POLICIES
Food Deserts
A desert food is a place where there is a lack of fresh healthy food and there is much in West Oakland. Many people cannot afford healthy foods. This is due in large part to the lack of supermarkets, farmers' markets and the large number of fast food restaurants. People are far from supermarkets because there is not enough and poverty is a problem. Another important factor are people's preferences. People in West Oakland might prefer fast food. We will solve this problem by financing more supermarkets and taxing fast food.
Green Spaces
Ever wondered why there is a lack of public parks in Oakland? This is because there are few organizations to maintain them. Green spaces are important because they are good for the environment and they are aesthetically pleasing. They also have multiple purposes including recreational purposes and they can provide spaces for local gardens. To solve the issue of the lack of green spaces in Oakland, Team Tiara am planning on building more public parks on lots that are mostly vacant.
Illegal Dumping
Illegal dumping is another huge issue, especially in Oakland. People just leave their trash on highway exits and roadsides. People also think it is okay to leave broken refrigerators and beaten up couches on public sidewalks. My team and I plan on making a fine of $15,000 when you see someone littering or illegal dumping. Another solution to this issue of illegal dumping is to up cycle the trash that people dump on streets and in parks.
Renewable Energy
There are many good reasons to have renewable energy and other bad reasons. Some of the bad reasons include that renewable energy is fairly expensive, especially in Oakland. The expenses that renewable energy products can cause poor citizens in Oakland to not have the important and healthy resources they need to make the Oakland community a better place overall. However, there are several good things about renewable energy, like the fact that it can help to lead Oakland to being a cleaner and healthier community. With the lack of renewable energy we have in Oakland, I plan to put solar panels facing the North on public buildings, that are preferably higher up so the solar panels can collect more energy from the Sun.
Policy Videos
What Oakland Thinks
When interviewing sixth graders at East Bay Innovation Academy in Oakland, we found many different responses to our question. Our initial question was “What do you think is the biggest issue in Oakland, food deserts, illegal dumping, lack of renewable energy, and lack of green spaces. The majority of sixth graders said they thought that illegal dumping was the most important and devastating issue in Oakland today. Approximately 38% of the sixth graders we interviewed/polled, believed that illegal dumping is a major problem in Oakland. Only about 13% of sixth graders we interviewed/polled thought that the lack of green spaces in Oakland was a huge issue.
When we interviewed seventh graders, we found more various responses than the sixth graders had. We asked the same question that we asked the sixth graders, for the seventh graders. We polled a total of 16 seventh graders. 7 out of those 16 seventh graders (43%) agreed with the sixth graders that illegal dumping is the most important issue in Oakland right now. Only 3 / 16 sixth graders (18%) we interviewed thought that the lack of green spaces in Oakland is a huge issue. By interviewing all of these people of Oakland’s community, we collected enough data to begin focussing our debate topics on what the people of Oakland’s community think about the lack of green spaces, food deserts, the lack of renewable energy, and illegal dumping.
Tech Companies and Their Impact on Housing
Tech companies have already taken over San Francisco. Why let them ruin how diverse Oakland is. If we put a high tax on people with high income and a lower tax on people with a lower income. Te tech companies are setting a higher standard making the rent cost in Oakland go up to have these fancy tech companies move in and not leave room for everyone else. Now everyone else is being thrown out of their houses because the rent is at such an unreasonably high price.
Cost of Living in Oakland
As the years have gone buy, living in Oakland has become more and more expensive. To help prevent people from being evicted from their homes because they cannot afford to pay these high rental costs. We are planning on putting 3-4 HUD apartments in every neighborhood, West Oakland, Montclair Hills, Lake Merritt, etc. These HU D apartments will know how much a certain neighborhood makes on average for an income. The apartments will charge the neighborhood a certain amount of money based on the average income in that neighborhood, that way everyone in that neighborhood will be able to afford a place to live at a reasonable price per month.
Homelessness
There is homelessness in almost every community. Some more than others. To help lower the amount of homelessness in Oakland, we plan on partnering up with a few organizations. By partnering with the Youth Employment Partnership, homeless people can get the necessary work experience and history they need to get a substantial paying job. We also would like to partner with the Mission for the Homeless organization in Oakland. This organization distributes food, blankets, and other goods to the homeless that the homeless might need. Another organization to partner up with is the East Oakland Community Project. This organization provides dignified emergency, transitional housing, and comprehensive support services. By partnering with these organizations we can ensure ourselves that Oakland's homelessness will dramatically decrease.
Should Oakland Invite Tech Companies into the City?
Oakland plans on inviting tech companies into Oakland only under certain conditions. tiara wants tech companies in Oakland because they can bring Oakland funds for us to build green spaces and increase the amount of renewable energy in Oakland. If tech companies want to build on our land, at least 30% of the workers helping to build, have to be Oakland residents. Therefore different families in Oakland won't get evicted because they will have enough money to pay for such high rent costs.
What Responsibilities Should Tech Companies Have to Oakland?
There are good and bad reasons to why we should and shouldn't have tech companies in Oakland. Team Tiara plans on holding these tech companies accountable and making sure that while they are here, no family or citizen of Oakland gets evicted from their homes. There will be no exceptions for any tech company if they manage to somehow get a family evicted from their home.
Gun Control
Team Tiara plans on banning semi-automatic rifles in Oakland since they are strongly disliked by several communities. All other handguns and rifles are acceptable under one condition, you must have a true license to carry a weapon of this kind. According to Feinstein Senate, all semi-automatic rifles that have a fixed magazine with the capacity to accept more than 10 rounds are banned in the Bay Area and have been banned since 2013. Therefore, by making a strictly ban on semi-automatic rifles in general, we can see a difference in gun shootings in Oakland.
Immigration and Sanctuary cities
Sanctuary cities should be a place for undocumented immigrants to feel safe but they still have to come forward if a victim of a crime or serve as a witness. But the reality is, especially now, that immigrants are never truly safe. To solve this issue, we plan on having the tech companies that are going to move into Oakland help fund Oakland so it can become an official sanctuary city. We also plan on partnering up with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant because they want to offer sanctuary, solidarity support for people who are escaping wars and are troubled immigrants. We also want to partner up with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center because they provide legal trainings, educational materials, and advocacy to advance immigrant rights and support the rights that immigrants already have. We also want to continue the Anti-Deportation Fund. Oakland is putting around $300,000 into this fund that way undocumented immigrants are not being deported because of Donald Trump’s new executive order.
Police brutality
Many people in Oakland experience different types of police brutality. Most victims of police brutality are African American. To solve the issue of police brutality, we plan on partnering up with the National Police Accountability project to help support black men and women who experience police brutality. We also plan on partnering up with the Black Organization Project because they help support and raise awareness about black men and women and their experience in police brutality in Oakland. We also want to partner up with the Anti Police Terror Project because they are a group of concerned and committed institutions, organizations, and individuals dedicated to ending state-sanctioned murder and violence perpetuated against Black, Brown and Poor people. This organization also resists police terror to create a strong and sustainable community support systems.
Sex Trafficking
Sex Trafficking is a large problem all across America. Buyers who are willing to pay for sexual acts make the market of prostitution profitable. Traffickers build a steady relationship with the victim in efforts to understand their desires and vulnerabilities. This makes the victim create an emotional attachment with their “pimp”. The trafficker will use these vulnerabilities to manipulate the victim. To solve this issue, we plan on having more assistance at schools or anywhere so that their will be a lower chance of people getting taken away for sex trafficking. We also plan on arresting and locating “pimps” from sex trafficking rings and stop them from harming anyone else.
School To Prison Reform
Education systems have been directly linked with something called the school to prison pipeline, which is influencing blacks and Latinos to be expelled or arrested. This leads them to not getting a high school diplomacy, or a job. To solve this issue, we plan on no longer punishing students, but instead, teachers should help them reflect on their actions and teach them to make better decisions.Since there are many children that are going into schools and people have guessed that if a child doesn't have a high school diploma the prisons guess that that child will end up in prison. So then the prisons save spots for those children and we end up putting more funds into advancing our prisons when most of that money should go to advancing schools.