Oakland is the only metropolitan city in the United States to have a saltwater lake in its downtown. The lake is also the nation’s oldest wildlife refuge, home to large breeding populations of herons, egrets, geese and ducks.
The lake—actually a tidal lagoon—is one of those subjects that, like physics or philosophy, only expand with knowledge. The more you know, the more you realize there is to learn. Lake Merritt is Oakland’s own existential and intellectual quandary. In addition to being a great spot to picnic, it raises all sorts of questions about permanence and the ephemeral, ecology and mortality.
One Oakland enthusiast asking some of these questions is Scott Oliver, a local artist interested in the socio-cultural evolution of water. His public art ...
