Day 14 - August 4, 2011

Upper Laurel, Redwood Heights 

Day Miles: 14.6(J) / 14.7(S)
Cumulative Miles: 289.8(J) / 294.0(S)
Day Hours: 1:31(J) / 1:33(S)
Cumulative Hours: 28:00(J) / 28:17(S) 

We're not fooling ourselves about the hills to come, but we did have a small dose of some steep and long ones today.  Check out a link to Maybelle Street, the dead-end going up to the neighborhood reservoir.  We had to ride side-to-side a bit, but ride (!) every street we shall.  No walking, thanks.

Today's ride was nice, as we had to chance to stop by a friend's house in the neighborhood and talk with him and his neighbors a bit about our project.  It was clear that they found our approach to documentation pretty low-tech (really, no GPS?!), but on we trudge.

Growing up, Joel and I used to ride skateboards with a full-blooded Navajo Indian.  According to the 2010 U.S. Census only 1,214 American Indians or Inuits (0.3% of the population) live in Oakland, so you can be certain we were glad to catch this little gem:

Keeping today's entry short.

Cheers,
1970 

Day 13 - July 27, 2011

Dimond, Laurel, Allendale 

Day Miles: 9.4(J) / 9.4(S)
Cumulative Miles: 275.2(J) / 279.3(S)
Day Hours: 0:54(J) / 0:54(S)
Cumulative Hours: 26:29(J) / 26:44(S)

Today's ride filled in a few incomplete areas above I-580, but really didn't amount to much mileage.  If you look at the progress map, you'll see we underperformed, but short days can be helpful and restful.  As long as we're making forward progress...

Kasper's Hot Dogs is an Oakland institution, going back to the 1920s.  A family rift in the '30s caused a different location, "Casper's" on Telegraph, to split away from the other franchises.  I imagine the MacArthur 

location pictured here did very well before the MacArthur Freeway was constructed.  My friend's father, who grew up in Richmond in the 1950s, used to drive down MacArthur Boulevard all the way to Hayward before then.  So much of the traffic on the street was diverted by the freeway, undermining a lot of local businesses and motels.  But that's an old story.

Another Oakland icon, Loard's Ice Cream, was recently listed among the "Best of the Bay."  Joel thinks they might be throwing a bone to the old school places, unless they really might have the best chocolate.  I'll let you decide.

Cheers,
1970

Day 12 - July 21, 2011

East Peralta, Clinton, Ivy Hill, Bella Vista, Lynn (Highland Park)
 
Day Miles: 29.9(J) / 30.1(S)
Cumulative Miles: 265.8(J) / 269.9(S)
Day Hours: 2:50(J) / 2:51(S)
Cumulative Hours: 25:35(J) / 25:50(S)
  
Today's riding area seemed to typify Oakland in many ways: mixed in terms of race and income; partly residential and partly industrial in feel; and, some beautiful but many rundown homes.  I've heard people refer to this area as "East Oakland," but I'm more inclined to call it Eastlake or "Central Oakland."  It's home to Alameda County's trauma center, Highland Hospital, so it gets more than a fair share of gunshot victims.  The hospital is expanding too, in an odd patchwork arrangement:

 The area has a commercial area of little note, though one can find a gem here and there.  People say good things about the relatively new Thai and Laotian restaurant, Champa Garden.  I saw a lot of people out and about - one of the reasons I like to ride through neighborhoods on summer evenings.  If we continue riding in winter and/or during the morning, I imagine I'll miss out on the local color of neighborhoods.  People always talk about the crime in Oakland, but I was so struck at all the seemingly "vulnerable" people out living their lives: young kids, older Asian women, disabled people.  Somehow they're mostly avoiding being victims of crime.

Both Joel and I liked this wrought iron gate at Bella Vista School/Park:

 Also this beautiful palm-lined street:

Cheers, 
1970

Day 11 - July 17, 2011

Northgate, Pill Hill, Mosswood
  
Day Miles: 19.6(J) / 19.9(S)
Cumulative Miles: 236.0(J) / 239.8(S)
Day Hours: 1:48(J) / 1:51(S)
Cumulative Hours: 22:45(J) / 22:59(S)

I was born in this neighborhood, on Pill Hill.  Back then, in 1970, it was Providence Hospital, though it is now part of the Alta Bates Summit community of hospitals.  We rode a fair amount today, and went as far west as Martin Luther King Boulevard.  Around 28th and MLK is the "urban farm" that local food author Novella Carpenter has written her book "Farm City" about.  She talks about raising animals, foraging for their food in the dumpsters of gourmet North Berkeley restaurants.  Hers is not the nicest neighborhood, though certainly not the worst by Oakland standards.  We did find this welcoming sign just a few blocks away:

During today's ride, I was most surprised by the size of the homeless encampment under I-980.  Mosswood Park is a fun and large park where we saw the vintage baseball league practicing.  Two new and interesting places of note in the neighborhood are Commonwealth Pub and Homeroom Restaurant.  I'm anxious to make it to both places - I hear Homeroom's mac 'n cheese is pretty tasty.  Finally, I love the new Manifesto Bike Shop with Sunday Bike Church:

Cheers,
1970

Day 10 - July 10, 2011

Uptown, San Pablo Gateway, City Center, Old Oakland 

Day Miles: 17.1(J) / 17.2(S)
Cumulative Miles: 216.3(J) / 219.9(S)
Day Hours: 1:36(J) / 1:37(S)
Cumulative Hours: 20:57(J) / 21:08(S) 

We took advantage of a slow Sunday to finish up riding Downtown Oakland.  The worst part was crisscrossing I-980 to get all to overpasses and one-way streets near the highway frontage road.  I got a front tire flat - the first mechanical difficulty of our tour of Oakland - and realized I didn't have all the necessary tools.  My doting wife drove down to meet us with tools and a pump so that we could resume our trip.

This part of Downtown Oakland has a lot of parks and squares that are dominated with transients and worse.  Nice to have parks, but they could be a lot more inviting than they currently are. 

It also is the part of town with the Greyhound terminal.  Not exactly the most grand way to enter Oakland, but more than a few times in college I rode the bus from U.C. Santa Cruz to this terminal to get home.  Slow.

One bright spot in this area is Preservation Park, with 16 historic buildings, including 11 that were moved from other parts of Oakland, with the whole design attempting to approximate a late 19th century Oakland neighborhood.  Here's the center fountain in the area: 



Nice to finish up this part of Downtown Oakland, rounding out the busiest parts of the city center, and the the location of many Oakland and Alameda County municipal functions.


All for now.  Cheers, 
1970

Day 9 - July 4, 2011

Uptown, Downtown, Chinatown, Civic Center
  
Day Miles: 16.1(J) / 16.2(S)
Cumulative Miles: 199.3(J) / 202.7(S)
Day Hours: 1:26(J) / 1:27(S)
Cumulative Hours: 19:21(J) / 19:31(S)
 
We chose July 4th as a good day to navigate these streets without the usual weekday traffic.  Today was an easy day, but also a little boring.  I work in Downtown Oakland, so there's not much new to explore, and gridded and flat streets lack the design nuance that can contribute to more interesting touring days for us.

Downtown Oakland would be a really dead place were it not for the large resident Chinatown prominently in its center, which creates a lot of pedestrian traffic and a sense of activity that is absent throughout the rest of the city center.  

We didn't take many photos on this ride, but here's my favorite:

 
Happy Independence Day, everyone.

Cheers,
1970

Day 8 - June 23, 2011

South Kennedy Tract, Coliseum Industrial, Hegenberger, Oakland Airport

Day Miles: 44.0(J) / 44.1(S)
Cumulative Miles: 183.1(J) / 186.4(S)
Day Hours: 3:29(J) / 3:32(S)
Cumulative Hours: 17:55(J) / 18:04(S)

It turns out that, if one is planning to ride through the Oakland Airport, weekday evenings are a good time to do so.  We rode a huge swath of the city today.  The streets weren't dense (making it easy to cover a lot of ground), but they were long.  Neither Joel nor I had done much riding in the last month (my excuse was that I got married and had my honeymoon in May-June), so 44 miles in some headwinds felt difficult.  At one point we stopped at a taco truck to share a burrito, as we were both tuckered out and hungry.

Not a lot of neighborhoods to see today (mostly industrial areas on this ride), but I was very interested in the Columbian Gardens community  near I-880 and between Hegenberger and 98th Avenue.  The neighborhood had a few nice parks, and seem relaxed and safe, with some kids playing on the street.  Joel and I both thought this an interesting open space creation in the neighborhood.

I suspect, despite all the concerns people have about other East Oakland neighborhoods (on the north side of 880), that they will also feel relaxed and safe.  I guess a lot depends on the time of day and just sheer randomness.  Joel had a quick chat with one of the residents of the neighborhood who collected classic VW vans/trucks.

Some personal favorites on the ride were seeing the Oakland Aviation High School and discovering that there is actually a union for pile drivers.

Cheers, 

1970

Day 7 - May 11, 2011

Upper Dimond, Lincoln Highlands, Redwood Heights, Upper Laurel

Day Miles: 26.2(J) / 26.4(S)
Cumulative Miles: 139.1(J) / 142.3(S)
Day Hours: 2:58(J) / 2:59(S)
Cumulative Hours: 14:26(J) / 14:32(S)

A very hilly day indeed.  Another familiar neighborhood for us, one we've ridden on our bikes for years, though mostly downhill.  A lot of history for us, too.  It's the neighborhood with the Mormon Temple, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the former site of the Carousel Capers Fair.  The Mormon Temple is probably the most famous of these, with its prominent perch visible throughout most of Oakland.



The Mormon Temple is a regional draw for the Bay Area's practicing Mormons, and the church has extensive publically-accessible ancestry databases for researching genealogy.  The databases inspire a bit of controversy in that one of the goals for maintaining birth and death information is to posthumously convert non-Mormons to Mormonism.

Joel likes to take photos of interesting artifacts from Oakland's better days.  Here's one:

 

Overall, I felt like we accomplished a solid day of riding today, and I really enjoyed seeing the super-remote little streets tucked away behind the Mormon Temple.

Cheers, 
1970

Day 6 - May 8, 2011

Cleveland Heights (Includes Haddon Hill and Peralta Heights) 

Day Miles: 15.5(J) / 15.6(S)
Cumulative Miles: 112.9(J) / 115.9(S)
Day Hours: 1:38(J) / 1:39(S)
Cumulative Hours: 11:28(J) / 11:33(S) 

A pretty light riding day, though a bit hilly. I really enjoyed riding the Cleveland Heights neighborhood.  People often speak of Oakland's housing stock as being a "block by block" affair, terms of safety and quality.  No less true here.  Sandwiched between I-580 and run down businesses on Park Boulevard and East 18th, there were some lovely homes and beautiful landscaping.  

It saddens me so that the Parkway theater hasn't been open in years.  The building is still lovely, and just begs for an occupant:

One other neighborhood curiosity is the F.M. Smith Park, named after Francis Marion "Borax" Smith: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Marion_Smith.

A borax miner in Death Valley, and creator of the Key System interurban in the Bay Area, this park makes a show of his famous "20-mule teams" for hauling his mined minerals from their excavation sites.  I'm sure the significance of this figure and the testament to his contributions to California and the Bay Area are lost on the average basketball player in the park.

I like this greenhouse in the neighborhood.  I'm sure it's well used:

Cheers,
1970

Day 5 - April 27, 2011

Jack London Square, Acorn Industrial, Prescott
  
Day Miles: 27.7(J) / 28.0(S)
Cumulative Miles: 97.4(J) / 100.3(S)
Day Hours: 2:37(J) / 2:38(S)
Cumulative Hours: 9:50(J) / 9:54(S)

Long day today; nice that evening are getting lighter.  Today we rode from Jack London Square west, toward the Port of Oakland and the EBMUD water treatment plant, staying west of I-880.  This is a heavy industrial area, with those port cranes that inspired the "Imperial Walkers" from Star Wars:

Riding through the Port of Oakland, we were surprised to see a lot of cyclists out.  The so-called "POO" (Port of Oakland) ride is every Tuesday night, and I think cyclists are out there on other nights as well to take advantage of a relatively traffic- and stoplight-free place to ride.  They'll often get 40-60 riders on a 2.5-mile loop. 

  
Next we rode through the now-defunct Oakland Army Base (see photo with AC Transit bus stop below), finishing our ride at the EBMUD water-treatment plant.  Along the way we rode to the base of newly-built Bay Bridge.

Cheers, 
1970 

Day 4 - April 15, 2011

Chinatown, Jack London Square, Embarcadero, Jingletown, Laney College
  
Day Miles: 24.2(J) / 26.3(S)
Cumulative Miles: 69.8(J) / 72.3(S)
Day Hours: 2:20(J) / 2:20(S)
Cumulative Hours: 7:13(J) / 7:16(S)

We were shot at today!  Okay, so not exactly with bullets, and it was not exactly at us.  As we rode through the Produce District of Jack London, someone shot pellets or BBs from a two story building, shattering the window of a nearby parked pick-up truck.  We were right across from the Webster Tube Portal to Alameda.



We saw some curtains move in the two-story warehouse building just across from the Oakland Portal, but we never did figure out who was responsible for the shooting.  The rest of the ride through that area was uneventful.  We spent some time snapping photos in Jack London Square, which had a "Strictly Sailboat" event going on at the time.  Heinholds First and Last Chance Saloon (opened in 1883) is always a fun place to spend an afternoon, with its sloping floor caused by the 1906 earthquake and it's abundance of outdoor seating.

We'd hoped to cover all of the Port of Oakland and the old Oakland Army Base as well today, but we were both tired.  Turns out it's hard to ride 25 miles while reading turn-by-turn directions at the same time.  We did manage to ride the length of Oakland's Embarcadero, to get a strong whiff of Kilpatrick's bakery, and also to cover all of Jingletown, including the "Oakland Riviera" on the Rue de Merde (please excuse my French), known for all the dog poop left on the street by man's best friend.

Somehow Joel's and my mileage didn't square closely today.  We're both going to check our computers to investigate the cause.  Until next ride...

Cheers, 

1970

Day 3 - April 8, 2011

Glenview, Trestle Glen, Cleveland Heights

Day Miles: 12.1(J) / 12.3(S)
Cumulative Miles: 45.6(J) / 46.0(S)
Day Hours: 1:20(J) / 1:21(S)
Cumulative Hours: 4:53(J) / 4:56(S)

Still clinging to those (safe) areas above 580 in today's ride. Long respite for us.  A wet winter and not enough daylight to ride after work has delayed our project, but on we roll.  We finish off the Glenview District, and ride by the house where Joel currently lives.  Next, Trestle Glen and onward.

Trestle Glen is a gem of a neighborhood, abutting the Lakeshore commercial district, with lovely Tudor homes.  I found some great information about this neighborhood in the Lakeshore Homes Association website: Lakeshore Homes Association. As the website explains, "The name Trestle Glen dates back to approximately 1893 when Francis Marion "Borax" Smith's Oakland Traction Company extended a trolley line from Downtown Oakland up Park Boulevard to Grosvenor Place."  I love how train development has so defined the neighborhoods in Oakland (you wouldn't know it now).  In many instances neighborhoods were created once transportation (trains) was extended to them.  It was very common for real estate developers to also be transit operators.

Oakland neighborhoods have so many interesting nuances to them.  One of running themes we intend for this blog is documenting many of the idiosyncratic little street features innate to Oakland.  Trestle Glen has many urban paths and stairwells connecting its streets.  These are common throughout the city, and are currently being inventoried by Oakland Urban Paths.  We found this dilapidated example off Alma Place.

Just around the corner from there is a fun little freeway onramp tucked into the end of a block.  Visitors who come from newer cities, where every freeway interchange is over-engineered, would never expect that a freeway starts at the end of this street. Excelsior freeway onramp.  Joel loves the urban art of Oakland, and took a picture of our avatar with the onramp sign.


 
Both Joel and I liked this Trestle Glen cul-de-sac's garage dormer and landscaping, including the tree with the custom steel brace.





Cheers, 
1970