Category — politics

As the Oscar Grant / protest / riot situation simmers, City Councilmember Pat Kernighan, who represents part of downtown, expressed her outrage at the vandals and her sympathy for the residents and businesses who have been working to transform the DTO, only to see their property destroyed by out-of-town “wannabe revolutionaries.” Her balanced essay is a must-read for concerned citizens. She highlights the unfairness of negative media attention when the vandals were not residents, and promises to help spread a more positive message of Oaklanders coming together to support their community.

To show solidarity with local businesses damaged by this and last week’s rioting, Oaklanders have organized two events designed to bring folks to the DTO. Tonight, blog commenters have declared a Night Out, and are encouraging everyone to spend the evening at one of downtown’s many restaurants, discos, and cultural venues. Tomorrow (Sat Jan 17 2009), merchant groups throughout the city have organized 17th on 17th, a mini-festival celebrating downtown’s charming block of shops between Franklin and Webster Streets, from 2 to 5p. When was the last time buying a smoothie and a handbag was such a good deed? I look forward to seeing you there.

If I were to update last month’s Uptown Excitement blog, I’d call it Uptown Explosion. Several restaurants announced openings in the greater Uptown area, generating attention from San Francisco to Westlake. The district may soon see a champagne bar, but still no taco trucks.

More than just the culinary arts are flourishing in Uptown. Partners from B Restaurant, Fiveten Studio, and Levende East are planning a multi-level dance club in the block of historic storefronts including 21 Grand, once home to Industrielle, a mattress dealer, and a military-themed bookstore. Meanwhile, an improv theater has found a home nearby, on Broadway.

Maybe I’ve been paying too much attention to BRT, TOD and LTEs, but it seems like car parking is an issue as Oakland becomes a bit more thriving. But not only cars need parking. Bicyclists are of course aware of the crippling lack of bike parking since meters were replaced by kiosks. For another modal perspective, the crew of the Zen Sakai document the hassle of parking a boat to get lunch at Jack London Square.

Saturday, City Councilmember-elect Rebecca Kaplan, Equality California’s Sean Sullivan, and other leaders (TBA) will address a gathering of Oaklanders at City Hall in opposition to Proposition 8. Tomorrow looks to be warm, and Frank Ogawa Plaza is a sunny spot on a nice day.

Lest I leave out the jewel of downtown, please enjoy this Zeppelin’s-eye view of Lake Merritt, and your DTO weekend.

Well, Election Day is here, and it looks to be an exciting one. With all luck, Obama will win early (Virginia’s polls close at 4pm Pacific), but Californians will be up late looking for results on the all-important state and local races. To while away the time doing something other than obsessively reloading MSNBC.com, bring your recently-voted self to Starbucks for a free coffee (multiple locations) or Ben and Jerry’s (Jack London Square) for a free ice cream cone!

The O-Scene has a comprehensive list of election night parties, though it doesn’t include the official Alameda County Democratic Party bash at the Oakland Marriott. Other places holding parties include Air Lounge, Everett & Jones, Kimball’s Carnival, Luka’s Taproom, and an undisclosed location in Ghost Town.

See you there! I’ll be the guy with the I Voted sticker.

In the report for Oakland’s Zoning Update Committee of the Planning Commission for Wednesday’s hearing (PDF), city’s staff makes several major mistakes in Attachment H (pdf), among other places, regarding the height of existing buildings and their placement on the skyline, as discussed at A Better Oakland. From the selection below, try to spot all eight ten errors.

Lake Merritt Skyline

Numerous downtown residents and interested parties have complained that the Downtown Zoning Update has featured a remarkably poor public input process. First, councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Pat Kernighan, who represent downtown, convened two meetings to get input on zoning around Lake Merritt. Both of the meetings were held outside of downtown as defined by the General Plan. Then the city staff, with the assistance of Councilmember Nadel, held two meetings specifically on the downtown Zoning Update, again outside of downtown. After members of the public (and a City Council candidate) complained that “nobody downtown knows about this process,” the Planning Commission ordered the planning staff to hold one more public input meeting, actually inside downtown this time. While nothing has been added to the official Zoning Update page or the Yahoo! Group created by Councilmember Nadel, I have learned that there is in fact a meeting scheduled.

On Monday April 7 Councilmembers Chang and Kernighan and the planning staff are holding an outreach meeting, starting at 6p, a Restaurant Peony in Chinatown. The forum is organized by the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. This was revealed only by a neighborhood services coordinator who spotted the email on the “Asians in Oakland Government” group and then shared it with her neighborhood group.

Though Old Oakland, SOBO, Uptown and Downtown Lake Merritt don’t seem to merit the notice of city planners or Councilmembers, at least there will be one meeting on the downtown zoning update that’s actually inside the affected area. Too bad few people will know about it.

Tonight, the Planning Department will present the final of their four public input meetings regarding proposed zoning for the Central Business District. This final meeting will not be downtown, but in Adam’s Point, at the Sailboat House (which is poorly served by public transit) at 6:30. To be discussed are use restrictions, separate residential and commercial zones, and strict design guidelines. For a thorough explanation of what exactly the new zoning proposes, see A Better Oakland’s post, Zoning From Mars.

The proposal will be presented to the Zoning Update Committee of the Planning Commission on Wednesday, at City Hall, which is actually downtown. And near several different transit lines.

Also, I’d like to thank the Oakland Museum for throwing one of the DTO’s best parties ever. Make Me, Hottub, DJs, exhibits, and free beer – I can’t remember so many people ever having so much fun at our beautiful museum.

After looking at maps of downtown Oakland created by the Downtown Lake Merritt Neighborhood Group and Old Oakland Neighbors, I’ve revised my DTO map to have slightly different neighborhood boundaries. Several questions are raised by this map: is Jack London Square downtown? With high-density housing pushing up Broadway, is downtown expanding northward? Are there more downtown neighborhoods, and are these boundaries correct? How does this map relate to the city’s proposal to impose height limits throughout downtown, for the first time in Oakland’s history?

The underlying map is from the Oakland Convention and Vistors’ Bureau, and contains major errors but is pretty. I will look for another base map for the next update.

Next Tuesday, the City Council will hear a report (PDF) on the progress of most of the city’s redevelopment areas. Here are some highlights from the downtown report (which is the Central District), on the last three fiscal years:

• The UCOP’s parking garage cost the RDA $3.9m, and gross revenue fell 13% despite the removal of downtown parking for new development. The city expects the garage to operate without public subsidy in the future.
• All downtown residential projects that had public subsidy included affordable units.
• The DTO’s Façade Improvement Program is winding down, a victim of its own success.
• A very small amount of discretionary money to aid commercial ventures was distributed to the At-large and District 2 councilmembers.
• A new program is a $3m fund for site acquisition for redevelopment of small sites in “targeted areas.”
• Lincoln Recreation Center and the adjoining park are being upgraded. There are no other park projects downtown, aside from Measure DD, which is not a redevelopment project.
• $29.7m was generated from the housing set-aside in the last three years alone.
• The state forced us to give up $9.1m to the schools and other agencies, to balance their budget.
• Of $66.5m spent on projects, $51.9m (78%) went to the Uptown district, primarily to Forest City and the Fox Theater.
• The Central District map is downtown up to 27^th Street (including 48% of the area slated for retail redevelopment), the Jack London Square area above Embarcadero, and some very suspicious holes carved out around the Kaiser Center and Lake Merritt BART station.