Comments on: Becks and dto510, my heroes.

By: Joyce Roy

Joyce Roy — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:35:45 +0000

Check out today’’s John King’s Places in the Chronicle: Block off cars, add trees – presto, it’s a park. An inspiration for Uptown!!

http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/king/

By: V Smoothe

V Smoothe — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:57:12 +0000

If people want to get involved with this, they can send their contact info to Becks and she’ll let you know what you can do.

By: das88

das88 — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:54:11 +0000

On the what next question, I am not sure if staff, artists, Council, etc have all the pieces they need and are good to go without further intensive citizen involvement. Hopefully, people more knowledgeable on city processes (or lack thereof) will chime-in.

However, one thing that I think would be nice is to have a Street Fest to celebrate the sculptures when they are installed. Right now the city has planned a free street fair for June 18 called UpTown Unveiled (http://www.oaklandnet.com/documents/0401609_uptown_unveiled.pdf). That street fair looks awesome with the one exception that there will not be art on the lot by that time.

So I think we should have another street fest later. Maybe once ABPE starts understanding that they will benefit much more from the sculptures than the parking lot, they would be willing to get involved with the planning, obtaining sponsors, and overall producing of a fest.

By: andrew danish

andrew danish — Fri, 08 May 2009 17:42:27 +0000

okay so now what?
any meetings scheduled?

By: Frankie D

Frankie D — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:51:58 +0000

Thanks to everyone who participated in this one small step to improve Oakland.

By: Boris Badenov

Boris Badenov — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:48:04 +0000

Great job everybody!

It shows what you can do if you care enough.

Now if you could only care enough about something IMPORTANT?

By: Libby Schaaf

Libby Schaaf — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:04:29 +0000

Thank you Oakland citizens for your continuing efforts to educate and inspire your elected officials (and their staff)! I do want to set the record straight that Councilmember Pat Kernighan was actually very supportive of the motion and had me make a key change to the language to actually makes the art more certain to happen. It is fortunate that the City had already approved a $1.2 million public art plan for Uptown that fit pretty perfectly into your proposal; this would not have been uncovered had it not been for your efforts.

By: Hayden

Hayden — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:29:30 +0000

Great news!

What’s this Council obsession with parking, especially in a downtown with such good public transportation (and already-extensive parking)?

There are probably a couple thousand street, structure, and surface parking spaces within 6-8 blocks of this intersection, and none of them are particularly full at night–heck, they *close* the lots behind City Hall and under 250 Frank Ogawa Plaza at night. “People who drive don’t feel safe walking a few blocks in downtown Oakland” might be an argument, but that’s an argument to fix downtown, not blight it further with additional parking. “I want to be able to park next to my destination” is an argument that plays well in suburbia, but should not in Oakland.

Maybe I’m still reacting from my recent trip to Manhattan.

By: Kent

Kent — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:16:23 +0000

Hey congrats everybody. I was like V on this one. I admire the fortitude.
Naomi, I didn’t know First and Last Chance was going to become an atrium. That’s wild.
I hope the empty lot gets some nice colorful and modern sculptures. I can see it becoming a landmark and the city making it permanent. Chicago has its modern art sculptures. Why shouldn’t Oakland? (ok, maybe we are working on a tiny budget here in comparison, but you get the point)
V, nice post. You can be uplifting, in your own way.

By: gem s.

gem s. — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:32:45 +0000

This is great news!