Nate Payne, District 6 candidate. RAMSEY EL-QARE / THE GUARDSMAN

City College graphic design student Nate Payne is trying to turn his vision of a new and improved District 6 into legislative reality by running for City Supervisor in the upcoming election. He is seeking to replace Chris Daly who has reached his term limit as a supervisor.

“I’d like to make this a self-made district where we don’t have to rely on corporations to make the city,” Payne said. “We can use local business and community involvement.”

Payne’s life story is a familiar one in the Bay Area. He was born in the Philippines but moved to San Francisco when he was four years old, and has lived here ever since.

“I’m a native of SF for 28 years. I’ve been here through the earthquakes, the dot-com bust … I’ve been here through everything.”

A father of three, Payne says that his candidacy is about making the city safer and stronger for his own daughters.

“I believe it starts with the children, with us educating our children and volunteering our time to motivate these kids to stay out of trouble,” he said. “I emphasize children a lot because they are our future and they’re going to be running the streets of SF soon, and hopefully City Hall as well.”

He says that his political philosophy is based on the words of former city Supervisor Harvey Milk, “The American dream starts with the neighborhood.”

“I’m just a person,” he said. “But I’m a person with a dream and I follow my dreams. I’m about making things happen.”

Payne’s candidacy is based on a three-part platform: safe neighborhoods, controlled public spending and housing programs.

“Something we need to do to save money in our districts, instead of hiring all of these cops to the patrol the streets, is to work together as a community to watch our neighborhood,” Payne said. “For us to improve District 6 and the city of San Francisco, it starts with improving ourselves.”

Payne also wants to bring green businesses, like solar power companies, to District 6 to create new jobs and encourage the production of clean energy.

Payne says his philosophy of personal responsibility is an integral part of his plan for fostering community growth and cooperation in District 6 to combat the unique issues its residents face.

In an effort to establish his credibility with voters early on, Payne has refused to accept any public funding to offset his campaign costs.

“I’m opposed to matching funds,” he said. “I’d rather use that money to help out other students.”

Payne views his rejection of public money as a matter of integrity.

“I decline to be a part of the problem when I can be a part of the solution,” he said. “It shows strength that I don’t have to take money from the city, because if you do, it shows that you could take money from lobbyists or anyone else once in office.”

Payne isn’t afraid to suggest sweeping policy initiatives in his quest for solutions to social problems facing the state and his district, including childhood obesity.

One of the policies Payne has already begun researching and considering is a punitive tax on sugar and high fructose corn syrup, which he believes will positively impact City revenue and obesity rates, particularly among children.

“When it comes to my district, there’s a lot of talk about narcotics, but sugar, that’s the other white powder that kills people,” he said. “There are more people who die from sugar and diabetes than from overdosing on cocaine or narcotics.”

He says that he supports removing high-sugar foods and beverages from public schools and encouraging better nutrition among San Francisco youth.

“If you look at the prison system, their food nutrition is higher than what they’re serving the kids in school,” Payne said. “Better nutrition is one step on the right path towards producing future law-abiding citizens who will definitely give back to the community.”

Payne is confident that by addressing the issues facing children and young people early on, it will remove the need to address destructive behavior later.

“We need kids to understand and learn how to operate a small business, instead of seeing these young children selling weed and crack or cocaine which have been plaguing South of Market for years — the TL for years — and like I said, it starts with children.”

Payne is looking for volunteers to help with all aspects of his campaign. He can be contacted through his campaign website: www.votenate2010.com

With the rise in the cost of tuition, text books and materials — long gone are the days when students could afford to live on financial aid alone.

Many students now find that having a job while going to school is more of a necessity than a preference.

In fact, the labor force participation rate (the proportion of the population working or looking for work) for recent high school graduates enrolled in college was 42 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics October 2009 Current Population Survey.

Students attending school full-time have much lower labor force participation than part-time students. Only half of all full-time students are employed, compared to 80 percent of all part-time students. Students tend to classify themselves as either students who work full-time to pay the bills, or full-time workers who take classes.

Either way, the process of balancing a semester of full-time classes and working full-time hours is something that could never be considered easy, or rather, it’s exhausting as City College student Jonathon Miller, 25, described.

The previous two semesters, Miller took 16 units at City College and worked 40 hours a week at The Cheesecake Factory in Marin.

“The whole semester was exhausting,” he said. “I never had time to study so I was always cramming at the last minute. I was just scraping by. I didn’t retain anything as the information would only go into my short term memory.”

Miller said his day would start at school at 7 a.m., when he would study before class. He would leave at 1 p.m. to “go home and breathe for an hour,” and then he’d go to work, arrive home at midnight and the next day do the whole thing again. He attended classes five days a week and had no full day off of work or school.

“It kills your mental state,” he said. “I was very unhappy. Even if I did well in exams, I didn’t remember anything so the following semester I was instantly behind. I was burnt out from the previous semester and always trying to catch up.”

As reported by Jonathon Orszag, Peter Orszag, and Diane Whitmore in “Learning and Earning: Working in College”, full-time employment may impair student performance and students who work full time are more likely to drop out of school.

Their research states that 55 percent of students working 35 or more hours per week reported that it has a negative effect on their studies, in that it limits their class schedule by reducing their choices and the number of classes they take. It also limits their access to the library.

The study shows that, if possible, it may be beneficial for students to find other ways of financing college so they can complete their degrees, maintain academic performance levels and gain the long-term benefits of a college education.

Miller said it is easier for him now that he is able to receive a student loan, and is now taking two to three classes a semester and working 25-30 hours a week.

“It wasn’t worth it for me,” he said. “I felt like I was losing myself and slipping too much with having no downtime. Now I balance the pressure to keep my sanity but make sure I don’t slack off. I’ve learned how to manage things better now, and I know what I’m capable of and what I’m not.”

COURTESY OF 5 STICK FILMS INC.

When Peter and Benjamin Bratt set out to score their newest film, “La Mission,” City College Latin American studies instructor Greg Landau seemed like a natural choice to help them achieve the “Mission sound.”

Landau, a three-time Grammy nominated music producer, played guitar for numerous bands during the Latin rock movement in the 1970s. A friend of their mother Eldie Bratt, Landau has known the brothers since they were children.

Eager to express a vision of the neighborhood that was not just about Latin music, the Mission district natives sought to create a complex blend of oldies, R&B, rock and Latin.

“It was a challenge to put together a musical soundscape for the place I grew up,” Landau said. “It forced us all to look inside and see what music told our story and the stories of the different generations that inhabit this same space.”

Landau said he worked mainly on post production, although he did help record music for the graduation scene and gathered “local hip music” for possible use in the film.

“La Mission,” which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, relied heavily on its soundtrack to tell its story – blending complex styles of music with an equally complex story that mixes themes of spiritual ascension and violence.

The main vehicle of the film, Che Rivera, is played by Benjamin Bratt. Bratt was a former student of City College music instructor Helen Dilworth when she taught at Lowell High School. Caught in a battle between the socially-accepted chauvinism he was raised with, and the love he feels for his gay son, Che finds healing and inspiration from his neighbor, Lena, played by Erika Alexander, who is also a former City College student.

An activist and advocate for youth, Alexander is known for her portrayals of strong-willed women. Jehmu Greene, president of the Women’s Media Center, called Alexander “a powerful voice for youth at risk – girls and women.”

Dilworth, a former instructor of Alexander couldn’t be happier for her prior students. She was particularly pleased with Alexander’s portrayal of a strong African-American woman as a female lead and the cultural diversity and warmth of the film.

“The film deals with very important themes that need to be dealt with,” Dilworth said.

Although her role as co-producer may not have always been harmonious, for City College film instructor Debbie Brubaker, “La Mission” was really something special to be a part of.

Dubbed “the Godmother of the San Francisco independent film movement,” Brubaker’s first job was to convince Peter Bratt to cut some 30 or so pages of his script.

“It was Benjamin initially who was most upset over the idea of cuts in the script,” she said. “But when he saw the re-worked script he couldn’t find what was missing.”

She said her main duties were hiring and handling the crew — several of whom, including production manager Chris Martin, were former and current City College students. She also acted as a liaison with the union, a shepherd of sorts, staying on top of the crew and the budget of about $2.25 million, which she said should have been closer to $4 million.

As the production progressed, numerous challenges surfaced.

“Locations were tough, working in the Mission,” Brubaker said. “Having big actors going into honey wagons instead of trailers, dealing with the residents. It was hard.”

But for Brubaker, it was a labor of love. She really enjoyed working with the Bratt brothers. She even called Peter the real star of the project.

“He’s a really wonderful man,” she said. “Very sensitive. Very spiritual.”

She loved the movie, but said the producer in her would have cut an additional 10 minutes.

“What’s great about the film is that you don’t have to be gay or Latino for the film to touch you. It speaks to everyone,” Brubaker said. “That’s its biggest strength.”

“La Mission” has become a hit among Latinos, whom professor Landau says “rarely see complex portrayals of working-class people, especially Latino gays.”

“The film told an important story about tolerance and the way men try to use power and violence to get their way and lose sight of their humanity,” Landau said.

Dilworth couldn’t be happier with its success, because it’s an independent film dealing with a culture rarely portrayed in movies.

“It touched me in a way that films rarely do,” Dilworth said. “And that’s enough for me.”

The Icelandic volcano which began erupting in April, continues to wreak havoc on airlines, and may pose health and environmental concerns — was the research thesis of a City College instructor.

Department chair of earth sciences Katryn Wiese did her graduate work at Oregon State University on Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano now erupting and spewing ash across Europe.

Wiese, a professor of geology and oceanography, got excited about the unusual volcanic activity — not every volcanologist is lucky enough to have their graduate work end up as global news.

“By studying the chemical changes in the old lava layers we can understand how and what types of magmas are cooking underneath,” she said.

Video footage on the website of the London-based publication The Guardian shows large billowing clouds of black smoke, which have left large parts of Iceland covered in toxic gray ash.

Studying the volcano that closed down air traffic for a week “was exciting and unexpected,” Weise said.

The Iceland island sits on a volcanic hot spot in the mid-Atlantic ridge where eruptions are relatively common according to The Guardian.

“This volcano produces lavas with a wide compositional range. This is not typical in an ocean setting,” Wiese said.

Volcanoes in oceanic settings, like those in Hawaii and Iceland, usually produce lava with a low silica content which means they have low explosiveness, she said. The high silica content of magmas from the current Eyjafjallajökull eruption is what gives this volcano its high explosiveness.

Volcanologists can predict how long these eruptions will last by looking at historic data and studying old lava flows, Wiese said. The last eruption of this particular volcano in 1812 lasted for two years.

The United Nations club at City College continues to expand as its members aim to educate their peers about the history of the U.N. and its role in foreign affairs.

The U.N. club was founded in September 2009 by U.N. course instructor Jay Sayed and U.N. club president Elizabeth Weinberg to teach people about the organization’s role and goals. It is the club’s mission to show college students how the U.N. is a multifaceted peacekeeping and peace-building organization.

“The U.N. is the bridge of the world,” Jaqueline Bruno, club member said. “It gives us the opportunity to learn about other cultures and countries.”

General meetings include presentations and forums for discussion with question and answer sessions that anyone is welcome to join. U.N.-related activities give students a feel of what it’s like to be a U.N. delegate.

Club members discuss contemporary issues like human rights, nuclear weapons proliferation, social equity, environmental sustainability, and international law and justice at weekly meetings.

The 92 members of the club also serve as ambassadors of culture, making presentations about different countries and the richness of their cultures.

The club hosted a U.N. Day Event and a Human Rights Day Event during the fall semester. This semester, in collaboration with other clubs on campus, the U.N. club has participated in hosting events during Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

All U.N. club events are free and the club provides refreshments that are culturally related to the events. They have also assisted with other events on campus like those for Haiti relief and Earth Day.

“We aim to represent the unity of nations on campus, find common ground between all persons, promote tolerance and diversity, foster understanding and respect and forge pathways to world peace,” Weinberg said.

The U.N. club will be hosting a candlelight vigil for Rangoon bomb victims and for the tyranny in Myanmar on May 13 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the lower plaza of the student union. The last official U.N. club meeting for this semester is scheduled for May 20.

Rokas Armonas sells honey from Marshall's Farm at Ram Plaza on April 19. JOSEPH PHILLIPS / THE GUARDSMAN

Allergy sufferers feeling the unpleasant effects of pollen in the spring blooms may now find some relief in the form of local honey, which will be sold from a stall at Ocean campus.

Allergies have been out in full-form this month, and sufferers don’t always find relief from over-the-counter medicines for coughing, sneezing, runny nose, itchy and watery eyes.

The good news is there is a simple and effective way of keeping allergies under control — local honey. Marshall’s Farm, which produces honey from the San Francisco Bay Area will be selling their honey from a stand on the Ocean campus of City College at a local farmers’ market.

The CCSF Green Corps and the Associated Student Council, began holding a farmers’ market at Ram Plaza on April 19, featuring locally grown organic produce and organic food.

“A farmers’ market is a focal part of community life,” said Zen Trenholm, vice-president of finance for the CCSF Green Corps. “There is no other farmers’ market close by, so we want it to be as much shocking as it is educational, to buy local fresh produce.”

Rokas Armonas, a foreign exchange student from Lithuania who studies beekeeping management and works for Marshall’s Farm said consuming locally grown organic raw honey works best for helping combat allergies.

“Fresh honey that is still alive builds an immunity to the pollen outside,” Armonas said.

When the bees gather the pollens they bring them to the hive and are blended with the honey that they produce. Consuming honey produced within a 50-mile radius from where you live and work, harvested in the present season, helps the body’s immune system build up a resistance to the pollens that are causing the allergies.

There are many other benefits of honey, alongside helping to prevent allergies. According to Benefits-of-honey.com, honey also has antiseptic, antioxidant and cleansing properties. It can help with weight loss and cholesterol, sleeplessness, stress, and many skin ailments including acne, athlete’s foot and eczema.

Honey contains a wide variety of vitamins, including B6, B1, B2 and B5, and minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and zinc, as well as anti-oxidants and amino acids.

“We want to provide education about local honey and how it helps,” Armonas said. “We harvest honey every week and bring it fresh. We would like to see the response and how it works.”

Trenholm said so far they have around 12 other local farmers interested in participating in the market at City College, which typically sells field-ripened fresh fruits and vegetables; freshly baked breads and pastries; flowers, gourmet appetizers and gifts; fresh fish, nuts, mushrooms and more.

The next farmers’ market will be held at the Ocean campus Ram Plaza from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on May 3.

Allergies have been out in full-form this month, and sufferers don’t always find relief from over-the-counter medicines for coughing, sneezing, runny nose, itchy and watery eyes.

The good news is there is a simple and effective way of keeping allergies under control — local honey. Marshall’s Farm, which produces honey from the San Francisco Bay Area will be selling their honey from a stand on the Ocean campus of City College at a local farmers’ market.

The CCSF Green Corps and the Associated Student Council, began holding a farmers’ market at Ram Plaza on April 19, featuring locally grown organic produce and organic food.

“A farmers’ market is a focal part of community life,” said Zen Trenholm, vice-president of finance for the CCSF Green Corps. “There is no other farmers’ market close by, so we want it to be as much shocking as it is educational, to buy local fresh produce.”

Rokas Armonas, a foreign exchange student from Lithuania who studies beekeeping management and works for Marshall’s Farm said consuming locally grown organic raw honey works best for helping combat allergies.

“Fresh honey that is still alive builds an immunity to the pollen outside,” Armonas said.

When the bees gather the pollens they bring them to the hive and are blended with the honey that they produce. Consuming honey produced within a 50-mile radius from where you live and work, harvested in the present season, helps the body’s immune system build up a resistance to the pollens that are causing the allergies.

There are many other benefits of honey, alongside helping to prevent allergies. According to Benefits-of-honey.com, honey also has antiseptic, antioxidant and cleansing properties. It can help with weight loss and cholesterol, sleeplessness, stress, and many skin ailments including acne, athlete’s foot and eczema.

Honey contains a wide variety of vitamins, including B6, B1, B2 and B5, and minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and zinc, as well as anti-oxidants and amino acids.

“We want to provide education about local honey and how it helps,” Armonas said. “We harvest honey every week and bring it fresh. We would like to see the response and how it works.”

Trenholm said so far they have around 12 other local farmers interested in participating in the market at City College, which typically sells field-ripened fresh fruits and vegetables; freshly baked breads and pastries; flowers, gourmet appetizers and gifts; fresh fish, nuts, mushrooms and more.

The next farmers’ market will be held at the Ocean campus Ram Plaza from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on May 3.

CHLOE ASHCRAFT / THE GUARDSMAN

It has been more than four months since the procedure known as bumping relocated many City College clerical staff out of their jobs and into lower-paid positions. Some were even laid off.

San Francisco’s budget crisis forced the elimination of more than 470 civil service personnel from the Department of Public Health last November, bringing 32 DPH workers into City College, some with no experience working in education.

Certain public jobs in San Francisco are governed by the civil service system, which applies rules and job classifications intended to make layoffs, hiring and position seniority work in an organized way.

The school district is considered to be a city department by San Francisco’s Human Resources. Although the layoffs came from the city last year and not the school district, the results were detrimental to all involved, and many schools were robbed of their treasured secretaries.

Among them was Patricia Kimball, 59, who worked as a senior clerk typist in the music department at City College for three years. Kimball was bumped to a lower seniority position in the child development and family studies department on Nov. 30 last year.

“It was so stressful I thought I would have a heart attack,” Kimball said. “It’s not just the financial difficulties I face with taking a 17 percent pay cut. I was grieving. It was a good fit for me in the music department. I was a team member and had more creativity. It’s been rough all round.”

Kimball said she has struggled with the changes to her schedule in her new position. She said  her job at the music department allowed more flexibility, choosing some days to start work late and making it up on the weekend, giving her more time for her personal life.

“It’s hard now; I don’t have that flexibility to manage my hours,” she said. “Even my dog is affected. She wakes me up in the night because I don’t have the time anymore to walk her.”

Kimball said she has tried to help the woman who replaced her transition into her job in the music department.

“I always like to leave a relationship in good shape,” she said. “I understand about life and relationships and I believe you should always try to do what you can.”

However the union reprimanded her former boss, Madeline Mueller, head of the music department, for fear that Kimball may end up working two jobs.

Kimball now has no pay during the summer, Christmas, or Easter, and has to face changes to her medical benefits. Despite this, Kimball accepts her new role with grace and appreciation that she has managed to stay at City College.

“It’s like the goose that lays the golden egg,” she said. “City College is an important part of the community. It’s about personal development.”

The future for civil service workers may still be uncertain with the possibility of layoffs which would cause the bumping procedure to start again.

“This could happen to me again,” Kimball said. “It worries me because I’m not 19 anymore; I’m 59. I don’t have unlimited strength or the kind of energy it takes to start a new life. But I’m a survivor so whatever happens next I know I’ll come up with something.”

David Durandet in Tuscany, Italy during his 800-mile pilgrimage with his mother in 2007. They travelled from the border of Switzerland to Rome. PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID DURANDET

In an effort to raise money for a local school and to gain a little personal enlightenment,
David Durandet has decided to take a 2,650 mile walk.

Carrying food, water, clothes and shelter on his back, Durandet, 44, will step away from his life in San Francisco on April 15 to begin a six-month journey spanning the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail. He will walk from Campo, Calif. on the border of Mexico to Manning Park in British Columbia, Canada — through California, Oregon and Washington.

“I am at a stage in my life where I feel mentally and physically strong enough to take on this expedition,” he said.

Although Durandet is walking for his own personal achievement, he is also using the opportunity to raise money for the Pacific Crest Trail Association and the Claire Lilienthal Alternative School, part of the San Francisco Unified School District.

The Claire Lilienthal Alternative School includes both Korean immersion and general education programs. The school is focused on parent participation, improved instructional programs and racial integration, according to its Web site.

Durandet is using his journey as a fundraising initiative to aid the school’s physical education program next year.

“I had the idea that this might motivate the children to maybe one day do something similar,” he said. “I want to motivate them to get outdoors instead of watching TV. This country is so beautiful and it’s so easy to see it.”

Durandet said learning about the landscape and appreciating the beauty of nature on foot was a big part of his childhood in France. In 2007, he went on an 800-mile, two-month hiking pilgrimage with his mother from the border of Switzerland through Italy to Rome.

“Since then I have wanted to do something bigger alone,” he said.

Durandet has been planning this trip for a year and expects it to take him up to six months. He has taken a snow survival course in South Lake Tahoe and said he feels prepared and in good physical condition for the journey.

“I know there may be a time where I want to stop,” he said. “But I am just going to take one day at a time and give myself small goals.”

According to the PCTA Web site, fewer have walked the entire trail than have climbed Mount Everest, suggesting it might be tougher than climbing the tallest mountain on Earth. The trail has the greatest elevation changes in any of the United States’ National Scenic Trails, climbing nearly 60 major mountain passes and descending into 19 canyons.

The PCT passes through three national monuments, seven national parks and 24 national forests as it runs through six out of seven of North America’s ecozones — including high and low desert, arctic-alpine country and old-growth forest.

To save carrying extra weight, Durandet will be sending food and clothes in advance to collect at specific locations on his journey.

He will experience many different environments, from sweltering desert valleys in Southern California, to rain forests in the Pacific Northwest and snow in the mountains. In parts of the trail in California, hikers can often expect to walk 20 to 30 miles between water sources.

The trail covers some of the most beautiful landscape in the West — the Mojave Desert, the Sierra Nevada and Mount Whitney, Yosemite National Park, Marble Mountain, the volcanoes of the Cascades including Mount Shasta and Mount Hood, Crater Lake, Columbia River Gorge, Mount Ranier and the remote Northern Cascades.

Durandet said he has tried not to think too much about the possible dangers or threats of taking this trip alone, adding that he will focus on being smart and listening to his body, nature and his surroundings. He said he is excited to push his physical being to its limit — to see how much he can endure and what he can learn from being on the journey.

“It is important for me to reach the end, to experience and enjoy every day, to get away from society, and to learn more about myself,” he said.

Durandet has a blog that he will update throughout his journey, and is accepting donations
through his Web site http://frogonthetrail.wordpress.com/

An elaborately costumed dancer perfoms the Colombian aerobic dance Zumba by Jaime Martinez of Latin American Workout during a Carnaval celebration at the de Young Feb. 5. The performance is part of Cultural Encounters: Friday Nights at the de Young, a series of events combining performing and visual artists with community arts organizations. CHLOE ASHCRAFT / THE GUARDSMAN

It’s practically impossible to walk through San Francisco on any given day without hearing the diverse rhythms of its streets ringing from the crowded corners and echoing off of the painted walls.

Any style of music imaginable—and some which even bend the limits of imagination­—can be heard in this city, if one knows where to look and listen.

There is a unique cultural character to each of the city’s many neighborhoods, and each one has its own musical tradition and history.

The Filmore was once the creative center of jazz in the city, and a recent musical renaissance happening there could return it to its historical prominence. But the true soul of San Francisco’s timeless love affair with jazz — and all forms and movements in music which are raw and spontaneous ­— can be heard on the streets.

From instrumentalists weaving melodies with saxophones, guitars, violins and all sorts of instruments you may have never heard of to percussionists banging out intricate rhythms on buckets, boxes, trash can lids and anything else that makes a tasty noise when hit, the variety of street musicians in the city is practically unrivaled.