Calendar
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
The Battle Cry of the People
Enough is Enough
Enough of Racist Police
Enough of the Killing of our People
Enough Discrimination
Enough of the Injustices against Black and Brown Communities
Enough of the Powers at Be Ignoring the People’s Cry
Enough of Rogue Cops within SFPD
We the People say Enough is Enough
This is our Battle Cry!
Fire Chief Suhr
Come and Join Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition
Alex Nieto Coalition
Amilcar Perez Coalition
Jeff Adachi…SF Public Defender
Lead Counsel of ACLU
SF BOS (some)
and You the Community
Press Conference
SF City Hall Front Steps
11AM
We Can’t Stop
We Won’t Stop
Until Justice Reigns Down on Our Community
Please share with friends and family
#SFPD: Town hall meeting on latest police shooting to be held Wednesday at noon at 3271 Mission St.
— Jonah Owen Lamb (@jonahowenlamb) April 12, 2016
From the SF Fist: According to a a press release sent by SFPD at 1:08 p.m. Tuesday, the noon town hall meeting will be held “to provide the Mission community with an update,” at Union Local Hall located at 3271 18th Street.
Calling all conscientious humans of San Francisco!
George and Amal Clooney, coupled with Hillary Clinton will be hosting a fundraising dinner in San Francisco on April 15th. “The fundraiser is for The Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic committees of 32 states and Puerto Rico” (http://fortune.com/2016/
Let the people of San Francisco gather and march through the main streets of Nob Hill to protest this event and to show Hillary Clinton that we don’t accept this kind of corruption. Rich people should not be allowed to buy politicians. Imagine, for example, how far $30,000 could go to help the homelessness problem in San Francisco. This corruption-fest is not just undemocratic, it is immoral and obscene!
http://www.politico.com/
The very least we can do is to remind Hillary’s rich donors of the corruption they are a part of. We will protest outside the event so that none of the attendants can chose to close their eyes to criticism and insulate themselves from the people in a fancy dinner. We are the people! We refuse to be excluded! We demand to be heard! They don’t want us there. We will be there! Bring your own posters and banners!
HELLO PEASANTS OF THE 99%
We have set a schedule for the protest, as well as a meeting location. We will meet at 5pm, hold a potluck, then march to Pishevar’s mansion with chants and cacerolazo (pots and pans to make some noise).
We are securing a safe and spacious location for the potluck. It will be within a couple blocks of 1266 Washington St., and we’ll send it out soon!
The plan is to meet at 5pm for a #dinewiththe99 potluck. If everybody brings a dish, this will be a huge success. Finger foods are preferred because they’re less messy, and we highly encourage everyone to bring their own utensil and plates to reduce waste. At the same time, we encourage everyone to bring extras for those who aren’t fortunate enough to have silverware. We’ll also need water, paper towels, and garbage bags, as well as people willing to help clean up. We have six tables, and we’ll be bringing dishes as well.
R.I.P. LUIGI GONGORA, Killed by SFPD – 4-7-16
All hands on deck
SF Police Commission Meeting
Please share.
We need to pack the room! Arrive early to get a seat. First public comment is early on agenda.
Note: this is NOT the Town Hall that Chief Suhr plans on holding next week regarding the SFPD murder of Luigi Gongora.
AGENDA:
http://sanfranciscopolice.org/meeting/police-commission-april-13-2016-agenda
We believe that love is the universal language. We also believe that love is the universal cure to heal what ails societies worldwide. These meditation happy hours are our love offering to the community and are the result of a beautiful new & evolving partnership w/The Art of Living facilitated by Neelam Patil…& the universe ♥
Homes Not Jails is a consensus-based collective of squatters and squat supporters who believe housing is a human right. Our goal is to open as much vacant housing as possible and to keep it open as long as possible. HNJ is a place to organize mutual aid among squatters and squat supporters and housing rights advocates in the bay. We actively fight to make our space inclusive and safe for everybody and combat oppression in all forms.
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