Since we’ll be seeing more roundabouts in our city and, well, folks are very reluctant to change here’s a video from Carmel, Indiana which explains how roundabouts increase safety but yet can maintain a higher flow of cars without needing to build more lanes:
Here’s an excellent graphic which shows the fewer conflict points that exist in a roundabout compared to a traditional signalized intersection. Of course the more potential conflict points the higher the likelihood for a collision.
I just noticed that there is a meeting notice on the City’s website because all of the City Council will be touring Clement Avenue for a tour of the proposed roundabout on the East End. To be honest, I don’t know how bad this intersection is because it’s a part of Alameda I rarely go to because, there’s pretty much everything I need on the West End or, like, I have to go to San Leandro to hit up an Asian market or something.
So this is the general area:
And this is the proposed design:
(more…)I had spent some time over the holidays getting some data together about the last few elections but haven’t had time to really do anything with them. It’s hard to compare like for like because precincts get consolidated and numbers change but I was able to compare the last Mayoral election with the City Council race in 2020. Specifically these are Trish Spencer’s numbers for her race against Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft in 2022 and four other candidates for City Council in 2020.
At the start of the February 14th School Board meeting there was a set of parents that spoke under non agenda public comment about Advanced Placement classes at Alameda High School. One of the main concerns they had beef with was the over enrollment of AP classes at Alameda High which necessitated a culling of sorts to determine which kids would get those coveted AP slots and which would not.
For those that may have forgotten or this didn’t apply at your school AP classes lend three advantages to students (1) the more rigorous academics give students a taste of college coursework, (2) the ability to take the AP exam and — if they pass — some schools will accept these for college credit, and (3) grade bump. The grade bump thing is how you see kids with weighted grade averages above 4.0. The idea is that the coursework is so much more difficult than a non AP class that a student’s grade average should reflect that rigor.
So these parents were upset because at Alameda High it sounded like students were selected at random (if they had signed up for the class) to fill the overenrolled AP classes which meant that some students did not get the advantage of that class. They were asking for the District to come up with another way for overenrolled AP classes to be filled. I recall this also being an issue at Encinal last year with AP World History. There were only two AP World History classes being offered, more kids wanted in, some kids didn’t get in.
Recently I learned that to get into some electives at Encinal you have to have another teacher provide a recommendation for you to attest that you have strong writing skills. It seems like if were holding this standard for an elective, the very least we could do would be to have this basic hurdle for an AP class if we need some way to thin out the demand for AP classes.
(more…)Jennifer Ott is really diving into the deep end and tackling some huge issues and she’s what, only a few months into her City Manager-ship? The fact that she’s already scheduled a work session into how to handle the rest of Alameda Point is amazing. I mean, who would know better than Jennifer Ott about Alameda Point? From the staff report:
Given recent Council and community discussions about City staff’s approach to the lease and sale of buildings at Alameda Point and the change in the SLA, staff retained Keyser Marston Associates (KMA), a real estate economics consulting firm, to undertake an analysis of the real estate assets at Alameda Point specifically within the Reuse Area, and to make recommendations regarding a strategy for future leasing and sale of buildings (Exhibit 1). Additionally, staff conducted two stakeholder meetings to obtain input from developers and existing Alameda Point property owners and tenants described in greater detail below.
Based on the KMA analysis and findings, input from the stakeholder meetings, and goals for Alameda Point gleaned from key City documents, staff proposes the Mixed Portfolio Phasing Strategy, a strategic, phased approach to both leasing and sale of buildings in the Reuse Area. In general, the Mixed Portfolio Phasing Strategy, means buildings are sold selectively, and as needed, to fund the ongoing implementation of a new, cohesive backbone infrastructure system, while also maintaining a portfolio of buildings for lease to continue generating ongoing lease revenue to fund maintenance and operational needs arising from the aging existing infrastructure. The proposed Strategy also addresses the need to allow for flexibility in order to take advantage of new and unexpected opportunities that meet the City’s goals, and to leverage City investment and land for community amenities and benefits, such as jobs, parks, and transportation facilities.
Here’s the overview of what’s out there:
With the news that Barbara Lee intends to run for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat the mad dash to call dibs on running for Barbara Lee’s seat has now commenced as Barbara Lee won’t be able to run for both the Senate seat and her own seat. The biggest name, so far, is Bart director Lateefah Simon. There has been nothing but praise for Lateefah Simon on social media (maybe it’s because I follow a lot of Bart directors, I dunno) but guess who has also indicated that they will be running as well?
Look, this is not the first time that Tony Daysog has tried to reach for the stars like this. It will be fun to watch his homespun campaign but, like, he’s not a serious candidate.
Look, I don’t know if someone put in a PRA to the City regarding the Mayor holiday events in order to prove that it wasn’t as expensive as the multi denominational display but we have a PRA nonetheless.
Here’s how much the tree lighting costs:
Really quickly today, looks like the School Board will be considering a new vendor for elementary after school programs for the majority of sites with the exception of Ruby Bridges, Maya Lin, and Love.
A few slides to help set the context, what the district was seeking to do is to get proposals for vendors to administer the after school programs in Alameda regardless of funding mechanism. After discussions with site principals for ASES funded schools (eligible for Title 1 schools) they would retain their existing programs so the choice of vendor(s) would be limited to ELOP funded schools.
By now, if you’re on Facebook, you’ve seen the photo of the chess table at Chechenyo Park covered in racist graffiti. And, honestly, given that all the swastikas are all backward it’s probably some dumb kid who has consumed too much YouTube and went down a right wing hole like a few of the commenters on this very blog. The difference is that the graffiti dumbass is young enough that hopefully, with some help, can realize that being a Nazi probably isn’t all that great. The adults on this blog regurgitating right wing conspiracy theories will probably muttering about sex trafficking out of pizza parlors while cashing their social security checks.
So, Alameda, maybe talk to your kids about not drawing swastikas and etching “white power” on public property, And, you know, perhaps sit them down and have a chat with them about the horrors of the Holocaust and how Nazis shouldn’t be folks to emulate. In other news I saw a amazing trailer for a movie which purportedly was from the studio that produced the John Wick series (which I love) which was all about killing Nazis.
If anyone is interested in tracking the development of the possible bike-ped bridge to connect Oakland to Alameda, read this twitter thread. There are pictures and everything. The big takeaway which we all should have known is, this is going to be tricky:
Blogging Bayport Alameda 