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:

OAC just won't die

It's the project that just won't die. The Bay Citizen is reporting that BART managed to spend $31 million in two weeks (or underestimate how much they'd already spent), for a total of $95 million, and all they have to show for it is a ceremonial ground-breaking.

That was after BART board member Robert Raburn announced he thought the project could be stopped, which was no surprise given that two of the biggest supporters are no longer with BART, and the costs continues to rise even though no actual construction has been done. Now he's quoted in SFGate's Matier and Ross column, saying "It doesn't look like we are going to be putting the brakes on this project". Gah!!

Supporters claim it will produce jobs for Oakland (not many) and raise the profile of the Oakland Airport (but not in good way). For $500+ million, they want to build a people mover. Not an extension of BART like the one to SFO. Don't throw good money after bad -- just kill the OAC project, and spend 1/2 the money improving the existing BART system and setting up a BRT line to the airport.

update: good post over at Systemic Failure.

BART under civil rights investigation

I figured the OAC was a done deal after the city council inexplicably went along with BART's plans, but according to Living in the O, BART is under a civil rights investigation by the Federal Transit Administration. In part, this is because BART's EIR (Environmental Impact Report) is based on 2002 data, the OAC including multiple intermediate stops (the OAC plans currently have none), and a $2 fare (the OAC plans currently call for a $6 fare vs. $3 for the current AirBART). The cost for implementing the OAC will also likely be borne in part by higher BART fares and/or reduced service.

I've noted before that BART could build a new station at 98th to better serve the residents of East Oakland and implement TransForm's proposed RapidBART bus plan with intermediate stops for a good deal less than the OAC's $500 million (and climbing) price tag. This won't necessarily stop it, but it's a huge step in getting others to take a look at some alternatives.