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n an occasional series by UC Berkeley journalism students.  

For decades, children have used them to get to and from schools. People drive miles simply to walk their dogs along them. Others include them in their daily commutes, factoring in extra time to admire the beauty and peace they bring to the neighborhood. 

Seventy years ago, these 136 paths were integral to Berkeley’s daily life, allowing hill residents access to the electric streetcars running on Euclid and Spruce avenues.  

The pathways and steps are enduring evidence of the city’s commitment to the urban design principles of the Hillside Club, says historian Charles Wollenberg. 

In the 1920s, influential club members like naturalist Annie Maybeck and her husband, architect Bernard Maybeck, advocated streets that followed the contours of the hills connected by a system of pedestrian paths. 

“The city cooperated, and the pathways became public property,” says Wollenberg. 

The paths are maintained by the Departments of Public Works and Parks, Recreation and Waterfront. They are assisted by volunteers from the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association, who have mapped all the paths and re-opened many for public use. 

Pat De Vito, co-president of the Path Wanderers, moved to Berkeley in 1953, and she often used the paths as a Cal undergraduate.. She and three friends started the pedestrian advocacy organization five years ago. 

“We were four women around a kitchen table in 1998,” said De Vito.  

Those four women recognized that “these paths are a part of our historical heritage and were, at one time, walkable,” De Vito said, and they wanted to make these paths accessible to the public again.  

The issue of public access is particularly interesting to artist and writer Karen Kerm, who is working on a book about city paths across the country. Kerm views the paths as a “dialogue of public and private space” and a relationship between public and private property that is rare these days when privatization is a catchword to fix public facilities. 

“It’s land for the people that unfortunately our planners today don’t value,” said Kerm. 

However, even if planners stop valuing the idea of public access, the pathways are here, providing not only a practical way of getting to where you’re going, but meeting pedestrians’ aesthetic needs as well. 

“They’ve been around for 90 years,” said De Vito. “They are a part of our open space, a calm place to be, away from the street.” 

“And they also have some of best views and vistas of the canyons, the bay, and San Francisco when you climb to the top of them,” she added.  

As Casen Maloy leisurely walks down Billie Jean Walk she is following a timetable controlled by a bus. 

Maloy, a first year undergraduate at UC Berkeley, has lived on Hilldale Avenue since April, but only recently discovered the picturesque steps that connect Hilldale to Euclid Avenue.  

Maloy, 19, with red hair and sunglasses, looked as if she was on her way to the beach. Instead, she was headed for the corner of Euclid and Marin where she had a