Bay Area

Kaplan’s 13-Point Agenda for a ‘Just Recovery Plan’

Published

6 years ago

June 3, 2020

Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan, who serves as Oakland’s Council Member At-Large, announced a bold, 13-point, “Agenda for Healthy Transition and a Just Recovery Plan.”

Kaplan’s proposals are designed to address the disparities in experiences and treatment, and the negative economic impacts of its residents.

“We have seen disproportionate deaths in the African American community, along with frequent denial of healthcare, and our Latinx community is also disproportionately impacted, including many who have been ordered to show up at work, often without adequate protections,” Kaplan said. “We must acknowledge that economic suffering will not heal itself — we must take action to ensure a just recovery so that those who have suffered the most do not continue to be left behind.”

Kaplan is urging the council to take immediate action to ensure the timely launch and revised safe programming for Oakland’s summer jobs and summer food programs, stating: “We must ensure health protections for workers (which also prevents community spread among the public) including the provision of adequate protective equipment and protection from being forced to come to work when sick.

The plan calls on the council to:

1. Improve community access to testing and treatment, especially for those disproportionately impacted, including our Latinx and African-American communities.

2. Provide expanded economic opportunity with safe health guidelines in our Youth Summer Jobs Programs and commit to youth involvement in a healthier future, including with the right to vote and civic engagement.

3. Support food programs, including the summer food programs.

4. Expand public access to hand-washing stations and toilets.

5. Provide library programs, such as book delivery and expanded internet access.

6 Allow RVs on private lots with sanitation solutions.

7. Provide support to small businesses by making it easier to make changes to layout and systems and online permitting

8. Provide expanded uses for hotels

9. Streamline processes for affordable housing construction

10. Strengthen jobs training to careers in the construction trades and related industries.

11. Expand access to community health clinics and job training in health care.

12. Take illegal guns off the streets with gun tracing and a crackdown on illegal gun dealing.

On May 19. the Oakland City Council addressed the issues of Youth Summer Jobs Programs and Food Service Programs.

The Jobs Training Pipeline, funding for the installation of hand-washing stations and toilets, authorization to use hotels for housing, and funding for improved gun tracing, have already been previously adopted by the council, and supporters continue to advocate for the administration to fully implement them.