Chabot Continues to Please

It must be said: we in Castro Valley are very fortunate to have the Chabot Theater here. Last night, at the very last minute, Your Boulevardier decided to catch Sherlock Holmes at the movie house. (Today it has been replaced with -- sigh -- Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel.) He left home at 7:25, found street parking in front of Direct Sales (the broken window has not yet been repaired), and walked right in. No lines, no hassles -- and the staff actually seems to care about customers and about movies. (This, in Your Boulevardier's opinion, is not the experience at the big multiplex in Hayward.)

Happily, the theater had a pretty good turnout for a Thursday evening. (The movie itself was strange but compelling.) Still, the Chabot always needs our patronage -- particularly when it presents interesting fare. Your Boulevardier encourages Castro Valleyans to support our local movie theater.

Curbing Your Enthusiasm

Some government money must have broken loose somewhere, because there's a rash of sidewalk ramp installations going on around Castro Valley.

Your Boulevardier noticed the pylons and diggers on Redwood Road north of Castro Valley Boulevard last week. Today, he found several demolitions on The Boulevard. The two photos below were taken at Stanton and Strobridge respectively.

Certainly when the projects are complete the sidewalks and curb cuts will be better for pedestrians -- particularly those in wheelchairs or parents pushing strollers. But for the time being, the work makes getting around quite difficult. The construction at Stanton is particularly disruptive to pedestrians because there is a) no warning that the work is coming; and b) no way around it except to walk in traffic. This at an intersection where motorists rarely bother to look for pedestrians in the first place.


The demolition at Strobridge is curious because the crews have removed only the middle part of an already-existing ramp. Your Boulevardier assumes this is to put down the sort of bumpy rubber surface that many such ramps have.

The strangest ramp installations in Castro Valley occur where there are no sidewalks. (Longtime readers may recall postings in which Your Boulevardier griped about the mysterious pride some Castro Valleyans have in their lack of sidewalks; to some, it's a contributor to our "rural feel." To Yours Truly, lack of sidewalks only contributes to muddy shoes in the winter and impolite, pedestrian-hostile parking year-round.) Your Boulevardier knows he has seen some of these unattached ramps, but has not cataloged them for publication here. Perhaps he will do so in the near future.

Ramp to Somewhere

Your Boulevardier noticed this recent addition to the onramp to eastbound I-580.



A couple of things strike one as odd about this. First, what's it for? Your Boulevardier's best guess is that it's for Highway Patrol or other emergency vehicles to sit in before they enter the freeway.

Second: the drainage from it. Note, if you can in the photo, the contours of the ramp and the wall behind it. The wall drains into the grate (currently surrounded by sandbags) while the pullout itself drains onto the sidewalk, or maybe into the adjacent gutter.

Thirdly: the tiny fence atop the small retaining wall. What is its purpose? A person can walk twenty feet to get around it, so it can't be to keep someone from what's on the other side. If it's to keep people from above from falling onto the ramp, another question arises: what are they doing up there in the first place?

None of this is earth-shattering news, or even the least bit important. It's just curious. If any readers know about civil engineering, an explanation would be most welcome.

Commuting is a Gas

Your Boulevardier may have a scoop for BART commuters. A shuttle service between BART and Castro Valley's park-and-ride lots, using natural gas-powered buses, is being planned. No details are available, but the folks who run Valley Truck Rentals (the place just below Neighborhod Church on John Drive) are involved. Valley Truck Rentals also plans to add wind and/or solar power to its operations.

Anita Bit of Sunshine

Your Boulevardier sallied forth in the late morning to take advantage of the dry weather. Insects were swarming, but creeks had dropped. No major destruction was found, but the walk was admittedly short. The new bocce courts on San Miguel Avenue seem to have drained well -- better, in fact, than the walkways around them.



Three bits of action went on near the intersection of Castro Valley Boulevard and Anita Avenue. A car had hit one of the stoplights, and a one-person crew (perhaps that's a nonsense phrase) from Alameda County was dealing with the damage. A few minutes later, an ambulance, fire truck, and two CHP cruisers were summoned to the Boulevard entrance to the Blockbuster/Wells Fargo parking lot; it appeared to Your Boulevardier, but cannot be confirmed, as if, perhaps, heaven forbid, a pedestrian had been struck by a motorist. (No, Your Boulevardier does not get paid by the comma.) A few minutes after that, a large group of well-dressed folks emerged from the Chabot Cinema; they had attended a sales meeting for their company. "We got free popcorn," one friendly attendee told Your Boulevardier.

Ol' '56

The fading blue, white, and rust-colored 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air has been parked in the lot behind Castro Valley Lumber for as long as Your Boulevardier can remember. The tires still hold air, so it seems that it's not entirely derelict, but its registration does not appear to be current. The body seems to be in very good shape overall, and the original wheel covers are intact; perhaps someone at the lumberyard is waiting for the right opportunity to restore the vehicle.



A sidenote: The car's license plate -- AER 101 -- seems to hail from the very early days of six-digit letter-number combinations in California (assuming that AAA 001 was the first plate off the stamper).

AN Interesting Typographic Question

Your Boulevardier noticed these stenciled words in the parking lot of Castro Valley's Safeway store. (Everyone's favorite parking lot.) Can you notice something interesting about them? (You may want to click the photos for a better view.)




He will post his observation in a day or two.

Abandoned Ship?

Your Boulevardier wonders if anyone from the Post Office has noticed that a white Toyota Supra has been parked in the same spot in the PO lot for at least three days now.

BART Parking Fees Kick In

Your Boulevardier drove by the Castro Valley BART station this morning at around 7:45 a.m. on his way home from yoga class. The parking lot at the station was not full, which is unusual for that time of day. So, with one day's experience, the dollar-a-day parking fee appears to be having some effect on ridership.

So you know, Your Boulevardier is not necessarily opposed to the new parking fee. He does wonder, however, how much of a revenue-generator it really will be. Because someone must check the occupied parking spaces against the records of the parking fee machines, in order to find out which spaces are not paid; then that person must write tickets. (Perhaps he is wrong, but Your Boulevardier assumes this is not done by BART police, who have enough on their hands already.) And then someone at the BART headquarters must process those tickets and send out delinquency notices when they're not paid. All of these tasks take considerable labor hours, which can equal considerable cost. And then there's the lost fare revenue, and the cost to maintain the parking-payment machine, and to keep the new parking space numbers and fee-related signage clean and up to date.

In all, there can be a lot of costs associated with collecting money.

BART Parking Fees

Your Boulevardier noticed on a recent walk that BART has posted signs that, he presumes, announce the new $1 per day parking fee that goes into effect next Monday, April 27.



On that fateful day, the brown paper will be removed.