by Eric Hughes

On Sunday, June 27, over fifty neighbors answered our call to help make the Grand Lake Neighborhood a cleaner, safer place to be. The cleanup was organized by representatives from Grand Lake Neighbors, the Grand Avenue Business Association, the Lakeshore Business Improvement District, the Lakeshore Homes Association, and the District 2 City Council Office. Thanks also to Starbucks, Colonial Donuts, and Ruth Stroup Insurance for providing refreshments, and to Grand Lake Ace for donating supplies!

We worked on these neighborhood projects:

– Cleaning up Wesley Way behind the City Parking Lot near Trader Joe’s

– Sprucing up the “Know Justice, Know Peace” Black Lives Matter memorial on Lakeshore at Mandana Boulevard

– Trimming the Walker/Grand parking lot vegetation

– Cleaning up the “Theatre Triangle” across from the Grand Lake Theatre

– Cleaning and weeding Splash Pad Park (with the Splash Pad Grand Crew)

– Thinning out the new Sycamore trees on Grand near the Grand Lake Vet

– Cleaning up the transit hub in front of T-mobile

– Cleaning up 15 graffiti-tagged locations

– Picking up at least 15 bags full of trash from Lakeshore, Grand, Walker, Rand, and Lake Park 

In all, we collected over fifty bags of trash and green waste. Special thanks to Waste Management for working with us to pick those up in a timely manner. We hope to have these events quarterly, so our next one will be sometime in September or early October. If you’d like to help, send me an email or watch for announcements on NextDoor, Facebook (@GrandLakeNeighbors, @GrandLakeImprovement, @LakeshoreAveOak), or sign up for Nikki Fortunato Bas’ council newsletter.

Eric Hughes has lived in the Grand Lake with his wife Priscilla since 1986. They have two grown sons who also live in Oakland. He’s a “finger-style” guitarist who has been playing for more than 50 years and is now retired from the computer software industry. In addition to his musical interests, Eric is Co-Chair of the Grand Lake Neighbors Neighborhood Council and also coordinates volunteers for his Grand Lake Improvement volunteers who typically focus on Grand Avenue between Mandana and Lake Park. On his own, you’ve probably seen him all over the Grand Lake commercial  district scrubbing away graffiti—his #1 pet peeve.