Community

Developer Plans to Relieve Traffic Congestion at Oak Knoll Project and Areas Near the Oakland Zoo

Published

9 years ago

July 28, 2017

At the June 21 public planning hearing of the proposed Oak Knoll re-development project, residents offered recommendations to the developer SunCAL. The 167-acre site, which formerly housed the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, was acquired by SunCAL in 1996 and recast as a positive part of Oakland’s future. But residents have long complained about traffic during peak commute times and around the Oakland Zoo, East of Highway 580 and 98th Avenue.

After hearing many residents worry that adding more residents to the area could make traffic worse, the city required SunCal to contract with the city’s independent transportation consultant for the project, Fehr & Peers, to conduct the traffic analysis for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

Working with the city, Fehr & Peers conducted detailed traffic analyses in and around the proposed development. Engineers evaluated 44 intersections and identified eight that would be significantly impacted by the project—along with improvement strategies that would mitigate current and future traffic issues.

According to Francisco Martin, an associate with Fehr & Peers, “Installing and coordinating new traffic signals at these intersections would improve conditions—as would altering the traffic lanes.”

The city and Fehr & Peers recommended expanded bus schedules and greater connectivity with BART to help ease the congestion. But some residents remain concerned and have questioned why the analysis did not include details on weekend traffic.

Martin said there is a simple explanation: “By evaluating the worst-case scenario, in this case weekday rush-hour traffic, we are able to account for the full extent of potential impacts—it’s an industry standard.”

He said the, “proposed mitigation measures to help with weekday traffic would also have benefits for weekend visitors to areas such as the Oakland Zoo.”

The mitigation plan will require SunCal to address these improvements at its own cost. At the June 21st meeting, however, at least one public comment suggested that many of the improvements called for by study would only make traffic worse. Martin refuted the concerns about traffic worsening by saying traffic conditions would improve.

“This analysis was all done under the guidance of the city, strictly following the city’s transportation and traffic study guidelines –along with industry standards,” he said.

SunCal plans to install the mitigation measures, including signals at intersections, in the first phase of the project so that surrounding neighborhoods and the community will see improvements before the project is built out. Despite these mitigation plans, some are still raising questions.

Martin responded, “It is important for anybody, whether it be a proponent or opponent of the project, to read thoroughly the analysis and documentation that has been done as part of this Supplemental EIR process to better understand project impacts and the proposed improvements that address these impacts.”

Martin also points out that this plan was developed based on considerable community and neighborhood input, years of public meetings and significant participation from city planners, engineers, the neighborhood and the community at large.

He said the study has been reviewed by city staff and peer reviewed by another independent traffic consultant so the public should have confidence in final plans and proposals.

“When we started this project several years ago, SunCal had a clear plan to reach out to as much of the community as possible,” Martin said. “I, along with city staff, participated in those meetings where we took community concerns and addressed those concerns in our analysis.”

While the June 21 meeting heard from some opponents who have long been against redeveloping the Oak Knoll site, over 100 Oak Knoll neighbors and members of the community also voiced their support and offered constructive comments.

“The developer must continue to work with the city, AC Transit, Caltrans, and the public for this to be a success,” said Martin.

According to SunCal, which has committed to community engagement and traffic mitigation, along with expanded public transportation, traffic congestion around Oak Knoll can be reduced. But none of these improvements can happen until Oak Knoll is given final approval by the city.

So, for now, residents must all wait in traffic.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

2 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke