Partners in Preservation -- Your Vote Makes A Difference
American Express, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the World Monuments Fund are teaming up for "Partners in Preservation". Through October 31st you can vote once per day (so vote often!) for a location that you'd like to see get grant funds for help with restoration. Oakland's Fox Theatre is on the list, as is the Cleveland Cascades. There are 23 other sites to consider throughout the Bay Area.

Ten to twelve of the 25 projects will receive grants in the range of $50,000 to $100,000 dollars and will be notified in November 2006.

Think about how improving these two projects would improve Oakland as a City. Make a difference and vote once per day! Click HERE to go to the Partners in Preservation website.
Posted 9/19/2006

National Neighborhood Day BBQ a Success!
We had people from almost every building in the District, except Phoenix Lofts! Surely the people there are neighborly so hopefully we can get more out for our next event.

Although our clown was a bit late, she was still there for an hour and made some very creative hats. The forklift seemed to be a big hit with the kids too.

As always Steve Sacks and his sidekick Ben Delaney did a great job cooking up the burgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs! Thanks to everyone else that pitched in and helped set up tables, etc.
Posted 9/18/2006

Wells Fargo Changes ATM in Jack London Square
Unfortunately, I don't see it as a positive change.

I don't know when they changed the ATM, but now you can only make a deposit without an envelope. I wish they had at least kept the envelope deposit as an option. In fact, you have to choose whether you are depositing cash or checks - no combo. And for whatever reason it didn't seem to like my business size checks that I was trying to deposit. After 10 minutes and a line 5 deep I gave up and decided that I'll have to find some other way to make deposits. I'm sure I'm a minority - undoubtedly more people are depositing just one check or making a withdrawal.

SO... before I used to have my handy envelope ready to go and I'd make a quick deposit and no one was the wiser of what I was depositing be it cash or checks - or both. Now I have to hold out my cash for all to see and enter it into the machine one bill at a time.

I didn't notice if the machine was Diebold or not... the old one was, so maybe they were worried that they were losing deposits. (tongue in cheek)

Hey, anyone from Wells Fargo, if you're reading this please put the second machine back in. Now that it takes longer to do a deposit, the lines are longer (there was a line when I got there this evening). Thanks.
Posted 9/12/2006

New Ordinance On Track for Cell Phone Towers
Check out this article in the Oakland Tribune regarding the current status of the cell phone moratorium.

The revised telecommunications facilities ordinance is scheduled for discussion on Tuesday's Community and Economic Development Committee, 4 p.m., 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. If you've not commented on the issue during any of the workshops given by the City throughout the summer, this would probably be your last chance to get a word in before it goes to Council (by which time it's probably too late, really).
Posted 9/11/2006

Oak to 9th Referendum is blocked by City Attorney
Citizen petition blocked by City at Oak to Ninth Developer's request.

The Better Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee responded with indignation today that attorneys for developer Mike Ghielmetti and Signature Properties have persuaded Oakland City Attorney John Russo to stop the counting of petitions filed by the referendum committee on August 17. The same law firm prevented citizens from having a say in Albany Waterfront development.
Despite this questionable challenge, the Better Oak to Ninth Referendum Committee is confident the petitions are in conformance with state laws governing referendums. This included collecting and filing the petitions within the 30-day submission period, even though the city did not make a copy of the legislation available until several days after the council hearing. Although we continue to research the issue, our attorney advises us that the referendum will likely stand up to the developer's challenge.

It is a common tactic for developers to nitpick legal issues in their attempts to disqualify citizen efforts to use their legal rights to challenge a city decision by means of a referendum petition. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters has not yet completed the review of the petition signatures, for which they have thirty business days. In any event, the developer's challenge is premature.
The referendum committee views the action of the City Attorney as caving in to pressure from the developer. While the developer claimed there were five separate problems with the petitions, including not having been translated into Vietnamese, the City Attorney rejection was based on not having the full final ordinance included. Ironically, it was the City Clerk's office that put the ordinance up on the City's website and directed the referendum committee to download it from the website.

The referendum committee expects to challenge the City's action halting the signature count in court. The committee strongly believes that once the court has reviewed the facts, the petition will be found to be fully legal, and the complaint declared to be groundless. The committee continues taking all actions needed to ensure that the petition count goes forward.

What does this really mean? It means that more money is needed to fight the battle and if you would like to donate to the cause you can donate via PayPal using the link from the A Better Oak to Ninth website OR you can email Gary Knecht and he will pick up any cash, check or money orders that you wish to donate. The Coalition needs funds as soon as possible in order to further fund attorney fees.
Posted 9/07/2006

Grand Lake Guardian Makes Debut
It's funny how activism and lack of communications pushes some towards creating their own news outlet... I wonder if that's how Jack London News got started?

Congratulations to those at the Grand Lake Guardian! You are so lucky to have so many participant writers. If any readers of this paper would like to participate in writing for the Jack London News, I would LOVE IT!
Posted 9/05/2006

Jack London News Print Edition for September Now Available!
The Sierra Deli, the Sierra Salon, Markus Supply, and some of the Sales Offices for the new buildings have it available FREE!

Jack London Mail also has it, but will be closed from 5:30pm tonight (9/1) through Tuesday, when they reopen at 9am.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!
Posted 9/01/2006