You have your Health Systems

Inevitably when I go on vacation some BIG DEAL newsworthy thing always drops when I have limited access to a computer. While I was away that BIG DEAL was the affiliation Letter of Intent signed between the Alameda Hospital and Alameda Health Systems which would make Alameda Hospital part of a larger “network” of hospitals.  Yeah, I know you all discussed it a bit over on the Elliott Gorelick resignation post, but this post has a timeline screenshot (oooOooooohhh).

It would be a relationship similar to the one that San Leandro Hospital had with the Sutter Health network until a deal was recently brokered — after a series of unfortunate events that left San Leandro Hospital with a dangling ax over its neck — to have Alameda Health Systems take over San Leandro Hospital.   Apparently that deal though has hit a bit of a stumbling block — should be resolved some time today — over $20 million (on top of the $22 million Sutter Health has agreed to pony up to keep operations going during the transition period) that would be required of their governing board.

Anyway, back to Alameda Hospital, so what does this mean for Alameda Hospital.   Well, one of the reasons why Alameda Hospital was doing so poorly was because it just couldn’t get enough people into its doors.   According to a press release from Alameda Hospital this affiliation will help generate more revenue by bringing in more customers:

Fixing a hole: the numbers

So here are the numbers of what it will cost to fix all the facilities — with the exception of the Historic Alameda High School — if we were just to repair all of the identified problems in existing campuses.

The summary:

And the breakdown by type of repair:

Fixing a hole

We, as a community, have spent a lot of time talking and wringing our hands and worrying about one building in (okay, one set of buildings in Alameda) that doesn’t even house students in Alameda.    Some folks feeling that the Alameda Unified School District should fix — at any cost — the building so that it can be of use again.   But what about all of the facility needs for schools that currently house students.   It’s as though those don’t matter.

A few months ago the Center for Green Schools put out a report which essentially said that the US is not doing enough to modernize schools.    But in Alameda, some of the must need fixes aren’t even about modernizing classrooms and making it all snazzy, it’s about basic upkeep that there is just no money for.   So, personally, when I compare the almost $94 million needed to fix places that students are actually using with the amount of money to do whatever it is that people want to do to the Historic Alameda High School, I feel like the priorities are a little out of whack.

So, after all the words and time that has been spent on the Historic Alameda High School I thought that each facility in Alameda that students actually use deserved its own chance in the spotlight, for fairness sake and so that folks that don’t know about the state of facilities in Alameda maybe can have an idea of how perhaps we should take care of students first.

Green light

In the “Wow, really?” files, last week Alameda Hospital Board member Elliott Gorelick probably best known for really really not liking the mere existence of the Alameda Hospital did the unthinkable and resigned from his seat as an elected boardmember.

Why he did it, who knows.   The first indication of his intent was posted on his personal blog last Tuesday:

Arcade Museum Fire

After the Planning Board agenda was released last week, I tweeted this:

Classic arcade museum proposed for old Park St. Jewelers location at 1414 Park Street @ShopParkStreet—
Lauren Do (@laurendo) June 03, 2013

In the vein of the Pinball Museum on Webster Street, Park Street will be hosting its own classic museum with a fun twist.   High Scores Interactive Arcade Museum originally based in Burlington, NJ is looking to make Alameda its home in the old Park Street Jewelers location and the Little Psychic Shop at 1414 Park Street.

According to their Facebook page, they are looking to open in early July.

Blast to the Past: 1991 part 3

Picking up from weeks ago (yes Jack R. this is the last one).   Here are a few more choice excerpts from the letters to the City Council in files retained about the 1991 Police incident.

I will add that the reason I am revisiting this issue, even from my “walled” community is that for those of us new to Alameda and not privy to the history of Alameda, sometimes it is hard to understand the underlying friction that sometimes exists when discussions around equity and race arise in Alameda. For those of us that look around our own neighborhoods and see diversity and openness to that diversity the past that shapes the feeling of West End inequity is lost to us. Alameda tries so hard to preserve its history, but only selecting only those incidents that present it in the best light, however this incident and others that I have recently learned about are a part of Alameda history and should be remembered to understand why it is that we need to be mindful moving forward and — as recognized by other commenters — how far Alameda has come in such a short time. But it’s probably more satisfying to think that there is something nefarious about my motivations than to take the postings at face value as simply Alameda political factoids that I find interesting which is sort of the point and has been the point of this blog since its inception. But I digress.

Enroll call

Tonight the City Council agenda is kinda meh, it’s the budget again because something was wonky with the construction project list. The interesting stuff is all going on at the School Board.   But first, one thing that is notable is that the City finally decided to make the complete spreadsheet of the budget available for those that were interested in the nitty gritty numbers to crunch.   It was kind of silly for staff to initially withhold the document.   I’m glad someone came to their senses at the City and decided that there is absolutely no reason to not allow people to see the actual numbers.

The full budget-y goodness can be found here.  But back to the School Board.

First up there’s a whole agenda item about the Wood Middle School and its program improvement status and enrollment. I guess there is a need for this agenda item because there have been suggestions that District Staff have been calling families to urge them to go to the Junior Jets program at Encinal. Staff contends that they have been calling families who indicated that they were both attending Wood AND multiple other schools, so they were simply trying to figure out where those students were actually going to.    Which is what the School District should do.   However, the one valid beef that Wood supporters do have is the fact that the District moved ACLC to the Wood campus, citing the additional space there, but have been informing inter District students (that means kids not from Alameda) that Wood is now impacted with resident students (that means kids from Alameda) and they have the option of enrolling in the Junior Jets program or going to Bay Farm for 7th grade only.   But that number of students is probably pretty small, plus folks generally aren’t too sympathetic about students from outside Alameda attending Alameda schools.

The goal is elevation

On tonight’s Planning Board agenda are the facade designs for the Alameda Landing retail.

Here’s the Safeway and the floor plan for the Safeway.   Looks to be about the same overall layout as a typical Safeway, maybe a touch smaller at 46K sq ft compared to the South Shore Safeway which is a little less than 60K sq ft.

Cottage Food industry

Last year the state legislature signed into law the California Homemade Food Act which essentially allows people to make food stuffs in their home kitchens and legally sell them.   This is also known as “Cottage Food Operations”.    Before you freak out about salmonella or anything like that there are limitations on the types of foods you can make it your home, such as:

• Baked goods without cream, custard, or meat fillings,such as breads, biscuits, churros, cookies, pastries, and tortillas
• Candy, such as brittle and toffee
• Chocolate-covered nonperishable foods, such as nuts and dried fruit
• Dried fruit
• Dried pasta
• Dry baking mixes
• Fruit pies,fruit empanadas, and fruit tamales
• Granola, cereals, and trail mixes
• Herb blends and dried mole paste
• Honey and sweet sorghum syrup
• Jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butter that comply with the standard described in Part 150 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
• Nut mixes and nut butters
• Popcorn
• Vinegar and mustard
• Roasted coffee and dried tea
• Waffle cones and pizzelles

SpEd off

So remember this post I wrote on the difference between last year’s budget and this year’s budget for AUSD and it appeared that there were cuts to the school site budgets.  Turns out the reason why it appeared that there were cuts is because from last year to this year District staff removed Special Ed service dollars from their budget.