[audio:http://rosebud.journalism.berkeley.edu/~j200/510report/chen_monk.mp3]

The chain link fence around the perimeter of a corner gas station is contributing to the blight in the International and East 12th Street Corridor, neighbors say.

But the owner is having a hard time maintaining and keeping up with equipment upgrades required by state law.

Rashid Ghafoor, the owner of Shore Acres Gas, said the business can’t compete as a mom-and-pop gas station.  He needs a new underground storage tank system costing $200,000 to $300,000 in order to operate as a brand name franchise, he said.

On top of that, he said he needs money to drill nine holes to conduct soil and water tests for contamination.  The results of the test were due Nov. 25 but he missed the deadline. The Alameda County Environmental Health opened a case two years ago to investigate for petroleum leaks on the property.

Ghafoor is waiting for approval by the state’s cleanup fund that they will cover assessment costs.

Mike Sgourakis of APEX Envirotech, Inc., a consulting agency hired by Ghafoor to conduct the assessment and remedial work, said his company was willing to carry the balance “for a while.”  But prior approval for the claim was necessary to move forward with the project.

The state water board, the agency that oversees the underground storage tank cleanup fund, issued a notice in October that it would suspend lower priority reimbursements due to low funds.   Over 600 large businesses are waiting to be reimbursed for repairs for claims they submitted as far back as 2000, according to a list on the website.

While Ghafoor, a member of the U.S. Air Force, was out of the country, APEX submitted a budget for approval to the cleanup fund, as a low-priority reimbursement.  Sgourakis said they didn’t have the receipt totals that verified Shore Acres’ status as a small business. In October, APEX reapplied, this time in a higher classification, as a priority reimbursement.

They are waiting to hear back.  But until then, plans are on hold. 

For each gallon of gas purchased, 1.4 cents is designated for a fund that reimburses businesses, mostly gas stations, to repair underground storage tanks.  But with less people buying gas, there is less money to work with, said David Clegem, spokesperson for the State Water Resources Control Board.

Californians are still not driving much, even with the dip in gas prices, he said.  As a result, revenue decreased from $241 million the previous fiscal year to an estimated $233 million this fiscal year.

“We have no crystal ball so we’re keeping our estimates low and paying out only the statutory requirements,” Clegem said.

Priority claims are being reimbursed consisting of small businesses and residences, he said.

For mom-and-pop gas stations, such as Shore Acres, which was built in the mid-50s, the clean-up fund provides finances they would otherwise not have, in order to compete in a market dominated by large franchises.

Chuck Headlee, the water board’s Bay Area regional manager for the underground storage tank initiative said, “We’ve closed and cleaned up probably a good 30,000 cases” since the mid 80′s.  Since regulation standards and detection devices for tanks have improved over the decades, he estimates there are still 10,000 cases remaining in the state.

By Adelaide Chen

Financial setbacks and anticipated cuts in public education have impacted at least one community program in Oakland.  A volunteer-run Vietnamese language school has raised tuition and decreased teacher stipends in order to pay $7000 to $8000 in janitorial fees for the first time.

This school year has been a financial headache for executive director Ky Vo and his team of volunteers.  For the past decade, the Huong Viet Community Center has held classes at Roosevelt Middle School in the San Antonio neighborhood, drawing about 80 kids from the East Bay.

Faced with the possibility of being unable to afford the school facilities, Huong Viet raised tuition to $250 per student for 33 Saturday sessions.

In addition, the teachers agreed to decrease their stipends, said Vietnamese instructor Chanh Tran, 31, who also teaches math at a local high school during the week.

“We’re kind of worried about whether we’re able to run the school anymore. If we don’t have a budget, we aren’t able to rent a facility,” she said.

The teachers agreed to take home $30 for each three-hour class, rather than $40.  One board member referred to the stipends as “gas money” because half of the eight teachers drive from Richmond, Hayward, and Berkeley.

“I’m impressed with the teachers.  They’re very dedicated,” said Ky Vo, executive director of Huong Viet.  “Some donate (their stipends) back to us.”

As the head of Huong Viet, Vo himself does not receive a stipend.  Nor did he attend Vietnamese school as a kid growing up in Oakland.  Now he seems content giving up his Saturday mornings so that other kids can have the opportunity.

Parents started the school two decades ago so kids could learn Vietnamese in an organized way, he said.  Although some churches and temples offer Vietnamese language classes, Huong Viet is the only non-denominational school in the East Bay.  Increasing numbers of second-generation Vietnamese mean student numbers are growing—the kindergarten class doubled this year.

The East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC), whose staff runs Saturday morning detention and an after-school program, has always extended the use of Roosevelt Middle School to Vietnamese classes for the past decade, said Gianna Tran, executive director.

But last December, Tran received an invoice for janitorial overtime.  Her organization paid for it and notified Huong Viet to take over the costs starting in the 2008-2009 school year, she said.

“We’re all bleeding the same way,” said Tran. “No one should suspect they’re immune to (budget cuts).”

“In the past, I’ve had extra money to pay custodians to open the school on weekends,” said Theresa Clincy, principal of Roosevelt Middle School.

But in order to balance her school’s budget, her first priority was to maintain staffing levels.  She said she anticipated additional cuts in the state’s education budget this year.

Huong Viet has never paid for the use of as many as eight classrooms.  But they don’t charge parents for the summer activity sessions either.

The East Bay Chinese School spends more than $10,000 to pay teacher stipends and lease Westlake Middle School in Oakland’s Grand Lake neighborhood, said Principal Ming Wu.  But the student fees offset the costs.  Parents contribute over $300 per student for 32 sessions, a $25 one-time new student fee, and an $80 deposit per family.

Unlike Huong Viet, the Chinese language school is experiencing rapid growth because students of other races are learning Mandarin, said Wu.  About 400 students, including ones from black and white families, use about 30 classrooms, including the auditorium, on Saturdays.

By Adelaide Chen  
Thousands of East Bay community college students attending Laney, Berkeley City, Merritt, and College of Alameda still have not received financial checks for the semester.

With a week left before Thanksgiving, over 2700 students still do not know the status of their financial aid offer and thousands more may not be aware that there are problems with their application.

The students demanded accountability at the Peralta Community College District’s Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 18.

“How much more do I have to wait to see a dime,” said Toni Baker, 25, at the podium during public comment.  Baker, a full-time Theatre Arts student at Laney College said she has no one to depend on financially because she is a foster child.

“We’re working diligently to resolve this issue,” said Chancellor Elihu Harris at the meeting. “We certainly understand and apologize to the students.  It’s not their fault.”

A new software system, custom designed to integrate separate financial aid databases from the four colleges has caused major headaches for administrators and students.

But Chancellor Harris said many of the students had conflicting documents in which the paperwork submitted differed from what was stated on the application.

Over 75 percent of the applications have been reviewed.  Of those, he said, 55 percent have conflicting or missing documents.

Community college students have seven or eight checklist items when applying for financial aid.  That’s more than other students in higher education, said Jeff Heyman, spokesperson for the district.  The students are considered more “financially at-risk.”

The district acknowledges more than 2,737 applications have yet to be reviewed.  More than half of the unread applications are from students at Laney College, the largest of the four schools.

Students who turned in their application before August 31 may receive their check before the end of the year, said Donald Saotome Moore, vice president of Laney College.

But with no aid until the end of the year, some students may drop out this semester and try to recover their financial losses.

Eryka Nadreau, 26, said she already gave up her apartment and is staying with a friend.  She came to campus on a recent Tuesday, waiting in line until she reached the financial aid window, but didn’t come away with any answers.  She said she has never received any notification of the status of her financial aid application.

“They say, ‘We’re working on it.  We’ll let you know,’” she said, who described the college counselors as “scarce.”  Nadreau, working towards a two-year degree in Media Arts, said she was thinking of returning to Los Angeles and moving in with her family.

Terri Rodgers, 33, has been through the financial aid process many times.  She said she has left three months of phone messages with a counselor. She is still waiting for a call back.  She filed her application in May, and again in August.

During public comment at the district trustees meeting, Rodgers said she could have graduated with two degrees this semester had she taken a full-time course load.  But without any indication of when she would see a check, she dropped to part-time, below 12 units.  Each course unit costs $20 at the four community colleges.

Now eligible for less financial aid, she said, “My check isn’t that big.  It’s not going to make or break me.  It’s the audacity of (Peralta District) not having a back-up plan.”

Eliza Chan, a spokeswoman for Laney College said “to ease the pain”, a number of students have received emergency loans, including vouchers for books, and a number of textbooks have been purchased and put on reserve in the library.

Laney College received about 2700 applications for aid this semester, she said, and 1050 students have received funding so far as of Nov 13.

Ambree Hewitt, 24, is entering college for the first time since finishing high school five years ago.  She doesn’t want to drop out this semester, but has missed classes at Laney to pick up her 6-year-old daughter from school.  Without financial aid, Hewitt said she can’t afford childcare.

“I hardly even have resources to come to school,” she said.  Among other things, Hewitt said she has pared down her cell phone expenses to pay-per-minute instead of using a monthly plan.

Hewitt, an aspiring psychologist, said she continues to hang in there.  What kind of role model would I be for my daughter if I dropped out, she said.

Oakland continues to rank among the top ten metropolitan areas in the U.S. with high rates of foreclosure, but the city’s Asian neighborhoods remain relatively untouched.

Chinatown, Eastlake and lower San Antonio have received few notices of default over the last three years, according to data analyzed by a local economic development nonprofit.

The notices serve as “the first line of evidence that there is a problem, and none of them are reflecting that there is one,” said Anne Griffith of Urban Strategies Council, who has mapped data of default notices and foreclosures in the city.

Realtors, mortgage brokers, and homeowners familiar with Asian culture say family networks of lending are common among Chinese and Vietnamese when buying a home. In addition, conservative spending habits and families living together contribute to financial stability.

When Bay Le, 46, considered buying his first home in Eastlake, his goal was a fixed-interest loan with a 20 percent down payment. But he came up short. So he called his sister in Ohio.

She wired him $20,000.

Four years later, he is still paying interest-free installments. “When I have the money, I send it back, little bit by little bit,” said Le, a contractor.

He and his wife rarely go out for entertainment. “Asians don’t spend money they don’t have,” he said. Instead, they save whatever they can, he said.

Le’s house is located northeast of International Boulevard, where Asians make up the dominant racial group — about 40 percent, according to the census — but occupy just under a third of the housing units.

Although only 17 percent of the residences in the area are owner-occupied, Asians are the largest homeownership group, comprising almost 60 percent.

Among renters in Eastlake, Asians and Pacific Islanders occupy the smallest percentage of rental units, less than two percent, according to the census. Blacks live in 37 percent of the rental units but make up a quarter of the area’s population.

The median family income in the area is estimated to be $34,965 this year, according to figures from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

According to Van Hanh Nguyen, an accountant who helps her husband run a realty and mortgage company in the Eastlake commercial district, families commonly pool money together for a house. The families pay at least 20 percent down for a fixed-interest loan with a good rate, she said.

“When you have money, then you can buy the other person out,” she said. Nguyen and her sister were both co-owners. Their families lived together in the same house.

“It’s a good arrangement because our mother would watch over our children,” she said. Although living with another family means less privacy, this is considered normal for Asian families, she said.

In the Eastlake area, 30 percent of households who are Asian and related have five or more family members, according to the last census. Only Latinos, at 34 percent, are more likely to live in large households.

At 6 o’clock, three cars had parked in the driveway of Zagreus Qiu, 30, and he said he expected three more to arrive before the night ended. He and his wife live with his parents and a few others. They bought the house in 1998 after the turnover of Hong Kong to China in which they had sold everything and left. But they couldn’t have put a 30 percent down payment without a hefty sum his aunt wired from England.

He pointed out all the Asian families that lived in the single houses on his block. Some were renters. And some were new. The drop in property values had enabled families to buy for the first-time, and they were settling into two nearby Victorians.

Four generations of the Moal family have had an auto business on East 12th Street since 1946. Since then, two major changes have taken place. The company now specializes in building custom cars, and the area is no longer zoned for industrial use.

By Adelaide Chen

As health care costs continue to rise, the expansion of the largest clinic in Oakland’s San Antonio area for uninsured and low-income patients has come at a needed time.

The San Antonio Neighborhood Health Center that once operated out of a house in the late ‘70s is expanding into a development that will cost altogether $9.85 million.

The renovated two-story warehouse on International Blvd. is located next to the building that housed the health center for the past three decades. The old building will be under construction until June. Once completed, it will double the size of the health center.

The new main building has a waiting room with twenty wide chairs, a long reception counter stretching almost the entire side, and ample space for kids to run around. The previous building had one long hallway and rooms on both sides. The former waiting room had ten chairs.

“We outgrew that space a long time ago,” said Jane Garcia, CEO of the parent organization La Clinica de La Raza, greeting donors who contributed to the expansion at an October reception.

The San Antonio site is one of 26 locations in the Bay Area. But it ranks second behind the flagship location in the Fruitvale Village in terms of patient numbers and size.

“Once we acquired the warehouse, we set a fundraising goal of $3.7 million,” she said. The organization exceed their expectations and raised $4.1 million.

But perhaps the most crucial element, the exam rooms, will double, from 10 to 20. During construction, some of the exam rooms are being used for medical files and as a pharmacy. But once these departments are able to move into the old building, the expansion will begin.

With the increase in exam rooms, the number of patients is expected to double as well, from 6,000 to 11,000 over the course of five years, according to Renata Fineberg, clinic manager.

The growth of the clinic is an important step towards serving the needs of the community, Fineberg said. The clinic accepts Medi-Care and Medi-Cal patients, and charges fees based on a sliding scale.

For example, a patient that doesn’t qualify for a program such as Medi-Cal pays a flat fee of $80 per visit at most. The amount slides towards zero according to the patient’s income level and a scale based on federal guidelines, she said.

About 60 percent of the patients of the clinic fall below the federal poverty line. For the annual income of a family of four, the amount comes out to $21,200, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Even though almost three-quarters of La Clinica’s patients are Latino—at the San Antonio location, a third are Asian. The clinic offers doctors who speak Asian languages such as Vietnamese, Cantonese, and Mandarin. And a Cambodian speaking doctor comes on Tuesdays.

A doctor and his wife, a nurse, started the neighborhood clinic during the ‘70s in a modest single-story house behind International Blvd. to address health care needs of the residents.

Dr. Joe Selby said they had always hoped the clinic would grow.

“The need was there,” he said. “It was medically underserved.” While living in the area during the ’70s, there was not one clinic that addressed the needs of the neighborhood, he said.

But on the residential street where he purchased the house, opposition came from the neighbors.

“We had to go before the zoning board,” Selby said, due to a claim filed by a resident. Fortunately the board sided with the clinic, he said.

“We eventually won them over,” said Nan Murrell, who worked for the clinic as a family nurse practioner. She bought the house from Selby when the clinic moved. She remembers one of her neighbors being part of the opposition.

“We provided good health care for this neighborhood,” she said. “People came from all over. We saw a lot of patients here.”

She said after purchasing the house, people would continue to show up on her doorstep asking for the clinic.

For client Jaime Andrade, 27, whose wife is receiving pre-natal care for their first child due in spring, said he is pleased with the renovated building.

Not only does it have more space, it’s cleaner and more organized than the previous building, he said. The service at the reception counter is faster too, he said.

An older generation of Vietnamese Americans is leaning toward Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain–while their younger counterparts are favoring Barack Obama.

Among Asians in California, Vietnamese are most likely to support McCain, at 53 percent, according to the National Asian American Survey conducted by professors from three universities.

In Oakland, a city where 70 percent of voters are registered Democrats, older Vietnamese voters with first-hand experience of the war favor McCain while younger Vietnamese favor Obama.

Lu Le, 80, plans to vote for McCain in her first election ever.  On a recent Friday afternoon.  She was playing Bingo at the Vietnamese Community Center of the East Bay on International Boulevard.

“The Vietnamese voting for Obama never experienced harsh conditions under the Communist party that robbed and killed people,” she said, her brow furrowed.

Her vote will show appreciation to McCain for what he did during the war, she said.

Down the street at an Asian grocery store, Ly Vien, 62, a soldier who fought with the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, said McCain is considered an ally in his community for fighting Communist Vietnamese forces during the war.

McCain fought in the war as a pilot and was captured, said Vien.  After returning to the U.S., McCain advocated for the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees in the U.S., a plan under which Vien arrived 14 years ago.

But Loi Huynh, 23, said he planned to vote for the Democratic Presidential ticket.  He arrived 15 years ago and is now a student at Laney Community College.  He said his parents are also leaning towards Obama.

“It was up to them,” said Huynh said.  He hasn’t tried to influence them one way or another.  “Because they believe Obama can do more than McCain can.”

But not all young Vietnamese are Democrats.  Even though her peers are voting for Obama, student Thao Pham, 20, voted by mail for McCain.

“(My friends) said they voted for Obama because he will make the country better,” she said. “I heard my grandfather say McCain helped us during the war. I think that’s right.”

But Philip Nguyen, director of the Southeast Asian Community Center in San Francisco said McCain’s reputation as a war hero is not as important as the fact that he represents the Republican party.

“The notion among the older Vietnamese generation is the Republicans are more anti-Communist than Democrats,” he said.  During the 2004 Presidential election, they voted for Bush, even though the Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry, was a Vietnam war veteran.

Nguyen said, even though there are no reliable statistics, younger Vietnamese appear to support Obama.

Oakland resident and Republican Tran Tuan, 40, said he follows the views of the older generation.  But his children, ages 10 and 14–all too young to cast ballots–are leaning towards Obama, swayed by a city where almost everyone seems to be Democrat.

“All the teachers and everybody, they’re Democrats.  They brainwash the kids,” he said. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Thanks to An Nguyen of Oakland for Vietnamese translation.

As a result of ethnic conflict in Bhutan, Damanta Kharel, 25, grew up and attended school in a United Nations camp.  She earned a masters degree commuting from the camp to a nearby college in Nepal.

But as a newly arrived refugee in Oakland, she takes night classes to get a GED.

“We know English, but the tone is different,” she said.  “We don’t understand people talking here.  We always have to ask again.”

Kharel and her sister are among the seven students from Bhutan attending the GED class several nights a week.  She knows some of the other refugees, because they lived in the same camp for 17 years.  Among the refugees from Bhutan that have accepted an offer to come to the U.S., few have expectations they will return to their homeland again.

About two decades ago, the Bhutanese government redefined citizenship rules, and drove out 100,000 ethnic Nepalese who had moved there for better economic opportunities.

Kharel’s grandparents migrated from neighboring Nepal to Bhutan as farmers.  But when forced to leave, the family and relatives spent almost two decades in one of seven United Nations funded camps.

“If you stayed (in the camp) there was no hope of going back to Bhutan,” said Hari Poudel, 25, who attends the GED evening class with her younger brother.

After no agreement had been reached between the Bhutanese and Nepalese governments in 16 ministerial talks, the U.S. agreed to accept the majority of the refugees.  The Poudel and Kharel families arrived in the spring and summer with the first wave.  Kharel’s brother and sister-in-law are expected to join her family in March.

Although the children learned English in the camp education system, the older generation did not have the same educational opportunities. Today, both the mothers of Poudel and Kharel are attending ESL classes at the adult school.

Teresa Espinosa, registrar at the Oakland Neighborhood Centers Adult School, who has worked in ESL for 25 years, said “Bhutan was a surprise.  Mongolia not so much.”

Kharel’s 57-year-old mother Dirga, who is learning her ABCs, said she gets teary-eyed when she sees the other students interacting with the teacher and she can’t say a word.  “If only I had been given a chance to learn English earlier in life,” she said.

The class meets three hours in the morning each weekday.  Dirga said it is too hard at her age.

“It’s really different to live here, especially for mother,” said son Bishnu Kharel, 22.  “It’s a challenge for her to grow up in this environment.”

In the U.S. alone, there are about 4,000 refugees from Bhutan so far, according to Don Climent, regional director of the International Rescue Committee, an organization that helped settle the families locally.

The U.S. Department of State plans to accept 60,000 refugees from Bhutan over the next five years.  Canada, Denmark and Australia agreed to smaller numbers.

About 130 refugees from Bhutan have relocated to Oakland and Alameda, said Climent. Oakland and Alameda are considered favorable because a built in community already exists, he said.  There were already some that managed to make their way into the U.S. seeking asylum and did not receive refugee assistance.

But the Kharel family said they are upset about relatives relocated to far away places like Virginia and Chicago.  They told U.S. officials they would move anywhere as long as they ended up in the same location.

Among a myriad of support services, IRC caseworkers set up housing and bank accounts, helped with job placement, enrolled kids in school, and referred others to adult education.

The environment at the adult school is unique, said GED instructor Mark Gallo. “Kids who went to high school in Oakland are learning from kids from all over the world they would otherwise never meet.”
The Neighborhood Centers Adult School is one campus of the Oakland Adult and Career Education, a program of the Oakland Unified School District.

In the 2005-2006 school year, Oakland Adult and Career Education taught ESL to about 7,000 students and GED preparation to over 600 students.

A local nonprofit developer has purchased land in Oakland’s Eastlake area to build affordable rental units for low-income families. But some residents say the influx of new households will bring parking and traffic congestion to their relatively calm neighborhood.

Wedged on three sides by the 880 freeway, the commercial East 12th Street, and the football field of Laney Community College, this portion of the city was once designated for residential and light industrial use. Victorian houses exist side by side with automotive shops and contractors.

But now the winds are changing. Stretching one block long and about half and block wide, a dirt lot is the proposed construction site for a four-story, affordable housing development.

A chain link fence topped with razor wire encircles the lot, littered with construction trucks and materials, including spools of industrial wire. But even though it’s an eyesore, many neighbors say they would prefer to keep the property as is.

For most of her life, America de la Pena, 25, has lived two houses away from the dirt lot surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire, and construction trucks coming in and out.

“It’s better like that than all the people,” she said.

The people she refers to are the families that will occupy 55 rental units.

In order to qualify as tenants, a four-member household would have to make below 60 percent of the area median income–less than $51,660 annually, said Robert Stevenson with the developer, Resources for Community Development.

On the high end, a family of four might pay $1000 for a three-bedroom rental, he said. The units will have between one and four bedrooms.

Almost a third of the rental units would be set aside for Section 8 housing, where a tenant would pay rent using a calculated percentage based on their income. The Oakland Housing Authority would then cover the difference in rent.

Resident de la Pena said the garage parking, one or two per unit, would not be enough to keep parked cars off the street.

Neighbors have written letters and made their way to meetings with the city council member to publicly voice their feelings. But for the nonprofit housing developer, such sentiment is normal–even in low income neighborhoods such as this one.

Once they see the other affordable housing developments, they know they are constructed with high quality and well managed, said Stevenson. RCD has built more than 1400 housing units in Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano Counties since 1984.

“All poor neighborhoods get affordable housing,” said homeowner David Ryan, 43, who lives and works across the street from the lot. The city doesn’t build them in well-off areas such as the hills, he said. “I thought we were past this.”

Ryan said he had asked the developer to consider families of all income levels, instead of just low income. But the answer was simple–the proposal would qualify for more public funding if it could benefit more people that need affordable housing.

The proposal is set to receive $6.25 million in public funding, about three-quarters from city redevelopment funds, and the rest from federal funds, according Jeffrey Angell, housing development coordinator with Oakland’s Community and Economic Development Agency.

“It looks like a big junkyard at the moment,” said Angell, “Being converted into residential use will be an improvement.”

But Ryan said he doesn’t mind the eyesore that is there now.

“I love it because I get to look at empty blue sky,” he said. Currently there is no building on the property across the street from where he works and lives.

The design of the building, four stories high, has been altered to address residents’ concerns. The fourth story now recedes from the front so that it’s not as noticeable, said Stevenson.

The main tenant that occupies the lot, Ray’s Electric, is a contractor that installs streetlights. An employee, who asked not to be named, said the owner has been given notice to vacate the property. The company plans to move to another location, he said.

Juan Guerra, 55, an automotive shop owner who lives and works across the street, said the owner of the property, a downtown Chevy dealer, had originally used the lot to store new cars.

He said it was the owner’s wife’s idea”to sell (the land) to somebody to be beneficial,” he said. “She’s always liked working with the community.”

But even though he works and lives across the street, he doesn’t think his voice will count.

“When I see they come with a steamroller. I know you can’t stop them,” said Guerra, who stopped participating after attending two meetings. “You put two and two together. You know how it works. You can’t stop a federally funded project.”