Location: Emeryville Senior Center
4321 Salem Street
Emeryville, CA 94608 Related Site
Phone: (510) 596-4316 Current Weather
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PREDATORY LENDING PREVENTION AND FORECLOSURE INTERVENTION WORKSHOP

Saturday, February 14, 2009
9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Emeryville Senior Center
4321 Salem Street, Emeryville
Sponsored by the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency

Come get information about how to avoid predatory loans, what to do if you are having difficulty making your mortgage payments or are facing foreclosure, and what your rights are if you are a tenant being displaced due to foreclosure.

PANEL PARTICIPANTS:

–Nora Davis, City of Emeryville City Council
–Maria Benjamin, Community Housing Development Corporation
–Maeve Elise Brown, Housing & Economic Rights Advocates
–Wanda Remmers, Housing Rights
–Kevin Stein, California Reinvestment Coalition

HUD-certified housing counseling agency staff will also be available to provide assistance.

For more information, contact Janet Anderson at janderson@emeryville.org or 510-596-4316.

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL; NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED. ALL ARE WELCOME!

Sponsored by the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency

katy cryer
squareoneyogacollective.com
4336-A san pablo ave. emeryville ca. 94608
510 . 547. 9700
415 . 652 . 8229/cell

BY SHALEECE HAAS // Twelve young people will perform at the Allegro Ballroom this weekend as part of the studio’s annual holiday party. The team has been practicing for several months under the direction of choreographer and dance teacher Heintje Soriano. All members of the youth dance team received scholarships for advanced dance lessons at Allegro, a nonprofit dance studio that offers free classes for youth and their parents every Saturday.

BY AMANDA MARTINEZ // At the Emeryville Amtrak Station travelers say nothing will keep them from going home for the holidays.

Officer Andrew Cassianos inspects a bag of marijuana found during a traffic stop.

BY SHALEECE HAAS // At 10:50 p.m. on Friday night, Emeryville police officer Andrew Cassianos pulled up alongside the flashing lights of another police car on 67th Street at San Pablo Avenue. Two officers shone their flashlights into the trunk and interior of a gray Oldsmobile sedan while the owner of the car sat handcuffed in the back of the police car, his head down.

Officer Jason Thompson had chased the man down San Pablo Avenue from 57th Street where he first clocked the car at more than 70 mph. He detained the driver and called on fellow officer Michael Pena to assist. Their search revealed an old license plate and two Ziplock bags containing small quantities of marijuana.

“One bag was just sitting there on the passenger seat.” Thompson said as he leaned against the car, holding up the bags and inspecting their contents. “He didn’t even try to hide it.”

The man, who identified himself as an in-home caregiver, was in possession of a medical marijuana card. Thompson called in the driver’s license and the medical card. Both were valid, and so he wrote the man a speeding ticket and sent him on his way.

Officers Thompson and Cassianos search the trunk of a vehicle pulled over for speeding.

For many, Emeryville is the home of Ikea and Pixar, a small city dedicated primarily to chain stores and high-tech companies. Where some see a destination to watch the latest blockbuster movie, Cassianos sees a hot-spot for assaults and robberies. Where some see retail therapy, Cassianos sees paper crimes like identity theft and forgery.

Cassianos’ friends tease him, saying that being a cop in Emeryville must be a boring job. Although rates of violent and major crimes in Emeryville are low compared to neighboring cities, Cassianos sees the nighttime streets of this 1.2-mile city as a setting for serious police work.

“People say nothing happens in Emeryville,” Cassianos said. “But I laugh at it and say, ‘Hey, why don’t you come on a ride along and see how busy we get.’”

“We have a lot to offer any kind of criminal here,” he said, scanning a dark residential street. He said that when he is on patrol he is constantly watching for people or things that look out of place.

The Emeryville Police Department employs 54 people, including 37 sworn police officers. That’s approximately one officer per 150 residents, as compared to one officer per 502 residents in Oakland.

Sergeant Doug Sylvester, who has been with the department for 17 years, said that because of the city’s size, the Emeryville police officers are able to respond to almost every call they receive.

“I’ve even gone to a call about a snake in the bathroom,” Sylvester said. “If you get your car broken into in Oakland, you have to file a report in the mail or online,” he said. “Our captain won’t stand for that. We’re going to go and take care of all our calls.”

At 11:08 p.m., the female dispatcher’s voice rang out over the radio, announcing a possible 5150 at the Woodfin Suites Hotel. The term “5150″ refers to a section of the California Welfare and Institutions Code that allows a police officer to involuntarily hold a person suspected of requiring psychiatric care.

Cassianos turned the volume down on the police radio, swung the Chevy Tahoe around and headed down Shellmound Street to the hotel. On the barrier between the truck’s cab and back seats hung a shotgun and a rifle.

When Cassianos arrived, Officers Pena and Andrew Yu were on site assisting a 27-year-old man who had told hotel security he was having memory problems.

The man was standing with his back against the hotel’s exterior wall. He shifted from one foot to the other, his hands clasped together in front of him. His overstuffed rucksack lay several feet away.

“He wants to be committed,” Pena said and went on to explain that the police were there to watch over him until an ambulance arrived to take the man to John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro.

“We don’t arrest them,” Pena said, his eyes never straying from the man. “They’re technically victims. They need help.”

In the time between calls, Cassianos drove slowly through the city’s 11 beats, known as reporting districts. He rolled past the known hot spots again and again – Kitty’s bar, the stretch of San Pablo between the Berkeley and Oakland city limits. He opened his window and greeted a young woman walking down a darkened street in high heels and a very short skirt.

“The prostitutes are a great source of information,” he said, rolling up his window. “You can’t stop them from doing what they do, but you can let them know you’re watching.”

At 11:55 p.m., the radio crackled and Yu requested that Cassianos bring the PAS device, a hand-held breath analyzer, to the corner of Park and San Pablo Avenues.

Officer Jason Thompson takes a DUI suspect into custody.

Yu administered a field sobriety test to a 52-year-old man, asking him to walk heel-to-toe across the sidewalk and touch his nose with his fingertips. Cassianos conducted the breath test. The device read .135 percent, a blood alcohol content above the legal limit of .08 percent.

Thompson took the man into custody while Cassianos parked the man’s Suzuki 4-door in a nearby lot.

Cassianos has been with the Emeryville police department for six years. Though no one in his immediate family serves in the force, Cassianos said he started thinking about becoming a police officer as a young boy growing up in Concord.

“Even in elementary school and junior high I was drawn to it,” he said. “I know you hear this all the time, but I really wanted to help people.”

As Cassianos maneuvered the police truck around a traffic circle on 45th Street at Salem in Emeryville’s “triangle” district, he remembered a young man he dealt with often in his first few years in the department. The boy was frequently in trouble with the police – for fighting with his peers, harassing adults and on at least one occasion, robbery.

“There was a mutual respect between us,” Cassianos said. “I’d like to think I was a role model to him, but on the flip side, I look at the outcome and I don’t know. You try to help, you chit-chat with him and the next day you have to arrest him for robbery. He ended up being shot and died in front of his house.”

“You can never try hard enough to point someone in the right direction,” Cassianos said. “But unless they want help, they’re just going to do what they want to do.”

Just after 1 a.m. Cassianos headed back toward the police station. His was the only car on the narrow stretch of Powell Street along the Emeryville Peninsula.

As he pulled to a stop in front of the station, Cassianos sat for a moment with the engine running. He removed his police-issue baseball cap to scratch his head, and replaced it, wiggling the brim to ensure a snug fit. He said he is deeply invested in his work in public service and hopes eventually to become a sergeant. Cassianos will take the qualifying exam next month.

Dia De Los Muertos Celebration

On any given night, dozens of savory homemade custom pizzas fly out the doors of Arizmendi Bakery located on San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville. Known as a vegetarian hotspot — there is no meat on the menu — the bakery is also making a name for itself as the place to go for holiday specialties.

Recently, sugar cube skulls were offered to customers to decorate with yellow, green and red frosting for Day of the Dead festivities. Additions to the menu included Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead) a traditional bread prepared every year between Oct. 31 and  Nov. 2.  For Christmas holidays the worker-owned cooperative is providing the ingredients for customers to come in and make gingerbread houses, a personal tradition Linda Kallenberger, worker and owner, remembers doing as a child.

“It’s really fun to share something meaningful with the community,” said Kallenberger.  Arizmendi worker Michelle Uribe and Kallenberger said the latest Dia de los Muertos celebration has really brought the bakery closer to community. The event featured free tamales, beans, chili and pizza to customers in celebration of the special holiday. There was even an altar set up in the bakery.

“We felt the altar could be a unifying, community-building tool,” said Uribe. This is the second time Arizmendi celebrated a Dia de los Muertos event.

The Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos is an annual celebration mixing indigenous Indian practices with Mexican traditions. It is a time when family and friends gather to pray for and remember loved ones who have passed. Although the ritual has since been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of Aztec rituals, such as the use of skulls and traditional dance. Traditions include building private altars honoring the dead and decorating them with sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed.

Uribe recalls the Dia de los Muertos party last year being smaller.  This year, Arizmendi staff decided to open it up to the community, with a larger altar, music, food and a ritual to bless the bakery and honor those that passed. Community residents attending were offered space at the altar to place pictures and mementos of a deceased loved one.

(Check out the photos from the recent Dia de los Muertos Celebration!

“We decided to give the event more legitimacy by having a traditional ceremony,”  said Uribe. She hopes that other businesses around the neighborhood will want to partner up to make this an even bigger community event next year.

After the food offering, a dancer from Cuauhtonal Aztec Dance group performed two ritual dances with drums and special prayers. “This is an opportunity to ask for what we want and to be grateful for everything that gives us life,” said Hector Ranger, a Nahui organizer, as he burned copal and blessed the space. Dressed in traditional costume, Roberto Lazcano performed two Aztec dances, Guerrero (Warrior) and Paloma (Dove) dance. “The Dove Dance represents life’s strength and sensibility while the warrior dance celebrates our fight for life,” Lazcano said.

The overall response from the community has been extremely positive said Uribe. “We’ve received a lot of thanks from regulars who attended the Day of the Dead celebration,” she said.

Arizmendi Bakery first opened its doors five years ago. It specializes in breads, pastries and gourmet pizza. The worker-owned collective also operates the Cheeseboard in Berkeley, another Arizmendi shop in San Francisco and also on Lakeshore in Oakland. The shop’s most popular item is pizza. It is meatless, without sauce, and brimming with a salty flavor. The dough is covered with cheese and topped with ingredients like red onions, mushrooms, spinach, artichoke, arugula, gorgonzola, balsamic vinaigrette or toasted walnuts. Each day a single unique pizza is available beginning at 11:00 am.

Peek at Arizmendi’s daily menu at www.arizmendi-bakery.org/pizza_schedule.php.

]]> http://inemeryville.org/2008/11/12/arizmendi-a-place-for-bread-and-food-for-the-soul/feed/ 0 http://inemeryville.org/2008/11/01/seniors-on-the-race-to-the-white-house/ http://inemeryville.org/2008/11/01/seniors-on-the-race-to-the-white-house/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:29:53 +0000 shaas http://inemeryville.org/?p=175

BY SHALEECE HAAS // Is Sarah Palin a liar? Does Barack Obama have unresolved issues about his mother?  Four local seniors shared their thoughts on this year’s presidential election.

Gari Lovaas Leary, age 70

Gari is the producer/director of Global Conversations, an educational television series on Viacom Channel 25. She is a resident of the Watergate, Emeryville. Click the gray button below to hear Gari’s thoughts on Barack Obama, third-party candidates and attack politics.

Gene Weinstein, Age 75

Gene is a retired political science professor. He leads a Monday morning “Coffee and Conversation” group at the Emeryville Senior Center. Click the gray button below to hear Gene’s thoughts on John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Glen Holtgren, age 71

Glen is a peace activist whose family has lived in Berkeley for more than a century. He frequently comes to the Emeryville Senior Center to talk about current events with other seniors. Click the gray button below to hear Glen talk about his approach to voting in national and state elections.

Louis Labat, age 66

Louis is a member of the Emeryville Commission on Aging. He is a retired gerontologist and a longtime resident of Emeryville. Click the gray button below to hear Louis’ thoughts on how the presidential election will affect senior citizens.

4060 Hollis Street

BY ALBA MORA // Emeryville City Council wants to build a new community art center. But first, they have to clean up the proposed site to protect landscapers and construction workers from health risks associated with exposure to contaminated soil.

At a public meeting on October 20 at Emeryville City Hall, an environmental consultant hired by the city presented a draft of the proposed clean-up plan of the former United Stamping Building at 4060 Hollis Street. The proposal includes a step-by-step description of the decontamination process as well as a timeline for completion.

“We’ll set up a fence and move the bus stop to the west. We’ll have a green fabric along the fence so that no dust is getting outside during the excavation,” said Kris M. Larson, from Ninyo & Moore, the geotechnical and environmental sciences consultants.

Truck's route.

Though no date for the cleanup effort has been set, Ignacio Dayrit, the community economic development coordinator of Emeryville, says the project will likely begin in January or February 2009.

Dayrit says the $70,000 project will be funded partly under a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleanup grant and by the City of Emeryville.

Clean-up will focus on the open space along 40th Street. The trees along the sidewalk will be kept intact. Trucks will pick up contaminated soil for one or two days. Afterward workers will fill the space with clean soil and begin landscaping.

“The site clean-up might take about a week in total,” said Larson. Neighbors might hear noise during the excavation days and trucks will be lined up on Hollis Street.

The objective of the clean-up is to reduce the concentration of chemicals and metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and vanadium in the soil.

Hazardous soil and waste will be transported to a landfill in Kettleman City, Calif. Trucks going to the landfill will head west on 40th Street and drive away from residential areas.

Public comment on the proposed cleanup plan is open until November 6, 2008.

The complete draft for the site clean-up can be downloaded here.