Lengths and Breaths

Your Boulevardier is once again hosting the Subcompact Loaner this weekend, and the sun is shining, so this morning was a good one to get out for a long walk on Castro Valley Boulevard. The first stop on our journey was Valley Java, where Your Boulevardier feels safe tying up the SL for a brief moment. (His unease with doing so at busier, more exposed places is explained here.) Our arrival occurred before the church rush, so the shop was quiet, with only a few customers at the tables and soft jazz audible over the hubbub.

Your Boulevardier was tempted to take a peek at the hospital construction site, but opted instead to head east on the Boulevard. It was noted that the ARCO station at Wisteria Street is closed due to an Alcoholic Beverage Control violation. Interesting to note that they're not selling gas during this shutdown; could it be that the Patrón and Pabst brings in more money than the Petrol?



From there the Post Office was visited. Although the sign announced that dogs were not welcome, Your Boulevardier broke the rules and walked the Subcompact Loaner into the building to check his box. Then the Village was passed through; bowlers were already arriving for their morning observances.

Near Peet's, Your Boulevardier had a chance encounter with Paul, the husband of Soeur de Boulevardier. (If there is a colloquial French phrase for "brother-in-law," Your Boulevardier does not know it.) Paul asked if Your Boulevardier was "walking a mop" -- recall that the Subcompact Loaner is a small, white, hairy dog -- and other family news was shared. From there, Your Boulevardier ambulated through the shopping center behind the Wachovia branch that will become Castro Valley's Wells Fargo Bank this coming April. He confirmed that many of the storefronts in the center are vacant, though there is a dentist, a real estate agent, a title company, a hair salon, and a tutoring company in business.

The Boulevard was crossed at Yeandle Avenue -- Rudy's was passed without ducking in, since Your Boulevardier is trying to limit his intake of sweets -- and the under-construction path from Castro Valley Boulevard to the Castro Valley Library was explored. (The work seems to have been stalled by the recent rains.) A book was returned using the Library's nifty self-service electronic scanner, after which the creek was inspected from the footbridge. The streamflow is far calmer than it was just a few days ago, due to the recent dry spell. (Your Boulevardier finds our town's creeks thrilling when they're raging, but much more pleasant when they're just flowing peacefully.)




The rest of the walk to Chez Boulevardier was without incident or observation worthy of reporting. It was a fine morning for a walk, though; the air is clean and smells fresh, the sidewalks and crosswalks are passable (no major flooding or mud traps were encountered) and the sun shone brightly. A fine close to the month of January.

Down the Drain

Your Boulevardier was walking on Grove Way near Tanglewood Drive before 9:00 a.m. this morning when he heard an unusual sound: rushing water. There is a creek nearby, but it only rushes when there are rains; normally it is placid. Arriving at the creek, he found an EBMUD employee and two other people -- one with a digital camera and one with a piece of high-tech equipment resembling a metal detector -- watching water flow from a large concrete drain into the creek.




The EBMUD employee said that the utility is draining the East Reservoir, a large, flat, enclosed reservoir that lies between Grove Way and Riverbank Avenue. The concrete-lined reservoir was built in 1954 and holds 50.4 million gallons of water. The employee said that the reservoir had not been actively used for several years. The two other individuals were there to ensure that the draining did not cause erosion in the creek.

Your Boulevardier checked the EBMUD website for information about this project, but found none. (That's where he learned the age and capacity of the reservoir.) As of 3:00 p.m. today, the flow was still going strong, as the video below shows.

Park Renovations Underway

A little over a month ago, Your Boulevardier lamented the condition of the park on Castro Valley Boulevard that includes Castro Valley Creek. One of the architectural elements had been damaged, and some homeless men were noted to be engaged in a loud, profane fight. Your Boulevardier wondered if the park would get more attention with the opening of the new library.

Well, lo and behold, the park is being renovated. It was noted this morning that some trees and shrubbery have been removed; surveyors' stakes around the property indicate, perhaps, the position of landscape features to come. Several massive boulders have been moved onto the property (they're not visible in this photo), indicating perhaps that the naturalistic landscaping theme being used along the creek near the library will be continued to this park.



Your Boulevardier still does not envy the crew that will need to reassemble the bollard.

Determined Vandals

It's safe to say that those who commit vandalism are generally considered to be lacking in ambition. But not the vandals in Castro Valley. Check out this bit of destruction done to the mini-park at Castro Valley Creek (near KFC).



It appears to Your Boulevardier that the vandals constructed a ramp of concrete blocks and a plastic shelf in order to remove the immense -- and immensely heavy - spherical finial from the bollard.

One does not envy the crew that needs to put this to rights.

This park seems, to Your Boulevardier, to be a trouble spot generally. Last week he encountered two homeless men fighting there. The park is usually littered with trash and shopping carts, and is not generally trafficked by aficionados of the creek. It will be interesting to see if that changes when the Library opens.

Cloudy Creek

Your Boulevardier was walking on Grove Way earlier today and noticed that Castro Valley Creek was very cloudy, as if someone had perhaps dumped paint into it. He tried to find the right agency to call to report this (assuming that somebody wanted to know) and found it difficult. There is a Clean Water Program, but it does not list a phone number.

After being bounced from one phone to another (all of whom answered "Public Works") a person took down the information, but did not share any information about what might happen next, or offer to follow up, or even say thank you.

Do readers have any idea who should be called next time?

Bridge to Somewhere

The Castro Valley Library continues to hurtle (not "hurdle," sorry) headlong toward completion. A few weeks ago, a pedestrian bridge across Castro Valley Creek was installed; Your Boulevardier recently took a look.

The bed of the bridge was made from a railroad flatcar, and according to news reports its fanciful rail was designed by a pair of San Francisco artists. The railing will reportedly continue as a fence along the creek,



At first glance, the position of the bridge did not make sense to Your Boulevardier. After all, couldn't pedestrians simply keep walking on Norbridge Avenue to get to the library? Then he remembered that the library's entrance is to the rear of the building -- that is, the side away from Norbridge -- and there isn't a driveway on the west side of the building. So the bridge will let walkers from BART or Redwood Road avoid traversing all the way around the building to get to the doors.

(Remember, readers can always click on a photo for a larger view.)

Wudas Is Right

There are fewer things online that are more pathetic than an abandoned blog. One of those things is a blog with a long hiatus followed by a post reading "Sorry it's been so long since there has been a post."

The Castro Valley Boulevardier falls into the second category.

The usual excuse applies: real life has been busy. Several things have been noted by Your Boulevardier, but he has not taken time to post on them. For example:

• A couple of weekends ago, several of the concrete trash bins on Castro Valley Boulevard were knocked over. They were righted within a day or so.
• Other vandalism seemed to spike as summer drew to a close. The pedestrian overcrossing over Highway 580, frequented by Your Boulevardier, was tagged again, and promptly cleaned up again. Your Boulevardier is pleased that the appropriate authorities are staying vigilant to it.
• Restaurants have come and restaurants have gone. The Indian restaurant in the Village, the Vietnamese place across from Pete's Hardware, and the "Theme Unknown" place by Kragen Auto Parts are among the openings. (Your Boulevardier has not tried any of them.) Closed are Fongs, Peking Village, and Pancho's. Meanwhile, Bangkok 580 fell victim to a takeover robbery.
• The cloudy creek question (the post on which prompted Wudas to remind Your Boulevardier to update the blog) was resolved, and it appears the problem was simply construction erosion upstream. If Your Boulevardier appeared alarmist, he apologizes.
• Your Boulevardier participated in Barefoot Boot Camp at Castro Valley Yoga in the third week of August. The upper body is still complaining, though proud to have made it. It's amazing and heartening to think that a dozen people would be up and exercising at 6:00 a.m. for six consecutive days!
  
• School has opened, and it is pleasing to Your Boulevardier to see children walking to their classes. Still, school zones continue to be dangerous places for pedestrians, what with distracted parents driving their offspring while engaging in telephone conversations, eating breakfast, or attending to their grooming.
  
• For Sale signs, and vacant properties, seem to be appearing more frequently around town, at least in Your Boulevardier's home district of Baywood.
• Your Boulevardier saw a poster for a Green training class co-sponsored by the Castro Valley Sanitary District and the Castro Valley Adult School, upcoming on September 27. More information can be found at the Adult School website (appropriately enough, on Mr. Green's welcome page.)
• A production of Carousel is coming to the Center For The Arts later in September. One can't go wrong with Rogers and Hammerstein.
• Castro Valley product Rachel Maddow is getting a regular MSNBC show. Your Boulevardier does not partake of intense political coverage from any portion of the spectrum, so he has not seen the show; but he knows friends of Maddow's parents, and hears that they are rightfully proud of their daughter.
  

For now, this list of tidbits will have to suffice. Again, Your Boulevardier apologizes for the long drought of new material.

Chabot Creek Contamination?

Castro Valley residents who live along Chabot Creek in the Baywood District noticed today that the creek is cloudy. Your Boulevardier can confirm this at the spot where the creek emerges on the south side of Highway 580 near the Strobridge Avenue pedestrian overpass. (On the north side of the freeway the creek is in a concrete ditch and water clarity is more difficult to discern.)

Authorities fromthe East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Alameda County Public Works Agency have been contacted. When or if a source or cause is determined, Your Boulevardier will report it here.