Ken Carbone: A Lifetime of Service

Photo credit Ken Carbone

The 2023 Castro Valley Car show  along Castro Valley Boulevard, by Wilbeam Avenue. Carbone was part of a group that redeveloped the historic corner, while keeping many original details. Their redesigned Quonset hut, home toi Canyons Barbecue, is in the background.

Longtime Castro Valley civic leader Ken Carbone at his Dolphin Graphics office on May 24, 2024.

After 30 years in public service, longtime Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) member Ken Carbone retired May 13, but says he will continue his longstanding work in the community.

“I had been thinking about pulling away for a year or two now, just waiting for a good time to go,” Carbone told the Forum.

As a member of the MAC, a former member of the Alameda County Planning Commission, and owner of Dolphin Graphics, Carbone loves bringing people together for good projects.

For example, on June 15, Carbone will be on hand for this year’s Castro Valley Car Show, which he pioneered in 2006 and still helps lead. Some 400 cars are expected this year along Castro Valley Boulevard.

Because of his time on the MAC, Carbone says he is aware that Alameda County oversees any significant change to Castro Valley and the unincorporated area. This is something he would like to change. He backed the failed drive for Castro Valley cityhood in 2000 and supports the current drive toward cityhood.

Carbone served on Castro Valley’s Redevelopment Advisory Committee during its short existence. Redevelopment agencies statewide were eliminated by then-Governor Jerry Brown right after Castro Valley first got one. However, he still supports that agency’s goal of a revitalized and walkable downtown Castro Valley.

He was credited with helping bring Trader Joe’s to Castro Valley and reimagining commercial sites such as the Lake Chabot Public Market and downtown Castro Valley Marketplace. He is also one of the partners who developed a historic block on Castro Valley Boulevard by Wilbeam Avenue to bring in an eagerly awaited Philz Coffee, along with Canyons Barbecue and Olive & Finn.

“My interest has always been helping small businesses prosper,” he said. “A successful downtown is the key to a successful community.”

He said one of the things he’s proudest of was helping Bee Best Learning Center on San Miguel Avenue survive and thrive when it was threatened with closure after opening in 2008. The after-school kids center had run afoul of various county regulations from multiple agencies despite being welcomed and supported by Castro Valley parents.

So how did he first go from the owner of a small business, Bob’s Café on Redwood Road near Taco Bell, to one of Castro Valley’s most visible public officials?

“I guess this all started with the Welcome to Castro Valley sign,” he remembered.

In 1997, in an early effort to promote public art and Castro Valley, the county installed a canoe-shaped sign in the middle of Redwood Road near Castro Valley Boulevard that some residents called garish or worse. 

The sign lasted two months, but since Carbone's coffee shop was near it, he was among hundreds of people who shared their views.

He was surprised when then-Alameda County Supervisor Mary King asked him to come to a meeting about the sign.

“Why me?” he wondered. Someone later told him it was because, unlike some, he hadn’t threatened to physically harm anyone, Carbone said. King then asked him to serve on the MAC, and his public service began.

Carbone led a community drive to send nearly $30,000 in aid to New York City firefighters and the Red Cross following the September 11 attacks. Since then, he’s helped lead numerous fundraising efforts for the schools and other local needs.

His latest passion is a documentary film about the Lorenzo Theater on Hesperian Boulevard in San Lorenzo, whose murals change and glow when the lights go down. The 1947 original theater used black lights long before they were rediscovered for 1960s posters.

He said one thing he had learned is how important and rewarding service to one’s community is. You not only make contacts who might be able to help you do things in the future, but you also make friends, Carbone said.

“If you want to complain about something, you have to be willing to do something about it. That’s how I got involved in this whole thing in the first place,” Carbone said.