Telegraph Berkeley

Telegraph Berkeley is a commercial district south of the University of California campus in Berkeley, CA. Telegraph Avenue is its central street; Telegraph extends north/south from Oakland to Berkeley with an abrupt northern terminus at Bancroft Way adjacent to the UC Berkeley campus. The district includes six blocks south of the northern terminus, marked by streets perpendicular to Telegraph: Bancroft Way, Durant Avenue, Channing Street, Haste Street, Dwight Way, to Parker Street. The district is a center of campus and community life, home to many restaurants, book and music stores, and clothing shops, and often features sidewalk street vendors. The district attracts diverse visitors, including college students, alumni on game days, tourists, artists, street punks, eccentrics, and the homeless.
Importance
Telegraph Berkeley has been associated with significant cultural innovations and historic moments. Artist Chiura Obata had a studio in the area from 1939 to 1942, prior to being interned during WWII . Early in her career, renowned New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael helped to manage and program at the Berkeley Cinema Guild Theater ; ; the caffe latte was invented at the Caffe Mediterraneum at Haste and Telegraph ; underground comics, including R. Crumb's Zap Comix, were initially published at the Print Mint on Telegraph .
James Rector, a visitor watching the clash between activists, students, and the National Guard from a Telegraph Avenue rooftop in the district, was mortally wounded during the conflict over the founding of People’s Park. Community member Alan Blanchard, also on a rooftop in the district, was blinded by gunfire at the same event . Upon winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, poet W.S. Merwin proposed to donate half of his winnings to the blinded Blanchard .
Curb cuts
The district was an early originator of curb cuts installed to ease travel for people using wheelchairs . Curb cuts were part of a larger independent living movement that had roots with UC Berkeley students including Ed Roberts . The movement led to eventual development of the Center for Independent Living on Telegraph Avenue in the district. Founded in March 1972 by former UC Berkeley students and others, the Center for Independent Living was the first run by people with disabilities themselves to support and advocate for services for independent living in the community .
Independent bookstores
Independent bookstores in the district once thrived; Cody's Books at Haste and Telegraph hosted readings and signings by many authors. A pipe bomb was thrown through the front window of Cody's on February 28, 1989 in response to Cody's commitment to sell Salman Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, when other bookstores had removed it from their shelves .
Published in 2008, Cometbus #51 "The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah" by Aaron Cometbus provides a personal history of singular district establishments, with a focus on Moe's Books. Moe's Books and owner Moe Moskowitz provided startup space or otherwise assisted the founders of Shambhala Publications the fledgling Print Mint , the nascent herb store Lhasa Karnak , all of which continue to have active businesses as of February 2014, the latter two (along with Moe's Books) with businesses still in the Telegraph Berkeley district.

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