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388 19th Stree t Oa kland , Ca lifornia 94612

DOA Phone 510.238.1122 LMUDA Phone 510.452.4530  Fax 510.452.4529ma il@do wntow noa kland .org www.downtownoakland.org

ma il@lakem erritt-up town .org www.lakemerritt-uptown.org

OVERVIEW: The Lake Merritt/ Uptown Distric t Assoc iation and Downtown

Oa kland Assoc iation a re newly formed non-profit corpora tions whose p rima ry

func tions are to administer the new ly estab lished Lake Me rritt/ Up tow n a nd

Downtown Oa kland Com munity Bene fit Distric ts. The Lake Merritt/ Uptown

Distric t Assoc iation (LMUDA) and Downtown Oa kland Assoc iation (DOA) have

contracts with the City of Oakland to administer the property assessment district

revenues for the Lake Merritt/Uptow n and Downtow n Oa kland CBDs.

The services to b e fund ed by this new d istric t inc lude m ainta ining c lea nliness

and o rder in the pub lic rights of wa y, imp roving d istrict identity and a dvoc a tingon b eha lf of the a rea prop erty ow ners, business ow ners and residents.

The two d istric ts a re jointly c om prised of 377 pa rcels and 62,253 linear feet of

frontage. The Lake Merritt/ Up town Distric t Assoc iation (LMUDA), and the

Downtown Oa kland Assoc iation, through the ir CBDs, seek to a ugment existing

munic ipa l services. These “ spec ia l bene fits” a re funded throug h a mandatory

assessment d istric t levied on the bene fiting p rop erty owners. The d istric ts we re

both a pproved o verwhelmingly by a vo te o f the p rop erty owners in July 2008.

The two d istricts have a ten yea r term.

The p rimary func tion o f the two d istric ts in the ir initia l yea r of o peration w ill be to

fund spec ia l bene fit services tha t provide sec urity and m a intena nce throug hout

the two a rea s. Sec urity services com menc ed on Feb ruary 1, 2009.

Ma intenance services com menced on Ma rch 23, 2009.

The tw o CBD Manage ment Corporations a re headed up b y President JC

Wallace of SKS Investments for Downto wn Oa kland and Deborah Boyer of the

Swig Com pany, for Lake Merritt/ Uptown. For more informa tion on the

Downtown Oakland Association or Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association,

please c onta c t the follow ing:

Ma rco Li Ma nd ri/Exec utive Direc to r (510) 452-4529

Helen Wyman/ Distric t Ma nager (510) 238-1122

Steve Snider/Asst. Distric t Mana ger (510) 238-1122

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Visit the Downtown Oakland Com munity Benefit Distric ts online!

www.downtownoakland.org  www.lakemerritt-uptown.org 

Join our ma iling lists!

http://www.downtownoakland.org/link/linkshow.asp?link_id=219946 

http://www.lakemerritt-uptown.org/link/linkshow.asp?link_id=219938 

Follow us on twitter!

www.twitter.com/downtownoakland  www.twitter.com/uptownoakaland 

Check out our blog!

www.localbizblogs.com/94612/downtownoakland 

www.localbizblogs.com/94612/lakemerritt-uptownoakland  

Search DowntownOa kland Assoc and Lake Merritt-Uptown Oakland !

Soc ial Me dia Conta c t: Ma ria_Pec ot@yahoo .c om

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Two New Community Benefit Districts Launch

Special Services in Downtown and Lake Merritt/Uptown

You might have seen them already,the “ambassadors” in the bright or-ange coats in Downtown OaklandAssociation (DOA) and in the brightblue coats in the Lake Merritt/UptownDistrict Association (LMUDA). After over 1 ½ years of work, the property-owner funded Downtown Oaklandand Lake Merritt/Uptown CommunityBenefit District security services hit thestreets on February 1st.

The two districts will never be thesame. We see this as a new day for Oakland.

Already, these new Safety Ambassa-dors have intervened in two armedassaults and saved an employee her 

purse after a sidewalk purse snatching.These new ambassadors are fundedby the two CBD assessment districtsand managed by the Downtown CBDwhich is run by the Downtown Oak-land Association and the Lake Merritt/Uptown CBD run by the Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association.

Both organizations are non-profit cor-porations established to oversee thespecial benefit services funded by thenewly established assessment districts.

The new security services, under con-

tract with a nationwide company“Block by Block”, have been in placesince February 1st.

We want to give you a brief overviewof these two new districts and intro-duce you to our new staff and office.

Private and Public Dollars at Work:How are these new sidewalk servicesbeing funded and who is controllingthem?

Last summer, property owners in bothDowntown Oakland and the LakeMerritt/Uptown districts voted by amargin of almost 8 to 1 to support as-sessing themselves on their property

tax bill to fundthese new services.During this firstyear, both districtswill generate al-most 2 million dol-lars to fund these

special benefitservices. By law,property ownerscannot be as-sessed for servicesthat are providedby the City.

In addition, prop-erty owners deter-mined that regulartrash emptying

Newsletter of the Downtown Oakland and Lake Merritt/Uptown District Community Benefit Districts

Lake Merritt/Uptown Safety Ambassadors

giving directions to visitors.

Downtown Oakland Safety Ambassadors.

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was not enough to improve theappearance of the district. Issues in-cluding graffiti, abandoned newsracks, loitering by the BART stations,sidewalk steam cleaning, free stand-ing parking meter poles and trashysidewalks and gutters negatively im-pact the district. These new special

benefit services will jump start the im-provement of both districts and willpick up where City services have leftoff.

This first year, over $750,000 has beenset aside to pay for the security ser-vices and over $400,000 will be spenton soon-to-be-started sidewalk main-tenance services.

Officers of the CorporationsEach CBD is managed by a non-profitcorporation established by the twobenefiting property owner groups.Each corporation is being set up as a“public benefit” non-profit corpora-tion and has created a self-appointedinterim Board and selected interimofficers.

The interim officers of the DowntownOakland District Association are:

JC Wallace

SKS InvestmentsPresident

Scott Stafford

CIM Group (Downtown Marriott)Vice President

Paul Grafft

Shorenstein (City Center)Secretary

Laurie Berberich

CAC Management (1000 Broadway)

Treasurer 

The interim officers of the Lake  Merritt/Uptown District Association

are:

Deborah Boyer

Swig Company (Kaiser Center)President

Scott Stafford

CIM GroupVice President

Mike Ghielmetti

Signature Properties

(Broadway/Grand Condos) 2nd Vice President

Robert Wilkens

East Bay YMCASecretary

Indrajit Obeysekere

Kaiser FoundationTreasurer 

In addition to these interim officers,over 30 business and property ownersare involved in the two interim Boardsof Directors. All Board meetings are

open to the public and you can soonreview all of the Board minutes,budgets and committee reports onour websites:www.downtownoakland.orgwww.lakemerritt-uptown.org

Staff and Office:At its January 20th Board meeting,after an extensive solicitation of ad-ministrative proposals, the two Boardsselected New City America, Inc. toadminister both districts for a oneyear period. The Joint Board decision

is based upon the belief that therecould be cost savings for the benefit-ing property owners in combiningadministrative services, at least for thefirst year. After one year, the two dis-tricts will determine if they shouldcontinue the joint administration or hire their own distinct staffs.

The Joint CBD office is located at 38819th Street, between Webster and

Franklin. This street front locationhouses the administrative staff, thesafety ambassadors and soon thedistrict sidewalk maintenance crewservices.

New City America has establishedalmost 20 CBDs and BIDs in the BayArea and has extensive experience inmanaging districts, particularly in thestart up phase. The staff positions forthe Joint CBDs are filled as follows:

Marco Li Mandri

Executive Director 

Helen Wyman

District Manager 

Steve Snider

 Assistant District Manager 

Maria Rota

Public Relations

Laura Li Mandri

Financial Management

Shirley Zawadzki

Property Database

Monica Montes

Office Management Oversight

Chris Gomez

Design

John Li Mandri

Newsletter from the Downtown Oakland & Lake Merritt/Uptown District Associations

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Beautiful Art Deco Clock at 17th and

Broadway - on our target to get fixed.

Telegraph-Broadway Triangle, potentially

a great public space.

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 MappingDOA Phone: (510)238-1122

LMUDA Phone: (510)452-4529

Joint District Fax Number:(510)452-4530

DOA E-mails:steve@downtownoakland.orghelen@downtownoakldnd.orgmarco@downtownoakland.org

LMUDA Emails:steve@lakemerritt-uptown.orghelen@lakemerritt-uptown.orgmarco@lakemerritt-uptown.org

The office is staffed Monday throughFriday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Either Steve or Helen will be present at theoffice during all office hours, unlessthey are at meetings scheduled offsite. Please drop by to check out your new office.

Services to be rolled out:Security Services: You have already

seen the security services. We ask that you stop one of the new CBDambassadors when you see them andintroduce yourself and show themaround your business. For more infor-mation on the deployment and ser-vices offered by these CBD ambassa-dors, please call Ted Tarver of Block by Block at the CBD office at:(510)898-8488.

Sidewalk Maintenance Services: OnMarch 16th, the CBDs plan on rollingout the sidewalk maintenance ser-vices. The Joint CBD Boards haverecently hired Peralta Service Corpo-ration, an Oakland Based BID ser-vices provider, to perform the side-walk maintenance services in bothdistricts. Sidewalk services will includ-ing sidewalk and gutter sweeping,graffiti paint-out, identifying aban-doned news racks to the City, steam

cleaning and eventually landscap-ing services.

Committees Need Your Help: The two Boards are fed proposalsfrom the various Committees of thecorporations. Any new ideas andproposals must be submitted throughthe Committees first, and then thoseCommittees make written recom-mendations to the Board for action.Once the Board has made a deci-sion, it is up to staff to implement thedecisions as per Board instructions.

Committees of the Board include thefollowing:

Sidewalk Operations Beautification

and Order (SOBO):Oversees the ambassador and side-walk maintenance services. Makesrecommendations and proposals for improvement of the sidewalks andpublic rights of way.

District Identity Streetscape Improve-

ments (DISI):Oversees any activities that improvethe appearance and image of thedistrict. Includes development of theweb site, signage, banners, land-scaping, special events and publicrelations;

We strongly encourage you to beinvolved in the two new manage-ment corporations. In order to getinvolved with one of the sub-committees please contact Execu-tive Director Marco Li Mandri at:marco@downtownoakland.org marco@lakemerritt-uptown.org

For the first time in recent memory,the business and property owners areworking closely with the City throughthe Mayor’s office, the City Counciloffices, the Community EconomicDevelopment Agency, the Redevel-opment Agency, the City Attorney’soffice, Public Works and most impor-tantly, the Oakland Police Depart-ment. The cooperation of the twoDistrict Management Corporations, itsservice providers and these City de-partments are critical to expedite theimprovement of these two districts.

We believe that our work in these twodistricts will do more to “re-create”and advance the image of the Cityof Oakland than any other effort in

the last 20 years.

These are your CBDs. Get involved,and we can work together to dem-onstrate to the entire Bay Area thatDowntown Oakland and Lake Mer-ritt/Uptown are great places to work,visit and live. It is our goal that withintwo years when people mention“Downtown Oakland”, “Lake Merritt”or “The Uptown District” only positiveimages will arise from the conversa-tions.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Deborah Boyer, President Lake Mer-ritt/Uptown District Association

JC Wallace, President DowntownOakland Association

Marco Li Mandri, Executive Director –Joint Districts

Designed and produced by Marco LiMandri and Chris Gomez, New CityAmerica, Inc.

www.DowntownOakland.org | www.LakeMerritt-Uptown.org | APRIL 2009

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The new DOA and LMUDA Office located at 388 19th Street.

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Downtown Oakland Association &

Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association Offices

388 19th Street ! Oakland, CA 94612