Places Of Note

More Acres For Zoo Or Not

There are some tough choices ahead for Knowland Park.  The Oakland Zoo leadership needs more space and would like to expand their acreage in the park.  Yet many locals, including the Friends of Knowland Park, want to ensure that undeveloped parkland remains untouched.

Knowland Pro-Development

Zoo administrators want room to grow, period.  They have an educational mission to accomplish, and want to improve their offerings to more than a half-million visitors annually.  One notable plan includes new exhibits featuring California species on their native turf, putting creatures who might (theoretically) run free behind fences.

In the map below, you see the expansion would add the orange outlined area to the current green area – another 40 acres or so.  Within the perimeter fence, you would find one veterinary hospital, the aforementioned California exhibits, a new service road and plenty of open space.

Knowland Anti-Development

What’s at issue in developing this area?  Well, the City of Oakland’s General Plan says, “the substantial portion of Knowland Park above the zoo and picnic grounds…is to remain in its natural state.”  This open space was supposed to stay completely undeveloped as a green corridor, leading to the East Bay Regional Parks next door.

Recently, the Chronicle published an urban outings report on hiking in the park.  We decided to take a quick trip this afternoon, and can confirm that it’s a little muddy and also dressed in green, spring finery now.  It’s nicer than we remembered.

Two Sides Meet

At this point, the train is revving up but hasn’t left the metaphorical station.  There have been all kinds of reviews and discussions taking place during the past year.

Next up?  The Oakland Zoo is holding a meeting this Thursday, from 6:30-8:30pm at the Zoo’s Marian Zimmer Auditorium (map), to obtain public comments and proceed forward.

More info:  Please read latest plans from the Oakland Zoo, as well as archived maps and documents from the Friends of Knowland Park.  To reach the Zoo, email communityinput@oaklandzoo.org.  To reach the Friends, email info@friendsofknowlandpark.org.

Bike Racks Are Hitching Posts

Yesterday, we noticed an everyday occurrence in Montclair Village:  a trusty steed waited patiently for its master, who was grabbing coffee or running errands nearby.

The bike racks frequently serve as modern-day hitching posts for dogs, not all that different from saddled horses.  Their owners arrive in town with their best buddies and tie them safely to these inverted-U posts.

This cute pooch, who had been secured to one of the racks, was well-behaved and friendly as the world passed by.  We couldn’t resist a quick hello here and the dog reciprocated.

While hanging out, the steed eventually resorted to a sidewalk nap.  We didn’t clock how long this particular dog was hitched, though we believe a half-hour passed until the master returned.

These hitched dogs come and go all day, along Mountain Boulevard and Antioch Court.  To us, they are Montclair Village’s goodwill ambassadors.

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.

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.