I'm cross-posting this to FNW and BACDS discuss; I apologize to those receiving multiple copies as a result. Catherine and I, both of us enthusiastic contra dancers (and I'm also a long-time contra dance caller), decided to drive up from Monterey to attend and support this special contra + waltz event. We loved the idea, and both of us found it to be a delightful evening of music and dance; a wonderful mix of contra dances and couple dances and simply beautiful accompanying live music.
That said, the evening did not have a good outcome -- and I think it's a story that anyone ever thinking of going to a future event at this venue (or elsewhere in Oakland, for that matter) should be aware of.
We stayed and danced until the end, and then headed out to the parking lot -- at which point we discovered my car had been stolen. If you've never had this experience, and in 30 years of driving I hadn't until last night, it's quite a shock to return to where you had recently parked and find nothing but empty asphalt.
We did park in the Veterans Hall lot, at the Grand Avenue end (just 2 spots in from the street), and very close to a bright streetlamp on the building side of the lot. We made sure the car was completely locked before heading in to the dance. It was a 4-door white Honda Civic, by the way, and we got there about 9:30 pm. If anyone going between the hall and the parking lot happened to see anything suspicious, please contact me as soon as possible (weathercaller@aol.com). All I know is that it was taken sometime between then and when we returned to the parking lot just after midnight.
Anyway, when we found the car gone, we immediately called the Oakland police. Actually, we called 911, got put on hold, eventually got routed through to the Oakland police, got put on hold again... If someone had actually been like dying or something, well nothing was happening in a hurry...
In fact, nothing happened at all. When we did get through and reported that our car had been stolen, we were told they would send an officer by as soon as they could. But after another 40 mins then passed, with us just hanging around in that post-midnight empty parking lot, we called back. We were then told that it would be at least a couple of hours before they could get anyone there because...well because there had just been a shooting right in that area and all available officers were tied up with that. (This shooting theme comes up again later in the story, by the way...)
They also told us to get the heck out of there, that it wasn't then safe for us to be outside in that area. Now here I really need to acknowledge someone who stayed with us throughout, assisting in any and every way he could, driving us where we needed to go, and generally just being a great person and friend. That individual is Jim Saxe, long-time Bay Area contra dancer and contra dance caller, and someone who really pulled yeoman's duty that night. Thank you, Jim. And I also want to thank the several other dancers who hung around with us and provided moral support until it was clear there was nothing more at the moment to do and that Jim could take care of the rest.
Anyway, the police then suggested we either come by the police headquarters at 7th and Broadway to file a report, or simply head home and then the next day ask our local police on the Monterey Peninsula if they could take care of it as a courtesy. Kind of reminds me of what police service was like back in the days I lived in L.A.
Well, Jim took us over to the police dept, all the way down Broadway at 1 am on a Saturday night. That's quite a scene, by the way; kind of reminds me of what I once saw late on a Saturday night on the southside of downtown L.A., though at least without the bonfires in the middle of the street.
The problem then was figuring out how to get in -- the building is essentially a huge sealed and locked blockhouse, and there was no one around. Loved all the signs on the side of the street, by the way, that warned that parking was restricted to homicide police only. Oh, and adding to the general charm of the surroundings was the bright neon-lit sign for the only place where there was any sign of life or activity -- a rather unfortunate-looking bail bonds office across the way.
Won't belabor the story of how we finally managed to get inside, but we did after a while. And there the evening got stranger still... We found ourselves in a vast cavernous space, all painted in retro(?) 50s black and white, with a giant Oakland police shield high up on the wall. At a giant dark desk down below sat the sole occupant of the room -- a dispatch sergeant with a rather striking appearance: a burly late-middle-aged African American fellow, with a long, curly flaming-white beard and wizened graying hair. An officer who happened to arrive there between crime scene visits took pity on us and very nicely put everything else aside for a bit to write-up the police report (thank you Officer Coglio).
While standing there at the desk providing the information needed for the police report, there was a flurry of police radio and phone activity with the dispatch sergeant rushing between conversations with various officers out in the field. When there was finally a brief pause, he looked over at us with the expression of someone who's seen everything encountering a new horror, and in a very soft voice simply said: "in just 10 minutes..." and then trailed off, too soft for us to hear. Officer Coniglio and I paused in working on the stolen vehicle report, and looked over at him with quizzical expressions. He shook his head slowly from side to side and told us that in just the last 10 minutes there had been 4 shootings in Oakland.
I asked if they were all at the same location and he said no, that 2 were at one location and 2 at another...and that the 2 at the first location were "down" (believed to be dead) while at the other location 1 was "down" and the other looked as if he would make it. I believe one of the locations was near Veteran's Hall.
Anyway, with the police report finally done, the question became hot to get home to the Monterey Peninsula. After more phone calls, we found that the Hertz rental car agency at Oakland Airport was open until 2 am and it looked like we had just enough time to get there.
It turns out they don't actually have a presence at the airport terminal, but rather at an off-airport site way up past the old Oakland airport complex. The 2 Hertz folks still there were very nice to us, and after hearing our story essentially just invented a very reasonable rate for us to do the 1-way rental down to Monterey. The fellow who was the night manager also told us that he in fact often hears gunfire when standing outside their rental car facility at night -- not real nearby, but close enough.
We finally got home at 4:30 am. Four hours later the Oakland police called to say they had found the car -- or rather what was left of it. I asked the woman who called what kind of shape the car was in, and she said all she could tell me was what was on the report filed by the officer who found it: "badly stripped but not burned." Great, huh? She then referred us to the towing yard it had been taken to. They told us that the radiator(!), tires, hubcaps, fenders, stereo and everything that had been left in the car had been taken. The latter includes my glasses, cell phone, some books, a lot of maps, and the gate access card for the Navy base I work on (adding in the fun of a military security breach to deal with). I also lost what I consider to be a priceless collection of CDs of great contra dance bands over the past 2 decades, which I kept in my car as I tended to listen to them while driving -- especially when traveling between calling gigs.
I'm sure I won't ever be seeing my beloved Honda Civic again. The costs of repairing the damage will well-exceed the blue-book value of the car, and so I expect that's what I'll get from the insurance company...and then have to go through the joy of car-shopping.
So that's the story. And for those of you who made it through to the end, thank you for reading it all. And now I have a few final things to say as a result of all this:
First, I'm very glad no one was physically hurt. The individuals that stole my car were clearly professional car thieves, and may well have been armed.
Second, in my opinion the part of Oakland that Veteran's Hall is in is presently too unsafe for evening events to reasonably be held, at least without additional security being provided. Long ago, I used to regularly attend the Denver contra dances which are held in a part of Denver that at least back then was clearly of questionable safety and security. After an incident or two similar to mine, the dance community hired security guards to watch and monitor the parking lot for the duration of the evening's event -- and all fliers, announcements of the dances held there, etc, warned people that it was an unsafe neighborhood and that everyone attending should be sure to park in the guarded lot. Given the shootings and other serious crimes that have recently occurred right in that Grand Ave/Lake Merritt area, I think the same sort of approach is needed – and I would also recommend that anyone who does continue to go to events there walk to and from the building in groups, and/or that any guards hired be armed and also employed to monitor the safety of the individuals going between the hall and their cars.
Third, Catherine and I will not ever be attending any future dance events anywhere in Oakland, except perhaps for those held in the few remaining semi-safe areas up in the hills, unless either event security like that described above is provided, or Oakland as a city manages to get its crime situation under control.
I'll conclude with final personal comment by saying that I think it's reflective of a fundamentally pathetic societal state when we're left seriously questioning whether attendance at an evening of traditional music and dance at a beautiful ballroom in the middle of a major American city is no longer tenable simply due to concerns over safety of life and property.
Warren
----------------------------------
Warren Blier
weathercaller@aol.com
That said, the evening did not have a good outcome -- and I think it's a story that anyone ever thinking of going to a future event at this venue (or elsewhere in Oakland, for that matter) should be aware of.
We stayed and danced until the end, and then headed out to the parking lot -- at which point we discovered my car had been stolen. If you've never had this experience, and in 30 years of driving I hadn't until last night, it's quite a shock to return to where you had recently parked and find nothing but empty asphalt.
We did park in the Veterans Hall lot, at the Grand Avenue end (just 2 spots in from the street), and very close to a bright streetlamp on the building side of the lot. We made sure the car was completely locked before heading in to the dance. It was a 4-door white Honda Civic, by the way, and we got there about 9:30 pm. If anyone going between the hall and the parking lot happened to see anything suspicious, please contact me as soon as possible (weathercaller@aol.com). All I know is that it was taken sometime between then and when we returned to the parking lot just after midnight.
Anyway, when we found the car gone, we immediately called the Oakland police. Actually, we called 911, got put on hold, eventually got routed through to the Oakland police, got put on hold again... If someone had actually been like dying or something, well nothing was happening in a hurry...
In fact, nothing happened at all. When we did get through and reported that our car had been stolen, we were told they would send an officer by as soon as they could. But after another 40 mins then passed, with us just hanging around in that post-midnight empty parking lot, we called back. We were then told that it would be at least a couple of hours before they could get anyone there because...well because there had just been a shooting right in that area and all available officers were tied up with that. (This shooting theme comes up again later in the story, by the way...)
They also told us to get the heck out of there, that it wasn't then safe for us to be outside in that area. Now here I really need to acknowledge someone who stayed with us throughout, assisting in any and every way he could, driving us where we needed to go, and generally just being a great person and friend. That individual is Jim Saxe, long-time Bay Area contra dancer and contra dance caller, and someone who really pulled yeoman's duty that night. Thank you, Jim. And I also want to thank the several other dancers who hung around with us and provided moral support until it was clear there was nothing more at the moment to do and that Jim could take care of the rest.
Anyway, the police then suggested we either come by the police headquarters at 7th and Broadway to file a report, or simply head home and then the next day ask our local police on the Monterey Peninsula if they could take care of it as a courtesy. Kind of reminds me of what police service was like back in the days I lived in L.A.
Well, Jim took us over to the police dept, all the way down Broadway at 1 am on a Saturday night. That's quite a scene, by the way; kind of reminds me of what I once saw late on a Saturday night on the southside of downtown L.A., though at least without the bonfires in the middle of the street.
The problem then was figuring out how to get in -- the building is essentially a huge sealed and locked blockhouse, and there was no one around. Loved all the signs on the side of the street, by the way, that warned that parking was restricted to homicide police only. Oh, and adding to the general charm of the surroundings was the bright neon-lit sign for the only place where there was any sign of life or activity -- a rather unfortunate-looking bail bonds office across the way.
Won't belabor the story of how we finally managed to get inside, but we did after a while. And there the evening got stranger still... We found ourselves in a vast cavernous space, all painted in retro(?) 50s black and white, with a giant Oakland police shield high up on the wall. At a giant dark desk down below sat the sole occupant of the room -- a dispatch sergeant with a rather striking appearance: a burly late-middle-aged African American fellow, with a long, curly flaming-white beard and wizened graying hair. An officer who happened to arrive there between crime scene visits took pity on us and very nicely put everything else aside for a bit to write-up the police report (thank you Officer Coglio).
While standing there at the desk providing the information needed for the police report, there was a flurry of police radio and phone activity with the dispatch sergeant rushing between conversations with various officers out in the field. When there was finally a brief pause, he looked over at us with the expression of someone who's seen everything encountering a new horror, and in a very soft voice simply said: "in just 10 minutes..." and then trailed off, too soft for us to hear. Officer Coniglio and I paused in working on the stolen vehicle report, and looked over at him with quizzical expressions. He shook his head slowly from side to side and told us that in just the last 10 minutes there had been 4 shootings in Oakland.
I asked if they were all at the same location and he said no, that 2 were at one location and 2 at another...and that the 2 at the first location were "down" (believed to be dead) while at the other location 1 was "down" and the other looked as if he would make it. I believe one of the locations was near Veteran's Hall.
Anyway, with the police report finally done, the question became hot to get home to the Monterey Peninsula. After more phone calls, we found that the Hertz rental car agency at Oakland Airport was open until 2 am and it looked like we had just enough time to get there.
It turns out they don't actually have a presence at the airport terminal, but rather at an off-airport site way up past the old Oakland airport complex. The 2 Hertz folks still there were very nice to us, and after hearing our story essentially just invented a very reasonable rate for us to do the 1-way rental down to Monterey. The fellow who was the night manager also told us that he in fact often hears gunfire when standing outside their rental car facility at night -- not real nearby, but close enough.
We finally got home at 4:30 am. Four hours later the Oakland police called to say they had found the car -- or rather what was left of it. I asked the woman who called what kind of shape the car was in, and she said all she could tell me was what was on the report filed by the officer who found it: "badly stripped but not burned." Great, huh? She then referred us to the towing yard it had been taken to. They told us that the radiator(!), tires, hubcaps, fenders, stereo and everything that had been left in the car had been taken. The latter includes my glasses, cell phone, some books, a lot of maps, and the gate access card for the Navy base I work on (adding in the fun of a military security breach to deal with). I also lost what I consider to be a priceless collection of CDs of great contra dance bands over the past 2 decades, which I kept in my car as I tended to listen to them while driving -- especially when traveling between calling gigs.
I'm sure I won't ever be seeing my beloved Honda Civic again. The costs of repairing the damage will well-exceed the blue-book value of the car, and so I expect that's what I'll get from the insurance company...and then have to go through the joy of car-shopping.
So that's the story. And for those of you who made it through to the end, thank you for reading it all. And now I have a few final things to say as a result of all this:
First, I'm very glad no one was physically hurt. The individuals that stole my car were clearly professional car thieves, and may well have been armed.
Second, in my opinion the part of Oakland that Veteran's Hall is in is presently too unsafe for evening events to reasonably be held, at least without additional security being provided. Long ago, I used to regularly attend the Denver contra dances which are held in a part of Denver that at least back then was clearly of questionable safety and security. After an incident or two similar to mine, the dance community hired security guards to watch and monitor the parking lot for the duration of the evening's event -- and all fliers, announcements of the dances held there, etc, warned people that it was an unsafe neighborhood and that everyone attending should be sure to park in the guarded lot. Given the shootings and other serious crimes that have recently occurred right in that Grand Ave/Lake Merritt area, I think the same sort of approach is needed – and I would also recommend that anyone who does continue to go to events there walk to and from the building in groups, and/or that any guards hired be armed and also employed to monitor the safety of the individuals going between the hall and their cars.
Third, Catherine and I will not ever be attending any future dance events anywhere in Oakland, except perhaps for those held in the few remaining semi-safe areas up in the hills, unless either event security like that described above is provided, or Oakland as a city manages to get its crime situation under control.
I'll conclude with final personal comment by saying that I think it's reflective of a fundamentally pathetic societal state when we're left seriously questioning whether attendance at an evening of traditional music and dance at a beautiful ballroom in the middle of a major American city is no longer tenable simply due to concerns over safety of life and property.
Warren
----------------------------------
Warren Blier
weathercaller@aol.com
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Re: Stolen car and more -- June 9 Oakland FNW (very long)
Mon, June 11, 2007 - 4:14 PMAlthough I was across the lake at Gaskell when this happened, I'm very sorry you had to go through this. While I certainly can't relate, I can say one thing about the safety of the location. I've walked from BART to the Veteran's Hall, and from the Veteran's Hall to BART on several occasions at night with no problem. (But, then again, I'm used to walking in questionable areas of San Francisco after dark. Mostly with some sort of an escort, but still.) I've never considered that part of Oakland to be in any way a bad part of town. At least my experiences with it thus far. -
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Re: Stolen car and more -- June 9 Oakland FNW (very long)
Mon, June 11, 2007 - 9:50 PMI'm sorry your car was stolen, too. It sounds like a very scary and stressful night. We parked several blocks away and walked without trouble both times, but I have read that some of the crime has been pushed to the better parts of town as the cops attempt to clear up the less nice parts. Not a very nice help for you to hear that, I know.
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Re: Stolen car and more -- June 9 Oakland FNW (very long)
Tue, June 12, 2007 - 8:42 AMWhile the awards for "worst part of Oakland" still go to West Oakland & Fruitvale (nowhere near any dance event), 200 Grand does straddle the line between Lake Merritt (good) and Downtown/City Center (not so good). This SEEMS like an isolated incident, but I'm happy he posted about it. If the crime becomes consistent, I'm sure FNW will consider a move. Admittedly we've been spoiled by our previous location in Alameda - while attendance was lower on the island, crime hardly exists there.
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