A Brief History of BPWA

Path Wanderers was founded by Ruth Armstrong Moskovitz, and Jacque Ensign-a local artist and a retired social worker respectively-to try to help the beleaguered historic paths, created in the hills in the days of trolleys and street railways. The outpouring of volunteer interest was just tremendous-we got hundreds of members right away at our first general meeting. One of the first efforts Ruth and Jacque organized was a volunteer survey of paths, for exact location and details, such as: condition, lights, fencing, slope, bus access, nearness to schools and parks, etc. At least 20 volunteers worked on that. An outgrowth of that survey was a successful effort to get the city to install or replace signs where they were needed. (We have had great cooperation from the city.)

The next step after that was "Ten Easy Fixes," a list of paths with hazardous conditions (like broken pavement, tilted steps, etc.) that could be fixed with relatively little money. The city had been setting aside a small budget-about $50,000-for the paths but didn't know where to start. We met with them and helped select on projects (basically our list of easy fixes). Most of these have been fixed.We also started noticing and reporting new encroachments and violations, like the person who was building a new fence on the right-of-way on Upton lane and the neighbors who cut down huge redwood trees on Tamalpais Steps. We had great cooperation from the Building Department in stopping these or enforcing penalties (money paid as a fine for the redwoods went into fixing Tamalpais Steps).

We haven't taken on the bigger problem of getting rid of older encroachments (a few paths would be usable except for illegal fences). But we expect that these problems will be surmounted in the future. Many paths, especially higher in the hills, were never built because the automobile became common. Working mainly with local Boy Scout troops, but also with UC and local high school students, we have been improving some of these dirt paths with simple wooden steps to make them safer, especially during the rainy season when our local clay soils get very wet. As part of a Eagle Scout project, we're about to install seating on one of these paths, and hope to do more of that in spots with great views.

We also came up with a larger proposal for a Ridge-to-Bay "urban trail" using paths as much as possible and following Codornices Creek as much as possible. this involved building some new paths that are too steep for Boy Scout work. Our grant proposal for this didn't' get funded, but we haven't given up. We got backing from the City, East Bay Regional Park District, Ridge Trail, etc. We have a Path Building Leader (Charlie Bowen) who has been successful in the creation of new paths. Charlie has been leading work parties of volunteers (residents, students and interested parties) in clearing vegetation and building some of the paths that are just steep rights of way.

We're hopeful that in 2004 we will celebrate with the City at least one of these pathways being built in concrete on both ends, and with wooden steps along the less-steep mid-section. We also have taken an interest in lowland paths, for example backing creation of an urban greenway along the Santa Fe Right-of-Way, an abandoned railroad right-of-way that is city owned but has sat unused for 25 years. This is all aside from all the wonderful walks and talks we've hosted; our beautiful quarterly newsletter which has helped raise consciousness; and A Map of Berkeley's Pathways which is in its second edition (only 3 months after the first print run) and which made it on the local Top Ten list for Non-fiction Best Sellers.