These steps are simply gone.
According to the city database these steps went from Hodge Street to Mackey Street in Oakland.
The materials they were constructed of were wood and asphalt.
Visiting the site, what I can guess is that the wood has rotted away or been removed when the street was repaved. All that is left now are some remnants of the asphalt that must have made up the surface of each step. Talking with one resident, I was told that there was also an iron railing along these steps, also gone.
At this time I don’t see the point in rebuilding these steps. When I walked from Hodge to Mackey, I just walked in the street. It is a steep curve, but I encountered no cars. There are only five residences on Mackey Street, although it is clear that there were more at one time.
I think the reason that these steps were built was to replace the pedestrian transportation route that went from 2nd Avenue up to the residences of Oakland. These curved steps led up to Mackey, there are steps from Mackey up to Lawn Street, and there is a railing on the steep lower end of Lawn Street up to where it levels off.
From the age and deterioration of these steps from Hodge to Mackey I can guess that this route was built at the time that Route I376 was built. Prior to that time Lawn Street continued down to Hodge Street down a city steps that must have existed at that time. There is a short section of these city steps left at the top of Hodge Street that now abruptly end in one resident’s back yard. The back edge of that person’s backyard now drops off dangerously steeply down to I376.
The question is, how valuable is this route? If Lawn Street connected directly with Hodge Street this would be a useful route to travel. Currently the wooden stairs at the bottom of Lawn Street to Mackey are in such bad repair they are almost impassible. I can guess that even when those steps were in better condition, few people ever used these wood and asphalt steps from Mackey down to Hodge Street, they just walked on the paved road. Although I do advocate for the wooden Lawn to Mackey steps to be replaced with more permanent concrete steps. I see no reason why these wood and asphalt steps need to be rebuilt.