by Sarah Van Roo The Autumn Lights Festival at the Gardens at Lake Merritt drew the curtain across its garden stage on Saturday evening, October 15. Over three evenings, 11,000 festival-goers enjoyed a peaceful, vibrant event. Families with young kids, the hip and hip-replacement crowd, and everyone in between mingled happily in the fantastic fall […]
Sarah Van Roo
The Gardens at Lake Merritt’s Entry Gets a Facelift
by Sarah Van Roo and Donald Cooper Many of us wander bewitched though the Autumn Lights Festival each fall, without knowing that each ticket purchased has gone to help fund the redesign of the entrance plaza for The Gardens at Lake Merritt in Lakeside Park. This plan, six years in unfolding, was created by […]
Lake Merritt Area Earth Day Volunteer Opportunities
Earth Day is Saturday, April 22, 2017 and there are a lot of opportunities around the lake for engaged neighbors to jump in. Lake Merritt Weed Warriors: We’ll collect litter and pull weeds in and around the vegetated stormwater basin just downstream from the Lake Merritt Blvd. bridge from 9 a.m.- 12 noon. April rains have […]
KITCHEN 388’s REPLACEMENT – A STUDY IN CONTRASTO
For fans of the much-loved Kitchen 388 on Grand Avenue, there’s good news and bad news. Owner, Philip Toman closed in late December due to family issues which forced him to focus on Olea, their San Francisco restaurant. He recently found an eager tenant in the person of Chef Alessandro Campitelli, who grew up in Rome, trained […]
Splash Pad Park’s Plant Whisperer
by Sarah Van Roo There are secret gardens in many places, and Oakland has one that wasn’t really meant to be secret. Chances are you don’t know about it – but it’s hiding in plain sight. This would be the beautiful California native plant garden in Splash Pad Park, which is tucked in the shadow […]