Pankow has followed through on their commitment to re-open the temporary sidewalk along Harrison St behind the traffic barrier by close of business today.
Tyler Roschinger, a Project Manager for Pankow, lives in the neighborhood and has expressed his support for keeping the area safe for pedestrians and bicyclists.
The sidewalk will be blocked to pedestrians during construction hours, and a crossing guard will be posted at the north end of the construction site across from the school/church entrance.
At the end of each work day and during weekends, the temporary sidewalk will be re-opened to foot traffic.
Pankow also configured a wide, protected pedestrian walkway along Bay Place between Vernon and Harrison.
Hats off to Bond Companies and Pankow for coming up with a creative solution and acting in a timely manner.
Scott from Pankow and Alan Lee from Bond advised us that they will re-direct pedestrian traffic via the original route down Harrison Street (on the asphalt of what will be the parking lane, behind the temporary traffic barricade) by Friday at 3 p.m.
Between now and the completion of the sidewalk project, they may have to jog the path a bit one way and the other to stay of harm’s way of their construction activities, but they are committed to keeping this alternative pedestrian route accessible until the permanent sidewalk is completed.
We believe that this is the best solution, and it meets our expectation of a resolution by the end of the week. Pankow will move that time-line up if at all possible.
City officials said all the right things at the May 7 meeting about traffic problems that are likely to be exacerbated by the opening of the new Whole Foods on Sept. 27. The most important promise was a commitment made by Claudia Cappio, the head of the Community Economic Development Agency, to require Whole Foods delivery trucks to make a left when exiting the market and to take 27th Street, which was constructed as a truck route, to reach Highway 580.
Here is the video:
City engineer Joe Wang won the community’s applause by acknowledging the severity of the traffic problem: an average of 17,000 cars a day and an unusual number of accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists. (The rate is nearly twice as high as in the rest of Oakland.)
Wang said the city is going study the feasibility of reducing the lanes of traffic from three to two. He said the current volume of traffic does not support three lanes. He said the extra space can be used for additional parking and for a bike lane. (We love this man!)
Wang acknowledged dangerous crosswalks and intersections. He said the city has a applied for a $200,000 grant to study options for redesigning the corridor. In the interim, he said, the city will mark crosswalks so they are more visible. Indeed, this was done almost immediately after the meeting.
Wang said the city would install a feedback sign to address concerns about speeding. This was also done within weeks of the May 7 meeting. (Unfortunately, the sign is not properly calibrated and people driving 45 mph — almost twice as fast as the prevailing speed limit — are only clocked at 40 mph or less.)
In addition to the speed feedback sign, Wang also said the city would like to install a flashing beacon on Oakland Avenue where there is a dangerous crosswalk. We hope they find the money to do this soon!
Finally, Wang said a site had been determined for urgently needed traffic light in front of Whole Foods. He said the money had been provided by Councilwoman Nancy Nadel and that design work could begin. “It’s all about looking for the quickest way to construct that signal,” he said.
Deborah Edgerly, the Oakland City Administrator, told a resident at the City Council meeting Tuesday night that she would look into ways the TETAP report’s recommendations can be implemented before Whole Foods opens. In particular, Edgerly said the traffic light at the Westlake Middle School can be installed if Councilwoman Nancy Nadel draws up a contract with the site owner for it to happen. Nadel has already committed to providing funds for the traffic light, and she has told the Westlake Coalition that she is willing to release the funds. One of Edgerly’s staff members is looking at how the speed limit for the four block stretch of Oakland Avenue between the new Whole Foods and MacArthur Blvd can be made consistant with the 25 mph speed limit that is in force in the neighborhood and downtown area. The staff member is also looking at ways Whole Foods truck traffic can be steered to 27th Street, which has specifically been constructed as a truck route.
Folks who live near the Whole Foods have raised an alarm about construction that has made the sidewalk unusable and is forcing pedestrians to either dart across the street…
Or risk walking down Harrison along the traffic lane and barricade.
The construction manager said this situation will continue for at least four weeks. A representative of Pankow listened to the neighbors and applied to the city for a permit for a temporary sidewalk this week. The City allegedly denied the permit due to liability concerns, and required signage directing pedestrians to the marked crossing at Hamilton Place.
This is crazy. Oakland Avenue and Harrison Street suffer either an accident or a close call every week.
While the city has set a speed limit of 25 mph throughout the residential and downtown streets leading to our neighborhood, it invites drivers to stomp on their accelerators as soon as they arrive in Harrioak.
The “official” marked crossing at Hamilton Place is an even more dangerous place to cross Harrison Street than the unmarked crossing at the church/school parking lot, due to high traffic speeds and blind curves in both directions.
Our new speed-feedback sign shows that motorists regularly travel at speeds of 40 m.p.h. or more. This is super dangerous, since our neighborhood includes blind curves and steep hills that restrict visibility.
Installation of a temporary pedestrian crossing is being pursued with the Bond Companies, Pankow, and City agencies, with involvement of the Mayor’s office and the City Administrator if satisfactory progress is not made toward an rapid resolution of this serious public safety problem.
According to the Trib, Mayor Ron Dellums has announced that 15 police officers who currently patrol Oakland International Airport will be reassigned to work in our communities as problem-solving officers. Alameda County sheriffs will patrol the airport.
This is a small step in the right direction toward solving Oakland’s crisis.
This move will cost $5.1 million. It will be paid for by Measure Y, a 2004 ballot measure that hiked property taxes (paid by 40 percent of Oakland residents who own homes) to fund violence prevention and community police officers. While it’s unfair to place the burden on homeowners — who as a general rule are rarely involved in criminal activity in the first place — the tax was structured as a parcel tax so that everyone paid the same amount ($88/year) and newer homeowners weren’t penalized. That made it a little more equitable.
Measure Y was supported by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Mary Jerry Brown, Council members Ignacio De La Fuente, Jean Quan and Nancy Nadel, Don Link, the chairman of the Community Policing Advisory Board, Sandra Frost, co-chair of Oakland Community Organizations, Deane Calhoun, executive director of Youth Alive!, Bob Jackson, a bishop, and Shannon Jones-Ellis, of the Family Violence Law Center. (These folks didn’t disclose if they were actually going to pay the tax.)
It was opposed by residents, including Charles Pine, who is quoted below, who felt that renters should also contribute money to pay to help fight crime. (Rent control means these kinds of increases are not passed on to the tenants, though the current rents, already outrageously high, don’t cover costs for landlords. This imbalance is a recipe for disaster, but that’s a topic for another post.) There was also concern that $6.5 million would go to social organizations without any accountability.
Pine says Oakland needs at least 1,100 police officers to have a level of staffing that comparable with other major metropolitan areas, but the city caps the number at 803. The actual force has less 740 officers, including those on disability. Less than 300 are available for patrol. According to Sanjiv Handa, publisher of the East Bay News Service, half of Oakland is simply not covered at all. This is the reason crime is sky rocketing. City officials, including the mayor and city council members, should have seen this coming and arranged to hire more officers.
They are still not taking the extreme measures necessary to fully staff the police department, though about 150 officers are expected to retire during the next year.
Kathy Orsini took on the huge task of compiling all our comments to the report that was recently done by the KHA consultants on our traffic problems. You can read all nine pages here.
The Trib has very sketchy details about a shooting on Fairmount on Friday, June 15, at 9:25 p.m. The police have been doing a lot of patroling in our neighborhood, and they heard the gunshots and were able to respond immediately. They found 29-year-old Donovan Duree lying in the street near the 100 block of Fairmount.
This is the part of the street that is one block from Harrison, right by the First Christian Church. It is a really nice residential block, except for this one sketchy looking building. Does anyone know if this belongs to one of our Secton 8 landowners? The victim been shot multiple times, and he died there. The San Francisco Chronicle said it’s unclear where Duree lived. I’d like to know if he had any connection to the problem properties around the corner on Harrison Street or what he was doing in our neighborhood. If local landlords are renting to people who are buying and selling drugs and shooting each other, we have the option of filing a nuisance suit.
A lawyer from the District Attorney’s office told a neighborhood group near Fruitvale that things are out of control in Oakland right now. What do you think? Some neighbors from Harrioak are going to the city council tomorrow about a traffic hazard that was created last Friday as part of the Whole Foods construction. Please feel free to join them and to speak out in favor of a safe and healthy community.
If you see ANYTHING suspicious please report it to OPD 1-510-777-3333. Make sure you provide a good description (clothing, hair, build, height, estimated weight & race) so the officers have probable cause to stop someone and look at his ID. OPD is trying to patrol our neighborhood, let’s help them out.
Finally, we’ll be holding the Beat 8x neighborhood meeting Thursday July 12 at 7 p.m. The location is still being finalized. We will post it when we know it.
There’s still no additional info about this incident since it’s under investigation. Lt. Meeks who is in charge of our area was in touch today. He has asked the commander in charge of the felony assault unit to share whatever information he can.
Posted by cwcompost 
Posted by cwcompost 
Posted by harrioakresident 
