In addition, other Earth Day activities hosted by various community organizations will be happening on the same day. A complete list of sites citywide can be found at http://www.oaklandpw.com, or by calling 238-7611.

Volunteers can sign up for clean-up projects from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 19 at a city-sponsored Earth Expo event in Frank Ogawa Plaza, across from City Hall. Attendees can take advantage of free bicycle tune-ups, learn about solar contractors and green building materials, turn in their environmentally unfriendly mercury thermometers, and visit some 60 earth-friendly vendors and organizations hosting tables throughout the plaza.

"This will be our 12th year holding the expo in advance of our Earth Day activities and it has proven to be good way to get the word out," says Jonelyn Weed, Oakland's environmental services manager. Seven colorful banners, each highlighting a theme from the Urban Environmental Accords, signed this past year by Mayor Jerry Brown and 50 other large-city mayors worldwide, will be unveiled at the expo, Weed says.

The accords call for implementing 21 action steps during the next seven years to build an "ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic and socially equitable future for all citizens." The banners, designed by Oakland artist Wendy Young, represent the seven principal themes of the accords: water, transportation, energy, environmental health, urban nature, water reduction and urban design.

"We will have stickers matching the themes, that people can pick up along the way as they visit the vendor tables," says Weed. "Anyone turning in all seven stickers will be eligible for prize drawings."

At last week's City Council meeting, council members got an advance look at the banners, says Weed, who read a resolution at Tuesday's meeting calling April Earth Sustainability Month in the city. This year marks Earth Day's 36th anniversary.

"Our job at the expo will be to showcase and celebrate Oakland's progress and opportunities with these accords, as we move through the coming years," she adds.

Cherry tree blossoms on the plaza should be at their peak for the upcoming expo. Planted in honor of the late Frank H. Ogawa, who served on the City Council for 28 years until his death in July 1994, the trees are part of the extensive renovations to the historic plaza that took place following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Ogawa, who was 77 when he died, was the first Japanese American to serve on any major city's governing body.

Although an American-born citizen, Ogawa, along with his family, was sent to the Japanese relocation camps during World War II, and was forced to live in a crowded church once back in Oakland, until he could reclaim the house his family had owned before the war. Ogawa borrowed money from relatives to reopen the wholesale nursery business he had started in 1941. Cherry trees were always a favorite of his, say history files.

Before serving on the council, Ogawa was on the city Parks Commission and active in the development of the Oakland Zoo. He was a big booster of Oakland's sister city program. Following his death, the city of Fukuoka, Japan donated funds to commission a bust of Ogawa by artist Cedric Wentworth, which is now located in the plaza.

For more information on the April 19 Earth Expo, the Sustainability Accords and April 22's Earth Day, go to http://www.oaklandpw.com, or call 238-7611.

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