Grand Opening at St Mary's Center Today!

In these trying times, there are not many beacons of hope in our communities, but if you search high and low you will find them. One of these beacons lies in West Oakland in the form of St. Mary’s Center. St. Mary’s, founded in 1973, has long been the place that low/no income seniors have gone for a meal, counseling, or a bed. Not only do they serve homeless, but they also provide a pre-school for low-income families in the community.

Oakland has more seniors living in poverty than anywhere else in CA, and just a few of years ago St. Mary's itself was out of money and a home. Now after a three and a half year capital campaign St Mary's was able to raise a little over six and a half million dollars to buy their new home in West Oakland at the old St. Andrews- St. Josephs Church. This started the long process of knocking down the church as well as building and re-designing old structures. Not only did this beautify the surrounding community, but it also provided a safe place for homeless seniors to go. The site includes a courtyard, counseling rooms, a full kitchen, and a pre-school.

The center is still a work in progress, but the beautiful courtyard has been completed and today (Thursday) they are having their official grand opening. There will be refreshments, speakers, and tours of the new facilities. PLEASE COME OUT AND SUPPORT!

925 Brockhurst St. (corner of san Pablo Ave.)
4-6pm Thursday June 25th
E: avaughan@stmaryscenter.org

Guerilla Greening in North Oakland

Due to Oakland's fiscal crisis, a lot of programs and services are falling by the wayside. Tonight the City Council is having a budget hearing to figure out what is going to get the axe and it won't be pretty. (If you want to delve into the particulars of the budget crisis you should check out Vsmoothe's great coverage at A Better Oakland). At this point we can voice our opinions as to what should or shouldn't be cut, but certain things are inevitably a rap.

Among those things are park maintenance and city beautification. Some may laugh at the notion that those ever existed, but look at it this way- it's going to get worse. This leaves two ways in which we can respond. 1. Become cynical and let the city go to shit or 2. Get proactive and community minded. The latter is what the neighbors in North Oakland's Grove/Shafter neighborhood recently did. Yes the camera man may be a bit squarish, but what he documented is a great example of what all of our communities should be doing during these difficult times.

Should the city provide basic services? Yes. But as long as they aren't we still have neighborhoods to maintain and beautify. The "broken windows theory" of crime contends that neighborhoods with more broken windows, vagrants, grafitti, trash and burnt out cars will attract more serious crime because it looks to criminals like residents don't care about their neighborhood. I am not a complete disciple of this school of thought, but I think there is some truth there.

It thereby follows that neighborhoods that are better kept attract less crime, but there is another level of security enabled by the "guerilla greening" approach. Not only does the neighborhood look nice, but communnity members are out on their block working together and getting to know each other in the process. Too often those of us in "questionable" neighborhoods hide behind lock and key, but that only leaves the block more available to others. Think about it.

Okay, now go be about it.

Previously: For Oakland: Guerilla Gardening & Fatherhood

Jay Smooth on the Republican Hater's Ball & Community Organizing

This is a tad bit dated as it is from the Republican National Convention era of the past month, but Jay's bit on community organizing struck a cord with me. Naturally the Palin fuckery didn't deter me either . . .