[trip-list] Oakland

[drewish@katherinehouse.com]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA 08/06/02 - Birds diving at my tent woke me from a good night's rest in the hills above Berkley. I started what, based on my cycle map, I thought would be a steep decent into the city only to realize that I'd been reading the arrows indicating grade backwards. I a few miles of steep hill later I was finally rewarded with my first view of the Bay.

In Berkley I got a hold of Josh Ratner the Bicycle & Pedestrian Facilities Coordinator with the City of Oakland. Since I was early he gave me directions down to his office. When I got there he took me out for a couple slices of pizza before we had to ride up to the meeting point.

At the rally point, a pavillion next to a lake, we met up with two cyclists and turned around and came down the brand new bike lanes on Grand St. to City Hall. There I was met by Oakland City Councilwoman Jane Brunner, who I'm told is also a cyclist, Georgia Richardson, the council president(Ignacio De La Fuente)'s, scheduler and several other city employees and bike activists and a reporter and photographer from the Oalkand Tribune. The proclamation was read and then presented to me by the Councilwoman. There were a some short speeches by the various dignitaries and they even let me say a few words. I was very pleased with the way it all went. Afterwards the plan was for some riders to escort me down a bike route on the way out of town but I ended up spending a half hour talking to the reporter and most of the riders had dispersed. I'm looking forward to getting the paper tomorrow and seeing out how it turned out. 

As it was I just made it on the last train under the Bay that bikes are allowed on. I popped out at the Embarcadero BART station and had to ride from there. Kern Trembath had offered to let me stay with his family and him so I called and got directions to the house. For a few years I've wanted to ride in "The City", as we call it in Reno. I love urban riding, senses alert, weaving through stopped cars, sprinting to make the end of a light, screaching to a halt to avoid a pedestrian who's wandered out into the lane. All the stuff your mom doesn't want to know about and San Francisco has plenty of it. Fortunately there's plenty of bikes on the road and they've gotten the cars trained to give you some space if you assert yourself. I had a blast riding through town. Going through an intersection half way up a good stiff hill a lady driving a mini-bus looks out at me and yells "Are you smiling?". Of couse I was smiling I was passing comuters with a loaded bike.

Kern his wife and two sons--who seem much older than their 13 years--were wonderful. They still hadn't finished unpacking after moving into their new apartment and in the midst of it all were letting me stay with them. I spent several hours talking with Kern and Sally about bike touring, politics, and a million other things. It most fun I've had without a bike in weeks. I'm so grateful to have had the opportuniy to have met and spend some time with them. They'll be people I'll try to visit everytime I'm in town.

Tomorrow: San Francisco, I'm hoping the media coverage continues. Local cyclists would be great. I'm told some are planning on coming "if they don't get arrested" at the Cheney protest earlier in the day.

andrew

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