El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll blog

By Steve Price and Janet Byron   On April 16, El Cerrito Strollers & Rollers will lead an outing from El Cerrito Plaza BART to the Bay Trail. We'll travel via El Cerrito and Richmond Annex streets and the Sacramento Street pedestrian bridge over I-80. On the Bay Trail, we'll continue to Armistice Brewery in Richmond. (It's about 8-9 miles roundtrip). We’ll explore the possibilities for improving this little-known route to the Bay Trail to make it safer and more accessible for walkers and cyclists. El Cerritans have dreamed of a safe bicycling route to the Bay Trail for decades. A bike lane down Central Avenue would be challenging given the narrow and busy right-of-way of the street. An alternative route along Cerrito Creek would be scenic if a safer crossing of San Pablo Avenue could be worked out, but that wouldn't be very accessible for our neighbors in the Richmond Annex. And then both routes would have to deal with the complicated intersection at I-80 and Centra...

ECS&R members share their car-lite adventures By Janet Byron When my husband, Steve Price, and I decided to try out the car-free lifestyle (after his Nissan Leaf was totaled), I said that it would only work if we never didn’t do something because we didn’t own a car. I know, that’s a lot of double negatives, but what it meant for us is that we would always figure out a way to do what we wanted or needed to and never fall back on “We can’t because we don’t own a car.” For me, getting out of town for weekend hikes is especially important.  Steve and I decided to call up Doherty’s Truck and Auto Rental on San Pablo Avenue across from City Hall to see what they had available. We were in luck! They had a car for us, available for a good price. We had also checked the GIG app on our phones and a few cars were available nearby, but renting one for that day would have cost more. We were happy to reserve a car with Doherty’s. Steve and Janet on the trail Steve and I left our condo on S...

Governments and car manufacturers are touting electric vehicles (EVs) as the wonder antidote to climate change. However, EVs will need abundant mined lithium, a key component of EV batteries. A recent report by the Climate and Community Project at the University of California, Davis, “ Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining , ” calls into question whether mining lithium will be able to meet the urgent need to address climate change. The report challenges the hope that lithium mined in large quantities can steer America clear of structural changes to the built landscape, confirming the suspicions of new urbanists.  Lithium is an essential component of car batteries, and there is presently no replacement for it. It is mined from both hard rock and from below-ground brine. Both require significant landscape disturbance either from open-pit mines or from large evaporation ponds. Lawsuits by indigenous peoples and environmentalists is a given. Although research con...