University Times

Have some good ideas about the future of Oakland? It’s not too late to get involved in a nascent planning process convened by Oakland Planning and Development Corp. (OPDC), supported by the University and co-sponsored by the University Senate community relations committee (CRC).

OPDC last month kicked off “Oakland 2025,” a year-long planning process that aims to develop a comprehensive vision for Oakland, based on community stakeholder input and resulting action plans for such broad topics as housing, public transportation, youth and family services, educational opportunities, absentee landlords, traffic, pedestrian safety and amenities.

The next meeting of Oakland 2025, which is open to the public, is May 12.

The planning process is organized in partnership with Oakland residents; community organizations; businesses; property owners; institutions, including Pitt and UPMC; faith-based organizations, and public agencies, according to OPDC community organizer Tara Sherry-Torres, who reported to CRC April 19.

The March 24 public kick-off drew 140 people from Oakland — many more than expected, Sherry-Torres said — in addition to some 50 facilitators and volunteers who organized and staffed the event.

“The overall goal of Oakland 2025 is to identify topics and to evaluate whether the needs of the people in the neighborhood are being met,” said Sherry-Torres. “I was pleasantly surprised that 86 of the participants agreed to join one of 10 — we later added an 11th — study circles.”

Those groups were charged with meeting for five sessions to discuss the specific topic they chose, with the goal of recommending action steps.

Some of the topics floated at the kick-off were absentee landlords; transportation issues, such as the need for more and better bicycle paths; the dearth of neighborhood-based grocery stores; the lack of an elementary school, and the quality of real estate in the Oakland area, said Sherry-Torres.

“These are all things that have been on people’s minds, that people are rough and ready about, but this is the first time that people from all over have been brought together to have these conversations,” she said.

“The next big event is our action forum on May 12,” in which the public is encouraged to participate, said Sherry-Torres.

At the action forum, the study teams will post their themes and action recommendations and give a short synopsis of the group’s work.

“Every group has to choose at least two action items that they’re sticking with in terms of recommendations. Once they report out, we’ll move very quickly to organizing people into action teams, because as great as the conversations are in identifying things, the trick is really to retain that engagement and have people choose the topics they really want to work on. They’ll work with a team that’s led by a project manager from the community and they’ll be hooked up to various resources, such as neighborhood community organizations.”

The teams will be self-sufficient and establish their own timeline for meeting and preparing written reports and recommendations, she added.

At the May 12 forum, newcomers will have the opportunity to join an action team, as well as to vote for the themes they feel should be the highest priorities, Sherry-Torres said.

The forum is scheduled for 6-8:30 p.m. at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 419 S. Dithridge St. Complimentary food will be served, child care and transportation will be provided and speakers will be accompanied by sign-language interpreters.

To RSVP, call 412/621-7863 ext. 17 or email Sherry-Torres at tarat@opdc.org.

For more information on Oakland 2025, visit www.opdc.org/programs-services/plan-partner/2011-community-plan/.

By the end of 2011, Sherry-Torres said, the hope is to combine the action teams’ recommendations into a comprehensive Oakland community plan that addresses the residential market and appropriate public/private development strategies; crafts a “green” vision; furthers ideas pertaining to multi-modal transportation, and explores the potential for integrating public education as a community development strategy to enhance Oakland as a long-term option for families with children.

The plan is expected to serve as a blueprint for improvements that community and business leaders, politicians, investors and local foundations and institutions with interests in Oakland can work to implement, she added.

CRC co-chair Denise Chis-holm encouraged members of the Pitt community to attend the May 12 event. She noted that she and two fellow committee members are on the Oakland 2025 steering committee and that CRC in March participated in a pilot “audition,” posing as a planning group and using a report-card style grading of select topics.

CRC and Oakland 2025 steering committee member Tracy Soska noted that Pitt already is playing a prominent role in the overall planning.

“We hosted the training of the group facilitators on the whole process, and we have students involved in co-facilitating with community residents. There are staff and faculty involved, too,” Soska said.

He added that Oakland 2025 can be traced back the University Senate fall 2008 plenary session on the quality of life in Oakland and University-community partnerships, where a key recommendation was to develop a community-based planning process.

—Peter Hart