Yogotuttifreshandfruity

Yeah, that’s the name of the new yogurt shop I’m opening up on Park Street.   I plan on tiling the store in mosiac tile in some non-offensive pastel shade.

What I say next may be blasphemous for some, but I’m not so much a fan of the tart frozen yogurt.   I sort of miss the old version of frozen yogurt, the one that came in vanilla, chocolate, or swirl.   And considering the recent scrutiny of Alameda frozen yogurt places here and here and here, I thought I would throw my two cents in about the issue because it’s Friday and Friday posts should be fun.

They just want you for your brains

So the Navy is moving forward with the disposal of the North Housing Parcel and has released (or released a while ago, I have just gotten around to posting it) the Environmental Assessment of their proposed reuse of the site.   See the above photo for the location, and before you ask, the site is about 42 acres.  Right now there are currently 282 three or four bedroom units on the site, along with the big Estuary Park parcel, but the current Community Reuse plan has designated that parcel as supporting 437 housing units.    Parcel 2A on the map is not included in the disposal according to the maps in the EA.

Basically, the Navy has a Plan A and a Plan B.   Plan B is to do nothing.

Making a ruckus

I watched the Planning Board meeting from Monday night specifically for the item about Point Marina Vista.   I’m not quite sure why I care so much, maybe because I find the building itself interesting or maybe because the neighborhood outrage is dialed up so high, whatever the reason, I watched.

But then found out that the item had been continued.   But the Planning Board let all the folks who had come out speak anyway during oral communications.   Let’s just say the anger over this has not dissipated for the residents that surround the building.

But in listening I did find some of the comments compelling.   Such as the query as to why they decided to open a banquet facility as opposed to a restaurant and the idea that the difference between the two is the a restaurant is almost always staffed and there is a sense of ownership and responsibility to the neighborhood as opposed to a banquet facility which is just a space to lease and there would be no real connection to the neighborhood itself.   I can buy that argument.   A restaurant would add a lot to the neighborhood, a banquet facility, not so much.

Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight

So, I finally got around to actually watching last week’s City Council meeting.   Yeah, it may take me some time, but I actually do watch them.   One of the more meatier items up for discussion was a budget update which Michele Ellson covered here.   What didn’t get conveyed in its full glory was the very visible frustration with the whole business that was evident in every single statement made by Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant who chalked up the state budget as a “ponzi scheme of borrowing from cities and counties” and saying that the state has chosen to not make the hard decisions and leaving it up to the local government to make the tough decisions about how to balance its own budgets since the state is doing it on the backs of cities and counties.

Hasta Point Marina Vista, baby

The Galleon, the Tied House, and now Point Marina Vista…the circular building on the estuary is back at the Planning Board for yet another around of, can I have my use permit yet?

While I totally understand the need for use permits and the tortured process that businesses undergo in order to open shop in Alameda, when I read agenda items like this I wonder why some folks even bother given how difficult it seems to open a business in Alameda.   Hours of operation, parking counts, noise levels, etc and so forth.. all for a business that is essentially the same type of use of the previous business that occupied the space.   I can only imagine what would happen if someone tried to put another restaurant back into the building that housed the Chevy’s…

Anthropologically speaking

So, I was combing through past Comprehensive Annual Finance Reports (CAFRs) and have realized that either (1) I’m hyper senstive or (2) no one reads these things.   It could totally be number 1, I completely own up to being hyper senstive at times and with the recent Henry Gates, Jr. incident refocusing the national attention on race relations maybe I am a bit oversensitive.  But in this case, I’m seriously leaning toward number 2.

As an aside, I’m sure the truth to the story lies somewhere in the middle of both Professor Gates’ account and the police officer’s, but the person who should feel a tad on the sheepish side is the lady who works for Harvard Magazine who called in the “suspicious activity” about a man who was wearing what appears to be pinkish striped polo shirt and dockers.   AND, a man that has been profiled and quoted time after time in the Magazine she works for. 

Fun with MOUs

Becks, the blogger at Living in the O (that’s O for Oakland) another great blog has a guest post by a member of executive board of Oakland’s Firefighters Union.    He goes on to describe the recently negotiated and union approved contract between the City and the Firefighters Union.    From all descriptions and I’ll go through them a little later, this was a union that understands the difficult financial situation that their city is currently in and has adjusted their agreements accordingly.

But it might be because they have minimum staffing requirements — similiar to what our firefighters are going to the ballot box for — which has made them more open to scaling back a bit.

Off a ClifBar

So, it’s final, Alameda is definitely not getting ClifBar.  At least for the next 15 years it won’t.   And where did ClifBar choose to locate more than 100K sq ft of business that we would like to see in Alameda? 

Emeryville.

Right at the corner of an intersection that includes retail, residential, and this large commercial/industrial space.   Of course, they could have moved out to Pleasanton or Livermore or some other suburban area where the land is cheap and plentiful, but they chose to relocate to someplace urban.   Just not Alameda.  

From the San Francisco Business Times:

…EmeryTech is a 225,000 square foot building that was originally a valve manufacturing plant. It has “distinctive Bauhaus architectural details that hearken back to the city’s industrial past.” Ellis Partners re-purposed the facility for mixed-use by adding atriums and soaring glass-filled ceilings to allow for energy-efficient natural light, as well as a fully redundant data center.

…

Loopy

Did anyone catch this item on the City Council agenda?  It was part of the Closed Session under “Special Meeting of the City Council”:

3-B. CONFERENCE WITH REAL PROPERTY NEGOTIATORS (54956.8)
Property: 1855 N. Loop Road and 1 Clubhouse Memorial Drive
Negotiating parties: City Manager and Harbor Bay Isle Associates
Under negotiation: Price and terms

This can only mean one thing: Cowan Land Swap.  For the folks that were excited that Mif Albright received a reprieve, I don’t think that it will necessarily last that long not if these closed door negotiations get anywhere of substance.  

Hidden setback ranch

I was reading the one agenda item for the City Council (non consent calendar) and couldn’t help but think of this Onion article: Report: 98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others.  Oddly enough, the agenda item had nothing to do with public transportation.

Here’s the gist, two-ish years ago a group of homeowners signed a petition stating that they wanted the City Council to put more restrictions on their neighborhood to making it slighly more difficult to throw up just any old second story addition.   According to the staff report 47 homeowners signed said petition.  After a few community meetings, one of the streets decided  that they didn’t want to be part of the more restrictive zoning district.   And then at the April Planning Board meeting, a lot of the speakers spoke out against the proposed changes.