Filed under: profiles
Lawrence Le Vere is an angry man.
It’s hidden under a low voice and a world-weary demeanor, but there is no lack of passion as he talks about the building where he lives.
“The main problem here is the drugs. The drug dealing and the drug use. If you got a problem with drugs, this is not a good place to be,” he said.
The building Le Vere is talking about is no flophouse. It’s the Plaza Apartments, a newly built residential facility for the formerly homeless that opened in 2006 to great fanfare.
It’s in San Francisco’s South of Market area, where last week a controversial new initiative by the mayor will send out teams of social workers and police officers in order to get homeless off the streets and into shelters and places like Plaza.
The nine-story building was designed “green” and trumpeted as part of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s 2004 ten-year plan to address homelessness.
“Supportive housing works because of the carefully selected supportive services delivered to residents on site, linkages to physical and behavioral health services in the community, and the confidence that comes from no longer being threatened and isolated from living on the streets,” according to the plan.
Sitting in an armchair in his tiny but clean room, Le Vere scoffs.
“This is supposed to be supportive housing. But there’s no support here,” he said. “It’s a free for all. This is drug city. This is not what they put in the papers when they talk about supportive housing and shit like that. This is going from the frying pan to the fire.”
The future rezoning of North Oakland was the topic of a neighborhood meeting Thursday night, hosted by the Rockridge Community Planning Council. Among the speakers were District 1 councilwoman Jane Brunner and city planning manager Eric Angstadt.
Neighbors think the current system is too lenient for developers, but are still concerned that when the area is rezoned, the city will allow more density and higher buildings than residents want on busy streets like Telegraph Avenue.
“I do think we have some significant concerns to deal with here in Rockridge,” said Stuart Flashman, an environmental and land use attorney and a board member of the community planning council. “The general plan puts a lot more density on Telegraphy Avenue than there is right now.”
With the Oakland police department still understaffed by 70 officers, merchants in the upscale Rockridge district of Oakland have taken matters into their own hands and hired security guards on bikes to patrol College Avenue.
Although the guards provide the appearance of security, they are not armed and cannot make arrests. But in an atmosphere of increasing anxiety about crime, merchants and residents find the presence of the guards reassuring.
“I think it’s probably a good idea,” said Ray Keifetz, who has worked at the Vino! wine shop for three years. “They supplement the police, who tend not to have much of a presence on the ground.”
Crime and development were the issues of the day at a community meeting with Mayor Ron Dellums, held today at Peralta Elementary in North Oakland. The meeting was hosted by Jane Brunner, councilwoman for the district.
Both issues are hot topics in this ethnically mixed, mostly middle-income neighborhood.
More than fifty speakers from the audience of over 200 addressed Dellums, who began with the announcement of upcoming projects and reports, and an evocation of Oakland as a model city.
But some residents felt less optimistic.
“Oakland is a model city for crime,” said Charles Pine, from the Oakland Residents for Peaceful Neighborhoods, a group that advocates for more police.
“I think that’s disrespectful to this city,” Dellums said, adding that crime is rising across the nation. He also said he is willing to discuss having more police, but said that budget and other concerns must be dealt with realistically.
Filed under: oakland reporting
When Meg Bowerman sits down with a student at Next Step Learning Center, she knows she’s often starting from square one. But Bowerman says that for her students, confidence is as important as knowledge.
At Next Step, a West Oakland-based literacy program that helps adult dropouts pass their high school equivalency exam, it’s not just the paper that matters. The nonprofit uses one-on-one tutoring to help students believe that they can learn.
“They often have such a fear of learning,” Bowerman said. “Many times a student says that I’m the first one that told them they’re a good reader.”
