First library in Berkeley opened in 1893 with 264 books
Rose Shattuck donated site of her old rose garden for library in 1905
John Galen Howard designed the original building built at Kittredge and Shattuck
Andrew Carnegie donated $40,000 to build the structure
In 1934, James Plachek designed building that is now called Central
Placheck also designed North and Claremont branches
Library now has more than 500,000 items

From July 1 2009 to May 31 2010:

2,245,307 items were checked out of the library
1,475,201 of those were adult items
731,013 were children’s items
30,093 were teen items

The Main Library has 40 computers
The branches have 2 to 11 computers each
200,000 people used computers in the library
There were 1 million visits to electronic databases

There are 18.2 checkouts per capita in Berkeley
The state average is 6.2 checkouts
Berkeley spends $8.72 per capita on materials
The state average for expenditures is $3.23
The number of items in the library per capita is 5.53
The number of items per capita statewide is 2.12

Number of visits to the library per capita: 13.11
Number of visits state wide per capital: 4.5
North is busiest branch with 300,000 visitors a year
Claremont has 160,000 visitors a year

Number of places to sit at North Branch: 61
Number of places after renovation: 73

Holds on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: 121
Holds on The Girl who Played with Fire: 74
Holds on The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: 160
Holds on McKay’s Bees (out of print, but featured on NPR last week) 12
Holds on Red Hook Road by Berkeley author Ayelet Waldman: 29
Holds on The Help by Kathleen Socket: 85
Holds on The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman: 76
Holds on The Big Short by Michael Lewis: 83
Holds on The First Tycoon, by T.J. Stiles, 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner: 1

Cooking and health books are the most popular genres at Claremont branch
Mysteries are most popular at South branch
Audio books are most popular at North Branch
The largest collection of Spanish language books is at West branch
Fiction is popular everywhere

Sources: The Berkeley Public Library Foundation, Douglas Smith, deputy director of the BPL, The BPL catalogue,

Allie Zimnoch, left, buys an espresso at the new Peet's at Berkeley's Downtown BART station.

Still dragging yourself to BART in the morning with bleary, unfocused eyes and barely stifled yawns? For shame. You no longer need to sacrifice your morning cup of Joe to make your train — the Downtown Berkeley BART station now boasts a full-service Peet’s Coffee & Tea stand, complete with seven tables’ worth of seating.

The location, which has been in the works for three years, has already served almost 1,000 customers since it opened with a flourish on Tuesday 13, according to its manager, Deborah Wilson. Wilson, who has been in charge of opening all the other three Peet’s located in BART stations — at the Embarcadero, Pittsburg and Montgomery stops — said she’s received “a very warm reception” from commuters so far.

“I will definitely be getting coffee here from now on,” said Allie Zimnoch, a first-time customer who purchased and downed a shot of espresso in less than a minute before hopping on a train to the airport.

Out of all Peet’s BART locations, the Downtown Berkeley stand has the longest hours and is the only one open Sundays. Though it faces competition from the nearby Tully’s Coffee on Shattuck Avenue, Wilson said the chain’s loyal fan-base — known as “Peet’s-niks” — will ensure a steady stream of customers.

Saturn Cafe: preparing for Berkeley opening today.

In other news, Saturn Café, a popular vegetarian diner born in Santa Cruz, opens on Allston Way in Berkeley Saturday. Saturn specializes in American diner delights gone veggie, like Jalapeno burgers and chicken avocado club sandwiches with bacon — fakin bacon, that is. (Read their full menu.)

Saturn joins Berkeley’s planetary trifecta of Venus, Jupiter — both on Shattuck — and Mars thrift store on Telegraph Avenue. Based on its popularity in Santa Cruz, expect lines orbiting the block…  just like planetary rings.

Today saw the opening of a smart new Bike Station at 2208  Shattuck Avenue, the result of a partnership between the city and BART, as well as community biking organizations. The station offers convenient, free valet-parking space for cyclists commuting via the Downtown Berkeley BART, as well as repair facilities, a retail store and amenities designed to turn novice cyclists into enthusiasts. (Watch the slideshow above, clicking on “captions” for more details.)

The station, which was five years in the planning and was funded to the tune of $765,000, is located in the double-height ceilinged space formerly occupied by a Shoe Pavilion store. It was offically opened today at 11.00am at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by, among others, Mayor Tom Bates and Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (sporting a red bike helmet).

The facility is being run by Alameda Bicycle, which also manages BART’s bike stations at Embarcadero and Fruitvale stations. Owner Gene Oh said he hoped the station will “help people get the cycling bug” and make commuting by bike part of their lifestyle. The station has a fleet of bikes for rent,  accessorized with bags, lights, locks and racks.

There’s a 24-hour smart-card activated self-park area, which costs just 3 cents per hour on weekdays, bike repairs, free bike safety check inspections and restrooms. The space is open and airy with orange and green painted walls and contemporary graphics.

The station has the space to store 268 bikes and is, according to BART Board Vice President Bob Franklin, the second largest bike station in the nation after Chicago. It replaces the cramped bike storage area on the concourse of Downtown Berkeley BART, set up in 1999, which could only accommodate 80 bikes and was often unable to meet customer demand.

The East Bay Bike Coalition, which worked on getting the new facility open, is moving into offices at the rear of the station. Rick Richards, the EBBC’s acting Executive Director, said he hoped the space would be as much a community hub as a biking facility. Another self-service bike station is planned for Ashby BART station later in the summer.

Assemblywoman Skinner said there was no reason Berkeley couldn’t be the bike capital of the United States, or even the world, and — even though progress towards that goal has moved at a snail’s pace thus far — the new station was a step in the right direction.

Berkeley High School

Students from Berkeley High are getting stoned in the park across the street from the school and in alleyways and other “out of the way” places in the downtown area, “morning, lunchtime, and mid-afternoon,” according to a new report which presents a plan to curb student drug and alcohol use.

Drug and alcohol use among Berkeley ninth graders is twice the state average and some students may be getting their pot from medical marijuana cardholders, the report contends. Eleventh graders also use drugs and alcohol at higher rates than students at other high schools do.

Making matters worse is the fact that the school district does not have an effective truancy program to trace students who skip school, so there are no repercussions if they hang out in Civic Center Park all day.

“During the daily school lunch break, numerous students go across the street to Civic Center Park and indulge in ATOD (Alcohol, tobacco and other drug) use and other negative behaviors, according to the report, which was drawn from information gathered from a 2008 California Healthy Kid Survey. “Due to limited police monitoring, school security and availability of other school staff during BHS lunch breaks, students find it easy to “get high” while on lunch break in Civic Center Park.”

Berkeley School Superintendent Bill Huyett was not available for comment Thursday but he told the Oakland Tribune that, “We do need to do more in the park across from the school. The school has to do more and so does the city. It doesn’t seem like we supervise that space very well. We need to have a conversation with the city about that.”

But some Berkeley High students contend that the report does not expose the full extent to which students are smoking pot and drinking. They are also getting high in school, the students said.

While smoking marijuana on campus is grounds for suspension or expulsion, it is not uncommon for students to smoke pot in the high school’s bathrooms, eat brownies laced with cannabis, or even use a vaporizer to smoke pot during class, according to several students interviewed by Berkeleyside.

Students smoking pot in class usually do it when a teacher steps out of the classroom or has their attention diverted.

“There are so many nooks and crannies in Berkeley High that it’s easy to do what you want,” said one student, who asked that her name not be used.

Students also fill their Kleen Kanteen thermoses with vodka and sip them throughout the day, according to another Berkeley High student.

And numerous students at Berkeley High celebrate “420” day. Started by students in San Rafael in 1971 and named after the time they smoked pot every day after school, the term now signifies April 20, when many kids attracted to the marijuana subculture come to school stoned, according to the students. Many students also drink or get high during Spirit Week.

But the rampant drug use does not mean most Berkeley High students are stoned,  said one student.

“It doesn’t make Berkeley High a bad school because for all the kids who do that (get stoned during lunch and on campus) there are people who don’t do that stuff.”

The report, put together by a task force of school, community, and city officials over a 10-month period, acknowledges that Berkeley’s tolerance of drugs, and focus on drug dependency by adults, may have contributed to lax oversight of teenagers. The report points out the dangers of using drugs and alcohol at a young age and sets out a series of steps to curb risky behavior.

“The fact that little attention has been focused on ATOD (alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs) youth prevention in the school district and in the city and that most of the services during the past 20 to 30 years have been provided to adult ATOD treatment has left a major service gap,” said the report.

It calls for a citywide coalition to address the problem.  Instead of focusing on suspensions or expulsions – punishment – the report recommends emphasizing positive behavior as a way to make teenagers change.

The report calls for:

• Transforming discipline systems by implementing positive behavior systems for all grades, such as:

• Support Building Effective Schools together (B.E.S.T) at each school in order to change the patterns of suspensions, expulsions, and office referrals for behavior

• Reduce suspensions and create alternatives to suspensions at secondary schools by developing and implementing intervention strategies

• Keep students on campus

• Address the current racial problems that exist in schools

• Focus on ATOD as one of the obstacles to student success and develop and implement a variety of interventions to address the obstacles

• Strengthen the transformation of the discipline systems and address racial inequities.

BUSD Healthy Kids Survey 2009 Report presented to Berkeley school board from Mark Coplan on Vimeo.

Photo by Sasha Vasilyuk

Even before the new Trader Joe’s on University Avenue officially opened this morning, a large crowd gathered outside.

“We had about 80 people at the door,” said Mary Ann Gallagher, the “captain” of the store. “They were super excited. We had people waiting since 7. They were taking pictures. It was like a party out there.”

Business has been steady since then, she said.

Sasha Vasilyuk, co-founder of Sandbox Suites, a shared working space on nearby Addison Street, was one of those who went early to the new store.

“I’m very excited about it because it is a block from our office,” said Vasilyuk. “Not only am I excited, but everyone in my office is too. From the buzz in the store it sounds like people have been eagerly awaiting it.”

Vasilyuk often has to buy milk or cream for the office and until now the nearest market was Fred’s. It opens at 11 am, hours after Sandbox Suites opens its doors. The new Trader Joe’s will be open from 8 am to 10 pm.

The new store has 94 employees, with the bulk of them coming from Berkeley, Oakland, and Albany, said Gallagher. Since there is no employee parking, the new workers are taking public transportation or are riding their bikes. Gallagher lives in Oakland and is taking BART to work, she said.

There are only 48 parking spaces at the store, and neighbors are worried that Trader Joe’s customers will make an already tight parking situation even more difficult. Berkeley is designating some areas around the store as residential parking only.

On opening day, the emphasis seemed to be on what Trader Joe’s will offer the neighborhood.

“Everything is so new and clean and fresh,” said Gallagher. “It’s great.”

Amy Murray moved to Berkeley and opened Venus Restaurant on Shattuck Avenue in 2000. The restaurant began serving up seasonable, organic, sustainable California cuisine with worldly accents — which was something of a novelty back then.

A nice nod early on by Kim Severson, then a restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, now at the New York Times, gave the funky little brick cafe just the kind of exposure it needed to draw in diners.

Last month, Murray opened Revival Bar + Kitchen in a 1901 building also on Shattuck that most recently housed Downtown Restaurant. The chef-owner divides her day working in, and walking between, her two restaurants.

Murray came to the restaurant business at the urging of friends. While traveling for several years — she’s visited 26 countries and counting — she was struck by how other cultures, particularly in Japan and Italy, viewed food as a way of life. When she returned here  in the early 1990s, friends began encouraging the home cook to consider starting a food business. She vowed to bring the kind of sensibility she had seen abroad to her own eatery.

Her first venture was Happy Belly Deli & Cafe — a takeaway lunch spot featuring soups, salads and sandwiches, often with an Asian flavor – which she opened on a shoestring budget in 1994 with Dave Korman in Jack London Village.

The 40-something Murray lives on the Berkeley-Kensington border. We chatted over tea in a booth at Revival a week after the restaurant opened.

Why the name Revival?

This is a Revival-era building, Berkeley’s downtown sorely needs a revival, and there’s a food revival going on.

When I was planning this restaurant I immersed myself in the history of this area at the main library. The downtown area, back in the day, used to be a really grand place. At the turn of the 20th century it drew famous architects, opera singers and other dignitaries. Now it’s the face of urban blight. I see the decay every day as I go back and forth between my two restaurants.

We could have such a vibrant downtown again. I want to be a part of the area’s revival.

How are your two restaurants different?

Ambience-wise, I think of Revival as a more sexy, romantic, adult venue than Venus, which is entering its adolescence. For me, Revival is part of a continuum that I started back with Happy Belly, which was my baby. Venus is my child. And Revival is a bit more grown up.

Revival has a bistro feel and a full bar. We have the space at Revival to do things we can’t do at Venus, like accommodate larger parties.

We can also do more in terms of what we cook. We can bring in a whole goat, for instance, and use every part of the animal, from snout to tail. Nothing is wasted. There’s more room for experimenting in the kitchen too.

What do the two places have in common?

A very clean feel to the food, a high standard of purveyors and a California sensibility with a twist. I like to use a word a friend coined — “vitalitarianism”. We’re cooking local, fresh food prepared with care, commitment and love.

Do you have a favorite neighborhood eatery?

Local 123. Since I run two restaurants, I rarely eat out. But I do visit this cafe on San Pablo near University. They serve really good coffee. True to their name, they serve local food — very local. They source produce from neighbors’ backyards. And they feature local art. I like the brick patio out the back.

What’s a misperception about diners here?

That Berkeley diners are all bold. The average palate is still very conservative. We have a lot of people here who have a higher food consciousness but we also have a lot of people who follow a traditional, almost 1950s diet of meat, cheese and bread. It’s very carbo-centric. Sometimes I’m shocked at what people eat.

What’s missing on the food scene in town?

A place making laksa, just a casual little shop selling this Malaysian noodle soup. Also some really authentic Japanese sushi in the style of a Japanese country pub.

Who are your local food heroes?

I have a special place in my heart for the purveyors at Tuesday’s farmers’ market: Cultured‘s Alex Hozven who sells pickled and fermented products like sauerkraut, tsukemono and kombucha. And Casey Havre of Lou Lou’s Garden: she’s been preserving fruits and making jams from a garden on land that’s been in a family for three generations. And the farmers from Quetzal Farm in Santa Rosa who grow so many different varieties of chilies. These people work hard. It’s not an easy life selling such specific foods. But they’ve persevered and made a go of it.

Each Friday in this space food writer Sarah Henry asks a well-known, up-and-coming, or under-the-radar food aficionado about their favorite tastes in town, preferred food purveyors and other local culinary gems worth sharing.

Henry is a freelance writer whose stories have appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Washington Post and San Francisco Magazine. A contributor to the food policy blog Civil Eats, she muses about food matters on her blog Lettuce Eat Kale. Follow her on Twitter and become a fan of Lettuce Eat Kale on Facebook.

If you have an idea for a Berkeley Bites interview, send your suggestion to sarahhenry0509@gmail.com or leave a comment here.

To read previous Berkeley Bites profiles click here.

Berkeleysiders interested in food and farming may find themselves torn between two edible events being held downtown — or bouncing between both this Thursday.

The Earth Island Institute and VegNews Magazine host a hot-topic debate: “Can You Be a ‘Good Environmentalist’ and Still Eat Meat?” In one corner, Nicolette Hahn Niman, a Marin rancher and author of Righteous Porkchop, who believes there is an ecologically sustainable way to eat animals. Niman’s nemesis for the night: Howard Lyman, author of Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat, which pretty much sums up his point of view.

The task of keeping the conversation friendly goes to the amicable Ari Derfel, co-founder of Gather restaurant, recently featured in Berkeley Bites.

The event, at the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Theater in The David Brower Center begins at 7:00 p.m. and a donation of $10-$20 is suggested. Purchasing advance tickets is no longer an option, but a website link suggests showing up early to see if any reserved tickets are released, or watching the conversation on a screen in an overflow room adjacent to the theater.

Meanwhile, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores will all get fed at the party for Temra Costa‘s first book, Farmer: Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat, being held at Revival Bar + Kitchen, the much-anticipated new restaurant for chef Amy Murray. Attendees also get a sneak peek at the refurbished restaurant (it has an oldey worldy feel) at this book launch, which  serves as the soft opening for the latest nosh spot in the space that previously housed Downtown restaurant.

Farmer Jane profiles 30 women leaders in the fields of sustainable farming, seasonal and organic cooking, edible education, and food advocacy. Fittingly, Murray has been creating seasonable, organic, sustainable eats in the East Bay since 1992, including at Venus on Shattuck Avenue.

Along with good eats, the gala, co-sponsored by Revival and East Bay Express, includes a panel discussion with five local women featured in the book: filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia, urban farmer Willow Rosenthal, Three Stone Hearth community kitchen worker-owner Jessica Prentice, Pescadero’s Pie Ranch farmer Nancy Vail, and author-farmer Novella Carpenter, also interviewed for a recent Berkeley Bites. (Read a review of Farmer Jane at Lettuce Eat Kale.)

Tickets for the event cost $10; $25 with a signed copy of the book. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., panel starts at 7:15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at Brown Paper Tickets. Food for the occasion comes courtesy of Revival, Sixth Course, Pie Ranch, and Full Belly Farm.

Here’s to an evening full of food for thought.

When I heard the news on Wednesday that:

1)   The organization World Can’t Wait will be picketing the Berkeley Law School graduation at the Greek Theater on Friday to protest the presence of John Yoo on the faculty;

2)   State Senator Gloria Romero won’t be attending the Latino students’ graduation to protest the fact that UC Berkeley is underpaying its custodial workers;

3)   Author Karen Joy Fowler pulled out of the English department ceremonies for the same reason;

4) Ditto for former Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg. He won’t speak at the Political Science department graduation ceremonies on May 17;

5)   The students protesting the draconian immigration law in Arizona agreed to end their hunger strike, but then blamed Chancellor Robert Birgenau for making them fast for so long, I thought just one thing:

I have protest fatigue.

This may have been a record year for protests at UC Berkeley, at least since the Vietnam War era. The crippling budget reductions and fee hikes infuriated practically the entire campus. And it seems each week brought a new picket and a new demonstration. Along the way there were a remarkable number of sit-ins, blockades, and street rampages.

While each group of protesters is admirable in its own way, it has become increasingly hard to differentiate between them, or, frankly, to summon up the energy to fully understand their concerns. I am tired, I will admit.

Summer is rolling around. The problems aren’t going away, but the students are.

Fewer students = fewer protests.

Here’s a recap of this busy, tumultous academic year at UC Berkeley:

September 24, 2009 – About 5,000 faculty, workers, and staff walked out of classes to protest budget cuts and furloughs and hold a huge rally in Sproul Plaza. After the protest, thousands of students marched down Shattuck Avenue and briefly blocked traffic.

October 2009 – protests against cuts to library hours

November 20, 2009 – Huge demonstrations on campus; students set off fire alarms in buildings and occupied Wheeler Hall. Forty-one arrested.

December 10-11. 2009 – Students occupied Wheeler Hall, pledging to “open” the university. Police arrested 66 students occupying Wheeler Hall.

December 11, 2009 — A crowd of about 50 students protest in front of the campus home of Chancellor Birgeneau around 11 pm. The Chancellor and his wife were inside. Some break lights and overturn planters. Eight people are arrested.

February 26. 2010 – Students protesting budget cuts and fee hikes swarm onto Telegraph Avenue, breaking a store window and setting fire to a dumpster. Police in riot gear come out to stop them. Two people were arrested. Accusations of police brutality are made.

March 1, 2010 — Hundreds of African-American students block Sather Gate to protest a series of racially-motivated incidents at UC San Diego, including one where a noose is hung in the library.

March 4, 2010 – Day of Action to Defend Public Education. Students, teachers, faculty, and parents from elementary schools to college protest against state budget cuts to education.

March 2010, The ASUC senate passes a resolution calling for the university to divest from companies that do business in Israel, suggesting they are complicit in war crimes. The discussions, which continue for months, bring hundreds of students to the hearings.

April 29, 2010 — About 100 students gather at Sather Gate to protest Arizona’s new immigration law. They mimic deportations.

April 30, 2010 – Jewish students protest “hidden hate” on campus after swastikas are found at Clark Kerr campus.

May 3-10, 2010 – A group of students and staff stage a hunger strike outside California Hall. They want Chancellor Birgeneau to denounce new Arizona law, make the UC Berkeley a sanctuary campus for undocumented workers and students, and offer amnesty to the students arrested in the November Wheeler Hall sit-ins. Four students go to the hospital during the strike.

Then there were a number of non-UC Berkeley, but UC-related protests, including protests at various meetings of the UC Board of Regents , confrontations with UC President Mark Yudof, the car fire in front of Yudof’s Oakland house, and more.

Of course, Carl Nolte’s excellent article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle is an compelling  rebuttal against protest fatigue. May 13th is the 50th anniversary of the first major student protest, the one that really ushered in the era of student mass movements. On this day in 1960, students from San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley, and elsewhere flocked to San Francisco City Hall to protest hearings being conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The students were not allowed in the hearing room and gathered at the top of the stairs of City Hall. Police sprayed them with high-power fire hoses, knocked them down the stairs, and hit them with batons. U.S. Senators and others connected with Senator Joseph McCarthy said the Communist Party was behind the protests. Of course that was not true and the allegations further angered the students and prompted them to continue speaking out against authority.

Cal’s Haas School of Business launches new MBA program [Bloomberg/Biz Week]
Berkeley may collect taxes from daycare operators [San Jose Mercury News]
Berkeley based human rights group seeks help for Iranian refugees [Oakland Tribune]
Out of UC: Smart dust aims to monitor everything [CNN]

Photo: Attack of the killer fog by Keoki Seu/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

Last night’s decision was not to build or stop BRT; it was merely to decide which schemes went forward for final environmental impact review and study.

An amendment to study the full-build option, proposed by Councilmember Darrell Moore, was rejected by a 4-2-2 vote.