Many Alamedans already embrace these new/traditional values. BikeAlameda has been a leader in reminding us that ours is a great town for cycling. Bikes are good for the environment, the pocketbook and the body. And Alameda’s Freecycle an e-mail group — on which members can post things they need (an office chair, size 10 child’s soccer cleats), as well as things they’d like to give away (chicken wire, a pile of bricks) — boasts almost 3,000 members.

"I started it because I had a pile of stuff in my garage that I didn’t want to go to the landfill," says Chantal Currid, who launched Alameda’s Freecycle in 2005.

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