If you haven’t been outside to play, explore, or just be, for a long time it can seem a little daunting. Where do I go? What do I need to take? What will I do? These are all very legitimate questions. 

The Alameda Recreation and Parks Department park monitors patrol Alameda’s parks on weekends to ensure facilities are clean, greet park users, provide information and assistance and enforce park rules. They also ensure picnic and field reservations are in place. 

Robert R. Thompson moved to Alameda with his family in 1877. A steamboat captain, Thompson found wealth navigating the Columbia River. 

Captain Robert R. Thompson once lived in a stately mansion in today’s Lincoln Park. Before coming to Alameda he made his fortune as a principal shareholder of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Thompson came overland to Oregon in 1846 on an emigrant wagon train.  

This summer Franklin Park will host four free concerts featuring classical music by The Alameda Music Project that are open to the public.

Ship captain James D. Farwell arrived in San Francisco in the spring of 1850. He had safely captained the steamboat Tehama from Panama. Farwell, who hailed from Maine, opened a chandlery on Clay Street in San Francisco. As a chandler he supplied the ships in port with their wares.

Save the Bench, a newly formed group founded by Park Avenue residents and their neighbors, has begun circulating a petition. 

The Alameda Friends of the Park Foundation will be holding the 2014 edition of the Play for the Parks Tournament Monday, Sept. 15 at the Chuck Corica Golf Complex.

With the extreme drought conditions taking hold in California, the City of Alameda is doing its part to reach the 20 percent reductions in water use requested by the Governor. All Alameda parks will be watered 20 percent less. This may result in green grass turning brown.