I’m sure you and your family use the Ohlone Greenway to roll or stroll, so here’s a chance to help keep it it nice for everyone!
Saturday is Friends of Albany Parks’ Ohlone Greenway Clean-up Day and they would like to invite anyone interested in helping us with some spring cleaning in the summer to stop by and give it a little TLC and beautification.
Friends of Albany Parks is a stewardship program aimed at getting residents and community members involved in light maintenance and beatification of some of the City’s shared spaces.
Lunch provided by Albany Community Foundation!!
Join Albany Staff, the City’s Urban Forester and your friends & neighbors as we continue to improve our local green spaces.
Projects include: Plant bed maintenance
Weeding
Litter Crew
“Tree Love”
Re-organizing landscape areas
And more…
WHAT DO YOU WANT DONE? DO IT!
Have you noticed that Albany is small and you often end up in El Cerrito and Berkeley? Here’s a good chance to give some input to our neighbor to the north!
Come help design five urban greening projects to improve the environmental sustainability, economic vitality and community cohesion of the City of El Cerrito! The Community Charrette is an interactive design workshop that allows you to meet with neighbors and other community members to envision the future of five pilot projects: 1) Fairmount Park, 2) Hillside Natural Area, 3) Former Portola Middle School Site, 4) Lower Fairmount Ave from Carlson Blvd to San Pablo Ave, and 5) Bay Trail (Blue Belt) to Wildcat Canyon (Green Belt) Connections. These sites have been selected from a larger list of Urban Greening opportunities for their strategic location, multiple community and environmental benefits, and pilot potential. With feedback gathered at the Charrette, the City’s Urban Greening consultants will prepare conceptual designs to be included in the Urban Greening Plan.
Like some of the things AS&R has been able to accomplish in Albany? Suggest them to the City of El Cerrito. Like what you see in EC? Suggest them here in Albany!
9:30 am Welcome and Plan Overview
10:30 am Breakout Design Sessions
12:00 pm Lunch
12:30 pm Report Back
1:25 pm Next Steps
1:30 pm Close
For more information, please visit the website at www.ElCerritoUrbanGreening.org
If you’ve read about Ciclovías and Open Streets events all over the world, here’s one right in your backyard.
On Sunday, October 18th from 11am-4pm, Shattuck Avenue between Rose and Haste will be closed to motor vehicles so you can bike, skate, wheelchair, scooter and walk to your heart’s content!
There will be plenty of activities for your and your family to enjoy, or just wander along the street with no worries about cars, grab a bite at an outdoor table and hang out!
For more information, go to www.sundaystreetsberkeley.org .
Hope to see you there!
Do you or your family ride, walk, roll, scoot or skate on the Ohlone Greenway? I’m sure you do, as the multi-use path on the Greenway is Albany’s Active Transportation Highway – over 1,000 trips per day on regular days when last counted several years ago!
The Parks & Rec Department is overseeing Greenway improvements so now’s the time to give input in order to have a better experience to stroll, roll or just hang out!
The information with the Project Plans and what was discussed at previous meetings is at this link:
A parcourse, wayfinding, art – all can have a positive effect on the experience, safety and atmosphere of strolling and rolling.
An orchard is proposed for the eastern edge of the Greenway. What a great idea… BUT if those trees are planted too close to the multi-use path, as was already done south of Dartmouth, they will drop debris on the path, encroach on the path itself and also invite more conflicts between people biking northbound & walking on the east dg path and people who are picking fruit.
Another point someone brought up was that some of the existing trees west of the path cast are planted directly between the overhead light and the path, casting shadows on the path and making the nighttime path experience more dangerous.
In short, as Albany’s Active Transportation Highway, the City must take care not to degrade this important function. If amenities to either side are to be added, it should be done with great care.
Please attend this meeting to give your input and improve the Ohlone Greenway for everyone – strollers, rollers, sitters, dog-walkers, and fruit-pickers!
Full P&R agenda is at http://www.albanyca.org/index.aspx?page=16&recordid=12040
6-1: Ohlone Greenway Design: Restoration Design Group will give a presentation.
Recommended Actions:
1. That the Commission recommend a preferred concept direction to move into the design into the next phase.
2. That the Commission approve the planting of fruit and nut trees by the California Rare Fruit Growers along the eastern strip of the Ohlone Greenway as described in the Memo.
3. That the Commission set a Special Meeting Date for the 4th week of February to review the 35% Plans for the Ohlone Greenway.
Do you or your family ride, walk, roll, scoot or skate on the Ohlone Greenway? I’m sure you do, as the multi-use path on the Greenway is Albany’s Active Transportation Highway – over 1,000 trips per day on regular days when last counted several years ago!
The City Council is considering Greenway improvements so now’s the time to give input in order to have a better experience to stroll, roll or just hang out!
The agenda for the meeting is at this link, item 9-2.
The Consultants’ “Preferred Master Plan” is here – (fyi, you can just open it up or download the 4.8MB pdf document.)
A parcourse, wayfinding, art – all can have a positive effect on the experience, safety and atmosphere of strolling and rolling.
An orchard is proposed for the eastern edge of the Greenway. What a great idea… BUT if those trees are planted too close to the multi-use path, as was already done south of Dartmouth, they will drop debris on the path, encroach on the path itself and also invite more conflicts between people biking northbound & walking on the east dg path and people who are picking fruit.
Another point someone brought up was that some of the existing trees west of the path cast are planted directly between the overhead light and the path, casting shadows on the path and making the nighttime path experience more dangerous.
In short, as Albany’s Active Transportation Highway, the City must take care not to degrade this important function. If amenities to either side are to be added, it should be done with great care.
Please attend this meeting to give your input and improve the Ohlone Greenway for everyone – strollers, rollers, sitters, dog-walkers, and fruit-pickers!
What’s important to you to communicate to the Albany Police Department?
Here’s an opportunity to give them your input! Make plans to attend their Community Work Session and tell them what’s important to you as an Albany resident or visitor. They want to clearly identify resident’s priorities for the next 3-5 years and plan to incorporate those priorities into their strategic planning process. Your opinion matters… so let them know what matters to you at this meeting!
RSVPs are requested but not required: policeplan@albanyca.org
Do you or your family ride, walk, roll, scoot or skate on the Ohlone Greenway? I’m sure you do, as the multi-use path on the Greenway is Albany’s Active Transportation Highway – over 1,000 trips per day on regular days when last counted several years ago!
The Parks & Rec Department is overseeing Greenway improvements so now’s the time to give input in order to have a better experience to stroll, roll or just hang out!
The information with the Project Plans and what was discussed at previous meetings is at this link. However, the proposal will be updated based on feedback that they received at February 1, so people should come to see how it evolved!
At this meeting the consultants will have 35% designs for you to see and provide input. This is a crucial time in the planning process!
Preferred Concept plan that was presented to Council on February 1 included:
- Plaza area as presented in the 250K Focused amenities (Adventure play with climbing wall, fitness pod with 3 stations, both diagonal ramps, social path short cut to Solano
- Redwood Grove informal play area
- San Gabriel sculpture play
- Social paths
- 3 Creek paintings
- 3 fitness stations along Greenway with 2 pieces of equipment at each
- Dartmouth Circle improvements
- Orchards
- Public Art locations
A parcourse, wayfinding, art – all can have a positive effect on the experience, safety and atmosphere of strolling and rolling.
An orchard is proposed for the eastern edge of the Greenway. What a great idea… BUT if those trees are planted too close to the multi-use path, as was already done south of Dartmouth, they will drop debris on the path, encroach on the path itself and also invite more conflicts between people biking northbound & walking on the east dg path and people who are picking fruit.
Another point someone brought up was that some of the existing trees west of the path cast are planted directly between the overhead light and the path, casting shadows on the path and making the nighttime path experience more dangerous.
In short, as Albany’s Active Transportation Highway, the City must take care not to degrade this important function. If amenities to either side are to be added, it should be done with great care.
Please attend this meeting to give your input and improve the Ohlone Greenway for everyone – strollers, rollers, sitters, dog-walkers, and fruit-pickers!
**THE AGENDA AND 35% PLANS ARE HERE** (NOTE: 4.3 MB FILE)
You see Street Level Cycles every year at the Albany Arts & Green Festival when they offer free bike tuneups to you and your family !
You might not know that they’re a full-service community bicycle shop that combines a do-it-yourself studio with a youth education program, creating a space where members of the community can learn to fix their bicycles while supporting local vocational training.
You can always donate bikes, parts and components, which they use to build bikes and sell to support their shop and their programs.
But TODAY ONLY – JUNE 4th, Street Level Cycles/Waterside Workshops is holding a “Bike Donation Pick-up Day” for East Bay residents. Before the Pick-up Day, you will be able to call and schedule a pick-up from their home or business.
What are you waiting for? Find your old bike & parts and give them a call at (510) 644-2577!
Do you take the train and/or bus in addition to biking & walking? If so, this forum is important for you to attend!!
This forum for BART & AC Directors, as well as info on the BART Bond Measure, will be co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters Berkeley Albany Emeryville and the Berkeley Chinese Community Church.
- AC Transit Ward 2 (Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville) –
Greg Harper, Russ Tilleman
- AC Transit At Large – Dollene C. Jones, H. E. Christian (Chris) Peeples
- Bart Director District 3 – Ken Chew, Worth Freeman, Varun Paul,
Rebecca Saltzman - Bart Director District 7 – Roland Emerson, Zakhary Mallett, Will Roscoe, Lateefah Simon
**IF YOU WANT TO BIKE FROM ALBANY OR NEARBY, PROPOSE SOMETHING IN “COMMENTS” HERE ALONG WITH CONTACT INFO FOR YOU
Fallen Cyclist Joe Hurlimann was taken from us last week near North Berkeley BART just after sunrise. “He was a Berkeley native who still lived in his childhood home, an avid gardener and stamp collector who had a PhD from Cal in plant pathology. He worked at UCB for 31 years, and at Truitt & White in West Berkeley for 61 years,” Emilie Raguso. Full Berkeleyside article here.
SPOKES would like to put a Ghost Bike at the scene and invites community to bring flowers and honor his life while we make public our concerns about the safety of cyclists and pedestrians in Berkeley, the East Bay, Bay Area California, and in the US. If anyone has time to give an hour or two to help organize we’d like to set the Ghost bike and then gather Hearst Street Park @ Sacramento with a brief respite. If you have access to Bagels, Cheeseboard / Arizmendi/ Peet’s coffee, Trader Joes / Berkeley Bowl (juices) , Spokes will Bring bike racks and tables. Public officials Berkeley Police , California Bike Coalition, Bike East Bay are invited to speak and Bike East Bay . Media Welcome!
Go to the Facebook page for any updates.
If anyone wants to propose a ride from Albany, please write in “comments” to this event – thanks.