Shenanigans on the Boulevard

by Dennis Evanosky

The long-suffering Redwood Heights neighbors are still putting up with ear-shattering donuts. You may recall that the neighbors had worked with the Metro and Dick Spees. We forced the city's bureaucracy to pay attention to a problem they had chosen to ignore. Once the right players were at the table (Dick Spees' table, essentially), we were able to convince the city to install "Bott dots" at the intersections of Carson and Aliso.

After checking with one of the concerned neighbors around November 15, I was happy to report in my December column that the sideshows and the donuts had subsided. Not long after, however, the hoodlums returned. According to one neighbor, someone torched a car in the neighborhood, adding vandalism to the mix.

Problems then sprouted from a couple of unexpected sources. I got an e-mail that started, "The Crime Forum wanted to inform you." I looked over my shoulder to see if Big Brother was watching. The "Forum" informed me, in an I-told-you-so fashion, that police said the dots would attract rather than discourage the hoodlums.

Why didn't we hear this from the "Forum" when we were discussing the Bott dot solution?

When Public Works installed those dots, one of its managers agreed to reconfigure the intersection if the dots didn't work.

When the neighbor reported that they were not working, the manager replied that he would have a traffic engineer "take a look ... and explore any reasons for continued donut activity." Then came the bad news: "Unfortunately, the transportation engineer assigned to your area has left the city."

My first reaction: What does someone leaving the city have to do with the responsibility of an agency of government? My second: This is akin to the song and dance the neighbors heard before. The last time, the city had no money; this time, they have no personnel. Well, the city has both. Now all it takes is the strong political will that Dick Spees demonstrated in the first round of this fiasco.

So, the neighborhood goes back to the drawing board. Stay tuned.

People concerned with problems like these should be aware of "Neighborhood Solutions, Inc." This organization was formed to help people rid their neighborhoods of ongoing nuisances. Their services are free to organized community groups, though legal and court costs may be shared. Staff lawyer is Kathleen Aberegg.

"We think 'nuisance' is a very soft term for some of these problems that often escalate to violent behavior, including homicide, as in the case of our latest client," the organization's executive director Grace Neufeld told me, citing a project they worked on.

"The neighborhood surrounding the Bird Kage Bar in North Oakland had just generated a demand letter to initiate a small-claims suit after a zoning hearing ruled against taking action against the bar."

Then Oakland's 105th homicide occurred on the bar's doorstep. Then pressure from the community including the impending massive small-claims action by the neighborhood forced the operators of the Bird Kage to fly the coop.

The spirit driving Neighborhood Solutions, Inc. encourages neighbors to identify problem landlords and property owners and use the power of small-claims court to force them to obey the law. It's a tried-and-true tactic that forces people to care because they'll feel it where it hurts most if they don't: in the pocketbook.

This has also worked twice in my experience with the biggest landlord around, the City ofOakland. The threat of the publicity surrounding a small-claims suit tipped the scales in forcing the city to tear down a whole city block right on my street. The city also took care of a huge mess at 35th and MacArthur (city property). No one wanted to do a thing until I faxed court papers to the City Attorney's office.

If the Redwood Heights neighbors really want some reaction from the city, they might want to contact Neighborhood Solutions and "work" with the city.

"Our focus is to empower citizens by providing them with information and training to control and even eradicate public nuisances in their communities. As a community, we have to come together to win back our neighborhoods," said Neufeld. "There is much we can do as citizens to challenge the causes of many public nuisances. We don't have to sit back and let our communities deteriorate because of drug dealing, sideshows, and other events that interfere with the quality of our lives."

To learn more about Neighborhood Solutions, Inc., call (510) 392-0115, or e-mail SolutionsInc\@ev1.net.