june 09, 2010 - sobo minutes

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Downtown Oakland Association/Lake Merritt-Uptown District Association Joint SOBO Committee

June 09, 2010 – 12:00 p.m. – Cathedral Conference Room A

Present: Harold Dees, Martin Ward, Tanicia Jackson, Michelle Lane, LaurieBerberich

Staff: Marco Li Mandri, Steve Snider, Andrew Jones, Ted Tarver, RickWilliams, Fiona Simms

Minutes



The following items were discussed and recommendations or actions are made tothe Board as follows:

Subject Discussion Action?SecurityAmbassador

Report:1)Update fromTed Tarver

Transition of ambassador program tohospitality focus. Ambassadors are visible as a

deterrent, but more focused on interactingwith the public, guiding them to entertainmentand businesses

The interaction with the Oakland PoliceDepartment has greatly improved. They arenow actively engaging with the Ambassadorson a daily basis. They are showingappreciation for what the Ambassadors aredoing, and are supporting the Ambassadors onthe streets.

Outside of the Downtown Oakland district

boundary, crime has increased.

Additional ambassadors in the evening arebenefitting the Uptown Area, helping thosewho are intoxicated. There is a recent increasein the amount of people coming to the areaand Bakesale Betty is interested in expandingtheir operational hours to include Saturday.

Steve: I recently had a discussion with SkytidePatrick Hirly (13th and Broadway) Two daysbefore was accosted by a man who threw abottle. Two security officers from different

buildings came out and addressed theindividual. Now the security from thebusinesses within the districts are now willingto step out and help because they feel thesupport of the Ambassador program.

The Fern hotel on 15th (between Broadway andFranklin) street is our next project area. Thepatrons have been threatening pedestrians.Also there are drug rings working out of there.Many of these hotels have contracts with thecities in the Bay to be used to house thementally ill.

Marco: we should get the information of theowner and approach him with these issues.As a part of their contract with the City, thesehotels have a Conditional Use Permit whichdefines what they must do to maintain theircontract. We should look at the permit and seeif they are in violation, which may get thecontract revoked.



Rick: It is also a place where paroles go afterthey have been released.

Marco: The manager should be filtering thosepeople out.

Ted: the Ambassadors requested to view thesecurity tape from the building to review anincident that occurred outside, but the ownerrefused. He said only the OPD would beallowed to view the tape.

MaintenanceAmbassadorReport1) Update fromRick Williams

Rick: Trash and Litter removal is ongoing

Graffiti abatement is down. There have beenno major taggings, but we should see a largeincrease in summer.

Marco: Will Peralta be able to accommodate

the 50 extra trash cans we will be installing?

Urine incidents increased during the hotweather, and we identified new hot spots tofocus on: 1000 Broadway, 12th and Broadway,17th Bart entrance. We’ve ordered a few newproducts to try out.

Since it has stopped raining, the weeds havegrown. We have identified 25-30 locations.Some of them are privately owned for examplethe ivy in the Douglas parking areas, whichstretches onto the sidewalk. We have a planfor removing that ivy, and that will be abatedin the next 3-4 weeks.

The Acid based graffiti and etching on thewindows of about 25 business have provedproblematic to remove.

Harold has found a glass restoration companybased in Santa Rosa. They have anoutstanding service record, they guaranteetheir work, and are willing to give thecommittee a demonstration, as well as workon weekends and after hours.

After the restoration of the glass there is aprotective film we can apply that will protectthe glass from future etchings. If there wasanother incident we can simply peel off thefilm and replace it.

We cannot take on the financials of repairingthese windows but we can provide the buildingowners with the information of these



companies.

However there is an issue with absenteeproperty owners. We need to look deeper intocode enforcement for blight. For examplethere has been a building with a window that

has been broken since the riots 18 monthsago, and has graffiti.

Marco: We should put this information on ourwebsite, and provide links.

Steve: Maybe we can get a reduced rate if weare providing them with the business from thedistrict

EncroachmentPermit Process1) DistrictEncroachment

Permit : Meetingwith Ray Deraniaand Aliza Gallo

Andrew: We meet with Ray Derania, who is theBuilding Permit Director. Ray informed us thatwe can bundle multiple permits together, withone fee. The areas that Ray can easily handle

are trashcans, hanging plants, and banners.We have spent the last week getting theproposals together. We have catalogued everylight pole in the districts.

The banners are more expensive upfrontbecause we have to install the hardware; fromthere it is simple to change out the banners.On the Cobra Head light poles, we can havetwo banners, two hanging plants, or one of each. The banners on Cobra Head poles can beup to 8 feet. On the Candelabra light poleshowever, we can only hang one or the other.Banners on the Candelabra poles can be 5 feet

The hanging plants are coming out of theSOBO budget, and the banners are comingfrom the DISI budget.

There will be two general types of banners,those that brand the districts and those thatare holiday themed. Also we can look atworking with Oakland organizations, such asthe Athletics, or the Warriors, and we couldcharge them over and above the cost of installation and maintenance. There are cityrestrictions regarding advertising. We can

have a short term lease agreement drafted forthese situations.

News Racks andMedians Status

News racks and medians are different becausethey fall out of Ray’s jurisdiction.

Bay Area Express and Bay Area News Groupmet with the new Building facilitator, BillCansada.

The CBDs only want the ability to remove the

An amount not toexceed $500 fromeach SOBOmiscellaneous fundis allocated forLogo placardinstallation.



news racks if they are not kept up tomaintenance standards after we have gonethrough the city’s processes and given notice.We are waiting for the City to give uspermission to remove these news racks. Thisdoes not fall under the standard job

description for PWA, and the city is allowed tosub-contract out this job. Because we aredonating this service there does not need to abid process.

The process for the medians is very similar. The city is not allowed to sub-contract thatwork. Because we are volunteering, we shouldbe able to circumvent those issues.

When the news groups go to the city andapply for a permit to install new news racks,there is a detailed description of what blight isand how they have to maintain their newsracks.

Bay Area News Group and the City of Oaklandare being sued right now because of injurycaused by their damaged news racks.

Our goal is to pit out 200 new trash cans. Weneed to put out 50 a year for the next 4 years.Part of our proposal with the city is that if weput out new trash cans they must haverecycling tops. We have been locatingfabricators to make recycling lids for thetrashcans we have already selected. The costof the lid is more than twice the cost of thecan.

The concern was raised that if we put outthese new trashcans there will be 4 differenttypes of trash cans throughout the districts,and perhaps we should think about gettingtrashcans from the city and putting our logoson them. The option of moving the old trashcans to specific areas, and concentrating thenew trash cans to specific areas to maintainsome consistency.It was determined that the priority is gettingthe lowest price possible while still filling the

city’s requirements. The Maintenance Ambassadors are responsiblefor collecting the trash from the cans. They arenot however responsible for sorting the trashout of the recycling.If we go through New City America we shouldbe able to get recycling lids for $150.So far 6 Lake Merritt Up-Town plates havebeen installed on our trash cans. They are



located on Broadway between 19th and 20th onthe East side. We are using rivets to installthem. It takes about 15 minutes per can toinstall these plates. There are 120 cans. If wecan hire someone, it can be done in a week(25-40 hours).

Approval of the20K match forthe Bank of America Grantfrom SOBO

Marco suggested that each district fund thenew Hospitality Ambassador Internshipentirely out of their miscellaneous fund($20,000 from each district) so we can reservethe $20,000 from Bank of America in the non-assessment district account, so it isunrestricted, and can be used for specialprojects, because the non-assessment districtfund is more flexible.

$20,000 is to beallocated from eachSOBOmiscellaneousfund, totaling$40,000 to launchthe HospitalityAmbassadorprogram, and theBank of AmericaGrant ($20,000) isto be reserved inthe non-

assessment districtaccount, subject toBoard approval

Discussion of intern programimplementationwhen we get theB of A grant

Allocation of 2K for the minorencroachmentpermit for Drewand the City

There is a fee for filing for the encroachmentpermits. If each district wants their ownpermit, it would be $1,000 per permit. If wecan get everything under one umbrella permit,it would only be $500 per district.

An amount not toexceed $1,000 perdistrict is to beallocated from eachdistrict’s SOBOmiscellaneous fund

Other The Washington Clock Company has providedup with an impromptu quote for fixing theclock at 1635 Broadway. He is very confidentthat he can repair the mechanics of the clockand get it running again. We would beresponsible for fixing up the exterior of theclock. In total it would cost about $8,000 to fixthe clock up. This does not include theelectrical to power the clock. The owner of thebuilding bought the clock when he bought thebuilding. He pays for the electrical. We need toget the owner to sign off on the repairs.We need a more substantial quote, with amechanical warranty, and we will go to Cloroxand ask them to fund this project.

Next MeetingDates

Our next meeting is scheduled for July 14th,2010, it is moved to July 21st, 2010.

Minutes taken by Fiona Simms, staff

june 09, 2010 - sobo minutes

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