It’s time for some East Oakland love — bike love that is. And now is a good time for it, with construction starting in Fall on the East Bay Greenway and AC Transit finalizing designs for East Bay Bus Rapid Transit on International Blvd. We are pushing for a more complete network of bikeways connecting to these new facilities, and to communities such as Elmhurst, Sobrante Park, Fruitvale, Fairfax, Coliseum Area, Castlemont High School area, and more. And we are pushing the City of Oakland to priortize completing these bikeways as soon as possible.
Seeking residents who bike in Havenscourt & Millsmont Neighborhoods
The City of Oakland is ready to stripe new bike lanes on Camden St and Havenscourt Blvd, connecting new MacArthur Blvd bikeway with International Blvd, which is also getting bike lanes as part of East Bay Bus Rapid Transit. For Camden and Havenscourt to get new bike lanes, the City needs to hear that there is public support for safer streets for bicycling.
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If you live or work in Council District 6, Contact Councilmember Desley Brooks with your support for bike lanes. EBBC has met with Councilmember Brooks soon and she wants to see signatures in support from residents who live on Havenscourt Blvd. Look for our volunteers Thursday, Oct 31, out on Havenscourt gathering signatures. A letter, or even better, a phone call has a tremendous impact on politician’s deliberations, so go to the Desley Brooks contact page and let her know you support bike lane on Havenscourt! You can also send an email to our Campaign Fellow RB with your support and he will follow up.
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NCPC Districts 29X (Burbank Millsbrace) 27X (Rainbow) and 66-82nd NCPC are essential to these bike lanes. If you live in this neighborhood, please sign up on their NCPC mailing list and look for an upcoming meeting with Havenscourt bike lanes on the agenda. Find your Neighborhood Council Group here.
Please contact RB, our Campaign Fellow, if you are a local resident and have any questions or if you want to help.
Take a Quick Survey about Where in East Oakland You Ride
This is a short 10-question survey about bicycling in East Oakland. We want to know more about where people ride, what types of trips they are making, and what are your priorities for making East Oakland more bike-friendly. Thanks for your input.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RNRN9G8
PeopleForBikes has helped give our campaign a big boost with a $10,000 launch grant. With this support, we are hiring a campaign fellow for on-the-street community outreach and organizing in the communities of East Oakland. PeopleforBikes is a national movement working with the bicycle industry and thousands of supporters to unite millions of people to transform America through bicycling. The East Bay Bicycle Coalition is honored to receive our first grant from this great organization.
Your Donated Bike Gets One More Kid Riding
East Oakland is energetic, creative and spiritual, but is a challenging place for bicycling. Traffic is crazy, and there are few bike lanes, but when the Scraper Bike kids ride through, everyone cheers. What’s missing are more bikes and a complete bike network.
We are supporting the Scraper Bike Team and their hard work helping kids fix and repair bikes using the ‘each one teach one rule,’ customizing their bikes with foil tape, candy wrappers & shiny new paint, and getting them excited to ride. It’s a needed creative outlet for young men and it’s expanding horizons in a place called Scrapertown. They are the Original Scraper Bike Team and they need your used bikes.
What you can do to help:
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Donate a bike at:
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Colectivelo, Saturdays 1pm-5pm, 50th & International Blvd
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Brookdale Rec Center, Tues-Sat 3pm-6pm, 2521 High St.
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Roll-up Bike Shop, Tues-Sat, 12noon-6pm, 4401 San Leandro St
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The Bikery, Tues & Thurs 3-7pm, Sat 11am-5pm, 2289 International Blvd
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Food Day at Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm
EBBC’s bike smoothie team was out in force on October 23 at Food Day at Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm. It was an afternoon of health food and fun living and EBBC was honored to be a part of it and help get kids excited about health food and drink choices. Our smoothies were all natural, with frozen bananas, strawberries, blackberries, orange juice and apple juice, all organic. We were also talking with local residents about our campaign for support of bike lanes on Havenscourt Blvd, and many signed out petition. We also handed out survey about bicycling in East Oakland, for general feedback and input.
East Bay Greenway Ground-Breaking Phase 1
Construction has started for phase 1 of the East Bay Greenway. Phase 1 will build a multi-use pathway along the BART tracks between 66th Ave and 85th Ave. The entire project will eventually extend south to Hayward and on to Fremont and into Santa Clara County.
October 20 Bike Tour of San Leandro Creek
Meet at San Leandro BART Station, 10:00am, Sunday, October 20
San Leandro Creek Future Greenway Bike Tour led by Merritt College Environmental Program. Meet at San Leandro BART station at 10:00am Sunday October 20th.
Ride over to Root Park at E.14th. Ride as close as possible to creek including along maintenance road and work our way down to Arrowhead Marsh. The ride finishes by biking along Estuary Bay Trail to Coliseum BART. End approximately 12:00pm.
Food/coffee stop available at Starbucks and Organic Choice at 98th Ave and Creek.
More information about San Leandro Creek Greenway Project
Check out Hope Collaborative’s Neighborhood Plan for Lower Elmhurst
Hope Collaborative convened the Elmhurst neighborhood Planning Initiative, a collaborative effort among residents, community-based organizations, City and County government, schools, parks, churches, and the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils (NCPC’s) to develop and implement a community-based plan for the lower Elmhurst area, in the area of 81st-92nd Ave between International and San Leandro Blvd. This neighborhood-based plan includes many good bike improvements, such as the 82nd Ave bike boulevard, that improve upon Oakland’s Bicycle Master Plan. We plan to work with Hope Collaborative and the City of Oakland to expand this award-winning planning effort to the upper Elmhurst neighborhood. More information on how you can help coming soon.
Background
East Oakland is not a high density urban neighborhood. It has a density similar to neighborhoods around the central Washington DC core-sufficient to support good transit service, but only with good bike access. While International Blvd is planned for more housing and economic development in the future as part of the International TOD Plan, it is going to take many years to achieve a level of density needed to fully support a successful BRT system. It is also going to take many additional more years to create good bike access at the current rate of progress. Fortunately, the International Blvd TOD Plan acknowledges that “pedestrian and bicycle safety and connectivity should be top priorities to support transit ridership and foster a transit-oriented lifestyle.”
Equally fortunately, the new East Bay Bus Rapid Transit system is going to be bike-friendly, thanks to years of our working with AC Transit and the City of Oakland to ensure the project includes bike lanes on International Blvd, bike parking at BRT stations and the allowance of bikes on the new BRT buses. Similarly, the East Bay Greenway phase one will extend from the Coliseum BART Station to 105 Ave and will be complete by 2016 as well. This is not only a great opportunity for the East Bay Bicycle Coalition to build support for a complete bikeway network in East Oakland, it is a critical opportunity to ensure these two projects are successful and replicated. We want BRT to expand to other transit corridors and we need the East Bay Greenway extended south into San Leandro and Hayward.
The work in connection with International Blvd is particularly important and unique in many ways because International Blvd has undergone an extensive public process to develop and approve an award-winning International Blvd Transit Oriented Development Plan . The TOD Plan and the BRT project have led to the City of Oakland working with Transform and the Alameda County Public Health Department to launch in February 2013 the Oakland Sustainable Neighborhoods Initiative (OSNI), which EBBC is an active member of as part of its Transportation Working Group. The ONSI project is a multi-million dollar collaborative effort led by the City of Oakland to integrate different affordable housing, public transit, and neighborhood revitalization efforts along an urban and severely economically disadvantaged transit corridor–the International Boulevard Corridor of East Oakland. The ONSI project focuses on concrete planning efforts resulting in the identification of priority projects, plans, and proposed policies, as well as collaborative investments. Project activities will result in sustainable development outcomes such as increased affordable housing, public transit ridership, and changes in zoning, building and other local laws to support smart and equitable growth principles.
The City of Oakland has been helping many of our partners organizations and allies to find outside funding for their work as part of the ONSI project, helping in areas of leadership development and outreach assistance to help address and implement the targeted issue areas prioritized in the TOD Plan. Our campaign is part of this community driven development in the corridor in advance of Bus Rapid Transit service and development along International Blvd and that is why the City of Oakland and many groups are supporting this grant application to leverage the funding we need to get thousands of people bicycling in East Oakland.
Construction of the BRT system is expected to bring millions of dollars of new investment in infrastructure to the corridor and result in significant physical improvements to the street as well as much better bus service. While bike lanes are planned for International Blvd, but the final designs for new bike lanes as part of BRT are still being worked out and could be compromised due to parking and traffic concerns by local stakeholders. In addition, the BRT project includes no improved bike access to International Blvd from the surrounding neighborhoods and neither does the new East Bay Greenway. We need resources to ensure that the BRT system and the Greenway are well-served with good bike access.