Community

Refund, Restore, Reimagine, and Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy

Oaklanders have a dream too. We dream of a total transformation in how we define and implement public safety. We dream of REfunding our communities with 50% of OPD’s dollars and directing those dollars into programs, policies and practices that create true public safety. We dream of housing our unhoused and being able to afford our rent. We dream of an equitable and competent response to COVID-19. We dream of jobs that pay a living wage and schools with the resources to adequately educate our children. We dream of thriving communities that can heal, instead of being traumatized and terrorized by gun violence. We dream of a 100% progressive city government that reflects the values that are the heart and soul of our city.

Published

4 years ago

January 13, 2021

Kiki

On January 18th, the nation will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For the vast majority, this will mean the on-going and deliberate white-washing of his legacy. Rather than being celebrated for the strategic, disciplined, tactical organizer that he was; Coca-Cola commercials will use his image to sell products. Rather than being honored for his willingness to stand up to power, interrupt business as usual, shut it down and put his body on the line for freedom, he will be erroneously portrayed as a quiet man who gave good speeches and begged power for concessions. Not here in Oakland. In The Town, for the seventh consecutive year, the Anti Police-Terror Project and our allies will celebrate the true spirit of Dr. King with the annual Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy Weekend. On that Monday, thousands will safely car caravan from the Port to East Oakland demanding and dreaming of a Town that lives up to King’s dream.

Oaklanders are actively making our dream our collective lived reality. We are organizing, strategizing and mobilizing. And we are winning. We are winning Council seats, like newly inaugurated councilmember Carroll Fife and newly-elected council President Nikki Fortunato Bas. We are winning mechanisms to REfund our communities, like the City’s new Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. We are winning an end to collaboration between OPD and the federal law enforcement agencies that surveil and harm our people. We are winning renter rights and tenant protections. We are winning but there is much more to do.

This past summer, we witnessed powerful uprisings to defend Black lives after the tragic police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Protests were held in Oakland, all over the U.S. and world, and the resounding demand to defund the police dominated the narrative. Almost six years ago, the Anti Police-Terror Project made the first call to Defund the Oakland Police Department, but very few took us seriously. Now we have the support of hundreds of thousands in doing this critical work to end state sanctioned violence while visioning whole, healthy and safe communities. Now that the cameras are gone and the masses have left the streets, the organizing must continue. Our voices must still be heard at council and commission meetings, mutual aid in these trying times must continue and the demand for the liberation of Black bodies must be unceasing.

On King’s day, we will make the connections between the violence of the state and the violence in our streets. All violence is state violence, and we hold the Schaff administration, and the state at large, responsible for creating and/or maintaining the conditions that make this nightmare a lived reality for far too many of our people. On this Reclaim MLK Day, we will uplift the names of the fallen and REimagine an Oakland free from intercommunal warring. Here too is the place to lift up our demands to #DefundOPD and #REfundOurCommunity. Police do not prevent or interrupt violence — they respond after the violence happens, or commit the violence themselves. We have a dream that one day we will break the cycle of militarized policing and mass incarceration and invest in things that actually keep us safe. We have a dream that we will get to the gun before the bullet flies rather than watch one more mother bury her child. The data is clear: resourced communities are safe communities. It is time for the city to invest in support services, and social programs with the same ferocity it has invested in the failed mechanism of violent policing. We cannot incarcerate our way to wholeness.

The work to REfund, REstore, and REimagine our communities is a natural evolution of King’s work, legacy and unfulfilled dream. He said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” That’s Oakland’s budget every year, as OPD devours half of our general fund while housing and social services get next to nothing.

As we REimagine what public safety means in Oakland — community violence prevention, housing as a human right, living-wage jobs with dignity, good schools, clean streets and parks, mental health care and crisis support, healthy and vibrant communities — we are making King’s Dream a reality. Join us.

Artivist Cat Brooks is an actress, playwright, director and advocate. She is the Co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and Executive Director of the Justice Teams Network. She lives in West Oakland with her daughter.

Kiki

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of December 25 – 31, 2024

Published

7 hours ago

December 26, 2024

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Glydways Breaking Ground on 14-Acre Demonstration Facility at Hilltop Mall

Glydways has been testing its technology at CCTA’s GoMentum Station in Concord for several years. The company plans to install an ambitious 28-mile Autonomous Transit Network in East Contra Costa County. The new Richmond facility will be strategically positioned near that project, according to Glydways.

Published

3 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Image of planned Richmond facility courtesy of Glydways.

The Richmond Standard

Glydways, developer of microtransit systems using autonomous, small-scale vehicles, is breaking ground on a 14-acre Development and Demonstration Facility at the former Hilltop Mall property in Richmond, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) reported on social media.

Glydways, which released a statement announcing the project Monday, is using the site while the mall property undergoes a larger redevelopment.

“In the interim, Glydways will use a portion of the property to showcase its technology and conduct safety and reliability testing,” the company said.

The new Richmond development hub will include “over a mile of dedicated test track, enabling Glydways to refine its solutions in a controlled environment while simulating real-world conditions,” the company said.

Visitors to the facility will be able to experience on-demand travel, explore the control center and visit a showroom featuring virtual reality demonstrations of Glydways projects worldwide.

The hub will also house a 13,000-square-foot maintenance and storage facility to service the growing fleet of Glydcars.

“With this new facility [at the former Hilltop Mall property], we’re giving the public a glimpse of the future, where people can experience ultra-quiet, on-demand transit—just like hailing a rideshare, but with the reliability and affordability of public transit,” said Tim Haile, executive director of CCTA.

Janet Galvez, vice president and investment officer at Prologis, owner of the Hilltop Mall property, said her company is “thrilled” to provide space for Glydways and is continuing to work with the city on future redevelopment plans for the broader mall property.

Richmond City Manager Shasa Curl added that Glydways’ presence “will not only help test new transit solutions but also activate the former Mall site while preparation and finalization of the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan is underway.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Last City Council Meeting of the Year Ends on Sour Note with Big Budget Cuts

In a five to one vote, with Councilmembers Carroll Fife and Janani Ramachandran excused, the council passed a plan aimed at balancing the $130 million deficit the city is facing. Noel Gallo voted against the plan, previously citing concerns over public safety cuts, while Nikki Fortunato-Bas, Treva Reid, Rebecca Kaplan, Kevin Jenkins, and Dan Kalb voted in agreement with the plan.

Published

3 days ago

December 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland City Council voted on a plan to balance the $130 million deficit at their last regular meeting of 2024. The plan reduces police spending by $25 million, temporarily closes two fire stations, and guts the cultural arts programs. iStock photo.

By Magaly Muñoz

In the last lengthy Tuesday meeting of the Oakland City Council for 2024, residents expressed strong opposition to the much needed budget cuts before a change in leadership was finalized with the certification of election results.

Oakland police and fire departments, the ambassador program, and city arts and culture will all see significant cuts over the course of two phases.

Phase 1 will eliminate two police academies, brown out two fire stations, eliminate the ambassador program, and reduce police overtime by nearly $25 million. These, with several other cuts across departments, aim to save the city $60 million. In addition, the council simultaneously approved to transfer restricted funds into its general purpose fund, amounting to over $40 million.

Phase 2 includes additional fire station brownouts and the elimination of 91 jobs, aiming to recover almost $16 million in order to balance the rest of the budget.

Several organizations and residents spoke out at the meeting in hopes of swaying the council to not make cuts to their programs.

East Oakland Senior Center volunteers and members, and homeless advocates, filled the plaza just outside of City Hall with rallies to show their disapproval of the new budget plan. Senior residents told the council to “remember that you’ll get old too” and that disturbing their resources will only bring problems for an already struggling community.

While city staff announced that there would not be complete cuts to senior center facilities, there would be significant reductions to staff and possibly inter-program services down the line.

Exiting council member and interim mayor Bas told the public that she is still hopeful that the one-time $125 million Coliseum sale deal will proceed in the near future so that the city would not have to continue with drastic cuts. The deal was intended to save the city for fiscal year 2024-25, but a hold up at the county level has paused any progress and therefore millions of dollars in funds Oakland desperately needs.

The Coliseum sale has been a contentious one. Residents and city leaders were originally against using the deal as a way to balance the budget, citing doubts about the sellers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group’s (AASEG), ability to complete the deal. Council members Reid, Ramachandran, and Gallo have called several emergency meetings to understand where the first installments of the sale are, with little to no answers.

Bas added that as the new Alameda County Supervisor for D5, a position she starts in a few weeks, she will do everything in her power to push the Coliseum sale along.

The city is also considering a sales tax measure to put on the special election ballot on April 15, 2025, which will also serve as an election to fill the now vacant D2 and mayor positions. The tax increase would raise approximately $29 million annually for Oakland, allowing the city to gain much-needed revenue for the next two-year budget.

The council will discuss the possible sales tax measure on January 9.