No one knows exactly who started it, but since spring, people who live in Oakland, California have been showing up Sunday afternoons for a pop-up picnic that is drawing families, boaters, runners and musicians to the once-neglected Lake Merritt, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Locals say such a display of Oakland pride hasn’t been seen for a long time.
A publicly financed $198 million makeover of the lake supported by a clean-water bond passed in 2002, has created “lush greenways, swaths of flowers, a widened walkway with benches and public telescopes to get a closer look at the scullers, kayakers, boats and birds gliding on the water.”
(READ the story in the San Francisco Chronicle) – Story tip from Mike McGinley
Photo of Lake Merritt in June by Scott Schiller (CC license)