A letter from Randy Wedding

One of the ongoing mysteries surrounding the Piedmont City Council’s handling of the Blair Park project is their apparent obliviousness to the liability associated with the under-engineered traffic solution.  If there is a traffic accident with an injury or fatality in the immediate vicinity of Blair, if and when the proposed project is completed as designed, the City is likely to get sued.  With the copious comments in the record about Click to read more »

Coaches Playfield

The use of the one-time $500,000 WW Park Bond Fund money for artificial turf and lighting on Coaches Field is envisioned by the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Review Committee in its FY 2011-12 recommendations, although the Piedmont City Council has not yet held public hearings on the various possible uses of the WW funds.  The Council has promised hearings will be held prior to a determination on the use of the funds.   Measure WW funds are restricted, but are available to Piedmont for a variety of capital projects:  Click to read more »

On June 28 and 30 Oakland’s City Council approved a budget for the 2011-2013 fiscal years that reportedly keeps all Oakland Public branch libraries open during that time period.  But does that really include the Piedmont Avenue library? Click to read more »

Editor’s Note: The following letter was sent to the Piedmont City Council and Park Commissioners regarding landscaping the city-owned property at 801 Magnolia. The matter will be heard at the Wednesday, July 6, Park Commission meeting, which begins at 5:30 p.m. in City Council chambers.

June 30, 2011

Dear Council Members and Commissioners:

The citizens of Piedmont are indeed fortunate that the Piedmont Center for the Arts (PCArts) will open soon in the long-abandoned building at the corner of Magnolia and Bonita. While the interior will be a venue for bringing the community together to celebrate our city’s diverse talents, the expansive outdoor portion of the property ought to showcase creative landscape design—as well as honor Piedmont’s adopted Bay-Friendly ordinance. Click to read more »

A letter from Bernard Pech discussing a new opportunity the Internet may offer Piedmont teachers

Our Piedmont Unified School District teachers are confronted on a daily basis with the contradictory expectations of two extreme categories of parents in our well-off community (I exaggerate): those (say type A) who want very structured classes with heavy curriculum and teachers dispensing knowledge; and those (type B) who want very interactive classes where creativity is fostered through discovery, investigative learning, and critical thinking. Click to read more »

A Report from the Chair of the 2011 Municipal Tax Review Committee,  Michael Rancer

At its June 22 meeting, the Municipal Tax Review Committee began reviewing draft proposals for recommendations to the City Council.  After lengthy discussion, the committee began to coalesce around intention to recommend:

• Reauthorization of the municipal parcel tax beginning July 1, 2013

• First year levy to equal the 2012-13 tax

• Future annual increases limited to Bay Area Consumer Price Index (CPI), but not more than 4% per year Click to read more »

A letter from Joanne Semitekol on the Blair Park process

According to Geoff Grote in the June 22nd ‘The Blair Park Project’  article in East Bay Express, $65,000 is now needed for environmental and legal studies regarding a traffic plan for the project.  Early on in the process, I for one, and several others requested, even pleaded with City Council, to conduct a thorough traffic study for Moraga Avenue to insure a viable project BEFORE embarking on a premature Environmental Impact Study.   Instead the City Council chose to move ahead and conduct Click to read more »

Comments before the Piedmont School Board, June 22, 2011

I am a very long time Piedmont resident. On May 25, Mr. Gadbois asked Ms. Hubbard a critical question, inquiring if turf replacement can be charged as a direct cost to the private sports clubs.  I note the Piedmont sports clubs are given priority access to the School District fields, and this is certainly a special benefit for them. Click to read more »

A group of Montclair residents are organizing and calling for the creation of a private library rather than lose their branch of the Oakland Public Library.  It is not clear whether the City of Oakland would rent the library building to a private library association, or whether an alternative location would have to be found. Click to read more »

On the evening of Tuesday, June 21, several hundred Oakland library supporters gathered at Oakland City Hall.  They filled every seat on the main floor of the chamber, both galleries, the grand staircase leading up to the chamber as well as the amphitheater in the plaza.  They had come to oppose the proposed budget that would close most of the branch libraries and  drastically reduce services in the four remaining libraries.  (See library articles.)  However, the Oakland City Council, once more, postponed consideration of the city’s FY 2011-12 budget, as it had on June 7.

The Oakland Council did, however, approve the second reading of the increase in the Measure Q parcel tax, the Library Services Retention and Enhancement Act of 2004.  Click to read more »