the meeting last night

Barbara wrote a little post about last night's meeting...

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Last night Capital St. had its first organizational meeting as a block club. Hoang Banh was there, plus some residents not even on Capital, AND 8 police officers. The police pretty much stayed for the entire session and contributed some old, some new information.

Here are some self-defense tips: look straight at persons walking toward you to indicate that you are aware; if asked for the time, be on guard for a robbery. Most of the other ideas are old ones that work on and off. Here is new information about our current spike in crime: it is being done by very young people, often as initiation for joining a gang. The police are reactive and depend on us to alert them to a nasty situation. They cannot always react as fast as they would like, but knowing what is happening where is very important for them.

And finally, and again, know your neighbors.

How sad that getting to know each other is being driven by crime. One encouraging event will be when we are able to recognize police because they are familiar figures and spend most of their time in our area. The 15X beat is like candy for opportunistic crime. We are on top of 580. In the 10 minutes it may take for a squad car to reply to a call, the criminal can be on the other side of Oakland. If not another city.

Capital Street Block Club has begun to coalesce because two people decided to take action, Michael and Kate. Nothing happens if we all wait for someone else to do something. That is what alot of criminals are planning on.

Barbara Newcombe

emergency meeting for capital street!

Dear Neighbors,

in response to the incident on Sunday night, we're having a short meeting on Wednesday, April 23 at 7pm at the Leaning Tower of Pizza restaurant at 498 Wesley Ave. The point of the meeting is to

* get to know your neighbors on Capital Street and the streets surrounding
* let people know about the resources that are available to you
* discuss strategies for crime prevention

We hope to see you there!

Thank you,
Michael

last night on capital street

*This post was from the 15x mailing list*

Dear Neighbors,

I live on Capital Street. Across the street last night a woman was held up at gunpoint in the lobby of her apartment building by two men who followed her in. She had her 3-year-old daughter with her. One of the men put a gun to the little girl's head and demanded money and then car keys. When the woman's mother in an apartment upstairs called down to see what was going on, the two men fled (without money or car keys). The police responded very quickly.

It's a horrible, horrible thing that these guys actually threatened a child. I'm not sure what to make of it -- were they actually unlikely to hurt her, given that they were fairly easily scared off?

Cafe (504) is open!

Dear Neighbors,

Cafe 504, which is located at 504 Wesley Avenue (next to the Laundromat), is officially open! They've been working hard for quite a while to get the place ready, so stop by for a cup and a snack - and bring your laptop! They have WiFi!

I very much enjoyed the latte they served me - they're using Blue Bottle Coffee which I've only had at the SF Farmer's Market before. It makes for a super creamy delicious espresso.

Yum.

On April 26 from 4-6 pm, there's an opening for Altered Memories, the show of work by photographer Kate August. Nice stuff.