signs: Hotel Touraine

Hotel Touraine

Named ultimately for a region in France, it was a popular hotel name, with examples from Paris, France to Buffalo, NY to here in Oakland. This sign is in bad shape, but searching for history on it, I came across pictures of another sign on the other side of the building. It's also in bad shape, but considerably better than this one.

from
Society in Decline
on Flickr

stop BART's Oakland Airport Connector

Becks at Living in the O and others have links to a petition to stop BART's current plans for the Oakland Airport Connector. Calling it a boondoggle is an understatement, to the tune of $500 million (or more -- the price keeps going up.) The latest, as Becks reports, is that the planned speed for BART's OAC will be even slower -- slower than the speed limit for cars and busses. It will cost a ton of money, and the projected ridership won't begin to cover the costs, even at $6 a ride (vs. $3 for the current AirBART.) Better alternatives, like a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to replace the existing AirBART have been proposed, but BART seems hell-bent on spending the money. Read more about it on the TransForm website, and make your voice heard!

signs: Sutter Hotel

Sutter Hotel

Continuing with hotel/motel week, it's the Sutter Hotel near the Federal Building.

signs: Hotel Menlo

Hotel Menlo

All this week it's hotel/motel week on the Our Oakland signs feature. I've posted a few (Harrison Hotel, Oaks Motel) before, but I came across a number of new ones on my ride the other day.

Hotel Menlo

First up is the Hotel Menlo. The hotel looks as if it's seen better days, but the Seoul House restaurant on the ground floor was doing a good business when I went past.

Walk Oakland - Bike Oakland

Walk Oakland - Bike Oakland is a non-profit organization dedicated to making Oakland a better place to live by making it a better place to walk and bike.

WOBO at Whole Foods

Today until 3pm they're at Whole Foods on Harrison and Bay Place, offering free mini bike tune-ups, and information about walking and biking in Oakland. That's to mark being the recipient of Whole Foods' Nickels for Non-Profits program for the month of August. If you take your own bags for shopping (and you really, really should), you can tell Whole Foods to donate 5 cents to WOBO for each bag you use.