The Solano Stroll Turned 50 on One Year of Funding. Berkeley's Half for 2027 Has No Budget Line Yet.

"They're going to kill the golden goose," Allen Cain told The Berkeley Scanner in May. Cain runs the Solano Avenue Association. He was explaining why the Berkeley end of the East Bay's biggest street fair might sit out its own 50th anniversary. Four months later, on Sunday, Sept. 13, crowds filled Solano Avenue from The Alameda to San Pablo, and the Stroll ran in both cities. From the sidewalk, that looked like the problem was solved. The city budget tells a narrower story. Berkeley found enough money for one Stroll, and the 51st, already on the calendar for Sept. 12, 2027, has no line in the adopted budget.

A Berkeley-side bill bigger than its share of the street

Albany's part of Solano Avenue holds about two-thirds of the Stroll. Berkeley's part holds about a third. Cain told the Scanner that Berkeley's assessed fees for 2026 came to $200,000. Albany put up $100,000, split between $60,000 in in-kind services and $40,000 for barricades. The Association spends about $75,000 a year of its own money producing the event. Cain's limit was blunt: "It cannot be a $400,000 festival. We can't afford that."

The gap comes down to staffing. Many more Berkeley police officers work the Stroll, often on overtime shifts. According to the same report, Albany has 27 officers and Berkeley has more than 120.

The other big cost is steel. Since 2022, the Stroll has been ringed by Archer anti-vehicle barriers. They come from Meridian Rapid Defense Group, a Pasadena company, and are built for what the industry calls hostile vehicle mitigation. Cain said there are now about 300 of them. He put the bill at $80,000 in 2022 and more than $100,000 today. For 2026, the Association added a $68 "Meridian Safety fee" to vendor applications to help cover city charges. Councilmembers Shoshana O'Keefe and Brent Blackaby pointed to the Berkeley Kite Festival and the July Fourth fireworks. Both are local traditions canceled indefinitely as fees climbed, and the councilmembers didn't want the Stroll to be next.

What Berkeley was asked for, and what it approved

The original request in the April 6 council item covered two Strolls, 2026 and 2027, for a total of $297,000. Over the summer, the money came in three separate pieces:

Add up the $40,000 budget line, the $48,350 from council offices and the $60,000 fundraising goal and you get $148,350. That's within $150 of one year of the original request. The mayor's budget notes describe the $40,000 as the "remaining balance" after the June 30 council-office grants and the Association's fundraising goal. All three pieces were sized for the 50th Stroll. The June 30 resolution names the 2026 Stroll specifically.

The separate referral never got its own vote. The Budget & Finance Committee recommended it on May 28 and asked staff to compare the cost of buying barriers with the cost of renting them. On June 16, the council took no action, saying the item had been folded into the mayor's proposed budget. We found no published buy-versus-rent analysis and no sign that the barricade setup changed for September. The context is a hard year at City Hall. The Scanner reported a projected $30 million deficit in each of the next two years. Cain acknowledged that himself: "It's hard to advocate for a street festival when people are losing their jobs."

September 12, 2027, with the Berkeley side unfunded so far

The Solano Avenue Association already lists the 51st Stroll for Sept. 12, 2027, along with Berkeley, Albany and business sponsors from this year. No line in Berkeley's adopted two-year budget covers it. We haven't found any post-event statement from the Association or the city on how Berkeley's share of next year will be paid. That could still come from future council grants, sponsors or a mid-cycle budget change. None of those is on record yet.

This is the same question that came close to splitting the 50th Stroll at the city line. In May, nine Upper Solano residents and business owners wrote to the council warning of "a strong likelihood it will only take place in September 2026 on the Albany side." Cain called an Albany-only Stroll his worst case: "It would be so sad and awkward."

The rest of the Association's calendar fits the same street with far less equipment

The Stroll is the Association's big day, but it isn't the only one. The Association has been around since 1974. Its two remaining events this year are smaller in scale:

1. Halloween on Solano, Friday, Oct. 30. Trick-or-treating at most stores and offices along both the Albany and Berkeley stretches runs 3 to 5 p.m. At 5 p.m. there's a costume contest at Solano-Peralta Park, by the 7-Eleven, with cash grand prizes and all ages welcome.
2. WINTER on Solano, Sunday, Dec. 6, noon to 5 p.m. The Association says the avenue stays open to traffic all day. Santa will be at 1758 Solano from noon to 3 p.m.

Halloween is a sidewalk event and WINTER on Solano leaves the street open, so neither needs the 26-block closure the Stroll does. The Association's events page also mentions Santa on Solano in December. Its detail page still shows last year's weekends, so watch for 2026 dates before planning around them.

New storefronts on both sides of the city line

The street the Stroll celebrates kept changing this year. On the Berkeley side, the biggest piece of news is the former Starbucks at 1799 Solano, at Colusa, which closed in 2025. According to Albany Scanner, three owners are planning a cafe there called Kayf, focused on traditional Arabic chai and pastries. One of them is Mohamed Alwadai, who owns Eunice Gourmet Cafe. They don't have an opening date and hope to open by the end of the year.

That news came out because a reader asked about Eunice Gourmet itself. The cafe at 1162 Solano has been there since 1998. Its sign came down and its windows were covered over, and Alwadai explained it was a facelift: a weathered sign being replaced and the yellow interior repainted all black.

Farther down on the Albany side, Berkeleyside's Nosh reported in April that Pretty Things was soft-opening at 1122 Solano, in the former Flora & Ferment space. It's a 21-tap craft beer bar that lets you bring in food from elsewhere. In January, Anahuac held its grand opening at 1501 Solano in the old Fonda space, serving fajitas, enchiladas and seafood.

The pavement is on Berkeley's list too. The city's FY2026 resurfacing list includes Solano between Contra Costa Avenue and Tulare Avenue. The street repair page gives no start or finish date. In Albany, the Active Transportation Plan adopted in July includes an uphill protected bikeway from Masonic to Tulare, with a preliminary cost estimate of $30 million to $50 million. A council member estimated construction is about five years away. Albany's mayor has said adopting the plan doesn't approve any specific design.

Until something new is on record, the Berkeley end of the street runs on what's already scheduled: trick-or-treating on Oct. 30, Santa at 1758 Solano on Dec. 6, and a cafe at Colusa that hopes to open by year's end.

When a street fair loses its funding, you can see it right away. Losing a coffee shop or a crossing is slower, and it shapes daily life more. Following both on Solano and the blocks around it is part of what we do at Caitlin Crawford. If you're thinking about a home near Solano Avenue and want to talk through what's actually happening on these blocks, request a personalized consultation.