Neighbors, join Halcyon Neighborhood Association’s Facebook group!

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Halcyon Neighborhood Association E-News September 2016

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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. Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Halcyon Commons, Sun. Oct. 9, 3-6 p.m., Volunteers Needed!

2. Trees! Trees! Trees! HNA Launches Street Tree Project

3. Crime-Watch Update

4. Whole Foods Market News: Next Drop-in Progress Meeting Fri., Sept. 9, 8:15-9:00 a.m.

5. CBCB News: Link to Article; Message from Director

6. Halcyon Neighborhood Association’s Guiding Principles

Editor’s Introductory Note:

Thanks to the crew who helped make our fun ice cream social for National Night Out possible, especially to volunteer coordinators Mary Stoker and Lynn Richards, and to the volunteers who made fresh, homemade ice cream and nondairy frozen items: Bruce Wicinas (an ongoing hero for the hand-cranking and the handpicked blackberries and peaches that went in the ice cream), Susan Hunter, and Mikel Delgado. Whole Foods Market once again helped make the event extra tasty with donations of frozen extras and delicious cake and appetizers. Thanks as well to all who helped with setup, serving, and cleanup. Over eighty neighbors stopped by during the course of the evening, as well as Councilmember Lori Droste and various City officials and police officers. We really appreciate all the neighbors who turned out! It makes a difference.

Thanks to Susan Hunter, for once again coordinating a successful multiblock yard sale; this year fifteen households participated, and it was great to see so many neighbors perusing the sales and getting to know one another better.

We have another great community-building event coming up in October – a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the completion and dedication of Halcyon Commons, the community-created park where there was once a parking lot (see item 1). Please get this on your calendars now so you don’t miss this special celebration with live music and fun for all ages!

Happy September and Fall Equinox!

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

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1. Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Halcyon Commons,
Sun. Oct. 9, 3-6 p.m., Volunteers Needed!

Editor’s note: Preliminary event description from HNA Co-Chair John Steere, who’s leading the committee organizing this fun, celebratory event, with intro from neighbor Zoe Lake. Let us know if you can lend a hand!

Mark your calendar! The 20th anniversary celebration of our neighborhood park, Halcyon Commons, is coming up on Sunday, October 9, 3-6 p.m. Join your friends and neighbors and bring the whole family as we gather to enjoy this neighborhood jewel. Look forward to a dedication of the halcyon bird sculpture, live music, and displays of the park’s evolution. Hear from community leaders. Activities for kids and refreshments will be plentiful. Hope to see you there!

Halcyon Commons 20th anniversary Celebration

Sunday, October 9, 3 to 6 p.m.

In the park on Halcyon Court between Webster and Prince Streets

Help us celebrate the 20th birthday of Halcyon Commons, the park that was designed by its namesake neighborhood, the park that has helped make the Halcyon neighborhood the place that it has become since then.

Please join us for a happy community gathering to appreciate the park and the neighborhood that created it and continues to take care of it.

With Live Music provided by local groups and a Brazilian Bateria, the dedication of the Halcyon bird sculpture in the park, a proclamation by city officials, activities for kids, and more.

Delicious food, cake, and drink made possible by Whole Foods Market and residents.

Volunteers Needed!

Please email halcyon92@gmail.com if you’re able to help with setup, stocking the food and beverage table during the event, or cleanup, or are willing to help with pre-event tasks.

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2. Trees! Trees! Trees! HNA Launches Street Tree Project

Editor’s note: An important part of Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan is getting more trees planted in the city. HNA Steering Committee member Hank Abrons and neighbor Janice Greenberg have formed a committee to get more street trees planted in the Halcyon Neighborhood, and to better tend to the trees we already have. They’d welcome an additional volunteer or two (or more!); if you care about trees, this is a great way to make a visible difference where you live! Here’s the announcement

Street Tree Project

In keeping with our celebration of the 20th anniversary of Halcyon Commons, HNA will undertake a project to plant and nurture more street trees. The project will unfold over the next year or so, and a small Tree Planning Team is being formed to guide it. The required time and work commitment will be modest. If you’re interested in joining the Tree Planning Team, or have a friend/neighbor to recommend, please contact Hank Abrons (email: habrons@gmail.com). Thank you!

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3. Crime Watch Update

Editor’s note: Our HNA Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292160762499 often shares breaking crime reports in between E-News editions (your home and email addresses plus phone are required to participate so we can be sure the group is kept safe for neighbors, and we require this information prior to accepting your request to join). Remember, we rely on neighbors to fill in the details of crimes in our neighborhood, so, in addition to filing a police report (which can now be done online through the City of Berkeley website for some kinds of crimes: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/onlinereport/), please email halcyon92@gmail.com to pass the word on to your neighbors, or share it on our Facebook page, so we can all stay aware and vigilant. We don’t want to engage in profiling, so if you include a description, please make it as detailed as possible and avoid generalities.

Photos of our well-attended Ice Cream Social for National Night Out were included in this gallery at Berkeleyside.com

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2016/08/04/photo-gallery-berkeley-celebrates-national-night-out/

BPD Advisory: Three Recent Robberies Related to Pokémon Go

The City of Berkeley has become the latest community to discover a growing crime trend related to the highly popular Pokémon Go smartphone game. In the last month there have been two completed and one attempted pedestrian robberies where the victims were all distracted by the game. One robbery resulted in the arrest of two adults.

On 7/12/16 at 9:15 p.m., Berkeley Dispatch received calls regarding a screaming woman in the 2300 block of Dana Street. Officers responded and made contact with the victim, who said she was walking eastbound on Durant Avenue when she had just finished playing the game. She said she cut through a parking lot on the south side of the street when she noticed she was being followed by two suspects. One of the two knocked her to the ground while he attempted to take her phone. The other suspect pulled her purse off of her shoulder. The suspects then fled northbound through the parking lot and got into a waiting SUV, which fled southbound on Dana Street. The victim described the suspects as two young “baby-faced” black male adults, slender build, wearing dark hooded sweatshirts.

On 7/31/16 at approximately 2:46 p.m., we responded to a report of a robbery that had just occurred in the area of Parker and Warring Streets. The suspect jumped out of a waiting vehicle, punched the victim, and then took his phone from his hand. The victim described the suspect as a black male juvenile, 16 years old, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt. Following the robbery the suspect ran to a waiting sedan and fled southbound on Warring Street. The suspect vehicle was stopped a few miles from the crime scene, and two arrests were subsequently made.

The attempted robbery occurred most recently on 8/8/16 at around 5:30 p.m. in Civic Center Park, 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The intended male victim was in the park playing the game when someone tried to grab the phone from his hand. The victim struggled with the suspect and successfully retained his phone. The suspect was described by the victim as a black male juvenile, 15-16 years old, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with black and white Air Jordan sneakers. The suspect fled eastbound on Allston Way.

Like many other law enforcement agencies, the Berkeley Police Department encourages members of the community to follow these simple safety tips:

* Leave your smart phones in a pocket until you get where you are going.

* If you intend on playing the game at night, consider doing so with a group of friends.

If members of the community have information regarding the above cases they are encouraged to contact the Berkeley Police Department Robbery Detail at (510) 981-5900. For all emergencies or in progress calls please dial 9-1-1 from your landline or (510) 981-5911 from your cell phones.

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4. Whole Foods Market News: Next Drop-in Progress Meeting Fri., Sept. 9, 8:15-9:00 a.m.

Editor’s note: News from Whole Foods Market, courtesy of Store Team Leader Melody Mestermacher.

Next Drop-in Progress Meeting, Friday, Sept. 9, 8:15-9:00 a.m.

Whole Foods Market (check in at Customer Service)

These meetings are held at the Community Table at the front of the store, and the purpose is to share our plans for ongoing changes in the store, street litter control, and progress on any of the ongoing issues we discuss [with HNA reps and nearby neighbors]. The Store Team Leader is usually present, and anyone is welcome to join us. Of course there will be complimentary coffee or tea. Our goal is to follow up immediately on any issues that we hear about, and to hear how the store can be a better neighbor.

As always, if there are ever any urgent issues, please call the store at 510-649-1333 and ask for the shift manager on duty. We have new shift leaders being trained, so please send an email to the group below so we can follow up appropriately. Always feel free to swing by too, if you’d like to have a word with us.

Melody.Mestemacher@wholefoods.com

Carlisle.Crumley@wholefoods.com

Zarah.Graser@wholefoods.com

Tannia.Hernandez@wholefoods.com

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5. CBCB News: Link to Article; Message from Director

Editor’s note: HNA's Guiding Principles preclude us from getting involved in adversarial land-use matters when there are a range of views among neighbors, and call on us to seek partnership relationships with local businesses wherever possible. As the article at the link suggests, there are neighbors near the CBCB (Cannabis Buyers Club of Berkeley) who have expressed frustration about impacts of the business, as covered in a recent article at Berkeleyside.com (see link). Around the time the article came out, CBCB director Aundre Speciale contacted HNA’s co-chairs seeking positive ways to reach out to the neighborhood. We let her know that HNA doesn’t typically take positions on land-use matters, but that we encouraged a partnership approach with neighbors; we described the good results that have come from Whole Foods Market being willing to hold regular meetings with neighbors to hear complaints and address them with action goals and follow-up tracked via Excel spreadsheet. We encouraged CBCB to consider something similar. In that spirit, I’m passing on the message received from Aundre Speciale, which she asked me to include in this month’s E-News. She also informed me that a meeting for neighbors to air concerns will be held soon; when I receive word of it, I’ll post to our HNA Facebook group (and in an E-News edition depending on timing). If a neighbor or a couple of neighbors living near the CBCB wants to join the HNA Steering Committee to serve as a liaison to any meetings held by the CBCB and monitor such meetings for HNA in accordance with HNA’s Guiding Principles (see item 6), please email halcyon92@gmail.com. The model HNA has encouraged with Whole Foods Market has been very effective at dealing with various complaints of immediate neighbors over the years and has contributed to a positive partnership; we hope something similar might prove possible in this case.

Berkeleyside article: “Neighbors Express Frustration with Berkeley Cannabis Club”

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2016/08/25/neighbors-express-frustration-with-berkeley-cannabis-club/

Message from CBCB Director Aundre Speciale:

Hi neighbors,

We at CBCB are proud to be a part of this wonderful and vibrant neighborhood, and strive to operate in a way that is an asset to the community.

We want to make sure that you have contact information for CBCB’s Director, Aundre Speciale and General Manager, Deborah Sadler. In addition, CBCB employs two other guards to patrol the neighborhood during hours of operation, 9-9, and we are including their number for immediate response. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Sincerely,

Aundre Speciale

Patrolling guard: 510-631-2407
Aundre Speciale: 510-827-0665
Deborah Sadler: 619-851-2410

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6. Halcyon Neighborhood Association’s Guiding Principles

Editor’s note: Given the mention of HNA’s Guiding Principles in item 5, this seems like a good time to repost them.

HNA is a community group dedicated to stewardship of the Halcyon Neighborhood in South Berkeley (bounded by Telegraph, Ashby, Adeline, and Woolsey). We encourage positive, proactive, partnership-oriented approaches to improving the well-being of our neighborhood, with an emphasis on the following goals:

* Community building (such as regular potlucks, special events in the park, mutual support among neighbors, and multiblock yard sales);

* Ongoing care of Halcyon Commons (a park conceived of and created by the neighbors who founded HNA) under the nonprofit umbrella provided by Berkeley Partners for Parks and in partnership with the City of Berkeley;

* Continued greening and care of the neighborhood (planting trees, cleaning litter off streets, graffiti removal, and helping maintain public landscaped features);

* Strengthening neighborhood watch (crime watch, community safety walks, emergency preparedness, and disaster supply cache);

* Networking with the larger Berkeley community (nearby neighborhood groups, neighborhood businesses, City staff, and elected officials);

* Sharing information and empowering residents to become proactive in addressing neighborhood needs and in expressing individual viewpoints regarding civic affairs (spreading news through meetings, flyers, and the HNA E-News, and providing contact information).

To fulfill these goals, HNA provides a sanctuary from partisan politics so that neighbors with diverse viewpoints feel welcome to participate. Thus, HNA only takes stands on larger issues when there is near-unanimity among neighbors. By focusing on immediate local concerns, we find we can have a greater impact and get better results from the time we invest. Guided by these principles, HNA invites neighbors who are willing to work together in a spirit of partnership to participate at whatever level makes sense for them. Opportunities for serving on our volunteer Steering Committee and project-oriented committees are available to neighbors who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work together in a nonpartisan spirit. Neighbors are invited to step forward into leadership positions defined by the work they do in accordance with HNA’s primary goals and guiding principles.

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