Newark - a gap in the Bay Trail

The Bay Area is a gem with many spots of natural beauty.The Bay Trail is a grand ambition that started as an idea of a "Ring around the Bay" and Senate Bill 100 in 1987. The goal was, and still is, to have the whole circumference of the Bay connected by a trail, hugging the waterfront as much as possible, for people  to enjoy on foot, by bike or even wheelchair. Or, as www.baytrail.org puts it:

"When completed the Bay trail will be a continuous 500-mile recreational corridor that will encircle the entire Bay Area connecting communities to each other and to the Bay. It will link the shorelines of all nine counties in the Bay Area and 47 of its cities. To date 330 miles of the Bay Trail, or more than 60 % of its ultimate length have been developed."

 

Kurt Schwabe is spending June (see article ‘Bay Trail trek calls attention to path’ in San Francisco Chronicle, June 7th) walking the Trail and  blogging on his website www.walkingthebaytrail.com where you can check his location for the day by clicking on a flying heron.  He invites people to come join him. Today, Kurt is in Pinole. In a week or so he will be walking through the City of Newark in his project of walking  the whole Bay Trail. What will he see when he gets here?

In Newark the Bay Trail begins as Thornton (unfinished, no sidewalk) to Cherry (which has a windy bike road), but with the long term plan is to go on Willow and Central and then along the old railroad track parallel to Cherry. Alternatively you take Willow and Central to Cherry (see map).

You can read the details in the “Gap Analysis Report" from 2005 (on the baytrail.org website) where the plans for Newark are:

• Railroad alignement between Thornton Area and Stevenson Blvd   15470.4 feet,  $ 5,928,675, and ‘benefit rank’ =6        

• Central Rd. between railroad and Willow                                           58805 feet, $ 76,486, and ‘benefit rank’= 3                                             

• Willow St between Thornton and Central                                          3590.4 feet, $ 47,282, and ‘benefit rank’+ 3                                               

• Thornton between Marshlands and Willow for greenway/promenade/park 3854.4 feet , $ 50,759, and ‘benefit rank’=3

• Thornton between Willow and Cherry                                               6019.2 feet, $ 76,218, ‘benefit rank’ = 4   

The only spot in Newark where you can see the Bay, is from Thornton as it passes between Mayhews Landing Bird Sanctuary and the Don Edwards Nature Preserve (an area patrolled doggedly by Jim, see Do Litterbugs believe in Trash Fairies). Here there is also a one acre piece of marsh, owned by Cargill, and, as I understand it, it is zoned for light industry. A couple of years ago Cargill extended their fence here, cutting off people’s access to reach Don Edwards trails without going the busy Thornton route. That put an end to joggers and dog walkers exercising while enjoying the bay view, and the people enjoying their RC cars on the mudflat. It happened gradually, and surprisingly, without the opposition you would have expected when people's customary use of access is taken away.

If this one acre lot is sold and another dull box constructed ontop, it would be a great shame. It would be a lost opportunity of making a nice entrance into Newark and connecting us with the Bay. It could be an excellent location for a bmx park, skate board park, dog park or any kind of park, and again open up a natural and safe access to our next door recreational area, Don Edwards and Coyote Hills.

When Thornton meets Willow, Kurt  has the choice of either doing Willow to Cherry, or just continuing on Thornton to Cherry. The alternative of getting closer to the Bay is not an option because of Cargill and the salt ponds.
The Bay Trail proponents are hoping to get the trail off the street sometime in the future using the old railroad tracks parallell to Cherry.

The part of Willow going between the asphalted 'hazmat' zone and the big pile
of who knows what, is not a very attractive part. I take my son to high school that way every day. No real sidewalk. People tend to dump garbage there. Then there is the 90 degree turn (twice I've seen cars that have not made the curve, but landed in the trees). If you go straight and then towards the bay there is the
Menlo Park (?) training spot for German shepherds and police dogs. Onward on Willow, comes the office part, still some open for leasing, with maintained grass and plantings.  You pass Morton's Salt and Cargill. You arrive at the train tracks. Hopefully the train will not make a lengty stop, or back and forth, on the tracks.

The Thornton way passes Schilling school, some housing, the fire station, and with the possiblity of coffee at Starbucks on the corner. 

I don't know how I would advice Kurt to choose between Thornton and Willow, but either way next comes Cherry. Not much happening until he passes Ohlone College. At least he'll have sidewalks.

The future look of Newark was the object of open discussion last year and eventually we will see what will come of it. Hopefully Newark will be able to
display our part of the Bay Trail as as a more attractive solution in the future than what Kurt will see when he gets here. It will be interesting to follow his walk around the Bay, and maybe Patch could ask him what he thinks as he walks through our town.