Crime

New App Lets Residents Access Oakland Public Records

Published

13 years ago

October 21, 2013

Oakland unveiled the fruits of being a Code for America fellowship city yesterday with a new open data application called RecordTrac that let’s the public easily search city records, file freedom of information requests and do data queries.

The new app handles the huge volume of record requests that City staff gets with an efficient, web-based query system that should free up city staff time and add transparency to city processes, officials said Tuesday at a launching event.

< p>It was built by three coders, Sheila Dugan, Richa Agarwal and Cris Cristina, who are Code for America fellows appointed to work with Oakland after this city was selected last winter as one of 10 Code for America Fellowship cities. The coders said the tool even responds to requests mistakenly sent to the city instead of the county by directing users to the correct URL.

Within 24 hours of the public launch, 40 requests were filed in addition to the 466 requests that were made through a soft launch within City Hall.

In a city with an active hacking community, including a group called OpenOakland that’s working on its own ideas to improve city services, Oakland and Code for America officials said this is the right application for Oakland because it will assist in that collaboration and answer calls for more transparency in government. That is even as other Code for America cities work on such issues as crime and food assistance, issues important to Oakland as well.

“I think it is exactly the right app for Oakland because there was a lot of tension around public records,” said Code for America founder Jennifer Pahlka.

She and city officials said problems with the previous system resulted more from a former cumbersome data system rather than a desire on the part of the city to keep records private. “When we saw that city workers were trying so hard to answer,” residents’ requests “and yet the systems got in the way,” so they realized a new data app could serve a lot of purposes. Pahlka, an Oakland resident involved in the early civic hacking events here, said RecordTrac app could repair citizens’ relationship with the city around compliance with records requests.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and City Attorney Barbara Parker said the city’s goals have included increasing efficiency and becoming more transparent and RecordTrac does both.

The Web-based system has three main menu items: a searchable archive of requests made to the city, an easy template for making a new request, and a way to track the progress of your request.

Dugan, one of the fellows, said the three of them interviewed employees in every city department, “from the fire department to IT,” before concluding that a public records request app was the thing to work on. She said it will improve work flow systems within city departments in addition to adding more transparency for residents.

Cristina said they replaced what had been “a complex system that was difficult to use” with a simple and elegant system that “was built from the ground up around users.”

Other Code for America cities include San Francisco, whose fellows are working on a food stamp enrollment application, and New York, whose fellows are working on a criminal justice application.

Many Oakland residents have gotten involved in grassroots coding efforts and hackathons, much of which has now coalesced in OpenOakland, founded by Steve Spiker, an Oakland resident and Urban Strategies employee who this summer was named a White House Champion of Change for his work on creating OpenOakland and spurring collaboration between residents and their local government. Spiker tweeted a “congratulations” about RecordTrac on Twitter shortly after the application was announced.

Pahlka, too, is an Oakland resident as well as a nationally honored technologist. She is actually currently on leave from Code for America while she serves as a White House deputy director of technology for one year.

That both are Oakland residents is testament to the technology savvy here.

Mayor Quan bragged that “the founder of Code for America lives in Oakland” in describing the tech-savvy citizenry of this city and said Oakland was lucky to get fellows from the organization known as “the Peace Corps for geeks.”

The City of Oakland has collaborated in these efforts not only in seeking to become a Code for America fellowship city but also in creating an open data website called data.oaklandnet.com last January and earlier a community engagement website called EngageOakland.com. More recently, as part of its collaboration with Code for America it created answers.oaklandnet.com which is a web site for citizens to ask questions of the city.

First posted by Oakland Local.

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Black History

Oakland Observes Black August with Block Parties, Film Showings, Workshops

POST NEWS GROUP — Beginning in 1979 in San Quentin State Prison, the Black Guerrilla Family called for the remembrance of political prisoner George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson who were assassinated in the early 1970s. George Jackson was considered a political prisoner in that it was the anti-Black justice system that led to his incarceration for armed robbery with a sentence of one year-to-life in 1960.

Published

13 hours ago

August 15, 2026

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George Jackson wrote two books: “Soledad Brother,” and “Blood in My Eye” before her was killed in an attempt to escape prison on Aug. 21, 1971.

By Jana Lang, Propel Youth Reporter

Study. Train. Fast. Fight.

These are the four tenets of Black August, a month dedicated to commemorating the sacrifices of political prisoners and Black revolutionaries in the struggle for Black liberation.

Observers are urged to study the history of the Black struggle for freedom, train their bodies for health and self-defense, fast to cleanse the mind, body, and spirit, and fight ongoing oppression alongside their communities and local political organizations.

Beginning in 1979 in San Quentin State Prison, the Black Guerrilla Family called for the remembrance of political prisoner George Jackson and his brother Jonathan Jackson who were assassinated in the early 1970s. George Jackson was considered a political prisoner in that it was the anti-Black justice system that led to his incarceration for armed robbery with a sentence of one year-to-life in 1960.

While in prison, George befriended fellow prisoner W.L. Nolen, who introduced him to the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Frantz Fanon. This radicalization coupled with his experiences of violence while imprisoned led to him writing and publishing two books, “Soledad Brother” (1970), and “Blood in my Eye” (1972). In January of 1970, George and two other prisoners were charged with murdering a corrections officer at Soledad State Prison in Monterey County.

On Aug. 7, 1970, Jonathan Jackson burst into a Marin County courtroom armed with a shotgun to demand the freedom of the Soledad Brothers. He, along with the inmates he freed, was shot and killed while driving away. This involved one of the Black Panther Party’s most notable associates, Angela Davis, because the shotgun was registered in her name. She was later acquitted of charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder in 1972.

On Aug. 21, 1971, George Jackson was assassinated by a corrections officer after attempting to escape and free other inmates. As a result, there were uprisings and protests within prisons all over the country that year, calling forth resistance against racial oppression and mass incarceration.

Since its outset, Black August has evolved across the country, taking many forms to honor this history and embody the four tenets.

In Oakland, the upcoming Black August Experience, hosted by Youth Alive! and the East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA), is a free, family-friendly event celebrating the legacy of Black August. Activities include free food and drinks, a kids’ activity zone, interactive workshops, live cooking and boxing demonstrations, and more.

Happening on Aug. 21 from 4-8 p.m. at the EOBA Patio, Carolyn Flynn, director of administration at EOBA, said the event, in its second year, will be an opportunity to engage with people in person through food, shared space, and education.

“We do regular classes in education, and those are ongoing programs that we offer, but we wanted to have [an opportunity] for our neighbors to utilize this space.” Combined with Youth Alive’s work in community violence prevention and youth leadership, this event surely aims to bring the Oakland community together to capture what Black August means today.

Here are additional Black August events happening in Oakland:

Forum and Community Discussion hosted by the Oakland Liberation Center, 1499 Fruitvale Ave., Aug. 14, 7 p.m.

“George Jackson/San Quentin” Screening hosted by Nostalgic for Nothing Cinema at Moments Co-Op, 410 13th St., Aug. 16, doors at 6 p.m., show at 6:30 p.m. (Masks required and scent-free)

Commemorating the Struggle, Building the Altar for Liberation: Black August at Bandung Books, 2269 International Blvd., Aug. 23rd, 1-5 p.m.

Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Oakland Post: Week of August 12 – 18, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of August 12 – 18, 2026

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13 hours ago

August 15, 2026

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Crime

Congresswoman Simon Demands Investigation into Trump’s Abuse of Emergency Powers for Coal Export Terminal in West Oakland

POST NEWS GROUP — Last week, in a letter to the GAO Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, Simon and her colleagues questioned the Department of Energy’s plan to use up to $425 million in DPA funds to support coal-fired power plants and construct the West Gateway Terminal Project in Oakland.

Published

7 days ago

August 9, 2026

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‘No On Coal’ demonstrators protest the use of the Port of Oakland as a terminal to ship coal overseas. File photo.

By Post Staff

U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) joined California senators and other members of the California delegation to Congress to call on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the Trump administration’s use of the Defense Production Act and other taxpayer funds to support coal projects, including the proposed coal export terminal in West Oakland.

Defense Production Act funding is for national defense emergencies, such as authorizing private car companies to build parts for tanks or ships.

Since President Donald Trump’s June 4 announcement of $75 million in funding for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, Simon has opposed and worked to stop the proposed coal terminal.

She filed an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2027 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would have prohibited funding for the proposed Oakland coal export terminal project; however, House Republicans blocked the amendment.

Last week, in a letter to the GAO Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, Simon and her colleagues questioned the Department of Energy’s plan to use up to $425 million in DPA funds to support coal-fired power plants and construct the West Gateway Terminal Project in Oakland.

This terminal project would primarily serve foreign commercial markets, rather than meet national emergency needs.

“The Defense Production Act was intended to scale up domestic industrial capabilities to meet urgent military or national emergency needs; therefore, its invocation to construct a commercial, civilian export facility intended primarily to serve foreign commercial markets raises profound statutory, legal, and fiscal questions,” wrote the lawmakers, which included Senators Alex Padilla (D) and Adam Schiff (D), Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee and Reps. John Garamendi (D-CA-08) and Ro Khanna (D-CA-17).

“We do not believe this satisfies the statutory definition of ‘national defense’ or ‘critical infrastructure protection’ under the DPA and that there is no legally sufficient, data-driven nexus between civilian coal exports and immediate U.S. military readiness or critical infrastructure defense,” the lawmakers’ letter said.

DPA funds are intended for U.S. national security and defense readiness. The Trump administration is instead diverting these funds to support a commercial export project that primarily benefits private industries and foreign markets in East Asia.

“Congress has never appropriated funds to the DOE’s DPA account with the intent of propping up a dying industry or financing a purely commercial project,” continued the lawmakers. “We are deeply concerned that DOE has improperly diverted funds from accounts intended by Congress for the critical modernization and resilience support of our nation’s grid to instead finance a commercial fossil fuel export project.”

Simon and colleagues also raised concerns that the Trump administration has improperly diverted funds designated for critical grid modernization and may be using emergency authorities to circumvent local environmental protections.

“With no clear national security nexus, we question whether the DOE utilized emergency DPA authorities with the intent of preempting or subverting valid local health ordinances and environmental regulations. If so, this would be a gross departure from the intent of the DPA,” concluded the lawmakers.