city trying to move OO

Oakland News – Mayor’s Office Plans To Move Occupy Oakland

first half of the text:

This is an Oakland News entry based on information given to this blogger over the weekend from various sources that do not wish to be named. The first most recent one was this morning. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan held a meeting at 7:30 AM today (Monday) to consider various sites to relocate Occupy Oakland. Currently the giant encampment is at Oakland Frank Ogawa Plaza, which is also called Oscar Grant Plaza or Grant Ogawa Plaza.

Here’s the meat of the email from John Doe:

Zennie, you have been doing a great job covering Occupy Oakland from different angles, and you understand what it’s like for us in the Mayor’s office to have to make decisions for the whole city. I thought you would want to see this. I am very frustrated with how we’re communicating to the media and I think people need to know what is really going on, that we do a plan to fix the problem, and people need to be patient and help us.

Mayor’s possible sites for Occupy relocation. DO NOT FORWARD.

D1: Not many parks in D1. Looking at Safeway on College parking lot. Brunner likes encampment’s support for small businesses and proximity to BART. Finding out if asphalt will be issue – or if it will actually be safer with the rain.

D2: Grand Lake – Space at Splash Pad. Pamela Drake from BID supports camp, Grand Lake Theater too. Plenty of space for campers, some protection from rain under freeway. On border with District 3 so may get support from Nadel.

D3: Nadel offered to try to expand existing homeless camp in Clawson. May have some resistance from campers regarding this location.

D4: Woodminster – plenty of space, away from neighbors, not used in winter. Transportation will be difficult, talking to Mary at AC Transit about shuttles. Schaaf supportive of encampment.

D5-7: Several large parks or parcels in several neighborhoods and possibly Coliseum parking lot. Will be difficult to move camp here due to Councilmember resistance. Trying to move to D1-4.

Send me your thoughts. See you at 7:30am Monday in Mayor’s large conference room.

That meeting just happened this morning – it’s 9:19 AM PDT now. No news on the outcome of the gathering in the Mayor’s Office, as of this writing. But it does signal a new direction and potentially more confusion in how Occupy Oakland’s being handled by the City of Oakland.

On Thursday, the Oakland Redevelopment Agency / Oakland City Council held a public hearing on a resolution posted by District Three Councilmember Nancy Nadel to allow Occupy Oakland to remain at Grant Ogawa Plaza. The occasionally contentious meeting attracted 28 speakers, most notably Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Director Joe Haraburda and Oaklander Max Allstadt.

Eventually that night, Councilmember Nadel said she would postpone seeking a vote on her resolution that would allow a long-term camp in front of Oakland City Hall. Apparently that opened the door for the idea of planning to move Occupy Oakland. The original memo was written on Friday. But if you read it carefully, the idea of moving Occupy Oakland has been in play for a few days now, if not the last week.

For example, “talking to Mary at AC Transit about shuttles. Schaaf supportive of encampment” means that AC Transit Executive Director Mary King was contacted last week, at least, about having AC Transit involved in an orderly movement of the encampment, and that Oakland Councilmember Libby Schaaf supports using Woodminister in the Oakland Hills as a new site.

And what of the designations D1, D2, etc in the email? Those are Oakland City Council districts. Thus, D1 is District One, the council district in North Oakland represented by Councilmember Jane Brunner. D2 is represented by Councilmember Pat Kernighan and covers Lake Merritt and Oakland’s Chinatown area. Nancy Nadel is D3′s – or District Three’s – current Councilmember, and the person who introduced the resolution to keep Occupy Oakland at Oakland City Hall. D4 is Councilmember Libby Schaaf’s area, and where Woodminster was offered as an alternative location. D5 is District Five, represented by long-time Oakland Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente. But, as the email states, Ignacio doesn’t want any part of Occupy Oakland in his jurisdiction. D6 District Six and D7, steered by Councilmember and Vice Mayor Desley Brooks and Oakland Council President Larry Reid, are not directly mentioned, except in the D5-7 reference. That means De La Fuente, Brooks, and Reid all don’t want an Occupy Oakland encampment in their areas of concern.

Here’s a map of the Oakland Council Districts:

Occupy Oakland Campers Know About This?

It’s not clear that Occupy Oakland campers don’t know about these plans. The email reads “D3: Nadel offered to try to expand existing homeless camp in Clawson. May have some resistance from campers regarding this location” indicates that either Nadel has talked to the campers about this plan, or if not, plans to do so before its implemented.