The cover of the brochure shows the familiar entry way to the Veterans Memorial Building.

The charm of Albany on display in this Chamber of Commerce promotional brochure is the same charm the city has today.
There have been substantial changes since — condos at Albany Hill, the freeway, wartime housing on the Gill Tract, home expansions — yet many of the scenes here are easily recognizable and it wouldn’t be hard to make reasonable duplicates of many the photos.
The USDA lab was brand new when this was printed and the Golden Gate Turf Club was still under construction.

The racetrack, USDA lab and largely empty Gill Tract are visible in the aerial view of the “Gateway to Northern Alameda County.”

The proximity of the University of California and the still-new East Bay Regional Park District, including the Tilden Park golf course, are cited.

So is the city’s proximity to neighboring communities and San Francisco.

Other than the lack of bicycle helmets, this scene wouldn’t be out of place today.

Any guesses as to the make of car or where the house was/is?

A closer look at the aerial view shows the vacant Gill Tract and incomplete racetrack, with no garbage dump alongside yet.

Caltrans issued the following announcement about upcoming work on Interstate 80

Alameda and Contra Costa Counties –Caltrans has scheduled ramp closures on eastbound and westbound Interstate 80 for construction activities for the Interstate 80 Integrated Corridor Mobility Project.

· The eastbound I-80 Central Avenue on-ramp will be closed Monday night, May 13, and Tuesday night, May 14, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

· The eastbound I-80 Powell Street on-ramp will be closed Monday night, May 20, and Tuesday night, May 21, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

· The westbound I-80 Carlson On-ramp will be closed Monday night, May 20, and Tuesday night, May 21, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

· The eastbound I-80 Ashby Avenue on-ramp will be closed Wednesday, May 22 and Thursday, May 23, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

This work is weather dependent, and if delayed due to weather conditions will be rescheduled. Please drive cautiously through the construction zone and leave a safe traveling distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead of you. Please remember to “Slow for the Cone Zone.”

The I-80 Integrated Corridor Mobility project will provide safety improvements for the traveling public; mobility and efficiency during commute hours; automated, integrated technology to manage traffic efficiently; real-time traffic information for travelers; with tax dollars funding SMART solutions.

Follow us on Twitter @CaltransD4. Follow the project at #80ICM. For more information, please visit the webpage at http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist4/projects/80icm/

For Immediate Release

Fuel Your School Program Benefits 111,925 Students in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties

Chevron-DonorsChoose.org program funded $958,739 for 960 classroom projects

based on 8+ gallon fuel purchases and online project postings

san ramon, Calif., Jan. 16, 2013 – Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and DonorsChoose.org today announced that its 2012 Fuel Your School program funded $958,739, benefitting 960 local public school classroom projects and impacting 111,925 students in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Through Chevron’s 2012 Fuel Your School program, teachers at 344 public schools in Alameda and Contra Costa counties received critical classroom resources. Linda Townsend Bryson, a first-grade teacher at Peres Elementary School in Richmond, received hands-on science materials, including a Big Screen Microscope and slides, as well as books on forces and motion, to help increase her students’ scientific awareness.

“Despite coming from economically challenging environments, my students can shine when given the right opportunities,” Townsend Bryson said. “With the tools received through Fuel Your School, my students have better and more exciting opportunities to learn about the world around them.”

Through the Fuel Your School program, Chevron contributed $1 for purchases of eight or more gallons, up to $1 million, from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31 at participating Chevron and Texaco stations in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, adding up to a total contribution of $958,739 to benefit public school classroom projects posted on DonorsChoose.org.

“We’re proud to give back to our local communities through working with specialized and innovative nonprofits, such as DonorsChoose.org,” said Andrea Bailey, community engagement manager at Chevron. “The Fuel Your School program exemplifies Chevron’s commitment to supporting teachers, students and schools by helping them receive the resources and tools they need in their classrooms.”

The purpose of the Fuel Your School program is to help support and improve critical education programming and resources, particularly in the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and math – to help prepare students for the growing number of technical jobs in the modern economy, including possible engineering positions at Chevron.

“Teachers spend on average more than $350 of their own money every year on materials for their students,” said Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose.org. “This incredible demand explains why the Fuel Your School program with Chevron has grown to impact nearly 112,000 students this year in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.”

In 2012, the Fuel Your School program expanded from two markets, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and Salt Lake and Davis counties, Utah, to seven additional markets, including Sacramento County, Kern County and Orange County in Calif.; Multnomah County, Ore.; Harris County, Texas; St. Tammany, Orleans and Plaquemines parishes, La.; and Jackson County, Miss. A total of $4.49 million was generated at participating Chevron and Texaco stations in October 2012, benefitting 5,673 classroom projects at 1,733 K-12 public schools in the nine U.S. markets. Since its inception in 2010, Fuel Your School has benefitted a total of 8,915 classroom projects.

An infographic showing the impact of the 2012 Fuel Your School program and top most requested STEM resources for classrooms is available at http://www.fuelyourschool.com. Portions of projects were funded by other third-party donations.

About Chevron

Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including biofuels. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.

About DonorsChoose.org

                Founded in 2000, DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America post requests, and individuals can give directly to the ones that inspire them. To date, 250,000 public and charter school teachers have used DonorsChoose.org to secure $165 million in books, art supplies, technology, and other resources that their students need to learn.

# # #

Contact: Brent Tippen, Chevron Corporation

Brent.Tippen@Chevron.com,  

Brent Tippen
Media & External Communications

Chevron Spokesman

Policy, Government and Public Affairs 
Chevron Corporation

An illustration in the Sept. 29, 1920 Oakland Tribune of the proposed Key System ferry pier extension to Yerba Buena Island. I'm guessing this drawing was done by famed cartoonist Jimmy Hatlo early in his career (he started at the Trib doing auto section cartoons.)

Any idea of linking the East Bay to San Francisco was still just a pipe dream in the first quarter of the 20th century, when the only way to get to the city was by ferry. But there were ideas to ease the commute, including a proposal floated in 1920 that would have extended the Key System pier all the way to Goat Island (the popular name of the day for Yerba Buena Island).

The Key Route pier was once hailed as "the longest in the world."

The Key Route pier already extended fairly close to Yerbe Buena Island, as seen in this 1935 aerial view of the construction of the Bay Bridge.

The pier was already touted as the longest in the world at the time, and an extension would have closed the relatively short remaining distance to Yerba Buena.
Years before the design of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge came up with a similar idea, the pier extension plan called for a tunnel through the island, this one bored at a different angle and connecting train service with a new ferry pier on Yerba Buena’s western side.
From there it would be a mere 1.25-mile ride to the Ferry Building on the San Francisco waterfront.
The plan was hailed by Oakland business and elected officials, particularly for what the idea of making the daily commute not only easier, but safer.

“(Oakland) Mayor Davie, Mayor Bartlett of Berkeley, Joseph E. Came secretary of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, Rutus Jennings, head of the large project for the Berkeley waterfront and others today expressed themselves in favor of the plan as one that would bring the two great cities of San Francisco bay closer together and one that would eliminate duplication of certain public services as well as the danger of fog to transbay traffic.” the Tribune reported.

Ferries and competing rail systems were king as far as commuting at the time. There were thousands of East Bay riders making the train-ferry connection to San Francisco each weekday via both the Key System and the competing Southern Pacific rail and ferry lines. East Bay officials “strenuously” opposed an alternative plan that would have instead extended the pier of the rival SP.
In fact, the conservative officials of the time seemed to be calling for a consolidation of the two rail lines — not a coincidence as establishment of the state’s original highway system was well under way to accommodate all the new motor vehicles being purchased.
The golden age of public transit was ending, the rail operations (the Key System was the locally owned operator) lost money and interest, and just 17 years later the Bay Bridge opened.

This 1933 road map shows how many ferry lines criss-crossed the Bay in the days before the bridges.

View Larger Map
The Ivy Room in Albany, one of the town’s older bars that has been closed for some time, has reopened under new ownership and is holding a “Relaunch Party” starting at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The festivities will include retro swing music by the Frisky Frolics.

The opening 75 years ago of what we now know as the original Caldecott Tunnel was a gala affair complete with riders on horseback reenacting the Spanish settlement of California and a mock blowing up of blocks covering the west portal to mark the opening as men in uniform saluted.
The west portal also had large loudspeakers atop the portal for the crowd at the highly attended event to hear the remarks of dignitaries.
This week’s “Berkeley: A Look Back” column describes the festivities and the hazards of taking the old route:

The big news in Berkeley 75 years ago this week was the official opening of the Broadway Low Level Tunnel (now the Caldecott) on Sunday, Dec. 5, 1937. The two-bore tunnel cost some $4,500,000 paid for with Federal grants, and state and county funds.
An 800-person “civic breakfast” began the festivities at the Claremont Hotel, followed by an opening ceremony at the West Portal at 12:30, with the Berkeley Municipal Band playing. Gov. Frank Merriam cut the ribbon, drove through the tunnel with a ceremonial escort, and officiated at ceremonies on the east side.
Spectators parked on the highway and walked 500 feet to the west portal; traffic wasn’t allowed through until both ceremonies were complete, at 3:10 that afternoon.
An estimated 4,692 cars an hour passed through at an average speed of about 20 miles an hour that evening and “heavy traffic continued up until 11 o’clock” at night.
It should be remembered that the tunnel did not connect with the wide, and often congested, freeways of today. Instead, traffic descended on the west side to Ashby Avenue or Broadway in Oakland.
“A tunnel pierces the hills and a barrier which has long been a hindrance to the free flow of commerce and the mingling of the people of two great California Counties is removed” a full page ad by the City and Chamber of Commerce in the December 4 Gazette read.
Businesspeople on both sides of the tunnel had aspirations. Berkeley merchants hoped and expected that Contra Costa residents would travel into Berkeley to shop. Contra Costa realtors hoped that Berkeley residents would be enticed to homes and new subdivisions beyond the hills.
The tunnel was celebrated as a quick and convenient route to cross the hills, and a safer alternative to the steep, winding, two lane roads over the hills.
In fact, the Friday night before the tunnel opened a woman died in a car crash on the Fish Ranch Road.

The new tunnel was a major upgrade over its predecessor up the hill, built in 1903 to handle horse-drawn traffic and later enlarged for motor-driven trucks. The original tunnel was about 300 feet above the new tunnel and 1,000 feet to the north and was long overdue for replacement..

The Broadway Low Level Tunnel under construction, from the 1936 Oakland Tribune Yearbook.

The interchange of what is now Highway 13 and Highway 24 in 1940, with the tracks of the Sacramento-Northern railroad to the right.

Eastshore State Park has been renamed for Sylvia McLaughlin, co-founder in the 1960s of Save the Bay, the organization that led to the establishment of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
None of that might have happened if this 1933 proposal to fill and channel the Bay had been approved and funded.
The proposal was led by Berkeley and from the tone of the July 20, 1933 article in the Oakland Tribune, the leaders of the other cities were backing the estimated $27 million plan.

This multi-page photo feature from the 1939 Oakland Tribune Yearbook on the process involved in getting a story into the evening newspaper (which the Trib was at the time) looks straight out of movies “The Front Page” or “His Girl Friday,” from the reporters and photographers wearing fedoras, to the copy editors with eyeshades, to the kid on carrier route, to the lack of minorities and women.
Scroll down for a look at the entire process and how many people it took to put out an edition.

Show up at Albany Ford, 718 San Pablo Ave., from 5 to 7 p.m. today (Aug. 10) to see the 2013 Ford Escape and the dealership and Ford Motor Co. will will provide 40 meals to Feeding America, described as the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.
“Event attendees will have the exciting opportunity to see the all-new 2013 Ford Escape, as well as the chance to enter in a sweepstakes to win one,” goes the promotional copy.
Participants must be 18 or older, but no test drive is necessary.
The local event is part of a national summer promotion by Ford Motor Co, and Feeding America that hopes to provide more than 1.2 million meals to the needy.
Details: 510-528-1244

NOTES: .

Commuters who take AC Transit to downtown Oakland should be aware of the following detours planned from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. for the visit by President Obama:

Bus Detours For President Obama Visit

AC Transit will temporarily re-route buses around downtown Oakland on Monday July 23rd in light of planned street closures to accommodate President Obama’s visit to the East Bay. Consequently, bus riders should expect service delays and disruptions throughout the affected area. .

In preparation for the President’s visit, please note that the following bus lines will be detoured from 11:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. and some regular stops will not be served:

Lines 1 and 1R to Berkeley will serve regular stops on 12th Street at Broadway and on Telegraph Avenue at 24th Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Lines 1 and 1R to Bay Fair BART will serve regular stops on 11th Street at Broadway and on Telegraph Avenue at West Grand Avenue (Line 1) or Telegraph Avenue at 24th Street (lines 1 and 1R), but not regular stops between those points.

Line 11 to the Dimond District will serve regular stops on Harrison Street at 21st Street and on 7th Street at Jackson Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 11 to Piedmont will serve regular stops on 8th Street at Jackson Street and on Harrison Street at Grand Avenue, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 12 to downtown Berkeley will serve regular stops on 11th Street at Clay Street and on Grand Avenue at Webster Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 12 to downtown Oakland will serve regular stops on Grand Avenue at Valdez Street and its terminal on 10th Street at Washington Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 18 to Montclair will serve regular stops on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 25th Street and on 11th Street at Franklin Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 18 to Albany will serve regular stops on 12th Street at Broadway and on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at 22nd Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 51A to Fruitvale BART will serve regular stops on Broadway at 25th Street and on Broadway at 9th Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 51A to Rockridge BART will serve regular stops on 8th Street at Broadway and on Broadway at Grand Avenue, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 58L in both directions will serve regular stops on Grand Avenue at Perkins Street and on Broadway at 7th Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Lines 72 and 72M to Oakland Amtrak will serve regular stops on San Pablo Avenue at West Street and on Broadway at 9th Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Line 72R to Oakland Amtrak will serve regular stops on San Pablo Avenue at Market Street and on Broadway at 7th Street, but not regular stops between those points.

Lines 72, 72M, and 72R northbound will serve regular stops on Broadway at 9th Street (lines 72 and 72M); Broadway at 7th Street (lines 72, 72M, and 72R); and on San Pablo Avenue at West Grand Avenue, but not regular stops between those points.

Line NL in both directions will serve regular stops on Grand Avenue at Perkins Street and on West Grand Avenue at Market Street, but not regular stops between those points.

The Broadway Shuttle to Jack London Square will serve regular stops on Grand Avenue at Webster Street and on Broadway at 11th Street, but not regular stops between those points.

The Broadway Shuttle to Grand Avenue will serve regular stops on Broadway at 11th Street and its terminal on Grand Avenue at Webster Street, but not regular stops between those points.

To facilitate transfers, lines 1 and 1R to downtown Berkeley; 12 to downtown Berkeley; 18; 51A to Rockridge BART; 72, 72M, and 72R northbound; and the Broadway Shuttle to Grand Avenue will serve temporary stops on Castro Street between 12th and 17th streets.

Lines 14, 20, 26, 31, 40, and 88 will operate on their regular routes, but expect delays while traveling through downtown Oakland.

For up-to-date route information, riders are urged to phone 511 and say “AC Transit” or go online at www.actransit.org