Posted on 12/02/2019 7:40:40 PM PST by RightGeek
OAKLAND — They mysteriously appeared about a year ago — dozens of logs the length of cars, plopped in front of industrial businesses in a two-block stretch along West Oakland’s Poplar Street, between West Grand Avenue and 18th Street.
If the purpose behind the logs was to drive away the homeless who parked their RVs and other vehicles there, the strategy worked for the most part.
City officials say the logs have prevented crews from cleaning up the two blocks, yet they’ve done little to get them removed: Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney said she reached out to local business owners to find out who put the logs there, but no one would tell.
The city’s Public Works Department considers the logs an “intentional obstruction of the public right of way,” which is illegal, spokesman Sean Maher said. But Public Works has not reached out to the local business owners who may be responsible.
That’s because the city enforces certain code violations only in response to complaints, and it hasn’t received any official complaints about the logs, Maher said. Though homeless advocates have criticized the logs, nearby business owners — some who have complained about overnight campers in the past — apparently don’t mind them.
East Bay Community Law Center attorney Osha Neumann, who represents and advocates for homeless people, wonders if the city would treat RV dwellers with the same indifference as it does the logs.
“There are all kinds of rules and city ordinances about illegal dumping, but I guess it’s OK to dump and obstruct if you’re doing it to obstruct homeless people from being there,” Neumann said.
(Excerpt) Read more at eastbaytimes.com ...
Very well put and treemendous.
The comments at the link are priceless.
Judging from those logs, it looks like a “No Bark(ing) Zone” too ...
People all over the west, and I see this in Alaska do this all the time. Don’t want people coming into/onto your property? Block it off. Simple solution.
Thank you very mulch
Nice looking logs.
Finally. A local market for fir!
This won’t end well. DEM politicians don’t take kindly to be shown up.
“And protection rackets by organized crime.”
There may soon be a demand for a similar service in SF by shop owners whose store fronts are used as toilets. I can see a thriving business by some enterprising group making “offers they can’t refuse” to the bums s**tting in front of a store for a “small” compensation on the part of the store owner.
What did you eat?
Osha Neumann, what an @ss
Since it seems there are logs in all the parking spaces, where do customers park?
First giant boulders on SF sidewalks, now logs in the street...this is what happens when politicians ignore constituent services.
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The past conifers its benefits to the future only with great effort. Sadly it's a post-cambium world we live in. Sorry.
This log issue is obviously a naturally occurring seasonal phenomena like falling leaves and municipalities must allow property owners to deal with this organic matter on a reasonable seasonally adjusted schedule. Undoubtedly the logs also migrate to other locations due to weather related circumstances. As long as this organic debris does not impede storm water flow, it should be tolerated and accepted by municipalities as a natural and normal occurrence and property owners should not be unfairly harassed.
Couldn’t be that long ago if he was getting internet on his cell phone.
Must be those evil loggers!
The first person to learn how to train fire ants will be a billionaire. :-)
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