Fourth Street Lofts Web Log

The subject of club related problems was quickly raised by several attendees. Officer Young stated that a strong neighborhood attendance at club license hearings is required to demonstrate that we care about the problems - at the most recent hearing about 90 customers of Mingles turned out and only a half dozen from the community. He also stated that many other clubs in downtown Oakland have good attendance with zero incidents so it is possible. He also stated that very recently the club called “Sweets” has started attracting a much larger crowd which has corresponded in a decline in Mingles attendance.

Traffic issues were raised including some car wrecks and near accidents on Jackson, in particular the 5th and Jackson intersection which has high foot traffic to downtown and fast traffic coming down the Jackson offramp. There were questions about why Oakland doesn't have any photo enforcement of traffic lights and all agreed this would be a good idea. It was suggested the people should write to our councilmember Nancy Nadel to request this.

The issue of homeless encampments in our area was discussed, in particular the growing presence under 880 at Oak Street. Officer Young stated that OPD is starting a project with CalTrans regarding homeless people because the encampments are on their land. The project would include documentation followed by removal of any shelters in the area.

There was discussion of activity in the vicinity of 4th and Jackson that seemed suspicious. Officer Young had not heard of any reports or problems in that location and made a note of the comments.

One attendee reported that there seemed to have been a recent surge of graffiti “tagging” throughout the district, in particular electricity utility boxes. He mentioned that Sierra had recently had to pay to have graffiti removed. Officer Young mentioned that two people had been arrested in relation to graffiti activity in the last two weeks, but not necessarily those responsible for our problem (which appear to be largely the “Kakes” tag). He mentioned that tagging often happens very late at night, around 4 am and only takes seconds to occur and hence is very hard to stop. He mentioned that we should call the City graffiti abatement program and believed they would even remove graffiti from private buildings if it is accessible and visible from public land (their number is 510-434-5101).

Sandra Sanders-West mentioned that the City's anonymous 238-DRUG tip line is not just for reporting drug related problems. She strongly encouraged people to use it for reporting other problems including littering, tagging and vehicle violations. Even if it does not result in prosecution it is extremely helpful to the City for generating statistics about reported problems.

There was a discussion about lighting and it was generally agreed that more lighting and clearing of undergrowth under the 880 freeway along Oak Street would be helpful. Officer Young stated this is something that must be raised with CalTrans. If we frame it as a public safety issue it will probably help expidite action by CalTrans. It was suggested JLDA should write the letter and Simon Waddington agreed to follow through with this.

There was a discussion of when and what phone numbers to call to report a problem. Officer Young reiterated that if an actual crime is in progress we should always call 911 from a home (landline) phone, or 777-3211 from a direct connection to OPD dispatch. We should always call the 777-3211 number from a cellphone as 911 on a cellphone in Oakland goes to California Highway Patrol. It was agreed that the non-emergency number 777-3333 is sometimes subject to very long delays but it is always helpful to report a problem than not at all.

One resident asked if there was a better way to get a response for non-emergency problems on weekend nights when we know OPD has several cars in our area due to Mingles and Zazoos policing. Officer Young said it is possible to call his or Officer Lewis' mobile phones directly (Young 750-4531 or Lewis ???-????). During the day time when we have foot patrol officers in the area 2pm to around 11pm he actively encouraged us to call the officer. Our foot patrol officers are Officer Young Mon-Fri 1:30pm-9:30pm call 750-4531, and Tue-Fri 7:30am-3:30pm call Officer Bernard 750-4568.

A frequent complaint in this area is motorcycle noise. Officer Young stated he always hears about this problem and has been instructing all officers hearing loud motorcycles to issue citations.

The Port of Oakland representative reported that they are having “scaled back” event with fireworks and the East Bay Symphony for the 4th of July. Posters regarding the very strict no sell, no buy and no use of fireworks in the City of Oakland were made available and attendees were encouraged to not only post them in their building but also call in the phone number listed as many times as necessary. Anyone who wants a copy of the poster please stop by Jack London Mail at 248 3rd St and ask for one.

On an unrelated topic the Port of Oakland also stated it would be taking over the parking lot along Embarcadero to begin development of “Harvest Hall” in November and next year would be starting development of a two story building on the green space next to the ferry pier at Washington and Water Street.

Then Barbara Killey spoke about the recent Mingles hearing stating that she expected to issue a decision about the Mingles cabaret license revocation in the next week. Ms Killey warned us that a previous ruling against the Zazoos club had ultimately been overturned by City Council largely because there was a lack of community input and support for that ruling. Any ruling to revoke a cabaret license on grounds of impact on the local community really needs to have very clear and broad support from that community. Therefore Barbara urged us to provide that input preferably by attending hearings or failing that in writing (letters or email).

JLDA will be receiving written notice of the hearing decision and will circulate to all those signed up on the JLDA announcements list.

Monique Tsang then talked about having neighborhood watch groups and a neighborhood crime prevention council (NCPC). She informed us that a the neighborhood watch group was really designed for neighborhoods with single family homes, with one group per block. Each block would have a block “Captain” and block captains would meet regularly with other captains and then meet and report to the NCPC. It was suggested that JLD could have one per group per building. An NCPC has an a board and regular meetings – currently meetings with Jack London District residents and business representatives are being classified as “neighborhood liaison”. However if we form an official NCPC then we be able to utilize funding for NCPCs. Until then we will continue to have meetings on a bi-monthly basis on the 4th Thursday of the month, the next meeting being August 24th.

The “National Night Out” event was discussed, the idea being to reclaim the streets at night for the community and not for criminal elements. We were informed that this was an occasion to get together on our streets at night and Oakland Police Department and Fire Departments would visit participating events. Last year Oakland had over 100 such events and this year the night out will be Tuesday August 1st. Simon Waddington stated that JLDA is planning to participate but the location had yet to be confirmed.

Monique also mentioned the issue of CORE (Citizens of Oakland Respond to Emergencies). Simon Waddington stated that JLDA had previously arranged CORE level 1 training for a group of about 20 people in 2005 but currently there was no one to organize further CORE training activities for the community.

The meeting adjourned at around 8:30pm

Thank you to the Oakland Police Department for arranging and attending the meeting and all those neighbors who attended. We look forward to an even larger community turn out at the next meeting - August 24th - to show we really care about crime and safety issues in the District.