Now Reservable
A welcome innovation in the park is Reservable Picnic Areas. Two picnic spots, a small one and the largest, can now be reserved with a phone call or online. This will be good news for organized families and groups who now don’t have to send a member out at the crack of dawn to hold down a picnic site for an afternoon gathering.
Reservable No. 1 is on the east side of the park, directly on the edge of the North Basin water. It has three tables, one BBQ rack, and is a few steps from a water fountain.
Reservable No. 2 is in the middle of the park, partially sheltered from the western wind by a ridge. This is the biggest picnic area in the park with ten tables, five BBQ racks, and a water fountain.
Signs at each site have a QR code that sends your smartphone to a city website, namely this one, https://secure.rec1.com/CA/berkeley-ca/catalog/, where you then have to click on Picnic Site Reservations, then Cesar Chavez Park, at which point you can choose areas No. 1 or No. 2. Or you can try phoning 510-981-5150 Ext. 0. Good luck.
The other picnic areas in Chavez Park are not reservable; it’s first-come-first-served.
In other park news, the October newsletter from Terry Taplin’s office reports that bids are now out for a permanent restroom to replace the porta-potties on Spinnaker Way near the parking circle. Apparently the sewer line to connect this to the main sewer that serves the hotel and the boat shop was put in place when the Spinnaker Way roadway was rebuilt earlier this year. We’ve noticed some new piping there and wondered what it was, but then the porta-potties went back up and I figured it was part of the landfill gas system. I’ve been agitating for permanent restrooms in the park since 2014; in fact, that was the cause that launched this website and the community around it. When that new restroom opens up we’ll have to have a celebration. But, hello, one real restroom for a park of 90 acres? That really doesn’t compute.
O frabjous day! When and if the restroom ever materializes they should name it after you! (Hmm, I can see where you might not welcome that!) Maybe instead grateful park users like me will erect an altar of gratitude to you and this website outside the long-awaited facility.