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More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com I was reading the minutes from the August 27th Oakland Rockridge Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council meeting (a pdf file, not a link) and noticed the news that crime is up dramatically. Let's take cars as one example. There were 40 stolen cars in a 90 day period this year. The most commonly stolen cars are the Toyota Corolla, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and the Honda Civic. According to the Oakland Police, the reason most cars are stolen is because people simply leave the keys in them. "Lock it. Lock it. Lock it", is the advice given. Vehicle theft is a common problem in the Rockridge area. I used the Oakland Police " CrimeView Community website " to search for the number of vehicle thefts within a mile of 5600 College Avenue (see map below) and discovered that there were seven such crimes over the last 15 days. Almost one every other day. ...

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! YouTube , Yahoo , MySpace , Metacafe , DailyMotion , Blip.tv , StupidVideos , Sclipo and Viddler In the BART labor contract matter, one of the issues that's upset me is the union's request for a three percent wage increase. Now, I'm pro-union, that's not the issue, but we're in a terrible recession, perhaps a depression, and many people are unemployed or just trying to maintain employment. But even with that, we have BART's union workers asking for a raise! With such a request, we have the right to ask "Are you the BART worker giving riders the great service they deserve? Well, if the actions of this BART Rockridge station agent are any example, the answer's "no." I used BART to ride into San Francisco for a light dinner, and after parking at Rockridge, walked into the station as I always do, but noticed that the station agent booth was empty. I couldn't beli...

Living in the O reports - Safeway stakeholders meeting canceled (or postponed?) « Living in the O : “I’ve been planning to write another long post about the College Avenue Safeway rebuild, but haven’t quite found the time. I did want to alert everyone who’s interested that the meeting that was planned for this Tuesday, December 9th has been canceled. Unfortunately, there’s no further info on Safeway’s site about when the next meeting will be or if there will be one so that’s all the information I have.” -- The main problem is still the scale of the development proposed. Plus, the process of design did not include the residents from the start, so in perfect Oakland fashion, they're going to clobber it until Safeway understands and changes the process.

Below is the agenda for the latest meeting on the over-sized proposal for the Safeway on College Avenue.  The meetings tonight; I'm traveling.  But for those who attend and want a recap of the first meeting held June 19, 2008, here's my video from that 300-strong event: Rockridge Safeway Stakeholder Meeting #5 Agenda November 12, 2008 Section I. Introduction/Context 7:00-7:15 Welcome, introduction, agenda review Review overall project objective and today’s objectives Review of Groundrules Review process for tonight’s meeting Section II. Reflection of ideas generated during Meetings 1-4 7:15-7:30 Review areas of agreement and open items Interior Exterior Landscaping Contiguous Neighbor buffer Parking Traffic Section III. Open dialogue with David Blair (architect) 7:30-8:45 Todd Paradis – opening and purpose David Blair presents a couple of ideas for each program element – a sampling of some of the important aspects related to landscaping, buffer, exterior, parking, etc....

Thanks to the Rockridge News.. D o you have an extra hour each week to help feed the Bay Area’s less fortunate   residents? Daily Bread can match you with a food source and needy organization, doing their best to find a convenient time and place for you. Your job will be to pick updonated food at donor sites for delivery to local storage. Some pick up sites are available in Rockridge. Got the time? Call Patrice Ignelgi, 526-3123, or e-mail her at patrice@ pcsyes.com .  Daily Bread also operates the Milk for Kids program, which provides milk donated by the Berkeley Bowl and the Village Market to children in need. To volunteer, or for more information, contact Patrice Ignelgi.

This is a video of the recent June 19, 2008 meeting to present Safeway's controversial plan to dramatically move and expand the current Safeway store at College Avenue and Claremont. The new store will be at 6310 College Avenue and roughly at what is now a corner gas station. The new 75,000 square foot store -- three times the size of the current facility -- will undoubtefly bring more traffic and also foot traffic closer to the center of Rockridge in North Oakland. That's the concern of the over 300 people who packed the room on that hot Thursday June 19th evening. The video features incumbent Councilmember Jane Brunner's presentation of the meeting, a talk with Patrick McCullough, who was Brunner's challenger in the last election primary (2008), a presentation by Dan Metzger of the Claremont / Elwood Neighbor Association, Stu Flashman of The Rockridge Community Planning Council, and Elizabeth Jewel, the planning consultant, as well as Todd Paradis, of the Safeway Rea...

One good thing about being around here for awhile with an active memory is history. I remember when Dreyer's Ice Cream proposed its giant facility for Rockridge, and many, including for a time me, were against it. One reason for this was that the original plan called for a visible College Avenue presence that was just too out of scale with the neighborhood. I say that's true for the Safeway proposal before us. This is one of those stories that needs a video and one will be up soon, but for the present, what's neat about Rockridge is that there's not one long wall of building walls hugging the street. It's a parade of structures of varied heights, allowing Sun to reach the street and giving a small-town-in-Oakland feel. But Safeway's current proposal will destroy that feeling in my view. It calls for a building that does what's not cool: hugs the street and looms over it. It would drastically alter Rockridge and make it seem more like a retail downtow...

This bit of news from the SF Chronicle focuses on the Oakland Food Scene: Switching bait: Oakland's Pearl Oyster Bar & Restaurant (5634 College Ave., near Shafter) closed on April 7, but according to manager Micaela Gardner it's hardly the end for the Rockridge seafood house. After a few weeks' transition and a light remodel, Pearl will become Water Lounge, a raw bar, under Pearl owner Rick Tyler and much of the rest of the current management team. With luck, the opening date will be around May 19, Gardner says. Late hours and a full bar will be two of the attractions, as will a menu of mostly uncooked seafood. According to Gardner, that will allow for a smaller staff than Pearl's. "I'll have my pick of the litter," she says. Pearl opened in 2004 with Mark Lusardi as chef. When Lusardi left, Jonathan Luce, who had been in the kitchen since the opening, took over. Luce left in June and is now chef de cuisine at the newly opened Bellanico (4238 Park Blvd...

From Rockridge News, which really needs to be in blog form. An interview with City Councilwoman Jane Brunner by Stuart Flashman, RCPC boardmember, and member, RCPC Planning and Project Review Committee In 1998, the city of Oakland updated itsGeneral Plan, the fundamental document defining the city’s land use patterns. Almost 10 years later, the city has not yet revised all of its zoning ordinance to fit with what the General Plan says. The Rockridge News talked to Jane Brunner, city councilwoman for North Oakland, about this zoning upd a t e process and what it might mean for Rockridge. Councilwoman Brunner will be an invited speaker at the RCPC’s October 18 General Meeting on the topic of the Rockridge/ Temescal Zoning Update and the future of Rockridge. Rockridge News: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me about zoning in Rockridge and Temescal. Let’s start with a simple question – what is zoning about? Jane Brunner: Zoning really is taking a look at how many housing units,...

From the RCPC website at Rockridge.org The Rockridge Kitchen Tour, a fundraiser for the Rockridge Community Planning Council (RCPC), debuted in 1995 and has continued to be a sterling biennial fall event ever since. This year’s tour is our seventh and it features, as always, nine remodeled or renovated kitchens in the Rockridge neighborhood. The 2005 tour attracted over 750 guests who were treated to unique kitchens such as the Hudson Street kitchen, personalized for easy accessibility for its wheelchair-bound owner, and the owner-renovated 1914-inspired kitchen on Taft Avenue. This year, the selection committee considered a record number of exquisite kitchens—twice as many as ever before. The final selections are remarkable not only for their spectacular designs, but for their innovative use of materials and clever tailoring to suit homes small and large, Craftsman and contemporary. This year’s tour proudly includes a resident artist’s kitchen with its owner’s paintings adding bril...

The Rockridge Community Planning Council is seeking new board members. You can apply for the April election; the application is due February 28th 2007. Here's the information from The Rockridge News. Looking for ways to improve the quality of life in Rockridge? Concerned about development issues in Rockridge, zoning, schools, traffic, or crime? Have ideas for improving the BART plaza? Expanding our parks? Greening our streets? Well, Rockridge needs people like you. Taking a seat on the Rockridge Community Planning Council board will enable you to further your ideas and make Rockridge a more thriving, dynamic community. RCPC is a nonprofit public benefit organization, founded in 1985 to preserve and enhance the unique character of the Rockridge neighborhood, promote the health, safety, and quality of life of its residents, furnish a forum for community involvement, and provide leadership and representation of neighborhood interests. RCPC will hold its annual election in April fo...

Assembly bill seeks to limit state oversight by Kerry Hamill, North Oakland School Board Member - Rockridge News, January Oakland’s new state Assembly member, Sandre Swanson, will likely spark some long overdue discussions in Sacramento this year about the future governance of Oakland public schools. On Swanson’s first day as a member of the Oakland delegation, he introduced a bill which would put the school board back in control and protect the district’s students from any risky financial decisions by keeping budget veto power in the hands of a state-designated trustee. If passed, the bill would allow the school board to resume power in 2008 and select a new superintendent. To that end, current state administrator Kimberly Statham will likely be on a short list of possible candidates. She continues to earn high marks in the school community for her ability to listen, accept good advice and embrace changes that have worked well for students. Central to any discussion about restoring lo...