Nate is an East Bay community papers editor for the East Bay Times and Bay Area News Group.
Berkeley’s Planning Commission approved rezoning this corner of College Avenue and Webster Street a century ago so that a gas station could be built there. The corner today is the longtime home of the city’s Elmwood branch of the U.
S. Postal Service. “If the citizens of Berkeley would observe the traffic ordinance, half of the problem facing the police department today would be solved, declares J. Fisher, traffic officer” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported a century ago on Jan. 22, 1926.Berkeley, a Look Back: Cutting down palm trees triggers ‘a wail of protest’Berkeley, a Look Back: Christmas 1925 featured several church services “Ninety-five percent of the people in Berkeley disregard the signs, which we have placed to regulate traffic,” Fisher continued. “There is no excuse for this when it is considered that the ordinance is the work of the people themselves. From July to January , there were 522 accidents in this city. In these five persons were killed and 178 injured”. Fisher stated that “the traffic problem is the most serious situation that the police department faces today,” adding that the problem was nationwide and that Berkeley’s traffic accident rate was statistically in the middle of cities its size. “He called attention to the fact that if drivers of cars would approach the traffic question with the same regard as is evinced by people walking on the sidewalks do to one another, a great stride in solving the problem would be made,” the Gazette reported.Berkeley’s Planning Commission voted Jan. 28, 1926, to endorse a zoning change to allow a gas station at the northeast corner of College Avenue and Webster Street. The Gazette reported that the hearing “failed to bring out the usual large numbers of objectors to a lowering of College Avenue classifications,” in part because nearby residents who opposed commercial uses on College extending down to Webster saw a gas station as “a compromise to business.” The corner today is the longtime home of the city’s Elmwood branch of the U.S. Postal Service.A century ago on the night of Jan. 28-29, 1926, “the heaviest downpour of the rainy season” hit Berkeley. There were “miniature Johnstown floods that caused damage to streets and flooded basements,” and utility trenches along Shattuck Avenue “were filled several feet deep with rushing water.” “There was a river down Dwight Way, and South Berkeley got its usual share of water,” the Gazette reported. “It was high tide at Bancroft and Telegraph,” and co-eds trying to cross found the flood rose “to the level of the bottom of their skirts.” “A small lake” formed at Delaware Street and San Pablo Avenue. Streetcar tracks were undermined by flooding water at Sacramento and Cedar. Store basements on Shattuck were flooded, and numerous automobile accidents happened throughout Berkeley. In one case a streetcar hit a police car at Shattuck and University avenues. The policeman who was driving escaped unhurt. but if you recall from last week’s column, this was yet another instance of a Berkeley public safety employee in a vehicle hit by a streetcar.In an incident that showed Berkeley in the 1920s still featured rural characteristics, Mrs. Mary L. Webster, of 2330 West St., was butted by a neighbor’s goat when she tried to lead it from a vacant lot. She was knocked unconscious and suffered some broken ribs.UC Berkeley alumni readers and researchers were up in arms a century ago in protest of a new fee for their use of UC libraries. They had previously been able to use the libraries for a year at a time upon making a $5 refundable deposit with the university. Members of the general public were charged $10 for a year of library use. The university eliminated the alumni privilege but then revised the rules to say that a $6 annual payment instead of $10 would suffice for alumni. The alumni wanted the old deposit system back. For those wondering who had access to UC library book stacks back then, the article in the Jan. 30, 1926, Gazette also noted that all grad students would be allowed to enter the stacks.Alameda County DA dismisses another murder case investigated by embattled OPD detective Phong TranAn iconic performing arts venue is back open. Can Oakland keep it alive?Evacuations, shelter in place order in effect while hazardous materials removed from Berkeley homeThis East Bay pizzeria has one of America’s best slices, Fodor’s says
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