Our Mission

In July 2010 Tom Graham, journalist and San Francisco native, wrote about his epic undertaking of walking every street in his home city.  It took him seven years to cover the city's 2,612 streets, spanning a distance of 1,260 miles.  We, Joel and Shimon, were similarly inspired to experience our hometown across the bay, Oakland, except not on foot.  Oakland is a more expansive city than San Francisco (56 vs. 47 square miles), with higher peaks, more dangerous neighborhoods and neither of us really likes walking. The two of us spent much of our childhood and young adulthood exploring Oakland by bicycle, and we've since ridden across Europe together, among our many bicycle adventures.  Using bikes to cover more ground, faster, we're beginning the exploration of our native city, block by block.  We've yet to calculate the number of streets or miles needed to complete this challenge, nor do we have definitive plans for safely navigating Sobrante Park, Brookfield Village, and the other neighborhoods that are more familiar from Too Short songs than from primary experience.

We know that it will be tough to avoid dogs, traffic, mechanical problems, rain, doubling and tripling back as we cover every boulevard, street, circle, way, and court.  Not to mention the logistic challenges of families and work.  But so it begins.  Each day we're able to ride we'll do our best to absorb all that is Oakland street life, and to share it along with photos, stories, mileage entries, and other miscellany.

While you're on our blog, take a look at some of the features in the right panel.  There are maps of Oakland neighborhoods and the areas we've ridden to date, along with logs of our rides and slideshows of photos we've taken along the way.  Finally, take a look at some of the other rides we've done, including a self-supported bicycle tour through Europe and one from the Bay Area to Las Vegas via Yosemite and Death Valley.  Let us know what you think. Thanks for reading our blog, and for taking part in seeking out the "there" in Oakland.