Bay Area

Opinion: Closing Oakland’s Tobacco Store Loophole Will Protect Youth and Support Racial Equity

Published

6 years ago

April 10, 2020

Oakland leaders need to act soon to close a loophole in the city’s tobacco retail ordinance.

In 2017, the Oakland City Council adopted an ordinance that restricts the sale of menthol and all flavored tobacco products to help protect youth and their communities from these dangerous and addictive products. However, the ordinance included an exemption for adult-only tobacco stores. This exemption allowed the amount of adult-only tobacco stores to grow from a handful of stores, when the ordinance first went into effect, to over 55 in less than two years.

The exemption is exacerbating the existing smoking disparities that the City Council intended to address. The increase in the amount of adult-only tobacco stores is leading to an increase in the amount of flavored tobacco products sold and accessible to youth in their neighborhoods.

The majority of the adult-only tobacco stores selling these products are located in East and West Oakland’s lower-income neighborhoods meaning the negative impact falls disproportionately on youth in areas that already experience some of the city’s poorest health outcomes. According to the Alameda County Public Health Department, the average life expectancy of African Americans in the flatlands of East Oakland is 14 years less than Whites living in the Oakland hills.

Why then is an exemption in place that has resulted in the concentration of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes, in the same communities that experience high negative health outcomes and aggressive marketing tactics from the tobacco industry?

Last November, The Oakland Post ran two articles highlighting efforts by the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC) around their campaign against flavored tobacco products and their exhibit on the history of the tobacco industry’s targeting of the African American community to addict them to menthol tobacco products. AATCLC is a group at the forefront of elevating the regulation of mentholated and other flavored tobacco products and countering tactics used by the tobacco industry in its attempt to attract and addict African American smokers.

Both articles included details about the marketing tactics the tobacco industry used for decades to attract African Americans. Some of those methods included advertising in widely read African American magazines, funding prominent African American leaders, and co-opting African American culture so successfully that menthol cigarettes became nearly synonymous with smoking for many African American smokers. The tobacco industry continues to use these same tactics locally to hook a new generation of youth of color to cheap flavored tobacco.

In 2017, Oakland City Council was a leader in passing the Oakland Children Smoking Prevention Ordinance to prevent youth smoking and racial disparities in smoking through access to cheap flavored tobacco products. Now we need them to show their leadership again and change the law by removing the adult-only exemption and follow the lead of nearby cities like Richmond, San Francisco and Berkeley all of which prohibit the sale of menthol and all flavored tobacco products city-wide, with no exemptions. And we need them to act soon because the number of adult-only retailers keeps growing. Doing this will protect youth and their communities from the tobacco industry, address the inequitable outcomes of Oakland’s current tobacco policy, and institutionalize racial equity in government.

Every year 45,000 African Americans die from a tobacco-related illness in the U.S., which is undoubtedly driven by menthol cigarette use. Oakland leaders can’t save all African Americans in the U.S. from the tobacco industry, but they can take action to save those who live in and around Oakland.

Marlene C. Hurd, B.A.NCC, is president of the Merritt College Tobacco Less Club.

Airion Boatner is East Oakland Youth and Emerging Community Leader of Roots Community Health Center

Marlene Hurt and Airion Boatner

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

4 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Activism

Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.