Nate is an East Bay community papers editor for the East Bay Times and Bay Area News Group.
Newly minted UC Life Saving Corps swimmers appear in the April 1, 1926, Berkeley Daily Gazette, shows. Newspapers then often ran photos of large groups of people. Easter Sunday fell on April 3 a century ago, and many Berkeley residents followed a tradition in town of gathering for a sunrise service in the city’s hills.
The service, held at Cragmont Rock, included a “huge” temporary cross as well as music, singing and sermons. Although it rained and the sun wasn’t visible at sunrise, thousands trekked up the hill for the occasion.The April 1 Gazette featured a photograph of “this semester’s class in life saving at the University of California.” Accordng to the paper, the university’s Life Saving Corps had “the largest membership of any such body on the Pacific coast.” An accompanying story highlighted how two young men just trained by the corps had undertaken to rescue two young women “caught in the rip tide off Stinson Beach.” One woman was brought to shore and revived with artificial respiration, but the other apparently died in the water of a heart attack as her rescuer brought her in to the beach.“Nearly 10,000 union carpenters and painters plan to ‘walk out’ tomorrow morning in Berkeley and other Bay Area cities,” the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported March 31, 1926. The dispute was over the “American Plan,” which was initiated in 1921 by manufacturers to get business owners to pledge not to hire union labor for their work forces and not to negotiate with unions. The unions pledged to have their members walk off job sites if Berkeley contractors didn’t fire nonunion members. In Berkeley, business representatives disparaged and downplayed the potential strike, saying that only about 40% of carpenters and painters in the area belonged to unions and that walkouts could easily be countered by bringing in workers from Southern California where at the time there was a construction “slump.” The day of the walkout, April 1, manufacturers said it was “the best April fool joke of the day” and claimed “not a single contractor was seriously inconvenienced.”West Berkeley residents and local industrial leaders clashed at the beginning of April 1926, over a proposal to build a print shop at Seventh Street and Bancroft Way. The owner of the print shop told the city Planning Commission that land was cheaper at that location, that his plant would raise surrounding property values and that “he wished to get his plant which is now on University Avenue away from the noise and traffic of the business streets.”Berkeley, a Look Back: 1926 fight erupts over Seventh Street widening planBerkeley, a Look Back: Woman shot by cop in 1926 expected to survive Residents had rallied in force to keep the industrial facility from being built, and the Planning Commission ultimately agreed with them, denying the petition to rezone the land from residential to industrial zoning. An attorney for the residents argued that “here is a case where the principle of zoning should be applied, for there are plenty of business locations available in the immediate vicinity.”In a separate discussion, Planning Commission members “informally endorsed” a proposal to limit building heights in Berkeley to 80 feet, but they wanted to conduct some further study before recommending a specific ordinance to the City Council. Mayor Frank Stringham read a paper to the commission on “Planning for Congested Populations,” arguing that “in the long run cities be far better if no building with the exception of certain monuments or isolated structures could be built exceeding a height of, say, 70 or 80 feet.” Stringham said “the American skyscraper is both a luxury and a hazard.” The commission was not against lower-height development, though. Members said there was a “wonderful opportunity for better structures to be erected along Shattuck Avenue,” just not at more than 80 feet tall. Walnut Creek man allegedly killed three people to be with his mistress. New charges involve alleged hitmanWhy can’t the Oakland airport reverse its downward spiral?Stockton rappers charged with possessing gun used to shoot rapper DreamllifeRizzy in OaklandTwo charged with ‘school zone’ gun possession in wild Oakland liquor store shootout
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