A strip of a former rail line through Southwest Berkeley will be transformed this year into the city's newest park, boasting community gardens, children's play areas and a dog park across four long-neglected blocks. An extensive environmental clean-up for the quarter-mile stretch of the old Santa Fe rail corridor between Blake and Ward streets is set to get underway this spring, Parks Director Scott Ferris told Berkeleyside.
The ordinance has two components. First, it will require landlords who rent buildings used as detention centers to compensate residents and the city for actual costs incurred as a direct consequence of its tenants' actions. Those costs could include things like police overtime, traffic management, fire and emergency medical responses, and environmental remediation. The collected money will reimburse impacted community members, and the city's general fund.
