My neighborhood, Adams Point, is relatively free of the worst problems connected to homelessness. I say “relatively” because, as bad as things here are, I know they’re far worse elsewhere.
Yes, we have a lot of crime—smash and grabs, package theft, lobby break-ins and the occasional mugging, for instance. But there are no encampments within Adams Point (although there are on the outskirts), and there are very few zombies wandering the streets. But compared to East Oakland, in neighborhoods like Fruitvale and Jingletown, Adams Point has it easy.
I didn’t really understand how bad things are in East Oakland until fairly recently, when I met people (who had joined the Coalition for a Better Oakland) who live there, and wanted to share their experiences with me. To be honest, in 35 years of living in Oakland, I’d never even been to those areas straddling the Nimitz, along San Leandro Street and approaching Home Depot. So when someone took me on an auto tour, it just about blew my mind. I’ve since met many victims, and I use the word “victims” deliberately, for these folks really are victims, not just of rampant crime, but of the constant threat that looms over their lives, of the dumping and vandalism and fires, of being assaulted, even of death—and they also are the victims of a city administration that refuses to do anything to save them.
Each time I hear the testimony of East Oaklanders, I think the same thing: These people are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Easily startled, constantly on guard for danger, their feelings are torn between justifiable self-pity, guilt and shame at being caught in such an intolerable situation, and anger, not so much at the homeless themselves but at the Mayor and City Council who will not respond. Much of their frustration is with Treva Reid and, especially, Noel Gallo, who, they feel, could do far more to alleviate conditions: they could clear the camps, clean up the garbage, allocate more police to the area, and respond more quickly when things get out of hand. Instead, these residents feel, the City Council sends them “thoughts and prayers” while permitting conditions to deteriorate by the day.
More than a few East Oaklanders have told me they’re thinking of moving out of a city they love. Not that many years ago, they say, East Oakland was a wonderful neighborhood of tidy homes with gardens and fruit trees, where little kids played on the sidewalk. But in the last 5 or 6 years—coterminous with Libby Schaaf’s reign as Mayor—conditions have worsened to the point of intolerable. My heart goes out to these people who, through no fault of their own, find themselves living in hell.
When future local historians write the story of Oakland, they will be shocked by the incompetence and lassitude of city government, which “fiddled while Oakland burned.” With will and determination, city government could rescue East Oakland and free its citizens from their ordeal. Sadly, our current leaders would rather give speeches, fund raise, collect their salaries and feel important, than to act in any meaningful way to make Oakland better.
Steve Heimoff