Category: Berkeley Partners for Parks

This is the location for general BPFP announcements.

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UC grants for better Berkeley available!

May 14 is the deadline for applying for 2010’s UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund grants — awards of $5,000 to $50,000 for projects to enhance community safety and livability (a priority this year), environmental stewardship, education, and arts and culture.

Grants are for community groups partnered with UC faculty, staff, or students. Proposals must come from a legal nonprofit organization, but if you have a good idea and a few supporters, you can find a fiscal agent. BPFP, for example, serves as fiscal agent to large and small groups dealing with parks, outdoors, recreation, beautification, environment, and the like. We have received numerous grants from the Chancellor’s Fund and can help with practical advice, including how to find a UC partner. Please get in touch with us! (See the “contact us” page.)

Projects should be completed in one or at most two years. They must be in Berkeley. Keep in mind what permits and approvals you may need — funds won’t be handed out until they are obtained. Reasonable stipends can be paid, e.g. if the project needs experts.

For UC’s press release, with links to information and application forms, click here.

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F5C annual outing: Restoration & Art Making at Muir Beach

Join Friends of Five Creeks on their annual trip to another restoration area — this year Sat., Feb. 13, at beautiful Muir Beach, the mouth of Redwood Creek in Marin County, a major project of the Golden Gate National Park and its Conservancy. Former EB MUD ranger Bob Flasher will lead us in restoring habitat in the morning. After picnic lunch, environmental artist Zach Pine will lead us making environmental art and balancing rocks on the beach. (See Zach’s projects here.) We’ll also have directions for short self-guided walks for those who want to explore, including glimpses of local food production at Slide Ranch and the Zen Center’s Green Gulch Farm.

The program will run from 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM (carpools leave Berkeley about 8:30 AM). Please plan to dress in layers, with rain boots or shoes that can get wet (a change of footwear is a good idea). We’ll work in a drizzle, but heavy rain cancels.

Please let us know you’re coming by Feb. 8 at f5creeks@aol.com or 510 848 9358, so we can arrange carpools!

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Three new bike paths due for Berkeley!

The City of Berkeley hopes to extend three important bicycle-pedestrian routes in the next 2-3 years, using about $4.5 million in state and federal grants:

  • The long-planned extension of the Bay Trail west along the south side of University Avenue to the Marina includes a launch pad for windsurfers near Hs Lordships Restaurant, but leaves out a controversial swath through Shorebird Park.
  • Emeryville’s Doyle Street Greenway will be linked to Berkeley’s 9th Street via the old railroad right-of-way.
  • The Santa Fe Right-of-Way between Delaware and the Ohlone Greenway between Cedar and Virginia will get a paved trail, and the right-of-way between University and Addison will be opened. This will create a long-distance bicycle-pedestrian connection from Bancroft (the south edge of Strawberry Creek Park) to the City of Richmond (where the trail also is being extended).

Stay tuned for planning announcements!

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Ideas for SFROW mural?

Join the Santa Fe Mobile Mural Project brainstorming ideas for a participatory mural, 7-8:30 PM Tues., Nov. 17, at Frances Albrier Community Center, 2800 Park St., in San Pablo Park. Neighbors and residents interested in positive open space possibilities for the city-owned Santa Fe Right of Way in South Berkeley are invited to share their vision for the green strip, as a first step generating ideas for a participatory mural.

    Space is limited — please RSVP to beebot@pacbell.net 510-527-3773.

The project in sponsored by Berkeley Partners for Parks, the Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative, and the office of Berkeley Councilmember Darryl Moore, and funded with a UC Berkeley Chancellors Community Service Grants.

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Two great weekend events: Chavez Solar Calendar and Labyrith

Cesar Chavez Solar Calendar Summer Solstice Gathering

Sunset at the Solar Calendar
Sunset at the Solar Calendar

About 40 people turned out for the Summer Solstice gathering at the Solar Calendar at the Berkeley Marina. You can see photos of the event here.

View Cesar Chavez Memorial Solar Calendar in a larger map

East Bay Labyrinth Project Solstice/Fathers Day

Artist rendering of the permanent labyrinth

The East Bay Layrinth Project created a temporary 11-circuit labyrith in the location approved by Berkeley to house the permanent labyrinth. You can see a map of the location below, and photos of this weekend’s event here.


View East Bay Labyrinth Project in a larger map