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Community Corner

Berkeley Rose Garden Needs a Little Help from Its Friends

The local landmark needs over $4 million in improvement and restoration work.

Chiseled into the Berkeley hills below Codornices Park, the Berkeley Rose Garden's terraces are wearing their summertime best — new blooms in pink, yellow and red. But the 74 year-old amphitheater, maintained by one gardener and a handful of volunteers, is showing its age. 

Cascading pathways are cracked and uneven, and some of its semi-spherical flower beds are eroded. Pools of muddy water on the flagstone pavers by the creek attracted yellow jackets and dragonflies on a recent summer day.

Capitol improvement projects planned to repair and restore the garden remain unfunded, and Friends of the Berkeley Rose Garden, a group founded in the early 1990s to help care for the garden, has dwindled and needs new blood to keep up with the garden's demands.

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"The city is very responsive when we bring things to them, but they have so much going on, we have to advocate for the garden," said Christina Platt, a volunteer with the group. "We're looking for some younger members. We want to revive the interest."

In the past, the group raised money to improve the garden's overlook at Euclid Avenue, install picnic benches at the adjunct tennis court and recreate a fountain.

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The group's current challenge is fundraising to get neighboring properties' trees trimmed, to protect the garden's view of the San Francisco Bay. But the list goes on, with hopes for stuccoing walls and sanding benches. It is also considering hosting a 75th anniversary party for the garden next year.

"We held a 60th anniversary," said Platt, referring to 1997. "It was a beautiful day and we had bluegrass music and a string quartet."

However, with only six volunteers, the Friends of the Berkeley Rose Garden can't meet all the needs they once met. "The world has changed," said Platt. "There were so many more people, mostly women, who had free time."

"We surveyed neighbors recently and everyone cared about the garden," she said. However, because of the economy, "they were just keeping their heads above water," she said.

Robert Harris, the garden's landscape supervisor, said the last major improvement project completed by the city was in the late 1990s — installing the tall perimeter fence and gate to keep deer from nibbling the flowers. One sign of life: in the last few months, the city rebuilt two deteriorated bridges in the garden's upper trails to and from Euclid Avenue.

Back in its glory days, the garden was a remarkable gift from the Works Progress Administration that employed more than eight million people to create parks, trails, community buildings and public art during the Great Depression. "A wild ravine was the way it was described," said volunteer Platt. "It wasn't really buildable. But they made this beautiful design."

The garden opened in 1937 as an accessory to Codornices Park, but it has come to stand on its own — named a Berkeley landmark in 1995.

Rick Perez, who visits the garden weekly, read a book called "Words in Air" under the crescent-shaped pergola. "I've been coming here for years, and it hasn't looked this bad in awhile," said Perez. "I imagine it's a budget problem as much as a maintenance problem."

Perez is right. A 2009 list of unfunded capitol improvement projects estimated $1.25 million was needed to resurface and improve the pathway accessibility alone. Another $500,000 was estimated for pond and creek restoration. All together, well over $4 million in repairs and renovations was suggested.

"There is a long-term plan to work on the pergola at the rose garden," said Robert Harris, the garden's landscape supervisor. The pergola, "which may or may not be an uncredited work by Bernard Maybeck," he said, has suffered some minor earthquake damage — the Hayward Fault runs through the garden. 

The list of unfunded capitol improvement projects puts the cost of restoring the pergola at $750,000.

To begin restoring the garden, the city will use $325,000 from the Measure WW funds granted to Alameda and Contra Costa counties, according to Deborah Chernin, the principal planner for the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department. She said priorities are repairing the pathway, improving ADA accessibility to the garden and restoring the pergola.

"It's a drop in the bucket," said Chernin, who said grants need to be identified to continue work incrementally, and that fundraising by groups like Friends of the Berkeley Rose Garden and Berkeley Partners for Parks could help. "It's a beloved park and it needs work. We've got to start somewhere."

Community members of all ages frequent the park, wandering the grounds uniquely shaped like a third of a pie.

"It's a very popular place to get married," said Platt. "It's used by everyone in the city. After kids graduate from high school, they take pictures against that backdrop."

One gardener and three to five weekend volunteers maintain the shrubs.

"It's a beautiful place," said Yasmine S., a Berkeley resident who brought her mother to visit the garden. "It's great that there are volunteers maintaining it, but it would be better if the city put more resources towards it."

"[It's] always been kind of rustic," said Perez. "But there's a fine line between rustic and neglected. I think we're edging towards neglected."

To volunteer at the Berkeley Rose Garden, go to the garden at 1200 Euclid Avenue at 9 a.m. on any Sunday. Discussion on how to spend the $325,000 Measure WW funds for the garden will begin at the Landmarks Preservation Commission meetings in the fall.

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