DISTRICT
4 NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS #166
M&W Liquors Eviction, Oakland Marks War’s 3rd Anniversary, Sausal Trout, Logo Winner, More Daffodils, Sign Up for Earth Day, Teacher Contract Forum, Missing Mail Box
1.
Office Hours
in
2.
M&W
Liquors Faces Eviction
3.
4.
Missing Mail
Box
5.
The new
Joaquin Miller Park Logo
6.
Fish Debates
& Grates:
7.
Sign up for
Earth Day Projects Now
8.
Send Us Your
Daffodil Pictures
9.
10.
Seeking
Candidates for Community Policing Board
11.
Mayoral
Forums:
12.
Sign the
Parent Petition, Attend Public Forum on the Negotiations March 6th
13.
Katrina/Rita
Call to Action this Weekend
14.
Tax Help and
More at the Public Library
15.
Upcoming
Green and Community Events:
Michael Morgan Conducts School Orchestras March 9; MSIC Public Meeting March 9;
AAUW Summer Programs ; Oakland Women Business Leaders Conference March 24; Montera Middle School Annual Spring Auction March 25;
Skyline Jazz Band at Yoshi’s Jazz House on Monday,
April 3 at 8 pm ; Save the Date Maxwell Park School Clean up April 1; Horace
Mann Garden May 6, Bringing Back the Natives
Garden Tour May 7; Celebrate Women’s History Month at the USS Hornet
Museum, Saturday, March 18
Thanks to years of creek habitat
restoration by Friends of Sausal Creek:
Steelhead Trout in Sausal Creek in a pool near
1.
Office
Hours in
M&W owners claim they cannot prevent the
drug dealing tied to their store. But on
the day their eviction papers were served they were selling T-Shirts like this
that seem aimed at intimidating neighbors. Jean holds
up one of the T-Shirts at this week’s news conference.
2.
M&W
Liquors Faces Eviction:
This week we
gathered neighbors, police, and other city officials at M&W Liquors to
announce a neighborhood victory. The
owner of the building occupied by M&W Liquors served notice of eviction to
the store. The M&W lease expired on March 1st. Furthermore, the property owner has agreed to
give up the right to have a liquor store at that location in the future. City
attorneys estimate legal appeals could take several weeks, but are confident
that court will uphold the eviction. The closure of this magnet for crime will
be the product of hundreds of complaints made by neighbors throughout the
Maxwell Park,
çCaptain Kozicki, head of the new task force on violent crime, speaks to
neighbors.
For
the last two years we have been following complaints about the M&W Liquor
Store at High and Fairfax. Last summer the complaints increased and multiple
arrests outside and inside of the store have been made. Neighbors report that the drug activity makes
them feel unsafe driving near the store.
In the last months there were two shootings and a stabbing outside the
store.
Over the last two years as we have tried to hold the liquor store owners
accountable, the “ownership” was constantly changed to avoid a hearing on their
license, we are working with our state legislators to close this loop
hole. While M&W owners claimed to
be able to do nothing, they refused to use the video equipment installed for
sidewalk and interior surveillance and sold t-shirts reading “No Snitching” or
promoting drug use. They either put or
allowed furniture on the sidewalks used by the dealers gathering there. Last
month we were prepared to go to a Public Nuisance hearing to challenge the Use
Permit for a liquor store at that site.
In the preliminary meeting the owners agreed to evict their tenants when
the lease expired on February 28th, rather than face the hearing and
subsequently being fined up to $1000 per day.
3.
Ø On Friday, March 17, Noon to 1:30 pm, City Council chambers, I am sponsoring a Lunch-time
Forum with local experts to
discuss the impact of the war on the local economy and programs. Congresswoman Barbara Lee will be on the panel
Washington votes permitting.
Ø The next day, Saturday,
March 18th, the Anniversary of the War, the
Congresswoman and two of her colleagues will hold a Town Hall Meeting on the Iraq War at the
Grand Lake Theatre,
|
President Bush’s proposed Discretionary Budget,
FY2006 This chart does not
include any spending for the wars in
|
·
The war currently costs the
nation about $100,000 per minute.
·
Including the new appropriations in front of Congress, the local
financial share of the war costs will be:
·
Today’s total for
·
The costs are more than
financial. This website measures formal
military casualties, but does not cover the civilian losses. Nor is there an estimate for how many more
will die in this country, because the President is cutting Headstart, schools,
police, Medicare and Medicaid benefits at the same time.
· True
Majority has online petitions to Congress.
4.
Missing Mail
Boxes: Many residents of
5.
6. Fish Debates &
Grates: While soliciting some opinions on tree grates with a fish
design, I inadvertently started a debate on our local Steelhead Trout in Sausal
Creek The most
interesting thing was that many people were not aware of this wonderful natural
resource that flows through most of my district. Here are a few sources from the Dimond Improvement listserv and other sites on Sausal
Creeks most treasured residents:
·
Born
to be wild trout: Local fish goes global, Chronicle, 4/22/05
·
http://www.naparcd.org/steelheadtrout.htm
·
From
Sam Cohen an expert member of Friends of Sausal Creek:
The
resident rainbow trout in Sausal Creek are descendents of anadromous
steelhead that spawned in Sausal Creek. They spend their first year in the
creek and then swim out to the Bay and ocean to grow. Steelhead come back
during the winter rains to spawn. Unlike Pacific Salmon, steelhead usually
survive spawning and can return repeatedly to spawn. Because of migrational barriers, steelhead cannot swim up Sausal
Creek. Therefore, we end up with only the resident fish that obviously don't
grow to the size of their ocean going brethren.
Within
the creek, rainbow trout populations are isolated as culverts and tall drops
are often impassable barriers. Friends of Sausal Creek has been working on
trout passage, summer habitat, and creating spawning areas (pools and low
enough turbidity so eggs don't suffocate). Generally, the trout will swim
upstream in the spring looking for good spawning habitat. We have observed
rainbow trout spawning in the El Centro pool and then two months later seen the
fry so we know that the spawning was successful. Rainbow trout typically
spawn in the tail end of pools in medium sized gravel.
7. Sign up for Earth
Day Projects Now: Earth Day falls on Saturday, April 22 this year.
Last year, District 4 had the most projects in the city and we anticipate that
we will continue to generate many beautification projects throughout District
4. While the deadline for official status with Keep Oakland Beautiful (KOB) isn’t until March 20, we encourage groups to
sign up early, so you can take advantage of the tools, t-shirts, water and
other goodies that KOB provides. Our
office often provides technical advice and raises funds to supply food, plants,
and supplies for projects. Please
send an e-mail with the location, project and contact person, phone number and
email address to Jennifer Argueta jargueta@oaklandnet.com
so that we know you are planning an activity. Go to http://www.oaklandpw.com/AssetFactory.aspx?did=1558
to download a registration form.
Daffodils
at
8.Send Us Your Daffodil
Pictures: If we use your
photo, we’ll send you two tickets to see the A’s….that other reminder of
springtime in
9.
10. Seeking
Candidates for Community Policing Board: With the passing of Marvin Smith, there is now an opening for a District
4 representative to the Community Policing Board. The Board works with the
Police Department to strengthen community-police collaborations. If you are interested in serving on this
Board, please send me a letter describing what experience you have in community
policing and involvement in Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils (NCPCs) or Neighborhood Home Alert skills Please include
your resume.
11. Mayoral
Forums: The Mayor’s Race is clearly
getting the most press, this is a list of the debates coming up that are
citywide in focus or that are in our district:
·
March 18th,
11:30 am- 1 pm: District
4 Town Hall Mayoral
St
·
March 30th,
7-8:30
pm:
First Presbyterian Church of
·
April 13th,
7-9 pm: League of Women Voters
& the Marcus Foster Educational Institute,
Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St.
In addition, 50 debate locations were set up
as part of a challenge by Council President DeLaFuente
to hold a debate in every neighborhood.
Today the Montclarion urged all the major candidates to participate.
These are the events scheduled in or near my district. The full list can be found at the DeLaFuente for Mayor website.
|
|
Date |
Time of Debate |
Neighborhood |
Location (some pending) |
|
|
4 |
Sat, March 11 |
|
Fruitvale ( |
|
|
|
5 |
Tues, March 14 |
|
Dimond ( |
Dimond Library Community Meeting Room |
|
|
8 |
Fri, March 24 |
|
Maxwell Park ( |
|
|
|
9 |
Sat, March 25 |
|
( |
|
|
|
14 |
Sat, April 8 |
|
( |
|
|
|
15 |
Sat, April 8 |
|
( |
|
|
|
21 |
Sat, April 15 |
|
Allendale ( |
|
|
|
28 |
Fri, April 28 |
|
( |
Victory Outreach |
|
|
30 |
Sat, April 29 |
|
Millsmont ( |
|
|
|
34 |
Sat, May 6 |
|
Piedmont Pines ( |
|
|
|
37 |
Fri, May 12 |
|
Ridgemont ( |
|
|
|
41 |
Fri, May 19 |
|
Crestmont (North-East) |
|
|
|
43 |
Sat, May 20 |
|
Seminary (Central-East |
|
|
|
46 |
Tues, May 23 |
|
( |
Horace Mann Elementary |
|
12.
Sign
the Parent Petition, Attend Public Forum on the Negotiations March 6th: Christopher
Waters and Kathy Rieves, Peralta Parent Teacher Group
(PPTG) Co-Chairs, are circulating a petition asking people to urge resolution of
the District/Teachers impasse. You can sign the petition online by logging on
to http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/Negotiate_Now
Additionally, the Peralta Parent Teacher Group is hosting
a forum on Monday, March 6, from
6 to 8 pm. at
the meeting room of the Rockridge Public Library,
I urge
What disturbs me most is the current rate
of teacher turnover: 30 percent. Even in the
worst years of the late 80’s when the district was nearly taken over by the
state and the district practiced the poor management practice of laying off the
youngest teachers each year until the state settled the budget….the turnover
rate was not this high!
We must work together to make
sure that teachers are paid fairly and want to stay in
HOW TO CONTACT BOTH SIDES:
·
http://www.oaklandea.org/executive_board.htm
·
State
Administrator Randy Ward: randolph.ward@secmail.ousd.k12.ca.us,
·
Jack
O'Connell, State Superintendent
(916) 319–0800 (ph) joconnell@cde.ca.gov