Economy
After police served Occupy Oakland campers an eviction notice last night, demonstrators took to the streets, marching in a circuit around Lake Merritt this morning, October 22. The march lasted about three hours and remained peaceful. It appeared to span a wide range of age, race, religious and political differences. When asked about the possibility of eviction, one man, who only gave his first name Ethan, said, “I’m not going to fight them, but I’m definitely not going to leave.”
Their tent encampment still intact despite a city eviction order, hundreds from the Occupy Oakland protest marched through Oakland on Saturday afternoon, stopping traffic as they waved flags, danced and chanted. The march began at Frank Ogawa Plaza, where protesters have been camping since October 11 to protest economic inequality.
Occupy Oakland protesters received their second wave of eviction notices from the City Administrator’s Office on Friday night. Despite the threat that police could force them to leave at any time, protesters continued their daily routines, which included a night of revelry at the amphitheater outside of City Hall.
It’s been 11 days since Occupy Oakland took over Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza, and now the tent city is bigger than ever and facing eviction. Over 550 people occupy Oakland’s plaza, even after they received an evacuation notice from the City Administrator’s Office on Thursday evening. Among the concerns listed on the notice are graffiti, vandalism to plaza infrastructure and “the historic tree,” and the disruption of the plaza for public use by groups who had to relocate events which had previously been scheduled at the plaza.
Oakland voters began mailing in ballots this week to decide the fate of a controversial $80 parcel tax that is being promoted as vital to help Oakland’s budget crisis and assailed as an unnecessary burden on homeowners, with no binding resolution to determine where it would be spent. Measure I would raise $60 million for the city over a five-year period.
On October 20, 1991, the hills above North Oakland and South Berkeley were prey to a three-day urban fire that destroyed over 3,500 homes and instigated a building revolution that permanently transformed the neighborhood for decades to come. Before the fire, the hillside was littered with small, older homes, some dating as far back as the 1920s and 1930s. But after the fire, the Oakland hills neighborhoods drastically transformed into a community of clashing architectural styles, innovative designs, and large, looming structures.
Amidst accusations of electioneering, the Oakland City Council approved legislation that would determine how funds from a proposed $80 parcel tax would be spent if Measure I passes next month. The legislation, authored by Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan, Councilmember Pat Kernighan (District 2) and Council President Larry Reid (District 7), determines how the $60 million collected from the tax under Measure I would be spent over the next five years, and allocates a majority of the funds toward public safety items.
Medical marijuana supporters and business people in Oakland reacted angrily last week to dual blows from the federal government—a prosecution warning and a massive tax bill—as they speculated on the possible consequences for patients and the local marijuana industry.
Amidst pleas by city officials to remain in Oakland, the Bay Area Toll Authority voted 8-6 to purchase a new building in San Francisco, where the agency will locate its new headquarters.