Author: montclairoak

Look At Montclair’s Olden Days

Have you thumbed through some Arcadia paperbacks about Oakland before?  They publish city-wide and neighborhood books chock-full of old photos and recollections – including a great one covering our Oakland Hills.

Oakland Hills, by Erika Mailman

Author Erika Mailman penned this Oakland Hills version, starting with a chapter called “Montclair and Environs.”  We hadn’t looked at the print edition in a while, but just discovered and wanted to share this online access.

You can actually page through the complete Montclair chapter on Amazon.com, in a legible size.  It’s a great record of Montclair’s olden days, with images displaying a remote and rural-looking place.

The photos prove it!  The Medaus, who owned and farmed most of the current-day village, are posed outside their homestead.  The Hayes school is shown, followed by the Montclair firehouse which replaced it.  And the undeveloped hills are snapped, along with an observatory built to attract real estate buyers.

Anyway, it’s a pleasant surprise to see this live Montclair chapter – click to look inside.

Cyclists, Drivers Debate Canyon Protocols

Shepherd Canyon has always been a challenging place shared by homeowners, bicyclists, drivers, walkers, soccer players, dogs – you name it.

Lately there’s been plenty of discussion about the appropriate protocols among the two-wheelers and four-wheelers who share the canyon road.  The terrain translates into few shoulders, many blind spots and no easy answers.

Shepherd Canyon Road, Oakland

The debates are lengthy, and depend on behaviors of rogues and law-abiding citizens.  We think it all boils down to these five perceptions:

  1. If rider is pedaling down the road, then that’s considered legal and appropriate behavior.
  2. If cautious driver follows rider, then driver needs to take heed and not surprise ’em.
  3. If rider gets angry at driver, then it might mean rider is concerned about life and limb.
  4. If driver is barreling down the road, then driver might put the rider ahead at risk.
  5. If rider uses railroad path, then walkers with and without dogs pose mutual risks.

We believe in using a little common sense and following the rules of the road.  We live in the hills, where terrain challenges are part of the bargain.  Are we missing anything here?

Rainy, With A Chance Of Blooming

The last couple dark, gray and rainy days were a little depressing, as we head into the winter season.  However, we managed to look up and see the November blooms – and realized all is not lost this time of year.  There’s a profusion of colors everywhere.

Purple Flower

Anything with jewel-like purple is an attention getter, and hundreds of princess flowers are blooming now.  Apparently these beauties hail from Brazil, typically thriving in tropic and subtropic spots.  Somehow they survive in this bad weather, though.

Pink White Flower

There’s nothing like a flashy flowers that says springtime, such as these pink and white numbers.  Light blue flowers provide the nice backdrop.  The hills seem ready for their Sunset Magazine photo-op, right this minute.

Red Flower

We also see plenty of pineapple sage, a late bloomer that lives in northern climates.  It’s strange seeing bees buzzing around the flowers, even in this misty weather.  At some point, we’ll have to pull a couple flowers and try to brew tea.

So look up from the fog, and feel a little better.

The Council Resolves Schoolyard Dispute

Last Tuesday eve, we switched to the Oakland City Council’s marathon meeting on Channel 10.  When the subject of local park projects came up for review, it felt like we were watching the Council resolve their schoolyard dispute live.

The Council approved resolutions to submit eight park projects for external grants.  Let’s rewind back to the original resolutions, beginning with seven projects nominated by district.  The process leading to approvals showed the balancing act between district and city-wide priorities.

City Council - Nov 3, 2009

Which projects would get funded? Well, no one knows ahead of time.  To keep things equitable, Council reps had decided to recommend one favored project for their respective districts.  Like any major metro, Oakland has a reasonable shot at receiving external funds for some park improvements.

Could another project be added? At the Council meeting, a handful of impassioned residents spoke about the need for a second West Oakland project:  a teen center.  They claimed that kids would stay out of trouble with somewhere to go, and it was hard to argue with the request at face value.

What process should Council follow? The schoolyard confusion began in earnest when Council Rep Nancy Nadel wanted to add this project in her district.  At-large Rep Rebecca Kaplan said that she never recommended a project before, and supported this new teen center.  Larry Reid protested repeatedly because the rules had changed in the game, and he had other projects that mattered too.

When could projects expand? There was some back-and-forth about combining the two West Oakland projects together. Yet that was scratched when a city staffer explained the grant process required projects to be located on contiguous property.

It was getting late.  Council Prez Jane Brunner said “enough” and the resolutions were passed:  five yeas; one nay; one abstention; one absence.  Despite schoolyard jealousy, eight projects made this final list.

Now the real work begins with a bevy of community meetings and project planning preps ahead – all required to improve Oakland’s odds at winning a capital infusion.

Electricity, Oakland Style

We were alerted to an unusual arrangement of power poles, quickly fixed after the last storm.  Yesterday we took a snapshot of some workers making additional repairs there.  Please take a close look at what passes for a temporary utility fix…what seems strange to you?

Utility Pole Or Two

Yes, you are seeing a half or quarter-sized pole and then a single full pole.  That smaller, broken pole is supported by an overhead cable as well as two brackets connected to the larger, standing pole.  Plenty of utility lines have been hung from the broken part!

We’re wondering what construction standards are getting followed with this dangling pole installation.  We know the brackets and broken pole aren’t exactly well-built elements.  Give us a windy storm or earthquake, and these lines probably would fall down again.

There’s a silver lining here:  it’s good to see some work getting done at this Montclair intersection yesterday.  Yet we’re not sure whether this “temporary fix” will stay there for months or years.  Are we tempting the fates?