Slide by Slide, bonus!

So, one plan that I sort of glossed over but never fully discussed as part of the Civic Center Vision was the redesign for the Elks Club, City Hall, and Police Department Parking lots.

This is a view of the historic Fire Station from the City Hall parking lot.   The consultants are suggesting keeping it.   I’m not sure what is currently being used there.  The consultant suggested office space or retail use like a sandwich shop.  But if this plan does come to fruition, it sort of would make a perfect location for the Alameda Museum, wouldn’t it?

Slide by slide

So I thought that folks that may not have had the time to watch the CIC meeting where the presentation was made about the Civic Center Vision process would like to know what some of the slides were representative of.

The first set is the gas station and Towata flowers located across  the street from City Hall.  As folks may remember Towata flowers recently closed up shop for good leaving the location vacant.

The red buildings are the gas station and Towata Flowers, this plan that the consultants like the best envisions a restaurant at the corner with outdoor dining making use of the existing overhang.   The restaurant would use the existing Towata Flowers facade which is historically significant so will remain.   On Oak Street, the pink section there would be “micro offices” and the grey would be parking behind it for the second floor use.

AMG: “It’s a lot closer than ya’ll think”

Both John Knox White and Michele Ellson touched on the issue of the Civic Center Vision plan that was unveiled last Wednesday at the CIC meeting.

According to Interim City Manager, Ann Marie Gallant, this all came about because of the Council Referral item to analyze what could be done with the Carnegie Library given that the previous plan to turn it into a Planning and Building permit center was no longer feasible.   When she came back to the Council she talked about how they would need to figure out a way to “bundle” the Carnegie Library with other projects to make it financially feasible to redevelop.

So from the starting point which was trying to figure out what to do with the Carnegie Library till last Wednesday we went from Carnegie redevelopment to a whole “vision” for the Civic Center area which expands pretty much all the way to Park Street.

But this isn’t just a vision folks, according to Ann Marie Gallant, they’ll have a financing and implementation plan all within the next 30-45 days.

Yes…days…

I’d like to thank the Academy

Eve Pearlman wrote a really great article about The Academy of Alameda Middle School on Friday at the Island.   For those of you that did not catch it, highlights here:

The Academy was developed with careful consideration for the community that the new school would likely be serving and to research-based methods for supporting student success. “We looked at our diverse population,” said Lori MacDonald, who worked on the charter petition, “and made an intentional decision to structure the school so all students would be learning together in a supportive academic community.”

Each day at The Academy will start with a brief whole-school gathering to highlight student successes and community goals. Weekly small-group teacher-facilitated advisory meetings will give students a chance to work on ongoing service projects of their choosing as well create a forum for discussion. “Students will have an opportunity to talk about some of the issues that come up — especially those that can divide students,” said MacDonald. “And they’ll have a mechanism to learn to problem-solve together.”

To the rescue

On Sunday, I was at Alameda Towne Centre having lunch with my son.   He likes to shove handfuls of beans in his face so we were sitting outside Panera to keep the mess at a minimum.

My back was turned at the time but I heard someone shout, “Bring me a napkin,” and turned around to see a woman lying on the ground.

To make a long story short, apparently a woman had tripped over one of the large stones near the fire pit at Alameda Towne Centre and she had fallen hard enough that her head began bleeding.   The man who was calling for a napkin’s wife had called 911.   The fire department truck and ambulance arrived in less than 5 minutes.   The response time was actually rather shocking considering it would have been even quicker if they had driven to the right location — I overheard the woman over the phone say that they were at the center of the Towne Centre at one point.

America’s Cup runneth over

Not to be lost in the whole wooing Google to Alameda thing, the City is also working on wooing the next America’s Cup tournament to Alameda as well.   Since the winning boat was sponsored by a San Francisco yacht club, that club gets to pick where the next America’s Cup is held.

While, according to the Island it appears that it would never be Alameda on the headline as the locale of choice for the race, we probably would provide additional berth spaces and event space — although Oracle is pretty accustomed to having the City of San Francisco bend to its will when event space is needed  – if needed.

Alagoomeda or Gooalamegle

So Tuesday night’s City Council meeting was a bit of a snoozer.   Not because it lasted long, but because they didn’t really do much.   Apparently the Mayor was out of town and Doug deHaan was ill, so they ended up continuing everything until the next City Council meeting.

But what did come up was the Google broadband application.   While the citizen group, Wire Alameda, is well on its way, according to Deputy City Manager Jennifer Ott, the City of Alameda will also be submitting an application to Google as well.

Grass is not greener

Totally unrelated to Alameda, but I found it too interesting to not post about, although the Alameda hook could be cities with stupid laws on the books.

According to the LA Times, a couple in the city of Orange, located in — guess where — Orange County, is being taken to court because they decided to rip out their lawn because it was costing too much money to water, highlights:

…officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for removing their lawn in an attempt to save water.

Sittin’ on the dais of the council, wastin’ time

In addition to reviewing the Golf Course management proposal tonight, the City Council will also be discussing some time wasting discussions such as the one about the Kohl’s extended hours.  Here’s a quick recap:

The Planning Board allowed Kohl’s some extended hours during the holidays, however, there was an omission on the resolution that forgot to include the request to open at 6:00 a.m. on a few days during the holidays.   Since Kohl’s had thought that the 6:00 a.m. was included on the resolution (because that was the intention) and the Planning Board had approved their request (minus one issue) they operated as though they had the 6:00 a.m. opening.

Kemper Kemper

Remember when I wrote about how the City had put out an RFP for management of Chuck Corica Golf Course?   There were five options that any company could place a proposal for:

Option A: keep everything as is (two 18-hole courses, one par 3 aka Mif Albright), with the company spending the money to bring all the golf courses up to snuff.  And there would be no change to the restaurant lease — currently leased to Jim’s at the Course

Option B: Close Mif Albright, everything else the same as option A.

Option C: Close Mif Albright, buy out lease from Jim’s and open with a new restaurant

Option D: Close Mif Albright, only have one 18 hole course, split the other 18 hole into one 9-hole and one par 3 course.  Buy out lease from Jim’s and open with a new restaurant

Option E:  Doowutchyalike

Seriously though, option E was essentially a blank slate for a company to do whatever it thought was in its best interest.