Public Policy
Twenty years ago the United Nations General Assembly accepted a new international agreement that sought the safety and security of migrants worldwide—the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. This weekend, thousands of people globally will celebrate International Migrants Day, December 18, and speak out for the rights of migrants.
Javier Amaro is one of hundreds of people in Oakland who have started reusing “greywater”—or run-off water—in their homes. California’s laws recently changed to allow certain kinds of greywater reuse systems to be installed without requiring permits, so residents are increasingly conserving water from their showers, bathroom sinks, washing machines and more.
On paper, Tuesday night’s city council meeting was scheduled to be a quiet evening spent tying up loose legislative ends. But the meeting that took place was anything but quiet. With yells and chants, protesters from local activist group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) brought the meeting to a halt during the open forum segment in an effort to call attention to the recent shooting death of Derrick Jones.
At a press conference held Monday afternoon in the lobby of Oakland’s police headquarters, Deputy Chief Eric Breshears said that the Oakland Police Department is significantly understaffed, a situation he expects to worsen in the new year. The conference followed the publication of a Matier & Ross column in the San Francisco Chronicle earlier that day reporting dire staffing figures.
In January, Jerry Brown will return to Sacramento as California’s governor. How did his eight years in Oakland influence his thinking about housing, arts, education and leadership, and can the criticism, praise and ambivalence he drew from Oakland residents shed light on what’s store for California?
Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage must now wait for the results of Monday morning’s Proposition 8 hearing before a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The hearing from the crowded courtroom in San Francisco was broadcast live on C-SPAN and streamed on the Internet.
On Thursday afternoon, the announcement that court hearings regarding the proposed Fruitvale gang injunction would be delayed did not stop approximately 30 demonstrators outside the office of the Alameda County Administrator from demanding an alternative measure to reduce gang violence in their neighborhoods.
Oakland mayor-elect Jean Quan, Assemblymember Sandre Swanson, and other local leaders joined a handful of Oakland students on the steps of City Hall on Thursday afternoon to urge Congress to pass the federal DREAM Act, which would give the children of illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship.
On Monday, the Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Press released its annual City Crime Rate Rankings list, which ranks cities from highest number of crimes reported to lowest. Little has changed since last year—the top five remain the same—and Oakland, California, is still one of them. The good news, sort of, is that Oakland has dropped out of third place and is now No. 5.