Morning adventure

Went for a walk, aiming for the Albany library eventually. On Solano, the small town "Main Street", I found a "Church On the Corner" with a nook with benches and a fountain. It was nice to hang out in for a while, though a woman standing nearby and coughing drove me on. I thought the church might be fairly liberal, with a public space like that... technically, I still don't know what they are politically, but their website is eager to tell you that all sorts of Old Testament prophecies came true in Jesus, and that astronomy proves a Creator, so I wouldn't bet on it. Covid-wise, they say they have some built-in distancing, and MERV 13 filters, though claiming that MERV 13 removes 99% of particles is I think somewhere between vague and inaccurate.

Further west, on the south side, some woman was selling home-cooked bagels on the sidewalk. I got an everything one for $3. Just a still-warm bagel, if you want toppings you're on your own. It was good as it was, though after a few bites I remembered that bagels are refined cereals, which I'm trying to minimize. Then I realized pizza dough is too, and became even sadder. I did finish the bagel.

Actually, before I bought it, I'd kept going, up to a crepe shop (maybe not refined! buckwheat!) which was open (of interest, since it was around 10 AM and few things were). I nearly got something to eat in the outdoor seating, but another customer was playing something loud and annoying on their phone. Since I wanted relaxation as much as food, I passed.

I finally found the library, on Marin. Masks required! I think that's an Alameda County public buildings thing. (Tangentially, the two bus drivers I've looked at were both masked.) Compliance good apart from one kid. I even hung out to read a kid's book on South American myths and legends, though I also lost confidence in my KF94 nose seal and didn't stick around after that. The library is 9 minutes away, vs. 16 for the Berkeley one; I wonder if I can use my Berkeley card. The grounds aren't as nice as the North Berkeley library -- not *bad*, but not nearly as green.

Albany walkability

Musing while in bed, I took the known size of the house I'm in, guessed at the lot size, and then -- taking it as average -- at Albany's population density. I was around 4000-ish people/km2, and Wikipedia says 4300. Not a bad guess!

Some years ago, I made a couple of posts about 3000 people/km2 perhaps being the minimum needed for walkability, based on having enough people in walking distance to support a supermarket. So 4300 should be better, yes? And it probably is, though of course going from a town-wide average to my local area is risky. (Then again, the town only has 20,000 people, it doesn't have that much room for variation.) While I still compare it unfavorably to Mexico City, the walkability is at least a cut above 'minimal'. Some of that is businesses 'subsidized' by driving customers -- San Pablo wants to be a stroad when it grows up -- but Solano is fairly "Main Street", with shops on the sidewalk and little parking. (These are the main commercial streets near me.)

I realized that by some fluke, there are actually seven grocery stores within a 15 minute walk, which is rather absurd even by my standards. Safeway and Andronico's (private store but pretty big) on Solano; Whole Foods, Tokyo Fish Market, and Sprouts (WF-like for people who don't want to shop at WF?) on or just off of San Pablo; then a natural food store and an Asian produce-heavy market in two different micro-clusters (10 shops or fewer in a residential area.) 3 of those are technically in Berkeley, but the urban fabric is pretty similar. Some of those have specializations but they all sell a variety of fresh produce and raw meat (probably mostly frozen for the natural food store).

San Pablo 1

In this post: stroad analysis; a disappointing burger; flocks of turkeys.

Having earlier today said of San Pablo that it wanted to be a stroad when it grew up, I decided to pay more attention to it, rather than going on my impression of "wide and fast", which you may recall did not capture everything about Marin Avenue. I also decided to splurge (more in bad food than in money) on a fast burger from a place on San Pablo, so that was convenient.

Coming off Dartmouth (Google Street View link), it looked fairly decent. Parking, two lanes of traffic, but then a wide traffic island; two more lanes, then a protected bike path. Not bad! Almost certainly there had been parking but it got converted. There's a beg button, which works, and which prioritizes pedestrians.

Looking to the north, this state of affairs continues for a while. To the south though... the bike path quickly dumps back out into the street, with an insulting sharrow, and west-side parking resumes, though interspersed with bulb-outs. On the plus side, a wide planted median is common, so you can jaywalk in some safety -- possibly more safety than the yield-sign intersection crosswalks. At one point, even the turn lane has a narrow planted median alongside it.

Is it a stroad? Certainly more of one than Solano. Wide, fast, bunch of driveways -- more on the west side than east, at least around here. But it could be worse. There are sidewalks; the sidewalks are somewhat shielded from traffic by parking, trees, or at least a bit of concrete; you can cross easily in many places; there aren't that many driveways; there's at least progress toward bike safety, though woefully incomplete. Vs. the prototypical stroad of 3 lanes in each direction, no parking, sidewalk (if any) right by the traffic, crosswalks half a mile or more apart, lots of commercial driveways...

That said, it really depends where you look. Using Street View to go south, the wide planted median continues for several blocks. Using View north... the bike path quickly disappears again, and so do the medians. Google even caught someone standing in a turn lane, hoping to cross. At that point the main difference from a stroad are the parking and trees, and the relative paucity of driveways.

As for the burger, meh. When you call your star product a 'Charburger', I expect some charring. Or searing. Or some evidence of having been cooked by a means other than steaming. I did not get this. As for the crispy chicken pieces... they were definitely chunks of chicken that had been deep-fried to crispiness. Honestly, a school cafeteria chicken nugget or McNugget has more zest to it.

I think I've mentioned wild turkeys around here. But the numbers I encounter keep increasing. 1. 2. 4 or 5, crossing the street. And today... I dunno, 16? Upward of a dozen. Strung out along Dartmouth, but all moving in the same direction. It was impressive.