Earlier this week a gigantic tree fell in the Peacock Alley parking lot next to La Finestra Ristorante in Lafayette Circle, crushing numerous unoccupied cars. Check out the photos below and this NBC Bay Area article for more details.
Earlier this week a gigantic tree fell in the Peacock Alley parking lot next to La Finestra Ristorante in Lafayette Circle, crushing numerous unoccupied cars. Check out the photos below and this NBC Bay Area article for more details.
This week I’ll be posting photos from the epic Women’s March in downtown Walnut Creek. The photo above shows women from CorePower Yoga cheering on protesters as they march on North Main Street.
Thanks also to a reader for submitting the photo below. If you have a photo from the Women’s March in Walnut Creek that you’d like featured this week please email womensmarch[at]beyondthecreek.com and I’ll try to get it up.
On Saturday in Washington D.C. and cities around the world, the Women’s March took place including downtown Walnut Creek. Starting in Civic Park, thousands of people marched up Locust Street and back down N. Main St. in at times pouring rain, showing their support for various issues as well as protesting against incoming President Trump. One police officer monitoring the crowd said this was the biggest crowd in downtown Walnut Creek he had ever seen. To get an idea of how large the crowd was take a look at the photo below showing people marching from Civic Park towards Lesher Center a few blocks away. There were even more people out of frame in the park as well as marching up Locust St. Check out plenty of photos after the jump and check back every day this week for more photos of the march.
More photos of the Women’s March after the jump…
Is anyone encountering more unpleasant things in Walnut Creek due to the increased growth?
A reader writes:
Has anyone complained about the significant rise in vagrancy in downtown WC – especially around the S California, Mt Diablo Blvd down to Newell block? The council seems unprepared to acknowledge or address this and it is getting out of hand, with homeless taking their dogs into restaurants and one recently filling up a huge garbage bag of ice from the dispenser in the Habit while paying customers stood waiting? It is impacting the lifestyle we residents pay top dollar for when choosing WC as the town to buy property and raise families. If I wanted to live with homeless we would have bought somewhere in downtown SF . . .
Enjoy the last weekend of free parking at the Broadway Plaza parking garage in downtown Walnut Creek. There is a silver lining however. Beginning Monday, January 9th you’ll now get the first three hours free, without validation. This is really great news. Two hours is cutting it close but I could get a bite to eat and shop a bit in three hours. Nice!
From the Broadway Plaza website:
We have made an important change: The first three hours will be free – rather than the first two hours as originally planned, with no validation required. We have decided to make this change in response to the consistent, thoughtfully-presented requests from many Walnut Creek residents to expand the window of free parking once the program
starts.
A reader writes:
“Call me a grinch, but I really don’t appreciate Anthropologie throwing away four real, gorgeous, perfectly good trees just because their holiday decorations needed to come down after Christmas. Luckily I went inside and asked if I could rescue them. The lady inside commented that she was shocked they weren’t already trashed and gone. This just seemed wrong to me…”
This small contraption at Broadway Plaza says, “dog waste has a place… please not in my yard” with a small hole above the text. Surely this is too small to hold anything, so what’s the meaning of the hole? Am I missing something obvious here?
The urban phenomenon yarn bombing hit downtown Walnut Creek recently with trees and parking meters wrapped in colorful yarn designs by the community from the knitting store Fashion Knit in Ygnacio Plaza. Although the sign notes that it’s called knitfitti, I think yarn bombing sounds better.
I was walking by the Lesher Center in downtown Walnut Creek the other day when I happened upon a ceremony for the Walnut Creek Free Ride buses going electric. They used to be diesel. Can anyone tell me why are they called “trolleys”? They look like buses to me. Is that a gimmick?
From the County Connection electric bus page:
The electric trolley’s were built locally by Gillig and are the first electric buses to come off their line. These trolley’s also represent another first – a partnership between Gillig, BAE(manufacturer of the electric power system) and WAVE (the manufacturer of the inductive charging station).
The new electric trolleys will replace the existing diesel trolleys that are used on the popular Route 4 Free Downtown Trolley in Walnut Creek. The City of Walnut Creek provides operating assistance for the service, allowing passengers to ride for free. The buses run between the Walnut Creek BART station, downtown Walnut Creek, and the Broadway Plaza seven days a week.
As I write this I don’t know the results of the election, but there were a couple of surprising situations I found out voting at an election poll. One is that, years ago without paying much attention, I previously registered to vote by mail which means I could not vote at the poll without filling out more paperwork to be used for a provisional ballot. (While I was filling out the paperwork numerous voters made the same mistake so I didn’t feel too bad). According to the election official I will have to register to vote again and select NOT to vote by mail if want to vote at the poll. If you check your eligibility to vote here, take note of the Permanent Vote by Mail Voter line.
Another awkward point is that there was little privacy when voting. I had expected a curtain or at least for my back to be facing a wall. But the way the table was set up, my back was facing towards the public area where people walking by could easily see my votes.