SAN FRANCISCO — They filed in tentatively, taking seats on plush couches and folding chairs arranged in a semicircle in the cafe’s gently lit backroom. Here would be safe to share their deepest feelings, they were assured, to unspool their still-fresh emotions.
West
City of Berkeley votes to return sacred Native land to Ohlone
- Ohlone people celebrated on Wednesday over the return of sacred Native land in Berkeley, California.
- Berkeley’s City Council unanimously voted to give title of the 2.2-acre parking lot to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.
- Mayor Jesse Arreguín said the site is significant as a place for education, prayer and preservation of Ohlone history.
Ohlone people and others rejoiced Wednesday over the return of sacred Native land dating back thousands of years, saying the move rights a historic wrong and restores the people who were first on land now called Berkeley, California, to their rightful place in history.
The 2.2-acre parking lot is the only undeveloped portion of the shellmound in West Berkeley, where ancestors of today’s Ohlone people established the first human settlement on the shores of the San Francisco Bay 5,700 years ago.
Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a San Francisco Bay Area collective led by women that works to return land to Indigenous people. The collective raised most of the money needed to reach the agreement with developers who own the land.
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“We want to be a place for global Indigenous leadership to come and gather in solidarity,” said Melissa Nelson, chair of the board of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, at a celebratory news conference Wednesday. “We want to educate, we want to restore and we want to heal.”
Melissa Nelson, chair of the board of directors of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, speaks at a news conference on March 13, 2024, in Berkeley, Calif. Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, a women-led, San Francisco Bay Area collective that works to return land to Indigenous people and that raised the funds needed to reach the agreement. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
The crowd cheered as speakers talked of a movement to restore other lands to Indigenous people.
The site — a three-block area Berkeley designated as a landmark in 2000 — will be home to Native medicines and foods, an oasis for pollinators and wildlife, and a place for youth to learn about their heritage, including ancient dances and ceremonies.
“The site will be home to education, prayer and preservation, and will outlast every one of us today to continue telling the story of the Ohlone people,” Mayor Jesse Arreguín said, adding that their history is “marked not by adversity, but more importantly, by their unwavering resilience as a community.”
Before Spanish colonizers arrived in the region, the area held a village and a massive shellmound with a height of 20 feet and the length and width of a football field that was a ceremonial and burial site. Built over years with mussel, clam and oyster shells, human remains, and artifacts, the shellmound also served as a lookout.
The Spanish removed the Ohlone from their villages and forced them into labor at local missions. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Anglo settlers took over the land and razed the shellmound to line roadbeds in Berkeley with shells.
“It’s a very sad and shameful history,” said Berkeley City Councilmember Sophie Hahn, who spearheaded the effort to return the land.
The agreement with Berkeley-based Ruegg & Ellsworth LLC, which owns the parking lot, comes after a six-year legal fight that started in 2018 when the developer sued the city after officials denied its application to build a 260-unit apartment building with 50% affordable housing and 27,500 feet of retail and parking space.
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The settlement was reached after Ruegg & Ellsworth agreed to accept $27 million to settle all outstanding claims and to turn the property over to Berkeley. The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust contributed $25.5 million and Berkeley paid $1.5 million, officials said.
The trust plans to build a commemorative park with a new shellmound and a cultural center to house some of the pottery, jewelry, baskets and other artifacts found over the years and that are in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Corrina Gould, co-founder of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and tribal chair of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Ohlone, attended Tuesday’s city council meeting via video conference and wiped away tears after the council voted to return the land.
The shellmound that once stood there was “a place where we first said goodbye to someone,” she said. “To have this place saved forever, I am beyond words.”
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In one of America’s most liberal cities, this is where San Franciscans come when they need a place to process the latest political bombshell. So they did Monday, gathering after President Biden ended his reelection campaign and ceded the spotlight to one of the Bay Area’s own. In confessional tones, person after person reported how their mood had changed overnight: from depression to delight, anxiety to excitement.
The preceding weeks had been traumatizing, the previous 24 hours life-affirming.
“I think for the first time in months I feel so optimistic,” said Chandru Murthi, a 77-year-old resident who was the first in the circle to share.
Manny Yekutiel imagined exactly this type of discussion when he founded his hybrid coffee shop, bar, bookstore and event space in the Mission district in 2018. The 34-year-old political science major is a longtime Democratic fundraiser and strategist, and he decided to open shop after Donald Trump’s election.
Since then, Manny’s has become a pillar of the city’s political scene, a physical retreat for like-minded souls to talk at a time when so much discourse is chronically online. The back of the cafe is decorated like a living room, with floor lamps, house plants, even a red vintage rug from Yekutiel’s childhood home in Los Angeles.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and first lady Jill Biden are among the prominent Democrats who have all stopped in. Vice President Harris, now the party’s likely ticket-topper in the November election, is also a fan. “You’re amazing,” she told Yekutiel during one of her visits.
For anyone looking to do a wellness check on the psyche of a deeply blue stronghold at this historic moment, Manny’s is where to go.
Responding to Biden’s news, Yekutiel reworked the week’s schedule, starting with Monday’s session. He kicked things off as discussion leader. “Let’s ground this in how we feel right now,” he told the crowd of about three dozen people. “How are we feeling as Democrats, as San Franciscans, as people who have a lot at stake in this election?”
“I feel excited, I feel hopeful,” said Angelina Polselli, 24. “It feels like everyone finally woke up from a long, long nap.”
As Manny’s resident Gen Z expert, she noted that young people have some concerns with Harris, particularly her record as a prosecutor. But there’s also the “brat” factor, which Polselli had to explain to an audience who appeared largely unfamiliar with the catalogue of Charli XCX.
“It feels exciting to have a young candidate who is energized and youthful and who is also talking to young people and using the language we use,” she added.
Soon, however, that familiar fear crept back in.
“I’m a little bit worried about a San Francisco liberal carrying the battleground states,” said Dan Rink, 81 and himself a liberal from the Bay Area.
“I’m not sure she’s a liberal, I view her as more moderate,” David Anderson, 55, a film industry veteran, chimed in.
Yekutiel took a poll: “How many of you, if you’re willing to raise your hand, are worried about her ability to win?” About half the circle responded, though several acknowledged they were “more hopeful than 24 hours ago.”
Hope has been in short supply all year for this crowd. Enthusiasm, even shorter.
“The last few weeks were really difficult because people have just felt this dread, that there’s no point,” Yekutiel said. “And now I have all these ideas, my mind has been racing, people are reaching out to me, asking how they can help. That was not happening 24 hours ago.”
Two nights later, Manny’s hosted a watch party for Biden’s Oval Office address, his first since exiting the campaign. Despite the new themed drinks — “Kamalattes,” sweetened with coconut syrup, of course — the affair was solemn.
As the president’s speech played on a small TV opposite the barista station, some 20 people fell silent and clustered around the screen. Passersby stopped to watch through the cafe’s open front windows. A woman named Lydia walked in to order a mocha and wound up staying for the whole thing.
The elated embrace of Harris expanded to a tearful appreciation of Biden.
“I felt in his voice and his speech and his words so much love for this country,” Michelle Jeong said, choking up. “The hope, unity and the lack of ego.”
For Mike Madison, who had also attended the Monday gathering, the sentiment was overdue. Lost in the memes and the Harris hullabaloo was the fact that Biden had just made a tremendous sacrifice, he said.
“I wanted people to remember what he’s done, his real accomplishments,” Madison said.
If night one’s theme was relief and celebration and night two’s was gratitude, a third event Thursday was something of a reality check. It was also the largest gathering of the week, squeezing about 175 people into Manny’s backroom for a panel featuring two journalists dissecting the upcoming campaign and Harris’s prospects for victory.
“It’s not going to be easy, let’s be clear. It’s not going to be easy to win in November,” said Scott Shafer, politics editor at KQED, a Bay Area public radio station.
The evening served as a call to action: “This is our hometown candidate, she’s one of us,” Yekutiel said. “So we are going to be needed to propel her to this highest office.”
For those interested in getting involved, he announced a very San Francisco option: A “disco for democracy” party, with proceeds going to get-out-the-vote efforts in neighboring Nevada. Only days earlier, when Biden was still heading the Democratic ticket, such festivities were a harder sell, Yekutiel said. But now there was something to dance about.
Lalita Abhyankar, a physician, was ready to volunteer. “I want to knock on doors,” she said. “I’ve never felt this way about a candidate, not even Obama. … I can vote for her instead of just voting against Trump. It feels amazing.”
Thursday was her first time at a Manny’s discussion, she said. A friend told her it was the place to be this week, and she wanted company as she reveled in her new enthusiasm. Sometimes even those who didn’t know they cared leave Manny’s fired up — like the woman who happened to walk in just before Biden’s address.
“She came in for a mocha and participated in a major historic moment,” Yekutiel said. “That was my vision for this place — you trap people with beer and coffee so they don’t even realize they’re walking into a political space. And then, they’re in.”
The Rockies lost their momentum in San Francisco. Again.
Coming off a 4-2 homestand culminating with a 20-7 bombardment of the Red Sox on Wednesday, the Rockies were manhandled by left-hander Kyle Harrison Friday night at Oracle Park.
Harrison allowed one run on one hit over 6 2/3 innings as the Giants routed Colorado 11-4 Friday night at Oracle Park. Harrison matched a career-high with 11 strikeouts.
Harrison got a big assist from sizzling rookie shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald, who launched a pair of two-run homers as he continued his magical July. All told, the Giants hit four home runs.
The Rockies, 14-37 on the road, have lost nine consecutive games at Oracle. Since the start of the 2021 season, they are 5-24 in the City by the Bay.
“Overall, it was a tough one tonight,” Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters in San Francisco. “Harrison was the key.”
With left-hander Kyle Freeland on the mound, the Rockies took the field with a puncher’s chance. After all, Freeland came in riding a streak of five consecutive quality starts, during which he posted a 1.95 ERA.
Although Freeland struck out eight and escaped jams in the second and third with clutch punchouts, he was tagged for two home runs. Jorge Soler led off the first with a blast to left, and Fitzgerald ripped a two-run homer to left in the fourth. Heliot Ramos and Casey Schmit also tagged Freeland for triples to right-center field.
Freeland got the hook after four innings, charged with six runs on eight hits.
“Kyle had to work hard and they had some good at-bats against him,” Black said. “Kyle’s stuff was good, but they worked him hard, they really did. And he just couldn’t seem to find the inside corner enough with the fastball.”
Fitzgerald’s second two-run homer came in the sixth inning off Tyler Kinley, extending the Giants’ lead to 8-1.
Fitzgerald, who homered in five straight games from July 9-23, is riding an eight-game extra-base hit streak, the second-longest by a Giants rookie since 1900. It trails only Hall of Famer Hack Wilson’s nine-game streak in 1924.
Fitzgerald’s overall hitting streak is now at nine games, during which he’s hit .452 (14 for 31).
Plain and simple, Harrison owns the Rockies. He’s 3-0 with a 2.22 ERA and 28 strikeouts. On May 7 at Coors Field, he pitched a career-high seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits in San Francisco’s 5-0 victory.
Powered by a two-run double by Brenton Doyle in the eighth, the Rockies’ hibernating offense woke up late. But it was too little, much too late, especially after Heliot Ramos crushed a three-run homer off reliever Ty Blach in the eighth.
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Originally Published:
Charley Royer, Seattle’s longest-serving mayor, has died at age 84. He was the city’s 48th chief executive.
Royer was ahead of his time in many ways. He established low-income housing to combat homelessness. Royer decided that the city would recognize domestic partnerships and provided city benefits to those families. He oversaw the development of the Washington State Convention Center.
Royer was born in Medford, OR in 1939. He joined the Army in 1961 and after leaving the Army studied Journalism at the University of Oregon. Royer worked for KING 5-TV.
KIRO Newsradio last spoke with the three-term former mayor in 2023, when he weighed in on the whereabouts of the “Seattle Spirit” in modern times.
“Our spirit is not pep rally spirit,” Royer said. “It’s almost a ‘golden rule’ kind of spirit, and it’s something that I think still exists. But when you start growing as fast as we have been growing, you get a lot of people who don’t know the handshake,” he continued, using the metaphor of fraternal organizations with arcane traditions. “They don’t know that they’re supposed to not be angry about gay people. They don’t know that Republicans sometimes, like Dan Evans and a bunch of Republicans we had in office, are for the environment, they’re for people paying their fair share of taxes.”
As Royer told it, it was almost like that 19th-century Seattle Spirit morphed and evolved into the 20th-century Seattle Process, which is the sometimes – OK, often – pejorative name for a style of big-tent public engagement in decision-making which can seemingly go on for years or even decades, which can often frustrate citizens watching from outside the big tent.
Royer said the modern version of the Seattle Spirit is also about getting over old rivalries like the one with Tacoma – which dated to the railroad age but which continued until recently.
“I couldn’t believe it when the Port of Tacoma decided that it would partner up with the Port of Seattle,” Royer said. “They were fierce competitors. Tacoma and Seattle have always competed for business, and it’s been unhelpful to everybody.
“Our cities in the region have not collaborated and so those grudges and competitions have blinded us to some opportunities,” Royer added.
When asked by KIRO Newsradio to give advice to incoming mayor Bruce Harrell, he said good working relationships with the city council and the media are key.
“Don’t criticize the council, even in private with your department, and don’t engage in bad mouthing the council with the citizens or with others who have some case against the council,” Royer said. “They know it when you’re doing that, it’s almost like an animal kind of sense that they sense that you have been talking about them, or they hear about it, and that will negate any entreaties you make with the council, or any approach you make for the council to try to work with them. So don’t engage in that, and certainly don’t engage in beating up the press.”
One big part of that skill and leadership emerging and taking action, said Charles Royer, is about the timing and about a critical mass of the public having the will and the stomach necessary to tackle the big issues.
Royer said honesty is critical to a functional political system. Even though Royer didn’t share the political views of Ronald Reagan, who was president during much of Royer’s tenure at Seattle City Hall, he did admire him.
“I thought he was a pretty good president. And he was an honest man, I think, and he was a caring person,” Royer said. “But he also told the truth. He may occasionally have, in some of his stories, bent the truth a little bit to his advantage – particularly if he was campaigning – but he didn’t outright lie.”
Royer is survived by his wife Lynn Claudon, two children; Suzanne Royer McCone and Jordan Royer, and 4 grandchildren and one great grandchild. The cause of his death is not known.
Contributing: KIRO 7
You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle’s Morning News, read more from him here, and subscribe to The Resident Historian Podcast here. If you have a story idea, please email Feliks here.
Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.
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