Regarding stray animals in Oakland: We need is a mass spay-neuter program, a joint venture between the City and private rescues, in partnership with our impacted neighborhoods. We need leadership at OAS that reflects our impacted communities and works with us, not against us. We need the Shelter Oversight Committee / Community Advisory Board reactivated. We need a sufficiently staffed shelter. Private rescues come to OAS looking for cats to pull, and can't find any. People who want to adopt cats come to OAS looking for cats, but OAS has none. We have cats on the streets needing homes, and people and rescue orgs who want to adopt them, but OAS has abandoned taking them in. Are people who want cats supposed to buy from breeders now, while our streets are full??? We have a well-resourced zoo for which we pay extra property taxes, which mostly serves out of town visitors. Meanwhile, our own Oakland animals suffer.
Regarding the City’s revenue shortfall: Go after the out-of-town speculative house-flippers. They rob our City of millions in permit fees while removing whatever affordable housing remains from the market and engaging in unsafe work practices which contaminate us. Similarly, the City is not collecting VPT on most empty lots, commercial, and residential properties, often owned by out of town investors..You need to go street by street, document the vacancies, and apply the tax. Oakland residents who know our neighborhoods could do this better than remote contractors.
Regarding stray animals in Oakland: We need is a mass spay-neuter program, a joint venture between the City and private rescues, in partnership with our impacted neighborhoods. We need leadership at OAS that reflects our impacted communities and works with us, not against us. We need the Shelter Oversight Committee / Community Advisory Board reactivated. We need a sufficiently staffed shelter. Private rescues come to OAS looking for cats to pull, and can't find any. People who want to adopt cats come to OAS looking for cats, but OAS has none. We have cats on the streets needing homes, and people and rescue orgs who want to adopt them, but OAS has abandoned taking them in. Are people who want cats supposed to buy from breeders now, while our streets are full??? We have a well-resourced zoo for which we pay extra property taxes, which mostly serves out of town visitors. Meanwhile, our own Oakland animals suffer.
Regarding the City’s revenue shortfall: Go after the out-of-town speculative house-flippers. They rob our City of millions in permit fees while removing whatever affordable housing remains from the market and engaging in unsafe work practices which contaminate us. Similarly, the City is not collecting VPT on most empty lots, commercial, and residential properties, often owned by out of town investors..You need to go street by street, document the vacancies, and apply the tax. Oakland residents who know our neighborhoods could do this better than remote contractors.