Oakland City Mayor's Commission on Persons with Disabilities (MCPD) Meeting, December 16, 2024

Transcript

Good evening. It is 5:37, December 18th or 16th. Sorry. And we will now begin our December session of the of mayor’s commission of people with disabilities. We’ll start with the in person meeting logistics and rules read out by staff. Okay. Remember, no food or open drink are allowed in here in room 1 to maintain a clean and professional environment. Drinks must be in a closed container, like Fatima has, to prevent any spills or accidents. When commissioners speak, please press the top red button that says Mike. And when you are finished, please press the button again.

To ensure clarity and transparency, when commissioners speak, please state your name before speaking. When a member of the audience is speaking or commenting, please first state your name and any affiliations you may have. Restrooms are located outside here in room 1 near the elevators. We will now move on to roll call and determination of quorum. Here. Vice chair, part 2. Here. Commissioner Cloyd. Here. Commissioner Rowe.

Commissioner Foote. Here. Commissioner Creswell. Commissioner Wilson. Here. Commissioner Saint Julian. Here. Commissioner Arey. Here. Commissioner Carter.

Here. And with that, we do make quorum. Oh, nice. Perfect timing. Alright. Well, can I share that it was here too? Okay. And with that, we definitely make quorum. We’ll now move on to item 3, open forum. Any person may directly address the commission on any items within the jurisdiction of the commission not on the agenda for today.

Speakers wishing to address a specific item on the agenda may do so when invited at the time the item is being considered. There’s no discussion allowed during open forum. Please raise your hand if you wish to comment and wait to be called on. Which 1? It doesn’t matter? Okay. I think it’s this 1. Yeah. Hi, everybody. Lenore Gunst.

I am Lenore Gunst, and I chair the mayor’s commission on aging. And it’s, a pleasure to be back here to see you all, although I wish the circumstances were less dire than they are. As you may know, the city is in a fiscal crisis. And, as a result of that, the city council tomorrow will be making, a decision about implementing some mid cycle budget reductions, which will have a drastic, really, severe impact on seniors, persons with disabilities, and veterans who live in the city of Oakland and utilize, Oakland’s, senior services. So of the people that attend, sir, use the services most and attend the senior centers, are mostly low income people and people of color. So it’s an equity issue, and it’s also, critical services that a lot seniors rely on, for for their safety and well-being. And among the probably the biggest 1 is the closure of the senior centers. We had a meeting last week and, and have attended every hearing, and have been advocating on your behalf as well as senior’s behalf. And, we were just shocked when we learned that, that a set of, well, the city administrator proposed a set of cuts and and did so, saying he had the confidence of the, directors of all the departments in adult and aging services and human services, who had, offered these cuts as being something that they could live with. And that really was not the case.

Adult and Aging Services had not been consulted. And this included, rotating actually, I heard a question about the the centers, not opening West Oakland right away. It’s still under construction apparently. But, the other centers would have 1 center director and they would, this person would rotate among the the 3 others that are open, and it would be open 1 day a week. So Oakland’s a big city. It’s hard enough to get around and I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir about that, but, you know, to get from West Oakland out to East Oakland, for 1 day a week, it just isn’t tenable. Not only that, but they’re, the downtown Oakland Senior Center, for instance, is the, head start program runs there. The veterans administration runs out of there. Essential programs like, case management. All transportation and script is available at, for people that need help to get to doctor’s appointments and all are, available at the senior centers, as well as meal and food distribution.

So, we have been lobbying very hard for, an alternative plan or at least, something that that, would mitigate the impact to seniors and persons with disabilities and veterans. We are hopeful that tomorrow at the at the meeting that, we will have gotten our message through. We have just had tireless efforts. So last week, we had an opportunity to meet with the city administrator. And, and we had a rousing meeting. We had buses come and pick seniors up from all the senior centers and brought them there. Over a 100 folks were there. And, he did acknowledge at the end of that meeting that there was still time to see whether or not they couldn’t mitigate some of the impacts that they were anticipating. So, we’ll see. So tomorrow, we have a rally.

And, so we’re not just gonna take that for an answer. We’re gonna go the to the end, to the end of the line here with everything we’ve got. So it will be out at Fracagawa Plaza, and it’s going to start just before the city council meeting starts at 3:30. So we’ll be out there at about 2:30. And, Anwar is going to be speaking. We have, folks from Mercy Brown Bag, from SOS Meals on Wheels, from the Senior Services Coalition. We are hoping, very hopeful. We’re gonna have somebody from, supervisor Nate Miley’s office will be there, United Seniors of Oakland, and, we’re hoping 1 of the council members will come out as well. We know we know at least 2 or 3 that are really sympathizing with us. But, you know, fire and police are important, and that seems to be where the city has, has really hedged in terms of being able to cut too much of those resources.

They’re union they’re big union jobs, and so, you know, that’s another complication in in the works. But seniors are important. You know, we’re the fiber of, I think, of Oakland. And, we take advantage of what Oakland has to offer, and we’ve lived and worked here for, for many for their whole lives, and people wanna stay. And the senior centers play an important role in that, as do senior services, as do all of you. So, so I’m here just to give you that update. We’re gonna have we’re kind of waiting out with bated breath to see what happens tomorrow. There it will be the last opportunity. You know, in addition to all that, the over half the city council’s turning over, including the mayor. So, so, you know, we’ll be back at it in the beginning of the year, virtually starting over with our advocacy and relationship building with, several of the council members.

But, it’s all worthwhile. So, so anyway, I just wanna give you that update. I wanna thank you very much for your support. Come on out tomorrow if you can’t. If you do have a relationship with a council member, you know, shooting an email, there’ll be public comment available, during the meeting. You can submit a a card if you come in person. It may be too late to do it on, any comment, but, certainly, you can just email council members if they get them and just let them know that, that you really support, not closing the senior centers and retaining some of the, some of the other programs that seniors rely on. So any questions at all? Yes. You spoke of well, I know the West Oakland 1 was closed.

I know a lot of people that used to go there. So you said they remodel, and they couldn’t be remodeling if there’s no money. So what are they doing with it? Yeah. So there’s something called, carryovers, in the budget, and most of those are for capital improvement projects. So, so construction is well underway. And, so yeah. I know. It’s kind of a slippery slope there. There is money.

I mean, there’s money. Oakland’s got money, but, you know, a lot of it is not discretionary. It’s it’s restricted in how it’s used. And a lot of I think a lot of the the concern that the city councils, had, in their decision making is that the fiscal, where the city ends up in all of this will, will certainly impact their credit rating. So the city floats bonds to finance a lot of the capital improvement projects. You know, I live on Broadway Terrace. The road has not been paved in 50 years or something. It’s, you know, it’s there’s other, infrastructure improvements and all that. So the funding for those are, those funds are earmarked and they’re there. But, yeah.

Right? You’d think that we would take care of Oakland’s most vulnerable people first before some of these other, you know, projects and things, get taken on. But, Do you have any excuse me. Would do you have any idea which one’s closing or just? Well, they would all, right now, they were all gonna close. So last last Tuesday, we learned, like, that they were eliminating 6 and a half positions out of adult and aging services, and we pressed and pressed and pressed to find out what they were, and staff didn’t even know what they were. And it turned out it was all the senate directors. Is Oakland the only 1 that’s broke, or is it just, you know, is it just the Bay Area period? Is it just Oakland? That’s a good question.

I, you know, I honestly don’t know. I, I heard, council member Jenkins talk about San Diego. I guess he’s been down there a couple of times and, you know, talking to people there about it. We I remember the city of Vallejo went, you know, went into bankruptcy. Yeah. So I’d I’d like to limit conversation too much. I I do know that other cities also suffer from problems of things like police overspending and bunch of problems, but that’s discussed for another time. Yes. Exactly. So any other questions that that anybody has?

Any yes. Sorry. I may have missed this, but did you say they’re voting on this tomorrow at tomorrow’s meeting? That’s correct. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Well, thanks again, everybody, and I wish you all a happy holiday. Yeah.

Yeah. Are there any other speakers? I’m Sheila Gunn and I’m laughing because this is this is always the way. I’m I’m wearing 2 hats today. Thank you, Lenore, for talking about tomorrow’s meeting. I will be there virtually. I think that when we destroy the infrastructure, the social infrastructure that helps people on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis, maintain their health and well-being both physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, whatever. If we destroy that then that means more emergency room visits, that means delayed doctor care, that means not getting transportation to where they need to go for medical and social things, and that means isolation. So if there are people not in this room, who, feel that this is important, they should come on out tomorrow. It won’t be cold inside and the rally will only be an hour, so, come and be here and and do what we need to do.

I want to switch gears though. There was a tornado in Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley. There was almost a tsunami in San Francisco. We are in we are definitely in climate change times. And, how, communications about said tsunami and who should move to where for what and all that was rather confusing even from supposedly trusted sources. I choose KCBS when I need to know what’s going on and NOAA Weather Radio isn’t enough. So and and NOAA Weather Radio did say pretty much what KCBS said, but I didn’t know that my house was at 126 feet above sea level. I don’t I don’t I don’t, what do what do you call it when you drop the stick in the in the sea to to see how to depth depth sound sound the depth. Anyway, and so that was a very loud and clear wake up call. By the way, I did not hear any Oakland sirens.

Apparently, Berkeley did some stuff and Alameda Alameda moved some people around. And so I think it’s time we had a hot wash after this cold rain. So I would like to see a thing like that. I think that’s it. Everybody be safe for the holidays. I know that the Berkeley shelters are open. I’ve been sending things out to the Oakland disabled list about that. I don’t know where to get Oakland shelter information. I would send that out if I had it. And we will CIL will amplify things when we know they’re needed.

And we we do our best to do it sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly on our website and Facebook and all that. So, make sure that we get info about stuff, and we’ll send it out. Okay. Thanks. Are there any other speakers? Okay. Seeing no other speakers, we’ll now move on to item 4, agenda modification. MC MCPD commissioners may move around the agenda items to better conduct the meeting. Do any commissioners wish to modify the agenda? No?

I don’t okay. Let’s move on to item number 5 then, approval of November 20 24 minutes. Could I get a motion to approve them? Motion to approve. Right. Can I get a second? A second. Okay. Could we get a roll call from staff? Chair Buried.

Yes. Vice chair Barto. Yeah. Commissioner Cloyd. Yes. Commissioner Roe? Yes. Commissioner Foote? Yes. Commissioner Creswell is absent.

Commissioner Wilson? Yes. Commissioner Saint Julian? Yes. Commissioner Arey? Yes. Commissioner Carter? Yes. All right. With that, it is approved.

We’ll now move on to item 6, commissioner announcements. Commissioners will provide bridal updates on their activities and make announcements relevant to the commission and, the strategic goals of the commission. There’s no discussion here in our during announcements. We also have a new commissioner. Generally, we would ask them to introduce ourselves. And I welcome you to make a brief introduction. But I think 1 of our agenda items will have us doing a more detailed introduction as well. So don’t worry about taking too long with that. But I’d like to welcome James Carter. Yeah.

Thanks so much for having me. James Carter. I live in North Oakland, a member of the LGBT community. So and I’m really passionate about trying to make life better for people with disabilities and anybody promoting diversity and inclusion wherever I can. Thanks. Excellent. Do any other commissioners have announcements they’d like to give or update? Alright. I have a couple. First, I want to echo, Leonora’s concerns about our senior centers and that the probably most consequential city council meeting around to sign the budget is tomorrow at 3:30.

It will probably go on for a while. So if you, maybe like, if you have time to come in after work or at some point, it could be very useful to talk. Again, it could go on for a while. So if work if your work’s done, you have time to check-in, you know, see if there’s anything on the agenda that you’d want to talk on. Additionally, some updates on things that I’ve been lobbying and working on. Their happy I had mentioned Measure You funding last month, which is bond sales that Oakland hadn’t done, but which support Oakdale’s paving program, which importantly supports most of their sidewalk repairs. I’m happy to report that those appear to be going forward relatively smoothly. There are still some steps that will happen in the new year, but those are going well. There are some, some council members are proposing a merger between Oak Dot and Public Works that I’m relatively skeptical of and am talking with them about. I think that, our communication work with, the city of Oakland and with Oak Dot improved tremendously compared to when they were merged with Public Works, and I would hope that our relationship continues that way.

Otherwise, I had noticed on some job applications in the city’s website that some of them have requirements for a driver’s license and ability to drive for jobs that probably don’t actually need those requirements and have been working with staff to hopefully have those requirements reviewed and possibly removed removed where possible just because even if those requirements aren’t often enforced, they may be a deterrent to people with disabilities applying to jobs, and I’m worried about that, yeah, being an obstacle for people. Otherwise, yeah, check-in with the city council meeting tomorrow, and, that’s all I’ve got. Anyone else? Okay. With that, we can move on to item 7, election of 2025 officers. We do this once a year. Would staff like to give us a rundown on how this will move on? Sure. Good evening, everyone. Anwan here from, ADA program division in the city administration office.

So the election officer the election of a new officer for 2025 calendar year, will went as follow. First, we’ll do the chair, then we’ll do the vice chair. In each position, we’ll do, 3 round of nomination, for folks who are interested in serving as a chair and so forth for the vice chair as well. So, you can nominate yourself or you can nominate someone, but the person must be here tonight tonight at present to either accept or to decline. So it’s any questions about the process? So to be clear, we go through have round of anyone who wants to might nominate someone for an office. Do we hear all nominations? We hear all nominations, and then we do a round of voting per person? Or Yes. Okay.

I know in the past, we’ve had 2 vice chairs. Right? That’s also been something that’s come up before. Would that be possible, again, to have co vice chairs? Yes. That is possible. Okay. Great. Okay. In that case, let’s move on to the election for chair.

Are there any nominations? I would nominate myself to continue as chair if people would have me. I do oh, do nominations need to be seconded? Or No. Oh, okay. Well, I’m will nominate myself then. Would anyone else be interested in running for chair? Or No. I was just getting ready to nominate you. Oh.

Alright. So, so that’s 2nd round. It’d be a 3rd round. Is there a 3rd round of any person who wants to be chair? I don’t think so. Alright. Hearing none, I guess there’s only 1 person voting. So congratulation, chair Parruti. You will serve again chair again. Yeah.

Sure. Thank you. Alright. Moving on to vice chair. So our 1st round, of nomination. Any names? I would like to nominate 2 potential co chairs. First of all co vice chairs. First of all, Benjamin doing wonderful job. Would love to continue working with him.

And, also, if he’s interested, Thomas, would you be interested in being a co vice chair? I’m honored, but I don’t think I have the time to do the job properly this year. Thank you. Thanks. I would still love to have a co vice chair if someone else wants to join. But I know that everybody’s capacity is different. So if anybody else is interested, please feel free to nominate yourself or nominate someone else. I nominate what’s ROH? I nominate her. Appreciate the nomination, commissioner St.

Julian. I also will politely decline the, the nomination. Thank you. I probably have too much on my plate, but I’ll nominate myself. We need to break up this boys club. Please do. Yes. Okay. Alright. For sure.

That’s great. So that’s 3 round of nomination with, commissioner Parteau and commissioner O’Rourke as vice chair. O’Rourke. Okay. Yeah. I think that’s it. I think that’s good. Alright. Congratulations. Congratulations.

Okay. I think that concludes officer elections, which means we can now move on to item 9, MCPD strategic plan 2025 with Jasmine Pomer. Oh, sorry. This 1, item number 8, which is the 2025 meeting calendar. Oh, right. No. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry, Jasmine. I just okay.

Item 8, approval of 25 meeting calendar, we which we have, I believe, in our packet. Should we does anyone want to take a moment to review it, or should we move on? Actually, people take a moment to review. And when you’re satisfied, someone can make a motion to approve. I had a question on it. Is the time the same? 5:30 to 7:30? Yes. The time, location is the same. It’s always the 3rd Monday.

Unless that Monday is a holiday, then it’s a following Monday. But it’s the same. Lehi me see. And for those on the commission, there is a process for remote joining these remote now. If there’s an accessibility need, there’s just a process you have to go through. So that can make it easier too. Okay. Okay. I’ll find it eventually. Oh, pain in my side.

Oh, keep that pain in my side. What is this? This is just The schedule? Are we gonna get a copy? It is in your package. It’s in my package? Okay. Okay. I’ll find it. You want it?

Let me let me look for I get the the meeting date hadn’t changed from previous year. It’s also the 3rd Monday, same time. Except, notably, January February have special meeting dates. Right? Yes. Yeah. Because those month, those Monday falls on a holiday. Yeah. Motion to approve the calendar for 2025. Okay.

Okay. That is seconded. Can we get a roll call from staff? Chair Buridi. Yes. Vice chair part 2. Yes. Vice chair elect RA. Yeah. Elect.

Commissioner Cloyd. Yes. Commissioner Roe. Yes. Commissioner Foote. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Commissioner Saint Julian. Yes.

Commissioner Carter. Yes. Alright. With that, it passes. And now Oh, yes. We can move on to item 9, MCPD strategic plan 2025 with Jasmine Palmar. No. That was from Hi, folks. Happy Monday. Can you hear me okay?

Am I am I close enough to the mic? Thank you. So, hi, my name is Jasmine Ray Pomar, and I will introduce myself a bit more a bit later, but I, have been chosen by your staff here to help facilitate your yearly strategic planning process. I am here on behalf of the Commission, but I also work for this city. I am the head of Bridal Justice and Transportation Equity for OKDOT, the Oakland Department of Transportation. This is the first of 2 sessions that we’re going to be working on the strategic plan, and so this session will not produce a a ready plan, but rather will get us thinking and working on the sort of creative and and thought leadership elements of it. And so to that effect, I have a flow on the next slide, if we could get the next slide. Sort of 5 main sections. I wanna take a little while to introduce myself, have you all introduce yourselves, kind of get in touch here. This is a collaborative and communicative process, so I think that we all should enter it conversationally.

And then we have a little while to do some imagining, thinking about about our values, thinking about what what we’re striving to create here in Oakland, what the Oakland that we want to see looks like. Then we move into something a little bit more concrete, thinking about brainstorming goals. So working on kind of getting the entire kitchen sink of what it is that we might take on for the next year. After that, we’re gonna talk about asset mapping that has to do with, our assets, whether that’s our individual capacities as commissioners, the tools and resources that we have to accomplish things, any number of partnerships, social capital, things like that. Then I have a closing question that I’m going to ask you and then very rudely force you to remember to think about for the next month, and I’ll bring it back up, in our January session when we reconvene on this. Don’t worry. I will email you as a reminder. So moving forward into our introductions and expectations. I have a few expectations for this space just to kind of talk about how this session will go. To begin with, a number of these slides are a little bit text heavy for folks that that’s a challenge for.

I will make sure that I am reading every single word on the slide, so don’t worry. But, yeah, our our first expectation here is that we’re going to leave this space feeling unfinished today. That is intentional. It is by design. I am, intentionally trying to keep these thoughts stirring in the back of your head. So if you leave here today feeling like we didn’t do anything, that’s great. If you leave here today feeling like you did it and we have a strategic plan, I’ve done something terribly wrong. Additionally, this is, like I said, a very conversational element. I know that that’s a little bit different than a lot of what our sessions, here at MCPD look like. So I’m going to ask you all to try and share the floor evenly.

That means both, not only, overwhelming the talking space, but also trying to encourage yourself to to share the space and and and have your opinions be voiced in in this long session that we have coming up. Additionally, this is your plan. It’s your session. I am here as a facilitator. I’m here to ask some questions, but, you know, really, this is for you all to fill the space with your ideas, your opinions, your feelings on these things. We’re really just here to prompt the conversation. And so, somewhat ironically, this will probably be the session this year with the most silent sort of dead air time on the stream. And at the same time, it may well be the session that each of you speak more than than any other, MCPD meeting. Finally or not quite finally, this is a blue sky session. I’m going to ask a lot of very open ended questions.

I want you all to answer without any any sort of respect for reality. I’m going to ask you things like, if you could change anything about Oakland, you only had 1 thing to pick, what would it be? But I’m also going to ask you questions about what would you theoretically like to work on next year? And in both of those, I would like you to answer based on your, your feelings, your opinions, your ideals, and not necessarily what you think is realistic. You know, no bad ideas, and we’re also not going to constrain ourselves quite yet, with what we think we can actually accomplish. I want to flesh out everything that if you had all of all of your wildest dreams met, you would be interested in doing. Then finally, there are poll prompts throughout this, at a couple of different slides. If you have in front of you, my slides or if you have the the agenda from today for anybody streaming, if you have the agenda document opened, I believe let’s see. Slide 6 is the first time that that appears. If it is convenient to you, I would I would ask anybody here in the audience, anybody watching the stream, and all of the commissioners to open that link if you have a device in front of you.

You can scan that QR code, but I will also read off the the link itself. It is httpscolonbackslash tinyurl.combackslashmcpd 2025. That’s mcpd2025. Pause there for a second. I will explain what that link is for and what it does shortly, but it is essentially a poll that we can, get some of your feedback, both the commissioners and also, any members of the public. Yes, Sheila. Cal OES loves Mentimeter. I hate Mentimeter because it’s very, very, very, very graphical and thus very, very not screen reader friendly. And I didn’t get a chance to talk to you, Jessica. So I’m not I’m I’m saying this, but there’s some frustration about it because when we were doing it in the Cal OES list of sessions, they give you, like, 45 seconds to answer the question.

And they’d be talking at you while I’m trying to tell somebody how to do things on my phone after turning off my screen reader so they could even do it. So we I know we need to talk offline, but I wish that there had been more time to get at this before now. And so my question now is, how the heck do I tell you what I’m thinking if I don’t use the stupid little devices? Grr. So I have 2 responses to that. 1 in in looking through this, my the the sense that I got from various, I think mostly academic accessibility guides was that the main, visual portion of Mentimeter that is largely incompatible with screen readers is the live poll responses that folks tend to share. I am not using the Mentimeter to show everybody here the responses. I’m just using it to collect, written responses from you all myself. Can I answer your question? Okay.

Okay. So so in your case, since you are luckily physically here, I am happy to, listen to your responses verbally, and we can pass you the mic again when it’s relevant. Great. I’d also like to volunteer that I have multiple devices that I can run this on. And if someone wants to borrow my computer or something to use it, I’m happy to, if anyone struggles to, like, get it pulled out. Thank you, Anwar. Oh, this is hello? This is also, Anwar here from JC Brooklyn. Just wanna remind, folks that, the strategic planning session we’re having right now, is open to not only the commissioner, but also the public as well to provide feedback. And that’s what we really want is, a really robust discussion, from everyone who, is interested in this topic.

Yes. Vice chair Barto. Yeah. Commissioner Cloyd. Yes. Commissioner Roe? Yes. Commissioner Foote? Yes. Commissioner Creswell is absent.

Commissioner Wilson? Yes. Commissioner Saint Julian? Yes. Commissioner Arey? Yes. Commissioner Carter? Yes. All right. With that, it is approved.

Oh, keep that pain in my side. What is this? This is just The schedule? Are we gonna get a copy? It is in your package. It’s in my package? Okay. Okay. I’ll find it. You want it?

Okay. That is seconded. Can we get a roll call from staff? Chair Buridi. Yes. Vice chair part 2. Yes. Vice chair elect RA. Yeah. Elect.

Commissioner Cloyd. Yes. Commissioner Roe. Yes. Commissioner Foote. Yes. Commissioner Wilson. Yes. Commissioner Saint Julian. Yes.

And then the question would generally be starting from the Commissioner and back to the public and vice versa. Yes. Thank you. And for, again, anybody who might be on the stream, who also has troubles accessing the Mentimeter, I am happy to, take any responses to any of the poll questions via email. I will find a way to get my email communicated out to you all. But also, if you send it to, any of the staff email, I’m hoping that they will help me by passing that along. So, yeah, moving right along to the next slide, I would like to introduce myself a bit here. This process has me talking to you and asking you questions that might feel a little bit personal, whether they’re about your community and your experiences, your passions, your interests, and, you know, sometimes the expression the oppression and marginalization that you actually experience as individuals. So I’d like to introduce myself so that I’m more of a person than just sort of a concept standing up here behind this podium. Like I said before, my name is Jasmine Rae Pomar.

I use sheher pronouns. I was born and raised here in Oakland. I went to Oakland Public Schools all my life. I went to Oakland Tech. Go Bulldogs. I have had a career long fight for equity in any number of spaces, in the public health space, doing health equity work largely for the black community, in the LGBT advocacy space. Right now, as I said before, I serve as the head of bridal justice and equity for OAK DOT. I’m also a multimedia artist in addition to sort of my technical background. I have an art degree in oil painting. I don’t really use it much, but my work is featured in the permanent collection of the GLBT Historical Society.

What else do we have here? Yeah. I love being in restaurants. I’m a bit of a foodie. I will often travel just to go to a new restaurant. I, yeah, I love coffee. I’ve had plenty of cups of it today. I’m actually a bit hungry. And I love live music. I grew up, going to, DIY shows at, like, 924 Gilman in West Berkeley and the Metro down in Jack London.

Big, yeah, big fan of live music. Been involved in it since I was young. I’m a cyclist. I’m a bike mechanic. Technically, my first job was as a bike mechanic. It did not last very long, but I have worked on all of my own bikes since, and I have built a number of bikes for me and my loved ones. And I live with a sweet orange diabetic cat. His name is Solomon. He’s about £20 right now, and we’re working on it. But he actually just had a vet appointment this week, and his blood sugar is doing great, everyone.

So now I will just take a moment to describe the slide. I have 3 photos here. On this slide, 1 is of me in a red suit standing with council member Carol Fife and also Sarah Fine from, Oak Dot’s Paving Division. We’re standing on the corner of a street. I believe that this is Telegraph in 27th, for the unveiling of the completion of our protected bike lane project there. In the upper right hand side, there’s a photo of me, decked out in spandex, unfortunately. That’s at Treasure Island. I had just I was in the middle, I guess, of a bike ride across, the recently opened expanse of the bridge that has a bike lane on it. And then finally, there is a photo of my cat, Solomon. He is orange and white.

He is wearing a hand knitted or, I guess, hand crocheted winter cap with a fun pom pom on top of it. I love him. So now, sort of in response to that, typically with a strategic planning session like this, we ground ourselves in, the the mission statement and value statement or vision of the organization. In many ways, MCPD doesn’t have a traditional vision and value statement. There is a statement about, who MCPD serves on the website. But in lieu of a more fleshed out vision statement, I would like to hear from you all about what your vision for Oakland is through this question. The question is, why did you each join the mayor’s commission on persons with disabilities? Give you all a second to collect your thoughts and then much in the way of voting. I will start with the chair and the vice chair and then go clockwise. Additionally, with this, if you’d like to just introduce yourselves to me and tell me anything else about yourself, maybe a fun fact, something like that, I would love that.

No. I I I I’ve No. We I said that you can have a minute. Whenever you’re ready, Trevor Buruti. If other people are oh, I’ll just go. Hi. I am Eno Baruti. I, I joined many of you may know me as, a person with a pretty singular focus on 1 particular topic. That comes, actually happens I think I’m not the only person on the commission anymore who grew up in Mississippi. Really?

No. Yeah. So let’s see. But doing so and then coming to California for schooling, as a person legally blind, cannot drive, cannot bike, I could not get around, could not travel, could not had no personal autonomy at all in Mississippi. And coming to California changed that radically in a way that I did not even know was possible. And since that and all the many things that have come since then, my I’ve been extremely focused on transportation and mobility and making sure that not only can people get around, but that it is, accessible and comfortable and ideal to get around on foot and by transit to ensure as many people as possible can experience that autonomy that helped to normalize my life since I’ve moved here. And I’ve joined the commission, primarily to, like, further that goal. And, and yeah. So I’ll pass it to our vice chair. Hey, everyone.

Co vice chair Bartu, and I immigrated to Oakland when I was 11 and developed epilepsy shortly after. So I’ve been disabled for most of my life. And then I, after graduating from school, started working with disabled students in Oakland. After that, started working at UC Berkeley in disability studies research. So it’s been a long time, I guess, passion of mine to advocate for the disabled community. And I saw that there were openings on the commission. I mean, 15 months ago, this commission looked very different. We had a lot of trouble meeting quorum then. And, yeah, I felt that since it was there were so many seats available, it would be good to to go and join. And so I interviewed with Anh and Mark, and it turned out to be a good fit, and here I am still with you all today.

And we move to our other vice chair, the vice chair. Oh. Yes. Okay. Hi. My name is Fatima Ori. Ori like glory. And, this is really my second my second go round with the commission. I was on the commission about 8 years ago, and I was making a presentation. And I I made some joke about serving again.

And they were like, no. We have room. We really want you to serve. So I am the director of field building and capacity for a San Francisco based nonprofit called The Kelsey. And we support, housing that is affordable, accessible, and inclusive. And I also have a dog that is probably overweight. So and he doesn’t keep hats on. Is is she okay when you put a hat on her? It’s it’s it’s like 5050. In that photo, he was doing totally fine, but sometimes it’s very immediately.

Yeah. Getting knocked off. It just, I guess, depends on the mood. Right. That hat does have nice little slots for his ears to go, which I think is helpful. Mhmm. Yeah. I think then if we’re going clockwise, then commissioner Garda would be next. Yes. Hello.

James Carter. Live in, North Oakland. Just a little bit about myself as, Anwar kind of hinted to. Yeah. I I do share the same, background in that, like, I grew up in Mississippi, couldn’t drive. Also, like, in Jackson, it was sort of kind of, like, you know, getting around was of complete pain. I’ll even put on my Transit Geek, beanie, which I got the other day from Bart. So definitely a big advocate for trying to help where I can. Also, similar to you, I’m definitely a big fan of live music. Sometimes some people could call me a barfly.

If you wanna find me out, you can find me at Heart and Dagger every now and then. So it’s 1 of my favorite hangouts. Things that I’m really passionate about in addition to transit is just kind of, like, just making everyday businesses as accessible and easy for people to interact with as possible. And so just kind of finding ways where we can create a social and a good environment where people can socialize and interact and be part of 1 another and create community. So those are things that, inspire me. Thanks. I’m commissioner Saint Julien and born and raised here in Oakland, North Oakland. I went to graduated from Oakland Tech also. I’m here because I’m interested in, you know, the disabled because I’m I take care of a lot of them, and I would like to see a lot more things happen for them. And as far as how they’re doing the transit and the mobilities for them to get around, I don’t agree with it.

You know, they I understand a lot of people are bikers and stuff. They’ve taken a lot away, you know, the, the parking from them. And I don’t, I don’t like how they’re doing the bus, putting them in the middle of the streets. And how do we expect people with disabilities, you know, to get around and get in the middle of the street? They could get hit, hurt. So my basically, that’s the reason why I joined it because, like I said, I’m interested in it. I’ve taken care of people all my lives, and I just would like to see more, you know, more for them. And I really don’t appreciate how they’re taking things from the senior seniors a lot of things because I’m 1 myself. And, as far as the senior citizen places, they’re closing a lot of those and I had heard of that. And I have a lot of friends that go to them.

And, actually, I used to be a member of 1. So, I’m here just to see what’s going on. And there’s a lot of things I don’t like, but I can’t improve it. So, you know, but I’m gonna be here to listen. And something I don’t do not like, I’m gonna speak up. That’s it. Hello. My name is Thomas Cloyd. I have lived in Oakland about 6 and a half years, and, I am here for a few reasons. But the, probably, biggest 1 is I have a spinal cord injury, c 5, c 6.

I’m a quadriplegic. Paralyzed below the chest, no finger function, use a wheelchair. And I’ve been involved with a lot of communities of mostly physically disabled people, on try to get people back to independence and agencies. So that’s, like, the main thing that I believe in because I benefited from it a lot from having to support my family and friends, where I was able to go back to school, work, travel, kind of live a thriving life. And I think people need assistance sometimes to be able to do that or at least have the opportunity to do so. And I think state, city, county, and federal government resources can play and should play a role in that. And so that’s why I joined here because I know Oakland has a history of doing a lot to support people who are in need. And the fact that this exists, I think, displays that. And the fact that it has continued to exist over the decades, and there’s, city council members coming in and checking in. It’s like there’s actual change that we can make.

And, yeah, I think a lot of the reasons why people don’t have independence if they have disability are because of things that the city, county, state, and federal government are doing. So it’s like, if you’re gonna change things, it’s through this mechanism, which then can get people to participate, in the life that they want. So that’s why I’m here. And there’s a lot of good people here too. It’s fun to hang out. Happy to go next. Hi. Caitlin Rowe. I’m a transplant to to Oakland, moved around quite a bit, as an adult but grew up in Nebraska, was raised with a younger brother on the spectrum who is nonverbal. And then, my sister was diagnosed with a severe mental health, disorder, severe mental illness, in her early twenties.

And then my mom, worked as a special ed teacher and served on the state arc board in Nebraska. So this was very much part of, my home life growing up and part of my personal experience in supporting my own siblings. And naturally, it was something I then, worked in as an adult and so spent time working for parent resource centers in both Minnesota and New York City. I now no longer work in the the disability space, but wanted to continue to be involved and and help improve community here. And the piece, that commissioner Cloy talked about in terms of independence and agency, I think is incredibly important and a big reason of why I’m here. And I think the more that we build structures for people, and that includes family, community supports, non paid people to be interacting with and create more space and opportunity for people with disabilities to be out in the community interacting, the the better their lives are and the better our lives are. So that’s why I’m here. Hi. My name is Raven Foote. I too am a transplant.

I am originally from Los Angeles, but I’ve lived in the Bay area for on and off since 2010 for school when I moved here for school. And, I joined because I personally feel like the disabled people are the most vulnerable and oppressed group that people people often forget about. When I go out, I see that, like, a lot of things are not handicap accessible, and, I’m very vocal when I see something wrong. So I just decided to make it official and join the commission so I can advocate for them in other ways. I, I do have a sibling who is disabled, and just going out with her, I see that she’s inconvenienced a lot of ways, like stairs and walking long distance. So I think that’s pretty wrong. So that’s why I joined. My name is it working? Okay. My name is Gia Wilson.

I am in my is it not working? Hello? Hello? Okay. My name is Gia Wilson. I in my day job, or I guess I’m also a North Oaklander, transplant here from the U like, classic lived in from SoCal, moved here for UC Berkeley, stayed around. I studied both landscape architecture and disability studies when I was younger because I feel very strongly about physical access because if disabled people are not able to enter spaces and they can’t then they can’t make their voices heard, and so I work as my day job as a landscape designer. I work with both the landscape architecture team as well as the community and accessibility team at my work, design team at my work. And so I’m constantly learning about what it means both code wise as well as just customer service and whatever wise, you know, how to both advocate and work with people with disabilities. And I find that, and I find that it is just so important that people my and why is this transportation?

My 1 my 1 shot kind of, like, goal is to make the world more physically accessible beyond the ADA, beyond just what the ADA says and, you know, include intellectual developmental disabilities, include folks of different varying sizes, you know, because I recently learned that, you know, like, people who use larger wheelchairs actually don’t clear ADA compliant turning radiuses and whatnot. And so just things like that. I feel like the world needs more than just what is in code and what is there. And so I hope to, like, be on this commission and help maybe make some changes in terms of, like, going beyond the ADA and beyond code and beyond everything. Thank you all. I really appreciate that. Yeah. I mean, we have heard a bunch of things that both unite a number of you and also differentiate you. I mean, heard a lot about the built environment in accessibility, whether it’s transportation, whether it’s access in other places, heard a lot about general dissatisfaction with how government treats your communities. And a connecting thread for very many of you is that you do this work for your own communities or communities that you came up in, communities that you’re deeply connected to.

Sounds like a lot of you have participated in this type of work through your careers and and in many avenues outside of this space. So I’m really excited to to get into this with you, and thank you all for telling me a bit about yourselves. If we could have the next slide. This is our first sort of big question, and this is also the first time where we are going to use the poll. And for the commissioners, I will leave it up to you, whether you want to to submit only to the poll, whether you would like to submit to the poll and then also speak, or whether you would like to take the time, that I allot to consider your answer and then, you know, say it into the mic for us on the record. It’s completely up to you. But, yeah, let me know as you start to open that if it is live yet. Make sure that everything’s working for you. So the question here on screen and also through the poll is, quote, what does disability justice look, sound, or feel like? And, a sort of subtitle that is here on the slide screen is how can we describe the sensory experience of inaccessible Oakland?

These are perhaps stand in terms, but, you know, in previous sessions where I’ve asked this to community builders and and other groups, Answers have ranged from anything like, you know, the sound of children laughing because parks are accessible and they feel safe to, you know, the sound of footsteps as folks are able to engage in in walkability or or, you know, any number of things like that. You know, maybe maybe it’s the smell of food as as restaurants, you know, engage with the public space and and, you know, enter into the right of way or any number of things like that. The intention here is is to take a step back, I think, from what exactly do we do we need to do or what are the issues that we’re looking at solving and trying to think evocatively, sensorially, romantically even, if you will, about about what what we’re looking for in the world, about what the world that we’re interested in creating feels like. So this is probably an atypical question for a lot of you. So I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it. As things come to you, please feel free to enter any any, answers into the poll. And then after a few minutes, I will also open up for folks to say their answers aloud. Let me know if you have any questions accessing that link. And, again, that URL is httpscolon backslash backslash tinyurl.com backslash mcpd2025. Not to interrupt that silence that I promised everybody, but, how is how is logging into this poll for folks who have been trying to do that?

Have folks succeeded in getting in? Lovely. Thank you. Let me step up to the dice if that’s alright and take a look. I’ve never been very computer savvy and all that, and I ain’t gonna try today. I’ll just listen to what everybody says. Also, sorry. Here I go interrupting that silence again. This question can receive more than 1 answer on the poll. So if you have multiple things and you would like to send them separately, please feel free.

You can tell me. What did you see? Got a number of responses on the poll. Please continue if you are still submitting, but I’d like to read some of them out to start this conversation, and then I’ll turn it over to all of you if you’d like to to speak your answers out loud. 1 that I saw that I liked and especially given my my career is more human sounds, fewer vehicle sounds. I love that. Always talking about trying to make the public space more for human beings and our fleshy non steel bodies. Somebody said it feels like it feels like being able to easily nourish yourself without obstacles, so tasting good food. I love that as well. Nice and simple.

Feels like a community where disabled people have the same economic opportunities and ability to get to and from work. It looks like in our public spaces and indoors at bars, restaurants, and stores, there are able-bodied people mixing it up with folks with a range of disabilities, whether that’s wheelchair users, cane users, things like that. Like that brings to mind images of shared space. Disability justice feels equal for all. Accessible whether you are immobile, blind, deaf, rich, poor, or illiterate, it looks like having space to maneuver and hear at an event space and feel safe. That was something that I saw in a number of these, feelings of safety, confidence in safety. To that end, somebody said people greeting neighbors because they know and care about each other, fostering a community that isn’t disconnected and people can take care of 1 another. There’s a number more of these. Somebody likened it to the feeling of comfort. A lot of these have to do with with independence, which is also a thread that I heard in a number of your introductions or your explanations of why you joined, the, the commission here.

Another through line through at least 3 of these is predictability, knowing that you’ll be able to meet your needs, knowing that you’ll be able to to access the spaces and places where you want to be, you know, feeling confident that you know services know you exist and know how to how to interact with you and treat you. So with that, I’d like to hand it over, and this I will not sort of go around in a circle, but if anybody first, here on the commission would like to add anything, any of you want to verbalize your response and didn’t put it in the poll, or you put it in the poll and I didn’t read it out loud and you would like to. I can start off. I think the what I was just gonna type, but my fingers don’t work very well, so I don’t type very fast. And voice dictation didn’t feel right right here. Though I predictable a 100%, and and similar vein to that is feeling respected and kind of seen, where you can be confident that government services, but even the culture and vibe of people see you. So, like, when I pull up to, the DMV and they don’t have a lowered area and they literally don’t see me, and then I have to try and raise my hand and knock off that, you know, that’s just 1 example of how the world isn’t built to be seen and then how are you heard if you can’t enter that space. So I think being feeling respected no matter where you’re coming from or how you, you know, where you’re sitting both literally and metaphorically is great. Because then it’s you feel inclusive, everyone can share their voice, and we’re stronger for that. So I think it’s feeling seen, I think, is what I’m trying to say.

I love that. I asked you, you know, perhaps what disability justice looks like, and you turned it around and said that it’s also about being seen. Yeah. Thank you. Other folks? And also to that end, if if it is inconvenient, inaccessible, whatever for you to not use the Mentimeter, please feel free to just wait. And for all of these, using the poll is optional. You’re free to just speak it into the record. Anyone else? Concrete or abstract theory would be the the question, I’m not sure if your mic was on, was how concrete or abstract are these supposed to be?

Open ended. I think I think that I love to get a little bit abstract, but I’m also happy with with concrete. The idea was to get you out of your comfort zone or or your typical way of framing questions like these. So I guess perhaps the answer is also whatever feels the most challenging to you. But I think this has been touched on a few times, but I but a big thing is, what it looks like is seeing everyone around you, however they’re able to holding themselves, like, with confidence, because I think that comes from having the agency to do what you need to do, get where you’re going, not needing to worry about how hard it is, or, like, putting in too much effort to just get around to your things. And I think having your needs met often inspires that confidence. And so seeing more people holding themselves confidently would is what I want. Thank you, Chair Brady. Anyone else? Are we ready to turn over to the public?

It sounds like bicycle bells. I love it when bicyclists actually ring their bell as they’re coming, and I know where they are, and it I feel like I feel like we’re not enemies or like screeching against each other, but like just trying to be around and I feel, I feel like it would be a place where, when things aren’t accessible to me it’s like an erasure. And I have not been able to say that. I didn’t figure out how to say that until fairly recently, which is stupid. I’ve been fighting for that all my, you know, fighting against that I should say all my life. But I, I just want I just want to be able to do what I’m trying to do. Get where I need to go. Not have to fight and cuss and swear and, you know, just just to get just to barely get to the door and then get, you know, I just I just want to be doing what I’m doing not have to think about how do I do what I’m doing. And, but I’d love hearing waterfalls. I love hearing nature sounds.

I love I like the idea of the kids laughing because if someone if you can hear a kid laugh or a dog playing, then they feel safe. And if everybody else is feeling safe, then I figure I can trust it too. Thank you, Sheila. I love that. Bicycle belt. I That’s exactly the type of thing that I had in mind, and you symbolized how that shows up in your life perfectly. Thank you. Anybody else here from the public interested in speaking to this question? And or if you use the poll, thank you. Jasmine, I actually have Please.

Thank you. I think that something that I would love to see is kind of a 2 pronged thing where, like, first of all, that people with disabilities are not the only advocates for people with disabilities, as well as the opportunities that people with disabilities have. Like, I don’t think it’s fair that, you know, so many people with disabilities are unemployed and they basically, like, their only avenue for jobs is working on disability rights. That’s like saying, like, as an Asian woman, I’m only allowed to work on racial rights. And I feel like that’s not very fair. And I feel like I would love to see, like, my partner, other loved ones with disabilities be able to just work in a normal job that they want to work in and not, like, have to fight for their rights at, like, every day of their life. And so kinda just, yeah, something like that. Thank you. Can I pile on to that 1? I definitely agree, especially, like, in terms of economics because as a software person, I’m kind of unemployed right now, but that’s intentional.

I’ve been through so many start ups where I don’t exactly feel that these new companies will go through the diligence of trying to include their disabled employees to the same extent that they will. Like, you could be at a small start up in downtown, or you could be at Google or Apple. And it’s just I don’t exactly feel like sometimes they they’re going through the same due diligence that a traditional company might, but that’s just sort of been my experience. So thanks. Just 1 more quick comment because I really appreciated the erasure word. I I haven’t thought about it that way, but that’s exactly what it is. But the other thing I think about being seen or heard is also not being pitied or not being kinda tokenized or, you know, inspiration ****. I don’t know if you guys have heard of that before. Again, you’re just treated as normal person trying to go through your day and do your thing. So I think there’s a piece of it too where it’s your you’re allowed just to be and exist, and it’s not being looked on by pity and having everyone swarming to help you.

It’s because you have the confidence because you know it’s already there as you need it. So I think that’s also a a key piece to me. Music. I’ve got music. Sheila says music as well as 1 of the sounds. Yeah. Commissioner Coit, I’m gonna put words in your mouth, but what I’m hearing is sort of not existing as a spectacle in public in addition to not being pitied. I appreciate folks, like, connecting with each other’s responses. I I was saying this before we started today that typically sessions like these happen at a retreat or or, you know, we all sit together at 1 table and the division here makes it feel a little bit more formal, but I want this to be a collaborative, communicative process between you all. So I appreciate limping on and and being inspired by 1 another and sort of engaging inside conversations when when folks say similar things.

Please continue. I think that I’m ready to go ask the next question. See, it does this. Just double check. Great. Okay. This 1 is a question that does not have a poll link. This is predominantly for the commissioners, but I would love to hear from the public as well. The question is, if you could magically change 1 thing in Oakland, what would you create with with Oakland? And I have some caveats because I always do.

I’d like you each to think separately for a little while because I’ll be asking each of you individually. I’d like at least 1 answer from from each of you. But for this exercise, I’d like you to only use positive language that is not deficit based language, asset based language. So I have an example of that. An example of doing this in that framework would be, you know, I’d make it so that all disabled Oaklanders would have their basic needs met as opposed to a deficit based sentence of that would be, I would end homelessness or hunger, you know, or or another deficit based phrasing would be, you know, less lessening economic discrimination against disability communities. It’s a small thing, and and I’ll try to rephrase it. But the idea here is to challenge you to think about what you would do as opposed to what you would undo, if that makes sense, focusing on what you would like to see or what you would like to change as opposed to what you know, focusing on the issues that we have. And it’s mostly a semantic thing. It’s mostly just about phrasing. But, again, I’m trying to get you all to reframe the way that you think about these things.

Does this question make sense? Sort of. Kind of. Great. So I’m going to, like I said, give you all a little bit to think, more of that very awkward silence. And say in about a minute and a half, on my clock at 6:48. At 6:50, I will start and maybe we’ll go the opposite direction this time to give you all a bit of a break. So just to repeat the question, it’s if you could magically change 1 thing in Oakland, what would you create with that wish? And they said for persons who just Ideally, it it would be focused on that since that is the topic here, Ben. I’m leaving it a little open ended.

Thank you, folks. Seconds. I love this picture and picture view of both the slide and that I have. That’s cool. It is 6:50. I would love to start with Chair Baruti if you have an answer prepared. Yes. I would love to see a city where all Oaklanders can’t have the have a way to get wherever they want to go without having to cross a single street. Mhmm. Yeah.

Beautiful. Succinct. Thank you. Vice chair? Commissioner Barto, to follow. Let’s see. I think I would love to see a city where all disabled Oaklanders can go home and feel a sense of comfort there and a sense of rest and relaxation. This is sorry. This is Commissioner Wilson. I think I would love to see a city that all Oaklanders, you know, with disabilities without, can be confident in the physical integrity and infrastructure of its streets and sidewalks and buildings.

Yeah. I wish there was more funds, you know, to help the disabled and more people advocating for them because they need that. You know? And they need programs, need money to, you know, to help, and I don’t think there’s enough help out there for people with disabilities. Thank you so much. Mhmm. And programs. I meant that too. If I could magically change 1 thing, it would be before I leave for work, not checking the status of BART elevators and just going to BART and being confident that all the elders work, and I’m not gonna have to reroute my commute. Absolutely.

This is commissioner Carter. I would like to see a place where, all disabled people have access to a solid financial background without having fear of, you know, not being able to meet their needs. Hi, commissioner Roe. I have 2. I would like to see, an Oakland in which all people with disabilities have a full and robust community of support. And all disabled Oaklanders receive supports on demand through simple, streamlined processes. This is Commissioner Foote. I want to see Oaklanders, have access to affordable housing. I don’t think they should be able to be priced out of their apartments. They should be able to afford their apartments on their fixed income, especially since a lot of them can’t work.

So they should be able to afford it with their disability checks. Thank you, Commissioners. I will come back to Commissioner Cloyd on his return. Any members of the public would like to address this 1 as well? Floor is yours. I want my own car. I don’t wanna I don’t I don’t wanna have to buy it. I mean, I don’t wanna I don’t need to have it in my driveway. It isn’t a thing of mine mine mine. I just I wanna walk out of my house and go, hey.

I wanna I’m I’m I’m going to the commission meeting. I’m almost late. Come on. I gotta go right now. And I I wanna whistle at Google or whoever and and, like, just just get in and go, like, you you know where I’m going. Right? You it’s in my calendar. I’m going there right now. Just just and drop me off right in front of the 1 that doesn’t have any stairs, and I’m just gonna go in there and go zipping in and be there. But I also want times when if I’m not if I don’t feel like I’m in a hurry and I had if I just wanna chill out and go ahead and ride on the bus and take time and everything, I want I want 1 seat rides on whichever vehicles I’m on, and to know where all the buses are and to know how it like I just I just wanna be able to get places without having to fight and fuss and cuss and swear.

Just I just wanna go there. I just wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I want travel to feel like playing an adventure instead of scrapping, fighting, fussing, feuding. Absolutely. Thank you. There’s a couple on. Can I say 1 other thing? Well, you know, I am noticing that, most of the commissioners are from somewhere else. And what I’m trying to, write I’m really thinking about, we must have a lot more grama. And I think take I think I’m thinking this probably take a lot better care of, you know, people with disabilities. I have never well, actually, I lived in Arizona for 10 years because my son was in college.

And just to think of, I set at a bus stop for 2 hours and the bus never showed up. So we do have, you know, at least we have transportation, you know, for the dis disabled. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. For now. But I was just really surprised by that, you know. So I do see we have a little bit more here. You know what I mean? And I was just surprised to see everybody was from somewhere else, you know.

You don’t find too many natives. And when you said you was from Oakland too and me too and you went to Oakland, Texas so did I. So, you know, that’s a good thing I think. Got you. But they but they but they can do more. Because like I said, I take care of people with, you know, disabilities and but it’s okay. They’re doing okay because I advocate for them. I see that you’re picking up this this asset based instead of deficit based thinking. I appreciate that. You also happen to be on mute, and I guess you’ve all seen my slides.

So you happen to be jumping ahead to what I think our closing question sort of touches on, so I appreciate that. Okay. But, yeah, again, you know, we I’m seeing all these through lines, right? Just like in the previous question and just like in your responses to the reason that you joined the commission, I’m hearing things about agency and independence. I’m hearing things about predictability, comfort, safety, feeling feeling empowered, feeling feeling independent, feeling like you the allostatic load, not to get too verbose here, of of moving through the world is is reasonable for you and similar to to abled people. So, you know, each of you have gotten the chance to touch on, you know, what might be your big ticket item or or whatever you wanna call it, sort of a central issue that if I had to make you pick 1, you have. The next question is my kitchen sink question. I would like to spend a good amount of time on this. We only have 30 minutes left in this session. I want you all to think about anything else that you feel is important to the disability communities that you represent.

So the question here, and it is also a poll prompt, is what other issues are important to you and your communities right now? This is specific to disability communities, but, obviously, there are many intersections to that. I’m trying to just get the kitchen sink of everything that we could theoretically choose to address in the next year. So whether that’s more specific transportation issues, whether that’s that’s new issues that nobody has raised yet, whether it’s other other avenues for public accessibility, for, you know, independent living, for for any number of things like that. Hit me with the kitchen sink. And like I said, blue sky session, so so we don’t have to you don’t have to feel like we can do anything about it. But what are some other issues, whether it’s political, social, built environment wise? I’m gonna offer you 3 ways to engage in this. Number 1, you can enter it on the poll. Number 2, you can sit quietly and perhaps journal about your thoughts on it and and tell me that out loud.

Or Or number 3, please feel free to talk to the commissioners next to you. Oh, collaboration. And, yeah, chat and and and work together, you know, bounce ideas off of each other. Again, for some predictability, let’s give it 6 minutes before we start to take verbal responses. And, again, I will start that time when it comes by reading off any poll responses that I have in front of me. So take your time. Do this how you will. It is now 6:59. I will start this at 7:05. And, Sheila, I will also take all of your responses in about 6 minutes as well.

What did I advance? I did. Okay. Thank god. What’s your name again? Jasmine. I I love your curly hair. Thank you. Thanks. It’s you know, with with the wet weather, it gets so hard to, like, keep it defined.

You know, I walk outside, and it’s wet. And suddenly, it’s just so frizzy that I have to do it again. But I like it. Thank you. Can I ask you a question? Do you think it would ever come a time where, people with disabilities and they really and truly can’t work, you think it would ever they would ever give them the opportunity to have enough money where they can actually live off of? Because a lot of people with disabilities, they can’t even really afford a place to stay, eat, you know, utilities. It’s just not enough to live on. Do you think that will ever change? I sure hope so.

I really I mean, I think that there’s a lot of advocates working on this, but I would love to see some state and federal, yeah, disability insurance adjustments. I mean, as it is right now, what? Folks can’t have more than $2,000 in a bank account or your benefits get cut? With Social Security. Right. Yeah. I think that it’s great. Okay. So we we’re already moving a lot of directions. Some of that’s true.

You know, to to to your point that, you know, legislators or whoever they in this case was wish that disabled folks would just go away, I think that that’s 1 of the purposes of this commission is to be loud and to, you know, tell folks that we’re not going away. But it is 704. And if Okay. If it pleases the commission, I’d like to start reading some of these. I got a ton of responses. Thank you. This is great. I already have 19, and I’m sure that I’ll get more verbally. I’m not going to read all of them, but just sort of some that that popped out at me. A lot of sidewalk issues, infrastructure, broken sidewalks, you know, uneven sidewalk.

The city website is inaccessible is another 1. That’s that’s very much a city issue here within our purview. Right? More accessible, fast casual dining. I spoke earlier about about restaurants and and accessibility. You know, folks feeling unsafe or vulnerable in certain areas, education, job, workforce development opportunities, and easy work force accommodations. Better communications on events and services. I imagine that that means city events and services, though I’m not sure. Broken elevators. Again, I’m not sure if this is just in general in the city, whether it’s residential or business, or whether that has to do with, you know, us here at city facilities, or whether it has to do with BART like we heard about before.

Again, I’m up to 22 now, so I’m not going to read out all of these. But, you know, more responsive paratransit that requires less scheduling. That connects with with some of what Lou just said. Right? Mhmm. A number of other transportation issues, you know, fear of losing transportation services, concerns about safety, frustrations with reliability, presumably predictability. I see policy around around scooters, the, you know, shared mobility, rental devices. I see some things about housing, affordability, accessibility. A number of responses touched on housing affordability. Our ADA staff being fully funded and staffed with no vacancies.

I agree. You all are such a big help to me and my work, all of my department at at Oakdale. I know how much we rely on you. Yeah. I’m big on that 1. Well funded third spaces. No. No. I’m just reading out my favorites. So I’m gonna hand this back to you all.

Any anything that you submitted that I didn’t say, anything that you’ve written down or talked about that you that you’d like to vocalize, and then eventually I’ll turn it over to the public. This is commissioner Wilson. That’s alright. I think that more proactive accommodations at workplaces as well as in public places in general. Like, you know, if someone needs an accommodation, I think that, you know, that’s usually known during the hiring process. And it would be great if instead of that person later on having to go back and try to get accommodations on their own behalf, it becomes more of a proactive conversation between management and the person who is working. You know, like, I just think it’s so important that it’s not just, like, 1 person having to advocate for themselves, but it’s more systemic and people and they’re, like, you know, more basically, if people are just more proactive on providing accommodations, whether that be, like, at a job or at a restaurant or at whatever facility. I’d love to follow-up on that. Like, I face, 2 very different examples of this, like, in my schooling in college where most of the time, Berkeley has really great, like, services for people with disabilities, but it always felt like there were big hurdles. It took to access those services, and you need you as, like, person who need them need to be really proactive and get there ahead of time and ask for all these things.

And then but then sometimes, like, most recent experience I had, like, taking some summer courses there where, the lecturer was blind himself. Like, the course staff immediately noticed my disability and was proactive on providing me accommodations without me needing to go and fight for them. And I wish to wish we had more of that in, all of our spaces. It made a big difference. Hi. I wanted to talk on, affordable housing, again. So, disabled people, it seems like they can only afford housing in low income communities that are either unsafe or, like, not handicap accessible, those apartment buildings don’t have any elevator, for them. And, I noticed that like, I live in downtown Oakland, and I noticed that many of these luxury apartments, like mine, like, they’re they have a lot of vacant apartments. And I wish there was, like, a program or some type of lottery where they can fill those spaces so they can have, access to buildings, like, with large elevators that are safe, have security, and are pet friendly instead of having to only be able to, you know, just limit the spaces that they can live in. So I would like that they we could collab with some of these apartment buildings and get some of them moved in there rather than just having them vacant.

This is commissioner Wilson again. San Francisco recently passed a vacancy tax for and it’s compounding. So the longer that the unit is empty, the more the higher the tax is going to be or the fine is going to be. And so it’ll be very interesting to see how that goes. Yeah. Okay. Commissioner Brearty, I’d heard that we were consider I think we have a kind of vacancy tax, but it’s more per building and not per unit. And so if you have some of your nudes filled, you might be exempt from it. And I think there is some, like, some interest from some council members on putting out a ballot a more extensive vacancy tax, but that ultimately didn’t make it on the ballot. And I think that’s an opportunity to, you know, maybe try and bring that fight back.

But, no, we we definitely have allies in doing it, and definitely plenty of opponents. This is, commissioner Carter. So I’ll actually share, like, 1 of the bigger reasons. Well, there’s a lot of things that I wanted to join the commission for, but, 1 of my friends was Marjorie Lehi, who’s a former commissioner. Really good friend. And so I was explaining to her that when you work with the government, sometimes there’s donut holes. So for me, personally, I see 2080, which means that I can’t drive a car, but I don’t see poor enough to actually get a preferred fare on BART. And I feel that’s kind of, like, not the best outcome. Now I can afford it, which is great, but I understand that most people with disabilities might not be in the same economic places. So if we can, like, identify areas where it’s sort of, like, nebulous lisonbee so you’re not in the bridal.

And if I was to wave a magic wand, I’d be including the trying to encourage less people to drive. Like, if you feel like you should just give up your driver’s license and take the bus, give up your driver’s license and take the bus. Like, it shouldn’t be, like, some big arduous process for you to get where you need to go. The other thing is I would say is, like, when I’m walking up and down College Avenue, I feel like some of these new e scooters are just really terrifying. And, like, you can’t hear them when you’re crossing the street. I don’t know if exactly, like, when people are getting designated that they can access these scooters. Like, you know, what is the process? Because I, like, I can’t drive a car. I’m not sure exactly I’m the best person that needs to be riding a scooter either. So it’s just, like, 1 of those things that I’m thinking about.

Anyway, thanks. This is commissioner Cloyd. A few things. And I think to answer the first question, the magic wand 1, would be fixing the sidewalks for me personally just because, I use my chair all around the city, and it’s horrendous. Then to the other question, there’s 3 things, that I want or that I think of that’s important. 1 is around infrastructure stuff. We talked about sidewalks and streets and potholes and all that kind of stuff, and then elevators within existing buildings. But then, also, what we did this year was to force private buildings also to make sure that their elevators are gonna be working. And that kind of thing is super important because if you rely on it, then you’re kind of screwed. And that gets to the emergency services as well.

In my experience, in the buildings I’ve lived in, there’s been, like, a piece of paper with my name scrawled on it, and that’s supposed to be handed off to EMTs or fire department if there’s any kind of major earthquake or something like that. And I have a hard time believing that that binder is somehow gonna get to the right place. So, and then I think and this is actually 2 other things. Another 1, I think, is helping people navigate services that exist, because I think Oakland does have a lot of really good services. But it it’s like a full time job. If you’re trying to deal with your health condition and trying to maintain, you know, a job or whatever you’re doing, and then trying to navigate paratransit and all these other programs, that’s really hard. So having people who can identify and, you know, be that navigator tool. And then finally is, job and education training and increasing the pipeline. Because I know it’s 80% of people with disabilities don’t tend to work, but there are so many jobs I know that people could do with disabilities. And it’s just a question of maybe those folks can have access to get to the right school, to learn what they needed to learn, and then go to graduate school if they needed to get a technical background or whatever.

And it has to start early. So I think Oakland could be a place to target that. And then 10, 20 years down the line, there’s more people that are working professionally, and then their voices are heard. And it kind of starts growing and and elevating from there. So I think education and jobs is probably 1 of the most important too, because it gets to that agency and independence piece as well. So, yeah, those are the things I think are important. Carter here. I wanna follow on to that. I feel like not only just, like, tell being able to detail what the services are, but what are the protections under Oakland law that if you have a disability that you should be afforded? Because I don’t feel like somebody needs to have a JD just to figure out, you know, this is what how your landlord should treat you.

This is how your employer should treat you. That type of thing. And, commission Rudy, I I’m wondering if, like, that might be like, at least trying to consolidate some of the knowledge of how to navigate these systems and trying to, you know, find ways to make that process easier for people, making a sort of toolkit that might be work that we could engage into ourselves along with communicating what services exist in the first place. Like, a big part of I have learned a lot just serving on the commission about a law service I did not know exists, and it should not take being a commissioner to learn about those kinds of things. And so maybe we can, like, try and spread that knowledge amongst our communities better. And I had 1 more. The original list of 3 is actually, like, 8. Physical health and fitness. So I think a lot of people with disabilities can access a normal gym or facility. But with chronic conditions, it’s incredibly important to be baseline healthy.

So if we could use our parks or public spaces to have equipment that allows people from across the spectrum of disability to come and engage with it, that that can allow them to stay healthier in that space, which then, again, kind of goes through the lifespan of that person to have them thrive in the way that they want to. To. So I think physical and mental fitness and having the city provide kind of the openness to meet the needs of the individual person could be important because a lot of people struggle with physical health. Commissioner Wilson, if, you know, this is a blue sky and and I could do whatever I wanted, I would love for the city of Oakland to to fund an SCTP, which is a self evaluation transition plan, and, like, understand what is lacking within our system. Do you know customer service? Do people know how to interact with people with disabilities? How can people submit complaints? All of these other things. What issues what physical issues do we have in the public right of way? Like, these are all things that, if I had had all the money in the world to go to the city of Oakland, I would love to do.

This is commissioner Orie. I see out my kitchen window people in wheelchairs using the street because, not every corner has a curb cut. And I live on the border of Oakland and San Leandro. So this is on both on both sides of the street. I can’t even, you know, walk my dog confidently because I’m not sure if there’s gonna be a curb cut or not. So that is 1 of the things that would change. Yeah. Curb ramps, sidewalks, very related concrete and or cement, related issues. I have some knowledge on where we’re headed with that in the upcoming year, considering that I work for the Department of Transportation, but we can have those conversations outside of this session. Are there other folks?

Can I hand it over to the public for a minute, and we can also come back to the commissioners? Thank you. Yeah. So just since everybody else has done a little tiny bio, I was born in a red state but I was out of there by the time I was 3 and I don’t even remember being there. And my my joke is often that if if other states, no matter whether they were red or not, were other countries, I would be a DACA kid because I don’t remember there. I don’t have any connections there. I’ve been in California all my life and I bring that up because I think that, I think that I think that we are who we are and what we are. I don’t I don’t like I think that we need to be I think that people need to be welcomed. I think that this scarcity has got to get out of the way, like be destroyed. If I if I if I have the bibbity bobbidi boo in my hand then I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna make that.

But there’s another 1 that I don’t know how to actually I know how it feels and I know what it is, but I I don’t know how to get into people’s heads and change it. I hate it when people act stupid because they see the white cane and all of a sudden I’m 3 years old. There’s a 5 in front of that 3 y’all and, and I have more than 1 disability and I know a hell of a lot and I am not, I am not a like, now I have a job and I’m being squozened by all these benefits that as long as I’m poor as a church mouse, they’re happy with me, but the minute that I even I’m not even trying to, like, be rich. I’m just I just I have a job where I’m actually able to help people and make lives better. And, oh, by the way, I’ve got some money which means I can go to musicals and save some money so that when my section 8 rent goes up because I got I have a job now, I won’t just be slammed with it, you know. And I want I want us to just I would love to have pop ups all over Oakland. I call them knowledge pop ups because at first I thought housing, then I thought emergency preparedness, then I thought benefits, then I thought it’s like, you know what? We all know so much. There is so much knowledge in this room. We could make a library.

We could make an Alexandria right here, right here, right now in this room. And I would love and and I’m at the Center For Independent Living in Berkeley. I work from home in Oakland, by the way, but I’m at the Center For Independent Living in Berkeley that prides itself on being the first. So why aren’t we teaching the rest? And, I mean, we our people are cool and and and folks work hard at our center, but I think I think that we I think that we as a community, we know this stuff. Climate change is making everybody rethink their lives and realize that we can’t take anything for granted anymore. But people with disabilities and other minorities have lived that way their whole lives. I’ve been blind for 53 years. So when a sighted person is just, like, freaking out because of how I move or don’t move or whatever, I just I’m like, dude, get out of my way. You’re blocking my path.

Get out of my way, man. I’ll, sit down in that chair right there and let me show you how it’s done. That’s I’m I have a black shirt at home that says, I’m 51% good witch, 49% bad witch. Don’t push it. And I think that’s I I I just I wanna see us thrive. And that’s that’s so broad that could be anything but I mean I just I want I want people to be okay. That’s really what I want. Thank you, Sheila. That’s a lot. I am I am far over my time here.

If if some of you noticed that I have not been taking notes here, please don’t worry. I’m going to be taking a detailed account as I go back through the recording to capture all of this. I want to skip our next couple slides here because, frankly, they were actually a better fit for next session anyway, and I’m past time to our last slide, slide 12. I have a closing question for you all like I promised that I would. I would like you all to to as we part, to keep thinking about this for a while because I will be asking again when we reconvene in January. My question is, what makes this commission special? And and to sort of add on to that, you know, between your strengths as a team, as individuals, your connections to your community, like I said, your social capital and your connections to other agencies and organizations that you can work with to get this work done, anything else, the structure of the commission, the history of it, you know, the the political system in Oakland, your connections to council members, whatever it is, what makes this commission special? And, implicitly, how do we harness that? What do you all do better than anyone else? We rock and we’re Oakland.

We do rock and we are Oakland. And on that note, I will, conclude quite a bit over. Thank you all for your time. I’ll send a follow-up email, reminding you all of this question and and, you know, concluding some of what we’ve done what we’ve done today. I have a bunch of work to do kinda cataloging all of this and getting it to a place where we can actually turn it into some action. But like I said, I feel pretty, incomplete right now, and I hope that you all do too. Thank Thank you for your time. Can can I ask a question real quick? Is there any homework we can do or should do that would make our next session more effective? Like, obviously, think about this question.

But in addition to, is there anything else you suggest? Yeah. So so I I would love if you could review the 2 question slides that I skipped today. They are, how does the commission, effectively make change or, you know, what methods have you used in the past to do that? And then also thinking about of all the issues that we talked about here today, which there were many, did any stand out to you that you would like to, sort of take take control over or that you would like to dive into personally? So, like, if if each of you picked 1 or 2 or however many that that you would like to commit to spending some time working on, whether it’s something as broad as transportation or, you know, sidewalk accessibility or something as specific as as 1 1 corner that that you see outside of your window, if there are any issues that you would like to spend the next year working on through this commission, if you could think about that and and have that ready for me, I will be, sort of asking that. And I will also come next session with a summary of of all of our kitchen sink that we came up with. So that will also help you, sort of remember all the things in case you would like to to voice. With this question, I’m really just looking for for some champions. I imagine that you will all be working on most of these issues together because you’re a commission, but I’m I’m looking for for some some leaders.

Thank you. Thanks thanks so much, Jasmine. This is a tremendous amount of work that we’re putting on you, and we appreciate it dearly. And, yeah, I don’t know. I wanna make note before we go to staff updates and adjournment that, I believe, with this concluding year, I think we have made quorum every single meeting this year, which, compared to the many years past is tremendous, and I really appreciate everyone else being here. This, our staff who’s worked so hard for us and helped bring autos in, other commissioners who have reached out to our communities and brought other people in, those people who answered that call. And I’m really excited for what we can do moving into 2025. And with that, let’s move on to item 10, staff updates and announcements. Our friends over at DOT have some undercrossing improvements for us. Those are the streets that pass under freeways, under crossings, and many of them in Oakland are dark, loud and unsafe.

The goal is to improve them for people walking, biking and rolling. Yes. 4 locations were chosen because there will be new improvements along the same street. 7 Thunder 980, MLK under 880, Washington and Broadway also under 880. Better lighting, way finding, and place making. There’s a there are some links that you can learn about it that will be sent out. The their 2 Farmers Market appearances have already passed. Meanwhile, our friends up at CIL have a holiday market coming up on 20th. It’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase your product, connect with the CIL community, and support an inclusive market space. And that’s December 20th from 3 to 7 at Ed Roberts Campus, Adeline Street in Berkeley, adjacent to Ashby Bart.

That is all. If that is everything, it is now well past, 7:15. It is almost 7:30. And so seeing as we’ve concluded all our business, we are adjourned.

Author

Tom Wong

I am passionate about mentoring minority and at-risk youth and their parents, solving complex problems, and helping others achieve their potential. I aim to give back to the community by serving as a voice for parents, children, and the conservatives of Alameda County.