strange days indeed

Some days just don't go as planned. I had lots of Oakland-y goodness planned for today, starting with a ride down the hill to church at College Avenue Presbyterian, a short ride down to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire to volunteer with the East Bay Bike Coalition and check out the fair, then over to Peralta Hacienda for a walk and lecture made possible by Oakland Urban Paths and the National Park Service. All sounds like good stuff, no?

I hopped on the e-bike and headed to Lake Temescal, as the bike path around it is one of the quicker, more pleasant routes over to Rockridge for me. I was surprised to find an OPD motorcycle cop on the path who signaled me to stop. He said I couldn't go on the path, couldn't go through the park either, and couldn't say why it was closed, just that it was "for another agency." Another agency? The Girl Scouts, the fire department or Homeland Security? There's a lot of different possible reasons there. In any event, I rode back to Broadway Terrace, and down to Rockridge that way. The fact I saw two police cars on my way (which is two more police cars than I normally see on a Sunday) did nothing to assuage my concerns.

I arrived at church a bit later than planned, and noticed that Monte's video display was, well, a bit skewed -- the projector was showing the control screen, and his new laptop was showing the presentation. I checked in with him and quickly fixed it, but it was a further discombobulation for the morning. After the service including another great sermon by Monte, I rushed off towards the Maker Faire, again running a little bit later than I'd planned.

I arrived at Opal and 42nd, the designated place for bike parking for the Maker Faire, and saw...no bikes. After peering around for a bit, someone pointed me down the block to the next gate. I arrived to see the available space full of bikes. Apparently last year, they'd had maybe 40 bikes or so, so the Maker Faire gave EBBC that much space. Well, last year it rained, so a lot of people didn't ride (and probably some didn't go at all). This year, it was warm (and a little humid -- what's up with that?) and sunny, and the space was filled to overflowing. To complicate matters, normally EBBC gets an enclosed space to park bikes in, with one entrance to control access. This space was along the driveway used for musicians and makers to bring in their gear, so we had the back access to worry about, a steady stream of non-bike people going through, and we had to keep the driveway clear. Shortly after I arrived we had to start with a one-out, one-in policy, as we didn't have room for any more bikes until some left.

So when the end of my shift was approaching at 2pm, I asked Max if they'd had any volunteers sign up for the 2pm to closing shift. Given the day so far, I was completely unsurprised to hear that they hadn't. Given the extra challenges, I decided to stay and keep helping. During a bathroom break I checked out a few of the makers nearby, but didn't really get to spend much time there. The Crucible had some cool exhibits, including a truck with a fire calliope sort of thing that kids could trigger from a control panel. There was also a place where kids could make and decorate cardboard rockets, then have them launched into the air from a compressor-powered rig. There were a lot of happy kids I saw, so I'd say the event was a big success even if it wasn't the best organized.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day. Just different than I'd planned.

fall in Oakland

We're blessed with an amazing climate here in the Bay Area. Even though we had a cooler than normal summer, we're having a beautiful fall (at least as much 'fall' as we get here). I shot this Tuesday at Lake Temescal on my ride home from grocery shopping. And it's a good example of when to break the rule of thirds.

neighborhood videos

Afun set of videos for downtown and some of the north Oakland neighborhoods. They're done by Red Oak Realty, which had a booth at the Temescal Street Fair the other week. It'd be nice to see videos like this for all the neighborhoods of Oakland.

Downtown Oakland from Red Oak Realty on Vimeo.

Montclair from Red Oak Realty on Vimeo.

Rockridge from Red Oak Realty on Vimeo.

Temescal from Red Oak Realty on Vimeo.

Temescal Street Fair

Guerrilla Grub

This year's Temescal Street Fair was originally scheduled for June, but unusually late storms forced rescheduling it to July. It didn't seem to suffer for the delay -- there was a huge turnout.

There were lots of food vendors, art booths, and activities for kids. There were two music stages, Capoeira dancers, a climbing rock, and rides for kids at the south end. Local shops were taking advantage of the extra foot traffic. Bakesale Betty's is normally closed on Sundays, but had all their signature ironing board tables out. The alleyway off 49th was getting some extra love. Crimson was open, and sneak peeks were available of soon-to-open Temescal Alley Barbershop.

Lots more photos:

Temescal Street Fair

Also check out coverage from:
Cooking with the Single Guy
Oakland North

Lake Temescal

early morning swimmers

One of Oakland's gems is Lake Temescal, located near highways 13 and 24. It's a man-made lake straddling the Hayward fault, and was originally created as a reservoir. Now it's used for swimming, picnicking, fishing, or just enjoying a bit of nature. There are short hiking trails around the lake, and a bikeway at the east side of the park that I ride frequently to and from Rockridge and the Temescal district.

Despite many visits, I'd never been there for swimming. The Fourth of July promised to be a hot day, so K and I made an early visit to Lake Temescal to cool off. We got there before 10AM, and most of the picnic spots were already claimed and the parking lots were filling up. The EBRPD guy collecting the beach fees said there'd been 1500+ people through on Sunday, and today promised to have even more. By the time we left a couple hours later, the beach was starting to fill up, and the BBQs at were going full blast.

Despite being in one of the wealthiest, least diverse Oakland neighborhoods, the Fourth had a beautiful cross section of Oakland enjoying the lake. I stopped by later in the afternoon, and the park was packed with happy people. Besides swimming at the beach, there were people eating, laughing, playing soccer, hiking, fishing and just hanging out to celebrate Independence Day.

A Bit of History
According to the park brochure, Franciscan missionaries named the creek "Temescal" from two Aztec words: Tema (to bathe) and cali (a house). The lake and the neighborhood (which the creek flows through, albeit mostly underground these days) were named for the creek. The reservoir was originally built in 1868 by Anthony Chabot's Contra Costa Water Co. to provide drinking water, and the story has it that wild mustangs were run back and forth across the dam to compact it during construction. Most of the manual labor to build the dam was done by Chinese immigrants.

c.1915, The Comet, from Oakland Hills

Besides its history as a reservoir, Lake Temescal is also connected with the railroads that used to run through the area. The Sacramento Northern (which my grandfather worked for) had tracks which ran where the bikeway is now. A historical panel in the park shows pictures. (These are the same tracks that continued through what is now Montclair Village and up Shepherd Canyon; the shallow grade is part of what makes it ideal for cycling.) At the time, an electric train called the Comet also ran directly over the lake on a trestle.

c.1950, from Selections from the
Oakland Tribune Archives

The area was converted to one of the first three East Bay regional parks and opened to the public in 1936. The lovely stone beach house was built by the WPA in 1940. The beach house can be rented for special events, and behind it there's a lovely patio and garden area.

In more recent history, Lake Temescal has again been used as a reservoir. Not for drinking water, but to provide water for fighting fires. In 1991, helicopters used it for water to fight the Oakland firestorm. As recently as 2009 it's been used for firefighting as well.

See also the Wikipedia entry on Lake Temescal. For more pictures and reading, visit the Oakland history room at the main library, and check out Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series, including:

• Images of America: Oakland Hills by Erika Mailman
• Images of America: Selections from the Oakland Tribune Archives by Annalee Allen

Available at your favorite neighborhood Oakland bookstore.