Ramble 22: The Wall...or, Target's coming to town

On another ramble Marge notices a dark silhouette against the northern sky near the estuary: Target.
It's coming to an Alameda Landing near you - and sooner than you think.
When it does, poof! there goes the skyline, replaced by a building that goes up in huge prefab slabs held by 2 by 4s.

Since Sergei isn't there to talk Marge down from the image of Target looming over Alameda, her thoughts of impending doom run away with her: Yikes, that looks like The Separation Wall that snakes over large junks of the West Bank and annexes Palestinian land to Israel.
Later, Marge talks to an Alamedan friend about the state of construction and asks, "What does it remind you of?"

Without missing a beat, the Alamedan friend responds, "Of the Separation Barrier in the West Bank...."

Do you think that's far-fetched?

Well, see for yourself.

 

Here's the Target wall-raising...
The line of what looks like toothpicks in the pic on the left is a line of 2 x 4s holding up The Wall ...




 


and here's The Wall or Separation Barrier through the West Bank.
30 meters high in some spots - close to 90 feet - it is high enough to block out the sun for hours at sunrise and sunset.
The section pictured here goes straight through what was, once, a Palestinian family's business: growing and selling vegetables from their green house and a run for about 40,000 chickens.  Both were destroyed for the road the IDF insisted had to be routed right through the gardens and pens.
Family friends painted the mural shown here that includes a phoenix rising from the ashes (you can just see a bit of it's wings - that orange-color in the distance).
The paved road you see on the left is the military-only road that an Israeli Defense Force patrol drives twice a day. It is locked with a padlock on the gate at each end of the family property. A pad locked gate at the end of this section of wall on the left - also locked and unlocked by the IDF each morning and afternoon - allows family members to come and go; if the soldiers forget to unlock the gate the family is confined to this cage.) /what was once an independently well-enough-off family, is, today, a family struggling to survive on the income the head of the household can make selling water from a truck with a small water tank on the back.

True, Target is more likely to lock customers into the store than to lock them out (can't thrive if no customers) and, besides the way they look, the Walls aren't that similar: for one thing, Target's walls are far flimsy-er than the Separation Barrier. Both walls separate communities though.

and, if, like Marge, you found this all too depressing.... here's a snippet of music to cheer you up, Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Ramble 21: Oh la la, Shangri La

On St. Patrick's Day Sergei and Marge stroll on the pedestrian path along Shoreline Drive. As you know if you've been outside in the last weeks, spring is sprung and: "the sun is a-shinin' to welcome the day, the birds are all singing all happy and gay, heigh ho...." (On this topic of spring ditties, this year Sergei scored a home run with Marge - who loves such things - when he introduced her to a ditty from his childhood:
"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is?")

As often happens when it's a particularly warm and lovely weekend day, Marge and Sergei head to their favorite Alameda haunt, the place they call Shangri La (see pix of Shangri La at sunset on the last day of 2012).

On the way on this day, Marge captured this pic of the beach near Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary getting its annual sand re-arrangement.
Here, a trio of youth take advantage of the St. Patrick's Day holiday to relax upon the sand re-arrangers.

Then Marge and Sergei push on to Shangri La where large flocks of birds gather.
Sergei suggests these flocks are preparing to leave for their breeding grounds up north. In some spots along the beach, there are so many birds crowded into such small areas that the tidelands look almost ... textured .... The pic below gives a good sense of that quality of textured tideland that is actually high density bird life. (Note the egret to the right. Marge asks, "Sergei, doesn't that egret remind you of how your grammar school Headmaster hovered nearby to keep an eye on the goings-on as we kids played?"
"Sure does Marge." )

Then on to Shangri La.
On this day, several residences have residents on display in their back yards as they enjoy the beautiful day. (For the map lovers among our readers, Shangri La is on the bay side of what is Bay Street for vehicles, mailmen, and those too timid to explore the dirt footpath).
Sightings of Shangri La residents is unusual - which is why Marge mentions it. On this topic, she's been known to mutter, "If we had the good luck to live along here, Sergei, wouldn't we take every opportunity to hang out outside?"
Sergei mutters his answer, "Yes, Marge." (Once he added, "Marge, you and I, generally, are not covetous people but...do you notice that our most fervent bouts of envy are directed at residents who reside in Shangri La?" In response, he got an ear full from Marge about "making the most of your good luck, appreciating the glory around you, etc.)
Today, Marge is somewhat mollified to discover that at least one set of residents appreciates her/his spectacular location and celebrates it with this totem-like sculpture.
Isn't it something?

Ramble 20: Emma! Or, a Frenchman meets his match...

And, for a change of pace... This very cute, 39-second commercial, titled, from French, "Paper is not dead".
Enjoy!

Ramble 19: Eager Beltliners

March 2, 2013 - the day eager-beavers for the Beltline gathered to walk the 22-acre parcel that will be a new public park or preserve  for Alameda. (Yes, there's a semantic different between the two: a "park" is gussied up, may have sports fields or other amenities, and requires more money and more maintenance while a "preserve" is more laissez-faire and maintains more of the natural flora and fauna of the place. Judging from two focus groups conducted in February, Alamedans, including Marge, want a "preserve".
Here's the group (you don't get to see Marge or Sergei here in full RGB color: Marge is camera-woman on this day as Sergei had to attend a different event). 

Quick summary:
Some years ago, super-sleuth and Alameda resident Jean Sweeney investigated the historical property documents and contracts associated with this land.  Stretching from Sherman in the east, Constitution in the west, Atlantic to the North, and the west end neighborhoods of Buena Vista/Pacific to the south, Jean found a way for the city to purchase the land for a tenth of Pacific Railroad's asking price: just under $1 million as opposed to $40 million. It now belongs to The People.
Thank you, Jean!

Apparently, the area served as both a passenger stop and the train switching yard. 
There are some areas of contamination - including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from fuel and maintaining machinery, etc - so some environmental clean up will be necessary.
The concrete slab in the picture to the right  represents what's left of what was once the passenger boarding area.

Spring has sprung in the trees (they look like acacia to Marge) about half way between Sherman and Constitution.

By this time the group had stretched out and, here, with the Food Bank to the right, a segment of the group gathers near the south corner.

Future sculpture garden?
In the picture on the left, debris remaining from another building shows signs of visits from graffiti artists.
Marge wonders: Instead of hauling away this debris and clogging up landfill, why not build on what already exists and maintain this area as a memorial sculpture garden that reminds visitors of our past?


Below, Alameda resident Zack/Matt (first he said his name was Zack, then amended that to Matt) sits atop the same concrete remains as shown in the photo above.
Now, dear reader, do you see the possibilities for a sculpture garden?
(Sergei suggest Marge edits this segment to include his view of things: "At least tell readers, Marge, that this crazy idea is yours and yours alone and that there's no such thinking going on in the upper echelons of city power where it matters. Most residents would be horrified if ARPD - and the city - allowed what they'd see as debris that could lead to litigation left on the property. That's good enough for you, Marge, but far too wild and woolly for the majority of Alameda's residents."
Thank you for your perspective, Sergei. You point out what is undoubtedly true. But (Marge sighs loudly)...one can dream, not so?

 

The good (er, goodish) old days
Wendell J. Stewart brought along his 1919 Ford Model T to assist anyone struggling to negotiate the uneven land ...and anyone who simply wanted a ride and a touch of nostalgia. 
Marge rode for a while and learned from Wendell that, in the U.S, the Ford Model T was the first vehicle that women were legally allowed to drive.
Bouncing around on the front seat, Marge noticed the lack of seatbelts...and that the doors - very cute, small and, at knee height, very short - provide little protection to a passenger - or a driver - who could hit a bump and pop right out of the vehicle and into the road!
According to Wendell the Ford Model T was known to flip easily. Moreover, it quickly overheats unless it goes fast to keep the engine cool. Hmmm...

Here, elegant Gretchen Lipow and Carol Gottstein pose for Marge. Wendell is just visible to the left.


Below shows the corner at Constitution and Atlantic with the city's senior housing facility in the background.
Marge does not know who is the little boy in the foreground. She hopes that, one day in the far future, someone will look at the picture and say something along the lines of, "Ohhh, isn't that you, Jason (or Benjamin, or Mark) as a youngster? And, my goodness, look how little things have changed since that day, back in early 2013, when the first group of eager-to-be-involved-in-the-new-Sweeney-Preserve took a walk on the Beltline?"
Amen!

Ramble 18: Signs of Spring

A few hot days and plants and animals think of spring.
Oxalis, oxalis everywhere. Here Sergei snapped it along Crown Beach looking toward Crab Cove.

Lovely potted plants blossoming for spring.

Nothing like an empty swing under a glorious tree to evoke the memories of childhood.

Ramble 17: Duck, duck, goose!

Visiting friends in a condo complex on the West Side, Marge and Sergei found this duck sitting comfortably in a water sculpture. It was quite content to pose for Sergei - as long as, it seemed, he showed off her 'better side'.

Last summer (2012) Marge discovered a wounded goose in Washington Park. She noticed the bird sitting in the grass near the baseball outfield fence as she rambled along Central Ave.
The goose was alone - not usual for a goose - and it seemed distressed - panting the way geese pant when thirsty, looking around in alarm, and, most significantly, not moving.
Marge got water in a paper cup from Spritzers coffee shop and, trying to avoid frightening the goose, she pushed the cup through the fence and set it in the grass. Then she continued her ramble.
A week later the bird was still there - and that is really was injured. Marge and Sergei decided the right thing to do was to call the animal shelter. (Point of order: turns out one calls animal control not the animal shelter).
A very responsible animal controller arrived shortly thereafter, survey the situation, agreed the animal was injured and explained that she would leave the bird in the field.
"We tend not to take injured wildlife unless they're close to death. This one, while it is injured - looks like she has broken her leg -  is in pretty good shape."
Marge and Sergei kept an eye on the goose through the rest of the summer and, indeed, she was in pretty good shape.

Then last week, more than six months after the first sighting, they noticed the goose is still there, still occupying the same corner of the same baseball field. And she's still injured although now other geese keep her company.
The injured bird appears to leave the field as, many-a-time during Marge's rambles, the bird is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps it joins it feathered friends on Crown Beach for a little beach combing?
The pictures below convey a sense of the 'life style' that has developed. Note how the mobile geese stand sentry over the immobile goose.

Apparently, this animal can cover a lot of ground and feed herself adequately using this grazing posture.
Ain't nature wonderful?