Berkeley Reporter

by Steed Dropout
Nov. 28, 2016

By the time you read this in the papers, one of Berkeley’s links to the turbulent ’60s will be dead.

Death came, peacefully, with the dying Med surrounded by close family and friends.

Among the dead was a mob of dead
Medheads, who died before they had to say goodbye to their beloved hangout.

Founded in 1956 (for a year as the Piccolo), the Med was both a witness to its times and a participant. The Black Panthers regularly met in the mezzanine office of the Med owners. A lot of tear gas has gone down over the years, and recently during a demo two years ago, which mimicked the 1969 People’s Park riots on Telegraph Avenue. People’s Park organizers considered the Med their headquarters, as did the Free Speech Movement.

Continue reading “Historic Caffe Mediterraneum Dead at 60; Berkeleyans Mourn, Struggle to Maintain Coffeehouse Ties” »

by Steed Dropout
Nov. 18, 2016

NEWS ANALYSIS

BERKELEY COULD BE GREAT AGAIN

Two hundred Berkeley dreamers held hands near sunrise Friday, hugged, and hoped to survive Trump in Berkeley’s Civic Center Park. The park is nestled between Berkeley’s old and new city halls—near a homeless tent encampment around the corner. The encampment was recovering from yet another bust. The dreamers were encircled, as well, by disheveled homeless with bulging shopping carts and other accumulations.

Some dreamers may not have noticed the homeless among them, since they see them almost everywhere they go, except perhaps Berkeley’s upscale Fourth Street business district.

With an estimated 1,000 homeless in Berkeley, Newly elected Mayor Jesse Arrequin, 32, was holding a hastily arranged celebration of…of…of. It’s not clear, but the mood favored peace and Trump survival, and something about “Berkeley values.”

The Mayor said our housing crisis was an “emergency,” regurgitated the “more affordable housing” motif, and said he would talk to the city manager about the situation.

The city manager’s office has been busy chasing tented homeless all over town, clearing encampments, plucking up camper’s gear, the city says can be reclaimed, but campers deny.

What will the Mayor and the City Manager say about Berkeley’s emergency homeless situation?

I talked to Disability rights activist and playwright, Dan McMullan, about this at the
dream-in. McMullan thinks it is high time the city considered building housing for some of its 1,000 homeless. “I know an available city-owned lot, the city could start with,” he told me.

“We’re going to press this with [Mayor] Jesse,” McMullan said.

Mayor Arreguin has, throughout his career, aligned with what he calls “progressives,” which has put him an elbow’s length from various radicals, some of whom may have supported his mayoral bid.

Now these rads may lobby Arreguin on the alleged homeless crisis.

Arreguine didn’t stress his homeless task force during the election campaign, perhaps because it failed after more than a year of talk, to take a bite out of the homeless problem.

Now the new mayor wants to discuss the homeless situation with the city manager’s office.

Homeless advocates would like to get much more than this.

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More photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/berkboy/