Two weeks after the city of Berkeley forced more than 20 RV residents off a stretch of Marina Boulevard, the parking lot where they were living sits empty. But the restaurant lot where some of them moved has now become an issue.
The parking lot at HS Lordships looks busier than ever, and the restaurant manager is not happy.
"They started moving in, and every day gets worse and worse and worse," Manoo Rahbari said. "We have a lot of complaints from customers, especially Sunday morning."
With a wedding on Saturday and Father’s Day brunch on Sunday, the iconic restaurant has more than 1,000 reservations this weekend and not enough parking left to cover it. "Twelve hundred people!" Rahbari said. "Can’t imagine how many cars are going to be here."
After 50 years, the restaurant is closing for good next month. But until then, they’re calling on the city for help.
Brittney Lynn and her two cats live in a van in the lot, and she says the RV community is made up of families, some with children. She fears after July 1, when the restaurant shuts its doors, the city will kick them out again.
"Where do you want us to go? Where do you want us to live?" she said. "We don’t really need much from them except for a slab of concrete, for sure, rather than just the expectation to disappear, which we literally can’t do."
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Some of the RV residents headed to a City Council meeting Tuesday to try to make their case to city leadership and ask for permission to stay where they are.
The city of Berkeley did not respond to requests for comment.
