by Ken Katz The future of the Grand Avenue business district is continuing to look brighter than ever with folks starting to turn out for special events in pre-pandemic numbers. To cite one example, last Tuesday I popped into the Alley to order their Special Steak Dinner––pricier than it used to be, but still a […]
Ken Katz
Armed Robbers Have Neighbors Up In Arms
After three plus years of Covid-mandated Zoom meetings, the Grand Lake Neighbors Crime Prevention Council’s meeting on May 17 was held in-person and hosted by Pastor Jim Hopkins in Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church’s Sanctuary. At the request of Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, the agenda was focused exclusively on crime issues —prompted by three separate […]
Grand Avenue Merchant News – May 2023
by Ken Katz In last month’s article about vacant storefronts in the Grand Lake District, we noted that the Grand Avenue Business Association (GABA) was doing relatively well with only six vacancies. This month, we’re delighted to report that three of those spaces have since been leased, beginning with Brite Cleaners at 3349 Grand. According […]
Grand Avenue Merchant News – April 2023
by Ken Katz Last year, Radbird served as the official stylist for a “Portrait Slam” sponsored by Tamron lenses at the Oakland Aviation Museum and they are even more excited this year to be invited for an encore at a cyberpunk inspired slam on Saturday, May 20 on the USS Hornet in Alameda. Up to […]
Starbucks Closure Adds to a Long List of Vacancies
by Ken Katz As noted in last month’s article detailing the extent to which my East Piedmont Heights residential neighborhood has evolved over the past 120 years, change over time is inevitable. The same applies to the Grand Lake shopping district. Originally, circa 1915, Lakeshore between Lake Park and Mandana was also residential, as evidenced […]
Unlike Disneyland’s Main Street, Cities Change
by Ken Katz Unlike the Main Street that Walt Disney unveiled to the world in 1955, cities invariably change over time. A case in point is a residential neighborhood above Mandana and east of Lakeshore that is identified in property records as East Piedmont Heights. As shown on this 1877 map, plans for developing four […]
Grand Avenue Merchant News – March 2023
by Ken Katz The Grand Opening of ReLove on February 18 was simply GRAND! I arrived a couple of hours after the doors opened and managed to get inside but just barely. A line of customers waiting to pay for their purchases extended up the stairway and beyond. Three hundred people (mostly their San Francisco […]
Grand Avenue Merchant News – February 2023
by Ken Katz The Noir City Film Festival, which ended on the 29th, was a huge success at the Grand Lake box office, but it also directly benefited at least two Grand Avenue businesses. Attendees attired in period dress ventured up the block to snap up copies of Dark City and books in the film […]
Grand Avenue Merchant News – January 2023
by Ken Katz If you were passing the Grand Lake Theatre during daylight hours early in December, you may have been a bit perplexed by the marquee, which listed nothing but movies that were hot stuff back in 1987. On the other hand, if you were anywhere in the commercial district on the evening of […]
I’m Retiring! Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Me?
by Ken Katz Several times in the recent past, I’ve announced that I want to turn over management of the Splash Pad News once we celebrate the park’s 20th Anniversary in October 2023. So far, no one has stepped up to the plate, and I’m worried that a publication that subscribers look forward to every […]