January 2023
Dear friends, family and constituents,
As I reflect on this time last year, I'm proud to say my office quadrupled the amount of legislation we introduced compared to 2021 while supporting numerous community initiatives. We planted seeds, researched and learned how the City functions and are poised to make 2023 about that action! All that work has set us up in very important ways for this year and I shared these reflections and aspirations during my LIVE last Thursday, with some listed below.
On another note, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the violence in Memphis, Tennessee and the murder of Tyre Nichols. There is so much to say about the various aspects of what happened: about how we’re faced with the impact to our collective psyche from witnessing a public lynching…again. How the race of a perpetrator does not prevent abuse from a person of the same race. That a common denominator in the rapid termination of employment for those involved in the murder of Tyre was being Black. There is much to say about the anxiety, fear and anger that brews seeing a routine traffic stop result in inexplicable violence and an innocent person being killed. That despite the role a Black individual has, they will be held to a higher level of consequence and that policing is about white supremacy that can take many forms. And despite the uprisings in 2020, 2022 had the highest record of police violence since 2013, yet the mainstream media was largely silent on the issue. There is a lot to say and it takes care and nuanced conversations to process this trauma together. I hope to have some of these conversations with you soon and I hope that you all have people and places that you can share, grieve and heal.
In service and solidarity,
Councilmember Carroll Fife
Items In This Newsletter
Where We Landed 2022 and Where We’re Headed 2023
Direct Community Grants Program
January Posts Regarding Threats Of Violence Increases
Support Black Women - Press Conference - Feb 6th
A Rising Tide - Screening and Fireside Chat - Feb 4th
Black Solidarity Week - Feb 17-22nd
Last Thursday LIVE - Where We Landed 2022 and Where We’re Headed 2023
The Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP) Opens The People's House
The Real Weekend Warriors And BART Modernization
Updates
Where We Landed 2022 and Where We’re Headed 2023
Housing
With the success of Measure Q for low-rent housing and Measure U for affordable housing funding, we are now set up to define strategies and processes for developing and acquiring solutions to the housing affordability crisis we so badly need in Oakland.
This year, my office will focus on:
Using Public Lands For Public Use - We will finalize Oakland’s public land policy and find ways to utilize existing City-owned parcels and acquire additional properties for affordable housing. There are many vacant properties throughout District 3 that could be utilized for housing with the right political will and structures that connect funding and development to need. Our 2023 legislative plan:
Work with my council colleagues to pass a long-overdue public land ordinance
Create a formal process for the City of Oakland’s Housing Department to acquire blighted/tax defaulted properties.
Spearhead initiatives such as Seattle’s Measure 135 that creates a Public Social Housing Developer that develops, owns, and maintains social housing for all of Oakland.
Continue Increasing Homelessness Services and Sites - In addition to increasing the development of low-rent housing, addressing our housing access and homelessness crisis will involve securing ongoing state funding as well as investigating the current homelessness service providers to ensure they are providing the care and attention that is needed.
In 2022, we gained new tenant protections and pushed the previous administration to begin expanding services and sites for unhoused constituents. This included:
Capping yearly allowable rent increases to 3% max.
Pushing the City Administrator to begin taking the steps required to allow for an emergency homelessness intervention at North Gateway and 34th Street on Mandela Parkway, while expanding access to an existing intervention at Beach Street
Measure V passing now extends tenant protections under the Just Cause For Eviction ordinance to tenants of all multi-unit buildings past their first ten years after construction. It also prevents families with students and educators from being evicted during the school year.
Economic and Racial Justice
This time last year, my office set out to launch the Black New Deal initiative and to continue our planning efforts for Measure T for progressive taxation, the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD), and the Public Bank East Bay. By the end of the year, we saw:
Measure T for Progressive Taxation and Measure W for Public Financing pass with large margins. We will now see lower tax rates for small businesses and $4 million worth of vouchers go every two years to Oakland residents to contribute to any political candidate of their choice.
A report and recommendations on different configurations of EIFDs for Oakland. With an EIFD, we have a chance at realizing large-scale, long-term projects that the private market predominantly ignores and has no incentive to pursue, such as remediation of toxic land in West Oakland and low-rent housing development, addressing the deeply rooted harms of past policies.
The viability study for The Public Bank East Bay was approved and we committed Oakland’s intent to be a founding member.
The Black New Deal Symposium brought together community members around six focus areas (we’ve since added Health as a 7th). It led my office to ask the City Administration for a report on the harm of past housing policies in West Oakland, putting the extensive economic losses and exploitation of the Black community on public record.
This year my office plans to see the EIFD and the public bank through to their final approvals. We also plan to see the Black New Deal conduct an expansive study of the present day issues affecting West Oaklanders, in order to define the concrete strategy and funding amounts required to implement it.
Community, Arts & Culture
Last year we expanded Oakland’s Youth Summer Jobs program, introduced legislation to open a farmers market in West Oakland as well as the Dr. Huey P. Newton Center for Research and Action on Broadway and 14th, and honored many Black Oakland leaders such as Bill Russell and Coach Michael Peters.
This year we have plans to continue supporting arts and cultural spaces in Oakland as well as specific environmental and transportation projects within West Oakland. This will include:
Recognizing and honoring Black leaders who've touched Oakland such as Bill Russell, Tupac Shakur, Zumbi of Zion I, and the Khadafy Foundation.
Implementing the ability to provide municipal trash services to encampments and garbage hot spots throughout the district.
Filling staff vacancies within Oakland Public Works so more city staff can be deployed to care for our public spaces including parks.
Programming Measure U funds for transportation infrastructure.
Planting hundreds of trees throughout the district.
2. Direct Community Grants Program
The Oakland City Council provides support for Oakland based nonprofits and community based organizations who provide direct services or programs to Oakland Residents. Organizations can receive grants to help advance racial equity by focusing on priority neighborhoods, creating economic opportunities, and/or promoting health and safety. Applications are due on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 5pm.
3. Posts This Month Regarding Threats Of Violence Increases
Some of you may have already seen the Twitter and Instagram posts I shared this past month, read about them on KQED or heard my discussion with Cat Brooks on KPFA. I shared some of the violent and hateful messages I’ve been receiving, containing vile language categorizing me as an animal who is “marking her territory” and a corrupt “piece of shit” that should be “taken out and raped”.
It was difficult for me to share those recordings but I did so on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day because the violence that led to his death is not a thing of the past. With this country's inability to address gun violence and the deepening polarization of different perspectives, we cannot be silent about red flag warnings. The increasing volume and intensity of false narratives, vile language, the sawar against “woke” and calls for the community to get armed is coordinated. It is intended to stoke division and stop social, racial and economic-justice legislation at best, or agitate people toward potentially violent outcomes at worst.
This is a reminder of how we must actively continue the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In spite of the threats I have received, people who've fought to change inequality in America have experienced far more than I have. We must continue to be unflinchingly anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist as he was; to take stands that are neither easy or popular, but are right. In his wise words, “we will not be harassed, we will not make a butchery of our conscience, we will not be intimidated and we will be heard.”
4. Support Black Women - Press Conference - Feb 6th
In an effort to show solidarity with Black women who cope in silence, several state and local women electeds will rally to support Black women leaders experiencing disproportionate threats and harassment.
The research is undeniable: women public officials, particularly women of color, are disproportionately targeted, totaling 42.5% of all incidents tracked by a new database by Princeton University and the Anti-Defamation League.
The Oakland Progressive Alliance (OPA) has started circulating a petition calling on business leaders, civil rights groups and advocates connected to any of the individuals perpetrating misleading, politically motivated, and/or dangerous rhetoric to join them in publicly condemning these attacks.
They are also asking the community to step up and speak out when they see the scapegoating of Black women and women of color in leadership positions.
Sign the petition: tinyurl.com/StandWithCarrollFife
5. A Rising Tide - Screening and Fireside Chat - Feb 4th
This Sunday at The New Parkway, join me in a fireside chat with the film director Cheryl Fabio of “A Rising Tide”, the new Sarah Webster Fabio Center's documentary about Alameda County’s unhoused children and families.
12:30-2:30 pm RSVP here.
6. Black Solidarity Week - February 17-22nd
Community Ready Corps is excited to announce their 6th annual Black Solidarity Week. You can stay tuned through their Instagram, Twitter and web pages.
7. Thursday LIVE - Where We Landed 2022 and Where We’re Headed 2023
If you missed it and are interested in what was shared, you can still watch the recording on my YouTube page.
8. The Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP) Opens The People's House
When we remember and celebrate Martin Luther King Jr, we must honor the totality of his legacy. We must answer his call for a radical reconstruction of values.
In this legacy, I appreciated seeing the opening of The People’s House, which aims to partly answer that call by creating a space for cultural events, teach-ins, healing circles and more to promote racial justice, mutual aid and solidarity. You can check out the programming being hosted there, along with the projects it will headquarter Mental Health First, First Responders Committee and the California Healers Network, and a holistic care clinic.
9. The Real Weekend Warriors And BART Modernization
Big shout out to our city workers for cleaning up Mandela Parkway and creating the visibility to make it safe for cyclists and pedestrians by giving the bushes and trees a trim!!
On the same weekend, I also appreciated seeing the completion of BART’s 19th Street/Oakland Station Modernization plan which has included renovating and reopening public restrooms, more lighting, public art, and bike parking amongst other things.
The modernization was funded through a variety of county, state and federal level measures and funding sources, it will take this type of multi-level funding and much more to continue tackling our big infrastructure needs including affordable housing.
