Columnist Peggy Stinnett Criticizes City

Peggy Stinnett, the widely read columnist for the Oakland Tribune, criticized City park management and the so-called LLAD financing in her April 26, 2006 column.

"Union Park on the estuary, designed as a dream park for the people of Fruitvale, recently was described as 'dead' by the head of the Unity Council, the moving force that got it built. The cause of death in infancy? It was never maintained or staffed," reports Stinnett.

Stinnett's example is not rare. At a community meeting, public works official Brooke Levin admitted how the City starves park maintenance:

"Currently only five facilities have full time gardeners, including two at Lakeside Park, one at the Rose Garden, one at Dunsmuir and one at DeFremery. All the other parks receive a few hours here and there of maintenance by several roving gardeners." (Minutes of Nov. 15, 2004 community meeting on Measure DD, http://www.oaklandparks.org/111504minfin.htm)

Although the councilmembers might tell you the reason was a budget crunch, the stream of subsidies to favored developers and grants to private agencies flowed on. Stinnett asks the key question, "Why has the city not taken care of these needs with General Fund money?"

After giving valuable history of how residents rolled back a LLAD tax increase in 1993, Stinnett calls the approaching mail-in ballot an "unusual election. It will not be conducted by the city or county clerk. City Hall's Public Works Department has hired a professional firm and a public relations expert to manage mail-in balloting."

For the entire text of Stinnett's valuable column, see the April 26, 2006 edition of the Oakland Tribune or try this link.

And watch your mail for the mail-in ballot, so you can vote No on the council's rotten proposal for a LLAD tax hike.