Beloved Guides Program May Be Cut to Save City Funds

From a distance they look like police, with their blue attire and two-way radios. Last year they participated in 61 arrests, but in patrolling the streets of Downtown, force is not their mode of regulation.

A tight-knit group of three men, the Berkeley Guides serve to make the mean streets of Downtown a little more friendly with a warm smile and a friendly wave.

The guides fill a niche, a more personal connection with the community than police.

"We're a balance between merchants, homeless people, police and ordinary citizens," says Guide Jay Elliott.

But the future of the guides is uncertain as the city looks for ways to deal with its budget crisis.

The guides, at $193,000 a year, could be slashed completely next year as part of a plan to help alleviate the city's budget woes.

City staff recommended to the City Council last night that the program remain. The council will vote on it next week.

Calling the prospect of the guides' elimination "horrible," Shattuck Avenue street vendor Carol Katz says the Downtown Berkeley Association, which represents area businesses, should foot the bill if the city cannot.

"I would certainly be willing to pay," Katz says.

The first guide program in Berkeley got its start in 1993, inspired by a similar program in Portland, Ore. Called Respect Team, the guides patrolled the Telegraph Avenue area, but the program eventually petered out.

The guide program was revived in 1995 on Shattuck Avenue, at the request of street vendors who felt unsafe on Downtown's then-meaner streets.

"It was chaos out here, hoodlums stealing from the stores," says Katz, who has been vending in Downtown for 31 years. "They make Shattuck a much nicer place."

The possible cut would cap what has been a gradual decline of the guide program, from a peak of nine guides to its current three.

"The city is having budget problems, we understand," says Senior Guide Lashawn Nolen. "We don't know right now what's going to happen, but this is a program all cities should have."

Trained by police in conflict resolution and watching for crime, the guides are average citizens-with an edge.

"We are the eyes and ears of the police department," Nolen says. "Many times a guide is the first person to report a crime and the first person to arrive on the scene."

The job is not without its occupational hazards. Nolen, who has an almost legendary status among police, recently had a knife pulled on him by a homeless man.

"It's a mellow job, but at any second it can go from being peaceful to chaotic in the blink of an eye," Elliott says.

As civilians, the guides are not authorized to make arrests, only to help detain suspects. Ninety percent of the job is just making citizens' lives easier, Nolen says.

The guides are on the streets Tuesday through Saturday, forming close relationships with the characters they see Downtown daily.

"They're like the police, but they're peacemakers without guns," Katz says. "If I have a problem, I call them. Not the police."

Elliott says he is especially friendly with troubled Berkeley High School students, many of whom are from dysfunctional families without parental figures.

On one occasion a student ran up to share his report card with Elliott.

"He was like, 'Jay, I just got over a 3.17 on my report card. Thank you for being hard on me,'" Elliott says. "That really touched me, it's little stuff like that."

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