New Lives For Old Neighborhoods

Late last year, I traveled back east to visit friends in New York City and family upstate. I chronicled my observations traveling between those places in an earlier post- “Traveling Up The Hudson River”. Both on the journey, and at each end of the trip, there was a recurring theme- the rebirth of old neighborhoods , through both the  high-profile  re-invigoration of old  infrastructure in New York City, and a lower profile street by street revitalization of an inner city neighborhood in Syracuse.

Infrastructure As Catalyst- The High Line Experience

Hotel over the High Line

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2010
01/27
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A New Look

We here at Urban Ambles are constantly striving to make this site better and better. And it seems to be working. The site gets the same number visitors in one day as it used to get in a week, and last Friday, we received more visitors than the entire first month. Hopefully, this new look won’t upset the apple cart. We like it because it is slick, simple, and easier to read than the last version. Enjoy and please- give feedback- write comments!!

2010
01/22
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The Grand Tour Update

In the last millenium, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries, young English of some means would embark on a tour of the Continent. It usually focused on traveling the classical world- Italy and Greece, and could also include visits to France, the Alps, Germany, and the Low Countries. Early last year, newly  unemployed; I thought it the perfect time to embark on a Grand Tour of my own, except for that damn ‘of some means ‘ part. So I adjusted my sites lower, and I have embarked on a tour of the Bay Area. Instead of the canals of Venice, the ones in Foster City would have to do. In lieu of the ruins at Delos- , the post-industrial sculptures of the Albany Bulb. The only rule  : every place was to be accessed by public transit- no cars (I don’t own one). And where there was no transit , I would walk, and in some cases, as it has turned out, walk, and walk, walk. And I  would  chronicle this as part of my blog: Urban Ambles. At the outset, this tour would circumnavigate the bay, places where  the natural and man-made intertwined, often in fascinating ways.

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2010
01/17
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The Grand Tour- Recession version
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Grand Tour.13- Toddlin’ Along The Carquinez Strait

Happy New Year loyal reader. The Grand Tour starts anew in 2010, after the holiday recess. Actually, today’s post recaps a trek taken last year , a very long amble along the edge of the Carquinez Strait, from Martinez all the way to Vallejo, a 13 mile monster. Urban Ambles nearly required medical attention as it lumbered  on to the ferry for the ride home, though a soothing Pabst Blue Ribbon (yes, I was that thirsty) helped immensely. Here’s the route:

We accessed this route by train, hopping an early morning Capitol Corridor Amtrak train from Emeryville-Sacramento – it stops in Martinez. It really felt like we were going somewhere this morning, it felt positively Grand-Tourish, I mean the real kind. What is it about settling in on the train, (and I’m not talking about the whine of BART), but the 2-3 miles out of the station satisfying muted clickety clack of the rails beneath you. Seat, coffee, map, and book- check ,check, and check. Simple pleasures.

After heading inland from Emeryville, passing thru the industrial backyards of the East Bay, we return to the water’s edge, along San Pablo Bay. Eventually, suburbia’s enthusiasm for the Bay gives way past Rodeo, and the Bay narrows down to the Carquinez Strait, the entry  marked by the Carquinez Bridge. We continued on to our destination of Martinez, and its sharp new train station.

Disembarking in Martinez, we have arrived in the county seat of Contra Costa County. There is a pretty well-preserved downtown here, and, as it is a county seat, it’s a fairly robust. I am also told it was once home to John Muir  (his home is  a museum there). We make our way past the immediate retail zone, and into a very pleasant residential neighborhood, it populated with great examples of early California Victorian vernacular homes, all part of a historic district, itself worth more exploration. Eventually , one ascends the hill at the edge of town, its edge marked by a somewhat scraggly cemetery:

Martinez Victorian

Martinez Cemetery

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2010
01/17
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The Grand Tour- Recession version
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Holiday Tales Part 3: Post Cards from the Desert

Our annual holiday trip to the desert included a little everything, desert hikes, mountain snow, and most important of all, a trip down Candy Cane Lane. Palm Springs is the ultimate landscape of contrast this time of year. The desert floor is comfortably warm, while a mountain tram ride can whisk you in minutes to an alpine wonderland. And there is no greater contrast than that between the  man-made environment and the raw desert. We have a place in a complex that is half-built, the unbuilt portion another victim of the recession. When you wander beyond the exquisitely mannered desert landscaping of the portion that is built, you can see the desert rapidly reclaiming the vacant land . This side of the development is raw and scrubby, and constantly reshaped by the persistent gust of hot desert winds.

You certainly see the absurd here in buildings and landscape, particularly the insistence by some to maintain impeccably manicured lawns. But most of the  design in Palm Springs reflects the desert vernacular, single story, broad overhangs, indoor/outdoor rooms, frequent use of concrete floors, to name but a few. Many new developments are being built dense and compact and with traditional desert landscaping, and much of the city is pleasantly walkable, at least in the winter. And while the valley is not a model of sustainability, it does generate a tremendous amount of power via the nearby wind farms, and an ever expanding array of rooftop solar. So, unlike what we saw in Folsom, there is at least some logic to the local vernacular in Palm Springs. That being said,  you still run across  many examples of “late mexo-terranean retail design”, often with generous portions of luxury-inducing neo-classical goo.

At any rate, this trip wound down the year, and we said goodbye to 2009 in style. There was hiking in the desert and the mountains, a visit to Candy Cane Lane, the valley’s version of the uber-decorated suburban street ( It was a zoo). We were most intrigued with the 2 houses that were not participating. And finally, we toasted in 2010 with the 60-something set at a classic old school Palm Springs lounge- Melvyn’s.  (Think Oysters Rockefeller at the bar while listening to the lounge lizard belting out Volare). An appropriate way to boot this raggedy ass of a year out the door. 2010 is going to be a great year. Better things ahead. Here’s a few slides from our trip :

Hiking in the desert

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2010
01/04
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Holiday Tales Part 2: The Urban Amble

Unlike what we saw in part 1, Christmas in the city is a study in contrasts. At Thanksgiving, I walked through the streets en route to dinner, and the streets were delightfully quiet, revealing both sights of  joy, as well as desperation. A similar experience could be seen on Urban Amble’s mad dash through the streets, though this time, the purpose was to find some last minute stocking stuffers. But unlike Thanksgiving, the sidewalks were full with shoppers and eccentrics. And the contrasts are great- luxurious  window displays  one minute, a bread line the next.

We’ve come to the end of 2009, a year I shall never forget. It too has been filled with joy, plenty of pain, but in the end, perhaps most of all, much promise. I leave you with photos of my holiday amble. Happy holidays.

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2009
12/24
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Holiday Tales Part 1: Folsom Planning Blues

I hear the train a comin’
It’s rollin’ ’round the bend,
And I ain’t seen the sunshine,
Since, I don’t know when,
I’m stuck in Folsom Prison,
And time keeps draggin’ on,
But that train keeps a-rollin’,
On down to San Antone.

From “Folsom Prison Blues”- Johnny Cash

A few weeks ago, Urban Ambles was heading to the Sierras for some recreation, and pulled off I-50 for a rest in Folsom. Why Folsom? Well, we, er I,  have a history there. You see, at my last firm, I worked briefly on a large shopping mall in Folsom: “Palladio at Broadstone”, and a small piece of it has been completed, and I wanted to see what it looked like. And so, this is Part 1 of our holiday tour. And incidentally, while you can hear the train a comin’ at the prison, you can’t hear it here cause its on the other side of town. Happy Holidays!!

For the most part , I have focused my blog on urban places, hence the name. Not having a car, I don’t often find myself outside the reach of public transit. But getting up here absolutely requires a  car, which I had at my disposal this day. But seeing and commenting on suburban locales is equally vital. In terms of the holidays, there is of course all the usual reports from  Rockefeller Center or Union Square, but the reality for many Americans is that their holiday experiences have more to do with places such as this.  And as I detailed in my post of several months ago, I literally grew up next to a mall myself, in a suburban town.

But I must say, Folsom ain’t much like my hometown. This area off of I-50 is a veritable clusterf#&#!k of all types of retail centers and suburban housing types -   strip centers, big boxes, power centers, gated multifamily complexes, mcmansions, and yes, a half-finished mall, or as they are now known , a lifestyle center. It is this center’s parking garage that I worked on briefly a couple of years back. The cinema and garage recently opened, but the rest of the center’s opening is delayed.

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2009
12/23
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Micro-living

I once lived in a 375 square foot studio……….. for 6 and a half years. Crazy? Yeah. But I grew to love the place and its location. And with mediocre paying architect jobs, and a car payment, the $650 /month rent worked. It was 2 rooms , a living room in the front, and everything else in the back. I slept in the kitchen, albeit in a small loft space. I could make sunday breakfast from bed, flipping pancakes while reading the paper. Ah the memories. I left in 2000, and with that being at the height of the dot-com boom, the rent skyrocketed, to $1,650. Again, for 375 square feet.

We live in a larger space now, why we even have a hallway! But I have always felt that we Americans could live in smaller spaces, and I think that , in this era of green everything, that is an underutilized strategy. Green materials are important, but why not start with using less material by living in smaller spaces. I went to a presentation recently by a couple in San Francisco who had just remodeled their Pacific heights home. It was hailed as a green tour de force, but it was a 3,500 sf home for 4. It just seemed like an irrelevant review of a couple of wealthy people who had the means to spend lavishly on all things green.  In the meantime, the average American lives in well over twice as much as space as in other nations (except Australia, there’s are bigger!!). Getting smaller, and yes, greener, that’s what we should do , ultimately.

At any rate, these reflections were prompted by the article below. My 375 square feet was a palace compared to this.

Here’s the full article:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/cozy_crazy_couple_makes_tight_studio_R15ToNFTaJE3c17zkw4efP

2009
12/11
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Grand Tour.12- Point San Pablo

Quick, how many lighthouses are there on San Francisco Bay? Answer in a moment.

One of the oddest hikes yet undertaken on our Grand Tour (Recession Version!), hike number 12 takes us to little known Point San Pablo.  Point San Pablo is a peninsula that juts out into the bay in Richmond just north of the Richmond San Rafael Bridge. Much of this peninsula is owned by Chevron, but a narrow strip of land is independently owned or in transition. So this hike strikes a recurring theme on the Grand Tour, land between uses; often an industrial or military past that is giving way to an alternate future. Here’s the route:

So how many lighthouses do you have? If you guessed 5, I think you would be correct, and I ask this, because one of them is on this route. The other 4: Point Bonita out at the mouth of the bay, Point Lime in Sausalito, and one each on both Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Islands.

We broke a “Urban Ambles” rules on this trip, as we accessed this amble via  car, but at least it was a car share. So, on with the amble.

History

This is a largely industrial landscape, most of this peninsula is owned by Chevron, and its the relatively narrow sliver of land that is not owned by Chevron, along the Bay , that was our route. This strip of land actually used to be an island, the largest in San Francisco Bay, but the shallow marshlands that separated it from Richmond were filled in at the turn of the 20th century. The land facing west was once   home to Chinese shrimpers, and then to the largest winery operation in california, believe it or not, at Winehaven, right on the bay. After the winery left, the navy took over, and it became the Point Molate Fuel Depot. The navy base was decommissioned in 1995, along with many other bay area bases, and the land has since been up for redevelopment.

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2009
12/11
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The Grand Tour- Recession version
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Reflections at Thanksgiving

When I started this blog, I found this photo, and it was part of my first post. Certainly part of the focus of the blog has been chronicling my journey caused by our current economic trauma. Well, I recently passed one year since I have worked full-time for a company. So, I thought I would reflect for a moment on this past year.

In many ways, this has been an amazing year. I have accomplished much: I’ve learned new skills, free-lanced,  become much more engaged with my community in a variety of pro-bono ways, spent more time with family.  And I have continued to create, my lifeblood. But its been hard of course. This past week for example, I had an interview scheduled with a firm, and I had spent the better part of a week preparing, sending them a custom mini-portfolio at their request, updating my website for what I was sure would be a knock-out multi media interview presentation. The day  before the interview, I received a cryptic e-mail telling me the interview was off, (it turned out they were in need of people because of a large project they were awarded), a project that was now on hold til  next fall.

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2009
11/28
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