photos: view from above

Last week Annalee Allen and I did a presentation about Oakland history at the Lake Park Retirement Community, focused on some of the landmarks in Oakland and the people behind them. It went well, though I didn't sell any copies of Legendary Locals of Oakland, but what I was really excited about was a chance to check out the view from the roof. The building is on Alice Street near Snow Park, and has views of Lake Merritt, downtown, and beyond. Maybe someday I'll be able to afford a drone camera, but for now, tall buildings will have to do.

Art Deco Architecture

Saturday I went on part of a walk focused on Art Deco architecture in Oakland. The walk was sponsored by the Sierra Club (it's true—they do urban hikes, too) and led by Guy Mayes. The walk started outside the Oakland Museum of California, and was scheduled from 11AM to 5:30PM, followed by an optional dinner gathering. I only stayed until about 3:30PM, but it was a very interesting walk.

I know a lot about Oakland, but not that much about Art Deco architecture other than I tend to like it a lot. Guy told us about some of the different categories of Art Deco architecture, and pointed out some of the common features like zig zags, botanical swirls, stacked ziggurats, and bas relief sculptures. I won't attempt to describe the entire walk, but some of the places we visited (not all of which feature Art Deco architecture) and topics discussed include:
Oakland Museum of California
"Anansi" sculpture
Alameda County Law Library
Alameda County Court House
Camron-Stanford House
Municipal Boathouse
Scottish Rite Center
Snow Park
Schilling Gardens
Regillus Apartments
Lake Merritt Hotel
Islamic Cultural Center
Hill Castle Apartment Hotel
Oakland Main Library
Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts
Chauncey Bailey
Hotel Oakland
Disco Volante
Income Securities Building
Jewish Cultural Experience Mural
Oakland Title Insurance and Guaranty Building
Mural Lane
Oakland YWCA Building

Lots more pictures from the walk:


Thanks to Guy for leading the walk and his lovely wife Nancy for helping him and telling me about her 31 years(!) teaching in Oakland public schools. And shout out to the young music artist we met near the YWCA, IllumiNate.

Bike to Work Day 2011

Bike to Work Day 2011 was a big success -- the biggest BTWD yet. Early counts say that over 10,000 people rode their bikes to work yesterday in Alameda county alone.

Bike to Work Day 2011

I volunteered at the energizer station at Lakeside and 14th, one of over 110 energizer stations around the East Bay, where we counted 386 cyclists by 9AM. A large percentage of those were obviously regular bike commuters; some even said, "I do this every day" as they rode past. Hopefully some of the newer riders will bike to work every day, or at least more than they have in the past.

From Bike to Work Day 2011

After we closed up our energizer station, I headed over to city hall to check things out there. I ran into Annalee Allen of the Oakland Walking Tours program, and saw lots of familiar faces staffing the WOBO and EBBC booths and valet bike parking.

Then I rode home, worked for the afternoon, and came back down the hill in the evening for the Bike Away From Work after-party. It was a lot of fun. I chatted with former EBBC director, now BART board member Robert Raburn. And hung around with Becks, dto510, @DanielBackman, @das88, and others, all the while smelling Tina Tamale's awesome food at the nearby stand.

More coverage:
SF Streetsblog
SF Streetsblog - after party
Oakland Local
Oakland Local - allaboutgeorge's ride
KGO ABC7
my photos
EBBC blog
Ella Baker Center

(To keep the Oakland fun going, I then headed down to Heinold's to meet up with @egratto, @adri, and @ohdottie, to meet @twitchhiker. He's traveled around the world relying on Twitter, and wrote a book on his experiences. He's traveling again, and working on another book. A quote on his site from the BBC says "Smith is one our true British eccentrics." I don't know about that, but he is a nice, interesting guy, and has even less hair than me. Safe but interesting travels, Paul! Enjoy the Greyhound to El Paso!)

photo journey 3: p is for purple

Pis for purple. And purple is for problematic. I thought I'd have trouble finding enough purple things to shoot without going out of my way, but there turned out to be plenty of purple things on my rides between College Ave. Presbyterian, Camron-Stanford House and home. The problem came because my P&S camera had a hard time registering some of the purples correctly. It even seemed to have a hard time focusing on some of them. So on a second outing I took my DSLR, and while it did somewhat better, it still had problems registering some of the purples. At least it focused on them OK.

Purple is also for Lent, the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. So in some churches, that means purple vestments for the clergy and purple decorations for sanctuary. I only saw a purple altar cloth, and I have to admit I didn't photograph it along with the other photos, as it would have meant interrupting the service. For some people Lent means giving up something, hence Mardi Gras and Carnival where people live it up before giving things up. In some places like Trinidad & Tobago, Carnival celebrations last for a month, which is almost as long as the 40 days of Lent.