Berkeley’s Telegraph Business Improvement District has installed a series of planters along the median at the corner of Dwight Way and Telegraph Avenue, following several weeks of occupation by People’s Park supporters running a “free store” that distributed supplies to residents in need.
“We really think this is a really important spot aesthetically, for just the pedestrian environment, and are trying to do whatever we can to just make it nice for people, while it’s not really a usable space,” Telegraph Business Improvement District Executive Director Alex Knox said in an interview Friday.
Knox described the planters as a temporary facelift to the area, which was opened to the public in October after being closed following its designation as a median in 2019.
“It’s going to be a really involved project that a lot of community stakeholders should be a part of and hopefully a lot of inspiration will come up through the process of making it happen,” Knox said. “We have a vision … but a true project with a process that’s moving towards a goal has not yet started, so there is no plan.”
The free store evolves
Knox hopes that the slip lane that allows drivers to make a right-hand turn onto Telegraph Avenue from Dwight Way will be closed to traffic so that a larger pedestrian plaza can be built at the location.
“It’s got to really be bigger and fuller to be truly a successful public plaza and amenity,” Knox said. “In the meantime, it’s just a median; it’s not what it deserves.”
Until a couple weeks ago, People’s Park supporters were using the location as a 24-hour mutual aid station, which opened during the protests that followed the Jan. 3 clearing of People’s Park by law enforcement officials. The dissolution of the “free store” located there was organic, with organizers trading its semi-permanent setup for pop-up aid stations.
Activists attempted to replicate the mutual aid situation that was present in People’s Park up until Jan. 2, but ran into challenges.
“[The Park] was large enough that we were able to manage our advocacy and our mutual aid, so that it stayed insular and it didn’t necessarily impact any of the more problematic dynamics that were going on in the park,” People’s Park organizer Nicholas Alexander said in an interview Friday. “But with this space, it’s so small, it was impossible to replicate what we were doing in the park.”
Alexander cited low volunteer rates, general chaos, a lack of sobriety and sexual harassment among the issues they faced.
“Honestly, I’m not upset about this [update to the space],” Alexander said. “Not at all. It was a s— show.”
Rearranging the furniture
The city removed remaining materials from the area on Friday morning before the planters were installed, including several recently placed chairs belonging to Berkeley’s unofficial chess club’s chairman Jesse Sheehan.
“They threw away about $500 in furniture I rented for the meeting today,” Sheehan said, referring to a meeting of People’s Park supporters scheduled for the location later in the day. Some of the rented chairs remain at the chess club location at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Haste Street.
Within a few hours of the installation of the planters, a group of Berkeley residents rearranged them to create community sitting space at the location, spending a portion of Friday and Saturday socializing there.