The following is an exerpt from Council Member Darryl Moore's Newsletter
Townhall Meeting
Please join me for a townhall meeting to discuss a variety of important issues. We will have a representative from the Parks and Recreation Department to discuss some upcoming improvements to San Pablo Park. The Berkeley Police Department will be discussing various crime prevention methods, in preparation for our summer months, and will be available to field questions regarding crime issues that the community would like to discuss. Teresa Berkeley will be attending from the City's Budget Office to discuss Berkeley's budget and the various ways the city is managing these difficult economic times.
What: Townhall meeting to discuss improvements to San Pablo Park, Crime Issues and the City's Budget
When: 6PM on Thursday, June 16th
Where: Frances Albrier Community Center in San Pablo Park, 2800 Park Street between Russell and Ward
Urban Farm Grand Opening
YOU ARE INVITED
Urban Farm Grand Opening Celebration
Sunday, June 19, 10:00 - 1:30
@ The Urban Adamah Farm
1050 Parker St. in West Berkeley
photo by Melissa Schilling
Space is limited :: Register (for free!) today
Planting, Seeding, Mulching - Cob Oven Bread Making - Face Painting -
Make your own Pickles - Introduction to Camp Urban Adamah - Create a Personal Terrarium - Ice Cream Making - Bicycle Blender Smoothies - Wild Edibles Workshop - Meet Berkeley's Resident Dairy Goat Herd - Great Kosher Organic Food... AND MUCH MORE....
Music by:
Octopretzel
and others!
With the participation and support of:
Author/Urban Farmer Novella Carpenter
The Office of Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, AD 14
Councilman Darryl Moore
Learn with:
Deena Aranoff, Professor of Jewish Studies at the GTU
Zelig Golden, Co-Director Wilderness Torah
Rabbi Menachem Creditor, Netivot Shalom
To register or to learn more, visit: urbanadamah.org/June19
Co-sponsors: Congregation Beth El, Edah, Berkeley Hillel, Pursue, Wilderness Torah, Congregation Netivot Shalom, Congregation Beth Israel, Center for Jewish Life and Learning, Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay, Kehilla Community Synagogue
Berkeley Juneteenth 2011
The Berkeley Juneteenth Festival is a street festival extending the 5-block South Berkeley Adeline-Alcatraz corridor that is free and open to the public. Family entertainment is the focus of all Berkeley Juneteenth Festivals, and no alcohol and tobacco sales or sponsorships are allowed.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
10 am to 6 pm
MAIN STAGE ENTERTAINMENT is the "heart" of Juneteenth-in-Berkeley. The music incorporates the best of the African American experience: African drumming, jazz, blues, neo-soul, gospel, rhythm and blues, and reggae. Local talents, like John Handy, Faye Carol and Pharoah Sanders have graced our stage, but BJF is a vehicle for showcasing up and coming acts, providing them with an opportunity to show their talents.
COMMUNITY STAGE features performances directed towards novice entertainers. Auditions are held 60 days prior to the Festival. HEALTH FAIR- Alameda County health agencies offer informational workshops and health screenings. TWO ON TWO BASKETBALL TOURNEY provides wholesome, physical competition on event day. HISTORICAL EXHIBITS includes an indoor exhibit hall featuring a collaboration of presenters. ART FOR CHILDREN programs and for-fun activities are coordinated by practicing artists. The VISION MAGAZINE is a BJF souvenir publication sold on Festival day which features the day's activities.
For more information, please visit www.berkeleyjuneteenth.org
4th of July @ Berkeley Marina
The 4th of July is a great day to have a lot of fun. The biggest party is at the Berkeley Marina from noon-10PM. There's all kinds of free fun! Adventure Playground, always a favorite, is open 11am-8pm. Get your face painted, try the giant slide, or splash in the water at the beach!
There's live entertainment from noon until 9:30PM on the main stage including Downtown Rhythm, Lee Waterman & Jazz Caliente, The Hipwader's Children's Music, Tin Sandwich Harmonica Trio, The Ian Franklin Band, Foxtails Brigaide, & Steel Pans. Tucked around the marina are Afro Cuban Rumba Drumming, Circus Art performers, and on The Buddy Club Stage in Shorebird Park you'll find jugglers and magicians. There's art & crafts, yummy food, massages, free dragon boat rowing from 2-6pm, pony rides, a dunk tank, and much more including the grand fireworks off the end of the Berkeley Pier at 9:30pm.
Let's hear it for the red, white, and blue...but keep it green, too. The party shouldn't leave the environment trashed. If you can, bring your own dishes -- Frisbees double as plates! A bandana is your cloth napkin to use at all of the international food booths. With water stations located around the event, you can refill your own reusable bottle and keep a lot of plastic out of the landfill. Be sure to use the recycling stations located throughout the marina for your disposables.
Free admission. Alcohol-free event. No cars after 7pm.
Getting There:
CARS: There is plenty of free parking in the Marina, noon-11PM. However, the roads close 7-10:30PM (and the Police have the option to close them earlier if the lots are 100% full) so you can't get in or out between those hours. Come in earlier! After the fireworks, and after all of the pedestrians have left the Marina, the road opens to vehicles (around 10:30PM) when you may drive out.
BUS: AC Transit runs on a slow 51B Sunday schedule from Downtown Berkeley BART right into the Marina. At the end of the event, however, you have to walk, with the rest of the crowd, out to 6th and University Ave. near Spenger's to pick up a bus back to BART. Unfortunately, we do not have an event shuttles.
BICYCLES: Free valet bicycle parking. Ride your bicycle over the Berkeley overpass and Richmond Spokes will valet park it for you in the lot near Adventure Playground from noon-10PM. But be sure to pick it up by then!
Dogs are OK on a leash.
For more information, please visit www.anotherbullwinkelshow.com/4th-of-july/
Showing posts with label Neighborhoods: South Berkeley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neighborhoods: South Berkeley. Show all posts
Friday, June 3, 2011
Monday, February 22, 2010
Buying or Selling a Home in South Berkeley: South Berkeley Quality of Life
I attended a neighborhood meeting last Thursday at the corner of Alcatraz and Sacramento. Unfortunately I had to leave, due to a family emergency, before the meeting was over. I was able to listen to the Beat Officer from BPD talk about some burgalries in the neighborhood. Apparently since the beginning of the year there have been 7 or 8 break ins, usually through an open or pried open window. the perpetrators apparently go to the front door and ring the bell. If someone answers they ask for a ficticious person. If no one answers they break in. the advice was to report activity in the neighborhood that was not normal, to take precautions such as keeping things out of the yard that a burgular could use to climb into a window, as well as keeping windows and doors locked. alarm systems are useful as are cameras and loud dogs! This activity is an unfortunate burp in what has been a steady decline in neighborhood crime and may be attributed more to the economy than to a decline in the South Berkeley quality of life, which from my point of view has been steadily improving since I bought my home in 2001 and will only be getting better.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The South Berkeley Neighborhood
The following article on the South Berkeley Neighborhood, also known as The Lorin District, is reprinted from SF Gate. The link is below. I found the article intersting and hope you will too. I'm in love with this neighborhood as I've called it my home for the past 9 years and have seen it change greatly even in that short a time.
Typically, public transportation is built to merely serve a community, not necessarily be the impetus for its growth.
But that is not necessarily the case with South Berkeley's Ashby Station subdivision. The turn-of-the-century "streetcar suburb" grew in large part because of the public transportation hub enclosed by Adeline Street, Ashby Avenue and what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way that has existed for the better part of the last hundred years.
That hub would provide an easy commute for an emerging middle class that was looking to flee urban living, yet still be close enough to get to and from work easily.
"By 1900, people were pretty stressed out by industry. Cities were dirty. Houses were really close together," said Dale Smith, who leads walking tours for the Berkeley Historical Society. "People in this part of town considered themselves to be living in the country."
And the same could be said today, according to Alameda Victorians agent John-Michael Kyono, who has an area home on the market at 2853 Stanton St. Kyono has worked with roughly a dozen homes in South Berkeley over the last five years.
"People love being by that BART stop, and, surprisingly, people don't hate the driving commute, either," he said. "Either way you look at it, you're roughly a 20-to-25-minute commute to the city."
That's not much of a change in how long it took to get from Ashby Station to the city a half-century ago.
"When the steam rail was replaced by the electric rail system, Berkeley really emerged as a streetcar suburb, and you could get to San Francisco in 25 minutes," said Charles Wollenberg, social science department chair at Vista College in Berkeley. "You really can't do better than that today."
During the post-World War II era, when suburbs swelled across the country, the neighborhood saw even more folks leaving the city and occupying the working-class Craftsman homes that were plentiful in the area. Kyono said those same homes are what attract people to the neighborhood these days.
"People love the architecture," Kyono said. "Most of the houses in this area are built prior to 1940. The streets are wide, and the neighborhood is built in a sort of circular style, so you don't have a lot of crosstown traffic."
After buses replaced streetcars in the late 1940s, the neighborhood went without rail transportation until the early 1970s, when the modern BART stop at 3100 Adeline St. opened. But the Ashby BART Station came at a cost, Wollenberg said. Construction of the new stop, which opened in 1973, destroyed part of the historic shopping district, stripping the neighborhood of its commercial core.
The area still hasn't seen the commercial boost many had hoped to get, and there's still a lingering reputation of crime left over from the late 1990s. But Kyono said since around 2000, that area of South Berkeley has gotten quite a bit safer.
"It's a very clean neighborhood, and it's a very walkable neighborhood," he said. "San Pablo Park is a very well-maintained park. Those tennis courts there are always being used."
But like any transitional community, the downturn in the economy hasn't helped. As a result, Realty Advocates co-founder Hal Feiger said the area is seeing some short sales. And Marvin Gardens Real Estate's Mark Choi, who is selling a multi-unit property in the neighborhood at 1530 Prince St., says the area has seen its share of foreclosures as well.
"On the 1500 block of Prince Street alone, I've seen three foreclosures in the last six months," he said.
But Kyono said people are still coming to the neighborhood, because it's one of the few places in Berkeley that you can get a home for at or under $600,000.
"You have people who are migrating from San Francisco who want a neighborhood with an artsy, cultural feel," he said. "And with things like the flea market near the train station on the weekend here, you've definitely got that."
Feiger sees the same thing.
"It's one of the few remaining affordable neighborhoods around here," he said, "and there's just as much diversity with the people shopping and working at the Berkeley Bowl (a popular area supermarket) as there are with the fruits and vegetables."
Kyono summed it up as the type of neighborhood that still has its roots but is welcoming to new residents.
"It's the type of neighborhood that still has many of the people that were born and raised there, and you're starting to see people with families moving back into the neighborhood and changing its dynamic," he said. "I was showing a house there the other day and as we're walking in, the neighbors - who had lived there for about 30 years - came out and said 'Hey, how you doing? You think you're gonna buy the house?' 'I grew up and went to school here,' etc. It's a friendly neighborhood. People reach out and want to know who lives here."
This article appeared on page J - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/07/REGO1BSS2P.DTL#ixzz0fA1I3oHZ
Typically, public transportation is built to merely serve a community, not necessarily be the impetus for its growth.
But that is not necessarily the case with South Berkeley's Ashby Station subdivision. The turn-of-the-century "streetcar suburb" grew in large part because of the public transportation hub enclosed by Adeline Street, Ashby Avenue and what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way that has existed for the better part of the last hundred years.
That hub would provide an easy commute for an emerging middle class that was looking to flee urban living, yet still be close enough to get to and from work easily.
"By 1900, people were pretty stressed out by industry. Cities were dirty. Houses were really close together," said Dale Smith, who leads walking tours for the Berkeley Historical Society. "People in this part of town considered themselves to be living in the country."
And the same could be said today, according to Alameda Victorians agent John-Michael Kyono, who has an area home on the market at 2853 Stanton St. Kyono has worked with roughly a dozen homes in South Berkeley over the last five years.
"People love being by that BART stop, and, surprisingly, people don't hate the driving commute, either," he said. "Either way you look at it, you're roughly a 20-to-25-minute commute to the city."
That's not much of a change in how long it took to get from Ashby Station to the city a half-century ago.
"When the steam rail was replaced by the electric rail system, Berkeley really emerged as a streetcar suburb, and you could get to San Francisco in 25 minutes," said Charles Wollenberg, social science department chair at Vista College in Berkeley. "You really can't do better than that today."
During the post-World War II era, when suburbs swelled across the country, the neighborhood saw even more folks leaving the city and occupying the working-class Craftsman homes that were plentiful in the area. Kyono said those same homes are what attract people to the neighborhood these days.
"People love the architecture," Kyono said. "Most of the houses in this area are built prior to 1940. The streets are wide, and the neighborhood is built in a sort of circular style, so you don't have a lot of crosstown traffic."
After buses replaced streetcars in the late 1940s, the neighborhood went without rail transportation until the early 1970s, when the modern BART stop at 3100 Adeline St. opened. But the Ashby BART Station came at a cost, Wollenberg said. Construction of the new stop, which opened in 1973, destroyed part of the historic shopping district, stripping the neighborhood of its commercial core.
The area still hasn't seen the commercial boost many had hoped to get, and there's still a lingering reputation of crime left over from the late 1990s. But Kyono said since around 2000, that area of South Berkeley has gotten quite a bit safer.
"It's a very clean neighborhood, and it's a very walkable neighborhood," he said. "San Pablo Park is a very well-maintained park. Those tennis courts there are always being used."
But like any transitional community, the downturn in the economy hasn't helped. As a result, Realty Advocates co-founder Hal Feiger said the area is seeing some short sales. And Marvin Gardens Real Estate's Mark Choi, who is selling a multi-unit property in the neighborhood at 1530 Prince St., says the area has seen its share of foreclosures as well.
"On the 1500 block of Prince Street alone, I've seen three foreclosures in the last six months," he said.
But Kyono said people are still coming to the neighborhood, because it's one of the few places in Berkeley that you can get a home for at or under $600,000.
"You have people who are migrating from San Francisco who want a neighborhood with an artsy, cultural feel," he said. "And with things like the flea market near the train station on the weekend here, you've definitely got that."
Feiger sees the same thing.
"It's one of the few remaining affordable neighborhoods around here," he said, "and there's just as much diversity with the people shopping and working at the Berkeley Bowl (a popular area supermarket) as there are with the fruits and vegetables."
Kyono summed it up as the type of neighborhood that still has its roots but is welcoming to new residents.
"It's the type of neighborhood that still has many of the people that were born and raised there, and you're starting to see people with families moving back into the neighborhood and changing its dynamic," he said. "I was showing a house there the other day and as we're walking in, the neighbors - who had lived there for about 30 years - came out and said 'Hey, how you doing? You think you're gonna buy the house?' 'I grew up and went to school here,' etc. It's a friendly neighborhood. People reach out and want to know who lives here."
This article appeared on page J - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/07/REGO1BSS2P.DTL#ixzz0fA1I3oHZ
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Buying a Home in South Berkeley, North Oakland: Get to know the Neighbors
If you are buying a home in South Berkeley or North Oakland in the near future or even in a more distant future here is an opportunity to get to know the neighborhood and the neighbors. there is a neighborhood association called WANA who supports a monthly "happy hour" on the second Friday of the month. This is usually held at Cafe Vino on the corner of 66th and Scaramento (good food and wine there, by the way). this coming Friday 1/8 there is a grand opening celebration at the neighborhood's newest hangout , The Actual Cafe,on the corner of Alcatraz and San Pablo. Neighbors will be making there way down to this new addition in a show of support. Come join the fun! Meet some folks and learn about what a great place South Berkeley and North Oakland is to live. Get to know the Neighbors!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Buying a Home in South Berkely: Neighborhood News
On November 24th, the United States Postal Service held a community meeting to discuss their proposal to close the Park Station Post Office at 2900 Sacramento Street (at Russell). Unfortunately, due to the lack of notice and the proximity to the Thanksgiving Holiday, the turnout was very low. At this meeting, Councilmember Moore encouraged the Postal Service to hold another meeting to give the community an opportunity to voice their concerns. The USPS agreed and is holding this community meeting on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 from 5:30pm-7:00pm at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis Street. Park Station Post Office serves a great deal of seniors and other residents that find it difficult to use an alternate post office location, so it is extremely important to the surrounding community. If this is something that you are interested in, please notify your neighbors and/or post flyers. I have attached a flyer for your use. Thanks so much and please help to save our neighborhood post office!
For more information about buying a home in South Berkeley or in other parts of the East Bay, please visit my website: http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/
For more information about buying a home in South Berkeley or in other parts of the East Bay, please visit my website: http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Buying a home in South Berkeley: Neighborhood News
San Pablo Neighborhood Council Holiday Party
If you are thinking about buying a home in South Berkeley you might want to know that The San Pablo Neighborhood Council is ready to party. They are inviting the neighborhood to join them for their Holiday Party on Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 6:30pm to 8:30pm. There will be music and fun, bring your favorite holiday dish or a snack to share. The Art Room at San Pablo Park is the place.
If you are buying a house in South Berekely or for that matter in any neighborhood a good practice is to meet the people that live in the area, talk to them, ask them why they live there and what they like and don't like about the neighborhood. Find out about crime, friendliness etc. Talking to nighbors is, in my opinion, the best way to learn about a neighborhood.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP PACK HOLIDAY BASKETS FOR NEEDY FAMILIES
The Berkeley Police Department and Berkeley Boosters Association/P.A.L. is hosting a holiday turkey basket distribution to selected needy families. Volunteers will meet on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 6:30 a.m., in front of the Police Department to help assemble 250 food baskets. The gift of giving starts with you!
For more information, contact Jen Louis via Email or phone at 981-5990 X4212.
TOYS FOR TOTS PROGRAM NEEDS DONATIONS
The Berkeley Fire and Police Departments along with the United States Marines Toys for Tots Foundation, needs your help in providing donations for the Toys for Tots Program. Collection barrels have been placed in all fire stations and each station will collect toys until December 25, 2009. New and unwrapped toys collected before December 19 will be used for the Toys for Tots program. Toys collected from December 19 to December 25 will be distributed to homeless shelters assisting families.
Toys will be distributed on Saturday, December 19 at the Public Safety Building by the Berkeley Police Department to families that have pre-registered through the Toys for Tots program. Registration ends December 16, 2009.
For other information and toy barrel pick up, please contact Firefighter Tony Hall via Email or Lieutenant John Tarascio, via Email or at 510-981-5520.
For more information about buying a home in South Berkeley or buying or selling a home anywhere in the East Bay please visit my website: http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/
If you are thinking about buying a home in South Berkeley you might want to know that The San Pablo Neighborhood Council is ready to party. They are inviting the neighborhood to join them for their Holiday Party on Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 6:30pm to 8:30pm. There will be music and fun, bring your favorite holiday dish or a snack to share. The Art Room at San Pablo Park is the place.
If you are buying a house in South Berekely or for that matter in any neighborhood a good practice is to meet the people that live in the area, talk to them, ask them why they live there and what they like and don't like about the neighborhood. Find out about crime, friendliness etc. Talking to nighbors is, in my opinion, the best way to learn about a neighborhood.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP PACK HOLIDAY BASKETS FOR NEEDY FAMILIES
The Berkeley Police Department and Berkeley Boosters Association/P.A.L. is hosting a holiday turkey basket distribution to selected needy families. Volunteers will meet on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 6:30 a.m., in front of the Police Department to help assemble 250 food baskets. The gift of giving starts with you!
For more information, contact Jen Louis via Email or phone at 981-5990 X4212.
TOYS FOR TOTS PROGRAM NEEDS DONATIONS
The Berkeley Fire and Police Departments along with the United States Marines Toys for Tots Foundation, needs your help in providing donations for the Toys for Tots Program. Collection barrels have been placed in all fire stations and each station will collect toys until December 25, 2009. New and unwrapped toys collected before December 19 will be used for the Toys for Tots program. Toys collected from December 19 to December 25 will be distributed to homeless shelters assisting families.
Toys will be distributed on Saturday, December 19 at the Public Safety Building by the Berkeley Police Department to families that have pre-registered through the Toys for Tots program. Registration ends December 16, 2009.
For other information and toy barrel pick up, please contact Firefighter Tony Hall via Email or Lieutenant John Tarascio, via Email or at 510-981-5520.
For more information about buying a home in South Berkeley or buying or selling a home anywhere in the East Bay please visit my website: http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Buying a Home in South Berkeley: Neighborhood Update
If you are buying a home in South Berkeley you'll want to know whats going on in the various neighborhoods. One of the more active nieghborhood groups is WANA (West Alcatraz Neighborhood Association). This group has over the past 18 months or so intiated monthly happy hours at Cafe Vino on 66th and Sacramento, supported local cafes and restaurants, held a block party. The group also sponsors twice a month neighborhood cleanup days, a once a month meeting for parents of young children at a local park, holds periodic association meetings, has a web networking tool at http://www.bigtent.com/, has sponsored traffic control signage by having children paint "Slow Down" and "Caution, Children Playing" signs for drivers, has been in touch constantly with the city of Berkeley in an effort to make buying a home in South Berkeley a desireable option for young families and more. On Thursday, December 17th they are holding the annual holiday get together at the community room in the apartment building at 1499 Alcatraz at 6:00PM. When you are thinking about buying a home in South Berkeley and wanting to check out different neighborhoods, this neighborhood association should be on your list of groups to contact.
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