West Oakland BusinessAlert

Business Community Attendees
George Burtt (WOCA), Asmeron Ghebremedhin (PWA KOCB Illegal Dumping), Marcus Johnson (Amstutz Assoc.), Ray Kidd (WOPAC), Sesilia Langi (SF Enterprises), Steve Lowe (WOPAC/WOCA),  Ellen Wyrick Parkinson (Parkinson Enterprises); Treva Reid (Cal Waste Solutions), Annie Sloan (NSD), Margot Lederer Prado (Bus Dev Services)

Discussion of general area updates:  Officer Jose Barocio is the new PSO for the West Oakland area.  Gary Proctor of Oakland Public Works’ illegal dumping unit has been reassigned, being replaced by temporary acting supervisor, Mr. Ghebremedhin, in attendance at today’s meeting.  Annie Sloan informed attendees about a West Oakland NCPC meeting scheduled for tomorrow at 6:00 p.m., at 3131 Union, where problem solving officers will be in attendance. 

Annie addressed the Army Base parking issue raised at previous meetings by Bill Aboudi; R. Abernathy, at 238-2084 at 385-4659 cell, is the staff person charged with enforcing parking at the Army Base.  Unless exempted by staff, vehicles will be ticketed if illegally parked.  Ray Kidd was in attendance at a recent Port Liaison meeting, attended by City and Port officials, that included discussion about this topic.  Margot Prado will engage Al Auletta of CEDA, who may be able to assist in relaxing parking enforcement at the Army Base site.

Annie reported that Mike Church has done a good job of engaging Operation Dignity to assist with displacing homeless encampments in the area and getting West Oakland’s homeless population assistance.  Caltrans also monitors homeless activity in the area.

Margot reported that the West Oakland Works site designer, Doniphan Blair, is actively making efforts to grow the West Oakland BusinessAlert portion of the website.  He will be invited to a future meeting to report on the website.

Mr. Ghebremedhin was welcomed to the meeting and gave a brief overview of his duties related to illegal dumping.  He was invited to attend BusinessAlert meetings on a regular basis in order to update the committee on dumping activities.  Margot requested that the top ten dumping hotspots be made available to her so that infrastructure maps under development can be updated.

A draft blight contact brochure was distributed.  Corrections will be made and the brochure then distributed.

Margot described a bus tour that was conducted in the past in East Oakland, focusing on identifying operational blight, that can become a model for developing an action plan for eliminating operational blight in West Oakland.  The tour involved staff from code compliance, hazmat, DTSC, and other agencies, who presented profiles of seven sites that exhibited operational and toxic blight.  Since Jacque Castain was highly involved in spearheading the tour, she may be invited to a future (November) WO Business Alert meeting to share her experiences with the group.

Margot opened up discussion with a proposal to conduct a survey of businesses in a specific quadrant of West Oakland.  Some businesses are closing due to the bad economy, and new, high-end businesses coming to the area are lacking.  Given the poor economic times and lack of credit lending for businesses, there are more informal businesses opening, such as auto repair shops, and it’s important that code compliance examines these operations, not necessarily to shut down area businesses, but to ensure all are being good neighbors.  Specific blocks might be inventoried, an achievable goal that would make an impact.  The American Steel building was cited by some attendees as a blight problem, with concern that the owner has issued long term (five-year) leases without intent to improve the exterior of the site, and the building is not apt to be physically improved as a result.  The owner is not actively engaged in the community and needs to be encouraged to consider neighbor concerns. 

Margot discussed the CEDA director’s commitment to assisting the West Oakland business community in improving the area.  Margot urged the committee to make efforts to select an achievable pilot program in this regard.  Committee members discussed their preference for focusing a pilot project on Mandela Parkway.  A more cohesive plan for Mandela Parkway is needed in regards to what types of businesses are located there and maintaining consistency in that regard. The Infrastructure Study is a good start towards defining the city’s and community’s goals for Mandela.

The 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17 might present a good opportunity to market West Oakland and the accomplishments that have been made in the area since 1989.  The City’s marketing staff will be contacted in this regard.  Marcus Johnson discussed an upcoming Oakland Running Festival that might coincide with a planned 20th anniversary marketing campaign.  Urging businesses through mailings to voluntarily make repairs and improve facades, and providing them with advance notice of anniversary event(s) and media coverage, may provide incentive for them to make improvements to their properties.  The City’s zoning department likely has access to a good mailing list for this purpose.

George Burtt reported that the lack of operating security cameras will be a topic for discussion at today’s WOPAC meeting.  Existing OPD cameras are not working because there is no manpower available to monitor the images.  Frank Foster will be contacted; OPW may be able to provide security cameras for the area’s hot spots.

Mosquitoes breeding in standing ponds at Bill Lightner’s vacant property presents an ongoing health concern.  Margot will follow up with code compliance staff about this issue.

Margot presented an engineering services proposal received from BKF Engineering in regards to conducting an industrial district strategy study for the City of Oakland.  The total fee for conducting the study is $35,000, including examination of the 3rd Street Corridor and Mandela Parkway industrial zones, meetings and reimbursable expenses (Industrial Sub Areas 15, 16 & 17).  The work outlined in the proposal is not yet under contract with the City, and Margot sees the study as being only the first phase in a larger West Oakland Plan process.  An area walk-through should be conducted as part of October’s BusinessAlert meeting, in order to launch the study and see firsthand the areas to be examined.  George Burtt expressed his concern that the proposed scope of work appears to only involve the examination of two specific areas of West Oakland, and not the area as a whole.  Also, the hours designated for physical assessment of neighborhoods may not be sufficient.  Margot emphasized that deliverables will be similar to the results provided by BKF in its study of East Oakland’s industrial area last year.  A general outline of the steps involved in implementing West Oakland infrastructure improvements is as follows:

• October kick-off, with walkthrough by business community
• Updating of infrastructure maps, including input from utilities, engineers, OPW, others
• Improvement prioritization
• Requests for funding

October will see the launch of this process that will involve many subsequent meetings to get the infrastructure plan in place.  The infrastructure plan is only one chapter of West Oakland’s Area Plan.

Treva Reid expressed concerns about a traffic hazard on Frontage Road and 12th Street, with exiting highway traffic creating a dangerous situation there.  Infrastructure maps will be expanded to include this area for examination.

Next Steps:

• Committee members should generate ideas for a possible Loma Prieta anniversary effort.
• Margot Prado will engage City of Oakland marketing staff in regards to a Loma Prieta anniversary marketing campaign.
• Tribune writer Cecily Burt will be contacted in regards to writing an article on the topic.