Pray for Oakland, and Keep Your Eye on the Money

Pray for Oakland, and Keep Your Eye on the Money

By Mae Smith-Allen

In March, I wrote a column calling for a prayer vigil for the heart and soul of OUSD – the land and buildings on the 10 acres that make up the Second Avenue parcel that has been placed on the auction block by Don Perata, Randolph Ward, Jack O’Connell and Sheila Jordan. The prayer vigil is still on (and the direct action of a united opposition sends a powerful message just as profound as all the prayers).


As we prepare for demonstrations, rallies and teach-ins against the state takeover, think on the essence of this vigil – and follow the money. Make a map of the path of the school closures; then make another map of the path of the high-stakes land development going on in the Flatlands.

You might be surprised and shocked (or maybe just as angry as I am), that the paths are roughly the same.

Students being forced out of neighborhood schools that are generations old; families forced out of communities generations gone, forced exodus, trail of tears. Or, as one witty realtor observed, “Soon this (West Oakland) will no longer be a ghetto with all those drunks, druggies, prostitutes and thugs. The developers are driving up the property values so high, all these people will have to move. Then it will be nice again.”

Follow the money. There is no need to sell the heart and soul of OUSD – the 10 acres sitting on Second Avenue – or any of the schools forced to close.

Afraid the public will find out why there is no need to sell, Ward’s group is frantically emptying out the buildings of Central Office in a desperate attempt to beat the June 30, 2005, deadline set by SB39. (So desperate are their efforts that they asked for an extension of the deadline. And, always obliging since they perhaps stand to benefit in some way, Jordan, O’Connell and their “silent partner” Perata, have already signed off on the plan (See the Fiscal Recovery Plan).


Follow the money. To sell the land, SB39 brands it “surplus” property." OUSD and Laney College sit on prime property that developers have been drooling over and itching to get their hands on for many, many years. To declare this prime real estate (or any of the prime land occupied by school sites) “surplus” in the feeding frenzy of Oakland’s land wars demands a painful stretch of the legal definition of “surplus” – or maybe it just requires an 11th hour manipulation of the law by Perata and/or his cronies.


So, if you follow the money, riddles will be answered, like why this takeover looks more and more like a land grab and why the “educational reform” looks more and more like a hostile takeover by corporate raiders.

And why our elected officials continue to turn their backs on what is happening.
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Posted May 13, 2005