Mayor Schaaf: The location Choice(ICCNC), Was Intentional — a Response to Policies Put Forth by President Trump

ICCNC:California local media covered the Mayor of Oakland’s Annual Address at the  Islamic Cultural  Center  of Northern  California. Mayor Libby Schaaf Schaaf’said: the location choice, along with music and dance performances by Middle Eastern and Latino groups, was intentional — a response to policies put forth by President Trump seen as harmful to Muslims and immigrants.

As homelessness shows no sign of shrinking in Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf asked homeowners Thursday to open their doors to the unsheltered if they have the space to spare.

Schaaf’s appeal came during her annual State of the City address at which she discussed Oakland’s housing crisis, deadly fires, youth programs, civic arts, road repairs and police reforms. The call to action on homelessness was a new signal of just how entrenched encampments have become in the city as rents continue to climb. Oakland city workers went on a partial-day strike Thursday ahead of Mayor Libby Schaaf’s State of the City speech. Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images 2016 / 2016 Getty ImagesPhoto: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images 2016 Oakland city workers went on a partial-day strike Thursday ahead of Mayor Libby Schaaf’s State of the City speech. As homelessness shows no sign of shrinking in Oakland, Mayor Libby Schaaf asked homeowners Thursday to open their doors to the unsheltered if they have the space to spare.

Schaaf’s appeal came during her annual State of the City address at which she discussed Oakland’s housing crisis, deadly fires, youth programs, civic arts, road repairs and police reforms. The call to action on homelessness was a new signal of just how entrenched encampments have become in the city as rents continue to climb. “Give up that Airbnb. Fix up that back unit,” she said, encouraging property owners to lease apartments at rates affordable to recently homeless individuals.

The event Thursday was held at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California in downtown Oakland; the first-term mayor delivered her previous two speeches at City Hall.

Schaaf said the location choice, along with music and dance performances by Middle Eastern and Latino groups, was intentional — a response to policies put forth by President Trump seen as harmful to Muslims and immigrants.

On Madison Street outside the carefully planned festivities, hundreds of workers represented by the city’s largest union formed a picket in opposition to the mayor. The librarians, street cleaners, parking enforcement officers and other city employees faulted Schaaf and her administration for their handling of Oakland’s biggest problems, including homelessness. They said their objective was to draw attention to “the real state of Oakland.”

They booed and shouted at city leaders, audience members, reporters and worshipers who entered the center. All eight City Council members said they chose not to attend to because of the demonstration. The protest followed a half-day strike that began at 2:30 p.m. by members of the union, SEIU Local 1021, amid a dispute over work conditions and pay. City and union officials have been trying to hammer out a new contract for the past six months. Another union in contract negotiations, the local chapter of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, joined the demonstration.

In response to the walkout, which city spokeswoman Karen Boyd said came Wednesday on “unusually short notice,” Oakland libraries, senior centers and child care programs closed early Thursday.

Frankie Izzo, a family advocate at Head Start, a city program for preschool-age children, said the move was overkill.

“We chose this time so the least amount of people would be affected,” she said. “We didn’t want to have this big shutdown.”

Izzo said her annual caseload has nearly doubled — from 34 when she started two decades ago to 56 — and her work responsibilities have grown to include tasks such as data entry. Like city employees in other departments, including the 911 dispatch center, Izzo said there was too much work to do and not enough staff to get it done.

Their message has been shaped into an advertising campaign across downtown city bus stops. The posters decry “a crisis made in Oakland” and point to issues such as illegal dumping, which has long plagued city leaders.

In her speech, Schaaf said she had great respect for the protesters who were “expressing Oakland values” and speaking “truth to power.”

Reporter:Kimberly Veklerov

State of the City: Mayor Schaaf speaks of a ‘resilient’ Oakland

OAKLAND — In her State of the City address Thursday, following a tumultuous year rife with turnover at City Hall and a deadly fire that killed 36 people, Mayor Libby Schaaf chose themes that resonate with many residents throughout Oakland — fears of displacement as cranes dot downtown development, the growing homeless population, and the A’s plan to build a new stadium near vulnerable neighborhoods.

Oakland, a city known for its toughness, and its residents are resilient, the mayor told the crowd at the Islamic Center of Northern California in downtown.

It has been a trying year for the East Bay city. A month after Schaaf’s address in 2016, the devastating Dec. 2 Ghost Ship warehouse fire killed 36 people and uncovered systemic problems in how the city inspects properties.

In March, the Raiders won NFL approval to leave for Las Vegas, where the largest public subsidy for a sports team — $750 million — will help build a new football palace.

Schaaf hired a new police chief, Anne Kirkpatrick, to steer the department after it was embroiled in an embarrassing officer sexual misconduct scandal in 2016, and to see it through a federal reform program now focused on improving racial bias in policing.

Over the past five years, the police department has reduced misconduct complaints by 58 percent and use of force complaints by 77 percent, while violent crime dropped as well, the mayor highlighted.

“The work is hard, complex and just beginning,” the mayor said, adding that the city is working to regain the trust of the community.

But perhaps most universally felt among Oaklanders is the Bay Area’s affordability crisis, which has hit this city especially hard. The homeless population stands at 2,761, up 25 percent from 2015, with many people formerly housed within Alameda County.

Schaaf said the city is opening two outdoor navigation centers to help get people housed but much of the supportive help is about two years away, so the city is working with homeowners to see if they have a spare room or unit available.

“In Oakland, we don’t step over the homeless we step toward them,” she said.

Rents have skyrocketed and many have been forced to the outer layers of the Bay Area. Schaaf reassured residents that help is on the way with her “17K” plan to build more affordable units and ease the tension brought on by the regional crisis.

Even the A’s, who in September announced plans to build a new stadium near Laney College, cannot escape the affordability conversation. The planned site at Fifth Avenue and E. 8th Street has left residents of Eastlake and Chinatown worried about displacement. The mayor, who preferred the Howard Terminal site near Jack London Square, vowed the team and the city are working to protect neighbors of the 35,000-seat stadium.

“Concerns about this project are the same concerns Oaklanders are feeling everywhere. A fear that this intense moment of change will push out rather than lift up our most vulnerable residents, our small businesses, our unique ethos and culture,” Schaaf said. “That fear is real and nothing threatens Oakland’s sense of security like this cost of living crisis.”

In choosing the Islamic center at Madison and 15th streets, the mayor sent a political message of inclusion and diversity to President Trump, who has disavowed sanctuary cities such as Oakland. Before the speech, there was a performance by the Aswat Ensemble, a group with members from the seven countries included in the president’s travel ban. The crowd applauded when Schaaf called Trump’s election victory a “man-made” disaster.

Closer to home, hundreds of city SEIU Local 1021 members who went on strike Thursday afternoon marched to the center in protest of Schaaf. Council members Noel Gallo, Abel Guillen and Rebecca Kaplan said they would not cross the picket line to attend the speech and at one point Desley Brooks spoke through a megaphone while surrounded by union members who filled Madison Street. The city workers booed at people who walked through a gate guarded by an Oakland police officer into the center.

Gallo expressed frustration with City Hall.

“There’s a lot of distrust and mistrust,” he said. SEIU members are “just making enough money to pay their bills,” Gallo said.

Schaaf, a former councilwoman elected mayor in 2014, is up for re-election in November and although former Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente announced he will run no one has officially filed candidacy, according to the city’s online election database.

Reporter:Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group