Lake Merritt High-Rise Meeting

Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Pat Kernighan have invited everyone to a second community meeting “to discuss where high rise development should and should not go around the lake.”

When: Saturday, April 28, 2007 – 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Downtown Oakland Senior Center– Veterans Memorial Building –
200 Grand Avenue at Harrison Street (Car parking lot entrance on Bay
Place; bicycle parking possible at walkway railings or traffic signs
in the vicinity)

Whole Foods Meeting Announcement from Barton

Crosswalk safety improvements, vehicle speed reduction, truck route prhohition. and related nabe traffic and pedestrian/cyclist safety initiatives will be examined with city representatives on Monday, May 7 at Veterans Building, at corner of Harrison & Grand.

Harrison Street and Oakland Avenue traffic safety issues have been promoted for three years by Harrioak Neighborhood Association. During this past year the Traffic Safety Committee of Harrioak joined in a collaborative effort w/several other groups, schools, and churches in area to solicit active participation by city representatives, and to begin implementation of measures improving quality of life between 27th Street and I 580.

May 7 is fourth community “town hall” gathering on subject w/Oakland officials. Whole Foods store representatives are expected to join community and city in efforts seeking to offset major increase of regional vehicle impacts. Be present! Hear, and be heard!

This SIGNIFICANT meeting is scheduled 7 – 9 PM. Principal objective: safe streets.

Beat 8x Neighborhood Council Meeting Tonight

The Beat 8x Neighborhood Council meeting (formerly known as Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council meeting) will be today, Wednesday, April 25th at 7 PM. The meeting will take place in the Lake Merritt Senior Center/Veteran’ s Building/Dance Center at 200 Grand Ave. We have Hall 3 for the meeting.

Shawn Brick and Jennifer Bevington are working with HarriOak, Echo Creek and Greater Mosswood and the Northgate merchants’ group to coordinate future meetings, as the council had fallen dormant while crime and traffic kicked into high gear.

Many thanks to Shawn and Jennifer for taking on the hard work of community organizing! Please try to make the meeting, especially if there are problems on your block that should be addressed.

Traffic Committee Update

The traffic committee met last week with Claudio Cappio, the head of the Community Economic Development Agency. Cappio showed up prepared with maps, a thorough understanding of the issue and a willingness to solve the key problem, which is that trucks need to be directed to travel on truck routes. Not all streets can withstand heavy truck traffic. Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street, in particular, have decades-old clay sewage pipes that vibrations from the trucks will eventually cause to shatter. (And no one wants that to happen!) Cappio is committed to seeking a solution before the May 7 meeting with Whole Foods.

Earthquake Preparedness, April 25, 6:30 p.m.

Hello Everyone:

Is your family prepared for a major earthquake?  Is your block prepared?  If your block is not prepared, you are not prepared.  Learn how neighbors working together can survive the next major earthquake.  Attend the April Neighborhood Watch Steering Committee meeting and learn about how to prepare.

The Meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 25, 2007, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, at Oakland City Hall (1 Frank Ogawa Plaza), in Hearing Room 4 (on the second floor next to the City Administrator’ s Office).  We will validate your parking in the Clay Street Garage, at the corner of 14th and Clay Streets.  The Meeting will be devoted to earthquake (disaster) preparedness and response.

The inevitability of a serious and damaging earthquake confronts all of us in Oakland.  Scientist believe that a magnitude 7 or larger earthquake is likely to happen within the next 30 years.  Such an earthquake will cause widespread damage, misery, injury and death, on a scale equal or greater to what happened in the Gulf Coast in 2005.

The Steering Committee will have guest speakers from the Oakland Office of Emergency Services at the Meeting to brief you on the Citizens of Oakland Respond to Emergencies Program, known affectionately as CORE.  Our guest speakers are Harriet Wright, CORE Program Coordinator, and Lucas Daumont, CORE Instructor.  Harriet and Lucas will present valuable information in the following areas:

• What will happen in your neighborhood after a major earthquake
• How to prepare your home and your family for a disaster
• How to organize your Block Group to respond to disasters
• How to obtain disaster skills and basic first-aid training (training offered by the City at no charge)
• How to obtain and use two-way radios to talk to neighbors and responders (training is free, and radios are provided at no charge after your Block Group is certified as a CORE-trained Group)

If you wish to attend, please send an RSVP to Felicia Verdin at fverdin@oaklandnet. com (238-3128), or you may e-mail me at NVigilante@msn. com.  The Steering Committee will need RSVPs to determine seating arrangements in the Meeting Room.  

Nicholas J. Vigilante

Chair, Oakland Neighborhood Watch Steering Committee

Bad accident, April 15

A couple who lives by Lake Merritt was hit from behind on Sunday afternoon around 3 p.m. after they stopped to let some walk across the crosswalk by the A&M Liquor Store. This is the car that hit them. No one was badly hurt, but as you can see, the property damage was substantial.

Burglars in our neighborhood

Please keep an eye out for suspicious characters. Last night thieves broke into a garage on Perkins & Orange and attempted to access the building. Once in the garage they then used what looks like a large pry bar to attempt to break in to the main building.

These were not dumb smash and grab guys. They dismantled the key access and then put the wires together to open the garage door.

There was also a break-in last week (4/14/07) where the thieves stole a radio from one car in the garage.

A suggestion: If you have key access, remove it and upgrade your remote-access system so that you no longer use the generic store-bought remotes thieves so often use to gain access to garages.

We could be in for another rash of these break-ins. So please be aware of unusual activity. Please don’t hesistate to call police 510-777-3333 and give a full description (clothing, height, weight, hair, etc.)

Also, if you are a victim, please request a fingerprint tech. If there is someone or a group of people preying on our neighborhood, the only way we will identify them is through an eye witness, a surveillance camera or prints.

Oakland Parks & Recreation Focus Group

(a public service announcement)

The Oakland Community is invited to attend a community meeting discussing recreation programs and park maintenance in your neighborhood! Please join us to voice your opinion, talk with the Director of Oakland Parks & Recreation, meet with your City representatives, and give us your suggestions. All are welcome! Feel free to share/pass this information along to your community members! Upcoming meetings are listed below.

Council District I: Friday, April 20 | 6:30pm | Bushrod Recreation Center | 560 – 59th St.
Council District IV: Wednesday, April 18 | 6:30pm | Redwood Heights Recreation Center | 3883 Aliso Ave.
Council District V: Wednesday, April 25 | 6:30pm | Carmen Flores Community Center | 1637 Fruitvale Ave.
Citywide/Joaquin Miller Park Users: Saturday, May 5 | 1pm | Joaquin Miller Park Meadow Area
Citywide Sports: Wednesday, May 9 | 1pm | Lakeside Garden Center | 666 Bellevue
Citywide Cultural Arts: Saturday, September 21 | Studio One Arts Center | 365 – 45th St.

Bad accident, April 14

Hi All:

This weekend it was our turn to sacrifice a car to the high-speed
traffic on Oakland Ave. Our parked car was totaled in front of our
house on Saturday when a speeding truck did a 180 and crashed into it.

Luckily no one was in the car or getting into it. The lady driving
the truck was OK, although her back hurt.

It really seems just a matter of time before someone gets killed on
our block – two parked cars totaled in 4 months is not a statistical
blip.

Peace,

-Giorgio (& the crew)

Oakland Earth Day

 

Join the Earth Day celebrations on April 21, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. There is a list of places here. HarriOak is also banding together to take care of the medians near the crazy Fairmont, Harrison, Oakland, 29th Street intersection. Come one, come all, and help strategize for the big meeting on May 7th at the Veterans Hall at 200 Grand Avenue from 7 p.m.  to 9 p.m. Help us prevent our neighborhood from being used as an illegal truck route!