I agree. Please don't mark an issue closed unless it has actually been addressed.

The property is clearly marked in several locations as "No Trespassing." The lot is littered with liquor bottles.

This is the correspondence that the neighborhood received on March 22, 2012 from the Deputy City Manager. It did not have an expiration date.

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Hi Steve:

Thanks again for your emails and speaking to me about the lot at the corner of Webster & Taylor.
On Tuesday City staff met at the lot and formulated the following plan that I have communicated to the property owner:

1.Clean the lot immediately. Remove all rubbish and cut back overgrown vegetation by end of this week, 3/24/2012.

2.Install a chain gate at both entries to the lot to prevent vehicles from entering the lot, by Friday, April 06, 2012.

3.Post 3 signs that state private property, no trespassing, no parking, no dumping; one at each driveway and one at the back end of the lot, on the light post, by Friday, April 13, 2012. The signs should contain the following language:

PRIVATE PROPERTY
No Trespassing
Cal. Penal Code 602(L)
No Dumping
Cal. Penal Code 374
No Parking
AMC Sec. 8-7.7

4.Ensure that all the lights in the lot are working, by Friday, April 06, 2012.

5.Immediately hire a cleaning crew to maintain the property weekly for the next four months, and we can review the maintenance schedule at the end of the period to determine ongoing need.

We will monitor the progress closely.

Sincerely,
Alex



Alexander Nguyen
Deputy City Manager
City of Alameda, CA

The City of Alameda–and the rest of the world, too–will have to allocate significantly more resources than just cleaning up a parking lot if residents want the issues surrounding homelessness to be addressed adequately and constructively. I hope that those who are upset by the liquor bottles and litter remember, first and foremost, that people who are homeless are human beings just like us...

Sure Jon ... wait until they start camping outside your home and littering up your front yard, let's see how you respond.

You know regular citizens are not allowed to drink alcohol openly like this in our public parks. So I don't see how we're not holding these homeless people to a different standard than we hold ourselves. The property owner is negligent. This was an excellent parking lot that the city used to rent. At that time it enabled our Farmers Market to be successful. I think even before that it was the site of our Farmers Market on Webster Street. This is a complete and total waste. That's sad I thought we had a development plan in place and a building was to be built here. Something has stalled. I remember the design for the multi-story building that had housing above and Commercial below. I suppose it was okay for a plan although I was sad to see the beautiful trees with in this parking lot slated for Destruction. With maintenance this is a really attractive parking lot that adds a lot of value to the potential commercial activity on Webster Street

Note that the Deputy City Attorney letter posted by Gerstle show the agreement with the property owners, but includes no enforcement mechanism or plan. That was five years ago, same problem, residents still waiting for enforcement--against the property owner, not the homeless people. The city has chosen a strategy to help the homeless folks: hiring a professional outreach firm. Questions for residents: has the outreach firm shown up to this lot to provide housing and services (mental health, drug and alcohol rehab, medical, etc.)?

Love seeing the police in the parking lot and on Webster tonight 10/3. It had gotten out of hand today with eight homeless, two abandoned tires, accumulation of trash. Keep it up!

Capt Don Owyang assigned this issue to Lt. Hosh Durani

Assigned to HLO team for ongoing monitoring.

Assigned to HLO team for ongoing monitoring.