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thumbnails: portraits | graffiti | animals | erotica | albany landfill | social comment | performance | landscapes | jill's eye view
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The Albany Landfill is a spit of land that juts about a mile into San
Francisco Bay from the east shore, between Berkeley and Richmond.
It was a dump until the early 80's, used for freeway and architectural
debris which gives the area its' distinctive landscape of concrete
slabs, twisted metal and rebar which thrusts out of the ground. Unlike other landfills it was never capped, and over twenty years it became an untamed urban wilderness - unique in the plant and wildlife it nurtured, but also in the human denizens which took refuge in the blanket of growth. Homeless encampments took root under acacia and palm trees, hidden behind trails which seemed to vanish into the bush. Artists without frontiers began painting wild irreverent scenes on massive planks salvaged from the landfill. By the late 90's over 100 people lived on the landfill in makeshift homes with views of San Francisco and Marin. Dog walkers loved the unregulated haven which allowed their canine companions to romp unfettered by leashes and rules, and the cats and dogs who lived with and around the homeless camps stayed out of their way. More and more shorebirds came to rest in the artificial docks and estuaries created by the dumpers, and as the mudflats along the Albany shoreline were restored, the area became a boon to wildlife and to bird watchers. It seemed everyone could co-exist. But now all the harmony created by official disinterest is ending. As part of the new Eastshore State Park the homeless have been evicted, the dogs threatened with punitive leash laws, and the artists told their work is not for a 'family park'. Is this progress? Or is it just government control, that can't let anything just 'be'?
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