Fremont High Students Riot in Foothill Blvd - ORPN.org

Oakland Residents For Peaceful Neighborhood scores another news touchdown with this story on a riot that broke out at Fremont High School, and which gives an unflinching look at Oakland flatland school violence. Here's the story, as told by ORPN with a link back to their website for the rest of the story:

Fremont High Students Riot in Foothill Blvd.

A fight between two teenage women escalated into a mob that stopped traffic and attacked elderly bystanders.
The brawl began around 12:30 p.m. just outside Fremont High School on Foothill Blvd. at 48th Street. A resident of a house on Foothill Blvd. saw a young man holding a clutch of hair. Soon men in tricked-out cars and on decorated bicycles equipped with boom boxes gathered and escalated the chaos.
Traffic could not proceed while the mob occupied Foothill Blvd. One couple took an elderly lady into their vehicle in order to protect her from attack. She had been waiting for the bus. However, the bus driver soon closed his doors and refused to admit anyone.
The Melrose branch library is located at the intersection. Library staff locked the door and called the police. However, they never saw police respond, neither from Fremont High nor from the Oakland Police Department. One reason may be that three other fights broke out at other locations at or around Fremont High School at the same time...more

Did City of Oakland Cover Up A Toxic Problem At Robert's Tires?

Did City of Oakland Cover Up A Toxic Problem At Robert's Tires?

That is the question of the day and it's based on a webpage created by "Oakland Residents For Peaceful Neighborhoods" (ORPN) which claims that decades of oil and other toxic chemicals from the Robert's Tire establishment were not cleaned up at the High and MacArthur site, yet a five story senior housing development is being pushed to be approved to be built over it.

ORPN writes that both the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda are forcing through approval of the development and they point a finger directly at Oakland City Council Person Jean Quan (District 4 - in photo) and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson.

Knowing Keith Carson as I do, I don't think he knew of the environmental issue and was just supporting what he saw as much needed housing; but Councilmember Quan apparently did know of this problem and is cast as the "heavy" in this story. The developer at the center of this is Alex Hahn, who I know from my days working for Elihu Harris as his economic advisor -- but that was well before this project.

Since there's no City of Oakland representative or person from Keith Carson's office available to respond to this post, we present the text from the ORPN site below:

City Covers Up Toxic Waste Under Senior Housing

Despite a County order to clean up land contaminated with toxic chemicals, City staff became cheerleaders for a proposal to leave decades of waste in place and build a five-story senior apartment building over it.

From the 1940s a gas station, paint and body shop, and tire store were operated on the land at High St. and MacArthur Blvd. State testing between 2001 and 2004 found the groundwater is contaminated with motor oil, diesel, gasoline, and cancer-causing benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene. Two or more underground metal tanks must be removed, too. In addition, surface soil was contaminated with lead at 36 times the allowed level. Current landowner Alex Hahn, who purchased the property in 2004, had the soil removed but has been slapped with a mechanic's lien by the contractor for failure to pay his bill. Hahn has not addressed the underground tanks and the chemicals in groundwater.

A County phone log for April 18, 2005 says the site was to be developed into a commercial building. However, this was not to be. Early in 2006 after private talks with southern California developer AMG & Associates, councilmember Quan presented its senior housing proposal to residents and merchants of the Laurel district. Ever since, she and her staff have partnered with the landowner and developer, using all the muscle of her office to thwart the legitimate environmental, zoning, health and safety concerns about the proposal that her constituents want resolved.

Presssure Exerted on County Environmental Enforcement Staff

By Nov. 2006 county supervisor Keith Carson also told a county environmental health officer that the site was to become "senior housing."

On Dec. 11, 2006 Alameda County environmental officials served notice on landowner Hahn that he must begin required action to locate the underground metal tanks and deal with the cancer-causing chemicals in the groundwater. In particular, Hahn must identify wells, conduits, drains, and other paths along which groundwater can pick up and spread the volatile toxic chemicals.

Finally, the County called on Hahn to specify the future use of the property, noting that cleanup requirements allowing unrestricted use "differ significantly" from the requirements for commercial or industrial use.

In Feb. 2007, a hazardous materials officer testified in an email that "the County had received some 'pressure' to expedite the site" for senior housing.

At no time has councilmember Quan revealed to the public that she is helping a southern California developer build apartments for seniors on top of toxic waste. Someone recruited county supervisor Carson to ride roughshod over environmental law, and private landowners and developers typically enlist one politician to ease things along with other politicians.

– May 20, 2008