Coverage
Every part of the island, and the shore across the water.
Most of the island is about 18 minutes away, from Park Street at twelve to Bay Farm Island at twenty-seven, and the difference is mostly which crossing the van has to take. Oakland, Emeryville, Piedmont, Berkeley, San Leandro and San Lorenzo run a little longer, and each area page carries its own figure.
Alameda neighborhoods
Inside Alameda
Park Street District
~12 minThe island's main shopping street and the blocks either side of it: display windows at the sidewalk, offices and apartments on the floors above them, service doors onto the back lanes, and a drawbridge at the north end of the run. Twelve minutes, the shortest arrival on this map.
Local pageGold Coast
~14 minThe streets of large wooden houses set back behind deep porches between Central Avenue and the south shore, many of them still one household from the front steps to the attic, with carriage houses and back cottages on the lot. Fourteen minutes from the van.
Local pageFernside
~16 minThe east side of the island facing the estuary, laid out in the twenties and thirties: stucco and shingle houses on curving streets, deep back yards, garages at the end of the driveway, and the Fruitvale bridge at the top of the neighborhood. Sixteen minutes from the van.
Local pageCentral Alameda
~18 minThe middle of the island between the two shopping streets, the densest housing in the city: wooden houses built for one family and divided into flats decades ago, a shared porch, a row of mail slots, and separate homes at the top of the stairs. Eighteen minutes, which is the citywide average.
Local pageSouth Shore
~20 minThe southern edge of the island built on made land after the war: single-story houses on flat straight blocks, two- and three-story apartment buildings around courtyards, the shopping center, and the beach and lagoon path behind them. Twenty minutes from the van.
Local pageWest End
~22 minThe western half of the island out toward the tubes: closer-packed blocks, plainer and often older housing with a high share of it rented, small apartment buildings between the houses, and the Webster Street shopping run through the middle. Twenty-two minutes from the van.
Local pageAlameda Point
~25 minThe flat western tip of the island: hangars and warehouses now let to workshops, breweries, distilleries and small manufacturers, wide open roads between them, a ferry terminal, and new residential blocks going up along the waterfront. Twenty-five minutes from the van.
Local pageBay Farm Island
~27 minThe flat ground across the channel, joined to the rest of the city by its own bridge: planned streets from the seventies through the nineties along the lagoons, condominium courtyards on shared paths, the golf course and the ferry landing. Twenty-seven minutes, the longest run on this map.
Local pageOver the bridges and the tubes
The cities beside it
Oakland
~16 minThe city on the other side of the estuary, reached through a tube or over one of the bridges depending on where in it you are. Sixteen minutes from the van, at the same published figures used on the island.
Local pageSan Leandro
~26 minSouth down the shoreline, about twenty-six minutes from the island by way of Bay Farm and the airport road rather than through any tube. Same published figures.
Local pageEmeryville
~21 minThe small city up the shoreline past Oakland, packed with apartment towers, offices and retail garages in a few square miles. Twenty-one minutes from the van, at island figures.
Local pagePiedmont
~23 minThe small city up in the hills surrounded on every side by Oakland, reached in about twenty-three minutes from the island at the same published figures.
Local pageBerkeley
~25 minUp the shoreline past Oakland and Emeryville, about twenty-five minutes from the island, worked at the same figures printed everywhere on this site.
Local pageSan Lorenzo
~29 minThe flat grid south past San Leandro, about twenty-nine minutes from the island and the longest run on this site. The published list applies without adjustment.
Local pageOpen 24 hours, 7 days
Say whether it is the street door or your own, and the rest of the call is short
Alameda and Bay Farm, at any hour. Which leaf it is decides who approves the work, the door itself decides the work, and the work decides the number, which is settled on the phone with the $89 visit and any late hour already inside it. It reads the same on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, in writing.