Events

The city will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the Albany Bay Trail Connector Tuesday, Oct. 30.
The project was intended to improve the connection between regional pathways throughout the Bay Area and the Bay Trail.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee and Assemblymember Nancy Skinner are scheduled to attend and to give brief speeches during the ceremony.
The project includes multiple funding from federal, state and regional agencies, as well as partnerships with the University of California, Albany Unified School District, and the United States Department of Agriculture research facility in Albany.
Albany Strollers & Rollers was involved in the process, serving on the committee to select the engineering firm and helping work on the facility design.

You probably know Street Level Cycles as the group who has given free bike tuneups at the annual Albany Arts & Green Festival. They’re much more than that, so come to their holiday party to find out more!
Join them for an afternoon of food and fun to raise funds for their youth programs!
Waterside Workshops has received a $10,000 challenge grant, and you can help us reach our goal by attending our event!
A donation of $10 per person gets you:
* a free boat rental
* wooden toy-making for kids
* entry into the kids or adult bike raffle
Also, Doc’s of the Bay will be here with their gourmet food truck serving up mouth-watering locally-sourced fare and the Cookie Department will be sampling their amazing cookies, the perfect addition to a cup of our famous Waterside hand-crafted coffee.  Our interns have been hard at work creating fine wooden handcrafts and building bicycles for the whole family, so while you are here, don’t forget to visit our Holiday Sale to mark a few names off of your list.  During the event, we will give away 25 kids bicycles to local low-income families.  If you know a family in need of a kid’s bicycle, please tell them to contact us before the event! At 5pm, we will be showing “Waterside” a documentary film about our organization and its role in the community.  All proceeds from this event will go directly to supporting our free programs for low-income youth.  Please join us on the 9th to kick-off the Holiday Season while giving back to your community!
For more details, go here.

All In One Fitness Gym in Albany will be celebrating its third year anniversary with a party and health fair and Albany Strollers & Rollers will be there!

This is a free event for the community and will include booths provided by several local health related businesses including  chiropractor, physical therapist, acupuncturist, solar company…and, of course, AS&R.
Come on down to the gym for a day filled with games, food, live dj, membership specials, raffles, prizes, and most importantly fun and great information on how you can lead a healthier lifestyle!

Bring your friends and family! Please RSVP and get more information by giving us a call at the gym at (510) 524-1001. Hope to see you there!

We have been invited to participate in order to talk to other AiOF members about cycling and walking around town. So please, if you have some time to help at our booth for a little while, sharing your ideas while enjoying the food and music, please email Amy Smolens at calamari@alumni.duke.edu – thanks!

Street Level Cycles has graciously donated free bike tuneup services at the Arts & Green Festival since 2008
photo courtesy Matt McHugh

No doubt you know Street Level Cycles as the non-profit organization that provides FREE tuneups to members of our community at the annual Albany Arts & Green Festival.
Here’s a chance to learn more about them and enjoy a great afternoon of food and fun, at their holiday party and fund-raiser for their youth programs.
A donation of $10 per person gets you:
-a free boat rental
-wooden toy-making for kids
-entry into the kids or adult bike raffle
The Taco Guys will be there with their gourmet food truck serving up some of the best and most original tacos in the Bay.  Top it off with a cup of Waterside’s famous hand-crafted coffee and a fresh baked pastry to make for the perfect afternoon.
During the event, they will give away 100 kid’s bicycles to local low-income families.  If you know a family in need of a kid’s bicycle, please tell them to contact SLC before the event!

At 4pm, they will have a “Donors and Supporters Happy Hour and Silent Auction.” Any of you who have volunteered at an AS&R event over the past few years are invited to take part.  Items in the silent auction include gift certificates to local restaurants, original works of art, a week vacation rental in a beautiful Tahoe cabin and more.
All proceeds from this event will go directly to supporting their free programs for low-income youth!
Hope to see you there!

Not many Energizer Stations could boast a Mayor handing out bags and swag. Ours could, as Peggy Thomsen volunteered all morning!
courtesy Nick Pilch

It’s the 21st Annual Bike to Work Day in the Bay Area, a party on wheels!!

As usual, there will be coffee, snacks, swag, bike goodies, the famous Bike to Work Day musette bags, fun and lots of good conversation & information so come on down on your way to work!

Riders were happy to see staff from both Blue Heron Bikes and Wheels of Justice there for safety checks.
courtesy Nick Pilcn

Great news – the staff of Blue Heron Bikes and Berkeley Bikes & Skateboards will be there with work stations checking your bicycles for safety and road-worthiness as they have in previous years! Thanks to Rob, Winston and their co-workers for spending time with us all!

Donations of food and drink have been rolling in from Albany Fresh Produce, Kim’s Café, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Monterey Market, La Farine, Safeway, Andronico’s, La Val’s…more to come, I’m sure!
Thanks to those businesses for supporting the community!

Plenty of food, thanks to the generous supporting local businesses!
courtesy Francesco Papalia

We need help at our Energizer Station (back at its usual location of the Ohlone Greenway and Marin) and preparing for a big celebration.
If you’d like to help out, please contact Nick at nicky@mindspring.com or leave a comment on this post.
Thanks!!

More info at http://ebbc.org/btwd

Share this on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/events/257209727792108/?source=1

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!

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

Want better conditions on BART? Come to this forum!

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.

• 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.