During Oakland’s ill-fated plan to sell out its waterfront to John Fisher, OakDOT presented an image from a Washington, D.C. underpass as a vision for pedestrian access under 880. That project was already a failure in 2022; I checked it out while visiting D.C., and found that it now has several bike-specific elements.
In my series on neighborhood change along streets named for MLK, Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood was identified as notable; between 2000 and 2017, Anacostia saw Black population increase, while median income also increased. That unusual pattern could represent development without displacement, the Holy Grail of community and economic development. The bicycle is the Bike Lab’s preferred data-gathering tool, so on a visit to DC, I had to roll through the neighborhood to get a better sense of it.
I got to spend Halloween with the Original Scraper Bike Team, and it reminded me of why I enjoy riding with them and supporting them, and also, why it’s important.
On Tuesday I did my Tour of Oakland bike ride, and one of the impressions I came away with is that East Oakland, especially Deep East, has been less affected by the shelter-in-place order than the rest of the city. Much of the economy of East Oakland is informal, so shutting down the formal economy doesn’t hit the neighborhood as hard. I saw a few of the Scraper Bike Team kids out, too.
The big event this weekend was the opening of the Richmond Bridge bike path. Najari killed it with his remarks at the ribbon-cutting, and I enjoyed the path more than I expected to. A lot of that was the energy of the event, where there were at least 1,000 cyclists. The few times where I was riding more or less solo, the isolation and noise of the bridge felt a bit oppressive; I think on an average day noise and smell will be real issues. But it’s better than another car lane.
Aidil Ortiz, the lead organizer of Untokening Durham, came into city planning work from a background in public health, and he perspective reflects that somewhat unusual path. In addition to doing great work organizing the event, she gave probably my favorite talk of the conference, about her work on community engagement for the Durham Belt Line, a rails-to-trails greenway project on the outskirts of downtown.
Her session was fantastic, and also relevant to Oakland’s bike plan (and, I hope, others).
