Alameda City Council

2/3 of Park Street Trees rated “Good” or better

November 4, 2011

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...

Read more »

Getting the Public back in Alameda Public Works

November 1, 2011

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...

Read more »

Comparable to the Mif?

October 20, 2011
Comparable to the Mif?

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...

Read more »

Comments for tonight’s Alameda Sunshine Ordinance

October 18, 2011

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...

Read more »

Open Government Ordinance returns to Alameda City Council

October 17, 2011

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...

Read more »

The new Alameda Youth Sports complex, slightly more realistic version.

October 14, 2011

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...

Read more »

Alameda’s Crown Beach tragedy: community gets answers

October 13, 2011

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...

Read more »

Updated: A Swing and a Mif

September 26, 2011

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...

Read more »

The sunshine is shining in Alameda

August 26, 2011

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.

Read more »

Updated: Alameda’s City Attorney Hiring Process

August 23, 2011

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...

Read more »