Featured events- 08/28/2013 - Free Outdoor Screening in the BAM/PFA Sculpture Garden
- 08/27/2013 - MARK EPSTEIN / The Trauma of Everyday Life
- 08/24/2013 - The goat Rodeo Sessions
- 08/03/2013 - Book Signing and Discussion with Dave Kehr, followed by The Lawless Breed
- 06/24/2013 - BERKELEY PRIDE 365! First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage…
Tag Archives: People’s Park
Man dies after suspected overdose in People’s Park
Update, 05.31.13: The deceased man has been identified as Donovan Ziemer, 43, of Hayward, and the likely cause of death was an alcohol overdose, according to authorities, as reported by the Bay Area News Group.
Original story: One man died in People’s Park in Berkeley on Monday, believed to be from an overdose, and another was taken to Alta Bates Hospital in serious condition.
The two men were discovered by UC Berkeley police officers on a routine patrol check at around 5:00 p.m., according to Lt. Eric Tejada of the UCPD. There was no evidence of foul play, neither man was believed to be a UC Berkeley student, and the suspected cause of death was an overdose, Lt. Tejada said — either from drugs, alcohol, or both.
“They were at the south end of the park near the basketball court,” Tejada said. “One man appeared to be deceased and the other was unconscious. Berkeley Fire Department was called and pronounced the first man dead and transported the other one to hospital.” … Continue reading »
Tagged People's Park
Rapper Elzhi headlines Berkeley’s 17th Hip Hop in the Park
On Saturday, around 200 people descended on People’s Park in Berkeley for the 17th annual Hip Hop in the Park festival.
Organizers, Students for Hip Hop, a UC Berkeley group, said this year’s list of performers was one of the most diverse to date.
“Detroit’s best kept secret,” rapper Elzhi, a former member of Slum Village, was the headliner. Other performers on the line-up included MC Aisha Fukushima, Mik Nawooj, Hoodini, Rico Pabon, Nu Dekades, and producer G-Jones. The festival featured graffiti art, dancing, and DJ-ing.
… Continue reading »
Tagged Elzhi, Hip Hop in the Park, People's Park
Berkeley’s People’s Park celebrates its 44th anniversary
On Sunday Berkeley’s famous People’s Park marked the 44th anniversary of its founding with a celebration involving live music, kids’ activities and food, as well as a little political activism.
Organizer Dana Merryday had urged people to “mark the anniversary of this iconic and sometimes controversial social experiment.” He promised “political action with an emphasis on Drones, dancing, prayer flag making, great free vegan meals from Food not Bombs, drum circle and good vibes.” … Continue reading »
Tagged People's Park
People’s Park focal point for countywide homeless count
On Wednesday this week, 233 volunteers fanned out across Alameda County and approached 2,000 people at soup kitchens and food pantries, on the street and in parks, with a view to securing 1,000 interviews with homeless people. The resulting data is used to compile a census of how many people are without homes in the county, and also what types of people they are — be it vets, singles, families or minors.
People’s Park in Berkeley was one of 33 service points at which interviews took place. The count is orchestrated every two years by EveryOneHome, a government agency that coordinates homelessness efforts countywide. At the last homeless count which extrapolated Berkeley data, in 2009 Berkeley’s total homeless population numbered 680. That compared to 2,091 for Oakland. The latest total for the county, in 2011, was 4,341. The 2011 count showed a 13.6% drop in the overall homeless population in Alameda County over 2007. (All the data for the counts, including breakdowns, trends and regional comparisons is available on the EveryOneHome website.) … Continue reading »
UCPD creates night patrol unit for south of Cal campus
The University of California Police Department has created a new nighttime special duty unit in Berkeley to step up its efforts to address safety and security needs south of campus.
UCPD’s Lt. Eric Tejada said the move was prompted by a desire to be more agile in responding to crime trends.
“We’ve developed a special projects unit without affecting our normal staffing,” he said
The unit comprises one sergeant and four officers and will focus on issues such as underage drinking, robberies and drug dealing in People’s Park. The unit, which began patrolling on Jan. 7, will normally work from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m Wednesdays through Saturdays. … Continue reading »
Trio on hunt for drugs robbed at gunpoint in People’s Park
Three men were robbed at gunpoint in People’s Park in Berkeley on Thursday Aug. 30 at 8:30 pm after going to the park with the intention of buying drugs. The suspect has not been apprehended.
According to UC Berkeley police, three adult men went to People’s Park with the intent to buy drugs from a drug dealer. They approached the suspect and asked if he sold drugs. The suspect pulled out a handgun from his waist and demanded wallets from the victims. The victims handed over their wallets and then ran away. The victims were not injured during the encounter. Three hours later, the victims reported the crime to UCPD. UCPD checked the area and were unable to locate the suspect.
The suspect is described as a black male, approximately 36 years old, 6’ tall, approximately 180 pounds, and armed with a silver pistol. … Continue reading »
It’s a Berkeley world after all as music hits streets, park
Just as Berkeley starts settling into its pleasingly sleepy summer rhythm, the 9th Annual World Music Festival takes over Telegraph on Saturday, infusing the avenue with a jolt of energy. Running from noon to 9 pm, the free musical fest brings an international array of music to cafés and shops south of campus, with the action centering on the Amoeba-sponsored People’s Park stage from 1-6 pm.
While the music is global in scope, the artists are local, highlighting the wealth of talent, homegrown and adopted, that abides among us. Maria Muldaur headlines at People’s Park, kicking off the last set at 4:30 pm. While still best known for her 1974 pop hit “Midnight At the Oasis,” she’s an authoritative blues singer with a good feel for jazz who has honed a rootsy Gulf Coast sound with her Red Hot Bluesiana Band.
Other featured acts include the ferociously grooving Cuban dance music of Fito Reynoso y su Ritmo y Armonia (People’s Park 2:45 pm); the sensuous tangos of Trio Garufa (The Village 7 pm); the joyous Manouche swing of Duo Gadjo (Caffé Mediterraneum noon); the incantatory Shona percussion and thumb piano of Sadza Marimba & Mbira (Haste and Telegraph 1 pm); and the Moroccan trance rhythms of percussionist Bouchaib Abdelhadi with oud master Yassir Chadly (Rasputin Music 4 pm). … Continue reading »
Urban think tank: Student visions for blighted Berkeley lot
By Rudabeh Pakravan
Empty lots raise questions. Projects take years to make progress, leaving people to wonder what ever happened to the ambitious images promised on signs surrounding the fences. Some of us daydream of transforming unused real estate into community gardens or public housing.
The City of Berkeley’s recent ultimatum to the owner of the site on Haste and Telegraph prompts another question: is there an ideal project for a given site? We typically trust city planners, architects, developers, and other experts to zone and build on the land around us. We may protest or applaud, but we usually let the decisions be made for us.
Students, however, can dream. Working outside of any parameters other than the physical boundaries of the site and the constraints set by their professor, students at UC Berkeley’s Department of Architecture spent the summer working on bold and unlikely proposals for the Haste and Telegraph site. Under the guidance of Professor Darell Fields, a lecturer on the design faculty at Cal, students worked on proposals for an “Urban Think Tank.”
“The project is conceived of as an opportunity to investigate the relationship between public discourse, architecture, and ideology,” said Professor Fields.
Students were encouraged to question how architecture can affect change in public spaces and create a link between research and community. Mainly unaware of the complicated and controversial transactions in the site’s history, students focused instead on issues such as the political legacy of People’s Park, sustainability, homelessness, and art as ways to generate an architecture that inspires public debate. … Continue reading »
Shooting for posterity: Berkeley’s “Seven Days in May”
John Jekabson may have missed the summer of love, but he was in the thick of the “Seven Days of May” which saw Berkeley occupied by the National Guard under a state of emergency in 1969.
His black-and-white photographs of those events, a collection of which are currently on show at the Sonoma Coffee Café on Durant, tell the tale of those dramatic days in striking fashion.
Jekabson had a front-row seat to the turmoil as Assistant Editor of the Berkeley Barb, the well-known alternative weekly newspaper published by Max Scherr.
The Barb office was at 2042 University Avenue, just a block from the Cal campus which was the focus of much of the conflict. Jekabson was a writer rather than a photographer, and there were in fact dozens of freelance photographers working for the paper at the time. Nevertheless, he would often scoop up one of the paper’s many donated cameras and leave the office at lunchtime to snap pictures of the drama unfolding on his doorstep. … Continue reading »
Berkeley bicyclists go bare for World Naked Bike Ride
Update, 6:20 pm: Think we went too far posting a video of the naked cyclists? Not worried about nudity in this context? Take the poll on our Facebook page so we can get your feedback.
Update, 5:45pm: After YouTube took down our video (a first for Berkeleyside — being censored), we have uploaded the same video on vimeo with a perhaps less offensive still front image. It can be viewed above.
Update, 4:25pm: YouTube took down our video of the Naked Bike Day cyclists in Berkeley because of the nudity content. Stay posted –we will try to replace it or at least provide still images.
Just over a dozen Bay Area cyclists assembled in People’s Park Saturday to roll out Berkeley’s World Naked Bike Ride 2011. “As bare as you dare,” was the general rule at the gathering. There weren’t many regulations past that.
‘This was my company’: rapper Yelawolf revisits Berkeley
There isn’t much rapper Yelawolf hasn’t seen or experienced. As his online biography notes, this “badass Alabaman” was born Michael Wayne Atha to an absentee father and a bartender mother, he attended over 15 schools while “soaking up slang and spiritualism in Baton Rouge, Antioch, Tennessee, and Atlanta”. He worked as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and crossed the country on Greyhound buses exploring and honing his musical skills.
Yelawolf also spent time in Berkeley, trying to … Continue reading »
Tagged Eminem, Music, People's Park, Yelawolf
People’s Park tree-sitter charged with attempted murder
UC police have charged a man who has been sitting in a tree in People’s Park for the last three months with attempted murder.
Matthew Dodt, 54, was arrested around 3:15 am today after a six-hour standoff, according to Lt. Mark Decoulode of the UC Berkeley police department.
Dodt allegedly stabbed a man who had climbed up into the tree for a conversation, said Lt. Decoulode. Dodt stabbed the man’s hand, which had been resting on his neck. The man was … Continue reading »
How did Berkeley do on those 2010 resolutions?
A year ago, we suggested 10 resolutions for 2010 for Berkeley (we’ll have our 2011 resolutions tomorrow). How did our city do?
We went back to look at those 10 resolutions and scored them 0 for no movement (or backward movement), a ½ point for some improvement and a full 1 point for true progress. We have to say that, even with the most generous grading possible, we can only give ourselves a score of four out of 10.
Here … Continue reading »
Tagged Amanda's Feel Good Fresh Food, Aquatic Park, Berkeley business news, Berkeley High School, Berkeley new year resolutions, Berkeley Startup Cluster, Berkeley Unified School District, Civic Center park, Downtown Berkeley, Jean Quan, Mayor Tom Bates, People's Park, Stupid Fun Club, UC Berkeley, West Berkeley
