A century ago, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that Berkeley’s City Council, acting in response to a request from the city of Albany, voted to “cooperate with Albany in extending Santa Fe Avenue as a parallel highway to San Pablo Avenue.”

Berkeley Councilmember Elmer Nichols said “he favored making the extension, stating he believed it would tend to bring Albany residents to Berkeley’s shopping center, where now they continue down San Pablo Avenue into Oakland.” This was an argument often used for Berkeley street and highway changes.

Another interesting aspect of that Aug. 28, 1925, council meeting was that it “was held without a single citizen in the audience, the first time in the history of (the) city manager form of government. Lack of an audience was due largely to the fact ther

See Full Page