Oakland and Affiliated Agencies Continue To Fail Public Access to the Bay
After spending a glorious weekend on the Bay, we hate to have to write another story on Oakland’s dereliction of duty to its citizens. It remains distressingly difficult to wake up to emails and the photos from members of the East Bay Rowing Club, highlighting the abject failure of the City of Oakland and numerous related agencies’ inability to manage a dock measuring about 20 feet by 100 feet.
With their youth rowing camp scheduled to start at the Jack London Aquatic Park docks at 8 a.m. today, Heather Krakora, executive director of the East Bay Rowing Club (EBRC), wrote a desperate plea to the City and other agencies to help. This may feel like too little too late, though; as Latitude 38 readers know, numerous citizen advocates and organizations have been lobbying for years without result. Our own efforts to understand the problem leave us mostly bewildered that there simply appears to be no agency with clear jurisdiction and authority to manage this tiny dock and cove on Oakland’s miles-long waterfront. On one end of the Estuary, the Coast Guard ships on Coast Guard Island look well-cared-for and -managed. At the other end of the Estuary the massive Oakland shipping terminal sits gleaming in the sun with an annual budget of something like $700 million. In between is the public shoreline managed by the City and the Port.
Around the Bay, private and public marinas and yacht clubs manage miles of docks and coves, giving kids and adults access to the Bay. It would be hard to overstate the hours of time volunteers have invested in trying to find out how to solve the problem, and likely also hard to overestimate the hours of time various agencies have met to discuss the problems over the past decade. Yes, we mean decade. We do know it’s harder than it looks, but we also know the City, the Port and numerous related agencies should and can get this done.
We share EBRC executive director Heather Krakora’s email to a long list of agencies and media: “I am writing to alert the City and Port of Oakland, given the severity of what we have experienced at Jack London Aquatic Center in the past 48 hours.
“In that time, we have three large boats that are moored to the public dock for well over 48 hours, since the evening of Friday, June 19. They are blocking access to the water and have emptied the contents of their boats onto the dock. One of the occupants of the vessels has threatened staff and athletes.”
“We are set to launch our summer Learn to Row Camps for Oakland youth ages 12–18, including Oakland Unified School District students, on Monday morning — tomorrow, June 22. Senior citizens and youth access this dock daily for programming. We cannot operate safely while these vessels remain in place.
“The occupants of these vessels are agitated and their behavior has become threatening. It is not safe for our participants to be at this facility right now.
“If these vessels are not removed before Monday morning, we will be forced to cancel programming for the Oakland youth and seniors who depend on this facility. If we cannot consistently operate from this dock, East Bay Rowing Club cannot continue as a functioning organization. This community loses its only public-access rowing program. And the City of Oakland loses an anchor tenant who has been helping to keep this facility running and safe.
“We provide over $20,000 in scholarships to Oakland youth, pathways to college, and have been paying rent on time, every month to the City of Oakland for over 15 years. We have offered solutions and have been reporting these issues for over two years.
“We are asking for emergency removal of the vessels currently blocking the JLAC dock before 8:00 a.m. Monday, June 22.
“We need someone to take responsibility and act.”
Mark Yolton, Board president of the East Bay Rowing Club, added in part, “Drug dealing and prostitution take place in the parking lot day and night. An unlocked gate to the parking lot allows drinking, drug use, trash, refuse and all manner of illegal activity in the middle of the night, which we encounter when we arrive to use the facility at 5:20 a.m. each [day] (the JLAC park is supposed to be closed overnight but the gate allows unfettered access). Note: This will be a site of illegal fireworks, drinking, drug use and other overnight activity on the 4th of July; last year on the 4th the dock was severely damaged when someone drove a vehicle onto it — it took months and thousands of dollars to repair.”
“We are asking for help from our city leaders, the Port of Oakland, the Coast Guard, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, Oakland Police Department, Oakland Parks and Rec, and anyone else with the power to assist in addressing these issues. We are willing and committed to help and to partner with you but we can’t do this alone without proper support from more powerful authorities.”
Public access to the waterfront is a national problem on both coasts. The small scraps of land still available to connect people to the maritime heritage and simple, recreational fun in and on the water has become increasingly hard to preserve. As Mark Yolton noted above, there is a long list of agencies with large bureaucracies and budgets that are supposedly working on behalf of “the people,” but the results appear almost nonexistent. We know the housing problem is an enormous challenge, but it appears to be impervious to the many well-intentioned people who go to work every day to resolve the issue.
Separately, we understand there are glimmers of hope that the removal of some of the many derelict vessels on the shoreline will begin soon. However, summer camp for kids at the East Bay Rowing Club was supposed to start at 8 a.m. today. The Bay, the volunteers and the parents are all looking forward to welcoming more kids to the incredible beauty and adventure of the Bay. The East Bay Rowing Club and all the Estuary advocates are waiting and wondering who the responsible adults are that will step up to make all their efforts and commitments to the Bay and youth possible.