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Category Archives: Oakland

Today’s ride home from work, in four photographs

El Gato Negro, one of my favorite bars that I’ve never set foot in. Two horsemen. Nine and a half headless clothehorsewomen. And a newly discovered bird! I thought my little bird project might have run its course, and I nearly missed this one today since it wasn’t immediately obvious that there is a bird […]

The Grateful Tree

A small tree near my apartment. The small print says, “what are you grateful for today?” Sharpie and hangable paper tags provided.

Sign of the Times

Letters from my landlord don’t come often, and in the past they have usually indicated one thing: higher rent. So when I saw the envelope in yesterday’s mail, my first thought was, “Damnit! How can they raise my rent when rents are falling in the area?” It turns out I had jumped to conclusions: I […]

The Ongoing Legacy of the New Deal

As someone with a casual interest in local history, I was interested to learn from another Oakland blog about the Living New Deal Project at UC Berkeley. In addition to producing a book and collecting testimonials from people who worked on (or witnessed) New Deal projects, the Berkeley scholars are compiling a searchable database of […]

Tricoleur

Back in January, I wrote about this boat rusting away on a tidal flat in the Oakland estuary, but I didn’t have a camera capable of doing it justice at the time. I finally got a chance to take some better pictures yesterday (those are the lights of the Coliseum in the background):

“Be Nice Don’t Dump”

I think I may have tried that exact line with an ex-girlfriend once. If I had known at the time that dumping was illegal, maybe I could have been more persuasive. More seriously, I think that Broken Windows Theory 101 would dictate that if you are trying to discourage people from treating your semi-vacant lot […]

Vestige

Cherub’s Best Friend

Still Life with Bunnies and Eggs

A front yard on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland. Is it Easter or something?

Sausal Creek from the Hills to the Bay

One nice side effect of getting around on foot or by bike instead of in a car is that you notice and discover things that you would not have seen if you had cruised by at 30 miles an hour in a box of glass and steel. For example, if I hadn’t been on a […]

Opportunity Knocks

I said a week or two ago that I was on the lookout for ways that our economic troubles were affecting the look and feel of our cities, but that can be a depressing project, so I’m trying to keep an eye out for hopeful signs too. A surprising number of new bars and restaurants […]

Where Wile E. Coyote Buys His Fire Extinguishers

This is on Fruitvale Avenue, near the BART station. I’m not the only person who likes this sign: a local artist made a painting of it as part of a whole series on Oakland signage.