Calendar

Note: This is the topic that caused activists to shut down the City Council meeting last month.

Sign the petition against the sale!

Subject: DDA For 12th Street Remainder Parcel From: Economic & Workforce Development Department

Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Authorizing: (1) The City Administrator, Without Returning To The City Council, To Negotiate And Execute A Disposition And Development Agreement And Related Documents Between The City Of Oakland, And A Development Entity Comprised Of Urbancore Development, LLC, And UDR, Inc., (Or Its Related Entities Or Affiliates) For Sale Of The 12th Street Remainder Parcel Located At E12th Street And 2nd Avenue For No Less Than $5.1 Million And Development As A Residential Mixed-Use Project, All Of The Foregoing Documents To Be In A Form And Content Substantially In Conformance With The Term Sheet Attached As Exhibit A; (2) Set -Aside Of No More Than $500,000 From Land Sales Proceeds For Remediation Of Property, And (3) Appropriation Of $200,000 From Land Sales Proceeds To Fund An Asset Portfolio Management Plan

The Domain Awareness Center Privacy policy is up for a vote, along with related measures to be discussed. For background see The Oakland Privacy Working Group blog post “All Out for the Oakland City Council Meeting” and other posts on that site.

Note: This item is late on the agenda as it stands. Agenda items can be moved around.  There is no real way to know approximately what time it will come up, as there are other controversial items on the agenda.

OPWG has a few talking points specific to this item:

• The policy is an important demonstration of how citizenry, staff and the Council can work together. Pass it as presented, with no additional exceptions, especially any allowing OPD to spy on residents w/o reasonable suspicion under ANY circumstances.
• A policy is ineffective without a means of enforcement.
• “Injunctive relief,” as proposed, is a good enforcement mechanism, neither overly burdensome nor toothless.
• Without enforcement the work of nine citizens who donated their time and expertise for an entire year of meetings and analysis will have been thrown out the window.
• A City-wide privacy committee, which will be coming before you in the future, is a must. The risks to privacy are only going to get bigger as technology becomes more sophisticated. As such their first task should be drafting a Surveillance Equipment Acquisition Ordinance, as recommended by the Ad Hoc DAC Privacy Committee.

Note: This item is last on the City Council Agenda.  There is no good estimate of what time it will come before the Council.

This item has raised many questions, among them being why the FBI needs an office inside OPD when they have offices in downtown Oakland already; whether they are really installing a mini-DAC and not telling anyone, whether Oakland would be implicitly or explicitly cooperating in FBI investigations of marijuana operations, spying on Muslims and undocumented immigrants, harassing and tracking  protesters and activists, and why such sophisticated and expensive computer equipment is needed for such a simple thing as a “Shared Work Space.”

Subject: FBI-OPD Joint Workspace From: Oakland Police Department

Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Authorizing The City Administrator Or Designee To Enter Into A Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) With The Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) Violent Criminal Threat Section (VCTS), To Facilitate The Joint Purchase And Installation Of A Computer Network Infrastructure, Computers And Furniture At The Police Administration Building (PAB) To Create A Shared Work Space For The Safe Streets Taskforce, And Waiving The Advertising And Bidding Requirements For The City’s Expenditure Of $63,000.00 Toward The Purchase Of Said Items

“Please come speak out against the toxic destruction of the East Bay Hills at Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, where they will decide whether to accept the FEMA grant for the project.”

check out these websites for more information about the project:

http://www.saveeastbayhills.org/

http://milliontrees.me/

http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/
(especially: http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wildfire.html and http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wpad.html for the decade long history of this project)

http://hillsconservationnetwork.org/

http://treespiritproject.com/sfbayclearcut/
(sign up to participate in the July 18 nude photo shoot in the threatened forest)

Via email alert:

There’s been a lot of activity recently on the FEMA vegetation management front. For those who don’t know, despite 12,000+ comments opposing the plan to clearcut the Berkeley/Oakland hills FEMA released a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that called for the destruction of up to 400,000 healthy trees and the application of unprecedented amounts of toxic herbicides over a 10 year period. As a result of this unfortunate decision HCN filed suit agains FEMA in Federal court in March, also naming the City of Oakland, East Bay Regional Park District, and UC Berkeley.

Last Tuesday we had a press conference at City Hall. That night the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee recommended the Oakland City Council accept $4 million of FEMA money and commit the City to spend an additional $1.5 million in taxpayer matching funds and a CEQA EIR. All this to implement a plan that will actually increase the risk of fire in the hills. Imagine, a City that’s broke spending $1.5 million to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees for no good reason.

Together we have a lot of work to do to raise awareness to stop the clear-cut and poisoning of the hills.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Tell the city of Oakland that you don’t want them to take the FEMA money to kill trees for 2 generations and douse the hills with TOXIC herbicides for at least a decade.

Tuesday June 2nd at 6 pm, the Oakland City Council is going to vote on whether to accept $4,000,000 in federal FEMA funds to deforest and poison the Oakland hills and to increase local taxpayer contribution to the effort to more than $880,000.

The City of Oakland appears intent on clearcutting 100+ acres of forests and spreading thousands of gallons of toxic herbicides in wildlife corridors, recreation areas, dog parks, and residential neighborhoods. Please contact council members and urge them to vote No.

If at all possible, please plan on attending Tuesday’s meeting and speaking. This is your last opportunity to influence the City of Oakland!

Do you think the ACCJC treats California’s Community colleges unfairly? The next ACCJC meeting will be on Friday, June 5th in Oakland. You can bet that AFT 2121 and CFT leaders from across the state will be there to tell them what we think! Want to help? Invite your friends and come out to join us!

ACCJC, TREAT OUR COLLEGES FAIRLY!
Rally and press conference
Friday, June 5th at 1pm
Hilton Oakland Airport Hotel
1 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland
RSVP and invite on Facebook

ACCJC will host meetings at this hotel on June 3, 4, 5. Legislation is being sent now to the Assembly that will reform ACCJC accreditation practices. This event is to raise awareness and put pressure on key legislators to consider passing this legislation for a fair accreditation process for all community colleges. The ACCJC treats California’s Community colleges unfairly and this harms thousands of students. California’s State Superior Court ruled that the ACCJC broke the law when it tried to close City College of San Francisco and the Department of Education criticized the ACCJC for its treatment of our California community colleges. The California Federation of Teachers, the City College faculty union and other supporters from across California have been fighting for fair accreditation reforms. We are holding a protest and press conference outside of the ACCJC’s next meeting. Please join us!

 http://www.aft2121.org/2015/05/the-the-accjc-to-treat-our-colleges-fairly-rally-on-june-5th-in-oakland/

RSVP and invite people to the event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/839111249505673/

www.facebook.com/saveccsf
info@saveccsf.org
www.saveccsf.org

The Oakland First Fridays street festival is here once again June 5th from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. This month’s event will feature one-of-a-kind arts and crafts vendors, delectable eats, and unique entertainment to bring the diverse Oakland community together in a way only First Fridays can.

Five blocks of Telegraph Avenue, from West Grand to 27th Street, will be closed to through traffic making room for 30 food vendors, musical acts, and community groups and over 75 artists, makers, crafters and performers of all sorts. The music stages will have performances through the entire evening from Pistachio, Andre Thierry & Zydeco Magic and Baby & The Luvies among others. Event goers are encouraged to visit food trucks and entrepreneurs Antonik’s BBQ, Mama Africa, Hooked Crustaceans, Charlie Frank’s Pies, Bok Ssam, Girl Friday Zeppole, Kainbigan, The Stroopie Gourmet, Fist of Flour Pizza Co., Tacolicious, Sunrise Deli, Opies, Torpedo Sushi, and more offering up their hand crafted meals.

Schedule here.

The festival is free, including the keynotes, interviews and panels on various downtown stages during the day. But we expect many of those indoor sessions to be full. How to make sure you get in? Stand in line for a couple of hours? Who wants to spend valuable festival time doing that when you could be exploring exhibitors, visiting the 50,000-book Lacuna installation, or having lunch?

Solution: Tickets! By two means:

(1) Best is to get single tickets in advance. Reserve single tickets. There is a button next to each session on the schedule, and you can reserve your place via Eventbrite for a small processing fee for each session.

(2) Get tickets on the day of the festival. A quantity will be held in a Box Office at the event site, first come first served, for free.

Or.. a standby line outside each venue will allow people without tickets access to any seat five minutes before the start of the session.

Balloons Aloft! Uphold Berkeley’s need for affordable housing!

Balloons Aloft! Come to downtown Berkeley to see balloons aloft at 194 feet, marking the height and dimensions

of this LA developer’s monstrous 18-story luxury condo high rise for 2211 Harold Way: 

Demolish the Shattuck Cinemas and Habitot Museum and terminate their 50 employees for an 18-story luxury condo high rise across the street from the Berkeley Public Library?! Turn Downtown into a construction site for three years, intensifying traffic congestion and harming businesses? Make a mockery of Berkeley’s need for affordable housing? Block the view of the Golden Gate from UCB’s Campanile? Is this what we voted for? 

You are not a loan! Are you in debt? Are you outraged by the debt system? Join the growing resistance! Attend the 4th Strike Debt Bay Area’s Debtors’ Assembly.

Come to the Assembly to learn about tools for escaping the closing walls of debt, to share resources and skills, and to magnify our assembled energy. As we share our experiences we can begin to take back from the financiers what they have taken from us….. our freedom and our future.

Organized by Strike Debt Bay Area. Facebook, Website, Twitter

More information: strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com

Strike Debt Bay Area is affiliated with strikedebt.org, rollingjubilee.org, and debtcollective.org

Calling for a peaceful vigil, no fine print, at #LakeMerritt pergola/columns tonight, 8 pm #OIS #Oakland

— Pamela Drake (@Bethpikegirl) June 6, 2015

@TruthCastersTV @violentfanon Calling for a peaceful vigil, no fine print, at #LakeMerritt pergola/columns tonight, 8 pm #OIS #Oakland

— Russell Bates (@crustyrustyMAD) June 6, 2015

No other information available about the event itself.

This morning OPD shot and killed a man who they found sleeping or unconscious in a car on the 580 Westbound offramp at Lake Merritt.

ART PARTY & MEETING
Preparations for Conference of Mayors – Let’s make our presence visible with creative ART!

OccupyForum presents…

Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue

on all sides of these critically important issues!

David Hartsough

 Waging Peace: A Discussion on Civil Disobedience for Occupy

and other Activists

 “Any power structure relies upon the People’s obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). If the People do not obey, rulers have no power.’’— Gene Sharp

David Hartsough knows how to get in the way. He has used his body to block navy ships headed for Vietnam and trains loaded with munitions on their way to El Salvador and Nicaragua. He has crossed borders to meet “the enemy” in East Berlin, Castro’s Cuba, and present-day Iran. He has marched with mothers confronting a violent regime in Guatemala and stood with refugees threatened by death squads in the Philippines.

Hartsough has spent his life experimenting with the power of active nonviolence. His is the story of one man’s effort to live as though we were all brothers and sisters. He inspires, encourages and empowers us to help create a world that is peaceful and just. Hartsough will lead a discussion on what it takes to put your body on the line. Where do you find the courage? How do you deal with fear?  How do you deal with arrest and jail? How do your comrades help and hinder? How do you create campaigns? How does a group bent on massive change actually get the job done?

David Hartsough is executive director of Peaceworkers, based in San Francisco, and is cofounder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce. He is a Quaker and member of the San Francisco Friends Meeting. Hartsough has worked actively and internationally for nonviolent social change and peaceful resolution of conflicts since he met Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.in 1956. He is a longtime friend of OccupyForum.

Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!

You’re Invited!
#StopFastTrack Rally at Rep. Pelosi’s Office

What: Now is the time to speak out against Fast Track. With important votes coming up in the next few weeks, we need to turn up the pressure on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to publicly go on the record against Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Join CREDO; Democracy for America; MoveOn.org Civic Action; Daily Kos; Fight for the Future; 350.org; SumOfUs; Other 98%; Public Citizen; Friends of the Earth; Citizens Trade Campaign; Corporate Accountability International; the Sierra Club, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter; 350 Bay Area and other progressive allies to rally against Fast Track for the TPP.  Can you make it?

Yes, I’ll be there!

O_O Who is watching you? O_O

For a new installation at the Oakland Museum, The Center for Investigative Reporting is teaming up with local artists to host a community-focused look at surveillance in the Town. We’ve literally been driving around Oakland in an old Ford Falcon van to both educate and interview residents about the different types of technologies police use in the name of public safety, and what those technologies mean for our day-to-day lives.

Now, the Off/Page Project – a collab between Youth Speaks and CIR – wants your voice in the mix. We’re hosting an Eyes on Oakland writing workshop at Sole Space that will take a look at some of these surveillance practices that are used right here in Oakland.

Join us as we weave personal experiences, news reports and data points to create poems that explore local viewpoints on surveillance and how you can help shape the conversation. We’ll show you new ways to think like a journalist with your art, and give you the tools to dig deeper into what’s happening in your own community. Selected pieces created during the workshop will be featured in the Who Is Oakland? exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California, which is currently on display until July 12

What exactly does an Off/Page writing workshop look like? Check out our short film, Broken City Poets, to see us in action: https://www.revealnews.org/article/broken-city-poets/

We are encouraging folks 16-22 to attend. There are 15 spots available, please RSVP here: http://bit.ly/1J5z7D3

Questions? Ideas? Email Niema Jordan, the Off/Page Project program manager: njordan@cironline.org

Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy Movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges – who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books, Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class- investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians and literary figures, he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges’ message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of mounting environmental destruction and grotesque wealth polarization.

Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates just what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not simply for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, with fifteen years at The New York Times. Among his bestselling books are: Empire of Illusion, Death of the Liberal Class; War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning; and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (written with Joe Sacco). He currently writes a weekly column for Truthdig.

Hosted by Richard Wolinsky, the veteran producer and host of Book Waves, an interview show broadcast on KPFA Radio.

Tickets: 800-838-3006 or Pegasus (3 sites), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway’s Books SF: Modern Times, Online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1447124