However, a recent Times article about the decline of (in)famous Telegraph Avenue was more accurate. See it here.
As a late 1970s and early 1980s college student living two blocks away, Telegraph was the location of head shops, tie dye shirts and hippie culture: Berkeley as an anachronism. The street went through a yuppie-ish renaissance in the 1990s and has recently relapsed. Burned shops and vacant lots have precipitated a decline into a wasteland of homelessness, garbage and vermin at Haste Street and Telegraph, a few blocks from the University.
The Times article interviews stakeholders who want to improve the place. A longstanding bookseller in this area "thinks Berkeley should rebrand Telegraph as the place where the Free Speech Movement happened. The city could erect plaques describing the events of the 1950s and ’60s, which would attract tourists and shoppers." I don't care for this idea. Will Berkeley ever outgrow this piece of history?
The Daily Californian reports that the Berkeley city council is looking into the Telegraph problem. The council "will decide whether to pass on a proposal from the Telegraph Livability coalition to the city manager for cost analysis."
Among the [coalition] suggestions aimed at reducing crime is a proposal to establish Walk the Beat, a program that would have UCPD and Berkeley Police Department officers patrol Telegraph on foot. The recommendation also suggests increasing pedestrian lighting at night to create a safer environment for shoppers.
Other recommendations include demarcating street vendor spaces more clearly, creating a “free speech walk of fame” on the Telegraph sidewalk to commemorate the street’s history and increasing foot traffic by expanding public parking and making transit improvements (The Daily Californian, February 22, 2012).These solutions are only band-aids. How many people will drive to Berkeley to experience the "free speech walk of fame?" Telegraph can't recover until businesses are built on the location of the vacant lots. The Times reports that the City of Berkeley is suing the owner of the vacant lots, so hopefully, the development will start soon. The University should do its part and develop the fallow "People's Park" located nearby, another magnet for filth, crime, and drugs. Get the homeless out of the mud and in shelters, and start the construction for student housing on this prime location tomorrow!
This subject needs more flushing out. I assume part of the problem with Telegraph Ave has to do with the general economy. Also, the Free Speech Movement did not take place there. The political tables that we did not want removed, the the initial cause of the movement, were on College at the entrance to the University. The protests took place in front of Sproul Hall and in the media.
ReplyDeleteIn your last paragraph when you referred to the homeless, you mentioned that they should be moved into shelters. California has done very little to deal with the homeless problem. Shelters are a last resort. Most of the time they are not safe, and as a group, the homeless do not want to go there.
Check out the Project Renewal we site. That is an organization in NYC. They have built supportive housing throughout NYC, really wonderful facilities, clean and bright, with the help that people need--those who are homeless/addicted/mentally ill, etc.