Focus: Community Traffic Safety
Dear friends, family, and constituents,
Back in 2023, my office began moving forward a community traffic safety pilot program and it was approved in July. I’ve shared aspects of this program in past newsletters, but want to take the time today to share with you the full scope of the program and recent updates. Make sure to read below about the community meeting this Friday if you’re interested!
What Will This Program Do?
It will expedite the implementation of pilot traffic calming measures in high-injury network corridors and near schools, with the goal of enhancing road safety for vulnerable populations. It will enable interim responses for rapid deployment of quick-build traffic calming and enable community-based organizations and institutions to meaningfully drive proactive road safety efforts.
Why Address Community Traffic Safety?
Between 2012-2016, there was a 76% increase in severe or fatal injuries from car accidents, causing devastation to those affected. There were also economic ramifications for the City of Oakland to the tune of $900 million due to various associated costs. Observing these issues, the City’s Department of Transportation (OakDOT) was created in 2016, and in 2021, OakDOT developed a Safe Oakland Streets (SOS) program in order to prevent traffic incidents and to implement traffic safety programs.
As part of SOS, OakDOT emphasized the importance of allocating resources to uplift communities residing in higher priority equity neighborhoods, and that street design plays a critical role in encouraging safe traffic behaviors and preventing severe and fatal crashes. The legislation I introduced seeks to address these findings, by removing barriers and supporting community members to address the needs they are identifying.
Why This Program Versus Other Approaches?
The proposal researched community-based networks across the nation, such as the Better Bus Coalition in Ohio, MARTA Army in Atlanta, and TURBO in Nashville, who work collaboratively with transit and city planning departments to create substantial, positive impacts. These collaborative efforts are driving positive change in urban areas, ultimately making them safer and more vibrant for residents and visitors alike.
Currently, with over $400 million Department of Public Works backlog for road maintenance, a high volume of traffic calming requests through the 311 webpage, and short staff within the Oakland Department of Transportation, the city cannot respond to all traffic calming requests in a timely manner. Residents within High Injury Networks are vulnerable to road-based traffic violence, many of which pose serious or fatal.
This program will just enable temporary measures until the Oakland Department of Transportation can make permanent repairs. These suggestions will serve as prototypes, so when permanent solutions are possible we can move forward with confidence regarding their impacts. Applicants granted quick build permits will do so in direct collaboration with the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) and Public Works.
The Timeline And What’s Next
The pilot program authorizes the City Administrator to publish standard plans, including recommended dimensions, materials, and traffic control plans by April 2025. By July 2025, the program will begin accepting and processing permit applications, allowing businesses, schools, and community groups within the High Injury Network and/or serving low income residents and vulnerable populations to apply for permits.
The City Council also authorized OakDOT to conduct 2 demonstration projects (one each in East and West Oakland) to understand how to collaborate with community members on these types of projects prior to launching the permit program next Spring. The West Oakland project will be on 12th Street from Filbert to Market Street in between West Oakland Middle School and MLK Elementary.
A community meeting to discuss and receive feedback on the 12th Street traffic calming demonstration will be held on Friday, 8:30 am at MLK Elementary School. If you would like to attend and or share your ideas about the project please fill out this survey: 12th Street Traffic Calming Project Survey and Meeting RSVP
In service and solidarity,
Councilmember Carroll Fife
Items In This Newsletter
Supporting The Justice For Renters Act
In The News: Uplifting Working Families in Oakland, California: Carroll Fife
1. Supporting The Justice For Renters Act
The Justice for Renters Act is a state-level piece of legislation that will appear on the November 2024 election ballot. If approved by voters, it will clear the way for local governments and communities to create local rent control laws and make housing more affordable for low-income and middle-income renters. It will do this by primarily repealing the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. I introduced legislation that expresses Oakland's support for this Act and below is a deep dive on what it’s all about, as well as here on IG.
What is the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that currently bans rent control?
In 1995, this act was signed into law and placed significant limits on the ability of cities in California to implement rent control for any single-family home or condominium, including single family homes owned by corporations or institutional investors, and any apartment constructed after February 1995. It prohibits cities that established rent control laws prior to the Act's passage from expanding rent control.
The act also prohibits cities from implementing "vacancy control," also called "strict" rent control, thus allowing an apartment owner the right to rent any vacant unit at any price, usually the market price, following a tenant vacating the unit.
It impedes permanent changes to local rent control ordinances and enables rents on currently affordable rental housing units to rise to market rates upon vacancy thus imperiling the existing affordable housing stock, tenants, and contributing to a worsening of our homelessness crisis.
How Does It Impact Oakland?
Since Oakland had rent control laws as early as 1983 and prior to Costa-Hawkins, the way the ban on rent control is applied is not clear-cut. According to Costa-Hawkins, only multi-unit buildings built before local rent control laws were instantiated in 1983 can be covered by rent control laws. The only single-family dwellings and condominiums that are covered are ones that have been occupied since 1995.
While Oakland has been able to expand its Just Cause For Eviction laws, which I co-introduced in 2022, and I was able to also introduce legislation that capped rent increases on units covered by rent control laws, the hands of legislators are tied when it comes to expanding rent control laws. Considering Oakland’s housing stock is around 80% single-family homes and 60% of our population are renters, Costa-Hawins has meant that most Oakland renters are not covered by any form of rent control.
In addition, because one of Costa-Hawkins most overarching impacts is banning vacancy control, in Oakland we often see tenants being evicted and the same unit with no improvements going back on the market with a substantial price hike.
What Will The Justice for Renters Act Do Instead?
Under the Justice for Renters Act, authority over local rent control laws would be returned to cities and counties, affirming that the State of California may not limit their right to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control. It will repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.
There have been many attempts to appeal Costa-Hawkins and the real estate lobby comes out aggressively every time to confuse people’s understanding of what Costa-Hawkins actually does. They often say that appeals are “anti-housing” or lead to less housing on the market. In reality, it leads to housing insecurity, more people in and out of housing, and the price of rental housing increasing exponentially. I hope more and more people are realizing this and this resolution expresses Oakland’s support for the Justice for Renters Act and the positive impact it will have.
2. In The News: Uplifting Working Families in Oakland, California: Carroll Fife
“We’re leading the fight for justice and equity so working families can thrive in Oakland.”
This past month I was interviewed by ShePolitics, and shared about the issues that have arisen in my pursuit of politics and my current term, hardships of being a woman in the political realm, steps that ought to be taken to achieve gender equality in political representation, and advice for young women aspiring to enter politics.
