Image: Bryan Hamilton The Alameda County district attorney’s office has dismissed the case against two men who pleaded guilty to battery charges last week. The decision came after authorities reviewed a video that showed an interaction, between the men and two Downtown Berkeley Association workers, that began as a verbal altercation and took a violent turn. In the video […]
Block by Block
Posted inCommunity
Activists, homeless demand end to campaign of ‘brutality’
Activists angered by a video that caught a downtown ambassador assaulting a homeless man hold a rally March 27 to protest the violence and proposed new laws regulating homeless behavior. Photo: Ted Friedman One day after a video that showed a Downtown Berkeley Association ambassador assaulting a homeless man went viral, a group of activists held […]
Posted inCrime
2 men take plea deals after 1 is beaten on video
Image: Bryan Hamilton Update, April 1: The Alameda County district attorney’s office has revisited the case, dropped the charges against both men, and had a judge declare them factually innocent. See the update. Original story, March 27: Two homeless men shown on video in a heated interaction that turned violent, when a Downtown Berkeley Association staffer appeared to punch […]
Posted inCrime
Video: Downtown Berkeley worker assaults homeless man
Image: Bryan Hamilton A Downtown Berkeley Association ambassador assaulted a homeless man Thursday evening behind CVS in what appears to be a violent incident that was captured on video. That homeless man and an associate were arrested by the Berkeley Police Department before the video came to light. After reviewing the video this week, police asked the district […]
Posted inBusiness
Telegraph Ave. scrubbed, cleaned in beautification effort
Ambassadors hired by Block by Block are engaged in a month-long cleanup of Telegraph Avenue. Photo: Ted Friedman The deployment of neon-clad “ambassadors” to paint over graffiti, power-wash streets, and sweep sidewalks along Telegraph Avenue is the latest in a series of attempts to revitalize a business district which has seen better days. The “Big […]
Posted inCommunity
Downtown Berkeley ambassadors help, monitor homeless
Carmen Francois, a downtown Berkeley Ambassador, talks to someone on Shattuck Avenue. Photo: Natalie Orenstein On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Carmen Francois was on a mission. “We’re supposed to say hi to 60 people in 60 minutes,” she said. Francois, one of Berkeley’s downtown “ambassadors,” didn’t have any trouble meeting the quota. She ducked into […]
Posted inCrime
Police step up patrols on Telegraph to clear sidewalks
Berkeley and UC Police have started regular patrols of Telegraph to discourage young adults from loitering on sidewalks. Photo: Sgt. Mary Kusmiss In response to complaints from merchants and shoppers about the increase in the number of people loitering on the sidewalks, the Berkeley Police Department and UC Police have started a new patrol around […]
Posted inBusiness, City
Newly cleaned up downtown hopes to attract more retail
New landscaping is part of an ongoing major clean-up campaign in downtown Berkeley. Photo: Nancy Rubin On Tuesday, downtown Berkeley was born anew. Billed as a fresh start, the heart of the city was relaunched to a capacity crowd in the ballroom of the Hotel Shattuck Plaza on Allston Way. For the past three months, […]