Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 25

SUNDAYebruary 18 2007 METRO 3 LOCAL THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE Suspect arrested in threats to center ROM STA REPORTS BERKELEY Detectives following an mail trail have made an arrest in a series of ho mophoblc threats directed against the Pacific Center in Berkeley police said Saturday: Berkeley Police Sgt Mary Kusmiss said the susprCTx Darren Scott 32 of Claytom was taken into custody riday' He was booked on suspicion of making terrorist death threats and vandalism and Jailed in lieu of $12500 bond Police said Scott was at a psychiatric facility in Vallejo on a mental health hold by Con cord police He reportedly was taken into custody by Concord officers after creating a distur bance at the Rainbow Center on Willow Pass Road Like Pacific Center Rainbow Center serves the lesbian gay bi sexual and transgender community The Pacific Center had been targeted with a series of threat ening mails culminating when the front door of the center on Telegraph Avenue was smashed "Staff became Increasingly alarmed when the mails pro gressed to death threats against staff members and their children" Kusmiss said The front door was smashed eb 3 and a man who generally matched description was seen nearby she said Scott was identified through an Internet screen name then detectives served a search war rant of a computer which led to Scott Kusmiss said Community I Calendar TODAY I EBRUARY 18 Book Release Child airyland celebrates the release of Adventures of Penny the Rhode Is land by Children's airyland em ployees Yvonne Backman and Annie Wong with readings meet and greets and more 2 to 3 pm airyland 699 Bellevue Ave Oakland 452 2259 wwwfairylandorg ilm estival Human Rights 2007 International ilm estival kicks off with a showing of on a Sunday Afternoon" $5 $8 5:30 pm Pacific ilm Archive 2575 Bancroft Way Berkeley 642 1 1 24 bampfaberkeleyedu pfa Lunar New Year Celebration Hab itat Children's Museum celebrates Lunar New Year with dragon parades story telling folk dancing tea and more free I I am to 5 pm 2065 Kittredge St Berkeley 647 1 1 1 1 wwwhabitotorg Dog Park Opening Celebration Dogs must be on leash but their humans don't have to be at the new dog park opening celebration featuring owner dog look alike contest pet parade games and more 1 1 am to 2 pm Joaquin Miller Park 3950 Sanborn Drive Oakland 530 5030 wwwodogparksorg Potomac Tours USS Potomac ranklin Delano Roosevelt's White offers docent led dock side tours noon to 3:30 pm $5 7 children 1 2 and younger free Jack London Square 540 Water St Oakland 627 1215 wwwusspotomacorg Oakland Artisan Marketplace In Jack London Square the Oakland Cultural Arts and Marketing Department hosts arti sans selling their unique arts and hand crafted creations year round 1 0 am to 5 pm 238 4948 Overeaters Anonymous A group for people who eat compulsively meets 7 to 8 am Mandana House 3989 Howe St Oakland 654 6086 Peace Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace lead a weekly walk around Lake Merritt 3 pm meet at the columns between Grand and Lakeshore avenues near Interstate 580 and Grand Lake Theater Oakland 763 8712 Have a listing for the daily cal endar? Send it two weeks in advance to the Community Calendar co The Oakland Tribune 401 13th St Oak land 94612 call 208 6450 fax 208 6477 or mail TnbCaloaklandtri 1 bunecom' KDOL Today's programming on the Oakland Public Schools' educational access sta tion Channel 27 on Comcast Cable in eludes: 8 am Conversations in Literature Workshop 6 Objectifying the Text 9 am Voices 8 Visions Elizabeth Bishop 10am Write in the Middle Work shop 6 Responding to Writing: Teacher to Student 1 1 am Literary Visions The Sacred 3 Words: Elements of Poetry Noon The Expanding Canon Work 'shop 7 Critical Pedagogy: Octavia Butlerand Ruthanne Lum McCunn 1 pm NASA Educational ile 5 pm Classic Arts TV 7 pm CCC Live! Cash for College (pre recorded) 1 1 pm Classic Ads TV Identity The attack happened Qec 6 about 5 pm in the 1 100 block of Parker Street The 76 year old woman was working in her backyard and confronted the suspect as he came out of her house Kusmiss said The intruder attacked her stabbing her and her foot was broken during the attack po lice said Berkeley detectives served a search warrant at the home of the suspect's mother in Oak land and learned he may have fled to lorida "They tracked him down to ort Meyers where he is known to the local law enforce ment agency BPD detectives secured an arrest she said He was transported back to Alameda County ROM STA REPORTS A 17 year old Berkeley rcsi dent has been arrested in lorida in the stab 1 bing of an elderly Berkeley woman and the burglary of her home in West Berkeley on Dec 6 Berkeley police Sgt Mary Kusmiss said the youth whose name was not released has been booked into Alameda County Juvenile Hall for attempted murder assault witli a deadly weapon and burglary A fingerprint lifted by a Berkeley Police crime scene technician led to the Berkeley teen held in stabbing Elderly victim was attacked after confronting burglar as he left home I 1 I 5 Pianist brings life to Oakland bar fr DAVE from Metro 1 Alameda Point decision delayed POINT from Metro 1 Dave column appears Monday Thursday and Sunday Know any Good Neighbors? Phone (510) 208 6466 or mail dnewhouseang newspaperscom land's purchase and development Development team Alameda Point Commu nity Partners was selected in similar negotia tions in a process the city underwent after the Navy exited from the base 10 years ago After seyeral years of negotiations and the establishment of a preliminary development concept for the land the partners group with drew from the project last fall The city subsequently starteda new recruit ment process and received applications from five developers in early December The Corky McMillin Companies dropped out of the run ning several weeks ago leaving four compa nies Several residents took tire opportunity Wednesday night to pan certain aspects the preliminary development concept the city es tablished with the partners group and which the city will use as a starting point for negotia tions with the new developer That concept calls for the building of up to 1800 homes as well as commercial and retail space at the former air station A member of the Alameda Architectural Preservation So ciety said it should include a greater effort to reuse more than 86 historic buildings at the site Resident Jon Spangler went a step further and said the plan approved just a year ago was already out of date who thinks tills is state of the art stuff and anything Alameda needs is way be hind the he said urday Now in his 44th year at The Alley who else has that kind of staying power? is a record for a piano he believes "I'd love to sing until my 90s in good shape I go around Lake Merritt twice every day" Dibble could be the longest playing and the best piano bar player in the country And boredom and cabin fever offer no threat night is different" he noted like playing at home having a party in your own Dibble who grew up in Berkeley lives around the corner from The Alley He shows up for work Just before he goes on at 9 pm makes a cup of coffee then resurrects the works of Cole Porter and his contemporaries play only he said like the old stuff the 1920s and 1930s I have song books for young people but they know a good tune when they hear it They appreciate a Gershwin Dibble was king of the road during the 1950s singing mostly Louis Armstrong songs But imitating Satchmo left him with a gravellyvoice which he preserves these days by letting customers do most of the singing got tqjjull it out of them though' some are show offs" he said "This is not like karaoke" Dibble dislikes karaoke and the piano bar image portrayed in Billy Joel's song Piano Man" not tlie piano man the garbage man the laundry man" he said bartender in the song wants to be someplace else and the microphone smells like a beer The song says piano man you entertain That my job I encourage people to And sing they do into three microphones set up on the piano bar The best night for singers Is 9 o'clock on a Thursday when the sorry Rod regular crowd shuffles in Annalee ALLEN In heavy rain a week ago Thursday they ar rived from Benicia Marin County San ran cisco and San Mateo Some stayed until closing at 2 am "The appeal is Rod Dibble" said Paul Rose "I've traveled around the country and there are few piano bars like this is his life and he wants to make people feel good" said Lynn Robinson a therapist and I tell Rod he's a therapist's therapist" "A lot of my friends that I've been friends with for years I met said Art Mahoney "We hang out together outside (The Mahoney can sing pop or "Rigoletto" which he did this particular Thursday Not every am ateur crooner at The Alley is so melodious a guy can't carry a tune across the street in a wheelbarrow said Dave Chapman fits the melody for him and makes him feel like he's rank Sinatra" Then there's The Alley which resembles well an alley atmosphere unique" said Dibble (business) cards on the wall the dark wood changed We had a clothesline with red flannel underwear The fire depart ment made us take it down" Dibble doesn't accept alcoholic drinks from customers He said he gave up booze when his daughter was born 28 years ago He'll make an exception with a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve when he's normally at The Alley Playing from 9 to 2 nightly he used to take three breaks But he cut back to one break be cause he want to lose rapport with his customers love to sing until I die at the piano bar" he said RAY CHAVEZ Staff ROD DIBBLE piano bar player extraordinaire is in his 44th year of entertaining at The Alley a popular Oakland hangout ICHAEL COPELAND Sydnor the artist be hind the current exhibit at the Craft Cui tural Arts Gallery in downtown Elihu Harris State Building is a man of many talents with a background in theater set design sound production dance Jazz poetry and arts administration But this time he's talking railroads Sydnor's one map show explores Oakland's railroad his tory from the perspective of workers particularly African American porters cooks waiters and linemen Sydnor has created an eclectic exhibit of artifacts cob lectibles digital video interviews and his own artwork canvas graphics of signage and internationally recognized transit symbols in homage to the enduring lore of train travel The exhibit RAIL: Montage of Rail Experiences Restoring an mumaie i egacy incorporates such diverse items as a passenger recliner seat (in vented by a woman by the name of Sarah Goode) a steamer trunk used by the porters to store their "kits" a serving tray with the cutlery and bud glass vase used in the dining car as well as various hats caps luggage tickets and other ephemera Sydnor wants visitors who come to the gallery to contact him with their stories of rail travel or of working for Southern Pacific and other railroad companies am taking oral histories down so we do not lose the mem ories" he explains During ebruary and March the artist with the coopera tion of Christine Sacd branch manager for the West Oak land Library will be giving living history programs at various branches Each program will include music narra tives and even food tastings samples from the culinary traditions of African American cooks on the Southern Pa cific also often at the gallery to answer questions Sydnor says he became inspired by Oakland's rail heri tage in 1991 when he assisted a public art interdisciplinary project titled Tics: The 16th Street Station" "I worked with visual artist Stephanie Anne Johnson to create giant Images of train workers that were projected upon the front facade of the landmark station" says Sydnor The and show incorporated music and nar ratives that told the story of the 1912 era intermodal ter minal (designed by SP architect Jarvis Hunt) At designated times there would be a broadcast on a local radio station and folks would come park in tlie lot in front of the hulking station and tune in to listen on car radios as they watched the images flash across the front of the building Sydnor further explains helping Stephanie Anne Johnson with her piece I came to appreciate how central a role Oakland has played with respect to rail transportation in this country and also how closely the experiences of so many African Americans are tied to trains and train travel" He believes the anecdotes and reminiscences captured in the oral histories will enliven the official written record "The components are part biography part conversation part historical fact and part of everyday living in the tra dition of the African griot storytelling" Sydnor plans to follow standards developed by the Oak land Living History Program sponsored by Mills College The artist has also been taking part in community meet ings that seek to establish a new use for the vacant SP sta tion "It is my feeling that the building must become a destination not just a he said "If we incorporated working streetcars (as there used to be there) it could attract tourists businesses and increase safety in that the artist believes In the future Sydnor intends to bring the schools into the niix by creating an educational curriculum and lesson plans for grades four to six His Soul in the City Urban Advocates a volunteer based group seeks to rebuild the intimate relationship Oakland once had with its railroad history "We feel the vitality that characterized Oakland was lost when the interurban rails were ripped out and cemented over We need to bring back light rail services in the way that San rancisco has done with its Third Street Sydnor adds The exhibit is open weekdays in tlie gal lery of the Elihu Harris State Building 1515 Clay St Ad mission is Michael Copeland next branch library appear ance will be on Tuesday at the Martin Luther King Jr branch 6833 International Blvd or a complete listing of li appearances visit wwwoaklandlibraryorg To schedule an oral history interview contact Sydnor at (415) 921 8234 or visit wwwsoulinthecityorg Learn more about the Sleeping Car Porters and the his tory of rail heritage on a walking tour sponsored by the Oakland Tours Program The next tour will be on Saturday eb 24 call 238 3234 or visit wwwoaklandnet walkingtours THIS IS A 1965 VIEW of the passenger lobby of the landmark Southern Pacific train station on Wood Street in West Oakland a decade before passenger trains bit the dust Artist recalls blacks experience on rails staff has researched including relevant experi ence related to Navy base reuse development qualifications its financial capability and ap proach and its ability to fix or repair land that has been made toxic by exposure to Navy and industrial chemicals The group did receive a rating for its willingness to pay $1085 million for ZOO acres of Navy owned land By contrast Lennar was labeled in that category and Cat ellus and SunCal were dubbed Still council members expressed some skepticism does this business deal work for Mayor Beverly Johnson asked the UWI team tills too good to be true? Why are you willing to do this to put up $1085 million to do what we think of as a very challenging and difficult project?" Written responses to some of the questions will likely be due by the developers in about two weeks base reuse and redevelopment manager Debbie Potter said A public meeting for the City Council acting as the Alameda Reuse and Redevel opment Authority to decide which developer will move into further negotiations may happen as early as March 21 The chosen party will enter into an exclu sive 24 month negotiating period where an at tempt will be made to strike a deal between the city the developer and the Navy for the Mission uneral Horn 22297 Mission Blvd Hayward CA 94541 51OM19192DmQ Mission Memorial Campbell 900 HanWon Se 1 00 Campbel CA 95008 80073L1779Dl755 Mission Memorial oothills 30KJAAve San Jose CA 95127 4083470985 1 81 3 by Mission uneral Group Inc amily owned operated MISSION LHJ UNERAL GROUP INC Direct Cremation s895 Graveside Service Traditional Service s2495 Inti Shipment s2295 Comparable sewngs on all other seMces Saviogsup to 50 on ccskets andums Affordable unerals and Cremations 3 'VI "va: "ii ffTx Ml is ika.