Sureya Melkonian/Staff

High school students, teachers and administrators from eight cities gathered at UC Berkeley’s Alumni House last week for a three-day national summit for Y-PLAN, an initiative that invites youth to engage in city planning for struggling neighborhoods.

Participants from high schools in areas ranging from Richmond, Calif., to Tohoku, Japan shared their community projects with each other before working on the redevelopment of Telegraph Avenue. The event culminated in participants presenting their ideas to a panel of judges, including a representative from Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates’ office, UC Berkeley professor emeritus David Stern and Moe’s Bookstore owner Doris Moskowitz.

Deborah McKoy, director of the UC Berkeley Center for Cities and Schools, first created Y-PLAN as part of her dissertation when she completed her doctorate in educational policy at UC Berkeley. Y-PLAN stands for “Youth – Plan, Learn, Act, Now!” and is a five-step program that gives youth the opportunity to collaborate with each other and educators to present ideas for change to city officials.

“I was frustrated because we do so many school reforms that are great for adults but don’t make learning particularly relevant for kids,” McKoy said. “Y-PLAN is really about getting young people at the planning and policymaking table.”

Recent Richmond High School graduates Melissa Avalos and Jose Castillo presented ideas to integrate the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory campus into the Richmond Bay neighborhood as part of their high school senior project. Avalos introduced a farmers market to help diversify the community around the new Berkeley Lab campus, and Castillo worked on ways to make transportation efficient around the campus.

On Friday’s summit meeting, participants used Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue as a case study of an area that could benefit from redevelopment.

After a 45-minute visit to Telegraph and a 15-minute brainstorming session, small groups presented their findings to a panel of judges.

Some ideas that came out from the workshop included replacing the street’s uneven pavement with cobblestones, closing it to traffic during the weekends for festivities and replacing empty storefronts with artwork representative of Berkeley’s history.

Moskowitz said she was excited to see some of the ideas applied to Telegraph, which, in recent years has seen some of its businesses struggle financially.

“If teenagers really cared about this street, it could come back in a minute,” Moskowitz said.

Moskowitz said the ideas were judged not solely on their feasibility but also on the innovation and dedication behind them. All suggestions for Telegraph Avenue redevelopment will be sent to the mayor’s office for consideration.

“We’re incredibly grateful for all of the ideas and the time that the youths have provided to us,” said Sbeydeh Viveros-Banderas, senior aide to the mayor.

Contact Lydia Tuan at ltuan@dailycal.org.

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Derek Remsburg/Senior Staff

Saturday afternoons in Berkeley are anything but slow on gamedays, especially for local businesses.

Since the opening of the newly renovated Memorial Stadium earlier this fall, the masses of fans occupying the stands during the game and subsequently flooding the surrounding streets have been a boon to local eateries and shops.

Several businesses around the city have benefited from the influx of people, said Dave Fogarty, the city’s economic development project coordinator.

Executive Director of the Telegraph Business Improvement District Roland Peterson said Southside’s Hotel Durant is completely booked on gamedays, and surrounding hotels have had to make adjustments to accommodate all the people that come in.

Berkeley restaurants have also been positively affected by the increased number of people who come into the city on gamedays, especially compared to last year, when many establishments lost the fan base due to the move of home games to AT&T Park in San Francisco.

“Every year, we have followers who come here to watch the games, and they come from all over the country,” said Izat Eliyan, the manager of La Val’s Pizza and La Burrita, both located on Hearst and Euclid avenues. “We know them by face, and they are always very excited to come back. Last year, we missed them, so seeing them again this year, we did see a rise in sales.”
Alex Popov, the owner of Pappy’s Grill & Sports Bar, located on Telegraph Avenue, said the new restaurant has always attracted a lot of people but is busiest on gamedays.

“We’re busy all throughout the day, because even though the games don’t start until the afternoon, we have people coming in the morning to watch games that are happening on the East Coast, and we also have people staying in the evening after the games finish,” said Popov.

While many businesses are thriving due to the increased foot traffic in Berkeley on gamedays, some businesses have not seen much of an improvement, and others have even been negatively impacted due to parking congestion in the city.

Eliyan said that though La Val’s Pizza and La Burrita are both very busy on gamedays, business has not improved as much as was expected.

“We thought that with the new stadium, business would be better,” Eliyan said. “But it’s just like any normal gameday before the stadium was built.”

Wilson Wong, manager of Kip’s Bar on Durant Avenue, agreed with Eliyan’s sentiments.

“(The fans) aren’t coming out as much as they used to, compared to old gamedays,” Wong said. “I’m not sure — maybe football culture is not as big, or maybe not as many people are into football anymore.”

Moreover, some establishments have suffered as a result of the influx of people. Parking in the area becomes congested as a consequence, which forces event-goers to drive all over the city to find parking.

“Parking fines go up in the area on gamedays, and we aggressively enforce parking laws,” said city spokesperson Mary Kay Clunies-Ross. “It’s critically important that we keep the streets open for residents and for emergency access during and after games.”

Eliyan said that the traffic problems affect the delivery business of La Val’s, and they have to tell customers to wait at least an hour to get their orders.

Doris Moskowitz, manager of Moe’s Books on Telegraph Avenue, also said traffic problems negatively impact the store on gamedays.

“It’s like ‘Catch-22,’” Moskowitz said. “It’s really sad that the football players weren’t here last year, and we are so glad to have them back and to see so many people come to Berkeley to watch the games. But because of parking issues, it’s harder for our customers to get here, and no one is going to carry books through campus. So our business suffers.”

Contact Pooja Mahtre at pmahtre@dailycal.org.

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Sarah Brennan/Staff

Members of the Berkeley community gathered at Berkeley City Hall Monday to protest a recommendation that would place a measure that prohibits sitting on the city’s sidewalks on the November ballot.

The demonstration against the Civil Sidewalks Ballot Measure, which could make sitting on sidewalks in commercial districts between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. a misdemeanor crime, drew a crowd of about 30 people, and included Berkeley City Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Jesse Arreguin, as well as a group of Berkeley citizens and activists, some of whom were homeless.

The controversial measure aims “to improve the attractiveness and welcoming nature of all commercial districts in Berkeley,” according to Mayor Tom Bates’ recommendation, but critics of the measure, including the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, say it would criminalize the homeless.

The Berkeley City Council will consider Bates’ proposal at its meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Currently, only three council members — Max Anderson, Arreguin and Worthington — intend to vote against the recommendation, according to Worthington, who said that two more council members will need to oppose the recommendation for the measure to stay off the November ballot.

“We are here to support practical alternatives, not to attack individual people,” Worthington said at the demonstration.

Worthington pointed to the efforts of the Telegraph Livability Coalition, a group of Southside community members who submitted a list of 21 suggestions last year to the council that they felt would help revitalize Telegraph Avenue. Among the suggestions were the installation of more pedestrian lighting and a plan to turn the Telegraph area between Bancroft and Dwight ways into a historical district, but so far the council has only adopted one of the coalition’s recommendations, Worthington said.

Nolan Pack, an incoming CalSERVE senator, also spoke at the demonstration. Although he said that he was not speaking on behalf of the ASUC, he recalled that the ASUC Senate had voted unanimously against a similar measure when it was presented to the council the year before.

Roland Peterson, executive director of the Telegraph Business Improvement District — an organization that funds various projects in the Telegraph area, including a cleaning team and two district ambassadors — said he supported the measure.

“Lots of people have not gone to Telegraph or Downtown because of people sitting on the sidewalks,” Peterson said. “When (homeless individuals) have a lot of stuff, and dogs especially, and when they act aggressively or outrageously, it creates a scary situation.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sZP4Sb-hU&w=560&h=315]

According to Worthington, the measure’s primary advocates are commercial property owners, while many business owners remain ambivalent.

“I don’t know what the community wants,” said Doris Moskowitz, owner of Moe’s Books. “In terms of Tuesday, I’d like the city council to pass the recommendation … I want to hear everybody’s opinion about what they think would work.”

A recent report released by the City Hall Fellows of San Francisco has called into question the effectiveness of sit-lie ordinances. According to the report, the majority of citations end up going to a small number of offenders, indicating that the city of San Francisco’s ordinance has not dissuaded people from sitting or lying on sidewalks.

Both advocates and opponents of the measure in Berkeley agree that a similar ordinance that currently prohibits lying or sleeping on the sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. has been unsuccessful in creating a more conducive environment for businesses in the Telegraph area.

“(The previous ordinance) has not been effective,” Peterson said. “’Lying’ has turned out to be too vague a term.”

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Eugene W. Lau/Staff

Southside community members met in the basement of Moe’s Books Thursday night for the first meeting of the Telegraph Livability Coalition to suggest possible changes to improve the Telegraph Avenue atmosphere in terms of business, cleanliness, safety and tourism.

UC Berkeley juniors and ASUC Senators Andrew Albright and Anthony Galace facilitated the meeting attended by about 25 community members from the surrounding area, who raised concerns ranging from drug problems associated with People’s Park to consistent store vacancies. Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington was also present to share his ideas and show support for the coalition’s goals.

Doris Moskowitz, owner of Moe’s Books, suggested the idea for the meeting to Worthington and asked him to recommend people who might be interested.

She cited dwindling foot traffic and declining sales for Telegraph businesses as her primary concern.

“We need help getting people to come here,” Moskowitz said. “Our stores are empty, and we’re terrified.”

Worthington suggested Albright and Galace, who are both active in Southside-related issues like student housing and pedestrian safety — Albright has advocated for the development of the perpetually vacant lot on the corner of Haste Street and Telegraph, while Galace has held demonstrations trying to encourage that a stop sign be installed at the “slip lane” on Dwight Way and Telegraph.

“Everyone has their own ideas, but we needed to find a way to bring all of them together,” Galace said.

Worthington said he supports a stronger police presence on Telegraph as a way of decreasing crime and making people feel safer.

He also mentioned that the city is already applying for grants to install more pedestrian lighting, something that many agree would greatly improve the nighttime atmosphere. A suggestion that the Telegraph area between Bancroft and Dwight Ways be turned into a historical district was met with enthusiasm.

After public discussion of the many issues facing Telegraph for business owners and residents alike, the facilitators asked for positive suggestions to be consolidated into an action plan, which they eventually hope to submit to City Council.

Albright and Galace said they would formulate the plan within 10 days and email it to the people who attended the meeting, adding that they hope to publicize it to more of the community.

Adelyn Baxter covers city government.

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