Community

OP-ED: Safety Walks: A Call to Action in Inactive Times

Published

10 years ago

June 2, 2015

By Omar de la Cruz

Having spent my entire life in Oakland, I know the many faces and channels of the city. As a resident of the Fruitvale district, there is no bigger channel than International Boulevard.

International exists in two phases alien to one another, coexisting yet not often touching.

During the day, International is a busy thoroughfare for commuters and the sidewalks are bustling with students, small business activity, families, etc. Once daylight fades and streetlights illuminate the scarcely populated streets, the nightlife takes over.

Nightlife in the Fruitvale is not marked by clubs, restaurants and bars, but by the unfortunate souls caught in the cycle of human trafficking. The paths to prostitution are as diverse as the city itself – some abducted, others tricked, many join voluntarily – but regardless of how one gets there, the fact remains that International Blvd. is one of the nation’s hotspots for it.

For decades, people have debated the causes of prostitution to what the correct legal and social response is. Unfortunately, there has been an alarming lack of meaningful action.

On November 21, 2014, Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo’s initiative to rehabilitate International Blvd. began. Councilmember Gallo, who lives in the heart of the Fruitvale, was frustrated by the lack of visible action taking place in the district he was elected to represent.

With Gallo’s weekly Friday night Safety Walk program, it can no longer be said that Oakland residents remain inactive, at least not in the Fruitvale.

The project is an alternative response to waiting for policing. Its aims are not punitive but rehabilitory and focused on deterrence. Every week since the projects inception local volunteers and activists of all ages have marched alongside Councilmember Gallo down International with a rallying cry of “Safe streets, safe kids!”

The project has been a collaborative effort with the faith-based organization Victory Outreach, which offers a lifeline out of prostitution through shelters and safe houses. Every night, the organization makes a point to peacefully approach every prostitute (sexually exploited women, mostly minors) on the street. Of the countless women approached, many have accepted the help.

In a city that moves notoriously slow, in one of the nation’s sex trafficking highways, we must challenge ourselves to be better. With issues like prostitution that germinate in the city’s seedy corridors it will take a similarly grassroots effort to combat it.

The problem used to be that no such effort existed. Now a call to action has been issued and an opportunity for change has presented itself and it is our job to respond.

For more information on joining the Safety Walk program, or dates and locations, contact Councilmember Noel Gallo’s office at (510) 238-7247.

Omar de la Cruz is a resident of Oakland and works in Councilmember Noel Gallo’s office.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 2- 8, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 2 – 8, 2025

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5 days ago

July 7, 2025

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Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

July 3, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.