Save the Albany Beach Bulb Landfill!

There’s a special place in the East Bay that I’ve blogged about before, and it’s called the Albany Beach Bulb. To many East Bay-locals, this place may be known as the Albany Landfill or the like. It’s absolutely impossible to describe this place with words. I’ve always had to simply drag my friends out of the City and into North Berkeley, trekking through the streets with this simple place as a goal in mind. Visions of the Hermitage shack, the Albany Library, the Skate Bowl, and the Castle, the Bike Graveyard, and the amazing, indescribable street art that exists all over the peninsula. This place is a place of art. It’s expression. It’s a matter of several different people coming together to make something out of, well, a trash dump….a shitty solution to roadway expansion made into something beautiful. I was first shown the Bulb last summer, by a friend born-and-raised in the Bay Area. We merely scratched the surface when he simply showed me the Castle and we went back to the car. I would come back several times thinking that this was all that existed, until I did some severe research online and found that there was SO much more. Eventually, I combed over ever inch of brush and found the true gems: a shanty library with books and zines on several topics, complete with a quaint rocking-chair and guestbook. I stumbled upon a skate bowl where twenty-something skaters were filming and someone was dj-ing off to the side. Sculptures near the water towered above me, pieces of wood and scrap metal forming flowing skirts and stick-hands. Someone found a beautiful spot with an unmatched view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco; there a hammock was hung and a home was built out of whatever materials possible. Inside was a tub built of brick and a bookshelf of famous fiction, as well as a hotplate and a welcoming kitchen table. A sign on the door read, “B.Y.O.B.: Bring Your Own Bliss.” That shack is gone. It was burned to the ground. The skate bowl is gone. It was bulldozed over by the Authorities. Artwork is being torn-down. Several figures are absolutely smashed. The library is under attack. Police have ticketed people found in-and-around the library, citing them with illegal building in a State Park, illegal camping, and even (get this) hanging things from trees. (Yeah, HANGING THINGS FROM TREES.) It makes me absolutely depressed to see something so beautiful being completely destroyed. For NO. GOOD. REASON. And I have no idea what to do about it. No one does. The man camping in the library that we met was struggling severely with ideas on what could be done. He hopes that having every guest fill the guestbook and call City Hall might help, but we are completely powerless to the Law. Why are they attacking the Bulb? Why are they destroying the very thread that makes the Bay Area unique and desirable to people of all artistic capabilities? This place merely serves as a place that people have succeeded in turning from trash to treasure. Beautiful art is here. Talent. Expression. Intelligence. Learning. The question is: WHAT CAN WE DO? What actions can we take to fight what the government is doing? How do we preserve this land? Who do we contact? Who can help? Stay informed! -History of the Landfill -An SFGate article -More Info