City Government

Small Businesses Protest AC Transit International Blvd. Project

Published

10 years ago

April 30, 2014

Small business owners on International Boulevard held a rally this week calling on AC Transit and city officials to mitigate the negative impacts of the new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, which utilize dedicated bus lines in the middle of the boulevard, eliminating traffic lanes and reducing street parking.

“We ‘re not trying to stop the BRT, but we want to make sure that BRT doesn’t stop us, ” said Andy Nelson, of East Bay Asian Youth Center, speaking at the rally.

“The BRT should be for everybody. We are not all new and shiny, but we are definitely East Oakland,” said Nelson. He pointed that there are 900 businesses with 2,500 employees located on International Boulevard, including markets, appliance and furniture stores and auto and truck repair shops.

The rally was held Tuesday at the intersection of 20^th Avenue and International Boulevard.

The merchants are proposing solutionsaim to help them mitigate disruption to regular business operations during, and after construction. They are also asking for relocation assistance in case some businesses become unviable in this new street configuration.

AC Transit and city officials, which have been meeting with merchant groups, say they are implementing mitigation plans. The community-based mitigation proposals were developed by the Eastlake Merchants Association, San Antonio Business Association and other small business owners, assisted by the East Bay Asian Youth Center.

The BRT project will cost about $200 million. The merchant’s mitigation proposals would cost about $6 million.

BRT is planned to run 9.7 miles from Downtown Oakland to Downtown San Leandro. A little over 500 parking spaces will be lost, and almost all left turns will be prohibited. On the 7.2 mile stretch between 14^th Avenue and 107^th Avenue, vehicular traffic on International Boulevard will be reduced from four lanes to two lanes.

AC Transit and the City of Oakland this week announced that their staffs have developed a Business Sustainability Program for the (BRT) Project. Under their proposal, AC Transit will underwrite regular construction impact mitigation activities as well as a Business Sustainability Program.

Oakland and AC Transit are saying they will spend about $23 million for parking and business impact mitigation measures and design features to minimize the impact of the project and enhance the corridor for the local community.

They say they will spend $10 million of curb-to-curb repaving, lighting, pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements and will meet with community stakeholders all along the BRT corridor.

The merchants want the project to make up for parking losses, increase public safety services for pedestrians where parking is lost, provide loading zones to offset the loss of a traffic lane and offer financial assistance for businesses that lose revenue.

“I have had my business for over 40 years, I rely on customers being able to load in windows and shower-glass by the curb, my shop is in the middle of the block, and have no back alley,” said Manuel Romero, owner of a glass shop in the light-industrial San Antonio neighborhood said.

“Can AC Transit explain to me how BRT riders will be able to shop windows, furniture, and appliances from me, and from my merchant neighbors? With BRT I may have to close my business,” he said.

According to Nelsen of the East Bay Asian Youth Center, the merchants are meeting with officials and making progress.

“We’re heading in the right direction. But we’re not there yet,” he said. “We still have to close the gap.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

OP-ED: A ‘Sterling’ Example of Our Confusion!

Don't Miss

Hats Off to Mother’s in Marin City

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024

Published

13 hours ago

July 26, 2024

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024

Published

6 days ago

July 20, 2024

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌

Lawmakers Incensed by ‘Watering Down’ of Language in Child Sex Solicitation Bill

After an emotional hearing on July 2, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to advance Senate Bill (SB) 1414 with an 8-0 vote. The legislation is an anti-sex-trafficking measure designed to increase penalties for those who purchase sex from children, SB 1414, co- authored by Senators Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), will be reviewed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the Legislature break ends on Aug. 5.

Published

1 week ago

July 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Stephany Powell, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer and current expert on human trafficking survivors, speaks with the media about a bill that would help lock up individuals who buy sex from trafficked children. On Powell's right is Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), who co-authored SB 1414 with (not pictured) Sens. Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Susan Rubio. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By Antonio Ray Harvey

California Black Media

After an emotional hearing on July 2, the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to advance Senate Bill (SB) 1414 with an 8-0 vote. The legislation is an anti-sex-trafficking measure designed to increase penalties for those who purchase sex from children,

SB 1414, co- authored by Senators Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park), will be reviewed by the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the Legislature break ends on Aug. 5.

The legislation has received bipartisan support. However, “critical amendments” were removed, Grove said. She is not satisfied with the language currently in the bill and is pressing members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee to allow key provisions to be restored.

“I am disappointed that they didn’t accept the amendments for all minors to be protected under felony convictions,” Grove said after the committee’s vote.

“I am not going to give up fighting for those 16- and 17-year-olds – and all minors,” Grove stated. “Now, the district attorneys would have to prove two crimes: that they were bought and sold in order to go back to the perpetrator (trafficker) who initiated the whole process.”

SB 1414 made it off the Senate floor with a 36-0 bipartisan vote on May 23. Before the floor vote in the Senate, the Senate Public Safety Committee amended SB 1414, weakening protections for children ages 16 and 17, Grove said.

The committee’s amendments included charging violators who purchase children 15 and under for sex as ‘wobblers’ (crimes that can be punished as a felony or misdemeanor). According to the current language of the bill, solicitation of a 16- and 17-year-old child is only punishable as a misdemeanor. The second amendment to the bill calls for the felony charge to only carry possible jail time — not time in prison.

Grove and her supporters’ other concern is that a third amendment to SB 1414 states that only perpetrators with a previous conviction of buying sex from a child 15 or under, on the second offense and with over a 10-year age gap of the victim, must register as a Tier 1 sex offender.

Dr. Stephany Powell, a retired Los Angeles Police Department sergeant who has over 30 years of sexual exploitation and trafficking experience gained through law enforcement, testified in front of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

“First of all, there’s no way in the world that (these amendments) are protecting a 16- or 17-year-old,” said Powell, who now assists victims of human trafficking. “Just by the age alone, they are considered to be a victim of human trafficking. That’s your proof right there.”

Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), chair of the Public Safety Committee and a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), told Grove that he supports SB 1414 and commended her efforts to bring “more accountability to the sex trade.”

McCarty said he is willing to make SB 1414 “stronger,” but he is not willing to allow Grove to buck the rules of the Legislature to push her amendments through.

“That’s not on the table. As the rules, you know, we can’t go change that,” McCarty said of Grove’s amendments request.

On June 2, Anne Irwin, the founder and director of Smart Justice California, emailed California Black Media (CBM) a statement responding to SB 1414. Smart Justice sides with the amendments made by the Democrats in the Senate and the Assembly.

“With the recently adopted amendments, SB 1414 now represents a smart policy solution that prioritizes the safety and well-being of all minors,” Irwin stated. “By allowing felony prosecutions for solicitation of 16- and 17-year-olds when there is evidence of human trafficking, lawmakers have further improved the bill – which was originally overly broad and would have had harmful unintended consequences.”