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Get Involved! Friends of Baxter Creek still needs your support to continue its vital environmental work. Please join us if you are committed to the preservation and restoration of watersheds and riparian habitat. Become a Baxter Creek Watershed Steward by pitching in to keep El Cerrito's newest park clean at work parties every Saturday in February. Have fun with your neighbors from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on February 3, 10, 17, and 24 (rain or shine). Wear work clothes and boots. Bring your own lunch, snacks, and water. Baxter Creek Gateway Park is located along the Ohlone Greenway between Key Blvd. and San Pablo Ave. near MacDonald Ave. at the border of El Cerrito and Richmond. Directions to the park: By car from San Francisco/Berkeley/El Cerrito: From Interstate 80 East, take the San Pablo Ave. exit. Turn right onto San Pablo, drive about three blocks, and make a left turn onto MacDonald Ave. After one block, make a right turn onto Key Blvd. and continue to Conlon St. (just before the hill). Park near Key and Conlon. Gateway Park is located on the righthand side of Key at the end of the Ohlone Greenway. By car from Richmond/El Sobrante: From Interstate 80 West, take the San Pablo/Barrett Ave. exit. Make a left turn onto Barrett, go under the overpass, and turn right onto San Pablo Ave. Drive about three blocks on San Pablo Ave. and make a left turn onto MacDonald Ave. After one block, make a right turn onto Key Blvd. and continue to Conlon St. (just before the hill). Park near Key and Conlon. Gateway Park is located on the righthand side of Key at the end of the Ohlone Greenway. By foot, bicycle, wheelchair, or scooter from Berkeley: Proceed north several miles along Ohlone Greenway through Albany and El Cerrito as it follows BART tracks. A quarter mile past El Cerrito Del Norte BART station, Greenway enters Baxter Creek Gateway Park between Key Blvd. and San Pablo Ave. Mixed Use Possibilities Now that Baxter Creek has been saved at this site, work still needs to be done to revitalize the area. The old Albertson's building (north of Gateway Park) is expected to be torn down, but it is unclear what will replace this eyesore. To ensure that the City of Richmond approves a pedestrian-friendly mixed use development at the site, let your voice be heard! First, contact FOBC'er and Richmond City Councilman Tom Butt (tom.butt@intres.com; 510/236-7435) to make sure you're part of the planning process for this development. For "before" and "after" views of the Gateway site from just across the street on San Pablo Ave., take a peek at these images. The first shows how the former Lucky Market (later Albertson's) looked in 1999. The second, a photomontage created for FOBC by Steve Price of Urban Advantage, pictures how the area could look with a restored creek running through a mixed use development on the El Cerrito Gateway site. Who Are We? Formed in 1997, Friends of Baxter Creek is a nonprofit affiliate of the Urban Creeks Council dedicated to: Preserving, restoring, protecting, and advocating for Baxter Creek and neighboring watersheds in Northern California’s San Francisco Bay Area; Extending the Ohlone Greenway along the creek to connect with the San Francisco Bay Trail in Richmond; and Improving the quality of life for residents in the El Cerrito/Richmond area. Baxter Creek originates in underground springs beneath El Cerrito’s Mira Vista Golf Course and flows down from the hills in three branches to San Francisco Bay. After running through Canyon Trail, Poinsett, and Mira Vista Parks, the creek forms one stream near the Gateway Property at San Pablo and MacDonald Aves. in El Cerrito and Richmond and then flows through Booker T. Anderson, Jr., Park and the Richmond flats into Stege Marsh and San Francisco Bay.