Bike to Work Day and Car Free Challenge

Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day, to encourage more people to bike (and take public transit as needed) instead of driving to work. To make the idea more palatable, Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) and the Bay Area Bike Coalition (BABC) have set up energizer stations around the city. You can even ride into Downtown with your council member (and eat pancakes)! Can't bike all the way? AC Transit is supporting Bike to Work Day and has bike racks on the front of buses. Bikes are allowed on BART with some restrictions.

More reading:
WOBO's Bike to Work Day hub
BABC's Bike to Work Day hub
map of the energizer stations
post at Today in Montclair

As wonderful as it is, Bike to Work Day is a one-day event. Hopefully it will encourage more people to consider biking (possibly in connection with public transit). But if you want to show you're really committed (or some would say, really should be committed), take part in Bike to Work Day tomorrow and then take part in TransForm's Car Free Challenge the first seven days of June. Ideally you'd not ride in a car at all that week, but that may not be practical. So instead you register (for prizes, a t-shirt, and an after party) and then set your mileage goal as low as you can. This event also supports the work of TransForm. Join up with other Oakland bloggers and be part of the Blogoaksphere Car Free Challenge Team.

As a reminder for both events, Google Maps now supports directions via bike. That feature is still in development, but between that and the WOBO and BABC resources you should be able to figure out a bike route or bike + transit route to your destination.

signs + food: Claremont Diner

Claremont Diner

Next to The Graduate bar is the Claremont Diner. It's got the classic diner vibe going in a big way. The other morning after dropping K off at Rockridge BART (direct train to SFO, no people mover!), I stopped by for breakfast, and of course, to check out the signs.

Although the reviews on Yelp are all over the place, I found the food to be good, basic diner fare and and the service very good. I had blueberry pancakes, which were hearty and had lots of blueberries in and on them. The coffee was hot, tasty enough, and the waitress refilled it as needed. Throw in classic diner decor, some nice signs, and a model train that runs on the half hour, and you've got a fun little place with good food.

Eat

Claremont Diner

signs: Spitz Jewelers

Spitz Jewelers

This gem (ha!) of a sign is hiding behind a tree on International / East 14th in the Fruitvale. Founded in 1946, at some point they moved from Fruitvale to the pedestrian mall in City Center. I don't know if the new locale has a great sign like this one or not.

Home Energy Efficiency

blower door test

You may remember a while back I attended the Greening Oakland Homes fair. A lot of the info was familiar to me, but I was inspired to have a home energy audit done. My experiences with that were recently published on Jetson Green, a green building website I've done some writing for in the past. Whether you're a do-it-yourself type or not, it has some good info on making your house more energy efficient.

Earth Day 2010

Earth

Happy 40th Earth Day! I spent the last 4 days at the Habitat for Humanity Earth Day Build-a-thon (day 1, 2, 3, 4). We framed 10 houses in 4 days, going from foundation to roof trusses, even with some rain on Tuesday morning. Habitat East Bay has been using green building techniques for years and continues to refine them.

Habitat for Humanity Build-a-thon

Oakland North has coverage of what Oaklanders have been up to in order to celebrate Earth Day and make Oakland a better place.

The Oakland Tribune writes about the improvements to Bay Area air, water and land quality in the last 40 years and the challenges that lie ahead. There's also a great article about ways to reduce, reuse and recycle for free by using sites like Freecycle. The article includes a list of other sites for borrowing and other ways to reduce the amount of stuff we buy.

lots of goats!

Finally, we have a great green solution for reducing the flammable undergrowth on Oakland hillsides. I took this picture while riding home today, and the goats clearly love their work. You can hear them happily munching away over the car noise from highway 24. Read more at Today in Montclair (though right now the goats are in Hiller Highlands.)