Let's take a walk on Park Street...
Ones Cafe & Bakery's wait for an inspection
The signage for Coffee Cultures has recently been replaced, but unfortunately the owner of Ones Cafe & Bakery was overly optimistic when he told me they would only need two weeks before reopening. Their permit to add a refrigerated bakery display case appears to have been waiting since February on county health department approval:
Alameda Brewing's parklet
Parklets aren't done yet! Alameda Brewing recently built a new one. I hear it can get quite busy there on weekends when people are also lined up for Fikscue Craft Barbecue. (That block of Alameda is part of my "weekday adult Alameda" rather than my "weekend parent-mode Alameda" so I haven't seen it in action, or tried the Indonesian-style barbecue. Is it worth the wait?)
Bakesum's build-out
Within the Alameda Marketplace building, Bakesum is building out their new counter and production facility.
The new online alt-press outlet COYOTE posted an interview with Bakesum's owner and is announcing their target opening date as May 9. (Pray that the permit gods grant them fair passage!)
Is Monkey King's historic renovation history?
Monkey King successfully completed the gauntlet of the city's Planning staff, Historical Advisory Board, and Zoning Administrator to get approvals to renovate a former furniture store into a full-service restaurant. (Like Ones, they also successfully received and acted on a permit to install signage.) But unclear from the outside whether they're actually moving forward with construction.
Juxi's preparations
Whenever I walk by the cinder block structure at 1231 Park Street, it reminds me of downtown Santa Cruz — perhaps a used record store or a skate shop. (That's not too far off from what it used to be: a sports bar.) The interior has been fully renovated and it will re-open soon as Juxi:
Inauthentic, fun Cantonese+American dining in Alameda. JuXi is where Cantonese flavors, American comfort, and a little chaos end up on the same table.
That's from their Yelp profile, which lists an opening date of June 1.
Is Park Station's live music an environmental impact?
When Berkeley homeowners got mad that there might be more undergrads in their university town, they sued the University of California for violating the California Environmental Quality Act. A judge agreed, declared that CEQA requires the university to proactively deal with "noise impacts from loud student parties" in advance of even building a dorm, and halted the entire project.
A neighbor of Park Station (which this blog welcomed with a post titled "Beer, dogs, kids, and fancy sandwiches taking the place of car tires on Park Street") has hired a prominent environmental law firm to make a CEQA-based case against that business's permit for outdoor live music.
The law firm has filed an appeal on behalf of the neighbor against a recent decision by the Planning Board, triggering a de novo hearing of the use permit at the next City Council meeting (on Tuesday, May 5), meaning that councilmembers will fully revisit the topic and issue a brand-new decision about the permit.
Councilmembers can do so at their own discretion; Councilmember Tony Daysog has done so over the course of his career as an elected official, adding delays and costs to the creation of new housing and mixed-use developments.
Residents can also file their own appeal. They must pay $2,126 (to partially cover all the staff time involved in preparing for the appeal hearing). For example, a resident recently succeeded in curtailing the business hours of a locally owned gas station by hand-writing the application page, attaching a single page of typed comments, paying the fee, and then bringing almost 30 neighbors to the hearing. Councilmembers voted for a new permit that reduced the business's operating hours compared to the Planning Board's previous decision.
In advance of the meeting, the city has clearly put in more than $2,126 worth of staff hours — and Park Station's owners clearly have put in effort as well.
Staff now recommend that City Council halt all amplified live music on Park Station's outdoor patio, as well as to begin a process to rewrite the city's entire noise ordinance.
As someone who's had a baby who wouldn't sleep or nap consistently for her first six months (during which time we lived in the middle of a business district on the Peninsula), I'm viscerally sympathetic to bangs/bops/slams/honks/strums coming in through your walls. At the same time, Alameda is a city of almost 80,000 people and there are multiple business districts and there are a wide range of outdoor activities. The City of Alameda needs to pro-actively manage these issues for everyone and everywhere.
To offer two timely examples:
- The outdoor performance venue (and former parking lot) on Webster Street recently hosted a "She Shreds" women's music festival — is she still allowed to shred if neighbors can cite "CEQA" to veto noise-based use permits?
- Alameda Unified is currently preparing for public CEQA review of potential noise and light from the Alameda High School Athletic Field, which will be built on the current temporary campus site after Otis Elementary students return to the new Otis campus. The voices of the current neighbors are important and the voices of all students and faculty and families who are going to use that athletic complex over its lifetime are important. The outcome of that process may determine how many educational and athletic events can be held at the facility — which directly impacts how much value the public derives from the investment in building the facility.
While City staff react to this one appeal of one specific establishment's permit for amplified live music (in a neighborhood that downsized and moved Chochenyo Park's "natural play area" and had KFC repainted in a more muted color palette), the elected leaders on City Council also need to think city-wide.
The city needs to get the Alameda Municipal Code in order to be able to set predictable noise standards that businesses and activity centers can reasonably meet — and that reasonably balance the needs of nearby residents — rather than just react to whoever lawyers up the most to claim "environmental" harms.
Hard work
Operating a retail establishment in Alameda sure looks hard! Thanks to the owners and workers who put in the effort to navigate all the relevant rules.