Councilwoman Jane Brunner held an “emergency public meeting” Tuesday night at the North Oakland Senior Citizens Center. The event was standing room only as Scott Johnson, Brunner and Mayor Jean Quan explained the “necessary” budget cuts due to elimination of the Oakland Redevelopment Agency.

Brunner started out with the “good news” saying that libraries, senior citizens centers, human services, police and fire services would all avoid budget cuts. In fact she explained that most of the cuts would only affect city staff in an attempt to avoid cutting the aforementioned public services. However, annual subsidies for the Oakland Zoo, Children’s Fairyland and Hacienda Peralta would all be cut by 40 percent, according to Brunner. And of course, she said, “All redevelopment projects that were not yet under contract would not be funded.”

However, at one point Quan jumped in saying that she had a potential plan to make up for some of the lost redevelopment funds.

“I am hoping that we can acquire funds through Chinese visas” to make up for some of the shortfall, she said. Quan went on to explain that tens of millions of A V5 visa funding helped build the Yankees stadium in New York and she is considering the same for Oakland. She explained that wealthy Chinese people pay for two visas at half a million dollars per visa and that those funds are then allocated to low-income communities to pay for much needed services.

Annalee Allen, founder of the cherished Oakland Walking Tours asked, with noted emotion, whether future tours would be eliminated and Brunner conceded that in fact the tours would be cut. An indignant resident stood up soon after to ask the mayor how she justified spending $50,000 for riot police to “stand around downtown on Saturday nights” to keep watch on a handful of protesters when so many other valuable projects were being eliminated for lack of funds. The mayor responded by saying that she was tired of having the Saturday night anti-police protesters breaking windows on a weekly basis and ruining the image of downtown. She stated that order had to be restored and she planned to make it happen with support of police.

The event ended with a volley of questions from constituents as they wrestled with the enormity of the redevelopment cuts in Oakland. And as one resident aptly asked, “Won’t eliminating the Oakland Redevelopment Agency and creating four agencies in their place become more expensive in the end?”

Published on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at: Oaklandlocal.com
Last updated on 08:43AM, Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Libraries have always been a hub for a wide spectrum of the public, but the economic crisis has many librarians working as social service agents supporting patrons with everything from home foreclosure documents to job applications to young mothers seeking advice on pre-natal healthcare.

Libraries have become one of the last remaining, truly public service centers and many community members turn to the women and men who work there for support when they can no longer afford even a consultation with their doctor.

The 11-month-old, state-of-the-art 81^st Avenue Branch Oakland Library has become what branch manager, Sally Bean, calls a “community center.” One recent evening, the library was buzzing with activity as youth browsed books, music, movies and checked their Facebook profiles.

Next to a row of computers was a sign that promised “Job Application Support Tuesdays and Wednesdays.” Bean said they have seen an incredible spike in the demand for job search support in the past few years.

“We have an hour limit on Internet use, but if someone is filling out a job application we give them all the time they need,” she said. “Also, lots of people come in with questions about home foreclosures.” Bean told me of one woman who came in with a letter bearing a false government letterhead that turned out to be from lawyers in Florida promising to defend the lady and her home against foreclosure for a mere $700 per month if she only signed at the bottom.

“The woman spoke no English and had no idea what the letter meant,” explained Bean, a veteran librarian of 17 years. “I speak Spanish and so was able to able to explain to her that this was not in her interest. But she is not the only person that comes looking for help with foreclosures. We get this all the time.”

Bean admitted that the hardest part of her job is hearing the numerous tragic stories of patrons who are losing their homes and livelihoods.

Anthony Propernick, the senior library assistant at the branch, said that Oakland libraries have long served as a safe place for migrants to seek out information.

“We do not care about the legal status of a migrant, we are here to provide accurate information to patrons,” he said. In fact, the library focuses on supporting immigrants in preparing for their citizenship tests. Propernick explained that many Oakland libraries bring in bi-lingual lawyers to work with migrants and that their branch planned to do so as well.

The 81^st Avenue Branch is unique in that it is connected to the Woodland and EnCompass Academy elementary school, which serve  around 500 children. Youth librarian Eric Hannan is responsible for growing the youth hang-out area in the library and explained that often the facility is a haven for everyone from second graders to high schoolers.

“It’s especially popular here in the summer,” he explained. In fact, Hannan added, “Some mornings there will be 10 kids waiting at 9 a.m. when we open, and they stay all day. For many of them, this is their daycare.”

However, Hannan insists that the library is not as safe as some parents may assume and that it should not become a substitute for daycare. He said there is a constant concern that children will be approached by strangers and it can be difficult to ensure their protection.

Hannan said that his goal is to make the library as appealing to teenagers as possible and that means having “Video Game Saturdays” and a flat screen. The walls of the youth lounge were lined with posters of everyone from Lil’ Wayne to Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Last summer, the Alameda Food Bank collaborated with the library to serve free lunches for school children to fill in the gap left by the seasonal school lunch program. According to Bean, the program was a great success and they plan to continue providing free lunches this coming year.

Nine-year-old Lita is an avid patron of the 81^st Avenue Branch. She loves to read and plans to be a chef one day.

“I come here every single day” she said. In fact, Lita is leading a project called “No Books Left Behind,” in which she and her peers write reviews for their favorite children’s books. Bean glowed with pride as she introduced Lita to me saying that, “she came up with the idea entirely on her own. This opportunity would have been lost if we had not been here.”

Published on OaklandLocal.com on Monday, December 12, 2011

The West Oakland BART station parking lot was packed with protesters of all ages at the shockingly early-morning hour of 5:30 am. Chants of “We are the 99%” and “Whose Port? Our Port!” became the rally cry as Occupy Oakland moved into the streets and headed for the Port of Oakland in what became an officially “successful” morning-shift port-shutdown.

The crowd of over 1,500 people moved quickly down the wide street to the port, with police cars leading the charge. As we arrived to the port, organizers began calling for 45-50 people to take over each terminal. Accordingly, a group would break off to seal an entrance as the rest surged onward.

At terminal entrance/berths 55, 56 there were well over a two hundred protesters. An organizer with a megaphone would intermittently cheer on the crowd with messages from fellow occupiers and their success of closing off various port entrances. Still others gave occasional updates of West Coast port shutdowns. The crowd cheered with joy at news of the closure of ports in Portland, Vancouver, and Los Angeles among others. And the picket line continued with renewed vigor, as a boom-box blasting Michael Jackson beats that facilitated dance in the frigid, foggy early morning hours.

Meanwhile the occasional bike messenger rushed past the crowd yelling frantically that “Fifty riot police are headed this way!” or “Berths 30,32 are in desperate need of support! Police are moving in.” In fact, a row of riot police did eventually arrive to 55,56 but withheld attacking the marchers.

A drizzle set in around 7:30am, and with it arrived a small Toyota truck from Food not Bombs. A line quickly formed for coffee, tea and pastries. Additionally a cheerful nine-year girl and her mother passed out fresh oatmeal raisin cookies to port truck drivers, some of whom came to chat with marchers.

Three port truckers from Sacramento were causally gathered near their idling, loaded trucks and explained that they were happy the occupiers had come. They said there was a nearby yard where they could offload their cargo if the port did not open, and they would then return home for the day with half a day’s wage of $300.00.

By 10:00 am Occupy Oakland organizer Boots Riley had declared a “major victory” explaining that “effectively the Port of Oakland was shutdown”. He said people could go home but called on everyone to rally to Oscar Grant Plaza at 3:00 pm for a march to shutdown the evening shift at the port.

On the walk back to West Oakland BART, Longshoreman Deandre Whittan told me “Most of us are not getting paid today, but we support this. We are the 99% too.”

 

 

Steve Fisher Fri, 9 Dec at 11:54pm

Abdul Khan is one of 2,000 truck drivers, contracted to haul containers in and out of the recent Occupy Oakland target: The Port of Oakland. 

Last night, Khan spoke to a large crowd of community members including union workers, environmental activists and Oakland youth advocates at a “People’s Port Teach-in” held at the Bay Area Christian Connection Church. 

A port driver for more than seven years, Khan shared his acute frustration regarding the lack of fair wages that he and his co-workers endure due to lack of union representation. Khan explained that as private contractors they were allowed no healthcare benefits and “don’t even get to set rates as ‘independent’ drivers.’” 

Kahn struggles to support his family of two children by working an average 60-70 hours a week. Yet, he only makes an average $25,000 a year. 

“Sometimes I don’t make anything in a day” he said. 

For example, his next day’s trip would garner him a mere $30 since his cargo was only to be transported to nearby Hayward. 

“That’s not even enough money to cover my 130 mile round-trip commute” he explained. 

In fact, Khan and his family were recently forced to leave their home in Fremont to live with his brother in Dixon because they could no longer afford rent. When asked what he thought of Occupy Oakland’s call to shut-down the port on Dec. 12 he said “At the very least, protesters should reach out to vulnerable contractors such as myself who stand to lose a day’s wages due to the march.” 

And, if it was any consolation, Isaac Kos-Read, director of External Affairs for the Port of Oakland, stated emphatically that port officials would “work hard to keep the port open on Monday in collaboration with the local police force.”  

Remarkably, the teach-in speakers avoided mention of Occupy Oakland’s plans to shut down the port. Instead the evening was focused on campaigns that organizations such as the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy – EBASE – and The Coalition for a Safe and Clean Port have been working on for years. 

Urban Peace Movement activist Haniyah Muhammad, 19, works with the Revive Oakland campaign and explained that “instead of closing the port, we are fighting to open it further to include more economically sustainable jobs for Oakland young people.” 

Meanwhile, workers like Khan continue returning to haul shipyard containers.

“We are also affected and obviously part of the 99 percent,” he said of himself and his fellow truck-drivers.

Published on Thursday, December 08, 2011
Last updated on 06:24AM, Thursday, December 8, 2011

It was a sunny Tuesday morning and 9-year-old Ariante had just finished his 10th visit to the Ronald MacDonald Mobile Dental Center parked in a sprawling Target parking lot in Richmond. 

A student with a love of science and baseball, Ariante was here to have a decayed tooth pulled. His mother, Crystal, had spent months looking for a dental center that would treat him before she came across the mobile clinic. She was especially grateful that after a season of worry, his teeth were nearly all fixed.

“You’ll have to monitor this cavity closely,” Dr. Vanessa Franks, the resident dentist, said through a Spanish interpreter as she bustles between two rooms checking on young patients in the large RV-style van. The clinic targets low-income populations in Contra Costa County and, Franks said, seeks to fill a gap caused by MediCal’s low reimbursement rates, which makes it difficult for many dentists to take on lower-income patients – not to mention the “daunting bureaucratic and administrative hoops” required to receive compensation.

“No one is turned away here,” Chris Grazzini of the Community Health Alliance said. She oversees funding for the mobile dental care clinic, which is supported by a patchwork of grants and donations.

The lack of adequate dental care for California children is an enormous problem. Although 71 percent of all California children develop tooth decay by the third grade, almost one in four of these children under age 12 have never seen a dentist, according to a June 2011 report by The Children’s Partnership. Recent studies have shown that children in California  – especially low-income children – lose millions of hours of school due to dental issues, which can result in poorer academic performance and grades

Small wonder that healthy teeth are often a sign of socio-economic status, as Franks points out. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tooth decay, or “caries,” is the number one disease for children in the country and occur five times more often than asthma, the next most widespread childhood disease.

Besides causing extreme pain, tooth decay can turn into an abscess whose infection spreads through the rest of the body, leaving a child vulnerable to ear or sinus infections. In rare cases, an abscess, untreated, can cause dangerous neck and jaw swelling and even death.

Children whose poor teeth are visible to the world also suffer psychologically. Franks explained that visible tooth decay often causes children and teens to withdraw socially and even to suffer from depression. Franks mentioned one teenager that had arrived the week earlier with visibly decaying front teeth. The young girl smiled as little as possible. By the time the patient had completed her series of treatments, Franks said, she was “a different person” who smiled radiantly as she left.

Yet even though a child who loses an appendix would be fully covered by MediCal, infections such as cavities and abscesses in children find very little support, according to Professor Pamela Den Besten of University of California San Francisco Dental Clinic – a school-subsidized clinic that sees a disproportionate number of MediCal patients from Oakland and Richmond. 

Medical reimbursement for dental care is low compared to those of other healthcare treatments, dentists say, adding that many of them simply cannot afford to perform the procedures for the fees paid. This issue was highlighted by California Dental Association this June, which reported that only 25 percent of dentists in California now accept MediCal, compared to 40 percent in 2003. The association – CDA – attributes that shift mainly to the “low reimbursements and high administrative overhead.”

Finding another way

On Nov. 16, Dr. Jared Fine, the dental director for Alameda County announced “Healthy Smiles for Healthy Futures,” a five-year oral health care plan for the county. This plan – and another research plan funded by the California Dental Association, which has not yet been made public – contain new proposals to improve access to dental care in California, partly through leveraging untapped resources in the current health system. Fine showed special interest in expanding the coverage to the Women, Infants and Children program, or WIC, a program. In addition, the five-year plan included expanding access to private dental contractors.

Although the report to the California Dental Association has not been made public, Fine said it contains a “progressive agenda,” beginning by insisting that the state hire a dental director – something, he said, most states already have. The federal government has significant funds available for preventive care programs, but California cannot access them without a state advocate to actively seek out the support, Fine said. Additionally, many of the proposed ideas in the report would be covered by accessible funds that apparently only a state-level advocate can seek out.

Fine also suggested that research shows as much as 50 percent to 60 percent of all children in California are eligible for the WIC program. This “phenomenal finding,” he said, led the CDA to propose integrating dental care into WIC program clinics statewide – which a few scattered WIC centers have already done. 

Fine also said he believes this is one way to circumvent the failing MediCal program and “go to where mothers and children already are,” not only to fix teeth, but provide preventive dental care for toddlers and invaluable education to pregnant mothers.

“People assume dental decay is inevitable,” Fine said. However, it is not. 

Cavities and decay often occur due to a lack of information and education. Teaching parents and children about preventive dental care, Fine said, could, over time, reduce the pressure on the “overstretched California dental care system.” This includes not having enough dentists.

Fines said what was surprising to him was to learn that even with public and private dental practices combined, the state of California does not have enough dentists to care for state residents. He added he finds this “especially troubling” as the Affordable Care Act looms closer.

Taking on Medical’s “administrative nightmare”

President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill, the Affordable Care Act, has in fact touched on child dental care. 

In 2014, more children will be eligible for coverage – in California alone, 1.2 million children are expected to receive eligibility. However, the bill does not mention any increase in reimbursements for dental procedures – meaning that poor families will still be hard put to find dentists who accept them.

In five counties in California with more than 17,000 children on MediCal, there is not one dentist who will accept MediCal, according to The Children’s Partnership reportearlier this year.

In one district of Alameda County, Fine said, a single dentist has 989 MediCal patients, even though most dental offices generally have 2,000 active patients. Having half of your patients on MediCal is “simply not sustainable from a business perspective,” he said. While it is only a start, Oakland recently received a grant of $200,000 to increase dental care access and preventive care education for under-served children at their schools.

Furthermore, Fine is ready to take on MediCal’s “administrative nightmare” and win. His proposal, for example, recommends that dentists be allowed to work through dental clinics for administrative purposes, but be able to practice “outside the four walls of the clinic.”

In this way, places like La Clinica de la Raza in Fruitvale, which are already set up to deal with MediCal, could hire dentists as private contractors and refer patients to them. Fine said that this is not a new phenomenon, explaining that New York and Massachusetts already successfully integrated such practices. He said a federal law allowing community dental clinics to contract dentists has already been approved, but California has not yet accepted it at a state level.

Nonetheless, the dental care shortage is expected to grow as the current national debate increasingly shifts to making cuts in Medicare. 

Recently, the Obama administration cleared the way for Gov. Jerry Brown to cut funding to MediCal by 10 percent, including dental services. As a result, even if 1.2 million children join the MediCal system in 2014, actual coverage is expected to shrink unless aggressive changes are made.

Meanwhile, a growing number of young school children like young Ariante continue to endure severe pain due to untreated tooth decay even as they struggle to focus on their studies. As Grazzini of the Community Health Alliance said in reference to the Affordable Care Act, “It’s one thing to have well-meaning policy, but it’s another to actually implement it.”