Berkeley calls BART’s homeless barrier ugly
BART’s decision to install 7-foot-tall, spiked metal fences to keep homeless people from camping near its tracks in Berkeley is drawing criticism from a city councilman and a number of neighbors — including some who wanted the campers booted in the first place.
“It’s ugly, and it’s depressing and unnecessary,” said Councilman Ben Bartlett, who represents the neighborhood where BART installed the fencing. “I guarantee BART executives wouldn’t put this
prison fence by their house.”
The 675 feet of black fencing, installed at a cost of $120,000, surrounds two BART properties along Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Adeline Street on the Berkeley-Oakland border.
BART officials say the fences address neighborhood complaints that the two properties had become a magnet for homeless people. The transit agency feared the campers could start a fire or cause other mischief.
“It’s not meant to be decorative,” BART spokesman Jim Allison said. “It is meant to be a security barrier.”
The fencing is the latest in a series of efforts by BART to shore up security for its 46 miles of ground-level trackway.
BART’s decision to erect the fences followed months of complaints from parents at the nearby American International Montessori School and others over what they felt were dangerous conditions at the encampment on the east side of the tracks.
The concerns hit a peak in October when a woman in the camp was found dead from a methamphetamine overdose and a homeless camper was struck in the face by a man wielding a hammer.
BART posted “no trespassing” signs, giving the campers 72 hours to leave. Transit officials also focused on a second camp, on the west side of the tracks, where an “art” vigil consisting mostly of homeless people had sprung up under a large sculpture that spells out, “Here/There.”
Advocates for the homeless went to court to try to stop the evictions, but to no avail. BART police cleared out the last of the campers in November.
According to BART’s Allison, the transit agency worked hand in hand with the city to clear the camps and put up the fences.
So imagine BART’s dismay when more than two dozen neighbors — including some of the same Montessori School parents who complained about the homeless camps — started a petition to have the fence removed and a playground installed on the BART property.
Councilman Bartlett, who is running for the state Assembly, tells us he plans to instruct city staff this week to start talks with BART about Berkeley taking over the land.
One way or another, he says, he wants the “unsightly” fences removed — and possibly replaced with tall shrubbery.
“It doesn’t have to look like Alcatraz,” Bartlett said.
Interesting to note that Berkeley removed an encampment near its own City Hall on Thursday after a fire broke out there.
“But I can tell you we will probably not be putting up a fence,” Bartlett said. See Jane run: While the backers of Supervisor London Breed, former state Sen. Mark Leno and former Supervisor Angela Alioto are battling over charges of backroom deals, political PAC money and how they should be identified on the ballot, Supervisor Jane Kim is quietly putting together a progressive package of endorsements and causes that could prove formidable in the June mayoral election.
Kim — who is in third place behind Breed and Leno in the early polls — just picked up the endorsement of former Supervisors John Avalos and Matt Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, more recently known as the public defender who got an undocumented immigrant acquitted of murder in the shooting of Kate Steinle, said Kim “is the most progressive candidate in the field.”
Just the label Kim is looking for.
Gonzalez cited Kim’s work to raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 an hour, require more affordable housing with new developments and make City College free for all as reasons for his endorsement.
Kim is also being backed by the Service Employees International Union, which represents the bulk of lower-paid city workers.
Last week, Kim and Supervisor Norman Yee submitted signatures for a June ballot measure to raise the commercial real estate tax to pay for more child care for low-income families. It’s likely to be a centerpiece of her mayoral run.
“I will be talking about it as part of my program to make San Francisco more affordable,” Kim said.
Bet on it.