Posted on 07/15/2012 6:29:38 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
BERKELEY – Times are tough on Telegraph Avenue, the notoriously countercultural and once-thriving street leading to the heart of the University of California campus here.
The five-block stretch of Telegraph that ends at the southern edge of campus gained its legacy from the protests and social upheaval of the Sixties. It was the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in 1964 and a hub of protest during the Vietnam War.
About 40 percent of students polled by a campus group last year said they get food on Telegraph and half said they visit less than once a month for any reason. Most said they would go more often if there were fewer panhandlers and the street felt safer and cleaner.
And in what is certain to spur heated debate, Berkeley voters will decide in November whether they want an ordinance that would ban sitting on a sidewalk in a commercial area from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (lying down is already prohibited).
While the ban would be applied citywide, Telegraph Avenue is a prime concern for both the business owners, who say that transients drinking and hanging out on the sidewalk deter other visitors, and the young people sitting on the street, who say they're increasingly hassled by police.
In the meantime, merchants are hoping that travelers and locals will show up, dine and shop.
"Hopefully business will come back," said Patch Man, wearing glasses with peace signs for lens. Nearby there was only a trickle of foot traffic. Three young drifters sat across the street, one leaning against a street sign, her arms around a dog.
"It's pretty quiet," he said. "People expect to come and see weirdness here, and that's not happening."
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Simple solution — the mayor of Berkeley needs to convince Mayor Quan over in Oakland to restart the OWSer protests and riots. There must not be enough one-percenters to keep the Berkeley bums busy.
Could be Iowa City, Madison, Minneapolis...
Says Patch, the guy with peace sign lenses.
When I was there it was the opposite problem. Every weekend Telegraph Avenue would fill up with the dregs of Oakland trying to pick-up either a naive coed or a little change.
Naive coeds are what helped to give us a little change...namely Obama.
Well, maybe not "weird" in relation to SF.
Mrs Drango and I never go into Berkeley (except I go to Cal games). Bums passed out or sleeping on the street. Filthy vagrants with a thousand yard glaze on their eyes asking you for change. Puddles of urine or vomit or who knows what to step over. Vendors selling leather goods, hemp clothing, trinkets and bong pipes.
It isn’t safe.
Liberal utopia...ain’t it grand?
My boss in the late 70s and early 80s used to tell stories of how the police managed the bums in St. Louis where he grew up in the 40s. If you were found sitting or sleeping on the street or benches, the beat cop whacked your feet with his billy club to keep you moving. The public square was a lot more hospitable then. How have we become so brainwashed and hoodwinked by the tiniest minority to let the lunatics run the asylum?
We need to get a bus going, pay every bum 100 bucks to climb aboard the bus, and ship all of the bums in each city to berkely
In two words: Federal Judges.
I always feel so bad for the poor pets of these degenerates. Had to drive by them everyday when I lived in Los Angeles and it broke my heart.
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