Construction Meeting Review
On Thursday, December 11th at 6:30pm, what may have been the last construction meeting - or at least the last for now - was held at the Egghouse.

Don Smith from the City of Oakland facilitated the meeting as he has in the past with representatives from the projects under construction and interested parties from the neighborhood. It was nice to reconvene and get an update on all the new (not rehab) projects in the Jack London District.

The Ellington - 222 Broadway - has their temporary occupancy permits, and should have their final occupany permit at the beginning of the year. Typically we've seen people move in at this point, but at this point it is not clear what the developer intends. They are handing out marketing information and taking appointments to tour the building, but I've not seen pricing or move in dates. In any case, because the construction is basically finished, no representatives were at the meeting.

311 2nd Street - also known as The Colony - was represented by San Jose Construction. Bud (sorry, didn't catch the last name) says that they are 70% completed. Windows are in progress, and we should see the final floor (8th) arched windows go in next week. Cabinets have arrived, and the painters have started. The sanitary sewer project is complete, although the City continues to dig up areas throughout the District as part of a different project. The trench plates on 2nd Street should go away next week. This building will be painted before completion, and if their choices with Aqua Via are anything to go by, it should be a great looking addition to the neighborhood. Although the final name for the project has not been chosen, it is clear that they will not ultimately be going with "The Colony". They expect temporary occupany permits to be issued in late June or July. This building is being built as condos, but just like it's sister building, Aqua Via, they will be rentals to begin with. I'm sure that when the market heats up again, we'll see some of these units hit the market. Renters will have first choice, which is something to think about with the prime penthouse units with fabulous views.

66 Franklin (previously home to El Torito and the Spaghetti Factory back in the day) was discussed as having permits processed for a bakery. Meg Ray, of Miette in San Francisco, is opening another site here, although I've heard it will not be called Miette. Oakland Convention Visitors Bureau has a press release that you can read.

55 Harrison - also known as "Jack London Market" (and previously known as "Harvest Hall" during the planning stage) was not discussed, but obviously the building is well under way. This is the building directly behind (almost appears to be surrounding) Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon.

255 2nd Street - also known as "Site G" - is well under way, with completion scheduled for mid-February. There will be an art installation on the two sheer walls - one facing the Amtrak station and the other facing what is currently known as The Colony project. Last weekend the installation of the pedestrian bridge crossing over towards the Jack London Market went very well. This building will have some feature elements painted, but overall will retain the plain concrete look. The arches facing 2nd Street were part of the improvements suggested by the neighborhood during design meetings coordinated between the architect and local interested parties. The security lighting was discussed as being invasive to residents facing the project, and project manager Frank (again, sorry no last name) from Pankow was quick to respond and headed over after the meeting to make some changes. Thank you's from various community members have already been voiced and his actions are greatly appreciated.

The other discussion, which comes up at every single meeting, was in regards to construction worker parking on the streets of the neighborhood. While the streets are indeed public streets, the terms and conditions of the conditions of approval for all projects being built (not rehabs), are that construction workers must NOT park on City streets. They must park in designated off-street parking provided by the developer. Both Bud & Frank said that they continue to have a morning meeting with their workers for that day regarding the parking situation and obviously they are paying for off site parking, and they don't want the neighborhood calling, so I do think that they are doing more than has been done in the past. No fines have ever been levied, although a few years ago several (2-4?) were forced to pay into a fund to enforcement when the problem got out of hand.

There was no word on 377 2nd Street (where Mingles & the Oak Tree used to be) and what was going on at that site. Demolition was done in late November and they are still removing debris from that site. Don Smith was going to check on whether it was properly permited, because certainly no notices were sent out as they should have been. Considering the blight that the empty spaces had become, it's probably better that it was knocked down.

As for future meetings, there are none scheduled at this point. If enough people call and complain, another may be added in the future, but things have definately quieted down from the events of 2002-2004.

Each project continues to maintain contact information signage at their projects so if you do have an issue, you can contact the project directly. They also have City contact information, which is a good second chance place to look for help if at first you don't get the help you need directly from the project.

Lastly, I mentioned that this meeting covered new projects and not rehab projects, such as the rehab going on at 3rd & Webster. The earthquake retrofit of what used to be home of Bay Cities Produce, is the future home of Blue Bottle Coffee. This is an exciting new arrival expected in 2009, that the neighborhood can look forward to. We'll have more information on it coming soon.
Posted 12/14/2008

Weekend Construction Friday Night - Saturday Morning
The Embarcadero will be closed Friday, December 5th from 4pm to Saturday, December 6th at 10am so that a new overhead pedestrian bridge can be put into place. The pedestrian bridge will link the parking garage (known as "Site G) to the parking lot at Jack London Square.

This construction work - on the weekend and at night - HAS been approved, as it was the best time for traffic concerns, as well as shutting down train traffic on the Union Pacific tracks. This includes Amtrak traffic.

Here is the info from Matt Wickens, local resident and project manager for Ellis Partners:

We will be installing the long span of the new pedestrian bridge between the new Garage and Market buildings in the early morning hours of Saturday December 6th. The bridge will span across the railroad tracks and Embarcadero Avenue , and is in line with Harrison Street . Unfortunately, we are constrained to a short over-night work window by both Amtrak and Union Pacific train schedules, hence the need to work outside of normal hours. We anticipate that Embarcadero will be closed from 4pm on 12/5 to 10am on 12/6 to allow for set-up and dismantle of the large crane needed to place the bridge. All required street closure and building permits have been obtained from the City of Oakland . Union Pacific Railroad has approved the installation and completed design. We are in the process of alerting Oakland PD Traffic Division.

Actual bridge installation will begin just after 12:00 am on Saturday, and should not take more than a few hours if all goes as planned. The work area will need site lighting for obvious reasons, but we do not anticipate any extremely loud noise from the site.

We apologize in advance for any disruption this causes, but we do not anticipate any major impact to the neighborhood.

I can be reached at 415-264-4903 with any questions or concerns. Please feel free to forward this on to any appropriate parties in the neighborhood.


Matt

Matt Wickens
Ellis Partners LLC
111 Sutter St. Ste. 800, SF , CA 94104
O: 415-391-9800
C: 415-264-4903


Won't it be great to have a night without train noise???!!!!
Posted 12/03/2008

Construction Meeting to Reconvene
There will be a construction meeting on Thursday, December 11th at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held at the Egghouse, located at 229 Harrison (cross street is Third Street).

If you have questions or concerns regarding any of the projects in the Jack London District, this is the place to ask.
Posted 12/03/2008

Jack London News Endorses Rebecca Kaplan
The Oakland City Councilmember At Large race is a good one. I believe both candidates are quite capable, but one stands out for me: Rebecca Kaplan.

She's a smart woman, and she's a self proclaimed policy wonk. Wow, someone who actually reads those stacks and stacks of paper created through City Hall. She gets what the average Oakland citizen is dealing with, and having served on the at-large seat for AC Transit, and I think she'd do a great job for the people of Oakland. Another benefit? She's considered an outsider, or at least compared to Kerry Hamill. Ms. Hamill worked with Don Perata in the past and was endorsed by quite a few of the current council members. Right there Rebecca Kaplan gets my vote.

That she's mature, smart, and into all that policy stuff is a bonus.

So VOTE FOR KAPLAN for the AT LARGE Council Member race.
Posted 10/16/2008

Voting - Did you know?
Here's some helpful information to prepare you for voting season.

Everyone knows that there is no longer a polling location at Jack London Square or the old fire department near Beverages & More, right? Just checking. It seems voters showed up there back in June, even though those haven't been valid polling locations for quite some time.

If you've moved, even within the same county, you need to re-register to vote. You can register through October 20th to be eligible to vote in the November 4th election. Register online here.

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters is still looking for polling location help, so if you want to earn a few extra dollars for working on election day, here is where you can go online to register for that.

Be sure to look at your Sample Ballot and Voter Information Pamphlet, which not only prepares you for all the different races being voted in, but also on the back has your current voting location. Since many voting locations have changed recently, PLEASE check this so that you're ready on November 4th. For example, in Tower Lofts, our polling location is listed as:

Your precinct has no poll place. Vote and return ballot by mail.

I'm not sure why we have no polling location, because I certainly tried to get us one and even thought we had it covered, but I guess I have to keep working on that. If no polling location is listed you MUST vote by mail using the ballot they have sent to you.

Here in Allegro's Building C (where Jack London Mail resides), the polling location is 189 Third St in the space adjacent to the Allegro gym. (Third & Jackson) I thought it would cover more of the neighborhood than it apparently does, but oh well. Don't assume that this is your polling location - check first!

If you don't have your pamphlet available, you can check online as to where your polling location is, although it says on the website that you need to wait until 15 days before the election.

I recently took a class to become a polling location inspector (glorified name for supervisor for the day), and I learned some interesting things that I thought I'd pass on.

Wearing a candidate or issue t-shirt, button, hat, etc is considered electioneering and not allowed within 100 feet of a polling location. If you should end up wearing such items, as polling location workers we are supposed to ask you to remove them or cover them up. A t-shirt can be turned inside out.

If you are registered as a vote by mail voter, you can still vote at your local precinct (if you have one), but it will be on a provisional ballot, not a regular ballot. You could also take your ballot by mail to the polling location to dropoff, but if you don't have the envelope to send it in with it, you will use a provisional ballot.

And voting machines! I learned a lot about voting machines. First, I know that many people are skeptical of them. But the ones in Alameda all come with a paper trail. When you vote, you can see a summary of all your choices on paper (to the left of the screen), as well as on the screen. You can even go back and change something. When finished, the paper goes to the next blank area so the person after you doesn't know how you voted.

The paper ballots get scanned, but how do you know what they scanned? You can't review what the scanner read compared to how you voted, even if there is a paper trail.

But here's the insider scoop about the voting machine. You have to ask to use it. As a poll worker I can't point it out to you, I can't offer it to you if there's a huge line waiting to vote, etc. YOU have to ask for it. And, if only four people use the machine throughout the day, those four votes won't be counted. You have to have at least five people use the machine in order for the votes to count. Their reasoning is that if you only have one person use it, then you know how that specific identifiable person voted based on the final report for the machine at the end of the night.

I thought this was bizarre because I know someone asked me last year to use it, but apparently that was illegal.

The Alameda County Registrar is expecting a 90% turnout in voters compared to only a 30% voter turnout in June. I hope that Alameda County can beat that 90% prediction!
Posted 10/14/2008

MoNO Restaurant Closes - thank you, Economy.
Thanks to an underwhelming economy, MoNO Restaurant and Wine Bar closed their doors on Saturday after a little over six months of being open.

We loved MoNO, and loved having another locally owned business here in the neighborhood within easy walking distance. We loved the vibe of the place and couldn't help but consider the transformation that had turned it into such a lovely place compared to what it used to be. The contrast was amazing - as was the food, the wine, and the ambiance.

Here's a link to The Dude's first photos... and more photos, and even more photos. The Dude is a huge MoNO fan and a really great photographer!

One can't help but wonder if the bailout might magically work some spell to overcome the hardship and help Todd & Eloisa bring MoNO back sooner rather than later. ::fingers crossed::

Best wishes to Todd & Eloisa. Our thoughts are with you and we all hope that you can find a way to make it all work despite the (#&#&^#(=)*#$$ economy. Maybe a new, improved President might help?
Posted 10/13/2008

Miette, but not Miette, coming to Jack London Square
Oakbook has a great interview with Megan Ray, on bringing Miette to Oakland, only the name of the bakery and cooking school will be different, along with the product line. Miette, at the Ferry Building in SF is one of my favorite window shopping spots... yum!

No dates are given and a fair amount of construction work will need to be done, so don't go looking for it anytime soon, but it's a step in the right direction for the future of Jack London Square. And just to clarify, it will be in the ground floor of 66 Franklin, where the Spaghetti Factory and El Torito used to be, not in the new Jack London Market currently under construction adjacent to Heinold's.
Posted 10/07/2008

Register (or re-register) to vote by October 20, 2008
Just an FYI, especially for those new to the Jack London District.

You can register to vote online, or we will try to have forms at the JLDA Candidate Forum on Monday, September 15th. The Forum will be your chance to meet City Council At-Large candidates Rebecca Kaplan and Kerry Hamill. The forum will be held at the Portobello Regatta Room at 11 Embarcadero - towards the back of the parking lot past the tennis courts next door to KTVU. The forum will start at 6:30pm and go until 8pm.

This is your chance to see for yourself what the candidates have to say and ask questions. Since Council Member Nancy Nadel isn't very supportive (imho!) of our neighborhood, perhaps we can get some committments from one of these candidates for the at-large seat.
Posted 9/11/2008

Ellington's Future Uncertain
The Ellington is the under-construction condo building on Broadway between 2nd & 3rd Streets. It is 134 condos with a fair amount of retail space at the ground level.

A month or so ago, someone sent me a link to an article on the developer, Molasky Pacific. It seems that Irwin Molasky (apparently of some fame in the Las Vegas development scene) had filed personal bankruptcy.

(In a side note, it is worth further clicking on the link in that story to one about a "troublemaker" who has my favorite quote of the year - "I've always found," Shabel said at one point, with her slight British accent, "that if you have a cocktail party before the project is completed, it usually spells trouble. Almost none of them end up going through." How appropriate! Didn't the Ellington have their grand opening back at the beginning of the year with tales of sales starting in April?)

So then today I was catching up on my San Francisco Business Times reading and I saw a story about the Ellington. It seems that it was SOLD three months ago to their equity partner, Lehman Brothers. It seems that now Lehman Brothers has troubles of their own and are selling off most of their commercial real estate holdings, whether that includes the Ellington has not been announced. The story comes from the September 5-11, 2008 issue.

At the last construction meeting, Swinerton said that they were expecting to turn the building over to the developer in October 2008... hmm, will individual units be sold, or the building as a whole???
Posted 9/09/2008

Register to Vote / Announcement of new polling location
If you're new to the neighborhood, it's a good time to re-register to vote. You can do it online by clicking on this link. You have until October 20th to register.

When you get your voter information for the November issue, be sure to look at where you'll be voting. Last week a new polling location was approved at 3rd & Jackson in the empty space adjacent to the Allegro Apartments gym. Hopefully it will cover a good majority of the District.

After the last election I asked as many people as I could if they voted. I don't care who or what you voted for, just that you voted. I can't tell you how many people told me that they hadn't voted! And the variety of excuses was interesting. A good majority of the excuses were that they didn't know where to go to vote. Some thought that their polling location was still at the Port Building in Jack London Square, which it hasn't been for at least two or three elections. Others were confused by the location in Chinatown.

So this time around, check your booklet when it comes if you're not voting by mail. Hopefully you'll find a very walkable polling location right here in your neighborhood.

(Note to Phoenix Lofts & others on the "other side of Broadway" - not sure where your polling location would be, so do be sure to check your booklet.)
Posted 8/05/2008