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Neighborhood Gallery: Five Chickens Strutting
We invite you to share photographs and videos of Albany in this gallery. We'll feature your contributions regularly. We'll update the headline depending on what's featured.
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Margaret Tong May 25, 2013 at 09:00 pm
don't we ALL have accents? People comment on my accent a lot and most of the people I know have…Read More American accents.
Lisa Illes May 26, 2013 at 09:27 am
We will be starting at 7:30 at Albany High School, either in the Little Theater or the Multi-Purpose…Read More room. We would love a larger audience!
Preston Jordan May 26, 2013 at 11:40 am
I find the concept of "urban farms" an oxymoron. A reasonable working definition of a…Read More city is that it is a place where too many people live to subsist on food grown within its borders. A reasonable working definition of a farm is that it is a place where those who work it grow enough food to sustain at least themselves, either through direct consumption or sale. Urban Adamah's development application states it has 7 employees, including an executive director, for its current 1 acre plot. The application lists it had 6,000 visitors last year and grew 12,000 pounds of produce last year. That sounds like a lot of food, except produce is mostly water and so this amount contains enough calories to sustain 1 to 2 people. Urban Adamah's application, recognizing all this, lists its main activity as education, not food production or farming. I have nothing against urban gardens as a source of education and recreation, but they are negligible as a source of "food security" as the occupiers and others put it. Cities don't equal farms. I grew up in a city. I choose to live in a city. The idea that city dwellers "have to go back to the land" had some dramatically negative consequences in the 20th century. That idea and those consequences should stay in that century.
David Sanger May 26, 2013 at 01:01 am
Bill, you have come up with quite a handful of straw men here. I've never heard your "waste of…Read More time" meme. The purchase of land by Urban Adamah doesn't validate anything. Of course urban gardens and even agricultural research centers are feasible. If OTF cab convince UC that that's the best use of their resource then fine. And it they come with a plan and can raise the millions of dollars to buy the land and build or garden on it themselves, and make UC an offer they can't refuse, that's fine too. But the "occupy the land it's ours" strategy may not actually work in their favor towards those ends.
Jack Osborne May 25, 2013 at 08:42 pm
@Montymarket - nice attempt to twist the narrative here. As everyone on Patch and virtually every…Read More local resident seems to agree, urban gardening engaged in legally on property either owned by or provided willingly to gardeners is a perfectly fine idea. And trying to cast those who oppose OTF as "right wing" is either very funny, very ignorant, or both. Regardless, the concept that's really been proven is that the OTF folks clearly have taken the wrong approach, and would make far better use of their time working with organizations like Urban Adamah.
Damon Lisch May 26, 2013 at 05:57 am
Montymarket, after all of the careful explaining that the researchers have done about our research…Read More and how it is funded, I can't believe you would imply that it is funded by BP or Monsanto. It isn't, and you should know better. Over the past year, all we have done is to request that people don't plant all over our nursery, and that they stop lying about what we do and why we do it. Apparently that's too much to ask for.
David Sanger May 26, 2013 at 12:54 am
Bill, you have quite an imagination. First people in Albany oppose OTF are not "the…Read More right". Albany is almost completely Democratic, I can count the number of Republicans I know here on one finger (as Monty Python's camelspotter said, "almost one"). You have invented a scenario that never happened, OTF applauded then vilified. OTF has explicitly stated they want urban agriculture on the Monroe plot now, as well as the northern research plot.
montymarket May 25, 2013 at 08:33 pm
First, the land that the OTFers want to maintain as farmland is presently used for agricultural…Read More research (Monsanto or BP funded?) over by the elementary school. Instead of interrupting the ongoing research projects, the OTFers moved their demonstration to Monroe (the President who came up with the doctrine that this hemisphere belonged solely to the US) St. Now the right, in these venerable comments, is mocking the OTFers for respecting the researchers and planting in the old barracks land instead. Sheesh. What's a concerned citizen to do? They were applauded for not interrupting the research, but as a consequence thereof, they are now vilified for planting in an abandoned weed filled field instead. The Tea Party right is famous for this ploy: moving the goal posts, as it were. In the US Congress the right complains about the Democratic Senate not passing a budget, then when they do pass a budget, the right blocks going to conference without preconditions. Same here. Stop interrupting valuable research, they say. But when they move over to the hard scrabble abandoned fields, it's now: that soil is crap, so all your plans are doomed. True that Albany is the lead agency to review the project, but apparently times have changed and other interested parties were not heard. The Albany Rollers & Strollers filed a lawsuit and negotiated a compromise outside the formal process, now they are happy with the new result (and we can all agree that Mr Jordan has done his penance and should be forgiven). Apparently the OTFers feel they got short shrift. Now it's their turn to negotiate a compromise. What's wrong with that? It worked for the bicycle people -- with an excellent result, thank you very much. (BTW, Whole Foods didn't bail because of the OTFers alone.)
The goal of the OTFers is to preserve a portion of the total property for urban farming. That section may not be on Monroe but in a future phase and section of the development where the soil is excellent farm land.
Peggy McQuaid May 20, 2013 at 11:26 am
Congratulations, Carla. The article failed to mention what a great neighbor you are.
Robby Sun May 20, 2013 at 10:37 pm
@Dover: The parent birds didn't look like doves. They were the commonly seen dull-yellowish birds.…Read More Smaller than a pigeon but larger than a sparrow. Robins? I can't tell for sure.
We checked the abandoned nest. To my eyes, it was well built, and stably setup between grape branches. It didn't capsize. The dead baby birds were found at least 5 feet away from the ground right beneath the nest. Something must have got them out of the nest and killed them. We didn't look at the corpses in detail to decide the cause of death though.
Dover May 20, 2013 at 09:31 am
I agree with Ross. A predator would have eaten those yummy, tender, tasty baby birds.
It sounds…Read More more like a case of incompetent nest construction to me. Were they doves? Doves are well-known for their inability to build proper nests but there are others who struggle too. Instinct and ability do not always travel hand-in-hand.
Not much you can do about that, unfortunately. Some creatures are incompetent. Some people are incompetent. That's life.
Ralph Whize May 20, 2013 at 10:12 pm
Got thru to the City Inspector (twice) and he finally called the contractor, who (at the end of day…Read More 12 of trash build up) moved the debris pile away.
Albany Planning Commission meeting is 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at 7:30 pm and I'm hoping local homeowners will take time to address this and other CV issues.
Dover May 20, 2013 at 09:40 am
Hey! Cool! Now I know where to dump my unwanted items!
;-)
Seriously though, "the city"…Read More is not helpless, "the city" is lazy and sometimes you have to kick them in the ass to get them moving.
What have you tries thus far? I assume you have communicated with the CV owner or contractor. What else have you done?
Ann Farmer May 19, 2013 at 06:22 pm
This is not only an eyesore. This is a health hazard. The boards you see in the photo have nails…Read More sticking out. This area has become the trash heap for anyone walking by wanting to dispose of garbage. With bins overflowing, trash is blown down the street into residents' yards.
Jamie Jensen May 23, 2013 at 06:29 am
I intended to add: Now, if only UCB would treat its other land holdings, like the Gill Tract, with…Read More similar respect. Who wants another parking lot? Not me. Build "Senior Housing" at transit-friendly El Cerrito Plaza, not on the last patch of arable land left in the East Bay!
Jamie Jensen May 23, 2013 at 06:26 am
This Executive Summary, makes it sound OK. Better than another 1991 Fire, for sure:
To reduce the…Read More potential for these areas to support and spread wildfires, UCB proposes to eliminate eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and other non-native trees that promote the spread of wildfire. Oak and bay trees and other native vegetation present under the larger non-native trees would be preserved and encouraged to expand.
Caryl O'Keefe May 18, 2013 at 08:30 pm
Another example of more balanced reporting from Berkeleyside article:…Read More http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/05/17/uc-berkeley-seeks-funds-to-cut-down-22000-non-native-trees/. Some of the comments are useful especially about glyphosphate. The author of the article even used his own name.
Mel Content May 19, 2013 at 12:01 pm
"If you are upset about how the rightwing has been attacking President Obama with lies and…Read More hyperbole"
Mel Content May 19, 2013 at 12:01 pm
"If you are upset about how the rightwing has been attacking President Obama with lies and…Read More hyperbole"