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!
Here’s an example of a parking space repurposed as a public space. Come see what ours has to offer!
The third Friday of the month is called PARK(ing) Day, a day when select car parking places are repurposed as public spaces. This is the same as a parklet, only for one day, and unofficial.
We will do this with one of the spaces in front of Blue Heron Bikes and Coffee Conscious on Gilman St. in Berkeley. They will have comfortable furniture and a bike blender to make smoothies, in what is just car parking every other day.
It will be fun so come join them!
Then head on up to Bike About Town!
You may know Street Level Cycles as the non-profit that offers free and low-cost bike tuneups every year at
Marsalis Johnson in one of the dedicated mechanics of Street Level Cycles
the Albany Arts & Green Festival. Of course, they are 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.
They rely on donations of bikes and parts to use to fix up bikes that they sell to folks to you and me…and you can always drop them off there from Wednesday-Sunday from noon-6 pm. But on Saturday August 29th they’ll make it even easier for you to donate your bike – they’ll pick it up at your house!
Why donate?
By donating your bike you will:
-Support job-training for local youth
-take part in up-cycling, the greenest form of recycling
-Receive a tax-deductible donation receipt
So if you were wondering what to do with that old bike that no one uses now…here’s a perfect solution. So call or email them!
Spend the afternoon at a Pop-up Park on Solano Avenue!
Tables & umbrellas will be set in two parking stalls adjacent to Gordo’s and Domino’s for a day of community, music and relaxation. Grab a burrito, tacos, pizza, ice cream or anything from local businesses as we transform two boring parking spaces into an inviting parklet.
The intrepid installation team for Albany Strollers & Rollers’ new public bike pump at the corner of Solano & Santa Fe.
The City of Albany’s Mark Matherly, AS&R’s Amy Smolens & Dan Lieberman and Dan’s son Sander
Afterwards, roll up the hill to pump up your tires at Albany Strollers& Rollers’ brand new public bike pump before heading to the final Bike About Town ride!
Do you or your family ride to the Tom Bates ball fields, the Bay Trail, César Chávez Park, Emeryville or anywhere else passing along Gilman and the I-80 interchange? Would you rather have a safer, more pleasant ride? Here’s an opportunity to give input so that happens.
In 2014, Caltrans gave the City of Berkeley permission to move ahead with plans for double-roundabouts at the I-80 and Gilman Street interchange, located in West Berkeley near the boundary with the City of Albany. 
Such roundabouts are not friendly to active transportation. Consequently an active transportation overpass of I-80 and the West Frontage Road is proposed as part of the project. This project element is not shown on the schematic to the right because it was a late addition.
Unfortunately the overpass is to the south rather than north of Gilman. In this position it will require users to go more than a thousand feet out of their way after navigating the congestion on Gilman and crossing through motorist traffic on that street to reach the overpass.
As if that is not bad enough, the Alameda County Transportation Expenditure Plan also includes building a railroad underpass on Gilman. This information has not been included in or mentioned as part of the context for the current project in the publicity so far. This underpass will make the active transportation overpass even less desirable to reach by those it would otherwise best serve.
There is another option that should be studied – placing the overpass north of Gilman. This could connect to the Codornices Creek path upon construction, or be built to facilitate such connection in the future. This would provide a motorist-separated approach that matches the overpass. It would allow people to ride from Hearst and Milvia in Berkeley all the way to the Bay Trail entirely on cycling paths except for the few low motorist-volume blocks of Dartmouth between the Ohlone Greenway and San Pablo. It would also directly connect the two sports complexes at either end. For these reasons, Albany’s Active Transportation Plan is the only one that shows an overpass in this area, and it shows it at Codornices Creek not Gilman.
The project engineering consultant has said the northern crossing was not studied because it would require some right-of-way from Golden Gate Fields. However there is precedent for garnering land from Golden Gate Fields for active transportation facilities. The East Bay Regional Park District successfully used eminent domain to secure property from Golden Gate Fields along the shoreline for the Bay Trail.
The Alameda County Transportation Commission, City of Berkeley, Caltrans, and the Consultant Team will prepare traffic studies, community outreach, preliminary engineering studies, and CEQA/NEPA environmental review studies. AS&R invites you to attend the first community meeting to share your thoughts on the Gilman Street interchange project! And if your thoughts include studying a northern alignment for the active transportation overpass, please let them know.
Want to ride to the meeting from Albany? Leave a comment here with a suggestion and make it happen!
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.
Danny & Sergio from Street Level Cycles tuned up everyone’s bikes at the Arts & Green Festival – now you can give back to them!
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!
Come on down and learn how to ride a bike more safely – and have more fun!
Do you, a friend or family member want to ride your bike more but don’t feel confident enough?
Here’s a FREE bicycle skills class RIGHT IN OUR BACKYARD, courtesy of Bike East Bay!
In addition to the regular first-Mondays classes at UC Berkeley, they have now set up a free Urban Cycling 101 Day 1 classroom workshop for adults and teens at the Albany Library/Community Center on Saturday, July 16th, from 1-3pm. Complete details and registrations are available here.
The class is FREE but it’s mandatory to register here.
Due to an overstock of bikes, we are having an As-Is Bike Blowout Sale! We have hundreds of as-is bikes, frames, parts, and accessories that all must go! Complete bikes as low as $10! Unique and rare bikes deeply discounted! Don’t miss it!
More info at their Facebook event link!
