Northbay Uprising - Information for the liberated zones of the San Pablo Bay

2011-12-22 "Oakland's Quan doubts city can stop port closure; Blocking protesters too costly - 500 cops needed" by Matthai Kuruvila and Audrey Cooper from "San Francisco Chronicle"
[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-12-22/news/30545448_1_port-closure-oakland-mayor-jean-quan-oakland-s-quan]
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said Wednesday that the city probably would be unable to stop future Occupy demonstrations from shutting down the Port of Oakland and that attempting to do so would require at least 500 police officers, which the city would deploy if the port paid the $1.5 million cost.
In a meeting with Chronicle editors, Quan said that even with that many officers, a handful of protesters could sneak around police lines and shut down the port.
"I don't know what you know about the port, but with the longshoremen it only takes one person with a bike getting through a fence and getting to the gate. Then they (stop working) and call a mediator," the mayor said.
Her statement came hours after a faction of the Oakland City Council blocked several other members from presenting a directive ordering the city to keep the port open by any legal means necessary during future demonstrations. Councilwomen Jane Brunner, Nancy Nadel, Rebecca Kaplan and Pat Kernighan voted against allowing the proposal to be heard.

City overwhelmed -
Port officials and those within Quan's administration had pledged to keep the port open on Dec. 12, but activists were able to shut down shipping operations as part of Occupy Wall Street demonstrations over wealth disparity. Quan said city officials were surprised and overwhelmed by the number of protesters.
Authorities had planned for only about 300 protesters, Quan said. She said that eventually 1,200 protesters showed up. A Chronicle reporter had estimated 3,000 protesters.
Port officials on Wednesday said they had not been informed of Quan's plan to charge for police services during demonstrations.
"This is the first we've heard of this," port spokesman Isaac Kos-Read said Wednesday. He said the port hoped to work on avoiding disruptions. "Keeping the port open and operational is how we're going to sustain jobs for the region."
Michael Jacob, vice president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, the lobbying arm of the containerized shipping industry, said he has worries about Quan's plan.
"We're concerned about any port costs that increase the overall cost of shipping goods for the Port of Oakland and make the port less competitive," he said. "At the end of the day, we're very sensitive to prices."
Police have told The Chronicle that they were ordered not to engage with the protesters during the Dec. 12 port action. Protesters blocked roads and jumped onto trucks that were waiting to enter the port while police stood by. Quan said the call to clear the roads would have been a tactical decision of the police chief.

Taking the heat -
"I'm really curious as to why I'm getting all the blame for all of it. I understand why politically, but ... the port and we thought 300 cops would be enough. It wasn't enough. So (interim Police Chief) Howard Jordan couldn't feel like he could do more than he did. It was his call," she said.

Retailers unhappy -
The port has seven shipping terminals, four of which were blocked that day, costing the port an estimated $4 million to $8 million.
Quan said it is "absolutely" impossible to promise the port will stay open during future protests.
The Chronicle reported Wednesday that major retailers, including Target, Walgreens, J.C. Penney and Crate & Barrel, are threatening to pull out of the Oakland port and move business to the Port of Los Angeles. Quan said she was unaware of any specific threats by businesses.
"Are businesses threatening to leave? Maybe. That's why we have to have a discussion with the Bay Area community about the economic harm," Quan said.
She made clear, however, that the costs of keeping the port open would not fall on the city of Oakland.
Future protests could prompt "the port to ask the police chief to develop a plan to keep roads open," and the chief "has said he could do that with 500, 600 officers. And if the port wants to pay for that, we can do that."

Police in riot gear -
At least two City Council members - Brunner and Nadel - oppose the use of police in riot gear to deter protesters.
"Our police really help us in the city, but they're not the answer for a social movement," Brunner said during Tuesday night's council meeting in which she and others blocked the directive from being heard.
The directive was introduced by council members Ignacio De La Fuente and Libby Schaaf, who said they feared that Occupy Oakland would shut down the port again before the end of the year and that police needed direction before then. So far, Occupy has not announced any further port actions.
The directive would have ordered City Administrator Deanna Santana, who oversees police actions, to do what was necessary "to prevent future shutdowns or disruptions" at the port.

Quan's critics -
De La Fuente and Schaaf said they believe Quan, who has the unilateral authority to direct police, failed to appropriately deal with the Dec. 12 demonstration.
The discussion at Tuesday's council meeting brought out scores of Occupy activists and supporters, as well as a handful of port officials.
Jacob of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association told the council he feared that the repeated shutdowns would scare away investors, who are critical to the port's growth.
"We need to grow cargo there," he said. "We need to finance the commitments we made as companies and tenants and customers that help us finance the commitments to the port."
Other speakers, including representatives of several unions, repeatedly brought up what they considered the aggression of police in response to Occupy Oakland demonstrations on the nights of Oct. 25 and Nov. 2. During those nights, police used tear gas, batons, bean bags and rubber bullets to quell the protest. Many of those police actions came in response to projectiles being thrown at officers, fires being lit or buildings illegally occupied.
"You have blood on your hands," said Eric Larsen, an executive board member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 444.


2011-12-23 "Mayor Jean Quan adrift on securing Port of Oakland" by Andrew S. Ross from "San Francisco Chronicle"
[http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-12-23/business/30549920_1_oakland-port-oakland-police-pacific-merchant-shipping-association]
Here's what we know about the Port of Oakland:
* It's the fifth-biggest container port in the United States.
* It supports an estimated 73,000 regional jobs.
* It indirectly provides millions in tax revenue to the city of Oakland.
The mayor of that city has essentially washed her hands of any responsibility for its well-being.
The last fact we learn from Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who told The Chronicle this week that: (A) It's "absolutely" impossible to prevent shutdowns like those organized by the Occupy movement; and (B) Should the port want the Oakland police to give it a genuine college try anyway - "if the port wants to pay for that, we can do that."
 Her remarks are staggering. They tell those of a mind to do more mischief, "We won't stop you." They tell companies shipping billions of dollars of goods in and out of the United States that the Port of Oakland is, maybe, not a good place to do business. And they tell the port that if it wants the city to step up to the plate, it's going to have pay protection money.
"F- ridiculous," was how a local executive described the remarks. "What are we, a Third World country?"
 Meanwhile, four city councilwomen have blocked their colleagues' attempt to present a directive to keep the port open by any legal means necessary.
 It is no wonder that some companies have reportedly said they may have to take their business elsewhere; there are plenty of other ports along the West Coast.
"Cargo owners are now actively looking into alternatives to Oakland," Mike Jacob, vice president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, said in a letter written last week to City Council members and copied to Quan.
 It's not as if the Port of Oakland doesn't already have other things to worry about. Its 2011 annual report, for example, speaks of continuing "pressure from tenants and customers" concerned with economic conditions in general.
 While the port is benefiting from the resurgence of U.S. and California exports, that is being outweighed by the decline in imports. "The trends are troubling," Jon Haveman, chief economist at the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, said in a recent report.
 Projecting "flat to modest growth in activity and revenues" over the next few years, the port also faces the problem of "managing high debt service payments (on $1.4 billion) as well as rising personnel and regulatory costs," according to the port's annual report.
 Outright incompetence at Oakland's City Hall - which, by the way, is supposed to manage the port's affairs - is the last thing it needs.
 One commenter on SFGate.com suggested "the port should request Jerry Brown send the National Guard" if necessary to prevent future disruptions. The onetime mayor of Oakland, the commenter added, "must show leadership."
 In fact, I'm told, a number of economic officials in Sacramento, especially those concerned with the state's employment picture, have already expressed concern about the impact of disruptions at the port.
 Given that the state has jurisdiction over the port, those concerns need to be expressed loudly and directly to local politicians who are making an already bad situation worse.
 In the meantime, a recall election seems like a very good idea.


2011-12-28 "Jean Quan "Corrects the Public Record" on Keeping Port Open" by Jon Brooks
[http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/12/28/jean-quan-and-the-port-of-oakland/]
The Port of Oakland, you may recall, was shut down in November during the Occupy Oakland general strike, and also briefly a couple of weeks ago during another protest. Last week, after the Oakland City Council tabled a resolution calling for a hardline approach to keeping the port open [http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19601771], Mayor Jean Quan caused a bit of a stir when she seemed to throw up her hands on the issue in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle [http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-12-22/news/30545448_1_port-closure-oakland-mayor-jean-quan-oakland-s-quan].
[begin extract]
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said Wednesday that the city probably would be unable to stop future Occupy demonstrations from shutting down the Port of Oakland and that attempting to do so would require at least 500 police officers, which the city would deploy if the port paid the $1.5 million cost.
In a meeting with Chronicle editors, Quan said that even with that many officers, a handful of protesters could sneak around police lines and shut down the port.
"I don't know what you know about the port, but with the longshoremen it only takes one person with a bike getting through a fence and getting to the gate. Then they (stop working) and call a mediator," the mayor said.
[end extract]
That sounded a bit defeatist to some, like the Chronicle editorial page, which wrote the next day:
[begin extract]
One of a mayor's most critical roles is to set the tone for a city. Which brings us to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and her oddly passive acceptance of the prospect that just "one person with a bike getting through a fence" could shut down the city's engine of commerce, the Port of Oakland.
Equally puzzling was Quan's assessment of what it would take to keep the port open against a future demonstration: At least 500 officers would need to be deployed - "and if the port wants to pay for that, we can do that," she said. On top of that, the mayor told Chronicle editors in a meeting Wednesday that it was "absolutely" impossible to promise that the port could be kept open in future protests.
What a dispiriting message to send businesses that depend on the port for shipping and receiving of goods.
[end extract]
Comments by Chronicle readers were not half so kind [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2011/12/21/MNMO1MFG41.DTL]. Here's one that seems to represent the general tone:
"My jaw dropped when I read this. Can Quan be more clueless?"
Yesterday, Governor Jerry Brown, one of Quan's predecessors as Oakland mayor, offered little support when asked about the port issue at a press conference.
"There are the resources under mutual aid," he said. "There are resources in Oakland - with some leadership and some imagination not only can they keep the port open, but they should keep the port open."
When Brown, who maintains a home in Oakland, was asked how he would vote if a Quan recall measure were to make it to the ballot, he said [http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2011/12/21/the-race-to-recall-jean-quan-is-on/], "that's why we have a secret ballot election. But...I meet with her from time to time, so I don't want to send messages from Sacramento. I'll deliver them in person."
Apparently, the mayor or someone in her camp decided it was time for a little damage control. Yesterday evening, Quan's office sent out a statement "Correcting the Public Record on Keeping the Port of Oakland Open," in which she says, "we can keep the port open."
The full statement:
[begin extract]
Due to the stories regarding the Mayor’s comments about the Port we are releasing a statement to correct the public record. Mayor Quan was the first elected official to speak out publically (sic) about the importance of keeping the Port open prior to the December 12 demonstrations. (See Open letter to Occupy Protesters December 11 2011.)
The Port and City worked together effectively to minimize disruptions to Port operations on December 12. The Mayor’s stance on keeping the Port open has not changed. The following statement corrects the public record on keeping the Port of Oakland open.
“We can keep the Port open. I was providing background on how complex and costly it can be to do so. The City and Port are committed to working closely together to keep this economic engine for the region open. The real issue is about jobs—the 73,000 blue collar workers and farmworkers throughout the region who depend on the Port for their paycheck and the rest of the City businesses that rely on shipments through the Port for their success.”
 “During the last demonstration, the Port of Oakland agreed to pay for a portion of the cost of police services, and my comment was in reference to that. If another demonstration is planned, the City and Port would meet again to discuss the costs and how they would be shared between the Port and the City.”
* Jean Quan, Mayor of Oakland
* Sue Piper, Special Assistant to the Mayor
[end extract]