Albany local businesses feel chill of recession

Cafe Raj, a popular Indian food restaurant on Solano Avenue of Albany, suffered a 30 per cent drop in sales revenue in recent months due to ongoing recession. Photo by Linda (Linjun) Fan.

The chill of a nationwide recession has struck businesses in Albany. Restaurants, retail shops, and hair salons in the city are losing profits significantly.

“People are really hurting, ” said Rosemarie Eichner-Raja, owner of Cafe Raj restaurant.

Tree removal at the Gill Tract completed

A green layer of spray covers the land where 184 Monterey pines grew at the Gill Tract of Albany. Wildflowers and grass are expected to grow out of the mixture of seeds and mulch. The controversial tree-removal, started in late January, has been completed by workers contracted by the University of California.

Neighbors urge city to act on “haunted house”

Garbage covers the backyard of a vacant house at Talbot Avenue, Albany. Photo by Linda (Linjun) Fan.  

Nearly 100 Albany residents signed a petition letter recently to urge city administrators to take action on a decaying house in their neighborhood .

The house, located at 1075 Talbot Avenue, has been left vacant by its owner for more than two decades. Besides deteriorating windows and walls, neighbors say that it is now frequented by rats and homeless people.

“The property has become a garbage dump, a crash pad for vagrants, a haven for illegal activities and a dangerous enticement to curious children, ” said the petition letter, which has been signed by 94 residents in the neighborhood.

Issues of Concern: Garbage piles up on the Albany Beach

The Albany Beach is now clear of oil spill, but full of garbage washed ashore by recent tides. The caution tape that prohibited visitors from entering the beach during the oil spill disappeared, but a few brackets remain abandoned there. 

Albany falls short of block captains

By Linjun Fan

Less than a third of Albany’s 200-plus blocks have a person who can organize neighbors to evacuate in case of emergency, even though the city’s Fire Department has been trying to get people interested in playing the role for more than a year.

A block captain is a trained volunteer who is able to coordinate neighbors to evacuate before outside help comes. A neighborhood can better deal with a disaster if they have someone ready for organizing a timely evacuation. Albany started its block captain program after the 1989 earthquake, and once had nearly 200 residents registered as block captains.

But less than 10 percent of them remained active in 2006. Sandy Weeks, the disaster preparedness assistant of Albany Fire Department, sent out 200 letters to the block captains on her list but just got about 20 replies saying that they were still doing the job.

“The others said they are too old, or no longer interested, or they don’t have time anymore, or they have moved, ” Weeks said.

Albany’s biggest controversy: Waterfront Planning

 

A statue made out of scrape iron and sticks by amateur artists on Albany Bulb, the tip of a former landfill stretching half-a-mile into the San Francisco Bay. Photo by Linjun Fan.

Waterfront planning is a major issue for the city of Albany. A majority of residents are against extensive commericial development of the 160-acre land by the San Francisco Bay, but their opinions vary on the kind of development they want to be carried out. Most of the land is now occupied by Golden Gate Fields racetrack, while several dozen acres of land were accumulated as a former landfill. Should the area be largely preserved as a park, or  some constructions for urban use be allowed? How to cooperate with the racetrack’s parent parent company Magna Entertainment Corp., who owns a large portion of the waterfront, if at all? And how to fund the projects? Or should the waterfront just be kept the way it is now? These are the questions that have faced the city for decades, and no consensus has been reached up until now. The city recently hired an independent consultant to prepare a framework report for the planning. The report was releaesd in early September, which summarized the issue and described four senarios for its development. (Click for details: Neuwirth & Associates Preliminary Report.) An revised version Neuwirth & Associates Final Report of the report was submitted to the City Council for approval in October. It’s important that the public voice their opinions and get involved in the planning process. Please follow the latest development of the issue and share your ideas here.