quiet morning in the village

skateboard ramp

Idropped K off at BART this morning, and I didn't have to be anywhere in particular so I spent some time in Montclair Village.

First to the bank. It feels like every other store front in the Village is now a bank or real estate-related office. It's not actually that bad, but a new bank will be moving in to the space vacated by Blockbuster Video. It was initially opposed by the merchant's association, but they recently voted to rescind their opposition. I'd rather it was something than a bank, but I'll be much happier with a bank than with the empty storefront that's there now.

Then it was over to Peet's for some more coffee beans, saying hello to my barber who was out enjoying the morning sunshine.

While I sipped my cup of coffee, I browsed my favorite (and local) Oakland book store, A Great Good Place for Books. Not that I'm running short of things to read, but they convinced me to purchase a book while I was there.

Finally it was back to car via the park. A skateboard ramp that has graced the park for the last couple of months was getting a paint job. I talked briefly with one of the volunteers who built it, and someone from CCAC (sorry, old habits...CCA) is going to paint a mural on the side.

signs: Kwik Way

Kwik Way

Closed for the last several years, the Kwik Way may go back to the future and be re-opened as a new restaurant by Somerset Restaurant owner Gary Rizzo. Let's hope so -- while it has an iconic sign, the building is starting to get run down.

seeing

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. And another day I wished I'd had a camera attached to my bike helmet or something, to capture some of the scenes as I rode to work via Fruitvale BART and back: younger siblings coming back with mom after dropping off a child at school; a line of people at a bus stop facing away from the street to shade their cellphones; a group of older men on the balcony of a house or apartment just watching the world go by.

For a little variety I meandered my way back from Fruitvale BART, and rode back past the Central Reservoir and various neighborhoods I hadn't seen before. No new signs as they were primarily residential, but I enjoyed seeing them nonetheless.

calling Oakland blogs

One feature here on Our Oakland is a blog roll of Oakland blogs (over on the left, below the list of maps), ranging from the journalism school-based Oakland North, to 38th Notes with news on local music, to Marleen Lee's Defending Measure Y, to various Oakland home-improvement blogs, and of course well-known blogs like VSmoothe's A Better Oakland. I found them linked from other Oakland blogs; on Twitter; searching Blogger's rolls (skipping a lot of one-post blogs); and, of course, by luck. Regardless of how I found them, the end result is a rolling update of what people in Oakland are blogging about.

By default, the list shows the 10 most recently updated, but you can view them all by clicking on Show All at the bottom of the list. If you do that, you'll see 95 blogs, some of that have fallen by the wayside, not updated in months or years. I know I haven't found all the active and semi-active Oakland blogs by any stretch, but I'd like to keep expanding the list. What Oakland blogs do you follow?

signs: 7 Seas

7 Seas

Not a great sign by any stretch of the imagination, but notable because it's gone. 7 Seas closed some time back and the sign disappeared with it. If you look closely, you can see a little "7C" on the truncated rhombus at the top,