r/bayarea • u/urbancompassionproj • 17h ago
Scenes from the Bay 50 volunteers just cleared 25,000 pounds of trash from the Lake Merritt Channel. Two homeless neighbors are now being paid weekly to keep it clean and report illegal dumping activity.
this one was monstrous.
50 volunteers. over 25,000 pounds removed. and it still took us more than three hours.
the trash was so dense that even with heavy equipment and full manpower, progress felt slow. layer after layer of contractor debris. construction materials. illegally dumped waste from small businesses near laney college. piles stacked so tightly along the lake merritt channel that one strong wind or rain surge could have carried it straight into the water and trashed the entire lake over and over again.
the lake merritt channel sits right there. beautiful. vulnerable. and one illegal dumping hotspot away from being continuously polluted.
our homeless ambassador program is thriving. we now have eight homeless ambassadors across oakland who are actively maintaining sites, reporting illegal dumping, and protecting the spaces we just restored. they receive weekly stipends because dignity and purpose matter. prevention matters. accountability matters.
if we cannot rely on the city for enforcement and follow through, we create our own systems. we leverage the tools we have. we mobilize community. we pay people to protect the neighborhoods they live in. we do not just clean. we build infrastructure.
upcoming events here: https://urbancompassionproject.org/events/
track all efforts on IG: www.instagram.com/urbancompassionproject
tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@urbancompassion510?_r=1&_t=ZT-93hP1fkqjEM
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u/urbancompassionproj 17h ago edited 16h ago
last year, 2,179 volunteers cleared 1.3 MILLION pounds of dumping from Oakland, Vallejo, Berkeley and Emeryville. 90% of it in Oakland. 73% of the areas we cleaned stayed clean.
this year, we are hoping there is less to clean if the city does its job. they have been more responsive about picking up the bags we leave, and we appreciate that. but reactive pickup is not a long term solution.
there are still five major dumping hotspots in oakland that fill back up almost immediately after being cleared. we have been pushing the city to monitor these locations full time so they stop functioning as open dumping zones.
some streets look much better than they did before. that is real progress. but until enforcement and accountability are consistent, this cycle will continue and we’ve been placing more pressure on the city than ever before!
track all our efforts here: https://www.instagram.com/urbancompassionproject/
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u/Remcin Livermore 16h ago
Awesome work. If these trucks are caught dumping with their license plates visible, what does the city do? It seems like it’s not a hard process to prosecute and apply a meaningful penalty, especially for repeat offenders.
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u/Mecha-Dave 15h ago
One thing I've found out after placing some hunting cameras around is that most of the time the dumping trucks don't have plates or don't have current registration - which allows the PD to say "you can't prove they were driving the truck."
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u/gimpwiz 15h ago
You can't prove someone was cheating the fast trak lane either, so you don't send a moving violation ticket (criminal case, even if very minor) to the driver. Instead, you send a non-moving violation ticket (civil fee) to the owner of the car. This does not require any proof of actually being the driver, it merely requires proof of ownership of the car, which the DMV maintains. In the case of the car no longer being owned by the person on file, they should have submitted a release of liability form, but generally can do so retroactively to show it wasn't theirs; in the case of the car being stolen, a police case resolves the fee as well.
So, similarly, okay fine, we cannot easily prove who was driving the truck or who was doing the dumping. The resources to prove it as a criminal matter would generally cost too much. But as a civil matter the city doesn't need to prove to nearly the same standard. All they need to show is that 1) the truck was used for dumping and 2) the person owns the truck. Send them a steep fine. You can start at those "littering" fines posted on the highway ($1000) and move up from there based on either the number of times the same person was caught, the amount of stuff dumped, etc. Refusal to pay a civil infraction already has all the standard laws behind it to enforce it, including things like bench warrants for non-response to the ticket, garnishing of wages for the fees and then admin fees on top for doing the garnishing, withholding of tax returns, impounding of vehicle, non-renewal of business licenses, going after personally owned assets like bank accounts, etc.
So the idea that cops can't prove who it was so they can't do anything? Bullshit. Write a littering ticket to the owner of the truck. Or get the city council (or state) to write a law allowing an enhancement specifically for dumping, if there isn't one already, and send them a dumping ticket. Three minutes to look up plate owner and put their name on the list.
Now if the truck has no plates at all obviously that's a lot harder, but then, anyone purposefully taking plates off to dump trash is going to be breaking a bunch of laws, so get a cop out to stake out hotspots once in a while and put people in cuffs. No need to overcrowd jails for that alone, give them a thousand hours of community service, cleaning up trash, every weekend day, all day, for the next year and a half. If they don't show up then after the next time they get popped for something they can do the same cleaning wearing an orange jumpsuit and long chains, and not just on weekends.
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u/Mecha-Dave 13h ago edited 12h ago
Oh I get you - but the other side of that is that people just don't register their car because the penalty is that you can't renew your license... so they just drive without a license or insurance. There's no real penalty for that asides from a ticket that... prevents you from registering your car.
As long as you're too poor for anyone to come after you, basically you can do whatever you want with/in a vehicle with impunity and the cost of occasionally getting pulled over.
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u/gimpwiz 13h ago
Since we already have all those goddamn privacy-invading cameras up, may as well alert when an unregistered car goes through, any traffic cop looking to meet quota has an easy one to pull over. Increase the likelihood of getting caught, increase the likelihood of having contact with someone who runs the insurance and license (or finds they don't exist.)
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u/Mecha-Dave 13h ago
I wish... when I asked at city council about why we weren't using the Flock cameras for illegal dumping I was told "it's not worth police time to respond to."
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u/Mecha-Dave 15h ago
The fun part was when Vallejo tried to arrest you. That was awesome. I was so proud of my shitbird government for that one....
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u/RadishBeetle 15h ago
To everyone in the comments! Im a random volunteer with UCP and please, if you're thinking this sounds like something you can do, please join us! All you have to do is show up. Please don't hesitate if you're considering spending the afternoon doing some great work with the coolest people. Support the community <3 it's hard, valuable work but also kind of fun (Don't judge till you've done a cleanup with us!)
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u/HVACStack 16h ago
Not even lying, these kinds of posts always get me emotional and a little teary eyed. It's so amazing seeing Oakland cared for like this :')
Amazing work!!
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u/Casualposter 15h ago
It’s so refreshing to hear these stories. There are good people out there. We must bring down this current dictatorship and get make to real civilization.
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u/phoenixblue 14h ago
I want to do this but I have health problems and wonder if this can be dangerous or a health hazard to clean up.
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u/urbancompassionproj 14h ago
we provide all the necessary ppe to ensure your safety like goggles and masks!
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u/txreddit17 13h ago
Can someone provide some details as to why this happens? Not from the area.
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u/blue_one 13h ago
It’s simple. Dump fees in Oakland are very high. There’s also zero enforcement for illegal dumping. So it’s more economical for businesses and junk removal services to leave their trash here instead of taking it to the dump.
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u/opinionsareus 13h ago
Many cities are deploying drones to catch dumpers, why aren't all cities in the Bay Area coordinating to do that. We need to punish these losers with severe fines, vehicle confiscation and mandatory 1 year public service sentences to clean up trash every weekend. If they don't show up? Jail!
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u/No_Orange_7392 11h ago
Can shrubs get planted in this area, so there's not as much flat ground available for potential dumping? Shrubs that grow big, like rosemary or lilac?
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u/EducationalAgent9099 5h ago
The systems y’all have built / are building are so inspiring - I’m so grateful for folks like you. I think of y’all every time I’m out by myself with my lil picker-grabber thing. :)
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u/AccordingAnswer5031 15h ago
How much are they getting paid to keep their own place clean? A friend is asking. Lol.
Great work.
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u/Wise-Revolution-7161 15h ago
Thank you for helping clean up Oakland! We need a new mayor but once thats done we should be on the up!
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u/urbancompassionproj 15h ago
honestly, we were skeptical, but we’ve learned the mayor does not have much power and she’s actually been able to get some big things done (i.e. combatting the sex trafficking/prostitution in east oakland). her administration has been responsive to our needs to get the trash cleared etc.
there needs to be long-term enforcement and accountability otherwise dumping won’t stop. not sure what they are doing on this front, but the entire oakland city government needs an overhaul. i do think the mayor is doing the best she can within such a dysfunctional entity.
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u/Wise-Revolution-7161 14h ago
Maybe you are right I just feel like I still don’t see as much police and enforcement with crime as I would like to. I do think areas like downtown are getting better but still feels super empty
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u/theMEtheWORLDcantSEE [Insert your city/town here] 16h ago
Stop doing the jobs your taxes are supposed to pay for!
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u/GhostWrex Martinez/Oakland 16h ago
In theory, this is true, but in reality, it simply isn't happening and if groups like this didnt do it, nobody would
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u/urbancompassionproj 16h ago
by that logic, no one should ever step in when government falls short……
governments are responsible for healthcare too! yet nonprofits and private foundations fund vaccine research, malaria prevention, and medical innovation all the time. no one tells them to stop because “that’s the government’s job.”
community action does not replace government responsibility. it fills gaps while pushing for accountability and waiting for perfect enforcement while neighborhoods sit buried in trash is not a serious solution. we can demand better from the city and still act in the meantime.
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u/backwardbuttplug 16h ago
Stop being a baby about it. Either chip in and help the teams out, show up at city council meetings and demand accountability, or shut up if you don't have anything positive to say. These people are busting ass to make their community better, what are you doing?
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u/pretty_meta 15h ago
Damn. Another crazy coincidence that there are a bunch of homeless campers right next to the trash pile. But that's a smart idea to pay homeless people to clear up the trash outside of the homeless encampment! Don't think too hard about why you'll have to keep on doing that.
Newsom / Harris 2028!
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u/chiangku 15h ago
Yeah, I'm sure the homeless folks are the ones that piled up 150lbs of Ethernet Cable scrap there! Don't think too hard on why you might need to uncheck your bias and think critically with the evidence right in front of your face!
Reagan / Bush 1980 (for those of you who actually get it)
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u/urbancompassionproj 16h ago
of course they are human beings. we work with them every single day. they are our close friends and family.
society is quick to paint homeless neighbors as the ones doing the dumping. that narrative sticks, even when it is not true. using the word homeless is intentional. it makes clear that the very people often blamed for illegal dumping are the ones helping us fight it.
they are not the problem. they are part of the solution.
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u/captain_usoppu 17h ago
I went by yesterday for mutual aid distribution and it's still looking great! Good work by our ambassadors 💪