Albany Bulb
Encyclopedia
The Albany Bulb is a former landfill
largely owned by the City of Albany
, in California. The Bulb is the west end of a landfill peninsula jutting west from the east shore of San Francisco Bay. The term "Bulb" is often used to refer to the entire peninsula, which includes the Albany Plateau, north of Buchanan Street at its base; the high narrow "Neck," and the round "Bulb." The Bulb is part of the City of Albany, and can be reached via Buchanan Street or the Bay Trail along the east side of San Francisco Bay.
peninsula to the north and the Berkeley Marina
, Point Emery, and Emeryville Marina Peninsulas to the south, the Bulb peninsula is a relic of almost a century of systematic filling of the shallow Bay and its adjacent wetland. This filling was largely halted by efforts of Save The Bay from the 1960s to the 1980s. The usual fill method can be seen in the rectangular lagoon at the west end of the Bulb peninsula, a remnant left when legal action finally forced closure of the dump: Enclose part of the shallow Bay with rock and concrete rip-rap, fill the created lagoon with garbage and debris, and (usually) top off with a layer of clay. The development dream was to join the peninsulas, leaving a narrow shipping channel edged by commerce.
The tidelands off Berkeley and Albany were sold by the state in the 1870s, as Union Pacific Railroad extended tracks northward along the waterfront from the Oakland terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. (These tracks soon became the main transcontinental line.) Early in the 20th Century, the tidelands were acquired by the rival Santa Fe Railroad.
Creation of the Bulb peninsula can be said to have begun in 1939, when the Santa Fe Railroad dynamited El Cerrito del Sur, the low hill on Fleming Point southwest of Albany Hill
, to build Golden Gate Fields
race track. The debris was pushed into the Bay to create parking lots. Almost immediately afterward, the City of Albany extended Buchanan Street west on Bay fill, creating a lagoon between Buchanan and the north edge of the race track. Aerial photos show the gradual filling of this lagoon at the same time that dumping extended the peninsula west into the Bay and, later, north onto the Plateau. The small salt marsh south of Buchanan, fed by Codornices and Village Creeks, grew in the last remnants of the lagoon, an echo of much larger wetlands that once flourished farther south, where the creek waters emptied into the Bay behind (east of) the dynamited hill.
The Bulb proper -- the round hill at the tip of the peninsula -- was created in 1963, after the City of Albany and Santa Fe, which owned the land, signed a contract for the disposal of construction debris. Thus The Bulb is made of mostly of construction debris such as concrete
and rebar
, as is still very visible. Lawsuits against the landfill operator brought the dumping to a halt in 1987.
The City of Albany entertained a variety of proposals for development of the peninsula, including high-rise hotels and a marina. In 2002, however, 20 years of effort by Citizens for Eastshore State Park (now Citizens for Eastshore Parks) resulted in the Plateau and lower Neck, along with shoreline to the north and south, becoming part of The Eastshore State Park. The City of Albany maintains ownership of The Bulb itself. The City of Albany continues to negotiate to have the State Parks Department (owners of the park) and/or East Bay Regional Park District (managers of the park and owners of some adjacent shoreline) take over the Bulb. Other entities are reluctant due to liability and potential costs of making the area, with its projecting concrete and rebar, "safe." Meanwhile, the Bulb area and adjacent Albany Beach have become one of the most heavily used outdoor recreation sites in the Bay.
Strong winds make the water south of the Bulb peninsula, off the beach, popular with wind- and kite- surfers. Eel grass near the Bulb tip is important subtidal habitat. The sheltered lagoon at the west end is a calm-water refuge during storms, and shorebirds use its rip-rap edge at high tide. The Audubon Society and other environmental groups would like to disconnect the rip-rap from the Bulb proper, to keep walkers from disturbing the birds.
Like other abandoned dumps, the Bulb was quickly vegetated and became habitat for a variety of wildlife, including songbirds, rats, mice, rabbits, and snakes and hawks that feed on them. The vegetation is largely non-native, including weeds such as Acacias, broom, and fennel; exotics such as palm and apple trees; and large thickets of Himalayan blackberries popular with berry pickers. The Plateau area, once popular for flying model airplanes, has been partly fenced off as habitat for Burrowing Owls, as mitigation for habitat taken by sports fields to the south. However, as of 2010, no owls have been sighted. The south shore's rip-rap is largely unvegetated, but lagoons and some gentler shoreline on the north, facing the Albany Mudflats have welcomed typical salt-marsh vegetation such as pickleweed, salt grass, and gum plant (Grindelia).
including mural
, stencil
, graffiti
, sculpture
, and installation art. Sculptor and activist lawyer Osha Neumann has created some of the largest works. He often collaborates with Jason DeAntonis. Sniff, a group of artists composed of Scott Hewitt, Scott Meadows and David Ryan, painted large, highly imaginative "murals" on wood and erected more sculptures on the northwest corner of The Bulb. Another Bulb landmark, referred to as "The Castle," is a large concrete, rebar and plaster shelter which sits on the south west corner of the Bulb, directly opposite the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bulb has been used for informal concerts and even a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest
presented by We Players, a bay area site-specific theatre company.
See also Afghan girl
and a homeless population of fluctuating size. The City of Albany has made several attempts to relocate the homeless, but due to litigation, as well as the persistence of the population, it has of yet been unsuccessful.
A documentary about the Albany Landfill Encampment, Bum's Paradise was released in 2003.
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
largely owned by the City of Albany
Albany, California
Albany is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 18,539 at the 2010 census.-History:In 1908, a group of local women protested the dumping of Berkeley garbage in their community...
, in California. The Bulb is the west end of a landfill peninsula jutting west from the east shore of San Francisco Bay. The term "Bulb" is often used to refer to the entire peninsula, which includes the Albany Plateau, north of Buchanan Street at its base; the high narrow "Neck," and the round "Bulb." The Bulb is part of the City of Albany, and can be reached via Buchanan Street or the Bay Trail along the east side of San Francisco Bay.
-
-
- Due to the presence of Campers/Homeless people living on The Bulb, It is not advised to visit after dark as they tend to be very territorial and aggressive.***
-
History
Like the Point IsabelPoint Isabel
Point Isabel is a small promontory on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in the Richmond Annex neighborhood of Richmond, USA. It can be reached at the west terminus of Central Ave. from Richmond / El Cerrito.-History:...
peninsula to the north and the Berkeley Marina
Berkeley Marina
The Berkeley Marina is the westernmost portion of the city of Berkeley, California, located west of the Eastshore Freeway at the foot of University Avenue on San Francisco Bay...
, Point Emery, and Emeryville Marina Peninsulas to the south, the Bulb peninsula is a relic of almost a century of systematic filling of the shallow Bay and its adjacent wetland. This filling was largely halted by efforts of Save The Bay from the 1960s to the 1980s. The usual fill method can be seen in the rectangular lagoon at the west end of the Bulb peninsula, a remnant left when legal action finally forced closure of the dump: Enclose part of the shallow Bay with rock and concrete rip-rap, fill the created lagoon with garbage and debris, and (usually) top off with a layer of clay. The development dream was to join the peninsulas, leaving a narrow shipping channel edged by commerce.
The tidelands off Berkeley and Albany were sold by the state in the 1870s, as Union Pacific Railroad extended tracks northward along the waterfront from the Oakland terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. (These tracks soon became the main transcontinental line.) Early in the 20th Century, the tidelands were acquired by the rival Santa Fe Railroad.
Creation of the Bulb peninsula can be said to have begun in 1939, when the Santa Fe Railroad dynamited El Cerrito del Sur, the low hill on Fleming Point southwest of Albany Hill
Albany Hill
Albany Hill is a prominent hill along the east shore of San Francisco Bay in the city of Albany, California. Geologically, the hill is predominantly Jurassic sandstone, carried to the western edge of North America on the Pacific Plate and scraped off there in the course of subduction. Albany Hill...
, to build Golden Gate Fields
Golden Gate Fields
Golden Gate Fields is an American horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area...
race track. The debris was pushed into the Bay to create parking lots. Almost immediately afterward, the City of Albany extended Buchanan Street west on Bay fill, creating a lagoon between Buchanan and the north edge of the race track. Aerial photos show the gradual filling of this lagoon at the same time that dumping extended the peninsula west into the Bay and, later, north onto the Plateau. The small salt marsh south of Buchanan, fed by Codornices and Village Creeks, grew in the last remnants of the lagoon, an echo of much larger wetlands that once flourished farther south, where the creek waters emptied into the Bay behind (east of) the dynamited hill.
The Bulb proper -- the round hill at the tip of the peninsula -- was created in 1963, after the City of Albany and Santa Fe, which owned the land, signed a contract for the disposal of construction debris. Thus The Bulb is made of mostly of construction debris such as concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
and rebar
Rebar
A rebar , also known as reinforcing steel, reinforcement steel, rerod, or a deformed bar, is a common steel bar, and is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures holding the concrete in compression...
, as is still very visible. Lawsuits against the landfill operator brought the dumping to a halt in 1987.
The City of Albany entertained a variety of proposals for development of the peninsula, including high-rise hotels and a marina. In 2002, however, 20 years of effort by Citizens for Eastshore State Park (now Citizens for Eastshore Parks) resulted in the Plateau and lower Neck, along with shoreline to the north and south, becoming part of The Eastshore State Park. The City of Albany maintains ownership of The Bulb itself. The City of Albany continues to negotiate to have the State Parks Department (owners of the park) and/or East Bay Regional Park District (managers of the park and owners of some adjacent shoreline) take over the Bulb. Other entities are reluctant due to liability and potential costs of making the area, with its projecting concrete and rebar, "safe." Meanwhile, the Bulb area and adjacent Albany Beach have become one of the most heavily used outdoor recreation sites in the Bay.
Natural Conditions and Ecology
Bay currents were altered by creation of the Bulb and fill peninsulas to the north and south (Pt. Isabel was natural, but its hill was dynamited in the 1950s and marshes between it and the mainland were filled). One result has been westward extension of tidal mudflats at the mouths of Codornices, Village, and Marin Creeks, between the Bulb peninsula and Pt. Isabel. These are the Albany Mudflats, protected as important habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds. Another result was formation of Albany Beach -- low dunes and a sandy beach running south between the Bulb peninsula and Fleming Point. Sandy beaches are rare on San Francisco Bay, but strong tidal current to and from the Golden Gate tend to create them along the Berkeley and Albany shorelines. The beach has been heavily used by dog owners for decades. The East Bay Regional Park District has plans to expand the dune area.Strong winds make the water south of the Bulb peninsula, off the beach, popular with wind- and kite- surfers. Eel grass near the Bulb tip is important subtidal habitat. The sheltered lagoon at the west end is a calm-water refuge during storms, and shorebirds use its rip-rap edge at high tide. The Audubon Society and other environmental groups would like to disconnect the rip-rap from the Bulb proper, to keep walkers from disturbing the birds.
Like other abandoned dumps, the Bulb was quickly vegetated and became habitat for a variety of wildlife, including songbirds, rats, mice, rabbits, and snakes and hawks that feed on them. The vegetation is largely non-native, including weeds such as Acacias, broom, and fennel; exotics such as palm and apple trees; and large thickets of Himalayan blackberries popular with berry pickers. The Plateau area, once popular for flying model airplanes, has been partly fenced off as habitat for Burrowing Owls, as mitigation for habitat taken by sports fields to the south. However, as of 2010, no owls have been sighted. The south shore's rip-rap is largely unvegetated, but lagoons and some gentler shoreline on the north, facing the Albany Mudflats have welcomed typical salt-marsh vegetation such as pickleweed, salt grass, and gum plant (Grindelia).
Notable Features
Because the Bulb is geographically unorganized and seldom patrolled by the Albany Police Department, it is often described as Anarchical. Many groups, including urban artists, local homeless, dog-walkers, teenagers, and environmentalists, use the Bulb area and feel they have a stake in it.Art
The Bulb is home a vast array of urban artUrban art
Urban art is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life...
including mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
, stencil
Stencil
A stencil is a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, or metal, with letters or a design cut from it, used to produce the letters or design on an underlying surface by applying pigment through the cut-out holes in the material. The key advantage of a stencil is that it can be reused to...
, graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, and installation art. Sculptor and activist lawyer Osha Neumann has created some of the largest works. He often collaborates with Jason DeAntonis. Sniff, a group of artists composed of Scott Hewitt, Scott Meadows and David Ryan, painted large, highly imaginative "murals" on wood and erected more sculptures on the northwest corner of The Bulb. Another Bulb landmark, referred to as "The Castle," is a large concrete, rebar and plaster shelter which sits on the south west corner of the Bulb, directly opposite the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bulb has been used for informal concerts and even a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
presented by We Players, a bay area site-specific theatre company.
See also Afghan girl
Dog Walking
The Bulb is a common recreational destination for East Bay dog owners. The Bulb's long, natural meander provides healthy exercise, while its location next to the Albany Waterfront is ideal for dog owners who enjoy beaches. Environmentalists have raised significant controversy over the destruction of The Bulb's habitat due to dog walking, but as of yet, there are no restrictions on dog walking on The Bulb.Library
The Bulb is home to a small, makeshift library, assembled mostly from driftwood and old boat pieces. The Landfill Library, comprises, on average, 300 volumes in various conditions, donated by its patrons. The books are free to borrow and keep, although a take-something-leave-something approach is encouraged.Homeless
Within The Bulb there exists a scattered shanty townShanty town
A shanty town is a slum settlement of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic...
and a homeless population of fluctuating size. The City of Albany has made several attempts to relocate the homeless, but due to litigation, as well as the persistence of the population, it has of yet been unsuccessful.
A documentary about the Albany Landfill Encampment, Bum's Paradise was released in 2003.