Development
A day during which thousands of people attended protests and marched through Oakland wound up this evening with as many as 10,000 protesters marching across the Highway 880 ramp and shutting down the Port of Oakland.
In front of downtown Oakland banks, some protesters staged peaceful and even comic demonstrations, while others smashed windows, blocked access to ATMs, and spray-painted graffitti.
Marches and protests continued Wednesday as part of the day of action organized by Occupy Oakland. Around 11:30 am, the Oakland Educational Association (OEA) teachers union, high school students and parents of children who attend the five Oakland elementary schools up for closure gathered in the outdoor plaza at Laney college in support of today’s strike.
All 22 teachers from the Bridges Academy at Melrose elementary school, plus six parents, one infant and one middle-schooler, represented their school as they marched in support of Occupy Oakland’s general strike on Wednesday morning. Toting protest signs, tambourines, maracas, and a giant banner they walked from their school, near 53rd Avenue and International Boulevard, to downtown Oakland.
Live hip-hop music, anti-Wall Street chants and hundreds of Occupy Oakland protesters camped out steps away at Frank Ogawa Plaza had little effect on Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting. The Occupy Oakland movement was not discussed, and councilmembers postponed making a final decision about contractual restrictions at the Oakland Army Base, and the appointment of port commissioner.
About a dozen protesters – including Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin — turned out Wednesday morning to join a day of action called by protesters at Occupy Oakland. The Richmond group plans to march almost 10 miles down San Pablo Avenue to join protesters gathering in Oakland’s Frank Ogawa plaza – or, as protesters have christened it, Oscar Grant square – at noon.
On Wednesday morning, Mayor Jean Quan issued a statement regarding today’s day of action. Reprinted here in its entirety:
Early Tuesday morning, the Oakland Police Officer’s Association released the following “Open letter to the citizens of Oakland,” reprinted here in its entirety:
The Oakland Hills Fire may have started on the ground, but the Eucalyptus trees surrounding people’s homes in the Oakland-Berkeley Hills helped it burn more and spread even further. The highly flammable non-native species accounted for 70 percent of the energy released through combustion of vegetation during the fire, according to the National Park Service. Twenty years after the fire, Eucalyptus trees still surround many homes and live in many of Oakland’s parks, while residents debate whether they should be saved or removed as fire hazards.