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Responding to a package of proposals aimed at shoring up struggling businesses on Telegraph Avenue—more police, social services, better marketing, upgraded facades, brighter lighting, faster permitting and a new green machine to scrub the sidewalks—Marc Weinstein, owner of Amoeba Music, shared a unique perspective on the Avenue’s economic downturn at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. 

Like other businesses on Telegraph, Weinstein said Amoeba Music is suffering, having lost 15 percent of revenue each year for the last two years. 

Weinstein told the council he has two similar yet thriving stores, one on Haight Street in San Francisco and another in Hollywood in Los Angeles. Their superior performance, he said, shows that the decline in local business cannot be attributed to chain or Internet competition, a factor in the announced closing of Cody’s Books on Telegraph. 

The 11 percent commercial vacancy on Telegraph, a result of “ridiculously high” rents, hurts the businesses that stay, Weinstein said, blaming the situation on landlords who “only care about getting as much money out of the property as they can.” 

He pointed specifically to Gordon Commercial Real Estate Services as a property management company that keeps Telegraph area properties vacant. 

“Absolutely not,” John Gordon responded, when reached by phone Wednesday. Keeping property vacant “would be stupid.” 

It’s true, he said, that closer to campus higher rents are charged. “We don’t set the rates,” he said. “It’s just a matter of supply and demand.” 

Still, he said, “We would hold a space to get a good tenant,” rather than a tattoo parlor, for example. “We want a tenant that can do the volume to pay that kind of rent,” he said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who presented the package of projects to the council along with Mayor Tom Bates and Councilmember Gordon Wozniak, noted in a telephone interview on Thursday, that the doubling and tripling of rents has forced some businesses out of the area. 

Gordon said a major factor causing vacancies is the city’s cumbersome permitting process. For example, his company owns a building on Telegraph Ave. and Dwight Way, where Peet’s plans to open a coffee shop. However, getting permits to change from the former use—a copy center—to a coffee shop will take about six months, he said. 

Still, facilitating a property’s change in use should not open the flood gates to chain stores, said Councilmember Dona Spring, speaking to the possibility that a Walgreens might come into the Telegraph district. 

“We need to encourage small, local, unique businesses,” she said. 

Some said the decline in revenue on Telegraph Avenue—which, nevertheless, brings in $98 million per year, according to Bates—is due to the many panhandlers and people with mental health needs who populate the avenue. For that reason, “a lot of people are not comfortable shopping on Telegraph,” Bates said. 

“Problematic behavior [on Telegraph] has gotten worse,” Telegraph Avenue Business Improvement District Executive Director Roland Peterson told the council. 

But Weinstein disagreed: “Telegraph is not that much worse,” but the scene may not be tolerated by the new generation of university students. Councilmember Laurie Capitelli said a higher income level among students might be at play. 

Weinstein added that he sees open drug dealing near his store. He’s not only calling on the council to bring in more police, but he wants better policing methods. In the past, merchants had pager numbers for beat police and the mental health team, which would respond rapidly, he said. On the other hand, “The UC Police have never tried to make a connection,” he said. 

Councilmember Linda Maio said the now-defunct Telegraph Area Association tried to link merchants, landlords and residents, but lost city funding to budget cuts several years ago. 

The business improvement district has not filled the void, Weinstein said: “The BID represents interests of property owners.” 

Some measures to help the area are under way: the city is working with UC Berkeley so that students can use their university debit cards with local merchants. 

The question of adding two bike cops and a mental health team for the area will be part of next month’s budget decisions. The city is in the process of purchasing a “green machine” to clean Telegraph Avenue sidewalks. 

By unanimous vote, councilmembers asked the city manager to report to them before the summer recess that begins mid-July on enhanced lighting, façade improvements and streamlining the permit process. 

Photograph by Stephan Babujak.