The Telegraph Holiday Fair is shown in a file photo. Credit: Ted Friedman
The Telegraph Holiday Fair is staying on the avenue after all.
City officials had until recently said the north end of Telegraph Avenue, where the craft market has been held for more than four decades, would no longer be available for street festivals because the road isn’t wide enough for adequate fire lanes and the events block key emergency access routes. Organizer Grace Teasdale was making plans to hold this year’s fair more than a mile away in South Berkeley, and bracing for a decline in attendance from both vendors and visitors.
But Teasdale said she learned this week that the city has granted her application for a permit to hold the fair in its longtime home along Telegraph Avenue between Dwight Way and Bancroft Way. The fair will take place over the three weekends leading up to Christmas: Dec. 6-7, 13-14 and 20-21.
It isn’t clear why Berkeley reversed course on the event’s permit.
In an emailed statement Friday, city spokesperson Seung Lee wrote that the city and event organizers “found a way to balance the challenges of the area with our public safety needs,” though he did not say what that entailed.
“We are excited that a beloved community event will occur on Telegraph Avenue next month,” Lee wrote.
Another city spokesperson, Matthai Chakko, previously told Berkeleyside that shutting down the avenue would endanger public safety by slowing police and paramedic responses, and that changes in the neighborhood, such as its new apartment buildings and a street safety project that narrowed traffic lanes, had made it unsuitable for street festivals.
A city report last month declared portions of Telegraph Avenue and Adeline Street would be “unavailable for future street closures,” citing a push by the Berkeley Fire Department to maintain 26-foot-wide fire lanes. The report drew pushback from street safety advocates, who argued the 26-foot standard is an optional piece of the state fire code that Berkeley hasn’t enforced for years, and that it does not make sense in older cities that have narrower roads.
The future of the Berkeley Juneteenth Festival on Adeline Street, another event that has been told it must move from its longtime home because of the fire access policies, remains up in the air. Organizer Delores Cooper told Berkeleyside that event staff are set to meet with city officials to discuss their festival next month.
Several city departments have separately been developing proposals to increase the fees and charges Berkeley requires event organizers to pay for street festivals. Officials say those fees today don’t come close to matching the cost the city takes on to plan for events, though organizers fear the additional costs could be too great for their festivals to bear.
Teasdale told Berkeleyside she believes a combination of advocacy from community members and Southside Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra, as well as scrutiny of the city’s rationale for prohibiting events on Telegraph, led to her event receiving the permit.
And although she’s relieved to be able to keep the event on Telegraph Avenue, Teasdale said, “It’s still going to be a huge amount of work and a big haul that I’m not used to doing in this short of time.”
In a text message, Lunaparra wrote she was thrilled city and Fire Department officials were able “to figure out how we could keep the street fair on Telegraph and balance the need for fire and public safety.
“We’re hoping to keep working together to come up with reasonable and balanced solutions,” she added.
Teasdale said this is the second year in a row that the city has sought to move the Holiday Fair off of Telegraph Avenue, and the second time officials have agreed to let the event stay shortly before its opening weekend.
“I really hope that they don’t pull this again,” Teasdale said. “We’ve been there for 42 years, we’ve kept it safe this whole time.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication with additional information.
“*” indicates required fields