Sports
Taking the podium at Oakland City Hall during the Bike-to-Work Day celebration on Thursday morning, city councilmember Libby Schaaf of District 4 started a chant. “When I say ‘bike,’ you say ‘Oakland,’” say announced. “Bike!” she yelled. “Oakland!” the crowd chanted back. It was Oakland’s 18th annual Bike-to-Work Day and record numbers of people hopped on their bikes and commuted to work.
Since the 1930s, Oaklanders have been flocking to Temescal Regional Park for swimming, fishing, picnicking and to simply take in the great outdoors.
More than 100 Oakland residents—mostly parents, teachers and students from Claremont Middle School and Oakland Technical High School—will ride their bikes to Sacramento on Saturday to raise money for their schools and protest state cuts to education funding.
Some people coming out of the Rockridge BART station stop and observe; some just shake their heads and continue walking. The scene before them is not what one would expect on a sunny Thursday evening—it seems as if a window to the Middle Ages has been opened in the parking lot next to the BART station.
This story takes us under the big top. Traveling troupes of trained animals, acrobats and clowns may have originated in Ancient Rome, but today in West Oakland, a group of twenty-somethings are not just reinventing the old art form—they’re living it.
On an early evening, the city of Oakland is brimming with the hustle and bustle of the 9 to 5 work group. Runners, bikers, and families hug the perimeter of Lake Merritt as they squeeze in time for fitness and relaxation. The sounds of rush hour traffic fill the air but on the lakefront, all is still. “It’s peaceful out here,” said Angelino Sandri, owner and gondolier for Gondola Servizio in Oakland. He smiles as he skims across the surface…
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning a dedicated group of Temescal Aquatic Masters swimmers gather before the sun rises to participate in an organized swim work out that begins at 5:30 a.m. in the six-lane heated outdoor pool. The swimmers meet year round, rain or shine.
On an otherwise uneventful commute across the bay, passengers riding BART from Rockridge to San Francisco on Thursday afternoon were faced with an unusual sight: two pro basketball stars handing out free passes for the train.
Last Sunday afternoon, Ed Rivera passed along MacArthur Boulevard in his Sunday best, from his shiny black top hat all the way to his dangling coattails. But don’t let his dapper apparel fool you: he wasn’t headed to church or a wedding, but to Mosswood Park, where he would serve as umpire for a baseball game.