Sep 04

Bay Bridge Bike/Hike Trail Open

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The new Bay Bridge bike-hike trail is open, as far as it goes, and I hopped on my trusty 10-speed around midday today and checked it out.

I chose the access point across the road from the Ikea entrance in Emeryville.  The entrance is clearly marked. You can get there most of the way via the Bay Trail, but at the Powell St shopping center you have to go onto busy Christie Ave. for a short bit and then onto Shellmound St., which has a bike lane. Google Maps accurately shows the trail. Once past the entrance, it’s a smooth dedicated bike/pedestrian path all the way.

The trail winds under the freeway for a bit, where construction crews were still driving pilings and hauling debris from the old highway pavement.  After a couple of flat miles, you go up a wooden ramp.  At the top, you meet the stump of the old upper deck, and enter onto the new bridge.  Eastbound auto traffic flows to your right, separated by a steel rail.  To the left you get the best view ever of the old bridge with its railroad-trestle construction, iron triangles strung together like mesh on a knit sleeve.

The trail here is comfortably wide for bicyclists and walkers/runners.  The surface for foot travel is hard cement.  From the ramp to the tower is a gentle but constant upgrade that seemed steeper today because of the brisk headwind.  Neither young nor old seemed defeated by the challenge.  There are occasional outcroppings with benches for rest stops. The new bridge gradually veers away from the old until it makes a bend to the left as you approach the tower.

This tower, built by steelworkers in China, is the icon of the new span.  Like the rest of the bridge’s metal structures, it’s painted a gleaming white.  The four thick main cables that rise from under the roadbed to the peak form gentle inbending curves that seem to embrace the road in a hug.  The straight cables that connect the main cables to the road are slanted to the side.  This is not a replica of the Golden Gate, with its linear geometry.  This is curvaceous, asymmetrical, non-Euclidean.  It feels very solid.  You can sense a slight bounce when heavy trucks pass on the roadway, but I felt no swaying or other scary motion anywhere.

Not long after the tower, a few hundred yards from Yerba Buena Island, the hike/bike trail comes to a dead end, like the Berkeley fishing pier.  At this point the dark old bridge, which is already showing signs of rust, cuts across the path.  Bike access to the island will have to wait until that section of the old bridge is dismantled and removed.  That’s supposed to happen by summer 2015.

The ride back down the path is like a glider flight.  It’s a steady downgrade with a brisk tailwind.  You’ll break the 15 mph speed limit without even trying.

Although it goes nowhere, this trail is going to be very popular with bikers, hikers, and runners.  All kinds of people were out enjoying it on this beautiful Wednesday.  I predict it’ll be thronged on weekends.  Someone should start a lemonade, ice cream, and trail mix stand at the end.

I took some photos (19) along the way.  My album is up on Google+, click here.

 

 

 

 

 

Sep 01

Dramatic Bay Sunset

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Probably the most dramatic Bay sunset of the summer occurred this evening, as seen from Cesar Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina.  In the distance slightly to the right of center is Mount Tamalpais.

Drama comes not so much from the profusion of red but from the irregularities — the dark hole on the upper right and the ridges on the upper left.  This rivals the fiery cloud sculpture above the Golden Gate Bridge on October 12, 2012, below:

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Oddly, very few photographers were at the park this evening to capture the scene.  Mine was the only tripod.  You can see more of my images of the Bay sky from this vantage point on my G+ album with this link.

Aug 31

The “End Corporate Welfare Polka” by Anne Feeney

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The folksinger Anne Feeney, whom Utah Phillips described as “the best labor singer in North America,” performed this song on the steps of the Berkeley Post Office Saturday afternoon Aug. 31.

Feeney, who is based in Pittsburgh PA, is on the closing leg of a 15-city tour, singing at demonstrations, picket lines, protests, and similar events wherever they’re happening — and, she says, that’s just about everywhere.

Feeney’s website, annefeeney.com, tells an inspiring story:

I’ve been ‘comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable’ since I graduated from high school in 1968. The Vietnam war and the Civil Rights Movement shaped my conscience and consciousness. I worked for a dozen years or so as a trial attorney, and served as President of the Pittsburgh Musicians’ Union. For the last 25 years I was really living my dream… on the road 200+ days a year… all over the US and Canada, and then Sweden, Ireland and Denmark. It has been my privilege to spend most of my waking hours with people who are trying to make a difference in this world… people on strike, or in a union or community organizing drive, or defending women’s rights, the environment, human rights … working to end poverty and racism … teaching peace.

In August of 2010 I was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. This disease comes with a pretty grim prognosis. As I tried to reconcile myself to this reality, I reached out to my friends for help and support. I am overwhelmed! I haven’t had to worry about money since I got ill. My heart is filled with gratitude to all of my friends and family. At this point I am in complete remission. It’s amazing news and in complete defiance of the statistics – I’ve made a career of being defiant, though – and I recommend it to all of you.

At the time Feeney sang at the Post Office, all of the Occupy-style encampment that had been in front and at the side of the building for over a month was gone.  A general assembly last Monday evening had voted 24-11 to declare victory and dissolve the encampment by today, but Berkeley police didn’t wait and cleared the tents, possessions, and occupants on Wednesday.  A speaker this morning said that about half the tents and personal effects seized by police have not been recovered, and one person was arrested and his whereabouts are unknown.

Aug 27

What price constitutional rights?

constitutionBarry Hazle served a year in prison for possession of methamphetamine.  He was released on parole on condition that he attend and complete a 90-day residential drug treatment program.  Hazle repeatedly told authorities that he is an atheist, and requested treatment in a non-religious program.  He was assigned, instead, to the Empire treatment program which used the religion-based 12-step program developed by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.  He objected and asked for a transfer, but was denied.  Inside the program, he was described as “disruptive, though in a congenial way, to the staff as well as other students.”  For this, he was ruled in violation of his parole and was sent back to prison, where he served more than 100 days.

Hazle brought suit against his parole agent, the agent’s supervisor, the chief of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations (CDCR) Board of Parole Hearings, and other state officials who participated in the decision to revoke his parole and send him back to prison.  He also sued a private entity named Westcare, which has an exclusive contract with the CDCR to place parolees in Westcare’s network of treatment programs. It was Westcare that assigned Hazle to the Empire program, over his repeated objections.  Hazle did not sue Empire.

The case came to trial in the Eastern District of California in two stages.  In the first stage, the district judge found as a matter of undisputed law that Hazle’s constitutional rights were violated by assigning him to a religion-based treatment program.  This ruling was compelled by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals 2007 decision in Inouye v. Kemna, 504 F.3d 705.  In the Inouye case, the court reviewed the precedents nationwide and held that it was clear beyond reasonable doubt that the 12-step program is religious in nature and that the constitution is violated when a person is forced to participate in it against their beliefs.

In the second stage of the trial, a jury was brought in on the sole issue of damages:  how much should Hazle be compensated for the violation of his constitutional rights?  The jury awarded Hazle zero damages, holding in effect that constitutional rights have no value, at least when applied to convicted drug users who are atheists.

This was the same result obtained by Ricky Inouye when his case went back to trial in Hawaii after his successful 2007 appeal. Inouye died before he could appeal that verdict.  Hazle, however, survives, and challenged the jury verdict in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

On August 23, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that Hazle was entitled to compensatory damages for the additional prison time he served after resisting the Empire treatment program.  Likening the case to the traditional tort of false imprisonment, and relying on U.S. Supreme Court and other federal precedents, the panel ruled that, once liability is found, compensatory damages are mandatory.  It emphasized that compensatory damages means something more than nominal damages, such as one dollar.  It sent the case back to the trial court with instructions to award Hazle compensatory damages for each day that he spent in prison as a result of the state authorities’  violation of his constitutional rights.

The Hazle decision finally puts some teeth into the Inouye decision.  Inouye was as clear as could be that forcing people into 12-step programs against their conscience violates the Establishment clause of the First Amendment.  Prisoners must be given the option of a non-religious, secular treatment program.

Although this message, sent in 2007, was unmistakable, the court found that the correctional system largely ignored it.  The court noted that the CDCR did create a directive concerning “alternative nonreligious programs” but “there is undisputed evidence that the CDCR directive has not been implemented in any meaningful fashion, at least with respect to Westcare.”  Westcare, the middleman between the CDCR and treatment programs, claims it never saw the directive, that it does not know what the term “alternative nonreligious programs” means, and that it has not altered its business model in any way.  All of the treatment programs with which Westcare has contracts are 12-step.  Its director even made a public statement, in the court record, claiming that it knew of no requirement to contract with any non-religious treatment programs.  Hello?

The retrial of Hazle’s case is still in the future.  The value that a jury will set on a constitutional right remains to be seen.  A substantial monetary award combined with injunctive relief will send the message that constitutional rights are precious.  The constitution was not written only for popular, mainstream people.  Its guarantees apply equally to all, even people who fell into addiction and who don’t believe in God.

Shame on the CDCR and on Westcare for their scofflaw behavior.  If an ordinary person ignored the law the way they have been doing, the system would come , down on them like a ton of bricks.  CDCR especially is supposed to set an example of law-abiding conduct.  Shame also on Attorney General Kamala Harris and her staff for defending CDCR’s inexcusable conduct in court.  Kudos to the law firms of Rogers Joseph O’Donnell and Chapman, Popik & White and to Carol Quackenbos for their successful representation of Barry Hazle.

The court’s full opinion is available online on the Ninth Circuit website.  My 2009 article on the Inouye decision, published in Counselor Magazine, is available here.  

 

Aug 27

Pvt. Manning, a Public Servant

ManningKudos to San Francisco Chronicle columnist James Temple, whose dot-commentary on Friday Aug. 23 points out that Pvt. Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning’s revelations have made this a better country.

Among the items that Bradley brought to light was a video of U.S. troops in helicopters slaying ten civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists and two children, without cause or provocation, and with evident pleasure in the killing.

For his disclosures, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison.  The murderers in uniform were not so much as reprimanded.

“I’m no longer outraged by this,” writes Temple.  “It’s been clear for too long that this is how things would end.  I’m saddened by this.  It says something awful about the skew of our national priorities and the tilt of our moral compass.”

Mannings’  leaks had merit, Temple continues. “They revealed critical things about the world and, in the end, changed it for the better.”

The column summarizes the main points of the materials that Manning leaked and suggests that Manning’s actions probably helped stop the Iraq war.

Temple’s column is available online here.

Manning’s actions deserve the honor due to a public servant.  At great risk to himself, Manning raised important issues, told important truths, and did it in a timely manner.   The ones who should be in prison are the murderers, cheats, and liars in high and low places whom Manning exposed.

 

Aug 21

Fred Nicolaus to Appear in S.F. Oct. 29

FredbooksFred Nicolaus, author of the just-released album Golden Suits on the Yep Roc label, will be playing with his group at the Hotel Utah Saloon in San Francisco on Sunday evening Oct. 6.  Save the date and stay tuned for further details.

Meanwhile Nicolaus has come out with a new music video that documents one of the most original and unusual, not to say weird, projects by a recent popular musician.  No, he doesn’t smash guitars or cut the heads off chickens in his pants — that’s so yesterday.  No.  What he does is, he goes to every remaining bookstore in Manhattan — 27 of them — and buys up all copies of The Stories of John Cheever.  It’s all documented in the video, here:

Now, this book was published in 1978, and Cheever died four years later, the year, coincidentally (?) when Nicolaus was born.  What is it about Cheever, you may well ask, that fascinates this 30-year old so much that he named his album and his band after a line from a Cheever story?

There’s a new interview with Nicolaus published yesterday in therumpus.net, here, that begins to explain it.

Fred Nicolaus: I was on vacation with my family in a small beach town in California, and I bought his collection of short stories to read on the plane back to New York, I think because I remembered liking “The Swimmer” in high school. On the flight, I read the first story (“Goodbye, My Brother”) and I got to the final line: “I saw them come out and I saw that they were naked, unshy, beautiful and full of grace, and I watched the naked women walk out of the sea.” I was completely overwhelmed by it. It was partially the language — how he was able to blend formal, sometimes stiff prose with almost surreal imagery and make it work.Also, the world Cheever wrote about was compelling. I’m from California, so the whole “cocktail hour with the Farquarsons in a 100-year-old summer house on the Cape” thing was very exotic to me. Over time, I kept coming back to it for different reasons — the way he would write about marriage, his tortured sense of morality. I feel like that book is an endlessly renewable resource for me.

So there you are. Naked women walking out of the sea to cocktail hour with the Farquarsons.  What’s not to like?  And Cheever’s themes — tortured marriages, dual personalities, moral dilemmas — haven’t gone away.  It helps to know that Nicolaus is himself a short story writer (as yet unpublished in the bigs) and honors Cheever as the 20th century master of this medium that he was.

These days we have baseball players with college degrees, so why not pop musicians who read Cheever?  Nicolaus deserves credit for appearing to be what he really is:  a white college graduate who loves to read and who walks creatively on the musical path broken by the Beatles.  Although Nicolaus was born in rough and tough Oakland CA, he’s resisted the temptation to pose as a street hood or as a labor agitator, or to assume some other fake musical identity, and he’s not ripping off the riffs of another culture.  He is not afraid to be what he is, to work with what he knows and loves, and this core authenticity comes through in this debut album.  I predict that he will find a wide and loyal audience and that Golden Suits will be the beginning of a long and successful career.

[Full disclosure:  I’m his Dad.]

 

Aug 17

Our Post Office: It Shall Not Be Moved

P1300311-stamp At a Concert to Save the Berkeley Post Office Aug. 17 2013, an impromptu group led by Occupella’s Hali Hammer performs a special rendition of “We Shall Not Be Moved” customized for the cause.