signs: Parkway Theater

Parkway Theater

The Parkway Theater was a much-beloved pizza/pub/theater for 14 years, and before that a more traditional movie theater for many years after its construction in the 1920s. There have been hopes that the theater might reopen, but the East Bay Express reports that deal has fallen through. Zennie Abraham at Oakland Focus has an interview with the Fischers who ran the Parkway for the last 14 years. And Oaklander Online has a nice write-up on it, including some historic photos from its construction and different phases of its life. Apparently the Parkway, unlike its sister theater in El Cerrito, was making money. So there's hope it could still be re-opened.

Parkway Theater

signs: Woody's Laundromat

Woody's Laundromat and Cafe

Across the street from the now-closed Parkway Theater is Woody's Laundromat and Cafe. The cafe is apparently new, but I haven't checked it out yet. I took this on my way home from the boathouse ribbon-cutting.

blog pulse: parking II

The storm keeps swirling, and not just in the Oakland blogosphere. There's an op-ed over at The OakBook that's well-reasoned, but doesn't offer any alternatives, just recognizes that some creative thinking is needed. For some good alternatives, again check out City Homestead.

Today's print version of the Montclarion was nothing but parking stuff above the fold:

• New parking fees meet stiff opposition
• Charity flourishes after rate increases - Residents donate unexpired meter receipts to strangers
• Council turns into meter monsters
• Oakland merchants mobilize protest - Business owners consider shutdown

According to Oakland North, only 9 out of 50 businesses took part in the Thursday strike, but Michaan of the Grand Lake Theater apparently had plenty of support at another meeting. The council is listening; the same article says they're considering an emergency meeting instead of waiting until September when they were scheduled to reconvene.

And even Boing Boing is talking about parking today, quoting UCLA urban planning teacher Donald Shoup's book, The High Cost of Free Parking. I haven't read the book yet, but I've seen it quoted numerous times. Ideally parking should be priced high enough to encourage turnover, but not too high. That may mean charging different rates in different places, and/or at different times of the day. But given those shiny new parking machines, that should be easy enough to implement.

blog pulse: parking

The Oakland blogosphere was briefly abuzz with talk about Oakland's budget deficit. I even wrote about it after the special election. Besides concessions from the firefighters and various changes via the special election, one way the city council decided to address the budget deficit was through changes in parking. Longer hours, higher rates, costlier tickets, and increased enforcement.

Well, that's released a veritable blogstorm. I first read about people being upset in the Tribune or Chronicle, but I didn't think much of it. Some people are upset at pretty much any change, but ones affecting their God-given right to drive a car are guaranteed to raise a fuss. Then I read on Fragmentary Evidence about the owner of the Grand Lake Theater having a meeting, and circulating a petition to recall the entire city council if the changes weren't rolled back. A strike was called amongst businesses in the Grand Lake area. That story was all over the blogosphere (Harrioak News, A Better Oakland, etc.) Well, the threat coupled with the general uproar apparently worked. Two council members called the changes 'a mistake' and said they'd address it when the council reconvenes in September. So he's won, right? Apparently not. He was out at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Lake Merritt Boathouse today gathering more signatures, and was uninterested in listening when I mentioned the aforementioned.

While I understand people being upset about how the changes were made, and the increased costs in general, I think he's handling the campaign poorly. Lots of hyperbole (I've told you a million times that doesn't work) and no practical alternatives offered (cutting the parking fees without an alternative source of funds isn't practical) makes me want to avoid the Grand Lake Theater, not recall the council. I'm not the only one who things he's handling it poorly; Becks on Living in the O has a great write-up on the right way to handle such protests. And for some practical alternatives, check out the post from Artemis on City Homestead.

Lake Merritt Boathouse

Lake Merritt Boathouse

Today there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the renovation of the Lake Merritt Boathouse. It was built in 1909 to house a pumping station in the center; the boathouse and public pavilion in the wings were added later. The pumping station was to be an emergency water source in case of fires like those that devastated San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. The building had gotten somewhat run down in the last years, so was in need of some care.

Now it will house The Lake Chalet, a restaurant and bar run by the same people who run The Beach Chalet on San Francisco's Ocean Beach at Golden Gate Park. It's a really beautiful spot for a restaurant, looking out over Lake Merritt. (There's a nice ode to Lake Merritt over on monteskewed that Monte wrote recently.) I'm hoping the food will be better at the Lake Chalet than at the Beach Chalet; it's not bad, but with so many other great restaurants around Oakland, the Lake Chalet will need to have great food to compete, otherwise it'll just be a nice 'destination' restaurant, not a true gem.

local dignitaries

A fair number of people turned out for the ceremony; speakers included Mayor Ron Dellums, councilmember Pat Kernighan, and a representative of councilmember Nancy Nadel. There was much speechifying as is to be expected at such events. I listened to a few, talked to some friends who were there, and wandered around checking out the work.

I also checked out the newly painted bike lanes and restructuring work done along Lakeside Drive (Walk Oakland Bike Oakland has a nice post on it.) The new lane layout is nice. Instead of 4 lanes of cars, there are 2 lanes plus a bike lane. One thing that left me scratching my head though is the on sidewalk parking. There's a traditional row of parking inside the bike lane, but there were also spaces marked on the sidewalk, and a ramp at the driveway to Camron-Stanford House. It had temporary signs for press and VIP parking, so maybe it's just temporary, too, but the lines seemed permanent enough. Amusingly, two cars (including what I think was the mayor's) were parked in the bike lane with the hazards on, even though there was parking set aside for them that was closer. Another thing that I hope is only temporary was the lack of bike racks. On my ride around Chinatown and Downtown yesterday, I generally found places to lock up where I needed.