Oakland: an industrial city?

Forget arguing about 'view corridors'. The real question about Oakland's future is whether it wants to be an industrial city again or not.

An article in the Wall Street Journal says the city wants West Oakland to be a 'clean-technology, manufacturing and industrial hub', but that doesn't sit well with all West Oakland residents. It would, however, be a return to some of West Oakland's historical roots, which besides the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad, had a number of less-clean industries like the Phoenix Iron Works. More recently West Oakland has seen housing being developed.

In the Oakland Tribune, this article talks about the desire to create more housing near the estuary in what's currently largely an industrial area. But Oakland City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente is opposed to a similar proposal for the nearby Owens-Brockway Glass Containers plant.

What's the right answer? I don't know enough to know. But I would hate to see the glass recycling plant closed for more housing, as Oakland currently has enough housing even if it's not all affordable, but not enough jobs.

still tilting at windmills: Idora Park

Idora Park windmill

Or if you prefer: Windmills? In Oakland? MooOOOooo! I'd noticed this windmill years ago, but saw it again when I was in the area shooting the Steele's sign a while back. According to this post, it's the last remaining vestige of Idora Park. NOTE: According to the folks at Steele's and city historians, it was not part of Idora Park, but was a lemonade stand.

Idora Park was an amusement park, with rides, a baseball field, a zoo, and an opera house. It was built by the Realty Syndicate that also owned and operated what later became known as the Key System transit company, and lasted from 1903 to 1929. Oakland's own Jack London took his daughters there, riding the rollercoaster repeatedly until one was no longer afraid of it, because as he said, "No child of mine is ever going to be afraid - of anything!".

Check out this great collection of Idora Park postcards at AlamedaInfo.com and read more about Idora Park at Wikipedia.

signs: Real Estate

Real Estate

Across from Steel's Discount Scuba is this dilapidated sign for Real Estate.

signs: 353 Grand

353 Grand

The musically motifed sign at 353 Grand has been on my "to shoot" list for some time. The neon is in good shape so I keep hoping to see it fully lit, but all that I've ever seen lit is the clock at the bottom.

blog pulse: bike routes in Google Maps!

showing bike paths and lanes

Sure, there's some local discussion about street cars in Oakland. I'd love to see it happen and agree with 21st Century Urban Solutions that streetcars would help revitalize Oakland, but I'm not expecting it anytime soon.

No, the big news that's not just in Oakland but all over the blogosphere is that Google Maps at long last has bike routes and mapping. You can read the official pronouncement at the Official Google Blog. It's still in development, but it looks like they've got a good start, with maps in over 150 cities. The routes give priority to bike paths and lanes, and attempt to avoid steep routes. For example, coming back from Kaiser, the first suggestion was coming up Moraga. At the cost of an additional 0.9 miles, the second suggestion was to go up Broadway and around past Lake Temescal which is less steep. On the other hand, it didn't suggest going up the Shepherd Canyon Trail behind Montclair Village, but instead riding up Colton Blvd. Using the trail adds 0.8 miles, but Colton is hecka busy and hecka steep. The trail keeps you off the street for much of the way (and on less busy and steep streets for the rest), so is well worth the added mileage.

Additional reading:

• Official Google Blog
• Google LatLong blog
• BoingBoing
• TreeHugger