Temescal News & Views

THE VOICE OF NORTH OAKLANDS TEMESCAL NEIGHBORHOOD March/ April 2011

Emerson Elementary Partners with Studio One for Art Program

Published bimonthly by Temescal Neighbors Together (TNT) and distributed to 2,500 households, schools, and businesses.
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A three-month fundraising blitz on behalf of Emerson Elementary Schools Enrichment Fund has raised nearly $15,000 for a dedicated art program. e money has allowed Emerson to contract with the nearby Studio One Art Center. Five artists from Studio One will visit each of the schools classrooms for one hour every week for 16 weeks this spring. Were going to do clay, painting and drawing, and three dimensional sculpture, said Alethia Walker, program coordinator for Studio One. Californias budget crisis has decimated funding for public schools, and parent and community support is critical to fund much-loved enrichment programs. e creation of the Enrichment Fund is the work of Emersons dedicated Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), which meets on the third Wednesday of every month in the school library. Everyone is welcome, and childcare is available. is new art program, in conjunction with the full-time PE coach, our wonderful library program, and our large green campus but small student body

make Emerson hard to compete with, said parent Myra Cummiskey, the PTO Fundraising Coordinator. When you add in a dedicated sta and the wonderful children from all over Oakland, Emerson really adds up to a very exciting place to send our kids! And this is just the beginning. Emersons PTO is determined to make the Enrichment Fund for the Arts an ongoing priority, and hopes to raise $30,000 in the coming year to provide the schools 300 students with instruction in art, music, drama and more. Emersons nancial accounts are handled by Faith Network, a non-pro t accounting service, and contributions to the Enrichment Fund are taxdeductible. To donate, send a check payable to Faith Network for Emerson PTO. e address is: Emerson Elementary School, a n: PTO/Enrichment Fund, 4803 Lawton Ave., Oakland, CA 94609. e tax ID# is 94-3403801. Bruce Williams, Emerson School Parent Teacher Organization (PTO)

Donate Your DVDs to the Temescal Branch Library

What are you going to do with all those DVDs you received as gi s during the holidays? You know youll watch them once or twice, and then theyll sit next to your at screen collecting dust. Why not donate your DVDs to the Temescal Branch of the Oakland Public Library? e Temescal Branch is in desperate need of all types of DVDs: feature lms, television series, documentaries, foreign language lms (especially in Amharic and Tigrinya, the languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, but all languages are welcome!) and childrens DVDs. Your donation of DVDs to the Temescal Branch Library is 100% tax-deductible. We will give you a tax receipt for any donations you give us. Please make sure the DVDs are clean, and in working condition we cant use DVDs that wont play. And remember, you can check out DVDs for FREE at the library! ank you for helping to make the Temescal Branch an important part of the community. Andrew Demcak, Acting Branch Manager Temescal Branch Library

ank You!
is issue of Temescal News & Views has been generously funded by
The Temescal/Telegraph Business Improvement District (BID)

NEWSLETTER ALERT
Temescal News & Views is planning to offer an online version of the newsletter in the coming months. Wed love community feedback on what format would be most accessible, so stay tuned for a survey in the May/June newsletter.

and
ASMARA RESTAURANT
AND

S&S SEAFOOD

MARCH - APRIL 2011

e Front Porch:

S U E M A R K IN TERVIEW S R OBERT AKELE Y

I visited Robert on a glorious spring afternoon, before his 80th birthday. We sat in his cavernous old barn, an unusual feature in Temescal. Robert purchased his rambling Victorian on the corner of 49th and Clarke St. in the 1970s, when the turbulent East Bay was known as East Berlin. The house was built in 1892 for a local doctor, and lore has it that the large upstairs room was once a ward for pregnant women. The house, now painted a brilliant turquoise, is a neighborhood landmark. Robert is also a painter; I rst met him at his open studio event several years ago. Tall and robust, with a shock of white hair gathered into a ponytail, Robert is a striking gure who regularly walks throughout the neighborhood. A practicing psychiatrist and activist at heart, he helped start organizations whose missions ranged from rights for gay doctors to progressive research in childhood autism. Robert still sees half a dozen patients each week, and refers to them as friends rather than clients. Robert can often be found sitting in his back garden: the large wooden gate, framed by climbing roses, is almost always open. Books about psychology and the brain commingle with gardening tools, and a table is festooned with piles of notes weighted with smooth stones.

SM: Whats happening at your house today? RA: Todd and Jordan Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen teach people how to preserve food here; they use our kitchen for the workshops. I rst met Todd 13 years ago, when he was selling vegetables at a tiny organic farmers market on 49th St. SM: How did you choose to live in Temescal? RA: I was living in San Francisco, and I was vis-

ere was a full moon, and this house was painted a very pale green, and it looked silver in the moonlight. I though it was just wonderful. Its a very good Queen Anne. It was for sale, and the price was just $30,500! Back then the neighborhood was a wreck; it was in transition.
SM: How did the realtor de

Robert Akeley on his porch. Photo: Sue Mark

ne transition?

up. It was chaotic: this was the early 1970s. ere were helicopters in the air; Pa y Hearst and her gang were around; Huey Newton was in the news. People were afraid, and there were no children in the neighborhood. A lot of families moved to the suburbs and a lot of properties were for rent.
SM:

iting a friend who lived in the neighborhood.

RA: e neighborhood had been home to Italian immigrants, but BART and the freeway had just come in and split the neighborhood

Did the neighborhood have any kind of name?

RA: No. It had no name. Later, it became Lower Rockridge, and then it became Temescal and now theres even a Lower Temescal! SM: How do you

nd people to live here?

RA: Friends of friends is the best way. SM:

way

Is it challenging to build community this by sharing your own home?

RA: Were not deliberately communitarian: we are a community, but we dont have communal meals or meetings. We are all separate people sharing this space, and most of us have some kind of creative inclination musicians,
Canning worshop at Robert Akeleys home. Photo: Matt Szymankowski

continued on back page

TEMESCAL NEWS & VIEWS

At Last: the Playgrounds at Frog Park Are Open!

Last fall, the two playgrounds that anchor FROG (Friends of the Rockridge-Temescal Greenbelt) Park were closed for repairs a er extensive dry rot was found in one playground and redwood roots throughout the other. For months, children, parents and caregivers anxiously waited for word on when the popular playgrounds would be xed. e long wait is over: the two play structures re-opened on the last Friday in January. Known by many as Big Frog and Li le Frog, the popular Greenbelt is bound to the north by Hardy Playground, tucked behind the trees of the Hardy Park green space, and Redondo Playground, a tot lot located beneath a redwood grove at the intersection of Redondo and Clarke streets. e FROG Commi ee would like to thank everyone who called or wrote the City of Oakland to show how important Frog Park is to our community. e FROG Commi ee has worked tirelessly since September to get the repairs done quickly and correctly. City sta from Public Works handled the actual renovation work, and FROG worked closely with Leathers & Associates, the play structures original designer, to make sure the renovations were consistent with the original design. Once the bar was removed from the play areas, the extent of the damage was apparent, and work began to obtain the speci cations for the special playground materials. FROG donated $15,000 towards purchasing the specially treated wood, the synthetic

e FROG Commi ee would like to thank everyone who called or wrote the City of Oakland to show how important Frog Park is to our community.
wood, the tot slide, and the bar. Some of these are unusual materials speci c to this kind of play structure; the specially-treated wood alone took 8 weeks to receive here in Oakland. Spearheading the e ort for FROG was treasurer Ronnie Spitzer, who worked countless hours keeping the work moving, ordering materials, and communicating with City sta and Leathers & Associates. Carol Behr brought in a pro bono arborist who advised on the redwood roots that had invaded the play area at Redondo. Jimmy Pedersen (who
Frog Park, reopened. Photo: Ronnie Spitzer

was part of the original Big Build when the park was created in 2001) used his industry construction knowledge and contacts to advise on replacement surfacing to minimize future drainage problems. Howard Ferrier, FROGs maintenance manager, began the work last September at the Fall Maintenance Day and continued to provide in-depth advice on renovations. Jim Ryugo and Wes Ramsey from Public Works spent many hours with FROG on site, by e-mail and on the phone assessing the damage, determining how to proceed; Brian Carthan directed much of the repair work, and gardener Luciano Cortes helped throughout the process. anks also to Councilmember Jane Brunner and Zac Wald, her Chief of Sta , for their e orts to speed up the timeline. And now . . . please enjoy the re-opened play structures and all of Frog Park! We need your help to keep this vital community asset open and in top shape. Come out on Earth Day, April 16th, with your family and friends to do some planting, clean the creek and clear vegetation. We need you, and the children of this community need you and all of us to act as stewards of the Park. For more information, go to: www.frogpark.org. FROG Commi ee

Worker making repairs at Big Frog Park. Photo: Ronnie Spitzer

MARCH - APRIL 2011

e Front Porch

continued om page 2

TEMESCAL COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Every Sunday, 9 am 1 pm. Temescal Farmers Market, 5300 Claremont Ave. in the DMV parking lot. Please bring your own bags. e farmers market also accepts W.I.C. coupons. Wednesdays @ 10:30 am. Preschool story time. Temescal Branch Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave. 597-5049. Wednesday March 9. Temescal Merchants Association meeting. Contact Carlo Busby at Sagrada for time and location at 6537196. Thursday March 10, 7 pm. Monthly Wednesday March 16, 5:30 pm.

painters, writers or photographers or something like that. I need company, so thats probably the biggest driving factor. And it helps to pay the bills and get the work done; my housemates are more skillful with their hands than I am. Most of my housemates are much younger than I, so they are responsive to what you might call the spirit in the air. eyre more aware that we are one world, and we might as well be interdependent rather than independent.
ers workshops on how to make everything om pickles to sauerkraut, kombucha and jams. For information, go to www.happygirlkitchen.com/workshops. e Oakland workshops are held in Roberts home at 49th and Clarke.
Editors Note: Happy Girl Kitchen o

Emerson Elementary monthly PTO meeting. Potluck dinner at 5:30, followed by a 6 pm meeting in the library. Childcare is provided and everyone is welcome. Emerson Elementary, 4803 Lawton Ave. 654-7373.
Saturday March 19, 6:30-10:30 pm.

meeting of the Temescal Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC). Faith Presbyterian Church, 49th & Webster. Contact Lee Edwards at 520-7929 for more information.
Friday March 11, 6 pm. Octopretzel

Oakland Techs is is It! Auction at the T. Gary Rogers Rowing Center, 2999 Glascock St., Oakland. is is an evening to support Oakland Tech with silent and live auctions, food, fun, and entertainment. e auction is Techs main fundraiser. Monies raised enhance students academic, performing arts and sports programs, college tours, and a er-school activities. To purchase tickets, contact auction@oaklandtech. com. More information is available at h p:// oaklandtech.com/otpsta/auction
Wednesday April 13. Temescal

Got Chickens?
Temescal News & Views is conducting an informal chicken census of the Temescal, complete with photographs of all the wonderful chickens and neighborhood coops. Send yours to temescalnewsandviews@gmail.com.

Family Concert at SadieDeys Caf, 4210 Telegraph Ave. Free for members of the SadieDeys Parents Information Network; $10 for non-members.
Monday March 14, 7 pm. Oakland

Merchants Association meeting. Contact Carlo Busby at Sagrada for time and location at 6537196.
Thursday April 14, 7 pm. Monthly

meeting of the Temescal Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council. Faith Presbyterian Church, 49th & Webster.
Ongoing.

Techs monthly PTSA meeting. Oakland Technical High School, 4351 Broadway, in the library.
Tuesday March 15, 7 pm. A free workshop for parents on Living with Ones and Twos, with Meg Zweiback, a parent, nurse practitioner, and Parents Press columnist. Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave. Call 658-7353 to register.

e exhibit, Reading History: Temescal Branch Library Celebrates 90 Years. Temescal Branch Library, 5205 Telegraph Ave. Call 597-5049 for more information.

Got an item for the calendar? E-mail: temescalnewsandviews@gmail.com

3-11

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