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Tenants in Bay View Apartments are fighting displacement despite passage of the Alameda Rent Ordinance that went into effect on March 1st, 2016. The Rent Review and Limitations on Evictions Ordinance is not protecting tenants from unfair evictions and allows landlords to create a climate of fear and intimidation. Tenants Together, the Alameda Renters Coalition, and Filipino Advocates for Justice will be holding a press conference at 10am Thursday April 14th at Bay View Apartments 470 Central Ave.
The landlord Matt Sridhar, CEO of San Jose-based Sridhar Equities, LLC, is determined to raise rents and evict all tenants in the building. Last year, he used a loophole in the original Alameda moratorium to give tenants at Bay View Apartments no-fault eviction notices. The tenants fought back and won.
Now, he is using a weakness in the current tenant legislation to use the threat of eviction against tenants. The Ordinance allows 25% of tenants in a year to be evicted through no fault of their own. Some units are empty and under heavy construction, while the rest of the tenants are being harassed. Sridhar has used the construction as a tactic to harass tenants and make the community feel unsafe in their own homes.
“I feel unsafe because our landlord’s construction crews are creating huge amounts of dust and not cleaning it up, using vacant units like hotel rooms, and fighting late at night. The other day I watched as construction workers threw a heavy bag from the 2nd floor which came within 5 feet of hitting a small child,” said Mel LaGuardia, a tenant who lives at the Bay View Apartments with his family.
Tenants Together, the Alameda Renters Coalition, and Filipino Advocates for Justice will be holding a press conference at 10am on Thursday April 14th at Bay View Apartments 470 Central Ave. to stand up against Sridhar’s harassment, and call for residents of the City of Alameda to pass stronger protections at the ballot this November.
“This landlord is harassing tenants with the intent to make them leave their homes. The Alameda City Rent Review & Limitations Ordinance allows for unfair evictions. We will continue to see displacement in Alameda without stronger tenant protections.” said Leah Simon-Weisberg, Legal Director with Tenants Together.
“Right now we are gathering signatures to put real Rent Control and Just Cause for Eviction Protections on the ballot in November. These policies are essential to keeping tenants in their homes,” said Catherine Pauling of Alameda Renters Coalition.
The press conference will be held in front of the Bay View Apartments .Tenants and advocates will be available for media interviews.
Come to the monthly meeting of the East Bay Clean Power Alliance to hear updates on Alameda County’s Community Choice Energy program and on the campaign for strong community choice programs that promote local renewable energy generation and create good, union jobs and community benefits.
In a last minute switch, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) President Michael Picker exempted one of the non-bypassable fees from the proposal, the transmission access charge (TAC). The TAC pays for upkeep of transmission lines, which are the high voltage, long-distance lines that carry power from distant power plants to the local distribution grid. As rooftop solar energy is only transmitted through local distribution lines, solar advocates argue that solar customers should not have to contribute to costly transmission lines. This late change was contentious, costing the votes of the two dissenters on the decision, who claimed that this exemption unfairly subsidized rooftop solar customers.
Clean energy advocates take offense at the notion that rooftop solar customers are being subsidized by non-solar customers, an opinion propagated by the IOUs since the inception of NEM. By contributing decentralized renewable energy, rooftop solar customers are reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change as well as reducing the need to build new power plants and very costly transmission lines, which are paid for by all ratepayers. If those benefits are taken into account, rooftop solar arguably saves Californians money.
Net Energy Metering (NEM) is critical to making rooftop solar financially attractive. It allows customers who have their own solar panels to benefit from their investment and be compensated for any excess electricity they export to the grid. Rooftop solar customers’ meters track both the amount of electricity they draw from the grid when their solar system is not producing enough to cover their needs and the electricity that is exported onto the grid when the system produces more than they need. Each month, rooftop solar customers’ utility bills track the cost of electricity consumed from the grid and assigns credits for the electricity exported to the grid, with both costs and credits currently calculated at the retail rate. At the end of the year or “true-up period”, if customers have exported more electricity than consumed from the grid, the IOU compensates them at a below market, wholesale rate.The CPUC’s new plan, mandated by AB 327 last year and approved by the Commission in a 3-2 vote, ensures that NEM will be upheld for new rooftop solar customers. One key change is that all such new customers will be on a time-of-use rate schedule. This means that the retail rate for electricity—applicable to both purchasing from grid and crediting electricity exported to the grid—increases during times of peak electricity use and decreases during off-peak times. For example, one kWh of electricity costs more and draws a higher credit at 5pm when demand for electricity is high, than at 1am when demand is low.
While time-of-use rates make it difficult for rooftop solar customers to estimate their long-term savings, some solar advocates note the potential for well-designed time-of-use rates to incentivize shifting energy consumption from peak-use hours to off-peak hours when solar actually produces the most energy. Education about the implications of time-of-use rate structures is key to ensure customers are not hit with much higher energy bills. This is an area to watch as PG&E recently shifted its higher rate peak times to later afternoon and evening, which effectively reduces the benefits of rooftop solar.
Though the IOUs’ request for a monthly flat fee for rooftop solar customers was rejected, some new fees were approved, including a one-time interconnection fee when panels are installed. In addition, rooftop solar customers must now pay some non-bypassable fees (such as public goods charges, access charges, and certain taxes) on all electricity consumed from the grid rather than on net electricity consumed, as in the current NEM system.
On Thursday, January 28th, rooftop solar advocates chalked up a major victory as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted to adopt new rules that preserve net energy metering (NEM) in the state.
The decision was a notable defeat for the state’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs), which had lobbied hard to increase energy bills for rooftop solar customers by instituting monthly flat fees and reducing the rate of compensation for solar-generated electricity.
#OAKLAND! Join workers in their #Fightfor15 at our #DayofAction! APRIL 14TH AT 2PM! https://t.co/teoxkpOuPE pic.twitter.com/i5fpMJFVQL
— Fight For 15 Nor Cal (@NorCalFF15) March 30, 2016
Dear Friends,
Thank you to everyone who came out to support us a couple weeks ago. Our hearing to present a motion to dismiss the charges brought against four Land Action organizers was rescheduled for this coming Friday, and we would appreciate your support once again.
Specifically, the Land Action 4 are being prosecuted for their involvement in a recent adverse possession project. There are seven criminal charges, including three felony counts and four misdemeanors. Contrary to established precedent from similar cases in Oakland in recent years, the District Attorney (DA) has deliberately, and in violation of the law, pushed this civil dispute into criminal court.
Please read our latest press release to learn more.
Join us this Friday when we will present our motion to dismiss:
There is metered parking available in the surrounding blocks, as well as a couple parking garages close by.
Come support the Land Action 4 at their second hearing date! Pack the court room and show the D.A. that repression of housing activists won’t stand!
To learn more about the Land Action 4:
East Bay Express Article:
http://
KTVU News Video:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/
KPFA Radio (starts at 35:54):
https://kpfa.org/player/
Starting in April, Berkeley Copwatch is kicking off our ongoing *weekly* copwatching shifts! We’ll be out in the streets most Fridays and Saturdays witnessing and documenting police activity and doing outreach. Please join us!
No experience required — any experience welcome. We’ll train you in the essentials for documenting police activity and staying safe in the process.
If you are able to bring a car and be a shift driver, that would be GREAT! Please let us know in the “discussion” section or by sending Berkeley Copwatch a message.
APRIL COPWATCH DATES AND TIMES
(Check this page for updates)
Friday 4/1 – 8pm
Saturday 4/2 – 8pm
Friday 4/8 – 8pm
Sat 4/9 – 8pm
Friday 4/15 – 8pm
Saturday 4/16 – 8pm
Friday 4/22 – 8pm
Saturday 4/23 – 8pm
Friday 4/29 – 8pm
Saturday 4/30 – 8pm
ABOUT OUR MASS COPWATCH SHIFTS
Since October 2015, Berkeley Copwatch has been holding “mass copwatch” events. It’s been fun and very empowering to have up to five cars full of copwatchers patrolling our city and on the scene when police stop people.
In the wake of the eviction of First They Came for the Homeless, the information booth, et al, Berkeley Post Office Defenders will gather to discuss the event and possible responses.
Should be illegally run off the Post Office steps we will (re)convene in MLK park (Allston & MLK).
On Saturday April 16, 2016 the African People’s Education and Defense Fund (APEDF) will hold an annual health-fair entitled “Health is Freedom”, at Akwaaba Hall in the Uhuru House, 7911 MacArthur Blvd, in East Oakland from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm.
There will be food, culture, vendors, live music, free health resources and screenings. End the health and economic disparities in Oakland! Support black community self – determination, justice, health and economic development.
We will be gathering signatures for our three endorsed ballot measures for 2016: the Protect Oakland Tenants Initiative, sponsored by Oakland Tenants Union and the Citywide Development Network, the charter amendment to create a police commission sponsored by the Coalition for Police Accountability, and the measure to establish a $20 minimum wage by 2020 and enforce fair scheduling regulations from the Oakland Livable Wage Assembly.
Check out this cheat sheet on how to collect signatures, and contact info@oaklandjustice if you are interested in gathering signatures independently. We encourage our member organizations to host their own canvasses. For your reference, quick talking points on the three measures are in the cheat sheet linked above and listed below:
Rent Stabilization Measure
- Set limits on rent increases tied to the Consumer Price Index (inflation)
- Close loopholes in the current Just Cause Eviction Ordinance to prevent no-fault evictions
Minimum Wage / Fair Scheduling Measure
- Raise minimum wage to $14/hr in 2017, slowly increasing to $20/hr by 2020
- Create and enforce rules for worker scheduling and on-call requirements, so that workers’ lives will not be turned upside down by continually changing work schedules
Police Commission Measure
- Establish civilian oversight of our Police Department
- The Commission will be able to investigate police misconduct, review complaints and discipline officers. If progress toward reform is not being made, they will have the authority to fire the police chief
Monica Moorehead, Presidential candidate of Workers World Party , and John Parker, candidate for US Senate of the Peace and Freedom Party and west coast leader of Workers World Party from LA, will be in Oakland to speak about what a real socialist program looks like and why capitalism must be overturned. http://
https://
Also hear Clarence Thomas, former Secretary-Treas
See the pinned post with the WWP 10 point campaign program short form. We are participating in the elections to expose them, not because we believe the elections have any meaning.
The location of the meeting is significant, in and of itself, right next to Lil’ Bobby Hutton Park, named in memory of the youngest Black Panther Party member to be killed by the Oakland Police. The site is wheelchair accessible. Light refreshments will be served.
Join us for the Berkeley premiere of SOLD!
Based on the award-winning international bestseller by Patricia McCormick and inspired by a true account, SOLD tells the story of a 13 year-old Nepalese girl who is trafficked from a peaceful, rural village to the brothels of Kolkata, India. One extraordinary girl’s story becomes both a call to action and a testament to the power and resilience of the human spirit. Directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Jeffrey Brown, this extraordinary story illustrates the brutality of child trafficking, which affects millions of children around the globe every year.
Saturday, April 16th @ 4PM and 7PM shows
Q&A with filmmaker Jeffrey Brown
.
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW
PHONE CALL FROM KEVIN COOPER FROM SAN QUENTIN !
Free this innocent man! END the Death Penalty NOW!
At the young age of 16, Mark Clements was wrongfully convicted for murder in Chicago when he was tortured into a false confession by the corrupt police precinct of Jon Burge. After serving 28 years toward the sentence of Life Without Parole, Mark was finally exonerated and released from prison. Mark is on a tour across the country to highlight cases of the wrongfully convicted in the fight to end the death penalty.
Join Mark Clements to hear about the VICTORY fight to win reparations from the city of Chicago for the torture of African American and Latino men by Chicago police. Please come and join Mark Clements at a gathering organized in Oakland to bring attention to the case of Kevin Cooper, an innocent man on death row in California
Featuring: the movie about the Police Torture in Chicago. Organizations welcome to come and table. Please contact us via email.
For info: contact: FreeKevinCooper@gmail.com www.Freekevincooper.org Facebook: FreeKevin Cooper
Oh snap! We’re gonna kick it off with hors d’ouvres and beverages, fundraiser-style. Will there be beer? Yes! Will there be wine? Yes!! Will there be non-alcoholic beverages? Yes!!!
And what are we asking from you? Your attendance, your good cheer, and your open wallet — because let’s face it, this is a fundraiser!
Let’s get down to discuss local politics, play party games, and raise money for the incredible Oakland Justice Coalition so that the OJC can pay for canvassers, window signs, and all the good stuff that makes for a winning grassroots political campaign.
We’re looking to put three ballot initiatives to the vote in November, and we need contributions to support our efforts. Those initiatives are for strong renters protections, a citizen-controlled police comission with real power, and finally, a higher minimum wage and workers’ scheduling rights.
See you there, social justice warriors!
Meaty Menu:
Chorizo black bean dip
Carnitas sliders with cilantro lime slaw, salsa verde and chipotle mayo
Coronation chicken sliders with chutney carrot slaw, coronation sauce and coriander mayo
Bulgogi sliders with daikon and jicama slaw, sweet and spicy sauce and ginger citrus mayo
For vegetarians:
Tomato and baby bell pepper tartlets with taleggio
Fingerling potato tartlet
Sundried tomato pesto palmiers with goat cheese spread
For Vegans:
Mediterranean Lentil Spread and tomato coulis on sourdough crostini
Hummus and baba ganoush with veggies and pita wedges
Brownie bites
Clementine upside down cupcakes
And other stuff that other people are bringing.
Donation jars will be scattered around for your pocket change. Andrew will be bar-raising, exchanging drinks for cash and of course, we’ll accept your checks and large folding money, too!
Agenda:
1 Recap/debrief/analysis of the April 5th City Council decision: Moratorium
2. Actionable next steps during 90 days
a Review of 12 points
b. What efforts are underway now?
c. What needs to happen?
d How do we support each other?
3. Immediate housing issues on the table
a Impact Fees
b. Renters’ Upgrade ballot initiative, now called the “Protect Oakland Renters” Initiative
c Others?
4 Next steps
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over four years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally . Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
Presidential Candidates Forum hosted by the Alameda County chapter of the Peace and Freedom Party.
Confirmed speakers:
Gloria La Riva (Party for Socialism and Liberation) http://
Monica Moorehead (Workers World Party) https://
Lynn Kahn http://
Jill Stein* (Green Party) or her representative http://
John Parker (Workers World Party), Peace and Freedom Party candidate for U.S. Senate https://
—–
*The Secretary of State has refused to place Jill Stein on our primary ballot
The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.
Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly
held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.
Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.
The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.
Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!
Liberated Lens is a digital filmmaking collective dedicated to social change, based in Oakland, California. We share resources, skills and knowledge to help each other tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. We make films in a spirit of collaboration and solidarity, share a lending library of film equipment for creative projects, and organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops.
Join us for our weekly meeting and a workshop!
We usually meet in our editing suite (2nd floor in the ballroom, to the left of the stage) and then work on projects. It’s open to all!
