OAKLAND, CA — The East Oakland Congress of Neighborhoods met with concerned community members at Allen Temple Baptist Church to raise awareness and build community power to fight the toxic effects of air pollution in East Oakland.
East Oakland is primarily home to Oakland’s low-income Black and Brown residents. According to the Alameda County Public Health Department, these community members suffer from double the asthma emergency room visits and hospitalizations, the highest rate of both stroke and congestive heart failure, and the lowest life expectancy in Alameda County, by as many as 10 years. Many residents are unaware that they face these elevated health risks.
Despite the known health hazards, both the City of Oakland and the county continue to allow heavy industries to operate in close proximity to homes, schools, parks, churches and communities in East Oakland. In January 2018, after years of legal battles, a new mega-crematorium owned by Service Corporation International (SCI) began operations only half a mile away from the residential neighborhood of Columbia Gardens, adding dangerous particulate air pollution from the burning of 3,000 bodies a year to a neighborhood already heavily burdened by air pollution from nearby I-880.