Alcatraz Avenue Neighborhood Association

November 2001 Minutes

Minutes of Meeting: November 14, 2001, 7:00 p.m.

Attendees:
City of Berkeley: Lee Hightower, Thomas A. Myers and Officer Stephen Burcham

AANA Officers: Ron Casimere (Chair), Ray Pelegrino (Vice Chair), Andrea Cesar (Communications Coordinator), Fredia Smith (Treasurer) and Lori Lott (Secretary)

Alcatraz Avenue Neighbors

1. Meeting called to order at 7:05. Roll Call of AANA officers.

2. Introductions of those attending the meeting

3. Reading of the minutes by Secretary Lori Lott. Motion to adopt the minutes passed unanimously.

4. Financial Report: Presented by Fredia Smith
Balance Carried Over = $ 366.73
Current Balance (checking and savings) = $ 285.91

5. City of Berkeley Update: Lee Hightower was present to hear about issues. He was asked about our ongoing traffic concerns. The City is still in the process of hiring a traffic engineer. As mentioned at previous meetings, the current focus is on traffic calming on Ashby. He will ask Reh-Lin Chen (Acting Traffic Engineer) to attend a meeting in the future to discuss. Other issues addressed included street cleaning, tree trimming, and sewer concerns.
Thomas Myers was present to discuss Liquor Store initiative. He was involved with the group whose work lead to the closure of M&N Liquors in 1985 (but this store had major violations!). More recently, he has worked with group called PAIN (People Against Insanity in the Neighborhood) to address violations by Brother's Liquors. Individuals in PAIN banded together to consistently call the police, turn in complaint forms, and then asked for restrictions on the store's Use Permit at the Oct. 25th Zoning Board Hearing. Thomas passed around copies of the Zoning Board's decision, "Tools for Neighborhood Watch Groups (by Officer Marangoni), and liquor store complaint forms. Thomas has asked us to send completed forms or email complaints to him (TAMyers@ci.berkeley.ca.us) , but in order to have an impact, he stressed the importance of reading through the Zoning Board's decision and the "Tools" handout BEFORE filling out the complaint forms.

6. City of Berkeley Police Update: Officer Steve Burcham was present to hear concerns and answer questions. He was asked about criminal activity in our area. He didn't have the crime stats off hand, but there has been no rush of robberies. He handed out flyers about the Berkeley Police website, and we can check crime stats for our area on the website. Residents reported that there has been a great deal of loitering on King Street between Alcatraz and Stanford (even very early in the morning). Officer Burcham reminded us to call in ASAP (with a description) when we see crimes or suspicious behavior. If the activity is taking place near the Berkeley/Oakland border, call the Oakland Police as well! (777-3333)

7. Ongoing Business: Current committees (and the people heading them up) include: Liquor Store Initiative (Andrea), Contacting/ Involving Adjacent Neighborhood Groups (Ray), and Neighborhood Clean-up (Ron). Although these people are serving as the committee heads, we must all take an active role in helping them (spread the work!!) so that the issues can be effectively addressed. We plan to have a separate meeting to discuss the formation of committees in order to come up with a game plan for how to address the issues. Ray Pelegrino will organize this special meeting.

8. Due to the holidays, a motion was made to cancel the December meeting, which passed unanimously. Next Meeting is scheduled for January 9, 7:00 pm at the Over 60 Health Center.

9. Meeting adjourned at 9:01 pm.