Event: Hidden Gems of Berkeley Ride, Walk

Update, 05/05/2009:Thank you bicyclists and walkers for making Hidden Gems 2009 a success!

Update, 04/30/2009: Rain expected on Saturday, May 2. Heavy rain will cancel the event but bike and walk leaders will be at the meeting point to sell maps (sliding scale $3 - $5).

Jen English of Walking Berkeley and I will lead the Walking Tour portion of Hidden Gems. Join us at 10 a.m. at Civic Center Park Fountain and Peace Mural (Center Street between Milvia and MLK). Updated Hidden Gems of Berkeley maps will be available for a donation of $5. The Bike Tour will be led by John Steere and John Coveney. Co-sponsored by Berkeley Partners for Parks (BPFP), Livable Berkeley, and the Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition.

Gates of Albuquerque (New Mexico)

Following my new-found interest in gates, I photographed several in the Northwest Quadrant of the City of Albuquerque. The blue color of some of the gates seems to be the official color of the city. The last two photographs were taken at the Albuquerque Museum, located in NW ABQ. The last photograph is of the "Gate" by John Suttman (1995). As I was setting up the shot, a staff person commented that the "Gate" was her favorite gate.

Mountain views

Attendance at two conferences, one in Utah and the other in New Mexico, afforded views of mountains.

In Snowbird, Utah, the mountains were snow covered. Between Monday and Wednesday, April 13-15, 24 inches of snow fell.

The scenery in Albuquerque was quite different. The Sandia Mountains were bare or covered with desert vegetation.

In both places, the views were expansive. I could look far out into the distance before my eyes travelled upward, especially in Albuquerque.

Once there was a village in Central Park

The full text on the plaque can be read at the Central Park Conservancy website

Once there was a village in what is now Central Park. It was called Seneca Village.

Seneca Village existed from 1825 through 1857. It was located between 82nd and 89th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Today, this area is part of Central Park. Seneca Village was Manhattan's first significant community of African American property owners. By the 1840s, it had become a multi-ethnic community African Americans, Irish, and German immigrants, and perhaps a few Native Americans. In 1855, the New York State Census reported approximately 264 individuals living in the village. There were three churches, as well as a school and several cemeteries. Within two years, Seneca Village would be razed and its identity erased by the creation of Central Park. (Source: Robbie McClintock and Frank A. Moretti, Columbia University Teachers College)

The park village was located in the general area shown in the photograph above. The private properties of the village were taken via eminent domain. The village was declared a "wasteland" of "squatters" (see the New York Times review of "Before Central Park: The Life and Death of Seneca Village" exhibition (1997). When I first learned about the development of Central Park, I recall reading about the "wasted" land that had to be cleared, but I assumed a landscape of rocky outcrops and possibly wetlands (wetlands were not valued in the 19th and much of the 20th centuries), not the homes and institutions of individuals, families, and a community.

Greenspaces in New York

New York City's most famous greenspace is Central Park designed by Olmsted and Vaux (pronounced Vox). But the city supports more than this (central) park. Here are several types of greenspaces to be found in the city:

Produce at the Union Square (14th Street) Farmers' Market

Another square, to the south - Washington Square Park

Spots of green on the balconies of the old Chelsea Hotel

Mid-block East Village courtyard

Gardens powered by steam at Cooper Union

I was absolutely thrilled to discover the Time Landscape (shown below), a patch of Manhattan woodland created by landscape artist Alan Sonfist in 1978. Learn more about the constructed woodland and the historical ecology of the neighborhood at the NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation website.

Got mail?

These mail boxes are located in downtown Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue. Best of luck with filing your taxes.

Inside and out: A church in Rittenhouse Square

An incredible church near Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. I cannot recall the denomination but the decorations are typical of a Catholic church. Does anyone recognize this church?

Photo du Jour: Schoolyard bamboo garden and faux wood bench

Photograph courtesy Karen at Greenwalks

Events: April and May 2009

Update, 04/08/09:

April 1 - September 22: Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet, Univ. of California Berkeley Art Museum (more information)

Saturday, April 28: City of Berkeley Earth Day, 12 Noon - 5 p.m., Civic Center Park, MLK & Allston (contact Karen Hester www.hesternet.net/events.html)

Sunday, May 3: Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour (We are attending!), 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Contact Kathy Kramer http://www.bringingbackthenatives.net/)

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So many events and a lot of overlap. April is Landscape Architecture Month and Earth Day is celebrated this month as well. May brings nice weather and thus plenty to do.

Sunday, April 12: Green Hairstreak Walk, Nature in the City, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., San Francisco (more information & RSVP)

Monday, April 20: Maximizing Your Input on Local Green Space, Berkeley Partners for Parks, 7 - 9 p.m., West Berkeley Senior Center, 1900 Sixth Street at Hearst, Berkeley

Thursday, April 23: Climate of Change: Global to Local Solutions, Bay Localize, 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., First Unitarian Church, 685 14th Street, Oakland (more information and RSVP)

Sunday, April 26: Sunday Streets Waterfront Route running along the Embarcadero - from AT&T Park to Aquatic Park (more information and schedule)

Tuesday, April 28: POPOS (Privately Owned Public Open Spaces), ASLA & San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, 12 Noon - 1 p.m., 560 Mission Street, San Francisco (more about POPOS)

Saturday, May 2: Hidden Gems of Berkeley Ride and Walk – Treasures of Central Berkeley, Hidden Gems//Berkeley Bicycle Friendly Coalition//Livable Berkeley, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Ride and walk begin at Civic Center fountain (Allston between Milvia and Martin Luther King Blvd.) and concludes at the meadow by the No. branch of Strawberry Creek (in front of the Life Sciences Building on campus).

Friday, May 8: David Brower Center “Housewarming” Opening Party, 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ($25), 2150 Allston Way (between Oxford and Shattuck), Berkeley (call 510.486.0286 for tickets or more information)

Sunday, May 10: Sunday Streets Waterfront Route in the Southeast Sector, highlighting the San Francisco Bay Trail, which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary in May - from AT&T Park to the Bayview Opera House, along the Bay (more information and schedule)

Sunday, May 10: E. O. Wilson Biodiversity And Our Future Healing Mother Earth, Canopy Palo Alto, 4 p.m., Spangenberg Auditorium, Gunn High School, Palo Alto (more information)

Sunday, May 10: David Brower Public Open House, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 2150 Allston Way (between Oxford and Shattuck), Berkeley (call 510.486.0286 for tickets or more information)

On Petrero Hill

We went to Potrero Hill for the first time on March 15 to visit the Pennsylvania Garden. The garden will be local ecology's newest neighborhood nature-made sites profile (the gardeners are planting for wildlife). Stay tuned! Our second visit was on March 21 to check up on the garden and to see more of the neighborhood.

According to a sign at the Potrero Hill Community Garden, the land on which the garden sits was "an open, grassy space overlooking the Mission and the Golden Gate." The community garden neighbors McKinley Square, a municipal park, located on 20th Street between Vermont and San Bruno Streets. Vermont Street is the city's windiest road! I thought that honor belonged to Lombard. Here's video footage of the curves:

The views of downtown SF from the neighborhood are amazing, too (it was a cloudy day).

Another do-it-yourself greenspace in Potrero Hill is The Benches at 18th and San Bruno Streets. The sidewalk and entrance to a footbridge over 101 have been planted and painted, and benches have been installed. We assumed neighbors spearheaded the garden and quick web search proved us correct.

Babette Drefke has a vision for the little patch of park in her Potrero Hill neighborhood known as The Benches. She and a group of residents want to expand the tiny park, a pleasant spot with four benches, succulent bushes and javelins of lavender-hued flowers that sits at 18th Street and San Bruno Avenue. It's a decent place to rest one's legs at the end of a pedestrian walkway running over Highway 101. There is an empty patch of land behind The Benches, but Drefke wasn't sure whom to talk to about expanding there. With a phone call, ChronicleWatch was able to put her in touch with an official at Caltrans, which appears to own that bit of land as part of the right-of-way running down to Highway 101... (SF Chronicle, March 30, 2008 via outside.in)

From public spaces to private ones. Both the yard garden and permaculture gardens were pointed out to us by Annie of the Pennsylvania Garden. One of the owners of the yard garden at 18th and Pennsylvania provides advice and inspiration to the Pennsylvania Garden.

The 18th and Rhode Island Permaculture Garden Project was hosting a class when we visited, about 20 people by our estimation.

The garden wouldn’t have been possible without the imagination and largesse of Aaron Roland, M.D., a family physician in private practice, who owns the double lot where the 18th and Rhode Island Garden is taking root...Despite extravagant offers to buy the land during the height of the real estate boom, Roland kept the lot as open space, and his relationship to it deepened as time passed... (The Potrero View)

Prices in the neighborhood are still extravagant. The adjacent two-bedroom house is for sale for $1.2 million.