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East Bay | San Francisco | Health, Housing, and Public Services | Racial Justice | Front Page

Tue Sep 2 2008 Protests in SF and Oakland to Remember Katrina
Bay Area Katrina Commemoration On August 29th, more than two-hundred Bay Area residents demonstrated outside of developer Lennar Corp.'s Headquarters in San Francisco and then headed to Oakland to rally in front of the Oakland Police Department (OPD). The local chapter of the Right to the City Alliance, a national coalition of more than 35 social justice organizations, along with allies and supporters, aimed to bring attention to rogue developers, gentrification and criminalization of communities of color from the Bay Area to New Orleans.

Lennar Corp, a housing redevelopment corporation based out of Miami, plans to redevelop Bayview Hunters Point but Bayview residents are calling for more affordable housing and a stop to the project, which has been sending toxic dust into nearby homes and schools. Outside of Lennar's San Francisco office, Katrina Survivor August Forman spoke about the connection between community displacement and corporate greed, calling the Bay Area's decline in Black and working class residents a "dry Katrina." Because of the constant threat of displacement, Forman said, "We are all Katrina evacuees."

In Oakland, speakers noted that the displacement of communities of color was not only economic but in many cases closely connected to the demonization of youth of color through such tactics as gang injunctions. Oakland resident Sister Beatrice X explains, "The Oakland Police department harasses working class communities and just recently raided a housing complex in West Oakland with military tanks and swat teams, they are using brute force to literally push us out."

Demonstrators also drew parallels between recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the Gulf Coast and the spike in ICE enforcement in California. Protesters demanded that OPD stop working with ICE and criminalizing the migrant community.

photoPhotos | Past Indybay Katrina Coverage

12/01/08 Be a Community Journalist and Learn How to Contribute to Indybay   Indymedia | Santa Cruz Indymedia
11/30/08 Shoppers Trample and Kill Wal Mart Employee Jdimytai Damour on "Black Friday"   Global Justice and Anti-Capitalism | Santa Cruz Indymedia
11/29/08 Iraq Veterans Against the War Detain Suspects in SF's Union Square on Black Friday 2008   Anti-War
11/29/08 Human Rights Observer in Gaza Deported from Israel   South Bay | Palestine
11/25/08 Thanksgiving Morning Indigenous People's Gathering   Racial Justice
11/25/08 American Indian Movement at 40   Racial Justice
11/21/08 City Council of Santa Cruz Applies to Extend City Services to UCSC's Upper Campus   Environment & Forest Defense | Santa Cruz Indymedia
11/21/08 Berets say "Peace and Unity March is an Important Reminder to Keep Working"   Anti-War | Santa Cruz Indymedia
11/20/08 Accused of Racial Profiling, Chief Lynne Johnson Announces Retirement   Police State and Prisons | Peninsula
11/19/08 Members of the Zionist Freedom Alliance Commit A Hate Crime against Three Arab Activists   Education & Student Activism | Palestine
11/19/08 Israel Blockade Of Gaza Results In Arrest Of Bay Area Activist   South Bay | International | Palestine