On September 17th, Jack and Wes were arrested at a gathering in Parking Lot #4 alongside the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market. According to reports published on Santa Cruz Indymedia, police initially went after and arrested Jack, a Food Not Bombs volunteer. Some people followed the police while drumming and demanding that Jack be released. Police reacted by arresting Wes, a drummer with Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra.

Numerous police were called to the scene, but they quickly left after displaying batons and a riot control gun. The final scene had Parking Lot #4 filled with musicians drumming, children dancing, and Food Not Bombs feeding.

Drum Circle Challenge | Drummers Arrested at Wednesday Farmers Market | Two Arrested Near Farmer's Market, But the Beats Continued On

previous coverage: Raging Grannies and Trash Orchestra Defend Drummers from SCPD (Sep. 10, 2008)

Two recent legal decisions may help the case of a city created on the dream of affordable living in Silicon Valley, the city of East Palo Alto. One displacement watch activist said that he "expects many, many more legal victories to come."

A San Mateo County Superior Court Judge ruled on September 5th that East Palo Alto is entitled to crucial evidence they need in their fight against mega-landlord Page Mill Properties. At issue are what the city deems to be illegal rent increases at roughly 1,700 apartment units in rent stabilized East Palo Alto. Page Mill Properties had asked the Court to seal documents pertaining to the rent increases. The city won a crucial victory with the judge's decision and will get the information they need in time for a scheduled debate over the validity of the rent increases September 19th.

This win for renters comes on top of a Rent Stabilization Board Hearing on August 27th that found in favor of the tenants. The Board denied Page Mill's appeal of a decision that limited increases to 3.2% of the rent that was actually charged the previous year. In some instances the landlord has levied increases more than ten times that amount.

One tenant who is following the legal proceedings said, "I personally think that the arguments presented by Page Mill [are] little more than examples of convoluted attempts to pervert the meaning of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance."

Tenants supported by rent control activists from Youth United for Community Action and the Raging Grannies demonstrated their displeasure with Page Mill's continued legal attempts to flout the ordinance; they staged a sit-in and street demo at the landlord's downtown Palo Alto office on September 2nd. Police were called but there were no arrests.

City Hall Hearing, most recent posting | Sit-In part I | Sit-In part II | Send a Message to the Landlord | Youth United | Raging Granies

Previous Coverage On Indybay

On August 29th, more than two-hundred Bay Area residents demonstrated outside of developer Lennar Corp.'s Headquarters in San Francisco and then headed to Oakland to rally in front of the Oakland Police Department (OPD). The local chapter of the Right to the City Alliance, a national coalition of more than 35 social justice organizations, along with allies and supporters, aimed to bring attention to rogue developers, gentrification and criminalization of communities of color from the Bay Area to New Orleans.

Lennar Corp, a housing redevelopment corporation based out of Miami, plans to redevelop Bayview Hunters Point but Bayview residents are calling for more affordable housing and a stop to the project, which has been sending toxic dust into nearby homes and schools. Outside of Lennar's San Francisco office, Katrina Survivor August Forman spoke about the connection between community displacement and corporate greed, calling the Bay Area's decline in Black and working class residents a "dry Katrina." Because of the constant threat of displacement, Forman said, "We are all Katrina evacuees."

In Oakland, speakers noted that the displacement of communities of color was not only economic but in many cases closely connected to the demonization of youth of color through such tactics as gang injunctions. Oakland resident Sister Beatrice X explains, "The Oakland Police department harasses working class communities and just recently raided a housing complex in West Oakland with military tanks and swat teams, they are using brute force to literally push us out."

Demonstrators also drew parallels between recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the Gulf Coast and the spike in ICE enforcement in California. Protesters demanded that OPD stop working with ICE and criminalizing the migrant community.

Photos | Past Indybay Katrina Coverage

An Alameda County judge has made another ruling in favor of tenants at the California Hotel in Oakland, keeping in place a temporary restraining order preventing Oakland Community Housing Inc. (OCHI) from evicting residents or shutting off utilities at the historic hotel.

In 1992, OCHI agreed to offer low-income housing at the hotel for 30 years but has since abandoned the tenants, many of whom are elderly and disabled, and is attempting to frighten them out of their housing. On July 15th, the non-profit threatened to cut off the utilities but the tenants have fought back and refused to move.

Since July 15, tenants have been providing for their own security, managing the hotel and keeping it clean, with the assistance of the Eviction Defense Center and other community organizations in Oakland. Currently, around 52 residents remain in the 150 room historic hotel, fighting against OCHI's attempts to force them out of their housing.

On July 23, residents celebrated their first week of resident control by dropping a large banner in front of the hotel that said, "We Will Not Be Moved."

Full story

At their meeting on September 9th, the Santa Cruz City Council will decide whether to fund the initial design for a 5-story garage at Cedar/Cathcart. The garage will displace the Downtown Farmer's Market. The Campaign for Sensible Transportation is proposing that the City implement less costly and greener alternatives to building the garage. These alternatives are recommended in a 2003 report commissioned by the City called the Master Transportation Study. That study recommends that downtown employees be given incentives not to drive to work, including free bus passes, emergency taxi vouchers, credit at bike stores, and cash. The study cites examples from other cities in which such measures have substantially reduced car trips. To date, the City has not implemented the recommendations in the study.

On September 3rd, City Council candidates will face the garage issue at a Candidate Night on Sustainable Transportation, at Louden Nelson Center, 7-8:30pm. Read More

Glen Chase, a Professor of Systems Management, has released a second report identifying the California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication program as a fraud. Professor Chase's first report revealed the falsehoods the CDFA delivered after June 19 when courts and public pressure stopped the CDFA from aerial spraying synthetic pheromone based pesticides directly on cities. This second report reveals the fraud and misinformation delivered by the CDFA from the fall of 2007 until June 19, 2008.

"CDFA has demonstrated that they will lie, cheat and even sacrifice the lives of California's children in order to steal $100's of millions of emergency funds, set aside for real emergencies."

"We are now into the third year after noticing the Light Brown Apple Moth in California and recognizing that LBAM has been living here about 30-50 years or more, while doing NO DAMAGE. The CDFA is getting more and more desperate to quickly implement fake emergency eradication methods, so they can access the emergency funds and pretend they are saving California by stopping the LBAM from doing damage. For emergency funding, it seems the CDFA would claim to save us from Lady Bugs, if we didn't know better."

The only real emergency is the CDFA. The CDFA is planning to expose children and adults to toxins by many methods and interfere with natural balances in nature in order that programs are ongoing that appear to be a legitimate eradication. CDFA is also threatening the existence of small farmers and nursery businesses by imposing quarantines on their products, without assisting them financially. Read More and Download the Report

Union laborers, community representatives, and neighbors of La Bahia Hotel in Santa Cruz want to upgrade the distressed beachfront site with a hotel. But they all demand something better--and smaller--than the plan currently being proposed by Barry Swenson Builder and the Seaside Company.

According to Don Webber, a longtime neighbor of La Bahia, "There's a lot of support for building a hotel at La Bahia that is built in scale with the Beach Hill area, in conformance with the zoning law and more in line with community values." Neighbors have been asking city officials for story poles to demonstrate the height and placement of the 125-room luxury hotel up for approval by the City Council in September. Labor unions aren't happy with Swenson's plans since the company hasn't committed to building as a union shop or to a card count union election process for hotel staff. Historic preservationists are unhappy with the decision to totally demolish the aging landmark currently on the site instead of trying to restore even part of it. Community representatives don't like the City Council riding roughshod over the general plan, the zoning law, and a host of other city policies intended to protect the quality of life in Santa Cruz. But Swenson wants to demolish a city landmark and build 30 feet above the legal height limit, so he definitely needs to have the city change a number of important planning laws.

A rally was held in front of La Bahia on August 21st to protest the project as it is currently being proposed. Read More with Video and Photos | More Photos

East Palo Alto's rent stabilization program, established by voters in the early 1980's, was designed to help tenants know the maximum their future rent increases could be, enabling them to plan their family budgets with a measure of certainty. But in 2005 Page Mill Properties started buying up residences on East Palo Alto's west side and disputes with tenants and then with the city brewed.

Rent hikes, reduced maintenance service, and altered lease terms increased until many of the apartments owned and managed by Page Mill now sit empty, say remaining tenants. Others have left, either unable to pay the increases or confused by frequent notices from the giant landlord. Many of the residents are recent immigrants.

The west side of East Palo Alto sits close to the affluent city of Palo Alto and even shares the same zip code, leading residents to assert that Page Mill's motive is to get rid of all the tenants in order to "flip" the property for monetary gain.

Residents have filed class action suits, formed petition signature drives, and demonstrated in front of Page Mill Properties' Office in downtown Palo Alto. One group of tenants has particular reason to be outraged. Many East Palo Alto residents are public employees and their retirement system, CalPERS, has Page Mill Properties in its portfolio of investments. CalPERS is the pension fund for California public employees and is one of the largest financial institutions in the US.

Photos: 1 | 2 | Previous Coverage

On July 22nd, over 3,000 people rallied at the Port of Oakland to protest against pollution and poverty. The event was co-sponsored by the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, the California Labor Federation, and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County. Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums were among those who spoke at the protest.
Photos

Many truck drivers at the port are classified as "independent contractors" and make as little as $8 an hour while receiving no benefits. The port trucking system requires drivers to sit idle in their trucks for hours everyday while their trucks spew out diesel emissions. Port diesel pollution is associated with high rates of cancer and asthma. Diesel pollution is five times higher in West Oakland than in other parts of Alameda county. As a result, cancer and asthma rates are higher in West Oakland than other parts of the Bay Area.

The Port of Oakland is developing a Comprehensive Truck Management Plan (pdf). In March, 2008, the Port Commission began the process of instituting a new trucking model to reduce diesel emissions. In an effort to achieve an 85% reduction in health risk from its operations by 2020, the Commission voted unanimously to levy fees on containers passing through the Port. The fees are expected to generate $520 million and will be used to mitigate air pollution by retrofitting and replacing dirty trucks.

The Commission directed Port staff to hire a consultant to conduct an Economic Impact Study on making drivers employees of the trucking companies, and to report back to the Commission on the next steps to phase in the Comprehensive Truck Management Program by the end of June. The Commission, however, failed to include any language that addresses how to institute an effective local hire program. Questions also remain as to how much of the old dirty truck fleet will be replaced through the container fees and how much of the costs of truck replacement, upgrades and maintenance will be shouldered by low-wage truck drivers.

Big Trucking Deal | Coalition For Clean and Safe Ports | Port Of Oakland

At a public meeting held July 15 in San Francisco, Bayview residents and supporters accused the San Francisco Department of Public Health of turning a blind eye to Lennar Corp's toxic construction in the Hunter's Point Shipyard. Bayview community members said Lennar Corp, a housing redevelopment corporation based out of Miami, has been digging into asbestos-rich serpentine rock sending plumes of cancer-causing dust into nearby homes, recreation centers and elementary schools.
Photos

Last November, The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) voted to fine Lennar for not accurately monitoring toxicity levels during construction.

California state law requires Lennar to monitor the toxicity of the air and inform residents when asbestos or other carcinogens reach a poisonous level. However, May 30, when asbestos meters sky-rocketed to 138,000 levels of particulate matter, community members were kept in the dark. Bayview advocates say the release far exceeded levels deemed lethal, even by the city's lenient standards, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.
Bayview residents were not informed of this until more than six weeks later on July 14th.

The toxic reading came just days before the June 3 election, when a heated battle was taking place over Prop F, a grassroots proposition that would have forced Lennar to create affordable housing; and Prop G, an initiative that would grant Lennar permission to proceed with the construction of 10,000 condominiums on the Shipyard, a Superfund site.
"Such an overage should have triggered a complete removal of those most sensitive receptors which would have been our children..." noted Bayview resident Marie Harrison of Green Action, an environmental justice organization, as she addressed the commissioners.

Read More | Recent Related Posts From Francisco Da Costa: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15

Will Lennar ever be fined for dropping the dust ball? | Test the Lennar site: There is no safe level for asbestos exposure | Lennar slapped with racial discrimination lawsuit, accused of violating toxic asbestos cleanup restrictions

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