Residents, small business owners rally in Oakland for improved safety
OAKLAND -- Businesses and families rallied on Sunday afternoon in front of city hall to show unity and fight for a safer Oakland.
Before attending the rally, one shop owner was cleaning up her clothing store after someone broke in early that morning.
"On Easter and to be violated this way -- it just feels terrible," said Oakland designer Taylor Jay.
Surveillance footage showed that, around 5:30 a.m., a masked man used a hammer to smash the store's glass door and then kicked it open.
The thief took two large suitcases from the store and filled them up with women's clothing and accessories.
"There's no respect. You take our suitcases to take our stuff and then they also took a whole rack (of clothes.) They rolled the whole rack out," Jay said.
Sunday's solidarity rally came at a pivotal time for Jay. She had thought about closing her store back in January but decided to keep it open because of community support.
"It's just a great disappointment. It doesn't make us feel ambitious about staying," Jay said.
She said she lost roughly $20,000 in merchandise.
The Broadway store in downtown Oakland is the flagship store. She has a second store in the Rockridge District. She said both have seen huge declines in traffic because people are afraid to visit Oakland.
"We've built such a successful brand here. We want to thrive here. We don't want to die here," Jay said.
Demonstrators Sunday said they intended to avoid politics at the rally and were seeking unity.
"If we have a little more unity, we can start listening to each other and stop arguing and come up with solutions," said downtown Oakland restaurant owner Nigel Jones.
Jones said that, while he thanks Gov. Gavin Newsom for installing surveillance cameras and sending CHP officers into Oakland, the governor can do more. Jones wants more officers to help patrol the city and a lot more money for crime prevention programs.
He said Alameda County and more large corporations should step in and help -- such as by providing grants to struggling businesses and bringing workers back to the office.
Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente, Clorox and PG&E just invested $10 million to create a safe zone in uptown and downtown Oakland.
"Structurally, if things don't change and we have some real revenue-generation going on in the city, a lot of businesses are going to close very soon," Jones said.
Jones and Jay say that, if everyone works together, they can resurrect the city.
"We're a little bit upset with Oakland right now but we still love Oakland," Jay said.
Businesses are also encouraging people from around the Bay Area to shop and eat in Oakland. They believe Oakland can thrive if people unite.