Saturday April 28 6 am – noon

5400 Truskmore Way, Antioch

Near Lowes on Lone Tree

Proceeds: 50% Mother to Mother Fund and 50% Take Back Antioch

MOMS Club: Moms Offering Moms Support!

For more info email naomiredding@gmail.com

Take Back Antioch (TBA) is comprised of a group of concerned citizens who are actively looking for positive, sustainable solutions to the crime and blight that have developed in our city.

It is extremely easy to point out what is wrong within a community, but it takes a strong group of citizens to organize themselves in a way that is effective and responsible in order to promote change.  Take Back Antioch urges you to get involved and help keep Antioch a safe, healthy and thriving community to live, work and play.

CLICK HERE to Download the TBA Safety Guide to learn more about what YOU can do to keep your family and neighborhood safe and secure.

It is that time of year again!  Take Back Antioch is opening up membership for our Relay for Life team.

Our first-ever team consisted of 30 members who raised over $2,500 in 2011 for The American Cancer Society.  Join us this year on June 23rd at 10:00 a.m at Los Medanos College and be a part of this hugely successful positive community event!   We need a team large enough to have a member of ‘Team TBA’ represented on the track for the full 24 hour relay, because cancer NEVER sleeps.

Our team will consist of several cancer survivors that will be taking part in the ‘Survivor’s Lap’ at opening.  Team TBA invites everyone, including friends and family members who have loved ones fighting cancer, and those in the Medical/Nursing profession that have dedicated their careers to working with Cancer patients to join us.  Nearly all of us have been affected by cancer in some way, please consider joining our team and/or donating to Team Take Back Antioch for Relay for Life!

2012 TEAM TBA FUNDRAISING GOAL: $2,500

Visit the TBA 2012 Relay for Life Webpage:
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?team_id=1119573&pg=team&fr_id=36404

***Click Here to Become a Team Member***

Instructions: When registering as a member, choose the Team Member Registration (My Team Captain Pays) Option.

If you are unable to join our team for the Relay for Life event, please still consider donating to our team by clicking the link below:

***Click Here to Donate to Team TBA ****

That’s when Take Back Antioch decided to host a spaghetti feed and raffle fundraiser.  Sheila White, the owner of the Red Caboose Restaurant and TBA’s Vice Chairperson, graciously allowed TBA to use her restaurant and supplied the food for the event. The feed and auction took place on January, 9^th from 5-7pm.  Approximately 25 volunteers helped with the event, including employees of the Red Caboose.  Donations worth approximately $1500 were provided by 22 local businesses and individuals for the raffle.  Diners were also able to participate in a 50/50 raffle for a cash prize of half the raffle proceeds.

Many city officials were in attendance, including Mayor Davis, Wade Harper (mayor pro tem/council member), Gary Agopian (council member), and Diane Gibson-Gray and Walter Ruehlig of the Antioch School District board.

The evening was a great success, bringing in $2031 to be divided between the two schools.  TBA has specified that the schools must use the funds for security enhancements, such as floodlights and security cameras. Lone Tree Elementary has already received their share of the funds, and Diablo Vista Elementary will receive theirs at their next PTA meeting.

Take Back Antioch would like to thank each and every person who participated in the success of the fundraiser, and for the compassion shown by and for the community.

Special thanks to the following donors:

• Massage Garage
• Love for Learning
• Compass Career & College Counseling
• Pet Suites Inn
• Diana Smith with Mary Kay
• Amanda Davis with Scentsy
• Frank Giovanni of FG Pizza & Italian
• Intuitive Healing Center
• Shearz on 3^rd Salon
• Delta Blues Festival
• Carrie Higby and Family
• Strategic Threat Management
• Shannon Lewis with Premiere Design Jewelry
• Angel Mattos with Scentsy
• Brittney Gougeon
• Claudia’s 31 Gifts
• Nick Smith with Security Pacific
• Michelle White with Tupperware
• Valvoline Express
• The Red Caboose
• Libby Willis with Chevy and Delta Youth Soccer
• Laura Corona with Bluerock Starbucks

Special thanks to Amanda C for writing this article, and to Beverly K for providing the photo!

The feed will be held on January 9th from 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM at The Red Caboose Restaurant located at 210 Fulton Rd, Antioch, CA 94509. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3 for children (12 and under), and can be purchased at the door or in advance by emailing info@takebackantioch.com.

If you are unable to attend the dinner and auction, but would still like to donate money in support of the schools, you can do so by donating here.

Date:
January 9th, 2012

Place:
The Red Caboose Restaurant
210 Fulton Rd, Antioch, CA 94509

Time:
5:00 PM – 8:30 PM
(Diablo Vista seating from 5:00-7:00)
(Lone Tree seating from 6:30-8:30)

Tickets:
$7/person
$3/child (12 and under)

Auction Donations:
TBA is accepting donations from local business for the Benefit Auction. To donate a product or service to the auction please contact Veli Waller at tbaspaghettifeed@gmail.com. In exchange, participating businesses will be thanked at the event.

Press Contact:
Brittney Gougeon / TBA Founder
info@takebackantioch.com

But here’s the deal: code enforcement essentially doesn’t exist in Antioch right now due to budget cuts, so you need to take matters into your own hands. How can you do that?

First: document everything. Trash piling up, fence falling down? Take pictures. Loud parties or music blaring at all hours of the day and night, suspected criminal activity, police calls to the home? Write down when anything happens – times and dates, as well as a description of the activity.

When you have some documentation of the problem, determine the owner’s name & address, as well as the bank’s contact information. The city of Antioch has written the municipal code in such a way that banks are responsible for the property, even if it’s not in foreclosure — even if the owner has paid their mortgage on time every single month. As long as there is a mortgage on the home, the bank can be held liable. See for yourself in section 5-1.101 of the Antioch Municipal Code – the clause defining terms for the Property Maintenance section:

PROPERTY OWNER. Any person having legal or equitable title or interest in real property, including but not limited to any bank, mortgage company, financial institution or similar entity or lien holder that has control and dominion over the property.

To get the name and address of the owner, you’ll need the street address of the property. You can then run a search on the Contra Costa County Assessor’s website. You can also contact Ryan Graham at the City of Antioch; he has graciously offered to look up the name and address of the owner and the bank holding the mortgage, as he has access to a special mortgage registration database that the public does not have access to.

Once you have the name and address, write a letter detailing your complaints to the owner and the bank. Be specific in your letter, and use language from the municipal code to detail the ways in which the problem household has infringed upon your “comfortable enjoyment of life or property” (municipal code section 5-1.201, part F). Tell them they have “x” number of days to rectify the situation. You need to specify a period of time, but not something completely unreasonable, like 24 hours – think in terms of weeks or even a month or two. In the letter, tell them that if they do not comply, you will sue them in small claims court and get a lien against the home. Banks hate liens, because it makes it much more difficult to sell the home, so be sure to mention the lien.

Filing in small claims court is easy: $50 per filing, no lawyers allowed. You can file a separate claim for each person in your family, at $50 per claim. If you DO file the claim, you can get up to $7500 per claim – so if there are four people in your home you can collect up to $30,000. Now, if you can get your neighbors to do the same thing, all the better — the bank definitely does not want to be liable for thousands of dollars for things that a problem tenant, squatter, or homeowner is doing. If you win your judgment in court, the court will place a lien on the property until the amount is paid.

There is a lot of help available if you choose to file a claim. First, visit the Contra Costa County Small Claims Court page for information and forms. There are also free seminars you can attend:

Now, please bear in mind that you may not actually see the money from a small claims court judgment for years and years – not until the property is sold. It is possible that you would be paid earlier, but not likely. This is simply a tool that we can use to combat the blight and criminal activity going on in our neighborhoods right now.

Most of the time, you won’t have to file with the court at all. The threat of the lien will be enough to get the owner and bank to fix the problem. Talk to your neighbors and start collecting your documentation. Then get your neighbors together (a Neighborhood Watch meeting is the perfect time to do this) and have everyone sign the letter to the bank and owner. The threat of several people suing for $7500 each will be enough to get them to take notice. And the letter only has to be sent via regular mail – not certified or return receipt or anything special.

We don’t have to feel powerless in the face of all the crime and blight in our city. This is a way that we can be proactive and fight for our community, instead of simply hoping that someone else will step in and fix things.

T.B.A. invites all supporters to join us on Saturday, May 21th @ 12:00-2:00 P.M. for our second Positive Loitering Pizza Party at Anitoch City Park, on the corner of A St. and 10th St.

Members of Take Back Antioch plan to hang out at City Park from 12:00-2:00 p.m. eating pizza (while it lasts) and visiting while we all enjoy our community park. Let’s empower ourselves to be part of the solution and help restore a sense of community to this part of our city.

Positive loitering has been successfully implemented in many cities across the country and TBA recently learned about this amazing empowering social activity from another outstanding community group named, “Take Back Santa Cruz.”

We invite you to join us. Bring your friends, families and ideas about helping improve the quality of life for residents of Antioch.  Lastly, Please bring lawn chairs, drinks, and lots of positive energy and we’ll supply the pizza!

Are you following our updates on Facebook? Please RSVP to this event so we know how much pizza to bring! –> http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=217448244933811

“If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell.” – Lance Armstrong

Take Back Antioch is forming a team for Relay for Life. Join us on June 25th at 10:00 a.m. for the kick-off event at Los Medanos College.  We will be gathering a team large enough to have a member of ‘Team TBA’ represented on the track for the full 24 hour relay, because Cancer NEVER sleeps.

Our team will consist of several cancer survivors that will be taking part in the ‘Survivor’s Lap’. Team TBA invites friends and family members who have lost loved ones, and those in the Medical/Nursing profession that have dedicated their careers to working with Cancer patients to join us. Nearly everyone has been affected by cancer in some way, please consider joining our team and/or donating to Team Take Back Antioch for a Cure!

TEAM TBA FUNDRAISING GOAL: $1,000

Become a Team Member: https://secure3.convio.net/tacs/site/TRR/RelayForLife/RFLFY11CA/826606138?pg=ptype&fr_id=31013

Instructions: When registering as a member, choose the Team Member Registration ($10 member fee) Option.

Donate to Team TBA: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY11CA?team_id=943615&pg=team&fr_id=31013

“Take Care of People – People before Paper, People before Profits, People before Self and People before Projects.”- by Carol S. Ritter.

Please join us in developing lasting solutions that will lead to positive change in our city!

Location: El Campanil Theatre, 602 West 2nd Street, Antioch, CA 94509

Time: Doors open 9:30, event begins at 10:00

The event is FREE of charge! The El Campanil Theatre facility was generously donated as a location to host our event by Rick Carraher, Executive Director of the Theatre. Starbucks Coffee will be donated by the Bluerock/Lone Tree store and will be available outside the theatre before the event begins. *Bottled water only once the theatre opens.

Article in the Contra Costa Times –> http://www.contracostatimes.com/antioch/ci_17797635

Article in The Antioch Press –> http://thepress.net/view/full_story/12684490/article-Forum-set-for-Saturday-?instance=left_column

Have you seen the graffiti and garbage around town, at private residences and business locations?  What about rotting mattresses, couches and other furniture?  Have you seen abandoned shopping carts?  Code enforcement reminds businesses and homeowners that they are responsible for removing graffiti in a timely manner, and for maintaining a certain level of cleanliness, for the health and safety of everyone in the city.  The code enforcement department can impose fines and sanctions if problems are not satisfactorily resolved in a timely manner.  Have you seen vacant homes with broken windows, being used by squatters and drug dealers?  Code enforcement would require the legal owners of those homes (i.e., the banks that foreclosed) to maintain the homes and take steps to ensure that they do not allow squatters to take residence.

What about rental properties?  One would hope that the homeowner would ensure that the tenant maintains the property appropriately, but oftentimes, that is not the case.  Sometimes the homeowner lives elsewhere and does not employ a reputable property management company.  Sometimes the homeowner simply doesn’t care, as long as they are receiving their rent check every month.  Code enforcement requires both the tenant and the homeowner to ensure that the property is maintained.

And then there is the question of crime.  It may not seem obvious, at first glance, how code enforcement affects crime in a community, but it is a widely acknowledged truth that, in the immortal words of Walter Ruehlig, “Chaos breeds chaos, order breeds order.”  This is also known as the “Broken Window Theory”: if a building has a broken window and it isn’t promptly fixed, soon vandals will come and break more windows.  When it’s still not taken care of, other criminals will see that this building isn’t a priority for city officials, and the building will be vandalized in other ways (such as removing wiring or other fixtures), or squatters will move in, or drug dealers will use the building to manufacture and sell drugs.  In other words, crime ignored is simply a magnet for more crime.  We MUST stem the tide of crime in this city, and code enforcement is a very effective tool to help achieve this.

Finally, we must address the issue of the city budget.  While it is true that code enforcement will cost the city some money, it’s not nearly as much as you’d think.  The reason is that an effective code enforcement department is often budget-neutral, meaning that it brings in as much money (in fines and liens) as it costs to run the department.  Based on responses I’ve received from code enforcement departments in other cities in California, the average is probably 80-90% cost recovery.  That means that for every dollar that goes out (in employee salaries, supplies, etc.), the department brings in 80-90 cents.  In the long run, when you factor in increased property values and property tax revenues, the code enforcement department will actually make money for the city.

So what can you do?

1. Please sign the petition started by Take Back Antioch.  When we reach 10,000 signatures (approximately 10% of the population of Antioch), we will take the petition to the city council members and show them just how many people support bringing back code enforcement.  Please ask your neighbors and friends or family living in Antioch to sign the petition as well.
2. Please contact your city council members directly.  The email addresses of all the city council members are listed at the bottom of this post.  The more voices we have calling for the reinstatement of code enforcement, the more likely it will be that the city council will realize they cannot ignore the situation any longer.
3. Please report any issues you see around town that would be resolved with proper code enforcement.  We are keeping a database of code enforcement infractions and will also present this information to the city council, as evidence of how much we are affected by the lack of code enforcement in our city.

Thank you for your support.  When we all work together, we can achieve great things.  We can Take Back Antioch!

City Council Members

Mayor Jim Davis: jd4antioch@aol.com
Mayor Pro Tem Wade Harper: wharper@ci.antioch.ca.us
Councilmember Mary Rocha: mrocha@ci.antioch.ca.us
Councilmember Brian Kalinowski: bkski1@comcast.net
Councilmember Gary Agopian: gagopian@ci.antioch.ca.us