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UID:Indybay-18860699
SEQUENCE:19027387
CREATED:20231126T015900Z
DESCRIPTION:Oakland, CA — Beginning at noon on Sunday, Nov. 26, the Valley Street 
 Tenant Council and Tenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) will picket KP 
 Market, owned by landlord Byong Yu. \n\nThe tenant union will boycott KP 
 Market unless landlord Byong Yu meets the tenants’ demands for dignified 
 housing conditions, and ends constructive eviction at 2341 Valley 
 Street.\n\nIn addition to owning the popular neighborhood grocer, Yu is a 
 major Oakland landlord who enjoys a powerful role with the Koreatown 
 Northgate (KONO) business improvement district. \n\nJust behind his 
 flagship business, however, Yu is subjecting his tenants at 2341 Valley 
 Street to severe and protracted habitability issues in an attempt to empty 
 the 41-unit apartment building. \n\nThe multilingual, working-class tenants 
 of this rent-controlled housing have long complained to management and city 
 officials about leaks, pests, security concerns, mold and lack of heating. 
 \n\nIn the past two years, inspectors have issued Yu four notices of 
 violation for missing radiators, chronic leaks, mold, infestation, and 
 crumbling drywall. Still, Yu has refused to make repairs. \n\nNow, more 
 than 20 units in the building sit empty. \n\nEarly in the pandemic, Yu’s 
 tenants formed the Valley Street Tenant Council in affiliation with Tenant 
 and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) to collectively resist the landlord’s 
 constructive eviction, demanding repairs and dignified housing conditions 
 for their families and neighbors.\n\n“This isn’t a boycott — yet,” 
 reads the tenant union’s picket handout. “To Byong Yu, our apartments 
 are worth more with no one living inside. But we won’t be evicted!” 
 \n\nThe council collectively petitioned the Oakland rent board (RAP), and 
 their hearing is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 4. \n\nFormal evictions are 
 soaring since local politicians lifted pandemic-era restrictions, and 
 landlords such as Byong Yu persist in using harassment and disrepair to 
 displace tenants.\n\nLandlords disproportionately mark working-class people 
 of color for eviction. And whether or not the eviction proceeds through the 
 court system, landlords often recruit the cops for assistance. \n\nAcross 
 the Bay Area, tenants have organized into councils and associations to 
 pressure landlords directly for repairs and rent reductions, and to fight 
 against all forms of eviction. \n\nWith collective power, tenants can 
 challenge the institutional drivers of gentrification — landlords and the 
 real-estate industry, and all of their partners in office — for control 
 over our own lives. \n\n***\n\nTenant and Neighborhood Councils (TANC) is a 
 member-run, member-funded tenant union in the San Francisco Bay Area. 
 Area-based Locals organize tenants of given landlords into councils or 
 associations, and the union pressures landlords directly to meet demands. 
 Anticapitalist organization aligned with abolitionist and internationalist 
 struggles, and a founding member of Autonomous Tenant Union Network (ATUN). 
 Since the pandemic, membership has surpassed 600, and TANC has organized 
 rent strikes and other actions, winning rent reductions. \n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2023/11/25/18860699.php
SUMMARY:Tenants Fighting Eviction to Picket KP Market, Threatening Boycott
LOCATION:KP Market (2370 Telegraph Avenue)
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2023/11/25/18860699.php
DTSTART:20231126T200000Z
DTEND:20231126T230000Z
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