Saturday, September 21, 2024 offered a beautiful “Second Summer” day as about 40 people gathered to attend the annual meeting of the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association at Live Oak Park. The event followed a well-attended morning Path-a-thon.
Just south of Latham Lane in North Berkeley you’ll find Ina Coolbrith Path, which connects Miller Avenue and Grizzly Peak Blvd. If you’ve ever wondered about its namesake, the path commemorates a remarkable woman who figured prominently in the state’s literary history.
Steve Price is the El Cerrito-based author/artist of the digital book Imagining a Walkable America: Visualizing Low-Carbon Cities, Towns, and Neighborhoods, Step by Step. First published in 2020, it’s just been updated with a new introduction and fresh images to reflect the country’s changing transportation landscape.
Many who wander Berkeley’s paths are familiar with the name and work of Bernard Maybeck (although, surprisingly, there is no Maybeck Path). Fewer know about his friend and colleague Charles Keeler, who was nearly as influential in the prominent Arts and Crafts movement of the early twentieth century.
In an emergency such as a wildfire, you may need to evacuate on foot if streets are blocked or if driving out will take too long (check local traffic on Google maps). The City of Berkeley considers the pathways to be a key resource for evacuation; however, walking out requires forethought and preparation.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I'm Karen Ebadi and live in North Berkeley. I grew up in Livermore. I work as an accountant and in my free time I enjoy reading, riding my bike, and traveling.
How did you become interested in Berkeley's paths?
I like to hike/walk and was looking for some walks close to home when I found BPWA. I like that the walks are usually about 3 hours, leaving time for errands later in the day. I enjoy the people I've met walking with BPWA and I'm always amazed at how many new places I see on the walks, which are right in our backyard.
What do you hope to achieve as a BPWA board member?
I'd like to facilitate the continuation of the work that BPWA does, maintaining the current paths, adding handrails and building new paths. I also think it would be great if we could find an artist to do a mosaic stairway on one of the paths (similar to the mosaic stairways that are in San Francisco).
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I was born 3 score and 11 years ago, and have been told that I learned to wander early on. I live in Berkeley and grew up just outside of Washington, DC. I’m enjoying retirement — reading, concerts, travel, volunteer work, and the occasional talk.
How did you become interested in Berkeley's paths?
When we moved to Berkeley, I wondered where the fire trails at the top of Dwight Way and Derby Street led, and one path led to another.
What do you hope to achieve as a BPWA board member?
I’m the emergency preparation liaison, keeping BPWA connected with Berkeley’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Berkeley’s Office of Emergency Services and Public Health’s Emergency Preparedness program. I hope to bring the Disaster and Fire Safety Commission into this mix and to establish links with the Berkeley Disaster Preparedness Neighborhood Network (BDPNN) and NALCO, an amateur radio group that performs fire patrols around the Berkeley parks and Hills area during fire alert days.
On July 22 of last year, nearly 80 volunteers fanned out all over Berkeley, clipboards in hand, to walk all the paths in Berkeley and record their condition. With sharp eyes on signage, steps, handrails, and overgrowth, our volunteers gathered invaluable information to inform BPWA’s ongoing path improvement efforts.
Inspired by a Facebook post that she saw in January about an English grandmother who cleaned up 52 beaches in 2018, Elsa Tranter embarked on a mission to make Bay Area beaches better, one beach a week and one soda can at a time.
The Alliance’s fundraising target is $70,000, which will enable the addition of handrails to the most popular paths to make them safer for residents, especially those who might be mobility impaired or elderly. The funds will help to complete Columbia Path and potentially build Del Mar Path, and to make improvements in Glendale Path, Atlas Path, and Wilson Walk.
Consider taking one of three terrific new routes that walking guru Bob Johnson has created. They cover Upper Shattuck and the Marin Circle, Strawberry Creek Park and the Santa Fe Railway, and Berkeley Woods, a hilly neighborhood in Northeast Berkeley.
Developers of this hilly neighborhood built convenient paths so new residents could walk to and from shops, schools, and public transportation. Until 1958, the E train, the northeastern-most line of the old Key System, terminated just steps from the entrance to the Claremont Hotel; in fact, the train was originally supposed to end in the hotel’s lobby.
