City Government

Oakland A’s Week of Giving

Published

6 years ago

December 12, 2019

To celebrate the holiday season and continue to give back to the community, Oakland A’s players, front office staff, and mascot Stomper participated in the A’s Week of Giving events throughout Oakland from December 2-6.

Players involved in the week’s activities included Liam Hendriks, Matt Olson, Stephen Piscotty, and Marcus Semien. As part of #GivingTuesday, a global movement that marks the beginning of the charitable season, the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants hosted a week-long fundraising competition as part of the Battle of the Bay benefitting the Oakland A’s Community Fund.

A’s players and Stomper made surprise appearances at the Oakland police and fire stations providing lunch at Fire Station 29 on 66th Street, Fire Station 20 on 98th Street, the Oakland Police Department’s Downtown Station on 7th Street, and the Eastmont Station on 73rd Avenue.

In partnership with Reading Partners, A’s players, Stomper, and ballpark MC Ruby hosted a reading assembly for students at Vincent Academy and played whiffle ball and other games during recess with students at Parker Elementary School.

Students also received gifts. The A’s also provided games, gifts, and photos for residents of Oakland’s McClure Rehabilitation Center for an afternoon of fun.

The A’s participated in beautification projects in West and East Oakland with 100 volunteers. Half of the group helped CityTeam Oakland residents at the main location in downtown Oakland get ready for the holidays and winter months by decorating and painting an entire floor and made holiday cards for the homeless. The building includes a homeless shelter for 35 people, 53 members of their discipleship program and 15 interns and graduates of the program.

“Volunteers painted rooms, built dressers, constructed garden beds, decorated for the holidays, sorted and wrapped donated holiday presents,” said CityTeam Volunteer Coordinator Teddy Feldmann.

A second group of volunteers supported CityTeam’s new Women’s Bridge Housing Program by beautifying the yard space, constructing garden beds, cleaning the kitchen and common areas, and sorting and wrapping donated holiday presents at their site in East Oakland. Materials for the beautification events were donated by Ashby Lumber.

“The holidays are a sensitive time of year for many of our residents and to have an organization as powerful as the Oakland A’s take the time out to send dozens of volunteers to upgrade our site, sort donations, and prepare lunch is amazing,” said CityTeam Program Manager Ashley Ross with Sara Solis of Hands On Bay Area.

The A’s visited patients at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center to spread bedside holiday cheer and helped the Mobile Food Pantry by distributing pre-packed boxes of food to the program’s clients. Clorox donated supplies, including disinfecting wipes, cleaner sprays, toilet bowl cleaner, and bleach. A’s visited families currently residing in the emergency shelter of the Salvation Army Garden Street Center for an evening of holiday fun. Chevron also provided families with gifts and care packages.

Carla Thomas

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Oakland Post: Week of December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 31, 2025 – January 6, 2026

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1 week ago

January 2, 2026

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Oakland Post: Week of December 24 – 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – December 24 – 30, 2025

Published

2 weeks ago

December 25, 2025

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Alameda County

Oakland Council Expands Citywide Security Cameras Despite Major Opposition

In a 7-1 vote in favor of the contract, with only District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife voting no, the Council agreed to maintain its existing network of 291 cameras and add 40 new “pan-tilt-zoom cameras.”

Published

3 weeks ago

December 21, 2025

Oakland Post

At the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Flock Safety introduces new public safety technology – Amplified Intelligence, a suite of AI-powered tools designed to improve law enforcement investigations. Courtesy photo.

By Post Staff

The Oakland City Council this week approved a $2.25 million contract with Flock Safety for a mass surveillance network of hundreds of security cameras to track vehicles in the city.

In recent weeks hundreds of local residents have spoken against the camera system, raising concerns that data will be shared with immigration authorities and other federal agencies at a time when mass surveillance is growing across the country with little regard for individual rights.

The Flock network, supported by the Oakland Police Department, has the backing of residents and councilmembers who see it as an important tool to protect public safety.

“This system makes the Department more efficient as it allows for information related to disruptive/violent criminal activities to be captured … and allows for precise and focused enforcement,” OPD wrote in its proposal to City Council.

According to OPD, police made 232 arrests using data from Flock cameras between July 2024 and November of this year.

Based on the data, police say they recovered 68 guns, and utilizing the countywide system, they have found 1,100 stolen vehicles.

However, Flock’s cameras cast a wide net. The company’s cameras in Oakland last month captured license plate numbers and other information from about 1.4 million vehicles.

Speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting, Fife was critical of her colleagues for signing a contract with a company that has been in the national spotlight for sharing data with federal agencies.

Flock’s cameras – which are automated license plate readers – have been used in tracking people who have had abortions, monitoring protesters, and aiding in deportation roundups.

“I don’t know how we get up and have several press conferences talking about how we are supportive of a sanctuary city status but then use a vendor that has been shown to have a direct relationship with (the U.S.) Border Control,” she said. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Several councilmembers who voted in favor of the contract said they supported the deal as long as some safeguards were written into the Council’s resolution.

“We’re not aiming for perfection,” said District 1 Councilmember Zac Unger. “This is not Orwellian facial recognition technology — that’s prohibited in Oakland. The road forward here is to add as many amendments as we can.”

Amendments passed by the Council prohibit OPD from sharing camera data with any other agencies for the purpose of “criminalizing reproductive or gender affirming healthcare” or for federal immigration enforcement. California state law also prohibits the sharing of license plate reader data with the federal government, and because Oakland’s sanctuary city status, OPD is not allowed to cooperate with immigration authorities.

A former member of Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission has sued OPD, alleging that it has violated its own rules around data sharing.

So far, OPD has shared Flock data with 50 other law enforcement agencies.