 |
|
Residents walking the Fruitvale business
corridor last December led by Councilman
Noel Gallo.
|
OAKLAND | On a rainy Friday night in December, Oakland Councilmember Noel Gallo addresses about 40 residents as they prepared to walk International Boulevard and promote public safety.”Don’t worry about the rain; it won’t hurt you,” Gallo tells the crowd.”It might even wash away your sins.”
Since being elected in 2012 to represent the District 5 seat on the Oakland City Council, Gallo has been known as a tough-talking councilman who leads a weekly brigade of residents combating the city’s persistent illegal dumping problem, one discarded mattress at a time. But, starting in December, Gallo began using a similar tactic to boost the Fruitvale corridor’s profile by leading neighbors and small business owners on Friday night safety walks from around the Fruitvale BART station to up to 15 blocks north up International.
“This is old-fashioned organizing,” says Gallo, who is wearing a fluorescent yellow safety vest issued by the city’s public works department.”It says you have to be held accountable for your streets.”
Gallo has worked over the past months to encourage many small businesses lining International near Fruitvale Avenue to stay open later on Friday and Saturday nights. And, if not, to ask them to at least keep their stores lit overnight. The residual light makes a difference in persuading potential criminal acts from occurring in the neighborhood, he says. Streetlights have also been fixed recently, adding even more light as well as creating the sense the city cares about the area.”I tell people they need to take over their neighborhoods,” Gallo adds.”Don’t rely on the police.” As Gallo’s group passes through the small shops and Mexican restaurants near 36th Avenue and International, women exercising to thick Latin beats follow the throng with their eyes, and a small line of patrons ordering food at El Farolito turns and stares. In each case, Gallo sticks his head in and greets them with a quick hello. On the other side of the street, a man in his car screams profanities at the group, believing they are protesters who have taken to the streets of Oakland and Berkeley in recent days over police brutality.”We love you, too!” Gallo yells back.
Additional eyes on the streets will undoubtedly deter crime in the district. But as of today crime persists, whether through robberies or the sex trafficking that still occurs along International. Most area robberies, Gallo says, occur on Friday nights. During the safety walk, he routinely greets young, hooded teens walking past the group with a stern,”How ya doing?” Most scurry away or change the direction of their paths toward the other side of the street.
“I know a lot of these kids,” Gallo says.”There’s no reason for them to be out here alone at night.” One inherent problem with robberies in Fruitvale, he adds, is the prevalence of day laborers in the area who are often paid under the table. Criminals know these groups are prime targets for shakedowns since they carry cash.
ebcitizen.com 
Gallo and those who walked through International Blvd. has the right idea. Looking at the big picture, the walk symbolize community enpowerment. The power of everyday people to protect their neigborhood and its resident; in conjunction with law enforcement
LikeLike
By MW:
The next to last paragraph in in the article in Oakland Magazine is interesting. There is a quote from Gallo in that paragraph in which he admits that the efforts by himself and the Oakland Police Dept to lessen sex trafficking in his district will not really diminish the problem but merely push the problem into another district.
In fact some years ago I had a lengthy discussion with a member of an Alameda County law enforcement agency in which we discussed the fact that crime rates had been rising in my neighborhood, and he came right out and said that the main priority of his agency was not catching the criminals but merely making them uncomfortable enough that they would move their criminal activities to another district.
LikeLike
These people who are walking for a few hours and thinking they're making streets safe are pathetic idiots.
LikeLike