Sunday Morning

The short heat wave in the bay area has broken and this morning proved to be a beautiful, sunny 70 degrees. The Farmer's Market is again in full swing. The market is so full of good things this time of year. I picked up some nectarines, apricots whose season is far too short, incredibly sweet raspberries, small green summer squash, a clump of flowers, a couple of bags of artichoke ravioli, and a two pack of mozzarella and red pepper tamales for dinner. In addition to the food and craft stalls there was a booth promoting Flexcar, whose newly painted parking stalls I noticed the other day while walking through Jack London Square. Car sharing makes a lot of sense in the type of urban neighborhood by Jack London Square. There are a lot of apartments and condos with more being built everyday, downtown Oakland offices are within walking distance and public transportation by BART or Ferry is close by. It's the kind of neighborhood where you really don't need a car and in fact I don't use my car much. Some of the new housing being built in the area have City Car Share spots. If I didn't already own a car I'd consider it. Both programs have a variety of rate plans and give credits for filling up with gas and getting the car washed. Most of the cars are hybrids and you can even get a pickup, SUV or convertible if you need one. People I know who have used City Car Share have been very happy with it for short trips, though they say for weekend getaways it's usually cheaper to rent a car. I probably see 2-3 City Car Share cars around Oakland in a typical week. Now that Flexcar is also in the mix it will be interesting to see how the car share population grows.