Bay Area

Seeking Solutions to Crime Wave, Oakland District 3 Community Holds Safety Forum with Police, Elected Leaders

Citizens and business owners met with elected officials on Tuesday at the Calabash restaurant in Uptown Oakland to air concerns on public safety and rising crime in their district. Issues on the table included the need for faster police responses, connecting non-violent offenders with resources and an understanding of the Alameda County District Attorney’s prosecuting practices and role in the system’s matrix.

Published

3 years ago

April 3, 2023

Oakland Post

Oakland District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife (left) and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.

By Carla Thomas

Citizens and business owners met with elected officials on Tuesday at the Calabash restaurant in Uptown Oakland to air concerns on public safety and rising crime in their district.

Issues on the table included the need for faster police responses, connecting non-violent offenders with resources and an understanding of the Alameda County District Attorney’s prosecuting practices and role in the system’s matrix.

Area 2 Police Captain Jeff Thomason of the Oakland Police Department (OPD), Oakland District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, and Harold Duffey, Interim City Administrator for the City of Oakland were present.

This month, OPD responded to over 20 commercial break-ins in a matter of days. Frequent shootings are occurring in areas of East and West Oakland, now tracked by Shot Spotter, which alerts police where shots have been fired and directs officers to the right place.

Moderated by Nathan Moon, advocacy director of the Ujima Neighborhood Council, and hosted by Angela Moore of Oakland’s Neighborhood Services Division, the consensus reached in the meeting was that the rise in city violence corresponded to the abundance of automatic weapons on the streets, the continuing historic crack epidemic, and a current uptick in fentanyl use.

Pastor Raymond Lankford, Oakland Private Industry Council, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, Oakland Public Works Director Harold Duffey, Chief Assistant DA Royl L. Roberts, Pastor John Huddle, Chief Assistant DA Otis Bruce, Jr. Photo by Carla Thomas.

Victims of physical violence, car break-ins and small business break-ins with no arrests have left citizens with many questions about public safety.

With so many questions and not enough answers, citizens have further updated their demand: the ability to not just feel safe in their community but actually be safe in local surroundings.

The meeting included about 40 stakeholders, even a few beyond District 3 boundaries. Chinatown community leader Darlene Wong detailed the timeline and tools used to break into a popular restaurant on Eighth Street, one of four break-ins in the area.

According to Wong, the restaurant was empty by 3:15 a.m., and within five minutes, thieves spent the next 14 minutes using a saw, bolt cutters, and a hammer to bust through the restaurant’s gate and two double doors. Wong said the damage and theft cost $36,000 and her boss, the restaurant’s owner is livid.

Wong said cultural dynamics and fear of retaliation have prevented residents right across the street from reporting incidents.

“We have neighbors right across from our business, but fear of retaliation is big in the culture,” she said.

Wong hopes that a third-party patrol company and community liaisons will work more closely with the Chinatown Improvement Council.

Nina Moore, third-generation owner of Everett & Jones Barbeque Restaurant in Jack London Square, said their establishment had been victimized by theft twice in one week.

“They trashed the office and stole two safes,” said Moore. “It’s very stressful because my mom started this business in 1973. We are family-owned and -operated. My sister and I inherited and now run the business after our mom passed of cancer two years ago. We need more support for our businesses and public safety,” said Moore.

Price listened closely to the concerns during the meeting and explained that up until now the function of the District Attorney’s office has been the same for 100 years.

She acknowledged that lack of resources and even under-utilized resources have impacted the community and clarified that she has no authority over the OPD or how it functions, and the OPD has no authority over her.

Hiring eight new attorneys and two for mental health are the beginning of change, according to Price. “We spent the month of January reviewing cases and found 37 people in jail that are incompetent for trial,” said Price.

She also explained that mental illness is not a crime and mentally ill citizens that need an alternative should have been referred or sent to the Care and Navigation Center (CNC).

With two years of a three-year contract and a $300,000 annual budget, Price says the center has only served six people. “With no oversight and accountability under the previous administration, we end up with people in need of medical care or in need of a time of respite at the CNC, sent to jail and forgotten.”

Price also explained many are reluctant to be transported to a care center in the back of a police car.

Until a few weeks ago there was only one mental health liaison for the entire county. Price said. “There are many systemic changes we are currently working on. I just increased my staff to support those with mental health issues.”

Plans to work closely with community-based organizations in a full-service partnership with the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the Sheriff’s Department are underway, Price said.

Shared data, interdepartmental communications, and the use of collateral courts for qualifying defendants are also changes she’s making.

“We interact with 19 agencies. We can’t prosecute unless a case is referred to the D.A. To date, there was no data on referrals, public or private. There has been no public transparency or internal accountability. We’re working with I.T. on a data system to track everything.”

Pastor Lankford of the Oakland Private Industry Council and his team of citizen patrollers offered alternatives to police intervention. “When members of and from the community interact with non-violent offenders, a compassionate liaison can produce a better outcome.”

Richard Johnson, founder and executive director of FIGB, Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back, observed that many OPD SUVs are posted in the community with the engines on for hours. “I think it would be better for the environment if we had some police patrols on e-bikes”

For residents and businesses dealing with homelessness in the neighborhoods, Duffey, Oakland’s Interim City Administrator for the City of Oakland, said he is temporarily tasked with the city’s 800 homeless encampments.

Duffey discussed the process of closing city encampments and how sometimes the rules and regulations delay progress. “Our efforts to just remove encampment debris are thwarted if a person claims the items as their personal property.”

Fife empathized with the community’s frustrations and explained that the issues raised have been systemic for a long time, and she’s all about solutions and thinking “outside of the box.”

Fife suggested strengthening the 311 system and recently launched a micro-program pilot to pay a group of techies to improve the system’s functions. “311 is an operational system, but not completely funded, however we’re changing that.”

Shawn Upshaw, Triangle Response Coordinator for the City’s Department of Violence Prevention, said that more community liaisons need to be funded for violence prevention and support of people at the scene of a crime or homicide.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Rep. Barbara Lee Endorsed for U.S. Senate by Rep. Ro Khanna

Don't Miss

Murder Convictions Thrown Out After Witness Said OPD Officer Paid to Her to Lie

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of November 5 – 11, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 5 – 11, 2025

Published

13 hours ago

November 7, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of October 29 – November 4, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 29 – November 4, 2025

Published

4 days ago

November 3, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Past, Present, Possible! Oakland Residents Invited to Reimagine the 980 Freeway

Organizers ask attendees coming to 1233 Preservation Park Way to think of the event as a “time portal”—a walkable journey through the Past (harm and flourishing), Present (community conditions and resilience), and Future (collective visioning).

Published

2 weeks ago

October 27, 2025

Oakland Post

Hundreds of residents in West Oakland were forced out by eminent domain before construction began on the 980 freeway in 1968. Courtesy photo.

By Randolph Belle
Special to The Post

Join EVOAK!, a nonprofit addressing the historical harm to West Oakland since construction of the 980 freeway began in 1968, will hold a block party on Oct. 25 at Preservation Park for a day of imagination and community-building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Organizers ask attendees coming to 1233 Preservation Park Way to think of the event as a “time portal”—a walkable journey through the Past (harm and flourishing), Present (community conditions and resilience), and Future (collective visioning).

Activities include:

Interactive Visioning: Site mapping, 3-D/digital modeling, and design activities to reimagine housing, parks, culture, enterprise, and mobility.
Story & Memory: Oral history circles capturing life before the freeway, the rupture it caused, and visions for repair.
Data & Policy: Exhibits on health, environment, wealth impacts, and policy discussions.
Culture & Reflection: Films, installations, and performances honoring Oakland’s creativity and civic power.

The site of the party – Preservation Park – itself tells part of the story of the impact on the community. Its stately Victorians were uprooted and relocated to the site decades ago to make way for the I-980 freeway, which displaced hundreds of Black families and severed the heart of West Oakland. Now, in that same space, attendees will gather to reckon with past harms, honor the resilience that carried the community forward, and co-create an equitable and inclusive future.

A Legacy of Resistance

In 1979, Paul Cobb, publisher of the Post News Group and then a 36-year-old civil-rights organizer, defiantly planted himself in front of a bulldozer on Brush Street to prevent another historic Victorian home from being flattened for the long-delayed I-980 Freeway. Refusing to move, Cobb was arrested and hauled off in handcuffs—a moment that landed him on the front page of the Oakland Tribune.

Cobb and his family had a long history of fighting for their community, particularly around infrastructure projects in West Oakland. In 1954, his family was part of an NAACP lawsuit challenging the U.S. Post Office’s decision to place its main facility in the neighborhood, which wiped out an entire community of Black residents.

In 1964, they opposed the BART line down Seventh Street—the “Harlem of the West.” Later, Cobb was deeply involved in successfully rerouting the Cypress Freeway out of the neighborhood after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

The 980 Freeway, a 1.6-mile stretch, created an ominous barrier severing West Oakland from Downtown. Opposition stemmed from its very existence and the national practice of plowing freeways through Black communities with little input from residents and no regard for health, economic, or social impacts. By the time Cobb stood before the bulldozer, construction was inevitable, and his fight shifted toward jobs and economic opportunity.

Fast-forward 45 years: Cobb recalled the story at a convening of “Super OGs” organized to gather input from legacy residents on reimagining the corridor. He quickly retrieved his framed Tribune front page, adding a new dimension to the conversation about the dedication required to make change. Themes of harm repair and restoration surfaced again and again, grounded in memories of a thriving, cohesive Black neighborhood before the freeway.

The Lasting Scar

The 980 Freeway was touted as a road to prosperity—funneling economic opportunity into the City Center, igniting downtown commerce, and creating jobs. Instead, it cut a gash through the city, erasing 503 homes, four churches, 22 businesses, and hundreds of dreams. A promised second approach to the Bay Bridge never materialized.

Planning began in the late 1940s, bulldozers arrived in 1968, and after years of delays and opposition, the freeway opened in 1985. By then, Oakland’s economic engines had shifted, leaving behind a 600-foot-wide wound that resulted in fewer jobs, poorer health outcomes, and a divided neighborhood. The harm of displacement and loss of generational wealth was compounded through redlining, disinvestment, drugs, and the police state. Many residents fled to outlying cities, while those who stayed carried forward the spirit of perseverance.

The Big Picture

At stake now is up to 67 acres of new, buildable land in Downtown West Oakland. This time, we must not repeat the institutional wrongs of the past. Instead, we must be as deliberate in building a collective, equitable vision as planners once were in destroying communities.

EVOAK!’s strategy is rooted in four pillars: health, housing, economic development, and cultural preservation. These were the very foundations stripped away, and they are what they aim to reclaim. West Oakland continues to suffer among the worst social determinants of health in the region, much of it linked to the three freeways cutting through the neighborhood.

The harms of urban planning also decimated cultural life, reinforced oppressive public safety policies, underfunded education, and fueled poverty and blight.

Healing the Wound

West Oakland was once the center of Black culture during the Great Migration—the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and home to the “School of Champions,” the mighty Warriors of McClymonds High. Drawing on that legacy, we must channel the community’s proud past into a bold, community-led future that restores connection, sparks innovation, and uplifts every resident.

Two years ago, Caltrans won a federal Reconnecting Communities grant to fund Vision 980, a community-driven study co-led by local partners. Phase 1 launched in Spring 2024 with surveys and outreach; Phase 2, a feasibility study, begins in 2026. Over 4,000 surveys have already been completed. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity could transform the corridor into a blank slate—making way for accessible housing, open space, cultural facilities, and economic opportunity for West Oakland and the entire region.

Leading with Community

In parallel, EVOAK! is advancing a community-led process to complement Caltrans’ work. EVOAK! is developing a framework for community power-building, quantifying harm, exploring policy and legislative repair strategies, structuring community governance, and hosting arts activations to spark collective imagination. The goal: a spirit of co-creation and true collaboration.

What EVOAK! Learned So Far

Through surveys, interviews, and gatherings, residents have voiced their priorities: a healthy environment, stable housing, and opportunities to thrive. Elders with decades in the neighborhood shared stories of resilience, community bonds, and visions of what repair should look like.

They heard from folks like Ezra Payton, whose family home was destroyed at Eighth and Brush streets; Ernestine Nettles, still a pillar of civic life and activism; Tom Bowden, a blues man who performed on Seventh Street as a child 70 years ago; Queen Thurston, whose family moved to West Oakland in 1942; Leo Bazille who served on the Oakland City Council from 1983 to 1993; Herman Brown, still organizing in the community today; Greg Bridges, whose family’s home was picked up and moved in the construction process; Martha Carpenter Peterson, who has a vivid memory of better times in West Oakland; Sharon Graves, who experienced both the challenges and the triumphs of the neighborhood; Lionel Wilson, Jr., whose family were anchors of pre-freeway North Oakland; Dorothy Lazard, a resident of 13th Street in the ’60s and font of historical knowledge; Bishop Henry Williams, whose simple request is to “tell the truth,” James Moree, affectionately known as “Jimmy”; the Flippin twins, still anchored in the community; and Maxine Ussery, whose father was a business and land owner before redlining.

EVOAK! will continue to capture these stories and invites the public to share theirs as well.

Beyond the Block Party

The 980 Block Party is just the beginning. Beyond this one-day event, EVOAK! Is building a long-term process to ensure West Oakland’s future is shaped by those who lived its past. To succeed, EVOAK! Is seeking partners across the community—residents, neighborhood associations, faith groups, and organizations—to help connect with legacy residents and host conversations.

980 Block Party Event Details
Saturday, Oct. 25
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Preservation Park, 1233 Preservation Park Way, Oakland, CA 94612
980BlockParty.org
info@evoak.org