A community news source for residents of the HarriOak neighborhood in Oakland, CA.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Traffic Enforcement Update

The City of Oakland took a step toward addressing the chronic problems of speeding traffic on Oakland Avenue and Harrison Streets by installing a permanent solar-powered speed-feedback sign on Oakland Avenue. Police officers also cracked down on speeders on April 15, 16, 17, 18, 20 and on May 9, issuing 21 citations and 2 warnings. One vehicle was towed.

Just a friendly reminder to drive the speed limit when passing through the neighborhood! Also, if you see speeders or dangerous drivers please call 510-238-3155 and press 8. Also, please email Stacey Perry of OPD at sperry@oaklandnet.com and request more enforcement. The emails are important because they document the problem and will help the city justify a request for state funding to re-engineer portions of the street in order to promote traffic calming.

Finally, there's an update on the CalTrans grant for studying traffic calming solutions on Harrison Street and Oakland Avenue.

Alisa Shen, the city planner who is overseeing the process said the city is talking with Design, Commmunity and Environment, a well-regarded firm with expertise in planning and community participation, to handle the contract. Shen said the city is in the process of negotiating scope and budget with DC&E and hopes to have something finalized by mid July. Once that's done, the project can finally begin. Shen promised to keep us all posted and estimates the overall planning process will take 10-14 months.

Neighborhood Talent Show, July 26, 2008

The Darreis Project is putting on Talent Show and Tribute on Saturday, July 26 at the First Christian Church at 111 Fairmount from 3 p.m to 7 p.m.

If you sing, act, recite poetry, dance, play an instrument, do comedy or have some other special or unusual skill, please join them!

To register, please a note with your name, age, telephone and talent to projectdarreis@yahoo.com. You can also call 510-467-5053 pr 510-692-1957 for more information.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Silence the Violence

A message from Pastor Jha of the First Christian Church:

Hello, neighbors! Many of us are concerned about the violence in our
neighborhood, with solutions ranging from cops to green jobs. And
many of us are aware of the shooting right across the street from
First Christian Church on Fairmount Avenue about a year ago.

Join members of the community on the steps of First Christian next
week as we commit ourselves to ending violence in our community,
simultaneous to dozens of vigils all across the city, organized by
Silence the Violence. Belinda Gilchrist of Project Darries and
Cynthia Carpathios of the Niroga Institute will be a part of the
event.

What: vigil to end violence in Oakland, especially in our neighborhood
Where: First Christian Church of Oakland, 29th and Fairmount Ave.
When: 6 PM

Honor the lives of those we've lost to violence. Honor the people who
have been victims of violence. Take a little time for a commitment to
ending violence and for hope for the task ahead. I really look
forward to joining with you in this gathering.

Peace,
Sandhya Jha
Pastor
First Christian Church of Oakland

Monday, June 9, 2008

Green Tech Town Hall (announcement)

GREEN TECH TOWN HALL

To facilitate a discussion of green job development with industry experts and community members: What could Green Job Development mean for West Oakland?


Invited Speakers:

_ Roger W. Lowther, Co-Founder, CleanAir Logix, Inc
_ Tim Sears, P.E., Program Director, GRID Alternatives
_ Britten Shuford, Co-Managing Partner, Pacifica Capital Group, Wayans Brothers-Pacifica Capital Urban Development Partnership
_ Oliver Sjahsam, Blue Green Pacific, Renewable Cogeneration, Wind Turbine Systems
_ Barbara Widhalm, MCRP, NSF Project Manager, Advanced Technology Education Initiative, Environmental Technology Program, Laney College, Peralta Community College District


When: Thursday, June 12, 2008
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: deFremery Recreation Center
1651 Adeline Street


This event is sponsored by Councilmember Nancy Nadel's office, City Council District 3. For more information, contact Marisa Arrona, 510/238-7031, arronam@oaklandnet.com.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Crime Meeting on Thursday June 12

The neighborhood crime meeting will be held on Thursday June 12 at 7 p.m. at a private house. Please e-mail harrioak at yahoo dot com for the address.

Art Opening: 3012 Harrison #4


As part of East Bay Open Studios 2008, Jemal Diamond is opening up his art studio on Harrison to the public and showing HUNDREDS of pieces of art.

Jemal says "Drawings, tiny paintings, sculptures galore. Abstract, interactive
and fun! We'll have wine and snacks and tons of art!"

Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm (6/7-6/8)
Saturday and Sunday (6/14 & 6/15).


http://www.thejemalshow.com

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Disappointing Election Results: Nadel Ahead Thanks to Dirty Campaign

With all the precincts reported, Nancy Nadel is leading her challengers, Sean Sullivan and Greg Hodge, by 268 votes. This is especially disappointing because her campaign was so dirty. Nadel instructed volunteers to emphasis her "tough crime" credentials when people who live in her district know that her approach to fighting crime is to support social programs, regardless of whether they have proven to work. She championed Measure R, which focused on providing millions of dollars for programs, after voting to reduce the number of police officers in Oakland. Measure R lost and so she reluctantly supported Measure Y, which emphasized hiring community police officers along with also social services. Measure Y had no money for investigators, and there are is now a backlog of more than 1000 cases of sexual assault involving children.

Nancy went as far as putting out a COPS voter guide to give the impression that she is supported by the police. The COPS guide was not supported by law enforcement. The Oakland police officers endorsed Sean Sullivan. Nadel's flyer was a deliberate attempt to deceive voters. Too bad it worked.

Another tactic Nancy used was to lie about Sean Sullivan's ties to developers. Both she and Sean took roughly the same amount of money from developers, but Sean focused on developers who do infill development in the inner cities. These are developers who invest in healthy communities. If only Nancy shared their philosophy.

On a recent flier she accused her opponents of being backed by "multi-national finance corporation, corporate media conglomerates, anti-labor garbage companies, absentee landlords and land speculators."

It was a fantasy.

In fact Nadel is the candidate endorsed by MediaNews, the Bay Area newspaper conglomerate that is partly owned by Hearst (the other Bay Area media conglomerate). Meanwhile, it is hard to figure out who would be dumb enough to speculate in Nadel's district, given her disastrous approach to crime and development.


The total count as of this morning was 3576 for Nancy Nadel; 1873 for Sean Sullivan
1435 for Greg Hodge. Nadel needed more than 50 percent of the vote to win and so far it looks like she has squeaked by with 51.6 percent.