Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning, and welcome to the Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting of Tuesday, 10/28/2025. The time is now 11:30AM, and this meeting may come to order. Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit speaker cards for items on this agenda. If you're here with us in chamber and would like to submit a speaker card, please submit, please fill one out and turn one into myself or a clerk representative no later than ten minutes after the start of this meeting. This meeting came or or before the item is read into record. Registering to speak via Zoom is now due twenty four hours prior to the start of this meeting time. This meeting came to order at 11:30AM, and speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after this meeting has begun, making that time 11:40AM. We'll now proceed with taking roles. Roll. Council member Gaio?

Present. Council member Houston is currently absent. Council member Wong? Present. And chair Unger? Here. Thank you. We have three members present and one absent. Chair, before we begin, do we have any announcements at this time?

No. Thank you all for coming. It's nice to see so many people here, or maybe it's just a small room, so it looks like more. But thanks for being here.

Thank you. Moving on to item number one. Noting the presence of council member Houston at 11:31AM. Before moving on, council member Houston, we need your camera on.

It is on.

Okay. Perfect. Just one moment.

So there have been some regulatory changes from Sacramento in the last week about remote participation, and our attorney is just checking the rules to make sure we're doing it the right way. So when she gets back in a minute or two, we will proceed.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

Alright. As we're waiting for the attorney, let's go out of order here and do one item that doesn't need to be that's mostly an informational report. That would be item eight, the informational dumping report.

Thank you. Noting that the agenda has been modified to hear item number eight before item all other items. Reading in item number eight, receive an informational report from Andy Wong on illegal dumping and commending him for working to keep Oakland clean. And we have a number of speakers on this item.

Why don't we hear the report first? Mr. Wong, are you ready to give the report? Yes. Great. Thank you so much for for doing this.

We gave K Top a presentation. Can we put that up?

Our attorney's coming back. Alright. I believe our attorney has some information about remote participation.

Yes. Good afternoon. So I do understand that council member Houston will be pairing remotely via government code section 54953J2 that he is ill and has a contagious illness. Pursuant to the rules, council member Houston's camera must stay on. Council member Houston must state if there's anyone 18 or older in the room with him and the nature of the relationship. And we need to maintain an in person quorum.

Okay. Council member Houston, did you hear those requirements and meet meet them?

Yes. I do. No one is in the room that was, but I told them to leave.

Excellent. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Proceeding with item number eight. I'll reread it into the record. Receive an information report from Andy Wong on illegal dumping and commending him for working to keep Oakland clean.

Andy, you have the clicker, so you have control of the presentation.

Mr. Speaker, Oakland's council members, city staff, attorneys, and the general public, I thank you all for giving me this opportunity to talk about my experiences in helping to combat illegal dumping, not just in Oakland, but throughout the whole Bay Area. So, you know, my whole goal here is I hope that I can be one of many stepping stones for better solutions to because everybody deserves to thrive and grow in a healthy and clean environment. So to start out with, my name is Andy Wong, and I'm a resident of Livermore, California. And since 2021, I've embarked on a journey to help beautify communities throughout the Bay Area, including Oakland.

And as a solo volunteer, I have tackled numerous messes in urban and rural settings such as these ones that you see here. So these are some illegal dumping sites that I cleaned up, and this is what the before looked like.

Uh-oh. Why is is the clicker working?

Ah, here we go. And this is what it looked like after, all by myself. And in the and you can see that after the cleanup, everything looks so much better, cleaner, and it's just a sight to behold. And it's just such a shame to see places trashed the way they are. So I've done cleanups that are very massive, such as these ones that you see here.

And the impact that I made can also be seen from satellite and aerial imagery, such as my cleanup in Vallejo's marshlands. So you can see with the arrow pointing, that's what the before and after looks like, and then you can see the difference that is shown on, like, Google Earth. And I just think that's really, really cool just to see, like, just tangibly how big of an impact I helped make for the community. And this is the cleanup I love to share the most. And you can see here that there's a crevice.

It was completely covered in trash. It was like its own mini landfill with layers and layers of trash buildup from many months. Oh, no worries. And, you know, it took me, like, a total of three weeks to clean all of this.

Oh, hopefully, was good. Okay.

That's good. I've been going through a lot. So what was I saying? Oh, yeah. So so in the left hand side, you can see that this was a crevice completely covered in trash.

It was like its own mini landfill, and there were layers and layers of trash that's built up for many, many months. And then over a course of two weeks, I was able to turn it into something like what you see on the right hand side where there's vegetation that's grown again. What used to just be dirt because of the trash, there's now life coming back. And I always love going back to this place because not only has it remained clean, but, you know, it's just a testament that hard work does pay off. You know, I've had numerous successes, but also failures.

You know, there are some places I cleaned up that become dirty again in a matter of days. But being able to see something that held up, it really, you know, it feels nice. So so not only do I focus on, you know, cleaning up the trash, but I've also kind of been brainstorming how can we mitigate illegal dumping in the long run, and also coming up with solutions that are more economical. Because, you know, it'll be nice if we could hire, like, a thousand more people, but, you know, economically, that might not be feasible. So we gotta look at alternative ways.

So one of the things I've been brainstorming about is how can we better allow people to understand that there are better there are other ways to get rid of your trash. So these are some signs that you see just throughout Oakland or Contra Costa County or Antioch. You know, they do an effective job in saying, don't dump. But, you know, as but it doesn't really tell people, like, there is an alternative way to dispose of your trash. You you know you know, if you know, from from a person's standpoint, it's like, great.

I can't dump, but what's the other solution you have to offer? So, you know, while this does tell people to not illegally dump, but I think it's also useful that we provide information about these are some alternative ways you can get rid of your trash so then people could, like, reflect on that and, you know, act on that potentially. So so, like, you know, I'm just thinking about signs like these. You know, instead of saying just no illegal dumping, why not have a QR code on there that says, like, you know, Oakland offers free bulky pickups or there's block parties and whatnot, you know, providing more information on the signs instead of just telling people don't dump. I just think, you know, because I've talked to many, many residents throughout my time cleaning up in Oakland, and they tell me, you know, I didn't know about bulky pickups.

I didn't know about block parties, or I didn't know we could get rid of our biohazardous waste at, like, CVS or Walgreens or whatnot. So I just think that having signs with this sort of information can help potentially in giving people an option to do it correctly. So so that's one thing kinda, like, something I've been brainstorming about. So these are the tools that I use to help with my cleanup, so it's pretty, pretty, you know, straightforward. You know, I got trash tongs, gloves, bags, shovels, rakes.

And you can see here that's not much stuff that is needed to make a huge impact for the community. These can all fit inside my small trunk of my small sedan. I don't drive a truck. I don't have the money for it, but I still want to help make a difference. So these tools have been very effective in helping me do that.

And a question that people always ask me about is, how do I do these cleanups? And usually what I tell people is when I first go to these illegal dumping sites, I first check to see, hey, you know, what is the stuff I'm dealing with? If it's a bunch of landscaping or bulky items, that's kinda out of my control. I'm more I feel like I'm more effective when it comes to loose debris, you know, like candy wrappers, you know, household waste, that kinda stuff. Because, those are easy to sweep up and clean up and whatnot.

And then I go through it slowly at first with my trash grabber or trash tongs. I don't just start immediately shoveling everything into bags because there's the potential that there could be syringes or other hazardous materials. So that's why I usually go very slow in the beginning. And then it's only towards the end that I speed it up by using my rake and shovel to get everything all in one go. So that's how I go about these cleanups.

And then after that, I reach out to Oakland Public Works or whatever city I'm in, and it's been pretty effective. And, you know, I really appreciate that collaboration. So not only do I, like, think of, like, way ways of, like, you know, helping to mitigate illegal dumping, but I've also been interested in the data. So I you know, I'm a programmer, and so I'm always curious about, you know, where are the hotspots located? So what I did was I wrote my own mini Python program.

It's open source. Anybody can go in and take a look at the code or make tweaks to it. And using this code, I was able to generate a map, and all the blue dots are where there was a three one one request to get trash or a legal dumping address. So you can see easily, like, you know, where some of the hotspots are located. And this map, in particular, was generated for January 2025 all the way to July 2025.

So you can see that there are some patterns we can observe from there. And my goal is to, like, make the program even better by looking at it from, like, block to block and, like, being able to do more visualizations like heat maps and whatnot. And I'm hoping that could potentially help the community at large in identifying where the hotspots are located. So that's just another thing I do besides just grabbing my reflective vest and going out and picking up trash. I also look at it from more of a data analysis standpoint.

And then the last thing I always like to point out is nothing saddens me more than seeing how much more Oakland residents are paying for trash compared to other cities. So I went I did some research on oaklandrecycles.com looking at the current trash rates. And, basically, for 32 gallons, if you're a single family dwelling, it's $62. And for multifamily home, it's a little less, $55. But, you know, if you go to, like, a city like Alameda, which is close by, for single family dwelling, if they want 32 gallons of trash picked up, it's a $150, but it's quarterly.

Whereas for Oakland, that was, like, per week, and so it's kinda shocking. And then it's even more shocking when you look at cities like Hayward where it's $46 for 32 gallons for a single family dwelling and $31 for multifamily for the same 32 gallons. And then in Emeryville, it's $26. And so just seeing these cost discrepancies are very concerning because, sure, you know, it's $10.20 dollars more each time you get your trash picked up, but then we gotta look at it from, like, a weekly perspective. There's, like, fifty something weeks each year.

And so that cost adds up drastically. And, you know, I just hope that, you know, there could be a better contract that Oakland could could agree on with waste management because it's just it's just shocking to me how much more residents here pay than other residents do in nearby cities. And I want to also emphasize that Hayward and Emeryville also use waste management. So just something I just wanna point out, and hopefully, something can be done about that. And lastly, you know, I mentioned that I talk to people while I do these cleanups.

And, you know, like I said, I would say good 50% of people do not know about bulky pickups. And so I went on to Oaktown Proud website from, like, a year ago, and there's this interesting graph or table that kinda showed how much bulky pickups were being utilized. And you can see in 2022, not that much. And just kinda curious, you know, now it's 2025. Have we seen that go up, or has it remained the same?

But based upon my interactions with residents, I think it's kinda gone up a little bit, but I think more needs to be done to spread the message that there are free bulky pickup options and there are alternative ways to get rid of your trash. And that's why I think that having those better signage might help in getting more people to use this free service. So I just wanna end by saying two more things. First, you know, I wanna give a huge shout out to Oakland Public Works, especially their keep Oakland clean and beautiful division, like people like people like Peter Dunlap and Leland Moore and others, they've been, like, not just supportive of what I do, but they've been very, very helpful. And I can't thank them enough because without their partnership, I would not be able to do what I can do for Oakland.

So I just want to, you know, make that very clear that they've been very valuable partners in this. And the second thing I want to say is I've met some incredible people in Oakland. You know, there's many volunteering groups out there like Urban Compassion Project, High Street Coalition, Trash Falcons, and more. You know, it's been an honor to, you know, get to know other volunteers who've been also been doing some very incredible work in helping to beautify Oakland and to solve the illegal dumping problem. So, you know, just hearing what they have to say, their perspectives has really been useful for me in terms of understanding what's going on.

So so I just want to, like, kind of give them a huge shout out as well well. And I hope, you know, in the coming months or years, we can, like, figure out how can we better support these these groups out there, whether it's, like, partnerships or grants or whatnot. So I just think that we're all in this together to make Oakland a cleaner place for all. So thank you.

Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate the report, your volunteerism is really an example for all of us. So why don't we move to the speakers?

Calling in the names that signed up for item number eight, Kevin Dally, Osada Olavala and Blair Beakman. If you're on Zoom, please raise your hand to be easily identified.

So when I first moved to Oakland in 2007, I had the good fortune of meeting Mary Forte. And she introduced me to keep Oakland beautiful, and I proceeded to, pick up trash on Keller from skyline down to mountain. It was challenging. It was challenging because as soon as you clean it up, you would get repeated need to have to clean up again the next day. It was challenging because I came across things like he said, needles, toxic waste materials.

And it was challenging because I was told that it was very important to pick up cigarette butts. So I made a strong effort to do that. It was challenging because the city didn't inform me that they sprayed the mutual ground with a toxin to kill the weed, and I walked in there and broke out all over. So, it got to a point where I I couldn't do it because of aging. But we do have someone that's continued to do it.

And the main point I wanna do, this gentleman is outstanding in what he's done. But the culture of how we have people willing to do just do this dumping all the time. You can pick up every day no matter how much you pick up or how little. It's gonna be you know this gallow. It just keeps going and going and going. And the frustrating thing, you go to San Leandro or Haywood. You don't see it. You see it in only in Oakland. And how do we change the culture? I don't know.

But people who are doing this, they get tired. And I think this gentleman's taking a break. I heard him say, whatever. But we have got to change the culture, and I don't know how that's done. Gallo, if you knew the answer, I'm sure you would have presented a long time ago. But thank God for people like this young man who doesn't even live in Oakland, who comes from Livermore to help our city become greater or better. Where is he?

Thank you for your comments. Switching to Zoom user Blair Beakman. You can unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Hi. Blair Beakman. Thanks for the meeting today. I'm I lived in the Bay Area for a a long time, and I moved down to San Diego in 2022. I've moved back here for a few months. I'll I'll be here till February or so. So, hi. I'm back just giving my public comment time. Thanks a lot for this item. Thanks a lot for the presentation. It was really a caring presentation. It was nice to hear. I'm I was initially from San Jose, and they've made a really strong emphasis to work on their garbage issues. And so they they made changes. They they worked on programs to really help the situation.

I know that there you often use AOPR cameras and and surveillance tech for for these projects. And in past few years, it's been kind of a confusing process to understand that. I hope the doors are opening so it's more clear and understandable what tech is being used for the surveillance issues involved here and that those conversations are okay, and they don't have to be secretive and hidden, and you're learning how to be more open and clear with each other about that. San Jose, believe it or not, have the same problems with their tech issues and trash and how how to just be more clear with with the tech itself. And that can be a step as what was spoken by the previous speaker, you know, an overall how do we develop a better culture of learning?

Oakland is unique in its in its garbage, and good luck in really addressing it, working as a community process, what that can mean. I hope it's understanding better tech accountability can be a step in that direction. Good luck in your efforts here. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Cher. That concludes our speakers on Item eight.

So I actually prepared a commendation from the city. Andy, we wanted to surprise you with this because I know that you've talked to me about sometimes you've even felt defeated in whether your efforts were being recognized. And I know that at this point, you've had coverage by local news, by The New York Times, SF Chronicle, but you have yet to receive official recognition from this council body. I wanted to make sure that you see that your efforts are seen and so deeply appreciated by this community. I would like to deliver this to you.

Director Rohn, I would invite you. I know that you guys have also gotten close through the process. So I would love to invite you all to to come up. Motion to what is exactly

We we we can just keep the informational report here in committee.

Yeah. Motion to retain the informational report and also commend Andy Wong.

I'll second that.

Thank you. That was a motion made by council member Wong. Oh, sorry. Council member Houston has his hand raised.

Council member Houston, go for it.

I'd just like to commend the young man for coming from another city to help clean up our city that we we shouldn't have to be dealing with. I I just wanted to make an announcement on supervisor Nate Miley is doing a regional convening on illegal dumping on Wednesday this Wednesday, tomorrow, nine to one, Alameda County Training Conference Center that's addressing this, and we should be supporting that also. We shouldn't have to be cleaning up our street over and over and over. It should be deterring this problem. So I like to compliment that young man for coming from another city to help us solve our problem that we can solve ourselves. Thank you.

I'd like to make a comment on this. Yeah. And and I'll just take a minute to do so. And thank you for the volunteer that has come to Oakland, and I recognize a good number of you here that volunteer to clean the city of Oakland. But look, the reality is this. I've been doing this now for twenty years. I have five of my employees in my office. We don't sit here making more laws and more rules. They're out there 6AM to one in the afternoon cleaning up the neighborhood. But I don't see a whole lot of other city employees out there cleaning the neighborhood, so you can really see what is going on.

And here's the issue when it comes to because I know this well. I brought that to council many times, but, you know, it's not about what you say. It's what you do. So the bottom line here in Oakland, you brought up what it costs for me to go dump at waste management. If I take my truckload of mattresses and couches and debris to Oakland's dump yard, it's gonna cost me about $300.

I do that same because I clean my grandmother's house in Arizona in Tucson. Had a truckload of stuff went to the dump yard in Arizona. It was $20. So you see the difference that we're being charged? Now the other one is that Oakland, the city of Oakland for years, has a franchise fee that is being collected by waste management to give directly back to the city, and that's $40,000,000.

There are no other cities do it, maybe one or two or three. Then we put on waste management with their contract, you gotta collect $40,000,000 from the residents and give that 40,000,000 back to the city and let the city determine how we use that money. Alright? So they're costly items. The bulky pickup, we eliminated it. Why? Because it was costing us over 365,000. So it ended. So now if you wanna take your trash, you go straight to waste management. They closed on Sundays, but you can go Monday through Saturday as we do with our trash.

And thanks for the cooperation of public works because we're we're city employees. We drive city trucks. And so so the bottom line is the other one that's major. I have videos of people doing the dumping. But the reality is we're not in if you're a hauling truck, we're not checking this, make sure you have a hauling license.

Right? Because right now you wanna haul stuff, you don't need a license, go get it and dump it wherever you wanna get, dump it. Then the last thing, if I catch you in your truck with a video and a picture dumping, it's a long process. I gotta give that information and picture to the city attorney. The city attorney's gotta go to the district attorney. The district attorney's gotta give that information to the judge. And guess what? I have to be standing there in front of with the judge saying, Judge, that's the one I saw dumping it. That's him. Because if I don't show up, the judge dismisses it.

And and a lot of people are don't wanna stand there in front of otherwise, we are afraid of the repercussion. I turned you in. Well, you're gonna come back at me because I turned you in. And then the last thing we used to have here years ago, we had cameras on hotspots. In just about every hotspot we knew in Oakland, there was a camera recording the actual dumping that's going on and who's doing it. And but it's a lengthy process to prosecute you and get you, you know, to stop doing that action. But, anyways, thank you for that information. There's a lot more that we can share. But like I said, you know, we we're doing this daily. Not only do I have to clean city sidewalks and streets.

Right? Because the homeless have now grown up to 6,000 all over the city. And and then the last thing is I'm required and requested to clean around the school because the school laid off 30 custodians. So we have to maintain the safety and the cleanliness around our elementary schools, specifically in our high schools. And that's what we do besides cleaning the park, the streets. Now I'm cleaning around the schools as well. And but anyways, thank you for that information, and and certainly we got a lot of work to do to have a clean, city. Thank you.

Great. We've got a long agenda. Let's start clipping through it.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Wong, seconded by chair Unger to approve the recommendation of staff and to receive and file this item in committee on roll. Council member Gayo?

Aye.

Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger? Aye. Thank you. Item number eight passes with four ayes to receive and file this item in committee. Now moving back to item number one, approval of the draft minutes from the committee meeting held on 10/14/2025.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you. That was a motion made by council member Wong, seconded by council member Gaio to approve the committee meeting minutes of 10/14/2025. On roll, council member Gaio?

Aye.

Council member Houston? Aye. Councilmember Wong? Aye. And Chair Unger?

Aye.

Thank you. Item number one passes with four ayes. Now moving on to item number two, determination of schedule of outstanding committee items. And we do have one speaker on this items.

Anything from the committee or staff on the pending list? Through the chair, nothing at this time. Alright. Let's hear our speaker, please.

Miss Asada Olubala.

I'm requesting that we get a report from California Waste Management on who are these California Waste Management Police that are going around putting citation on the recycle cans. And they have on the citation, if you don't make corrections about how you recycle, we can stop your service. The citations that they put on says your first two offenses are warnings. On your third offense, you will be charged $25. On your fourth offense, 50.

On your fifth, 50. And then they stop service. Who are these people that are walking down the street going into your trash or recycle cans, going through your cans, going through your items and determining whether it's appropriate or not to have those items in the cans. So I would like to get a report. I saw somebody in my can and went out to say, what in the hell are you doing? Who are you? We I don't know if everybody's aware of this process. How can it exist? And are you a part of the city? Just like waste management, you take on the responsibility of collecting the fines if they're not paid like you do for waste management.

You take on that responsibility. So who are these people? How did this happen? Who gave them the authority to go in to my can? And if they if they're going into my can I live in the hills? Yeah. They're going are they going into flatlands? They are? Well, we need to get some reporting out how this works, how it happens, and these citations. In actuality, do you wanna have the situation where we stop picking up recycled cans? I'm not asking about the FBI investigation that's going on with them, so stay out of my can.

Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes our speakers on this item.

Mr. Chairperson, for the public, it's California Waste Solutions. They do recycling and so they're making sure because people are throwing their trash and recycling items and they want to make sure we separate the recycling items that they're responsible for and the other trash goes for waste management.

Do we have a motion already on this?

Yes. Make a motion to approve.

Second. Thank you. That was a motion made by council member Gayle, seconded by council member Wong to approve the determination of schedule of outstanding committee items as is on roll. Council member Gayle?

Aye.

Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger?

Aye. Thank you. Item number two passes with four ayes. Reading in item number three, adopt a resolution one authorizing the city administrator to submit an application with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for regional discretionary fund discretionary funding in an amount of $2,256,000.02, accepting and appropriating 2,000,005 $2,256,000 from MTC for the 42nd And High Street I-eighty access improvement projects three, commit matching funds in an amount up to $12,300,000 Four, stating assurances to complete the 42nd And High Street I-eighty access improvement project and five, adopting appropriate CEQUA findings. And we have two speakers on this item.

All right, let's hear from our staff, please. Thank you. Good afternoon.

This project, the 42nd Avenue and High Street I-eight 80 access improvements project is a major streets improvement project that will extend 42nd Avenue from the existing southbound 880 off ramp to Alameda Avenue and extend Jensen Street from High Street to Alameda Avenue. The project also includes roadway improvements such as installation of a traffic signal at the new intersection of Alameda Avenue and 42nd Avenue, upgrades to traffic signals at High Street, Oakport Street, Colosseum Way and the southbound section of the 40 2nd Avenue I-eight 80 off ramp and pedestrian and bicyclist safety improvements and pavement overlays. This will improve traffic circulation along High Street IE880 off on ramps and Alameda Avenue. So the project is currently in the right of way acquisition phase and construction is expected to be completed by 2030 or 02/31. The current cost estimate for the construction phase of the project is $14,600,000 and approval of the proposed resolution would accept an appropriate $2,300,000 of funds from the grant funds from the MTC.

In addition to the proposed grant award, the city is obligated to provide a local match of $12,230,000 out of which the city has already secured 10,000,000 in grant funds from the Alameda County Transportation Commission and remaining $2,300,000 will be provided from the city local matching funds. So staff recommends that the City Council adopt this resolution authorizing the city administrator to submit an application with the MTC for funding in the amount of $2,300,000 and accept and appropriate the same amount of money.

Excellent questions, colleagues.

Yes, thank you and this is an action in my district and certainly we've been waiting for this for ten years. We've set that discussion with the state many years ago and we've been on hold and hold and waiting. And certainly, you know, in my working with Home Depot and, you know, they we've had the cooperation from them directly to get it done. Then secondly, there's there's always been an issue. There's a small section of that property.

I don't know if it's East Bay Mud or someone else has always made an issue of us continuing that development. So I in saying that it's, you know, I'm ready to help you with, the Home Depot, the private owner that owns that other lot on that side of the street and make a motion to approve this request. And thank you for your work.

I'll second it and go to council member Wong.

Just a question. Don't contest how important this project is. I'm just curious because I don't often see a required local match of this high dollar amount and to commend you on the work to braid all the funds together. But what about this particular grant requires this much local match? Can you explain

that? So

believe you are talking about the language that says the city needs to have $12,300,000 So this is more like a MTC requirement. Out of this $12,230,000 we already have $10,000,000 from ACTC grant. And we the city will be providing $2,300,000 in local magic band. Either from

I mean, yes. I from from from where? I see a couple of

So we

have a couple of funds. Okay. We are anticipating Measure U or Measure BB.

Okay. Understood. Thank you.

Anything else, colleagues?

All right. Let's get it done. Thank you.

Let's hear from our public speakers.

Calling in the names that signed up for item number three, missus Sato Olubala and Kevin Dali.

Hi. This is Kevin Dali, and we did bring up this project to the Bicyclist Pedestrian Advisory Commission. I'm not a member, but I'm a frequent attender and cochair of one of their committees. It's we should pass the project, but there's a lot of ugliness there. There's a lot of other things that need to be done.

And I'll mention a couple of them. High Street really needs protected bike lanes. We can't get this added as part of this project. Council member Gayle brought up the good point that there is a Jensen Street acquisition that could be added. Someone needs to look into this city, Oak Dodd.

I don't know who, but that would allow better access to Home Depot, I think, even from one side of 880 to the other side. Right now, you have to go all the way down through Alameda, which is not great. We need to have sidewalks on 42nd Avenue as well. This is sort of related to item five at today's meeting. So right now, 42nd Avenue does not have sidewalks over part of the blocks.

We have policies requiring property owners fix broken sidewalks, but we don't really have a good policy for requiring that sidewalks be added that don't exist. So that means someone someone who's walking, someone who's in a wheelchair, someone who is pushing a baby stroller, they cannot go along the sidewalk of 42nd Avenue because there isn't a sidewalk. You have to go out in the street and risk your lives. You should still pass it, but but there's a lot left to do. Thanks.

So what I started doing was, when y'all have a project, I go to the city's website and see what they say about the project. And in doing that, there's not consistency of information. So for this project, your city web website says that the cons the contract was awarded in the 2025 for this project, and the starting construction date is the 2025. And here we are today, actually calculating how we're gonna get the money together for the project. So recommend that your city website information about projects be correct.

Then you say in the report that this is a combined effort, the city of Oakland and the city of Alameda. So how much money is city Alameda putting into this project? Are we paying for the whole thing? Hello? We don't do charity here.

We don't have a welfare system here. Okay? So the question needs to be, what is if this is something that's gonna benefit two cities, whose responsibility financially each city has needs to be a part of the conversation. And, lastly, I saw something about this date that this project was being considered was 1998 was the start of the consideration of this project, and we get into it in 2025. If it's so important, why has it taken us this long to actually find the money to begin it?

Do you want this up here?

Thank you for your comments. Chair, that concludes our speakers. And we do have a motion.

Move approval.

Second. Thank you. That was a motion made by Council Member Gayos, seconded by Council Member Wong to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the November 4 city council special city council agenda on consent. Council member Houston has his hand raised.

Council member Houston.

Yes. I'd like to, just say council member Noah Gallo has been working on this diligently and and a long wait in his community. This is way before I was elected. Does not have to deal with the conditions that he's had to fight for all this time. You have a development on Alameda Ave down the street. Pro Lodge is a beautiful, project that's going to to embrace that community, create jobs, and a a beautiful building at the same time. He's been waiting a long time for this, and I I I totally support him on on this. And I'll approve that, and I'll take that as a vote as a yes.

Thank you. And, again, that was a motion made by council member Gaio, seconded by council member Wong to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this to the November 4 special city council agenda on consent at 9AM. On roll, council member Gayle? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger?

Aye.

Thank you. Item number three passes with four ayes. Now reading in item number four.

Yeah. Well, let me just for the public's question, 42nd Avenue is a state highway. Alright? It's a state's where you see the highway patrol patrolling that site all the time. And International Boulevard from 42nd Avenue to San Leandro is a state highway, and that's why you see more presence of the highway patrol on that site. And it's not for me, it's an issue. It's within the city of Oakland to strengthen our communication from one end of the city to where the industrial and a lot of the developments going on. Thank you.

Sorry. Now reading in Item Number four. Adopt a resolution awarding the construction contract to Redswick Construction for the 27th Street Complete Streets project, project number 1003978. Sorry. The lowest responsible and responsible and and responsive bidder in accordance with the project plans, specifications, state requirements and with contractors bid in an amount of $10,418,573.50 and adopting CEQUA findings, and we have a three speakers that signed up for Item four.

All right. Let's hear from staff first, please.

Good afternoon, Akhil. This project, the 27th Street Complete Streets project will construct pedestrian, bicycle, transit and vehicular traffic safety improvements on 27th Street from Telegraph Avenue to Harrison Street and on Bay Place from Harrison Street to Grand Avenue. The highlighted improvement project improvements include protected intersections on 27th Street at both Broadway and at Harrison Street, constructing concrete separated protected bike lanes on 27th Street in both directions from Telegraph Avenue to Harrison Street removing a travel lane and installing buffered Class II bike lanes in both directions on Bay Place from Harrison Street to Grand Avenue and closing the slip turn lanes at Harrison Street and at Bay Place. So the project is funded by $7,800,000 grant from the Alameda County Transportation Commission, 1,000,000 grant from Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program and CAD 1,600,000.0 from the local funds. The city received three bids for this project.

Redwood Construction is deemed to be the lowest responsible and responsive bidder with a bid amount of CAD 10,400,000.0 and they meet the city's local small local business enterprise requirements with a participation of 62.22% with 14.77% going to local small businesses and 8.17% to very small local business. So the anticipated schedule is to begin construction early twenty twenty six and be completed by late twenty twenty seven. Therefore, staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution awarding a construction contract to Redswick Construction, the lowest responsible and responsive bidder for this project. Thank you.

Okay. Colleagues, questions?

I have one.

Councilmember Houston.

Yes. So I have a question for you. Where does Ridgewood Construction their main office? Where's their main office?

According to the report prepared by the Department of Workplace and Employment Standards, Ridgewood Construction is located in Oakland.

So I saw that their their their main office is in Hayward. Can you double check that? And, also, I'm gonna find out what else they are mentoring.

So in the report, it says that they are proposing 50.17% self performance using with Redwood Construction and they are given, I think, 32%. Well, they have 31%.

And I'm not being disrespectful. I don't yeah. But what company are they mentoring? Do they or what company are they mentoring as a protege?

I do

not. Share with you why I have a issue. I have a issue with, companies, and I'm a say the same thing over and over and over. I have an issue with companies of being from outside of Oakland getting these jobs and not mentoring the companies that are here. So I'd like to know before I make a vote on this, where is their I know they might have a satellite office in Oakland, but where is their base, Oakland? Their office because I'm hearing that it's in Hayward. And I wanna know who they're mentoring because we had Mike it was what company came in second?

It was McGuire and

Right. So what company was McGuire and Hester Hester. Protege and a mentor?

I don't have that information in the report.

Okay. Let me share with you who it was. It was Cooper. It's a very, very, very small local business. And I have a issue with not mentoring. We always continue saying we don't have the skill set in Oakland. We don't have the the the the companies to to to to to perform these scopes of work. Why don't we? Because we're not mentoring. McGuire and Hester, in this proposal or this bid, is the most responsible, lowest bidder because they're from Oakland, and they're mentoring a small, very, very small local business called Cooper that's in Oakland.

So what did oh, Maguire Hester price, what did they come in on the value? What was their what was their work their their their amount of money that they came in on? How much what was the difference of the dollar amount?

I think almost a million dollars, 900 k.

Okay. We spend more than that on giving it out to other cities and not embracing our own. So, before I vote on this, I wanna find out if you know where their main office is because I'm reading, and I my research shows that they're in Hayward. And they're not mentoring a very, very small business. So in my opinion, the the the the most responsible bidder is a local company.

McGuire and Harris has been here for years and years and years and years, and they're mentoring a very, very, very small mentoring Cooper Construction. So did that research. Right? I wanna know where there you said it was in Oakland. I'm finding out it's in Hayward. I might be wrong.

I rely on the information provided by the Department of Workplace and Employment Standards.

Say it again?

So the report is prepared by the Department of Workplace and Employment Standards. This is the project team relies on their expertise to determine if the lowest bidder is meeting the local business requirements or not. So the Department of Transportation does not get involved into the in this program.

I don't know what you're saying.

Can I make

What I'm saying is where the low where's their main branch at? It's in Hayward. It's in Hayward.

So council member Houston, this is council member Wong. I'm on their website right now. It they have it listed as the main office as being in Oakland, California at 21 Hagenburger Court.

Okay. So what is what what am I coming up with this Hagett this Hayward branch?

It looks like they do have

They have a yard in Hayward.

Mhmm. Okay.

And they have a yard

in My my only question is what company are they mentoring from Oakland?

There's not a mentoring requirement. This this meets the SLBE program.

Mhmm. So they're doing this mentoring on their own. Okay. Okay. Alright. So I'm I'm done with my questions.

Council member, looks like they're headquartered in your district, by the They're on Hagenburger.

No. I I know they have one in there. I know they have one over there, but I'm saying the headquarters was in it's what I researched showed Hayward. So so that just might be a branch. But I just wanted to know. So that one, I could be wrong on, but I know they're mentoring Cooper, which is a very, very small local business. And it's a million dollars difference, and Cooper can save us that much. Okay. I'm done with my question.

Thank you, council member Houston. Council member Gaia.

Do we have any public speakers?

Why don't we finish with the council first and

then do you ready to make a motion to approve the item.

I'll second that, and then let's hear from our speakers.

K.

Calling in the names that sign up for item number four, George Spees, Asada Olubala, and Kevin Dolly.

Hello. My name is George Spees. I'm with Traffic Violence Rapid Response. We are we are a pedestrian safety organization here in Oakland. Steve Balloon was not a well-to-do guy.

He lived in a small apartment on San Pablo Avenue, and he helped his fellow tenants organize to get better conditions in their building. He couldn't afford a car, so he got around by bike. He used to have a board game get togethers at the Starbucks on Broadway near Sprouts Market. And on in last July last July 2024, he was on his way home from that, and he entered the 27th And Broadway intersection and was killed by a reckless driver. The product the project under consideration, had it been in place before that fateful day, likely would have saved Steve's life.

Lots of folks ask why we're spending money on this infrastructure because no one walks or bikes, but turn it around. One third of our residents cannot drive. Children, elders, disabled folks, and those who can't afford a car, but people who need to walk or bike are chased off our streets by the danger represented by Steve's death. So these safety projects free all of these people to use the streets as they deserve to be able to do. I know Oakdot is always looking to streamline projects, so our hope is to see more of these projects at lower costs, especially along the high injury network. But this project before us is lifesaving, worth every penny, and must go forward. Thank you.

Alright. This is Kevin Dally from Transport Oakland. I agree with what George said. I'm one of the frequent riders on 27th Street. I take it from Grand over to Broadway. Harrison Street is one particularly awful section. I'm really looking forward to safer cycling, and I think in the process, safer walking as well. Definitely look forward to improve approving this and moving forward with the contract. Thank you.

So is this the 27th Bay Place And Lakeside Family Streets project? And you just put 27th Street in the report? Or is this something different from the 27th Street Bay Place and Lakeside Family Streets project? Uh-huh. Right.

You spent a lot of money around Lake Merritt. You even budgeted. When we had budget issues, you made sure that Lake Merritt got money for biking lanes. But we don't have and you have, in the projects, sometimes you have protected lanes and sometimes you have separate lanes. I know on Bancroft, we got bike lanes with no you don't have no protected lanes in the low income areas.

You have protective lanes where you have white folks, riding. And I wanna see I have been sitting out here. I came here early this morning and sat out and looked for a bike. Didn't see one bike in these so called protected lanes. Okay?

I didn't see you, one person waving their hand. We spent a lot of money on bikes, biking, and we got homeless people out here that don't have any place to live. Your priorities are based on who some people that live in this city say is important to them, and you listen to them. But this ridiculous, layout where you've created one lane for all major streets, and you talked about in the last project, the solution is gonna be you're gonna end congestion. You have created congestion all over this city with every major c street being one lane.

And God help us if we have to evacuate this city with one lane being the only major street outlet. So $10,000,000 for more bikes to be able to be able to do whatever they need to do. And people like me, 80 years old, I cannot ride a bike. So it's not convenient for everybody to have a bike available.

Thank you for your comments. Chair, that concludes all speakers on this item. And we do have a motion? Thank you. That was a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by chair Unger to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the November 4. Special city council agenda at 9AM on consent on roll. Council member Gayos? Aye. Council member Houston?

And council member Wayne, McGuire Hester's in my district also.

No. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger? Aye.

Thank you. Item number four passes with three ayes, one no. To forward this item to the November 4 city council agenda on non consent with a no vote. Now reading in item number five. Adopt a resolution confirming establishment of the right of way repair fund, Fund 2425 according to the ongoing appropriation of fund revenues generated through the City of Oakland's notice to repair program for private sidewalk repair projects and transferring all Fund 2,415 balance in project $1,000,010.11 to fund twenty fourtwenty five project $1,000,010.11 for private sidewalk repair projects and we do have two speakers on this item.

Good afternoon Chair Unger, members of the committee. Jamie Parks, Assistant Director with the Department of Transportation. The item before you today recommends creating a new revolving fund for our sidewalk repair program. These sidewalk repairs are the responsibility of private property owners, but the city has a legal responsibility to ensure that the repairs are made. Establishing this fund is consistent with the actions that council already took in the budget and will help to implement those actions from the budget.

In particular, we have a new consent decree around ADA compliance that requires us to increase the size of our private sidewalk repair program by three or four times the current amount. Creating a separate fund will allow for more efficient management of that program. And we do have we have been running a small cross recovery program for a number of years in a in a separate project where this moves it into a totally new fund. And the resolution would take whatever money is in that project and move it into the new fund. I think it's a couple $100,000. And it is called the right of way repair fund because we could use it for other cost recovery, roadway repairs in the future if needed, but right now it's focused purely on sidewalks.

One question. We've already passed something similar to this. This is just sort of like the enabling legislation for what we've already passed. Is that right?

Yeah. Yeah. This enables the creation of the fund for the finance department, but the budget itself that was adopt the two year budget already includes the creation of this fund and appropriate staff costs to the fund.

Great. Thank you. Colleagues, move approval. I'll second that. Councilmember Wong, do you

have a question?

Just just a comment that just thank you for the work on this. You know, having good sidewalks and good repair is just basic dignity that we need to give to residents who everybody walks or uses a mobility device. So thank you.

Councilmember Houston.

I love this. I love it. Is this, for commercial, buildings too? Are, like, small business owners commercial, or is this just for residential?

It's for all property owners and the sidewalk's adjacent to all property owners.

Oh, I love it. How are, my d seven, folks being notified about this process? Because a lot of my seniors, I get phone calls from them about their sidewalks and things like that. How are they being notified, of this great this great opportunity?

Yeah. So so we're we're increasing this program now, but in general, we have inspectors that go out and inspect the sidewalks. If we identify a defect in the sidewalk, then we will notify the property owner, via mail that they need to either repair the sidewalks themselves, or the city will hire a contractor to repair it for them and bill them for the costs. And typically, the city's costs are gonna be lower than a a private than the private property getting their own contractor. But they can choose, and that's done via mail. And we give them a certain day's notice. So we can provide more information on the specifics of that program if your office is interested.

Oh, yeah. I'm very interested. I'd like to talk to you about that because I like to judge this male knock on their door, especially if we know some seniors so they understand what's going on so they're not caught off guard. So I'd like to discuss that with you.

Yep. Absolutely.

Sound sound good? Yep. Good.

Moving on to the public speakers, calling in the names that sign up for item number five, Asada Olubala and Kevin Dally.

This is Kevin Dally from Transport Oakland. I'm definitely excited by this. Spent the last couple weeks. My mother-in-law is testing out her new wheelchair, wheeling to, no kings rallies. That's that's what she wants to use a wheelchair for. Definitely looking forward to having sidewalks that we can easily pass on. And when she takes walks herself with a cane or a walker, even more important. Be great to add, again, sidewalks to areas that don't have them, but I know that's a different project. Thanks for your support.

So what did you say about basic rights, something like that? And you got the nerve to deny homeless people an opportunity who have medical health issues to have a space to be healed because they might endanger your community and public safety. Girl, please, don't push that button. Don't push that button on my time. Wait until I'm finished.

So the city has a responsibility to fix the sidewalks. Let me tell y'all what y'all did at McClyman's High School where city trees uprooted the sidewalks, and you were informed. And mister Duffy said he would take care of it. So what they did is went and got asphalt, black asphalt, and threw it on the sidewalk to balance off the the sidewalk, and it looks like a ugly mess. So where else are you doing that?

You did it to our black children. You should not be able to do that. City trees uprooted the sidewalk. Go and look at McClymonds High School and look at how ugly it looks, I and don't even know if you can legally do that. But that's what you do to our black children.

That's what you do to Omar Farmer, a black man who done has done excellent work for this city for five years. And I went to the meeting on Thursday. We could not have a police commission meeting because you brilliant people decided to put him and Ricardo out of their seats. But, anyway, going back to these sidewalks. So once you get a lawsuit, does the property owner have to reimburse you for the lawsuit once you fix the sidewalk, or is that totally your responsibility to pay for the legal responsibilities for harm done to people.

I don't know how y'all do this, that you say the property owner is responsible, but you responsible. That's double talk.

Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes our speakers. And we do have a motion on the floor.

Right. Let's call the vote, please.

Thank you. That was a motion made by council member Gayos, seconded by council member sorry, chair Unger to approve the recommendation of staff and to forward this item to the November 4 special city council agenda at 9AM on consent on roll. Council member Gaio?

Aye.

Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger?

Aye.

Thank you. Item number five passes with four ayes. Now reading in item number six. Adopt a resolution amending resolution number eighty eight thousand four and sixty one CMS to extend the no parking restriction at the Lakeshore Avenue cul de sac near Lake Merritt. And there are four speakers that signed up.

Alright. Let's hear a staff report if we have one Or from you? Okay.

Ready to go up there or if I can

There's no requirement that you go up there. As long as as long as we can hear you on a mic, you can choose your location. Excellent.

This is a pretty simple amendment. This is about, a unique area in my district, Lake Merritt, where there's a cul de sac, where there's been a number of series of, violent incidents. There was a shooting that happened recently. And this is just an amendment for an existing resolution that prevents parking from 2AM to 6AM. We've talked to the residents and property owners nearby that a lot of the activity starts right after 10PM.

So that's why we're amending this, and it's it's simple as that. I do also wanna read into the record a number of amendments just from the city attorney's office. They're very simple. It's just to city clerk, should I read out the full text? Okay.

And it's just ensure it the amendments from the city attorney's office are just to, exempt this from CEQA as well as ensure that no citations will be implemented until after the parking signs have been put up. So, the full text will now read or not the full text, but the full amendments to the existing resolution is are going to be whereas on 12/15/2020, council adopted resolution eight eight four six one to, among other things, prohibit parking on the East Side of Lakeshore Avenue, hold us back between 2AM and 6AM, Monday through Sunday, Whereas said parking restrictions were imposed in response to nuisance and criminal activity, including gun violence committed on multiple occasions by individuals parked at the cul de sac. And then we're gonna move down to paragraph five. Whereas Oakland municipal code ten point twenty eight point two four zero provides that council may, by resolution and upon placement of appropriate signage, restrict parking between certain hours of any day except holidays on any street or any part of the street. And whereas further restricting parking to prohibit parking between the hours of 10PM and 6AM.

Moving down to next paragraph. Whereas no citations will be issued by the city until the city installs appropriate, no parking signs or markings providing adequate notice, therefore, in accord with California Vehicle Code Section 22,507 A. And whereas this project is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to CEQA guidelines because it constitutes minor improvements made to and entirely within an existing city right of way without creating existing automobile lanes. Okay. Should I okay.

I can continue to read just the final bits here. Okay. Resolved. That resolution, eight eight four six one CMS is hereby amended to crossing out extended the no parking restriction, restrict parking between the hours of 10PM and 6AM on the East Side of Lakeshore Avenue. And then finally, final edit in the very final paragraph, further resolve that no parking citations will be issued until appropriate signage is installed in accordance with CBC section two two five zero seven a. And I do wanna confirm we've talked about this with, administrator Joe DeVries, talked about it with the area three captain. So all the appropriate city staff staff have been consulted in this.

Alright. So you would like to have this amendment accepted here?

Yeah.

Okay. I will make a motion that we accept this amendment as read by council member Wong.

I second it.

Moving on to public speakers that signed up for item number six, Isaac Kose Reed, Marilyn a Waller, Asada Olubala, and Kevin Dolly.

So Wong says this is simple. This is not simple. You can't just put up a sign. You have to have the ability to have enforcement. So if the area is gonna be closed off from 10AM to 6PM, who's gonna enforce it and what way?

Are you gonna have human enforcement? Are you gonna block it off with barricades? If you have human enforcement, you have to have residents who are coming in after 10:00, identify with some type of proof that they live in the building. If the residents have family or friends that want to come to the building, all during the period of ten to six, how do you handle that? In other words, they are willing to give up having anybody coming into their building after 10:00 to visit.

What's the enforcement? You can't just put up signs. It's not simple. And if you violate and go into the area, what's the what's the penalty? You get arrested, you get a fine, you get towed, and everybody said, I move approval, and you haven't had any discussion on the enforcement process.

You haven't had and what are the challenges related to who comes in and out. You can't close it off with nobody coming in and out after ten. Some people have the right to be in in that area. So this has been dealt with before because it had so many killings over there. Something needs to be done. But to say we're gonna put up some signs and that's the end of it, that's stupid.

Good afternoon, everybody. Isaac Cost Reid speaking as a District 2 resident who lives a few blocks away on Lake Merritt by this site. Also as a parks and recreation advisory commissioner who works on issues around activity that is adverse to fully enjoying the amazing parks in our city. I commend council member Wong for bringing this forward. I think every tool in the toolkit matters, and that includes signage as we saw even in the, case of illegal dumping.

If signs aren't up saying that you can't do things, then it's harder to enforce. Of course, enforcement is the next step, and the nuances of that are going to be challenging. They're challenging everywhere in our city, partly because we're under resourced, partly because the problems are so immense. But we've gotta to move on these things, so I'm glad to see this moving forward. Speaking in support and, notwithstanding Ms. Assata's comments, I think that this is a good first step, and I trust that the professional city staff will implement it in an effective way. Thank you.

Can I also clarify? Am I allowed to do that? Okay. So to clarify, this came sourced directly from the OPD dog watch patrol officer. Enforcement. She cannot do the enforcement without those signs. This is why the signage is key. Okay. And it's it's signage plus enforcement. Thank you so much.

Alright. Let's let's not get into a back and forth, please. Would we have other speakers? Do we have other speakers? Yes. Thank you. Please approach the mic.

Good afternoon, council people. My name is Marilyn Waller. Audrey Knight is with me. We're also residents of the cul de sac. And I really we really want to commend you all for considering this. It has made our lives safer. It has made the community safer. And just to clarify, it doesn't prevent people from coming in and out. It's parking restrictions. It's not coming in and out of the cul de sac.

We have had in the three and a half years that I've lived there, we've had probably four shootings, one fatality only about a month ago. And it's been, it's it's a small cul de sac, and to have that kind of compressed, violence and anxiety really, goes against everything that Oakland is trying to do to improve the community. And thank you very much, for what you're doing, and we totally support this.

All right, do we have any more speakers? Do we have any more speakers who have signed a card?

Okay, that concludes our speakers, Chair.

Okay, do we have a motion? Okay. Let's move on.

Thank you. We have a motion made by chair Unger, seconded by council member Houston to approve the recommendation of staff and support this item to the November 4 special city council agenda at 9AM. On consent, on roll, council member Gaio? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. And sorry. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger? Aye. Thank you. Item number six passes with four ayes. Reading in item number seven, adopt a resolution expressing the city of Oakland support for a Antonio BART station and calling on the Bay Area rapid transit district to conduct the feasibility study, and we have a number of speakers on this item.

Is there a report from your office or from BART?

How do we get this to work? Oh, great. Oh, that's right. We have, we can scroll up. Oh, I can do it. Okay. Ah, there we go. All right. Thank you, colleagues, for listening to this. I also want to thank the leadership of the community, especially I see, Sarah in the audience, Young Chae, Ben, they've all been, leaders in advocating for the San Antonio, Station Alliance.

This has been, an effort that's been documented in a number of news articles. This community is one where there's a 2.8 mile stretch within the BART station network where there is no as you can see on this screen, there is between the Lake Merritt BART Station and the Fruitvale BART Station, this is what the advocacy is around. And it's in this area where this is a very working class community. Average income is $38,000 per person, very diverse, 80% people of color. So you've got black, Latino, Asian residents.

I was just on a community call and it was like five different languages were being represented in this community. It's also estimated between 20% to 30% of these individuals also do not own a car. So this is an area that is in much need of some transit options. It's also an area where if you look at it, it could really, if we make some investments in partnerships with other agencies thank you, director Flores, for being in the audience. If we can partner with other agencies to signal investment to this area, this would be really key.

This is an area that right now is one of the hotspots of gun violence, that in Deep East Oakland. It's also the hotspot of sex trafficking, and, this community needs needs a vision for a brighter future, and that's exactly what these community members have done. And so this is a request to, call on, the city because historically, if you look at what happened with, some of the other BART feasibility studies, the city council made a vote, for example, in Jack London where they, essentially put forward a resolution that then called on BART to carry out a feasibility study. So that's what this is. And I would also note that there's a couple of upcoming grant opportunities available to the state, including the Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant, where again, if we set this up for success, this will put us in a much better position for BART as a regional agency as well as the City Of Oakland partner on actually getting a grant application and to to implement this feasibility study.

Okay. I will do you wanna make a motion on the to accept this?

Sure. Yeah. Motion motion to accept this item.

Okay. I'll second that. Do we have public speakers on this?

Calling in the names that signed up for item number seven. If you're in chamber, you can come up to the podium. If you are on Zoom, please raise your hand to be easily identified. Ben Lupinetti, Victor Flores, Young Chae Lee, Asada Olubala, Kevin Dali, Ben Matlov, Sarah Rowley, and George Spees. Please state your name before you begin.

Alright. Victor Flores, BART District seven director. I'd like to start off by thanking council member Wong for bringing this resolution forward. And I also wanna thank the San Antonio Station Alliance here for their continuous and thoughtful organizing around this concept. As an individual BART director representing this neighborhood, I'm supportive of the of the resolution and ask for your aye votes.

And as a former council aide that represented or worked in for this district, I it always struck me as an ideal location for an infill station because of all the demographic issues and transportation challenges that council member Wong just highlighted. While we still have some fine tuning to do to align this to BART's new station development policy, it's relatively new. Not a lot of people or cities specifically have taken advantage of it. So this is all new to to all of us go through this process. I just wanna highlight the council members partnership and willingness to collaborate so we can get this to a good place to make sure that we can start the feasibility study.

I'd also like to just highlight that a lot of community concerns have revolved around displacement, around investment, and I do wanna highlight that when you look at our TOD policy, almost 50% of all the new housing units that go up at BART are subsidized affordable housing. Transportation, when you combine that with housing, we're actually very competitive for a bunch of state and federal tax credits that help us to construct subsidized housing. So this is an opportunity for us to invest in a part of Oakland that has been ignored, a part of the District 2 and my district that have transportation challenges, and it is gonna be important to make sure that we get the long term plans from the general plan update, county wide transportation plan, and all these other plans aligned so we can be successful. So thank you so much.

Hello. Thank you all for being here. My name is Ben Lupinetti. I'm a resident of a neighborhood near the potential future site of the San Antonio Station. And I just wanted to be here to express my earnest support for this feasibility study and to thank council member Wong for her leadership on this. I really love my neighborhood. I love being there. I love bringing people to visit there, but I think it's frequently overlooked. With 14th Avenue and 12th Street there, it's a pretty high traffic area. People tend to pass through pretty quickly.

And think they tend to miss out on the businesses and people that make it really special. There's the taco stand. That was the first place I went to dinner when I moved in in the neighborhood, and now they know me by name. It's just a truck, but it's as much an institution as anything else. There's the, place where my wife and I found a little dog that had got out of their, backyard where they lived.

We returned it to their owner and got to meet some of our neighbors that way, which is a huge relief because that dog stunk. There's Filomena Pizza where my wife and I went after we got engaged to celebrate, where I see people convene all the time, enjoying sports together, having dinner together. It's really nice to see. And I would love to see this project go forward to see more businesses and more business happen there and see people enjoy some of the amenities like San Antonio Park, is gorgeous and has had a lot of work done on to make it even better. And, hopefully, I would love to see this also reduce reliance on cars locally and give people more transportation options because I know that's a huge concern for people who live around there.

So thank you all for being here. I'm not usually disengaged with local politics, but I had to be here for my first council meeting that I've ever attended because it would mean so much to me to see this go forward. So I wanna urge your aye votes on this. Thank you.

So is Bart here?

Yes.

Okay. So Bart is gonna speak, I hope, because they need to explain under the circumstances that they're having tremendous financial problems. Right now they're facing a three hundred to five hundred million dollar deficit. They had to be bailed out by the state and federal government a couple of billion I think $3,000,000,000. So are they in a position for a project like this financially?

Number one. Number two, a good idea, fantastic, much needed. Do you have the space to fulfill this project or you're gonna have to use eminent domain to create the space to fulfill this part, and who's gonna be impacted by that? The other thing is we've already had fiscal studies, and none of them been completed. The three fiscal studies around the library, the CDC, the, Howard Durant in the main library fiscal study, and we spent $700,000 on the Piedmont fiscal study and not not completed.

So what fiscal study have we had that's been completed? What's the timeline for completing this? Average is about two years. What's the parking gonna look like in an already congested community? You have to have parking. It's not just the building of the structure. So all of these things have to be dealt with. And what is the cost of the feasibility study? Like I said, the one for CDC was $700,000 Where's the money coming from, the source of funding? Measure KK was the force of funding for those other ones.

We don't have any money for Measure KK to do anything else. But y'all gonna find the money if it's that important because this is one of those BaaS communities, now Wong communities, where they get exceptional care. Just like when you block the streets off, when you did some things for the park. Okay? So answer some questions. If not, just go ahead and spend the money just because y'all think it's important. But you need to answer those questions.

Flagging that the staff report says this is a no cost item and the feasibility study will be undertaken by BART.

Hello. My name is Young Chae Lee, and I live in San Antonio. I love living there because of my neighbors. We raise our kids together, share meals and gossip, and host really great block parties. I also run a small business downtown, and most of my staff commutes more than an hour each way.

They tell me that it's easier to take BART from places like Castro Valley, Antioch, or South San Francisco than to live and work in Oakland. I get it. As close as our community is, it feels fragile. We face open drug dealing, human trafficking, and gun violence in the area. Some longtime neighbors were thinking about moving away, feeling that things won't improve unless we make meaningful changes like building the San Antonio station along with improvements to our local economy and quality of life.

The first step towards this positive transformation is the visibility study. Let's figure out a way to bring foot traffic to our struggling businesses with a new transit hub. Let's explore how to support BART with our high density, low car ownership community. Let's determine how to help our youth reach their full potential with better access to the regional economy. Let's find out how to increase affordable housing through transit oriented development.

Let's articulate a vision of a sustainable, inclusive, and joyful urban life here in Oakland with the San Antonio Station serving as a connector to new opportunities and experiences. I'm hurting that the council has prioritized the San Antonio Station as an agenda item today, bringing focus to a vision for a hopeful future. Thank you for your time and your attention to equitable access to transit, And I hope you'll vote aye. Thank you.

Hello. George Speas with Traffic Alliance. Rapid response again. I support this project. I've been paying very close attention to the general plan update process, and this is a big part of their thinking about how Oakland goes forward and thrives. And better transit connections and the development that the BART station brings will be a key part of how Oakland moves forward together. So I'm I'm very much in support. Thank you.

Kevin Dally, Transport Oakland. I live in Glenview, and this would be my new closest BART station. I love AC transit. Plan on taking it most of the time, but sometimes we just have to ride BART, and this would be a nice quick route down the hill, slightly longer riding back up. Definitely increased housing, high density housing. I could even increase our tax base if we add extra housing. So in the long run, I think it'll pay off. But thanks for your support of looking further at the project.

Chair, that concludes our speakers on this item, and we do have a motion on the floor.

Yeah. Alright. Let's I just have a question.

Councilman Regatta.

Just for the record, the study will be paid by

BART? Correct.

They're gonna they're gonna provide the feasibility Yes.

This is this is a no cost item according to staff.

It's no

cost item. And so I was looking at some history around, like, the Jack London feasibility study. Now, ultimately, they BART, when they carried out that study, they found it was not feasible. As as we know, we don't have a BART station in Jack London, but, that the resolution by the city allowed then the BART at the time to then apply for a state grant. And for the local match, it was just some in kind staff time, and so this all feels very feasible to me.

Yep. But BART will be doing I mean, as BART is in that business, so they'll be conducting the study. Yeah.

That would be all.

Thanks. Yeah.

Yep. How long is it

going to Alright. Let's call the roll, please. Oh, council member Houston.

Yes. I just have a statement. District 7 has been overlooked and overpassed by the BART connector, which is Hagenberger is the economic engine of Oakland, and that BART connector just overpassed our economic engine. I have, my my one of my staff members are is in the office. So, Bart, I would like you to, go talk to Trinity Hall, because I want a feasible feasibility a study for the economic engine of Hagenberger that just passed over East Oakland, just passed over my corridor of I mean, I don't even know how that happened.

I don't even know how we allowed that to happen. So I would like one of those studies on that that's a little bit easier to construct because they have a a area there that's already built out that can make a drop right from the airport instead of being over Just just ran straight over, just like we don't even exist, in that corridor. So Trinity Hall is in the office, and I'd like you to speak to her. Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Wong, seconded by chair Unger to approve the recommendation of staff and support this to the November 4 special city council agenda at 9AM on consent. On roll, council member Gayo? Aye. Council member Houston? Aye. Council member Wong? Aye. And chair Unger?

Aye.

Thank you. Item number seven passes with four ayes. Moving on to open forum, we have three people that signed up, miss Isado Olubala, Kevin Dally, and Blair Beakman.

This is Kevin Dally. I'm a co chair of the, policy and legislative committee of the Bicyclists and Pedestrian Advisory Commission. And I think BPAC now has some direct liaisons to this committee. I don't think it's been officially announced yet to the chair, which you're supposed to get a letter soon, but not yet. But I can give the list.

It's official commissioner Altman, Jesse Olsen, George Spees, who who had spoken a few times, Rafael and Kilabrew. So there's quite a few of them. We're hoping that many, many meetings, they'll be one of the liaisons who show up either in person or remotely. And I am not a liaison, however, but thanks.

So last week, I left here and went to the Bank of America on 9th Street in Chinatown, paid the parking meter, and got stuck because somebody double parked. And I had to sit and wait for that person to come. Double parking is a issue in Chinatown. I got caught up in it. You need to do something about it.

It's been going on for years. Do something about double parking in Chinatown. Second, you decided to allow the Oakland School Of The Arts to have access to property across the street from the school with the understanding it would be a temporary arrangement because that property was gonna be used for housing, the necessary housing. Said something about the developer would not be able to use the property until 2027. Well, go right over there and look at the property.

They have put turf down on the ground. They have put structures up there. And they have put signs that says this is the new Oakland, School of the Arts Park. So have you officially allowed them to have that park for an extended period of time and given away much needed property for housing so a school could have a play area. Lastly, you need to have some accountability for the Oakland Parks and Rec Advisory Board and all the authority you allow them to have to make decisions about events, what events will take place, how much money will be charged for those events, allowing trees to be cut down.

The, Lake Merritt, vendors, program that was set up, you allow them to decide how that would work. And many other decisions are made about how structures related to the park will take place. They don't have that authority. That's your authority. These are volunteers. But at the same time, you have the authority to deal with Omar Farmer and how inappropriate he is. You don't deal with the privacy commission and how inappropriate some of their stuff is with the policing.

Thank you for your comments. Moving to Zoom user Blair Beakman. You can unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Hi. Blair Beakman. Thanks for the meeting. Yeah. I'm I'm I've been living in San Diego the past few years.

I try to, trying to better understand tech accountability that's possible for our future. Tech accountability that has good guidelines and good policies, good public policies where the public can participate in the process. I think we're really dedicated for a process of review where the entire public is invited to the process. I mean, imagine that concept. Imagine that we talk about our technology in such hidden secretive terms that it's just a a lot of relief that we can we have policies now that can really ask how we all can be more open and accountable with each other and straightforward and that we don't have to hide behind things and we don't have to hide behind the national security state.

So I'm I'm interested in this work. I've been doing it for ten years now since it was first introduced by the ACLU. And so, my my own thinking can be a bit limited and a bit shortsighted and and one dimensional, and and I lack knowledge sometimes. But I I really try to have good intentions, and I'm really concerned about how the current process is going about the police commission review board. You have two commissions.

The one that really focuses on on best practices of oversight is being hamstrung a bit. And I a new group is coming in trying to make their point of view that I think the commission is listening to and agreeing with and and wants to work with, and it's being denied. And I'm really hurt by that, and I hope I I'm I'm more than happy to be a part of the process of working together towards the solution that we continue to have good oversight. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, chair. That concludes our speakers for open forum.

We are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.