Activism
Community Building 101: We’re All in This Together
A coalition of community volunteers distributed free meals to the unsheltered at the intersection of High Street and International Boulevard on June 10. It showed what the community can and will do when we work together. Joining together in this effort were Formally Incarcerated Giving Back (FIGB), Big Mamas Best Memorial Bereavement Foundation, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG), the Diplomat’s Center Inc. and Bishop Mario Gaines who blessed the meals.
![Members of the unhoused community enjoy meals offered by a coalition of Oakland organizations on June 10. Photo by Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/community-building-101-featured-web.jpg)
By Richard Johnson
A coalition of community volunteers distributed free meals to the unsheltered at the intersection of High Street and International Boulevard on June 10.
It showed what community can and will do when we work together.
Joining together in this effort were Formally Incarcerated Giving Back (FIGB), Big Mamas Best Memorial Bereavement Foundation, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG), the Diplomat’s Center Inc. and Bishop Mario Gaines who blessed the meals.
This was a showing of activism by concerned groups making a difference in the community. These various groups realized the need for active and productive change, so they united to make this event happen. Each entity, like FIGB, seeks to provide the necessities for underserved communities.
AASEG has a plan to rebuild the community through affordable housing and livable wage jobs as well as bringing sports and entertainment back to Oakland. Diplomat’s Center Inc. provides re-entry transitional housing for returning citizens.
These groups also volunteer with Charles Reed’s 5,000 Returning Family Members Voters Registration Campaign along with the Uncuffed Project which is utilizing the tiny homes initiative to acquire available space.
These projects have combined their efforts to bring better working conditions for those trying to forge their livelihood under the common expression “it takes a village to raise a child.”
These community-based and re-entry organizations have adopted the motto “it takes a unified effort to change the negative to a positive on a societal level.”
This collaboration has embraced the belief that working, and volunteering together is a necessity if we as a people, as a community, and as a restored society can make a real difference in each other’s lives.
There are far too many available resources to deter our march for a victory over poverty, crime, unemployment, and the pursuit of happiness.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
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Activism
Community Celebrates Historic Oakland Billboard Agreements
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
![The Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/economic-development-corporation-featured-web.jpg)
Grand Jury Report Incorrect – Council & Community Benefit
We, the Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition, which includes Oakland’s six leading community health clinics, all ethnic chambers of commerce, and top community-based economic development organizations – celebrate the historic billboard agreements approved last year by the Oakland City Council. We have fought for this opportunity against the billboard monopoly, against Clear Channel, for five years. The agreements approved by Council set the bar for community benefits – nearly $70 Million over their lifetime, more than 23 times the total paid by all previous Clear Channel relocation agreements in Oakland combined.
Unfortunately, a recent flawed Grand Jury report got it wrong, so we feel compelled to correct the record:
- Regarding the claim that the decision was made hastily, the report itself belies that claim. The process was five years in the making, with two and a half years from the first City Council hearing to the final vote. Along the way, as the report describes, there were multiple Planning Commission hearings, public stakeholder outreach meetings, a Council Committee meeting, and then a vote by the full Council. Not only was this not hasty, it had far more scrutiny than any of the previous relocation agreements approved by the City with Clear Channel, all of which provide 1/23 of the benefits of the Becker/OFI agreements approved by the Council.
- More importantly, the agreements will actually bring millions to the City and community, nearly $70M to be exact, 23 times the previous Clear Channel relocation agreements combined. They certainly will not cost the city money, especially since nothing would have been on the table at all if our Coalition had not been fighting for it. Right before the decisive City Council Committee hearing, in the final weeks before the full Council vote, there was a hastily submitted last-minute “proposal” by Clear Channel that was debunked as based on non-legal and non-economically viable sites, and relying entirely on the endorsement of a consultant that boasts Clear Channel as their biggest client and whose decisions map to Clear Channel’s monopolistic interests all over the country. Some City staff believed these unrealistic numbers based on false premises, and, since they only interviewed City staff, the Grand Jury report reiterated this misinformation, but it was just part of Clear Channel’s tried and true monopolistic practices of seeking to derail agreements that actually set the new standard for billboard community benefits. Furthermore, our proposals are not mutually exclusive – if Clear Channel’s proposal was real, why had they not brought it forward previously? Why have they not brought it forward since? Because it was not a real proposal – it was nothing but smoke and mirrors, as the Clear Channel’s former Vice President stated publicly at Council.
Speaking on behalf of the community health clinics that are the primary beneficiaries of the billboard funding, La Clinica de la Raza CEO Jane Garcia, states: “In this case, the City Council did the right thing – listening to the community that fought for five years to create this opportunity that is offering the City and community more than twenty times what previous billboard relocation agreements have offered.”
Oakland Billboard Economic Development Coalition
Native American Health Center | La Clínica de la Raza | West Oakland Health Center |
Asian Health Services | Oakland LGBTQ Center | Roots Community Health Center |
The Unity Council | Black Cultural Zone | Visit Oakland |
Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce | Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce |
Oakland Latino Chamber of Commerce | Building Trades of Alameda County | (partial list) |
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