9 May 2023, Φ San Francisco Bay Trail: Cycling

9.5.2023, Φ San Francisco Bay Trail: Cycling

Along the trail, there are interpretive panels concerning, e.g.:

  • History
  • Wetlands
  • Native culture
  • Views
  • Habitats
  • Shorebirds.

Users of the SF Bay Trail also encounter a range of health-related rules and recommendations, incl. the following:

  • No smoking
  • No alcoholic drinks
  • „Wear a helmet“ – „State law requires that all bicyclists under age 18 wear an approved helmet while riding on trails and roadways. The District also strongly recommends that all equestrians and bicyclists wear helmets at all times“
  • No collecting … (plants, animals)
  • Ticks: „To be safe …“, „If you do find a tick attached to your skin …“

San Francisco Bay Trail, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Trail: … a bicycle and pedestrian trail that when finished will allow continuous travel around the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. As of 2020, 356 miles (573 km) of the trail have been completed. When finished, the trail will be over 500 miles (800 km) of paved and gravel paths, bike lanes, and sidewalks, linking 47 cities across nine counties and crossing seven toll bridges … a project of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), in collaboration with other agencies, private companies, non-profit organizations, and advocacy groups … intended to provide recreation for hikers and bicyclists, viewpoints for wildlife, space for environmental education, and corridors for bicycle transportation as well as access to historic, natural and cultural sites, including over 130 parks … an interconnected trail system that links parks, open spaces, points of interest, and communities on or near the bay shoreline … will also provide access inland to open spaces and preserves, streams, and the Bay Area Ridge Trail, which forms the second of two concentric rings around the bay … Sections of the Bay Trail exist in all nine Bay Area counties … The idea for the Bay Trail was launched in the Fall of 1986 … Senate Bill 100 …

Metropolitan Transport Commission, https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/regional-trails-parks/san-francisco-bay-trail: … a joint project of MTC and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). The project engages with partners large and small across the region and coordinates efforts for the trail that include raising critical funds, building and managing the trails — and encouraging public participation.

7 May 2023 ff, Φ SF Bay Area transport issues

7.5.2023 ff, Φ SF Bay Area transport issues

Impressions concerning transport issues in the SF Bay Area:

(1) Walking & multiple use

  • SF Bay trail, Richmond Bay trail: „Common ground“, „Share the path“; cf. 9.5.2023, 10.5.2023
  • Wildcat Canyon multipurpose trail; cf. 24.5.2023
  • Richmond / Pogo Park: Yellow Brick Road; cf. 10.5.2023

(2) Cycling

  • City of Berkeley: Bike boulevards, https://berkeleyca.gov/city-services/getting-around/walking-and-biking/bike-boulevards: … streets that have been identified as optimal routes for cyclists. These streets discourage cut-through vehicle traffic and prioritize through-traffic by bicycle … https://berkeleyca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/Bicycle-Boulevard-Design-Tools-and-Guidelines.pdf: Wilbur Smith Associates (2000): Bicycle Boulevard Design Tools and Guidelines. Prepared for City of Berkeley, Planning and Development Department, Advance Planning Division. Approved by City Council on April 4, 2000, Resolution No. 60,503-N.S.
  • „Save Hopkins“ – „Friends of Hopkins Street“, https://savehopkins.org/: … educational and advocacy group formed by and for Hopkins Street residents, neighbors, business owners … The city was proposing a two-way, Class IV (physically separated) bicycle track along the entirety of Hopkins Street … this proposal in this setting is dangerous and inconsistent with the city’s own plan …
  • Berkeley – Cycling, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley,_California (18.3.2023): Berkeley … one of the highest rates of bicycle and pedestrian commuting in the nation … the safest city of its size in California for pedestrians and cyclists, considering the number of injuries per pedestrian and cyclist, rather than per capita … Berkeley has modified its original grid roadway structure through use of diverters and barriers, moving most traffic out of neighborhoods and onto arterial streets … maintains a separate grid of arterial streets for bicycles, called Bicycle Boulevards, with bike lanes and lower amounts of car traffic … Bicycle and pedestrian paths: Ohlone Greenway … San Francisco Bay Trail … Berkeley I-80 bridge – opened in 2002, an arch-suspension bridge spanning Interstate 80, for bicycles and pedestrians only, giving access from the city at the foot of Addison Street to the San Francisco Bay Trail, the Eastshore State Park and the Berkeley Marina … Berkeley has a network of historic pathways that link the winding neighborhoods found in the hills and offer panoramic lookouts over the East Bay …

(3) Scooters

(4) Public transport

  • Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) (April 2023ff): Realign Plan, www.actransit.org/press-release/ac-transit-realign-plan-survey-now-underway: … a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative assessment of every bus line within our service network … there has been a paradigm shift in public transit travel patterns in the wake of the pandemic, which has cut AC Transit’s ridership almost in half and led to significant budget shortfalls … we must analyze every mile of where our service is currently operating; better understand the mobility needs …; and ultimately, how to realign bus lines against a backdrop of bus operator shortages and dwindling funds … will also record and incorporate the personal and detailed experiences of riders through a comprehensive survey, public meetings, and one-on-one conversations created in partnership with community-based organizations …
  • UCB „Loop“, https://dac.berkeley.edu/services/mobility-accommodations/loop-golf-cart: a golf cart that provides intra-campus rides for eligible faculty, staff, and students with disabilities … This service was created to assist students with mobility disabilities (including temporary disability as a result of injury) and visual impairments … It has since has extended to serve disabled staff and vistors, and to run during additional hours and times of the year …
  • San Francisco, Salesforce Park: sitting above a major bus transit center; cf. 18.5.2023.

(5) Other issues

  • Kiwibots on UCB campus. Carolyn Said (2019_05_26): Kiwibots win fans at UC Berkeley as they deliver fast food at slow speeds. www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Kiwibots-win-fans-at-UC-Berkeley-as-they-deliver-13895867.php: Four-wheeled, cooler-size Kiwibots are a familiar sight at UC Berkeley as they ferry burritos, Big Macs and bubble tea to students … overall, Berkeley has been a welcoming test bed for the fleet of up to 40 robots that have permission to operate on the campus and nearby neighborhoods.

6 May 2023 ff, Φ University of California, Berkeley (UCB) campus

6.5.2023 ff, Φ University of California, Berkeley (UCB) campus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley: … public … research university … Established in 1868 … the founding campus of the University of California system. Its fourteen colleges and schools offer over 350 degree programs and enroll some 32,000 undergraduate and 13,000 graduate students … The university founded and maintains relationships with three national laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos … and has played a role in many scientific advances, from the Manhattan Project … to breakthroughs in computer science and genomics … Ten faculty members and 40 male students made up the fledgling university when it opened in Oakland in 1869 … The university began admitting women the following year …

UC Berkeley School of Public Health, formerly located in Haviland Hall, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Berkeley_School_of_Public_Health: … one of fourteen schools and colleges … Established in 1943 …it was the first school of public health west of the Mississippi River … Key laboratories … during the middle of the century were the Naval Biological Laboratory, which focused primarily on aerobiology and related microbial research, and the Sanitary Engineering Research Laboratory which, maintained with the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, pioneered inquiry in the Environmental Health Sciences … The school … played a direct role in community health for years, working with the unified school district, Visiting Nurse Association, and city to provide health services to the Berkeley community through the Berkeley Unified Health Plan …

UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Berkeley_College_of_Environmental_Design: … located in Bauer Wurster Hall on the southeast corner of the main UC Berkeley campus … In 1894, Bernard Maybeck was appointed instructor in drawing at the Civil Engineering College of the University of California …

https://ced.berkeley.edu/: Architecture; Landscape architecture & Environmental Planning; City & Regional Planning; Institute of Urban and Regional Development

UCB campus:

  • Sather Tower, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sather_Tower: … a bell tower with clocks on its four faces … more commonly known as The Campanile … for its resemblance to the Campanile di San Marco in Venice … In 2017, a pair of peregrine falcons began nesting on top … followed by webcams and the Cal Falcons social media project …
  • Sather Gate, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sather_Gate: … a prominent landmark separating Sproul Plaza from the bridge over Strawberry Creek, leading to the center of … campus … Originally, the gate served as the terminus of Telegraph Avenue, and marked the university’s south entrance … part of the historic Sproul Plaza, a major center for student activity that housed many protests throughout the Free Speech Movement …
  • Doe Memorial Library, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley_Libraries: built in 1910, originally housed the main collections. A strictly Beaux-Arts Classical building … designed by campus architect John Galen Howard as one of the original structures in the “Athens of the West” campus plan … today … Doe serves as the library system’s reference, periodical, and administrative center …
  • UCB Richmond Field Station (RFS), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Field_Station: … a satellite campus … in Richmond, California. The name was changed to the Richmond Bay Campus (RBC) in 2012 and then Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay (BGC) in October 2014, reflecting plans to expand the site to address global issues, first as a second campus for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory …, then as an expansion of the main campus in Berkeley itself. In 2016, the expansion plans were suspended and the name reverted to Richmond Field Station … Starting from the 1950s, UC Berkeley conducted large-scale engineering research at RFS for projects which were not suited for the central campus …, including research in solid waste and sewage, transportation and lighting, and beach erosion … … Environmental Engineering and Health Sciences Laboratory … Earthquake Engineering Research Center … Northern Regional Library Facility …

Cf.:

  • Nov-Dec 1984 Tests: TOEFL, GRE; Application to UCB-SPH
  • 1985-1989 Graduate studies of Public Health (MPH) and Epidemiology (Ph.D.)
  • 15 Aug 1985 Master of Public Health (MPH) program in Berkeley, CA
  • 25 Aug 1986 1986-1989 Ph.D. program in Epidemiology in Berkeley, CA

6 May 2023 ff, Berkeley, incl. Bay Area Book Festival

6.5.2023 ff, Berkeley, incl. Bay Area Book Festival

Bay Area Book Festival, www.baybookfest.org/schedule23/: What is Bay Area Book Festival? A bridge to everywhere. We believe books, and smart conversations about them, build bridges. At a time when so much divides us, we close the gap with programming that opens minds and hearts … Since 2015, Bay Area Book Festival has featured the boldest and most brilliant literary voices in conversations … with a focus on justice and diversity …

Incl.: „An Evening with Joan Baez: Trailblazing Musician, Artist, and Activist“, … Joan Baez is a dynamic force of nature. Her commitment to music and social activism has earned global recognition … Retired from active performing since 2019, she has devoted much of her time to the “Mischief Makers” series of paintings, portraits that immortalize risk-taking visionaries she has known and who have brought about social change through history, from Dr. Martin Luther King and Bob Dylan to the Dalai Lama and Patti Smith … – Baez will be joined on stage by Greg Sarris, who is in his fifteenth consecutive elected term as the Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria … Saturday, May 6 | 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM, Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, CA

B.R. Maybeck: First Church of Christ, Scientist, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Church_of_Christ,_Scientist_(Berkeley,_California): located at 2619 Dwight Way at Bowditch Street across the street from People’s Park …

The historic 1910 church was designed by … architect Bernard Ralph Maybeck (1862–1957), in a primarily American Craftsman style, with Byzantine Revival, Romanesque Revival, and Gothic Revival style elements … widely considered one of Maybeck’s masterpieces …

Berkeley in (Alameda County), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley,_California (18.3.2023): … considered one of the most socially progressive cities in the United States … Berkeley is strongly identified with the rapid social changes, civic unrest, and political upheaval that characterized the late 1960s … Berkeley — especially Telegraph Avenue — became a focal point for the hippie movement, which spilled over the Bay from San Francisco … overlap between the hippie movement and the radical left … conflict over a parcel of university property south of the contiguous campus site that came to be called “People’s Park” … In the end, the park remained undeveloped, and remains so today … A culture of anti-establishment and sociopolitical activism marked the 1960s … The city … promotes greenery and the environment … is a leader in the nationwide effort to re-tree urban areas … also heavily involved in creek restoration and wetlands restoration, including a planned daylighting of Strawberry Creek along Center Street … Urban Creeks Council … Friends of the Five Creeks …

5 May 2023 ff, NYC (Sub)Cultural anchorage

5.5.2023 ff, NYC (Sub)Cultural anchorage

The Hotel Chelsea … built between 1883 and 1885 … located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of Chelsea … has been the home of numerous writers, musicians, artists and actors … poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso chose it as a place for philosophical and artistic exchange … Arthur Miller wrote a short piece, “The Chelsea Affect”, describing life at the Chelsea Hotel in the early 1960s … Literary artists … During its lifetime Hotel Chelsea has provided a home to many famous writers and thinkers including Mark Twain, …, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, … Musicians … Grateful Dead, … Bob Dylan, … Leonard Cohen, … Janis Joplin, … Cohen … wrote two songs …, “Chelsea Hotel” and “Chelsea Hotel #2” …

Morgan 1997, p.50: … There are entire books written about the Chelsea and its counter-culture inhabitants … Andy Warhol made the place famous yet again with his 1966 Chelsea Girls, filmed on location in these apartments …

454 W. 20th St., Morgan 1997, p. 49: … House where Kerouac wrote On the Road. … Here, Kerouac stumbled upon the idea of typing on a long roll of teletype paper so that his thoughts could flow without stopping for paper changes …

Village Vanguard (Greenwich Village), Morgan 1997, p. 68: still the place for Jazz in the Village … Kerouac did a series of readings here on seven consecutive nights in December of 1957 …


Chelsea, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea,_Manhattan: a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan … The area’s boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River and West Street to the west, and Sixth Avenue to the east, with its northern boundary variously described … primarily residential, with a mix of tenements, apartment blocks, city housing projects, townhouses, and renovated rowhouses … its many retail businesses reflect the ethnic and social diversity of the population

Greenwich Village, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Village: … a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan … In the 20th century, … known as an artists’ haven, the bohemian capital, the cradle of the modern LGBT movement, and the East Coast birthplace of both the Beat Generation and counterculture of the 1960s … has undergone extensive gentrification and commercialization …


Lit.: Bill Morgan (1997): The Beat generation in New York. A walking tour of Jack Kerouac’s city. City Lights Books, San Francisco.

Cf.:

  • 13 Mar 2022, Re-reading Jack Kerouac (1958): The Dharma Bums
  • 4 Nov 2021, Re-reading Jack Kerouac (1957): On the road
  • 20 Mar 2021, Short film: Pull my daisy
  • 25 Feb 2021, Lawrence Ferlinghetti died at age 101
  • 30 Dec 2014, Filme 2014 inkl. John Krokidas (2013): Kill your darlings
  • 17 Mar 2013, Sammlung Falckenberg: Wiliam S. Burroughs
  • 4 Sep 2012, San Franciso beat poets, Tour 1 / 2 / 3, incl. City Lights bookstore