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Halcyon Neighborhood Association E-News April 2020

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Items appearing in the HNA E-News are deemed to be of general interest to neighbors but do not necessarily reflect the views of Halcyon Neighborhood Association (HNA), its Steering Committee, or the Editor. The Editor’s introductory comments express her personal viewpoint.

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Contents

1. HalcyonHelp.com: Halcyon Neighbors Helping Neighbors during COVID-19 Epidemic!

2. Taking Care of Halcyon Commons park during Physical Distancing

3. Links to Information on COVID-19 and Guidelines from City, State, and CDC

Editor’s Introductory Note:

We’re now a month into abiding with our city and county’s stay-at-home order, with at minimum another few weeks, and possibly more, to go! Hopefully you’re all finding ways to stay healthy, sane, and as well as possible. Although we’ve had to cancel all our planned HNA events for the foreseeable future (even if the stay-at-home order is eased, it’s highly unlikely there will be a big ice cream social in the park or other large neighborhood gatherings this summer), our Halcyon neighborhood is still finding ways for neighbors to connect and support one another during these challenging times. See item 1 for a link to HNA-CERT’s HalcyonHelp.com project to enable neighbors to request help and/or offer help during the COVID-19 epidemic. And item 2 mentions ways to help us take good care of our neighborhood commons even in this era of physical distancing.

Stay well, and stay connected!

—Nancy Carleton, HNA Co-Chair and E-News Editor, halcyon92@gmail.com

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1. HalcyonHelp.com: Halcyon Neighbors Helping Neighbors during COVID-19 Epidemic!

Editor’s note: For years our neighborhood has prepared for working together in the aftermath of a big earthquake. But the COVID-19 epidemic has demanded a different kind of emergency preparedness. How can we support one another when we’re supposed to maintain physical distance? Fortunately, HNA-CERT quickly mobilized to develop a tool to help. If you’re a Halcyon neighbor (Telegraph to Adeline, Ashby to Woolsey in South Berkeley), you can sign up if you need help (grocery delivery, pharmacy pickup, a cloth mask, a chat buddy, etc.), or want to volunteer (some of the volunteer needs can be handled completely from home even if you’re self-isolating). Here’s a brief update from Halcyon Help’s co-organizer, Bill Swartz.

HalcyonHelp.com turned four weeks old on Sunday, April 12. Put together with the goal of matching neighbors in need with those who could lend a hand, HalcyonHelp.com has grown to eighty volunteers and is helping several people a day. HalcyonHelp volunteers are open to all kinds of reasonable requests for help, but the most common matches are:

Pickup: medicine and groceries

Masks: matching neighbors who are making cloth masks with neighbors who need them

Chat Buddies: matching neighbors for nice phone chats

Please go to HalcyonHelp.com for more information

Text or call: 510-200-8082

Email: hnacert@gmail.com

There’s also a flyer you can post or drop door-to-door to help us reach more neighbors.

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2. Taking Care of Halcyon Commons park during Physical Distancing

Along with our UC student partners at the Berkeley Project, we had to cancel our planned big work party in Halcyon Commons park and the surrounding neighborhood, originally scheduled for April 11. Although the park is in reasonably good shape thanks to city crews who did some trimming and edging right before the lockdown, there are plenty of weeds from the winter rains both in the park and nearby landscaped features. A few of us have been choosing quiet times where we can individually do a bit of weeding to get the park in shape for the next season. Because it isn’t appropriate to hold organized work parties right now, we’re returning to an “adopt-a-piece-of-the-park” model to allow us to practice physical distancing while still taking care of the park. Participating would entail using your own weeding implement and disposing of weeds pulled in your own green bin, along with signing a volunteer waiver form required by the city at our usual work parties. Depending on the area you agree to work in, a member of our core crew can describe the weeds (and desirable plants) to guide you. Most of the weeds in the planted areas are obvious (crab grass, oxalis, dandelions, and the like), but we need to be careful that desirable plants (like the native Santa Barbara daisies or lilies when they’re dormant) don’t get mistaken for weeds and pulled accidentally. Please email halcyon92@gmail.com if you’d like to pitch in to help take care of our beloved common space!

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3. Links to Information on COVID-19 and Guidelines from City, State, and CDC

Editor’s note: Here are some useful links for more information about the COVID-19 epidemic and state, regional, and national recommendations to deal with it. If you want to get ongoing useful links and breaking information from the City of Berkeley, local news sources, and our city councilmembers, Halcyon neighbors are encouraged to join our HNA Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/HNABerkeley/ The Halcyon neighborhood includes neighbors from Telegraph to Adeline, Ashby to Woolsey in South Berkeley, and your address, email, and phone are required to join the Facebook group to keep it safe and limited to neighbors. Even if you don’t normally “do” Facebook, it can be worthwhile to join just to be part of this group, as one of our primary ways for neighbors to network with one another and share information at this time of an epidemic; many neighbors have let us know what a useful resource our group page has been.

Berkeley Health Department COVID-19 page

Full Text of Berkeley’s Shelter-in-Place Order

Alameda County Public Health Department COVID-19 page
California Department of Public Health COVID-19 page

CDC COVID-19 page

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