Strolling Oakland: A Name on Broadway

Day is done,

Let's hop off the bus 

And stroll down memory lane

Not unlike Allah, this tract of Broadway,
 has many names

Years ago we took our set to a place near here
called Berkland TV Repair, now gone,
Nearer to where we lived on the Berkeley border
was a place called Berkland Baptist church, now housing,
One could imagine a hybridized area extending between the two points,
You don't see the name Berkland used anymore though,
And there's some uncertainty now about to what to call this stretch,
With Rockridge, Temescal, Auto Row, and more showing up on signs

It's a district with plenty to offer,

Tattoo you a new you

As I took this an old guy came glaring across Broadway,

What you taking pictures of my sign for?

Maybe it was George himself

ART'S just went out of business this Summer,

Somebody has already stolen the "R"

It contains this pleasant work in stained glass,

Taped-up signs and menus notwithstanding

Though the name now is almost entirely 

Trending to a parallel section of Telegraph,

This is may have been the center of the Temescal,

This sign is now gone to building renovation

A former Roman Catholic convent,

Eucalyptus and lusty billboard

A Catholic nursing home now perhaps

 This is Mosswood park

 Greener grass there last year,

Before our parks and public lawns 

Were sacrificed to the frackers

The great trees of California,

 May God preserve them

 This overpass marks the boundary,

A transition from this part of town

After that it really turns into Auto Row

Let's call an endpoint here

August 2014

Bus window: August 2015