Weekly Lake Merritt 'pop-up Picnic' Builds Community In Oakland

No one knows exactly who started it, but since spring, Oaklanders have been showing up Sunday afternoons for a pop-up picnic that is quickly becoming known as the Dolores Park of the East Bay, drawing families, boaters, runners and musicians in a gathering of Oakland pride that locals say they haven't seen in a long time. Since he first discovered the gathering a month ago, he's been making it a Sunday ritual to cook a big lakeside feast for his extended family. Successful improvementsNow, on the heels of a publicly financed $198 million makeover supported by a clean-water bond passed in 2002, there are lush greenways, swaths of flowers, a widened walkway with benches and public telescopes to get a closer look at the scullers, kayakers, sailers and birds gliding on the water. The renovations have lured multigenerational, multiracial crowds that have drawn comparisons to Brooklyn, as an influx of families and artists priced out of San Francisco join with longtime Oaklanders to contribute to a newfound city pride. Some trace the pop-up picnic's roots to Ray Nickson, who set up a tent along the lake over a year ago and offered free bike repair and customization under the name of his men's bicycling group, Phixed Bikes. Agreed, said Tara's Organic Ice Cream employee Tom Howard, who pedaled his customized bike with a front-mounted ice cream freezer from Oakland's Temescal neighborhood 4 miles away to the lake, where health-conscious picnickers are eager to buy flavors such as jasmine green tea, rose, allspice and lemon verbena. There's a bike path, shade, a cool breeze and people who couldn't bring ice cream in their picnic baskets.