My name is Jessie Nguyen, I represent 120+ businesses + co-ops organizing with Restore Oakland and REAL People's Fund. We are here to express our desire and priority in taking part in the community engagement process of Oakland's EDAP.
- We want to uplift that the crisis of the real estate market is also felt by small businesses. Many of our beloved small businesses have closed and have listed affordable commercial rent as the primary reason. We’ve seen small businesses' voices get co-opted by the doom loop narrative or a hard on crime approach. There are businesses who have had their windows broken, but would we be feeling this strain so acutely if our rents weren’t already more than half our income.
- We want to encourage investment into community wealth building initiatives, starting with resourcing those who already provide TA support, so we can skill up to develop commercial community land trusts and worker cooperatives.
- We want to see access to resources for developing our initiatives, whether public lands or a revolving loan fund for starting coops or acquiring commercial real estate through a land trust.
- We appreciate seeing the commitment to holistic community safety through the community ambassador program and want to emphasize that this initiative doesn’t get co-opted for surveillance and private security, and instead includes training in restorative justice practices and serves as a workforce development.