A city insider has suggested to Inside Alameda that the real reason city staff are beating up on the golf course operations is that they want to close all or part of the golf course and turn some of the land over to Mayor Johnson friend and developer Ron Cowan, so he can still build his 104 (or more) homes that he was denied for Village VI when he asked to re-zone roughly 12 acres of land on Bay Farm Island from commercial to residential.

Supposedly Orchard Supply Hardware is scheduled to locate in the old Safeway building at Alameda Towne Center.

Mervyn's insiders have tipped us that the Alameda Mervyn's store at Alameda Towne Centre will be closing at the end of July, because they could not renew their lease.

An out-of-town tipster with a real estate background has told Inside Alameda that the City of Alameda will soon face a lawsuit over discriminatory housing practices. Details were scant out of the need for this tipster to protect her sources.

Alan Lopez is to leave the Alameda Journal before the end of March, 2008. No word on his new employer, and there seems to be no replacement planned for him.

Insiders tell us that AP&T is likely to fetch only a small fraction of the outstanding debt when it is sold. Perhaps less than 25% of the debt. This debacle should have been ended long ago. But there were some people back in 2006 questioning whether the telecom business was sustainable.

Clif Bar no longer plans to locate in Alameda. I guess once they saw how the Mayor screwed Peets Coffee immediately after they moved into Alameda, they got cold feet.

Tipsters have told Inside Alameda that the new 7 story parking garage in downtown Alameda is making a great skateboard park for Alameda's teens. It makes sense given that early samples from lunch-time - a peak parking period in downtown Alameda - observers can count no more than a dozen or so cars in the 350 car capacity garage. It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt and sues the City.

Inside Alameda has received a tip that the City Council effort to review and revise the City's Charter includes an effort to revise Measure A not just to exempt Alameda Point from Measure A, but to remove Measure A constraints from the entire island.

Inside Alameda has received a tip - unconfirmed, but from a well-placed source - that SunCal's "reach" goal for Alameda Point is 10,000 homes in a mix of condos, apartments and single-family homes. And that this is the genuine reason behind their request for an extension to their Exclusive Negotiating Agreement with the City of Alameda.