In 2009: A United Oakland is a Safer Oakland

ANOTHER YEAR has passed and violent crime in Oakland continues to be issue No. 1.

Given the headlines last year, you might be surprised to learn that year after year, the crime rate in Oakland has largely stayed the same. Homicides and robberies remain at crisis levels on the streets of many of our poorest neighborhoods.

In 2008, however, the number of crimes in some of our nicest neighborhoods went up, causing a citywide stir. Nonetheless, hidden in the crime stats is that crime continues to disproportionately affect the same people year after year.

One thing crime trends in 2008 made clear is that we live in two Oaklands. We're not only separated by class and race: the starkest divide in our city is a geographic one. It's our man-made barriers — our freeway structures, most notably I-580 and I-980/Highway 24 — that isolate the people of West and East and some parts of North Oakland.

In 2008 we saw a spate of violence — robberies, specifically — occur in some of our safest neighborhoods. The common response was panic about crime and violence being out of control.

It's true that our city has endured more than its fair share of crime and violence. However, violence in Oakland is a problem everywhere it occurs, and not just because crime increased in a particular neighborhood.

We have neglected and overlooked the plight of some of our most violent and economically deprived communities for far too long, and it's time to recognize that Oakland will only be as strong as her weakest neighborhood.

One of the choices we can make as Oaklanders is to reject the artificial barriers like Interstate 580 that divide us. That means when a woman is murdered lying in her bed in an apartment on MacArthur, we should all feel called upon to demand safer neighborhoods, regardless of where we live. When a day laborer is robbed on International Boulevard, we should collectively feel violated the way we do when a robbery occurs near an ATM on Piedmont Avenue.

United, we can make the entire city safer for everyone in Oakland. We cannot do so if we retreat and remain complacent. It's up to each one of us to demand unity and accountability from the elected officials that represent us, the police department that serves us, and the community organizations that advocate on our behalf.

Over the last several decades something has changed in our city. Slowly, we've made some real progress in reducing violence. But like other urban centers, we've also struggled with the ebb and flow of crime.

It's time to demand that city officials implement a comprehensive violence prevention strategy — one that emphasizes the work of street outreach workers and assesses the City's existing violence prevention resources to ensure they are efficient and effective. Finally, our city agencies and community organizations must work at higher levels of coordination so that more of our neighbors in crisis are aware of the resources available to them.

With tough economic times ahead, every person in Oakland must embrace the notion of shared responsibility in transforming our city into a unified, whole Oakland. Engage your neighbors, support existing efforts to curb violence, and be an active participant in local politics. Together, we can — and must — build a lasting peace. There is simply too much at stake: the lives of our young people and the well-being of our community depend on you.

Nicole Lee is director of Silence The Violence, a campaign of the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.