Point of Clarity

Oakland Running Festival in the Prescott-Oakland Point

Race organizers announced the Inaugural Oakland Running Festival held on March 27th and 28th, 2010 will enter the Prescott Oakland Point neighborhood from Mandela Parkway and 7th street up Mandela Parkway to West Grand then veer right up Peralta before turning on 26th Street.

In a Chip Johnson (SF Chronicle) article he summarize this race "For all its shortcomings, from crime to debt to poor leadership, Oakland is a runners' city, and it's evident any day of the week, from the scores of people making the 3.3-mile trek around Lake Merritt to those who seek greater challenges on hillside trails and steep city streets."

"The two-day event scheduled for March is a prime-time opportunity to show off Oakland's hidden gems, shed a positive light on a national stage, and begin a tradition to make the race an annual event for the world's top long-distance runners."

Here's a downloadable Map and Course by Street

Central Station development taking shape in West Oakland

New condominiums sit empty around the city as buyers stay away, but moving vans have been steady visitors to new developments along Wood Street in West Oakland.

The new homeowners are breathing life into what had been a no man's land wedged between the Prescott (Oakland Point) neighborhood of West Oakland and Interstate 880, an area that until recently was better known as a repository for truck parking and illegal dumping. They are walking their pets around the neighborhood and establishing Neighborhood Watch groups and e-mail communities to cut down on crime.

Small steps, sure, but it's only the beginning, area residents say.

A redevelopment plan that Oakland city leaders approved four years ago calls for as many as 1,500 new homes — collectively called the Central Station project — to replace 26 dusty acres surrounding a restored Southern Pacific train depot. The depot has been shuttered since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

The busts in housing and banking dogged sales in the 163-unit Pacific Cannery Lofts, one of the first of the developments to get under way.

But things have loosened up in recent months: Fifty-seven units, nearly all in the historic Pacific Coast Cannery building, have been sold and 21 have closed escrow, said Gail Stark, sales director. Another 15 townhouses will go on sale this weekend, she said.

... the 130-unit Zephyr (Gate) Creek development filling in the blocks between 12th and 14th streets is constructed in stages as units are sold. People move in as soon as their townhouses are finished, so there are no empty buildings, said Sandy Richert, sales manager for Pulte Homes. So far 74 homes have been built and sold; 63 of those have closed escrow and the new owners have moved in.

David Ghadimi, 47, a union electrician and jack of many trades who was laid off in September after finishing work on the California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park, is also a pioneer of sorts.

He moved to an industrial loft across the street from Central Station four years ago and decided recently to build a cafe. Galatea Café opened six weeks ago, filled with colorful art created by his girlfriend and offering free Wi-Fi and a range of coffees, smoothies, and breakfast and lunch fare. There is a chessboard on one of the tables and Ghadimi, who is also a massage therapist, plans to open a yoga studio upstairs.

'Crime really went down'

Ghadimi said he has noticed a big change in the neighborhood since the vacant blocks have been filled in with new homes and new residents.

Ghadimi attributed that drop partly to police responding sooner to 911 calls, but the strength in numbers fueled by new residents moving to the area helped, too.

Several developments will shape the Central Station project. In addition to the Pacific Cannery Lofts and Zephyr Gate townhouses, the 99-unit Iron Horse affordable rental complex should open this fall. However, construction has been delayed on a large market-rate apartment complex on a key block between 14th and 16th streets, closest to the old train station.

Full Story, here

Condo buyers find it tough to get mortgages

West Oakland Reforestation

The West Oakland Reforestation project and WOCA have been awarded an $130,000 grant from the Federal Stimulus Funding Program to plant 500 trees in West Oakland.

Update: This group is still waiting formal (in writing) notification at this time. Project sponsors and supporters include: City of Oakland Tree Division; Public Works Agency; West Oakland Redevelopment Agency, Council Member Nadel; Port of Oakland, Prescott Oakland Point Neighborhood Association; South Prescott Neighborhood Association, Oak Center Neighborhood Association; West Oakland Neighbors, Inc; McClymonds Neighborhood Association; West Oakland Citizens Action Group

WOPAC Vacancy- Prescott Area

The West Oakland Project Area Committee (WOPAC) is seeking a tenant representative from the Prescott/South Prescott subarea to serve.

The WOPAC advises the City Council on the use of redevelopment funds in the West Oakland Redevelopment Project Area.

The WOPAC meets once a month on second Wednesday evenings and also has two standing subcommittees.

To qualify as a tenant representative, the person must lawfully rent and occupy, as his or her principal place of residence, a residential dwelling located within the Prescott/South Prescott subarea.

Please contact Ms. Hui-Chang Li at 238-6239 or hli@oaklandnet.com for a Candidate Filing Form if you are interested and/or have any questions regarding this position.

The next WOPAC General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 12th, 6:30-9:00 at The West Oakland Senior Center , 1724 Adeline Street . You are welcome to attend to observe the body in action.

For more about WOPAC, visit http://www.business2oakland.com/main/westoakland.htm.

Best of the West (POPna Neighborhood)

The readers of the East Bay express acknowledges POPna neighborhood amentities:

BEST URBAN PARK

Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
Middle Harbor Rd. / 7th St., Oakland
510-272-4810

Name a place in the Bay Area where you can hear the lonely tolling of a harbor bell, watch a squadron of pelicans fly by, see San Francisco sparkling Oz-like in the distance, and listening to the crashing, clanging, and electronic chirping of ILWU workers zipping around on forklift trucks unloading container ships. Can't?

Try Middle Harbor Park. Located smack dab in the middle of Oakland's dockland, the park is a little oasis of Zen-like calm in the midst of the shuffle and hustle of one of the West Coast's busiest ports. The park is a thin strip of green along the water's edge, based on the outline of a huge Navy warehouse that once shipped out supplies to troops stationed all around the Pacific. It is now a restored marsh and wetlands.

The soaring picnic area shelters' jagged triangular shapes are a deliberate reminder of the warehouse's old shape. If you tire of gazing out across the Bay, watch huge container ships rumble by and marvel at the carefully choreographed ballet of containers flying on and off their decks. Cast your eyes closer, check out crab fishers on the end of a pier, or hang onto the fence, or just sit there on the dock of a bay legs, dangling over railway ties that once carried commuters onto the ferries to San Francisco.

This park is a must for urban explorers.

Other notable awards:

BEST OFT-TOLD EAST BAY URBAN LEGEND

The Oakland Cranes

BEST CHICKEN AND WAFFLES

Brown Sugar Kitchen

BEST BLOGGER (my personal favorite!)

V Smooth — A Better Oakland

Crucible's 9th Annual Fire Arts Festival

Wednesday - Saturday, July 15-18, 2009
8:00PM - 11:59PM

NEW LOCATION THIS YEAR! (see where)

Each July The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast.

This year we will be expanding the festival in a new, larger location. Our new Oakland location is three times larger than years past, giving attendees more elbow room and us the ability to bring you more of your favorite artists. We will have more fire and light sculptures, food and merchandise vendors.

In addition to our regular performances, we will feature the world premiere of Dan Cantrell's The Rootabaga Opera.

The 10-year-old nonprofit was founded in 1999 by a small group of artists seeking to combine the industrial arts with sculpture and multimedia techniques housed in a single location.

The Crucible is known for promoting the reuse of materials that results in creative expression and innovative design.

Through their rich offerings of hands-on classes, participants young and old can learn skills from blacksmithing and ceramics, to welding, woodworking, fire performance and more.

Thanks to A Better Oakland folks for pointing me to some pics from the event. There are more pics at the Flickr site.