and brilliant. And, when he serves as an apologist for Oakland’s absentee chief executive, he can be full of pompous crap! 

In these lean economic times you are lucky to have two totally different staffers for the price of one. 

Wayne P. Kirchoffer 

Oakland 

• 

SAFEWAY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Obviously the Safeway store at College and Claremont in Oakland is very profitable, and works extremely well while serving the surrounding neighborhoods and appreciative customers who champion the store just the way it is. Nevertheless, the supermarket chain unveiled plans for a new, two story building complex—doubling the size of their present store with eight added retail storefronts, and a huge underground parking level. 

As an expensive, double talking marketing guru might suggest, “For what the property is worth, it is not generating enough income.” So why not, Mr. Safeway C.E.O., go ahead and build your bigger and better, more and more profitable, super supermarket. However, I may have news for your excellency. In the future another V.I.P. with all the answers will come along, tear down your magnificent monument, then erect his Tower of Babel. 

Infamous last words? If it works, don’t fix it. 

Jack Biringer 

• 

PUBLIC SAFETY 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

By now, you probably have heard of Mayor Dellums’ budget proposal to cut 140 Oakland police officers. Some say this is a tactical move to get federal stimulus money. If that works, fine. But just in case it does not, with all due respect to elected leaders, reducing the police force is a nonstarter. 

Crime is and has been the number one issue for voters in every poll we have taken over the past three years. There has been some improvement, but obviously not enough, and this is no time to give any consideration to reducing the number of officers. Voters won’t stand for it and neither will the business community which has invested in this city. 

We are just beginning to experience what Oakland can be like as the Uptown area comes to life with new dining, entertainment, and housing options. The city was recently given a boost in the New York Times travel section which depicted great things going on in Jack London Square, around the Lake and up at Chabot. This is great news. Unfortunately, we also continue to receive tragic news including the recent murder of a 97 year old woman in an Adams Point condo building. 

If the police force is reduced by 140 officers, which way will Oakland go? Will neighborhoods in the city emulate the growth and vibrancy of Uptown or will residents be shuttered behind iron gates and locked doors because they fear for their safety? Dom Arotzarena of the police officer’s union bluntly predicts that if the criminal element gets the idea that no one is watching, “crime will go up” and “more people will die.” 

The Safe Streets Committee has pledged to work with all of our elected leaders on efforts to ensure adequate police coverage. Last year we discontinued our signature drive on a potential ballot measure to increase the number of officers in part because elected officials who had been lukewarm to addressing public safety issues came on board and told us they got it—public safety is priority number one! We don’t want to go back to the voters and we certainly hope that will not be our only option. 

Let’s be clear about this. As bad as the budget crisis may be, it will only get worse if people get the idea that a bad crime problem will deteriorate further because we have reduced the number of police officers. Those great new restaurants and entertainment venues that Oakland is becoming known for will go empty. The housing that we are trying to sell or lease will not be filled with new residents. The business that we are trying to attract to the city in very challenging times will go elsewhere. And when the restaurants, homes, offices, entertainment and retail venues go dark, the tax revenues they would produce will be lost and the budget crisis will only get worse. 

Our message to elected leaders is simple and clear. Nothing is more important than public safety. Before you do anything else, make sure Oakland residents, workers and visitors are safe. Do not cut the police force by 140 officers. 

Gregory McConnell, 

Executive Director, Oakland Safe Streets Committee 

For President Obama, single-payer health care financing is now “off the table.” I’m told that Mark Leno, sponsor of SB 810 California’s Single Payer legislation (it passed last year as Sheila Kuehl’s SB 840 only to be vetoed by Governor Schwartenegger), thinks the Single Payer vote in the Legislature should be delayed to the 2010 session. Yet everyone from these politicians to the SF Chronicle admits that there is a health care crisis that must be addressed now. What exactly does the footdragging mean?  

In the aftermath of World War II, essentially all of the advanced Capitalist countries ended up with government-financed health insurance of one type or another. Everyone except, of course, the United States, which was king of the hill. This historical oddity didn’t matter then. The McCarthy era ended the great tradition of trade union militancy of the 1930s that might have forced coverage for every worker in the US. With or without government health insurance, the overall cost of medical care was not a large burden on the economy in those low-tech solo practitioner days. Moreover, the U.S. only needed to maintain the American industrial workforce’s competitiveness temporarily—as a bridge to globalized industrial production, which was to end US supremacy in manufacturing products.  

But something went awry. In 1965 the social revolution we call the Civil Rights movement and Lyndon Johnson’s desire to have a progressive domestic legacy led to the passage of Medicare and Medicaid; at the same time, industrial union contracts typically included health insurance for workers and retirees. As a result of the LBJ legislation, a transformation of the health care system did occur—but it was wasn’t toward government financing in general. It was toward rationalizing the health care system into the largest domestic center of capitalist profit after national defense. Nixon was caught on a tape, laying the groundwork for the HMO revolution that led the way. By the 1980s health care organizations were traded on the stock exchanges more eagerly than the waning rust belt industries of the past, and for good reason. Health care–related stocks within the framework of finance capital, the insurance giants and the medical technology and Pharma revolution, were bringing in huge excessive profits (while creating cost inflation in the range of 8-15 percent a year).  

The remnants of industrial production are crumbling while the overall cost per person of health care in the U.S. is highest in the world, higher than the cost of care in many countries with better outcomes on health indicators. And the cost inflation along with high profits continues. President Obama’s announcement that he will save a trillion dollars via an agreement with the big players to cut the average cost by 1.5 percent is a publicity stunt. Looking at the huge inflation rate in health care, it’s obvious that protection of Medicare alone requires that inflation be close to zero.  

Therein lies an irresolvable contradiction for U.S. capitalism. While the U.S. economy now desperately needs health care reorganization so that the financial sector—profit hungry and driven fundamentally by greed—is prevented from dominating our health care priorities and restricting our access to care, health care is the only thriving sector of the economy. As a result, insuring all and bringing down costs is impossible, short of a public rebellion of the type we have not seen in many decades. The problem is that without the health care profit center the U.S. economy will stagnate. U.S. capitalism has almost nothing else to keep the economy going right now except war and preparations for war—though they have some ideas (e.g., the green economy) for future new investment.  

Currently, as workers have lost jobs by the millions, the only sector that has continued hiring is health care. On the other hand the economic crisis is attacking public-health-sector funding. Yet, the only way to prevent massive layoffs on the administrative side of the vast private health care industry is to allow the cost inflation and the dominance of finance capital to continue. This, for U.S. capitalism, is a contradiction that actually has no short-term solution except worsening the attack (political as well as economic) on the working class. Thus, although the capitalist sectors are split between pro and con on Single Payer, neither side can assert itself strongly for fear of the negative consequences. This may explain the behavior of both Obama and the Sacramento Democrats in limiting and delaying reforms that will contain costs.  

Public financing of health care is hugely popular. Within this environment of crisis and gridlock, the opportunity exists for a Single Payer victory, yet nothing can change until the public rises up and takes matters into its own hands to insist upon public health insurance for all. The moment is ripe, because whether or not we win on public funding of health care the outcome will be bad for capitalism in the U.S. Yet, if we can achieve public financing at least costs can be contained, inflation stopped and the outlook for the public’s health and care will be substantially brighter. Health care is not the only arena where such impenetrable contradictions exist for U.S. capitalism, but it is a central arena at this critical juncture in the nation’s history.  

Obama was elected president amid slogans of hope, change, and si se puede. Truth is, his options are severely constricted. Very little change can be achieved from within the brittle, inflexible remnants of this political economy driven mainly by speculation over the past two to three decades. It’s obvious that Right extremism is standing in the wings, hoping to implement draconian measures when the contradictions lead to ineffectuality in governance. Sweeping changes are needed, but Obama cannot get free of the needs of finance capital sufficiently to move beyond a minimalist approach to change. We might overcome this problem with a new civil rights movement to force the California Democratic Legislature to put Single Payer back on the table this year, and we can organize to demand that Arnold Schwartzenegger sign the legislation (this will be the third time it passes the State Legislature). There is a lot at stake for us all, and inaction is particularly dangerous.  

Marc Sapir is an activist

Since I became mentally ill in my early adulthood, it has been deemed by physicians, by family and by my own best judgment that it is necessary for me to always take psychiatric medications. For practical purposes, I don’t have a choice in the matter, since the alternative is a relapse into my psychotic condition, which itself is a trauma to my brain and which causes me to behave in strange ways, resulting in re-hospitalization. Once in the hospital, the first thing that happens is I am given medication, against my will and with a court order, if need be. This is what some mental health professionals call “the revolving door” of mentally ill patients. The revolving door begins when the psychiatric consumer decides that they would rather not take medication. Is this too much information? 

In my first eighteen years of mental illness, I took a medication called “Prolixin.” Toward later years of taking this drug, it became less and less effective at keeping me in a “normal” and “sane” state of mind. I think it was in my late twenties when my cognitive judgment began to seriously weaken. At the time, I didn’t know this was happening, of course. When one’s judgment goes, generally one isn’t aware of the fact. 

At about age 35, I was put on the supposed “miracle drug” called Zyprexa. My ability to be thoughtful, self aware, and to suffer less from paranoia and delusions all improved steadily over time. My weight and my physical “slowness” also increased steadily over time. Looking bigger got the bullies to leave me alone more often, but in fact, my physical condition was worsening. When I reached the 200-pound mark and was over 40 years old, I decided to stop doing handstands, since I also had a blood pressure issue. Walking became the exercise of choice, although I didn’t do this enough. 

Now I am age 44, and have become pre-diabetic, which is probably caused by taking a combination of Zyprexa and Risperdal, since both of these antipsychotic medications cause diabetes. 

I am pretty stuck. These medications are about the only ones that are effective at controlling my psychotic symptoms and thus allowing “quality of life.” I’ve been trying to withdraw from these drugs and go back to the “older medications” and the problem is they just don’t work well enough for me. So essentially, I can choose physical health or mental health, but I can’t have both. 

I suppose I am a big source of profit to drug companies, which will be soon selling me insulin in addition to atypical anti-psychotic medications. 

We have a whole host of new and “better” medications, (not just mental health medications) which are now on the market that cause all kinds of bizarre and bad, sometimes deadly, effects on the body. If you look at any advertisement for modern drugs, the possible side effects that are listed are usually very substantial. America is being medicated and is being made sick in the process. 

The drug companies ought to be pressured into creating healthier medications and into doing more rigorous testing to discover the potential problems of the drugs they develop. Instead of this, they are letting the drugs loose on the population, thus using the general public as their experiment. 

Jack Bragen is a resident of Martinez.

We don’t have a homeless problem. We have a de-veloper problem. You’ve probably been to the PowerPoint presentation by your local developers who wring their hands over the rising costs of construction and explain, as patiently as they can to people who don’t understand the business, that unless their project is aimed primarily at housing people who make $150,000 to $200,000 or more a year, it just won’t pencil out. 

The politicians in the back of the room nod their heads sagely. Their pet developers can’t afford to build in their town without sizeable concessions on project size, parking, obstructed views, and landmark destruction, all of which will enhance the feasibility of the project. 

The project seems to hang by a thread. The presentation is powerful, the numbers clear, and the neighborhood concerns about losing views, sunlight, privacy, parking and creating neighborhood congestion all seem so selfish, so petty. Density equals polar bears, the developers and politicians concur. 

Then the politicians and developers go home to neighborhoods without highrise chicken-coop-style condos, and the neighbors go home, feeling helpless, and the polar bears literally keep losing ground. 

Not a single politician or developer in the thirty years I’ve been attending these dog and pony shows has bothered to challenge the ratios set by state and county agencies, all of which presume that the “affordable” units, usually a pathetically small ratio of the new units being built, will satisfy the more general housing needs of the under-$150,000-a-year crowd. That group, the group that doesn’t have the means to acquire a seat in the speculative housing game, has tried looking invisible while living under a bush, signing their kids up for school from their aunt’s or uncle’s residence, creating rooms out of attics, garages, and tool sheds out of sheer necessity in real density infill experiments sans permits. 

That group just got bigger. 

We don’t need to argue with the developers at the front of the room, who were somehow given the use of your local senior center or community space to convince you that without their project the sky, and the tax base, will fall. Turn around and look to the back of the room. Look straight at the politicians and planners who let the current fiasco unfold, so that we now have unaffordable, unsustainable communities from the coast to Yosemite sitting empty, families being evicted and foreclosed on, taxpayers bailing out bankers. 

The wealthy can plan and build their own homes without our redevelopment dollars and housing trust funds. The politicians, both locally and in Sacramento, can, if inspired by an informed electorate, use their connections to change the culture of housing only the wealthy and over-extended. The ratio governing the next housing proposal in your neighborhood shouldn’t be determined by the community’s “median income,” which is wildly inflated by the millionaires on the hill. It should be governed by the minimum wage. 

Carol Denney is a resident of Berkeley.

Having followed the planning process for the Water Emergency Transportation Authority’s (WETA) proposed Berkeley ferry project, most analyses to date appear to have focused on environmental and traffic issues. I would like to address what I perceive to be another important issue—the probability that the City of Berkeley will be expected to subsidize this expensive amenity. 

Berkeley residents should take the time to closely read the published WETA documents on their website—prior to the expected review of this project at a City Council meeting in early June. In particular, the WETA draft Transition Plan (WETA-TP) indicates the need for ongoing operational subsidization and financial responsibility of the cities involved: http:// www.watertransit.org/files/TransitionPlan/ DRAFT TP04029.pdf 

Unfortunately, WETA’s financial projections do not account for the recently proposed $20 million two-story, 650-car parking structure covering the entire His Lordship’s restaurant parking lot. 

In addition, there are other problems with the information contained within the WETA Transition Plan . Perhaps the most obvious is that Table 4.1 indicates “22 weekday ferry trips” with “5,930 weekday riders.” This table is confusing because it implies that each weekday ferry trip would handle 270 riders (far exceeding vessel capacity). John Sindzinski, WETA’s Manager of Planning & Development, has stated that the total projected ridership is approximately 1,700 riders each day, with a roundtrip representing two trips. He has also indicated that the projected 1,700 per day ridership level would not be reached until after 2020. It is critical that accurate and consistent figures be used for both economic and environmental impact planning, and that decision-makers and all communities be fully informed of the financial consequences if actual ridership does not meet projections.  

In the case of the Berkeley route, capital costs for the terminal are estimated to be $31 million, and the ferries are estimated to cost $9 million each. Thus, the service would have an initial capital cost of $49 million—rising to $69 million if the proposed garage is built. In the unlikely event that ridership actually equals capacity (1,700 riders/day, 5 days/week, 52 weeks/year) that projection would result in a total of 442,000 riders per year. At a modest discount rate of 3.5%, that represents an opportunity cost of capital of $2.61 million per year over 30 years, or the equivalent of $5.90/rider, without consideration for operating costs. If a garage is built, that opportunity cost rises to $8.30/rider, increasing further if more realistic ridership levels are used. In any case, consistent and unambiguous figures must be used, with all assumptions clearly noted and the potential impact of those corrections on the financial plan for this service revealed in advance of public decision-making. 

In addition, the WETA-TP indicates that the majority of public funds available for this project are “fixed, and do not escalate over time.” Thus, fare increases and/or project subsidization through tax increases are expected to offset the projected 2.5% annual operating cost inflation assumption, in spite of the fact that these sources are not currently the primary source of financial support for this project. 

The WETA-TP states that “options for cutting expenses or increasing revenues” will be required for this ferry service to remain budget neutral by 2013. The WETA-TP also states that “cities become a vital partner in future development around water transit services. City responsibilities could include: Support for use and passage of local sales tax measures, or other local funds to support ongoing operating expenses.” 

Taken together, the projected deficits, lack of inflation cost support, and expectation that local sales tax increases may be required all must be more clearly addressed prior to any decision by city governmental authorities. It would be a gross disservice to our community to impose this project on the city of Berkeley without clarifying the potential financial liabilities involved. 

In conclusion, it appears clear that the expected environmental and societal impacts of this program do not justify this use of increasingly scarce public resources, particularly when the entire projected WETA ferry ridership could easily be accommodated by adding the service of only one additional BART roundtrip per day and at lower cost per rider. 

David R. Fielder has been a Berkeley resident for 40 years.

Since January 21 the Obama team has been struggling—with mixed success—to stabilize the ship of state, to plug its leaks, to change its direction and set a new course. The ship our 44th president took command of cannot be righted easily or quickly; it is foundering due to two terms of venal management by its previous captain.  

I, and many who voted for Obama, applaud his efforts; we like him, we like his family, we believe he has a good heart. But while our affection is strong, doubts and suspicions creep in. Where, we wonder, is Obama actually taking us? 

During the campaign he told us he wanted to take the nation to a place where transparency of government replaces secrecy, a place where our damaged reputation abroad gets repaired, where legislative attention is directed away from the powerful and toward the powerless. By meeting and surmounting the many difficulties and obstacles encountered in that costly and elongated campaign, Obama erased our doubt that he could do the job. And he marked the route he followed with eloquent speeches. 

Fourteen months ago in “A More Perfect Union,” a nationally televised speech, Democratic presidential candidate Obama, in a brilliant rhetorical stroke, quieted a media-generated swirl of negativism focused on extracts from a sermon by his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  

Last November 4, as president-elect, Obama delivered a victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park that outlined his plans and aroused universal jubilation. 

Two and a half months later the whole world watched the inauguration ceremony and heard Obama pledge in the final words of his speech that together “we [will carry] forth that great gift of freedom and deliver … it safely to future generations.” 

Obama’s early executive actions demonstrate an overarching concern for inclusiveness; he invited dialogue with Ahmadinejad and shook hands with Hugo Chavez. 

All this leads me to conclude that Obama will do anything, however small—and cooperate with anyone—that he believes will take him closer to where he wants to go. But where is that?  

Bush appointee, Robert Gates, stays on as Defense Secretary. (Anyone who replaces Rumsfeld is bound to look good.) Formidable former rival Hillary Clinton takes over the Department of State. (By thus rewarding her failure, Obama imitates George W.) Rahm Emanuel, Timothy Geitner and Lawrence Summers, whose resumes are comparably impressive but similarly marred, are close enough to give advice in a whisper. (Tom Daschle was forced to withdraw.) Thus, at the top of the new administration, old battle-scarred politicos are in the majority. The change we were promised begins to looks more like a regression, a flashback to the future.  

I am delighted that the 44th president cannot only give a good speech but actually write books, good books. However, to do what needs doing will require much more than literary gifts.  

I am delighted to have a president who listens ardently, but I’m beginning to wonder what he’s hearing. 

Everyone, not just sitting presidents, prefers to focus on the future rather than the past, but justice requires that we not give in to our preferences. Torture is a crime and crimes have perpetrators who ought not be absolved en masse. And those who provided legal cover for torture and others at the top who signed off on it must not go scot-free.  

It’s hard to believe that our intellectually endowed president, who is dedicated to transparent government, would seek to block the release of photos of torture. How does publicizing snapshots of crimes increase their initial grievousness, and by what magic do horrible images make our world more dangerous?  

Constructing a U.S. Embassy in Baghdad larger than any in the world does not promote democracy any more than leaving fifty thousand troops in Iraq can be properly deemed a military withdrawal from that beknighted country. Nor does it foster Iraq’s sovereignty.  

If Obama actually believes, as he has said, that the problems in Afghanistan cannot be solved by military means, then why send more troops?  

Does setting up a military tribunal, albeit one a bit more responsive to the rights of prisoners than Bush W allowed, hasten or delay the closing of that extra-legal prison, that justice-mocking concentration camp at Guantanamo? 

These are just a few of the questions I have for Obama, and I admit that they are over-simplified and that my own answers are too categorical and self-righteous. But I can no more understand how Obama answers them than I could if he expressed himself in Swahili. To my mind, for instance, it is itself a new crime to compromise or hesitate to prosecute old crimes.  

No one should expect Obama to erase all the negative things Bush and Cheney did but he has the unique opportunity—and I think also the responsibility—to change the culture that produced them. He certainly can’t do that alone, and I very much doubt if he can do it surrounded as he is by a crowd of battle-weakened politicos.

Color-blindness. This term is often touted by those who claim that race, in our present day circumstance, is a somewhat over-used conceptor at least insignificant, in other words, that one will be measured by virtue of one’s work and character—not by one’s race. However, individuals who often ascribe to this philosophy—such as residents of North Berkeley, for instance—often live in areas where one would be hard pressed to find a black neighbor. Oh, I know a few middle-class blacks who actually live in North Berkeley, but they are the exception, trust me; they live in a city where recent census stats calculate the white population there to be 82 percent. So, my question is this: how can those who purportedly profess that race is insignificant also live in areas that statistically guarantee that racial complexity will be very low? If race was, as these individuals confess, truly insignificant, then it seems that they would likewise unassumingly or incidentally meander and drift into areas where racial diversity is proportionally higher. These enlightened individuals are, after all, “color-blind,” and they’re not attuned to artificial racial signifiers such as white, black, brown, red or yellow. Right? 

Wrong. 

The truth of the matter is still this: those areas with the best schools and safest neighborhoods have always been, and continue to be, heavily white. In fact, this statistical reality has intensified over the past 30 years—and right along with that our present-day “color-blind” philosophy, I might add. Perhaps what we are really saying is this: 

1. “Although I may happen to live in an area that, by design, demographically negates racial inclusiveness, it pains me no end to live among those for whom racial homogeneity is an imperative.”  

Or maybe that was badly put. Try this:  

2. “Although I may happen to live in an area that, by design, demographically negates racial inclusiveness, you’d be surprised to discover that MOST of us actually living here wholeheartedly subscribe to the philosophy of racial inclusiveness (as it surely can exist somewhere—just not here, where I myself consciously chose to live).”  

Wait a minute; that doesn’t sound impressive, nor is it any more laudable. How about this:  

3. “Although I may happen to live in an area that, by design, demographically negates racial inclusiveness, you’d be surprised to know that this area was once quite racially diverse. It’s just that now that it has become gentrified; all these ‘other kind’ of white folk are moving in.” 

Any way you slice it, and however much we try to rationalize it, race somehow gets tied into the formula. In some way, in some manner. Race, it seems, is after all significant and important—even when we philosophically profess otherwise—because it is categorically tied into our life choices—or lack thereof. Put it this way: if you can choose to live in a white area, then, yes, you are by design—whether you consciously recognize it or not—making a race-based decision because it is explicitly tied into the options available to you. We still live in a multiple-choice world but also in a world where the choices have become increasingly polarized. That is: you can choose (A) for white, or (B) for racially-inclusive, or (C) for none of the above. Since we don’t yet know what (C) is (that is, a possible racial utopia can perhaps exist somewhere—just not where I consciously choose to live), we opt for the remaining choices which can only exist in a world where race is, in fact, an institutionally operable factor. It can be no other way, even when we philosophically profess otherwise.  

Perhaps what we mean by “color-blindness” is not that at all, but actually “color-unperceptiveness.” We, therefore, are not actually blind to the fact that North Berkeley is statistically 82% white. Of course, most can likely see that much. And I’m sure most do. What I’m less sure of is whether most who live there perhaps don’t “perceive” it that way. Or, is their understanding of such a demographic reality perhaps obscured or obfuscated by the fact that a good majority of North Berkleyans are, in fact, socially or racially-conscious, or ecology-conscious, or gay-friendly, or civil rights activists with a long history of crucially important work. So while it might be that since the passage of Proposition 209 we’ve been legally “cleared” of having to perceive race, we are also certainly not legally blind to it either, as our race-loaded choices today clearly imply. And although some may perhaps claim they can see beyond the “superficial” race-based constructs of the past, it is really just racial “unperceptiveness”—a game we play with ourselves, a phantom arm of that same old racial construct we supposedly got rid of. And this new/improved paradigm is much more dangerous, I should add, since it deceptively pretends to not be there.  

And just exactly how does one battle or critically confront something that denies its own existence? Precisely my point.  

Arturo R. Núñez is a resident of Richmond.

Franz Fanon, the revolutionary Algerian psychiatrist, noted that when darker-skinned, oppressed and colonized peoples begin to talk among themselves and plan their liberation, the colonizers, and those who have cast their lot with them, become very anxious and are prone to all sorts of irrational responses. 

Maybe this has nothing to do with the fact that the furor surrounding Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s speech to the U.N. conference on racism precluded any discussion or even knowledge of what he actually said, or the fact that the boycott of the conference and walkout from his speech consisted almost entirely of white people, while the representatives of the vast majority of the world’s peoples remained, applauded heartily and signed the final document. 

Anyone interested in understanding today’s world should know this speech and the fact that it received wide support. We must ponder the fact that third world spokespersons, particularly those with darker skin, are so often portrayed as madmen, and their beliefs are dismissed before we even become aware of them. We might call this the Geronimo Syndrome. This UN conference challenges us to ask, who is out of step with the current of history? 

Following is a summary of President Ahmadinejad’s speech, with extended quotations where appropriate. One would get the impression, from our media, that President Ahmadinejad had jumped up out of turn, seized the microphone and delivered a diatribe. In fact he was invited by the organizers to present a major speech and this he did. 

He begins by observing that we are just now emerging from centuries of pain and suffering for much of humanity, a dark age in which scientists and thinkers were put to death, a time of enslavement, plundering, massacres, displacement of millions, colonial occupations and world wars. “Many years passed by before nations rose up and fought for their liberty and freedom, and they paid a high price.” They lost millions of lives to expel the occupiers and proclaim their independence. 

The world wars, imposed on the peoples by the “coercive powers” claimed a hundred million lives and left tremendous devastation. Rather than learning the proper lessons from these “horrors and crimes”,... “(t)he victorious powers called themselves the conquerors of the world while ignoring or treading upon the rights of other nations by the imposition of oppressive laws and international arrangements.” Today, “a number of powerful countries have been authorized to decide for other nations based on their own interests and at their own discretions. And they can easily ridicule and violate all laws and humanitarian values, as they have done so.” 

Ahmadinejad claims that these victorious powers used the suffering of the Jewish people as a pretext for establishing, by military force, and in pursuit of their own interests, an occupation by a European population of another people’s land, Palestine. European racism against Jews was now extended to a new racism: the oppression of Palestinians. At this point 22 delegates walked out, while far more applauded. 

He now turns his attention to the “root causes” of the wars in the Iraq and Afghanistan. He asks, why have over a million Iraqi people been killed by US aggression, millions more made homeless, with hundreds of billions of dollars in losses? Not to mention the hundreds of billions of dollars in costs to the people of the U.S. and its allies. The cause is found in the “desire of the owners of wealth and power to expand their sphere of influence,” to satisfy the “interests of the arms manufacturers” and to “control and plunder the energy resources of the Iraqi people.” 

The basic question with regard to Afghanistan is. by what authority did the U.S. undertake this invasion? “Did it represent the world? Have they been mandated by them? Have they been authorized on behalf of the people of the world to interfere in all parts of the globe .... Aren’t these measures a clear example of egocentrism, racism, discrimination, or infringement upon the dignity and independence of nations?” 

Turning to the “global economic crisis”, Ahmadinejad points his finger at the United States as bearing primary responsibility, for which everyone else is now suffering. It imposed on the world an inequitable financial order lacking international oversight and even hidden from its own people. “They introduce laws and regulations in defiance to all moral values only to protect the interests of the owners of wealth and power.... They further presented a definition of market economy and competition that denied many of the economic opportunities that could be available to other countries of the world. They even transferred their problems to others whilst the wave of crisis lashed back, plaguing their economies with thousands of billions of dollars in budget deficits. Today, they are injecting hundreds of billions of cash from the pockets of their own people into the failing banks, companies and financial institutions, making the situation more and more complicated for the economy and their people. They are simply thinking about maintaining power and wealth. They couldn’t care any less about the people of the world and even about their own people.” 

Turning to racism, Ahmadinejad places it in a broad context of human spiritual ignorance which accompanies the pursuit of wealth and power. “Racism is rooted in the lack of knowledge concerning the truth of human existence as the selected creature of God. It is also the product of humanity’s deviation from the true path of human life and the obligations of mankind in the world of creation. Failing to consciously worship God, not being able to think about the philosophy of life or the path to perfection that are the main ingredients of divine and humanitarian values, have restricted the horizon of the human outlook, making transient and limited interests a yardstick for one’s actions.” 

“The result has been an unbridled racism that is posing the most serious threat to international peace and has hindered building peaceful coexistence in the entire world.... It is therefore crucially important to trace the manifestations of racism in situations or in societies where ignorance or lack of knowledge prevails in the societies.” The key to the struggle against racism and for better world is the “increasing general awareness and understanding of the philosophy of human existence; (this) is the key to understanding the truth that humankind centers on the creation of the universe, and the key to a return to spiritual and moral values, and finally the inclination to worship God the Almighty. The international community must initiate collective moves to raise awareness in the afflicted societies where the ignorance of racism still prevails so as to bring to a halt the spread of these malicious manifestations.” 

In this context, Ahmadinejad refers to Zionism as a form of racism that serves “the political goals of some of the world powers and those who control huge economic resources and interests in the world.” 

The extreme inequity and oppression in Palestine is the prime example, according to Ahmadinejad, of the crucial need for a new, more equitable international order. “In defending human rights it is primarily important to defend the rights of all nations to participate equally in all important international decision making processes without the influence of certain world powers. And secondly it is necessary to restructure the existing international organizations and their respective arrangements. Therefore this conference is a testing ground and world public opinion today and tomorrow will judge our decisions and our actions.” 

“The world is going through radical fundamental changes.... The sounds of cracks in the pillars of world oppression can now be heard. Major political and economic structures are at the brink of collapse. Political and security crises are on the rise. The worsening crises in the world economy... amply demonstrate the rising tide of far reaching global changes. I have repeatedly emphasized the need to change the direction in which the world has been managed today, and I have warned of the dire consequences of any delay in this crucial responsibility.... 

“The inequitable and unjust management of the world is now at the end of the road.” It must be replaced by the “collective management of world affairs”, which “centers on human beings and the Almighty God”. The “making of a global society” requires “the establishment of a common global system that will be run with the participation of all nations of the world in all major and basic decision making processes.... Scientific and technical capacities as well as communication technologies have created a common and wider spread understanding of the world society and have provided the necessary ground for a common system. 

“Now it is incumbent upon all intellectuals, thinkers, and policy makers in the world to carry out their historical responsibility”... of creating a system that “perceives the truth of the world and humankind” and is designed “in accordance with human and divine values, justice, freedom, love (and) brotherhood.” 

Ahmadinejad closes by emphasizing two points. One, present challenges can be faced only through collective efforts, through “the cooperation of all countries in order to get the best out of existing capacities and resources in the world.” Two: international legal structures must be modified in light of “divine and humanitarian values and by referring to the true definition of human beings, and based upon justice and respect for the rights of all people in all parts of the world.” Immediate tasks are to “reform the structure of the Security Council, including the elimination of the discriminatory veto... and to change the current world and financial monetary systems. It is evident that lack of understanding of the urgency for change is equivalent to the much heavier costs of delay.” 

“Let us not forget the essence of love and affection, the promised bright future of human beings is a great asset that will serve our purpose in keeping us together to build a new world and to make the world a better place, full of love fraternity and blessings; a world devoid of poverty and hatred, (enjoying) the increasing blessings of God Almighty and the righteous management of the perfect human being. Let us all join hands in amity in playing our share in the fulfillment such a decent new world.” 

The world has changed drastically in the decades following Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth”. Humanity has become a unified family in ways we could barely imagine just a few decades ago. We face the challenge of sustainability and survival, which can only be met by the creation of a new, equitable world order. As we used to sing, “which side are you on?”

Swine Flu Fallout 

The recent scare has served to reveal one of medicine’s great scandals: the systematic plunder of nurses and doctors from the developing world by the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia.  

A study by the George Washington University School of Public Health found that 30 percent of the medical workers in Ghana, 41.4 percent in Haiti, and 27.5 percent in Sri Lanka leave their countries to practice in the First World. 

There are, for instance, more Malawi doctors practicing in England than there are in their native country. Some 13,000 doctors trained in sub-Saharan Africa are now practicing in the West. The result is that while Africa has 25 percent of the world’s disease burden, it has only 1.3 percent of its health workers. 

According the United Nations Migration and Millennium Development Goal, “Poor countries, many of them with the fewest healthcare workers, but the highest infectious disease burdens, are ‘subsidizing’ the healthcare systems of wealthier countries.” 

Ghana, for instance, spent $70 million training health workers who then moved to Britain. “In comparison, by recruiting Ghanaian doctors,” Dr. Edward Mills of the British Columbian Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver told Reuters, “The UK saved about 65 million pounds ($130 million) in training costs between 1998 and 2002.” 

A 2006 study by the Centre for Global Development found that 17,000 South African medical workers were employed abroad. Yet to deal with spread of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, South Africa should add at least 620,000 nurses. 

More than 20 million Africans are infected with HIV, and projections are that from 2006 to 2012 the number of patients per doctor will nearly triple, from 9,000 to 26,000. At the same time, recruitment will reduce the number of doctors from 21,000 to 10,000. 

The average U.S. doctor sees about 2,000 patients a year. 

“The massive outflow of nurses, midwives and doctors from poorer countries to wealthier countries is one of the most difficult challenges posed by international migration,” and the loss of these workers is producing a medical crisis “unprecedented in the modern world,” concludes the UN Population Fund Annual Report. 

For decades, Europe and the United States have used “fast track” immigration to recruit medical workers, luring them away with vastly better wages and working conditions. A surgical nurse in South Africa makes $13,000 a year. In Britain, the same nurse will earn $66,000 a year.  

While the drain on Africa, the Indian sub-continent, and the Caribbean is the greatest, New Zealand also loses 22.6 percent of their medical workers to emigration, and the Philippines 16.7 percent. 

“A lot of young Filipinos are going into nursing as preparation for leaving the country to search for a better life,” says Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, a Registered Nurse and member of the California Nurses Association. “As a result of the emigration, lots of [Philippine] hospitals—especially in rural areas—have been forced to close because of a shortage of both doctors and nurses.” 

Entry-level nurses in the Philippines earn $2000 a year, compared with $36,000 in the United States. 

In some areas, the critical shortage of nurses may mean there are medical clinics but no medical workers, which means there is no one to administer drugs.  

“It is immoral of the United States to ignore the impact of it [immigration of health care workers] on the countries which these nurses come from,” says Vicky Lovell of the Institute of Women’s Policy Research.  

Nursing has a direct impact on medical outcomes. The death rate among the general population during the 1918-19 pandemic was about 2.7 percent—quite high for flu—but far higher among those who received no nursing. 

In his book, The Great Influenza, author John Barry notes that in 1918-19 public health officials discovered that nurses were even more important than doctors. “Nursing could ease the strain on a patient, keep a patient hydrated, calm, provide the best nutrition, cool the intense fevers. Nursing could give the victim of the disease the best chance to survive.” 

But powerful forces are at work encouraging medical workers to immigrate. Health Maintenance Organizations find it is cheaper to recruit nurses from abroad than to improve working conditions and wages for their homegrown workforce. Government agencies—as the study of Ghana demonstrated—save tens of millions of dollars by poaching other country’s medial workers. 

Because of the immigration safety valve, medical authorities in the developed world don’t bother to train enough health workers. Britain trains only 70 percent of the doctors it needs, and the United States trains only 50 percent of the nurses it needs. 

“Immigration is not the only way we can get nurses,” argues Lovell. “Raising wages is easier and more effective.” 

A team of international disease experts, which included HIV/AIDS expert Mills, has demanded an end to the practice, going so far as to call it a “crime.” Writing in the British medical magazine The Lancet, the team is calling on developed countries to stop recruiting health workers, and compensate the countries they have plundered by offering training programs, health facilities, and medical schools. 

Britain’s National Health Service has agreed to stop recruiting South African doctors and nurses, although it will continue to lure away specialists like neurologists, audiologists and pathologists. However, private medical providers have not joined the Health Services self-imposed recruitment moratorium. 

“What we are saying,” Mills told Reuters, “is that if one of these countries that is being systematically poached were to pursue it as a crime, contributing to unrest…then they would have some leg to stand on.” 

Change of Heart?  

During the fall campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama opposed a free trade agreement with Colombia, because “labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis, and there have not been prosecutions.” 

But according to Teo Balive of Upside Down World, after Obama and right-wing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had a sit-down at the Summit of the Americas, Washington is suddenly talking about reviving the agreement. Afterwards, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told the press, “The president has asked our trade representative, Ambassador [Ron] Kirk, to work with the Colombians to work through our remaining concerns about violence against labor leaders in Colombia.” 

Balive says Uribe “showed Obama statistics that claim a drop in the murder of unions and an increase in the arrests of the perpetrators.” Only 3 percent of the cases have been solved. 

Colombia is the single most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist. Jose Luciano Sanin of the National Labor School told a recent U.S. Congressional hearing, “More than 60 percent of all the murdered unionists in the world are Colombians. The murder rate of unionists in Colombia is five times that of the rest of the world, including those countries with dictatorships that have banned union activity,” 

Since 1986, 2,711 unionists have been murdered, mostly by right-wing paramilitaries that worked closely with the military and had ties to the Uribe government, according to recent testimony in a U.S. court. 

Paramilitary leader and drug lord, Diego Murillo, who was sentenced to 31 years in prison on April 22, told a New York courtroom that he had contributed “large sums of money” to Uribe’s 2002 campaign for president.  

The Uribe campaign denied the charge, but it has stirred up a storm in Colombia. The charge “in a U.S. court is extremely serious, and cannot be ignored,” Gloria Florez, head of the indigenous organization, the Minga Association, told the Inter Press Service. “The Colombian state has the obligation to open an investigation into the declaration,” she said, “The justice system has to move on this issue.” 

While the number of murdered trade unionists dropped shortly after the paramilitaries were disbanded, those numbers are once again on the rise, jumping from 39 in 2007 to 49 last year. In April and May, five trade unionists were assassinated, bringing the total for 2009 to 17.  

It also appears that the Uribe administration is silencing some of the key perpetuators by extraditing them to the United States. 

Jose Ever Veloza Garcia, who went by the name “H.H.,” confessed to some 1,200 murders, “including the brutal murder of workers belonging to the region’s banana unions,” according to Balive. “During the time the unions were really strong and there were a lot of strikes,” Veloza admitted, “what we did, and it was our duty, was to force the workers to go back to work at the plantations…those who disobeyed and didn’t go to work, knew what they had coming.”  

Just as Veloza was starting to sing about his ties to the Uribe administration, including his links to the Colombian ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Uribe extradited him to the United States to face drug charges. 

The Colombian Supreme Court just ordered the arrest of Uribe supporter Senator Zulema Jattin for ties to militia leader Rodrigo Tovar. Tovar, along with 13 other death squad leaders, was extradited to the United States last year on drug charges.  

One hopes that the Obama administration’s “remaining concerns” are that Colombia is still a lethal place for trade unionists and that the Uribe government is up to its elbows in the blood of those 2,711 murdered activists.  

The battle over Bay Area Rapid Transit’s Oakland Airport Connector gives us a rare chance to look into the heart of our public transportation policies and priorities, so long as we are able to clear the inevitable political hyperbole out of the way. 

BART—if you missed the news—is proposing building a $550 million automated overhead transit line to connect its Coliseum Station with the Oakland Airport, making it possible for patrons to use BART to get directly to the airport without having to transfer down to surface street transportation. 

Is that a good project for BART to spend $550 million on? We’ll get to that question in a moment. But first, the hyperbole. 

In a BART PowerPoint presentation handout given out at the recent meeting where the BART Board of Directors gave the latest go-ahead to the project, the agency included a list of reasons why the airport connector would be a benefit (short trip time, extremely reliable, easily expandable) along with a satellite picture of the area surrounding the Coliseum Station and the Oakland Airport. Superimposed on the satellite picture were close-up photos of four developments within the area: the Lions Creek Crossing residential development (formerly Coliseum Gardens) at 66th and San Leandro Street and the Hegenberger Gateway Shopping Center, both already in existence, along with the proposed Coliseum Transit Village scheduled to go up just east of the Coliseum Station, as well as the proposed Coliseum Towne Center, a Hegenberger Road retail center scheduled to be put in just south of the Coliseum athletic complex. 

Although the BART handout gave no reason for picturing these four particular developments in its Airport Connector PowerPoint, they are there, presumably, because BART wants us to believe that the connector will provide some benefit to them. 

In his presentation to the meeting, Oakland City Councilmember Larry Reid—who represents Deep East Oakland and the Coliseum area—was more explicit while expressing his support for the connector. 

“We’ve been in discussions with the developer of building a 400-plus-room hotel on Hegenberger with a stop adjacent to that hotel, doubling the size of our present convention center that we have in downtown Oakland,” Mr. Reid said. “We are partnering with [BART] to build 400-plus units of housing on your parking lot to go right next to the Oakland Housing Authority development at Lyons Creek, which is almost completed.” Reid also mentioned housing developments currently under construction at the site of the former Tassafaronga Housing Project on 85th Avenue and another one on 98th Avenue and San Leandro Street, some 12 and 22 blocks from the Coliseum BART Station, respectively. “There’s a lot riding on this project,” the councilmember continued. “If you want to help us to change this city, and even more important, by changing this community, you can do so by doing what we promised the voters when we passed [transportation] Measure B, by building this airport connector.” 

Mr. Reid then called the airport connector “one of the most important projects in this city’s history and in this region.” 

Given that this is a city and region that built Lake Merritt, the regional park system, the Golden Gate and San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridges, BART, the Nimitz and the MacArthur freeways, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum complex, and the Oakland Airport—just for starters—it’s hard to see how a 3.2 mile elevated people-and-baggage mover between the BART station and the airport is something to really get excited about. But like most politicians, Mr. Reid is entitled to his rhetoric. 

But one struggles to understand exactly what benefits the airport connector would provide to the residential and commercial district surrounding the planned connector route, as Mr. Reid suggests. 

Currently BART does not have an intermediary stop penciled in between the Coliseum Station and the airport, though they have suggested that one could go in front of the proposed hotel and convention center, when and if it is built. 

Forgive us if we are skeptical, however. Oakland has a bit of a history of going ahead with major development projects on the hope that a hotel will follow. Some of us are old enough to remember—during the Jerry Brown administration—when Oakland tore down the successful Jack London Village commercial center because someone was going to put a four star—or was it five star?—hotel in its place. No hotel was ever built, a commercial district was lost that could have served the lofts then being built in the warehouse district, and the spot where the Jack London Village used to be remains a vacant lot. 

But a yet-to-be-planned intermediary stop for a yet-to-be-planned major Hegenberger Road hotel and convention center aside, how, exactly, would the proposed airport connector benefit the other housing and retail developments in Mr. Reid’s and BART’s presentations and representations? The Hegenberger Gateway Shopping Center is closer to the current Coliseum Station than they would be to the proposed Oakland Airport station of the airport connector, so it is inconceivable that the connector—which is projected to cost another $6 per ride for patrons above and beyond the original BART ticket—would somehow attract more customers to that location. The same is true for the residents of the various existing and proposed housing projects in the area. If they want to ride BART to anywhere but the airport, they can already board it at the nearby Coliseum Station. The airport connector provides residents surrounding the Coliseum Station with no service additional to what they already have. 

But this is the sort of bone that is usually thrown out to traditionally neglected communities when agencies and politicians want support for some project or other. It only seems attractive until you start searching for any stray scraps of actual meat. One simply wants to shout out that if you think the airport connector is important to build, guys, go ahead and build it, but don’t pretend it will do the neighborhood any good. 

This scrambling around to show that BART activity in the Coliseum Station area will somehow provide some benefit to the neighboring district picks at the old scab that BART was never designed to benefit the Elmhurst-Deep East Oakland area when it was originally built. The BART Coliseum stop was built at that location for one purpose—which you can guess at by the station name itself—to get riders to and from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex. Had the purpose been to benefit the surrounding community, the line would have been built—underground, one would hope—along International Boulevard (then E. 14th Street), which was both the area’s business thoroughfare and near the center line of the area’s population. While a BART stop at, say, Hegenberger and International might not have made the commercial core on that thoroughfare boom in the same way the Fruitvale District has boomed (Port Commissioner Margaret Gordon told the BART Board members last week that the overground BART lines along Seventh Street helped kill that area’s commercial district), but without the BART stop, the once-bustling upper end of International has withered into a jumble of liquor stores, nail shops, and auto repair shops, with prostitutes and drug dealers plying their trades in between. 

That returns us to the original question: is the airport connector a good project for BART to build? 

That’s a tough and complicated question. 

If we were starting from scratch, with $550 million to spend—free and clear—on any given BART-related transportation project in Oakland, the answer would probably be no. Eventually, we are going to benefit from seamless connections between BART and the other public transportation modes in the area—including AmTrak—but right now, I would not make that my top priority. There is already adequate public transportation between BART and the Oakland airport—via the AirBART shuttles—and there are more pressing needs. 

As dysfunctional as BART is as an inter-city (as opposed to between-city) transportation mode inside Oakland, it is the spine of our public transportation system. If I had $550 million free and clear to spend on public transportation, I’d use part of it to try to find ways to funnel passengers—via AC Transit—into BART. This would mean setting up AC Transit shuttles or, in some cases, rapid lines between the hill communities and commercial districts and BART. I’d also try to fund some form of AC Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), not along its current planned route of Telegraph Avenue, which seems too disruptive of that smaller artery, but along the much-larger San Pablo Avenue, where it makes more sense. I’d see BART and AC Transit as symbiotic systems, rather than competing entities, and would try to use the money to lay out a public transportation grid that would easily connect all of Oakland’s commercial areas to a rapid line, be it BART or the bus. That would not solve all of our public transportation problems, which are caused in part because we built the modern East Bay on an automobile model rather than a public transportation model, but it would be a step in the right direction. 

But, of course, we’re not starting from scratch with $550 million for East Bay transportation. 

While some of the money might be available to BART—or to AC Transit—with or without the airport connector, at least $70 million is tied to the federal recovery act, which is intended to put people to work immediately, and which, therefore, must be spent on labor-intensive projects that are ready to go. BART’s airport connector meets those criteria. 

That seems a crazy way to do business—spending money on a public project not because it’s the best project, but because it’s the project that happens to be standing at the head of the line, ready to go—and it’s one of the reasons why our conservative friends complain so much about Washington using its financial muscle to set local policy. 

If the proposed $550 million—or most of it—can be transferred to another, more logical, more functional local transportation project that can immediately put people back to work, then BART should reconsider the airport connector. If there’s no other way to spend the money in our area, then the connector ought to be built. It will have its functions, even if it’s not the most necessary project BART can work on. 

Meanwhile, we’ve got our own work set out for us, to re-orient our local transportation policies—including BART, AC Transit, and the cities they serve—into something that makes more sense for us and our future. If that’s what comes out of the airport connector fight, it will be a good outcome.

I saw my first winter wren in Tilden Park during the Ford administration, but I haven’t encountered many in the East Bay since then. The Contra Costa Breeding Bird Atlas (www.flyingemu.com/ccosta) shows them still nesting in the Berkeley and Oakland hills.  

In Europe, this species is simply called “the wren,” or the local equivalent. It’s the only wren in the Old World; the rest of the family is American, with its greatest diversity in the tropics. “Winter” probably comes from its status as a seasonal visitor in the South, as opposed to the year-round-resident Carolina wren and the summer-visiting house wren. That name may no longer apply to western populations, though: recent research strongly suggests that our birds are a distinct species, for which “Pacific wren” has been proposed. 

These birds are skulking mouselike creatures, only seen when they pop out of some dark root cavity and scold you for trespassing. They’re much more often heard. British Ornithologist S. Cramp wrote that the male sings “with remarkable vehemence … [as if] trying to burst [his] lungs.” Roger Tory Peterson heard it as “a high rapid tinkling warble.” David Sibley characterizes it as “a remarkable continuous series of very high, tinkling trills and thin buzzes.” 

The indefatigable songcatcher Donald Kroodsma, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, whose The Singing Life of Birds is probably the best popular introduction to the science of birdsong, was the first to notice that eastern winter wrens and western winter wrens had really different songs. He reported in 1980 that birds recorded near Corvallis, Ore. had much larger repertoires of song types. One of them performed 32 song types, which placed it “near the pinnacle of song complexity” among birds. New York wrens, on the other hand, had only two song types apiece.  

The Oregon wrens, in fact, seemed to have their species’ largest song vocabularies. French wrens were later found to have a range of four to seven song types. In 1989, Kroodsma and Hiroshi Momose of UC Davis recorded Japanese wrens with six to seven types. The similarity between Japanese, eastern North American, and European songs led the authors to speculate that eastern wrens had “colonized the Old World via the Bering Strait during one of the interglacial periods.” 

Kroodsma suspected the eastern and western winter wrens might be biologically distinct species, despite their near-identical appearance. He had noticed that their call notes were also different: sharp and higher-pitched in the West, rich and lower-pitched in the East. Western birds have more higher frequency notes in their songs and a more staccato delivery. You can hear the two types at www.zoology.ubc.ca/~irwin/wrens. 

“I’d love to know where eastern and western wrens meet…and what they think of each other there,” Kroodsma wrote in Singing Life. “Someday I will discover the limits of eastern and western wrens, somewhere in the Northwest, no doubt, unless some intrepid explorer rises to the challenge and beats me to it.” 

Those intrepid explorers were David Toews and Darren Irwin of the University of British Columbia, whose winter wren study was published last year in the journal Molecular Ecology. They located a population of western-type singers at Gavin Lake, BC and a population of eastern types at Lesser Slave Lake, Alberta, and worked back and forth between the two, looking for the contact zone. 

In the summer of 2005, Irwin, searching for wrens in BC’s Peace River Valley in the eastern Rockies, googled his way to maps created by the South Peace Bird Atlas Society that showed a high concentration of wrens around the town of Tumbler Ridge. Jackpot. Here he and Toews found eastern and western types singing on adjacent territories. Every wren they heard could be assigned to one of the two categories: there were no mixed song types. The biologists recorded the songs of eight westerners and four easterners, and took blood samples for genetic analysis. 

Irwin and Toews found striking genetic divergence between western and eastern types, and a perfect correspondence between singing type and genetic profile. No hybrids were identified in the contact zone, although one of the Gavin Lake birds had eastern-type genes. Genetically and behaviorally, the Tumbler Ridge wrens looked like separate species. Time to revise the field guides again. 

Based on a standard molecular clock, the two lineages split 4.3 million years ago—long before the Pleistocene glaciation began.  

So it’s unlikely that the ancestral eastern and western wrens were separated by ice, as other species pairs may have been. The whole speciation process may have been driven not by geographical isolation or ecological differences, but by western females’ preferences for more complex songs. Score one for sexual selection.

There was a time when the University of California’s summer school was an instrument of adult education, created primarily for the benefit of elementary and secondary school teachers. Such was the case in 1905, when the eminent Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) was invited to teach at the summer school, his trip financed by university regent and patron Phoebe Apperson Hearst. 

Boltzmann arrived in Berkeley on June 26, 1905 and was duly installed at Cloyne Court, along with several other visiting professors and Hammond Lamont, managing editor of the New York Evening Post. Although he was the most prominent of the summer school teachers that year, Boltzmann would not be remembered today in connection with Cloyne Court had he not written a memoir about his visit to California. 

In Reise eines deutschen Professors ins Eldorado, the Viennese scientist waxed eloquent about his West Coast experience: “One can be as happy as a king with a simple meal, but a journey to California is Veuve Clicquot champagne and oysters.” The culinary analogy was not misplaced since the physicist had made it clear from the outset that “far from being a negligible factor, eating and drinking is the central point. While traveling, it is most important to keep the body healthy in the face of manifold unaccustomed influences; above all the stomach, and especially the fastidious Viennese stomach.” 

After praising the Berkeley campus and some of its buildings, Boltzmann described his residence: 

More important for me was another building. A speculating innkeeper had read in an encyclopedia that Berkeley was an English bishop whose residence was called Cloyne Court. Consequently, he built a lodge for professors that he named Cloyne Court and where I, too, resided. On [incorporating] an element of exterior resemblance to an old English bishop’s residence he set no value. It was located on Euclid Avenue and had the form of a perfect parallelepiped without a trace of non-Euclidean structure. But inside, it was comfortable. I had a small bedroom, a somewhat larger study, and a bathroom, all with electric lighting. In the rooms, one could circulate warm water through thick pipes, achieving moderate warmth that was often welcome in July below the latitude of Palermo—so icy can the wind blow at times from the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, the Berkeley winter is only a little colder than its summer; it’s only abundant in rain, which is totally missing in summer. 

Prof. Boltzmann was taking quite a few liberties, some from ignorance, others because the raconteur’s wit may have triumphed over the scientist’s quest for accuracy. Was there ever a house called Cloyne Court in Cloyne, Ireland? Did it serve as the residence of the philosopher George Berkeley while he was bishop of Cloyne? Not to my knowledge. The hotel was called Cloyne Court in honor of the bishop whose name was bestowed on our university town in 1860. The naming of Cloyne Court was done by the University Land and Improvement Company, which built the hotel and whose stockholders included the regents of the university, professors and prominent citizens, most notable among them Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who underwrote Prof. Boltzmann’s visit. 

Nor did any innkeeper determine the appearance of the building. That was the charge of John Galen Howard, supervising architect of the campus and a shareholder in the University Land and Improvement Co. Far from imitating an 18th-century Irish bishop’s residence, Howard utilized the Arts and Crafts idiom, executed in brown shingle, as were most of the houses then being built on the Northside. This was the style advocated by the Hillside Club. 

As almost every Berkeleyan knows, Cloyne Court is located not on Euclid Avenue but at 2600 Ridge Road. Is its shape a perfect parallelepiped? In plan, it is a large, straight-lined C, incorporating a long main body flanked by two wings of half the length, set at 90-degree angles and enclosing a central courtyard. With the exception of its gabled roofs, all the building’s angles are straight. 

True to his fastidious Viennese stomach, the professor had something to say about the cuisine at Cloyne Court: “The food was good. At least, one could usually bolt down something from one of the main dishes. Printed menus there were none. Before every meal, the menu was recited by the mostly bespectacled waitresses, so that it sounded more like a monotonous song, performed by subdued voices.” 

Boltzmann didn’t elaborate on the nature of the dishes, but they may have been more to his liking than some he was offered at Mrs. Hearst’s 53-room estate near Livermore. Designed by A.C. Schweinfurth in 1894, it was known as Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, after the Italian well head imported from Verona and installed in the courtyard. The physicist had been invited to the Hacienda with the other summer school professors. At table—seated on the right of the “alma mater Berkeleyensis,” as he called his hostess—Boltzmann thanked away a dish of blackberries, then a slice of melon appetizingly salted by the very hand of the patroness. Next came oatmeal, “an indescribable paste, which in Vienna might be fed to geese; although I doubt it, since no Viennese goose would deign to eat it.” 

Refusing the oatmeal was not an option, since the Herr Professor had observed Mrs. Hearst’s rather merciless look when he turned down the melon. Averting his face, Boltzmann choked down the porridge and was thankful for surviving the experience intact. “This the unpleasant part of an invitation in America,” he noted in his memoir. “In restaurants, you can leave what you can’t eat; but what can one do in the face of a housewife who is proud of the goodness of American cooking, and especially of her own? Fortunately, later there were fowl, stewed fruit, and other things that helped mask the taste [of the oatmeal]. 

Of Mrs. Hearst’s taste in architecture, Prof. Boltzmann had a higher opinion. Her estate, he wrote, was “a jewel of the kind that luxury, wealth, and good taste can bring off only in such sumptuously endowed nature. At the station [especially built by Western Pacific Railroad to accommodate Mrs. Hearst’s numerous guests] we were met by carriages and soon drove through a fantastic and not unattractive entrance gate to a park of fabulous trees and beauteous flowers. Here, wealth translates into water, and where it is not stinted, a carpet of flowers blooms in summer as in winter.” 

Boltzmann described Mrs. Hearst’s house as a kind of fortress, built in Portuguese-Mexican style and consisting of a garland of buildings surrounding a courtyard enclosed behind heavy iron gates. “The interior of the Hacienda,” he wrote, “is a treasure chest full of superb works of art and rare objects assembled by the owner from all regions of the Old and New World; the most original mixture of Greek, Roman, Medieval, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian rarities.” 

The music room was about “as large as the Bösendorfer Saal,” a 150-seat concert hall in Vienna, and adorned with “fantastic baroque decorations. I knew of no small concert hall in Vienna that could match it in beauty,” wrote Boltzmann. He was asked to open the postprandial concert. “After some protests I sat down at the grand piano, a Steinway of the highest price range. Without any preconceived notions, I pressed the keys. My ears may have heard such a beautifully sounding piano in a concert, but never had my fingers touched one. If I had occasionally rued the strain of my California trip, from now on, never again.” 

Already en route from the train station to the Hacienda, the professor was given some information about its architect: 

My companion in the carriage explained to me that the owner had engaged a German architect named Schweinfurt [sic], who built this [estate] after studying all the old Spanish and Portuguese buildings in Mexico. I said: “He must have had good taste!”, to which my companion replied, “Yes, he died over it.” “How did this happen?” I asked. “He loved California wines too much, and drank heavily until he died.” These Californians have a dreadful notion about their wine, which is certainly very strong. In the end it wasn’t so bad. I will also die some day and then stop drinking, so I will also continue drinking until I die. 

Again one must parse the content of Boltzmann’s anecdotes. The Hearsts’ architect, Albert Cicero Schweinfurth (1863–1900), was born in New York. He died of typhoid fever after returning from two years of travel in France and Italy. It seems that nobody told Prof. Boltzmann that a famous house standing only a short block away from Cloyne Court had been designed by Schweinfurth. 

We may never find out whether Schweinfurth was a heavy wine drinker or not, but Boltzmann’s drinking habits are fully discussed in his memoir. The professor had never drunk water from an open bottle or one containing carbonated river water. He credited this habit with keeping his stomach healthy even when subjected to strange food. Since Berkeley was a temperate city by law, he tried the local water, with disastrous results that kept him up all night. 

Appealing to a colleague, Boltzmann was directed on the hush-hush to a wine store in Oakland, from where he managed to smuggle in a full battery of bottles. “The route to Oakland became very familiar to me from then on,” he wrote, “and my stomach, too, said Amen. […] Sadly, I was forced to drink my glass of wine secretly after meals, so that I myself almost got the feeling that I was indulging in a vice.” 

“Finally came the evening when I listened for the last time to the one-note song of the bespectacled waitresses. As I cut my last omelette, the colleague at my side surveyed the number of pieces with a hawk’s eye and said: ‘there’s still half a minute left for each piece.’ Then the railroad carried me away.” 

Returning home on board the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm II, Boltzmann drank not a drop of water but a great deal of Rüdesheimer Riesling. “This is so convenient on a ship,” he wrote, “if one totters a bit, everybody chalks it up to the ship’s movement.” He committed suicide the following year. 

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

Well, once again, that miraculous, once-size-fits-all, end-of-all-your-troubles, maintenance-free thing turns out to be none of the above. This time it’s Trex decking, but there are lots of product defects out there so I’m certainly not going to single out Trex for lambasting.  

Part of the problem is that we keep looking away from what works in search of something new. That’s neither surprising nor all that disreputable an endeavor, but it usually leads us down a bumpy road. 

The building scientist, Joe Lstiburek (the L, unlike Joe, is silent), travels the country teaching, among other things, that the process of slicing or grinding timber into smaller and smaller particles has only increased its propensity to feed and foster fungi. The story of building material experiments over the past 50 years has been one filled with mold-growing and decay-filled results. This started with plywood, which in retrospect, seems a pretty tough material compared with its younger cousins, but is, in fact, far more vulnerable as a siding than, say, the redwood plank siding that was commonly employed for many decades leading up to the 1960s, until it was largely replaced by a range of variously checkered alternatives. 

When approaching a plywood-sided building, I general prepare myself to find soft, damaged siding in a range of specific locations. These tend to be just above trims that hold water, at the edges of trims where moisture will cling, and at the edge of almost any exposed panel. While plywoods vary in constitution along with paint quality and other conditions, there is no doubt that the material is quicker to foster decay and rot away than solid wooden planks.  

Part of the reason for this is that wood, like our own bodies, is built to resist infection, which is, after all, what we’re talking about. Trees are built up in layers of new wood as one way of preventing infection. Invading organisms have to first break through hard continuous layers—first bark, a layer designed to fail without hurting the tree, and then through various continuous multi-layered sheets of cellulose tissue. Our own skin is, similarly, our first line of defense against infection. Break the skin and in go those nasty microbes (including fungi, that in some cases hurt us just like they hurt our green leafy brethren).  

As soon as we start taking those nice solid boards, with their layers of resistant tissue, and begin slicing, dicing and grinding them up, their sweet delectable sugars are revealed to the fungal masses and you can almost hear the maître d’ calling “table for four million on the veranda!” (And they’re not eating at the table; they’re eating the table itself.) 

The worst case of this syndrome is the class of materials we might call particleboards. These have almost no defense, although various versions can have mixed success depending upon the protection that can be provided by chemical treatment or by mixing with various polymers. The first versions of pressed wood siding contained only a small amount of glues or resins and quickly found themselves the subject of large class-action product defect lawsuits.  

The industry has done well in eliminating these, but new troubled materials continue to emerge every day. While I like to save my sagest advise for my punchlines, I would say that, as a rule, it pays never to buy the first version of anything but to wait at least a decade to see what has turned out to be trouble.  

Now, Trex has been around longer than that, but it does turn out that there were lawsuits regarding the material as early as five years ago (at least this is as early as I’ve been able to find). A range of blogs I was able to find, as well as the findings of several local inspectors who I’ve chatted with, tell the story of decay in this material despite the early claims that this material, unlike regular wood, would be resistant to decay. 

Since I haven’t yet described what Trex is, let me take a moment. Trex is a composite material made from wood fiber (ground wood or sawdust) and plastic (mostly polyethylene plastic grocery bags). A number of other competitors exist but Trex would appear to dominate the market. 

Now, in defense of the product, I would like to say that I love the idea that manufacturers are making a useful product, such as decking material, out of all those store bags that we shouldn’t be taking home in the first place (and to Ikea’s credit, they recently started charging a small fee for those huge bags, and I believe this is intended as an environmental action rather than a commercial move). They’re also using wood fiber taken off sawmill floors, as well as grinding up pallets and pretty much any small wood scrap that can meet their requirements regarding contamination and wood type. This is all very green. The material itself is not particularly recyclable except toward making more of the same thing, but still, it’s wonderful we’re not just cutting down more trees. If the material were foolproof (and nothing can stand the test of a truly skilled fool), I’d be all the more excited. But, apparently, it’s not.  

Trex isn’t the only material you’ll want to watch closely in the coming years. Other WPCs (wood-plastic composites) such as TimberTech (potentially facing litigation) have turned out to produce what many a blogger (or attorney) describe as a range of problems including mold spotting, splitting or deterioration. Not to provide undue defense to these products, I do want to say that common wood, whether redwood or treated wood products, can have some similar problems, but the big difference is that virtually all makers of WPCs describe their products as being free from the problems that real wood tends to manifest.  

Redwood decking, just to take the other side for the moment, can have a long service life if well selected (redwood grades vary enormously from the pithiest juvenile stock to tightly ringed, dense, clear material that can least half a century on sun exposed decks) but poorly built redwood decks utilizing poor grades of lumber and poor detailing may show failures within 10 years. Redwood is also a fairly green choice since it grows quickly. California produces more than we can use and is a significant export for us. If we farm it carefully and avoid clear-cutting, redwood is a very reasonable (and I would argue, beautiful) choice. A range of hardwoods, including ipe, is also available for decking and many of these can be sought through sustainable farms if one shops smartly. Hardwoods tend to have a very long service life and require almost no maintenance if well installed, but are pricey. Woods, in general have some native advantages over WPCs, including greater strength (the ability to span greater distances for a given dimension) as well as reduced fire risk (most WPCs burn faster and hotter than equivalent wood, though new fire-retardant ones are available). 

A wood-plastic composite may be the right choice for you and allotments of defective material might represent a relatively small percentage of the total output, but this technology is relatively new and I don’t believe we’ve had enough time to study the life-cycle of this material to say with certainty what you’ll be getting when you buy. Products produced by large companies tend to get marketed heavily with little thought for future redress and the United States provides relatively little protection for consumers beyond the ability to sue when things go wrong. So it’s up to each of us to look around and consider how much we know about the new product before we lay our money down. 

If you have Trex, you may want to review the class-action suits by Hagens, Berman, Sobel and Shapiro website (e-mail address: trex@hbsslawcom) and Marc B. Kramer, P.C. There may be others if you look around. Accurate or not, they’re worth a look. 

When I look at really old houses (well, West Coast old) I’m often amazed at how well they’ve fared. Lacking a range of modern whiz-bang technologies, the simple time-tested methods often prove awe-inspiring, and real wood is certainly at the center of this. When people talk about “good bones” in a house, they’re not talking about ossified calcium; they’re talking about wood. And while the future of wood may bring us many efficient marvels made of chips and sawdust, let’s not forget how well we were served by the simple genius of a board cut from tree. 

ASK MATT 

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

THURSDAY, MAY 21 

THEATER 

“Oedipus Tyrannos” by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule at 8 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., uptown Oakland, between Telegraph and Broadway. www.HumanistHall.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Freshly Cut” Works by Sandy Drobny and Daphne Ruff. Reception at 5 p.m. at Craft and Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Bldg., 1515 Clay St., Oakland. 622-8190. www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

“Urban Beast or Urbane Beauty: Planning the City Beautiful” An exhibit exploring the City Beautiful Movement as manifested in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through Sept. 15 at Environmental Design Library, Volkmann Reading Room, 210 Wurster Hall, UC campus. 642-4818. 

FILM 

Berkeley Filmmakers Screening Series “Children of the Amazon” which follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed fifteen years ago at 7 p.m. at Zaentz Media Center, 2600 Tenth St. Free, but reservations required. reservations@berkeleyfilmscreening.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Timothy Green and Joel Barraquiel Tan at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

“The Life and Art of Chiura Obata” with Kimi Kodani Hill, the granddaughter of Chiura Obata at 7 p.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton St., El Cerrito. friendselcerritolibrary. 

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“Memories and Dreams of the Twentieth Century” stories and songs performed by Michael D. Brown at noon at the Badè Museum, in the Hollbrook Building at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic. 848-0528. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Key Lime Pie and Gankmore at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $7. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

David Berkeley, Jeremy Dion at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Andy Mason, The Fancy Dan Band, Nomi and Hello, Harbinger at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Netta Brielle at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

FRIDAY, MAY 22 

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 

Central Works “Misanthrope” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through June 21. Tickets are $14-$25. 558-1381. centralworks.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 

Shotgun Players “Faust, Part 1” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. through June 28. Tickets are $18-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“id:ENTITY” Photographs by Linda Kramer, Lisa Levine, Peter Tonningsen, Jan Watten. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Autobody Fine Art, 1517 Park St., Alameda. Exhibition runs to June 28. 865-2608. 

“Triangles” Art by lesbian and bisexual artists. Reception at 7 p.m. at JanRae Community Art Gallery, Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 5741 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 601-4040, ext. 111. www.wcrc.org 

“What We Can Live With” The 39th Annual UCB Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition on display at Berkeley Art Museum through June 21. 642-0808.  

“What We Take for Granted” Photographs by John Wayrynen. Reception at 6 p.m. at MC Artworks, 10344 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 375-9235.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Catherine Mayo reads from “The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

“After the Odessey” Linda Connor discusses her photographs at 7:30 p.m. at JFK University Berkeley Campus, 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd flr. 647-2047. art@jfku.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ranferi Aguilar & Hacedores de Lluvia, music inspired by the Mayan culture at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568.  

Wilcox/Brown/Bowman Trio at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $12-$15. 845-5373.  

Skin & Bone, Bread & Roses benefit at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ.  

Montana Slim String Band, Chris Haugen’s Seahorse Rodeo and Tom Freund at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054.  

The Flux, The Big Nasty at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

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

Macabea, Brazilian ensemble, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, MAY 23 

CHILDREN  

Jacqueline Lynaugh as The Blue Fairy Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. 452-2259. 

EXHIBITIONS 

1st Annual Youth Arts Fair with displays of youth artwork, entertainment provided by local singers, dancers, musicians and poets, and information booths about youth-oriented organizations from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the Berkeley Youth Commission. 

“The African Presence in Mexico” Curator-led tour at 2 p.m., followed by scholar discussion at 3 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

THEATER 

Adelina Anthony “LA Sad Girl” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Round Belly Theatre Company “24 Hour Theatre” Plays are written, rehearsed and preformed within a 24 hour period. Writers will start writing plays at 8 p.m. Fri. Plays will be presented at 8 p.m. Sat. at the Subteranean Arthouse, 2170 Bancroft Way. Suggested donation $10. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Wanda McCaddon interviewed by Jane Schiffman at 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 3rd flr Community Room, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck. 981-6241. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Kairos Youth Choir “The Pirates of Penzance” with local singers, ages 7 through 14 at 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $12-$17. kairostickets@gmail.com 

Rhythm & Muse music and spoken word open mic featuring Susan Newman, poetry vocal improv, with Eliza Shefler, piano improv, at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. 644-6893. 

Anna de Leon & Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

West African Highlife Band at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. African dance lesson at 9 p.m. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054.  

Grant Milliken Sextet at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10. 845-5373.  

LT3: The Luke Thomas Trio at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

The Zydepunks, Culann’s Hounds at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082.  

Harley White Jr. Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Classics of Love, The New Trust, Dirty Filthy Mugs at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MAY 24 

CHILDREN 

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

THEATER 

Sia Amma “In Search of Clitoris” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$20. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Chamber Music Sundaes, featuring members of The San Francisco Symphony and friends at 3 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Tickets at the door are $20 to $25. 415-753-2792. www.chambermusicsundaes.org  

Adam Theis Group, honoring Miles Davis’ Birthday, at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Americana Unplugged: Pete Madson at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Flamenco Open Stage at 7:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Art Lande at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Soul Jazz Sundays with the Howard Wiley Organ Trio at 5 p.m. at The Aqua Lounge, 311 Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. 625-9601. 

MONDAY, MAY 25 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Subterranean Shakespeare Theater Company “Measure for Measure” Staged reading at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Cost is $8. 276-3871. 

TUESDAY, MAY 26 

EXHIBITIONS 

CCA Design for Disability: Alternative Ways of Making” Exhibition opens at NIAD, 551 23rd St. 620-0290. www.niadart.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Cedric Watson and Creole Bijou at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 

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 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Soldier Stories A benefit concert for veterans health care with Nell Robinson, Mayne Smith, Harry Yaglijian, Dave Gooing and others at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Hoedown Throwdown Square Dance with Evie Laden and the Brainstormers at 8 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Orquestra America at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Patrick Greene Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Euphonia at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

Celu and Friends at 7 p.m. at Chester's Bayview Cafe, 1508 B Walnut Square. 849-9995. 

THURSDAY, MAY 28 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Steven Nightingale at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Michelle Richmond and Meg Waite Clayton read at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Jeff Schonberg, photographer and author, on “Righteous Dopefiend” at 6 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Danny Caron Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ.  

JL Stiles, The Stone Foxes at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082.  

Speak the Music with Soulati and Infinite, Syzygy, Eachbox, Monkstilo, Karam and many others, at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Sacred Profanities at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

FRIDAY, MAY 29 

THEATER 

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

Central Works “Misanthrope” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through June 21. Tickets are $14-$25. 558-1381. centralworks.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 

Masquers Playhouse “Lady Windermere’s Fan” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, and runs through July 4. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Shotgun Players “Faust, Part 1” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. through June 28. Tickets are $18-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Winds Across the Bay “Impressionsism” by youth wind ensemble at 8 p.m. at The Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 800-838-3006. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Artists’ Vocal Ensemble “California Fusion” with guest artist Daniel Zinn, soprano saxophone, at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $10-$20. 848-5107. www.ave-music.org 

Tito La Rosa, Peruvian sound healer and musician at 8 p.m. at Unity Church of Berkeley, Ecumenical Center, 2401 Le Conte Ave. Tickets are $20-$25. 415-272-8517. www.ayniprojects.com/tickets 

The Invaders Trio, and Matt Small’s Chamber Ensemble, at 8 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 848-3227. www.hillsideclub.org 

Eclipse Dance Theater “Magdalene: Priestess or Prostitute?” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. 326-8471. www.eclipsedancetheater.org 

Jon Fromer & Francisco Herrera at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Stephanie Crawford at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Hayward State College Jazz Ensembles at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

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

Birdmonster, Winters Fall, The Mumlers at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

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

Christie Winn and The Lowdowns at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SATURDAY, MAY 30 

CHILDREN  

Owen Baker Flynn’s “Act in a Box” Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $7. 452-2259. www.fairyland.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Illuminated Corridor” public art, live music and film from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, 7th St. and Middle Harbor Rd., West Oakland. www.illuminatedcorridor.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble “Music from Around the World” with Triskela, Celtic harp trio, and Teed Rockwell at 2 p.m. at St. Mary Magdalene Church, 2005 Berryman St. Suggested $10-$15. 548-3326. multiculturalmusicfellowship.org  

San Francisco Girls Chorus “I Hear Sweet Music” at 2:30 p.m. at The Julia Morgan Theater, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$17. 800-838-3006. www.brownpapertickets.com 

Voci Women’s Vocal Ensemble “Mountains of Memory, Rivers of Time” at 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $17-$20. 531-8714. www.vocisings.com 

Musae “The Road Home” Women’s vocal ensemble with Bossa Five-O at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. TIckets are $15-$25. www.musae.org  

Ross Dance Company “To Evolve & Stay Young” contemporary jazz ensemble at 7:30 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. www.rossdance.com 

Eclipse Dance Theater “Magdalene: Priestess or Prostitute?” Sat. and Sun at 8 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph, Oakland. Tickets are $10-$20. 326-8471. www.eclipsedancetheater.org 

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

The New Monomono, Kotoja, CK Ladzekpo’s African Music and Dance Ensemble at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Wake the Dead at 3 p.m. at Wisteria Ways, Rockridge, Oakland. Outdoors, bring hat and something to sit on. Suggested donation $15-$20. Reservations recommended. info@WisteriaWays.org 

Ira Marlowe and Robert Temple at Sadie Dey’s Cafe, 4210 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5-$10. 601-7378. 

Rebecca Riots, Amanda West at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

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

GG Tenaka and the Attractors at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Riley Bandy Quartet at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

SUNDAY, MAY 31 

CHILDREN 

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

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Political Art & Activism A discussion with Lincoln Cushing, Ivan Rubio, Favianna Rodriguez and Susie Lundy at 4:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Reception 3:30. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Tom Standage reads from “An Edible History of Humanity” at 3 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

A Jazz Blast jazz concert performed by Charles Hamilton & Friends, as well as Paul “Hutch” Jones & Tenacity, at 1 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5, two youth, ages 5-17, admitted free with each paying adult. 981-6690. 

Oakland Civic Orchestra “Soundscapes” at 4 p.m. at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church, 1330 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. Free. 238-7275. 

Berkeley Akademie Ensemble with 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 

“Organ, Oratorio, Opera and Rag” The music of John Partridge, in a benefit for St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, at 4 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $15-$20. 525-0302. www.uucb.org 

Ross Dance Company “To Evolve & Stay Young” contemporary jazz ensemble at 2 p.m. at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St., Oakland. Tickets are $15-$20. www.rossdance.com 

Soli Deo Gloria and Orchestra Gloria “Bach à la carte” at 3:30 p.m. at Christ Episcopal, 1700 Santa Clara, Alameda. Tickets are $20-$25. www.sdgloria.org 

Kelly Takuna Orphan, farewell concert at 6 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St. at 27th. Cost is $25, no on e turned away. 444-8511, ext. 17. brownpapertickets.com 

Heather Klein’s Inextinguishable Trio at 8 p.m., Klezmer dance lesson at 7 p.m. at JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Cost is $10-$20, children $5. 848-0237. www.klezcalifornia.org 

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

Americana Unplugged: Devine’s Jug Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Albany High School Jazz Band, Rhythm Bound at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Benefits AHS music program. Cost is $10-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Middle School Jazz Band Invitational at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $5. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Graham Parker at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $24.50-$25.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Berkeley actor Julian Lopez-Morillas has played in or directed every one of the 38 plays that make up the Shakespeare canon. 

Speaking of this accomplishment, Lopez-Morillas is wry: “It’s interesting that some people make a fuss over it. It is a curiosity. [Actor and Oregon Shakespeare Festival dramaturg] Barry Kraft’s the only other one in my acquaintance who has done it. We had a competition over it for awhile; he got there first. I don’t expect people to jump up and down. There’s nothing stellar about it.”  

Lopez-Morillas passed the mark last June with his performance as Cardinal Woolsey in Henry VIII at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. “I started there in the summer of 1966—my first really professional theater. I went out to Colorado every summer thereafter for eight or nine years. Last year, the Denver theater critics voted me an award.” 

By 1984, Lopez-Morillas had “done all but three or four [of the canon.]. I thought, Why not go whole hog? By ‘88, I’d done Timon; there was only Henry VIII. It took 20 years to find a production.”  

Lest he seem to dismiss too easily any virtue in the doing of it, Lopez-Morillas said, “I do believe being in a production of a play gets you to know it, rather than just reading it. In the practical experience of staging his plays, you get an idea how Shakespeare works, how his plays function in performance, ultimately because that was what he was up to.” 

Lopez-Morillas was born in Providence, Rhode Island. His father was “a Spaniard, who came just before the Civil War in Spain, and founded the Department of Comparative Literature at Brown University.” Lopez-Morillas went to Swarthmore “as an undergrad, thinking I was going to be an archaeologist.” He started acting halfway through his sophmore year, switched to an English major from classics, and decided theater would be his career. From Swarthmore, where there was no theater major, he went to Yale, eventually receiving his MFA in directing at Carnegie Mellon in 1972.  

Lopez-Morillas then moved to the Bay Area. “I spent a whole spring in Sproul Plaza, with some of the best Frisbee players in the world. I lived in Berkeley briefly a couple of times, but mostly in San Francisco at first, then eight years in Oakland. All those years, I was commuting to Berkeley Shakespeare. Of course, gas was cheaper.” 

“I was always comfortable in Berkeley,” recalled Lopez-Morillas. “Moving here felt like coming home; for me politically, a natural home. I’m proud to say I come from Berkeley.”  

Lopez-Morillas spoke about his long association with the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival: “Without being associated with a Shakespeare festival long-term, I never would’ve picked up all those performances. A couple of the artistic directors knew I was interested in performing the whole canon. Dakin Mathews staged Two Noble Kinsmen. And Michael Addison also knew. I was associate artistic director for awhile. And I directed Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, King John, knocked off some of the more obscure ones.” 

Lopez-Morillas wasn’t with Berkeley Shakespeare from the beginning. “It started in Emeryville, then found its way to John Hinkel Park, a WPA project amphitheater from the 1930s—a wonderful space waiting for somebody to exploit it. Rob Sicular, Joy Carlin and Peter Fisher (now on the CalShakes advisory council), were involved. We did three or four shows a year. The space was unsecured at first; things were sketchy. The lights had to be put up and taken down with every performance!” 

“It really thrived in the ’80s,” Lopez-Morillas recalled of the festival. “Then came increasing tension with the neighbors. A faction of the City Council made it hard to renew the lease each summer. By the late ’80s, we were looking to move. We first looked at an area up near the golf course at Tilden. It was chilly and foggy uo there. But Orinda’s more exposed. The wind just howls out there. And there were both cows and coyotes on the hillside. I did King Lear out there, and if I came out as Lear and cried “Howl, howl, howl!”—I didn’t know whether I’d be met by yips or moos. I guess the yips were better; they sounded wild.” 

Berkeley Shakespeare Festival became California Shakespeare Theatre. Lopez-Morillas will play The Prince in Romeo and Juliet, directed by CalShakes artistic director Jonathan Moscone, opening at Bruns Amphitheatre May 30. It will be the Berkeley Shakespeare veteran’s first role there since 2000, which was also Moscone’s inaugural season.  

“In the meantime, I’ve directed at San Jose State, Solano College—although not that much directing over the past decade; I’d like to get back to it—and acting at Marin Shakespeare and San Francisco Shakespeare, where I played Gloucester in Lear and Prospero in The Tempest. If there’s a role in Shakespeare I really feel proprietary towards, it’s Prospero. I feel I bring something personal, something special to it.” 

Reflecting on working at CalShakes after such a hiatus, Lopez-Morillas said, “Jonathan’s established not exactly a company so much as a stable of some of the best classically trained actors in the Bay Area. I love being back in that group again—veteran actors with great chops I’ve worked frequently with over the past 20 years—and all in one place. It guarantees high-quality work. We’re all very comfortable together.” 

Julian Lopez-Morillas blogs about his theater experiences on PlayShakespeare.com, a website created by actor and creative designer Ron Severdia. One piece of correspondence he passed along: “from Robert Hurwitt, theater critic for the Chronicle. ‘Wouldn’t it be funny,’ Rob wrote, ‘if newspapers, which have predicted the death of theater for so long, went first?’” 

During June, 1980, I was attending shows put on by Jean-Louis Barrault (best-known as Baptiste the pantomime in the movie Children of Paradise) at Zellerbach Auditorium. One night, performing “Language of the Body,” his “essay” on mime, Barrault showed us his piece-de-resistance from an adaptation of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying: a man taming, mounting and riding off on a bucking horse. Barrault played both man and horse (“this Centaur-horse”) I read later that night in the drama section at Moe’s, in Artaud’s Theater and Its Double almost 50 years before. Artaud, who had assisted his friend Barrault, wrote of the imagery and physical dynamism that made the piece a modern classic—and how its virtues limited it from touching deeper concerns—“But who has tasted the wellsprings?” 

At the end of the show, my old friend Barbara Framm looked back over the hall and said, “There’s Helen!” Helen Morgenrath, who Barbara knew through study of South Indian classical dance, had been one of the first American students of Kathakali dance theater in the late 1940s. 

Helen introduced us to several young women and “our teacher,” Yuriko Doi, who about a year before had founded Theatre of Yugen, to practice and perform the rigorous physical stylizations of Noh and Kyogen (classic comedy, often played between Noh tragedies). 

Yugen is now celebrating its 30th anniversary, along with other troupes promoting classic Asian forms: Gamelan Sekar Jaya, K. P. and Katherine Kunhiraman’s Kalanjali Dances of India, Barbara Framm’s teachers (both companies based in Berkeley) and Larry Reed’s ShadowLight Productions. These three came out of the Center for World Music, at San Francisco State in 1979, when Yuriko Doi was teaching Noh and Kyogen on campus. (The center would, at one point, move to Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley.) 

After seeing a lecture-demo, which included the Kyogen comedy Melon Thief, I was intrigued; a few weeks later, Yuriko’s teachers, the Nomura family, performed here in memory of their father Manzo, a vituoso who was the first to perform classic Kyogen outside Japan. I was overwhelmed. Shiro Nomura, Yuriko’s Noh teacher (unusual for the scion of an old Kyogen family to become a distinguished Noh actor), performed Uto-Noh, “Birdcatcher in Hell,” with a spareness of expressive means becoming the coefficient for communicating startling, intuitive truths. A poetic theater indeed, articulating movement and stillness, sound and silence into both image and what hasn’t achieved form—or has lost it. A theater that had tasted the wellsprings. 

I was along for the ride, stage and house-managing at Live Oak Theater during runs of Kyogen comedies in English: servants tricking masters, husbands outfoxed by wives ... stories like those in The Canterbury Tales or The Decameron. Later at Live Oak, Yugen would put on a Noh-style Purgatory by W. B. Yeats, himself influenced by Ezra Pound’s Noh translations, with me in the chorus, next to Bob Graham, our production manager, old OSS man and broadcaster, who had learned stage photography from Moholy-Nagy at the Chicago Bauhaus. “My American father,” Yuriko called him. 

I helped adapt Antigone, with inspiration from Cocteau; shanghaied a few Berkeley people into service, including Stephanie Caulkins, then managing the bookstore at UC Art Museum, into the chorus for Antigone, and Peter Whigham—poet, translator and protege of Exra Pound—who translated Sotoba Komachi for a co-production with the Noh Oratorio Society, an outfit which KPFA listeners will remember. (Whigham’s translation was published in their magazine, Noh Quarter.) 

Yuriko adapted Waiting for Godot with Kyogen stylization, and through my old friend Marc Dachy in Paris, we heard that Samuel Beckett was curious—and enthused—about the idea. Yuriko’s teachers came to train the company and perform, notably when Shiro Nomura played demon and dancing girl in Dojoji, and Mansaku Nomura essayed a befuddled Mountain Priest, beset by fungus, in Mushrooms, supported by the company, Richard Benesevich in particular—and when Mansaku danced the invocatory Sanbaso to open a spectacular Takigi-noh (torchlight) performance by a Kita Noh School troupe at the UC Greek Theatre, the lights shimmering around the Bay below. 

These are almost random memories, barely scratching the surface of 30 years’ activity. There was a Flamenco-Kabuki fusion piece, based on Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding; modern Japanese plays performed with ancient stylization; Moon of the Scarlet Plums, about Crazy Horse, with Native American choreographer and Noh actor, performed at the World Expo near Nagoya—and artistic associate Erik Ehn’s Cycle Plays, five contemporary pieces in Noh cycle form, performed together only on 07-07-07.  

Much of the history’s in Theatre of Yugen, Twenty-Five Years: A Retrospective, which Erik edited. (When asked to write an introduction, I was pleased—until I realized it made me The Old Man!) 

Many performers and other theater artists have worked innovatively with Yugen over 30 years—many Asian-American actors getting a taste of classical training, for instance, or the constant presence of women onstage in a traditionally all-male form—and now a new generation’s putting on a Kyogen version of Candide (itself 250 years old this year) as celebration. The eternal optimist (played by Sheila Berotti) travels the world, in 700 year-old Japanese classic style, with co-artistic director Lluis Valls as his pessimist companion Martin. Julie Brown is the Fair Onna, and “old-timer” Ellen Brooks, ebullient Dr. Pangloss. Yuriko Doi, now director emerita, stops the show as the wily Old Woman. “The best of all possible worlds ...” Co-artistic director Jubilith Moore, who adapted and directed (with Kyogen mentor Yukio Ishida), said of both Candide and Kyogen, “It’s satire with a warm feeling, a wry smile, not a belly-laugh—a smile in recognition of human foibles.” 

But, after all that, just what does Yugen mean? An aesthetic term, long associated with Noh, sometimes translated “mysterious elegance” ... I once heard Yuriko answer that question with an image: still, snowy field in bright sunlight; a single snowflake falls, flashing against that whiteness—that’s Yugen. 

CANDIDE 

8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday at Noh Space, 2840 Mariposa, San Francisco (Project Artaud). $15-25. (Thursday, pay what you can; Saturday, post-show 30th-year gala at extra cost.) (415) 621-7978. www.theareofyugen.org.

I’m keepin’ a little notebook of the quant phrases I’m pickin’ up around here,” says Blanche DuBois, an unexpected guest (in the grander sense of the word) in her sister and brother-in-law’s squalid little French Quarter “rooms.” 

“You ain’t picked up nothin’ here I never heard before, “ shoots back her hostile brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. 

Battle lines are clearly drawn from the mo-ment Blanche steps off the eponymous Streetcar Named Desire and into the Kowalski menage. But there’s a war going on, bigger than the battle, even if it spells Blanche’s Waterloo—the war between Blanche and Reality. “I want magic. That’s what I give to people. I do misrepresent things ... I tell what ought to be true.” 

Gambler, salesman, “man’s man,” proud second-generation American—and a hustler in more ways than one—Stanley has his little reality divvied up carefully, knowing what’s his—and what he wants and hopes to get. A grandstander, part of his pose is denying he has one. He resents Blanche’s intrusion, being upstaged in his virility by a doubly feminine presence, a kind of female impersonator who’s still a woman when all the get-up, feathers and perfume are stripped away. (Some of Blanche’s lines—and she speaks in lines, even in stage directions—sound curiously like a passive-aggressive Mae West.)  

Wary of her influence over her sister, his adoring wife, he invokes the Napoleonic Code, or is reduced to bellowing like a child, screaming for his mother—the famous “Stella! STELLA!” scene. 

And finally Stanley crows that he’s “got the dope on Blanche.” While Stella’s away giving birth, the war of words—of euphemisms, one-upsmanship, thinly veiled insults and threats—turns deadly, though it seems no aggression can root out Blanche’s reverie, serving as another cue like that “something stuck in your head.” 

Reflections on Tennessee Williams’ post-war classic, occasioned by the splendid production onstage right now at Altarena Playhouse. And these thoughts barely graze the surface. Against the brassy, puffed-up zeppelin of a show usually offered audiences going to see Streetcar (and yet the deliberately stagey, campy element of travesty is inevitably suppressed or ignored in the most overblown versions), SueTrigg has directed her ensemble with sensitivity, yet a kind of dispassion, too, so the audience can watch the intricate intermeshing of the roles, the running down of this overwound clockwork of plot and story, not hyperfocussing on any great part or moment, but allowing characterization and the very words of the text to spin out into abandon or vagueness, or blow up in everybody’s face. 

Trigg has found her Blanche in Gigi Benson, who ably reveals that prismatic yet somehow “empty soul,” as the scrap of a lost ancient tragedy refers to its heroine. Eric Herzog as Stanley has the appropriate brash relentlessness, the sense of self-regard, to match her as her conferred “executioner.” 

(The dynamics of this production work subtly, by accretion, avoiding the pitch and yaw of exaggeration of situations and lines full of exaggeration; the famous rape scene becomes terrible for the signs of violence—Stanley waving his red pajamas like a flag, like a cape, crowing over the birth of his child, later appearing suddenly in a flash of red, stalking out of the bathroom that’s been Blanche’s refuge.) 

Played in the round—normally a tough call, but here a perfect terrarium for these specimens—there’s a nice, spare touch in the simple tech effects of light and dark (by Cameron and Chris Swartzell) during Blanche’s Strindbergian monologues and a few, brief sound effects or catches of a tune. 

Veronica Mannion handily gets across Stella as healthy, normal, yet girlish, a little obtuse—the All-American Girl of Life magazine ads, Southern edition. Charles Evans captures Mitch’s plight nicely: the middle-aging mama’s boy on the verge of losing mama, easy mark for both Blanche’s mesmerism and Stanley’s brutal debunking—and hurt by, resentful of both. 

There’s some fine background—or backstairs—comedy by Karol Luque and Raymond Mark as Eunice and Steve, constantly squabbling and making up. Altarena managing director Daniel Zilber dons a Viennese beard for a turn as the asylum Doctor. Elaine Pintoe provides support in several small roles that round out a scene or two, and as the latina Flower Seller, a chiming syncopation to Blanche’s extravagance with the simple, repeated utterance, “Flores ... flores ...” And Tony Rocha as Pablo makes it an all-male foursome for poker; the real hands have been played out, though the bluffing goes on, as it’s declared, “This game is five-card stud.” 

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE 

8 p.m., Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m., Sunday through June 7 at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St. Alameda. Tickets: $17-20. 523-1553; www.altarena.org

I’ve been on the road, and so have a lot of you and here’s the road,” begins Jack Kerouac’s introduction to the 83 photographs in Robert Frank’s 1958 book The Americans. Frank commissioned Kerouac to write this introduction, and it still provides an insightful point of entry to this major work of American photography. 

Organized by the National Gallery of Art, this exhibit of the original photographs from this book is on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through Aug. 23. 

Of course, one has to be careful when invoking the name of Kerouac. The cultural detritus of the beat movement attaches to it like barnacles. To call these photographs “cool” or “hip” or to see them as critiques of the Eisenhower era has a certain small-minded accuracy, but misses the larger purpose of Frank’s work. 

Frank wasn’t some James Dean-like figure, clad in Ray Bans as he criscrossed 1950s America with a used Ford and a Leica camera. Not at all. Frank was a Swiss immigrant, a child of prosperity who sought escape from convention. As Frank himself put it, “The Americans is the voyage of a European in a country that he crosses for the first time. You are on beach, you dive into the wave.” 

Kerouac’s road in these photographs is more than just a metaphor; it’s the path of the pilgrim, where people die and mourners pass by to take a peek at the “holy face to see what death is like.” 

These are photographs about the deepest mysteries of life, about the forces that drive through the settings and the costumes and the masks of our individual lives. 

One of the most resonant images in the show is that of a Jehovah’s Witness clutching his copy of Awake! Magazine, his eyes haunted, perhaps from being too awake as he witnesses how the divine moves among the human. 

These photographs are in the great transcendental tradition of Emerson. Frank’s work echoes Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road,” where we walk amid the “unseen.” The Americans is Frank’s attempt to give us glimpses of those unseen elements and the marvels hidden in the clothes of the everyday. For Frank, America becomes a kind of allegory. 

A photograph about Los Angeles reminds us that this is no ordinary city. This is, after all, the City of Angels, and we see a statue of St. Francis holding the cross in benediction over a Standard station that sells Atlas tires, and soon the meaning of the commercial and the Christian are tied up with Greek mythology, and the photograph becomes witty and ironic and spiritual all at once, its meanings shifting back and forth like the grainy shadows in much of Frank’s work.  

Some of these pictures are political, certainly. The book has four sections, and each begins with a photograph built around a flag, but these flags accrue rich and sometimes humorous meanings as the book goes along. 

The Americans has had a profound influence on art photographers like Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander, but the book, with its graininess and movement and unlit spaces, also influenced the most common images of American culture. In television shows, in ads, in movies, in virtually all the corners of our visual culture, we can still see echoes of Frank’s work, and I think it’s illuminating to see the source of this impact, a source which, even after 50 years, seems as fresh as it must have when Frank watched these pictures emerge in his darkroom.  

What a thrill to consider the reverberating meanings of a blanket-covered car-crash victim placed beside the photograph of a cloth-covered car, which glows like a talisman. How resonant the image of the African-American woman sitting outside, below a hill with a telephone pole that has a spooky resemblance to a cross. 

It is interesting that Frank, in later years, has been drawn more and more to filmmaking, for the photographs in The Americans are hardly still. Frank is a master at catching things on the fly, and the whole series, especially when seen on a museum wall rather than in a book, seems to be a series of frames from a movie.  

Compare this esthetic to, for instance, that of Ansel Adams, who wrote about his famous shot of the moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico that he was looking for a subject that would, in his word, “bend” to his visualization. 

In other words, Adams, like probably most of his contemporaries, went to the scene with an idea already in his head with the hope that reality would show him what he saw. Frank, on the other hand, bent his seeing to the shape of what he found.  

This is a well-organized show that gives us just enough of Frank’s influences (Walker Evans, Bill Brandt, and others) to see how much what he once called his “European Eyes” learned from others.  

The show also sketches out a bit of Frank’s art after The Americans and ends with a short film that has, interestingly enough, both footage of photographs and images of the photographer himself, who appears, at first, to be videoing us. “I am always looking outside,” the subtitles of the video explains, “trying to look inside, trying to say something that is true. But maybe nothing is really true. Except what’s out there. And what’s out there is constantly changing.” 

Slowly we realize that he is not filming us. No, we are seeing his reflection in a window. The film of us is really a film of Frank, and so our insight goes back and forth, in this lively sutra of meaning, as one of the great artists of the 20th century shows us what our lives are really like.  

LOOKING IN: ROBERT FRANK’S ‘THE AMERICANS’ 

Through Aug. 23 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St., San Francisco. Open every day but Wednesday. 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Open Thursdays until 9:30 p.m. Summer hours begin Memorial Day: Open at 10 a.m. $12.50 for adults. Members free. Discounts for seniors, students, and children. www.sfmoma.org. 

Robin Blaser—poet, teacher, editor, librarian—died May 7 in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

With Oakland native Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer, Blaser started the gatherings, readings and discussions in the late 1940s called the Berkeley Renaissance. Later, all three would become an integral part of the poetry scene in San Francisco during the ’50s and early ’60s, having developed the form Spicer dubbed the Serial Poem, an “unmapped-out” sequence of lyric poems, becoming a kind of narrative when read together. Their work appeared in Donald Allen’s special issue of Evergreen Magazine on San Francisco poetry and in Allen’s anthology, The New American Poetry (Grove Press).  

In a memorial poem for Duncan, Blaser recollected his early days in Berkeley, the friendships and poetry that began there as part of an ongoing process:  

“[F]or the soul is a thing among many/ Berkeley shimmers and shakes/ in my mind most lost the absence preceded the place/ and the friendships ... as your faces/ move beyond me ... the language/ now become larger, sharper, more a gathering than the lingo/ wherein Berkeley began the movement” 

Other Berkeley occupations and encounters he enumerated in “Robin Blaser: Curriculum Vitae” as “Soda Jerk (nineteen)—everyone knows a beginner by his/her eagerness ... when they wouldn’t pay for my concoctions, I quit.” And “Library Page (twenty-five)—in the Berkeley Library, where I first met Hannah Arendt while trying to help her through a turnstile, the turning tubes of which she hadn’t seen before—thin, wondrous scholar/philosopher, who would seem to be one of my muses, wound up sitting on top of it, one of its spokes between her legs.” 

Blaser was born May 18, 1925, in Denver. Raised Catholic in Blaser, Idaho, a railroad whistlestop, his grandmother had been secretary to Brigham Young. He came as a student to UC Berkeley in 1944, studying with teachers such as medievalist Ernst Kantorowicz and poet Josephine Miles. 

Blaser, who worked at Harvard’s Widener Library and was involved in the development of the Poetry Center at San Francisco State, moved to Vancouver in 1966, teaching at Simon Fraser University until the mid-1980s. His 70th birthday was celebrated by a conference in Vancouver, his 75th and 80th by readings there and for the Poetry Center in San Francisco. He last appeared in Berkeley in 2008.  

Blaser edited Richard Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar and The Collected Books of Jack Spicer, issued by Black Sparrow almost 10 years to the day after Spicer’s death in August 1965. His efforts to win recognition for his old friend were furthered by the Wesleyan University Press publication of My Vocabulary Did This To Me [Spicer’s last words to Blaser], collected poems, edited by Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian, late last year. 

Blaser’s own work, erudite, conversational and witty, is collected in The Holy Forest (poetry), including translations of Pindar and Nerval, and The Fire (prose), including his essay on Spicer, “The Practice of Outside.” (Both volumes, UC Press, 2006.) A great performer of his own poems, readings by Blaser can be found online at PennSound and other sites, and at the Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. He also wrote the libretto for The Last Supper, an opera by Harrison Birtwhistle. 

Blaser wrote in 1994: “If I had been able to see through and beyond the large arena writing throws me into, I might well have preferred to be safer. But I learned as a young man reading Melville that to say ‘I would prefer not to’ would not bring me into a safer place, though it would be an honest admission of my destiny.” 

He is survived by David Farwell, his companion of over 30 years, and many friends, former students and fellow poets; among the most widely known, Michael Ondaatje.  

The Howard Wiley Organ Trio will perform “jazz from the ’60s and beyond, that simply sounds good” every Sunday in Oakland starting this week. Howard, on “tenor saxophone and jokes,” will be joined by fellow Berkeley High Jazz Band alumnus Mike Aaberg on organ and keyboards, and excellent bop drummer Sly Randolph. 5 p. m. every Sunday, at the Aqua Lounge (above Clancy’s Cantina), 311 Broadway (near Jack London Square). $5 donation requested, or free with dinner. 625-9601.

Chora Nova, conducted by Paul Flight, presents “Triumph of Love,” with chorus and two soloists (Rita Lily, soprano; Mark Mowry, tenor). It’s Carl Orff’s “lusty musical play Catulli Carmina (Poems of Catullus) under a different name, the lesser-known middle section of “Trionfi,” of which Carmina Burana is the best-known part, with Brahm’s “Liebeslieder Waltzes.” 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 24 at First Congregational Church. 2345 Channing Way. $10-20. (925) 768-5558 (Rick Stober). www.choranova.org.

Berkeley composers Sheli Nan and Jean Ahn (featured in Berkeley Symphony’s “Under Construction” last year) join a slew of other Bay Area composers and singers with operatic pieces presented by San Francisco Cabaret Opera for their “Fresh Voices IX Festival: Three Evenings and One Afternoon in Hell: Or Is it Heaven?” 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, May 24 at Community Music Center, 544 Capp St. in San Francisco’s Mission District. $10-25. (415) 289-6877. www.goathall.org.

East Oakland native Don Reed’s one man show, East 14th Street: True Tales of a Reluctant Player, was hailed off-Broadway (and by the NAACP). Reed plays all the parts, including his pimp father who pushed his son onto the straight-A, church-going, college grad path. Reed guest-starred on The Cosby Show and A Different World at Bill’s behest. 8 p.m. Fridays; 8:30 Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays at The Marsh, Valencia (near 22nd) in San Francisco $20-3- (sliding scale). (415) 826-5750; www.themarsh.org.

There was a time when the University of California’s summer school was an instrument of adult education, created primarily for the benefit of elementary and secondary school teachers. Such was the case in 1905, when the eminent Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) was invited to teach at the summer school, his trip financed by university regent and patron Phoebe Apperson Hearst. 

Boltzmann arrived in Berkeley on June 26, 1905 and was duly installed at Cloyne Court, along with several other visiting professors and Hammond Lamont, managing editor of the New York Evening Post. Although he was the most prominent of the summer school teachers that year, Boltzmann would not be remembered today in connection with Cloyne Court had he not written a memoir about his visit to California. 

In Reise eines deutschen Professors ins Eldorado, the Viennese scientist waxed eloquent about his West Coast experience: “One can be as happy as a king with a simple meal, but a journey to California is Veuve Clicquot champagne and oysters.” The culinary analogy was not misplaced since the physicist had made it clear from the outset that “far from being a negligible factor, eating and drinking is the central point. While traveling, it is most important to keep the body healthy in the face of manifold unaccustomed influences; above all the stomach, and especially the fastidious Viennese stomach.” 

After praising the Berkeley campus and some of its buildings, Boltzmann described his residence: 

More important for me was another building. A speculating innkeeper had read in an encyclopedia that Berkeley was an English bishop whose residence was called Cloyne Court. Consequently, he built a lodge for professors that he named Cloyne Court and where I, too, resided. On [incorporating] an element of exterior resemblance to an old English bishop’s residence he set no value. It was located on Euclid Avenue and had the form of a perfect parallelepiped without a trace of non-Euclidean structure. But inside, it was comfortable. I had a small bedroom, a somewhat larger study, and a bathroom, all with electric lighting. In the rooms, one could circulate warm water through thick pipes, achieving moderate warmth that was often welcome in July below the latitude of Palermo—so icy can the wind blow at times from the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, the Berkeley winter is only a little colder than its summer; it’s only abundant in rain, which is totally missing in summer. 

Prof. Boltzmann was taking quite a few liberties, some from ignorance, others because the raconteur’s wit may have triumphed over the scientist’s quest for accuracy. Was there ever a house called Cloyne Court in Cloyne, Ireland? Did it serve as the residence of the philosopher George Berkeley while he was bishop of Cloyne? Not to my knowledge. The hotel was called Cloyne Court in honor of the bishop whose name was bestowed on our university town in 1860. The naming of Cloyne Court was done by the University Land and Improvement Company, which built the hotel and whose stockholders included the regents of the university, professors and prominent citizens, most notable among them Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who underwrote Prof. Boltzmann’s visit. 

Nor did any innkeeper determine the appearance of the building. That was the charge of John Galen Howard, supervising architect of the campus and a shareholder in the University Land and Improvement Co. Far from imitating an 18th-century Irish bishop’s residence, Howard utilized the Arts and Crafts idiom, executed in brown shingle, as were most of the houses then being built on the Northside. This was the style advocated by the Hillside Club. 

As almost every Berkeleyan knows, Cloyne Court is located not on Euclid Avenue but at 2600 Ridge Road. Is its shape a perfect parallelepiped? In plan, it is a large, straight-lined C, incorporating a long main body flanked by two wings of half the length, set at 90-degree angles and enclosing a central courtyard. With the exception of its gabled roofs, all the building’s angles are straight. 

True to his fastidious Viennese stomach, the professor had something to say about the cuisine at Cloyne Court: “The food was good. At least, one could usually bolt down something from one of the main dishes. Printed menus there were none. Before every meal, the menu was recited by the mostly bespectacled waitresses, so that it sounded more like a monotonous song, performed by subdued voices.” 

Boltzmann didn’t elaborate on the nature of the dishes, but they may have been more to his liking than some he was offered at Mrs. Hearst’s 53-room estate near Livermore. Designed by A.C. Schweinfurth in 1894, it was known as Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, after the Italian well head imported from Verona and installed in the courtyard. The physicist had been invited to the Hacienda with the other summer school professors. At table—seated on the right of the “alma mater Berkeleyensis,” as he called his hostess—Boltzmann thanked away a dish of blackberries, then a slice of melon appetizingly salted by the very hand of the patroness. Next came oatmeal, “an indescribable paste, which in Vienna might be fed to geese; although I doubt it, since no Viennese goose would deign to eat it.” 

Refusing the oatmeal was not an option, since the Herr Professor had observed Mrs. Hearst’s rather merciless look when he turned down the melon. Averting his face, Boltzmann choked down the porridge and was thankful for surviving the experience intact. “This the unpleasant part of an invitation in America,” he noted in his memoir. “In restaurants, you can leave what you can’t eat; but what can one do in the face of a housewife who is proud of the goodness of American cooking, and especially of her own? Fortunately, later there were fowl, stewed fruit, and other things that helped mask the taste [of the oatmeal]. 

Of Mrs. Hearst’s taste in architecture, Prof. Boltzmann had a higher opinion. Her estate, he wrote, was “a jewel of the kind that luxury, wealth, and good taste can bring off only in such sumptuously endowed nature. At the station [especially built by Western Pacific Railroad to accommodate Mrs. Hearst’s numerous guests] we were met by carriages and soon drove through a fantastic and not unattractive entrance gate to a park of fabulous trees and beauteous flowers. Here, wealth translates into water, and where it is not stinted, a carpet of flowers blooms in summer as in winter.” 

Boltzmann described Mrs. Hearst’s house as a kind of fortress, built in Portuguese-Mexican style and consisting of a garland of buildings surrounding a courtyard enclosed behind heavy iron gates. “The interior of the Hacienda,” he wrote, “is a treasure chest full of superb works of art and rare objects assembled by the owner from all regions of the Old and New World; the most original mixture of Greek, Roman, Medieval, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian rarities.” 

The music room was about “as large as the Bösendorfer Saal,” a 150-seat concert hall in Vienna, and adorned with “fantastic baroque decorations. I knew of no small concert hall in Vienna that could match it in beauty,” wrote Boltzmann. He was asked to open the postprandial concert. “After some protests I sat down at the grand piano, a Steinway of the highest price range. Without any preconceived notions, I pressed the keys. My ears may have heard such a beautifully sounding piano in a concert, but never had my fingers touched one. If I had occasionally rued the strain of my California trip, from now on, never again.” 

Already en route from the train station to the Hacienda, the professor was given some information about its architect: 

My companion in the carriage explained to me that the owner had engaged a German architect named Schweinfurt [sic], who built this [estate] after studying all the old Spanish and Portuguese buildings in Mexico. I said: “He must have had good taste!”, to which my companion replied, “Yes, he died over it.” “How did this happen?” I asked. “He loved California wines too much, and drank heavily until he died.” These Californians have a dreadful notion about their wine, which is certainly very strong. In the end it wasn’t so bad. I will also die some day and then stop drinking, so I will also continue drinking until I die. 

Again one must parse the content of Boltzmann’s anecdotes. The Hearsts’ architect, Albert Cicero Schweinfurth (1863–1900), was born in New York. He died of typhoid fever after returning from two years of travel in France and Italy. It seems that nobody told Prof. Boltzmann that a famous house standing only a short block away from Cloyne Court had been designed by Schweinfurth. 

We may never find out whether Schweinfurth was a heavy wine drinker or not, but Boltzmann’s drinking habits are fully discussed in his memoir. The professor had never drunk water from an open bottle or one containing carbonated river water. He credited this habit with keeping his stomach healthy even when subjected to strange food. Since Berkeley was a temperate city by law, he tried the local water, with disastrous results that kept him up all night. 

Appealing to a colleague, Boltzmann was directed on the hush-hush to a wine store in Oakland, from where he managed to smuggle in a full battery of bottles. “The route to Oakland became very familiar to me from then on,” he wrote, “and my stomach, too, said Amen. […] Sadly, I was forced to drink my glass of wine secretly after meals, so that I myself almost got the feeling that I was indulging in a vice.” 

“Finally came the evening when I listened for the last time to the one-note song of the bespectacled waitresses. As I cut my last omelette, the colleague at my side surveyed the number of pieces with a hawk’s eye and said: ‘there’s still half a minute left for each piece.’ Then the railroad carried me away.” 

Returning home on board the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm II, Boltzmann drank not a drop of water but a great deal of Rüdesheimer Riesling. “This is so convenient on a ship,” he wrote, “if one totters a bit, everybody chalks it up to the ship’s movement.” He committed suicide the following year. 

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

Well, once again, that miraculous, once-size-fits-all, end-of-all-your-troubles, maintenance-free thing turns out to be none of the above. This time it’s Trex decking, but there are lots of product defects out there so I’m certainly not going to single out Trex for lambasting.  

Part of the problem is that we keep looking away from what works in search of something new. That’s neither surprising nor all that disreputable an endeavor, but it usually leads us down a bumpy road. 

The building scientist, Joe Lstiburek (the L, unlike Joe, is silent), travels the country teaching, among other things, that the process of slicing or grinding timber into smaller and smaller particles has only increased its propensity to feed and foster fungi. The story of building material experiments over the past 50 years has been one filled with mold-growing and decay-filled results. This started with plywood, which in retrospect, seems a pretty tough material compared with its younger cousins, but is, in fact, far more vulnerable as a siding than, say, the redwood plank siding that was commonly employed for many decades leading up to the 1960s, until it was largely replaced by a range of variously checkered alternatives. 

When approaching a plywood-sided building, I general prepare myself to find soft, damaged siding in a range of specific locations. These tend to be just above trims that hold water, at the edges of trims where moisture will cling, and at the edge of almost any exposed panel. While plywoods vary in constitution along with paint quality and other conditions, there is no doubt that the material is quicker to foster decay and rot away than solid wooden planks.  

Part of the reason for this is that wood, like our own bodies, is built to resist infection, which is, after all, what we’re talking about. Trees are built up in layers of new wood as one way of preventing infection. Invading organisms have to first break through hard continuous layers—first bark, a layer designed to fail without hurting the tree, and then through various continuous multi-layered sheets of cellulose tissue. Our own skin is, similarly, our first line of defense against infection. Break the skin and in go those nasty microbes (including fungi, that in some cases hurt us just like they hurt our green leafy brethren).  

As soon as we start taking those nice solid boards, with their layers of resistant tissue, and begin slicing, dicing and grinding them up, their sweet delectable sugars are revealed to the fungal masses and you can almost hear the maître d’ calling “table for four million on the veranda!” (And they’re not eating at the table; they’re eating the table itself.) 

The worst case of this syndrome is the class of materials we might call particleboards. These have almost no defense, although various versions can have mixed success depending upon the protection that can be provided by chemical treatment or by mixing with various polymers. The first versions of pressed wood siding contained only a small amount of glues or resins and quickly found themselves the subject of large class-action product defect lawsuits.  

The industry has done well in eliminating these, but new troubled materials continue to emerge every day. While I like to save my sagest advise for my punchlines, I would say that, as a rule, it pays never to buy the first version of anything but to wait at least a decade to see what has turned out to be trouble.  

Now, Trex has been around longer than that, but it does turn out that there were lawsuits regarding the material as early as five years ago (at least this is as early as I’ve been able to find). A range of blogs I was able to find, as well as the findings of several local inspectors who I’ve chatted with, tell the story of decay in this material despite the early claims that this material, unlike regular wood, would be resistant to decay. 

Since I haven’t yet described what Trex is, let me take a moment. Trex is a composite material made from wood fiber (ground wood or sawdust) and plastic (mostly polyethylene plastic grocery bags). A number of other competitors exist but Trex would appear to dominate the market. 

Now, in defense of the product, I would like to say that I love the idea that manufacturers are making a useful product, such as decking material, out of all those store bags that we shouldn’t be taking home in the first place (and to Ikea’s credit, they recently started charging a small fee for those huge bags, and I believe this is intended as an environmental action rather than a commercial move). They’re also using wood fiber taken off sawmill floors, as well as grinding up pallets and pretty much any small wood scrap that can meet their requirements regarding contamination and wood type. This is all very green. The material itself is not particularly recyclable except toward making more of the same thing, but still, it’s wonderful we’re not just cutting down more trees. If the material were foolproof (and nothing can stand the test of a truly skilled fool), I’d be all the more excited. But, apparently, it’s not.  

Trex isn’t the only material you’ll want to watch closely in the coming years. Other WPCs (wood-plastic composites) such as TimberTech (potentially facing litigation) have turned out to produce what many a blogger (or attorney) describe as a range of problems including mold spotting, splitting or deterioration. Not to provide undue defense to these products, I do want to say that common wood, whether redwood or treated wood products, can have some similar problems, but the big difference is that virtually all makers of WPCs describe their products as being free from the problems that real wood tends to manifest.  

Redwood decking, just to take the other side for the moment, can have a long service life if well selected (redwood grades vary enormously from the pithiest juvenile stock to tightly ringed, dense, clear material that can least half a century on sun exposed decks) but poorly built redwood decks utilizing poor grades of lumber and poor detailing may show failures within 10 years. Redwood is also a fairly green choice since it grows quickly. California produces more than we can use and is a significant export for us. If we farm it carefully and avoid clear-cutting, redwood is a very reasonable (and I would argue, beautiful) choice. A range of hardwoods, including ipe, is also available for decking and many of these can be sought through sustainable farms if one shops smartly. Hardwoods tend to have a very long service life and require almost no maintenance if well installed, but are pricey. Woods, in general have some native advantages over WPCs, including greater strength (the ability to span greater distances for a given dimension) as well as reduced fire risk (most WPCs burn faster and hotter than equivalent wood, though new fire-retardant ones are available). 

A wood-plastic composite may be the right choice for you and allotments of defective material might represent a relatively small percentage of the total output, but this technology is relatively new and I don’t believe we’ve had enough time to study the life-cycle of this material to say with certainty what you’ll be getting when you buy. Products produced by large companies tend to get marketed heavily with little thought for future redress and the United States provides relatively little protection for consumers beyond the ability to sue when things go wrong. So it’s up to each of us to look around and consider how much we know about the new product before we lay our money down. 

If you have Trex, you may want to review the class-action suits by Hagens, Berman, Sobel and Shapiro website (e-mail address: trex@hbsslawcom) and Marc B. Kramer, P.C. There may be others if you look around. Accurate or not, they’re worth a look. 

When I look at really old houses (well, West Coast old) I’m often amazed at how well they’ve fared. Lacking a range of modern whiz-bang technologies, the simple time-tested methods often prove awe-inspiring, and real wood is certainly at the center of this. When people talk about “good bones” in a house, they’re not talking about ossified calcium; they’re talking about wood. And while the future of wood may bring us many efficient marvels made of chips and sawdust, let’s not forget how well we were served by the simple genius of a board cut from tree. 

ASK MATT 

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

THURSDAY, MAY 21 

Traffic Improvements on Upper Ashby Transportation Commission meeting to discuss the allocation of the $2 million for the Claremont Elmwood neighborhood from the settlement with CalTrans at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 981-7061.  

The LeConte Neighborhood Association meets at 7:30 p.m. at the LeConte School, Russell St. entrance to discuss Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan, Protection for our Traffic Circles, a Police update & Board Elections. karlreeh@aol.com  

“The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters With North America’s Most Iconic Birds” with Paul Bannick at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda, between Solano and Marin. Sponsored by Golden Gate Audubon Society. 843-2222. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll explore the world of insects, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will explore the world of insects from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

The Institute of Urban Homesteading Bee Clinic from 7 tp 9 p.m. for people already keeping bees to talk about their bees and get answers to current questions and concerns in organic and top bar beekeeping. Cost is $10. RSVP to iuh@sparkybeegirl.com 

“Children of the Amazon” a documentary which follows Brazilian filmmaker Denise Zmekhol as she travels a modern highway deep into the Amazon in search of the indigenous Surui and Negarote children she photographed fifteen years ago at 7 p.m. at Zaentz Media Center, 2600 Tenth St. Free, but reservations required. reservations@berkeleyfilmscreening.com 

Auditions for Young People’s Symphony Orchestra for ages 13-21 from 4 to 9 p.m. Rehearsals Mon. at 6 p.m. at Crowden School in Berkeley. For audition application and appointment see www.ypsomusic.net 

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

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. http://caltendai.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 22 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll explore the world of insects, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Abe Smith, Internet security consultant on “What Everyone Should Know About Computer Security and How It Affects Your Life” 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.  

Conscientious Projector Film Series “Taxi to the Dark Side” Documentary on Afghanistan by Alex Gibney at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donation appreciated. 841-4824. 

A Benefit for Rock Paper Scissors Collective Dinner and film screening of ”Maquilapolis” and artist talk with Julie Plasencia and director Sergio de la Torre from 6 to 9 p.m. at 2278 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $60-$100 sliding scale and partially tax-deductible. After 8:30 p.m. tickets are $10-$20 for film only. www.rpscollective.com 

Demonstrate for Peace Bring your signs and determination from 2 to 4 p.m. at Acton and University aves. Sponsored by Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers, and Strawberry Creek Lodge Tenants Association. 

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. 

Mayan Culture Lecture “As Seen Through the Third Eye” with Master Tian Ying at 7 p.m. at 830 Bancroft Way, Lotus Room 114. Donations accepted. 883-1920. tgif@tiangong.org 

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.  

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Fri. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

SATURDAY, MAY 23 

Youth Arts Fair with displays of youth artwork, entertainment provided by local singers, dancers, musicians and poets, and information booths about youth-oriented organizations, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Sponsored by the Berkeley Youth Commission. 

Mountainfilm Berkeley, a two-day festival of documentary films about art and culture, adventure and the environment, Sat. from 4 to 9 p.m. and Sun. from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. at The David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way. Cost is $10. Details at www.browercenter.org. Tickets at brownpapertickets.com 

El Cerrito Citywide Garage Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shoppers can pick up the list of participating garage sales after noon on May 21 at the El Cerrito Recycling Center, the El Cerrito Community Center, or download the list from www.el-cerrito.org 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Slugs and More Slugs: How Do They Do It?” with Dr. John Pearse at 12:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

Brooks Island Voyage Paddle the rising tide across Richmond Harbor to Brooks Island to explore the island’s natural and cultural history. For experienced boaters who can provide their own kayak and safety gear. For ages 14+ with parents. Cost is $20-$22. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Vegetarian Cooking Class: Burgers and Backyard Bites from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at First Unitarian Church of Oakland, 685 14th St. at Castro. Cost is $55, plus $5 food and material fee. Advance registration required. 531-COOK. www.compassionatecooks.com 

Wizard Weekend at Playland Watch magicians in action and learn some tricks. 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 “Online Travel Sites” 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. 

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.  

SUNDAY, MAY 24 

“Effects of Community Violence on Our Youth” A violence prevention workshop for the community. The workshop will address the root causes of violence, the dramatic effect of violence on children, violence prevention, and the available local mental health and family support resources in our community, from noon to 4 p.m. at St. Columba Catholic Church, Parish Hall, 6401 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. For more information email blovette@mail.cho.org  

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 

Backcountry Gourmet Learn the fundamentals of making your own backpacking food and trail snacks, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. Cost is $10-$12. Registration required. 1-888-327-2757. 

Making Herbal Medicine A five-session class from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sat. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $160-$175. 548-2220, ext. 239. 

Grande Vista’s Historical Gardens A four-mile hike to explore the remains of this old sanitarium on thehill, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, Alvarado Staging Area. 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Tour of the Berkeley City Club, designed by Julia Morgan, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. Sponsored by the Landmark Heritage Foundation. 848-7800. 

“Women Healing Women in India” with Rev. Lowell Brook at 6:30 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship Unitarian Universalist Hall, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. Donations accepted, no one turned away for lack of funds. 841-4824. www.bfuu.org 

Personal Theology Seminars with David Richardson on “Advanced Mandalas and Maps of the Spiritual World” 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 Robin Caton on “Meditation and Creativity” 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 25 

Memorial Day Farm Fun Open House from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. grind some corn, churn some ice cream, race in a potato sack, groom the goats, and explore the farm. White shoes and pants not advised! 544-3265. tnarea@ebparks.org 

Memorial Day Ceremony onboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet from 1-2 p.m. Tours of the ship will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 707 W Hornet Ave, Pier 3, in Alameda. Cost is $6-$14. 521-8448. www.uss-hornet.org 

Junktique II Yard Sale from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at First United Methodist Church of Richmond, 201 Martina St., corner W. Richmond Ave., Point Richmond. Pancake breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. Benefits the Masquers Playhouse. 236-0527. 

Community Yoga Class Mon. and Thurs. at 10 a.m. at James Kenney Parks and Rec. Center at Virginia and 8th. Seniors and beginners welcome. Cost is $6. 207-4501. 

Small-Business Counseling Free one-hour one-on-one counseling to help you start and run your small business with a volunteer from Service Core of Retired Executives, Mon. evenings by appointment at Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. For appointment call 981-6148. www.eastbayscore.org 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group, for people 60 years and over, meets at 9:45 a.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave, Albany. Cost is $3.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, MAY 26 

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 Briones Regional Park, Bear Creek Staging Area. Bring water, field guides, binoculars or scopes. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 544-3265.  

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will explore the world of insects from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Annual Strawberry Tasting at the Tuesday Berkeley Farmers’ Market. from 2 to 7 p.m. at Derby St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 548-3333; www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Path Wanderers: Evening Cardio-Workout Walk up Easter Way to Cragmont Rock Park, Pinnacle and Poppy Paths to Muir Path and back down as the sun is setting. Meet at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Rose Garden, near sign, 1200 Euclid Ave. near Eunice. 848-2944 www.berkeleypaths.org 

“From Earth to the Universe” An astronomical exhibit of space telescope images in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, at the Oakland Aviation Museum, 8252 Earhart Rd., Bldg. 621, Historic North Field, Oakland Airport. Exhibit runs to June 4. 638-7100. www.aoklandaviationmuseum.org 

“Diversity, Daring and Decision: A Multicultural Perspective on the Historic Election of President Barack Obama” with Stephen Gong, Exec. Dir. of the Center for Asian American Media, at the El Cerrito Democratic Club at 6:30 p.m. in Fellowship Hall, El Cerrito United Methodist Church, 6830 Stockton Ave. at Richmond Ave., El Cerrito. Pizza st 6 p.m. for $4 per person. 527-5953. 

Bhopal Tour Event Remembering the Victims of Dow Chemical Co-sponsored with Bhopal International Campaign at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar at Bonita. 841-4824. 

Hillside Club Book Lust Salon meets to discuss works by Robert Heinlein at 7:30 p.m. at 2286 Cedar St. Non-member donation $5. 845-4870. www.hillsideclub.org/booklust 

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

Climbing Mount Whitney: The Mountaineer’s Route at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

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 PC User Group at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St. corner of Eunice. meldancing@comcast.net 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

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. 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Bird Walk at Lake Merritt and Lakeside Park. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at the large spherical cage near Nature Center at Perkins and Bellevue. Some winter migrants and the cormorant and egret rookery should still be with us. The Park may offer warblers, woodpeckers, and a few surprises. www.goldengateaudubon.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland “New Era/New Politics” highlights African-American leaders who have made their mark on Oakland. Meet at 10 a.m. and the African American Museum and Library at 659 14th St. 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Bhopal Survivors Tour Celebrate the survival and activism of the people of Bhopal, and help raise awareness of the disaster and advocate for Union Carbide’s parent company Dow Chemical to finally take responsibility for the lasting impact of the leak, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Women of Color Resource Center, 1611 Telegraph Ave., suite 303; Oakland. Bring your brown bag lunch. 444-2700. www.coloredgirls.org 

“Ask Not” Documentary by Johnny Symons on the effets of the US military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy at 6:30 p.m. at the Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak sts. Cost is $5-$8. www.museumca.org/tickets 

“Update on the Environment--Events and Policies, Local and National” with Misha Rashkin, Community Organizer, San Francisco Bay Chapter, Sierra Club, at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst, corner of MLK. Sponsored by Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers. 486-8010. 

The League of Women Voters of West Contra Costa County, with Assemblymember Nancy Skinner on the impact on budget considerations of the outcome of the May 19 Special Election at noon at Treviño’s Mexican Restaurant, 11795 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito. RSVP if you would like lunch. 525 4962. 

“The Century of the Self—Episode Four: 8 People Sipping Wine in Kettering” 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 

“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.  

Free Screening of “Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains“ 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 

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. 

THURSDAY, MAY 28 

Blue Star Memorial Marker Dedication As a tribute to all veterans, the El Cerrito Garden Club and the City of El Cerrito will proudly dedicate a National Garden Clubs, Inc. Blue Star Memorial Marker at Arlington Park at 10 a.m. at Arlington Clubhouse, 1120 Arlington Blvd., El Cerrito. 

“An International Perspective on America's Health Care Options” with Dr. Claudia Chaufan, vice-president of California Physicians Alliance which advocates for a social insurance, single payer system in the United States, at 6:45 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Pot luck at 6 p.m. Sponsored by Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club.  

Take-Up-the-Streets Think Tank on ways to change our relationship to space usage in the city at 7 p.m. Sponsored by The Institute for Urban Homesteading. Please email for location iuh@sparkybeegirl.com 

1st Pan-Am University Taekwondo Championship through the 30th at Haas Pavillion, UC campus. For details call 642-3268.www.ucmap/pan-am/ 

The Art of Comfort & Joy: A Tribute to End-of-Life Care Providers and an opportunity for the public to learn about care options and speak individually with end-of-life providers, at 7 p.m. at Piedmont Community Hall, 711 Highland Ave., Piedmont. RSVP to 866-825-8967. admin@compassionandchoicesnca.org  

Babies & Toddlers Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

Association for Women in Science East Bay Chapter “Focus on Careers: From Science to Sales” at 6:30 p.m. at Novartis, Building 4, Room 104, 5300 Chiron Way, Emeryville, Cost is $5-$10. Register at http://ebawis.eventbrite.com 

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. 

Tikkun Leyl Shavuot with rabbis and scholars from throughout the East Bay at 6:30 p.m. at Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. tikkun@jfed.org  

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. http://caltendai.org 

FRIDAY, MAY 29 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Kim Polese on “Recent Developments in Computer Technology” 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 

Jewish Humanistic Forum: Dr. Booker Holton speaks on water and marine resource management in Israel and the Middle East at 7 p.m. at Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. at Masonic, Albany. www.kolhadash.org 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

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 30 

Thorsen House Spring Centennial Celebration with Friends of Piedmont Way, from 2 to 5 p.m. at 2307 Piedmont Ave. Tickets are $15-$34. www.thorsenspring100.eventbrite.com 

Berkeley Historical Society Spring Walking Tour “Berkeley Woods” led by Paul Grunland, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations and starting point call 848-0181. 

Help Restore Eastshore State Park Help Friends of Five Creeks transform former garbage dump into wildlife-friendly parkland near the mouth of Schoolhouse Creek from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Follow signs from the small parking turnout on West Frontage Road between University and Gilman. 848-9358. www.fivecreeks.org 

Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. North Shattuck Ave., Gourmet Ghetto. 548-5335. 

Rally For Social Security Fairness for Teachers at 11 a.m. at Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley High School, Allston Way. www.socialsecurityfairness.com 

California NOW’s State Conference with Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner “Running for Public Office” and workshops on Safe Cosmetics; Homophobia in Sports; and Media, Body Image & Self-Esteem, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Doubletree Berkeley Marina, 200 Marina Blvd. Cost is $45-$60. Register online canoworg/2009-ca-now-annual-membership-meetingstate-conference.html 

“How to Think About Achieving Nuclear Disarmament in the 21st Century” with Randy Rydell, Senior Political Affairs Officer, Office of the High Representative, UN Office for Disarmament Affairs at 7 p.m. at Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak St., Alameda. Co-sponsored by the Alameda Public Affairs Forum and the United Nations Association East Bay. Suggested donation $5. www.alamedaforum.org 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Awakening the Healing in Your Hands Open house at the Acupressure Institute with bodywork demonstrations, calligraphy and face painting, music and food from noon to 8 p.m. at 1533 Shattuck Ave. 845-1059. www.AcupressureInstitute.com  

“The Spirit of Persussion” A workshop with Arito Moreira at 3 p.m. at Ed Kelly Hall, Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St. Cost is $17-$35, no one turned away. RSVP to 836-4649, ext. 112. 

Beginning Internet Class “Newspaper and Magazine Articles” at 10 a.m. at El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave., El Cerrito. Free, but call to sign up 526-7512. 

Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center “Chances for Change” Fundraising event with music, wine, hors d’oeuvres and a live and silent auction at 6 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. Tickets are $25-$45. 548-2884. 

“She Shines” a day event with Alameda County Junior Commission on the Status of Womenfrom 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at Bishop O’Dowd High School, Oakland. Free, includes lunch. To register or sponsor call 259-3871. 

Playland’s One Year Anniversary 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 

Buddha’s Birth Celebration with Sylvia Gretchen on “Prayer to Shakyamuni Buddha” at 7 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Psyche and Cinema “La Belle et la Bete” Workshop on using symbols from 1 to 6 p.m. at The Dream Institute, 1672 University at McGee. Cost is $45-$75. 845-1767. dream-institute.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 31 

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 

Bricks, Wheat and Gold! Join a five-mile hike to explore the ghostly pilings of the once-big town of Port Costa, from 2 to 5 p.m. For information call 544-3265. 

“La Place du Marché” Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley’s annual spring fair with bistro-style food, children’s games, a wide variety of craft vendors, and a raffle for a trip to Paris, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1009 Heinz Ave., at Ninth St. 549-3895. 

Berkeley Opera’s Annual Gala and auction with sopranos Heidi Melton and Nicolle Foland and bass Kenneth Kellogg at 4 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes at 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Tickets are $65. 841-1903. 

“Responsibility to Prevent” with Bob Alpern, former field secretary for the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C. on approaches to the peaceful prevention of deadly conflict at 1 p.m. at Berkeley Friends Meeting House, 2151 Vine St.  

A Report Back from the UN Conference on Racism, Durban, and the IADL Tribunal on Agent Orange with Judge Claudia Morcom of Detroit at 5 p.m. at 1419 Grant St. For information call Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. 848-0599. 

“Animal Reiki” with Kathleen Prasad at 4 p.m. at Rabbit Ears, 377 Colusa Ave., Kensington. 525-6155. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Santosh Philip on “Tibetan Yoga for the West” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000. www.nyingmainstitute.com 

CITY MEETINGS 

Design Review Committee meets Thurs., May 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7415.  

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board meets Thurs., May 21, at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers. 981-7368. 

Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets Thurs., May 21, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6950.  

Transportation Commission meets Thurs., May 21, at 7 p.m., at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. 981-7061.  

Council Agenda Committee meets Tues., May 26, at 2:30 p.m., at 2180 Milvia St. 981-6900. 

www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/agenda-committee 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., May 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Disaster and Fire Safety Commission meets Wed., May 27, at 7 p.m., at the Emergency Operations Center, 997 Cedar St. 981-5502.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., May 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7439.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., May 27, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7416. 

Police Review Commission meets Wed., May 27, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Mental Health Commission meets Thurs., May 28, at 5 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5217. 

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