St. Andrews Plaza is being closed & feeding the homeless has become illegal

St. Andrews Plaza is being closed & feeding the homeless has become illegal

By Lynda Carson - January 25, 2016

Oakland - Recently, fliers were posted at the St. Andrews Plaza (aka Triangle Park), that were meant to threaten the public, by declaring that dropping off materials, including food, and clothing at the park is considered illegal dumping, and is prohibited. The flier also claims that the plaza will be closing in February 2016 as part of the plan to renovate the park. The city plans to demolish, and reconstruct the park with art work and a large sculpture. The park is not scheduled to be reopened until July 2017.

Click on link, http://tinyurl.com/h6sf973 , for a notice from the cops, that includes the flier claiming that providing food and clothing is illegal, at the bottom of the flier.

St. Andrews Plaza, is a small local local triangle shaped park located at 32nd St., and San Pablo Blvd. At only 0.17 acres, it is one of Oakland’s smallest parks. It is a tree shaded haven for many homeless people who have no where else to go, and is located across the street from St. Marys Center, a homeless shelter, http://stmaryscenter.org/ .

The park was fenced off back around December 20, 2014, but neighbors, community members, and activists came by a day later, and liberated the park by tearing the fence down, http://tinyurl.com/hglx72m .

It appears that city officials meant to take the park away from the local community that used the park for meeting and greeting, eating food, playing chess and being involved in other recreational activities, long before any demolition or renovation work was scheduled to begin.

Among those handing out free food at the park, the members of New Hope Church have been giving away free spaghetti meals on Saturdays, and others in the area have been bringing free food and clothing to the locals hanging out at the park on a daily, or weekly basis.

A diverse group of people hang out at the park including neighbors, local community members, the homeless and sex-workers. At times the police may be found at the park harassing people for allegedly drinking or using illegal substances. The locals believe that the park is being hi-jacked by the police, and a coalition of city officials, developers, various agencies, and nonprofit organizations, that want to gentrify the area, as part of the West Oakland Specific Plan (WOSP), a massive multi-million dollar gentrification scheme, http://tinyurl.com/nw24tq6 .

Many in the community believe that the homeless and sex-workers have been targeted for removal as part of the massive gentrification scheme being planned along the San Pablo Corridor, between downtown Oakland all the way to Emeryville.

Often homelessness is the result of evictions. During 2013, the Eviction Defense Center (EDC) in Oakland, Executive Director Anne Omura and her staff, defended around 1,200 clients facing eviction, and had a high success rate that was achieved through negotiation, trial or settlement. But many are not so lucky, and eventually land on the cold streets of Oakland homeless, with no where to go.

Margot Bushel, a professor of medicine at the University of California, in San Francisco, has conducted a study of 350 homeless persons in Oakland since July 2013, http://tinyurl.com/j9e9d5x , and claims that California has the highest housing costs. She also says that it should not be a surprise that Oakland has a large homeless population, and that many of them are elderly, who became homeless late at life.

Bushel states that the men and women for the most part worked throughout their lives in low-skill, low-wage jobs, and are disproportionately people of color. “Oakland’s population is 28 percent African American, but 80% of our study participants are,” Bushel says.

Many of the elderly homeless are in poor health she says, and claims that many of them were derailed by an illness, job loss, or a new disability, interaction with the criminal justice system, or the death of a loved one. Bushel goes on to state that it was a combination of these factors that often led to homelessness, and that it is very hard for the homeless to receive health care. She is calling for changes in the system, http://tinyurl.com/j9e9d5x .

St. Marys Center, located across the street from St. Andrews Plaza, is assisting many elderly homeless persons, and holds a memorial in recognition of homeless deaths occurring in Oakland each year, http://tinyurl.com/ho8yxpa .

According to the website for the Oakland Parks Coalition, http://tinyurl.com/hbxkww5 , Alex Miller-Cole is presently listed as the steward for St. Andrews Plaza.

The website LinkedIn lists Alex Miller-Cole as the present chair of the San Pablo Corridor Coalition, a coalition involved in gentrifying the area. Cole is also listed as the current president and chairman of West Oakland Green Initiative, Inc., and public records reveal that he is listed as the agent for service of process for the company.

According to the website for the Secretary of State, the status of West Oakland Green Initiative, Inc., has been active since 6/18/2010. However, public records also reveal that the last 990 tax filing for West Oakland Green Initiative, Inc., filed by Cole, was for 2012. The organization only had a fund balance of around $11,000, at that time four years ago.

LinkedIn, http://tinyurl.com/zvp5d5k , reveals that Alex Miller-Cole also claims to be the owner of a company called Cypress One Properties since 1999. But a search of Google or the public records with the Secretary of State in California, does not turn up any records for Cypress One Properties.

Public records also reveal that he was a candidate running for a council seat in district 3 in Oakland, who lost during 2012, http://tinyurl.com/zowotz4 . Alex Miller-Cole is a former commissioner with the Oakland Community Policing Advisory Board, who resigned from the CPAB.

Renters throughout Oakland and the Bay Area continue to be terrorized by the economic cleansing going on, http://tinyurl.com/hf92gus .

In cities throughout the Bay Area, renters and their advocates have been struggling to convince their City Council members that they need to be protected by renter protections, including strong rent control measures, and just cause eviction protection, http://tinyurl.com/jdhkeao .

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com