Post Mtg Notes

Hi Lake Neighbors!!!

Okay, here is our update on the most recent meeting for LakeNeighbors that happened on Tuesday (9/28)…we are up to over 230 people nowadays, FYI. The meetings do not always reflect that, so don't be too worried about that. Meetings can have anywhere from 30 to 3 people showing up. There are many that are e-participants and that is valued also.

First, our next meeting is on 10/17, which is a Sunday. Place is TBA, but it will be at one of the usual places. (The next few that follow so you can plan (!) are: 11/9, 11/28 & 12/21 – all at 6:30 as usual!)

We had guests – 3 of them to be exact. All very interesting.

Guest 1…Walgreens came in with a great showing of their leadership ready to restart our relationships with them as neighbors. They gave us some details about the security they have in place in their rebuilt store…they have double the security standards than their other stores. Their cameras have night vision and varied angles…they have a store greeter that will keep check on the whole store and parking lot (tours all premises). They keep camera footage for somewhere between 20-60 days. They are pursuing a liquor license, but will not sell singles (single bottles from a six pack) and they not be selling spirits – only wine and beer. There is a new manager Michael Beamer – Francisco is still the community contact in another store now. Gorman Moy, their N. Bay District Manager and Destry Prescott in charge of recovering loss and loss prevention came to the meeting with Perry from the Lakeshore store. THEIR GRAND RE-OPENING WILL BE OCTOBER 9TH, SATURDAY in the late AM (roughly planned from 11 to 2 or so – more on that when it is set). They gave us the green light for starting our garden up again! They are unable to pitch directly in to more cameras off of their property, but are very open to being approached about plans we design case by case to see if they can be a support. Walgreens really makes an effort to really consider things from a community/neighbor perspective in how they interact and communicate with us, which is always appreciated.

Guest 2: Greg Clester from Metwest High school – seeking organizations/businesses that can host their students as interns on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Metwest has a strong mentorship program and a very active, hands on curriculum. They are right in our neighborhood and have grades 9-12. If you are interested in providing internship opportunities you can reach him at 510 435-6115. We can also provide internships as the Lake Neighbors, we would need to have regular time we can offer working with them. For some of our bigger projects this could really be interesting for them and for us. We could even have someone in charge of youth leadership with Lake Neighbors who could run that. Let me know if you are interested in talking about that. He pitched yes on measure L to help with funding for Metwest.

Guest 3…America Works also came, represented by Frank Davis. AW has a contract with the city of Oakland under measure Y addressing crime prevention. They provide a wide array of employment opportunities to people ages 18-35 recently released from incarceration and are on parole or probation. This ties into our project focusing on healing the cause as well as with people we personally love and care about. Frank also mentioned that Measure BB is a continuation of Measure Y. For more info contact Frank Davis @ 510 891-9100.

Hoang has been coming to our meetings regularly which is very nice – she has a lot of info on everything and more specifically for this meeting she spoke about neighborhood improvements and also gave us some grant info – is there anyone out there that would like to take that on as a service (grantwriting) for Lake Neighbors?

There were a few more announcements here and there, but we really ran out of time after our guests shared and did Q&A. If anyone is interested in finding out what is happening down at the end of the lake where all that construction/destruction is going on, check out info on Measure DD (I was told to find measureDD.com, but that led me into Oaklandnet where there was info there).

Hope you are all great! See you out in the neighborhood and at the next meeting!

Sasha