The end of an era at an unusual East Bay landmark
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The Albany Bulb, for those who haven’t ever stopped by, is a hidden gem in the East Bay cultural ecosystem. It very literally embodies the “one man’s trash” aphorism by virtue of a) very literally being made out of trash and b) being full of beautiful and frequently disregarded things. Part-park, part-encampment, part-sculpture-garden, the Bulb has been an institution for decades, as well as home to some of the East Bay’s disenfranchised folks.
More recently though, the Bulb is set to undergo a large-scale “transition”. While the specifics haven’t been worked out completely, it’s pretty clear it won’t look the same for long. For starters, its homeless population of 60+ was evicted earlier this year. On the eve of that eviction, the folks over at Slow Cool Assault ran a very dope, very informative piece, which you can check out here. Fortunately, they enlisted Tanja Baker to snap some pics too, to commemorate the Bulb pre-transition. Peep those below.
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From Slow Cool Assault:
“The Albany Waterfront is a former landfill; a spit of land jutting into San Francisco Bay on the east side of the Bay just north of Berkeley, comprising almost 70 acres and rising almost 40 feet at its tallest point above the water level. It was created entirely by dumping of industrial waste between the 1930’s and 1980’s when the dumping was halted and the land was left to restore itself. Over the last 30 years, the land has become a wonderland of plant, animal and bird life – as well as a home to ‘outsider art’ and another type of outsider: the homeless community which has had a longterm encampment on the bulbous end of the land mass. It is known as the Bulb.
The bitterness swirling about the long-term encampment at the Albany Bulb and its imminent eviction will rage for some time; the battle lines between ‘opponents’ and ‘supporters’ have become hardened; between those of us who believe that society must provide more options for the homeless, the mentally ill, the addicted and the ‘outsider’, and those whose rallying cry is ‘throw the bums out of our public park’. The history of the Albany Landfill and the 3 others (Richmond, Berkeley and Emeryville) sitting like carbuncles on the rim of the east part of San Francisco Bay, is less controversial.”
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