The Editor's Back Fence

Telegraph Project Charrette: The Demographics

Wednesday April 18, 2012 - 02:47:00 PM

Reader Tom Hunt, who worked in retail on Telegraph for many of the same years I worked in a computer startup there, directed my attention to a photo of the participants in the "Telegraph Avenue Project" which appeared on the Berkeleyside website.

"Guess what I thought when I saw the photo of the 'Telegraph Project' attendees?" he asked.

It looked to me like a bunch of old white guys hoping to remake Telly in their own image, one which is quite different from the UC students and staff who are the Ave's main users.

Tom, a math major in his days at Cal, thoughtfully provided data to quantify the obvious—see accompanying chart.

Not, of course, that I have anything against old white guys. Some of my best friends....