- GOODWILL IN DIMOND???
- Shari Godinez
- Ryan R Young
- Janet Broughton
- Peggy Lucas and Greg Ross
- Jewels Marcus
- Keira Williams
- Business recruitment ideas from LCAP
- Colleen Brown
- Tim Chapman
- Shari Godinez
Shari Godinez I am not very comfortable with this proposal for several reasons:
No one wants to see this space stay vacant, but is this the best we can do? I think we need to follow the example of the citizens in the Laural District who set up a committee that conducted a survey asking the shoppers what kind of businesses they would like to see in their neighborhood and then went out and recruited businesses into their neighborhood. The landlord doesn't have as much concern about what kind of business he/she rents to as the community does. I know the owner of this building would appreciate the community's help in recruiting a business.
Goodwill is being considered as a tenant in the Dimond district on Fruitvale Ave. in the large space that used to be Sprouse Ritz, just behind Cybelle's pizza. I would be very interested in the neighborhood's feedback regarding this possible tenant.
Ryan R Young I'd like to see a decent nursery in the neighborhood, but that building is
not well suited to that purpose. A hardware store might work. NOT another
Video store. MAYBE a Ross or other clothing store.
Given the size of that space, I think we may have to accept that the
leaseholder will be looking to draw customers from beyond
Goodwill in that location is absolutely unacceptable without a rear entrance
to the parking lot. Actually, I'm not sure what would be good there, with
or without a rear entrance.
Janet Broughton
About Goodwill: the prospect is pretty depressing. I too am quite
concerned about the people-dumping-stuff problem. The Goodwill place on
College next to Market Hall always has old clothes and junk piling up on
the sidewalk and behind the store. On Fruitvale it would all pile up in
front. I don't think there's much Goodwill could do to prevent this.
Mike Mannix, the Dimond Improvement Assoc. zoning expert, tells me that
stores wishing to sell second-hand goods need to get a special permit from
the police department, and that when they apply for the permit, there's
public notice and opportunities for public comment. So that's one way in
which we can have some say.
Better still, though, would be to try to work with the owner. Neil Dean
is the DIA's contact person for improving our commercial district. If any
message-board readers want to work on business attraction, they could try
Peggy Lucas and Greg Ross
We agree that we probably can do better than a Goodwill on Fruitvale. We
will bring up the issue at Monday's NCPC meeting.
The idea of surveying the community to find out what people need
Jewels Marcus
Why don't we all take a lesson from the Temescal district, which seemed
to attract a lot of quality merchants and turned their neighborhood
around. Maybe a Walgreens or a hardware store for the Fruitvale empty
storefront. And when the safeway store on Grand remodeled they added
a lot of great selections besides the added deli and bakery. Instead of
complaining about what we are given, what can we do to
Keira Williams I'm not sure if you all are aware, but the proposed Goodwill store is one of
Goodwill's "upscale" type stores.
If you are concerned with people potentially leaving their donations outside
the store, I recommend you write to the property owner or her broker, Hank
Deadrich, and express this concern--the sooner the better. Ask that strong
language be put it into the lease requiring store employees to discourage
donations, removing any donations in a prompt manner, instructing people to
the drop-off location at the Safeway, and laying out what course of action
the building owner (or whoever) can take if this does not happen. I have
already discussed this matter with Mr. Deadrich, but it is good for them to
hear it directly from the people affected. He said that there was standard
language in the lease about cleaning up outside the store, and that Goodwill
does not want drop-offs there, and that people would be discouraged from
leaving items at the store.
Parking meters would not be removed to create a loading zone, but rather
would be marked as combination loading zone/regular parking meters, and the
effect of this would be that in the morning, say from 8 am to noon, they
would be for loading and the remainder of the day be standard parking
meters.
I spoke to Tim Chapman today about forwarding to this message board an
outline of business attraction strategies that Heather Hensley (who I'm
filling in for) and I can help you with. I will try to get that you by next
Friday, although it might be the following week. The idea of knowing what
area people want to have business-wise, what the current building inventory
is, what attributes and assets your community offers, and researching and
talking to prospective tenants are definitely part of a successful business
attraction workplan. I am going to mail via U.S. the current Dimond
commercial area profile to Tim and perhaps it can be put
City of Oakland Community and Economic Development
Agency, Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization Division
LCAP's April Business Recruitment Report Colleen Brown Tim Chapman
Good ideas on the LCAP web site
This is just a suggestion but my advice to the Dimond area is to do a survey of the surrounding community to find out who you are as a neighborhood as well as to ask what types of developments you do want as well as those types of developments you don't. This type of survey was used successfully in the past by Piedmont Avenue area as well as the Lakeshore area to help attract the business mix they currently have. Information such as this can be used to market the area and solicit the types of businesses you would like to see because often the perception of an area is very different than the actual make up of the area (i.e income may be higher than perceived). The results of the survey can also be used to tell point blank what you, as a community, don't want as well. This method was successfully used in the Lakeshore area to solicit Noah's Bagels to its shopping area. Income was higher than perceived and also a neighbor personally knew the founder of Noah's and convinced him to invest in the area.
This is on the May Interdepartmental List:
"Goodwill trailer in Safeway parking lot is site of trash and dumping.
Council office contacted property owner, made him aware of complaints, he spoke with Goodwill reps."