Beast Blog

Oakland Museum Bike Tours

From the inbox:

Two tours will be led hy Oakland Museum docents on the third Sunday of each month from June through October. There are four separate tours that are offered: Downtown Oakland, Port of Oakland and West Oakland, Fruitvale District and East Oakland, and the Brooklyn District east of Lake Merritt.

All tours begin at the Oakland Museum, 10th and Oak St. at 10:00 on Sunday. The tours last about two hours - with the Port and Fruitvale tours often a little longer.

If you'd like to join in these tours, which are leisurely and include the history, art, architecture, and natural history of the areas. please call the Oakland Museum of California Docent Office, 510-238-3514, to reserve a space. There is no cost.

This sounds like a blast. We just must the first one (June 20), but I'm looking forward to catching one of these before the summer is out.

Bicyclist Is Shot in Berkeley...

reads the headline of a depressing Oakland Tribune article. 62nd and MLK. This is *right* on the Berkeley/Oakland border. When I head south from Berkeley, I usually take Shattuck or Telegraph (there's not much on MLK), and it seems like those are safer routes.

Sigh.

The Good Kind of Graffiti

Berkeley's bicyclists get a nice reworking of the abbreviation for boulevard...

19th Street BART - Not Bike Friendly

It's bad enough that bikes simply aren't allowed inside during commute times. Then I see this from a mailing list I'm on:

Last week someone cut the cable I run through my back tire and stole the tire at the 19th street BART. Yesterday a lady going to the same station asked me if I had any problems there because she had her bike stolen. This morning I found the remains of a cut lock at the same bike rack not to mention the vandalized frames of 3 old bikes decorating the bike rack and guard rails.

Telegraph Avenue Bike Lanes - Stand and Be Counted!

This just in from the East Bay Bicycling Coalition:

Telegraph Ave. (and vicinity) cyclists:

Please plan to attend Oakland's community meeting about the plan for bike lanes on Telegraph Ave. on December 4 (not December 3 as originally thought). Telegraph's bike lanes are by no means a foregone conclusion and supportive bicyclists need to show up. The opposition is strong, organized, and influential.

Time: Thursday, 12/4/03, 7-9pm

Location: Faith United Presbyterian Church, 430 49th Street at Webster

Please, pencil the Dec. 4 meeting into your calendar. If you have any questions, let me know. This matter will also be discussed further at the next EBBC meeting at the Rockridge Library on Tuesday, November 25.

Bicycling in the Beast

Berkeley is definitely one of the best North American cities for bicycling, and its residents take advantage of this. Sometimes, though, folks get a little carried away.

The City of Berkeley has just launched its Walk Bikes on Sidewalks, Ride Bikes in Street program. The color poster is surprisingly tasteful for a work of civic graphic design.

Bicyclists should also visit the City's Bicycling page for more resources on getting around town utilizing gyroscopic forces.

(For what it's worth, I found out about the new Walk Bikes program thanks to my subscription to various City of Berkeley webpages. It's a service that keeps me up to date on all kinds of stuff. If you want to know what's happening in the city, check it out.)

While I'm at it, you should also check out the East Bay Bicycling Coalition. (Though you can ignore their mailing list unless you're a dyed-in-the-wool bicycle nut who thinks internal combustion is the work of pure unmitigated evil). And on that site, I'm a *big* fan of their East Bay bicycle maps.