Thank you to the ladies of 1909

Today Palmer and I took a walk around my funky neighborhood. It has a lot of narrow windy roads, many of which do not have sidewalks. Instead, there is like a separate walking path winding through the streets, with staircases cutting between streets in odd places. We set out to explore those today, and came across a sign explaining that originally, the Berkeley hills were supposed to be laid out in a regular grid of streets running perpendicular and parallel to one another, as it is lower down the hill, and in most major cities in the U.S.. However, a group of people with houses in the hills of Berkeley got together and petitioned the township to instead let the streets flow with the curvature of the hills, like country roads do. They also encouraged homeowners to build with native materials and in a way that complemented the terrain. As this plan got put into place, many of the original oak trees and redwood pines were left in tact, and the stairways today wind around some amazing old trees. It is really an inspiring place to take a walk, and I feel really privileged to be here.