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West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP)

@westoaklandeip

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A resident-led environmental justice organization giving West Oaklanders the tools to shape the forces that impact their lives.

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West Oakland is one of the oldest and most culturally significant neighborhoods in the city–yet it’s been treated as a “sacrifice zone.” In modern cities, communities of color are saddled with land uses that people don’t want in their backyards, from recyclers to sewage treatment to truck yards.

But West Oaklanders have fought and won battle after battle to kick out polluters, remediate toxic soil, and reshape our urban landscape–from the pivotal victory against the megapolluting Red Star Yeast Factory in 2003 to replacing a double-decker highway with the chain of parks along Mandela Parkway after the 1989 eathquake. by @westoaklandeip

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5 months ago

Hi new followers 👋 Let us introduce ourselves: We’re the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP).

We’ve been fighting for healthy homes, schools, and neighborhoods in West Oakland for over twenty years.

Why West Oakland? Because this community is stronger than the environmental crises we’re up against. West Oakland is a gem of the Bay Area: it’s multiracial and multiethnic, home to new musical genres and political movements.

But racist policies and corporate profiteering left West Oakland with pollution that damages our health.

We believe in a West Oakland where:

⭐ Everyone breathes clean air, drinks clean water, and moves on clean soil.

⭐ Informed, engaged neighbors set and achieve their own goals, building community self-determination.

⭐ New and old neighbors work together to create a resilient, vibrant neighborhood–for all of us.

Sound good? Here’s how you can get involved. All the links 🔗 are in our bio.

🌱 Come to a workshop, a neighborhood tour, or an environmental justice salon: woeip.org/events

🌱 Volunteer your time and skills: woeip.org/volunteer

🌱 Get updates straight to your inbox: woeip.org/email-signup by @westoaklandeip

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7 months ago

37 years ago today, the Cypress Viaduct came down and changed the face of West Oakland.

Throughout the twentieth century, urban planners and municipalities used freeways to divide and physically segregate Black and brown neighborhoods all over the country.

So when the freeway collapsed, residents banded together to stop a rebuild through the center of West Oakland. They formed groups like the Citizens Emergency Relief Team, and the Clean Air Alternative Coalition, led by activist Chappell Hayes.

Residents didn’t get everything they wanted: Hayes proposed the freeway be built even further from the neighborhood, where Middle Harbor Road is now. Still, stopping the freeway and reuniting West Oakland was a huge victory.

Were you in West Oakland during the Loma Prieta earthquake? Let us know!

Historical footage courtesy of Smithsonian, KRON 4, KTVU, and Caltrans. by @westoaklandeip

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2 days ago

Come talk about big tech in West Oakland at our environmental justice salon on October 22.

The City of Oakland wants to designate the area around Mandela Parkway and West Grand Ave as a “technology and research district” to attract more businesses. This area is currently zoned for heavy industry, so nobody lives inside it, but people live all around it.

Tech, bioscience, and artisan production already exist here (think O2 Artisans Aggregate, Limelight Steel, Longshot Space Technologies, and more) but new neighbors like Tesla and Prometheus are moving in. City policies and land use changes could lead to even more new companies setting up shop. Come talk to your neighbors about how we can preserve West Oakland’s historic culture no matter what the future brings.

We’ll have a short presentation and talkback from 6 to 6:30, so we can keep most of the time open for connecting one-on-one with neighbors.

📅Wednesday, 10/22
⏱️5 pm - 7 pm
📍@brixfactory
🍺First drink is on us! We’ll have nonalcoholic options and food too.

RSVP: woeip.org/events (link in bio). by @westoaklandeip

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4 days ago

Soil remediation is scheduled to start this week at the West Oakland BART parking lot!

Trucks will dig up and haul away hundreds of truckloads of toxic soil to landfills.

Soil remediation isn’t inherently dangerous–but if you see or smell something fishy, like dirt getting tracked out onto the street or drifting in the air, you can make a report to the @bayareaairdistrict .

You can make a report by phone or online:

📱 800 334 6367
💻 http://baaqmd.gov/complaints

When you report, be sure to note the date, time, location, and exactly what you’re seeing and smelling. Community oversight keeps us all safer!

After contaminated soil is removed, developers will start construction on 240 affordable homes. See the plan at @mandela_station_development or mandelastation.com by @westoaklandeip

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5 days ago

We do our work for environmental justice in the ancestral homeland of the Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone people, who lived here long before the name Oakland, and are still here now, continuing to push the environmental justice movement forward.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a great prompt to learn about Indigenous perspectives, histories, and futures here in the Bay Area. Here are a few places to start.

Drop your recommendations in the comments!

📚 Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir by Deborah A. Miranda

📚 There There by Tommy Orange

📚 Of All Tribes: American Indians and Alcatraz by Joseph Bruchac

📚 We Are the Land: A History of Native California by Damon B. Akins and William J. Bauer

📚 Urban Voices: The Bay Area American Indian Community by Susan Lobo

📚 Refusing Settler Domesticity: Native Women’s Labor and Resistance in the Bay Area Outing Program by Caitlin Keliiaa by @westoaklandeip

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8 days ago

We scored two HUGE victories against toxic coal pollution this week.

🪨 We passed Assembly Bill 40, the Community First Coal Review Act, introduced by @asmmiabonta ! 🎉 This law legally mandates an environmental review for the proposed coal terminal in West Oakland. We’ll be involved every step of the way to make sure the review is fair, thorough, and community-informed.

🪨 Developers’ lawsuit against the City of Oakland was thrown out! 🎉 Developers wanted $654 million in damages for obstructing construction of a massive rail-to-ship coal export facility in West Oakland. But after a decade-long legal battle, developers lost, affirming municipalities’ right and duty to protect communities from deadly coal pollution.

All this comes amid news that the coal terminal would be even LARGER and DIRTIER than previously reported.

The fight continues: we’re working for stronger regulations and a thorough environmental review. Pollution from the proposed coal terminal would put the entire East Bay at risk: this is everyone’s problem.

Check out @nocoalinoakland to get involved. KQED article: Newsom Signs Coal Terminal Law as Oakland Wins Key Court Fight by @westoaklandeip

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10 days ago

Local artist @malcolmation has been photographing West Oakland for over six years. He’s one of the driving forces behind @westoaklandmatters : a collaboration of creatives fighting for self-determination and cultural renaissance in West Oakland. by @westoaklandeip

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12 days ago

Tonight Oakland became the first city in Alameda County and the fifth in the wider Bay Area to adopt a moratorium on data center development, following Oakley, Gilroy, Richmond, and San Francisco!

The rapid deployment of data centers driven by the generative AI boom is a threat to communities across the country, especially lower income and BIPOC communities like East and West Oakland that are already on the frontlines of industrial and commercial pollution. An AI data center in Oakland could guzzle water unsustainably, keep fossil fuels online, drive more pollution, and raise your PG&E bills.

NO DATA CENTERS IN OAKLAND! Onward to fighting for permanent protections!

Art by @davidsolnit and @jackiefawn ❤️‍🔥 taken in Oakland City Hall by @westoaklandeip

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13 days ago

This jet fuel-fired power plant in West Oakland releases almost a ton of pollution into our air every year, and we’ve been trying to get it shut down for years.

But outdated power plants like this stay operational because the Bay needs all the electricity it can get, especially during heat waves like we’re having right now.

If energy-guzzling data centers come to the Bay, it’ll put even more strain on our electrical grid, and this power plant will be even harder to shut down.

That’s one of the reasons we’re supporting a county-wide data center moratorium through @stop.ai.data.centers.alameda

Check out their page to learn more! by @westoaklandeip

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14 days ago

📢ACTION ALERT: Give public comment on Wednesday to support strong regulations for toxic coal dust!

Join us on Wednesday at the Bay Area Air District board meeting! Speak directly to the people responsible for keeping our air clean, and demand they protect the East Bay from toxic pollution from Trump’s dirty coal terminal.

We’re urging the Air District to adopt stronger protections against “fugitive dust”: any air pollution that doesn’t come out of a smokestack or duct (including coal dust).

A strong, enforceable fugitive dust rule could be one of our best tools to require mitigation and protections for the environment and nearby communities from the proposed coal terminal by the Bay Bridge.

Board meeting info:

Wednesday, October 7
Online or in person at 375 Beale St in San Francisco
Public comment will likely be sometime between 10 and 12 pm

DM us for the Zoom link and talking points. by @westoaklandeip

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15 days ago

Developers tried to sue the City of Oakland for $1 billion. They lost.

Developers may have lost their legal battle, but they’re still trying to build a deadly coal export terminal by the Bay Bridge. Coal sheds toxic particles, and this project would endanger the health of over 262,000 people across the East Bay.

The people of Oakland have been fighting this proposed coal terminal for over ten years, and we’re still fighting. We can protect the East Bay–but it’ll take all of us. Learn more and get involved at nocoal.org (link in bio). by @westoaklandeip

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17 days ago