BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

God help you Mick this had better not be an April Fools joke.

I'll be coming!

It'd be a heck of an April Fools joke - half a dozen bikers show up at Uncle Jimmy's and have a great time, but I stay home and sulk?

" HAHAHAHA! FOOLED YOU!"

right.

Mick

I'd like to meet some fellow cyclists so I might show up after my night class - although I am a North Oaklander (is that what a resident of Oakland is called?)

@matatarski: Yeah I think "Oaklander" is about a good a name as any, LOL.

I still usually say I'm from "South" Oakland, even though I'm technically just within the"official" bounds of "Central" Oakland. Parkview and Oakland Square seem to have a different vibe than the rest of Central Oakland. I guess ditto goes for Coltart Avenue too.

Like I said, I should be able to make it at least for some amount of time.

true, I feel that the majority of South Oakland residents are actually Central Oakland residents....whatever, it kinda sounds cooler to live in Souf Oaklin'.

You should probably just say you're from "South Central" for ultimate cred.

@alakhg: Ha ha, the funny thing is I actually AM from what could be termed the "south" part of Central Oakland, thus South-Central Oakland. Don't worry, I've thought about that idea already! LOL

The old Souf Oakland fo' Life Newspaper (kinda liek teh onion only obscene) seemed to thing anything south of Atwood St was South Oakland.

Once you get south of the Blvd, you have a lack of store, restaurants and bars - plus you really have two little neighborhoods on either side of bates.

The little valley just west of Bates is a trip - lots of little insul-brick houses with large, shiny black cadillacs in that area.

Mick

I'll show up at some point.

South O did have a little crumby store for a while. They didn't seem to have anything anyone ever needed, so they closed. There was also a laundromat on Juliet a while ago....

I used to love reading the Souf Oaklin fo' Life paper! It seems to live on, in blog form, at http://soufoaklin.blogspot.com/ .

omg thank you so much for the souf oaklin fo life blog. i miss the paper so much.

That little greek shop at Dawsone/Swineburne is still open, I think, and Serstelli's nursery: all the store S. Oakland needs.

I was stuck at work until 9, but I swung by a little after 10. It seemed all you guys were gone. Sorry I missed it.

Sorry I couldn't make it either because of my exam studying. Any chance we could arrange another get-together in the near future?

PS: I also sort of have a volunteer/community project idea for Souf Oakland that I'd like to bounce off a few other people.

I think it would be cool to have a rotating neighborhood get-together.

I'll propose the Squirrel Cage for the next one, and hope the Sq. Hillers can manage to stay out past 10...

Nick, I thought I saw you, but I wasn't sure it was you and then you disappeared.

We were there until about 11. For the first part of the evening, my helmet was strategically placed in the middle of the table so that people who wouldn't recognize us might be able to guess. Later, we had the middle filled with pitchers.

Mick

Must have been a look-alike then Mick. I was sadly stuck in my apartment all night on Thursday after I had the chance to briefly talk to you.

Also, for those interested, my project idea involves fixing up the stairway/trail that runs adjacent to the Anderson Bridge on its north side by the park green/entrance to Schenley. Other than just fixing it up, I wanted to see if there was a way to weasel a different trail path/makeshift stairs around the hollow dwellings down there. I'm sure they don't like people wandering straight through their property (as seen by the 'No Trespassing' signs), but I know people certain do as even I have a few times.

I think it would make a great alternate entrance to the Junction Hollow trail/park, not to mention perhaps beautifying Souf Oakland in the process.

OOOPS! I meant "Nick" ndromb. I forgot we have Nick twins in this thread.

It would be great to have a entrance to the trail right there at the Blvd Bridge, but I'm not sure how to finesse it with the property there.

LOL, no problem at all.

As for working around that property, technically I don't think it could be done without going through SOME part of those residents' actual property lines. However, I think if a trail were redirected further below their property and ultimately hook up with Juno/Boundary/whatever Street, and we were forthright about it, perhaps they'd be willing to go along with the idea. Personally if people are going to be going through my property I'd rather have it be further below that hill rather than currently--in their driveway and few feet from the houses themselves.

Where I grew up our property extended into woodlands too, but we didn't really mind that people would use a makeshift trail that started at our own backyard.

I've often thought about a trail through there.

It might be a more practical idea to have a switch back and head south-east at the bottom of the steps (where there is currently a path to the north to the houses.)

I think one could make a dirt rail down through there - but there is a ton of broken bear bottles. (Actually my scientic-wild-ass-guess is closer to 1/4 ton, but close enough.)

All three houses there are owned by one person. She's fairly young and seems reasonable. At one point, I had her permission to cut through the property whenever I want - but I did not have her two large dogs' permission and they were impervious to my logic.

Google Maps added property lines recently, if you're interested in eyeballing those. Most of the land north of the Anderson Bridge appears to be part of the lot of the apartment building.

On the topic of Juno St., one of my favorite things about Pittsburgh is how there are so tiny pockets of incredibly isolated housing in ridiculous locations hanging off of cliffs. I wonder how many of them were built off on their own on purpose, how many are the last remnants of mostly-abandoned neighborhoods built in nonviable places, and how many were the only houses built in what would have been a neighborhood had the developer found enough suckers to sell crazy lots falling off of hillsides.

The dwellings on Juno Street tucked away on the hillside have always been a mystery to me. I think you hit the nail on the head Alan. I think while some of these "micro-communities" were isolated to begin with, there was much more housing stock grouped with them. As population densities slackened, there was ultimately no desire for these rough-shod secluded houses and many of them were probably just demolished.

The Juno Street buildings are a testament to this as are the buildings near Hodge Street. Hodge St. is located off Bates right by the Parkway underpass. That's another unique Oakland micro-community (and quite a bit run-down too). For sheer biking challenge though, where the street switches back has to be up there among some of the steepest streets in the city, and trust me I know most of the Dirty Dozen hills (no, I don't participate in that most masochistic race thank you very much).

As for the trail idea though, ultimately I just want to be able to figure out a reasonable way around those buildings so anyone could easily get to the Junction Hollow trail, but also the lower part of Schenley by the lake.