SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the 1960s, as if directed by a single frequency, people began arriving at Emeryville’s tidal mudflats for an extremely strange project. Using driftwood, scrap metal, broken glass and moth-holed fabric, they erected structures resembling totem poles and spacecraft, a crooked windmill and a Trojan Horse with rabbit anatomy. This ramshackle sculpture garden, a California College of the Arts archivist later wrote, “became a mysterious cultural landmark of the San Francisco Bay” that “exposed the populace to a radical form of public art.”
The installation evolved for decades — until the late 1990s, when Caltrans helicoptered out the dilapidated structures and a mountain of mucky garbage. But cultural traces still pop up, most recently in a painting of a wooden windmill at the corner of Horton Street and Park Avenue. Executed by San Francisco artist Ricardo Richey, aka Apexer, it’s one of a dozen-plus murals that appeared in Emeryville last month highlighting marine preservation and local animals like otters and endangered Delta Smelt.
“As a kid, I was always fascinated by the sculptures in the mudflats. I wondered who made them and how they did it,” says Richey. “The mudflat sculptures are part of the reason I paint public art today.”
The mural campaign reflects how far Emeryville has come from its early-1900s notoriety for brothels and bootlegging. Alameda County district attorney (and later U.S. Chief Justice) Earl Warren once famously deemed Emeryville “the rottenest city on the Pacific Coast.” Now it has a progressive population of young professionals and artists and a mayor who posts stuff like: “Every time someone tweets about how they hate sharing the road with bicyclists, I choose another street parking space to eliminate.”
Industrial-looking buildings loom left and right, and hidden inside are designer lofts with two-story ceilings and manicured gardens. Born of a lawless, seedy energy, Emeryville is now a place to experience modern art, bike a greenway, sample world cuisine and sip craft cocktails. So where to begin?
Pixar is a good start, though not for reasons you might expect. The studio isn’t giving public tours – and don’t try to slip the guard your script for “Bing Bong Is Living at a Farm Upstate,” they don’t take submissions – but it’s fun to snap a picture at the iconic sign. There are also sculptures of the hopping desk lamp and (perched on a building ledge) a seagull from “Finding Nemo.” Now, turn around to meet a real-life cast of “Cars.”
Fantasy Junction has the name and nondescript facade of an erstwhile Emeryville bordello. But step inside, and you’ll find a showroom of shiny, classic cars, ranging from 1950s Ferraris to 1930s sports saloons you’d expect to see bristling with gangsters’ tommy guns. It’s all for sale but feels and acts like a museum – many of the cars are extremely rare or have exciting racing histories, and the friendly staff give you informational material to peruse as you wander about, pondering a second mortgage.
For art of a different sort, head down the road to check out the new murals beautifying old warehouses.
“We’re right on the water, but I think there’s a big disconnect because of Highway 580,” says Alexandra Underwood, who co-directed the mural project in collaboration with Hawaii’s PangeaSeed Foundation. “And Emeryville has such a history of pollution, so we thought it was the perfect place to educate people about the water and the estuary and the amazing creatures that live there.”
One striking piece by Oakland’s Liv Losee-Unger (aka ORLUarts) – who as a kid spent hours staring at the sea nettles at Monterey Bay Aquarium – shows a jellyfish floating through a noxious vapor cloud emitted by the Port of Oakland. “This mural aims to celebrate the beauty of those animals,” she says, “while also expressing the magnitude of the ongoing and intensifying disaster of ocean warming, acidification and pollution.”
Another is a gorgeous ode to otters, hunted to near-extinction during the fur trade. “The gold calligraphy of the piece reads ‘We Were Here, We Will Return,’ which is a message of hope for the return of the sea otter, who scientists now believe could be successfully reintroduced to their historical Bay Area home,” says Taylor Reinhold of Santa Cruz, who painted it with Petaluma’s Evan “ESK” Wilson.
You could spend a day exploring Emeryville’s art scene: The Compound Gallery, for example, has coin-operated “artcade” games and a pinhole gallery named for Admiral Dot, a San Francisco little person who performed for P. T. Barnum. And the 36th Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition just debuted with almost 100 local artists (it runs until October 30) – it’s at the Public Market, which also happens to be a nice spot to grab lunch.
To get there, consider using the South Bayfront Pedestrian Bicycle Bridge, which spans the train tracks. Before it opened in December, to get to the other side you had to hop the Amtrak California Zephyr to Sacramento, change to a train heading back to Emeryville… well, not really, but it wasn’t pleasant. The bridge was recently selected for an American Society of Civil Engineers award and has glowing Google reviews like, “Love waving to the passing trains! Hooray for people-focused infrastructure!”
The market is a place to try, well, a whole bunch of stuff. There’s above-average ramen including a cold and delightful soy-milk variant, rosemary fried chicken and barbecue, Korean and Indian, coffee and cashew-based ice cream. One of the newest arrivals is Calypso Rose Kitchen, whose owner, Verna McGowan, was author Alice Walker’s personal chef. A star here is the Guyanese oxtail pepperpot, tender and gelatinous in a deeply spiced gravy, but don’t miss the UFO-shaped beef patties and sumptuous sticky-toffee pudding.
The mudflat sculptures may be gone, but the coast remains one of the best reasons to visit Emeryville. On a hockey-stick spit of land is the marina, which achieves the interesting balance of being chichi while utterly pummeled by the Bay weather. Sunset views here are legendary. One suggestion on how to enjoy them: Have a rummy cocktail at Trader Vic’s, which originated the Mai Tai in nearby Oakland and has big windows overlooking bigger yachts.
Once properly warmed, head out on the walking trail to a short loop with rocky shorelines, pounding surf and swooping seabirds. Here you can lean into the wind and admire unbeatable vistas of San Francisco and Marin, while imagining a future when you might glimpse among the waves a reintroduced sea otter, munching a Delta Smelt.
Fantasy Junction: 1145 Park Ave., Emeryville; fantasyjunction.com
Sea Walls murals: Info and map at seawalls.org/activation/emeryville-usa
The Compound Gallery: 1339 61st St., Emeryville; thecompoundgallery.com
36th Annual Emeryville Art Exhibition: 5905 Shellmound St., Emeryville; emeryarts.org
The Public Market: 5959 Shellmound St., Emeryville; publicmarketemeryville.com
Honor Kitchen: 1411 Powell St., Emeryville; honoremeryville.com
Townhouse: 5862 Doyle St., Emeryville; townhouseemeryville.com
Trader Vic’s: 9 Anchor Dr., Emeryville; tradervicsemeryville.com
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