UCAN: Uplands Claremont Area Neighbors
LATEST UCAN NEWS
On Friday, 2/21/25, Berkeley City Councilmember Mark Humbert sent the following letter to UCAN's interim president, Paul Valenstein, to inform UCAN that he has agreed to a "functional pause" in the City's process regarding any potential changes to Round Park. Here is that letter:
February 21, 2025
Dear Paul,
I am writing to let you know that the City will indeed be taking a functional pause on further work with respect to re-designating “Round Park” as an official City park. My office undertook this effort in good faith based on what I believed to be broad-based support, consistent with the representations of the original UCAN letter I received.
Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that this letter was at best premature, and perhaps ultimately not reflective of a true majority sentiment in the neighborhood.
I have therefore requested a pause to this work. I will await a further request, if any, representing the sentiments of UCAN and reflecting broader neighborhood support. If I receive that, a new process will begin and further public outreach will be commenced by the Parks Department, likely late this summer.
I do want to correct some misinformation. The Parks Department will not improve Round Park or maintain it unless it is officially designated as a park. But for it to be a park, it would not be required generally to have sidewalks or a fence. A fence, for example, would only be required if there was an active play area built. Otherwise, the major sine qua non of a park is ADA access. That would have to be installed. This was confirmed this week by our Parks Director.
I want to thank you and others for your constructive engagement on this matter. I appreciate and value when all of you bring information to my attention that can, should, and does change my approach. Please feel free to share this with others.
Respectfully and with gratitude,
Mark
An important letter from the UCAN Board - 2/13/25
To our Appreciated and Respected Membership:
UCAN is a new organization that, with the help of our community, has achieved many of its initial goals at breakneck speed. UCAN oversaw the installation of nine Flock automated license plate cameras, hosted multiple neighborhood events, and mounted a successful membership drive that inspired 265 households to join (and counting). As the Warriors say, there is strength in numbers. Unfortunately, the UCAN Board has also hit the occasional speed bump. When we make mistakes, we want to learn from them. This Board certainly has. We would like to apologize for not reaching greater consensus on the future of Round Park before seeking a change in its status, for the mishandling of the membership meeting on February 8, and for the tone of our follow-up communication. With this letter, we acknowledge those missteps and hope to begin to regain your trust.
UCAN is a neighborhood association — an association of neighbors. We thank all the neighbors who have made constructive suggestions about what the board, and UCAN, should do differently. We hear you.
Candidates wishing to run for the Board now have until 5pm on Monday, February 17 to submit their name to alanmarclevy@icloud.com, along with a statement of 500 words or fewer. We are extending the cutoff date for members to declare their candidacy because some of UCAN’s outgoing email messages are bouncing back from members’ servers, and some are going to member’s spam folders. All UCAN’s communications related to the election are also posted on our website, wwww.uplandsclaremont.com. If you are having trouble receiving emails, PLEASE check the website. While we can investigate email problems on our end, we can’t fix members’ servers or spam filters.
On Tuesday, February 18, after we have the final list of candidates, we will send out their names and statements and instructions for how to vote by email. Voting will remain open until February 28. There will be plenty of time to vote and discuss options with neighbors — no one should feel rushed. We must amend our bylaws to allow for email voting this year, but no other changes to the bylaws are proposed.
We hope you all remain as optimistic about our neighborhood association as we do. UCAN's mission to bring neighbors together remains the Board’s number one pursuit. We are all in this together.
Finally, the Board wishes to extend an all-out thank you to Allan Abshez, without whose efforts UCAN would never have been established, or have achieved so many of its stated goals so quickly. Allan has resigned from the UCAN Board but remains our dear neighbor and friend. His dedication and countless hours spent for the benefit of us all can never be sufficiently acknowledged. Paul Valenstein will serve as Interim President until a new Board is elected.
Sincerely,
The UCAN Board:
Alan Levy (Oakvale Avenue)
Sophie McNeil (Roble Road)
Doug Sovern (Eucalyptus Road)
Paul Valenstein (Hazel Road)