Dear Oakland,
I would like to write to you about the flaws you have, but before I commit to all your little blemishes let’s talk about your good assets first. The diversity and culture is amazing compared to others. Your history is so rich in adventure. I like how you supported the hip-hop movement. Many famous rappers have came from you like Too $hort, Mac Dre, Mc Hammer and so many more. Oakland, you have a vast array of cultures embedded into your crust like Chinatown, museums, the zoo, and parks. A place that I enjoy going to the most in Oakland is Youth Radio, because it’s a great opportunity to enlighten myself. There, you can learn journalism, make beats and music, and learn how to become a photographer. Oakland, you’re a great city and still will be in days to come.
Even though you’re a great city there are things I dislike about you. For instance there’s a lot of homeless people here. You need more money to be used on school. There aren’t enough job opportunities, the streets are not safe, the streets are not clean, and the parks are not safe. I have plenty of ideas that will help keep your city up to par with the other big cities in the U.S.
You have a lot of empty properties and there should be more attempts in trying to build more homeless shelters, so people that are homeless can have a place to try and change their lives. Building more houses and apartments will create more job opportunities and give people more living choices. More people mean more money, more money means more schools. More schools mean more people to come join the schools and more opportunities that someone famous will come out of Oakland
Oakland your streets are not safe, it’s something you’re known for. Your people are scared to walk on your streets. The issue with this is that the cops are not really doing their jobs; some of them are, but most of them abuse their power. I think you need better police training program, to better help the city in general. You need every cop monitored 24/7 because their might be some cops in cohorts with drug dealers. Another problem is drug dealers. You should try to use your cops to make undercover sting operations to get the drug dealers. Also, there are way too many shootings in Oakland many of which are because of the gangs currently occupying you. So basically we need more GOOD cops and we need better schooling.
So yea that’s all the good and bad things about you Oakland, so I hope you take this into consideration.
Sincerely,
Esosa O.