City Government
Oakland Community Forum Hears Solutions for Affordable Housing, Renter Protection
Community members packed Oakland City Hall chambers Wednesday evening for a forum led by a panel of community leaders to discuss can be done to stop the tidal wave of displacement that is pushing long term residents out of the city and has escalated in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire.
“We are here to make recommendations and propose solutions. It’s not enough to just point fingers and blame,” said Post publisher Paul Cobb, who helped organize the community meeting, which brought together low-income tenants, artists and residents of warehouse spaces, housing rights activists and homeless people.
Councilmember-at-Large Rebecca Kaplan hosted and moderated the meeting for the community. Other council members who attended were Noel Gallo and Dan Kalb.

Bishop Bob Jackson. Photo by Cornelia Grimes.
The keynote speaker was Bishop Bob Jackson of Acts Full Gospel C.O.G.I.C. who has put together funding to build housing in East Oakland for low-income residents.
“It really grieves my spirit that so many people who are low income cannot afford to live in the city,” Bishop Jackson said, calling on faith-based organizations to step up to build housing that is truly affordable for Oaklanders.
“There are 3,000 vacant properties in the city, and the City of Oakland owns the majority,” he said “We can take the vacant lots and build on them. We can renovate those (abandoned) houses.”
Pastor Ken Chambers of Westside Missionary Baptist Church spoke of the need for living wage jobs for the unemployed and homeless in the city, many of whom are Black.
“In West Oakland you see tent cities. We’re starting to get comfortable seeing tents in this city,” said Pastor Chambers.
The city continues to make deals with developers so they can make large profits, he said. “(But) everything we build in this city should (include) jobs and job training.”
“We need to have cultural diversity in the city and at construction sites and in the (building) trades.”
Several speakers explained that not only are Oakland residents being impacted. Landlords and developers are raising rents and pushing out nonprofit agencies that serve low-income Oaklanders.

Jonah Strauss of the Oakland Warehouse Coalition. Photo by Tulio Ospina.
Jonah Strauss of the Oakland Warehouse Coalition presented a five-page proposal for an emergency tenant protection ordinance, which will be presented to the City Council on Jan. 17.
The warehouse coalition, formed in the aftermath of the Ghost Ship fire, advocates for “low-income people who live and or work in converted commercial and industrial spaces,” according to the written proposal.
“Our goal is to prevent displacement, as well as to make these properties safer.”
Immediate demands of the warehouse coalition include:
Extend tenant protections to all residents, regardless of zoning;
“Cease all Notices to Vacate, “red tags,” for non life threatening code violations and evictions;”
“Cease flash inspections of properties, unless there is proof of a life-threatening condition;”
Prohibit the use of anonymous code violation complaints as harassment and as a means to remove tenants.
Councilmember Kaplan underscored the need to stop city inspectors from contributing to the displacement crisis.
“There is no reason why we can’t fight for fire safety and for affordable housing,” she said.
“We cannot accept that the only solution is that we are going to displace everyone. We have to have a strategy that focuses on needed safety improvement while protecting renters.”
Cherri Murphy presented some of the proposals backed by the Oakland Justice Coalition:
Fully enact and enforce the newly approved Measure JJ renter’s protection ordinance;
Increase the number of affordable homeownership pathways;
Increase funding for community land trusts. This includes increasing taxes on development and real estate sales, using all city-owned surplus property for affordable housing, and directing city investments to create new affordable housing units;
Develop relationships with community members most affected by housing inequity, including Black and Brown neighbors, teachers, the homeless, artists, and any others who are typically pushed to the side.
James Vann of the Oakland Post Community Assembly called on the city to pass tenant protection ordinances that the city staff pledged over six months ago to work to implement.
The proposal includes requiring a mandatory mediation process in cases where landlords want to evict tenants for issues other than failure to pay rent. About 12,000 tenants were evicted last year in Oakland.
Vann also said the city should modify the definition of affordable housing. At present, he said, the overwhelming majority of Oakland residents cannot afford spaces that are defined as affordable by the city.
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Community Opposes High Rise Development That Threatens Geoffrey’s Inner Circle
City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.

By Ken Epstein
An outpouring of community supporters – young, old, jazz lovers, environmentalists and committed Oakland partisans – spoke out at a recent Planning Commission hearing to support Geoffrey Pete and his cultural center – The Inner Circle – an historic Oakland landmark whose future is threatened by a proposed skyscraper that out-of-town-developer Tidewater Capital wants to build in the midst of the city’s Black Arts Movement and Business District (BAMBD).
City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.
The speakers argued passionately and persuasively, winning the sympathy of the commissioners, but were ultimately unsuccessful as the Commission unanimously approved the high-rise to be built either as a residential building or office tower on Franklin Street directly behind Geoffrey’s building.
Mr. Pete has said he would appeal the decision to the City Council. He has 10 days after the hearing to file an appeal on the office building. His appeal on the residential tower has already been submitted.
Mr. Pete said the Planning Department still has not published the boundaries of the BAMBD. “Tidewater’s applications and subsequent applications should not be approved until the Planning Department fully acknowledges the existence of the BAMBD,” he said.
“This (proposed) building poses a grave danger to the historic (Inner Circle) building next to it, arguably Oakland’s most meaningful historic building,” Pete said.
“We’re here to advocate for what’s best for the African American district and community that has gotten no representation, no advocacy, as of yet,” he said. “The (commission) is guilty, the City of Oakland is guilty, and Tidewater is guilty.”
One of the first speakers was Gwendolyn Traylor, known as Lady SunRise, who directly addressed the developers.
“With all due to respect to your business, it’s not a need of this community. I would like to ask you to reconsider the location …What is being (promised) here does not add to the healing of this community,” she said.
Naomi Schiff of the Oakland Heritage Alliance emphasized that Geoffrey’s Inner Circle is a treasure of Oakland’s history.
“Our first concern is the integrity of the historic district, in particular the former Athenian-Nile Club, now Mr. Pete’s equally historic venue, which has been the location of a great number of important community events,” she said. “It would not be OK with us if the integrity of the building were damaged in any way, no matter how much insurance (the developer bought) because it is very difficult to repair a historic building once it’s damaged.”
The Inner Circle was previously owned and operated by the Athenian-Nile Club, one of the Bay Area’s largest all-white-male exclusive private membership club, where politicians and power brokers closed back-room deals over handshakes and three martini lunches.
Cephus “Uncle Bobby X” Johnson pointed out that commissioners and the city’s Planning Department have “acknowledged that you went through the entire design review process without even knowing that the Black Arts Movement and Business District existed.”
The district was created in 2016 by City Council resolution. “At the heart of the opposition to this building is the desire to further the legacy of local Black entertainment and entrepreneurship exemplified by businesses like Mr. Pete’s … a historical landmark and venue (that serves) thousands of people who listen to jazz and other entertainment and hold weddings, receptions, and memorial services,” said Uncle Bobby.
This development is taking place within a context in which the “Black population in Oakland has decreased rapidly … because of the city’s concentration on building houses that are not affordable for people who currently live in Oakland,” he said.
John Dalrymple of East Bay Residents for Responsible Development said, “This project will result in significant air quality, public health, noise, and traffic impacts. He said the city has not adequately studied the (unmitigated) impacts of this project on the Black Arts Movement and Business District.
“This project is an example of what developers are being allowed to do when they don’t have to follow the law, and they don’t have to be sensitive to our city’s culture and values,” he said. The commission should “send a signal today that we will no longer be a feeding ground for the rich.”
Prominent Oakland businessman Ray Bobbitt told commissioners, “Any decision that you make is a contribution to the systemic process that creates a disproportionate impact on Black people. Please do yourself a favor, (and) rethink this scenario. Give Mr. Pete, who is a leader in our community, an opportunity to set the framework before you make any decision.”
Though the City Council created the BAMBD, the 2016 resolution was never implemented. The district was created to “highlight, celebrate, preserve and support the contributions of Oakland’s Black artists and business owners and the corridor as a place central historically and currently to Oakland’s Black artists and Black-owned businesses.”
The district was intended to promote Black arts, political movements, enterprises, and culture in the area, and to bring in resources through grants and other funding.
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