Minutes of BELLEFIELD AREA CITIZENS ASSN. MEETING on August 6, 2013

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by president, Holly Dick. Those in attendance identified themselves.

 Holly made the following announcements:

  • Featured speaker was Justin Strong of Seventh Movement. He is owner/ manager of the AVA Lounge in E. Liberty.  He presented his plans for the new lounge.  It will be on N. Craig near Centre in the old Luna Bar location.  He hopes to open in mid-September, barring any problems with licensing and inspections. Ava will not serve dinner, but more of a tapas menu with craft beers on tap and good quality cocktails.  The upstairs area will probably charge a cover and be a performance space.

                 To utilize the building during the day, Justin is partnering with The Quiet Storm who will operate a coffee shop there from 8am until about 1pm.  Sunday brunch will be offered sometime in the future.  He said he believes that current parking space is adequate for his largely walk-to customers.
  • Adam Butkus is designing a web page for BACA so that more information about the area can be shared with the community.  Suggestions for the site included meeting announcements, an events calendar, minutes from previous BACA meetings, highlighting local businesses, etc.
  • The group again discussed plans for the North Oakland Block Party, which BACA is sponsoring for the second time with the University of Pittsburgh. Pitt is working hard to help its students realize and feel that they are part of a neighborhood when they live in Oakland.  To that end, Pitt is once again sponsoring a block party to bring students and residents together in a fun setting. 

                The party will be September 19th from 5:30 to 7:30pm on North Dithridge between Bayard and Centre in a resident’s front yard. The street will not be blocked off this year.  There will be free food, Oakland t-shirts for the students, and the opportunity for the ‘new’ to meet the ‘old.’  A flyer with all the information will be widely distributed to both students and residents.  It is hoped that many BACA residents will participate in this activity.
  • The new CVS is still on track to open November 3rd.  The frame is up. There is still no definite news about plans for the Polaris Realty development across the Centre/Craig intersection from this building.
  • There was much discussion about the need for an Oakland-wide calendar of civic, cultural, etc. events. Holly Dick & Hanson Kappelman will raise this issue with the Coalition of Oakland Residents (COR) and the Oakland Task Force.
  • COR will sponsor a community-wide meeting on Oct. 17, 2013, at Pitt’s Alumni Hall on Fifth Ave.
  • Several residents expressed concern about student behavior in  6 houses on N. Dithridge now owned by Samuel Land Co.  Scott  Peterson of this company will come to address them at the next BACA meeting.
  • Hanson Kappelman of Oakwatch asked for volunteers to help monitor student behavior in other areas of Oakland during the early weeks of the new semester, when partying is often frequent.

THE NEXT MEETING OF BACA WILL BE HELD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 @ 7:00 P.M. AT THE CLASS BUILDING, 4638 Centre Ave.

 

*THE former UCP/CLASS building where BACA meets will henceforth be known as the CLASS Building, as the organization has dropped its affiliation with United Cerebral Palsy.