Lake Merrit Community Watch

This encampment doubles in size each week. This morning there was a belligerent homeless person "batting" garbage with a stick at people and traffic. It's dangerous. If we do not address this it will grow into a whole homeless village like so many other places throughout Oakland. This is next to a park where children play!

A stop sign in both directions, on MacArthur Blvd, next to the existing bus stops at Alma Ave.
The stops will slow the increasingly fast pace of the cars in the long uninterrupted stretches of MacArthur from both directions, past the school, the pool, two churches, and dozens of residential properties.
The cars GAIN speed, due to the wide open nature of the road, in both directions. The drivers do not even notice they are "opening it up", after climbing hills from each direction. Some drivers do know how fast they go, as this is a cute little way to avoid a portion of 580, and they hit 45-50mph, through our neighborhood and past the school and bus stops.
We have been homeowners here 27 years and this problem truly needs to be addressed. A solution is SO simple and inexpensive. MacArthur at Alma is really a scary intersection for any pedestrian because cars are coming hard from each direction. Most drivers are real good about stopping for pedestrians, but many are not. Why not slow them all down. The responsible ones won't mind at all and the buses are already fairly often stopping there. Please help make our neighborhood safer.
We have a petition signed by neighbors who agree with the need for two additional stop signs at this intersection.
Thank you for your time and interest.

There are sidewalk ramps for pedestrians to cross both Rich Street and 42nd Street at the Rich/42nd St. intersection and pedestrians frequently cross in both directions, but there are no crosswalks. Since the street has just been repaved at the locations of both crossings (Rich Street and 42nd Street), and since the City will be adding the crosswalks to other locations along 42nd Street, it seems an ideal time to add crosswalks at these crossing, thereby improving the safety of the many pedestrians who cross at those locations.

At the corner of 53rd and Market Street, there are two stop signs that are set TOO FAR from the actual corner on Market Street. Cars DO NOT SEE these stop signs, despite having blinking lights. In the past three days, I have seen FIVE cars blow through the stop sign. There is a school at this corner, with MANY children crossing, some without parents. This is also a family neighborhood, with lots of kids and strollers passing on their way to the nearby park. I personally have almost been hit with my stroller twice. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed at this intersection unless the stop signs are moved, or a stop light is put in. PLEASE address this pedestrian and traffic safety issue.

The whole street (Mountain Blvd) between Ascot dr and Joaquin Miller dr is some many pot holes it’s an obstacle course. This has been going on for years. Now many are marked with red. If this means these are just going to be patched again, it’s a joke. It’s been patched so many times that’s it’s just a series on bumps with holes. For gods sake just repack the full street along highway 13.

I write to you with an inquiry and proposal for a sidewalk safety project in our Oakland neighborhood of Redwood Heights, surrounding the site of the city of Oakland's Avenue Terrace Playground Park.

The Avenue Terrace Playground is surrounded by three streets; Jordan Road, Bennett Place and Guido Street. Two of those streets immediately surrounding the park, on Bennett Place and Guido Street, do not have sidewalks. Instead of a sidewalk there is a space (about 6 feet wide) with a dirt shoulder that surrounds the outside of the park fence along Guido Street and Bennett Place. This dirt shoulder is where I would like to propose the installation of a sidewalk that would link the existing sidewalks on Guido Street and Jordan Road.

A sidewalk would provide increased pedestrian safety. Currently, with no sidewalk in this area, pedestrians most commonly traverse the area surrounding the back and side of the park by walking directly in the street. The street is most often used due to the trash, overgrowth, mud, broken glass or other items that litter the shoulder. The shoulder is also often blocked by parked cars pulling off of the street. This neighborhood is heavy with pedestrian traffic, both from residents as well as park visitors. The neighborhood is also populated with many families that have young children. Those children do not have a reliably safe way to navigate the park’s surrounding streets of Bennett and Guido. The installation of a sidewalk along the outside of the park fence would tremendously improve a safe route for all pedestrians who are accessing the park or simply walking in the neighborhood. The sidewalk would also provide additional pedestrian safety for families using strollers and small children using scooters. Without a safe paved route all strollers, scooters and anything with wheels use the street.

There are two crosswalks at the intersection of Bennett at Guido, but the crosswalks lead into the dirt shoulder and do not offer a secure pedestrian connection to a sidewalk. First, this feels like a route that was either poorly designed or never completed. Second, the crosswalks can often be blocked by parked cars that use the shoulder as off street parking. It would make sense to revisit the crosswalk design and enable them to connect to a sidewalk to provide a complete route since there is space in the shoulder that can be used for this purpose.

Another reason for this sidewalk proposal is to help provide increased neighborhood safety by developing this shoulder area surrounding the park.

Lastly, we believe this would be a welcome improvement to our neighborhood and the Avenue Terrace Park facility. The Avenue Terrace Park would provide increased accessibility with the addition of sidewalks in the existing shoulder. The neighborhood residents would be able to enjoy the use of a sidewalk on this heavily trafficked walking route.

Excessive drug selling, use, prostitution, trash, graffiti, unsanitary conditions, noise issues and dangerous living conditions for residents - needles left all around to step on, broken glass, horrible! Numerous complaints - city has not done anything. Not even street sweeping on this block! Serious and dangerous problem