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Lake Neighbor’s Meeting on July 26, 2012
Thanks to…
Our hard-working Sasha Esposito San Roman for providing food….
And Re:generation Church for hosting!
Introduction to the Lake Neighbors by Sasha
Concepts: Safety, Strong Positive Events, Healing the Cause
The Lake Neighbors asks that you choose something you can do - little or big – to make our neighborhood a better place.
Other members of the team:
Ruby Stein – Emergency Preparedness
Betsy Johnson – Event coordinator
Andy Blackwood – Coordination with OPD
Laura Jerrard -- Meeting Minutes Recorder
The Lake Neighbors email list is over 350 people and growing!
Introductions
Each attendee introduced their self and talked about a little about their wish list - what do they like about the neighborhood, what do they wish for the neighborhood and what can they to bring their wish one step closer?
- Marilyn Clark has lived in the neighborhood for a very long time. Her concerns are public safety and illegal dumping. She’s been focusing on gathering information about the Negotiated Settlement Agreement. This inspired a lot of discussion. See below for notes.
- Ruby Stein, our Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, wishes that we were all totally up to date with earthquake preparedness and that we all knew what to do in an emergency. See below for her updates. She also has a plum tree in her yard that is bearing fruit. Neighbors are welcome to come in and pick it in the back yard at 2001 5th Avenue.
- Andy is giving up his role doing coordination with OPD. OPD is too under-staffed to allow for communication with the neighbors. His wish for the neighborhood is a 14th Ave. BART station.
- Laura takes the meeting notes for the Lake Neighbors, is involved with the local communal garden across the street at Funk Town Farm and is helping to take care of the median at E 19th and 11th Ave, home to the 11th Ave Oakland Buddha. She’s a landscape architect and is interested in making physical improvements.
- Javier and his family recently moved to E 24th St. and 8th Ave. He’d like to activate his new neighbors. His project is movies to be screened from O’Reilly’s parking lot on the outside of the Parkway Theater Building. He’s a planner by training and is interested in physical space improvements and planning initiatives for the group.
- Count Glover is a tango dancing instructor. Melissa Agocs is a dance teacher and nutritionist. They would like to open up the Parkway Theater as a non-profit community cultural center for dance, children’s projects and events, movie nights and seniors’ dance night. They’d restart the Rocky Horror Picture Show events and – inspired by Sean – would introduce Queer Grind Night!. Noted that they should talk with the Lotus Bloom Collective and the folks from “I Like the Parkway”
- Jennie Gerard is Pat Kernighan’s chief of staff. She provide updates on -
- The Lake Merritt BART station area plan. The planning area includes an important portion of our neighborhood to the southeast Lake Merritt. Laura has been involved in the process. The draft plan is complete and is available for review on line at: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/ceda/documents/report/oak036850.pdf. Jennie would be happy to make a hard copy available if requested.
- The E 18th and lower Park Blvd. streetscape project is almost complete. The new stop lights are working! There will be a celebration soon.
- 12th Street project at Lake Merritt Park is on pace to finish up by the end of the year. The Estuary Channel will be widened to 100’. The lake will be more tidal and cleaner. There will be spacious paths on both sides of the channel connecting the lake to the Laney College open space. There will be art work and lights below the bridge. Some people expressed concern about safety. Under the bridge would be a great location for cameras.
- The 11th Ave Buddha. A couple members of the community have complained about having a religious symbol on public property. (Sparked some discussion of Buddhism). The City has no current plans to remove the Buddha. They’re concerned about the potential for pedestrian/vehicular conflict as well as the legal issues related to the separation of church and state.
- Sean Henry has been fighting with Wells Fargo for the past three years and finally got a loan modification! He brings the news that, “Wells Fargo, Chase and B of A are from hell and we should banish them.” He recommends local credit unions. He wants to help others fighting fore-closure by creating a discussion group and sharing basic information. Chimene Pollard is a local realtor with a lot of experience in these issues who has volunteered to help.
- And Christine didn’t get a chance to introduce herself – the kids got restless and she had to leave.
Safety and Oakland Police Department
Crime fighting tips:
- Make reports on the drug hotline – 238-DRUG. The police do tallies of call coming in to the drug hotline. The more calls that are logged over a specific situation or area, the more resources that area will receive.
- If you’re willing to give your name you will get attention more quickly. If you can give good information (license plate numbers) that will also help.
- Remember for program the direct line for emergency numbers into your cell phone.
Andy will do a write up on how to communicate and the kind of information that is useful. This includes address numbers, stash locations, process descriptions, and descriptions of individuals including size, weight, hair, race, specifics about clothing, vehicles, bikes, etc.
There was a lot of discussion about Oakland Police Department. Marilyn briefed the group on the negotiated settlement agreement. (From the City Attorney’s website: “On January 22, 2003, the City of Oakland entered into a Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA) to resolve allegations of police misconduct raised by plaintiffs in the lawsuit Delphine Allen v. City of Oakland, otherwise known as the 'Riders' case”) The situation has been going on too long. It’s making it difficult for the police department to operate. The court appointed monitor receives $1,784,000 per year!!! What can the lake neighbors do? Marilyn will let the group know.
It’s very difficult to communicate with the police (except with dispatch about immediate situations) at this point in time. Many of the NSC positions have been eliminated. The PSOs don’t seem to be interfacing with the community.
The Lake Neighbors’ area has a lot of overlap with the police beat 17X and 17Y. Currently those beats are divided into two different NCPC (Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council) groups. There is some talk that they’ll be united. Marilyn is pushing for this – she will keep the group posted.
Andy would like to find a way to coordinate on disseminating information – calling in criminals etc. Sasha noted that she used to be able to do this through the Lake Neighbor’s email list but it’s grown too overwhelming. Nixle http://www.nixle.com/, an electronic service providing updates from OPD, will inform people about serious events, but day to day issues aren’t addressed.
Sean noted that there’s drug dealing at FM Smith Park.
Events
Betsy, the event coordinator, wasn’t at the meeting. We will ask for an email update.
Movie Night on the Parkway! Javier hopes to have movie night in September. He may need help getting permission from O’Reilly’s to use their parking lot to show movies. He will keep the group posted.
Dancing! Salsa This Friday 9 – 12 at 1924 Franklin. $8 for an evening of dance, drink and food
Tango on Sundays 5 – 8 same place. Count and Melissa will keep the Lake Neighbors posted as these become regular events.
National Night Out! It’s August 7nd. Steve Ma of Woody’s is rumored to be organizing an event
Other Actions
Debra’s List
The group has been moving forward with the directory of local businesses. Sean walked the entire neighborhood to get the information. Many businesses that want to be involved. It could be a money maker someday. The information is now being collated and will be ready for draft distribution soon. Distribution will be via email and the website. The group’s decided to only include businesses that are making the neighborhood a better place.
There was discussion on distributing hard copies. Everyone agrees it’s a good idea, but resources are slim. Kathleen and Sean will distribute hard copies to places like coffee shops, Laundromats, listed businesses. It would be great to turn the directory into an illustrated local map in the future.
New Neighborhood Community Garden
There’s a rumor that there’s a new neighborhood community garden at …8th Ave. and Park? Jess Berman may be able to provide an email update.
Emergency Preparedness by Ruby
Currently the neighborhood group around E 17th and 3rd Ave is pretty organized for a disaster. Ruby would like to set up another potential command center based around her and Marilyn – E 20th between 5th and 7th Avenues.
Walkie-talkies are in important tool in an emergency. Sasha’s block has them & use channel 9. Ruby recently purchased some walkie-talkies from SF Costco. Andy recommends that people purchase Motorola. Andy volunteered to help her get them synched up with others in the neighborhood.
Other supplies are also needed: First aid supplies, tablets, flashlights, etc. Ruby will make a wish list and will send it out. We could target Walgreens. Regen might be willing to do a donation drop-off.
The Lake Neighbors have prepared a flyer on emergency preparedness. It includes a coupon for a discount on a gas shut off tool (courtesy of Ace Hardware Grand Lake). Knowing where and how to shut off the gas at your house is one of the most important ways you can prepare for an emergency.
In the flyer on emergencies are instruction (including an electronic address which unless I’ve made a typo is: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dENGV3VmTXM4X0dBcGFPc0IRS2p6OFE6MQ#gid=0) where you can register your information on the blog in a secure location. This includes notes on whether you have children or elderly people living with you that might need assistance.
Ruby has a lot of information on operating during a disaster and is happy to share it with anyone. For questions or to register email Ruby at rstein94606@yahoo.com
Resources
These are just a few of the resources that were brought up during the meeting.
SeeClickFix a smart phone app that makes it sweet and easy to report illegal dumping
City of Oakland, Drug Hotline 237-drug!
Local financial institutions including Patelco, First Republic, Mechanics Bank
Realtor Chimene for assistance with foreclosures, etc.
Next Meeting
The next Lake Neighbors’ Meeting will be September 27th, Re:generation Church, 6:30pm. If anyone can help organize food it would be a great help. Please contact Sasha.
Another great Lake Neighbor’s Meeting. Thanks to all!
