Edes Avenue Made Safe for a Day

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

For a few hours Friday morning, Jan. 27, Edes Avenue was a nice place to live.

The men with menacing looks and baggy hooded sweatshirts disappeared from the front of a liquor store. Sidewalks usually strewn with empty malt liquor bottles and cigarette butts were swept clean.

Dozens of city employees – from police lieutenants and a city councilman to groundskeepers and painters – turned out in force to "get the neighborhood back," as one city worker put it, from drug dealers, the thugs and everyone else who's made life on Edes Avenue hell.

All morning, workers ticketed and tagged cars with out-of-date registrations. They towed abandoned vehicles and hauled away discarded washers and refrigerators piled high in vacant lots. They picked up cigarette butts, discarded bedding, cans, bottles and potato chip bags from weed-choked gutters and cracked sidewalks.
(Full story at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/28/BAGHUGUQPI1.DTL )

It's amazing what simple enforcement of the conditions for a bearable quality of life does.

Sources: ESRI, TeleAtlas, Chronicle

Councilmember Larry Reid insisted the day's action "is not a one-shot deal." However, if he had a plan of action, the newspaper reporter didn't hear it.

• The councilmember could have said, Oakland has half a police department, and that's not good enough.

• The councilmember could have said, we make a mistake harassing the police department about overtime when it is so severely understaffed.

• The councilmember could have said, we are giving away City dollars to developers and social agencies; no wonder we do not provide basic services.

Unfortunately, the councilmember said none of these things.

Ms. Johnson, who has owned a home on Edes Avenue since 1955, said, "I don't know why they [the street dealers] came. The police never did anything about it. The city can stay here as long as they want, as long as they make it safe."

Wouldn't every flatland neighborhood appreciate regular patrols to discourage the robbers and burglars who now operate in daylight? Wouldn't every neighborhood appreciate aggressive enforcement of the law that cars must have current registrations and license plates? These modest goals are impossible to achieve so long as Oakland has half a police department, so long as the councilmembers concentrate on deals and giveaways.