Public Comment

When Fred and Pat Cody built the former Cody's Bookstore location at the corner of Haste and Telegraph they deliberately built an inset designed as a space for people to congregate so that they could meet each other, talk about books, have poetry readings, even panhandle. They could have done what most retail store owners do, and built to the hilt of the sidewalk's footprint which is now common all over town. But they loved Telegraph Avenue and its lively pedestrian culture. They sacrificed retail space to benefit the people who love it, too. 

Parklets are the opposite of that; they're usually linked to sales in a retail outlet and in no way public. Even renowned composer and classical guitar player Philip Rosheger was chased out of a north Berkeley "parklet" for playing music celebrated worldwide by the best classical musicians. 

The Berkeley City Council has an easy fix to address the "issue" of people quietly playing chess: get over it. Ticket them for smoking if they smoke, but celebrate the centuries-old tradition of chess players who learn and teach by playing with each other, just as musicians do in a jam. You can learn by playing or by watching and listening. This is public space at its best. 

In addition, it should be obvious by now that the university's "security fence", which was technically permitted under the current legal stay, is nothing any court or any judge ever envisioned. Four-ton coulble-stacked cargo containers topped with anti-personnel razor wire is quite a look, let alone a danger, in a residential neighborhood with no parks within a quarter mile. The Berkeley City Council looks weak already, but it looks all the weaker raising no objection to transforming the most landmarked area of Berkeley, literally a garden, into a war zone. 

Any Berkeley City Councilmember who wishes to run for mayor in this town should consider how difficult it will be to take their candidacy seriously once it is clear that they will serve up any part of the town the university orders destroyed, even a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, and only say, "would you like fries with that?"