Tonight's City Council meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. You can also watch the meetings on KTOP (local channel 10) and streaming online.

Edit: Earlier, I noted that "both items 13 Loitering Ordinance and 14 Juvenile Protection Curfew Ordinance were postponed and removed from tonight's agenda, citing insufficient time to conduct a legal review." This is incorrect. City Attorney Barbara Parker informed council that her office has not conducted a legal review, but these items are still on tonight's agenda.

Here are our top five to watch tonight:

15 East and West Oakland Gang Injunction Resolution

This spring, after protesters repeatedly filled City Hall with opposition to the controversial gang injunctions in North Oakland and the Fruitvale, the City Council suspended new injunctions pending a review of the project's effectiveness.

With this item, Councilman Ignacio de la Fuente proposes reinstating the gang injunction program. The effectiveness review is incomplete, but de la Fuente argues that tragic increases in homicides and shootings as cause to release the program from its hold.

Specifically, the resolution cites that:

• Eight of the 10 most violent police beats are in East Oakland.
• Oakland's most violent crime beat in East Oakland reported more violent crime than the eight Oakland Hills beats combined.
• This year, Beat 30X, surrounded by 66th, 82nd, Bancroft and International Avenues, posted its second most violent second quarter ever.

Parts of Oakland are clearly experiencing unprecedented crime, but the effectiveness and constitutionality of gang injunctions is uncertain. Will Council revive the program tonight?

Read more about gang injunctions on Oakland Local.

10 Consistency Among Building Inspectors Resolution

The Building Services Division of the city of Oakland was lambasted by a grand jury investigation earlier this year. The investigation was spurred by a half dozen lawsuits against the city alleging bullying by city inspectors and claiming that the city abused its powers by issuing "prospective" liens. The grand jury recommended the BSD make several changes; and though the BSD initially showed reluctance, the City Council stepped up to demand change.

As reported on KQED, Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said "I believe that our system is completely broken and that we have not sufficiently publicly acknowledged the magnitude of the problem." Councilman Ignacio de la Fuente called for an independent investigation; Councilwoman Libby Schaaf apologized to her constituents.

By approving this item, the City Council resolve to accept a new set of changes proposed by the current director of the Community and Economic Development Agency, Walter Cohen, who announced his resignation last month, effective Oct. 28. He cites the "atmosphere of hostility and intimidation" systemic in the BSD as to why he is leaving.

Among the changes made by Cohen, in response to the investigation:

• Inspectors were assigned to handle exclusively commercial or residential permits. This should increase consistency.
• BSD has contracted with a designer to produce standard guidelines for inspectors, contractors and homeowners. The Grand Jury investigation citied a lack of information from the city on acceptable methods, and these new materials will cover plumbing, electrical, building and mechanical systems for commonly encountered conditions.
• The BSD's current computer system is "not capable of interfacing with the Internet." The division is transitioning to a new system, called Accela, that should go online in 18 months. This will allow the Permit Center, Plan Check, and Inspections Divisions to make information available online. No more details are available at this time. Many other cities use the Accela Government Software system, including Santa Monica, California, which can be accessed here.
• CEDA has contracted with a consultant, Management Partners, to evaluate the best practices of other code enforcement agencies and produce a procedures manual for Oakland. The intention is to move Oakland towards a "proactive Neighborhood Preservation program" and away from a react complaint program.

Will these changes stick? Are they enough?

Read more on the Building Services investigation and continuing fall out.

4.3 Proclamation honoring Youth Radio

Did you know that Oakland's Youth Radio won a Peabody Award?

This year, the 70th Annual Peabody Awards honored achievements in journalism from CNN (coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill), the BBC (Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children), and Oakland's Youth Radio.

Youth Radio's award-winning piece, "Trafficked," was a collaboration between Youth Radio, National Public Radio's All Things Considered and the Huffington Post. From Youth Radio:

"The series 'Trafficked' tells the story of two young women, Darlene and Brittney (not their real names), who became teenagers in Oakland around the time the FBI named their city one of the country's hotspots for child prostitution."

The story was originally broadcast on Dec. 6 and 7, 2010, but you can hear both parts online.

7.15 Acceptance of Neighborhood Stabilization Program Funds

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program was created by Congress as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Through this program, cities receive Federal assistance to deal with high rates of foreclosures and abandoned properties.

The 2008 program was so successful that two additional rounds were attached to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Oakland received $2,070,087 from this latest round of grants.

Oakland can use these grant funds to:

• Establish financing mechanisms for purchase and redevelopment of foreclosed homes and residential properties;
• Purchase and rehabilitate homes and residential properties abandoned or foreclosed;
• Establish land banks for foreclosed homes;
• Demolish blighted structures; and
• Redevelop demolished or vacant properties

Oakland also received funds in the first round and focused most of them in East Oakland. These third round funds will be targeted in two parts of West Oakland. It is unclear from the scanned attachments to this item where the target areas are located in West Oakland.

7.7 Ray's Electric Contract Award - Street Lighting

With a grant from the state of California's Safe Routes to Schools Program and local Measure B funding, the city is hiring Ray's Electric Company to improve the pedestrian safety around three Oakland schools:

• Oakland Technical High School
• Castlemont Community of Schools
• E.C. Reems Academy

With these funds, Ray's Electric will:

• Construct sidewalk extensions and modify the traffic signal at the Broadway and 40th Street
• Build "bulb-outs" and raised medians on MacArthur Boulevard between 82nd and 90th avenues

Each of these improvements will make pedestrians more visible and improve pedestrian safety.

Safe Routes to Schools Programs all over the country encourage walking and biking to school through awareness, activities and infrastructure to improve safety, such as these.