Love the Bulb’s Vision for the Bulb

The City of Albany will be finalizing a masterplan for all its parks, including the Bulb, in fall 2021. It will govern park planning and implementation for the next 10 to 15 years. Love the Bulb has submitted the vision below to help shape the masterplan. Love the Bulb’s vision focuses on maintaining the wild natural landscape and informal art at the Bulb, while enhancing stewardship, arts, educational, and community-building activities with small infrastructure improvements (see “proposed” items on the map). We hope you’ll support this vision by sending your comments to the Albany City Council at citycouncil@albanyca.org and the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Commission at PROSC@albanyca.org before September 9, 2021.

Existing Amenities and Art and Proposed Enhancements

Adding a portable classroom near the parking lot would make arts, environmental and history educational activities possible for children and adults. Storage for stewardship equipment would help volunteers care for the Bulb. Storage for paddleboards and kayaks would provide more equitable access to water sports and allow people to enjoy water recreation after arriving by bicycle or on foot, reducing parking woes. A skatepark under the freeway would provide eyes on the path and make it feel safer for bicycling and walking.

Adding Create With Nature, Salt Marsh Education, and Pollinator Art+Science Zones would help people discover new ways of connecting with nature—and with each other.

A Vision for programming in 2023–possibilities for the near future

This imagined visitors’ guide comes at you from the future—it’s a vision of what could be happening at the Bulb in 2023. Since 2016, Love the Bulb has presented more than 50 performing and visual arts, stewardship, wellness, history, and environmental education events. With a bit more support and the infrastructure enhancements noted in the map, Love the Bulb and the other non-profits with which we collaborate could do even more to help people connect with each other and with nature.