Oakland Business Collective
Worried about car break-ins, Oakland businesses call for more police action โ KTVU Fox 2
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Oakland Entertainment Veterans Emerge From COVID-19 With New Mission โ Oakland Post News Group
OAKLAND BUSINESS OWNERS JOIN FORCES TO ADDRESS AND TAKE A STAND AGAINST CAR BURGLARIES
A multiโcultural assembly of Oakland business owners, led by Oakland Business Collective, an African American group of entertainment professionals and community activists, will host a series of Town Hall meetings that address many of the issues that impact the health, safety and well-being of Oakland residents and small businesses.
Headlining the inaugural Town Hall will be THE EPIDEMIC OF CAR BREAK-INS and takes place on Monday, September 20th, 2021 at 6:00pm at Geoffreyโs Inner Circle. The Town Hall will feature candid conversations between public officials, small business owners and community stakeholders determined to create quantifiable solutions, then activate and follow through on them to fruition.
Heightened Wave Of Crime Poses Threat To Town Business
Oakland Business Collective
โItโs not an Old Town problem or a Chinatown problem or Black Arts & Business District problem. What was once thought of as a โnuisance,โ essentially regulated to certain parts of downtown Oakland, has become a citywide crisis of commerce and public safety thatโs not only hampering small business, itโs putting a damper on local tourism, while weโre all trying to find responsible ways to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic,โ asserted Geoffrey Pete, Oakland Business Collective member and owner of Geoffreyโs Inner Circle, a longtime cultural and Entertainment complex on 14th Street and Franklin. โIf assistance from law enforcement is going to continue to be insufficient, residents, business owners and community stakeholders are going to have to band together to combat this scourge to our beloved city,โ Pete added.
Car break-ins and the subsequent theft of vehicle ownerโs property has long plagued Oaklandโs downtown businesses. In recent months the occurrences have become much more frequent, widespread and increasingly more brazen. After a bevy of individual filings of police reports and several meetings on the pressing public safety issue, Oakland business owners are organizing to address the rampant plague that poses a daily threat to their safety and their livelihoods.
Car break-ins have become so prevalent in recent months and the perpetrators have reportedly become so emboldened that not only are the vehicle burglaries occurring in broad daylight, but theyโre happening as passersby observe the crimes taking place. Two-person teams โ one vandalizing and burglarizing the targeted vehicle and the other waiting in a nearby getaway car โ are winning, while people doing business or dining at local eateries are taking the proverbial โL.โ Oakland Police Departmentโs response to the crime epidemic has to date been ineffectual.