Features

Three Other Towns Eat Berkeley-Albany Solano Stroll

By Ted Friedman
Monday September 10, 2012 - 11:46:00 PM
In the beginning of epic stroll. The Oaks, now dark, may come back as a brew-pub, according to applications posted on the theater door for food and wine permits on behalf of Gordon Properties.
Ted Friedman
In the beginning of epic stroll. The Oaks, now dark, may come back as a brew-pub, according to applications posted on the theater door for food and wine permits on behalf of Gordon Properties.
Berkeley politics at Solano Stroll Sunday. Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, right, with Josh Wolf, Jacquelyn McCormick's campaign manager, at her booth.  Three candidates are working amicably (though separately) to defeat 10-year Mayor Tom Bates in Berkeley's first ranked-choice mayoral race. City council veteran Kriss Worthington rounds out the list of leading Bates opponents. McCormick can be seen, center left, picking up a vote. Jacobs-Fantauzzi, a hip-hop performer, promoter and scholar hopes to get out the Berkeley youth vote.
Ted Friedman
Berkeley politics at Solano Stroll Sunday. Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi, right, with Josh Wolf, Jacquelyn McCormick's campaign manager, at her booth. Three candidates are working amicably (though separately) to defeat 10-year Mayor Tom Bates in Berkeley's first ranked-choice mayoral race. City council veteran Kriss Worthington rounds out the list of leading Bates opponents. McCormick can be seen, center left, picking up a vote. Jacobs-Fantauzzi, a hip-hop performer, promoter and scholar hopes to get out the Berkeley youth vote.
Old Solano Avenue business diverting strollers into its store.
Ted Friedman
Old Solano Avenue business diverting strollers into its store.
BPD schmoozing. Mobile command vehicle, right, Berkeley Fire truck, left-center. Kid in official looking fire hat, left-center.
Ted Friedman
BPD schmoozing. Mobile command vehicle, right, Berkeley Fire truck, left-center. Kid in official looking fire hat, left-center.
Your life as a yo-yo parolee, as they haul you in and out, and sometime back. Probationers gave out free yo-yos Sun.
Ted Friedman
Your life as a yo-yo parolee, as they haul you in and out, and sometime back. Probationers gave out free yo-yos Sun.
Schmidt's pub, since early 80s shows how local businesses promote stroll. Albany All Stars, an oldies group winding down stroll festivities at 6 p.m.
Ted Friedman
Schmidt's pub, since early 80s shows how local businesses promote stroll. Albany All Stars, an oldies group winding down stroll festivities at 6 p.m.
Stoller down. Her husband attends. An Albany cop re-assured her, with, "it looks worse than it is," and "you look younger than my own mother." Ambulance arrived minutes later.
Ted Friedman
Stoller down. Her husband attends. An Albany cop re-assured her, with, "it looks worse than it is," and "you look younger than my own mother." Ambulance arrived minutes later.
As time goes by, couples can still pop a balloon at the stroll, near San Pablo.
Ted Friedman
As time goes by, couples can still pop a balloon at the stroll, near San Pablo.
Disney up a pole. Disney family-radio booth personnel celebrate the end of the stroll by boosting a co-worker.
Ted Friedman
Disney up a pole. Disney family-radio booth personnel celebrate the end of the stroll by boosting a co-worker.

Some other towns came to town Sunday to stroll Solano Avenue, a guesstimated mob, the population of Berkeley, Albany, and Richmond joined. 

They came by bike and bus, and some played nail-a-parking-space with Berkeley-Albany natives, who live in the vast urban grid defined by twenty block-long Solano Avenue. 

The top of the stroll, at Solano and The Alameda led off with a small ferris wheel and the bottom, near San Pablo Avenue, finished with state-fair midway fare. 

There were bikes galore, enough cops to quell a riot, causes from save the rabbits to adopt-a-bird to save the world. Politicians campaigning, kids complaining, cops schmoozing, a little cafe-boozing, stirring music, classy jewelry and…. 

The food, plenteous, and diverse. In a typical snack-attack we call midway appetite ™ we staunched ours with deep-fried in coconut oil Calamari. And that was just the two-hundred food stalls. Solano restaurants threw open their doors, or served from their front window (Chicago Pizza), or buffet tables. 

Berkeley Police manned a community relations booth, gave away post-its sporting a police pitch. Berkeley fire trotted out a nag with a fire hat and a police sticker affixed to its tired old haunch (risking becoming the butt of horses' ass jokes). BPD rolled out its mobile command vehicle, a quarter block long police station on wheels. 

Interviewed the day before, some Solano merchants said they would stay home. "The stroll's just a place to eat," said one. "It kills our business." Not all Solano businesses agreed, and those were rewarded with customers. 

Although Solano sales revenues are down, reportedly, the lengthy lane is still a "good business neighborhood" said several small-businessmen a day before the event. The avenue is lined with quaint local businesses, some dating back to the forties, or in the case of Andronicos, the twenties. 

Although snacks averaged from seven to ten dollars a chomp, Andronicos suspended its usual high prices to offer free chilled milk (courtesy Clover Dairies), and 25-cent watermelon slices. 

Even Solano businesses, which were critical of the event praised it for its clean-up. 

"When I come to the shop, Monday, I won't even notice the event was held," one said. 

The clean-up fits well with the theme of environmental-preservation, shared by many info booths. 

At 6:20 p.m. an Albany squad car, its flashing lights ablaze, announced that the event was over (it officially ended at 6 p.m., but continued on for thirty minutes)…"Clear the street." 

"The streets are ours," yelled a bystander. 

And indeed they were from 10 a.m. to 6. Three towns gathered in a mile and a half? 

The cops and I grappled with that notion and the 250, 000 attendance figure, cherished by the event's organizers. 

Suspiciously, that number never varies. 

"if that many showed up, we'd have pandemonium," said one cop. 

Another noted that "we don't count heads but we plan ahead for all contingencies." 

Bottom-line, said a cop, "it was a lot of people." And a lot of cops expecting them. 

Lots of fairs claim to be big, but Solano delivers. 

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The Planet's "voice of the South-side," Ted Friedman returned to Solano after a twenty-year hiatus, to see how they mount a fair this big on the greatest business street in the world (?).