The Albany City Council on Monday night okayed the design for the first phase of the proposed Pierce Street Park next to Interstate 80 and established a working group to explore a possible ballot measure to ease residential parking requirements.
The temporary Albany homeless shelter that the city is providing for soon-to-be-dislocated Albany Bulb dwellers arrived in four parts today, Monday. It was placed next to Buchanan Street about 100 yards from the entrance to the Bulb.
Hoping to make Albany friendlier to housing developers and encourage transit-oriented development, city staff proposes a study group for a possible ballot measure to amend the city requirement of two parking spaces per new dwelling unit.
The Albany City Council on Monday will consider the proposed design for the $1-million first phase of the new Pierce Street Park, including the play structures, picnic area, landscaping, paving and bike racks.
The two BART unions that staged short strikes in July and October over contract negotiations have approved the proposed new contracts, BART officials announced. The BART board is expected to vote on the agreement later this month.
Some of the activities that happened this week involving East Bay legislators in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
The City of Albany's planned removal of illegal encampments on the Albany Bulb and clean-up of the property does not include removal of the well-known sculptures made largely from driftwood and other found materials, a city spokeswoman said.
Some of the activity this past week from Washington, D.C., and Sacramento involving East Bay legislators
The temporary homeless shelter for Albany Bulb dwellers is expected to be ready "within the next few weeks," and the city is not likely to conduct strict enforcement of the no-camping law at the Bulb until then, said City Clerk Nicole Almaguer.
The BART board of directors agreed today, Thursday, to permanently allow bikes on trains all day long, except on trains that are crowded. Bicycling advocates hailed the board's unanimous vote as a momentous step.
Notices saying the city will begin a clean-up of the Albany Bulb and enforcement of the ban on temporary structures at any time following 72 hours after Oct. 22 were posted on two Bulb structures, according to Bulb resident Amber Whitson.
An Alameda County Superior Court judge today, Wednesday, approved the request from Gov. Jerry Brown and AC Transit management for a cooling-off period to avert a threatened strike for 60 days.
California Gov. Jerry Brown today, Tuesday, filed a request for court-ordered 60-day "cooling off" period to avert a threatened AC Transit strike. The move follows Monday hearing by a state panel into the transit agency's contract dispute.
After a contentious public hearing, Albany's City Council unanimously agreed Monday to proceed with spending $570,000 of city reserve funds on removing the illegal encampments on Albany Bulb so that it can become part of the Eastshore Park.
BART contract talks are resuming this afternoon, a BART spokesman said. The strike is now in its fourth day.
AC Transit management told an investigative panel today, Monday, that the financially struggling agency will raise worker pay, despite passing on increased benefit costs, while the union complained about a lack of break times.
Meanwhile, NTSB investigators expect to be in the Bay Area for up to 10 days investigating Saturday's accident that killed two BART workers.
BART workers walked off the job and onto the picket line this morning.
Some of the activity this past week involving East Bay legislators in Sacramento and Washington D.C.
With a BART strike looking increasingly likely, here are some alternatives for getting around.
If you'd like a 9-course banquet of easy-to-digest data visualizations of the complex issues in the BART labor dispute, you can point your browser to a new website created by a local hackers group and UC Berkeley students.
The new $417-million fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel now has a tentative opening date – Nov. 16. A Caltrans official said the new tunnel is complete but that the opening is still tentative because fire safety testing is not yet finished.
Negotiators for BART and its two largest unions talked for more than 12 hours on Wednesday
The proposal for removing Albany Bulb dwellers, which goes to the City Council Monday, calls for a 6-month shelter with 30 beds for $331,000. Critics say Bulb residents won't use it and that the funds should be spent on housing subsidies.
California Gov. Jerry Brown today temporarily blocked a threatened strike by AC Transit workers that could have begun as early as Thursday morning. He convened an investigative board that stops any strike for up to seven days.
This clickable map shows how much 15 East Bay individuals, including one from Albany, owe to the Franchise Tax Board.
AC Transit's board of directors has asked California Gov. Jerry Brown for a 60-day "cooling off" period to avert a strike. The request follows a union notice of a possible strike that could begin at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
These recent news articles and community blog and board posts provide much information about the controversies surrounding Albany Bulb.
State Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), whose district includes Albany, held a press conference in Oakland today, Friday, to recognize two gun-control measures she authored that were signed today by California Gov. Jerry Brown.
In an apparent step toward enforcing the no-camping law at Albany Bulb, Albany police issued warnings of "Curfew Violation" at the Bulb Wednesday night. The warnings also urged Bulb dwellers to take advantage of city-sponsored relocation aid.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a public health alert on some raw chicken products produced by Foster Farms in California. Foster Farms says no recall is in effect and the the products are safe if properly cooked and handled.
The City of Albany reports that 22 homeless people have shown "some interest" in housing as a result of the outreach by the Berkeley Food & Housing Project to help relocate the 60 or so people living in makeshift shelters on the Albany Bulb.
The City of Albany on Tuesday said it is seeking a temporary housing shelter and taking other steps as part of a comprehensive $500,000 plan to relocate people living on the Albany Bulb and make the Bulb part of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park.
"This really is an emergency situation," the president of the Bay Area Council said today, Tuesday, as he called on businesses to make contingency plans for a possible BART strike beginning on Friday.
A prostest "camp" of about two dozen or so people was set up tonight, Monday, on Solano Avenue in Albany to illustrate what the protesters said would be the result of the city's plan to remove the inhabitants of the Albany Bulb.
An overnight camp-out on Solano Avenue is planned for Monday night by opponents of the City of Albany's plan to clear the Albany Bulb of the people who've been living there in tents and makeshift shelters for several years.