Who are you are what do you do?
My name is Leah Hall and I am a community activist.
Excellent. What do you love
about San Leandro?
I love the location of San Leandro and the size of it. I think it’s in a great place for working
people. Ummm, it’s situated between
Silicon Valley and San Francisco and other areas. It has a great climate and great people.
Very good. You are part of the
Durant Task Force. Can you tell us a
little bit more about that and what you guys are trying to do?
Yes, the Durant Avenue Task Force was the brain child of a
guy that I work with, Gus Roldan who noticed commercial trucks going down his
street and other people had a hard time believing that was happening since it
was such a thin road. I think people saw
all of the traffic going on there but he was the first to actually document the
trucks, put stuff on YouTube, got some local news media involved and we were
able to work together positively with the city to actually……. we had some real
data in our hands…… and start to improve the street and by getting real with
what was going on there.
Right.
We learned that there are about 6000 cars travelling there a
day, if I’ve got the number right, which it doesn’t make any sense but if you
also can take a walk on Durant you’ll see that it doesn’t make any sense from
that perspective either and along with those commercial trucks. So, things that we have done, we learned that
it is border of Oakland and San Leandro.
The line is drawn right down the middle of the street so this creates
some coordination problems, to say the least, with Oakland and San
Leandro. But we did get the cities to
work together to approve some new speed bumps to slow down the traffic. It hasn’t gone away but it has slowed down a
bit. We also had a joint neighborhood
block party last year that we are really proud of. We had city workers from both sides, police
departments, elected officials, and everyone had a really great time.
I saw some of the photos – that looked like a lot of fun.
It was.
You were part of the Leadership San Leandro program a few years ago and
you actually presented this year at one of the classes. What was your experience with that?
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| Leah presenting at Leadership San Leandro |
I was drawn to Leadership San Leandro. My background is in architecture and urban
planning and I really wanted to use some of the skills I was using in
neighboring cities here in my own community and Leadership San Leandro gave me
a way, um, when I was very new to the community to meet, um, learn more about
the government here, how it works, and also meet people working in and out of
government, business owners. When we
were there, the project I worked on with my classmates was putting a library
table in the courtyard of the then, newly remodeled main library, which me and
my daughter who was about two at the time, would just thoroughly enjoy. So we wanted to give something back to the
library. It was very exciting to have a
team and do something nice for the library.
That was very nice. Your latest
project where you are trying to get a parklet.
Can you explain what a parket is and how you think that would be great
for San Leandro?
Yes. We are really
lucky. In San Francisco, though parklets
are new, I’d say about 2010 they were granted.
There were only about five in the city.
Now they have exploded all over San Francisco!
Right!
So we are seeing lots of examples of what is a good and bad
parklet. Basically a parklet is
considered street furniture. It’s a
cheaper, faster way to build public space into a neighborhood that is starving
for public space. It provides some
beautifying and a greening element that an area wouldn’t otherwise have. But it is a public space so it is
interesting… a private business, like a coffee shop, has to make sure that it
is clean and taken care of. It still
gets a sign on it that says that this is a public space so that anybody can
come and enjoy it.
Very cool. You ran for city council.
How was that experience?
It was great! I mean
I was kind of drawing on my love of getting into being a youth advisor at San Leandro
High School as a YMCA Youth in government advisor. I did that with this guy over here for one
year (points to Derek Lee). (Laughs)
Hi Derek!
So I did that. I’ve
been on the Human Services Commission for four years and I just really wanted
to put my money where my mouth was, you know, public speaking, and really
building a platform for things you are passionate about. What I was passionate about was livable
neighborhoods and I really still see that as a city planning element that the
community can really help each other by enhancing public space and enhancing
health and wellness by getting people out of their cars and, you know, enjoying
the beauty of their city.
If someone wants to help you with you project on parklets, how do they
contact you?
A great way to contact me is by e-mail which is llahhael@yahoo.com
or search for me or Durant Avenue Task Force on Facebook . Any of those ways
are fine.
Very good. Do you have any final
quotes or words or wisdom?
I think that it is really important in this day and age to
think of partnerships. You know, the
government really is us. Government is
of the people. So if we want change, in
today’s world, at the local level, get involved, get engaged, and surround
yourself with your tribe!
Thank you Paul.
Thank you for being part of the community.
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