Tag Archives: East Bay Bike Coalition
Can Berkeley be most bike-friendly city in the country?
On Bike to Work Day, Berkeley’s mayor Tom Bates (who famously ditched his car several years ago) got on his bike to show support for the two-wheeler set and laid out his commitment to make Berkeley “the most bike-friendly city in the country.”
At a series of press events this morning, Bates spoke of updating Berkeley’s Bicycle Plan so that it was the best bicycle plan in the country. He also hopped on his own bike first thing to take a (helmet-less) spin down the brand new West Street Pathway.
“Lowering our transportation GHG emissions is a key component of our award-winning climate action plan,” Bates said. … Continue reading »
Bay Area Underground: A cornucopia of sub-cultures
Two local lads — Matt Werner, a Cal English grad who now works at Google, and Joe Sciarrillo who is studying for his masters at Cal — have published a book that embraces many of the Bay Area’s “big” moments of the past five years, be it the Occupy protests or the Giants winning the World Series. A smattering of those events took place in Berkeley, as the photos here show. We caught up with co-author Matt Werner to find out more about ‘Bay Area Underground.’
What is Bay Area Underground about?
Bay Area Underground is a photobook featuring candid images of life in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2008-2012. The photos invite readers to revisit key moments that have defined living in the Bay Area during the Great Recession. The book captures the major social movements and cultural events in the Bay Area over the last five years from the Giants winning the World Series to the Bay to Breakers. It’s also one of the first books to cover Occupy Oakland and Occupy San Francisco, as well as the Oscar Grant protests in Oakland. … Continue reading »
Shattuck Avenue goes car-free for 17 blocks on Sunday
More than a mile of Berkeley’s Shattuck Avenue will be open to pedestrians, cyclists, roller-skaters, dancers, and kids on Sunday Oct. 14 — but not cars — as the city holds its first Sunday Streets event from 11 am through 4 pm.
Seventeen blocks, from Rose to Haste streets, will also be a hive of activities as merchants, musicians and community organizations take the opportunity to engage with and perform for local residents. The offerings run the gamut from free free bike repairs courtesy of Mikes Bikes, Missing Link Cooperative and the Bike Station, to street soccer games, free yoga classes, belly dancing, hands-on science activities for kids, and a performance by the UC Berkeley Gospel Choir.
The idea of Sunday Streets, or Open Streets as they are also known, originated in Bogatá, Colombia and has spread around the world, including to San Francisco where it has been a regular occurrence in different neighborhoods for a couple of years. … Continue reading »
Berkeley approves number of bike-friendly initiatives
By Dave Campbell
At a time when cities are facing budget cuts and reducing staff, Berkeley is pushing ahead with several bikeway projects and initiatives to make the city more walkable and more bikeable.
Many of the Berkeley’s bikeway improvements were highlighted at the June 25 meeting of the Berkeley Bicycle Subcommittee, where the City’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Planner, Eric Anderson, had a lot of exciting updates to share with a group of 18 interested residents. Anderson led a discussion of the Hearst Avenue Corridor Study and its proposed road diet, green bikeway features, and significantly improved pedestrian crossings. … Continue reading »
Food takes to the streets, literally, on PARKing Day
Today, some choice parking spots around Berkeley were commandeered and given over to less auto-oriented pursuits: sitting, eating, lounging and drinking being the main ones.
At the Cheese Board Pizza Collective in the Gourmet Ghetto two parking spaces sported several chairs, an umbrella and a few large yucca plants on a bed of bright green astro-turf. And downtown, outside Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food restaurant, people were enjoying lunch and afternoon drinks on Shattuck Avenue — literally — although … Continue reading »
New bike station opened today in downtown Berkeley
Today saw the opening of a smart new Bike Station at 2208 Shattuck Avenue, the result of a partnership between the city and BART, as well as community biking organizations. The station offers convenient, free valet-parking space for cyclists commuting via the Downtown Berkeley BART, as well as repair facilities, a retail store and amenities designed to turn novice cyclists into enthusiasts. (Watch the slideshow above, clicking on “captions” for more details.)
The station, which was five years in … Continue reading »
