City Government

OP-ED: Channeling the Spirit of Frederick Douglass to Save DMC

Published

9 years ago

August 18, 2014

By John William Templeton
Special to the Richmond Post

Channeling the immortal words of Frederick Douglass, a courageous group of doctors, nurses and civic leaders drew a line in the sand this week (by seeking a Temporary Restraining Order, see adjacent story) to avert the closure of West Contra Costa’s only public emergency lifeline – Doctors Medical Center (DMC).

< p>Invoking thousands of senior citizens who labored in four shipyards to win World War II and now count on their nation, state and county to care for them, the Doctors Medical Center Closure Aversion Committee implored U.S. District Judge William Orrick to choose humanity over despair and stop the closure of Doctors Medical Center

They cited the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, created as a direct result of Douglass’ abolitionist messages. The towering figure’s words “Without struggle there is no progress” are enshrined on a monument in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. The African American Civil War Memorial also carries Douglass’ statement: “Who would be free themselves must first strike the blow.

Legislating from atop that Douglass statue is Rep. George Miller, D-CA, considered the “right hand” of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Committee members met with Barb Smith, his local chief of staff, and other staffers to discuss how Miller can intervene for citizens whose sacrifice saved the nation after Pearl Harbor

Dr. Otis Rounds, a hospitalist in the facility, leads the committee and joined other DMC physicians as named plaintiffs in the suit. They also held a town hall at Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church Thursday to empower community members with facts about what county officials describe as “catastrophic” impacts of reducing service dramatically or closing the facility.

Rev. Kamal Hassan, pastor of Sojourner Truth Church, is also moderator of the Presbytery of San Francisco, and called on all area clergy to get involved.

Dr. Rounds and other members of the committee cannot reconcile how relevant officials can paint such a bleak picture, yet not act to prevent it. “Many of our patients today were building a ship every week for years when America was in its darkest hour,” said Rounds. “How can we not get decision makers together to keep their hospital thriving for years to come?”

The closure is part of a cycle of declining services for minority and low-income communities throughout the Bay Area despite record tax revenues and explosive growth.

Deleting transit services, schools, libraries and health facilities then leads to a spiral of community decline accelerated by the highest concentration of predatory loans of any metropolitan area in the country and employment discrimination by the fastest growing and cash flush technology companies.

The result is displacement from coastal communities once needed for shipbuilding and unloading cargo that are now viewed as desirable places to put luxury housing, offices and sports arenas. Plan Bay Area, a nine-county document that forecasts through 2040, identifies those minority coastal neighborhoods as headed for rapid growth, but doesn’t address the fate of the people who currently live there.

DMCs fight is then a fight on behalf of all those communities, which are often invisible so that the 25 percent rate of asthma for youth in Richmond is ignored.

But when 60 percent of Contra Costa County’s ambulance traffic gets re-routed within a 25-mile radius to hospitals from Martinez to Oakland to Napa, this problem will become real to the entire East Bay, clogging freeway traffic and extending daily commutes.

The doctors note that closing the hospital actually costs more than keeping it open. Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, Budget Committee chair, are reviewing ways the state can provide additional assistance as West Contra Costa County bears the burden for providing industrial materials for the entire state.

As West Contra Costa County experiences its most explosive growth since World War II, it is likely that such developments as the University of California’s Richmond Bay Campus will drive population and tax revenues up. Including a new hospital and associated facilities with such growth is consistent with proper land use planning.

Similar construction at UC San Francisco paid for the construction of a new public safety headquarters.

Martin Luther King Jr. has said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”

The advocates for Doctors Medical Center foresee a solution that preserves the access to high quality care for the patients that need it most. It is the right thing to do.

John William Templeton is co-founder of National Black Business Month in August and a consultant to the Doctors Medical Center Closure Aversion Committee.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

Published

1 day ago

June 2, 2023

Oakland Post

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

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Activism

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.

Published

5 days ago

May 30, 2023

Oakland Post

Geoffrey Pete went to City Hall to appeal the city Planning Commission’s approval of the high-rise development that threatens the closure of his 44-year historic cultural mecca. Photo by Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones.

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).

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.

Activism

Community Meeting on Crime and Violence

Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.

Published

5 days ago

May 29, 2023

Oakland Post