Fourth Street Lofts Web Log

FARMERS MARKETS GALORE
The Pacific Farmer's Market Association, which runs our Sunday Farmer's Market right in Jack London Square from 10am-2pm also runs three others. The Jack London Farmer's Market is also held on Tuesdays in the summer months, from 4-8pm. Tuesday mornings it is located on the corner of Webster and Taylor Streets in Alameda, from 9am-1pm, and at that same location during the summer on Thursdays 4-8pm. Wednesdays it's held on Water Street from 10am-2pm also is found in front of the Kaiser Fabiola Building at 3801 Howe Street from 9am-2pm Fridays. Another organization holds a Saturday market in the little park across the street from the Grand Lake Theater.

FOOD FARMACY
The Food Mill health food store which just opened on MacArthur across from Kaiser Hospital is now open on Saturdays. Parking is conveniently located right up stairs or around the corner, and is free on Saturdays and validated free during the week. It closes at 6pm.

NEIGHBORHOOD NOISE
If anyone has a complaint about before or after hours noise from any of the nearby construction sites, complaints can be emailed to Donald Smith with the City of Oakland. It has happened twice in the past week that I've heard of. dsmith at oaklandnet.com

COVENANT HOUSE
I'll let WENDY TINSLEY tell it, as she covers the subject thoroughly. She's the president of the new Jack London District, and lives on the fourth floor. See below.

Another neighbor, DAVE CABRAL on the second floor also chimes in on the subject with a referral to a recent article on the subject. The article gives a history of JERRY BROWN's loft, across the street from Amtrak. The author, CHIP JOHNSON, said one thing with which I took issue - I'm not sure it's true. He quoted Mayor Brown on the occupancy rate in our neighborhood - "There have been four market-rate condos built in this neighborhood in the last 20 months, and they've all sold out,'' Brown said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/05/13/BAG2UCNTMH1.DTL

If you can't attend the Oakland Planning Commission meeting, you can watch it on Channel 10 on Comcast Cable.

The Covenant House Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application will be presented for approval at tonight's City of Oakland Planning Commission meeting. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., although the Covenant House is either #6 or #7 on the agenda, so arriving at 5:30 isn't necessary. If the CUP is approved, which is highly likely, than the Covenant House will relocate the organization's temporary facility, currently located at St. Andrews Church in Oakland, to the 200 Harrison Street warehouse.

In April 2005 the Covenant House held a community meeting at the 200 Harrison warehouse in order to introduce the organization and the specific program and use proposed for the 200 Harrison property to Jack London District residents, business and property owners, as well as other area stakeholders'. Council representative Nancy Nadel was present, along with a Mayoral representative, and the project planner for the City who authored the staff report by which the Planning Commission will receive recommendation to approve or deny the proposed CUP application.

For the 200 Harrison warehouse the organization is proposing a 30-bed emergency shelter for homeless youths between the ages of 18-23. Of those 30 beds, 24 are for short-term stays lasting no more than 30 days. The remaining 6 beds will be allocated to those youths staying on under the organization's Rites of Passage (ROP) program, which provides the young adult participants personalized job training, life counseling, educational access, etc. The ROP program participants may stay at the facility for up to 18 months, although according to the Covenant House representatives, most ROP participants stay for an average of 6 to 9 months.

At the meeting concerns regarding safety and security were raised and specific questions regarding how many youths are taken in annually at the Oakland facility; how many incidents there have been annually (both physical and verbal) that necessitated police or security action/involvement; and how many youths have been kicked out or removed from the program, or transferred to another shelter for misbehaving and not following the established shelter rules. The Covenant House representatives, Executive Director George Lozano, Oakland Development Director and Program Managers Sean Sullivan and Julie Maxson, were unable to provide those basic statistics for the existing Oakland facilities, the existing Los Angeles facilities, or California wide.

At the April meeting the organization's representatives explained how Covenant House creates a personalized schedule and work plan for every young adult staying in the shelter. Meeting attendees requested a copy of one of the work plans to gain understanding of the amount of time a typical youth would spend at the 200 Harrison warehouse, and how many hours he/she would be offsite. A work plan was not readily available and was not provided to attendees after the meeting via email, hard copy, etc. The meeting spiraled out of control. The Covenant House representatives were grossly unprepared for the meeting, were unable to complete their presentation, and not able to adequately respond to questions raised by meeting attendees.

The Covenant House has not indicated that the organization does screening for drugs or runs criminal background checks for the 18-23 year old young adults staying at the organization's approximate 21 facilities throughout the United States. The organization was not able to respond to the request for statistics on intake numbers, incidents per year, etc. for any of their facilities that are similar in size and program as that proposed for the 200 Harrison Street warehouse.

The newly formed Jack London District Association attempted to arrange and help facilitate a second community meeting in order to hear how the Covenant House has addressed concerns raised by area residents at the first meeting in April. The meeting did not happen. Given the outcome of the first meeting, it is understandable that the Covenant House wasn't that interested in holding a second meeting. Of course it helps when the Mayor owns the building, and the CUP has been railroaded through the City with complete disregard for the citizen participation process.

So that's the scoop. To read the staff report for tonight's CUP hearing go to this link:

http://jacklondondistrict.org/development/200HarrisonStaffReportV2.pdf

The Planning Commission meeting is held at the historic City Hall building, at 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in Downtown Oakland.

I encourage you to attend and speak whether you oppose or support the Covenant House’s move into the neighborhood. This is your opportunity to publicly raise questions or concerns to our appointed officials on the Planning Commission, or conversely show support for the proposed use soon to be moving into the neighborhood.

Best Regards,

Wendy L. Tinsley, #405