Today I would like to talk about the disgrace Oakland is facing regarding all the illegal dumping and abandoned autos in our city. This primarily affects the flatlands of East, West, and North Oakland, but occurs in all parts of our city, including the hills area. It is so bad that it has become a health crisis for the residents of our city. Every day children have to walk through trash just to go to school. I personally have seen feces and buckets of rotting fish at dump sites. There are streets where all the available parking spaces have been taken up by abandoned autos.
While OPW and DOT are doing their best to clean up our city, it’s clear that there is way too much trash for them to keep up with their limited budgets. THE OLD WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS ARE NOT WORKING ANYMORE. We need new approaches not just to remove the blight, but also to prevent dumping from happening in the first place. We need the City Council and the rest of the city government to stop giving lip service and to seriously deal with this issue. The city needs to start thinking outside the box!
Today I would like to talk about the disgrace Oakland is facing regarding all the illegal dumping and abandoned autos in our city. This primarily affects the flatlands of East, West, and North Oakland, but occurs in all parts of our city, including the hills area. It is so bad that it has become a health crisis for the residents of our city. Every day children have to walk through trash just to go to school. I personally have seen feces and buckets of rotting fish at dump sites. There are streets where all the available parking spaces have been taken up by abandoned autos.
While OPW and DOT are doing their best to clean up our city, it’s clear that there is way too much trash for them to keep up with their limited budgets. THE OLD WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS ARE NOT WORKING ANYMORE. We need new approaches not just to remove the blight, but also to prevent dumping from happening in the first place. We need the City Council and the rest of the city government to stop giving lip service and to seriously deal with this issue. The city needs to start thinking outside the box!