A quick post in advance of the City’s Nov. 9th meeting about the Park Street Trees. According to the arborist hired as a part of the creation of the Tree Master Plan, two-thirds of the 21 trees that were removed in the 2nd phase of the Park Street Streetscape project were rated in Good...
In what ended up being a big coincidence, I was planning on writing about issues of public notice and involvement with major Public Works projects, including the Transportation Commission, last week. Then the department managed to prove my point exceedingly well by chopping down 21 apparently healthy trees on Park Streetwithout telling anyone about...
There is a lot of information out there about the Alameda Golf/Mif Swap unfortunately much of it is pretty bad which causes the discussion to wend its way out of control and into the absurd. That said, I think the swap is a terrible idea, something I’ll write about later, but just became aware...
Mayor Gilmore and Councilmembers, At tonight’s meeting of the City Council you will hear the first reading of the draft sunshine ordinance. I want to thank staff for their hard work on this important ordinance. For the most part, their revisions make the ordinance clearer and stronger. I would like to respectfully disagree with...
Tomorrow night, the Alameda City Council will hold the first reading of the draft Sunshine Ordinance. The ordinance was originally presented to the City Council back in January and sent to city staff for comment. It returns pretty much intact. A tracked changes copy is available here. Most of the changes are just language...
So HBIA, aka Ron Cowan, has hired a consultant to produce a minute and a half video of what building sports fields in the middle of a business park looks like. The only problem is that the cheesy music gives the proposal a bucolic feel, which is less consistent with the tiny baseball fields...
On Tuesday night, during the City Council meeting to receive and discuss the tragedy that ended with the death of Raymond Zack, after 9 Alamedans stood and asked questions about (or in some cases called into question) the independent report produced by Ruben Grijalva. After the public comment was complete, Alameda City Manager, John...
Updated: 9/26 @12:30-ish – The City has decided to continue the 10/4 Mif item until 10/18 and go out for additional appraisals for the Mif. A victory for common (and political) sense. Kudos to the council members who stepped up and to City Manager Russo for making it happen. The above photos are photos...
Sunshine in government is a really important tool for effecting better decision-making as well as encouraging greater, more meaningful participation in the public process. Yesterday, something momentous and good occurred. The City Council and ARRA agendas came out…10 days prior to the meeting.
Updated: The City has released the agenda for the 8/30 special council meeting. Last Friday, the City of Alameda sent out a press release that finally outlined the process for hiring a new, permanent City Attorney, a process that should be complete by “early fall.” After receiving 42 resumes, the City interviewed seven candidates...
