Boulevard Bites

by Toni Locke

### On return from a September trip to Yellowstone Park with my daughter, I found a disturbing phone message for the Metro from Tom Van Demark of the City of Oakland Pedestrian Safety Project. Three pedestrian crossings designed into the Laurel street reconfiguration plan, a plan that the Department of Public Works formally presented to the neighborhood last spring, are being axed without a by-your-leave. So much for years of planning and pushing. More on this issue in the November Metro, but for now, I can't think of a worse time for the Laurel to be without an independent neighborhood organization to speak for the community. Merchants deal with business, PTAs deal with schools, NCPCs are managed by the Police Department and the City Council, but broad neighborhood concerns need an organized center. The Laurel once had the MacArthur Coalition, one of the strongest voices for residents in this city. Redwood Heights, the Dimond, Leona Heights, and High Street all have associations. I can think of at least twelve outstanding leaders in the Laurel whose names on a call to a meeting to form a Laurel Neighborhood Alliance would bring out a lot of people willing to work together. Laurel could have a Web site like the Dimond, message lists like Glenwood, and the coordinated strength to fight to keep the promised street plan for which the money has already been allocated.