Dear Justin,
Please extend my apologies to councilperson Fife that I will not be attending her meeting today. I can not participate in anything that gives the appearance of drawing our community into agreements under duress.
In this case the duress consists of the bold and inappropriate threats that Cheryl Chambers has made in public that "we all have to go" from our land and the community we have built because of the fires at Wood Street. The duress also consists of statements made by Caltrans' lawyers to a senior judge of the US District Court that "there is no evidence of arson at Wood Street." When they were asked by Judge Chesney to provide proof of this obviously untrue statement (Remember David Kelley?), the best they could do was say it was the Fire Department holding them up because their investigations of the many fires at Wood Street are either not concluded, or are not being shared with Caltrans for some reason. They are trying to pin all of the blame for fires at Wood Street on we the people, and I have to ask Ms. Fife why she isn't defending our reputation against this slander?
And the duress also consists of the disturbing and threatening notifications posted by the Oakland Department of Public Works that we are all part of an "illegal encampment" and will have our property stolen or destroyed this coming Tuesday. We the people have constituted the city government and its agents to serve our basic human needs and protect our constitutional rights to property, shelter and land from all enemies foreign and domestic, not to be the enforcement arm of genocide and slavery.
And Justin, your insistence that there have been no meetings between the City and Caltrans pertaining to the evictions that are currently underway (Cam's compound evicted from zone I!) strains credulity. Caltrans would never plan such a large "lightning strike" against such a large population without consultation with and logistical support from the City of Oakland. How can we go forward in our relationship without honesty?? I thought your cover story was that "we aren't invited to those meetings." Anyway, you can repair some of this damage by forwarding all text, email, voicemail, phone conversation transcripts, video conference transcripts, etc. between Caltrans and the City which concern Wood Street to me at [email protected] and John Jonosko at [email protected]. And could you forward me a good phone number where I can reach Ms. Fife?
And I am baffled why Ms. Fife would make the Northgate property her public priority. We have asked many things from Ms. Fife that are a far more urgent priority to us. When will she get EBMUD to install the requisite number of fire hydrants inside the Wood Street community? When will she find out why the fire department rubber stamps every fire at Wood Street as an "encampment fire", and not malicious arson, often from external sources?? When will she provide safe water to our residents? When will she provide the two dumpsters we asked for? When will she provide public support for our plans for a commons based land trust, tiny home ecovillages on city owned surplus land, and cooperative community?
Nobody in the city government has a track record of successfully operating an encampment. The lakeview pallet shelters are a shocking failure, with racial apartheid, units too close together causing a fire hazard, the firing of Adam the main spokesperson for the residents, fires destroying the tiny homes, and a collapse of the "co-governance" model. The RV park lacks the tenant protection required by law of real landlords, and places fire prone RV's too close together. And putting 1,000 people on 22 acres is over twice the social density of the Wood Street commons, and a recipe for crime, disorder and conflict. And the size and location of the Northgate land has a disturbing resemblance to a staging area to hold people until they are put on the trains to internment camps at a distant location.
We need the councilperson's help to protect us from the immediate threat of Caltrans' attempted eviction of our entire community, and we need representation for our community at all meetings of the homeless commission and encampment management team.
Respectfully,
Theo Cedar Jones
Dear Justin,
Please extend my apologies to councilperson Fife that I will not be attending her meeting today. I can not participate in anything that gives the appearance of drawing our community into agreements under duress.
In this case the duress consists of the bold and inappropriate threats that Cheryl Chambers has made in public that "we all have to go" from our land and the community we have built because of the fires at Wood Street. The duress also consists of statements made by Caltrans' lawyers to a senior judge of the US District Court that "there is no evidence of arson at Wood Street." When they were asked by Judge Chesney to provide proof of this obviously untrue statement (Remember David Kelley?), the best they could do was say it was the Fire Department holding them up because their investigations of the many fires at Wood Street are either not concluded, or are not being shared with Caltrans for some reason. They are trying to pin all of the blame for fires at Wood Street on we the people, and I have to ask Ms. Fife why she isn't defending our reputation against this slander?
And the duress also consists of the disturbing and threatening notifications posted by the Oakland Department of Public Works that we are all part of an "illegal encampment" and will have our property stolen or destroyed this coming Tuesday. We the people have constituted the city government and its agents to serve our basic human needs and protect our constitutional rights to property, shelter and land from all enemies foreign and domestic, not to be the enforcement arm of genocide and slavery.
And Justin, your insistence that there have been no meetings between the City and Caltrans pertaining to the evictions that are currently underway (Cam's compound evicted from zone I!) strains credulity. Caltrans would never plan such a large "lightning strike" against such a large population without consultation with and logistical support from the City of Oakland. How can we go forward in our relationship without honesty?? I thought your cover story was that "we aren't invited to those meetings." Anyway, you can repair some of this damage by forwarding all text, email, voicemail, phone conversation transcripts, video conference transcripts, etc. between Caltrans and the City which concern Wood Street to me at [email protected] and John Jonosko at [email protected]. And could you forward me a good phone number where I can reach Ms. Fife?
And I am baffled why Ms. Fife would make the Northgate property her public priority. We have asked many things from Ms. Fife that are a far more urgent priority to us. When will she get EBMUD to install the requisite number of fire hydrants inside the Wood Street community? When will she find out why the fire department rubber stamps every fire at Wood Street as an "encampment fire", and not malicious arson, often from external sources?? When will she provide safe water to our residents? When will she provide the two dumpsters we asked for? When will she provide public support for our plans for a commons based land trust, tiny home ecovillages on city owned surplus land, and cooperative community?
Nobody in the city government has a track record of successfully operating an encampment. The lakeview pallet shelters are a shocking failure, with racial apartheid, units too close together causing a fire hazard, the firing of Adam the main spokesperson for the residents, fires destroying the tiny homes, and a collapse of the "co-governance" model. The RV park lacks the tenant protection required by law of real landlords, and places fire prone RV's too close together. And putting 1,000 people on 22 acres is over twice the social density of the Wood Street commons, and a recipe for crime, disorder and conflict. And the size and location of the Northgate land has a disturbing resemblance to a staging area to hold people until they are put on the trains to internment camps at a distant location.
We need the councilperson's help to protect us from the immediate threat of Caltrans' attempted eviction of our entire community, and we need representation for our community at all meetings of the homeless commission and encampment management team.
Respectfully,
Theo Cedar Jones