Dimond News

by Ann Nomura

Business Is Good

The Dimond business district looks great. Albertson's began canopy repairs and cleanup, and Albertson's, the property owners, and the City of Oakland have started working together to bring in a new tenant. Thank you to all the Metro readers who called Albertson's and got this project moving.

Volunteer gardeners cleaned the tree wells and planted the planters, and Luciano, the City of Oakland's gardener, planted and mulched the Dimond Library grounds. We have a new restaurant, Pho Vung Tau, at 2039 MacArthur Blvd, and Caffe Diem has extended its hours. Renovations have begun in the old Club Milroc, 2214 MacArthur Blvd., and it will no longer be a bar. Crime and trash are down, and spirits are up in the Dimond business district.

Dimond Dissected

Dimond neighbors mobilized to fight Council President Ignacio De La Fuente's redistricting proposal, which takes Cañon Street and the area around the Altenheim and below 580, and puts it into his district, leaving the other pieces of the Dimond in Councilmember Jean Quan's district. Politicians find it hard to believe that neighbors on both sides of 580 consider themselves one community. They see racial and economic differences, not a close and cohesive neighborhood. Dimond neighbors take care of one another; we wanted to stay in one council district. Neighbors Janet Broughton, Carolyn Vallerga, Julie Merrill, Maja Brugos, Florence Milton, and Leslie Ann Jones, to name a few, wrote letters, collected petitions, and went to the City Council to express their outrage with Council President Ignacio De La Fuente's proposal to cut up our community. Despite our efforts, the De La Fuente proposal was approved by the City Council.

Dimond neighbors have also asked that Council President De La Fuente begin a dialog with our community on dimondnews.org and the MacArthur Metro.

From Controversy to Consensus

The City of Oakland recently presented the Bicycle Master Plan to Dimond neighbors. The Dimond has many avid bicyclists who want to see a bicycle route in their community. Unfortunately, the plan presented ignored many of the glaring safety problems in the MacArthur Blvd./Fruitvale Avenue intersection, which led other neighbors to oppose the plan. Traffic and pedestrian safety continues to worsen at this intersection, which is currently the seventh most dangerous in Oakland.

After a somewhat heated dialog on the Dimond e-mail list, a compromise was reached. Sam Cohen, chair of the DIA, suggested that the City of Oakland produce a comprehensive traffic management plan for this intersection. Neighbors hope that the City of Oakland's Department of Public Works will take this opportunity to do the job right and make this intersection safer for everyone.

It's Back to Court for the Hillcrest Motel Owner

Hillcrest neighbors wake up every day and deal with the Hillcrest Motel. Marcel DeGross, Dimond hero, says, "I got to keep fighting it until it's fixed. It's either that or move." Neighbors and their ace attorney, Leila Moncharsh, have taken the money from the last judgment against the motel and are heading back to court. Leila Moncharsh has helped many Oakland neighbors with similar problems. She is Oakland's uncontested Nuisance Law expert. Thank you, Leila! Thank you, Hillcrest neighbors and Marcel, and don't you dare move!