Community

Reid, Brooks, Gallo Get Tough on Trash

Published

12 years ago

March 7, 2014

The East Oakland Beautification Council, while only in existence for less than 90 days, is already beginning to have an impact on illegal trash dumping and graffiti, forms of urban blight that have long frustrated community cleanup efforts.

“We had 20,337 illegal dumping complaints last year. We’re trying to cut that in half,” said Ken

[caption id=”attachment_29319″ align=”alignright” width=”300″] Councilmember Noel Gallo, District 5[/caption]

Houston, chair of the council, speaking Monday afternoon at the second meeting of the new group.

The council is spearheaded by Houston, supported by City Council Members Larry Reid, Desley Brooks and Noel Gallo.

They are bringing together community activists and business leaders, City Public Works staff, police and representatives of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, as well as clergy and nonprofits that work with youth.

The council is making progress on 22 solutions identified by the group to respond to the multiple causes that contribute to dumping and graffiti, said Shelly Garza, a community activist who works for the beautification council.

“I’ve been in this city working on this for14 years, and we were not able to do what we’re doing (now) – it’s getting cleaned up quickly, though the efforts of everybody in this room,” said Garza.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks, District 6

To make a dent in illegal dumping, the council is setting up designated dumping sites, working with community members so they will know how to document and report illegal dumping to law enforcement, increase police surveillance at chronic dumping sites and increase lighting and warning signs in blighted areas.

Many of the dumpers come from out of town, leaving their trash on the street in order to avoid paying fees at a city dump. In addition, a number of the taggers who vandalize Oakland buildings also come from other cities. The District Attorney’s office is already investigating several of these cases.

With little fanfare, Councilmember Gallo holds a volunteer community cleanup event every weekend in his district.

In conjunction with Houston, Gallo is creating a trash collection site to reduce illegal dumping in East Oakland. Houston said he is focusing on cleaning up four impacted areas. One site – at Louisiana Street and Railroad Avenue in East Oakland – was chronically overflowing with debris and trash.

(left to right) Louisiana Street and Railroad Avenue in East Oakland, before and after.

Louisiana Street and Railroad Avenue in East Oakland, before clean up.

Louisiana Street and Railroad Avenue in East Oakland after clean up.

Houston worked at the site and contracted Public Works, which picked up the trash within a few days Houston also contacted a man in Modesto, whose name was listed on some of the trash that had been dumped. The man came to Oakland and took it away. The District Attorney’s office is investigating and will possibly prosecute the case.

Taking an alternative approach to controlling graffiti, the beautification council is seeking to encourage youth to develop their artistic talents and reduce vandalism on businesses and other buildings, which is infuriating many local residents.

One plan is to create an area called “Graffiti Cove.” A youth program, “Get Active Urban Arts,” is sponsored by Safe Passages in Oakland and headed up by program manager Jonathan Brumfield. He explained that the young people he works with paint murals on buildings after gaining the support of the owners, with the result that the graffiti stops.

“It’s a big deal. We’ve taken the blight out of the community,” said Alex, one of the teenagers who is part of urban arts.

“It started with me being mad at the world and not being able to express my anger,” said Nimrod, another graffiti artist in urban arts. “I learned how I could use what I do to make my surroundings better.”

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Related Topics:Clean Up desley brooks East Oakland larry reid noel gallo Trash trash dumping

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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

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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