City Storage Emeryville

Things keeping me busy the past month or so, so I haven't been out and about, but out of town. Today upon returning from a quick venture out in the world for lunch, I got a closer look at the deconstruction of the former "National Upholstering Company" building at 40th and Adeline. I'm not overly familiar with Emeryville and admit to not knowing how the mostly abandoned warehouse-like structure was originally used. The spouse and I had guessed it was a bakery warehouse, but honestly had no clue. I liked it though, despite the over-grown ivy and occasional homeless camp that sprouted up in warmer weather. I had hoped something more would become of the place, but I perhaps selfishly hoped it would be more housing.. not storage.

Storage is what it will be! It seems City Storage, a company with locations in San Francisco had purchased the location a couple years ago and finally got through all the hoops of conditional use and planning approvals. We first noticed demolition of the interior this last Saturday, though it could have been earlier.. (as mentioned, we've been out of town).





According to the August 2013 progress report from the City of Emeryville Building and Planning Newsletter dated 1 September, 2013:

"City Storage: This proposal involves the conversion of an existing 32,291 square foot brick 
building at the northeast corner of 40th and Adeline Streets to 57,600 square feet of self‐
storage. 

The applicant would retain the existing brick facades and locate all parking and storage 
units inside the building. The proposal includes a single residential unit for the on-site manager and a small retail space at the corner as accessory uses. 

A second story of storage units and extensive landscaping work along Adeline is proposed. 
The Planning Commission approved the project on October 27, 2011, and approved a one‐year extension on January 24, 2013." (page 7)


One might wonder if Emeryville really needs more storage,(there's at least two other companies: Public Storage on Christie and ExtraSpace on Hollis) but as a renter in the E*ville Triangle area, I can tell you storage is hard to come by and expensive. Many of the apartments and lofts being built up in our area are small and costly, and often lack the space to store anything as simple as a bicycle or other off-season gear and equipment. While we're lucky we have a large enough unit now, if we wanted to move, we'd have to find a place to store a good portion of our furniture. I'm not sure where we'd keep our bikes, as leaving them locked up outside in our fine community is asking for trouble and inviting theft. While we're on the 'Edge of E*ville' we're more accurately on the Edge of Oakland when it comes to crime.

Día de los Muertos E*Ville Style

The Day of the Dead, or "Dia De Los Muertos" is celebrated from Halloween through the 2nd of November.. the Day of the Dead. Like All Saints' Day is celebrated in New Orleans, (and other places), it is a day of remembrance of family and friends who have died.



While seemingly not as big a celebration as other cities, Emeryville has its own Day of the Dead celebrations represented. Local Bakery Arizmendi recently celebrated the day of the Dead several days early on October 27th with music, food, chalk art and dancing & prayers in and around the San Pablo Avenue Bakery.

Arizmendi is usually closed early on Mondays, so it seems it's also the best opportunity to have a celebration! Delicious (and free!) food was provided for all who came to take part in the festivities. There was live Music and dancing, sidewalk chalk art and sugar skull decorating for the kids.. and the food.. The food was amazing..





These lovely ladies provided some of the live music during the celebrations..


Besides the vegetarian tamales (which I almost forgot to take a photo of my plate before devouring my tamale!) they also had: vegan or cheese tamales, mixed green salad, refried beans, rice and sweet roll pieces for dessert. Water and just the right amount of horchata was available too! (I love horchata! So it's a good thing they kept me from the supplies).


Sugar Skull decorating..


and did I mention the dancing??








Arizmendi Bakery and Pizzeria
4301 San Pablo Ave,
Emeryville, CA 94608

Temescal Alley

Seen waiting outside the Temescal Alley Barber Shop

Brunch at Doyle Street

Not just food.. but home.. and happiness! =)


Sunday was our errand day.. What usually happens, we rent a GetAround (peer-to-peer car-sharing) for a few hours and get all our trips done in one day.. Unfortunately GetAround did not come through for us again (either the cars weren't available from the owners or people just didn't respond in the 12 hour request window), so we went with Zipcar.. What this meant was we could still get a carshare vehicle (from a company rather than a person) and we could decide where we wanted to get it.. Anyways.. The plan was to have brunch and then rent a Zipcar for our errands.. Which meant.. Doyle Street Cafe!

I can't recall the last time we had breakfast-y/ brunch at Doyle Street.. which is (as I've said several times) one of my most favorite places to have breakfast or brunch.. I love eating there.. The Joe's Special.. the Chorizo Scramble..(oh scratch that, that one's not on the menu anymore!) the Buckwheat Pancakes.. Seriously, I've always been happy with what I order, regardless..

I was craving their egg white scramble, which they don't have on the menu.. However, a nice lady had told me (I wish I remembered her name.. blonde server..) had told me on a trip after they updated their menu, that I could still get egg whites as an option with a number of their menu items.. So last time I was there I had the Florentine Omelet with egg whites.. and this time.. I had the Eggs Milan Scramble:


It was all veggies with a nice Pesto flavor that didn't need to be covered in hot sauce or anything else..

The spouse ordered Homefries Heaven (with a side order of corn bread of course!).. I was surprised he ordered this, since I knew his favorite was the Homefries Heaven at our OTHER favorite place.. Homemade Cafe (Doyle Street, Homemade, and Rudy's.. the triumvirate of breakfast goodness!) One of the things he's not crazy about is that the avocado is sliced rather than part of a guacamole... but we forget this as his plate is set in front of him..


Wait.. the Doyle Street HomeFries Heaven comes with scrambled eggs on top??? Seriously! When did that happen??

Well, I didn't take a photo but we both cleaned our plates, leaving behind the little packets of jam unopened.. one doesn't need jam on that amazingly yummy cornbread. No matter what I get at Doyle Street, I have to have the corn bread.. unless they're out.. then I'm sad. =(

Service was still good (We sat in the back section which always makes me worry we'll be forgotten) and I had nothing to worry about.. The folks at Doyle Street are super friendly, pretty consistent in service, even when they are crazy busy.. you won't be forgotten for too long.. Our server was working tables in the front and back and still managed to refill our coffee.. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it's been an issue at other places. The other thing I like is that staff doesn't seem to turn over so much like it does other places.. I still get happy when I see the same guy pouring my water or the same host or hostess seat us or serve our food. It's probably the key reason that we kept coming back to have brunch there when we were living in SoCal for the eight years we were gone.. The manager then (I wish I knew what happened to him! Maybe he retired?) always remembered us, no matter how long we'd been away.. He asked "Still in LA??" and we'd sadly reply "Yes.." but he was always positive, give us a reassuring comment that we'd make it back home one day.. and at least we got to back now and again. I wish I could tell him he was right..

Spur Alley

Bike Lane!

Green stripe up 40th toward MacArthur BART.

Expectations of Security

The spouse and I lived several years in Downtown LA. It's not the safest place, and we lived "Skid Row Adjacent" for most of the years we were there. When I was out and about doing the blogging thing I walked through several areas that you'd think wouldn't be safe at night. I was very lucky maybe or despite the perceived lack of safety. I was OK. I hardly ever worried about things happening to me. I was aware of my surroundings.

Inside our own building I didn't have to worry about the drug dealers or getting robbed or anything. We were high up (5th and 6th floors respectively) We lived in "secured buildings" (number code to get in) in the Old Bank District right on Main Street. Not a fancy place at all,(no amenities), rather a friendly but sketchy area of DTLA: very "Mayberry" -like, if Mayberry had homeless people, pan-handlers, and drug-dealers. Tom Gilmore, the owner/developer does have paid security outside the main building (where Pete's Cafe and Bar is located) but that's about it. LAPD is your friend otherwise (and they are in my experience anyway). Moving on..

We live in Emeryville now, literally on the Oakland/ Emeryville border ("On the edge of E-Ville" right?!) where all kinds of crazy stuff is going down literally a couple blocks away from us. The Oakland border as I may have mentioned, passes through our next door neighbors apartment despite our street address being Emeryville. I guess crime doesn't pay attention to street addresses..

We just found out my super nice neighbor a couple doors down from us got a gun pointed at her head in a very bold attempted armed robbery late last night through her barred window! She's got 2 big dogs (one of them a scary looking to strangers doberman) I don't know what the heck is wrong with people!!? Does no one have any boundaries?? A few of my neighbors have decorative bars on their small windows and she says it was this and her doberman that kept them at bay enough for her to get down and call the cops. E-ville cops rock! She says they responded pretty quick. I'm so grateful and glad she's OK! It could have ended very very badly.

This getting mugged from WITHIN YOUR OWN SPACE is BS! As renters you should have reasonable expectations of safety within your own place. I guess I should be glad our cats are frightened of the fireworks last night as we closed and locked our windows by 8PM or so.. Went to bed by Midnight & the fireworks (illegal ones of course) were still going off. We live very close to Market St. (we're incredibly close to the Oakland border) which is a hotzone of muggings and armed robberies. The 4th of July is usually a time of hooligans to be out and about setting off M-80s and possible car break-ins.. It seems like it's escalating and our area (and my neighbors!) of E-ville is suffering for it.

I can't help but wonder stupid things like "If only they hadn't taken out most of the ground cover between our windows and the sidewalk?" or maybe our area of the street needs better lighting?? I don't know if anything would have discouraged these jerks from trying something as crazy as pointing a gun through my neighbor's window... but having our lush landscaping ripped out and left bare doesn't help.

I think "reasonable expectation of safety" should include NOT having some jerk point a gun at you through your window demanding your laptop. We live in a low-key but fairly nice place and pay decent rent... Like where we lived in LA, it's not a fancy building, we don't have crazy amenities and we don't have alarm systems and MOST of us don't have bars on our windows (but that doesn't seem to help much in this case) I really don't know what one or anyone can do if bars and scary barking dogs don't keep people from attempting to kill you over your things. There should be something.. You should be safe within your own space!

It's so frustrating! I've lived many years in New Orleans.. where I can't imagine the crooks ever trying anything like that.. maybe they do these days? In DTLA it seemed like things happened to people who 'asked for it' IE: not paying attention to their surroundings, flashing money or expensive accessories (ipod/cellphone theft is pretty high).. stuff like that. A guy gets stabbed in DTLA it's because he was in the middle of a drug deal that went sideways. I'm not saying crime doesn't happen to people that are aware and doing the right thing.. but it seems like it's less likely.. and the veil of security and sanctity of home is mostly intact.

Here things happen to folks outside.. down by the bus stops on Market or more recently out on the sidewalk in front of our neighboring buildings. Here we have people trying to live and be aware despite what is going on within a block or so of their home, still being victims of crime. Sanctity of home? Expectations of Security?? I'm just not sure, but something needs to change.

Arbor Cafe

Sometimes all you need is a sandwich and some good coffee! We finally got around to trying Arbor after returning our GetAround car mid-day... We didn't need a lot..


Pretty good Turkey & Brie sandwich.. was big enough to split!


The "personal" French Press is big enough to share with a friend as well.. enough for about 3 cups of coffee we were told.. Sounds about right!


Arbor isn't on our usual walking route.. We were pleasantly surprised to see how much it resembled one of our favorite places, (Actual Cafe on San Pablo: both Actual and Arbor are bike friendly and offer good & casual food and good coffee). You can read more about bike friendly East Bay from an article from last year in the East Bay Express:
A Bike Rack on Every Corner

Arbor Cafe is located at 4210 Telegraph Avenue.. They have a facebook page and you can read reviews on Yelp if you want to hear more from other people.

Poppies!

Poppies are in bloom.. As seen on 45th Street near Essex in Emeryville

AMC Oz Preview Tonight!

AMC Stubs members have an opportunity to view a special screening of "Oz the Great and Powerful" at various AMC Theatres across the country. Our local Emeryville Bay Street theatre is our closest option. Tickets must be purchased at the box office with the planned screening for 8pm.

I know we were hoping to go, but as so often happens with the spouse's work.. plans often get cancelled at the last minute. I'm still crossing my fingers we'll be able to go and there will still be tickets available. If this is a film you're wanting to see and you happen to be a Stubs member this might be a good option before the crowds.


AMC Bay Street Emeryville entrance w/ Frankenweenie Banner from October 2012.

Fresh Paint!

Besler Building is getting a fresh coat of paint around its windows:

Cold Morning in E-Ville