bi_admin's blog

    Berkeley has become a bit less livable with the permanently loss of a much needed and beloved community asset - Berkeley Iceland. The hearing and decision at the Berkeley City Council on September 11, 2012, was an encapsulation of the past five years. The decision to uphold the Zoning Adjustment Board's action approving Sports Basement's permits without further community input was a foregone conclusion. As I wrote at the time, it was not surprising but still disappointing. It was the result of the constant message by East Bay Iceland, Richard Zamboni, president, that a rink could not / should not be restored, the almost total lack of support by key City officials, principally Mayor Bates, and the fear that Sports Basement was the only chance to avoid further deterioration of Berkeley Iceland. As a result, there is no longer a special place where all of Berkeley can go and just have fun, meet new people, and enjoy the diversity of Berkeley.
   

 Last night the Berkeley City Council rejected SBI's appeal to Sports Basement's permit to open a big-box sporting goods store. For even our strongest supporter on the Council, Kriss Worthington, the opportunity to stop the degradation the owners had allowed for the past five years was too good to pass up. At least Kriss put the responsibility where it belonged, squarely on an owner who tied things up for over three years fighting landmark actions with the cooperation of some City leaders.

One month from today at the September 11 Council meeting, the Berkeley City Council will be making a decision which will say a lot about what they value in our city: whether to allow permits for Berkeley's first Big Box store at Berkeley Iceland or whether our community will have the option to restore our recreation and community center.

 Here is what Berkeley Iceland looks like this morning:

There is an ongoing problem we've written about over the years. The owners, current and prospective, don't seem to think it is their responsibility. The City of Berkeley doesn't think it is worth enforcing city regulations on property upkeep. The neighbors are left with a mess not of their making.

This Saturday morning, July 21, a group of us will meet in front to clean the public areas around Berkeley Iceland. Join us around 10 am if you have the time to help clean up our community treasure, Berkeley Iceland. We won't be able to take care of graffiti or the trash on the property without permission of the owners (something we have asked for in the past but have never been given), but hopefully this will spur them to take care of the problem on an ongoing basis. SBI has an open offer, first made four years ago, to help. Part of this is cleaning what we can on Saturday morning and making sure it stays clean.

Additional Contact Information:

Berkeley City "Clean City" Program Page (includes contact phone numbers) 

East Bay Iceland - Richard Zamboni, President  [rzamboni@zamboni.com] 7212 San Ramon Rd., Dublin, CA 94566 / ph. (925) 829-4444

Join Us:

• Where: Berkeley Iceland, 2727 Milvia Street
• When: Saturday, July 21 at 10am
• Bring: Gloves, trash bags, brooms, etc. for cleaning (we will be bringing some, but more is always better).

The Berkeley City Council now must decide whether the Berkeley community gets its first big-box store or the opportunity to restore the historic, community recreation ice rink. The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved the Sports Basement permits replacing the historic recreation use with a retail operation far larger than anything in Berkeley. In a community short on recreation space for its kids and families, this represents a very bad deal for citizens of Berkeley. Save Berkeley Iceland filed an appeal of this decision to the Berkeley City Council; date of the hearing has not been set but we will announce it when it is set.

The restoration of Berkeley Iceland as a public ice recreation center better serves our community than a big box, discount sporting goods store - even one as well meaning as Sports Basement. We need to let the City of Berkeley, Sports Basement and East Bay Iceland (the current owners of Berkeley Iceland - principally owned by the Zamboni family) - know that our community needs recreation more than it needs a large store in the middle of a quite neighborhood.  You can find a sample letter here that you can modify and send.

Here are some key contacts:

City of Berkeley Elected Officials:

The mailing address for all Berkeley elected officials is 2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA 94704

• Mayor Bates - Mayor@CityofBerkeley.info
• City Council all city council addresses at http://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=18496
  •    Max Anderson - manderson@CityofBerkeley.info
  •    Laurie Capatelli - lcapitelli@CityofBerkeley.info
  •    Susan Wengraf - swengraf@CityofBerkeley.info
  •    Darryl Moore - dmoore@CityofBerkeley.info
  •    Gordon Wozniak - gwozniak@CityofBerkeley.info
  •    Linda Maio - lmaio@CityofBerkeley.info
  •    Jesse Arreguin - jarreguin@CityofBerkeley.info
  •    Kriss Worthington - kworthington@CityofBerkeley.info

Sports Basement:

Mailing address listed as P.O. Box 29570, San Francisco, CA 94129

• Tim Phillips, Founder [tphillips@SportsBasement.com]
• David Rumberg, Project Manager [drumberg@sportsbasement.com]

East Bay Iceland [Current Owners]:

• East Bay Iceland - Richard Zamboni, President  [rzamboni@zamboni.com] 7212 San Ramon Rd., Dublin, CA 94566

  Last night the Berkeley Zoning Adjustment Board voted 7-1 (with one absence) to approve Sports Basement's new Use Permit and its plans to convert Berkeley Iceland to a 71,000 sq. ft. store. I want to thank the members of the community who came out to make their views known and show support for the recreational use of Berkeley Iceland. The truth is that almost everyone in that room, including most of the ZAB members, knew that an ice rink in Berkeley Iceland would be the best use for the community. The ZAB members argued that it was not their role to determine that the use as a rink is best for the community; that is a political question. Their role is to determine whether an application meets the City requirements or not. They determined that it did and recommended, some even encouraged, appeal to the City Council.