Regular people probably cannot safely use this park as it is now. What I they are cooking meth. It could become expensive to make safe again.

Libby does not care, she doesn't get it. Every park in Oakland I think has been taken over by the homeless, she forgot about the public

Since the city doesn't really do anything about this problem, does anyone know how to get the health department involved? It's a major health issue (along with safety). I agree - our Mayor is ignoring this issue. What other city allows this to continue?

Councilman Gallo is the only one working at this with about 200 plus families with children at the Charter School. If the City Parks and Oakland Port Authority doesn't give him any support it will never get cleaned up so we can all use it. Keep up writing calling and making noise to the City officials.

It's a disgrace! The city needs to pay attention!

It's dumb to blame Libby... at the same time we do have a problem that needs to be dealt with. Do you have any suggestions that might help? OPD is overwhelmed with other things so they are not likely to help much. Only recently are we (as a city) starting to dig ourselves out of the hole that the housing crisis put us in... revenues were way way down. Now they are coming back... so lets start dealing with some of the backlog.

Herkins: "What other city allows this to continue? "

SF, Berkeley, NYC, DC, LA... to name a few.

Libby is doing something about it... just not as quickly as the problem is multiplying. Noel also does things to help... again it's just not enough. For a lot of the folks that are living on the streets they have mental problems and drug problems that preclude them from being in a home. Add in all the folks that are being pushed out from rent increases and you have the makings of a big problem.

Seattle is an example that Oakland can easily do. Libby is the mayor, El Nino was her excuse last year to leave the encampments, what will it be this year.

What are they doing that is so good? Tell us.

The city provides a city lot to put their tents, little houses, they provide trash pick up, sanitary facilities, in that area, they pretty much govern themselves, they clean up surrounding neighborhood and the city will do what they can to help them. Oakland can do something like it if they wanted. I know Sacramento is going to try something like it.

I have heard that Oakland is planning to do something similar... I'm not sure where though. Also it may be hard to get some of the folks to move to it... there are worries founded and unfounded that these people worry about. One is that some of the people living on the streets are mentally unbalanced. How do we reach them, get them to move... and get them to not cause problems?

sheeeeesh!: "SF, Berkeley, NYC, DC, LA... to name a few."
But in the parks of these cities?

Herkins... "But in the parks of these cities?"

Yes.

Just Google "homeless parks" and the name of the city in question. It's a problem in all.

I just received this in my email, even though it's still listed as open and "acknowledged" here:

City of Oakland
Oakland Public Works Call Center

Thank you for reporting an issue to the Oakland Public Works Call Center.

Service Request:685652
Issue:Graffiti in a Park
Location:UNION POINT PARK
Status:Closed
Date / Time Reported:10/1/2016 9:09:13 AM
Date / Time Closed:10/10/2016 6:47:42 AM
Oakland Public Works Call Center | (510) 615-5566
www.oaklandpw.com | opwcallcenter@oaklandnet.com | Mobile app: SeeClickFix

This courtesy notification is automatically sent when your service request is created (OPEN), referred to another agency (REFERRED), or fixed (CLOSED). After an issue is REFERRED, it may be CLOSED because Oakland Public Works has completed its portion of the work.

Oakland Public Works is an American Public Works Association Accredited Agency.

In other words, THEY DON'T CARE. How typical of this city these days, eh? So much for having a nice waterfront park to sit in and relax. Now, we have meth-heads, vandalism, homeless camps, litter, human and dog waste everywhere, all because no one gives a ****.

Good-bye, Union Point Park. You were a nice place to sit and relax...

Once...

Natsu wrote: "In other words, THEY DON'T CARE. How typical of this city these days, eh?"

Noel Gallo tells us that the City is doing something about this particular park... cleaning up, getting rid of the homeless etc. I haven't been by there to check, but it sounded like it was something that was currently happening. If it is something that hasn't happened then it should be posted again.

Let's hope so. As a stands now, it's a total disaster area.

City of Oakland Public Works Department addressed this issue on 10/10/2016, service request #685652.

Councilman Gallo is attending to this park on a weekly basis (with the help of the homeless), sometimes multiple times a week, but I agree, this is a bigger issue of housing and MUCH needed resources for the homeless (many of which are veterans/elders/special needs/drug dependent).

The park has several signs posted that state, No Overnight Camping.

I just passed by the park and counted NINE separate tent encampments. The largest one, closest to the old rowing club building, has a big stack of firewood. What could go wrong?

I don't understand by what definition anyone could say this problem has been addressed.

The City of Oakland Public Works Department has received this issue. It is registered as service request #687847. Please check back for status updates, or contact us directly at 510-615-5566.

This seems to be the way Public Works deals with it, by doing nothing at someone's request, why else would these not be cleaned up

Does anyone know where to look (website, news article) to learn about any long range plans Oakland has to deal with the larger problems here?

Will the city be setting up large shelters like SF tried? Will they be increasing enforcement to make it less desirable for homeless people to move here?

Dear Concerned Neighbor: Please read all above comments!
Also: see: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/government/o/CityCouncil/o/District5/index.htm
for Council Member Noel Gallo / Email: ngallo@oaklandnet.com

Thank you for responding, Calonergan. I did read the comments, nothing in my post suggests otherwise.

I have heard about what Noel is doing and trying to do, but lets be honest here Noel alone doesn't have the authority to really address the larger problems. That would take a coordinated, focused effort by many people in the city's administration, and probably require Libby's support.

Cleaning up one (or a few) park(s) at a time is just playing whack-a-mole.

I agree with simplyblu - I want to see what Libby is going to do this year. But to what degree has this already been discussed at public meetings? Has any blogger reviewed those notes and published a summary? Sheesh heard something about Oakland's plans, but reliable is that source, how solid are those plans, and have they been contested since then?

I watched how things were handled in SF, and certain factions actively tried to interfere with efforts to address similar problems. I want to know where the city is at in terms of plans and policies.

It just seemed likely to me that some blogger, journalist, or city employee may be publishing information (with sources) that can answer many of our questions. I've tried googling without success, so I'm asking:

Does anyone know where to look (website, news article) to learn about any long range plans Oakland has [gone on record with] to deal with the larger problems here?

Dear "Concerned Neighbor",
Please see this link, offered by my D4 CM's office:
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Homeless-in-Oakland----How-will-we-respond-.html?soid=1114104712896&aid=6rwkQJ9H_h4
Hope this addresses some of your questions!

I wonder how long till those evicted from Seattle outdoor spaces will show up in Oakland? I'm guessing it won't take long since the rain will begin tomorrow

Concerned neighbor... "Sheesh heard something about Oakland's plans, but reliable is that source,"

It was from Noel at a meeting. No idea if it will come to fruition or what actions are being taken.

@Sheesh, thank you for explaining where you heard it from.

@Calonergan (This might become a duplicate post, previous post not showing up) Thank you for the link, that does answer some of my questions. I'm also curious about what the city may do to discourage the homeless from moving here from other areas - Oakland shouldn't have to shoulder too much of the burden by themselves. I'll look for more info after the meeting on the 25th.

Me too! :-)

Concerned Neighbor... " I'm also curious about what the city may do to discourage the homeless from moving here from other areas - Oakland shouldn't have to shoulder too much of the burden by themselves."

Totally agree... but am not sure what can be done. OPD is part of the solution, as are the neighboring towns. I once saw Alameda cops shooing some homeless characters across the Fruitvale bridge. Apparently they didn't want them to sully their town.

Thank you for your request. According to our system, we already have an open service request of this kind at this location. Your request has been combined with service request #687884. If you would like to check the status of the request, please contact the Public Works Call Center at 510-615-5566 or pwacallcenter@oaklandnet.com. This issue can also be followed by watching http://seeclickfix.com/issues/2993714.

Calonergan,

Thank you again for your response. I found this particularly interesting, it does answer some of my questions:

"The next two Life Enrichment Committee meetings (beginning at 4:00 pm on Oct. 11 and Oct. 25 in City Hall) will be focused, in part, on the issues surrounding the growing population of unhoused individuals in Oakland. The agenda for today's meeting -- October 11th -- includes contracts to renew existing supportive services work for homeless individuals and establishes the Winter Shelter for 125 individuals, which will be in operation from November 14-April 17, 2017.

The October 25th meeting will include a presentation from City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney and City staff on a short-term intervention -- a pilot program, in partnership with the County of Alameda, to provide concentrated services and housing to a single encampment resident group with the goal of eliminating the unsheltered homeless status for every resident in that encampment by the end of six months."

Personally, I think something needs to be done to discourage homeless people from other locations from moving into Oakland. I'm still curious about this. I suppose this might be something that is not discussed very publicly, or only very cautiously, because some people would twist this around and paint it as an attack on homeless people.

I hope that Oakland does not find itself shouldering the burden of taking care of homeless people from all over the bay area and faraway places.

(sorry for the posts being all out of order and repeated comments - for some reason the post above didn't show up for a day)

Concerned neighbor,

Thank you for this Oct 25th meeting info. I have been talking to a friend who works at Dimond Park. They have camps all over in the brushes. Many were pushed over here during the SF Super Bowl clean up.

I love how I opened this, PW "acknowledged" it, did NOTHING, and closed it, only to have it be RE-opened by a commenter, and told by PW that it's already been filed by someone else, links to that person's complaint, only to have IT linked to ANOTHER complaint, all the while NOTHING gets done about it.

Pass the buck, hopefully it will get buried, and forget about it. That seems to be the way of things with the City of Oakland these days.

Pathetic.

Thank you ,I agree !!!!!! Pathetic sounds perfect.

It is pathetic. We have even more homeless and people living in old broken down cars and motor homes with out if state and out of date license plates. There is a lot of talk but absolutely no action on the Port of Oakland, Oakland PD or PW. How about CHP and County if Alameda? Maybe they have less tolerance and more authority.

The City of Oakland fixed this issue on 11/21/2016, service request #687884.

Dear DPW: ALL issues remain UN-resolved... :-(

The City of Oakland Call Center has received this issue. It is registered as service request #695120. Please check back for status updates, or contact us directly at 510-615-5566.

Did Lynette McElhaney at the Oct 25 meeting come to any conclusions or just a bunch of talk

The City of Oakland addressed this issue on 03/10/2017, service request #695120.

This is unbelievable!! How can you say you “addressed” this issue. Shameful!!! Just drive by and Look. Or if you dare take a walk through the “park”. We need to clean up our park and get rid of Libby!

The city has not addressed this issue. The park remains unusable for its intended purpose and is an environmental and safety hazard.

OAK 311 has received this issue. Your service request ID is #953902. Please check back for status updates, or contact us directly at 510-615-5566.