Archive for July, 2013

One Man Berkeley Cop-Operation

Posted in Med Heads & Cafe Culture, Telegraph Avenue, The Berkeley Scene on July 25th, 2013 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
July 24, 2013

EVER COMMEND A COP-OP?

I’m sending this to Michael K. Meehan, Chief of Police, Berkeley Police.

I just witnessed (Wednesday) as fine a work of Berkeley policing as I’ve ever seen.

The man seated near me outside the Cafe Mediterraneum on lower Telegraph, was stark raving mad. Med owner Craig Becker heard the commotion in his mezzanine office and came outside to chase off the guy, who had stowed his gear outside the store.

Officer Brian Mathis, who had been working this case from nearby, drove up and approached the man.

Officer Mathis, background; Raving Man foreground. Note Officer's stance.
Photo by Ted Friedman.

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Berkeley’s Hate Man Abides

Posted in People's Park, Telegraph Avenue, The Berkeley Scene on July 15th, 2013 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
July 13, 2013

BERKELEY CONTINUES TO HATE HIM

He’s second only to Berkeley’s Pink Cloud, who claims to have been homeless for sixty years. A forty year veteran of Berkeley’s streets, Harold, died last year of complications from an untreated foot infection.

Yet Hate Man, 77, abides with nothing more than a sleeping bag and incessant smoking. He declines drugs and alcohol.

Although housed in the 70’s, Hate, as he is known to his “followers” has been homeless by choice for more than forty years, surviving by foraging food from Berkeley’s South Side cornucopian trash cans and trafficking in street-economics barter and “pushing.”

Pushing is a Hate Man ritual which pits your shoulder and velocity against his. The loser may forfeit a cigarette or an argument.

Hate founded Camp Hate in the 90’s at the Southeast corner of People’s Park when U.C.’s Sproul plaza, where hate became a campus landmark, became “nowhere…nothing happening.”

Hate Man at 77. Bring it on. Photo by Ted Friedman.

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Why Berkeley’s Telegraph Ave. Matters

Posted in Telegraph Avenue, The Berkeley Scene on July 11th, 2013 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
July 10, 2013
Berkeley, Ca

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

It doesn’t matter for its role in the People’s Park riots of 1969. Or for a score of riots on Telegraph Avenue, which have abated for the moment.

It doesn’t matter as a superior neighborhood. Berkeley has many superior neighborhoods. We are known as a city of neighborhoods, like San Francisco.

Nor does Teley matter as the last district with a rich Berkeley history (although the case can be made).

Teley matters because people are drawn to it. Some have made its sidewalks their homes. On weekends burbers descend on the Ave. with their T’s proclaiming, “the world’s best Dad/Mom/Grandpa,” and other rat-trap.

Haight-Ashberry Hippy, 1967 calls Teley Home. Photo by Ted Friedman.

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Wild and Bumpy Berkeley Week

Posted in People's Park, Telegraph Avenue, The Berkeley Scene on July 8th, 2013 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
July 4, 2013
Berkeley, Ca

TELEGRAPH AVE. REGAINS ITS MOJO; STRUGGLING STREET FAIR ON A ROLE; RECORD RAINS FOLLOWED BY RECORD HEAT AND A LANDMARK STUDENT BUILDING REDUCED TO RUBBLE

It was a wild and bumpy Berkeley Week. Even Bette Davis would be impressed.

First Berkeley watched forlorn Telegraph Avenue fight for its life, then came the rains to wash away all hopes. Bad weather haunted the first three Sunday Fests, but that bad weather was typical Bay Area summer chill and fog. Weather so good we didn’t know it until we lost it.

Then two days of rain broke rainfall records. Then came the heat. Highs were no more than 5-10 degrees above normal, but the duration of the heat wave set longevity records.

Fourth of July (ninth day of hear-wave) just short of 80, as predicted.

Several Bay Area cities opened cooling shelters; health warnings — issued.

Through this Job-like-plagues period Berkeley entreated its various gods (eg. Karl Marx).

Upward Teley Trend. Photo by Ted Friedman.

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Poop Sandwich Saving Berkeley’s Telegraph

Posted in Telegraph Avenue, The Berkeley Scene on July 2nd, 2013 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
June 30, 2013
Berkeley, Ca.

POOP SCOOP TO THE RESCUE, AS TELEGRAPH AVE. BUSINESSES STRUGGLE

Calling itself Poop Scoop, this phenomenally successful little family business is singlehandedly warming a failing business climate on Berkeley’s world-famous Telegraph Avenue.

The whole world is watching.

“We’ve been saying we need new business ideas to boost the district,” said Roland Peterson, executive director of the Telegraph Business Improvement District (TBID); “we just didn’t have the right business model. Who knew something crazy like this would be the answer.”

Poop Scoop brings 20,000 (mostly) students to Telegraph monthly. “This is almost as good as tourists,” said Barbara Hillman, Director of Berkeley’s Visitors Bureau.

But do they stay around to shop?

Telegraph's Poop-Scoop Scooping in students. Photo by Ted Friedman.

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