My Walking Oakland 2015
by Martin Treich
I enjoy doing quests as they help me focus on a goal and give me something to strive for. Last year I focused on a quest to finish visiting all the remaining locations in my NJ State Parks Passport and I have only one more park to visit to complete that quest. For years I have been working on visiting all the Presidential grave sites and have visited 28 with 10 to go. Friends have completed quests to visit all 50 states before their child reached 18. An acquaintance completed a quest to see the Mets and the Yankees play in every ballpark. For 2015 I set upon a quest to walk every street in Oakland, becoming a tourist in my own town. The following is my walk by walk journal.
#1 – January 1, 2015 (2.1 miles) Calumet, Pine Crest, Perdue, & Seminole
It was New Year’s Day and I started my quest with my first walk on my hone street, Calumet Ave. It was a mild day for a walk and I took in all the holiday decorations. I was able to see some birds and a large paper wasp nest over Pine Crest. Coming up Seminole I came across the Cape Cod house from Lehigh that decorated with packages on the roof. My children lived all their lives in Oakland and always remembered these decorations. They are a cherished tradition we look forward to. I often wonder if the homeowners realize how they have touched our lives.
#2 – January 2, 2015 (3.7 miles) Franklin Avenue and roads to the south.
My son Greg dropped me off at the Delta gas station at the Franklin Lakes border and I headed west down Franklin Avenue. I walked Hobby Lane off to the north side. Hobby Lane always intrigued me as it looked creepy and I was not disappointed. The house at the end of the street looked abandoned and with the remote location, reminded me of a safe house from the movies or an abandoned crime scene house. The loop of Thackeray forced me to retrace my path a few times but that was OK as the weather was clear and brisk and the walk refreshing. There is an abandoned stub of a street off Thackery that used to be an exit from route 208 before I-287 was built. At the south western end of Thackery is a house with a great outdoor space built in the front yard which impressed me; very nice design. High Mountain Road also had history as an exit from route 208 that I took many times. There is a very impressive bamboo stand on this street too. I walked all the streets to the south of Franklin Avenue and ended at the Van Allen House where my wife picked me up and took me home.
#3 – January 4, 2015 (4.0 miles) Andrew Ave and all side streets.
This was a long walk and I was really ready for it to be over when I still had about a half mile to go. I parked on Iroquois and walked east up to the top of the hill. Near the top of the hill I spotted what I believe was a pileated woodpecker as it was quite large high up in a tree adjacent to the county park which fit the habitat patters of the bird. I paused a few minutes to watch it. The view of the hills to the west was quite pleasing on the descent. I walked all the side streets on the descent and ended at Ramapo Valley Road. This is when I was spent but knew I had to ascend the hill to get back to my car. I was real happy to get into the car and rest my legs.
#4 – January 10, 2015 (2.6 miles) Chuckanutt and Algonquin and side streets.
Once again I parked on Iroquois and headed east on Chuckanutt climbing up the hill. At the crest of the hill I headed onto Algonquin with nice views going downhill. I continued west on Cherokee and then north on RVR to loop back to my car on Chuckanutt. Eagle Crest Place was a quiet cul-de-sac that is a little bit of a gem. Oakland has a lot of neat little cul-de-sacs that make for quiet neighborhoods.
#5 – January 11, 2015 (2.5 miles) Chicasaw, Pawnee, Powhatan, and side streets.
It was a grey and overcast afternoon and I parked my car on Powhatan Path and started to go uphill. I liked going uphill when I was fresh as it was better than facing an uphill climb at the end. Shortly into my walk I came across a home on Powhatan with a flower garden with a sign indicating they are a certified butterfly garden and another sign indicating a certified backyard wildlife habitat. This intrigued me and I took photos of the signs to remind me. That night my wife and I checked out the web sites and made it a goal to get the butterfly certification in 2015 as we love butterflies. When our children were young, we raised butterflies from the chrysalis. Seeing this family’s garden all dull and brown in the dead of winter awakened hopes of spring and working in my own garden.
#6 – January 21, 2015 (3.0 miles) Cardinal, Wilson, Lakeside, Ramapo Hills, Rutgers loop and side streets.
This was an interesting walk as I traveled a number of dead end streets with some interesting homes. I Parked on Cardinal and walked down to Franklin Ave then retraced my steps and headed east, crossing the pedestrian bridge onto Lakeside Blvd. I walked the side streets that poked into Franklin Lakes and noticed the different periods of architecture on these homes. It was interesting to see the vast difference in architecture as opposed to the cookie cutter homes in the Algonquin section. As I was walking, a PSEG meter reader was going house to house trudging through the snow to read the gas meters. Not a fun job in the cold and snow. As I walked the bottom of Seton Hall the stark contrast of newly renovated homes that were triple the size of the original 1950’s era models across the street was apparent. I enjoyed seeing the vastly different homes along this route.
#7 – January 22, 2015 (2.0 miles) Spear Street, Hopper, and side streets.
I was off Jury Duty early in the afternoon and decided to take a walk in a rough figure 8 on Spear Street. I parked on Spear and as I typically do, I take a photo of my car when I start the walk and then when I end. The metadata on the photos give me exact start and stop times to aid in calculating my speed. Since it was a mild afternoon, I noticed a few mothers in front of a house where I parked my car but did not pay much attention to them. I walked Ryerson and Dogwood and crossed back past my car and noticed the women still talking in the afternoon sun with the kids playing in the yard. Other walkers were about the neighborhood too. I walked down to Page and then looped back towards my car.
As I was getting within sight of my car, a police car drove towards me and the officer eyeballed me as he drove by. I heard him turn around and he pulled over in front of me, got out, and waited for me to walk by. I kind of figured he wanted to talk to me. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was out for a walk. He said some parents called to say they saw me taking photos of the neighborhood and they were concerned. I explained the purpose of my single photo and he understood. He somewhat sheepishly asked for my ID as he had already run my plates and I told him I appreciated him taking the concerns of the neighbors seriously. We parted ways and my walk was soon over.
#8 – January 25, 2015 (4.4 miles) West Oakland Ave, Oak Street, Lawyer & side streets)
On this Sunday morning I parked in Walgreen’s parking lot and headed west on West Oakland Avenue. I looped through the streets off West Oakland including Barbara, Ramapo, Poplar, Silver Beech, Valley View, Spring, Hillside, and River Road. I crossed the Ramapo River up to the stop sign by Skyline Drive. Back in 1985 when my wife and I were newlyweds, we lived on Skyline Drive and walking the stub of a road on the west side of the Ramapo River reminded me how that road was the bottom of Skyline before I-287 transformed the area. I walked Lawlor up to RVR and then Butternut Court. A family had a small hockey rink on the front lawn and four boys were playing hockey in the front yard. Great effort on behalf of those parents! I walked Oak Street and then onto RVR and back to my car. It was a nice refreshing walk.
#9 – February 1, 2015 (3 miles) Cedar, Powder Mill, Lakeshore Drive, Sioux Ave, and side streets.
I parked on Cedar Street behind the Exxon and starting walking the neighborhood. I had to make a number of loops through the neighborhood and saw a lot of families playing in the snow. As I passed Crystal Lake Beach Club there were families on the ice and children playing hockey. At the corner of Huron and Sioux a mother was helping her children sled down their yard which brought back memories of sledding down Calumet before the plows got to the street. Walking up Rockaway I remember a friend who lived on the street and saw how the new owners made some changes to the property. Sioux I remembered how a homeowner was clearing out a storm drain and found the bloody evidence to the robbery murder that took place at the Exxon station. Those guys are deep in jail now. By now it was “baby shower” time as it was early afternoon and as typical for that time of day, women were going into Café Amore with shower presents in hand to celebrate a new life.
#10 – February 10, 2015 (0.6 miles) Post Road around Shop Rite
In the fall I over exerted my arm splitting firewood and developed “tennis elbow”. The physical therapist was in the complex across from Shop Rite so I decided to walk Post Road around shop Rite before my appointment. This evening it was bitter cold and when I got to the crest of the hill with the great views up the Ramapo Valley, I caught the freezing cold wind square in my face; wow that was brutally cold. Looping down and then back up to Burger King and to the office was not a long walk but it was by far, the most brutal!
#11 – February 7, 2015 (3.2 miles) Grove St, Hickory, Dogwood, and side streets.
Today I parked at the bottom of Grove and headed up the hill, over Page, Hickory, and down Dogwood and then back to Grove. It was a nice long walk and I got to pass by a lot of houses of friends and acquaintances of my children. Places where my boys had sleepovers and worked on school projects with kids, homes where I dropped off Scouts after camping trips and attended Scout Committee meetings. I walked by Dogwood school where we went sledding and watched a comet in the evening sky from the parking lot. Lots of nice reminiscing on this walk today.
#12 – February 28, 2015 (2.6 miles) Rutgers, Princeton, and intersecting streets.
The college streets represent the housing philosophy of post WWII construction with small homes on small lots. Over time, houses were remodeled and you can still see some of the original Cape Cod designs between the expanded homes. The nice aspect about this section is the relatively flat ground made walking quick and easy. There were a number of beautiful giant evergreens around the neighborhood and I can imagine homeowners planting them as a border in the 1950’s when this was all open fields. Now we have some magnificent specimens. Photos of Oakland in 1900 show massive farm fields and isolated clusters of trees. To see Oakland filled with so many trees is a real sign of progress.
#13 – March 11, 2015 (1.4 & .7 miles) Thunderbird, Saratoga, Brandywine and side streets.
After dinner I walked these streets alone on a mild evening. There was a group of kids and a father playing basketball on Arapaho as I walked by and I could sense they were glad the snow was melting winter away. As it was getting dark, the geese were flying in and landing in the pond and making a bit of a ruckus as they settled in for the night. On Heath and Brandywine I passed a few dog walkers who were also enjoying the relatively mild evening. There was hope for spring in the air.
#14 – April 12, 2015 (1.75 miles) Oswego, Minnehaha, Seneca
Debbie joined me on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The blooms were starting and homeowners were cleaning up their yards. We met a friend, JoAnn, and exchanged news about our sons. That was fun. On Tecumseh Trail we noticed a house that was in very sad shape as it was clearly abandoned yet neighboring homes were in great shape. On just about every walk I have seen an abandoned home. What a sad sign of the persistence of the poor economy. Still, Debbie and I enjoyed this walk through the neighborhood getting a closer look at houses we would normally just drive by.
#15 – April 14, 2015 (1.5 miles) Cayuga, Conestoga and side streets.
Debbie and I parked the car at the intersection of Cayuga and Manito and walked loops through all the streets in this hill top development. The absolute quiet of the neighborhood was remarkable. Being a development with no exit, we only saw two cars drive by the entire time we walked the streets which added to the peace and quiet. We were impressed with some of the views of south west Oakland from these heights.
#16 – April 15, 2015 (1.7 miles) Manito, Iroquois, Hiawatha
My wife dropped me off by St. Alban’s church at the top of Manito and I started walking. The sun had just set behind the Ramapo Mountains and the sky was a beautiful peach and blue color. The walk down the long Manito hill enabled me to watch the western sky change as I descended the hill. It was a beautiful walk. I passed one house where a child was practicing her flute and two boys were playing a game in the dead end section of Manito which reminded me of many spring evenings of my youth; glad to be out at night without the cold and snow.
#17 – April 21, 2015 (2.4 Miles) Truman, Roosevelt, and Lakeshore Drive.
My wife joined me on a nice spring night on this walk. We parked one car at Lakeshore Drive by Lenape and then drove to Truman field and left one car there. We walked Truman and Roosevelt looping through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd streets. It was a night of collections as we passed one house with a collection of small black bears and another with a collection of lighthouses on 2nd St. and a house on 1st with many bird houses. Since the trees were still barren of leaves, we had great views of the massive rock outcrop behind the houses of Truman which seemed to dwarf the homes. We were also treated with nice views of the Ramapo River running very fast full of spring runoff. We ended up the night doing a quick down and back on Lakeshore to get in a little more mileage.
#18 April 22, 2015 (1.1 mile) Acorn, Grandview, Lakeview
This evening as Debbie and I started to walk we realized we may have forgotten to program the DVR for a show so we planned to cut the walk short to be home in time. Earlier in the afternoon a rain storm passed through but it was now clearing. The neighborhood was blooming with daffodils, forsythia, and an absolutely gorgeous magnolia tree on Grandview. The log cabin on Lakeview really popped in the evening light with the deep green lawn ; a real gem.
#19 April 24, 2015 (1.5 miles) Martha & Stonefence
After supper, Debbie and I bundled up as it was 43 degrees out with a stiff wind from the west. In the fading daylight, the spring grass was a deep green offset by bright yellow clumps of daffodils and forsythia. The houses in this neighborhood are on large lots and set back far from the curb providing a real park like setting under massive oak trees. As I turned onto Stonefence, the western sky was blue and peach with the Ramapo Mountain still visible through the trees. This is a beautiful neighborhood.
#20 April 26, 2015 (1.9 miles) Academy, West Sheffeld, Walnut, Bannher, Demarest
This Sunday morning my wife and I explored this area of town. The forsythia and magnolias were in full bloom and most of the cherry trees were close to peak. We were pleased to see how many homes showed signs of renovations yet we still saw two homes that looked totally abandoned. It was disheartening to see and we could imagine how disheartening it must be for the neighbors to look at such neglect. It saw a clear bright spring day and we enjoyed the walk.
#21 April 27, 2015 (1.5 miles) Fordham, Princeton and Calumet
This Monday evening after dinner Debbie and I walked from our house on Calumet to Heights School and then did this loop. The wind was brisk. The sun was setting and the rays were ducking under thick clouds so the west facing trees were brilliantly illuminated by the setting sun against the dark eastern clouds. As the sun set, the clouds were brilliant with orange for a beautiful evening show. One homeowner was watching the sunset from his porch and we exchanged greetings. We met one of my wife’s friends walking her dog and we chatted a bit. This interaction with the neighborhood is one of the benefits from these walks.
#22 April 28, 2015 ( 2 miles ) Bauer & Potash
Debbie and I walked what we thought would be a quiet street after supper and we were wrong. At about 7:30 PM we were walking on Bauer Drive and almost a dozen Optimun vans drove by us very quickly. At about 8PM the drivers must have gotten off duty and flew past us in their private cars; very scary. The other scary sight was so many vacant buildings. Probably a third of the businesses were totally or partially vacant. On the positive side, there were many mature cherry trees that were magnificent and provided some beauty to the night. We were also surprised to see the new housing development cutting through the woods into Franklin Lakes at the end of Bauer.
#23 April 29, 2015 (1.7 miles) Wright, Thornton, Van Vooren
Tonight was warner and less windy and mostly clear with partial clouds. This night we parked at fire house #3 as there is no street parking in this section of town. There were more empty buildings and the absence of street traffic made it quiet. As we walked by the sports center on Wright Way, Debbie commented that schools and physical fitness locations were taking over the campus. The new Autism school and the new dance studio and indoor practice place are welcome additions but there are still a lot of empty buildings to fill.
This ends the first part of my walks from January through the end of April 2015. I hope to complete walking the rest of Oakland before the end of June.
*** By Martin Treich, May 2015 ****
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