ALAMEDA
The Alameda City Attorney’s Office has been awarded the 2025 American Bar Association’s (ABA) Hodson Award, a prestigious national recognition presented annually to one government or public-sector law office for outstanding performance and extraordinary service.
This award celebrates the commitment of City Attorney’s Office to excellence and its innovative approach to advancing the City Council’s strategic objectives of protecting public safety by justly enforcing state and local laws and preserving affordable housing by preventing unnecessary displacement.
The ABA commended the office’s urgency and resolve in 2021 to protect 50 families living on floating homes in the Barnhill Marina from imminent housing displacement. When a new landlord sought to increase rents by as much as 178%, putting many tenants at risk of becoming unhoused, the office drafted and vigorously defended an urgency ordinance to extend local rent control protections to maritime residential tenancies.
In November 2024, the Alameda County Superior Court ruled fully in favor of the city, imposing more than $335,000 in penalties against the marina owners and issuing a permanent injunction to prevent further harassment of tenants. The Alameda City Attorney’s Office is responsible for all civil litigations involving the city and provides expert legal counsel to the city, its departments, elected officials and various boards and commissions.
“I am thrilled and deeply honored that the Alameda City Attorney’s Office is being recognized as a nationwide leader in developing innovative legal solutions to some of our community’s greatest challenges,” said City Attorney Yibin Shen. “Our attorneys and professional staff demonstrate their commitment to effective public service each and every day, and we are proud to be a model of excellence in public lawyering.”
— city of Alameda
Apollo 11 Splashdown Anniversary Celebration on Saturday
Officials with the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum invite the public to join them this Saturday in celebrating the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and especially the USS Hornet’s 1969 recovery of the astronauts from the Pacific Ocean. Museum officials promise a full day of family-friendly, space exploration-themed fun.
On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts (Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins) returned to Earth after their successful mission to land on and walk on the Moon. Their command module splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, and the USS Hornet was there to pick them up.
All the astronauts and their command module were safely recovered and brought on board the ship, where they then met President Richard Nixon, who was waiting to greet them. The floating USS Hornet ship-turned-museum has an award-winning Apollo exhibit, a Block 1 Apollo Capsule, a mobile quarantine facility (which will be open for the public to see inside) and a SeaKing Helicopter that was used in the film “Apollo 13.”
There will be several special events and presentations from various parties, including NASA (with a large three-table interactive set up); the East Bay Astronomical Society (with sun telescopes); a traveling space exhibit; a model rocket collection; “Star Wars” costume clubs; high school robotics clubs; a fun kids activity table; and a Hornet crew member table talk to veterans who were present the day Apollo 11 was recovered.
The Apollo 11 Splashdown Anniversary Celebration from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. this Saturday will take place aboard the USS Hornet, which is docked at 707 W. Hornet Ave. on Alameda Point in Alameda. For details online, visit uss-hornet.org/event/apollo-11-splashdown-anniversary-2025.
— USS Hornet
New photo gallery opens near Island’s downtown
Photographers Jeff Heyman and Sharonda “Westeigh” Grant have recently opened a new Alameda gallery. Heyman says they met at the de Young Open 2023 in San Francisco’s de Young Museum when both were showing some of their photography work in the museum’s exhibit.
He says that having led a number of photography workshops together, they realized the East Bay needed a galley devoted to showcasing local photographers’ work, which is why their Frame 1A Gallery was born. Heyman and Grant were to have an opening reception this past weekend, at which they planned to not only formally open the gallery but also welcome photographers who have contributed work for their opening exhibit of photos from around Alameda.
Exhibiting photographers are Ken Banks, Ivan Baxarias, Dave Dondero, Roxanne Gray, Susan Hillyard, Becky Jaffe, Lindy Johnson, Petra Liljestrand, Melina Meza, Gregory Pease and Andrea Pook. Frame 1A Gallery is at 2500 Central Ave. (at Regent St.) near downtown Alameda. The gallery is open by appointment most weekends and is on Instagram at @frame1Agallery (instagram.com/frame_1a_gallery).
— Frame 1A Gallery
Kiwanis Club awards funds to community nonprofit groups
At a recent meeting, the Kiwanis Club of Alameda (KCA) awarded funds to support several community nonprofit groups.
Among the groups awarded were Alameda Adaptive Arts (for special-needs adult music classes), the Alameda Boys & Girls Club (a mental health initiative for 600 underserved kids), the Alameda Education Foundation (teacher mini-grants), Alameda Family Services (counseling services supplies), the Alameda Food Bank (fresh produce purchases) and Alameda Midway Shelter (services for unhoused women and children).
Also receiving grants were Alameda Pride (LGBTQ teen programs), Alameda Meals on Wheels (emergency food packs), the All Good Things Foundation (school food closets), Bay Area Music Project (after-school music programs), Girls Inc. of the Island City (mentoring programs), Rhythmix Cultural Works (performing arts and culture programs), The Food Bank Players (theater productions benefiting the Alameda Food Bank), Christ Episcopal Warming Shelter (services for homeless neighbors).
In February, the KCA hosted its annual Chili Cookoff fundraiser at Alameda Point’s Albert DeWitt Officers Club (“the O Club”), with proceeds distributed to Alameda nonprofits serving the community. For the 2025 grant awards year, the KCA’s Grants Committee emphasized work to combat violence and racism and to promote equity and equality.
— KCA
To submit an item for the Alameda Journal’s “In brief” section, which is now published in print on each month’s third Friday, please email it, at least three days before print publication, to njackson@bayareanewsgroup.com. Each item should be 90 to 180 words and include a short headline along with the name of the group or individual to credit for it.