Powell St, Emeryville

Powell Street is the point where you exit from the 580/80 in Emeryville. The west is the Marina. It stretches out into the bay. Right off of the freeway, you come to the Hilton Hotel. It is a tall building (at least ten stories high) and must have a great view. On the other side of the Hilton (though not technically on Powell) there is a very well placed Chevy’s Mexican restaurant where you can eat while staring out at the green lapping waters from the bay. (This is a good place to meet people because of its central location just across from SF.) Past the Hilton, there are some seventies-style, three story apartment buildings whose main appeal seems to be the pools and the great location. After this, you come to the Marina proper, though it is not a well known or attended as the Berkeley Marina a bit further north.

To the east of the freeway, Powell takes you right into central Emeryville and you can turn to south towards Ikea and find lots of retail stores. Or to the right, where there are the movie theater and the international food court. Powell continues past this rising up and over the train tracks (the Emeryville Amtrak station is just to the north). On the other side of the bridge, you find gas stations, an autobody shop, and some gentrified condos in the new style that make them seem both impregnable and clean (kind of a stucco look or what I call a neo-Pueblo look). It is all very clean and safe looking and has a median spotted with newly planted trees that might one day be pretty though they look a little fragile and sparse at the moment.