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Article Last Updated: Monday, September 20, 2004 - 7:02:19 AM PST

The "art car' SS Alpha Fox spews flames from its tail along University Avenue at the How Berkeley Can You Be? parade and festival, Sunday, Sept. 19, 2004 in Berkeley, Calif. (Photo by D. Ross Cameron) OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION 9/21/2004 - UC continues to tinker with GPA plan - Berkeley considers limits on pot clubs - Mom in killing case wakes from coma - Pipe fixes leave many high and dry - CHP campaign targets litterbugs - Police explain focus on Peterson - Peninsula murderer 'will die in prison' - Governor signs needle bill but sticks it to another - Thousands 2 mourn fallen firefighter - San Diego's credit rating drops after fiscal audit delay - Governor lures shop from Nevada - Kerry accuses Bush of incompetence - Bush, Kerry teams agree to debate terms - American hostage is beheaded - Two Americans killed in firefight - U.N.: 40 nations have nuclear weapon capabilities - New militant groups turning to bank heists, carjacking - Terror sparks debate among Arab intellectuals - Judge denies FEC rules on campaign finance law - Flood kills at least 573 in Haiti, many homeless - Ex-general leading in Indonesian election - Two Hamas militants killed in airstrike - Leaders focus on living status change - U.S. to probe torture claims in Afghanistan Native New Yorker captures that Berkeley spirit Voter registration project part of How Berkeley Can You Be? celebration By Laura Casey, STAFF WRITER BERKELEY -- Here's how Berkeley one New York native decided to be: drive across the country in a bus that looks like an eagle to register voters, and do the 10,000 miles in a pattern shaped like the word 'vote.' How very Berkeley of her. Cory Mervis made stops in places like Springfield, Ill. and Fort Wayne, Ky. to make the 'e,' Kansas City and Des Moines, Iowa, to make the 't.' She traversed the states in this pattern until rounding out the word at her final stop -- the Bay Area. The route was mapped with Global Positioning System technology. On Sunday, she attended the eighth annual How Berkeley Can You Be? parade and festival held in downtown Berkeley. Mervis did the three-month journey in a non-partisan way, dressed in American flag colors. She did not collect registrations, only questionnaires that she posts to her Web site. She refuses to speak politics or take money from any special interests except people who want to pitch in for gas. "We all gotta do something. We have to make this system work," the 33-year-old marketing professional said. Mervis was in New York when the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11. She and several artist friends made special fire barrels for the rescue workers so they would stay warm at night. Her trip is the result of work from about 50 artists who she said believe in registering everyone, despite politics, to vote. "We all put a lot of love and volunteer time into this project," she said. "We want to bring some positivity into voting." Mervis was just one of about three dozen "art cars" plastered with paint and glue at the How Berkeley Can You Be? parade and festival held downtown. In what can be considered a typical scene at the fair, a young boy walked around in a banana suit looking at cars while an elderly man in a wheelchair sold recently-expired natural foods for pennies on the dollar. A man who named himself T'Remain Calm blabbed into a bull horn which repeated everything he sad about a half-dozen times. "I'm with the people of earth, earth, earth, earth, earth," he said. "The people of Berkeley are my muse and the 'obnoxiugator' (the bull horn) is my method, method, method, method, method." Many people parading around the eighth-annual festival did have agendas, from spreading political fliers to urging people to stop circumcising babies. It was a cloudy but mostly warm day and even the police appeared happy to be there. "It's a happy Sunday afternoon," Berkeley resident Arthur Salmon said as he admired an art car in the shape of a shark, complete with legs dangling out of its mouth. Susan Koenig and Becca Reed, who got married in February during San Francisco's renegade gay marriage event, said although they lived in Berkeley for 13 years, they had never been to the festival. They said they enjoyed it, even though they are no longer Berkeley residents. "We're so Berkeley, we can't afford to live in Berkeley anymore," Koenig said. The couple bought a house in West Oakland.

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