Attendance: 17 neighbors and OPD officers
- Crime Reports
- 5 OPD officers attended the meeting including Sergeant Keeley, Jake Bassett, Officer Warford (Beat 14 Problem Solving Officer – PSO) and Officer Madlangsakay (Beat 16 PSO).
- Beat 14Y (Between Lakeshore Ave, Oakland Ave, I-580, Piedmont Border); Officer Joel Warford.
- One robbery so far in 2015 – on Jan 1 on Grand Ave, 9:17pm, two people were victims of an armed robbery. The suspects were in a 4-door, silver car.
- Two home burglaries.
- 13 auto burglaries (car break-ins) including 3 in the Walker Lot. We understand based on anecdotal reports about seeing broken car windows that not all auto burglaries are reported.
- Beat 16X (Between Lakeshore Ave, almost Park Blvd, I-580, Piedmont Border), Officer Madlansacay (Manny).
- Two auto burglaries year-to-date – on Lakeshore.
- One residential burglary on Brighton
- One robbery, on Rosemont.
- No auto thefts.
- Auto burglaries have typically been common behind the Trade Joe’s parking garage.
- Auto burglaries are most common in morning when people are getting coffee, and in the early evening.
- Need to give leaflets to merchants about not leaving valuables in cars.
- There was a carjacking that ended in Oakland.
- Still investigating two people found dead under I-580. Foul play is not suspected.
- Walker Parking Lot
- This discussion occurred during the crime reports portion of the meeting
- On the Yahoo group someone reported 10 cars were burglarized on the evening of 1/20/15.
- Potential actions in the lot include:
- More signs warning people not to leave valuables in cars. Eric H. has additional signs but there are no poles to attach them to.
- Neighbors can periodically put flyers on cars warning of the burglary risk. Renee has a supply of flyers and will provide to Eric for distribution. Renee said Neighborhood Services staff can also canvas.
- Bring together nearby merchants. Several merchants are concerned about the break-ins, but no one has assumed Avenue leadership. The goal of a meeting would be for one merchant to step up and take leadership for addressing break-ins. This is what happened in the Diamond district where break-ins have been a problem.
- Michael Ford who oversees off-street parking for the city will be at GLN’s February meeting and should be able to address the city’s plans to install cameras.
- Next steps: Ken Katz will talk to Hoang about her prior effort to organize the merchants; Eric & Rene will work to distribute Flyers; Eric & Andy will discuss other communications that are needed and reasonable to accomplish.
- Oakland City Academy
- Three GLN regulars participated in this year’s Oakland City Academy: Mary Dooley, Dean Zumach, Andy Campbell.
- The Academy consisted of five 3-hour meetings held on Monday nights.
- Attendees were citizens from throughout Oakland.
- The purpose of the Academy is to teach residents about what different parts of the city do and how to access services to improve our neighborhoods.
- Citizens need to advocate for themselves to get the city to address problems including nuisances and illegal dumping.
- Participants also heard about exciting economic developments that are breaking ground including the Brooklyn Basin project and the Oakland Army Base.
- Next Steps: Mary, Dean and Andy will work together to add information to the website about who to contact in the city to address a variety of issues.
- Trash Cans on Lakeshore
- Trash cans are continuously sitting in front of Starbucks and Noah’s. They are ugly and sometime overflow and attract garbage from other sources.
- Pamela Drake has been trying to address the problem with Starbucks and Noah’s, but has not been successful. Apparently, they have nowhere inside to store garbage cans. She’s getting in touch with higher ups in their organizations. Pamela will continue to discuss with them the idea of using compactors.
- Waste Management does not empty these cans on Sundays – can they?
- She and others have contacted city code enforcement so they cite the merchants to get their attention. Code enforcement has also contacted the merchants via letter.
- The community should complain to the on-duty managers in Noah’s and Starbucks.
- A possible solution is to work with the city to put in a parklet. Perhaps an attractive enclosure could be built for the garbage cans as a part of that project.
- Next Steps: invite someone from Waste Management (David Tucker) to a future GLN meeting to discuss; talk to the city to assess the feasibility of a parklet.
- Misc
- Jenny Gerard is now working for our new city council member, Abel Guillen
- The city’s two-year budget process is about to kick-off with a Jan. 28 transparency meeting; the mayor will present her budget in March.