This past weekend, City staff and new District 3 Councilmember Ben Bartlett welcomed a crowd of over 50 residents to the Ed Roberts Campus to see some of the creative ideas neighbors have suggested for Adeline Street in Berkeley. Three design concepts were presented and attendees had a lot of opinions. The goal is to re-imagine Adeline as a great neighborhood street with places for local residents to enjoy their community, with significant improvements for biking and walking too. All three concepts include wide bike lanes set away from car traffic, as well as a 1-travel-lane reduction on both sides of the street, leaving lots of space to imagine a park-like street with trees and lots of room for people to enjoy the neighborhood on foot.
Councilmember Bartlett acknowledged the negative impact brought on the neighborhood by construction of BART decades ago, and pointed to the unfair treatment between the north side and the south side of town. After BART construction, North Berkeley got the Ohlone Greenway, while the southside got a wide, car-centric street with fast moving traffic. He sees this project as a chance to rectify that disparity and build a beautiful, green south Berkeley corridor.
We encourage all Adeline neighbors to visit the exhibit at the Ed Roberts Campus, view the three designs options on display, and offer input on what will make this a great street for walking and biking. The exhibit is open for feedback through Saturday, February 4.
Our affordable housing allies are also asking for dedicated space in this project to construct much-needed affordable units, and Bike East Bay supports this initiative as well.
Staff will be on site at the Ed Roberts Campus (3075 Adeline St, Berkeley) to take your feedback on Thursday 2/2 from 6-8pm, Friday 2/3 from noon-2pm, and Saturday 2/4 from 10am-3pm.
For more information on the Adeline project, visit the City of Berkeley’s website.