BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF ADAMS POINT: NEW! A dozen photographs proving the rot at the core of 278 Jayne
This neighborhood nuisance has been at it for 18 years and counting. NSC keeps eyes averted, ears shut and won't put this item on "his" agenda. Where is the city leadership on this? ANYONE? City Manager? City Attorney? Council member Nancy J. Nadel?
A PLEA from the JAYNE AVENUE NEIGHBORS As most of you know, 278 Jayne Avenue has been a nuisance for years. It was a Convalescent Hospital from the 60s until the state closed it down for licensing violations in 1985. Since then, 278 Jayne has been home to - a pit bull breeding and fighting ring, - raising and slaughtering rabbits, - a methamphetamine laboratory, - several roach coaches (closed by the Health Department for poisoning Laney College students, and also for selling drugs), - a rooming house for indigents (mainly 5150s or mental cases) - a poorly supervised program for 'youth' with gender issues'.
278 Jayne opened again recently under cover of deception, lies and deceit. Instead of a facility for 9-14 year old 'youths' as we were told it would be, it is a halfway house for juvenile probationers. That's right, bounced out of juvie halls in Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco, they come straight to Jayne Avenue.
Although Oakland's Building and Zoning Departments require a Certificate of Occupancy and a Major Conditional Use Permit for more than 6 people, the State's Community Care Licensing Dept. approved 278 Jayne for 14 residents, without obtaining Oakland's signoff.
We know that Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties placed probationers there. Based on complaints and documentation from neighbors, its deputies and its own probationers, Contra Costa County is removing its clients from 278 Jayne, and has formally requested that CCL investigate the facility and its licensing.
Alameda County is proceeding similarly.
San Francisco's Assistant Chief Probation Officer is also alarmed at the news about this facility. One Jayne Avenue resident states that she knows of two Adams Pointers who work with SF's Juvenile Probation Dept and who were advised to leave Adams Point for their own safety now that that the facility is open.
We see several issues: 1. State, County and City agencies are not communicating about requirements and laws which need to be met in order to properly run and license the facility. 2. This place is already out of control. There has been a fight between a resident and a staff member which required 3 police cars and 2 ambulances. (See photos.) Probationers climb in and out of the windows when they want to leave without being monitored. 3. The current license from CCL has no provisions for monitoring the building, its management or residents. As a result, probation departments are not told of probation violations that occur there. Thanks to former city manager Mr. Bobb and his staff, neighbors and the City worked hard to develop criteria by which this facility could coexist within the community. CCL and 278 Jayne's operators ignored and bypassed those criteria.
Now we have a halfway house for probationers who aren't being monitored or getting the supervision they're supposed to. PLEASE call or write the agencies we've listed and make your concerns known.
Please make your complaints to the following: Melissa Miller, Program Administrator Child Care Program, Community Care Licensing 744 P Street, M.S. 19-48 Sacramento, CA 95814 PHONE (916) 229-4500 ? FAX: (916) 229-4508 or Fred Gill Regional Manager Bay Area Child Care Regional Office 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1102, MS: 29-04 OAKLAND, CA 94612 PHONE: (510) 622-2602 ? FAX: (510) 622-2641
Donald Blevins, Chief Probation Officer Alameda County Probation Dept 400 Broadway, OAKLAND CA 94607 PHONE: (510) 268-7233 ? FAX: (510) 839-2776
Steven Bautista, County Probation Officer Contra Costa County Probation Dept 50 Douglas Drive Suite 201 MARTINEZ CA 94553 PHONE: (925) 313-4188 ?FAX: (925) 313-4191 e-mail: stevebautista@prob.co.contra-costa.ca.us
Gwendolyn B. Tucker, Chief Probation Officer San Francisco County Probation Dept. 375 Woodside Avenue SAN FRANCISCO CA 94127 PHONE: (415) 753-7800 ? FAX: (415) 753-7715 http://sfgov.org/site/mainpages_form.asp?id=18611
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August 22, 2003, 11:30 PM: This fight, after which neither
the probationer nor the staff member who were fighting together,
was only broken up by the arrival of three squad cars and
two ambulances.
Probationers are not supposed to fight as a condition of their probation --
they are supposed to have their probation revoked and go back to jail.
Not with the reporting methods used by Ron Butler, owner of the facility!
Click on photos to see larger images.
These pictures were taken on August 23, 2003 on the 200 block of Jayne Avenue. The people shown are all residents of 278 Jayne Avenue.
How many people think that these three Juvenile Hall probationers are admiring the interior of the car?
More documentation:
The first 5 photos are of the ambulances and squad
cars responding to the bloody (it was everywhere) fight on August 22 at 278 Jayne.
The next 3 photos show that the Contra Costa
County Sheriff's department also came out to that address.
There are more photos coming soon of the delinquents who live at 278 Jayne as they attempt to break into locked cars, and climb out of their residence -- you know, the residence that has all the good supervision?
But I'm sure that City Councilmember Nancy Nadel will say, "Oh no, those three boys were just admiring the interior of that car." No, Nancy. It's high time you looked at the problems caused in Oakland by these sorts of facilities. It's way past time you stopped being an apologist for every nasty youth and adult dumped in Oakland. Sheriff Charley Plummer gets the scope of Oakland's problem, and even Mayor Brown has recently had his eyes opened.
The answer? NO MORE half-way houses and residential care facilities and Oakland Housing Authority projects in Oakland until (a) every other city in the nine Bay Area counties takes in their fair share and (b) every existing facility is brought up to new, strict standards which must invariably include an on-site resident manager. These demands should be non-negotiable if Oakland ever wants to crawl out of its self-imposed sewer. (The feds give cities extra money if they build low income housing. Smart cities say, "Are you nuts? The damage to the community isn't worth it." But the Oakland city council simply drools and lets all the poverty pimps push it into accepting federal funds.
By the way this is the second facility Ron Butler owns in Oakland. The other is in Sequoyah Heights.
If he has played his cards as cleverly as the notorious Jimmie Franks did in Temescal, he could be getting $100,000 per year per delinquent, depending upon what services he allegedly provides.
Ms. Franks apparently was busted for not providing her wards with an education. Now the state lets her handle seniors.
You Democrats have pushed this welfare crap for generations, it's the
chickens coming home to roost.
Since Oakland is already the armpit of California, it makes sense
to build these projects here. True, Nadel is a butthead but she has
plenty of company on the council.
Where do you suggest building these projects, Belvedere or Beverly Hills ?
You consistently elect a bunch a bunch of "progressive" idiots to office, whaddya
expect ?
Ah, the voice of our local Libertarian, loaded with name-calling and not a single solution to be found.
When you talk about "welfare" I assume that you are condemning federal and state health insurance, workers compensation, social security benefits (disability as well as retirement) and all of the other programs that we expect government to pay for because we cannot possibly pay for them ourselves?
Right? Funds for education, scholarship, medical research, environmental protection, public lands, public art, FDA, OSHA et cetera? Funds for courts, libraries and universities? Funds for police and sheriffs?
Living in a Libertarian world would be chaos, the ultimate 6 month experiment in social Darwinism.
Posted by: Jeannette on September 9, 2003 02:04 PMHarper's, current September issue, has a great essay on why we should
get rid of the miserable public school system, by a 31 year teacher veteran
of NYC public schools. In the Oakland context I was referring to the extenersity sive
corporate welfare the city council routinely hands out to favored businesses
as well as the other kind that subsidized criminal bastards for generations.
Read For A New Liberty by Dr. Murray N. Rothbard, Collier-MacMillan, 1978
revised edition, for starters. Then tackle Human Action by Ludwig Von Mises,
a massive economic-historical tome, then read Capitalism by George Reisman,
a very large work, Jameson Books, Ottawa, Il. Mises work was published by
Yale University Press orioginally and then several other editions.
They are chock full of solutions. By the way, we already PAY OURSELVES
for all the above programs to a lousy coercive monopoly called government
and the idea that that is the ONLY way we can do things is absurd.
We don't need "public art" either anymore than we need "public lands"
or the state controlling every aspect of our lives under the rubric of the
environment, which has become the new collectivism, now that communism,
socialism and the liberal welfare state are thoroughly discredited.
There's a ton more to say here but this will do for starters, and I have
provided references so people can judge for themselves.
Stick to the issue, please. We're talking about a
neighborhood that's being destroyed by lack of political will and lack of bureaucratic skill.
You can't separate this from a larger context, the
prevailing political philosophy that brings about
the horrors that you deplore.
It's One World now, there are no local issues.
*This discussion has been closed. No more comments may be added.*