Thanks for blogging about this.I would add as I said to Nancy Nadel, there is a definite cost to the City if the public art idea is scrapped for a parking lot. It’s called greenhouse gas emissions and there’s already plenty of them in Oakland. I am elated that the council for once listened to the residents of Oakland, many of whom are the most creative folks I know. Let’s think to the future, when some of these whippersnappers run for council and we have some real “community organizers” thinking outside the box. Berkeley opens its nationally recognized Brower Center (www.browercenter.org) this Sunday while Oakland council has to be persuaded not to add a car polluting lot in the middle of artsy and economically generating Uptown–where is the justice?