What we are tracking in Albany

Trash washing onto the Albany Marsh, cleaned up by volunteers and not measured under the regional stormwater permit

Albany · Albany Marsh, Cerrito Creek and the Albany Mudflats · raised since April 2026

East Bay Trash Pandas, a volunteer cleanup group, held its first cleanup at the Albany Marsh, beside the mudflats, on 25 April 2026 and wrote up the day this way:

"A truly fantastic day cleaning a truly enormous amount of trash out of the Albany Marsh with Sophie, Elisa, Brendan, Sylvia, Scott, Tara, and Andy!"

East Bay Trash Pandas, cleanup write-up on the group's cleanups page, 25 April 2026

Seven named volunteers took part, and by the group's account they removed a shopping cart and a floating mattress. Eighteen returned on Coastal Cleanup Day, the yearly volunteer shoreline cleanup, on 19 September 2026. In a post dated 15 May 2026, the group wrote that "The site we cleaned last time is still pretty spotless, but the rest of the marsh could use another cleanup or two."

The group's wetlands page says: "Unfortunately, these miraculous marshes are now covered in tons of trash washed up out of the Bay." It adds: "We suspect most of the garbage is local litter swept out to sea by stormwater runoff, likely from adjoining City of Richmond and CalTrans land." That is the group's suspicion, not a measurement. It fits two state cease and desist orders, which require a party to stop breaking a rule: Order R2-2025-0032 for Richmond and Order R2-2019-0007 for Caltrans, the state highway agency.

Cities here operate under a regional stormwater permit, state rules requiring them to reduce the trash washing from storm drains into creeks and the Bay. What we have tracked suggests it does not measure the trash that reaches this shoreline. The regional Receiving Water Trash Monitoring Plan, version 1.0, dated 31 July 2024, picks six sites where trash reaching a creek or the Bay is measured. None is on Cerrito Creek, Codornices Creek or the Albany shoreline. The mudflats are a 160-acre state ecological reserve inside McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, and in the documents we have tracked no regulator names them as a receiving water, the body of water storm drains ultimately empty into.

Cerrito Creek carries runoff from Berkeley, Kensington, Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond across two county lines to the Bay, beside the mudflats, and Albany runs roughly 11 miles of storm drains to the Bay. Upstream, El Cerrito's FY2021-22 annual report lists 164 full trash capture systems, devices that stop trash entering a storm drain, and is the only document we reviewed naming the SF Bay Cerrito Creek Watershed as a receiving water. Berkeley reported 73.1% trash load reduction in April 2023, the share of its trash stopped before reaching waterways.

Richmond has the hardest job. The permit required 100% trash load reduction by 30 June 2025, and Richmond reported 66%, the lowest in the region. On 10 December 2025 the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which writes the permit, adopted Order R2-2025-0032, extending Richmond's deadline five years to 30 June 2030, longer than Alameda County's (2027) or Vallejo's (2028). Richmond reported zero new full capture devices and zero On-Land Visual Trash Assessments, which are street inspections for trash, citing a staff shortage.

Caltrans remains under Order R2-2019-0007, which covers the I-80 and I-580 corridors, and I-80 runs along the shoreline in front of the reserve. We have not found a trash obligation assigned to the Albany segment, no capture-device count or list of outfalls (the pipes where storm drains empty) published by Albany, and no trash hot spot, the permit's label for an area with especially heavy trash, designated for Cerrito Creek. Creek work here, such as the $826,000 Codornices Creek Phase 4 project, carries no trash credit for the mudflats.

Where things stand, as far as we have tracked: volunteers are doing the picking up, and a cleanup removes only what has already washed in. Founder John Kirkham told ABC7 in 2024 about the group's Grizzly Peak Boulevard work, "I would love to put our crew out of business."

Worth tracking

Movement would look like an annual report naming the Albany Mudflats as a receiving water, a monitoring site added on Cerrito Creek or the Albany shoreline under Provision C.8.e (the permit's monitoring section), or a trash hot-spot designation under Provision C.10 (its trash section).

A member of Congress can ask EPA Region 9 whether the mudflats or Cerrito Creek are on California's list of impaired waters under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act and, if not, why not, and can ask the Federal Highway Administration and Caltrans District 4 what trash obligation attaches to I-80 here. We have not found a sign either question has been put. Adding a monitoring site or hot spot is a decision for the Regional Water Board, not EPA.

Which steps come first is a call for the cities and residents beside this shoreline, and a congressional office would work with them rather than arrive with a list. If you live near the mudflats, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: East Bay Trash Pandas, cleanups, East Bay Trash Pandas, wetlands, ABC7 on East Bay Trash Pandas, Caltrans Cease and Desist Order R2-2019-0007, Regional Water Board staff report, Receiving Water Trash Monitoring Plan, Albany Mudflats Ecological Reserve, McLaughlin Eastshore plan, April 2025, Friends of Five Creeks, Cerrito Creek, Cerrito Creek, Albany stormwater program, El Cerrito annual report FY22, Berkeley trash capture report, Codornices Creek Phase 4

The uncapped Albany Bulb landfill: eroding debris beside the mudflats and a land transfer with no later word

Albany · Albany Bulb, Albany Neck and the mudflats · raised since June 2015

From June to November 2015, the East Bay Regional Park District restored a stretch of the Albany shoreline and took old landfill debris out of it. The restoration was a $12.4M program whose Phase I cost $4.1M, paid for from Measures WW and CC, two funding measures that voters approved for the park district. The district stated that the Albany Bulb, a former landfill on the shoreline, and the center of the Neck, the strip of shoreline land beside the Bulb, are owned by the City of Albany and were not part of the plan. The Neck lies north of McLaughlin at the foot of Buchanan Street.

Who takes over the Bulb has been open for decades. Transfer of the Bulb, meaning its ownership passing from the city to California State Parks and the park district, was still under negotiation in April 2025. Golden Gate Bird Alliance and Citizens for East Shore Parks, two conservation groups, were still campaigning through 2025 to see it completed. We have not found later word on the transfer, and none on capping the landfill, which means covering it with a protective layer.

The Bulb was built in 1963 from contracted construction-debris disposal, meaning building rubble was hauled there under contract, and it is largely concrete and rebar, the steel bars inside reinforced concrete. Litigation closed it in 1983. It is uncapped, with debris exposed at the water's edge, and its exposed face adjoins the Albany Mudflats. The site is inspected by CalRecycle, the state's recycling and waste agency, and by the Alameda County Local Enforcement Agency, the county office that oversees landfills. East Bay Trash Pandas' cleanups of the marsh beside it are covered in the entry on trash reaching the Albany Marsh.

The one regulator-directed investigation we identified addressed a different problem from the visible one. Water quality regulators directed Albany in January 2024 to investigate historic Stauffer Chemical alum mud disposal at the site. Alum mud is an aluminum-processing waste. The Love the Bulb website, which carries updates through September 2025, reports an initial investigation found no radioactivity associated with alum mud disposal, and the Bulb remains open. We could not confirm whether that is the final finding. It concerns radioactivity and says nothing about the plastic, styrofoam and construction debris at the edge.

Some things remain unclear. We have not found a study measuring how much of the uncapped edge is eroding into the mudflats, so it appears nobody has measured it, and until somebody does, the agencies that would take the land cannot put a number on what it would cost them. We have not confirmed whether the January 2024 direction was a formal order under Water Code section 13267, the state law that lets water quality regulators require a party to investigate and report. We have not found public opposition to the transfer. Taking on a cost nobody can estimate is a hard position for any agency.

Worth tracking

Movement would look like someone commissioning a study of how much plastic, styrofoam and construction debris is entering the mudflats and at what rate, the receiving agencies agreeing terms for managing the land, or a public update on the transfer, which we have not found since April 2025. It is also worth asking CalRecycle and the county agency whether their inspections already hold erosion data, because if they do, the study is smaller than it looks.

Ownership and conveyance are local and state matters: Albany owns the Bulb, State Parks and the park district are the receiving agencies, and CalRecycle and the county agency oversee the landfill. There is one federal opening, and it is money for the study nobody has commissioned. EPA brownfields assessment grants fund this kind of characterization of an uncapped debris site, and a congressional office can help Albany apply. Congress cannot compel a city to convey land to a state park. The Bulb is not a Superfund site, meaning it is not on the federal list of highly contaminated sites that qualify for the cleanup program of that name, and the initial investigation did not find the radioactivity that might have opened that door.

Which steps come first is a call for Albany, the receiving agencies and residents, and a congressional office would work with them rather than arrive with a list. If you know this shoreline, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: East Bay Regional Park District, shoreline restoration, McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, McLaughlin Eastshore plan, April 2025, Golden Gate Bird Alliance, Eastshore State Park, Citizens for East Shore Parks, Albany Bulb background, Albany Bulb reference entry, Golden Gate Bird Alliance on the mudflats and Bulb, Love the Bulb, news and updates

What the Albany Bulb becomes: art, wildness, safety and who the shoreline serves

Albany

In a KALW radio story dated 12 May 2025, reporter Alastair Boone went back to the Albany Bulb, a stretch of Albany shoreline built on an old landfill, a decade after the city cleared the encampment that had stood there. One of the people she spoke with was James Lee Bailey, known as Jimbow, who lived at the Bulb from 1997 for 17 years. This is how he described what a place like that comes to mean to the people who live in it:

You build your character and you build your community around you, who you want to associate, and pretty soon, it might take a longer for some, or for me, whatever, but pretty soon you got a community, and you feel at home.

Jimbow (James Lee Bailey), who lived at the Albany Bulb from 1997 for 17 years, in the KALW radio story "Going Home Again to the Albany Bulb" by reporter Alastair Boone, 12 May 2025

The city removed the roughly 70-person encampment at the Albany Bulb in 2014. The clearance ended in a lawsuit settlement that paid most residents $3,000 each, along with a 12-month stay-away order. A decade later, a May 2025 KALW report found no current city or park district redevelopment plans for the site. Nobody has decided what the Bulb is for.

The question matters now because planning for a regional park at Golden Gate Fields, the horse racing track property directly next door, is on the way. Community planning for it is targeted for 2027 through 2029.

What the Bulb's users want is unusually specific for a place with no plan. Love the Bulb, a volunteer group, continues to care for the site and runs Bulbfest, a festival held there. The group also presses for a portable environmental and arts classroom, equipment storage, education zones and a skatepark. The skatepark would go under the raised roadways of I-80 and Buchanan Street. Artists, dog walkers, park users and formerly and currently unhoused residents use the site as it is, informal and unlandscaped. The case they make is that the informality is the appeal, not a flaw to be fixed. Amber Whitson, who lived at the Bulb from 2006 to 2014, told KALW:

The variety of plants and stuff out here, it really shows that nature really will find a way. Always, nature will find a way, if you just gotta give it a little bit of room.

Amber Whitson, former Albany Bulb resident (2006-2014), in the KALW radio story "Going Home Again to the Albany Bulb," 12 May 2025

Others see the same site differently, and their concerns are real too. Residents worried about noise, litter and safety point to gatherings held without a permit. The East Bay Regional Park District police, the officers of the regional agency that manages parks along the shoreline, handle enforcement there, and they warned of a planned unpermitted beach takeover at the Bulb, a gathering on the beach that was planned without a permit.

One long-running question has been answered. The Water Board, the state agency that protects water quality, prompted a 20-month investigation into whether waste from the Stauffer Chemical company, known as alum mud, might have been dumped at the site. The investigation concluded in September 2025 that no associated radioactivity was found and recommended no access restrictions, meaning no limits on where people can go. That finding covers radioactivity and nothing else. The condition of the construction debris at the site, which has not been covered with a protective cap, is a separate issue: "The uncapped Albany Bulb landfill: eroding debris beside the mudflats, transfer unfinished."

Sources: KALW: Going home again to the Albany Bulb, KQED: Albany continues clearing out homeless encampment at the Bulb, KQED: City settles lawsuit with plaintiffs living in tent village on the Albany Bulb, EBRPD: McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, eastbayexpress.com, albanybulb.org, bulbfest.org, kron4.com, albanybulb.org, cbsnews.com

Lane markings rubbed out and decomposed granite paths worn down on the Ohlone Greenway

Albany · Ohlone Greenway · raised since February 2025

On 27 February 2025, Amy Schulman spoke during public comment at a meeting of Albany's Transportation Commission, the volunteer panel that advises the city on streets, bikeways and traffic safety. The meeting was summarized by Citizen Portal, a website that publishes AI-generated summaries of city meetings, which are not official transcripts. In that summary, she described the Ohlone Greenway, the shared path for walking and biking that runs through Albany, this way:

"Most of the markings have been rubbed out because people are riding and walking on them, so it's not clear where users should be."

Amy Schulman, Albany resident, public comment to the Transportation Commission, 27 February 2025, as recorded in Citizen Portal's meeting summary

The same summary says Schulman described the lane icons painted on the path and the decomposed granite paths, the strips of packed crushed stone for walking, as worn down. She suggested repainting the icons, restoring the stone paths and widening the sections for people on foot. Carrie Shulman, who also spoke, asked the commission to use existing separate side paths where possible and to make separated lanes more direct and inviting. The summary spells the two surnames differently, and we have not been able to confirm either spelling against the official minutes. On 20 October 2025, a resident again asked for the Greenway to be widened during public comment on the Active Transportation Plan, the city's plan for how people walk and bike around Albany.

The commission did not leave the question there. Commissioners asked city staff to come back with a short list of near-term options to try. Staff had laid out three broad approaches: signs and markings, public awareness and ambassador programs, and changes to the path itself. The short-term ideas included repainting the lane markings, refreshing the striping, adding signs that suggest a comfortable speed range and positive messages, and a pilot that combines new markings with signs that show riders their speed. Longer-term ideas included widening parts of the trail, routing fast commuting trips onto parallel streets nearby, and setting a regular maintenance schedule for the decomposed granite paths. According to the summary, no rule changes were adopted at that meeting. Part of the difficulty is visible in Schulman's own description: the markings wear away because the people the path is meant to guide are the ones walking and riding over them.

Where things stand: we have not found a later staff report to the commission, a date for new markings or a funded repair, so we cannot say whether the pilot happened. The city's council adopted the Active Transportation Plan in July 2026, as Streetsblog San Francisco reported. We did not find the Greenway mentioned on the city's project page for the plan, and we have not confirmed what the adopted plan says about it.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: a staff report to the Transportation Commission with the short list of near-term options, fresh markings or signs on the path, a date for the pilot, and a line in the Active Transportation Plan's project list that names the Greenway.

Repainting markings is a small job, and the city may be able to do it with its own maintenance budget. Restoring the stone paths or widening the Greenway would cost more, and no cost estimate has been published. A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of a larger job depending on its cost. Other federal tools do not involve a direct appropriation. The U.S. Department of Transportation runs a grant program called Safe Streets and Roads for All, which pays for safety projects for people walking and biking, and some federal transportation money reaches Albany through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's regional transportation agency. The office could help the city apply, write a letter of support, or ask the agencies involved for a timeline.

What gets fixed first on the Greenway is for Albany and its residents to decide. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you use the path and have a view on what you would put first, whether markings, surface, width or something else, we would like to hear it.

Sources: Citizen Portal, Transportation Commission, 27 February 2025, Citizen Portal, Active Transportation Plan draft networks, 20 October 2025, Streetsblog San Francisco, July 2026, City of Albany, Active Transportation Plan project page

Raised curbs, trip hazards and ponding water at San Pablo Avenue corners

Albany · San Pablo Avenue at Castro Street and at Brighton Avenue · raised since February 2025

At the same 27 February 2025 meeting of the Transportation Commission, Brian Martin told commissioners that his wife had recently tripped over a raised curb element installed as part of the San Pablo Avenue project, according to Citizen Portal, a website that publishes AI-generated summaries of city meetings, which are not official transcripts. He also said the guidelines call for making such elements more visible with a textured surface in a different color. The summary's headline says the public raised trip hazards and flooding concerns at the San Pablo and Castro corners, and its text says the ramp approach at the southwest corner becomes unusable in heavy rain.

City staff answered the same evening, and part of the answer explains why this is hard. San Pablo Avenue is a Caltrans facility, meaning it belongs to the state highway agency, so the city does not control the road alone. Staff also said that stormwater along parts of San Pablo flows across the surface rather than into storm drain inlets, the openings that carry rain underground. Staff said they were beginning watershed management planning, a study of how water moves across an area, and would look further into the flooding at Castro. The commission also approved guidance on curb ramps that evening, according to the summary.

On 26 June 2025, staff described short-term fixes to the commission. They plan to paint raised curbs white on busy commercial blocks so people can see them. At the Castro corner they plan to lower one curb ramp, trim a raised curb that extended into the walking route and add valley gutters, shallow channels that carry water, at selected turns. At Brighton Avenue, where an unmarked crossing is used, they plan to install a more durable barricade and signs. The summary says staff also described the need to coordinate with Alameda CTC, the county's transportation agency, and with Caltrans on any bollard proposals where state right of way or bus operations could be affected. It adds that some locations will need larger investments, such as storm drains, more right of way or moving utilities, before a final low-maintenance treatment can be built. No dates were given for any of it.

In December 2025, Alameda CTC updated the commission on its San Pablo Avenue projects, which include curb ramp upgrades, bus bulbs at selected AC Transit stops (sections of curb that extend into the street so buses can stop at the curb) and short protected bikeway connections at Clay Street and Brighton Avenue. The summary did not describe any work at the Castro corner.

Where things stand: we have not found a report showing whether the painting, ramp lowering, curb trimming, valley gutters or Brighton barricade were built, and we have not found a completion date for any of them. The longer-term drainage and right of way solutions are described only as being pursued.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: a construction notice or staff report saying the Castro ramp and curb work is done, the Brighton barricade in place, a date attached to the watershed management planning, and the Castro corner appearing in Alameda CTC's plans for San Pablo.

Because San Pablo Avenue is a state highway, the lever that fits best is Caltrans, which receives federal highway money. The office could ask Caltrans for a timeline on drainage and curb work at these corners, ask the question formally, help residents with casework if they have already contacted an agency, or bring Albany, Alameda CTC and Caltrans to the same table. Federal accessibility rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act also cover curb ramps, which is another reason to ask. If the larger storm drain and right of way work turns out to be mostly a question of money, a direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of it depending on the cost. No cost has been published.

What comes first on San Pablo is for Albany and its residents to say. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you walk these corners, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Citizen Portal, Transportation Commission, 27 February 2025, Citizen Portal, Transportation Commission, 26 June 2025, Citizen Portal, Transportation Commission, 4 December 2025

Crashes, crosswalk lighting and ponding water at Marin Avenue and Nielsen Street

Albany · Marin Avenue at Nielsen Street and the Marin Avenue Phase 2 corridor · raised since December 2024

In October 2025, Albany's Parks and Recreation Commission voted 4 to 0, with one member abstaining, to remove two trees at the corner of Marin Avenue and Nielsen Street, according to Citizen Portal, a website that publishes AI-generated summaries of city meetings, which are not official transcripts. One was a liquidambar with decaying roots that the city's urban forester called high risk. The other was a London plane tree too close to where a new pole and storm drain had to go. The work is meant to make room for a catch basin, an underground box that collects rain from the street, and for new lighting at the crosswalk. A property owner near 1501 Marin Avenue who gave only the first name Julian spoke in support of the removal. The summary says he pointed to "several recent traffic accidents at the corner". Staff said another location would either shadow the crosswalk or cause what the summary calls nuisance ponding, meaning puddles that collect and stay.

Residents had raised related concerns earlier. On 19 December 2024, at the Transportation Commission meeting on the Marin Avenue Phase 2 plans, several residents and frequent bicyclists urged staff to coordinate traffic calming, which means design changes that slow drivers, across the adjoining streets. They asked about storm drain improvements and possible flooding. They also asked for permanent bulb-outs, sections of curb that extend into the street at a corner, rather than painted ones. The summary does not say whether permanent bulb-outs were adopted.

The city responded in the plans themselves. The commission voted unanimously to recommend them. Staff said the intersection lighting added about $500,000 to the project, which they described as roughly 10 percent; because $500,000 is closer to 6 percent of the $7.75 million total, both figures are best read as approximate. The plans also upgrade the traffic signal controller at Peralta Avenue, adding battery backup and a GPS feature that lets emergency vehicles trigger signals, and add new storm drain inlets connected to the main drain line where possible.

The rebuild covers Marin Avenue between Key Route Boulevard and Tulare Avenue. It is the city's largest street project at $7.75 million. The council authorized bids in April 2025, the step that lets the city ask contractors to price the job, under Resolution 2025-21. The city's project page says construction was scheduled to run from September 2025 through 2026, with completion targeted for 31 October 2026. Paving was scheduled for April 2026, mostly during the school district's spring break. The city's July 2026 update says paving and striping were finished in May and new signposts and stamped concrete at corners went in during June. The project page's August update puts the Santa Fe and Peralta signal switchover on 26 August, a new flashing crosswalk beacon at Ventura Avenue in mid-September and the new streetlights in October, depending on PG&E scheduling.

Where things stand: the paving is reported done, and the lighting residents asked about is among the last pieces scheduled. We have not confirmed that the new pole, catch basin and crosswalk lighting at Nielsen Street have been built.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the streetlights and signal changes going live on the dates the city has given, a notice that the Nielsen crosswalk lighting and catch basin are installed, the project closing out by the 31 October 2026 target, and any answer on traffic calming for the streets beside Marin.

The project page lists local and state funding: Alameda County's Measure BB transportation sales tax, a vehicle registration fee, the state gas tax, a state road repair account and Albany's Measure F. Federal support would matter more for the next project than for this one. Surface Transportation Block Grant money, a type of federal highway money distributed by formula, passes through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's regional transportation agency, and can pay for rehabilitating major streets. A federal program run through Caltrans called the Highway Safety Improvement Program can pay for safety work such as lighting and crossing improvements where crashes have happened. The office could help the city apply. A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part of a future project depending on its cost.

Which projects come next is Albany's call, made with its residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you use Marin Avenue or the streets beside it, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Citizen Portal, Parks and Recreation Commission, October 2025, Citizen Portal, Transportation Commission, 19 December 2024, Capital improvement plan FY25-29, Authorization to bid, Marin Avenue Rehabilitation Phase 2, Resolution 2025-21, City project page, Marin Avenue Phase 2, City construction alert, April 2026, City update, July 2026

Half a mile to the nearest bus stop: transit access for Albany wheelchair users

Albany

Melissa Getz lives on Pierce Street in Albany and uses a power wheelchair. On 20 April 2026 she spoke at the City Council meeting, during its review of Phase 3 of Albany's Active Transportation Plan. She told the council, "My closest local bus stop is half a mile away… I travel in a power wheelchair," and asked the city to coordinate with AC Transit, the local bus agency, to reinstate a stop and restore access to El Cerrito Plaza BART.

Hers is one person's testimony, and it describes a daily condition rather than a single trip. No one else in the city's documents raised the issue.

Phase 3 is part of a planning process that drew about 588 pedestrian and 535 biking-and-rolling survey responses, so the city has been hearing from a good many residents about how they get around. The council directed staff to refine the Phase 3 scope and return with a draft plan.

Nothing in the city's documents shows the city coordinating with AC Transit about reinstating a stop, which is what Getz asked for. Part of what makes this hard is that a bus stop is AC Transit's decision, not the city's. The city has also discussed a full rebuild of Upper Solano Avenue, which would change how people get around on foot. The city's documents describe it only as a multimillion-dollar effort with no funding identified.

Nobody in the documents argues against her request. They also do not say why the nearest stop is where it is, or what AC Transit would say about it.

Sources: Albany City Council reviews Phase 3 of the Active Transportation Plan

Solano Avenue protected bike lane and the parking merchants worry about (Masonic to Tulare)

Albany · Solano Avenue between Masonic and Tulare avenues · raised since February 2025

On 6 July 2026, Sheila McCracken, of Lakeshore in Oakland, told the Albany City Council that "Protected bike lanes save lives, period." She is the aunt of Maia Correia, a four-year-old killed in Oakland in 2023, and Maia's family also spoke as the council took up a plan that puts a protected bike lane on Solano Avenue.

The council adopted the Active Transportation Plan 4-1, the city's plan for how people walk and bike around Albany, with Vice Mayor Jennifer Hansen-Romero dissenting. The plan, often shortened to ATP, includes a half-mile protected uphill cycletrack (a bike lane separated from traffic) on the south side of Solano Avenue between Masonic Avenue and Tulare Avenue. Councilmember Preston Jordan said, "I think in an ideal world we're looking at five years before the new bike lanes are in the ground." No funding source for construction has been named. The full Solano streetscape (the whole street redesigned) was estimated at $30 million to $50 million.

Councilmember Robin López spoke to the public comment that night:

It's telling when you have folks in public comment choosing to overlook the statements of Maia's family.

Robin López, councilmember, Albany City Council meeting, 6 July 2026

Support came from several directions. Ken McCroskey of Albany Strollers & Rollers said in an advocacy statement, "Public comment at the meeting was almost 2-1 in favor of the ATP and a cycletrack along Uptown Solano." Robert Prinz of Bike East Bay said, "Advocates from Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, and other jurisdictions showed up in support of the excellent Albany Active Transportation Plan update".

Concern came from merchants and neighbors, and it began before the vote. Citizen Portal, an AI-generated meeting summary service, reported that Carly, who owns Flowerland on Solano Avenue, told the council on 18 February 2025 that there seemed to be "no addressing the importance of commerce on Solano Avenue". Merchants and neighbors later formed Solano For All, arguing that parallel routes on Washington Avenue and Marin Avenue are safer for cyclists and that parking loss threatens minority- and women-owned shops. The Solano Avenue Association merchants made the same case.

The trade-off is specific. A May 2025 study item put two alternatives forward. An uphill-only separated bikeway would use up 4% of the parking on the sample block. Bikeways in both directions would cost 33% of parking on a sample block where peak occupancy approaches 100%, meaning nearly every space is taken at the busiest time. Jordan said the city has found Solano to be one of the highest-injury streets for people biking. The streetscape estimate included $350,000 to $550,000 per intersection, and Transportation Manager Justin Fried told the council, "We have not done detailed development to really cost out different elements of the streetscape project." The plan reached Phase 3 prioritization in April 2026, the stage at which projects are ranked.

Even councilmembers who voted yes called the plan unfinished. Hansen-Romero's vote against rested on an incomplete property-line survey, which measures where the street ends and private property begins. She said, "Without doing that [property line survey], we're kind of shooting rubber bands at the stars right now." Mayor Peggy McQuaid, voting yes, said there is "still a lot of discussion to be had, a lot of input to be gained, a lot of studying to do".

Sources: Streetsblog SF: Albany approves plan with protected bike lane on Solano Avenue, Berkeley Scanner: Solano Avenue bike lane plan gets early look in Albany, Albany Active Transportation Plan, Citizen Portal: council directs staff to study parking impacts, 18 February 2025, Solano For All, Bicycle facilities on Solano Avenue, 5 May 2025, Active Transportation Plan prioritization, 20 April 2026, Active Transportation Plan Phase 2 network update, 20 October 2025, Albany complete streets policy

$16.4M of bikeways, streetlights and traffic calming still waiting for funding in Albany's five-year capital plan

Albany · Pierce Street and Cleveland Avenue, Santa Fe Avenue, Kains Avenue, Eastshore Trail and citywide streetlights · raised since July 2025

On 7 July 2025, Albany's council adopted its FY2025-2029 five-year capital improvement plan, the city's list of major projects for the next five years. The plan put $62.8M of work on the list and had money for $46.4M of it. The other $16.4M was in the plan with no money attached. The city's capital improvement program page still shows it as the current plan.

The plan identifies $62.8M of work, funds $46.4M of it and leaves $16.4M unfunded. Citywide, the pavement condition index, a 0 to 100 score for road surface condition, stands at 58. The largest unfunded item is the Pierce Street-Cleveland Avenue Bikeway Connection at $6.25M. Others include citywide streetlight renewal at $800K; the permanent version of the Kains Avenue and Adams Street bike boulevard, a residential street set up to favor bicycles, which follows a pilot, at $1.34M; Santa Fe Avenue traffic calming, meaning changes that slow drivers, at $500K; and Eastshore Trail improvements at $350K. The plan mostly records how the program works, so who has asked for what is thinly documented.

Some of these items have moved since the plan was adopted. At a Transportation Commission meeting on 25 September 2025, according to an AI-generated Citizen Portal summary, staff presented the Cleveland Avenue Pavement Rehabilitation and Bikeway Project, a west-side two-way separated bikeway, with a Metropolitan Transportation Commission award of $300,000 for the Pierce-Cleveland connection. The project was expected back before the commission in summer 2026, with construction targeted for 2026. How those figures relate to the $6.25M in the plan we have not confirmed.

Streetlights are in motion. About 500 lights were still to be relamped, meaning fitted with new lamps, as of 18 November 2025, according to staff reports to the commission. Measure T, a parcel tax estimated at about $775,000 a year for street trees and streetlighting, is on the 3 November 2026 ballot. The streetlights and street trees topic covers this. In July 2026 the council also adopted the Active Transportation Plan, 4 to 1, including a protected bike lane on Solano Avenue, and the entry on Solano Avenue covers that decision.

Work that has money is moving. Jackson Street Bikeway Phase 2 is funded at $3.6M with Metropolitan Transportation Commission money, and the city hired Parametrix in February 2026 to design it. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is the Bay Area's regional transportation agency. The city has a Caltrans grant application in for the Adams-Carlson connection, which would link Albany's Adams Street bike route to Carlson Boulevard across the city line. Caltrans is California's state transportation department. The city adopted a bicycle parking ordinance in September 2025, and safety enhancements from the Alameda County Transportation Commission, the county transportation planning agency, on San Pablo Avenue, such as crosswalks, flashing beacons and median refuge islands (raised areas where a person crossing can wait), extend through Albany.

One approach bundles paving, storm drain and bikeway work into one project, as on Cleveland Avenue, so crews dig once and city dollars stretch further with county grants. The objection is that a bundle can delay simple repaving when one part runs into trouble, and that relying on grants makes the pace depend on winning them. The Transportation Commission's review of the 29 April 2026 Jackson Street and Buchanan Street collision shows the city responding to specific crash sites.

Worth tracking

Watch whether any of the $16.4M gets funding, starting with the Caltrans grant application for the Adams-Carlson connection and the $6.25M Pierce-Cleveland connection. Watch the 3 November 2026 result on Measure T, and whether the Cleveland Avenue project returns to the commission and council. Progress would look like an unfunded item receiving money. A stall would look like the same items still unfunded in the next five-year plan.

A $16.4M gap inside a $62.8M five-year program is small enough that federal money could cover part or all of it, depending on which projects are chosen. One way is a Community Project Funding request, in which a member of Congress submits a specific local project for funding. The $6.25M Pierce-Cleveland connection is a plausible candidate. Another is a Safe Streets and Roads for All application, a federal street safety grant, which a congressional office can help the city prepare. Two formula programs, the Surface Transportation Block Grant and Transportation Alternatives, already reach Albany through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, as with the $3.6M Jackson Street Bikeway. One limit: a pavement condition index of 58 points to a maintenance problem probably too large for project grants to fix.

Which of these unfunded items comes first is a call for Albany and its residents, and the office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you have a view on what should go first, we would like to hear it.

Sources: Capital improvement plan FY25-29, Resolution 2025-52, Albany capital improvement program page, Citywide streetlighting evaluation, Albany 2026 ballot measures, Citizen Portal, Cleveland Avenue review, 25 September 2025, Jackson Street MTC support, Jackson Street design contract, Adams-Carlson Caltrans grant, Resolution 2025-68, Bicycle parking ordinance, Alameda CTC, San Pablo Avenue

Albany's 300-foot development notice radius and the 1600 Solano project

Albany · 1600 Solano Avenue · raised since at least April 2025

Dr. Steven Alpert went to the City Council meeting of 20 October 2025, along with other residents, to talk about how Albany tells neighbors about new construction, and about the mixed-use building at 1600 Solano Avenue in particular. As Citizen Portal, an AI-generated meeting summary service, reported his words, the city's practice, he told the council, is this:

The city of Albany adheres to the absolute minimum state mandate of only alerting those within 300 feet

Dr. Steven Alpert, resident, Albany City Council meeting, 20 October 2025, as reported by Citizen Portal

Albany is doing what state law requires. It notifies owners of properties within 300 feet of a proposed development, which is the minimum California law sets, and it sends the notice 10 days before the first planning hearing. Alpert showed what that meant in practice at the same meeting: "Only 73 properties were alerted before the initial planning and zoning study session on 01/26/2022". That session was the first on the 1600 Solano project.

The request did not begin in October. Summaries of the council's meetings show residents raising it at least six times between April 2025 and March 2026. On 7 April 2025, Alpert, Dr. Celeste Marks and Thomas Stimac spoke. Stimac said a one-block notice works for small remodels but not for "major multi-story developments." The council took no action, and the residents said they would keep coming until it scheduled a discussion. They returned on 2 June and 16 June 2025, when Marks asked the council to place the question on a future agenda, and no timetable was given. After the October meeting, public comment on 2 February 2026 was referred to staff for follow-up.

On 16 March 2026, Marks told the council: "There is no legal reason preventing Albany from expanding public notification for new construction." Alpert said the current rule allows "minimal awareness and input from the community." The summary of that meeting says the council did not vote on any change. The request is carried by named residents, among them Alpert, Marks, Stimac and neighbors near 1600 Solano, rather than by an organized campaign. Speakers also objected that the Housing Advisory Committee bundles several policy changes into single agenda items and limits speakers, a similar complaint about a different city body.

There is a legal caution on the other side. On 2 June 2025, Councilmember Preston Jordan read from a letter from YIMBY Law, a housing advocacy group, warning that varying notice requirements by project type could create "fair-housing violations" and invite litigation under California Government Code section 65008. Whether a wider radius would raise that problem is a question that has not been answered in the meetings summarized.

The project itself is described two ways. The city's major projects page lists a 12-unit mixed-use development at Solano and Ordway avenues and says it is under review. Residents and the Citizen Portal summaries call it a five-story building. The height is not stated on the city's page.

Sources: Residents press Albany council over project notices, Resident says 300-foot notice rule hampered review of 1600 Solano, Albany residents press council to expand notice radius, 7 April 2025, Residents press council on notice rules and related items, 2 June 2025, Residents urge Albany to revisit 300-foot notice rule, 16 June 2025, Residents press Albany on public-notice radius, 2 February 2026, Speakers urge Albany council to expand notice rules, 16 March 2026, City of Albany major projects

Housing production on San Pablo Avenue and the gap in affordable homes

Albany · San Pablo Avenue corridor and single-family neighborhoods

A 207-unit apartment project at 540 San Pablo Avenue, on the former Albany Bowl site, was approved by the city in October 2021. Albany Scanner reported on 11 August 2026 that building permits have been approved, design work for the storm drain realignment the project requires is finished, and ground has not been broken, nearly five years after approval. City spokesman Brennen Brown said the developer has paid its permit fees and that no other action is needed from the city. The developer, R&S Realty, had not responded.

Residents have asked the council at several meetings to widen how far from a project neighbors are notified. Apart from those requests, the city's housing paperwork is mostly council items adopted to comply with state law, and it contains no resident testimony for or against the zoning amendments.

The state gives every city a target for the homes it should permit in each planning cycle, called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA. Albany's is 1,114 homes. Over three years the city has permitted 314 of them, and 800 remain. Albany's 2025 Housing Element annual progress report (the Housing Element is the city's state-required housing plan) counts permits for 215 new homes in 2025, up from 12 in 2024. That is a real jump, but it counts permits, not finished homes, and the Bowl site's 207 units are permitted but unbuilt as of August 2026. Of the 215, 25 were for households the state calls very low, low and moderate income (22 very low, 2 low and 1 moderate), and the other 190 were market-rate.

The 2022 San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan (a detailed city plan for one part of town) rezoned the strip for pedestrian-oriented mixed use, meaning buildings that combine homes with shops or offices. City staff call it the plan that worked after 30 years of efforts that did not. The council also adopted Ordinance 2025-07 on 20 October 2025, which allows duplexes, triplexes and supportive housing by right (without a separate discretionary approval) in residential zones. Verana Hill, a 62-unit building at Washington and Cleveland with 19 units for chronically homeless residents, received its certificate of occupancy (the sign-off that a building can be lived in) in 2025. The city's project page lists a 12-unit mixed-use building at 1600 Solano Avenue under review, though neighbors have described it as five stories.

The question of who has a say goes to voters on 3 November 2026. Measure O would repeal Measure D, a 1978 rule that requires a rezoning of R-1 land (land zoned for single-family homes) to be approved by 50% of the resident voters within 300 feet of the land. One side points out that Albany is 800 homes short of its state target and still carries that veto. The other says new buildings along San Pablo Avenue have so far been mostly market-rate, such as the 207 Bowl units, and that the Measure D vote is the only way residents influence what gets built beside them.

Sources: Albany Scanner, 11 August 2026, Citizen Portal: residents press Albany council over project notices, Housing Element annual progress report, 2025, San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan, San Pablo Ave. Specific Plan, adopted July 2022, Ordinance 2025-07, Choose Albany current projects, City of Albany ballot measures 2026, Measure O impartial analysis, City of Albany major projects, ABAG rezoning project profile, Albany

Tenant protections rejected: no local rent stabilization or just cause in Albany

Albany

Hannah Strange is an Albany renter, and on 1 December 2025 she took her turn at the City Council. She was speaking at a study session that followed the Housing Advisory Commission's review of local just-cause eviction options. She told the council "I'm a renter" and said what she saw at stake:

Housing instability hurts the families in our town.

Hannah Strange, Albany renter, at the Albany City Council study session, 1 December 2025

Two ideas were on the table. Just cause means a landlord needs a listed reason to evict. Rent stabilization is a limit on how much rent can rise. Albany has neither, and the council has been weighing both.

Renters and housing providers have been making their cases for months. At a May 2025 commission hearing, roughly equal numbers of renters and housing providers (landlords and other owners of rental housing) spoke on rent stabilization. Tenant advocates, whom the city's paperwork does not name, urged protections that would "stabilize long-term residents". Housing providers, also unnamed, warned that local rules would "reduce supply and hamper maintenance on older buildings".

Albany renters have no local protection beyond state law. The state protection they do have is AB 1482, a California law that limits how much rent can rise each year and requires a reason for many evictions, and it expires in 2030. Albany has 3,948 rental units, and median rent in the city rose 29.4% between 2020 and 2025. The council has twice declined to advance either rent stabilization or a just-cause ordinance, but it did put something in their place: tenant education and an expanded version of the non-binding 2018 Rent Review Program (non-binding means it cannot require landlords to do anything).

The city's numbers cut both ways. Staff reported on 2 March 2026 that Albany logged only 37 eviction filings between 2023 and 2025, the lowest per-household rate in Alameda County. They recommended against rent stabilization, which they estimated would cost $500,000 to $800,000 a year and two full-time positions, and against just cause. They directed the city toward education, the expanded Rent Review Program and continued rental assistance. The Housing Advisory Commission had reviewed local just-cause options before the 1 December 2025 study session and took no vote to recommend an ordinance. A 2024 tenant-services tax measure had already failed, with 52.3% voting no.

Tenant advocates point out that the council reviewed local eviction trend data and rent-increase estimates before deciding, and that the city was at least studying a local stabilization ordinance to fill the gap beyond state law. Against that, the city has named right-to-counsel legal aid (legal representation for tenants facing eviction) explicitly as a lower-intervention alternative to rent control, and small landlords across the region warn that stabilization discourages upkeep and investment in older buildings. Belle Adler, a small property owner who owns an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), a small second home built on an existing lot, spoke at the same session on 1 December 2025 and described her position this way:

We were promised and given incentives to build ADUs

Belle Adler, accessory dwelling unit (ADU) owner and small property owner, Albany City Council study session, 1 December 2025

Sources: Albany advisory panel reviews just-cause eviction protections, Tenant protections staff report, 2 March 2026, Housing Advisory Committee minutes, Tenant protections study session report, Citizen Portal , Albany Housing Advisory Commission transcript, Albany Housing Advisory Commission hears split tenant and landlord testimony on rent caps; no action taken, Citizen Portal , Albany Housing Advisory Commission transcript, Albany Housing Advisory Commission hears split tenant and landlord testimony on rent caps; no action taken

Homeless outreach run by 1.5 staff as federal ARPA money runs out

Albany

On 20 October 2025, city staff brought a report to the Albany City Council on how to keep the city's homeless outreach going once federal pandemic money runs out. That outreach is run by one part-time case manager and one full-time housing navigator, who staff Albany Project HOPE. In a staff report to the City Council on 20 October 2025, the city put a number on what it would take to keep its navigation and referral program going once federal pandemic money runs out. That program, Albany CARES, assisted 668 unduplicated clients in 2024, which means each person is counted once. Staff estimated that the city would need $350,000 in additional general fund money (the city's day-to-day operating budget) to maintain Albany CARES programs and services, including the Recreation Supervisor position and rental subsidies. The reason is that all money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the federal pandemic relief law, must be spent by December 2026.

Unhoused residents, Albany CARES clients and merchants who want encampment response all draw on those same two people. Albany Project HOPE, whose name stands for Housing Opportunities Expanded, has been contracted to Insight Housing, formerly the Berkeley Food & Housing Project, since July 2013. Its outreach covers the Senior Center, the Community Center, the Library, the Aquatic Center shower program, Solano Avenue, the Ohlone Greenway, Pierce Park and San Pablo Avenue. Together, those places span the whole city of 20,000 residents, and 1.5 positions (one part-time and one full-time worker) cover all of it.

The ARPA money did real work in Albany. It extended Project HOPE through June 2026, after which the program goes back to pre-pandemic funding. Albany received $4,711,702 in ARPA funds, and $3.75M had been spent by October 2025 on Project HOPE, rental assistance to 77 households averaging $8,200, Friendship Club subsidies, a grocery program and 98 small-business grants.

The council has said it wants to keep the Albany CARES navigation program, which served 668 clients in 2024 at a general fund cost of roughly $350,000 a year, and to keep rental assistance. It reallocated $50,000 to extend rental aid through 2026.

On 18 August 2026 the city held a Homeowners and Tenants Resource Fair with about 20 city departments and local agencies. The fair took the place of the ordinances the council had declined to adopt (the tenant protection rules the council chose not to pass), and it offered residents help with rent review, ECHO Housing (a housing counseling organization), and retrofit and rebate programs. So far, Albany has not put in place a general fund line to carry Albany CARES, rental assistance and Project HOPE past the ARPA deadline, or more than 1.5 outreach positions for the whole city.

There is also the question of renewing the Project HOPE contract. The case for renewal is that it keeps an established outreach and navigation program running without a break, that a specialized provider may do the work better than a service built in-house from scratch, and that unhoused residents rely on continuity in the relationships outreach workers build. The case against is that contracting out rather than staffing in-house limits the city's direct oversight, and that multi-year contracts can lock in a funding level after needs or performance change. The renewal paperwork lists no cost figures and no outcome measures, and no discussion was recorded, only the decision.

Sources: Albany homeless outreach and engagement, Albany Project HOPE quarterly report, ARPA programs update, 20 October 2025, Resolution 2025-66, albanyca.gov, albanyca.gov

Crowded and unsafe drop-off and pick-up outside Albany Middle, Cornell and Marin schools

Albany · Brighton Avenue, Cornell Avenue and Curtis Street, near Albany Middle, Cornell Elementary and Marin Elementary · raised since December 2012

On 24 July 2025, a resident spoke during public comment at a meeting of Albany's Transportation Commission, a city advisory commission that reviews traffic and street projects. The resident asked for red zones, which are curbs where stopping is not allowed, and for managed drop-off programs at school sites. Citizen Portal, a service that produces AI-generated summaries of public meetings, quotes the resident, whose name its summary does not give, describing the situation as "it's a mess and it's just dangerous for kids".

Worry about drivers at school drop-off in Albany is not new. Albany Patch reported in December 2012 that a Marin Elementary teacher was almost hit by a parent driver while crossing an intersection on her way to school one morning. The school secretary asked families to "please slow down and be more aware while driving." We have not found a count of incidents at the school sites, so what we understand so far is a pattern across a few documents spread over years, not a measurement.

The city acted on the July 2025 request quickly. The commission approved short-term curb changes at three schools: extending the westbound loading zone at Albany Middle, on Brighton Avenue, by 100 feet; merging two 70-foot zones at Cornell into one 140-foot kiss-and-ride lane, which is a curbside lane where a driver stops briefly to let a child out; and moving the Curtis Street loading zone at Marin about 50 feet north. Staff aimed to finish within about three weeks, before the school year began. For the opening of school on 12 August 2026, the Albany Police Department said extra officers would enforce traffic laws and educate drivers throughout the first weeks of the school year, and asked drivers not to stop in a lane or block crosswalks, intersections or driveways. The Albany Gazette reported that officers would also host Coffee with a Cop during morning drop-off at Cornell, Ocean View and Marin elementary schools on 12, 13 and 14 August. Ocean View appears in the 2026 notices but not in the 2025 curb changes.

Crossing guards are the other piece the city pays for. The city budgeted $188,407 for crossing guards for its fiscal years 2026 and 2027, with a fiscal year being the twelve-month budget year, and pays for them from the sugar-sweetened beverage tax, often called the soda tax. Revenue from that tax fell from $295K in fiscal year 2023 to about $199K in fiscal year 2024, with roughly $226K projected for fiscal year 2026. The council also funded a new crossing guard at Masonic, Ohlone and Brighton at $31,401, at the school district's request.

Drop-off depends on the street, which the city manages, and on each school's own procedures. We have not found a project in the city's five-year capital improvement plan, its list of major projects, aimed at school drop-off traffic. Nothing we have tracked reports whether the 2025 curb changes eased the crowding, so where things stand is unclear.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: a report to the Transportation Commission on whether the 2025 loading-zone changes helped, enforcement continuing past the first weeks of school, and the crossing guard budget holding if soda tax revenue stays below its fiscal year 2023 level.

Federal help could take several forms. Safe Routes to School activities, which are efforts to help children walk and bike to school safely, are paid for from a share of Transportation Alternatives money, a federal program that reaches Albany through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's regional transportation agency. A Safe Streets and Roads for All application, a federal street safety grant, is something a congressional office can help the city prepare. If the cost of a physical change is the obstacle, such as curb work or signs near a school, a direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of it depending on the cost, which we have not found for the 2025 changes. Daily driver behavior at the curb is mostly a matter of enforcement and school-site rules, which are local.

Which school gets attention first is Albany's call, made with families and the school district. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you drop off or pick up at one of these schools, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Citizen Portal, Albany Transportation Commission, 24 July 2025, Albany Patch, December 2012, City of Albany, First Day of School is August 12, Albany Gazette, issue 14, August 2026, City of Albany biennial budget, fiscal years 2026 and 2027, Sugar-sweetened beverage tax report, 19 May 2025, Capital improvement plan, fiscal years 2025 to 2029

Streetlights that are out or shaded by trees at busy Albany intersections

Albany · Solano at Santa Fe, Peralta, Ordway and Tulare; Sonoma at Ventura; Washington at Key Route; Marin Avenue · raised since December 2024

At the Albany City Council meeting of 18 November 2025, city staff reported on the work of replacing lamps in the city's streetlights. According to a Citizen Portal summary, an AI-generated record of the meeting, staff said dozens of fixtures had been converted, about 90 were in progress and roughly 500 still needed relamping, which means fitting new lamps into existing fixtures. Staff named intersections they considered critical: Solano at Santa Fe, Solano at Peralta, Solano at Ordway, Solano at Tulare, Sonoma at Ventura and Washington at Key Route, among others. Public Works Director Mark Hurley was quoted in a second summary of the same meeting as saying, "We're talking about how do we avoid this situation going forward?"

We have not found a named resident describing a specific dark intersection in the documents we could reach, so this picture is thinner than most. What we have is a summary of a special Transportation Commission meeting on 5 December 2025, which says commissioners and residents connected a rise in collisions to "earlier darkness during fall and winter." The Albany Police Department reported 13 collisions in September and 14 in October, with one pedestrian collision in September and three in October. A commissioner said the city would get an update on street-lighting progress in the coming year.

Trees are part of the problem on Marin Avenue. At a Transportation Commission meeting on 19 December 2024, staff said, as Citizen Portal quoted, that "existing utility-pole-mounted luminaires are often shielded by tree canopies." A luminaire is the light fixture on a pole. The commission recommended Phase 2 of the Marin Avenue repaving with new intersection lighting, which raised the project cost by about $500,000, roughly 10% of its budget. The city's project page said the new luminaires were expected online by October, pending the schedule of PG&E, the electric utility, along with a flashing pedestrian beacon at Ventura Avenue, with work expected in fall 2025. We have not found a report confirming that the Marin lights are on.

The city has been working on this for some time. A citywide streetlighting evaluation was completed in February 2024, when the council accepted its recommendations, and the city's page describes approximately 900 streetlights. Staff put the remaining work at about $800,000, and the five-year capital plan adopted in July 2025 listed citywide streetlight renewal at $800K among the items with no money attached.

A funding proposal is now before voters. Measure T, on the 3 November 2026 ballot, is a special parcel tax, a yearly charge on each property earmarked for one purpose, of $0.0354 per lot square foot. It would raise an estimated $775,000 a year for street trees and streetlighting. In a 2 March 2026 staff report, the streetlight share was described as repaying a loan of approximately $1.337 million for the Citywide Streetlight Renewal Project, at about $185,000 a year over 10 years.

Where things stand: work is under way and funding is on the ballot. We have not found a count after November 2025.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the lighting update the commissioner said to expect, a published count of lights still to relamp, the critical intersections listed in November 2025 reported as finished, confirmation that the Marin Avenue lights are on, and the result of the Measure T vote on 3 November 2026.

A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of the roughly $800,000 relamping or the $1.337 million renewal project, depending on the amount. The office could also help Albany apply for a Safe Streets and Roads for All grant, a federal street safety grant, if the city sees lighting at these intersections as a safety measure, or for formula money that the state and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the regional transportation agency, pass along for road safety.

Which intersections come first is for Albany and its residents to say. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you walk or drive near one of these intersections and have seen a light out or hidden by branches, tell us where and what you would put first.

Sources: Citizen Portal, Albany City Council, 18 November 2025, Citizen Portal, Albany City Council, 18 November 2025 (second summary), Citizen Portal, Transportation Commission, 5 December 2025, Citizen Portal, Transportation Commission, 19 December 2024, City of Albany, Marin Avenue Pavement Rehabilitation Project Phase 2, City of Albany, Citywide Streetlighting Evaluation, Capital improvement plan, fiscal years 2025 to 2029, City of Albany, 2026 ballot measures, Albany City Council staff report, 2 March 2026

Albany's tobacco-sales subcommittee: created by council, never convened

Albany · One year with no meeting and no date set

Milen Michael, an Albany High School junior, spoke at the Albany City Council meeting on 2 June 2025. He was there to mark an anniversary, and he told the council:

"Tomorrow marks 1 year since the city council voted to create a subcommittee to explore ending tobacco sales in Albany,"

Milen Michael, an Albany High School junior, speaking at the Albany City Council meeting, 2 June 2025

The council did vote to create a subcommittee to explore ending tobacco sales in Albany, and a year later it had never met. Albany High School students who asked for it have spoken at council meetings, written emails and kept showing up. As of the June 2025 meeting, no meeting date had been set.

The City Manager, the staff official who runs Albany's day-to-day operations, has committed to coordinate with Alameda County Public Health, the county's health agency, on tobacco policy work. That is different from convening the body the council created.

At the June 2025 meeting, one student marking an anniversary at the podium raised the subject. His point was that students have kept at it over time, not that he had a single complaint. Students, he said, "have spoken up at meetings, sent emails, and stayed involved". No tobacco retailer has been reported speaking on this. Retailers would have an interest in the outcome, since the subcommittee was set up to explore ending tobacco sales.

Sources: Residents press council on license plate readers and tobacco subcommittee follow-up

Albany residents surveyed their neighbors about local news, and a new local site is working to fill the gap

Albany · local news coverage, City Council meetings · raised since May 2025

On 6 May 2025, The Berkeley Scanner, a local news site, reported on a community survey about local news put together by a volunteer group of about a dozen Albany residents. In its introduction the volunteers wrote: "We are living in a news desert!" A news desert is a community with little or no local news coverage. The report said that the Albany/El Cerrito/Kensington Journal, a local newspaper, and Albany Patch, an online local news site, no longer provide substantial coverage of Albany.

Residents did not wait for someone else to act. A community advisory group called the Albany News Project now supports a new outlet. One of its advisory board members is Ken McCroskey, an Albany resident of 25 years who co-chaired the 2016 Measure P1 sidewalk ballot campaign. In an Albany Gazette (a Substack newsletter) article on 2 March 2026 about the new site, he was quoted as saying:

"I found myself explaining the very basic processes of city government instead of talking about the issues at hand."

Ken McCroskey, Albany resident and Albany News Project advisory board member, quoted in the Albany Gazette, 2 March 2026

The new outlet is Albany Scanner. Its publisher, Emilie Raguso, who has also worked at The Berkeley Scanner, Albany Patch and Berkeleyside, announced it on 19 December 2025. The announcement said the site would cover Albany politics, schools, local business, public safety, housing and transportation, with a goal of 5 to 10 stories a week after a ramp-up period. In February 2026 the site asked readers to help raise $50,000 by 30 April to pay for reporting. On 17 May 2026 it reported that the campaign raised nearly $65,000, about half of it from major donors, including the Albany Community Foundation. The site's about page says it began publishing stories in August 2026 and reports nearly 300 paying members as of September 2026.

What is still unclear is whether a paid reporter now covers City Hall on a regular basis. The December announcement said a full-time reporter would be hired "in time," and the May report said the site would begin with freelancers. The site has a job listing for a reporter that describes attending Albany City Council meetings one to three times a week, but whether the position has been filled has not been confirmed. The site relies largely on reader subscriptions, so how much coverage it can sustain is a question for the months ahead.

Residents also share civic information through neighborhood email lists, Facebook and Nextdoor, which can reach a single block faster than a weekly paper could. Reporting that checks what officials decide is harder for those channels to provide. A related worry is that non-English-speaking residents lose an outlet that explains city decisions in plain language. The city can address that through its own public notices and translated outreach, whatever happens with the news site.

Worth tracking

Two things would show whether the gap is closing: whether anyone, paid or volunteer, regularly reports from Albany City Council meetings and publishes what was decided, and whether city decisions reach non-English-speaking residents in plain language. Neither is measured today. A stall would look like council decisions again reaching residents mostly through informal networks.

The federal tools that exist for local news are limited, and as far as we understand them, none is aimed at a city of about 20,000 people. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federally funded nonprofit that supported public radio and television, backed public media rather than reporting on city government, and Congress withdrew its funding in 2025. The Postal Service's periodicals rates, which are lower mailing prices for newspapers and magazines, help subsidize print distribution. A local journalism tax credit, a payroll credit for employing local reporters, has been introduced in Congress several times and has not been enacted. It would reach this problem directly, and a member of Congress can back that legislation. Public notices fall under the Brown Act, California's open-meetings law. If the question turns out to be one of money, a direct federal appropriation could cover part or all of the cost of a reporter, depending on the amount, though no cost estimate for covering Albany City Hall has been reported.

Priorities belong to Albany and its residents, and the office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. What would you put first: regular reporting from council meetings, plain-language notices for non-English-speaking residents, or something else? Tell us.

Sources: The Berkeley Scanner, Albany community news survey, 6 May 2025, Albany Gazette, Shop Talk: Albany Scanner, 2 March 2026, Albany Scanner, launch announcement, 19 December 2025, Albany Scanner, fundraiser, 16 February 2026, Albany Scanner, fundraiser results, 17 May 2026, Albany Scanner: about, Albany Scanner: jobs

Golden Gate Fields to regional shoreline park, and the tax base Albany loses with it

Albany

The racetrack at Golden Gate Fields had closed. On 31 March 2026, the Trust for Public Land announced an exclusive option to buy the closed Golden Gate Fields racetrack, meaning the sole right to buy it by a set date. The Trust for Public Land is a nonprofit that helps create parks and protect open space. The site is roughly 161-162 acres, and the price from the Stronach Group, the racetrack's owner, is $175M including demolition. The East Bay Regional Park District would own and manage it as a regional shoreline park.

The pieces of the purchase have been falling into place. Closing is targeted for spring 2027, with community planning running from 2027 through 2029. Governor Newsom's May 2026 budget put $125M of Proposition 4 climate bond money toward the purchase. Proposition 4 is a state bond, a form of public borrowing that voters approved to pay for climate and natural-resource projects. A bill to provide that money then went to the Legislature for a vote set for late August 2026. The Legislature passed AB 113 on 1 September 2026 and Governor Newsom signed it on 18 September 2026, so the $125M is committed. The park district would add $20M in Measure WW funds. Somewhere between $30M and $50M of the $175M price remains to be raised before the option expires. That funding gap, more than the loss of tax revenue described below, will likely decide whether the purchase happens.

Support for the conversion is wide. Open-space advocates, Citizens for East Shore Parks, the park district, the Trust for Public Land, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, Senator Jesse Arreguín and Ohlone tribes all back it. Albany's own voters have limited what the city can do at the waterfront since 1990, when Measure C required a citywide vote for anything other than parks there.

City finance staff and Albany Unified, the school district, have raised a second problem: the land goes tax-exempt when it becomes a park, which means it stops paying the taxes that now go to local services. Albany would lose roughly $1.1M a year, and the school district about $700,000 a year. Those dollars pay for real services. The city's own accounting breaks its loss down. It lists about $400,000 from Measure K, a local measure that pays for emergency medical services, and about $287,000 from a street and storm drain tax. It also lists about $154,000 from library and other parcel taxes, and $150,000 to $300,000 from the general fund, the city's main operating budget. Nothing in the transaction replaces any of it.

The objection inside Albany is about revenue, not about the park. No one has been reported arguing that the shoreline should stay a racetrack. The park district describes the site as offering significant potential for environmental stewardship, shoreline protection and a variety of recreational uses and amenities. Large shoreline redevelopments typically face years of permitting, contamination cleanup and funding work before construction, and this one will too.

One dissenting proposal for the site has been published. In a June 2026 op-ed, Andrew Fisher proposed devoting roughly 25% of Golden Gate Fields nearest the freeway to car-lite housing (housing designed for residents who do not depend on a car). He warned that climate bond funding would restrict the site to park use permanently.

Sources: Office of State Senator Jesse Arreguin, governor signs AB 113, KQED: East Bay racetrack could soon be a new public waterfront park, City of Albany: Golden Gate Fields transition, EBRPD: future Golden Gate Fields park, EBRPD: Trust for Public Land secures option, Berkeley Scanner op-ed on Golden Gate Fields housing, richmondside.org, berkeleyscanner.com, albanyca.gov, thoroughbreddailynews.com, berkeleyscanner.com, dailycal.org