Tonight’s Planning Board meeting has a one major item that I think will be of interest to folks, and one item that I think is really interesting, may not be of interest of folks, but really something that is necessary for development projects moving forward.
For the one that folks will be interested in the Ballena Bay area will be undergoing a Study Session to review preliminary plans for residential construction. The Ballena Bay area for those who will remember had a sweet deal negotiated with the city for a land lease for a long time. The lease was currently renegotiated ...
Alamedans.com's City Council election page has gone up at http://alamedans.com/?page_id=864. It's linked directly from the top of our homepage. We'll be adding info throughout the next 8 weeks.
Let us know if you have ideas for interesting/informative content, links, etc.
I’ve two tips for some good back to school reading.
(1) This month Slate magazine has Paul Tough “guest-blogging” about a wide range of education and education-related issues. His blog is called “Schoolhouse Rock.” If you’ve got a few minutes and you like thinking about education, it is definitely worth checking out. Here’s how he describes what he’s up to for the month:
“For the month of September, Slate has invited me to blog about schools, education reform, parenting, and poverty. I’m an editor at the New York Times Magazine, where I’ve written cover stories, in recent years, on school reform in ...
There are so many things to write about that sometimes I can’t write about anything. So today, I ignore my plans and talk about my morning.
School started this year with a reduction in Crossing Guards for the schools. This is the result of the city’s budget shortfall. A quick overview, unlike most crossing guards, Alameda’s are paid for by the city, not the school district, and they work for the police department. Up until the latest chool year, the city was paying $325,000 a year for crossing guards, but when push came to shove, when the budget had to be ...
The next few weekends will be busy ones here in Alameda, with at least two theater productions, benefits for Alameda Hospital and the Alameda Animal Shelter, and the Webster Street Jam on the calendar. And this weekend will be no exception.For starters, tonight Rhythmix Cultural Works will be hosting Time to Tiki! featuring the art, music and dance of the Pacific islands. Featured artists will include former Pagan Babies lead guitarist Chris Planas, dancers Kumu hula Lani Cid and Halau Makana and artists Charles Valoroso, Jinan Wong and Rocky Laguna. The art gallery opening is at 6 p.m., and that’s ...
Next week, we'll be printing the responses of candidates for the Board of Education, but toady, the third question in our ongoing city council candidate questionnaire.
Today's City Council Question:
Incumbents, why do you feel you should be re-elected, what are your top accomplishments of the past four years? Challengers, why do you feel one or both of the incumbents should be replaced? (Read More,,,)
I didn’t make it out to the Alameda Point Task Force meeting last week, I simply figured that I could catch it on-line, which I did. Turns out, it was eerily similar to the meeting on the Hornet, but without the really great turnout. John Knox White at Stop, Drop and Roll has some reflections from the meeting here, but what did stand out to me, is something that John KW had captured:
…Historic Preservation was a theme from a couple of speakers. However it’s time for the discussion to move beyond “Save every building plus a couple of others” and ...
I haven't posted to ProgAla in what seems like ages ... I think you could say that I have a serious case of political burnout. (I couldn't bring myself to watch even the smallest iota of coverage of the Democratic Convention last week. And to think that I had considered even going there! But things were very different back then....)Part of my burnout is that I'm just not inspired or impressed by Obama. So I find it hard to do much for his campaign.However, I absolutely detest McCain (or as I like say "McSame") and I find ...
Massive cuts to public housing budgets over the last, oh, seven or so years, have made it increasingly difficult for cities' public housing agencies to maintain the homes they have created for lower income residents. So what's a city to do with its public housing? In the case of our little Island, Housing Authority head Michael Pucci has hit upon with an ingenious solution: Call it something else.We'll explain.Like many public housing directors across the country, Pucci has relied on Hope VI public housing funds to pay for and maintain the city's low-income apartment complexes. But those funds have dwindled ...
So this week’s column (it came out in the Alameda Journal on Tuesday) is about my family’s experiment with living without a car. An interesting—and surprising—side effect of this approach to getting around (we’re on day 35 of the challenge) is that instead of making the Island seem bigger and harder to navigate (as I expected) it’s actually making it seem smaller. Trips that I had in my mind that I needed a car for—like going to South Shore, or Park Street or various friends’ houses—I find are quite quick and easy to make by bike or by ...
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