Community

Park Boulevard Community Garden Thrives

Published

11 years ago

July 16, 2015

By Paul Rockwell

In “Breaking Through Concrete,” David Hanson writes: “Urban farms are appearing in almost every corner of our cities, from strips along freeways, to warehouse rooftops, from concrete planters to entire city blocks.”

Oakland is no exception.

Recently I drove down Park Boulevard past Leimert, down past Oakland High. There’s a massage parlor just before the corner of Cleveland and Park, and the street art on the fence is quite bold and stunning.

Through an open gate I saw a community vegetable garden on the hillside, including a chicken coop at the top, where an excited child was holding an irate hen.

Amanda, one of the farm’s founders, described the tumultuous transformation of an “abandoned lot” into an edible commons.

“This space was on our radar,” she began. “There was a couch on the lot. The grass was as tall as the fence, and it turned out the developers were not even in the States.

One day a couple of folks noticed that the City dumped the old couch and weed-wacked the whole lot. So there it was…Ready to go!”

“We got a small school bus and packed it with manure. That’s right. We sat on pounds of manure, and steam was seeping out of the windows.

We were all nervous because we knew nothing about what we were doing. We parked the bus and moved fast to unload the manure. Someone mistakenly hit the fire extinguisher inside the bus. Smoky soot poured out.”

When we got into the lot we couldn’t even sink a shovel into the soil. Eventually we secured a rototiller and some pickaxes. The garden was simply meant to be,” she concluded.

Tobias Barton and Lindsay Zeb co-ordinate garden workdays Thursdays and Sundays. “We operate the space communally,” Barton noted. Some of the original founders were inspired by the success of Gill Tract in Albany, often named “Occupy the Farm.” The young activists and environmentalists, self-taught farmers who grow food in unconventional spaces, view farming as a social insurance policy, a hedge fund against climate change.

Battina Bell, a member of the garden co-op, lives nearby. She is proud of her community for turning a blighted lot into something green, peaceful and productive.

“When we first cleaned out the land, we found syringes and broken glass. The hazards were eliminated, and the area is absolutely turned around.”

It was her son who first got her involved. “My son, who was eleven at the time, became excited when he saw the open space.

He turned it into his own personal playground because it offered an opportunity for exploration. He was able to climb the big tree, and he set up his own little swing, doing what boys and girls love to do.

“The Park Boulevard garden closes a nature deficit. For parents it’s a garden through which their children can have a safe, enjoyable opportunity to be in nature.

“Some people,” she added, “contribute street art; some use the space to hold meetings.” A sense of place inspires a sense of community.

I could hardly quell her enthusiasm. “Because of the garden, I now know neighbors that I lived next to for years and had no other interaction than a brief, friendly hello.

It may sound corny, but I come here to find peace. I particularly enjoy bringing children here to collect eggs. This is a gift community.”

Urban community farms may be small and funky, but they are playing an increasingly important role in determining the future of the American food system. Manure and all.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke