East Oakland dad fed up, says kids are walking past filth and blight to school
OAKLAND, Calif. - An East Oakland father is taking his concerns to social media. He said the city isn’t doing enough to clean up streets in his neighborhood.
Each morning, he watches kids walking past a pile of trash on their way to school, so he began recording it and sharing the videos on X, formerly Twitter.
"I’m hoping to bring some attention to deep East Oakland so that public works and the mayor can figure out a better solution," the father, Ansel Troy, said.
It all started on Saturday, after Mayor Sheng Thao shared a back-to-school clean up happening around schools in the city, promising clean streets.
Mayor Thao posted a video on X showing public works crews cleaning streets.
She said for the first week of school, crews were cleaning at key school sites, writing, "Our young people deserve clean and safe streets and Oakland will continue prioritizing school sites for clean up."
Troy, who lives in the neighborhood, recognized one of the street corners in the video as 90th and International. He said he drove by and saw the corner still riddled with trash on Sunday evening.
"Illegal dumping is a public health crisis, it’s not just about the visible blight," he said.
Troy began challenging the city, sharing a new video each morning of the corner of 90th and International, promising to post the videos from his X account, @EastOaklandDad, until the filth was cleaned up.
In Thursday's video, he's heard saying, "Wow, those look like students going to school and this is what they have to walk past," writing "Our children deserve better."
"I’ve seen students and other people having to walk in the street against traffic just to get to or from work and school," he said.
Troy said he reached out to 311, but the trash remained.
"If children think this is what the city allows to happen in their neighborhood, then they may feel like nobody cares about us," he said.
There are more than half a dozen schools within walking distance from the corner of 90th and International. The biggest one is Highland Community Elementary School, which is only five blocks away.
The city reports 540 service requests for illegal dumping in the last week alone.
A spokesperson for the city, Sean Maher, said Oakland Public Works crews were deployed on Friday, August 9 to more than 20 locations in East Oakland near eight schools, plus another 12 sites of reported dumping, including the corner of 90th and International. Video was captured, which was posted the next day from the mayor's account.
Maher wrote in a statement, "Unfortunately, some of the sites our crews visit are hit by repeat illegal dumping, within days or even hours of a clean-up operation."
Troy said someone who works for the city messaged him after seeing his posts, offering to try to put a camera on the corner to catch people repeatedly dumping.
"If there’s no enforcement, we will just have to live in filth and ask the city to clean it up," said Troy.
Maher encourages community members who see illegal dumping to report it to 311. He also said crews will continue working throughout the city, seven days a week.
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