Tag: Berkeley

As the Bay Area gears up for the holiday shopping rush, one tradition in Berkeley almost came to an end. The annual Telegraph Holiday Street Fair was nearly canceled for running afoul of a new city fire code. But in what feels to some like a Christmas miracle, the city has backed down.

The Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair was gearing up for its 42nd year, offering homemade gifts and live music, when it got the bad news.  

The city said the event would have to move because of a state fire code that requires 26 feet of clear roadway on streets with buildings over 30 feet high. That’s to allow ladder trucks to utilize their stabilizing outriggers in case of a fire.  

Berkeley resident Charles Siegel co-authored an op/ed piece appealing to the city’s common sense.

“That doesn’t really work in Berkeley,” he said,  “because in Berkeley, the typical street has only 22 feet of clear roadway.  And it’s not realistic, it’s not going to happen.  We’d have to remove parking on one side of the street for almost all the two-lane streets in downtown and south campus, and all the residential streets that have apartment buildings.”

Siegel discovered that the state’s 26-foot rule was optional and that the code wasn’t being enforced the rest of the year, just during the Telegraph street fair, and for the Juneteenth parade on Adeline Street. Siegel was upset that the enforcement seemed selective and arbitrary.

“City staff said, we’re applying the law and we’re moving the street festival away from Telegraph Avenue,” he said.  “And the Telegraph Avenue Street Fair will be on this block of Adeline Street, where there are no buildings over 30 feet tall.”

But the Telegraph Avenue businesses think the Telegraph Avenue Holiday Fair needs to happen on Telegraph Avenue. Doris Moskowitz owns Moe’s Books and she also wrote a letter of complaint to the city.

“I understand it’s important to be safe,” she said, “but I also think it’s important to be happy and to have a little bit of hope and feel good this time of year.  And the people are looking to Berkeley as a place where people have a sense of what’s actually reasonable.”

Perhaps Doris’s letter did the trick. Or maybe it was all the other people who complained, but the city relented and approved the permit for the street fair to happen on Telegraph.  

Louis Cuneo is one of the street vendors, selling artistic photographs, and has been participating in the Holiday Fair since the 1980s.  He said people feel the street fair is important to give the city life.

“It was too much of an outcry against it,” he said about the reversal. “The city has to be a little open to possibilities.”

“I think in Berkeley we need to make room for everybody, you know?” said Moskowitz.  “And if the vendors who’ve been coming here for over 40 years want to come here, we need to make that possible.”

So, the 42nd annual Telegraph Holiday Fair will continue.  And Siegel said it’s his understanding the city is crafting a new fire code that may include an exemption for street fairs, citywide.  He said the city is expected to take up the matter of the updated fire code at its December 3rd meeting.  Meanwhile, the holiday street fair will take place over three weekends, beginning on Saturday, Dec. 6 and ending on Sunday, Dec. 21.

Two people were taken into custody after a drive-by shooting in Berkeley earlier this month, the city’s police department said Wednesday.

Ramon Lupian and his female passenger, a 31-year-old woman, were taken into custody following a drive-by shooting in Berkeley, according to authorities.

Police said they responded to reports of gunfire involving a black Nissan Altima and a red Chevrolet Tahoe in the area of Ashby Avenue and 7th Street at around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 4. Surveillance footage revealed Lupian fired a handgun from the driver’s side of the red Tahoe toward the black Altima as both vehicles traveled along Ashby Avenue.

Authorities report the Altima fled scene and was later involved in a collision with a parked vehicle near 6702 Hollis Street in Emeryville. Witnesses said the driver of the Altima brandished a firearm after the crash, although no weapons were recovered from the vehicle or its occupants, according to police.

Police also said the four occupants of the vehicle fled on foot.

Lupian and his passenger briefly stopped at the crash scene before police arrival and were observed removing two bags from the Altima before fleeing the area in the red Tahoe, officials report.

Emeryville police detained the Altima’s occupants when they returned to the vehicle, according to officials. Police report follow-up investigation revealed the Altima had been stolen earlier that day during a robbery in Oakland.

Officials add Lupian, who reportedly witnessed the robbery, pursued the suspects in his red Tahoe, leading to the gunfire in Berkeley.

The Oakland Police Department located the vehicle and took Lupian and his passenger into custody following a vehicle pursuit, authorities said. Officials add three firearms were recovered from the Tahoe.

On Tuesday, officials said the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office charged Lupian with shooting at an occupied vehicle, carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle, possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person of a short barreled rifle and other felony enhancements.

Economic conditions in the Bay Area have changed so radically since the pandemic that a lot of legacy businesses are being forced to close. The latest is a 116-year-old metal shop in Berkeley that has become a victim of new technology.  

The Walter Mork Company began in 1909, a few years after the San Francisco earthquake, when Walter brought his metal fabrication skills to Berkeley to open his own shop.

“My grandfather is this man right here with the balding head,” said Fred Mork, pointing to a grainy black and white photograph on the office wall.

Mork ended up with the business, having it passed on to him from his father, Walter, Jr. But now, as he walks through the cavernous building, he can’t see a future, because in a few months’ time the Walter Mork Company will close for good.

“I never would have been able to predict it 10 years ago,” he said.  “And I feel sorry. I feel sorry for the future generation that don’t have the skills, are not interested in this kind of technology, and don’t want to learn about it.”

Computerized fabrication has taken so much business that shops like Mork’s just can’t make it anymore. Add to that the escalating costs of business, and there just isn’t much of a future for the shop’s workers anymore.  His son-in-law, Berkeley Choate, is Vice President and handles most of the business operations.

“Just not enough profitable volume of work, and it’s also very hard to find really good people anymore,” he said, pointing to a worker measuring a long piece of flashing. “Ironically, the more complicated the project, the better he does.”

The shop has been producing quality, high-profile metal structures in Berkeley for more than a century, including an archway that once stood at University and San Pablo, pointing the way to the city’s bustling manufacturing district. These days, the shop makes custom architectural features, like a beautiful, gleaming copper roof piece with stainless steel supports.

“You wouldn’t be able to build this with the computerized stuff. This has so much hand fabrication and analog-type thinking that it doesn’t lend itself to modern fabrication techniques,” said Fred. “It’s harder and harder to get people to do it, for sure.”

But there are still some people who appreciate the “art” in industrial arts. Scott Williams has learned to love working with the massive old analog machines, and on Tuesday, he was fabricating a plate for the chassis of his motorcycle.

“It’s a lot cheaper to make it. Parts are expensive, so I just make it myself,” he said.

But it’s not just about the cost. Scott said there is a satisfaction in making something with his own hands. It’s something he learned by working at the metal shop.

“It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” he said. “Because of the owner. He’s a good guy. He trusts me. That’s a nice feature to have. And he lets me use this place on the weekends.”

And, with Mork, the feeling is clearly mutual.

“I’m so proud of people like Scott that do want to learn about it and devote the rest of their lives to learning and perfecting the fabrication techniques that we use right here,” he said. “It’s a passing on. I’m going back and supporting the technology that I know and love.”

Mork has spent decades teaching young people the skills that were passed on by his father and his father before that. Over the years, the shop has done metal work for everything from Chez Panisse to the Alaska Pipeline.  When it closes, Mork is hoping some kind of metalworking business can move in to carry on the tradition.