There is decent former Navy housing for the homeless near the Main Street Ferry Terminal just two blocks from Target, but the City of Alameda has chosen to tear it down. Meanwhile a for-profit developer has upgraded similar units that were built next door in the same year and is getting market rate rent for them.
Cleaning up petroleum contamination in soil and groundwater is pretty straightforward and usually accomplished by one or more tried-and-proven methods that rely on inserting PVC pipe into the contamination zone for treatment. But multiple efforts outside the sprawling Building 5 hangar complex on West Tower Avenue at Alameda Point failed to reduce contamination to regulatory goals. In August 2020, after almost two decades of investigation and treatment efforts, the Navy resorted to a rarely used option of digging up all the soil down to the water table and hauling most of it away.
Last week, classrooms were silent as schools across the island opened with distance learning. Although students weren’t physically on their respective campuses, they faced a variety of issues during the first two days of the school year.
Zoom-bombings were one of several problems that occurred last week. A Zoom-bombing is when one or more individuals, who are not assigned to the class in progress, show up to a Zoom call with intent to sabotage and disrupt. Over 30 instances were documented on the first day alone, several of which occurred at Encinal High School (EHS).
On Aug. 7, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a service contract to Adanta, Inc. of Napa to expand and enhance an existing wetlands on the Veterans Affairs (VA) property at Alameda Point. The wetlands project is being implemented to offset impacts to wetlands areas elsewhere on the VA property where a health clinic, offices and a columbarium cemetery will be built.
The smoke lingering over the Bay Area is coming from fires burning both to the north and south of Alameda. Lightning strikes from Tropical Storm Fausto — which was churning the waters of the Pacific more than 1,000 miles away — caused most of the fires. Fausto sent a plume of clouds our way accompanied by thunder and lightning from Sunday, Aug. 16, into the early morning hours of Aug. 17.
