Anyone care to weigh in on the prospect of a restaurant and nightclub in downtown Hayward? The idea is going before the Planning Commission tomorrow night, and they will make a recommendation one way or another for the City Council, who will have the final word.

Officials and the owner of the building say it’s a very exciting prospect and a good fit for the area, bringing in additional nightlife as well as providing a family restaurant during the day and most nights. There are also plans to host community-oriented events on Sundays, such as poetry readings and talent shows. 

Club managers are reportedly planning on spending upwards of $1 million to polish up the venue, which sits next to Newman Park. The building owner envisions opening up the brick wall that faces the park, with windows overlooking the greenery.

However, A CommPre director fears the worst, that clientele of a hip-hop/R&B club would scare people away from the area on Friday and Saturday nights. She said it would be like having Kumbala in the middle of downtown, and that Newman Park would suffer the ignobleness of drunken club patrons who would use it as a restroom or worse.

The Review will attend tomorrow night’s meeting to see if the proposal spurs debate, but we’d love to hear what HayWord readers think.

UPDATE: Organizers said about 200 people showed up. It was the third such demonstration at the courthouse. Here’s a couple of photos from the event, from staff photographer Jim Stevens. There was no sign of Willie Brown, at least not outside the courthouse.

Anyone near the Hayward Hall of Justice next Monday around 1 p.m. might notice more than the usual number of people outside, some with signs, possibly chanting. They’re demonstrators, in town for the third time for a court appearance by Monica Ung, owner of NBC Contractors, accused of bilking workers out of $3.6 million through paycheck fraud. She’s scheduled to enter a plea regarding the criminal charges.

She also may bring a Bay Area celebrity to town. She has reportedly hired Willie Brown as her defense attorney. Yep, former S.F. mayor Willie Brown.

In case you forgot Brown was once an attorney, an online biography helps jog the memory: “After earning a degree in political science, Willie Brown went to Hastings law school, where he was elected president of his class. There were few African American attorneys practicing in San Francisco at the time, and Brown made a name for himself in the community by taking on cases other attorneys would have dismissed as hopeless.”

If there’s a paper trail connected to the alleged fraud, this one could be pretty tough, too. Let’s see if Brown can work some silver-tongued magic in Hayward.

ADDENDUM – At its June 23 meeting, the City Council appointed the following new members to the Youth Commission: Dayana Morales, Sarahi Bautista, Alex Harmon, Dulce Andrade, Erika Ramos, Yessenia Sanchez and Claudia Canales. Reappointed were Jessica Bravo, James Dixon, Jeevit Gill, Lawrence McGee and Lauren Quan, with Rachel Rojas, Frances Naguit and Arlene Valencia on the alternate list.

The City Council filled most of the vacancies on various boards and commissions at its meeting last week. A total of 19 new commissioners and six reappointments filled the slots on six different boards.

Here are the appointments:

Downtown Business Improvement Area Advisory Board — Nicole Reams, Cynthia Chang, Meg Shaw (reappointment).

Citizens Advisory Commission — Donna Allen-Thomas, Nicholas Terry, Linda Moore, Cynthia Chiasson and Peggy Guernsey (reappointment).

Economic Development Committee — Jim Wieder, Christopher Lam and Terri Swartz.

Human Services Commission — Lucy Castillo, Todd Davis, Robert Lara. Reappointments: Ben Henderson, Julie LInd, Elizabeth Samayoa.

Library Commission — Stephanie Ayala and Judith Harrison (reappointment).

Keep Hayward Clean and Green Tast Force: Carolyn Grieco, Jennifer Ong, Kevin Thompson, Antonia Elizalde, William McGee, Kelly Doyle-Pasion.

The city received 36 applications and conducted 35 interviews. A vacancy remains on the Downtown Business Improvement Area Advisory Board.

The boards serve in an advisory capacity to the City Council. Congrats to everyone selected!

THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE: Motion failed 2-to-3 in an overflow meeting that involved a lot of heat, not just from audience members but between board members as well. Here’s our early version of the story, we will have a longer piece in tomorrow’s paper. A motion to approve a modified six-period schedule passed, although the HEA is challenging the validity of that schedule because it wasn’t bargained.

The Hayward Unified School District meeting on Wednesday is sure to produce some feelings of deja vu, as the board is slated to again address the high school block schedule. While the board voted in February to nix the schedule to save money, board member Luis Reynoso changed his mind and is bringing it back.

What do you think about Reynoso’s decision to revisit the issue? Is it a chance for a needed reprieve for a well-liked system, or is it time to accept the change as a budget-cutting casualty and move on?

Margarita Lacabe, whose husband is San Leandro school board President Mike Katz-Lacabe, wants sacred music to be removed from elementary school music studies or school programs. We’ve been getting lots of letters and calls. Sound off here.

Calpine announced Thursday that an amended power-purchase agreement with PG&E was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission for the proposed Russell City Energy Center, a 600-megawatt power plant that would be placed near the Hayward shoreline.

That doesn’t mean the plant itself is approved. It has some of the required permits, but the main hurdle remaining is approval from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, acting as a delegate of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The air district previously gave it the go ahead, meaning it didn’t find evidence that the plant would add significant amounts of pollution to the air, but that permit was revoked after a lawsuit on the grounds that BAAQMD did not follow federal guidelines for publicly noticing the permitting process.

The air district is currently reviewing and responding to public comments submitted regarding the permit. No time frame has been given in which a decision will be made.

We will have a larger story on this posted online Friday, running in Saturday’s paper.

Hayward High sophomore and frequent HayWord commentor Alex Harmon took some fine photos of the former La Victoria restaurant at Mission Boulevard and D Street, which was razed last month to make way for the Downtown Loop. This is one of many, the rest are available on Alex’s flickr site. Alex is a prolific photographer, so you’ll probably have to search for “La Victoria” to find them.

Says Alex: “I pass by the La Victoria’s almost every day and saw it get torn down. I had my camera with me and started taking photos of the building. The mural on the building was my favorite mural in downtown Hayward and I think it should have been saved or moved.”

Here’s an old but good story by Matt O’Brien about the history of the loop project, with accompanying interactive presentation.

UPDATE: The march was a peaceful event, as reported on Saturday. The family of Oscar Grant sent this note to city and police officials to thank them for their professionalism:

“We the family of Oscar Grant would like to thank the mayor of Hayward for allowing the peaceful march and celebration of Oscar Grant’s birthday.

His death has awakened this community to the needs of all the citizens. Through injustice and tragedy our great nation was founded. We can now see that there is a problem in the BART system. Working together, we, the people (the Legislature, BART and the citizens) can change what is needed to change.

We would also like to thank the businesses of Hayward and the patrons of those businesses who were affected by the march. We are sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused.

To all the police officers that were there: Thank you. Your professionalism in the march and at the rally was greatly appreciated.

Saying ‘thank you’ is such a small thing but that is all we the family of Oscar Grant have to give.”

There will be a rally and march by friends, family and supporters of Oscar Grant beginning at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Hayward BART station. The demonstrators reiterated a list of demands on Thursday, among them calling for BART officer Johannes Mehserle – who shot and killed Grant at the Fruitvale BART station just after New Year’s — to return to jail. Police say they’ve been talking with Grant’s family, and everyone is hopeful that the protest goes off without any ugliness. They did, however, send an officer around the downtown area to alert merchants about what’s going on, and will have extra officers in the area during the march. Press release from organizers of the march is after the jump.

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We’ve received some phone calls regarding Thursday’s story about a possible utility tax to help the city maintain services. One caller who didn’t leave his name was absolutely outraged at the idea. Others just wanted additional information. Since it would ultimately be up to voters to pass such a tax, we’d like to hear your thoughts on it. More information from the city’s Web site:

Here’s the mailer that was sent out.

Here’s what’s been done so far to cut costs.

Here’s a fact sheet about the fiscal crisis.

Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of schools, brought up the Hayward Unified School District in his annual State of Education address yesterday. He used the district as an example of how bad things are, financially speaking. Specifically, O’Connell pointed out that the district is considering eliminating the class-size reduction program and cutting 170 positions.

A dubious honor to be singled out, but at least we know he’s paying attention to HUSD. But lest we think we’re special:

“I hear these kind of stories all over the state,” he said. “As painful as these mid-year cuts are, we can expect worse over the next two years.”

The Hayward school board will vote on cuts at its next meeting, Feb. 11.