This is another outstanding Oakland Report story.If I had to highlight two major points they would be:
1. "roughly 61 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of illegal dumping removed from Oakland streets every year."
2. "Oakland’s rates run 23 to 40 percent above neighboring cities served by the same hauler."
As a long-time skeptic of Oakland Public "Works," I applaud Mr. Rowan for his courage in a political environment filled with misinformation, political malfeasance, and cowardice.
Oakland is buried in trash, and Mayor Barbara Lee and her merry gang of sycophants are lying to us about why—and enriching themselves and their cronies in the process. (Rebecca Kaplan no-show job?)
This isn’t a trash-fee problem. It isn’t a bulk-pickup problem. Those policies have been around for years, Oakland's flatlands were not an open air dump until recently.
It’s an enforcement problem.
Oakland has fewer than 500 active officers for a city of nearly half a million people, with fewer than 35 officers on the streets at any given time.
Oakland still has essentially the same beat system it has had since the 1960s, creating significant equity issues and a lack of police coverage in areas that demand more public safety.
None of these problems are being addressed by the current administration because it was THEIR policies that helped cause them.
Oakland is Grift City. The poverty pimping is at an all-time high, and so many of y’all are either willfully ignorant or just so contemptuous of the working-class and poor families who have to live in this madness that your ideology and vanity are more important than cleaning the damn city up.
While Mr Rowan very capable points fingers at many of the guilty parties he has, naturally, I suppose, neglected to look in the mirror.
His department routinely drives by tree stumps and other large debris that have lain there for years, ignores trash dumps and couches along the roadside, allows large teams to go out on Saturday and Sundays to pretend to do roadside gravel removal, ignores potholes on busy streets that have been there for years or when patching, does a ludicrously poor job of it. His dept ignores places where the road is falling into streams or off hillsides, ignores guardrails that were crashed into years ago, fails to clear brush on roadsides, etc, etc. They have wasted millions repaving roads that didn't need it when heavily traveled roads that connect to them lie neglected with unpatched holes, again for years.
His department has so many things to answer for and yet he seems unable to acknowledge any of the problems. It's mind boggling.
As far as the equity claim that it's more expensive to pick up trash in the hills, as usual, that's nonsense. I have almost never seen any small trucks or crews that have more people than those on the flats. The brown cans do usually have 2 people, but the do on the flats too. Otherwise it's one man trucks and the same size as everyone else.
And, hey, let's not forget that the hill areas contribute a much larger portion of property taxes to the city. And the police are so unpresent in the hills they would get lost without GPS. There is no regular police presence in the hills. None. So don't use equity as a reason to make the hills do even more subsidizing while laughing when they ask for their fair share of city services.
WM has predatory policies regarding the number and size of cans, that's true, and it's a no brainer that that is going to lead to dumping.
But, Mr Rowan, please clean up your department first. Then throw as many rocks as you want.
Victor, while your life in the hills is worrying about tree stumps and potholes on Skyline Boulevard, my family in the flats is drowning in a sea of trash that literally piles up on the end of my block. I would bet you $100 I pay more Oakland property tax than you.
“without accountability for results.” This thoroughly describes why Oakland city government is failing in all departments. Accountability means warning and firing employees, not reelecting failed politicians, evicting bad tenants, arresting and prosecuting criminals, etc. Instead we accept excuses, stories, societal problems, past injustice, and discredited 19th century ideology to avoid holding anyone accountable for their actions. That is the underlying tragedy of Oakland. The solution is common sense with only appropriate compassion. And not attacking accountability as ‘Republican’ or ‘right wing’ or ‘male.’
I can't speak to who did or didn't do what here, only to the fact that the Oakland Scavengers worked their butts off. Garbage cans were metal. No wheels. The collectors picked them up in back yards, hoisted them on their backs, lifted them high up to dump into trucks, and returned them empty. They didn't work that way because they couldn't figure out a safer, easier way. They did it because that's all they had to work with to get the job done, and they got it done all week long..
There are people of all colors in the neighborhood.
We’ve switched to the smallest size garbage can years ago.
Our garbage can is rarely full.
We don’t practice illegal dumping and so do our neighbors.
WM charges go up every year.
Our current WM monthly bill is $170+ for the smallest size can - much higher than what is quoted in the article.
There are no piles of trash in Forestland.
Sorry, but Article makes little sense to me.
If author thinks that smaller can is the root cause, he should try subsidizing a larger can in a couple of problem areas, see if that would make a difference and report back
Lovely report, as always, packed with those dull old facts.
One elision "source is domestic AND business". These are different cases, though treatment is similar: make it cost more to dump than to have it picked up. I have suggestions:
1: Require the collection companies to weigh the waste picked up from each domestic or business customer, and charge accordingly. So everyone could have a 64 gallon container at, say, a $2 premium for the larger size, and otherwise pay for the garbage in it.
2: Bounty hunters. Think of all those semi-employed Eats drivers who could spend their free time with a camera around dump hot spots and pick up 30% of a successful civil settlement.
3: Empower local residents' associations to sue on the photographic evidence and supporting personal testimony. Judgements tripled if the waste comes from a business.
I repeat: make it cost more to dump than have it picked up.
Thanks Josh and Oakland Report. Very important article, bearing truths that many do not hear or want to hear. Josh, I want to take you up on your offer for a city wide trash tour. As a candidate for Oakland Mayor, I want first hand knowledge. Please no cameras, just the tour. Mindy Pechenuk, for Oakland Mayor 2026. Electmindy.com
Compliments to Josh for such a methodical and detailed analysis of the problem. So many people want this solved - it makes complete sense there are forces in place that profit from not having it solved. We need to change behavior and collectively need to hold these folks accountable and support the changes in government that are needed. I would like to see recommendations from department leaders in responding to the recommendations here.
The facts and data are clear, Rebecca Kaplan is one of the worst things to happen to Oakland.
This is another outstanding Oakland Report story.If I had to highlight two major points they would be:
1. "roughly 61 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of illegal dumping removed from Oakland streets every year."
2. "Oakland’s rates run 23 to 40 percent above neighboring cities served by the same hauler."
As a long-time skeptic of Oakland Public "Works," I applaud Mr. Rowan for his courage in a political environment filled with misinformation, political malfeasance, and cowardice.
Oakland is buried in trash, and Mayor Barbara Lee and her merry gang of sycophants are lying to us about why—and enriching themselves and their cronies in the process. (Rebecca Kaplan no-show job?)
This isn’t a trash-fee problem. It isn’t a bulk-pickup problem. Those policies have been around for years, Oakland's flatlands were not an open air dump until recently.
It’s an enforcement problem.
Oakland has fewer than 500 active officers for a city of nearly half a million people, with fewer than 35 officers on the streets at any given time.
Oakland still has essentially the same beat system it has had since the 1960s, creating significant equity issues and a lack of police coverage in areas that demand more public safety.
None of these problems are being addressed by the current administration because it was THEIR policies that helped cause them.
Oakland is Grift City. The poverty pimping is at an all-time high, and so many of y’all are either willfully ignorant or just so contemptuous of the working-class and poor families who have to live in this madness that your ideology and vanity are more important than cleaning the damn city up.
I’m sick of this crap. Are you?
If so, what are you doing about it?
While Mr Rowan very capable points fingers at many of the guilty parties he has, naturally, I suppose, neglected to look in the mirror.
His department routinely drives by tree stumps and other large debris that have lain there for years, ignores trash dumps and couches along the roadside, allows large teams to go out on Saturday and Sundays to pretend to do roadside gravel removal, ignores potholes on busy streets that have been there for years or when patching, does a ludicrously poor job of it. His dept ignores places where the road is falling into streams or off hillsides, ignores guardrails that were crashed into years ago, fails to clear brush on roadsides, etc, etc. They have wasted millions repaving roads that didn't need it when heavily traveled roads that connect to them lie neglected with unpatched holes, again for years.
His department has so many things to answer for and yet he seems unable to acknowledge any of the problems. It's mind boggling.
As far as the equity claim that it's more expensive to pick up trash in the hills, as usual, that's nonsense. I have almost never seen any small trucks or crews that have more people than those on the flats. The brown cans do usually have 2 people, but the do on the flats too. Otherwise it's one man trucks and the same size as everyone else.
And, hey, let's not forget that the hill areas contribute a much larger portion of property taxes to the city. And the police are so unpresent in the hills they would get lost without GPS. There is no regular police presence in the hills. None. So don't use equity as a reason to make the hills do even more subsidizing while laughing when they ask for their fair share of city services.
WM has predatory policies regarding the number and size of cans, that's true, and it's a no brainer that that is going to lead to dumping.
But, Mr Rowan, please clean up your department first. Then throw as many rocks as you want.
Victor, while your life in the hills is worrying about tree stumps and potholes on Skyline Boulevard, my family in the flats is drowning in a sea of trash that literally piles up on the end of my block. I would bet you $100 I pay more Oakland property tax than you.
FYI Flats pay way more property taxes than the hills.
“without accountability for results.” This thoroughly describes why Oakland city government is failing in all departments. Accountability means warning and firing employees, not reelecting failed politicians, evicting bad tenants, arresting and prosecuting criminals, etc. Instead we accept excuses, stories, societal problems, past injustice, and discredited 19th century ideology to avoid holding anyone accountable for their actions. That is the underlying tragedy of Oakland. The solution is common sense with only appropriate compassion. And not attacking accountability as ‘Republican’ or ‘right wing’ or ‘male.’
I can't speak to who did or didn't do what here, only to the fact that the Oakland Scavengers worked their butts off. Garbage cans were metal. No wheels. The collectors picked them up in back yards, hoisted them on their backs, lifted them high up to dump into trucks, and returned them empty. They didn't work that way because they couldn't figure out a safer, easier way. They did it because that's all they had to work with to get the job done, and they got it done all week long..
We are immigrants.
We live in the hills - Forestland.
There are people of all colors in the neighborhood.
We’ve switched to the smallest size garbage can years ago.
Our garbage can is rarely full.
We don’t practice illegal dumping and so do our neighbors.
WM charges go up every year.
Our current WM monthly bill is $170+ for the smallest size can - much higher than what is quoted in the article.
There are no piles of trash in Forestland.
Sorry, but Article makes little sense to me.
If author thinks that smaller can is the root cause, he should try subsidizing a larger can in a couple of problem areas, see if that would make a difference and report back
Don’t forget the homeless/garbage pile nexus; or are those still consecrated as their “belongings”?
Def an issue but the illegal dumping from contractors is def the bulk of the current issue.
Lovely report, as always, packed with those dull old facts.
One elision "source is domestic AND business". These are different cases, though treatment is similar: make it cost more to dump than to have it picked up. I have suggestions:
1: Require the collection companies to weigh the waste picked up from each domestic or business customer, and charge accordingly. So everyone could have a 64 gallon container at, say, a $2 premium for the larger size, and otherwise pay for the garbage in it.
2: Bounty hunters. Think of all those semi-employed Eats drivers who could spend their free time with a camera around dump hot spots and pick up 30% of a successful civil settlement.
3: Empower local residents' associations to sue on the photographic evidence and supporting personal testimony. Judgements tripled if the waste comes from a business.
I repeat: make it cost more to dump than have it picked up.
Thanks Josh and Oakland Report. Very important article, bearing truths that many do not hear or want to hear. Josh, I want to take you up on your offer for a city wide trash tour. As a candidate for Oakland Mayor, I want first hand knowledge. Please no cameras, just the tour. Mindy Pechenuk, for Oakland Mayor 2026. Electmindy.com
Compliments to Josh for such a methodical and detailed analysis of the problem. So many people want this solved - it makes complete sense there are forces in place that profit from not having it solved. We need to change behavior and collectively need to hold these folks accountable and support the changes in government that are needed. I would like to see recommendations from department leaders in responding to the recommendations here.