The City Administrator’s Office, in partnership with Council President McElhaney’s Office has agreed to host an additional community meeting on May 25th at 6:30pm at the West Oakland Youth Center to discuss 2 important topics regarding the plaza: the final fence design and future programming and stewardship.
Fence Design:
At the third Community Design Charrette on Saturday April 16th, the final conceptual design for the plaza was presented. The community members who attended were asked to vote on the fence type, location of the message board, and type of artistic fence treatment. Please refer to the project website (www.oaklandnet.com/sapr) for the meeting summary and voting results. Because of the tight budget, there is currently only funding for a basic decorative fence that will have a rustic color finish with 9 large metal Oak Leaf cut-outs (donated by Golden Associates) that will be blended into the fence in various places that will represent the tree our city is named for.
However, several community members also wanted to put out a call for local artists to submit additional art that could be incorporated into the fence and a call for community fundraising to provide the necessary funds to enhance the fence art design.
There was strong support for a design that celebrates these themes:
Oak Theme: Oak Tree Logo (to go along with the Oak Leaves)
Diversity Theme: Neighbors Holding Hands
Diversity Theme: Encourage Love
(see attached pictures of each with the results of the voting on 4/16)
West Oakland artists may submit design ideas and cost estimates that we could use. Timing is limited as we want to stay on schedule and in order to add any additional art, outside fundraising will need to take place. Additional costs, depending on the design, could equal an additional $20,000 or more.
Please submit any design ideas or photographs to me directly at jdevries@oaklandnet.com and/or Brigitte Cook at bcook@oaklandnet.com and if you are an artist submitting a design and want to bring actual examples to the meeting please do so on the 25th!
Future Programming and Stewardship
Although the City Of Oakland cannot provide staffing for ongoing programming at such a small space, the City is encouraging the community to develop activities and will support the creation of a “Friends of St. Andrew’s Plaza” that would allow the community to self-govern the scheduling of events and the daily stewardship of the plaza. It is important that discussions about activities and governance take place now so that the process is well developed by the time construction ends next year. This will be the second item discussed on the 25th.