Berkeley Reporter

by Steed Dropout
May 25, 2014

“I’M SURE IT WOULDN’T INTEREST ANYBODY OUTSIDE A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS” —PHIL OCHS

A small, but dedicated, circle of friends remembered Gina Sasso, 49 at the time of her death three years ago. They met, Saturday, at Berkeley’s historic Caffe Mediterraneum, a Sasso haunt.

As police and EMTs rallied to the assistance of a disabled homeless man outside the cafe, Saturday, Sasso was honored for her dedication to Berkeley’s disabled and her dedication to nearby People’s Park.

Man Down. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Berkeley’s People’s Park Activists Remember” »

by Steed Dropout
April 28, 2014

LAST GASPS FROM BERKELEY RADS?

Photo by Ted Friedman.

Those shouts and exhortations you could have heard at a pre-anniversary (45th) People’s Park forum, Saturday, entitled “What is to Be Done Now,” could be radical…or Berkeley radicals’ last gasp.

A 45th park anniversary celebration would follow, Sunday.
Continue reading “45th People’s Park Anniversary: What Now?” »

by Steed Dropout
April 26, 2014

NON TREE-SIT LEAVES BERKELEY REPORTER IN THE DARK

Misty. Photo by Ted Friedman.

It was a beautiful night for a tree-sit at U.C. Light drizzle–artificially lighted–dazzled campus. Campus sprinklers swizzled misty swirls, wasting water in a drought year. Students were drunkenly drifting away from a hip-hop concert at Sproul Plaza. Some were making up hip-hop of their own.
Continue reading “Bad Tip: No Berkeley Tree-Sit” »

by Steed Dropout
April, 21, 2014

CELEBRATE THIS!

The Scream. Photo by Ted Friedman.

With People’s Park’s 45th anniversary upcoming next week and a “symposium” exploring, “What is to be done [in the park] now?” scheduled for the eve of the anniversary, the news featured here represents life as it is lived in this Berkeley shrine to oppositionality–Editor’s Comment.

Continue reading “A Scream from Berkeley’s People’s Park” »

by Steed dropout
Apr. 7, 2014

EXCLUSIVE: COPS TRUNCATE TREES TO NIP TREE-SIT IN THE BUD

University police’s quick intervention has foiled a North side tree-sit demo in a Redwoods grove, a block from campus, two blocks from Cal’s football stadium, site of a million dollar tree-sit media circus.

The nearby stadium demo, which stalled construction of the stadium re-build for more than two years taught university cops to act quickly. Their nip-in-the-bud operation, Sunday, could well signal the end of tree-sits in Berkeley.

An attempt, recently, to maintain a tree-sit alongside a recent Post Office protest downtown failed, as did several tree-sits in People’s Park.

Zachary Running Wolf Brown, 52, organizer of the stadium demo was incommunicado and may be on the run. Ever since a recent forty-five day stay in county jail, he has been a marked man, hunted by at least one BPD cop and one university cop.

Redwood before. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Foiled Berkeley Tree-Sit” »

by Steed Dropout
Mar. 31, 2014

HATE MAN #1 SHOPPER

Giveaways in People’s Park come and go like buses. Park regulars are regularly nourished by Food Not Bombs and the Catholic Worker, as well as food drops from nearby dormitories (left-over event trays), neighbors, and the public.

Cast-off clothing, shoes, knick-knacks, and souvenirs–abound, often strewn about at various spots, since park managers banned a park free-clothes box in 1996.

People’s Park regulars have become savvy shoppers.

Just Shopping. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “The Shoppers of Berkeley’s People’s Park” »

by Steed Dropout
March 16, 2014

Eight downtown Berkeley Ambassadors moved uptown, Friday, starting cleanup work on Telegraph Avenue at 7.a.m. and working furiously until early afternoon to make a splash.

Telegraph Property Owners’ Roland Peterson called the event a “splash.” He said “splash” was a public relations term.

But if the ambassadors’ seeming success at clearing downtown streets of sprawling sidewalk encampments and their welfare referrals have paid off–as Telegraph property owners believe–they want that splash on Telegraph.

Clean-up near shopping carts. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Big Splash on Berkeley’s Telegraph” »

by Steed Dropout
May 2, 2014

I met the dead woman two weeks before she died, but only discovered my photos of her yesterday. You will be the first to see them.

She had just scored impressive street-score near my apartment, a hop-skip-and a jump from People’s Park. Along with cool clothes and accessories, she had retrieved a labor-intensive souvenir doll from Del Toro, Panama. The doll would be expensive here.

Berkeley’s South Side is awash in cast-off souvenirs. I’ve scored many of these vacation buys, which owners shed after the glow of vacation has dimmed.

As I hoisted my camera, she held up the doll. Then I did something crazy. “I don’t usually pose my shots,” I bragged, “but would you lift that [doll’s] skirt?” Call it manipulated aleatory technique, call it sick; call it illegal.

the Score. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Death in Berkeley’s People’s Park–Update” »

by Steed Dropout
Feb. 27, 2014

She did not awaken and was found unresponsive by a friend bringing her morning coffee. She died overnight in the doorway of a world-famous church, Maybeck designed First Church of Christ Scientist, which attracts hordes of tourists.

Described by her People’s Park friends as an alcoholic, she turned in early last night, reportedly declining plenteous booze. “She was sober when she turned in,” said a friend from Hate Camp.

According to People’s Park friends, the dead woman, Catherine Magee, 63, had been hospitalized five times recently with hypothermia, pneumonia, and asthma. “She was glad she only had asthma,” said a friend. “She felt she had beaten pneumonia,” said the friend.

Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Death in Berkeley’s People’s Park” »

by Steed Dropout
Nov. 21, 2013
Berkeley. Ca

THE DOG CELEBS OF BERKELEY’S TELEGRAPH AVE.

Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, Spuds Mackenzie–celebrity dogs from movies and advertising.

Red-Dog, Dude, Flash–celebrity dogs from Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue, awaiting their big scenes, but famous to those who love them and sometimes abuse them. As the rest of us stumble over them.

U.C. Berkeley students call South Side’s student ghetto, “Bear [Cal’s emblem] territory.”
The territory should be known as dog territory.

Street kids know each other’s dogs as the affluent know the names of their dogs’ frisk-pals from well-groomed suburban dog parks.

Red-Dog. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Continue reading “Dog Day Afternoons” »