Bay Area
Seeking Solutions to Crime Wave, Oakland District 3 Community Holds Safety Forum with Police, Elected Leaders
Citizens and business owners met with elected officials on Tuesday at the Calabash restaurant in Uptown Oakland to air concerns on public safety and rising crime in their district. Issues on the table included the need for faster police responses, connecting non-violent offenders with resources and an understanding of the Alameda County District Attorney’s prosecuting practices and role in the system’s matrix.
By Carla Thomas
Citizens and business owners met with elected officials on Tuesday at the Calabash restaurant in Uptown Oakland to air concerns on public safety and rising crime in their district.
Issues on the table included the need for faster police responses, connecting non-violent offenders with resources and an understanding of the Alameda County District Attorney’s prosecuting practices and role in the system’s matrix.
Area 2 Police Captain Jeff Thomason of the Oakland Police Department (OPD), Oakland District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, and Harold Duffey, Interim City Administrator for the City of Oakland were present.
This month, OPD responded to over 20 commercial break-ins in a matter of days. Frequent shootings are occurring in areas of East and West Oakland, now tracked by Shot Spotter, which alerts police where shots have been fired and directs officers to the right place.
Moderated by Nathan Moon, advocacy director of the Ujima Neighborhood Council, and hosted by Angela Moore of Oakland’s Neighborhood Services Division, the consensus reached in the meeting was that the rise in city violence corresponded to the abundance of automatic weapons on the streets, the continuing historic crack epidemic, and a current uptick in fentanyl use.
Victims of physical violence, car break-ins and small business break-ins with no arrests have left citizens with many questions about public safety.
With so many questions and not enough answers, citizens have further updated their demand: the ability to not just feel safe in their community but actually be safe in local surroundings.
The meeting included about 40 stakeholders, even a few beyond District 3 boundaries. Chinatown community leader Darlene Wong detailed the timeline and tools used to break into a popular restaurant on Eighth Street, one of four break-ins in the area.
According to Wong, the restaurant was empty by 3:15 a.m., and within five minutes, thieves spent the next 14 minutes using a saw, bolt cutters, and a hammer to bust through the restaurant’s gate and two double doors. Wong said the damage and theft cost $36,000 and her boss, the restaurant’s owner is livid.
Wong said cultural dynamics and fear of retaliation have prevented residents right across the street from reporting incidents.
“We have neighbors right across from our business, but fear of retaliation is big in the culture,” she said.
Wong hopes that a third-party patrol company and community liaisons will work more closely with the Chinatown Improvement Council.
Nina Moore, third-generation owner of Everett & Jones Barbeque Restaurant in Jack London Square, said their establishment had been victimized by theft twice in one week.
“They trashed the office and stole two safes,” said Moore. “It’s very stressful because my mom started this business in 1973. We are family-owned and -operated. My sister and I inherited and now run the business after our mom passed of cancer two years ago. We need more support for our businesses and public safety,” said Moore.
Price listened closely to the concerns during the meeting and explained that up until now the function of the District Attorney’s office has been the same for 100 years.
She acknowledged that lack of resources and even under-utilized resources have impacted the community and clarified that she has no authority over the OPD or how it functions, and the OPD has no authority over her.
Hiring eight new attorneys and two for mental health are the beginning of change, according to Price. “We spent the month of January reviewing cases and found 37 people in jail that are incompetent for trial,” said Price.
She also explained that mental illness is not a crime and mentally ill citizens that need an alternative should have been referred or sent to the Care and Navigation Center (CNC).
With two years of a three-year contract and a $300,000 annual budget, Price says the center has only served six people. “With no oversight and accountability under the previous administration, we end up with people in need of medical care or in need of a time of respite at the CNC, sent to jail and forgotten.”
Price also explained many are reluctant to be transported to a care center in the back of a police car.
Until a few weeks ago there was only one mental health liaison for the entire county. Price said. “There are many systemic changes we are currently working on. I just increased my staff to support those with mental health issues.”
Plans to work closely with community-based organizations in a full-service partnership with the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the Sheriff’s Department are underway, Price said.
Shared data, interdepartmental communications, and the use of collateral courts for qualifying defendants are also changes she’s making.
“We interact with 19 agencies. We can’t prosecute unless a case is referred to the D.A. To date, there was no data on referrals, public or private. There has been no public transparency or internal accountability. We’re working with I.T. on a data system to track everything.”
Pastor Lankford of the Oakland Private Industry Council and his team of citizen patrollers offered alternatives to police intervention. “When members of and from the community interact with non-violent offenders, a compassionate liaison can produce a better outcome.”
Richard Johnson, founder and executive director of FIGB, Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back, observed that many OPD SUVs are posted in the community with the engines on for hours. “I think it would be better for the environment if we had some police patrols on e-bikes”
For residents and businesses dealing with homelessness in the neighborhoods, Duffey, Oakland’s Interim City Administrator for the City of Oakland, said he is temporarily tasked with the city’s 800 homeless encampments.
Duffey discussed the process of closing city encampments and how sometimes the rules and regulations delay progress. “Our efforts to just remove encampment debris are thwarted if a person claims the items as their personal property.”
Fife empathized with the community’s frustrations and explained that the issues raised have been systemic for a long time, and she’s all about solutions and thinking “outside of the box.”
Fife suggested strengthening the 311 system and recently launched a micro-program pilot to pay a group of techies to improve the system’s functions. “311 is an operational system, but not completely funded, however we’re changing that.”
Shawn Upshaw, Triangle Response Coordinator for the City’s Department of Violence Prevention, said that more community liaisons need to be funded for violence prevention and support of people at the scene of a crime or homicide.
Arts and Culture
Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist
Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.
By Barbara Fluhrer
Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.
One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.
Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.
At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.
Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.
Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”
Art
Marin County: A Snapshot of California’s Black History Is on Display
The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024. The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.
By Post Staff
The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024.
The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.
All will have the opportunity to visit and be guided by its curator Felecia Gaston.
The exhibit will include photographs, articles and artifacts about the Black experience in Marin City from 1942 to 1960 from the Felecia Gaston Collection, the Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, The Ruth Marion and Pirkle Jones Collection, The Bancroft Library, and the Daniel Ruark Collection.
It also features contemporary original artwork by Chuck D of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, clay sculptures by San Francisco-based artist Kaytea Petro, and art pieces made by Marin City youth in collaboration with Lynn Sondag, Associate Professor of Art at Dominican University of California.
The exhibit explores how Marin City residents endured housing inequities over the years and captures the history of plans to remove Black residents from the area after World War II. Throughout, it embodies the spirit of survival and endurance that emboldened the people who made Marin City home.
Felecia Gaston is the author of the commemorative book, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.’ Thanks to the generous contribution of benefactors, a set of Felecia’s book will be placed in every public elementary, middle, and high school library in Marin.
In addition, educators and librarians at each school will have the opportunity to engage with Felecia in a review of best practices for utilizing the valuable primary sources within the book.
“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from these significant and historical contributions to Marin County, California, and the United States,” said John Carroll, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.
“By engaging with Felecia’s book and then visiting the exhibit, students will be able to further connect their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of this significant historical period,” Carroll continued.
Felecia Gaston adds, “The Marin County Office of Education’s decision to bring the Marin City Historical Traveling Exhibit and publication, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home’ to young students is intentional and plays a substantial role in the educational world. It is imperative that our community knows the contributions of Marin City Black residents to Marin County. Our youth are best placed to lead this transformation.”
The Marin County Office of Education will host an Open House Reception of the exhibit’s debut on Feb. 1 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.. All school staff, educators, librarians, and community members are encouraged to attend to preview the exhibit and connect with Felecia Gaston. To contact Gaston, email MarinCityLegacy@marinschools.org
Activism
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