{"id":396744,"date":"2026-07-13T17:15:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/396744\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:15:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:15:04","slug":"hand-drawn-polls-on-utility-poles-ask-locals-about-west-berkeley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/396744\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand-drawn polls on utility poles ask locals about West Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"

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: \u201cWhat is the defining sound of West Berkeley?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four possible answers were offered: a train whistle, the Bayer alarm, the bicycle megaphone man, or a murder of crows.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s currently working on Pole Poll #3.<\/p>\n

Curley, who lives on Ninth Street, between Dwight Way and Channing Way, said he was inspired to create the polls by the \u201cwonderful culture of creativity\u201d he observed on utility poles while walking in the neighborhood. He\u2019s seen abstract art pieces, political propaganda, a flyer promoting the \u201cphone free society,\u201d and one simply marked BUTTS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember one which included a phone number and just said, \u2018Do not call this number,\u2019\u201d Curley said. So, of course, he did. \u201cI got a phone tree menu of choices which led to a recording of people very theatrically screaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poll #2, stapled to the same five polls, asked people to vote on the \u201canimal mayor of West Berkeley\u201d \u2014 the wild turkey, the striped skunk (Curley\u2019s choice), the Virginia opossum or the raccoon. It also revealed the winner of the first poll: the train whistle.<\/p>\n

\"TwoThe first two pole polls created by Jonathan Curley asked about the sounds and animals of West Berkeley. Credit: Jonathan Curley<\/p>\n

Curley enjoys the neighborhood focus of the project and the reception the polls have received. He said people write positive comments on the flyers. \u201cSome have asked where the megaphone cyclist has gone,\u201d he said, referring to a man who would ride around blasting music at high volume from a boombox. And Curley\u2019s wife, who\u2019s a nurse at the nearby Kaiser Berkeley office, told him patients have mentioned the polls to her and said how much they like them.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cmail art to strangers\u201d project. But he\u2019s never done anything like the pole polls before.<\/p>\n

For the next one, he is noodling on a question about \u201cthe location in West Berkeley of a portal to another world.\u201d The gumball machines at Juan\u2019s Place restaurant may be one of the choices.<\/p>\n

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