City Government

Rebecca Kaplan Wins Funding and Air Quality Improvements and Funding for Oakland

Published

9 years ago

November 3, 2017

Ever since the north bay fires killed many residents, ravaged thousands of structures and trees we have become more aware of the value of fresh air. We still see many wearing masks to help cope with their breathing. Those fires reminded us of our history of bad air quality and high asthma rates

Therefore it is important that the work in the region be redoubled to improve the air quality and strengthen the clean air efforts to protect the public health of our hardest hit neighborhoods.

Oakland has struggled with air pollution issues for years with West Oakland recording patients with high asthma rates. Bad air quality and emissions have also affected and damaged the disproportionately impacted African American and low-income neighborhoods in East Oakland, Richmond and more.

Last year, Oakland’s Citywide Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, successfully won a seat on the Board of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), and has been taking successful actions to clean the air and winning funding for important projects.

Kaplan’s work is helping to bring attention, and funding for real solutions, to the region’s hardest hit communities. This includes winning money to replace an old diesel locomotive engine with a new cleaner one, on the train that moves freight around the army base in West Oakland, to reduce the health dangers.

The BAAQMD Board has approved Kaplan’s proposal to launch a new program to buy out older heavily-polluting diesel trucks, and is expanding support for cleaner vehicles.

Kaplan won new Air District funding for the Broadway shuttle, a free transit service connecting downtown Oakland, Uptown, Jack London Square and more, along with connecting BART, Amtrak, and key destinations. This service helps people get around the core of Oakland for free, and reduces traffic and pollution.

Currently, Kaplan is working to launch a program of community-based mitigations, including installing better filtration systems in buildings in sensitive communities, to help protect people from the health impacts of air pollution. Most recently, when the air quality was very bad due to the smoke from the north bay fires, Kaplan was able to work with BAAQMD to get air filtration masks to key communities in Oakland, including for senior centers and for the homeless.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”