Neighborhood Concerns

All neighborhoods have concerns about safety and blight. The City of Oakland has ordinances that cover these topics. Any resident may call the city for assistance or to lodge complaints. Go to our Community Links to locate the city department for reporting problems. In addition to phoning, writing letters is a very useful approach to getting action. Multiple signatures carry even more emphasis.

Like most cities, Oakland is struggling with maintaining adequate staffing for all the services it provides. If you report a problem and receive no response, it is possible that some extra community pressure could expedite a response. Since the Oakmore Homes Association represents over 220 homes, we sometimes can get a quicker response when an individual might not. Some issues that OHA has successfully lobbied the City to fix were:

 Blight:

• Badly deteriorating shutters on a house were repaired after the City contacted its absentee owner. The association had not been able to persuade the owner to address the problem and had turned to the city, citing the blight ordinance.
• Several vehicles (some badly damaged), parked along a stretch of Leimert, not been moved for weeks. After neighbors complained to OHA, we first sent a generic letter to all homes in the area asking for cooperation in moving or removing these cars. When the deadline passed, the City was notified about the ‘abandoned’ vehicles, which were promptly towed.

Safety:

• The over-excavation of the hill on upper Leimert created a monstrous problem for the homes above it. There was also the threat of road closure should the hill become even more destabilized during the rainy season. When the owner appeared unable to mitigate the damages, OHA joined the up-slope neighbors in requesting the City intervene. OHA worked closely with Councilmember Jean Quan’s office and the Planning Department during the lengthy period needed to find a solution.
• Wood dumped by a local tree service on a city-owned lot on Monterey Blvd across from the driveway to the Montclair Golf Course (the company has an agreement with Oakland to do this) was spilling into the street and creating a traffic hazard. Compounding the problem were the vehicles that stopped in the middle of the lane while their drivers loaded wood (the public was allowed to help itself). OHA requested the City to ameliorate this safety issue. The City worked with the tree service to stack the wood and fence it in; clear the sawdust, wood chips, and debris out of the street; and create a pull-out spot for vehicles picking up wood. The City also posted signs prohibiting dumping and mounted a surveillance camera after hauling away a boat and a sofa; the previously messy situation had encouraged illegal dumping.

We encourage each resident to be pro active and to seek remedies for problems that they encounter. You would be in the best position to provide the city with the facts (time, place, activity, names, etc.) To maintain credibility, if OHA does get involved with contacting the City, it will do so only after it has first verified the situation and is satisfied that a safety and/or serious blight situation exists which is not being heard by the City. Working together, we can all better enjoy this great neighborhood.

P.S. A word about trash and recycling carts: The 2005 Summer Newsletter has an article about this topic. Click here to pull up the 2005 Summer Newsletter.