What is the City of Oakland’s subsidy to Forest City’s Uptown project?
November 8, 2008 by V Smoothe · 28 Comments
Somehow, the comments on my election results post turned into a discussion of City subsidies to Forest City and the Uptown Apartments. There seems to be a lot of confusion about our agreement, so I’m just going to explain the whole deal.
The City of Oakland’s total funding contribution to the Uptown Project was $60,031,057. Read more
The importance of getting things right
June 24, 2008 by V Smoothe · 19 Comments
So in last week’s East Bay Express, Robert Gammon had a story about the redevelopment agency buying some property out in East Oakland for more than they should have (I mentioned the sale last Monday). What could have been an opportunity to highlight some of the ineptness of Oakland’s bureaucracy instead devolves into a bizarre (and unclear) conspiracy theory involving Ignacio De La Fuente. I haven’t looked into the details of the ownership changes on this piece of property or the history of the City’s acquisition plans, nor do I plan to. But when I read the story, one line in particular made my eyebrows jump: Read more
Walking patrols in commercial districts
April 16, 2008 by V Smoothe · 5 Comments
Wow! I expected my post about private security would generate a lot of interest, but not nearly this much. I wish so many people wanted to read about the candidate forums! That comments section is getting a little long, so I’m going add a few more thoughts, and give people a fresh place to be angry.
Anyway, the City Council approved the program last night, with no comment or discussion on the item.
I am very much in favor of using redevelopment funds to improve public safety, and I would like to see other redevelopment areas look at funding similar patrols. Hiring private security firms to provide the patrols doesn’t have to be a permanent solution. I know that Rebecca Kaplan has suggested previously that Oakland explore a program based on the Atlanta Ambassador Program, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Sean Sullivan talk about it as well, but I’m not 100% on that. Anyway, I know the suggestion has caused some confusion, with at least some people interpreting her plan as simply an expanded version of Jane Brunner’s Oakland Ambassadors plan, which involved paying at-risk youth to hang out at BART stations and walk people to their cars. They aren’t the same.
First, the Atlanta Ambassadors are adults, they are well trained, and they are full time City workers. They are unarmed foot patrols wearing distinctive (and kind of silly looking) helmets who walk downtown Atlanta. People can stop them and ask for directions and such, and they provide eyes on the street for the police, who they maintain radio contact with. During the first year of the patrols, downtown Atlanta saw a 60% reduction in crime.
I said yesterday in response to my first enraged comment that I’d be equally happy with the new patrols if they were unarmed, and I’d like to amend that now to say that I would prefer it, since it eliminates what appears to be most people’s objections to the program. Uniformed walking patrols, whether they have real power and authority or not, have proven to be an effective deterrent to crime - that’s why BIDs and neighborhood associations are hiring them. They provide eyes on the street for the police and discourage loitering, street drug dealing, and other low-level offenses that drive people away from commercial districts. There’s no reason that we couldn’t hire our own walking patrols that would work with the police (but not be staffed by sworn officers) instead of using a private security company. These positions would be more expensive than outsourced patrols, but cheaper than regular police and require less training. Philadelphia did it, and it’s been a huge success.
Oakland reduced to hiring private security
April 15, 2008 by V Smoothe · 50 Comments
This is going to be short today, because I’m a slacker and put off my taxes until the last minute.
It’s a shame, because I think this is a pretty big deal. It isn’t news to anyone that Oakland has a serious police staffing problem or that we have a ever more serious crime problem. People wonder what the City is doing about it. The Consent to Search proposal has generated a lot of attention, but I haven’t seen anything yet about a much more important anti-crime initiative.
Tonight, the City Council will approve something we’re calling the Central City East Commercial Security Pilot Program. The 18 month project will be funded from $175,000 of redevelopment funds and $35,000 from Neighborhood Service Delivery Funds. You can read the staff reports on the program here (PDF!) and here (PDF!).
Part of the program involves providing crime prevention training to property owners and merchants. But most of the money will be used to pay for 4 armed private security officers to patrol the commercial districts five days a week. They will be patrolling Foothill Boulevard between 23rd and 73d, MacArthur Boulevard between 73rd and 77th, MacArthur Boulevard between 88th and the San Leandro border, Bancroft between 66th and 73rd, and International between 23rd and the San Leandro border.
I’m really glad we’re doing this. I have been advocating for the use of redevelopment funds to improve public safety for a while now. We do it a little bit, but we really should be doing more. There appears to be little or no political will within the Council to push for it. Anyway, I wanted to highlight this initiative for two reasons. First, it is incredibly depressing that our police staffing problem is so dire that we have been reduced to outsourcing neighborhood patrols. Second, this is a smart and appropriate temporary measure that the City is taking to combat crime, and people should know about it.
Worth reading this weekend
April 6, 2008 by V Smoothe · 14 Comments
- Becks sounds the alarm about a new Berkeley initiative to halt BRT:
Regardless of any issues one may have with AC Transit’s current BRT proposal, this is just bad planning. This initiative would mean that anytime the City wanted to convert lanes to transit-only lanes, the decision would have to be made by the Berkeley electorate. Even if the dedicated bus lane only extended one block into Berkeley from Oakland or another neighboring city, Berkeley residents would have the final say. Projects could be held up for months or even years if an election wasn’t approaching (I don’t see the city holding special elections for this issue).
More public safety funding, no new taxes
September 14, 2007 by V Smoothe · 4 Comments
I don’t know why the local press has ignored Ignacio De La Fuente’s proposal of a 10% redevelopment agency set-aside for public safety resources. dto510 blogged about it on Future Oakland, but I have seen no mention of it in the newspapers. Why? With rising concerns about crime among Oaklanders, shouldn’t we be talking about the fact that the Council President has announced several initiatives to address problems with police recruitment and funding? That’s got to be at least as important as a pro-peace block party, right? Read more
Gee whiz, it’s scary here. I sure with there were some at-risk youth around.
I wrote about the proposed Oakland Ambassador’s Program in my weekly city business roundup on Novometro. On Tuesday, the Council voted to conditionally approve the program, subject to funding during their budget deliberations.
Let’s take a look at a few features of the program that illustrate just how mind-bogglingly stupid this proposal is. Read more
