Month: March 2010

Crime Stats Reveal Leap In Burglaries

When you dig into the Montclair crime statistics, there’s a real story around here.  In the Montclair core, burglaries increased nearly three-fold during the past month:  from five to 14 hits.

As a public service, below are Oakland Police Department crimes reported over the past 60 days.  We divided the relevant stats into two 30-day chunks, to see what’s changed or not changed.

When you look at the entire 94611 zip code, overall reported crimes dropped slightly.  The northern Montclair (13Y beat) dropped a bit, with fewer burglaries but increased thefts.

The Montclair core (13Z beat) was hardest hit by burglaries, while the area’s overall crime count remained steady.  Our village also experienced an obvious spate of vandalism earlier this year, only slightly visible in the reported stats.

One last observation:  we have noticed that traffic tends to drop when reporting crimes stats and subjects.  With the burglary news, we hope you were able to swallow this dose of cod-liver oil.

Oakland Wins An Oscar

It’s true!  At the Oscar awards this weekend, Pixar’s Up received golden guys for best original score and best animated feature.  We watched locally-based director Pete Docter accept the feature award on primetime TV – and loudly hooted and hollered for Oakland.

Pixar sometimes sneaks a Bay Area reference into their movies, which makes sense considering the animators work in nearby Emeryville.  Oakland made a cameo this go-around, as the place where you could eat ice cream and truly appreciate life.

Pete Docter lives somewhere in spitting distance of Piedmont Avenue.  So when our Oscar winning director decided that an ice cream shop belonged in the story, he naturally cast Fentons Creamery as the idealized spot.  According to Fentons folks, he goes there all the time with his family and friends.

We are now officially immortalized by Members of the Academy, no less.

Greening Oakland Homes Checks In

Over the weekend, Greening Oakland Homes held a fair at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club.  After months of consideration and contributions by many volunteers, this Saturday event invited all neighbors to dip their toes into the world of energy audits, green retrofits and alternative energy.

Yes, saving energy is inherently local.  As a homeowner, it’s pretty natural to ask neighbors what they did or who they used when making improvements in their energy and water consumption.  It can be daunting to embark on a project, when you haven’t been swimming here before.

Rather than some overwhelming event, there were selected vendors who served Oakland.  Many of them said things like “well, we did a place that…” and proceeded to share projects that happened nearby.

Of course, going to the Women’s Club is always a treat.  The room on the left, a dark and richly covered place, was used for presentations.  And the main ballroom showcased all the vendors, along with info from local utilities and the City of Oakland.

I don’t really want to play favorites but the cool windows and coverings caught my eye.  One group that trains young adults to do energy audits and improvements seemed pretty terrific, too.

Missed it?  You can check out info about greening initiatives and more at their website.

Thanks For The Trefoils

Just a week or two before the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, our local Girl Scouts reappear with their annual supply of trefoils and thin mints.  There’s something wonderful about this fundraiser which teaches girls about business, while feeding the craving masses.

Today the Girl Scouts were set up in Montclair Village, and selling their stash.  We watched and recorded ’em in action below.  First, the scouts marketed and hawked cookies with plenty of verve!

Then it was time to check out the goods up close, artfully displayed and ready for the taking.  Did you know the cookie boxes all say “courage, confidence and character” on them?

At around 2pm, the girls were experiencing a lull in the post-lunch crowd.  Like all good retailers, they patiently waited for shoppers to stop by their stand.

Within minutes, we caught one happy buyer and seller in mid-transaction.  No matter what happens over the decades, the buyers still want these cookies and are pleased to fork over $4 per box.

There were several signs that we’re living in 2010, though.  One buyer didn’t want to be photographed acquiring her contraband, explaining that she was buying it as a gift.  Plus the Girl Scouts now sport nicer-green vests festooned with earned badges, which seem much cuter than we remember.

Cheers to these girls, hard at work.

No Longer Welcome In Montclair

We are no longer welcoming visitors to Montclair Village these days:  our southern “Welcome to Montclair” sign is not there!

Remember when there was a graffiti hit on the village, in early December?  This very same sign, located on the corner of Mountain and Park Boulevards, was broken as well as spray-painted back then.  We noticed the welcome got fixed in record time – within days.

Welcome to Groundhog Day, here in Montclair.  Fast forward three months, and our well-worn sign was attacked once more.  Apparently it’s just too weakened to be repaired quickly and has been removed, temporarily.

Montclarions are deluging Roger Vickery, who serves as the Montclair Village Association (MVA) director, about the sign’s disappearance and status.  Here is his pre-emptive response:

Yes, the Montclair Village Welcome sign…has been removed for repairs and repainting.  Vandals, you may recall, smashed the top of the sign last December.  We made a repair on site but the vandals returned and tried to break off the top again last week.  And, in our attempt to remove some graffiti late last year, we removed some of the paint on the sign.

So, we’ve asked Dave Strong, of Strong Signs in Oakland, to take the sign back to his shop so he can do a proper fix and repaint the sign.  Dave is the guy who created this sign as well as our Welcome sign in the MSIC Shortline Pocket Park on the other end of town.

We hope to have the sign back in place in the next couple of weeks.

We understand the refurbishment is in safe hands and getting done, but still couldn’t resist the symbolic removal of our red-carpet welcome.  Keep in mind that Montclarions took immediate notice, yet visitors wouldn’t know they missed anything.

And here’s hoping the second time is a charm.