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WE WILL NOT BE MOVED (3 of 4)
The eviction notices came as a shock for the Pacific Renaissance Plaza tenants, who said that the notice was the first time they knew that their lease had only been good for ten years.
“Perhaps there is an agreement between the city and the developers, but it is not in my parents’ contract,” said Chang, whose parents were the first to move into the complex.
Who did know was the city of Oakland -- Chan sent a letter
to the city of Oakland over a year ago, notifying the city that the affordability
limit was expiring. The city did nothing to preserve the units.
The only response was from Robert Bobb, the city manager, who wrote back to
Chan saying that the city was aware of the situation, but had no money to buy
the apartments and that Chan should sell the property.
The Community Fights the Chinatown Evictions
Since May, groups including Just Cause Oakland, CJWP (a
network of radical Chinese and Taiwanese activists), United Seniors,
East Bay Community Law Center, Oakland Tenants Union, and Powers in Asians
Organizing (a project of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network) have
been organizing to support the tenants. Also, community members and activists
involved in the I-Hotel struggle in the 1970’s, where the Asian-American
community organized around a similar struggle to stop the eviction of
elderly Filipino and Chinese seniors from Kearny Street’s International
Hotel have also come out in support of the Oakland Chinatown tenants.
Community members have been postering in Chinatown, asking people to sign petitions
to the government to stop the evictions, holding community meetings with local
government representatives -- all in the effort to hold the city of Oakland
and Danny Wan accountable for the situation the tenants are facing. Lawyers
for the tenants and community groups have engaged in strategies looking at
wrongdoing by both the developer and the city.
So far, Lawrence Chan has refused to meet with the tenants. The only comment
he has made about the scandal was a statement release earlier, stating that “the
children and relatives should take care of their elders if they want to keep
their lifestyle.”
We Will Not Be Moved 4 - Actions You Can Take
