InBerkeley

The Bay Bridge right now as I write at 8.28pm.

It is now closed to traffic. And doesn’t it look good?

[Photo: baybridgeinfo.org]

Transport Bay Bridge, Transport

There’s been a noticeable decrease in the volume of Berkeley tweets this week, perhaps because most students are too busy now with classes.

Overheard today on the Twitterstream:

TemraCosta: is editing chapter one, cheeseboard for lunch, Berkeley farmers market for melons, bike ride to use up all the energy from bacon brunch.

joellefarrell: Signs I’m getting old: Just shut off Berkeley U radio on my computer, cursing “damn hippies.”

benaguirrejr: Woman, 39, arrested in Berkeley yesterday has a listed occupation as “nomad,” per county booking records.

General

The 636 solar panels atop the new Berkeley Bowl West building at 920 Heinz Street in Berkeley must be doing their job pretty well.  Tomorrow, the market’s owners are receiving a $167,029 solar energy rebate check from PG&E.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, representatives from PG&E and Sun Light & Power President Gary Gerber will be on hand, too, no doubt to promote solar energy, boast about what a great job they’re doing and to get their photos taken. In preparation for tomorrow’s event, southeastern Berkeley and parts of the downtown area were plunged into darkness early this morning to remind citizens of just how important electricity is to our daily lives. No word on whether Berkeley Bowl West was affected by the blackout or not.

The solar panels atop the acclaimed Berkeley Bowl West facility are expected to produce 149,633 kilowatts of electricity per year, and were installed by Berkeley-based by Sun Light & Power.

You, too, can attend the rebate-receiving ceremony. It will take place at noon on Friday at the Berkeley Bowl West.

Architecture, Business, Environment, Events, Government, Green, Politics, West Berkeley

Regular commenter Deirdre reports:

Our Berkeley Public School kindergarten has 4 classes this year instead of the 3 that our school was built to hold.  We had 4 classes last year as well.  Now the teachers’ lounge has become a classroom for the third grade.  There are no available classroom spaces left, but I expect they’ll bring in 4 K classes next fall as well.  Our teachers are mostly great – - but one outstanding new teacher was bounced this year in favor of returning veteran teachers, not all of whom are outstanding.  The two adminstrators who dealt with parent outreach and discipline issues are both gone this year.  They might replace one, but it’s not clear.  Still: BSEP is a godsend, no question.  The K classes in Oakland now have 24 students, whereas Berkeley’s are still at 20. Thank you, thank you Berkeley voters.

Education

What will the good folks of San Francisco do, cut off from the bright lights of the East Bay for four days? Don’t worry, there are plenty of ways people can get to Berkeley, even without the Bay Bridge.

The excellent Transbay Blog (best place for following transportation issues in the Bay Area) has a good round-up of how to get around. You’ll certainly find it more helpful than either the main Caltrans site, where Bay Bridge information is very well hidden, or the dedicated Bay Bridge site, where the priority seems to be .mov files showing construction.

BART will run 24 hours a day during the closure, although the late night schedule is very sparse. For some reason, BART will not run after midnight on Monday, even though the bridge is not scheduled to reopen until 5am. The other non-roundabout way to cross the Bay is the Oakland/Alameda ferry service, which is putting on extra services during the closure.

Transportation

The Bay Bridge will close at 8PM today. If all goes according to plan, it will re-open on Tuesday morning at 5AM.

Tomorrow, Friday, will be the first workday that the bridge has been closed since the Loma Prieta earthquake.

The Chronicle has a list of travel alternatives, including BART, AC Transit, ferries.

The Bay Bridge has a Twitter account, where you can get realtime updates. Only 434 followers!

BayBridgeInfo has a site with video slideshows explaining this weekend’s construction project.

KQED will have traffic reports through the weekend. The bridge closure was the topic of KQED Forum today. A podcast recording of the show should appear on the KQED website.

511.org has Bay Area traffic status.

People who live on Yerba Buena Island will be able to get to and from their homes using special passes that allow them to use the western segment of the Bay Bridge.

Traffic is flowing well on the bridge right now, according to Google Maps. What will the map look like at 8PM?

Transbay Blog: Another Year, Another Bay Bridge Closure.

Free Ghirardelli chocolate Friday morning for bridgeless Berkeley BART riders.

Webcams on the construction site! Wow, this is going to be cooool.

General

Power blackout in parts of South Berkeley tonight.

Reports of a blackout affecting parts of the South Berkeley and downtown areas are filtering in from the Twitterstream.  alitheiaKu is experiencing the outage in downtown Berkeley. According to thisgirlelle, power is out where she is on Channing Way, while Matt3Boii reports are that at least half of the UC Berkeley campus has been affected. ptraughber tells us that Warring St. by the Clark Kerr campus is dark, too, and says he can see the outage extends up into the hill, to campus, and a couple of blocks south.

Berkeley Police Department reports the outage is in the area of Telegraph Ave. and Durant, extending all the way to the border with Oakland at Alcatraz.  The cause is a blown transformer, and power is expected to be restored in a couple of hours.  No report of crime or any other unusual activities in the area except for some folks who seem to be taking advantage of the dark to light off some fireworks.

If you are affected by the blackout, tell us where you’re located so we can gauge the full extent of the outage.

UPDATE: More reports from the Twitterstream.  sitek reports “manhole blown out of its place at Bancroft and Dana, most of Southside out of power.” kwen says she “Heard people yelling “OBAMAAA” and setting off fireworks.”

Downtown, Emergencies, South Berkeley