Oakland’s sideshow sideshow

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CITY NEWS

OAKLAND

—SIDESHOW LEGISLATION, PART III—The mayhem presented by sideshows on Oakland streets seems to be getting worse. A sideshow took over a city intersection in East Oakland two weekends ago, leading to damage to city infrastructure and private property.

—A fed up individual hurled a bucket at one of the screeching cars and was brutally beaten by sideshow participants.

—Last Saturday night, a sideshow near Lake Merritt erupted into chaos that included individuals stomping on a car windshield before setting it ablaze.

—Oakland appears to be in total disorder. The sideshow issue, meanwhile, has become just that at Oakland City Hall, a sideshow with no urgency among public officials to quell the bedlam.

—A proposal last December to add fines and penalties to those who organize and take part in sideshows was twice mothballed by a majority of the Oakland City Council.

—The second appearance of the legislation on Dec. 20 was withdrawn from the agenda by Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and Carroll Fife.

—Fife worried the proposed ordinance would further criminalized minorities. “I want to make sure we are giving alternatives first before we come with punishment, and do our due diligence as a city to do all of our traffic work that we said we are going to invest in,” Fife said last December.

—The legislation introduced by Councilmember Noel Gallo back in November 2022, has sit in purgatory until Apr. 27 when it was referred to tonight’s Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee.

—Gallo’s proposed ordinance would allow the city to seek civil and criminal penalties against individuals who promote and attend a sideshow. The penalties would follow after an individual has been identified at a previous sideshow. Penalties include misdemeanor charges punishable up to six month is in jail, in addition, to a $1,000 fine.

—Last month, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors took early steps for a proposed ordinance that would punish only spectators at sideshows in the unincorporated areas. The charges are similar to Oakland’s proposed ordinance. The county’s ordinance is currently being discussed in committee.

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