Just The News

Vandals Hit Oakland Firestorm Garden

This unpleasant piece of news just arrived from Susan Piper.

“Just two weeks before the 19th anniversary of the 1991 Oakland Hills Firestorm, vandals cut 8 bronze branches off of the metal sculpture in the Oakland Firestorm Garden dedicated to the victims and survivors of what was at the time the worst urban disaster in US history. On October 21, 1991, 25 people died and 3500 homes were destroyed as a result of a firestorm on that hot, windy day.

“This is like dancing on the grave of the fire victims,” said Gordon Piper, chair of the Oakland Landscape Committee who raised the funds and coordinated the volunteers who installed the garden in 1993. The sculpture depicts the scorched trees and new growth that graced the fire zone in the years following the disaster.

“This isn’t the first time that vandals have removed the branches. But their greed is a desecration of the spirit and meaning of the sculpture and garden,” said Piper

The Oakland Landscape Committee is accepting donations to cover the cost of fabricating new custom designed branches to the sculpture, which was designed by Gail Fredell.  Checks should be made payable  to Friends of Oakland Park and Recreation and sent to 33 Hiller Drive, Oakland, CA 94618.”

Village Hardware Store Moving?

We’ve heard some sad news about the possibility of a business departing the village.

It seems that Montclair Village Hardware will very likely leave Mountain Boulevard for a new location.  While the owner wants to wait until next week to talk about a possible move, it sounds like parking is an issue. So is the relatively small size of the store, and then, of course, there’s the rent. This would be a minor blow for the mix of shops in the neighborhood. The next closest hardware store is on Park Boulevard.

Candidate Forum Video

Did you miss last week’s District 4 candidate forum?

The seven candidates attended and spoke to the crowd, including Jill Broadhurst, Jason Gillen, Ralph Kanz, Clinton Killian, Libby Schaaf, Melanie Shelby and Daniel Swafford.

V Smoothe at A Better Oakland has a video of the event (link here), along with a round-up of more upcoming forums.

Piedmont 911

Oakland North, a project by students from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, has an interesting article about people in Rockridge and Montclair calling the Piedmont Police Department for help. Piedmont Police Captain John Hunt told Oakland North that calls from Oaklanders have increased by 20 to 30 percent over the past two months.

While the article notes that Piedmont PD has been receiving emails and baked good from grateful Oaklanders, it doesn’t mention if that increase represents two to three more calls or 20 to 30 more requests for Piedmont cops. That would be interesting to know. Meantime, Emeryville and Berkeley PDs have not observed a rise in calls from Oakland residents, according to Oakland North.

The Library Will be Closed, But the Internet’s Open

Between Labor Day, Admissions Day (What?! You don’t celebrate Admissions Day? Shame on you.) and the budget crisis, the library is going to pretty much shut down next week. Wednesday is the one day next week when you will be able to do your library business. Unless you have Internet access, that is.

Montclair's Storybook Library (OPL)

Use the unfortunate library blackout to experiment with the Oakland Public Library’s cool new OverDrive system, which allows patrons to download ebooks and audiobooks to PCs and Macs. The audiobooks play on most MP3 players, including the iPod. You can read the ebooks on your computer with free software, on the Barnes and Noble Nook or the Sony Reader. You can’t use your Kindle or iPad…yet. Start browsing.

While we’re on the subject of the Oakland Public Library, help out your friendly local librarian and take this survey about the library’s website. They are in the process of revamping it and making it easier to use.