Bay Area

“I Will Not Be Bullied,” Says Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Mayor Sheng Tao promised to not allow the attacks to distract her from her duties. She pledged to work with the City Council to approve a balanced budget amid the deep financial shortfall facing cities nationwide and to move ahead with the sale of the City’s half of the Oakland Coliseum to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, which some estimate is the largest sale of public land to African Americans in history.

Published

11 months ago

July 1, 2024

Ken Epstien

Mayor Sheng Tao. FILE photo.

Community Leaders Stand Up for Mayor Against Concerted Attacks

By Ken Epstein

If Mayor Sheng Thao’s enemies, who have been working since the day she was elected to unseat her and install a representative of the old regime, had hoped she was on the ropes and that her supporters would be silenced following an unannounced and unexplained but highly publicized FBI raid on her home last week, they learned this week they were wrong.

In a short, fiery speech, the mayor came out swinging, defiant. She made clear that she does not know any more than the public about what the FBI is investigating.

She questioned why the FBI felt it had to raid her home at dawn, the day after the announcement that a recall petition made the November ballot: “What probable cause does the FBI have that justifies the raiding of the home of a sitting mayor without the courtesy of conversation?”

“I am innocent: I have not been charged with a crime,” she said.

She stated forcefully that the attack on her was politically motivated: “I want you to know about the handful of billionaires from San Francisco and Piedmont who are hellbent on running me out of office.”

She said the same people who are going after her are silent about current charges against a former elected official (Libby Schaaf) for political corruption.

“This couldn’t have gone down the way it did if I was rich, if I had gone to elite private schools, or if I had come from money,” she said.

“I am your mayor. The people who voted for me deserve to have their voices heard. I will not be bullied, and I will not be disparaged, and I will not be threatened out of this office.”

She promised to not allow the attacks to distract her from her duties. She pledged to work with the City Council to approve a balanced budget amid the deep financial shortfall facing cities nationwide and to move ahead with the sale of the City’s half of the Oakland Coliseum to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, which some estimate is the largest sale of public land to African Americans in history.

Encouraged by Thao’s strong words, community leaders and activists are raising their voices to support her.

Walter Riley, Oakland civil rights attorney and leader of the John George Democratic Club, has been an outspoken opponent of local recall campaigns.

Riley, who saw the press conference, said, “I thought she made a strong statement and that the people who are calling for her to resign are not following the evidence and are ignoring due process. They are not behaving responsibly or showing any quality leadership when they make sensational accusations where they have no evidence to back up what they are saying.

“I do know that there is evidence that leaders of past city administrations and some of the leaders of the local recalls have committed serious violations,” he said.

David Weintraub released a statement on behalf of the Coordinating Committee of the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, the East Bay’s largest Democratic club.

“(We are) 100% supportive of the mayor and her progressive policies and the direction she has set for our City.

“We are 100% opposed to the recall funded by wealthy interests and which have not only targeted her but progressive leaders such as our progressive DA, Pamela Price, and the former DA of SF, Chesa Boudin.“The recall efforts of all these leaders were commenced practically before they took office, much less had any fair opportunity to implement the policies they ran on and because of which were elected.

“We join Mayor Thao in questioning why she has not been told the reasons for the raid nor given an opportunity to cooperate and all this within hours of the recall petition being certified.”

Said Pamela Drake, a longtime political and police accountability activist in the city: “Our mayor along with our progressive councilmembers have made some enemies with deep pockets – developers, corporate landlords, and lock-’em-up folks – and they have come after her.”

“Additionally, her style offends some older folks and people who have a vision of how Asian women should deport themselves,” said Drake. “They’re willing to bring chaos to our city government to turn back the clock, but we must resist their rumor-mongering and negativity and give her a full term as the voters intended.”

Mona Treviño, a parent activist who has fought school closings and is organizing for a Gaza cease-fire, wrote a strong statement on Facebook:

“It’s not just me that sees that the Mayor appears to have pissed off some powerful people who are now throwing her under the bus. At the end of the day, power at the top does not have a party, it’s about power and money. This is seeping into our local representation and cannot be accepted. If you know anything about the shark tank that is politics, you know that too many people are open to the highest bidder – like this joke of a lawyer.”

She continued: “Why would anyone want any replacement who is not willing to accept the outcome of our (elections)? These people running around pouring in millions for reactionary recalls – who is leading this in elections around the country?… Shame on the powers that be (who are) throwing a local mayor under the bus. We see you.”

Servant BK Woodson, pastor of Bay Area Christian Connection, said he was concerned about the timing of the recall announcement to coincide with the FBI raid. “I don’t think these things are a coincidence,” he said.

“The idea of democracy, that people can govern themselves without the guidance of the overlords, is at risk right now,” he said. “Recalls are a way for the rich and well-positioned to override the will of the people.”

“It’s easy to abandon someone when they are down; I’m not going to do that,” he said. “She’s innocent until proven guilty. I think everyone needs to support her.”

Ken Epstien

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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.

Published

4 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

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.”

“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.

Oakland Post

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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.

Published

5 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

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.

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.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

5 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.