Berkeley Partners for Parks

• Berkeley Partners for Parks
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April 21st, 2008 Web Weaver

Bring blankets, beverages, and lawn chairs and enjoy Pixar’s “Ratatouille” with Friends of Terrace View Park Saturday, August 9, starting around 8:30 (dusk). Popcorn provided! The two-level park edges Avenida between Queens and Fairlawn.

• Berkeley Partners for Parks , Events , Friends of Terrace View Park
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July 28th, 2008 fivecreeks

For the third year in a row, BPFP’s “Greening Berkeley Hands On” partnership has been awarded a Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund grant by UC Berkeley. This year’s award of $24,000 will help BPFP affiliates carry out a wide variety of hands-on environmental projects. The grant pays for both materials and a UC student intern, who organized student volunteering through CalCorps, UC’s public-service arm.

Projects in the 2008 grant range from path construction and a solar light for the Santa Fe Right of Way, projects of Berkeley Path Wanderers, to tools and gloves for the city’s 14 public-school gardens, through Friends of School Gardens. The community-built Schoolhouse Creek Common will install chess tables and a bench. Nearby, Friends of Westbrae Commons will continue transforming the Ohlone Greenway south of Gilman with native coastal-prairie plants. Friends of Shorebird Park Nature Center will spread fresh sand and build new racks at Adventure Playground, while Aquatic Park EGRET will get upgraded nataive plants and upgraded wheelbarrows. Friends of Five Creeks will be able to install signs on local natural history and plant drought-tolerant natives in a variety of sites, from the Santa Fe Right of Way to Mortar Rock Park.

Aquatic Park EGRET also will partner with Earth Team Environmental Network, Berkeley Community Media, College of Natural Resources, and Berkeley Community Garden to involve local teens in habitat restoration days that teens also will film for showing on local cable TV. This project received a $5000 Chancellors Community Partnership grant.

Join us to carry out these projects! Contact BPFP or the affiliate group you are interested in — click on “Affiliated Groups” at right.

• Adventure Playground , Aquatic Park EGRET , Berkeley Partners for Parks , Berkeley Path Wanderers Association , Friends of Five Creeks , Friends of Westbrae Commons , Friends of the Shorebird Nature Center , Santa Fe Right of Way , Schoolhouse Creek Commons
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July 28th, 2008 fivecreeks

BPFP went international recently when Vicki Rostron of Australia wrote asking for information on Hinkel Park, which her great-grandfather John Hinkel donated to the city in 1918. John was a fan of the then-youthful movement of Scouting, and donated the beautiful tract in North Berkeley, with two creeks, on condition that it would remain natural and that Scouts could continue to use it. It seems that John’s son Hulbert Hinkel (John’s wife was Ada Hulbert) was a dashing pioneer aviator, the second man to do an inverted loop in an airplane. He also married five times – one bride, Dorothy Perry of Sydney, Australia, was Vicki Rostron’s grandmother. We sent Vicki background on the park along with a promise of a tour when she comes to visit. We’re looking forward to it!

Hinkel Park is one of Berkeley’s most beautiful and bucolic parks, as cultural geographer, Grey Brechin, attests: “In a lovely canyon studded with live oaks, the Civil Works Administration in 1934 built a four-acre park with an intimate Greek amphitheater, trails, and rustic clubhouse. The eater was used by the Berkeley Community Players for many years and then by the Berkeley Shakespeare Festival, though next year the festival moves to Orinda because of traffic and space problems. Today, the theater’s tree-shaded terraces seem more Druidic than Greek.” (Quoted from “Built by FDR: How the WPA Changed the Lay of the Land”: http://www.graybrechin.com/GBrechinArticle5.html.)

Noted Berkeley historian, Susan Cerny remarks about the donator of the park, ” The land… was given to the city in 1918 by John Hinkel, a downtown property owner. It was reported to be the largest gift the city had ever received…Before giving the property to the city, Hinkel made some notable improvements: he built a rustic redwood clubhouse, a stone fireplace and playground, and also created the network of pathways. The park was conceived by Hinkel to be a natural space where the native flora would be retained and enhanced rather than being replaced it with artificial plantings.” It has retained that original character for the past 90 years. See her article about the park: http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/john_hinkel_park.html (See also the photos in this article)

• Berkeley Partners for Parks , Friends of John Hinkel Park
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July 28th, 2008 fivecreeks

YOUNG ARTIST WORKSPACE
CLASS SCHEDULE 2008/2009

Art for Two’s, Three’s and Four’s
Thursday 10-10:45 am or 11:15 - 12:00pm

Fine Art for Kids
5 to 6 year-olds
Tuesday or Thursday 3:45-4:30

7 to 9 year-olds
Wednesday 4:00 - 5:15pm

9 to 11 year-olds
Tuesday 4:45 - 6:00pm

Young Artists Studio
12 to 16 year-olds
Monday 4:00 - 6:00pm

CLASS FEES

YAWS classes are now offered in three sessions: fall, winter, and spring. The breakdown of each session varies in number of classes and tuition costs due to vacation and holiday schedules. The schedule showing session dates and costs - per session and for the year - is described in the following 2008/9 Tuition and Session Schedule.

Parents who want to enroll their child for the year may do so by September 20th for a savings of $45.

Parents who want to enroll their children in six-class sessions may do so if there is room after seasonal enrollment is complete on a first come, first served basis. The start dates for six-class sessions is also listed in the 2008/9 Tuition and Session Schedule.

Tuition and Session Schedule
2008/2009

Fall Session
September 15th to December 18th
13 classes
Art for 2,3,4’s - $160
Fine Art for Kids
5 & 6’s - 195
7 to 11’s - $220
Young Artists Studio
12 to 16’s - $235

No classes on Nov. 24 to 27.

Winter Session
January 5th to March 26th
11 classes
Art for 2,3,4’s - $120
Fine Art for Kids
5 & 6’s - 165
7 to 11’s - $190
Young Artists Studio
12 to 16’s - $200

No classes on February 23 to 27th.

Spring Session
March 30th TO May 28th
9 classes
Art for 2,3,4’s - $100
Fine Art for Kids
5 & 6’s - 135
7 to 11’s - $155
Young Artists Studio
12 to 16’s - $160

Please keep this information as a reminder of vacation days. Although your child’s school may honor a particular holiday, YAWS may still be holding classes. If you are ever unsure of the schedule, you may call Jen at (510) 220-8408 or email her at jennyaws@yahoo.com.

TUITION SAVINGS FOR ALL YEAR ENROLLMENT

Payment must be made by September 20th to receive savings

33 classes
Art for 2,3,4’s - $350 ($40 savings)

Fine Art for Kids
5 & 6’s - $450 ($45 savings)
7 to 11’s - $520 ($45 savings)

Young Artists Studio
12 to 16’s - $550 ($45 savings)

SIX-CLASS SESSIONS

These sessions will be offered during the times listed below. Drop-in classes are difficult to accommodate due to way YAWS classes are structured. If you have questions about drop-in possibilities, please call Jen at (510) 220-8408.

September 15 - October 23
November 3 - December 18
January 5 - February 12
March 30 - May 7

TUITION for SIX CLASSES:
Art for 2,3,4’s - $75
Fine Art for Kids
5 & 6’s - $100
7 to 11’s - $115
Young Artists Studio
12 to 16’s - $120

Use the registration form to enroll your child - one child per form. Be sure to list the class name and time you are requesting. A confirmation email will come to you once enrollment is processed. If the class is full, your check will be mailed back to you.

Class fees must be turned in with this form to insure enrollment. Scholarships are available; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

• Young Artists Workspace
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June 26th, 2008 Lee Trampleasure

The City of Berkeley plans to use $2 million in Clean Water Bond money from the State Coastal Conservancy to open discharge outlets from the City’s primary storm drains into the tidal bay ponds of Aquatic Park. Discharge of contaminated storm water into the enclosed ponds has been prohibited by the State since 1971, but the City hopes to overturn that restriction and replace it with a permit allowing such toxic discharges in perpetuity. The use of high-pressure pumps can increase the capacity of the City’s drains and avoid violations of the Water Board’s prohibition. Improving circulation within the lagoon system must begin with regular maintenance of the existing culverts, the option selected by Council in 1994 when staff first proposed the project in an earlier version. Additional water circulation can be safely engineered with a one-way flow out of the lagoons, thus prohibiting the introductions of toxic storm runoff. Such one-way outbound options have been recommended for consideration by the State Water Board regulator in his project analysis, but they have not yet been modeled.

This item is on the City Council agenda at their June 24 meeting. For more information, visit Aquatic Park EGRET’s web site: www.egretpark.org

• Aquatic Park EGRET , City meetings
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June 20th, 2008 Lee Trampleasure