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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The revised proposal, submitted by Councilmember Darryl Moore after public backlash against his original recommendation, dropped the motion to close the registry and instead suggested celebrating the registry’s 22-year anniversary by declaring Oct. 11 Marriage Equality Day.

The City Council established the Berkeley Domestic Partnership Registry in 1991 as a means of helping same-sex couples and opposite-sex unmarried couples obtain the same benefits as married couples.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington praised the adoption of the revised proposal, calling the original “one of the most grotesque, offensive and discriminating policies I have seen.”

The initial recommendation aimed to close the registry as a celebration of same-sex marriage becoming legal earlier this year. Moore, who drafted the proposal, wrote that the registry “only functions as a matter of ceremony” because same-sex marriages are recognized by the state.

But Worthington argued that the registry remains a necessity because both homosexual and heterosexual couples still use it if they choose not to marry. According to Worthington, California law allows homosexual couples to enter a domestic partnership at any legal age but forbids it for opposite-sex couples unless one partner is older than 62.

“If you’re gay, you can be a domestic partner at any age, but if you’re straight, you have to be over 62?” Worthington said. “This is not marriage equality.”

Worthington said the proposal to close the registry, which allows both heterosexual and homosexual couples to obtain a domestic partnership regardless of age, “offended me deeply.”

“In our celebration of a victory for the rights of the gay community, we can’t take away the rights of the straight community,” Worthington said

Other citizens and council members pointed to the popular use of the registry as a reason it should stay open. More than 1,000 couples have used the registry since its creation, including 15 after the legalization of same-sex marriage, according to Councilmember Jesse Arreguin.

“The registry is not just symbolic,” Arreguin said. “It’s important because it provides couples a variety of legal rights and protections, including medical insurance coverage and protection from eviction.”

Berkeley resident Steve Freedkin and his domestic partner are not a same-sex couple but rely on the legal benefits of the registry. Unwilling to get married while “friends in other states can’t,” Freedkin said the registry prevented his landlord from evicting his partner, a protection that would disappear if the registry were closed.

While Freedkin said he believed the proposal was motivated by good intentions, he said Moore didn’t seem “to have all the information” when proposing it.

To commemorate Marriage Equality Day, Moore and Worthington plan to officiate marriages at Old City Hall between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“We’re going to have the party,” Worthington said. “We’re going to have the party without taking away anyone’s rights.”

Contact Savannah Luschei at sluschei@dailycal.org.

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Taylor A. Vega/Staff

Following years of frustration with the city’s operation of their commercial space, business owners of the Telegraph Channing Mall finally demanded action from Berkeley City Council after they were hit with an unexpected tax.

Nestled between Durant Avenue and Channing Way, the mall is home to a dozen stores including Cheese ‘n’ Stuff, Joy’s Sportswear and Revolution Books. The shops are located in an alleyway just beneath the Telegraph Channing Parking Garage.

Without notice, business owners were assessed a possessory interest tax over the summer, which gave the merchants about a month to make a per-square footage payment to the city of Berkeley. Merchants such as Sam Juha, who has owned Cheese ‘n’ Stuff for 27 years, have never before paid this property tax to the city but have annually paid a similar tax to Alameda County.

Although the merchants had agreed to the tax in their leases, it was never previously assessed. The city’s decision to collect the tax spurred the business owners to gather at the Sept. 17 City Council meeting to demand immediate financial relief.

Charles Lee, who owns Michelle’s Yogurt and Sweets, explained to council members that the tax adds further economic burdens to his business. He said that businesses in the Telegraph Channing Mall were subject to a 4 percent annual rent increase that he deemed unfair when juxtaposed with only a 1 to 2 percent rate of inflation.

Lee said that he pays $3.40 in rent per square foot, while the vacant space adjacent to his was previously rented for less than half that figure. Kirstie Bennett, an owner of The Framer’s Workshop, said that the city’s decision to collect the possessory interest tax cost her more than $3,000.

“This particular problem of communication is really new,” Bennett said. “The problems in the mall are not.”

Without a designated property manager from the city, renovations and improvements to the mall come at a slow pace, according to Juha. In a report filed by Deputy City Manager William Rogers, the mall’s management was impacted by the resignation of a city employee within the Real Property Management unit. For now, the city is searching for a leasing and management agent for the mall, according to city spokesperson Matthai Chakko. It is considering contracting the management of the mall to a private entity.

Juha and Lee pointed to poor lighting, paint and signs in the alley that could be easily remedied with the help of a city official acting as the unit’s manager. Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose district contains the mall, called the current management situation “chaotic.”

Worthington said that, at the request of Mayor Tom Bates, the mall’s business owners and Rogers will meet on Oct. 8 to smooth over these issues.

Contact Kimberly Veklerov at kveklerov@dailycal.org.

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Mitchell Handler/Staff

More than 60 workers protested Friday afternoon in front of the UC Office of the President in Oakland after the University of California decided to implement its latest wage and pension offer for service employees.

The Oakland-based union American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299 gathered in response to the university’s decision to legally implement its latest offer in a contract dispute between more than 8,000 service employees and the UC system. The policy will affect the percentage of wages distributed toward the revised pension plan. The university made its last offer Sept. 24 with what it said in a statement was a “reasonable approach to pension reform,” a proposition AFSCME declined.

Under the new plan, AFSCME service workers will be subjected to a two-tiered pension system, which allocates 6.5 percent of worker pay toward pensions for those hired prior to July 1, up from the previously allocated 5 percent. Workers hired after July 1 must contribute 7 percent. The university will also contribute 12 percent of employee pay to pensions, a jump of 2 percent.

The line of demonstrators, composed mostly of UC Berkeley service workers, marched in front of the UC building entrance holding signs and chanting “raises for them, crisis for us” and “implementation equals theft.” Marching was accompanied by intermittent recesses, during which workers converged around AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger, Shop Steward Arnold Meza and Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who each addressed the crowd.

“It’s time for AFSCME to stand up for UC workers,” Worthington said. The university has “chosen negation, not negotiation,” he said.

Worthington described the implementation of the new policy as “extreme” and “unreasonable.” Additionally, he brought up concerns that the UC system might create a precedent whereby it will move to implement offers without completing negotiations with workers.

UC spokesperson Shelly Meron reiterated statements made by the university earlier in the week, saying the changes bring about “necessary pension reforms that will ensure the long-term viability of our retirement program.” Meron indicated that eight other unions representing 14 bargaining units and nonrepresented employees have already adopted these reforms.

But service workers painted a different picture at the protest. Maria Sonia Munsino, a food-service employee at UC Berkeley, characterized the negotiations as a struggle between workers and executives. With the help of a translator, Munsino said she is worried that benefits under the future implementation would “not be able to support her family of four.”

According to AFSCME’s Facebook event page, the protest was scheduled to run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. There were no police officers present, and the demonstration remained as peaceful as it began.

Meza said that there are further demonstrations planned and suggested that workers might strike later this year, although he did not offer any further specifics on when that might take place.

Mitchell Handler contributed to this report.

Contact Jeff Landa at jlanda@dailycal.org.

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Pol Rebaque/File

In light of the Supreme Court’s decision allowing same-sex marriage in California, Berkeley City Council will consider closing the city’s Domestic Partnership Registry at its Oct. 1 meeting.

Darryl Moore, the council member proposing the closure, said the city’s registry is no longer needed because the services it offers can be provided through other avenues, such as going to the Office of the County Clerk in Oakland or mailing the registration to the secretary of state’s office in Sacramento.

The proposal comes in response to the Supreme Court’s June decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry, in which the court ruled 5-4 to effectively nullify Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot initiative that added language to the state constitution defining marriage as valid only between a man and a woman.

In 1984, Berkeley City Council was the first city council to grant domestic partnership benefits to its employees. The city in 1991 established the Domestic Partnership Registry, which allowed the city to recognize domestic partnerships.

More than 1,000 domestic partners are registered in Berkeley, according to Councilmember Kriss Worthington. The last time a couple registered for a domestic partnership was Monday, according to the city clerk.

Before submitting the proposal, Moore said he sent it to local leaders, including the Pacific Center for Human Growth, an LGBT community organization, for review.

Worthington and Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, however, believe the community and affected couples should be further consulted before a decision is made.

“Whether they are heterosexual couples or same-sex couples, they may choose domestic partnerships over marriage,” Arreguin said. “We should continue to give them that option.”

According to the city clerk’s office, about 40 to 50 couples have registered for domestic partnerships for each of the past three years. Additionally, about 10 domestic partners per year chose to terminate their licenses.

“If people are using it and people want it, I don’t see why we would go out of our way to close it,” said Caitlin Quinn, an ASUC senator endorsed by groups in the campus queer community.

Other community members see a potential need to terminate Berkeley’s domestic registry. City policy on domestic partnerships does not require other employers, businesses or government agencies to recognize Berkeley’s domestic partnerships, according to the city’s website.

“(Closing the registry) could eliminate potential conflict between the city’s registry and the state of California’s marriage laws for same-sex couples,” said Ed Ness, co-chair of the Oakland/East Bay chapter of Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

The council will also consider establishing Oct. 11, the registry’s 22nd anniversary, as Marriage Equality Day in Berkeley as part of the proposal.

Contact Gladys Rosario and Michelaina Johnson at newsdesk@dailycal.org

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A labor union representing UC student workers held a rally timed to coincide with the expiration of their contract with the University of California on Tuesday on Sproul Plaza to raise awareness of the issues being discussed during negotiations for a new contract.

UAW Local 2865 wants to keep protections for student workers that are already in place and win further concessions from the university. The rally largely focused on graduate student instructors. Supporters hoped to preserve current contract provisions, such as working-hour limits and fee remissions, and gain additional benefits such as increased child care subsidies and assistance with paying for campus parking.

Robbie Nelson, a graduate student in the department of history and a member of the union, said the union hopes to inform the community about important issues affecting student workers, such as smaller class sizes, more personalized instruction, student input in the university’s development of online education and discrimination against transgender and undocumented students.

Elizabeth Zumpe, a graduate student at the School of Education and a union member, emphasized those concerns.

“The increases in class sizes is a big concern for GSIs, especially since the budget cuts during the financial crisis,” she said. “Class sizes went up and do not seem to have gone back down again since then.”

Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who attended the rally in solidarity with the union, said it took a tremendous amount of effort for the union to gain the university’s recognition.

“I am hoping that with a new president, the UC might change the tone of negotiations and try to negotiate in a more reasonable way,” he said. “I think that it is great that the students have fought so hard to get their union recognized, and now they are fighting hard to get a new contract.”

Although union members expressed concern over large classes sizes during the rally, Dianne Klein, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, said the university’s negotiators do not have the capacity to control class sizes. Klein also said UCOP is eager to work through the issues the union presented and is hopeful they will reach a consensus.

The Coalition for Public Education, a recently formed unofficial student organization, used the rally as a platform to blast incoming UC president Janet Napolitano’s record on immigration enforcement as Homeland Security chief and question how her policies might impact minority students, who they claim are underrepresented in GSI positions.

The group’s contribution to the rally involved traditional Aztec dance, complete with an incense burner and vibrant feather headdresses meant to pay homage to Latinos, who make up a large majority of the undocumented immigrants deported during Napolitano’s tenure.

Contact Sophie Mattson at smattson@dailycal.org.

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Benny Grush/Staff

Berkeley City Council agreed on Tuesday night to further assess a proposal for a new homeless housing project that has been both hailed as visionary and denounced as dangerous.

The environmentally sustainable project would provide permanent housing, along an with emergency shelter and supportive services, to the city’s homeless residents, according to a staff report. But the project would take the place of a 112-spot parking lot at Berkeley Way and Henry Street and has brought up numerous questions surrounding its financing and parking in the Downtown area.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said the city potentially faced an “acute problem” of access to the Downtown area because of the scarcity of parking and wondered how the project, which he estimated would cost $50 million, would be bankrolled.

“We don’t have that kind of money,” Bates said at the meeting. “Why would you start doing something that you could never afford to do?”

City Councilmember Jesse Arreguin says the city would not have to bear the brunt of the cost, and the Berkeley Housing Trust Fund, which pools funds for affordable-housing construction, could provide other sources of funding for the project.

The site of the proposed development was chosen for its proximity to Shattuck Avenue, public transit and a variety of social services for the homeless, but the plan deeply worries local business owners.

“The loss of parking in the Berkeley Way lot, even temporarily, will be catastrophic to businesses in the immediate area,” said Craig Larsen, owner of the building at 2054 University Ave., in a statement to the City Council. “I consider (it) a direct threat to my continued presence as an investor in Berkeley.”

Both John Caner, CEO of the Downtown Berkeley Association, and John Paluska, owner of Comal Restaurant, urged the council to double the existing parking supply if plans for the housing project move forward. Parking space has already been lost because of the construction of the new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the proposed demolition of a parking garage on Center Street.

Arreguin says ameliorating the parking situation in the Downtown area and expanding services for the homeless are not mutually exclusive, and he hopes to at least replace the parking spaces that would be lost.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, however, is not in favor of financing more parking spots.

“I agree that there shouldn’t be a negative impact on parking, but to make the affordable-housing project pay for more parking is totally unprogressive and inhumane and against Berkeley’s values,” he said.

According to the staff report, a 2009 count found more than 800 homeless people in Berkeley, including 680 that were chronically homeless, and the majority of them were men. The men’s shelter in Berkeley has been deemed seismically unsafe since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

The City Council will continue to flesh out the details of the plan in the coming months.

Contact Nico Correia at ncorreia@dailycal.org

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Rashad Sisemore/File

Local marijuana advocates are hopeful that cannabis-related regulation will become less stringent in the wake of a federal government memo released last week.

After the Obama administration’s announcement Thursday that it would reduce federal intervention in state regulation of the marijuana industry, cannabis supporters believe medical dispensaries may face fewer punitive measures from the federal government and that recreational marijuana eventually could be legalized.

“(The memo) is a welcome turnaround,” said Councilmember Kriss Worthington. “Recognizing city and state laws and stopping the criminalization (of marijuana sale) is super important.”

Thursday’s memo is the federal government’s first announcement regarding marijuana regulation since voters in Colorado and Washington legalized personal use in 2012.

“I’m very hopeful that lives are going to be saved and people are no longer going to be threatened with jail time for their choice in medicine,” said Lanette Davies, director of Crusaders for Patients’ Rights, an advocacy group for medical marijuana patients.

City Councilmembers Worthington and Darryl Moore, who support medical marijuana, said they are optimistic about the impact the memo will have on Berkeley Patients Group and Harborside Health Center, two local cannabis dispensaries fighting federal government lawsuits.

The announcement may also lead to Berkeley City Council’s approval of a fourth registered dispensary, Moore said.

Given that no federal laws have been changed, however, immediate implications of the memo are uncertain, said Kris Hermes, media specialist for Americans for Safe Access, a cannabis-advocacy group. On Friday, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District told the East Bay Express that it “(does) not expect a significant change” in the way it handles marijuana-related cases.

According to David Goldman, a local spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access, California cannabis-regulation laws must be stricter and more clearly defined for federal government intervention to decrease.

“(People) don’t understand the science of medical marijuana — that people need it,” Goldman said. “They think it’s a sham.”

Earlier this year, the California Legislature attempted to pass two bills that would have further regulated cannabis sale and use. In light of Thursday’s memo, the Legislature may resurrect either of these failed bills, Hermes said.

In 2010, California voters failed to pass Proposition 19, which would have allowed people 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. The federal government’s memo could pave the way for a new initiative to get passed, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director at NORML, a recreational-marijuana advocacy group that supported the proposition.

“2016 is the year to watch for with these initiatives,” St. Pierre said. “Marijuana will be as much talked about on the ballot as the presidential candidates.”

Claire Chiara covers research and ideas. Contact her at cchiara@dailycal.org.

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Sean Goebel/File

Berkeley City Council will consider a grant that would fund increased enforcement of underage drinking laws at its meeting Tuesday.

If approved, the grant would provide Berkeley Police Department with $75,500 to fund various measures, such as undercover sting operations, to combat underage drinking.

“The money allows us to do the types of operations that we typically wouldn’t be able to do without funding,” said BPD officer Steve Rego.

Each year, the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control selects local police agencies to fund and assist in the enforcement of alcohol-related laws. The department has awarded grant money to BPD each year since 2003.

According to the recommendation submitted to the City Council, BPD plans to identify sites where alcohol is most accessible for students and begin a dual strategy — involving education and enforcement — to prevent sales to underage buyers. BPD also plans to work closely with UCPD on these issues, said BPD spokesperson officer Jennifer Coats.

“The program itself is definitely useful in trying to help us deter alcohol-related crimes,” Coats said.

In past years, BPD has used grant money to fund overtime for Party Patrol enforcement teams, investigate adults who buy alcohol for minors and educate businesses on alcohol laws. BPD also works from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents on these operations, Rego said.

Alcohol abuse by minors remains an issue police are trying to curb. Since residence hall move-in day, UCPD has responded to 13 alcohol-related illness incidents, prompting BPD to dispatch plainclothes officers to areas near fraternities as well as other popular locations on Southside.

In 2011, UCPD arrested 119 people for liquor-law violations on campus and took disciplinary action on another 608, and BPD arrested 40 people, according to the 2012-13 UC Berkeley Annual Campus Safety Report.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, however, wants the City Council to explore alternative methods for curbing underage drinking, such as using social media campaigns to educate students.

“The city’s been doing this for many years,” Worthington said about the grant. “I don’t think this grant will do a single thing to adjust the high number of alcohol-related hospitalizations.”

Similarly, Roland Peterson, executive director of the Telegraph Business Improvement District, believes Southside businesses likely will remain unaffected by increased law enforcement.

“The vast majority of businesses are responsible, so I don’t think there is any cause for concern,” he said.

Worthington said the city should use these grants to promote positive alternatives to alcohol rather than punish businesses that are “tricked into breaking the law” through undercover operations.

“If you want to reach a large number of people, I think you need to use modern tools to communicate to them,” he said. “What we’re doing now is such a 20th-century concept.”

Alison Fu covers city news. Contact her at afu@dailycal.org.

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An announcement made by the Obama administration last week marks a turning point in the federal government’s approach to marijuana use and sale.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole released a memo on Thursday stating that the federal government will allow state laws legalizing recreational marijuana use to stand and that it will refrain from targeting cannabis dispensaries solely based on their “size or commercial nature.”

The statement appears to be a large turnaround from the federal government’s actions since 2008, said Councilmember Kriss Worthington.

“It has been extremely frustrating,” Worthington said. “The Obama administration has probably had stricter policies … than some of the more reactionary administrations in Washington.”

Addressed to U.S. attorneys in all 50 states, the memo details that regulation of the marijuana industry will be controlled solely at the state level and that federal prosecutors should only intrude when operations interfere with federal priorities.

The announcement could impact the fate of the Berkeley Patients Group, a local cannabis dispensary currently fighting a lawsuit brought against it by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in May, Worthington said. In July, the city of Berkeley filed a claim supporting the dispensary.

The memo is the third of its kind from the administration, following similar statements in 2009 and 2011. This year’s statement will likely enact the most significant changes, said Lanette Davies, director of Crusaders for Patients’ Rights, an advocacy group for medical marijuana patients.

“We’re very happy and more hopeful,” Davies said. “It has to do with the fact that we now have 20 (medicinal) states and two recreational states.”

Contact Claire Chiara at cchiara@dailycal.org.

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