To keep chaos at bay, volunteer Bill Walker hands out yellow plastic cards with numbers from 1 to 200.  A second set of numbered cards is soon cracked open as people continued to arrive.

The dip in the economy may have caused a decrease in patronage for other businesses, but the Alameda Food Bank has seen a 37 percent increase in clients compared to this time last year according to spokesperson Brian Higgins.

“We serve 40,000 people a week and 14,000 of them are children,” said Higgins.

A truck from the food bank warehouse backs up the drive way and 20 volunteers quickly unload the seven tons of the day’s produce offerings:  yams, carrots, white onions, and packaged bags of shredded ice berg lettuce, hearts of romaine and cole slaw mix.

“On Fridays there were at least eighty to one hundred people, now we run 175 to 200,” said Bill Walker, a retiree who has volunteered at Columbian Gardens for five years.

Fifty-pound bags of vegetables are placed behind the tables next to palettes of boxes stacked six feet tall.  The contents are divvied up into smaller shopping bags that the recipients will pick up as they walk by each station.

A few clients pick through clothing on a give away table while the volunteers continue their work.

Columbian Gardens is one of 275 distribution centers in Alameda County, but one of only ten that has food available five days a week.

Emergency food drop in hours are from noon to 1:30 p.m. every weekday. Volunteers set aside some produce for the emergency food boxes they will construct after the morning distribution is done. The boxes often contain a mix of produce and canned and dry goods.

The protocol requires clients to call the food bank head quarters to make an appointment before they go to Columbian Gardens to pick up emergency food, but if they show up unannounced it’s okay.

“No one is turned away,” said Walker.

Lurleen Jackson, also known as Mom by the volunteers, has run the distribution at Columbian Gardens since 1974.

When asked why she started to work with the poor, she said, simply,

“Because they need it. That would be the only answer.”

Jackson is a devoted Christian and serves as an usher at Community Reform church where she can be found walking the aisles every Sunday morning.

“People are so appreciative,” she gushes.  “They tell me all about their recipes.”

Her volunteers return this love in spades.  Her operation runs so smoothly she has to do little more than wander around and watch as they take care of everything.

The volunteers have bagged enough produce so it’s time to start the processional.  Walker explains how the line will work and another volunteer translates his words into Spanish for the primarily Latino crowd.

Alicia Williams, a geriatric nurse, is all smiles handing off bags bursting full of white onions.

“I just got off work and came to pick up my mother-in-law to eat and go shopping.  I always stop and lend a hand.  The reward is greater than pay.  Knowing someone will not go hungry is a plus,” said Alicia.

Iome has volunteered at Columbian Gardens for 10 years.  She feels volunteering can be as rewarding for retirees like herself as it is for the recipients.

“It gives me something to do.  I love helping people, instead of being at home lonely and bored.   It keeps you young,” said Iome.

Odelia Sanchez, from Guatemala, pushes a cart with today’s bounty.  This is her third visit to pick up provisions for her husband and five children.  She heard about the distribution through friends.

“The economy is bad and I’m out of a job.  It helps a lot.  If you go to the store it’s expensive.  Here it is a gift,” she said.

Evelyn Rivas from El Salvador has visited the food bank for six months.  She already has plans for some of the produce.

“I’ll use it to make repollo,” she said referring to a slaw of cabbage, carrots, onions and vinegar that is eaten with pupusas, a Salvadorian style corn cake.

Through the translator Walker tells everyone they are welcome to have some cilantro, three additional bags of the packaged produce and an additional bag of anything else that is left on the tables.

Crinkly onion skins scatter across the parking lot and take flight in the breeze while the line goes through in the opposite direction.

The crew at Columbian Gardens supplements their offerings by visiting the food bank every Wednesday for additional produce and canned goods and dry goods.  Every fourth Tuesday is USDA day where they get canned food, milk, juice and meat.  They also keep an eye out for bread on Wednesdays, which is one of the most requested items.

“People who call the food bank for emergency food tell them they want to come to Columbian Gardens.  We never run out of food,” said Walker, taking pride in their work.  “We treat them like people.  We’ve got the service, so we provide it to them.

According to Walker, at this time last year they averaged five emergency food pickups a day. Now they average 35 a day.  Last month the average peaked at 45 emergency food pick up a day.

The county court sends Jackson 6-10 volunteers a month who work to pay off their tickets.

“What the court does for me is such a big help,” said Jackson.

Volunteer Andrew Roddy chimes in, “They fall in love with Mom.  Then they come back and keep volunteering.”

Roddy has personal experience with this phenomenon.  One year and five months ago he was sent to Columbian Gardens to work off a ticket, and hasn’t stopped coming since. He even joined Jackson’s church.

While Roddy and a skeleton crew of three other volunteers assemble emergency boxes inside the building, Humberto Dueñas from San Leandro loads his truck.  In addition to his family of four he will share today’s catch with two of his brothers families, his sister’s family and their mother.

Dueñas is a construction worker that has been laid off for seven months, but has found alternate work at a Toyota factory in Hayward.

He is pleased with today’s produce, “It’s a big help.  In Mexican food we use these things all the time.”

By Anna Bloom/Special to 510 Report

Emilia Otero, and her daughter, Shelly Garza, longtime organizers of food vendors in East Oakland, say they are seeing a marked increase in illegal street vending.

Since 1998, the two women have fought hard for the legitimacy of street vending, founding ACAF, Asociation de Comerciantes Ambulantes de Fruitvale. However, the economy and crime have left the city short on resources. Garza and Otero say that in East Oakland, where the city limits the number of street vendors to 30, there are now as many as 80. Left unregulated, many of these vendors are not paying for permits or adhering to Alameda County Public Health Department food preparation standards, and may be putting the public’s health at risk.

By Lauren Rudser and Brittney Johnson/ Oakland North

Last week, the Obama administration reversed bans, put in pace under President Bush, on Stem Cell research using federal funds. See how this is affecting one local couple.

I was driving down Shattuck Ave this afternoon – the 6th anniversary of the Iraq war – and out of the corner of my eye I noticed quite a commotion out front of the Marine Recruiting Center. I circled around to get a better look, and saw the huge windows at the front of the Center being replaced. There were baseball-sized holes in the windows, and dripping red paint.

Read an article about the vandalism from the Oakland Tribune.

About a month ago, the North Oakland branch of the San Leandro-based chain Pet Food Express was hit by an armed robber. Two weeks later, it happened again, this time at the Pet Food Express Rockridge store, located in the Safeway shopping center at 51st and Broadway. According to employees, it was the same guy.

It was then that the vice president of Pet Food Express, Mark Witirol, started hearing of other armed robberies at the Rockridge shopping center. Frustrated by what he thought was a predictable pattern of crime, he wrote a letter to Mayor Ron Dellums, posting a copy on a Montclair community Yahoo group.

“For the last few months, just about every Friday night, between 5-9 p.m., one of the stores in the Safeway Center at 51st and Broadway has been robbed at gunpoint by the same person,” Witriol wrote.  The letter continued: “Since the robber’s moves can be predicted, catching him should be as easy as fishing in a barrel.”

That message was then forwarded to the Rockridge Neighborhood Watch Network, magnifying its reach, as Witriol intended.

“I have raised the alarms all over the place,” he later said in a telephone interview.

The heightened attention got results. Witriol, as well as employees at various stores in the center, said they have noticed an increased police presence at the shopping center. And Witriol said that his letter prompted an outpouring of support from other Oakland residents, who wanted to know how they could help keep watch over his store and other local businesses. Perhaps most significantly, Oakland police arrested a suspect on the charges of one North Oakland robbery and are currently investigating connections into several more.

But Witriol’s original letter didn’t get it quite right. According to Oakland CrimeView, an online website affiliated with OPD that tracks recent crime trends, there have been six robberies at the Rockridge shopping center since December — a lot, but not nearly as regular a pattern as Witriol’s letter suggested. And the Oakland police said emphatically that the robberies were the work of a several robbers, not one.

Witriol’s letter may not be the most accurate portrayal of crime in North Oakland. But it spoke worlds about the city’s perception of crime, of its mood and frustrations, suspicions and cynicism. For a community beleaguered by crime, Witriol’s letter struck a chord.

“The people of Oakland are very, very upset, and they want to do something about it,” Witriol said.

The anxiety extends to those working at the shopping center, particularly at stores that have been robbed. At Jamba Juice, the site of an armed robbery this winter, most of the employees who were working at the time have since transferred to other locations. Even employees of neighboring businesses which have not been directly affected say they are nervous.

“My co-workers are very scared,” said Jocelyn Sprinkle, a Starbucks employee. Even though her store has not been robbed, she said that there was new focus on safety procedures to guard against robberies, such as bringing in outside furniture during daylight hours.

At the Dress Barn, there is now a full-time security guard sitting at the store’s entrance. An employee at GameStop, who asked not to be named because corporate headquarters has asked its employees not to speak with the media, said he was working one evening in February when a robber, armed with an automatic pistol, came into the store, demanding money from both the cash register and the store’s customers. The employee said that now he has started violating company policy of keeping doors unlocked during business hours, choosing instead to lock the doors once the sun goes down and let customers in himself.

“If it looks like one of the people that robbed me, they’re not getting in,” he said. “If they have a covering over their face, I’m not going near the door.”

But while merchants and their employees may be on the watch for a common thread, the OPD contests Witriol’s assertion that one suspect is to blame for all of the incidents.

“There is no pattern [of crime] at 51st and Broadway,” said Officer John Cunnie, a public safety officer for the nearby 12X police beat. “There is a pattern of stores getting hit, but there is no pattern in regard to one suspect.”

What is it about that particular location? Cunnie said he believes that the shopping center presents multiple opportunities for a would-be robber because there are so many stores clustered in one area.

The GameStop employee has a different theory.

“This is actually a good part of Oakland,” he said. “They [the robbers] know the security will be lax.”

The police arrested Quentin Carter earlier this month and charged him with armed robbery further down on Broadway and a parole violation. OPD Public Information Officer Jeffrey Thomason would not say whether Carter, 27, is also suspected of armed robberies at the Safeway shopping center, but he did say that police investigators are looking into possible ties to other robberies.

Witriol and other workers at the shopping center said that they believe Carter is responsible for at least some of the robbery attempts. Witriol said he believes that his employees will likely participate in a line-up to see if they can identify the suspect as the man who robbed their store.

News of the arrest has cheered many who work at the shopping center. But not all of them.

“That’s not the only guy,” the GameStop employee said.  “It’s not the guy that robbed me back in February. It was the one guy that robbed us in November.”

For now, Mark Witriol is pleased with the new attention being focused on the armed robberies. When asked about the recent arrest, Witriol praised the Oakland police efforts.

“We were all amazingly impressed,” Witriol said, further adding that cooperation from Oakland residents and other business owners was crucial. “It’s not about whose job it is. When something is at this level, it’s everyone’s job.”

But although they say they hope that this arrest will result in charges for the robberies, some of the center employees remained pessimistic.

“I think it’s going to continue,” the GameStop employee said. “Not that these guys have jobs anyway, but people use the recession as an excuse to commit a crime. We’re going to continue to get robbed.”

Last month, a youth curfew ordinance was voted down by the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. And while the ordinance failed to become law, it did succeed in rousing the voice of Oakland’s youth.

Scenes from an Auction: As the number of Bay Area foreclosures skyrockets, so does the amount of auctions selling foreclosed homes at a fraction of their original price. Watch potential buyers vie for bargains at a recent auction.

[See post to watch Flash video] ]]> http://510report.org/2009/03/04/scenes-from-an-auction/feed/ 0 http://510report.org/2009/03/03/filmmaker-to-screen-redemption-story-of-oakland-recyclers/ http://510report.org/2009/03/03/filmmaker-to-screen-redemption-story-of-oakland-recyclers/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:50:46 +0000 kara http://510report.org/?p=3292

By Samson Reiny/510 Report

Jason Witt is an Olympian of recycling—he can recycle up to 800 pounds of bottles and cans a day.  “He’s the captain of his ship,” said Amir Soltani, a writer and activist who has been following Witt for the past year as part of his upcoming documentary on West Oakland recyclers.  Soltani said there is a lot of physical effort and finesse involved in manning a cart the size of Witt’s, which, at the end of each day, is stacked with overstuffed bags protruding several feet into the air.  “He has to read the road, know every pothole and how to maneuver around them,” Soltani said.  “He has to be able to turn his cart without tipping it.  It’s not pretty if it tips.”

Witt is one of the characters in Soltani’s upcoming film debut, “Redemption: Stories of the West Oakland Recycling Community,” which focuses not only on the lives of recyclers—running the gamut from those who sell cans for residual income to others whose livelihoods are dependent on collecting the trash of others—but on the community’s varied reactions to them and to Alliance Metals, the recycling facility that keeps them in business. The Graduate Theological Union’s Justice Collaborative will be hosting a director’s cut preview of the film next Thursday at the First Christian Church in Oakland.  Recyclers featured in the movie will be on hand to offer further testimony about their experiences, and staffers from Poor Magazine and the Homeless Action Center, along with various representatives from the community, will also hold discussions to promote public dialogue about poverty. 

The first-time filmmaker became especially interested in exploring this issue after meeting a recycler. He vividly remembers meeting Miles Jefferson, a regular who makes his rounds near Soltani’s West Oakland home. Jefferson is partially paralyzed on one half of his body as the result of a stroke, but still manages to gather his bottles and cans.  “I was stunned and mesmerized by him,” Soltani said.  “He had this tremendous dignity.”

Indeed, that is one of his film’s main messages—for those to whom recycling is a way of life, there is tremendous discipline involved.  Jason Witt, the Olympian recycler, not only has to balance his cart with finesse; there is other strategy involved because of the intense competition out there for recyclables. Recyclers must be good at cultivating relationships with businesses and residents, and at establishing a route.  Witt knows when and where to be at a certain place, usually to collect before someone else does. Sometimes he is deft and camouflaged because he doesn’t want to draw public attention.  Soltani said people often don’t think of recyclers as productive.  “There’s this tendency to want to criminalize them,” he said, “but many of these people don’t want handouts, and they’re not waiting for them.”

The presence of recyclers, and of Alliance Metals, is a contentious one in West Oakland.  For many, including immigrants that speak little English and those without the skills to be competitive in an already beleaguered job market, cashing in on the recyclable goods is their only means of survival.

But some residents and business owners want Alliance Metals shut down. They say some recyclers urinate in their yards and bring drugs to the area—others say the lack of public restrooms leave them no choice.  Another faction argues that closing the company will only increase crime in West Oakland because recyclers who suffer from drug addictions, left with few alternatives, will find more nefarious ways to support their habits.  Some from both sides of the spectrum blame Oakland city councilwoman Nancy Nadel for not reducing blight in the area.  Fingers are sometimes pointed at developers and tenants of new condos like Magnolia Row—maybe the reason why poor people have no where to go is because affordable housing is disappearing.  “Besieged is the best word that describes the community,” said Soltani.  “Everyone is a little bit stuck.”

In addition to portraying the daily lives of recyclers, Soltani interviewed Nadel, Metal Alliance owner Jay Anast, and several nearby residents, all with varying points of view.  “There are all kinds of barriers that prevent us from seeing each other,” Soltani said.  “This film is not an art form but a life form where a community can reconnect and solve a problem none of us can solve alone.”              

The recycling controversy is just a segment of the greater plight that has ravaged the historic district.  Soltani said that many of West Oakland’s problems today—poverty, poor health, and high crime, to name a few—represent the residual effects of a long, tumultuous, and yet proud struggle for justice.  “There’s a long history of fighting poverty and inequality,” Soltani said. 

West Oakland is a well-known incubator for social change movements.  The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters established their West Coast office at Fifth and Wood Streets and became the first African American-led group to sign a contract with a national company.  After World War II, the 16th Street railroad station became synonymous with the African American escape from segregation in the south.  In the 1960’s, the Black Panthers used West Oakland as their base of operations.             

But these notable efforts are, in large part, the work of a community that has been prompted into bravery and resourcefulness in order to survive.  “Racism, poor public planning, a weak political base, capital flight…there are so many aspects to this that I can’t do it justice,” Soltani said.  Yet through all of the challenges, Soltani is amazed that people, like the recyclers, are still managing to survive.  “Without trying to sound crass, there’s a magic to West Oakland that’s not lost,” he said.  “It’s beautiful that people are finding a way to make a living out of nothing.”

Thursday’s screening of the preview of “Redemption” will be open to the public, but Solatani says he’s still not sure when the final version of the film will be ready.  He’s shot most of the footage, but there are issues he wants to delve into more deeply.  “I’m looking into more funding.  There’s so much more that could be explored.  If I could go on forever, I would,” he said, smiling.  But what is certain is that he wants the movie to evoke a change in awareness.  “Redemption doesn’t just mean redeeming cans and bottles,” Soltani said.  “It’s about redeeming people’s lives.”                

The GTU Justice Collaborative Presents: Redemption: Stories of the West Oakland Recycling Community. Thursday, March 5th, 4:30-8:00pm. 111 Fairmount Ave. Oakland, CA.Suggested donation for admission $10.  Groups of 10 or more $5 per admission.  No one will be turned away.  Child friendly. For more information, call Tyson at 510.525.7587 or email justice.collaborative@yahoo.com

East 14th Street, more commonly known as International Boulevard, runs from Lake Merritt, through the heart of East Oakland and down through San Leandro.

The boulevard cuts through Vietnamese, Mexican and African-American communities, reflecting city’s diversity. On weekends, the streets in Fruitvale and near Lake Merritt bustle with life.

Other stretches are more desolate – dust gathers in empty store windows, graffiti hints at tensions between street gangs and prostitutes ply their trade at all hours of the day.

Additional link: Exotic Escort on Craigslist