Health & Fitness
Why I Love Albany
How a lifelong Berkeleyan found bliss in Albany. Sylvia Paull is part of the Albany Strollers & Rollers and a board member of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition.
I’ve lived most of my adult life in Berkeley, but three years ago I bought a condo in Albany, right on Solano Avenue. Someone told me the was a great place to find books and DVDs, so I went there and also discovered listings for community events, like the . The first time I went to this celebration of all things green, I had to lock my bicycle on a railing outside and thought, “Wouldn’t be great if we had a bike valet parking service here?”
Long story short, I joined , a local organization that helps make cycling and strolling in Albany safe and fun by working with the city to improve streets and sidewalks. We now provide bike valet parking for public events, like the , , and the Albany Arts & Green Festival. If people want to park anything on wheels – from bicycles to tricycles, skateboards, scooters, and baby strollers – Albany Strollers & Rollers will safeguard their possessions so they can enjoy the event.
At the festival this weekend, we teamed up with Street Level Cycles to provide free tune ups for bicycles. Lots of people stop riding their bikes because of a flat tire or other kind of mechanical problem, which usually can be fixed in a few minutes by a bicycle mechanic. Because Albany is so small and flat (except for ), we try to encourage cycling and walking as a way to get to public events, especially on the weekend when people have more time to enjoy recreational riding. We also give away free bicycle lights to all the Albany school kids who ride bicycles, through a donation from Safeway that was launched a couple of years ago.
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On a Sunday afternoon, there’s nothing better than talking to people in the park and parking bicycles for youngsters, teenagers, adults, and people my generation (boomers). It’s a way of giving back and also contributing to this great community, Albany, that’s got more going for it than most towns its size. Where else would you find a green film festival, an arts & green festival, a night out dining on the town’s main street, a city poet laureate and a world-class monthly poetry reading at the community center, as well as a parade and stroll that draws more than 200,000 people to our main street each year?
