From valerie at vanngroup.com Tue Sep 7 09:58:58 2004 From: valerie at vanngroup.com (Valerie Vann) Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 09:58:58 -0700 Subject: [OldNorth] Re: Last Pitch for Parking, ON References: <278AA406-0088-11D9-B74D-000393BD0562@davis.com> Message-ID: <413DE8D1.98EDB2FA@vanngroup.com> John Lofland wrote: > > The letter I got from Public Works (PW) was addressed to "resident" and only > one came to my address. The logic of that act is that each address has a > resident and only one vote is given each residence. > > So: a residence gets a vote and only one vote. If no one lives there and/or > it is not a residence, there is no vote. > > It is in our interest to work up an exact count of the number of NOW > occupied residences in the Old North and to get vacant residences, churches, > biz buildings, and such deleted from the standard against which our votes > are measured. > > I therefore plead with our band of walkers and others to check the numbers I > claim below AND to identify vacancies. (There are at least three on E > Street, as just mentioned.) First, I think it's going to be a hard sell to the City to confine voting to current, live "residents"; the businesses are probably going to want a vote, both as property owners and parkers. Why shouldn't they have a vote, and a parking place in front of their property? Same goes for rentals and vacant properties: People are actively moving in and out of rentals at this time of year; they are going to be people who will be gone tomorrow and could care less, and people coming in next week who might care a lot but weren't "resident" and didn't get any input. The property the owners will expect to vote on behalf of their tenants. And I think the City will support them in that. That's the way the alley paving issue was handled if I recall correctly. 2nd, I don't understand why the survey was mailed to the area north of 7th Street, or whether it went to street addresses or property owners. The north area people have had no notice or chance for input or discussion, or have they?? Or was the "mailing area" map just recycled from last time? I found the mailing confusing (others have raised some issues here); and negative sounding (like the 5th St. traffic mailing). It didn't indicate whether there was possibility of changing the way it is implemented, or a "done deal" and we'd just wake up to find their version painted in some day (like the screwed up curb painting). People tend to vote "no" on confusing issues. And the timing stinks; I think the City is pulling its same old stunt, just like the 5th Street study, and needs to be called on these tactics. There should have been prior notice to the Assoc. on these issues, with time enough to review the mailings, get out our own materials, have at least one neighborhood meeting before the mailing, with time to properly alert the neighborhood to the mailed survey and educate them on the proposal. It feels like the neighborhood is being placated or patronized on these issues, and that the City staff has already decided against the proposals and is just going through the motions with the object of getting the issue killed under color of "democratic process." This doesn't bode well for the many other issues we are supposed to be "working with" the City on, and I think maybe it's time we took these kind of tactics up with the City Manager, and if necessary the Council. Valerie Vann valerie at vanngroup.com From jflofland at ucdavis.edu Tue Sep 7 14:08:11 2004 From: jflofland at ucdavis.edu (John Lofland) Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 14:08:11 -0700 Subject: [OldNorth] Car Problems Green Curbs Alone Do Not Solve In-Reply-To: <413DE8D1.98EDB2FA@vanngroup.com> References: <278AA406-0088-11D9-B74D-000393BD0562@davis.com> <413DE8D1.98EDB2FA@vanngroup.com> Message-ID: There are two autos problems in the ON that the green curb scheme does not address but that we might be able to solve by adding one additional element to it. First the two problems. One, like all of us, I pay to have my street swept up to the curb once a week. This rarely happens because of all the overnight parking and early morning parkers. This appears to be true all over the ON. Our gutters are a mess. I suppose we should all ask for our money back. Two, our streets are increasingly used for the long-term storage of student and other cars. You may be aware that Linden Lane people have asked and are apparently going to get a ban on overnight parking on their street to kick out all the students living in dorms who store their cars on that street. The area to their south already has such a ban, which is why the cars are on Linden lane. This change will likely bring ever more stored cars to our streets. A few cars are even parked as quasi-living quarters that collect garbage around them. (Check the volvos in front of 405 Seventh and 600 Sixth, and the VW bus on sixth street by 536 G. [Street-dwellers have good tastes in auto brands.]) The upshot is not only are we a park-and-ride lot, we are a auto storage facility. One possible, at least partial, solution to these two problems is to add no overnight parking on the streets for people not parked legally by a green curb. This would especially help street sweeping by greatly reducing the number of cars on the street in the early morning (when the sweeper typically comes). I am going to advocate this with city officials and I hope that others, including the ON Board, will join with me. John Lofland From valerie at vanngroup.com Tue Sep 7 15:47:38 2004 From: valerie at vanngroup.com (Valerie Vann) Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 15:47:38 -0700 Subject: [OldNorth] 600 block G St. No. of residences & mailing References: Message-ID: <413E3A89.7C772E4@vanngroup.com> There are 14, possibly 15 residences on 600 G block West. 603 (new R1), 613 (2?), 617B1/B2, 623-25, 627, 631, 633, 641A-B-C-D, 647. 603,627,631,647 are R1. 633, the apartment in back of 635 is currently vacant, but advertising for a tenant. There are 7 businesses: 603A accountant/bookkeeper, 607 law office, 613 consultant, 617A1-A2-A3 signmaker, hair salon, massage salon, 635 developer. All but one of the businesses seem to have 2 or more employees, most operate weekdays 8 to 5pm, with serial customers/clients by appointment. The operators & employees probably account for most of the parking demand, but that demand is all day. Of the three businesses at 617, the signmaker got the mailing and is agreeable to support it. The hair salon didn't get one. The massage business didn't get one, but voted NO last time and would vote NO this time if he did get one, likes it the way it is, and opposes any more government/regulation/restrictions. Businesses (front) at 603A, 613, 617A1,A2,A3, and 635 have no off street parking 607 has a driveway off G (1 space), back of lot cleared but currently unusable, possibly for future parking or development. 647, 641A,B, 627 residences have no off street or alley parking. Other residential: 603 front has a new full garage off 6th St. 613 (2 units?) in rear, alley parking 617B1,B2 in rear, alley parking 623,625 alley, 631 driveway off G St 633 in rear of 635, on alley 641 (C,D?) 2 units in rear; on alley Valerie Vann From valerie at vanngroup.com Tue Sep 7 16:05:20 2004 From: valerie at vanngroup.com (Valerie Vann) Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 16:05:20 -0700 Subject: [OldNorth] Car Problems Green Curbs Alone Do Not Solve References: <278AA406-0088-11D9-B74D-000393BD0562@davis.com> <413DE8D1.98EDB2FA@vanngroup.com> Message-ID: <413E3EAF.90CC32D@vanngroup.com> John Lofland wrote: > > A few cars are even parked as quasi-living quarters that collect > garbage around them. (Check the volvos in front of 405 Seventh and > 600 Sixth, and the VW bus on sixth street by 536 G. [Street-dwellers > have good tastes in auto brands.]) > The VW bus is one the 6th street "campers" (the other is a custom bicycle owner who lives on the sidewalk/planting strip next to the rear of the COOP. The COOP considers this 6th St. homeless encampment a growing problem (they use the COOP bathroom facilities during the day and the railroad right-of-way at night) and are a noise/party/litter problem, according to the COOP manager. Eric solicited neighborhood assistence at a meeting several weeks ago,but only two of us showed up, so it was suggested he ask for a meeting with the city manager (they're not getting much help from the police apparently.) I don't know the current status of the situation. >street cleaning As long as some residences have no off street parking at all, and the City insists on street collection of uncontainerized yard trash, I don't know what the solution to the sweeping problem is. My block tends to get swept Thanksgiving and Spring breaks, and that's about it. No Parking on alternate sides of the street works in some places, but I don't know if it would here; people would probably rather have dirty streets. It is also an environmental and drainage problem. Valerie Vann From erics at daviscoop.com Tue Sep 7 18:41:00 2004 From: erics at daviscoop.com (Eric Stromberg) Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 18:41:00 -0700 Subject: [OldNorth] Car Problems Green Curbs Alone Do Not Solve References: <278AA406-0088-11D9-B74D-000393BD0562@davis.com><413DE8D1.98EDB2FA@vanngroup.com> <413E3EAF.90CC32D@vanngroup.com> Message-ID: <039a01c49544$e5420380$6901a8c0@dfc01> Dear Valerie: After our neighborhood meeting we emailed Chief Hyde, who was quick to ensure prompt attention from Officer Gomez, the downtown business liason. Devon, the bike camper who had streams of visitors, has moved on for the time. Brian, the original bike camper is still here, but he tends to be quiet and polite. John Jones of the VW camper on 6th was taken to a local care facility and has not been released. He is a long term drinker in very poor health. There is a woman living in her black honda civic in the center north of the Co-op. Brian says she likes to smoke crack and has grown children who live in Davis. -Eric ----- Original Message ----- From: "Valerie Vann" To: "Old North Neighborhood Assoc." Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [OldNorth] Car Problems Green Curbs Alone Do Not Solve > John Lofland wrote: > > > > A few cars are even parked as quasi-living quarters that collect > > garbage around them. (Check the volvos in front of 405 Seventh and > > 600 Sixth, and the VW bus on sixth street by 536 G. [Street-dwellers > > have good tastes in auto brands.]) > > > > The VW bus is one the 6th street "campers" (the other is a custom > bicycle owner who lives on the sidewalk/planting strip next to the > rear of the COOP. > > The COOP considers this 6th St. homeless encampment a growing problem > (they use the COOP bathroom facilities during the day and the railroad > right-of-way at night) and are a noise/party/litter problem, > according to the COOP manager. Eric solicited neighborhood assistence > at a meeting several weeks ago,but only two of us showed up, so it was > suggested he ask for a meeting with the city manager (they're not getting > much help from the police apparently.) I don't know the current > status of the situation. > > >street cleaning > > As long as some residences have no off street parking at all, and > the City insists on street collection of uncontainerized yard > trash, I don't know what the solution to the sweeping problem is. My > block tends to get swept Thanksgiving and Spring breaks, and > that's about it. No Parking on alternate sides of the street works in > some places, but I don't know if it would here; people would > probably rather have dirty streets. It is also an environmental and > drainage problem. > > Valerie Vann > > _______________________________________________ > oldnorth mailing list > oldnorth at mailman.dcn.org > http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/oldnorth >