News

Cheese Board Chez Panisse celebration closed down early

August 29, 2011 3:30 pm by Tracey Taylor

Acting on a call from the public, the Berkeley police shut down a celebration at the Cheese Board on Saturday. Photo: D.H. Parks

The Cheese Board Collective marked Gourmet Ghetto neighbor Chez Panisse’s 40th birthday by serving free slices of its legendary pizza to customers on Saturday night. The celebrations were curtailed at around 10:30pm, however, after the police, acting on a call from the public, asked that crowds disperse and the party be wound down.

According to Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Sgt Mary Kusmiss, at around 10:00 p.m. a community member called to report a noise complaint consisting of a “loud live band” in the area of the 1500 block of Shattuck Avenue.

A patrol officer arrived at the Cheese Board at about 10:10 p.m., and determined that the “hundreds of people in the street” created traffic and community safety issues as they were blocking the roadway and walking in, and across, the street. Berkeley Municipal Code states that quiet hours begin at 10:00 p.m.

In addition to the noise and pedestrian violation and overall safety issues, the officers documented that many members of the celebration were drinking alcohol which is also a code violation, Sgt Kusmiss said. “In the interest of mitigating the other issues, the BPD supervisor and BPD officers chose not to engage in any alcohol enforcement,” she said.

While many people were cooperative, the close-down did not sit well with everyone. One disgruntled participant was Berkeleyside reader Frank, who wrote in our Comments section: “Free delicious pizza and excellent jazz to any and all who came to join the celebration! The spirit of the gathering was beautiful; people were gently dancing and smiling on each other with a sense of community pervasive in the evening air. This was as wholesome as it gets… the Berkeley police gradually squelched and finally shut down this peaceful, life-affirming gathering.”

Daniel Parks, who took the photo above, said he told a police officer there was free pizza at the Cheese Board if he wanted a snack, but his suggestion was not taken up. “He gave me sort of a sour look and said no thanks,” he wrote.

The police have asked the Cheese Board to alert them if they are planning such an event so they can offer their support, and that  in future the restaurant request the necessary special event permits.

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  • Worker

    Don’t blame the police. It’s the City Council that passes the ordinances, including the new noise ordinance. They’re the ones that enable all they whiney busy-bodies in this town, like the one who complained here.

  • Gabereal88

    Another reason why Berkeley will never be a first-class city.  Spontaneous, fun, community-oriented event?  No way, gotta shut it down!!

    In Europe and South America, events like this are normal and accepted.  Why does the U.S. have to be so controlled?  Ahhh, but I digress….

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=816751729 Dave Nicely

    Noise complaint at 10:00pm on a Saturday night. Sheesh! How much you to bet the caller was counting down the seconds. Get a life person or at least let other people enjoy theirs.

  • Nick Mamatas

    I too demand that people only have state-approved fun!

  • http://www.webhamster.com/ The Sharkey

    I like the Cheese Board a lot, but they could have planned a LOT better for this.
    Unless you’ve gotten a permit and had the street blocked off, hundreds of people wandering around in the street just ain’t safe.

    If the cops hadn’t shut it down and someone had gotten hit by a car, the same people who are complaining about the party being cut short would be complaining about the police not protecting pedestrians.

  • http://www.flickr.com/parksdh D. H. Parks

    Here’s some additional photos. LOOK AT ALL THAT HAVOC THEY’RE WREAKING! MY GOD, THE HAVOC!

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/parksdh/6094832912
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/parksdh/6094294385
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/parksdh/6094848606

  • Nick Mamatas

    They’re mocking the very existence of that stupid sign by staying on the median!

  • Nick Mamatas

    Not me.

  • Joshua a

    Berkeley will never be New York City in terms of 24 hours of entertainment, and even if it were the Gourmet Ghetto would not be Manhattan. At some point, 10pm seems like a pretty good time, you have to move your party inside to keep the noise down. I wish the neighbor had simply asked the Cheese Board to keep it down instead of calling the police, but still, it seems like the police handled the situation pretty well. 

  • John Holland

    Wow, I could say what I think of the people who called, but it would get me kicked off Berkeleyside!

  • berkopinionator

    The streets of Gracia in Barcelona were all blocked off for days of open partying and festivities last week. Each block decorated their street with a different theme using recycled materials.  Tables in the streets from all the restaurants serving prix fix family style meals,  many beer taps open all day with one euro beers, mojitos, and lots of kids activities.Everyone was well behaved and no police actions were required!  Berkeley is pretty conservative given its liberal history.

  • Hostmaster0

    It was fun with lots of families around when I was there earlier in the evening.  It’s too bad it couldn’t go later but if you go much past 10pm the packs of feral “urban youths” would show up and start causing trouble.  The city and police would crackdown and make sure and event like this never happened again.

  • http://www.webhamster.com/ The Sharkey

    Pray tell, who said that they were “wreaking havoc?”

    The Cheese Board could have applied for a permit to close the street to traffic and have outdoor amplified music past the hours of quiet time, or they could have stationed a couple employees to shoo people out of the street. Failing to do either of those things created an unsafe situation in which one of the many individuals violating Berkeley’s open container policy and drinking in public could have been injured by a motorist.

    It’s always sadly amusing when people get mad at public safety officers for doing their job and trying to keep the public safe.

    City of Berkeley Street Event Planning Guide:
    http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=11438

  • http://www.flickr.com/parksdh D. H. Parks

    Obviously, I said it. Prayer answered. I was there, remember? I saw it with my own two eyes. Cars had to slow down as they passed! On Shattuck! The horror, the horror! 

  • http://www.webhamster.com/ The Sharkey

    Ah. It seemed like you were mocking those who sided with the Police in their enforcement of existing Berkeley laws, so I was wondering who in specific made the claim that the people standing in a busy public street and drinking alcohol on public sidewalks were “wreaking havoc” as you put it.

    I agree. From a public safety standpoint playing in traffic is pretty horribly dangerous.

  • Anonymous

    I live about a block away and you could hear lots of noise in the streets, even over the dialogue of the movie I was watching. During really quiet parts you could hear the band playing. I’m sure it was a problem for people living even closer.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V6KQTJGAQAZXMNEIKG5LM2IHZU Tizzielish

    For me, the key to what you describe happening in the streets of Gracia in Barcelona is that the streets ‘were blocked off for days’.   If Cheeseboard had acted in a spirit of community caring and planned better, the street could have been blocked off, live music could have gone on until whenever the noise permit permitted. A city is a constant balance of competing needs and wants.  The commons doesn’t get more ‘commons’ than a main thoroughfare on a Saturday night.

    I am indignant to read so many comments complaining that this lovely event was shut down because it was not in compliance with our community standards. City ordnances are community standards. 

    As it happens, it is not hard to get a special noise permit. And guess what? There are a lot of taxpaying businesses on the block with Cheeseboard and near Cheeseboard and all of them care about free egress.  It wasn’t fair to the other businesses to have the street blocked with a party that did not accomodate the commons.  I use the word commons to refer to our shared interests as a whole, as a community. We all own that street. We all own the safety of our streets and neighbors. We all own the quality of noise.

    Berkreley has guidelines/ordnances in place that could have accomodated, even empowered the Cheeseboard party. It’s not the city’s or the police’s fault that Cheeseboard did not plan well. It is absurd to say Berkeley is conservative compared to Barcelona. Can you tell us, berkopinionator, did these lovely events you describe in Barcelona go on for days with no cooperation between city planning officials and the partiers?  Somehow, I doubt it. Somehow, I bet Barcelona actually had guidelines for closing streets, esp. days-long parties.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V6KQTJGAQAZXMNEIKG5LM2IHZU Tizzielish

    Worker, the 10 p.m. noise ordnance is not new.  I wonder where you live, Worker?  Do you live in a completely residential neighborhood?  I ask because I live right downtown, within a block of the nearest BART entrance, just to give you an idea of where I live.  Noise downtown, where I live — this is not a pied a terre in the city, this is my only home, the only space I have in the whole world to be at 10 p.m. — and the noise from nearby nightclubs, restaurants that offer live music, conference facilities that rent out to private parties that hire bands . .. . . if there were not a 10 p.m. noise limit, with the special noise permits to override the limit under proper circumstances and limited to a certain number of times a year, I would live in late-night-noise-hell.

    There will always be, I have concluded, folks who like to party loud late. 10 p.m. is late if you have a toddler in bed and if it is a warm night and, goddess forbid, you want to open a window to enjoy the cool night air in your house that got hot in the daytime sun, guess what?  A live band night after night would be hell.

    A city is about balancing competiing needs.

    Worker, try to imagine yourself living near a few venues that regularly have loud music. How late do you think your private home should be invaded by loud music? and how many nights a year would be reasonable to you?

     Unfortunately, my apartment overlooks a private party venue. If the noise is going on at 10 p.m. I call the police immediately cause it typically takes them an hour or two to show up cause it is not a high priority call. What happened at Cheeseboard was very visible, smack in the middle of one of our main streets, esp. a main street for SAturday night socializing in the Gourmet Ghetto . . . . .

    Where would you draw the line, Worker, if you were regularly subjected to late night live music, late night crowds full of drunks talking louder than they realize, how many nights a year would be reasonable to you? And what time would be reasonable?  Try to imagine loud noise until 11 p.m. several nights every week of the year.  Trust me:  11 seems really late if it is your private home. And factor in a main STREET, hundreds of happy folks. . . . it is basic common sense to limit people in the street when cars are passing, esp. if some have been drinking.

    I have become all too familiar with the quality of noise a large group of alcohol consuming humans sounds like 500 feet away and six stories below my home:  even if the music gets shut off at 10 p.m. (a consideration that is virtually never respected cause everyone thinks their party is special and it is for them, I am sure), imagine 100 or 200 people standing in your neighbors’ backyard talking loud, laughing, guffawing.  How late would you like to hear that and how many days a year?

    Without some guidelines, you get noise hell for the folks who live there.

    If you were just in the Gourmet Ghetto as a customer, and you live far enough away that you don’t near the noise, it is easy to whine that Berkeley is conservative.

    I call about every loud party after 10 p.m.

    The complalints here make light of the very real threat of lots of people, many drinking alcohol, walking on a street that is open to cars: that is a formula for problems and if someone got hit, lawsuits!!!

    The streets are closed for farmers markets, for off the grid events, for all kinds of things, like the Solano Stroll.  Berkeley actually is pretty liberal about closing streets and granting noise permits. Cheeseboard made the mistake, not the police.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V6KQTJGAQAZXMNEIKG5LM2IHZU Tizzielish

    I understand that the Chez Panisse 40th anniversary is a rare occasion, which is all the more reason why the experienced business staff at Cheeseboard should have planned better. They should have known free Cheeseboard pizza would bring out crowds and planned for it. Cheeseboard has a duty to be a good neighbor and to help manage the commons of Berkeley’s public spaces.

  • EBGuy

    I, for one, am grateful that the BPD shut this down.  It could have gotten ugly if a bunch of Dudes in bathrobes showed up later on in the evening.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V6KQTJGAQAZXMNEIKG5LM2IHZU Tizzielish

    I am surprised that the police had to be called. I am surrised the Berkeley Police were not aware of the people at risk walking in the streets with the streets open to traffic. The cops had no way of knowing there was no noise permit until someone called and asked them to check for a noise permit, I suppose. If I were the city issuing noise permits for special live music past 10 p.m. I’d inform the police department.

    But it makes sense to call at 10 p.m. on the dot cause often the cops will take an hour or two or more to respond cause noise is not a top priority. sounds like the police responded very quickly to this but crowds in the street with vehicular traffic is an urgent situation with much potential for harm.

    If you want to live your life completely free of having to be considerate of others who share the commonly held public space and the noise of that common space, live in a very rural place. If you want to live in a city, respect the commons and show consideration for the folks not out partying with you

    In my opinoin, folks who have been drinking alcohol late in the evening and behave in a manner that disregards others who have just as many rights as the drinking partiers have, are the ones in the wrong. Every drunk party person thinks their partying is more important than the quiet sober person’s rights but guess what?  The quiet people have a right to some quiet and we have a noise ordnance that limits loud noise after 10 p.m. because of people’s rights.

    Just cause some have a few drinks too many and decide to grant themselve special noise privileges does not make it right.

  • Gabereal88

    I’m sorry, but most places in the world consider 10pm early.  In Spain and South America, many families haven’t even sat down to dinner by 10pm.  I for one hate it that it is so hard to find a restaurant open past 10pm here in the Bay Area.  And if you’re so sensitive to noise, why do you live near downtown?
    I know we need to all get along and respect eachother’s needs, but I think you are being over-sensitive.  That said, it does seem like Cheeseboard should have applied for the proper permit, then maybe the party could have continued….

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V6KQTJGAQAZXMNEIKG5LM2IHZU Tizzielish

    How could the Cheeseboard keep it down without help?  Presumably their employees were working giving away pizza.  Presumably Cheeseboard did not have crowd control staffers on hand. And guess what?  Many inebriated people only move along when a cop asks. And, for all you know, the neighbor — I doubt if it was just one neighbor –maybe the first call was to Cheeseboard. Cheeseboard can’t order people off the streets.

    If just one person had been struck by a car, everyone would be caterwauling that the cops failed to protect.

    I thank you, Joshua a, for acknowledging that 10 p.m. seems like a pretty good time to urge folks to take their party inside. Trust me:  partiers who have been drinking don’t shut down instantly at 10 p.m. even when they know about the 10 p.m. rule. They seem to need another hour to adjust to the concept that their loud drunken laughter is inconsiderate.  Drunks seem to assume their noise level is perfect and their fun a privilege over others’ rights. 

  • berkeleyhigh1999

    some people have children,and kids need sleep. and they dont have the option to live wherever they want lie you apparently are so proud of with your world wanderlust, perhaps funded by no responsibilities?

  • hic et nunc

    why are so many people referencing europe and south america here?  this is berkeley, CA.  yes, in spain, dinner often begins after 10pm, so a 10pm event doesn’t seem late at all.  who cares?  apples and oranges comparison.

  • Anonymous

    Imagine the chaos if that that notorious College Avenue crowd decided to migrate north on a sugar high … and collided with the Dudes leaving the Bank Of America parking lot.

    “Bowling for Pizza” .. a new Michael Moore movie?

  • LOBO

    The quiet and sober shall inherit the earth . . . righteous!

  • Meg

    According to Cheeseboard employees, they DID apply for the required permits, but were repeatedly denied…

  • Heather W.

    Well, Meg, that sucks and the City Council was remiss. However, that doesn’t excuse the cops from doing what they were hired to do which is uphold the laws of the City. Unfortunate, perhaps, but true.  I’m just saying: the cops aren’t to blame. They were doing the job they were hired to do and apparently they handled it fairly well.

  • Jane

    The person complaining may not have known where the noise was coming from exactly. I have gone to bed at 9 pm some nights, woken at 11 pm to noisy neighbors somewhere nearby. I don’t feel like going outside in my pajamas, leaving my sleeping toddler alone, to figure out the source of the noise. In that situation if it is very noisy, I am going to call the police.

  • Jane

    If you don’t like it, get the ordinance changed. The person who called is within his/her rights. Cheeseboard should have gotten a permit.

  • Anonymous

    Everyday of the week that the Cheeseboard is open and serving, the center median is filled with young, oblivious, teens and very early 20s’ somethings drinking beer and eating pizza mere inches from certain death vis a via trucks, speeding cars and equally obvious drivers.  They ( the pizza people ) jaywalk across 4 lanes of commute traffic at 5 ~ 7 pm. and they are just trying to enjoy life in an area that has no space to just relax and sit down.  I remember calling the local PD when I say this one man in his early ’50s sitting on the edge of this median drinking his beer with two young boys who were a hair’s width away from extinction by way of passing buses and trucks sand he continued to ‘ignore’ them.  They never ever arrived even after one hours time of waiting and watching at a distance ( it’s called child endangerment ).  Worse, I have watched women and men ( both ) drag children across this same 4 lanes of traffic with near misses by the usual ebb and flow of dense aggressive traffic at this time of day and have seen Cheeseboard employees themselves jay-walk this same traffic snarl.  It will take a critical incident, or I thought it would — like the deaths of the two women at the crosswalk alone there at Vine – to get people to use good judgement in this department.  Nope. The traffic deaths would need to occur weekly for this to be abated or altered.  Maybe the Cheeseboard could lead the way in street safety on this issue and transform this ongoing danger.  Let’s watch and see what happens and occurs across time now.  What would be “progressive” and “wise” in thought would be for the Cheeseboard to have the quality of air in that center divider tested for say a 45 minute “sit time” by one of our local engineering and technology firms.  This to see just what people are taking in along with their pizza at these hours. It might be sobering!

  • chris

    It was everything you write except for spontaneous. It was planned, and should have been planned for properly.

  • Voxhumana

    And in those places, people get killed daily from unregulated events. We live in a litigious society. One where people decry regulations, and in the next breath claim they are going to sue you. You like the quiet when you’re trying to sleep don’t you? Why should everyone else live by your schedule? This is not a neighborhood that is normally partying with a live band in the street at 10:30pm. And getting a permit is not that hard, it’s just a walk up counter and a one page form. No biggie. Then the street would be closed to traffic and folks would be forewarned.

  • Dan Alpert

    Really, what difference does it make what the norm for lateness is in Spain or South America? It’s not relevant to this discussion, as it is not the norm in our community.  For my family’s standard, 8 pm would be the noise cut-off, but that is also not relevant, because it is a community norm that matters.  Just like the commneters who encouraged Tizzielish not to live downtown if noise was a concern, I would encourage you to live in Spain or South America if late-night noise is your preference.

  • http://www.webhamster.com/ The Sharkey

    The Cheeseboard should try to work with the City of Berkeley to get a couple of the parking spaces in front of its store turned into parklets, in the style of the ones that are being installed in San Francisco.

    http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/04/26/parklet-in-front-of-mojo-cafe-is-a-community-destination/

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_II7PV5E6YNMIM3EGJWVODHWQPQ Cliff

    The Cheese Board and Chez Panisse were started by anti-establishment activists who had little use for the small-minded bureaucracy that tried to establish “appropriate rules of behavior”. “How dare the FSM gather in the streets to protest the War!!!”. Now, similar bureaucrats who run the Berkeley City Council and the BPD and are reinforced by a few grumpy neighbors complaining about 10 pm noise (see comments below), react inappropriately when a few folks peacefully display non-conforming spontaneity. The wonderful OpenEducation festival at BAM this past weekend shows how healthy free expression can be for a society. Once again “The more things change, the more they stay the same”. Thank god for the Cheese Board Cooperative and Alice and her Chez Panisse family and friends.

  • DC

    And as soon as Spain and South America’s laws apply to Berkeley we can have a fine discussion about that…

    But this isn’t Spain or South America.  We do have (longstanding) noise ordinances.  People don’t get to take exception to them because they are feeling a bit flamenco-ish at heart.

  • http://www.webhamster.com/ The Sharkey

    1.) The event was planned in advance – it was not spontaneous.
    2.) Comparing people standing in the street to get free pizza to people protesting a war is a bit silly.

  • Raoul Sierra

    Really, Gabereal88, it’s nice of you to elect yourself relayer of All Things Spanish and Latin American, but you can imagine, I’m sure, how well it would go over in Spain or Latin America if an American spent their time pontificating about the wonders of the United States. But, as you say, “I digress”.  I don’t think you mean to but you just come across as an arrogant ass.

  • EBGuy

    Let’s focus people.  Some of the more interesting activists these days
    are folks like the Greywater Guerillas who installed practical (yet
    illegal) systems to recycle waste water for yard irrigation.  Their work
    helped to bring forward a change in laws to accommodate greywater
    systems.  And how about those folks at REBAR.  I see that National
    Park(ing) Day is coming up in September.  How about getting a (semi)
    permanent Walklet (http://rebargroup.org/walklet/) installed in front of
    Cheese Board Pizza.   Let’s get folks off the median by offering a real alternative.  There has to be more people interested in this
    than myself and Sharkey.  

  • bitterpaul

    Those out of control hippies, despoiling out city with their antics, staying out past 9:30 p.m., cavorting on the medium strip naked (all right, clothed).  This is an outrage and needs to be stamped out.  There is a reason why we voted an expensive bond issue to install sidewalk rolling-up mechanisms in this town.  And you kids . . . Get off my lawn!

  • Bruce Love

    If you’re going to do that, why not go whole hog, as is the fashion in that ‘hood these days:    In that area near shattuck and vine, take over a full two lanes — convert the current median into the new sidewalk and that part of shattuck into a two lane road.  While you are at it, just take over center twixt shattuck and oxford and daylight the creek to make it harder to undo.  

    It reminds me of how People’s Park got started.   I like the idea of activists turning northside’s shopping area into the new People’s Park.   Everything about that possibility seems completely right, to me.

    It was sad to hear about the police action.  I hope that nobody’s sense of entitlement was injured.

    (In all seriousness: to me a parklette up there sounds potentially nice improvement.   If the merchants don’t freak out too badly about the parking impact,  if it doesn’t too badly mess with bus traffic and deliveries, I’ll bet it’d be a cakewalk to do it up good and proper.  September might be a less than ideal time to try, though, because of the rainy season.)

  • Berkeleymom

    Two distinct points of view prevail in these comments, and each is apparently incomprehensible to the other side:

    1)  Lighten up!  Just people having fun, like they do in more enlightened, spontaneous cultures overseas

    vs.

    2)  What you’re calling fun isn’t any fun for those who don’t want to be subjected to late night noise, and against which there are city ordinances

    Never the twain shall meet.  

  • http://www.webhamster.com/ The Sharkey

    There is also a third point of view:

    3) This sounds like it could have been a fun event – too bad the Cheese Board didn’t bother to get the correct permits so that they could have the street blocked off and hundreds of people wouldn’t be standing around in the middle of an active roadway.

  • Anonymous

    “According to Cheeseboard employees, they DID apply for the required permits, but were repeatedly denied…”

    An interesting story would be: 

    Why they were denied the permit, and;
    Why Cheeseboard decided to go ahead with their plans knowing that they didn’t have the permit to do what they wanted to do.

    I feel like a two armed economist on this one … on one hand it sounds like a lot of fun and I would have loved to attend it, and on the other hand feel that the police did the right thing by shutting it down.

    There are several times I’ve sat on the median strip (and have that “Keep off Media” photo somewhere) and also realized that in the past few weeks drive in the lane closer to the sidewalk … all it would take is a tire blowout, sideswipe, or distracted driver for an auto to veer into the median strip. 

    Wouldn’t surprise me to see a barrier similar to the one UP or BNSF installed between the north/south tracks after someone was hit by a train when crossing them.

  • Gabereal88

    funded by no responsibilities?  yes, i would like a family some day, but it hasn’t happened yet.  you are now putting yourself and kids ahead of others’ enjoyment.  my point is that by many countries’ standards, 10pm is pretty early, that’s all.  yes kids need sleep, but i’ve also noticed that they will sleep through a lot of distractions if they are tired….
    and i’m not trying to offend anyone, just making a point, and obviously we all need to get along.  bless.

  • Gabereal88

    it’s not really the noise i’m looking for, it’s a more open and free society.  i brought up the latin countries because they felt more open and free than our close-minded american one.  but you’re right, i should move to south america, just not sure how to make it happen.

  • Gabereal88

    sorry if i jumped on your comment yesterday Tizzie, i was being a bit reactionary.  my only point is that 10pm is pretty early to me, and in other countries (even states) they think the same.  bless.

  • UBU

    To paraphrase Alice Water’s short and sweet speech at the pizza counter at about 10pm:  She has always dreamed of a bridge from Chez Panisse to The Cheese Board … But the next best thing is taking over Shattuck (a la Paris) with locals spilling out onto the sidewalk and street just enjoying life.
    Don’t forget the occasion: The 1971 founding of Chez Panisse.  1971 in Berkeley?  What else could free spirits Alice Waters of Panisse and Elizabeth Valoma (who started The Cheese Board) come up with that would be more appropriate than taking over the street without permission and throwing a guerilla party honoring the people and spirit that supported their vision.
    These are two old broads who shook things up back in the day.  They went on to become pillars of our community, but I’m ecstatic that they’re still full of the piss-and-vinegar that made Berkeley great.
    Happy birthday, Panisse!  Here’s to the next 40!

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