Boulevard Bites

by Toni Locke

In the 1980s, when I began as a rank-and-filer in the MacArthur Coalition, the Internet was an unborn babe. In the daily campaigns to clean up litter, remove graffiti, and line our streets with trees, we used the telephone to connect with city agencies. Today, neighborhood Web sites and their links open up powers that community organizers never had before. We can thank Paul and Kathleen Smith of SupportNet.com for helping to develop the Web sites. We have only to use them.

Start with www.dimondnews.org, the best Web site in the bunch, managed by Tim Chapman. You will find an e-mail list for direct interpersonal communication and a message board where you can post current concerns. If you want to know the latest about the closing of the Altenheim, for example, you may read DIA president Sam Cohen's notes on their September 4 meeting. On another link, the answer you'll find to the question "Who Represents the Dimond?" serves all residents of District 4, and more. From there you can jump to Oakland Links, the city Web site, featuring a map showing all the sites in town, and also a useful "what to do about it" page for accurate reporting on issues demanding City action.

If you want to read opinion about the Just Cause renters' rights movement, go to the Piedmont Avenue site.

Another good Web site in the Metro area is www.redwood-heights.org, managed by Ed Rovera, where you can keep up on the battle against overdevelopment in Leona Quarry. Unfortunately, the Laurel Web site died a couple of years ago, but just next door, Millsmont and Glenview on the Net report flourishing local activism.

The birth of the Metro Web site is close, tended by Laurel resident and Metro Board member Brian Holmes. There the public will be able to research back copies for stories of chronic local battles over the years and learn for future action.

And District 4 Council candidates Quan and Stein have Web sites that help voters make decisions.

Tools are most useful when kept sharp and used wisely. Organizations succeed when people learn to trust and like each other by working together in the real world. Never have we needed people power in our neighborhoods more. Volunteer to help staff a Web site. Use the Internet.