Oakland Urban Paths: Glen Echo Creek

Saturday, 35 people (and one dog) joined Oakland Urban Paths for an exploration of the Glen Echo Creek watershed, led by Chris Kidd.

The local topography is something like a hand with the fingers spread, with ridge lines alternating with shallow valleys cut by streams like Glen Echo Creek. The creek starts as two branches, Cemetery Creek that comes through Mountain View Cemetery, and the Rockridge branch, which comes through the Claremont Country Club's golf course and feeds into the Bilger quarry. Heading east from our start outside the Cat Town Cafe and Adoption Center, we descended slightly then began climbing the next 'finger' on the other side.

There are lots of beautiful houses and stairways along the way. One interesting stop was at Oak Park. The site was formerly Edison Elementary School which one person on the walk had attended as a child. The school was closed in 1971 because it wasn't up to earthquake standards. It was subsequently sold and converted into condominiums. While the playground became a city park, the city doesn't maintain it, the neighbors do.

Like many creeks in the East Bay, much of Glen Echo Creek runs in underground culverts. Glen Echo does have more open segments than many creeks, but it almost disappeared completely. Back in the 1950s, there was a plan to build the Richmond Blvd. Freeway which would have run from near Snow Park downtown, over Glen Echo Creek and through Piedmont, and to highway 13. Fortunately it wasn't built...the freeways that were built were hard enough on Oakland as it is.

We meandered through part of Piedmont and to the Morcom Rose Garden. It was created in originally called the Oakland Municipal Rose Garden and the first rose was planted by then-mayor Fred Morcom in 1933. We took a brief break there while people checked out the roses, watched the labors of the Dedicated Deadheaders who take care of the roses, and looked at the names on the Oakland Mother of the Year walk of fame.

A different route took us back to our starting point, a bit tired but a lot more knowledgeable. Thanks to everyone who came out for the walk, and thanks to Chris for leading it!

Next month's walk is still being worked out, but check www.oaklandurbanpaths.org for details. As usual, it will be the 2nd Saturday, starting at 10AM. See you on the paths!

A map of our route (PDF).

More pictures from the walk:

Oakland Aviation Museum

One of the things I did while working on Legendary Locals of Oakland was visit the Oakland Aviation Museum in search of the bust of Feng Ru, the "father of Chinese aviation" and the first person to pilot an airplane on the West coast. I found the statue, but I found a lot of other interesting stuff, too.

The museum has numerous vintage aircraft on display, mostly inside what was the Boeing School of Aeronautics. There are also various displays showing uniforms, memorabilia, and even a Norden bombsight. There are exhibits on women in aviation, black Americans in aviation, and Oakland's part in "Operation Babylift" during the Vietnam War.

The pride of the aviation museum is a Short Solent Mark III flying boat. It stood in for a larger Boeing China Clipper in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". A copy of Life magazine marks the seat where Harrison Ford sat as Indiana Jones. The plane can be viewed any time the museum is open, but you can only view the interior on special occasions.

It's a very cool museum, definitely worth checking out, even if you're not particularly into airplanes. There's a lot of history on display there.

Lots more pictures from the Oakland Aviation Museum:

Oakland Neighborhoods Map, V2.1

Speaking of a long time since posting things, it's been more than 5 years since I first posted my Oakland Neighborhoods Map. Since then numerous Oakland blogs have come and gone, the amount of time I've been able to spend on the blog has waxed and waned, but over the years, there's been one constant: my all-time most popular posts are related to maps of Oakland (you can click on the 'maps' button below the site banner to see more). And the most popular of those, by an order of magnitude, has been the neighborhoods map. At some point Google updated custom maps and broke the original. I upgraded it to the new format, added some new content, and took advantage of some of the new features of the new custom maps engine.

So without further ado, I present the Oakland Neighborhoods Map, V2.1. As with the previous version, the basic map is based on the Street Trees. With lots of time spent poring over other maps, historical documents, and vague descriptions, I added some of the informal neighborhood names like Dogtown. If your browser supports it, there should be interactive version of the map below:


But all that said, the map is far from perfect. A lot of the 'street trees' names aren't used, and with any of the names that are used, people disagree about the exact boundaries. Myself, I disagree about the concept of exact boundaries for neighborhoods, because unless there's a physical barrier like a freeway, most boundaries aren't exact, and people's perceptions are different. Exercises best left to the user include: Where is DTO? Where is East Oakland? Is Uptown a real neighborhood?

The new version adds pictures of signs of some of the areas showing what they label themselves, refines the details of some of the boundaries, and even adds some historical neighborhoods that most people have no idea existed. Finally, I added a feature for myself, but some of you may find it useful, too. Go to the relatively easy to remember URL http://nmap.ouroakland.net, and it will redirect you to the Google Map page.

Unfortunately, the new Google Maps engine lost (or hid) some useful features, like the ability to load other custom maps on top this one, search for an address or otherwise use a custom map like a regular Google map, and probably some other things. Sigh.

signs: A Taste of Denmark

It's been over 5 years since I posted a sign for the struggling Neldam's Danish Bakery. Later that year, the employees formed a collective and kept the bakery going, but the Neldams kept the name. A temporary sign went up, but it wasn't until this week that I finally saw a new, permanent sign.

upcoming #Oakland events

It's been forever since I've done an upcoming events post, but a major work project is completed, my book, Legendary Locals of Oakland is in production and layout at the publisher, and I finally feel like I have some time. Hopefully you have some time, too, to get out and enjoy some of the great events coming up in Oakland!

Friday

Kaiser Center Roof Garden Concert - Each summer they put on free lunchtime concerts in the Kaiser Center Roof Garden, noon to 1pm. This Friday the musical group is The 415s. It's a great place to take your lunch and listen to some free music. (free)

Bicycle Fix-It Clinic - a free bicycle fix-it clinic at the 81st Avenue Library, from 2pm-5pm. And ideas on how to decorate your bike! (free)

Bites Off Broadway - my favorite food truck gathering, on 45th Street in front of Studio One Art Center.

Dancing Under the Stars - Friday's Dancing Under the Stars at Jack London Square features free lessons in the Bachata. Don't know what that is? Come down to JLS and learn! (free)

Saturday

OHA "Borax" Smith Tour - Join the Oakland Heritage Alliance to learn about legendary local "Borax" Smith, creator of the Key System streetcars, partner in the Realty Syndicate that built the Claremont Hotel, and more. ($10-$15)

Urban Wildlife walk with Wild Oakland - Join Wild Oakland and Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue to learn about some of the urban wildlife of Oakland with a walk around Lake Merritt. (free)

Pedalfest 2015 - The biggest bike festival in the Bay Area takes over Jack London Square. Besides bikes and bike-related fun, there will be food, music, and more. New features this year include an E-bike test track, Crucible Bike Build, and the Brompton Urban Challenge. (free)

Sunday

OHA Civil War Mountain View Cemetery - Join the Oakland Heritage Alliance and local historian Dennis Evanosky to learn some of the Civil War history at Mountain View Cemetery. ($10-$15)

Further Ahead

Love Our Dogs Day at Bites By the Lake - Bites By the Lake is a weekly food truck gathering by the Lakeview Library at the north end of Lake Merritt. On Sunday, August 2nd, the scheduled food trucks are Go Streatery, Tea and Picklets, Crepe Queen, Kancha’s Kitchen, Beulah’s Beans, and Curbside Creamery. But there will also be adoptable dogs from the Oakland Animal Shelter!

Art + Soul Festival - Music, art, food, fun. 2015 highlights include: Oaktown Throwdown BBQ Competition, Bandaloop, Kinetic Arts Circus Stage, and more. Plan to walk, bike or take transit...but not BART from SF because the transbay tube will be closed that weekend. (Saturday, August 1st and Sunday, August 2nd) ($12; seniors and youth $7; 12 and under free)

National Night Out - Meet your nearby neighbors for a street party, or join the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights for the Night Out for Safety and Liberation. (Tuesday, August 2nd) (free)

Sing-Along Cinema: Frozen - free movies to sing-along with at Jack London Square. (Thursday, August 6) (free)

Pete Escovedo: Personal Art Collection Show - closing finale of Pete Escovedo's personal art collection show at the historic Howden Building. (Saturday, August 8th)

Scenes from the Life of Julia Morgan - A special reading of Julith Offer's play, Scenes from the Life of Julia Morgan at the Pardee Home Museum. Learn more about California's first woman architect, take part in the reading, and enjoy hors d'oeuvres. (Sunday, August 9th) ($25)

PARK(ing) Day - Enjoy the streets in a new way as a pedestrian or cyclist, with dozens of parking spots around Oakland converted into temporary parklets. Plus a chance to celebrate a several permanent parklets, like in front of Farley's East. (Friday, September 18) (free)

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Did I forget something interesting? What can I say? I'm out of practice. Let me know...