Michael Drummond/Senior Staff

More than 40,000 Bay Area residents took to Shattuck Avenue on Sunday in celebration of Berkeley’s second Sunday Streets event.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Shattuck Avenue closed to cars and welcomed pedestrians and cyclists instead. Between Haste and Rose streets, participants could engage in a variety of activities, including live art and salsa dancing, as well as watch various performance groups.

“It’s about getting people to experience their urban environment in a totally different way and appreciate Berkeley in a new way,” said Sunday Streets Berkeley director Emunah Hauser.

The event is organized by Livable Berkeley, a coalition which strives to make Berkeley a more sustainable place, and a few partner organizations. According to Hauser, more than 150 organizations and activity leaders, including several UC Berkeley clubs and organizations, participated in Sunday Streets.

Sunday Streets drew people not only from Berkeley but from surrounding cities as well.

“It’s a really special feeling to have so much of a main street shut down,” said Oakland resident Tina Marie. “People look at each other differently. You’re taking people in.”

Because the street was closed off, several bus lines scheduled detours and added temporary stops near University Avenue and Oxford Street.

For Berkeley resident Michael Marchant, the absence of cars created a safer environment for his children.

“We look forward to any of these events where they block off streets to cars,” he said. “It makes it easier as a parent if you don’t have to worry about traffic.”

Hauser said this year’s Sunday Streets had a larger focus on transportation outreach than last year’s. Bay Area Bike Share allowed people to test bikes, and goBerkeley, a pilot program aiming to improve transportation in the city, asked for feedback from residents about public amenities.

To focus on physical activity and active transportation, Livable Berkeley does not invite street vendors to set up booths. Instead, many stores along Shattuck set up tables themselves, providing free samples or selling smaller store items.

Belli Osteria, a restaurant which does not normally open on Sundays, set up a pasta-making demonstration. Its co-owner Damien Morrison said Sunday Streets increased the restaurant’s exposure.

While some businesses had lines out the door, others saw a decrease in customers.

“There are plenty of distractions, so probably not as many people want to hang out in the comic book store,” said Mike Courtright, an employee at Fantastic Comics. While Courtright saw some new faces in the store, he saw fewer of his regular customers.

Sunday Streets, however, does not come without cost for the event’s organizers. Hauser estimates the event cost about $65,000 this year.

Although fundraising and private sponsorship cover a large part of this cost, Berkeley City Council pledged in January to provide Sunday Streets about $59,000 to split between 2013 and 2014.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington predicts the council will continue funding the event for subsequent years. Still, he feels the city’s contribution is a little high.

“It’s unfortunate that the other longtime community events don’t get more funding,” Worthington said. “This event gets as much as 20 other city events, so there’s a degree of unfairness.”

But for Councilmember Laurie Capitelli, Sunday Streets is “money well spent.”

“Everything shouldn’t be business,” Capitelli said. “Sometimes we should just celebrate as a community, and that’s important.”

Contact Tahmina Achekzai at tachekzai@dailycal.org.

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Gracie Malley/File

After 30 years in the fire industry, Berkeley Fire Marshal John Fitch says last year’s 2441 Haste St. fire was a once-in-a-career event.

Fitch remembers sitting at home on the night of Nov. 18 and receiving alerts from his pager as the fire continued to grow. Beginning with light smoke issuing from a mechanical room in the basement shortly before 9 p.m., the blaze grew to become one of the biggest fires in the city’s history. In the wake of the six-hour fire, only a shell remained of the historic five-story Sequoia Apartment building and two popular restaurants.

The Haste Street fire was estimated to have caused $5 million in total damage, according to data from Berkeley Fire Department. In 2010, the fire department reported a little more than $1.5 million in total damage — far less than the total damage caused by the Haste Street fire alone.

In the last three years, only one fire has come close to the level of damage of the Haste Street fire. A total loss of $1.35 million was reported after a partial roof collapse at a Benvenue Avenue home last month. The value of the damage caused by this fire was only a little more than one-fourth the total of the Haste Street fire, according to the data.

But the damage caused was only one aspect of what made the Haste Street fire unique among the incidents Fitch has witnessed. According to the incident investigation report released Jan. 4, the fire originated within the elevator mechanical room, although the exact point of ignition and root cause could not be determined.

“Usually, it’s human cause that starts the fire,” Fitch said. “Electrical problems are more rare.”

Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said some of the more common causes of fires in residential structures include unattended cooking, improper disposal of smoking materials or unattended use of candles.

But according to Fitch, fire response accounts for only a small portion of the department’s day-to-day activities. The 2005 to 2011 National Fire Protection Association Analysis Report states that the department responds to about 285 fires a year — a very small portion of the department’s 11,809 average total incidents.

The department spends more than 65 percent of its time responding to emergency medical requests including ambulance, EMS and rescue, according to data from the report.

“The BFD is primarily an ambulance service that is sometimes called upon to fight a fire,” said Matt Mitchell, a former commissioner on the Berkeley Disaster and Fire Safety Commission, in an email.

This ambulance service is supported by additional funds approved by voters in 2008. Due to the passage of Measure GG, all of Berkeley’s ambulances are now equipped with advanced life-support equipment, according to Mitchell.

Despite the magnitude of the Haste Street fire, none of the building’s 68 tenants was injured. This is consistent with the city’s record — over the past five years, fire-related injuries and deaths have remained low.

“We are very progressive with fire and life safety prevention,” Fitch wrote in an email.

Although injuries ranged between zero and 12 from 2005 to 2011, the department has consistently reported at most one fatality per year since 2005 from residential or structural fires. Berkeley falls slightly below California’s average deaths from fire, with a statewide average of five and one-half deaths per million population, according to data provided by the U.S. Fire Administration.

In June, the department’s first fire-related death of the year took place after an accidental house fire on Lorina Street killed a 26-year-old woman and injured a resident.

Overall, the total number of Berkeley Fire Department’s calls is consistent with an area of its population, according to statistics provided by Firehouse Magazine.

But over the years, the department has seen a decrease in fires and an increase in emergency response calls, which Fitch attributes to an aggressive effort to educate the public on fire safety. In the end, however, Fitch said fires are always unexpected and that when the department responds, it needs to be ready for an array of situations.

“We try to manage chaos,” Fitch said. “When we go into a scene, it is someone’s worst day of their life.”

Fitch said he knew the Haste Street fire would be a significant event as he watched the flames grow. Even today, the lasting effects are still visible on Telegraph Avenue.

“You don’t see fires like that often,” he said.

Chloe Hunt covers crime. Contact her at cthunt@dailycal.org.

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At about 5:15 p.m., a male was walking near the intersection of Haste Street and Piedmont Avenue when he was approached from behind by the suspect, according to a UCPD crime alert released Friday. The suspect allegedly grabbed the victim’s cell phone and got into a waiting vehicle.

According to the alert, the victim was not injured during the encounter.

The suspect vehicle is described as a green, 2000-2006 Chevy Malibu and was last seen northbound on Piedmont Avenue, the release said.

The Berkeley Police Department searched the area but was unable to locate the suspects.

Below is the UCPD crime alert description of  the suspects:

Chloe Hunt covers crime. Contact her at cthunt@dailycal.org.

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Among the throngs of eccentric members of the Berkeley community, one can often see — and certainly hear — bands of instrumented followers of the Hare Krishna movement. Their telltale sign is that they repeatedly chant variations of the words “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama.” Last Monday, one such devotee “fliered” me on Telegraph Avenue, and I was more than delighted to accept his invitation to the “World Famous Hare Krishna Chariot Parade & Festival” that took place last Sunday.

Early Sunday morning — well, early for me — I was merrily on my way to join the festivities, but when I arrived, I encountered one small problem: The Hare Krishnas were nowhere to be found. Eventually, I stumbled upon the stalls of vendors who were participating in the event on Haste Street, but even they could not tell me what was going on with the alleged parade.

The delayed parade proved to be a fortunate occurrence. I was promptly greeted by David and Lalita Oster, who were running the very first stand on Haste and who were in fact themselves members of the Hare Krishna movement.

This chatty and endearing couple not only illuminated some of the complexities of the movement for me, but I found their story to also be an intriguing insight into the people who join this type of group. After a mere two hours, I learned that Hare Krishnas, although decidedly conspicuous and quirky, are only trying to simplify a life that is often overwhelming and unsatisfying.

Lalita was the first to approach me. Her stature is unassuming, to say the least — she couldn’t be more than five feet tall — but her bright eyes instantly caught my attention, and she quickly proceeded to delve into the mysteries of the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text. Within minutes, she had already broached the topics of reincarnation, divinity and the shortcomings of physical desires — referencing specifically the fleeting satisfaction of the chai tea latte I held.

But I sensed no judgment on her part. On the contrary, it seemed to me that her aim was purely to inform me, and any other passers-by, of this path that she found made her life better.

So I continued to listen. She told me that the Hare Krishna movement used mantra meditation in order to focus the soul on God by quieting the demands of the physical body. Additionally, the Hare Krishnas distribute the Bhagavad Gita, which Lalita said has “all the answers” in a handy, portable form.

At one point, her husband, David, took over the conversation. David, a UC Berkeley alumnus and former Jew, is much newer to the movement than Lalita — his involvement dates back only eight years, while Lalita has closer to 40 years under her belt. Despite his initial hesitation to join this seemingly “wacko” movement, he discovered that the transcendental “reverberations” felt by way of chanting had, over time, fundamentally changed the quality of his life.

With this perception and my shiny, new Bhagavad Gita in hand, I headed toward the parade that finally arrived on the block. Although I did not understand all that was happening around me, I can say that it was noisy, colorful and joyful for all involved. Fruit flew through the crowd, but it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill type of fruit. As David explained to me, this fruit was sacrificed to the deities earlier, and the devotees were now getting to literally taste Krishna’s mercy infused in the apple or banana. The eating was accompanied by chanting, and it seemed to me that the crowd was getting worked up into some sort of divine frenzy.

As an outsider, this was a shock for me — even though I had learned about Hindu practices in the past. But being uncomfortable forced me to engage in some personal reflection. This religious practice was expressive and intense, and that bothered me. I think that oftentimes mainstream Americans, myself included, struggle to understand other religions that do not necessarily engage the divine in a Protestant — read: personal and private — manner.

My time on Haste with the Hare Krishnas was poignant because I had to turn inward while everyone around me was involved in extreme outward expression. I may not want to chant “Hare Krishna,” but I should double-check my willingness to label such followers as “crazy.” Lovely people like the Oster’s who find meaning and fulfillment in a few simple words are the counterargument.

And who knows? Maybe in a moment of turmoil, I may someday find myself comforted by the sound of the divine names of Krishna and Rama. Would that really be so strange?

Contact Hannah Brady at hbrady@dailycal.org or follow her on Twitter: @brady_hm.

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Katherine Chen/Staff

Berkeley community members took to the streets Sunday for an event that closed off 17 blocks of Shattuck Avenue for pedestrian and bicyclist usage.

Thousands of citizens attended Sunday Streets Berkeley — an event that emphasizes open space and community engagement — to explore the streets and businesses on Shattuck.

“There are no vendors,” said Livable Berkeley Executive Director Erin Rhoades, the main organizer of the event. “It’s not a street festival … the streets are open for the community and local organizations to participate. At the heart of it, it’s really about physical activity, and biking and walking more than you (normally) would in your city.”

The event was modeled after the similarly-themed Sunday Streets San Francisco, now in its fifth year. Both were inspired by the Open Streets movement, which encourages bicycle and pedestrian traffic and community use of public space.

The event — which spanned between Rose and Haste streets — was organized by Livable Berkeley in collaboration with community organizations and the city. The Ecology Center and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition were also sponsors of the event.

Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, whose district encompasses the main area taken over by Sunday Streets, said there were negotiations with neighbors and business owners about shutting down traffic on Shattuck. For the event, bus service in the Downtown area was rerouted.

“At first there was a general concern about closing most of Shattuck Avenue,” Arreguin said. “But I think part of what was done is explaining to these businesses the exciting plans for this event and how successful it has been in other cities.”

Brazil Cafe owner Pedro Robin placed tables on the street and opened his restaurant’s doors for the event, though the store usually remains closed on Sundays.

“I love the whole community, the music,” Robin said. “I hope there’s one (Sunday Streets) per month.”

Sunday Streets is just one in a series of Berkeley events that fills the streets with pedestrians at points throughout the year. The Solano Stroll took over 26 blocks in Albany and Berkeley in early September, and LastSundaysFest last closed off Telegraph Avenue in August.

“The wonderful thing about Sunday Streets versus street fairs is that it’s all about the existing merchants coming out onto sidewalks and being engaged with the communities,” said John Caner, CEO of the Downtown Berkeley Association.

Livable Berkeley and other organizers are already discussing the next steps for the Sunday Streets Berkeley movement, including when it will come to the city next.

“Hopefully this is just the beginning,” said Joe DiStefano, vice chair of the Livable Berkeley Board of Directors. “The most common question I’ve gotten is, ‘Is this going to happen again?’”

Contact Libby Rainey at lrainey@dailycal.org.

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The 32-year-old woman met the suspect and two others at a club in San Francisco and then traveled with them to Berkeley and parked in the parking structure at Haste Avenue and Channing Way, according to a UCPD crime alert released Wednesday. When she was leaving the structure alone the suspect allegedly followed her out, grabbed her purse, ran back into structure and drove away down Channing Way.

The woman was not injured in the incident.

According to the alert, the two other people in the car “do not appear” to have been involved with the robbery. UCPD searched the area but did not locate the the driver or the vehicle, which is described as “a new-looking black two-door BMW Coupe.”

According to the crime alert, the suspect is described as:

“A White Male, 25 to 35 years of age, 5 ft. 7 in. to 5 ft. 10 in. height, a medium athletic/muscular build, with a blond crew cut, blue eyes and wearing a purple t-shirt.”

Contact Aliyah Mohammed at amohammed@dailycal.org,

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Annie Sciacca covers city government.

The post Plans for vacant Telegraph lot meet obstacles appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Simone Anne Lang/Staff

Though now boarded up and empty, the vacant lot on Telegraph Avenue where Andronico’s once stood might welcome a new CVS as early as next year.

After Andronico’s Community Markets declared bankruptcy last year, the company closed the Telegraph branch in December — an underperforming location that was a financial burden. The windows and doors were boarded up. The parking lot sat empty. Telegraph was now home to one more vacant lot.

Over the past few months, the Conference Claimants Endowment Board, which owns the lot at 2655 Telegraph, has been in talks with a number of companies to fill in the vacancy, including British supermarket chain Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, according to Frank Yoachum, a member of the board. Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates sent the owners a letter late last year expressing his desire to see a supermarket in the lot, reflecting the desire of many residents in the area.

In the end, however, the board chose to go with CVS Pharmacy. As of this month, CVS is currently in the early stages of applying for a permit, according to CVS spokesperson Michael DeAngelis.

Telegraph residents can expect to see the new CVS up and running by early 2013 if all goes to according to schedule, according to DeAngelis.

There are currently two CVS stores operating in Berkeley that came about from CVS’s 2008 purchase of Longs Drug store, said DeAngelis. In comparison, CVS’s competitor Walgreens pharmacy has a total of six locations operating in Berkeley.

DeAngelis said the new CVS would actively work to address concerns of community members who wanted to see a new supermarket by offering expanded food options on location.

“The neighbors have been very positive in wanting to make the (CVS) as attractive as possible,” according to LeConte Neighborhood Association President Karl Reeh.

CVS staff have been reaching out to the Le Conte Neighborhood Association members very frequently in recent weeks, Reeh said.

The impending opening of the new CVS comes as a relief to many who were concerned about the number of vacant lots littering Telegraph.

Now, in the meantime, residents have a number of ideas to keep the lot in good use before CVS officially moves in. Residents of the LeConte Neighborhood Association have been pitching ideas as to how the lot should be used in the months leading up to CVS’s opening. One such idea, according to Reeh, is to use the lot as an overflow parking lot for the Berkeley World Music Festival, a festival on Telegraph in the summer that showcases local talent.

Additionally, Reeh has said that the CVS would look into fencing off the entire property to keep the lot closed to homeless visitors.

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose district includes Telegraph and the Andronico’s lot, emphasized the difficulties of revitalizing Telegraph economically with so many vacant lots now dotting the street, including the newest at the intersection of Telegraph and Haste Street from the November building fire.

Nonetheless, Worthington remained optimistic about Telegraph’s future. In fact, a number of architects, planners and other experts plan on examining Telegraph on April 13th and 14th — focusing specifically on the vacancies and how to improve on them.

“I think it’s positive and exciting that we have these professionals willing to volunteer their time to come up with their plans on how to improve Telegraph,” Worthington said.

Jaehak Yu covers city government.

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Check out the proposed designs from the architecture firm in charge of the project, Kirk E. Peterson & Associates Architects:

An aerial view of the tent structure that is set to open at Telegraph and Haste streets.

Staff writer Annie Sciacca contributed to this report.

Soumya Karlamangla is the city news editor.

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Taryn Erhard/Senior Staff

An investigative report into the devastating Nov. 18 Berkeley fire released Monday determined the origin of the five-alarm fire but was unable to determine the exact cause of the blaze.

The report, conducted by Berkeley Fire Department, concluded that the Haste Street fire was accidental and that it “originated in or around the elevator resistors” in a basement room but was not able to determine whether the fire began due to “mechanical malfunction or improper installation of associated elevator equipment.”

The fire was the largest in Berkeley in more than 20 years. It began shortly before 9 p.m. and raged for roughly six hours, destroying the historic five-story Sequoia Apartment building and two restaurants located on the bottom level. Though their homes were destroyed, none of the building’s 68 tenants was injured.

The fire was first discovered by a tenant and a maintenance man who noticed smoke coming from the elevator room. The two attempted to put out the fire using fire extinguishers but were ultimately forced to retreat as the fire continued to grow, according to the report.

The report claims that although firefighters were able to extinguish the fire in the elevator room relatively quickly, the flames had already spread to other parts of the building.

“The building was built in 1916,” Berkeley Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said. “The open construction used at that time did not include any fire stops. Once the fire reached behind the walls and ceiling and up the elevator shaft, there was nothing to stop it.”

Dong said that even by the time the first fire engine had arrived, firefighters noticed that the flames had already spread to both sides of the building.

According to the report, a private fire investigation firm called Fire Cause Analysis — hired by the building owner’s insurance company — removed the elevator equipment after BFD conducted its investigation for “further forensic examination” but promised to share its eventual findings with the department. Dong said the private firm had not responded with its findings yet and that no time frame had been set for the response.

Although the report does not mention it, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations, the building’s elevator permit expired on Aug. 12, 2011. The elevator had not been inspected since August 2010 due to a backlog in the inspection agency, according to the department.

Since the fire, tenants have complained that maintenance issues in the building were long ignored by the owners, including problems with the elevator and electrical wiring. Many of the tenants are planning to file individual lawsuits against the owner for negligence that led to the loss of their homes and personal belongings.

Former tenant Hooman Shahrokhi said he thinks that some of the liability for what happened falls on the owner.

“Based on my research, it’s based on building character,” Shahrokhi said in reference to the potential repercussions of the lawsuits. “There was some negligence on the owner’s behalf, and even after the fire, there was shady business going on.”

In 2006, Shahrokhi won a lawsuit against the building owners after losing his laptop and bedspread to a small fire that started after he plugged a power cord into an outlet in his apartment.

During the course of the demolition, some tenants complained that the demolition process was rushed and worried that inspectors may not have had enough time to thoroughly investigate the fire’s origin.

The report notes that the fire inspector had a “limited timeframe to attempt to make entry into the structure to conduct an origin and cause investigation before the building would be inaccessible or totally destroyed.” However, Dong said fire staff did have sufficient time to conduct their investigation, though they were working under the assumption that the building was going to be demolished very soon.

The building owners could not be reached for comment.

Adelyn Baxter is the lead city government reporter.

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