What we are tracking in Oakland

Potholes that stay open, and a repaving program scaled back after a delayed bond sale

Oakland · Citywide, East Oakland, Council District 4 and named intersections · raised since October 2024

On 30 April 2025, Leslie Alfred, an Oakland resident, told CBS San Francisco about a "car-eating pot hole." The same report quoted Councilmember Noel Gallo, who said the city's administration "is hired specifically, specifically to administer what the voters approved and it didn't happen." He was speaking about Measure U, a 2022 voter-approved bond (money the city borrows and repays over time) for housing and roads.

"It's very frustrating. So now I've got to do the roads like a video game. Especially in East Oakland too. It's really bad"

Leslie Alfred, Oakland resident, quoted by CBS San Francisco, 30 April 2025

The city's 311 line, its non-emergency request line, shows the same concern. Since October 2024, residents have filed 5,747 pothole requests, and another 265 were filed under the sewer category. Of the 5,747, 2,461 (43%) are open, and the oldest was filed on 1 October 2024. Monthly filings peak each winter, at 388 in January 2025 and 504 in January 2026, and were 175 in September 2026. Council District 4, which covers Montclair, Laurel, Dimond and the hills, has the most, at 1,237, against 888, 887 and 870 in the next three districts. Some places come up again and again: 27th Street and Northgate Avenue (14 requests), 491 Crescent Street (12), Golf Links Road (10), Longridge Road and Verrada Road (10, with 8 open), Grove Shafter Freeway (10) and 7th Street and Maritime Street (10). The status open is the city's own label, and it does not say whether anyone has visited.

The city is putting real money into paving. It has been committing more than $50 million a year in bond proceeds to the streets that are overdue for repaving, and the Oaklandside catalogued the worst-rated streets in December 2025 from the city's own pavement condition data. The bond sale is where the schedule slipped. CBS reported that the finance department did not sell Measure U bonds in the fall of 2024, which left a funding gap of possibly as much as $55 million. In May 2025, KTVU reported that the city's transportation director expected to pave only 20 miles of road in 2025 because of the delayed sale, compared with the 50 or 60 miles he had hoped to pave each year. The same report said Oakland paid $27 million in pothole lawsuit settlements from 2018 to 2023, the most of any major Bay Area city.

The city's side is that the money is committed and the constraints are real. Drainage, sewer work required by a consent decree (a court-approved agreement) and street lighting all have claims on the same construction budget, and that trade-off is hard. Where things stand, as far as we have tracked: paving continues at a reduced scale, we have not located a revised schedule with mileage targets, and about two in five pothole requests remain open.

Worth tracking

Three things would show movement: a revised paving schedule tied to the bond proceeds, with annual mileage targets; 2026 mileage compared with the 50 to 60 miles hoped for; and a falling share of pothole requests still open, now 43%.

Oakland's paving is paid for by bonds approved through ballot measures (Measure U and Measure KK) and by the city's capital plan, its multi-year list of construction spending. Federal help comes in two kinds. Surface Transportation Block Grant money is a formula program, divided among regions by a set formula, and it reaches Oakland through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area's regional transportation planning agency. Its rules largely limit it to arterials and collectors (larger streets that carry traffic between neighborhoods), so it generally cannot be spent on residential streets. A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a specific local project, does not carry those rules, and residential paving has been funded that way. Competitive programs such as RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grants) and Safe Streets and Roads for All (a street safety grant program) can also fund rebuilding a corridor with new pavement. A request could cover part of the backlog or more, depending on its cost, which the city would need to supply.

Which streets come first is Oakland's call to make with its residents. The office would work with the city on any request rather than arrive with a list. If potholes keep coming back on your block, tell us which streets you would put at the top.

Sources: CBS San Francisco, 30 April 2025, KTVU, 9 May 2025, The Oaklandside, 23 December 2025, Oakland capital improvement program attachment, City of Oakland OAK 311 service request data

Damaged sidewalks and curb ramps that residents report and the city's records show still open

Oakland · Citywide; 600 West Grand Avenue, 409 Hudson Street · raised since October 2024

Two Oakland residents, Michael Curran and Nicole Brown-Booker, were the named plaintiffs when the group Disability Rights Advocates filed a federal class-action lawsuit in May 2023, Oakland Voices reported. The suit said the city had not kept its walkways accessible to people with disabilities. On 17 July 2025 the city announced a settlement that commits it to repair 78,000 known damaged sidewalk locations within 25 years and to build or retrofit about 11,000 curb ramps, the sloped cuts that let a wheelchair or stroller move between sidewalk and street, within 15 years. Mayor Barbara Lee said in the announcement:

"Oakland is strengthening our efforts to ensure people with disabilities, seniors, and parents with strollers have equal access to our transportation network."

Mayor Barbara Lee, City of Oakland news release, 17 July 2025

The city also acted on repairs for low-income owners. On 15 July 2025 the City Council adopted a resolution (file 25-0853, item S5.35) that lets the Department of Transportation fix sidewalks on private property for low-income owners at no cost, with no annual spending cap. Oakland Voices reported that the program processed only seven applications in the 2024 fiscal year and that the cap had been $50,000 a year.

Residents have also been reporting damage one location at a time. In the city's open 311 data, 1,641 sidewalk damage requests were filed between October 2024 and September 2026, and 1,178 of them (72%) are open, the oldest from 1 October 2024, the first day the data covers. Of 12 requests filed under a separate category for accessibility problems, 11 are open. All 5 requests to install or repair a curb ramp for accessibility are open, the oldest from 13 February 2025. Of 97 requests to inspect a curb ramp, 87 (90%) are open. "Open" is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited.

Some locations appear repeatedly. A location at 600 West Grand Avenue has 15 requests, 11 of them open. A location at 2301 Telegraph Avenue has 9, one at 195 41st Street has 9, and 409 Hudson Street has 5, all open.

The scale of the commitment is large. Oakland has about 1,100 miles of sidewalk, according to Oakland Voices, and 78,000 locations over 25 years works out to an average of about 3,100 locations a year if the work is spread evenly. A schedule paced over 25 years means a location reported today may or may not be early in the line, and the announcement does not give a yearly dollar figure or a repair order. Where things stand: a path exists, and the open requests in the data are the part residents can see now.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the city publishing which locations come in each year of the settlement, the 1,178 open sidewalk damage requests and 87 open curb ramp inspections falling, and the oldest open requests getting a date.

Federal help comes in two kinds. Sidewalk repair for low-income owners is an eligible use of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a federal grant cities receive by formula for housing and neighborhood improvements. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 108 program lets a city borrow against its future CDBG funds, which could pay for a large share of repairs up front. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a federal civil rights law, requires a city to keep a transition plan, a written schedule for making curb ramps and other pedestrian facilities usable (28 CFR 35.150, part of the federal regulations). A congressional office can ask the city for that plan and ask the Justice Department whether it is current,. The limits are specific: CDBG is divided by population and poverty, not by the size of a repair backlog, and the ADA covers curb ramps at crossings rather than every damaged panel. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks Congress to fund one named project, is not sized by a formula and could cover part or all of the cost of a set of repairs, depending on the number.

Which sidewalks come first is the city's call to make with residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If there is a block, a corner or a curb ramp you would put first, tell us where.

Sources: Oakland 311 service requests, open data portal, City of Oakland news release, 17 July 2025, Oakland Voices, 24 July 2025, Oakland City Council record removing the sidewalk repair funding cap

Whole blocks of street failing, with standing water and broken curbs

Oakland · Citywide, including Brookwood Road, Florence Avenue and Benedict Drive · raised since October 2024

Residents who use Oakland's 311 line, the city's non-emergency way to report a problem, have told the city about failing pavement at addresses across town. Three requests are still open at 1049 Brookwood Road, three at 400 Florence Avenue, three at the corner of Benedict Drive and Marlow Drive, and three at the corner of 73rd Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. Residents have also filed five requests about 25 Wood Court and four about 1636 Rosedale Avenue. The public data lists only the type of each request, not the resident's words.

The city's category for this is "Street Deterioration," which the data uses for a whole block of street failing rather than a single pothole. Since October 2024, residents have filed 1,036 of these requests, and 747 of them (72%) are open, according to the city's 311 open data. The oldest open request was filed on 1 October 2024. Monthly filings were 17 in December 2025, then 76 in August 2026 and 77 in September 2026, more than four times as many in nine months. That could reflect weather, the age of the pavement, or how residents label what they see. The status open is the city's own label, and it does not say whether anyone visited.

Related requests follow a similar pattern. Of 92 reports of water pooling on a street or sidewalk, 89 (97%) are open, and the oldest was filed on 25 October 2024. All 12 requests to repair a cross-culvert, a drainage pipe that runs under a road, are open, and the oldest dates from 21 November 2024. Of 25 requests to repair a speed bump, 22 are open, and of 24 requests to repair or install a berm, a raised strip along the edge of a road, 18 are open. Curb and gutter repair, which covers the concrete edge of the street that carries water toward drains, looks different: 144 of 387 requests (37%) are open.

The city is putting money into pavement. It has committed more than $50 million a year in bond proceeds, which is money raised by selling bonds that the city repays over time, to paving. Its paving plan ranks local streets by planning area and, according to the city's paving plan page, weighs equity and pavement condition equally. In December 2025 the Oaklandside published a list of the streets with the worst pavement scores, built from the city's own data. Part of what makes this hard is that the same construction budget also carries drainage and sewer work.

Where things stand, as far as we understand: reports of whole blocks failing are rising and most are still open, but the public data does not show which blocks are scheduled for repair. We have not been able to confirm whether the paving plan covers Brookwood Road, Florence Avenue, Benedict Drive or 73rd Avenue.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the open share of street deterioration requests falling below 72%, the monthly count leveling off after 77 in September 2026, and the addresses above appearing on a published paving or repair schedule.

Rebuilding a failing block is mostly a question of money. A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project (called Community Project Funding), could cover part or all of the cost of rebuilding particular blocks, depending on what they cost. Costs for these blocks are not public. Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant money is a formula program, meaning it is divided among regions by a set formula, and it reaches Oakland through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's regional transportation planning agency. Its rules largely limit it to larger streets on the federal-aid system, so it generally cannot be spent on residential blocks. Competitive programs such as Safe Streets and Roads for All, a federal grant program for street safety, can pay for rebuilding a corridor that includes new pavement. The office could also help the city apply, or ask a federal agency whether a particular street qualifies.

Which blocks come first is Oakland's call, made with the people who live on them. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you live on a block that is failing, or where water collects, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland 311 open data (OAK 311 service requests), Oakland capital improvement program attachment, City of Oakland, Paving Plan, The Oaklandside, worst roads list, December 2025

Utility trenches, missing lids and downed wires left in the roadway

Oakland · Citywide · raised since October 2024

Since October 2024, Oakland residents have filed 523 requests through the city's 311 line, its non-emergency way to report a problem, about a utility lid that is missing or broken, meaning the cover over an underground access point for pipes or cables. As of 1 October 2026, 320 of those requests (61%) are open, and the oldest open one was filed on 3 October 2024, according to the city's 311 open data. Residents have also filed 190 requests about the paving over a utility trench, which is a cut in the street made so pipes or cables can be laid or repaired and then repaved. Of those, 165 (87%) are open, and the oldest open one dates from 11 October 2024.

Two related types look similar. Of 68 requests about a trench or steel plate cover, 53 (78%) are open. Of 232 requests about a downed wire, 150 are open, and 226 (97%) have not been marked closed, which can include requests the city has referred elsewhere or left pending. Of 107 requests about a low-hanging wire, 68 (64%) are open. The public data lists the type of request but not the resident's words, so it does not say what hazard someone saw. The status open is the city's own label, and it does not say whether anyone visited. The data also does not say who dug a given trench or owns a given lid or wire, and we do not assign that to anyone.

The city closes one closely related hazard quickly: of 171 requests about a missing manhole cover, 8 are open. Oakland's municipal code also sets time limits for putting a street back after digging. As we understand Section 12.12.112 of the code, whoever holds the permit to dig must backfill and compact the excavation within 72 hours of starting work, place the pavement base material within 72 hours after that, and finish the trench paving within 72 hours after the base is in. The city publishes an application for a utility excavation permit for companies that dig in streets. Some trenches are work in progress, and the data cannot show whether a trench behind a request was still within those limits. The census also does not say whether the city, a utility or a contractor dug it.

Where things stand, hedged to what we can see: requests about trench paving and lids are mostly open, while requests about missing manhole covers are mostly closed. That may mean the city has a quick way to close one kind of hazard and a slower path for the others, but the data does not give a reason.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the open share of trench paving requests (87%) and lid requests (61%) falling, the requests from October 2024 being closed, and the share of downed-wire requests not yet closed (97%) dropping. A published count of trenches that were restored within the 72-hour limits would also help residents see how the rule works in practice.

Most of this belongs to the city's permit rules and to the state, where the California Public Utilities Commission oversees electric, gas and phone utilities, so we do not see an obvious federal lever in the trench rules themselves. The office could still ask the city and the utilities for public answers about specific open requests, and could bring them together with residents. For wires owned by telephone or cable companies, it could ask the Federal Communications Commission, the federal agency that regulates those companies, whether any federal rule applies. If the city carries a backlog of trenches it must repave itself, a direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of that cost, depending on how large it is. No cost figure is public.

Which hazards come first is Oakland's call, made with its residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If a trench, lid or wire near you has been left a long time, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland 311 open data (OAK 311 service requests), Oakland municipal code, Section 12.12.112, excavation restoration, City of Oakland, utility excavation permit application

Contractors blocking sidewalks, parking and bike lanes

Oakland · Citywide · raised since October 2024

Across four request types, Oakland residents have filed 1,330 requests since October 2024 about construction or contractors blocking the way, and 785 of them (59%) are open, according to the city's 311 open data. The largest group, titled Contractor Blocking Street/Sidewalk/Parking, has 445 requests, and 285 of those are open. The oldest open one was filed on 2 October 2024. These come in through 311, the city's non-emergency way to report a problem.

The other three types are narrower. Of 420 requests about a blocked sidewalk, 210 (50%) are open, and the oldest was filed on 4 October 2024. Of 244 requests about blocked parking, 163 (67%) are open. Of 221 requests about a blocked street or bike lane, 127 (57%) are open, and the oldest was filed on 3 October 2024. The status open is the city's own label, and it does not say whether anyone visited. The data lists only the type of request, so it does not show whether a blockage was permitted or what a resident saw.

A separate type, "ROW - Inspectors - Other/Complex," has 365 requests, and 340 (93%) are open. ROW stands for right-of-way, the public strip of street and sidewalk. The data does not say what these requests are about. It is possible that some work-zone complaints are routed to those inspectors, but we cannot tell that from the data.

Oakland does have rules. According to the city's obstruction permit page, a permit is required before anyone blocks street parking spaces, the curb and gutter, a sidewalk or a traffic lane, at least 5 feet 6 inches of sidewalk must stay clear for people walking, and "No Parking" signs must go up 72 hours before work begins. The city's traffic control plan page says an approved plan for how traffic and pedestrians will move around the work is required for any partial or full street closure, sidewalk closure or bicycle lane closure. This is hard to judge from outside because many closures are permitted and temporary. The status cannot show whether a blockage ended, so an open request may describe something lifted days later or something that stayed.

Where things stand, as far as we understand: the rules exist and the requests are numerous, but the public data does not show how many blockages were permitted, how many were not, or how quickly inspectors respond. Whether the high open shares reflect slow response, blockages that ended without the request being closed, or something else is not something we can tell yet.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the open share across the four types falling below 59%, the requests from October 2024 being closed, and a published count of inspectors covering work in the public right-of-way and how many complaints they visit.

The permit rules are the city's. One federal piece is access for people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act is a federal civil rights law that applies to state and local government programs and services, and the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division enforces it. A blocked sidewalk can stop a person who uses a wheelchair, so the office could ask the city how it protects access when it permits a sidewalk closure, and could raise a specific blocked location with the city. If staffing for inspectors turns out to be the limit, a direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of that cost, depending on the amount. No cost figure is public.

How the city handles blocked streets is Oakland's call, made with its residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If a work zone near you blocks the sidewalk, a parking space or a bike lane, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland 311 open data (OAK 311 service requests), City of Oakland, Obstruction Permit, City of Oakland, Apply for a Traffic Control Plan, ADA.gov, Title II for state and local governments

Copper wire theft in Oakland: dark streetlights, dead signals and severed hills internet

Oakland · Mandela Parkway; Skyline Blvd & Keller Ave; E. 12th St & 16th Ave; Lake Merritt · raised since April 2024

Carlos Herrera Mahoney started a petition on Change.org on 20 July 2026 asking the city to restore Mandela Parkway, the road through West Oakland, and to stop illegal dumping there. It lists 537 signatures. The petition says:

"Mandela Parkway has experienced repeated theft of copper wiring from streetlights and irrigation systems, leaving portions of the corridor dark, poorly maintained, and less safe for public use."

Petition text, Carlos Herrera Mahoney, petition starter, Change.org, created 20 July 2026

The city's 311 line, its non-emergency request line, shows that the city closes outages quickly. Of 3,679 street light outage or damage requests filed since October 2024, 25 are open, and of 1,755 traffic signal outage requests, 48 are open. Monthly street light requests were 246 in December 2024, 92 in May 2025, 219 in October 2025 and 128 in September 2026. The picture differs for the wires themselves: 150 of 232 downed-wire reports and 68 of 107 low-hanging-wire reports are open, and 14 of 26 requests for a new or upgraded streetlight carry the city's status UNFUNDED. Repeat addresses include 601 William Street (18 requests), 9934 International Boulevard (10), 6548 Liggett Drive (9), 16th Street and Poplar Street (9) and Mandela Parkway (8). The status open is the city's own label and does not say whether anyone has visited.

On 21 April 2026, OakDOT, the Oakland Department of Transportation, described what it faces on its street lighting page as "unprecedented wire theft and vandalism." The system has more than 38,000 streetlights and 600-plus traffic signals, looked after by fewer than a dozen city electricians. The department says repairs after a theft now take six to eight months, instead of eight weeks.

For residents, that shows up as dark blocks and dead signals. At East 12th Street and 16th Avenue in the San Antonio district, a stolen signal was replaced with stop signs in May 2024, which is a cut in service rather than a repair. At Lake Merritt in April 2024, ten Necklace of Lights poles, the historic streetlights around the lake, were cut or toppled and 34 electrical boxes were damaged. Each replacement pole costs roughly $15,000. In April 2026, cable cuts near Skyline Boulevard and Keller Avenue left homes in the hills without internet three times in one week, and AT&T offered a $20,000 reward for information. The West Oakland Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council has asked for solar lights along a dark stretch of Mandela Parkway.

The city is working on it. It is sealing underground electrical boxes, called vaults, with epoxy, welding cabinets shut and testing a pilot program of solar-powered streetlights. It is also a hard problem. Electrical repair competes with sidewalks, sanitation and parks for the same public works budget. As far as we have tracked, outages are mostly closed, theft repairs are slow by the department's own account, and the petition page lists no city response. The six-to-eight-month figure comes from the department, not an independent measurement.

Worth tracking

Four things would show movement: how long a theft repair takes, whether the city fills its open electrician jobs, whether it publishes repair times by district, and whether the 150 open downed-wire reports come down. The solar pilot and the signal at East 12th Street and 16th Avenue are two visible tests.

Staffing electricians and replacing a stolen signal with stop signs are Oakland budget and workforce decisions. Making equipment harder to steal is a one-time capital cost, which federal money fits better than recurring crew pay. CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) money, a federal grant cities receive for housing and neighborhood improvements, and the Surface Transportation Block Grant, which Alameda CTC (the Alameda County Transportation Commission) directs locally, are eligible sources for theft-resistant and solar lighting like the Mandela Parkway request. Both come with eligibility rules. A direct appropriation request, meaning a request that Congress pay for a named project, does not, and depending on the cost it could cover the work in whole or in part. The cut fiber that took out internet in the hills is a matter for the Federal Communications Commission's outage-reporting rules, so a congressional office could ask the FCC what AT&T reported. Congress has repeatedly considered, without enacting, standards requiring scrap-metal buyers to keep purchase records, and a member could back or write one.

Which corridors and which fixes come first is Oakland's call to make with its residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list, and we would like to hear which dark streets you would put at the top.

Sources: Change.org petition, Restore Mandela Parkway, City of Oakland OAK 311 service request data, City of Oakland street lighting and wire theft page, CBS News Bay Area on the Lake Merritt lamp posts, CBS News Bay Area on stop-sign substitutions, Broadcast report on hills cable cuts, hoodline.com, piedmontexedra.com, ktvu.com, westoaklandneighbors.wordpress.com

A crumbling stretch of Tunnel Road in the Oakland hills that neighbors have asked the city to repair

Oakland · Tunnel Road near Bay Forest Place and Bay Forest Drive, Oakland hills · raised since March 2024

On 5 March 2024, KTVU reported on a stretch of Tunnel Road, the winding hillside road that runs near the Caldecott Tunnel, where the ground below the pavement had been sliding for years. KTVU's headline counted eight years of landslide. John Corlett, who lives on Bay Forest Place, was quoted in the story about what the damage could mean for his neighbors if the road gave way.

"Access for emergency vehicles is absolutely critical up here. We remain in a high fire hazard zone."

John Corlett, Bay Forest Place resident, quoted by KTVU, 5 March 2024

A high fire hazard zone is an area that has been designated as having a higher risk of wildfire, and a closed road in such an area can slow fire engines and ambulances. A day earlier, CBS News San Francisco covered the same road and quoted several neighbors who described worry about how much of the road had cracked.

The city had already begun work on a fix. According to both reports, the city had hired an engineering contractor to design a permanent repair, and testing of the ground beneath the road, called seismic refraction testing, had been finished the previous December. The city said it hoped to complete the design and begin construction in summer 2024. CBS reported that the city expected the repair to cost about $850,000.

The city's project page shows that the work has moved forward on paper since then. It lists the project as In Process and says the city is executing a task order, the agreement that hires a contractor for a specific job, with the lowest responsive and responsible bidder, meaning the lowest-priced contractor whose bid met the requirements. The work described is a new retaining wall, which is a structure that holds soil in place, along with tiebacks under Tunnel Road, which are steel rods anchored into the hillside, and changes to storm drainage. The page lists the city's Department of Transportation as responsible, which makes this a city road.

The page says the total estimated construction time is 45 days, and that the contractor will build a schedule once the task order is final. It does not show a start date, a cost or a date when it was last updated. The summer 2024 target has passed, and the page does not say why the schedule has moved.

Where things stand: both news reports date from March 2024, and the most recent source we have tracked is the project page, which shows a contractor being hired but no construction date. We cannot tell from it whether work has started. This road does not appear in the 311 data, so there is no count of requests to give. Hillside repairs often depend on testing and design that take time, and nothing we have tracked suggests the city has stopped work.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: a posted construction schedule, a start date and a finished retaining wall. A posted update date on the project page would also help residents see whether the project is active. The cost estimate of $850,000 was given in March 2024, so any change to it is worth noticing.

This is partly a question of money. A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of a repair at this cost, depending on the final figure. Another route is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the federal disaster agency, which runs hazard mitigation programs, meaning grants for work that reduces damage from future disasters. Whether a slope repair that protects emergency access would qualify is something the office could help the city check, and the answer is not yet known.

Priorities belong to the city and its residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you live near Tunnel Road, or use it, tell us what you would put first and what you have heard from the city.

Sources: KTVU, Oakland Hills landslide continues to threaten Tunnel Road after 8 years, 5 March 2024, CBS News San Francisco, Oakland road risks total erosion from years of storm damage, 4 March 2024, City of Oakland, Tunnel Road and Bay Forest Drive Slope Restoration project page

Abandoned vehicles: among the most reported problems in Oakland's 311 data, with thousands of requests still open

Oakland · Citywide, most in Central and Deep East Oakland and West Oakland · raised since October 2024

Residents have asked the city to deal with an abandoned vehicle at 850 West Grand Avenue 31 times since October 2024, at 855 Athens Avenue 30 times and at 2325 86th Avenue 30 times. Those requests go to OAK 311, the city's reporting line. Across the city, residents filed 42,314 abandoned vehicle requests in the 24 months from October 2024 to September 2026, about one in five of the 216,310 requests of every kind. Only illegal dumping of debris and appliances, at 46,444, is larger. Another 603 were filed under the encampment category, 68 under parking and 28 under police.

More repeat addresses are 1684 11th Street (25 requests), 2226 Myrtle Street (25), 2001 80th Avenue (24), 6901 Herbert Guice Way (24) and 1541 68th Avenue (23). By council district, Central East Oakland (Council District 6, which includes Seminary, Eastmont and Millsmont) has the most at 8,456, followed by Deep East Oakland (District 7, which includes Elmhurst, Sobrante Park and the airport) at 7,529 and West Oakland and downtown (District 3) at 7,338. Monthly filings have ranged from 1,285 to 2,295, and August 2026 was the second-highest month.

Most of these requests are no longer open, which credits the city with handling a large share. Of the 42,314, 7,984 (fewer than one in five) are still open, and the oldest open request was filed on 1 October 2024. Another 126 carry the status EVALUATED - NO FURTHER ACTION, which is the city's label for a request it reviewed and decided to take no further action on. The status open is the city's own label and does not say whether anyone has visited.

Residents and merchants describe abandoned vehicles blocking parking, attracting dumping around them and degrading the look of a block. That is the case for towing them faster. The count shows how many people asked for help, and not much else. We have not located a city target for how quickly an abandoned vehicle should be towed, a figure for how many vehicles its crews can tow, or the city's own response to the count.

Two objections point in the other direction, and both are serious. Crews moved to towing would be taken from trash, lighting or tree service, and each of those has its own list of waiting requests. And aggressive towing reaches people who live in their vehicles, for whom a tow is a loss of shelter rather than a way of clearing a nuisance. That is why towing vehicles that have been abandoned and helping people who live in their vehicles have to be treated as two different problems.

Worth tracking

Two things would show this is moving: a stated timeframe for towing an abandoned vehicle, and a separate process for vehicles that people are living in. A published towing capacity figure and response time, and a drop from the 7,984 requests now open, would also help.

Towing itself is a local job. It is handled by parking enforcement at the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) and by Public Works, following California Vehicle Code rules about notice before towing. No federal program sets a target for how quickly a city must respond to a type of 311 request. A congressional office can still raise the question of a towing timeframe with the city and take casework from a resident whose report went unanswered. Helping people who live in their vehicles does have a federal connection: safe-parking programs, which give vehicle residents a legal place to park, are funded in Alameda County through two programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Continuum of Care, which funds local homelessness services, and Emergency Solutions Grants, which fund shelter and outreach. Both have eligibility rules. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks Congress to fund one specific project such as a safe-parking site, is not bound by them, and it could pay for a place where people living in vehicles can go, in whole or in part depending on the cost. It would not set a towing response time.

Which of these comes first is Oakland's decision to make with its residents, and the office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you have a view on what should come first, tell us.

Sources: City of Oakland OAK 311 service request data

Parking tickets that residents say climb from $144 to $390, and parking requests that sit unclosed

Oakland · citywide, with repeat addresses on East 12th Street, International Boulevard and 27th Avenue · raised since October 2024

Residents on r/oakland, a public online forum, have described a single parking ticket climbing from $144 to $390 through late fees, and some call the rules predatory and regressive, meaning they take a larger share of income from people who earn less. Another asks where Oakland's parking ticket money actually goes. Those are residents' questions, not findings.

Behind the tickets is a rule the city council passed. The Oakland City Council agenda for 1 July 2025 listed Item 5.11 (File 25-0709), an ordinance increasing fines for parking citations under Municipal Code 10.48.010 and adopting a $40 fine for California Vehicle Code 22500(n). The fine supports daylighting, which means keeping the approach to an intersection clear so drivers can see people in the crosswalk. It was introduced on 7 May 2025 and passed on 15 July 2025. Council's aim was safety.

The city's public 311 service request data covers requests to Oakland's non-emergency line from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2026, a 24-month period. In that period, 10,223 requests were filed under “Parking - Enforcement.” The city labels 2,449 of them open (24%), and 8,895 (87%) not closed, a group that includes requests referred to another department and requests marked pending. Another 415 (4%) are marked “EVALUATED - NO FURTHER ACTION.” Meters are mostly handled, with 5,301 “Parking - Meter Maintenance” requests and 202 open. Refunds are not: 1,029 of 1,031 “Parking - Refund” requests are not closed. “Parking (On Street)” has 332 requests, 231 open, and “Parking - 938 Suspend Enforcement” has 2,144, 761 open. We have not confirmed what residents ask for under that last label.

Seven addresses appear again and again in the enforcement requests: 3451 E 12th St (155 requests, 24 open), 8417 International Blvd (100), 1626 27th Ave (81, 47 open), 2727 E 17th St (78), 355 Chester St (77), 2649 76th Ave (60) and 169 14th St (53, 36 open). We do not know what is at each address. “Open” is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited. These are requests about parking, not tickets, so they do not show what any driver was charged.

The council acted on a real safety problem, and traffic-safety advocates argue that a fine nobody pays deters nobody. Some residents defend escalating late fees as reaching mainly people with several unpaid tickets. Others say the schedule falls hardest on people who cannot pay on time. As far as we have tracked, the city has not adopted a cap on late fees or published a yearly report of what citations bring in and what the money pays for.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the council taking up a cap on late-fee escalation, a published accounting of citation revenue, and more refund and enforcement requests marked closed. The fines are Oakland's to set, through the master fee schedule, the city's list of what it charges. The revenue goes to the general fund. We know of no federal law that caps a municipal parking fine. A congressional office could still put the question on the public record and take the case of a resident who has been through the escalation.

One option already exists in California law. AB 645, which allows speed cameras, scales those fines to income: drivers below 250% of the federal poverty line get a 50% reduction, and drivers with very little income get 80%. Oakland already handles those reductions, so a process exists. Whether it could fit parking is a question we would like to hear about, including where the idea is wrong. It would collect less money, a real cost for the city.

The closest federal connection is to the intersections rather than the fine. Safe Streets and Roads for All, a federal road-safety grant program, can pay for daylighting hardware such as bollards (short posts that keep cars out of an area) and curb extensions (sidewalk corners built out into the street). A direct project request, in which a member of Congress asks for money for a named local project, could pay for the same hardware. Neither would change what Oakland charges. Which corners come first is the city's call with its residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list, and if a ticket has cost you more than you expected, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Council meeting record, 1 July 2025, Oakland 311 data, r/oakland, enforcement, r/oakland, citation revenue

Blue curb requests for disabled parking, 204 still open, the oldest filed in October 2024

Oakland · residential blocks citywide · raised since October 2024

Neighbors have asked Oakland 263 times since October 2024 for a blue curb in front of a home. A blue curb is a marked parking space reserved for a driver with a disability, and a residential request is one a neighbor makes for the curb at a home. As of 1 October 2026, 204 of those requests (78%) are open, and the oldest was filed on 18 October 2024. The figures come from the city's 311 data, the public record of requests made to OAK 311, the call center and app for non-emergency problems. The data lists the type, date, status and location of each request but not what the resident wrote. No resident's own account of waiting for a blue curb is among what we have tracked, and the data does not point to a particular street, so the count is where this begins.

Some of the other 59 requests have ended in ways the city's labels describe. For 19, the status is evaluated, no further action, which is the city's own label and does not give a reason. The remaining 40 carry other labels. Open is also the city's own status label, and it does not say whether anyone visited the block.

A separate category covers non-residential blue curbs. It has 34 requests, with 19 open (56%).

The city does close some neighborhood street requests quickly. Of 864 reports of a missing street sign, none is open, and of 1,755 reports of a traffic signal that is out or damaged, 48 are open. Slow movement on blue curbs is not how every kind of request is treated.

It may also be harder than it looks. A blue curb is a specific space on a specific block, and the decision can depend on things the data does not show, such as how wide the street is or what other parking rules apply there. The data cannot say whether any of the 204 open requests or the 19 evaluated ones were affected by rules like these. That is a possibility, not a finding.

Where things stand, as far as we have tracked: most residential requests are open, the oldest has been in the data for nearly two years, and the reasons are not visible from outside the city.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the open share of residential requests falling below 78%, the oldest request being decided, and the city saying how long a typical request takes and what a request has to show. If a neighbor receives an evaluated, no further action decision, a plain explanation with it would let them know whether to ask again.

Where a blue curb can go is, as far as we have tracked, a matter for the city and the state, and the paint and sign for one space cost little compared with most items here. We do not have a cost per space or a count of staff who review requests. A federal role could still be real. The office could ask the city how long requests wait and put the answer on the record. It could take casework, which means helping an individual resident get an answer from an agency, for someone who has waited a long time. If staffing turns out to be what slows the work, a direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks for money for a named local project, could cover part or all of that cost, depending on what it is. The Americans with Disabilities Act is the national civil rights law on disability access, and a resident who believes access is being denied can bring the concern to the office, which can help find the right agency.

Whether blue curbs are the priority is for Oakland and its residents to say. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you asked for a blue curb, tell us when you asked and what happened, and what you would put first.

Sources: City of Oakland Open Data Portal, Service requests received by the Oakland Call Center (OAK 311)

Sidewalk-blocking camps in East Oakland, and 311 calls that residents say get no response

Oakland · East 12th Street, 54th Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard and Pearmain Street · raised since November 2023

Mariaelena Ruiz works at Andes Construction near 54th Avenue and East 12th Street in East Oakland. On 16 July 2026 she told KTVU about a camp beside Bridges Academy, a school.

"We have seen the kids and the parents walking around them on the street because the sidewalks are blocked."

Mariaelena Ruiz, who works at Andes Construction, speaking to KTVU, 16 July 2026

She also said: "It's been several months already, and we don't see any results, any response from them yet." The same article reported that the city website tracking cleanup operations had not been updated since December 2025.

Relief has reached other parts of Fruitvale, a neighborhood in Oakland. Julia Montoya, a resident for 40 years, told CBS on 21 March 2025 that the Prologis High Street project, a private redevelopment, had cleared the area around High Street and Alameda Avenue of a decade of camps, abandoned RVs, theft and dumping: "At least we can sleep overnight now."

Businesses and families along East 12th Street, MacArthur Boulevard, 54th Avenue and the Melrose and Pearmain industrial district have asked for passable sidewalks and answers to their reports. In November 2023, businesses on Pearmain Street told KTVU about RV camps, trash piles and crime. Bennett Hall said, "We've witnessed everything from exploding meth labs to gunfights in the streets." City spokesperson Jean Walsh acknowledged the frustration and said the city was "not always able to respond as timely as we would like with so many locations to prioritize." In August 2025, KTVU reported that District 7 Councilmember Ken Houston said of a long-standing camp on MacArthur Boulevard, "In the next six weeks, this is going to be addressed," and that he planned to introduce a plan to clear the camp on 10 September. We have not been able to confirm what followed.

The city's 311 data shows how often residents are asking. Between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2026, 13,761 requests were filed under “Homeless Encampment,” and the city labels 3,542 of them open (26%). Monthly filings ran between 390 and 680 until 711 in August 2026 and 735 in September 2026, the two highest of the 24 months. Council District 5 (Fruitvale and Glenview) accounts for 1,332 requests, and District 7 (Deep East Oakland, Elmhurst, Sobrante Park and the airport) for 2,404. “Open” is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited.

The clearances themselves are the harder half, because the city has few places to send people once a camp is cleared. In May 2025 the city cleared the blocks-long East 12th Street camp after offering services to 79 people. A fire ignited in the debris afterward, and homeless advocate Sathya Baskaran said not everyone there received a housing referral. Business owner Bruce Vung, who welcomed relief from rats and fires, told KTVU on 15 May 2025, "I didn't think the city was prepared enough for this."

Worth tracking

What would show movement: an updated tracker, a response at 54th Avenue and East 12th Street, and a published schedule for the named corridors. Answering service requests, keeping the tracker current, placing shelters and scheduling clearances belong to the city, and no federal grant condition reaches them. A congressional office can still take a resident's case, meaning it can help a person whose request went unanswered, and put the question to the city on the public record, and we would.

The federal part is the supply of shelter and housing, which is a money question. The federal housing department funds the Continuum of Care program, which helps pay for shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness, and rental vouchers. The amounts Congress appropriates for them help determine whether the 79 people offered services on East 12th Street had anywhere to go. Those programs have eligibility rules. A direct appropriation, meaning money Congress sets aside by name for a specific project, is not limited by those rules, and a member of Congress can request one for a shelter or temporary housing project. No cost figure has come up, so the scale would depend on the project. Which corridor comes first belongs to the city and its residents, and we would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you live or work on one of these blocks, we would like to hear what you would put first.

Sources: KTVU, Bridges Academy camp, CBS, High Street project, KTVU, Pearmain Street, KTVU, MacArthur Boulevard, KTVU, East 12th Street removal, Oakland 311 data

Encampments reported in Lakeside Park and Dimond Park

Oakland · Lakeside Park, Dimond Park, Lake Merritt Boulevard and nearby streets · raised since October 2024

Of the 139 requests about homeless encampments at Lakeside Park, the park on Lake Merritt, 67 are open, according to the city's open data on 311 requests, the records of Oakland's non-emergency line, for October 2024 through September 2026. At Dimond Park, a neighborhood park at 3860 Hanly Road in the Dimond District with a recreation center and an outdoor pool, 55 requests were filed and 36 are open. People have raised these through 311, and the people who live in these parks are part of the same picture.

Citywide, the 311 category "Homeless Encampment" has 13,761 requests in those 24 months, and 3,542 (26 percent) are open. Monthly requests reached 711 in August 2026 and 735 in September 2026. Those are the two highest of the 24 months. The highest month before them was 680, in June 2025. Lake Merritt Boulevard has 56 requests of its own. At Lakeside Park there are also 63 requests about litter in the park and 127 about graffiti. Dimond Park is in council district 4, which covers Montclair, Laurel, Dimond and the hills. That district has 295 encampment requests in all, the fewest of the seven districts, so 55 at one park is a large share of the district's total.

Some places show the other result. Snow Park, near Lake Merritt, has 76 requests and 1 is open. The address 50 Martin Luther King Jr Way has 68 and none are open. The status does not say what changed on the ground, and the data has no descriptions, so we cannot say whether people moved, were housed, or something else happened. The Oaklandside reported in March 2025 under the headline "Oakland will remove all Lake Merritt homeless camps in April", which is one sign the city has acted around the lake. We have not tied any request count to that decision.

This is hard because it involves two real needs at once: people living outdoors who need somewhere to be, and neighbors who want a park they can use. "Open" is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited. Another label is worth knowing: a separate request type, "Homeless Encampment - Closure Needed", has 21 requests, and all 21 are open.

What we understand so far is that Lakeside Park and Dimond Park have the largest open shares among the named parks, and that complaints citywide are higher now than at any point in two years.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the September 2026 count of 735 falling, the open share at Lakeside Park and Dimond Park coming down toward the 1 and 0 now shown at Snow Park and 50 Martin Luther King Jr Way, and the city saying what each closed status means. How the city decides to close a camp is covered in the entry on encampment closures and the abatement policy, which the council passed 5 to 1 on 14 April 2026. The East Oakland corridors, including East 12th Street, are in the entry on sidewalk-blocking camps and 311 calls.

Where a camp is cleared and when is the city's decision, and no federal rule changes a single closure. The office could still take a resident's case and put a question to the city on the public record. The federal part is whether there is a shelter bed or housing unit to offer. HUD, the federal housing department, funds the Continuum of Care program, which pays for shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness, as well as Emergency Solutions Grants for emergency shelter and outreach, and the amounts Congress sets help decide how much exists. A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of a shelter or temporary housing project depending on its cost. No cost has come up in what we have tracked.

Priorities belong to Oakland and its residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you use Lakeside Park or Dimond Park, live beside them, or have lived in them, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland 311 service requests, City of Oakland open data, City of Oakland, Lakeside Park, Visit Oakland, Dimond Park, The Oaklandside, March 2025, KALW, April 2026

West Oakland RV camps, the dumping that follows them, and Mandela Parkway streetlights stripped of copper

Oakland · West Oakland, South Prescott, Wood Street and Mandela Parkway · raised since January 2025

In August 2025, about 50 residents of South Prescott, a West Oakland neighborhood, set out to raise $3,000 of their own money for temporary barriers to keep RVs from parking on their streets. Sabin Speiser of the South Prescott Neighborhood Association, who led it, explained why to NBC Bay Area on 6 August 2025. "What happens is those RVs, they are attractors for illegal dumping, more encampments, more RVs," he said. He went on: "And the next thing you know your sidewalk is blocked for half a block and you have RV fires and all kinds of dangers."

On 10 January 2025, KTVU spoke with people who work on Wood Street, where a large camp had stood. Alan Lucchesi, who owns Soundwave Studios, said:

"We have a problem down here with trash building up in the streets and then getting lit on fire, and that's been causing mayhem and destruction"

Alan Lucchesi, owner of Soundwave Studios, speaking to KTVU, 10 January 2025

The city did act there: it dismantled the large Wood Street camp, and fire department spokesman Michael Hunt credited that with helping bring encampment fires citywide down from 1,700 in 2023 to 1,100 in 2024, though he called that "still far too many."

A spring 2026 survey by West Oakland Neighbors, a neighborhood group, found that, of the people who answered, 90% encounter encampments daily, 52% are considering moving out, and 76% say reporting a problem produced minimal response. Those figures describe only the people who answered. The neighborhood crime prevention council minutes also name RV fires and drug encampments on Beach and Union Streets.

A petition created on 20 July 2026 by West Oakland resident Carlos Herrera Mahoney, addressed to Mayor Barbara Lee and Councilmember Carroll Fife, had 537 signatures in early October 2026. It asks for RV removal with shelter offers, repair of streetlights and irrigation along Mandela Parkway, a major road through West Oakland, cleanups, and a responsive 311 system, the city's non-emergency line. It describes repeated copper wiring theft and says: "We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for equal treatment." The petition lists no city response.

The city's 311 data for October 2024 to September 2026 shows 4,843 encampment requests and 9,341 illegal dumping requests in the council district that includes West Oakland, downtown and Jack London. Four addresses in that district stand out for dumping: 2325 West St (130), 1301 26th St (109), 28th St and Market St (87) and 701 Webster St (74). “Open” is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited. The city has a page on responding to street light outages and wire theft.

On one remedy the two sides are close. A 72-person tiny-home community is proposed at 34th Street and Mandela Parkway, at roughly $40,000 a cabin. Advocates see it as a place to go after a camp is removed. Oakland North reported in April 2026 on mounting losses for people who live in vehicles after a city policy shift. Neighbors are not opposed. They want enforceable good-neighbor standards, meaning written rules for how the site is run and what it owes nearby blocks. As far as we have tracked, none are written.

Worth tracking

Most of this is Oakland's own work. Movement would look like a city answer to the petition, working streetlights on Mandela Parkway, and written good-neighbor standards before the cabin site opens.

The federal part is money. The federal housing department funds the Continuum of Care program, which pays for shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness, and Emergency Solutions Grants, which pay for emergency shelter. The Community Development Block Grant, a formula program dividing money among cities by set rules, can pay for lighting. All have eligibility rules. A direct appropriation, meaning money Congress sets aside by name for a project, is not limited by them, and a request for the cabin community or parkway lighting is something we would work with the city to put together. For unanswered requests, a congressional office can take a resident's case and ask the city, on the public record, why.

One idea, and we would like to hear where it is wrong: sign a good-neighbor agreement before anyone moves in, covering a site manager reachable at any hour, trash, fire safety, a capacity limit and a six-month review with the two neighborhood groups. Some advocates may read a capacity limit as a condition on shelter. Priorities belong to Oakland and the people of West Oakland, and the office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you live near the parkway, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: NBC Bay Area, KTVU, Wood Street, West Oakland Neighbors minutes, Change.org petition, Oakland 311 data, City street light page, Oakland North

Shelter beds bought, providers unpaid, and interim housing that leads nowhere

Oakland

Mandela House is the former Extended Stay hotel at 3650 Mandela Parkway in West Oakland. The city bought it for $36.6 million in April 2025 and opened about 125 units of interim housing, meaning temporary housing meant to lead to something permanent. On 1 April 2026, a year after it opened, residents told CBS that one or two of roughly a hundred people had reached permanent housing, that staff were inactive, and that evictions were looming. Needa Bee, an advocate with The Village, put it this way to CBS: “They completely failed to provide the services.”

The city did put real money behind the idea. Beyond the $36.6 million for the building, CBS reported that the program run by the Housing Consortium of the East Bay carried more than $5 million in city funds. At the same time, shelter space elsewhere in Oakland has been shrinking. The Wood Street Community Cabins closed a month early in May 2025. It was a shelter of small cabins for unhoused residents. Its operator, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), said it had gone unpaid since December 2024. Three more shelters closed in March 2026. Rep. Lateefah Simon has submitted a live federal request of $1 million for fiscal year 2027, through Community Project Funding, the process a member of Congress uses to ask for money for a specific local project. It would pay for fire suppression and roofing repairs at the Holland, a transitional housing facility (temporary homes for people leaving homelessness). Those repairs are what would keep its 72 units habitable. As of August 2026 it was pending. That request is about preventing further loss, not adding beds.

The disagreement over where to place a shelter is most visible in Chinatown. Chinatown gathered more than 2,900 signatures against a 150-bed shelter at 988 Broadway, next to the convention center. The signatures came from the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, the Chinatown Development Council, the Blue Angels volunteer patrol, businesses and residents. The plan they opposed came from Cardea Health and Insight Housing, two organizations that would convert the Courtyard hotel there into a shelter. The district says it already has a security problem nobody has answered. Carl Chan, chair of the Chinatown Development Council, told KTSF in July 2025: “This location affects seniors, businesses, and the conference center.” An unnamed Chinatown business owner told the same outlet, “Customers are afraid to come to Chinatown to consume.”

Officials offer a different view. They credit expanded supportive housing (homes that come with services), not sweeps alone, for the drop in Oakland's homeless population, while cautioning that 8,201 people experiencing homelessness is 8,201 too many. Supporters of congregate sites, where many people share one space, argue they serve more people faster with existing capacity. Residents themselves are split on whether congregate shelter works at all. Some say people would rather take their chances outside than enter what they describe as a warehouse.

Sources: Local News Matters, The Oaklandside, Local News Matters on the Wood Street cleanup, CBS News Bay Area, oaklandside.org, kalw.org, thestreetspirit.org, kqed.org, oaklandside.org, oaklandreport.org, cbsnews.com, ktsf.com, Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12), FY27 CPF: Holland Transitional Housing Facility rehabilitation, Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12), FY27 CPF: Holland Transitional Housing Facility rehabilitation

Traffic safety and signal requests that end without action

Oakland · 826 Mandela Parkway, 42nd Street and Martin Luther King Jr Way, Fruitvale Avenue and Harold Street, and other intersections · raised since October 2024

Seventeen times since October 2024, residents have asked Oakland to look at traffic safety at one address, 826 Mandela Parkway. That is the highest count for any single address in the city's 311 data, the public record of requests made to OAK 311, the call center and app where residents report non-emergency problems. The data covers 24 months, from 1 October 2024 to 1 October 2026. It lists the type, date, status and location of each request but not the resident's own words, so it shows how often people asked and not what worried them. Other places come back too: 42nd Street and Martin Luther King Jr Way has 12 requests, 65th Street and Herzog Street 8, 8115 Fontaine Street 6, and Lakeshore Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard and 14th Street and Castro Street 5 each.

In all, residents filed 2,009 traffic safety requests in that period. The category is named non-emergency, which means the request is not about a crash or danger in progress. Monthly filings rose from 50 in December 2024 to 111 in September 2026. The city's status for 91 of the requests is open. For 650 of them, about a third, the status is evaluated, no further action. Both are the city's own labels. Open does not say whether anyone visited, and evaluated, no further action does not say why the request ended. It could mean the street already met the city's standards, that the idea was set aside for another reason, or something else, and the data does not show which.

The city answers some street requests quickly. Of 1,755 reports of a traffic signal that is out or damaged, 48 are open, about 3%. Of 864 reports of a missing sign, none is open. Fixing or replacing something that already exists is a smaller job than adding something new, and that difference may be part of why the two kinds of request move differently.

Requests for a new traffic signal are a separate category, with 440 filed and 274 open (62%). Fruitvale Avenue and Harold Street has 12, recorded under two spellings of the intersection, and all 12 are open. Harrison Street and Lakeside Drive and 8th Street and Webster Street each have 5 open, and 7th Street and Oak Street and Foothill Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue each have 4 open. Another 24 requests, filed in a catch-all category called Traffic, Other, carry the city's status unfunded, which appears to mean no money has been set aside for them.

Where things stand, as far as we have tracked: requests are rising, about a third end with no stated reason, and a short list of intersections keeps returning. Whether any of the 650 decisions were sound is not something the data can show.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: a decision, with a reason, on the 12 requests at Fruitvale Avenue and Harold Street; the open share of new signal requests falling below 62%; and a public explanation of what an evaluated, no further action decision covers, so that a neighbor who receives one knows what was checked.

A federal role exists mostly through money and through questions a congressional office can ask. Safe Streets and Roads for All, a federal grant program for road safety projects that cities apply for and compete for, and the Highway Safety Improvement Program, which sends federal safety money to states, are the two programs most closely tied to intersection fixes. The Transportation Alternatives set-aside, federal money reserved for walking, biking and small street projects, is a third. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks for money for a named local project, could cover part or all of a signal or a set of safety changes at one of these intersections, depending on the cost. We do not have a cost for any of these locations. The office could also ask the city or Caltrans, the state transportation department, what happened to the requests at a given intersection, and a congressional office can help a city assemble an application.

Which intersections come first is Oakland's call, made with the people who live and drive there. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you have asked for a signal or a safety change and got an answer you did not understand, or none, tell us where and what you would put first.

Sources: City of Oakland Open Data Portal, Service requests received by the Oakland Call Center (OAK 311)

Sideshows that return to the same Oakland intersections, and a 2023 ordinance with no citations

Oakland · 41st and Howe Streets, 38th Avenue and Nevil Street, Avenal and 68th Avenues, 64th Avenue and Camden Street · raised since October 2024

On 24 August 2025, sideshows, the street takeovers where drivers spin cars in an intersection while a crowd watches, brought about 500 participants and spectators to intersections in Oakland and Richmond, including 41st and Howe Streets in North Oakland, CBS News San Francisco reported. The Oaklandside reported that week on residents calling for police and street improvements. One resident told CBS:

"Wheels screeching, people yelling and screaming. It was just insane, just complete insanity"

Anonymous resident of the 41st and Howe Streets area, quoted by CBS News San Francisco, 24 August 2025

CBS reported that 16 police cars responded. We have not tracked any arrests or street changes announced for that corner.

In the city's 311 data, the city's non-emergency line for reporting problems, residents filed 746 requests in the category "Sideshows - Sideshow Prevention" between October 2024 and September 2026, and 611 of them (82%) are still open. The oldest was filed on 1 October 2024, and monthly filings rose from 8 in November 2024 to 60 in August 2026. The most repeated locations are 38th Avenue and Nevil Street (79 requests, 70 open, spelled two ways in the data), Avenal Avenue and 68th Avenue (37, 33 open) and 64th Avenue and Camden Street (17, all open). The status open is the city's own label, and it does not say whether anyone visited.

The city is doing real work. The Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) has installed 17 hardened centerlines and islands at sideshow corners, which are physical barriers built into the street to make sideshows harder to hold. They include 64th Avenue and Camden Street and the Fontaine Street overcrossing. Two things are true at 64th and Camden: the city built a hardened centerline there, and all 17 sideshow requests residents filed for that corner are open. The data do not show when each request was filed compared with the barrier.

Police have also been active. The Oakland Police Department impounded more than 70 vehicles for 30 days in early 2026, using two California laws that allow impounding vehicles, AB 2186 and AB 3085, and evidence from Flock, a license-plate camera system.

Residents also want penalties that are applied. The Oaklandside reported on 20 April 2026 that the city has never issued a single citation under the sideshow ordinance it adopted in 2023, which allows up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for organizers. The city's budget for fiscal year 2026-27 (FY26-27) cut specialized sideshow enforcement, and a new Sideshow Penalty Ordinance was on the 2026 city council agenda. As far as we have tracked, the barriers and impoundments are documented, while the 2023 ordinance has produced no citation.

Worth tracking

Does a first citation get issued under the 2023 ordinance? What happens to the Sideshow Penalty Ordinance? Do the five planned hardened locations go in, and does the 82% open share change?

How and where the city enforces, and where it places hardened islands, are local operational decisions. A congressional office cannot change them, but it can put the questions to the city on public record, and it can help with money.

The money is where federal help is most concrete. Byrne JAG (the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant) is a federal grant for local law enforcement that is distributed by formula and comes with eligibility rules, and Justice Department task-force funding is another route. Both could pay for the specialized sideshow enforcement staff that the FY26-27 budget cut. Federal money is already used this way in Oakland through the enacted FY2026 Ceasefire money (federal funding for the city's anti-violence strategy). A Community Project Funding request could also help. This is a direct request from a member of Congress for a specific local project, and it does not carry formula eligibility rules. A request aimed at sideshow and organized-vehicle-crime investigation could help restore the analysts and investigators behind the 70-plus impoundments. It would not depend on the local revenue measure (a local tax proposal) that did not pass. The cost would depend on how many positions the city wants back. Which capacity comes first is a decision for Oakland and its residents. The office would work with the city on any request rather than arrive with a list, and would rather hear from people in East Oakland about what they would put first, whether that is a hardened island at their corner, investigators, or something else.

Sources: CBS News San Francisco, 24 August 2025, The Oaklandside, 29 August 2025, Oakland open data, OAK 311 service requests, City of Oakland sideshow prevention efforts, Hoodline, March 2026, The Oaklandside, 20 April 2026, KTVU, Sideshow Penalty Ordinance, Oakland City Council meeting records, 2026

Traffic safety requests that keep rising, and speed bumps neighbors paid for that the city took out

Oakland · San Antonio, East 21st Street, 54th and Lowell, 35th and Mangels · raised since October 2024

In May 2025 the city took out speed bumps that neighbors in San Antonio had paid for themselves, after years of asking for traffic calming (street changes, such as speed bumps, that slow drivers) and getting no answer. Michael Andemeskel, a neighborhood organizer, was quoted on 27 May 2025 describing the block:

"Every night, without fail, stolen cars screamed through the neighborhood, frightening our children."

Michael Andemeskel, neighborhood organizer, San Antonio, quoted by Streetsblog San Francisco, 27 May 2025

Neighbors at East 21st Street and 19th Avenue put in their own speed bumps at a cost of $3,000, and the sideshows on their block, the street takeovers where drivers spin cars in an intersection while a crowd watches, stopped for eight months. The bumps were then removed overnight. Andemeskel said “We paid for that peace,” in a news interview on 23 May 2025. OakDOT, the city's transportation department, said the bumps “posed a hazard to the public due to their placement and location”. Safety on the road is a fair thing for the department to weigh, and the neighbors would have liked a conversation about placement first.

In the city's 311 data, the non-emergency line for reporting problems, residents filed 2,009 requests in the category "TE - Traffic Safety (non-emergency)" between October 2024 and September 2026. Of those, 91 are open and 650 carry the status "EVALUATED - NO FURTHER ACTION", about a third, a label that does not say why. A separate entry covers those requests. Monthly filings rose from 50 in December 2024 to 111 in September 2026. Of 25 requests to repair an existing speed bump, 22 (88%) are open. Open is the city's own label and does not say whether anyone visited.

The city's Community Traffic Safety Program, created in 2024 so neighbors could request traffic calming, had completed three projects in two years as of July 2026. Speed bumps went in on East 21st Street in July, six weeks after Marvin Boomer, a teacher, was killed there on 28 May 2025 by a speeding driver fleeing police.

A petition at 54th Street and Lowell Avenue asks for a traffic circle (a small island in an intersection that slows cars) and had 156 signatures by late September 2026. Another petition is pending at 35th Avenue and Mangels Avenue, where a pedestrian in the crosswalk was seriously injured in a crash on 6 August 2026. OakDOT's program page says it receives about 1,000 traffic safety requests a year.

Worth tracking

How the program works is Oakland's to decide. The two-thirds signature threshold, the width limit that has since been removed and the pace of three projects in two years are OakDOT design choices, and no federal grant sets an application rule. Why bumps arrived on East 21st Street six weeks after a death, on a street petitioned about for years, is a question for the city, and one worth asking out loud.

Applications now need two-thirds of a block's residents to sign. The Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, the city advisory body on biking and walking, wants a simple majority with an opt-out. Watch whether OakDOT adopts that, whether the petitions move ahead, and whether the 650 figure changes.

Money is part of why the queue is long, and there a federal role is real. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks for money for a named local project, does not run into the eligibility rules that formula programs (federal programs that send money out by a set formula) have. A set of speed humps and crossings at the petitioned corners could be funded that way, in whole or in part depending on the cost. Safe Streets and Roads for All demonstration funding, a federal grant for trying out street safety changes, and the Transportation Alternatives set-aside, federal money reserved for walking, biking and small street projects, are two other routes, and a congressional office can help the city apply for any of them. Which corners come first is a decision for Oakland and the people who live on those blocks. The office would work with OakDOT on a request rather than arrive with a list, and would rather hear from residents about which intersection they would put at the top than guess.

Where residents have already installed something that appears to work, one option is for the city to inspect it against its design standards and adopt it, instead of removing it overnight. The city's liability concern, its legal responsibility if someone is hurt by a device it did not build, is real.

Sources: Streetsblog San Francisco, 27 May 2025, NBC Bay Area, speed bumps, CBS News Bay Area, 23 May 2025, Oakland open data, OAK 311 service requests, The Oaklandside, 23 July 2026, CBS News Bay Area, speed bumps on East 21st Street, Change.org petition, 54th and Lowell, CBS News Bay Area, 35th and Mangels crash, OakDOT Neighborhood Traffic Safety and Safe Routes to School program page, Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, policy committee minutes, 27 April 2026

Traffic deaths on East Oakland's high-injury corridors: International, 73rd, 85th and Seminary

Oakland

On 10 August 2026, KTVU, a Bay Area television station, spoke with residents of Eastmont, a neighborhood in East Oakland, at the corner of 73rd Avenue and Garfield Avenue. Also in August 2026, a hit-and-run killed a woman at 73rd Avenue and Garfield Street, across the street from a police substation. The residents were not named in the published report, and they told the reporter:

there's a lot of speeding around here, but police don't pull nobody over

Eastmont residents speaking to KTVU, who were not named in the published report, news interview, 10 August 2026

Other East Oakland residents have been asking for changes too. A crosswalk petition on Seminary Avenue between Camden and Foothill, carrying 480 signatures, was told to wait for repaving in 2028. That half-mile stretch has only two marked crosswalks, against 25 on a comparable street, and three schools are nearby. Spanish-speaking residents have specifically requested speed bumps on streets like 38th Avenue. And 3,703 traffic-related 311 requests (reports to the city's non-emergency line) are still waiting for a response.

There is progress to credit here. Citywide, traffic deaths in Oakland fell from 36 in 2022 to 22 in 2025. African Americans remain roughly half, and Latinos roughly a quarter, of those killed or injured. Those deaths and injuries are concentrated almost entirely on flatland streets, the low-lying neighborhoods away from the hills, such as International Boulevard, 73rd Avenue, 85th Avenue and Seminary Avenue. In Chinatown, more than 60% of severe and fatal crashes are concentrated on 6% of its streets. That pattern is one argument for putting money into those particular streets. Others read the same numbers the other way, as a sign that earlier spending on those streets did not protect the people who use them.

Redesign has worked on Oakland's own streets. AC Transit, the East Bay's bus agency, rebuilt part of International Boulevard for its Tempo bus rapid transit line, which runs buses in their own lanes. The Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) also did quick-build work, meaning fast, lower-cost street changes. Together these produced zero pedestrian deaths on International Boulevard in 2025, after 57 deaths on that corridor between 2002 and 2022. That works out to about three deaths a year before the rebuild. AC Transit's Quick Build project on the corridor cost $2.2 million, far less than the roughly $40 million OakDOT is now seeking to redesign 73rd Avenue. It is one year of results, but it is the strongest documented safety result on these corridors.

The deaths have not stopped. A teen driver killed three pedestrians at 85th Avenue and International Boulevard in May 2026, and the hit-and-run at 73rd Avenue came that August. OakDOT is seeking about $40 million to redesign 73rd Avenue, from where it meets Bancroft Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard down toward the Coliseum area of East Oakland.

The city is doing several things at once. It is deploying speed cameras under AB 645, the California law that allows them. It is installing rapid-flashing beacons, the flashing lights at crosswalks, paid for with federal safety grants. And it is formally lowering speed limits on Broadway and International Boulevard, which gives police clearer enforcement authority on the streets where reckless driving is most reported. Lowering a limit does not change the road design that enables the speeding. Commuters and delivery drivers may push back on limits on these main through streets, though no such objection has been documented.

One finding cuts against the redesign case. The construction of the Tempo bus lanes itself displaced International Boulevard businesses and increased traffic violence, meaning more crash deaths and injuries, while the build was underway.

Sources: KQED, KTVU, SFist, The Oaklandside on 73rd Avenue, change.org, kalw.org, oaklandside.org, oaklandca.gov, oaklandbpac.org, cbsnews.com, oaklandside.org, oakrapidresponse.org, Oaklandside / TransitCenter, Report: AC Transit's Tempo BRT increased traffic violence and displaced International Blvd businesses, Oaklandside / TransitCenter, Report: AC Transit's Tempo BRT increased traffic violence and displaced International Blvd businesses, Oaklandside / TransitCenter, Report: AC Transit's Tempo BRT increased traffic violence and displaced International Blvd businesses, Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission 2025 Annual Report, Oakland BPAC logged 53 public comments from 20 people in 2025; 134 killed walking or biking 2014-, Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission 2025 Annual Report, Oakland BPAC logged 53 public comments from 20 people in 2025; 134 killed walking or biking 2014-, Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12), FY27 CPF: AC Transit International Boulevard Transit Lane Delineation Phase 2 (Tempo BRT), Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12), FY27 CPF: AC Transit International Boulevard Transit Lane Delineation Phase 2 (Tempo BRT)

Bus shelters and benches reported broken, and shelters removed in the rain

Oakland · 12th Street and Broadway, 7th and Peralta Streets, 8th and Jackson Streets, College and Miles Avenues · raised since October 2024

In December 2024, at a meeting of an Oakland and AC Transit liaison committee, Michael Ford, the city's transportation parking director, proposed removing 100 bus shelters, the covered structures where riders wait out of the weather. Oakland North reported that riders complained at the meeting and that some accused the city of being against homeless people. Alex Contreras, a member of the statewide Interagency Equity Advisory Committee, said:

"Removing them entirely will remove what little shelter that many rely and depend on."

Alex Contreras, member of the statewide Interagency Equity Advisory Committee, quoted by Oakland North, 13 December 2024

The city stepped back from the plan. According to Oakland North, it postponed the removal. Josh Rowan, director of the city's Transportation Department (OakDOT), agreed to work on alternatives with AC Transit, the region's bus agency. OakDOT also said it could still maintain 100 benches at bus stops without overhead shelters. The reasons behind the proposal were practical. The article reported an estimated $500,000 in maintenance costs, repeated vandalism, and vehicles crashing into the glass panels. Those costs are real, and so is the stake of a rider who counts on a roof in the rain.

About eleven months later, an Oaklandside headline of 13 November 2025 reported that damaged bus shelters were being removed as the rains arrived. How many came out, and whether replacements are planned, is not yet something we have tracked.

The city's 311 data, the public record of requests made to OAK 311, the call center and app for non-emergency problems, covers 1 October 2024 to 1 October 2026. In it, residents filed 315 reports of a bus bench or shelter problem. A total of 269 (85%) are open, and the oldest was filed on 2 October 2024. Open is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited. A few stops come back repeatedly. 12th Street and Broadway has 7 reports, with 6 open. 7th Street and Peralta Street has 6, all open. 8th Street and Jackson Street and College Avenue and Miles Avenue each have 5 open.

Monthly filings fell from 28 in October 2024 to 4 in September 2026. Fewer reports can mean fewer problems. It can also mean fewer shelters standing to report on, or fewer people who believe a report will matter. The data cannot tell these apart.

Where things stand, hedged to what we have tracked: the plan to remove 100 shelters was postponed in December 2024, damaged shelters were reported coming out in November 2025, and most of the reports in the city's data are still open.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: a public list of which shelters have been removed and which have been replaced, the open share of the 315 reports falling below 85%, and a named plan for the stops that have come back more than once.

Bus stops sit between two agencies. Oakland North reported that the city pays to maintain the shelters, while AC Transit runs the buses. Federal transit money goes to transit agencies through the Federal Transit Administration, which runs grant programs for buses and bus facilities, and whether shelters and stop improvements at these locations would qualify is worth checking with AC Transit and the city. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks for money for a named local project, could cover part or all of repairing or replacing shelters, depending on the cost. The only cost we have is the city's estimate of $500,000 in maintenance, which is not the cost of replacement. A congressional office can also ask both agencies in writing who is responsible for each stop and put their answers on the record.

Which stops come first is for Oakland and its riders to decide. The office would work with the city and AC Transit rather than arrive with a list. If you wait at one of these stops, tell us which one and what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland North, bus shelters and AC Transit, 13 December 2024, The Oaklandside, removal of damaged bus shelters, 13 November 2025, City of Oakland Open Data Portal, OAK 311 service requests

I-880 has cut East Oakland off from its own waterfront for 20 years

Oakland

Oakland's Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, a group that advises the city on walking and biking, said in its 2025 annual report that few routes lead to the shoreline from East Oakland, unlike the routes near Jack London Square and Lake Merritt, and that the existing routes are extremely dangerous. As its example, the commission named walking or biking 66th Avenue from San Leandro Street to MLK Shoreline, a shoreline park.

The people raising this sit on the city's own advisory commission. The same report describes the I-880 freeway, which separates East Oakland from the waterfront, as an access problem that has gone unresolved for 20 years. As far as has been reported, the concern has come from the commission rather than from a resident petition or council testimony.

The commission names the barrier in a report that also lists active work elsewhere. That work includes protected bike lanes (lanes separated from car traffic) on Lakeshore Avenue and sections of the East Bay Greenway, a walking and biking path, at an estimated $18 million. No project to build a way across the freeway to the East Oakland waterfront appears in that report, and none has been reported elsewhere.

One likely reason is that responsibility is split among agencies, not that anyone disagrees. The barrier falls partly under the city, partly under OakDOT (the Oakland Department of Transportation) and partly under Caltrans (the California Department of Transportation), so it has never been any one agency's project, and no agency has sponsored a study of what a crossing would involve. No one has been reported arguing against fixing it.

Sources: Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission 2025 annual report

The same East Oakland addresses fill up with dumped trash again, led by the Fontaine Street corridor

Oakland · E Street near 91st Avenue, Fontaine Street, West Street, Vallecito Place, 71st Avenue · raised since October 2024

On 12 October 2024, CBS San Francisco reported from E Street between 91st and 92nd Avenues in East Oakland, where a whole block was covered in construction materials and household items. Resident Anselmo Troy, who the report says had contacted the city through 311 (the city's line for reporting problems) and by email, said:

"Once I discovered that they would continue to ignore me, then I got on social media."

Anselmo Troy, resident of E Street near 91st Avenue, CBS San Francisco, 12 October 2024

Tonia Dumas, who has lived in East Oakland for about 50 years, said, "It's just sad to look at. This is not how we live and somebody thinks it's OK just to leave it here." The city responded the day after the story aired, saying Public Works crews work seven days a week to clear dumped material. In April 2026, KTVU reported that East Oakland resident Lorraine Barraza said, "It's just gotten so much worse. It's always been an issue but never like this."

In the city's open 311 data, which covers October 2024 through September 2026, residents filed 46,444 requests about dumped debris and appliances, and 322 (under 1%) are still open. Another 11,005 were about mattresses, with 60 open. So the city closes nearly every report, and what residents describe is the same spots filling up again. One stretch of Fontaine Street in the East Oakland hills, near Knowland Park and the zoo, drew more than 740 reports in those 24 months. At 9110 Fontaine Street alone there were 210 (2 open), at 8800 Fontaine Street 194, and at 8755 Fontaine Street 125. Elsewhere, 2325 West Street has 130 reports, 1301 26th Street 109, and 2710 to 2798 Vallecito Place 95, plus 45 about mattresses. "Open" is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited, and neither does "closed."

One example shows why that matters. CBS News Bay Area reported on 23 September 2025 from a dump site on 71st Avenue near International Boulevard and Hegenberger Road. A resident named Steve said, "This trash has been here for, like, almost two years. And I've tried reporting it on the 311." The site's request had been marked closed as addressed on 21 September 2025, two days earlier, while the trash was still on the sidewalk. In November 2025, cyclists told the Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission about dumping in the Plymouth Avenue bike lanes, and the councilmember response recorded in the minutes was to keep submitting 311 requests. Two sites show this can happen, not how often.

The city has been adding tools. In April 2026 Mayor Barbara Lee cited 145 tons removed, fines of up to $5,000, and a $1 million package with a six-month aerial pilot and 36 license-plate cameras. The Oakland Report wrote on 13 May 2026 that the city spent about $14 million on dumping in 2025, and that 25,000 or more calls produced 273 citations and fines collected in 25 cases. Where things stand: new tools are in place, and residents quoted in April 2026 still describe the problem as worse.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: fewer repeat reports at the Fontaine Street addresses after the cameras go in, and a photo or staff visit required before a dumping request is closed.

A congressional office can raise the closed-request question with the city and take casework from a resident whose request was closed with the trash still there. Removal costs money, and grants from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) for solid-waste cleanup and for brownfields, which are properties where contamination complicates reuse, can pay for it. Those grants have their own eligibility rules, and the office can help the city apply. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks Congress to fund one named project, is not bound by those rules and could cover part or all of a cleanup depending on the cost. For scale, one cleanup of the estuary at Brooklyn Basin received $250,000, against the $2 million that was requested.

Which addresses come first is Oakland's call to make with the people who live near them. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If a block near you should come first, tell us which one.

Sources: Oakland 311 service requests, open data portal, CBS San Francisco, 12 October 2024, KTVU, 20 April 2026, CBS News Bay Area, 23 September 2025, Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission minutes, 20 November 2025, The Oakland Report, 13 May 2026

Illegal dumping that keeps returning to the same East Oakland blocks, and fines the city rarely collects

Oakland · Fontaine Street, West Street, International Boulevard, 48th Avenue and East 12th Street, Pearmain Street · raised since at least June 2025

Before 2 a.m. on 18 June 2025, a truck dumped thousands of gallons of an unidentified, concrete-slurry-like sludge on Pearmain Street in deep East Oakland, outside an architectural glass business that has been there for 50 years. The owner, John Lewis, had the truck on his cameras.

This street is a dumping ground for the city of Oakland.

John Lewis, who runs an architectural glass business, in an interview with CBS News Bay Area, 18 June 2025

Other residents describe the same thing. On 20 April 2026 East Oakland resident Latanya Earby told KTVU, “The dumping is driving me crazy”, and another resident, Lorraine Barraza, said “It's just gotten so much worse”.

In the city's 311 data, the non-emergency line for reporting problems, dumping accounts for about 59,000 of the 216,310 requests filed between October 2024 and September 2026, or 27%. That adds debris and appliances (46,444), mattresses (11,005), requests the city labels enforcement potential (1,166) and green waste (679). Only 322 of the debris requests are open, so the city clears nearly every one, and a closed status does not say whether anyone visited. The pattern residents describe is recurrence. The most repeated addresses include 2325 West Street (130 requests), 1301 26th Street (109), 2710 to 2798 Vallecito Place (95) and five spots along International Boulevard (66, 54, 51, 45 and 44). The Fontaine Street corridor, with more than 740 reports, and West Street are covered in a separate entry on addresses that fill up again. The City Auditor also named 48th Avenue and East 12th Street and 85th Avenue and Enterprise Way as hotspots.

After the city writes a citation, which is a ticket, to someone it believes dumped illegally, the money is hard to collect. Since 2021 the city has issued about $1.3 million in illegal dumping citations, and it has collected roughly $109,000. The city received 465 appeals and granted 453 of them, meaning the person cited won. The Oakland Report wrote on 13 May 2026 that Oakland received over 25,000 calls to 311 about dumping, yet issued only 273 citations and collected fines from only 25.

The City Auditor's April 2026 performance audit, by the official who independently reviews city programs, tied the problem to two causes: weak enforcement, and disposal costs high enough that some people leave trash on the street. Oakland's trash-hauling rates run 23 to 40% above neighboring cities, and bulky-item pickup, the pickup of large household items, reaches only about 21% of multi-family units.

The city has answered, and the answer was substantial. In April 2026 council unanimously raised dumping fines to $5,000 and attached them to license plates, so a fine can be traced to a vehicle. It funded a roughly $1 million package that includes an artificial-intelligence drone pilot. A $9.275 million three-year gift from Crankstart, a private philanthropic foundation, followed, along with three new enforcement officers. State legislation, SB 1218, would let officials boot or block registration of repeat dumpers' vehicles. Enforcement is hard with limited tools, since the city has only 36 dumping cameras. As far as we have tracked, none of these steps addresses why 453 of 465 appeals were granted, so the problem is partly addressed.

Worth tracking

The figure to watch is collections, about $109,000 of about $1.3 million, along with whether the city publishes why appeals succeed, and whether SB 1218 becomes law. The drone pilot and the three new officers are recent.

The money part is cleanup and prevention at repeat addresses. Cleanup cost the city $14 million in fiscal year 2024-25, by KQED's reporting on the audit. Community Project Funding, the request a member of Congress makes for a named local project, could pay for removal and barriers at named sites, in whole or in part depending on the cost. Environmental Protection Agency grants for solid waste and brownfields (previously used land that may be contaminated) also reach such sites, with eligibility rules.

Citation design, collection practice and prosecution of commercial dumpers are municipal and district-attorney functions, and no appropriation reaches them. The office can still ask the city publicly why appeals succeed and take casework for a resident affected by one of these sites. Which sites come first is Oakland's call to make with the neighborhoods beside them. We would work with the city on any request rather than arrive with a list, and we would rather hear which sites you would put at the top.

Sources: CBS News Bay Area, Pearmain Street, KTVU, 20 April 2026, Oakland open data, OAK 311 service requests, KQED, audit and dumping hotspots, KTVU, citations issued and collected, The Oakland Report, 13 May 2026, Oakland City Auditor, Performance Audit of Illegal Dumping, Local News Matters, audit, April 2026, The Oaklandside, audit, 23 April 2026, The Oaklandside, 2 March 2026, The Oaklandside, 16 March 2026, NBC Bay Area, drone pilot, Local News Matters, Crankstart gift, 12 June 2026, Oakland North, drones, 22 May 2026, CBS News Bay Area, new enforcement officers

Disposal costs and cleanup labor pushed onto Oakland volunteers and merchants

Oakland · Districts 1 and 2; Dimond/MacArthur Blvd; Laurel; Chinatown

On 25 November 2025, Oakland North reported on the new weekend crews clearing illegal dump sites around the city. The volunteers had cleared more than a million pounds of trash across 51 cleanups, and spots like 75th Avenue at Hawley Street and 24th Street at Kirkham Street kept filling back up. Althea Castillo, who lives at an encampment near one of the cleanup sites, told the reporter:

People have been doing that for years, so it's become somewhat normal

Althea Castillo, who lives at an encampment near one of the cleanup sites, speaking to Oakland North, 25 November 2025

Castillo described the normalization to a reporter, meaning that dumping has come to seem ordinary to people who live near it. The people who clear the sites have described something similar, with counts to back it up. Andy Wang runs the Pengweather cleanup effort, a volunteer operation. In July 2025 he paused cleanups in District 1 and District 2, two of Oakland's City Council districts, after finding that only 30% of the sites his crews cleared stayed clean afterward. He issued six demands, including $5,000 fines and subsidized trash collection. The council later did raise fines to $5,000.

Wang's count is the clearest measurement available of how often cleared sites stay clean, and it came from a volunteer, not from the city. It is his own tally of his own crews' sites, and it should be read as that. It speaks to what happens after a cleanup, not to how hard volunteers work.

The costs land on residents and merchants. Residents pay 23 to 40% more for trash service than neighboring cities do. That difference was identified in the City Auditor's April 2026 performance audit of illegal dumping. Volunteer crews clear thousands of pounds a year. Merchants are fined for graffiti sprayed on their own storefronts. In April 2025, Chinatown business owners told ABC7 that the city had fined them thousands of dollars over graffiti on their own storefronts, among them Won Kee Supermarket, whose fine of $500 rose to $3,000 with late fees.

Where the city does deliver, the delivery is uneven, and what it does deserves credit. Oakland runs quarterly Bulky Block Party disposal events, where residents can bring large household items to be disposed of. In 2026 it staged 79 Earth Day volunteer sites, and two of them were in District 7, one of the districts where the City Auditor found dumping reports most concentrated. At a Bulky Block Party at 7101 Edgewater Drive on 25 July 2026, resident Courtney Payne asked KQED whether people hear about the events at all.

how do people even know about this?

Courtney Payne, a resident, interviewed by KQED about the disposal events, 25 July 2026

Some neighborhoods pay for their own upkeep. The Laurel and Dimond districts self-fund cleaning through merchant assessments (extra fees the merchants agree to pay themselves) and volunteer crews. Keep Dimond Clean and Keep Oakland Beautiful hold the line on graffiti. That is to their credit. It also means how clean a block stays can depend on whether the neighborhood has an association to pay for it. Meanwhile 4,780 graffiti complaints are waiting in the 311 system, the city's line for reporting problems, and no permanent crew has been assigned to remove the graffiti they describe.

There is a real budget case against expanding this work. Graffiti crews compete with abandoned vehicles and street sweeping for the same staff, and enforcement without better service may just move dumping into alleys. The case for it starts with one number: only 21% of bulky waste is collected from multi-family units, against much higher single-family rates. That gap is where a large share of the dumping starts.

Sources: CBS News Bay Area, Oakland North, Christian Science Monitor, KQED, yahoo.com, dimondnews.org, oaklandca.gov, keepoaklandbeautiful.org, oaklandvoices.us, abc7news.com, nbcbayarea.com, asamnews.com, sfchronicle.com, Oakland City Council agenda (Granicus), Council forms Laurel Business Improvement District after property owner ballot (July 1, 2025), Oakland City Council agenda (Granicus), Council forms Laurel Business Improvement District after property owner ballot (July 1, 2025), Oakland City Council agenda (Granicus), Council forms Laurel Business Improvement District after property owner ballot (July 1, 2025), Oakland North, Oakland volunteers cleared 1M+ pounds of trash in 51 cleanups, but 75th & Hawley and 24th & Kirkham keep refilling, Oakland North, Oakland volunteers cleared 1M+ pounds of trash in 51 cleanups, but 75th & Hawley and 24th & Kirkham keep refilling

Human waste reported on public sidewalks and at libraries

Oakland · West Oakland Library, Main Library, Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Temescal Library and Lakeside Park · raised since October 2024

Between October 2024 and September 2026, people filed 950 requests with 311, the city's non-emergency line, about human waste in the public right-of-way, which means the sidewalks and streets the city looks after, according to the city's open data on 311 requests. The address that appears most often is a library. The West Oakland Library, at 1801 Adeline Street, has 21 requests, and its branch page describes a building with a ramp, an elevator and a free parking lot. The Main Library, at 125 14th Street between downtown and Lake Merritt, has 15. The library describes itself as one of the largest public libraries in the Bay Area.

Other addresses on the list are the Martin Luther King Jr. Library with 12 requests, the Temescal Library with 10, and the Sailboat House at Lakeside Park, a rental building beside Lake Merritt, with 14. Together those five addresses account for 72 of the 950 requests, about 8 percent, so most reports come from other places around the city.

The data lists a type of request and an address. It does not include a description, so it does not say what was found, where at the address it was, or why it was there. We are not drawing conclusions about who or why. A request like this describes a condition at a place. The people it touches include those who use a library every day, library staff, and the crews who clean.

Oakland gives this its own request type, and residents can file it by phone, app or web form. For comparison, other kinds of 311 requests are handled quickly, such as street light outages, where 25 of 3,679 requests are open. For human waste, 935 of 950 requests (98 percent) are not closed. The city's status label "not closed" covers several things, including open, referred (passed to another department or agency) and pending. It does not say whether anyone visited. The data also has no closing date, so it cannot show how long any single request took, and a status may reflect how this type is routed as much as how quickly it is cleaned.

What we understand so far is that residents have named the same few public buildings again and again, and that the city's own records show most of these reports without a closed status. No figure for how quickly these spots are cleaned has come up in what we have tracked.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: a lower share of these requests carrying a not closed status, the city publishing when and by whom a spot was cleaned, and the same library addresses dropping off the list of most repeated locations. Two of these libraries also appear in a separate set of building repair requests, which we describe in the entry on repeat repair requests at city buildings.

Cleaning a sidewalk or a library entrance is a city job, and no federal rule governs it. The office could still take a resident's case, meaning help a person whose request went unanswered, and ask the city on the public record how this request type is handled. There are federal levers around the edges. The housing department, HUD, funds shelter, street outreach and services for people experiencing homelessness through programs such as Emergency Solutions Grants, and whether any of that can pay for public restrooms or hygiene services is worth asking about. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that supports libraries, mostly sends its money through state library agencies, and whether any could help a branch is also worth checking. If the real question is money, a direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of a cost depending on its size. No cost has come up in what we have tracked.

What comes first at these libraries and sidewalks is for Oakland and its residents to decide. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you use one of these libraries, work in one, or live near one of these addresses, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland 311 service requests, City of Oakland open data, Oakland Public Library, Main Library, Oakland Public Library, West Oakland Branch, City of Oakland, Lakeside Park

A privately owned trash lot beside four Fruitvale schools, and code enforcement requests that rarely show as closed

Oakland · 2783 E 12th Street in Fruitvale; citywide · raised since December 2024

On 6 December 2024, CBS San Francisco reported on a privately owned lot at 2783 E 12th Street in Fruitvale where trash had piled up and caught fire. Diosa Diaz, a social worker and educator at ICS Elementary, one of the schools nearby, described what she sees when she drives past.

"There's one, two, three, four schools in the vicinity of this trash pile, and no one cares."

Diosa Diaz, social worker and educator at ICS Elementary, quoted by CBS San Francisco, 6 December 2024

Karina Flores, a parent, told the station that the school lockdown notifications are concerning. School officials said that at a safety meeting the city told them that because the lot is privately owned, it could not act. We have not found a later report showing whether the lot was cleared.

Residents report such problems through OAK 311, the city's line for reporting problems, which publishes its request data openly. Residents filed 3,584 requests of the type labeled Code Enforcement, a referral to Planning and Building, between October 2024 and September 2026. Of those, 3,547 (99%) are not closed, and most carry the status REFERRED, which means the city passed the request along rather than finishing it. Another 132 are marked OPEN, the oldest since 3 October 2024. The label "open" is the city's own status and does not say whether anyone visited.

The city does keep watch on this work. On 10 February 2026, Oakland's Community and Economic Development Committee received an informational report (file 26-0269) on what the Planning and Building Department did about code enforcement, the city's work of getting owners to fix or clear neglected properties, in the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2024-25. The minutes record 0 speakers on the item. Reports like that come to the council every quarter, which shows the city keeps paying attention. What the reports count is how many cases were opened, and not whether any property ended up fixed.

The city does not publish how many properties were abated, meaning the problem was fixed or cleared, how long that took from the day a resident complained, or how often violations came up again at the same address.

Owners have a point too, and it is a hard one. Some of the people receiving notices are low-income or elderly homeowners who cannot pay for the repairs themselves. For them, escalating fines produce a lien, a legal claim against the home, rather than a fixed building. Nothing we have tracked indicates the city is preparing to expand that ability.

Worth tracking

The next quarterly report is the thing to read. If it says how many properties were abated, how long that took from complaint, and how many addresses came up again, this is moving. If it is another count of cases, it is stuck. Also watch whether anyone comes to speak on the item, since no one did in February 2026.

Fixing or clearing blighted properties and deciding how often to report on that work belong to Oakland's Planning and Building Department. A congressional office can still raise the question with the city and take casework from a resident whose complaint went nowhere. One federal mechanism fits, and it is narrower than it sounds. The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), a federal program that sends money to cities for housing and neighborhood improvements, can pay for code enforcement under federal regulation 24 CFR 570.202(c) when the work is carried out in a deteriorating area and paired with public improvements. CDBG can also pay for repairs to the homes of the low-income owners who cannot afford to fix them themselves. Oakland is a CDBG entitlement city, meaning it receives the grant directly, in an amount set by a formula rather than a competition, so a congressional office defends this money rather than requests it. Formula money has eligibility rules, though. CDBG cannot make the department publish how many properties were abated, and it will not resolve all 3,584 requests. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks Congress to fund one specific project, is not bound by those eligibility rules, and it could cover a specific project to fix or clear properties or repair homes in whole or in part depending on the cost.

Which properties and blocks come first is Oakland's call to make with the people who live on them, and the office would work with the city on any request rather than arrive with a list. If there is a property you would put at the top, tell us which one.

Sources: CBS San Francisco, Fruitvale lot report, 6 December 2024, Oakland City Council code enforcement report record, City of Oakland OAK 311 service request data, Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, 24 CFR 570.202

Street cleaning requests that stay open, even as litter container reports get closed

Oakland · Citywide · raised since October 2024

Of the 954 requests residents have filed under the category Street Cleaning through OAK 311, the city's line for reporting problems, 567 (59%) are still open, and the oldest was filed on 17 January 2025. Those counts come from the open request data the city publishes for October 2024 through September 2026. The label "open" is the city's own status and does not say whether anyone visited. The data does not record when a request was closed, so how long a typical request waited cannot be calculated from it.

The city closes other cleanliness requests quickly, and that is worth saying first. Of 1,868 reports of a broken street litter container, 4 are open. Of 1,241 reports of an overflowing litter container, 10 are open. Of 647 reports of an abandoned trash or compost container, 8 are open. A resident who reports a full or broken bin generally sees the request handled, according to the city's own status labels.

Street cleaning looks different. More than half of those requests are open, which makes it one of the slower request types in the data, though it is a small category next to the others: 954 requests over 24 months, out of 216,310 requests of all kinds, which is less than half of one percent.

Some merchants and homeowners connect a skipped route to the litter, clogged drains and new dumping sites that follow. That is their own view, and nobody has measured it. The data shows requests and statuses, and it does not show whether a street was swept, missed or swept late. Illegal dumping reports, for comparison, are cleared quickly (322 of 46,444 open), so the pattern residents describe at dumping hot spots is the same spot filling up again, which is a separate question from sweeping.

It is also hard to say why requests stay open. The data gives a count and a status. It does not say how many are waiting on too few workers, on how trucks and sweepers are assigned to routes, or on weather. The dataset records an address and council district for each request, so a breakdown by neighborhood could be built from it, but the city has not published one that we know of. The same crews also work through waiting requests for graffiti, parks and lighting, so any change in sweeping would involve a trade-off, and that is a fair point for the city to weigh.

Worth tracking

This moves when the city publishes a cause for requests that stay open (staffing, routing or weather) and a breakdown by neighborhood, and when the 567 open requests, with the oldest from January 2025, begin to close. Until then the count shows where residents are waiting and cannot say what would fix it.

Street sweeping and trash collection belong to Oakland Public Works and to the private company the city has contracted to haul trash, and the questions of staffing, routes and causes are for city management to answer. A congressional office can still raise the question with the city and take casework from a resident whose street keeps getting missed. One narrow federal connection exists. Street sweeping keeps trash out of storm drains, so Oakland reports on it under its municipal stormwater permit, a permit that limits what runoff can carry into creeks and the bay. The permit is issued under section 402 of the Clean Water Act, the federal law on water pollution. Because of that, the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 9 office, the EPA office that covers California, has an ongoing interest in whether sweeping frequency is maintained. The reports Oakland files under that permit are one place to ask for data on individual sweeping routes, which the city has not published. That gives a way to ask for information on a narrow question. If a fuller explanation shows the cause is money, such as equipment or crew capacity, a direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks Congress to fund one specific local project, could cover part or all of the cost depending on the amount. Unlike programs that distribute money by formula, it is not limited by their eligibility rules.

Which routes and neighborhoods come first is the city's call to make with residents, and the office would work with Oakland on any request rather than arrive with a list. If there is a street that keeps getting missed, or something you would put at the top of the list, tell us.

Sources: City of Oakland OAK 311 service request data

Requests to prune or remove city trees that the city has marked unfunded

Oakland · Citywide · raised since October 2024

Of the 1,437 requests residents have filed since October 2024 to have a city tree pruned, 907 carry a status the city calls UNFUNDED, according to the city's open 311 data. Add the 114 unfunded requests about diseased, dead, dying or leaning trees (out of 706), 37 about stump removal (out of 90) and 10 about planting a street tree (out of 19), and the city has used that status 1,190 times in 24 months. About 1,100 of those are about trees. Residents raised these through 311, the city's line for reporting non-emergency problems.

The city does respond quickly where a tree has already come down. Of 1,105 limb-down requests, 7 are open, and of 694 downed-tree requests, 7 are open. For pruning, 333 of the 1,437 requests are open, the oldest from 27 January 2025. For diseased or leaning trees, 194 of 706 are open, the oldest from 4 March 2025. "Open" is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited. The data has no close dates and no resident text, so it cannot show what happened to the unfunded requests afterward.

The status appears to line up with how the city describes its tree work. The city's tree services page, which carries no date, sorts requests into three priorities. Emergencies such as a fallen tree are first, and standing trees that are dead, dying or diseased are second. Routine maintenance, including structural pruning and stump grinding, is third and described as "currently not funded." The page says that before 2008 trees were maintained every three to five years, and that "Since 2008, Oakland Public Works Tree Services prunes and removes trees based on risk level and on an emergency basis only." It lists $2.5 million a year from a local assessment district set aside for landscaping and lighting, supporting 15 full-time employees. We have not confirmed that the unfunded status refers to this third category, and the city has not said so in the data we reviewed.

The reasons are not simple. Bay Nature reported in October 2023 that budget cuts after the 2009 recession reduced the Tree Services Division from 40 staff to 15. The article described a draft urban forest plan with two maintenance scenarios, one at $21 million and one at $17 million, without stating over what period, so those figures are not a cost estimate here. It also reported an $8 million grant from the U.S. Forest Service, through the Inflation Reduction Act, which was a fraction of the $22.5 million the city applied for. Where things stand: the city handles emergencies, and routine pruning requests are being logged as unfunded in large numbers.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the unfunded share of pruning requests falling from 907 of 1,437, the oldest open requests from January and March 2025 getting closed, and the city adopting and funding its urban forest plan. If the unfunded count keeps rising while downed-tree requests stay near zero open, routine care is still being deferred.

Money is the main lever here. Federal tree funding already reaches Oakland, as the U.S. Forest Service grant shows, and the office can help the city apply for such programs, write letters of support and ask the agency how awards were sized when they fall short of a request. A direct appropriation request, in which a member of Congress asks Congress to fund one named project, could cover part or all of a pruning program depending on the cost. A cost for Oakland would need to come from the city first.

Which trees and neighborhoods come first is the city's call to make with residents. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If there is a tree on your block you would put first, tell us where it is.

Sources: Oakland 311 service requests, open data portal, Oakland Tree Services fact sheet and FAQ, Bay Nature, 30 October 2023

Repeat repair requests at the Main Library, West Oakland Library, the Animal Shelter and City Hall

Oakland · Main Library, West Oakland Library, the Animal Shelter, City Hall and Temescal Pool · raised since October 2024

Since October 2024, people have filed 146 requests with 311, the city's non-emergency line, under the label "City Bldg - Structural Issue" for the Main Library at 125 14th Street, according to the city's open data on 311 requests. The label is the city's own name for a request about the building itself. The data lists the label and an address, not a description of what was wrong. The Main Library sits between downtown and Lake Merritt and is one of the largest public libraries in the Bay Area.

The same address appears under other labels as well: 79 plumbing requests, 66 for keys and locks, 48 electrical and 43 for cleaning. Other addresses repeat too. The West Oakland Library, at 1801 Adeline Street, has 60 structural requests, and the Animal Shelter, which Oakland Animal Services runs, has 61. City Hall at 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza has 113 cleaning requests, 102 electrical and 61 for keys and locks. The building next door at 150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza has 96 electrical requests. Temescal Pool has 44 plumbing requests. A count of requests is not a count of broken things, because one problem can produce several reports and one report can cover several problems.

Most of these requests close, and that is where to start. Of the 146 structural requests at the Main Library, 7 are open. At the West Oakland Library 11 of 60 are open, at the Animal Shelter 10 of 61, and for City Hall cleaning 18 of 113. Across all city buildings, only 10 of 105 elevator requests are open, 40 of 521 for heating and cooling, 82 of 1,444 for plumbing and 91 of 1,275 for electrical work. Structural requests have the largest open share, 500 of 2,035, about a quarter, and cleaning has 140 of 765. Across these seven types, roughly 970 of about 6,830 requests are open, about 14 percent. "Open" is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited.

Six of the 2,035 structural requests carry the city's status "unfunded", which is a label the city assigns. The data has no condition findings, no inspection results and no repair dates. It does not say that any of these buildings is unsafe, and we are not suggesting that. The city looks after many buildings, each with plumbing, electrical, elevator and heating systems, and the data cannot say how old any of them is or what was fixed.

Where things stand, as far as we understand it: a handful of public buildings account for many repeat requests, most requests close, and what is behind the repeats is not something the data shows.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the open share of structural requests falling from about a quarter, the same few addresses dropping off the repeat list, and any published account of which of these requests ended in a repair. The two libraries also appear in a separate set of requests about cleanliness, which we describe in the entry on human waste on public sidewalks and at libraries.

Upkeep of city buildings is a local responsibility, and it is mostly a question of money. A direct appropriation request, which is how a member of Congress asks Congress to fund a named local project, could cover part or all of a library or shelter repair depending on the cost. No cost for any of these buildings has come up in what we have tracked. Cities also use federal Community Development Block Grants, money HUD sends each year to cities for local projects that can include some public facilities, and whether one could apply to a given building depends on the rules and the neighborhood. The office could help the city check. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that supports libraries, is another place to ask.

Which buildings come first is for Oakland and its residents to decide. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you use the library, the shelter or City Hall, or work in one, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland 311 service requests, City of Oakland open data, Oakland Public Library, Main Library, Oakland Animal Services

Protected trees cut in the Oakland hills, and whether the city can step in before they are gone

Oakland · Claremont Avenue in the Oakland hills; street trees citywide · raised since May 2023

In May 2023, neighbors of a property on Claremont Avenue, across from Garber Park in the Oakland hills, filed a lawsuit, Hoodline reported, saying the owner had cut trees on their land as well. KQED reported that city workers went to the property five times between 2 February 2021 and 17 May 2022, and that the owner received verbal and written warnings from city employees and police.

The city did act. The City Council handled the matter as agenda item 26-0267, a hearing on whether the owners had broken the Protected Tree Ordinance, the city rule that requires a permit before removing certain trees. On 5 May 2026, by a vote of 5 to 3, the council fined the owners, Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner, $915,135.40 for removing 38 protected trees. It also placed a lien, a legal claim on the property, that prevents developing or selling the land until the fine is paid. Public Works staff, the department that maintains streets and trees, set the amount from the species and stump diameter, which averages about $24,000 per tree. Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, as quoted by KQED, called it "a knowing violation" of the ordinance.

The vote was not unanimous, and the other side deserves a hearing. KTVU reported that Councilmember Rowena Brown asked why the owner was being fined full replacement value for trees the city "would have likely authorized him to remove" through the ordinary building permit process. Mr. Bernard, as quoted by KTVU, said he believed he had acted "in good faith" while addressing documented safety hazards.

What remains open is timing. The removals and city visits ran from February 2021 to May 2022, and the fine came in May 2026. The question neighbors keep raising is whether the city can catch a removal before the trees are down. In the city's 311 data for the 24 months from October 2024, residents filed 79 requests in the Illegal Tree Removal category, and 25 are still open. Tree pruning requests number 1,437, with 333 open and 907 carrying the city's status label unfunded. "Open" and "unfunded" are the city's own labels, and neither says whether anyone visited. Whether the Claremont Avenue case changes how quickly the city can respond to the next one is not yet known.

Sources: KQED, 6 May 2026, KTVU, 7 May 2026, Hoodline, 21 December 2025, Council agenda item 26-0267, USDA Urban and Community Forestry, City of Oakland OAK 311 service request data

Reopening Mountain View Cemetery to seven-day access: 2,264 signatures

Oakland · Mountain View Cemetery, Piedmont Avenue

On 23 October 2025, James Marro, a neighborhood walker, started a Change.org petition asking the Board of Trustees of Mountain View Cemetery, on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, to reopen the grounds to the public seven days a week. Walkers can get in three days a week now. In the petition he writes:

We have in our neighborhood such a precious jewel of public space in Mountain View Cemetery.

James Marro, neighborhood walker who started the Change.org petition "Reopen Mountain View Cemetery to 7 days a week!", October 2025

Marro describes how access came to be limited: "The Cemetery limited access in the wake of the Covid Epidemic when, for a time, foot traffic increased significantly. Access to walkers is still limited to just three days a week." The petition asks for seven-day access to be restored.

Neighbors have kept signing. The petition stood at 2,264 signatures as of late September 2026. The petition's own page on Change.org showed 2,269 verified signatures. Petition counts move as people sign, so the two figures are close. In late September 2026 the petition was still open and no answer had come. It is the largest active local Oakland petition on Change.org, which points to more than a handful of neighbors who care about this.

There is no government body to answer it. Mountain View Cemetery is privately run by the Mountain View Cemetery Association, so its hours are a private property decision. No response from the association or the city has surfaced, and the association's reasons for the current hours have not surfaced either. The only account of why access was limited is the petition's own.

Sources: Change.org Oakland local petitions

Localized flooding on Oakland streets while the city rewrites its storm drainage master plan

Oakland · Jackson Street off-ramp from southbound I-980; repeat-flooding locations citywide · raised since October 2024

On 11 February 2026, KTVU reported that Oakland drivers were frustrated with the Jackson Street off-ramp from southbound Interstate 980, which they described as flooding whenever a decent amount of rain falls. Driver Kwame Robinson told the station about the water on the ramp:

"It's dangerous. I've got a truck so I can plow through it."

Kwame Robinson, Oakland driver, KTVU, 11 February 2026

Driver Brooke Lyons-Justus described a close call at night in early January. This ramp belongs to Caltrans, the state transportation department, so the City of Oakland cannot fix it. KTVU reported that Caltrans blamed drain inlets that clog with debris and a drainage design on an old structure, and said its crews were working through the problem.

On city streets, the same kind of complaint shows up in the city's 311 data. OAK 311 is the city's request line for non-emergency problems. In the 24 months from October 2024, residents filed 986 requests for clogged storm drains with flooding, and 132 are still open. Another 779 reported clogged drains without flooding, with 131 open. Water pooling on streets and sidewalks drew 92 requests, and 89 of them (97%) are open, the oldest from 25 October 2024. All 12 requests for cross-culvert repair, which means fixing a pipe that carries water under a road, are open, the oldest from 21 November 2024. Of 72 reports of illicit discharge, meaning something other than rainwater entering a storm drain, 16 are open. "Open" is the city's own status label and does not say whether anyone visited.

The city has done a good deal here. Sewer blockages are mostly closed: 46 of 1,156 requests are open. Public Works, the department that maintains streets and drains, is also writing the Storm Drainage Master Plan, the city's plan for managing flood risk across Oakland. On 25 March 2025, the council's Public Works and Transportation Committee took up item 25-0507, a change to the consultants' contract for that plan. The city's project page says the plan is assessing the condition of the drainage system, identifying areas prone to flooding, and building a prioritized list of improvements with cost estimates. It also invites residents to report flooding hotspots through a survey in English, Spanish and Chinese.

The difficulty is that a master plan sets capacity, meaning how much water the drainage system is built to carry. It does not by itself fix a corner that floods each January, and its improvements are years out. We have not found a published list of repeat-flooding locations, a sequence of near-term fixes, or a statement of which drainage projects are funded. Drainage also competes with other capital needs, including paving and consent-decree sewer work, which means sewer repairs the city must make under a court-approved agreement. Oakland has one capital budget, so every drainage dollar is a dollar not spent elsewhere.

Sources: KTVU, 11 February 2026, City of Oakland OAK 311 service request data, Council meeting record, 25 March 2025, City of Oakland, Storm Drainage Master Plan

Oakland Estuary: the illegally anchored boats are gone, and no one has funded a patrol to keep them away

Oakland · Oakland Estuary; Brooklyn Basin and Township Commons; Jack London Square cove · raised since 2025

On 25 August 2026, ABC7 News reported that the roughly 38 boats that had been illegally anchored in the Oakland Estuary, the tidal channel of water between Oakland and Alameda, were gone. About three of them had been anchored onto the docks of the Jack London Aquatic Center. Heather Krakora, executive director of the East Bay Rowing Club, told the station that when the boats were there it was "chaotic." Of the cove at Jack London Square today, she said, "Right now, the cove is open, and you look at it, and you're like, wow, I can actually teach people how to row out here safely". One organizer welcomed that and added a caution.

"I'm so grateful that the Jack Cove is empty, that the illegally anchored boats are gone for now"

Mary Spicer, community organizer with I-Heart-Oakland-Alameda-Estuary, ABC7 News interview, 25 August 2026

The words "for now" matter. The cove is clear today, and nothing we have found shows it is protected. The East Bay Rowing Club and the I-Heart-Oakland-Alameda-Estuary group say the estuary will not stay clear without a marine patrol funded by the city, a team that patrols the water to keep boats from anchoring illegally. No such patrol has been funded.

Below the surface, more than 40 sunken wrecks have been mapped, and a federal grant will pay to raise about 16 of them, starting in September 2026.

Money for the shoreline itself, meaning removal of blight and dumped material along the estuary and an extension of the Bay Trail (a walking and biking path around San Francisco Bay) through it, has been requested in Congress five times over two fiscal years (a fiscal year is the government's budget year). In FY2026, Rep. Lateefah Simon asked for $2 million for estuary blight and dumping removal plus Bay Trail extension, and received $250,000. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla each requested $2 million for the same work in the same cycle. For FY2027, the next budget year, two more requests are in: $2 million from Rep. Simon for bicycle and pedestrian improvements along the public waterfront promenade connecting Township Commons Park to the future Brooklyn Plaza in the Brooklyn Basin area, and $1.75 million from Sen. Padilla. Rep. Simon's page says the request was submitted in March 2026 and that only a handful of requests may actually be funded. We have not found a public decision on either FY2027 request yet. These are requests for named local projects, which in the House go by the name Community Project Funding.

What is unsettled is who pays to keep the boats away, and whether a shoreline request that was answered at $250,000 against $2 million asked can do the work it was written for.

Worth tracking

Three things show whether this is moving. First, whether the two FY2027 requests are funded, and at what level, given what happened in FY2026. Second, whether the salvage of about 16 wrecks starts in September 2026 as planned. Third, whether the city funds a marine patrol, because that decides whether the Jack London Square cove stays open now that it has been cleared.

Two federal levers fit. A member of Congress can press appropriators, the members of Congress who write the federal spending bills, to fund the requests at the level asked rather than at a level like the $250,000 funded in FY2026 against the $2 million asked. Named-project requests like these are not bound by the eligibility rules that come with formula programs, meaning grants divided among places by a set calculation, and at the scale asked, $2 million, they could address the shoreline work in whole or in part. The federal grant that will pay for the wreck salvage also shows that removing abandoned boats has a federal source of funding.

What project funding cannot buy is the patrol. A marine patrol is a recurring city operating cost, and project funding does not pay salaries year after year. The office could still put the question of who pays for a patrol on the record and work with the city on whether any federal route exists. Which comes first, shoreline work, salvage or a patrol, is for Oakland and the people who use the estuary to weigh. We would work with the city on the requests, and we would rather hear from rowers, neighbors and residents what they would put first than guess.

Sources: ABC7 News, 25 August 2026, Office of Rep. Lateefah Simon, FY2026 Community Project Funding, Brooklyn Basin project financial disclosure, Office of Rep. Lateefah Simon, funding announcement, Office of Sen. Adam Schiff, congressionally directed spending archive, Sen. Schiff FY2026 disclosure, Office of Sen. Alex Padilla, appropriations, Sen. Padilla FY2026 disclosure, Office of Rep. Lateefah Simon, FY2027 Community Project Funding, Township Commons shoreline project request, Sen. Padilla FY2027 disclosure

Flock license plate readers: 291 cameras, a $2.25M contract, and safeguards that live in a contract

Oakland · the citywide license plate reader network, 291 cameras · raised since 2025

Josephine Hui, a member of the Toishan-Oakland Chinatown Patrol Team, spoke in favor of the city's license plate reader cameras during public comment at the Oakland City Council meeting on 16 December 2025, the night the council voted on a contract for them.

We need to have cameras in order to protect the merchants so they feel safe and can open longer hours

Josephine Hui, member of the Toishan-Oakland Chinatown Patrol Team, in public comment at the Oakland City Council meeting, as reported by KQED, 16 December 2025

Hui was speaking for the city's license plate readers, the cameras that scan plates and check them against police lists. That night the council approved a $2.25 million two-year Flock Safety contract on a 7-1 vote. Flock Safety is the vendor that supplies the cameras. The contract has safeguards that bar access by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal immigration agency. It also bars queries, meaning searches of the plate database, related to reproductive and gender-affirming care. It adds 40 pan-tilt-zoom cameras (cameras that can be steered and zoomed) to a 291-camera network.

The support comes from a broad coalition, and it deserves to be taken seriously on its own terms. Chinatown, Latino and Black neighborhood groups backed continuing the cameras in a vote in September 2025. Merchants describe the network as a force multiplier for an understaffed department, meaning it lets a small police force cover more ground. Rockridge, a neighborhood in Oakland, credits the cameras for part of a 54% drop in burglaries citywide in early 2026, though the reporting behind that figure does not say what the drop is measured against. Some residents describe the system as an electronic fence that deters stolen vehicles and people with warrants. The NAACP, a civil rights organization, has defended it in those terms. Council members insisted that the contract does not allow facial recognition, technology that identifies people from images of their faces, and that it is not the all-seeing government surveillance the word Orwellian describes.

The objection is about where the data goes, not whether the cameras exist. Oakland's Privacy Advisory Commission recommended rejecting the renewal. The commission is the city body that reviews surveillance technology. Its concern was that federal agencies could still get access to the camera data, which it said conflicts with the city's sanctuary policy, the policy of limiting city cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. That recommendation deadlocked the Public Safety Committee in November 2025, a City Council committee whose members split and could not agree on the contract. The Rules Committee, another council committee, then moved it to the full council. A former privacy commissioner's lawsuit alleges the Oakland Police Department (OPD) illegally shared license-plate data with federal immigration authorities. Councilmember Carroll Fife has opposed the expansion. At the 16 December meeting, Hannah Zuckerman, a District 2 resident, told the council:

We do not need data being shared, and license plate data is personal data.

Hannah Zuckerman, District 2 resident, in public comment at the Oakland City Council meeting, as reported by KQED, 16 December 2025

Zuckerman also asked why the city would not fund the Department of Violence Prevention instead. That city department runs programs meant to stop violence before it happens. She said violence prevention programs have been proven to stop crime.

The evidence on how well the cameras work is mixed. In one year the cameras scanned more than 600 million plates. 0.17% of those scans produced an actionable hotlist lead, meaning a match to a police list that officers could act on. Then in July 2026, OPD's annual surveillance report proposed expanding allowable search categories (the kinds of reasons an officer can give for searching the plate data) to more than 30, including illegal dumping. Critics said that went well beyond what the council approved.

509 officers against a 700 floor, 78 empty dispatcher posts, and $16.9M in overtime overspend

Oakland

In early December 2025, ABC7 reported that residents of the Brooklyn Basin waterfront apartments in Oakland were waking to break-ins at five to seven cars a night, usually around 4 a.m., and more than 15 in a single week. One resident, Shalonda Gregory, described police taking two to three hours to respond. The residents wanted a faster response, more patrols and secure parking, and the Oakland Police Department added extra patrols. What they were describing is a small version of a larger question: how many officers and dispatchers Oakland has, and how long people wait for them.

An analysis by Reze Wong on 11 August 2026 found that Oakland police cleared 17 of more than 30,000 property crimes, against a state average of about 10 percent. That number is a clearance rate, the share of reported crimes that police close out. It is one reason falling crime statistics and how safe people feel have moved in different directions. The gap sits alongside a department that is short of people at both ends of a 911 call, the dispatcher who answers and the officer who follows up.

Oakland has taken several steps to address this. The cadet program was restored with $900,000 from Kaiser, the health care company, and PG&E, the electric and gas utility, as a way to recruit and train college-age students who may become officers. The 197th police academy was scheduled to start on 27 April 2026 with 46 candidates in the final stages. The city is developing civilian fleet coordinator and civilian investigator roles, pending union review, so some roles are being moved to civilian staff. The city reached a tentative five-year agreement with the police union that carries about 14% in raises, aimed at stopping the loss of officers to neighboring departments.

The staffing numbers come from the city's March 2026 midyear budget report. It counted 509 officers on active duty against 678 positions the city had budgeted, and 108 officers who were on leave or on modified duty, meaning restricted assignments. The city's April 2026 update reports 65 of 78 dispatcher positions filled. Of 911 calls, 72% are answered within 15 seconds, against a standard of 95%. The department was $16.9 million over budget on gross overtime, meaning overtime pay before any offsetting savings. After $10.6 million in savings from salaries for unfilled positions, the net overspend was $6.3 million. Covering for absent officers ($4.4 million) and extended shifts ($4.0 million) drove most of that overtime, which is what happens when a department has fewer people than it plans for.

The gap has been measured more than once. A study by the consulting firm PFM, released only after a fight over public records, found OPD needs at least 877 sworn officers, meaning fully commissioned police officers with arrest powers, at the Oakland Police Department (OPD). The city had authorized 600 at the time. Measure NN, a tax on property owners that voters approved, requires the city to keep at least 700 officers. The city funded 678 and declared extreme fiscal necessity, a formal finding that its budget is in crisis, which lets it fund fewer than 700 officers without losing the measure's tax money. The city auditor separately found that inadequate staffing and language barriers slow dispatch response. In practice that could mean a Spanish-speaking caller in Fruitvale is served differently from an English-speaking caller in Rockridge.

Two unions, SEIU 1021 and IFPTE 21, which represent city employees, argue that overtime is the most expensive way to buy police hours, and that the $16.9 million overspend is being paid for by cutting the civilian jobs that keep the department running.

Chinatown merchants have asked for more patrols and longer shifts, saying night-time safety is costing them business. Community advocates want something different: that the new police contract move desk work to civilian staff, rather than only raise pay.

Sources: Oakland Report, KTVU, PFM OPD staffing study, The Oaklandside, oaklandreport.org, eastbayexpress.com, sfchronicle.com, oakland-observer.ghost.io, oaklandreport.org, oaklandreport.org, oaklandside.org, oaklandca.gov, Oaklandside, City unions urge council to rein in OPD overtime spending during FY25-27 budget, Oaklandside, City unions urge council to rein in OPD overtime spending during FY25-27 budget, El Tímpano, El Tímpano: Spanish-speaking resident left without vehicle after hit-and-run seeks OPD chief's attention, ABC7 News, Brooklyn Basin residents report 5-7 car break-ins nightly, 15+ in a week, 2-3 hour police response, Oakland Report / SF Chronicle, 'Extreme fiscal necessity' extended for Measure NN; $73.6M FY24-25 surplus built on $67M one-time revenue, Oakland Report / SF Chronicle, 'Extreme fiscal necessity' extended for Measure NN; $73.6M FY24-25 surplus built on $67M one-time revenue, Oakland Report / SF Chronicle, 'Extreme fiscal necessity' extended for Measure NN; $73.6M FY24-25 surplus built on $67M one-time revenue, Oakland Report / SF Chronicle, 'Extreme fiscal necessity' extended for Measure NN; $73.6M FY24-25 surplus built on $67M one-time revenue, City Administrator informational memo, April 2026, 911 dispatcher hiring directive: 65 of 78 positions filled, 72% of calls answered within 15 seconds, City Administrator informational memo, April 2026, 911 dispatcher hiring directive: 65 of 78 positions filled, 72% of calls answered within 15 seconds, Local News Matters / KQED, Council accepts $900K from Kaiser and PG&E to restore OPD cadet program, relaunch May 2026, Local News Matters / KQED, Council accepts $900K from Kaiser and PG&E to restore OPD cadet program, relaunch May 2026, Local News Matters / KQED, Council accepts $900K from Kaiser and PG&E to restore OPD cadet program, relaunch May 2026, Local News Matters / KQED, Council accepts $900K from Kaiser and PG&E to restore OPD cadet program, relaunch May 2026, City Administrator informational memo, April 2026, 197th OPD academy starts April 27, 2026 with 46 candidates in final stages; civilianization of OPD roles underway, City Administrator informational memo, April 2026, 197th OPD academy starts April 27, 2026 with 46 candidates in final stages; civilianization of OPD roles underway, Oakland Report, Mayor Lee's FY2026-27 mid-cycle proposal funds 678 officers vs NN's 700; meeting mandate ($18.6M) tied to Measure E, Greater Rockridge NCPC, Greater Rockridge NCPC: Capt. Burke credits Flock cameras and new DA for Rockridge crime drop; auto crime still top issue, City of Oakland news release / Oaklandside, City reaches tentative 5-year OPOA contract with ~14% raises addressing pension/healthcare costs, City of Oakland news release / Oaklandside, City reaches tentative 5-year OPOA contract with ~14% raises addressing pension/healthcare costs, KRON4 / City of Oakland, OPD audit finds sergeant allegedly defrauded city of $38K; officers sue over botched IA case, KRON4 / City of Oakland, OPD audit finds sergeant allegedly defrauded city of $38K; officers sue over botched IA case, KRON4 / City of Oakland, OPD audit finds sergeant allegedly defrauded city of $38K; officers sue over botched IA case, KRON4 / City of Oakland, OPD audit finds sergeant allegedly defrauded city of $38K; officers sue over botched IA case

Ram-raids on Chinatown banks and Montclair storefronts, and the hardening grants Oakland has not programd

Oakland

In August 2025, vehicles hit two banks in Oakland Chinatown, and the neighborhood's response came quickly. The Chinese chambers held press conferences, and at one on 22 August 2025 a Chinatown business leader whose name was not published said:

Only police can help us, protect small businesses and residents.

An Oakland Chinatown business leader whose name was not published, speaking at a press conference, 22 August 2025

Chinese-language coverage carried much of what merchants said. The Chinese chambers of commerce, the neighborhood's business associations, were demanding storefront hardening (bollards, security glazing and cameras), better infrastructure and National Guard assistance. Bollards are short posts that stop vehicles from reaching a building, and security glazing is reinforced glass. World Journal reported Mayor Barbara Lee's response. World Journal is a Chinese-language newspaper.

Stephanie Tran, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, described what the robberies meant for the neighborhood in a news interview:

an attack on the vitality of Oakland Chinatown

Stephanie Tran, president, Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, news interview, 1 August 2025

The rammings, cases where a vehicle is driven into a building to break in, came in a cluster. In January 2025 vehicles were driven into a 14th Avenue liquor store in Highland Park and a Fruitvale Avenue Chase branch in Lower Dimond. In August 2025 a vehicle hit Kim Tin Jewelry on International Boulevard, critically injuring the owner, and two nights later vehicles hit Cathay Bank and Sterling Bank in Chinatown.

Other crimes have also been reported, both in the flat, lower-lying parts of Oakland and in the hills. A Chinatown convenience store was burglarized in September 2025. In July 2026 one suspect robbed two Chinatown banks within six days, before a 67-year-old was arrested. The Oakland Police Department (OPD) arrested three people in a Grand Lake group-robbery series. Grand Lake is a neighborhood near Lake Merritt, and the series was a string of robberies carried out by groups of people. A daylight robbery hit the Montclair farmers market on Mountain Boulevard in September 2025, at Aster Jewelry, where staff were pepper-sprayed. A Rockridge boutique on College Avenue closed after repeat break-ins, including a burglary in which about $10,000 in merchandise was lost. The boutique closed in June 2024.

Citywide burglaries were down 54% in early 2026, though the reporting behind that figure does not say down from when. Rockridge credits Flock cameras, which read license plates, and the new District Attorney for part of that. The boutique had already closed by then.

Police chief Floyd Mitchell answered the demand for more patrols in a news interview on 1 August 2025: “I cannot put an officer on every corner”. Mayor Lee told World Journal in August 2025, “When residents and merchants feel unsafe, that's a problem we must address.”

Sources: KTVU, CBS News Bay Area, World Journal, Hoodline, ktsf.com, ktsf.com, ktsf.com, singtaousa.com, nbcbayarea.com, abc7news.com, cbsnews.com, rockridgencpc.com, CBS News Bay Area, Taylor Jay Collection closes College Ave store after repeat burglaries ($10K+ loss); 'if we're closing, what happens to the city?', CBS News Bay Area, OPD arrests 3 in June 18-29 Grand Lake group robbery series

Chinatown and Little Saigon want a beat officer who is not reassigned before Lunar New Year

Oakland · Community Ambassadors operating on donations since 2019

In January 2026, a long-stationed Chinatown officer was pulled when the police department moved officers between neighborhoods across the whole city, just ahead of Lunar New Year. Sing Tao Daily reported on 8 January that the reassignment would take effect after 17 January. Merchants and the Blue Angels volunteer patrol described the block as left without a police presence at the time of year when it fills with people, including elderly shoppers carrying cash. Five months earlier, Oakland's police chief, Floyd Mitchell, had described the limit the department is working within, in a news interview on 1 August 2025:

I cannot put an officer on every corner

Floyd Mitchell, Oakland police chief, in a news interview, 1 August 2025

People in Chinatown and Little Saigon have been asking for two things since: a police presence that stays where it is assigned, and a safety program run by people who are not police that is paid for by the city rather than by donations.

Chinatown residents formed the Blue Angels and other foot patrols, volunteer groups that walk the neighborhood. The Community Ambassadors program, which is not police, has escorted seniors around Franklin and 9th, Webster Street and Wong Hin Playground since 2019, and it also removes litter and graffiti. Members of the neighborhood's Chamber of Commerce first paid for it, and it is now soliciting community donations through Asian Health Services to keep operating, while council leadership has worked to revive city support. The Chamber's Carl Chan has said the ambassadors add to the work of sworn officers, the police who carry badges and make arrests, and do not replace them. The Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce has repeatedly asked for foot patrols, cameras and ambassador funding on Little Saigon's stretch of International Boulevard, between 2nd and 14th Avenues, equal to what Chinatown receives.

Attention has followed. State Treasurer Fiona Ma joined a Chinatown patrol in May 2026, and joint police-community patrols resumed in September 2026, as reported by Sing Tao, with the first of those patrols attended by the Alameda County sheriff. Much of the reporting on this is in Chinese-language press, which is where these communities have described, in their own words, the safety concerns they feel the city has not yet met. KTSF, a Bay Area television station, reported in July 2025 that citywide crime for the prior week was down more than 30% from the same week a year earlier. That improvement in the citywide numbers does not match what merchants and seniors in Chinatown describe on their own streets.

The department has a limited number of officers to spread across the whole city. With 509 active officers, keeping one officer fixed in Chinatown means another neighborhood has one fewer officer, which is the tradeoff behind the chief's remark.

Sources: KTVU on Little Saigon, NBC Bay Area, Community Ambassadors fundraising page, Sing Tao Daily, singtaousa.com, nbcbayarea.com, singtaousa.com, kron4.com, oaklandside.org, singtaousa.com, ktsf.com, hoodline.com, Hoodline, Chinatown car burglary steals widower's late wife's ashes; Chamber keeps pushing for foot patrols despite 54% burglary drop, Hoodline, Chinatown car burglary steals widower's late wife's ashes; Chamber keeps pushing for foot patrols despite 54% burglary drop

Fire and wildfire protection: reopened stations, untracked Measure MM money, July 4 closures

Oakland · Oakland Hills (Stations 25, 28; Grizzly Peak Blvd); Grand Lake (Station 10); 1745 14th Ave; 96th Ave and 13th Ave

On the night of 4 July 2026, illegal fireworks burned a tree and a family vehicle on 96th Avenue in East Oakland, and debris blocked lanes on 13th Avenue. East Oakland residents described the night to Oaklandside, a local news outlet, as "a war zone", and the paper reported that they file hundreds of fireworks complaints every year. Public Works cleared the streets that Sunday. No arrest figures were released.

The city did have a plan for the hills that same day. It closed Grizzly Peak Boulevard in the hills for the day, a measure fire chief Damon Covington called "one of the most effective tools we have." Hills residents still remember the 1991 firestorm, which cost 25 lives and involved more than 3,000 homes, so a dry July 4 is not a small worry there.

Residents in the hills and around Grand Lake are asking the city for action on three things, and fireworks, which trouble East Oakland too, are one of them. The others are fire stations kept open so that firefighters can arrive within four minutes, and visible fuel reduction (clearing the brush and other material that feeds fires) from the parcel tax residents approved, Measure MM, a tax charged on each property. Of the three, the city has acted on fire stations. Fireworks and fuel reduction are unresolved, and fuel reduction has a specific problem: residents cannot see where the Measure MM money went.

Measure MM is a 2024 parcel tax on about 27,000 hills properties, and it raised roughly $2.67 million in its first year. The Wildfire Prevention Commission, the city panel responsible for overseeing Measure MM spending, told the City Council on 14 May 2026 that it is "at a loss" to oversee that money. The Fire Department and Public Works provide no parcel-level data (a record of which properties the work was done on), and the post that supervises the work was vacant as of April 2026. Residents who voted for the tax cannot yet see where it went, and neither can the commission the city set up to look.

Stations have seen more progress, and residents can take some credit for it. After the October 2024 Keller Fire, a wildfire in the Oakland hills, and a run of brownouts (rotating station closures) that residents packed a town hall to protest, council voted unanimously in March 2025 to reopen Stations 10, 25 and 28 using about $2.5 million. All 25 stations were open by June 2025 and were preserved again in the 2026 mid-cycle budget, the adjustment the city makes partway through its two-year budget. Council also designated Fire Hazard Severity Zones, the areas mapped by how likely they are to burn in a wildfire, and seated the commission that is now unable to see what it was created to oversee.

Some big equipment and building projects are still outstanding. The design for the Fire Station 4 relocation, meaning the move of the station to a new site, was raised to $4.2 million. The 116-year-old station at 1745 14th Avenue is still waiting for its replacement. New engines are a pending federal request, a $2.3 million request to Congress for a new fire engine to replace aging fire trucks and equipment. The Fire Department handles over 75,000 calls a year.

Some hills homeowners have an objection to the commission itself, and it is a fair one to raise. They say a new body can add process without speeding up fuel reduction. The vegetation work that has performed best is the contracted goat grazing, which the city recognized as extraordinary. It is cheap and low-emission, but it may not be workable on every parcel in the hills.

Sources: Oakland Wildfire Prevention Commission report to City Council, Oakland North, KTVU, CBS News Bay Area on the Grizzly Peak closure, KTVU on July 4 fireworks damage, cbsnews.com, oaklandside.org, oaklandside.org, oaklandcouncil.net, oaklandca.gov, oaklandca.gov, makeoaklandwildfiresafe.com, oaklandca.gov, Oakland Legistar File 26-0337, Fire Station 4 relocation: $5M eminent domain for 1745 14th Ave; design contract raised to $4.2M, Oakland Legistar File 26-0337, Fire Station 4 relocation: $5M eminent domain for 1745 14th Ave; design contract raised to $4.2M, Oakland Legistar File 26-0337, Fire Station 4 relocation: $5M eminent domain for 1745 14th Ave; design contract raised to $4.2M, Oakland Legistar File 26-0337, Fire Station 4 relocation: $5M eminent domain for 1745 14th Ave; design contract raised to $4.2M, Oakland Legistar File 26-0337, Fire Station 4 relocation: $5M eminent domain for 1745 14th Ave; design contract raised to $4.2M, Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12), FY27 CPF: Oakland Fire Department fire engine acquisition, Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12), FY27 CPF: Oakland Fire Department fire engine acquisition, CBS News Bay Area, Grizzly Peak Blvd (Skyline to Claremont/Fish Ranch) closed July 4-5, 2026 to stop fireworks and wildfire risk, KTVU, July 4 fireworks ignite tree and vehicles on 96th Ave; 13th Ave lanes blocked by explosives debris, KTVU, July 4 fireworks ignite tree and vehicles on 96th Ave; 13th Ave lanes blocked by explosives debris

Neighborhood council public safety programs cut, leaving organized Oakland neighbors to self-fund

Oakland · Citywide; neighborhood council service areas

In March 2026, Oaklandside, a local news outlet, reported that neighborhood councils across Oakland, which are groups of neighbors organized around their part of the city, are paying for, or improvising, the block- and district-scale public safety programs that the city's budget cuts removed. In plain terms, safety programs that worked at the level of a single block or a district are now being covered by the neighbors themselves.

The concern comes from organized neighbors across the city, not from one place. It is one of the most common concerns collected from people in the 12th Congressional District, the part of the East Bay that includes Oakland. What we understand so far is that it is widespread and consistent. What we do not yet know is which programs were cut, in which districts, and at what cost.

What sets it apart is how residents describe it: as the clearest example they see of how the city's budget shortfall reaches their everyday safety. It is not a service they read about losing but one they are now paying for themselves, on top of everything else a neighborhood council already does. So far no restoration of the funding has been recorded, and the city's reasons for cutting these particular programs are not something we have seen set out.

Sources: The Oaklandside

Broken elevators at La Peralta and Oakland Station, and a rental inspection program that was never funded

Oakland · 52-day elevator outage, 14 fire rescues

On 7 August 2026, senior tenants of the Oakland Station apartments in East Oakland, working with the tenant group ACCE, carried their complaints beyond their own building. They protested at the Roseville office of CONAM, the company that manages the property, and took their case to the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, the state agency that awards tax credits for affordable housing. One of them, Cathy Harris, listed what they were living with: “Roaches, trash everywhere... safety hazards.” The tenants also pointed to frequent elevator outages and a broken security gate.

Fei Peng, a senior tenant at Southlake Tower near Lake Merritt, asked at a rally on 25 August 2026 that management “respect us tenants as elders.” Seniors there rallied over a break-in and scalding water, and management fixed the water and pledged security upgrades. Tenants in several buildings have been asking for versions of the same thing. Disabled seniors at Oakland Station organized in 2024 and won an elevator-maintenance ordinance, effective December 2024, a city law that requires owners to keep elevators working, with daily fines for owners and requirements about relocating tenants. By August 2026 they were still protesting roaches, outages and a broken security gate. More than 60 tenants are suing, and organizers have taken their case to the state tax-credit committee. Chinatown senior tenants describe decades of unfixed hot water and security gaps, made worse by the absence of Cantonese and Mandarin translation, which leaves residents unable to report a problem or read a notice in their own language.

In June 2026, tenants with ACCE (the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment) rallied to demand that the Proactive Rental Inspection Program be funded in full. About 50 people came to City Hall on 23 June 2026. Under that program the city inspects rental buildings on its own initiative, so habitability does not depend on a tenant hiring a lawyer. In August 2026 the City Attorney sued the owners of La Peralta, an apartment building at 184 13th Street downtown. The suit concerns a 52-day elevator outage in 2025 that stranded elderly tenants in their own building, and 14 fire rescues of trapped tenants across 2024 and 2025.

Rising costs also affect tenants who do not live in any of these buildings. An Oakland janitor who texts El Tímpano's SMS (text message) reporting service told it in January 2026: “I work as a janitor and make $22 an hour, but I pay $2,100 in rent. To be honest, the money just isn't enough—everything has gotten so expensive lately.” El Tímpano's service is one place where Oakland's Spanish-speaking renters report conditions. Causa Justa, the main bilingual tenant-organizing group, has closed. For two decades it was one of Oakland's principal bilingual tenant-rights organizations, and its closing removed a major source of Spanish-language tenant counseling.

Landlords have their own account, and it deserves a fair hearing. Rent increases were capped at 0.8% for 2025-26, meaning a landlord could raise an existing tenant's rent by no more than 0.8% over the year. Owners say that does not cover costs, such as insurance, utilities and maintenance, and tenants say it does not make rents affordable. Property owners also argue that strict rent rules discourage maintenance and new supply. That is the familiar owners' argument, and no owner has been quoted making it in this case. A federal judge dismissed a landlord lawsuit against Oakland's eviction ban, rejecting the claim that the city must guarantee investment returns. A proposal to let landlords raise rents to cover higher waste-service costs failed to advance at council, though a franchise-fee settlement now allows garbage rate increases to be passed through to tenants. Tenant grievances are documented in detail. For Oakland Station and La Peralta, no owner or management response to the specific conditions has been reported.

Sources: KTVU, NBC Bay Area, City of Oakland follow-up letter to Oakland Station tenants, KQED, nbcbayarea.com, localnewsmatters.org, piedmontexedra.com, oaklandca.gov, oaklandca.gov, oakland.legistar.com, oaklandcouncil.net, oaklandca.gov, Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Causa Justa :: Just Cause announces closure, leaving a gap in Oakland Latino and Black tenant organizing, Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Causa Justa :: Just Cause announces closure, leaving a gap in Oakland Latino and Black tenant organizing, Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Causa Justa :: Just Cause announces closure, leaving a gap in Oakland Latino and Black tenant organizing, East Bay Insiders, Franchise-fee settlement ($720K to owners) lets landlords petition to pass garbage rate hikes to tenants, Oakland Rent Adjustment Program / Astanehe Law / Oakland Tenants Union, Oakland Rent Adjustment Program sets 0.8% annual allowable rent increase effective August 1, 2025, Oakland Rent Adjustment Program / Astanehe Law / Oakland Tenants Union, Oakland Rent Adjustment Program sets 0.8% annual allowable rent increase effective August 1, 2025, Oakland Rent Adjustment Program / Astanehe Law / Oakland Tenants Union, Oakland Rent Adjustment Program sets 0.8% annual allowable rent increase effective August 1, 2025

Requests passed to another agency, or filed as complex, that rarely show as closed

Oakland · citywide, with requests passed to EBMUD, Union Pacific and county vector control · raised since October 2024

Between October 2024 and September 2026, Oakland residents sent the city's 311 line, the phone and app service for reporting problems, 216,310 requests. For 9,538 of them, about 4% of the total, the city's own status is REFERRED, which means the city passed the request to another agency or department. Residents who file these are asking for something to be fixed, and for many categories of request the data shows almost none with a closed status.

The city closes most of what it receives. Of the 216,310 requests, 123,602 (57%) carry the status closed, only 25 of 3,679 street light outage requests are open, and none of the 864 missing sign requests is open. The status open is the city's own label, and it does not say whether anyone has visited. In this data, a status of not closed means the city's label is something other than closed.

The referral categories look different. Code enforcement referrals to the Planning and Building Department are the largest group, 3,584 requests, and are left out of the counts here. Among the others, 1,223 requests were filed as Animal and Insect Control referrals, and 1,220 are not closed. A further 385 went to EBMUD, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which supplies drinking water and treats wastewater for Oakland and nearby cities, and 381 of those are not closed. Another 177 went to Union Pacific, a private railroad company that owns tracks in Oakland, and 176 are not closed. Of 133 requests passed to county vector control, the county service that responds to pests that can spread disease, such as mosquitoes and rats, 132 are not closed. Of 77 passed to the Oakland Police Department, 54 are open.

A second group stays with the city but is filed under the label Other/Complex, which appears to be used for problems that do not fit a standard category. Of 262 engineering requests with that label, 255 (97%) are open. Of 365 requests to the right-of-way inspectors, the staff who oversee the strip of public land that holds streets and sidewalks, 340 (93%) are open. Streets and sidewalks requests with the label number 126 and 121 in two related categories, and 88 and 111 of them are open. Reports of hazardous materials number 745, and 595 (80%) are open, with the oldest filed on 2 October 2024. Requests filed as Miscellaneous number 1,232, and 1,156 are not closed. Of 1,031 requests filed under parking refunds, 1,029 are not closed.

Passing a request to another agency is often the right step, because the city cannot repair a railroad's property or a water utility's pipe by itself. A request can also be finished from the city's side at the moment it is handed over. The dataset has no close date and no free text, so it cannot show whether the other agency acted, or whether the resident who filed the request ever heard the outcome.

Where things stand: what we understand so far is that these categories are among the least likely to show a closed status. The data cannot tell a request that was answered from one that was set aside.

Worth tracking

What would show movement: the city adding a close date or a short outcome to referred requests, and the share of EBMUD, Union Pacific and county vector control referrals that are not closed falling from about 99%.

This is a question of follow-through rather than money, so a direct appropriation request is not the first lever. Where a referral lands with a federal agency or touches its authority, the office could take a resident's case to that agency and ask for an answer. Examples are the Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees railroad safety, for a Union Pacific report, or the Environmental Protection Agency for a hazardous materials report, where the matter falls within what each agency covers. The office could also convene the city, EBMUD, the railroad and the county so that a resident gets one answer rather than four.

Which referrals matter most is for Oakland and its residents to say. The office would work with the city rather than arrive with a list. If you filed a request that was passed on and never heard back, tell us what you would put first.

Sources: Oakland 311 service requests, City of Oakland Open Data Portal (dataset quth-gb8e), queried 1 October 2026

Commercial corridor decline, 38% downtown vacancy and the fight over what replaces it

Oakland · Jack London Square; Downtown/Uptown (415 20th St, Ordway Building); Hegenberger corridor; Seminary Point; former Army Base; Rockridge College Ave

Plank, the bowling, arcade and dining spot at Jack London Square, closed in August 2026 after 12 years. It cited inflation, falling foot traffic and the closures around it. In news coverage on 2 August, one visitor to the square, who was not named, described what the place felt like now:

“It's just like a ghost town now.”

A visitor to Jack London Square, not named, in a news interview on 2 August 2026, the week the restaurant Plank closed

The partners of Scott's Seafood, who are not individually named, described the same thing from the other side of the counter after Plank closed in August 2026: “You don't want to be the only restaurant on Jack London Square.” Operators describe a decline that feeds on itself rather than a temporary downturn. The closures add up, because each one gives people one less reason to visit the block, and that makes it harder for the next business there to stay open.

The numbers behind it are large, and worth putting in scale. Downtown office vacancy has reached about 38%, which means close to four of every ten square feet of downtown office space sits empty. Kaiser Permanente cut its lease at the Ordway Building from 366,000 to 236,692 square feet and relocated more than 1,000 jobs. With fewer workers downtown, foot traffic and business tax revenue fall. On Hegenberger Road the pattern is similar. Along the Hegenberger corridor, seven restaurants and the Hilton have closed since 2022. In-N-Out left in 2024, citing constant break-ins and armed robberies. Some conditions there have since improved. Daily incidents on the corridor fell from about 85 in 2023 to about 30 in 2024. Chandi Hospitality bought the former In-N-Out site for $1.8 million in March 2026. Merchants remain wary of the corridor's traffic patterns and escape routes. Jack London Square lost the Waterfront Hotel and five restaurants in a year before Plank closed.

The city is not standing still. It has responded in several ways. Economic Activation Zones are the city's effort to bring business to particular areas. Measure C is a small-business tax exemption, which relieves small businesses of a city tax. The city has set aside up to $10 million in Measure U bond funds, money from a voter-approved bond, to keep the downtown Oakland Ice Center operating. A pilot program in Chinatown offers subsidized parking to bring shoppers back. On College Avenue in Rockridge, merchants have renewed the assessment that funds their business improvement district, in which local businesses tax themselves to pay for revitalization. Each is defensible. All of them are small against the scale of the loss, and none brings tenants back to the space Kaiser gave up. At the airport, San Francisco had sued over confusion between the airport's name and its own, and the Port settled San Francisco's trademark suit in April 2026 and kept the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport name to draw passengers back. Southwest, meanwhile, had cut its Oakland flights by about 13.5% by August 2026.

Larger moves are in negotiation. One is an exclusive negotiating agreement with Costco, an arrangement that gives Costco the sole right to negotiate for the city's land, covering 23 acres at the former Army Base, a former military site in West Oakland. The site is projecting roughly 400 jobs, and neighbors question the plan over truck traffic. Council approved it on 7 July 2026, and the city projects about $3 million a year for its general fund and jobs paying about $32 an hour. The other is a proposal to forgive about $4.75 million in public loans, along with $40,000 in unpaid rent, to enable the sale of the blighted Seminary Point shopping center at Seminary and Foothill. Watchdog groups that monitor city spending object to the proposal outright. City staff, who proposed it at the 14 July 2026 committee meeting, say the city-owned center needs to be free of those loans and that unpaid rent to be sold to a new operator, after losing Walgreens and Sweet Fingers.

The fight residents have organized around is a proposed 20,000-square-foot data center at 415 20th Street, downtown. It is part of a four-building development by Behring Companies that would also include housing, office space and parking. More than 3,500 people signed a petition against it, citing energy and water use and distrust of the developer. Bryan Ortega, a resident, told KQED in August 2026 where he stands:

“Keep data centers out of Oakland.”

Bryan Ortega, resident, interviewed by KQED, 16 August 2026

The city and downtown's remaining employers make their own case. They say the businesses and property whose taxes pay for city services are leaving, and that a data center is a tenant with money to invest in a market that has few such tenants. Councilmember Carroll Fife and the developer say the data center is small in scale.

Sources: CBS News Bay Area on Plank's closure, KQED on Kaiser and downtown foot traffic, KQED on the 415 20th Street data center, CoStar, San Francisco Chronicle, oaklandcouncil.net, hoodline.com, cbsnews.com, sfchronicle.com, oakland.legistar.com, planetizen.com, oaklandcouncil.net, Oaklandside / Simple Flying, Council drops Southwest sick-leave lawsuit; airline still cuts OAK flights 13-20% in 2026, Oaklandside / Simple Flying, Council drops Southwest sick-leave lawsuit; airline still cuts OAK flights 13-20% in 2026, Oaklandside / Simple Flying, Council drops Southwest sick-leave lawsuit; airline still cuts OAK flights 13-20% in 2026, Oaklandside / Simple Flying, Council drops Southwest sick-leave lawsuit; airline still cuts OAK flights 13-20% in 2026, Hoodline / Oaklandside, Council authorizes ENA talks with Costco and Deca for 22-acre North Gateway Army Base parcel, Hoodline / Oaklandside, Council authorizes ENA talks with Costco and Deca for 22-acre North Gateway Army Base parcel, Hoodline / Oaklandside, Council authorizes ENA talks with Costco and Deca for 22-acre North Gateway Army Base parcel, Hoodline / Oaklandside, Council authorizes ENA talks with Costco and Deca for 22-acre North Gateway Army Base parcel, SF Standard / Port of Oakland, Port settles SF lawsuit: 'Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport' name stays, $50K penalty if Oakland not listed first, SF Standard / Port of Oakland, Port settles SF lawsuit: 'Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport' name stays, $50K penalty if Oakland not listed first, SF Standard / Port of Oakland, Port settles SF lawsuit: 'Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport' name stays, $50K penalty if Oakland not listed first, SF Standard / Port of Oakland, Port settles SF lawsuit: 'Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport' name stays, $50K penalty if Oakland not listed first, Oakland Legistar File 26-0762, Council approves 24-month Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with Costco for 23-acre former Army Base site (File 26-0762), Oakland Legistar File 26-0762, Council approves 24-month Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with Costco for 23-acre former Army Base site (File 26-0762), Oakland Legistar File 26-0762, Council approves 24-month Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with Costco for 23-acre former Army Base site (File 26-0762), Oakland Legistar File 26-0762, Council approves 24-month Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with Costco for 23-acre former Army Base site (File 26-0762), The Oakland Observer, Staff seek forgiveness of ~$4.75M city loans plus $40K rent at Seminary Point shopping center to enable sale, KQED, 3,500+ sign petition against Behring data center at 415 20th St downtown; CM Fife defends project

Oakland street vendors: seized carts, armed robberies, and a permit path nobody can reach

Oakland · 89 vendors in the Oakland Street Vendors' Collective

On 13 August 2026, members of the Oakland Street Vendors' Collective, a group of 89 vendors, held a rally. Since April, city and Alameda County enforcement against unpermitted vending has seized and destroyed equipment, and the rally called for an end to what the vendors call the criminalizing of vending. One of them, Raven Lee, said:

People are trying to make an honest living.

Raven Lee, a street vendor, at an Oakland Street Vendors' Collective rally, 13 August 2026

The Collective had already addressed the City Council in July 2026, and it is asking for two things: an end to enforcement that treats vending as a crime, and a cooperative permitting path, meaning a permit process worked out together with the vendors. The vending in question runs through Uptown, Fruitvale, International Boulevard and East Oakland.

For a vendor, the cart is the workplace, and a cart that is seized and destroyed is the workplace gone. Vendors are also being hurt by crime. In August 2026 the Alameda County District Attorney charged three people with robbery and assault-weapon possession in a series of East Oakland robberies. Court documents say the robberies targeted Hispanic street vendors and their customers. A separate case involves vending of a different kind from a food cart, at the Lake Merritt Pergola, where the Oakland Police Department arrested an unlicensed mobile-bar operator (someone selling drinks from a mobile bar without a license) carrying more than 75 unpaid citations after an earlier warning.

The enforcement side has its own reasons, and they deserve to be stated fairly. From the enforcement side, an unpermitted food cart raises questions of public health and of who is responsible if someone gets sick, and Alameda County Environmental Health, the county agency that inspects food sellers, cannot lower a food-safety standard. Neighbors around Lake Merritt want the vending rules enforced as written. Restaurants and shops with permits and storefronts paid the full cost of following the rules, and they notice when others do not. Those concerns are real, and they are the reason a workable path to a permit matters to everyone in this, not only to the vendors.

Sources: CBS News Bay Area on the vendor crackdown, CBS News Bay Area on the council address, CBS News Bay Area on the vendor robbery charges, CBS News Bay Area on the Lake Merritt arrest, Change.org , Oakland local petitions, Petition: Stop raids on Oakland street vendors (99 signatures)

Lake Merritt and Uptown: street closures announced too late, and late-night violence at 17th and Broadway

Oakland · Grand Avenue businesses lost their third-busiest day

On 19 June 2025, Juneteenth, the city closed I-580 exits and barricaded streets around Lake Merritt with no advance notice. Nesanet Tamirue manages Enssaro Ethiopian Restaurant on Grand Avenue, and she told KTVU what the unannounced closures did to her business:

“Doing it unannounced totally affected my business and a number of other businesses on Grand Avenue,” she said. “I get the part about OPD being proactive with what happened last year and being able to control the crowd, but we should've gotten a heads up.”

Nesanet Tamirue, manager of Enssaro Ethiopian Restaurant on Grand Avenue, in a KTVU news report on the Juneteenth 2025 street closures, 19 June 2025

Tamirue was not alone. Grand Avenue businesses lost what would have been their third-busiest day. Her own words show she understood why the city acted. The closures followed the 2024 Juneteenth shooting that injured 14 people, and the city was trying to keep a crowd at the lake from becoming a repeat of it. What Tamirue asked for was a heads up.

The city adjusted. It repeated the closures in 2026 with more notice. It also extended them to Grizzly Peak (a road in the Oakland hills) and six downtown intersections for July 4 and First Friday. The city also enforced rules on fireworks and on illegal vending, meaning selling without a permit. First Friday is a monthly street festival in the KONO district, the Koreatown-Northgate area next to downtown Oakland.

The violence the closures respond to has not stopped, and lakeside neighbors have been asking for enforcement around the lake's nightlife and sideshows (illegal street takeovers) for years. A man was shot dead on Lakeside Drive in July 2026, after alerts from a gunfire-detection system, which automatically reports when it hears gunshots. Downtown residential building managers report recurring late-night gunfire near 17th Street and Broadway, where a teenager was shot and an officer punched in April 2026. In May 2026, a driver deliberately struck eight pedestrians, including a child, after First Friday in the KONO district. There are still no vehicle barriers at that event.

One item is settled. Council approved a limited algaecide exemption (an algaecide is a chemical that kills algae) to the city's integrated pest management policy, the city rule that limits pesticide use. The exemption lets Public Works treat the lake with a hydrogen-peroxide algaecide when harmful algae blooms, meaning overgrowths of algae that can harm water quality and fish, threaten it. The aim is to prevent the fish kills that follow harmful algae blooms in the lake, after an August 2022 red tide, a harmful algae bloom, killed tens of thousands of fish. The city expects to spend about $11,380 a year, and only if a bloom makes it necessary.

Sources: KTVU, City of Oakland news release on Juneteenth crowd plans, The Oaklandside, Oakland Public Works agenda report on the algaecide exemption, oaklandca.gov, cbsnews.com, oaklandcouncil.net, nbcbayarea.com, cbsnews.com, oaklandca.gov, cbsnews.com, oaklandside.org, Hoodline, Teen shot, officer punched near 17th & Broadway; building managers complain of recurring late-night gunfire, KQED, Driver intentionally hits 8 pedestrians incl. child on 500 block of 18th St after First Friday, City of Oakland news release, City closes Lakeshore/Grand at Lake Merritt and Grizzly Peak July 4, 2026; First Friday enforcement

Flatlands freight and industrial burden: coal at the port, scrap-yard fires, trucks, airport and rail noise

Oakland · West Oakland (former Army Base, 1101 Embarcadero West); I-580 and I-880; Columbia Gardens, Arroyo Viejo, Woodland and Elmhurst Park; Oakland Airport

On 23 May 2026, Caltrans (the California Department of Transportation) held a public listening session on a study of whether to lift the decades-old ban on trucks over 9,000 pounds on I-580. Terry Lee, a volunteer with No Big Rigs on I-580, spoke at it. Lee said:

Don't bait one community in Oakland against another

Terry Lee, volunteer with No Big Rigs on I-580, at a public listening session held by Caltrans (the California Department of Transportation), 23 May 2026

Lee was speaking about a state study. Caltrans is looking at whether to lift the ban on big rigs on I-580. Residents of the hills and the flatlands alike, the neighborhoods below the hills, oppose lifting it, because it would push trucks onto I-880, where more people live.

Flatlands neighborhoods already live with a lot of pollution and noise from freight. Around 29,000 people live in West Oakland, which is ringed by three freeways. Heavy trucks make up about 6% of the vehicles there and produce 59% of the local nitrogen oxides (a smog-forming pollutant). West Oakland and East Oakland also live with a coal terminal that has been revived, a metal recycling plant with a history of fires, more than 600 flights a day, and freight train horns at 110 decibels, about as loud as a rock concert. People in West and East Oakland are asking for three things. They want no coal handled at the port. They want an end to the recurring fires at a scrap recycler that regulators are already taking action against. And they want relief from truck, airport and rail pollution that does not shift the burden from one Oakland neighborhood to another.

Some of this has been working. The American Lung Association credits community air monitoring and the West Oakland Community Action Plan, a neighborhood plan to reduce air pollution, with a 31% drop in diesel particulates (tiny soot particles from diesel engines) and a 56% drop in exposure. That suggests the approach can work, and the dispute is over how fast.

Other parts of the picture are harder. A March 2026 conveyor fire at Radius Recycling, at a metal recycling plant, followed a 2023 toxic blaze and a $575,000 fine from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (the Air District), the regional agency that regulates air pollution. It also followed a 2025 civil suit brought by the Air District and the district attorney. Regulators have been active, and the fires have continued. Radius separately settled for $1.5 million with the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control, the agency that oversees hazardous waste. An Alameda Post op-ed in July 2026 accused metal shredder operators of "peddling a toxic carveout."

Coal at the port has come back as an issue. In June 2026 a $700 million federal coal package, a set of federal funds to support the coal industry, included $75 million for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, a shipping terminal at the former Army Base (1101 Embarcadero West). Residents had thought the question of coal there was settled. Rep. Lateefah Simon offered an amendment to block it, meaning a proposed change to a bill in Congress that would stop the money. Separately, Assemblymember Mia Bonta's AB 40, a California bill that is still pending, would require environmental impact reports, the detailed studies of what a project will do to its surroundings. In April 2026 an anti-coal coalition called for regulation of coal dust at the planned West Oakland bulk terminal.

There is more. Dozens of mature trees were red-tagged (marked for removal) at West Oakland BART, in a neighborhood that is already a heat island, an area that runs hotter than its surroundings. The developer of the project planned at the station has promised a net gain in trees after more than 50 meetings, and residents like Ratka Mira Popovic said they support the project but felt blindsided. In deep East Oakland, Oakland Voices documented more than 600 daily flights plus BART trains, Amtrak trains and around-the-clock freight horns at 110 decibels over Columbia Gardens, Arroyo Viejo, Woodland and Elmhurst Park. Oakland Voices is a local news outlet. The report linked the noise to sleep loss, cardiovascular disease and learning delays, and resident Cierra Brown tied it to air pollution from the same sources. In July 2026 a judge dismissed environmental groups' challenge, brought under the California Environmental Quality Act (the state law that requires studies of a project's environmental effects), to the airport terminal expansion.

The Port of Oakland, which runs the city's seaport, and the backers of the coal terminal see it differently. They say the freeways and port land in the flatlands carry the freight the region depends on, and that an I-580 truck ban is itself a decision to put trucks somewhere else.

Sources: KQED on the coal terminal pushback, KQED on the federal coal package, CBS News Bay Area on the Radius Recycling fire, Bay Area Air Quality Management District enforcement action, KQED on the I-580 truck ban study, Local News Matters, oaklandside.org, woeip.org, lung.org, kqed.org, cbsnews.com, ktvu.com, ktvu.com, Oakland Voices, Oakland Voices: Columbia Gardens, Arroyo Viejo, Elmhurst residents bear 600+ daily flights, freight horns at 110 dB, Local News Matters, Judge rejects environmental groups' CEQA challenge to OAK Terminal Modernization and Development Project, Local News Matters, Judge rejects environmental groups' CEQA challenge to OAK Terminal Modernization and Development Project

Military cargo through Oakland International Airport, and whether the Port has the authority to refuse it

Oakland

In August 2025, Aisha Nizar, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), told KQED why her group was campaigning against military cargo being flown out of Oakland International Airport. The campaign says that cargo is bound for Israel, and she said what concerned her about where it leaves from:

And it's concerning to us because this is being flown out of a civilian airport in a city that was one of the first cities to call for a ceasefire.

Aisha Nizar, organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, which leads the campaign, in a KQED news report, August 2025

A coalition led by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center and the US Palestinian Community Network wants the Port of Oakland, which operates the airport, to bar military cargo it says is bound for Israel from Oakland International Airport. The Port says federal law leaves it no authority to refuse lawfully authorized freight. Neither the Board of Port Commissioners nor the Oakland City Council has voted on the question. After thirteen months of campaigning, the demand has produced statements rather than a decision.

The campaign has backing beyond its organizers. The Alameda Labor Council endorsed it unanimously on 11 November 2025. UAW Region 6 (the United Auto Workers) and CAIR San Francisco Bay Area (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) have joined. More than a hundred people turned out for a Pack the Port appearance at the Board of Port Commissioners on 20 November 2025, and the Board itself has endorsed federal arms-embargo legislation. No Bay Area business, chamber, labor or community group has publicly opposed the demand, and no organized local opposition has turned up.

The campaign rests on a report published on 28 August 2025, which alleges 280 military cargo shipments between 21 January and 4 August 2025. Nizar described the frequency this way: “This is happening at an alarming frequency, multiple days per week. Every single week”.

The Port, which operates the airport, has confirmed part of what the campaign describes. In a statement on 21 November 2025, the Board of Port Commissioners described the report as detailing shipments of military jet components. The federal Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Department's supply organization, sent the components from a facility in Northern California on air cargo flights out of Oakland International Airport (OAK). The Board's description includes Israel. No party has publicly disputed the report's factual claims: not the Port, FedEx, the Defense Department, the Defense Logistics Agency or any public official. The Defense Logistics Agency's own 2022 publication independently identifies DLA Distribution San Joaquin, a distribution center at Tracy, California, as the supply hub that supports the F-35 fleet worldwide (keeping the F-35 fighter jets flying around the world). That matches the campaign's description of where the parts come from.

Other parts of the campaign's account have not been established. The report has no methodology section. It describes its evidence only as analysis of export data and shipment records, cites the underlying dataset in none of its 71 endnotes, and reproduces no shipping record, so its central figures cannot be checked by anyone who did not write it. The report itself claims no direct Oakland-to-Israel flight. The flights the report lists are domestic, going to the FedEx Global Superhub in Memphis and to Indianapolis. The cargo is also a small fraction of the more than one billion pounds of freight the airport handles each year.

The Port has set out its side of the question in writing. In an Air Cargo Fact Sheet issued 30 April 2026, the Port restated its legal case. It says it does not control cargo manifests, the lists of what each flight carries, or the shipping activity of its air carriers, and that it is legally required to accommodate air traffic that federal authorities have approved. Two federal rules bear on the Port's reading. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grant assurances are the conditions an airport sponsor (the body that owns and runs it) accepts along with federal grant money. Airline Deregulation Act preemption is the rule under which federal law displaces local regulation of airlines. Together they appear to leave an airport sponsor little room to refuse lawful federal freight, and a refusal could put its federal funding at risk. Senator Tom Cotton wrote to the FBI on 3 September 2025 about a PYM organizer, which challenges the campaign's methods rather than its findings.

Sources: Exposing Oakland Airport's Military Cargo Shipments to Israel (report), Palestinian Youth Movement arms embargo campaign, KQED, The Oaklandside, H.R. 3565 bill text, Post News Group on Rep. Simon and H.R. 3565

Campus safety after the Skyline shooting and the end of school violence-intervention funding

Oakland · Skyline High; Oakland High; Fremont High; Oakland Tech; Castlemont High; Parker campus (Ney Ave)

On 18 November 2025, six days after a shooting at Skyline High School in which a student was hurt, hundreds of Skyline and Oakland Tech students walked out of class and marched to the Safeway on Redwood Road. Kennedy Wiley, a Skyline junior, told KQED at the walkout, "Our school is not protected."

It was the third shooting at Skyline in three years, and the students who walked out that day were clear about what they were asking for. They were demanding gun-violence education, mental-health support and campus safety.

The violence did not stop there. In July 2026 a targeted shooting at the Parker Community Resource Center on Ney Avenue in East Oakland killed one person and injured another. The center is an adult education site run by Oakland Unified, the city's public school district, and about 20 students and staff were locked down, meaning kept secured indoors, while it happened. Oakland Unified's John Sasaki pledged to review how to keep weapons off campuses. On 20 August, a student was stabbed outside Castlemont High in East Oakland, and the student was reported to be in stable condition.

Behind the students' demands is a question about money. Youth ALIVE!, an Oakland violence-prevention nonprofit, runs a $5.4 million School Violence Intervention and Prevention program that puts violence interrupters on campus at Skyline High and seven other Oakland high schools. Interrupters are staff who step in to defuse conflicts before they turn violent. The city funded the program with $5.4 million for 2023 to 2025, and roughly $1 million more came from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Even as the Skyline shooting renewed the urgency, the program had no funding lined up past spring 2026.

The district has also been trying to answer the fear behind the walkout with the tools it has. Oakland Unified limited bathroom passes and locked restrooms, and students at four high schools protested. Students raised missed class time and menstrual supplies among their concerns, and the district says it is balancing safety and access. It also brought in a cellphone ban from August 2026 and took up a laptop restriction, a limit on how students use school laptops, which was paused after pushback. The district's reasoning is that keeping close watch on who is in the hallways is what reduces weapons on campus, given the number of staff it has. Limiting bathroom passes and locking restrooms are the ways to do that available now.

Sources: KQED, The Oaklandside, ABC7 News, The Oaklandside on campus safety and discipline, kqed.org, cbsnews.com, abc7news.com, kqed.org, oaklandside.org, hoodline.com, oaklandside.org, oaklandside.org, Oaklandside, OUSD cellphone ban takes effect Aug 2026; board pauses proposed Chromebook/laptop restrictions after pushback, Oaklandside, OUSD cellphone ban takes effect Aug 2026; board pauses proposed Chromebook/laptop restrictions after pushback

Community health facility capital needs and pediatric care leaving Oakland

Oakland · Fruitvale (Native American Health Center); East Oakland (Baywell Health, 5809 Foothill Blvd); Chinatown (Asian Health Services); Temescal (UCSF Benioff Children's Oakland)

On 9 July 2026, workers at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland and families of patients held a rally outside the hospital. They were protesting UCSF Health's plan to move specialty clinics to the hospital's San Francisco campus, citing access for low-income East Bay families. Signs read "Keep Care in Oakland." (Bay City News, photo credit Kayla Chan.)

The plan would move pediatric (children's) specialty clinics from Temescal to San Francisco. East Bay families, including families from East Oakland, now reach those clinics in Oakland. If the clinics move, those families would have to cross a bridge to reach their children's specializts.

Separately, Oakland's safety-net clinics, which serve people with low incomes or no insurance, have asked for money to build and upgrade their facilities so they can expand primary care, pharmacy, dental and recovery services. The requests come through Congress, where members can ask for federal money for a specific local project, such as a clinic building. This is called a direct appropriation, which means a request for money for one named project. It is different from a formula program, which sends money to any applicant that meets a set of eligibility rules. In fiscal year 2026 (FY2026), the federal government's budget year, Rep. Lateefah Simon requested $1.95 million for facility upgrades at two organizations, Magnolia Women's Recovery and Fred Finch, and received $250,000, a small fraction of the request. Sen. Adam Schiff separately requested $1.6 million for Magnolia transitional housing, which is temporary housing for people while they get back on their feet. What happened to that request is not known.

Requests for fiscal year 2027 (FY2027), the next federal budget year, have not yet been decided for clinics in neighborhoods including Fruitvale, East Oakland and Chinatown. The Native American Health Center, a community clinic in Fruitvale, has asked for a $1.3 million exam-room and pharmacy expansion on International Boulevard. The expansion would add exam rooms and an on-site pharmacy serving 2,000 additional patients a year. Both Rep. Simon and Sen. Schiff requested it. Rep. Simon requested Baywell Health's $3 million replacement facility at 5809 Foothill Boulevard in East Oakland. Baywell Health is a community health center, and this is the largest pending request. The new building would meet Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility standards, the federal rules that make buildings usable by people with disabilities. It would also expand OB/GYN (pregnancy and women's health), dental and substance-use services for 2,800 new patients. Asian Health Services, a community health center, has asked for a PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, which provides medical and daily-living care so older adults can keep living at home) center in Chinatown. It appears in Sen. Schiff's list of funding requests. One FY2026 request received about two-thirds of the amount asked: a $1.031 million pediatric blood disorder research center at UCSF Benioff Children's Oakland in Temescal, included in the federal spending bill that passed in January 2026. Rep. Simon had asked for $1.5 million for a center that studies pediatric blood diseases including sickle cell, thalassemia, leukemia and bone marrow failure.

No one has been documented opposing the funding requests. The relocation has protesters, including people who signed a Change.org petition to restore pediatric care to Oakland, which had 296 signatures as of late September 2026. The sources we have tracked so far do not say why UCSF Health chose to make the move.

Sources: Office of Rep. Lateefah Simon, FY2027 Community Project Funding, Office of Rep. Lateefah Simon, FY2026 Community Project Funding, UCSF Benioff Children's Oakland project disclosure, Office of Rep. Lateefah Simon, East Bay funding announcement, simon.house.gov, schiff.senate.gov, schiff.senate.gov, simon.house.gov, schiff.senate.gov, schiff.senate.gov, schiff.senate.gov, simon.house.gov, Rep. Lateefah Simon (CA-12), FY26 CPF: Capital improvements for core service providers (Magnolia Women's Recovery, Fred Finch Youth Center), Post News Group, Workers and patients rally at UCSF Benioff Children's Oakland against moving specialty clinics to SF, Change.org , Oakland local petitions, Petition: Restore UCSF pediatric care to Oakland rather than requiring Bay Bridge trips (296 signatures)

Language access and immigrant-serving nonprofit capacity in Oakland

Oakland · Fruitvale, East Oakland, Chinatown; Cesar Chavez, Asian and Eastmont library branches

On 31 January 2026, a janitor in Oakland, whose name was not given, sent a text message to El Tímpano, a local news organization that serves Latino and Mayan immigrant communities, through its SMS (text message) reporting service, which lets residents text in what they are dealing with. This is what the message said.

I work as a janitor and make $22 an hour, but I pay $2,100 in rent. To be honest, the money just isn't enough—everything has gotten so expensive lately.

An Oakland janitor, not named, who texts El Tímpano's SMS reporting service, 31 January 2026

It was not one person's story. El Tímpano's survey of more than 280 Latino and Mayan immigrant residents of Fruitvale and Lower Dimond, two Oakland neighborhoods, found that the top concerns were rent and displacement, unstable work, cost of living and public safety. Displacement means being forced out of a home or neighborhood, usually because rent rises. One respondent had been unemployed for six months, and another was working two part-time jobs after hours were cut. Food, kids' clothes, school supplies and gas were rising faster than wages. The survey grew out of the texts that residents send to the SMS reporting service. Another subscriber wrote the same day.

Hello—how can we get some help? My husband and I are under a lot of stress; we don't have the money to pay our rent.

An Oakland subscriber to El Tímpano's SMS reporting service, not named, 31 January 2026

Spanish-, Chinese- and Vietnamese-speaking Oakland residents rely on bilingual services, meaning help offered in their own language, and on the community institutions that provide them. A year of cuts to the city's budget puts those services at risk. The Oakland Public Library has kept up multilingual programming, meaning classes and activities offered in several languages, at the Cesar Chavez, Asian and Eastmont branches. Immigrant community groups describe this programming as essential for helping people get information and services in their own language, for citizenship classes and for youth literacy. Those groups also describe it as repeatedly threatened by shortfalls in the city's general fund, the main pot of money for city services. Causa Justa :: Just Cause, for two decades the principal bilingual tenant-rights organization in Oakland (a group that helps renters understand and defend their rights), announced its closure. That removes a major source of Spanish-language counseling and tenant organizing, and no group has been named to take its place.

A city directive, meaning a formal instruction to city staff, to improve services for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Latinx seniors has so far produced listening sessions, where residents share what they need, and subcommittees, which are small working groups. Both were launched in April 2026. The city's June 2026 mid-cycle budget, an update to the two-year budget the city adopted, also funded senior services. No services from the directive itself have been documented yet. Local reporting by and for residents depends on Oakland Voices, which trains residents as community correspondents, meaning residents who report on news in their own neighborhoods. Fruitvale nonprofits, including the Unity Council and the Spanish Speaking Citizens' Foundation, provide job training, small business, immigration and senior services. In September 2026, activist Beatrice Dong died. Her bookstore, Eastwind Books of Berkeley, was a place where people gathered to discuss Oakland Chinatown, and the loss of Asian American gathering space in Berkeley and Oakland Chinatown was mourned.

One dispute is a challenge to programs that serve Latino students. On 12 September 2026 the conservative legal advocacy group Defending Education filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Latino Men and Boys and Latinx Mentoring and Achievement programs run by Oakland Unified, the city's public school district. A civil rights complaint is a formal request that the federal government investigate. The complaint alleges the programs violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (which bars discrimination by race, color or national origin in programs that receive federal money), Title IX (which bars discrimination by sex in education programs that receive federal money) and the 14th Amendment (which guarantees equal protection under the law), by limiting tutoring, health services and financial stipends by race and gender. Oakland Unified did not respond to press requests, and its response is not documented.

Sources: El Tímpano, eltimpano.org, eltimpano.org, eltimpano.org, ebcf.org, unitycouncil.org, unitycouncil.org, sscf.org, newcomerswelcome.acgov.org, oaklandlibrary.org, oaklandvoices.us, oaklandvoices.us, oaklandvoices.us, Oakland Voices, Oakland Voices community journalism program trains residents to report neighborhood needs, Oakland Voices, Oakland Voices community journalism program trains residents to report neighborhood needs, City Administrator informational memo, April 2026, AAPI/Latinx senior services directive: listening sessions held, subcommittees launching April 2026, AsAmNews, Death of activist Beatrice Dong highlights loss of Asian American community space in Berkeley and Oakland Chinatown, AsAmNews, Death of activist Beatrice Dong highlights loss of Asian American community space in Berkeley and Oakland Chinatown, Hoodline, Conservative group files federal civil rights complaint over OUSD Latino mentoring programs