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One Vision of Future Stow Avenue Stairs
A zig and a zag for staircase idea linking Almond-Shuey neighborhood and California Boulevard.
If only Photoshop could make it real ...
A schematic drawing showing what stairs might look like descending from the Stow Avenue dead end to California Boulevard.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY OBIWAN/ TOM O'BRIEN
Photos (1)
Photos
Almond-Shuey neighborhood Tom O'Brien (aka Obiwan, a frequent Patch commenter) shared a schematic drawing, with some Photoshop wizardry, of what public stairs at the end of Stow Avenue might look like.
You can see they have a nice zig and a zag. Last week, we reported on how neighbors have petitioned the city for stairs to make a nice entrance from the residential neighborhood to the California Boulevard commercial district.
O'Brien also shared a letter that neighbors received from Mayor Cindy Silva after they presented their petition to the City Council last week.
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Creek Diva
10:30 am on Monday, July 25, 2011
Great visual, I think this is a great idea!
michael frederick
11:56 am on Monday, July 25, 2011
Being hyper-critical seems a bit premature but, I would offer a comment just to hopefully get us pointed in the right direction.
The top of the stairs should obviously tie into the sidewalk on the other side of Stow Avenue, at 1721. Placing them as shown presents conflict between pedestrians and anyone backing out of the driveway at 1716.
Other than that, I agree that a snaking, gradually sloping, stair would be the most pleasing, used, and safe. The last thing we'd want is a vertical ramp for skate-boarders, onto CA Blvd...
Castle Hill Bill
12:17 am on Tuesday, July 26, 2011
I was envisioning a stairway with some park-like character such as curved brick or stone staircase and not some strictly utilitarian rectangular structure of concrete that will be a canvas to the taggers. It would be nice if the city could afford to make the improvement to the city infrastructure like it should, but Cindy and the gang thought that WC needed an overpriced, underutilized, underground parking garage as part of an underfunded, twice voter rejected library in a continuously southern bound economy. Too bad.
Triple Canopy
8:50 pm on Friday, July 29, 2011
Great idea but reality bites.... If built by Walnut Creek, it would have to have an accessible path for the disabled. To reach the top elevation, I recall it's like an 8.33 percent slope, a landing, and then another 8.33 percent slope to another landing. I con't recall at the moment how long the ramps can be. In any case, cha-ching!
Why not do a Almond-Shuey grass roots effort to fund and build it instead of relying on the Council? Also, if it is a private staircase then it may not be subject to ADA requirements. Something worth looking into IMO.