I'm grateful to share that this week, after a year of advocacy and planning, we opened a tiny home community -- Lakeview Village -- to upgrade the living conditions of our unsheltered neighbors living around Lake Merritt and Eastlake as the winter and rains arrive.

Using a vacant, city-owned parcel of land for public good, we're incorporating feedback from our unhoused community.

Lakeview Village is first-of-its-kind in Oakland because it improves upon the city's current emergency shelter offerings with:

• Single occupancy, rather than rooming with a stranger
• Electricity, in-unit heat, insulated walls
• Potable water, showers, and planned flushable toilets
• Ample on-site storage
• Ability to keep pets
• A Community Council of Lakeview Village residents and nearby neighbors to problem solve and build community through beautification projects, murals, and gardening.

 VIDEO TOUR: Watch a quick recorded tour of the site from Monday's Open House! 

With immense gratitude for the past and hope for the future, I'm sharing news of an important staff transition.

Miya Saika Chen -- who has been fiercely leading and supporting me and my team since day one, January 2019 -- is transitioning out as Chief of Staff and finishing up work with our office this year.

I know last Thursday's tragic robbery involving retired Police Captain Ersie Joyner has many of us stunned. I look forward to a thorough investigation and our City's continued work to reduce gun violence. My thoughts are with his family as he recovers and with the family who lost a loved one. 

With this newsletter, my team is sharing progress and plans on street paving. We're now in the third, final year of the City's 2019 3-Year Paving Plan -- 130 miles total! Appreciation to our hardworking OakDOT and Public Works teams  for the incredible amount of repaving on major and local streets that has been completed throughout District 2 and Oakland, made possible with Measure KK infrastructure bond funds. 

Over the last year, we've worked closely with Friends of San Antonio Park (FOSAP) to engage hundreds of San Antonio & nearby D2 elders, youth, and families to create a shared vision for San Antonio Park & Rec Center as the City undergoes its Master Planning process for the park, including co-hosting with FOSAP a series of multilingual community visioning meetings. 

Join a final Community Visioning meeting on Saturday 10/23 at 10AM at San Antonio Park as we build consensus on our community's recommendations to meet needs at the park around safety, sports/activity, programming, gardening/landscaping, and arts & culture.

October is Filipino American History Month and National Hispanic Heritage Month. It's a time to honor the contributions of our Filipinx and Latinx communities. Read below about how we are celebrating. 

On September 30th, the state's eviction moratorium ended, however Oakland's local eviction moratorium will continue — our residential tenants will continue to be protected.

Working with community, I'm proud that we authored and passed legislation that ensures Oakland’s moratorium on evictions and rent increases will last until the Local Emergency is terminated by the Oakland City Council.

Thanks to CM Kalb and City Attorney Parker for partnering with me on this eviction moratorium in March 2020 when COVID first began.

As Council returns from recess this coming Tuesday, I'm grateful for the gifts and challenges of the last year through COVID, and hoping you and your loved ones have had the opportunity to reunite, reflect, and relax safely this summer.

My team and I have deeply enjoyed the chance to be in community at recent events throughout District 2, including:

• Lincoln Summer Nights in Chinatown,
• Little Saigon's Mid-Autumn Festival,
• Oakland LGBTQ Community Center's 4th Anniversary Pride in the Park,
• Queer Arts Center's BLM Mural Refresh,
• Friends of San Antonio Park's community visioning for the Park, 
• Bella Vista Park's Skate Ramp Build/Upgrade,
• Grand Lake Farmer's Market celebration of its long-term agreement with  the City,
• Clean ups with OCA East Bay's Chinatown PickItUp, Eastlake Clean Up with Silo's Message, Grand Lake Clean Up with our merchant community, Summer of Sundays Clean Up with Lake Merritt Advocates, 
• National Night Out, and much more.

We are also glad to have played a part in saving three Head Start Centers from closing including Franklin in D2. And, we enjoyed touring the renovations of the Kaiser Convention Center. 

Last week, Council approved a term sheet for the Oakland A’s ballpark proposal at the Port’s Howard Terminal. With Vice Mayor Kaplan, I made important amendments to address our city’s urgent need for deeply affordable housing and anti-displacement protections for renters, as well as concerns about impacts to our Port and neighboring communities.

We still have a long way to go to ensure that our most impacted neighborhoods like Chinatown and West Oakland receive community benefits and protections, that the project is compatible with a thriving Port, and that Alameda County partners with us to create a fiscally responsible plan.

This coming Tuesday, July 20 at 9 am, Council will have a Special Meeting to discuss terms to guide negotiations between the City and the Oakland A’s for the proposed Oakland Waterfront Ballpark project at Howard Terminal at the Port of Oakland. In case you missed it, read about our Council study session on the A’s project from SF Chronicle. 

There are key issues to continue working on: financing of offsite infrastructure such as transportation, affordable housing, and funding for community benefits. The City remains dedicated to negotiating these points with the A’s. 

I am committed to fighting for a responsible, beneficial deal for Oakland that keeps the A’s rooted in our hometown: that means compatibility with our marginalized neighborhoods that will be most impacted by the project -- Chinatown and West Oakland -- and with our Port economy, as well as urgently needed affordable housing, well-paying union jobs for local residents, and a responsible financial plan for our taxpayers and City.

In each of our neighborhoods, we deserve to feel safe. And Oakland is now implementing our new budget to support comprehensive solutions for community safety including more investment in violence prevention, alternative crisis response, homeless solutions, good jobs, parks, arts and more. 

Violence interrupter, community ambassador, community healing. What do these terms really mean, why do they matter, and how can we expand our impact to address violence now that Oakland’s budget has tripled the Department of Violence Prevention’s (DVP) funding?