Idea: And They're Building a Stairway to Almond-Shuey

A group of neighbors has petitioned the city to build an attractive stairway to connect the Almond-Shuey residential neighborhood with the adjacent commercial neighborhood bounded by California Boulevard.

The neighbors are interested in a better connection to the "inviting, prosperous area" of the boulevard, said Kent Jones, speaking to the Walnut Creek City Council earlier this week and presenting the petition, signed by two couples and seven individuals.

Jones told the council that the neighbors are willing to do some fund-raising to make the stairway a reality. The stairway site is a city-owned right of way from the dead end of Stow Avenue on a little rise down to the sidewalk along California Boulevard.

Right now, you can step around a guardrail and around some bushes at the dead end and scramble down a dirt bank to the boulevard, risking a skinned knee. Or you can walk around to Bonanza Street and out to California Boulevard that way, where you run the risk of being unable to resist springing for a treat at the Yogurt Castle.

The vision is for a staircase of pride — "recognition of our neighborhood, which was formed even before the City was incorporated," the petition states. "We’d like a staircase that says this is the Almond Shuey. It would be like saying we are becoming a great city, but we are not forgetting our hometown component."

At the Tuesday meeting, Mayor Cindy Silva suggested the staircase idea could be included in a list of potential projects the city is developing for a Metropolitan Transportation Commission grant targeted at downtown transportation.