Community
Opinion: ‘Our Community, Our Voice, We Speak for Us!’
Oakland has long been a diverse city, a melting pot of all ethnicities cohabiting together lifting each other up. A place where blacks felt at home. Over the past 15+ years, the landscape of our city has changed; West Oakland is no longer home to predominately Black residents with jazz and blues clubs. Downtown is filled with upscale condos with migrates from San Francisco and surrounding cities, North Oakland, the birth place of the Black Panthers, has priced Blacks out. The Black population has declined by more than 50 percent and risks further erosion without Blacks raising our collective voices to assert what we want as a community.
Black displacement, unemployment and homelessness, demand that we speak up and be heard. While we acknowledge and appreciate well-meaning people who sincerely care about issues facing Black folks in Oakland, there also are people who have their own agendas and use our pain for their gain. This is obviously the case when it comes to the debate over building a multi commodity terminal in West Oakland which includes coal as one of its many commodities.
Insight Terminal Solutions (ITS) is poised to build a state of the art multi commodity terminal at the old Oakland Army base. The proposed terminal will bring life, economy, and resources to Oakland for Oakland residents. ITS has addressed community concerns in the creation of its first of a kind handling of commodities and meets and exceeds material handling standards.
For decades other people were claiming to speak for us while advancing their own agenda and leaving blacks impoverished, poorly educated, under housed and dependent upon others. Our goal is to bring this to an end. The Sierra Club and other environmentalist, want to stop the building of the terminal and the many jobs and opportunities it brings to Oakland residents. Their claim is that “it will hurt black folks” (here they go speaking for us). This is not true.
Our research shows No adverse health risks and No safety risks. What our research does show is: job creation, job training, entrepreneurship opportunities, a strengthened economy, a vibrant West Oakland operation and employed Oakland residents. Some environmental groups may mean well, but the truth is that while they talk about world issues, our people suffer.
We are forging a broad-based coalition that will continuously speak to issues confronting our community. What we don’t need is others speaking for us! We think it is time for black people in Oakland to speak for ourselves. AND WE WILL!
L.J. Jennings is a pastor, non-profit leader and community organizer for affordable housing.
City Government
San Pablo Appoints New Economic Development and Housing Manager
Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo. Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.
The Richmond Standard
Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo.
Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.
Before that he was an associate planner in the City of Richmond’s Planning and Building Services Department from 2007-2015.
San Pablo City Manager Matt Rodriguez lauded Slaughter’s extensive experience in economic development, housing and planning, saying he will add a “valuable perspective to the City Manager’s Office.”
Slaughter, a Berkeley resident, will start in his new role on Nov. 12, with a base annual salary of $164,928, according to the City of San Pablo.
City Government
Aaron Osorio Rises Up Ranks to Become Richmond’s Fire Chief
For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10. “I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.” Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.
By Mike Kinney
The Richmond Standard
For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10.
“I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.”
Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.
Osorio is a San Francisco native who rose up the ranks in the Richmond Fire Department over the last 21 years before being elevated to chief.
He joined the department in 2002 and has served in multiple roles including firefighters, engineer, captain, battalion chief, training director and deputy fire chief. He said he truly loves working in this community.
While it isn’t common for a fire department to hire a chief that came up through its ranks, Osorio was credited by the city for serving Richmond well during uncommon times.
The city lauded him for developing internal policies and vaccination clinics during the initial COVID response, for supporting activation of the emergency operations center in response to a potential mudslide disaster in Seacliff last year, helping to draft mutual aid agreements and working to increase fire response capabilities for industrial incidents.
He’s also led departmental hiring and recruitment since 2018.
Osorio said it is an honor to be hired as chief and has big plans for the department moving forward. He said he wants to continue hiring and promoting for vacant positions, and also completing a strategic plan guiding the direction of the organization.
He also aims to replace and renovate a number of fire department facilities placed on the Capital Improvement Plan and create new ways to recruit that will enhance the diversity of the department.
Osorio said his experience within, and love for, the city of Richmond puts him in a good position to lead the department. He says he knows what is needed and also the challenges that are unique to the city.
“I look forward to utilizing that institutional knowledge to move the fire department forward in a positive direction and enhance the services we provide to the community,” the chief said.
Osorio holds a bachelor of science degree in Fire Administration and is also a California State Fire Marshal-certified chief officer, company officer, and state instructor.
He also holds numerous certifications in fire, rescue, hazardous material, and incident command.
The chief has been married to his wife, Maria, for 26 years and they have two sons, Roman and Mateo.
Barbara Lee
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:
“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.
Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.
Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.
Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.
1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.
Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.
IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.
As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.
Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”
The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.
And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.
Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”
Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.
In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.
In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.
As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.
We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.
We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Let’s get this done.
-
Alameda County1 week ago
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price Announces $7.5 Million Settlement Agreement with Walmart
-
Activism2 weeks ago
OP-ED: Hydrogen’s Promise a Path to Cleaner Air and Jobs for Oakland
-
Activism3 weeks ago
COMMENTARY: DA Price Has Done Nothing Wrong; Oppose Her Recall
-
Activism3 weeks ago
Barbara Lee, Other Leaders, Urge Voters to Say ‘No’ to Recalls of D.A. Pamela Price, Mayor Sheng Thao
-
Bay Area3 weeks ago
2024 Local Elections: Q&A for Oakland Unified School Candidates, District 3
-
Community2 weeks ago
Terry T. Backs Oakland Comedy Residency by Oakland’s Luenell at Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club in Las Vegas
-
Activism3 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of October 9 – 15, 2024
-
Business2 weeks ago
Study Confirms California’s $20/Hour Fast Food Wage Raises Pay Without Job Losses