Sidewalks Are Optional

Your Boulevardier mentioned a few days ago that curb cuts and ramps were being constructed around town and that he was certain he had seen ramps in locations where there were no sidewalks.

Turns out one such ramp is among those recently built: this one at Redwood Road and Jamison Way. There are uneven dirt paths on either side of the new concrete ramp, and on the Jamison Way side there are multiple obstacles -- a signpost and a telephone pole guy wire -- that would prevent a wheelchair or double-wide stroller from approaching. The photo does not do the situation justice.



Your Boulevardier is not opposed to public works or government spending, but he does not like waste. Can readers convince Yours Truly that this ramp serves any purpose, and was therefore a good use of public funds?

Castro Valley Resident Has Letter Published In NY Times

A letter from Castro Valley was published in the New York Times a couple of days ago. The letter's author is one Wesley J. Smith; a scan of his Wikipedia biography shows that he is an attorney and an expert in bioethics, with a broad publishing and research background. (Not to mention the husband of San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders.)

Which leads to a question or three: is Mr. Smith a Castro Valley resident? Is Ms. Saunders? Returning to Wikipedia, they are not listed among our town's notable residents, but such lists are typically made up of athletes, entertainers, and rock musicians, rather than intellectuals and journalists. Your Boulevardier will leave it to the reader to decide if that's a statement on Wikipedia, on American values, or on something else.

Post-Holiday Blues ... and Reds

On his walk today Your Boulevardier noticed several broken windows on Castro Valley Boulevard. Specifically, a window at Crush Comics was boarded up, and a window and two glass doors at Direct Sales were secured with plywood or tape and awaiting repair. It's a shame to think that holiday revels in Castro Valley got so out of hand that vandalism was the result, but it so appears. Do readers have any more information about these happenings?

By way of contrast, nature was having none of the human-caused havoc. The morning skies were clear and cold, and the few remaining leaves and berries on deciduous plants were calling for attention, as evidenced by these fruits appearing on a shrub on Redwood Road.



The clear winter weather just begs for long, objective-free walking, in the opinion of Yours Truly. It (the weather, that is) is not supposed to last; off-and-on rain is predicted for the rest of the week. Your Boulevardier has professional work to catch up on, and so, in a way, he hopes the inclement weather comes; it will force him to stay at his desk and complete the projects before the New Year arrives.

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.

Pince and Needles

Sauntering around Castro Village yesterday afternoon, Your Boulevardier noticed this odd piece of burlwood in the window of Adela's Yarns.



It brings to mind the pincers of an insect, the horns of a bull, or something equally dramatic. Does anyone know the story of this lump of lumber?

Don't Pass On This Opportunity

Your Boulevardier and Mon Petit Chou are signed up to participate this Saturday at the Castro Valley Library's Great Book Pass. Are you?

The question now is whether costumes should be worn. Perhaps just berets.

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.

Measure for Measure

Your Boulevardier walked down Redwood Road yesterday, passing under I-580 near BART on the new sidewalk. He noticed that this:



The railing for the new faux-stone retaining wall seems to have been manufactured dramatically off-the-mark. It's assumed that the railing was supposed to match the curve of the wall and fit neatly into the hole provided. No such luck. Somebody didn't measure.

One wonders where the SNAFU entered the project, and how it will be resolved. Certainly it would be easier to re-weld the railing to match the wall than to reconstruct the wall to match the rail.

Related: the westbound onramp to I-580 at Redwood Road is a strange thing. A turnout has been constructed partway up the ramp on the left. (Perhaps Your Boulevardier will snap a photo next time he's in the area to illustrate.) If anybody can figure out what that's for, please share.

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?

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.

Obsession in Pink - no, Beige

Your Boulevardier admits to an obsession with the former Carry Outee. Will it become a food place again? (Toula's Gyros was trumpeted, then vanished.) Or will the site -- a large, unsightly lot, currently with a makeshift chain-link fence -- be cleared for a new use? It's one of Castro Valley's enduring questions, perhaps second only to what will happen with the Gemignanis' unopened diner near Rudy's Donuts.

It doesn't answer the question, but one thing has happened to the Carry Outee: the formerly pink building has been painted a mellow dove grey. This happened earlier this week.

Uncanny

Can-pickers regularly work the trash receptacles on the Boulevard, retrieving recyclables. Which makes this scene, captured by Your Boulevardier this morning, very confusing.



Note that this is one of the receptacles with the recycling pyramid on top. Yet all of the cans and bottles are piled at its base. The only explanation Your Boulevard can come up with: when crews emptied the trash, they deposited the recyclables at the base of the receptacle so the pickers could more easily find them.

Any other theories?

Connection Revealed

A facade improvement (at least Your Boulevardier assumes that's what's going on) at 3235 Castro Valley Boulevard has revealed this long-covered hand-painted business sign.


Do any readers recall when the Rental Connection did business in Castro Valley? The typography leads one to think it was in the 1970s.

The Somerset Bear

Your Boulevardier has been spending a good bit of time on Somerset Avenue of late, while doing a project for a friend. It's an interesting street, with many lovely homes, a number of churches (including the very busy Our Lady of Grace), a bus line, and a few interesting businesses, including a dance studio and the wonderful, crowded little Al's Food Market.

There's also this fantastic piece of garden art -- a life-size bear, presumably carved with a chainsaw from the very tree trunk on whose stump he now stands.



Does anybody know the true story of the Somerset Bear?

More Trash Talk

On his evening constitutional Your Boulevardier noticed this overflowing refuse receptacle by the bus stop next to Safeway on Castro Valley Boulevard.

The Castro Valley Sanitary District will be contacted to inform them of the problem. None of the other trashcans on the Boulevard were similarly stuffed; one does not know if this one gets extra use, or if it was passed over in the last round (or two or seven) of collections.

And speaking of trash receptacles, the earlier post entitled "Yes We Can" about Castro Valley's new residential trashcans has attracted a better-than average number of comments. (Not that one would ever deign to call the esteemed and loyal Wudas "average.") Your Boulevardier is, of course, not an official of the Sanitary District so he cannot answer any of the fine questions posed by readers; however, some of them are addressed here.

And he will describe his own experience with the new cans (which, by the way, the District calls "carts," but Your Boulevardier does not).

The crew came through the Baywood District this last Tuesday delivering the new cans, and the delivery proved to be a strangely hypnotic operation. A flatbed trailer loaded with nested new cans was pulled along slowly by a truck. One worker stood on the moving trailer, putting wheels on each can and dropping it onto the street; another worker rolled one to each home. Another truck came through and collected the older garbage and recycling cans.

For reasons inexplicable, the pick-up vehicle left behind the old-style green-waste cans, even though the new ones for the same purpose had been delivered. As of today, three days later, the green can at Chez Boulevardier has still not been taken away, and Your Boulevardier is close to considering it a gift from the district for use around the yard. One can always use another sturdy trashcan with wheels.

Also of note: a surprising number of homes in the neighborhood have not yet rolled their new cans from the street and back to their yards. Perhaps they do not recognize them as theirs. Or perhaps the new cans are just too new and clean to put trash in. (Your Boulevardier admits that he can relate to this feeling.) Or maybe it's like a baby animal that has been touched by human hands: its mother rejects it because it does not smell right.

Question for Wudas, and for everyone

Regular reader and frequent commenter Wudas wrote in response to the item on Hutch's Car Wash:

Perhaps some letter to the new owner will make him aware of the issues. And I'm certain he is unaware of the power of the blog. That could mean doom to Hutch's.

Your Boulevardier suspects that your mention of "the power of the blog" and "doom" are delivered with tongue firmly planted in cheek. But he is curious: do you think that this sort of post, in which Your Boulevardier complains about a perceived problem, is inappropriate for this forum? And further, do you believe that this blog has any actual, measurable power to sway public opinion?

Your Boulevardier is skeptical. He believes that people looking for reviews and opinions on commercial establishements will turn to services such as Yelp that aggregate the brainpower of many. (That is why Your Boulevardier often provides links to that service, if a business does not have a website of its own.)

Any and all thoughts on this topic are appreciated. And this provides a good opportunity for Your Boulevardier to thank all readers for your attention, whether or not you choose to comment. (A three-year-old study found that about 90% of blog readers never comment; by extrapolation, that could mean as many as a few hundred of you are out there, but frankly that's doubtful.)