Bear’s-Eye View of Alameda for March 24, 2024
This week marks the fourth anniversary of the publishing of the first report of the Bear’s-Eye View of Alameda, on March 22, 2020. It’s hard to believe that every Sunday for the past four years there has been a report on the sights that Bear—and now I—have seen on our walks and delivered to Alameda readers.
It has been an honor to continue the B-EV tradition that started as a way to document the impact of COVID-19 on the community and to let folks that couldn’t get out a way to see the curiosities and beauty in their community.
While COVID has become a part of regular life here in Alameda, I want to remind readers of what everyone went through and sacrificed as the result of the virus. For some people, it is still altering their normal life to varying degrees. This week’s anniversary report contains images of the impacts our community experienced during that first year.
The proper starting point would be March 16, 2020, when the “shut down” order basically closed everything on the island. The street picture is of Park Street taken on that first Saturday night around 9 p.m., when normally there would have been hundreds of people out enjoying Alameda restaurants. My human companion remembers it like it was yesterday. He described it as “eerie.”
For those Peet’s and Starbucks fans, there were no caffeine-charged drinks available, and all the Sunday morning coffee gatherings were cancelled. Heck, everyone was so paranoid, you couldn’t even throw garbage away.
Not everything was shut down—grocery stores were deemed essential and remained open, but with a bunch of restrictions, including staying six feet apart from each other and wearing some kind of a face covering. Masks were the covering of choice, but some folks wore bandanas reminiscent of a wild west bank robber.
Fortunately for my human companion, restaurants were allowed to offer food to go, and he remembers getting great food from restaurants like Pappo on Central Avenue. He justified the expense as “supporting” Alameda restaurants to keep them from closing permanently. Eventually, outdoor dining was allowed, and Alamedans, who had been confined for months flocked to the newly erected parklets and filled the sidewalk seating areas that popped up. Even barbers started setting up shop on the sidewalk.
As the shutdown continued, Alameda residents took to the streets for exercise and more human connection. Others used it as the opportunity to have a walking happy hour. A mysterious poet started writing phrases on sidewalks for inspiration.
The streets became an open-air exhibition space for the work of Deidre Freeman who created beautiful masterpieces and hung them on poles all over Alameda.
Others chose chalk as their medium and used sidewalks as a canvas.
Does anyone remember the call to put a bear in your window so that kids could find them as they walked the newly created Slow Streets? Apparently, a bear imposter showed up at one residence! Other window sayings were popular too.
Over time, masks became an issue, both wearing them and as litter on the street.
Perhaps the most significant impact COVID had on our community that first year was when high school seniors could not have a formal graduation ceremony. To try to commemorate this major life accomplishment, graduation signs started popping up in front yards.
While COVID was a devastating experience for the community, it also provided us with several serendipitous events. The phrase, “I am not a cat!” will go down in Zoom meeting history as one the funniest situations ever. I was able to find a news clip that explains what happened. Keep your eye on the attorney in the upper right corner of the Zoom screen. Right at 0:30 he looks up and cracks a smile.
Here in Alameda, a parent offered to rent out their children so that anyone interested in home schooling could get some practice, and Lionel Richie sent us a greeting.
As we start the fifth year of the B-EV, I just want to remind everyone that COVID is still with us, and folks everywhere can still get very sick and die, especially our older residents and those with comorbidities.
Please be careful and stay safe Alameda!
Mouf, Roving Reporter
Bear’s-Eye View of Alameda
Mouf and his human companion can be reached via [email protected]. Their stories are collected at AlamedaPost.com/Jeff-Cambra/. All photos by Jeff Cambra.
