Home to many clothing stores, bookshops, street vendors and restaurants, Telegraph Avenue is one of Berkeley, California’s most well-known landmarks. Serving as a center of community and campus life, this street offers Berkeley residents and students a wide variety of things to do.
The origins of this street date back to the 1850s, when a telegraph line was built from Oakland to Sacramento by the Alta Telegraph Company. The line followed from Downtown Oakland to what is present-day Telegraph Avenue. As UC Berkeley’s campus saw the expansion of Sproul Plaza and the addition of Sather Gate, the road was shortened by half a mile. Since then, the road has been a site for many protests, and those protests have caused many current Berkeley students to fight against cars on this historic street.
On January 28th of this year, the student organization “Telegraph for People” blocked off the road to vehicles to encourage “safe and vibrant streets for people in our city,” according to their website. Their official Twitter page, @telegraphforppl, commented that, “We hope it transmits a vision for the future that isn’t just sustainable, but contagiously fun!”
The organization prioritizes blocking off this street to promote a more lively public realm. With increased room for pedestrians and bikers, less traffic to allow buses to move smoothly to arrive at destinations in a more timely manner and more space for small businesses to grow, “Telegraph for People” argues that by removing cars, real, positive change can occur in Berkeley.
Twitter user @grayson_savoie posted about the protest by saying “look what happens when we return our streets to people.” Attached were pictures of children drawing on the streets with chalk and bright faces dancing to live music, painting Telegraph with a new vibrancy not typically associated with it.
The rally that occurred on the 28th is just a small step toward progress on the issue. This organization believes that, with the growing popularity of the car ban, Berkeley can soon become a more prosperous town.