On Dec. 5, 1867, California Governor Henry Huntly Haight used his inaugural speech to rail against the citizenship and voting rights of formerly enslaved Africans and Asians and immigration from Asia.
Some 150 years later, on Dec. 5, 2017, I contacted the Haight Elementary School PTA and encouraged them to initiate the process to rename Haight. Students and parents petitioned to rename the school. The Haight Renaming Committee solicited name suggestions, hosted a community forum and held two student-centered elections.
Last Thursday, Dec. 6, the Alameda County Registrar of Voters certified the results of the Nov. 6 election. The City of Alameda’s voter turnout rate for this election was 73.65 percent, with 73.5 percent of that number voting by mail and 26.5 percent voting on Election Day. The results are as follows:
Four officers injured in squabble; Porch pirate nabbed
Four Alameda Police Department (APD) officers had to be treated for injuries after responding to a suspicious circumstance call in the early morning hours of Dec. 5.
APD received repeated calls around 2:15 a.m. from a male claiming to hear people following him. Upon arriving at the 2300 block of Buena Vista Avenue, officers approached a 40-year-old male and confirmed he was the person who made the repeated calls to APD.
The City of Alameda kicked off the holiday season with a festive celebration at City Hall last Saturday. City officials, the poets laureate and several musical performers entertained a festive crowd. Children enjoyed free candy canes and visits with Kris Kringle himself. Following the event, merchants in downtown Alameda invited revelers to warm up on the Hot Cocoa Crawl. Throughout the season, Santa Claus will be dropping by locations on Park Street, Webster Street and South Shore Shopping Center. That jolly, old elf in the red suit sure does get around.
The City Council conducted a public hearing to discuss whether to amend the city’s Zoning Map and General Plan at a property near Crab Cove to create a wellness center at its Dec. 4 meeting. They also discussed future procedures after accepting a Certificate of Sufficiency for a proposed initiative measure that would prohibit the creation of the wellness center.
