Our Anniversary Celebration on Sept. 29 was a great success! 90+ guests enjoyed music, food and activities at Ocean View Park. We celebrated folks and organizations, highlighting their contributions to our achievements. In honor of the group’s two decades of service and advocacy, the City of Albany proclaimed Sunday, September 29, Albany Strollers & Rollers Day in Albany. We also celebrated our recent Best of Albany “Albany Community Service Award” from the Albany Chamber of Commerce. Our event was sponsored in part by California Clean Air Day. You still have time to take the Clean Air Pledge.
At Ocean View Park, guests enjoyed bike-blended smoothies, free bike tune-ups from the BikeMobile, installing a bike bell on their bike, and a helmet decorating arts and crafts table. There was food from Kim’s Café & Sandwiches, pickleball lessons, a Timeline Wall, and good company.
Our recognition program started during a break in music and pickleball. Vice Mayor Robin López shared a few words about his appreciation for AS&R and our members who supported him at a critical time. Ken McCroskey then spoke for the Core Group:
In twenty years, AS&R has
- Grown from two founders, Nick and Preston, to over 800 member households
- Formed a strong Core Group, which
- Has members on several city commissions and committees, plus
- Core Group members have been on City Council for ten years
- AS&R has a strong history of service in the community
- Many of the projects we have advocated for are accomplished or in process
- AS&R changed the way Albany functions with active transportation facilities, plus
- Changed the way Albany looks and how folks park their bikes in Albany
AS&R didn’t get here alone. We want to recognize everyone who’s helped us along the way.
We have had many partner community organizations who have worked with us, including:
- Our fiscal sponsor Bike East Bay,
- Rich City Rides,
- El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll,
- Waterside Workshops,
- Friends of 5 Creeks,
- Albany Triathlon,
- Solano Avenue Association,
- Albany Chamber of Commerce,
- Safe Routes to Schools Alameda County,
- and BikeMobile, who did tune-ups at this event!
Collaboration with current and Former City Staff has been crucial. Among those folks are:
- Ann Chaney, former Director of Development who had the foresight to hire
- Aleida Andrino-Chavez, longtime Transportation Planner with the city. We are fortunate to still be working with Aleida, now in her similar role with the Alameda County Transportation Commission! She has a special place in our hearts.
- Mark Matherly of Public Works, who personally installed the majority of Bike Bike Racks and Public Pumps with great detail and care,
- Several Directors of Public Works, most recently Mark Hurley and his staff who manage construction of projects around town,
- Jeff Bond, current Director of Development, who personally contributes to projects like the Jackson Street, off-street pathway from Berkeley to Buchanan. One segment is built and more to come!
- Justin Fried and Ben Matlaw make up our current Transportation planning team. We’re looking forward to working with them on the update to the Active Transportation Plan kicking off in October!
- Let’s not forget the partnership with the City of Albany on our Celebration! Many thanks to Vice Mayor López, Nicole Almaguer our City Manager, Public Works, and to Sid Schoenfeld and his team at the Recreation Department for taking such good care of us!
- We acknowledged past and present City Council members and Transportation Commissioners over the years who were present.
It’s hard to do anything without money, and we’ve been lucky to receive donations from some of you individuals over the years. Thank you! We’ve received funds for Bike Valet Parking from events like the Stroll and the Solano Avenue Association but much of our funding has come from two sources:
We surely wouldn’t have been able to get our efforts off the ground in the early years without the large, consistent donations from Grizzly Peak Cyclists. They helped us buy our fleet of portable bike parking racks and contributed to all of our early programs! Thanks, so much, for your years of support!
In the last five years, we’ve enjoyed a stream of donations through Climate Ride, led by Ian MacLeod. Additional infrastructure we enjoy was made possible through Climate Ride. Thank you for your efforts! You, too, can join a fun Climate Ride and designate AS&R as your beneficiary.
It also takes volunteers to get things done, and we’ve had a lot of support from folks over the years!
- We have some great volunteers who have helped us consistently with activities like Bike Valet Parking, often for many years! There are too many other activities and volunteers to name, but we tried to thank everyone who was at the event, and more.
- Many thanks to our Celebration volunteers, including Dan Lieberman, Elle Linterna, Kana T, Carrie Hobbs-Schulman, Francesco Papalia, Justin Fried, Tony Caine, Ruth Konoff, Bill Powning, Darlene Vendegna, Sylvia Paull, Gjergji & Sarah Zyba, and Lucinda Young. Thank you!
- Thanks to our Celebration Committee, Estrella Sainburg, Ken McCroskey, Nick Pilch, Bryan Marten, Harry Chomsky, and Amy Smolens. They worked behind the scenes to organize the event and volunteered at the event, too!
Our Core Group is the nexus of AS&R activity and includes our most active volunteers.
- Over the years we’ve had some hard workers who have contributed to many of our efforts for a time as part of our Core Group, then moved on. We fondly remember and appreciate folks like
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- Heather Cunningham
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- Angela Armendariz
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- Zack Mensinger
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- Susan Moffat, &
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- Britt Tanner
- Some of our less-active Core Group members still keep a hand in, and helped out at the event, like
- Gjergji & Sarah Zyba
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- Sylvia Paull &
- Tony Caine
- We have an honorary Core Group member, Carrie Hobbs-Schulman, who is active with AS&R while at the same time a Core Group member of EC/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll.
- There was a special presentation for Amy Smolens. Amy volunteers across all of AS&R’s work, but one of her most visible, ongoing projects is bike parking facilities. A recent example are the BikeLink Lockers at the waterfront. We all know the bike-shaped bike racks that can be seen on Solano and all over town! Amy was presented with a miniature, trophy-sized bike-shaped bike rack.
Thanks for all your efforts on bike parking around Albany, Amy!
- Our active Core Group members include two who were not able to attend the Celebration:
- Ian MacLeod, our Climate Ride Leader
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- Sherie Reineman, Newsletter Editor and Membership List Admin
- Sherie Reineman, Newsletter Editor and Membership List Admin
We called present, active Core Group members to the front:
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- Harry Chomsky, Treasurer and more
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- Estrella Sainburg, our newest Core Group member, who produced this event
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- Bryan Marten, more than just your Pickleball host
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- Ken McCroskey, myself
And our founders
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- Former Mayor, Nick Pilch, &
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- Council Member and former Mayor, Preston Jordan
The group accepted a big round of applause.
All of this help has empowered our successes. Now let’s look to the future. This is what we are going to ask for help with next:
- AS&R has endorsed Measure C, the sidewalk tax renewal measure, to continue sidewalk repair in Albany. Measure C refines the tax structure and adds maintenance of off-street cycling pathways like the Greenway, including the jogging/walking paths! Vote Yes on Measure C in November.
- The Active Transportation Plan Update Kickoff is at the end of October (4th Thursday night). AS&R will meet to formulate our advocacy goals with your input on Tuesday, October 8. The City will hold an open house kickoff event on October 24th at the Community Center.
- Today you can look at some of our successes on the timeline, including our most recent, the 20-year recognition by City Council. Then you can grab a post-it and contribute your thoughts about what works and what we need. We want all your ideas!
With that we let the band start up again and everyone partied on!
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