By Ken Epstein

District 3 City Council incumbent Carroll Fife recently kicked off her campaign for reelection, speaking to an enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowd at ForTheCulture Oak, 701 Clay St. in West Oakland.

Since she took office in 2021, Fife has been working to move Oakland City Council in a progressive direction, spearheading efforts and working with others on the council and in the community to enact strengthened protections for poor and working people.

Her track record has earned her enthusiastic support from some quarters and stirred the enmity of others, including developers, large landlords, and hedge fund executives, who are already financing campaigns to unseat Fife and other local progressives.

“We are in a moment that they have written history books about,” said Fife at her campaign launch. “Our opposition is in fear because we are winning. We are winning, not because of me personally, but (because we are) lifting up the necessity of working cooperatively and thinking about the people who have the least.”

While on the council, Fife has worked for humane policies to reduce homelessness, strengthen public safety, build affordable housing, and foster small business and economic development.

She helped to pilot community-initiated traffic safety solutions, improve Oakland’s 911 dispatch system, finance safe parking sites for unhoused residents, establish a Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District, and put Oakland on record in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.

She has also backed the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (ASSEG)-sponsored development of the Oakland Coliseum, which potentially can lead to the historic economic development to benefit Oakland residents and especially residents of East Oakland.

Her work also included popular ballot measures that authorized low-rent housing, expanded tenant protections, created a progressive tax structure on big business, established public banking in Oakland, capped allowable rent increases for tenants, and expanded opportunities for young people through the Summer Jobs program.

Five candidates are running against Fife. One of them, Warren Logan, transportation planner and former policy advisor of ex-Mayor Libby Schaaf, has already raised over $100,000 in donations from Schaaf and others, many of them involved in tech and real estate development.

Formerly, Fife served as executive director of ACCE Oakland, helped found Moms for Housing and passed legislation at the state and local level to build collective power for tenants. She worked to develop a network of Black organizations and was a 2016 and 2020 delegate for Bernie Sanders and has been a member of the 2020 Platform Committee for the Democratic National Committee.

One of Fife’s major opponents will not appear on the ballot. He is Sam Singer, a longtime public relations operative, with deep connections to corporate media organizations, who has represented Chevron for years in its fight to demonize environmentalists.

Singer was also employed by Wedgewood Properties, a billion-dollar corporation, helping the company vilify Moms for Housing, which in 2020 received international attention in their fight to purchase a vacant home in Oakland. Fife, a community activist at the time, worked closely with Moms for Housing.

Currently, Singer works with officers in the Oakland Police Department and writes frequently on social media denouncing progressive elected officials. Local observers say Singer’s PR efforts promote racial divisions and encourage support for authoritarian solutions by promoting MAGA-type hysteria of rampant crime.

“We’ve got to be united,” said Fife.  “We’ve got to organize like we’ve never organized before,” she said. “Information is easy to come by, but truth is not.”

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By Magaly Muñoz

Communities of color, particularly Black and Brown people, are amongst the most affected by Type 2 diabetes (T2D) due to socioeconomic status, cultural, and environmental factors.

More than 38 million people in the US have diabetes, with up to 95% having Type 2 diabetes. While individuals aged 45 and older are typically the age range for those being diagnosed, more and more children and young adults are developing the chronic illness, according to the CDC.

Of the 1 in 10 people with diabetes, 16.4% of Black people and 14.7% of Hispanic people make up the highest rates among different groups.

Dr. Kevin Peterson, vice president of Primary Care at the American Diabetes Association, said in an email that the environments where Black and Brown people historically live, such as areas of high carbohydrate diets, contribute to the prevalence of this illness.

But family history can also have a part to play in someone’s diagnosis. Although it is not always a determining factor, first-degree relatives, like parents, with Type 2 diabetes can increase someone’s risk of developing the same condition.

Doctors recommend that if there is that direct link, taking precautions such as a healthy diet and exercise can minimize or eliminate the chances of having T2D.

But Peterson also acknowledged that there can be difficulties with maintaining a healthy lifestyle for Black and Brown communities.

“It can be difficult in low-income communities to access healthy eating choices, and opportunities for activity can often be limited,” Peterson said. “Being creative in finding an activity that is available in your situation, finding a friend to assist you, and identifying healthy foods that you like and are available is a struggle worth taking on.”

Food deserts are one systemic factor in how people, especially low-income communities, develop chronic illnesses that can cause irreversible damage. These deserts are areas that lack easy accessibility to fresh and healthy food options.

Dr. Lloyd Stockey, MD, Internal Medicine at Kaiser Oakland Medical Center, said low-income people of color would be less susceptible to chronic illnesses like type 2 diabetes if they had more access to nutritious food.

“When you go into lower income areas or areas where people of color live, you typically see a lot of things that affect diabetes – tobacco, alcohol and fast food,” he said. “When you go out to other more affluent areas, you see more farmers’ markets, more boutique places to eat, and healthier choices. You don’t see all of that fast food.”

One of the most important things to do when talking to patients about their diagnosis, Stockey said, is meeting them where they are at. People come from all different walks of life whether that socioeconomic status, education levels, or willingness to listen to the problems they have that are contributing to their T2D.

He’s encountered patients who know exactly what the illness is, how they want to make lifestyle changes and who want to keep up with their medicine, but then there are many who are the complete opposite. These patients can be harder to get through to but no resource is left unturned for them.

Dr. Walter Acuña, MD, Internal Medicine at Kaiser Oakland Medical Center, said it’s also important to understand people’s cultures and upbringings. He understands that Latino and Black patients might be used to certain kinds of diets that are carb heavy, but added that making little changes can prevent people from having to give up the food they love.

Acuña also explained that lower income people often have time restraints or live in neighborhoods where they don’t feel safe taking a 30-minute walk. Exercising in the living room or watching online workout tutorials are excellent alternatives and can help to improve overall health.

T2D is a lifelong chronic illness but it doesn’t have to dictate someone’s life, doctors say. As long as you’re taking your prescribed medicine, watching what you eat and actively trying to make lifestyle changes, the long term risks, like liver or kidney problems, eyesight issues or early death, can be reduced.

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We seek to center community as the central tenet of our mission. Recognizing our role in creating access to educational opportunities and driving the economy is our geographic area. We have an obligation to communities historically and presently disproportionately impacted within and outside of the educational setting. Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) require greater attention from educational systems from primary through post-secondary. CoA is committed to anchoring our work in data, which informs priorities in educational offerings and support programming. Our data suggests we can no longer hold the “business as usual” mentality and the poverty, crime and housing insecurity rates in our service area would suggest the same.

With 58% of Peralta Community College District students taking classes at two or more colleges CoA is invested in serving all students irrespective of zip code. We’re strengthening our partnership with the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD), Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), and the charter and independent schools within our geographic area. Our focus with K-12 partners is expanding Dual Enrollment, which is intended to create access opportunities for black, brown and low-income communities. We’re also laser focused on industry partnerships to create career pathways for our students that lead to a promising or high wage career. Engaging the Alameda Chamber and the associated business community will be an ongoing activity in my role as the President. CoA knows, When We Collaborate, We Win for students, their families and community.

CoA is taking active steps to engage our most vulnerable students to fulfill our commitment to social and educational justice. Recently, CoA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sacramento State University to build a transfer pipeline to the Black Honors College, which is the first of its kind in the Nation. Our students deserve this access and transfer pathway is an area of focus for our institution. We were recently awarded a Rising Scholars Grant to support justice impacted youth through educational pathways that lead to career. Our interest is to disrupt the school to prison pipeline with the knowledge that men of color are underrepresented in higher education and overrepresented in prisons across the nation. We recently held a STEM Pilot – Summer Bridge Program, which was a partnership with Oakland Unified School District and CoA faculty, staff and leadership.

CoA will continue developing and refining programs to not only create access for disproportionately impacted students, but also nurturing their journey through completion. Below are some programs and serves available to our students:

• Umoja Program – The Umoja Community gains meaning through its connection to the African Diaspora.
• A2mend Chapter – African American Male Education Network Development
• EOPS– Extended Opportunities Program & Services – For Low Income/First Generation Students
• CalWorks – California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids program
• NextUp – Foster Youth Program
• CARE – Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education Program
• MESA -Math Engineering Science and Achievement – for first-generation, low-income, and under-represented college students.
• SAS – Student Accessibility Services

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