High Street Neighborhood News

by Adelle Foley

High Street Safety Stroll Oakland's second annual Pedestrian Safety Week will culminate in an old-fashioned walk down High Street, from MacArthur to Brookdale, on Friday, May 7, from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Bring your family and join your neighbors in support of safe, pedestrian-friendly streets and a reduction in traffic fatalities Alameda County's number one killer of children under the age of 10. If you'd like to join other walkers, meet near Brookdale Park or the Walgreen parking lot at 7. The first signs of Pedestrian Safety activity on High Street will be a radar trailer checking speed on Thursday, May 6. On Friday, May 7, children will be rewarded for safe behavior, and there will be concentrated enforcement of traffic and parking laws. Progress on High Street While you're walking down High Street, notice how the High Street Neighborhood Alliance's focus on blight is beginning to pay off. Then look at the T's marking parking spaces all the way down to Foothill. They are there thanks to the persistence of HSNA traffic activist Al Scoggins and the cooperation of Oakland's Traffic Engineering. Clean and Green at Courtland Creek On Saturday, May 15, we'll have another chance to spend time with our neighbors improving our community. Bring your heavy gloves, enthusiasm, and appetite to San Carlos and Courtland at 9 a.m. We'll be planting trees, painting, and cleaning up. Thanks to the Discovery Center, children will have a chance to check out the creek water and reintroduce tadpoles. High Hopes/High Energy An expanded group of NCPC members spent one Saturday morning developing strategies and committing themselves to action plans for priorities chosen at the March general meeting. The three target areas are 48th Ave., Kingsland and Ygnacio, and the 2300 block of High Street. The next NCPC meeting will be at Horace Mann School (Congress and Ygnacio) on Thursday, May 20, at 7 p.m. Melrose Library Move Not Quite Yet The writing workshop for high-school-aged students (May 4, 3:30 p.m.) and Cinco de Mayo crafts for children (May 5, 3:30 p.m.) continue, despite uncertainty regarding the move. Best current guess: the library will close at the end of May and reopen at 5420 Bancroft three to four weeks later.