Another Wild and Bumpy Berkeley Week

by Steed Dropout
Aug. 29, 2013
Berkeley, Ca

DRUNK EXPOSES HIMSELF AS CAL RETURNS, PARENTS SNUGGLE, POST-OFFICE DEMO FIZZLES,TELEGRAPH FAIR THRIVES, CAMP TUOLAMNE PARENTS CELEBRATE THEIR YOSEMITE FIRE BURNED-OUT CAMP, AND MARIO SAVIO RETURNS TO SPROUL PLAZA

Whew!

Here goes.

A drunk did drop his pants outside Peet’s on the eve of Cal move-in weekend with Cal parents on-scene. Parents did nuzzle with their kids. “We know he’s leaving our nest,” said a Cal alum, scarfing a Top Dog (a Berkeley tradition). Berkeley’s Save Our Post-Office is about to perish, and, yes, Mario Savio of 60s Free Speech fame did do a cameo from the steps of Sproul Plaza where his spirit (and plaque) immortalize him.

Berkeley Reporter was there—ike CBS media giants Charles Daly, Don Hollenbeck, and Richard C. Hottelet.

Why is Berkeley so good to me?

Because I am a born-again drop-out?

Savio (d.'96) Speaks at Sproul, 50 years later. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Telegraph’s Sunday Fair, with two Sundays left (of ten), was saved by students, their parents, and perhaps—toy cars. Everyone involved–the mayor’s chief aid, Calvin Yee, event organizer Janet Klein, Teley businesses, street vendors, and street kids were stoked.

Next up, 300 camp Tuolamne (nestled in the path of a killer Yosemite fire-storm) celebrants gathered in Civic Center Park. They might have mourned the crisping of their camp, but instead they staged a campfire rally, something about “Camp Tuolamne [pronounced twalomee] is where we want to be,” and songs about some beaver. They were too busy networking with each other and celebrating their twenty years of summer camp to mourn. I was there shooting for a local paper.

Berkeley Palms. Photo by Ted Friedman.

SAVE BERKELEY’S POST OFFICE ABOUT TO BE BUSTED

But it’s moderate wing will be gone, according to several general assembly votes to split, leaving tent city with its ass in the wind. One not-so moderate, David Welsh [and Jim], who staged a major march downtown and on campus, is over-nighting.

A small but dedicated corps of local press photographers (Oakland Trib photographer [retired] David Yee and me) are making book on when the bust will go down and who will get the shot. We despise our cynicism but couldn’t shoot without it.

UPDATE:

Tent-city, which had become a problem for save-the-Berkeley Post Office, was busted Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., Aug. 2013 in a slick 25 City of Berkeley cop-op that surprised campers and eluded Bay Area press. Yee and me clueless.

On a tip, I had reconnoitered a half-mile perimeter Wednesday noon, including nearby police headquarters for signs of police transport vehicles which precede busts. But no signs.

ALL THIS AND MARIO SAVIO, TOO

As if this were not enough stimulation in one week, Mario Savio (d. ’96) showed up on-screen in a student-sponsored U.C. Sproul Plaza showing of “Berkeley in the Sixties,” a film despised by some survivors.

Pacific Film Archive is winding up its Hitchcock’s Nine (silents) and I was also there.

What does this all mean? I don’t care. I’m just down for the ride, bumps and all.


These opinions do not represent those of publications in which my work appears.

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