Hand-drawn polls on utility poles ask locals about West Berkeley

A few weeks ago, hand-drawn flyers started appearing on several utility poles in the neighborhood southwest of the intersection of San Pablo and University. The flyers were titled Pole Poll #1, and featured a set of black-ink illustrations below the question: “What is the defining sound of West Berkeley?”

Four possible answers were offered: a train whistle, the Bayer alarm, the bicycle megaphone man, or a murder of crows.

The pole poll garnered around 140 votes over a couple of weeks, and lots of positive feedback, prompting its creator, Jonathan Curley, to keep going. He’s currently working on Pole Poll #3.

Curley, who lives on Ninth Street, between Dwight Way and Channing Way, said he was inspired to create the polls by the “wonderful culture of creativity” he observed on utility poles while walking in the neighborhood. He’s seen abstract art pieces, political propaganda, a flyer promoting the “phone free society,” and one simply marked BUTTS.

“I remember one which included a phone number and just said, ‘Do not call this number,’” Curley said. So, of course, he did. “I got a phone tree menu of choices which led to a recording of people very theatrically screaming.”

Poll #2, stapled to the same five polls, asked people to vote on the “animal mayor of West Berkeley” — the wild turkey, the striped skunk (Curley’s choice), the Virginia opossum or the raccoon. It also revealed the winner of the first poll: the train whistle.

Two Pole Polls stapled to two utility poles. The first two pole polls created by Jonathan Curley asked about the sounds and animals of West Berkeley. Credit: Jonathan Curley

Curley enjoys the neighborhood focus of the project and the reception the polls have received. He said people write positive comments on the flyers. “Some have asked where the megaphone cyclist has gone,” he said, referring to a man who would ride around blasting music at high volume from a boombox. And Curley’s wife, who’s a nurse at the nearby Kaiser Berkeley office, told him patients have mentioned the polls to her and said how much they like them.

Curley moved to Berkeley in 2001, works at the Lawrence Hall of Science developing curriculums for schools, and dabbles in art for pleasure. He sometimes sends pieces to friends and, at one point, took part in a “mail art to strangers” project. But he’s never done anything like the pole polls before.

For the next one, he is noodling on a question about “the location in West Berkeley of a portal to another world.” The gumball machines at Juan’s Place restaurant may be one of the choices.

Tags: