F.M. Smith Park:

We rode on to the Parkway. Since it was in the early afternoon, the theater was shut. There was no one there we could talk to. Unsure of where to go next, we continued to ride on Park Boulevard. We passed some new funky looking cafes, a clothing store---

We were going to turn around at Francis Smith Park. A bunch of kids ran to the fence yelling, “Hey, what’s that? What’s your sign mean?” Then a few men where pointing and laughing. We thought that this would be a good place to stop. After we figured out how to maneuver through the narrow rig, we met John Ball, the unofficial keeper of the park’s history and the director of a youth rec program. When we asked him about East Oakland, he said this was definitely not it. “It starts across 23^rd Ave and goes all the way to San Leandro. This here is the Lake Area. People call it lots of names.” His description of East Oakland: “Overpopulated and bad streets: you should see the potholes! MacArthur, East 12^th, First Ave, they’re all bad. Bad for bikes.”

He helped to start the youth program at the park several years ago; there’s a computer lab with some twenty machines and all sorts of summer programs for kids. While we were there, we saw various camp counselors leading games for kids from five years on up. Some of the teenagers were helping to run the groups. He believes that it is vital for kids to have a safe place to learn and play together. He’s there every day to run the center.

This oasis is flanked with huge redwood trees. The park has a unique sculpture: near one edge of the park stands a group of four proud mules. We asked John the story behind the mules. He chuckled and said, “Do you know whose house this used to be?” The rec center is JM Smith’s granddaughters house. Smith, who discovered a vast reserve of borax in the desert, built his vast estate covered five blocks of Park Boulevard. The name of his company was Twenty Mule Borax. In 1912, he gave the city this plot of land with specific instructions that it be used as a park for kids.