For twenty years, Berkeley had an inclusionary law requiring developers who build new apartment buildings of 5 units or more to set aside 20% of the units to be rented to low income households. The purpose of the inclusionary law was to address the critical shortage of affordable housing in Berkeley and to promote economic diversity in neighborhoods. Over the past 20 years our inclusionary policy has resulted in hundreds of new affordable units in new market rate projects throughout Berkeley. 

In late 2009, the California State Supreme Court denied review of the Palmer v. City of Los Angeles decision, which means that the decision is now law in the State of California. The decision ruled that local laws requiring the set aside of units rented to low income residents violates state law. This decision invalidated our inclusionary policy for apartment building projects. Since then there has been no policy in place to try to address the effects of the Palmer decision. Over the past almost two years the Berkeley City Council has been discussing the establishment of a fee to address the affordable housing impacts that new market rate development creates. The fee would generate revenue to our city’s Housing Trust Fund which funds the rehabilitation and new construction of affordable housing in Berkeley. 

After months of discussion, on June 14, 2011, the Berkeley City Council adopted on first reading an ordinance authorizing the establishment of an affordable housing mitigation fee. The vote on the Ordinance was 6-1-2 (YES: Councilmembers Maio, Moore, Anderson, Arreguin, Worthington and Mayor Bates; NO: Councilmember Wengraf; ABSTAIN: Councilmembers Capitelli and Wozniak) 

The ordinance was the first step, which puts the law on the books to allow for an affordable housing mitigation fee to be imposed on new rental housing projects. Step two is determining how much the fee should be and adopting a resolution setting the fee. 

On next Tuesday’s (July 12th) City Council agenda is an item from Councilmembers Arreguin and Worthington to move forward with adopting an affordable housing fee, by directing the City Manager to set a public hearing as soon as is practically possible and asking staff to develop a resolution to adopt a fee at a rate of $34,000 per unit. While Councilmembers Arreguin and Worthington have expressed support for a fee that will generate the most revenue for affordable housing, the $34,000 amount is a placeholder and Council will ultimately decide what level the fee should be set at. 

What is most important is that we keep the momentum going. There have been active efforts to stall adoption of an affordable housing fee, because some people do not want a fee at all. By scheduling a public hearing as soon as possible it will ensure that the City Council can act soon on creating a fee and start to generate revenue for affordable housing or stimulate the provision of affordable units in apartment projects in Berkeley. 

Please email the Mayor and City Council and urge them to keep moving forward on adopting an affordable housing fee.

A quarter century ago Bonnie Hughes was perhaps best known in Berkeley as the proprietor of Augusta’s, a well regarded restaurant on Telegraph Avenue just north of Ashby. 

 

After she closed that business, she moved from her West Berkeley home to Downtown Berkeley and began a new career as creator and volunteer organizer of the Berkeley Arts Festival. 

 

The twentieth year of the Arts Festival kicks off this week, with pianist Sarah Cahill performing on Tuesday, July 12. 

 

There are nearly two-dozen separate performance dates extending through August 15, and numerous artists featured. “Basically it’s new music, a lot composed by the people performing it”, Hughes says. “Some of it is improv.”  

 

Some performers are regulars at the Festival, some new. Of one, Hughes says, “she plays the cello, but one year she played the bicycle wheel.” 

 

The performers range from the well-known and established Cahill, to cellist, Berkeley High alumnus, and Bard College student Dylan Mattingly who was born the year the Festival began. 

 

Most of the performances are at 8 pm, but a few are noon concerts. Admission is on a sliding scale, but Hughes hopes for an average of ten dollars contribution per audience member.  

 

See the website for calendar and performer details. In addition to individual musical performers there’s a book reading by Philippa Kelly, an Upsurge Jazz / Poetry night and, perhaps in the spirit of the original Festival year, a Stop the War sing-along. 

 

The Festival is unusual is that it has no permanent home but moves from location to location, improvising not only performances but performance venues in borrowed spaces in Berkeley’s Downtown. These are usually storefronts vacant between business occupants, and lent by the building owners. 

 

This year the festival occupies a storefront in the old Acheson Physicians Building, at 2133 University Avenue between Walnut Street and Shattuck. (The Berkeley Ace Hardware is the neighbor on one side, Long Life Vegi House on the other. The building is currently awaiting renovation / conversion to housing as part of the proposed Acheson Commons project). 

 

Hughes started the Festival in 1991 with a set of performances with an anti-war theme. “That was very well attended”, she says. “We got off to a rousing start.” By coincidence the Gulf War erupted at the same time, and “we had TV people from all over.” 

 

The original space was in part of the old Hink’s Department Store, now long since renovated into the Shattuck Cinemas. When the Festival had to move, it went to a former Crocker Bank space in Berkeley’s old Masonic Temple at Bancroft Way and Shattuck Avenue. 

 

The Festival operated there year round, and the Tinker’s Workshop also had a space in the corner of the facility. 

 

After that building was sold the Festival had to move, and went to various storefronts “for a month or so” at a time, says Hughes. “We could only plan a month or two ahead, because no one was able to promise longer than they could get permits” for a planned business or development in a particular space. 

 

The Festival is “always a seat of the pants operation”, Hughes says, organized largely by volunteers and using the borrowed spaces. “We do it on a shoe string.” The City of Berkeley gives the Festival $10,000 a year, but the rest of the support must come from admissions and volunteers. 

 

Admissions are split between the performers and the Festival.  

 

Other spaces used by the Festival over the years include the old Edy’s storefront that had become an Eddie Bauer store (it’s now the Downtown Kinko’s). In that venue “one of the walls was wavy and that made the music incredible”, Hughes said. The Festival also had quarters at one time in the building on Allston Way now being renovated for Magnes Museum collections. 

 

The current performance space is adorned for the Festival with large-scale paintings by four East Bay artists, Robert Brokl, Lisa Esherick, M. Louise Stanley and Livia Stein. The paintings line the walls and a narrow balcony / mezzanine that overlooks the performance area. 

 

How long will the Festival continue? Hughes isn’t sure. She jokes, “This may be the last year I do it, but everyone says I say that every year.” She’s now in her early 80s. There’s no obvious heir to organize the event.  

 

“I do it as a volunteer”, Hughes told me as we finished lunch one recent day Downtown. “There are not that many people who have the time or inclination to do something so time consuming.”  

 

Then she was off to the Festival space to check on preparations, look for extra chairs for the first Sarah Cahill performance, and attend to a multitude of other details. 

 

For more information on the Berkeley Arts Festival contact Bonnie Hughes: fabarts@silcon.com  

 

Or visit the website: http://www.berkeleyartsfestival.com/ 

This year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival starts off with a premiere of sorts. In 2009 a stash of rare silent films was discovered in the New Zealand Film Archives, among them 75 American films, long thought lost forever, that were repatriated back to the United States last year for restoration and preservation. Upstream, one of the gems of the collection and the first to be restored, will screen Thursday, July 14, as the opening film of the annual festival that takes over the Castro Theater through Sunday night.  

Upstream is an early film by John Ford, one of the towering figures of cinema, American or otherwise. Made while the director was working for Fox, Ford admitted to having been captivated at the time by the work of F.W. Murnau, who had made a name for himself as one of Germany’s top directors with work as disparate as the horror masterpiece Nosferatu, the expressionist classic The Last Laugh, and a cinematic reworking of Faust. Hollywood was eager to recruit top European talent in those days and Murnau was a high-profile catch for Fox. Here, Ford was able to observe Murnau's methods firsthand and he incorporated much of what he learned into Upstream, a melodrama that centers on a backstage love triangle among Vaudevillians.  

The festival will screen Ford's film along with Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, the masterpiece with which Murnau brought Germanic technique and a palpable European sensibility to American filmmaking. Sunrise is celebrated for its roaming camerawork, its evocative set design, its emotional range and fable-like qualities. The plot concerns a young country couple whose happy home is threatened when the husband is tempted by a footloose city flapper. Murnau sets up dichotomies that are almost allegorical: between city and country, love and lust, virtue and temptation. It is melodrama raised to the level of poetry, a fable of love, devotion and redemption.  

Murnau’s camera is almost constantly on the move, tracking characters along village paths, through marshlands at dusk, along the busy streets of a bustling city. Sunrise is a whirlwind of motion and emotion, from tense moments wandering in darkness, to a sun-kissed stroll that leaves the couple bewildered in the midst of a traffic jam, to the kaleidoscopic revelry of a nightclub sequence.  

Saturday's highlight is Yasujiro Ozu's I Was Born But..., one of the great Japanese director's early films, and one of his most beloved. Rather rather than employing his camera in bravura displays of pyrotechnic virtuosity, Ozu used it to simply observe his characters, to linger on their faces, on their homes, on their possessions—to look into the souls of everyday people under everyday circumstances. Ozu was both a naturalist and a rigorous formalist, a director who sought to capture life as it is lived, but within a framework of rigidly defined restrictions. He limited the camera’s range of motion and the angles from which it could gaze; he limited his editing to simple, direct cuts—no dissolves or fades; and dialogue was conveyed in simple master shots followed by alternating close-ups. This artistic code focused the viewer's attention on content over form, allowing character to reveal itself, allowing dialogue to breathe, and allowing revelatory spaces to open up between words and gestures and characters. Thus relationships and motivations and plot points gradually take shape before the viewer’s eyes. “Rather than tell a superficial story,” Ozu said, “I wanted to go deeper, to show ... the ever-changing uncertainties of life. So instead of constantly pushing dramatic action to the fore, I left empty spaces, so viewers could have a pleasant aftertaste to savor.”  

Long before Ozu refined this method and distilled it into the austere approach of his later, more famous movies, he made many lighter films—comedies, melodramas, even Hollywood-inspired gangster films. One of the best of his early films, I Was Born But... displays the director's remarkable ability to blend comedy with poignant drama. The film examines the difficulties both of children growing up and of their parents in handling them. A man’s young sons brawl with the local kids in their new neighborhood to assert their dominance, and once they do they exercise their power without restraint. Later their father falls from his figurative pedestal as they witness him kowtowing to his boss, the father of one their schoolyard underlings. What follows is both a loss of innocence and a tough lesson in parenting, as the father tries to express the realities of adulthood, and the boys learn that there are other ways to get along than by thundering in the brush and pounding one’s chest like a baboon.  

Evident in these early films are some of the techniques that Ozu would employ throughout his career: the floor-height vantage points that place his camera at eye level as his characters sit on the traditional tatami; and the alternating dialogue shots in which each character looks directly at the camera, placing the viewer right in the middle of the exchange, allowing stronger identification with each character, with each argument and with each perspective.  

And herein lies much of the appeal of Ozu’s films: His calm, gently unfolding dramas give us time to not only get to know his characters, but also to deeply care about them—to enjoy their humor, to admire their strength and to forgive their transgressions—so that, when a film ends, there is often a feeling of regret that these characters are gone from our lives. “Every time I watch an Ozu film,” says actor Eijiro Tong, “I start to feel very sentimental as the end of the film nears. As I think back over the story, it’s like a flood of old memories washing over me, one after another.”  

Also screening Friday are William Desmond Taylor's 1920 adaptation of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn; Il Fuoco, an Italian femme fatale drama; The Great White Silence, a 1924 documentary about a British expedition to the Arctic; and the first of two editions of the festival's popular series, "Amazing Tales From the Archives," in which preservationists screen surviving fragments and trailers from lost films or excerpts from in-progress restorations. 

Saturday evening showcases two of the brightest stars of the era, Douglas Fairbanks and Marlene Dietrich. The Woman Men Yearn For shows Dietrich a few years before Joseph Von Sternberg transformed her into an almost otherworldly figure of mystery and beauty, and Mr. Fix-It shows Fairbanks at his charming, comedic best.  

There were many stars in the silent era, but few could rival Douglas Fairbanks. The actor made a name for himself between 1916 and 1920 with a string of breezy, acrobatic comedies. His ebullience and his prodigious athletic abilities were on display in a series of brisk films produced at a brisk pace—four or five a year, sometimes more—in which genial, dapper Doug took on the world with gusto and a good-natured smile. He was the can-do, all-American boy, a variation on the same theme adopted by Harold Lloyd in his own screen comedies. 

Around 1920, Fairbanks would take a new tack as his ambition swelled. As a co-founder of United Artists (along with three other powerful Hollywood figures: Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and Fairbanks' wife, Mary Pickford), Fairbanks would gain complete control over his work and would introduce a new genre to the medium by combining comedy with costume drama. He ditched the modern clothes for period attire, donning the garb of musketeers and pirates. Abandoning the casual spontaneity of his rapid-fire comedies, he followed instead in Griffith’s footsteps, producing fewer films—just one or two a year—with better production values, more complex plots, more costumes, more sets, more drama. Fairbanks had found a new formula, and he would stick with it for the better part of a decade, enjoying much commercial success. 

Saturday's screenings also feature a morning presentation of Disney Laugh-O-Grams; The Blizzard, a romantic melodrama by Swedish director Mauritz Stiller; Clarence Brown's The Goose Woman; and "Variations on a Theme," a session in which the festival's musicians discuss and demonstrate the principles and challenges of silent film accompaniment. The panel, moderated by Jill Tracy, includes the Matti Bye Ensemble, the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, the Alloy Orchestra, Giovanni Spinelli, Stephen Horne, Donald Sosin, and Wurlizter maestro Dennis James.  

Sandwiched between Sunday morning's installment of "Amazing Tales From the Archives" and a "Wild and Weird," a program of off-kilter short films, is Shoes, by Lois Weber, the most important female director of the era. Weber enjoyed a tremendous degree of artistic control over her films, which always managed to be entertaining while taking on some of the most challenging social issues of the day, from abortion and birth control to capital punishment, labor and prostitution. Later in the day, The Nail in the Boot, directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, who would go on to make such cinematic treasures as The Cranes Are Flying and the monumental I Am Cuba, promises to be another excellent screening.  

The festival concludes with He Who Gets Slapped, a confluence of four prominet talents. Lon Chaney was the premiere character of the day, the creator of myriad deformed and deranged figures; John Gilbert was on the rise as one of Hollywood's romantic leading men; Norma Shearer too was on the rise, a budding star who would go on to make some of the most sophisticated dramas of the Pre-code era; and Victor Sjöström (billed as Seastrom in America), the pioneering Swedish director who rivaled Griffith in his influence in shaping the nascent medium of cinema into an international art form.

Berkeley police are investigating reports of shots fired in the southern part of the city this afternoon, a police spokeswoman said. 

The shots were apparently fired at about 2:45 p.m. near Stanford Liquors at 62nd and King streets, Berkeley police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said. 

No one was believed to be hit by the shots since no victims have shown up at hospitals and no blood was found at the scene, Kusmiss said. 

Investigators were at the scene of the shooting shortly after 3 p.m. to collect evidence, she said.

The City Council has been scheduled to address two important West Berkeley issues tomorrow, the Master Use Permit (MUP) development standards – height, massing, aggregation, etc., and the definition of Art and Craft Studios. Please attend if you would like to weigh in on the Arts and Crafts Studio definition. 

The WEBAIC Position on the Definition of Art & Craft Studio: 

After consultation with WEBAIC artist/artisan members, Arts Commissioners, and members of the larger West Berkeley arts and crafts community, The WEBAIC steering committee has decided not to contest the Planning Commission’s recommended definition of an Art & Craft Studio so long as the City Council keeps the recommended definition intact. 

Although we received several comments from the arts community expressing disappointment with the removal of the words “objects” and dexterity”, the WEBAIC steering committee has concluded that inclusion of existing language clarifying the types of uses that would not be appropriate for studio space should be sufficient to ensure that this space is truly occupied by arts & crafts uses. This clarifying language is in the recommended definition, although the NAICS Code numbers that add specificity to these categories were unfortunately removed. WEBAIC will recommend putting these code numbers back. We intend to closely monitor how this new definition is applied on the ground to make sure art space is reserved and utilized by arts uses. Thanks to those of you who responded to our request for your opinion on this issue – your opinions are greatly valued. 

The Definition of Art & Craft Studio Passed by the Planning Commission: 

An establishment engaged in the creation of fine arts or crafts that requires artistic skill. Such an establishment may participate in periodic open studios, but otherwise is subject to the applicable districts requirements for incidental sales of goods made on site. Art/Craft Studio also includes rehearsal space not designed for public performances. 

Examples of individuals typically engaged in this work include, but are not limited to: woodworkers, potters/ceramicists, costume makers, set designers, stained-glassmakers; glass blowers; textile artists and weavers; jewelry makers; painters; fine art printmakers; photographers, filmmakers; leather workers; metal workers; musical instrument makers; model makers; papermakers; installation artists; sculptors; and video artists, and other makers of arts and crafts, that the Zoning Officer determines to be of a similar nature. The Zoning Officer may request the Civic Arts commission to provide its opinion as to whether a proposed activity complies with this definition. 

The use of computers in an activity does not by itself preclude its classification as an Art/Craft Studio 

This definition does not include architectural and landscape services, industrial or graphic design services, computer systems design services, and other commercial activities normally conducted in an office environment.

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has posted a revised schedule of the community meetings about prospective sites for its second campus. Each meeting will deal with one of the six possible venues. The applicant/developer for that venue will present its plan for the site, and then community members will be invited to comment. 

July 13: Alameda Point, Auction by the Bay, 2700 Saratoga Street, Alameda, 7-9 pm 

July 21: Richmond Field Station, Richmond City Hall Auditorium, 403 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, 7-9 pm 

July 27: Brooklyn Basin, Jack London Aquatic Center, 115 Embarcadero, Oakland, 7-9 pm 

August 3: Golden Gate Fields, Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Avenue, Albany, 7:30-9:30 

August 4: Aquatic Park West, Frances Albrier Center (San Pablo Park), 2800 Park, Berkeley, 7-9 pm 

August 8: Emery Station/Berkeley (Wareham proposal), Emeryville City Hall, 1333 Park Avenue, Emeryville, 7-9 pm 

The Berkeley Arts Festival Opening Concert, featuring Pianist Sarah Cahill, will take place on Tuesday July 12, at 8 pm at 2133 University Avenue, Berkeley.

The second concert, on Wednesday, July 13, at 8 pm, features Dan Plonsey's “New Monstrosities of Jazz”. 

The multi-talented Cahill, the Bay Area's most vital proponent of new music, performs music from the American experimental tradition, including works by Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford, and Dane Rudhyar. Among the Cowell pieces is his polyrhythmic three-movement Rhythmicana, composed while he was incarcerated in San Quentin. Sarah also performs three of Czech-American composer Tomas Svoboda's Nine Etudes in Fugue Style, composed in the mid-60s. 

Sarah, who has a world-wide schedule of performances, will be playing with the Berkeley Symphony in December. 

The non-profit Berkeley Arts Festival, now in its 20th year, has been producing concerts, readings, and exhibitions in empty storefronts borrowed for a month from generous landlords in Downtown Berkeley. The current location was most recently Mike's Bikes, which has moved up the street to the former paint store. 

Plonsey's latest incarnation, the “New Monstrosities of Jazz” is made up of Steve Adams (alto sax), Jim Bove (drums), and Scott Looney (piano), Dan on sax, and Steve Horowitz (bass). 

According to Andrew Gilbert in the East Bay Monthly, “What sets Plonsey’s music apart is his gift for combining antic, occasionally self-lacerating humor with fundamental existential themes, all set to insistently tuneful music. Hilarious and deadly serious, he’s a painstaking composer who embraces the ridiculous and the sublime.” 

Dan Plonsey's Beanbenders played at the Berkeley Store Gallery (the first phase of the Berkeley Arts Festival) every Sunday night (in the old bank building on Shattuck and Bancroft) for a number of years starting in 1994, and made the festival famous. 

The suggested donation at each concert is $10-$20. 

For more information contact Bonnie Hughes: fabarts@silcon.com  

www.berkeleyartsfestival 

www.sarahcahill.com

A summer musical program always eagerly anticipated is the Annual Berkeley Arts Festival, held in downtown Berkeley at 2133 University Avenue, right next to Ace Hardware, offering a wide range of concerts and artistic events. The opening concert on July 12, 8 p.m. will present Pianist Sarah Cahill, recently called "fiercely gifted" by the New York Times. She will perform again on July 25, 8 p.m. The programs to follow are listed below. 

July 13, 8 p.m. Dan Pionsey's New Monstrosities in Jazz. 

July 15, 8 p.m. Pianist Jerry Kudema, well known Berkeley musician. 

July 16, 8 p.m. FPR Trio 

July 19: Noon concert: Jerry Kudema 

July 21, 8 p.m. Holly Martins and Beep 

July 24, 4 p.m. Pianist Patti Deuter 

July 25, 8 p.m. Pianist Sarah Cahill 

July 29, 8 p.m. UpSurge! Jazz/Poetry Ensemble 

July 30, 8 p.m. Raise the Roof and Stop the War Sing-Along. (You simply can't miss this one!) 

July 31, 4 p.m. Rachel Durling, James Carmichael, violin and piano. 

With such an abundance of talent offered in this ambitious Berkeley Arts Festival, July promises to be a stellar month -- so enjoy!

Berkeley police have called off the search for a missing bicyclist after a hotel clerk in Roseville reported seeing him on Tuesday night, a police sergeant said. 

Anthony Michael Martin, 29, was supposed to meet his girlfriend, Amaya James, on Saturday night, but never did, James said. 

James and her parents began searching for Martin Saturday night, thinking the Berkeley physicist might have been riding his bicycle in the Oakland or Berkeley hills. 

Police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said the hotel clerk confirmed that Martin was staying in the Roseville area after police sent the clerk a photo of him. The clerk said Martin had his bicycle with him. 

Kusmiss said it appears Martin left for personal reasons.  

"Martin did not appear to be in distress and as an adult, he is legally allowed to make the choices he has made," she said. 

Berkeley police said they have advised James and her and family that Martin is no longer considered a missing person.

A fire at a vacant Berkeley apartment building on Monday night appears to have been sparked by Fourth of July fireworks on the roof, a fire deputy chief said today. 

The one-alarm fire was reported at 11 p.m. Monday at a two-story, nine-unit building at 3240 Ellis St. When firefighters arrived, they saw thick smoke coming from the roof, Berkeley fire Deputy Chief Gil Dong said. 

As firefighters prepared to attack the blaze, they discovered the building was vacant and took a more defensive approach, spraying hoses at adjacent buildings to protect those homes, he said. 

The fire was controlled by 12:30 a.m. and nearby residents whose homes had been evacuated were able to return. 

No injuries were reported, Dong said.  

Dong said a nearby Berkeley church owns the building, which had been used occasionally by church members but had been uninhabited for some time. 

The fire appears to have been sparked accidentally by fireworks, Dong said. 

"Fireworks are sometimes fun to play with, but this is the result," he said.

Family and friends of a Berkeley physicist who went missing after a bike ride over the weekend are asking for the public's help in locating him. 

Anthony Michael Martin, 29, might have been riding in the hills of Berkeley or Oakland when he went missing, his girlfriend, Amaya James, said. Another cyclist found his phone on Saturday on Tunnel Road in Berkeley.  

Martin is a former professional cyclist but might have been malnourished and fatigued over the weekend, James said. He was experimenting with fasting and might have struggled on the steep terrain. 

James and her parents have been searching the hills for him since Saturday night, when Martin was scheduled to meet her but never did. Berkeley police were meeting this afternoon to decide how to respond to his disappearance, James said. 

Police Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said that one of the challenges in searching for Martin is that he, as an accomplished cyclist, could have taken any number of routes, as Tunnel Road is a popular way to access many rides, some of which share the road with vehicles. 

Kusmiss said that Berkeley police officers performed a welfare check of Martin's apartment and confirmed that he was not home. Officers and investigators completed tasks today in an effort to locate Martin, but are asking for the public's help. 

Martin was most likely riding a fluorescent green and white road bike and wearing a gray and blue helmet, white cycling shoes, regular street clothes and possibly a blue Mountain Hardware backpack. 

Anyone with information about Martin is asked to call the Berkeley Police Department at (510) 981-5900.

The much-delayed, and often criticized, Southside Plan moved a step further to formal action on adoption on June 14, 2011, when the City Council heard a staff presentation and public testimony on the Plan during a special early evening Council workshop. 

“There is no action planned for this evening,” said Berkeley’s Planning Director Dan Marks, making one of his final presentations to the Council before retirement at the end of the month. “The goal of tonight’s meeting is to bring you back up to speed on what we did with the Southside plan and also what the zoning does for the southside, and also to review the next steps.” 

Marks said the Plan “continues to further development, transition development better from the campus to the rest of the community, promote higher densities closer to campus and lower densities moving into the rest of the community.” 

“We hope it enhances the business district although (it) may not go far enough as some would like and it protects some areas, having unique guidelines for the southside. It achieves a lot of what we wanted to achieve when we started this process in the 1990s…we did get there in the long run.” 

Marks complimented City staffer Beth Greene as a “terrific project manager” who had advanced staff work on the Plan after a several-year interlude with no City action. Planner Alex Amoroso also joined Marks and Greene at the staff table. 

After hearing public testimony, several Councilmembers offered their own comments and criticisms of the Plan. Incorporating language on affordable housing, re-thinking the lack of in-lieu fees for eliminating on-site parking from new development, and adjusting the zoning boundaries along Dwight Way were among the suggestions of Councilmembers. 

Mayor Tom Bates asked City staff to provide their responses to comments made by the public and Councilmembers before the Council takes up the Plan again in the fall. 

A familiar group of community members and representatives of organizations offered public hearing testimony before Council discussion. 

Retired planner John English who lives on Dwight Way and follows and comments on various City planning processes said he was “anxious to have the Southside Plan adopted relatively soon”, but urged the Council to resolve numerous “loose ends”, particularly “technical problems (that) do need to be addressed.” 

“I do want to say that the Southside Plan includes many good features, and yet these problems still need to be resolved. I hope they will be”, he concluded. 

Roland Peterson of the Telegraph Business Improvement District (TBID) asked for the “abolition of quotas” on business types in the district. He added Telegraph has a number of commercial vacancies “and we have had them for several years, especially since the major economic downturn. We believe that to help deal with the flexibility and the changes in the world economy, and the way people really live, that it’s time to eliminate the quotas.”  

“We have certainly asked the Planning Commission numerous times for this,” Peterson said. 

Jurgen Aust from the Dwight Hillside neighborhood association noted several omissions in the draft plan including lack of an open space element and added, transportation “is a major thing…we need the parking and transportation plans” for the Southside. 

Planning Commissioners Gene Poschman and Patti Dacey both spoke, renewed their criticisms of the Plan that had fallen on largely deaf ears at the Planning Commission. In contrast, they seemed to make some headway with a few members of the City Council. 

“I’ve handed out in writing what I want to put forth tonight”, Poschman said. He reminded the Council that the Chair of the Planning Commission asked the Commission to “hold your nose and please vote yes and send it to the Council.” 

“This is not a finished project in any way, shape or form”, Poschman said. He emphasized that the Planning Commission vote on the zoning regulations connected to the draft Plan was 5-2-2, with the fifth crucial vote coming from “a person who had never been on the Planning Commission”, a “one-night person” substituting for a regular Commissioner. 

Poschman reserved some of his most pungent criticism for the ‘car free housing’ component of the draft Plan. “I was shocked. Nobody is shocked any more. Car-free housing is a slogan. It’s not a program…there is no data that says if you make car-free housing that people don’t have cars. So Dan (Marks) has thrown away what he insisted on being in the Downtown Plan”, that is in-lieu fees for required parking which could run as high as $40,000 paid to the City for every required parking space not built. 

In the Southside Plan, Poschman emphasized, “there’s no reduced fee for parking because there’s no parking in this thing…It’s just an anomaly which just boggles the mind.” 

Calling the Plan, “antediluvian”, he added “there is no sustainability in here.” 

“There’s almost an incentive here for people not to build downtown and to build here and in other places in Berkeley.” “I’m with John English”, Poschman concluded, “I think it can be salvaged but there’s a lot of work to be done.” 

“This is a not quite ready for prime time plan”, said Planning Commissioner Patti Dacey, speaking next. “I feel like this is a plan to ensure that nothing is ever built downtown. (Southside is) right next to downtown….and we’re saying come build here, we’re going to have very few requirements, we don’t care about green, we don’t have particularly strong affordable housing, we’re not going to charge you for not having parking…you build a really big building here and there’s no requirements.” 

“So I sort of feel like Southside is Texas, living next to California”, Dacey added.  

“The driving interest was affordable housing” in the original work on the Plan, Dacey said. “The entire reason for density was affordable housing. And it was like the major issue of both the city and the citizens.”  

Now, after court decisions that have weakened the power of cities to require affordable housing, “they kept the density, and they stripped out the affordable housing” from the draft Plan, she said. 

I spoke next, focusing on open space issues. I said that the Southside had no permanent public open space or municipal recreation facilities and no plans for any, despite the fact that more than ten percent of Berkeley residents live in the neighborhood. 

I encouraged the Council to add a public open space element to the Plan and plan in the long term for the acquisition and development of park space, just as the City did in past decades with various other municipal parks including Civic Center Park and Willard Park. 

Local developer Evan McDonald spoke next, saying his firm—which has a big housing development pending in the Southside—generally liked the Plan but had “just two modifications that we’re proposing you make.” 

The first “is the elimination of the density limitations in the CT and RSMU zoning areas for group living accommodation projects.” He said, for example, a project on a 10,000 square foot lot could only have 29 people living in it and that the zoning board should regulate density instead in proposed projects “and deny them if they don’t like it. Limitations aren’t needed.” 

He also asked for what he characterized as an “administrative correction” which would allow a developer to entirely eliminate setbacks of buildings and side yards in the RSMU zoning area without asking for a variance. 

After the public testimony was finished, Mayor Bates asked Dan Marks to respond to the public comments.  

“In terms of the technical comments made by several people we can come back with revisions’, Marks said 

“In terms of the broad comments made, having an open space element, revising the transportation plan, coming back with revised significant revisions to this project we do not have the resources to engage further with this project at any time soon.” 

“We understand that it is not as complete as some people would like”, Marks said “but it’s an incremental improvement, a good step in the right direction.” 

Councilmembers then individually commented on the Plan. 

“The transportation plan, is an important element but I don’t know that I agree with which staff has said about that”, Bates said. “I don’t know where you get more open space in that area”, he added.  

“I’m personally prepared to say, even though I don’t like it, I’m willing to live with not having a more updated transportation plan or open space plan.” 

In terms of “comments about the density, housing and stuff…we need to look at that.” 

Councilmember Gordon Wozniak said the Southside “is an appropriate area for more density.” “This is a perfect place for car-free housing”, he said because “the vast majority” of students “don’t use cars, they use other means of transportation.” 

“Car free housing is a very green thing, and I think we want to encourage that.” 

The Southside is “where you want density,” Wosniack said. However, he said, he thought the R-3 zoning area should stop at Dwight Way rather than extending out of it. “There’s all kind of conflict in the areas, particularly between Derby and Dwight Way, with the mini dorms creeping up, where people put in tremendous numbers of people in small spaces.”  

“Creating more housing north of Dwight Way is a good thing for the neighborhoods to the south of that, in my opinion.” 

‘It’s also good for the students because they will be able to live closer to where they’re going to class. And it will relieve the pressure happening now, where we’re getting these mini-dorms with 2 or 30 people to a single family dwelling, coming out into the neighborhoods and actually causing lots of problems.” 

Councilmember Jesse Arreguin presented the Council with a list of policies from previous drafts of the Southside Plan that had been “deleted over the course of the process or significantly modified.” 

He said he wanted a Plan adopted, but said there were “serious concerns that have been raised by Mr. Poschman and Mr. English that need to be addressed”, particularly having a policy on affordable housing. 

Arreguin said he supported a car free housing zone, but “we may want to consider applying in the Southside” in lieu fees for parking. 

He said the Plan should have “policies that encourage the university to prioritize its land for the development of housing for students. The university as we know is not doing that good a job providing housing for the students…” 

He also supported modifying the zoning boundary along Dwight Way, limiting higher densities to land parcels that front on Dwight. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington delivered extended remarks, saying, “in response to the hundreds of students who make up the majority of people who live in this neighborhood, there was substantial language put into the Plan emphasizing the prioritization of student housing in the Southside”, but those policies and affordable housing policies are no longer in the draft. 

“How much more clear do students have to be about what they want in their neighborhood?” he asked. 

“We certainly need affordable housing language. We need student housing, we need affordable student housing but we also need general student housing.” 

Councilmember Susan Wengraf criticized some of the graphics in the draft plan, saying the zoning map “is almost impossible to read…It doesn’t help us up here who are trying to deal with the zoning changes.” 

She also wondered how group living accommodations could be created with the proposed requirement of 90 square feet of open space per resident, and said “I think we need to have a uniform affordable housing policy that applies to every area of the city. I don’t think we can separate one area from the city from another and make special provisions that don’t apply to everybody.” 

Mayor Tom Bates agreed with Wengraf that there should be uniform affordable housing policies city wide, and also asked City staff to compare Downtown Plan policies with Southside Plan policies and explain the differences. 

Councilmembers Darryl Moore, Max Anderson, and Linda Maio didn’t offer comments during the Council discussion.

With cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures in place to fill the bulk of a billion-dollar budget gap resulting from steep cuts in state funding, the University of California staff is preparing to recommend to the Board of Regents that roughly one-quarter of the shortfall be offset with tuition and fee increases, UC Vice President Patrick Lenz said today (Friday, July 1). 

Only the Board of Regents can pass a budget or raise tuition. A tuition increase would be among several options presented to the Regents for consideration when they meet July 12-14 in San Francisco. 

Lenz, the UC system’s vice president for budget and capital resources, said it had been determined that an annualized tuition increase of 9.6 percent beyond the 8 percent previously approved by the Regents for the 2011-12 school year would cover nearly $150 million of the $650 million funding reduction in the state budget approved by the state Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this week. 

Because of these cuts and more than $350 million in unfunded mandatory cost increases largely consisting of unsupported students and rising contributions to the employee retirement plan and health benefits, UC is facing a budget shortfall of $1 billion. 

Gov. Brown had proposed a funding reduction of $500 million in January, but the budget plan he signed Thursday (June 30) cut UC’s funding by $650 million for 2011-12, decreasing state support for the University from a high of $3.25 billion in 2007-08 to $2.37 billion. The total reduction could rise to $750 million projected state revenues do not materialize. 

“We reported to the Regents in May that if we were to receive additional cuts beyond $500 million, we would have to offset those cuts with a dollar-for-dollar tuition increase,” Lenz said. “Our campuses and the UC Office of the President already have cut to the bone – implementing administrative efficiencies, furloughing and laying off employees, consolidating and eliminating programs, increasing class sizes, delaying faculty hires, reducing services and delaying purchases, among other actions.” 

Lenz added: “We will present to the Regents a variety of measures that we believe will preserve the quality of education, research and public service benefiting Californians in every part of the state, and ensure access to students from families with low and moderate incomes through financial aid.” 

As of 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 5, 2011, neither [the Berkeley Police Department] or family or friends have had contact with missing cyclist Anthony Michael Martin. 

On Saturday, July 2, 2011 at about 10:45 p.m., a Berkeley woman reported to the City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) that her boyfriend, 29 year old Anthony Michael Martin, had not returned from a bike ride. According to the girlfriend, the two had spoken earlier in the day and were to meet for dinner at 8:00 p.m. She went to his apartment at 8:00 p.m., and the lights were off and no one was home. He had told her that he was going for a bike ride and may have left at about 6:00 p.m. 

A community member (a cyclist) had found Mr. Martin’s phone near the Fire Storm Memorial Garden along Tunnel Road in Oakland and had reached the girlfriend to return the phone. (see general area map ) 

BPD officers did a welfare checked of his apartment, forced entry and found that he was not home. The case officer followed the BPD Missing Person procedures – writing a preliminary report, calling local hospitals, coroners’ offices, entering him into MUPS – a Missing Persons national computer database system and reaching out to any family or friends in the area. BPD contacted neighboring agencies and sent out a Critical Reach flyer with Martin’s picture on it. Some of the cycling route pass through many jurisdictions – City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD), University of California Police Department (UCPD), City of Oakland Police Department (OPD), East Bay Regional Parks (EBRPP) and Contra Costa County Sheriffs. 

Mr. Martin is an accomplished experienced cyclist and one of the many challenges in this investigation is determining what route he may have taken of so many that are possible in the Berkeley, Oakland, East Bay Regional Parks and Contra Costa geographical areas. Tunnel Road is a very popular route to access many rides, some that travel long, windy roads that cyclists share with vehicular traffic. 

 

Today, BPD officers and investigators went over their checklists and completed additional tasks in an effort to locate Martin. We are asking for the community’s support with this Missing Person’s case. If anyone has seen him, please call the 24 hour BPD Non-Emergency line at (510)981-5900. Mention Missing Cyclist. BPD Case # 2011-36608.

(July 4, 2011) -- With the July 4th bombs (at this very moment) bursting in air and the fog basking at bay, I find myself recalling a long-ago, fog-cursed day that I was part of the pyrotechnic gang in charge of the Chronicle-sponsored 1976 Bicentennial Fireworks Show on Alcatraz Island. 

Several years earlier, I had hooked up with Jerry Gertz and the crew from AstroPyrotechnics. As a teen in the suburbs of outer LA, I had built bottle rockets and conjured homemade fireworks with store-bought saltpeter and magnesium shavings gathered from a metal shop so interning with a pack of real-life, paid, professional pyro-geeks was a dream-come-true. 

We had done fiery extravaganzas from the Oakland Coliseum to the Hollywood Bowl (“the 1813 Overture,” natch, complete with pyrotechnic cannon fire) but it was still a rare and special honor to be chosen as the team to light up the Bay on the night of our country’s Bicentennial.

By mid-day, we were hard at work parceling out our secured crates of explosive goodies. We set up our long wooden containers and filled them with sand into to hold the metal “mortars” used to fire the powerful aerial shells. The biggest shells were the size of cantalopes. All the shells came equipped with long lengths of papery “match” – the fuses used to light to set the “works.” (When firing a volley, we would run an additional length of match to connect a series of aerials together so they would blast off nearly simultaneously.) 

We knew the drill. When the time came, we would follow a detailed choreography, ducking-and-dashing to the mortars and using blazing road-flares to set fire to the match. The fuse would ignite the bomb of the shell, blasting it skyward. A second internal fuse would create a trail of sparks chasing the invisible burning shell until it reached altitude where a burst of flash powder would turn the encased copper, strontium, iron and magnesium particles into ooh-and-ahhh-inspiring cascades of patterned color. 

It was the first time I’d been trusted to wield a flare and light the mortars alongside the grizzled vets. Adding to the excitement, Charles Kuralt had come out with a CBS film crew to profile out labors and all seemed well and good. But after Kuralt left, the sun went down and the fog came in -- about 15 minutes before the show was timed to begin.

We had our mortars lined up in sandboxes pointed at the sky but when we sent the aerials off, they simply vanished, followed only by a brief blush in the underside of the fog as the flash-powder and metallic compounds ignited. (The next day, friends watching from the Berkeley Hills reported that only the highest-bursting shells were visible -- and then only the top half of the bursts broke through the fog-bank.)

Meanwhile, back on the island, we received a frantic phone call from the SF shore telling us to stop the show and cut the sponsor's losses. After stowing our huge inventory of undetonated aerial rockets, we noticed a strange glow flickering on the mesa above the level spot where we had set up our battery. I raced to the top of the hill and discovered a story that (fortunately) was not to be uncovered by the local press: "Aborted Fireworks Show Sets Alcatraz Ablaze."

I started stamping patches of flaming grass with my boots and was soon joined by several other members of the pyro crew. It took a few desperate, breathless minutes, but we finally stomped the fire into submission.

What followed was much less exciting.

In the rush to cancel the fogged-out show, whoever was supposed to dispatch the boat to return us to shore, was not alerted. (We were left to wonder if this was intentional. After all, a lot of people felt disappointed and it could seem that we, as the blokes most responsible for the promised fireworks extravaganza, were the most eligible goats to be scaped.)

So there we were, stranded on Alcatraz Island with only the fog and the night chill for company.
 

We tried calling for help but there was no response. We called the Coast Guard but they dismissed our calls (apparently thinking a message that began "We're trying to escape from Alcatraz" was a prank).

Fortunately, one of the pyro-files left behind on the island was a state official who had business in Sacramento the next day (no, it wasn't the omnipresent Willy Brown). He placed a couple of calls and, finally, the first-responders responded. A Coast Guard vessel arrived at the Alcatraz dock and we rode home in style.

I used to REALLY dread it each year when it was time for my birthday to come around. When I was a kid, my big sister Ann used to get all huffy because I was getting all the attention and make my life miserable. And then when I started getting older -- well, that's the point. I got older.

Then one year my former boss Robert Treuhaft took me to dinner at Chez Panisse on my birthday and everything suddenly changed. My birthday suddenly became important and special. Not only was the Chez Panisse dining experience magical for someone like me who could barely afford a night out at Brennan's, but Bob also kept me regaled with stories from his past life when he was an attorney for the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, worked for FDR in Washington DC during World War II, helped write his wife's pivotal book, "The American Way of Death," was knee-deep in the 1960s civil rights movement -- and had a whole bunch of other stories too. He even knew Alice Waters. 

"The night that Sproul Hall was surrounded by police," Bob told me, "and Mario Savio made his famous speech against being part of the academic machine that was grinding him down, my wife [Jessica Mitford] and I were at home playing Boggle when someone called to see if I could come down and represent the students being arrested...." 

I just Googled Mario's famous 1964 speech, BTW. Here it is. And what he said is still relevant today -- even much more relevant in fact. "There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" 

So, anyway, Bob got me started in the habit of not dreading my birthdays any more but, rather, beginning to look forward to them instead. So now I save up my money all year long and then when my birthday arrives every year, I am THERE. At Chez Panisse. 

My son Joe couldn't make it this year because he was still working as a sound mixer on Leah Meyerhoff's new Berkeley-based movie, "Unicorns". I think they were out filming a scene in Orinda that night. So I asked Tanya Simmons to come with us instead. Tanya used to live next door to me down on Tenth Street back in the 1970s and she was like a daughter to me so she fit right in. And then of course my daughter Ashley and her fiance Hugo also came along. 

First course? A raspberry aperitif and lobster on toast. Followed by hand-rolled spinach pasta filled with ricotta cheese. Yummers. Then we had rib-eye steak and salad and some sort of fabulous cream puff all covered with blackberries for dessert. 

Then our waiter asked me if I wanted a tour of the kitchen. Oh yeah! So I got to see Chez Panisse's whole back-stage operation up close and personal, a Berkeley-foodie-wannabe's dream come true. 

And then the bill came. Yikes! But was it worth it? Yes and no. 

A wonderful evening spent being pampered at Chez Panisse while hanging out with one's wonderful family and making one's birthday not seem so bad? Yes Yes Yes! Spending enough money to have supported an orphan in war-torn Afghanistan or Palestine for a year or giving one dollar apiece to over 400 homeless people in Berkeley and thus working my way into Heaven instead of just wallowing in indulgence? No No No. 

"Wonder what they will have on the menu next year?" I asked Ashley. Next year I will be turning the big Seven-Ohh.

It was a bad business day on Telegraph Avenue, July 4, for most of the hungry businesses that were open and as one native Berkeleyan explained it "historically, Berkeley is a town we leave on the Fourth." 

Telegraph avenue had that you-loved-me, but you-left-me-look as shoppers either left town (like this reporter), or checked out the Berkeley Marina crafts fair. 

This off-the-beat South side reporter shot through the Alameda tube for the "Island City's” award-winning, all-American, July 4th extravaganza-parade (There were 175 "floats"). As I shot through the Alameda tube, bound for the Island City, I didn't realize I was entering the "Twilight Zone." 

The parade was so-not-Berkeley and then again it was. Some of the "floats" promoted political causes and candidates. Other "floats" were right out of the wild west--prancing horses and six-shooting cowboys and caballeros. The guns sounded real, but were realistic stage props that would have landed the perps in the hoosegow in Berkeley where our police eschew the gun--even when the gun is a rumor or false report. 

I schmoozed some of the 3,000 plus attendees, meeting, among others, three cowpokes from Montana, an Alameda County Sherriff’s deputy, the event communications volunteer, a family with mouthfuls of Pizza. 

As the Unitarian-Universalist open-bus drifted by on a cloud (they were singing Pete Seeger), I asked, "Is God present?" The answer was "yes." Now I've seen a Unitarian who believes in God. (Berkeleyans would have asked, "Whose God?). 

The military deployed an array of antique weaponry that would have started a riot in our military averse Berkeley culture (the fumes from the old engines stank up the parade route); the parade passed a large Coast Guard recruiting station, and the U.S.S. Hornet, a legendary WW2-carrier swayed-by. Disabled vets saluted the crowds as they passed in review. 

The delighted, often-cheering crowd was hardly diverse, but I did meet an African-American PhD., who works in Berkeley. I indelicately asked whether she felt "marginalized;" (she was one of no more than ten African Americans in the crowd of mostly Whites and a handful of Asians). She said that as an African-American raised in Andover, Massachusetts, she had long gotten over feeling marginal. "I don't even notice anymore," she said. 

Back in Berkeley, I stopped off at Smokey J's in what I am now calling SOAS (south of Ashby on Shattuck), pronounced So Ass!-which is defined at Urban on-line Dictionary as far f-in out--to pig out on some poor pig's fat-ass shoulder (pulled-pork sandwich). 

The fourth of July is a time of disgust here in Berkeley where the whole sorry affair is disdained. We like the evening fireworks at the Marina but rarely can see it through the fog. (It came through bright and clear Monday night). An anti-fourth party was promoted outside the Med and the usual suspects ("Tree People") burned 13 U.S. flags on Tetley. 

"Why did "Tree People" torch 13 U.S. flags (did it symbolize the 13 original colonies)? 

"Nope," it was not a symbol of 13 colonies said "Tree People"; "we only had 13 flags." 

 

A nearby resident of the Marina heard fireworks all night of the 3rd as fireworks workers practiced firing. Big bucks went up in smoke, and pollutants flew according to the Marina-area resident. 

By the time this piggy hit the aver, (around 3p), the July 4th void was palpable. The day before had been so-ass, but the mood for the 4th was more sad-ass. Still there were some winners among the losers. The henna temporary tatto stand did well with students attending a student United Nations conference at the university. 

The United Nations students wandered down to Studio 6, the successor to Sather Gate Jewelers and made that business's day. Fred's market-Deli and Sam's had typical revenues, probably, according to Sam's, because most of the Teley restaurants were closed. The Med--as always--survived. But Volcom's business was way down. Moe's sales were down. The crochet-hat-guys outside Amoeba took a hit. 

While getting a lesson in martial arts from a young man who said he was a Black Panther, I got a real lesson in diversity. A "difference of opinion" arose when the Panther guy said that he had a permit to carry, as if, he said, he even needed one. The right to carry a gun was his constitutional right, he said, and he would not hesitate to bring his gun to Berkeley. 

He didn't like my telling him that whipping out even a B.B. gun here could put him on the fast track to Santa Rita jail. He refused further talk; when I refused to give him my e-mail address; still, we parted friends, I hope. 

---

 

Ted Friedman may stray from his South side beat but always returns to the always- exhilarating South side. You can follow him at twitter.com/berkboy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are newspapers still necessary? This question inevitably surfaces during a week in the country, where there’s no home delivery of the two papers we habitually read in Berkeley. 

Granted, it’s nice to distract a wandering mind during the ritual consumption of the coffee needed to bring the mind back into reasonable focus, and newspapers are a handy way to do that. I always skim the San Francisco Chronicle first, a task which doesn’t take long these days, especially because I can immediately put the glossy ad pullouts, the sports pages and any auto or real estate sections directly into the recycling box. Then, if there’s nothing more pressing to do, I might dip into the New York Times, but often it languishes unopened in its plastic bag, since I know I can read what I want online when I have time during the day. The Chronicle’s online effort is a different matter, seemingly edited by Cuisinart, forcing the reader to wade through oceans of trivia to get to the news, if there is any. 

What’s interesting about the Times these days, constantly evolving as it is, is that though it pretends to be a national newspaper, an awful lot of what it contains is parochial New York stuff, of interest only to current or former New York residents. Online, it’s easier to skip the NY-specific chatter and go straight to the good stuff: Paul Krugman, though sadly no more Frank Rich. 

The national news in the NYT, print or web, is spotty—Brad DeLong, Berkeley’s sharpest scalpel, frequently pokes deserved fun at its failings on his blog. Its attempt at Bay Area coverage is mostly Lite—stories which seem to be written for tourists, or perhaps newbies recently arrived, excited to be discovering sites and situations which are old hat to anyone who’s been around the Bay for more than two years. 

Looking for something to read in the country, it’s easy and pleasant to substitute very old back issues of the New York Review of Books or a couple of Jhumpa Lahiri’s addictive short stories into the breakfast decompression reading routine. Guests have been known to bring IPADs or Kindles to enable their habitual news consumption online, but that’s chancy because our country phone service and broadband internet are very flaky these days. (Is anyone home at AT&T anymore? We’ve called and called, they’ve come and come, but nothing seems to get fixed.) 

But what about the local news, my news junky friends will be asking at this point. And especially, what about those important developments on the Berkeley scene: home fires, missing persons, the occasional shooting, new restaurants? 

Luckily for me, in my current avocation a lot of the news comes to me. Readers email (when it’s working) or call (when it’s not). The civic stalwarts who have taken on the job of documenting what they care about on the local scene report stories, often in a “news analysis” frame, and send them to the Planet for posting. Bay City News tracks the big crimes and accidents with official sources, and we pass their articles along to Planet readers. A good bit of the local government news, the Berkeley City Council and the Zoning Adjustment Board in particular, can be watched online. 

And increasingly there’s a collection of reports in a variety of locations online which can be patched together to give a picture of what’s news in Berkeley. I dipped into three of them last week to assess what the top hits were on the Berkeley City Council agenda before watching the tedious video, and taken as a group they did a good job of informing me. 

Anyone who really cares about Berkeley doings might look from time to time at these sites: 

Sfgate.com, is the online presence of the Hearst Chronicle, augmented by “blogs” not edited by the Chron. 

Insidebayarea.com, from the Bay Area News Group, is an offshoot of Dean Singleton’s Media News empire, supplying a huge number of “local” papers (e.g. The Oakland Tribune, The San Jose Mercury News, the Berkeley Voice, the Contra Costa Times) with the output of an ever-shrinking number of reporters. One brave guy is still trying to cover Berkeley. 

The East Bay Express, in print and online weekly, continues to improve as it gets farther away from the unfortunate period when it was owned by the shrill and unpleasant New Times group. It offers reported articles covering Berkeley from time to time, and its letters and comments on line are a good source of informative opinion. 

The Daily Cal is U.C. Berkeley’s student newspaper, in print and online. They have a flock of student reporters who often cover things others miss, though not always completely accurately, but who’s perfect? Reader comments tend be rude, often juvenile. 

Berkeley Patch is a newish formulaic online-only offering now owned by the recently combined AOL-Huffington Post empire. There are many Patches around the country (at least two in towns named Berkeley, one in El Cerrito, another in Santa Cruz and many more) and they specialize in low-budget local coverage. Sample reader comment: “What gives Jesse Arreguin the right to say that Berkeley is a "sanctuary city?" What right does she [sic] have to wilfully [sic] violate federal law?” 

Berkeleyside is a serious and frequently interesting web-based endeavor by three local residents to provide hyperlocal news and lifestyle features in a variety of modes. Reader response uses the sometimes confusing Disqus system, which does allow more discussion (hence the name) than similar products. 

But lately anonymous ranters have been hijacking the comments on Berkeleyside.. Unfortunately, what seems to be the same crazies who did their best to destroy the Berkeley Daily Planet have now decided to use Berkeleyside comments to attack the Planet and me personally. They’ve gone after several other individuals as well in ways which tend to pre-empt subject matter discourse, prompting the founders to ban a number of the worst offenders recently. Like many Berkeley residents, I’ve occasionally been moved to add my voice to an interesting on-going discussion on their site, but this seems to set the crazies off, so I’ve decided to refrain from commenting there for the duration to avoid creating a distraction, out of respect for the importance of the forum Berkeleyside is trying to provide. 

So where does this leave the Berkeley Daily Planet? Mike and I originally re-started the print paper in an era when there was no other way for Berkeleyans to find out what was going on.. The Chronicle at the time did mostly Beserkeley stories, and other papers weren’t much better. The situation has improved so much since then that we don’t feel the same responsibility to supply basic news that we did then. 

And it’s a challenge, putting it mildly, for a two-person no-budget enterprise, even with the help of excellent dedicated unpaid reporters, to cover everything. We’ve gradually shifted gears to provide more analytic pieces instead, trying to fill a niche that’s still needed, especially for national and international topics. 

We’ve always been willing to publish all kinds of opinions, even (or especially) those we don’t agree with, though our legacy newspaper format doesn’t allow spontaneous comments. Where we differ from Berkeleyside is that we will only publish opinions, whether long commentaries or short letters, which are signed with the author’s real name. That’s the best mechanism for discouraging the intemperate. Occasionally I’ll send a letter that I don’t like back to a writer with a request that it be toned down, and they almost always oblige and usually improve the piece by doing so. 

But we’d still be happy to publish the output even of those who have been anonymously offensive on Berkeleyside, IF they’re willing to sign their names. Since we’re now non-commercial, we're glad that we aren’t selling clicks to advertisers—running only signed opinions tends to reduce submissions, which could be costly for a commercial site. If you’ve brave enough to sign your piece, just send an email to opinion@berkeleydailyplanet.com, and in due time I’ll put it online. 

My own first love is actually reasoned well-written long-form dialogue about matters of civic interest. Before I got mixed up with the Planet, I’d started an opinion-only website, Berkeley Free Press, which I’ve retained in quiescent form all these years. One Berkeleyside contributor, someone whom I’ve always respected because he signs his own name even though I frequently disagree with him, expressed a desire for a site online where extensive reasoned discussion could take place and survive in easily retrievable form organized by topic. Once again. I’d like to encourage him and anyone else who has similar desires to try out http://www.berkeleyfreepress.com/ .The format, generic Wordpress, could probably stand some improvement, so I’d welcome suggestions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richmond Councilmember Tom Butt writes: "The City of Richmond has a tradition of fireworks and the Oakland-East Bay Symphony on July 3 at at the Craneway Pavillion, part of the rehabilitated former Ford Assembly Plant and also part of Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park. As the fireworks begin, the Symphony breaks into a medley of stirring John Philip Sousa marches. This is the best Independence day celebration in the Bay Area." 

The Oakland East Bay Symphony provided a pops concert that had young and old audience members dancing in the aisles to top hits from the musical theater and movie tradition. A 13-year-old piano soloist, Mischa Gallant, played a movement from a Chopin concerto, and the enthusiastic audience clapped after all the flashy bits, just as they would in a jazz concert. 

One of the best moments came in the middle of a medley from The Sound of Music. The fire alarm went off, triggering intermittently flashing strobes around the cavernous room, punctuated by loud blasts of sound. No one panicked. It was clear that there was little risk of fire in a building which was mostly steel girders, so everyone assumed, correctly, that it was a false alarm. As we waited for it to be turned off, someone started syncopated clapping in between the shrieks-- spontaneously making music out of noise. Great fun. 

 

Dan O'Neill

 

 

Joseph Young

 

Preserve the Bartlett Houses; Gaza Flotilla; Where?Berkeley High and Gas Pipelines; Finding Gas Lines Near You; Women in Combat; Protect Children’s Programs; Israeli Women in Combat  

 

Preserve the Bartlett Houses 

My daily walks take me frequently past the two Bartlett Houses at the northeast corner of Blake and Fulton Streets. If I remember correctly from reading the landmark application about the site some time ago, they were built in 1877 and 1892. 

In addition to the two stately houses facing Blake Street, from Fulton Street you can see the lush backyard with many beautiful trees and the original carriage house, and even the tiny servants’ quarters attached to the older house. Taken as a whole, this is probably the most stunning Victorian scene that remains in Berkeley today.  

The new owner of the Bartlett site is Nathan George, who lives nearby. I understand that he has gutted most of the interior of both houses. Sadly, interiors of historic buildings are not protected by landmark designations. I sincerely hope that Mr. George understands how beloved this Victorian site is. There are many landmarks in Berkeley, some more worthy of the title than others, but this view is loved by neighbors and by people from all over town. I hope that it will be preserved in entirety rather than exploited for profit, as happens so often in Berkeley these days. 

Peter Schorer 

* * * 

Gaza Flotilla 

International outrage is mounting over suspected Israeli terrorist attacks on several of the flotilla ships docked in Greece and Turkey. Israel’s public relations propaganda spin machine has gone into overdrive claiming the flotilla is linked to terrorist organizations. Several members of Israel’s own security cabinet debunked these false claims. This was reported in two prominent Israeli newspapers, Maariv and Haaretz. Israel’s threat of banning journalists who cover the flotilla from Israel for 10 years was quickly rescinded in response to mounting international pressure. 

More than three dozen U.S. citizens are on board the “The Audacity of Hope,” including a former Israeli Air Force pilot, Yonatan Shapira, who has been an eye witness to some of the most egregious crimes committed by the Israeli Defense Forces. He echoed the strong sentiments of many disaffected American Jews stating, “I see it as an obligation of me as an Israeli and a Jew to help steer the wheel of this boat into Gaza, to send this message to the Palestinian people, to the Palestinian children in Gaza and the rest of the world, that they are not alone and we support them, and one day, they will be free.” Other passengers include, lawyers, doctors, social workers an 87-year old Nazi Holocaust survivor, Hedy Epstein; and the acclaimed writer, poet and activist Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Color Purple." 

Jagjit Singh 

* * * 

Where? 

A couple of small corrections to columnist Snodgrass's June 20 review of the Stein show at the MOMA. The famous quote "There is no there there" isn't really popularly misquoted (her article cites it as "There's no there", surely just a misprint) so much as misinterpreted. Stein was describing the loss she felt because the house she grew up in had been demolished, and the rest of the city greatly changed from her memory of it. (The full quote, for diehards, is fromEverybody's Autobiography: "What was the use of my having come from Oakland it was not natural to have come from there yes write about it if I like or anything if I like but not there, there is no there there.") I don't think it accurate to say that Stein's "time" in Oakland was "short": she was a resident from ages 4 (or maybe 5 or 6, there's some disagreement) to 17, her entire (conscious) childhood, attending Sabbath school at what's now Temple Sinai with classmate Judah Magnes(!). 

Dave Blake 

* * * 

Berkeley High and Gas Pipelines 

Your article on gas pipelines running under downtown Berkeley does not mention that Berkeley High School and over 3,000 students are at risk. Washington Elementary School is also at risk. 

Carol Reitan 

* * * 

Finding Gas Lines Near You 

I really appreciate your running the big article about the natural gas pipelines in the East Bay. Thank you! 

At the same time, I think you should know that getting to the pipeline maps is actually a lot easier than you describe. I know because I hunted down the maps myself as soon as I got the P&E mailing. The following is what worked for me: 

1) In the 3-fold leaflet ("Important things to know about natural gas safety"), under the "Know the location of gas pipelines" heading, are 2 website addresses. Go to the first address: www.pge.com/pipelinelocations 

2) Scroll down that page to the box with the wide black border. 

3) In the box, where it says "Enter Address", type in your street address (i.e., 2209 McGee), then press "Enter." 

4) Wait while the program finds the correct Google map segment and displays it. The map will include a marker for the entered address, and show the route of the pipeline close to your house. You can then scroll around the map and resize it just as one can with any Google map. 

I know, I know, ...the PGE directions for getting to the map really suck, but at least the map is actually easily accessible even if the directions are rotten. 

Katherine Pyle 

* * * 

Women in Combat 

Israel has not allowed women in combat in the past. That is a longstanding myth that they have and unless they have recently changed their policy it still holds 

A friend of mine was in an Israeli movie theatre years ago and there was an American film showing an Israeli woman in combat. The audience howled in laughter at the gross ignorance of the scene. 

Women are not the same as men and every decent society has recognized this and has made distinctions. The idea of women being killed in combat and held hostage and raped is abhorrent to sane people, which category excludes many so-called 'progressives.' 

It's appalling that a so-called antiwar paper could publish such offensive tripe. 

I should add that 99% of the many same sexers I have known have no desire to go into the army or enter the failed institution of marriage. 

I refuse to use the propaganda terms gay and straight or the obnoxious psychiatric terms homosexual and heterosexual whenever I can avoid them. 

Same sexer and other sexer are more neutral and accurate 

Michael Hardesty 

* * * 

Protect Children’s Programs 

California is still waiting for a budget that will protect preschool programs for young children. Parents are worried. They are uncertain of their own future. Many of them have been laid off or their work hours haven been reduced. They are able to hunt for new jobs with a will when their children are in the safety of a preschool or daycare where learning is taking place. 

Do we really want to take away the young child's right to receive early education in a safe environment? Can we as society think about the needs of those who have little power and very few economic means? 

If we create a caring society in which young children can play safely and receive early education there will be a healthy and happy future for all. Early education will motivate children to become life long learners. We will be investing in a future workforce of scientists, educators and doctors. We will be investing in thoughtful national leaders who will make our country powerful and peace loving at the same time. 

When a household has limited resources members of the household will not spend on themselves but will think instead about their responsibility towards their dependents. I am not able to think how at the national level we can abandon our dependents, cutting, for example, funding for early education. Are we not keen to educate our youngest citizens? Will cutting off aid to early childhood education fill the budget hole? 

Romila Khanna  

* * * 

 

I am responding to Mr. Hardesty's letter about Israeli women in combat. As far as I know, Israeli women were allowed to become fighter pilots in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) after a landmark court ruling in 1995. In the year 2000, Israel’s military service law was amended to allow women to serve in any capacity that male soldiers serve, including combat units. Israeli women serve in the infantry or mechanized units, or any other combat occupation. They make up a third of the IDF, and are treated as equals with males. Mr. Hardesty certainly has an outdated, keep-them-barefoot-and-pregnant view of women in modern society.  

 

One visit to the White House changed my perspective on what is possible for us to achieve today. I hope it might affect yours too.

Last month I was honored to receive an invitation from the White House, asking me if I wished to meet with President Obama and his senior advisers to discuss policies affecting the people I serve. Organized by the White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and the Young Elected Officials Network, which represents state and local electeds under age thirty-six, the briefing and visit promised me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ask questions of those who craft federal policies that affect the Bay Area. I was joined by my colleague on the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, Asa Dodsworth, along with Berkeley Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, East Bay Municipal Utilities Director Andy Katz, Alameda County Board of Education Trustee Marlon McWilson, AC Transit Board Member Mark Williams, and about 200 other electeds from across the country. 

In some ways, this was a trip down memory lane for me. My personal biography is more intertwined with the President than he might realize. He was born of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother; I had lived in three other countries before having the opportunity to call Berkeley my home. Despite his young age, a relative lack of experience in an elected capacity, and a funny name, he saw a distinct need to generate change from the stale politics of the past, and took the plunge. Sharing each of those three attributes myself, I was inspired enough by this bodacious move that I, too, chose to run for elected office three years ago. But since then, he on the national front, and I on a much smaller geographic plane, discovered just how difficult it was to push for fresh policies that depart so greatly from what we had been accustomed to – this, too, in the context of dramatic economic and partisan headwinds. When I read the submissions my constituents sent me in response to my solicitation for questions to ask of the President, it was palpable to me that disappointment and moroseness had supplanted the once-strong spirit of hope. 

However, the words I heard from the President’s senior staff – public servants like Council of Economic Advisors Chairman Austan Goolsbee, Office of Energy and Climate Change Representative Heather Zichal, and Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra – imbued me with a newfound sense of optimism. I do not believe that such mantras of the Administration as expanding development of new forms of clean energy, rebuilding the middle class, and providing access to health care to all – each of which were discussed at length – are mere talking points; they underscore a genuine commitment of this president to, in the face of vicious resistance from all sides, achieve many of the policies he had promised. 

The economy, while slow to restart, is being fueled by rapid expansion in the critical sectors of manufacturing and agriculture – a much different form of recovery than the previous one which indirectly led to the housing crisis that still affects our region. The latest in a long line of environmental grants, the Rooftop Solar Challenge, encourages consortia of municipalities and the private sector to propose strategies that would lower the administrative cost of permitting in rooftop solar installation. The Administration’s technology platform, driven by the goals of democratizing government data and bringing together entrepreneurs, has fostered a climate in which a starving art student who moonlighted as a waiter recently won, much less could enter, a design competition for a major federal contract. The Bay Area, a national leader in areas such as renewable energy generation, a green collar economy, and academic prowess, stands to deeply benefit from these initiatives. 

Certainly, one visit does not equate to months and years of advocacy for the right policies. Undoubtedly, there are many aspects of President Obama’s domestic and international platform with which you and I both have our qualms. It is then most noteworthy that President Obama reasserted to us his interest in continuing to hear from you, our constituents. This point was reiterated to the visitors of the White House over and over, and, to put money where the administration’s mouth was, a booklet was given to all attendees that had the contact information for the intergovernmental affairs director of every federal agency. I encourage readers to continue to submit to me their questions and input, which I will guide to the right contact. 

I return to Berkeley refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to fight the crises that we are slowly but surely overcoming. I have the audacity to be optimistic once again, and I hope that Berkeley’s residents might, too, see a glimmer of sun above the clouds. 

---

Igor Tregub is a Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Commissioner. Please contact him at itregub@gmail.com with any input you might wish to pass along to the Obama Administration.

President Obama’s April 13th speech about the economy emphasized cornerstone American values. Voters must understand these values to fully comprehend what’s at stake as Democrats battle Republicans over the Federal debt limit and budget for the 14 months prior to the 2012 election.

While acknowledging there’s a streak of “rugged individualism” in the American character, President Obama observed Americans also share the belief that “we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation.” As a community we build schools and roads. The President noted that Americans also share the belief that “each one of us deserves some basic measure of security,” which is why we have Medicare and Social Security. 

In a classic essay, Robert Reich wrote that embedded in the fabric of the American ethos are two positive narratives. The first is the Triumphant Individual, “the little guy who works hard, takes risks, believes in himself, and eventually gains wealth, fame, and honor” – this is the “rugged individualist” Obama alluded to. The second American narrative is the Benevolent Community, “Neighbors and friends who roll up their sleeves and pitch in for the common good” – this corresponds to Obama’s observation “that there are some things we can only do together.” 

There’s a tension between these two value statements: individualism versus the benevolent community. Occasionally in American history we’ve seen this tension boil over; as the West expanded, rugged individualists rushed to grab land and sometimes ran roughshod over laws and the needs of the community. In the present era, the tension between individualism and the benevolent community is played out on the battleground of taxes. Republicans believe that this generation’s equivalents of rugged individualists, entrepreneurs, are inhibited by taxes; that if there were lower taxes and less government, the free market would magically provide for everyone. Republicans minimize the notion of the benevolent community, replace it with the grim dictum, “you’re on your own.” 

In his April 13th speech, Obama observed that the notion of fair taxation ultimately derives from Americans’ belief in the benevolent community. “As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this [tax] burden than the middle class or those less fortunate… it is a basic reflection of our belief that those who have benefitted most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back.” The President noted that Republicans want to change this agreement, this “social compact,” and have proposed a budget “that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.” Obama provided his vision for America: “where everyone makes sacrifices but no one bears all the burden; where we provide a basic measure of security for our citizens and rising opportunity for our children.” The president called for shared sacrifice for the common good. 

Activist Van Jones has embarked on a nationwide rebuild the dream speaking tour to help Americans reclaim our core values. In a Huffington Post article Jones elaborated seven steps to renew America, ranging from fair tax policy to a manufacturing agenda that honors American workers. In his writings and his tour, Van Jones emphasizes the narrative of the benevolent community, that “we are all connected,” and core values including empathy, fairness, and civility. 

UC Linguist and political consultant George Lakoff observed, “Democracy is based upon empathy,” the notion that we are all members of a benevolent community. Historically, Americans have shared a concern for the common good and the welfare of all our citizens. We’ve believed that government can be a force for good when it serves all the people, not just the wealthy or powerful. 

The benevolent community values fairness. Americans value competition under fair conditions, “the level playing field.”. And we honor workers as well as entrepreneurs; we believe that everyone should receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, share in the rewards of their labor. We don’t believe that wealth and power should unduly influence democratic process and we don’t accept that corporations have the same rights as do individuals. Americans believe in responsible government that serves all the people and see good government as a vital part of our democracy. 

Finally, a benevolent community demands civility. Americans recognize that in a vital democracy each of us has a voice; that for all our voices to be heard – rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, blue state and red state – we must treat each other with respect. We understand that our democracy requires that we act with integrity and responsibility. In the words of Van Jones, “[We] stand for the idea that, in a crisis, Americans turn TO each other - and not ON each other.” 

Democracy is at risk. To defend it, Americans must reclaim our core values. 

---

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net

“Stupidity is caused, not by brain failure, but by a wicked heart. Insensitiveness, opacity, inability to make connections, often accompanied by low “animal” cunning. One cannot help feeling that this mental oblivion is chosen, by the heart or the moral will—an active preference.” 

Mary McCarthy, in a letter to Hannah Arendt (1964) 

______________________________________________ 

McCarthy began by discussing reasons for major cruelties affecting global events, (specifically what was asserted to be the “stupidity” of bureaucratic monster Adolf Eichmann), but then she extended her rejection of the “stupidity” defense, applying it to many major and minor crimes of human relations, insisting that no one had to be an intellectual giant to know right from wrong. 

Her uncompromising definition of “brain failure” as an “active preference” of a “wicked heart” seems irrefutable, not only in major atrocities, but in petty, personal cruelties. These include those little verbal stabs instantly retracted by the perpetrator with, “Oh, that was SO stupid, I didn’t mean to . . .“ 

 

The implication—if not demand—is that the victim should not be so touchy as to take offense. 

We all remember being on the receiving end of such slights and such excuses. What worries me sometimes is that I may have neatly erased from my memory, sent into “mental oblivion,” some occasions when I chose “stupidity,” chose to toss out an “insensitive” remark or some casual injury. As a human being, I can’t assume that I’m not capable of all varieties of human behavior.  

(Send a page from your own Commonplace Book, to be printed in this space.)

On our way to a Fourth of July block party this afternoon, Ron and I witnessed a mass emergence of gulf fritillaries. Ten or a dozen of them were fluttering around a passionvine-covered fence, getting accustomed to their wings. Some checked out the passionvine flowers, but with minimal interest. One had worked its way a few doors down the street and was filling up at a buddleia. By the time we passed that corner again, a couple of hours later, the butterflies had all dispersed. 

Gulf fritillaries—not true fritillaries, they’re members of a mostly tropical American family—are obligate pipevine specialists. Adults can nectar wherever they feel like; larvae require pipevine leaves. They sequester the plant’s toxins, as monarchs do with milkweed. The adults’ orange wings are a badge of unpalatability. Originally native to the Gulf Coast, gulf fritillaries followed ornamental pipevine plantings west to California, where they are now one of the most common urban butterflies. 

In terms of larval food plants, butterflies and moths run the gamut from narrow specialists to broad generalists—sometimes in the same genus or family. Their feeding preferences represent various outcomes of what James Scott (The Butterflies of North America) called “a perpetual ‘war’ between insects and plants.” As plants evolved chemical defenses against leaf-eating insects, butterflies and other insects countered with enzymes that detoxify those chemicals, and other adaptations. Scott again: “Few insect species can detoxify or tolerate the numerous plant poisons residing in a great array of plants; and because most insects can detoxify only a few poisons, most eat only a few plants—generally plants that are closely related.” 

The swallowtail family is a case in point. The blue-black pipevine swallowtail uses only pipevines, either the native California pipevine or exotic cultivars. Again, the larva acquires a chemical defense—aristolochic acid in this case—from the host plant. 

Anise swallowtails, patterned in black and yellow, rely on plants in the celery/carrot/parsley family that contain essential oils like anisic aldehyde. UC Davis entomologist Arthur Shapiro writes in his Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions that the larvae will eat filter paper if it’s coated with the proper oil. Formerly, they fed on native plants like yampah, biscuitroot, and water hemlock. But most populations have switched to two exotic species, sweet fennel and poison hemlock. Pierre Lorquin, who collected butterflies in California during the Gold Rush, noted that the swallowtails were already eating fennel. The larvae also have a taste for citrus leaves, but their economic impact has been limited. 

A third member of the family, the pale swallowtail, favors coffeeberry and ceanothus. According to Shapiro, females will sometimes lay their eggs on white sweet clover, which somehow smells right. Their offspring won’t eat it, though. 

The western tiger swallowtail is more eclectic in its diet, which includes sycamore, ash, cottonwood, willow, cherry, peach, almond, privet, lilac, and sweet gum. Adult western tigers are regulars in my back yard, and I keep wondering where they’ve parked their larvae. We’re surrounded by ashes and sweet gums, but there aren’t that many in the immediate block. 

Lately I’ve been seeing some kind of blue in the yard: Vladimir Nabokov’s favorite butterflies, although the species that was named for him is, inevitably, a satyr. This blue flies high and fast, and never sits down. Blues in general prefer plants in the legume family: lupine, lotus, vetch, locoweed. Notable exceptions are the western pygmy blue (goosefoot, pickleweed, Russian thistle) and the Sonora blue (dudleyas.) Lupines are not locally common. Maybe the blue’s larvae are on my neighbor’s sweet peas. 

Some blues, including the Eurasian large blue, have diverged from the typical lepidopteran vegetarian habit. Their larvae, tended by ants as a source of honeydew, are sometimes taken into the anthill where they repay their hostesses’ hospitality by eating the ant grubs. Caterpillars of the harvester, a small black-and-orange eastern butterfly, prey on wooly aphids. And of course there are the notorious killer inchworms of Hawai’i, moth larvae that have become ambush predators. It’s a strange world. 

Red admirals—a name Nabokov was cranky about, preferring the traditional ‘red admirable’—are regulars in the yard, likely because we’ve refrained from weeding out all the pellitory, their preferred host plant. These butterflies will also eat stinging nettles, which must have been their primary food before pellitory was introduced from Europe, as well as baby’s tears. 

Then there’s the generalist’s generalist, the painted lady. A concise version of its menu would include fiddleneck, borage, comfrey, thistle (including artichoke and cardoon), sunflower, plantain, nettle, lupine, sweet pea, mallow, and checkerbloom. Females never lay their eggs on woody plants like tree mallows, but the larvae will happily consume their leaves. 

We do our best to provide caterpillar chow for whatever is around. It’s a crapshoot; the pipevine swallowtails have ignored our offerings for years. Even so, we just planted a passionvine out front. Call it an act of faith. 

 

 

 

Twelve cities in California have rent control laws, including Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco. Berkeley's "Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance" was passed in 1980; Oakland's "Residential Rent Adjustment Program" was passed in 2007; and San Francisco's "Rent Ordinance" was passed in 2007. Enough time has passed to justify an independent empirical study of the effects of rent control, if any, on the quantity and quality of housing stock in these three cities. Why not start with Berkeley, Oakland, or San Francisco? 

About 53 percent of housing units in Berkeley are occupied by tenants/renters. Berkeley has the strictest rent control in the nation. It has rent ceilings, requires just cause for eviction, and forces landlords to pay interest payments on security deposits.  

About 55 percent of housing units in Oakland are occupied by tenants/renters. Under Oakland's Residential Rent Adjustment Program, tenants may only be given one rent increase in any 12-month period, and the rent increase cannot take effect earlier than the tenant's anniversary date. Tenants may file a petition to challenge a rent increase that they believe to be in violation of the "Residential Rent Adjustment Ordinance." Tenants can only be evicted for just cause.  

About 62 percent of housing units in San Francisco are occupied by tenants/renters. All San Francisco properties with a first Certificate of Occupancy that was issued prior to June 13th, 1979 are subject to rent control. If a rental unit was in regular use prior to June 13th, 1979, but does not have a Certificate of Occupancy -- an illegal unit -- the San Francisco Rent Board will still find the unit subject to rent control. This means rents can only be raised by certain amounts per year, which is tied to inflation. Tenants can only be evicted for one of fourteen "just causes."  

The percentage of renters in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco is much higher than the national average where about one-third of United States households live in rental housing 

Many economists argue that rent control reduces the quality and quantity of affordable housing. San Francisco rent control advocates argue that these studies are inapplicable because San Francisco is unique: the City has limited space to expand -- 49 square miles; the City is densely populated; and San Francisco zoning and anti-growth ordinances restrictions inhibit the addition of new housing. This means that without rent control, San Francisco will add too few units to make a significant dent in the City's housing shortage. To prevent an exodus of the middle class workforce due to lack of affordable housing would have dire consequences on the City’s economy. The ability of this work force to be able to live a middle class life style and afford shelter is essential. Thus, the argument goes, for San Francisco as a whole to prosper, some form of rent control is essential. A study would examine the validity of this argument. 

Clearly, rent control can combat out-of-control housing prices. It allows tenants to devote a smaller percentage of their income to rent allowing them to spend their money elsewhere. This is extremely beneficial for low income or fixed income renters, especially during a recession. But how has rent control effected the general population of renters and potential renters? 

Rents serve to compensate housing providers of existing housing units and developers of new units for the cost of providing shelter and provide economic incentives needed to attract new investment in rental housing, as well as maintaining existing housing stock. Has rent control inhibited new construction in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco, or led to the deterioration of existing housing by abandonment of unprofitable property or by condominium conversions or Ellis Act evictions? 

One study, using 1980 and 1990 Census data, showed Berkeley's rent control program resulted in a 10 percent reduction in rental housing stock over the decade.  

A more up-to-date study is needed. 

"The San Francisco Housing DataBook" was released in 2002. When San Francisco Supervisor Amos Brown called for a report on how rent control had devastated the housing market, the Board of Supervisors voted the proposal down. Instead, the "DataBook" became an affordable housing study, not a study on the effects of rent control on housing stock. Obviously, the Board of Supervisors did not want to touch a hot button issue like rent control. 

A study of the effects of rent control in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco on the quantity and quality of housing stock in these three cities would be useful to inform politicians and the general public about rent control issues. Of course, any attack on rent control would be vigorously opposed by the tenant union in each city. 

A reader who can’t get a straight answer asks “What is this case management thing? How can I get it and do I want it? Is it true you have to turn over your Medicare or be on SSI and MediCAL? What can “they” do for me that I can’t do myself? And how much does it cost?”
xxxx 

Case management refers to the coordination of services on behalf of an individual. In the United States, it is a specific term used by the health care system. Medical case management is a general term referring to the facilitation of treatment plans to assure appropriate medical care is provided to disabled, sick or injured individuals. Or it may refer to a specific approach for the coordination of community mental health services. Legal case management provides a set of management approaches for law firms or courts. 

The Case Management Society of America’s definition is "a collaborative process of assessment, planning, facilitation and advocacy for options and services to meet an individual's health needs through communication and available resources to promote quality cost-effective outcomes." Wikipedia refers to “a procedure to plan, seek, and monitor services for different social agencies and staff on behalf of a client. Usually one agency takes primary responsibility for the client and assigns a case manager, who coordinates services, advocates for the client, and sometimes controls resources and purchases services for the client. …” 

The Certified Case Manager (CCM) credential is available to health care providers licensed to practice independently in our fragmented health care system. For example, it would include Registered Nurses but not Licensed Practical Nurses, who are not licensed to assess and evaluate the health of their clients. Here’s another example-- in real life New York, the mayor’s proposed budget cuts referred to Department for the Aging funding reductions “to case management which is social workers going into the homes of frail, homebound elders…” 

The vast differences possible among providers are apparent in another example, derived from a senior housing project corporate definition: “XYZ Resident Services offers one-on-one case management for disabled residents. We collaborate with local service providers to link residents with home and community-based resources that improve their quality of life… The Service Coordinator educates residents on available services and encourages residents to be proactive in meeting their social, psychological, and physical needs.” 

According to the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, "A Certified Geriatric Care Manager (CGCM) is a health and human services specialist who helps families who are caring for older relatives… trained and experienced in any of several fields related to care management, including, but not limited to nursing, gerontology, social work, or psychology, with a specialized focus on issues related to aging and elder care." 

My friend Minako Matsui, CLPF #446, is a CMC [Care Manager, Certified] Licensed Fiduciary & Geriatric Care Manager. Her specialty is elder care management. She responded to my request for a professional social worker’s perspective on case management and senior citizens: 

“Case Management is about helping elders/seniors and their families understand and make best use of the many services available to assist them with their unique situation. It begins with intake and assessment to alleviate the issues at hand – whether it be applying for Medi-Cal, MOW (Meals on Wheels,) IHSS or housing, and continues with coordination and follow up as needed. 

Case Management for elders/seniors is usually handled by 501(c)(3) nonprofit private agencies that are funded by private funds, religious organizations, and/or city or county governments. They have intake workers who assist anyone by providing information and assistance, referring to other sources and assigning case workers (Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Social Work) for various levels of interventions. Case workers are often obligated to report to the funding source the outcome of their interventions-- how many contacts they had with each senior result in success or failure. They also need to report demographic information in general terms without disclosing each individual’s identity. 

Case management could also be handled by hospital discharge Registered Nurse (RN) managers… Alameda County Social Services has an Adult Protective Services (APS) and Public Guardian’s office. They have their own social workers (a.k.a. case workers) who are assigned to a number of elder cases. 

 

As a private Geriatric Care Manager, I specialize in elder care management. I visit my client at home to assess, identify needs, provide advocacy, make a care plan, accompany client to doctor’s appointments, monitor, re-evaluate client’s changing needs and to meet client’s goal – to promote wellness, dignity and quality of life for the elder as well as his/her family, if any. With my fiduciary license, I can serve as a daily money manager, Power of Attorney for Finance and Health Care (a.k.a. Advance Health Care Directive) agent, and Conservator.” 

xxxx 

NEWS 

“Seniors fought hard to prevent damaging cuts to services in their neighborhoods… Advocacy continues to work in New York City. Senior center funding has been fully restored and new funding for innovative senior centers will move forward…case management was not fully restored…” http://www.facebook.com/CSCSNY. Interestingly, the breakdowns of cuts/restorations indicates that meals’ raw food costs=35 cents per meal. 

Berkeley’s Aging Services Manager flimflams in the June Tri-Center Nugget. “Come July, there could be many new changes within the Aging Services Division. As we have been discussing the last few months, we have proposed creating a Social Service Unit at the West Berkeley Senior Center with the Meals on Wheels operation, and move the existing WBSC programming to SBSC. The proposal has not yet been adopted by the Berkeley City Council, but we have been preparing in advance so if it is accepted we will be able to implement as smooth of a transition as possible. … It is important to note that both SBSC and NBSC will have ‘outstation’ offices where case managers will spend time each week serving folks who come to the centers. This way you won’t have to go to WBSC to see your case manager, but instead can make an appointment to see them at your home center.” 

On June 24, 2011 the Silver Alert Act, S.1263, legislation that would create a national network for locating missing adults and seniors, was reintroduced. It was first introduced in 2008. It would create a program modeled after the AMBER Alert system that helps to find missing children and seeks to provide federal coordination and assistance to local and state law enforcement agencies. 

Here’s a cutie: Management of a rent-subsidized housing project for senior citizens and some disabled persons has installed a TV in the community room, as it’s currently called. That’s nice. However, it does not get Closed Captioning. Concurrently, the community room is being closed at 9 P.M. Apparently management is unaware that many old people aren’t able to get to sleep until long after the witching hour. 

An elderly woman opens an email that leads her into the welcoming arms of an international crime ring. The title of this fifteen-minute comedy(?) based on a true event is The Gran' Scam of Things. Google the title. 

Sixty-seven year old, 39-time Grand Slam tennis winner Billie Jean King has had two complete knee replacement surgeries (arthoplasty). Read about her recovery and fitness routine. http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/article/Billie-Jean-King-on-new-knees-and-boomer-fitness- 

Thousands of people toiling to cool the crippled nuclear reactors in Fukushima are engaged in jobs the Japanese consider kitanai, kitsui and kiken -- dirty, difficult and dangerous. “It would benefit society if the older generation took the job because we will get less damage from working there,” according to 72 year old cancer survivor Yasuteru Yamada, calling on people age 60+ who have “the physical strength and experience to bear the burden of this front-line work.” But he has triggered a debate about the role of the elderly in Japan, the meaning of volunteerism, and the growing reality that the Tokyo Electric Power Company, owner of the reactors, will face an increasingly difficult time recruiting workers. [“Elders Offer Help at Japan’s Crippled Reactor” by Ko Sasaki for The New York Times June 28, 2011, page A4 of the New York edition] 

June 2011 marked LGBT Pride month. The New York State Senate passed legislation requiring the State Office for the Aging to assess the needs of traditionally underserved elders—including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older adults. The bill awaits New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's signature to become law. It also calls for NYSOFA to provide technical assistance to the organizations that serve LGBT older adults, and to report annually on those services to the governor and state legislature. 

Inside E Street is a TV series worth listening to and watching. It takes a nonpartisan look at matters that are of special concern to persons age 50+, e.g. guardianship and conservatorship. Bay Area PBS channels. 

xxxx 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: July, August. September 2011 Call to confirm, date, time, place 

Wednesday, July 6 Noon – 1 P.M. End of Life Planning Workshop at Central Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Responsible end-of–life planning can save heartache and help preserve family legacy. Come learn the basics about wills, trusts, powers of attorney, advanced health care directives and more in a supportive setting. 

Wednesday, July 6 6-8 P.M. Albany branch of the Alameda County Library. 1247 Marin Av. Lawyer in the Library. Free 15 minute consultation with an attorney who will clarify your situation, advise you of your options, get you started with a solution, and make a referral when needed. Advance registration required. Sign up in person at the Reference desk or call (510) 526-3720 ext. 5. Also August 3 and Sept. 7. 

Wednesday, July 6 10 A.M. – Noon North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council meeting. Public invited. 1901 Hearst. (510) 981-5190. Call to confirm. 

Monday, July 11 7 P.M. Author Talk at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Av. Amy Block Joy, author of Whistleblower, the nail-biting true story of what happens when someone with a lifelong habit of going along to get a long is confronted with criminal activity she can’t ignore. Free. (510) 524-3043. 

Tuesday, July 12 9 A.M. Mastick Senior Center, 1155 Santa Clara Av., Alameda. Cane Do. Join John Dexheimer for self-defense and exercise. Specialized senior self-defense training class incorporating use of a cane. Wear comfortable clothing. Bring your cane! Sign up in Mastick Office. A donation of $3.00 is suggested. 

Wednesday, July 13 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Albany branch of the Alameda County LibraryPoetry Writing Workshop with Christina Hutchins, poet laureate of Albany, will facilitate. Free. No registration required. Drop in and work on your poetry with a group of supportive writers. Dan Hess (510) 526-3720 x17. Also August 10 and Sept. 14. 

Thursday, July 14 7 – 8 P.M. The Summer Concert Series. El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. Ramana Vieira, the New Voice of Portuguese World Music, is a premier contemporary Fado artist. Fado is a melancholy and often-mournful music similar to the American blues as it tells stories of heartache and disappointment. (510) 526-7512. 

Thursday, July 14 1 P.M. Mastick Senior Center, Alameda. Drumming Circle. Join the Mercy Retirement Community Drumming Circle. Drumming is known to improve circulation, loosen stiff joints, stimulate the mind. Sign up in the office. Free.Friday, July 15 8 A.M. – 2 P.M 8^th Annual Healthy Living Festival. Compassion & Choices of Northern California is a participant. Oakland Zoo, Knowland Park, 9777 Golf Links Road. Presented by United Seniors of Oakland and Alameda County. Health screenings, financial planning information, medication dropoff/disposal program. Enjoy a walk through the zoo. (510)729-0852. 

Monday, July 18 7:00 P.M. Berkeley West Edge Opera preview. Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Sponsored by Friends of the Kensington Library and a Meet the Composer grant. Director and Kensington resident Mark Streshinsky and cast singers will look at how an opera is created and a taste of the music and drama of the finished product of an original opera, "Caliban Dreams," inspired by Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Free. (510) 524-3043. 

Wednesday, July 20 1:30 P.M. BerkeleyCommission on Aging. Meets on 3^rd Wednesday at South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis. Confirm (510) 981-5178. 

Monday, July 25 7 P.M. Kensington Library Book Club: Seeing, by Jose Saramago. Meetings are held on the fourth Monday; each starts with a poem selected and ready by a member with a brief discussion following. New members always welcome. Free. (510) 524-3043. 

Tuesday, July 26 7 – 8 P.M. El Cerrito Library book discussion group meets the 4th Tuesday of each month: "Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” Feel free to come to one or all discussions. Also August 23rd: "The Glass Room" and September 27th: "Let the Great World Spin". (510) 526-7512. 

Tuesday, July 26 3-4 P.M. Berkeley Public Library, Central. Tea and Cookies. A book club for people who want to share the books they have read. Monthly on the 4th Tuesday. (510)981-6100. 

Wednesday, July 27 1:30-2:30 Alameda County Library, Albany branch. Great Books Discussion Group. Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw. Facilitated discussion. Come to one meeting, or all meetings. Books are available at the Library. Parking! 526-3720 x 16. 

Wednesdays, beginning in August – 10:30-12 noon Parkinson's Yoga & the Art of Moving. Jewish Community Center East Bay – Oakland Branch, 5811 Racine St. (58^th & Telegraph). $120./month. (925) 566-4181. 

Wednesday, August 3 10 A.M.-noon North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council meeting. Public invited. (510) 981-5190. 

Thursday, August 4 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM Emergency Preparedness. Albany branch of the Alameda County library. Speaker Colleen Campbell, Senior Injury Prevention Coordinator, will discuss materials and lead a discussion on benefits of being prepared. Free program for older adults, caregivers and service providers. No reservations required. (510) 526-3720 x16. 

Saturday, August 6 11 A.M. – noon. End of Life Planning Workshop. Berkeley Public Library West branch, 1125 University Av. Learn basics of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, advanced health care directives. (510) 981-6270. 

Wednesday, August 10 10 A.M – 2 P.M. 10^th Annual Healthy Aging Fair Festival. Chabot College, 25555 Hesperian Boulevard, Hayward. Free lunch. Raffle prizes. Entertainment. Free shuttle from South Hayward BART. (510) 577-3532, 3540. Sign up at your senior center for free bus service. In Berkeley contact Deborah Jordan (510) 981-5170 for information. 

Wednesday, August 17 1:30 P.M. BerkeleyCommission on Aging. Meets on 3^rd Wednesday at South Berkeley Senior Center. Check to confirm (510) 981-5178. Saturday, August 20 11 A.M. Landlord /Tenant Counseling. Central Berkeley Public Library. Also Sept. 17. 

Tuesday, August 23 3-4 P.M. Berkeley Public Library, Central. Tea and Cookies. A book club for people who want to share the books they have read. Monthly on the 4th Tuesday. (510)981-6100. 

Tuesday, August 23 7 – 8 P.M. El Cerrito Library book discussion group meets the 4th Tuesday of each month: “The Glass Room.” Feel free to come to one or all discussions. Also September 27th: "Let the Great World Spin". (510) 526-7512. 

Wednesday, August 24 1:30-2:30 P.M. Alameda County Library, Albany branch. Great Books Discussion Group. Eliot's The Hollow Men and The Waste Land. Facilitated discussion. Come to one meeting, or all meetings. Books are available at the Library. Parking! 526-3720 x 16. 

Wednesday, Sept. 7 10 A.M.-Noon North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council meeting. Public invited. (510) 981-5190. 

Saturday, Sept. 13 10 A.M. – 3 P.M. 34^th Annual Health Fair. Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Free health screenings. (510)544-8910. Friday, Sept. 16 10 A.M. – 1 P.M. 14^th Annual Senior Resource Fair. Presented by San Leandro Senior Services. San Leandro Senior Community Center, 13909 East 14 St. (510) 577-3462. 

Wednesday, Sept. 21 1:30 P.M. BerkeleyCommission on Aging. Meets at South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis. Check to confirm (510) 981-5178.  

Tuesday, Sept. 23 7 – 8 P.M. El Cerrito Library book discussion group meets the 4th Tuesday of each month: “Let the Great World Spin". Feel free to come to one or all discussions. (510) 526-7512. 

Tuesday, Sept 27 3 P.M. Tea & Cookies Book Club. Central Berkeley Public Library. 

Wednesday, Sept. 28 1:30-2:30 P.M. Alameda County Library, Albany branch. Great Books Discussion Group. Morrison's Song of Solomon. Facilitated discussion. Come to one meeting, or all meetings. Books are available at the Library. Parking! (510) 526-3720 x 16. 

Helen Rippier Wheeler can be reached at pen136@dslextreme.com. Please, no phone calls. 

### 

SENIOR POWER … this casemanagementthing 

A reader who can’t get a straight answer asks “What is this case management thing? How can I get it and do I want it? Is it true you have to turn over your Medicare or be on SSI and MediCAL? What can “they” do for me that I can’t do myself? And how much does it cost?” 

xxxx 

Case management refers to the coordination of services on behalf of an individual. In the United States, it is a specific term used by the health care system. Medical case management is a general term referring to the facilitation of treatment plans to assure appropriate medical care is provided to disabled, sick or injured individuals. Or it may refer to a specific approach for the coordination of community mental health services. Legal case management provides a set of management approaches for law firms or courts. 

The Case Management Society of America’s definition is "a collaborative process of assessment, planning, facilitation and advocacy for options and services to meet an individual's health needs through communication and available resources to promote quality cost-effective outcomes." Wikipedia refers to “a procedure to plan, seek, and monitor services for different social agencies and staff on behalf of a client. Usually one agency takes primary responsibility for the client and assigns a case manager, who coordinates services, advocates for the client, and sometimes controls resources and purchases services for the client. …” 

The Certified Case Manager (CCM) credential is available to health care providers licensed to practice independently in our fragmented health care system. For example, it would include Registered Nurses but not Licensed Practical Nurses, who are not licensed to assess and evaluate the health of their clients. Here’s another example-- in real life New York, the mayor’s proposed budget cuts referred to Department for the Aging funding reductions “to case management which is social workers going into the homes of frail, homebound elders…” 

The vast differences possible among providers are apparent in another example, derived from a senior housing project corporate definition: “XYZ Resident Services offers one-on-one case management for disabled residents. We collaborate with local service providers to link residents with home and community-based resources that improve their quality of life… The Service Coordinator educates residents on available services and encourages residents to be proactive in meeting their social, psychological, and physical needs.” 

According to the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers, "A Certified Geriatric Care Manager (CGCM) is a health and human services specialist who helps families who are caring for older relatives… trained and experienced in any of several fields related to care management, including, but not limited to nursing, gerontology, social work, or psychology, with a specialized focus on issues related to aging and elder care." 

My friend Minako Matsui, CLPF #446, is a CMC [Care Manager, Certified] Licensed Fiduciary & Geriatric Care Manager. Her specialty is elder care management. She responded to my request for a professional social worker’s perspective on case management and senior citizens: 

“Case Management is about helping elders/seniors and their families understand and make best use of the many services available to assist them with their unique situation. It begins with intake and assessment to alleviate the issues at hand – whether it be applying for Medi-Cal, MOW (Meals on Wheels,) IHSS or housing, and continues with coordination and follow up as needed. 

Case Management for elders/seniors is usually handled by 501(c)(3) nonprofit private agencies that are funded by private funds, religious organizations, and/or city or county governments. They have intake workers who assist anyone by providing information and assistance, referring to other sources and assigning case workers (Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Social Work) for various levels of interventions. Case workers are often obligated to report to the funding source the outcome of their interventions-- how many contacts they had with each senior result in success or failure. They also need to report demographic information in general terms without disclosing each individual’s identity. 

Case management could also be handled by hospital discharge Registered Nurse (RN) managers… Alameda County Social Services has an Adult Protective Services (APS) and Public Guardian’s office. They have their own social workers (a.k.a. case workers) who are assigned to a number of elder cases. 

 

As a private Geriatric Care Manager, I specialize in elder care management. I visit my client at home to assess, identify needs, provide advocacy, make a care plan, accompany client to doctor’s appointments, monitor, re-evaluate client’s changing needs and to meet client’s goal – to promote wellness, dignity and quality of life for the elder as well as his/her family, if any. With my fiduciary license, I can serve as a daily money manager, Power of Attorney for Finance and Health Care (a.k.a. Advance Health Care Directive) agent, and Conservator.” 

xxxx 

NEWS 

“Seniors fought hard to prevent damaging cuts to services in their neighborhoods… Advocacy continues to work in New York City. Senior center funding has been fully restored and new funding for innovative senior centers will move forward…case management was not fully restored…” http://www.facebook.com/CSCSNY. Interestingly, the breakdowns of cuts/restorations indicates that meals’ raw food costs=35 cents per meal. 

Berkeley’s Aging Services Manager flimflams in the June Tri-Center Nugget. “Come July, there could be many new changes within the Aging Services Division. As we have been discussing the last few months, we have proposed creating a Social Service Unit at the West Berkeley Senior Center with the Meals on Wheels operation, and move the existing WBSC programming to SBSC. The proposal has not yet been adopted by the Berkeley City Council, but we have been preparing in advance so if it is accepted we will be able to implement as smooth of a transition as possible. … It is important to note that both SBSC and NBSC will have ‘outstation’ offices where case managers will spend time each week serving folks who come to the centers. This way you won’t have to go to WBSC to see your case manager, but instead can make an appointment to see them at your home center.” 

On June 24, 2011 the Silver Alert Act, S.1263, legislation that would create a national network for locating missing adults and seniors, was reintroduced. It was first introduced in 2008. It would create a program modeled after the AMBER Alert system that helps to find missing children and seeks to provide federal coordination and assistance to local and state law enforcement agencies. 

Here’s a cutie: Management of a rent-subsidized housing project for senior citizens and some disabled persons has installed a TV in the community room, as it’s currently called. That’s nice. However, it does not get Closed Captioning. Concurrently, the community room is being closed at 9 P.M. Apparently management is unaware that many old people aren’t able to get to sleep until long after the witching hour. 

An elderly woman opens an email that leads her into the welcoming arms of an international crime ring. The title of this fifteen-minute comedy(?) based on a true event is The Gran' Scam of Things. Google the title. 

Sixty-seven year old, 39-time Grand Slam tennis winner Billie Jean King has had two complete knee replacement surgeries (arthoplasty). Read about her recovery and fitness routine. http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/article/Billie-Jean-King-on-new-knees-and-boomer-fitness- 

Thousands of people toiling to cool the crippled nuclear reactors in Fukushima are engaged in jobs the Japanese consider kitanai, kitsui and kiken -- dirty, difficult and dangerous. “It would benefit society if the older generation took the job because we will get less damage from working there,” according to 72 year old cancer survivor Yasuteru Yamada, calling on people age 60+ who have “the physical strength and experience to bear the burden of this front-line work.” But he has triggered a debate about the role of the elderly in Japan, the meaning of volunteerism, and the growing reality that the Tokyo Electric Power Company, owner of the reactors, will face an increasingly difficult time recruiting workers. [“Elders Offer Help at Japan’s Crippled Reactor” by Ko Sasaki for The New York Times June 28, 2011, page A4 of the New York edition] 

June 2011 marked LGBT Pride month. The New York State Senate passed legislation requiring the State Office for the Aging to assess the needs of traditionally underserved elders—including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older adults. The bill awaits New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's signature to become law. It also calls for NYSOFA to provide technical assistance to the organizations that serve LGBT older adults, and to report annually on those services to the governor and state legislature. 

Inside E Street is a TV series worth listening to and watching. It takes a nonpartisan look at matters that are of special concern to persons age 50+, e.g. guardianship and conservatorship. Bay Area PBS channels. 

xxxx 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: July, August. September 2011 Call to confirm, date, time, place 

Wednesday, July 6 Noon – 1 P.M. End of Life Planning Workshop at Central Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Responsible end-of–life planning can save heartache and help preserve family legacy. Come learn the basics about wills, trusts, powers of attorney, advanced health care directives and more in a supportive setting. 

Wednesday, July 6 6-8 P.M. Albany branch of the Alameda County Library. 1247 Marin Av. Lawyer in the Library. Free 15 minute consultation with an attorney who will clarify your situation, advise you of your options, get you started with a solution, and make a referral when needed. Advance registration required. Sign up in person at the Reference desk or call (510) 526-3720 ext. 5. Also August 3 and Sept. 7. 

Wednesday, July 6 10 A.M. – Noon North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council meeting. Public invited. 1901 Hearst. (510) 981-5190. Call to confirm. 

Monday, July 11 7 P.M. Author Talk at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Av. Amy Block Joy, author of Whistleblower, the nail-biting true story of what happens when someone with a lifelong habit of going along to get a long is confronted with criminal activity she can’t ignore. Free. (510) 524-3043. 

Tuesday, July 12 9 A.M. Mastick Senior Center, 1155 Santa Clara Av., Alameda. Cane Do. Join John Dexheimer for self-defense and exercise. Specialized senior self-defense training class incorporating use of a cane. Wear comfortable clothing. Bring your cane! Sign up in Mastick Office. A donation of $3.00 is suggested. 

Wednesday, July 13 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Albany branch of the Alameda County LibraryPoetry Writing Workshop with Christina Hutchins, poet laureate of Albany, will facilitate. Free. No registration required. Drop in and work on your poetry with a group of supportive writers. Dan Hess (510) 526-3720 x17. Also August 10 and Sept. 14. 

Thursday, July 14 7 – 8 P.M. The Summer Concert Series. El Cerrito Library, 6510 Stockton Ave. Ramana Vieira, the New Voice of Portuguese World Music, is a premier contemporary Fado artist. Fado is a melancholy and often-mournful music similar to the American blues as it tells stories of heartache and disappointment. (510) 526-7512. 

Thursday, July 14 1 P.M. Mastick Senior Center, Alameda. Drumming Circle. Join the Mercy Retirement Community Drumming Circle. Drumming is known to improve circulation, loosen stiff joints, stimulate the mind. Sign up in the office. Free.Friday, July 15 8 A.M. – 2 P.M 8^th Annual Healthy Living Festival. Compassion & Choices of Northern California is a participant. Oakland Zoo, Knowland Park, 9777 Golf Links Road. Presented by United Seniors of Oakland and Alameda County. Health screenings, financial planning information, medication dropoff/disposal program. Enjoy a walk through the zoo. (510)729-0852. 

Monday, July 18 7:00 P.M. Berkeley West Edge Opera preview. Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington. Sponsored by Friends of the Kensington Library and a Meet the Composer grant. Director and Kensington resident Mark Streshinsky and cast singers will look at how an opera is created and a taste of the music and drama of the finished product of an original opera, "Caliban Dreams," inspired by Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Free. (510) 524-3043. 

Wednesday, July 20 1:30 P.M. BerkeleyCommission on Aging. Meets on 3^rd Wednesday at South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis. Confirm (510) 981-5178. 

Monday, July 25 7 P.M. Kensington Library Book Club: Seeing, by Jose Saramago. Meetings are held on the fourth Monday; each starts with a poem selected and ready by a member with a brief discussion following. New members always welcome. Free. (510) 524-3043. 

Tuesday, July 26 7 – 8 P.M. El Cerrito Library book discussion group meets the 4th Tuesday of each month: "Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” Feel free to come to one or all discussions. Also August 23rd: "The Glass Room" and September 27th: "Let the Great World Spin". (510) 526-7512. 

Tuesday, July 26 3-4 P.M. Berkeley Public Library, Central. Tea and Cookies. A book club for people who want to share the books they have read. Monthly on the 4th Tuesday. (510)981-6100. 

Wednesday, July 27 1:30-2:30 Alameda County Library, Albany branch. Great Books Discussion Group. Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw. Facilitated discussion. Come to one meeting, or all meetings. Books are available at the Library. Parking! 526-3720 x 16. 

Wednesdays, beginning in August – 10:30-12 noon Parkinson's Yoga & the Art of Moving. Jewish Community Center East Bay – Oakland Branch, 5811 Racine St. (58^th & Telegraph). $120./month. (925) 566-4181. 

Wednesday, August 3 10 A.M.-noon North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council meeting. Public invited. (510) 981-5190. 

Thursday, August 4 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM Emergency Preparedness. Albany branch of the Alameda County library. Speaker Colleen Campbell, Senior Injury Prevention Coordinator, will discuss materials and lead a discussion on benefits of being prepared. Free program for older adults, caregivers and service providers. No reservations required. (510) 526-3720 x16. 

Saturday, August 6 11 A.M. – noon. End of Life Planning Workshop. Berkeley Public Library West branch, 1125 University Av. Learn basics of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, advanced health care directives. (510) 981-6270. 

Wednesday, August 10 10 A.M – 2 P.M. 10^th Annual Healthy Aging Fair Festival. Chabot College, 25555 Hesperian Boulevard, Hayward. Free lunch. Raffle prizes. Entertainment. Free shuttle from South Hayward BART. (510) 577-3532, 3540. Sign up at your senior center for free bus service. In Berkeley contact Deborah Jordan (510) 981-5170 for information. 

Wednesday, August 17 1:30 P.M. BerkeleyCommission on Aging. Meets on 3^rd Wednesday at South Berkeley Senior Center. Check to confirm (510) 981-5178. Saturday, August 20 11 A.M. Landlord /Tenant Counseling. Central Berkeley Public Library. Also Sept. 17. 

Tuesday, August 23 3-4 P.M. Berkeley Public Library, Central. Tea and Cookies. A book club for people who want to share the books they have read. Monthly on the 4th Tuesday. (510)981-6100. 

Tuesday, August 23 7 – 8 P.M. El Cerrito Library book discussion group meets the 4th Tuesday of each month: “The Glass Room.” Feel free to come to one or all discussions. Also September 27th: "Let the Great World Spin". (510) 526-7512. 

Wednesday, August 24 1:30-2:30 P.M. Alameda County Library, Albany branch. Great Books Discussion Group. Eliot's The Hollow Men and The Waste Land. Facilitated discussion. Come to one meeting, or all meetings. Books are available at the Library. Parking! 526-3720 x 16. 

Wednesday, Sept. 7 10 A.M.-Noon North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council meeting. Public invited. (510) 981-5190. 

Saturday, Sept. 13 10 A.M. – 3 P.M. 34^th Annual Health Fair. Allen Temple Baptist Church, 8501 International Blvd., Oakland. Free health screenings. (510)544-8910. Friday, Sept. 16 10 A.M. – 1 P.M. 14^th Annual Senior Resource Fair. Presented by San Leandro Senior Services. San Leandro Senior Community Center, 13909 East 14 St. (510) 577-3462. 

Wednesday, Sept. 21 1:30 P.M. BerkeleyCommission on Aging. Meets at South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis. Check to confirm (510) 981-5178.  

Tuesday, Sept. 23 7 – 8 P.M. El Cerrito Library book discussion group meets the 4th Tuesday of each month: “Let the Great World Spin". Feel free to come to one or all discussions. (510) 526-7512. 

Tuesday, Sept 27 3 P.M. Tea & Cookies Book Club. Central Berkeley Public Library. 

Wednesday, Sept. 28 1:30-2:30 P.M. Alameda County Library, Albany branch. Great Books Discussion Group. Morrison's Song of Solomon. Facilitated discussion. Come to one meeting, or all meetings. Books are available at the Library. Parking! (510) 526-3720 x 16. 

Helen Rippier Wheeler can be reached at pen136@dslextreme.com. Please, no phone calls. 

### 

Because persons with mental illness seem to get a raw deal in life, Buddhist or other meditative ideas of transcendence are appealing. It seems, despite what one might think, the playing field of meditative practices is more level compared to other areas that could be pursued. I have never believed I couldn’t practice meditation because of having a psychiatric disability. 

The fact of being medicated does not prevent meditation. If a person is psychotic or clinically depressed, it is much more of a hindrance to meditation than consuming the medications intended to treat these problems. 

I began to study books on meditation at age eighteen, a couple of months following my initial recovery from my initial bout with Schizophrenia. At the time, it was a source of hope in my life; it made me believe I could make things better for myself in my [then] future. 

Throughout my twenties, I believed that if I could meditate well enough, it would increase my chances of succeeding at employment. The meditation did two things for me that helped with the job scenario: It made me take less seriously the discomfort that comes with work; and it allowed me to take it less seriously when a job did not work out. 

I used to incorrectly believe that if I became “enlightened” through my meditation practices, it would make the antipsychotic medication I take unnecessary. On the contrary, taking medication supports the meditation practices by keeping a major brain malfunction in check. 

I found that when I had relapses of psychosis, (which were essentially caused by stopping medication against medical advice), most of my meditative progress became erased. However, the memory stayed mostly intact of how to recreate the “attainment.” I found that I could recreate the “attainment” after several years of brain recovery and meditation, but could not do this instantly. My brain had been through a shock from stopping medication. 

After practicing meditation on and off for nearly as long as I’ve had a mental illness, about twenty eight years, I have learned to question whether enlightenment really exists in the “real world” or if it could be a myth. Partial enlightenment can be had by many devout practitioners. However, a “total” state of enlightenment in a person is something I have never run across. As people with physical bodies we are vulnerable to changes and challenges in the environment, and there are some circumstances that can make any living person suffer, regardless of how long and how deeply meditation has been practiced. 

Meditation is a largely nonphysical activity that can improve many people’s lives on many levels. Buddhism teaches us that all things pass away with time, and this must include the progress that we make with meditation as well as our very existence. Life experience teaches that we must get the enjoyment that’s within reach as we journey among a minefield of hazards in our existences.

Editor's Note: The latest issue of the Pepper Spray Times is now available. 

You can view it absolutely free of charge by clicking here . You can print it out to give to your friends. 

Grace Underpressure has been producing it for many years now, even before the Berkeley Daily Planet started distributing it, most of the time without being paid, and now we'd like you to show your appreciation by using the button below to send her money.  

This is a Very Good Deal. Go for it! 

It's summer, and the Mime Troupe's back on the street--or in the
parks, anyway ... this weekend at Berkeley's Cedar Rose Park with
their new '2012--The Musical,' written by Gene Michael Sullivan with
Ellen Callas, music and lyrics by Bruce Bathol, directed by Wilma
Bonet, live band led by Pat Moran ... about corporate funding for
THEATER BAM! (some little political troupe ... ), particularly wry, as
the Mime Troupe's NEA grants have been blasted by aptly-named
Congressman Jeff Flake (R-Arizona)--Jeff should audition! This
Saturday and Sunday afternoons, band from 1:30, show at 2--for 52
seasons now, FREE! sfmt.org


Woodminster Summer Musicals opens their 45th season with Oliver! this
weekend, with a cast of 42 singing, dancing, playing the characters
right out of the Dickens tale, under the stars in the great old WPA
amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland Hills, overlooking
the Bay. Preview this Thursday at 8; all tickets $10. Thursday-Sunday
through july 17, $24-$42. woodminster.com


'Working for the Mouse,' Trevor Allen's play (directed by Nancy
Carlin), expanded from his Best of SF Fringe Festival one-act
'Character!', telling what really goes on in Disneyland if you're
costumed as a big cartoon character, has been extended by Impact and
Black Box Theatres through July 16 at LaVal's Subterannean, Impact's
home. Thursdays-Sundays 8 p. m. 1834 Euclid near Hearst. $12-$20.
224-5744; impacttheatre.com

Saxophonist Dayna Stephens, a notable alum of the Berkeley High Jazz Band, will play Friday night at 8 at the Birdland Jazzista Social Club, 1733 Sacramento, across from North Berkeley BART. $10 members, $20 non-members (includes annual membership). Free BBQ for members. birdlandjazz.org 

This year's Free Westbrae Garden Concerts start this Saturday, 10 a. m. to 1 p. m. with topical songwriter Hali Hammer; folk, rock & originals singer-guitarist Randy Berge; and blues storyteller-guitarist Trevor Michaels, performing in the Toot Sweet/Berkeley bagel Garden, Gilman & Curtis, by the BART elevated ... info: mlprophet@earthlink.net