![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Natera_Southside-Streets_251001_006.jpg\")
People use the two-way bike lane along Bancroft Way, across from the UC Berkeley campus in a 2025 file photo. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\nPeople use the two-way bike lane along Bancroft Way, across from the UC Berkeley campus in a 2025 file photo. Credit: Ximena Natera for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n
Berkeley\u2019s next head of public works led efforts to speed up street safety projects in San Francisco and oversaw road maintenance and parking enforcement in Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday night to appoint Jamie Parks the director of the Department of Public Works, which oversees a wide range of local infrastructure, including street paving, city facilities and trash and recycling programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parks will lead a closely watched department that is expected to ramp up street paving \u2014 the council last week approved a plan<\/a> that calls for repairing more than 60 miles of streets over the next five years, a significant increase over prior years \u2014 and launch a raft of new traffic safety initiatives after voters approved a parcel tax in 2024<\/a> to fund those projects. But new safety infrastructure can prove politically thorny in Berkeley<\/a>, as in other cities, because it often involves devoting more of the road to bikes and pedestrians and leaves less space for parking<\/a> and car traffic.<\/p>\n The bike and pedestrian advocacy group Walk Bike Berkeley cheered Parks as a \u201csafe streets leader\u201d in a newsletter Wednesday.<\/p>\n Ben Gerhardstein, a Walk Bike Berkeley leader, told the City Council on Tuesday, \u201cJamie has the background that the city needs right now to really advance our work to make our streets safe, accessible and smooth for all.\u201d<\/p>\n Parks, who will start his new role Aug. 17, is today the assistant director of the Oakland Department of Transportation. Before that, he managed San Francisco\u2019s \u201cLivable Streets Division<\/a>,\u201d where he led efforts to build 45 miles of new protected bike lanes and launched the city\u2019s \u201cQuick Build<\/a>\u201d program, which aimed to expedite construction of pedestrian and bicycle safety infrastructure.<\/p>\n Deputy City Manager David White wrote in a report to the council<\/a> that Parks \u201cemerged as the top candidate due to his strong record in municipal operations, capital program delivery, organizational improvement, and transportation safety initiatives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Parks will be paid $270,000 per year.<\/p>\n