Hell no, we won’t go, etc…

Read the Specific Plan yet?   Development Agreement?  No?   Don’t worry, you’re in good company because I don’t think the folks protesting yesterday have either.   They were too busy putting together signs and putting out press releases to bother with those dirty details.  Because why bother countering with a solid campaign about why the SunCal plan sucks when you can do media grabbing things like talk about a mayoral recall in the Mayor’s last term in office?  Quick note, if you are going to use someone’s name in the press release, the least you can do is to spell her name right.  

Anyway, folks we need to help the opponents out with some nifty slogans for their signs, I heard that there were the usual yawn ones like:

• SunCal= High Rise
• The Mayor Lies
• Mayor Sells Out
• Recall Mayor
• SunCal “Fairy Tales”
• Bev Pinocchio-Jo paid for by devolopers [sic] <– sign must have been written by the same person who spelled Diane Coler-Dark as “Diane Color-Dark”, just too enamored with those “o”s I suppose, I’m an “a” person myself, apparently so was this guy.

A little light reading

Over the weekend there was a lot of back and forth about what the ballot initiative is and what it is not.   Additionally there will always be someone out there that is going to be unhappy about the ballot initiative.   Some will have wanted just the Measure A exemption to be on the ballot to allow for flexibility.   If SunCal had opted for that there would have been criticism that they should have let the voters vote on the entire plan.   And then some people are just miffed that we are going to do anything at all.

You can’t please all of the people, but hopefully, SunCal can manage to please a majority of voters in Alameda.

The roof is on fire

UPDATED below

I normally don’t post on the weekends, but this was too big not to.   Apparently there was a huge fire on Alameda Point Alameda Landing last night.  From SFist:

…They have trucks with variable reach booms trying to spray water in, but it kind of looks hopeless, one of those situations where it’s probably best to just try and keep it from spreading. I can see firefighters on the other rooftops…

The firefighters look like tiny bumps on the surrounding rooftops, in contrast to the flames and smoke. The firetrucks are all directing spotlights at the fire.

It looks like the fire found fresh material. It’s moving northward across the block and sending up pretty black smoke….

The one without Vin Diesel

Yeah, you’ve probably all heard already, but SunCal has put out a press release that basically says that they are moving forward with the ballot initiative.  But honestly there isn’t much more to add until the ballot languagehas been thoroughly reviewed.  And since I generally only select to talk about one issue per day, the SunCal thing will still be around on Monday, but the Autocross stuff is imminent.

So a couple of weeks ago I talked about how the plans to turn a stretch of Alameda Point into the newest autocross destination were thwarted by the Least Terns — and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service –  but according to this posting on this message board the event is scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 to 5:00 p.m.  The event is also being promoted on the American Auto-X website, but according to the website it is, but it hasn’t been updated since March 16th. 

BevJo phone home

For some reason I don’t get political phone calls.   I’m not sure if it’s because I haven’t lived in Alameda long enough or because my phone is VoIP or maybe I’m on some weird black list.    I realize that I should be happy about this because it means no interrrupted dinners or weirdly times phone messages from voice recordings, but between you and me, I’m a little disappointed since I don’t get to hear all these surveys and robo calls first hand.  

Anyway, today the scooper hat gets placed firmly on the head of John Knox White over at Stop, Drop, and Roll who was the first to report that the battle for the hearts and minds of Alamedans has begun.   The initial volley has been made by…surprise surprise (and trust me, this is not a snarky “surprise surprise” I truly am shocked and surprised)….Beverly Johnson.

Excerpt:

…The message (a robo-call) says that she has an important message on an important issue: Alameda Point. It talks about how planning has been going on for 12 years with public processes along the way. And then she says something that surprised the heck out of me: “A plan has been developed that deserves our support.” And the plan is the SunCal plan!…

Let me kick my credentials

Good lord.

Thanks for giving us the nutshell version of development/housing/redevelopment/density bonus/kitchen sink issues in Alameda SFGate real estate blog, On The Block! Just what we need, another barely skimming the surface assessment of highly complex and complicated issues from the reporters at the SF Chronicle.

First of all, the density bonus ordinance was not passed in order to shepherd in a new age of crazy home building in Alameda. It was done because we want our fricken Housing Element to finally get approved.   And as real estate bloggers, I’m sure that the authors know that the density bonus is required by state law and even if Alameda did not pass one the City would still be required  to grant one, if requested by a developer, but using the state parameters instead of ones that we bring upon our own heads.

Across the Estuary

Here’s one that we should be keeping our collective eyes and ears on, according to A Better Oakland, Oakland is beginning their Central Estuary Specific Plan and EIR process.  Last night was the first of a series of community meetings to talk about the vision for this stretch of land which happens to border a good portion of Alameda from Coast Guard Island to a little bit past the High Street Bridge.    The City of Oakland has set aside a bit over $2 million for this process.  Just a point of clarification, in case some folks might be confused, this is not the same project as the Oak to Ninth. 

An interesting Alameda connection is that the firm chosen for this process — CD +A —  was a subconsultant on the Alameda Northern Waterfront General Plan Amendment and EIR so they certainly should be familar with that particular vista.

This is the brochure that was circulated for the first meeting, basically the City of Oakland would like to turn this area which has been predominately used for heavy industrial uses to be transformed into a “regional destination where people can…live…work…and play!”

One if by land, two if by sea

Tomorrow’s School Board meeting has some notable items worth looking out for.   The first is the decision on whether to allow the Nea Charter School to be sited on the old Longfellow School site.  I guess Nea and the school district have worked out there issues with the MOU language, as reported initially by Michele Ellson.  For those interested in how it worked out, the MOU, can be found on Mike McMahon’s site.  

As you all may or may not know, the cost for special education services greatly exceeds the state and federal revenues for that service.   Additionally there are mandates for levels of services that are also not funded and so a good portion of the cost needs to be made up by the school district itself.   So the MOU calls for a portion of the funds received for special education services to be disbursed to Nea, but that Nea would be responsible for contracting with a third party for their special education services — a difference from the expectation that the school district would continue footing this bill — and that any difference between the money disbursed from the school district (via the state and federal revenues) and the actual cost to Nea would be borne by Nea.  

What’s old is new again

That’s right folks, Action Alameda…erm…Save Our City Alameda has put out their plan for the future of Alameda Point.   What they have essentially done was to write 20 or so some odd pages of lead in to someone else’s plan.   Whose plan you may ask, well one that the City commissioned a long, long, long time ago.  How long you might ask, I really don’t know.   Late 90s, maybe early 2000?   The ”file” you will be asked to download literally contains those 20 pages of “hey this is what we think should be done and this is what is already out there.”  But the details are sadly lacking even though the point of this effort was, ostensibly, to provide the details. 

The details, however, if SOCA is willing to own the old “Alameda Science & Technology Center” plan, are in that text which is the remaining 100 + pages of the SOCA “plan.”   If you want a copy, email me and I’ll be happy to send it to you.   I’m trying to figure out a way to compress it since it is very very large.  

She’s got the beat

So, I was all prepared to get up this morning to talk more about appeal fees, the Planning and Building department, and permit fees for just getting basic work done, but then, I stumble upon this blog post featuring our own trusty local reporter who just happens to do it on a blog, Michele Ellson.

Appropriately enough the blog that featured Michele E. is underwritten by the Knight Foundation and the larger focus is around “reinventing community news in the Digital Age.”    Interesting stuff there from just a quick review.   The author did a Q & A with Michele E. — worth an entire read, it’s short – but here are some highlights:

…Part of the reason I left [job as a reporter] was out of deep frustration with the direction in which newspapers were headed. And I was intrigued with the possibilities of working online, specifically with the opportunities that it presented to sort of change the news that gets covered and change the way that news gets covered.