Neighbors, join Halcyon Neighborhood Association’s Facebook group!

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Halcyon Neighborhood Association E-News 5/10/12

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Items appearing in the HNA E-News are deemed to be of general interest to neighbors but do not necessarily reflect the views of Halcyon Neighborhood Association (HNA), its Steering Committee, or the Editor. The Editor’s introductory comments express her personal viewpoint.

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Contents

1. Earthquake Exercise Sat. May 19 and How EVERYONE can participate Pre-Drill!

2. Multi-Block Yard Sale on Saturday 6/2; RSVP by 5/24 to Participate

3. Your Help Needed: Work Party in the Park, Sunday, 6/3, 9:30 a.m.–2 p.m.

4. Crime Watch Update: Burglary, Purse Snatching, Car Break-in, etc.

5. Next Community Meeting with Whole Foods Market, Weds. 6/2, 8:30-9 a.m.

6. Report on the Institute of Urban Homesteading

7. Pedestrian Injury at Shattuck at Prince: Safety Committee Forming

8. Halcyon Resident Seeking a Room Nearby

9. Prince Street Neighbor Announces Sculpture Garden

Editor’s Introductory Note:

Any neighbor who has text capacity can participate in this month’s citywide earthquake exercise, whether or not you’re able to attend the neighborhood portion of the drill itself. See item 1 for information on the 5/19 drill and a variety of ways you can participate. We know if there were a 5.1 earthquake between now and 5/19, everyone would want to come out. I hope our neighborhood will demonstrate that we get the importance of preparedness even without such a reminder!

On the neighborhood-watch front, among the trends we’ve noticed over the past two decades is that there tends to be an upswing in crime as the weather gets nicer (and again in the late summer/fall, when students return to town). And lately there have been some brazen daytime burglaries and a purse snatching (six neighbors chased the purse snatcher, and while he got away, the purse itself was recovered). See item 4 for more on crime watch.

Please stay safe and enjoy this beautiful spring!

—Nancy Carleton, HNA Co-Chair and E-News Editor, halcyon92@gmail.com

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1. Earthquake Exercise Sat. May 19 and How EVERYONE can participate Pre-Drill!

Editor’s note: HNA Disaster Preparedness Coordinator Susan Snyder submitted the following notice about the upcoming drill on May 19 and what you can do to participate.

Citywide Earthquake Exercise with Halcyon Neighborhood Participation

Saturday, May 19, 9-11:00 a.m.

Halcyon Commons (Halcyon at Prince)

Coffee courtesy of Mokka Cafe

Four Ways to Participate in the Berkeley CERT Citywide Earthquake Exercise

On May 19th, a simulated 6.9 earthquake on the Hayward Fault strikes Berkeley. You’re okay, and your family is okay but what’s next? That’s what the earthquake exercise is all about!

1) REGISTER to receive a message from the Berkeley Emergency Notification System (BENS). To register to receive the exercise message, send an email to Khin Chin at the Office of Emergency Services at KChin@ci.berkeley.ca.us . Include your name and cellphone number, and indicate that you’re part of the Halcyon neighborhood group. (This ONLY registers you to receive the drill message; you can do this even if you’re not able to attend the drill!)

2) On May 19th, after you receive the exercise notification, CALL OR TEXT your out-of-state contact and request a response.

3) TUNE IN to Berkeley’s emergency information radio broadcast on 1610AM. If you can’t hear the message, try moving to a different part of the house or a different part of the neighborhood.

4) COME TO HALCYON COMMONS to participate in the neighborhood response part of the drill. The Incident Command Center will be set up prior to the 9 a.m. drill start time. Sign in and take on a role that fits your skill set and/or learn something new. We need YOU to make our drill a success! (You don’t need to have any prior experience to participate!)

Please contact Susan at hnaprepared@gmail.com to volunteer or be added to the Halcyon Disaster Prep email list, or if you have any questions.

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2. Multi-Block Yard Sale on Saturday 6/2; RSVP by 5/24 to Participate

Editor’s note: HNA Treasurer and past organizer of successful Multi-Block Yard Sales Susan Hunter submitted the following announcement. Multiblock sales tend to draw a much larger crowd of potential customers, so if you’re interested please be sure to reply soon so there’s time to plan.

Spring Cleaning? Early Summer Sale? Anyone else out there up for another Multi-Block Yard Sale sponsored by HNA? We need to get at least a dozen households signed up if so (no matter what, a couple of us will still do a smaller-scale sale on Halcyon that Saturday, June 2, so let us know if you’d want to participate at your household even if it remains a private sale). Cost to participate will be $5 toward ads and supplies for flyers, and everyone will need to post at least a few flyers the week of the sale. Email halcyon92@gmail.com by Thursday 5/24, and your response will be forwarded to the event organizer, Susan Hunter.

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3. Your Help Needed: Work Party in the Park, Sunday, 6/3, 9:30 a.m.–2 p.m.

Work Party in the Park (and Surrounding Neighborhood): Volunteers Needed!

Meet at Halcyon Commons (Halcyon at Prince)

Delicious refreshments courtesy of Whole Foods Market.

Fresh coffee courtesy of Mokka (cafe at Telegraph and Dowling).

* Weeding & light mulching in Halcyon Commons and nearby landscaped barriers (rain or shine)

* Picking up litter from streets in the larger neighborhood (rain or shine)

* Graffiti removal in the larger neighborhood (if sunny & if we have sufficient help)

Many hands make light work: Please lend yours! Even half an hour helps. Children welcome. Bring your own tools if you have them, or use ours if you don’t. We don’t have any student volunteers to help with this work party, so it’s up to us neighbors!

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4. Crime Watch Update: Burglary, Purse Snatching, Car Break-in, etc.

Editor’s note: A reminder to join the HNA Facebook group at Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=292160762499 for breaking crime reports in between E-News editions! If you’re a neighbor who isn’t yet part of this closed Facebook group, you’re missing out!

HNA Steering Committee member Mikel Delgado submitted the following summary of crimes in or near the neighborhood:

4/16 robbery on Tremont & Emerson

4/24 burglary Ashby at Lorina
4/24 vehicle theft 66th & Telegraph
4/25 burglary on 66th (near Raymond)
4/28 car break-in Woolsey & Tremont

A Prince Street neighbor reported the following daytime burglary on Facebook:

“[On May 3] our house was burglarized at noon (near Prince and Fulton). They forced open a window and stole jewelry. . . . The police are here and the crime unit [came]. The burglar ransacked our bedroom and stole my jewelry but nothing else. Our nanny and I happened to both be out, and I didn’t set the alarm because she was coming back. We do have a security camera and got some clear footage of the person who broke in. We’ve given that to the police so hopefully they will catch him soon. [Note: If you’re a Halcyon neighbor and have joined our Facebook group, you can find photos of the suspect from the security camera at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10150821175067500&type=1; the photos are also posted in the bulletin board at Halcyon Commons and on various telephone poles in the neighborhood.] There are stills from our video that show him crossing the street less than two minutes after I left in my car. He goes directly to our front door, spends about four minutes on our porch, and then must have gone off the side of the porch because [the video never shows him leaving]. The person broke in through the back, but we only have footage from the front (and he left from the back). I was gone for approximately twenty minutes, and the burglary took place in that time. Description is a young male, either Latino or light-skinned African American. He had a beard just around his jawline/chin and had on jeans, a grey sweatshirt, black hat with a red symbol and black Chuck Taylors.”

Another neighbor reported on Facebook about a purse snatching on Woolsey that included a chase by neighbors:

“At around 5:50 p.m. tonight [May 3], a purse was snatched on the north side of Woolsey Street between Shattuck and Wheeler. I was walking up the steps of my house [near] Wheeler and Woolsey when I saw an African American male, thirties, orange hooded sweatshirt, dark baseball hat, and dark gray shorts running north on Wheeler. I dropped my bag and chased after him. He turned east on Prince, then north on Fulton. About three houses north of Chochmat Halev, he climbed a fence and escaped into the yard. A fellow neighbor was right behind me and ran a different direction to find him. Another neighbor on Fulton called the police; I relayed an ID of the suspect to him. I started to walk back home and found a group of folks talking at Wheeler and Prince, including the woman whose purse was stolen. As I walked up to them, the neighbor who chased the suspect with me had recovered and returned the purse, which had been ditched by the suspect in a yard. Glad everything worked out and no one was hurt. Only some cash was missing.”

Further details were added by a different neighbor:

“There were six of us running after this guy. What a great neighborhood we live in. Keep up the good work neighbors :).”

And on May 4, another Prince Street neighbor reported:

“I discovered the third event this morning — my car window was smashed on Prince between Halcyon and Telegraph [on May 3]. It looks like they didn’t take anything. They were probably scared off by the alarm.”

A Prince Street neighbor submitted the following report:

“Last night [May 6] someone stole a citrus tree in a nursery container from my front yard. I never dreamed that this could attract a thief, so I did not take the precautions I apply to everything else. It was a rather valuable plant ($50), but there’s no way a thief could tell that unless I carelessly left the price turned toward the street. The thief will learn it’s worth $50 only to a very rare person, someone who is a fancier of Japanese citrus. To anyone else, it is worthless, as they will discover. The interest in this is that it illustrates the aggressiveness of our local current thieves.”

A Halcyon neighbor reported:

“My car was broken into (rear passenger window smashed) and purse stolen yesterday (April 18) afternoon between 4 and 5 on Halcyon at Webster. I made a police report, and a friend thinks he saw the perps drive off in a White Chevy Malibu. Just a heads-up for the neighborhood.”

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5. Whole Foods Market News: Live Jazz on Memorial Day; Community Meeting Weds. 6/6, 8:30-9 a.m.

Editor’s note: News from Whole Foods Market courtesy of Jim Hallock.

Live Jazz on Memorial Day

Monday, May 28

1-5 p.m.

It’s becoming a tradition here in Berkeley, to host MB Hanif and the Sound Voyagers, playing some spirited jazz on this holiday afternoon. We’ll have free refreshments and snacks, so stop by, put your feet up, and relax with us for the afternoon.

Construction Update

A revised project schedule for the installation of the roof refrigeration units is now available. Please note the crane will be here on June 11. Most of the work will now be during June.

Drop-In Progress Meeting (first Wednesday of each month)

Wednesday, June 6, 8:30-9:00 a.m.

Whole Foods Market (check in at Customer Service)

These meetings are held at the Community Table at the front of the store, and the purpose is to share our plans for noise abatement, the store remodel project [scheduled for 2012], street litter control, and progress on any of the ongoing issues we discuss [with HNA reps and nearby neighbors]. Mel [Store Team Leader] and I will meet, and anyone is welcome to join us. Of course there will be complimentary coffee, tea, and snacks. Our goal is to follow up immediately on any issues that we hear about, and to hear how the store can be a better neighbor.

Jim Hallock

Community Relations Team Leader

Whole Foods Market Berkeley

3000 Telegraph Ave.

Berkeley, CA 94705

P: 510-649-1333 ext. 260

F: 510-649-1474

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6. Report on the Institute of Urban Homesteading

Editor’s note: Deborah Mikuteit, an East Lorin neighbor near the portion of Halcyon neighborhood west of Shattuck, submitted the following item.

I was delighted to recently discover that here in North Oakland, really very close to the East Lorin District, we have the home of the Institute of Urban Homesteading, which has dozens of classes on all facets of self-sufficient urban life. There are classes on various aspects of organic gardening, permaculture, foraging for greens in the city, sharpening knives, classes on raising chickens, quail, rabbits, bees, even goats. There are classes on intriguing aspects of kitchen homesteading: fermenting foods, making mead, canning, making yogurt and cheese, building solar ovens. There are also classes on textiles and handcrafts, making soap, storing water. I’ve identified about a dozen classes I would love to take. Probably you’ll find something too. There’s something for everyone here. Wouldn’t it be great if each local community had people with skills in some of these areas, and then all put together what a resource we could all be to each other! Harnessing these skills for self-sufficient urban living, we can really move away from reliance on industry and unsustainable dependence on fossil fuels.

The website of the organization is www.iuhoakland.com. The founder of the organization K. Ruby Blume, wrote a book called “Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living.” I also recommend “The Urban Homestead” by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, as well as their “Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World.”

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7. Pedestrian Injury at Shattuck at Prince: Safety Committee Forming

Editor’s note: On April 27, a number of neighbors reported hearing sirens and seeing a large police presence at Shattuck and Prince. It turned out to be a pedestrian injury. See reports below. At our Steering Committee meeting last week, Steering Committee member Stephen Pitcher and several other Steering Committee members agreed to help nearby neighbors interested in a Traffic Safety Committee to explore ways the crossing at Prince and Shattuck (and possibly other crossings on Ashby or Shattuck) could be made safer. If you’re interested in helping with this effort, please email halcyon92@gmail.com, and I will pass your contact information on to the committee.

“At about 9:30 p.m. or so I heard the all too familiar thud of a vehicle accident at the corner of prince and Shattuck, just outside the Starry Plough. This time a pedestrian was hit when crossing I think from the northeast corner of Prince and Shattuck. The pedestrian was responsive and talking but remained on the ground until medics took them away to the hospital. The vehicle and presumably the driver remained there until the police completed their investigation. Accidents are not uncommon on this part of Shattuck. Since we’ve lived here, I’ve seen multiple fender benders, bike-car collisions, and now this. I’ve been wondering for a while now what more can be done. Thanks to the work of some concerned neighbors, the crosswalk was put in sometime within the last five years. It seems something more is needed to truly slow down the traffic or to provide awareness of cross traffic. I’m happy to help in this effort with some guidance.”

Another neighbor added these details:

“Last night after a women’s poetry community event at La Peña, [N. Z.] was hit while crossing the street at a crosswalk. She was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland and had surgery. Her lower leg is broken and she has extensive abrasions. She will be in the hospital for at least a few days but she’s reportedly doing remarkably well!”

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8. Halcyon Resident Seeking a Room Nearby

Editor’s note: The following item was submitted by a Deakin Street neighbor.

“Hi, I’ve lived on Deakin (Prince/Webster) for over a year and must move soon. Would like to find a room in Halcyon or not too far away. If your household has an opening for a quiet, neat, responsible veteran of community living, please contact Gordon Pedersen at gordon@visi.com or 312.612.9415. Thanks for your consideration.”

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9. Prince Street Neighbor Announces Sculpture Garden

Editor’s note: Prince Street neighbor Nina Lyons passed on the following announcement.

“I am pleased to announce my new Sculpture Garden website is also now open for private tours! I will be hosting the Oakland Art Museum Guild here this spring. The Garden is open by appointment. Please email me if you are interested in visiting the garden! Visit the website here: www.sfbayareasculpturegarden.com. I have also just launched “Flights of the Imagination.” Visit the website here: www.birdsasartspace.com.”

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