More and more tent camps visible around the city.
Homeless tents along an empty street next to freeway overpass.
Playgrounds
Playgrounds close up
swings and stroller
Do Not Climb
and in the distance.
at picnic tables
Progress
At a freeway offramp, a man asking for spare change flags himself with balloons.
spare change at freeway offramp
The local library branch was recently remodeled. It has self-checkout with OCR readers, laptops to lend for in-library use, and I just noticed usb outlets in the chairs and side tables.
usb chairs
Library
This started as a sketch of two old men sitting on a bench in front of the library on an overcast day. Two police SUVs pulled up in front of the library, blocking my view, and when they left a minute later, the two men were gone. I don’t know exactly what happened.
library
Basketball Court
The basketball court in the park is actually a single hoop in an open area near the swimming pool, flanked by grassy hills, lawns and picnic benches.
basketball court
Jogger
jogger
The Afterlife of Trees
The big oak is not the first tree in Dimond Park that has had to be cut down. A giant stump next to the utility building memorializes another old oak.
memorial oak
The peeling sign reads “Please respect this educational display of the remains of Oakland’s oldest tree, the Dimond Oak, removed November 22-23, 2005 due to disease.”
Close by, giant log sections in a grassy garden plot camouflage a drain.
camouflage logs
Tents and Trees
I drew this scene once before, the Here There sign sculpture on the Berkeley Oakland border. At that time it was just big letters on a lawn facing a busy intersection. Now a homeless camp sits among the letters.
camp at Here There
Meanwhile, back in Dimond Park, the doomed oak has been pruned of its heavy branches. Only the skeleton trunk is left now.
skeleton oak
Do Not Climb
In the tot lot next to the doomed oak is a a circular structure with a sign on it that says “Do not climb.” I suppose the little seats mean it’s just a fancy bench, but those big parallel arcs sure make it look like it was meant for climbing.
Do Not Climb
