Bay Area
Commentary: Frontline Healers See Human Trafficking Increase Since Coronavirus Pandemic

“They’re just children,” is a statement repeated over and over by several local agencies working against the scourge of human trafficking, which include Regina’s Door, Nola Brantley Speaks, MISSSEY, House Full of Black Women and Dreamcatchers.
“They are just children, they are our children.”
COVID-19 has provided a tragic opportunity for exploiters, the pimps and the Johns, to not only flourish but escalate trafficking where the average age of the girl or boy is 15.
“With closed businesses and empty streets, exploiters have become more violent and expanded their territory,” explains Amba Johnson, executive director of Dreamcatchers. “The ones coming to buy children are oddly indifferent to COVID, asking their victims if they have hand sanitizer and masks. The problem is Johns don’t care if they are children.”
“We see 12-year-old girls out on ‘The Track’ being sold into being raped every day,” said Regina Evans, founder of Regina’s Door and a member of Oakland Front Line Healers. “The average age of entry into sex trafficking for girls in Oakland is 13-15 years of age.”
Evans continues, “While violence is a major factor in coercing girls into sex trafficking, the most prominent way is via emotional abuse, emotional coercion, and preying upon a girl’s lack of self-awareness.
“A major catch line for innocent children is ‘you are beautiful,’ something they haven’t heard from parents or caregivers. We, as a society, have failed these children horribly and then we blame them by not even acknowledging their existence. We pass them on the street, refusing to make eye contact. We don’t even give them the benefit of a greeting when these babies need our love, Evans said.
Child trafficking might seem a remote problem but in reality, it is the barometer of American society and how we raise children. A media-driven society, with oversexualized images of girls, and overtly violent men portrayed as the ideal masculine model is a major cause of the flourishing sex trade.
“We raise our sons to not show emotion, as to do so is associated with weakness,” says Amara Tabor-Smith, co-founder, House Full of Black Women. “We force our boys to follow a model that eventually bottles up rage that is then condoned by our society when manifested in violence.
“We raise our girls to serve others, to put the needs of others before their own, Tabor-Smith continued. “This patriarchal society paradigm and how we raise our children has got to shift if we are to see any change in the streets. We have to start raising boys who can be loving in a healthy way. Right now America is raising wounded men.”
“Gender response to poverty and hopelessness shows up differently,” says Amba, “Boys revert to toxic masculinity and girls are taught to serve the person who says they love them.”
According to Rashida Chase of Regina’s Door, “We have to… question our perceptions and misconceptions about the underbelly of sex trafficking and how people end up homeless. We treat homelessness and sex trafficking by blaming the victim instead of seeing how society created this environment, and the sad thing is, it’s set up for things not to change.”
Nola Brantley conducts online workshops on Human Trafficking and they are available to the public. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/nola-brantley-speaks-14372168841
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

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Bay Area
Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System
While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

The Richmond Standard
Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.
The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.
“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”
While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.
“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”
The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.
Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.
“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.
Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.
Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.
For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.
Activism
Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing
According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

By Magaly Muñoz
The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.
In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.
The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.
According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.
Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.
City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.
“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.
In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.
In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.
Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.
City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.
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