Oakland

Wandering | Train Tracks II

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Today’s excursions led me to a set of infamous train tracks in Oakland.
I got there, just minutes before the sun was setting…it put a beautiful orange glow on the far off building tops 🙂

16th Street Train Station

Published on -- by Nina AraicaLeave a comment

The infamous 16th Street Train Station in West Oakland is beyond beautiful!! When coming from SF to Oakland, if you look toward the left when getting off of the bridge, and coming into Oakland, you can see the back of the train station…completely covered in graffiti! Oh my is it breathtaking!!!

For years I’ve wanted to get beyond the barb wire fences, and lucky me…I finally had the chance!!! It was pure luck when I ran into the property manager while having a shoot on the outside of fence. We chatted, he gave me his card, and allowed me permission to enter and photograph the inside. Uhmmmm can you say WOW!!!

This place is locked up like a fortress, so nobody ever gets inside!

Here are a few of my most favorite pics,

Oakland “Pipe Yards” II

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Now the only reason I’ve decided to disclose the location (city name) of this place is because…sadly…it is no more [RIP PipeYards 2013]. The Pipe Yards have been removed and now the only remnants of what once was, is an empty and boring dirt lot.

The pipe yards were so cool to walk through. Granted, they were not in the best neighborhood or the safest place to be (especially by yourself), with the drug use paraphernalia laying around, homeless/transient belongings left behind, and the fact that so many places were hidden from the street so if something happened to you and you were [let’s say] attacked, chances are that nobody would know.

I visited this place a handful of times and never fail, I always ran into someone, be it a homeless person, taggers, or someone else there taking pictures. Needless to say, the scariest encounters would have to be the homeless because you’re in their territory and they could see your presence as a threat or they could be engaging in drug use and in that case your [my] presence would most definitely be an issue. The few times I came across youngsters tagging, they were alarmed at my presence until they saw that I had a camera and wasn’t concerned with them at all. But they still kept their distance and scurried away when I showed up lol. I guess I’m fortunate because I heard of quite a few stories about people being mugged and camera’s being stolen 😦

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the Pipe Yard and the surrounding neighborhood,