Grand Lake Neighbors Meeting Minutes: 2/18/2015

Attendance: 19 neighbors (including 3 OPD officers)

  1. Crime Reports
    • Beat 14Y (Between Lakeshore Ave, Oakland Ave, I-580, Piedmont Border); Officer Joel Warford.
      • One robbery this period – on Lake Park Ave, in front of B of A branch; 3 suspects.
      • Joel will make sure appropriate lights are on in the lot under 580.
      • 12 auto burglaries (car break-ins) including 4 in the Walker Lot.
      • 4 home burglaries
      • 7 stolen vehicles
      • 2 people were caught on 1/11/15 and are linked to six auto burglaries in the lot under 580; they are in custody.
    • Beat 16X (Between Lakeshore Ave, almost Park Blvd, I-580, Piedmont Border), Officer Madlansacay (Manny).
      • No report this period as 16X OPD representatives were not present.
  2. Walker Parking Lot
    • The good news is that this lot is being cleaned up more often by the City; but that means it is not always as obvious when a break-in has occurred (since the glass gets cleaned up faster).
  3. Update from Michael Ford about the TJs City parking lot
    • The statistics that were previously reported about how many open spots are typically available on the upper floor of the Trader Joe’s (TJs) parking lot need to be recalculated. This is because Regional Parking (who manages that lot) stopped using their automated license plate reader (LPR) from 11/1/14 – 1/15/15…they were just using the old chalk method instead, and the City wasn’t aware of that. An updated study will be done.
    • The City is working to understand “the big picture” impact of the lot, taking into account not only shoppers and businesses, but residents & commuters. They want the lot to be sustainable (it has been free since 1970).
      • There is ongoing discussion about this issue at nextdoor.com (rosegarden neighborhood).
      • The initial estimate of monthly passes that could be made available was 30, so that will likely change now, since the total number of average available places seems to have been reduced from 60 to 50.
      • There were about 40 invoices sent to parkers who violated the 2 hour restriction in January, 2015.
      • The walls of the parking lot are due to be repainted, and the surface redone, within the next month or so.
      • A security system called AMSNet, similar to the system that is installed around Civic Center, is being considered for both the under 580 and the Walker lots. Initially, there would be a single 360degree camera installed that would be monitored 24×7, with data kept for a couple of weeks.
  4. Misc
    • There is some interest in redoing the play lot at Mandana park. There is discussion on Nextdoor about that possibility.
    • There is also some funding available to redo much of the Astro Park play area near the library.