Editorials

Email from those who live and work near the new Safeway-anchored strip mall at the corner of College and Claremont, astride the Oakland-Berkeley border, has been burning up the figurative wires this last week. I call it a strip mall because the Safeway corporation has snuck in some number of new retail store fronts on a corner which formerly housed a useful neighborhood-serving supermarket and gas station. New tenants are rumored to be competitors for the previously thriving locally owned businesses on the west side of College: a cafe with fancy coffees, a florist and others.

Competition or not, the Safeway project has so far proved to be a disaster for the local merchants. To make room for the new stores, Safeway has moved the parking lot up to the roof. The ramp which provides access on and off College discharges a steady stream of cars into an already-crowded block.

This project was originally flacked to the neighborhood by Safeway’s contracted fixing firm AJE Partners, headed by former Assemblymember Dion Aroner (previously the administrator for Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates when he formerly held down that job, which was subsequently occupied by his wife Loni Hancock, who preceded him as Mayor of Berkeley, and then… but you get the idea.) The point person on the Safeway expansion is partner Elisabeth Jewel, a sweet-talking lady whose job it was to make sure that it happened regardless of opposition.

One example of what how what was promised didn’t materialize: the small businesses on the west side believe they were told that autos exiting the roof would only be allowed to turn right, not left, so that they would not block access to the parking which these stores depend on.

Nope. Left turns are happening there every day, and it’s, as predicted, a mess.

But that’s bupkes as compared to the latest manifestation of the eternal-seeming construction mess, which peaked earlier this week. 

Here’s excerpts from a letter to Elisabeth Jewel from Bophavi Pak, one of the owners of Yasai Produce, on the corner of College and 63^rd street: 

Needless to say, the scope of the job to make the ramp [on the corner intersection] ADA compliant is beyond what we were told and I would not have inconvenienced my staff had I known. This morning I had to send everyone home upon finding that the entire frontage of my business was blocked and ripped up by jackhammers, disrespectful construction workers, and large equipment and trucks. Dust and noise is everywhere making it impossible for customers to come and shop and I could not have my staff endure the deafening noise level that is going on a few feet away from the entrance and our checkout counter. 

I was told during our walk through on Friday that the project would entail the corner sidewalks on my end, and at Cole Coffee, in addition to a few feet of blockage that would be detoured to the right of the fire hydrant, still making it possible for customers to walk up to and enter the store front. As the pictures show, obviously that is not the case. 

We have been more than agreeable and tolerant of what came our way these past 18 or so months so that the Safeway project could be completed, but as Anna [of the Floracultural Society flower shop] has stated, everything has been done [for] Safeway's progress without [regard] to our hardships, loss of business, and inconvenience to our loyal customers. Those pictures, which I have also documented speak volumes. No one will be bothered to cross over and shop with us no matter how devoted they are to our business due to the mess and safety hazards imposed. During the day, many of our customers are also seniors and we would not even think to operate and endanger them in anyway by simply trying to trek to our store! 

My husband Mike and I wish there was more information, and honest communication at the very least, so that we could be prepared. We were not prepared and it is just not professional for those of you involved to undermine and downplaying the scope of the project at our inconvenience and loss! 

Had we known or were advised correctly, we would have prepared our staff and posted signs and informed our customers that we would not be able to operate business. This was not done and customers had to be turned away, again greatly inconvenienced! Deliveries, vendors and sales reps had to be turned away, and phoned at the last minute to postpone our daily deliveries and orders. 

I ask that you please act and communicate in a professional and ethical manner because us "small people" are enduring much hardship financially and otherwise while accommodating you all in ‘getting the job done’! “ 

Similar outraged letters were sent by other merchants on the block. The owner of one of the commercial buildings on the block, John Chalik, put it this way: 

“Not only were the businesses not informed, they were MISINFORMED! In reliance on the information provided just late yesterday afternoon, workers were told to come to work, merchandise was ordered, deliveries were scheduled and the corner of College and 63rd St. is a war zone! Now, who among Safeway, Eleven Western Builders, and our city officials (who are supposed to be controlling this work) will be the first to step forward and accept accountability for this latest failure to properly inform the merchants, pedestrians and shoppers?” 

And from Nancy McKay, a founder of Concerned Neighbors of College Avenue: 

Our neighborhood's 8 year battle against this expansive Safeway project on College Ave. in Rockridge continues. This is just the most recent example of Safeway's predatory tactics. If you know of any investigative reporter who would like to know how pervasive Safeway's long reach is they could also contact Tara of TARA'S ORGANIC ICE CREAM as well as CASKE on the corner of Alcatraz and College Ave. Tara's and Caske are on the Berkeley side of this small commercial neighborhood and have been affected even more insidiously by Safeway's expansion. There was a very enlightening meeting at last week's Berkeley Transportation Commission as these Berkeley small businesses pled their case. 

Our neighborhood continues to be very concerned about all of our local small businesses. This continues to NOT be a case of NIMBYism.” 

I’ve been by the location to see what’s up many times in the last week, and it’s at least as bad as the letters copied to me (and there were many more) have made it seem. It’s obviously a case of a giant corporation riding roughshod over small town competitors, aided and abetted by well-wired political facilitators 

Safeway is no longer a locally owned company.. It was acquired in March in a deal said to be $9.4 billion dollars by Cerberus Capital Management, a huge holding company appropriately named for the many-headed dog in Greek mythology, described in Wikipedia as “a ‘hellhound’with a serpent's tail, a mane of snakes, and lion's claws…[who] guards the entrance of the underworld to prevent the dead from escaping and the living from entering.” 

That could almost be a description of who seems to have been running this development . . . 

Sadly, the Berkeley Daily Planet no longer has any investigative reporter to tackle this story any further, so I’ll just say what old-school newspapers used to put at the end of obituaries, before they changed from a public service to a monetizing opportunity: Other Papers Please Copy. Someone, indeed, needs to figure out exactly why this horrendous debacle happened. .