Boulevard Bites

by Sheila D'Amico

### While the Metro was on summer hiatus, the Oakland Schools came back to local control, the Council passed the city budget, and the citizens once again insisted on support of local libraries. Our most famous local writer, Jack London, wouldn't have become who he was without the library. Just imagine Jack and poet Ina Coolbrith, Oakland's first librarian, giving each other congratulatory fist bumps up there in library heaven.

### Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils learned recently that they would no longer receive their $700 per year budgets. This was part of an annual allocation of $50,000 to further community policing. Loss of the funds will make it harder for these citizen activists to do their work and will be demoralizing for awhile, but is not likely to lead to the demise of their insistence on community policing—if that was the motivation for the cuts, that is.'

### The Council approved raising parking meter fees to two dollars an hour and increasing the time meters are operative. Now deposit those coins from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Be careful parking on residential streets, too. Posters to neighborhood listservs report an increase in tickets for Vehicle Code violations, including wrong side of the street parking and blocking a driveway—even your own. Fines are hefty.'

### Meanwhile, in her newsletter, Jean Quan announced a city amnesty for parking and other fines. Contact the city anytime from August through October, and pay your original parking ticket. The city will waive additional fines and interest. Quan says the amnesty will bring the city about $500,000 in additional revenues. To learn more including information on other payments eligible for penalty waivers, go to www.jeanquan.org.

### Keep Oakland Beautiful's Chris Ralls reports that another mural is going up on the private building at 46^th and Foothill, across from Fremont Pool. This mural is being created by some of the same artists who were responsible for the Indian-themed mural ordered torn down last year in what can be described, to put it in the best possible light,'as a huge misunderstanding and misuse of authority. Of interest, while the previous'mural was on the wall, taggers did not deface it. But after the destruction of the mural, while the wall was blank, the building was continually being defaced by illegal graffiti.