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Black Lives Matter Co-Founder to Attend State of the Union

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By Lauren Burke, NBC News

 

Alicia Garza, one of the three female founders of Black Lives Matter, will be the guest of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) at President Obama’s last State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Garza is a constituent of Rep. Lee, who is active on issues of poverty, civil rights and education.

 

“Looking forward to welcoming #BlackLivesMatter co-creator,@aliciagarza, as my #SOTU guest. She’s a powerful voice for justice and reform,” tweeted Rep. Lee on January 7.

 

Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi founded the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin, 17, on February 26, 2012. The activism of Black Lives Matter dominated the news in 2015 and changed the conversation on policing and justice policy for 2016.

 

There will be other important guests in attendance for the State of the Union. According to the White House, twenty four special quests invited by the White House will watch the President lay out plans for 2016. Additionally in a symbolic act, first lady Michelle Obama will have an empty seat next to her as a statement on those lost to gun violence.

 

Over the weekend a White House official told NBC Black that President Obama’s final State of the Union will “represent the progress we have made since the President first delivered this speech seven years ago – from the brink of a second Great Depression and two costly wars to an economy that is growing and renewed American leadership abroad.”

 

The President’s guests will include people he met in 2007 and 2008 while running for office. Two guests who will be seated in the First Lady’s box are Edith Childs and Earl Smith.

 

Childs is a Greenwood County, South Carolina Councilmember who is famous for the popular Obama campaign chant “Fired up! Ready to go!” Smith is a Vietnam veteran who met President Obama in a hotel elevator in 2008 and gave the then-Senator a military patch he had worn serving with an artillery brigade in Vietnam.

 

African American business owner Mark Davis will also be sitting in the First Lady’s box. Davis “was inspired by the President’s focus on climate change to do something to protect the planet” and owns a WDC Solar.

 

Another notable guest in the gallery will be Cedric Rowland of Chicago, who is a heath care insurance navigator. Richmond’s work helping people to find the best health care plan at the right price led him to assist a woman named Stephanie Lucas. Lucas is a diabetic and did not qualify for Medicaid. But Cedric’s help led her to a pan that costs $62 a month after tax credits.

 

Over 6 million African Americans are now eligible for health care coverage and the percentage of uninsured African Americans dropped from 24 percent to 16 percent since 2013 when the health care law was enacted.

 

Alicia Garza, one of the three female founders of Black Lives Matter, will be the guest of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) at President Obama’s last State of the Union address on Tuesday night. Garza is a constituent of Rep. Lee, who is active on issues of poverty, civil rights and education.

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

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Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

  • 238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
  • Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
  • Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
  • City Council District: 3
  • Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

  • 118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
  • Award: $28 million
  • Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
  • City Council District: 6
  • Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

  •  59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
  • Award: $7 million
  • Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
  • City Council District: 3
  • Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

  • 96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
  • Award: $20 million
  • Developer: Mercy Housing California
  • City Council District: 3
  • Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

  • 72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
  • Award: $10.5 million
  • Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
  • City Council District: 3
  • Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

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Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

  • The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
  • The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.

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Arts and Culture

Rise East Project: Part 3

Between 1990 and 2020, Oakland lost nearly half of its Black population due to economic and social forces. East Oakland, once a middle-class community, is now home to mostly Black families living in poverty.

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CEO of Black Culture Zone Carolyn Johnson, a native from Deep East Oakland is making the change she wishes to see in her community and in her people. Black Culture Zone has created a power base of Black folks making a difference in Deep East Oakland. Photo by Kumi Rauf.
CEO of Black Culture Zone Carolyn Johnson, a native from Deep East Oakland is making the change she wishes to see in her community and in her people. Black Culture Zone has created a power base of Black folks making a difference in Deep East Oakland. Photo by Kumi Rauf.

The Black Cultural Zone’s Pivotal Role in Rebuilding Oakland’s Black Community

By Tanya Dennis

 

Between 1990 and 2020, Oakland lost nearly half of its Black population due to economic and social forces.  East Oakland, once a middle-class community, is now home to mostly Black families living in poverty.

 

In 2021, 314 Oakland residents died from COVID-19.  More than 100 of them, or about 33.8%, were Black, a high rate of death as Blacks constitute only 22.8% of Oakland’s population.

 

This troubling fact did not go unnoticed by City and County agencies, and the public-at-large, ultimately leading to the development of several community organizations determined to combat what many deemed an existential threat to Oakland’s African American residents.

 

Eastside Arts Alliance had already proposed that a Black Cultural Zone be established in Deep East Oakland in 2010, but 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic galvanized the community.

 

Demanding Black legacy preservation, the Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) called for East Oakland to be made an “unapologetically Black” business, commercial, economic development community.

 

Established initially as a welcoming space for Black art and culture, BCZ emerged into a a community development collective, and acquired the Eastmont police substation in Eastmont Town Center from the City of Oakland in 2020.

 

Once there, BCZ immediately began combating the COVID-19 pandemic with drive-thru PPE distribution and food giveaways. BCZ’s Akoma Market program allowed businesses to sell their products and wares safely in a COVID-compliant space during the COVID-19 shutdown.

 

Currently, Akoma Market is operated twice a month at 73rd and Foothill Boulevard and Akoma vendors ‘pop up’ throughout the state at festivals and community-centered events like health fairs.

 

“Before BCZ existed, East Oakland was a very depressing place to live,” said Ari Curry, BCZ’s chief experience officer and a resident of East Oakland. “There was a sense of hopelessness and not being seen. BCZ allows us to be seen by bringing in the best of our culture and positive change into some of our most depressed areas.”

 

The culture zone innovates, incubates, informs, and elevates the Black community and centers it in arts and culture, Curry went on.

 

“With the mission to center ourselves unapologetically in arts, culture, and economics, BCZ allows us to design, resource, and build on collective power within our community for transformation,” Curry concluded.

 

As a part of Oakland Thrives, another community collective, BCZ began working to secure $100 million to develop a ‘40 by 40’ block area that runs from Seminary Avenue to the Oakland-San Leandro border and from MacArthur Boulevard to the Bay.

The project would come to be known as Rise East.

 

Carolyn Johnson, CEO of BCZ says, “Our mission is to build a vibrant legacy where we thrive economically, anchored in Black art and commerce. The power to do this is being realized with the Rise East Project.

 

“With collective power, we are pushing for good health and self-determination, which is true freedom,” Johnson says. “BCZ’s purpose is to innovate, to change something already established; to incubate, optimizing growth and development, and boost businesses’ economic growth with our programs; we inform as we serve as a trusted source of information for resources to help people; and most important, we elevate, promoting and boosting Black folks up higher with the services we deliver with excellence.

 

“Rise East powers our work in economics, Black health, education, and power building. Rise East is the way to get people to focus on what BCZ has been doing. The funding for the 40 by 40 Rise East project is funding the Black Culture Zone,” Johnson said.

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