If Oakland were Youth Friendly...

If Oakland really were youth friendly, it might have things like:

free shuttles to public pools and libraries...

special teen days in the parks featuring pick-up soccer or other ball games, Rec Center leaders with flyers, vendors of healthy snacks...

weekly or monthly events at alternating school campuses on Saturdays...

a youth rep on City Council...

more teen activities in the flatlands (hands-on science and art centers - like The Exploratorium)...

If Oakland really wants its youth to have focussed activities, it's going to need to give the idea a real jump start. Currently, when someone visits the Town, they don't recognize a youth-friendly environment. What they see are neighborhoods run by the small groups of outlaw youths. What they don't see are the innocent, curious ones who are too scared to go outside or to the park.

The youth are future leaders of the town, future long-term residents. Do we want to nurture in them a love for this place, or resentment?

I'd say the next mayor needs to have strong ideas (positive ones) for making Oakland a youth-friendly town.

Silence the Violence

Wednesday was National Stop the Violence Day. Perhaps you witnessed the many Oakland youths standing on street corners with signs promoting an end to violence. Some kids and I noticed them in our neighborhood. The kids even told me to honk in support. We did, and the neighbor kids cheered for us. Wow, how nice to see our neighborhood kids out urging people to think about peace. One kid struggled between deciding to hold up his sign or hold up his pants. He somehow managed both. It was a bit of a feel good thing for us.

...until a boy in my car realized he had seen that same boy earlier in the day. He said that same youth had walked up to a kid at the bus stop and intimidated another kid with a golf club. "Are you sure that's the same kid?" I asked him. 

"Yes, trust me, it is."

"Why would he be holding a peace sign now after having beat up a kid earlier?"

"Don't know. Maybe he's getting paid, and getting seen."

Surely there's a more positive way for these kids to be seen these days. 

Youth Options

Attending a forum on youth in Oakland at City Hall last night, I was pleasantly shocked to learn of the numerous programs offered to support our kids. Everything from Radical Roving Recreation Programs to gang prevention and intervention to school options for incarcerated or critically ill students. However, I was also disappointed to hear of the high non-graduating rate in town. OUSD estimates that of the students entering 9th grade in 2005, about 40% did not graduate in 2008. Now, where they went, no one knows for sure. Some just dropped off the radar; others transferred to charter schools; and others moved out of town, or out of state. So, tracking the start of that class of seniors in the fall of 2007, another 18% did not cross the high school stage in June this year. Clearly, the biggest problem OUSD and the town face with students is simply getting them to class and keeping them in school. Oakland probably has more violence, truancy and gang intervention programs than other U.S. towns our size. I'd love to see a comparison of similar towns. So, as I like to look for solutions...what do you think is the best thing we can do to keep kids in school, and off the streets?

Solutions

Someone said, Focus on the problem and see nothing change, or focus on the solution and make change happen. Do you want to be a problem-maker or a problem-solver? I'm sure most people want to think they are looking for solutions to problems. But, most aren't. They are merely spotlighting problems. Like my blog yesterday. I didn't offer a solution - though, if you read between the lines, you might say I did. The town shouldn't sell permits to fast-food franchises in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. Okay, so, yeah, that's a suggestion.

The real issue is: What can replace these restaurants, and how can it be done, and who will want to set up shop in neighborhoods that gather lots of crime? I want to know if this town has a plan for its future, or is it just putting band-aids on the little problems. Yes, hooray for FBI and the sweep of gangs yesterday. But I'm not shaking hands with the government yet. Who regulates the sales of guns and bullets? Why not put a $10,000 tax on bullets - or whatever it costs a city and family to pay for clean-up and burial of a murder victim.

If the town isn't taking back control, the people should.

Fried Food and Crime

Driving about this beautiful town, one can't help but note the changes from neighborhood to neighborhood. Take a trip through Montclair in the Lower Hills and you won't see a single fast-food restaurant. Instead, you'll see coffee shops, fast fresh food or fruit-drink types. Spin your wheels down Park Blvd and watch what pops up as you drive under the 580 and the name changes to 14th. Decor switches. Buildings in need of paint, more corner stores and quick greasy food joints sprout like weeds the closer you get to FootHill and International Boulevards.

It doesn't need to be that way.

But it is. As a resident with no political clout, I wonder what I can do. What do you think?