Fire accelerated Telegraph Avenue spiral A year after fire, economic damage continues to spread

Craig Becker, (center) owner of the Caffe Mediterraneum on Telegraph Ave. on Thursday Nov. 15, 2012 in Berkeley, Ca. The one year anniversary of a structure fire that destroyed several businesses along Telegraph Avenue has left a hole in the street scene leaving local business owners wondering what will replace the loss. less Craig Becker, (center) owner of the Caffe Mediterraneum on Telegraph Ave. on Thursday Nov. 15, 2012 in Berkeley, Ca. The one year anniversary of a structure fire that destroyed several businesses along ... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close Fire accelerated Telegraph Avenue spiral 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

A year ago Sunday, Doris Moskowitz looked out of a car window and thought she saw her store on fire.

The blaze turned out to be burning less than a block from Moe's Books, the business her parents built more than half a century ago. The store survived unscathed, even as a 39-unit apartment building with two ground-floor restaurants burned down.

The economic damage, however, has spread along Telegraph Avenue since the fire, and Moe's has not been spared.

"The idea that the neighborhood was closed down permeated out into the rest of the area ... and we're really not seeing foot traffic come back," said Moskowitz, who had to lay off three employees several months after the fire when business didn't fully recover.

"As if the street didn't have enough problems already," Moskowitz said.

The blaze, which caused an estimated $5 million damage, worsened a downward spiral that began in the 1990s on the street that runs south from the UC Berkeley campus. Vacant storefronts dot the four-block stretch from Bancroft Way to Dwight Way, and a persistent population of street people discourages shoppers from repeating their visits.

Merchants and the city have struggled for years to strike a balance between accommodating a funky, 1960s feel to the street and attracting businesses that appeal to students for whom the Free Speech Movement belongs to their grandparents' generation.

The effort has largely failed - since 1990, sales on Telegraph have declined more than 40 percent, said Dave Fogarty, the city's economic development project coordinator.

"The fire was just sort of another nail in the coffin," said Marc Weinstein, co-owner of Amoeba Music.

Weinstein's record store is kitty-corner from the lot at Telegraph and Haste Street where the five-story Sequoia Building was wiped out in the fire, which was caused by a malfunctioning elevator. Apart from Amoeba, it's a dead intersection.

Nothing happening

All that remains of the fire-stricken lot are hollow storefronts. Across the street to the south, the building that housed Cody's Books until 2006 is empty and covered with graffiti. On the east side of Telegraph is a lot that has been vacant for 25 years.

In an attempt to encourage development, the Berkeley City Council voted last month to waive a $28,000 affordable housing mitigation fee for the Sequoia Building's owners if they submit plans for rebuilding by November 2013. Fogarty said the owners are securing financing and picking architects and contractors.

Other merchants, however, aren't optimistic that a new building will rise soon.

"It's just going to get mired in the same kind of quicksand that everything else gets mired in," Weinstein said.

He fumes at the years-long delays in building on the long-vacant lot across from his store and with transforming the old Cody's.

Both sites are owned by Ken Sarachan, who wants to transform the vacant lot into an apartment complex with stores at the bottom level, and make the old Cody's into a music and entertainment venue. He and the city have been feuding for years, however, and now both sides are in court, each accusing the other of failing to live up to promises. Sarachan did not respond to requests for comment.

Question of identity

Underlying the squabbling and inertia are larger doubts about the future of a Telegraph Avenue that is long removed from its days as a cradle of counterculture.

"Telegraph, unlike some other districts, hasn't probably figured out what its 21st century iteration is," said Michael Caplan, the city's economic development manager.

Students may walk up Telegraph to get to class, but they prefer to shop in San Francisco or Emeryville, according to a survey conducted last year by UC Berkeley's student government. From Telegraph, they want to see more restaurants and nightlife; anchor stores such as Moe's Books and Amoeba Records carry items they've become accustomed to buying online.

'A dark, creepy place'

"At midnight, when we leave ... it's kind of a dark, creepy place," said Craig Becker, owner of Caffe Mediterraneum, just across Telegraph from Moe's. "It's not a lively environment to be open late at night."

Moskowitz had hoped the ranks of drug addicts and homeless people on Telegraph would be reduced by Measure S, Berkeley's version of a sit/lie ordinance prohibiting sitting on sidewalks. But the measure was narrowly defeated in the Nov. 6 election.

People who remember Telegraph from their younger days, said Moskowitz, "come here ... and it breaks their heart, because they see addiction and they see misery and they don't want to come back. I don't know if Telegraph is meaningful to people anymore, or if it just makes them sad."

The City Council will hold a special session Nov. 27 to hear proposals for how to improve Telegraph, including installing more lighting and increasing police patrols. Al Geyer is among those hoping it will lead to something.

Geyer's Annapurna store has been on Telegraph for more than 40 years, and time has largely stood still there. The hippie feel is inescapable amid the shelves that stock incense, smoking accessories and sex toys.

Surviving hasn't been easy, Geyer said. Business plunged 35 percent after the fire, and it still isn't back to what it was.

"It's hard to say what's going to happen," said Geyer, standing in front of a photo of himself at a 1969 Rolling Stones concert. "I'm going to be here."