When, in 2008, Betty Olds retired from serving District 6 on the Berkeley City Council after 16 years, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the council “will lose its crankiest, wittiest, and often most rational member.” Six years later, the path that connects Sterling and Whitaker avenues in North Berkeley (previously known as Twain Path, #68 on the BPWA map) was renamed the Betty Olds Path in her honor. The children’s room at the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library also bears her name.

On the easternmost edge of Berkeley, close to the border with Tilden Park, wanderers will find Scott Newhall Path following the contour of Hill Road. To younger walkers, this name will probably mean nothing. But to anyone who was living in the Bay Area in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it will ring a deeply familiar bell.

Berkeley’s paths and stairways take walkers along some of the city’s prettiest neighborhoods and streets. But there’s one that might well surpass all the others in terms of history and architectural interest: If you’re looking for a path to share with visitors to demonstrate the richness of Berkeley’s culture, look no further than Rose Walk. 

Indian Rock is one of many volcanic rhyolite rock outcroppings found across the Bay Area that are estimated to have occurred between nine and eleven million years ago. Anyone who has climbed the steep steps in its face has also seen the depressions of mortar holes still evident here, especially in the aptly named Mortar Rock, where the Ohlone people used the bedrock as a grinding surface for food and medicine.

BPWA welcomes two new board members: Nancy Graham, treasurer, and Jen English, walks co-coordinator. Three days a week Nancy, her husband, and dog, Dinky, get their aerobic exercise by walking uphill and hitting as many paths as possible. Jen joined the board in 2008 for her first term. Jen’s also been learning the ropes of emergency response, taking community emergency management (CERT) courses and other preparedness training and is excited to be involved with BPWA again because Berkeley's public paths and stairways are a key component of the city's emergency response network.

Saturday, September 21, 2024 offered a beautiful “Second Summer” day as about 40 people gathered to attend the annual meeting of the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association at Live Oak Park. The event followed a well-attended morning Path-a-thon.

Just south of Latham Lane in North Berkeley you’ll find Ina Coolbrith Path, which connects Miller Avenue and Grizzly Peak Blvd. If you’ve ever wondered about its namesake, the path commemorates a remarkable woman who figured prominently in the state’s literary history.

Steve Price is the El Cerrito-based author/artist of the digital book Imagining a Walkable America: Visualizing Low-Carbon Cities, Towns, and Neighborhoods, Step by Step. First published in 2020, it’s just been updated with a new introduction and fresh images to reflect the country’s changing transportation landscape.

Many who wander Berkeley’s paths are familiar with the name and work of Bernard Maybeck (although, surprisingly, there is no Maybeck Path). Fewer know about his friend and colleague Charles Keeler, who was nearly as influential in the prominent Arts and Crafts movement of the early twentieth century.

We are sad to report that Steve Glaeser, a longtime member of our Berkeley Path Wanderers Association community, passed away in January at the age of 62.

On October 14, about 20 people gathered at the Berkeley Rose Garden to experience one of our most popular paths in a new way: listening to “graffiti poet” Leslie Reed read some of the 60+ original poems she’s inscribed on the “Running Fence” of Tamalpais Path. Reed has been writing on the redwood fence since 2019, transcribing verse that she channels from a higher source.