Dear Rockridge Community, Happy New Year! Last year had some challenges, and the directors and members of the Rockridge Community Planning Council stepped up to meet them enthusiastically.

During the last three months of 2021, our Ad Hoc Committee on Redistricting, made up of board members and Rockridge residents, worked successfully to persuade the Oakland Redistricting Commission to keep our neighborhood from being split into two City Council districts. At the state level, we prevented the split of the neighborhood into two Assembly districts. Ordinary citizens can make their voices heard — we just proved it!

In April 2021, RCPC conducted its second Covid-safe outdoor Annual Meeting and board of directors election with the largest turnout seen in many years. And in the autumn, 13 residents expressed interest, and 10 applied, to fill the vacancies left by the departure from the board of Michelle Boyd and Matt Levy. The board appointed three new members, filling Michelle’s and Matt’s seats, and the long-vacant appointed 13th seat. A renewed spirit of service to the neighborhood is clearly on display.

In 2020, Covid halted some of Rockridge’s favorite neighborhood traditions, but 2021 saw them resume. The Halloween Parade, this year on the big day itself, had the largest attendance that Chris Jackson of the Rockridge District Association, co-sponsor of the parade, could remember. While the annual Rockridge Out-and-About wasn’t held last year, the Rock-and-Stroll events proved to be very popular.

What’s in store for 2022? As the community continues to develop ways to work around Covid, I look forward to events like the FROG Park 20th Anniversary celebration; a resumption of the Kitchen Tour; another neighborhood-wide cleanup like the one RCPC sponsored in March 2021; and more Town Halls addressing issues and ideas important to the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone in Rockridge for making my three elected terms on the board and four years as Chair an interesting, lively, and often fun experience. I will be leaving the board when my term ends in April 2022.

I plan to continue serving Rockridge in whatever ways I can and wish all of my friends and neighbors a safe, happy, and healthy 2022.

Leonora Sea, RCPC Chair