Page One

Several streets in the Berkeley Marina area may soon be designated with the venerable names of three local heroes.  

Mayor Shirley Dean and Councilmember Betty Olds have recommended David Brower, Cesar Chavez and Tom Bates be honored with street names for their important work on the waterfront and in the larger community.  

This Tuesday, the City Council will consider a recommendation to pass the plan on to the Parks and Waterfront and the Planning and Transportation commissions for input and approval. 

If the plan is approved, what is currently Sewall Drive would become David Brower Way. Brower, who died in Berkeley on Nov. 5, was an internationally respected conservationist and activist. He was executive director of the Sierra Club and later founded Friends of the Earth among other environmental organizations. He also supported the Oakland-based non-profit Save San Francisco Bay. 

Councilmember Betty Olds, who has known the Brower family for 45 years, said the Brower family seems to be very happy with the renaming. “It’s nice to have a street named after your dad,” she said. 

A stretch of University Avenue west of Interstate 80 will become Tom Bates Boulevard. The former California assemblyman, who still lives in Berkeley and is married to former Mayor Loni Hancock, was instrumental in securing state funding for the East Shore Park. Without his efforts in the Assembly the park would likely of been commercially developed long ago.  

Councilmember Linda Maio remembered when the park was a dump site. “I never understood how they chose that particular area for a dump, it’s such a beautiful spot and thanks to Tom Bates, we now have a public park,” she said. 

Another stretch of University Avenue from I-80 connecting with Marina Boulevard and Spinnaker Way will become one continuous road renamed Cesar Chavez Drive. The former landfill turned park was already named for the well-known farm labor organizer but, by putting his name on the street, the city will be able to bypass a pesky Caltrans policy.  

When the park was named after Chavez, the city wanted to erect a sign on I-80 directing people to the public park. But Caltrans prohibits signs directing drivers to state and regional parks. Now with the off-ramp road named after Chavez, Caltrans must display his name prominently over the freeway at the University Avenue exits.