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Feds Press Lawsuit Against Berkeley's Historic Civic Center District 

12/30/2017

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8 a.m. on Thursday, January 11, 2018, arguments will be heard before Judge William Alsup, Courtroom 12, 19th floor, 450 Golden Gate Avenue

The City of Berkeley and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), acting on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service, will be in Federal Court on Thursday January 11, 2018. This hearing is the result of a suit filed by the DOJ against Berkeley on August 22, 2016. The DOJ suit alleges that Berkeley’s Civic Center Historic District Zoning Overlay is not permitted under the United States Constitution.

Some background: In 1998 the City of Berkeley designated our Civic Center as an historic district and the same year Berkeley’s Civic Center Historic District was entered on the National Register of Historic Places.

In September of 2014, responding to community demand, including numerous public hearings and a ballot initiative, the Berkeley City Council passed the Civic Center Historic District Zoning Overlay. The Overlay protects and preserves our Civic Center from commercial activities that are different in character than its current and historic civic, institutional and community-serving uses.

The federal lawsuit asserts that the Zoning Overlay is an unconstitutional attempt by a local government to interfere with a function of the federal government.  In this case that function is the Postal Service plan to sell our historic Berkeley Main Post Office. Possibly, the Postal Service argues, it could get more money for the building if a new owner could develop the property for whatever uses would fetch the highest return.

The City of Berkeley and the DOJ/ USPS have filed competing motions for summary judgment. At 8 a.m. on Thursday, January 11, 2018, arguments will be heard before Judge William Alsup, Courtroom 12, 19th floor, 450 Golden Gate Avenue.

It is wholly remarkable that in the space of a very few years our federal government has transformed from being a cornerstone of civic life in America’s communities to filing a lawsuit against the City of Berkeley alleging that its attempt to preserve its Civic Center violates the United States Constitution.

In the 1998 nomination for National Register listing the late Susan Cerny wrote: "By its very nature, Berkeley's Civic Center District has been intimately intertwined with the political/social history and welfare of the city. Every civic and social function within the district promoted the welfare of citizens. The district is significant for efforts during the first four decades of the twentieth century to establish good public parks and buildings — not only as a way to beautify communities, but as a means of fostering public-minded behavior and good citizenship."


If you want to witness the hearing on January 11th, be advised that entry to 450 Golden Gate requires presentation of government-issued photo identification and that visitors are required to pass through electronic security equipment. Both the Golden Gate and Turk Street entrances have ADA access.

Read the City of Berkeley and the DOJ/ USPS arguments in their motions to dismiss.
Confirm time and date of the hearing on Judge Alsup's calendar.
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The boundaries of the Zoning Overlay are identical to the Berkeley Civic Center Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998.
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The Long History of the Berkeley Civic Center

12/2/2017

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by Harvey Smith
Author, Berkeley and the New Deal

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Proposed Liberty Square, 1919
(image courtesy Berkeley Public Library)
Berkeley Civic Center as a concept goes back over a hundred years. However, it is also self-evident that a great city deserves a great civic center.
 
Berkeley’s Civic Center District Zoning Overlay, which was passed three years ago, merely respects, codifies, and protects over 100 years of Berkeley history. Civic uses of the district are not in opposition to other types of development in the city but will complement them.
 
In 1909, the new City Hall was presented as part of the city's image of the "Athens of the West" and was linked to the neo-classical buildings being built on the U.C. campus.
  
City Hall bordered what was planned as a City Beautiful Movement-style central park area. Architect and city planner Charles Henry Cheney, who drafted California’s first city planning act (passed in 1915), provided initial designs for what he called “Liberty Square.”
 
The 1914 Post Office was part of this conception and was done in an Italian Renaissance style.
 
The Veteran's Building, Community Theater, Farm Credit Building (now the Civic Center Building) and other buildings contributed to this grouping of public buildings.
 
Berkeley voters approved a bond measure in 1940 that furnished the last funds needed to complete Civic Center Park.
 
The historic Civic Center has the most concentrated number of New Deal-era projects in Berkeley - "Berkeley's New Deal Nexus":  Berkeley Community Theater, G and H Buildings at Berkeley High, old Hall of Justice, Farm Credit Building, WPA work on Civic Center Park, art work on and in a number of these buildings (including the Main Post Office).
 
The entire district was listed in 1998 to the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources due to its historic, cultural, educational, governmental and judicial significance. The Civic Center Park fountain is at the center of the axis of these structures representing our community's democratic and social functions.
 
Civic Center Park continues to function as site of public events, concerts and fairs, and the adjacent Center Street hosts the weekly Saturday Farmers' Market. Dubbed Provo Park in the 1960s, it was the site of many anti-war demonstrations. In 1983, it was designated as Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.
 
The effort to privatize our postal system and the selling of post offices in the past several years throughout the country illustrate how public assets can be stripped from communities for private gain.
 
Citizens in communities throughout the country have protested this heist of cultural heritage. In Berkeley it has been a broad-based effort involving two mayors, the entire city council, citizens of every background, and members of the state and federal legislative delegations.
 
The Shattuck corridor, North Berkeley, South Berkeley, West Berkeley, Fourth Street and Telegraph Avenue are target areas for development. Protection from private development of Berkeley’s Historic Civic Center District is seen by many as a way to preserve the civic values cherished by most Berkeleyans. Berkeley citizens are not alone. Across the Bay, San Francisco also has its own Civic Center Historic District.

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    ABOUT

    The USPS wants to sell Berkeley's historic main post office. Citizens to Save the Berkeley Post Office is a grassroots group that has come together to block the sale of our heritage, stop service cut backs, and preserve living wage postal jobs.

    Our fight is not unique. Thousands of post office closures across the country mean the largest private auction of public history our nation has ever seen.

    Join the movement and spread the word. Our post office is not for sale.

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    Tell Staples the U.S. Mail is Not for Sale!
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    Sign the petition to stop the sale of historic post office like Berkeley's Downtown Main!

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    Getting rid of middle class jobs is the end. Privatization is the means. Fox News doesn't keep their agenda a secret. Watch the video.

    [10 on Tuesday] 10 Ways to Fight for Your Local Post Office from PreservationNation

    October 2, 2013 letter from Ralph Nader to Senator Dianne Feinstein

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