Bay Area

Speaking at New Hope Baptist, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Promotes Community Initiatives

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, speaking recently at New Hope Baptist Church at 5717 Foothill Blvd. in East Oakland, pledged to bring new investments to the community to improve the quality of life and educational opportunities for Oakland residents.

Published

2 years ago

October 5, 2023

Oakland Post

(l-r) Pastor Ray Lankford, Mayor Sheng Thao, Rev. Joe Smith and Rev. Lawrence Van Hook gathered in Smith’s office prior to her speech at new Hope Baptist Church to pray for peace and solutions for Oakland's citizens. Photo by jonathanfitnessjones@gmail.com

By Ken Epstein

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, speaking recently at New Hope Baptist Church at 5717 Foothill Blvd. in East Oakland, pledged to bring new investments to the community to improve the quality of life and educational opportunities for Oakland residents.

One initiative is Rise East – which is already funded with a $50 million matching grant that “will be invested in Deep East Oakland, bringing together communities,” she said.

Privately funded, Rise East will focus on an East Oakland community known as “40×40,” – 40 blocks by 40 blocks, which run from Seminary Avenue to the Oakland-San Leandro border and from MacArthur Boulevard to the Bay. This area is home to the largest concentration of Black residents (over 30,000) who remain in Oakland’s flatland neighborhoods.

“Fifty million dollar is a lot of money, but I believe that’s a drop in bucket for many generations that have been left out,” said Thao. This is the beginning of what we call ‘community safety.’”

She said that much more money is needed and will be raised to deliver on these promises. “Many foundations have said they want to support Oakland, and I say, ‘Put your money where your mouth is,” she said.

Part of this project will be to assure that residents have adequate housing, she said. “If you don’t have housing, you’re going to be unsafe; I know this because I have been unhoused.”

Mayor Thao also pledged to deliver on an initiative to provide educational opportunities for young people, introducing what she called her “legacy project,” the Transitional Age Youth Hub, or TAY-Hub.

The goal of the project is “to invest in young people so in the future they are able to have good-paying jobs so they can continue … being here for generations.”

“Imagine a college campus with housing, technical training, counselors, facilities with childcare, so you don’t have to worry about daily needs so you can be successful,” she said.

The idea for this campus was developed by people at Camp Sweeney, “an institution for young people that many institutions have given up on,” said the mayor.

While the plan for the youth hub did not start with her, she said, “I’m going to lead the way to make sure it happens.”

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

4 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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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

1 week 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.

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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

2 weeks 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.