Telegraph Avenue has been the non secular hub of Berkeley for many years, ever for the reason that Free Speech Motion and Vietnam Warfare protests set its blocks abuzz within the Nineteen Sixties and ‘70s.
Whilst report shops, blacklight poster retailers, avenue distributors, faculty college students and free spirits got here and went like wafting scents of marijuana smoke and patchouli oil, the fabled hall retained its cachet as Berkeley’s hippest avenue.
However a brand new period could quickly daybreak, one that might even see 4 key blocks of one-way Telegraph nearest UC Berkeley raised to the extent of its sidewalks to create a walkable plaza the place no automobiles can be allowed.
That car-free situation, nonetheless being studied, can be a part of an $8.3 million mission the Berkeley Metropolis Council unanimously accredited Tuesday to rework sections of Telegraph Avenue, Bancroft Means, Fulton Road and Dana Road right into a inexperienced, transit-oriented neighborhood stretching from Dwight Strategy to the southern finish of the UC Berkeley campus at Sather Gate.
Dubbed the Southside Full Streets Challenge, the redesign will function devoted bus lanes, protected bike paths, widened sidewalks, improved pedestrian crossings and public transit stops. The aim is to cut back harmful visitors collisions, enhance native transit reliability and increase the financial and cultural vitality of the neighborhood, in accordance with town.
Though the car-free concept wasn’t initially on the desk, metropolis officers purchased into it following public outreach final summer time and a last-minute push by members of Telegraph for Individuals, a student-driven advocacy group.
By banning automobiles from a raised, walkable plaza, town might flip Berkeley’s Southside neighborhood into the “West Coast’s Occasions Sq.,” stated Brandon Yung, co-founder of Telegraph for Individuals and a UC Berkeley senior.
“Few neighborhoods in America have the density, industrial exercise and transit patterns that Southside does that may make car-free Telegraph this a lot of successful,” Yung stated. “In New York, enterprise enchancment districts have spearheaded pedestrianization tasks within the final two years. Not solely would pedestrianization be good for the underside line, but in addition visitors security.”
Below the steering of senior transportation planner Eric Anderson, metropolis workers now will start planning and engineering building on the 4 streets.
Though the council hasn’t but determined whether or not to show Telegraph right into a full-fledged plaza, workers will proceed with plans to take away curbs from the 2 blocks closest to the college, the place just one lane can be used for automobiles and one for buses.
On Bancroft Means, which has been deemed a “excessive harm avenue” by Berkeley’s Imaginative and prescient Zero Motion Plan, one lane shall be reserved for automobiles touring west with a devoted bus lane on its proper, whereas a two-way bikeway shall be established behind parking areas and a security buffer.
Not everyone seems to be comfortable concerning the prospect of a West Coast model of Occasions Sq., nonetheless. Some close by enterprise and property homeowners say putting off automobiles and parking will drive away prospects.
Daryl Ross, proprietor of Caffè Strada for the final 33 years and a Cal graduate, doesn’t like the thought of decreasing the variety of lanes for automobiles whereas different close by streets comparable to Bowditch will proceed to host two-way visitors.
“I utterly assist full streets. I simply have issues it’s going to trigger lots of visitors and lots of congestion,” Ross stated. “Companies close to campus have to do a yr’s price of enterprise in 9 months, and I simply suppose it could be dangerous timing to do that as we’re all attempting to return out of COVID.”
Ken Sarachan, a longtime enterprise proprietor alongside Telegraph Avenue, took his issues one step additional, saying the mission is tantamount to UC Berkeley extending its “sovereignty” past its personal blocks and altering the historic avenue right into a “meals courtroom” within the course of.
“If you'd like Telegraph to stay combined and have retail, the used report shops, recycled outfitters, used bookstores and different companies which are concerned in recycling items want to purchase these items from the general public — that’s how we get our product,” Sarachan stated. “If we take away automobiles on Telegraph, if we simply make congestion occur on Dwight and Bowditch, you’re going to completely destroy what’s left of a deteriorating financial atmosphere.”
Council members nonetheless supported the thought of car-free streets and directed workers to discover the advantages and potential issues of continuing with that method.
“I wish to guarantee you that issues are taken very severely by me and the council however extra importantly by our engineers and transportation consultants,” stated Councilmember Rigel Robinson, who represents the Southside neighborhood and has championed the trouble since 2019.
Robinson stated he envisions a mission that advantages each retailers and pedestrians and bicyclists. “This mission is taking the Southside in a very thrilling path. … There’s rather a lot to be happy with in our work immediately.”
An overhaul of Telegraph Avenue was first proposed in 2010, when AC Transit tried to increase its Bus Fast Transit mission from San Leandro to UC Berkeley’s campus. Council members scrapped the plan again then after a number of enterprise homeowners alongside Telegraph complained. A decade later, Robinson persuaded the present council to resurrect the thought.
The Southside Full Streets Challenge shall be funded by state and federal transportation grants, in addition to funding from Alameda County Transportation Fee and California Division of Transportation.
If the plan is accredited, building isn’t anticipated to begin till someday in 2023.