Page One

To the delight of environmentalists and the dismay of anarchists, artists and dog-lovers, the Albany Bulb is one major step closer to joining the Eastshore State Park. 

The Bulb was created in 1963 as a landfill for construction and demolition debris ext ending out into San Francisco Bay north of Golden Gate Fields in Albany. The land fell under the water board’s jurisdiction because investigators discovered it was leaching out toxic concentrations of metals and ammonia. 

When dumping ended in December 19 83, the water board ordered that before the site could be developed as a marina and park along with commercial uses, a leak-proof protective cap would have to be installed. The city later decided to preserve the Bulb as a wildlife or recreational area, th en settled on including the site in the state shoreline park. 

And there things stood, until the water board determined earlier this month that the site isn’t leaking toxics into the bay and lifted its closure order. 

But dog lovers and East Bay sculptors loved the legal limbo the site was in all those years and cherish it as haven for their works and their pets. For years, homeless people turned the area into encampment of sorts (the subject of the documentary film Bum’s Paradise, by Tomas McCabe and And rei Rozen) until more aggressive policing began in 1999. 

While the homeless are largely gone and their former habitations abandoned, dog lovers and their off-lease pets seem to be everywhere, along with the artworks, including paintings ranging from abs tract squiggles to elaborate murals on plywood panels as well as sculptures, running the gamut from miniature metal bas reliefs to near-monumental creations of wood and Styrofoam. 

Many of the artworks are the creations of SNIFF, an artists’ collective wh ose members include Berkeley attorney Osha Neumann. Their works inspired the attorneys for Scott Peterson to suggest that the murder of Laci Peterson might have been the work of those strange artists from the Albany Bulb. 

But before the state will accept the land into the park, the art collection has to go, along with the dogs that owners and professional dog-walkers bring to site, said Brian Hickey, Bay Sector superintendent for the state parks system. 

“The general plan (for park development) calls for the art to be removed, but that hasn’t happened,” Hickey said. “The property was intended to operate in conformity with state regulations, particularly with regards to dogs. We’re in discussion with Albany, but we haven’t heard what their proposals are yet.” 

“The state is out to destroy our art,” said Jill Posener, a Berkeley artist and animal rights activist. “The state is deep in debt and their can’t run the schools, but they can find the time and money to do this. The Albany Bulb is the last outpost of civil liberties, a park maintained by the people who use and love it.” 

Not only will the art have to go, but also non-native plants like the roses and irises planted by Bulb habitués. 

While Posener blames “wacko environmentalists” for the restriction s that will kill the Bulb’s charms for sculptors and dog-lovers, attorney and former Albany Mayor Robert Cheasty, co-founder of Citizens for Eastshore Parks, says state regulations require formal authorization to install art in state parks, just as they bar off-leash canines. 

Albany Assistant City Administrator Judy Lieberman acknowledged that off-leash dogs are generally banned from state parks, but noted that the park’s general plan offers a program for the arts. 

“The city is waiting to hear what the state and the East Bay Regional Parks District has to say,” Lieberman said, adding that she has had no contact with Hickey as yet.  

Currently the parks district has jurisdiction over much of the site. The state also wants the site cleared of the large qu antities of metal reinforcing bars that came in with the rubble and pose the threat of lethal puncture wounds. 

Sasha Futran, a professional dog trainer and walker, was out on the Bulb last Friday exercising a pair of unleashed dogs. 

“This is my favorite place,” she said. “It works. We all come out here, and in all the time I’ve been coming here, I’ve never seen a dog fight.” 

While she admits that many of murals lining part of the shoreline on the north side of the Bulb are dreadful. “I still love them because they’re fun,” she said. “And there’s always something new out here. The other day, I discovered a tree that’s been turned into a mobile. It’s delightful. For almost two years there was a hut out here that was woven out of the fennel that grows wild all over the Bulb. It was wonderful. Why can’t they just leave it alone. It works, and we all love it.” 

To visit the Albany Bulb, take the Buchanan Street exit from the Eastshore freeway or turn left on Buchanan from San Pablo Avenue and head towards Golden Gate Fields. Park in one of the spaces along the road. Walk toward the bay until the road turns into a trail along the neck and follow the dog walkers out onto the Bulb.