InBerkeley

I surveyed College Avenue with the intent of duplicating Dave’s chronicle of empty storefronts on Solano Avenue. But it’s remarkable that there’s only one truly empty retail space, the unused half of Tulanian and Sons Oriental Rug Cleaning and Repair:

Three other spaces on College are vacant, but are in the process of opening with new tenants. On the west side of the street, the long-vacant space next to Your Basic Bird is about to open as the Summer Kitchen Bake Shop:

With Ici Ice Cream a couple of doors down, this stretch of College is threatening to become a great danger to Berkeley waistlines.

Across the street, I’m still lamenting the loss of Bolfing’s Elmwood Hardware after 84 years of operation. Neighborhoods need practical stores, as well as upscale ice cream and cute stores filled with tschotkes. Owner Tad Laird was truly a victim of Berkeley’s sometimes crazy zoning laws. The care and skill with which he has renovated the building for new tenants shows how good the reworked hardware store might have been. One half of the old Bolfing’s is now a slightly forbidding wine store, and the other half will be the first fashion store for a local designer who makes her clothes in Oakland — once she completes her obstacle course with Berkeley’s bureaucracy.

The final piece in the current reworking of the Elmwood is the replacement for the Elmwood Pharmacy, on the corner of College and Russell (photo above, by pixieclipx, of the old Ozzie’s soda fountain). The new tenant will be a cafe, apparently being founded by someone who worked at the wonderful Cafe Fanny on San Pablo. If any reader knows more about this project, I’d love to know. I’ve only been able to pick up local rumors so far.

So four untenanted stores on College in Berkeley, but three of them ready to open anew. What recession?

Lance Knobel General