Being the caregiver I am, I drove my mother down to Classique Styles this afternoon for her regular hair styling appointment. It's always a good feeling for a cancer patient to look good, it makes her feel good on the inside too. She smiles allot more when her hair is done up.
Classique Styles is located in the neighborhood shopping district of Bancroft and Dutton in San Leandro. Mom always goes to stylist Irma. She does a great job with my mother.
While my mother is getting her hair all done over, I'll walk across the street to Zocalo Coffeehouse for a nice Mocha coffee drink.
Zocalo Coffeehouse is a great neighborhood resource and it is truly the heart of "The Broadmoor" and "Estudillo Estates" neighborhoods. Tim Holmes and his wife 'Mitch' have created a wonderful place to go and meet neighbors and friends.
Before Zocalo Coffeehouse was Dean's Beans which laid the ground work for Zocalo to follow. Here is a link to Zocalo Coffeehouse. www.ZocaloCoffeehouse.com If you're ever in my neck of the woods stop in and say hello to Tim and his crew!
Anyway I digress, I wanted to blog about the San Leandro Downtown plan that was in the community resources library of reading materials at Zocalo's soft and cushy lounge area. It's a nice three ringed binder with the city of San Leandro's plans for the downtown area over the next several years.
It starts with a history of the downtown plaza area and it's development over the years. It chronicles how we got to where we are now with the downtown.
This downtown plan mentions that the city wants to recreate what was here before all the redevelopment changed everything. The restoration of the downtown plaza at the triangular parcel of land between Washington Avenue and East 14th Street is a large part of this plan.
The city also wants to break up the super-block that was created in 1983 when the strip mall was built. The city wants to make the Joaquin and Juana connect back up to Hayes Street again. This means that the second of the two Long's Drugs stores would have a street running right through the middle of it in a few years from now.
What I would personally like to see is a landmark quality building be built on the site of the historic plaza. The triangular parcel of land between Washington Avenue and East 14th Street. I would love to see a dramatic flat iron building take up that location and really be a landmark feature. (A flat iron building is a wedge shaped building going to a point) I would like to see something at least 10 stories tall and looking significant in design. I think that the city should look to the best building (Named after Daniel Best, one of the founders of Caterpillar Tractor) as the inspiration for this building.
The entire project when completed will be a very nice area. If you would like to live near the downtown plaza and BART, please give me a call and I would be glad to help you find some place perfect for you!
