End of the year report from the NHCA Chair

Dear Neighbors: The North Hills Community Association (NHCA) is a registered 501(c) (3) nonproAit organization that functions entirely through the work of volunteers. We could not function without the support of you, our neighbors. Our email lists, Open Forum and Announcements, and website maintenance, are not free. We also must pay for meeting sites. Many […]

NHCA advocacy end of year-round up

This past year, members of the North Hills Community Association joined forces in advocacy efforts to improve public safety. Members have become more involved in city government, by sending emails to Councilmembers and speaking up at meetings. This resulted in several milestones, which included changing the police vehicle pursuit policy, holding biased police commissioners accountable […]

NHCA Gardens Annual Recap

NHCA Gardens! We have had a busy year in our two community gardens, the Gateway Emergency Preparedness Garden and the Firestorm Memorial Garden by Bentley School. Our gardening team has grown from five regulars to 13, led by Nancy Mueller and Fred Booker (Fred Booker, Geri Charnin, Adriana Duque, Kevin Faulkner, Sean Gilmore, Cornelia Grimes, […]

Nov 8: UC Berkeley Stewardship and Thank you Schleifer Donors!

UC Berkeley students lent 38 hands to Gateway Emergency Demonstration Garden last Saturday, Nov 8! 19 students cleared a lot of flammable dense brush adjacent to the frame structure, and patiently pulled weeds out of the granite plaza and stone paths. They also planted several dozen daffodils donated by KOB! (Keep Oakland Beautiful) Thank you […]

Rock Star….JD Van der Werf!

Last Saturday, Oct 25, is was a rainy morn…..as predicted, started at 9.  Since Fred was away, JD arrived at “Fred time” 8:30AM and had already picked up this much trash by the time I arrived!!  We called the rest of our fabulous volunteers off but went ahead and planted about 30 iris blubs that […]

Fabulous workday with the UC Project Day leaders!

The Gateway Demonstration Exhibit Garden benefited from an energetic Cal group!!   On Sat Oct 4, we had 17 Cal students, and they worked hard!!!  They painted the graffitied irrigation box, deck posts and painted out graffiti on the understory of the deck.  Other students hammered in the heads of hundreds of popped nail heads on […]

Firestorm Memorial Garden Cleaning

On Sat September 27, our intrepid NHCA garden volunteers cleaned up the Firestorm Memorial Garden.   Donna got the great idea to cut down a clump of very tall, 20’+ Euc suckers which were blocking the directional highway signs.  So attack we did! Pic #1     Before our work, you can verify our location with the bike […]

Meet Our Garden Beautification Crew

This is Peggy Mooney, our steady octogenarian volunteer. She specializes in path restoration. Every little weed is out, every tiny chard of glass, gone. Rocks all together and mulch separated. Here are most of us! To our delight Donna has joined our merry crew. On the left is Geri and her husband Kevin with the […]

Productive Work Party at the Memorial Garden – August 23, 2025

Eight of us worked away and bagged 22 green waste bags.  We also hauled away a 30 GA bag of trash, mostly along Tunnel Road as it comes off the freeway.  The water is off so we are concentrating on removing dead plants.  There needs to be less planted there anyhow.  There are some oaks […]

new volunteer partner

NHCA is delighted to share the news that Boys Team Charity has volunteered to work in the gardens on August 9th and 23rd. https://www.boysteamcharity.org

Firestorm Memorial Garden – Party!

NHCA had a very successful work party at the Firestorm Memorial Garden yesterday, Sat. July 12.  Six of us worked hard to beautify the garden…remove dead plants and branches and pick up lots of trash along Hiller and Tunnel roads.  It looks 100% better! Both Fred Booker and David Kessler wrote CalTrans to remove the […]

Very Successful Garden Party Clean-Up Sat. June 28, 2025

We had a great day on Sat June 28. With 10 volunteers, we got a lot accomplished. Over thirteen 30 GA bags of weeds and pruned material were collected. The entry was spruced up. Fred Booker continues to water his 5 buckeyes that were planted across the street from our main garden at Gateway. Earlier […]

June 11, 2025: The GOATS are back and GRAZING!

We welcome these weed eaters on the steep slopes on the Southern slope across from the Gateway Demonstration Pavilion Garden.  You can see they are behind the electric fence which keeps them from eating the aloes and other plants that Gordon Piper planted years ago.   They are also munching away below Hiller Highlands V.