No more auto sideshows, Alameda city officials say
Former naval base has attracted gatherings of reckless drivers
ALAMEDA >> Cars revving their engines and doing doughnuts. Smoke from burning tires rising into the air. Cars speeding past homes and people out for a walk.
With its large open spaces, the former Alameda Naval Air Station has been an attractive spot for car shows. But it also has been a magnet for illegal sideshows, usually at night, much to the annoyance of nearby residents.
Drivers learn when sideshows are planned through word-of-mouth or on social media, according to Alameda officials.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved steps to try to curb illegal driving at the former Navy base, now known as Alameda Point.
Among the actions will be installing concrete barriers near the future “DePave” park — or what was once a vast taxiway that aircraft used and where a waterfront park is planned — temporary fencing in other places, and speed bumps to get motorists to slow down. No cost estimate was provided.
“I think the message is pretty clear,” Councilman Tony Daysog said for people worried about sideshows. “Help is on the way.”
From Jan. 1 through Sept. 20, police received 428 reports of reckless driving throughout Alameda, city records show. Of those, 109 came from Alameda Point, with the Monarch Street area accounting for almost half those calls.
Alameda Police Chief Nishant Joshi said some illegal activity happens in the wake of permitted events involving cars.
“As they are leaving the site, that’s when the reckless driving will occur,” Joshi told the council.
Many who live at the former Navy base are part of the Alameda Point Collaborative, a nonprofit that provides housing and other services to people who were once homeless.
“There are these big areas where people are able to hold these massive sideshows,” Daysog said about the former base, which totals about 2,500 acres, or one-third of the island of Alameda.
The City Council voted 4-1 to back action to try to stop the sideshows. Councilwoman Trish Herrera Spencer cast the lone no vote.
The changes could limit the ability of people to visit Alameda Point, which offers sweeping views of the San Franciso skyline and where people like to gather, she said.
“We should have access via cars” until the area is fully redeveloped, Spencer said.
Historically, auto clubs and car dealers have held driving events at Alameda Point. But over the years, the city has been reducing the number of automobilerelated gatherings as the former military base gets redeveloped.
The USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum, an aircraft carrier that is docked at the former base, is allowed to serve as an events center at the former base, with up to 1,000 guests without a special permit. Those events can generate a lot of traffic.
The Hornet’s use permit allows car events and it has hosted them in the past. The council emphasized that it did not want to undercut legal car activity at Alameda Point.
“When the sideshows occur during our museum’s operating hours, we have and will continue to call the authorities,” Laura Fies, executive officer at the Hornet, said in an email to the city. “We have, in fact, become so sensitive to the city’s concerns about congregations of cars that we have told unauthorized car clubs to leave our lot during business hours even if they were only photographing their vehicles against the backdrop of our historic aircraft carrier.”
Congestion caused by large events at Alameda Point can sometimes back up traffic on surface streets for over half a mile, City Manager Eric Levitt said. The congestion can, in turn, affect nearby businesses in the city’s West End, making it difficult for customers to park, he said.
The Alameda council’s move follows San Jose enacting in June ordinances that make it a misdemeanor to participate, plan, promote or observe within 200 feet of a street race or reckless driving event.
“I know residents, especially our West End residents, will be grateful,” Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft said about the council’s decision.